Woofstock

A few weeks ago, I spent 3 days at Woofstock - one of the biggest dog show clusters around here - to participate in our beardie club's regional specialty and show a couple extra days.  It's our last time for the immediate future attending the regional and was if nothing else a big opportunity just to hang with many show friends that we may not see for a year or two.

Thursday, Shannon and I started the weekend off right with beer before we went in the ring with our boys

Stan was quite excited to be at a show!  I also showed Puck on Thursday but his competition didn't show up.

Friday was the day of our regional.  First up I had Stanley in the obedience ring for the first time ever.  After a crazy long delay and missing Puck's ring time, we were finally in.  I was SUPER pleased with his performance for me on a hot day at an all breed show.  We made one mistake that cost us a Q but otherwise it was quite good.

Next up, I had Max back in the show ring in the veteran sweepstakes and altered dog class.  It's always fun to get the old man back out there again.

Finally, I got in the ring for Best of Breed with Stanley.  It was 90+ degrees out and we worked hard out there - Stan just kept floating around the ring and showing himself off…and we were thrilled to receive an Award of Merit!  Shannon and best buddy Beckham won the breed - a great followup to their win at the National.

Saturday was the day at Woofstock where everyone - handlers and judges - dresses up in tie-dye and hippie clothes.  I've always missed this particular day at the show so I was excited to participate.

How can you not have fun when everyone is dressed like this?!

I'm going to miss her SO MUCH when we move!

Stanley waiting to show

After another time 'round the ring

On Sunday I took the beardies and we ran that whole show out of our systems at an agility trial - I only entered the boys in Jumpers and they both kicked ass!  Max got a 4th place in his masters class.

The spoils from our weekend.  I LOVE my new grooming table cover!

And finally our official shot from the regional arrived a few days ago.  The best win photo I have of Stanley as an adult!  What a fabulous way to go out on top from our time here in the NorCal beardie world :)

Training, Life, Yadda Yadda

It's race week so I finally have a little down time to write about what's going on.  I've got a sprint tri this weekend and another in 2 weeks, with Nationals 4 weeks after that.  As expected, training has gotten fairly race-specific at this point.

I'm starting to see the method to the madness as we get closer to the races.  I looked at my early track workouts 6 or 7 weeks ago…my times for most intervals are about a minute faster now.  If nothing else, I think the experience of finding that push point and just going hard around the track will pay off on race day.  Or, as I said in my race plan, "gasping for air and making dying animal noises."

The insane bike interval workouts are feeling easier (note: NOT easy, but easier) - word from the boss is that I should take a bike test.  Thank goodness my upcoming race is flat and therefore may serve as my test.  This weekend in the middle of our long ride, I finally tackled Old La Honda, a very very popular cycling road in the area.  It looks like this…

And as far as the swim, well I just keep showing up and doing whatever I can to keep up with my lane mates.  Sometimes, it really hurts.  Last week there was a crazy set of IM 25s that left me at one point wondering if I might crap myself in the pool.

Last week my agility friends took me out for a going-away dinner (even though I'll still be in class with them for another month, the timing was just convenient for everyone).

It was so nice to see everyone outside of class - we clean up ok!

I've been taking agility classes from Tania for over 10 years now!

First Mary was my agility classmate and now she's my masters lane mate too!

The nice part about a super-fun evening out with friends is that it made it very easy to swear off alcohol afterwards as part of my get-serious-about-race-weight-for-nationals initiative.  Once we got back from Boston, I stocked the house back up with proper healthy foods and have just focused on eating clean consistently.  It's amazing how fast you see results from such things!  Minimal alcohol drinking, very little sugar, just lots of fruits and veggies and healthy carbs like (stolen from my coach) baked sweet potatoes (which by the way fill a sweet craving nicely!).  Not only that but Jeff and I usually eat out most nights…we've cooked 6 out of the past 7 evenings at home (every night except my agility class outing) and they've been exceptionally healthy meals at that.  

I'm alternately thrilled and sad about all these goodbyes and parties.  This is the start of my last full week at the office…I'll go back in next Monday to close things out and do paperwork but this is really finally the end!  After nearly 7 years at this company and 13 years with some of my coworkers (including my boss), I feel ready for the exciting changes ahead.  The countdown is truly down to single digits.  My "real" summer starts in one week!

