Today I went on a ‘group’ ride.  Only problem is that I haven’t been riding and I got dropped on a hill and then I just stopped to get some air in my body and I lost the group.  Undaunted I carried on and spent some time riding in circles but not before I found another woman from the group who had made the same mistake.  Together we ended up having a lovely ride.  It went like this (if you click on the pics they get bigger and you can see my typos)  And I apologize for the crappy formatting.  I have no idea.

Here is a shot of the route. Looks innocent enough and yet – what is that dog leg doing there?  Hmm.. let’s explore:

Zooming in a bit we see this:

Digging deeper:

We did not catch them – we didn’t even see them and I have no idea why. We really should have.  Oh wait – maybe it’s because we did this:

To round it all up:

jhkjkjhkjhk

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Giving is a theme in everyone’s lives right now with the horrifying disaster in Haiti.  It’s not a great time to be raising money for health related causes and yet, these diseases continue to plague us regardless of whatever else is going on in the world and we must continue to fight back.

I am participating once again in the ALS Spin-a-thon  but instead of just asking for money I’m holding a drawing!  I have some really fun stuff that I will be giving to some lucky donor.  This includes

1)  A Chico Bag from Levi Leipheimer’s Inaugural Gran Fondo (this is a sold out item, people – this is your ONLY chance to get one of these!!)

2). A cycling hat from Eleven Gear featuring the Republic of Anaerobia logo   

3). An Aluminum water bottle from Power Flex

4). A copy of  Bike Monkey Magazine, also from the Gran Fondo 

You can have a chance at this fabulous swag for a $5.00 donation!  YOU COULD BE TOTALLY ECO CHIC FOR 5 BUCKS!  How often do you get an offer like that, eh??

ALS is a nasty, pernicous, almost always fatal disesease that robs a person of his or her life inch by inch, month by month.  It is horrible and random and not all that common and therefore not something drug companies feel compelled to try to cure.  It’s up to us to raise the money and fund the research to help eradicate this awful disease.  That’s worth 5 bucks, don’t you think?

Here is a link to my fund raising page. It explains how the drawing will work.   The donation levels were set by active giving, not by me.  I’m happy with 5 bucks.  And for that you get 5 chances to win this cool stuff and the chance to help wipe out ALS.

Thanks!

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Anyhow – last weekend I did 2 things (in addition to sitting in front of the TV playing on my laptop).  On Saturday I went for a long ride with my new cycling BFFs Sharley and Kelby.    And to my already existing cycling BFFs no worries – I have room for a legion of BFFs in my life, particularly those who attempt to rescue me from Friday nights at home alone as Vali  tried to do last Friday when I turned her  down on going out for  Margaritas.  But I digres….

Our ride took us out to the wilds where the windmills whop, whop, whop their way to lighting our lives only it wasn’t windy and the windmills were still – all of them!  We didn’t pre-plan the route and  extemporaneously decided to ride the infamous Patterson Pass Rd.  I had never done it before but I had heard it was a pretty good climb.  If  I had  had any idea exactly what that meant I would have changed the plan but innocence really is bliss some times.

The climb starts with a ‘false flat’ that is so very false you swear you are going downhill based on what your eyes perceive and yet you are in the granny gear working your ass off and not moving very fast.  It   was bizarre to the point of being mind altering.  The physical experience did not match the visual  – it was sort of like one of those pre-race dreams where you are trying really hard but something surreal keeps getting in your way.

After that it just starts climbing up and up and up and then you get to the the top – only you aren’t.  But there is a flat spot where we stopped for a minute and when I looked up and saw that we had an even steeper climb ahead of us  all I could think of was ‘holy crap balls – that is Dr. Suess land!’ (click here to get to a page of pictures of the real thing)

Dr. Suessian Hills

I stood there, looking up thinking “No can do – I just can’t get up there” and I begged to turn back and I was turned down because back was going to be as hard as forward and I said “I can’t do this” and Sharley thought but didn’t say “and what do you think you’ll do?” and I thought but didn’t say “I’ll be walking my bike up that hill”.

But I did not walk.  I rode.  I pedaled and pedaled and pedaled and I told myself ‘just turn the cranks 10 more times… oh wait – 10 more… okay fine, 10 more” and then I was at the top.  I redlined my heart rate on the way (178)  and I got that creepy, hair standing on end feeling on the top of my head but I did it and life got very, very good at that point.  Mostly because we got to go downhill  but also because of the way I felt.    It was a perfect day.

