I moved things around this weekend from the Training Schedule, because H wanted to do the 35 mile bike ride. So instead of doing the ride yesterday in Sonoma/Napa with the Coached Team, I did it today with H. That also means that I moved the “rest day” to yesterday – and the Swim/Run to tomorrow.

We rode from our house down to 5th Avenue, then out on H, and finally on Red Hill towards San Anselmo and the “hub.” There we turned and rode through the gorgeous homes in Ross (on “Shady Lane”), and then around to Redwood High School – which is where the 20 mile bike ride from 2 weeks ago began. We took the same path out of Redwood – up and over Paradise Drive (this is a photo from Paradise – what a GORGEOUS day!), through Tiburon, then around the back side of Strawberry (had to walk up one KILLER hill I had forgotten about – whoops!), then around the Strawberry Shopping Center and up and over to Mill Valley. We had eaten a “power bar” in Tiburon, but H was feeling very hungry. I actually think he was dehydrated – he still doesn’t have any way to hold water on his bike, since it’s an old frame without a way to attach a “cage” to it. So I carry his water. I was wearing my CamelBak, and WOW did it make all the difference in my staying hydrated. Wow wow wow. I remember that from when I was doing triathlons Oooooooh so many moons ago – but this really SHOWED me.

We went up and over Horse Hill and down into Corte Madera, where we stopped at Pacific Catch to get some lunch. That was Mile 27. I wanted seaweed salad and miso soup – H had fish and a full meal (and a glass of wine). After that, we went by REI, because H wanted to use his bike gloves (which I’d borrowed to try to pad my hands), so he bought me my own as an early Holiday Present.

We went from the shopping center back the same way – past Redwood, around and back through Ross, and home.

The bumpy roads are playing havoc with my hands, especially my left one. I don’t lean that “hard” on my hands, but every time we take an unexpected bump, it KILLS me. My left hand winds up totally numb by the end of the ride (similar to how my feet get numb when running. Something’s up).

Had a funny thing happen – I had put my iPod into a little $10 “speaker case” I had bought at Best Buy. It runs on 2 AA batteries – you plug your iPod into it and there are speakers on the front. I figured I’d give it a go to have some music on the ride, but H was less than enthusiastic. We got to a particularly hard part on Paradise, and I was wishing I had tunes. I went over a jarring bump – and the thing started playing! It cracked me up. The only problem was that it was playing one song over and over – and was skipping. I wasn’t sure if that was because it was really sort of “half on” or what, so when H stopped for some water (remember, I have his water on my bike), I took it out and put it on the last Playlist that I used. It worked GREAT! I’m still laughing though about how it turned itself on – I heard music, and I thought “Wow, one of those houses has a good song playing, but that’s pretty loud for me to hear it all the way here,” then I kept hearing it…then I realized D’oh! It’s ME! “Divine Intervention” or something! (smile)

I know you can’t use headphones in the race, but I wonder if I had Tunes this way, if it’s against the rules. I had it on pretty low – I couldn’t actually hear it if there was any traffic noise, etc., but then if it was quiet, I could. Sneaky Sneaky!

The odometer ticked over at 35 miles EXACTLY at the foot of 5th and River Oaks – we walked the bikes up home (another 0.3 miles, straight uphill). We were at 3 hours exactly of riding time at the 35 miles – the bike keeps track of how long the “wheels are turning,” though we had had a couple potty stops and also lunch. The ride was “supposed” to take 2 hours of riding time – we’re still way WAY behind the curve there. We averaged 11 or so MPH, though the max speed I got up to was 31 MPH – yikes! (That was coming down off Horse Hill – it’s a good road and one I know.) However, when I was a little bummed we were an hour longer that the schedule “planned,” H said, “There is NO WAY you could have done that ride 2 months ago – an hour longer, or not! I’m so proud of you! In another month, you’re going to smoke me!”

That made me feel GREAT!

HEY! Sheila Stewart and I were interviewed on the talk radio show Your Time With Kim on How the Economy Affects Your Sex Life. Sheila and I met a while back when we were each speaking at a gig, and then I interviewed Sheila a few podcasts back. We had so much fun, we put the show on the road!

(This is a little break back into my “real life” and away from the Trials and Tribulations of turning CouchPotatoWoman into IronWoman!)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Today I got to the pool and realized I had left my workout on the passenger seat of the car! D’oh! I did remember it was 1750, and that the beginning was a 300 warmup, then the usual drills (3×50 of on back/swim then “catch up”/swim then scull/swim), and I knew there was a 300 cooldown . . . but the “meat” was a mystery (mystery meat! Gee I thought I left that behind at college!) I did my own version, doing some of the DPR drills, and then some of the L3-L4-L5 drills. It’s frustrating because I still am taking around 24-26 strokes to get across the pool – where my colleagues take about 14 strokes. That’s a LOT fewer strokes! My shoulder didn’t hurt that much today though, which was nice. It did sprinkle a bit, and I stayed in the pool a bit after the warmdown because the sun was just going down, and the sky was really pretty. (There was a HUGE rainbow when I came in.) Got changed, and the Greeter was out for the Synagogue that’s attached to the JCC, wishing everyone “Shabbat Shalom.” I should work it so that I work out and then go to services – that might be a nice way to end a week!

The Playlist for today’s Swim:
Baby I’m a Star, Prince & The Revolution
What I Like About You, The Romantics
Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield – I just love what this song says.
Love Lockdown, Kanye West
Relax, Frankie Goes To Hollywood – great great song for strokes
Jump (feat. Nelly Furtado), Flo Rida
Right Round, Flo Rida
Life (12″ Mix), Haddaway – took me right back to Tony Robbins UPW!
My Sharona, The Knack – moved this down my playlist but it showed up here
Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Mavis Staples
Hot Like Wow, Nadia Oh
Cyclone (feat. T-Pain), Baby Bash – great for strokes, good for “grabbing” water
Real Wild Child (Wild One), Iggy Pop – had moved this down my playlist & here it was!
Major Tom (Live), Jo Hartmann
Major Tom – Chiasm, New Wave Undercover – like this version better than the previous one. Probably because it’s in German and I sing away making up words. H cracks up when he hears how I butcher his language when I sing this one. “Dan hin der up or…” (I just looked, because I was curious – it’s actually “Dan hebt er ab und…”)

OK what the heck, since it’s my blog, I will put the German words, and the English words, to “Major Tom” here because it’s a song I love. And this way I can find out how badly I’m butchering the song when it comes up again in my playlist :-)

GERMAN:
Gründlich durchgecheckt steht Sie da
und wartet auf den Start , Alles klar.
Expirimenten streiten sich um ein paar Daten.
Die Crew hat dann nach ein paar Fragen,
doch der Countdown läuft.

Effektivität bestimt das Hendeln
Mann verläßt sich blind auf den andern
Jeder weiß genau was von ihm abhängt,
jeder is im Streß , Doch Majer Tom
macht einen Scherz
Dan hebt er ab und!

Völlig losgelöst von der Erde
schwebt das raumschiff völlig schwerelos

Die Erdanziehungkraft ist überwunden
Alles lauft perfekt schon seit Stunden
Wissenschaftliche Experimente,
doch was nützen die an Ende denkt sich Major Tom

Im Kontrollzentrum da wird man panisch
Der Kurs der Kapsel der stimt ja gar nicht
Hallo Major Tom können Sie hören,
Woll’n Sie das Projekt den so zerstören,
doch er kann nichts hörn
er schwebt weiter

Völlig losgelöst von der Erde
schwebt das raumschiff völlig schwerelos

Die Erde schimmert blau
Sein letzter Funk komt : Grüßt mir meine Frau
Und er verstummt

Unten trauern noch die Egoisten,
Major Tom denkt sich wenn die wüßten
mich führt hier ein licht durch das All,
das kennt ihr noch nicht , ich komme bald
Mir wird kalt

Vóllig losgelöst von der Erde
schwebt das raumschiff völlig schwerelos.

ENGLISH
Standing there alone
The ship is waiting
All systems are go
“Are you sure?”
Control is not convinced
But the computer
has the evidence
No need to abort
The countdown starts

Waiting in a trance

The crew is certain
Nothing left to chance
All is working
Trying to relax
up in the capsule
“Send me up a drink”
Jokes Major Tom
The Count goes on
4,3,2,1….

chorus:
Earth below us
Drifting, falling
Floating weightless
Calling, calling home

Second stage is cut
We’re now in orbit
stabilizers up
Running perfect
Starting to collect
Requested data
“What will it affect when all is done?”
Thinks Major Tom

Back at ground control
There is a problem
“Go to rockets full”
No responding
“Hello Major Tom are you receiving?
Turn the thrusters on we are standing by”
No reply
4,3,2,1…..

chorus:
Across the stratosphere
A final message:”Give my wife my love”
Then nothing more

Far beneath the ship
The world is mourning
They don’t realize He’s alive
No one understands but Major Tom sees
“Now the lights commands
This is my home
I’m coming home”

chorus:
Earth below us
Drifting, falling
Floating weightless
Calling, calling home

Got up this morning, and H and I got to work preparing for Thanksgiving. First, wild mushroom soup (serves 6):

2 lbs wild mushrooms, 1/2 c unsalted butter, 1/3 cup chopped green onions, 6 garlic cloves, peeled, 3T flour, 6 cups chicken stock, 3/4 c heavy cream, 2 tsp tarragon, 1/4 cup Creme Fraiche, 1 egg yolk, 1 T lemon juice, 2 tsp salt, 1 Tb Metaxa.

Saute mushrooms in 1/4c butter for 5 minutes. Add green onions & garlic, saute for another minute, set aside.

Make roux of remaining 1/4 c butter and the flower. Cook for 4 mins over medium heat, whisk constantly, don’t let it brown.

Add chicken stock (you can do veggie stock if you want) to the roux, bring to a boil/stir frequently, then simmer for 5 mins. Add mushroom mix,simmer for 15 mins. Take off heat. Puree, add heavy cream. Add tarragon, salt, Metaxa.

Make liaison: Stir together egg yolk, lemon juice and creme fraiche (made by mixing a cup heavy cream with 1 Tb buttermilk – or as many cups as you want with 1 Tb buttermilk to each, combine over medium heat just to take the chill off, pour into a glass jar, cover lightly and let sit in a warm place at about 70 degrees for 20 hours). Pour soup in heated bowls, Dribble liaison into the soup in a design.

(We made the soup, and the liaison, but will heat the soup back up for dinner at 4:00).

Next, made the salad: Arugula & Roasted Pear Salad w/Walnuts and Parmesan Cheese (serves 6):

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, place a baking sheet on the rack, and heat to 500 degrees.

Peel and halve 4 firm Bartlett pears lengthwise. Remove core. Set each half cut-side down and slice lengthwise, into 5ths (4 cuts). Put the slices in a large bowl, and toss with 1 T melted unsalted butter, then add 2 T sugar and toss again. Spread the pears in a single layer on the baking sheet, making sure each lies flat. Roast until browned on the bottom, about 10 minutes. Flip each slice and roast until deep golden brown on the other side, about 5 more minutes. Remove from oven and put on plate to cool.

Take 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toast in a small dry skillet over medium heat until lightly browned and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Be SURE to not let the smaller pieces or “dust” get in the pan – go for even pieces. Otherwise the small ones burn and the big ones don’t get toasted. Trust me. We discovered this the hard way.

Make vinaigrette: Whisk together 1.5T extra virgin olive oil, 2 t white wine vinegar, 1/2 t salt, ground pepper.

Combine 2 bunches arugula (stems removed, leaves washed and dried then torn into bite sized pieces) with 4 oz Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler off a big block with the roasted pear slices in a large serving bowl. Add the vinaigrette and toss gently to combine. Put in bowls – put walnuts on top.

We have stuffing and an organic, pre-roasted turkey from Whole Foods (yeah, cheaters, cheaters, I know), and mom is bringing spiced onions with almonds, plus some appetizers (cheese/veggies), plus some small French tarts (as in, SMALL) for dessert. Champagne for before – wine with din-din.

