Amazing end to peak week

This week has been a week of contemplation. I really want to do a HIM next year. Early in the week, I had convinced myself that any thing less, would mean I'm a failure. I struggled to get in the time needed for an Olympic. How would I do trying to train for a HIM?  The nail in the coffin was when I asked Grumpy if he'd support me doing a HIM and he answered "No". I also looked at my times, and frankly, I don't want to do a 7 hour HIM. 

I was pretty bummed about that and very confused as to what I should plan for next year. I just bought the book Your Best Triathlon by Joe Friel. Since I'm at the end of the season, I jumped ahead and in the last chapter I read:

"Am I Racing the Right Distance?  ... Or perhaps you are racing Olympic distances even though your speed is not great and your endurance is. If this description fits you, maybe you should move up to the half-Ironman distance."

Some how, everything fell into place. No, I won't be doing a HIM in 2012. But now I am actually planning it for in 2013 - as in, I'm doing it. Not afraid to plan it. Confident to plan it. In the mean time, I've got plans for 2012 and a lot of work to do.

Saturday, I did the Jan Lipson Ride For Diabetes which my friend Molly put on. This is a small event that benefits the Diabetes Technology Society. I went into the ride with a new attitude and my goal was to ride those 30 miles as fast and hard as I could. My plan was to leave nothing in reserve.

With in the first 3 miles, I picked up my first drafter and had lost Grumpy. No problem, I'm having a blast. Once I made it over the steep hill and started the rolling hills, I started getting glimpses of Grumpy in the distance. That meant the fast guys had dropped him and my mission was to catch him! It took a few miles and some really hard peddling, but I did catch him. At this point, we picked up 2 more drafters and I was ready to draft off of Grumpy. About the time we reached Old Almaden, Grumpy was spent. So, I pulled again. Some how, I dropped Grumpy going up those little inclines. We reached the turn around point. I waited for Grumpy and the drafters used the trees. The way back was peddle as fast as possible. At the end, Grumpy pulled ahead just so he could said he won -- really???   
30 miles 2:02 not bad for the head wind, hill, wait, and stop lights. Stoked!

This morning, I met up with a group of PinkLadies that are doing the San Jose Rock & Roll Half Marathon. They had 10 miles to run and I had 9. We met at Los Gatos Creek trail for an out and back. There's NO WAY I was going to keep up with them. My goal was to do my run as close to my Big Sur Half Marathon pace as I could -- and honestly, I didn't want them to get back too much before me. Going south, the trail is a slight incline. I worked HARD to keep my pace up. Going north, the trail is a slight decline -- woohoo!
9 miles 1:42:11 AND I BEAT THEM BACK WITH TIME TO SPARE!!  Stoked!

Next week is the Mermaids Mighty Triathlon - I'm ready!

Palo Alto Moonlight 10K & Pacific Grove Sprint Race Reports

No. I'm not an over achiever. No. I'm not crazy. Yes. I did do 2 races on the same weekend. No. I don't have pictures, but it DID happen because there are on-line records!

The Plan: 

1. To spice things up, do the Palo Alto Moonlight 10K on Friday night as my "long" run for the week (i.e., run it very slowly). 
2. Do the Pacific Grove Sprint Triathlon as an all out brick (Note that the swim is 1/4 mile and the run is 2 miles)

Palo Alto Moonlight 10K

The weather reports said chance of lighting in the east bay and in the Sierras. It said nothing about all of the bay area. Grumpy did the 5k walk and then it was my turn to do the run. It was pretty crowded so I stayed toward the back since I was going to run slowly.

The first 2 miles went as planned and there were lots of people around. As soon as we were committed to running the levees, the lightening started and the crowd thinned. The ground was surprisingly secure. I had plenty of light between my headlamp and my little flashlight. So, I was off. At some point out around mile 4, I found my rhythm - that point when your form is correct so you're not expending as much energy. Unfortunately, I don't have the leg to keep that -- but I felt it FINALLY!

It was around the 4.5 mile mark when the rain started. I LOVE running in the rain, but lighting when I'm the tallest thing out on the levee wasn't too appealing. Once back on to the asphalt, the course goes to a stupid little out and back to make the mileage. As I got to the turnaround, this most amazing gust of wind hit me. I was almost at the turnaround so hoped to use it as a tail wind as I turned. Unfortunately, it died as soon as I needed it.

I finished the run at 1:10:36 Garmin said 6.37 miles which wasn't bad for starting really slowly and having to wade through the crowd. But had I done too much? Quick - Protein, E21, Ice Bath. Compression Tights. Bed.

Pacific Grove Sprint Triathlon
Amended Plan - Survive the swim. Bike like hell. Do what you can on the run.

