Weekend Round-Up III

Lots to report!

We've entered a new phase training-wise so I've decided to officially quit slacking off. So I've been much more diligent with all of my training- but still missed a big run. So here's what I've done since my last post.

Friday: Ran my marker set (I know my post was on Thursday, deal with it! *winks*

Saturday: Rode 30 miles easy-hilly loop from Chain Reaction around the Arastradero/Portola Rds Loop via Elena. (the schedule called for a 15 mile run, but I decided to postpone it to Monday morning)

Sunday: Swim/Bike Brick in Santa Cruz. This was quite a brick!!!!
I joined teammates Ann, Tom G, & Nicole for the swim. The water at Cowell's was in the lower 50's. It was pretty cold but not as cold as some of our swims in the SF Bay in December & January. The schedule called for a 2 mile swim but we got out after about 1.5 miles since it was pretty cold. Once my fingers start losing their ability to stay together, I like to get out. We all warmed back up really quickly once we got out. A huge improvement over our winter swims when our feet were still numb after several miles on our bikes! The swim was really fun. We gathered together at every buoy to check in and kept our spirits high.

We trooped back to our cars and got ready for our 70 mile ride on Highway 1. Sunday was the 8th time I've done this ride. It's one of my favorites. The scenery is gorgeous and the hills are high rollers, lots of fun! My fastest times have been clocked coming back to Santa Cruz. Our group changed slightly for the ride: Ann, Nicole & another teammate, Amadita. Tom G had to get back to his bachelor party.

Highway I notorious for it's northbound headwind. I've battled it a few times before but Sunday it was tough! It was a true headwind! We rode up 35 miles to the town of Pescadero and it took about an hour longer than the last time! Yikes! There were times I swear I was being blown up hill! But the beautiful part of a headwind is turning around! We flew back!!! I even recorded a new top speed coming down the hill before Bonny Doon Rd: 49.3 mph!!!! Yipppeee! It was a blast!!!

Needless to say, we were beat afterwards! We started our swim at 8:45 am and got back from the ride at 4:25. That was one long brick! We had a great meal in Santa Cruz (after fantasizing about food & torturing each other most of the way back!) followed up with gelato. We'd earned it!

After we ate, I was seized by a major allergy attack which didn't let up until the next morning. I blame it and the wind for my dehydration Monday morning. I felt so stuffed up & dried out that I skipped my 15 mile run.

Last night was a spin/run brick at Sports Basement. Afterwards I bought the new & improved version of my ASICS 2100s. I'm trying them out tonight at track.

This morning I was in the pool at 6:30 am, so I'm doing well so far with my no-slacking phase. Finger-crossed it lasts!

Marker Sets

Last week was Marker Set Week. We were assigned a 30 minute swim, three 1.5 mile runs & a 50 mile bike route to measure our progress so far and compare again in a few weeks.

As I freely admit, I have a problem with procrastination... however this time it wasn't me just putting it off. Between work & feeling unwell, I managed to miss the swim & run marker last week. This week I caught up. Here are the assignments and my results.

Swim Marker Set:
Swim for 30 minutes continuously. Record total distance and
calculate pace per 100 yds.
Results: 51 lengths, 1,275 yards (30 min/51 lengths = 58 sec X 4 lengths (100 yds) = 2 min 35 sec per 100 yards

Bike Marker Set:
50 mile bike marker "Vineman" Loop in Santa Rosa. Ride like a race – minimal stopping, no
drafting. (This was a fairly hilly course)
Time: 3 hrs 15 min. actual distance 54 miles, 16.62 mph

Run Marker Set:
(Use Track or Measured Course) Warmup 15’ L3 3x (1.5 mile @ L7) 3’ walk between Cool Down 15’ L3. Record Average 1.5 mile time.
Times: 14.29, 14.19 & 14.25 Average: 14 min 24 secs

Weekend Round-Up II

Three days of fun!

Friday was an off-work Friday for me, so it was my teaching day at Hidden Villa. Sadly, it was my last day of the school year. Great day with great students! The farm babies are all really growing fast! Maya the calf is very good natured and much braver now. The three goat kids are still the cutest & my favorite. No rain on our hike, which was wonderful! I also received a stack of written notes & drawings from two school groups I had a few months ago. Really nice! Afterwards, I drove over to Santa Cruz for my bi-weekly massage with Ellen. Ahhhh. We had a nice visit over tea afterwards.

