*insert blank look here*

I’ve been trying to start a blog post for days and my brain keeps freezing up.  As such, I’m apparently incapable of tying together the disparate components of my life in one neat pretty little post.  So I’ll just do the random bullet point game and hopefully you will excuse me for my limited Ironman-training brain.

• You know you’re riding long when the nutrition for one ride takes over more space on the kitchen counter than your food.

• I hammered out my long ride Saturday at my best pace to date.  Definitely loving the new bike.

• I had fog for the first 50 miles and didn’t pull my arm warmers off until somewhere around 65 miles.  I won’t tell you how proud I was to be able to get them off without stopping…

• It turned out I’d parked in a great location for my run off the bike – right onto the Napa River Trail (trail to the left in the trees).

• While I was running around all weekend exhausting myself, Stanley was showing beautifully in the ring at the Richmond Dog Fanciers’ show in Dixon.

• My Iron appetite has gone missing.  I’m not sure if it’s something to worry about or just one of those things about absorbing your nutrients better being gluten free.  For once I’m really nailing my fueling on the workouts so maybe I’m just not running as calorie-deficient?  I’m totally eating meals and snacks, I just haven’t hit that starvation mode I remember from last time around.
• Stanley and I wrapped up the obedience class we’ve been taking with a little graduation Monday.  He REALLY wanted his graduation cookie but sat nicely till I was done with the photo.  The LOOK he gave me though!

• We had to teach a trick for graduation day.  I don’t know a lot of exciting tricks to teach dogs (mine all know shake, high five, etc) but we cobbled this together from our agility touch training.

• I let Max tag along to Stanley’s agility class last night – it was his first time back at class since he injured his neck over the July 4th weekend.  You’ve never seen a dog SO HAPPY just to be at his old stomping grounds, even if he was just watching.  After class I let him run with Mary’s golden puppy Essie and did a bunch of tunnels with him – he was in heaven!  Every tunnel he took, Stanley bounded over the A-frame above it – the boys had FUN.

• Speaking of Stanley…on the off chance someone is here for the dog stuff and not the triathlon stuff LOL, he has what should be some very nice puppies due up in Washington in a couple weeks – feel free to contact me if interested and I’ll pass you on to the breeder.  In addition, we hope there will be some more coming along in the Midwest in a couple months.
• Today is 8 years since Jeff and I got together.  Time does indeed fly when you are having fun!  What are we doing to celebrate? Um, well…he’s off to backpack in the Sierras and I’m racing this weekend.  I guess that makes us an old married couple for sure! :-)
• And that’s about it for my weekly brain dump! 

Moments in Time

Lindsay started this last week with a post about random meaningful moments caught with the cellphone camera.  I have only had my phone for a little over a month but I managed to dig up some pictures to share :-)

Probably the first photo I took with the iPhone – Jeff at lunch at Britannia Arms on a summer day

Our view most of our days in Cabo.  Hard to believe it’s been over a month since we were there – where did July go?

My sweet Max and his beloved soccer ball.  He likes to fetch but is extra-obsessive about fetching soccer balls.

Bike riding in Northern California – it kinda all looks like this year round!

 

Wet dogs in jail – they were not pleased with this option.

San Jose Giants game last week.  I love our little local stadium and the small-town feel.  The cheap tickets and food help too :)

Wet Stanley.  They look like drowned rats at bathtime.

Dry Stanley.  I can smell the clean coat from here!

Whirlwind Weekend Saga

It was another insane weekend of travel, activities and training!

The dogs and I headed up to Sonoma County on Friday afternoon.  We took the scenic route and checked out my intended long ride bike course along the way.

We were up north because my brother was going to be racing the full Iron distance at Vineman!  I spent Friday evening running errands in Santa Rosa, hitting a cute local gluten-free bakery and getting dinner at Whole Foods before trying to go to bed early.

And so we were up bright and early Saturday (ok, maybe a little grumpy and tired but it was 4:30 am after all) to drive out to Guerneville for the race start.  After some major pre-race drama, things got going and Robert was off for a long day of racing!  Once he hit the roads on the bike, I drove the beardies over to Beth’s house to play with their sisters for the day and then drove myself to Calistoga for my long ride!  I’d been tipped off that Silverado Trail was a great place to ride, roughly 27 miles long with only one stop sign the entire way and a nice big bike lane.  It did not disappoint!  (Well it might if you get tired of views of grapevines and hills)

And 4 hours later, I was done with my longest ride of the year so far.  I even had a really good run off the bike, I could have done it all day – I think I finally got my fueling on the bike just right.  Then it was time to swing back to get the (now tired) dogs and get over to Windsor to spectate the race again.  My brother had just headed out on his first loop of the run when I got there so we had time to get settled in with the family.  The boys enjoyed all the attention!

Putting together a great race, Robert finished his first Iron distance triathlon looking strong!

