Swimsuit Heaven!!!

Anyone sensitive to over-consumerism, quit reading now.

One of my very good friends, Nadine, has a fabulous friend who works at Jantzen. She was awesome and got us into a sample sale today. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but had swimsuits on the brain for the last couple of days in anticipation. I was OVERWHELMED when we walked inside. Racks and racks of swimsuits in size 8 and 10. My size!!! In fantastic brands like Nike! And...a posted sign with the price of the suits. It went something like this:

One-piece suits -- $2
Matching two-piece suits -- $2
Single tops or bottoms -- $0.50

Shorts -- $2

I just kind of stared in disbelief at the whole scene and slowly walked around the room not quite sure what to do with myself. Then I just started grabbing anything I was remotely interested in. When I couldn't possibly hold anymore, that was my cue to check out. As soon as I got home from work I went straight into the bedroom and started trying everything on. I started laughing hysterically when I counted 22 suits. And then I almost started crying when I put them on. THEY ALL FIT!!! Swimsuits never fit me! I added up all of the price tags for a grand total of $1444 (retail price). My price? A whopping $44. Nadine has been completely forgiven for the whole New Year's costume incident.

2008 Jack Frost Time Trial

I competed in my first ever bike time trail yesterday. It was a blast! Here's my race report. For the full set of photos, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/SarahDBryant/2008JackFrostTT

Race: Jack Frost Time Trial
Location: Vancouver Lake, WA
Distance: 20k (12.4 miles)
Time: 40:51:00 (pace = 18.26 mph)

Pre-Race: People from my club, Lacamas Swim & Sport (aka The Headhunters), attend this event every year. I came along for my inaugural time trial and I ended up being the last person from the group to race. So I brought my camping chair, warm clothes, and lots of munchies to keep me comfy during the day. It was a cool morning and had rained the night before, but soon the sun was shining and drying everything out. Coach Denise brought hot (homemade) chicken soup to share with everyone. One of the Headhunters (Mike) brought a fire pit…and very large fire starter…to keep us all toasty warm. After checking in and getting my number, I pretty much sat on my tushy for a couple of hours and chatted with other club members. It was pretty much like a fun camping trip!

Fellow Headhunter, Natalie, and I were the last to go so we were able to watch everyone else warm-up and take off from the start line. This was entertaining, but we also had the most amount of time to work up our nerves. For whatever reason, I was more anxious for this event than I was for either of my two triathlons last year.

K-Dawg dancing, er, showing off his race number:

The Swimming Sperm (aka, Denise and Bob Croucher):

The boys warming up:

Warm Up: Put the bike on the trainer for about 15 minutes. Mostly just spinning, with a few minutes of harder tension. Right around this time my Mom and Ken showed up – I was really happy that they were able to make it out to watch me start.

Then I did about a mile on the road to make sure everything was in working order and that I still knew how to handle a bike. This was only going to be my second ride outside for the year so far!

Natalie and I warming up:

The Ride: I was in the Women’s 4/5 category, which can also be translated to “women who probably don’t know what they’re doing, but are too young to enter the Masters category”. Unfortunately for me, most of the other women in my group knew exactly what they were doing and were sporting fancy shmancy machine with matching race garb. I definitely had some bike envy going on.

We were sent off one person at a time spaced 30 seconds apart. A volunteer holds you upright from behind the saddle while both of your feet are clipped in and another volunteer tells you when to go. Then it’s basically balls on for the next 20 kilometers until the finish line.

I had a pretty good start considering this was my first time trial. And I was able to settle into a nice cadence right away. I didn’t wear my HR monitor (on purpose) and I never switched the bike computer to MPH. I monitored my RPMs and tried to keep my cadence between 85 and 95. This seemed to work well for me and kept me from fretting about my average speed. After the turnaround there was a bit of head/side wind to contend with that was blowing off the Columbia River. I was tempted to see how slow I was going, but instead just shifted to an easier gear and tried to hunker down on the aerobars while keeping my cadence up. It was around this time that some of the other girls from my category started passing me. Guys from the next wave also started flying by me like I was standing still. That bummed me out a little, but I still made sure to say something nice to each person as they rode by.

