Thursday, April 20, 2006
Bay to Breakers 5/21
woo hoo! it's san francisco's goofiest race for sure and i'm signed up! not sure if i'll go all out with a costume but it will fun to check everyone out (i'll take lots of pictures!). it's sf so it will be hilly and i'm counting on all my training runs up in the berkeley hills to pull off a sub 2:00 finish on the 12k course, it boasts an 11.5 grade hill fairly early on (gulp). the tri club has this on the training schedule as an optional training event, i'm so there!!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Good weather 2 days in a row!!!
The weather has taken a nice turn the last couple of days and I rode to Inspiration Point from my house and it took me only 45 mins. Total ride time:75 mins. I don't have the mileage, but let me tell ya Spruce to Tilden is a pretty good climb and then you work your way up and down the windy road to IP. Saw several other riders on the way up, cyclists are a friendly bunch I have to say, lots of smiles and hi's.
The trip home was pretty fun (flying back down Spruce was a reward in itself!) and I am trying to coast less and drop down to low gears on decents, though I should take it in for a look-see as the shifting is not so smooth and a couple of time the gears jumped around, most likely due to my lack of finesse.
Tonight the triclub is meeting for a spin class (which I'll skip considering my heroic efforts today!!) and then we're having a guy present on open-water swimming. Lastnights swim lesson was the best yet, the instructor got into the pool with us and commented that we all looked good. Then she had us swim w/o flippers and boy howdy what difference!! I no sooner think I'm making progress (side breathing) when yet another weak spot reveals itself!
I'm still not a real swimmer but progress is being made people!!
The trip home was pretty fun (flying back down Spruce was a reward in itself!) and I am trying to coast less and drop down to low gears on decents, though I should take it in for a look-see as the shifting is not so smooth and a couple of time the gears jumped around, most likely due to my lack of finesse.
Tonight the triclub is meeting for a spin class (which I'll skip considering my heroic efforts today!!) and then we're having a guy present on open-water swimming. Lastnights swim lesson was the best yet, the instructor got into the pool with us and commented that we all looked good. Then she had us swim w/o flippers and boy howdy what difference!! I no sooner think I'm making progress (side breathing) when yet another weak spot reveals itself!
I'm still not a real swimmer but progress is being made people!!
Saturday, April 15, 2006
wet and wild
It started to rain just I headed out to my car to meet up with tri-club at Inspiration Point. The bike portion of the brick was cancelled and became a 3 mile run instead. By the time I arrived (5 minutes late) the grp had already taken off. I checked in with the club director, Hae Wan, than headed out alone. It wasn't long before I saw the group heading back.
I waved and kept going.
I had already decided to go longer, my usual 8 mile loop. Today was the first time I ever ran in more than a "mist". I don't want to say it really poured but the rain was coming down steadily and with the winds whipping around it got pretty wild at times.
It was the perfect backdrop for my dark mood. Me fighting the elements, myself, the process. Just the kind of thing this drama queen eats up. It was awesome! Exhilirating actually.
My wimpy windbreaker didn't hold up so well . I was soaked by mile 3 so I just took it off. Plus I was all hot and steamy anyways.
Of course this means I have buy proper rain gear now.
Not a bad investment really, considering it's never going to stop raining around here!
For as windy as it was I wasn't cold at all.
I finished in 85 minutes.
Once again running saves the day.
My newly installed granite counter top helped too:)
I waved and kept going.
I had already decided to go longer, my usual 8 mile loop. Today was the first time I ever ran in more than a "mist". I don't want to say it really poured but the rain was coming down steadily and with the winds whipping around it got pretty wild at times.
It was the perfect backdrop for my dark mood. Me fighting the elements, myself, the process. Just the kind of thing this drama queen eats up. It was awesome! Exhilirating actually.
My wimpy windbreaker didn't hold up so well . I was soaked by mile 3 so I just took it off. Plus I was all hot and steamy anyways.
Of course this means I have buy proper rain gear now.
Not a bad investment really, considering it's never going to stop raining around here!
For as windy as it was I wasn't cold at all.
I finished in 85 minutes.
Once again running saves the day.
My newly installed granite counter top helped too:)
Tri-Life Lessons
Earlier I was saying that I don't have the need to yak about TRI stuff here.
I was wrong.
It seemed like ever since I started writing about my new thing, the comments (the few comments I get, but love so ) were even scarcer, I thought maybe I was stepping out of line by digressing into a different arena. But that's crazy, I NEED to write about this stuff, all of it related or not. So, here it goes.
A friend at work gave me 2 articles to read. One was on the subject of cadence and seat position of the bike . The other was on overtraining. I immediately dismissed article #2 in favor of the bike article.
