Gadgets that make me GO!

At first glance my tri bike looks pretty normal, no?! However, after multiple comments last weekend I am starting to wonder if I have more gadgets than normal on my bike? These are the three comments I got last weekend (with my inside-voice responses following):

1. Wow - you have an entire control center up there!
   (Yes, a space station really!)
   
2. My, what a high-tech bicycle you have.
   (If only it pedaled for me too . . .)
   
3. Does that tell you the weather?
   (REALLY?! Yes, In Alaska today it is 28 degrees.)

So I took a closer look to make sure. Let's see, tiny bike computer that tells me my cadence and how slow I am pedaling into a headwind. Heart rate watch on the left - to tell me I'm either not working hard enough, or that I am dying (in which case I do not need to look to confirm this).

Other than that - there is a peace sticker that my running coach gave me, but this is not a "gadget", so that is it. Hmmmm, I think it is just fine. I'm stickin with it!

Running, Cookies and Color

This is the view I have when I stretch at the end of one of my favorite trail runs. Spectacular!

I love trail running. I've found that when something is taken away for a bit I love it even more. I took a little time off from running recently to let some injuries heal. Today I ran again and if it is possible, fell in love with running even more.

Last night I decided to make cookies. Martha Stewart I am not . . . somewhere between following the recipe and adding a few of my own ingredients this was the end result. Thankfully sight and taste are not the same because the cookies still tasted good!

This weekend we bought a few more plants for our garden. Steven will keep them alive for me, and I will enjoy looking at them. 

The orange one is my favorite, although the little tiny ones are cute. Plus, those are low-water plants, which means they thrive where we live - bonus! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Not a mop . . . a dog!

Yesterday I was trying to find a photo of an Old English Sheep dog to show a friend the kind of dog I have always wanted and I came across this . . . and spent the next 20 minutes laughing.

Hungarian Puli sheep dog "Fee" jumps over a hurdle during a preview for a pedigree dog show. Dortmund, Germany, Thursday 24 April 2008.

Twin 6 Rocks!

When I got home from work yesterday some fun stuff from Twin 6 was waiting for me! I think someone told them I don't match on rides - or ever - and they wanted to help solve my problem!

These are the top ten reasons I love Twin 6, in no particular order.

1. The company is small - run by two guys in MN.
2. These guys bike to work like me. All year. Except it gets colder in MN than CA!
   
3. Their stuff is made in the USA.
4. The bike clothes, t-shirts, messenger bags, even socks are fun colors and designs!
5. They have helped Fat Cyclist in more ways than one to fight cancer.
6. The clothes are comfortable, and soft, and fun to wear.
7. Did I mention I will match now on bike rides?!
   
8. They make cute kids gear, which I will be purchasing for my nephew once he is born.
9. Nothing but cycling gear - and the t-shirt designs are great.
10. They support other cyclists.
    

And a final picture - to show you I do in fact have tonsils!

Softride Part II

As requested, photos of Steven's Softride triathlon tumble. 

That is one amazing bike!

Love you Steven!!

The Softride

This bike is a family heirloom. My Dad rode it in his first triathlon. When he upgraded I inherited the Softride. This is funny because my Dad is much taller than I am.

In grad school I took the Softride to my local bike shop and told the guy "I am poor and can not afford to buy a bike. I know this bike does not fit me, but do your best to make it work!" He looked at me as if I was crazy, but fitted me on the bike.

I raced my first 1/2 ironman (Wildflower) on this beauty. I threw the chain off in the first mile and thought I might cry because I did not know how to fix it. I figured it out. Without a meltdown or tears.

Last year Steven raced his first triathlon on the Softride. Coming out of transition he promptly tipped over. Thankfully this was captured on camera. And he is a good sport so we can laugh at him without hurting his feelings. He has since upgraded to a slightly nicer bike.

Currently the Softride resides in our garage, waiting to provide joy to its next rider. Anyone need an amazing "first tri" bike?

Owwwwww, much better!

I went to see Dan today. He's my cure-all for the ailments I tend to bring upon myself in training. Any time my friends get hurt I tell them "Go see Dan, he will heal you!"

