A. Fog. Blog

XTERRA Tahoe City

2011-08-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

This race report catches me up on races until this coming weekend when I "race" XTERRA Portland. Work has sucked up a bunch of my training time and nearly all of my motivation, then I got sick yesterday. So if nothing else, I will be very well-rested for Portland.

XTERRA Tahoe City took place in late June in (tah dah) Tahoe City. This year's plentiful late-season rain at home means snow in the mountains, and we got to find plenty of it.

Swim: about 52 degrees, if the announcer was correct. Apparently it had been warmer the weekend before, but windy weather cooled the surface just in time for our race. Water levels were fairly high though, eliminating the hobble-over-mossy-rocks action that I experienced last time I raced here. Swim was two loops with a short beach run. First loop felt strong despite the ice cream headache, second loop felt sloppy, I think because I was losing control of my extremities. I also saw a craw fish and am getting really good use out of my squid lid this year. I think I was the sixth woman out of the water, seventh to transition because I dropped my goggles and swim caps while I was trying to run and escape my wetsuit with my frozen claw-hands.

Bike: I really need to climb more. And spend time at altitude. And climb at altitude. There is probably a quarter mile of flat-ish road out of transition before you hit a road climb and then transition to a dirt climb. Then you continue to climb, descend a little, climb more, flat, rinse repeat. I kind of hate this course. This years highlights included dust, followed by snow piles, followed by running water and muddy fire road, followed by dust. I don't remember crashing, just lots of cursing. So it was fun.

Run: this run course is heinous. Follow the bike course up the hill. Continue up the hill in a slightly different direction. Keep going up the hill until you run out of hill. Run around at the top of the hill. Run down the hill. I got (continued to be) lazy and ran walked a bunch. I would have been excited about the long descent, except there were big snow piles that were slippery and slightly unnerving, so I kept stopping to tip toe across them.

I was pretty much the last person racing, but got a pint glass because there were only three of us in my AG. I also got a raging sunburn. Souvenirs are fun.

XTERRA Richmond

2011-07-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

I seem to be continuing my blog-slacking streak. Oopsie.

XTERRA Richmond

In early June I packed up the bike and headed east for a long weekend of visiting my mom in Maryland and racing in Richmond. As is to be expected it was HOT and humid, but it was tolerable. Day 1 highlights were puppies, the mini donkey, and Walmart people watching at my mom's small town and mini-zoo. We drove down to Richmond the day before the race, right in time for a thunderstorm that prevented any pre-riding on my part. The restaurant we found for dinner was fabulous though, so I really don't mind.

Swim: this was probably the most comical swim leg of a triathlon ever. It takes place in the James River in the middle of the city, and the start takes place under a railroad bridge. The water was silty brown, so visibility was about 6 inches. The riverbed is studded with massive boulders, some completely submerged, some poking out like icebergs. The course is shaped more like a star than anything, so there are plenty of opportunities to change direction to fight or take advantage of the current. We were warned about the current repeatedly, but I didn't find it to be any worse than in Waco. The water temp in the James was about 75 degrees, which is waaaaay too hot for my tastes, even without wetsuits. I came out of the water 4th in my AG, after getting fairly battered on submerged boulders and the like. There was a submerged sandbar in the middle of the river, so I swam over and ran across it to avoid the current for a bit. I wasn't the only one.

Photo: XTERRA

Bike: This bike course was FUN! It takes place in an urban park, so there were plenty of man-made obstacles to ride over, under and through. Almost exclusively singletrack, and almost always under tree cover, this is my kind of riding. While there were no giant climbs like we tend to have at the western races, there were plenty of rolling hills and enough techy steep climbs to make life difficult. We rode over ramps and bridges, through tunnels, dodged trees, crossed streams, and navigated roots and rock gardens for two glorious laps. I had one crash where I lost my front wheel on a slick bit of rock, resulting in a bruised arm, scraped knee, and a bruised nose from impact from my glasses. I almost got run over by World Champ Conrad Stoltz.

Photo: XTERRA

The cool part of it being a two lap course (and my being slow?) was I got lapped by the pros. Shonny and Melanie were together when I saw them, and I later found out Shonny put another 3 minutes on Mel for a pretty decisive win. The not-so-cool part was the heat, which was definitely getting to me as the day warmed up.

Run: The run was the least fun part. It was nearly all exposed (read: boiling hot) and a lot of it was on sidewalks and gravel roads. There is a section called the Mayan Ruins that features giant railroad ties as stairs, and requires some scrambling to get up. Another fun section was over sometimes-submerged river rocks, where the "trail" was little more than arrows painted on the ground. A ladder to climb out completed that bit.

I didn't qualify for anything, and didn't race or place particularly well, but I had a blast and will do it again. Next time I'd like to pre-ride, and I may have to seek out some heat for training to help deal with the eastern summer temps.

Next up, XTERRA Tahoe City!

XTERRA Pacific Championships

2011-05-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I raced the inaugural XTERRA Pacific Championships, in Santa Cruz, CA. Happily, this race's proximity to my home meant I got to sleep in my own bed! That was, however, probably the most comfortable part of the day.

The forecast was for rain, and we got it, along with wind and a sunburn (for me, anyway). It was raining over Hwy 17 as I drove in, but instead of constant cloud cover, it was little mini storms floating along in clear skies. That kind of weather makes gear planning a little tough.

Swim: 1500 meters in the ocean, alongside the Santa Cruz Wharf. Oh my, that was cold. In retrospect it probably wasn't as cold as the REAL race in March, but the time in the water was longer, so more time to feel the affects. As per XTERRA usual, the swim was two loops with a short run in the middle. First loop felt good. I stopped for a bit on the second loop to pee (I didn't foresee having a better opportunity to do so for the rest of the day), and lost the group I had been swimming with, and a little of my mojo. The second loop felt sloppy and I got off course a bit. The weather was also deteriorating at that point, so things were more choppy than they had been.

I went through T1 feeling completely swim-drunk, and shoved my numb feet into my shoes for the ride.

Bike: the absolute hardest part of this leg mentally was the mostly-flat road section right out of T1. I was so cold that I didn't feel I could move my legs, and we were riding into a headwind that didn't make things any warmer. I kept trying to jump on wheels as people passed me, and I just couldn't get my legs to keep up. So frustrating!

I had pre-ridden the course a couple times prior to race day, so I knew what to expect. The only thing that was different was that the overnight rains had turned the dirt to mud, so some of the previously fast sections were pretty sketchy. My bike split was slower than I would have liked, but the mud and the weather definitely had a hand in that. The storm that was headed in struck when i was at the top of the course, so my descent in to T2 was in the rain. Brrrrrrr!

Run: this actually went pretty well. I kept my riding vest on as I headed out of T2, because it was still raining and I needed all the clothing I could get. After about 10 minutes, the sun came out, and I got a little too toasty a couple times. I only got caught by one person, and I managed to hold him off until the finish. The run was mostly flat, enabling me to find a rhythm and slog it out. The only "XTERRA" section of the run entailed running down a cliff, running across a little beach (ugh, sand), and scrambling back up the cliff on the other side. Super fun, I hope they add more sections like this in the future.

I crossed the line about 5 minutes slower than my time goal, and was told I got fourth in my age group. Just missed the podium! When results were posted online on Monday, I was listed in 3rd place. Awesome, but a little bummed I didn't get the podium pic, as it was my first legitimate, I-didn't-get-last, podium at one of the big XTERRA races. Oh well.

Next up is XTERRA East Champs in Richmond Virginia. Fingers crossed for a Maui slot!!!

Race Reports

2011-05-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Since the last post (which was way too long ago), I raced XTERRA REAL in Folsom, skipped XTERRA West Champs in Vegas, raced XTERRA South Central Champs in Waco, TX, and skipped ITU Worlds in Spain. Life got in the way, and skipping a few races turned out to be the smarter choice.

XTERRA REAL took place on the first non-rainy day after a 2-week deluge. To say it was muddy was an understatement. As the bf put it, it was "the kind of conditions that make drive trains cry." The race was the day after my birthday, and the weekened that my dad happened to be in the Bay Area, so I had my favorite cheerleader in tow.

Swim: water temp was 48 degrees. That was extremely unpleasant, but is good incentive to haul ass so you can get out quickly.

Bike: Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. I had one good crash, an endo about 50 feet outside of transition. running water obscured a hole and I stuffed my front wheel into it. The two-loop course featured running-water singletrack, mud pits that swallowed whole wheels, and carnage galore. I managed to escape largely unscathed, and proceeded to get stuck in my bike shoes for about ten minutes in transition because the buckles were jammed. I recruited two guys to literally pull the left shoe off my foot. Not an ideal situation.

Run: Started off feeling pretty good, but I think a lot of that was adrenalin from the shoe incident. After a mile or so I lost my motivation, and slogged it in.

Finished 2nd out of 2, about ten minutes back, curiously close to the time I lost with my shoe. Oh well! It was fun because it was so ridiculous, and still one of my favorite courses.

XTERRA South Central in Waco was a bit of a mess. I had skipped the Vegas race the previous weekend because recent events had left me feeling a little run down. The Waco course is better suited to my strengths (less climbing, more technical) so I decided to make the trip. I managed to slice the tip of my finger off in my rental car in Austin, which left me wondering if I should proceed with the race at all.

Swim: declared wet-suit legal at the last minute, I think someone was being generous. I raced this last year with no wetsuit, and decided to try it with this year. It was toasty. Swim is in a river, half with the current, half against. Any time the tree cover gave way to sunlight, I started baking in my suit. It felt like the swim took forever, but I guess that's to be expected since I had been skipping the pool.

Bike: fun course, but I never felt like I got my bearings. No real crashes, but not a great performance either. This course is strange in that it is so twisty and tree-covered that you hardly see anyone on the course. I kept thinking I was off-course or the last person racing, luckily I was wrong on both counts.

Run: this run course starts out with a climb up a giant staircase, which is best navigated usings ones hands and feet. The rest of the course is a mix of pavement and trails, and I looked forward to seeing other people, just to have something to try to catch. At some point during the race I irritated my left shoulder, and by the end of the run it had become very painful

I finished 5th in my age group, made a beeline for the med tent to clean my finger, and got a massage to relieve the issue in my shoulder. I now have a massage therapist in Dallas, should I ever need one, who thinks I'm tough. So random. I also made friends with a girl in TX who lives in Redwood City, and we have gone riding a few times since. It's a small world, after all.

Next up is the brand-new XTERRA Pacific Championships in Santa Cruz. I even get to sleep in my own bed!

New Year, New Goals

2011-01-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011!

I am happily amazed at how different the arrival of 2011 was than that of 2010. The start of last year brought months of tears, feelings of betrayal, and a terrifying bout of unemployment before it all turned around in April. This year, despite a head cold I picked up while visiting family in Minnesota, I rang in the new year feeling loved, content, and confident in myself and my loved ones. Oh, and asleep, but that's neither here nor there.

Apparently I didn't make any goals for 2010, but I'd like to write something down for 2011. Here goes:

1. Take steps to improve my resume. Specifically, look into and start down the path of APICS Certification and/or a business degree.

2. Do a better job of sticking to my training plans. I have an awesome coach, and I have been guilty of failing to follow her plan 100%. I saw significant gains in my racing in 2010, and I believe I can do better in 2011.

3. Race in Spain in April. I don't care if I race well or not, I would just like to enjoy the experience.

4. Take a minimum of 5 minutes off my race time at all XTERRAs I race this year. For Nationals, I want to take off 15 min. I'd also like to qualify for XTERRA Worlds, if possible.

5. Yoga. Lots of yoga.

6. Pay off debt. Have at least one bill wiped out by June.

None of these goals are outside the realm of what I'm already doing, I just want to be sure I continue down the path I've started.

All the best in 2011!

It has been a while.

2010-11-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Life has changed fairly dramatically since my last post. In February I was laid off, and I got a new job in April. The job has allowed me to grow in many ways, and best of all is still supportive of my spending my weekends racing. Lunch rides and after-work rides are common, and I have easy access to my favorite places to ride. Life could be much worse.

Since I last posted, here's a little re-cap of my races:

2009 (October) XTERRA Nationals: I still felt the effects of the Ironman and the day was a death march. I was undertrained for Coeur d'Alene, and dug myself into a pretty big hole physically. I think I'll keep Ironman off my radar for a few more years.

2010 (April) XTERRA Real: 3rd place podium, had a pretty good race despite a sizeable crash. The two and three a-day unemployment workouts did me well.

*Somewhere between these races I figured out that I can race in the heat. My being miserable is offset by having good legs. This lesson turned out to be helpful.

2010 (May) XTERRA South Central Championships (Waco TX): Missed the podium by 1 second. Got out-sprinted at the line by a girl from San Diego, who has since become a FB friend. Loved the course, did ok in the heat and humidity. Didn't get a slot to XTERRA Worlds in Maui, but qualified for the 2011 ITU Cross-Tri (offroad triathlon) World Champs in Spain. I'm hoping to go, so there are probably some yard sale/bake sale/pan-handling events in my future. And I'm cool with that.

2010 (August) XTERRA Portland: I love this race. Drove up and stayed with my relatives which was nice, and enjoyed(?) the 100-degree weather the Portland area was having. I got 3rd in my age group and discovered that my feet cramp when I am dehydrated.

2010 (September) XTERRA Nationals (Ogden, UT): I flew out and met my dad (just like last year) and overall had a much better race. I took 19 minutes off my time from 2009, and again had a decent crash. This one resulted in an exploding GU packet that I swear is related to that bag that Mary Poppins pulls full-sized lamps from. It was absolutely everywhere. I discovered yesterday, more than a month after the race, that my helmet has a spotty coating of Pineapple Gu on the top. Go me. I didn't do anything crazy in the standings, and I got beat by the girl who beat me in Waco, but I'm encouraged by the improvements and looking forward to taking more time off next year.

Now that the bruises have healed and I took a month off just to be lazy (I seriously just rode my bike yesterday) I am gearing up to start it all over again. I have another month of unstructured (aka impulsive) training, then I'm back on schedule with Coach Felicia to focus on the Spain race.

There might even be some blogging.

Race Attempt: XTERRA Lake Tahoe

2009-09-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was weird. I had registered for XTERRA Lake Tahoe after Portland because I thought I might need more points to get to Nationals. Like two days after I registered I got my invite to Nationals, but decided to go to Tahoe anyway because I had already paid. My friend Carrie was supposed to come and it was going to be all fun and road-trippy.

It was a little different than that.

Carrie had to fire two people at her job so she had to stay home and cover their shifts. I had booked a hotel already, so was just going to go solo. On Thursday my friend S (we have met/facebooked/seen each other in yoga class, but had never hung out) came to the shop and asked if I just wanted to go with her and her friend D that were both racing. I said sure, but she had to drive because I didn't have enough room in the car for three people and bikes and stuff.

She picked me up Friday morning and informed me after we left that she had no AC in her car. We had to drive through the valley. It was really really hot even before we got to the valley. Shit. Not good.

It was really hot.

We picked up D in Stockton, and it turns out I had met him in Folsom in March this year. He wanted to go swimming at UoP and it was hot so we did. I got sunburned. Eventually we got back on the road and were really hot. I got a popsicle in Auburn, and was only mildly uncomfortable by the time we got to Incline Village. We stayed at D's friend's house, and I sat around while S and D worked on their bikes.

We picked up packets and got dinner Friday night, and had an extensive debate over where people would be sleeping. D took the couch, S the air mattress, and I took the floor.

Race morning I went pee and it was orange. I don't handle the heat well at all.

I tried to eat and drink but had the usual race morning jitters, packed my stuff up and waited around because D kept forgetting things and made us late. We got to the race at 7:15, and the race started at 8:00. So not good for my control freak sensibilities.

I rushed through setting up my transition, body marking, and getting into my wetsuit, found Dave and Meiling (my XTERRA usuals) and headed to the water with Meiling. This was the same course as XTERRA Nationals last year, without the 35 degree weather and recent rain. The trek from transition to the water was a long one, and I didn't bring shoes. I got in the water for a couple minutes, but had to get out and line up before I got much warm up time.

The swim: 1500 meters (two loops, beach run)

Nothing terribly noteworthy. I felt steady, didn't get clobbered, saw a crayfish (or crawdad? I don't know). Felt like crap on the beach run, second loop was more of the same. I love swimming in that lake, the water is so beautifully clear and even tastes good. Ran/walked towards transition while I wrestled with my wetsuit.

Meiling was already in transition. WTF?!?! She has never beat me out of the water! Right after I got there, Dave arrived. Apparently that was a terrible swim for me.

The bike: 22 miles of climbing galore.

I felt like hell. On the long climbs I had no power. My eyes wouldn't focus fully. Walking took more effort than usual. I thought about quitting every five minutes, but there are no easy bail-outs on the course so you might as well finish. What was fast smooth single track last year was deep sand this year. It was hot. It was a full-on trudge-fest.

I don't remember my foot starting to hurt at any one point, I just remember it killing me. Walking hurt, weighting the foot hurt, and standing up while descending was killer. I finally made it back to transition and couldn't put weight on the ball of my left foot. I sat down at my transition and burst into tears. Meiling, who was already done with the whole race, rushed over and took me to the medical tent where they gave me pain killers and ice. I probably sat there for an hour, enough time for Dave to finish, awards to be held, and the food line to die down.

I didn't run.

Finishing the race wouldn't make or break anything, and Nationals was a month away. If something was really wrong, running might just make it worse.

*************************************************

After the race S, D, and D's friend Nick decided they wanted to go to the beach. Apparently I didn't get the memo that we weren't going back to the house after the race, so I hung out in my race suit for four hours or so, while they hung out in clean clothes. I got sunburned. Nick turned out to be an apparently well-known MMA fighter, so we learned all about boxing and crap like that. Eventually everyone decided they were hungry, and S and I both had to convince D that we should go back to the house, seeing as I was still wearing a chamois.

My three cohorts decided they wanted to have sushi for dinner, and I agreed since most sushi places have non-fish options. This place had no such options. I had vegetable tempura and edamame for dinner. The chef came over to geek out over Nick and offered him and his friends "treats" (apparently weed-laced desserts). So random.

At about 8:30 S and I finally headed home. It was still hot in the valley. I got home at about 12:30.

I think I'm still dehydrated.

Not my favorite weekend.

XTERRA Portland Race Report

2009-08-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

After about a month of shlumping around and not wanting to do anything, I decided I needed to get back into the racing routine. I got a new coach, a new bike (the pink bike is moving on), and a new race focus. First up: XTERRA Portland.

I have family just south of Portland that were more than happy to put me up for a couple days, so I packed up the trusty old Corolla, and drove up to Pleasanton on Wednesday night for my Thursday morning departure. I figured getting past most of the potential Bay Area traffic spots would make my morning a little shinier. It did. Thursday morning I re-packed the car, picked up a breakfast burrito, water, and Diet Dr. Pepper, and hit the road.

The drive wasn't bad, I got to work on my car singing in a big way. Snapped pictures of Mount Shasta as I drove by, and kept my front seat stocked with a variety of car food. My friend Katy from Fresno was taking a road trip to Seattle and was about six hours ahead of me, so it was kind of fun to see where she was in relation to me (via FB status, of course). I stopped in Eugene to visit my friend Andy and to stretch my legs for about half an hour. I had my first run in with the "Oregon is full-service" gas stations, and made it my aunt Mike and Mary's house in time for a late-ish dinner.

Friday I hung out with my uncle (who very accurately compared himself to Shrek, he's a freaking giant), visited with my grandparents who I hadn't seen in years, saw my other aunt Mary Della who was going in for back surgery while I was racing, and went to (Mike's) Mary's vet hospital, where I was forced to play with a Corgi puppy, watch a Mastiff get X-rayed, and assist in a Poodle's ultrasound. Terrible stuff, I tell you!

Saturday morning I got all geared up and drove to the race venue. It was being held at a lake south-west of Portland, and my mapquest directions were two pages long, so I was nervous about getting there in time. For some reason Mapquest had me avoid all major roadways and take farm roads, which was pretty, but a little weird. All went smoothly and I ended up getting there way too early. Oh well!

Once the race people got check-in set up I picked up my packet and set up my transition, then sat around a bunch. I ran into one of my customers and his girlfriend who were racing, so at least I knew someone. They introduced me to a girl that moved from the Bay Area to Portland last year and had just done an Ironman, and we compared "I have literally only swam/biked/run XX times since the race" stories. She was nice.

The pre-race meeting was interesting. This was the first time an XTERRA had been put on in the Portland area, so the race organizers were definitely hoping they did things right. The website didn't say if wetsuits were allowed. The race director informed us that the water was warm enough that the pros were not allowed to wear suits, and age groupers were REQUIRED to wear suits, per USA Triathlon rules. People freaked out. Some baggy swim trunk-clad hillbilly guy started screaming at the race director. Someone eventually informed the race director that the actual USAT rule was that suits were optional, so Mr. Swim Trunks could relax.

