Big Crazy Fun Week

It just hit me how much is going on this week – lots of stuff to be excited/nervous/crazy about!

The early part of this week is just work work work but I’m also tentatively rejoicing at the reappearance of the sun!

I’ve been dutifully executing all of my taper workouts (this alone is an improvement for me, as I often tend to slack during taper and I’m making a concerted effort to squash that habit this year) because WOOHOO it’s race week.  Sunday I get to hit up a favorite local Olympic race where I know every inch of the course.  The sprint race that is held the day before, at the same location, was my very first triathlon!

This weekend is the big 4-day Woofstock show up in Vallejo.  Friday is the NCBCF Regional Specialty at the Woofstock show.  Stanley will be showing Thursday and Friday.  My job will be to stay off my feet, watch and take photos, and hide from my dog!

Thursday is also a date for a couple of other family milestones, to be covered in a later post.  So there’ll be celebrating all around!

And, um, if that weren’t busy enough…it’s possible if I can still walk on Sunday after the race that Max and I might make a brief stop at the agility trial in Palo Alto in the afternoon.  Because I was dumb and didn’t check the dates before I entered it.  Ssssssshhhh, don’t tell.

Happy Dogs Come From California

(But not happy owners, who are DAMN TIRED OF RAIN!!!)

We more or less rained out of our agility trial this weekend, in that I wouldn’t run the dogs in a monsoon due to safety concerns.  I froze in the pool Saturday morning.  I rode inside today.  The dogs needed *some* activity so they got a bunch of runs on the field in the rain and then one in between storms this afternoon where I brought the camera.

My happy old dude

Stan about to dive-bomb Max

Big schnozz

 

COME!

Racing in Juneuary – Splash & Dash #1 Report

Thursday night was cold and cloudy and windy so what better thing to do than go jump in a lake for a race?  Hmmm, so maybe staying home bundled up would have been smarter but we triathletes aren’t always known for common sense.

A lot of my friends have always done the Splash & Dashes but I’ve never made it to one.  It’s a nice small local race series with a lot of fast folks, a casual environment (only want to do 1 loop of the swim? OK!), a few tables on the boat dock for transition, and perfect finish line food.  And for icing on the cake, I got to see Melissa who was there spectating!

For me, this was really about getting more open water practice.  I would also be testing out a new wetsuit.  I’ve always swum in the Xterra Vector Pro suits and had been doing some reading about wetsuits and decided to take the plunge with the blueseventy Axis, with the hope that it might be more complimentary to my swim form.  The biggest difference I noticed right away was it was a LOT harder to put the new suit on – my old suit always slid right onto my body and I wondered what everyone was always complaining about with fighting their wetsuits on.  The new suit fit like a glove but it took serious effort to slowly work into place.  So tell me, is this normal and indicative of a better fit?

This was the warmest we were all night.

The lake was nowhere close to the athlete guide’s “expected 68 degrees” - more like 60, maybe…certainly feasible in a wetsuit but less comfortable when combined with the air temp and wind.

We swam 2 loops around the reservoir for a total of 1500m, or maybe a little longer as I kept having to swim around the rescue boat hauling people out of the water.  Everyone agreed it was a very choppy swim – hopefully I can pull off a faster time in a calm lake next week.  I was pleased with the suit performance on the swim, as I never got the sore achy shoulders I am used to in open water.  I swam almost next to my aunt for most of the 1st loop and then lost her in the shuffle around the turn for the 2nd loop/finish.

And then it was off for a 5k trail run that might have suited an Xterra course nicely.  There were 2 serious climbs along the way that left virtually everyone walking – one of them went up the backside of the dam so close to vertical that you could nearly reach your arms out to pull yourself up.  My thoughts on that: OW.  But I did have a pretty good run and zoomed past so many people who had faster swims – my run time was only about 3 minutes off of the fastest woman.  It was also great to see so many friends on the run course and high-five everyone as we passed coming back from the turnaround.  I ended the race STILL soaking wet from the swim (cold air does not dry you off well) and started shivering soon after that.

And then I was done.