Shipping Up to Boston

Every June, Jeff goes to his hometown in SE Massachusetts for a little golf tournament his childhood best friend puts on.  This year, I decided to tag along and make a train-cation out of it.  I haven't been back there since we got married 6 years ago so I was due!

We headed out on a 3-hours-delayed redeye last Wednesday night and landed in Boston Thursday morning.  After getting through the airport, baggage claim, rental car, and driving all the way down to Rehoboth (Massachuetts but near Providence, Rhode Island), the first order of business was to camp out in my mother-in-law's driveway and build my bike!  I headed out for an easy shakedown cruise on the backroads of Rehoboth while it drizzled lightly.

My entire hour looked more or less like this!  Quiet GREEN forest roads.

We got settled at the hotel and Jeff sat down for an afternoon of conference calls, while I went over to his old high school to do my track workout.  It was windy and pouring rain for most of my run but it felt special to be out there where my husband had lived his days of athletic glory :)

That night began the whirlwind of visits and overeating that characterized this trip.  We met Jeff's family for dinner and then his childhood best friend for "second dinner" and drinks.  There they are doing Jager shots.

I wanted to stay on track with workouts on this trip, so I did as much advance scouting as possible to find places to go.  The one that stymied me was the swim…pools listed on SwimmersGuide that appeared to not have lap swim anymore, or didn't allow visitors, or whatever.  But (!) I did find a rec center over in North Providence, RI that looked like it had potential.  I'm so NOT used to indoor pools so it was weird but I got my Friday swim done after sleeping till 9:30am to recover from the redeye flight.

While Jeff worked at the hotel again, I went off for a recovery ride - I had seen a flyer in the hotel for the East Bay Bike Path, which turned out to be a gorgeous paved path from East Providence on down the bay.  It was a blast!

That's downtown Providence in the distance here.

Friday night, we trekked up to Framingham, MA to watch Jeff's brother's band play.  Due to my infrequent trips to MA (this being only my 3rd one ever), I'd never managed to meet this particular sibling.  So, I just didn't tell him I was coming (we are Facebook friends) and surprised him.  The band is FABULOUS (great 80s/90s cover band) and I hope anyone in MA or RI goes to see The Freeze Pops first chance you get.

Oh yeah, more Jager shots.

Saturday was my long ride - the weather was hot and sunny - no complaints!  I had mapped out a big loop all over the small backroads and it worked out perfectly for 32 miles of riding through Rehoboth, Attleboro, Seekonk, and Swansea.  I saw old historic cemeteries, stone walls, lots of forest roads, and the reservoir that Jeff grew up playing hockey on.

After the ride…well, I spent the rest of the day eating.  A lot.  One social function to see friends after another…

Finally we met Jeff's father and brother for breakfast on Father's Day, then did a little "sightseeing" around town (it's not that big of a town) before returning to the airport.  In the continued theme of eating, I had a lobster roll on the way to the airport.

Little historic spot in Rehoboth

 And we climbed all the way to the top!

And thus concluded our crazy busy trip to MA.  When we landed in San Jose, I left straight from the airport to pick Stanley up from my friend who had been watching him - I got back at ~11:30pm and went straight to bed.  Thankfully for jetlag, I was still in the pool for masters at 5:30 the next morning!

Keep On Keepin' On

I keep meaning to blog and then…life intervenes.  I have to write about my crazy long weekend of dog activities but will wait till the photos all come in.  I hope the bruises are gone in a few weeks...

Training is chugging right along.  There isn't anything especially exciting to report.  I was pondering today whether I'm race ready just yet and…who knows.  What I do know is that I keep getting the work done and nailing my key workouts of the week - the tough bike intervals, the speed work on the track (OMG I love the track) - and I trust Coach will have me ready as always when the time comes.

About the track…with all the long course racing I've focused on the past few years, I haven't done a lot of serious "speed work" since my running-only days.  Lately I've had a weekly visit to the high school track across the street and I Love loooooove LOVE it!  Clearly I have no problem pushing myself on the run…and the paces so far are encouraging.  I guess we shall see!

Packing is coming along bit by bit.  We purged a lot of our random household shit with a garage sale last weekend.  I've only got a couple weeks left at work and then I can devote July full time to getting everything packed and prepared.  So many errands and tasks, so little time.

