Hump Day Miscellany – It’s Thursday!

Posted on July 24, 2008 by 21cm

Today’s Humpy Day Miscellany is late and sort of random. That’s what happens when your head is scrambled by a head cold.

Let’s talk about Starbucks for moment.
1). I went in there the other day because I had a gift card. I got some iced tea. It cost $2.40. I’m thinking the margin on that cup of tea was HUGE!

2). The media announced that Starbucks was closing 600 stores which made a lot of sense to me since they have them on opposite corners of the same street. They then asserted that this might mean the end of 12,000 jobs. That would be 20 employees per store. Even accounting for the fact that most them are minimum wage, part time people and that there are probably some inside staff in the mix that seems a bit high to me. If it takes 20 employees per store then it is no small wonder they have to charge so much for stupid cup of iced tea.

3). I purchased Starbucks at something like $14/share. I expect this investment to work out for me because they are closing stores, tuning up operations and selling smoothies. Who doesn’t love smoothies? And if people will pay $2.40 for a cup of tea I’m thinking they’ll pay a good 6 bucks for a smoothie thereby generating HUGE cash flow.

Bicycle seats –
I went into Sports Basement the other day and looked at seats. Jenny says her hiney never gets sore because she has this cushy, padded Trek seat. Sports Basement didn’t have Trek but they did have Terry. The men’s seats cost $30 – $40. The women’s were more like $120. Terry can bite me. I’ll take a men’s saddle, thanks.

The incredible shrinking woman –

Who is that tiny little thing standing next to Jenny? I know Jenny is tall but I look like I just flew in from Lilliput!

Click on the pic to read Jenny’s Vineman report.

In search of – At IM CdA there was a man who, after the first loop of the swim, just stood in the water shivering. His hands were white and he was obviously going hypothermic. I took my shoes off, waded out to him, took his hand and pulled him out on to the beach. I told him he had to warm up before he got out there again. He said his head was killing him. I didn’t quite know what to do but some other people came up and told him he needed to do push ups. He was so cold he couldn’t manage that but he did some jumping up and down and then push ups and then he ran up the beach and back and did some more push ups. His hands were pink, he felt better and off he went. I noted his number off his cap and later looked him up. If anyone knows a Brad Williams from Sacramento please tell him I said WAY TO GUT IT OUT! He finished the race in 14:54 which is very respectable when you haven’t suffered hypothermia and the stuff of legend when you have.

Posted in Hump Day | Leave a comment

Hump Day Miscellany – It’s Thursday!

Posted on July 24, 2008 by 21cm

Today’s Humpy Day Miscellany is late and sort of random. That’s what happens when your head is scrambled by a head cold.

Let’s talk about Starbucks for moment.
1). I went in there the other day because I had a gift card. I got some iced tea. It cost $2.40. I’m thinking the margin on that cup of tea was HUGE!

2). The media announced that Starbucks was closing 600 stores which made a lot of sense to me since they have them on opposite corners of the same street. They then asserted that this might mean the end of 12,000 jobs. That would be 20 employees per store. Even accounting for the fact that most them are minimum wage, part time people and that there are probably some inside staff in the mix that seems a bit high to me. If it takes 20 employees per store then it is no small wonder they have to charge so much for stupid cup of iced tea.

3). I purchased Starbucks at something like $14/share. I expect this investment to work out for me because they are closing stores, tuning up operations and selling smoothies. Who doesn’t love smoothies? And if people will pay $2.40 for a cup of tea I’m thinking they’ll pay a good 6 bucks for a smoothie thereby generating HUGE cash flow.

Bicycle seats –
I went into Sports Basement the other day and looked at seats. Jenny says her hiney never gets sore because she has this cushy, padded Trek seat. Sports Basement didn’t have Trek but they did have Terry. The men’s seats cost $30 – $40. The women’s were more like $120. Terry can bite me. I’ll take a men’s saddle, thanks.

The incredible shrinking woman –

Who is that tiny little thing standing next to Jenny? I know Jenny is tall but I look like I just flew in from Lilliput!

Click on the pic to read Jenny’s Vineman report.