Like I said, this race has perfect finish line food – pizza and beer!

So anyway…this is a fun little race that gave me some good open water practice and one serious hill/speedwork workout and a chance to see tons of friends and family on the course!  And now that I know the course, I’ve got a time to beat when I do it again next month.  But I sure hope summer has arrived by July because I’m not sure I can take shivering the whole way home again.

How Sweet It Is

It’s June!  At least…the calendar says so, because the cold and rainy weather around here is leaving me wondering.  But ANYWAY…

June means May is over and with May over the No Recreational Sugar for the Month of May challenge is over.  Sort of. 

You may or may not remember that I posted back in early May that I was joining a bunch of friends in giving up recreational sugar for the month.  Sports nutrition products during training/racing were OK, but I’d be skipping out on desserts, my all-afternoon dark chocolate snacks, and so on.

I’m glad I had a great support group because the first 2 weeks were hard.  I had to come up with alternatives for afternoon snacks and became quite cognizant of when the cravings tend to hit and whether I was really hungry versus bored.  It was nice to see my weight drop a couple pounds right away, with a May 7 race on the schedule (so *that’s* how you lean out to race weight…).   

After a couple weeks though, I had adjusted and it really wasn’t that hard.  Sure there were a couple slip-ups and one night of hedonistic eating all around (I blame the very long swim that morning) but the best part of having a group of friends to do it with was that I picked myself back up and got with the program again, rather than say “oh well I blew it let’s give up.”  The fact is I only ate maybe 2% of my normal sugar intake for a month.

I went grocery shopping yesterday and thought “huh, it’s the last day in May, I guess I can go hog-wild on sugar tomorrow.”  But then the vast majority of the desserts and candy I saw just didn’t appeal to me so I didn’t buy any. 

I’ve got 3 races in 3 weeks, starting tomorrow.  So I might as well stay on the bandwagon just a little bit longer.  My fruit and veggie snacks seem to be satisfying me enough.  Sure, I will probably enjoy a frozen yogurt or two if the bloody weather ever warms up, but I just might have broken sugar’s reign over my eating habits.  And how sweet THAT is. :)

A Tale of Two Tails

My dogs both went on the same road trip this weekend but participated in entirely different activities!

Stanley lived the glamorous (ha!) life of a show dog.

Hey, someone hold the paparazzi off until I have my face put on.

I didn’t want to be a distraction to him in the ring so I hid up a hill, behind a fence, and did my best to take photos at a distance.

Stanley showed beautifully for his new handler and picked up a Select!

Max took Jeff for some exercise and a day hike just up the road in the National Forest.

He was a very happy guy!

The boys enjoyed their days but were very happy to reunite in the hotel room.

Tomorrow, we repeat it all over again before coming home! Not a bad way to spend a holiday weekend together (and apart).

Stanley’s News

Another tough peak training week mostly done and finally a holiday weekend with some fun activities planned.  Nothing too major to report at the moment, except…

THIS

We’re very excited here too! 

What Makes It Fun?

Let’s face it, when you put in hours and hours of endurance training every week, you have to have things that make it fun or you would lose your motivation quickly.  The teasing and jokes at masters between sets, the group rides with friends, the burn in your lungs running hard.

For me, biking took a long time to love.  Essentially I’ve been on improperly sized and fitted bikes for all of my time biking - 4+ years – until last month.  I will tell you, it’s NOT fun to always be dropped from the ride as you struggle to keep up.  So how did I learn to love the bike?  By appreciating the scenery and all the hidden gems I discover in “my own backyard” ie the area I grew up in and have lived in, on and off, for over 30 years.

Just today I found this zero-traffic, beautifully paved little side road in Palo Alto that avoids a big busy hill

Rolling through Arastradero Preserve outside Palo Alto

In the redwoods of Portola Valley

Seriously, how can you beat this?

Now, my biking has come a long way and I’ve learned other things to love – the thrill of going fast, the moments of keeping up with, and occasionally wearing down, the guys, the trust that my legs will deliver when I ask even though they are tired. 

But I’ll always appreciate the view along the way.