cat's calls

42 tri

2010-06-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

my 42nd birthday is just a little over a month away. there are a lot of things i haven't achieved yet, but there are a ton i have.

years ago i would never have dreamed that triathlon would be a part of my life. i was active as a little kid, but as soon as puberty rolled around i got sorta doughy and put my focus on the boys, the booze and the smokes. but just before turning 30 i decided to do a marathon and since that day it's pretty much been "game on" and pursuing my passion for sport has been life changing ... to say the least.

for the past 8 or 9 years i have celebrated my birthday by doing some sort of challenging physical activity ... either a race or a hard ride in the hills. physical activity has become my way of life so it seems only fitting that it's how i celebrate the day if was given life.

this year i want to honor what i have accomplished in the best way i know how, doing the sport that has challenged me more than anything and made me grow in ways i'm not sure i can even articulate.

so to that end ... i'd love it if you would join me, either in person or virtually, on august 1st (my actual birthday is the 2nd, but it's a monday and i want people to be able to play along, so we're taking a little liberty here) for "42 tri".
i'll be swimming 4200 yards, biking 42 miles and running 4.2 miles. lest any of you think this isn't a challenge for me ... in the past 6-9 months my training volume hasn't been nearly what it used to be. i haven't swum more than 3000 meters in forever, my rides for the last 6 months have topped out at 30-35 miles and recently i've had an injury that has prevented me from running. SO i'll spend the next month upping my distances and look forward to it being a challenge.

now on to the extra fun part ... i posted my idea on facebook and a lot of awesome friends agreed to do it with me. that being said, about 50% of my female friends have either just had a baby, will have just had a baby or are pregnant. 25% of my male friends are suffering from lack of sleep due the recently birthed babies and another good chunk have been injured ... so we're getting creative with distances so all can take part.

#1 choice -- do the whole 42 as outlined above, but if there is a reason you really can't ... i'd rather have you do what you can than not do it at all. the only thing i ask is that each sport somehow factor in 42 ... how you do that is up to you ... i just ask that you share with me (either here or on FB) HOW you're gonna do it ... that'll be a lot of fun for me!

some ideas:

swim 4 x 200
bike 42 minutes
run 42 x 100

if my crazy ultrarunner friends (yes this means you, josh) want to run 42 miles and swim & bike for 4.2 minutes each ... have at it!

this thursday marks a month until "42 tri" ... plenty of time to get ready for it. i'm committed, i hope you are too!!

^..^

symphonies, tassles and training, oh my!

2010-06-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

the weekend before last, i had the opportunity to head down south for more youth triathlon fun.

in preparation for USAT's 2010 junior triathlon festival, USAT is hosting three youth clinics at the marine corps recruit depot down in san diego. the three clinics cover basic skills and guide athletes ages 7-15 through swim, bike, run drills and activities.
luckily heading south meant a visit with marit and the really cool opportunity to see her perform with the la jolla symphony.

traffic was so hellacious on the way down there that i nearly missed it, but it seems once it let up a bit a paperweight fell on my foot and i made it along the toll road just in time. the symphony was performing britten's war requiem with 2 choirs, poetry projected on screen, soloists, a children's choir ... it was pretty dang cool!!

that's marit smack-dab in the middle ... the only person looking at me.

marit graciously put me up for the night and even more generously got up with me at o'dark thirty the next morning to share a little oatmeal and caffeine before heading off.

the clinic was fantastic! there were about 8 coaches in total and each area (swim, bike and run) had two coaches. the kids rotated through.

i wasn't sure how many kids we were going to have and let me tell you, i was damn impressed when each group that came through had 25-30 kids! total of about 80 for the day. yahooooo, the future of triathlon is alive and well!

some of the sqidlettes, waiting patiently to get in the pool!

the marine corps recruit depot pool - huuuuge!!

the pool with all the lane lines removed and buoys put in. so cool!

i was assigned to the bike area and led the kids through T1 practice and some figure 8's to practice their bike handling/turning skills. some of the kids had raced before, others were still dazzled by the tassles on their handlebars. we had the full spectrum and i loved it.

some of the younger kids in the clinic

it was really a great time passing on information and seeing triathlon through these kids' eyes. they all had great attitudes and it served as yet another reminder of how FUN this sport can, and should, always be.

after the clinic i stopped and visited with a friend of mine who was in san diego from new york. ya gotta love facebook, i didn't know she was there and when i posted pictures of marit from the symphony, my friend alison saw them and commented that she was in san diego as well!

alison is a friend that i have known since i was 3 years old ... we went to montessori together. it was great to see her and to hear about the work she's doing as a team in training mentor. she's a total inspiration and so dedicated to sharing her enthusiasm with others.

i left san diego full of good spirit for how much sport can unite us all ... with strangers, with the next generation, with old friends and with ourselves.

i'm heading back down to san diego for round two this weekend. i can't wait for another dose of young minds and bodies eager to learn and have fun!

^..^

the future of triathlon

2010-06-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

yesterday i had one of my best triathlon experiences yet.

a few weeks ago i was asked to help a class of 6th graders complete their first triathlon. a teacher at a local elementary school has been doing this for the past three years. their school is K-6 so it's part of their commencement on to junior high school.

for the few months leading up to the event the kids meet each thursday and saturday to prepare. in addition to physically training they were also taught the rules and etiquette of triathlon.

yesterday we met them all down at the beach. they swam in a beach club pool, jumped out and came flying into t1, rode their bikes up the bike path a couple of miles with their "mentors" shadowing them.

here's my athlete, cole, going hard into a strong headwind. cole had come out of the pool close to last, but he flew along the path yelling out "on your left! on your left!" each time he approached someone.

in t2 they left their bikes and ran to the stoplight where their "wait time" was recorded and would be deducted later from their overall time. as cole and i waited for the light to turn (it's at the pacific coast highway so it's a loooong wait) a few police cars came along and stopped traffic so the kids no longer had to wait. cole said he felt like a rock star!

the run portion was over a mile and .8 of it was up, up, up a hill covering almost 250' of elevation gain. as we climbed cole said he wished he had taken some water in t2 (gotta love seeing racing lessons in the making, they are always there no matter your age or experience!) thirst and heat aside, he pressed on ... every so often glancing back over his shoulder to see if any of his classmates were catching up.

as we ran through the town to his school various store owners and parents were along the route shouting encouragement. it was so fun to see him pick up the pace each time someone was cheering him on.

finally we rounded the corner and headed down the final stretch to the finish line. the sidewalk was lined with the school's younger grades. music was playing, everyone was cheering and clapping and cole ran down the line of kids, high fiving each one. i don't think i could have been more proud if it had been my own kid! i definitely had goose bumps.

here's a snippet of the scene. not the best video, but you'll get the idea.

afterward we all took pictures together. the teacher kept referring to his students as his "triathletes" and you could see the pride on their faces each time he did.

this weekend i am heading down to san diego for a more formalized youth triathlon program ... three weekends of clinics to prepare a group of children, ages 7-15, for usat's 2010 junior triathlon festival in august.

watching the kids yesterday got me even more excited about this weekend and the idea of bringing this fantastic sport to these enthusiastic kids!

^..^

camp CHICago

2010-06-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

i've spent the past six days in triathlon heaven!

a few months back elizabeth asked me if i would be able to come out to chicago because she and jennifer were hosting a triathlon camp for 13 women and by the time the camp rolled around, she would be in her 8th month of pregnancy and need of some extra hands ... and legs.

don't get me wrong, there is nothing this pregnant woman can't do, but riding on a triathlon bike for hours on end, on roads with car traffic just wasn't gonna happen.

liz doing side plank -- see what i mean? awesome!
(photo by molly)

i started coaching about 8 months ago myself, so the opportunity to go out and work with two women i really like and admire sounded fantastic!

as always, liz and her husband chris made me feel right at home as soon as i arrived ... even allowing me to co-opt their dog's attention and steal him as my bed mate each night. i was here a little less than a year ago and it was great to be back and enjoy all the green, green, green outdoors they have. trails that go on forever and air that changes in both smell and weight as the day moves along. i miss that.

liz and chris' infamous dog, "boss"

the first night of camp we all had dinner together. it was a nice relaxed time before all the intensity began and it was a good chance to learn a little about everyone. the 13 women were of varying ages and exposure to triathlon, but all were clearly dedicated, focused and wanting to be pushed.

first night of camp ... gettin' the low down for the weekend

day one started with open water swimming, including drills and race technique. then a long bike ride through the most gorgeous farm land. it was HOT and windy, but all of the women sucked it up and challenged themselves. after the ride everyone did a short, hilly run off the bike. then it was refuelrefuelrefuel and on to yoga.

on our ride - beautiful illinois countryside
(photo by molly)

during the yoga session, liz and i took the opportunity to get in a swim ourselves and ohmygod, it was everything i love about open water swimming without any of the stuff i don't love (rip tides, angry surf, difficult sighting). we traversed back and forth across the lake for about 45 minutes and i felt such peace and rhythm. i came out of the water feeling refreshed and reconnected (it was my first open water swim so far this season).

"lake in the hills"

that night we all had a great dinner together and then it was off to prepare for day 2!

a tired, but awesome bunch of women
(photo by molly, via our waiter)

day 2 started with jen leading a swim workout and one by one liz videotaping and giving feedback to each athlete. i was able to join liz for part of this and giving some feedback felt really great. i was thrilled to see that all the hands on work, reading, watching, learning i've done has really paid off. i was able to identify some challenges people were having and suggest things for them to work on. oh man, is that gratifying!

after the swim everyone met in what was now the baking sun and we headed off to a nearby hill for some repeats. each woman again rose to the occasion and gave the hill what they had. afterward, liz lead the group in run drills and it seemed like everyone had great take aways from that.

run drills!!

next up half of the group did strength and stretching with me and liz while the other half had a TRX session with kate and then the groups switched. i had not done TRX before and liz generously offered me the opportunity to join in. it's very cool and i can see how it would be beneficial to my overall strength as well as my swim, bike, run.

i took a lot of grief for this photo, but i think it's kinda badass (photo by molly)

molly's been doing TRX for a few months now ... she's really good at it!
(photo by jen)

as if all that wasn't challenge enough for one day ... liz's athletes then came down to her part of town and we all rode through my most favorite arboretum. this place is heaven and if i lived here i would ride and run in it all spring/summer/fall long. that night we had a chance to hang out a socialize again while liz's husband made an impressive dinner that we SCARFED like savages after two long days of training.

day 3, the women had signed up for the elgin fox trot - 10 miler and 5k. WOW! they all showed up and did what i'm not so sure i'd be willing to do after putting all those miles on my legs. to say it was hot and muggy would be an understatement. it was the kind of humid that makes you feel like your lungs are wrapped in saran wrap. i hyperventilate just thinking about it! but they all went out, got their run on and had a blast.

and then, BAM ... camp was over (and a massive rain, thunder, lightening storm rolled in).

at the conclusion of camp each of the athletes had an opportunity to tell the group what they had learned over the weekend. the coaches didn't share, but i couldn't help but reflect upon my time and feel like i came away with so much more knowledge.

post-race, camp conclusion chit-chat

both jennifer and liz are phenomenal athletes. they have each participated in the sport for years, they've each qualified for and raced kona, multiples times. they have accolades a mile long. they've coached for years and have impressive rosters of athletes. and for all of the similar accomplishments they have, they are very different both on the exterior and interior. jen is tall, blonde, chatty. liz is small, dark and reserved. they each process and present information in different ways.

jennifer, post-race

elizabeth, pre-pregnancy

i think their similar love for the sport and different ways of sharing that love was a real benefit to all of the campers. everyone learns differently and you never know when the way one person says something will generate that a-ha! moment. i know, for me, as a newer coach, seeing two pros each share in their unique way, created a robust experience beyond compare.

i came to help and am leaving having been helped.

i'm ready to head home, but i'm sad to go.

thanks CHICago!

^..^

to your health!

2010-04-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

as you know, when i got sick before the l.a. marathon. there was nothing i wasn't willing to do to try to get well in time to race. i remembered reading a recipe for a homemade tea on local running coach, jimmy dean freeman's, site. i believe, based on the title, that he got it from whole foods and when you read the ingredients i believe you'll see that whole foods, more than likely, based it on the infamous "master cleanse" or "famous detox lemonade".

in any case, i tried it and loved how it tasted. i didn't use any honey or maple syrup when i was sick, but since getting better i've actually been drinking it (making it with bubbly water and a little bit of syrup) as a refreshing healthy soda pop.

over the weekend a few of my friends came down with upper respiratory sickies so i thought i would post the recipe here for anyone that might want it. i make no promises and you may hate how it tastes, but it's worth a try, no?

WHOLE FOODS' WITCH DOCTOR'S BREW

Start with a metal (plastic is okay too, but won’t stay warm as long) 16-20 oz. travel coffee & tea mug/tumbler, the tea will last all day and stay hot longer this way. i used a thermos:

1. squeeze 2-4 oz. of fresh (organic if possible, definitely not bottles) lemon juice into travel-mug/thermos
2. add 1-2 tsp. of freshly grated ginger root
3. add 20 drops of G.S.E. (grapefruit seed extract) - comes in a little white eye-droplet looking bottle)
4. add as much powdered cayenne (red) pepper (i used 1/4 tsp. while sick and an 1/8 for my "soda") as you like
5. boil 12-16 oz. of fresh spring water, allow to cool (only slightly) so it doesn't scald & kill some of the organic, fresh ingredients of this brew, pour hot (not boiling) water into mug, fill nearly to the top
6. add a touch of (raw organic) honey or syrup (for flavor) to taste
7. add additional cayenne & G.S.E. if you can tolerate it spicier and more bitter. these two ingredients, are great for fighting illness. the cayenne and citrus create an infertile environment for bacteria or viruses to live in your throat, sinuses, and chest.

when you are really sick (cold, sore throat, flu-like-symptoms) you should drink this for 2-3 days. i made the tea in the morning and only drank part of it. i let the rest sit and concentrate throughout the day and later added more hot water for another serving.

go ahead and play with the amounts of each ingredient to get the best taste for you!

here's to stayin' healthy!

^..^

when i pedal it rains green

2010-03-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

a couple of years ago j. and i were on a sunday bike ride. he was ahead of me as we went around a bend and little flash of green caught my eye.

i turned around and went back. what was laying in the middle of the street? a c-note. a bill. a benjamin. cold. hard. cash. i looked around for ashton kutcher, but when i didn't see him or any fishing line attached to the bill, i took the money and rode.

like a good girl i made sure it wasn't counterfeit before i tried to use it.

this morning i was on my way home from a little spin. waiting at the "do not turn right on red" sign ... like the good cyclist i am (or rather, the cyclist that learned a VERY expensive lesson about not obeying traffic laws ... cough, cough, $200+ ticket for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign) and what do i see at my feet?

this time a double sawbuck. $20. MORE GREEN!

at this rate i'm earning about $60 a year to ride my bike.

does this mean i'm now a sponsored athlete?

^..^

epilogue

2010-03-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

i wanted to write a separate post to talk about mel, my brother nick, emily and my sister rachel.

all the time i was training, each one of them was putting in the miles and having their own experience prepping for the l.a. marathon.

mel is the wife of a friend of mine, though now that seems a really silly way to describe her. she's my friend. a while back her husband had mentioned that some day she wanted to run a marathon. she'd done one 1/2 marathon before and an olympic distance triathlon, so she was clearly athletic, but hadn't done a whole lot of focused training and racing and she had a baby 16 months ago.

one day i randomly wrote on her facebook wall that i thought she should run the l.a. marathon. she laughed at me and said she was thinking of doing a half in january, but that was it for now thankyouverymuch. i told her she should come out and run with the group i was leading on sundays. she told me we were too fast. a few more back and forths and she decided to come out.

what i suspected was totally spot on! not only were we not too fast, this girl is a natural born runner and determined as all get out. she ran with us each week and each week she rocked it. january's half marathon came up really quickly. she ran it and she smoked it. her confidence started to build. i continued to tell her i thought she could still do l.a. we'd need to alter the typical mileage build and reconnoiter some things, but i thought her body could handle it.

at some point that suggestion became a reality and she was "in". i could tell on our long training runs that she still had gas in the tank when we finished. she seemed to recover really well each time and she was dedicated about getting up to run at 5am during the week before baby, husband and work beckoned.

nick, mel and i were together from the start until about mile 16 when mel pulled ahead. i've never been so happy to see someone drop me. i knew she had a fast time in her and she needed to go do it! she finished with a very impressive time.

i loved watching her journey.

mel and her daughter rio at the finish line
(photo by brooklin)

my sister rachel and i ran the 2000 l.a. marathon together. we trained for 6 months with the l.a. leggers, doing a walk/run program that got us both to the start and finish line -- together. as i've mentioned before, when i heard about the course change for this year i told my sister about it and she was intrigued. she hadn't been running much over the past 10 years, so i wasn't really sure that she would want to do it, but lo and behold sometime back in the summer she signed up for the l.a. leggers and took herself down there week after week to train with them.

there were a few times she wasn't able to join their long saturday run and had to do them on her own and i was amazed at her tenacity. 18 miles is a helluva long way to run ... it's even longer alone. she did it and honestly, she seemed like she was really enjoying herself.

initially she had some knee problems and i was afraid they might take her out, but she went to physical therapy, started using the foam roller, stretching icing and even ... took the dreaded ice baths!

on race day, rachel started with her l.a. leggers group and ran the first part of the race with them, but ultimately wound up going ahead a bit. she ran with some of the folks she had trained with, but for the most part was on her own and having a blast.

rachel celebrating post-race with mark and nick

my brother nick is relatively new to marathon running, well to running in general, but man has he taken to it! he started running a couple of years ago and at this point he's probably done more road races than i have! i ran the new york marathon in 2007 and he was there to cheer me on ... little did he know i would be walking from mile 19 and that he'd be joining me somewhere around mile 23 trying to encourage me to start running again (didn't happen). the next year he ran new york, his first marathon, with his girlfriend emily and i was there to cheer him on!

nick and emily live in new york and when i suggested they come run l.a. with me and rachel they were game and thought it might be a good way to keep fitness through the hard east coast winter. man oh man, what they were in for. both nick and emily have become avid fans of the vibram five fingers. it's one thing to run barefoot through the hamptons in the summer sunlight, it's another thing all together to churn out 18 miles in 20 degree weather along the westside highway. they did it and i think they're badass!

nick and i ran together until about mile 21 when i had just a little more push in me and we parted. it was hard for me to not stay together and i felt a pang, but i also knew he would want me to push if i was able.

nick cruisin' along at mile 13

emily is one of those people who seems up for pretty much anything. a funny combination of intimidated and inspired by the vastness of the unknown, i relate to that so much. she had run the l.a. marathon years ago. at the time her friend josh and his wife elizabeth had planned to run it too. then elizabeth got injured, but they still came out and josh ran part of the course with emily. josh and his wife have since moved to los angeles and i have become friends with them. same fella that joined us out there on sunday.

emily has some awesome friends out here in l.a. and she was able to run different sections of the course with some of them. and though they didn't see each other throughout the day, she and rachel somehow found each other at mile 25 and got to share the final mile!

nick and emily, all smiles!

going in to sunday's race, we had all had our own training experiences and we all had our own goals, but we were getting to share the whole experience. we all had our own flavor of pre-race nerves and how to manage them. it's great for me to see everyones process. i learn from it.

in the end, each and every one of us achieved a PR marathon time. i think that's pretty exceptional and a testament to some pretty great training and a lot of heart.

my only regret about this race is that j. was injured and unable to do it with us. the hills on this course were made for him and he would have fed off of the energy more than anyone. he'll be there in 2011!

congratulations to all my friends and family who ran on sunday. i'm so proud of all of us!

and to my siblings, for you i will suffer public humiliation for a laugh. here i am on our way to the expo. everyone was packed into the car and i didn't want to share the nasty bug i had caught. now that's love!