In search of – At IM CdA there was a man who, after the first loop of the swim, just stood in the water shivering. His hands were white and he was obviously going hypothermic. I took my shoes off, waded out to him, took his hand and pulled him out on to the beach. I told him he had to warm up before he got out there again. He said his head was killing him. I didn’t quite know what to do but some other people came up and told him he needed to do push ups. He was so cold he couldn’t manage that but he did some jumping up and down and then push ups and then he ran up the beach and back and did some more push ups. His hands were pink, he felt better and off he went. I noted his number off his cap and later looked him up. If anyone knows a Brad Williams from Sacramento please tell him I said WAY TO GUT IT OUT! He finished the race in 14:54 which is very respectable when you haven’t suffered hypothermia and the stuff of legend when you have.

Posted in Hump Day | 6 Comments

Monday Monday – Rockin’ the Vineman

Posted on July 21, 2008 by 21cm

It all started Friday when I picked Jenny up from the airport and we took what seemed like an interminably long drive up to Santa Rosa – the traffic was nasty. Welcome to California, Jenny! We got there too late to go to the welcome reception and just decided not to worry about it and went out to dinner, instead.

Saturday we got up, put the bikes on the car and headed out to check out the course. While we were looking at the river me met another racer, Linda, from Santa Barbara. We all decided to drive the bike course and then ride the run course. Note – riding the bike course is long and boring. Riding it is way better.

While we were waiting for Linda Jenny saw a guy on the bike she is lusting after and in true Jenny fashion said, “you better be fast on that bike!” and then I looked at his helmet and saw the number 7 and remarked that he was a pro so he was probably fast. I was correct – he won the race with a time of 3:49.10 setting a new course record.

Shortly after that I realized that I had managed somewhere along the way to put on my cranky pants and basically had a melt down. I just started to panic that it was 3 PM, we hadn’t eaten lunch and I NEED A REST! So I rode a little ways with Jenny and Linda and then I headed back to the hotel to eat and rest while they finished. Only I needed to eat first plus I went to the expo to get my bike checked and to buy a new tube and Jenny ended up back at the hotel before me. I managed to get about 20 minutes rest before it was time to shower and go to dinner but I was all better by then having eaten a ham and cheese sandwich and a smoothy. Then I had spaghetti carbonara for dinner. Can you say “oink*! (I gained 3 pounds this weekend so I guess my nutrition was … ahem… adequate!)

Race Report

Sunday we were waking up at 4:45 to try to hit the road at 5:45 so we could get to Guernville, 30 minutes away and be ready for a 7:18 start time. That was already not enough time and little did we know how far away we would have to park. We got started late (6:00) and got to transition just about at 7:00. I did my best to hide my panic and just focus on finding rack space (we had to move other people’s bikes to do it), set up, pull on the wetsuit and get to the water. Finally ready we headed the long, long way to the start and once we got to the beach 2 things happened. First, the announcer said it was time for our wave to get in the water and then I realized I had forgotten to put on my timing chip – OH NO! Jenny waited while I ran back to my T1 spot, put the chip on, ran back and immediately got in the water. We had about 3 minutes before our wave started. A little too close for comfort.

SWIM – The swim was absolutely typical for me. My goggles fogged up immediately and I could barely see where I was going the entire time. At one point I was smack dab in the middle of the channel separating out from back and I was not supposed to be there. I got back to the right place and just kept going. If only they would give extra credit for extra yards – I’d take first in the swim every time!

I am never quite comfortable in the swim – it just seems too long. I kept reminding myself that this would be the easiest part of my day and that I should just enjoy it and I sort of did except I had to keep stopping and clearing my goggles. No amount of spit has ever solved that problem. Must be time to get some of that anti-fog spray.

Swim time 44:04 – pretty much as planned.

T1 – I ran back to our racks and woke Jenny up from the little nap she was taking while she waited for me and worked as quickly as I could to dry off, put on arm warmers, Garmin, socks, shoes, helmet and glasses and we were off.

T1 time – 5:07 (a little bit slow but oh well).

Bike – the bike course for Vineman is just beautiful and really not very hard. There are some hills here and there but mostly it is gentle rollers and great scenery. My goal was to ride at an average of 16 mph for a 3:30 ride and Jenny was there to help me do that. The thing is, 16 mph is super slow for Jenny so she needed a strategy.

She’s a smart one, that Jenny and she soon figured out that if she stopped and enjoyed the wine country she could just ride her normal pace and catch up to me so that’s what she did. She visited a couple wineries, sampled some local fare, checked out a yard sale and asked them to put a few things aside for her, admired and played with babies the spectators had with them and just generally enjoyed the day. I think she might have attended a ‘cooking with wine’ class, too. When she’d had her fill of wine and cheese and bread and cooking and looking, she’d hop back on the bike and pass me and try to get me to pick it up. It was a beautiful plan.

