Summer time in San Diego

We have been having the most amazing, sunny, gorgeous weather recently!  Sure, we had some rain a few weeks ago, but other than that, it has been absolutely wonderful...so I've been taking full advantage!  I'll just give you the highlights, divided into 2 posts to make it easier for your ADD problem (Okay, to make it easier for my ADHD to process):

Oceanside 70.3 spectating:
March 31 was the Oceanside 70.3 just north of San Diego.  I wasn't racing, but my friends and teammates Lauren, Ian and Matt were.  Tammy, Patrick, Aren, Hanky Panky and I rode up to Oceanside pretty early Saturday morning.  Actually, we all slept in until after 6, so it was pretty late for a Saturday!  Ironman training makes you crazy!  We parked and then all went running while the athletes were biking.  Tammy, Patrick and I ran just over 8 miles and Aren did something crazy, like 15 or 16.  As we finished up, the pros were out on their first loop of the run.  We walked the rest of the way and cheered.  So, so much fun!  I "accidentally" said a few creepster things, like "Heather Jackson, I love you!  You are my girl crush!"  I also told saw this guy whose blog I read, "Hey!  I read your blog!" when I ran into him at a coffee stand.  It was kind of weird, so I made it worse by saying, "Sorry, that was creepy."  Hahahahahaha

Team Badass represented at the race.  Ian threw down a 5:06 in his first Half-Iron (and maybe first tri?) even with an impressive, flesh removing crash on the bike.  Lauren and Matt were right around 6 hours.  My friends are so fast!  Really awesome and a very fun day.  Hank was really mad until I let picked him up so he could watch the finish shoot.  Then he had fun.

Long ride 4/1 (aka the Universe's April Fools joke):
I went out for a long ride with Missi and Inh on April Fools Day.  We planned a 60 or so miler (because I insisted I wanted more mileage).  It rained pretty hard that night and the road was still wet the next morning.  After thinking pretty seriously about staying in bed, I got up and met up with the other two. We started riding and it immediately started raining on us. At first it was pretty light, but then there was some legitimate rain dumpage.  I kept thinking about how I could get away with turning around.  We had planned a route with a big hill and some massive descents, but bailed on those for safety reasons. That's right!  No crazy descending on wet roads!

Finally, the weather started to clear and we were on a neat little path out by Lake Hodges.  The road is pretty rough, so I asked my buddy, Inh, if he'd ever had any issues out there.  Literally one minute after declaring, "Nah!  Never had any flats out here!" Pssssssssssst....his rear tire was flat.  Ahahahahahaha!  He changed it quickly and then almost immediately flatted again.  WTF?
"Did you check the tire?"
"Uh, no.  Look!  There's a piece of metal in the tire," Inh says and then tries to remove it with his teeth, as in his mouth was on the outside of the tire, as in he was pretty much licking the road surface.  "That tastes like shit!"  Missi and I were dying of laughter by this point.

Inh changes the tube again.  This tube won't hold any air.  Turns out to be a defective tube.  Totally blown out.  By this point, Inh is out of tubes and starts in on mine.

Inh with his tube carnage

By this point, we're all worrying about running out of CO2, so Inh tries to fill the tube using Missi's hand pump.  Of course, we start egging him on and encouraging him to pump faster. He pumped so vigorously that he snapped the stem right off.  Goodbye tube #4!  We thought this was hilarious!  Maybe we were delusional...or we're just evil.

The 5th tube held and we continued on the ride.  Decided to cut the day short and not tempt fate any more.  Still got almost 40 miles in.  Pretty awesome that we consider 40 miles to be an easy preschool ride!

To be continued...

Tremendous Triple

Hellllooooo!  I've been training and I've been crazy busy (hahaha...I accidentally wrote "busty" and then corrected it.  Yes, that also works) so I haven't been blogging.   Let's see, I went to Sun Valley for the wedding of my good friend Danielle.  This was extra fun because all of the crazy people I went to elementary, middle and high school with were there.  We had a super tight class and there are about 10 of us who are still close.

The rehearsal dinner at Whiskey Jacques.  Western theme encouraged.

We dressed up pretty for the wedding.

And, some things never change.

It was a complete blast.  The highlights were the wedding (of course), spending time with some of my favorite people, and sitting in an outdoor pool heated to 102 degrees, drinking margaritas, while it snowed on top of us.  There was no training that weekend.

Last weekend, my grandma came to visit.  I managed to squeeze in an 8.5 mile run, but was otherwise just content to hang out with her.  We spent lots of time sitting on the beach visiting.  She is a marvelous woman.  74, but doesn't look a day over 60.  In the past couple of years, she's started working out at the gym and watching what she eats and she's lost a minimum of 60 pounds.  Take that everyone who says you can't lose weight when you're older!  Anyway, she's a very influential person in my life and always has been.

with my foxy Grandma at La Jolla Cove

Thanks for the awesome genes, Grandma!!!

