taking a break

not much to say for a while. Getting my life in order. Sending good energy out to the world including certain people who may or may not be still reading this blog.
Peace

Les Fleurs Sont Magnifique!!!!

Beautiful flowers from Kevin!

sore legs

Bike 90 mins - check
run 6 miles - well, 5, and I certainly didnt run all that.... - check
paint most of my office - check
Epsom salt bath coming up - check!

looking forward to my taper week....

monday - off and massage!
tues- bike 25mins
wed - run 2-4 miles
thurs - swim 400
fri - bike 30
sat - off
sunday - RACE!

Tough training this week

whew. almost done. I've been trying to complete the workouts in their entirety but I have shortened a few of them. Yesterday I had 45min bike and 3mile run to do - which turned into 45min bike(yah!) and .8 mile run. not so yeah, but really, the 10K on wednesday did me in, and all my training experience told me that 3miles the next day was not in any way going to help me if I was sore from the day before. So i did a 1/3, and got in the run after the bike which was really the purpose of the workout anyway.
Today I did swim and bike - but only 1650 yards (race distance) instead of 1760 (1 mile). I was feeling tired and my arms felt like tree limbs. Then I rode my bike and the first 15miles were pretty tough. I was supposed to do "race pace" but instead I kept it at a good tempo cause I wanted to finish the mileage and not blow up.
Anyway, tomorrow will be tough. 90 min bike and 10K run. hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

This weeks workouts...

Tues: swim 1800 yds
Wed: bike 50mins, run 2miles
Thurs: run 6.2 miles
Fri: bike 45mins, run 3 miles
Sat: swim 1 mile, bike 35miles
Sun: bike 90mins, run 6.2miles
monday - OFF :))))

Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon Race Report

**Warning: this post contains frightening images***

Today I completed the Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon in Aurora , Colorado (southeast Denver ).

Distances: swim 500Meters; Bike: 12 miles, Run: 5K

I was using this race as a practice race for my Olympic race in 2 weeks. The main thing I got out of it was that I need to keep on training… :(

Overall the race was ok, but I expected to be faster and not as tired as I was.

(editing note: somehow I've made this blog double spaced.... crap!)

(Note: yesterday on my “rest” day, I spent most of it on my feet literally – doing chores, standing in the AT&T store for 1.5 hrs, standing at the Melissa Etheridge concert for 45mins, running around town picking up my wetsuit, etc. My quads were literally aching at bedtime last night! This is not a good example of how to spend a rest day).

Weather: forecast was for the 70’s. Which is about 20 degrees cooler than normal for Aurora in August (They don’t call it Saudi Aurora for nothing)

Rise and Shine!!

I got up at 3:30AM. That is just horrible! However, even more horrible was that I had set my alarm for 3:50am but I slept so badly that I finally decided to stop lying there and get up early. Had a bit of cereal and OJ and lots of water. Had a quick hot shower to warm up my muscles, grabbed my bag and bike and was out the door by 4:20AM. Its still amazing to me that there are other people out at that hour.

Driving…

I made record time to the race site at 1 hour and 15 mins - :)

The moon was brilliant in its quarter state and I could see plenty of stars, while I played Madonna REALLY LOUDLY. (ummm, did I mention it was early?)

Transition area/car parking

This race allowed us to park in the parking lot that the race was being held in and I managed to score a parking space about 50 feet from the bike exit! Amazing! I could literally go back and forth to my car as much as I wanted before the race. This is unheard of. Usually you are a fair distance away and have to walk/ride to the transition area. I especially appreciated it this morning as I sat in the car for a while to keep warm while I was waiting ( I got there pretty early – arriving at the transition area at 6am)

(the words human sausage come to mind)

Special Note about the Port O Potties: I have seen the next generation of the potty and I love it! They look like normal potties from the outside (that lovely boxy green shape) but inside, you are not confronted with the view of excrement! Its now like a bathroom you would have in a camper. It looks like a closed toilet, and you do your business, but then there is a foot pedal/button on the floor that you step on, and it drops the bottom part of the toilet down and pumps blue fluid in to wash the business out. Awesome! They certainly smelled better too (potties at a race are a special treat).

