Golden ORB's Easter Egg Hunt

So I think I am getting my groove back. No, I didn't go to some tropical island and start dating a much younger man...although...I wouldn't be opposed to the idea. OSB (Oakland Spin Brigade for those of you out of the loop) has morphed into ORB (Oakland Riding Brigade) and we celebrated our morphing by having an East egg hunt as we road up Old Tunnel Road. Coach Tony raced ahead of us and hid the eggs (in plain sight...hee hee) and we followed, fighting over the eggs because some of them had donations in them!

Jasmine and I before the Easter egg hunt began...we look like friends here...but we were soon to be bitter rivals in a race against time to get the most eggs. :)

Before we began the hunt, Jasmine and I were at the back of the pack, but as soon as they said their were eggs in front of us, we went speeding up the hill.










Susan about to grab an egg as Jasmine rushes up to try and steal it away. There was almost a huge brawl.

But then we realized there were enough eggs for everyone! So we were happy.

And what better way to celebrate a successful egg hunt than with a Birthday party for Phil at Zachary's. I love Zachary's. :)








I kind of had a one track mind that day! I wanted eggs!!!!!

Just Not Feeling It...

So I just haven't been feeling it lately. I took a week off to go to Europe, I didn't even think about training there. I thought I would come back all fired up and ready to jump back into training...but here it is...Monday afternoon. I skimped on my Saturday workout, only cycling 25 miles, Sunday I decided to take off, and told myself I would swim today instead. But now I am sitting at work and I just don't feel like going to the pool after work. It just doesn't seem fun. What happened to being so psyched about training? Where did my motivation go?

I don't think this is the best time for me to start losing my drive. There are only 125 days until my Ironman. Right now is when I am supposed to start ramping up. How come I feel like taking another week off? Hm...

Sorry for the depressing post. I know I usually like to be positive and I am usually full of energy, but maybe everyone needs some rest time, and some down time. Maybe I just need some time to reflect on why I am doing this.

Recovery Underwear

Yep, you heard it here first. I really believe there is a great need for recovery underwear. So bike shorts have padding that is supposed to keep you all  nice and comfortable, but after 80 miles on a bike, I am in pain! It's not just the butt, but the entire perineal area (known to some as the taint). :)

So here is my idea: They need to make underwear that is lined with something really soft, like fur, or velour. And then it should be padded with soft down feathers, so that when you are recovering from a long bike ride, you can sit in comfort and relax! Now, I have to say, this might not have been such a problem if I had bought any shammy butter, but I keep forgetting to do that.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, why I am thinking of lining my panties with velour and stuffing them with feathers, I just did my first 80 mile bike ride today! Yes, I know I was supposed to do 100, but I have jet lag and I have a cold (with a yucky runny and itchy nose) so I am not feeling too hot. But I am super proud of myself because I had only ever ridden 60 miles before, and usually when I am sick I am a big baby and stay in bed for a week. What I found out today, was that having a cold may stop you from biking 100 miles, but it shouldn't stop you from biking 80 miles!

Here are some picks from today's Tierra Bella century ride:

Me at about my mile 65. Happy because I only had 15 left to go!

My baby, I couldn't do any of this without her!

Pretty Lake

Me and my boys! guacamole!

Thank You For Helping to Stop Cancer

I wanted to thank all my friends and family that have donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Here is a video of Eva, your donation helped save her life and countless more!

Perform Beautifully

So I just entered a "Perform Beautifully" contest to be an Oakley Ambassador. They had us answer all these questions and write about what performing beautifully meant to us, and they had us upload a video for people to vote on. I uploaded the video my mom took of me doing my first Half Ironman, but I realized they don't have what I wrote about performing beautifully anywhere on their facebook page.  And as much fun as I think my video is (ok, so it's not the best quality, but I am no Rocky Reyes when it comes to making vidoes, so it was the best I had) I wanted to share what I said about what it means to me to Perform Beautifully.

