Old Man la Honda

Saturday morning was my first special event in my new job, so I did my long ride on Friday with Shannon. We customized the ride to suit our starting location and various & sundry other influencing factors. Which included me forgetting my helmet and having to ride helmet-less (a little scary!) over to the Bicycle Outfitter for a loaner! (thank you great bike shop guys!)

A section of our ride went up Old La Honda, the classic benchmark hill in the area. It was my first ride up this year. I made it up in 37 min! I think that's my new personal best on the bad boy! I do know it's the first time I actually remembered to start my watch at the stone bridge on the way up. That in itself was miraculous! So I may have had faster times, but this one was accurate.

Funny note: I kept forgetting I was wearing an Outfitter loaner helmet for the entire ride. It had "TEST RIDE" written all over it, sweet! Dork alert!

Weekend Update

Props to the amazing Nicholas for allowing me to shamelessly plagiarize his uploads!

We had a great weekend full of spring goodness! Saturday was the gorgeous 56 mile Calaveras Loop: Milpitas to Fremont to Union City to Pleasanton to San Ramon to Pleasanton again to Sunol to the edge of San Jose and back to Milpitas, whew! Amazing vistas, Valley Oaks in new leaf, blossoming trees, young livestock, turkeys & more turkeys, hawks, vultures, rabbits, snakes, and more!









Due to strategically placed stop signs at busy intersections and a little headwind, my top speed down the final hill was only 39.7. Rats! Total ride time about 5 hours including a few stops along the way.

Sunday, we swam for about 2 hours, had a wonderful update on our Honoree Jack's lobbying in Washington on Federal funding for cancer research and then ran for 2.5 hours. Did you know the Defense budget contributes 5 million a year on cancer research? A complex response to cancers caused by military activities such as Agent Orange etc.

My run was slow but steady. I walked about 20-25 minutes of it. We were assigned to run at level 5 (marathon pace) and add in five - 5 minute pickups to level 7 (10k pace). I managed two picks up of 1 minute & 4 minutes. I missed sunscreening my face so had very rosy cheeks later but no muscle soreness-- even now two days later! Yippee!

Overall, it was a weekend of tough but fun workouts.

Lovin' It!

I love my new job! Another bonus is the location in downtown Los Altos, right on prime cycle routes. Today, a teammate and a friend (CJ & TJ) met at my office for a noon ride. It was sunny & clear and the hills were gorgeous! We rode for 1.5 hours, climbed a few hills and had fun. What a great way to spend lunch! Forgot to check the mileage before I put my bike back on the roof. Oh well.

1/2 Way to Iron- WF WeekEnd 5.0

Half Way to Iron was spent at Lake San Antonio 16-18 March training on the Wildflower Triathlon Long Course (1/2 Ironman Distance). It's amazing how fast the season seems to be blowing by. I think my new job has a lot to do with it zooming by.

I love camping at Lake San Antonio and this practice weekend was wonderful! The weather was balmy! No shivering, even during the swim! I'm afraid this means race weekend the first weekend in May will be wicked hot.

Friday, I drove down with Shannon with my trusty Subaru laden down with enough gear to camp/train for 10 days! Good thing the bikes & wheels go on the top! (once again I neglected to take any photos, I need to put the camera on the dashboard as a reminder or something!)

It was a beautiful drive and fun group meal on Friday night. Brenna brought a queen size air mattress that fit in my tent. What luxury! I just may need to get me one of those bad boys! (The environmentalist in me is shuddering- I'm going soft!) I had the best pre-race Wildflower sleep ever.

So, how did the course go? Fairly well over all, lots to improve upon, but lots of progress too.

1.2 mile SWIM: The water was much warmer than I anticipated! I wore my traditional winter dual squid lids and was almost too warm. (I also got the worst wetsuit chafe ever on the back of my neck!) My swim was okay, slow but steady. I swam off course several times. Must sight better! I forgot to put my watch on so my swim time estimate is 45-50 minutes.

T1: transition was slow. Ate, changed, restroomed, put on watch, sunscreened up (note: spraying sunscreen on a fresh chafe spot results in incredible pain!)

56 mile BIKE:

My ride was a huge improvement over last year's practice weekend. The weather was perfect: warm but not hot. The course is tough. There is no way around it. The climbs are exactly where I'd prefer they weren't, but that's what adds to the mystique that is Wildflower. The scenery and wildlife along the way helped ease the pain! My time as 4 hrs 15 min, only 19 minutes slower than last year's actual race. I concentrated on my hydration and it really paid off. I drank Ultima all day instead of a protein/carb drink. Oh yeah, no flats which was excellent!

T2: Again, slow: restroomed, changed shoes, more sunscreen, hat, ate some Hammer Gel and was finally off.

13.1 Mile RUN: Run Map & Profile

Shannon ran with me which was wonderfully generous of her. I was struggling as usual in the beginning but my good hydration on the bike really paid off! We picked up Celeste along the way. We dodged rattlesnakes, found interesting animal bones and kept each other's spirits up. Shannon's watch beeped every 15 minutes to remind us to drink, very helpful! I need to figure how to make my watch do it. As the day wore on, I found that although I didn't feel great, I didn't have the GI issues and bloating as before. I felt so much better this time that I actually got hungry! Wow! Since it was late by the time we ran through the campground, we skipped the Pit. This meant our total run was 11 miles instead of 13.1. Total time: can't seem to find my notes, probably about 3.5 hrs? Again not stellar, but look at those profiles again! Hilly doesn't been to describe that run!

RANDOM WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

Team bonding! The inflatable mattress. Driving down with Shannon. Sharing a tent with Brenna & giggling like school girls all night! Seeing the Milky Way both nights! Coyotes, turkeys, deer etc. . . Sunshine! Sharing the weekend with the South Bay Tri Team. Learning to play Texas Hold 'Em. Winning it ALL in Texa$ Hold 'Em!!!! In 'n Out in Salinas!!