Completely Lost

I will work every weekend from now until Christmas. Sometimes it is a pain, but for the most part it isn't that bad. I usually try to at least get in a good ride or run before I head off to the office. Something to make my day complete. This morning was a perfect example.

I am lucky in that I live near a network of running trails. I have spent the past 4 years exploring every inch of these trails. This morning I headed out for a run. It was a perfect morning - it was quiet and everything was wrapped in thick fog. As I wound up the trial I was happy that the fog had left dewey drops on the cobwebs so I could see them, and therefore avoid a head-on collision with them. (A cobweb collision generally results in me squealing and hopping around to ensure I've gotten any spider that may have been in the web off of me).

I'm not sure how one gets lost on a network of trails that has been explored inside and out, but this morning it happened. I made a left turn and all of a sudden realized I had discovered a new trail! New rocks to jump over, new turns, new streams to cross (that I semi-fell into)! I figured I'd spend 5 minutes being semi-lost. But 5 minuted turned into 45. It was one of the best 45 minutes of being lost that I can remember.

There is something about running trails that makes me completely 100% happy. I'm not sure if it's the simplicity of it, the dirt or the fact that it makes me feel like I'm 5 years old, jumping over logs and crossing streams. But today my day was completely perfect before it even really started.

I wish everyone could have moments like those I experience while riding or running. I know not everyone enjoys cycling or running like I do. But knowing that today I'll go to work and my day will be so much more complete because I got lost on some running trails seems so simple, yet so wonderful. I really think Brooks has the right idea: Run World, Run.

Tofurkey and Slack Lines

After Steven PRd his 5k in the Oceanside Turkey Trot we headed off to his parents for Thanksgiving: meaning potatoes, tofurkey for me and real turkey for Steven.

Steven's cousin Kristen goes to UCSB and has gotten into slacklining. It's basically just a nylon webbing (tow strap) stretched tight between two trees (or posts in our case). BALANCE is the key here. I suppose it is somewhat similar to tight-rope walking, but without the long balance stick thing. Although, I've never tried tight-rope walking before.

We spent a lot of time laughing because the first time you try it your leg will inevitably shake uncontrollably, even if you're holding onto someone.

This is Steven's older brother Bryan. His wife Monica is taking the picture. He's going to do this.













Seriously - he's going to get on the slack line. Oh wait, one more person please! SUCCESS - Bryan was up and walking in no time. I'm pretty certain he'll be putting one up in his own back yard now to practice so that next year he can punk us all in the slack line competition!

Laptops and Rubber Duckies

I'm now on my 4th consecutive day of bike commuting. The 17” laptop seemed like such a great idea when I purchased it (and I still love using it) but yesterday as I was climbing the hill by work I was wishing I had the tiny Macbook Air instead.

I just cleaned my bike and now we're supposed to have a major rainstorm today. I've decided I'm running home if it is down pouring after work. And if it's still raining in the morning I'll just run back to work again. I don't really mind riding in the rain, I just don't want to re-clean the bike, she's sooooo squeaky clean right now!

This morning I read this article about how NASA is using rubber ducks to track currents in the melting Greenland ice flows. This is seriously awesome! Apparently there isn't much money for global warming experiments in Greenland. I love creative thinking!

Oh, and if you find one of the rubber ducks and email the contact info written on the duck you get a reward. Doubtful one will wash up in Carlsbad, but hey - you never know!

I think this image of a Greenland ice flow is absolutely beautiful!
(2002 Image courtesy of Roger Braithwaite, University of Manchester, UK).

Ironman Arizona: go! go! go!

Several friends raced IM AZ yesterday and as I've mentioned before, my friends and I take cheering seriously.
The day started early and we brought along Super Dog to help us cheer. I'm pretty certain super dog is now our cheering mascot and must travel to all races with our group of friends. Not sure how we will get him to Kona though.

We came prepared with several large posters of our friends from "back-in-the-day" just to remind them of how much faster (and more stylish) they are now.

And a successful day it was!!! My coach Dirkinator busted out a 9:35 after a 14-year hiatus from racing. He won his age group and will be in Kona next year. Allan took over 30 minutes off his previous PR for a 10:04 and 9th in his age group! Unfortunately we couldn't convince any of the 7 guys ahead of him to give up their coveted Kona slots. I'm so proud of both of these guys - they gave 110% yesterday and had really awesome races.