pre-race calm

Swim

Time Trial Start! This was a first for me and I loved it. Takes away the whole mass start madness, and it’s a very pleasant entrance into the water. And we didn’t even have to be in exact order of our numbers. They just recorded your number and punched into the computer and your start time and off you went. Awesome! The resevoir was relatively warm at 68 degrees. I was wearing my full length wetsuit so I could practice swimming with it, getting it on and off, etc. The distance was only 550 yards, but it was a fairly tough swim (even with the time trial start). The sun was rising along the sight lines for the buoys, so it was hard to see on the outbound, and the wind was making some waves in our faces as well. Several times I found myself stuck behind a blockade of slow swimmers – too much effort to go around and cant pass otherwise. Argghhhhhh. I also found myself breathing harder than normal for that kind of distance – the wetsuit was definitely a factor – tight and also changing my position in the water was probably messing up my regular breathing.

T1

Wetsuit Strippers! Before you get any bad ideas, let me explain – these are volunteers who strip wetsuits off racers. I have actually done that job at a triathlon and its lots of fun.

I decided to give it a try on the other end this time –and its awesome! You have get it down past your hips first and then plunk down on the ground and they rip it off your legs. I had the added benefit of being dragged up to my feet again by the 2 fine gentlemen doing this. When you are breathing hard from the swim and trying to get your land legs back under yourself, trying to get up from the ground can be rather taxing.

I had forgotten to get my shirt out of my pack so I had to rustle around to find it so lost a bit of time there as well. Duh. Next time I’ll take everything out of my pack to make sure I don’t forget something.

(notice the position of the flags...)

Bike

We paid for the cool weather with wind. A strong wind, blowing east to west, which served to make our journey east over the BIG HILLS even more enjoyable…..

The hills are surprisingly big out in Aurora . Technically they are called rollers, but they are pretty big rollers. I did have to reach into my 3^rd chain ring a few times. Despite my best intentions of keeping my heart rate low on the bike, it just didn’t happen. Going uphill into the wind caused me to breathe pretty hard. (And I just cant help myself – I like passing people on the bike – cause it certainly wont happen on the run). And just when you think you could catch a break on the way back, the final 2 miles back to the lake are uphill. I also managed to drop my chain going up a hill trying to downshift. So I lost a bit of time putting my chain back on and made my fingers black as well.

T2

Pee Break! I’ve never had to take a potty break before. Weird. I basically had to pee the whole time on the bike, so once I got my running gear on, I exited T2 and ran straight over to the port-o-potties…

Run

The temperature was great for running! The wind was not that great for running. The cramp in my side was definitely not good for my running. Well, even with all that, and a pee break added in, I still managed an ok time (for me). I even had a smile on my face as I ran down the finishing chute. Of concern is the pain I was getting in my left heel in mile 3. I have been fighting some mild plantar faciitis lately but this is the first time I’ve been affected during a run. Not sure what this means for my next 2 weeks of training. I’m hoping it all goes away….

Apres party

Bagels with sandwich meat, cheese, and fixins’! beer, pop, Gatorade, chips and cookies! Wohoooooooo

Swag: no t-shirt at this one but something seemingly more expensive: a black gym bag with the Rattlesnake Tri logo on the side – its great!

Summary: as usual, I do alright on the swim and the bike (middle of the packer!) and do horribly on the run comparatively. Need to work on that running bit.

Final Times:

Swim: 12:24 355/589 60%

T1: 2:13

Bike: 47:33 348/589 59%

Bike Avg 15.1mph (ummm, did I mention there were BIG HILLS?)