After doing the above, I went for a RUN. We were supposed to do 800 repeats – oh, come ON. That means finding a track, or knowing exactly WHERE 1/2 mile is. I just wanted to get out, do it, and come back. So instead, I ran out to Court Street and back (I have done that mileage before, I don’t have it here and don’t want to map it right now, but it’s way less than 5 miles I know that). I decided to run to the tempo of the music I had in the playlist. Some were too slow (noted – I will move those to a lower “position” in my playlist – hey, it’s all a learning!), and some (Sexy Vampire in particular) kicked my boo-TAY! I had fun. Total, including walking Moody up home (which was 7 minutes) was 56 minutes.

PLAYLIST (and comments):

When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Great Big Sea. I know I know I am stuck on this one. It makes me happy
Scar That Never Heals, Jeremy Fisher (ditto above comment)
Suddenly I See, KT Tunstall. This was my favorite song from 2006 when I last exercised!
Oh Oh Oh Sexy Vampire, Fright Ranger. This kicked my BUTT! The tempo was actually a blast to run to. I just kept my steps small.
I Am The Walrus, Bono & The Secret Machines. Too Slow
With A Little Help From My Friends, Jim Sturgess & Joe Anderson. Too Slow
Spotlight, MuteMath. This was a great one! Thanks Hannah!
She’s Got The (Who-Hoo), Sugar Ray. Too Slow.
Single Ladies, Beyonce. Fun, but just not quite the right beat – couldn’t get into the “running groove” with it
Calle Ocho, Pitbull. Good one, Leann!
This is How A Heart Breaks, Rob Thomas. Ditto – great one Leann!
Solsbury Hill (Live), Peter Gabriel. Too slow.
Daniella, John  Butler Trio. Surprisingly this worked – I was slowing down by then though!
Get The Party Started, P!nk. Just not quite the right tempo. Sort of like the Beyonce one. Surprising.
Mony Mony, Billy Idol. This worked well.

That got me home! Time to get the turkey in!

This was my view for an hour yesterday as I sat on my bike trainer on the driveway, peddling away. Well, until dusk, then dark – then I wasn’t seeing much of anything (smile).

Yesterday’s workout was a “brick” – meaning 2 disciplines right after each other. First, the bike for an hour. This involved warming up for 10 minutes, then doing 10 repeats of 3 minutes at 100 RPM, and then 1 minute at 80 RPM, using the hardest gear that you can maintain.

When I started, I was on the middle ring in front and back. But when I had to do the 100 RPM (I don’t have a bike computer, so I had to time it at 25 RPM in 15 seconds and keep timing every now and again to be sure I was still “on”), I had to drop down to 3rd from the easiest gear, or I was way outside of my aerobic zone.

After I had done about the 5th or so repeat of the 10, for some reason, it got easier. I was able to slowly and carefully shift down (I think it’s “down” – meaning “harder”), and wound up ultimately doing it on that “middle middle” ring. That made me feel very happy!

After a 10 minute “cool down” on the bike, I grabbed the flashlight and headed out on the road. I just ran in my bike shorts, to see what that was like. I thought it would be awful, and in fact it was fine. I was supposed to do a 10 minute warmup, but I was pretty doggone warm from the biking. So I just started from the house down the driveway, doing the 5 repeats that were required. It was run 7 minutes at a pace you could hold for a long time, then 1 minute walk, repeating it 5 times (for a total of 40 minutes). I got to G Street and turned around, and the 40 minutes got me back up around the curve from River Oaks to Moody. Then I finished by walking to the house. Total was a little under 50 minutes, 2.78 miles. I know it’s WAY too slow, but I felt GOOD – in fact, really super good. I had spent a very frustrating day of realizing that I have no $ and bills coming out my ears – it felt when I was out there that here is SOMETHING I can control. Susan and Katie (my neighbors) actually stopped when I was jogging up Moody Court (at the VERY steep “turn” from River Oaks) and shouted out from their car that I was their Hero. That made me feel WONDERFUL!

I biked/ran to songs that folks had suggested for a Playlist, and then filled in with others. If you have any songs that really inspire you, BRING’EM ON! I am taking all comers! (smile)

Playlist for Bike/Run Brick (total of about 2 hours):

Oh Oh Oh Sexy Vampire (JustinB Video Edit), Fright Ranger
Calle Ocho, Pitbull
Sex On Fire, Kings of Leon
This is How A Heart Breaks, Rob Thomas
Supermassive Black Hole, Muse
Say Hey (I Love You), Michael Franti
The Time Of My Life, David Cook
Whatcha Say, Jason Derulo
Pursuit, Cirque de Soleil (this is one of the ALL TIME great bike trainer songs)
When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Great Big Sea (I really love this song)
Scar That Never Heals, Jeremy Fisher (ditto – ok I played this twice actually)
My Sharona, The Knack
Pony, Far
Love Shack, B-52s
Everybody Knows, Elizabeth & The Catapult
She’s Got the (Who-Hoo), Sugar Ray
Jerk It, Thunderheist
Single Ladies, Beyonce
Daniella, John Butler Trio (another GREAT song)
Get The Party Started, P!nk
Mony Mony, Billy Idol
Hiphip Chinchin, Club des Belugas
U Can’t Touch This, MC Hammer
I Gotta Feeling, Black Eyed Peas
Let’s Get Loud, Jennifer Lopez
Real Wild Child, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Real Wild Child (Wild One), Iggy Pop
I’m Alright (Theme from Caddyshack), Kenny Loggins

Who has some great songs for me to try??

Happy Thanksgiving everyone – today is a Run – and I have to do Strength Training, too. (I was supposed to do it yesterday too, just ran out of time.) Hopefully (maybe?) I can get H to run with me – it’s going to have to be in the dark again, because I have a TON of cooking and cleaning to do. In fact, time to make some coffee and wake the Big Man up! Have a Great One!

Week 3 is here!
Here is my schedule at a glance…and then a bit about what I’ve done so far! :-)

THE WEEK AHEAD

MONDAY – Off day.
TUESDAY – Swim 60’ (total 1850) & Strength 40’
WEDNESDAY – Bike 60′ & Run 20′
THURSDAY – Strength 40’ (Turkey Day: gobble, gobble!)
FRIDAY – Swim 60’, Run 60’ & Stretch 20’
SATURDAY – Bike (captains workout) Rolling hills for 35 miles.
SUNDAY – Swim 60’, Run 60’ & Stretch 20’

(the map at the left might LOOK like a Treasure Map minus the “X Marks the Spot,” but it will be explained below!)

So, on Sunday, H decided that we needed to get away. We actually did the Run together, which was fun (did I blog about that? I think I did), and then headed off to Bodega Bay Lodge. It’s about an hour’s drive away. The photo to the right was from our deck, out over the marshes and to the ocean.

H wanted to bike, and so Monday became a bike day instead of a “rest” day. H had reconditioned his bike before we left – but didn’t have any extra handlebar tape. We picked some up at Summit Bikes (where we were told of their Team in Training discount – yay!), and he taped up his handlebars before we headed out on our ride. So handy!

We biked for a little over 2 hours, 19 miles…and 4 walks up hills! There are a LOT of steep hills out on the coast. We also TOTALLY got lost. If you look at our “map” (top of the page), you will probably know WHY. We didn’t have a bike map, so we drew one based on Google Maps. The problem was that it didn’t list the little “connecting roads” that we needed to “get to” the main roads…well, we had fun anyway, though we definitely did NOT get where we thought we would! We did, however, get out to the Fisherman’s Monument, ate some “award winning” clam chowder and fresh crab sandwiches, then came back to hot tub and of course champagne, some oranges, and chocolate!

We took a walk out into the marshes on Tuesday before we left – probably about a mile – and then antique-ed our way home. That was fun as well. Iron Mel had texted me to find out if I was working out at the JCC, and so she joined us. H wasn’t so happy that I “made him go to the gym again” (I think in particular because he forgot his headphones to plug into the machines!), but after, we went to see the movie 2012, so he was happy. (I think H’s reaction to that movie, which I tweeted, about sums it up: “Saw 2012. It was a Disaster.”)

Iron Mel had an interesting experience when we were getting ready to swim. We were talking about her being single in Marin, about finding the right sort of guy, etc., and she said however that she really KNEW that it was coming. She could feel it. Then she put on her cap and BANG! – it split in 1/2. Right through her old married name, which was written on the side. We both had a “goose bumps on the arms” moment – and took it as a good omen! I threw in the requisite “Mazel Tov!” of course!

We were out swimming under the stars again. I had a weird experience in the training (didn’t do the Strength – didn’t see it until I got home) – got fairly ‘scared’ in the water. Not sure if that’s because I had seen some clips from Louisville, or because I was really thinking about it, or what. I remember the last triathlon I did was the Go Girl Tri. It was just a sprint distance, but somewhere fairly close to the end, I started spazzing out because the water was so murky. I actually remember I did fine in my first triathlon (Bahamas), and then in the subsequent ones, but then when I was at Chicago, I super spazzed out and actually had to swim “boat to boat.” I think that this training is going to get us very prepared – but between the mental “drowning spazz” and the “fixing a flat spazz” I keep getting reminders of the mental stuff I don’t like that pops up. I don’t like being freaked out in the water. I think part of it also was that we were doing these drills that take you “up to” swimming at Level 5 – it was 5 x 200, starting with just 50 at L3 and 150 at L4, but it works its way up so that at the end, you do your last 200 at L5. I was tired, and pooped, and freaked. I guess that tired/pooped/freaked thing just happens, and I gotta just deal. I did at least have my Otterbox (smile).

PLAYLIST for the swim:

Pony, Far
#1 Crush, Garbage
REV 22:20, Puscifer
Billie Jean, Chris Cornell
The Party Song, Blink-182
I Wanna Be Sedated, The Ramones
Whatsername, Green Day
Real Wild Child, Iggy Pop
Crazy Bitch, Buckcherry
I Don’t Care, Fall Out Boy
The World Is Not Enough, Garbage
Check Yes Juliet, We The Kings

I also received a $250 Donation from a friend. I am SO EXCITED. She is sponsoring my first Swim Mile. So maybe that’s a little Push from the Universe after my awful tired/pooped/scared swim experience.

Finally, I received more songs to check out! Please send any you love to work out to – believe me, I can take all the motivation I can get! The new ones, courtesy of the gorgeous Leann McFalls, are:

Say Hey (I Love you) by Michael Franti
Supermassive Black Hole by Muse
This is how a heart breaks by Rob Thomas (my Favorite artist!!!)
Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon
I Know you want me (calle ocho) by pitbull

I might have Calle Ocho, gotta check. OK – one last photo – then it’s time to get into the 302 emails I got in the 3 days on “vacation” (there is work in here somewhere, I know I saw it), then to pole class. And gotta do the bike/run tonight. Oh, and buy all those Thanksgiving groceries, clean the house, dot dot dot?

Ran today with H. It was 10 minute warmup, then run 8 minutes, walk 2, for an hour (then warm down). Also Strength workout (same as before)

H said he didn’t mind if I ran in my headset, which he knows helps me gut it out. I hadn’t set up a Playlist though, so the Playlist was just chronologically backward, the last songs I downloaded, which were:

The Time Of My Life, David Cook (courtesy of Erin at TriNReality)
Whatcha Say, Jason Derulo
Pursuit, Ka/Cirque de Soleil
When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Great Big Sea
Move, Shake, Drop Remix, DJ Laz, Flo Rida & Casely
Ice Cream Paint Job, Dorrough
Scar That Never Heals, Jeremy Fisher
My Sharona, The Knack
Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out, Mayer Hawthorne
Pony, Far
Everything You Want, Vertical Horizon
Rise Up, Diane Birch
Love Shack, The B-52s
I and Love and You, The Avett Brothers (Pole Danced to this last week. GREAT song for it.)
Everybody Knows, Elizabeth and the Catapult
She’s Got The (Who-Hoo), Sugar Ray

My learning from that? At LEAST pick a song and put the “Genius” on the iPod. Not a very motivating set, and way too eclectic. But it was nice to run with H – reminds me of when we were training for the Big Sur Marathon. That also started with him laughing at my shuffling and walking next to me. But I finished, and so did he. I just wish he wouldn’t laugh so hard…Have written to Simon (the running coach) and my Mentor about the fact that I feel like CRAP for the first 30 minutes, then at about 40, I feel FINE. My BPM is right in there about the same (in the 142-155 range, which is a bit high but not awful like it was last week) – but at 40 minutes I suddenly feel cheery, my pace picked up (H was actually jogging, not walking fast next to me), I could talk, etc. Something’s up. I will let you know what Simon Says!