Although I got to bed by 9:30pm, something had me up every 2 hours - Shelby wanted something. I had to pee. Grumpy came home and the grrls had to let me know...  on and on. Finally, 3:45am arrived, things were loaded into the car, and we took off for Pacific Grove (roughly 1 1/2 hour drive). After a little back and forth, we found a great place to park and began unloading my stuff. 


I had Grumpy pump my tires because the last time I did it, I tore the stem off. No sooner had he put the pump on and the air fizzed out that he realized that the pump was broken. CRAP! By the light of the Pilot's hatch and my cell phone, he actually fixed it! I got to transition by 6:20. We had assigned spots. I got set-up, got my body markings, and made a note of where the various ins/outs of transition were before heading down to the water. 


OH MY GOD that water was cold. It was colder than Santa Cruz last month. I made sure to get my face in the water and get over the shock. The swim was only 1/4 mile and you had to crawl over kelp. Turns out all my fretting about the kelp was over nothing. What I should have been concerned about was that people would bunch together to stay in the channels that the previous waves had made. This was the most physical swim I've had yet. I got kicked twice and twacked on my goggles once -- none hard and none hurt. Just enough for me to get out of there.

Swim: 11:22 - I survived


I tottered out of the water and started up to stairs to transition. By the time I reached my bike rack (which was the farthest away from swim entry), I had my legs back. Quick change... oops put my helmet on backwards but fixed it before I left transition. 


T1: 3:53

The bike course was 2 loops of 3 miles out and back along the coast. This is where the lack of recent riding hurt. I concentrated on pumping, pumping, pumping (and not drafting) but I wasn't getting much. This course had a short hill that I lost a lot of speed on, but I made sure that I pumped hard on the way back down to regain what I lost. As I came in to make the turn for my second loop, I made sure to get to the left early -- but no too early. Seemed like there were a lot of people that didn't do their second loop because on this time there wasn't any one out there for a long time. I caught some one at the turn around point and she promptly fell in front of me... YIKES! UNCLIP UNCLIP UNCLIP.  I DID IT!!!! So, off I went back to transition -- making sure to dismount BEFORE the dismount line.

Bike: 46:56 (if you believe their mileage is 15.80 if you believe Garmin 310XT mileage, it is 16.29)

So, off to the other side of transition to change and then back to the other side for the run out.

T2: 3:12 (pretty impressive considering where my spot was!)

The run course was 2 loops 1/2 mile along a trail that follows the coast and then cuts back on Ocean View to Lover's Point. It started off as painful as usual. I thought that it was because my legs were still sore from Friday night's race. My calves were SKA-REEMIN' but I ignored them. I glanced at my Garmin to see my pace was 13.89 -- shit, this is going to be a long 2 miles! I made it around the first loop and I noticed my legs weren't hurting any more. I started to push harder and glanced at my Garmin -- huh? 14.56???? Whatever, it doesn't hurt so just go. At the final turn, I looked at the Garmin again --WTF?! 14.89!!! Then it hit me. That wasn't pace -- it was the total mileage for the WHOLE race! I had no clue how fast I was going!

Run: 21:11

No PRs this weekend. In all, not bad for a training run and a brick. I know the lack of riding mileage in August and early September has hurt me. I hope I can get some of that back for Mermaids.

P.S. Grumpy ran his first ever race - 5k for a whopping 26:04! So proud of him. Imagine what he could do if he trained.

August Numbers

So, August (and my vacation) is over and the numbers are pretty sad.

 

 Why?

• Exhausted from previous workouts.
• Bike fit instead of bike ride.
• Didn't feel like doing workout after spending day at dog show.
• Normal pool closed and a little intimidated at starting the new pool.
• No life guards at the pool = no swim allowed.
• Blew off work out to celebrate anniversary.
• Bike shop took my spear so couldn't do the trainer workout.
• Stuck at work.
• Other priorities came up.
• Work totally stressed me out. Pushing to do a workout was out of the question.
• Hotel swimming pool was useless.
• Area to run in was not very safe so cut run short.
• Hey! I'm on vacation... I don't have to do anything I don't want to do.

There's a lot there of just losing the motivation. I've been pretty good since I started in January, so I won't beat myself up. Just listing the reasons/excuses to work on better scheduling so I have less of them.

Vacation Maddness: Part II

Flying out to Nebraska at the end of August really seemed like a mad idea at the time. I mean, who goes to Nebraska at the height of heat and humidity?

First stop not even out of Omaha: some restaurant that Grumpy saw on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives - enough said.

Next stop: Lincoln and a beer with the Girl Child and her friends in the Hay Market. - Nice.

University of Nebraska - Lincoln Memorial Stadium

Lincoln is know for its many running trails -- of which I couldn't find any. Instead, I ran around the University. I'd see one runner after another and latch on for as long as I could see them. I was reminded of drafting while swimming ... just not that close. Beautiful campus.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that the first race that I fly to ends up being Grumpy's race!

