Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Growing Gills

With the Run Turkey Run behind me, the day after Thanksgiving was more like Swim Fishie Swim.  Thanks to the nice swim team at my old high school, I was able to join my sister and brothers for their "monster swim."  The fastest kids did 100 x 100, the next group did 90 x 100.  I went in with the goal of doing 100 x 50, figuring I could swim 50s while everyone else did 100s.  It turned out I could keep up on certain things (the kick sets) so I picked up extra yardage.  When all was said and done, I managed 7000 yards - 4 MILES.  More than I've ever done before!

48 degrees out at the start = so much steam off the pool you can barely see!




This swim was just the kickoff of a big swim month for me.  Coach has upped the frequency of my swims to the point that I'd better grow some gills fast.  I'm going to be HEAVILY chlorinated by the end of December.  I should start buying some shirts in larger sizes, I expect to be busting out of my sleeves a la The Hulk shortly :)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Almaden Run Turkey Run 5k

On Thanksgiving morning, I joined a good portion of my extended family as well as many friends at the local turkey trot.  No, not the one in downtown San Jose with over 20,000 people (apparently the largest in the country now?).  I have NO interest in cramming like sardines into a race like that.  The turkey trot down in Almaden is a good size without being ridiculous and there was enough room to RUN.  Plus the course was beautiful, along the Los Alamitos Creek Trail.

The goal for the day was to get my run test done.  After 3 weeks back at training, this was a rest week and I needed to set a baseline for my running heart rate zones/paces for the year.  So after a warmup, I set up at the start line and got ready to make it hurt.

I should draw in an arrow to point out my forehead in the crowd here...





 About a mile in, having just run my fastest mile ever.  Yeah, this hurts.
Sprinting for the finish

 As it turned out, my 2nd mile was my 2nd fastest mile ever.  I held on for the uphill 3rd mile as best I could.  In the end, my 22:10 run was good enough for:
*a 92 second 5k PR!
*2nd in the 30-39 female AG
*3rd woman OA

 Not bad for only 3 weeks back at training.  Hopefully a good sign of the year to come.


Thanks to my mom for coming to the race to take photos!





Sunday, November 25, 2012

Making Plans

I'm still waiting for a couple of dates to be announced for events, but my 2013 schedule is basically all put together.  As mentioned previously, this year is all about sprints for me.  I'm looking forward to working on some short course speed and have some ambitious goals to go along with that!

Almaden Valley Run Turkey Run 5k - 11/22/12 - report coming soon!
Los Gatos Resolution Run - 1/1/13
3 Bears Duathlon - 2/9/13
Woodside Kings Mountain Run - 3/2/13
South Bay Duathlon - 3/10/13
Shortest Triathlon Ever - Date TBD
Silicon Valley Sprint Triathlon - 4/20/13
Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim - 5/19/13
Reservoir Sprint Triathlon - 6/16/13
Rev3 Portland Olympic Triathlon - 7/14/13
GnaR-S-R - Date TBD
USAT Sprint Triathlon National Championship - 8/11/13
USAT Duathlon National Chamionship - 10/26/13
Tucson Marathon - Date TBD

With that, onward!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Once More, With Feeling

I have been a bad blogger!  Amazingly enough, life seems MORE busy than it did during IM training, when I always found time to blog.  Lately I find time to Facebook but barely make a dent in Twitter or anything else.  I don't have any awesome excuses, it's just been busy.

Training is going well.  3 weeks down and I've started to come back around to my routine again.  I know a lot of people complain about winter training being boring but I love the potential for this time of year.  Drills and technique/form stuff is not sexy but it's the work that will pay off the most in the long run.  And this is the perfect time of year to continue to improve upon form and set those good habits!  My race schedule for next year is mostly set...I need a few dates for events to firm up but I basically know what I'm doing.  And the first thing on my list is...the Almaden Turkey Trot tomorrow morning.  Fun!

I've been taking a couple of classes since September at the local community college.  An exercise physiology class and a nutrition for sports class.  Surprisingly I've found the exercise physiology class to be fairly easy - it just seems intuitive.  I've worked pretty hard for the nutrition class - there is a LOT of reading and some real analysis required - I'm loving it!  I'm in the midst of a 3-day dietary self-analysis, which has certainly been interesting.  I've found through trial and error over the years what seems to work well for me in training and racing and it's not necessarily the conventional recommended diet in some ways (for example, I eat quite a lot of (healthy) fats).  Perfectionist that I am, I am getting an A+ in both classes right now - hopefully that will continue through finals in a few weeks!

As seen in my last post with video, Stanley and I have been doing some agility trials.  We're finally starting to sync up after being out of practice for so long! We've got three weekends in a row of trials in December as well as a fun match this weekend so I'm confident we're going to have some fun.  He's really SOMUCHFUN to run these days.  I've been doing a lot of work to build our relationship and connection and I think it's making the difference.

This past weekend I flew down to Phoenix to spectate at Ironman Arizona. (No, I did NOT sign up for next year! No IMs for me!)  In addition to about 15 friends racing, my aunt was doing her first Ironman.      I'm so glad I had the chance to hang out with family, visit with Dani (who stayed with me the night before the race) and meet her wonderful husband and kids, and spectate with Jen Harrison and her family.  I worked the women's change tent for T1 so I was able to help most of my friends get changed and off onto their bikes - that is a *tough* volunteer job but so rewarding!!!  Everyone had such a great race day - Dani got a huge PR and my aunt Jo had a smile on her face from start to finish! It's taken me about 3 days to recover from running all over town cheering but it was a blast!

Aunt Jo at the practice swim

Hanging with JPH

Best place on earth :)

Now I will try my best to update a bit more often from here on...there should be lots of interesting things to talk about during the holidays.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Catching Up

I know, I am dreadfully behind in updating the blog.  I will work on that sometime soon.  In the meantime, here's some video of Stanley and I trialing last weekend!