Chocolate Shoestrings

Please participate in my research project

2012-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Bloggers,

I am on my final leg of my graduate studies journey. In one month, I should hopefully be graduating!

I am reaching out to the blog world in hopes that you will participate in my final research project by participating in a quick on line survey about triathlon coverage in the media.

I would sincerely appreciate if you could click the URL below to take my survey. Thank you so so much for your input!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FNVLCD9

Race Report: Big Rock Olympic Distance Triathlon

2011-04-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Another Monday again... someone please explain again to me why weekends aren't three days long.....? ;)

Well, I finished my first Olympic Distance Triathlon on Saturday!

And boy do I have a lot to learn and improve! Let's start from the top, shall we? This is gonna be a long one, I can feel it.

3:30 am wake up call, in the car by 4:15. I munched on some waffles and Clif Shot Blocks and drank a liter of low cal Gatorade in the car. It was still dark when I got to Lake Perris before 6 am. Parked my car and walked to the registration table, picked up my bibs, got body marked, etc.

The t-shirt was really disappointing. I don't have a photo of it, but it's just a plain white cotton tee with a grey logo on the front. Boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why don't more triathlons offer tech tees... or at least some cool cotton tshirts? meh.

Got my bike to transition, walked over to the lake to test out the water temps. Not bad at all!! A little chilly, but NOTHING compared to the ocean, or to the freezing temps of the Turkey Triathlon back in November. What a sigh of relief!

The wierdest thing was that I could NOT stop going to the bathroom all morning. TMI I know, but I had to pee more than any other time in my life. It was wierd...and it wasn't like I drank a lot of water... wierd.

I saw my friend Mike from the LB Tri Club and he gave me some pointers about the course, and to be ready for the one major hill. He made it seem like no big deal, like it was just this semi-challenging hill that wasn't very long. um... ok. yah, definitely the understatement of the century! But more on that later.

Around 7am I put on my wetsuit....and to my disappointment, it was tight as hell. I knew I had gained some weight since I bough it... but this was definitely the slap in the face that I needed to get my eating habits back on track!

Swim:

There were four wave starts for the swim, and I was in wave 4 with all the women. The waves started 3 minutes apart. The Sprint Triathlon athletes ran around the lake once, while the Olympic Distance swam it twice.

Let me tell you: 3 minutes apart for four waves IS NOT ENOUGH. Especially with some people doing two laps, by the time I got in the water, it was SUCH a cluster eff. My gosh, I'm used to a certain degree of crowding, pushing, and shoving, but this time, I literally could NOT go more than 6 strokes without being bumped into, or bumping into someone. The water had close to zero visibility, so bumping in was king of inevitable. I got kicked, shoved, got my goggles knocked off... it really threw off my breathing and swimming groove. I actually had to breast stroke for quite some time, just to let the crowds pass, and even then, it was still so crowded. This really slowed down my swim time. Grr. I wish the waves started 5 minutes apart. This would have REALLY helped. The second lap was a lot less crowded, but it was still hard to swim any length of distance without being crashed into.

Oh, and I had to pee SO BAD during the swim! I knew I had to go in the water, because once I was on land, it would take MUCH MUCH longer to run to the lady's room. So about 200 yards from the finish, I slowed down to breast stroke to go. I have never 'gone' in my wetsuit before.... it definitely was a strange feeling! lol

I was glad to get out of the water, let me tell you that much!

T1: Good Golly! Once you get out of the water, the road to transition area was all sand, all uphill, and about 0.4 miles long! gahh! my hamstrings were KILLING ME! Thus, my T1 Time is embarrasingly slow, since I had to walk up the sand hill. Oh well. Whatever.

Bike:

Two loops on a mostly flat course. There was one MAJOR downhill around mile 2 or 3, and it was so much fun to gain a TON of speed and just FLY down the hill. It felt awesome. Then until mile 10 or so was pretty flat and uneventful.

I was SUPER paranoid about getting a flat, so I spent a bit too much energy trying to dodge every little pebble and debris on the road.

And then.... the hill that Mike was telling me about. The hill is shaped like an "S", so you can't see the whole hill at once to guage its difficultness. The first curve was a moderate uphill. Challenging, but not awful. Then you come around the curve... and omg.... it looks like it's going straight up! So I'm grunting it out and I see the others around me struggling as well. Except for the one guy in his super fancy aero bike and helmet whizzing up the mountain. All is fine until you come around the final curve and see the hill gets even longer and steeper! My hamstrings were on fire! And let's not forget it's like, 85 degrees and super sunny by this point. I see at least 4 people walking their bikes. I said "eff it", got off my bike, and got a bottle of water from the aid station as I walked up the hill. If I'm doing this monster hill twice, no need to kill myself on the first round! Plus it was nice to drink a bunch of water. Got back on my bike, did the second loop.

I really realized that I need to get re-fitted on my bike. It just felt really off, my back was killing me, and my legs felt like it wasn't producing a lot of power per revolution. A bike fit is definitely on my to-do list! The second time around I tackled the monster hill and it was pretty awful. It was so hot, sublock was running into my eyes, and my hamstrings were killing me. But yay! No flat!

T2: A little slower than I would have liked, but went smoothly overall.

Run:

It was an out-and-back 10K course. It was a little hillier than I would have liked, and a LOT HOTTER than I would have liked. There was no wind, and temps were def in the high 80's by this point. My face and body were caked with salt.

There were NOT enough water stations. It was HOT! There were only two water stations on the course, and neither of them had Gatorade which I really wanted. I walked through the water stations to make sure I got enough fluids without choking on it!

I generally felt good though on the run, and I made friends with a 17 year old baller doing her first triathlon. She was kicking so much butt and I told her how amazing she was for doing something so challenging. I wish I were that cool back when I was a teenager! I passed quite a few people on the run, and though I couldn't run as fast as I would have liked, I felt strong right until after mile 5 when it got really hot and kind of hilly again. My sunglasses were chafing my cheeks and I could just feel my skin burning. I couldn't WAIT to cross the finish!
I finally crossed the finish line, and Mike was waiting there for me with a glass of Gatorade. Thank you so so so much for that! I was dehydrated! I immediately drank two cups of Gatorade and a bottle of water. I actually felt awesome after, not too tired or anything! I definitely still had a lot left in my tank... which I think is because I am really slow on the bike.
Here is Mike, who placed second in his division. Congrats!

They had a BBQ at the finish line, as well as the usual post-race fuel like oranges and bananas. Here is my plate... but I was most excited about the 7 Up. It was soooooo refreshing! I ended up only eating half the bun of the burger and the burger patty.

Mike and I recounted the experience, and I asked him how to improve on the bike. To me, improving on the bike is so hard, becasue there are so many elements involved. With swimming and running, it's just me and my muscles. But on the bike, it's me, the bike, the tires, the wheels, the helmet, and so many other things. And right now, I don't really have the ability to spend a lot of $$ on bike stuff. But my goal after this race is to really buckle down and improve on the bike.

Looking at my results was very interesting. My swim time was average, and given the fact my goggles were knocked off and stuff, I'm OK with my time. My T1 was is super slow, but again, given the fact that it was sand and uphill, I'm OK with it.

Here's what's interesting though;

I have the second fastest run split in my AG!!!!! but the second slowest Bike split...!!!!

That says a lot, in my opinion. Bike bike bike bike bike. Gah. Gotta get better on the bike. ANY tips for someone with limited budget for upgrades? I would REALLY appreciate any bike help!

Overall, I had a lot of fun at the event. It was a GREAT learning experience in preparing for the half ironman. I don't know if I'll be able to do another triathlon before the half ironman, but I kind of want to do another one, just as a tune up. There's another Olympic one in Ventura in June. We shall see.

I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses, and where to concentrate my training on. Man, that's why I love this sport. You never stop learning!

The rest of the weekend looked like this:

Gettin my tan on! It was a GORGEOUS weekend here in southern CA.

Getting my tan on! And last night at my tri club mixer I won this cool little gift: Can't wait to test it out!
Well Phew! That was a long post. Between the race on Sat and hot yoga on Sun, I am kinda tired today! But today is just a strength sesh, Body Pump time!

PS congrats to all the Boston runners!

Big Rock This Weekend

2011-04-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

ahhhh! It's happening! My first Olympic Distance Triathlon is this weekend!
Time to Google where the race actually IS, I guess! haha, I don't even have the slightest idea where the race is... I know it's less than two hours away... but in which direction is anyone's guess! I don't know how I can be so Type A about certain things like punctuality, but so Type B about other things!

Last weekend was a fantastic girl's weekend with my best friends from college. We spent the weekend in Palm Desert. I had never been there before, but WOW! It was seriously so beautiful there! The big clear skies, the mountain ranges in the background, the pink and purple sunsets... Obviously, I was excited for a change of scenery for my training! I made my friends laugh when I showed up to vacation with more training gear than clothes.

I did my final brick workout before the big race: I rode 25 miles and ran 7.5 miles. The temps were perfect, although quite windy. It was hillier than expected (who knew the desert would be less flat than Long Beach?) so I was glad to have more practice riding and running on hills. I sincerely enjoyed the views on my ride. The roads all had bike paths, there was hardly any cars on the roads, and everywhere I looked was pretty and surrounded by these big brown majestic mountains. I was in awe. I always thought I was more of an "ocean/beach" person, but man, the mountains were absoulutely beautiful. At mile 23.5 of my ride I got a flat on my front tire....shoot! I didn't wanna waste so much time and effort fixing it, being so close to finishing, so I just rode back to my car as quickly as possible. Thank goodness I was less than a mile and a half away from my car! I actually made it back with plenty of air in my tire to spare.

I quickly changed and took off on the run. I stuck to one road and ran up and down the same street for 7.5 miles. I was initially only gonna do 6.2, but it felt good and I wanted a challenge, so I did 7.5. The run was slightly slower than I would have liked, but overall felt really solid and strong. The more I do these longer bricks, the easier they get. Well... not entirely easy... but you know what I mean. The first time I did 5.5 miles I thought I was gonna break. Amazing how the body adapts.

After the brick I lounged about in the pool; it felt amazing to be in the water after a challenging workout. My leg muscles definitely appreciated it!