Off to pack for a jaunt into the Foothills…or Calistoga…or Clear Lake…or somewhere. We’re bringing the bikes – H cleaned up his road bike last night. Tomorrow is supposed to be a Rest Day but if H wants to bike with me, I am willing. I’ll just trade it out sometime else. Hopefully we can be home soon enough to swim on Tuesday night – otherwise I will just shuffle stuff around I guess.

[this is a note I just sent to Coach Helen, cc'ing, of course, Head Coach Dave. With respect to what I just blogged about - the fact Coach Dave said I had to have "stiffer shoes."]

Dear Coach Helen:

As you know I want to be sure I do well on the Ironman, and I was concerned today during the bike. You know I’m already afraid of clipless pedals, but then I was afraid I had the wrong bendy shoes and didn’t want to let Coach Dave down. He really cares a lot about the team and wants the best for us.

Do you think these shoes would work better? I know they are a lot less flexible and I am just not sure. You are the expert.

Warmest,
Sandy (“Shep”) Shepard

Today was another coached workout – we did bike drills, a LOT of swimming, and then learned more about the bike. It was at Redwood High, where I went to high school. W-O-W, the school is beyond gorgeous now. Landscaping, HUGE pool, the works. W-O-W.

First we did drills on a “trainer.” The last time I had a “bike trainer” was 20 years ago – and it was basically a flywheel on a stand. The funniest part is that I only gave that thing to charity about a year ago. I dragged it around all this time – now here I am needing a trainer again! Coach Mike is going to loan me one of the fancy-schmancy ones – the photo on the right is Coach Mike and Coach Tony from LLS putting the trainer together.

In our bike training (that’s me, far left in the photo above), we did things like how to pick a dropped chain up while still riding, cornering drills, stopping on a dime, and the like. I did OK with this. I do still have good bike handling drills from the years doing traithlons in the past. OK, and I will totally admit, the new women’s bike shorts are AWESOME. Coach Dave was right. You gotta have’em. I purchased a swim parka on eBay, and the guy found out I was TNT and threw in the bike shorts, and even a TNT bike jersey (from ’98). Thank you, Henry! You rock!

I had something happen though that I’m going to put in another post. I’m the only person on the team who is not using clipless pedals – they freak me out because I had an accident in them. (You can see my very sexy “tuck pants into sock” combo in the above photo.) The head coach, Dave, told me today that I really had to find another shoe then besides the running shoes I was using – because their sole wasn’t really stiff enough. I mentioned to one of the other Coaches, Helen, that I wondered whether my pole dancing shoes would fit the bill as I didn’t have anything else but the running shoes, flip flops, loafers, and pole shoes. She thought that’d be perfect.

So I’m going to post those pictures next.

Next, we got changed for our swim workout. When I was at Redwood, there was a “regular” pool, about 5 lanes I think, and then a diving pool. They’ve converted the entire area, and now it’s one big pool with like 20 lanes. It’s a SHOCK. It also has bathrooms on the inside of the pool, and some hot showers outside. No more having to run from the locker room out to the pool, in complete view from the parking lot. :-)

I was going to post the swim workout here, but the one on Training Peaks doesn’t match what we did. We did a lot of drills; we wound up covering (if at least the mileage in Training Peaks is correct) 2350 yards. The drills included “closed fist” swimming (which I actually rather liked) and the ‘counting your strokes’ exercise from last week. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Now granted, I’m not kicking, but my strokes were like 25 (counting both left and right hand) for a length of the pool. Other folks are at like 14, 15. I don’t get it. Left shoulder still hurts as well – I think it’s an overuse injury from pole dancing which just sucks. I haven’t really done that much in class for months – and it’s still not 100%. We were in the pool for about an hour and a half.

OK yeah, I know, how sexy is this photo – me drinking swamp water (a/k/a InnerLight AlkaBlast, Prime pH and Super Greens combo, suggested by Coach Stu Mittleman) with my sunglasses on and my goggles on the top of my head!

I worked out a little too hard I think – I felt actually sick at the end of the workout (as in throwing up sick). I even tried to keep hydrated during the swim, taking sips between the exercises. I did not actually throw up, but close. I think because I am SO out of shape, I need to really start doing some sort of food replacement, supplement, what-have-you sooner than perhaps other folks. I also need to hydrate more on the bike, “even if you’re ‘just’ on a trainer,” as Coach Doug reminded us.

Had fun today! The team is so great. Every one of them. AND I found out I get Coach Margaret from Napa as my Mentor! I am STOKED. I REALLY like her. She’s just one of those people that you meet, you know, you instantly like them? That’s how it was when I met her at the Kickoff in Berkeley, in fact. She’s a little older (not as old as I am though I don’t think, but still, not 24), and is a real hard-core athlete in a nice way. She’s doing Ironman British Columbia. She’s the sort of person that I aspire to be!

OK I really should have taken photos. Next time. I am SURE there will be MANY “next times”! Just picture here a drowned rat grrl from running, and a swim workout with a flashlight on it!

I did the swim workout at about 7:00 p.m. yesterday, because I had a meeting from 3:00 to 6:00 that wound up being WORTHLESS. I was not happy – I got very ‘bouncy legged’ about it but didn’t want to leave and be rude. It was up in Petaluma, so I had gone all the way up from San Rafael…not so happy. I had brought my swim stuff though, and so H and I met at the JCC. He did his standard cardio/crosstrainer and some weights, I did the swim. Under the stars! That’s the photo I wish I’d taken – my training page, in the ziplock, and the flashlight, lying on the pool deck! I was just barely able to see the workout,  so didn’t need the flashlight – it was pretty funny though. I forgot how bright the pool would be with the lights inside (duh!) The pool was nice and warm, it was the running out to and coming “from” that was not so pleasant. Consoled myself with a nice Steam after!

Here is the Ze Playlist for the swim:

Cold Hearted Snake, Paula Abdul
Check On It, Destiny’s Child
Paper and Fire, John Cougar Mellencamp
Valerie, this is a mix, not sure who did it (techno-ish beat, Steve Winwood song)
She’s Ugly From The Front, Lyle Lovett
Hung Up (Live), Madonna
Torn, Natalie Imbruglia
Don’t Say You Love Me, Natalie Imbruglia
Brass In Pocket, Pretenders
Message of Love, Pretenders
Let’s Go Crazy, Prince
Controversy, Prince

And below is Ze Workout. I tried to look up on YouTube what the various drills looked like (DPS and SAR). Dave Scott has some podcasts out there, and wow, he looks the same as he did 20 years ago! It’s funny – I learned to swim and bike and run (and really “train”) from Dave Scott’s book. I never had any coaches – wish we’d had YouTube back then, I would have loved to have really “seen” what he was talking about, in motion! DPS is basically counting your strokes per length of the pool. If you can keep track of how much time a length takes you, and then how many strokes it takes you, you can figure out your strokes per minute, and all that jazz. I really wasn’t able to read all my notes by the light of the moon (smile), and so I forgot to try to keep track of the times for the laps. I’m not so good juggling it all in my head, anyway – I imagine we will do that tomorrow in our Coached Training. Be that as it may, I wound up with 14 “cycles” (e.g., counting only left arm in) per length of the pool. Very consistently. Not sure of the time it took, though.  For the SAR, there were two different ways to “stop” the arm – one was at the hip (elbow high), one was at the shoulder. The hip one was OK, the shoulder one hurt my shoulder (as did the CatchUp drills, still). So I sort of bagged it in favor of just swimming. Sedonia had said we could just swim anyway (since she hadn’t shown us the drills), so I didn’t feel that bad. Did the whole thing in 48 minutes, which doesn’t seem so bad since it says it should take 60 (and I’m not kicking). The kicking drills, which are sort of just “easy” are hard for me because I just don’t kick in the pool! It’s funny. They wipe me out!

Swim Workout:

Warmup
300 EZ
3×50 25 kick on back/25 free    RI    10″ (RI means “rest interval”)
3×50 25 Catch Up (CU)/25 free    RI    10″
3×50 25 scull/25 free    RI    10″

Pyramid:
100 Distance per Stroke (DPS)    RI    15″
200 Breathing every 3    RI    20″
300 Slow Arm Recovery (SAR)    RI    30″
200 Breathing every 3    RI    20″
100 Distance per Stroke (DPS)    RI    15″

Cool Down    100 EZ
Total                1750 – THIS IS ONLY 10 YARDS SHY OF A MILE! Whoot! Whoot!

Run Workout:

Today was a run workout. I read it wrong – it was supposed to be another run for 5 minutes, walk for 1 minute, go for 42 minutes gig. I actually thought it was run for 8, walk for 1, then couldn’t figure out how the math didn’t work out at 42 minutes (duh). I had it all set to run with Sharyn, but after my 7:00-8:30 meeting and then my 9:00-11:00 meeting, it was HOWLING with wind and rain. I texted Sharyn and said “No Can Do” and she wrote back “Oh Yes You Can” – she already was at my house, with her “foul weather gear” on. So, I did. Actually it worked out great – the rain let up when we were about 1/4 of the way done, and the wind cut down. (We did have a tiny bit of hail in there for good measure.) Again – wish I had the camera – 2 very soggy girls and a very soggy dog trotting through San Rafael. She was GREAT for me to run with, because we can chat and catch up, but also because she really will run at any speed and I don’t feel “bad” about being so slow. She’s so happy I’m back exercising again… I feel almost guilty at how relieved she is. Of course we’ve been friends since Massage School in 2002, so she really HAS seen me MUCH more fit. After being at my peak in 2006, of course I quit and took a job in the city to try to make more $ – that lasted all of about 6 months but in that time I had gained 30 lbs and all of it toxic fat, due to the stress. Then never lost it.

She keeps raiding my closet for clothes that used to fit me back then, that I don’t even have a prayer of wearing now. It’s amazing when I realize that she and I are (were) EXACTLY the same size – the clothes I keep loaning her out fit her like a glove, and I can’t even approach them. But silly to just have them hanging there. I really do plan to get back into them – though right now, I’m indulging a serious carb craving.

After a meeting with my CPA (not good at all – $ is really, really bad), my last meeting of the day was with a gal who bailed on our meeting last time – and she bailed on me AGAIN!!!! So I sat at the nice cafe and had a mocha and a bagel with cream cheese and honey AND a gingersnap cookie (fresh and warm). I know, really bad. I will cut back on this – I just feel so virtuous doing things like going out in the pouring rain that I am indulging myself in things I wouldn’t even dream of otherwise. I’m giving myself until the end of the year to Get Over It – but that’s my trade. If I do all the workouts, I can have whatever I feel like, until December 31st.

Okie dokie, have been really off the computer for 2 days now, and H wants to get away for Sunday through Tuesday. So I have to regroup and get some things done – especially as I have training starting at 0-dark-00 tomorrow with the group. At least this time it’s in Marin, so I don’t have to drive so far.

Today we were to do Strength Training (I think), and then do another Run/Walk combo for about 40 minutes (5 min/1 min). It was a “buddy run,” and Paula, another lawyer I’d met at the Kickoff, and I met at Tennessee Valley.

Paula is an old hand at this – she actually did the Lavaman Triathlon with Team in Training last season. I HAD told her that I was a VERY slow runner, and she said that was OK. She generally paces at about 9 minutes – I’m at 14-1/2.

I got there a bit early, so I did the Strength Training before she arrived. What a gorgeous day! Here are a few photos of my strength training “set up” that I thought you might enjoy.

I’m not quite sure that I am on the right “page” with some of the workout stuff. I thought that the Strength Training was supposed to be yesterday, so I did it.  Then the email that listed the Run workout said at the end “And do the Strength workout.” So I did it again. Hmmmmm. I will admit though, it was a lot more fun doing it outside, and then lying my mat on the grass to do the side bridges and stuff! I think doing it 2 days in a row is not right, though.

