Just for Fun

Yep, I've been training. Ran 8 miles on a trail today at lunch. Moving to SD next week. These last weeks have been insane so I haven't been blogging. Hopefully will have more time starting soon.

To make up for it, I present pictures from the Bullipedes race I did last year. It was a one mile race in Old Folsom, in which teams of 5 people had to be tied together. My team was farm-themed. We had a farmer (with rather obscene shorts), a rooster, a cow, a pig and a sheep. I was a cow and was also going through a chubby phase. Pay no attention to the belly, please. It no longer exists. We had a blast.

Update

Yes, I've been bad about posting. I'm not going to go through all of the workouts I haven't posted about. Let's just say there has been a lot of biking, a lot of running and not nearly enough swimming. This week is pretty crazy since I'm trying to finish all of the revisions for my dissertation. It should start getting better next week and then get better each week after that. I will have several weeks in SD before starting my new job with pretty much no work to do, so that means lots of time for training. Woo hoo!

The plane tickets and bike transport have been booked, drinks and meet ups with fellow IM CdAers have been planned, it's getting really, really REAL. Cue nightmares and anxiety. F that! I'm going to do this! Must get in the pool. I just bought a really neat waterproof shuffle case that attaches to the strap of my goggles on the back of my head and has waterproof earphones. I've been listening to music and podcasts to get around my ADHD boredom while swimming. When I was a freshman in college, Nelly's Ride Wit Me was huge and played at every frat party I went to. It always makes me laugh. So, I was swimming and that song came on. I literally shook my booty while swimming. Serious skills :) though I can only imagine what that looked like for spectators.

Saturday ice breaker swim and long bike ride:

Last Saturday, I did an OWS/race with my friend Mel. We were in the non-competitive division. The race was a 0.5 mile triangle in Folsom Lake. Swimmers could do one or two loops. The water was 55 degrees and everyone cried. Mel and I thought that was pretty awesome because we've recently been swimming in 46 and 47 degree water. For once, I actually got into the water ahead of time to acclimate to the temperature. Normally, I'm so freaked out that I have to pretend I'm not swimming until it's time to actually do it. I think it helped. When the horn went off, I ran in and put my face in. Only a couple of minutes of brain freeze/ice cream headache. My sighting was still terrible. I was all over the place and my stupid goggles were leaking! Crap! Decided to only do one loop since I didn't want to screw up my contacts for my bike ride later. Finished. No Big Deal. Felt easy, though the entire time I was in the water I was thinking about getting out. Need to train my brain a bit. The good news: OWS is definitely getting easier!

Afterward, they fed us pancakes and sausage. Yum. Then I grabbed my bike and set out on a ride around Folsom Lake and down the American River Bike Trail. It was a windy day and that made me much slower than normal. It's a hilly course, which I like, and it's getting easier. Here are the highlights of the ride:

• I saw the man from my STFU A-Hole post "counseling" another rider. This is about 60 miles from where I ran into him. He's everywhere. I zoomed past so as not to fall onto his counseling radar.
• As I rode up to another girl on a bike, I called out "on your left!" She didn't move over, so I assumed she didn't hear me or maybe had earphones on (BAD! but that's another issue). So, I yelled louder and louder and she didn't get over. When I pulled up along side of her during my pass, she snottily said, "I heard you." Bitch! I replied, "Well, then you need to get over." Then she tried to bitch me. Honey, please, I can outbitch you with a single glance. I then gave her said withering look and sped off.
• There were two couples riding next to each other on tandems. The men were in the front (captains, maybe?) and the women were in the back (strokers? It's just too funny). The men had one conversation and the women the other. It looked like they were having fun.
• Came around a corner and almost ran into a...HORSE that was on my side of the bike path. Yikes!
• And, the ultimate highlight: I saw a woman walking along the dirt part of the path (there are lots of side trails. Nice area) wearing a backpack. However, the chest strap, which goes above the tatas, was firmly wedged beneath them, so it looked like her breasts were trapped inside this small open-topped rectangle that squished them. I guess she was confused...or wanted more support. It was weird.

continued along the bike trail until the flooding started then called Mel for a pick up. Rode about 70 miles total. Felt strong. Legs were golden. Ready for longer and harder rides.

SuperSeal Olympic 2011 Race Report

Pre-Race

I woke up around 4:45 am, ready to go. Put on my DeSoto Forza tri suit that squishes my normally lovely curves into a not-so-attractive sausage shape, threw my bike in the car, ate a couple of mini powdered donuts and then got in the car with Luke and my friend Carrie, who came down to see me race (awesome! Thank you!). We drove from our place to Coronado, maybe a 20 minute trip. The parking lot was already closed, so we parked on a residential street in a nearby neighborhood. It was a bit overcast and there was talk of rain. I set up my transition among a bunch of rack hoarders and I was ready to go. We walked down to the beach and watched the Sprint racers swim.