I'll try not to wait so long before posting again…we should have enough excitement coming up to be post-worthy :)

Alcatraz Sharkfest

Last spring, my friend Stacey suggested a few of us sign up for an Alcatraz swim for this year, in particular the Sharkfest one that sells out fast.  Well, I've never swum in the Bay and it seemed like a fun idea (in so much as it's a good idea every so often to do something that completely terrifies you) so I said sure.  Fast forward a year and it was time to race this past Sunday.  Stacey, as it turned out, got very sick the week before and was not allowed to race by her doctor, but she came out to cheer for us anyway.  I went to a 50th birthday party in wine country the night before, so Jeff dropped me at Stacey's house at 4:45 am so I could ride with her.  On this day, San Francisco was also hosting the Bay to Breakers (massive crazy run race across the entire town) and the start to the final stage of the Tour of California, so it was critical to get to our location early.

I have to say I got more and more nervous over the weeks as this swim approached.  The current, the bay, the whole long-distance open water thing in a sprint year.    We ran into Pamela before the start and as she's done this event many times  she reassured us and offered advice.  Before long it was time to trek down to the ferry and ride out to The Rock!  After the world's longest wait in the ferry bobbing in the waves near Alcatraz and cooking in our wetsuits, we finally got to jump out of the boat!  Despite all my fear of cold water, I was READY to get out just to cool down.

Stolen video from Youtube - view from the start

Stolen video from Youtube - jumping off the boat


Chris and I jumped out of the boat and swam up to the start.  And then we looked at each other in awe and screamed how lucky we were.  Floating there at the start line with a magnificent panoramic view of the entire SF Bay was incredible.  Alcatraz behind us, the Golden Gate to our right, San Francisco in front of us, and the Bay Bridge to our left on the sunniest clearest day I've ever seen in the City.  I can see why people do this swim over and over.

After again a little too much time waiting *shiver* the horn sounded and we were off!  They had told us to follow the lead boat buoy or aim for a specific point to the left of the Aquatic Park entrance (a small opening in the seawall) because the current would push us right towards the Golden Gate Bridge.  I followed the lead boat for a while and when that vanished into the distance I followed a  couple of guys who stopped every 100-200 yards to take photos and video.  I figured they were sighting well as they stopped so much so I could just follow them.

Stolen video from Youtube - you can see why it was worth stopping to look around!


The swim went fairly well until I got closer to town and then I could not figure out where everything I was supposed to sight off of went!  I was still surrounded by people so...  Finally I asked a kayaker what to aim at and he told me there was an orange buoy off to my left.  A few minutes later I checked in with another kayaker and she said to aim for the masts of a ship ahead.  I did that and swam and swam and when I popped up again...she was still next to me.  She said I wasn't moving at all because I was swimming against the current.  Apparently the current had been far stronger than expected and we all should have aimed MUCH further left; instead we were blown past the entrance to Aquatic Park and most people can't swim against that strong current to make it back.  The kayakers and race personnel repositioned a couple hundred of us back up current and then we swam again.  Eventually I was sucked right into Aquatic Park and just had to swim to shore.

Chris and I celebrated with our spectating friends and then came the fun of trying to pull off the wetsuit and clean all the sea schmutz off our faces.  And then I needed FOOD.

 

Here is my route...you can see how well that current pulled us all.  If I'd been swimming Escape From Alcatraz, which I think ends at Marina Green, I'd have been right on target!

Finally, I have to say...this race was perfect closure for my time in California.  13 years ago this July, I returned to CA after college/grad school and moved to San Francisco.  I can think of no better way to say goodbye to all those landmarks than with this blockbuster swim!  I feel so lucky to have been able to do it!

Catching Up

I guess this will be a photo blog as I've been busy and I keep thinking there isn't enough to write about.

The boys and I have squeezed in an agility trial here and there.  Stanley won the Excellent Standard class at a trial in Petaluma a couple weeks ago, but of course there was no videographer that day.

My nice efficient jumper

In full stride, no feet touching the dog walk

Cutting it tight enough to wrap his own hair around the jump standard

Long dog is spread across 3 pole at once

SUCH a goofball.

Playoff hockey is ongoing.

Training is humming right along.

And Stanley thinks all of that is quite boring.

Finally, we went to the San Francisco Zoo last weekend, as I wanted to see it one last time before I moved.  There were many new and updated exhibits, and the state of the art parts of my childhood were sadly run-down.

But really, I just went to pet and feed the goats.

And an occasional pushy sheep.

Really, who doesn't love a goat making funny faces?!

Nothing else exciting to report.  Work, training, packing, blah blah blah.  Just a little over a month left at my job!