Last Coached Workout for Wildflower

I have been on taper mode this week which will continue into next week. I was a bad girl though and didn't' really get a chance to workout this week. Things have been pretty hectic. Tomorrow is our LAST coached workout for the Wildflower team....boo, hoo I will miss my peeps but the time has come (well in 9 days) for us to complete this journey. Our workout tomorrow will be an easy bike ride and run. We are suppose to bring out all our bike/run gear and practice laying it all out like it will be at our transition area on race day. We will also have a clinic on transition, race day rules and a mental preparation. I won't be done though as I do have a few peeps continuing on and doing the Kona Tri and Escape from Alcatraz. It'll be a great way to keep me training since I do plan on doing a couple more triathlons this year and in August I will be going back to the Run team which means really no break for me but that's okay. I need to keep working out since I can't seem to stop eating :o) and summer is coming up which means lots of YUMMY festival and bbq food. Not to mention a certain someone is turning 30 YIKES!! so I gotta keep healthy and in shape.

ENJOY the sunshine and have a great weekend!!!

The motiviation I needed

I am 12 days from race day and although after the Practice Triathlon I do feel much better about finishing Wildflower I still need all the motivation I can get. Last night we went to the Kabuki Theatre in SF Japantown to watch Runner's High and support Coach Al. Runners High is a powerful documentary following the Students Run Oakland (SRO) organization as they try to succeed in training at-risk East Oakland youth for the Los Angeles marathon http://www.runnershighfilm.com/

I am glad that we went and watched it and it was just what I needed to remind me about challenges in life and accomplishing goals. I committed to this triathlon and I WILL finish it :o)

"It's 26.2 miles from East Oakland to anywhere they wanna go"

Story: When teenagers from one of the nations toughest neighborhoods in Oakland, California sign up to train for a marathon, they begin the journey of a lifetime. Runners High is an intimate, character driven documentary of struggle, courage, and hope. During a season filled with conflict and possibility, four of these teens bare their dreams, joys, tears and fears. As several stumble under pressure in emotionally charged moments, others realize the journey begins with the power and commitment to accept responsibility for their own futures. Runners High shows that no matter what happens next, one season of training to run 26.2 miles can change your life forever.

Coach Alphozo Jackson

Coach Alphonzo is SRO's chief motivator. With a hug for everyone and an inspirational saying at every turn, he prepares the teenagers for this physically grueling endeavor. A nationally ranked runner and a legend in the Bay Area running scene, he loves the city of Oakland and is doing whatever he can to reverse its bad rap. Some of his favorite sayings are: "It's mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter" and "Don't wimp out on yourself." If you happen to say to him, "It's a beautiful day," you'll often hear back, "Everyday you can get out and run is a beautiful day." He is the ultimate coach.

He really is the ultimate coach and I am so thankful that him and Mama Lisa are in my life. They will be with me in spirit on race day as they can't attend. They will both be in Humboldt for the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon. When the going gets though I will hear their voices in my head telling me to keep on going and that there are NO WIMPS. I will think of all the encouraging words and advice that they have given me throughout the years.

Practice Triathlon Day

5:30am - Saturday

Just got up and even though I slept pretty good, I have butterflies in my belly :o( I am eating my usual breakfast....peanut butter and honey on a chocolate chip muffin...YUMMY. Everything is packed and ready to go. I will go get dressed and wait for Anthea to pick me up at 6:15.

....to be continued

10:00am Sunday RESTING :o)

800yard swim, 18mile bike ride & approx. 2mile run ACCOMPLISHED :o) I FINISHED and felt awesome yesterday doing our mini triathlon. It was the first time that we had done all three sports together. I felt awesome and had a pretty good day. I finished it all in 2hours and 12minutes. Not too bad.