Yesterday, I had the workout I've been waiting for: a triple.  Started with a morning drainer ride (and, yes, I pinterest-ed while I rode), a noon masters' session and then a track workout after work with my friend Li and some tri club people.  I think going to the noon swim is going to be key to getting all of my swims in.  It's just too much to bike or run and swim and take care of the dogs and eat breakfast and pack my lunch and shower and become presentable all before work.  Something usually slips and that something is usually swimming.

The track workout was a real ass kicker.  I haven't been on the track since last year.  We did lots of sprints; my quads are feeling it today.  This is going to be a regular Wednesday thing and I hope I get faster.  One bad moment from yesterday: I got out of track practice and went to my car.  The f-ing garage was locked up.  I couldn't even get to my car.  Oh f-bomb!  I wandered around the university looking for security.  Remember, I don't have my phone, I'm cold and sweaty and it's dark out.  Not fun.  Finally, a nice kid at a cafeteria let me in and called security.  They sent a cop, who was super cool and helped me out.  He managed to get me into the garage through the building (which was locked, so I couldn't get in) and then a sensor let my car out.  I'll make sure I don't park there again!

Good weekend on tap: Saturday is the Oceanside 70.3, which I will be spectating.  Can't wait to cheer on my teammates who are racing.  Will also do a 12 mile run with Hanky Panky and hopefully a few others.  Sunday: 60 mile bike ride.  Nice!

Fish Time

People always ask me what I eat.  The answer is seafood and produce.  I also eat eggs, nuts, poultry occasionally and I love wine.  Sometimes I eat treats--last night I had fro yo and I topped it with a bunch of candy. Major sugar hangover today!  No grains unless I'm at a dinner party, no sugar except on long rides, and no processed crap.  Ever.

San Diego is a great place to live for someone who eats like me.  There is an abundance of fresh produce and seafood.  I love seafood!  My favorite fish guy, Poppa Mark (www.poppasfreshfish.com) offers a FishScription.  Kinda like a CSA, but for fish!  Every week, I pick up a box of mixed fish and shellfish for only $25!  It's always fresh, sustainable, wild and amazing.  Fish is a great source of protein and nutrients.  Good for the brain (important for nerds), good for the body (important for triathletes).   Nerdjock food.  It's my favorite source of protein and I eat it about 5 times per week. Here are some of the awesome seafood meals I've made with fresh seafood from Poppa's:

Yes, I ate both of those lobsters and they were scrumptious!

Seared mahi with roasted asparagus and sauteed mushrooms

This was a good one!  Steamed rock crab, fresh mackerel (caught that morning) roasted with lemons and a squeeze of blood orange juice and roasted mushrooms.  I had a salad on the side.

I hate it when people post food pictures where they didn't present the food well and now I find myself doing the same thing. These are just pics of my dinner plate, not nicely presented food.  Don't judge!

Biking Badassness

Happy Monday!  Oh, yeah, ugh, Monday!

We had the most gorgeous weekend here!  Sorry, cold weather people!

Saturday: 80.88 mile ride. Fast!
Saturday morning I met up with some Team Badass people to ride up the coast.  We started in Solana Beach and rode north through Carlsbad and Oceanside, across Camp Pendleton, through the San Onofre Beach park to San Clemente and back.  This route is super fun and flat but windy.  For the first half of the ride, I was donk chasing my girls Lauren and Rene.  Those two are smokin' fast!  Kinda nuts since Rene just had a baby 8 months ago and already has abs that are far superior to any I've ever had.  Even though I was going as fast as possible, over 20 mph in some sections (!), they were still way, far ahead.  I like chasing.  It keeps me working hard.  The headwind killed me on the way back and my pace slowed quite a bit, but I still averaged over 17 mph for the entire ride, which I will definitely take!  My Infinit worked really well and I never bonked, cramped or felt hungry.  I did, however, manage to get a bit of a sunburn. Must wear sunscreen!

One of the highlights was chicking a dude that hated to be chicked over and over again.  He was kinda strange.  Riding a Cervelo P3, so nice bike, but he had frat boy shamrock Lucky boxers on under his shorts.  Ouch!  Sore balls and chafed taint were his just rewards.

Sunday: 34.5 mile ride.  Slow and hilly.
I'm going out of town next weekend and won't have a chance to ride, so I swapped my normal Sunday long run for yet another bike ride.  I was tired when I woke up super early Sunday morning (thanks daylight savings time!) but excited to ride.  My friend and team mate mapped out a super evil route that had 2600 feet of climbing in 34 miles, with almost all of it in the first half, including a monster climb out to Ramona.  I was extra excited for this ride because Luke joined us for his first ride in quite a while.  Poor guy!  This was a rough ride back.

