Don't want to jinx it, but...

I'm sooo excited that today marks 2 weeks of solid training with practically zero knee problems. I say "practically" because a few times running or cycling I'll feel it but nothing to hinder my training. I love the feeling of rollinig through a heavy training block! Next week will be another big week and then stepping it down a bit so I can go into Carlsbad ready to finally GO in a race. I just need a good race sometime before Kona- last one was Surf City Half....waaaay back in February.
It's been helpful to have my brother here because his constant "When is swimming? Can we swim again? Lets go run! Lets go ride! You're soooo slow!! C'mmon pick it up!!" portrays a miniature (and slightly annoying) coach that's with me 24/7. He's been loving it here which I'm obviously super happy about. I had him try a club swim program as it's slightly longer practice than masters and with kids his age but he didn't like it too much (kind of overcrowded and not much coach-attention). So he'll be sticking with masters. I had a kick out of watching him jump into lane 1 and totally cruise it when 2 years ago I would lap him in a pool and I might never ever be able to swim in that damn lane :( hehe, ahhh the ease of adaptation/learning in youth. Oh to be little again.
He met a cool guy at swim who's son is his age and they run XC Mon & Thurs at Rancho or Moonlight Beach. He went this past Thurs and really enjoyed it so it's good for him to have some guys to run with. I'm definitely not able to sprint his jog so will not even attempt.
On another exciting note, Daniel will be racing San Diego International next weekend in the Pro wave! How cool is that? See, that's why I freakin' love our sport- where else would a 15yr old amateur get to race his idols? It's like me getting to play a match against Hingis when I was in High School. Badass!!
So since I won't be racing 1) didn't sign up on time 2) too much $$ 3) not quite ready to lay it down with my knee in an Oly..........I'll be spectating him and some other friends. Now that I'm healthy, I can cheer without jealousy :)
So that's about all that's been going on, I really have zero outside "entertainment" which is awesome (to me at least). Yesterday I rolled 4hrs with Kristin, Colleen, and Beth on some 'ghetto'-Kristin called it that not me- version of the old 395 loop I hadn't done since 2007 and that turned out to be a fun solid ride.
Today I hae a 1hr run which I'll do on the coast trails as my brother hasn't seen those yet- hope he understands/listens to my instructions....and then mid morning masters.
I'm looking forward to tracking IM CDA today as well, best of luck to Julie D!!

This one hit home

Yesterday my coach gave me a book to read "Gold in the Water" by P.H. Mullen. I started it last night and just a few pages into the intro, a phrase caught me by the heart and I uncontrollably shed a few tears....

"Their passionate quest is the greatest singular goal in individual sports. It is a hard and solitary journey. But it is also noble. It is noble because one of the most important things to do in life is at least once chase a dream with every ounce of power and conviction we can muster".

Amen!

2 days till my brother comes!

This week has been rolling awesome. I'm back to feeling close to fit, and running is going super. Swimming is the only thing that I guess my body rebelled against after all the pool visits it got in May thanks to my injury.
Yesterday I went 3hrs on the bike feeling the best I've felt since early April, which is saying a lot! Tomorrow will be another 3-4, possibly with KP and I just cannot get enough of being back out on the roads of N. County :)

My bro gets in Sunday....YAY!! I've registered us for Carslbad Sprint, where he says he will "eat me alive". Haha, probably, but as well he should, right?! It will be great to race almost every weekend July to August. Right now I know for sure it's Carlsbad and Strawberry Fields- Oly for me.

On the home front, my furniture has yet to arrive!! WTF? Murphy's Law they'll come Saturday which will mean I'll be out training through the early afternoon causing a delivery problem. I really wish they could just come today. Since I haven't had all of the moving to organize, I've been keeping busy with my LSAT studies and going through all of the Hills episodes I never saw.