I've also been doing a lot of hot yoga again too, mostly because I have a 20-day pass. I find hot yoga to be very complimentary to triathlon training; I feel a lot more limber, my muscles feel looser, I feel more balanced, and my back muscles get a lot more of a workout. Although I find Triathlon training to be a very good total body workout, I find that it really lacks in the "back muscles" training. Running, swimming freestyle, riding the bike... they all work the front muscles a LOT more. Hot yoga balances me out with a lot of spine strengthening work. I have bad posture to begin with, so I find it to be very beneficial.

I also installed my new Speed Play pedals onto my bike on Monday. They are a lot lighter than my previous pedals, but I have not used them enough to give a full assessment. I will get back to you with more details later. I also FINALLY changed my own tire. I know.... I'm bad.... I've always had boys to do it for me.... But enough was enough and I buckled down and changed it myself. I knew how to do it in theory, but it was different actually doing it. Hopefully, (fingers crossed!!!!!) I will not have another flat disaster during the race this weekend, but if I do, I will be able to change it myself... I hope!

Sorry it's a borig and long post with no photos. Hopefully this weekend I will have a lot more, from the race as well as from our monthly tri-club mixer! For now, I am gonna get my booty in gear for the race this weekend!

ps... I kept typing Palm Dessert instead of Palm Desert... Freudian Slip of the finger much? ;)

My baby is growing up!

2011-04-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

wooooahhhhhzzzz It's April already? When did that happen? :) I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post?! sheesh. (bop myself on the forhead) My first Olympic Distance Tri at the Big Rock Triathlon is next week! gaahh! AND HALF IRONMAN IN 100 DAYS!!!??? OMG. Training has been going well despite the awful weather we have been getting on the weekends. It'll be sunny all week, and then BAM! Rain on Sundays. WTF. I've done a couple of good brick workouts though! They include:

26 mile ride 5.5 mile run brick

One hour spin plus 4 miles treadmill indoor brick (hate these!)

One hour spin plus 8 miles of BRUTAL HILLS OF DEATH in the rain!

26 mile ride 6.2 mile run brick

Olympic distance: bring it on!

What about the swim, you ask? Well..... I'm winging it. It's what procrastinators do best :)

I wanna talk more about my bricks, but first, I am so excited to show you how my baby is growing up!

And of course, by Baby, I mean my road bike

duhhh ;)

And by Growing Up, I mean, get triathlon friendly updates! So this has nothing to do with bicycles, but look at all the goodies I got at our last tri club meeting! I loooooooooove Clif bars. have you ever tried the Mojo Bars? deeelish!

PS- if you are looking for a new flavor of energy gel to try out, I highly recommend the Citrus Clif Shot. It tastes AMAZING! Plus, it's got some caffein too, which I find really works for me. Yum!

Ok onto bike parts. In preparation for my upcoming triathlons, I decided to blow most of my paycheck (...yikes!) on bike upgrades. They are all still entry-level items, but I cannot WAIT to try them out and feel more like a legit triathlete!

To start, I needed to ditch my clunky and heavy mountain bike shoes and pedals for triathlon shoes and speed pedals.

My new shoes: Louis Garneau Tri Speed Shoes

Photo from Triathletesports.com

It's blue and white, matching my bike! It is SO much more flexible than my current shoes, and OMG so much lighter! I also tried on some carbon soled shoes, but they were about double the price, and I know that I am not a good enough rider yet to really benefit from a couple of ounces lost from my shoes. Plus, these shoes are prettier ;). Not that it matters, but.... haha. I will still use my old shoes a lot though, for the indoor spin bikes, but I will be doing most of my riding in these shoes now.

To go with the new shoes I also got new pedals:Speed Play Light Action

I have the black color. (picture from Nytro.com)

I actually have not had a chance to try them out yet....But I will let you know when I do!

I am also getting new tires through a friend with hook ups. Serfas SECA-RS Road Folding tires:

(photo from serfas.com)

How awesome are these tires with the blue trim? Again, it complements my bike's complexion. :) It's also 700X23, so it's skinnier than my current tires, which will really help with speed! They aren't racing tires or anything, but definitely an upgrade! Also from Serfas I will be getting new bar tape. Mine's been peeling away for some time now...oops! Oh, and it you are in the market for new bike stuff, Serfas is really awesome brand, because their stuff is seriously like half the price of some of the other brands! My friend clued me into this brand, and though they aren't triathlon specific, they've got some asweome shades, clothes, road bike shoes, and accessories. Check it out! And of course, no triathlon bike is complete without aerobars. Enter: Profile Designs T2 Plus!

Photo from (Profile-designs.com) According to the website, it has an "aggressive s-bend postition." Sounds good to me! I'm kinda scared about trying out the aerobars on the road.... I know it changes your balance, steering....pretty much everything.... and seeing how I'm basically the most clumsy person on the planet....I am just hoping I don't do a face plant out on the road! Any tips for begginner aerobar users I should be aware of? To go with my aerobars I also got this cool looking water bottle as a raffle prize from the tri club meeting:

Profile Designs Aqualite Bottle that goes in between the aerobars for easy access hydration on the ride. I was super happy to win this prize! This bottle has a 22 oz capacity, and an extra long straw. I have a tendency to forget to hydrate on the bike, so seeing that straw right in front of my face would be a good reminder to drink up.

Phew! That was quite the shopping spree, huh? My baby is growing up right before my eyes! And I feel like such a proud parent.

Alright. This is a monster post because I have been a slacker blogger and need to cram a lot into one post in case I slack off again. haha

Bricks are getting better! I run so much faster off the bike, so I find it exhilierating to do bricks. One of the toughest workouts I've done in a long time was the brick with the Tri Club two weekends ago. It was raining so we decided to ride the indoor spin bikes for an hour and then go for a run in the rain. The spin sesh was tough, but pretty standard. Then we set off on the run in a really hilly part of town. I desperately needed to run 10K to boost my confidence, so I pretty much begged and convinced everyone to run 10K with me, instead of the usual 5K. We set off....and within a mile we were facing the steepest hill I have EVER attempted. WTF. In the rain, too! Good gosh this hill was killer! But I kept thinking about how this would help me in my hilly half Ironman and kept trucking along. Slowly but surely I got to the top..... only to discover another killer hill a half mile later. Let me tell you about this hill....I couldn't even run DOWN this stupid thing it was so steep! And we had to run UP it. Insanity I tell you, INSANITY! My gosh my calves were burning! And we were only 2 miles in! Thank the heavens the rest of the run was not as steep, but we had rolling hills throughout. At mile 5ish it was decided that our run would be extended.... so 8 miles later, we finally finished out killer hilly rainy run. And you know the best part? I beat all the boys. I was the only girl there, and beat all the boys. What a confidence boost! ;)

But OMG I am in desperate need of more hill training. My calves were sore for a good 5 days after that run! Phew! Long post.

This weekend is spring break time in Palm Springs, and though it's the crucial weekend before the race, I will not be able to ride my bike. Oh well. I am going to make up for it by doing my first 10+ mile run in over 3 months! agh! wish me luck!

Thanks for reading, and Hi to my new followers! :)

scared

2011-03-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

Did you know it's Pi Day today? It's March 14, 3-14, you know, like 3.14... Kinda strange random tid bit of the day.

In preparation for the Big Rock Olympic Distance Triathlon next month, I did my first "long run brick" workout yesterday. The longest run I've ever done off the bike is only 4.5 miles so far.... I do a regular brick workout of 35mile ride and 5K run, so I wanted to test how a long run would feel off the bike.

The morning was a nice one, only kind of windy, nice, sunny, and comfortably warm. I took off on my usual route and aimed for an out-and-back 25 miles. It was a really uneventful ride; it was over before I knew it. It was a lot less windy than usual, so it made it a lot easier. On the ride I contemplated on how I should jazz up my bike for the upcoming triathlons.

1) Clip on aerobars? How effective are clip ons on a road bike? Has anyone used clip ons and liked it? And what kind should you buy? There are SO many options and SUCH a big price range. I can afford to spend less than 200 bucks... are the ones for that price range any good?
2) Triathlon shoes VS Road shoes. I have hookups to get good road shoes for a very good price, but should I invest in a pair of Triathlon shoes instead? What difference would it make?
3) New tires
4) New wheels. Yah. This one is not gonna happen anytime soon.
5) New triathlon bike. Yah this one is even less likely to happen!
6) Triathlon attire; what should I wear to the races coming up? I own tri shorts, but don't own any tops. I have done all of my three triathlons wearing Wife beaters. I don't even like saying that name. I need a new top! Any cute and cheap ideas that a) not a crop top (sorry, too embarrassed about my muffin top) and b) not a tri suit (definitely CANNOT pull that one off!)

Any thoughts would be immensely appreciated.

In the end I completed 26 miles exact on thebike. It's a little bit longer than 40K, but I don't mind goving over on the bike, since I don't really "feel" the effects of a couple extra miles on the bike.

Onto the run.
I put my bike back in the garage, sucked on some hydration and took off. I planned on doing 5.5 miles. Immediately I knew it was gonna be a tough run. My legs felt dead. Just plain old tired and heavy. Perhaps it is my nutrition. Perhaps it is because I spent all night wearing high heels. Perhaps it is because I have been super stressed. Who knows.

I tried to block out all negative thoughts from my mind and just tried to focus on moving forward. I knew each step would just get me closer to the end. I also told myself I could slow way the heck down if I wanted to. I just wanted to keep going.

As I was reaching the 5K mark, I looked at my Garmin and noticed that I was running a sub 8-min mile pace. Duhhhhhhhh. No wonder I was struggling. I was running some of my best times! I know I run faster off the bike, but I was running near PR paces! Of COURSE that would make me feel tired! The funny thing is, I FELT really slow. I was pretty sure I was running 10 min miles. It felt slow, tired, and painful.

I actually had to take two mini-breaks (15 seconds each) to just kind of calm myself down, but I managed to finish all 5.5 miles of it at an 8 min mile pace. Not bad for my first attempt, given the fact that I had no real training leading up to it. However, it did surprise me how hard it felt. Gotta start banging out those bricks!

I've also been swimming a lot more... but it sucks cause the pool I have access to is only 18 meters long and is really awkward to train in. But, any swimming is better than no swimming I guess!
_______________________________

I just wanted to take this opportunity to ask the world to keep Japan in their thoughts and prayers. As you may know, I grew up in Japan, and all of my family, and many many friends currently live in Japan. I am so incredibly fortuntate that everyone I know is safe and sound, though all of them have been impacted. My brother got stranded after work and had to walk for hours to get home. They experienced continuous after shocks, which I am sure must wear on their already tired nerves. They are also experiencing black outs, and worse of all, are expecting another big earthquake to hit Tokyo soon. My family is staying strong; they have gathered emergency supplies, and have bags packed to evacuate at any moment.

