San Antonio

After what was probably the smoothest air travel of my life, I'm happy to be home. I got an early start to the day hopping on the treadmill at 4:30 to get in a 30min and some light upper body weights & core. My flight left at 7:30 so we had to leave the house by 6am.
I had just one tiny stop in Pheonix and arrived in SA to bear hug my mom and head to Whole Foods. I'm now leaving to pick up my bro from school and go for a swim. It will be unreal to sleep in my bed in my room :)
Tomorrow Kevin and I will get going on a busy two days of bike fitting at KGS Bikes. It will consist of outside riding for best power w/ video analyis as well as an indoor effort for best power to compare. Two rounds of that, on each of the days and some additional measurements to ge info for my custom Parlee that I cannot wait to receive!! We're hoping to have that all squared away for Hawaii 70.3 I'm also very excited to be racing in my kit by BettyDeseigns (Kristin Mayer) again. It will be similar to the "Honu" theme one I wore in 2007, but with revisions made to accomodate my current sponsors.
Well that's it for now. Later...

Some of My Faves

I thought I'd share my "trainer-ride-playlist":

- Get Up, 50 Cent
- Pour Some Sugar On Me- Def Leppard
- Disturbia, Rihanna
- Get Krazy, Pitbull
- Circus, Brittney Spears
- 'Till I Collapse, Eminem
- Stronger, Kanye West
- The Pretender, Foo Fighters
- Don't Stop the Music, Rihanna
- Just Dance, Lady Gaga
- Paper Planes, M.I.A
- Without Me, Eminem
- The Anthem, Pitbull
- Gotta Be Somebody, Nickelback
- Love Sotry, Taylor Swift
- Country Grammar, Nelly
- Maneater, Nelly Furtado
- Way I Are, Timbaland
- Big Pimpin', Jay-Z
- Te Dejo Madrid, Shakira
- La Vida Que Va, Kabbah
- Remember the Name,
- Ojos Asi, Shakira
- I Get Money, 50Cent
- Swagga Like Us, TI w/ Kanye & Jay-Z
- Dirty (uncut), Christina Aguilera
- Everytime We Touch, Cascada
- Mi Primer Millon, Bacilos
- You Spin Me Right Round, Flo Rida
- Virtual Diva (Chequea Como Se Menea), Don Omar
- What's Luv, Fat Joe

Nothing Beats Racing

...especially to be able to race in February. This weekend was stellar. I made it down to Encinitas around 3 and made a quick stop at Nytro to get my flat rear tubular fixed with the tape strip, as the glue probably wouldn't dry for the next day. Good thing I had a spare in the car! It must have been all the glass that I rolled over on my ride Wed which was the first clear day after the rainy weather that must have pushed all the debris onto the shoulder.
Anyhow, from there I went to Kristin's, settled in, and her Gavyn and I hit up Panera for dinner. Their paninis are yum-o! Crap, I think I just said one of Rachael Ray's cheesy words :/
The next day I got up at 4 as I had to be at the race site pretty early to get my packet first thing. I wanted coffee but no Sbux was open at that hour. My genious substitution: the big cold frapuccino Sbux brand drinks at a gas station. Wow...GOOD MORNING! That stuff has a kick.
I made it to the site and everything before the race was pretty uneventful, did a 20min w/up jog and waited. We started about 30min late. The water was not nearly as cold as I expected. Of course, after my experience at Worlds in Vancouver last June, no water is cold, no race miserable.
The collegiate waves went off first; it was weird to not be "one of them" anymore hehe. My wave, all the non-collegiate women, went off about 4th or 5th. I started out great, had the feet I wanted; it was three oter girls and I at the front. Then we rounded the boeuy and see-ya, once again I lost the pack...FOCUS!!!
Once on the bike I was slowly turning into an iceicle but felt great. I pushed hard the whole way, 3 4ish mile loops, and rolled in at 32 and change.
Now the best part- transition. Oh boy. My feet were non existant. I had to literally place them into the shoes. So after about 5min of getting into my Newtons I was off. It was a very interesting feeling. My feet felt like wooden blocks that were about to break with each foot fall. Nevertheless I was able to run how I wanted, and they finally thawed at the turn around.