Paula got there after I’d finished the Strength workout, and off we went. She’s great! She actually is originally from Atlanta, and has been here for a year and a half. She and her husband are both attorneys, and he was given a good gig out here in San Francisco. She really misses Atlanta though. I had to smile, since my husband wants to invest in the Atlanta area! Such great luck – my running buddy turns out to be FROM Atlanta!

We ran from the parking lot, and I know she was really just “jogging” with me. We did the 5 minute/1 minute thing as best we could – we would get chatting, or I would get out of breath, and so we sort of did what we (I) could. The area is so pretty out in Tennessee Valley. We are so lucky to live in Marin! In fact, this morning I was out taking photographs for my adopted grandson Caleb’s school when I took the dog on a hike – and that really brought into focus how gorgeous our area is.

We got down to the beach, and I had Paula snap a photo of me there. There are 2 ways to go ‘down to the beach” at Tennessee Valley, the easy (flat) way, or the hard way. She asked if I wanted to do the easy way on the way out or the way back – stupidly, I picked on the way out. Oh Lord, when we got to that hill on the way back, I was really flagging! I got about 1/3 of the way up it and said I had to walk – she jogged next to me until I could catch my breath when we were back on the flats. She definitely was helping me with “Atta Girls”! Once we got over the top we ran a bit more, but I felt really out of gas. She let me walk definitely longer than a minute…I thought ( hoped?) that we were done, but NO! She said I had one more run left in me. We were already at the 40 minute mark, but we hadn’t made it back to the parking lot – so I started shufflin’ my feet again.

I saw a bench “approaching in the distance” and figured that is what I would aim for. I was not totally sure I would actually make it, but I had it as a goal. When we were probably about 50 yards away, Paula said, “How about we stop at the bench?” I must have been sending out heavy “BENCH BENCH BENCH” signals that she picked up on!

After the run, I actually was lucky enough to have a facial that my mom had given me as a present – what a perfect end to the day! I nearly fell into deep, snoring sleep right there on the table! I think that a day that includes a mile hill hike with the dog, an hour of strength training at pole dancing and then dancing, and then MORE Strength training and also Running is a bit much. As Coach Dave said, “More is NOT More!” I know that, though it’s hard for me to figure out how to be sure I do what I’m “supposed” to do. I can’t not walk the dog. I like going to pole class. I really liked the buddy run with Paula. I guess maybe combining the Run with the dog walk is the way to go – but then I lose the buddy part. Hmmmmm! It’s all a process!

Now, it’s like 6:30 p.m. and I’m ready for bed (smile). Ah yes, I remember what training is all about….

First of all – if you’d like information on what I’m going to do next year, here is the link for a TV presentation of the 2009 Louisville Ironman. This will show on Thursday. OK, maybe I shouldn’t watch, I’m already signed up!

Today, I tried a trick that Iron Mel mentioned to me when we were carpooling to the weekend workouts. She said to do the Strength Training FIRST, so as to not be completely knackered after the “main” workout. So that’s what I did. Duh! It was SO MUCH better! I will put both the Strength Workout and the Bike/Cadence Workout at the end of the post, for those who are interested, and my experiences with them. Most folks seem more interested in my Playlists, so here we go!

Playlist for Today:

When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Great Big Sea – courtesy of Erin at Tri N Reality – I LOVE THIS SONG! I put this into “Genius” and this is what I got:
Scar That Never Heals, Jeremy Fisher – this was courtesy of Kelownagurl - I love that Genius “found it next” because I love this song too
The Authority Song, John Cougar Mellencamp
Solsbury Hill (Live), Peter Gabriel – I actually was at the concert at which this was recorded, pretty cool
What I Like About You, The Romantics
Space Lord, Monster Magnet
Crazy On You (Live), Heart – I saw Heart when they came on stage and said “We have a song we wrote last night,” and it was “Barracuda” :-)
Last Train To Clarksville, The Monkees – Guilty Pleasure Guilty Pleasure
Blaze of Glory, Jon Bon Jovi
Cryin’, Aerosmith
Free Ride, Edgar Winter
Ramblin’ Man, Allman Brothers
The Guide, Borne
We’re An American Band, Grand Funk Railroad
Zaar, Peter Gabriel (from The Last Temptation Of Christ soundtrack)
Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’, Journey
Love Me Like A Man (Live), Bonnie Raitt
The Stoke, Billy Squier
Kashmir, Led Zeppelin

Strength Training Was:

4×10 ea single leg squat: I did this off of what looked like a stool an elephant stands on (how prophetic) at the gym. Had to hold the wall.

4×10 ea split squat: Wow this is not my favorite. Had to hold onto the counter

2x standing horizontal cable row: I pretty much like this one. Feels good on my shoulders. Did this on a machine with 15 lbs.

2x overhead squat: The idea is to keep your hands @/behind your ears, & stretch out the shoulders. Could barely squat, but felt good on my arms.

4x 10 ea single leg row: This is standing on one leg, rowing with the opposite hand. Used the same cable machine, but no weight. BAD balance!

4x 10 ea single leg rotations w/touch: You’re supposed to stand on one leg and touch the opposite hand to the floor outside the opposite foot. HA HA HA. I can reach the outside of the opposite knee, and I’m still falling over and touching down for balance.

4 sets 30 secs Hamstring Bridging: This is making a “bridge” (shoulders down, butt up) – not hard. Did it for 60 secs on the last 2.

30 secs each side Side Plank: Did this on knees and elbow – didn’t feel so bad. Still not strong enough to do it on “feet” instead of knees.

45 secs Plank: Felt really strong and was on a good song, so did this for 60 secs. Ooooo-rah :-)

Bicycle/Cadence Drills:

I did this on the stationary bike. It shows your RPMs, as well as heart rate, miles you have gone, all that jazz. Warmup for 10 minutes, instructions said “on middle-middle rings,” I did it at Level 6. Then the instructions say “stay in big ring up front shift to 3rd largest ring in back.” I figured I would put it at Level 7. Then you do a steady RPM of 80 for 5 minutes, then 85 for 5, 90 for 5, and finally 95 for 5. I did that at Level 7. Then, the instructions say “switch to the 5th from smallest in back, should be noticeably harder gear than the first set.” I put it on Level 9. It was the same drill – 80 RPM for 5 minutes, then 85 for 5, 90 for 5, and 95 for 5. By the time I had completed 85 RPM for 5 minutes at Level 9 on the bike, I was up at 190 BPM. That is SERIOUSLY stroke range. I am so far outside of the way that Stu Mittleman tells us to train (e.g., don’t pant, don’t get to the point where you have a fixed focus, etc.) that it’s ridiculous. My “range” from the tests that Stu ran is 142 on average. I haven’t hit that except speeding by it on the way up. I’m “averaging” more like 165. I think I blogged about this before – H and I figure that this has GOT to be working my heart and expanding it in a big way, but I’m WAY outside of my aerobic zone, and totally anaerobic. Not quite sure what to do there. I personally switched back down to L6, and did the 90 RPM/5 minutes and 95 RPM/5 minutes there,  then did the cool down at the same Level 6 for 10 minutes, at 80 RPM (which felt fine and right). This totaled 1 hour and 15 miles.

OK, so that’s only FIFTEEN miles. These were my gremlin thoughts on the bike:

At 33 minutes: I am SO OVER THIS. I am going to quit. No one is watching. Just get off the damned bike.

At 42 minutes: What the heck. This isn’t so bad.

At 59 minutes: GET ME OFF THIS BIKE! I AM SO DONE!

When I left the gym, I realized I had NO idea where my car was. Since I’ve been to the gym THREE DAYS IN A ROW training (!!!!), my “memory” of where I thought the car was was all out of whack. THAT cracked me up. A month ago, I would have TOTALLY been able to find my car, because “on average” I got to the gym like once a MONTH (for a nice steam…) (laugh). What a change! Guilty Pleasure, had a gigantic handmade dark chocolate-dipped coconut macaroon (and a bottle of water) on the way home. I wonder if coconut macaroons (and of course Snack Pack chocolate pudding) are Ironman fare? Hmmmmm…..

First of all, check this out

Pretty exciting, eh? Many folks who are considering sponsoring me through a tax-deductible donation on my fundraising website are curious what each of the miles “mean” for Ironman Louisville. This is the best I can find out (especially with respect to the times that you need to meet to not be “chipped” – have your ankle chip taken away and thereby be out of the race):

SWIM COURSE: “The Swim Course is a point to point swim; set in a time trial fashion (athlete position is first come first serve, one at a time).  Athletes will jump off the dock at Tumbleweed Southwest Grill to start the event, finishing at the Great Lawn. The swim course will close 2 hours, 20 minutes after the final athlete enters the water. Utilizing a unique time-trial start, the final athlete is projected to enter the water by 7:45 a.m.” So what this seems to mean is GET IN THE WATER EARLY! I can’t figure out if they will “personally” chip you if you don’t finish the swim in a certain amount of time – seems that’s not the case. But they WILL chip you if you are the last swimmer, and don’t do it in 2 hours, 20 minutes. Checkin is at 5:00 – Pros start getting in the water at 6:50, Age Groupers at 7:00. So basically they get all the Age Groupers in the water in 45 minutes. It says ARRIVE EARLY – yeah, no doubt.

BIKE: “Athletes will be required to reach the 61-mile mark on the bike course (located at the intersection of State Road 42 and KY-393) and start the second loop by 2:15 p.m. Athletes have until 6 p.m. to reach the transition area at the completion of the 112-mile course.” So again, getting in early in the swim is KEY! Obviously “Mile 61″ would be a good mile to sponsor on the fundraising – as that’s one of the “if you are not here by this time, you are out” miles. OK and what the HELL is an elevation chart doing in the middle of the Bike Course Picture? I thought this was a FLAT RACE? I’ve been duped! :-)

RUN: “Athletes will be required to reach mile 14 on the run course (located on Muhammad Ali Drive just prior to the second loop) by 9:15 p.m. and complete the marathon course by midnight.” So there you go – once again, that would mean “Mile 14″ would be a good mile to sponsor on fundraising as it’s a “get chipped” mile.
I know that you can’t actually read the “turn here, turn here” directions on either the Run or the Bike maps that I’m inserting – but it’s more by way of just seeing the course. This will also give you an idea of where you might want to sponsor a Mile! If you’d like more information and specifics about what is at each mile (heck, I’m a Virgo, as a Sponsor I would probably be gettin’ it down to “Yeah, the mile with the Exxon station on the corner, SHE will remember THAT”), then click here – it has all the turn-by-turn specifics.

Thanks again, Sponsors! I’m going to make up a list so that I remember each and every one of you, at your specific mile. I’m very excited about that. When I ran the Big Sur Marathon (in 2002 – my last race!), I had folks in my office make me up little “envelopes” of Accelerade/Endurox powder, and decorate the envelopes. That way when I pulled one out of my pack to pour into the water, it had decorations all over it for me to smile at. (I tore the corner off the bottom and that made a little “funnel” to get the powder into the water.) I also had folks send me little “tokens” to keep me going, also in small envelopes (different color). I asked folks to send them to me, so that I could open them along the run. I had a Canadian coin and story from a fellow marathoner in Canada that I met online; a small feather blessed by a shaman; a tiny portrait from a friend/photographer of an orchid, to bring me “Peace,” etc. It was such a wonderful experience. I just remembered it – I might just do that again!

Abide by the exhortations to joie de vivre,

that you may be borne aloft

on the trembling wings

of giggling angels.