Saturday, up at 4:00 am! Not my favorite time of morning! I picked up my teammate Ann at and we drive up to Santa Rosa to meet the team for a 50+ mile ride on the 1/2 Vineman course. The ride was beautiful! Lots of rolling hills through the Wine Country. We passed many tempting wineries and the scenery was gorgeous! The hill at mile 45 was not too fun, but not as tough as Wildflower. I was beat when we were finished! I wasn't feeling good when we first started out. My throat was bothering me. I drank two doses of Airborne before the drive. It's probably a gimic but I did feel better by the time we finished.

Sunday, another early start! This time up at 5:00 am inorder to meet everyone for the Uvas Sprint Tri. My throat was still feeling bad and my whole body was achey. I wasn't sure I wanted to race so I focused on getting through each step: load the car, meet the carpool, set up my transition spot and then suddenly it was race time. Once I got going I felt better, then I just concentrated on each event and not skidding in the rain on my bike.

All in all it was a good day. The race timing results include the transition times with the event times which is a bummer since I didn't remember to hit the split button on my watch each time. Here are my times:

Overall Time: 2:20:56.9 (491/653 overall & 32/46 in age group)

Swim split: 29:50.7 pretty close to my watch
Bike split 1:01:39.9 includes T1 time (my bike timer showed 56 min)
Run split 49:26.3

I'm not sure where the transition times fell. I know my first one was slower than my second. I'm guessing T1 was probably about 5 min and T2 was about 2.5 min. I wish I knew. More practicing with the watch!

There were some race hiccups (adding new waves & moving up my start time!!!) but the post race food was great. The rain wasn't too bad. I'm happy I knew the bike course, it was really helpful in the rain. My legs were very tired after Saturday's ride, I really felt it in the big hill.

I'm happy I did it!

New Equipment, when will it end??

This sport needs just about the most crap of any other sport out there! Okay, polo beats it, but that's it!

Here are my latest purchases:

New tri shorts- trying to find a pair that's comfortable but not granny-long like all my other ones! I don't want to know how many I've purchased in the last year. The latest are De Sotos.

Shoes:- Genius 5 Lorica® Women's Road Cycling Shoes These are wonderful! I was able to buy them through a friend on a cycling team which saved me a lot of cash!! They're already making a big difference, my old shoes were mountain bike shoes.

Pedals: Look Keo Classic pedals I'm still getting used to clipping in and out of these. They feel good so far. I'm waiting for my inagural crash, I know it's coming!

Seatpost bottle cages. These go on behind my seat, so I'll have to learn how to use them too! I have to install them tonight for tomorrow's ride. Since my bike has such alrge tubes, I had to buy the complex ones. I'm hoping I can do it myself, otherwise, I'm going to have to go back to Sports Basement and ask for help. I'm going to give it a good try!

Tomorrow we're riding up in Santa Rosa/Napa and have to be on the road by 5:15 am. I'm off for a date with my eyelids now in preparation!

What's Harder?

Completing Wildflower Long Course, completing Ironman Canada or breaking up with your boyfriend? I'm now qualified to answer based on two out three. I'm hoping Ironman Canada will be easier than both the WF Long Course and breaking up with Tom, the boyfriend formerly known as Dreamboat. I'm sad but I will survive.

I'm not alone. Seven people I know have ended relationships in the last month. One I just heard about today. Is it something about spring???

As a book I nearly read the covers off as a little girl said: "Spring is a New Beginning". That will be my new official mantra for the next couple of weeks.

And that's all this fabulous girl is going to say about that!

Flowers of the Wild

Wildflower Race Report- First Installment

There is much to report! This is the preliminary report, more details will follow.

Friday night after packet pick-up and setting up camp, I had a brief discussion with my teammate Ann about why we both hadn't signed up for the Olympic distance. Why were we going to torture ourselves with the Long Course? The hardest 1/2 Ironman in the US, possibly the world??? Were we nuts??

Well we both successfully completed it! And I'm really happy I did.

I'm also really happy I didn't know Natasha Badmann and Kate Major were racing in the same race until afterwards. It was tough enough racking my bike right in the midst of Shari Kain and her crew. They are amazing athletes!