Dr. Suessville Elevation Chart

Sunday I ran the Nike Women’s Half Marathon.  I ran it like I will run the marathon at Beach 2 Battleship which is to say at a very slow pace.  I practiced that pace 10:30 – 11:00/mile and I came in at 2:29 something which is 11:22/mile but it’s hilly and I forgot to account for that.  It wasn’t  a PR by time (although not a PW, either)  but a year ago if someone had told me I would do a hard, “I can’t do it”, redline ride for 3 and half hours the day before I ran 13.1 really hilly  miles I would have told them ‘no way – no can do’.  I would have  whined and refused to even consider the possibility whereas this year I looked forward to the opportunity to test my legs and  I was comfortable with the test results.

And that is why I am over the top  giddy with excitement for my race.  I can do this.  I can push through and I can pace myself and I will finish and it will be another perfect day.

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I signed up for the full ride – 103 challenging miles through Sonoma County and out to the sea and back.  The race directors were brutally honest about the difficulty of this ride but I figured ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ and I’m training for  an Iron distance race so what the hell – I was all in.

The splendor of this ride is literally indescribable.  It takes you through fields and farms and vineyards, on to the redwood forests, back out to pastures where  the cattle roam free from one side of the road to the other and then out to some of the most magnificent winding ocean side highway in the world.  I’m sure the  stretch of Rt 1 we were on has been used in  more than one car commercial.   The terrain is very tough with hills on Kings Ridge Road that my Garmin measured at 21% grade (I think the official is 18%), cattle guards aplenty and the wind out at the coast was strong enough to blow me sideways. Keeping the rubber side down was a challenge.  

I’d like to say I was 100% triumphant across all 103 of those miles but that isn’t quite how it went.

This ride is the cyclists version of the Myth of Sisyphus.  That’s the one where Sysiphus was condemned by the Gods to push a rock up to the top of a hill but  just when he  got close the rock would roll back to the bottom and he’d have to go back down and start again.  In this case, the ride involved climbing until you  were sure you were ‘at the top’ only to find that shortly after starting your descent you had to head up again.  It happened over and over and over.  You would get through the worst of it only to be greeted with another, less steep but longer climb.   The descents were ferociously steep  and took place in what felt like milliseconds.  The climbs just kept coming.   It was madness but the scenery kept it from being awful.  The scenery was amazing.

The first really ugly climb is on Kings Ridge Road.  It was preceeded by a not insignificant but not terrible climb  that made me think “maybe this ride isn’t such  a big deal after all”.  Then we encountered a sign that said ‘steep climb ahead’.    I knew that the first climb was not notable relative to the real climb and that I was likely in trouble but I dug in and gave that hill what I had.  It was really, really hard and as soon as I saw people off the bikes and walking I thought – oh no  you don’t!  You keep pedaling.  However, at some point the combination of my very labored breathing and the intensity with which my heart was beating (not all  that fast but really, really hard) I bailed and started the walk of shame.  And started in with the self-loathing.

I got to a corner where there was a little bit of flat space and where my friend Sharley was waiting to take a picture of me climbing.  No such luck.  I caught my breath and got back on the bike and started in again but soon found that my willingness to suffer was pretty low so I got off again.  Crap.  This time I just walked to the next available place to re-mount and started up again and managed to do what I thought was crest the hill.  And it was a crest  – for about a few hundred yards and then the climbing started again.  I stayed on the bike this time, though and did not give up the rest of the day.  On balance I probably walked 10% of the whole Kings Ridge Rd. climb and I’m trying to just let it  go.   At least part of my rational was that I didn’t want to be the one to mar Levi’s inaugural effort by having a heart attack.  Big of me, non?

And on the ride went – it went up and it went down at ferocious and terrifying pitches.  There were signs telling you to slow down and people flagging you and calling out to you to slow down and my hands just about cramped up gripping the breaks and it was really fun and quite thrilling. And then the climbing started again.  Lather, rinse repeat.

I could try to describe the scenery. I could give you the blow by blow on the flat tire that ended my day at mile 75.  I could tell you about every rest stop and about the wind  that threatened to blow me across the road, right in front of an on-coming car. All of those things happened and my ride ended at mile 75 with the bead of my  rear tire partially separated from the rest – game over. I could tell you how both elated and sad I felt about taking a car ride over the next ugly climb on Coleman Valley Rd (I would have walked part of it but  would have finished the ride and was really sad not to be able to) but mostly what I will tell you is what I learned on this ride.