~ Chef Gordon Gordon Wyatt, Bones (episode “The Dwarf In The Dirt”)

Today was another Swim workout, and I decided to do the “Group 2″ workout to see how it would go. That workout was:

WarmUp    300 EZ
3×50 25 kick on back/25 free    RI 10″
3×50 25 Catch Up (CU)/25 free    RI 10″
3×50 25 scull/25 free RI    10″

3x

25 kick back    RI 10″
25 side kick (SK)    RI 10″
25 3 switches (3SW)    RI 10″
25 Body Balance Roll (BBR)    RI 10″

This was supposed to take an hour – it took 40 minutes. So I threw in a 300 warmdown. Then I was up to 48 minutes. I couldn’t remember what a “scull” was or a “Body Balance Roll,” so for the scull I did sculling with my hands (feet pointed backwards, sculling by pushing my hands by my sides through the water), and for the BBR I just did more of the 3 switches. I have to look them up. The CU drill hurt my left shoulder for some reason.

LOVE my Otterbox…this was my Swim Workout Playlist:

Beautiful Day, U2

Womanizer, Britney Spears

Breakin’ Dishes, Rihanna

Standing There, The Creatures

Untouched, The Veronicas

Little Bitty Pretty One (Live), The Doobie Brothers

When I Grow Up, The Pussycat Dolls

Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, Johnny Rivers

Reelin’ In The Years, Steely Dan (how appropriate (laugh))

China Grove, The Doobie Brothers

Little Willy, Sweet

Free Ride, Edgar Winter

Sort of eclectic, but it was fun to work out to.

And now, for my favorite comment of the past weekend. I remembered it when I was swimming and thought I should put it down here. During the Run “marker” set, I was still pretty cold, and Coach Simon was out there in shorts, standing around and not moving (and giving us our times). As I was running up to him, I said “Aren’t you cold?” I expected him to say something like, well, “No,” or “I’m okay,” or whatever. Instead he said, in all seriousness, “Oh no, I don’t shave” (motioning to his legs). For some reason, that just cracked me up and kept me going for the next couple of laps around the track, smiling. ONLY an avid marathoner dot dot dot.

Time to make dinner – I was starving after the swim workout and got 1/2 an egg salad sandwich, a 100 cal bag of Kettle Chips (not worth it – taste was bland but they were crunchy!), and a banana and a bottle of water. Gotta plan a little better.

Another friend claimed by a cancer that I am running to cure: Peter Warmerdam.

On November 7th, Peter passed away suddenly after a most courageous battle with Leukemia. He will be remembered as a man of faith, integrity, and spirit, who loved his family deeply. He is survived by: his son Matthew Warmerdam and Wife Amy; daughter Amy Warmerdam; grandson Eben Traywick; son Jonathan Warmerdam and wife Paige; daughter in spirit Katherine Sullivan and family; the mother of his children Sara Bardoni and her husband David. Brothers Leo Warmerdam And Wife Patricia; Ted Warmerdam and wife Joanne. Six sisters Ann Smorrenburg Thea Van de Mortel and Husband Joe; Connie Luiten; Betty Verger and husband Burt; Ada Van Ryn; Yvonne Van Lewen and Husband Jack; and 54 Nephews And Nieces.

I did not know Peter “personally” but only through the dancing community. Let’s cure this damned thing, and leave more wonderful men for us all to cut the rug with.

Yesterday, Moddie and Iron Mel and I drove together from Marin to Seattle – oh I mean Pleasanton :-) We had some pretty funny issues with Ms. Toyota (as Mel called the GPS in my van). “She” sent us a different direction than the written instructions – we wound up trusting the written instructions instead, and, at one point, they had us turning left into a parking garage in an industrial complex. We arrived about 5 minutes late to the workout, though 2 other teammates arrived after us…maybe they were tooling around the parking garage, trying to find the pool?

I was the “bottom of the alphabet” group, so had Run first with Coach Simon. He had us Warm Up doing 4 laps of the track. I tried to run as slowly as possible without just stopping altogether, but I still was hitting up in the 170s and once 180 on the Heart Rate Monitor. This is pretty scary. I really can’t believe I’m so out of shape. Maybe my new motto should be “Stroke or Get Stronger.” After the warmup, we did a number of “drills” including skipping on the track, “side running” (think: doing the hora while singing “Hava Nagila” – crossing one foot in front then the other), and then a “kick your butt in back while running” drill. The whole idea was to get us to really understand why we wanted to be doing forefoot running.

Then we did a 2 mile “marker” run. This was to basically get our “VDOT” – read more about VDOT here. My first mile was a 11:15, and my second one was an 11:28 for a combined total of 22:43, so my current VDOT is 25. This means my easy/long running pace is a bit over 14-1/2 minutes. Not so good. With a marathon pace of 13:39. That’s OK – it can only get better right? I did wind up “reeling in” 3 runners on my last lap – that old competitive streak busting out. Gave me something to “do” as well – otherwise you’re just trudging around the track. I had to figure out a strategy – “How do I catch up to those gals, without basically bonking and having to walk?” I was pretty sure I could catch 2 of them if I just increased my cadence (the cadence of my feet AND my panting), but I wasn’t sure about the last one. I think she let me catch her – she’s a veteran IronWoman. :-)

Then we did some stretching and strength training with these strap-things that Coach Doug uses. We did them on the pool deck. They really demonstrated to me how “rolled in” my shoulders have become – most of these strap exercises are to counter that “rolling in” issue. You get it more and more as you bike, and even swim (think of a freestyle, it’s all “rolling the shoulder forward”).

After that, we changed and got in the pool. Coaches Mike and Sedonia “seeded” the swimmers into categories – category 1 for newbies, up to category 3 for hard core swimmers. I seeded myself into category 1, because my cardio is just not allowing me to even finish 200 meters without getting winded. Coach Sedonia came up to me and told me to move into category 2 – YAY YAY, something I can DO!!!! I asked her to keep me in category 1 for a while, just because of the cardio issues. But she even had me demonstrate a few of the drills. I felt WONDERFUL. OK, I know, swimming is the LEAST important of all the sports. But thank you, thank you, THANK YOU great Goddess of the Ironman for throwing me ONE bone.

The thing that occurs to me is that swimming is the only one of these sports I have ever had “coaching in.” Though I did numerous triathlons “back in the day” (and even the Big Sur Marathon with H), I never had an actual coach for the Run or the Bike – it was all just reading articles and trying to mimic what they said. This was also before YouTube and the like – so nothing to “see and emulate” either. And even though I have had a swim coach before, Coaches Mike and Sedonia broke it down into even more “baby basics” than I have ever experienced. This gave me so many “A-HA” moments that my head (swim cap?) felt full! So I’m wondering, once I get my cardio back, if I will be able to be more efficient in the Running and Biking, like I know I am with the Swimming? Now that I will have a coach in all 3? I bet so! That was its own “A-HA” moment.

After we got dressed from the Swim, we did some stretching, and I was next to Coach Mike. One of the other coaches said there was a bike trainer on sale for $150, and Coach Mike commented to me that this was a “great deal.” I commented back (ok, definitely pouting) that this was just too rich for my blood. I can’t even afford bike shorts yet. Not having any excess income for the past 6 months has maxed out my credit cards, and makes it impossible for me to spend dinero on stuff like this. I feel super frustrated and upset about it. It also means I can’t really be “coached” on the bike, since the “coaching workouts” are done on the trainer, where groups set up at places like Sports Basement during the week. Coach Mike said to me, “Tell you what, I will loan you my trainer for the duration.” He has a cast on his foot – I’m pretty sure he’s just coaching this year, not coaching and doing a race. I was shocked and really awed and honored that he would do that. So now, I can be part of the “cadence drills” and “trainer workouts” for the Bike. I KNOW that this will help me with my “most feared part” of the tri – Biking. Coach Mike lives in Danville, so I have to figure out how to get it – but WOW, such Team Spirit! Seriously!

My two car-mates and I eschewed the group meal, in favor of getting back home. I was able to catch H (at the hardware store) and he met me at Crepevine, where I got a chicken Tuscan crepe and a big salad and coffee. I have no idea why my body was craving coffee, but so it goes. I told him all about the day’s exploits, and especially the running drills and the like. He said that he would like to see these, and that maybe he could figure out a way to “share” our calendars back and forth, so that we could work it in a way that he can run and bike with me when it’s not with the team. YAY!!  I told him the offer from Coach Mike, too, and he actually said, “If that doesn’t work out, I will buy you a trainer if it means that much to you.” I told him that actually, if he would buy me some bike pants, I would be eternally grateful, as would HE. (Happy cha-cha makes for Happy husband…OK I SO DID NOT SAY THAT)

Oh – nearly forgot – I also used the Alka-Blast, Super Greens and Prime pH drops as Stu Mittleman had recommended. It tasted a little like swamp water, but the theory is that this keeps your body pH more alkaline – and hence, you don’t have that much soreness after working out, and especially the next day. I have to admit, I feel COMPLETELY fine today – AND I did not crash later in the day yesterday, like I did after the Bike workout on Saturday. There might really be something to this. (Of course, Stu is one of the Biggies in Ultradistance running, so he knows his stuff!)

Today, it’s a swim workout – I got up late because I could (laugh) – H had a conference call so he took a later ferry, so I didn’t need to get him out of the house so fast. I also need to get the dog out – he’s happily lying under my feet, but we’ll get out as soon as I finish this. I’m excited to get in the pool and to try out the drills that we learned yesterday. Maybe I will try to see if I can do the “category 2″ drills! I also want to start podcasting some time this week. I know a lot of folks just listen to the podcasts, and I haven’t even done a podcast since I started this whole Journey. So most folks will have NO IDEA what the crazy lady is up to!! :-)

Continuing to eat the elephant…one bite at a time! Chomp Chomp Chomp. :-)

So, today was the 20 mile coached bike ride, with our Team In Training team. I had pretty much worked myself up into a lather about it, grumbling about the use of words like “easy” anywhere close to “rolling hills” and “20 miles.”

I got to Redwood High School early, and met the other folks. I must say this about Team in Training peeps – they are uniformly REALLY NICE. We had one little snafu – one of the gals had forgotten her helmet, so I drove back home and got H’s helmet and drove back – unfortunately missing the part I really wanted to see…how to change a flat. I really am going to have H walk me through this, because that whole thing scares me.

This is where I got to see a “Bento Box.” I have been listening to various triathlon podcasts, and Zen And The Art Of Triathlon happened to mention that he had a “Bento Box” on his bike, and how well it worked.

OK, so, remember, this is the gal who was trying to do drills that were designed to be done on a trainer on the road, because it didn’t say “this should be done on a trainer.” Well, I thought a bento box meant….a bento box. Like in a Japanese restaurant. You know, the black lacquer thing with little compartments. So the visuals I was coming up with listening to the Zen podcast about this “bento box” (not knowing it was Bento Box(TM)!) were just completely freakin’ hilarious. Where did he tie the box? Sounds like he has it right on the front of his bike. How does he keep things from flying out? Wouldn’t this be really un-aerodynamic? Yeah, Yeah, I know, what a bonehead, but that’s why I’m keeping this blog, to amuse the few of you who are reading.

A Bento Box(TM) is a little box that fits right behind your handlebars sitting on the top tube (it’s velcro’d to the upright and the top tube, so it’s very stable) and you can put like GU in it and the like. One of the gals on the ride had one. It said “BENTO BOX” right on the side and I nearly fell down laughing at myself. (Once I told her what I had thought when I had been listening to the Zen podcast, she thought it was pretty funny, too.)

OK back to the ride. We set off at about 9:20 from the Redwood back parking lot (totally takes me back to being 16 again – NO THANKS). I was in the middle of the people, and I realized that this was just NOT a good thing. I’m not confident enough. So at the first light I had everyone pass me. The route wound around and under the highway, then out and up Paradise going past Nordstrom’s (e.g., the fairly flat way).

Once we passed the Highway Patrol area and the shopping center back there (can’t remember the name) I was BY FAR the last. In fact, there was the pack, then Patty (the gal who was in front of me), then about a mile (well, not really but definitely far…I would see her if there were LONG straightaways), then me. I didn’t see the pack for most of the ride. I didn’t even see PATTY for at least the last 1/2.

I had some serious gremlins going. “Why am I doing this,” “I hate to be the worst one,” “I’m too old for this,” “I should really not be doing this,” you know, THOSE gremlins. I got down to Tiburon, where the rest of the gang were waiting, and just basically took a sip of water and we were off again. I didn’t feel tired – though at one point, again, my BPM was up at 180 which really is beyond too fast. I had to laugh because of course Stu Mittleman says on our coaching calls that you want to be pretty “easy” as you’re exercising, not really breathing hard, etc., and I think I was scaring wildlife with my steam locomotive panting. Ah well, no stroke yet.