So here is what I wrote:

Performing Beautifully to me means trying as hard as you can and pushing yourself to do things you never thought possible. But it also means accepting yourself and loving yourself, and doing what you do because you love it, not because anyone else wants you to do it, or because you are trying to show other people what you can do. When I was in high school I was always pretty bad at sports. I got cut from the volley ball team, never made a point on the basketball team, and so I had to stick to swimming and cross country, where they let anyone on the team. I remember I used to love cross country practice because it was so fun to run around with the other girls, but I hated the races. It used to really bother me when I would come in last place. I felt embarrassed that I wasn’t good enough. So I gave up swimming and running for many years, and finally went back to it when my cousin and brother inspired me to join Team in Training. What I realize now is that it doesn’t matter what place I come in, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes me to accomplish a goal, what matters is that I do it, and I stick with it. Performing Beautifully to me, is realizing my true potential and being happy with that. Performing Beautifully means setting my own goals, and knowing that if I work hard enough for them, I can do almost anything I set my mind to, and Performing Beautifully to me also means inspiring others who thought they couldn’t do something and showing them that it is possible. 

If you want to see my video and vote for me go to: 

http://apps.facebook.com/performbeautifully/contests/99452/voteable_entries/19186781?ogn=facebook

And I want to thank my friend Scott for sending me the info about this contest. Whether or not I win a trip to Napa or get to be an Oakley Ambassador, I liked that it made me think about what this all means to me. It helped me take a look at what I am doing and really appreciate it. I may be exhausted by the end of every weekend, but the sweat, and tears, and cursing, and cuts and scrapes, are all worth it, and all make this experience even more memorable and beautiful!

I'm Exhausted!

It's funny, I am more tired right now then I as after doing the Wildflower Long Course last weekend...but I guess that is because this weekend I biked and ran farther than I ever have!

Saturday we started with an hour swim:

I liked that we were in the pool because my neck was still healing from the wetsuit hickie I got last weekend. Note to self: remember to put A LOT more body glide on my neck next time I wear my wet suit.

Then after the swim we were supposed to go on a 4 hour bike ride...funny thing is my four hour bike rides always turn into 5 or 5 and a half. Thanks to Les we got to do 61 miles with 3,500 feet of climbing!

That's me and Amanda and Tony only about a third of the way up the mountain. I don't know if you can tell, but I was covered in sweat, and it looks like we were happy, but that was just for the picture. Right about this time we were cursing Les, and I was using language I hardly even use!

But once we got to the top, it was quite beautiful!

That's the Pacific Ocean, we biked all the way from Santa Rosa to the Pacific and back! And when I got back Les gave me a shoulder massage, so I forgave him for making us go on the incredibly hard bike ride.

So that was Saturday. Today, I had to get up and run 15 miles. This was the first time I have ever run more than 13 miles. I was exhausted from yesterday, but I did my little run 10 minutes/walk 2 minutes and when I got bored running around Lake Merritt after 10 miles, I took a break, drove to the Berkeley Marina and did my last 5 there. This is preparing me for Ironman Canada, right? There will be little shuttles I can take to get from one part of the marathon to the next, right?  Someone please tell me I won't actually have to run all 26.2 miles after biking 112!!!! ;) Just kidding.  I know what I have gotten myself into...or maybe I don't know for sure, but each weekend when the workouts get harder and longer I begin to understand why people call me crazy for doing this. :)

Half Way to Iron!

I apologize for not having written lately. For a couple of weeks I started to feel a little overwhelmed, like "what the heck have I got myself into? I have to do this for 5 more months?" I guess I was feeling a little discouraged.  But then last weekend we went down to Lake San Antonio and do our first Half Ironman of the season. We spent the weekend camping in the rain...which hopefully made my time doing the event much longer...that and the hilly course. It took me 2 hours longer to do this one, then it did to do Big Kahuna, but that's ok. I finished! And I have a chance to do it all again on April 30th, hopefully in better whether.

So here are some pictures of the weekend. I know you are going to be jealous!

Our camp, before the rain on Saturday

Set my transition up in my car, because I didn't want my stuff to get all wet!

Think it looks cold? It was colder!

One good thing about Ironman compared to regular triathlons: you get your own wetsuit strippers!

Then it was time to get on the bike...56 miles in the rain. And I have to say...Nasty Grade was pretty nasty. I think at one point I was asking myself: "what the heck am I doing signing up to come do this again in a month?" But once it was over I felt great!

And I crossed the finish line. Completing 70.3 miles in just 8 hours and 48 minutes! LOL....let's hope that I can cut off an hour when I do it again in April.

Iron Team! I couldn't do this without them!