I have been watching the news with fear and a heavy heart. Even though we all grow up knowing that an earthquake can hit at any moment, it is so incredibly heart wrenching to see it actually happen and see the people and places you love so much in turmoil and grief. I broke down crying yesterday just seeing all the pain in Japan. My heart goes out to everyone in Japan facing this catastrophe with so much bravery. I almost feel guitly about being all the way out here in California. I feel so...helpless, and that I should be back in Japan helping my friends and family. It is such a wierd feeling knowing all my loved ones are suffering, yet here I am in California with the perfect weather, running water, electricity, and free time to train for my races. It feels....wrong.

The news on TV doesn't seem to be getting any better; with the nuclear plants, crumbling economy, and the rising death toll. It's really really really scary.

Please send your thoughts and prayers to the people in Japan. Please pray for miraculous stories of survival, and also for a speedy recovery. Please pray for courage and strength to get through this tragedy.

Thank you.

New 10K PR! Lakewood Run Race Report

2011-03-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

I love spring mornings when I wake up and there's already some light out! It makes a huge difference in my mood. Sometimes I think I may actually be cold blooded, since I always seem to be happier when it's sunny and warm out.

Can you try I'm trying to stay positive and optimistic on a Monday morning? ;)

This weekend was the Lakewood Sheriff's Community 5K/10K run. I didn't know about this race until a couple of days ago, but since it was so close by and it was just a 10K, I decided to just go for it and show up for it on race day.

It was a fun little race; it was at a local mall; and the parking lot was converted into the pre/post race festivities area. Being that it's the "Sheriff's Run" and all, there were a lot of law enforcement officers and vehicles there...which kind of made me nervous! I mean...not that I was doing anything sketchy at 6:30am before a race, but they DO have a strange ability to make you feel.... watched? Guilty? I dunno... something uncomfortable for sure! lol...or maybe that's just my guilty conscience talking?

I grabbed a couple of goodies from the vendors/food area. Yay for free protein bars
And I was actually STOKED on the toothbrush. I was JUST about to go buy a new one! I absolutely always choose the color blue for my toothbrushes. It makes me happy. Do you have certain colors you gravitate towards to too?

I killed about an hour before the race stretching, jogging, eating, etc.

Then there was a super anti dramatic start. No national anthem, no countdown, no nothing. Just a random bull horn.... and a stampede time.

I always get frustrated at the start areas. I try to start near the front, but seriously. I mean... how do people not know how to line up and start a race? Like, if you know you're a walker, and you're at the front, and you look around you and see everyone with their Garmins and butt-skimming shorts.... I mean...hint hint. And I'm not the only who noticed because I heard some people complaining about it as well. I mean, I understand it can be confusing. Race Organizers should announce it and make it clear as well.

Anyway, the run was another FLAT course, though with a lot more corners and turns than the Race on the Base course. There was only a gentle wind, and the weather was amazing. 8am, and 70+ degrees (well, it felt like it!). I got into a good rhythm, and kind of noticed something.

I don't see any females...

Then of course, that lit a fire inside of me.

Up until then, I was gonna push the pace and try hard, but I wasn't hoping for any sort of PR or competing. But then I realized I could AG again.... and wouldn't AG wins be more fun with anew PR too? So I started to push the pace some more.

I kept running in this group of two other guys. None of us knew each other nor speack to each other, but for some reason, we were the exact same pace and none of us could pass each other nor lag behind. It was this awkard kind of triangle we kept running in. Has that ever happened to anyone?

There really was not much to the course in terms of water stations or entertainment or scenery. Just a regular suburban-type neighborhood and some traffic. I kept trucking along pretty well. It was an uncomfortable pace for me; I definitely didn't have any extra energy to speak to anyone or ham it up for the cameras or anything. I wasn't dying, but it definitely felt challenging to maintain my pace.

Right around mile 5.2, the 10K course merged back with the 5K course. Now this was super aggrevating. Less than a mile to go, I'm tired, I'm trying to PR, and there's a huge group of 5K walkers with their kids, strollers, who knows what, walking 3-4 people deep. They all see the 10K runners, and NOT ONE OF THEM budge, step aside, or anything, to let the runners by. Seriously. I mean.... isn't it just polite to let them at least pass you on the left? And I see all the police officers standing around... I really wanted to yell at the police officers to tell the walkers they are going to get trampled, so please make an effort NOT to walk three people deep. Am I asking for too much here?

So I had to do a bunch of weaving in and out of crowds JUST as I was running out of steam. I was cutting it close, too.... I didn't know if I would be able to PR or not.... so the weaving was making me kind of angry too. I just wanted a clear shot to the finish!

OMG! The last quarter mile was torture! I seriously all of a sudden felt like I had NOTHING left in the tank. My legs were sooooo heavy! Each step was a burden, and I felt like I was running hrough mud or something. I could see the finish, and wanted to sprint to the end, but honestly, I oculdn't do it! I was sooo tired! I just wanted to be done!

As soon as I crossed the finish line I sat down on the chairs and had a volunteer take my timing chip off for me. Usually I do it myself, because I feel bad making these kids do something I could easily do myself. But I just couldn't even think about doing such a complicated task this time. Another volunteer passed me a water which I promplty chugged.

Ahhh much better.

And, to top it all off, I have a new PR! 48:56.

It's only 13 seconds off my previous PR, but the course was long at 6.3 miles.... so it still counts as a PR! yay! And though I didn't win my AG, I did get a silver medal! :)

The post run food selections was great; bagel bites, muffins, bananas, oranges, PLENTY of water, and more protein bars. I grabbed a couple of each, and made my way over to the Chiropractor Booth.

Now I have been suffering pretty bad shoulder pains for the last 6 years.... and though I haven't been receiving any treatment for it, I have received opinions from one doctor and three different chiroporacters. My spine is too straight and is pinching my nerves.

It's been 6 years and the pain is only getting worse. Should I suck it up, fork over the money and actually go see a chiropractor? I don't have insurance, and each session is not cheap... but I don't want it to degenerate, and I'm so sick and tired of it hurting all the effing time. Any words of wisdom?

Later that day I celebrated a very special friend's b-day and it was a lot of fun :)

Oh! and I almost forgot;

I'm signing up for my first Olympic Distance Triathlon in April! It's the only triathlon I can fit into my schedule before my half Ironman, and I want to get in one practice "longer distance" triathlon before I jump off the deep end in the half ironman. It's the Big Rock Triathlon at Lake Perris...anyone else gonna be there? Any tips for Olympic Distances?

Off to another busy week!

Race Report: Race on the Base 5K and 10K

2011-02-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday!.... or just... Monday!
I am not looking forward to this afternoon....I have to go bathing suit shopping. Thankfully not Bikini shopping, but I need to pick up a new suit to train in. Holiday Food Baby is going on 3 months now, so it's NOT gonna be fun...baaaahhh I may be slightly freakishly scared to see myself in a big mirror in the dressing room. I don't have a full length mirror at home so.... yikes! Ok. End freak out.

Onto more positive news: this weekend was the really fun Race on the Base! I had no idea what a massive production this race is: there is a 5K, a 10K, a 10K in-line skating race, a reverse triathlon, and a kids' triathlong, all on the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base.

I signed up to do both the 5K and the 10K. I figured it would be another good excuse to do a long run! I otherwise would NOT have the motivation to run that far on my own.

I showed up nice and early at 6:45am. The parking lot was already getting full! And they have a MASSIVE parking lot. It was awesome to see the National Guard guys volunteering and helping us find our way through the base. A big hats off to all those who serve the country!

Renegade Racing, the race organizers, did a FANTASTIC job with the "military theme" of the event, and they even had trucks and planes you could take photos of.

Oh just a side note; look at how pretty the sky is! Can you believe it was pouring rain a few hours ago, and the forecast was expecting a 60% chance of rain! Thank goodness I didn't have to run 9+ wet miles! Phew!
This is what the inside of the truck looks like. Pretty cool!

Although it was only 6:45am, cold, wet, and windy, the brave vendors were all already set up. Man.... it must have been quite miserable being a vendor! It was soooooo wet and windy!

I picked up my bibs and goodie bags. Since I signed up for two events, I got double of everything! Score! And the T-shirt and goodie bags were good, too! Photos later.

I didn't really know how to tackle the races, to be honest. Since it wasn't raining, I knew I could actually try to "race" and compete. Plus, the entire course is on the airplane landing strip, so it is flat as a pancake, making it more appealing to race. However, I had not done a long run in over a month, and I have never competed in two events in one morning before.

Do I run the 5K and race the 10K? Or race the 5K and run the 10K? Or race neither but push the pace on both? Or race both? I had a secret desire to place in my AG in at least one of the events.... but didn't know how my body would handle it.

So I did what I do best;

I just winged it :)

I can't plan, and then stick to those plans very well. I never follow training plans for this reason.

Anyways. The 5K was first, at 8:30am. I got into a fairly good position by the starting line. The gun went off, and I started running...still with no idea how I wanted to pace myself. I took it kind of conservatively for about the first half mile, and decided, "ehhh eff it. I'm pushing the pace." It's so hard NOT to get caught up in all the adrenaline and get all competitive with the other runners. I spotted this one chick who seemed like she was in my age group, so I decided to chase her down.

I would say I gave the 5K an 90-95% effort. It was a nice, flat course, plenty of water stations, and plenty of entertainment provided by some of the radio stations. The last .4 miles or so were roguh; we did a 180 turn... and went right into the wind. That did slow down my efforts to have a strong finish, but I did an OK 5K time, clocking in at 23:06. Again, not my best time, but enough for a secong place AG finish! :)

As soon as I realized I had placed in at least one event, I calmed down about the 10K. I knew I could just take it easy and not worry about getting a medal. There was about half an hour in between races so I just kinda wandered around the place to keep my legs moving.

The runners taking off for the run portion of the reverse triathlon.

The 10K started at 9:30 so I got in up near the front by the starting line and made small talk with the people around me. The announcer guy we had was really funny too; he was like

"You're on a military base. You know, we tried to make it exciting and military themed for you.

Land mines.

You're in tenth place.

BOOM!

Now you're in first."

He should be a stand up comic :)

The race started and I felt surprisingly fresh. So I decided to push my pace. The first 2 miles were a breeze; we had the wind on our backs, Lady Gaga playing, sun shining....