We went down through Tiburon and then onto the bike path and back to Paradise. That one hill coming up Trestle Glen from the light was a total killer. My lord. I was in my easiest gear (I think that means “lowest”), blowing like a freight train, and just baaaaarely moving up the grade. And, my friends, this is NOT a steep grade. Seriously. It was nice though because the ride leader, Les, actually waited at about 2/3 of the way up the grade (there’s a stop sign), and was there to cheer me on, which felt a little bad (man, I really hate making people wait) and a lot good (thank goodness he’s here I don’t have to have Flat Anxiety any more). He actually rode with Patty and me on the way back, and we were pretty much a 3some so I’m pretty sure they just slowed WAY WAY DOWN so that I wasn’t left in the dust. Again, I felt bad (man, I really REALLY hate making people wait), but a lot good, and a little helpful (I did play a good “tail” and get drivers to let us into traffic so we could turn left, stuff like that. I remember that from triathlon training back when dinosaurs walked the Earth).

We got back somewhere around 11:20, so the ride took about 2 hours. And yeah, I am SERIOUSLY sore. My hands also (especially my left) went completely numb – it’s got to be the way you hold the handlebars closes off the flow in the carpal tunnel area.

I was REALLY glad that I finished, and really REALLY glad to be part of a mini-pack on the ride back. Everyone else probably did the ride in about an hour – if you take the time they had to wait for me in Tiburon, and then the time differential between when we got done and when they had gotten done at the end. Everyone was super nice to me, especially Patty, who I think really slowed down to at least keep something of an eye on me.

So, that’s done! Tomorrow – a swimming and running day, with coaches. At 0-dark-00, far, far away! I am carpooling a couple gals though, so I feel at least that I’m not taking the big van over for just me.

Bento Box. Who knew?

Today is a “Down Day” on the triathlon schedule. And it’s a down day for me, too.

Last night H “sat me down” (after I was complaining how exhausted I was – went to bed in the very early evening in fact), and said that he had been “thinking about it” and this “Ironman thing” was a VERY bad idea, and that if he had known more about it or thought more, he would never have said it would be Okay. As he said last night, he believes that I should have started, for example, with a Century bike ride as my “goal” (part of the Ironman, and something I can’t do yet, either), because he would have done it TOO, it would have been something we could have trained for together (like our hike down the Alps, the Big Sur marathon, etc.), and then I could “still” do the Ironman next year . . . and make my self-imposed “before I’m 50″ deadline.

The thing is – I’m already IN. I’m sure there are “ways out” – but I don’t really WANT to be out. But he’s really very upset about things, like the fact that every day of the weekend (both days) there are “trainings” that I need to go to. Not like, generally, we would be doing anything significant from 9-12 on a Saturday or Sunday. But the deal is, that I will be GONE, and that I will likely come home and be tired. This weekend is the first trial of this – I have a 20 mile (oy!) bike ride Saturday morning, then a swim/run brick (in San Remote – oh I mean Ramone – no less) on Sunday. I am going to see if he will at least meet me/us on Saturday after the ride if we get something to eat, but my guess is, he won’t. And so probably staying after to have lunch or whatever they will do is a nonstarter for me. Because adding a whole social layer of friends that don’t have anything to do with him will be just Bad.

I actually get where he is coming from. If he suddenly “announced” he was going to get competition-level in Ballroom and so it would mean he would be doing a training similar to what I’m doing, I am not sure I would be happy about it. In fact, I’d probably be pissed off. And the fact that the time would just increase as training got tougher would piss me off even more. So I “get it.”

Who knows, maybe this was a big fat mistake. I haven’t said the fateful words, “Do you really want me to quit, I will find out how” yet, because I do not WANT to quit. It would be ONLY because he wants me to. But if the shoe were on the other foot, well…I would probably be feeling the same way he is. He’d be out, meeting other folks, socializing, etc. and it wouldn’t have anything to do with me or forwarding our relationship. It wouldn’t be something that “we” had chosen with our precious off time. Dunno. Maybe I was really way, way too fast at jumping into this.

Hence my getting up at 3 a.m. this morning and being unable to get back to sleep…

OK, THAT, and the fact that the more this goes on, the more it looks like a Richy Rich sport. I am SERIOUS. First, it’s just “anticipated” that everyone’s going to get a bike trainer. A used one is $100. (A bike trainer is a little contraption you put your bike on that spins the wheel and allows you to ride inside, if you didn’t know that.) THEN we’re told that we have to get bike pants – no, TWO pair of bike pants – where “the good ones, which are all you are going to want” start at $60. SIXTY BUCKS! For now, no trainer for me, and I’m going to have to make do with my 15 year old bike shorts, which have a small pad of chamois (leather) on the inside. OK, and underwear, and a pad (to be graphic). The idea of being “told” to shell out $ for this, that and the other is freaking me out. It’s assumed. YES, I will admit, that the short ride I took a few days ago I am STILL sore from. But the biking portion (which is always the one I like the least) is getting more, and more, and MORE expensive as it goes on. I guess it’s the one section with “Gear.” But holy cow. I had to break the bank to get my bike tuned up ($85, something like that) . MAYBE in a while I will get clipless pedals (seems unlikely), but that means you have to buy pedals AND shoes. Oh, and pants. And a trainer. And…

I did, however, get to realize why bikers wear those dorky bike shirts with the pockets in the back. I wore a jacket and put my stuff in the pockets, but when you’re riding, the weight of the stuff in your pockets pulls the pockets down and around, so that they’re right in front of your crotch. Not so comfy. However, not quite sure how the “back pockets” really work, as they are open. Seems like not the smartest place for a wallet and a blackberry, which is what I had. I guess I will learn….(I was given a bike shirt on the first day, because the bike guy asked if anyone did NOT have a bike jersey and I was one of about 1/2 dozen that raised my hand. Then I couldn’t wear it when I went out, because I felt like such a dork in it. I guess I will get over it – not sure I will wear it on this group ride on Saturday, I guess I should…)

Yeah, I’m down on the Down day. I’m really feeling like this was a huge fat mistake. The biking $$ piling up gets me so down that it makes my eyes tear up and my nose itch. The fact that H is not behind me on this – not that he should be, I think this was a pretty doggone selfish choice on my part, and probably not thought through, especially when I haven’t had any income for nearly 1/2 a year – is sort of the crushing blow.

Time to get outside and go grocery shopping – where are those coupons…mac and cheese, anyone…?

Tunes for today’s run:
Scar That Never Heals, Jeremy Fisher
My Sharona, The Knack
Pony, Far
She’s Got The Who-Hoo, Sugar Ray
Jerk It, Thunderheist
Single Ladies, Beyonce
Daniella, John Butler Trio
Get The Party Started, Pink
Mony Mony, Billy Idol
Fuego, Pitbull
HipHip ChinChin, Club des Belugas
In These Shoes?, Kirsty MacColl
U Can’t Touch This, MC Hammer
I Gotta Feeling, Black Eyed Peas
Let’s Get Loud, Jennifer Lopez

So today, the training calendar blithely says that what I had to do “should be” 5 miles. I did a 10 minute warmup that took me from my house to California Street (0.61 miles), then did the prescribed 4 min run, 1 min walk 8 times – I got to A Street (so that’s a total, from my house, of 1.87 miles) and turned around and came back – at the end of the 8th 4min/1min session I was at the foot of River Oaks where River Oaks meets 5th Avenue, so as a total I did 3.44 miles (not 5). Makes me a little insane that I’m so far behind the curve. This is the VERY beginning workouts and the “presumption” is that I should be able to do 5 miles in the time. Oy.

Took me an extra 6 minutes to get from 5th up River Oaks and home. When on the way home, I glanced at my heart rate monitor – I was WALKING and my bpm were 180. Sheesh at that rate I’m going to have a STROKE. My “average” during the 4/1 phase was 155 into the high 160s which is really, really not good. My average is supposed to be 142. I couldn’t run any slower – I’m already trudging along like Frankenstein. I guess the only way to make my heart rate come down would be to walk for longer – but of course, that’s not the “game plan.” Hmmmm.

Strength Training:
Single Leg Squat: Did this on my stairs in the hallway. I could just barely do it to squat to the lower stair and up. Had to hold the wall.
Push Ups: Nope. Not even on my knees. Just too exhausted
Split Squat: Again, had to hold onto the wall. Could bend my knee “a little.” A LOT of knee popping and cracking.
Standing Horizontal Cable Row: Did this with the ‘bungees’ that you use for workouts (the ones with the handles?) – red bungee – tied to doorknob
Overhead Squat: This sucked. Could bend knees maybe a micron. Did not feel very safe.
Single Leg Row: Did this again with the bungee tied to the doorknob.
Single Leg Rotations with Touch: Had to hold on with my opposite hand – couldn’t even get CLOSE to touching the ground, did get to the calf on one side, and nearly to ankle bone the 2nd set, on the other side. Was holding on though.
Hamstring Bridge: This is no big deal. Not sure what’s up with that. Probably doing it wrong! Had feet together, hips up, hands palms together above chest
Side Plank: 15 secs each side, x 2. WOW, totally shakey, etc. Did it on my knees. A bit afraid for my shoulder.
Plank: Did this on my knees, 30 seconds. Really really wiped.

Now I gotta take a shower – and get to pole dancing! Man, not sure that I’m going to be able to do anything there – been off for 2 weeks, first because couldn’t get there, 2nd because had to do a presentation for potential business (that came to nothing). Will do the 1st hour (strength/core) and not sure how I’m going to do on tricks and training. Just feel super wiped out. HOWEVER, this was the first time in 2 weeks (since I started “testing out running”) that I have run and my calves have not gone numb! I have no idea where that was coming from – but it didn’t happen today. YAY!

So, today the workout was as follows:

Warm-up 10 minutes in middle-middle chainrings. Repeat the following drill set TWICE. Stay in big ring up front the entire workout, Shift to 3rd from largest ring in back. Alternate removing one foot from the pedals for one minute at a time, returning to two footed pedaling for one minute @ 90 rpm between single leg efforts. Repeat 4 times per leg.(12 minutes total). Shift to 4th from smallest gear in back. Pedal at 85 rpm. Focus all mental energy on the 1:00 to 3:00 position of the pedal stroke for 2 minutes. Focus all mental energy on the 4:00 to 6:00 position of the pedal stroke for 2 minutes. Focus all mental energy on the 6:00 to 9:00 position of the pedal stroke for 2 minutes. Focus all mental energy on the 9:00 to 12:00 position of the pedal stroke for 2 minutes. After second time throught the drills, shift to middle middle and cool down at 90 rpm for 10 minutes.

I have something to say that I found out LATER ON (thank you Sedonia I am still laughing…), but my thought on reading this was “How the HECK can they imagine I can do this? I can’t even barely balance to shift my gears.” So I was all pouty and feeling really upset (biking always has been my least favorite leg anyway), and so instead of doing the one-foot on, one-foot off, shake-it-all-about, Do the Hokey Pokey workout, I rode to McNear’s Brickyard and back. This is a steep hill down from our house, then flat to rolling hills with a moderate amount of traffic and broken tarmac (my wrists and hands are sore from the bouncing and jostling), out and back. I stopped at the bottom of the hill back home and walked the bike up. Actually – I was able to pedal up to the “no parking” sign – I have to remember that, so that slowly, slowly, as I get better at hills and maybe can some day reach my actual ROAD (much less my HOUSE), I have some way to gauge where I started.

Saturday, we’re supposedly doing a 20 mile “easy ride” that’s supposed to take an hour and 20 minutes. I decided I would go out for an hour on this ride, to see where I got, working fairly hard. I got 12 miles, and was VERY done at the end, thank you. Not feeling very confident about the whole “20 mile thing” that is for doggone sure. Was nice to be out though. And got better with shifting and all that jazz as the time went on.

