6 days and counting....

Race week!!!! 6 days to Oceanside 70.3. I am as ready as I am going to be. Not going to be my best race, but should go reasonably well. Had a great run Saturday, legs are loosening up and my calves are not so tight and sore for a change.

Great ride today to LJ with John and had breakfast at Coffee Cup (yum!!) with S/N/T/J. Power Breakfast and I love it, love it.

Saturday felt like Spring, warm, bordering on hot and it felt so good. Sunday, cloudy and chilly again. Ahhh, well I have to remember how tired I get of the heat and appreciate the cool temperatures. Actually cool is good for the next week, considering we are heading to Mammoth next weekend for Spring Break and we want the snow to last as long as possible.

Checked out a new spot for dinner on Friday, Jai, on UCSD Campus, Wolfgang Puck restaurant. Butter Fish was delicious!!!! Hope the place makes it as it was nearly empty on a Friday. Good to get out once in a while and had a good time with Dad/K and S/N.

Heading to an easy training week, always bittersweet backing off. On one hand it is so great to not be working so hard, but on the other, it is so strange to have extra time, less training and more time to worry, have I done enough? What more can I do.....but as KP says, between now and the race, all I can do is sabotage it with too much training, no fitness to be gained with a week.

Still have not ventured into the ocean......thinking I should before race day, but every time I ponder it, I think about how cold 59 really is and what is there to be gained by a swim. But I will do it, I think Wed E and I are going for a swim. Cannot leave the shock to race day.

Weekend....

Friday again! sunny day and a reasonably good week.


Health is about 80% and that is a good thing. Went for a nice ride yesterday AM with John and we met Nancy, Scott bailed as he is now sick too. Cruised up to Starbucks and chilled over some coffee and then rode home. Nothing hard, but cleared my head and was a good 2:30 ride.

Great swim this morning! Sprint Friday and I was thinking there was nothing fast in me but was nicely surprised to feel strong in the water and extended my swim to 1:20. May have pushed it a bit with the run after as I could feel the fatigue from my cold, but kept the run easy and all was fine.

Exciting news.....Team Aquaphor offered me a spot on the Sponsored Triathlon Team. Nationwide team, should be pretty cool. Was ready to sign the forms and ErinBaker http://www.bbcookies.com/ called, well no Erin but someone from her org who is putting together their Tri Team and I had filled out the application. They will be announcing the team 4/1 so I may just wait and see. Either way I will be racing for a team which is cool!

IM California 70.3 just about a week away, week from tomorrow! Cold should be gone and I hope to be well rested by then. Backing off on the training and hope to be fresh for the race next Saturday. Water is still cold.... 60 degrees, yikes. Hopefully the temp outside will be reasonably warm so it will not be a miserable day out there. KP is more optimistic than I going into this race....he feels I am in a great place to race well. I am not so sure.... with all the time off with my Achilles and being sick this week, it is hard to say. I have to keep reminding myself this is not my A race, this is not the focus of the season. That will come in June for IM CdA.

Busy weekend with kids and their games.... but works out well as this is not a huge training weekend.

Ironman St George, Utah May 2010

Hooray!!!! New race and I am in. Love it, love it- an Ironman earlier in the year and within driving distance. I am excited- course looks to be hilly and a tough one. I think hills are my strength on the bike so it should be good for me. And the training will be great, lots of Great Western Loop, Mt Palomar, Kitchen Creek, - all will be good training for the race.

Family, family, family

Huge weekend of family fun!!!!

Everyone was in town and we had a blast...Friday and Saturday nights we had 16-19 of us at our house eating and drinking and having fun. Sunday, Dad and Kathi took on the cooking and hosting and we celebrated a belated 50th for my brother and enjoyed a magnum of sparkling wine!! Delicious.

Everyone had fun and thankfully we all get along well!

Was able to get in a nice run Saturday AM, a bit foggy as I am not use to the wine anymore...but the run was good- 50 minutes and pushed the pace. Braman and I snuck out Sunday AM while everyone was sleeping and powered out a 90 minute ride at an aggressive pace. He was on my wheel most of the ride. Good start to the day and we chased the rain clouds home. Drops were hitting us as we pulled into the driveway.