And then we did a 180 turn. Into the wind.

Oh my GOODNESS. THE WIND! THE WIND!

I don't think I have ever run in such severe wind before! Gahhh. 3 miles. Directly into the wind. It was brutal. I wanted to beg for mercy. Gahhh! SOOOO windy! I was getting desperate. It really put a damper on my speed and motivation.

I even pulled out some dirty tricks. I would tuck behind the runners in front of me for ten to fifteen seconds and draft. I know. Dirty. But man. You try running 3 miles into the wind! And there's no break from the wind when you're on an airplane landing strip. No trees, buildings, or structures to block the wind. I really had to dig deep for this one.

By the time I saw the finish line (into the wind, of course), I was SO READY to be done! Not so much because I was tired, but because I wanted out of the wind! As soon as I crossed the finish line, I googled the local weather website. 15 mph winds. 15~~!!!! No wonder it felt rough!

Because of the brutal conditions, I knew people were struggling. So I had a tiny glimmer of hope that somehow.... just somehow... I outran my competition. I looked at the race results....I got 3rd in my AG! Yippee!!!

So I was that dork/geek/nerd/showoff walking around with four medals around my neck. haha.

The medals are for the AG wins, and the dog tags are for all the finishers. The t-shirt is an awesome long sleeved tech shirt. I LOVE it when races give out long sleeved shirts. It's not always warm enough for a t-shirt, you know? This is only the second race I've run in giving out long sleeved shirts. Please continue doing so!

PS; this is the painting hanging in my room. I absolutely adore it. It is an original piece of artwork by James' father, who is an amazing artist. It used to be hung up in James' living room, and everyone thought that picture was of me?! Haha, I don't think I look anything like her?!
Close up of the back of the t-shirt, medal and dog tag. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the dog tag finishers received is the black one with the star on it.
Here are the goodie bags! I received two, as I participated in two races. The best part about it is that the bags came with an ENTIRE BOX of fig cookies. Not a sample box, an entire retial sized box. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! It also had toothpaste too, which I thought was a cool insert.

All in all, I thought this event was a LOT of fun. For how many different events were going on at the same time, it was INCREDIBLY well organized. I loved how there was an event for the entire family. Kids, walkers, in line skaters, runners, and triathletes. I loved it! I love seeing the tiny little 6 year old triathletes. I wish I was that cool back then. This is definitely a race I would want to do again.

On Sunday, (the day after the race), I partook in the monthly Tri Club brick workout. (36mile ride, 3mile run). I thought I was all recovered from the race, but dang! The lactic acid in my legs were talking to me the entire time. It was cold though... but I still had a lot of fun getting a lot of advice for my upcoming Half Ironman.

I am probably going to do another 10K this weekend. My weekends are disappearing after this week, so I wanted one last chance to race before all the mayhem. It's the Lakewood 5K/10K if any one is also gonna be there.

Have a good one!

Timberwolf 5K Race Report and NBA All Star Magenta Carpet Nerd-dom

2011-02-22T19:24:00.001-08:00

Happy Tuesday everyone!

You know what time of year it is now? It is definitely one of my favorite seasons ever;

CADBURY EGG SEASON.

Creme filled, caramel filled, mini eggs, dark mini eggs. Obsessed. I am going to gain 15 pounds. haha. And it will be more than worth it!

Ok I kid. I am obsessed, but onto more interesting news.

This weekend I ran the Timberwolf 5K in Irvine. It was held at the Northwood High School, and their mascot is the Timberwolf, hence the name. This was only my second 5K! Can you believe it? I don't know why I was so scared of it for such a long time. I mean, it's cheap, I'm done in less than 25 min, I get a tshirt and free food and a medal, and I don't have to train! I should do this more often!

I have never been to this part of Irvine before and had NO idea what to expect in terms of the crowd or the course. I signed up merely for the fun of it :)

I showed up at 7am and parking was easy, and got my packet no problem at all. I was worried about the weather; it had rained all night and the clouds looked pretty sketch. I just prayed I wouldn't have to run another wet race.

The race started at 8am. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many kids showed up! There was this one group called the 'Equalizers', made up of a bunch of tiny little completely buffed up toddlers and pre-teens. Seriously, these tiny little kids were RIPPED, had this super cool running uniform and looked totally intimidating. All four feet and 60 pounds of them.

And MAN! These kids FLEW! Seriously. OMG. I have no idea who these super runner kids are. The top three overall female spots were all won by pre-teen who ran the 5K in less than 18 minutes! Hollllyyyyyy!! Click HERE to see what I'm talking about!

And the course was quite challenging, too; with a whole mile of uphill. Thankfully, it didn't rain, and it was a pretty day and the scenery was very peaceful and beautiful with views of the hills.

For photos please click HERE and HERE and HERE. I kind of just chilled at a nice steady pace. I didn't really feel like racing that day, honestly. I just wanted an excuse to run in a race environment, cause it's waaaaay more fun than running alone on the treadmill!

Though the course was challenging with more hills than I had anticipated, the finish was a nice downhill, and I finished at an OK time. Not my best, not anything to be particularly excited about, but guess what?

I placed first in my AG! Wahoo! hahaha. That's always a nice little surprise. I hung around and got my Timberwolf medal ;)

BUT, the absolute coolest thing about this race was all the free food! They were giving out free egg/chorizo burritos at the finish line along with juice, water, and smoothies. And to top THAT all off, we also got coupons for free CHIPOTLE burritos! Um..... heck to the yes!

I ended up getting a carnitas burrito bowl. Ahhhh it was so good! I also snagged two samples of these pretzel chips.

All in all it was a fun little local race, and another podium finish to boot!

Sunday was a fun day as well; gym time in the morning, and then NBA All Star Festivities and Tri Club Party in the afternoon and night!

I got to be a part of the T-Mobile Magenta Carpet audience for the NBA All Star Festivities and watch up close and personal some of the Basketball players and celebrities walk the red carpet.

Of course, it would be the ONE DAY my camera craps out on me. I had to take all these photos on my crappy phone camera. Look at his shiny fancy suit! Sorry, I have NO CLUE the names of any of the players who walked by. But some of the names/faces I DID recognize were Kobe, Lebron James, Pau Gasol, Rondo, and Kellan Lutz.

Kobe!

Of course, everyone was all dressed up fancy, but this is how I rolled:
Nerd face!

AHhhhh hahaha. Totally NOT embarrassed. :)

It's cool. I was there with my best friend from college and we matched in our nerdiness.

We were there for a while, but decided we were bored cause we didn't really know who any of these people were. So we decided to leave. This is how the convo went down with the red carpet organizer.

Me: Hi, how do we get out of here? We want to leave

Organizer (who looked totally dapper in a really awesome suit): Um, why? The celebrities are JUST about to arrive. 30 minutes till all the musicians and people arrive.

Me: Um, but we have to leave

Organizer: Jay-Z and Beyonce are just about to arrive though!

Me: Ummm..... I'm not particularly interested.....

Total Nerd-dom! You should have SEEN the face on the organizer! I'm sure it was the first time he's ever heard 'not particularly interested' about Jay-Z and Beyonce! haha. It's cool. Im not a celeb paparrazi, and besides, I had my Triathlon club mixer to attend to !

Haha. Anyways. That's me. Mayor of Nerdsville. ;)

Have a good one!

As of late

2011-02-17T17:59:00.000-08:00

You know it's been a while when both of your parents email/call you needing to know I'm still alive. Granted we live half a globe apart, but I took that as a sign that it's time for an update!

Well... an "update" would be an overstatement. I haven't been up to much lately, to be honest. I'm still not "training" yet, although I have been diligently working out; putting time on the bike, on the run, and working on those 'muscles.' We just began new classes at school, and also began a new internship which is getting interesting.

A couple of weekends ago, we celebrated a very special occasion.
James' sister got married in Newport, OR!
It was such a fun, romantic, sweet wedding, and I very much enjoyed getting time to spend with James ;)
Since photos are more fun than my rambling on and on anyway, here goes in no particular order:

Instead of a wedding cake, they had wedding cupcakes. How cute is that? They had Red Velvet Cupcakes, and the groom's sepecial recipe "Ghost Pepper Chocolate Cupcakes." They were both yum!
I can't remember the last time I got all dressed up?
The happy married couple!
James found his heaven at the Rogue Brewery. Have you ever heard of it? They seriously have like, a bajillion beer flavors. I don't even like beer, but even I have to admit their beer was pretty tasty. We ended up going to three different Rogue Brewery locations in three days. Obsessed much? haha
And I found my heaven at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

They have Squeaky Cheese Curds.

Need I say more? :)

I was serioulsy like a little kid in a candy shop. Instead I was an awkward quarter life crisis girl in a cheese shop. hahaha. Oh well. One of these days I will be way more awesome I promise.

In terms of training, my ride this weekend looked like this:
Pretty much glorious.

As for now, I need to um.... sweat off my "holiday weight".... eeeek! My Half Ironman training will start very soon. This weekend I have a local 5K that I am running, along with the monthly Triathlon Club Mixer, and next week I am running a 5K and 10K. Lots of running in my future!

I guess that about sums it up... just more quater life crisis stuff and training stuff.

How is your week going? I hope every one is having a great week. Oh, three day weekend coming up! wooooo hoooo!

What not to say when you meet Macca

2011-01-24T07:54:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's another gorgeous clear, sunny, warm day in Southern CA. I don't know if this is typical weather in this part of town or not, but I am LOVING it. It feels like it's summer. I've been doing my homework outside sipping on some coffee... definitely makes paper writing a lot more enjoyable!

So this weekend was definitely a memorable one for me. I attended the Endurance LIVE event down in San Diego, which was a Triathlon Expo open to the public. The event was hosted by the Competitor Group; which many of you will most likely know as the hosts of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series.

I debated attending all week (long drive, ppl I wanted to go with backed out, school work was PILING up...you know how the list goes on... haha), but I am SO glad I made the trip down!

I arrived right when it opened at 9AM. I made my way through the booths, looking at all the cool new products and services. I stopped by the GU booth, where they were just giving out samples left and right! I walked away with a GU BREW packet (never tried this, seems promising!), a vanilla GU pack, and their new flavor Cherry Lime Roctane. I recently tried and LOVED the vanilla flavor, so I can't wait to test out the Cherry Lime Flavor soon!