The idea of me overtraining is ridiculous at best. I don't push myself that hard.
Or so I thought.
I have placed a big challenge before myself. I can honestly say that learning to swim is by far the biggest challenge I ever set out to do. But what makes it even more of a challenge is that I've attached it to a triathlon (albeit a Sprint) there's a mental factor to contend w/that I sorely underestimated.
I'm more worried about NOT learning enough in time. Expressing my worries is a bit worrisome too. The swim coach, trying to be a comfort (I think) said, "hey if you can't do the tri, it's not the end of the world" True it's not, but do I need to give that possibility serious consideration so early in the game? I was talking about how hard swimming is at work and a c0-worker who is typically very supportive, and she indicated that my AGE could be a factor. WTF?
There are plenty of swimmer's ALOT older than me, swimming just fine thank you very much!!
To suggest that I'm too old to learn, well that just pisses me off! I'm 42 for god sakes, I just want to learn to swim better not enter the Olympics!
I'm not scared in the water, in fact I seem to do better in the group lessons and solo practicing drills than I did 1:1 with Lindsey. I'm hoping the Total Immersion video arrives today so I can continue to work on things on my own. I'm actually making some headway w/side breathing, doing better on my right side. I'm not consistent at all and I fatigue rather easily , but I see small improvements beginning to merge. It's true what they say about muscle memory, what I'm reading and doing in the pool is slowly starting to make sense.
I don't think the problem is overtraining so much as training differently. I've said in the past that I'd like a running buddy, and the idea of hooking up w/the tri-club seemed a good way to make this happen. Not so much though, this group is a little funny. There are few "clicks" and
and with the majority of us being working folk it's a different batch of people nearly everytime we get together. People are busy, myself included and I get the sense that people are not so interested in making social connections so much as achieving personal goals.
That said, I also have found myself struggling a bit with the group trainings. Example right now this very minute I'm soooo ready to go for a run, but I need to wait until 9am when we as a group do our first brick today: bike and a run.
For the record, M and I had a nice time yesterday afternoon at the pool. We got there around 2:30 and swam for a little over an hour. When we got home T took us out to dinner and I hit the hay around 9:30.
Sleep has restorative qualities not to be underestimated that's for sure.
It's looking rather bleak outside at the moment, we'll see what happens.
Since sunday I've swam 4x's, ran once (not including today yet) and biked once on the trainer for 20 minutes. Hardly qualifies as overtraining...everything I've read indicates I should be focusing on my weakest area..SWIMMING.......so I think I'm on track.
I was wrong.
It seemed like ever since I started writing about my new thing, the comments (the few comments I get, but love so ) were even scarcer, I thought maybe I was stepping out of line by digressing into a different arena. But that's crazy, I NEED to write about this stuff, all of it related or not. So, here it goes.
A friend at work gave me 2 articles to read. One was on the subject of cadence and seat position of the bike . The other was on overtraining. I immediately dismissed article #2 in favor of the bike article.
The idea of me overtraining is ridiculous at best. I don't push myself that hard.
Or so I thought.
I have placed a big challenge before myself. I can honestly say that learning to swim is by far the biggest challenge I ever set out to do. But what makes it even more of a challenge is that I've attached it to a triathlon (albeit a Sprint) there's a mental factor to contend w/that I sorely underestimated.
I'm more worried about NOT learning enough in time. Expressing my worries is a bit worrisome too. The swim coach, trying to be a comfort (I think) said, "hey if you can't do the tri, it's not the end of the world" True it's not, but do I need to give that possibility serious consideration so early in the game? I was talking about how hard swimming is at work and a c0-worker who is typically very supportive, and she indicated that my AGE could be a factor. WTF?
There are plenty of swimmer's ALOT older than me, swimming just fine thank you very much!!
To suggest that I'm too old to learn, well that just pisses me off! I'm 42 for god sakes, I just want to learn to swim better not enter the Olympics!
I'm not scared in the water, in fact I seem to do better in the group lessons and solo practicing drills than I did 1:1 with Lindsey. I'm hoping the Total Immersion video arrives today so I can continue to work on things on my own. I'm actually making some headway w/side breathing, doing better on my right side. I'm not consistent at all and I fatigue rather easily , but I see small improvements beginning to merge. It's true what they say about muscle memory, what I'm reading and doing in the pool is slowly starting to make sense.
I don't think the problem is overtraining so much as training differently. I've said in the past that I'd like a running buddy, and the idea of hooking up w/the tri-club seemed a good way to make this happen. Not so much though, this group is a little funny. There are few "clicks" and
and with the majority of us being working folk it's a different batch of people nearly everytime we get together. People are busy, myself included and I get the sense that people are not so interested in making social connections so much as achieving personal goals.