So, here’s the route! And be sure to note below to see “what happened next”…

SO, I put a post on Twitter, starting with my daily quote. This is how it went…

Me (on Twitter/Facebook): My new mantra re Team In Training/the Ironman: “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” ~ Jim Rohn

Me: @sedonia OOooooooh!!! (Laughing so hard I just scared the cat.) No I did NOT know that. OMG. O….M…..G…..

Yeah…so I was “Unclear On The Concept.” Pretty funny, eh?

So, is this the most gorgeous family you’ve ever seen, or what?

This is my brother Jeff’s brother, David. Yeah, that sounds weird. Let me explain.

Jeff and I met at the Kindergarten bus stop when we were like 5 years old. We hit it off and perhaps more importantly, our moms hit it off. It started a 40 year bff through-thick-or-thin relationship. If I couldn’t get a hold of my mom to tell her something, I would call Mrs. Rosenthal, because she was my “Other Mom.” One time, when I called her pretty doggone recently when something happened and my mom was away from home (got the machine – per usual), she said to me “Now Sandy, I want to be sure that you are JUST as excited when you tell this to your Mom when you get her.” Pause. “HOWEVER, I really like the fact that I’m usually the first one!” We had a good smile about that – I used to send her birthday cards to Mrs. O.M. Rosenthal on the envelope, standing (of course) for “Other Mom.” I met her at that point in my life when she would always be “Mrs. Rosenthal,” never Joan. But when I wrote, she could at least be “Mrs. O.M.R.”

But back to my brother’s brother. Jeff and I have said back and forth for years that we were really brother and sister. I remember one time in high school coming back from something or another together, he driving his parents’ big boat of a green car. (Impala, maybe?) He wasn’t going out with anyone, and I wasn’t either. We were just coming around a curve in the road (by Blackie’s Pasture, if you know Tiburon, where the road goes from 2 to one lane). We were talking about how our folks would probably really like us to date, since our mothers practically saw each other every day. There was a slight pause, then we said nearly at the same time, “I wouldn’t have to like KISS you or anything, right?” We cracked up and that was the end of that. TOTALLY Sister/Brother.

Well Jeff’s younger brother is David. David and I didn’t know each other that well, just because he was 4 years younger, and that’s kinda how it goes. Now about 15 years ago, David actually was diagnosed with Lymphoma. My mom called me – Everyone was very freaked out. David went in for aggressive chemo; he was a Public Defender at the time, and his workmates chipped in their vacation time so that he could have enough time and still be paid, to work through the treatment. The best part? He’s cancer-free.

I asked David if he would let me add him to my “Why We Do This” wall, and he graciously assented, and sent me a picture of his GORGEOUS FAMILY (aren’t they gorgeous?) I have seen them a few times recently, and I just love them to death. (That’s Mary, his wife, Molly and Jack, his kids.)

Without the sort of treatments that David was able to get, there would BE no Molly and Jack. That kinda freaks me out. And THAT is why I am doing this.

If you have someone in your life that has fought and won, or lost, their battle with Leukemia, Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, or other blood cancer, would you send me their picture and their story? The more I can see, the more committed I am to raising all that doggone money.

…couch potato time!!!

This is HOW I got on my “Ironman quest.”

Back in the summer, I went to Tony Robbins “Unleash The Power Within” (the “firewalk thing”) with my bff Maria. I was pretty depressed about the economy, my sorry state of health and fitness (haven’t really committed to working out since 2006), and the like. In doing some of the hypnosis-esque exercises (which are crazy powerful, whether you like Tony Robbins or not), I was concentrating on the “health and fitness” portion of what I wanted to accomplish, and something happened that I’d like to share today.

You do each area of your life – relationships, $, health/fitness, etc. Near the end of what is basically a guided meditation when concentrating on Health, the vision that came to me wasn’t just me getting my butt out of bed and getting to the gym or walking the dog. Ho, no. It was a full-on vision of being on the bike in the Kona Ironman. I know the course, because Maria’s condo literally looks down on the course. Obviously, I fought that. I struggled with this “stupid vision” until I had a real “a-ha moment.” I remembered that “way back when” I was doing triathlons and such, I had as a goal to do “The” Ironman before I was 50. (Back then, there weren’t a plethora of Ironmans – Ironmen? – this was 20 years ago -  it was really just Kona.) Back when I had this vision, “Olympic-distance” triathlons were all considered hardbody still – and so an Ironman was just completely out in the stratosphere insane.

One of the things Tony Robbins really talks about and gets back to your forebrain is what you have “given up on” in your life. It’s upsetting, breath-taking, sob-inducing…powerful. This was a big one that I had given up as “impossible.”

As I tried to dismiss it and concentrate on something actually “attainable,” my vision was poking me in the forehead, reminding me that “before 50″ meant NOW. I’m way on the end of the 40s, and if I had as a completely crazy dream of “doing” Kona, I would have to do an Ironman “qualifying race” beforehand, AND get in in qualifying time, AND win the Kona raffle. Hmmmmmm, that means – getting my butt of the couch bigtime! I kept trying to get my mind to re-focus on, oh, say, going to the gym (even the gym PARKING LOT) 3 times a week. It kept delivering up me on the bike in the lava fields. Off the couch. In the lava fields. Off the couch. In the lava fields. Poke, Poke, Poke. It wouldn’t let go.

I remember getting back to the room that night, and telling Maria that my “get fit” goal had somehow morphed into doing the Kona Ironman and that meant I had to get going NOW. She is such a good bff. Her response? Not “oh my GOD how are you going to do that Ms. Trufflebuns?” No, it was “oh, that’s perfect! I will have cocktails for you at the end, at the apartment!” (Who loves her? ME!)

So after UPW, I was still musing on how to get this vision OUT of my head. But it kept poking me. I knew about Team In Training from various folks who had done it before, looked it up, and saw there was an IronTeam. I signed up to go to the Mill Valley introduction right after UPW so I wouldn’t chicken out. I was still not really sure I was going to do it (I mean, COME ON, I am so out of shape that small children pass me…). Until I got there.

One of the head coaches was there, Couch Doug. He was a total hard body scary hottie guy, but super patient talking to me about it, and really kind. He made me feel it was actually, possibly, “do-able.” I had another meeting in Mill Valley about 2 hours later, so I sat in the atrium of the place we met, and read through ALL the paperwork. (As a lawyer, I guess that’s part of my curse.) It included the crazy amount of $ that I would need to raise. While I was still sitting there, contemplating, Coach Doug came over again (I didn’t realize he was still there) and chatted with me about it, again. Then I called my husband, and we went through the cons (a lot of them) and the pros (me doing something I had wanted to do since way before we got together). He said that thought he wasn’t really sure it was the smartest idea – and that it would take a LOT of time away from “us” which he guards jealously, that he knew that both of us always do better with some sort of “goal.” We did the Big Sur Marathon together in 2002, and hiked the length of the French Alps together in 2004. (And stopped exercising totally together in 2006, concentrating instead on our passion for cooking and wine – bad!) So anyway, he bought in, though as I have blogged, I kept saying “Ironman” and he kept hearing “triathlon.”

When we were at Unleash the Power Within, I got a necklace, one that Tony himself wears. It is a Chinese “protection” coin and has great juju. When I went to the T Harv Eker Millionaire Mind Intensive, at the “penny exercise” (I am not giving anything up here, but if you’ve been to MMI you know what I mean), I got my penny – and actually superglued it on the back of my Chinese coin to remind me of MMI. Then, on my first run training for the Ironman (I still can’t believe I just typed that), I was out running on an old railroad track here in San Rafael, and I came across ANOTHER penny. One of the things you learn in MMI is that you want to pick up ANY $ that comes across your path – because the Universe doesn’t work in “denominations,” so if it sees that you will “stop to pick up $” it will give you more if you celebrate it. I picked up that beat-to-crap penny and did the whole “MMI happy dance thing” with it (kiss kiss kiss) – and then glued THAT to the back of my coin, too. It represents starting out on this journey of Ironman – and also following up on MMI AND UPW, both of which are combined in that one coin to me.

I’m kinda procrastinating here (gotta actually get the dog out – it’s a “free” day on the IronTeam calendar so I will hike Jake up the hill). But the last thing I have to say is to remind anyone who has been to UPW what we all promised (and if you haven’t, just stand up and repeat after me):

NOW I AM THE VOICE!

I will lead, not follow

I will believe, not doubt

I will create, not destroy

I am a force for good

I am a Leader

DEFY THE ODDS

SET A NEW STANDARD

STEP UP!!!!

Arrrrgh – just had a computer hiss-fit and it pulled down what I had already written here. Grrrrr…OK, “hit Save hit Save hit Save.” There now I might remember it…

SO, yesterday was Kickoff day for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. I had a couple of “familiar faces” there – Lizzie Duemig who I knew from S Factor and have kept up with on Facebook (she is doing the 1/2 Marathon to be more prepared for the running portion of her police fitness test), and Maria Afan, whom I have mentioned earlier. It was odd getting to Berkeley at a fairly early hour (about 8:45 a.m.). The streets were de-ser-ted. There was a Cal game later in the day (and church services), so finding a parking lot that wasn’t “reserved” for one of those two things was a little tricky (and pricey!), but that all worked out fine. I did get turned around though, and was coming up Channing trying to figure out where “campus was” – and I saw a couple folks holding TNT signs waaaaay down the street. That bright purple and green works every time! Again – super odd to be walking down a street that about 10 hours later I would return to, and weave my way between street vendors, musicians, strolling folks, etc. I would not have been surprised to see a tumbleweed rolling slowly down the tarmac.

The “group” kickoff was as you would expect – moving videos, stories, and the like. The whole “remember why you are here/when you are wearing your jerseys you are ambassadors; Be Courteous stuff. Then we broke into our “sports groups.”

(NOW, I am hitting “SAVE DRAFT” – this is about how far I got before)

We got upstairs to our sports group – IronTeam. I was definitely ill at ease: the only person I knew was Maria, and she just finished a marathon a couple days ago! I had met one of the coaches, Margaret from Napa, and she made me feel GREAT.  She was somewhere around my same age, and was super nice and cool. And not a super hardbody – just “normal.” I also “knew” Doug Li, the Strength Coach, only because he was the guy who sat with me after going to the original Intro Session, to answer a lot of my questions. He saw me and recognized me, and I actually KNEW that he really thought I could do this, “No worries.” That bucked me up.

Then the paperwork started. Not the “If you die it’s not our fault” paperwork (“those damn lawyers” tee hee hee) – the “training paperwork.” Oh my lord. They even passed out one of those big clear folders with sides and a “string lock” on it to keep everything in. It became obvious how important that was going to be, as we approached an inch of handouts!

There was an “uber-coach” – Dave (he was also the Bike guy), a Swim coach (Sedonia), a Run coach (Simon, who is the total image of my brother Jeff, it was totally odd), and Doug Li was the strength coach. I thought they were all great, though the whole bike thing really got me freaked out. I mean, the $$$ were piling and I mean PILING on. “Oh, subscribe to this training/coaching site, it’s ‘only’ $100/month.” And “oh, here are all the clothes – a good pair of bike chamois is somewhere around $100.” And then “Well, of course you have to have a bike trainer.” (I didn’t even hear the price on that. I didn’t want to know.) The Run coach, Simon, actually did make a little fun of all the “gear” that the bike guy had in the box. He split everyone up into folks who “Hated Running,” and those who “Loved Running,” and then those “in the middle” (I was in the middle). The bike/uber coach, Dave, was in the middle, as was Doug Li the Strength guy. So Simon (Run Guy) was talking about the “good things” about running, including the freedom, getting outside, and also that you just needed some shoes, socks, and shorts and could get out there (motioning to the huge box of bike gear). He asked if anyone in the middle was more or less inclined to move (after the discussion of the good – and bad – points) to either the Hate or Love group. The bike guy moved way closer to the hate group and joked, “You’ve reminded me – just not enough GEAR in running!” I had to laugh at that!