I also found a bunch of races I want to sign up for, including TRIFECTA, which is a weekend of triathlons, cycling, and running races in June. Um.... Awesome!

Another cool thing about the event was that there were seminars going on all day. Here is Matt Fitzgerald talking about achieving racing weight: Um yeah.... remind me again to stop eating Holiday treats. I definitely gained some this season! ahhhhh! haha. Gahhhh I know. I need to jump back on the wagon Matt!

There were some awesome bikes at the expo, too. I definitely stood there oggling bikes for a bit. They were so pretty!

Remind me to go buy some lottery tickets, yah? :)

I strolled downtown SD for some lunch, and on my way back to the expo, I was walking behind this fit looking couple. I didn't think anything of it for a few minutes until I realized....

Guess who!

Yeah I definitely felt like a stalkerazzi taking this photo!

(PS that is Kara Goucher!)

The expo was a lot of fun, and talking with all the vendors was interesting as well. There's so much fun gear associated with triathlons.

BUT, by FAR the most exciting thing about the event was this:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's CHRISSY WELLINGTON and ALEXANDER McCORMACK!
Ironman World Champs!
And me!
AHHHH!!!!!

Only two of one of the most bad ass people around! I mean, omg! What an awesome experience
And wow! To see up close and personal their bodies! So lean and strong without an ounce of extra body fat. Amazing. I need to start taking Matt Fitzgerald's advice pronto! :)

Having the chance to meet Chrissy Wellington was just unreal. I mean... isnt she like, the ultimate goal/role model/motivation/inspiration for female triathletes? Her talent is just out of this world.
And you know what else I found absolutely amazing? She was so....nice! When I went up to her she just was so earnestly thanking me! Hearing her say "Thank you Julia!" was crazy! She just seemed so sincere and down to earth. I told her she was such an inspiration and it was just plain awesome to get to meet her.

I also got to meet Macca. I guess my brain got taken over by evil aliens, because out of ALL the things I could have said to him, I asked him if he bought a whole bunch of his Wheaties boxes to decorate his house with.

WTFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Really, Julia? REALLY? gahhhh.... embarrassing!

One of my favorite seminars of the day was Enduring Women, a panel with Miranda Carfrae, Chrissy Wellington, Rebecca Rusch, and Kara Goucher. WOW. Hearing these womens' stories is absolutely motivating. I literally was hanging off the edge of my chair in excitement. It's so crazy how talented these women are, how driven, and how just plain awesome they are.
I tried my best to capture some of the footage, but honestly, I was way too interested in hearing them speak to really worry about filming.

It was seriously an awesome event. Except for the whole Wheaties comment, lol ;)
I could go on and on about how spectucular it was, but I am going to start sounding ridiculous :)

Now I am more motivated than ever to train hard for my half Ironman! My bike's in the shop getting all tuned up and ready for the season ahead!

13.1 Los Angeles Half Marathon Race Report

2011-01-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!

Will you believe we are already half way through the first month of the new year? Unbelievable. I still am not used to writing '11' on the date... still feels odd!

I have been staying busy with tons and tons of school work. Joy. Thank goodness I developed a taste for coffee!

This past weekend I ran in the 13.1 Los Angeles Half Marathon, which took place in Venice CA. I know I haven't really talked about this race at all, and it's because I haven't been training for it!
I've been feeling kind of defeated about long runs as of late.... I mean.... the last long run I did was back in early November. It was 10 miles of pure torture of which I hated each and every step. After that miserable experience, I kind of gave up on the whole idea of long runs.

But running a race always gets me jazzed. I mean, what's not to love about breaking a sweat with 3,500 running friends? :) Plus, I needed a reason to get off my butt and actually complete a long run. So I attempted this half marathon with absolutely NO TRAINING.

Look at this gorgeous sunrise over the beach!

I arrived nice and early on Sunday morning to pick up my 'packet.' I say 'packet' because all it included was a bib.

?????? That's it? Not even a t-shirt? Not even any samples or goodies or pamphlets? Bummer.

The starting line was kind of....boring. It was in a parking lot and cars kept almost running over runners. There wasn't any water or bananas or anything available for the runners either. I just kind of stretched, talked to a couple people I knew who I ran into, and walked into the start line corral area.

Ugh. Not the most flattering photo! haha

They had posters indicating different "corals." It was separated into '7 min mile', '8 min mile," "9 min mile," and so forth. I decided to line up in the 9 min mile corral. That was my slowest half marathon average so I decided that would be a good place to start.

Um.... why did I even bother. It's not like they had pacers. It's not like anyone else was lined up in the correct place. Ugh. Its a BIG pet peeve when people don't line up in the appropriate place. I mean.... seriously. No offense... but if you know you're a 2:30 runner, please don't line up with the 1:45 peeps. You'll seem less like a beginner if you line up in the right corral. Sorry if I sound harsh. It's not just me though is it? to feel this way?

Anyhoo. I had no game plan for this race other than to just not die, haha. I just needed an excuse to run 13 miles. The first mile is along the Venice Boardwalk. We had some...um... "interesting characters" along the boardwalk "cheering" on the runners. I'm not sure if they were really aware of what was going on? Has anyone been to the Venice Boardwalk? You know the kind of people I'm talking about right? The permanetly...high folks? haha. Well, at least they kept me entertained.

After the boardwalk, we run up a street, one street, the same street, turn around and run back. Not an exciting course by any stretch of the imagination, but flat as a pancake and fast. This was my first truly flat half marathon course, and boy! Did it make a huge difference!

I randomly started a conversation with a man wearing a Hawaii T-shirt. Being a Hawaii maniac that I am, it was only natural! Ricci, the Hawaiian gentleman and I ended up 'talking story' and running the entire 13 miles together.

He was a really interesting guy, and our conversations carried me all the way through mile 8 before I felt any sign of fatigue or boredom. I ate half a vanilla GU at mile 6.5 and the other half at mile 8. Vanilla GU tastes awesome BTW.

I had not looked at my Garmin ONCE the entire run, because I didn't care about the time. Ricci was a strong runner who was a little faster than me, and I clung to his heels. I felt like we had been running a pretty good speed, so I felt satisfied. The whole time, I gauged my effort level to be a '7' out of a '10: max effort.' Then around mile 9, Ricci told me we could beat 1:50 if we kept the pace.

WTF! 1:50? That's impossible! That's waaaayyyy too fast! There's no way on earth I'm capable of running a 1:50! But I looked at my Garmin. OMG. He was right! We COULD make it!

I had to dig deep for the last couple of miles. Our conversations stopped. My inner thigh was chafing. I had to repeat this mantra in my head over and over again "This is where it gets easy. This is where it gets easy."

The flat course definitely made it possible to maintain a good pace. I was really tired but drew energy from the entertainment on the course, the spectators screaming and shouting, and the runners alongside me. I felt SO relieved to see the finish line and picked up my speed.

I crossed the finish line and promptly collapsed.

Time: 1:50:26.

A PR by over 4 minutes! On no training! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

I even got 24th out of 248 in my AG. Not bad!

Though I didn't quite make it under 1:50, I could NOT be any happier!

After the race, I picked up my shirt and medal. The medal is quite bling as you can see. The t-shirt is made of a nice Tech material....and I don't even dislike the neon green color (road safety!), but.... nowhere on the t-shirt does it specify the event nor the date! It was just a generic t-shirt about all of the 13.1 series. Wah..... It would have been more special if the t-shirt specified that it was the 13.1 LA half marathon on Jan 16, 2011.

After the race, I also searched for the medical tent because my thigh was chafing so bad I could hardly walk straight. I needed vaseline stat. I made my way over to the medical tent... which wasnt even a tent... only to be told they didn't have anything. Wha...? What kind of a medical tent are you? I ended up having to ask for a blob of lotion from the massage booth. LAME!

Oh, which reminds me. Although the entertainment along the course was top notch, with lots of really good bands and energetic water stations, the race did not provide ANY sort of race nutrition. Given the fact that there was no sample included in the "packet," I would have liked to see at least ONE nutrition aid station. I mean... this is a half marathon after all! All the other halfs I have run have provided at least SOME nutrition. Good thing I brought my own.

Photos from my walk back to my car.
I didn't have a lot of reason to stay long after the race, so I got my gear bag that I checked in, thanked Ricci for pulling me through and helping me get a new PR, and skidaddled.

The morning was turning into a gorgeous day. Sunny, clear, warm. I coudn't wait to take a nap! :)

I'm super stoked on my new PR, and I enjoyed the race thoroughly. I think the race was very well organized, and I loved the course entertainment, along with the FLAT course! The only reason why I may have sounded nit-picky is because ever since beginning my studies in sport management, they have taught us to notice small details...so I can't help it! Now I can't help but notice how much fencing they have, what kind of sound systems they use... etc, lol. But I really did enjoy the race, and in full closure, I did receive a comped entry into the race through my internship.

We have been blessed with perfect weather in Southern CA over the last week, and I have been enjoying it very much. I hope you all are having a great week thus far!

Thanks again for reading!

Please don't hate me....but its 75 and sunny

2011-01-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Yikes! I am very very late to the party, but happy 2011! I can't believe this is my first post this year! Opps.... slacker, much?!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season. I know I did! I got to see James for the first time in 5 months! That was such a lovely treat. Although it's super tough being apart again, I get to see him in a month which makes things a little bit easier! Long distance thing sucks, but it does make the time we have together THAT much more special.

Here's a picture from when we went to the farmer's market, and another from when we went to an all you can eat Korean BBQ place. Hey. I need all the protein I can get! haha, well, that's what I told myself as I managed to stuff my face.

Well onto the training front! I am on a streak! I haven't had a rest day since mid-December! Haha, with the Holiday Break from school and work, I have had the pleasure of working out to my heart's contempt. Does it make me a weirdo, the fact that I look forward to the holidays so I can fit in MORE exercise rather than taking a break from it? haha. Maybe I am a little cookoo.

Well anyways. Yesterday was a GLORIOUS bike training day.

Please don't hate me. I know a lot of the country is snowed in.

Southern CA? 75 degrees. Clear. Sunny. Flowers on the side of the road. Shimmering blue beaches. BEAUTIFUL. I got a tan.

It's 70 degrees again today, and gonna be 80 over the weekend.

Don't hate me. ;)

I was really excited becasue my friend from the grad program got a bike for Christmas, and wanted to take it out for a spin. It worked out perfect because I was planning for a long ride too!

She introduced me to a new bike ride, which was.... OMG SO breathtakingly beautiful.