Make no doubt about it, though – Jenny had me in her sights at all times:

There comes a time for me in every race where I have a very dark moment. I am filled with doubt and absolutely positive I have no business being out there. Vineman was no exception. I can’t tell you how many times people would blow past me cheerfully shouting out words of encouragement – KEEP GOING! YOU’RE DOING GREAT! NICE JOB FORWARD MOTION! As nice as that is it only happens when you look pathetic and slow on your bike, a reality that is not lost on me. And so, at about mile 30 I was hating on myself, hating on triathlon and wishing I had just stayed home puttering in the garden and cleaning the house. And then I snapped out of it and remembered that I love my current level of fitness and that I was riding faster than I had ever ridden in a race before and that very few people are willing to toe the line at all and that I was doing something great and that I SHOULD JUST FOCUS AND PEDAL HARDER, DAMNIT! So I did.

Chalk Hill is ‘the big one’ of Vineman and honestly it just isn’t that big. It also marks the beginning of the end because once you’ve made it up that hill you head down and to the finish line which is just some number of miles away. That’s when I really picked it up. I even passed a woman in my age group and that was truly the highlight of my ride.

Bike time – 3:37:20 avg 15.5 mph. Close

T2
My feet were numb at the end of the ride because it was kind of a chilly morning but the approximately 800 mile run from dismount to our rack took care of that little problem. By the time I got there, swapped shoes, dropped the helmet for a cap and switched sunglasses my feet almost had feeling in them and I was ready to go!

T2 time – 4:44 which was still a little slow but oh well!

Run
The run was amazing. Jenny and I just ticked off those miles one after the other and I felt fine. I couldn’t even believe I was running that strong after riding my bike for 56 miles – it was like a miracle. We went out too fast I think but it wasn’t killing me and I just tried to focus on the fact that my breathing was okay and I was doing it – I was running strong! By then the weather had warmed up, the sun was sort of out but not beating down hard and we had a nice breeze. Every time we hit a mile marker Jenny would say ,”see that – ANOTHER mile down. We’re just ticking them off! Pretty soon I’ll be able to go pick up that stuff I bought at the yard sale!”

The run course was just as pretty as the ride course and was also a series of gentle rollers. I walked up the hills toward the top and we stopped at every aid station to drink or get salt or eat. We made 2 port-o-potty stops, as well. I never got sick and I felt pretty strong until the last 3 miles and then I started to fade a bit and my knees started to hurt. My glutes and quads were sort of sore, too but not unbearably so. Jenny just kept pep talking me telling me to empty my mind, focus on running, and remember “we only have 3 miles to go – we only have 2 miles to go” and then we only had 1 mile to go and the horse could smell the barn and was ready to finish!

We passed many, many people throughout the run and it was very satisfying. It validated that being a little conservative on the bike was a good plan for me for this race. Not that I intend to make that my strategy for every race but for this one it was the right choice.

Finally there it was – THE CHUTE! They called Jenny’s name and then they called my name and she started yelling out to the crowd “First time Half IronMan here – doesn’t she look strong!!” and the crowd roared and I threw my hands over my head and ran to to mats with a huge smile on my face. We did it!

Run time – 2:24.16 (11 min/mile) which is a 7 minute half marathon PR for me. booyah!

Total time 6:55.33 which met my goal of going sub 7.

Jenny has all the pictures – my camera just didn’t seem to make it out of the bag. Have no fear, people – it happened and you’ll see visual proof soon enough.

Shout outs
Jenny was a joy to have on this maiden voyage. She’s a ton of fun to hang out with, she’s easy to travel with and she kept me strong out on the course. I think it was a little hard for her to go so slow but she’s feeling great and she has another Half Iron race next weekend. That’s right – Jenny is doing back to back half iron distance races because that’s how she rolls. She also missed the wedding of a very good friend to be here, a sacrifice that has not gone unnoticed, my friend. Thank you so much for being here with me and for me.

To several people in Forward Motion Race Club for mentoring and encouragement. In particular to Joe Foster and Monica Mazzocco-Zucker for bike help and to Chris McCrary for swimming and running help (I tried to lift my knees -I really did!). To Dana, Maggs, Liesbeth, Sharley, Carrie, Kelby and Roberta I send thanks for all of your words of encouragment.

Shout outs to the Good Doctor for all those early morning rides on Tuesday and Thursday. I hope we get to that next week. It made a difference. Double shout outs for telling me I needed to put on a little weght (tee!)