Ouch

I think I jinxed myself with my last post. Today was a mix of pain #1 and 3, actually more like the positive pain #3. I went out with my coach and Jaakko on what was supposed to be a 3ish hr easy to steady ride. We took the bike path from Oceanside inland to 76 and rode the loop around Olive Hill and back. Well, my excitement of being back on the saddle pain free led me to not be able to wait until 8am and hit the road at 6. I rolled out down to La Costa and down PCH to Honey's Bakery to grab a coffee. After browsing the boring local paper, I got back on the bike and still had another hr to kill before 8. So I continued easy along the coast until making it to Oceanside. The ride turned out to be mod-hard in some parts and total for the day I clocked 5hrs- OOPS! Uhhm, either not doing this length of a ride in 1+months or the fact that I raced Honu last week resulted in me feeling like SHIT after haha.
Anyways, at 4:50 I had the choice of continuing up to Leucadia st and home or stopping at the health store for salty lunch. The latter sounded more than awesome, so I did just that. Then I continued sitting there for about an hr and a half before finally getting back on the last 10min uphill home.
Got home, showered, ate again, drank some raw veggies and took a nap. I still feel like my legs are crumbling to pieces and I could not rescue a goldfish that fell out of his tiny bowl (and I'm also delirious and coming up with stupid jokes/analogies).
So I think I need to recover.

3 Kinds of Pain

1) The greatest kind- where you're fit and in great training rythm. This type of pain can come through a hard session, or during racing where it hurts but hurts oh so good. You're just tired and digging so deep but getting huge gratification at the same time. It's more a fun-twisted mental struggle. Everything hurts but that's the reason you love sport.

2) The first of the two bad pains. It comes as a result of injury. This is the pain you experience when something is screaming to stop, not from fatigue but simply because it's hurt.

3) The second of the two bad pains. This one sucks worse than injury because you have to choose to submit yourself to this awful humbling pain. It can only be good if done in training while seeking higher fitness. In that case it's the precursor of pain #1. It comes when you're out of shape and trying to do something that your body feels so inept at. Think fat lazy kid in PE class. If your stubborn, like me, you'll put yourself through this kind of pain in a race and suffer the consequences of feeling like you really should bail or not have shown up at all.

That's my little school of thought for the day.

Back in San Diego...

I don't know how but suddenly I just moved, it all happened Wednesday by 10am, pretty efficient :) I did a little run and gym session that day with a major nap in between. Then finished off the day with Gavyn's baseball game where they totally killed and made it to Championships!

Today I swam masters for just 30mins then got in a great run mid morning on the trails and followed that with a ride up to Oceanside and back with Jakko- he's roughyl my age, from Finland and staying with a friend from masters, Beth, for a couple weeks to train. They were all at Hawaii 70.3 so we met then. It's cool to meet people my age that are as crazy for this sport as I am.

Anyway, after that I took a nap and just got back from massage. Lovely!

Tomorrow's going to be fun as a reporter for the Latin TV station Univision is coming down from L.A. to interview me. Pretty sweet :)

I'm still waiting for the moving van as right now my apartment is quite blank. That should get here early next week at the latest (hopefully) and then my bro gets here next Sunday! Yippee :)

Training is rolling this week. All easy short stuff just to keep moving and make sure the knee is solid. So far so good.

Well that's the short scoop.