^..^

los angeles marathon 2010

2010-03-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

last thursday i didn't know if my marathon day was going to even happen on sunday! i was planning on it, but i wasn't sure. i'm not the type of person to train, let alone race, through sickness so i didn't really know how i'd "do" with it. it was all new territory.

i've been so invested in this race. i trained hard and smart, lead weekly runs for the tri club, talked the race up to anyone that would listen. i got my brother, his girlfriend (who live in NY) and my sister to agree do it, i wrote training plans for a couple of people, i had good strong goals that were making me stretch, but felt within my reach.

i really didn't want to miss this race.

for three solid days i did whatever i could to get better. i begged, borrowed and stole from the east and the west; drinking a concoction of hot water, lemon juice, grapefruit seed extract, red cayenne pepper and freshly grated ginger (thank you, jimmy dean). taking antibiotics. spraying my throat with colloidal silver and flushing my sinuses with a neti pot. then, mid-day saturday, i stopped it all (except the antibiotics). i wanted a little bit of time for my body to settle in. just like with the training, i had done what i could.

both of these products are really great!

saturday night was business as usual ... bland dinner at 6pm and shut it down by 8:30pm. of course, i didn't sleep a wink. i learned during ironman that you really can get away with not sleeping at all the night before. i trusted that the immense amount of race adrenaline i already had coursing through my veins was going to increase even more come 7:24am sunday morning.

4:30am, up and making my hot buckwheat cereal. a hot shower, dr. wu's magic balm on my achy spots. josh came over at 5:30am and we were off to pick up mel. she's one of the athletes i created a training plan for. this was going to be her first marathon and i knew from her results during training that she was ready and was gonna blow the doors off of it!

j. drove us all to dodger stadium. we planned to be there an hour and half before the start. that's early, but this is l.a. and you never know what's going to happen on the freeway. and yup, it happened. the freeway became a parking lot, literally. people actually abandoned their cars on the freeway because they were afraid of not making it to the race in time. we sat and sat and sat and finally decided we could hoof it there faster. so yes, we got out and walked along the freeway.

"warming up" along the 110 frwy.
(photo by josh)

we got to the start and it was the usual surreal pre-race scene of humanity. it was exciting! lots of reflective clothing dashing off into bushes and the like. i was supposed to meet my brother at the G baseball,

race day meeting spot, the day before

but with all the chaos of freeway walking and the fact that he and my sister and emily were still in their car back on the freeway, mel and josh and i pushed our way through the masses to find a spot. josh was planning to run with his phone (more on that later) so he texted updates back to my brother in the hopes that he'd find us. eventually we just plopped down in the middle of the crowd and started making friends. after all my worrying about being able to access the 3:50 pace group (that would be in the sub-4 hour corral which i was not allowed in to since i did not have a qualifying time) ... who do we wind up right next to?

the irony of landing right next to the 3:50 pace group!

after waiting for a while it came over the loudspeaker that they would be delaying the start of the race by 7 minutes. we wound up getting that announcement a few times and honestly, other than the potential for the temperatures to be higher with a later finish, i was a little relieved as i knew a lot of people weren't going to make it to the start in time.

me and mel waitin' on the gun!
(photo by josh)

so the plan was for mel and my brother and i to start together. i was going to go out a little slower at the beginning because the first few miles have a lot of hills and then pick it up as i go. that was the plan, but i knew that the plan might get tossed based on how i felt. mel and nick and i agreed it would be great to be around each other, but none of us would wait per se, for the other.

josh was running l.a. for fun. he's an ultra runner training for his first 100 mile race and is also racing oceanside 70.3 this coming saturday. he was going to run leisurely to mile 18 (his leisurely is faster than my race pace) and meet me there to give me a little support through what i anticipated was going to be the hardest section of the race. then he was going to double back and meet my brother's girlfriend emily at mile 20 and run to the finish with her. what a guy, right? an athlete that's strong as iron and a friend who's as sweet as pie!

josh chillin' at mile 18.5
(photo by josh)

the gun went off and we began to shuffle. there were way too many bodies around to actually run. i could feel mel's excitement and her itching to run! josh was next to me and we were all just sort of pushed along ... until suddenly we were running! the first mile is an absolute blur of dodging bodies and avoiding crashing into pylons as we snaked our way around the parking lot of dodger stadium.

me and mel in the crush of the start
(photo by josh)

it felt humid, my breathing was tight and i had absolutely zero saliva. bone dry. nerves. antibiotics. ugh. i just went. it was too early to assess how i felt. just before we headed out of dodger stadium i heard a familiar voice come screaming up behind me ... my brother! he had made it and we were off!

the pace was faster than i wanted and my heart rate was through the roof from the get go. i tried to find the balance between some free speed on from mile 1.5 - 3 and reigning myself in, for fear of going too hard. cresting the grand ave. hill between mile 3 - 4 i had my first "i don't think i can do this" thought.

at the top of grand ave hill
(photo by tokyphotography)

i had so few of those thoughts during my training this time. i didn't want to start now and it was way too early for it. i made sure mel and my brother knew i wasn't feeling my best so that they would go ahead if they felt good and then i had to let it go. i spent from mile 4 to mile 17 cycling in and out of feeling good and bad, but ya know ... it was okay because after the way i felt at mile 4 and then seeing it lift in the next mile or so i remembered that that's just the game. you cycle through and don't grab on to any one feeling as being evidence of how you are ... cuz it'll change.

this year the course of the l.a. marathon changed to a point-to-point from dodger stadium to the beach, hitting all the iconic l.a. spots along the way. i had the feeling that this course was going to be spectacular. i ran chunks of it during my training and putting it all together on race day did not disappoint.

i grew up in new york and even though there are five big boroughs and tons of people, you feel united in "new yorkness". since living in l.a. i've loved the lifestyle and have a great westside community, but i can't say as i've felt the same connection to the city. i know the city well, but trying to get from one part of it to another on any given day can be a daunting task. we all sort of find our place and, for the most part, exist in it. little pods if you will.

but, run through it all and ... WOW! i felt such a connection to it. each little pocket seamlessly connected to the next. there is something about physically moving through it without the protection or barrier of a car that made me see it more, connected me to it. all of us ... runners, residents, volunteers, spectators ... we were wrapped together in the unity that sport provides. a common goal whether you were racing or cheering. a finish line to cross and everyone supporting each other to get there.

speaking of support, j. showed up just before mile 12 and then i saw him again at something like 14, 16, 21, and 24. between knowing the course really well, seeing j. at all those spots, meeting up with josh at 18.5, i never had that sense that i have in almost all races of "wow, a mile hasn't even passed yet? wow, i still have another 11 miles to go?" it's funny because i was working harder than i think i have in any race, but the sense of the miles dragging out just never came.

me and my brother. he raced in the vibram five fingers!
(photo by josh)

the energy on the course was fantastic and it also really helped for me to keep in my head something i had written down a few days before: "i will not think about the miles ahead of me. i will focus on relaxing and enjoying each mile, one mile at a time. i will keep fresh thoughts in my mind and a quick step to my feet."

one of the side effects of antibiotics is an increased heart rate. i basically ran the entire marathon in zone 4. that's nuts. you don't run a marathon in zone 4! it definitely caught up to me and by mile 20 i was pushing through fatigued and seizing legs like i never have before. local running coach jimmy dean came up along side of me just before i was entering the VA grounds and his voice got real serious ... "this is gonna hurt. you look strong and you need to dig down in there and just make it happen. you can do this. it's gonna hurt." i didn't respond much, but i took his words and let them slide into my consciousness and down into my legs. i shut off my head. i pushed. i pushed. i pushed a little more. i believe i whimpered a bit as well, but i wasn't giving up!

hitting mile 21 there was a huge cheering section that was just off the hook. it was brentwood's version of the new york marathon's 1st avenue. electric. seeing the long expanse of san vicente blvd. ahead of me pushed me forward. i sensed that my brother was no longer running with me. i felt badly, but i also knew i had to keep going.

san vicente is where i learned to run. 11 years ago i tried to run along san vicente and got .7 of a mile before flopping over, exhausted. san vicente is where i do almost all of my running. i trained for duathlon worlds on s.v., ironman on s.v. i've done mile repeat after mile repeat. i've cried, celebrated, quit, gotten back up ... all on san vicente. i had dreamed for the past year of finishing my marathon along it.

once i got to 26th st. i'd have two miles of downhill along this street i loved so much and then it would be 1.2 miles along the ocean to the finish. i know every bend, rise, fall and pot hole along the way. i don't know if i could have overridden my body the way i did if it weren't for how well i know the road and how inspired i felt being on it. i was able to just shut off my head and go.

i saw rich at moreno dr., jaime and oliver were going to be at 17th st., rebekah was at 11th, jen was at georgina, elon at palisades. the route was lined with friends and memories and i let them all push me forward. i don't think there was a smile on my face, but i was full of pride for what i have become. 11 years ago, overweight, two pack a day smoker, no exercise whatsoever and not an abundance of self-esteem and generally someone who was afraid to try for fear she would fail.

this race, for me, had become the pinnacle of that evolution. having my family running the race, bringing it to other people for the first time, setting a big goal for myself, and ultimately, staring it down on my own, but supported by friends, family and a community that i love.

i knew as i was coming down san vicente that i had missed my time goal, but i was okay with it. i wasn't giving up. it was still all worth it. the sound of the helicopters wubb-wubbing above pushed me on even more. it kind of made me feel like the leader! fog was blowing by me as i hit ocean ave. it was a straight shot down to the finish line, but it looked really far, so i took my gaze down a bit and just stayed in myself ... working, pushing and appreciating that i've become a woman who is always willing to at least try!

^..^

wow. really?

2010-03-18T14:30:00.001-07:00

i was going to post an entry today about the "taper crazies" and about how all those little niggles and sickies lurking are in our minds ... and then i got sick.

i still believe all the things i wrote and i'll post it later when i'm in a better humor. for now i need to sleep, drink massive amounts of water, take my antibiotics and hope that a) they kick this sinus and ear infection out quick and b) that the antibiotics don't leave me as fatigued as usual.

my coach asked if there was another marathon in a week or two that i could do. she didn't want to see all this fitness go to waste if i am not able to run on sunday. thing is ... it's not about a marathon, it's about this marathon. it's special. i'm invested. i'm attached. i. want. to. do. it.

think strong, healthy thoughts for me ... i have two and half days to get healthy!!

^..^

i love l.a. (marathon)

2010-03-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

ten years ago i ran the l.a. marathon with my sister. it was my second and her first. we trained for it together and ran every step side-by-side. it piss poured rain until mile 18, but sharing that experience with her was great!

like i said, it poured rain the whole time!

but doing it together was the best!

i didn't think much of the l.a. course. i couldn't understand why it didn't go from downtown to the beach. after running it i said that unless they made it a point-to-point course, i wouldn't bother running it again. lo and behold last year they announced that they would be moving the race to a point-to-point course in 2010. there were a lot of multi-city hoops to jump through, but i knew if it all got approved, i was in!

one day, over pedicures, i mentioned the potential new course to my sister. mind you before our marathon experience i had, for the most part, been a couch potato and my sister had been a runner. post-marathon i continued running and ultimately found triathlon. my sister all but hung up her running shoes. so, when i told her they were talking about making the l.a. marathon course from dodger stadium, though hollywood, beverly hills, brentwood and santa monica to the beach she said "wow, if they do that, even i'd run it!"

new multi-city, "stadium to the sea" course route!

well, guess what? ... we're running it! not only my sister and i, but my brother and his girlfriend have been training for it in new york ... all miserable winter long! the running community in l.a. is beyond excited for this race. it has so much momentum it's palpable.

i found myself talking about the marathon to anyone who would listen. i wanted everyone to run it! the last four miles of the course are in my neighborhood, along streets i run almost everyday. so, for the past four months i've been sharing my enthusiasm by leading a weekly long run for the l.a. tri club in preparation for the marathon.

when i say "lead" we're basically talking a sports-oriented julie mccoy, cruise director sportif, if you will. i choose the route, i send out the emails, i set the meeting spot, i get the club sponsor to come out with O.N.E. coconut water to replenish us. that kind of stuff. and let me tell you, it's been a blast!

when i trained for the NY marathon a few years ago i did almost all of my long runs solo. and while there is a peace of mind to solo running, those long miles do get loooong. running with this group has been spectacular. most weeks we get about 15-20 people and the couple of times we've done "course preview" runs we've swelled to 40. we're not all the same pace, but there has been a core group of about 8 that are similar to my pace.

this group has made the miles fly by! one guy and girl are now even dating (love that!) a little over a month ago we ran miles 1-19 (the first mile is within the dodger stadium grounds so was inaccessible) and last week we ran from mile 5 to the finish. this course is cool. it hits all the major landmarks in l.a. including the disney concert hall, grumman's chinese theatre, the hollywood sign, rodeo drive, etc.

disney concert hall, mile 4 (photo by carol m. highsmith)

carney's on sunset blvd. at roughly mile 12

the first 10k is hilly. i think everyone will talk about the dodger stadium hills and the temple st. hill, but honestly i think it's the false flats and the rollers out on 18, 19, 20, 21 that are are going to chew people up, BUT if you take that first 10k conservatively, it shouldn't be too bad and there are definitely some good spots to make up a little time.

below are some pictures of the running group and the marathon course that j. took as we ran. enjoy the tour:

sunday morning running group ready to tackle 21 miles!

nice hill at about mile 4

part of "the group" heading up the temple st. hill

between miles 5 - 6, echo park looking it's finest!

an easy downhill respite at mile 10-11 along hollywood blvd.
and the walk of fame.

the beverly hills police dept. at around mile 16

happy runners replenishing with o.n.e. coconut water.

there's just slightly over two weeks to go and i am christmas morning giddy! i feel ready. i wish it were this weekend! when i think of me, my brother and my sister each training in our own way, sharing our experiences, goals, challenges, i get emotional. when i think of sharing the actual day with them and all my new running friends, i float!

i love l.a.!
^..^

puttin' the bounce in my step!

2010-02-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

i recently did a run workout that included a series of running and then jumping in place. i'd run for a set period of time and then for two minutes jump in place as if i were jumping rope. man oh man ... starting back up into the run again felt more brick-like than any bike-run brick i've ever done!

for the 3rd and final set of jumping, i passed the two minutes by a) giggling to myself about the people staring at me and b) remembering how all the neighborhood girls in brooklyn used to jump double dutch. i wanted to jump like them SO badly. i never really cultivated the talent, and still wish i had.

enjoy!

^..^

silly goose, errr ... turkey

2009-12-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

i keep not posting to my blog because i said i wouldn't until i finished my SOS race report. needless to say i've missed out on sharing a bunch of stuff since then. it's arbitrary and silly to hold myself to that rule so today i'm throwing off the shackles. there will be completion of the SOS race report, but in the mean time i'll treat you to my turkey trot report ...

i love running on thanksgiving morning, christmas morning and new year's morning. they are quiet, peaceful times when the world, or at least my little slice of it, seems to stand a little more still and smile a little more genuinely. for years i've wished there was a local turkey trot on thanksgiving morning. but no such luck ... just the following saturday. fun, but not what i'm looking for.

so much is my desire for a thanksgiving morning turkey trot, that i've been known to drive myself a couple of hours south the day before thanksgiving, get a hotel room and join in the orange county fun of the dana point turkey trot.

so, how excited was i when this year the topanga turkey trot (typically held the saturday after thanksgiving) moved to thanksgiving day?! the people at generic events put on great races and lots of my friends participate so i was thrilled to sign up!

better even was the fact that my sister is training for the l.a. marathon so she was game to run it with me and j.

the race has three course options 15k with 2285' of elevation, the 10k with 1371' and the 5k with 673'. they are all beautiful and brutal. all start with the same 1.5 mile upupuphill. yes, that's right three ups. it's that steep.

j. and i went and ran a course preview of the 10k a couple of weeks ago. i had planned on running the 15k on thanksgiving, but after running the 10k preview i wasn't sure how i'd make the 15k. my fitness is not all that up to snuff these days and i couldn't imagine adding another 3.1 miles and 900+ feet. but at the same time i had an attachment to doing the 15k.

not sure if it was my ego, my true desire or a little bit of both, but a couple of days before race day i just knew i was in for the 15k. i just had to. between the three of us, we covered each distance.

a little pre-race down dog before running in them thar hills

before the gun went off there was a little course "briefing" of the 15k. my sister told me later that after hearing it, she was genuinely nervous for me. lots of single track, low tree branches, high tree roots, sudden drop offs, and blind hair pin turns. something for everyone is really what that comes down to.

i took the first couple of miles really slowly. heck, i had no choice. a brisk walk up that hill was going to get me up there just as quick as running it was. so i chugged along, made it to the spot where the 15k turned off from the rest of the racers and it was "game on". they weren't kidding about the conditions of the trail and there was absolutely no passing anyone.

at first i was all zen and peaceful thanksgiving-like about it ... but then the guy in front of me listening, on speaker, to the the kinks' "coming dancing" on his iphone started to work my nerves. side note -- has anyone noticed that people listening to music on the iphone without headphones is, in essence, bringing back the transistor radio? why, people ... why!?

trapped behind this fellow i decided to get a little snarky and yell up to a friend of mine 3-4 people ahead "hey, ben! move it along up there ... you've got people back here!" i was kidding, seriously i was. i was just being silly and passing the time, but you know what's coming ...

no sooner did the words leave my mouth than i went launching forward. i felt a searing pain in my right toe joint as my foot folded forward waaay further than it should of and then (miracle of miracles i didn't go down) i landed with all my weight on that same toe joint. i think i broke my bunion! maybe that's a good thing? isn't that what they do when you have bunion surgery?

i was only at mile 4 and the throb, throb, throb of the joint never really let up, but i still enjoyed the heck out of the course. it was gorgeous and challenging. we climbed, descended, twisted, turned, and then climbed, climbed some more. when i got to the aid station at the top of the hill i had to untie and retie my shoes ... there had been so much lateral motion navigating the trail that my laces had loosened up considerably and if you know me, you know i like a tightly tied shoe!

the next few miles were more of the same ... up, up, up ... tell people i just broke a bunion .... up, up, up ... fill my water bottle ... up, up, up ... pee break. all in all i gave up 4.5 minutes to my thirst, bladder and feet. nice killer racing instinct, huh!?

the last mile and a half you absolutely flyyyy downhill. i actually scared myself a few times i was going so fast. but i also had a blast banking myself off of the sides of the trail as it twisted and turned.

coming in to the finish line!

my final time was nothing to write home about, but i had a blast and challenged myself.

having j., my sister and all my running/triathlon friends around was so much better than the anonymous turkey trots i've spent down south. i loved being on the trails and being a part of our community here.

lookin' satisfied, if not a little worse for wear

a week later and my bunion is still feeling the effects, but i can't wait to do it again next year!

