Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Last night at track practice it rained. Actually - 100 sprinkles might have fallen from the sky. If you live in Southern California - this is considered RAIN - especially since the last time we saw rain was probably over six months ago. Anything heavier than what we got last night is a storm where news stations will broadcast alerts and grocery stores sell out of milk and bread.

The result of our rain storm was awesome!

In summer we run "track" on trails around a local lake.

Thanks to our coach David (from Kerplekistan) for running back to get his phone and capturing all these awesome pictures!

Mark and his group.

Tommy is in his 70s and still kicks butt in local races!

I love Tuesday night track.

Ironman Swim

What is the Ironman swim like? It's chaos and crazy and in a weird way beautiful. On top of the water there is nothing but arms and legs and colored swim caps and white water. Below beautiful fish and turtles and the occasional scuba diver flashing a picture. Oh to be able to swim down with the fish where there is ROOM to move!

Kona pier in background. Whitewater = swimmers.

I try to remind myself in Ironman swim starts that nobody is trying to hit me. Or punch me. Or get in my way. It just happens. 2500 nervous people all trying to swim as fast as they can for 2.4 miles = crowded! Paddleboarders are yelling at me to stay to the left. I hear "bubbles, STAY LE . . . bubbles . . . LEFT . . . bubbles".

And at some point (sometimes) the crowd spreads out. And then WHACK, I get smacked on the head again. The super salty water starts to make my skin tingle after a while. And if my suit is chaffing as I head back to the pier it starts to irritate my skin. And then, as quick as it all started, I am scrambling up fake-grass-covered stairs to the little garden-hose-showers. And the ocean becomes calm again. 11 Days!

OC International Triathlon Race Report

I should note that I raced the Orange County International Triathlon, which hosted the Best of the US championship. I competed in the OC Tri, but not the BOUS race.

Setting up T2 the day before, I remembered my fun Zoot shoes!

Calm peaceful water before the hectic swim start.

Transition chaos.

Happy duck (well, until we all started swimming . . .)

I am smack in the middle of this shot, trying to grab onto pack #1 that formed. I failed to grab Colleen and Brandy's speedy feet, but still had a decent swim.

I am pretty sure the guy behind me on the sidewalk wishes he were racing! The bike was hilly. I had a good first half of the bike and then my heart decided to stick to my half ironman heart rate instead of Olympic. I keep confusing it by racing 1/2 IM all season, training for a full then throwing the poor thing into a fast race.

The run is flat for two miles, then up, down, up up and away with some dirt, gravel, bark chips, etc. thrown in. I liked it.

After the race we got OTTER POPS!!! 

Maggs came from Hawaii to race BOUS and PRd her swim!

Super speedy girl friends. 

Congrats to Kristin, Beth, Terri, Colleen and Tawnee (not all in this pic) for all podium-ing.

Ian and I won overall male / female. It was pretty darn cool to stand on the podium with the friend I chase all over the county on bikes most weekends. 

Kona HEAT

An island does not seem tropical to me unless it is hot. I love this picture. It just exudes HEAT. The bored girl with the Starbucks cup looks like she may wilt. The girl off to the far right of the photo has her massive protect-me-from-the-sun hat on. Water on head, sponge stuffed in tri top, ice in mouth, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate . . .

16 days!!

Morning Commute

Oops, forgot how to use my camera properly.

Awesome crazy fog!

The Flop

I tend to enjoy a good flop onto the floor after a hard workout, or day at work, or Kona. Half-eaten piece of pizza in my hand and a nice flop onto the King K hotel lobby floor. Now that is NICE!

This is my friend Jason. He has not completely mastered the "flop" yet, but his was not bad. He spent a day last October chasing me around Kona. I think spectating might be harder than racing.

A good flop requires a minimum of 5 minutes on the ground in the someone-just-knocked-me-down-and-now-I-can't-move position. If done properly friends will come running with cameras, because apparently the flop has not become mainstream yet. It is important not to perform the "flop" before crossing the finish line, as it makes for a very long night.

Fall Taper

Fall often equals "taper" - whether it be for Ironman or a marathon. It's the time when my head starts playing tricks on me. Am I training too much? Maybe I am not training enough? Why does my knee hurt right there? What, you say you're sick, or have been in the past 5 weeks? STAY AWAY!!

Some fall from my recent Chicago visit.

But in the end all is fine. My mini aches and pains are normal. I know I trained as much as work, life, etc. would allow. I will go race Kona knowing that at this point in time I did everything possible to have my best race on that given day.