I crossed the line in just over 1hr and couldn't have been happier with how it all went. Oh yea, my IT/quad thing was perfect when I woke up so all good on that front too. I'm happy to be at the point where long-course-planned big weeks with heavy volume and intensity are still allowing me to mix it up with the short course folks.

After the race, I showered, chilled with Kristin and Gavyn while Dan was out riding and then she and I went out for an ez ride up to Carlsbad. I tried to convince her to ride longer with me but she listens well to her coach hehe. I just added another hr inland to Rancho and back up La Costa to Quail Gardens.

Dan cooked some awesome burgers for dinner, I had a glass of wine (uh-oh!) which just about put me to sleep in an instant, and drove home only to crash in bed for 9hrs straight.

Today will be mellow. I have to get the kids ready for back-to-school from their Febraury break as their mom's not home until Tuesday. So it'll be a swim and I had a ride but I rode plenty yesterday, so probably will do about 1hr run.

3 more days till I'm in Texas dude!

I think It's All Good

This week has flown by. Training is rockin'. After a couple of gloomy days with rain/cold, the sun finally popped out for my longish ride on Wednesday. I still had to wear jacket, pants, gloves, etc as I rolled out early, but it makes a huuuge difference to be under shiny clear skies. I was surprised out how fresh my legs felt despite the 5hr up tempo work in Palm Springs.
Yesterday though I may have screwed myself a bit hehe...I got a little carried away in the weight room. Typically I do weights after another morning session is over so by then I'm not as sparky, but it was 5am and I was ready to go. So what was supposed to be 30min light, mostly upper body, got turned into 1:15 with plyometrics and other leg machines added. Bad call....especially given that I had a massage the evening prior. So of course, my right IT/quad tightened up and it's been bugging me since then. I've gotten in the hot tub a lot to loosen it up before swims and runs but it's still tight and sore.
The good thing is I know it's just tightness and soreness from overdoing the gym a bit. Yesterday afternoon I even had an awesome run on the trail. I was rolling just under 7s pace at a steady perceived effort- can't ask for much more than that at this point. That was followed by some pick ups that were yielding a waaaay higher cadence than usual- it was kind of scary, in a good way of course ;)
So, today I got up to beat the sunrise with a morning swim, had some great scrambled eggs w/ brown rice for breakfast and will be getting on the trainer outside for an ez spin followed by a short loosen-up run. I think I'll jump back in the hot tub one last time after all that just to give the hip/IT/quad thing one more working. Then it's feeding the girls and driving down to Encintas for the race tomorrow!!
Game plan is to puke my brains out! Ha.

Fast Pace

For one, that describes my incredible run this morning. Even after a great night's sleep yesterday, I thought my morning run wouldn't feel so good- I mean the century was a pretty mod-hard (mostly hard) effort.
So when I got out the door for what was supposed to be 45min, I was feeling super rested so I decided to just run an extended loop of Lake Mission Viejo from the house- a very hilly but scenic route, all road- without consideration for time or pace...in other words just roll as I feel. From the get-go I was bouncy. I was able to get into a great rythm right away and run a fast, yet almost effortless run. I got home in 55min, ate breakfast #2 and then headed to masters.
Swimming was a very fun IM set that made the session go by quickly which is always a bonus ;) Chris made it to swim today too after a couple days away from the water- good to see ya bud!
Then I went out to train my client for 1hr of swimming and back to nap for the remainder of the afternoon.
Tomorrow starts a fast paced two weeks. Monday through Wed I'll be ticking off swims, short runs, and a moderate paced 3hr ride Wed, plus training my client Mon/Wed. Then Wed afternoon I pick up AnnMarie and Scott from the airport. Friday I take AnnM to her grandparent's and make the drive down to Encinitas where I'll stay the night for my first tri of '09 Sat morning! I cannot wait to flatline for roughly an hour. Then I might head up to LA to stay with a friend, watch the Tour roll through and get in a long ride Sunday before driving back home.
The week after, Nadia & Michael get back from their extended trip and I depart for San Antonio Feb 25th!!!
I'm sooooo excited to see my parents, my little bro, and get to work with Kevin (www.kgsbikes.com). I'll be there for 3 days- until the 28th- doing some analysis of my current position and riding technique, fixing my bike fit to the last detail, doing a photo shoot, going over a marketing campaign that we'll launch by mid-year, and picking out components/desigining my new custom Parlee TT!!!!!!!!!!!!
The theme for my new bike and race outfit will be very Hawaiian, let's just leave it at that for now ;)
Then I'll get back and the next day drive down to SD for the Gran Fondo Century March 1st!
Dang, busy busy....but all in good fun and purpose.