T2: 1:43

Run: 38:11 545/589 90% :((((((

Run Avg 12:19

Total: 1:42:01

Training this week

I've entered into the last 2 weeks of "competitive" training for my Olympic distance Tri on the 30th. Which means more time training than I'm used to - but necessary especially since I basically de-trained in July. This is my last chance to gain any fitness.
Monday: swim 45mins (approx 1600 yards)
Tues: bike 25miles (approx 1.5 hrs)
Wed: run 5 miles (approx 1hr 10mins)
Thurs: swim 45mins (approx 1800 yards)
Fri: bike/run (brick) combo 15miles/2 15miles/2
Sat: off!
Sun: Rattlesnake Sprint Tri!
*all training completed before 8am each day

Had dinner with my very good friends Kelly and Lori this evening at PFChangs. I am so blessed to have these beautiful women in my life!


Also, yesterday morning at the beginning of my bike ride at 6:25am, I came across a fox on the corner of an intersection. So I slowed down and stopped expecting him/her to run away immediately. But he didnt. Then I saw that he was busy chowing down on some poor rodent or something and had no intention of leaving. So he continued to rip his rodent apart, not caring about the cars going by, or me standing there watching. He was so beautiful! I watched for about 5 mins and then he finished and trotted across the street and into somebodys yard. Normally you see a fox for about 5 seconds before they disappear so this was a wonderful event. And yet another reason why I exercise in the early morning. This Mother Nature stuff doesnt happen at 6pm.

Buh Bye Cancer

Bye Bye Cancer - dont let the door hit your butt on the way out.

kevins scans have come back clean! yeah!!!! He's going to continue chemo though september and then re-scan. If that comes back ok, he is free to way goodbye to the cancer clinic and embrace a fully healthy life again.!!!
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes during this incredibly hard and difficult journey.

Spur of the moment Tri

my friend Charlotte emailed this morning with an offer of doing the Rattlesnake Triathlon next weekend for a 40% reduction in price due to her race being cancelled last year and due to her being pregnant this year...
how could I pass that up?!!!?? well, I did pass up the Olympic distance but decided the sprint distance would be a great warmup/practice for my real race at the end of August - get the cobwebs out of my transitions so to speak.
I hope I get a t-shirt with a rattlesnake on it - how cool would that be?

Sadness for a stranger

Susan died tonight. She was the wife of extremely popular Fat Cyclist (aka Eldon), who has been battling cancer for several years, and whom I started reading about last year.
http://www.fatcyclist.com/
Fatty has been blogging about his weight (he is not fat), cycling and Susan for years, is extremely funny, and has raised 1/2 million dollars for cancer research!!!! Its simply amazing (via getting everyone that reads his blog to donate in various ways, for various prizes given to him from others).
Anyway, I felt like I knew his family and just got sucker punched tonight - she had been quite sick lately but I was hoping she would rally like she has several times. Susan leaves behind 4 children and a loving husband.

more...

Shelley, Glen and Moi
(congrats to shelley and glen on their 15th wedding anniversary earlier this month)


Monopoly!


Surprise early birthday party for Glen




I was also able to visit my good friend Foziea, and her son Nabeel.
I've known Foz since 1984!!!

Pool Pics!

Despite the weather, we managed to get in the pool once or twice a day. Keegan and Elise were really great about swimming around this year and were not afraid of the deep end at all. In fact, they did cannonballs non stop one day! I made the mistake of challenging Glen to a 2 lap race and got my butt handed to me. Never compete with a larger, stronger, faster ex-competitive swimmer......even if he is your brother.

Glen and the kids


Dad!


Elise and her goggles


Trying not to sink


Fun times


Shelley staying dry


warming up with cookies

Vacation in London

This past weekend I spent in London, Ontario with (most of) my family. Mom and Dad, Glen and Shelley and Keegan and Elise. Unfortunately Janet and Chris were not there. It was a lot of fun - the kids are 7 & 4, and are a big ball of energy. We played in the pool, played some mean games of monopoly, checkers, chess and croquenot (sp?). It was great to see Mom up and eating and generally doing pretty well.
I have a lot of pictures so maybe I'll just post a few tonight...

