It's a Balancing Act

Drama camp potlucks, bake sales for Haiti, performances, laundry and packing for an upcoming trip has this mom in full lock down.  i wanted to get a some kind ride in yesterday...but i needed to replace that adaptor thingy for the Co2 cartridges and my  sun glasses were all scratched. T still had some credit over at Mikes Bikes, so i changed to ride and threw my bike into the back of his truck and after i got my stuff i still wasn't sure where i was going to ride because M needed to be at Bentley by 1pm (it was already noon) and the performance didn't start till 2:30...i just couldn't think straight... it was T that said,  "you've 2.5 hrs to get to Lafayette, are up for it?"  Duh, i could just ride to the performance and so what if i showed up in bike shorts and smelled bad.  i am in training after all, right? T would drop M off and get some errands done in Lafayette before the show...for  all my complaining about his lack of planning my man can think on his feet!

Mike's is close to the base of Spruce, a longish gradual climb to Grizzly Peak.  from there I entered Tilden past Inspiration Point and then had a BLAST on the fast downhill to Orinda. i practiced not riding my breaks so hard  and reacquainted myself with what gear does what...i practiced going into a high gear to go even faster downhill.  i stopped for a little frozen yogurt then headed over Santa Rita....i'd forgotten how steep this part was and after the first climb i managed to clip out w/o breaking my neck and hoofed it to the top. the rest was downhill to Bentley. I arrived at 2pm.

M went out with friends later that night and T and i discovered a yummy indian buffet..7.99 per person.  the chicken tikka was off the hook, spicey potatoes and bell peppers and naan, deeelish!
the ben and jerry banana split we shared later kinda kick the frozen yogurts ass.

I'm All In

It's official...i just registered for the Marin County Triathlon 2010.

The Y Tri Club starts next week, our first training will be swimming at Coyote Point.  I used to go there with my family as a kid for picnics...that was ages ago...the scent eucalyptus trees permeated the park.

My ankles are a bit stiff but other than that no real complaints. T and M are leaving for NYC on Tuesday so trying to spend quality time with them this weekend will take priority but i have time to run now... 

Pushing Myself

running fast is hard .

a 10k after 25 miles on the bike is harder. 

doing hard stuff is good. 

that's what i keep telling myself anyway.

3 miles at 10:07 pace....not quite puke worthy but freaking hard nonetheless. 

hard to imagine maintaining that pace for 6 miles post swim/ride.

Summer Days

for the first time ever my family and Monica's family got together at McNears Beach. Monica and I swam , our daughters -who met at the that 5k we 4 did last year and our husbands,  both artists talked all things art related. 

it was kinda crazy how it all came about... i'll spare you all the texting and what not back and forth over the past 24 hrs....but in our lack of planning a good time was had by all.

McNear's Beach is the swim site for the Marin county tri.....and naturally i wanted to check it out well in advance.   the beach was rocky and the water while flat had a pretty good current going and because my swim sucks ass it felt like what i would imagine an endless pool workout would be like...we'd be swimming and then start cracking up because we took forever to nowhere.

the other funny thing was it seemed no matter how far offshore we swam we could touch the squishy mud floor, sink up to our knees and the water was still about chest level.   from the shore you could see the drop off point and it was really far off...and since we could swim we just stayed (literally)where we were swimming for about 45 mins.  my arms got worked!

after a snack on the beach Monica had to get back home and the family and me headed over to Stinson to sun bathe on a real beach with ocean breezes and tattooed boys who complained loudly at the lack of hot bitches on the beach.   T cracked up when i peered over my sunglasses and said "ooh what a catch"

Feels like TRI-SPIRIT

so it's official as of yesterday i received the email confirming that  triclub with the Y is on. Coach Nancy has the teams sight set on the santa cruz tri in mid september....i checked out last years results in my age group and the slowest swimmer was under 40 mins.....compared to my glacial 50:50 swim at pac grove that would definitely have me being trampled by the following age groupers. honestly, i'd being lying if i said i didn't care about being last but swimming isn't my strong suit, i'm good enough to participate and that  is good enough. i swim for recovery and cross training not for technical expertise or speed.  the swim leg of the race is really a warm-up for the other business of the day.this season i'm focusing on ride/run bricks, my theory is these will make the run fun again not like last years death march!

i have a couple of weeks to decide but i think instead of Santa Cruz i want to do Marin County Tri ...it's more expensive but it's close so i won't have travel and deal with a hotel and it's on HALLOWEEN....how cool is that?  i've been slow to warm-up to racing but i'm starting to get the tri-spirit. 

Lake Anza

Monica and I pulled into the Lake Anza parking lot at exactly the same time.  we chatted on the beach for as long as it took me to shove myself into my wetsuit.  i went in first zig zagging my way to the furthest end .  when i left the house earlier it was pretty overcast and windy but by the time i reached the park  (which well above sea level) it was all sunny and clear lifting my mood a smidge. 

for all my complaining Monica is a good swim partner.  she's mellow and doesn't take any of it too seriously  which was exactly what i needed today.  i swam for maybe 25 minutes.  i started to feel guilty for not going longer and for Monica coming from Pinole  ( i paid for her swim fee it was the least i could do ) but we'll do it again and the goal was to get past my swim funk which i did.  it's really pretty up there and there weren't too many people at noon, though our spot was a bit more crowded when we got back on land  then when we entered the water.  i had a bit of a headache so i didn't feel guilty for too long about not swimming longer. we had a good visit on the beach before going our separate ways.

workout partner wanted

my main objective with triathlon has always been to find like minded and ideally like fitness level folks to ride and swim with.  i'm NOT big on chatting during a run (mainly because of lack strength and coordination to give either my all simultaneously) not that there's anything wrong with socializing, i just feel for me a workout should be mostly workout with a little socializing thrown in not the other way around. 

during TNT training last year i met a woman in my general vicinity location wise.  she was a total newbie in every sense of the word and i kinda took her under my wing .  sometimes i'd workout a bit earlier on my own to be sure i got whatever my goal was that day and then we'd meet up for whatever we had planned .  turns out swimming is our best activity because while we're there for moral support i don't feel like i have to talk or walk or double back as often like i would need to if we ran or rode together.


we haven't seen each other in a few months, but keeping contact via FB.  i called her today and just spent several minutes trying to nail her down to a swim.  she told me about a beach she wants to check out...i say "cool, let's plan on swimming" to which she replies "i want to just check it out, i don't know how deep it is...blah blah blah"  so, since we've had successful swims at Lake Anza, i suggest we meet there instead  because while i'm interested in visiting, my time is limited and i'm more interested in working out.  it takes us so long to reconcile our schedules and when we finally can hook up i've been annoyed when it turns into more of a get together versus a workout. 

after hanging up i feel a bit off about things because i had to push her a bit to commit....something i have to do on a regular basis with the patients i work with.  the last thing i need is to feel like a facilitator/cheerleader on my free time.  i'm far from hardcore.  i'm seriously slow and i've been dropped plenty of times from group rides but i workout and try to be present .  walk breaks are fine, but when it turns into a 1/4 mile yack fest it's stops being a workout for me.

i know she's not the right workout partner for me but for now she's all i got.  hopefully i'll connect with some folks in triclub at the end of the month. i'm still on the fence about actually racing but i love the cross-training aspects of triathlon and maybe i'll find a kindred sole or two that i wont have to "work" to workout with!