^..^

s.o.s. race report - part II

2009-09-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

run #1: 4.5 miles

heading out on the first run i didn’t feel as tight as i often do getting off of the bike, then again 30 miles is a bit shorter than i usually ride and i hadn’t pushed too hard on the bike. i let me legs do a bit of settling and started taking in my surroundings.

beginning of run #1

the first couple of miles are a steady up, then you come to cardiac hill and after that it flattens out a bit, but the trail also narrows and you have a few more rocks and tree roots to navigate.

pretty soon into the run laura came up along side of me. it was fun to run together, but i made sure to tell her not to slow herself down to stay with me. she told me to do the same. we stopped at the first aid station and i had some water and gatorade. i wasn’t all that thirsty yet, but i knew stopping at each and every aid station was going to be critical. i am used to doing long races with a fuel belt and being able to drink whenever i want. at SOS aid stations only come every 2-4 miles and you really can’t take anything (other than a gu that you can stick in your shorts) with you because there is nowhere to dispose of anything and no water to wash it down with. i have had a lot of stomach issues in the past and i was concerned about downing large quantities all at once which meant in order to get enough fluids it was even more important that i stop each time.

as laura and i ran along i saw a guy coming toward us, i joked “he’s going the wrong way!” not realizing that it actually was a competitor. he had already come out of the first swim and was starting out on the second run. on the first run you pass the “swim out” from the first swim. you’re actually running alongside lake awosting and you run down and around the end of it, up the other side and it’s at that point that you cross back over the lake (by swimming) and then swim along the side of the lake for a mile and get out where you had just been running before. got that?

here's a visual. run #1, on the left is swim #1 (but starting on the other side)

somewhere after about 3 miles i went a bit ahead of laura. i was feeling really good and wanted to negative split the run (that was my plan for all three). running along the side of the lake i could hear and catch glimpses of people swimming. the lake looked so peaceful.

swim #1: 1.1 mile

if the swim entrance wasn’t manned by a few volunteers you would run right by it. it’s literally a tiny little break between two trees with a steep, narrow opening to a few rocks where you can stand or sit to change your shoes. i did most of my shoe on/offs on my swim time. that first transition took me a loooong time. as i stood there laura showed up, stuck her shoes in her shorts (she had put her swim cap on while running) and plunged in. by the way, she wore shorts not a tri suit, and stuck one shoe down the front and one down the back. each one of us had a different technique.

here's the "swim in". yup, that rock right there.

my first transition to the water was pretty slow, but man oh man was i happy with the swim. the water was cold when i first got in, but it also felt really good after running. as i swam along i thought about all the cramping they had talked about the night before. just before the race started i saw the race director and asked him: “so, what do people do when they get a cramp in the water?” if i was gonna cramp i wanted a plan. he said most people hold on to a kayak and rub it out, but he just focuses on really relaxing the muscles. so as i swam i checked in with my legs. i consciously thought about relaxing the muscles, figured it was a good way to prevent them as well.

as i swam along the side of the lake i really couldn’t tell how far into it i was because there is a bend up ahead, you can’t see around it and i didn’t know how much past it the "swim out” was. but it kind of didn’t matter. i was feeling so strong and good as i swam along. i looked up at the trees each time i took a breath. it was awe inspiring. at one point i got a little chilly. i thought about michelle and what an awesome swimmer she is. i tried to channel her like i had charisa on the bike. i actually made myself laugh because michelle HATES the cold!! as i swam along i noticed someone on my left, i looked over and it was j. we swam together for a few strokes (the water is super clear so we were able to smile at each other in the water just like in the pool) and then he moved ahead just slightly, just enough for me to grab on to his feet. generally holding on to his draft is tough but today i was swimming strong and it was no problem. we exited the water together and got our shoes back on. i noticed a few people sitting off to the side wrapped in mylar blankets. they looked blue and shaken from the water temperature.

run #2: 5.5 miles

as j. and i began to run i knew i had to take it down a notch from what i had been running before the swim. the cold water had cooled my legs off and i could tell that if i pushed an uphill or went too fast my hamstrings would revolt. so i shortened my stride and trusted that they’d warm back up. the first two and half to three miles is pretty much uphill. as i crested the top of a hill where the next aid station was i saw a man ahead yelling out “hey, is that cat coming?” "uhhhh, yeah" (but who the heck was he!?!?) “well you look like you’re doing great and j. says he loves you”. man oh man he’s so good at doing things like that! it totally made me smile and reminded me of all the notes we left each other in our transition and special needs bags during IMLP.

the aid station was up top there.

the next few miles wind downhill quite a bit. i tried to let gravity take me and enjoy the break from the hills. i talked briefly with a man in his 50’s who had done ironman lake placid at the end of july, ironman canada a month later and now, just two weeks after that was doing SOS. hijole! he seemed happy to be out there, but also like he was fading a bit as he said “have a good run!” and dropped back.

for the most part i was on my own the rest of the time. i could see a few people ahead of me every now and again and one woman passed me as we were getting close to the second swim. i put my ear plugs in as i was running figuring it was one thing i could do to cut down on the time it took me to get in the water. i was further away from the swim in than i thought and running with the ear plugs in was a strange sensation, it amplified my breathing and cut all the other noise out. it was sort of like what you hear when you are scuba diving. it was meditative. suddenly there was an uphill and it showed me that my lower half was really starting to get tight. i didn’t have quite the push i needed to run it as i’d like. i could hear people shouting and i knew i was close to the next swim.

swim #2: .5 mile (but based on time i'd say .6)

this time i was much faster with my cap donning, shoe removal, etc. i was in the water and off! there is a buoy line that runs across all of lake minnewaska, so as long as i stayed with it on my side i really didn’t need to worry much about sighting.

swim in #2

man, i felt GREAT! i passed a few people and then found myself in a group of about 4 people, all going slower than i wanted to. there was a man in the front along the line, then two women next to each other and then another woman behind them. i’d have to swing pretty wide to get around the two who were swimming side by side and because there were three bodies in a row, with quite a bit of space between them, i’d have to do it for quite a distance. i didn’t want to work that hard so when i saw a little gap between the two women i just swam my way right through them.

because we’re all so strung out through the race without a lot of interaction, i felt like i was being kind of aggressive, but then i remembered, it’s a race for chrissake, you do what you need to do (maintaining sportsman like conduct) to get to the finish line first. if this were a mass swim start you wouldn’t think twice about claiming your space.

aerial view of lake minnewaska

and so i went. easy peasy i passed them all and kept going. my swimming felt bionic (please note that my swimming and bionic have never been used in the same sentence!). as i neared the end of the second swim i thought about my brother and emily. i knew they were going to be at the swim out and i got all giddy inside. i started wondering if they could see me at that point. i was excited to tell them what a great time i was having.

exiting swim #2. you can see how i transported my shoes.

there was more food and fluid at the swim out and i stopped for a while to fuel up. i knew i had another 8 miles ahead of me and i wanted to be sure i took in enough calories.

fueling after swim #2

i could hear nick and emily shouting my name from above as i sucked down a gel. i felt great! finally i was up the hill and where they were standing. they both ran with me a bit, shouting and cheering. telling me j. was just a few minutes ahead.

nick cheering me on to the start of run #3

starting out on run #3

other than aid stations you really don’t see anyone out there on the course except the occasional racer or mountain climber, it's actually a beautiful thing, but seeing nick and emily was energizing to say the least!

next up ... run #3, swim #3, run #4 ...

^..^

trust, patience, payoff!

2009-09-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

during my coaching certification class this past weekend, we watched this video. everyone was ooohing and ahhhing at dave wottle's unbelievable "kick" at the end.

turns out he ran almost exact 200 meter splits (26 seconds and change) throughout the entire race. he went into the race knowing what he needed to run and he never wavered from that, even when it meant he was behind. just like a car that gets better gas mileage going at a steady rate he was able able to win by remaining steady, and trusting his training, as his competitors accelerated and decelerated.

what a great lesson!

^..^

a word from our sponsors:

2009-09-19T05:15:00.000-07:00

we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog writing (and highly anticipated race reporting) to attend a three day usat coaching certification course.

^..^

s.o.s. race report - part I

2009-09-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

in 2007, j. and his sister laura raced 'survival of the shawangunks' (SOS). i was j.’s crew person and i spectated from as many spots as i could. the race takes place in the shawangunk mountains of new paltz, NY and finishes on the grounds of mohonk mountain house. as a kid my father used to take me, my brother and sister hiking there so the surroundings were so familiar and wonderful to revisit. i thought it would be a phenomenal race to do, but at the same time i couldn't imagine signing up for it! i was intimidated. but as has been the case with most of my racing (first marathon, duathlon worlds, ironman) i told myself "thank you for sharing" and went ahead and did it anyway!

watching in 2007, i was in awe of j. and laura’s ability to navigate this race – an 8 stage triathlon that begins with a 30 mile bike (with a significant 5 mile climb at the end), a 4.5 mile run with a hill called “cardiac hill”, a 1.1 mile swim in the most gorgeous lake ever, a 5.5 mile run that starts with 2.5 miles of up, up, up to the top of a hill that looks out over all of the hudson valley, another .5 mile swim, then an 8 mile run with another named hill, “godzilla”, another .5 mile swim in mohonk house’s lake and finally a .7 mile (1000’ straight up) run to another overlook of the hudson valley. the SOS finish line at skytop might just be the most memorable finish line out there.

the race only has one transition area; when you first get off the bike. the start line is 30 miles away so you have to have a crew person go to the transition area with your run and swim gear while you are riding. once you get there, they take your bike from you and lead you to your spot so you can get your running shoes, goggles, swim cap, etc. you can pretty much do this race however you want (wetsuit, dry bag for shoes, etc.) just so long as you finish with whatever you start with. so if you want to use a wetsuit on the swims, it means you are also running with it for 18.7 miles. believe it or not, people do it! you also see people with dry bags around their waists that they put their shoes in and then drag behind them on the swim.

when i first decided to do the race i thought i would do what i saw one man do in 2007 which was to have a dry bag, put my shoes in it, add some air and stick it between my legs like a pull buoy. i thought it would be great to have dry shoes and since swimming is my weakness (and i feel like a rock start when i use a pull buoy) it would be a great help.

as training went along i thought about it more and more and decided to forgo the dry bag, for a couple of reasons. the main one being though that i thought in the end i would feel like i hadn’t really “done” the race. it’s totally legit to use one, but i have a nasty little habit of discounting my accomplishments, so i didn’t want to give myself any ammunition. i was going to do this one on the “natch”.

training for the race was interesting. there aren’t many lakes in southern california and no trails that come directly off of the ocean. so training wasn’t going to include a lot of exact race simulation. luckily i had a trip planned to illinois to visit my coach, liz, and while i was there i was able to do a swim/run/swim. j. and i also went out to santa clarita for a day of run/swim/run/swim/run/swim. it was BLAZING hot that day, but a good opportunity to get a sense for how it would go.

lake castaic

it was 104 degrees that day

man, do the hills look dry!

i was shocked at how tired my arms felt coming off of the runs and into the swims, so learning that was great mental prep. i also had the chance to try out my gear -- swimming with my shoes stuffed down the back of my one piece tri suit, running with wet shoes, deciding if i would swim with my socks on or off (answer was on, but they had to be thin and tight).

while i was with liz in chicago we made some changes to my swim stroke that i think proved invaluable in the end. thank goodness that trip came when it did. back in los angeles, j. and i did a few more race simulations though they were in the pool and on the roads, for the most part. i did do quite a bit of training in the ocean, but honestly until late in the summer it was pretty cool in the pacific for non-wetsuit swimming and in the weeks before the race we were having some seriously rocky conditions. my training had been going so well i didn’t want to undermine my confidence with some aborted swim attempts or to reignite my open water swimming fears so i chose to use the pool and trust that the training was sufficient for what i’d be doing on race day.

the week before the race i flew back east and spent some time with my brother nick and his girlfriend emily out in montauk. the time i spent out there with them was the perfect way for me to go into a race. i wasn’t even thinking about the fact that i had a race coming up, i was just having so much fun and relaxing. they are both super active people and training for the NY marathon so they completely understood, respected and supported the training that i needed to do while i was there. emily patiently sat on the shore of a rocky bay and watched me while i swam in unfamiliar waters. i was nervous out there alone and she understood and supported me, waving to me each time i’d stop and look around. i swear, for a half an hour the woman never took her eyes off of me! there were lots of other logistics we needed to work with/around while i was there and having them both be so willing to make it work was a huge gift.

montauk point

sunset at ditch plains

me, my brother and iphone

while i was there i got to spectate a race they were doing. both nick and emily ran 10k PRs and i was so psyched i could be there. it was a beautiful course on country roads and i'd love to run it sometime!

my bad-ass brother running a 10k PR and yes, those are vibrams he's wearing!

emily stylishly cruising along to her 10 PR as well!!

on wednesday i headed over to new paltz. j. was flying into the city and we were meeting at his sister’s house (she lives 10 minutes from the race start). having so much time to acclimate to the humidity and to get on east coast time was probably the smartest decision i have ever made. i get really nervous before i race and controlling my environment (or at least thinking i do) becomes paramount. i like my pre-race life, the way i like it … clean eating, lots of resting, as few logistics as possible, not a lot of socializing and a complete avoidance of any potential sickness causing germs.

i knew going into the race that i wouldn’t have the level of control that i would if it were just me racing. we were staying at laura’s, there were lots of family members coming in to spectate, not a lot of cars to go around and kids to tend to. they have a wonderful life, but it’s much different from the one i am used to. when we arrived it turned out that her youngest was sick. you’ve never seen me hightail it to the stop-and-shop for a basketful of antibacterial products faster. ha! i love her kids, i really do so of course i felt badly that she was sick, but it also set in motion my worries. i had lots of talks with myself about the things that i can control and the things that i can’t. those conversations usually work for about the length of time that it takes for me to have them.

on top of the little muffin getting sick, j.’s mom, who was going to come to the race and take care of the girls, had gotten sick so stayed at home in florida. this left us with two working parents, one sick child, j. heading off to pennsylvania to visit his grandmother and … yup, me to babysit the sick one. i was happy to spend the time with her and to help out the family, but got a little dizzy from the lack of oxygen due to limiting my breathing around her. i am, of course, laughing at myself. all worrying aside, it all turned out just fine!

the night before the race they have a big pre-race meeting. it’s a tradition for past “survivors” to wear their shirts. there are presentations from the coordinators of each section of the race, there’s a slide show of past years, etc. now mind you only 150 athletes are allowed to participate in this race and all have to qualify through a half or full ironman, but as we sat there i marveled at what seemed like hundreds of very fit athletes striding by. BUT it had a very mellow vibe. sort of a small town, grassroots feel even though the race is a big event to produce.

pre-race meeting, looking like i'm ready to hurl

we chatted a little with the race director and then settled in to listen to the information about the race. as i sat there i thought i might leap out of my skin. they were talking about the water temperatures. the lakes were all coming in at 67-68 degrees. they talked about cramping in the water like it was a forgone conclusion … but no one was saying what to do when you cramp!!.

the days leading up to the race were autumn crisp. i took a walk on part of the course and i was really chilly in a hoodie and a jacket. it was windy and the skies were really dark and then it poured rain. the forecast for sunday was mid-70’s and beautiful, but as my nose ran and i couldn’t get the chill out of my bones it was hard to imagine that was possible.

j. and i biked the first run on mountain bikes -- it's the only way you can preview any of the course. we couldn't really preview any more of it as it would have zapped a lot of energy from our legs to have ridden the whole thing. i had ridden each run leg back in 2007, so i had a pretty decent idea of what the hills were like on the run.

a few days before - a very dark, cold and choppy lake #1

bundled up in four colorful layers to preview the run course

at the pre-race meeting the race director said to laura, “if you’ve got a shortie wetsuit, wear it!” none of us had one. gulp. i couldn’t imagine three lake swims in 67 degree water, shoot sometimes my hands and feet go numb while swimming in an indoor pool!!

we woke up sunday morning, or i should say “got out of bed” as there had been zero sleeping for me and it was humid and a lot warmer than it had been on previous mornings. yeah!!! we had packed everything up overnight yet somehow my race chip had gone missing. i had a moment of feeling sick to my stomach as i dialed my poor brother (it was 5:30am!!) to see if it had somehow gotten into my transition bag. no dice. i tore everything apart and with no luck finally decided that they must deal with situations like this at the race all the time, right? they’ll have another one at the start. as we were leaving jeff’s brother-in-law found the chip on top of the baby jogger in the garage! don’t ask, i still have no idea how it got there.

okay here we go ...

the bike:

the race starts on the bike. there are age group waves, just like the swim start of a “regular” triathlon and they go off every minute after the starting whoop, whoops. so there we are all lined up and i’m kinda quakin’ in my sidi’s not sure that i’ll be able to clip in and steer my bike straight when my wave goes off.

backing up a few days, i got an email from my friend steven telling me that he had reconnected with an old high school friend on facebook and that, crazy coincidence, she and her husband were doing SOS. what are the chances, he said, that out of 150 people racing he knew 4 of them!! he had sent me an email telling me what she’d be wearing, but honestly i was so preoccupied with making sure that i was breathing on race morning that i completely forgot to look for her.

just before our wave went a woman rolled up next to me, i glanced over (black one piece with green piping) … “andrea?” yup, it was steven’s friend. we chatted for a second, but again it was that awkward “i’m so nervous this is a nice distraction but i’m not paying any attention to what either of us is saying” kind of chit-chat.

when our wave started the six or seven women in front of me immediately blasted off into a tight pack. now mind you even though this race is “different” it is still USAT sanctioned and the same rules apply. meaning, no drafting! at the pre-race meeting they had said that it was hard to enforce that rule within the first 5 miles or so since we all start together, but honestly when i saw the group of women in my age group jump on each others wheels i knew i just couldn’t do it.

i probably lost myself a few places with that decision, but i feel really strongly about sticking to the rules. it's one thing if you really can’t avoid it, and there were a couple of times on some hills where it was a bit tough, but i knew that it was well within my power to not grab a wheel and so i let them go. that really was the first defining act of “racing my own race” and i’m so glad i set that tone right at the start because i think it served me well throughout the entire race. future waves came by later on like they were in a team time trial. i thought that was a damn shame and didn’t mind one bit passing those folks later in the race as we cranked up the 5 mile climb. that climb, by the way, was a little more steep and challenging than i had thought. i kept it in an easy gear and just spun, spun, spun up it.

the bike course was out of this world. it was 7am and there was the most phenomenal golden light blanketing the hudson valley, along with thin layers of fog hugging the farmland. we rode by horses, cows, rows and rows of sunflowers. went through tiny little towns that i feel like i ought to call hamlets just because they were so dang cute. i even passed a huge gnome with a plaque under it that read “World’s Largest Garden Gnome”. i smiled and said out loud “hey, charisa (facebook, triathlete, blogger friend who loves garden gnomes) thanks for coming out” and then i pictured her face (she has the world’s best smile) and thought about how positive and talented she is. i tried to channel her energy and it actually worked! i felt totally inspired and sorta giddy.

from the get-go this race was something different than they usually are for me. i felt a calm and lack of racing “grrrrr”. this wasn’t a bad thing. i was 100% in it, i felt passionate about it, i wanted to do my best, but i also didn’t want to miss a moment of it to the tunnel vision that i can sometimes get due to a singular focus of fast, fast, fast, (don’t drown, don’t crash), finish line, finish line, finish line!!

the bike had some great straightaways and rollers where i was able to hold 23-24mph and just be in a comfortable groove with the perfect gearing. i said "hello" or "good job" or some such thing to everyone i passed. i thanked the volunteers and the cops. i smiled BIG. i loved the bike. j. started in a wave 1 minute after me and at about mile 9.5 he came along side of me and asked “are you okay, honey?” and then he passed by. oops, maybe i was slacking? i hadn’t thought so, but they way he said it sounded like i should have been further along. about a half mile later i passed him back and we didn’t see each other again until toward the end of the 1st swim.

at about mile 28 i passed laura and knew that meant we’d be running together for at least the first leg. as i came around a bend and looked up a little rise i could hear thunderous clapping and cheering. i couldn’t see any people yet, but i knew i was close to the bike hand off.

finishing up the bike

moments later i was entering transition and being cheered on by my brother, emily and j’s family. nick took my bike and lead me to my transition set up. they had gotten us a rockin’ space and done an amazing job laying everything out just as i had shown them. LOVE that.

i was pretty quick with the switch to running shoes and grabbing goggles and swim cap. took a bite of a banana, a swig of water and was off for the rest of the adventure …

next up, run #1.

^..^

09-12-09, 2:47pm

2009-09-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

i just got nervous.

16 days ...

2009-08-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

and this will be me!

SOS Triathlon 2008 from Don Davis on Vimeo.

i have a few back logged training posts to share with y'all. i am working on them with a VERY frustrating computer system.

in the meantime, if you can bear the buffering of the video (hint let it fully buffer while it's on pause) you'll get a sneak peek at what i'm in for on sept. 13th.

happy viewing!

^..^

camp day 1 & 2

2009-08-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

i haven't even gotten to the great training j. and i did for s.o.s. last sunday and already i have to skip ahead and tell you about now!

i'm in chicago training with liz, andrea and danni for a few days. we all arrived in chicago yesterday afternoon and we off and running ... literally.

i've met liz a few times before, but i know danni and andrea only from their blogs and facebook. they are both surprisingly what i would have imagined, awesome! i felt immediately at ease with them both as we got our stuff together and jumped in the odd s c and headed toward the wisconsin border to meet up with jen h. and swim at her wednesday night LITH (lake in the hills) swim and run. it's an informal gathering of triathletes. everyone is at different levels and have different goals. you can swim as much as you want and if you want to run a hilly 5k or 10k there is a fantastic marked course.

before we got to LITH we stopped off at trader joe's. i was in search of buckwheat cereal for the morning and everyone else wanted a little sumthin' sumthin' before hitting the water. never have i seen an elf swing a left turn off of the cereal aisle so fast as when she realized there was a coffee dispenser one aisle over. i was afraid she'd roll an ankle in her pursuit of a pre-swim boost.

there were a few stare downs as i traipsed through the store in my one piece tri suit (folded over my hips, of course, rocker orange t-shirt and flip flops). i think i went from airplane to liz's to minivan to trader joe's so quickly that it hadn't quite sunk in that i was in the midwest and maybe i ought to show a little more ... midwest discretion.

buckwheatless we left and drove the run course.