Bike Commuting

I'm trying to ride my bike more for commuting and yesterday I made great progress for several reasons. The main success was that I figured out how to ride to work AND get Starbucks on the way. This was huge - a complete MADE MY DAY moment. Actually, Starbucks isn't on the way to work at all, I have to add two more miles and climb a massive hill, but it's still completely worth it. Didn't spill a drop on my bike either (thanks to all my blogger friends for awesome "coffee-transport" tips!)


The second great success was that I got lights from my friend Erik (thank you!!) to try out so I wouldn't get killed on the way home in the dark. I am now lit up like a fancy Christmas tree and should be ultra-safe. You can't see the back - but there's a HUGE red light on the back of my bike and then I have 3 flashing lights on my messenger bag. I may be bordering on "annoyingly flashing" but I don't care if it keeps some idiot from hitting me!


This morning - more success - I rode my bike to the pool, then to work. I wasn't sure if this might result in my arriving at work one massive ice cube since my hair is wet from swimming, but it actually worked out in my favor. Since I was cold, I rode faster and actually made it in less time than when I drive my car. NICE!! Thanks to fatcyclist for my cool messenger bag that he sent when I won his raffle!

Tropical Yoga

Last night 3 friends and I braved HOT yoga. AKA bikram yoga, sweaty yoga, etc. These are the things I wish someone would have told me before I went to HOT yoga . . .

1. Do NOT under any circumstances put any lotion on your legs at any time on the day you plan to attend hot yoga.
2. A small hand towel is not big enough to mop up the amount of sweat you will produce during hot yoga.
3. Your yoga mat can and will double as a slip-and-slide.
4. If you are practicing hot yoga next to a friend and you are now on the slip-and-slide, try not to look at your friend, as you most likely will spend more energy trying to keep from laughing uncontrollably rather than holding the tree, eagle, whatever pose.
5. Downward dog does not work on a slippery yoga mat - it quickly turns into push-up position. However, if you bring a LARGE beach towel to cover your yoga mat you'll be fine. (This is the key thing I noticed between the "regular hot yogis" and my friends and I last night . . . NOBODY except the 4 of us had tiny towels.)

I really wanted to take a picture of all of us during the session, but figured some of the hard-core yogis wouldn't appreciate my "I need a photo for my blog" explanation. So instead I snapped a post-yoga "we survived" photo.

Fancy Running Socks

How is it that my favorite pair of running socks cost $11? Minimum wage in California is $8. First of all, I’m quite sure my socks were not made in CA. Actually; does anyone make socks in the US anymore? I highly doubt it. But let’s pretend my socks were made in California.

I’m quite sure some high-tech machine makes these socks. I’m only guessing this from my limited viewing of “How It’s Made” on the Discovery Channel. But I envision some factory where socks are mass-produced.

However, I will pretend my socks were hand made by one person. And this is a skilled person. Now, if my socks were made in half an hour that’s $4. It actually makes me feel better if I pretend someone made my socks by hand.

I have tried cheapo Target socks though and they get holes in them quickly and don’t stay in place as well.  (Oh dear, I hope I'm not turning into a “high-maintenance athletic apparel” girl!) I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to keep buying the expensive socks with the “R” and “L” on each one. Again – another nice feature but REALLY?! Do we need help with left and right? I can’t complain though – it really is nice when folding laundry and trying to match up all those socks!

Running with STUFF

I went for a run at lunch today. There is a Starbucks about 2 miles from my office. In keeping with my losing the car idea, it seems silly to get in my car and drive 2 miles to get a soy latte. But I really do LOVE coffee drinks. I discovered I can easily run there.

I think I need to figure out how to run home with a latte. I'm somewhat worried it will spill all over me, even with a lid, but is that any different than when I go trail running and come back covered in dirt and twigs? And oh, think of all the funny looks I'd get from people on the way back to work! I think I'm going to need to try it.

I've run home with multiple random items during my running lifetime. Here are a few of the greatest:

1. A coat rack that hangs on the wall (found this in CT on a snowy day - ran about 4 miles home with it - awesome looks and honking from cars passing)
2. A limited edition framed picture (lost the pic, but the frame is hanging on our wall)
3. Golf balls for Steven (I'm such a great wife, no?!)
4. An election sign (needed the post for something else - Steven finally helped me remove the "VOTE for blah blah" part of the sign so it was easier to run with)

Jeff has me beat though - this past year at the AFC half marathon he paced Brian to a PR. He stopped to grab a burrito and drink before Brian showed up at mile 4. Brian showed up a bit early, so Jeff just ate and ran - this is the kind of talented athlete that Jeff is.