I was surprised to see a “1 km remaining” sign posted towards the end of the course. I was even more surprised to find that I was able to down shift a few gears and still maintain a high cadence without much effort. I held this pace through the finish line. I guess I probably could have pushed it a bit harder than I did…

Me starting:

What would I do differently?: Ride faster. :-)

Warm Down: Crossed the finish line, and then rode the half mile back to the parking lot where my Mom, Ken, and other Headhunters were cheering us on. Denise and Bob had cooked yummy grilled chicken and sausages for everyone. Mmm...

Me, Stormy, and Nadine after the race:

Event Comments: This was a fun experience. It was great to watch how other people ride and to look at all of the wildly expensive bikes and accessories that everyone had. I had set a secret target of finishing under 40 minutes and this was the first time that I missed my goal. I was a bit bummed about that, but someone said to me “if you hit all of your goals then maybe you’re not aiming high enough”. I’m going to work hard this summer and I’ll be sure to beat my time at the end of the season!

It's True...

My First Physical Therapy Appointment

I had my first physical therapy appointment today for the knee. I was diagnosed with patellofemoral stress syndrome, as well as ITB syndrome. Basically, my ITB is so tight that it's pulling my knee out of alignment and causing tightness around the patella. So the friction on the cartillage behind the patella is what has been screaming at me for the last 4 months.

The therapist did a basic evaluation where she checked everything out, had me do strength tests, looked at my (lack of) flexibility, walking, etc. Then she went in for the kill...massaging both IT bands. I may have some scar tissue build-up on the left side and when she was working on that I was pretty much bawling into the pillow. It's been awhile since I've had a good cry, so at least that's out of my system. My appointment was followed up with ultrasound on both sides. And an appointment card for 2-3x/week for the next 5 weeks. Good thing I have a job (and insurance) to pay for all of this...

Here is my post-PT face (I cried all my makeup off -- don't judge):

First Bike Ride of the Year!

It was a glorious day for an outside ride. An OUTSIDE ride!!!! The sun was shining and the roads were dry. Aside from an annoying wind that popped up every once in awhile, it was the most beautiful day we've had this year. About a dozen of us met at the club at noon and did the 12-mile loop around Lacamas Lake. I wish I had a camera with me, because as we were finishing up the ride and heading down Lake Drive, you could see for miles. The lake, the green hills, the forests, the snow covered foothills in the distance... Beautiful!

It was a great warm-up for the Jack Frost Time Trials next weekend. That's gonna hurt.

La Knee-na

I have a renewed sense of hope about the furious storm that's been brewing south of my waistline. I'm talking about my KNEE people. Hee hee. I had an appointment with a fantastic sports med doctor at OHSU on Friday morning. Aside from a scarily thin cartilage under my patella (either from genetics or the trauma from my volleyball days), the rest is fixable. I apparantly have "the tightest IT band known to humankind". Since this was spoken while the doctor was near my backside, I wanted to say, "why thank you very much doctor, but I hardly know you" but I resisted the urge. So anyway, I'm off for 2 months of physical therapy and then a follow-up visit. I should be good as gold in the near future!

My First Half Marathon

I finished my first half marathon!!! It wasn't pretty, but I'm okay with that. I also read in the local paper that this course isn't certified (for distance), and that Sunday's race was likely more than 13.1 miles. Woohoo! Here's my race report:

Race: Vancouver Lake Half Marathon

Location: Vancouver, WA

Distance: Half Marathon (13.1 miles)

Time: 02:53:55 (pace = 13:17 min/mi)

Pre-Race: Due to a persistent knee injury and a recent bout of strep-throat, I spent the last couple of days debating whether or not I would actually participate in the run. I finally decided that I didn’t want a “DNS” next to my name. So I would start, get through the first couple of water stations, and then decide if I wanted to continue or not.

I woke up early, ate a PB&J on whole wheat English muffin, downed some coffee, then tried to hydrate and get Ken out of bed and moving. We carpooled to the event with a bunch of people from the gym in the official “Headhunters” van. It was so much fun pulling up to the parking lot and everyone staring at us.

