Collection of Nonsense

I’m pulling out my Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes book and redrilling its principles into my head.  I may even go back to religiously tracking my intake.  Since I started working with Coach 2 years ago, I’ve put on about 15 pounds, most of it last year during IM training and I believe predominantly muscle.  However, I’ve never quite mastered the art of leaning out for race day just right, and it’s something I want to work on this year.  I know Ironman training = ravenous appetite but I’d like to do a better job of putting in the proper foods when stuffing my face 24 hours a day.

On a similar front, I’m reassessing my alcohol intake.  Not that I’m a heavy drinker as it is, but sometimes I end up with mixed drinks that I don’t really enjoy for all the excess calories and sugar they contain.  I may just stick to drinking beer this year, which fills me up faster and is fairly low calorie by comparison, on the occasions when I do choose to imbibe.

I *ahem* really really need to pry open the bike box and finally put the damn thing back together.  This long delay is definitely a first for me.  I avoided it last week by skipping my only bike workout and heading to Jamaica.  I don’t think I can really avoid the bike any longer.  I need to reframe my mindset on this and look forward to all the beautiful winter riding I can do in the crisp air!

*MOM STOP READING NOW*

As I get my head in gear to go back to Ironman training again, I’ve tried to remember all the complications along the way and the life sacrifices to be made.  One funny thought did occur to me, brought into focus by this recent off-season break.  Everyone always says your sex life more or less dies during Ironman training…that you are too tired all the time.  I never found this to be true at all because this is what happens to me during the off-season when I’m NOT training – I sleep and sleep and am totally lazy and sluggish.  I still found PLENTY of energy to molest my husband during Ironman training, or perhaps he would have objected more strenuously to me signing up again.  *shrug* I’m sure not complaining!

Leaving Paradise

All good things must come to an end, and so on Sunday it was time to return home.

But first…breakfast!

And one more visit down to the water, and looking longingly at the bloody island that I still didn’t get to see.

Right after this photo, I jumped into the water for one final swim and got promptly dropped on my ass onto the rocks that had shown up overnight as the sand washed away. Ouch.

Saying goodbye to our new Canadian friends. Lee’s dad was doing Ironman Florida this past weekend!

I extended the vacation as long as possible with one last margarita as Margaritaville in the airport.

Our connection in Dallas left very late due to mechanical problems, and we didn’t get home till nearly 2am on Monday. Color me exhausted!

I was glad to see my first impressions of Jamaica were right – beautiful country, constant warm weather, warm water and incredibly friendly people.

A few thoughts on Couples resorts for those who might be interested:

• Couples only (any gender combination, I believe) – no kids, no large family groups, just couples.
• All-inclusive - covers food, drink, activities and excursions including scuba, golf, horseback riding, our Dunn River Falls trip, the fancy reservation restaurants, etc
• Amazing service. I got a little embarrassed with being called mi’lady so much, but everyone went out of their way to help keep the visitors happy.
• AWESOME food – SOOOOOOOO much better than any other all inclusive places I’ve ever visited. Really one of the hallmarks of Couples. I ate new fruits and veggies, including things I’ve never tried, with every single meal.
• No tipping allowed. They say it and they mean it – employees would get fired for taking a tip. This eliminates any pressure to tip or even carry money around from the time you arrive.

No Worries

I told Jeff if we got up the next day and it was NOT a red flag day, we were going to be on that island as fast as we could get there.  No such luck, so we came up with a different activity for our morning.

Welcome to Dunn’s River Falls, where, with the help of a guide, we climbed 900+ feet of waterfall, one careful step at a time, as part of a human chain.

There were various pools and falls along the way to stop at.  Here, we stood on some rocks and then fell backwards together into the water.

The guides were quite keen on putting us in embarrassing positions for photo and the videographer.

In case anyone was wondering why I wore a shirt over my bikini, it’s because the guides and videographer were insistent they’d be zooming in for some hot action if anyone’s bikini top was thrown out of position by the falls.  Um, no thanks.

When we returned to Couples and headed to the pool, we were rewarded with blue skies and SUN!!!  It’s about darn time!

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon at all

I still needed to get some open water swimming in.  People were floating around in the small swim area but that gets boring in a hurry.  I found a buoy another ~50 yards out and swam back and forth to that till it also got boring.  Then I got ambitious.

If you look very closely in this photo, you will see a dock floating a little ways in front of the island, just under the tower.  It’s the boat dock for the island, that they moved out offshore before the hurricane came.

I decided I’d swim out to that – it can’t be more than 300 yards and even in rough choppy water I knew I could do it without any problem.  It was very nice heading out – I had to stop a couple times to let logs (churned up by the storm) float by (didn’t want to get clocked in the head by one).  Perhaps my mistake was in climbing ONTO the dock and waving at everyone back on shore.  That set off the watersports staff who started whistling and yelling from shore, so I hopped back in and headed back.  With the strong current and wind blowing, the way out had been tough –the return trip was like swimming on a conveyer belt (I finally know what the IM COZ folks were talking about!) – sweet!  It was totally worth the ire of the water guys to do.

Dear Jen Harrison, this photo is for you.

This is what it looks like to lie in a beach chair and watch the ocean at night. :-)

This is what it looks like to smoke a Cuban and drink a Scotch while watching the ocean at night.

