Encinitas Sprint

Once again,I got to race in my backyard at the Encinitas Sprint Triathlon. It’s an incredibly fun event, that also features a 5k, mile swim, a mini sprint tri, and paddleboard race!
I decided to race Elite, as in all the local races that allow me to do so, because there’s no better way to gain experience and challenge myself as I continue to try and make a career our of this sport than by racing against the best.
After crossing the line, in an absolute SPRINT finish, I can say this was by far the most fun and exciting short course race experience I’ve had! It has always been a wish of mine to come neck and neck into the chute with another girl, going all out, and taking in the thrill of raw racing. Wish granted :D…

The weather was overcast but not cold so actually perfect for racing. Also, the surf was really mellow which made for a good swim. I lost touch with the front pack but still managed a good swim- spending 6 days a week in the pool is really paying off! Onto the bike, I was beyond excited to be racing on the Cannondale Slice, I loooove it! It fits me perfectly, and though I just made the switch a couple of days ago, it’s like I’ve been riding it for years.

I was sitting in 4th, then about mile 3 Katya caught up to me and there was no sticking with her- she took off like a bullet. My legs felt pretty trashed from the whole week’s training, but in a sprint the good thing is it’s short enough that you can just push through that without much consequence other than physical discomfort (unlike an Ironman where you’d pretty much be walking come the marathon).
Into T2, it took me a bit to find my shoes as they had been scattered to opposite sides away from my spot. Finally got in my Newtons and hit the pavement. Running actually felt fabulous- the bike had woken up my dead legs just enough! I had, for me, a great run, clocking 19:32.

At the turnaround of the first loop (2loop course) I saw a girl- Darlene Hunt- that I knew I could catch, though it’d be close to the end, if I kept pace. At the bottom of a tiny steep pitch before turning toward the finish on the 2nd loop I was right behind her and chose to make my move.

Thinking back, the smartest thing would’ve been to stick quietly behind her, at a more relaxed pace than the one I had been running to catch up, and once we crested GO! But, I went at the bottom, she responded and we ran flat out side by side to the line. She managed to nick me by 0.1/sec!!! AHHH!!!! Haha. Regardless, it was the coolest thing ever and added unspeakable amounts of fuel to my fire for Hawaii 70.3

After the race, I rode home quickly to change, refuel, and then headed back down to hang out at the awards as our local studs took the podium, overall, and in their respective age groups. I had some time to kill waiting for Beth to finish her 3hr ride so we could do an afternoon run on some trails I've been wanting her to show me.

At the start of our run my caffeine high was beginning to die down but that's the beauty of training partners....without Beth I likely would've napped first then felt pretty out of it to run after that.

Once we hit the trails though, I felt awesome. Following the sprint effort, an aerobic run felt so great, I could've run through the night- literally! 75min flew by.

Immediately I took my disgusting self to Frog's for a long hot shower then blasted to Encinitas Ice Cream/Yogurt for a monster "fro-yo"....it's actually Only8 which is supposed to be all natural, fruit/fructose sweetened, & dairy free. If it's not a scam, it's the best thing man ever invented!!!

The day ended with a fun night drinking wine and catching up with good people.

....2 wks to Hawaii baby!!!!!!!!!!


*photos by Brightroom

Summary of the last cpl days

I'm tired- my brain can't function at all right now. But in a few years I'd like to be able to look back and see what I was up to right about now...

1) Ran the Irongirl 10k on Sat. That was fun :) They give out sooo many things, you really get your entry fee's worth! Also, there are tons of first time 5k and 10kers out there...literally HUNDREDS of women out there enjoying a gorgeous SoCal morning in a healthy way.

I raced OK- pretty much screwed up what could've been sub 40 in the first 1/2mile of the race. I was just feeling so good and wanted to just go out hard, totally didn't even think about pacing. Also, to my defense hehe I got caught up with the fact that PNF was the leader's cyclist for a second there I felt like Heather Wurtele at IMSG....yea haha not quite ;)

Anyway, came in 3rd overall, 40:22...garmin actually showed 6.3 miles, a solid workout and with warm up and cool down got in 10miles for the day.

After a delish Jama Juice smoothie, I was feeling sooooo energetic like someone spiked my coffee that morning or something. Or, it could've been the insanely awesome 70degree weather that made me jump on my bike and ride down to Solana B&G's club for an outdoor swim.

