Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Vegas!

I get why they call it Sin City. What else is there to do on a couple of miles of barren terrain lined with nothing but posh hotels/casinos, restaurants, and nightclubs?!
Traveling with two other triathlete friends, Tawnee & Sara, I'd say we kept things at a more appropriate level than 99% of people- especially our age. Still, for those of us with the lifestyle of a physically active 70yr old- i.e. bedtimes before 9 (ehhm sometimes 7!), our primary source of alcohol being the miniscule amount found in Kombucha, multiple workouts a day, gluten free this, raw that....it was definitely a SHOCK to the system during our 48hr adventure.
Nevertheless, it was a blast, and so worth it. To be remembered, but perhaps not repeated...anytime soon that is, ha.
So we lett Friday afternoon and hit some traffic but managed to get there with plent of time to check in and plan out our night.
We Started out with a delicious dinner at Botero at the Wynn, and then I made a little money at the blackjack table :)

Then, as Sara's friend Chelsea is one of the acrobats for La Reve- a badass show that resembles Cirque du Soleil but all about water- she scored us free front row tickets! Not only that, but after the show we went backstage to see their wardrobe room and get an insight into how the show functions so smoothly night after night- so cool! Those people are incredible athletes...makes me feel like a wimp!

Following the show we went to a club called Surrender, but the guys were very disappointing and so after a couple of hours we decided to call it a night and save up for tomorrow.
We went to bed at a very innocent 1:30am. 7am ish, we were wide awake and eager to get some sort of workout in- yes, GEEKS!
Urban running on the strip! Powered by the frequent inhalation of cigarette smoke.

Then, since that wasn't enough, I googled a lap pool, which turned out to be pretty good, and we actually cranked out a pretty solid set of 3700yds. I was very surprised to have what I'd ordinarily call a good swim. Ironic.
Can you tell we just got done swimming?

How do you hydrate post swim in Vegas at 4pm?? Pre-drinking with a bottle of wine and two or three Diet Cokes & Rum, of course.
Night two was epic....

Stayin' classy we headed over to the Bellagio for dinner at Olives where I had an amazing buffalo sirloin (medium very rare, please!) with baconed brussel sprouts and mashed butternut squash :P

Time for the Black Keys! But not without a couple of shots at the Cosmo:

One of the highlights of the night was the guy with the pigtail-ed beard in a pink onesy- HOT!

The Black Keys were awesome!! Lots of head-banging and my-feet-killing-me-in-those-heels later, and more drinks at the Chandelier Bar before Chelsea once again hooked us up with a bouncer-escorted entrance into the Marquee.
But by then I was dead! The club was packed to the point of not having room to breathe- except outside but it was freeeeezzziiiing. Yes I had a large coat but I took that to coat-check right away so I lasted like an hour and a half before I told Tawnee I was out. She was supposed to come with me but we got seperated and we couldn't get texts/calls so all of us ended up going back to the room by ourselves in intervals of about an hour haha.
By the time Sunday rolled around we were ready to get out! I'd had enough of waking up to casino lights and cigarette smoke on my way to Starbucks.
Such deviations make you appreciate our healthy lifestyle so much. I don't understand those that live the nightlife for years.
My favorite form of trashing myself in one go is Ironman.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Palm Springs