Warm Up: It was just over 30 degrees, so we huddled in the van and breathed each others CO2. I had Denise (coach) tape up my knee. Then did a couple of "warm-up jogs" to the porta-potties.

Run: My friend Mark signed up to do the run with me and said he would go at my pace the whole time…even though he typically does 8min miles. On a good day I can barely pull a 10:30 pace out of my legs, I was expecting more like a 15min pace today. We got out of the bathrooms with 5 seconds to spare before the gun went off. We started in the back to be out of everyone’s way and in about 30 seconds we were all alone.

The course begins with a short out-and-back, passing back by the start line around mile 3 (with the first aid station) for a longer out-and-back the other direction. This makes it boring for us, but fun for the spectators to see us several times. I came through that point feeling a bit winded, but the knee was good. I shed some layers and continued on.

The next aid station showed up around mile 5. This is where the knee started to throb and my gait fell apart. I really just wanted to quit here, but reasoned with myself that almost anyone with 2 legs can get through 8 miles, even if it means walking. Mark kept me running to the final turn around at mile 8.3. As the first runners started to pass us from the other direction, we clapped and cheered them on. Only the first place male and the first place female acknowledged us. Mark and I turned it into our little form of entertainment -- we counted over 40 people before we got another response from any of the runners. Not even a smile! This was surprising, as even though those people were fast, none of them are fast enough to have that big of an ego.

At the turn around we walked for about 5 seconds to take some Gu and water and I realized that walking was way more painful than running. Short of hopping in the sag wagon, there was no other way to get back to the finish line except to suck it up and run. Well, running may be an overstatement, but I did maintain a solid waddle.

Mile 11 and 12 were really long, as was the last half mile. Every time I started to complain, Mark interrupted me with a silly story to take my mind off the pain. As we got closer to the finish, we could see the parade of cars leaving the event. It was a bit demoralizing, but since it was cold out and they had probably been finished for over an hour, I couldn’t blame them. When we approached the finish line, all of the Headhunters were there cheering us on and chanting my name. It was so motivating that I managed to sprint in the last 20 yards. It felt like a sprint anyway. I was thrilled when I looked up and saw the clock was under 3 hours!!!!!

What would I do differently?: I really did just about everything I could considering the circumstances. When my knee was injured around the first of the year, I pool ran 4 days a week. When I got strep-throat last week, I stayed in bed and rested as much as I could. It took a lot for me to just get out to the starting line.

Warm Down: Walked to the cookie table and inhaled a bunch of goodies as I hobbled over to the finish line to cheer on the last few folks. Then off for burger and beers. Mmmm...

Event Comments: The course was flat flat flat – perfect for my first half marathon. It did get a bit monotonous, but my body couldn’t have handled any hills, so I was grateful to at least have company for the entire run. The volunteers were awesome, especially since it was freezing temps. I was at the back of the BOP and made sure to thank them all for staying for us stragglers. And whoever baked all of those cookies did a fantastic job!

Determination

I've always been determined when it came to things like learning to tie my shoes (I still do it wrong), talking my parents into buying me something, getting through college, teaching myself to knit, etc. Not so much when it came to exercise. As soon as I became injured or sick, I gave up and quit going to the gym. Times have changed it seems. I have recently been dealing with a pesky knee injury. And this past week I ended up with strepthroat and the hint of ear infections. While nowadays this wouldn't be a huge issue, this week is different... I have a half marathon coming up. TOMORROW actually.

I haven't ran on pavement since New Year's eve (see earlier blog), but have been doing my pool running religiously. Four mornings a week you'll find me "running" lap after lap after lap. Talking to anyone who will listen just to quench the boredom a bit. Monday morning I headed outdoors for a test run. I wasn't feeling too great but figured I had just lost a bit of fitness over the past few weeks. When I got home and my temperature was 102 I felt totally defeated.

Five days of bed rest, lots of ibuprofen, and a whole heck of a lot of determination -- I'll be at the starting line tomorrow morning. I may be the last person to cross the finish line. Hell, I may not even get to the finish line. But I will NOT have my first "did not start" next to my name when the results are posted.