We got to Shadow Cliffs around 6:45 and quickly found a spot to set up our transition area. Of course mine was super neat, which I knew wasn't going to last long. Coach Tim explained the course to us and gave us some tips before starting. We also got to hear from one of our honoree's before the start of the swim to get us motivated and remind us why we are here at 7am on Saturday morning when most people are probably still sleeping. The swim started with the Half Iron Man team, then the Olympic Girls (that's me) and then the Olympic Boys. Our group was to swim 3 1/2 laps counterclockwise, about 800 yards. I felt much better today during my swim and I got a good rhythm going. I finished the swim in about 24 minutes. I was kind of dizzy from the swim so that was a weird feeling. My transition from the swim to the bike was pretty quick. I had no problem getting my wetsuit off. I dried off quickly, had a power gel and some water, got all my bike gear on and headed off. The bike ride was an 8 mile loop, we did the loop twice. I finished that in a little over an hour. Transtion from bike to run was also quick although I forgot to change my shirt into the one with my race number on it, oh well. On race day I'll have a race number belt. Headed off onto the run and felt really good although my legs felt like jello for at least 10 minutes. I'm not really sure on the distance we ran but we think it was almost 2 miles. I finished feeling great. The weather was also perfect and it never rained :o) YAY!

I am really glad that we had a chance to do this practice triathlon. I have a couple of things that I want to change about my transition so it's even quicker. I was finally able to take my power gel and hydrate while on the bike so I'm pretty happy about that. I am feeling so much better after seeing how well I did yesterday. I was really starting to worry that maybe I wouldn't be able to do this. I know I can, although Wildflower's bike ride will be MUCH MORE challenging because of the hills. I WILL do this though......there are NO WIMPS!!!!

Shadow Cliff Swim

16 days til race day

Lael and I headed out to Shadow Cliffs last night after I got off work. Something we can now do since it's light out late. We decided that we would do 8 laps out there which is about 1120 yards (we now think it was more like 1280). It was pretty cold so once again it took me forever to feel comfortable. I started my laps and was able to make the 160 yards to the other side without half way but I had to take a short rest before coming back down the lane. This is where I need to just RELAX and take it easy and not freak out about what's in the lake :o( I think about it too much and panic. Anyway, our plan was to do 8 laps in 30 mins. It took me about 25min and 5 laps to finally get a good rhythm going and feel relaxed and okay. Laps 6, 7 and 8 felt pretty good and I have to say that I was happy last night with how I did. I hope that I can do that good this weekend at the practice triathlon and of course on event day. I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN :o) I did 8 laps in a little over 33 minutes. Lael has figured out that it will probably take me about 45 minutes to finish my swim if I do as good as I did in the last 3 laps last night, that sounds good too me. I was thinking over an hour so that's good news.

If you are bored you can read Roberta Gonzalez's swim at Shadow Cliffs...it creeped me out even more :o( http://cbs5.com/roberta/local_blogentry_145135937.html

Tomrrow....practice Triathlon at Shadow Cliffs :o) It is going to be set up as if it were race day. We'll have race numbers, a transition area, water stop and SAG support and people cheering us on. It should be a fun day, we are doing the NO RAIN dance though because of course it's scheduled to rain tomorrow :o(

Thank you DEBBIE and KAREN for coming out to support and cheer us on.

Wednesday Night Swim

It was so nice to get out to the pool and still have some light. Yesterday was such a beautiful day and I hope it continues throughout the week. Maybe those few showes scheduled for Friday and Saturday will just go away.

Last nights workout:
8 x 25 Kick, 25 Drill, 25 Swim = 600m
3 x 100m = 300m
800m (32 laps, I did 25) = 625m
100m cool down

total = 1625m

Tonight Lael and I will be going to Shadow Cliffs for some open water swimming.

Rest day Knitting

Monday is always my rest day and my day to catch up on stuff but since I was off for a couple of days last week and got to catch up on all the house stuff this Monday I was able to sit on my couch relax and KNIT :o) and NO, knitting is not just for old people. I started a hat last week and was able to finish it on Monday. I thought myself how to knit in the round and it went well. Here is what my ball of yarn turned into :o)

Tuesday Bike Ride

It was such a nice day yesterday and now that the sun stay out longer I can ride after work. I rode my bike for about an hour an a half from Walnut Creek to Danville and felt pretty good. Tonight it's back to the pool.

