So far behind it is just sad...

Ok, Ok, so it is nice to know people actually read this thing. But it seems to be only when I have been slacking on my posts! So where were we, oh yes a long time ago in a land far away… no wait that is a different story. Since I am so far behind, I will mostly keep it short and sweet. Will work backwards since the last few days are the freshest in my mind.

Mon 7/24 – Rode 15 min on stationary bike, then did 45 min weight circuit (oh yeah it’s time to taper!!!)

Sun 7/23 – Started early to beat the heat and get the workouts over so had time for a fun day. Swam the perimeter in AP then Renee and I did our run before it got too hot. Then it was off to Monterey to meet up with Melissa. We figured it had been about 2 years since we had seen each other. We had such a good time. I need to plan a trip up to see them again soon (the kids are so cute). It was even worth braving the traffic there and back (don’t know why, but it was terrible, more than 4 hours to get home). Oh did I mention only 1 week until race day (please, oh please cool down)!

Swim – 0.8 miles
Run – 6.47 miles

Sat 7/22 – Joined TNT for a Captains ride in Nicasio. Let me just start by saying at 8:30 it was already 90+ outside. This was one hot ride. We are supposed to be tapering so we were just to do 2 hr ride and a 20 min transition run. Unfortunately Renee and I took a wrong turn and took Kara’s mentee Carson with us for a 10+ mile detour (so sorry again)! It was so hot I drank 4 full bottles, took 6 Enduralite pills, and still downed 48 oz of Gatoraide on the way home. Given our longer ride, we decided not to run (smart!!!). Had to take a nap to make it out to the movies (The Devil Wears Prada) with the girls. Still headed home at 9:30 because I was totally beat.

Bike – 45 miles (was supposed to be 32), Max HR 198 (at my max, the heat really affected me)

Fri 7/21 – Swim in AP, perimeter and a buoy lap, another lovely day on the bay! Seriously, it was really nice out and the water is calmer in the morning. I actually enjoyed it. Then I went to my eye appointment to see if I am a candidate for laser surgery, and I am. I am scheduled to get my eyes “fixed” the end of Sept (no more glasses or contacts, woo hoo)! That evening Tony and I headed to the Fillmore for Paul Ogenfold. Wonderful evening filled with great music and dancing, out a bit too late though for my early morning. Oh well, no regrets (except that illegal left turn I might have suggested to Tony, but that is another story).

Thurs 7/20 – morning run in Sonoma at the Medical affairs offsite. At 6:30am was already over 80! Ran 3.34 miles.

Wed 7/19 - morning swim at the pool in the Mission, 1800 meters

Tues 7/18 – morning run to free my evening for girls night in! We had such a great time eating homemade macaroni and cheese, drinking wine, and playing the “girls night” game. This included such questions as “if you had to gain 10 pounds what would you eat”, “does size really matter”, and “what is the worst gift you have ever received from a significant other”. It was a great time!!!!!!

Mon 7/17 – training day off We had our marketing offsite which included dinner. We had such a great time, the conversation was entertaining to say the least. Only sad note was that it was Brenda’s last meeting with us before she left to go back to Abbott.

Sun 7/16 – Aquatic park swim, a little cold in my sleeveless, but a good swim!


Sat 7/15 – Joined the TNT captains ride out at Point Reyes. I love that ride. It was a beautiful sunny day, with just enough fog clinging to the hills to keep it a little cool. It was nice to see some of my old teammates again and meet some of the new folks. It is great to see the excitement and a bit of fear in the first timers, it brings back memories! So we headed out on a nice relaxing ride, then we were to do an hour run. As usual I ended up alone with Mr iPod because Renee wasn’t feeling well. But that’s Ok, it was fine. Then we had a great bike maintenance clinic with Teryk. I also left him my bike to tune up and clean (it has never looked better)

Bike – 45 miles, 2hr 55 min, 15.4 MPH, Avg HR 178, Elevation climb 2532 ft
Run – 6.4 miles, 1hr, 9:22 min/mile, Avg HR 179, Elevation climb 2319 ft

Fri 7/14 – Swim morning (2000 meters), run after work, 6.1 miles in my neighborhood.