"lake in the hills", cat.

right ... what was i expecting, flat?

andrea, liz and danni were planning on circling the entire lake twice for a total of two miles. i decided i would do an out and back swim for a half mile (shoes stuffed in drawers, of course), run the 5k and then jump back in for another half mile swim.

before the swim we hung out with jen a bit, met angela and scoped out the lake. before i knew it, we were off. i stayed on some feet for a bit and then as usual started futzing about with my sighting, essentially losing any chance of staying in anyone's draft. all i knew was to head to the last "buoy" (basically a pull buoy tied to some rope) and to make sure to not swim off the dam. HUH???!!!

andrea, me (in said questionable outfit), jen, danni & liz

i went out on the run while the rest of 'em were swimming. i was a little intimidated about running since i tend to not feel so hot training-wise when i travel, but pretty soon into the run my legs were there. it was warmer out than i am used to and evening instead of dawn, but it felt pretty good. i loved where i was running. i loved watching the dappled sun coming through the trees and seeing the folks out on their lawns. i've lived in big cities my whole life, but often think i'd be happy living a life surrounded by green trees, lakes, and little country roads.

i was pleased with my run time and jumped back in the lake for my second swim. we all finished up about the same time. washed the goose poop off our bodies as best we could and headed off to noodles. where we ate noodles (duh) and froze our wet-haired buns off!

then it was another 2 or 3 stores in quest of buckwheat cereal until it was obtained. we rolled into liz's, showered and collapsed. i was joined by maybe the cutest bed partner (after j. and fraidy of course). see for yourself ...

bossman waterstraat, in all his cute cha-hooah-hooah glory!

today it was fill our bellies, digest, go to the track for drills and a surprise two all out 800's. OUCH! it was hot, there was no shade ... it was "track". but ya know what? it was some of the best time i've ever spent on that blasted oval. liz filmed all three of us, watched us run and took notes, and encouraged us. (pictures later).

when we were done we sat down and went over what she noticed. not surprisingly, i have a weak core and it shows up in my running. the great thing about the time on the track was that it became clear that we were all there with a genuine desire to learn and improve. we cheered each other on and, as far as i'm concerned, there is nothing like a few great women shouting at me to motivate me through that last painful 50 meters.

later on we went swimming in a place that i am not sure i can accurately describe. instead i'll just show you pictures.

way over to the right there are some 50 meter lap lanes

i learned that i don't rotate my hips. i knew that, but there's nothing like someone who's opinion you trust looking at you and saying "yup, you don't rotate". liz gave me what sounded like a simple enough drill to do and sent me on my way. yeah, notsomuch. i proceeded to completely humiliate myself in front of some pre-pubescent boys and girls bopping in and out of our lane. i continually jammed my fingers into the lane line and almost took out both danni and andrea as they swam by. but liz stuck with me, suggested a few things, walked along helping my body to feel what my mind wanted it to do and at the end of our hour there i can honestly say there was some progress. it left me breathless and wanting to hurl after 25 meters, but i'll stick with it and build some endurance with the new stroke and some new pathways to my brain!!

there may have been some coffee consumed to get us from the swim to the next activity on the list: a ride through the arboretum. man was it beautiful! closed to traffic, nice sweeping roads, beautiful green everywhere!! liz narrated our tour and next time promised to wear a p.a. system on her back so that those of us in the back can follow along in learning about the different programs that take place on the grounds.

liz had a longer ride to do so andrea, danni and i headed home ... i believe with the intention of getting dinner started. we did our best to think about it, but no actual progress was made. i think we were all still unsure if perhaps we might need to bust out a fourth discipline or whether we were just going to fall asleep ... too tired to eat. once again, liz and all her energy saved us as she walked in the door and infused us all with a second wind and a scrumptious dinner was rustled up.

this post is way too long, but then again ... we've done A LOT in just a little over 24 hours. tomorrow we're starting out with a brick in the infamous fermilab and i've heard rumor of a mall outting. swim/bike/run i can handle, but swim/bike/run/shop? i may have to switch from tea to coffee for this one!

^..^

staying on task, not!

2009-08-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

i'm trying to write up a post about today's adventurous training. there's lots to tell, but i keep getting distracted by the yankee game-making the pizza dough-my cute cat-my iphone-stretching-uploading pictures-facebook ... i gotta get my priorities straight!

soon, i promise.

until then ... pizza time!!!

^..^

letter to the editor

2009-08-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

i'm not really a "letter to the editor" type of gal or at least i haven't been for the first 41 years of my life, but a few weeks ago i sat at my computer searching for a job and in the background michael jackson's memorial service was on the television. as i watched all the grandeur unfold and read reports about the City of Los Angeles footing the bill ... well ... i was angered enough to launch my letter writing career!

yesterday as i was running i thought about the letter and that it was never published and then realized, doh!, i have my very own publishing vehicle. so, here ya go ... my very first "letter to the editor":

Dear Editor,

I am outraged by the City of Los Angeles’ spending on Michael Jackson’s memorial service. It’s not that I think Mr. Jackson shouldn’t be honored, I do. He made great contributions to us all and I have the fondest memories of boppin’ along to The Jackson 5 with my brothers and sisters throughout the 1970’s. However, as a now grown woman who was recently laid off from her job, I am dancing to a different tune.

For the past six years I have worked for a non-profit agency that relies heavily upon State and Federal contracts for a great portion of its budget. As we sat with an unapproved budget and a State in total financial crisis, we had to look at suspending services to our clients, cutting out programs and reducing our staff.

In an attempt to not leave our city’s most needy without the services they so desperately rely upon, a few of us lost our jobs. My hope is that with our education and skills the set back we experience will be less than what our clients would have faced had they not received the subsidies they need in order to meet their most basic needs.

That being said, I am appalled by the fact that the City of Los Angeles saw fit to spend, what reports are saying is upwards of $4 million, on Mr. Jackson’s memorial. While I am not privy to the Jackson family’s finances, I’d bet what money I do have that they have more than enough to appropriately memorialize him. The fact that Mayor Villaraigosa saw fit to Tweet throughout the day yesterday, appealing to the citizens of Los Angeles to donate to the Michael Jackson Memorial Fund to offset the costs is beyond comprehension to me.

The City has put up a webpage where you can make a donation through PayPal. Have they done that for the families that are at risk of losing their CalWorks benefits? What about for the hard working employees, such as myself, who no longer have jobs so that others can continue to thrive, is there a webpage to donate to that cause?

To me it is downright irresponsible of the City to have gone ahead with the memorial. What about honoring Mr. Jackson with a street in his name (though I am sure that is in the works too)? How about holding candle light vigils a la John Lennon’s passing? What about the City filling in where the State is failing our citizens and making donations, in Mr. Jackson’s name, to our cities neediest?

These are all honorable, responsible, inspiring acts that are much more sensitive to our current economic climate and much more in keeping with a budding young social consciousness that has started to take root with our new Presidential administration.

Writing a letter to the editor is something I have never done before, but I am so pained by our City’s insensitivity, I simply had to say something.

Catherine M. Griffin

*later reports indicated that the actual cost to the City was $1.4 million, but still ...

laying low

2009-08-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

let's see if i can remember how blogger works. let's hope i don't inadvertently post this before i'm done.

a lot has happened since my last blog post, heck it's been since mid-june ... how could it not!? yet at the same time, i've been uninspired to blog. i've guess i've been laying low.

at the end of june i was laid off from my job. i had worked there for the past six years and didn't really see it coming. i suppose in the abstract i did (it's a non-profit with a budget heavily reliant on state contracts) since our state/nation's economy is in the crapper ... but it was still a shock. i was leaving that evening for a trip with j.'s family to lake tahoe so ... we left a little earlier.

the trip was beautiful. i wasn't able to train at the level i would have liked since we were at altitude and as i discovered earlier this year ... me and altitude ... not so much. but we kayaked and took a few wonderful, peaceful, meditative swims in the lake. it was super cold, but so worth it! it was fun to be in the water with j. and his sister (we're all doing s.o.s. together in just a little over a month).

after the trip to tahoe we came home for the 4th and we ran one of our favorite 10k's. it's a super hilly course in a nice small town.

all the neighbors come out and cheer and the whole town is done up in red, white and blue. i went 57 seconds faster than last year and i was psyched because i went into it not feeling all that fit. bonus too was that my sister ran it! she and i trained for and ran the l.a. marathon together 9 years ago and it was fun to know she was out on the course as well.

for the month since i've been trying to find a balance between deciding what i want to be when i grow up, job searching and enjoying a little "down time". the best thing about not working is how much the level of chronic pain i have been living in for the past 8 years has been reduced. the hardest thing for me has always been sitting at a computer all day long. it makes my body feel so beat up that by the end of the day i feel like a pretzel. i still have some of the issues, but WOW, so much less.

speaking of which, i finally had an MRI on my hip and back. i have two compressed vertebrae, one with a bulging disk. the doctor said they weren't awful but he also said that the combination of the bulging disk and some thickening of bones in the same place has left little room for the nerves that run through that section of my back. hmmmm ... that sounds like a culprit! as for the hip, he saw a slight labral tear. based on what he said, that may be a bit of an overstatement ... it's more like the labrum is peeling up a bit (blech!). he prescribed 6 weeks of physical therapy, which due to a glitch in the switch over from regular insurance to COBRA, i haven't been able to start yet, but i am hoping soon!

training has been going well. i wish i was using this time off to do more of it, but liz didn't think that was a good idea. :( she said that i have "durability issues". that's tough for me to hear. i suppose it's true, to some extent, but i also know that now that i am not working i have a lot more time to put toward maintenance and recovery.

on the "racing" front, i swam the pier-to-pier 2 mile ocean swim this past sunday. it's one of those races i've heard about forever, but have feared. the thought of two miles without a wetsuit as a security blanket freaked me out, but this year i wanted to do it. a) s.o.s. is all non-wetsuit swimming and b) it was on my birthday and i love to try to do a race or some physical adventure on my birthday.

i wasn't feeling very well leading up to the race so i was playing it by ear on race day morning (but who was i kidding, barring a MAJOR freak out, i was swimming!) j. and josh and i went together. i wished my friend chris was swimming, but he's been having some physical stuff going on that's keeping him from training right now. chris is an awesome swimmer and has always been really encouraging to me about getting out there.

for the most part the swim was great. i never really felt like i found a rhythm and i certainly wasn't "racing", but i was just fine without the wetsuit. it's amazing how much more of a feel for the water you get without it. i was giddy to be enjoying myself as much as i was. and then it started to get a little old. the people tapping my feet, the swimming waaaay off course, the final pier not getting ANY closer despite the fact that it appeared to be right in front of me. i kept reminding myself that i had been really enjoying it and to just hold on to that, it actually worked for the most part. in the end it turns out there must have been a current as everyone's times were longer than usual (last year the winner swam it in :39, this year :45). it was a good mental boost to know i could do 2 miles straight without a wetsuit, but hysterical to me to see that i swam longer at IMUSA in less time (god bless mirror lake and neoprene).

i haven't decided yet about the shoes i am going to wear for s.o.s. i thought i was going with the teva x-1 racer trail shoe, but after a two hour run a week or so ago i had a mean blister, imagine running longer than that and with wet socks and shoes. i'm not sure they'll work.

i liked them because of the mesh on the sides and the drain holes on the bottom. hopefully i'm going to head out to a lake this weekend where i can actually try swimming with them in my shorts and then running with wet shoes like i will in the race. that'll give me a better sense if they are the right shoe or not. if anyone has any ideas, let me know ... just keep in mind it's 19 miles of trail running and i need some amount of support and cushion.

i'm a bit nervous about the bike for the race. i've been cycling only twice a week and that just never feels like enough to me. twice a week on the bike results in just holding on to my bike fitness, if not losing a little. while the bike portion is only 30 miles, part of it is quite demanding and i'd like to give away as little of my energy on it as possible. the only way i know to do that and still keep a decent pace and remain competitive is time in the saddle and getting used to some hard efforts.

in non-training news ... i am the proud new owner of an iphone! oh lord help me. it's been 3 days now and it's all just a big blur of photos, apps and IMing j. while he's sitting next to me.

f-u-n n-e-w t-o-y!!

okay, i felt like i had to get this one "catch up" post done (sorry it's so dry). i think that's it. now that i've gotten y'all caught up hopefully my intentions of regular blogging on life as it actually happens will pan out.

^..^

im thinking

2009-06-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

i am so genuinely excited for all my FB friends who are gearing up to race IMCDA this weekend. i find myself listing them all in my head as i am driving in my car or swimming laps in the pool. i wonder what each of them is feeling at that moment 5 days out, then 4 days out ...

i can't help but think back to when i raced IMLP. i was so utterly freaked out ready to shit my pants at any moment scared that i feel like i missed out on a lot. the days leading up to the race are still a bit of a blur.

i wrote a race report after it even though i didn't have a blog back then. i wanted to get all written down because memory fades and i needed to remember. maybe one day i'll post it.

i don't know if i'll ever do another ironman. i think i have a lot of triathlete maturing to do before i attempt it again. i didn't really fall in love with the race distance, but i did fall in love with the training.

almost 3 years later i still love it. i'm out of the rhythm of really long distance days, but i know i would slide right back in. i miss late afternoon drool sessions on the couch after a 6 hour ride. i miss the feeling i got each time the distance was "upped" and i would marvel that i had just done something that at one time seemed downright un-doable.

when i sit and think about all the friends who are racing IMCDA on sunday, my wish for them is that they take it all in. no matter what the days before and the day of bring, it's their journey, their story and they get to keep it forever. they've each worked long and hard for it. everyone of them has made sacrifices and had triumphs along the way. it fills my heart up just thinking about it.

i'm already cheering and sending love, speed and lots of fulfilled dreams your way!!

^..^

the wavy chop

2009-06-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

no, it's not a new hairdo ... it's the ocean conditions i swam in yesterday!

as you know, i've been in the ocean more this season. i've been going to a weekly weds. morning "speed circuit" where we swim about 250 meters out to a buoy, come back in, run up the beach a ways, round an orange cone, down the beach about 50 meters, round another cone and back into the water. run, swim, rinse, repeat.

it's been a blast!

on the drive down there each week i don't let myself think about what i am on my way to do. i just drive: "doot, da, doot, da, doot ... here i am in my car at 5:45am ... driving along ... doot, da, doot, da, doot" and just like that i'm in the parking lot, lubing up with body glide, wrestling myself into the kielbasa casing known as my wetsuit and splashing around with 100+ of my closest neoprene-clad friends.

the other week i did a record (for me) 4 loops. SO PROUD!!

yesterday i had an unexplained sinking feeling in my stomach as i doot-da-dooted my way toward the beach. uneasy. queasy.

got to beach and just kept taking one sketchy footstep after the other.

i got into the water and, as beth would say, HOLY CATS!! sure, it looked dark and ominous from up on the sand, but it didn't look ... uh ... quite so wavy or choppy. damn, it's wavy choppy!!!

immediately i lost my breath. it was a little colder than it's been recently. it was rough. i was anxious. all put together = cat can't really breathe so good.

j. was a sweetheart as we both had flashbacks to my untold ocean freak outs where i insisted: "I CAN'T DO THIS!!! DON'T LEAVE ME BY MYSELF!!! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?!?! I'M GETTING OUT. WAIT, I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT ALONE!?!? HEEEELP!!!"

as usual he said, "try one loop". i decided to try. i stopped every couple of breaths making sure there was no confusion on his part that "i'm not sure i can do this". i didn't want my fear to win, i didn't want to have to navigate getting out alone, i didn't want j. to not get his workout done, i didn't want to get the idea stuck in my head that the ocean was scary and that i take a powder and go for breakfast when it gets rough (which i do, but i wasn't in the mood to prove it to myself).

so i did the loop. it was a rough go, but the extreme freak out i felt at first subsided. until, of course, we had to head in and what were probably mid-sized waves looked to me like building-collapsing tidal waves. i knew it was bad when i screamed to j. that i just wanted the other people swimming near me to get the hell away from me!! what? how will that help? no idea. i was irrational.

okay, i'm writing this so obviously i got back to shore. whew!

j. headed out for another loop and i sat on the sand, totally relieved to be done and totally bummed that i wasn't going back out. i watched people run up the beach and excitedly run back out. our friend josh ran up and looked at me "all done?" he asked. i'm not sure what i replied, but it was something of the "you betcha" variety.

j. came back out and next thing i knew i was at his side saying i wanted to go back out. it didn't look so bad. he looked at me, looked at the ocean and said "yeah? okay ... sure, it doesn't look that bad from here ..."

guess what, it was worse than the first time around! well, the conditions were but i wasn't. i was up and over a big wave, swimming in mid-air. that part was actually kind of fun. the buoy ... well, i couldn't really see it but there were still enough people out there that i was able to keep my bearings.

on the exit i got slightly pummeled, but nothing too bad.

i was as proud of doing that second loop yesterday as i was of having done 4 last week. sure i got a total of something like 17 minutes of swimming in (and that includes a lot of wading, stopping, diving, orienting), BUT i got a ton of confidence and character building in that 17 minutes.

j. went out for yet another loop (stud). i was a wee bit nervous as he and his two friends headed out in the complete opposite direction of the buoy, but they soon realized the conditions had taken them off course and righted themselves.

after the swim i declared we were going for blueberry pancakes. heavenly, hearty, gluten-filled pancakes. that swim was a triumph worthy of my favorite breakfast. shoot, had baskin & robbins been open i might have even gotten myself a scoop of mint chocolate chip on my way to work.

here's to the wavy chop not gettin' you down!