The Scale

I'm not sure when it happened, but I'm comfortable talking about my weight. Really, I look the same to you whether I say that I weigh 120 or 220. I had to laugh yesterday when taking out my drivers license. The photo doesn't look much like me anymore. I weighed close to 215 pounds when that picture was taken, yet my license declares that I was 160. Silly, huh.

I honestly don't know what my heaviest weight was. I put the scale away at 208 because I just didn't want to see those numbers anymore. And I did keep gaining for a bit after that. So I estimate 215 was the top end. I rang in 2008 at 176.

Tonight before my workouts I stepped on the scale again in the gym locker room. I put it right to 176 and it wasn't level. Dang it! Nudged it up to 177 and it still didn't budge. My heart sank as I kept moving it until it hit 180. Then a light bulb went off -- "move it the other way!". Today I weighed in at 174.

The best part about that? Only 24 pounds until I get a new tri bike. :-)

Two 5k's on New Years Day

I didn't want to start off 2008 like all of the others -- hungover. So I signed up for the First Run in downtown Portland. It started at midnight and was only a 5k. I had also commited to swimming a 5k at my gym on New Year's morning. Here are my race reports...

Race: First Run
Location: Portland, OR (downtown)
Distance: 5k (3.1 miles)
Time: 00:32:45 (pace = 10:32min/mi) -- a smokin' PR for me!!!

Pre-Race: I had read in a reminder email that there would be a prize for the best costume. I looked at last years photos and didn't see anyone in costume, so I asked Nadine (who had done it a couple of years ago). Her reply: "oh yeah, there are TONS of people dressed up. Yeah, yeah, you'll see lots of crazy stuff." I was super excited, so I pulled out my hot pink tutu, matching wig, and pink/black bustier and headed to downtown Portland. My super sweet boyfriend, Ken, came with me (I couldn't talk him into running it thought) and tried to convince me that everyone on the Max train was staring at me because they thought I was pretty. We showed up at the World Trade Center around 10:30pm and the place was already packed. Yet, not a single person was in costume!

Warm Up: Sat at the WTC and shivered and answered questions about why I was wearing a tutu.

Run: It took me over two minutes to reach the starting line, but it was a chip timed event so my finish time is accurate. After crossing the line it took awhile to get past the walkers and slower (than me) runners. After about a mile it cleared out and I could run my normal pace. My HR was pretty high, but I didn't feel like I was working too hard. It must have been the "pink tutu" power. The best part was all of the drunk people on their way home giving me props for my outfit.

What would I do differently?: Not forget my matching pink ruffled panties. They probably would have knocked another minute or so off my time. :-)

Warm Down: Waited for the Max, drove, home, crawled into bed.

Event Comments: Super fun way to ring in the new year! The only bummer was that I was cold and couldn't really enjoy the activities before the race and had no interest in staying afterwards.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Race: Sharky Swim
Location: Lacamas Swim & Sport, Camas, WA
Distance: 5k (3.1 miles)
Time: 1:40:00 (pace = 2min/100m)

Pre-Race: Stumbled out of bed after only a few hours of sleep (I did the midnight 5k run to ring in the new year), shoved a PB&J english muffin down the hatch, and headed to the gym. Ken came to count laps. What a guy!!!

Event Warmup: Nothing -- I didn't want to waste a lick of energy. I really was scared that I wouldn't be able to complete the distance.

Swim: We had 4 people in our lane and kept a pretty good rythm. We would each pull 100m and then fall to the back of the line. The pace was a bit slower than I would have liked, but when it was over I felt like I could swim another 5000m.

What would I do differently?: Other than have our group keep a faster pace? Nothing. But I loved the ladies I swam with, so it was great.

Warm Down: Ate a ton of food, drank a couple of mimosas, and took a long nap.

Event Comments: 5000m in the pool gets a bit dull. But this was a great New Year's activity and served its purpose of keeping me from the party scene.