When the race director described the bike course he said "at one point you will come to a sign saying 'Bridge is out' and an arrow pointing to a detour toward the left. You are going right. Mandatory dismount, cross the bridge, and scale the cliff on the other side."

Hmmmmm....that's different.

The swim: 1000 meters

Nothing terribly eventful here. The beach start was spread out enough that there wasn't much traffic, and things went pretty smoothly. I got out of the water feeling surprisingly good considering my lack of swim training lately. There was one weird spot getting out of the water where the regular dirt stopped and the beach started that required stepping up a 3 foot embankment. It was slippery when I got to it, and apparently as more people used it, it got so slick that people were falling on their faces and coming into transition covered in mud.

T1 took way too long.

The bike: supposed to be 25k

OMG, it was freaking gorgeous! We started out on the road, heading counter-clockwise around the lake, and dropped into some singletrack that took us back in a clockwise direction. I saw one girl in my age group go by me on the road section, and dropped into the singletrack behind another girl in my AG. I stayed on her wheel through the section. When we got spit back out on the road, I think she was a little freaked out as we had seen a guy that destroyed his front wheel, and the course was super twisty and rooty and technical (and awesome!)

We continued heading clockwise around the lake, riding short road sections and dropping into the trees. It was seriously the best singletrack I have ridden. There were bridge crossings, short steep climbs, mud, trees, meadows, and awesome descents. I stopped to check on one lady who had crashed and cut her knee open, and was afraid another guy was hurt, but turned out to be picking and eating blackberries mid-race. I picked off another girl in my AG, but knew the super fast girl was still up there. As far as I knew I was still on the podium!

Way at the end of the bike leg (which was at least two miles longer than it was supposed to be) we came to the bridge detour. What used to be a bridge with a railing (just like one I had earlier crashed into with my hip) was just two 2x6 planks covered with wire for traction over a stream. I shouldered my bike and walked across, only to be faced with a wall of dirt. About 15 feet above where I was standing was where we were supposed to continue on our way. I didn't see a way up...WTF? I let a guy who was behind me go in front and watched him shoulder his bike with one arm and pull himself up the wall using tiny foot holes and a rope that was hanging from a tree at the top. Holy crap! I hauled myself up, thanking my lack of self-control for having a light bike and laughing with the girl that was behind me. Shortly thereafter, we arrived in transition once again.

T2 was faster than the first one, but still slow.

The run: originally 4.35 miles, extended to 5.5 miles on race morning.

The run sucked for a couple of reasons. I didn't eat enough on the bike so I was pretty cooked by the time I got to the run. The course was two loops that started with singletrack, had a long section on the road, and hooked back onto the dirt that was made treacherous with lumps of grass and rocks and bees. I didn't get hurt or stung, but I had no energy and walked more than I would like to admit. I got passed by one girl in my AG that I know was behind me, and saw the speedy girl finishing her second lap as I was out on my first.

I crossed the line, changed, got in line for the free BBQ and waited for the awards. They must have had someone protest or something and I waited for an hour and a half to hear my AG results and never did. I packed back up and went to my uncle's house to shower and eat some more. We spent more time with my grandparents, and all went to bed early.

Sunday morning we went out to breakfast to celebrate my uncle's birthday, and I got back in the car and headed south. As usual, my post-race traffic tolerance level was lacking, and I subjected a few people to some whiney phone calls (sorry guys). When I was almost back to Pleasanton a Subaru pulled up next to me with a waving arm hanging out the window. It was Katy!!! Apparently her road trip included a stop in Pleasanton as well, but it was super random!

When the results were finally posted I found out that I got 4th in my AG out of 11 starters (10 finishers). Considering this was my new fast age group and my lack of training, I'm very happy with the result!

All in all it was an awesome trip that I will definitely try to do again next year!

Next weekend: XTERRA Lake Tahoe!

My awesome Iron-sign!

2009-08-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

THE RUN!

2009-08-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

A cute little old lady helped me get situated for the run, and didn't even bat an eye as I smeared Bodyglide on various sensitive areas. She had obviously been around the athletes all day! I donned my race belt, a long-sleeved top, shoes, socks, and a hat, and hit the road.

Holy gimpy, I was not moving fast. Within a couple miles I had nasty heartburn again any time I ran, so I ran/walked to keep things from getting to the point of vomiting. I'm not good at only puking once, and I was afraid that if I started I wouldn't be able to stop. Enter the power-walker.

It took forever. It was raining, and windy, and cold. I stopped to pee about a billion times. At first I was doing the civilized thing and getting undressed in the bathrooms, but after a while I decided that was a waste of time and just peed through my shorts. It was raining any way. Coming back in from my first loop someone gave me a space blanket, which I wore like a super-stylish silver cape. The Coke and pretzels and cookies went down well. The broth did not, something about the broth smell mixed with the styrofoam smell was no bueno. I saw my dad and brother a little before the half way point. It had been a while since I had eaten and I burst into tears, telling my dad I was SURE my foot was broken (because absolutely everything hurt at this point, my feet especially). He told me he understood, but he really didn't think it was broken, and he thought I should eat something. Of course I told him I was NOT hungry!!! Then I went and ate a bunch. At one of the aid stations I was ambushed by a mother/daughter volunteer team, who removed my poncho, cut a hole in it for my head, and put it and another plastic poncho over my head. They used my race belt to strap it all down, and sent me on my way with a hand-full of cookies.

The next time I saw my dad I was all smiles, and walking fast enough that they couldn't easily catch up with me. They might think I'm bi-polar.

After I saw them I got to the long, lonely part of the run, which runs alongside the lake. There are fewer spectators there, and it felt like forever. Just as it started to get dark I saw a guy walking past me in the opposite direction that looked a lot like Elliott. I was confused, as I was sure he would have been done by then. I turned around looked again, and he was wearing cargo shorts and carrying car keys, and was walking with a healthy limp - it WAS him! I called his name and he hobbled over, very happy to see me. Apparently my family and my friends weren't communicating well, so no one knew my dad had just seen me. Elliott had driven out to the turn around point to look for me. New boy had been tracking me online and it had been a long time since any updates were posted, so he was calling people in a panic. Elliott called him to say that he had found me, we talked for a bit, I told him Ironman was stupid, all while I continued my power walk/hobble. Once I reached the turn around and was headed toward the finish (albeit about 5 miles away) Elliott left me in the dark so he could pick up his wife and meet me at the finish. I fell in with a group of people that were walking and jogging, and stayed with them for about a mile before I decided they were going too slow. I was given glow sticks to wear because it was dark. They set off my plastic attire quite nicely.

About a mile from the finish, in the twisty little neighborhood, my brother found me. He and my dad had figured I would be there soon, so he started at the finish and started walking the course backward to come in with me. I apologized for keeping him out there ALL day, and he told me to shut-up, and that he was proud of me. It was awesome. He convinced me to run down to the finish. I did, until the huge blister I had been brewing exploded between my big and next-biggest toe and I almost fell down. Scared the crap out of my brother!

I re-evaluated my running-to-the-finish plan and only ran the last block. Someone suggested I take all the plastic off. I was too lazy. In retrospect, I would have had much better pictures had I listened.

The finish chute was AMAZING. It was 11pm and there were still hundreds of people sitting in the bleachers, cheering for the finishers. The noise was overwhelming. People were hanging over the sides, reaching out to high-five, and going nuts. So unbelievably awesome.

Once I crossed the line, a woman escorted to the chip removal, medal giving, and picture taking stations. I removed my plastic for that picture. Elliott and his wife, Greg and his family, and my family were all there to watch me finish. So cool. Elliott took me to the massage tent where they had a heater(!) and pizza. The massage sucked and my stomach couldn't handle the pizza, but it was good to get off my feel for a minute.

I about froze when I came out of the heated tent and made my brother give me his jacket. Poor kid. He and I went to get my bags and bike while my dad got the car. I got a painfully violent case of the hiccups while we drove to the house.

My room was upstairs. So not cool. I took a shower and climbed in bed, only to sleep like crap because moving hurt. I woke up at 6 am. Elliott was already up. Ironman does weird things to sleep. We packed up and picked up various bits and pieces, went to the awards because Elliott had done a 9:42 which was good for third in his AG and a Kona slot. I dropped off my rental car, tried to figure out a way to use my rolly suitcase for locomotion through the airport, and got on my first plane. The guy next to me was creepy, but I fell asleep before we took off. When we were leaving the plane he told me to go first (to stare at my ass? I don't know), I told him it would take forever.
Him: Wow, you're really limping! *sarcastically* What, did you do the Ironman or something? *sneer*
Me: Yes.
Him: Oh! *looks like he realizes he's an ass* Holy crap!

Douche.

I limped around the Seattle airport and ate crappy airport food until my next flight. New boy was picking me up from the airport, which I was excited about. I hobbled off the plane and hit the bathroom, finally making it out to where he was waiting, WITH A SIGN! No one has ever made me a sign! It was a good one too! I'll have to post it for you.

He was disappointed I took so long getting off the plane because he wanted to embarrass me in front of a bunch of people. Ha! Too bad for him, all the people were gone!

The next day at work, while Elliott and I compared how swollen our bodies and feet were, flowers and balloons were delivered to the shop. From new boy. While he was there.

He gets soooooo many brownie points.

Later a second bouquet showed up from my dad and step mom. I love my people.

****************************************

It seems I have finally made it out of my Iron-funk and the race it starting to be a good experience in my mind. There are so many things I can do better next time. I'm going to work on getting fast before I try to go that long again though.

The rest of this year will be XTERRA and half irons, and next year will probably be the same.

Coming soon, XTERRA Portland race report!

Woo hoo! The computer didn't crash!

THE BIKE

2009-08-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

Seems I need to get on this whole Iron-race blogging thing, as I raced again last weekend and have another next weekend. Oopsie!

Hopefully my computer will refrain from crashing long enough to get through the rest of the race!

Ok, so it's all windy and grey, and I'm about to go for a bike ride. I took off, willing myself to calm down and settle in, since it was going to be a long day. I really didn't want to be racing to make the cut-offs, and all my on-the-bike math made that seem pretty unlikely, barring total disaster.

I was disheartened to note that the first little hill came up before I was warmed up, but it let me see lots of the run course, and where special needs was. I had thought about putting a vest on before the start of the bike leg, or putting one in my special needs bag, but decided against it at the last minute. Fairly early on in the ride I discovered that I had mixed too much Perpetuem powder in my bottles, making them too thick to drink easily, and giving me heart burn every time I drank them (I'm sure the lake water and being in the aero position didn't help matters much). This put a bit of a kink in my nutrition plans, but I figured I would take in as much as I could, and use the aid stations to get extra calories along the way. A little ways past special needs I heard a metallic clank and saw something fly off my bike, which turned out to be my CO2 cartridges. I stopped and got them, as having to beg supplies in the event of a flat would not be good.

Mentally the first loop was definitely easier, as I had done the half distance before, and breaking it into a 56 mile chunk was much less daunting. Everything was all happy and shiny, until I got to the hills. Greg had made the hills sound like a bit of a pain in the ass, and one of my customers had said they were no big deal, one descent got you enough momentum to get over the next climb without much additional work. I had chosen to believe my customer. Unfortunately, Greg was right. The climbs were all pretty short, but some were a little steep for my liking, and they were definitely not close together enough to allow for coasting. Suck-tastic. Fortunately, there were lots of spectators and signs and pretty things to look at, so I was able to distract myself a little bit. Someone had put little signs that said "Legs of Zeus" on all the especially ugly climbs, so I had an idea of what was coming next.

After what seemed like forever, I made it out of the hilly parts, and headed back into town. The wind was picking up more and more, and I was definitely getting cold, so I refrained from stopping to pee or stretch or anything, in fear of having a hypothermia repeat. I rolled through town, where the thousands of people make you feel like a rock star, and headed back out towards the special needs stop. There were a couple of Hammer Bars in my back that totally had my name on them. The volunteers were awesome, and had my bag ready when I pulled over, but I opted to sit on the ground for a bit and scarf down my snacks. The pavement was warm-ish, and my legs appreciated the break. I had also packed a more dilute bottle of Perpetuem in special needs, which might have been the best-tasting thing ever, right at that moment.

The downside to stopping for that long was I cooled down, and once I got going again I was freaking freezing. There was no bathroom at the special needs station, and the next aid station was a couple miles down the rode, so the next goal was just to make it there. I was so cold I cried a little, fearing I would get hypothermic again. Happily, I did not. I pulled over at the bathroom and a medic girl held my bike while I waddled over to the porta-potty. There was no wind in there. It was a happy place (except for the obvious toilet stuff), and I stayed in there for probably a bit longer than was necessary. When I came out the medic girl looked all concerned, and had one of her medic guys with her. They seemed to think I was puking in there. It took a few minutes to convince them I was ok, just cold.

Miles 65 through about 95 were the hardest for me mentally. I was tired and it was a big jump from half way to all the way there. The wind was worse, making descending in my aero bars super scary, and the hilly section of the course felt like it was deserted. I knew I wasn't in last or anything, but with that few people around it felt like it. I walked a little section of one of the Zeus hills. I didn't want to feel anymore burn. The hilly section felt a little shorter the second time around, and the specators were getting drunker, so there was a little bit of entertainment.

The last few miles were fun, with all the spectators, and the knowledge that I was almost done. I rolled into the bike with plenty of time before the cut-off, handed my bike to the guy taking bikes, and hobbled over to the changing tent just as it started to rain.

The Swim

2009-07-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

I woke up race morning with nerves so jittery that I could barely control my gag reflex. Food sounded disgusting, and it took me a good 10 minutes to down a few electrolyte tabs. I forced down most of a bagel and assorted tid bits, mixed up my energy/protein drinks for the bike and run, packed up my special needs bags, and headed down to the start with Elliott. It was effing WINDY (the days prior to the race we noticed that wind on the lake had to be pretty bad to make it up to our house. Race morning had the trees whipping around and grey skies. I might be an Iron-weather jinx. Suck.)

I managed to find my dad and brother in all the mayhem, who were quickly tasked with holding my stuff while I dropped bags off and stood in porta-potty lines. My brother made fun of me while I applied anti-chafe goo in some of my more sensitive areas (I was dressed, we are not THAT kind of family), I hopped into my wetsuit, and I jumped into the line of racers shuffling towards the entrance to the beach.

The line to the beach took FOREVER. Five minutes to go and there were still hundreds of people stuck on the walkway to the beach. I'm pretty sure I was on the sand for less than two minutes before we took off. Not a great way to stay calm!

I have no idea where I was along the edge of the lake because it was so congested, but I started a couple people back from the water line, figuring that would keep me from getting stuck behind the really slow swimmers and I wouldn't get run over by the fast people. In hindsight, I'm not sure it really mattered where I was.

The gun went off and everyone splashed into the water, just like we always do. My heart rate sky-rocketed, just like it always does. This time, however, I couldn't get a rhythm and couldn't call down. After maybe ten minutes (it's hard to be accurate when one is underwater) of hyperventilating I admitted to myself I was having a panic attack and sat up. It took like three minutes of treading water and "I should just turn around and go home" thoughts before I got back in a normal breathing pattern and was able to resume the race. Happily, I got punched/mauled/run over less as a person treading water in the middle of chaos than I did while swimming. I think a big part of the panic attack was due to the fact that there were sizeable swells coming toward the beach, so we got that lovely rising-and-dropping feeling along with all the insanity. Most of the time sighting was pointless because all you could see was the next wave.

Some first-lap highlights include head-butting a buoy post-panic (mental dialogue: "hmmm....wonder what that yellow rope is for? Crap!!!!"), kicking some dude in what I think were his balls after he wouldn't get off my back, having people moo as everyone turned the second corner, and feeling like a rock star riding the waves back in toward the beach.

After the first lap we had to run up the beach briefly (a la XTERRA) then run back into the water. There was a man curled up in the fetal position on the beach with a bunch of medics around him. SO not confidence inspiring.

On the second lap I managed to avoid the buoys and I don't recall having to kick anyone, but the wind was getting worse and the waves rougher, so going was slow. I remember having what I thought was a wave crash over my back at the second turn point, but I'm told it was the helicopter hovering low to get a good shot. Thanks for that, guys.

After all that, I took three minutes off my IM Wisconsin swim time, so that was pretty cool. I headed up to the wetsuit strippers, got stripped, grabbed my bag, and had a volunteer help me get dressed for a nice little bike ride....

Coeur d'Alene Race Report!!!!!

2009-07-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

I just read Tasha's (The Thighmaster Route to Kona...over there ----->) race report and I cried and decided to get on it and start my own. Here goes...

I flew to CDA on Wednesday before the race, thinking giving myself time to settle in would be helpful. New boy dropped me off at the airport, flight was uneventful. I got into Spokane around dinner time, picked up my first ever(!) rental car, and headed east towards CDA. Ten minutes later I pulled over and got dinner because I was starving and shaking, and got the requisite pitiful looks from restaurant goers because I was eating alone. Whatever. Once I got to CDA I met up with Greg (a customer who was also racing) and his family in their RV, and spent the night in the front half with his 10 year old daughter.

Thursday we went down from the expo and checked in, getting our race numbers and all that. Working retail has sucked all the fun out of race expos since I can usually get the same stuff cheaper, so I didn't buy anything. Elliott and Co. got into town that afternoon, which was a very good thing as I was about to strangle Greg. I take the Ostrich approach to racing in that I like to pretend it's not looming on the horizon, and Greg's type-A "I must go down to the lake for the 100th time to determine the proper angle to approach the waves today" mentality was really cramping my style. Seriously people, the water's going to be the same amount of wet whether you pre-swim it or not. Might as well stay warm and dry, don't you think?

When Elliott's fam showed up we checked in to the house that we were sharing, which was special. Sharing with his fam was fine, but the house itself was a little weird. The theme of the kitchen decor was apparently "stuff as many chickens as possible into one little room." Chicken wall paper, lace curtains, statues, you name it. Plus plaid carpeting...even in the cabinets. Oy. The rest of the house was equally country-cutesy, with the exception of my bedroom and the basement. I had the joy of inhabiting the Pulp Fiction/Mohammed Ali/nuclear mushroom cloud room, and the basement was lovely in its rifles-and-deer-parts splendor, with a chicks-with-whips-and-leather poster for good measure. Yeah. It was that good.

Friday entailed picking my dad and brother up from their hotel and making fun of the house with them, eating, and making excuses when asked if I'd like to go for a ride or run. Pre-ride? Ha! No thanks, ignorance is bliss!! One of the days (I think it was Friday) Elliott and I decided to try to find a grocery store. We got lost for 35 minutes and had to ask a toothless man who barely spoke English where to go. We later found out that the reason it was so hard to find was there was no longer any street leading up to the store. While checking out we decided that geography lessons may be in order for the high schoolers in town, since the girls at the store thought Wales was either in Canada or in the South America vicinity.

Eventually Elliott's wife's parents and brother showed up, making meals a big production. Happily, all of the non-racers had done this before, so us lazy racers didn't have to do much more than change the channel and show up for meals. That there is the real reason I race!

Saturday was more of the same, along with the pre-race getting the bike ready session (where my dad insisted on holding the bike up and asking questions...so cute), and dropping off bikes and gear bags. My nerves were starting to get to me. Holy crap. Race day is near!

I promise I will write a proper race report eventually

2009-07-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

So I finished the Ironman. It was hard. Not that it is surprising, hard is kind of the point.

I probably should be more excited about the whole thing, but I'm really not. I'm a little embarassed. I think I should have done better. I KNOW I should have trained better, but there were things I could have done or not done that would have made a difference. I feel like I want to put it behind me and move on, which is impossible since everyone wants to talk about it.

Ev-ry-one.

I almost have a new coach with seemed all shiny and cool because it could be my post-iron new start, but all he wanted to talk about was why I sucked (not really, he wouldn't say that) and chastise me for not training enough. Guess what? I already knew that. Let's just chalk it up to a learning experience and move right along, k?

So between now and when I have time to sit down and blog again, I will leave you with an extremely abbreviated version of my "race"

Swim: "Aw crap here we go...holy crap waves...panic attack...swim swim swim....kick some guy in the balls....swim...run...swim...waves are bigger....gonna die...swim..swim...yay done!"

Bike: "Damn I'm slow...pedal pedal pedal pedal...OMG hills....OMG HILLS....OH. MY. GAWD. hills....whew flat....food...waaa!!! I have to do it again?!?!....no Mr. Medic, I was not throwing up....HILLS KILLS....la la la.....I'm done!