^..^

bonelli race report

2009-06-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

today (oops, now yesterday) i raced the bonelli olympic tri. i’ve done this race a few times before. i like it because it’s only 45 miles from home so racing it doesn’t require an overnight stay … which requires way too much packing and planning. i like to sleep in my own bed and just get up (albeit still at 4:15am) and head out to the site.

i think i’ve done this race 3 or 4 times and every time j. has been my 'sherpa extraordinaire', but today he was going to be racing as well and i was so excited! we haven’t raced the same (multisport) race since vineman half in 2007. our friends jen, kevin and josh were racing as well. i wasn’t sure if having friends racing would increase my race anxiety or lessen it. for today, it lessened it and i was thrilled.

i didn’t feel anything like the nerves i usually feel pre-race. in fact, throughout the week i kept on saying to myself “wait, what do i have going on this weekend?” because i sensed there was something big i needed to remember and then i’d be like “oh right, i’m racing!!” that is SO not my pre-race attitude. maybe it’s because this race wasn’t on my original schedule. after napa i added it because i wanted to see what i could do with a shorter distance … and NO RAIN (hopefully). ironically, as we drove to san dimas the dark, dark skies were threatening a downpour. luckily, no rain appeared. in fact, it was glorious out there. the sun just started peeking through the clouds as my swim wave went off.

ah, the swim! seems that what happens when you are more confident with your swim and you line up toward the front and don’t fade immediately is … you get a lot more contact. i got punched in the head and my goggles went all askew. the one thing i do not like about bonelli is their lack of a buoy that you can actually sight off of. i looked back over my past race reports and i was giving myself such a bad time in them for having stopped periodically throughout the swim to “locate myself”. i always assumed it was just that i sucked at sighting. having been in open water a bit more, recently, i can say that I do not suck at it. i definitely could get better, but i have the skill needed and what bonelli needs is something larger than what they refer to as “a salmon egg”. HA! i think they call it that because of its shape and color, but they ought to call it that because its size, relative to the body of water we are in, is like that of salmon roe atop a piece of sushi. sight off of that!

anyway, the swim was fine, other than the increased contact. i found myself getting a little “sigh … can this swim end yet?” at one point, but it was all good.

out on the bike course i had to play that balancing act between “this is a short race, go hard” and “save a little for the run”. there are a lot of new folks who do the relay and sprint (the sprint is one loop of the three loop course) and unfortunately what you get with that is a lot of people who do not know the rules about not passing on the right and about dropping back when you’ve been passed and about going back over to the right when you’ve passed someone. i’m a rule follower and a stickler for safety, so it sorta chapped my ass, but i tried to just make sure that people knew where i was and watched out.

i could feel on the bike that the nerve/back/hamstring/whatever issue i’ve been battling was flaring up. i was uncomfortable, to say the least, but not muscle uncomfortable. i’m not sure how to describe it, but i know the difference.

off the bike i was afraid the issues i was having were going to be a factor, but i tried to push the thought out of my head and just trust that things would shake out as i ran. the bonelli run course is an interesting one. i wouldn’t call it flat, flat … but i also would not call it hilly. it’s always been a fairly challenging run for me. it’s usually crazy hot and i suppose my legs always feel those three bike loops. i tried to settle in and not judge my race. i looked at the pretty scenery. i thought about positive things.

funny how recently when i am on the run of a brick or race and i want to think of positive things, one of the things that I’ve been saying is “i am so happy i didn’t crash on the bike!” hahaha. that makes me laugh … it’s sort of a negative positive in its own way. but the reality is that the older i get the more afraid of crashing i become. the other thing i was grateful for was the lack of heat. i wasn’t having any of my bloating issues despite not being able to “do my business” before the race.

i hung in there, but the nag in my hip and hamstring were just not going away. my legs didn’t feel particularly heavy, but i couldn’t push more than i was. when i’d become conscious that i had been “accepting” my pace, i would think about liz and what she had said to me about picking it up for 10 seconds and then holding it there. i tried, jeez … i tried.

it’s sounding like i am unhappy with the race. i’m not. i think i’m just a little frustrated. i was saying to j. on the car ride home that i feel like i am SO dedicated to my training, i work very hard. i rarely, if ever, blow off a workout. i plan for them all, i prepare, i follow instructions, i work hard. i take my recovery and nutrition seriously. but i feel like the end result doesn’t equal the work i put into it. he made the very astute point, of “but what if you didn’t do those things? you would probably be slower.” he’s right, i probably would be and that’s a reality that’s tough for me because it means i sort of have to just accept that i am who i am.

sure i can continue to work hard to maintain and dollars-to-doughnuts i’ll have breakthrough training and racing times, but i won’t suddenly become someone who runs in the 6-7 minute mile range off the bike. i want to be that girl. okay, so if i’m not going to be her, i want to at least feel like busting my ass 6 days a week produces a shift, some growth, some speed. boo hoo, right? i know, i know, but it's all relative and i’ll get over myself soon.

back to the race for a second. as i was running along on a little out and back section i saw j. coming toward me. as we passed i yelled out “come on, come catch me!” i knew he could, but he didn’t look too thrilled about the prospect of trying, but i also KNEW given a few seconds he’d be like “hell yeah, i’m gonna go catch her”.

a while later i heard a couple of footsteps behind me. i just knew they were j’s. funny how you can recognize your partner before you even see them. i turned around and it was him! i had the feeling he was going to hold up and want to run it in to the finish with me, but i really wanted him to press on. he’s got great running legs when he’s not injured and i wanted him to have that experience today, that success.

as he approached i cheered him on and said “come on, go, go, go!!” he did and watching him gazelle off into the distance made me so happy for him. he loves running more than anything and watching the mental anguish that chronic calf and achilles pain causes him is just no fun.

j. has spectated for me at the race so many times that i am used to him being at certain points on the course. when i exited the water, i missed him screaming (to the ear damaging distress of the other spectators) “GO CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. out on the bike course, i missed feeling like a tour de france rider as i went past him on each loop. before he passed me today, i had the fleeting thought of “dang, j. won’t be at the finish screaming his bloody head off for me”, but as he ran off toward the finish i thought to myself, “yeah, he’ll be there when i cross the line! i sure hope he’s not too tired to scream!!" he may not have screamed, but he sure did look just as proud as all the other times.

okay, racing pity party over. time to talk to my coach and try to figure out what i can and cannot do to try to achieve the milestones i want and then … time to eat pizza!!!

^..^

*sorry for the lack of photos. there are only two of me and i look like an oompa loompa in both!

25 days of randomness

2009-05-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

25 days since i last wrote! way too much life gets lived and forgotten in 25 days to be able to report on it all, so i picked 25 random things to mention ... in no particular order of occurrence, importance or interest:

1. since i last wrote i have swum in the ocean something like 4 or 5 times. each one has been phenomenal. ocean swimming has always been a challenge for me so getting out there this often and having a blast with it each time really makes my year!

2. i picked the wrong time of year to read "swimming to antarctica". on the one hand it inspired the heck out of me, on the other ... it plants thoughts of sharks i never had before! that being said, if you get a chance to pick it up, do it ... lynne cox is amazing!

3. i was so excited to hear, in an interview with frank mccourt (owner of the dodgers and now owner of the l.a. marathon) that they are working on making the l.a. marathon a point-to-point race starting at dodger stadium and ending at the beach. i've always thought that the l.a. marathon ought to be a point-to-point passing through all the iconic los angeles sights. i don't really have a strong desire to run l.a. again, but that certainly would increase the chances.

4. over the past 25 days i've become well skilled at administering sub-cutaneous fluid treatments to a cat. this is not a skill i ever knew existed and really wish i didn't need to learn. fraidycat was diagnosed with kidney disease just before we went up to napa and it's been a heartbreaking few weeks getting used to what that means and how to manage it. the upshot is, there is no cure. we can do things (like the fluid treatment) to prolong his life and to help him feel better and that's a blessing. he's taking it like a champ and i've got to say, it's clear that it's very, very helpful. send him a kitty prayer.

here we are watching the giro d'italia

5. i was tagged with the blogger "8 things" that was going around. i thought that would be an easy way to bang out a blog post, but i found myself not wanting to do it. bottom line was that i judged myself for some of my answers and didn't want to post it for fear of judgement by others. interesting blogging phenomenon.

6. ivan basso has gotten LOTS of nice face-time during the giro this year. color me a happy shade of pink. : )

7. a few times recently i've used my run workout as transportation. i LOVE doing that. there is something, for me, that feels really cool about it. it feels like i am running somewhere other than home. i see my city in a new and different way and i experience a freedom in going from point to point that i usually don't get on a regular route from home.

8. i spent 5 hours of yesterday hitting the refresh button on my computer so i could keep up on how michelle was doing at the hawaii 70.3. despite the fact that ironmanlive.com is anything but live (hello, could you please use those inflated race entry fees to improve your technology!!??) i sat here with fraidy being her biggest virtual spectathlete. she won the swim and the bike for her age group and was up in the top six women mixing it up with the pro women. this woman had a baby 7 short months ago and despite a tough run plagued with leg cramps she tore it up. she's one of my heroes, not just because she's smokin' fast but because she's a beautiful, strong, dedicated woman who is finding her way as a new mother and an athlete and she shares her journey honestly.

9. yesterday my brother and his girlfriend ran the brooklyn half marathon. unfortunately my brother had to pull out at mile 3 due to his back going into full spasm. i feel for him and wish i could have been there to support him like he did me during both ironman lake placid and the new york marathon. his girlfriend finished and said that she felt "super good the whole way". after napa i have to say that all time goals aside, really, isn't that the best and the most we can ask for!?!

10. i love roasted artichokes.

11. i've been having intermittent tingling/numbness in my feet and hands. it freaks me out. i've suspected for a while that i've had some nerve impingement issues. i've been to umpteen dr's., chiropractors, massage therapists, woo-woo voo-doo healers, but me thinks it's time to suck it up and get myself into one of them there claustrophobic MRI machines.

12. yesterday i had something like 5 or 6 friends (that i know of) climbing up mt. palomar in san diego. i have yet to do this epic ride, but it is definitely on my list of things to do soon!!

13. why does the whole foods i shop at seem to always be out of the items i use most? seriously, whose buying up all the low fat vanilla almond milk, clover honey, buckwheat cereal and chicken andouille sausages??!! and why won't the whole foods buyer increase their inventory??

14. i watched danilo di luca and denis menchov's entire time trials on the last stage of the giro through parted fingers over my face. palms sweating, stomach tight. you'd think i was watching "texas chainsaw massacre".

15. i need to get back into the habit of using my foam roller everyday, it makes such a huge difference.

16. i cannot wait for july 4th this year.
a) it's one of my most favorite holidays and just makes me want to eat strawberry shortcake
b) it's the day of one of my most favorite 10k's
c) it's the first day of the tour this year
can. not. wait.

17. my friends amy and angel are getting married at the end of june. i am so excited for them!

18. have you tried cinnamon roll larabars? ohmyyummygoodness!! it's a gluten free treat not to be believed!

19. the state of california is so completely eff'ed! same sex couple's cannot marry in our state and our finances are a complete shambles. yesterday i read this article and it just killed me. i know there is nowhere "good" to cut from, but my god ...

20. we went to see the movie "earth". i loved it, because i love all that national geographic, animal planet stuff BUT turns out it's footage from "planet earth" which, as the lover of all things animal, i had already seen. i didn't mind seeing it, but i felt kinda ripped off that they repackaged it and did say so ahead of time. it's like they just swapped out sigourney weaver's voice for james earl jones'.

21. it seems like a whole 'nother wave of friends are suddenly having babies. i'm so excited for all of them.

22. not to go all cycling heavy on my list of 25 random things, BUT it broke my heart hearing people (giro spoiler stop reading if you haven't watched it yet) boo denis menchov. i understand patriotism and all, but come on ... the man was rock solid. he earned that pink jersey and deserves the utmost respect.

23. i collect pig tchotchkes. i luv 'em and if they have angel wings on them i love them even more! over the years a lot of people have given me winged pigs and as i look around my apartment it warms my heart to see them and to think of the people who thought of me when they found them.

24. i'm excited to start mixing and matching workouts in order to train for s.o.s. it's a funky format bike/run/swim/run/swim/run/swim/run. all told it will be 30 miles of biking, almost 19 miles of trail running and 2 miles of swimming. shoes go with you on the swim, goggles and swim cap on the run. i generally fuel my races on all liquid calories, but that's not really an option for this race. i won't be carrying nutrition with me, so that's going to make for some interesting summertime experiments.

25. i thought writing in list format would make writing a blog post faster and more efficient. i was wrong, but it was fun.

^..^

still the same gal

2009-05-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

yup, that's right. i re-posted my napa valley race report. i may have been all at peace and in the flow while racing, but i'm still the same anal gal i've always been and all those typos, bad phrasings and tiny little pictures were just setting me nuts!

good to know i've still got the perfectionist in me!

^..^

napa valley half iron race report

2009-05-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

wow. i don't even know where to start. for those of you on facebook and twitter you know from my most awesome sherpas, j. and molly, that it was a cold, wet, rainy day today in napa. here's the low-down from my end ...

i'll start right off with t.m.i. and tell you that i have a long and painful history of not being able to "do my business" before racing. it's led to more gastric distress and blown races than i care to remember. not because i do a "jen harrison" (sorry, jen i couldn't resist) ... i don't get the runs like a lot of folks, but my stomach stops processing calories and i wind up with a stomach the size of a pregnant woman ... carrying twins! and, like at lake placid, i keep ducking into port o' potties certain that THIS time it will happen because it sure feels like it, but always "no dice".

as some of you also know, i've been on a no wheat, gluten, soy or dairy diet for a month or so . this diet was done partly in an effort to figure out some of my racing digestive issues.

so this morning you can imagine my disappointment when we left the hotel without anything being "different". but, hopefully you can also imagine my elation when we got to transition and suddenly "doh! i gotta go" and i did. : ) my season opener was already being kicked off with a p.r.

so, to the race ... well, actually ... to the day before the race. j. and i came up late thursday night so i could preview the course on friday. holy hilliness!! my friend who had done the race had said that it was hilly, but i never got a good sense for just HOW hilly. the race had posted an elevation map, but it was all pulled and squeezed and i knew it wasn't quite accurate. basically what i saw yesterday was that the first 30 miles of the bike were HILLY, then about 10 miles of some super nice straightaways and a couple of rollers and then 10 miles of HILLY and then 6 miles of rollers. ouch!

the run is an out-and-back-out-and-back. and ooooh, it looked tough. no one hill was THAT big, but it was basically a series of three hills, with somewhat corresponding downhills that you did 4 times. it looked like tough work. not un-doable and probably somewhat fun as a stand alone, but i knew each one would get exponentially harder.

the swim is a self-seeded start of about 100 swimmers per wave. fastest swimmers going first. this also meant co-ed. i had initially thought i'd start in the second wave, but when liz and i discussed it we actually decided that the back of the first wave would be better for me. i don't like a lot of people around me when i swim and this was probably my best shot at "clean" water. also, i get super duper nervous before races and waiting to get in the water would probably just make that worse. best i just get to the shore, get in and go without a lot of thinking about it.

the swim was my best swim ever!!! i don't know if it is my best half IM swim time because it was super short, but i felt super. i had NO problems breathing, i felt long and strong, my sighting was seamless. i came out of the water in 27:20, but i can pretty much guarantee you that, barring any other short swims, that will be the fastest swim time i will ever see at a half ironman race. i don't care, i'll take it. and most of all i'll take the fantastic experience of a good swim. i would have been happy to have had the swim distance it was supposed to be because i felt that good!

when i got out of the water it was already raining. i was going to throw on arm warmers, but i ran by a guy struggling to get his on and i thought 'i'd rather spend the time putting on gloves (damn that's hard to do when you are wet) since my hands get super cold and numb'.

i settled in for the first 20 minutes on the bike, just like i had planned. i started to pick it up around 25 min. in and about 8 min. later was thinking 'wow, i feel so super bouncy and like there is no resistance'. oh shoot, i suddenly remembered what that feeling was. it had been a looong time since i had felt it. a flat. yup.

my rear tire was totally flat. i pulled off the road and did what i needed to do and like a good girl was sure to run my hand along the inside of the tire to see if anything was stuck in it. i found the eensyest, teensyest piece of wire stuck in it. the thing was so fine i couldn't pull it out with my fingers. i pressed it enough from the other side to be able to pull it out with my teeth! finally the tire was fixed, but the wheel didn't seem to want to go back on. i fiddled with this and that and finally got it back on and started back up.

i rode past j. and molly about 200 meters later. i was at total peace with the fact that i had just lost about 15 minutes. it's funny, those are the things that i worry about ahead of time, but when it actually does happen i seem to be calm and collected about it. a few hilly miles later i knew something was wrong with my bike. i just wasn't getting the kind of speed i should have been. i got off the bike again and apparently the back brake had shifted to one side and was rubbing. i pushed and pulled on it. spun my wheel around and got back on. a mile or so later, same thing. this time i pushed and pulled harder and finally decided to open up the doohickey that brings the brake pads out to the side and left it that way. i was nervous to make that call because of the intense rain and tricky road i knew i had ahead, but i was also sick of doinking around with the thing.

at miles 13 i felt a little hamstring twinge and decided i would rather hold up a little on my efforts on the bike in order to make it through the run. i've had some nerve stuff in my back and it seems to effect my hamstrings and calves so i was sure to keep lifting my tuchus off the saddle and made sure i was engaging my core so that i wasn't pulling on my low back.

finally at around mile 30 i was able to pick it up and was riding more like the rider that i know i am. i felt strong and powerful and was yee-haaaing as i went. it was piss pouring rain and the wind was so dang cold, but i was happy. i think i was the happiest i've ever been during a race. funny, considering the fact that for the first 30 miles i had technical issues and was scared out of my mind on the descents. it was so wet, the roads were all messed up and it was kind of hard to see with all the water on my sunglasses, yet i was still happy. at mile 40 the fear of something bad happening had completely lifted. i knew i was going to make it unscathed.

i was racing napa to qualify for SOS in sept. i had to do a 50 min. swim, a 4 hour bike and a 2:10 run. the swim i knew wouldn't be a problem, the bike i also was 99% sure wouldn't be an issue (though i did have a slight doubt after previewing it yesterday!). the run, well i knew my run ability was definitely able to get me in under 2:10, but it was a matter of what would happen with my nutrition this time around.

so back to the bike ... funny thing is, that after my flat i never looked at my watch again until mile 50. at first i wasn't conscious of it and then when i realized i hadn't looked at it, i decided not to. i was having such a great time and i didn't want to take that away if it turned out i was unhappy with the time i saw. i knew i was giving it my best for what i had and how the conditions were so there wasn't anything more that i could really do. at mile 50 i looked at it and was so happy to see that i was at 3:17:00. i knew i'd make the bike qualifying time i needed and i was also pleased that that meant if i subtracted the time for flat and mechanicals that i was actually riding a pretty strong ride on a tough course! final bike time was 3:40:18.

those last 6 miles seemed sorta endless. it was another challenging section of rollers. but finally i was back in. i was s-o-a-k-e-d. i don't think i'll warm up and dry out for months! i had my race debut of taking my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike. j. has been wanting me to learn and i practiced a couple of times on the sly and i was psyched to give him a little show. : )

out on the run ... the run out is a long, steep, little road that serve as the car entry into the park and it HURT off of the bike. the plan was for me to "settle in" for the first three miles and much like the settling in i did on the bike, i was grateful for it. i couldn't have pushed that section and it was mentally great for me to not attach to the pain i felt being how it would be for the whole run because i was able to keep telling myself "you're just settling in here".

i won't lie, the run hurt. my heart rate was never very high ... it wasn't the huffing and puffing kind of hurt that i am used to ... it was just a grindy, ouch kind of hurt deep in my legs and feet. i just hung in there. i thought of all the tough runs i did during training, that really helped. i kept telling myself "turn over, turn over, turn over", "you're strong", "cruise, cruise, cruise". i shortened my stride on the uphills, i looked at the downhills as "free speed", i never got outside of myself. i came in to the halfway turn around in 58 minutes. i was thrilled with that. i knew i would have to fall off A LOT to miss my qualifying time, but i also knew that things can and do sometimes unravel very quickly. so i stayed in myself. i stayed in control. i did what i needed to do to get it done and that meant thinking positively, keeping my form, not thinking about the time (i stopped looking at my watch after the turn around) focusing on each little task at hand ... this uphill, that downhill, this tangent, that sip of water, this hit of gu.

there were times i slowed down and times where i picked it up. i'm not sure how much i actually modulated the pace, but it didn't matter. i came into that last mile and half feeling strong, but also feeling ready to be done. i hit the finish line in 1:59:27, more than enough time to qualify for SOS and actually a PR on the run for the half ironman distance. this is only my third half IM, so i think i have faster in me and it gives me something to work for ... but on this day at this race ... i couldn't be happier with it.

oh and that pesky digestion problem? it did not rear it's ugly head today!!! woo hoo!!! no big pregnant belly for me, leaving me walking with nothing but side stitches and belches. i think it's probably a combination of the new diet as well as the temperature. hot weather kills both my pace and digestion and to date, most of the races where i have had stomach problems have been hot ones.

without a doubt this was my best race, mentally. i feel like i did everything to help myself along. i made some judgment calls both mechanically and nutritionally. i stuck with my plan. i didn't beat up on myself, but i never slacked off. all of that, for me, is success. i've gone faster at the overall distance, but i've never been as satisfied with the outcome. that, for me, is HUGE progress.

at the end of the race a man who i had kept pace with for my first 6 miles and his last 6 came up to me and said "i just want to say, you had the best attitude out there today. you were so positive and encouraging to everyone you passed and you definitely helped me when i was having a hard time (man, he didn't LOOK like he was having a hard time, but i guess it's all relative). it was so gratifying to hear him say what he did. if i can be the athlete i want to be (though of course we all want to go faster, but you know what i mean) at the same time as i am being the human being i want to be ... heck, i've lived a good day, raced a good race and am proud.

i have to thank molly and j. for standing out in some of the most miserable conditions today. i don't know how they did it. their constant twitter and facebook updates were a treat to read post-race and seeing everyone's comments made me feel great.

we had a scrumptious dinner with molly and soon we'll be hitting the hay in order to get up tomorrow and do it all over again for her while she races. i can't wait to cheer her on and see her rock her race!!