I learned, once again, that the state of California is gorgeous and has some of the best riding in the world.  I learned that there is lots of open space and there  are places where people live simple lives, nestled in the redwoods or where they work tirelessly raising cattle in fiercely beautiful places.  I saw the ocean from a new perspective and marveled at the sparkling, churning azure waters and the craggy rocks pushing up from the bottom at a pace where I could really feel  them instead of whizzing by in a car at 50 miles an hour.  I learned that I have some limits  and that if I want to transcend them I need to do some more work  but that  even with the limits I’m remarkably fit.  I learned that good friends are not so much the people you’ve known forever as they are the people who encourage you and look out for you and push you to keep going.   They are the ones who tolerate you when you are cranky and lift you up 

I learned that there are people who really like to have fun and will ride 103 very difficult miles dressed as bees .

I learned once again to make sure that you can’t see the tube between the tire and the rim before you fully inflate the tire.  I learned that Sonoma County is a fantastic place where the  CHP, fire departments and 600 volunteers will all work tirelessly to give 3500 cyclists a fabulous day – I’d like to thank them for that.

Before the Fondo I had endless fantasies of the ride – fantasies that involved the man himself coaching me up the steepist grades and getting me there.  Hey, if  you’re going to dream, dream BIG!  The hilarity of that fantasy came into  sharp focus when we got to the aid station in Ft. Ross   We spoke to  some adorable girls who had everyone who passed through sign their volunteer shirts.      We asked if they had Levis’ signature and they said yes so we asked when he came through and they said 11:30.  It was 3:30 when we asked that question.  We only missed him by 4 hours!

Dreams and fantasies are good. They push us to do things we might not otherwise attempt.  If I had fantasized a ride in which I was unsuccessful at getting up  a hill and then had to toss it in  28 miles prematurely due to a blown tire (thereby garnering my first ever DNF)  I would probably have canceled the whole thing and just stayed home so I say dream  on.  Dream big and then do what you can to live the dream.   Without big dreams there would have been no Gran Fondo at all so thank you Levi for living large, dreaming big and making your dreams come true.  It was a great day.

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Sept 19-20

Saturday September 19 – no pictures. I ran 2 hours and felt reasonable (which is HUGE!) and then I went to visit my CASA kid.  If you haven’t read up on CASA please do and if you have any time in your life at all (as in your kids are grown and gone or you don’t have any) consider becoming a CASA – it’s  a very   important organization that does critical work.  You really can make a difference in the life of a foster child.  Enough said.

So here’s my run – yawn

Sunday was a great, great, day.  It was the day my new triathletes had been training for – the Tri for Real. I already wrote about this in great detail so here are the pics and a little video:

I didn’t race – I helped someone on the swim and then I ran up to the water station to cheer.  You can see me at about 7:00 in that video  but what you really want to do is start watching at about 6:20 so you can see our Tres Amigos de los Speedos who did the whole race ‘old school’ in their Speedos.   Words don’t do that justice.

Some of my fabulous Newbies

Aren’t those kits gorgeous?  I love our team kit.

After the race it was off to ride Mines Rd.  This was a pretty epic ride for me because I was with women in their 30s who are all much more fit and fabulous than I, it was hot, it was windy and we had to do some serious climbing.

We took pics at the junction

We finally got back to the park where we started and took cold, outdoor showers, washed and headed off to the Challenge  Weekend BBQ a mere 90 minutes late (for  2 hour party – oops).  Some certain people were very worried about me although I had spoken on the phone to others.  When I got there I did a little speech to congratulate my newbies and then they speeched me back and said all kinds of wonderful things that made me quiver and blush and then they gave me a present:

Reading the card

Do I look surprised! Like I'm going to cry? They gave me a Garmin 310XT and a gift certificate.

My fabulous Newbie Graduates

Sept 25-27

The Challenge Series  weekend was hard to beat but I managed to have another one that came quite close.  Summary – Bad Girls Book Club goes to the beach.  Friday afternoon  I drove over to Stinson  with a not Bad Girl (definitely a guy) from my club and we rode our bikes from Stinson Beach to Marshall and back and it was spectacular. Friday night was dedicated to hot tubbing, eating, drinking and for the rest of the group, Guitar Hero.  I was shot and went to bed.

Saturday I ran for 2 hours including running up the mountain.  Then we  had a massive brunch,  went to a sand sculpture event and then I hiked back up the mountain to take pictures, dragging a couple of bad girls with me.  I’m hoping they will forgive me any day now.  Saturday night we made a fabulous dinner and then played Guitar Hero.  Hysterical.  There was hot tubbing, too.  Sunday we kayaked and then we just played at the beach.  The weather was perfect.