Run: "Crap, my legs are broken....oh look, it's raining....run/walk...walk/run....err....walk/walk...pee...pee...pee...pee...OMG pee....this is fucking stupid....power walk..."Dad, my foot is BROKEN!!! It is!!!! *SOB* I SWEAR, it's BROKEN!!!"...poncho and rain....heh Elliott came to check on me....ok, I have two hours to walk 4 miles....I can do that....ow ow ow ow everything hurts....OMG now my non-athletic brother came to check on me....can see the finish...blisters exploding like finish line fireworks...and I'm spent."

The end.

You know you want to read the not-from-concentrate version.

Spring Cleaning

2009-06-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went on a cleaning binge.

I tore my room apart and put it back together, resulting in three bags of garbage and one bag for Goodwill leaving my little space. I swept up the dust bunnies (note to self, wood floors throughout the house + shedding dog = nasty), did all the laundry and dishes, bleached the sink (because I found a bottle of SoftScrub (!!!) which is awesome stuff), made my bed, and even put the new wheels on the track bike pieces so it's one wobbly pseudo-bike instead of pieces on the floor.

I found bills from my old house in Fresno. It's a little ridiculous.

Now I feel like a good little adult, with my room clean, my bills paid, my laundry done, my flight to Spokane booked, and my rental car reserved. I'm surprisingly calm about the impending IM, especially considering I fell off the training bandwagon to the point that I'm pretty sure it has now made it's way to Peru or something without me. My justification is that I have been sickly and freaking exhausted, and it's better to toe the line undertrained than sick and slightly more fit. Please don't feel the need to share if you disagree.

I talked to one of my customers today about the race and she was super reassuring, telling me that training here is perfect for that race as the terrain is so similar. She says I can do it, and that's good enough for me.

New boy and I got into a big ugly thing (I'm not sure it's a fight, it was more of a "you are being insecure and stupid you need to stop now" kind of thing) last week so I went and had my toes done. I love them. Pink with cherry blossoms. Pretty much the cutest toes ever. I wasn't paying attention and gave the girl a 50% tip. I figure she deserves it since I was crabby and didn't want to talk to her and I love my toes now.

New boy is behaving now, so that's good.

Hope all is well with you!

Update

2009-05-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

Since my last exceedingly cheerful post, I have...

-Been ride-stalked by another old man whilst training. This one happened to be the founder/owner of Specialized. It was weird.

-Not raced.

-Not trained very much due to a lazy immune system.

-Had things at work improve exponentially due to the firing of useless people and the hiring of a very effective person.

-Been paid for my modeling stint last month!!! In the amount of about 2/3 of one of my regular paychecks, which is freaking awesome! AND the check stub says "action model" on it, so I will probably save it because it's cool.

-Been generally happy.

I'm not complaining!

Everybody is high maintenance and it really should stop

2009-04-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

I started to cry a little at work today because I had reached my capacity for asshats and apparently today was asshat day. Ugh. Stupid people. Yelling at me over the phone is not a good way to get me to kiss your ass.

So instead of spinning I sat in the fit studio and bitched which was kind of funny because my boss told me someday I will find a good guy that's not intimidated and I kinda sorta maybe have a new official boyfriend. Tee hee!

I think I want to go bowling. But mostly because I'm watching tv and they are bowling.

I went for a ride on Sunday (in the middle of the day and it was 96 degrees and it almost killed me) and had some old dude ruin it a little for me. I came up on him and passed him, which was apparently not ok, so he cranked down on his downtube shifters and got on my wheel, explaining that he was just resting before he went on his way. Then I passed him on all the little rollers and he passed me on the little descents because I was doing an easy ride and was just coasting. Eventually I just sat in behind him because I was tired of passing him but it was slow and it ruined my view of the reservoirs and I felt kind of weird about riding with a stranger so I left him for a while and thought I was free. Sadly he found me again and told me a bunch of crap about how I have a smooth cadence and a steady pace and I just wanted to ride alone, dammit! My solution was to do extra climbing, which worked quite well.

It's still really hot though. And all the windows are open and the AC is on, which amuses me because my roommate is a tightwad and he's the one that opened them and turned it on. But then again he has a new girlfriend so he probably doesn't want to appear cheap. Gross.

Oceanside 70.3 Race Report

2009-04-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here it is, in all it's overly-detailed splendor!

I drove down to San Diego on Friday morning at 5:30am which hurt a little bit, but was much better than sitting in traffic all day. I had lunch with the Ex in Irvine (and made him work on my bike) and then got to Oceanside a little after noon. I wasn't nervous until I could see the ocean, then I freaked out a little. Picked up my packet, hopped in the car, drove to Solana Beach to visit Dan at B&L and pick up a bike for work, then drove to Pacific Beach to John's house where I took a fatty nap. It was delicious. When John and Tracy got home we went to an adorable little Italian restaurant where I ate my weight in pasta. Went back to the house, packed up my race stuff, and went to bed.

I got lucky in that John had to be up at 4:00am for something he was doing later in the day, so he had oatmeal waiting for me when I woke up. Such service! After breakfast I hopped in the car and drove back up to Oceanside. Happily, I have mastered the art of shoving all my stuff into a small bag for transition, so the ride from the parking lot to transition was a lot less awkward than it could have been. I found my rack (in what might have been the longest transition EVAR) and set up my space. Talked to a bunch of girls, got partway into my wetsuit, stood in line for the bathroom, made friends in the potty line, watched the pros come through, wished I had thought to bring some shitty socks to keep my feet warm while I waited around, got into line with the rest of the purple caps to start.

Swim:

Favorite thing #1: my neoprene squid lid.

The water actually wasn't that cold, but my head was so toasty-warm with that thing on it was all I could think about. My wave was fairly small and the start area was pretty wide so the beginning-of-the-swim beating was minimal. I caught a bunch of women from the wave in front of me (4 min ahead of me) and the wave before them (8 min ahead of me) which was encouraging. I did a much better job of sighting than I did at XTERRA, so only got a little lost. Could have gone faster I think, but I felt fast and springy when I got out of the water, so I'm not complaining.

Bike:

Favorite things #2 and 3: Perpetuem and BBB cages.

I had decided to try something a little different for my nutrition on the bike. I had been using Perpetuem on my training rides so I knew it wouldn't screw with me (a la CarboPro 1200), so I made a bottle with five servings of powder instead of the normal one to two. And it was AWESOME. I carried that bottle and a bottle of water and it went down smooth and I felt strong and energized and never had my blood sugar crash with accompanying dark, twisty thoughts. No tantrums for me! Also, my BBB bottle cages kept my bottles safe and sound so I didn't launch any like I saw tons of other people do. Yay!

Overall, I felt really good on the bike. My position felt dialed, legs felt fresh, I stayed relaxed and took it easy on the first half per E's instructions and was fine on the climbs. Had some fun picking people off in the later miles. Only issue I had was some nasty chafing in my - umm - sensitive regions. Seeing as I had almost the same thing happen at Big Kahuna last year, I think my race suit may become an XTERRA-only suit so I don't have it happen again. Ouchy.

Run:

Favorite thing #4: Learning how to distract myself

I was definitely tired coming off the bike, so the shuffle started early. I tightened my shoes too tight in transition and my feet were completely numb for the first five miles (ish...I kept thinking that they would come to, but it never happened on its own). Eventually I stopped to loosen them and loosen my timing chip strap and I regained feeling. I walked the aid stations, ate or drank at almost all of them, and learned that if I repeated the lines to the song that was stuck in my head, I could ignore the parts of my body that hurt and just keep going. The Ex was there taking pictures (he was there on the bike too, I just forgot to mention it) so it was nice having someone cheering for me - even with all the people cheering for Amys (there were a ton of girls with my name) and with people having their names on their race numbers. In the finishing chute a lady edged past me so we ended up sprinting for fun. She hugged me and thanked me for the extra push and we got our picture taken. It was fun.

Post race I made a beeline for the food tent and ate four pieces of pizza. I found one of my customers so we talked for a bit before I went and packed. The Ex was waiting and congratulated me, then I got on the phone with E and the couple of customers and got congratulated and was told my splits. The result:

22nd place in AG in swim
23rd AG bike
23rd AG run

23rd out of 62 in age group

Overall time 6:06:26

Run time: 2:07:51

Reasons why this is awesome:
1. I have NEVER been that consistent in a road triathlon. Ever.
2. I have never been in the top half of the finishers in my age group in a road tri. 23/62 is definitely upper half.
3. Overall time was a PR, set at an easier race.
4. Run time was a PR, previously set at a half marathon, not a triathlon.

Yay for me!

Now I get to be all sunburned and peely, and I even have my number and age burned onto my body. Wonder how long that will be there?

Blah, blah, blah

2009-04-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

I'll get to the race report in a minute. I have to vent.

Dear Guy I Know,

You need to be less annoying. I know I made a bad decision or two in the past, but when you ask if I want to be left alone and I say yes, that probably means you should leave me alone. It doesn't mean you should come back to my work (that you only left from a couple hours ago, after getting tired of yelling at me) to ask what I mean about wanting to be left alone. When I say I don't want to hang out, I'm tired and need to get groceries, I mean just that. Go home. Quit being so needy. Oh, and by the way, I don't have major issues about the way I look, but you mentioning that I need to learn portion control and shit like that is not going to make me like you. It just means you are an ass.

Sincerely Annoyed,
Me

*************************************************************************

In other, less annoying news, I am totally a model. I'll be able to prove it to you this summer-ish. So that will be cool.

I went to charming(ly meth-riddled) Colfax, CA for the past two days to do a photo shoot for the Specialized 2010 catalog. Hopefully I don't look retarded. It was pretty fun, except for riding in the rain and then having the rain turn into snow. That was cold and it made my fingers hurt. Also, the eating candy all day and then getting a little car sick wasn't great. But it was still slightly awesome.

Ironman California 70.3

2009-04-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

It was really really good.

I'm too tired to blog right now, but I wanted to let you know that it was good.

Night!

Mini Race Report #1

2009-03-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I raced my first tri of the year, in the form of XTERRA Real in Folsom. It was pretty cool. I got third in my new age group and took a major chunk off my time from last year. I'll take it. I'm tired and want to sleep, so here's my mini race report:

Swim: was cold. I forgot my squid lid, but it wasn't too bad. I got lost a bunch so should probably work on sighting. I felt like I weighed 200 pounds getting out of the water. Racing is fun.

Bike: I felt GOOD. Ass-kicking good. Except I forgot to grab my food so the second lap sucked a little. I passed a girl in my age group and never saw her again. That was sweet. Getting on my mountain bike after not touching it for five months didn't feel weird at all.

Run: I was tired. Probably from not getting any calories in. I pushed myself more than I usually do, so I'm happy about that.

Gold star for me, now getting ready for Oceanside.

Sleepy.....

Birthday Haps

2009-03-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

Again with the blogging-under-pressure. I'm supposed to be in a dress ready to go to my own pseudo-party in a half hour. I am also possibly exploding pasta sauce while I blog. Fun!

Ok, so, I had the best birthday EVER. Yes, EVER. It was that awesome.

Usually, my birthdays suck and I'm all alone because my friends were lame or I have a party and someone gets in a fight and I have to break it up, so my "good birthday" standards are pretty low. But still, this one was cool. It went like this:

1. New boy came to my work dressed all cute to build my wheel for me on Wednesday (the day before my birthday). Wheel building turned into a big fiasco. I apologized profusely and new boy told me to stop, he didn't care, he wanted to build my wheel for me for my birthday. New boy also gave me a picture of the track wheels he ordered for me that didn't make it in time. New boy rocks.

2. New boy took me to dinner at my favorite chinese restaurant, then to Chevy's for my requested birthday Sunday.

3. New boy bought me breakfast on my birthday because he wanted to buy me breakfast on my actual birthday.

4. Some regulars of the shop brought me a little cake.

5. My chiropractor called and majorly stepped up, allowing me to continue treatment without going broke.

6. The bosses took me to lunch.

7. The bosses gave me a raise.

8. Another customer of the shop insisted that we have a pseudo-party, which I am going to tonight.

9. I got a bunch of birthday cards and some much-needed birthday cash.

10. Elliott's kids made me cupcakes and got to stay up until I got there are were all snuggly and cute.

I love my people. Thank you for the awesome birthday!

My birthday is in three days.

2009-03-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

It is. And that means I will now commence my yearly bug the hell out of everyone sequence because it's almost my birthday.

For some reason I only seem motivated to log into my blog when I have somewhere to be in a short time. I have been thinking about blogging for a week, and only just now logged on when I need to be at the shop on my bike in half an hour. Maybe I just work better under pressure.

My first race is in less than two weeks. Holy effing crap. And, I seem to be freaking out a little more than usual. Stupid. Who cares how I do? It's just training for IM CDA. I'm a little skeptical about my fitness as I have sucked at training because of my stupid leg (which is MUCH better, but still not great). My swim coach has been annoyingly in my face about training, and I'm not sure if it's because I suck right now compared to last year, or because he's feeling threatened (for reasons I will not go into because it's stupid and I hate it). Dumb.

Soooooo, my idea for making the race in two weeks less scary is to see if I can do a race in one week! TOTALLY makes sense, doesn't it?

I want to go to Folsom next weekend to do the XTERRA they have out there for a couple reasons. I am working on my pitch to my coach, so I will list those reasons here for your reading pleasure:

1. I have done this race and like it, so it will let me clear out the racing cobwebs before the bigger race that I haven't done and am scared about.

2. The race will take a couple hours. My coach has be down for a multi-hour ride followed by a couple days of intervals next week, so I could race and do all of that at once.

3. I have to do 2 XTERRA races in my region to qualify for Nationals, and if I do this one and the one in Arizona in May I will have them out of the way so I won't have to do the one 1 WEEK after IM CDA. I think that is a huge plus. Not having to rely on that one would be good. And then I'll still have one more available in August in case I DNF at either of the other two. Insurance is good.

4. It could be my birthday race. Because it's three days after my birthday. :P

And I promise to take it easy and not kill myself or make myself sick so I will still be able to race at the scary race. It will totally work.

Oh, and my favorite customer Lori just raced at the Singapore 70.3 (half IM) race last weekend and got third in her age group and qualified for the 70.3 Worlds!!!!!!! I'm so freaking proud/excited for her!!!!!!!! I hear she had to deal with jellyfish stings on the swim, naughty jumping waterbottles on the bike, and a possibly fractured foot on the run (that she did like a month ago but didn't tell anyone about because she wanted to race so bad)! Bad ass!!!!!! Love her.

Alright, off to layer up to go ride in the wind with Patty.

Later!

Light at the end of the tunnel?

2009-03-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

The other day I was complaining to one of my customers about my leg sucking. She told me I really really really should go to her chiro. In a fit of desperation I emailed him with my symptoms, how long it has been going on, what I have tried that helps/doesn't help/etc. I got an email from him and set up an appointment the next day. And it was probably the best thing ever. After hanging out with all the ladies and little kids that were there (he has a family practice thing going on) he examined me and basically told me that what I have going on is not that complicated and should be fixed pretty quickly. I almost started crying out of relief. He took x-rays "just to have a picture of what he thinks is happening" and I'm meeting with him tomorrow. If he fixes me I will give him a kidney or something. After race season of course.

In other news, I'm like an occupational grim reaper. That's all I can say currently.

Last Sunday I went to Menlo Park to watch the Menlo Park Grand Prix. It was a good time. I got to hang out with girls(!) and scream at people and ogle spandex-clad men all day.

My birthday is this month and I'm excited. Not yet sure if I will actually do anything for said birthday other than my usual Thursday wine fun, but maybe something fun will come up.

I have more crap listed on Craigslist. At least it's not a bike. If you are in the market for some road wheels let me know.

I heart Chelsea Lately. So much.

Off to go stuff my face. Night!

Holy Crap

2009-03-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

I was just reading Courtenay's blog (over there ------->) and she mentioned that she has a half-iron race in four weeks. I start thinking "hmmmm...wonder which race she is doing?" and look at her schedule and what do you know, her first race is the same as my first race. Crap. Now I'm all freaked out because I have a race in four weeks and that is approaching more quickly than I expected. I feel like I need to go do some little race to deal with the racing jitters since I haven't raced a tri since last October. Crap crap crap!!

I should really go to bed right now...

2009-02-28T23:02:00.000-08:00

A couple updates, since I'm sure you are just DYING to know...and I wouldn't dream of disappointing my reader(s?)!

1. I sold my mountain bike!!!!! Craigslist still sucks, but a little bit less than it did. Guy #2 that I met in Fremont came down to my work on Friday and gave me money and took my bike and my helmet that I was selling as well. I then did semi responsible with my money, and something that's not as responsible...which brings us to...

2. I got a track bike!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, I got a frameset, bars, and a crankset, so I'm pretty much just wheels short of having a track bike. But it's cool and I'm excited. Once I figure out my Powertap situation I will outfit the trackie with wheels and I'll go round and round in circles. Weeeee!!!!

Earlier tonight I went running with my friend Teresa that I have known since junior high, which was cool because she is in decent shape so we just ran along talking about all the random people from high school. We compared some stories and I'm somewhat happy to note that some of the stupid shit I have done is not unique. Glad to know I'm not the only one.

Yesterday I got a massage back at the original place I was going to last year with my original girl. I hadn't been since November or so, and apparently she hadn't been there either, as she had fallen off a ladder while feeding her fish and broke her ankle. The fish later died. It was good to catch up with her and she remembered all my weird stuff. I told her my psoas(?) muscle was tight and she did some weird wavy thing on my belly and it felt like she was inside my abdomen. Apparently the wavy thing was her moving my organs out of the way so she could get to the rebellious muscle. She worked on it for a little bit and had me move around while she applied pressure and all of a sudden it popped and was all relaxed. It was magical. But now I feel like someone punched me in that spot. Small price.

I'm supposed to go ride in Berkeley with the VeloGirls in the morning, so I guess I should be on my way.

Bye!

CraigsList is Driving Me Crazy

2009-02-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Pretty much, I hate Craigslist and the people on Craigslist.

I'm not sure if I hate the whole thing more because I sell crap all day and I really don't want to do it on my time off, but GOD. It's retarded.

I listed one of my mountain bikes on Friday. Saturday I got two responses. Guy #1 asked for pictures and brought up some problems that some of the bikes had when they first came out. Not problems that mine had. I figured if he's being that picky he's not worth it. Guy #2 says "I have cash. When can I meet you?"

Guy #1 then proceeds to:
-Set a meeting time
-Not show up
-Not call, email, or answer call/email/text to tell me so I wait for 45 min in the rain.
-Disappear
Then, Monday I go for a 2 hour and 15 minute bike ride. NOT a long time. Guy #1 leaves me 12 messages while I'm riding. TWELVE. Messages along the lines of "I have less money than I thought...I'm going to a shop to buy another bike for this price" (which, by the way was a completely different bike than mine, not at all the same price or anything)...I'm going to the shop right now...you have 20 minutes if you want me to buy it..."
OMFG!!!!!
I called him and he agreed to buy mine for a slightly discounted price and we set another meeting time. He wanted to meet IMMEDIATELY, but I told him he had to wait until I got back. A whole two hours. Really not that big a deal.

I get out of PT and he had left me another message: "I looked at the components and the bike is only worth $1000 to me"

Ummm...fuck off. No.

So I was all upset and like an hour later guy #2 emails me that he wants the bike. No mention of price or anything. Tonight I drove up to Fremont to 1) meet with him, 2) meet with another guy wanting something else I had listed, and 3) meet my friend DDT for dinner.

I get there and guy #2 doesn't have the money because he's waiting for his tax return but he gave me some to hold it for him but he wants a different stem and can you throw anything else in like a helmet (NO) and I brought my buddies to look all tough and pretend like we know things about bikes. Dork.

And the other guy I was meeting only wanted half of what I was supposed to be selling him, but I at least got 2/3 of the money.

And some dude in New Zealand wants my helmet and some guy in DC wants my saddle. I told them no. I don't have the energy for this shit.

I'd take pleasure in guttin' you, boy!

2009-02-22T21:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I'm watching The Rock on tv right now. My brother and I have a tendency to repeat that line over and over when we are together. I'm not really sure why.

Today is kind of stupid. I woke up late and missed my group ride. It's raining again. I've been sick so I didn't go ride in the rain, but I probably should have for mental health reasons. I told someone that I actually enjoy as a person that I can't do it anymore because he just has too much crap going on. I cried. I'm still sad. Yuck. I did laundry and cleaned and stuff and then looked at my bank account vs my bills and freaked out so I listed a bunch of crap on Craigslist.