Sunday night was wiped out.....some from training earlier in the week but mostly from cooking, cleaning and drinking wine. Back to normal schedule come Monday, but poor Riley picked up UJ's cold so she spent 2 days sleeping and is back on the mend.

Race Simulation

Thursday was a BTD ( as KP would say) A race simulation per se. Started with a 45 minute run, warm up for 15 and steady run. Jump on the bike for 2:30 ride with some pretty challenging longer intervals... just to the point of uncomfortable and then it was time to back off. Spectacular ride up Del Dios to Harmony Grove and then turned back and cruised home. Pea soup fog through RSF, very interesting.... Off the bike and off for 45 minute run. The 2nd run was not so enjoyable mostly due to my under fueling so I was bonking, but got the run in and even manged 30 minutes to be 5on/off and then a nice easy finish. 4 hours in total and I was starving.....basically was eating for the next 30 until I finally felt satiated. All in all it was great and I was not wiped out and my intervals were spot on for Power and my HR was where is should be, so I am feeling better about Oceanside for sure.

Friday.....hooray! Heading to the pool for a nice swim and then an ez spin with my Bro on his hot new Madone- cannot wait to check it out, all decked out with Sram Red. Will surely put my Ruby to shame on the 101.

It's all good

Nice ride on Tuesday....3 hour solid ride, reasonable efforts up with John to his office bode him goodbye and I headed up Scripps Poway Pkwy, through Ramona and down Highland Valley Road - funny there are still remnants of the Tour of CA chalk markings- out through RB and back home. Hooray it was sunny, bad for skin, but fun to ride in after so many cold riding days. I was so shocked when i looked Warm day, not use to that - actually had to stop at the park and fill my bottles. What a luxury to be out riding on Tuesday and enjoying the day.

So so tired last night...how pathetic turning in before the kids, but just could not keep my eyes open. Just for fun I read 1 whole page of my new book- Talent is Overated. Maybe the book is too as I fell fast asleep.....

So dark in the morning, 6am feels, well like 5am. Dark, dark.....but got up and went for a nice early run in the dark with the pups. Spring is coming and the poor rabbits were chased into their dens by the crazed dogs. And once they see 1 rabbit they are on total rabbit alert for the run. Rocky went charging after a Vons bag, poor dog, thought it was a rabbit. He charges the bag and then at the last minute changes course and looks back like "I knew that was a bag the whole time" funny dog....

Off to UCSD for Masters. My sis-in-law joined us today and she got a kick out of swim practice with Sickie. Sickie (coach) come over to me and reports "Nancy is doing fine, she just infomred me she does not speak swim, so I am translating, " Nothing better than breakfast after a run/swim and we met Scott at the Coffee Cup. Managed to pratically lick my plate of the Power Breakfast. Hungry, hungry today.

Great meeting with KM about my new exciting venture......idropboys.com! Jen is the brainchild of the cool name but is not going to run with it. She has great creative ideas for the site and we are going to have great fun with it! KM loves the name and is going to help with the logo and design of the cycling jerseys and tri tops/shorts. I registered the website and am ugh trying to once again launch a site. People are loving the name......and any girl that has ever dropped a boy while cycling will certainly get a smile out of the name. I cannot wait for us to be out riding and hammer by some boys with idropboys on our tooshes! Great fun and we have some very cool ideas for the website- Droppie of the week. The website will be a great playground for good camaraderie and fun for women with a touch of attitude.

Getting ready for the big family weekend....so am packing a lot of training into the week and I am feeling it. 8pm and I am ready for bed! Big day tomorrow.

Training is good....

What a difference a week makes.....within 7 days I go from thinking I am pulling out of Oceanside to thinking I can race well.

Saturday and Sunday were spend freezing in Temecula at JD's soccer tournament....very cold, windy and miserable and they lost all 3 games. Lots of time wasted for mediocre soccer at best. Today's practice was not pleasant.....boys paid the price for slacking off. They have a lot of work to do in 3 weeks before State Cup.

Since we lost, we were home by noon on Sunday. John was with Riley at her game...they won, Riley scored a goal. (shoulda been there) But I was home and went for an outstanding run. 90 minutes and ran up to the top of Black Mountain- beautiful sunny, clear day and a clear view out to the ocean. Spectacular.

Off we went to La Jolla for a dinner with S/N and the kids. So great having family all around, really nice to be in a comfortable groove with everyone!