5th Annual Ultra Mud Run

Grumpy, Girl Child, Candidate

Grumpy did the 5k which was took him by corn fields and into 2 mud pits. He was upset with the spectator that told him there was beer a mile up -- there was NO beer on this run!




 



A little clean up and we were off for a brief viewing of the ZombieFest, hitting as many breweries as Grumpy could handle (never came close to challenging him).

Favorite Eats: Pepperoni Rolls and very potent Strawberry Margarita (only took 1).
Training: Very little, but lot's of eating. Lost 3lbs.... probably lost muscle.


One more vacation day left. I've got a bit of my mojo back so, it's back to masters in the morning. Hope it's a big volume day since my numbers for this month are beyond pitiful.

Vacation Maddness: Part 1

It took a couple days to decompress from the last few weeks of stress filled work days. I've made some decisions and changes are forth coming. This means reduced goals for the future, but hopefully life will be more balanced. Of course, I have no motivation to do any training. I think I'm going to just recharge for now. Too many things going on.

In the mean time, vacation started with the arduous trip 330 miles north to the very cool Eureka California for the 3 day HumDog CPE trial. We left Thursday so that the girls would be well rested for the start of the trial Friday afternoon. Almost the moment we got to Eureka, I broke the arm off of my glasses. Friday games went well despite spending the morning at the beach. Both Tazzy and Shelby qualified in their runs beautifully.

Samoa Dunes Recreational Area

Saturday started with loud music from the Extreme Games across the street at the Fairgrounds. It never let up all day.  Regardless, Grumpy and Tazzy had many beautiful runs and looked like a well oiled team.

Tazzy

Shelby and I struggled to come together as a team until the last run Sunday. She had fallen asleep with her ear in the water bowl. She needed some heavy duty waking up. I spent 20 minutes making her bark, close range ball chasing, and quick little tricks to get her pumped up. It worked! Last run of a 3 day trial was full of energy and togetherness -- from BOTH of us. But really... 20 minutes of fluffing???

Before leaving Eureka, we headed back to Samoa Dunes to wear out the grrls. First part of vacation is done. 

Race Report: Santa Cruz Sprint Triathlon

This was an extremely stressful week. You know the kind of week that you find yourself sighing just to relieve the pressure. 3 major deliverables due by Friday one of which was my annual self evaluation.  By Friday night, the idea of getting up at the butt crack of dawn to jump in the freezing, bacteria laden Pacific ocean was not appealing. I signed up for this race to get me used to swim in same said water so I was going. Since this was a sprint, the race plan was simple - balls all out.

The morning was 61F degrees and a bit foggy... well, foggy enough that they reduced the swim distance from 750 meters down to 650 meters.

They started the briefing with a saxophone version of The Star Spangled Banner. First wave to take off was the handful of Pros. The next wave was the Semper Fi group consisting of wounded warriors. My eyes were already running, but when the guys ran out and picked up the wheeled chair bound racer who was having trouble getting past the breaking waves ... I still tear up.

Since I was the last wave, I waited to do my "warm-up" swim until the young men were getting ready. Water temperature was said to be 56F degrees... it was enough to make my face hurt. Well, maybe I'd swim with my face out of the water. I popped a handful of stingers to get me ready for the swim.

see the break in the pack -- and the waves got MUCH bigger

When it was my wave's turn to line up, they announced that staying left would take the most advantage of the current. So, every one scooted left. Since this was women 39+, I moved to the left and middle.

3-2-1-GO! Every one surged forward. The first group made it out no problem. Suddenly, the women right ahead of me STOPPED??? The woman directly ahead of me moved left and then I saw it -- too late to do anything -BAM a larger than previous wave took down a dozen of us. I righted myself and body surfed until I could get my legs under me. I stood up, turned, took a step, and then BAM another larger than previous wave taking me down again. I was PISSED. I got to my feet quickly this time muttering G'damn it, turned, and dove into the next on-coming wave. I was finally off. Grumpy said that was it for a couple of the women. He said it knocked the wind out of them. I was lucky.

Some how, the water didn't seem as cold during the race. I kept pushing and felt like I was working as hard as a few weeks ago in the Splash and Dash. I passed a lot of people. I tried to stay on feet when I found them and dropped them quickly when they went off course. My sighting was spot on again. When I got to shore, I swam until my fingers touched bottom and then popped up. A quick glance back to make sure I wasn't going to get pummeled and then I got out of there as fast as I could. Rinsed my feet, donned sandals, and trotted the 1/4 mile+ to transition trying to get my heart rate under control. Sure wish I hit the lap on the Garmin before leaving the beach. I'm not sure what portion of my time is the swim and what portion is the run to T1.