That said, I also have found myself struggling a bit with the group trainings. Example right now this very minute I'm soooo ready to go for a run, but I need to wait until 9am when we as a group do our first brick today: bike and a run.
For the record, M and I had a nice time yesterday afternoon at the pool. We got there around 2:30 and swam for a little over an hour. When we got home T took us out to dinner and I hit the hay around 9:30.
Sleep has restorative qualities not to be underestimated that's for sure.
It's looking rather bleak outside at the moment, we'll see what happens.
Since sunday I've swam 4x's, ran once (not including today yet) and biked once on the trainer for 20 minutes. Hardly qualifies as overtraining...everything I've read indicates I should be focusing on my weakest area..SWIMMING.......so I think I'm on track.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Bleh!
Warning, this liable to be a real downer. I'm in a MOOD and need to bitch a little, ok ALOT
Been feeling lazy all week. The weather has been better the last day or so but it really is unpredictable and with M in constant tow it's been alot harder to be spontaneous with the working out. Not fair to blame her entirely , hell at all for that matter. Funds are tight and we've been couped up in this house most of the week. As I've mentioned before, getting out of the house is typically an ordeal, though on Tuesday we did try to take Brandy for a walk but it was cut short due to rain.
Wed was suppose to be the day my granite counter top would be ready for p/u. T needed to put it off until Thurs, ok no problem (I was EXTREMLEY understanding), then on Thursday he can't find the invoice, he shows up at the place where we ordered it to learn that he has to go to another site to p/u ( would've been nice if they had mentioned that the day we bought it!!) The idiot sales woman assures him they'll have it, T gets there and surprise, they can't find our granite. They say he needs the invoice. At this point I'm thinking why didn't the sales woman have a copy or call ahead for us, something.....yes, I'm new at all this remodeling stuff and am growing more bitter by the minute!
T calls and well let's just say I'm less understanding and from that point on it's one angry phone call after another, scrambling to find the original invoice, finding it then faxing it to the second place. Come to find out the piece was never even cut, it's an outdoor workspace and they said it was due to rain and it won't be ready until Saturday.
FUCK!
I cannot tell you how aggravated I was yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I pissed it all away getting jacked up over the counter top.
This has been a strange week.
Not enough training or excercise
Not enough time ALONE
Not enough money
Not enough patience with the process
Not enough compassion
Not enough confidence
Not enough discipline to push through negative feelings
Wednesday was suppose to be spin class and a talk w/tri-club on transitions. M and I started out on good footing, but then she got all whiney and complaining despite my meager efforts to make things nice she just wasn't groovin and well I just lost it. Another day down the shitter!
Thursday, the only thing active I managed to pull off was going to swimming class, it was just okay.
I'm disappointed . I don't seem to have the ability to roll with the punches very well. I rely way too much on external forces to drive my emotions. I feel disconnected from everyone and everything.
Interestingly though, I spoke to my sister yesterday for the first time in several months. We've got our "challenges" let's just say, and I finally figured out less is more. We do better in small doses. I'm 6 years older than her and 11 years older than my brother. We all live in different states and couldn't be more different from each other, you do the math.
God I hope this storm passes soon. Going to Grandama Tillies for Easter, my cousin Kim will be there, she always makes me laugh and we have fun hiding the easter eggs.
Happy Easter everyone.
No, really.
Been feeling lazy all week. The weather has been better the last day or so but it really is unpredictable and with M in constant tow it's been alot harder to be spontaneous with the working out. Not fair to blame her entirely , hell at all for that matter. Funds are tight and we've been couped up in this house most of the week. As I've mentioned before, getting out of the house is typically an ordeal, though on Tuesday we did try to take Brandy for a walk but it was cut short due to rain.
Wed was suppose to be the day my granite counter top would be ready for p/u. T needed to put it off until Thurs, ok no problem (I was EXTREMLEY understanding), then on Thursday he can't find the invoice, he shows up at the place where we ordered it to learn that he has to go to another site to p/u ( would've been nice if they had mentioned that the day we bought it!!) The idiot sales woman assures him they'll have it, T gets there and surprise, they can't find our granite. They say he needs the invoice. At this point I'm thinking why didn't the sales woman have a copy or call ahead for us, something.....yes, I'm new at all this remodeling stuff and am growing more bitter by the minute!
T calls and well let's just say I'm less understanding and from that point on it's one angry phone call after another, scrambling to find the original invoice, finding it then faxing it to the second place. Come to find out the piece was never even cut, it's an outdoor workspace and they said it was due to rain and it won't be ready until Saturday.
FUCK!
I cannot tell you how aggravated I was yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I pissed it all away getting jacked up over the counter top.
This has been a strange week.
