Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday catch up

I'm super behind.

First, the big news: WE'RE MOVING TO SAN DIEGO!!! Woo hoo! I'll be heading down in December. Can't wait to live in the triathlon mecca and ride and run and swim in new places. Also, the experiment I've been working on for months FINALLY worked today! So awesome!!! Okay, back to tri stuff:

Tuesday: p90x shoulders and arms. I felt super lazy Tuesday and not super motivated but got through the workout.

Wednesday: 1050 yard swim. I had to cut this short because of a meeting. Good, fast swim.

Thursday: 27.42 mile bike. Fun. Easy. Relaxed.

Race day

Over the weekend, I went to Tahoe to race in the IronGirl Sprint Tri. My first tri in 4 years. My mom and I went up Saturday morning and rode cruisers all around and then went to bed early so I would be ready for Sunday morning. Overall, it went very well. Here's the breakdown:

Pre-race: woke up at 5:30 (normal time) and went to the T (transition) area for body marking and to set up my transition area. It was very, very cold--around 30 degrees. I wore my new DeSoto Forza one-piece tri suit. Super neat and turned out to be very comfortable. After hoping that I didn't forget anything, I put my wetsuit half on for warmth and headed down to the beach to await the start. Cold, cold, cold. I got down there a little before 6:45 (when T closed) and had to wait until 7:30 for the first wave to start. I was in the last wave, so we started the swim at 7:45.

Swim: 400 yards

The water was cold (duh! I felt like my chest was in a tight steel cage and I felt it for the rest of the day) and a bit choppy. There were a bunch of first-timers who had no idea what to do, but good for them for racing! Even though it was kinda annoying. 80% of my wave flailed around, making it nearly impossible to swim. I did a lot of breast stroke (the synchronized swimming, head out of the water kind) because I couldn't get any clear water until over the half-way point, where I moved way out to the side. Good decision because I was able to put my head down and go. One of the people in kayaks (volunteers who make sure nobody drowns) had to keep telling a woman near me not to forget to breathe. She kept making loud howling drama queen noises...kinda funny. Note to self: stop laughing while swimming! Finally made it out of the water in 10:40. Super slow, but given the circumstances, I'm okay with it. Only minor panic and a few gallons of lake water swallowed (would come back to haunt me on the run).

Transition 1

The T area was around a quarter of a mile from the swim site. As, I was in the last wave, lots of people were already on the bike when I started the swim. Anyway, jogged to T1, dropped the wetsuit and put on my bike gear. Trotted awkwardly (it's really hard to run in bike shoes!) to the mount line and got on my bike. Go time!

Bike: 15 miles

This was, by far, my best leg! The majority of the 500 athletes were already biking, so I had lots of people to pass. The bike course was East on Hwy 50 from stateline into Nevada. Lots of rolling hills and a couple of good climbs. I hauled ass (for me)--averaged 19.66 mph, even with the hills. I passed, literally, hundreds of people and never got passed. In fact, people came up to me after the race to comment on my biking and legs :)

Finished in around 45 minutes. Pretty fun to do a short, fast ride.

T2

Uneventful. T1 and T2 were in the same place. Racked my bike, changed shoes, put on my visor with the tiara attached and took off. Heard a few people comment on how strong I looked. Yes!

Run: 3.11 miles

Unfortunately, the lake water came to haunt me at this point and I had a major side ache the entire time. Lots of super attractive burping. I was kind of a weenie and walked up a couple of hills, which I would never normally do in a short run. Finished with a 9:22 pace. Not bad. Definitely could have and should have finished faster and pushed harder. I'm just not used to racing short runs. Need to alter my pacing accordingly.

Total time: 1:37, 14th place out of 80 or 90 in age group, nearly 500 people started and only 379 finished. I was 70-something overall.

Post-race

Felt great. Ate some chow and waited around for the last athlete to finish the bike portion so I could take my stuff out of transition. I'm ready to race more and need to so I'm better prepared for the swim. Drove back home and lazed around. Big bruise and cut on the inside of my knee. I thought my race number cut me during the bike portion, but the bruise is confusing. Maybe I got kicked during the swim?

I'm still tired today, which surprises me, as I'm not usually tired from 1.5 hours, but maybe the traveling and swim stress got to me :) Skipped my swim, even though I woke up early and put my suit on. Went back to bed. Went to work. Fell asleep when I got home. Weird.

Gearing up this week to spend another weekend in Tahoe for the 72 mile bike race around the entire lake. Can't wait!

Swim drill day

I swam 1300 yards this morning, pretty much all drills.

400 warm up: 100 free, 100 with right hand in fist, 100 with left hand in fist, 100 free

6x50: kick drills

12x50: increasing intensity

I nailed my flip turns today. Finally! Definitely helps with endurance.