Harold and me in Marshall, CA where the population equals the elevation (15 ft.) plus the speed limit (35)

People like to make sculptures on the beach all the time

We learned how to make sand balls from local artist Zach Pine (http://www.naturesculpture.com/) That is one of his

We made these sand balls

Taking Pictures on the Beach

Saturday Brunch of Cheesy Scrambled Eggs, beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, tortillas,bacon, cottage potatoes, fruit salad and mimosas. My hair is wet because I had already run for 2 hours. I really enjoyed that food!

Learning to make sand balls from Zach Pine http://www.naturesculpture.com/

Hiking up the Matt Davis Trail

Kayaking (those are my friends in the boat, not me)

I hiked back up here Saturday aftenoon because I saw this in the morning and just had to have a picture of it. It was further up the trail than I had remembered

I think the reason I skipped Monday Monday is obvious. I’m staying stuck in my weekends as long as I can.

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Saturday was long run day – I had to run 2 hours.  It was also a day when many members of my club race at the Back to School 5K or 10K and those not racing go out and volunteer.  Many of my New Triathlete Program people (NTP aka newbies) said they would volunteer and I really wanted to be there to see them the day before our big triathlon and just to be a part of it all.  I also really needed to go see my foster kid for whom I am an advocate through the Court Appointed Special Advocates program (check out the national site to see more).  This child lives hours from me so I had to allocate 2 hours to run and 5 hours of travel time plus the visit plus I had to be up at OMG:thirty on Sunday so I needed to get home early.  I couldn’t work out getting the race in (I guess I could have raced 10K and then run another hour but there aren’t any showers there and racing wasn’t on the plan) so I didn’t go and it felt sort of wrong but very right.  There are things in life that really are more important than triathlon and race clubs and foster kids in need of an anchor is definitely one of them.

My 2 hour run was fine – it felt good and that was exciting because the run and I have not been such good friends lately.  Score!

Sunday was the day of the race I’ve been training the Newbies for.  Most of them had already done a shorter sprint and some had even done an Olympic distance race but this was our big club event and I was so excited.  I didn’t race but I did do the swim with a woman who was very nervous about getting run over by the swim waves behind us (our club gets to go in the first wave en masse and there was quite a mass of us!).  I was there to defend her water space and help her stay calm and I did and she exited the water all in one piece.  After that I ran up to the bike course to cheer people on and then I headed up to the water station to cheer some more and pass out water. Turns out I positioned myself incorrectly and missed some people that way but it was fun.  Then I went down to the finish line to cheer everyone in.

I really wanted o stay and be at the award ceremony and just hang out and talk to everyone about their race  and I wish I had because NTP had people on the podium! How great is that??!!  Alas – I had a long ride on the plan so off I went with my 2 new BFFs and a friend of theirs.  It was a tough, long ride and it was hot and windy but it was great.  There was a moment when I was sure I couldn’t do it and I really worried about how I was going to get out of there but some cold water and a PayDay later and I was fine and rode strong – no problem.

Elevation from gpsvisualizer (top) and from MapMyRide (bottom)

That's it - you ride almost 40 miles and this is what is there

We got back to the park where our cars were right about the time the Challenge Weekend Celebration BBQ was starting but we were sweaty and gross and really needed to get cleaned up.  I had neglected to bring clean clothes but my BFFs had several outfits each with them as well as soap and shampoo and cream rinse so we all used the outdoor, cold water shower and cleaned up in our tri suits and then put clean clothes on (in the privacy of the ladies changing room) and finally, finally headed to the party arriving a mere 90 minutes late to a 2 hour party.  Great.

But it was great because I got a chance to say some words about my fabulous Newbies who stepped up and trained and made their dreams come true.  I’ve hatched a litter of tri-junkies and I couldn’t be happier about it.  I’m so proud of them and so very happy to have played a role in giving them a chance to do something they might not otherwise have done.  I said my words and I handed out a little memento to each of them and then they took the floor.  One of them read a whole story about how there is no “I” in  TEAM and about how great the program had been and how she had made friends and accomplished something wonderful.  Another woman gave a speech about me that made me blush and made me proud and made me feel loved  and then they gave me something to remember this inaugural season with – a Garmin 310XT and a $50 gift certificate to Forward Motion Store, our primary benefactor.  Wow – just wowl  *Channeling Sally Field* -“You LIKE me… right now.  You  LIKE me!”  I’m so humbled and so happy and so very jazzed about my new toy!  But I’m more jazzed that several of the newbies want to ban together to train for an Oly.  Success!

Looking forward, one of the things possibly on my plate is getting a slot for IM Canada when I race Oceanside.  Because it is so early in the year the carrot they dangle to athletes is the potential to get a slot at any of a couple of NA Sports M-dot races and Canada  is one of them (but shhh… don’t tell everyone about this because it’s kind of a secret, okay?).  I have several friends who are going to race and a few more racing Oceanside so they can get slots.  It’s a possibility but one I don’t think I’ll take because this weekend I figured out something really important about me.