Thurs 7/13 – Usual spin class and weights

Wed 7/12 – Morning swim (about a mile), since I had a farewell get together for Cathy who left Chiron to travel for a year (lucky girl)

Tues 7/11 – Ran for 3.5 miles on the treadmill, couldn’t sleep anyway so might as well train!!!
Mon 7/10 – had to fly to Pennsylvania, got stuck in Chicago airport for 6 hours. Ended up being my day off.

This weekend's "fun"

Well I definitely feel like my life revolves around my training. But it is just 3 more weeks to race day, and I am sure during that race I am going to be very glad I have been working so hard. It will be great to see all my work pay off when I finish, hopefully with a smile on my face! It has been another weekend of great workouts! I got the chance to test my will and play with my new toys some more!

Sat: Today brings us to a big 3 sport day. We start out at 8:30am at Aquatic Park for a little swim. I have brought out my sleeveless wetsuit as it needs the practice, but I have to say the water is mighty cold when we first get in. This morning the weather is beautiful, nice and warm. Doesn't seem to pass on to the water, but makes it a bit easier to brave the chilly waves. We set out to swim the perimeter (my first time) and since we are supposed to do more than 1 mile, we add another bouy loop at the end for about 1.3 miles. We took a little break at the mouth of the opening of the park to see Alcatraz loom in the distance. And we could see the GG bridge as well, it was so clear this morning. Amazing!!! Once out of the water we dry off and head down the road just a bit to Sports Basement where we will transition to the bike and later the run. We took our time a bit getting ready for the bike, making sure we had all of our gear ready to go. I forgot my heart rate monitor, but at least I remembered my cool new watch! So off we embarked on our journey over to Marin. We headed out across the GG bridge, did Paradise Loop to get some more distance and a few hills, then we rode up to Fairfax. It was a nice leasurely ride (well compared to some of our rides). 3 hrs 10 min later I did a quick transition, just changing my shoes and putting up my bike, then off on the run. It was supposed to be 30 min, but everyone abondanded me and my perfect plan to hit 30 min when I got back to the parking lot failed, but I came very close. Thanks to my new watch I have a million stats for my workout (well the bike and run).

Bike - 38 miles, 3:10, 12 mph, 3894 calories burned
Run - 3.45 miles, 28 min 53 sec, 8:22/mi, 501 calories burned

Then it was out for the evening to help Sami celebrate her 30th birthday. Good fun!!!!

Sun: Got to sleep in, then watched the World Cup and was preparing to run when the phone rang. Christine was supposed to run with me today, but she forgot she had other plans, so it was just me and Mr iPod again. He helped pass the 2 hours, a bit more quickly. Still seemed like an awfully long time. I ran through GG park and then down Ocean Beach along Great Hwy, it was foggy and cool, good running weather. Nothing very exciting to report, though my Garmin gave me some more wonderful data to report (this time I remembered my heart rate monitor. And given the number of calories I burned over the last 2 days, I treated myself to a bowl of icecream. Yummy!!!!

Run - 13.2 miles, 2:00:37, 9:08/mi, 2772 calories, Avg HR 168

New toys

I have been working so hard in my training (and everything else in life it seems), I decided I deserve some new toys. So Mon was a big day for this (and I spent the rest of the week playing with them!

Mon:
Went to Zoom, the very cool multi-sport store and got aero bars installed on my bike. I wish I had taken a picture now, she looks so fast, even just standing still! After the long ride in Sonoma, I decided it was time. These should make the flat sections and rolling hills more comfortable, not to mention fast as I become so aerodynamic! They also adjusted my seat some, raised it up so I can get more power out of my legs.