From there it was a 2 hour drive home for me and the mutts, a quick unloading of the car and off to bed at 11:30pm to try to get some rest for the next day’s workout. 

I wrapped up the week Sunday morning with a long run.  My instructions were to do a HILLY TRAIL, so I went up Lexington Dam for the first time in ages (possibly have only ever done this on my mountain bike) and then further up the hills behind it.

You can barely see the path running across/up the middle of the dam going to the left.

Here’s what it looks like from below as you approach.

Dam photos stolen from this site, I didn’t run with a camera.

And with that, I was done, exhausted, FINISHED for the week.  We saw Cowboys & Aliens (very fun movie) and otherwise I sat around in a tired daze all day and tried to eat a lot.

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

As I’ve mentioned a few times, as I geared up for IM training this year I made a few changes that I hope help support my training and overall health.

Gluten Free

About a month ago, when I came home from Mexico and got back to serious training, I cut gluten out of my diet.  I don’t have gluten intolerance per se (though I have certainly noticed a response from my stomach when it’s slipped back in) but there seems to be a lot of information out there about the role of gluten in inflammation and it’s yet another way to clean up my eating habits even more. 

Surprisingly, it hasn’t been that difficult to cut gluten/wheat out of my diet.  Thanks to Whole Foods and a number of conscientious local restaurants, there are gluten free cupcakes, gluten free brownies, gluten free pizza, gluten free beer…what was I saying about cleaning up my diet?  Oh yes, I am still trying to avoid those things now too, but it’s nice to have the option at least when I need a fix.  Instead I spend even more of my day’s calories on fruit, vegetables, lean meats, nuts, etc etc etc.  I took a look at my sports nutrition products and cut out one item that included wheat, but otherwise most of what I’d selected for the year is still good.

I’ve committed to keeping this change in effect through IM AZ, I’ll assess again after that.  But I’ve gotten through one month of the five since I made this change without too much trouble, so I know I can handle it.  I have seen a marked reduction in my random digestive upsets so that’s a plus.  Other than that, I’m not sure there’s a real way to measure change anyway, other than that I’m happily bouncing along through my workouts and recovering well.

Letting Natural Hormones Take Over

I started taking “the pill” when I was 15, for health reasons (massive problems with normal function).  I stayed on them through my 20s because I like dogs, not children.  But really, there’s been no reason for me to be on them for some time now.

Vasectomy: Best. Wedding. Gift. Ever.

And so, after some more reading/thinking about how the artificial hormones affect female athletes in a possibly detrimental way, I chucked those too.  Again, it’s too early to say if there’s any quantitative change but between that and going gluten free, I dropped 3 pounds in the first couple weeks.

Finding Balance

It should be clear by now I tend to find myself on the overcommitted side of things at times.  This is not how I want to find myself during Ironman training – it *does not* end well.

As such, last weekend was our last agility trial until after the race.  Weekends will simply be too booked up with training.  But fear not for the social lives of my dogs, because that makes this the perfect time for Stanley to do more conformation shows.  He absolutely loves the show ring and his handler, and all I have to do is drop him off clean.  Win-win.  It doesn’t hurt that quite a few of the upcoming shows are near places I want to ride my bike! 

And Max has been having a blast hanging out with Jeff, including going to a bar for guys night out while Stanley and I were doing agility last Friday night – he’s delighted with all the fun he’s having as a “retired” agility dog.

So that’s where we leave it for now – lots of swimming, biking and running to do and in between the usual mess of work and dog training classes and sleep and massive quantities of FOOD.  It’s a hard life but someone’s got to live it.

Bay Team CPE

Delaying a post on diet and other changes I’ve been meaning to write for a week because I haven’t had any time today…hopefully tomorrow!

On Sunday I dropped Stanley off at the agility trial and went off for an easy 90 minute ride.  Right back to Chesbro where I swam the day before – it was much quieter out there this time.

And then it was time for some fun with the dog!

Jackpot (like gamblers) – he did the jump-tunnel-jump gamble quite easily – we got our qualifying points and got out of there before the whistle.  Stanley ran past one jump I wanted him to take but now I realize it was a smart move because the judge was standing in our way!

Snooker – my favorite class and 1st place.  The video seems to have missed our first red but we did a 5(tunnel)-7(double jump)-6(two jumps) for the opening and then got points for the entire closing.  The 7 was tricky since it was not bidirectional in the opening.

Wildcard – another fun run where we had 3 choice points to make along the way in order to qualify.  Still going fast on his last run of the day!

Feeling Fishy

Today was the big 2.4 mile swim, my first one since IM AZ nearly two years ago and only my second time swimming the distance in open water.  I mosied on down to Chesbro Reservoir in Morgan Hill to meet up with a bunch of friends for the race.

Photo stolen from race website

I have to say, I’m going to feel spoiled in Ironman with all the buoys…all these OW swim races this summer have involved 4 or less turn buoys for 1+ mile swims so my sighting gets lots of practice!