Pinehurst, pinehurst, pinehurst....

......all I can really say is that I HATED it. Saturday was the ride from hell. As you all know it has not stopped raining in forever but somehow we've gotten lucky weekend after weekend and we haven't really had to workout in the rain. It has just been super cold but the weather has held out for us. This was not the case on Saturday. I arrived at Miramonte H.S. around 7:30 it was pretty chilly but not raining. We were suppose to ride to the top of Pinehurst, run for 30-45 minutes and then ride back down. About an 18 mile bike ride. The plan was changed a little when Coach Tim found out that the trail we were suppose to run on was pretty flooded. It was decided that we would do the Pinehurst loop, return to our cars to put our bikes away and then just run down in Moraga. We took off on our bike ride around 8:15 and about 10 minutes into the ride it started raining on us. Of course I started whining because riding in the rain and riding is no fun but at this point I still had no idea how much worse it was going to get. I missed doing the Pinehurst ride a few weeks ago because I was sick so all I really knew about it is all the horrible stuff I've heard from my teammates. It's a hilly course on a two lane road. We had rolling hills for a little while but nothing too bad compared to what was ahead. I'm still not great at drinking while I ride so I had stopped to drink some gatorade and a few of the other girls did too. We hopped back on our bikes after a quick rest and Natalie said "okay, are you ready?....ready? ready, for what? HAAA, HAAA little did I know the climb that we were about to embark on, it was never ending and I barely made it to the top, actually I didn't really make it to the top. I got off my bike a few hundred feet before the top and walked up. I was NOT a happy camper at all. By this point I was exhausted and soaked. I looked like I had jumped in a lake with all my clothes and shoes on and then decided to go on a bike ride. I was so cold that I was shivering and could barely feel my toes and fingers. I wanted to cry :o( When we got to the top Megan and Coach Joe were there and told us which way to continue the ride. Going back the way we had gone up was not safe because it's pretty steep and there had been some mudslides. Joe also said the other way was an easier and safer descent. So off we went, we still had a few hills to climb and again I wanted to cry but we got up them . We had to stop and take a break a couple of times to catch our breath. 2 hours and 2 minutes later I made it back to my car. I decided that since it was so late now (Patch had a doggy meet) that I would just go home and forget the run. I got into some warm clothes and headed home. I think it took me about 4 hours to feel back to normal and not like I had hypothermia. It was the most miserable day in the 12 weeks that I have been training. I guess I should be proud of myself for finishing but GEESH that was terrible.

I am very very proud of my mentees, they all were just as soaked and cold as I was but they all finished. A few of them even toughed it out even longer and went on the run. You guys are awesome :o)

From a Doctors Perspective

Richard "R2" Rowe is one of our teammates. I've also had the pleasure of being on the run team with R2 this past Fall Season. R2 also happens to be a physician at Children's Hospital in Oakland and sees the effects of cancer on children and their families. This email was written by him today and sent out to our team as a little reminder of why we train and raise money for LLS. A perfect little note of inspiration as we get closer to race day.

It's mid-season, we've survived the training weekend and actually had an absolutely great time! The experience for me has been fantastic and I just wanted to share my perspective with you. I know that I couldn't speak these words coherently, e-mail is a bit easier.

