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!

How to Enjoy a 3 Day Weekend

So I thought I would share a little advice with you all. As most of you who have known me for a long time know, I am pretty much the happiest I have been in a long time, maybe ever...and so I want to share with you the secret to my happiness.  It starts with a three day weekend. Now, I get three day weekends every week, so I suggest you find an awesome job like I have, with great bosses, and work only Monday to Thursday. Of course this three day weekend advice can also be used for holiday weekends.

First, run 12 miles with 1300 feet of climbing on Friday:

Climbing that much may seem difficult, which I would have to agree with you, but it is totally worth it once you get to the top. Look at the view I had of Mt Diablo. Plus I could see the golden Gate bridge on the other side.

A few words of advice though. If running by yourself, you might want to avoid jumping locked gates:

If you do so, you might run into very scary cows:

Ok, so in this picture they look really far away, and appear to be minding their own business. But when I came upon them they were standing in the middle of my trail and all of them were staring at me, like what are you doing in our field? They are very big too.  So I had to run off the trail and all the way around them...and I was too scared to take a picture of them up close.  You never know what a crazy cow might do.  So part of my advice is: do the run, do the climbing, but maybe stick to trails that you don't have to jump fences to get to.

So that was day one of a great weekend. Day two: bike 58 miles with 30 of your friends through wine country.

Be sure to wear your green jacket and purple flames, because it obviously makes the ride much easier, and the hills seem shorter.

Then to finish off the perfect three day weekend, you should end with four hours of open water swimming, running in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and doing a bunch of core (lunges, situps, pushups, squats, etc.)

And don't forget that running up stairs is one of the best parts!

Ok, now you may think I am crazy, and that you wouldn't enjoy yourself doing all of this.  But I swear to you, once you get started, you will get addicted to how much fun it is, and how happy it makes you and you will be amazed at yourself and what you can accomplish!

Top 10 Ways to Train for Ironman

Wondering what it takes to be an Ironman? Wondering how hard you would have to work in order to swim 2.4 miles, then bike 112 miles, and then run 26.2 miles all in less than 17 hours? Well start by following these tips from Iron Team 2011:

1. Be sure to work on upper arm strength, it will help you with the swimming:

 2. Be persistent. Keep at it, and don't give up even if everyone else in the world thinks you are crazy and part of a cult!

3. Balance is key! You wouldn't want to fall off your bike, right?

4. Be sure to eat correctly! Lots of protein and green vegetables.

5. Don't forget that you are a superstar and a cancer buster!!!!

6. No matter how hard you try, you gotta accept that finishing an Ironman always requires a little bit of good luck.

7. Avoid pirates on bikes carrying pinwheels.  This doesn't just pertain to Ironman training...it is a basic rule that all people should follow. Never know where those pirates have been. ;)

8. Don't forget that stretching is a very important aspect of training. Stretching in wetsuits increases flexibility, especially if you have already warmed your wetsuit up!

9. Remember it's all about crossing that finish line, but.....

10. You can't get there without a GREAT TEAM to get you through these CRAZY MONTHS and MONTHS OF TRAINING!

The Three Bears Don't Like Me!

So yesterday Maureen and I tried to go on our Three Bears bike marker: 35 miles including a few hills that are even harder than the three bears according to me (and I am an expert on what is difficult). We did the first two hills and were almost in Orinda when we heard this loud pop. I could have sworn I felt something shoot out of my tire.  My back tire had gone flat, and Maureen was kind enough to point out that she has been smelling my bike brakes rubbing against the tire since we had started out.  :)

So anyway, three tubes, 4 CO2 canisters, and one broken little hook thingy which I don't know the name of later and my tire was still flat!  Yep...the first tube, was obviously popped...although we couldn't find the hole. The second one had a big hole (which we found after it took me 30 minutes to put it in the tire). And then the third one had a broken stem, so every time we tried to fill it up the air would leak out quickly before I could close it...of course I thought I didn't know how to blow it up, so I used 3 CO2s trying to fill up that one!

Finally we realized that we only had one tube left, and no CO2, so we had to call Steve who came to rescue us!

My tire is still flat, and we only biked 6 miles...but surprisingly it took us 2 and a half hours for the whole ordeal and my HR monitor still said I burned over 1,000 calories. I guess frustration takes energy!

So this was my second attempt at the Three Bears marker...last time it was pouring rain and I got sick.  So I am thinking maybe the Three Bears are trying to tell me to switch to the Calaveras Bike Marker. Phil, Grace, and Marina, I may be seeing you next time!

Good thing I still look cute in the Iron Team gear...even if I wasn't going anywhere! :)

Bootcamp: 2 days, 14 hours, rain, snow, mud....Swim, Bike, Run...FUN!!!!

Well I made it through my first bootcamp with Iron Team...I am pretty exhausted right now...partly because I celebrated being done this morning with Aly drinking mimosas....but anyway...I will tell this weekend's story in pictures:


Saturday was at Lake Del Valle:

First we had to bike up into the mountain...in the snow!

Then we got back and had to spin for hours

Then it was time to put on our wetsuits...Jasmine and I were told that if we thought it would be fun...it would be.

I don't really know if that was true...it was freakin' freezing!

But we all ironed up and went on our swim.

Then it was time for hill repeats in the rain on the muddy path...at least it warmed us up!

And then we got to spin some more!

Finally it was time for stretching and we were done!

So after 7 hours 59 minutes and 55 seconds of training...we thought we deserved a treat....

  

Then it was home to sleep so we could get back up at 5:30am the next morning and do it again!

This time it was at Indian Campus, College of Marin, in Novato...so we got to swim for two hours in a pool and it was mostly sunny all day!

Notice how much happier I am?

We got to practice racing like in open water in the nice warm pool! Thank you coaches!

Then of course we had a spin/run/core...spin/run/core brick...and ok, it was still a little cold at points...hence the scarf. 

After the first run, we all got back to our bikes and found that our tires were flat.  For some reason we didn't like the coaches so much at this point anymore...but I changed my first tube by myself fairly quickly, so then I started liking them again.

And of course every spin/run/core brick has to have dips!

And sumo squats. 

So that was my weekend.  8 hours of training on Saturday, 6 on Sunday. It was absolutely the best weekend I have had in a long time!

GO TEAM! IRON TEAM!

I just want to say before I go...that I feel so lucky to be a part of such an amazing group of people. I look forward to every time I get to see them all.  And on top of that, I am so lucky to have so many friends and family who aren't on the team, but who have been supporting me, and donating on my behalf, and encouraging me to do this.  I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.  So thank you all my friends and family for being such great people!