Thanks to every single other person out there who sent encouragement and who asked about the race and who gave me cheerful comments and wished me luck. It really does make a difference.

I’d also like to thank my bike for not breaking down on me or flatting. I am always so grateful to my bike when I get to T2 and nothing bad has happened. The bike’s reward is that it is in the shop being cleaned and tuned up right now. I may not be able to ride until next Monday but I’ll live with it.

Aftermath

My knees are still sore, my legs are getting more sore by the minute and what was a sore throat and some minor head congestion over the weekend has blown up in to a full scale head cold but in spite of all of that I feel great. I met my goal and did something extraordinary and find myself, once again, deeply thankful for my health and vitality and the inner drive and bravery to train up and toe the line. Life is good.

Posted in community, Racing, triathlon | Leave a comment

Monday Monday – Rockin’ the Vineman

Posted on July 21, 2008 by 21cm

It all started Friday when I picked Jenny up from the airport and we took what seemed like an interminably long drive up to Santa Rosa – the traffic was nasty. Welcome to California, Jenny! We got there too late to go to the welcome reception and just decided not to worry about it and went out to dinner, instead.

Saturday we got up, put the bikes on the car and headed out to check out the course. While we were looking at the river me met another racer, Linda, from Santa Barbara. We all decided to drive the bike course and then ride the run course. Note – riding the bike course is long and boring. Riding it is way better.

While we were waiting for Linda Jenny saw a guy on the bike she is lusting after and in true Jenny fashion said, “you better be fast on that bike!” and then I looked at his helmet and saw the number 7 and remarked that he was a pro so he was probably fast. I was correct – he won the race with a time of 3:49.10 setting a new course record.

Shortly after that I realized that I had managed somewhere along the way to put on my cranky pants and basically had a melt down. I just started to panic that it was 3 PM, we hadn’t eaten lunch and I NEED A REST! So I rode a little ways with Jenny and Linda and then I headed back to the hotel to eat and rest while they finished. Only I needed to eat first plus I went to the expo to get my bike checked and to buy a new tube and Jenny ended up back at the hotel before me. I managed to get about 20 minutes rest before it was time to shower and go to dinner but I was all better by then having eaten a ham and cheese sandwich and a smoothy. Then I had spaghetti carbonara for dinner. Can you say “oink*! (I gained 3 pounds this weekend so I guess my nutrition was … ahem… adequate!)

Race Report

Sunday we were waking up at 4:45 to try to hit the road at 5:45 so we could get to Guernville, 30 minutes away and be ready for a 7:18 start time. That was already not enough time and little did we know how far away we would have to park. We got started late (6:00) and got to transition just about at 7:00. I did my best to hide my panic and just focus on finding rack space (we had to move other people’s bikes to do it), set up, pull on the wetsuit and get to the water. Finally ready we headed the long, long way to the start and once we got to the beach 2 things happened. First, the announcer said it was time for our wave to get in the water and then I realized I had forgotten to put on my timing chip – OH NO! Jenny waited while I ran back to my T1 spot, put the chip on, ran back and immediately got in the water. We had about 3 minutes before our wave started. A little too close for comfort.

SWIM – The swim was absolutely typical for me. My goggles fogged up immediately and I could barely see where I was going the entire time. At one point I was smack dab in the middle of the channel separating out from back and I was not supposed to be there. I got back to the right place and just kept going. If only they would give extra credit for extra yards – I’d take first in the swim every time!

I am never quite comfortable in the swim – it just seems too long. I kept reminding myself that this would be the easiest part of my day and that I should just enjoy it and I sort of did except I had to keep stopping and clearing my goggles. No amount of spit has ever solved that problem. Must be time to get some of that anti-fog spray.

Swim time 44:04 – pretty much as planned.

T1 – I ran back to our racks and woke Jenny up from the little nap she was taking while she waited for me and worked as quickly as I could to dry off, put on arm warmers, Garmin, socks, shoes, helmet and glasses and we were off.

T1 time – 5:07 (a little bit slow but oh well).

Bike – the bike course for Vineman is just beautiful and really not very hard. There are some hills here and there but mostly it is gentle rollers and great scenery. My goal was to ride at an average of 16 mph for a 3:30 ride and Jenny was there to help me do that. The thing is, 16 mph is super slow for Jenny so she needed a strategy.