I'm trying really hard to like Craigslist, but it's not easy. Everyone thinks CL is better than eBay. I've usually had good luck with eBay, and selling things on CL has been like pulling teeth. I listed one of my mountain bikes on eBay and no one bid on it so I put it on CL on Friday night. On Saturday I got two responses. One of the guys wanted to meet Saturday night so I made the bike all shiny and nice and took it to Peet's at 7:30 like arranged. The guy never showed up. I waited for 45 minutes, texted, emailed, and called the guy. Nothing. WTF.

It wasn't a total loss though, I did sell a pair of pedals while I was waiting for the bike guy.

But seriously Craigslist, throw me a bone here.

Ugh.

The Whose-Idea-Was-This?!? Ride

2009-02-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, this week is the Tour of California. Last year, we held a ride from the shop to the top of Sierra Road to watch the pro's come over the top. It went well. It was cold, but really not that bad.

So this year we decided to do it again.

Only this year, the Tour of California apparently coincided with monsoon season. But we still did it.

It was a dark and stormy night....

Well, really morning, because I got up at 5:30 am to give myself enough time to lug all my stuff to the shop, hit the grocery store to buy plastic garbage bags, ice and water (HA!!), and other miscellaneous crap, and stop by Peet's to grab some hot caffeinated beverages. All the while I was getting emails from customers bailing on the ride.

Instead of just having people ride with us this year, we had a bunch of bikes from Specialized on loan, so most of the people who came along were borrowing bikes. This added a nice little bonus layer of stress for me, because we were definitely on a schedule for the first part of the ride (make it to the top before Lance does!!) and it was one more disorganized step we had to take. Eventually, we got it handled, and myself, Jen, and 11 unwitting customers donned our many layers and rolled out.

I stayed dry for about three minutes. We took the bike path all the way to Hellyer, which was nice because everyone could socialize and it was empty save for some random dude walking in the rain. Everyone pointed out the big puddles and we went around them like good little riders.

Any one who has ever taken the path all the way up surely knows the spot where the path dips down low and the creek runs over the pavement if there is even a little bit of water in it. Usually not a big deal. Because of the monsoons, the creek was about 15 feet wide and 8 inches deep at this spot. I'm fairly certain the only way my feet were going to stay dry was if I had put them on my handlebars. My shoes filled up with water, and my nice "waterproof" shoe covers made sure all that water stayed put. So nice of them!

We made it off the bike path after one potty break for the boys and a little bit of debating which way to go. We headed up Silver Creek. As I was sitting in the back with one of the slower climbers I saw one of the girls pull over and start staring at her bike. She had a flat. I rode up to her and tried paging Jen on the walkie talkies I had her bring for this exact reason, but got no answer. The walkie talkies didn't work. I had one of the slower riders keep riding and flag down the rest of the group while I changed the flat. Cold, wet hands don't work particularly well for that job. We got rolling again, and someone else got a flat not very long after the first one. I changed that one too.

FINALLY, we made it to the base of the climb, with very little time to spare. The first part of the climb is ridiculous. It's straight up. Not even any turns to break it up visually. I had opted not to take my jacket off at the base, but pulled over pretty quickly to change. Miraculously, the sun came out for a little bit, making the climb a little better. I toodled along for like ten minutes of sunny goodness until WHAM!!!! the headwind from hell smacks me as I'm turning a corner and angry rain starts pouring down. I stopped again to put all the clothes I had just removed back on. We all kept riding, sometimes stopping to take a breather or adjust some piece of wet clothing. I tried standing up since I was out of gears, and the wind caught me and I felt like I was going backwards. Freaking lovely. At one point I dropped my glasses that had been hanging on my jersey and I used it as an opportunity to not feel like I was dying while some random spectator got them for me. I'm very lazy if you haven't picked up on that.

When I finally got to the top I was greeted by a ton of people and our brand-new shop tent, which was open but not pulled up all the way so as to provide a wind-free zone. There were a bunch of legs under the tent so I propped my bike against a fence and ducked under the tent to say hi. Aaaaaaaaand my tent was full of strangers. Ooops. I'm pretty sure I said something retarded. Apparently all of my people were either huddled in the truck running the heater (mostly the people who took the truck to the top who were neither riding bikes nor wet....babies!) or in various states of undress near the truck trying to get warm clothes on.

We were at the top for maybe 15 minutes before the official tour cars started rolling through, in which time I stuffed as much food as possible into my face as I shivered and made friends with a guy from Seattle who is friends with a guy who races for BMC (side note, why do all the people I know from Washington state look the same? Seriously, it kind of freaks me out.) When all the riders came by I took a ton of pictures - somewhere in the 138 neighborhood - and yelled and stuff. And then it was over.

Four of my riders went down the hill early because they were too cold to wait around, and Jen and I were the last two down. My too-large glove got caught in my shifter and I almost crashed into her on the way down. It was probably the coldest descent ever. We found the rest of our group at the bottom, and we headed back towards the Silvercreek Starbucks where the first four told us they would meet us. The girls all decided that we needed to stop before that Starbucks, because we all had to take a potty break, so we stopped at a closer Starbucks. If I had worked there I would have hated us, as we got water EVERYWHERE from walking around. The one kid (17 y-o I think) that was with us had his mom take him home. He might be smarter than me. The rest of us continued along, got a little lost, started cramping, and got another flat (spread out over 8 people, so it wasn't that eventful) until we got to our Starbucks destination. I stuffed my face some more and we got water all over the place again. The mop lady at this one was not nearly as nice as the guy at the first place. We all hopped on the bike path and hauled ass towards the shop.

While on the bike path I got tired of playing sweeper, so I took advantage when Jen drifted back to talk to someone and hopped on a faster wheel. By the time we got to the end of the path Jen was no where to be seen, so I told everyone to go on and I waited. And waited. In the rain. I tried to call her and dropped my phone in the gutter. I went to the ranger station to use their porch to dry my phone out and they invited me in because it was warm. I sat staring out the window looking for Jen and the customer she was with and never saw her. Crap. I lost my boss. I had all the spare tubes. It was raining and getting dark. Crap. I called Bruce and asked him to bring the truck. One of the rangers went looking for Jen. Bruce got there and told me he saw Jen almost at the shop. Somehow I had missed them. I made Bruce give me a ride back to the shop. Screw the last two miles, I wanted a heater!!!

That night I scrubbed my hair twice to get all the road grit out. I found rocks stuck to my head while I was in bed. I woke up in the morning with a head cold.

Pretty much, the ride wasn't that bad while I was doing it, but I am in no hurry to do it again any time soon.

Ugh.

Back in the Water

2009-02-14T21:43:00.000-08:00

I was a good little fishy and went swimming two whole times this week and it was awesome and I realized how much I missed it. I went on Wednesday morning (at 6 am) and it was far less painful that it should have been from a sleep deprivation standpoint. I felt like I could swim for about the first ten minutes until my swimming muscles reminded me that they are tiny and feeble and have been asleep since October 26th. The rest of the hour I felt like I was swimming through syrup. Swimmy Timmy (aka Coach Tim) said I looked good, so apparently I am a graceful flail-er.

I went again this morning and it was much better. Not only was the session at a decent hour (8:00 am), but I must have grown some guns since Wednesday. I stayed with the fastest guy doing the workout for like half of the main set, and still did fine after I had to slow it down. Swimmy Timmy told me he's proud of me, so that pretty much made it worth the screaming muscles and hypoxia.

And then a girl who came to the shop once gave me personally and the shop compliments, so that was pretty cool. She had a cute swim cap.

Oooh, and apparently I have developed swimming-induced amnesia or something, as I discovered this morning that I left my swim suit and cap at the pool on Wednesday (and they are no where to be found). Then today, I left my fins at the end of my lane and almost left without them, then got all confused when some girl was in the lane I was in. Ugh. Retarded.

I was also a good little bike girl and didn't miss any of my work outs. Next week I plan to do all my run workouts too. I wanna be a good little athlete!

Superbowl Sunday

2009-02-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

Instead of being social I'm spending my Superbowl Sunday at home in my compression tights, good and tired from riding my bike this morning.

I always forget how much of a bad idea it is to not ride your bike enough (even if you are going to PT every week). And today we climbed a new hill. And it was not fun. It wasn't even a long hill, it just was steep enough to make me hate life for the duration (of the hill, not my life). Needless to say, it wasn't my favorite ride ever. There were lots of baby cows though. And someone bought me a chocolate croissant. But then we got followed by some weird guy with a trumpet.

I'm kind of bummed about my training so far. I haven't been able to stick to my training plan without making my leg or back bother me, and I really don't want to make it worse or back to how it was. Basically I'm re-doing the last three weeks of training, and that's lame. At least I should be able to get back in the pool relatively soon.

Hope all is well!

PUPPIES!!!!!!

2009-01-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

My mom is coming out to visit this weekend and she's bringing puppies and they are coming to stay at my house for a night. I'm pretty excited!!!!! Plus I will make her take me out to dinner at all my favorite places that I don't like going to alone and she will want to because she lives in Heroinville, Maryland and she will miss good Mexican food. It's pretty much a win, win for me.

And she's only staying with me for one night so I can still have a somewhat normal weekend of doing things I want to do.

Today we set up a Facebook group for my work and now I have an excuse to be logged in to FB all the time (more than I already am). We proceeded to upload a bunch of pictures of customers that they probably won't like, and took pictures of customers with the intention of posting them. Some of the pictures are a little unfortunate. I kind of feel bad, but they keep coming back for more, so it must not be that bad.

Yesterday I almost cried while sitting on a big purple ball at my physical therapist's office. It was a little embarrassing and I think I scare him a little. Serves him right for beating the crap out of me.

Tonight is wine/brownies/Grey's Anatomy night with Elliott's wife. Excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm done whining about it now

2009-01-19T13:17:00.001-08:00

Soooo...pretty much I am retarded. I found out on Sunday morning that the reason my PT wasn't reading was because I had it on upside down. Oops. My bad.

We got it all up and running and I time trialed and it hurt but I told myself to shut up and it was fine. I'm not sure of my time mostly because I don't think I want to know.

I'm going to go eat lunch before I go see my massage/torture guy.

Ummmm yeah.

2009-01-17T22:24:00.001-08:00

Soooo I'm supposed to be using my Powertap during the TT tomorrow morning to collect data for future training and it seems the bike gods are not feeling me today.

I recently ordered myself a second wiring harness so I could have my road bike and my TT bike both set up for PT use (and my current PT is not wireless, since beggars can't be choosers). I had slapped the new harness on the bike Tuesday night, and it was kind of loose and floppy so I asked one of the boys at the shop to fix it. And he accidentally CUT THE WIRE. WTF?!?!

At first I didn't even think about it. But then I did....my new harness is now useless...and I still have to pay for it...arrgg!!!!

I got frustrated to the point of near tears, exacerbated by the fact that wire-cutter boy thought it necessary to taunt me about my shit being broken. I formulated a plan to get myself back up and running for tomorrow: I'll just take the harness off my road bike and put it on the TT bike for tomorrow.

I tried that. I have it about halfway on and I ran out of zip ties that will fit. All the ones I have are too fat. I used all the little scraps of skinny zip ties that came off the road bike but the spot I had them in didn't work so I had to cut them. I searched the house for some more but no luck. I tried to be all crafty and MacGuyver (sp?) and I'm all out of ideas. So I quit until tomorrow. I'm just going to sit here all pouty and stupid.

Stupid wires.

Why, hello there!

2009-01-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

Not much to report these days. Back to training (I ran like 8 miles on Wednesday morning and didn't die! Go me!), working, sleeping, and eating. My leg still sucks more often than not, but at least I am able to get some relief via stretching and rolling around on my friend, Mr. Foam Roller. We're pretty close these days.

Tomorrow I have another time trial, the same course as last time. I'll let you know how that goes. Always fun to bust out the skin suit and aero helmet. My goals are to a) not die, and b) beat my last time. I am also using a Powertap this time, so I'll be collecting numbers for Elliott to torture me with at a later date.

XTERRA Worlds are airing today at 12:30 pm, so you should tune in to see if I'm on tv. I would be the dirty girl in pink falling all over herself. Just so you know.

Ok, back to work for me. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee.

Fun Shite

2009-01-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

So apparently I am screwing my boss.

I wasn't aware of this, but that is the word around the water cooler. Which is pretty awesome.

Not that long ago I would have been really upset at this rumor. In fact, I did get really upset (as in a sobbing, snotty mess) fairly recently. But now I have heard it enough that it's just whatever. It's not even close to being the first time that I have been accused of screwing some guy I work closely with, and I'm willing to bet it won't be the last time. God forbid I have a close guy friend.

Losers.

I went to PT today and I am noticeably less lopsided. So that's pretty cool. The couple times I have been on my bike recently have left me with a weird sensation: my left leg is actually working. Can't remember the last time I felt fatigue in that lazy-ass leg of mine!

I was going to head to the mall and spend my Christmas present gift cards but I got lazy and just ordered stuff online. I figure having things show up in the mail over the next couple weeks is kind of like having Christmas all over again. Surprise! New clothes!

I heart sending things via FedEx. It makes proving to snotty people on the phone that they do in fact have my application, it was received on X day by X person really really easy. And it's quite satisfying.

Good times!

Happy 2009!!

2009-01-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

Last year I made resolutions and I sorta kinda kept some of them. This year I'm not going to come up with anything specific other than to continue on the path that I think I am on. I have made a concerted effort to clean up my messes and to weed out the people that are less than constructive in my world. I have managed to surround myself with some good people, and I'd like to keep them around and add more to my good people arsenal.

And I'm going to finish an Ironman and be all fit and fast and stuff.

And I will be happy.

And it will be good.

Also, I decided the other day that I need to go play in Yosemite at some point this year because it is beautiful and fairly convenient. I'd also like to hike the Grand Canyon. So if anyone wants to go with me let me know and we'll go!

Happy 2009!!!!

Happy Holidays

2008-12-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a good holiday break!

Today I learned how hard running on ice is. I'm in Minnesota visiting my dad and fam and insisted that I wanted to run outside so I could have "oh yeah, well it was all snowy and icy and I went running!" bragging rights.

Running on ice is HARD.

We ran for like 40 minutes and I bet we only went like two miles. I was reduced to shuffling like an old lady so I wouldn't slip, and even then I still fell on my ass.

So we sat in the hot tub tonight.

I get to come home to regular weather and running tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited.

Have a good New Year!

Some day I will learn...maybe

2008-12-23T00:24:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving my house at noon tomorrow to get on a plane to the North Pole (Minnesota) and still need to do laundry. As soon as I finish this very important blogging-about-nothing-while-listening-to-Harry-Potter-in-the-background business I will get right on it. Never mind that it is midnight. It won't wake anyone up (and besides, one of the roommies is currently passed out on the couch with the TV on). Yeah. I procrastinate.

On Saturday I went for a run after work. I was all excited to run which is like snow in Morocco. It just doesn't happen. So I loaded up my iPod with some new (terribly terrible but I still like it) music and headed out to do a little streetlight-assisted out and back from my house. I ran in the dirt because it was easier on my feet. I managed not to break my ankle on the uneven stuff. Very near my house, I was running on the smooth, neatly groomed tan bark next to the paved path and was suddenly on my face in the mud. WTF!?!?! Who did that?!!? I jumped up, checked that no cars were in the immediate vicinity, and found a loop of black sprinkler line sticking out of the ground. Tricky fuckers! I wiped the mud of my clothes and iPod and finished the run. Now I have a bruise on my ankle from the makeshift tripwire. Someone totally did that on purpose.

I was supposed to ride up Mt. Diablo yesterday but it rained so I drank tequila at lunch instead. I think that's a fair trade.

It's going to be really really cold in Minnesota.

Really really.

Lopsided and Backwards

2008-12-17T23:46:00.000-08:00

My computer is alive again!!!!! Hooray!!!!

It died about a week ago when I shifted it on my lap to answer a phone call at work the ended abruptly when the guy called me stupid and hung up on me. It's all his fault.

So I channeled the powers of the mighty Blackberry and had my emails sent to my phone. It worked out ok since people seem more than happy to resend files that are trapped in your computer if you tell them the computer ate the original. Everyone loves to hate on the computers. And I didn't really want to work on the 12,000 line Excel file I had going when it crashed, so really I just had a very handy excuse.

And I have Facebook on my phone which might be a little obsessive but Elliott constantly has his on his computer and he doesn't even have his own account so I think I'm ok. And it made me not feel like a hermit, so it's all good.

Today my ex bf set up a Facebook account and tried to add me as a friend. I hit "ignore". I feel a little bad because I am actually friends with him, but things are still a little sticky between us and I didn't want him to know all my stuff and see this blog and stuff so I think I made the right choice. It just felt weird to think of my Facebook page as being personal space, you know? (And yes, I am well aware that it is FAR from personal, which is why I keep the pictures of me stealing kittens from old people off my Facebook page. Or something.)

Also today I went to a PT-ish appointment where I think we figured out what's wrong with my leg (and by we I mean "he" because I pretty much just stood there). Basically I'm lopsided and my right side is doing way more work than the left and is noticeably bigger and is getting over use injuries. Because of my stupid lazy left side.

So I got a massage and foam rollered and he's making me a program of stretches and exercises to release the right side and strengthen the left side so I can be a normal girl and ride my bike without it hurting and not wear compression tights to bed all the time. And today my leg didn't hurt at the end of the day, which I think is progress, people.

I forgot to eat lunch today too. I had a yogurt in the morning (a Light one even) followed by a cookie (carb-loading), two tiny pieces of peppermint bark at work, a teeny handful of nuts at like 5:30, and dinner when I got home. This is very disturbing behavior. I'm well-known for eating 1500 calorie burritos with chips and guac literally every day. And being very grouchy and non-functional if I have to wait too long for my food. I might be dying.

When I got home from work I had a conversation with the annoying roommate. About relationships. And it wasn't even annoying. Plus he fixed my computer. Then the non-annoying roommate came home and proceeded to be incredibly annoying talking about his Nazi tri team. I found myself wishing for something sharp to stick in my eye so I could change the subject. And I started texting people to tell them how annoying he was being. Ugh.

My roommates are backwards. And I'm lopsided. WTF.

Climby Climb

2008-12-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

Today we rode Mt. Hamilton again as a substitute for our usual Sunday ride. I think I beat my last climb time by like 45 minutes (think because I don't know exactly, but it was between 30 and 45 minutes faster. It was pretty sweet. I took off with one of our usuals, Casey. Elliott caught us pretty quickly, and Casey took off with him. I rode alone from mile 2-ish to the top. It was fine, I get along pretty well with me. I sang songs in my head. Sometimes out loud. Someone told me about seeing a mountain lion the other day, so I freaked myself out a little that one was following me. And the other day I had a dream that I was being hunted by coyotes. My boyfriend from high school was there too in his pjs. I threw a coffee mug at one of the coyotes and tried to walk briskly (so as not to elicit a chase) away, but there were more and they had us circled. It would suck. Didn't do much for my not-freaking-myself-out strategy to think about that. So I went back to the singing.

When we got to the top we went inside the observatory and the lady that works there gave us a tour of the big telescope. It was really big (57 feet I think she said). The floor lifts up so that people can get to the eyepiece. It was sweet. Mr. Lick (that the place is named after) is buried under the floor. We saw a bunch of space pictures and old construction pictures and stuff. Definitely the most interesting mid-ride break I have had lately.

I brought a dollar and got Skittles. They were kind of hard, but still delicious. I was going to get something more "healthy" like trail mix or something, but the Skittles won the mental debate. They were Tropical. I shared them while we were sitting on a heater inside the observatory.

On the way down I got passed by a silver BMW convertable that had been at the top. But I caught him again when the road went from crappy and slow to moderately crappy and swoopy. The two baby climbs on the way down hurt more than they should have. I ate the rest of the Skittles in the car while I talked about people doing a Deca-Ironman (IM distance x 10) with Elliott. He thinks it's stupid. I have no desire to do one, but I think I would want to crew for someone. You'd see some messed up stuff, and I'm weird like that.

When I got home I made food and my stupid roommate and his stupid kid came home. They are excessively loud. Yesterday when I got home the kid started whining about wanting to watch Harry Potter on tv and there was nothing on that I wanted to watch so I let him have the tv in the living room while I holed up in my room. Today I was finishing my food and watching CSI when they got home and the little shit came over and tried guilting me into giving him the tv. I said no, and that he should probably go in the other room because the show is too scary for him (he's 5). He gave up the guilt trip and straight up told me to go in my room. I told him to go in his. That kid sucks. I'm staying on the couch out of spite. Ha! He should go play outside anyway.

Things and Stuff

2008-12-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

Someone just offered to loan me their 'Toughen the Fuck Up' bracelet. Some people are such givers!