I'm constantly inspired hearing Matt, Brenda, Vanessa, Lauren, Trevor and all the rest of our honorees. Believe me, seeing them survive and thrive always gives me a charge. Unfortunately I get jerked back to reality every once in a while. As you know, I'm a physician at Children's Hospital Oakland where we take care of way too many children with leukemia and lymphoma. Last week, a cute 6 year old boy, who had recently been admitted for AML (acute myelocytic leukemia) was being treated in our ICU and died. He had undergone the initial chemo (AML is a bad player and requires more aggressive treatment). He had responded well: his leukemia was melting away. Chemo works by killing rapidly dividing cells, so as the leukemia is going out of control, it can be stopped in its tracks. Unfortunately there are a lot of other cells that you depend on that are rapidly dividing: the rest of your marrow that produces red blood cell, the normal white blood cells (that help fight infection), and platelets (that help stop bleeding), as well as your GI tract and hair. So as he was being put in remission, his bone marrow naturally is suppressed. He received transfusions of blood and platelets to make sure that his levels were okay.But he was getting sicker, so he was transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). The staff was playing with him, since he was so charming and interactive, even when feeling sick. His dad was there, he got lots of attention and care. But his blood oxygen levels continued to fall and he received supplemental oxygen. Suddenly, he was in dire straits, a code was called, he was intubated (placement of a breathing tube), but he continued to deteriorate and died.

I don't know about you, but 6 year old kids are supposed to be going to first grade, loosing their first tooth, being silly with their family and friends. Not ending up dying in the PICU. Not succumbing to the ravages of this disease. Not making everyone with this disease wonder if
they will be the next one.

That's why I'm so committed to Team in Training. I'm glad that you don't have to see this. I hope that no one has to experience this. But it's still here and your hard work this season is so important to help find a way to treat this disease more effectively, with less side effects, and
the hope for greater survival and less disability and death. In my years of being a doctor I have seen an amazing improvement in the care and survival of children with leukemia and lymphoma. Believe me, every dollar earned through TnT is having an impact.

So, I thank you, my patients thank you, our honorees thank you. Sorry for the grim news, but I hope that you all know that raising that next dollar, going to the next training session, and pushing towards the finish line of your race is one of the most important parts of your
life, and as you have heard, of many other lives.

Go team!
R2

Update to Training Weekend - Pictures

all packed up and ready to go

my home for the weekend

enjoying the yummy Rachel Ray Pasta I made

my mentor group :o)

Anthea's Mentor Group and a few extra's :o)

Olivia and I

Lael and I (with both eyes open although not looking at the camera)

here we go :o( it's cold :o(

keep on swimming, swimming, swimming

me, clipping out to re-fuel at the water stop

with my mentee, Natalie, at the waterstop

aahh, relaxing after a long day (Pasta Dinner and Skit Night)

Training Weekend Recap & Thank You

WOW...I can't believe race day is in 27 days. This past weekend we all went down to Lake San Antonio for training weekend. If I haven't already told you Lake San Antonio is a campground so there are no nice comfy warm hotels to stay in. Those are about an hour or so away :o( We headed out on Friday around 12pm and go to Lake San Antonio around 4. Of course it had been such a nice day and as soon as we hit the campground it started to rain...urrgghhh. We had to scramble to put up all our camping gear before there was a down pour. It only rained for a few hours but it was freezing cold all night. I am not much of a camper so being comfortable and getting a good nights rest isn't something that usually happens. I also hadn't slept much on Thursday night because the anxiety of training weekend starting hitting me. Here is how the training weekend went. Oh and it did clear up for us on Saturday and Sunday which was great. It turned out to be perfect training weather.

Saturday Swim
The Olympic Distance group swim started at 10am. Cathy, Natalie and I headed down there a little early to listen to the clinic for those of us who felt a little nervous or needed extra help. Before we left the camp site we made sure to get all our bike gear gathered up which also meant getting tires pumped. I was helping Cathy get air in her tire and broke off the stem :o( that was not good, it meant we needed to change her tire. We decided to head down to the swim clinic and do it there. By the time we got there the clinic was almost done (I think they started early because we weren't late) and the people in that group were getting ready to go on their swim. So we fixed the tire and then got ready so that we'd just swim with our group. Got the wetsuits on and in the water we went around 10:15. The water was freezing and it took me a really long time to get used to it. I really need to work on this because if it's this cold on race day there is no way I can spend 10 minutes trying to get used to the cold water. I need to just get in and get going. My swim back was much better and I was able to get a good swim in without really stopping. I think I stopped once or twice and that was mainly because I was swimming crooked :o( and needed to get back on course.