SUCKING IT UP

Race morning...never have I had such gnarly butterflies in my stomach. I prayed to every God I could think of to have my knee hold up and let me finish the race- just get me through the bike and if I can't do anything but walk the run, so be it, but at least then I'll know I can finish.
I was uber excited for the swim, after all that's all I've basically been doing the last few weeks. I decided to "pull" as much of the course as possible to not irritate my knee at all. I loved the swim, got 3 different guys' feet at roughly 1/3s of the 1.2 miles which allowed me to get out feeling great.
T1- my main concern here was getting my strap done right because if I put it in such a way that didn't wrap comfortably or hold the right stuff in place it would mean stopping, unclipping, etc.
That was done good. YAY.
Bike- Well, I defintiely went slow :) 5min slower than 2 years ago. The flat and downhills I was able to hit my HIM pace watts, but the climbs my watts had to be on a certain zone to make sure I didn't ruin my season. So that was humbling experience #1.
T2- ehh same as always.
Run- First, it was waaay hotter than 2 yrs ago. That or the extra layer of insulation that defintitely didn't burn off my body the last 1.5 months or so as I had hoped really did me in. That will change for October- dramatically.
OUCH and humbling experience #2. My first thought "holy crap I'm out of shape". This was the toughest 13.1 miles, actually no, I lie, the toughest run I've done training or racing. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to dig this deep. Granted, in Arizona the last 10ish miles were the worst pain ever on my quads, but that was an IM and I went a slower pace here than in that marathon. Not cool. Expected, but very hard to swallow.
It was like I was running on a treadmill- not going anywhere. My knee held up, I had slight niggles and the only bummer was when I got soaked after a couple aid station water guzzles, my strap would come loose every now and then so I had to tighten it. I only had to walk 2-3 ascents on the golf course because one little umph too much and it could be the start of an even longer day.
Finish- so so so glad to see it.
I ended up winning my AG but had a terrible overall finish- 26th. that's about 21 lower than what I had hoped for in my training pre-injury. I knew when I flew down here that such a race was out of the question. Even with my knee fairing really well like today. This is where the major sucking it up comes into play. See, yesterday, I would have been thrilled at the thought of finishing practically running (aka jogging) the whole time, but like a good ol' human, once I had that, I wanted more. I wanted to be here healthy, I cringed as I saw other girls ahead on the out and backs, and I took a major stab when I got online after the race- actually when I crossed and saw the time because I knew right away.
I know it's ridiculous, greedy, whatever, but it still kills. I even feel bad that I have this sort of let down feeling (kinda like when you wanted a certain birthday present but then your friend got an even better one and suddenly yours sucks).
I have to be appreciative of the fact that I could walk just fine after, and that I know in 3 weeks of proper recovery and weight room time I'll be full swing for Kona-gearing.
That's it. On the super bright side, I had an incredible time with Cassie up at the Fairmont. We stayed there Thurs and Fri night and she was awesome company. Both nights we had the best dinners by the ocean and some good long chats.
I'm now back at the house, it feels good to be in the slightly cooler temps up high. Tomorrow we're gonna go paddleboard with her son Cash, and then Monday might go south as I've never seen that part of the island.
Then I fly out the 2nd and move to my condo the 3rd- yikes!

Back on the Big Island

It's my 4th trip down here and as the plane neared the lava fields going over the beautiful clear-blue water, I thought about the different journeys that I've experienced before each arrival. Life's really something. That's when it hit me- I could not be happier to be back here racing no matter what. There's just something about this place. For some reason I delayed mailing that doctor's letter to Hawaiian airlines that would have transfered my May flight to October- so so glad I chose to race Honu.
My day started at 3:45am, woke up, had a bit to eat, loaded up the car, and took off from Encinitas to L.A. I made it to LAX at 5:30ish, parked and got shuttled to the terminal. I thought I'd fall asleep driving I was pretty tired, but luckily I made it just fine. Check-in went super smooth, it helped that I was practically the first one there from my flight which was to leave at 8:45. Security was fast, thankfully. So I then proceeded to the gate, found a corner, layed down Euro-backpacker style and slept till boarding time. That was nap 1. Naps 2,3,4,etc etc where on the plane, where I would be interrupted by the dude behind me kicking, or the stewardess offering peanuts and drinks.
After 7ish hrs of travel and more sports bars than in an IM training block, I made it to Kona and was picked up by Cassie, my homestay. We went straight home, she lives in a gorgeous house basically straight up Palani then hang a right I think toward Waimea (?). Incredible views, and lush green gardens. I assembled my bike as she picked the veggies from her garden for dinner salad- yum!
Around 4, Cash, her 17yr old son, and I left for Kona town. I dropped him and his friends at paddle practice and then I dropped my bike at the shop and did a short run on Alii- spectacular. It was good to move after being in a plane so long.
I drove back, luckily didn't get lost as the car was running out of gas, haha and we had a delicious dinner of fresh mahi, salad, and rice. I'm now in bed, relaxed as ever and hoping to get massive sleep.
Update on the knee- it got a little pissed with the travel, but running actually lightened it up, and I iced well after. So all's looking quite well and I am more than excited to get my game face on ;)