My “moment” came when I realized that triathlon is a fundamentally self indulgent endeavor but I am not a fundamentally self indulgent person.  I spend a lot of time volunteering and giving to others because I like it and it makes me feel good.    I feel good about having become an athlete, too but the trade offs cause me stress. This weekend was a great example of that where I was torn between being with my race club and being with my foster kid and being with my race club and getting in my training.  I had to just take a deep breath and let it go but it was difficult.  It all worked out in the end but in the process it made me feel a little crazy.

I’d like to do the NTP next year again and I’d like to help organize this year’s newbies to train for an Oly and I’d like to train with them.  This year my direct participation in their training fell off because I signed up for Beach 2 Battleship and if I raced Canada I’d have a worse problem because it is in August and the training would consume my whole summer.    So again – the opportunity for conflict and stress is huge and I’m a ‘want it all’ kind of gal.  I’m a problem solver, too so here’s the solution:    I’m going to race Oceanside which means training up  a 70.3 on  March 27.  I’ve also decided that  I’m going to attend IM St. George in some capacity.  If I love 140.6 after B2B I might do a fund raiser and buy a community slot for 2010 (I’d pay my $550 and raise the rest) and attend IM  St. George as a participant.   If  I don’t want to do that I can just go be a Sherpa and then sign up for 2011 on-site.  Either way my IM training and season will be over in early May at the latest  and I can get on with the business of playing, training  newbies, and racing shorter distance races.  Brilliant and perfect and what a great Monday it’s been.

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Folsom Olympic Distance Triathlon

The night before the race I went to the Mexican restaurant next door and ordered  a chicken burrito, expecting to get a normal burrito.  No.  I got this ginormous thing (note the burrito is as wide as my laptop and that’s not a netbook) and was pretty stunned.  I gutted the thing and by the time I was ready to toss out what was left it looked a bit like something you might find on the side of the road after it got run over several times.  ew.  Tasty, though!

The swag I got.  Another ‘interesting t-shirt and some samples. Not bad.  By the end of the race I owned 2 more water bottles, too!

A composite of me across all 3 disciplines.  Do I look a tad dead on the run?  And the elation coming out of the water says, “yay!  no cramp!”

Podium!! AG 3 out of 8.  Best podium finish ever!

Sharkfest 09

Is this the shore??  Am I alive??  Oh miracle of miracles!

That dark stuff on my face = sea smutz.

Tour of Napa Valley Century

As we were going up the first big hill the woman behind said, “Is that death or is that bagpipes?”  I was too winded to answer but I’m happy to say it was bagpipes.  This guy was a really welcomed addition to the ride.

Groovin’ at the first aid station with Dana and Kelley!

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Things I love

1).  A great day in the wine country going on a bike ride with Juls, Runner Susan and her lovely husband The Chef. We had such a great time!  Runner Susan is everything you ever dreamed she was and more – sweet, adorable, entertaining and the hostess with the mostess.  The Chef is charming as only a man in a white cycling kit can be.

We had a beautiful ride and then we went back to Susan’s room to shower and go for lunch.  The Chef provided glasses of ‘recovery juice’ that looked and tasted remarkably like red wine and was just what I needed.  Then The Runners Susan took us to a delicious lunch where we consumed some more wine.  Fabulous.  After lunch I would rather have gone back to the hotel with the whole gang for a group snuggle nap but I’m pretty sure Julie and I would have fought over Runner Susan and The Chef would have gotten jealous and felt left out so it was better to just hit the road.  Not sure I was totally legal for that but we made it to my house where Julie and I proceeded to pass out on different couches.      

I wish I could go on vacation with the Susans all the time and that we could take Julie with us.

2).  My jet lagged daughter apparently left her wallet on the roof of the car when she got gas and a man picked it up and walked to our house with it.  He removed not one cent of the roughly $85 that were inside.  I got the call about that while drinking wine and eating delicious food in Napa which made it a doubly lovely day.

3).  I  found a new cycling route today and it has a big hill – just enough to make me work but not terrible.

Things that make me mad:

I had some of these.  I remember thinking “grrrr… I need to put this in HDM” but now I foget what they are.  And that’s probably one of the things I like the most.

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Here’s what I did over this long weekend (warning – this is probably really boring but I’m doing it anyhow because I don’t have time to be interesting and you asked me to blog so I’m blogging!)

