But there is a Tri. Specifically, 2 weeks after my marathon there is a women’s only Half Ironman that is for women who are NOT signing up for the official Vineman Half Ironman. I’m thinking of doing it. So tell me – is that crazy or not?

I am currently swimming and biking as cross training and I could up the bike riding by a bunch now that my muscles have caught up with my desires. I’m not having those pre-over use injury pains any more.

Please weigh in. If you are a triathlete or know of one who might be willing to proffer an opinion please send her or him my way.

Thanks!

I had intended to go out for a 6 mile run this morning but, as usual, I started out too late and really didn’t have time. The question then became, what will I do to make this run count? I wasn’t really interested in just running 4 miles at some reasonable pace. No, no – not good enough. And then it hit me – I could make this a hill run. I need some hill training. Keeping in mind that all runs are hill runs of sorts where I live what I had in mind was a wicked hill run – steep hills. So I charted a course in my head and started moving in that direction. As I got closer to the base of the first big hill I started having an internal dialog:

Ego: The hills are coming up – you should run around Sunset Loop and then up the big one on that other street.

Id: Oh I don’t know about that. Hills are hard.

Ego: Yes they are – and there are quite a few notable ones on your marathon. You need to run some hills

Id: But hills are hard. I’m not sure today is a good day for hills

Ego: Really? And what would be a good day for hills?

Id: Oh you know – marathon day

Ego: – Right, so you can get up the first big hill, get a giant pain in your ass and have a miserable time of it for the next 20 miles?

Id: But, but hills are hard and I’m not sure I’m ready and what if I twist my ankle or what if there’s a big dog that comes out to chase me and I can’t get away from it because I’m running up hill and I can’t go fast enough and what if it eats my face off and that will just RUIN MY LIFE!?

Ego: Oh look – we’re at Sunset Loop

Id: Okay so how about we go up and then 1/2 way down and then run up the other big hill starting part way up.

Ego: I don’t think so. It’s time to train on some hills. Really – it’s time.

Id: Okay fine but if this kills me I’ll be dead but you’ll be sorry!

And then I did it – and I did it just fine.

Here is how it looked on MotionBased (did a screen capture in stead of the viewport but viewport is cool) .

See where those words are 1/2 way along the right side of the loop? That would have been a great short cut but I didn’t take it. I did both hills, all the way. Yeah for me. ps- see that first big, sharp drop? I run up that almost every time I go out so that’s what I mean about every run being a hill run. It’s unavoidable.

So 2 hills down and a whole bunch more to go!

I had intended to go out for a 6 mile run this morning but, as usual, I started out too late and really didn’t have time. The question then became, what will I do to make this run count? I wasn’t really interested in just running 4 miles at some reasonable pace. No, no – not good enough. And then it hit me – I could make this a hill run. I need some hill training. Keeping in mind that all runs are hill runs of sorts where I live what I had in mind was a wicked hill run – steep hills. So I charted a course in my head and started moving in that direction. As I got closer to the base of the first big hill I started having an internal dialog:

Ego: The hills are coming up – you should run around Sunset Loop and then up the big one on that other street.

Id: Oh I don’t know about that. Hills are hard.

Ego: Yes they are – and there are quite a few notable ones on your marathon. You need to run some hills

Id: But hills are hard. I’m not sure today is a good day for hills

Ego: Really? And what would be a good day for hills?

Id: Oh you know – marathon day

Ego: – Right, so you can get up the first big hill, get a giant pain in your ass and have a miserable time of it for the next 20 miles?

Id: But, but hills are hard and I’m not sure I’m ready and what if I twist my ankle or what if there’s a big dog that comes out to chase me and I can’t get away from it because I’m running up hill and I can’t go fast enough and what if it eats my face off and that will just RUIN MY LIFE!?

Ego: Oh look – we’re at Sunset Loop

Id: Okay so how about we go up and then 1/2 way down and then run up the other big hill starting part way up.

Ego: I don’t think so. It’s time to train on some hills. Really – it’s time.

Id: Okay fine but if this kills me I’ll be dead but you’ll be sorry!