Swim: 18:18.4 (not sure what to make of this time)
T1: 2:27.6

Every one warned about the "hill" as soon as you mounted the bike. As I turned the corner and started up, it was nothing. Ate a gel immediately. Realized that my Garmin wasn't set up correctly so my display was for the Run NOT for the ride. Other than this "hill", it was 2 loops of  a very flat course. I had trouble concentrating on keeping my speed up because it was so flat. Knees in. Don't point your toes. Oops, don't draft. Drink. Drink. Drink. And then it was down the hill and into transition.

Bike: 43:36.2 PR
T2: 1:41.1

Now it was time to see what my legs could do on a 5K. I started off hoping to reset the Garmin while I was running. Nope. .1 into the run, I stopped for a minute to fix it since I wanted to run faster than usual. NOW I was off and running. My stomach made sloshing sounds at which point, I decided not to eat the final gel. I kept watching the Garmin 6.4, 5.6, 6.... and on it went. I walked 30 steps through the aide station while drinking my GU Brew and then it was back to running. Finally, I made the turn down the hill to final run in. (I love that hill.) I was doing 7+ when I heard "GO MARY!". I turned to see Molly. At the bottom of the hill, I kept up the pace -- I couldn't let her see me give in. As I ran up the little walk way, I was disappointed to see I had to run all around the freakin' parking lot to get to the finish line. I was committed to that pace.

Run: 33:11.4 PR
Total: 1:39:14 4th AG out of 8 

I really had a lot of fun in this race. I hope that running Olympic distance will become this much fun.

Things I did right:

• Lined up to the left of the pack.
• Had a pair of sandals for the run to transition. I have feet issues and just being barefoot in the sand that long made them sore.
• Stop to fix the Garmin. This was a C level race. It was important that I get a good run in.
• I did a good job on sighting during the swim.
• I kept the speed up during the run. When I felt like I couldn't go any more, I let myself slow down a little to catch my breath and then back up to speed. Never dropped below 5.3.

Things I did wrong:

• Eating a stinger right before the swim. I don't think the cold water allowed me to digest it. Need to stick with liquids.
• I should not have lined up so far back that I could not see the wave pattern. 
• I should not have set my Garmin up the morning of the race. However, saying this, I could just have easily set it up incorrectly the night before.
• Did not drink the morning of the race. By the time I got to the beach, I was thirsty. I lucked out that this was just a sprint. I would have had issues if this was an Olympic.
• Didn't stock up on quarters for parking.
• Not hitting the Lap button on the Garmin before leaving the beach. I'm not sure if my huge time is due to slow swimming or the trotting up to transition (and right then, all I could do was trot)
• Not taking a huff in T2 (or better yet on the end of the ride). If I'm going to run in the wheeze zone, I need to take precautions.

Hard Decisions: I need a Time Turner Watch

Sorry if this is a little boring. I'm trying to organize my priorities and have a bit of a history of what I was thinking during the process.

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Obedience 

Each year, I set myself several goals. I try to make them feed into some longer range over arching goal. This year's goals have solid plans behind them. All I have to do is execute the plans and stay injury free.
 
One of my goals for this year was to get Shelby into the obedience ring. Today she got her Beginning Novice title at the Monterey Bay Dog Training Club's Obedience Trial in Watsonville.

But now that we've gotten this, what's next -- get her CD? And, what do we need in order to accomplish that? That will take more than 1 hour per week -- perhaps 3 hours per week and several days at trial. TIME!

Hall's Canine Shelby Cobra RE, BN, CL3,

 CL4-H, CL4-S, PDI, PSII

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Agility

My goal for Agility this year, was to get Shelby into the AKC ring and to get her out of level 4 in CPE. AKC was so successful, we're 1 JWW and 1 Standard shy of the Novice title. The end of October we may exceed our goal for AKC Agility. In Cpe, Shelby needs 1 level 4 Standard but, she has 4 more opportunities this year.

So what's next -- get her C-ATCH? That will take many many days at trial next year. A lot more opportunties than she had this year. TIME!

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Triathlon
My goal for this year was to just do it better and I think getting a few placements means I've met this goal.

1st AG Stanford Treeathon Duathlon
1st AG Finish Line Productions Dip and Dash
A bunch of other things that I was far from placements, but I wasn't last.

So what's next -- do a Half-Ironman? Here's where I'm choking. According to Joe Friel's Triathlon Bible, the annual hours per race distance is:

• Sprint - 300-500
• Olympic - 400-500
• Half-Ironman- 500-700

My projected annual hours for this year is 350 hours. I'd need to put in almost double what I'm doing now. TIME!

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Any one of these by themselves is possible. All of them take more time than I've been devoting this year.  It's time for some hard decisions.