It's called Active Release Therapy (ART). It hurts. Think terribly deep tissue massage, but you actually have to be involved in the process and move your legs or arms or whatever he is working on. But when he's done everything feels oh-so-good!

Dan has the ability to make me laugh while he's destroying all the knots, tightness and junk in my muscles that I acquired while swimming, biking and running. It's amazing to me how much pain he inflicts, and I still love going to see him!

He also is smart. Bio-mechanics smart! Today we determined my back is WAY over-the-moon tight. Which is causing my poor piriformis (butt) to hurt!

Steven refers to this picture as the "Dan molesting my wife in Kona" picture.

Some Rehab

This is what I love about triathlon: usually if I get injured or can't train one sport, at least there are two others to work on. I followed all "take-care-of-myself" orders this weekend and did not run. Saturday I rode with friends. Knowing I was not running off the bike I had nothing to lose by riding hard. The guys I ride with are amazing. Not only do they let me tag along each week, but they can H-A-M-M-E-R like nothing else. I spent most of the ride scrambling to grab a wheel and keep from getting dropped. My heart rate got as high as it did in my last race. I have no photos of any of this because taking photos would have taken up any small bit of oxygen that was left in my lungs, and I needed all of it! But I came home so so so happy.

Since I did not run Sunday I decided to continue my ongoing house rehab project. I started this project back in November (aka off-season). This is another reason I find my husband amazing. Not only is he ok with the fact that I disappear for half the weekend to run and ride, but he also seems to be ok with the fact that I started tearing the house apart four months ago and have not yet put it back together.

You have to admit though - these drapes were just screaming "welcome to the nursing home!" I think the stripes are WAY better! The drapery project is complete.

Peach is not my color. At all. So we've gone from peach walls and boring baseboard to colorful walls and fun painted baseboards. Tiptoe seems to like it much better. The only problem is that I had to tear up the carpet to paint the baseboard, but we can not replace it until I finish painting. It's the "finish" part I'm having trouble with.


I made a little more progress this weekend, but I am guessing we have at least a few more months of half-torn-up carpet! I think maybe it will make us enjoy it all the more once I finally do finish the project!

The Lorax Is Mad

Last year two weeks before CA70.3 I managed to injure myself. Not really sure how I did this, because I do not remember anything hurting until I was hurt. I got piriformis, or sciatica - basically pain in the a$$. Literally. BIG PAIN. It hurts to walk pain.

So this year I have tried to train smart. If things start to hurt I back off. This week at track my hip started to hurt, which I have learned is my personal pre-cursor to sciatica, so I stopped. I had a fun weekend filled with riding and running planned. Today I promised my coach I would not run - to let my body heal.

How come sometimes when we train a lot all we wish we could do is sit down and do nothing. And then when we are forced to stop all we really want to do is swim or bike or run?And now this is how I feel. A little mad like the Lorax that people are killing his trees. If you have never read Dr. Seuss' Lorax book I highly recommend it. Maybe I will plant a tree for the Lorax this weekend instead of running!

The Suicidal Squirrel

I was flying down the bike path when out from the bushes there sprung a wee squirrel. I let out a yelp as my tires went "thump, bump" and turned around to see if perhaps I had just stunned the poor thing.

Stunned he was not, he appeared to be dead!
Oh my, oh dear, and ewwwww!

Here are a few other pictures from my foggy bike ride . . .

Bell Choir

Yes, it's true. I was in bell choir as a child. I am in the front row, far left. The little girl with the feathered bangs. Oh wait, we all had feathered bangs back then!

I remember feeling fancy because I got to wear white gloves while playing the bells. I also remember that when you struck a note out of turn it was very noticeable. Our bell choir mostly performed for church and Christmas musicals.

I always wanted to play the tiny high-note bells, but for some reason never got to. These were more complicated parts and I was always too busy running around outside to really put in much extra bell practice. Ohhhhh, but think how that could have paid off had I stuck with the bell-playing!

Gone Running

Tahoe Snowboarding

We spent the weekend in Lake Tahoe - no cycling, no running, no swimming. I traded all three sports for my snowboard this weekend. It was awesome!

Josie and I worked on our tans. . . .

In true form, I did not match for photos.

I managed to get myself and two kids on & off a chairlift. . . without hurting anyone!