Saturday Bike
From the water we headed back to the car and got all our bike gear. I got to try out my new tri outfit so there was no need to change out of a swim suit. I just needed to get my socks, shoes, helmet and gloves although somehow I still managed to take my time. We took off on our bikes for a 25 mile bike ride. As soon as you leave the trasition area you climb a very steep hill to get out of the campground. I managed to get through it and ge the heck out of there. Thank god for Power Gels :o) is what I thought til I got to mile 15. There are quite a few hills on the bike course although Lynch Hill (the hill coming out of transition) is the worst. I felt pretty good by the time I made it to the turnaround at 12.5 miles. This feeling good didn't last very long though. When I got to mile 14.5 I started feeling pretty icky, kind of light headed and felt like I was going to throw up :o( I stopped at the top of a hill to catch my breath for a few minutes and then I started off again. It wasn't long before I had to stop again :o( and get a ride back from the SAG vehicle. I was pretty sad about that. I was able to get 15 miles in before feeling sick. I've had this feeling before during a marathon and new right away that it was the new gels I tried. The new gels added to the lack of sleep, dehydration and bad eating on Thursday I think contributed to why I wasn't feeling good. Oh and of course it had warmed up on Saturday. Note to self....no more trying out new gels. I will stick to my Power Gels. Glad I tried the new ones now and not on race day.

Sunday Run
Sunday we did the run course, it was 6.2 miles. I had a GREAT run and was pretty happy with my time. I ran with another mentor, Anthea, we chit chatted, powered through those darn hills and finished happy and strong. It was a great come back from the bad bike ride on Saturday.

The rest of the time was spent getting to know our other teammates. We even got invited to party with the Iron Team on Saturday night. It was a fun weekend but it was also a hard training weekend. It gave us an idea of what areas we need to work harder at. For me it will be the swim and bike. I also need to go back to watching what I eat because I've been a bad girl and eating all the stuff that is yummy but not always good for me :o( and I know my body, in the end it all affects me on race day. My 8 hours of sleep will also be very important although I see no problem with that...hee, hee.

All of my mentees did an awesome job as well. WAY TO GO TEAM!!! Brenda, Natalie, Cathy & Helen...you guys ROCKED!!!

Rocky, Olivia and Phil THANK YOU
The fact that I have some amazing friends and BF is no secret. All of my friends have always been very supportive during my training and on event weekend no matter what race I do and where it's at. Olivia has only missed one of my races so far. There is no way that I can do it without them. That is what get's me to the finish line. That is what got me to the darn turnaround on the bike course on Saturday. Rocky, Olivia and Phil took time off of work on Friday to come to training weekend with us and volunteer for the water stops. They did an awesome job and everyone loved them. Phil isn't much of a camper, acutally not a camper at all, but he was such a good sport and came out anyway. It think he had a good time and we might be able to convince him to camp with us again. Olivia of course already knew a lot of the people and is a pro at this and Rocky also stuck it out considering he was sick. He did have to come home a day early but I think he manged to have a good time on Friday night getting to know everyone and mingling with those on the team he is already friends with. THANK YOU so much for being there you guys are the best. I can't wait til race weekend.

water stop volunteers hard at work :o)

Packing has begun and ended

I took today off to get ready for this weekend and I am so glad I did. I had quite a few loads of laundry to do and I also needed to really concentrate on the gear I need for this weekend and make sure I don't leave anything behind. It is now almost 2pm and I think I am finally done and boy I'm pooped. I managed to get all my training gear and of course my normal clothes in just 4 small bags, that's pretty darn good for me considering I don't pack lightly and usually bring everything I own. I'll be meeting my mentee Sarah later on to go grocery shopping for tomorrow's yummy pasta dinner. We plan on leaving tomorrow around 12. All I really have to do tomorrow is get ready, cook the pasta for tomorrow night and load up the cars. I can't wait, I'm getting really excited and now it looks like the weather might hold out for us on Friday and Saturday. I sure hope it does.