Happy Valentine's Day

I am finally back home after what was supposed to be a 1.5hr drive took 3hrs because I deviated to San Diego....somewhere I missed the toll road exit that was going to take me to Mission Viejo- OOPS!

Anyway, the ride was phenomenal!! We had clear skies, and though it was chilly, I was fully equipped this time so as not to be even slightly cold :)

I wanted to push hard on this ride and it was a great route to do it on. Plus there were plenty of strong riders to keep me going. My coach, Julie D, and I started out together but we ended up splitting and randomly catching back up to one another throughout. In the end I finished solo with some other peeps.

I parked on a perfect spot- after I changed I looked straight ahead, not more than 50ft from my car there was a cute little sushi place. Given that I am hard to please at restaurants....I don't do bad service, and if I'm going to tip and pay a big mark-up then I had better get something better than my own cooking. Hehe. So, immediately I knew this hole-in-the-wall was spot on! I had a fabulous crab/avocado roll, some tuna nigiri, a grilled salmon with veggies, and extra sticky rice. YUMMY!!!! Perfect.

When I arrived home after endless miles, it was straight to the hot tub and then straight to the fridge.

Now I gotta get in the shower and take off this chlorine smell.

Tomorrow I'll be doing AM masters and a run...and next wknd- Tritonman Sprint :D

Cheers, hope everyone has a good v-day.

Happenings

1) Press Release: http://blog.kgsbikes.com/2009/02/12/kgs-bikes-ezine-sneek-preview-tatiana-vertiz-is-our-first-sponsored-elite-triathlete/

2) Got in a solid ride just over 4hrs yesterday in gorgeous weather.

3) Swimming's consistent and I'm seeing significant improvements.

4) Off to track right now...doing a cool 1hr workout where the main set focuses on IM through 1mi paces.

5) Palm Springs is definitely a GO for Saturday! I'll be driving out that very morning, getting in the century with my coach and a couple others, and then driving back in the afternoon.

6) I might head to Encinitas Sunday and stay a day or two.

.....Ok cool, that's the FYI, now gotta go play hamster at the track.

Pajama Day

Yep, that's right, I decided to take the optional OFF day :) It's raining outside- still, and after being trapped in what felt like a fish tank all weekend, I have no desire to get wet today.
Instead, I will frequent the fridge, browse mindlessly through facebook, pick up "The Appeal" that's been abandoned in my backpack since I arrived in CA, and sleep intermittently.
Let's hope today goes by reeeaaal slow.

Frozen Hell

That's what my weekend was like. Riding in rain and temps in the 40-50s. Add to that my decision not to wear toe covers (actually it's cuz they're in San Antonio, being shipped by my mom nxt wk, and I didn't want to spend $ on new ones), and you get misery. Of course, it's misery that only makes me stronger. The greatest part about putting yourself through such uncomfortable situations is the feeling once you're showered, feet up, and eating pounds of food :D
This week's efforts and mental struggles will come into play later in the season. For now I'm really hoping that the forecast for next weekend is WAY wrong- it says that Palm Springs will be rainy and cold Saturday! WTF?! It's like a plague. Anyway, I've decided never to have to thaw my feet again, so regardless I'm buying booties, rain-resistant socks, a hoodie, everything to stay warm.
Tomorrow I'm sleeping in and then swimming 9am, or noon masters. No run, I think....a long one Tues though. Then it will all be mellow gearing up for long rides again Fri & Sat (pray for warmth!!!).