We rode up and down one of the most expensive zip codes in Southern CA; Palos Verdes. It was a perfect morning for a ride, with the sun, ocean views, and rolling hills. I haven't ridden hills in a long time, so I was a bit apprehensive about how my legs would hold up, but since I need all the hill training I can get for the Napa Half Ironman in July (!!!!Gahhhh!!!) I went for it.

But with views like this..... I seriously did NOT even notice many of the uphills! I was literally having SO much fun marveling at the views and enjoying my new bike buddy and having such a blast that the first 20 miles literally FLEW by. BTW, my friend, who was only on her fourth ride EVER, totally kicked SO much butt! I wish I was that much of a baller rider on my fourth ride!
I mean.... seriously. How beautiful can it get? I was captivated. My friend and I schemed ways to live in some of the ocean front mansion properties along the ride. Donations for my Mansion Fund are currently being accepted, if you feel so inclined :)

I thought the hills would kill me, but one thing I hadn't realized it how much energy you can recoup and save when going downhill. The good thing about rolling hills is that after every uphill is a downhill. Coasting down the hills helped me conserve a lot of energy, and sometimes, I would even be able to get halfway up the next hill without even pedalling, from all the momentum I gained going downhill!

I have been doing rides that are flat as a pancake, and though that's nice too, you have to constantly be pedaling. There is no opportunity to stop pedaling and coast, like you can when going downhill. It's a very constant effort, as opposed to rolling hills, which is intense effort followed by less effort. Kind of like interval training, I guess. I didn't realize how much this constantly varying effort levels would keep things fun and interesting.

But of course, the views were the best part! After the first 20 miles, my friend went home, but I just HAD to take advantage of this perfect weather. After saying goodbye, I set out with the intention of doing maybe ten more miles, but it was just SO MUCH FUN I ended up doing the entire 20 mile loop again, for a total of 40 miles. Fatigue set in big time at mile 35 and my quads hated every hill for the next five miles, and I was definitely glad to give my legs a break as soon as I hit 40 miles. But dang! That was a fun ride.
I definitely will have to come back here for some major ass kicking hill rides and bricks. I am so terrified and excited at the same time. 6 months till I am a half Ironman! gahhh!

Though it's time for me to finally switch gears and start writing my paper I have been putting off for two weeks, I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and weekend! OOH! And it's a long weekend too! yay

Race Report: Winter Solstice Christmas Tree Run

2010-12-20T13:18:00.000-08:00

AHHHH OMG. 5 more days. FIVE more days!

And just in time for the holidays, lookie at what I got here...

Behold: The Ultimate Race Shwag

Yes. You read that correctly. Race shwag.

A whole friggin 6 foot tall Christmas Tree.

(Cue; Oh Christmas tree, oh christmas tree.... how lovely are your branches!)

How cool is that? And since we didn't have a tree yet, it seriously could not have been better timing! Now all I need is a gingerbread house...but that's for later ;)

And the best part is, it was this small, local race, and it was such a memorable way to top off the 2010 racing year!

The race I did was the Winter Solstice Christmas Tree Run in El Dorado Park. It's been p!ss!ng ass rain for the last several days, and I really REALLY hoped for a 40 minute break in the weather so I wouldn't have to dodge raindrops as I ran.

Woke up at 6am on Sunday... no such luck. The sky was dumping buckets of rain down upon us. The start of the race is only a 5 min drive from my house, so I got some coffee, and was able to have a really relaxing start. I found the race start, got my bib number, and sat in my car for a good 30 minutes till the race started, to stay out of the rain.

Race tshirt and goodies from the bag. The white cotton tshirt is kinda lame.... I mean... really? that was the best design a whole team of ppl could come up with? lol

But seriously, I had a good chuckle. What other group of people, besides runners, will VOLUNTARILY come out early on a cold, rainy, Sunday morning by the hundreds?

Seriously. This must be why people think we are nuts. :)

I was wearing a water proof jacket, capris, a tshirt, and a tank top underneath, because not only was it raining, it was also windy and chilly. The course itself was quite lovely, and 99% flat. However.... the rain definitely made it challenging! I definitely felt all BAD ASS running a race in the rain and braving the elements. It definitely was another milestone for me; checking off the 'racing in the rain' from my "10 ways to become a Hard Core Runner" list, haha.

I was jumping over puddles, running on the grass, running over bridges... it felt like an obstacle course! It definitely slowed down my pace. And as my socks and shoes absorbed more and more water, I felt my feet get heavier and heavier. I probably was carrying around an extra pound of water just in my shoes! It felt so squishy and gross.... but whatcha gonna do, right?

There were parts where we had no shelter from the wind, and we were going uphill, against the wind, in the rain. That was pretty miserable, not gonna lie. Though I was wearing a water resistance jacket, I was thoroughly drenched from the inside and outside. I was just one big sloppy wet mess. Let's not even talk about how natty and disgusting my ponytail got!

Besides battling the elements, the run itself was really uneventful. I maintained an even 8 min mile pace and clocked in at 40 minutes. I didn't wait around to see if I placed or not... I just wanted to get out of the rain!

So I picked up my hugh jass tree, plopped it into my car and drove home. The race results haven't been posted yet so I don't know my official time (there was no timing chip system... told you, super small local race!).

And today, I got a special box in the mail from James' mom, all the way from Hawaii, packed with all sorts of Aloha-inspired decorations!

Aloha Fisherman Santa

A cute little Honu

A spam musubi! OMG this cracked me up so much!

How adorable are they! LOVE!

After the run, I went to a hot yoga class to warm up and sweat! I have a one week trial at the Bikram Yoga Studio. I've gone 4 days in a row now and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I wish I could go everyday! So expensive though....

And in 5 days, guess who I get to see for the first time since August?

James!

Yay. I am happy. Christmas tree is up. Gingerbread house will be built. Ahh. It IS the most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Holidays everyone! Much Love and peace to all

The non-race report

2010-12-06T07:14:00.000-08:00

So today's post was supposed to be a race report.

I was looking forward to doing this race for weeks.

And then I got awful, yet random hip pain. I couldn't even run 1.5 miles on Friday. WTF. Then my race partner called to cancel. Running 12 lonely miles with burning hip pain. I WAS going to do it. Three very smart and intelligent people begged me not to do it and injure myself further. I told them it would be OK. I woke up Sunday morning ready to go........ and then climbed right back into bed.

So there you go. The race that wasn't. I rode 44 miles and foam rolled the crap out of my glutes and ITB. I think I feel 80% better. It was probably wise of me not to run in the long run. Yes, pun intended ;).

Oh well. Life goes on.

BUT! I did have a great weekend nonetheless. I got to catch up with my friend, and I even got to attend the LB Tri Club Holiday Party!

Lots of yummy food was had:

LB Tri Club Red Velvet Cake. So yummy!

And then we got to talking about quirky eating habits. This was a highly interesting convo. You can learn a lot about a person's inner being ;) I will share some of my quirky habits with you;

I pretty much only like the frosting on cakes. I can eat frosting by the spoonful right out of the container. Any flavor. Freshman year of college, my roomie and I had the BEST arrangement. She only liked the cake. We would get TWO slices of cake and I would eat the frosting, and she would eat the cake. It was the perfect arrangement. :)
I only eat hamburgers in layers. First the top bun. Then the tomato. Then the lettuce. Then the meat. I usually leave the bottom bun cause of the soggieness.
I can eat ketchup by the spoonful. I put ketchup on my ketchup.
I don't mind eating a spoonful of mayo.
I like to eat tomato paste out of the can.

Ok. So I am a freak. I'm alright with it.

Some of the other quirks people shared were:

Dipping french fries into milkshakes
Only eating the cake and not the frosting
Putting french fried on top of the patty in a hamburger, so it's sandwiched along with everything else
etc

Do YOU have any quirks? :) Do share!

At the party we also had a fun gift exchange. My gift was a cute snowman mug, some peppermint coffee, coffee flavored Clif gels, and candy canes.

There were some fun gifts including chocolate fondue set,

A toilet golfing set (which I secretly kind of wanted! haha)

Cute photo frame set that included photos from our recent Halloween ride:

My personal favorite was this really creative gift:
Hmm.... what could it be?

Tri juice? What's Tri Juice? (Also, please take a look at these marvelous Nutella Brownies. OMG OMG OMG so good. Nutella is my crack, BTW. So unbelievably wonderful)

Tri Juice: 40% protein, 60% energy. How clever is that? Someone took a bottle of whiskey, and truned it into "Tri Juice" by redecorating the box with images of the Tri Club funders (below). I though it was such a genious idea! Everyone cheered. I was also very please with the gift I received: a bike air pump cartridge thing (sorry computer ate my photo. I had a really lovely one too. bummer)

It was a blasty and had entirely way too much cake. :)

So the race didn't happen, but there will always be another race to run. Lesson I learned this week is to listen to my body and take breaks when needed. I only have one body and its needs must be respected. As sad as it was not to race (it was probably my last chance to race in 2010), I really don't want to risk injury. Thanks to everyone who talked me out of it.

Hope you all are staying warm with some gingerbread lattes or something! :)

Turkey Tri Race Report: There's a first time for everything, I guess!

2010-11-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Mine was ACTION PACKED, to say the least!

Anyone score any good deals on Black Friday/Cyber Monday? I stayed far far away from the stores, however, I did find a good deal on running sneakers. I wear the Nike Pegasus 26, and since they have been retired, they are EXTREMELY hard to find. And considering I have 230 miles on my current pair, I decided to get 10% off and free shipping on a new pair. Yay!

So.

Let's talk Race Report.

Turkey Triathlon 2010.

Le sigh.

The race that "Could have been."

Well, I guess there is a first time for everything, right?
Wanna know more? Read on, my friends! Its a long one.

Saturday, the day before the race, was the usual; rest, do a good brick workout, eat, pack my gear, sleep. All was well.

Sunday: Race Morning

Wake up at 4 am. Feel amazing. Excited. Get out of bed.
OUCH~!!!!!!!

Random hip pain on my left butt/hip area. Awesome. I slap on my favorite Salonpas patch and decide not to dwell on it. Grab my gear and head out the door by 5am. So far so good.

Race was at Bonnelli Park in San Dimas, and I got there nice and early, about 15 minutes before packet pick up opened. Got my stuff no problem, got a tech shirt (!!! yay!!!) and got set up for transition. Like both of the triathlons I've done before, T1 and T2 were the same location, which makes it SO easy!