There's not really anything exciting going on lately. On Monday I "officially" started training for Ironman. So really I have ridden my bike a couple times and gone running some. It's quite cold so swimming probably isn't that smart, even though I kind of want to.

I told my friend about a stalk-ish incident I had a couple weeks ago and she made me promise never to be in a room alone with said stalk-ish-er.

My leg is pretending to be better every once in a while, so I'm beginning to think amputation MIGHT not be necessary. I'm finding that electrocution helps, courtesy of my customer that likes to give me stuff like a Powertap and an e-stim dealy. And he wants to pay me to play with his kids, which I do for free already.

On Sunday we are riding Mt. Hamilton again, and I will bring dollar bills for the vending machine at the top. Hopefully the snacks in it aren't all old and gross.

My dad requested a Christmas list from me so I made him a Powerpoint slide show. I'm told it is quite funny, which is what I was going for. So that's good.

I ordered some picture books from Snapfish for Christmas presents for people who might want to see pictures of me. I paid for four. A few days later I got a package and was all excited and opened it to find someone else's book (singular) full of pictures of a baby. They live in Virginia. I emailed Snapfish and got a response a couple days later that I should wait longer as my order was in the mail. Only they were full of crap, so I called them at work the other day and sat on hold listening to an HP recording for like twenty minutes until an Indian lady that barely spoke English got on the line and I explained to her like three times what happened so she said she would resubmit my order and 2-Day Air my books to me. Hopefully it works.

But really, nothing exciting has been going on.

Stuff and things

2008-11-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

I just read Katy's race-day report (not race report) and am kind of inspired. I don't feel like I have ever gutted it out as much as she did. She rocks. I wanna rock.

On Thanksgiving I rode up Mount Hamilton with Vanessa. There was talk of doing the ride as part of our Sunday shop rides and that was stressing me out a little because I felt like I would have to go fast and hurt and stuff. When Vanessa told me she was going up with a bunch of the VeloGirls, I hopped right on that train and showed up. V and I ended up getting split up from the rest of the girls when they went to find the bathroom, so we ended up riding alone. It was quite nice to catch up on the girly talk. For a little while, we rode with Brook Miller, the current women's road race and crit (I think) National Champion and her boyfriend. She has ludicrisly large quads. But not just uniformly big quads - she has nice toned cyclist legs - with datschund- sized muscles stuck on top of the other muscles. It was quite impressive. And they were quite nice. But anywho, we climbed the 19-ish miles up to the Lick Observatory through the fog and past all the squished salamanders and met up with the rest of the girls when they got to the top. The climb wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and the descent was pretty fun once we got past the first few crappy/sketchy miles. It was a good way to spend the morning.

For dinner I went to Alicia's parents' house. Tons of fun. I drank most of a bottle of wine to myself and ate so much that it hurt.

This morning I rode again with a customer (who is a flight nurse and invited me to go on a fly-along...awesome!) and my butt hurts. Which means I have been riding a lot. Which is good.

Apparently I start some version of my ironman training on Monday. So much better than doing nothing!

Congrats Katy!!!!!!

2008-11-23T23:04:00.000-08:00

I'm SO proud of my friend and blog-follower Katy for finishing Ironman Arizona in 12:15 today! Can't wait to read your race report.

In other news, I ran the Santa Cruz Turkey Trot 10k yesterday and my legs hate me for it. Guess one should run more frequently than once a month. But I got to run with my very good friend Alicia and we chatted the whole time, so it was good times. Some random dude running back and forth on the path the race was using said hi to me three times. He was not part of the turkey-trotters. It was a little weird.

Today I went for a bike ride with my other blog-follower, Todd. It was nice to not ride the same roads as always, and to have a little different company. Plus he rode off the road (almost twice) while talking to me so I got to laugh at him. Apparently I forgot how to use clipless pedals, so I got to look like a newbie the whole time. Suh-weet.

Tomorrow I plan to swim (gasp!) in the morning. Wish me luck.

Bike Weekend

2008-11-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

I have no more races for a little while so I'm not really sure what to post about.

This weekend I went to two cross races and rode my bike once, which brings my bike-riding total to twice in the last three weeks, which is not overly ambitious. We did ride 50 miles and I had that too-tired-to-focus-my-eyes thing going on while eating my post-ride bagel and chocolate milk though, so I think I got some bang for my buck.

The night time cross race was my favorite, but probably mostly because I was handed a beer AND a cup of rum-filled hot cider and got to double-fist my booze for a good part of the night. And I got to scream and take pictures and stuff. The guy racing with the suit and tie was cool.

The day-time cross race the next day was still fun but significantly less alcoholic. And it was hot and I was all salty from riding in the morning and wearing an outfit I pieced together from random workout clothes in my car. But the race director gave us a box of strawberries (after possibly asking if we were lesbians) that were very good but I ate too many and gave myself a stomach ache. And we sang Bon Jovi songs in the car and it felt like a road trip. There are worse things.

A little bit lost...

2008-11-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure about this whole end-of-the-season thing. Not having an upcoming event is messing with my head.

So I made my blog pink. It could make all the difference.

At long last, my race report!

2008-11-10T11:35:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the delay, I know you were all DYING for my race report! Ok, so....

The morning of the race I woke up at like 4:15 am (which is 7:15 California time, so not really that early) all jittery and nervous about racing. I tried to be quiet and not wake anyone else as I got up to pee a million times (from the nerves) and rolled around restlessly in bed, and managed to make it until the alarm went off at 6:00 or so before anyone said anything to me. I worked on choking down some food while my stepmom went to get me some goodies from the coffee shop in the lobby. I tried really hard not to hyperventilate since I had that really fun elephant-sitting-on-your-chest feeling. Damn nerves. I packed my Camelbak bladder with ice and CarboPro (more about that later) since I knew it would be hot and we headed down to the transition area around 7:00-ish.

My stepmom had asked one of her Ironman-racer friends what she should do for me to make things easier and her friend had told her to carry all my stuff around for me. I told her that it wasn't a big deal, I didn't have that much stuff, but she insisted. She carried my bags and my dad pushed my bike. My dad wondered if people would think the hot pink bike was his and was kind of disappointed when I told him they probably wouldn't. Halfway to transition my dad stopped and freaked out that I didn't have my stuff. Ann proudly showed him that she had it. I mentioned that I WAS in fact carrying something (a tiny bottle of sunscreen) and Ann threatened to karate chop it out of my hand. Once we got to the transition area I convinced them that they would have to give up my stuff since they weren't allowed in, and went to set up.

I was racked next to some pretty cool people. Everyone was laughing and joking around like we were old friends. The only amputee woman was racked right next to me (Megan from Montana) and she was cracking us all up about not stealing her leg. Awesome. I got all set up and went to body marking early enough that I didn't have to wait in line (score!) and went and hung out with my people. About 45 minutes before the race I got really excited. No more nerves, just really freaking happy to be there. Fun!

A few minutes before transition closed I grabbed my swim stuff and headed down to the water where I found Swimmy Timmy and his lovely wife. My people found us too, and we all talked while I donned my speedsuit (non-wetsuit wetsuit). I zipped it up and told them I would be back in a minute. They asked if I was going to zip it up. Crap. Broken zipper. A couple of them started to freak out a little and I told them to see if it would go back together. If not I planned to take it off and stash the Gu packets I had in my pockets back in transiton and just swim in my tri suit. Happily we got the zipper to stay. Eventually I made my way down the beach to the start area, and waited. Because we were so far down the beach we couldn't hear the announcers and (I at least) had no idea when we would actually start, so I spent a lot of time standing around in my goggles trying not to have them fog up.

Finally the cannon went off and we all got in the water. The swim was 1500 meters total, broken into two loops with a beach run inbetween loops, because they like to make it hard. The first loop was pretty standard (and I saw a turtle!) with some contact right at the start and rounding the first buoy, but nothing crazy. I felt good! The run on the beach was a bit longer than I expected and they made us run high on the beach in the loose sand, but it went well. I went back in for my second lap happy with how it was going. As I was coming up on the first buoy again a small pack of swimmers came up behind me and one girl started climbing all over me. As we rounded the buoy she grabbed my right shoulder (even though she was coming up my left side) and pulled hard enough that it spun me around on my back. I paused for a second, stunned, and then kicked her as I flipped myself over and got moving again. There was a person about three feet to the left of me and no one on my right, yet she still kept climbing over me. It pissed me off to the point that I yelled at her underwater. I have no idea if she heard me, but I think being pissed made me swim harder to get away from her and may have contributed to my fairly fast swim. I got out of the water at 24:46 (ish)! Sweet!

I trotted gasping up to transition and got all my bike crap on. It was only 9:30 in the morning but I was already fairly warm (since warm water swimming doesn't tend to cool anyone off) when we started rolling on the bike. The first part of the bike was a pretty steady fire road climb and I got passed by a crap load of guys and some pretty fast women. It was kind of cool hearing about the whole course at the pre-race meeting because when I came up on particularly hard sections (Heartbreak Hill, etc) I knew why people were getting off and knew how to handle it. I spent a lot of time pushing my bike up the really steep short hills, and just tried to keep moving the rest of the time. The first extended downhill scared the crap out of me so I got off and ran down that. It was not crazy steep and was about five feet wide, but it was entirely composed of fist-sized chunks of lava. There was no dirt, as I'm pretty sure the lava chunks were about ten inches deep. Technically it was little different than riding in sand, but watching people crash and thinking about the skin that would be lost to the lava didn't sound like fun so early on, so I played it safe.

By the time I got to the first aid station I was having daydreams about a cold bottle of water and was not at all happy to hear that they only had Gatorade. I was carrying fluid with me in my pack, but I wanted plain water to help with the sticky dry feeling in my mouth and to dump all over myself to cool down. Shitty.

I reluctantly kept rolling and was happy to find we were pretty much done with the constant climbing. The terrain was rolly with plenty of hidden lava chunks to make you pay attention and punish you if you didn't. At one point the clouds passed in front of the sun making it feel a million times cooler and everyone around me cheered. They stayed there for quite some time, making the heat bearable and taking my mind off the water situation for a while. Any time I saw someone pulled off the trail I asked if they needed help, because I have needed help before and am still grateful to those who have stopped for me. Most people said they were ok, but one guy didn't. I stopped and asked him what he needed and he shouted something in German. Ummmm...yeah...I had no idea. Another woman riding by asked if he was ok and he said no again. She stopped and he yelled in German again. We looked at eachother a little helplessly, and started pulling out flat repair stuff as that seemed to be the most likely problem. I happened to get my tube out first and he ran over and thanked me, making note of my race number. Once we were satisfied he was set, the girl and I continued on our way. As I was coming up on the second aid station we were all warned to be careful as someone was crashed out and waiting for medical right around the corner. Been there. Hate to see that.

The second aid station had water!!!!!!!!!!! Sort of. The actual aid station only had Gatorade, but there was a man and his kid handing out bottles of water from the back of their minivan not far from the aid station. A bunch of us pulled over and grabbed bottles. I dumped one over my head and torso, into my gloves, and chugged what was left. I grabbed another to bring with me, but it was a screw-top bottle which would be impossible to drink while riding. I dumped out a Gatorade bottle and filled it with water, thanked the man and his kid profusely, and went on my way. The section between aid stations two and three started with more rolling but also included "Ned's Hill", a mile-long hill that's not very steep, but is enough to break your spirit a little. Towards the top it is paved but gets steeper, and I ended up walking that section (with pretty much everyone else). I made sure to keep drinking my water and ice-cold (still! yay!) CarboPro to stay hydrated. After Ned's Hill we reached "The Plunge", a long descent that I was thinking would be good to recover a little on. Wrong. I was able to get up a considerable amount of speed, but there was so much loose or embedded lava that my arms were dying from all the arm pump, and the focus required was exhausting. At one point someone yelled something and I lost focus a little, getting off line into some really loose stuff. I over-corrected and ended up going down, landing on my left knee and my right elbow. As soon as I stopped sliding I looked back to see if I was in danger of getting hit, saw a guy about three feet away from running me over, and threw myself onto my bike to get out of his way. That would have sucked if it didn't work out.

I got back on and kept rolling, hoping to get a break since we were done with all the big climbs. There seemed to be more lava on this part of the course than the rest, making the descents challenging. Even the flats were hard, as the chunks of lava sucked up any momentum I had, making coasting even for a little bit ineffective. The third aid station had no water, only Gatorade. Miles 16-18 were the hardest for me mentally. I was hot, bleeding a little, tired, and thirsty. The course had doubled back on itself and we were headed down the sections we had come up early on. I checked my watch at 12:25 and had a little freakout. I wasn't moving very fast and the bike cut-off was at 1:00. I was afraid we would have to climb up the loose shitty lava-chunky section we had gone down early on. I pulled over under a tree and freaked out for about 25 seconds. Then I got back on my bike and kept going. Happily we didn't have to go up that section and the last couple miles were a fast gravelly descent. I came into transition with about 20 minutes to spare.

As I was getting my run stuff on one of the race volunteers asked if I was quitting or if I was going to keep going. Ummm HELLO! Totally not stopping! I asked for ice, he asked if I was hurt, I told him I was hot. There was an aid station inside transition so I dumped water all over me and grabbed a cup to drink. I left transition with a very talkative woman. We both had to pee, so we ran off the road (we weren't even in the dirt yet) and peed. She waved at people while she did, I was slightly more subtle about it. Once we got running I figured out why I didn't like CarboPro.

Aside from the whole I-really-want-water-not-sweet-sticky-sports-drink thing, I messed up my nutrition. I went with the CarboPro because I don't think I eat enough at races if I rely on Gu alone. From the keeping my blood sugar in check standpoint the stuff worked great. Unfortunately, I wasn't absorbing much by the time I got to the run, and had a big sloshy unhappy belly. Yuck. I ended up walking most of the first three miles (all climbing) because any time I ran I felt sick and unsure of whether I was going to puke or poop. Good times. I only drank at every other aid station (water only) because I didn't want to be more sloshy, and I dumped water over myself at every opportunity. One aid station had a big beautiful bucket of ice, so I took the opportunity to stuff my bra and hat full of ice. When I did run, the cubes clinking together was comically loud. My stomach was settled enough at the top of the climb that I started running down the descents, and managed to run more than walk from then on. I caught a few people and got caught by some too. Around mile 5 we had to run a half mile (?) on a beach. I ran low by the water because the sand was packed and ended up running in the water because I didn't feel like moving. I passed a handful of people here. After that we ran through the "Spooky Forest", a section through the trees (shade!!!) that included a bunch of stumps and logs to climb over and under. Then we ran on another much shorter beach, over a bunch of slippery lava, through some chunky sharp lava, and towards the finish. I continued to pick people off over the technical stuff and was incredibly relieved to be so close to the finish. Being that close was also the hardest part. I wanted to throw up and to cry and to walk, but wouldn't let myself. I crossed the line running.

And I ran straight to the food tent. It was shady and they had chairs there. A woman came up to me almost immediately. She was the wife of the guy I had given a tube to and she thanked my for saving his race. They had come from Austria and he had gotten three flats and didn't think he would finish. I told them it wasn't a big deal and tried to cool down. I had gotten fourth out of four in my age group which isn't particularly good, but i finished the hardest thing I had ever done. After getting settled down I meandered over to the med tent asking for Band Aids for my wounds and ended up getting my knee stitched up (only one, no big deal).

Shower, lots of phone calls and text messages, lounging on my bed.

Before they started the real awards I was called up on stage for giving the guy the tube. They were so grateful they bought me chocolate and had it given to me in front of everyone. Slightly embarrassing, but cool.

I lived. And I want to do it again.

Apparently I lied...

2008-11-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

My computer decided to crap out on me last week so I am currently computer-less (besides work computers that I probably shouldn't blog from...like I'm doing right now...shhh!) and so can not easily write my race report.

I PROMISE I will write it as soon as

a) My poor little laptop gets back on its feet

or

b) I con someone into using their computer for an extended period of time.

Thank goodness for my stupid crackberry, or I would feel totally cut off.

Fingers crossed I don't lose my data that is trapped on the laptop. I will be really really really sad if I lose all my pictures.

Really really.

Last boring post before my race report, I swear

2008-10-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

I kind of fell off the blogging bandwagon while in Maui because I had to pay for internet and kept coming up with more important things to do, like eat food and sleep and lounge.

On Saturday we got up early so my people could run the 10k trail run that was taking place. I saw them off at the start line and then found a comfy spot to read my book and discuss camera lenses (for like three seconds - I still know pretty much nothing) with the Brightroom guy that was there while I waited for the finishers to arrive. I quickly gave up on the reading once the runners started getting there because there were some hot boys and otherwise interesting individuals to people-watch.

My dad finished first so I got a bunch of pictures of him and met him at the finish line. The first thing he did was show me his bloody palm and tell me he was officially an XTERRA athlete since he was bleeding. Indeed! Apparently he tripped on the lava at the end of the run.

Ann finished a little while later and immediately told me she didn't envy what I was going to do tomorrow. Neither did I, actually.

They gave me the breakdown of the course (first three miles are all uphill, no shade, when on the beach run very close to or in the water to save your legs, etc) and we went back to the room for showers and food.

I don't really recall exactly what else I did that day, but I'm pretty sure it involved more napping and lounging. I was going to swim but some jellyfish had blown in and people got stung so I opted not to go. My people came back from hanging out at the beach and broke the news that my dad had gotten second in his age group in the 10k but had missed the award ceremony so he had to pick up his medal from the front desk. Go dad!

I finished putting my bike together and took it out for a three-ish minute spin to make sure it still rolled and stopped and stuff. It did.

We had the pre-race meeting where the race director guy went through all the sections of the bike and run and how much they were going to suck. Gulp. After the meeting they filed us out by country for the Parade of Nations thing and we went to dinner. The U.S. went first so we got to the buffet line first which is kind of appropriate. I found Dave and Meiling and my people and we all had dinner together and watched the Jamie Whitmore presentation again. Afterwards I packed up my race stuff and hit the pillow.

Race in the morning...

I heart vacation

2008-10-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

Day two in Maui (or day one waking up in Maui).

Today was pretty quiet. I didn't sleep very well what with the time change and my dad's snoring, hopefully my new ear plugs will help that situation. Sleep is important. Breakfast today was awesome. We hit up the cafe buffet in the hotel and enjoyed such yummies as peach crepes with Tahitian vanilla bean custard sauce. I could probably eat a hundred of those. Good tea too (which is a little weird, but whatever).

After breakfast I met up with my swim coach Tim ("Swimmy Timmy") who happens to be vacationing on Maui at a rather convenient time, and went for a little swim. I have traditionally been a panicky retard when it comes to snorkeling and other open water situations where I can actually see things, and warned him of this. I had a tiny freak out when we started swimming over coral and the water looked dark, but got over it in a couple minutes. Yay me! We swam out to the TINY buoys and I was happy to note that the water was not that deep and I could always see the bottom so I wouldn't have any Oh-GOD-it's-super-deep! freakouts. On the way back towards shore we decided chasing fish was more fun than swimming so we floated around looking at stuff and I poked urchins down on the bottom. Pretty much the most fun ever. I added to my good Hawaii karma bank by picking up garbage from the bottom of the ocean (a Malibu wrapper). After we got out I practiced running and diving into the water for the start and got knocked down by an unfortunately timed embarrassingly small wave. I made friends with a girl from New Zealand who lived in Santa Clara for six years and some other guy (I don't remember the details) down at the beach too.

After hitting the beach I went and registered, bought some CO2 cartridges, got my dad and step mom ("my people") registered for the 10k run tomorrow and for the two dinners, and got lunch by the pool. Afterwards I built my bike, and found another bike box treasure in the form of a rubber bouncy ball.

I should have gone for a bike ride but decided I should head down to the pool with my book and work on my sunburn instead. So I did. I camped out with a group that included Whit the announcer, Holly from Gu (who crashed her brains out - not literally - in Cancun recently), Jamie Whitmore and her husband, and a few other XTERRA-ers. Had the pleasure of listening to a very loud and whiney gay guy whine about all the athletes that were here because he couldn't bum a cigarette off anyone. Lame. Once the clouds rolled in and the opportunity to bask diminished I packed it in and took a nap in my room.

This racing thing is hard work.

And it was pretty much the best nap ever. I woke up long enough to notice I was drooling on the comforter and not care. Then I went back to sleep. It was oddly satisfying, feeling similar to having a big meal when you are really really hungry. Quite excellent.

I woke up thinking about food again just in time to get invited to Maui Taco, which is apparently the Friday night before the race tradition to all in the know, so my people and I piled into a car and stuffed ourselves with Mexican food. I was offered the opportunity to sell wetsuits. Because that happens every day.