Ya Mon

As our Jamaican adventures continue, Hurricane Tomas blew through overnight and we woke up to a wet and beautiful world.  After a hilarious strength/cardio workout (I’ll be having trouble sitting down for days), we spent the morning exploring little hidden gems around the resort.

Like the Buddha pool

Parrots

Paths through the jungle

Seas were still rough from the high winds, so another red flag and another day without a visit to the island.  Sad panda.

I spent virtually the entire day glued to that chair, reading or sleeping, occasionally with a Dirty Banana drink in hand.  VERY relaxing.

Jeff looking relaxed at the Veggie Bar overlooking the beach – all fruit/veggie smoothies and vegetarian dishes!

We went to one of the nicer restaurants, 8 Rivers, for dinner – they serve food with a local flavor.  It seemed like French food with a Caribbean twist.  I had the Duck Confit & Goat Cheese Vol Au Vent, Shrimp Bisque, salad, Lobster Tail (not sure what the sauce was but it was AWESOME), and Caribbean Crepes Suzette.  Did I mention Friday night is Lobster Night at all the resort’s restaurants? *drool*

In tomorrow’s episode, Molly gets wet. 

Jamaican Me Crazy

This was not our first visit to Jamaica – 6 years ago Jeff and I were coming to this very resort when a powerful hurricane struck the island 1 week beforehand.  Our resort was closed down for repairs and so we ended up moved to Couples Negril.  We had a great time, but there’s always been some part of me yearning to get back to this one, the one I’d been attracted to initially.  They have their own private island, for goodness sake!

(I *still* haven’t gotten to the island but that story will come later)

Before this trip, I watched the forecasts and the National Hurricane Center sites closely.  After being clear for most of hurricane season, wouldn’t you know – Tropical Storm Tomas formed out in the Atlantic.  Tomas was quite an indecisive storm, alternating between tropical storm and hurricane for over a week.  Most important for me, he did not cause cancellation of any of our flights.  I figured once we got to Jamaica, we’d make it work no matter what.  As long as it’s warm out, what do I care if it’s raining – hello, 80 DEGREE WATER!

Our first morning, after I finished my morning run at the gym, it was raining.  So of course, what else is there to do but swim if you’ll be wet anyway?

IIt was a “red flag” day with winds and rain so they pulled in all water sports equipment and did not open the island.  In addition, to prepare for the hurricane, they pulled in all the boats and moved the island dock to the middle of the bay where it coudn’t bash into anything.  Still, it was as calm to me as a normal day back home in the Pacific, except a whole lot warmer (again, 80 DEGREE WATER – OMG!).

The pool was colder but safer.

We spent most of the day hanging out with our new friends we’d met on the shuttle ride in from the airport.

When I was finally done running around in the rain and wind outside, I did indulge in a frosty beverage.

We took a really long nap after that and woke up when it was dark out.  Aaaaah, the island life.  Without that nap, I’d never have made it to midnight like I did (yes, I go to bed at like 9pm normally). 

Dinner entertainment

Some people go cah-razy!!!

At the piano bar sing-a-long.  I was completely sober at this point.

 

That night Tropical Storm/Hurricane Tomas passed through the area.  It seemed to alternate heavy rain with heavy winds, but we were lucky to really be outside the main area of intensity for the storm.  Jeff’s snoring had more of a detrimental effect on my sleep than the storm did!

Dear Local Race Company

(please excuse this interruption into the Jamaica travel files)

You announced last year, with great fanfare, that you’d be adding a long course triathlon to your sprint and Olympic race weekend at Lake Almaden (3 miles from my house).

You reassured my aunt via email that you’d be posting it in late October.

You ignored my Facebook post asking about this rumored 1/2 IM that was to come and my plea to post info soon (already November).

You waited until a week after Vineman registration opened, thereby losing many interested parties.

And then you put up a snippet of details about your long course race…1 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 9 mile run?????? WTF?

Thanks, but no thanks.  This race is in the neighborhood I grew up in, and I know it would NOT be difficult to add another 4 miles on trails to that run.  I can’t imagine you will get much of a positive response to this, I just can’t.

Instead of a June 12th 1/2 IM, I’ll be doing an Olympic.  And that’s just fine – the year will be big enough without adding more volume early.  But you lost out on a lot of interest and excitement with your cheap shortening of the course by 4.3 miles.

On The Road Again

I haven’t exactly been ignoring the blog, I’ve just been traveling!  It all started earlier this week, when my dogs began their vacation at Camp Highlander (the house of Stan’s breeder/Max’s co-owner).  It was a 4.5 hour roundtrip to take them up there, drop them off, and come home to get ready to leave myself!

The boys were already settled in with their sisters before I’d even left!

And then it was time for Jeff and I to head to SFO.  At our first stop, we got out of the airport for a bit to do something with our very long layover.  This is what it looks like to eat breakfast in Miami Beach at 5:30am.

Roughly 8 hours later, we reached the next stop – Montego Bay, Jamaica! I was relieved to be done with airplanes!

2 hours of travel after THAT, we had arrived at our final destination for the week, Couples Tower Isle.

The island part of the resort

Our balcony put us right into the middle of the tropical jungle

The hotel looks lovely when viewed from the boat dock

We were done with dinner and ready to crash by 8pm – we’d traveled for over 22 hours to arrive here!

Next up: how to party like there’s no hurricane bearing down on us!