As with any good child, the first thing you want to do with a new toy is play with it! So immediately after getting my aero bars I met up with Kara for a bike ride. On the agenda today was 1:15-1:30 with 6x2 min hard intervals. So we went back to the Presidio for some hill repeats. The one there takes us about 2 1/2 minutes to climb, then the rest of the loop takes about 8 min. So we did the loop 6 times, after a nice warm up along the marina (where I practiced on my aero bars). We did some more flats after to get up to our required time and give me more practice. I love my new aero bars, so comfy!!!!

Tues:
The other new toy I got was the Garmin GPS watch with heart rate monitor. To call this a watch, really isn't giving it enough credit. It is amazing! I took it out to play on my run on tues. I went down to Golden Gate Park to give myself a rest from all the hills in my neighborhood (also it was a lovely day, great for running through the park). I was supposed to do 50 min, so I set off with my timer going. As I ran my new "watch" monitored my heartrate, distance, and pace. It was so cool. I ended up doing 6.12 miles in 57 min. When I got back home and plugged it into my computer, it transferred all the data. Now I have a map of my course, my heartrate map for the whole thing, avg pace, fastest and slowest pace, so much data! I was in heaven. This will be a great way to keep track of all my training (well whenever I wear my watch).

Wed:
Well deserved rest day!

Thurs:
One hour spin class followed by 45 min circuit weight training.

Fri:
I am off to Aquatic Park today for a swim (I am behind one swim this week). I will try out my final new toy, a sleeveless wetsuit! The warm waters in the Russian River inspired me to check out the sleeveless wetsuits and Sports Basement had them on clearance. I took it as a sign that it was time to get one. I hope it is not too cold in the Bay today! Wish me luck!!!

The Da'Vine Gals after our ride! 

A week in review and "Experiencing Vineman"

So let's see, where were we? Oh yes, Mon (last Mon, I know, I know, always behind on this thing).

Mon: Today we are to ride 1:15-1:30 with one 10 min hard interval. So we figure the headlands would be a good ride. We meet at Sports Basement on a particularly foggy evening but don't think much of it. Then as we are heading towards the bridge it gets worse and worse. We start crossing the bridge and the fog is so thick that my glasses we covered in drops, you could feel it in the air, it almost felt like it was raining. You could only see 10-15 feet in front of you. Then the wind started to blow, very hard. At one of the post out dents on the bridge I was literally blown over (luckily I got my foot out and caught myself). The weather did not improve as we got to the other side. We decided tonight it did not seem like a good idea to risk the windy, dark roads of the headlands, visibility was just too poor. So for safety sake we headed back to the SF side. We spent the next hour chasing the clearer parts of the Presidio and found a good hill (Arguello) to do repeats on. We definitely need to find more ride routes!

Tues: I joined up with the SF Tri club group at Kezar for track practice. The group was nice and the coach was very knowledgeable, I think I will try to join them each week before the race. Tonight's workout was mile repeats, 4 of them with just 90 secs jog in between. Of course the goal was to watch your pacing and try to stay as consistent as possible. We started with a 1 1/2 mile warm up then split into pace groups. I went with the group called "Jaguars" which was 8-8:30 mile pace. The "group" was just myself and a guy named Rene. So off we went on our mile repeats. We did a great job staying consistent. Mile 1 = 8:13 Mile 2 = 8:13 Mile 3 = 8:15 (then Rene left me to cool down and call his wife, so I did the last mile on my own) Mile 4 = 8:09 Then we did a mile cool down and I got some form advice from the coach, I need to keep my shoulders back, I slouch a bit. He sounds like my Mom!! But a great workout!

Wed: Training day off! Tony and I went to see Teddy Geiger at the Fillmore. The show was a lot of fun. A few too many screaming teenage girls, but Teddy rocked and we really enjoyed it!