Running Update

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog -- the holidays and all... Here's a list of what I've been up to in December:

• The new shoes did wonders for the right knee/hip pain I was having. Unfortunately that has been replaced with ITB issues on the left side.
  
• My new HR monitor rules! I'm not yet a good judge of my perceived exertion, so looking at my wrist to see if I need to slow down or turn on the juice has been helpful. I haven't quite figured out how to play with the pretty graphs and stuff though.
  
• Our long runs on Fridays have increased to 120 minutes. I'm running an 11-12 minute pace (if I'm feeling healthy), so this should translate to about 10miles. Last week I only made it about 9, but I was proud of that.
  
• The two most excrutiating run-related workouts have been 1) hill repeats up Dahlia (a 31% grade if you don't know of it) and 2) the 2mile fast-pace run. I hit well over my max HR that day.
  
• I haven't been swimming as much as I like, nor spinning as much as I like, nor lifting as much as I like. But darn it, I'm getting my runs in. And that's the point for off-season, right?
  
• I have, however, enjoyed a few token mornings of sleeping in, a mini-vacation with my sweetie pie, and way too many Christmas treats. I may be up several more pounds than I'm happy with, but I'll have fun working it off in January!

Ken and I on the way out from Clear Lake Lookout Tower:

Ken and I before heading to the Nutcracker:

I Love Food

My biggest downfall in regards to training and my struggle with weight management is that I love to eat. One of my favorite things about the holidays is the food. In a mere 48 hours last week I consumed an entire large pizza and 2 tins of Christmas cookies. Yes, by myself. To make it worse I wasn't feeling well (suprisingly, it wasn't because of gastrointestinal issues...) and I missed my Thursday workout. No surprise when Friday's weigh-in showed that I was up 2 pounds from the previous week.

I'm proud to say that I headed off for my long run on Friday with such disgust that propelled me to completing the 7.5 mile loop exactly 10 minutes faster than last week. Saturday I swam in my upper heart rate zones (yay for the new heart rate monitor), added 5 pounds to my lifting routine, and even managed to drag my butt out for a recovery run. This morning those 2 pounds were back off.

Unfortunately I scarfed down a half bag of Chex Mix that my Mom just sent while working on endless spreadsheets at my desk. I should mention that it was a quart-size bag. *Sigh......*

If I make it through to 2008 at a neutral weight from October, rather than the original quest of a net loss, I will consider my goal achieved.

My Running Progress

Since I last penciled the previous post regarding my inherent distaste for the sport of running, there have been some pretty remarkable changes in my attitude. I signed up for the Vancouver Lake Half Marathon taking place in January 2008. And to avoid looking like a fool in January, I've been attending the beginner running sessions 3-4 days a week. We are now up to 100 minutes on our long days, and really, it's not so bad. I even completed the 8.3mi Turkey Trot last week!

I've been struggling with some fatigue and hip/knee pain issues, but am trying to deal with them logically rather than giving up. The group has been insanely supportive and I find myself looking forward to the morning run as I set my alarm at bedtime. For the first time in my life I've burned through a pair of running shoes and will be buying a new pair this weekend. I have even been scanning websites for upcoming races that sound fun. Huh? Fun? Oh yeah, I think I may be getting into this whole running thing. Just don't tell anyone, because I'm not quite ready to give up the title of "biggest complainer" on the runs. :-)

Running

There are few things in life that I truly hate: going to the dentist, the stomach flu, migraines, ...and...running. Really, I hate it that much. The only reasons I find it semi-tolerable are that 1) it seems to be the only way to shed the pounds that are clinging to me like blackberry bushes, 2) the people who are kind enough to run with me are really fun to be around, and 3)...hmmmm, I can't think of a third. I'm hoping to change that though.

Since I began my quest to go from couch potato to triathlete, I think that I've done a respectable job of building my swim and bike skills. I do have a long way to go, but I've also come a long way. I work out religiously and on any given day you will find me in the weight room, in the pool, or on a nice country backroad spinning away. You probably will not find me jogging on a local running trail. Nor will you find me on a treadmill. Or at the high school track. Once in awhile -- if Nadine or Denise or somebody has pretty much pulled me by my hair out the door -- you may find me within 2 miles of the gym, sweating profusely, half jogging/half limping, with snot dripping out of my face, and a whole lot of complaining coming out of my mouth. But I have painfully come to the realization that a triathlete is called a TRIathlete because, obviously, you need to be skilled in three things. Not 2. And unfortunately for me duathlons are not a swim-bike-swim event.