And now I'll leave you so I can go watch House and sleep in preparation of heckling my people as they run the 10k tomorrow morning. I expect them to tell me all the secrets of the course. They'd better get on it!

Initiate Blog Sequence!

2008-10-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

I didn't post last night because I am cheap and didn't want to pay the $11 for internet access so I'm blogging about yesterday this morning after getting my dad to donate to my cause. Because I'm poor and stuff.

I'M TOTALLY IN MAUI!

So excited. I don't even care if the race sucks and my arm falls off or something. My arm will have fallen off in Maui at the World Championships, so I can still at least sound cool.

Now I will bore you with my travel stories because I wanna.

I got all packed up on Wednesday night, as is my habit (last minute packer here), and got a little derailed as I was planning to get a new battery for my easy-to-use camera at Target but they didn't have any and it was late so all the other places were closed. I couldn't find the charger for my big I-wanna-be-a-photog camera, but my dad called on Thursday morning and said he would pick one up before his flight. Score! I also left my laptop cord at the shop on Wednesday so I had to make a 6:30am bike shop stop, but no biggie. I took my bike and shoes and crap to Elliott's on Wednesday night too, and he demonstrated the proper way to pack a bike in his bike box. I was somewhat pre-occupied texting while I was there (who me? No way!) so he added some treats to the box while I wasn't looking. So far I have found a little kid's pink Barbie bike helmet and a rubber ducky. I'm unpacking my bike for reals today so we'll see what else he packed.

I had my friend Carla pick me up and drive me to the airport (thanks Carla!), which was a little bit of an adventure as neither of us is much over five feet tall and we had to get the bike box and my huge bag in the back of the truck and we didn't want to mess with the attached bike rack or tailgate. Much giggling ensued. Her mom decided to ride along, so we played "Did you have this teacher when you were in school? How about this one?" all the way to the airport. Her mom is a substitute teacher, so it wasn't completely random. Carla and I hoisted my crap out of the truck once again, and I stumbled my way into the airport.

Now, the bike box is pretty big and heavy. So much so that I can't drag it away from my body so it hits the back of my legs when I walk, making me walk like a weirdo. Add the big pink rolly bag that I have to hold pretty far away from my body so it clears the bike box that has a tendency to flip over if I hit a bump (similar to the alligator death-roll) and the 40 lb backpack I had on (I over pack), and I was kind of a mess. I took the elevator to the ticketing counter, and was laughing out loud at how retarded I was. I somehow made it through the hoards - possibly expedited by the "look how wretched and miserable I am" face I was trying to get people to move - and proceeded to get yelled at by the Hawaiian Airlines greeter lady. When she saw my bike box she gave me the dirtiest look EVER. Kinda bitchy, that one. Happily the actual ticketing lady was cool and told me how to word things so I didn't have to pay extra. Sweet.

My first flight from San Jose to Honalulu was quite nice. No one was sitting next to me (in an otherwise packed plane) so I got a whole row to myself. That never happens to me! I brought a bunch of work crap along, so I spent the whole flight listening to music and organizing invoices.

I had a couple-hour layover in Honalulu before I flew to Maui so I found an electrical outlet and fired up my laptop and was about to start working when my friend Whit, the race announcer for XTERRA and Ironman and a bunch of other races came and found me and gave me a lei. What the hell?? I turned beet red and was all embarrassed and sweaty and ridiculous. Good times. He was hopping a flight to Maui as well, only his was an hour and a half before mine, so he didn't have much time to hang around. I mentioned that I was stuck waiting for my dad to arrive since I can't rent a car (until next year) and he offered to wait around and give me a ride if I needed it. I said maybe.

On my second flight I realized I left my iPod on the first flight so I was a little upset. But then I mentally smacked myself since I still have all my music and I can buy another one, and spent the rest of the very short flight enjoying the beautiful scenery. Live in the moment, or something.

Once we landed in Maui I hit the bathroom and made my way to the baggage claim, where my bike box was hanging out with 8 or so other bike boxes like little soldiers. Mine was the first one. Right next to it was my bag. Apparently my stuff had flown earlier than I did, as it wasn't even on the carousel. I loaded up, made some old ladies hustle out of my way, and found Whit still hanging out in the airport. Apparently his bags had JUST got there, so he had had to wait around anyway. Score for me, I didn't have to wait four hours for my dad!

We got to the hotel, I spent a few minutes convincing the bellhop that I wasn't Swedish (he was insisting), convinced the check-in lady to let me get in my room even though it was under my dad's name, and worked on my invoices and relaxed on the balcony. My friend Ian (of Specialized Rider's Club fame) called me up and we went for a short run around the hotel and on the beach. The section on the beach is part of the course and it's going to be rough. Holy crap. Unstable footing at the end of the race? Ankles beware! I got a little taste of the heat and humidity on my run (my face was a little purple afterwards), and am making sure to be extra hydrated come race day.

Once my dad and stepmom got here we got dinner and passed out, and I got to listen to my dad snore all night. Today I'm buying earplugs.

Thank you all for your support, I'm loving all the "good lucks"! And don't worry, I will definitely have fun!

Sort-of Race Report

2008-10-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I did my first time trial that was not sandwiched in between a swim and a run!

The TT was part of the San Jose Bike Club's Winter Series, and was a 15-mile loop that included roads that I ride all the time. And it only cost me $8. No reason not to do it, right?

Elliott and I were planning on riding the TT and then hopping on our road bikes to cool down and meander up to Los Gatos and get some food. I got to bust out my skinsuit and aero helmet for the first time, and Elliott managed to come up with a matching set, so we got to be matchy aero geeks for the morning.

I was the 5th-ish person sent off in a group of about 90, and was followed by a bunch of women. Elliott was about 14 people behind me, so I was instructed (by him) that my goal was not to let him catch me. We were set off at 30 second intervals. I caught the "person" in front of me in the first minute, but this "person" was a 12 year-old(ish) kid and his dad, so not impressive. I caught the woman in front of them within the first couple miles. And then I was alone for a long time.

The route took us down the very flat Santa Teresa road where there is usually a tailwind, but I didn't have the benefit of one that morning. We turned right on Willow Springs and hit the climb (not my favorite), and that actually felt pretty good. We turned right again on Oak Glen toward Uvas Road, and this section went pretty smoothly and felt shorter than normal.

Once we turned onto Uvas a headwind materialized, and it pretty much sucked from then on. The first person to pass me did so a couple miles into the Uvas section (right about where it becomes McKean), and this person happened to be Elliott. Balls.

So much for that goal.

I was drooling enough at that point that it didn't click that it was him until he was well past me, even though we were wearing matching kits. He didn't say anything when he went by, and later told me it was because he was a little miserable. Glad I wasn't the only one.

Another guy passed me right before we turned onto Bailey. I cared for about four seconds. We turned up Bailey, I stood up for the little climb, and got a little time to recover on the descent (it's a fun one too!) I had the bright idea to hammer it from the bottom of the climb to the finish since it's pretty much flat, but figured out the hard way that it was a really looooooong section. Ouch!

I dragged myself to the finish, rode around for a bit to cool down, changed into my other riding clothes, and hopped on my rode bike. I was now freezing, and unable to form sentences. My attempts at conversation amounted to single-syllable words in no logical order. Ummmm....never had that happen before! The whole ride-to-Los-Gatos plan died pretty quickly so we improvised with breakfast food in Morgan Hill.

I kind of got my ass kicked.

So I'll be doing that again.

Nothing exciting to report

2008-10-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Work has been crazy busy so most of my stories are work-related and I already talked about those.

***

I went to a funeral on Thursday (a friend's dad) and it was actually kind of enjoyable considering what it was. More about celebrating and remembering fondly than being sad. Plus I met the fattest cat EVER.

***

My obnoxious pink kit came in and the shorts are REALLY see-through. Bummer. Looks like I'm improvising with some blue-gray Zoot shorts with hot pink stitching to avoid mooning the whole venue.

***

Tomorrow I'm doing the SJBC Winter Series individual TT. Elliott and I are wearing matching skinsuits and aero helmets. I'm most excited about the apparel, which is probably a little sad. I'm hoping to follow the "race" up with some chocolate crepes in Los Gatos. Mmmmmmm!

***

I'm going to Maui on Thursday!!!!! Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!! So very excited! My dad and stepmom are planning on running the 10k the day before my race, which is awesome, and they are buying (expensive) tickets to the pre- and post-race dinners to hang out with me. My dad had to make sure I wouldn't be embarrassed if they tagged along before he bought tickets. Funny.

Meh...

2008-10-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today one of the firefighters from the other morning came in to have his bike worked on. Because he works nearby and he thought he'd come say hi. I should totally get paid extra for this after hours (or before in this case) customer-recruiting shit.

Then a police officer came in.

Later a flight nurse came in. He wants to go riding next week. I told him ok if he let me ride along in the helicopter. The sick part of me kind of wants to see some carnage. Partly because it would make my friend Monica really jealous.

Then the former Mayor came in to spend his gift certificate.

I guessed I missed the Civil Servant Day memo.

Later a couple fresh from Madrid came in and spent a shit-load of money. Only she spoke no English and he only spoke a little and none of us speak much Spanish. So we translated online and it was kind of cool. The whole transaction took like three hours because they wanted to tear down one bike and build it another way and get another bike but switch the saddles and tape and get matching pedals and we had to get it right in the computer. Ugh. It was exhausting. Then they wanted to ship the bikes to Spain but it costs a lot so I had to look up the prices for UPS, FedEx and DHL but we finally convinced them to take the bikes on the plane with them. But the translating online part was fun. And they were nice.

Now I'm at home watching Heroes with a dark room because the light bulbs burned out and I'm too short to reach them even with the ladder and the boys aren't home. Oh well.

Get your ass out of bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-12T18:14:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting morning.

About 5:00 this lovely morning I awoke to every smoke alarm in the house going off. It was LOUD.

I ran around looking/sniffing for smoke and noticed nothing. I went up stairs to check with the roommates/make them fix it because they can actually reach the alarms if they stand on a ladder but neither one was home. Crap. I went outside and called the roomie that owns the house and got his voicemail. No answer. I called my mom in Maryland because I thought she might be up and got no answer again. I felt weird about calling 911 because I didn't actually think there was an emergency but I definitely would not be going to sleep any time soon and I wasn't sure how to fix it. I went back in the house and poked at the alarm in my room with a broomstick to see if it would stop. It didn't. Shit.

Outside again, I called 411 for the number to the fire department (the non-emergency one). Got connected to some City of Morgan Hill voice recording that was no help. Sucked it up and called 911 (I have a serious aversion to calling 911...I never feel like it's a big enough deal to call...even when I was younger and two guys were kind of trying to break into my house and I was home alone, I didn't call). I was told an engine would be sent out, and called my dad while I waited outside. It was a chilly morning and I was in a robe. Totally killed my warm-in-flannel-sheets vibe I had going.

I kept expecting a neighbor or two to come out and investigate but no one ever did. I live in a duplex. I can hear when they shut their bathroom door. No way they didn't hear anything. Nice to know they care if my house burns down.

After a few minutes an engine pulls up (lights going, no siren...it would have been a little satisfying to wake all the neighbors up) and three guys get off. As we are walking to the house my roommates dog who I assumed to be out with the missing roommate decided to start barking and sound all vicious so I have to convince the guys that the dog is chicken shit and won't actually eat them.

After walking around and determining that indeed ALL of the alarms in the house were going off, I was informed that my (loud) roommate's door was locked and they needed to get in there. My morbid mind went right to thinking he was dead inside. Nice. Having no other way to get in, we picked the lock with a coat hanger. Happily, no dead bodies were inside.

Once the lack of smoke/carbon monoxide was established I was told one of the alarms was probably low on batteries and connected to the others which set them all off. One of the firemen (the cute one...yay!) goes out the truck and comes back with a huge bag of batteries. He grabbed a ladder from my garage and pretended it was a surf board while he climbed the stairs. Obviously a morning person. They change the batteries in a couple alarms and they all keep going off. Eventually it is decided that two of the alarms upstairs are faulty, and they offer to come back and install new ones if we need them too.

While they were working I noticed the last name on one of their jackets and find out that he is the father of a girl I have known since junior high. I have totally been to his house. We talk about what she is doing (school, boyfriend, blah, blah, blah) and what I'm doing (no more school, bike shop). I mention that I race bikes, explaining all the bikes in my room. Apparently they didn't notice the bikes in my room so they all run in there to check them out. Three firefighters in uniform in my bedroom...

cue porno music.

Not really. They left, I went back to bed, then to work.

Good times.

XTERRA Nats Day 2 Pictures

2008-10-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

Sleepy pre-race Ensure-drinking face.

Waiting for paint to dry.

Bring it!

Swim little fishies!!!!

Beach run.

I like my pink bike.

Run "finish" #1

Actual run finish.

Icing my leg on a cold day.

Getting lei'd again.

20-24 podium

Hardware!

Post race car snacks!

Race Weekend Report #2 : The Race

2008-10-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

When I last left you, dear reader(s?), I was being an old lady and yelling at drunk people because I needed to sleep.

Eventually I went to sleep, and woke up before the sun to pack up the car and head to the race. When we got up, it was COLD. I'm told 34 degrees. Yeesh. I donned my tri suit, pants, shoes, socks, three jackets, and a beanie and climbed in the car. I made Vanessa drive so I could choke down my bagel with peanut butter and an Ensure (because I'd rather drink my calories in the morning).

We got to the venue and I set up transition, and proceeded to do very little for the next couple hours. Body marking was extra fun as I had to strip down to my suit and stay that way until the paint dried. With about 20 minutes before we were due to start I climbed into my wetsuit, leaving my beanie on because I'm super cool, and headed down to the water.

The walk to the water was a long one, so most people brought shoes with them. I probably should have done that too. I was a little afraid my toes would crack and fall off from the cold. Happily, they survived.

The lake was perfect. No waves, crystal clear water, blue skies, and snow-capped mountains. The beach was sandy, making for easy running (versus the rocky beach at Tahoe City), and the lake got deep enough for swimming quickly (again, different from Tahoe City). I swam out a little way to make sure I still remembered how to swim, and lined up to start.

The swim: 1500 yards broken into two 750 meter laps with a short beach run between laps. I managed to have an AWESOME start. The cannon went off and I dove in and went for it. Everyone was spread out enough that I had clear water until the first buoy avoiding getting kicked, punched, or run over. I did a good job not freaking out about the random things under the water (big concrete blocks with chains in them mostly) or about the depth we were swimming in, and the first lap went almost perfectly. I kept swimming until my hand hit the bottom, stood up, ran along the beach, and dove back in. About halfway to the first buoy I was swimming behind a girl (I think...she/he was wearing hot pink goggles) who apparently decided I was too close. As I was getting ready to go by this person I took a breath at the same time they made a big kick (the "get the hell off my feet" kind) and I inhaled a ton of water. I had to stop swimming to hack and gag all the water out, almost throwing up, and got passed by a bunch of people. Boo. I was a little leery of getting close to feet again after that, but the rest of the swim was fine and I hauled myself out of the water and started the run back to transition.

T1: The perk of knowing the race announcer (if one were to look for perks) is that you definitely get announced at races. I entered transition to my name being called out and him telling people to "watch out" for me. Ha! Sweet. I'm not sure how long I took to get all my bike crap on, but I wasn't going slow on purpose so I guess that's ok.

The bike: Holy crap. Brutal but freaking gorgeous. The first 3.5-ish miles are climbing up a fire road, a feature my leg didn't really appreciate so I stopped a few times to stretch it out. The goal was to finish healthy for Maui after all. A girl in my age group went by me a couple miles in so I rode with her until I needed to stretch again, hoping she was moving into second place and not third (I knew who would come in first, so I just wanted to be on the podium at the end of the day). We climbed for what felt like forever then hit the amazing Flume Trail. I'm sure everyone has seen pictures of this trail at some point, and I was a little bummed I was racing because I kind of wanted to stop and enjoy the view. The trail runs along a cliff overlooking the lake and is maybe six feet across at its widest, but usually around four feet. If one happened to fall over the edge it would be ugly. It was spectacular. And mostly flat. After the Flume we climbed some more, came to a lake (not Tahoe), and climbed more. Lots of climbing. The beginning of the descent was great. We rode through rock gardens and off little drops, around switchbacks and between trees. I love mountain biking. Sketchy sections were easy to anticipate as there was usually a camera man or two waiting to catch some crash action. I managed to scare the crap out of one who didn't see me coming, which I found pretty amusing. After all the rocky fun was a long fast fire road descent back to transition. This part was the coldest part of the whole day. It was still cold, maybe in the 40s by then, and I was wearing wet lycra in the wind. I think I was blue.

T2: I think I managed another fast-ish transition. Yay!

The Run: 10k trail run, two laps. I could do runs like this one every day. Instead of long extended climbs we ran over rolling terrain, with tons of twists and turns, and several bridges. I settled in with a couple runners and was feeling pretty good until we ran off course, got yelled at, and turned back around to figure out where we were supposed to be. Once we got going again I paced myself with a guy in the 60-64 age group and ran the rest of the lap with him. I tried chatting with him and he didn't seem all that happy about it. Grump. We finished the lap and I kept following him expecting to be directed somewhere to start the second lap. Turns out he was done and no one saw me behind him so I ended up in the finishing chute. I frantically told the guy who tried to take my race number that I only did one lap as the announcers told everyone I was done. I got pointed in the right direction and ran out for my second lap listening to the announcers calling after me and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Oops. Just a little embarrassing. I saw Courtenay cheering for me on my second lap which was kind of cool. I settled in running with a girl named Jamie from Alaska, and she remained my running buddy for the rest of the lap. I managed to roll my ankle pretty early on in the lap. Sucked a little. I was feeling pretty crappy by the end, but finished relatively strong. The announcers called my name again for my actual finish.

I got third!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I packed up my gear, limped on my now-stiff and sore ankle to the med tent to get ice, and loaded up a plate of free BBQ. Excellent. The awards ceremony was fairly long with most of the winners giving little speeches. They announced that the fundraiser they had for Jamie Whitmore raised over $12,500. So cool. I got called up when it was my turn and got another lei, some Gu, some Paul Mitchell product, a medal, and a plaque. Not a bad haul! The girl who won my age group was the fastest amateur woman overall.

Overachiever.

Vanessa and I loaded the car up with my bike and gear, changed clothes in the casino, and hit the road. I bought my body weight in travel food at a gas station and we had car karaoke and snacks all the way home.

It was a very good weekend.

XTERRA Nats Day 1 pictures

2008-10-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Shenanigans back in the cottage after the dinner with my new jersey.

Meiling and I sporting our jerseys. I have Botox-face apparently.

Car picture. Really excited about getting lei'd. Tee hee!

Angry lake and tiny Amy.

Amy and Vanessa taking pictures of ourselves.

Vanessa, Ryan and myself. They are tall.

Courtenay and I after her race.

Race Weekend Report #1

2008-10-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was XTERRA Nationals, and I had the best weekend I have had in I don't know how long. Nothing crazy-spectacular, just great fun. I'm breaking up my weekend and race report into two segments because I have to get a massage eventually and it would be really long otherwise.

I left on Friday, after schlepping over to Aptos on Thursday night to dog-sit and not get much sleep. I finally got myself a travel buddy in my friend Vanessa, one of my customers and frequent ride buddies. I enjoy hanging out with Vanessa both because she rocks and because she is six feet tall and has a propensity for wearing heels and I think we make quite the spectacle. But then, I am easily amused.

A little bit before we reached Vacaville, I got an email from a friend (who is in Kona for Ironman) at Specialized who had an athlete racing at Nationals who was shipped a bike with no saddle or seatpost, wanting to know if I could find him one. Of course I said I would try, being the kiss-ass that I am. Oh and by the way, the "athlete" was Ryan Sutter, of "The Bachelorette" and "Ryan and Trista" fame. Vanessa and I quickly googled him on her phone, since neither of us actually watch the show. I made about a billion phone calls, emails, and text messages in search of a seatpost over dinner, and had made pretty good progress by the time we got on the road again.

Rain had started falling by the time we left the restaurant and continued for the rest of the night. Ideally, one would find out that her windshield wipers don't work well on a shorter drive, but whatever, it made for an adventure. Layer on the weird fog (dubbed "Rog") we encountered with the rain near Truckee, and it was interesting driving.

We got to our hotel, resplendant in its neon glory, had the longest check-in ever where I contemplated napping on the counter, and went to find the room. Now, we were staying in your standard hotel/casino in small town Nevada, but I had opted for the "Cottage" room because it was a little bit cheaper. It turns out that "Cottage" is code for something resembling cabins one would encounter at summer camp, minus the bunk beds. Not that bad really, but they were erratically numbered, so Vanessa and I spent a good 15 minutes running around in the 40 degree pouring rain in our flip flops giggling and shouting "142 over here!" "152 here!" before we found our room. That was chilly.