Friday – Swim masters (2100 meters with a lot of kicking and breast stroke); run 40 minutes having to pep talk myself the entire way (come on – one more song.. just keep going.. you can do it), OWS in the evening with a whole flock of people for probably about 1400 meters.  Of course I zig zagged all over and could NOT get to the rest of the people and they just kept being ‘out there’ so I finally gave up and swam in, blinded by the sun.  Note to self – wear mirrored goggles next time and stay on someone’s feet!

Follow up swim with burgers and wine with favored training bud Caroline.

Saturday – leisurely ride with BFF masters friends and  former riding partners, one of whom is recovering from a back problem then drive out to time trial clinic and do 2 laps (3 miles) in the horrific wind.  Got 5 seconds faster the second time around so yea!

After ride head out to East Stump Hole to spend the day with CASA kid.  Get home at 9:00 PM (because it’s a 2.5 hour drive out to see CASA kid)

Sunday – run with newbies in my New Triathlete Progam (I got 20 people in the program – woot!), talk about importance of stretching and demo foam roller.

Then go for trail run up Mt. Diablo with Caroline.

Monday – get ass handed to me riding with my training BFFs Dana and Maggs who were doing a dress rehersal for IM CdA.  I thought that if they already had 56 miles on their legs I could keep up. WRONG!  I struggled desperately to hang on to a wheel and was successful at times but would then lose it.  Net result was 40 miles at 16.7 mph average – PR!  I’ve never ridden that far, that fast before and we were going into the wind much of the time.   I ♥  training with those ladies.  They did another 16 to finish off a full 112.  They are machines!   I think they ran for 6 miles after that, too.  I ran for 15 minutes and baby it was HOT.

Go to other BFF training friend Vali’s house for BBQ which was both delicious and fun.

Today – rest day!  I worked but it felt like rest after all of that.

Tomorrow- swim/run

Thursday – conquer Mt. Diablo with Maggs. I am determined to make it all the way to the very, very top!  I’ll let you know how it goes.

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So here’s what I did this weekend.

First Climb Diablo to Junction then climb Morgan Terrirtory

** update**

I just re-read this post and realized that if you aren’t a cyclist it sounds like I am a nutjob who speaks in some strange tongue.  I’m not going to re-write it.  Just an observation.

** 

That second climb looks a lot like the first but the general concensus around here is that it is much harder. I didn’t really know when the climb started because the road winds  through a heavily wooded area so you can’t see what’s coming. I found myself thinking “this had better be the climb because if it isn’t I’m in a heap ‘o trouble!”  When we got to the very steepest part I had no idea what to expect and my HR was in the stratosphere so I stopped for a minute to let it go down.  Then I started up again – going up a steep hill.  It’s still easier when you have O2 in the system.  Of course that part  flattened out a bit just around the corner but the climb was not done.  Oh no – there was a ways to go.

I only used the little chain ring for that 1 part and the rest of the time was in the middle chain ring.  My climbing was really good and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment for having done this.  On the way back a couple of fast guys pulled us slower riders in and then I kind of ran out of gas.  When we were just about back – close enough that I got dropped, I flatted.  No princes in shining spandex came back to rescue me so I had to change my own tire.  I was actually kind of glad of that, too because I did it in a relatively short amount of time and it worked and it’s always nice to know you can save yourself.

Sunday I took a nice recovery ride follwed by a whopping 20 minute run and Monday I did an open water swim and a little run – a whole 30 minutes.  My next race is The Relay which is all run.  It takes you from Calistoga to Santa Cruz (199 miles) in 36 legs for each 12 person team.  That means you run 3 times in about 30 or so hours so I need to practice running some more.  I think I’ll skip practicing the sleep deprivation and enduring a lot of stink, though.  That is something that needs to be endured real time because there’s just no reasonable way to simulate that experience.

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3 Bears via Pig Farm + Inspiration Pt.

When I told my inadvertant coach Monica about it I got this response:

WHY did you ride 4 hours today?  WHY did you ride 57 miles!!!!  There is absolutely no need to ride anything over 2 hours!!!  You will not gain in fitness now.  Only maintain what you have and keep yourself moving.  Enough said.  The 5k tomorrow would have been perfect for you, but not now.  Everything needs to be short, some easy, some with short efforts.
Yes, you are in trouble, in case you have not guessed.  Be smart now.  Your race is next weekend, and I would hate to see all of your training wasted.

Enough said.