View from transition area, over looking the Puddingstone Reservoire. This is before the sunrise. Once the sun came up, the views were spectacular! The mountains in the background were snow capped and gorgeous, and the water was a great blue color.... deceptively beautiful... more on that later.

Setting up transition are. I got there early so it looks like I had a lot of space, but it got VERY crowded soon after. Tip to triathletes: GET TO TRANSITION EARLY!!!!!!!

Other than the fact that it was FREEZING!!!!, things were going smoothly. I perused through the expo area, went to the restrooms, jumped up and down to stay warm, and got my transition area exactly how I wanted.

But MAN. It was cold. COLD I tell you! I don't know what the air temps were, but the announcers kept announcing how the water temps were below 58 degrees. BELOW 58 Degrees? YOWZA! I kept on my layers on as long as I could. Here I am wearing my full wetsuite, windbreaker, vest, and ear muffs right before heading down to the swim:

I know it looks ridic, but it was so cold! brrr! I was really worried about the bike off the swim. Wet hair+clothes+cold air+wind=Julia freezing to death. I brough extra clothing into transition, just in case I felt like death after the swim. I had the windbreaker and vest, full finger gloves, a t shirt, and a long sleeved t shirt, just in case. I figured spending 30 extra seconds in transition to make sure I don't freeze to death was well worth it!

Soon enough, we made our way down to the Puddingstone Reservoir for the swim. Holy crap. The sand was so so so so cold. My feet were numb. Completely numb. I couldn't bend my toes or feel my arches or anything. All human sensations disappeared from my feet. I was in the third wave, so I didn't have too much time to prepare. I just tried to jump up and down as much as possible to keep warm.

The gun went off, and we ran into the water. OMG. So. Cold. So. Cold. Below 58 degrees. Thank god for my full length wetsuit.

However.... oh boy. Even with the wetsuit, it was unbelievably cold. The cold was a HUGE challenge for me. After the first 30 seconds, my lungs and quad muscles just completely froze. Numb. I was having so much difficulty trying to move and breathe. I just kept running out of breath and my heart rate was really really high. I tried breast stroke. Back stroke. Slow strokes. Fast strokes. It was a big mental challenge to stay calm and keep going.

I stayed calm, but all sorts of negative thoughts went through my head. I wanted to quit. I wanted to give up. I wanted it to end. I did not feel like swimming a half mile. I saw a lot of ppl struggling as well; clinging onto the lifeguards' surf boards, just waddling, and struggling. Seeing I wasn't the only one feeling miserable was actually kind of encouraging. Hey, it's not just me! This is hard for everyone! With this encouragement, I finally reached the quarter mile mark, and FINALLY warmed up. After I warmed up, I was ON A ROLL! I swam and swam and swam, and passed so many people. and kicked ass. I started feeling hopeful; I knew I was one of the first ones in my wave to exit the water.

I ran up to T1, ripped off my wetsuit, and did spend extra time putting on full finger gloves and windbreaker. BEST DECISION EVER. It was cold and windy as eff, so the extra layers were AMAZING! However... my feet! I had ABSOLUTELY NO feeling in them whatsoever. It was seriously so weird to be pedaling without any sensation in my feet!

The bike course was two seven-mile loops around the park. It was rolling hills, which made it quite challenging, and slowed me down a little bit, but I was feeling good, and enjoying the views. It was sooooo beautiful! It was cold, but it was a gorgeous clear day, and the mountains and the reservoir were absolutely stunning.

All was going wonderfully until mile 5.

Pssssssssssssssssssssssssstttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

OH M F G. OMFG. OMG~!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!~~~~~~ :(

It WOULD happen. It WOULD happen. At mile 5.

My first flat.

Ef my life.

Seriously. Gahhh. It made me SO SO SO SO sad. I was doing SO WELL! SO WELL!

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh. le sigh. I lost about ten minutes fixing my flat.

My heart cannot express enough appreciation to the kind hearted man who stopped and tried to help me, and the SAG support guy who actually fixed it for me cause I was falling apart. Thank you so so so much. I don't know what I would have done without you two. Life savers!

But still. Wahhhh.

I finished the bike course with a vengeance. The second loop was a blur. I tried my best to catch up and make up for lost time.

Back to T2. Changed shoes and took off running. Feet were still numb. No sensations ever. Weirdest feeling EVER. I took off with a vengeance, but the course was quite hilly and challenging. The scenery was beautiful, and I was feeling great, but the hills slowed my time. I passed three girls in my age group and kept trucking along. Run run run. Up a hill down a hill up a hill down a hill.

My mottos for the run were "If this were easy, everyone would do it," and "this is good training for Vineman". These mottos kept me going, and charging up the hills.

Right before mile 3, I felt a little burst in my toes. That instance marks the first time I was able to feel my toes in the entire race! Hooray! It was kind of funny that there was a defining moment when I was able to feel my toes. It wasn't gradual; it was an instant thing. Strange.

I maintained a great pace for the entire run; 8:01 for the 4.5 miles with hills. Not bad. I ran confidently to the finish.

Third triahtlon DONE.

I later found out that though I placed seventh in my AG, but had I not gotten that flat, I would have been first or second.

wahhhhhhh. Le Sigh Indeed.

But life goes on. At the finish line, they were serving pumpkin pie. How awesome is that? Perfect post race food for a Turkey Tri!

Awards ceremony. Le sigh. It could have been me.

Posing with my medal

It did turn out to be a gorgeous day!
Battle wounds. I scratched myself up pretty good somehow, but I didn't even feel it till a good half hour after the race because of the adrenaline and the cold. The paramedics who took care of me were so sweet and helpful. THANK YOU!
Shwag from the expo

T shirt, bib and medal

I love how the footprints turn into running footprints from turkey footprints. I also love how the bib says "I Burned My Holiday Calories!" haha

How adorable is this medal?

So the random hip pain I woke up with on Sunday has gotten progressively worse. According to the free post-race massage booth, apparently, something is "stuck" between my glutes and ITB. He said heat and stretching, along with foam roller should take care of it. I sure hope so! I still can't walk normally today. At least it didn't hurt too much during the actual race.

Sooooooo.

After all is said and done, I had a fun race to top off my first triathlon "season." Of course, I wish the race had gone better, but there is a first time for everything, and it was a great learning experience. It's so much fun for me to be a part of this triathlon sport. I truly learn something new and valuable each and every time. The lesson I learned this time is that I obviously need to work on my flat changing skills. I'm on it. I am definitely going to practice, practice, practice, until I have it DOWN.

However, I am proud of myself for keeping my composure throughout a challenging race. With the super cold and hard swim, to surviving my first flat, it definitely tested my mental strength much more than it tested me physically. I had ample reasons to have a craptastic race, but I still managed to keep cool and have a lot of fun. Am I bummed about my finish? Of course, but it could have been a lot worse. I'm not too bent out of shape over it. I had a fun race. There are many more races to come to look forward to!

As for the immediate future, I will be sticking to running races, until the spring when triathlon season starts back up. I will also be taking some down time, a sort of "off-season" ish thing late December. I'm kind of excited.

I really do hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, and can you believe December and the holiday season is right around the corner? Love it!!!! PS the Eggnogg cookies from Trader Joe's are Ahhmazing. :)

Happy Monday!

Turkalicious triathlon on the horizon

2010-11-22T10:19:00.001-08:00

Gobble gobble!

Dang. I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving week?
Before grad school began, my weeks seemed to d-r-a-g on, but ever since my new crazy stage of my life began, I seem to have gone on fast-forward or something! Not that I am complaining.

So even though it didn't rain like they said it would this weekend (grr weather channels always get it wrong!) I didn't get my revenge match 13 miler in. That's ok. I decided to have a "restful" weekend; 90 min of adrenaline filled, heart pumping spinning on Sat, 4ish miles on the treadmill and a "Body Pump" class on Sunday. I've been enjoying the lifting classes at my gym; they really do a lot of arms/shoulder work that I otherwise wouldn't do on my own. Since my arms are noodles, hopefully these classes will beef em up a little.

Also, I've been eating more beef and a Japanese seaweed called Hijiki to up my iron intake. I was feeling super light headed and tired last week, and upping my iron helped a lot! (Hijiki image source)

Another reason why I wanted to take it semi-easy this weekend, is because I signed up for my final triathlon to top off the 2010 triathlon season!

I signed up for the Turkey Triathlon 2010 which is the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

I'm super excited about this race. It's going to be cold as heck though! The swim will be in a lake as opposed to the ocean, and I hear this race is quite hilly, which will be good practice for the Vineman Half Ironman. It will also be the "longest" triathlon I have done to date; half mile swim, 14 mile ride, 4.5 mile run. Apparently, the slight increases in the distance is enough to really notice the difference. Hope it's not too tough! I'm not going to "race" this one, but just try to work off some of the Thanksgiving feast, and get more experience with the whole triathlon thing :)

But actually, I am mainly excited for the triathlon to receive this:

How ADORABLE is this medal? Turkeys doing a swim bike run! After I saw this medal, I absolutely HAD to race this event! Seriously. It's got to be one of the cutest medals ever.

T minus 6 days till my third triathlon!

....gotta go rent a wetsuit :)
Happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!

Get Your Sweaty On! My Indoor Cardio Workouts

2010-11-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

Moving on from the craptastic 13 miler fail last Sunday.

Revenge match will most likely not come till December as they are forecasting mad rain this weekend. Which means workouts will need to be indoors.

With the time change, and the changing of seasons, I bet a lot of you have/are recently moving a lot of your workouts inside, away from the dark, cold, wind, and rain.

Though nothing beats a great run/ride outside, there are times when I do need to take my training into the gym. And you know what? I can still get in a kick ass workout!

I wanted to share with you two of my favorite kick butt elliptical and spinning workouts, along with some of my favorite workout songs of the moment!

Shveaty Elliptial Workout:

(Image source)

I used to HATE the elliptical and wanted to shoot myself out of boredom. However, this workout keeps things interesting, and I've actually come to like the elliptical! I love it for when my legs can't take another run or another beating. This workout can be shortened or lengthend easily by adding/subtracting sections, or making each section longer. This plan is for 30 minutes.

Warning: You will be SWEATY!

PS- Resistance and incline difficulty really depends on the machine. My levels are just based on the particular elliptical I use.