On Saturday we slept in a bit then made our way to the race venue. Because it was a big XTERRA race, there was a whole weekend's worth of events to behold, so we had plenty to check out. I got my race packet for Sunday (AND there were only four people in my age group...sweet), found my XTERRA buddies Dave (who was racing the Sport race) and Meiling (who was volunteering in the Sport race), hooked up with the fabulously talented Courtenay Brown who won the 10k trail run (and a trip to Hawaii!), and ran into old friends/customers from Fresno Scott and Leah, who won the 10k and got second in the 10k respectively. Apparently I know some fast runners! We walked around the expo drinking hot chocolate and checking out hot boys for a while until I determined that I would have no luck mooching a seatpost from anyone there, so we headed out for lunch and a trip to the bike shop. Burritos are delicious.

Rented a seatpost, put more clothes on (it was in the 40's and windy by the way), headed back to the expo, bought a jacket and arm warmers, met up with Ryan, got picture taken with Ryan, visited with Dave after his race, went to the lake to check it out, took pictures of the lake and went back to the room to nap before the evening's meetings and dinner. Naps are delicious too.

Post-nap we headed back to the host hotel/venue once again so that I could get to my race director meeting, which was basically "Good job guys, I know we cancelled the swim for the Sport race but you are champions so even if it's still bad you will still be swimming. K? K!"

The "Dinner of Champions" or whatever it was called was really cool. The people who did the most races were recognized, along with those with the best overall results, the people who put on the races, and the ones who were the most inspirational. Jamie Whitmore was the focus of the whole weekend, with good reason. Jamie is the winning-est athlete in XTERRA history. Period. She has 37 wins to her name in her career. The person with the second-most wins is Conrad Stoltz, the current world champion, with 22 wins to his name. Jamie not only raced, but coached (and still does, Meiling is one of her athletes), raised money and awareness for a disease (sorry, I totally can't remember what it was, but it affects people in her family and some friends), and was all-around awesome. Last year doctors found a baseball-sized tumor in her pelvic region. They removed it, and in doing so removed some of her sciatic nerve, and Jamie was told she would never walk again. Not one to give up a fight, Jamie got a prosthesis, and started walking again. Then they found another tumor. The second tumor grew to the size of the first in a period of about two and a half months. Jamie went in for surgery again to remove the tumor, and to make sure they got it all, her doctors removed one of her glute muscles and part of her tailbone. She is still fighting, still planning on racing again somehow, and still awesome. The whole room was in tears when she spoke, including myself. Awesome.

Once everyone got their composure back, all the regional champions were recognized, given their jerseys, and had their pictures taken. I was totally up there!!!!!!

Southwest Regional Points Leader Women 20-24 right here!!!!

Vanessa and I climbed back in the car, took some silly pictures, drove back to the "Cottage" and I pulled out all my stuff to race. Yikes!

I was hoping to get a good night's sleep before the race, but there was a concert at our hotel so we were graced with drunken fools until 2 am outside our window. I yelled at them once and called security twice. Kind of felt like an old lady about that....

Coming soon: actual race report!

Still in Suckville.

2008-10-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

I had my second massage of the week yesterday. It was better than the first one in that I felt better for at least 12 hours afterward (rather than 1.5), but my leg is back to feeling shitty.

Ugh.

This I know: I am going to Tahoe. I want to go to the awards dinner thingy and get my Points Leader Jersey.

Uncertain: if I will actually race. I don't want to make it worse before Worlds, but it's still a big deal and I want to do it. Right now I am thinking I'll start, as the swim should be fine. If I feel terrible and like I'm making things worse I will quit. Otherwise I will just take it easy and enjoy the view.

Suck.

Unfortunate Timing

2008-09-29T20:39:00.001-07:00

My leg is all messed up. Nationals is this weekend. I'm a little worried I won't get things figured out before then and they will get worse before Worlds. Suck.

Basically, my IT band is really tight and is pulling on my knee in one direction, and my internal rotators are tight and my calf is super tight and it hurts in that dull ache kind of way.

I had a girl come to my house to massage me yesterday and she kind of lectured me for having tight legs and not stretching enough and stuff. But it did feel a little better after she worked on it. She told me to take an Epsom salt bath (check) and ice it (check) and to stretch. I hope it goes away.

She did however compare me to some pro racer chicks. So that's pretty sweet.

Questions

2008-09-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

First of all, I totally feel cool right now. I logged in, and was informed I have a follower. Katy rocks!

Ok, so I have a question for my blog readers (otherwise known as Katy and sometimes Lorri...as far as I know you make up my readers).

As you may know, I qualified for XTERRA Worlds. And, I have a very pink bike (see picture at the top right of the page). Someone recently pointed out that 2XU makes a very pink tri kit. I was thinking it would be kind of fun to show up in Maui all Euro-trashy pink and white, but I'm conflicted. Should I?

I think essentially this makes me XTERRA Barbie. Except for the whole blonde thing. Normally I am anti-bike-matching-clothes, but I don't know that I'll get to go to Maui again so I figure I might as well be obnoxious. And it's an international field so there are bound to be some people rocking the neon or some such awesomeness. Plus it would look really good with a lei over the top of it.

What do you think?

Ranting

2008-09-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

I have the most annoying room mate EVER.

He's possibly the loudest person on the face of the earth.

Yuck.

I got back in the pool this morning after a little hiatus (coach was in Taho coaching some pros and I'm not a good swimming self-motivator) and felt kind of crappy. And slow. So it's back to getting up before the sun to swim before work.

I've been feeling all tight and uncomfortable for a little while and haven't had my regular massages that make me feel better (massage girl has been booked/taking days off) so I decided to go to a yoga class to see if I could work any of it out. I have never gone to yoga consistently (only went because I had a friend teaching classes, I prefer pilates), and have not been to any group classes at the MH Rec Center, but I figured it was included with my swim membership so what the hell. It wasn't bad. I felt a little better. I wasn't the least bendy person in the room, although my balance seemed to have gone to sleep for about ten minutes in the middle of the class. I was left wondering where all the Russian women came from. The instructor had a medium-heavy accent, there was a woman in the class with an accent, and I know of another instructor that immigrated at some point. It was a Monday afternoon class so it was full of the expected retired ladies and cosmetically enhanced trophy wives, but the international contingent was a surprise.

I went for a group ride (with boys! It's been a long time since I've done one of those) yesterday that started out sucking but was fun in the end. I take a long time to warm up. I know this. The guys wanted to beat each other at everything to prove how manly they are or something. This meant we were going fast and people were taking really long pulls and not holding their speed and I got mad. I told my friend/coach/boss ("E") I "didn't want to play this game anymore" and sat up and had a Gu.

Then it was better.

I was the first one over Bailey and was excited to have open road to go fast on the descent but one of the ego boys had to pass me lest he be beat by a girl. He had furry legs. We named him bushpig. We were playing paceline on Santa Teresa back toward Morgan Hill and I was getting annoyed with the other girl on the ride (which was only a matter of time) and my bike felt all bouncy-weird and I asked her if I had a flat as I drifted back in the line. She cut me off before I finished my sentence and said "I know me too!! Hee hee!!!" This made me more mad (because actually listening to people when they talk is usually pretty helpful). I had a flat. I yelled something to that effect and pulled over. One of the guys on the ride yelled to the others a bunch of times but the girl was the closest one and didn't have her listening hat on. He talked at me while I changed the flat and one of the other guys came and found us. We went up Willow Springs, where the boys decided they needed to have another ego-fest and I went slow and passed some of them before the top. At the other side two of them split off and then the ride became fun.

No-listen girl blew up and was left talking to herself because she was the last one up the climbs. I glued myself to E's wheel and he set the pace based on his powertap and we crushed any attacks by the other two. He remarked that the lake was low and stood up at the same time I looked at the lake so I ran into his back wheel. Miraculously, no one crashed, although my grabbing the brakes response reportedly caused No-listen to fishtail behind me. I finished the ride tired and sweaty but still with good legs. Good times.

I hope football is over in time for me to watch Heroes.

Pleasantly Surprised

2008-09-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

Racing and being athletic in general are still fairly new to me. I refused to do much more than hang out on the couch for my entire childhood (my mom still likes to talk about my refusing to swim at swim lessons) and teen years. My parents were runners, and I thought it bugged them that I was inactive, and bugging them seemed like a good idea. It wasn't until I was nearing 20 that I caught the sports bug. Happily, I caught it big time, and wanting to do a marathon before my 21st birthday snowballed into the athletic-spaz I am today.

Even after all this, I still don't usually think of myself as an athlete. I feel like the same lazy person I was before, and it's weird when friends or family tell me they are proud or that I inspire them in some way. It might be because I am fortunate enough to be around some incredible athletes, but I just feel regular. A newbie. Nothing special.

Lately I have found myself in the midst of some great people, who have been so incredibly supportive I am still surprised. A sponsor through work. A coach who seems to believe in me and is willing to work with me, train me, and let me hang out with his wife and kids. A swim coach who gets giddy at my workouts and keeps tabs on me and my races. An aquaintance who offered to provide financial assistance. A boss who pays for my races. A parent who is getting me (and him and others) to Hawaii to race. Relatives and strangers offering up their couches and floors if I need them. Customers who train with me, race with me, encourage me, and keep me honest. A burger and a beer from a new friend as she tells me I could do it all for a long time if I wanted.

I want.

Thank you all. You are amazing. I'm still new at this but I'll do my best to make you proud. And one day, I hope I can do for someone else what you have done for me.

Big Kahuna Pictures

2008-09-10T20:39:00.001-07:00

I have totally already posted these all over the place, but I like them so too bad!

Branded

2008-09-08T23:05:00.001-07:00

I stuck a Gu in my shorts for safekeeping and it left a mark. Funny!

Big Kahuna'd

2008-09-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

I now walk like an old lady. And I walked down the stairs backwards today. Sad.

Yesterday I did my first road tri of the year (and it's September!), the Big Kahuna 1/2 Iron in Santa Cruz. It was soooooo much fun!

I went into it with the mentality that it was just a long training day as I had not done anything even resembling distance in like two years. It's been at LEAST a year since I ran more than a 10k. On top of that, I was riding my TT bike for pretty much the second time ever (trainer sessions don't count), and had not ridden it at all since I had my fit re-vamped, a different saddle put on, and changed the tires so they didn't suck any more. How's that for being unprepared?

The swim was the part I was most prepared for, but I was still anxious because it was in the ocean and there are scary things that could eat me. Happily, I managed to avoid the scary thoughts and was fine as long as someone was swimming near me (so I didn't look like a lone little fishy begging to be picked on). Unfortunately I seem to have lost my ability to swim in a straight line. I swam all over the place. I kept wanting to sight off the pier, but the course had us swim away from it. I was all screwed up. I came out of the water at 38 min and change, which is way slow for me (five minutes slower than my last 1.2m open water swim). Based on conversations I heard/had/read, this happened to pretty much everyone. I also felt like I weighed 400 pounds when I stood up out of the water. That was fun.

Ran forever to transition, jumped in the little swimming pool for foot-washing, got all my bike crap on, and hit the road.

I got going and felt surprisingly good. The course was rolling, up Highway 1 heading north along the ocean, with gorgeous views. As I was coming up a hill I noticed a rhythmic bumping going on in the front end of my bike. I looked at the front tire as best I could, but didn't see anything amiss. As I was rolled down the hill it got worse, and at the bottom my tire blew off the rim. Awesome. I pulled over and got to work untaping my wad of tube/CO2 and accessories (I had taped them to the bike so I wouldn't lose them). Changed the flat, and mentally pleaded with the bike not to get another flat as I only had enough stuff to change one flat, and a second would make my day very bad. The spot I had stopped at was in between two hills, so I got to start riding again up a hill, with no momentum to help out. This was at approx mile 8. Suck.

I kept feeling good on the bike and at some point I realized that I might be able to hustle and break three hours, so I hustled. I didn't quite make it and finished with a bike split of 3:05, so if flatting is taken into consideration, I TOTALLY did it. Whatever, it's just a training race.

T2...same old shiz...

Started the run at a snail's pace, but I was actually running so I'm fine with it. Almost got hit by a pigeon. Kept running slow. Thought about making it to the next aid station instead of the miles because one mile-ish is shorter than 13 and a much happier number. Walked most of the aid stations, made one potty break (shhh! Don't tell Elliott!), chugged along like a sad little train. I actually felt good all things considering. The last part of the run where you are forced to run in the sand is the worst thing ever though! Running along the wet part wasn't too bad apart from being at an angle and having to dodge small children. The last 75 feet though: pure evil. Racers have just traveled 70 miles and change. Making them run in loose sand in front of a large crowd of people is not nice.

But they did have free burritos. So it was all good.

I ended up finishing in 6:11 and a few seconds. Which is about and hour and nine minutes faster than my previous 1/2 iron. Granted I was undertrained and kind of fat then, but still, I think that's pretty good. I've just been training for short stuff this year.

I got to see some people I used to race with from Fresno, so that was fun too. Good job Ben and Abby! It was fun seeing you in the porta potty line and transition (respectively)!

I was thinking about doing the Silverman 1/2 in November after XTERRA Worlds a while ago and changed my mind. I might have changed it back. I want to break six hours.

Another day on the other coast

2008-08-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

I'm totally failing in fulfilling my activity list. I have gotten in a TON of reading though...just finished book number 5. I should probably get out more.

I managed to stay up until 4:00 am again reading, and only got up because my mom was yelling at me. Just like old times. We hopped in the Miata (which I think is really funny, by the way), put the top down, and drove the hour and a half to Snake Guy's house. I fell asleep. Checked out his collection (which was awesome), my mom picked a new baby out that she will get in a couple weeks, I got bit by one of the babies, we played with his dog, and we got back in the car. Stopped to check out a pet store (it's kind of our thing, checking out new pet stores), got some lunch and sundaes at Dairy Queen, and hit the road back home. I fell asleep again, and now have a lovely crooked v-neck sunburn on my chest. With a big white spot in the middle where I must have gotten some lotion or something on it.

We got home and I jumped in the pool to try and get away from the heat and humidity and did some circle swimming because it was too short to swim laps and I have been sucking at turning around bouys in races. It was entertaining for a little while. Then I found another book, ate dinner, finished said book, and will probably go to bed soon.

It's wild times over here.

"Day 2" OR "The Excitement Continues"

2008-08-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

All those things I said I was going to do today? Not so much. I started reading book number 3 last night, went to sleep at 5 am, and didn't get up out of bed until about 2 pm after I had finished said book. Whoops.

We are going to see snake guy tomorrow for sure.

Today we decided to drive to Penn to go to some pet store my mom wanted to check out but there was a car accident so we sat on a bridge for something over an hour waiting to see if the traffic might clear up. There were lots of birds to watch and we looked for bald eagles and it was kind of pretty so we didn't mind. Miatas are very small cars though. When she called to find out the store's hours we were told that particular store didn't exist in the town we were headed to. There was another store in that town, but they closed at 6:00 and it was 5:36 so I suggested we just turn around. We went and had dinner instead and I explained track racing and bikes (what little I know of both subjects) to my mom. People in Maryland eat an obscene amount of crab.

My best friend from junior high had a baby today. That seems weird to me.

Day 1 in Maryland

2008-08-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ordinarily I probably wouldn't bore anyone with my play-by-play that did not include racing, but the time difference means people here are sleeping and I'm awake and bored. Kinda sucks for you, huh?

My flights here were pretty uneventful. Flew from San Jose to Minneapolis and got stuck sitting next to a guy who ate about three pounds of candy, topped it off with a beer, and proceeded to burp a lot. Gross. Read most of book number one. Got told that I was "too pretty to be walking by myself and frowning" by some random guy. Too bad I was traveling alone and not feeling like smiling at nothing like a moron. Mind your own business random guy!

Two hour layover in Minneapolis, had greasy dinner, bought book number two. Flight was a little late taking off. Plane to Philly was pretty empty, but my reading light wouldn't stay on so I had to lean into the (empty) middle seat. Finished book number one, started on book number two. Got a phone call that my mom was stuck in traffic, so I hung out at the baggage claim waiting, and finished book number two. Got in bed somewhere in the 2 am hour.

Today I got to meet all the new horses (my favorites being the drafts and the pony - who are very good friends and funny to see together), play with the very new puppies, check out the 100 year-old barn that has bats in it, search for turtles in the marsh, find a turtle in the pond, go grocery shopping, and get introduced to random people. I saw my first fireflies too!

Apparently there is a big heroin problem here. The next door neighbors' son broke into their house and stole some jewelry this morning. Good times. My mom wants to introduce me to the guy who works at the liquor store because his girl requirements are "good teeth and no track marks". I'm totally in.

Tomorrow I'm going to go for a run in the woods behind my house with my Garmin so I know how far. I'm hoping to drag my mom out either running too, or on her bike to keep me company/from getting lost. We are going to try to go to the "snake guy"'s house to check out his collection. I have a strange desire to give some of the horses baths, so I might do that. There may also be an evening trail ride (on horses) because the fireflies in the woods should be good.

Big days here in Maryland!

Busy, busy, blistered

2008-08-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Some time in the last week I grew a schedule that included more activities than Olympic-watching.

On Thursday I "raced" a Splash and Dash in Livermore. It was supposed to be a 1500 meter swim and a 5k run, but my friend and I got there just as they were starting (and still had to change and register) so the race director told us to just jump in on the second loop of the swim. Since I wasn't really in contention for anything I decided to just fool around, test the duct-tape-as-blister-prevention theory, and generally be lazy. There was some giggling in the middle of the lake, I'm not gonna lie. We are intense racers. For the record, duct tape doesn't stay put when swimming. Once I got out I reapplied the tape (because I didn't have socks and didn't want to give my blisters blisters), waited for my friend, and ran with her because it was more fun to talk. I exerimented with holding my hands in different positions so as not to accrue more T-Rex-looking race pictures. More giggling. I made up some nicknames for us, but I was asked not to share hers. We finished the race together, partook of the free pizza (there was beer too but I wasn't feeling it), and drove our happy butts home. Good times.

-----------------------------------------

This morning I did the Mount Madonna Challenge, a 12k trail run up Mount Madonna (of all places!) The website said there was 1100 feet of climbing. If this number was accurate (I think there might have been more), it felt like we did 900 of it in the first mile and a half. It was STEEP. It was a fun run though, and the fact that it was all foggy and misty made it feel all jungle-y. I got second in my age group - I think there were three of us - so I was pretty happy with my first running-only race in like three years. And we'll just say my slow time was because of all the heinous climbing, k?

-----------------------------------------------

I talked to my mom today. I have tickets to visit her at the end of what I thought was September. Turns out they are for August. So I'm going to Maryland on Wednesday. Good to know.

I Heart Ogden

2008-08-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

The trip to Utah definitely paid off. While driving for 26 hours through the uh...classy state of Nevada over a weekend is not really my idea of fun, racing in Ogden was awesome.

I left home at 4:45 Friday morning and headed east, stopping for a power nap somewhere around Auburn (caffeine hadn't kicked in yet). Lots of gas/food/potty breaks later, I got to Ogden, picked up my race packet, and got body marked. Had dinner with my friends who flew in earlier in the day, and met up with my host and his girlfriend at their house. They went out so I was able to get settled and ready for my race...except that I lost their dog for about 15 minutes and managed to spray water all over their kitchen. Oops. I cleaned up and the neighbor brought the dog back so I didn't have any awkward explaining to do.

Salt flats on the drive to and from Utah.

Actually got a little bit of sleep, and left the house around 6:00 am to drive up to the race site. The drive up to the venue was gorgeous! A windy road through a tight little canyon took my up to the lake, with this little waterfall at one point.

There were separate transitions for this race, so I got my T1 set up, then drove to T2, set up, and took a shuttle back to T1. Forced down some food, went for a little ride to get warmed up (where I noticed my front wheel was not exactly round...probably should have had it checked out after the crashfest that was Snow Valley), squeezed into my wetsuit, and swam around a bit.

The swim was two 750 meter loops with a short run in the middle of the loops (first time I had done a run like that). I'm not sure if it was because it was a bigger race than usual or because I didn't stay on the outside of the group, but it was the most aggressive swim I have done in a long time. Before the first buoy I had people touching me on both sides, feet in my face, and people trying to climb between me and the people next to me all at the same time. I never got hit or kicked, but if I had been claustrophobic I would have had issues. Felt good on the first lap (didn't really even notice the altitude), did the little run, dove back in, swam some more. The whole horizontal-vertical-horizontal body position element of running between swims is weird...my heart race went crazy when I started the run and it took a bit to settle back in to swimming. My second lap was slower than my first lap, probably largely due to the fact that I swam waaayy off course at one point. Need to pay attention better!