I was kind of stupid Sunday morning and left my water bottles sitting by the front door.  You know, leave important stuff in an obvious place so you don't forget it!  Didn't work.  I also assumed it wouldn't be too cold and wore just a sleeveless jersey with arm warmers.  Once we go to the meet-up point, Inh informed me that it was going to be 45 in Ramona.  Well, crap.  I found a sweatshirt in the back of my car and put that on.  I looked like a total newb, but Inh was wearing one, too, so he was my dork partner.  Luke is always cold, so we was dressed appropriately and got to give me a bit of shit about not listening to him.  hahaha.

My butt was very sore and my legs were tired, but I took it easy and powered through.  Gorgeous ride and the complete opposite of Saturday's.  Saturday was all about the ocean and Sunday was all about the back country.  Lots of farms and monster hills.  There were some pretty awesome descents.  We all finished and celebrated with giant breakfast burritos from a local Mexican place.  Sooooo good!

Sunday night, I had ladies' dinner club and I was the host.  The theme was Spanish tapas.  Everyone brought really excellent dishes and we sat around the pub table and drank lots and lots of Sangria and nibbled on great tapas.  Here's my contribution to the dinner:

Mmmmmmm...sangria!

Close-up of the drunken fruit heaven

Let's just say there was no way I was making it to the pool this morning.  116 miles of bike riding in the sun + lots of sangria = no training and lots of sleep and hydration!

Black Mountain and the Mustachioed Girl

It was definitely a Black Mountain kind of weekend.

You already know that Friday I did a crazy, super hard Black Mountain trail run.  I woke up sore on Saturday, which was awesome.  I'm never sore after runs.  I met some friends for another Black Mountain trail run.  I only had about 4 miles in me this time and it was still tough.  Since it was a shorter run, I brought both pig ninjas.  Rudy had a lot of fun, but I think Hank was tired from Friday still.  Very fun but my legs were super sore.  Of course, I had to wear my special undies and compression socks outfit and watch the hummingbirds in the back yard.  One of my cycling buddies, Paul (aka Liver) was teasing me about how my neighbors must think I'm crazy because I sit in the back yard in my undies and those crazy neon compression socks all the time.  Hahahahhaha.  That's what they get for being peeping neighbors!

Sunday morning I was supposed to ride the Great Western Loop with Team Badass, but I slept through my alarm.  So sad!  Of course, this led to a couple of hours of trying to convince myself to ride solo vs. riding the trainer vs. sitting on the couch.  Why is it always so hard to convince myself to ride solo?  I like it!  Finally I made it outside and rode from my house up to Black Mountain, out to Rancho Bernardo and then back through Del Mar Heights and back home.  Forty-ish mile loop with a good amount of climbing.  My legs felt pretty solid, though I could tell they were tired when I was climbing.  I had to hustle, hustle, hustle on the way back because my friends Li and Paul were waiting for me at the Indian buffet.  Of course, I missed a turn, which made me late and set me up for some additional climbing.  I made it home finally, jumped in Willie (my car) and, literally, ran into the restaurant...still in my biking gear and covered in sweat.  You're welcome, fellow restaurant goers.  Of course, it was a super awesome Indian restaurant and I was the only white person there, so I stood out anyway.  Always a  good sign to go to an ethnic restaurant where there are no white people! The food was excellent and I was super full.

One highlight of my Sunday ride was the chase with the mustachioed girl.  As I was riding along, I approached another rider and, as I'm a courteous cyclist, called out "On your left!"  I looked over as I passed and was surprised to see that I was passing a very lean woman with a full blonde mustache.  Not a man; definitely a woman with a stache!  It was very fair blonde color and rather think and full.  Unfortunately, the mustachioed lady was not as nice as her mustache and refused to make eye contact.  Apparently, she was quite unhappy about being passed and started to do that ever annoying bastard move of running through stop signs and red lights (I do this, too, sometimes but not when there are cars around) when there were cars just to get ahead.  Of course, I would then pass her back once I got going again.  Very dumb.  Maybe it was roid rage?

Chiro update: I found a nice chiropractor who did not own and alien gun and he did the snap crackle pop on my back.  I now feel much better.  He told me that I need some deep tissue work so make my neck 100%.  Not fun.  Must make appointment.

Took yesterday off.  Did a short 4.6 miler with the pig ninjas this morning.  Fun!

Friday update

Yay!  It's FRIDAY!!!

