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 :)

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!

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!

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!

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!

9 and a Half Weeks

Well, my off-season break was *supposed* to last 9.5 weeks and end on November 1st with getting back to training.  But someone's coach was impatient - or perhaps had some idea of all the shenanigans I was up to - and I've got a schedule starting tomorrow.  Kicking off 2013 with a bang...er, rest day.

At least I fit in the last of my stupidity this weekend so now I can get back to normal.

I spent most of yesterday in a daze from the side effects of my Tdap vaccination on Friday - not fun stuff.  The dogs still had needs though, so they got a nice hike on the trails before I went to bed for the rest of the afternoon.

Today I dragged myself out of bed after 9+ hours of sleep and went down to Morgan Hill to do a little 5k I'd signed up for, since my friends were doing the marathon and half-marathon.  I haven't exactly been running a lot since IMC.  I don't think I've done more than 10 miles in a week since then.  But oh well let's just go out and run this thing for fun.  There were a ton of kids at the start line so I went out a bit hard just to try to drop most of them.  I ended up running in no mans land on my own but for one kid for most of the surprisingly hilly race - I'd get passed by a 10-year-old boy as he sprinted by and then pass him when he slowed down, back and forth for 3 miles.  In the end, I outsprinted him to the finish, something I'm proud of since those little bastards can't pace for shit but usually they can out kick you.  My run was a couple minutes off my PR - though the course also measured a bit long - but I haven't been doing speedwork so I expected exactly the time I ended up with.  On the upside, I was 2nd in my AG and 3rd overall woman!

If that weren't enough, I went home and Jeff wanted to go ride Mt Hamilton again.  So I did.  We parked at the bottom and rode to the top, then back down.  In the fastest time I've ever done it (like over half an hour faster than in April). We even gained some bonus mileage when the road was closed for an accident ONE FREAKING MILE from the base of the mountain so we had to go up and over on a side road to get back to our car (I was not in the mood for more uphill at that point).  But it was fun to get in one last long ride before I settle down to proper work for the winter.  Not exactly advised or smart (mea culpa) but my first chance to spend quality time with my husband all week too.

It was so clear (and warm and sunny) today that you could see all the way to downtown San Francisco and beyond that Mount Tam (the tallest dark shape just right of center).

It's a twisty turny road of switchbacks to get to Lick Observatory at the top.

I feel like I should emphasize that other than ~2 stupid long bike rides, I've basically been super low volume for all of these 9 weeks.  And I've tried other stuff, had some fun, slept in a lot...and did not live and breath triathlon.  So with that...time to get back at it!

Shenanigans

Knowing that I'd be racing short distances this year and not doing any long LONG rides, I wanted to get in one more good climbing bike before the weather turned cold and wet and formal training started again.  I just barely made it under the wire on Sunday with a ride up Mt Hamilton and down the back side to Livermore - it started raining right as we drove away from the finish.  On the positive side, I was reunited with Kristi and got to do my beloved Hamilton climb again.  On the negative side, we were all really done at the 40-mile mark and still had to get the rest of the way back to the cars we'd left in Livermore, through all the heavy wind coming in with the storm.

Climbing above the valley floor

Refill stop at Grant Park

Heading up again and looking out over Grant Park

I LOVE climbing this mountain.  LOVE. IT.  It's such fun and really not *too* hard and it makes me happy.

Still climbing, the views keep getting better!

You can't tell in this photo but you could see all the way up the Peninsula at this point. If not for the clouds we would have been able to see San Francisco.

Lick Observatory.  So close and yet still ~5 miles of riding away.

A look down at some of the switchbacks we'd ridden up

At the top of Mount Hamilton!

Climbing a small hill after descending the steep backside of Hamilton (the scariest 5 miles I've ever done on my bike)

The back side of Mount Hamilton is beautiful and surprisingly forest-y but desolate.  There is NOTHING back there but for one small bar in the middle of the 50 miles between the top of the mountain and civilization, so you are really on your own out there.

At one point we looked ahead and saw something large sprint across the road.  He wouldn't hold still when I stopped to take his picture but it was a VERY well-fed coyote!

View of the backside of the mountain we had climbed over, from the Junction (bar)

Climbing out from the Junction entails a few long hills!

The last 30 miles were WINDY and cold.  If we had any choice that allowed us to stop sooner, we'd all have taken it.  In the end I think we were all wishing we'd aimed for a shorter day but it was good to get this one finished.  Now - for reals - bring on the SHORT stuff!