I am done lecturing you.

 oops – I was in trouble.  I can’t say as I’m sorry to have missed out on a 5K for a PR because contrary to what Monica thinks that would have killed my legs but still – I felt chastened.  I took the opportunity to go for a nice, easy 20 mile ride with her in which I was NOT to use the big chain ring AT ALL.  Being the naughty girl that I am I cheated once, going downhill, because I didn’t want to get dropped and I was soundly admonished to get dropped and spin easy so I did.  It was a lovely ride.

I’m actually glad I did what I did Saturday because I feel like I can recover from that and it gave me the confidence that I can manage a big hill after managing a lot of miles and some other big hills.  My pace was not good but my legs were not fresh and I wasn’t racing so I’m not going to worry about that.

I have little, easy workouts with a few 20 second pick-ups scheduled for the rest of the week and then it’s show time.  I am done worrying, done being nervous and just really anxious to do it. I don’t know if I will ‘rock the course’ but I will race and I will finish and unless I have a problem I will finish in the top 10 so   BRING IT!

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I’m better – almost 100%!  I didn’t workout today but I also didn’t sleep.  I didn’t take any cold meds.  I am almost all better and so very grateful for that. 

2).  Does  anyone who watches food advertisements on TV really think “YUM!”  I mean really – does greasy pasta drowning in cheese sauce with a side of garlic, butter infested bread sticks look good?  How about lobster swimming in 2 pounds of butter with a side of fish covered in cream sauce and a baked potato with sour cream?  Tasty?   GAG!  The mind boggles until I think about the endless reports of obesity in this country.  Well duh!  If people really think eating like that is a good idea then no wonder we are a nation of lard asses.

3).  Oceanside is a mere 4 weeks away and I am trying not to panic about it.  Not that I’m really panicked.  I could “do it” tomorrow but it would suck and it would not be worth the price  of admission.  Between the rain and the cold I have not been able to get in the training on the bike that I really, really need. I’m sure I could have been working harder on the trainer doing intervals but what concerns me is the hills and to be a good climber you need to climb.  And climb I will – just as soon as I can.  I just hope it is soon enough.

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The invitation came from my Ex who is a super nice guy.  Since I couldn’t be there he took care of me, though.  A week after the tour he delivered this shirt via TDG who is treating his Dad right now.

I thought it was a great shirt and immediately noticed that it had been signed so I took a colser look at the inscription:

Any Time!

Awesome!  I sent the Ex an email thanking him for the shirt and telling him how funny I thought his signature was and asking him if he used a laundry pen.   This was his reply:

ME?!?! You mean Lance, don’t you? And sorry, we were both pedaling so fast, I couldn’t see what kind of pen he was using.

Visibility was poor, with water dripping off the brim of my Black Angus ball cap, but I squinted hard and moved on the pack up their left flank. Many of the less experienced riders started dropping back on the 15% grade, and that opened a hole for me to get up front. I had to be aggressive and a bit rude in order to muscle my Schwinn in between Lance and the guy to his left, but I did it.

He looked amazed…looked me right in the eye as we stroked the spokes at 25 mph uphill, side by side. “What the fuck are you doing, you old fool?!?”, Lance politely asked me.
“Just autograph my shirt for my friend Pamela, Junior, and I’ll wait for you in Santa Rosa”, I responded, just as politely.
“Jesus H. Christ”, he shouted, “I’m in the middle of a race!”
“Just lean over and sign the goddam shirt, will ya? I’m in a hurry”, I said calmly.
“OK Grandpa…gimme a pen”. (Just a ballpoint, to answer your question).

Best shirt ever!

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1). First off my dealings with Comcast – my internet/phone/cable TV provider.  On December 12th I called to have HDTV installed and to get their ‘triple play’ bundle that included phone/internet/TV.  The actual installation didn’t happen until January 5.  My bill reflected a credit on my old service from 12/16 – 2/6 and payment for my new service for the same period.  Hmmmm…. I thought.  Why would I be charged for something I didn’t have installed?  The conversation went like this:

Me:  Why are you charging me for service from 12/16 when I didn’t get installed until 1/6?
Her:  We turned your HDTV service on you just couldn’t get anything in HD.  You had those extra channels, though
Me:  Well- I didn’t know that and I couldn’t use the HD so why would I pay for it?
Her:  Ma’am – you had it.  You just couldn’t get the HDTV channels until they did the install.  But you had those extra channels
Me/Her… 3 or 4 more times of me explaining that having extra stuff come through the wire without me knowing it and without me being able to use it didn’t constitute ’having it’ and her contradicting me and  with me getting more frustrated.  Then  a light went off when I noticed the term ‘bundled’ in the higher charge.
Me:  Well – you are charging me for a phone/TV/internet bundle but I didn’t get your phone service until the installer came out.
Her:  Just a moment ma’am while I check on something…….5 minutes go by….. Ma’am – I’m going to issue you a credit for $77 to cover the time when you were not receiving those services.
Me: Thanks so much for taking care of that!