The swim

This is always my least favorite part of a race. Blah. I've been practicing in the pool and have also done some insanely frigid 46 and 47 degree OWS, so I was well-prepared for the 62 degree water. Everyone else cried but I was overjoyed. Surprisingly, I felt very zen before instead of super nervous, which is how I normally feel. My wave was the second to start. I was ready when the horn went off and ran into the water. I immediately put my head down and started swimming. There was a bit of contact, but it wasn't too bad. EEEEEWWW salt water! I've spent lots of time surfing and snorkeling in salt water, but never straight swimming in it. I felt completely gross by the end of the swim. My sighting was very poor and I zig zagged all over the place, but I still felt calm and relaxed. When I wear my wetsuit, it's almost as if I'm floating on top of the water and hardly kick. I like it but it feels weird. There was one man who kept bumping into me (he was swimming in an even more insane zig zag pattern than I was) and at one point he positioned himself so that when I reached forward with my left arm, I wound up grabbing a bunch of wetsuit-clad man junk. At least I think it was his junk. My hand was firmly between his legs and grabbing stuff and I can't think of anything else it might be. Ooooops! Sorry, dude...and yes, you're welcome. Not everyone gets groped during a race. Then I laughed for the rest of the swim, which made me swallow more water. Worth it! Finally finished the 1500 meter swim after 37 minutes. That is really, really slow. Much slower than I normally swim and I'm normally slow. Probably the extra distance because of my poor sighting.

I was so happy to get out of that f-ing water! Felt fine and not at all exerted. Ran a ways to T1. Had trouble getting my wetsuit off, like always. I sat on the ground and wrestled with it, hoping the man I groped wouldn't recognize me. Got my helmet and bike shoes on, grabbed my bike and took off. Trotted in my bike shoes to the mount line and got on.

The bike

Woo hoo! My favorite part! I love biking. The course was two "loops," really just an out-and-back twice but the start was in the middle along Hwy 75, along the ocean. I hauled ass (for me), averaged almost 20 mph. I only got passed by elites but I passed a whole bunch of folks. So satisfying. I thought lots of nasty thoughts about good swimmers (just kidding, kind of). There were several stupid men who refused to be chicked. When I came up on them I would say "on the left!" As in, get the F over(!) and they would move over more to the left so I couldn't get around them or they would speed up. I had to teach them a lesson. Boom! Around them. Then, just to be extra annoying, I would say, "thank you" in my sweetest, highest-pitched voice....then in my head I followed it up with "you fuck face." That made me smile every time. Finished the bike in 1 hr 14 min. Totally satisfied and happy and I didn't crash at the dismount line. On to T2: quick, took off my helmet, put on my visor, changed into socks and running shoes and put on my race belt. Vroom!!!

The Run

The first few miles were on sand, either packed or not, so that sucked, but the run was fine. I wanted to walk, but stopped being a bitch and ran. I definitely didn't push hard enough, just kind of lollygagged along. I need to push myself harder while running because I wasn't even out of breath at the end. Sprinted to the finish and got my medal with a seal on it. The seal looked like Rudy RuDizzle, the original pig ninja.

Luke and Carrie were waiting for me at the finish line and received sweaty, stinky hugs in return. It was great to see them throughout the race and definitely gave me a huge mental boost. Carrie will be a triathlete soon and I have a not-so-secret plan to turn Luke into a triathlete as well. Then we could go on tri-cations. Fun, huh?!

Finished in 3:00:58. 20 out of 5o in my age group. Firmly Middle of the Pack...but I think if I did some speed work and pushed it I could do pretty well :)

Post-Race

I was very happy to be done, but not nearly as tired as I should be. I waited a bit, then collected my bike and transition stuff and we headed back to the car. I ate the rest of my donuts and drank some gatorade. We dropped Carrie off, I showered (you're welcome, Lukey) and then we went to get some greasy pizza and cheese-covered garlic bread. I also drank lots of root beer...my favorite post-activity drink. Then we went home and napped for a while (well, I tried, I'm not a good sleeper). Then we went to an awesome dessert place in Little Italy and I had bleu cheese with a fig and apple relish and we split strawberry shortcake and a lemon bar and I drank a lovely glass of wine. We went back home and then I had to prep for my interview the next day. Nailed the interview. Got the job. Great weekend.

I forgot to mention that we saw a bunch of dolphins in the ocean when we were leaving the transition area. So neat!!!

Oh, yeah, my blog

Sorry, I've been totally and completely obsessed with the job interview I had last week. I'm just about done with my PhD (as in next month) and had a 10 hour job interview last week for a position that I really, really wanted.

Oh yeah, I nailed the interview and I was offered, and accepted, the job!!!! Woo hoo! Yippee! Badass!

Now I need to focus on training again. Other exciting news: I raced the SuperSeal Olympic Triathlon on March 27. I'll post a race report soon.