I woke up crazy early this morning (4:30 am.  What is it about 5:00 am that's fine but the 4 in front makes it terrible?) to run a 15K (~10 mile) loop at Black Mountain. I met up with my friend and teammate Ian (he and another Team Badass guy write a blog.  It's fun.  You should check it out: thereisnotri.org) so he could show me the run.  Now, Ian is really fast, like 1:26 half marathon fast.  I'm slow.  He was nice enough to slow down so that I could chase him on the trail.  It was an awesome morning.  Started in the dark, saw the sun rise and finished early.  The trail was up and down, up and down, with a few almost-mountains thrown in.  I had to walk a few of the steeper hills and by mile 9, I was shelled.  I had to walk the last 3/4 mile, which was uphill.  At the end, I felt like I had run a marathon.  No joke.  It was that tough.  Trail running is much more fun, though.  Pig ninja Hank had fun, too, and had no issues finishing the run.  Maybe 4 legs help on hills.

Hank and I hit up Starbucks on the way home.  We split a wrap and I drank a bottle of water (started it in line), a Naked Fruit drink and a Venti latte.  I was thirsty and hot and cold and hungry and MUDDY!  I had about a pound of mud caked to each shoe and a trail of mud up the back of my tights.

Now I'm sitting in the lab in my extra lovely yoga pants + compression socks get-up and I feel great.

On Wednesday, I went to a ladies' night at the office of our new tri club sponsor, who is a chiropractor.  Now, in general, I think chiropractors are full of crap.  However, this guy bribed us with wine, snacks, paraffin hand treatments and massages.  Okay!  I'm in.  I met my friend and Team You Got Chicked mate there.  Turns out we were the only new people who showed up.  Everyone else either works there or is a current client.  WTF?!  This chiro was definitely one of the bad chiros.  He was greasy and d-baggy and ridiculous.  He kept trying to convince us of his powers and scientific abilities (don't try this with 2 PhD scientists who are also athletes unless you know your stuff).  Then, at the end, he pulled out his weird alien gun to "interrupt nerve impulses to reset our nerves."  I think that's what he said.

Leslie and the alien gun

WTF are you doing to me, crazy man?!!!!

There were also a couple of vendors.  One woman was selling things that smelled very nice.  She was fine.  The other woman was selling some sort of nutrition system.  It consisted of a "cleanse" that could take tons of weight off.  Don't even get me started with that!  Such a load of shit.  Her other product was a "sports" drink.  It hardly had any sodium or potassium in in.  I'm pretty sure it was Tang with a vitamin dissolved in it.

So, all that said, I'm going to a chiropractor tonight.  Sometimes my spine gets misaligned and it gives me sciatica.  I've been to an osteopathic physician for it and all he's done is adjust it, so I think a good chiro can do the same thing.  My neck is really tight and sore, too, so I help the adjustment takes care of that.

Super fun weekend on tap. More trail running tomorrow and the Great Western Loop on Sunday.  Yippeee!

Weekend Warriors

I had a great weekend of training.  I'm quite tired this morning and will take today as a rest day.

Saturday, I met with team badass members at 6:30 in Rancho San Diego so we could roll by 7:00 am.  This part of San Diego is called East County and is very hilly.  The route we followed is the Great Southern Loop.  We rode east up some big hills (mountains) and then headed south to Mexico.  Seriously, I saw Mexico.  Closest I've ever been to the border.  This part of the ride was very interesting, as it was a bit sketchy and most of us were a bit worried about getting jacked.  Nice bikes were not common in this area.  We made it though!  We then rode along the water as we went north through Imperial Beach and then cut through Chula Vista and had to do some climbing before we finished.  There were so many turns on the route sheet that it took up 2 pages.  I made two wrong turns but, fortunately, figured it out without adding too much mileage.  Afterward, I ate a big fish burrito.  Awesome!  73 miles total.

I was completely toast after the ride and spent the rest of the night lounging on the couch.  I need to start making plans after rides so I don't turn into a blob.

Sunday morning, I was up early again to meet my friend and Team Badass teammate, Li for a run through the trails of Rancho Penasquitos Canyon.  Yes, this is my favorite place to run and it's close to my house.   We took the run pretty easy and I felt great.  Li runs up the big hills, though, so I had to run up them, too. Normally, I act like a baby and walk.  No more!  I definitely felt better than last week and am ready to add some distance.  8.05 miles total.

Here's the plan for the week:
today (Monday): rest, glorious rest
Tuesday: 1:30 bike, 4 mile run
Wednesday: 5 mile run, masters' swim
Thursday: 1:00 bike, 4 mile run
Friday: 5 mile run, masters' swim
Saturday: long run, shooting for a 10 miler
Sunday: long bike, I think we're gonna do the Great Western Loop (about 50 miles with 5000 feet of climbing)