Finished the swim, got ready to ride, packed up my transition into a big garbage bag to be transported to T2.

I LOVED this bike course!!!!!! It kicked my ass, but it was a total blast. Tons of climbing, about 90% singletrack, fun swoopy just-technical-enough descents, and spectacular scenery. I didn't have any crashes this time...must have gotten enough out of my system in Snow Valley! Most of the climbing was pretty enjoyable, with the exception of the jeep road from hell that they snuck in toward the end. The gradient of the hill would have been painful enough on it's own, but it was also covered in 2+ inches of cocoa-powder silty dirt, making maintaining traction near impossible. So I pushed my bike up it. Other people were too, so I feel justified. Eventually the traction got better and I got back on, but the hill just kept going so I found myself singing a rousing verse of "This is the hill that never ends...yes it goes on and on my friends..." a la Lambchop's Sing-along.

Anything to keep the entertainment level up there.

Happily the climb was followed by another awesome singletrack descent, where I managed to pass the people who had passed me on the climb. While I was riding the singletrack I noticed my bike being excessively loud. The trail was rocky and bumpy so a certain amount of bike noise is to be expected, but this was getting ridiculous. When I got into transition I was greeted with a bottle cage clinging to my bike by one bolt, swinging around in my frame. At least the bottle was still there....

The run was actually not that bad, when considered as a whole. The first part sucked because we had to run up the steep, silty, never-ending hill again. But when we got to the top, the course ducked into some singletrack and stayed there for a couple miles. We were in trees which I appreciated as I was getting a little burned. It was pretty rocky again which was nice because it was different than typical runs, but I was pretty beat at this point and paying attention to my footing took some effort. At one point I tripped on a rock and fell, landing on both knees and sliding a little on my side and arm. Got up, checked for injuries (mildly bloody knees, some scratches on my arm, and a scrape on one knuckle), kept trotting along. Tripped a couple more times, but managed to stay off the ground. Met up with one guy who declared the race "the hardest non-iron distance race" he had ever done. The last mile or so was downhill so I tried to catch a woman in front of me (who I think was actually doing the short course...oh well). I got within a few feet of her right before the finish, almost fell again, and she just beat me to the line.

Hit up medical to clean up my knees, took a wet paper towel bath in the (fancy) bathroom at the finish, and loaded all my crap in the car. I followed my friends/XTERRA "parents" to some fast food place where we proceeded to gorge on ice cream and fried foods (chicken tenders and fries for me!) Went home, showered, and took a nap before the awards ceremony.

The awards ceremony was held in the Ogden Outdoor Amphitheater and was really well done, with free food for all racers from an assortment of local restaurants. Medals were handed out ( a red one for me!!), a short video from the race was played, and a live band took over for the night.

I got up in the morning to breakfast courtesy of my hosts (SO nice!), got in the car, and drove the 13 hours home. Good times.

The best part of the whole weekend: this race qualified me for the XTERRA World Championship in Maui in October. So excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Olympic Addiction

2008-08-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

I have watched more tv in the last week than I have in the last month and a half. Since it's the Olympics I'm thinking it's ok. I like to think of it as training by osmosis.

It could work.

On Friday I'll be driving to Utah for a race. Twelve hours there, race, twelve hours back. Wee!

Bike in the back seat, bags in the front. iPod, cell phone, and snacks. I've got it pretty well dialed by now.

This week I get to do some last minute cram training, which happens to be my favorite type of training. Ride yesterday, swim/ride/run today, swim/ride tomorrow, run/? Wednesday. Love it.

Hair cut

2008-08-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my day off and I decided to get my hair cut. I'm very impulsive when it comes to hair cuts, once I decide I want one, I want it NOW. I had been thinking about getting mine cut for like two days...very patient in my book.

The place I have been going was closed, but it normally costs me like $50 to get a cut, so I decided to shop around. I called around, but everyone was either booked for the day (interfering with my "NOW" plans), or too much money (ummm...$60 for a hair cut? Just to make it shorter? WTF?)

I decided to go with the cheapy chain place that you can just walk right in. The one closest to me happens to be geared towards men, but whatever. I'll watch football, I don't care.

The lady who did the cut was weird.

She wasn't going to cut as much as I wanted (five inches) because she thought I was 18. I don't look 18.

She acted like she was going to pawn me off on her 19 year old son (who won't move out and plays computer games all day...HOT)

I told her I work at a bike shop. She asked if it's temporary (because it's not a real job and all). I said it helped with my bike racing habit. She called me a tomboy ("but it's ok, I race motorcycles, I'm a tomboy too.")

I don't think racing makes me a tomboy.

She tried to talk me into getting a "girly" haircut at the other salon she works at. With highlights and everything. Because her sons like highlights.

I fixed the spots she missed with scissors this morning.

Probably won't go there again.

XTerra Snow Valley Race Report

2008-08-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

Round four of the XTerra madness for the year. Going into it I wasn't expecting to do big things what with the two weeks of drinking in CO and the week off of athletic activity when I got back. Definitely NOT going to do that again. Ouch.

Drove down to SoCal on Saturday where I stayed with Nick, my friend/personal gear carrier and photographer. Had him drive to the race so I could sleep. I'm happy with that decision.

This race was at altitude at a ski resort. The distances were a little short compared to the rest of the races I've done this year, but in retrospect, this was a very good thing.

Swim: 1000 yards, two laps, split into two waves (Pros + under 35, and everyone else). TINY tiny lake. I felt like crap for the first part of the swim, I think mostly because of the altitude. Started to settle in about halfway through the first lap, and stopped most of the mental whining. I had mentioned that I don't have any swim pictures of myself to Nick, so he followed me around the lake (it was that small) and took a billion pictures. Good way to analyze my stroke! I ended up being the fourth woman out of the water (3rd amateur). Not so bad!

This is my favorite picture from the swim. There was weird algae at the swim exit that felt like hair and it got caught on everyone's faces. Here I am talking about it to my new friend.

Bike: 11 miles, one and a half laps. Holy. Crap. Aside from the initial "I suck at this game and my seat is too low!!!!!!!" temper tantrum I always have, I did pretty well on the climbs. Nick had commented that I should do fairly well on this course because the descents were technical. Not so much. I crashed four times on the first lap. All while descending. Even got a nice little endo in there which knocked the breath out of me and did a little rib adjusting. I managed not to die, and made it to the big long climb where I proceeded to get a flat. It was my second mountain bike flat EVER, so of course it was during a race. And of course I couldn't get my tire off and had to wrestle it for a while. It went back on very nicely though. Once I got going again I caught up to one of the guys who had passed me and we started talking about crashing. He crashed in the same spot in Temecula that I did. He broke his finger and DNF'd, I thought I broke my pelvis and DNF'd. As we discussed this, I went ahead and crashed again. We were climbing so it was slow, but I managed to find a nice pointy rock with my butt cheek. Yay. I got up, dusted off (again), and walked down all the stupid stuff to avoid any further crashes. Started to play leapfrog with a girl who would later be my running buddy for a while (she passed me on the descents, I passed her on the climbs). When I got off the bike I was bleeding from all four limbs.

Before the carnage.

When I showed up to T2, I discovered that I had managed to set up at the same rack as Corad Stoltz, current XTerra World Champ and a guy whose blog I sometimes read. I was bloody and disheveled. They were done. I think I acted like a dumbass. Because I'm smooth.

Run: 4 miles. Course map looks like it was drawn by a small child. Most of the run took place in a giant field. To make it interesting/an actual course there were little "gates" made of orange tape that you had to run through. I would have gotten really confused if it weren't for my bike buddy. She used the word Fuck alot. It made me a little bit happy. The climbs on the run were like stair cases, except instead of stairs you had sand and rocks and pinecones. I decided to walk those, and even they hurt. I was wishing I still had my cycling shoes so I could kick my toes in and use the stiff sole to my advantage. I ran the descents and the flat stuff. It was hot and miserable.

I ended up getting second out of two in my age group, which is not impressive, but does get me more points to go to Nationals and keep my points leader status.

There was a push-up contest to win a free race entry. I lost miserably and am now sore about the armpits. Probably should have skipped that one.

Got stuck in traffic on the way home. Feel like I got beat with a baseball bat. Road (rock and sand?) rash on both elbows, one knee, and one butt cheek. I count at least four deep bruises on my legs.

I'll probably do it all again next year.

2008-08-01T17:08:00.001-07:00

I think I got sponsored today.

Weird.

Ummm...I think you're in the wrong place

2008-07-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today a man and his son came into my work to get a DH bike they got on eBay worked on. The kid told me what he wanted and walked away to wander. The dad stayed to talk. I took down his info, including his address, and commented on the street he lived on. Said street is on a common lunch ride/weekend ride loop, and sees a lot of cyclists. All of a sudden he stopped the conversation, got all tense and his face clouded over. My stomach dropped. He proceeded to go on a mini rant about all the cyclists and how they took up the whole road and are gonna get killed and they take the corners really fast and his neighbor almost hit one and then turned around in his SUV and chased him down and told him he will run him over the next time he sees him. And it's not just the lunch riders....people ride there on weekends too! <----insert bug-eyed look of exasperation here (I kind of wanted to gasp for dramatic effect...sarcastically of course).

Ummmm....I work in a bike shop. I kind of feel like his rant is along the same lines as going into an animal shelter and ranting about all the kittens and how next time you see one you're gonna kick it. Not a great venue if you're looking for sympathy.

I get that people don't ride responsibly and do stupid things that endanger themselves and others, but I still don't get how people think it's ok to threaten other people with their cars.

And I ride road bikes. On that road. Sometimes with other people. You'll get no sympathy from me.

Warm and Fuzzy

2008-07-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

I had a (slightly odd) conversation with someone recently about silver linings. Today was a slightly morbid one at work (I'm not really sure why), so I thought I'd try to find some silver linings for myself. It could be a fun game. If not, I'm sorry. Bear with me.

Yucky: I'm poor. It sucks. I spend all my money on racing. I could get a second job, but it would cut into my training time, which would negatively influence my racing, which would be no fun.

Silver lining: I have an unofficial sponsor. Said sponsor is comprised of a good friend/customer of mine and his athletically gifted girlfriend who I call Mom. She supplied me with a huge bag of tampons and shaving cream. He delivered it. I found it really amusing. While this "sponsorship" doesn't make me any less poor, it does ensure I am hygenic and have smooth, silky, raspberry scented legs.

Yucky: I think I had a run-in with one of the not-cool people from my previous post last night. I say I think because I'm not sure if he actually is one, but I'm willing to bet he is.

Silver lining: I ran into him at Hellyer where I was doing another beginner session. Vanessa and my new friend Julie were there. The three of us got to be a group and Michael said we were pro. I'm a sucker for sport-related compliments. We did a scratch race (except it was the beginner session, so not really a race) and I won. I like winning non-races. Michael called me competitive. Apparently I don't hide it well. He made me do another one right afterward and it hurt a lot but was still fun. I got a massage later that night. My massage girl invited me to her birthday party and called me Gumby. Those two things are no way related.

Home Again

2008-07-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

I am back in the land of normal oxygen levels, and it's quite nice to not feel like passing out after running up the stairs. Overall the trip was good: I made new friends (who are going to teach me how to surf, allegedly), got some altitude workouts in which should prove useful in upcoming races, and got to catch up with old friends. Sadly, my overall impression of the trip was ruined by some shitty people in the last couple days. It baffles me that grown-up adult people (think ten+ years older than me) can act like such juvenile a-holes. Jerks.

Anywho, here are a couple of pictures of the fun times:

My old friend Andy. He's small. He eats chips in helmet boxes.

My new friend Harj. She always looks like this. Someone should say something.

The view along the bike path on one of my road rides. Saw marmots and chipmunks.

Oh yeah...

2008-07-20T08:23:00.001-07:00

I went on an 11-hour first date the Sunday before I left. Kind of impressive. And fun!

I'm In Colorado

2008-07-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

I had some time this morning so I thought I should be a good blogger and post something. I'm currently sitting in my room watching the Tour with my roomie in Copper Mountain, CO. It's GORGEOUS here! We've had a couple storms roll in since we got here (so the trails are perfect), but for the most part it's been sunny and a little cold - which I'm stoked about.

Some highlights so far:

- I pretty much have the best temporary job ever: handing 2009 bikes out to dealers from around the world. This week has been all international dealers, the domestic dealers start arriving today. Lycra-ogling opportunities are endless.

-Because of the international group, I've had plenty of opportunities to butcher other languages (French, Spanish, and a little Portuguese so far). I enjoy that. If I'm here next year I'm going to study up!

-I got to see my South African semi-stalker again. I met him at this event last year. He came through my work a couple times about six months ago when he was in town. He tracked me down again this year. Weird.

-I met someone from Ogden this morning and got myself a FREE place to stay for my race! Score! Bike people rock!

-Lot's of drinking. And dancing. I'm sore.

-I started getting a little competitive with one of my friends who used to swim, and somehow it blew up into a swim meet. Right now it looks like about 10 people. Five events (100 fly, 100 back, 100 breast, 100 free, 100 IM), omnium style, lowest score is dropped. Tuesday at 6 pm. I'm going to get my ass kicked.

-On Thursday someone threw a water bottle and it hit me in the face. Later that night in a bar someone's shoe flew off and hit me in the face. Not a good day for my face.

Today I'm hoping to log some time in the dirt, maybe run or swim, and I think I have a road ride in the evening. Somehow my days off get busy quickly!

I'll get some pictures posted when I get them uploaded/from other people.

Later!

It's hot outside

2008-07-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

Needed to whine for a second. I'm not a fan of the heat like this. I'd rather it rained. BUT, I get to go to Copper Mountain CO next week for ten days and I'm told the weather is in the 70's. Happy day! Should also be good for getting used to training/racing at altitude (base of Copper Mountain is 9700ft, top is 12000-ish).

I did not race yesterday. The people I was going to tag along with had to bail, and I got stuck at work longer than would have worked well. I ordered pizza instead.

It was good.

I looked deeper into the Ogden hotel thing and I think I might just pony up and get a room. I'm figuring the money I save being in CO (where my lodging and meals are all paid for) will offset the UT trip money a little. If not, I could always sell a kidney or something.

Advice?

2008-07-09T16:31:00.000-07:00

In August there is a race I think I should be at in Ogden, UT. I am poor, so am considering driving to said race. It's a 12 hour drive according to mapquest, which is really not much longer than other solo race-bound drives I have done in the past. Since I am poor and can't easily afford a hotel room someone suggested I rent a U-Haul and sleep in that. I have friends that will be there for the race too, and they have agreed to let me use their hotel bathroom in exchange for my driving their CO2 cartridges out there. Has anyone done this U-Haul hotel thing before? Am I crazy for considering it? Advice?

Baby birds

2008-07-08T21:03:00.001-07:00

These little guys live in a corner of my work building and are getting ready to fly. Mom and Dad have taken to dive-bombing people on occasion (not me yet). Cute!!

That's REALLY not ok!

2008-07-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

You sir, are a douchebag.

http://laist.com/2008/07/07/road_rage_motorist_vs_cyclists_on_m.php

I'm gonna do it!

2008-07-07T21:44:00.001-07:00

Today I did round three of beginner sessions at the track. Got an email from a friend about racing on Wednesday. I think I need to do it. Practiced getting thrown for the chariot race and did a points race (got fourth the first sprint and first on the final lap). I'm thinking Miss and Out and Chariot race are calling my name for Wednesday. I'll let you know.

My roommate is watching Cops on tv....makes me feel smart.

Have fun in the heat!

Randoms and a race report

2008-07-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

Working on weekend days suck, especially when there is nothing fun to do. Typing codes in Excel files and watching reruns of the Tour of CA (since boxing is on VS at the moment) doesn't really cut it for me.

I went to Hellyer again yesterday and it was fun again. I got a bike that fit me a little better (and matched my kit REALLY well...freaky). I was the only girl so I won all the women's categories...but I was the only one advocating a women's category. I yelled at some guy for messing up the paceline and another guy thanked me for it. Another guy decided he should be my boss and tell me what to do so I promptly ignored him. We practiced bumping, which doesn't work that well when I'm 5'4"-ish and my partner is 6' tall AND he is uptrack on the steep part of the banking....pretty much puts my shoulder on his ankle. Luckily I have some bumping skills since my friend Alicia and I used to practice on rides. We did an Australian Pursuit (I think that's what it was) and I got some kid out before I got passed and was out. Good times.

I'm going again on Monday so I can start racing when I get back from CO (my super secret altitude training camp).

I wrote a race report on another blog thing for my last XTerra, so I'll post it here to look like I posted something.

Yesterday I competed in the XTerra Tahoe City Triathlon. This was my third XTerra Race, and my first since a race-ending crash in May. I drove up to Truckee on Friday night where I stayed at a rep's house since he was out of town (thanks John!). The most notable thing: the smoke was horrendous. Recent wildfires have covered much of Northern CA with smoke, and it appears it's all collecting against the mountains. The last hour of my drive smelled like a campfire, and I was a little worried about race conditions the next morning.

After a crappy night of sleep, I drove down to the race site to set up and get registered. Note to self: bringing one big bag because you are too lazy to pack a small transition bag is dumb, and having to carry it all over the place sucks. The line for packet pick-up took forever, and most people were freaking out they were going to be late. Not a great way to keep calm before the race. After getting checked in, body marked, and set up, I headed down to the water with two of my customer/friends.

The swim course was originally to be two 600 yard laps with a shot beach run in between laps, but the water level was lower than expected so the run was cancelled. I had two concerns going into the swim: the water was cold and I didn't have a neoprene cap, and the water was really clear and I tend to freak out when I can see things in the water (over-active imagination). Turns out the water wasn't that cold, my wetsuit was just fine. As for the clarity, it was awesome! The loops we did kept us in relatively shallow water, and there was nothing creepy to look at/freak out about. The swim back to the beach was interesting - the water was about knee deep for a couple hundred feet before we got to dry land but the lake bed was rocky and slippery, so the fastest way to get to the beach was to swim along in VERY shallow water (think goggles inches from the ground). Weird.

This race had the longest run to transition EVER: up the beach, along a bike path circling the lake, up some stairs, up a hill, across the highway, past some buildings, and around to the backside of transition.

The bike leg of the race was 22 miles, and was pretty fun. There were a couple hard climbs, the whole course was loose enough to make you pay attention, and the singletrack through meadows filled with wildflowers was a nice distraction. I managed not to crash, and only had to get off the bike for a minor adjustment and to retrieve a Gu I had lost (it was my last one of course). I felt like I pushed hard, but didn't think I was in bad shape.

The run was a 6 mile loop that started out with a steep mile-ish long climb. Enter crappy feeling legs: both legs were cramping from the knees down, and I had the strange sensation that my right leg was shorter than the other (it's not). I walked and stretched up the first climb, and by the time I got to the flatter sections at the top I was feeling better. The course followed some flat-ish single track for a while and then went down the first climb, so I ran the rest of the way in and picked a couple runners off along the way. When i stopped running at the finish my legs were shaking, so I'm pretty confidant that I didn't hold back too much.

The race featured free beer and BBQ (yay!) before the awards so everyone hung around telling stories and enjoying the miraculously smoke-free weather before the awards. I was the only one in my age group so I won by default (it happens a lot), but that does get me 75 points in the US point standings which puts me in good shape for Nationals. It was a good day!

Update

2008-07-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Some stuff that's been going on:

-I've been racing XTerra and somehow ended up first in my age group and second nationally in the points race for nationals. I think it's pretty awesome, and am working on getting my place at Nats (and if I'm really lucky, Worlds). Not looking forward to aging up next year!

-I rode at the velodrome for the first time about a week ago! It was fun. I really don't need another bike.

-I got a skinsuit. I'm afraid to wear it. Maybe once I get the track racing thing figured out.

-I signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2009. It will be shot #2 at the IM distance (shot #1 ended with my being hugged in an ambulance by a paramedic...really could have been a lot worse!)

Keeping myself busy!

The experiment...

2008-07-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start a blog for a few reasons:

-I live in the most boring town ever and it's something to do

-Some of my favorite people have moved away and it's an easy way to keep people up to date

-Aaand, I have developed a blog-stalking habit over the last year that started with my reading the blog of a person I know and has turned into my meeting people whose blogs I read and having the creepy "I know things about you but you don't know me" conversation. Most of the time the conversation is internal though, because I don't really want to be that creepy in person. I'm kind of curious if that will happen here (hence "The experiment").

Sorry if it's boring.