Italian LOVE

Bonjourno! I am approximately 3% Italian. But I'm pretty sure it dominates my existence. I have been to Italy several times and fell in LOVE with everything Italian (it could even be said I'm "Italian-obsessed".) I love Italian coffee, pasta, pizza, chocolate, the alps, Cinque Terre, etc. The only international marathon I ever did was the Rome marathon (NOTE: cobblestones are NOT your friend after mile 20).

So when Roo suggested we have a home-made pizza and rock band night I was excited. But when she informed me Jesse makes the dough and sauce from scratch and they would bring their own pizza stones I decided it must happen SOON! I have tried to figure out how to get one of those brick pizza ovens installed at our house. (FYI - it will set you back more than the high-end Pinarello). 

We made awesome home-made pizza. Jesse whipped up some amazing sauce! Roo contaminated her half of the pizza with bacon, but other than that it was perfect.

It was then time for some rock band practice (I'm serious, we do more than play rock band in the off-season . . .) In keeping with our Italian theme I tried to find some Italian rock band songs, but to no avail.

I learned that Roo can sing! Her score is shown here in the middle. It says 100% and flawless. She may be considering quitting her day job and focusing solely on her singer career after this discovery!

Yoga talk

I enjoy yoga. I think it is good for me and counter-balances all my running, swimming, biking - everything else I do all year to make my muscles too tight. I do not however, understand yoga. 

I do not get the chanting. Does anyone even understand what is being said? 

And the yoga talk . . . I do not get this either. Rather than saying "we're going to move into the downward dog pose" it is "vanyasana sheshashana, vilo-ibrasana." (For those of you who actually understand yoga talk, I apologize for butchering it so badly here).

What is even more amazing to me is that everyone except for me seems to understand what the yoga instructor is saying! Does this just happen over time? If I went to yoga more than a few times in the off-season would I begin to understand what was being said?

The below drawing I made is a perfect picture of me trying to balance in yoga last night. Yes, my head is green - I like green - plus it makes me look more flexible like gumby!

Losing the car

I want to lose my car. I found this blog from a guy in Minnesota (correction: South Dakota - somewhere WAY colder than San Diego!!) that rides his bike instead of his car even in freezing conditions. So if he can do it why can't I?

Well actually I've thought of a few reasons, but they seem really really lame! Here are a few of them:

• It's dark now when I finish work. I suppose I could invest in one of those really bright lights, but is that safe?
• Instead of missing about 1.5 hours at lunch when I swim it would take over 2 hours if I rode my bike to the pool. This seems like an excessive amount of time to miss work when it only takes me 7 minutes to drive there.
• It does rain in San Diego occasionally. Actually I solved this one, I could run to work on those days. But then if I swim on a rainy day also I've got a LOT of running to do!
  
• Schlepping my million and one items to and from work seems a bit trickier. (Laptop, lunch, swimming or running items, snacks, drinks . . . apparently I eat a lot!)

I have not yet given up on this plan, I think I just need to fine-tune it slightly. I'm currently trying to figure out how to move a dresser of clothes to the office. . .

Off-Season kick-off party

I promised epic pictures from the off-season kick-off party. I hope these do not disappoint. BSK coach David thought his stomach was a bit sexier than Roo's. Sorry Mr. BSK - roo wins this one.

Fast Brian made an epic ice cream cake.

My husband the dentist - I am so proud!

Jeffrey really did well on this piece of cake, he conquered most of it.

Seriously - we rock.

We plan to start touring next year as long as our racing schedules don't conflict.

Can you tell which athlete isn't quite in the off-season yet?! Allan will be kicking butt at IM AZ in a few weeks. We take cheering just as serious as our training and racing, so he will be fully supported.

Implosion and recovery - all in 4 miles

Today was the final cross country championship race. It is a brutal course that hurts. But I was prepared. In the past week I have slept in, rested up and aqua jogged with Roo. I'm quite sure I couldn't have done more to prepare! This is our coach Mr. BSK himself - right before we started I told him my plan was to go out easy and negative split the 2nd loop.

Gun goes off, we're off and I feel good. Mile 1: 5:30 - oh yeah, this resting up thing worked well! I reach mile 2 with a massive side stitch - uh oh, a bit ambitious in that first mile perhaps? Going backwards through mile 3 and getting passed by everyone and their grandmother. OH OUCH this hurts - I spend the next mile trying to recover, throwing all thoughts of negative splitting out of my mind. I reach the final hill and begin feeling better. There are now about 300 yards left in the race. Dangit, must learn to pace these races better!