We got to spend the weekend with great friends from our NY days.

And the weather and views were amazing. I'm ready to go home and train again, and the weekend was just what I needed.

Bonking

This was me on my run last night.

I really am not sure what happened. Somewhere along the way my awesomely-planned tempo run quickly became the soooouuuuuuper-slow, try to survive and make it home shuffle.

I'm going to blame my bike. I rode some fun hills at lunch and pretended I was in the Tour de France (minus the peloton, the cheering crowds and the Alps.) The only similarity really was that there were a few hills and I played make-believe. It was quite enjoyable.

By mile 2 I could tell I was on empty, but figured I could slow down a bit and turn "tempo" into "easy". I continued on my loop route. At about the point when I was furthest from home the thought crossed my mind to stop in a gas station and ask the attendant if I could call Steven to come rescue me. This seemed lame and somewhat worse than needing him to rescue me when my bike fails me. So I continued on, dreaming of just about every food I could consume once I actually made it home.

At mile 8 while cursing my "loop route", I passed a strawberry field and wondered if there was some sort of fine for stealing strawberries. Had it not still been light out with tons of traffic going by I would have flopped down in the field and eaten about 100 of them.

I did make it home. It took an hour for the carrot cake, chocolate milk, leftover casserole and lima beans to hit my blood stream. I suppose if I get bonking practice out of the way now it might be good! And maybe I should start listening to Brian and carry a GU with me sometimes!

Cat in the Sun

The sun was just right, and Tiptoe was bird watching.

Odd Sighting and Birthday Party

This morning on my bike commute I was passed by a guy on a mountain bike in a full business suit. Going up hill. To make it even better - he had a motor on his bike. And was not pedaling. The laughing started before he passed me, thankfully his motor was so loud he could not hear me. To make the entire scenario all the more funny, he had a Razor scooter strapped to the back of his bike. Perhaps in case the motor broke?? I scrambled to grab my camera out of my messenger bag, while trying to keep from falling over while climbing the hill. I failed (just on the camera front - I stayed upright). As entertaining as the scene was, I am sure he is doing his part to reduce pollution, so that was nice.

I promised some pictures from my birthday party. The party provided a little time to work on my karaoke skills. I think Jeffrey would still take me down in a contest, but advances are being made!

You know you have good friends when you receive full-footed pajamas with a flap in the back. And you are expected to model them and play rock band guitar in them. (FYI - they are warm!)

Fast Brian and I share the same birthday. He and Emily know I like Dr. Seuss and they made an entirely edible Dr. Seuss cake. The fact that they even knew what "fondant" was impressed me, let alone that they could mold fish out of the stuff and then eat it!

Desert International Triathlon Race Report

That 5am alarm clock on race morning, which was really 4am before the time changed was awful! However, after I got over the "ughhhhh, too early" part, it was a lot of fun.

The swim was fairly typical - I got clobbered several times in the beginning and then it spread out. Our wave was the first and it included male and female elites, M29 and under and M54+. Small race so there were only four elite girls.

My main goal in this race was to push myself in the swim and on the bike. In the past I felt I did not go hard enough. I got in a good warm up and from the gun swam hard. I think it worked because when I made the third turn my arms were starting to hurt. I had trouble finding feet to draft. I found a set in the beginning only to quickly realize the guy was doing backstroke. REALLY?! I can't draft off a backstroker! And how is he still in front of me? Am I swimming that slow?! Out of the water I was 2 minutes down on the first female. 2 minutes is a lot for a short swim - I hoped maybe she could not bike or run, but being that I was racing elite I highly doubted this. I later learned I actually had a good swim - the girl in front of me just had an awesome one. She beat everyone - even all men out of the water with quite a margin.

T1 was fine except I couldn't get my left foot out of my wetsuit. I finally sat down. My friend Mike raced elite as well and we both had the same problem getting our wetsuits off. Brian was yelling something about "good transition" which made us laugh.

The bike was great. It is a 2-loop course. I got my heart rate up to where I wanted and just held it there. It hurt, but it also felt like I was flying, so I was happy. Being in the first wave I had one guy way off in front of me that I could stare at (as he slowly rode away from me) and that was it. A few times guys passed me and it gave me something else to at least focus on and try to chase. Other than that it was almost like doing a time trial - not the typical tons of people to chase down.