2) Sunday was overcome with absolute exhasution- babysat Saturday night and by 10:30 when I got home I was a zombie. A couple hours of procrastinating Sunday morning, and a 3hr nap later, it was clear I needed a day OFF. So I emailed coach, and listened to my body. Fabulous move- yay me :D!

3) Yesterday, Monday, was EPIC. I had a ride to Palomar planned, but given my recharge Sunday I asked coach Paul if I could make it a big day and swim and run off the bike as well. Fortunately I got the go ahead....so 5:40am, I hopped in the pool, had a super swim, then was off with a group of about 7 or 8 to ride Palomar. We parked just off the 15 and San Pasqual- headed up Wohlford and back for 4.5hrs total. I was the only one on a tri bike, which made me really jealous halfway through Palomar when my back started to get quite angry. However, as soon as I put on my Newtons for my trun, I felt awesome! My legs were uber loose, my HR at low steady, and holding a good 7min/mi pace. I ran through the San Pasqual trails which was something new for me, and loved it. Perfect little out n back from where we parked.

Then it was off to shower, & hit Rimels for a BAMF meal of fish tacos, veggies galore, and a glass of red wine that I savored like never before.

4) Despite the big day and the glass of wine, I slept kinda crappy, but thanks to my Zoot recovery tights, once again my legs surprised me 2hrs 15min of strong/steady running. My best long run to date! My HR was on point, mentally I never faded, and neither did my pace. In fact at 1:55 in I upped it another gear to the end- sooo cool!!

5) Now all refueled and ready for noon swim. Swim only tomorrow, some tune ups stuff Thurs/Fri ez Saturday, and Sprint race Sunday :D What a great week.

Day by day

My blogging has been quite sporadic. As they say though, "no news, good news". Training has been going fantastic since Super Frog. This week is the second of a heavy 2 wk block, next week will be a lighter recovery one, and then one last 2-3ish wk block before taper!

I recently read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I'm a big Tolle fan, as I consider myself spiritual rather than religious. Applying his present moment advice to training is helping out a lot. I still keep my short-term end goal for Hawaii 70.3in mind, but not while I'm engaged in a specific workout. I am focusing on each second, within each minute, within each hour of training and giving it my best effort NOW without thinking of the next session, what I'm going to do between sessions, what tomorrow holds, etc. In other words, I'm freeing my mind of incessant thought of the future for the sake of making the most of the present. With that, I have a great sense of peace/calm as I go about my training- for there are no worries other than giving my absolute all for what is required of me NOW.

Applying that to race day itself will be of huge benefit because I will no longer be anxious or nervous pre race as my mind will be in a quiet place only concerned with carrying out what needs to happen at that point in time to make my end goal possible. I won't have doubts or fears because I won't turn any foreseable scenario into a doubt or fear- what is will be, what's isn't will not be. Tolle says there are no problems, thing are as they are, we choose to turn them into problems....An example he gives of silencing our inner voice and tackling situations is in emergency cases where rushes of adrenaline/ the shock cause people to have an intense focus and zero mental disturbance. People display incredible strength, and often "superhuman" feats, because they simply do, they don't overthink because the pressing situation doesn't allow for that. I digress....

In other words, I'm not saying I won't visualize a flat, mechanical, getting my goggles ripped off by another swimmer, or any other possible race day hiccup. I accept that those things can happen but they will not be fears or worries. They will just be and if they arise, then at that moment, rather than freak out, I will take it as is and deal with it one second & task at a time. My training up to then will be fully accomplished and my fitness will be what it is- not what it could have been. Knowing that I gave 110% for each and every moment in training gives me great confidence.

Anyway, that's my spiritual/philosophical spill. I'll likely check back in as taper approaches. I'm all signed up for that 10k and the sprint :) Good luck to all racing St. George- I will be inspired on my long ride Saturday!

For NOW- it's off to swim :D

Super Frog data analysis

...It's actually more like split analysis given my lack of a powermeter, or even cat-eye on the bike. I do have a Garmin but the lovely gadget failed to read the HR monitor so it only provided me with a map and speed in mph to go with the bike & run sections of the course. Hence the delay in posting any sort of race report- had to wait until splits were up online today.