Not only do I not like it, it scares me. I've always been a slow runner and I don't like being bad at something. I've been lucky to figure out how to use my body to my advantage in other sports: good hand eye coordination in high school sports like softball; hefty center of gravity for downhill sports like skiing and kayaking. With swimming I was taught good technique...and my booty-girl-booty certainly doesn't hurt. With cycling I've worked on shifting at the right time, using the mechanical advantage of the gearing, and taking damn good advantage of the downhills. Running -- it's just me and the ground.

Okay, enough whining. So, what am I going to do about it? I may never enjoy running, but I'm determined to become sort of competent in it. Coach Denise from the gym has urged us to sign up for a half-marathon and is forming a beginner running group. Who knows, maybe a future blog post will be titled, "how much I love running", but I wouldn't check back too often if I were you...

Luna Women's Sprint Tri

July 28, 2007
Lakeview, OR

This was my second triathlon. And while by any standards that is very very new, the anxiety in the days leading up to this were noticably absent. I knew I could finish it, likely not come in last (my biggest fear from the first one), and the chances of someone else embarassing themselves more than me was pretty high. Plus, several of my training friends from the gym were embarking on their very first tri, so I was more excited for them and caught up in that. But...I woke up Saturday morning in a near panic. I was all of a sudden aware that I had run less than a half dozen times since the june event. Yeah, I was putting in decent time in the pool and on the bike (hey, STP counts as like 10 workouts, right?), if you don't finish the run, you don't finish. Too late to worry much about lack-o-training now.

Forgoing breakfast in favor of coffee, I hurriedly set up my transition area so I could get to the bathroom. The lines were horrific, so I suited up early and got in the water for a "warmup." Ahhhh... It was almost time to start anyway, so we all wished each other good luck and joined up with our respective waves. Sherry and I started together and it was so great to talk with someone up until the horn sounded. The swim start was a bit more chaotic than last time and I ended up behind a bunch of kickers that I couldn't get around. So I patiently waited for them to expend their energy flailing before I could pass. I never did find somebody to draft, but in an 800m swim, I suppose it doesn't matter too much.

Me and Sherry waiting for the swim to start.

T1 went slow because I had problems with my bike shoes. The ratchets weren't undone, the straps were still velcroed together, and my front break on the bike was tweaked. Next time, less coffee and more time setting stuff up. I still had issues with my breaks about a mile into the ride, but I was able to fix it without stopping. Please, no lecturing on that. I know it's not safe. All-in-all th ebike seemed easier, if not faster, this time aroundn. I definitely passed more people and wasn't all that tired coming back into the park.

Unfortunately T2 was also slooooow. My bike shoes weren't coming off quickly (I think it's time for new shoes), my helmet got caught in my hair, etc. And some little evil troll magically turned my legs into tree stumps. The bastard. Really, the run seemed so much harder than I remember. Maybe it's time to put some effort in to working on my running. I got through it, had fun seeing people from the gym on the turnaround, and had a big smile on my face as I came through the finish line. Yay, I did it!

Heading out for the run. Hey, I'm SMILING!!!

Sherry welcoming me through the finish.

I'm too lazy to look up my times, but I think it was something like this compared to the June event: very slightly faster swim, same T1, faster bike, same T2, slower run; about a minute or two faster overall.

STP - Day 2

I don't remember much about day 2 and unfortunately I didn't make any notes afterwards. I do, however, remember how horribly painful our rear ends were in the morning. It took a few miles before we were able to sit down without a yelp. This occurred after every break, so we quit taking breaks to avoid the whole process.

Morning 2: Brian happy that we'll be leaving shortly and he can go back to sleep.

Morning 2: Airing up the tires -- my super favorite 4:30am activity...