^..^

what's working

2009-04-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

i just spent longer than i want to admit on writing a post (or ranting, as the case may be). i got half way through it and heard the words a friend of mine said the other day. he said that for the past few years he's been focusing in what's working in his life instead of what he needs to work on/fix.

i've heard the same concept in different words a million times. i've heard "turn negatives into positives", etc. , etc. but there was something about the way he said it. there was a simplicity and a clarity. we hear it when we hear it, ya know?

so i thought of that i was writing and it made me not want to publish the rant about the jerk who did this on the pch and the knucklehead who did that. sure, they were funny anecdotes and they were things that bothered me at the time, but in the end ... those things were not my ride.

what made my ride was so much more. and so much better.

it was beautiful out today (albeit a bit hot for my taste). i was doing my last long ride before napa. i rode along the pch. i was committed to working hard and making it count. i did. i love that, when i KNOW that i did what was needed ... that i didn't look for an easier softer way that ultimately would undermine my confidence.

on top of all that, i saw pods and pods and pods of dolphins. they always make me smile and when i'm on my bike almost make me crash!

dolphins make me smile and want to cry all at the same time. they touch me in a way that i was never able to explain, until a few years ago ...

i was on the beach in malibu and i saw a bunch of dolphins playing in waves. i stood there and just stared. i could look at them forever. there was a random man standing a bit behind me. i couldn't contain my happiness at seeing them. i always want to confirm with someone else that they see them too and that they think they are amazing as well. as if they are some magical, mysterious thing that may not even be there!

i looked back at the man, as if to say "see that?!?! aren't they fantastic!?!?!" he smiled so i told him how they stir me. how i involuntarily get tears in my eyes and my heart sort of floats and is squeezed all at once.

he said simply: "that is your soul being touched". oh my god. that was it. i knew it in that instant. i'll never forget those words. he was so matter of fact about it and was so right.

i look at dolphins and my soul is touched. tickled even.

isn't that the best????

^..^

photo courtesy of j.

could it really be?

2009-04-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

it's like they swooped in and read my blog or something. or better yet, like they were in the car with me and j. as we debated our individual pop tartness.

take the quiz and let me know.

i, to my dismay and michelle's delight, came out a brown sugar cinnamon.

liars.

^..^

new life!

2009-04-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

happy easter, everyone. easter is about new life. i think i got that right. i'm not a religious person, though i do believe i practice a spiritual life and that it is indeed a practice, as opposed to a theory. i used to always sneak out of our non-denominational sunday school in the west village to play pinball at the local head shop, but that's a whole 'nother "oprah". point is, somewhere over the past 40 years if life i absorbed that easter is about new life.

all of this is just a thinly veiled attempt to connect easter and new life to what i really want to talk about ... my training.

a little over a week ago i sent an email to my coach. "i am peering over the edge. we've taken me there." i felt like my run that day had been t-o-u-g-h and i was exhausted, but at the same time i felt an undercurrent of strength. it was the first time i had ever had that sensation or at least been aware of it and i was psyched. i felt all bad ass. liz wrote back, that that was great, but now we needed to be quiet and listen to what else my body had to say. we didn't want to take it over the edge. the next day, wham my bad ass was now inverted and i felt ass bad. we dialed it back a bit, dropped a strength training session and put a question mark next to the hard brick i was supposed to do that sunday.

that weekend i went down to oceanside. saturday was my rest day, but i can't say as i really rested. it was a blast, but between the blow up mattress sleep, the early wake up, the miles of walking and many decibels of shouting, it wasn't like quietly sitting at home with j. and fraidy watching 'millionaire matchmaker' (though she kinda makes my blood boil at times so that may not be the best example).

point is, i wasn't sure about sunday. i had a 1:45 bike with a 30 minute TT thrown in and a 45 minute negative split run on tap. i was willing to miss it if my body was saying uh-uh, but i was hoping that wouldn't be the case. i sent liz an email the night before and told her that i was feeling pretty good. certainly good enough to try and asked her what i should change the workout to if i get out there and find i am still fatigued. she wrote back, that i change it to "get off my bike and rest for the day."

and so i went ... and i was able to do it. i felt pretty dang good ... a whole dang better than i had felt during the week.

then this past week was a rest week so my workouts have been light and friendly. saturday had a bike test scheduled. we both wanted to re-test my zones and then a 30 min. run off the bike cut up into 3rds ... settle in, build it up, push HARD.

i did the test. thought i might puke. zones are rock solid.

i was a little nervous to go out on the run because i was red faced and feeling kinda woozie, but i quickly re-grouped. my first 10 min. i felt downright springy!! springy and running are not two words i would usually put together when describing me, but i was loving it. the next 10 felt super solid, i was cruising. it felt meaty, satisfying, but not tiring. the last 10 ... well, i pushed and i felt great! it was hard, but a different kind of hard. it wasn't the hard "i think i might die and why do i do this damn triathlon stuff anyway?" hard that i feel when swimming a hard 100 in the pool. i was in control. i felt no fear. the wheels weren't coming off ... they were all greased up and spinning.

after i got home and anally mapped out my run and then o-c-d-ishly mapped out the segments of each 10 minutes of the run to see what the avg. pace had been, i grinned ear to ear. never had a seen a "6" at the beginning of my average mile time. i've seen it briefly while flying downhill on a trail run, but not at the end of a 30 minute run after doing a hard bike test and as an average!

sure, it's not about the numbers, but two things ... 1) the numbers are tangible and shoot, fun! and 2) it's progress. clear cut progress which is all i ever really want to see. i feel like i have been in a holding pattern with my training and performance and not living up to what is inside and those 10 minutes were proof that i am moving. : )

at the end of the week i had i decided it was time to get in the ocean. generally, we in this household, don't do april open water swimming, but i have a race in 3 weeks and open water swimming can be challenging for me. i nearly drown 6 years ago on a practice swim, two weeks before my first tri and it's left a nasty scar with a fickleness about open water swimming.

but i was ready today to finish off a successful weekend of training with a dip. the thing about open water swimming for me is that i actually love it ... once i am out there and if i feel secure that i won't die ... it's actually heaven and i fall into a much nicer rhythm than i do in the pool. we weren't out there for all that long, but it was fantastic.

after the swim i had a nice, easy 45 minute run. now much like springy and running don't usually go together for me, "nice" and "easy" also don't. in her notes for easy runs my coach often says "just enjoy a nice easy run today". thing is i don't so much enjoy the "easy" runs. they sometimes hurt more than the hard ones and i always feel like a slug ... sluggin' along.

but today i decide, no matter what, i am staying below my top zone 1 number. whatever it takes. slug away. i started on an incline ... not really setting myself up for success, was i? but ya know what? i enjoyed my run!! i didn't slug. i wasn't exactly prancing, but i felt fairly light, my mind was on my swim and thinking about my race nutrition and the miles just ticked by, fluidly.

so tying this all back to how i started ... i didn't go to church today. i don't have anything or anyone, in particular, that i worship, but i felt grateful to be able to do what i do and to feel good about it. i felt full of "new life" and said a prayer of thanks to whomever/whatever makes this universe spin 'round and gives us all the ability to get up each day, to embrace new life and to strive to reach our dreams, whatever they may be.

happy easter!

^..^

cargo "beep-beep" and run over the easter bunny

2009-04-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

that's the punchline to my most favorite, twisted, childhood knock-knock joke.

i'll spare you the actual telling of the joke and instead post one of my most favorite, twisted, everyone's seen it on the internet, pictures.

Happy Easter!!

^..^

holy schnoikies!

2009-04-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

well, you've all read charisa, marit, courtenay, ian, beth and jen's blogs or facebook updates. so you know how it all turned out for them, but let me tell you from a spectators perspective, this race was nothing short of amazing and all of them put in performances nothing short of phenomenal.

i was thrilled to be out there to scream and clang, clang, clang my cowbell at them all. i also got to yell and scream for my l.a. peeps kevin, gary, alma, tina, mo, stella and monica.

lisa, jesse and i had a blast supporting our friends and heckling all the rest. ; )

here are too few pictures of the 24 hours i spent down south with them. i loved meeting everyone's husband's as well. nate, jerome and oscar were all very cool people. meeting all the folks i hadn't yet met was such a treat and they were all pretty much exactly as i thought they would be ... just more real!

me, shannon, jen, beth, marit, courtenay

marit, killin' it on the first loop hill

marit blowin' the hill away on the second loop!

charisa & beth, post-race. these two really do radiate sunshine.

and finally, the house monster lived up to her name as a bit of a grump, however she did take a moment out from her hand slapping antics to pose for a photo.

house monster behaving like a good sponsored kitty.

^..^

what pop tart are you?

2009-04-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

on the way home from an emergency whole foods trip tonight, to pick up a container of my latest dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free obsession, j. posed the most interesting question to me.

"if you could be any pop tart" he asked, "which one would you be?"

without flinching i answered, "strawberry, unfrosted. well done."

"and you?" i asked.

"blueberry, frosted, right out of the box" he replied.

"blueberry?" "frosted!?!" "not toasted at allll?!?!?!?"

"how can this be?? how can we have made it all these years being such polar opposite pop tarts!?"

to which he, of course answered, "well, because opposite pop tarts attract".

so i ask you, what pop tart are you and do you know what kind of pop tart your nearest and dearest is?

wassup, mama?

2009-03-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

dear michelle,

first of all, congratulations on two, wait no ... THREE back-to-back-to-back incredible races. you really are amazing. second of all, keep going with the pictures of moana. she's a real cutie and is starting to give pippa whitfield a real run for her money!

so, we haven't chatted in a while, well ... ever, really. but technicalities aside i thought i ought to catch you up on my goings on over the past month and a half.

well, there was the tour of california. that was GREAT to see. check out thor and the labrador .
we stood at the top of the hill and screamed our lungs out. of course basso pulled out of the race that morning. HArumph.

then there was the post-valentime's store front window dancing on the very busy third st. promenade. huh? you really have to see it to believe it. j. has been incredibly stressed out by work and seeing him standing out on the sidewalk apoplectic with laughter made it all worth it! i've never been above making a fool of myself for someone else's delight.

moving away from my self inflicted public humiliation ... let's talk about running. i had the most fantastic run a couple of weeks ago. 2 hours with a few miles at "race pace" thrown in and then at the end multiple hard hill repeats. i felt phenomenal. strong. i even called my coach up and yahoooodled on her voicemail, first time i've ever done that! here's my hill of strength.

a couple of weekends ago we went to pennsylvania for j.'s cousin's, son's bar mitzvah. it was a whirlwind of never before met family members, travel, swim, run, travel. we had a nice afternoon in philadelphia before we took off. we wanted to take j.'s nieces to the please touch museum (which looks SO cool), but it was closed so we went to the franklin institute science museum instead. still some very cool, interactive exhibits for the kids.

i've done a few more epic rides like this. trying to build up more strength for napa. now i think i need to work on handling some short bursts uphill. it's one thing to get into a rhythm and climb, climb, climb (yeeaaaa!!), it's another to race up a short steep one and not have it take the piss out of you, ya know?

the other thing of note is, of course, the new season of "dancing with the stars". this may be the biggest reason for my lack of posting. keeping up with that show and each week's slew of celebrity injuries is like another part time job, on top of my already full time job, part time training job and moonlighting as "laundry-doer" extraordinaire. don't even get me started on steve wozniak and why he's still on!

you know about my recent diet changes. no wheat, no dairy, no soy. no fun! it's high maintenance to say the least. i spend more time figuring out what i'm going to eat, when i'm going to eat it, preparing it and packing it all up for the day than i do actually eating it!

i am also trying to drop some weight that i've gained over the past year and a half. so far in the first week, i've gained a pound. DOH! seriously, there is so much damn food on my meals plans i'm not very hungry. and believe me, i am ALWAYS hungry.

there are a couple yummies of note: "food should taste good" chips (especially the sweet potato ones), and so delicious coconut milk ice cream (i've only had the coconut flavor). throw some fresh strawberries and a little chocolate sauce if you're feeling really feisty and watch out! who needs dairy!?!? man, maybe it ain't the amount of food on the meal plan ... huh?

this weekend i'm going to head down to san diego to don my spectathlete hat (dang, forgot to ask liz if i could borrow hers). i'm so exicited to hang out with a bunch of tri chick bloggers. i'll finally get to meet jen and beth (and their husbands) and i'll get to see marit and lisa roo again. courtenay, rachel, charisa and a whole slew of awesome women will be out there with the others, tearin' it up. i can't wait to see it. i sure wish you were going to be there.

oh and i should also mention a couple of products i've come across recently. first is a recommendation. no, i have NO affiliation to these folks in ANY way. yesterday on my long (and oh so miserably painful brick) i used "hawaiian island creations" sunblock (irony here is that it's made in hermosa beach, ca).

apparently you can put it on your face, your forehead even and it won't run in your eyes when you sweat. as someone who routinely walks around during the summer with sunburn marks where the holes in her helmet are, i thought this was nifty. i tried it yesterday and holy smokes, it works!! i was sweatin' like a pig in the chophouse and never felt anything in my eyes. love. it.

second is, i'm searching for the perfect one piece to race in. i loved my desoto forza, but it turned on me this past weekend and left seam sores in places even i'm too shy to mention. i'm going to try out this zoot and see how it suits me.

funny how it looks so plain to me. sponsorship logos sure would snazz it up. what's that about? i don't think it's just because pros wear sponsor logos and i've been programmed to think that's what looks cool, but who knows!

oh and finally, a fraidycat update. he's as great as ever. livin' the high life stuffing himself into a cat bed two sizes too small and surrounding himself with all his favorite meece.

okay, i think that'll due for now, it's time to switch the wash to the dryer.

talk soon!

^..^

i smell a rat!

2009-02-18T21:19:00.000-08:00

last year we tolerated interview upon interview and promotional piece upon promotional piece about team columbia-high road .

okay, lance was gone and the U.S. television market and bicycling industry needed to keep the momentum of interest that had grown during his reign.

okay, i get it.

i watched, i listened, i supported (though i can't say as i rooted, because come on ... ole george is like a dumb labrador who has run into a sliding glass door one too many times). ask liz, she'll confirm that the guy can't even spell ... though she'll also tell you he doesn't need to. ; )

anyway, back to the bone i was picking (in case you hadn't sensed that that is where this was going). i'm watching the tour of california, like any good fan and on day #1 i notice something.

what's that on craig, phil and paul's shirts?

what has replaced that sweet little l.l. bean (love the bean) logo that used to adorn it?

it's ... it's ... COLUMBIA!?!??!

and what jacket is that keeping a demoted bob roll dry as he conducts sideline interviews? hmm ... looks to be columbia brand.

oh wait and what's that leading into the commercial break?

oh right, yet another insufferable interview with team COLUMBIA-HIGHROAD management.

i definitely smell a rat!

^..^

all a twitter!!

2009-02-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

yet another distraction!

life just keeps getting better!

jen h. -- please appreciate the pink background. all the rest of you haters ... hush up, he's just representin' as THE giro winner. ; )

^..^

he's ba-aaaaack ...

2009-02-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

oh glorious day!

yesterday i spent untold hours on the couch watching cycling and filling my eyes and brain with the most wonderful images ...

of this man ...

welcome back, ivan!!

^..^

valentime's ride

2009-02-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

i'm not much of a joiner, but i can't say as i am really a loner either. with that in mind, this year i decided to try some of the l.a. tri chicks hill series. last year i longingly read the descriptions each week of the monster climbs they would be doing to prepare for wildflower.

i wasn't ready to "join" the girls AND i was only racing olympic distance ... so between those two lil' facts, i never went.

this year i am racing longer and i am feeling a little more open to multiple personalities, beyond my own.

so last week i packed up my bike and headed out with my friend amy (every good extroverted introvert needs a friend along as social lubricant) and we headed out to meet the "chicks" in malibu.

there were at least 30 women of varying levels of fitness, but all were there on a very early, cold (again, shush up to my midwest friends) saturday morning to tackle 37-59 (depending on your route) hilly miles.

up we went. and it wasn't so bad. in fact ... dare i say ... it was fun. i fell into a group of about 4 women and we ticked away the miles.

this week i was back for more. i had a couple of hard efforts that i was supposed to throw in as i went. on our first climb (a little 6 mile hill) i did my intervals and built up quite a sweat. it felt great at the time, but come our first descent, i was wishing someone had handed me the sunday new york times to shove down my jersey.

i'll spare you all the details (and save myself some sunday afternoon time in the process) and say that it was one of the most challenging, gorgeous rides i have ever done! 6500 feet of climbing over 59 miles. we rode through some of the most gorgeous hillsides in southern california.

check out the scenery (thank you internet) ...

yes, as you get toward the top of piuma road, it really does say "allez" ... it's that kind of a climb.

i rolled back into the parking lot, exhausted, exhilarated and more than a little relieved to be back in one piece. i had a nice 25 minute run off of the bike and some chocolate milk and glutamine waiting in the car.

by the way, this weekend's ride was the "valentime's ride" (yes, i know i wrote valentimes ... everyone in my office says it that way and it's just stuck, ya know?).

anyway, it being valentimes day and all, the ride was co-ed this week. here's my favorite story of the day ... there was a woman on the ride who is new to cycling. her husband had come out to support her. when they got to the ride he realized he had left his cycling shoes at home. homeskittle proceeded to put his sneakers back on and rode all 58 H-I-L-L-Y miles with her ... on clipless pedals. ain't love amazing!?! he get the valentime's prize of the century!

^..^

a new way of life

2009-02-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

on my run today i passed by this scene ...

at first i was taken aback. it seemed so absurd ... someone can't afford rent, but they've still got direct tv?

but then i thought about it as i ran on and realized ... this was pure genius. the owner of the van (which actually looked pretty nice and relatively spacious) had a 10 million dollar view of the ocean, never has to vacuum, can change his address whenever the neighbors get loud and he has all the television channels he wants with all the time to watch them in (author's assumption -- occupant does not need to have a job in order to pay rent)

a new way of life to consider??

^..^

cat power

2009-02-02T10:26:00.001-08:00

turns out there is some photographic evidence of the ride ... or at least that i was at the start. ; )

photo courtesy of liz oakes

^..^

saddle time

2009-02-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

so it's been two weeks ... TWO since my last post. i think of so many things throughout the week to write about ... i even send myself emails with ideas and keep a running list ... but damn if i can find the time to write them ... or when i try ... find the talent to make them sound as good as they did in my head while i was running (i am a brilliant, witty writer while running).

so i revert to the obvious ... "what i did today" (or this weekend).

i rode my bike from irvine to san diego.

fun!!!

the l.a. tri club organizes a ride down to S.D. every year. a lot of people ride down in order to attend the ESA's, some just do it for the fun of it. you can bail out at oceanside, solana beach or go allll the way down to san diego.

last year i trained for olympic distance races all season. i rarely saw a ride on my schedule that was more than 2 hours ... in fact, i'm not sure i ever did. i get it though ... it didn't make sense for the distances i was racing, but ya know what? ... i missed the distance riding.

my "tenders" didn't, but i did.

this year i'll be racing 1/2 IM and a weird little hybrid that consists of a 30 mile ride followed by a run/swim/run/swim/run/swim/run totaling 18.4 miles of trail running and 2.1 miles of swimming.

so ..... cue heavenly music ... i get to ride longer!!

there is something so satisfying about getting into that strong and long cadence that comes with a longer ride. sure i get crabby like the best of 'em. there are times when my neck cricks, my blood sugar drops and my unmentionables hurt that i say "this is fun?", but yes ... it is. it feels so ... i dunno ... solid. i love feeling tired and thinking i can't go any further and then riding right through it to a second, stronger wind!

i even loved feeling wind beaten last night. i loved the deep soul yawns (the kind that involuntarily and with no sadness make tears spill down your cheeks) i was having at 7:00pm ... though i am not so sure it was much fun for my dinner mates -- lisa roo and charisa. two really fun, sweet women who i wished lived up north!

anyway, this is all a very long way of saying it was nice to be back in the saddle. as always, after 2.5 hours my stomach began to stop processing the liquids i put in it. when, oh when ... or rather, how, oh how will that issue get sorted out!?! by the end of the ride i looked like a woman in her 7th month of pregnancy ... with twins. thank GOD i didn't have to run off of the bike.

today we jumped on the train from san diego back up to irvine. if you've never done it, do yourself a favor. it's 18 of the best dollars i have spent in a long time. no traffic, lots of pretty views and heck ... you're on a TRAIN!

it was a great adventure and i thank the tri club for putting together the ride, supporting us with three s.a.g. vehicles, schlepping our overnight gear down there and to 'el poco grande' for being a good little steed and getting me down there safely.

sorry for the lack of pictures, my camera is just too big to take on the bike. i think i mentioned that fact to j. six or seven times as we rode ... so hopefully that'll be changing in the near future.

here's to more long rides ... and to more frequent blogging ...