We did some Strength training out in the hallways, learned about bike Etiquette, lots of other stuff. I left still feeling pretty scared at what a stupid goal I had carried around for so many years. I mean – why couldn’t I be like my husband – who’s big goal is to eat at all the Michelin 4 Star restaurants before he’s 55? (smile) The one coach, Margaret, really made me feel good though. And actually the Strength training guy Doug Li with the whole “I know you can do this” attitude. I still have some issues about the bike – I’m going to be riding my old one (as per my previous posts), and I really am NOT sold that I have to get clipless pedals, though the bike/head coach guy was not at all friendly on the subject, not even an “hey, don’t worry, you can start the way you are.” The attitude I got from him was basically “man up, just do it.” That’s the sort of attitude that makes me Quit.

I called H on my way home from the meeting, and we met for martinis and appetizers at Il Davide. I brought in all the paperwork, and he was not very happy, giving me heck about how “we were never going to have any more weekends.” It pushed me down into a lower feeling, and made me think that maybe I really SHOULD quit, that I SHOULD give up on this “before 50 goal” that I had harbored for quite some time. In the end, though, he started talking about how he would have to go “get his clunker of a road bike tuned up, too,” and that “well, if the Coach says you need the clipless pedals, I will help you and we can practice,” and even (when I told him about the 3 “training groups” for swimming) “Well, if they had a Zero group, maybe I would train with you, since I can’t swim.” I think that after he started complaining and could see that it got me upset, he “husbanded up” (is that a new phrase for “man up”?) and started being supportive.

His big deal was of course that we would not be able to travel because of weekend workouts. I reminded him that when I was in training for the Nike Triathlon, we were in Austria and Italy for a month. I’d just had to find pools, and we’d even rented bikes together, and I had stayed on the schedule as best I could. I have photos in our photo album of me in various pools all over Austria. It was pretty funny. The thing here is that I would miss the “team” or “coached” workouts, which would not be so good. We’ll see how it goes. I really want to try to stay on the schedule as much as humanly possible – but I can’t leave H a “widow”…well, YET. :-)  I imagine as the training progresses, it’s going to get worse!

This morning, I did get up and do the training we were supposed to do – 10 minutes warmup, then 8 times doing a 4 minute run/1 minute walk repeat. It’s similar to when we were using the Gallway method to train for the Big Sur Marathon. Need to find my training watch…now all the folks have freakin’ GPS watches that can tell you where you are and how far you’ve gone – holy cow. I got up early, & got the training done with Jake by my side. It makes me sad that when we did the marathon, Jake was our “support team” – he wore a doggie pack and carried all our water, GU, etc. on the longer runs. Now that he’s 13, he really liked this training (I think I went 2 miles total), but I know as it gets longer he’s not going to be able to make it as far. He’s such a trooper, though. And always so HAPPY! He’s my hero :-) Anyway – got the workout done, got home, took a shower, and then made coffee and brought it up to Hizzoner in bed. That’s our Sunday “tradition” and his biggest issues surrounded us losing “relationship traditions” in favor of my training. I refuse to let that happen, as much as is possible (there are a lot of coached workouts on Sundays – which is not so good). I just have to get up and out earlier.

I have Jake as my energy and happiness Mentor for that – he just LOVES getting up, coming down stairs, and greeting the day. His “downward dogs” are increasingly stiff, but his attitude is such a marvel.

I was emailing my friends Caron and Judy on Facebook this morning (and yesterday after the meeting), and said that this whole Ironman thing reminds me of the old joke: “How do you eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time.” As Caron said, “The hard part is trying to figure out where to take the first bite.” Well, this morning, I was out there with my happy dog Jake, and I think I took the first bite. Not too bitter, not too sweet. Not bad.

Thanks to Kelownagurl, here is a link to an article on Forefoot Running. I am posting it here because I will be able to find it again. Hey, a cluttered brain is next to godliness…because the devil would get STUCK in there sortin’ stuff out.

S

Saturday is “D Day” – the first day with Team In Training where they get to see my face and hand me a training schedule. Yikes. I’m getting more and more “wary” about the whole thing as time progresses, but I am also listening to more triathlon-related podcasts and starting to feel a bit more “in the groove” with the whole thing. It’s like 20 years hasn’t passed .  . . I was listening to one podcast (Triathlete’s Coffee Shop) and they were talking about Scott Tinley, Dave Scott, Mark Allen, etc. – the “old guys” of the sport. They were running when I was running. Is this a word to the wise, or what? I’m not that wise…

How did it all start for me? Back in 1988, my girlfriend Leslie and I took a “challenge” published in the Washington Post for anyone who wanted to do a triathlon. It was published by a guy named Remar Sutton. The “challenge” started on New Year’s Day with “find your way off the couch” and ended with the Bahamas Triathlon over Thanksgiving.

The Bahamas Tri was sprint-distance – and a LOT of folks wound up taking the Challenge.  It actually freaked Remar out. It was funny. (He had offered to buy “anyone who took him up on the Challenge” dinner the night before the Tri – and he got letters from thousands of folks – and 10os of us actually did it. The Bahamanian authorities weren’t prepared, all that good stuff. I came in 6th Woman overall, but I think that was just a fluke.)

After the Bahamas Tri, I decided to do the Chicago Sun-Times Triathlon. I remember when “Olympic distance” triathlon was still what Ironman is today – “only crazy people” did it. I liked that feeling. In preparation, Leslie and I actually volunteered at the Baltimore Tri – where Mike Pigg was running. He was a total newbie as far as I can remember. The pictures at the left are Leslie and me – the bottom photo is us at Mike Pigg’s staging area. Someone actually TOLD Pigg we had done this – and the top photo is us with his 1st place roses, which he gave to us, and his towel, which we cut in 1/2 (and, yeah, believe it or not, I still have my 1/2). He was THE nicest guy EVER. We were so embarrassed someone had ratted us out. Heck, I think HE was embarrassed. Back then, “triathlon” was one of those “fringe sports” and I think that the fact he had “fans” was a complete shock to him.

I have always basically been a couch potato, though it’s gotten worse recently, with the whole hormonal “thing” going on. I used to be able to work out a little, eat a little better, and get back to my target weight. I am now 30 pounds higher than that, and it really happened almost “overnight.” Dang Hormones, Curses!! (shaking fist at sky). I knew that I needed to get a set program to get back “on the wagon,” and I also had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to do an Ironman. Sure, I probably should have started back with a tri…but I “know I can do” a tri. So – Team In Training.

I remember the feeling, when this photo was taken over TWENTY years ago, of really not knowing if I COULD do a triathlon (Olympic-distance). Man, things were so different, too. Lots of spaghetti dinners, little hydration, oh lord. I’m lucky I didn’t die. I remember when tribars first came out (and nearly killing myself trying to use them). Pre-GU. Pre-Power Bars, really. I owned the first pair of Oakley sunglasses. Yeah, I am OLD!

So now I’m back…I don’t doubt I can do it (well, MUCH); I feel like I did 20 years ago, with that “it’s not possible now, but I am SURE it CAN be possible…RIGHT?” feeling.

I’m rambling…OH, so, the bike story. I took my bike out of the cellar late last week, and brought it to the local bike place to get it tuned up, tubes changed, whatever it would take. This bike is easily 15 years old – though it was “top of the line” back then. (Well, not pro-top, but “as top as I could afford without thinking I was spending money like an idiot” top.) I went and picked it up, and the guy who brought it out was in his 20s – he was probably like 8 when the bike was new. He went on and on about how “great” it was to work on ‘such a classic.’ I voiced some concerns about the bike and the race, and he was just the cutest thing ever. He told me that “yeah,” it was an “old warhorse” (!!! like me? !!!) but that it would “definitely do its best” and would “take me where I needed to go” and such. He patted the bike in the sort of way that someone would pat a horse that’s going to be trained back up for racing…an “Atta BOY, you can DO it” kinda pat. I know that it’s going to get me a lot of looks when I show up with it…no doubt. (At least it’s not a mountain bike…) I also can’t do clipless pedals now – maybe forever – so I have the big cages on the pedals. (The only really BAD accidents I have ever had were with clipless pedals – so I am feeling allergic.)

On that Triathlete Cafe podcast, there was a recent episode where they were talking about what part of the triathlon is the most important – and one thing that came up (and I now agree with) is that cycling is really the most important leg. I was interested to hear each athlete stand up for his or her “sport” – but the arguments from the cyclists actually made the most sense to me. I never was really an athlete in any of these 3 disciplines – I lettered in Fencing at UC, and then also did karate. I never really particularly liked any of the 3 sports that make up triathlon. I am a fairly good swimmer, so I think I was and am lucky as a newbie in that I’m not “scared” of swim workouts. Sure, I still have the “is there a shark underneath me” issue that anyone who saw Jaws as a child has (my mom was SO RIGHT, WHY did I sneak out and see that movie?), but otherwise, I am not a bad swimmer. The one sport that I never really trained at – and spent the LEAST amount of time at – has always been the bike.

My mind actually always sort of said, “Hey, anyone can bike, right?” I didn’t really realize I was thinking this until listening to the Tri-Cafe folks. In my last triathlons before quitting (so, that’s now about 8-10 years ago), I really SUCKED on the bike, and it made the whole experience unpleasant for me. I always skimped on the bike training, because I liked to swim (so would do that more) and don’t like to run (so would do that more, to try to LIKE it more). And I thought: “Anyone can ride a bike.” I now realize this is a fairly stupid thing to think. So I am really going to concentrate on the cycling portion, which will be TOTALLY new to me. I think I’m also going to sign up for some Spinning classes at the gym.

That’s my update for now. I’m having fun blogging again. It’s far from my old blogs, fEmpowerment, and the like – but maybe not. I’m starting from pretty much zero – which my book discusses, though not from an athletic context. I’m so curious to see how this all goes. And I’m making friends online in the triathlon “world,” and feeling great about it. This happened when I trained for the Big Sur Marathon – folks out there who were marathoners on various websites got to be “buddies” in a way. Now, it’s the Ironcrew. And I like it.

Before I signed up for the Louisville Ironman Triathlon in August 2010, I actually called and discussed it with my husband. We were on the phone for quite some time, discussing time commitment, work versus workout, and lots of things like that. I was actually trying to convince him to do it with me – he said no, but said he’d like to bike more, so he’d love to be part of the rides I need to do on my own, blah blah. Cool. Signed. A little scared, but signed.

I took my old tri bike (15 years “young”) to our local bike shop, and they worked it over. It was finished today, so I went to pick it up. Did like it when the little cutie-that-could-be-my-son (laugh) gushed about what a “classic” it was, and how he felt (I had actually voiced a concern) that he thought it could “totally tough it out” for an ironman. (As I have no dinero for another bike, that was good to hear.)

So I brought the bike home, and Hizzoner and I were talking about the training. I said something to him about wondering whether I would need to get broader handlebars (something I had considered a decade ago when I stopped doing tris, because my shoulders would get sore). The conversation went like this:

He: “Why are you worried? You’re not going to be on the bike all that long.”

Me: “Um, 100 miles is pretty doggone long.”

He: “What are you TALKING about? I mean all at once.”

Me: “Honey the race itself is over 100 miles, then you have to add training and stuff.”

He: “You’re doing a triathlon!”

Me: “Honey, I told you I was doing an IRONMAN triathlon. We went over this when I called you before I signed up.”

He: “WHAT? I thought you were just exaggerating!”

Me: “I’ve been talking about this and freaked out nonstop since I signed – I said I-ron-Man are you telling me you did not hear that?”

He: “Of course I did. But I thought you were just exchanging the word for triathlon. Or exaggerating. What the heck did you sign up for??”

Me: “You did, however, hear me and AGREE that I could do the I-ron-Man Tri-A-thlon in August next year, right? You heard that, right?”

He: “Well, yes, but I just thought you were mistaken.”

Me: “I’m signed up, you know. There isn’t any backing out now. I told you I wanted to do an Ironman before I turned 50. This is an Ironman. I’m approaching 50. I’m puzzled about what you were thinking…?”

He: “Well, yes, you’ve said that for the past 4 years. But I didn’t think you were really signing UP for it…”

Yeah. Really. He’s now a little spazzed out. Though I think he understands a bit more why ~I~ have been spazzed out. Funny though. Husbands hear weird.