Well I better get going, I now have to go get the doggie packed and ready to go as well. Patch isn't allowed to join us this weekend and since Olivia, Rocky and I will all be gone we had to find him a sitter. He will be staying with Rocky's parents until Sunday. Oh boy, that ought to be intersting. I sure hope he behaves. It'll be his first weekend away from us since we got him :o( boo, hoo :o( we'll miss him but it's probably the best thing since there are boars where we are going and they'd probably eat him for dessert. Right now he is resting, I think I wore him out from all my running around this morning.

Does the shopping ever end?

I bought my bike back in December and when we went bike shopping we made a VERY long list of all the stuff I needed. Bike gear, clothes, you name it it was on the list. My bill was huge but I made sure to get everything then so that I would be set and not have to worry about anything else except maybe tubes or small things that you use and need to replace. WELL, let me tell ya...NO, NO, NO the shopping never ends. This weekend is just a training weekend at Lake San Antonio but you have to prepare like it's event weekend especially because you're out in the middle of no where and you can't just drive down the road to buy something you are missing. I think I've made about 5 trips to the bike shop and my bank acct just keeps going down and down :o( eeeeekkkkkk.

Saturday Coach Joe fitted me on my bike. I wasn't sure that the place I bought my bike at did such a great job so I had him double check. Well come to find out that there are women and men specific saddles (that would be a bike seat) and that I of course have a man's saddle because I bought a man's bike :o( urrgggh. This could explain why my booty bones hurt so much after riding my bike or 25-30 miles. Yesterday I paid a visit to Livermore Cyclery, very highly recommended by Coach Joe, and talked to the owner about a new seat. We found one and of course like everything else on my bike they weren't cheap but I need to have it. I will be going in today to have it put on correctly ( I attempted to do it and although it's on there I think it needs some help). I also need to get refitted because the saddle now adds a few inches on the height so I think my seat post needs to come down. A few inches makes a big difference in your riding and being comfortable. Notice that I got lucky and it's actually a cute seat :o) it has a nice pretty yellow butterfly on it to match my pretty yellow bike.

I also had to go out and get a tri shirt because I didn't have one. On race day you use a tri outfit to do the whole race. This is so that you don't have to keep changing clothes. You can wear the same shirt and shorts for the swim, bike and run. I was able to find some great stuff also at Livermore Cyclery and it was on sale :o) Luckily, I already have the tri shorts so no need to buy those. Bought another set of gloves cause I lost mine last weekend :o( and I think now I'll need knee warmers since I'll be using the tri shorts and not my knickers. See it just never ends. Did I mention how much I love this though :o) I'm getting excited about training weekend and event weekend is only about 32 days away. YIKES!

So Olivia, Phil and Rocky's job for this weekend other than being our awesome volunteers is to tell me....keep on swimming, biking, running, keep on swimming, biking, running :o)

Maybe it was the pink goggles...

....that made my swim not so horrible on Saturday. Saturday we were back at Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton for another open water swim. Of course I wasnt' looking forward to it because it had rained all night long and into the morning and of course it's still pretty cold outside. We suited up and got int the water, it still took me a little while to get used to the cold and actually get going but I did much better this week. We swam for 30 minutes. I stopped of course but I got a better swim in than last week.

After the swim we went on a 25 mile bike ride. It was a beautiful ride. I didn't feel so great going out but I felt pretty good on the way back. I think part of my problem and why I'm not feeling good during my bike rides is that I'm not hydrating enough. I don't feel like I need water and of course I'm scared to drink while I'm riding so I just don't. Not good. I will have to work on that. I put in a few extra miles because at one point I took a wrong turn, I realized fairly quickly that I was going in the wrong direction and I turned back and to my surprised ran into about 5 other people that had also taken a wrong turn...hee, hee. We got back on the right path and rode on.


Saturday afternoon we went to Natalie's Fundraiser and although there weren't many people there we still had a great time. I wanted to say THANK YOU to all my friends and Rocky for coming along. They have always been a huge support to me and recently they have been attending the fundraiser with me and supporting others on my team. You guys are the best :o)