I am really happy about this weekend's performance/outcome. Surprisingly, I've been asked by several friends/acquaintances if I was satisfied or not, which I have to laugh at because I don't know whether to find that flattering or insulting. It's ironic, since after Kona last year, which for me was my worst IM time and a terrible race mentally, physically, and results wise, I got nothing but "congrats!". Sunday, I felt strong the whole day, placed 10th in quite a solid elite field, and got my second best half IM time on what is hands down the toughest half IM (or pretty much any distance) course I've done. Even more exciting is the promising fact that I still have 8wks to go before my first planned peak/ "A" race of the year: the Hawaii 70.3 June 5th.

Experience has taught me that in 8wks time you can go from decently fit to Ironman RACE (not just completion) ready. Thus, I am beyond confident, barring any injury or major illness, that this time period is more than sufficient to take the fitness I have now and add quite a significant amount more (speed & endurance combined) and get the top 5 OA result I want. Paul has proven to be the best coach I've worked with. He thoroughly understands my imminent goals, the stage of my life that I'm in relative to where I want to be in 5 & even 10yrs time, and the best way to bring out my potential.

After talking to him yesterday, it looks like I'll be adding the Irongirl 10k at the start of May and the Encinitas Sprint mid-May as tune ups for Honu. I love racing and these two events seem like the perfect combo.

Anyway, back to Super Frog and how the day panned out (in short)...

As far as expectations go, I had just one: to test my fitness and go as hard as I could within each present moment. In other words, take the swim as a swim, the bike as a bike, and the run as a run- no thoughts of the latter leg of the race- just focus on each individual sport and maximize my effort.

Racing this half was the best decision I could have made to start out the season- 2miles into the run I thought "simply finishing this race will make me stronger, let alone finish it with a steady hard effort".

The swim went AWESOME! I have been putting in a lot of pool time so to have it pay off is an incredible feeling. The surf was BIG and we had two loops with about a 100m stretch of beach run between each and in the second dive in all I could do was look at the waves and think "ready? under! ready? under!".....and I am thrilled to announce that I made it out without any washing machine effects and pretty much right in the front group (minus Hillary B. who was in a one-man lead group of her own...actually Caroline was right with her I believe- go C!!). It also helped tremendously to be sporting the new ZOOT Zenith wetsuit which is by far the best suit I've ever worn- perfect arm/shoulder movement, excellent bouyancy, easy to take off...just perfect. Thanks Sonja!

Onto the bike- eh, not much excitement here, flat windy with increasing headwind one way after each of the 4 loops that I'm sure trumped the tail wind benefits we got going the other direction.

Run- sand, sand, sand...did I mention sand? & yes, it was soft too :) I think only a little more than 1/4 of the run was on pavement. It took me 30min to get my run legs. As usual, I really had to pee after the bike but saw no porta-potties in transition so I resorted to a sand dune somewhere before mile 2. I should have waited another mile because there they were by an aid station, and had I done that, I wouldn't have deviated up the beach away from the run course. Must learn to pee while running!

I was off the bike in 9th, I think, and had Miranda Alldritt right in front of me the whole run. At the start of the second loop I was about 20meters behind her about to catch her and she suddenly picked it up, I tried to respond but that was my cap, so never did get her. Roughly 12ish miles in, some other girl came flying by and gapped me leaving me in 10th. It was great to realize I had no extra gear to go with her because that meant my job was done and I had given my best effort for the day.

Now the analysis of this race as it pertains to Honu goes like this (& yes I do realize there are many external factors that can alter my predictions):

- I'm swimmng better than ever. Did 34somtn here, and have done 30-31 in Honu the two times I've race so that'll transfer to a 29ish this yr in Hawaii as that swim course is a piece of cake in comparison (no surf, crystal clear, one loop, mass start thus more draft opportunities....this race spread out due to the surf/waves/loops so I was alone for 90% of the swim)

- Biked a 2:35 here...I do better on hilly/rolling courses as I'm small so get more climbing benefit than any sort of power on a flat quad crushing course. It was windier at this race than Hawaii the two years I've race the half. June seems to be less windy than October. That could change this time around, but whatever. I don't expect a sub 2:30 in Honu, but the same 2:35 is reasonable. Not to mention (per my scale reading this morning) I have 8lbs to shed which will not be that difficult at all so I'll climb even better than now and that'll also help my run.

- Run....ahhhh the run. I'm looking forward to actually RUNNING this year. Last year sucked!!!!!! I will have no knee brace, I will have run in the month leading in, I will be fit and at race weight. The goal is to run 1:30-1:35. This course is pretty tough as it winds a lot through the resort/golf course and has some grassy area. However, there is no sand, and it's hot n' humid :) 3 years ago, in 2007, it was my first Half IM and I ran a 1:43, I am a lot fitter and more experienced now, and pulled out a 1:45 this Sunday on what I've established is a much slower run course.