What a fun weekend! I feel so lucky to be part of a team comprised of such great women!
Kristin & I drove out early Friday afternoon and got to Lori's in plenty of time to settle in & chit chat while she cooked up a delish dinner.
The next day we were up mega early (especially me with my crazy 4am wake ups, ha) to get rolling ahead of the masses for the century.
It was freeeeezzzziiiiing the first hour but then it warmed up quickly to the most perfect mid 70s in clear sunny skies. We were very fortunate with weather this weekend as this upcoming one is supposed to be roughly 20deg colder and possibly raining! I stripped off my top layer of pants, socks, long sleeve baselayer gloves, and arm warmers within the first 90min :)
I spent the majority of the ride with Polly who let me just say is a badass- she drilled the century at a solid pace as well as the half with our bonus warm up (more on this later) all with insane pain from a root canal!!
The ride was so much fun. We got to the house at 105mi at around 5:20ride time (I think).
The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging by the pool, which was the perfect ice bath temperature and definitely helped all of us for the half mary the following day.
Another yummy homemade dinner, more red wine, and then we took a short trip over to hang with the Rehab United crew. The night wouldn't have been complete withouy froyo so we hit up Golden Spoon.
Not enough sleep later, it was time for 13.1....however, I rallied Polly to warm up from the house to the race start with me which we had mapped out to be 3.6 miles. 50min of running later, we had warmed up like 6 miles to the start- we had to book it when we were told it was "about a mile and a half that way"... literally got there as the announcer was going "four, three, two, one!..." haha awesome.
Needless to say I had my gel before mile 2 :)
The great thing about this bonus run beforehand was that I logged in good mileage for the day without having to gun out a cool down jog after that race effort and it exaclty mimicked the feeling in the legs that comes in aorund mile 18-20 of IM marathon.
At 6miles into the race I was with a little group holding 6:20;6:35s and thought wow, I may just break 1:30 today. But then at mile 8 my feet were throbbing and my legs weighed a ton each. Holding sub 7:30s was a big task.
My coach was actually happy with this as it made for excellent training, and proved my run hasn't completely disappeared. Now a mellow week and then Sin City!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Finalized Schedule

On the right hand side....I think this is the final decision. I'm registered for all of them except Vegas which I still have to qualify for.

I was toying with the idea of not attending 70.3 Worlds again and using all the expenses tied into that race for a longer stay in Kona before Ironman. However, I actually want to race worlds now that it is in a hilly (hopefully draft-free) venue and close to home.

Also, there are some fast girls my age in those 70.3's, but wouldn't it be cool to be 70.3 and Ironman World Champ the same year?! Yes.

After my partially self-inflicted exhaustion, it took one day- last Monday- of full blown sleep to recover. Overtraining is bull- I adhere to the belief of under-recovering as the culprit. So once I recoverd I bounced right back and the fact that it took <2 days means I was not burried, I am simply working hard.

Friday was a swim only day so I scheduled the blood work that coach Paul has been asking me for since January of last year. I hate needles, but I obliged :) I highly doubt I am deficient in Iron as I have never, and will NEVER be vegetarian/vegan (anyone that knows me knows I love a good steak!). But at least Paul can see whatever it is that my blood results will reveal.

The weekend was much lighter in training than the past few. I drove north to ride Santiago Canyon and do a short trun on Saturday. Sometimes I just need to get away from the coast, change scenery, and ride by myself. It was a good day, warm and sunny. Then I hit Mother's Market for a good late breakfast.

Sunday was a long run that felt like mile 20 of Ironman the whole time...."are we there yet?!?!" But a fun Super Bowl gathering made up for that.

That brings us to yesterday which made it very clear that I need to stay away from wine, or any form of alcohol because I have zeroooo tolerance. A few glasses the night before and I was useless that morning! Instead of dragging my unwilling a** to the pool early, I ate breakfast and went back to sleep. Then kept waiting until I actually felt like swimming. Go figure, I swam well when I actually wanted to be in the water! That's all I did :)

Today... What happens when you go to sleep at 8:30? You wake up at 3:30. FML! So I'll be swimming by 5:30 only to have time to go back to sleep for a few hours before heading over to The Wolf Studio for a run LT test. Oh joy!

Last time I got tested was back in 2008- the whole deal- metabolic testing, VO2, bike/run blood LT. Honestly, I doubt my HR zones have changed at all but at least I'll know for SURE. Now that I have my new pink Garmin I might as well use it correctly. Who knows, training with numbers again might make me super duper fast. Watch out!

Almost time to hit the pool, I'll hopefully take some post-able pics this weekend in Palm Springs century/half marathon and put em up early next week.