Thurs: Took the spin class again and then did my weight circuit. Felt a little better this time, not so sore the next day. I know I have said this before, but I need to keep up on my weights!

Fri: Went swimming in the morning. First time since the "eye incident". I tried to work on some drills and stroke technique for 15 min. Then I just swam without stopping for 30 min. I can't count my laps that long it bores me. But I felt pretty good, I was glad I went. I didn't want my pracitice swim at Vineman to be my first time back in the water.

Sat: Today we met at 7:00am, piled all our stuff in the car, and headed up to Guerneville (near Santa Rosa) for day one of "Experiencing Vineman". The race director sent out info on free sessions to review the swim course, so that was stop one. We made our way to Johnson's Beach in Guerneville. It is a lovely spot with the Russian River, an area that has been dammed so there was very little current. At 10:00am we met up with Brad, one of the race announcers, a retired Pro triathlete and great guy. He lead us all in the water, explained what the course would be like on race day (location of buoys and kayaks) and set us on our way. We stopped about half way to the turn around for some more course advice and some stroke advice too. Then we gathered once more at the turn around spot for Brad's final piece of wisdom. I kept forgetting to start and stop my watch, so I don't know how long that half of the swim took. But on the way back we went straight, no stopping and it took me 20 min 20 sec. The way back is supposed to be a bit faster given the residual current, so I am hopeful I can do the 1.2 mile course in about 45 min. The whole thing was great, the water is nice, not too cold, and the river is not that deep. If you need to stop to fix your goggles or something, in most places you can stand up (well most people can, I couldn't stand when we stopped). We hadn't planned on a quick transition so we still had to unlock bikes and get them off the cars, check tires, pack our nutrition and fliuds, etc. We were almost ready to go when my tire went flat. Guess I was luck it happened there and not out on the course. But it took me a while to get it changed, the stem was kind of short so I had a hard time getting it pumped up. After much ado, we finally got going. We lucked out once again in that a nice man named John who was in our swim clinic and going to do the ride too, offered to be our guide. This will be his 3rd Vineman and he lives in the area so he knew the course very well. Off we went!!! Now John was much faster than all of us, even Bruce. So when we would get to tricky turn or spot he would stop and wait, we would gather up again, and then take off. Due to the rain and flooding this year, they had to change the end of the course. So instead of 56 miles, it is 57.5 miles. The furthest I had ridden before Sat was 50 miles. So I was excited and a little nervous about the whole ride. All in all I really enjoyed it. The course is beautiful as it winds through the vineyards of Sonoma County. We made one pit stop to get more water and go to the restroom. I felt like I didn't hydrate enough even though I drank 2 1/2 bottles and 1 70 oz camelpack on the ride. It was quite warm though. Luckily on race day there will be aid stations where we can trade empty bottles for full ones. I also didn't eat enough so this ride was a great learning experience for me. But finally 4 1/2 hours later we rolled into Windsor High School and the end of the ride. My shoulders and hands hurt the most, the rest of me was just exhausted. The thought of running now seems almost impossible. Luckily that wasn’t on the schedule for today. Instead we made our way back to the beach, then loaded the car to drive home, stopping at In and Out for a much deserved cheeseburger and fries!

Sun: Back up to Sonoma to tackle the 13.1 mile run of Vineman. Kara and I took off about 11:30 along the course. We started off a bit easy, testing out our legs after yesterday’s hard efforts. After about 30 min Kara’s IT band started hurting again so she decided to turn around. She was worried this may happen so I came prepared with my iPod to accompany me if she had to abandon me. So for the next 10 miles it was just me and my tunes running across the countryside by farms, vineyards, and houses. It is a nice course, rolling hills, but not too much shade. I had finished my whole camelpack by the end. After Kara turned around I started getting into my rhythm a bit and picked up the pace. I ended up finishing the course in 1:53 and feeling much more confident that I could finish this race! Glad I have tomorrow off from work so I can sleep in after all this exercising!