This is me about 100 yards from the finish. You can see my friends in the background screaming "YOU HAVE TO GO" "GO NOW, THERE'S A GIRL GOING TO PASS YOU ON THE OTHER TEAM!" Ughhhhh. I went. And oh it hurt. And I made it. 

And so now the off-season officially begins. We are having a "kick off the off-season party" tonight just to make it official. I'm sure my next post will include epic pictures.

As for the awesome BSK girls - we got 2nd in the series. These are an amazing bunch of girls - each and every one of them is so talented, dedicated and fun. I'm very proud to be a part of this team! And thank you Running Center for supporting us!

Happy

These are a few things that make me smile:

1. Orange fall leaves, cold weather and fuzzy sweaters
   
2. The foam on a latte
   
3. Losing track of time when with friends
   
4. Tiptoe's ears when they go back flat before she pounces
   
5. Listening to Italian being spoken
   
6. Wired Magazine and nerdy tech stuff
   
7. Green Stuff (the color or earth-friendly)
   
8. Music (there can be a whole new post about what constitutes "good" music)
   
9. Traditions that aren't traditional
   
10. The sound of wind howling
    

Election party, the run and the PIG

Brian had an election party last night. It was great except I accidentally missed Obama's speech because a friend called to talk to me about a possible sponsor for next year. OOPS. Apparently I was talking too loud in the other room while Obama was speeching away. Only Steven wasn't phased - I think he told everyone he's used to tuning me out!

This morning my friend Mandy and I went running. It was supposed to be an easy 10 and somehow became a hilly 13. She's going to rock the Silver Strand half marathon in a few weeks. I plan to still be "off-seasoning" when this happens.

On the way back we passed a lady out walking her pig. At first I thought it was a dog - a fat somewhat ugly dog with a really long skinny tail. I was thinking what an ugly tail this dog had when I realized in fact it was a pig. I don't exactly live in the country or near a farm, so this was fascinating to me. Who knows, maybe they make good pets!?

Off-season fun: coin sorting

I have a piggy (actually it's a cow) bank that I've been collecting coins in for several years. Sorting change is oddly REALLY fun for me. Right before Kona I went and got those change holders from the bank so I could sort and roll my coins.


For two weeks I've been looking forward to sorting my change. (Seriously - can you see the OCD shining through here?!) And last night it happened! Now the big question is WHAT TO DO with my new found fortune?!?

A weekend that didn't revolve around ME

I'm really good at doing what I want, when I want, etc. I have no kids, I try not to neglect my husband, but for the most part, the weekend is MY TIME. I like it that way. I'm selfish with my time because most of the time, I don't have a lot of free time.

This is Jonathan, my nephew. We played with blocks on Saturday. I am GOOD at playing blocks! Jonathan is often neglected by his Aunt Charisa and Uncle Steven because we are good at doing our own selfish stuff on the weekends. Thankfully Steven has an identical twin so Jonathan really thinks Uncle Steven visits him all the time. (Thanks Stanley!)

Sunday My cousin Duane became an Eagle Scout. I'm quite proud. I was in high school when he was born. (I am old). He's turned into a pretty cool guy. Eagle Scout ceremonies are a little longer than I expected. Below is a picture of my Dad, Steven and I during the ceremony. Steven and I are good at passing the time during long ceremonies. This picture might also sometimes describe exactly what we're doing in church, at a graduation, etc. Thankfully there was no point in the ceremony where we started giggling uncontrollably - although Steven had a close call. (Think 5 years old in church or some awful "serious" ceremony where you start laughing and can't stop).

Bicycle Handling 101

This morning Fast Brian and I went for a ride. The weather was perfect: clear, dry air, nice waves to look at along the coast and a perfect breeze. I have no idea why I ever thought living somewhere else might be a good idea.

After riding along the coast for a while we ended up in a parking lot. Time for Charisa's first lesson in bike handling. First we practiced picking up water bottles while riding. I am remedial!! But I picked up this skill rather quickly. I found a dime on the ground, but learned picking up a dime while riding is much harder than picking up a water bottle. We practiced cornering as well. But my favorite was when we practiced leaning on each other while stopping, without unclipping and without falling over. It's a trust thing. And it's pretty cool.
Next lesson includes jumping over water bottles and ramming into each other with our front wheels while attempting to stay upright. Hopefully that post will also end with "Today was a big success - I didn't fall on the ground once!"