^..^

super sunday

2009-01-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

today i played in the fields of the lord, no ...wait. sorry ... i ran in the garden of the gods.

it was heavenly to see, though not so much to run. actually, that's not true. i enjoyed the run ... just not reading the pace calculator on mapmyrun later on.

i logged just over 8 of the slowest miles i have run since i started running in 1999. i told my coach i would dub this run "the ego crusher" except for the fact that i was proud of myself for sticking it out.
as you know (sorry to bore you with it repeatedly) the altitude has been tough on me and has really effected my training this past week. i usually tend to be a bit on the breathless side when swimming, biking or running ... but this is ridiculous. it feels like my head is in a vice and my lungs are in some sort of compression chamber.

there were a few brief moments on today's run when i felt more like myself and they were glorious. the fact that i am lucky to do this at all was not lost on me. i complain now about what my pace was, but the truth is it didn't get me down like a shitty run at home does. it was what it was and i was happy. a few people along the side of the road even gave me the thumbs up and yelled "good job!" it boosted me just like it does in a race. thank you!!

after my run i met up with j. i was beyond hungry, in fact ... i was a 9.5 out of 10 on the food emergency scale. i almost enacted jenni keil's "silent rule". the day i read that post was the day j.'s and my relationship (post workout) improved 10-fold. if you are in a relationship and happen to suffer from post-workout-low-blood sugar-rage, i suggest you try it.

all i could think about was noodles & co. i had been chatting about it with marit and the indonesian saute was swirling round in my head. we went. it was delicious. then there was an ice cream cone at josh + john's, a tour of the olympic training center, a drive through manitou springs and finally we swung by a place i had seen yesterday that i wanted to show j.

check out these amazing sculptures. they're done by a man named starr kempf.

dang, this is getting long and i still have so much more to report. like on last night's triathlon hall of fame induction banquet. and the one-on-one "pilates on the ball" class i wound up having the other day (no one else showed up) and the copious amounts of goose shit that adorn the walkways of the hotel property. but i'll save all that for another post. my hunger timer just went off again and if everyone is going to remain unharmed, it's best i go eat.

^..^

denver digs n' dogs

2009-01-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

when i found out i was going to vail and would be in denver before heading to colorado springs, i contacted my friend heather. we used to work together many moons ago at an internet/software company.

heather and i bonded. she was direct and had a potty mouth. it was love at first curse. for a little while she even lived near my place. i thought she was a hoot.

then she moved to new york. : (

she worked for a little while for my best friend and lived in my old stomping grounds. : )

we'd chat. life kept going. we lost touch. i'd search for her on facebook. she wasn't there.

about a month or so ago she appeared on facebook! oh happy day. and as it turned out she was in denver. we made plans for me to come visit. meet her fiance, her dogs and whatnot.

j. asked me how it was to see my friend after all these years ... it was like i had hung out with her last week. how great is that!?!

she has a beautiful life; a cool fella who will become her husband in less than two weeks, a sweet house and two awesome dogs.

here's a little pictorial.

traveling ten

2009-01-16T17:57:00.000-08:00

10 random things from this past week ...

1. i got popped by the po'leece for running a stop sign ... on my bicycle.

2. i went cross country skiing and i wiped out ... twice.

3. this morning i saw a leeeetle red fox on my run (errr ... "brisk walk"). made me think of my friend emily.

4. the geese here at the hotel squawk a lot. i like it. when i put it as my status, i had to look up how to spell squawk.

5. at present i am STARVING. ready to gnaw my arm off, if only i had some ketchup.

6. there is a dog in denver who loves me, his name is shazam.

7. i had dinner with a woman last night who is starting a new job this week in an underground bunker. cool.

8. i had a nosebleed today and it wasn't from picking my nose. when's that last time that happened!?

9. today i partook in zumba. "ditch the workout, join the party!"

10. the 5430 triathlon is named for the altitude at which boulder is. did i just revert back to "newbie" status by admitting i didn't know that?

talk to ya later!

^..^

colorado rocky mountain hiiigh!

2009-01-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

i used to spend endless hours singing along to john denver songs on the 8-track. i still sing them ... only now it's usually while riding or running and to the annoyance of j.

well, here i am ... vail, colorado. ain't no one gonna mind if i belt out a tune or two!

only thing is, who knew i got altitude sickness? the highest i've ever been is about 7,500 feet and that's at mammoth. i definitely get winded there. headachey and i have trouble sleeping. but i get used to it and i've skied, gone running and riding. here? notsomuch.

not being active here makes me so sad. it's not just the "i have a race in 3.5 months, i gotta stay on top of things" sad/mad/frustrated ... but the "i'm on vacation and it is soooo dang beautiful here all i want to do is run around and be active and soak up every minute of it, but i can't cause i don't feel right" sad. the prospect of having 8 days off of work, unleashed ... no desk ... no obligations ... just makes me want to swimbikerunskirecover.

coming up from denver i felt a little breathless. the higher we got the worse it was. by the time we hit 10,000 feet i was on the phone back to california asking j. to look up altitude sickness on the internet. i had never felt these feelings and i was flashing on the mini series "everest" we watched a few seasons ago on the discovery chanel. i wanted to know i wasn't going to die. that sounds so overly dramatic, but i was freaked out. i couldn't get enough air, my heart was racing, i felt a little sick and woozy. it doesn't sound all that bad written out, but trust me ... it was bad.

oh and a side note: when we arrived at the car rental place we had no idea we'd be heading out in this:giddyup!

taking our humvee driving seriously we immediately headed here to fuel ourselves for the task.

which turned out to be a good idea ... here's some of the nail biting scenery from our drive.

thank god we were in a tank, literally.

okay, back to the drama ... as we started to descend into the valley where vail village is, the serious, serious symptoms subsided a little. i spent the rest of the first day not feeling so hot. sometimes i would feel almost normal and then whamo! i'd think i was going to either hurl or pass out. turning my head too fast was a big no-no.

this morning i went over to the vail athletic club. beautiful little place if you are ever here. i took the "gentle honey flow" yoga class. and while i was disappointed that there was no honey involved, i did "set my intention" at the beginning of the class that i would stick with the "gentle".

i don't do a lot of yoga, yet i'm that girl who when the instructor gives two options for a pose (regular and more challenging) i usually go for the more challenging. i always want to see if i can. fact is it often turns out i can, but i probably shouldn't. today passing out with all my vail yoga lovelies around was not something i needed to do. that's not gentle and it certainly don't flow.

i spent the next hour taking a ridiculously long time getting ready in the swanky locker rooms and probably averaged one fluffy white towel per 5 minutes. wasteful, i know, but desperate times (no fun winter wonderland training) call for desperate measures (excessive towel usage).

now i'm back at our cute little chalet having a rest. i know i am not yet 100% because there are fresh baked brownies in the kitchen and i haven't even touched them so, i'll wait and see how i feel tomorrow before committing to anything, however cross country skiing or snowshoeing are in the running.

i've found a gym in denver that caters to triathletes so once i am there and no longer at altitude i'll be able to pick it up again. then it's on to colorado springs and if you've ever been there you know that garden of the gods is heaven for running. i can't wait.

enjoy the scenery!

^..^

just my style!

2009-01-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

i am, by nature, a masher. i am jan ullrich to your lance armstrong. however, i've spent the past few years working on increasing my cadence ... and with good success. i now, naturally, find myself at 90-95 rpm, however ... i still loves me some serious pedal pushing.

so, imagine my delight when i saw 5 x 6 min. at 60-70 rpm on the schedule for today's bike ride. oh joyous, joyous pedaling! it was a chilly and very windy today in los angeles. hush up my midwest and canadian friends. i know you have REAL cold ... not my fault. i was smart and jumped on the west coast bus. however, blood thinning is the price you pay for mild winters so yes, i thought it was chilly at 40 degrees this morning.

air temperature aside, it was clear as could be. i could see all the way up the coast to malibu and across the ocean to catalina island. it was one of those days that you just marvel at and having permission to watch it all go by at a slow, strong cadence was just icing on the cake.

i haven't been on my bike all that much recently and i am excited to be back on. i have a couple of hilly races this coming season so i am looking forward to a lot more low cadence rides and lots and lots of hills. i love hills!!! and if you've seen me you know my quads ... well, they were built more for walnut crackin' than skinny jeans wearing ... so i'm right where i ought to be. bring on the long, slow climbs!!

so far i'm really diggin' 2009.

oh and as the period (or exclamation point) at the end of this vacation's sentence ... j. and i ventured out for a little ice skating, santa monica style.

^..^

santa monica-venice christmas 10k

2008-12-31T16:18:00.000-08:00

okay, so it's been a few weeks since i actually did this run, but better late than never, right? i love this race. i've done it every year since 2001 ... though usually in a post-flu fog. i've never "run to my potential" at this race. it's fairly flat with just a couple of rises at the end, but like i said, i've always been a little behind the eight-ball when running it. but, i still love it. it's local. i see lots of friends. it's christmas-y (as much as you can expect in l.a.) and it's pretty.

so this year registration time rolled around and lo and behold it was scheduled for 6 days after the city of angels half marathon i was scheduled to run. i told liz i still wanted to run the 10k. i've never run two races that close to one another, but city of angels wasn't going to be my best (but you know how that turned out!) and i was willing to just jog the 10k if need be. in fact, come race day, i was instructed to "shuffle".

my friend rebekah and her friend lori had signed up as well. rebekah and i decided to meet up at 6:15am and bike to the start as a little warm up. i love doing that for local races ... makes it feel like i live in a small town and it seems to help with my pre-race anxiety. there was a slight misting of rain, but it wasn't all that cold.

we all stood at the start line together and agreed that a) none of us were "racing" and that b) we'd start out together, but didn't have to stay together.

since i was planning to shuffle, i started out nice and easy and didn't get all agro about the slow folks and the very narrow road we start on. i just plodded along chatting with rebekah. i felt great. when we hit mile 1 i was surprised to see the lap time. i felt like i was barely moving, but the number staring back at me didn't say the same.

here we are rounding the corner somewhere between miles 1 and 2.

i picked it up a little and still felt great. i wasn't making a hard effort, i was just enjoying myself, chatting with my friend. somewhere just past mile 2 i noticed that rebekah and i were no longer together. i just went with how i was feeling, periodically checking in on my breathing and making sure i wasn't pushing. i had promised liz i wouldn't and i took that seriously.

around mile 3.5 i noticed my "effort" a little more, but it still wasn't one i would call hard or even close to it. at mile 4.5 there was a slight rise in the road. i noticed my breathing for the first time during the entire race. i made sure to just stay steady. i had nothing to prove, no goal to catch and for the first time in a race i felt like it was just flowing, dare i say ... easily.

i reached the venice boardwalk and cruised along knowing i had less than a mile to go. at mile 5.5 i even smiled for the camera and waved ... something i never do. i decided that photo was going to be my proof to liz and j. that i hadn't pushed too hard (despite what was looking like a very respectable finishing time).

of course the photo folks didn't publish that photo, just this one ... but still that's not what i usually look like with just a little over a 1/2 mile to go in a 10k.

i rounded the last corner and hit the finish line. i had finished just :39 off of my 10k PR time. crazeeee! by this time it was definitely raining so i did a brief cool down, went and changed out of my wet clothes and met up with rebekah and lori. we had each done better than we had expected!

at our post-race pedicures i ran through the laps on my watch. i had gone faster with each mile! that's not something i have ever done. i was consistent, strong and didn't struggle. man, if i could bottle that recipe.

i've always known that the stress and pressure i feel when going into a race is one of my biggest obstacles. well, it's a two-sided coin ... that stress and caring is what gets me up on days when i don't feel like training, but it's also a funny little animal that can turn on me come race day and not allow me to just be in the moment. i've been working on it and i have to say there have been a few glimmers of it getting better ... but doing a race that i didn't "care" about and having it go so well is huge proof to me.

i need to continue to care enough to be nervous, but to trust that i am no longer the 165 pound, pack-a-day cigarette smoker that i used to be. funny that i've been on the podium at duathlon worlds, i've finished ironman lake placid, won my age group at smaller races ... yet that's the image i still sometimes carry with me. it's an old tape and as danielle would say, it's time for me to drop my bag of shit.

thank you to a great 2008 and here's to an even better 2009, filled with new experiences ... both on and off the race course.

^..^

cat and dogs

2008-12-28T16:29:00.000-08:00

a few weeks ago j. gave me a great gift. not necessarily something all gals would wish for, but me? ... i've wanted this particular present for years. tickets to the eukanuba dog show. that's right, be jealous. i posted an excited announcement in my facebook status bar and let me tell you ... people were excited for me!

i can't tell you how many loser saturday nights i've spent in front of my television watching the "trail to the eukaneuba cup" and then finally the big daddy, "the eukanuba cup". i've learned more about dog breeds, handling and showing protocol than any self-respecting cat owner needs know.

so two weeks ago the day finally arrived. j. and i set out early in the morning for long beach. i was panting and drooling on the car window as we approached the convention center and saw the street lined with eukanuba cup banners!!

once inside it was dog show heaven! having never been to a show in person i wasn't exactly sure how it all unfolded, but i didn't care. i dove headlong into the first activity we stumbled upon "dancing with the dogs" (and you know my love for the other "dancing with the fill-in-the-blank" show.)
what i wasn't prepared for was the faaaabulous people watching that was to be had. here i am having my first dog-owner at dog show experience (sister sparkly heart velour track suit over there nearly took me out trying to capture the cha-hooah-hoooah that was "dancing" on stage). the amount of dog festooned sweatshirts, wood jewely and santa hats was worth its weight in gold!

we made our way out of the dance hall and into the preliminary show hall. there was no telling where to go. it was a 10-ring circus. if you stopped to watch the old english sheep dogs, you missed the newfies.

spend a little time watching the breeders prep their dogs, and miss the mop dogs prancing about. tough decisions were made. priorities were set (with a not so friendly nudge from the breeder-owner-showers who really didn't want us looking at their dogs while they got their game faces on anyway, thankyouverymuch!)

on our way out of the show rings area we witness quite the controversy. apparently the ring where the newfies were being shown was for breeder or owners only. NO handlers were allowed to show the newfies. well, let me tell you ... the newfie that came in 3rd was apparently being shown by a professional handler ... something that the man in the gorton's fisherman outfit made abundantly clear. after much finger pointing and general discomfort for all of us lookie-loos, 3rd place newfie was ousted and 4th place newfie declared the winner (well, 3rd place winner).

stressed out by the controversy, we made our way to the agility area where we settled for the next little while. now that's fun!
j. and i agreed that molly's muppet dog breed (bearded collies) were a lot of fun to watch because, if for nothing else, check out what their fur does when they jump!

exhausted from the pressure of performing we decided to make our way to the upper concourse to "meet the breed". holy dog show, batman! the booths went on forevvvver and each breed area tried to outdo the previous one with their "theme". the newfies were there again, on a big makeshift ship (which finally put the gorton's fellow in context!) and the cavalier king charles ... they had a sort of british tea room thing going on. this is about the sweetest 6 month old cavalier i've ever held. i have a soft spot for the little fellers because, well ... they look like j. to me. in a good way, of course.

as we noodled around, i am pretty sure i saw dr. fitzgerald from animal planet's "emergency vets" ... the tall one with the outdated mustache who works with all the exotics. love him! there were more breeds than i ever thought imaginable. j.'s turkey timer popped and he stepped outside for a little non-dog time, but i pressed on...

there were golden retrievers, every kind of terrier ... too many to mention and few i've never heard of, but the highlight was pearl. she's a lovable, gigantic great pyrenees who i swear, loved me as much as i loved her. yes, she actually hugged me.

finally we moved on to the "big show". we went to watch the best in breed, the preliminary to "best in show" which was a black tie event happening later that night. after the up close and personal experience of the "meet the breed", it was a bit of a disappointment, but fun nonetheless. j.and i had our money on this little fella to win the terrier group and he didn't disappoint.

we had plans that evening (a party called 'fat fest', but that's a whole 'nother oprah) so we couldn't stay for the "best in show", but for our first dog show, i'd say we covered a lot of ground and had a lot of fun.

next up ... a cat show? ... or is that just too humiliating to consider!?!?

ruh-roh

2008-12-21T17:44:00.001-08:00

OPENING MONDAY

six. blocks. from. my. house.

cuidad de angels

2008-12-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

city of angels half marathon race report:

the past two years i have signed up for the city of angels half marathon. it was started in 2006 and i had visions of being a "legend" runner; never missing a year. my poor grandchildren would be dragged out there 30 years from now to see grandma hobble her way across the finish line ... but both years i've gotten sick right before it. this year i thought "forget it i won't sign up and that way i'll avoid the flu this year".

then i reconsidered, i told myself it was time to get the heck over my hypochondriacalsuperstitiousmumbojumbo. i asked my coach what she thought about running it, since there wasn't all that much time to prepare. she said "You can do it for fun - but I am guessing it would be slower than you are capable of and that might not be fun for you?" i think the question mark was her being nice ... she knows me ... not being my "best" is hard for me, but i decided to give it a whirl.

don't get me wrong, i trained ... just not the same as if i had been trying for a PR. i got to do a couple of my longer runs in novemeber ... one in NY when i went to cheer my brother on in the marathon and another with molly in tempe when we went to cheer for our friend chris at IMAZ.

dec. 7th rolled around and ... NO FLU! j. was the boyfriend-sherpa extraordinare as usual, waking up at some ungodly hour to get me to the start line (it's a point to point race) at the l.a. zoo by 6:30am and then heading downtown to see me finish.

i expected the morning to be a complete cluster ... all 6,200 runners were to pick up their bibs that morning! i sailed through my line. met my friend steven. waited in the requisite port-o-potty lines (why i bother, i'm not sure since i never actually "do" anything) and warmed up by running through part of griffith park's 'holiday of lights' ... it was cool since it was still kind of dark out.

my plan was to go out SUPER slow and then up my pace by about 15 seconds every 3 miles, the last 4.1 holding my fastest pace. i stood at the start line and giggled at myself. i am constitutionally incapable of not getting nervous before a race! it's better with a single sport race than a multisport ... but i still quake.

i set off. i felt really good. i kept checking in with my breathing to make sure i wasn't going too hard. no problem, i feel good. i got to mile one and i was almost a minute faster than the pace i had planned. SHIT! i held back a little more on the next mile (which had a decent hill involed) i was only 10 seconds slower than the first mile. HUH? third mile ... a 6:51! NOT POSSIBLE! i don't want to put myself down or anything ... but i'm no sub-7:00 miler without feelin' some serious hurt, and i was feeling great. it was then that there was a collective gasp around me and everyone yelled out "that mile was short!" no kidding, it was.

at this point my plan for gauging myself off of the first mile of each set of 3 wasn't lookin' so hot. it forced me to work even harder to go solely off of how i felt and to get comfy with the idea that if that turned out to be slower than what my goal was, that was okay. i decided to look at it as a learning experience, a chance to try to get more in touch with my internal pace clock ... something i felt i have lost.

i made myself look around more. i ran through a beautiful trail section, i giggled when i turned a sharp, steep corner and nearly took out a cheerleader who was screaming with her squad along the side of the road. i appreciated seeing my friends amy and angel who were volunteering at mile 7, along hyperion bridge AND being caught at that point by amy's 14 year old daughter, emily. okay, that's a lie ... i wasn't all that pleased that she caught me, but i was happy to see her and she soon fell behind to go use the loo.

i ran through silver lake and thought about my friend jason who lives there, ran past a coffee house where i once met my friend birgitta for lunch. then it was along sunset blvd. where there was the drum section of a marching band. i LOVE drums. if there had been steele drums and some bagpipes along the way, this would have been my new favorite race. it was cool to run a race through all these streets that i know so well.

at about mile 9 i was feeling it. i could tell i was slowing down, but i wasn't sure by how much. the mile markers had continued to be all out of whack. by mile 10 i could see downtown off in the distance...

i also saw that that last mile split on my watch was a 10:24. BULLLSHIT! i laughed at myself ... at mile 5 and 6 i was singing james browns' 'i feel good' and now i'm cursing the fact that i didn't come down with the flu and i'm figuring out just how i am going to tell my coach that i won't be competing in the 2009 season because, it's just not for me!

at that point we dropped down into echo park. i was going along feeling sorry for myself that i wasn't going to make my goal ... when suddenly the thought occurs to me, what if i pick it up? i remembered one of the workouts liz had given me, it had 4x6 min. HARD effort at the end of a long run. those 4 sets hurt, but they had also felt better than all of the miles i had run before them. what if the same happened today? i picked it up. i couldn't tell if i was actually going any faster, but ya know what ... it certainly didn't hurt any more than it had at a slower pace.

htfu, cat. just try. i stuck with it. i kept going. sure my low back was tight. it's aaaalways tight. it's tight at 10 min. miles and it's tight at 7 min. miles. just go! so i went. i caught a nice down hill. i was passing people. i hit mile 12 and it said 6:12. YEAH, RIGHT! i hadn't run a 6:12, but i let myself feel like i had and used it to push me forward. i can do anything for 1 mile! i went through the cool tunnel my friend chris told me aout. i knew the finish was close.

i came around the bend and saw the finish line. it was a lot closer than i had thought. i saw the clock above the finish ... what!?!? I WAS AHEAD OF MY GOAL!

i hit the line 45 seconds faster than my goal time. WOO HOO! i saw j. and he was beaming like he usually does when i race. i snarled when he wanted me to stop in order to take a picture ... but that's just because the effort had started to set in. i walked around. found emily, the 14 year old, who came in a mere 1 min. 15 secs. behind me and basked in the feeling of not being disappointed by my effort and knowing that i had worked for my finish and that more than the physical output, i had worked my way through the mental gymnastics that i go through on race day.

i don't think i've won that battle with myself just yet, but i sure did have a good day with it and just like most things in my life ... the lessons tend to come slowly, but they do seem to build off of themselves and as i result i continue to grow and evolve in to the woman and athlete i aspire to be. what more can i ask for?