Not enough training or excercise
Not enough time ALONE
Not enough money
Not enough patience with the process
Not enough compassion
Not enough confidence
Not enough discipline to push through negative feelings
Wednesday was suppose to be spin class and a talk w/tri-club on transitions. M and I started out on good footing, but then she got all whiney and complaining despite my meager efforts to make things nice she just wasn't groovin and well I just lost it. Another day down the shitter!
Thursday, the only thing active I managed to pull off was going to swimming class, it was just okay.
I'm disappointed . I don't seem to have the ability to roll with the punches very well. I rely way too much on external forces to drive my emotions. I feel disconnected from everyone and everything.
Interestingly though, I spoke to my sister yesterday for the first time in several months. We've got our "challenges" let's just say, and I finally figured out less is more. We do better in small doses. I'm 6 years older than her and 11 years older than my brother. We all live in different states and couldn't be more different from each other, you do the math.
God I hope this storm passes soon. Going to Grandama Tillies for Easter, my cousin Kim will be there, she always makes me laugh and we have fun hiding the easter eggs.
Happy Easter everyone.
No, really.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Baby Quilt #2
Here's a shot of the quilt I made for my friend at work. It was trickier than I thought lining up everything for the sashing w/the squares. I think a wider sashing and larger squares would of looked better, but overall I liked how it turned out. The majority of squares used were some of the first piecing I've ever done. 
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Showing Up is Half the Battle
I went to the neighborhood gym this morning for 60 minutes of cardio -20 mins on the bike and a 40 minute interval session on the treadmill. I pushed too hard on the TM and could smell the burning rubber right before it came to an abrubt stop....talk about a buzz kill, I was flying at a 8.5 mile pace!! Not to be short changed on my cool down I hopped on the next one over and finished up. I like the neighborhood gym for the TM workouts cuz unlike the Y there's no 30 minute time limit on any of the cardio machines.
Swimming was good tonight. Once I got past the fact that it was cold, dark and rainy. As much as I consider myself a morning exerciser, the night time swimming is kind've relaxing. We had a substitute, and he got into the water and demonstrated...I like him better than our regular instructor already! I decided to drop the private lessons for now and ordered the Total Immersion Video that I can study and do drills from on my own in addition to the Tu and Thu nite classes.
Tonight we focused on rotation and arm and hand entry. We used some funny looking flotaion device you hold in between your knees and w/o kicking we worked our way down the lane while trying to maintain 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions with our arms, then pulling back one arm at a time then exiting the water with high elbows and "quietly" re-entering with "diving" finger tips vs slapping the water.
Oh Lord, I have so much work ahead of me in the pool and I wouldn't mind it at all if any of you swimmers out there had a tip or two to share!! I'm all ears. Speaking of ears, I've got water in my right ear still and class was over nearly 2 hours ago!!
Spring Break Fun!!
While I don't have a photo to prove it, M and I had a delightful day at Marine World yesterday and we had the pleasure of meeting Mia and her family. She and I live pretty close and we knew we were both going to MW on Monday. We didn't plan to meetup but she spotted me while I waiting for M to get done with her ride and we spent the entire day hanging out. And yes, Scotty and Tommy are adorable, I even got to hold Scotty for a bit. Eric was just as nice as could be. Mia is just the best, and I feel like I have made a new friend.
Swimming was good tonight. Once I got past the fact that it was cold, dark and rainy. As much as I consider myself a morning exerciser, the night time swimming is kind've relaxing. We had a substitute, and he got into the water and demonstrated...I like him better than our regular instructor already! I decided to drop the private lessons for now and ordered the Total Immersion Video that I can study and do drills from on my own in addition to the Tu and Thu nite classes.
Tonight we focused on rotation and arm and hand entry. We used some funny looking flotaion device you hold in between your knees and w/o kicking we worked our way down the lane while trying to maintain 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions with our arms, then pulling back one arm at a time then exiting the water with high elbows and "quietly" re-entering with "diving" finger tips vs slapping the water.
Oh Lord, I have so much work ahead of me in the pool and I wouldn't mind it at all if any of you swimmers out there had a tip or two to share!! I'm all ears. Speaking of ears, I've got water in my right ear still and class was over nearly 2 hours ago!!
Spring Break Fun!!
While I don't have a photo to prove it, M and I had a delightful day at Marine World yesterday and we had the pleasure of meeting Mia and her family. She and I live pretty close and we knew we were both going to MW on Monday. We didn't plan to meetup but she spotted me while I waiting for M to get done with her ride and we spent the entire day hanging out. And yes, Scotty and Tommy are adorable, I even got to hold Scotty for a bit. Eric was just as nice as could be. Mia is just the best, and I feel like I have made a new friend.
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