Thursday, March 23, 2006

Dolce Vita

I've always considered myself a mountain bike person. Road bikes were for skinny people or so I thought. Yesterday after my fun yet strenuous ride up a very muddy Wildcat Canyon, I wandered over to Mike's Bikes, they are one of T's clients and we have a bit of trade there. A bike that I've had my eye on for over a year was on sale, and well long story short, I got a new bike, a Specialized Dolce. It's purple w/silver accents. A total hottie! Tonight I was fitted and instructed on how to use clipless pedals (this makes no sense since you literally have to clip in your cleats...whatever) I think it weighs less than 25 lbs. and until I get a rack I can put in the back of my Acura Integra w/the seats folded down w/o having to take off the front tire.

Lastnight at the tri-club meeting, a gal from the Sports Basement gave us the low down on tri-gear. Totally low key, no pressure she educated the group on what was out there, what was essential and what was just fun. I'm leaning towards a tri short that can be worn for all 3 disciplines, a sports bra, a singlet for the bike and run. Since I have cleats now I'll need to change into my running shoes once in the transition area. At the end they played trivia, and one of the questions was how large was the Presidio Sports Basement (remember, I was there for the Presido race last Nov.) first I guessed 70,000 sq. ft. higher..80,000...higher........85,000 sq. ft.......Correct!! My prize: a nifty bib belt to use instead of having pin your number, kinda cool.

I still have not swam this week. I expresed some concern about the canceled class and Hae Wan (the tri-cub director) said the open water swim is basically just about getting out alive. Sure you want to build up your endurance and swim as efficiently as possible, but it's really a matter of just getting the hell out of there in one piece, with all those bodies so close together your not really going to have alot of room for full extended strokes. It occurred to me that I don't really have to swim so much as NOT DROWN. Oddly enough, thinking of it in this way has taken some of the worry out of it, I know I won't drown, I can always float/swim on my back if I get tired.

I WILL go swimming by the end of the week!!!

I ran for the first time today since Sunday, a quick almost 30 minute run around the neighborhood.

Saturday is another group bike ride.

TRI-lingo: a brick is any time you double up during training. After the bike ride yesterday, I wondered how well I would run afterwards. While I'm in fair shape there's lots of room for improvement. Just finishing the TRI is going to be an accomplishment of monumental proportions for me.