The scenery was beautiful, and if it weren't for the "rolling hills", I probably would have appreciated even more. It was a hot afternoon and many thanks go out to the volunteers staying late for the stragglers. And also to the many home owners towards the finish in Portland who stood on the sidewalks hosing us off as we passed.

We finished around 4 or 5pm, did a quick pass through the expo, and then headed home. A quick shower, (well earned) french fries, and an early bedtime. Aside from the weird looks at work the next week (I was wearing sweats and walking funny for a couple of days), we recovered fairly quickly and I was back on my bike within 2 days. I think I would do it again, although I learned a hard lesson regarding training...

STP 2007 -- Day 1

What do you get when you combine over 200 miles of cycling in two days, three people who have spent a combined total of maybe 200 miles on their bikes in the last 6 months, and a whole lot of hills? Complaining, complaining, sore heineys, and lots of chaffing. Oh, and a big huge serving of humble pie. It wasn't pretty.

Ken, Nadine, Brian, and I left Vancouver on Friday afternoon to head to our hotel in Seattle. The traffic from Olympia to Seattle was dreadful and took several hours. At one point Brian's GPS logged an average speed of 15mph -- similar to our STP pace! We finally arrived at the hotel and after checking in we drove to where we would start our ride. Then began the search for a nice, hearty meal. We were in bed around 11pm, but I got little sleep due to 3 snoring people in my room. I won't mention names.

At 4am a chorus of alarms sounded and we methodically packed up, lubed up, aired up, and got to the starting point. Within seconds, pace-line upon pace-line breezed past us. We stopped at the REI Kent rest stop for bathrooms. I later regretted not taking some food, as it turned out to be the best stop of the weekend.

We rolled into Puyallup sooner than expected and came upon "The Hill" without any warning. It was just all of a sudden there, looming over us. It was more long than it was difficult, but I had already worked myself into a frenzy about it over the past several weeks and mentally wasn't up for the challenge. Shifting into granny gear mode too soon didn't help either. I walked pretty early on and received many looks of concern. I wanted to shout "Yeah everyone, I know! I'm an idiot! You don't have to look at me like I don't know that I'm an idiot!"

Ken and Nadine were at the top patiently waiting for me, we had our picture snapped (the photo didn't turn out), and continued on our way to the Day 1 half-way mark -- Spanaway. Somewhere around this time is when I reached the longest mileage I had ever gone on a bike! Where you not reading earlier when I said that I know I'm an idiot? We got to Spanaway early enough so the lines weren't bad, water was still available, and there was plenty of food. Oh...the food...AWFUL! PB&J sandwiches on stale bread with no PB&J. We choked it down anyway and got back on the bikes. Ouch! My butt hurt already!

I don't remember much more about day 1 other than the miserable bike trail in Tenino. The trail itself wouldn't be too bad (although quite boring) except for the root system growing up through the pavement. Every 10 feet or so, "ka-thunk-ka-thunk-ka-thunk" as you jarred over broken asphalt. I lost the sponge from my aerobottle several times. I bit my tongue too.

The best part of the day was arriving in Centralia to music, cheering, and the best orange cream cicles I have ever tasted. The iced coffee was nice, but not really what you crave after riding a century. Brian was a freakin awesome dude and had already set up our camp and unloaded the car. He then proceeded to pour us beer and cook dinner while I wandered down to the massage tent. Mmm.... I went to bed early and woke up in the middle of the night with no one sleeping next to me. Well, the beer garden became free after a certain time and Ken just couldn't miss out! If you don't know Ken, he snores LOUDLY when he has been drinking. So much for catching up on my sleep that night...

104 down, 104 to go!

My First Triathlon!

Blue Lake Triathlon
6/9/2007; Lakeview (Troutdale), OR; 1:44:11

My first triathlon!!! I did it! If someone had told me 6 months ago that I would be finishing a tri in June, I would have laughed, finished my beer, and then gone back to eating my french fries. Hahaha. I know it's no ironman, but I'm still very proud of myself!