She’s a smart one, that Jenny and she soon figured out that if she stopped and enjoyed the wine country she could just ride her normal pace and catch up to me so that’s what she did. She visited a couple wineries, sampled some local fare, checked out a yard sale and asked them to put a few things aside for her, admired and played with babies the spectators had with them and just generally enjoyed the day. I think she might have attended a ‘cooking with wine’ class, too. When she’d had her fill of wine and cheese and bread and cooking and looking, she’d hop back on the bike and pass me and try to get me to pick it up. It was a beautiful plan.

Make no doubt about it, though – Jenny had me in her sights at all times:

There comes a time for me in every race where I have a very dark moment. I am filled with doubt and absolutely positive I have no business being out there. Vineman was no exception. I can’t tell you how many times people would blow past me cheerfully shouting out words of encouragement – KEEP GOING! YOU’RE DOING GREAT! NICE JOB FORWARD MOTION! As nice as that is it only happens when you look pathetic and slow on your bike, a reality that is not lost on me. And so, at about mile 30 I was hating on myself, hating on triathlon and wishing I had just stayed home puttering in the garden and cleaning the house. And then I snapped out of it and remembered that I love my current level of fitness and that I was riding faster than I had ever ridden in a race before and that very few people are willing to toe the line at all and that I was doing something great and that I SHOULD JUST FOCUS AND PEDAL HARDER, DAMNIT! So I did.

Chalk Hill is ‘the big one’ of Vineman and honestly it just isn’t that big. It also marks the beginning of the end because once you’ve made it up that hill you head down and to the finish line which is just some number of miles away. That’s when I really picked it up. I even passed a woman in my age group and that was truly the highlight of my ride.

Bike time – 3:37:20 avg 15.5 mph. Close

T2
My feet were numb at the end of the ride because it was kind of a chilly morning but the approximately 800 mile run from dismount to our rack took care of that little problem. By the time I got there, swapped shoes, dropped the helmet for a cap and switched sunglasses my feet almost had feeling in them and I was ready to go!

T2 time – 4:44 which was still a little slow but oh well!

Run
The run was amazing. Jenny and I just ticked off those miles one after the other and I felt fine. I couldn’t even believe I was running that strong after riding my bike for 56 miles – it was like a miracle. We went out too fast I think but it wasn’t killing me and I just tried to focus on the fact that my breathing was okay and I was doing it – I was running strong! By then the weather had warmed up, the sun was sort of out but not beating down hard and we had a nice breeze. Every time we hit a mile marker Jenny would say ,”see that – ANOTHER mile down. We’re just ticking them off! Pretty soon I’ll be able to go pick up that stuff I bought at the yard sale!”

The run course was just as pretty as the ride course and was also a series of gentle rollers. I walked up the hills toward the top and we stopped at every aid station to drink or get salt or eat. We made 2 port-o-potty stops, as well. I never got sick and I felt pretty strong until the last 3 miles and then I started to fade a bit and my knees started to hurt. My glutes and quads were sort of sore, too but not unbearably so. Jenny just kept pep talking me telling me to empty my mind, focus on running, and remember “we only have 3 miles to go – we only have 2 miles to go” and then we only had 1 mile to go and the horse could smell the barn and was ready to finish!

We passed many, many people throughout the run and it was very satisfying. It validated that being a little conservative on the bike was a good plan for me for this race. Not that I intend to make that my strategy for every race but for this one it was the right choice.

Finally there it was – THE CHUTE! They called Jenny’s name and then they called my name and she started yelling out to the crowd “First time Half IronMan here – doesn’t she look strong!!” and the crowd roared and I threw my hands over my head and ran to to mats with a huge smile on my face. We did it!

Run time – 2:24.16 (11 min/mile) which is a 7 minute half marathon PR for me. booyah!

Total time 6:55.33 which met my goal of going sub 7.

Jenny has all the pictures – my camera just didn’t seem to make it out of the bag. Have no fear, people – it happened and you’ll see visual proof soon enough.

Shout outs
Jenny was a joy to have on this maiden voyage. She’s a ton of fun to hang out with, she’s easy to travel with and she kept me strong out on the course. I think it was a little hard for her to go so slow but she’s feeling great and she has another Half Iron race next weekend. That’s right – Jenny is doing back to back half iron distance races because that’s how she rolls. She also missed the wedding of a very good friend to be here, a sacrifice that has not gone unnoticed, my friend. Thank you so much for being here with me and for me.