Monday pool day

Finally! The pool is open on a Monday. Fantastic swim. Best ever. 1950 yards. This is my longest swim in a pool and just short of my longest swim ever (the longest was the swim in my half-IM, in which I doggie paddled a good portion). Very difficult. It was a mixture of drills, freestyle and IMs. An IM is one length butterfly, one length backstroke, one length breaststroke and one length free and then repeat as many times as necessary in that order. So, if you were doing a 200 IM in a 25 yard pool (like me), you would do that twice. It's really, really hard, especially the butterfly, which is evil. The main set of my swim was a pyramid, with alternating freestyle and IM. So, the lengths were 50 yards, 100 yards, 150 yards, 200 yards, 250 yards, 200 yards, 150 yards, 100 yards, 50 yards. The odds (50, 150, 250) were freestyle and the evens (100, 200) were IM.

I'm still exhausted but pretty pleased with myself.

Weekend tallies

What a fun weekend!

Saturday: 50 mile bike ride. Started in Folsom, rode out to Auburn, down through Cool and back to Folsom. 3400 feet of climbing. This was the ride that I got heatstroke on and couldn't finish last time. This time I felt great. Super challenging ride, but awesome. Ate a delicious Moroccan feast to refuel :)

Sunday: 2.3 mile run with the pig ninjas. Short but fast. First mile 9 minutes, second 8 minutes, last 0.3 7 minute mile pace. Then massage. My normal guy was booked so I went with someone else since it was kinda last minute. Bad decision. He was terrible. 90 minutes of blah. I knew I was in trouble right from the start when he didn't know what an IT band was. Ugh. He inspired me to compile the following list (though he does not possess all of the following qualities):

Bad qualities for a masseuse:

1. super hairy arms. It felt like he was rubbing my back with steel wool. It made my skin peel (thanks Monday long ride sunburn) and I kept imagining long snakeskin-like Ash skin in his arm hair. This made me snicker.

2. a fat belly. One time I received a massage from a very fat man. His stomach touched me every time he leaned over. Super gross. Luke said, "What if his shirt was barely long enough and every time he bent over, his hairy stomach rubbed on you?" Thanks, pookie. Truly disgusting. Of course, this was said by the same man who I once overheard say, "Rudy, you don't get any peanut butter. You sniff butts," to the dog.

3. mucus-y breathing. Okay, I know you can't help being sick, but if I can hear mucus rattling around in your sinuses, it's not relaxing me and you should probably stay home and blow your nose, especially if you keep making loogie (how in the world do you spell that?) making noises. You can help that.

4. constant chatter. Shut the F up! Thanks.

This was a great week for training. I'm looking forward to another good week, including my first triathlon in years next Sunday in Tahoe!

1550 yard swim today. First time in the pool in over 3 weeks and I could tell. More tired than usual, but I know it will get better.

Lazy Thursday

I was definitely supposed to work out today, but I just didn't want to, so I didn't. I wrote all day and when I'm in nerd mode, jock mode doesn't get any action.

Every year, my best friend from high school (Rachel) and I do a marathon or half-marathon together. We've done the Pacific Shoreline marathon, the Seattle Rock n Roll marathon, the country music half-marathon and now...we've signed up for the Mardi Gras half-marathon next February. Can't wait. We're kinda suckers for the Rock n Roll series, as we like to pose with the bands at every mile. In general, we wear tutus and tiaras, but, as this is a Mardi Gras race, we're going to up the ante a little. I'm thinking tutus (rainbow, of course), feather headdress and body paint on the torso to look like a Mardi Gras mask (eyes on the tatas, supportive garment underneath, of course). I think it will be the best adventure yet. Still trying to convince my bestie from college (Brenda) to join in the debauchery.

Quick 2 mile run with the pig ninjas today. Super windy and cool, for a change.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday

I've been bad, bad, bad at blogging for a few days. Here's what I've been doing:

Friday: skipped everything and went to San Francisco. Ate dinner at Incanto and chatted with Chef Chris Cosentino. Fabulous.

Saturday: planned rest day. Decided to stay on schedule even though I took the day before off...a little rest never hurt anyone ;)

Sunday: 5 mile run with the pig ninjas, P90X chest and back and Ab Ripper X.

Monday: We decided to ride for about 50 miles on Monday along the Sacramento River. We felt so good that we kept going...and rode 96 miles! It was awesome! We rode from our house in West Sac to Rio Vista and back. Great day. Windy, but we kept a good pace. A bit sunburned today, but totally worth it. Felt great until the last 15 miles, then I started hating everything, especially my stupid leaking aero water bottle that rattled and splashed gatorade into my face every few minutes.

It's crazy that 9 months from now I'll be able to ride longer than that, after swimming 2.4 miles and then run a marathon. It's gonna be awesome!

Wed and Thurs

Yesterday, I took the doggies on a quick 2.5 mile run. No biggie.

Today I did P90X legs and back. Sore legs today...

Gearing up for a big biking and running weekend. Can't wait!