T2 was quick. No wetsuit = no problems! Into T2 I was 1:30 down on the girl in front of me. I have always relied on the fact that I can run in triathlon. My typical race usually involves chasing people down on the run.

Out of transition and onto the run - six miles to try to move into 1st. The run is: deep sand, rocks, gravel, concrete - you name it, we ran on it. Not ideal for getting into a rhythm, but I like trails so it was fine. By mile 1 I knew it was going to be a hard run. I got a side stitch and could not push or get the heart rate up because I could not breathe. Oops! The legs felt fine, but I couldn't push them because my side was screaming at me to stop! So I hung on and ran as fast as the body would allow.

My favorite part of the race was my number. I've never had a double-digit number before! I ended up 2nd elite, but actually 4th female overall because two age groupers raced faster than some of the elites.

So hopefully I got some of the cobwebs out with that "first race of the season" and learned a few things in the process. It was a fun and a good kick-off to the season!

Ian and I after the race - he rocked - we both almost podiumed with our 4th place finishes!

Steven and Brian were awesome for hanging out all weekend in the desert with me and making it a great weekend. After the race we rushed home for a "Charisa Birthday party" which will get its own post tomorrow.

33

Today is my very own personal "Charisa-holiday." (Aka my birthday). So far it has been pretty amazing - I slept in, rode my bike by the ocean (it was foggy - even better!), got some coffee, and rode to work. This afternoon I hear my friend Netta has made me my favorite fruit tart. I seriously don't think it gets any better than this!!

At the coffee shop this morning I handed the barista my green to-go mug and she says, "Wow! You totally match - even your mug matches your shirt!" I explained it was a pretty rare occurrence. If she had known what is my lack-of-matching-skills she probably would have laughed as hard as I did.


This is the cake my mom made for me when I was about six. I was very excited because we used Rolos for the window sill. It is basically a house covered in random types of candy - a dream for any kid. The funny thing I remember though is that when she made the cake it turned into more of the leaning house and eventually required some tupperware to support it. But what would a "House for all Seasons" really look like if it didn't lean a little?

$2.29 and Bad Bike Behavior

$2.29 is the amount of money I spent to turn my day from "blah" to "YAH!" Cheer-me-up in a bottle. Thank heaven for 7-11 and its excellent placement on my bike route. And for big bike jersey pockets.

This is my drive-by-shooting image of the purple flowers on my ride that also made me smile. I might need to work on my photo technique while riding, but you get the idea.

And finally, this bad bike behavior video made me laugh. If you bike commute - don't do any of this!!

Sunshine!

There was a sliver of daylight on my bike commute this morning! Enough that I could see the road more from the light produced by the sun than from my bike commuting light. This completely made my day, and then I realized on Saturday the time changes and I will lose my morning light again. Oh well, I get three more days to enjoy it!

I signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon this weekend. It has been five months since I raced a triathlon and I thought it might be good to get some race practice again. You know, in case I forgot how to take off my wetsuit. Or swim. Or remove my helmet before running out of transition.

I also signed up as "elite" since it is a small race. I have never raced elite before. For some reason this is now freaking me out. The elite guys and girls all start together and I'm envisioning everyone taking off while I end up swimming by myself and then get caught and clobbered by some fast age groupers. Oh well, I suppose that in itself would be good practice!

A Ride, a Bull and a Bee

My friend Liz came down from LA to ride long with me yesterday. We had a great day of sunny (well, it was downright hot) riding, climbing and chatting. We even found a furry bull to take a picture with.


At one point I ran over something evil and my tire ended up with a massive gash in it. Oops! Oh well, nice break and thankfully Steven came to the rescue with a new tire. We were off again, but not before a bee stung me in the forehead. Oh joy! I was imagining returning home from the ride with a massive red welt on my forehead. Thankfully I guess I'm not really allergic to bees because it now looks like I have a big zit where the bee stung me (sorry no photos of this awesome facial flaw!)

Post-ride we pulled the band together and pretended we were rock stars. My new goal is to get Roo and Liz together for a rock band party. Neither one can stand still while singing. Which I'm pretty sure is how the singing part for rock band was meant to be!