And then I did it – and I did it just fine.

Here is how it looked on MotionBased (did a screen capture in stead of the viewport but viewport is cool) .

See where those words are 1/2 way along the right side of the loop? That would have been a great short cut but I didn’t take it. I did both hills, all the way. Yeah for me. ps- see that first big, sharp drop? I run up that almost every time I go out so that’s what I mean about every run being a hill run. It’s unavoidable.

So 2 hills down and a whole bunch more to go!

Today was my 23rd Mother’s Day and as always it was great. My kids have been exemplary in honoring me on this day every year.

Humbly Anne sent me a package that arrived on Friday with instructions to open it ‘pre-coffee’ on 5/14. I wasn’t sure I would be able to muddle through that process under those circumstances but I managed. First I opened the card. The back story to this card is that last October I got more than moderately loaded at my niece’s wedding and danced like a mad woman. It was big time fun. Here is the front of my card:

(it says “There is a perfect amount of wine that let’s you say, “Damn, I’m a great dancer”!)

On the inside it said “It’s your birthday mother’s day.
Please dance responsibly.

There was a nice personal message and then it said, “p.s. there’s a picture of you on the back of this card”

I almost fell over laughing when I turned it over and saw this:

Oh Humbly Ann, you know me too well. The card came with some great Taylor and Ng mugs of bears doing naughty things with each other and some exotic chocolate bars.

Little Pookie gave me some running socks, as requested, and she gave me this fabulous shirt made of high tech fabrics from Sugoi:

I love, love, love it.

Small Son and his lovely girlfriend came over to the house (a rare event on a Sunday) and brought me a Polar F4 heart rate monitor which will work in the pool – yeah! I have been wanting one forever.

Pookie and I are eating pizza for dinner.

Tomorrow I swim with the new HR Monitor and Tuesday I run in my new shirt. Every day is coffee day so the mugs will be well utilized. The chocolate will be gone very, very soon.

And that makes me 3 for 3 on the day and a very Happy Mom. I hope the other Moms out there had equally great days and that the would be Moms have their dreams come true and that the people who are hurting for their Moms find some peace.

From the book I was listening to on my 10 miler today.

The book is called This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M Homes

“There are 2 kinds of politicians. The kind that have sex and the kind that have wars. Which kind do you prefer?”

The run was okay. Avg pace 10:34. I guess that is getting to be for real for me and that’s a good thing. This run was a reminder that it is important to get enough to eat the night before (don’t go to a fundraiser where you sample foods from various restaurants, never getting much to eat at all) and be well hydrated (skip the wine) and take something with you like Gu. Other than having to stop at Safeway at mile 8 to get a SuperFood I did fine.

Next long run will be longer and I’ll be better prepared.
—

Addendum: Motion Based says my pace was 10:18. I love MotionBased now owned by Garmin.

Total  Time (h:m:s)  2:01:13 11:47 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)  1:46:24 10:18 pace
Distance (mi ) 10.33
Moving Speed (mph) 5.8 avg. 26.7 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +1,790 / -1,818 

I stopped once to use the bathroom and once to get some nutrition. Our Lady of Garmin knows all.

Bold has a minor discussion of male grooming on his board and I’m sorry to say this but he bought the wrong tool. What you all really need is The BodyGroom by Philips/Norelco

Hit that link and watch the film – I’m sure you’ll agree. In fact I recommend you watch all of the movies and don’t leave out the music video.

Things that make me feel alive

Wandering the Farmer’s Market on a sunny Sunday morning
Running 8 miles in the wine country and loving it
Riding my bike 38 miles through the vineyards

The notion to make a list like that is not mine. It comes from Sei Shonigan’s 1000 year old diary, The Pillow Book. I was reminded of the Pillow Book by the novel I am listening to when I run – My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. It’s a great book but that’s all I have to say about it for now. I’ll expand on the items in the list, instead.

This weekend was the Wine Country Century ride that started in Santa Rosa, CA and wound through the wine country. I chose to take the 35 mile route because I wanted to go on a long run first. Due to various impending, darkly lurking injuries I decided to cut that down to 8 miles and Friday night I wasn’t sure even that would work.