I was lucky enough to have my Mom in town to cheer me on, along with my super supportive sweetie-pie. I drove to the lake with Nadine and after getting markered up (Sharpie does NOT come off easily) and bumbling through setting up our transition area, we walked to the water to check out the swim course. I had never actually seen what 800m looks like before and it looked far. I didn't want to look at the water anymore so we walked through the in & out transitions and then did a quick warmup.

As I was changing into my wetsuit about 20m before start time, I found it funny that I had only 4 things in my transition area besides the bike (bike shoes, helmet, run shoes, towel), yet it took me over an hour the night before to get everything together. Anyway, off to the lake for a warmup swim, grease up my legs with Pam, and wait for my wave to start. Before I knew it, the whistle blew and a mass of green-headed people splashed off. I started in the middle and finished in the middle -- passing lots of yellow caps (wave before me) and having a few purple caps pass me (wave behind me) along the way. I came out of the water feeling like I could have gone a lot faster, but it was nice to get on the bike without being too winded.

Me exiting the swim.

On the ride out I had a pretty good head wind and was focusing on how nice the ride back would be. The wind died down near the turnaround point and as I was on my way back, I had...a head wind! Figures...

The rain started as I was transitioning to the run. It didn't bother me at the time, but it was cold and uncomfortable after the race.

Me starting the run leg. My bike must not have been that slow, look at the fit looking chic behind me!

But, back to the run.. It sucked. The only good part was that I am so slow that it's really easy to people watch. There are some real characters that do triathlons! Did I mention how much the run sucked? But about 100 yards before the end of the run, Nadine caught up to me and we crossed the finish line together. Awesome!

Me and Nadine coming down the finish chute.

My Mom, me, and sweetie-pie Ken after the event.

Lacamas Lake 5K

5/20/2007

My running partner-in-crime, Nadine, had been having foot and leg pain and opted for the 5k walk instead of the run. So I was again running solo. Cue Johnny Cash on the MP3 and I was off. The course almost immediately flew down a really steep hill. Instead of enjoying the fast pace, I though aloud, "damn, we have to run back up this bitch". Apparantly it hadn't occurred to anyone else because the comment was met with loud groans and dirty looks.

The race tapered to a nice flat run with some gentle hills. My time at mile 2 was just over 20 minutes. Nice! Time to turn on the afterburners & finish with a PR of under 30 minutes. Hahahaha, how silly of me to think such things!

The road started climbing uphill ever-so-slightly. Then it got steeper. And steeper. And holy hilly mother-f*%&er! My stridges became shorter and shorter until I began wondering if I was actually going backwards. A volunteer assured me that I was indeed making progress. I finished in over 37 minutes, which means that last mile took me over 17 minutes to complete. Ouch! It was a great workout though. :-)

Solaire Salmon Run 5K

5/5/2007

Ken took me to Bend for the weekend and when I saw there was a 5k race that Saturday, I wanted to enter. A flat course along the river with mountain views -- what could be better?

We arrived in town on Friday night and checked into McMenamins hotel. It was a nice afternoon so we meandered up to the Grateful Dead bar and drank cocktails next to the fire. Followed by pints, more pints, and then dinner & pitchers. We ended the night with a dehydrating dip in the hot soaking pool.

So, back to the race... I was feeling a little less than stellar, there was ice on the ground, and I didn't have a running partner to put happy thoughts into my head. But I put on my headphones and decided to sprint and see how long it took me to burn out. I hit mile 1 around 08:30, which is really fast for me. I never saw mile 2 (hmmm, I'm starting to see a pattern...), but I did see a bunch of people crossing the river at the wrong footbridge. I remember thinking, "whatever jackass has to cheat on a 3.1 mile run, is a real tool".

Pretty soon I was running by myself wondering what the heck happened to mile 2. After awhile I knew that I was close to the finish line, but my time didn't make any sense for how fast I felt I was going. I finished in over 35 minutes and I was puzzled that my pace had slowed down so much after the 1st mile.Two explanations: 1) all of those people "cheating" were oncourse and I was the jackass going the wrong way, and/or 2) cocktails/beer/wine the night before a race is no good.