It's gonna be a wet one

Another couple of wet cold(er) days are in store- according to the weather people. Of course they're wrong more than half of the time, but judging by the air outside right now, their predictions are close.
It's 3:45am, I should be dreaming right now but I slept a good 8 hrs and might as well head to 5am masters.
Yesterday's ride could not have gone better. I nailed the TT and felt phenomenal not more than 2mins after it was done. Had I the option of riding a lot longer, I totally would have. My legs were awake and ready to work.
Today and tomorrow are shorter- 1hr each s/r/r. Then Saturday will be 5hrs, probably in the rain! Coolness.
Next week will hopefully start back with the normal warm summer temps we've been experiencing as that weekend is the Palm Springs Century which I cannot wait to do!
Every weekend holds some awesome training event and the weeks & months are ticking by fast. It makes it a bit hard to stop and really absorb every second of this amazing year that's unfolding, but I try to remind myself every day to sieze it, own it, and grow it.

On Tap

Monday I rolled out of bed SORE. No overall fatigue, which is good, but lower legs were not happy. So I made it a late morning and then headed to the pool around noon for an ez 45min swim followed by endless hot tub time- that may or may not have helped ;)
Today was back at it. My recovery is going amazing. Training keeps rolling along and my body speaks about the hard efforts here and there but my energy's back on full the day after- love it!
It's breaststroke week at masters so I substituted all that stroke work for fly and back. I have zero intentions of learning how to swim like a talented frog.
Another beautiful day in the 80s- it still hasn't hit me that I will not experience winter this year haha. After dropping the kids at school, I did a short ez 30min run on the trail which resulted in 12-15min/mile shuffle and that's overstating my performance. So I knew it was time for another massage. Ez hr spin on the trainer, a looong nap and massage to get me good as new for tomorrow.
What's tomorrow? The coolest ever: 3hr ride w/ a 30min TT at the 90min mark- ALL OUT! :D It can't get better than that. I think I'm going to do it on the flatter stretch of the road out to the canyon after rush hr which gives me time to chill and eat a big breakfast (aka my killer french toast).
More exciting news...I officially registered for Hawaii 70.3 today!! My biggest goal for that race is to absolutely demolish my time from 2007 (and as many other people racing as possible, of course hehe).
Also, I'm training a lady for her first triathlon which is giving me a really cool new perspective. I hope to find the time to add on 2-3 other clients as well. We'll see as the yr and harder/more training hrs pop up how much spark I have left over for all that.
Well, that's it for now. Time to hit the sack. Tomorrow starts early, like 4:30am early, as I'm training my client before she heads to work. Hopefully I can crawl back to bed for at least 1hr after that.

Surf City Half

What a gorgeous day and a great event! It was sooo foggy driving down that I didn't think it would clear up for the race, but by mile 3 or 4, the skies were clear and the sun was shining :)
I felt a little fresher, or at least more into training rythm, going into this race than the SoCal Half two wks ago. I had a mellower week leading up to it after the solid 3 wk block that ended last wknd with the ride up to Julian Saturday.
So I wasn't expecting something spectacular but definitely wanted to beat my time from SoCal and break 1:30. Mission accomplished. I ended up with 1:28 and was stoked.
What made it all the better was having my legs be screamin' at the end with my breathing at a steady to mod-hard perceived effort. It's a good feeling so early in the year to know that my aerobic fitness can yield a faster time than today with rest leading up to an event. I cannot wait to kick into the season with Honu!
Now it's time to head to a friend's to watch the Super Bowl and chill before resuming the hard work tomorrow :)