To several people in Forward Motion Race Club for mentoring and encouragement. In particular to Joe Foster and Monica Mazzocco-Zucker for bike help and to Chris McCrary for swimming and running help (I tried to lift my knees -I really did!). To Dana, Maggs, Liesbeth, Sharley, Carrie, Kelby and Roberta I send thanks for all of your words of encouragment.

Shout outs to the Good Doctor for all those early morning rides on Tuesday and Thursday. I hope we get to that next week. It made a difference. Double shout outs for telling me I needed to put on a little weght (tee!)

Thanks to every single other person out there who sent encouragement and who asked about the race and who gave me cheerful comments and wished me luck. It really does make a difference.

I’d also like to thank my bike for not breaking down on me or flatting. I am always so grateful to my bike when I get to T2 and nothing bad has happened. The bike’s reward is that it is in the shop being cleaned and tuned up right now. I may not be able to ride until next Monday but I’ll live with it.

Aftermath

My knees are still sore, my legs are getting more sore by the minute and what was a sore throat and some minor head congestion over the weekend has blown up in to a full scale head cold but in spite of all of that I feel great. I met my goal and did something extraordinary and find myself, once again, deeply thankful for my health and vitality and the inner drive and bravery to train up and toe the line. Life is good.

Posted in community, Racing, triathlon | 35 Comments

It’s A Small World

Posted on July 18, 2008 by 21cm

Like a lot of you I am on Facebook and like a lot of you I am connected to other bloggers. Some of you read me and some of you are connected to people I’m connected to and so you connected yourself to me and that’s all great because I love the internets and some of my favorite people in the world are my creepy internet friends.

There is one such person I am connected to in Facebook whose last name seemed kind of familiar. It tickled my brain ever so lightly from time to time but I just didn’t make much effort to put it together with a memory. As it turns out I didn’t have to make much of an effort to figure out why her name rang a bell because last night the reason exploded in my head like a piece of freshly lit flash paper.

I was going through a drawer full of some very old letters trying to see if I had kept any from a steamy little relationship I had with a college professor about a zillion years ago. I didn’t find any from him but I did find one from an old friend and on it was a little note that said “ps – thus and so got officially married” and in that second I flashed on my niggling memory and wrote a note to Running Chick With an Orange Hat.

I’m sorry to have to report that I inadvertently made that note as maximally creepy as it could be. The note:

If the answer to this question is “yes” you will undoubtedly be slack jawed but first I need to ask the question.

Are your parent’s names Thus and Such? If I’ve got that right let me know and I’ll tell you a story.

Far be it from me to just say “I grew up in such and such town and knew these 2 people Thus and Such who had a daughter with your name. Is that you?” Oh no – Must be a drama queen. I wanted to envision RunningChick having the same explosive moment I had. What a tool I am. A very effective, tool, though because I got this response:

{blink blink}
{rubs eyes, re-reads question} followed by words that clearly said “you are really creeping me out”

Let me just say this – I’m SO sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out.

Turns out I knew the Running Chick with the Orange hat when she was but a wee one. I was thinking I knew her parents before she was born but maybe not. I do remember her as a teeny little thing and that makes me both creepy and old. Very old. I was only in my late teens then but still…. I moved away from Connecticut when she was probably about 5 and I did inquire after her later in life when she was a teen and was told she was “a really solid kid”. And so she is. Solid and fast and smart and happy and successful.

I hated to bring new meaning to the term ‘creepy internet friend’. Fortunately we have communicated and she is not freaked out or creeped out – yay! And I must say once again that I loves the internets. How else would I ever have re-connected to a little girl I once knew 30+ years and 3,000 miles ago?

Posted in community | Leave a comment

It’s A Small World

Posted on July 18, 2008 by 21cm

Like a lot of you I am on Facebook and like a lot of you I am connected to other bloggers. Some of you read me and some of you are connected to people I’m connected to and so you connected yourself to me and that’s all great because I love the internets and some of my favorite people in the world are my creepy internet friends.

There is one such person I am connected to in Facebook whose last name seemed kind of familiar. It tickled my brain ever so lightly from time to time but I just didn’t make much effort to put it together with a memory. As it turns out I didn’t have to make much of an effort to figure out why her name rang a bell because last night the reason exploded in my head like a piece of freshly lit flash paper.

I was going through a drawer full of some very old letters trying to see if I had kept any from a steamy little relationship I had with a college professor about a zillion years ago. I didn’t find any from him but I did find one from an old friend and on it was a little note that said “ps – thus and so got officially married” and in that second I flashed on my niggling memory and wrote a note to Running Chick With an Orange Hat.