I ask you – on what planet is it okay to charge for something  you have yet to deliver?  How much bank must they make on this crap?  Their system is set to start charging as soon as a work order goes in even though it is well known that it can take weeks to actually install the service.  Maddening.  But I solved the problem so I moved on to:

2).  Kaiser Bill for my son’s health insurance.  I went on-line in December to try to get him insurance.  I filled out all of the forms including giving them my ATM account information.  I finally was notified about 2 weeks ago that he was approved and insured.  Today I got a bill that showed they had charged me for 1 month and another charge  for 2 months retroactive.  Huh?  How can they charge for 2 months retroactive when they didn’t approve anything until 2 weeks ago?  So I have my son call them and she explains that they bill 3 months at a time. Okay fine but why are you billing me for 2 months when I had no coverage?  “Oh – no problem, sir.  When would you like us to change the start date to?”  SERIOUSLY??!!  This was optional!??  Sweet baby Jeebus who thinks this stuff up?  So we change it to start Feb 1 and she tells me I will get a new bill for Feb/March/April.  So then I ask about the money that’s already been paid and she says, “Oh yes – I see that you paid that already so we will apply that to February”  Awesome!  But really – WTF??

3).  In other news – let’s talk about training.  Yesterday and earlier today I was at that point where my training plan was really bugging me and wearing me out.  I was asking the questions we all ask at one point or another – Why?  Why do I do this?  Who do I think I’m kidding?  What is the point??!!!  Saturday the Good Doctor and I went for a ride on a route that is hilly and full of rollers and by the time we got to the top of a place called The Three Bears I thought I might die.  When TGD got there (and I’m so kicking his ass on the bike these days!) I said, “God that was HARD!  That makes climbing Diablo look easy” and he told me I was nuts.  It wasn’t hard at all and it was nothing compared to climbing the mountain.  You be the judge:

Ride up Mt. Diablo to Top

Three Bears from Reliez Valley Rd.

Note – the scale is quite different – Mt. Diablo goes up to 3500 ft and the 3 Bears is only 900 ft.

I think I was just tired – fatigued. 

I had Monday off and yesterday I did 90 minutes in the trainer.  This morning I swam but it was an easy workout.  Tonight I ran with my race club – one guy in particular.  I knew I was going at a really good clip for me and I was chatting.  After about a mile I started to fall off the pace but I kept going as hard as I could manage without feeling like I was killing myself.  My splits:

7:52, 8:45, 8:47, 8:34, 8:33 (last half mile)

So maybe the person who first got the idea that  training hard would make you faster was on to something  because that is my previous 5K race pace, not my ‘going for a run’ pace.  I’m running a 5K Sunday.  I hope it is somebody’s idea for me to PR.  I think it might be mine.

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So today in email I was directed to  this article

Top Cyclists Can’t Eat Anything They Want…

So maybe I knew the whole “I’m training – pass me a cheeseburger!” thing was a myth but did I need to see it spelled out like this?

“When the Amgen Tour of California pedals around downtown Sacramento and launches off from Davis next week, its 136 cyclists will rely on fine-tuned nutrition to fuel their efforts over the 750-mile trek. The right timing of meals and the right combination of food and drink may mean the difference between a podium finish and a spot back in the pack.”

On the other hand, who’s looking for the podium?  I’m just out for fun! 

And what about this:

“What distinguishes the pros from the amateurs is at the elite pro level, these athletes are really tuned in to their needs,” said Dr. Helen Iams, team physician for Fairfield-based Team Jelly Belly. “When the margin between first and fifth is 3 inches, a 1 percent difference in your performance is huge.”

Is it just me or is there a twee bit of a disconnect between talking about great nutrition and being on Team Jelly Belly?  For me 1 serving = 1 huge bag of Jelly Bellys so I’m not getting a whole lot of good nutrition there, am I?  Is there something about the magic bean I have yet to discover?  I don’t think they even make the sport ones anymore because really – $22/pound for jelly beans wasn’t fooling anyone.

“It’s not unusual for a pro cyclist to down the whole box of cereal at breakfast (with fruit and yogurt, too) and four sandwiches for lunch. And unlike athletes in most other sports, cyclists have to eat and drink while in the midst of intense competition. They’re constantly refueling their “engines,” their muscles.”

Okay – now we’re talking!!  THIS is what it’s all about, right?  Think I could fit a 6″ Subway sandwich in my bento box?

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