To keep the taper exciting (!) I decided to throw in a little race this weekend. Because really, there is nothing better to prep myself before the big dance than getting my butt kicked in a race that will take less time to finish than most of my recent runs have taken!

Art and some Strikes (X)

The weekend started with this.

Steven explained to me, 'this is a Dr. Seuss tree'. I immediately agreed that we need one.

Awesome origami. The paper and instructions to make these little robots can be purchased at the Art Museum bookstore. I nearly forked over $15 for paper until I came to my senses and realized I barely have time to grocery shop, let alone make mini monsters out of itsy bitsy most-likely-frustrating pieces of paper.


This was my dinner, which part way through I realized looked beautiful. Veggies from my garden on a grilled corn tortilla with some cheddar cheese and lentils with cous cous. Prep time was about 10 minutes. Tasted heavenly.

We finished off the day with bowling. I managed to get a Turkey (Mom - that means three strikes in a row) and have what I thought was an amazing game, followed by two games where sadly I failed to break 100. By A LOT. Steven and Jeffrey destroyed me. Jeffrey managed to better my Turkey by bowling six strikes in a row. I am not sure I'm worthy of sharing a lane with him anymore.

Jeffrey kept mentioning something about the need for all of us to join a bowling league. The boys would have no problem, but I am not sure they like girls who bowl an 83 signing up for leagues. I might need to stick with triathlon.

Out and About

A fun day in at the park and around the city is the plan for today.

Vincent Mathy's illustrations make me smile.

A Key Ingredient

Training for Ironman means swim+bike+run+REPEAT. I did a lot of all three this week. Marit kept me honest in the pool as I chased her lap after lap in quest of becoming a fish.

There were intervals on the bike that one day felt awesome and then later in the week notsomuch. My heart rate quit cooperating on Wednesday.

Yesterday I cracked. And it was an "easy" day. So coach ordered a few days of NOTHING triathlon related to revive me.

I'm planning to spend the weekend studying this book. And doing fun things with Steven.

I think I will also SIT at a coffee shop and watch the world go by - just because I can!

Good Things

This is my Grandma's pantry. The ONLY item in the pantry that is not Tupperware is the Penguin cookie jar I gave her for Christmas. No joke - raiding the pantry is a hunt for which shape and color of Tupperware she has put the good things in. Many years of putting four kids through school by selling Tupperware has left her with no shortage, even at age 95.

My Grandma's ginger snap cookies are quite possibly the best cookies ON EARTH. Sometimes finding the cookies, and keeping the location a secret from other family members is really the best course of action.

As a child, the same raspberry plants I spent hours eating from, while swatting bees away from me and then running wildly around the yard as they would chase me are still in her back yard. I spent about 20 minutes this past trip eating raspberries straight off the plant. All good things!

Corn Roast

In high school I ran many miles past corn fields. The number of stars you can see on an early morning run in the middle of nowhere is amazing. And lots of them fall!

Before I left Michigan we had a corn roast. If you have never had sweet corn straight from the stalk, roasted over a fire, oh my, you are missing out!

I managed to roast a Big Frank veggie hot dog as well. Mmmmm Mmmm good!

There was talk of driving Grandma down to the roasting-site, but she was having none of it. Why would you drive me when I have two legs and can walk?! Nobody came up with a good answer for this, so we hiked down to the fire pit.

Grandma

My Grandma is just downright cool. Seriously - look at her - I don't even have sunglasses this awesome!

The weekend FLEW by. I had a blast. I love going back where I grew up. Add family and friends that I do not get to see often and I really couldn't ask for anything else.

It will probably take all week to post all my fun adventures. And in the process I think I may have learned a little something from my Grandma - a little bit of why I am the way I am . . .

Driving home from the birthday party Grandma told me she wanted to do the Mackinac Island bridge walk next Labor Day. They shut down the bridge and everyone walks the 5 miles across. She was not joking - she told me she wanted to start training (her exact words) for it and she was sure she could do it. I have no doubt she can!

My Grandma is 95 and she drives her 70-year-old friends around because they are falling apart and can not drive anymore. I was bummed I had to fly home last night because tonight she invited me to go to her Garden Club meeting. It's the annual tomato festival. Everyone brings tomatoes they have grown and it's a big tasting / contest to see who has the best this year!

Proud

Eight years ago today is a day I'd like to forget. That being said, in the days following the amount of compassion, love and goodness that was shown - often between people who had never met - was beautiful. It made me proud to be American.