As it turned out I had a fabulous run – the kind that reaffirms my faith that I really am a runner and I really can do it. After my crappy run Thursday night I was feeling more like a slug than a runner but the Saturday run was some kind of wonderful. I started out on a left leg that was still stiff and sore but I figured I might as well just hit the road and see what happened. I put in the iPod earbuds, fired up the book and took off after waving good-bye to the other Women of Iron (my biking friends).

The run started in a area of wide roads, strip malls and houses but after about 2 miles, just when the whiner within started to pipe down, I found myself in the country with vineyards on my left and green hills and livestock on my right. Heaven. About another 1/2 mile down the road I became aware of the sound of birds chirping through the narrative of my book so I shut off the iPod, pulled the earbuds out and kept running with just the sound of the wind, my breathing, my footfalls and the birds. I just don’t get peace and solitude like that anywhere near home.

Knowing that my leg had been bothering me and that I still needed to ride my bike 35 miles I decided to turn around at the 4 mile mark. I stopped, reconfigured my clothing, inspected a grape vine with tender, light green growth and started back. I could hear a tractor firing up in the distance but other than that there wasn’t a sign of humanity anywhere near me. No cars, no people, just peace and serenity and me – pant, pant, huff, huff…. Oh, and a rather large snake lying by the side of the road for some early morning sun. I almost stepped on it but managed to jag sideways just in the knick of time (after letting out a little shriek). It looked like this one.

When civilization reared its ugly head I put the iPod back on and listened to the book some more but I just kept running – right up to the truck when I got back. I felt fantastic and didn’t even want to stop and switch sports but it was that time of the morning.

I managed to transition from runner to cyclist and took off. I have to give the ride mixed reviews which is pretty much how I feel about all bike rides. The scenery for the ride was even more spectacular if that is possible. Just miles and miles and miles of grapevines and farms and sometimes stuff like this (click to enlarge – it’s worth it)

I was very happy for the first half of the ride but then I started to get very hungry. At long last, after climbing a hill for a while I got to the rest stop and fueled up. Then I started off again, thinking I would be filled with new vitality. No such luck.

Things that aggravate
People who honk their horns
Empty boxes left in the pantry and refrigerator
Climbing hills on my bike

I’m not a good climber and I don’t like climbing. It seems endless and painful and slow and it doesn’t help that my bike weighs about 35 pounds. But climb we did for a long, long time. At one point I felt like I just couldn’t figure out the right gear or the right cadence and when I woman passed me I said, “Are we going up hill?” and she said, “yes – it isn’t you!” But it was me. It was me whining and grinding my way through it. My legs were shot.

Things that make me feel like an idiot
Forgetting to put the pot under the coffee
Forgetting to pay my property taxes
Going the wrong way on a long bike ride

Finally when I was getting really close to the end I got to an intersection where I thought I was supposed to hang a left and who should be coming the other way but my friends. “Hey! It’s Pamela!!! (note – I just outed myself here). Friend B yelled, “Pamela!!?? What the??!!” and I just yelled back, “I have a different route” and kept going. I was now on Chalk Hill Rd. Get it? HILL! I rode up that hill for about a mile and a half because I just don’t stop on hills. I’m too afraid that if I stop I will never get started again. My rationale was that if I was going the wrong way it was downhill to get back so what the heck? Finally, when I got to the top of the hill I pulled out the route map and realized the folly of my ways. See that little extra piece sticking out of the top of the route on my Google Earth image? Extra Credit!

Down the hill I went and back to the start where I rejoined my friends, had lunch and bade the wine country a fond fairwell.

Things that surprise and delight
An impromptu invitation to dinner
Coming home and finding the house cleaned up
Realizing that I am much stronger and more resilient than I think I am.

I am in the process of doing a writeup about my run/bike from Saturday but meanwhile I wanted to offer you some entertainment.

We’ve had Cadet P0rn and we’ve had runner p0rn so today I bring you skater p0rn

Enjoy!