I’m sorry to have to report that I inadvertently made that note as maximally creepy as it could be. The note:

If the answer to this question is “yes” you will undoubtedly be slack jawed but first I need to ask the question.

Are your parent’s names Thus and Such? If I’ve got that right let me know and I’ll tell you a story.

Far be it from me to just say “I grew up in such and such town and knew these 2 people Thus and Such who had a daughter with your name. Is that you?” Oh no – Must be a drama queen. I wanted to envision RunningChick having the same explosive moment I had. What a tool I am. A very effective, tool, though because I got this response:

{blink blink}
{rubs eyes, re-reads question} followed by words that clearly said “you are really creeping me out”

Let me just say this – I’m SO sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out.

Turns out I knew the Running Chick with the Orange hat when she was but a wee one. I was thinking I knew her parents before she was born but maybe not. I do remember her as a teeny little thing and that makes me both creepy and old. Very old. I was only in my late teens then but still…. I moved away from Connecticut when she was probably about 5 and I did inquire after her later in life when she was a teen and was told she was “a really solid kid”. And so she is. Solid and fast and smart and happy and successful.

I hated to bring new meaning to the term ‘creepy internet friend’. Fortunately we have communicated and she is not freaked out or creeped out – yay! And I must say once again that I loves the internets. How else would I ever have re-connected to a little girl I once knew 30+ years and 3,000 miles ago?

Posted in community | 7 Comments

Hump Day Miscellany – Take the Poll!

Posted on July 16, 2008 by 21cm

Let’s talk about lubrication, shall we? No no – THAT kind. I mean the kind you use in a race. I have been riding my bike almost exclusively in my tri shorts which I much prefer to biking shorts but I have not been using any sort of anything in them. I’m thinking that 56 miles of racing that way is not going to feel good so I’m wondering what is YOUR preferred product:

Please feel free to fill up the comments with anything you have to say about lubing up for the ride.

In other news – we had an evening with Michellie Jones the other night. Here’s proof:

I know – I’m short.

1). She passed around her Silver Medal from the 2000 Olympics and I rubbed it on my cheek hoping for some race magic. We’ll see if it worked on Sunday

2). She fuels up on a cheeseburger and fries the night before a race. It’s her favorite meal

3). She could barely walk after her first HIM or after Florida.

4). She won her first ever IM (Florida) even though she was over 30.

5). She’s sponsored for another 2 years which means she will be a sponsored athlete in her early 40s

6). Let’s hear it for the ‘old’ broads who are out there still dominating the field!

Posted in Hump Day | 22 Comments

Monday Monday – The Vineman Cometh!

Posted on July 14, 2008 by 21cm

Sunday is Vineman day and I am SO excited. IronMomJenny is coming Friday and we are driving up to Sonoma for the weekend to hang out and race together. Ms. Muppet Dog will be there, too as will some folks from over at Trifuel. Too much fun. Anyone else going?

Jenny has enough racing cred that she doesn’t care about her time so she’s doing this thing with me. I know she will have plenty of time to blog real time from her iPhone while she waits for me in transition and then she will get me through the run. What a lucky girl I am!

Today is Monday, my normal rest day and I always appreciate a Monday when I feel I have earned it and need it. Today qualifies – my legs are tired. I rode by myself Saturday because there was a particular ride I wanted to do and I wanted to do it at my pace and I didn’t have any available riding partners so off I went to ride the Berkeley Hills via Wildcat Canyon Road. I love this ride. I loved it all the more Saturday because I had one of those experiences that affirms your faith in humanity.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I can get lost in a walk in closet. Put me on a 43 mile ride on winding roads and you have a recipe for serious disaster. I had looked at the map. I had committed the major turns to memory. Did this help? Not much. I was fine until I got to an intersection I knew I was supposed to turn left. There was a sign pointing left that had the name of the wrong town for me on it, though. The only street sign I could see had the wrong name on it. I was confused. I thought I had to turn around and head back up the hill because I’d missed the intersection where I was supposed to turn (not that there had been one but, you know). I asked 2 women who were on bikes but stopped and chatting how to get to Pinehurst and they said they thought I should go left but they weren’t sure and then a man rode up the other side and they asked him. He said “go straight until you hit Skyline and then it runs in to Pinehurst”. Bliss. That was left for me so off I went. Then I got to the next intersection where 4 roads meet and got totally confused again but I finally figured it out and kept going. And then I finally got to the intersection where Pinehurst and Skyline meet only there are 3 other roads that meet there, too and it was ugly and confusing only the guy was there, waiting for me! She pointed the right way and said, “just head straight down there!” How nice was that?! So thank you again Mr. VeryKind Cyclist. You made my day.