1600 yards!

woot! I rocked the swim this morning - finally. not in time, thats for sure, but I cranked out 1600 + 100 warmup this morning and felt pretty good doing it. thats about 700 yards more than my last swim... :)

boring...

hi everyone
sorry I havent had much to say recently. i've been sick, and trying to get some training in this week. swimming is going horribly. biking not that great. I have to say running is probably the best sport going right now. scary!
anyway, i'm off to london to visit the family this weekend. :)

Training? I dont need no stickin' training

Sadly, my ability to follow a training plan right now is limited. Why? Oh, I dont know.. maybe the 3 weeks in a row of travel which makes swimming and biking impossible and then I try to cram in one session each on the weekend. And then getting sick on my first week back in the state. So now I'm almost at 2 weeks of not swimming, and one week each of not running or biking. This does not make for a good (or happy) triathlete. The race is coming quickly..... Even when I've trained well I'm one of the slowest people on the race course. I imagine I'll be limping along on the run well after the food has been eaten and the beer gone and my bike will be the last one left on the racks.
oh well. :)

Me and MJ

I took a subway ride to Hollywood to check out MJ's star on the Walk Of Fame. conveniently it is located right outside the Chinese Theatre, and there was a crowd of people around so I didn't even have to look for it. Kind of cool - had to hipcheck my way into the sweet spot facing the star. I think "they" must have been clearing the flowers and stuff off it each night, cause there wasnt much around it today. I think my MJ journey is complete now. (did you notice I'm wearing a MJ t-shirt?) :))))

Michael Jackson Memorial

I had the extraordinary luck to be working in downtown LA this week, and so was able to participate in the Michael Jackson memorial hoopla. I have to say that my feelings about the whole thing changed drastically from last week to this week. I really didnt care too much (aside from any sadness and shock that a human died) that he passed away. But as I walked around the Staples Center and hung out in the area where MJ fans gathered, I felt more sadness about the whole situation. These were people who loved him as a person and entertainer, and didnt care about his appearance, or other legal issue he might have had. I wandered around, and just was in the moment with everyone, and took some pictures. The big screen by the Staples Center was running pictures of MJ, there were police everywhere, and people just milling about. The night before the area was fairly accessible. The day of the memorial the area was blocked off to the general public. More police. on bikes, in cars, on foot, on horseback, in the air. There really were not that many people dressed up - I'd say half were dressed normally and half had MJ t-shirts (yes, including me!). Unfortunately I had to go work (bummer!) so I had to leave the area around 8:45am. MJ picture here!

I saw Rich People

Beverly Hills - the very words remind of THAT tv show, Pretty Woman (rodeo drive), nice cars, etc. I saw all that tonight - Betsy and I went to Beverly Hills! Due to L.A traffic, we didnt leave until close to 8pm so we could actual drive there instead of spending hours sitting on the freeway. We drove along Rodeo Drive - VERY nice stores there - Jimmy Choo, Coach, etc. Of course they were all closed by then but beautiful from the outside. Then we prowled around in the car looking at the houses - they were amzing. Big, beautiful, manicured, warm cozy driveway and house lights, very expensive cars parked in circular driveways - most of them gated to some extent. Palm trees lining the streets. everything is so green here! We also drove by Spago! Unfortunately we had some unpleasant encounters with the locals - several times we had very impatient super fast cars behind us who seemed to think they were entitled to go as fast as they wanted down residential streets. Then we had something ridiculous happen - a car that was parked was starting to back out of its spot. Betsy and I put on our blinker to wait to turn in. Then we were flabbergasted to see the car in front of us that had already gone by the parked car BACK UP between us and the parked cars to turn into the spot! amazing - I've never seen anything like it. so rude!
We saw a lotus, and several european racer type cars, and one BMW that was painted a dark matte grey with matching wheels. The BMW symbol was red and black - not the normal blue. It looked like a Batman car -very stealth like. Anyway, it was all very shi shi foo foo and our PT Cruiser stood out like a sore thumb. I think at 9pm at night on a weekday, the only people in that area are the ones that live there.
Earlier this week we went to the ocean at the Santa Monica pier, had some indian food, and watched a really funny street performer. Overall a good week - probably the only time we'll have a car in L.A.