Kudos to Mark for letting it all … well… not really… but… you know….. for putting on that pinky pink outfit and running around for all the world to see. And double kudos for getting so many people to be givers. What an RBF coup!

The Donovan fans among us (the RBF, NOT the RFB as I previously referred to you) and others will recognize those lyrics. The beginning of the song goes like this:

The lock upon my garden gate’s a snail, that’s what it is.
The lock upon my garden gate’s a snail, that’s what it is.
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
The caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain.

The mountain is me, as are the butterfly and the snail. On a good day I can overcome the mountain, shed my skin and fly. This week I have had to push myself out the door because I felt more like the lock on the gate – a snail. I’ve failed to even show up on swim days and was only marginally successful on Tuesday, a run day. Today was better but I pretty much had to toss myself out the front door as though I were a cat who had just peed on the bath mat.

I was successful, though, heading out the door at about 5 PM with the intention of running 8 miles. I looked at my Garmin early in the run hoping I hadn’t hit 2 miles yet because I felt really whiney and I just wanted to go home but I know that I usually get over that by about 2 miles. And so I did. I was running hard and I was proud of myself and I felt strong. Inhale step, step, exhale, step, step, inhale, step, step. My cadence was good and I was cooking – no more mountain. I got to a water fountain at about 2.5 miles, stopped for a drink and realized I was breathing hard and my heart rate was up. OKAY NOW! GO! But the voice within thought “uh oh – you should probably cool it”.

On I went pumping and huffing and pushing it.

On the way home my hammies started to tighten up and I was tired. So tired. There was the mountain and I was a snail again. Damnit! At about 6.2 miles I started walking. I turned off the Garmin and thought, “screw this – I’m walking home”. And then no – I couldn’t do that. So I lurched home, sometimes running sometimes walking and finally gave up running all together at 7.5 miles. And that was okay, close enough.

So there was a mountain and then there wasn’t and then there was. The lesson I learned – AGAIN is that going out too fast just doesn’t pay off on a long run or even a longish run. My over all pace was 10:30 but had I gone out at that pace it could have been my pace for every mile and I wouldn’t have had to walk. As it was my first miles were 10:03 and then 9:43 and that’s all it took to put the mountain right back in my way.

Saturday I am going to try to be a runner who runs at a 10:30 or 10:45 pace and who does that mile after mile for 8 miles. Then I’ll ride my bike 35 miles and then Sunday I will be a slug who sleeps in, drinks coffee and reads the paper.

The whole story:

Monday I missed my swim, justifying not going on the basis that I rode my bike 28 miles on Sunday so I needed the rest. Tuesday I almost missed my run. I started the day out right by getting into running clothes but as the day wore on it got hotter and hotter and so I ended up changing into street clothes and doing other things. Then it got to be evening. Then there was very little time left before the sun would go down. There was some reason I didn’t get out earlier – my son needed a ride, I needed to go to the store – whatever. By 7:30 I decided that if I couldn’t get in a 6 mile run I had better go out and go fast. 3 miles (3.2 if you believe Motionbased), 30 minutes – you go girl!

Yesterday I missed my swim. I just didn’t get up and go. I just didn’t. Ugh. Are we seeing a pattern here? This is bad. I feel myself slipping into old bad habits that led me to be undertrained for my marathon which resulted in a bad time and a terribly painful run. Must.fight.back!

Today is nice and cool. I missed going out in the morning but I will go out and run 8 miles and I will try not to worry about the pace. Tomorrow I will swim. Saturday I am doing a sort of roll your own duathlon where I’m running 10 miles and then doing a planned, supported 35 miles bike ride. Hopefully I will get back on track. A little verbal abuse encouragement from the RBF might also help.

ps – I’m relieved that the RFB is not populated by cat nuts. NTTAWT – cat nuts are nice people. I’m just not one of them and apparently neither are most of you.

pps- it’s not that I think I’m a slacker or anything. I’m doing a lot of training it’s just that when I don’t get up and get going I worry about myself. I really don’t want to show up for my marthon with too few miles in my log book. That way lies madness not to mention pain.