120 mile weekend

Last week was kind of crappy, with lots of rain.  Here are the highlights:

Saturday: I decided some time ago to ride from San Diego to Huntington Beach (80 miles) to visit friends, stay the night and then ride back.  Unfortunately, we had a giant storm Friday night and the wind was still howling Saturday morning.  20-30 mph winds with gusts over 45 mph.  The tri club cancelled the bike and swim portions of the tri and there were wind warnings on the news.  Well, I decided to go for it anyway.  Yup, crazy!  It was bad.  About 2 miles from my house, I was descending down a steep hill and a cross wind caught me and blew all over the road.  Not fun.  At that point, I decided to get to Solana Beach and then I could take the train part of the way.  Only 12 miles away.  Terrifying.  I was going 9 mph on the flats into the head wind and it was not fun at all.  Made it to Solana Beach, where it rained on me.  :(   Rode the train to San Juan Capistrano and then rode from there to Huntington Beach.  Lots and lots of hills.  The scenery was great, but it was still crazy windy and I had to white knuckle it up the coast.  Finally made it.  Forty miles took me 3:13 and felt like 140.  Recovered with margaritas, tacos and gelato.

Sunday: Time to ride back home.  Much nicer day.  Beautiful, not too windy, sunny.  I rode from HB to San Juan Capistrano solo.  Luke rode the train to SJC and I met him there so we could ride back home together.  Unfortunately, Luke missed the train he was supposed to take so we had to wait 1.5 hours til the next one. I spent the wait here:

Finally he showed up and we started on our journey.  By the time we hit Oceanside I was hungry in a pretty serious way.  We stopped and I ate a twix, hot dog, french fries, bites of Luke's fried fish, a Starbucks large coffee drink, and a scoop of rocky road in a waffle cone in rapid succession.  Bad idea!  I thought I was going to barf for the rest of the ride, which was thankfully short.  In Carlsbad, we ran into Tammy, Todd and Don (Team Badass people), who were also out riding.  Fun little surprise.  Finally we made it home and collapsed on the couch.  120 miles in 2 days and I was beat!

Still feeling pretty fatigued today but trying to rehydrate for my swim tonight.

My big birthday boy

Last Thursday, my best running partner and favorite guy (3 way tie for first place with Luke and Rudy.  Okay, maybe Luke is in first, but Hank and Rudy aren't far behind) turned 5.  That's right, my baby is 5 years old!  Can't believe it.  This entire post will be pics of Hank.

When I decided to give Rudy a brother, I decided to get a puppy.  From now on, I'll do rescue exclusively, but RuDog had some issues that weren't immediately apparent and I was worried about adding a dog with an unknown background to the mix.  Anyway, I went to look at a female JRT puppy.  When the pups were released, Hank ran over to me right away and sat down in my lap.  It was love at first sight, for both of us.

Such a cute little guy!

Tiny baby Hank on his first night at home

Look at that naughty little boy

Hank's puppy years were filled with fun and destruction (good bye couch, chairs, pillows, books, remotes, a huge jug of olive oil), a heroin OD (not my fault.  Stupid druggies throwing their drugs on the streets in SF!), a broken leg and lots of adventures.

Little Man loves his ice cream

I know there's a snack in here somewhere!

Sitting in his toy box

Elvis.  I make him wear this every Halloween.

He is way too funny and acts like a little person.

Naps with Mom

Snuggling in his towel after a bath

He loves the beach

Dog Beach, Coronado

and hiking

Lake Berryessa

Auburn

Mission Trails

and, he even rides a bike.

Every time I get on the trainer, he tries to ride on my lap

He's even a super famous supermodel (check out Oh! My dog photography)

I'm totally a crazy dog person, and I'm completely okay with that!  Best training partner in the world.  He's always excited to run, doesn't care about the weather or waking up early or where we go.  He just wants to run.  We could all learn something from the joie de vivre!

Look out for Rudy's special post this October when he turns 8!

Pig ninja power!

More summer time

Okay, here are some more highlights:

Black Mountain more than 15K:
Remember that super crazy hard almost 10 mile run I did about a month ago with Ian from Team Badass and thereisnotri.org?  Well, Team Badass has decided to make that a weekly event.  Hanky Panky and I met up with several of the speedsters and set out on the awesome/horrible/hard/fun run last Friday morning.  Everyone was way faster than me so I was hoofing it just to keep them within sight.  I definitely pushed myself and finished quite a bit faster than last time.  And, I wasn't too sore afterward, unlike last time.  Just some tired quads.  Just a few more days until this week's Black Mountain fun time.

April 7 long ride and Team Badass BBQ:
Last weekend we hosted a Bike and BBQ for some friends.  Everyone met at the Pig Ninja house and we rode up the coast.  Everyone rode between 50 and 70 miles.  I only rode 50 so I could get home and help Luke set up for the BBQ.  Fortunately, I had already prepped a ton of burgers and I made what may be some of the cutest cupcakes of all time.  Did you already know that I'm a total domestic goddess?!

Chick cupcakes

A special chick with bling cupcake I made for my friends Missi and Ian to celebrate their engagement

We ate, drank, engaged in conversations about "chicken bombs" and maggots, watched some rather inappropriate videos once the kids left and had a blast.  In fact, we had so much fun that we made karaoke plans for that evening.  However, about 5 minutes after making the plans and the last guests left, we realized that we were too zombie like to go out and cancelled.  Everyone was relieved :)

Easter Beach Time:
Yay Easter!  We're not religious, so we spent the day at the beach.  We rode cruisers all around Oceanside, ate yummy food and played a ton of frisbee.  Who knew frisbee was so much fun?!  I can't wait to play more!  Sunday was one of those days, and I've been having them frequently, where I'm so excited that I live in San Diego and can't believe (in a good way) that it's my home.  I can run by the ocean, bike by the ocean, swim in the ocean, play frisbee in the sand at the ocean and it's all within a few (okay, 6) miles of my house.  LOVE IT!  Never going to leave.

La Jolla Shores Evening Swim
Last night was my Tri Club's La Jolla Shores Evening swim season opener.  As we all know, I need more swim practice, especially open water!  I met up with the love birds Missi and Ian after work to join the tri club for the swim.  The group split into 2 groups: a beginner group that would parallel the beach and swim not so far and an advanced group that would cover a lot more distance.  Since I haven't been OWS since possibly CdA, I decided to join the beginners' group.  Thank goodness!  It was cold (but not THAT bad) and choppy (to me) and ugh, it was not so easy.  My swimming sucked.  I kept swimming and swimming and it seemed like I wasn't going anywhere.  Of course, the fact that I stopped every 3 strokes or so to doggie paddle and look around probably didn't help.  Hahaha.  Looks like I need to go every week!  I know it will get easier and if I master ocean swimming, fresh water will be that much easier.

The only thing that got me through this was knowing that I got Ethiopian food afterward.  Soooo good.  Fun dinner with Team Badass  friends.  Of course, the dinner conversation was not for polite society.  I learned things I'd never known before (and maybe wish I still didn't know).

On tap for this week:
running, biking, swimming :)

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!