The swim today had 3 yellow turn buoys – the straightest path between these buoys and the double orange start line buoys made for 1.2 miles.  We swam 2 loops to make up the 2.4 miles.  As you can see in my little marked-up map, there were 3 orange sighting buoys that were not in a straight line between the yellows + 2 irrelevant red Muscle Milk buoys that marked the course for the youth swim.  Suffice it to say, it made for some interesting navigation.

I went into this race a bit sleep-deprived (thanks to husband snoring) and with an achy back (thanks to dog’s agility fun match last night) so my attitude/motivation might have been lagging a little.  But the reservoir was warm (68 degrees) and clean and all my friends were doing it so I sucked it up, jumped in and swam to the start line.

Loop 1 – The Warmup.  I kept a nice light pace throughout the first loop of the course, just focused on sighing well and swimming with good form.  I was more or less alone by the time I hit the red buoys but I expected that with a race this small.  When I cleared the last yellow buoy and turned back to start the course again, I made a small boo-boo in sighting for the red buoys instead of the orange start buoys (which we had to pass through again) – this cost me a little bit of time before I realized it but at least I didn’t have to turn around and swim back for them.

Loop 2 – The Draft.  My instructions for the 2nd loop were to find someone and draft like mad.  Somewhat difficult when there’s almost no one around you but I did spot a woman with no wetsuit, meaning she’d gone off in the wave 5 minutes behind me.  Sounded like a perfect draft of someone faster than me and I latched onto her toes.  Unfortunately I think she slowed down quite a bit in her second loop but every time I tried to swim away from her, she was right at my hip.  So it was easier to just cruise on her feet.  The sun came out for the 2nd loop making the return sighting very difficult and it helped to just follow someone else.

At the final yellow buoy, I dropped my draft and sprinted for the finish line at shore.  Mary cheered me in as I ran up the boat ramp and I was grinning the whole way with what I knew was coming.

HUGE. PR.

I swam this race 24 minutes faster than my IM swim at Arizona.  Who says hard work in the pool doesn’t work?!  Even with a slow draft and poor sighting, I am delighted!

The day got even better as I met Jennifer right before she went in for the 1.2 mile swim.  We caught up a bit more after her race (which she did GREAT in!).

Nigel came in 2nd in his AG in the 2.4 mi wetsuit swim.  While he waited for me to finish, Mary talked him into doing the 1.2 mile wetsuit race with her so he signed up.  And ended up finishing as the 1st place man!  He got to make 2 trips to the podium and take home a bunch of wine!

One more day in my rest week and then training kicks up a notch again – I can’t wait!

4 Months To Go!

Ironman Arizona is just 4 months away and boy does it feel more imminent than ever when I look at my training schedule. 

Shit’s getting real, y’all.

I’m once again reminded why that having such a solid base phase for my year pays off.  Because even though it ended 3 months ago, cranking out my longest workouts of the year doesn’t feel nearly as difficult as I would expect.  And that makes me less nervous about the upcoming weeks where – holy cow – I’ve got some long work to do.

*squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

That was the sound of me jumping for joy at getting to ride long.

I’ve made a few changes to things to get myself into full-bore IM training mode in the healthiest way possible and will talk about that a little more in another post.  Anyway, sitting here on the cusp of big training, and buoyed by a morning where I nailed my key brick of the week, a short list of things I am grateful for when it comes to training for this Ironman:

• As always, I’m grateful to my husband for not only not telling me I’m crazy and should stop doing this stuff but helping me do it in all the ways he can (anything from going along for Molly’s Crazy Ride of the Weekend to feeding the dogs while I’m at the pool).  He puts up with a lot when it comes to the fast pace life with me seems to run these days!
• I am grateful for so many friends for support, well wishes, training companionship, jokes, commiseration, and product recommendations!
• I’m grateful for my coach for getting me so much further than I ever imagined when we first started together.  She had her work cut out for her with me!
• I’m grateful for my brand new iPhone, for allowing me to download TV shows that I’m too tired to watch by the time evening rolls around and instead watch them on my bike trainer, where it nestles perfectly into my aerobars.
• I’m grateful for my not-so-secret weapon Recovery e21 that keeps me bouncing back from every tough training day to face the next.  I’ve got some more samples to share so if you haven’t tried it yet, ping me and I’ll send you some.  And if you’ve already discovered how awesome it is, don’t forget the coupon code on the right side of this blog.
• I’m grateful to Concept Cyclery for helping me get the bike and fit that makes riding so much more fun (and fast!).  I can’t believe how much better the long distance mileage (and my butt) feels this time around.  THANK YOU, Bruce!
• And for now, I’ll end by saying I’m grateful to summer, for finally showing up.  ~60 degrees for morning dog walks, masters swim, and runs, ~80 degrees in the afternoon.  I love me a Northern California summer.