^..^

warning: swim rant ahead!

2008-12-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

this morning i got up at the crack o’ "i don’t want to be up this early" and headed over to the pool. our usual Y pool is still closed, so i am over at the college, which actually has a much nicer outdoor pool … but i have to pay every time i go and heck, i’m already paying for a gym membership … but this is a rant about my swim performance … not the price of admission.

for some ungodly reason, this year the glorious multi-lane LCM “fitness” pool is closed to the public (open to college employees) on monday and wednesday mornings. so the rest of us need to squeeze into the 25 yard “splash” pool … which is kept at umpteen degrees and is about waist deep. it’s still a beautiful pool. the water is clear and doesn’t reek of chlorine and swimming outside … well, that’s just the bomb no matter what. that being said … the past two times i have swum in the splash pool, my times have been s-l-o-w and my effort has been h-a-r-d! not a combo this already struggling swimmer is happy with.

i know a guy whose real science smart. one day i was telling him how much faster i felt in the deep end of the “fitness” pool at the college than i do at my Y. he explained something about deep water, the return of energy, blah, blah, blah is what i think he said … but basically he confirmed that i probably did feel faster (a relative term) in deeper water. ergo … it makes sense that i am dog-slow in the shallow, shallow water, no?

whether it’s science or lack of talent, them’s the facts. i was slow. and i was breathless. i’m not sure there was a discernible difference between my “easy” 25 and my “fast” 25. they all felt the same, like swimming in molasses.

it was frustrating, though not goggle ripping frustrating. you know THOSE swims … right? the ones where you rip off your goggles in frustration. ready to pull yourself out of the pool and storm off into the locker room muttering under your breath about 25’s on the :XX and how you prefer duathlon anyway, dagnabbit!

no, it wasn’t that bad. it was just slow. i don’t know if i am maturing as a woman and an athlete or if i’m just getting tired, but i decided to just not fight it. embrace my inner snail and swim my swim. the clock would continue to go round and round and eventually those laps would add up to 2400 and i would be done, i knew that.

i have those moments where i release myself from the struggle. they’re nice, though i always have that niggling question if that was the way to go or if I shoulda HTFU’d? but ya know, for me, sometimes loosening the grip on my expectation is HTFUing … it’s being strong enough to trust in the process.

^..^

cmg + jim = pch

2008-11-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

on friday i had a two hour bike ride on my schedule. i did olympic distance training all year so i didn't spend a ton of time in the saddle, at least compared to what i was used to. over the past five years i have traversed the pacific coast highway and all the canyons that branch off of it untold times. i have found everything on the p.c.h., from my cycling legs to my love.

with that in mind, j. and i set out on friday to spend a little time along the coast.

i first met j. when i was looking for a bike box to rent ... in order to visit a fella i was seeing in minneapolis. j. and a friend of his owned a bike box and would rent it out to members of our triathlon club. he and i exchanged a few emails about the specifics. a little witty banter was thrown in along the way and like the good internet sluether that i am, i googled and queried and found a few pictures of him. he was cute. the guy in minneapolis wasn't serious and what was a little harmless flirting?

i went to pick up the bike box (in my best cute outfit that was supposed to look like i wasn't trying to look cute ... that i just naturally looked like that all the time -- yeah right!) j. was as cute in real life as on the internet and in email, but alas as we chatted, he mentioned his girlfriend and where their place was and all i heard past that was blah, blah, blah.

i went on my way ... no harm no foul ... i've got a plane ticket to minneapolis.

fast forward a few months when j. and i run into each other on a club ride ... along the p.c.h. see where this is leading (painfully slowly) to?

we talk, i mention a coach i'm working with, this and that. we part ways. we run into each other on a couple more rides. he emails me about the coach i had metioned, etc., etc., etc. by this time i have a new l.a. boyfriend. j. and i start to ride together. i'll never forget one ride (again along the p.c.h.) where we played that game "friend, f*** or marry) where you pick three people and the other person has to designate if they are someone they'd want to be friends with, have sex with or marry (something like that). we named people in our triathlon club, celebrities ... anyone we could think of. the conversation somehow got on to kirsty ally and while i no longer remember what was so funny, suffice it to say i was laughing so hard i almost learned how to pee on the bike that day.

time passed, we continued to ride together. we were friends. we were training buddies.

i went to italy to race at duathlon worlds that spring and again, i used j.'s bike box, but by now he was my friend and he gave it to me gratis. what a guy! i did well at worlds and i swear my friend j. was more proud of me than i was!!!

fast forward, again, a few months when everyone (of the two of us) is now single and whamo! we weren't anymore. i'll spare you the details ... but will mention that there was a pivotal moment when j. impressed me with his mad craft skills by making me a rose out of a cocktail napkin.

two months later j. and i decide to train for ironman lake placid. fun, great, exciting ... what an adventure. new love, new challenges. okay, i don't know about you, but training for an ironman with your significant other ... while convenient ... is also like pouring miracle gro on any issues that may be between you. endless 7 hour rides in the cold, the heat, the hills and yes, along the p.c.h. is bound to bring out the best and worst in a person. just watch out when it brings out the worst in both of you ... at the same time!

in the end i was impressed with how we managed to navigate such uncharted waters for the two of us. neither of us had done an ironman before and we were so newly together. we experienced everything along the p.c.h. we endured heat, hail, bonks requiring immediate consumption of mountain dew, water buffalo (well, that was off of the p.c.h, but still), untold flats, numerous arguments about pace and heart rate. i was more immature about that stuff than i care to admit. i was scared out of my mind to be training for an ironman and i wanted j. beside me.

we trained and trained and trained. we had fun, we laughed, we were challenged. we made it through the training and finally to lake placid. our final bike splits we TWO SECONDS apart. i kid you not. clearly we were well suited ... on and off the bike.

so as we spun along the p.c.h. on friday, after a 7 month hiatus (j. raced another ironman last april and hasn't wanted to touch his ass to the saddle since) i relived all those times together. i looked at j., his helmet slightly askew, the curve of his back when he was in the aero bars, the back drop of the ocean. i remembered all the times i nearly ran him off the highway as i shouted "dolphins!", i remembered how many times we laughed heartily and cried pathetically. i remembered how he would tell me that he believed in me and that i was gonna do great at ironman.

as we rode along, the day after thanksgiving, i thought about how much we have shared and about how grateful i am for that day, 3+ years ago, when i inquired about a bike box for rent.

twinkle toes

2008-11-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

i admit it, i love 'dancing with the stars'. when i heard about it a few seasons ago, i thought l-a-m-e. then one day in the midst of it's third season i saw emmitt smith dancing and i was
hooked.

i am a geezer and no longer stay up long enough in order to watch it real time so i tivo it for my next day's viewing pleasure. the season before this past one (triathlon, not DWTS) i was racing longer distances and tuesday mornings during the "winter" (i am in california) were spent on the trainer watching and cheering as apolo ohno sailed across the floor. i was smitten.

then it was helio castroneves ... remember that yellow zoot suit? come on now, who doesn't love a brazilian in a banana suit (liz)!?!?! but really (other than helio and apolo) it's been the football players that have captivated my attention. emmitt, jason, warren. they were all infectious. warren sapp makes me happy. happy, happy, happy.

yes, brooke burke was technically the best of them all this season and (surprisingly) i didn't feel the urge to kill her (hello, kim kardashian!) so i am fine with last night's results. my boyfriend, i am sure, has let out a huge sigh of relief that another DWTS season has passed.

i've made the poor man tolerate replays of more pasodobles than i care to admit (though wasn't that him peeking out from behind his laptop last night to catch a glimpse of lance and lacey's final dance???) there may be hope for him.

if you're anything like me you spent the better part of your teenage years (dare we admit later than that?) dancing in front of the mirror convinced that you had the moves of a solid gold dancer? as i drove to work this morning doing my best bootie shakin' car dance to kanye's latest single i wondered how far i could go on DWTS ... would i be a kristi yamaguchi or a rocco dispirito?

based on the looks from the guy in the audi next to me on wilshire blvd., it's probably best we don't find out. and based on the thunderous quiet across blogland as you remove me from your blog roll ... it's probably best we forget this post happened at all.

happy thanksgiving ... go dance your ass off as if no one was watching.

everything's faster at ironman

2008-11-23T04:21:00.000-08:00

just a quick blog post ... since everything, apparently, is faster at ironman.

we are about to leave for the race site. molly is all prepared to be a stripper and j. and i have our cowbells and good attitudes (well, almost ... we're not quite awake yet).

yesterday ... lunch with molly, chris, wendy and j.

paradise bakery & cafe.

sandwiches, salads, cookies and ...

aero helmet?

like i said, everything is faster at ironman ... even a stop for soda pop!

shout out

2008-11-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

just a quick shout out from arizona. molly and i went for a beautiful sunrise trail run this morning. no pictures, sorry!

there was a huskie dog rescue event going on and the trails were full of rabbits ... one a little reminiscent of the monty python killer rabbit ... i went a little faster after seeing him ... afraid he might hop on up and bite my face off.

last night we had a great dinner with molly, liz, chris and sherpathomas. the pita jungle restaurant was abuzz with triathletes wearing single leg compression socks. i gotta say, it's fun to be in the atmosphere without the pressure of racing.

molly, me and liz. the only two women on earth that can make me look tall (and between you and me, i got up on my tip toes ... just for a little extra bump).

off to the expo now! i sure hope to see this guy again tomorrow.

ironman, nacho libre!

IMAZing!

2008-11-19T19:47:00.001-08:00

we’re going to arizona and i can’t wait! i’ve been up to my eyeballs in work, oh now hush up my facebook friends, i can multi-task! j. and i are leaving early friday morning and it’ll be great to have a few days away.

however, i’m not going with the expectation of rest. i will be, as my coach’s hat says, a spectathlete. and let me tell you, i’ve practiced. even on this very course. i spent 13+ hours out there by myself last april simultaneously screaming my lungs out as j. and the course tore each other up and lugging around a heavy heart. more on that later.

i have a long run on my schedule for saturday, but that will be done with muppetdog molly, which i am very excited about. we’ve been chit-chattin’ online and as far as never having met a person goes, i sure do like her.

j. has a ton of work to do so plans to be on his computer for the drive out. the horror. that means i have to “respect the silence” and can’t terrorize him with my hellacious singing while i play ipod deejay… bummer. he’ll miss it … even if he tells you he won’t. he will … i hope.

my coach, liz was going race too which made this trip even more fun. i was under strict instructions to keep her husband away from any kind of bicycle to avoid this happening, but she got sick and is doing the right thing and respecting her body for the long haul by opting out of the race. she is, however, still coming as is my grandcoach, jen. yahoo!!!

jen is affectionately referred to as “miss daisy”, due to her, ahem, advanced age. well, if she’s miss daisy, i fear that makes me jessica tandy’s other oscar worthy character, “alma finley” from ‘cocoon’ … uhm, before they all got in the water! anyway, i cannot wait to meet jen and witness her live in all her pink splendor.

we’ve had plans to come back to arizona since last april and here’s why. last year j. and our friend chris set out to tackle the 140.6 at IMAZ. chris is a seasoned swimmer, former water polo player and crazy advanced SCUBA diver. needless to say swimming is his strongest leg (though the others are pretty dang good too). this was chris’ first IM. his wife, wendy, and i waited at the swim out. we were looking for chris. we knew he’d be out before j. (no offense, honey). we waited and waited. all of a sudden we’re screaming and cheering for j., but still no chris.

i call my sister in l.a. and ask her to track him online, maybe we missed him coming by? nothing, he hasn’t come out yet. we wait. we shift nervously. wendy’s cell phone rings and she heard just what you never want to here, “we have your husband in the med tent”. turns out a mile into the swim, and may i say up in the front of the pack, chris was struck by intense vertigo. suddenly down seemed like up, which is really not something you want to confuse in a body of water. he kept diving down further despite trying to surface. he started to vomit. he got to the surface, took a breather on the side of a boat then started again. same thing. he tried and tried, but just kept vomiting. he did the courageous thing, he trusted that voice that said “not today”. he got in a boat and sadly turned over his chip.

chris spent a miserable day in a dark hotel room continuing to be sick. but the next day he rallied and took his still woozy ass down to sign up for IMAZ 2009 (then later decided he didn’t want to wait and got a charity slot). he was beaten up, but he again showed his courage and trusted that this too would pass. and it did. now 7 months later he’s stronger, faster and ready to kick the shit out of IMAZ. he is, as the shirts we so proudly wore back on april 13, 2008 … IMAZing.

so when you log on to ironmanlive this sunday, join me in cheering louder than you thought possible for my friend chris, the courageous one who has taught me a couple of things about picking up the pieces and not letting circumstances rob you of the journey.

don't grab the bumper

2008-11-18T21:52:00.001-08:00

two days in and i’m wondering how to find my voice on my blog. or maybe it's what do i want my voice to be? yeah, yeah ...i tend to over think things. i think sometimes i’ll want to just sit down and chat and sometimes i’ll want to be anecdotal. ahhh ... it’s always the combo-platter in the end, ain't it?

i’m my harshest critic for sure … in everything i do. and ya know what i’ve learned? those criticisms, when i give them power, they become self-fulfilled prophecies. i stand in my own way.

there’s a guy i know, al sines, he talks about meditation and about how when thoughts come into his head, as he’s meditating, he just needs to let them float on by instead of judging the fact that he’s having thoughts. he equates it to standing on a street corner watching cars go by … if you grab on to the bumper you're going to get dragged and wind up down the road bloodied and bruised. but if you just stand there and let them woosh by … well you might just enjoy the process. brilliant, eh?

so, i’ll try not to grab on to the bumper as i blog … who knows maybe it’ll infiltrate into the other areas of my life [read: all] that could benefit from a looser grip. : )

swimming sisters

2008-11-17T20:13:00.000-08:00

the Y is closed for the next three weeks. last year this created quite a problem. this year, however, the Y and the santa monica pool seem to have coordinated their closures so that they are not at the same time. HOWEVER, as you may have heard, we're in the middle of fire season out here. in fact, we're having california snow. similar to new york snow in its grey appearance and how it lightly falls from the sky, but this snow is the product of raging southern california wildfires -- ash. it's awful. it's everywhere. my car is coated with it. when i walked outside today you could see it, like snow flurries. the santa monica pool is an outdoor pool. it's glorious.

here it is. see what i mean? stunning. but i'm not dipping a toe in it today. when i swim there is, unfortunately, lots of huffing and puffing going on. i could just feel the ash particles embedding themselves in my lungs as i thought about swimming outside.

my sister is always talking about how great her gym is. it's one of the froofie kind. j. and i go to the local Y, where they keep it real (real funky!). my sister's big selling points to me about her gym are 1. you never have to wait to get a lane in the pool 2. even though it's in a busy section of town where you pay $2.50 for 12 minutes to park, they validate for two hours and 3. they have a TON of fun exercise classes.

okay, sister ... take me to your gym TODAY because otherwise i'm not getting my workout done.

she was only going to swim for 15-20 minutes because she just started physical therapy to deal with a shoulder injury. i've got 2600 to do. so we synchronize our watches and decide what time she ought to show up so that we can finish together and then sauna, steam or whatever sisters do at shooshie pooshie gyms in l.a.

that was the plan. we didn't account for the sales pitch i'd get from jimmy dean (he said his parents had a "good sense of humor") the ultra-runner whose "married to an ironman, thankyouverymuch", or the tour he'd insist i take. 25 minutes later, i finally get to the locker room and call my sister to tell her it's now well past the time i was supposed to be submerged. she tells me she just arrived. aces. i scurry down to the pool. and yup, murphy's law, of the two lanes (TWO LANES!?!?!) that accommodate only two people per lane (TWO PEOPLE PER LANE!?!?!?) are filled and one chica is on deck ahead of me. sigh.

i wait. i wait. i wait. sister arrives. we wait. we wait. we wait.

finally i get in. i'm claustrophobic from the get-go. the water tastes funny. the woman in the lane with me seems bitchy. the color scheme of the pool is green (which is just wrong). i hate this pool. but i swim. my stroke is off. the lane is so skinny, i'm certain i'm gonna bash the woman next to me in the head. why is it harder in this pool? is there a current? am i trying too hard to look like a good swimmer for my sister? are we done yet? oh, she's not even in yet. finally sister is in. commence laughing. we reverted to 8 and 10 years old, respectively. we immediately made underwater blowfish faces at each other. i started laughing, underwater. which meant i started choking. this is bullshit. we got out after her 15 min.

we decided to go to the steam room, which jimmy dean promised me i would loooove because of the eucalyptus. now, i like eucalyptus as much as the next gal, but let me just say ... someone got a little liberal with their dosage. practically burned my nose hairs out. there was a woman sleeping in the steam room ... or maybe she was practicing her hatha ... in any case it was loud and unnerving, but not nearly as startling as when the steam machine kicked on to refill the room.

i'm not generally the high-strung, jumpy type, but this thing starts up and i'm on the ceiling, certain we've just had an earthquake. it continued to steam and steam and steam. i looked at my sister. she smiled, but didn't look alarmed. i was starting to panic. is it going to stop? i couldn't see my sister anymore. at what point do we bolt for the door to avoid being steamed alive? no sooner did i actually tell my sister that i was gonna make a break for it, did it stop. thank god, let's leave. too many courtesy, white, fluffy towels later, we say our goodbyes in the parking lot.

i'm thinking i'm not gonna take jimmy dean up on his very generous payment plan membership options. i get to the parking kiosk and the man looks at my ticket. 2 hours and 24 minutes. $5.oo please. that sealed the deal.

i waited for a lane, i paid for parking and i'm the girl in the exercise classes who always goes to the left when the entire room goes to the right ... this is definitely not the gym for me. sis and i had better stick to getting pedicures together.

why today?

2008-11-16T12:50:00.000-08:00

why did i choose today to start my blog? for no good reason other than the workout, the laundry, and the grocery shopping are done. the boyfriend is working. i've caught up on celebrity rehab and i don't feel like cracking the bindings of either of the books i have waiting to be read. so, time to start a blog.

triathletes love them some blogging. my boyfriend, j. has blogged for the past two or three years. i've been lurking on too many sites to name. my recent facebook addiction has left me wanting more. really? more? egads, woman! i don't really want to throw more time to the virtual, but ... i want a bigger box than my status bar. i find myself having more to say than i can condense into one pithy line.

so here i am ... staring at the screen ... with no idea what to say. HA! of course.