So here is the quick version:

66/68 age group (women 40-44) 1588/1755 overall
Final Time: 7:57:59
Swim: 0:47:15 ; Swim Transition: 0:06:23; (1587 /1755)
Bike: 3:56:48; Bike Transition: 0:05:26; (1571/1755)
Run: 3:02:07 (1679 /1755)
368/410 Sex Rank Overall

Overall, I'm happy with my results, but I really want to improve. I stuck to my race plan, and completed my primary goals, which is great. However, I want to continue improving.

My goals were:

Swim: 50-55 min Actual 47 min 15 sec
Bike: 4:15-4:30 hrs Actual 3 hrs 56 min 48 sec
Run: 2:45-3:00 hrs Actual 3 hrs 2 min 7 sec

I'm leaving for track practice, I'll give more details about the race tomorrow.

On the Road

It's that time already. Tomorrow morning I'm driving down to Lake San Antonio for Wildflower. I'm nervous, excited, worried. . . ad naseum.

I know I've trained enough, it's just the mental ghosties. My primary goal is to finish. Secondary goals are to stay out of the medical tent, stick to my food & hydration plan and come in under 8 hrs. My stretch goal would be 7:30, but that really is a stretch.

My conservative plan is:

Swim: 50-55 min
Bike: 4:15-4:30
Run: 2:45-3:00
Eat around 350 calories per hour
I'll be drinking Perpeteum & Gatorade Endurance on the bike and eating 1 Cliff bar per hour interspersed with chocolate Hammer Gel. On the run, I'll be drinking Gatorade Endurance & water, eating espresso Hammer Gel and maybe some pretzels at the water stops.
I'll also be taking Enduralytes every hour. The amount depends on how hot it is.

My Dream Plan would be:

Swim: 45 min
Bike: 3:45
Run: 2:25

I'm going to concentrate on my transitions and get out of there in under 3 min each!

I wish everyone a good race!

Weekend Round-Up

Friday Night: Run

Afterwork, I put on my honoree bracelet with Al's name on it and went for a run. I ran about 4 miles on the Los Gatos Creek trail from Los Gatos High to Lexington reservoir & back. It was tough going. I had trouble getting my rhythm and maintaining a good pace. The way back was much better and the fleeting thought that dusk was upon me, no one else was around and it was prime mountain lion time probably helped me along!


Saturday: Hill-ragious Brick

Since I was going to miss Sunday's coached workout for a sea kayaking trip, I attempted the work-out on my own on Saturday. It was a toughy! The route included three major climbs: Kings Mountain, Old La Honda & the backside of Hwy 84, plus three steep descents: front side of Hwy 84 twice and the backside of Old La Honda-- Quickly followed by an hour run in the hills of Edgewood Park. That's about 4,250 feet of climbing in 46+ miles on the bike. I'm not sure about the run route.

Well, I wasn't exactly successful, but I did get in a good workout after some set-backs. I woke up late and didn't get going until after 10:30. I made it up Kings Mountain and down 84. I changed the route slightly and rode back a longer way so I could refill my bottles atRobert's Market since it was actually hot!!!! Finally! Then I rode over to start up Old La Honda. About a 1/4 of the way up, my left quad went into what rigamortus must feel like. It scared me enough that I aborted the climb and headed back to my car. It was several miles away and I was worried, but then my legs felt great on the small rollers on the way back. Once back at my car, I realized I'd forgotten my shoes. Then I was mad & frustrated with myself. I decided to drive home, eat and come back to tackle the ride & run again. After consulting with my mentor & coach, I altered my plan slightly. I ended up going home and eating then I drove over to Los Gatos High for a modified brick there. I rode from the HS up Kennedy Rd & back and then ran up to Lexington and up & over the mountain & down the Jones Trail. So I got in another moderate climb and my hour hill run.

Sunday: Sea Kayaking

Sunday was a gorgeous day sea kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. We ended up paddling for about 4.5 hours. My elbow tendonitis came back as it always does paddling but it didn't inhibit me. We saw lots of birds (I'm in love with the tiny sandpipers & Avocets) and the harbor seal pup nursery. No sea otters though. :-( It was great to be back in a single kayak. I'm happy Tom suggested it or we would have gone in a double like all the others in the group. The trip was a good indicator of how much better my core is from all the training in that I am not sore today! Yay!! I slept with an ice pack on my elbow and it's pretty good today. One day I want to find out what causes it because I love kayaking so much. I'd really like to go on some multiple day trips, but that might hold me back.