Straight down is the operative word. Truth is I could have gone riding with my race club but they were doing this thing from the other direction (coming up Pinehurst) and I just didn’t want to do it that way:

Okay so the way I went up looks just about as steep as the way I went down but it isn’t – trust me.

My time on this ride was 47 minutes faster than a year ago. Rock on.

Sunday I swam with my race club at an open water swim clinic. It was both good and bad. I swam at a reasonable pace but I managed to introduce a whole new problem – cross over. This has never been a big problem for me before. Sigh… I have 2 more swims before Vineman and I’ll just have to straighten that out. On the plus side I test drove my sleeveless wetsuit and although the neck felt really tight at first I quit noticing I even had it one after a while. More bliss.

After the swim I ran for 70 minutes and honestly I thought it would be horrible because my legs were tired. I didn’t really care, though which was a nice change of pace. Any run would be a good run as far as I was concerned. My pace was about a 10:15 which isn’t bad and I didn’t die which is great so mission accomplished!

And here, for your final viewing pleasure is Bruise Watch – Day 11. Almost gone:

In conclusion let me just say – BRING ON THE VINEMAN! I’m ready.

Posted in Monday Monday | 11 Comments

Hump Day Miscellany – Fitness Rules!

Posted on July 9, 2008 by 21cm

1). Best headline ever Watch your waistline: Fat men have bad sperm

If that doesn’t get a guy to put down the Freedom Fries I don’t know what will. And here’s the best line in the article:

“But experts aren’t sure if that necessarily means obese men face major difficulties having children.”

Let me just clear that up for the experts. The answer would be “yes – yes they do” Between the enormous differential in the length of his bishop vs. his girth and the enormity of his unattractiveness you’ve got to believe that a huge guy getting his seed anywhere near an egg is a bit of an issue. Of course the article doesn’t cover stuff like that. It’s all about sperm count, temperature and fertility but frankly, I think those are non-issues in this case.

2). I finally had the ride I wanted to have today – 16.2 mph average. YES! This is the same ride I kept doing at 13 mph or so last week.

3). The mechanical issue with my bike was a loose skewer in the back that had the wheel crooked in the frame. That just doesn’t work. Eventually it got so crooked it jammed and dumped me on the ground. I’m just glad that happened going uphill, not downhill.


bruise watch – day 6

4). After my oh so fantastic ride today I ran 3 miles. Average pace 9:17. This particular route used to take me 32 or 33 minutes. Today it took me 27.

5). High on cycling and running I chose to go swimming. We did drills and stuff so I don’t think I was all that fast but I led the lane from time to time. I swam 2100 yards in the heat of the day. Bliss.

6). Fitness rules – it really does!

UPDATE:
I almost forget to mention my new favorite fitness blog Mizfit! Go check her out. She is just chock full of great tips and advice and information and runs a very interactive site.

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Back in The Saddle

Posted on July 8, 2008 by 21cm

I got a call from The Good Doctor last night at about 9:00 asking if I was up for a ride – yeah! His back still hurts but biking isn’t the cause so he still wanted to go.

I told him about how I discovered that my bike had mechanical issues that were making me go slow. I don’t know if I wrote about this or not but the last 3 times I rode with him I was killing myself and only averaging 13 – 13.5 mph. It was making me crazy.

When we met up this morning just about the first thing he said was “slow down! I can see the difference” Woo hoo! I felt great and rode well.

He went short because he wants to take it easy on the back so I went on and did the normal loop which is about 23 miles. I tried to ride well but was not going all out or at race pace for most of it. I did, occasionally, pump it up but mostly I was just enjoying the morning.

I got home and looked at the Garmin – 15.8 mph average. PRAISE THE LORD! Seriously. My race day goal is 16 mph and I feel like there is some chance I can do that. Phew!

I do so hate to blame the bike for poor performance but when that turns out to be the case it is such a relief. I also have the advantage of having spent 2 weeks riding on a bike that had some resistance to rolling. This has turned out to be a good thing. A very good thing, indeed.

Posted in Cycling | 8 Comments