So those are my goals/ predictions. 8wks to go, and back to work at the end of this week after some quality recovery days. I'm feeling surprisingly good post race. No soreness or stiffness, and lots of napping has resulted in full energy.

As always, thanks to my sponsors...the Newton "All Weather" trainers prevented any sand from getting in my shoes, CEEPO for my comfy rad ride, PowerBar for the best gels on the planet (I didn't need one salt tablet, and had great energy the whole day), & Nytro for providing me with top of the line race wheels and keeping my bike mechanically sound!

On a completely different note, but still triathlon related (duh!), the BEST OF LUCK goes out to my little brother, Daniel, this Friday as he races the YOG qualifier in Monterrey, Mexico. The top male from the U.S. will be headed to the Inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this August. He had a fabulous cross country season last fall, some good swim training winter break, and though he came down with an eye infection and flu a cpls wks ago, managed to bank some quality trainer sessions, a couple swim meets, and good track workouts in the months prior. You can do it buddy!! :D

Black Eyed Peas

...was a lot of fun! LMFAO & Ludacris were the intro performances & they kicked A**!

A pic of us before we stood up & got crazy ;) ....I didn't get any shots of the actual show cuz the iphone just didn't cut it.



Not much else to talk about- tapering this week leading into Sunday's race & lovin it! A good swim this morning & I'm done for the day :D My focus is on deep prayer to influence the forecast that currently reads rainy & cold for race day.

Speaking of mother nature....yesterday I felt my firs earthquake! It lasted like 30sec & like a total idiot, my first reaction was to check facebook (to verify I wasn't crazy) & google "earthquake what to do"- my school drills growing up in TX covered fire, tornadoes, lockups/shootings, but not earthquakes....& for some reason I forgot the important skills I've learned on survival shows on the Discovery Channel :/

Anyway, no harm done here, thankfully, just a good heart racing experience!

Intellectual Conversation...hahaha

The following conversation, via text, with my brother this morning made my day...

Me: Sup fool?
Daniel: I wanna convert to Taosim.
Me: WTH??! well, since we don't really practice Catholicism, u don't have to go thru trouble of converting
Daniel: tru, yea look up Taoism beliefs, I kinda like it
Me: I'm familiar with Taosim...personally I like Buddhism better :)
Daniel: Ehh and Confucianism. Buddhism is like forgetting about what u want and not having needs. kinda not good for an athete cus a guy passes u and ur like ohh it's ok I don't need to win I am on my way to enlightenment.
Me: hahahhahahah wow...that's not really how Buddhism would work in that scenario but ok.

& that was it- subject changed at that point & I had a second ab workout of laughter for the day.

Season Kick Off!!

What a weekend! First & foremost, a huge congrats to my RAHA team mates Tawnee & Sara for their fantastic races at Oceanside! Also a major shout out to Colleen, Beth, Kristin, Julie, & Rhae who all came in top 5 in their AG's!

I made it out there in time to see all the athletes out on the run course and it gave me a great new perspective toward the sport. I had never spectated a half- just some local sprints when my brother would race. It was eye openning to be on the other side witnessing the focus, determination, effort, satisfaction, ahhh just so much emotion out there!

I've been lucky enough to train with all of these girls and their results are proof that there are no short cuts- it's pure hard work and passion that leads to success!

After witnessing all that I felt kind of guilty/lazy at not pulling through with my run off my 3hr ride earlier in the day but now, after a solid 12hrs of sleep and a decent 90min run where I felt back to normal again, I see it was a smart decision.

Friday morning I woke up with sniffles, congestion, and an overall crappy feeling- aka a slight head cold. I only had a swim that day so I didn't allow the sickness to get worse, but Saturday's 6:15am ride start where I underdressed for the mid 40s temps had me frozen and breathing with 1/4 of a lung. Add to that the headache/congestion and I had no desire to do anything but take a hot shower after getting off the bike.

Anyway, good news is I managed to go out there and enjoy the race environment and today Mauricio helped me start out my run which turned out pretty good :)

Off to swim a little later and enjoy some time laying out in the gorgeous San Diego summer weather!

Two more weeks until Super Frog Half & this weekend it's Black Eyed Peas Concert w/ the team :D

2010 racing is underway........