Minutes 0-5: Warm up at a steady pace. (Incline: 5 Resistance: 5)
Minute 5: Hill sequence 1 (Incline: 5 Resistance: 10)
Minute 6: Incline: 5 Resistance: 11
Minute 7: Incline: 5 Resistance: 12
Minute 8: Slow Down at Incline: 9 Resistance: 4
Minute 9: Backwards Hill Sequence 1 (Incline: 5 Resistance: 10)
Minute 10: Backwards at Incline: 5 Resistance: 11
Minute 11: Slow Down at Incline: 9 Resistance: 4
Minutes 12-15: Repeat Hill Sequence 1
Minute 15: Slow Down at Incline: 9 Resistance: 4
Minutes 16-18: Repeat Backwards Hill Sequence 1
Minute 18: Slow Down at Incline: 9, Resistance: 4
Minutes 18-26: Sprint repeats
Set to Incline: 5 Resistance: 5 or 6

Pedal easy 20 seconds, Sprint 20 seconds X3
Pedal easy 30 seconds, Sprint 30 seconds X3
Pedal easy 20 seconds, Sprint 20 seconds X3

Minutes 26-29: Repeat Hill Sequence 1
Minute 29: Cool Down

Awesome kick ass sweaty workout!

I also love to do solo spin sessions.

I get so incredibly sweaty by the end of this thing. It's adrenaline pumping, calorie torching, quad burning spin sesh. (bike image source)

Spin Session

Song 1: Warm Up. Light to medium resistance; work through all the positions on the bike, warm up each individual leg.

Song 2: Hills. Every 30 seconds, add a full turn of resistance. Once you can no longer physically continue pedaling sitting down, stand up and pedal.

Song 3: Sprints. Medium light resistance. Start at mountain position (postion 2) and pedal easy for 30 seconds. Then sit down and sprint for 30 seconds. Stand back up and ride easy for 30. Sit down and sprint for 45 seconds. Stand up and ride easy 30 seconds. Sit down and sprint for 30 seconds. Repeat till end of song.

Song 4: Rhythms (Jumps). Fairly heavy resistance. Ride Mountain Position for 8 counts, Position 3 for 8 counts. Alternate between 8,4,2, and single counts for remainder of song.

Song 5: Endurance Ride. Medium resistance. For the entire song, either in the saddle or off, ride at a pace beyond your comfort level.

Song 6: Hills (same as above)

Song 7: Sprints (same as above, except ride easy in the saddle, and sprint in Position 2)

Song 8: Lunges (medium to hard resistance) Position 2 for 8 counts, lunge back for 8, Position 3 for 8, lunge forward for 8. Repeat with 4 and 2 counts.

Song 9: Butt Blaster (heavy resistance) Start in Position 2. Whenever the chorus comes on, push back your butt over the saddle (like Position 3) and take all the bounce out of your ride. Really hold your abs in tight, and concentrate on busting through your butt and quads.

Song 10: Endurance Ride (same as above, but make it faster, or add more resistance)

Song 11: Hill Sprints. Start at light resistance, in saddle, ride for 30, sprint for 30. Add a full turn of resistance. Ride easy for 30, sprint for 30. Add more resistance and repeat.

Song 12 and on: you can repeat any of the above or cool down.

This is an awesome workout and you'll be gasping for air! I really try to crank up the resistance to get myself ready for the hills in Napa! I usually just ride until I reach about an hour.

Now onto my current Music Obsession: David Guetta! Seriously awesome musice to workout to.

Fave songs include:

Memories,

On the Dance Floor (featuring Will.i.am),

Revolver (featuring Maddonna and Lil Wayne) and

It's the Way You Love Me (featuring Kelly Rowland),

Club Can't Handle Me (Flo Rida)

I also LOVE Pitbull's new song Hey Baby (Drop it to the Floor).

Having great music makes SUCH a big difference when working indoors.

So don't let the crappy weather keeping you from getting your sweat on! Let me know if you have any questions! Maybe I'll post my gut and butt blasting workout soon too.

Enjoy your Thursday!

13 mile FAIL

2010-11-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

Revenge match is on the horizon. Perhaps not this weekend (they are predicting rain), but I will not be defeated!

This is where the love/hate relationship with running kicks into gear. I have been having such a great streak of running, loving every minute of it, feeling on cloud nine. Then BOOM. A tough, sucky run, and I don't ever want to run again. Bah. But no. 13 miles, you better watch out cause I am gonna kick your A$$ soon.

So, what happened? I don't know. Saturday was a rest day, and my body felt amazing. Got 9 hours of sleep, and woke up on Sunday feeling sore and tired. WTF? Also, it was like, 70+ degrees out. WTF? It's November... I was expecting nice cool running weather. Unexpected heat+first long run in over a month=Brutal. Also, I decided it would be great to eat roasted sweet potatoes for breakfast. And I didn't get in a pre-game dump (TMI sorry, but it's crucial to why the run sucked).

I couldn't believe I could BARELY squeeze out 3 miles before I needed to stop and gasp for breath. WTF. I couldn't even run THREE MEASLEY MILES. WTF. I serioulsy wanted to throw in the towel right then and there and slump home in shame. But I kept going.
Mile 5 and gas started. Dang you sweet potatoes! Then cramps. Oh great. This is going to be fun.
Then a killer hill. Oh I am such a hill pansy now! Had to stop at the end of the hill.
Mile 6. Need another break. Do I give up or keep going? I was sooooooooooooooo tempted to go home, but decided to do another 3mile loop. Another hill. Feel like crap.
Mile 9. Ugh.
Mile 10. CANNOT KEEP GOING.
Mile 10.25. Finally throw in the towel. Body feels like crap.
Dang it. I REALLY wanted to reach 13!

I can make all the excuses I want. I didn't have the best breakfast. It was hot out, I haven't done a long run in over a month, I've had seriously the MOST physically and mentally challenging month and I'm still tired from it, I haven't rested in a while, I mentally psyched myself out, I haven't been eating the best this past month...yada yada yada.

So I chased the awful run with a fun 20 mile bike ride. Ahhhh. Much better.
But Man.... I've had a nagging headache ever since the bike ride. And just been SO tired. Like, extremely tired. It's like I can't get enough sleep. I feel like I'm in high school again! Iron deficiency? Fatigue? Dehydration? I've been chugging water and eating iron rich foods. Hope to kick this headache and return with a vengeance.

13 miles; be prepared for an a$$ whooping!

Pyramid Run 5K Race Review: Podiumed again????????

2010-11-08T08:23:00.001-08:00

Monday! Coffee! More Coffee!
I am beginning to become quite the coffee addict. This is bad. I made it through 25 years of life never drinking coffee. Grad school + crazy hectic schedule = Coffee addict Julia. It doesn't help that there are so many yummy flavors out right now, like Eggnog, Pumpkin Spice, Gingerbread, etc. Did you know that of all the places to get coffee, 7-11 has one of the most BOMB coffees? For only 99cents! Seriously. I'm not even kidding. The 7-11 Pumpkin Spice Latte is amazingly awesome.

But coffee is not the main focus of this post. It's just powered by it. :)

This post is about My First 5K Run!

That's right. 2 full marathons, 5 Half Marathons, and 10Ks and a 15K, but never a 5K. I was always scared of the 5K. Why? Because it's such a short race; you have to start fast, go fast, and finish fast. There is not room for error, for rest, for a break. I always thought "I'm not fast enough for a good 5K race." It scared me, so I stayed away from it.

Until yesterday. I swallowed my fear and geared up for my first 5K ever!

The race I did was the Pyramid Run 5K at the CSULB campus. (for full disclosure; I received a comped entry into the race bcs of internship related reasons. Hey, if my "work" involves running races, I can't complain!)

It started at 9:oo AM, so I arrived at 8:10ish, after getting the above mentioned awesome pumpkin spice latte from 7-11. The place was already buzzing with pre-race jitters and energy.

photographers setting up by the start line

I really didn't prepare too much for this race. I kinda-sorta stretched, went potty, took some photos/video clips for my internship, and just kind of walked around. A couple of minutes before the race I got in line by the starting line, in the 21:42 pace group.

Yeah. This 5K had pacing services! The college XC team provided several pacing groups for different finishing times. I thought this was SUCH an awesome service, considering it is a pretty small race (only a couple hundred participants). A huge thanks to the XC team for coming out and showing support like that!

Before I knew it the gun went off, and I took off running. The weather was good, and I got into a groove right behind the pace group. From the video below, I understood this to be a relatively flat course....

I have become SUCH a pansy when it comes to hills, after moving away from Santa Barbara. It is so flat where I run now, that even the littlest hill just kills me!
So when there was a hill at mile 1, I kind of freaked out. I was already pushing the pace, and I didn't expect there to be a hill. I pushed as hard as I could though, and tried not to get the pace leaders get too far away.

Just after the crest of the hill, a couple who was running passed me. They were maybe jus a second or so faster than me per mile, so I hung onto their heels for the majority of the remainder of the race.

After the big hill at mile 1, there was a half hill, and all the rest was either downhill or flat. Thank goodness. I really tried to pick up my pace on the downhills and gain some momentum. Right around mile 2, I got passed by a much elderly gentleman. I'm always so amazed to see these kick-ass Masters runners. Talk about motivation, right? He was lightning fast!

I was still really pushing the pace and clinging onto the couple in front of me. I never looked at my time or my pace, because knowing these things would have psyched me out. I just kept running as fast as I could.

Before I knew it, we were approaching the finish line. I dug deep and picked up my pace. This was a LOT harder than it sounds, because I was already giving it my all. I really didn't have much left in me to "sprint to the finish line." However, I passed the couple I was clinging onto, and dashed to the finish.

And that my friends, was how my first 5K went. Short and sweet.

Official time: 22:36, 7:17 pace.

Not quite the time I was hoping for, but it was my first 5K, and I'll take it.

And I was so busy doing things for my internship after the race that I barely noticed that..... I placed again!

1st place AG, 9th overall female!

Woah.... totally unexpected! 1st place AG? I didn't even think I was that fast! But awesome! 2 Podiums in two consecutive races! (My first podium experience is here) Totally stoked! I got a fancy medal to boot!

Woohoo! I got a medal! :) very exciting stuff

T-shirt and medal.

The post-run refreshments were great as well. Bananas, apples, sliced oranges, Cytomax, Muscle Milk Bars, and they were giving out free water/sport bottles. Score!

Overall, I thought it was a well organized event. They even had a kids fun mile run too! It was sooooo adorable to see the tiny little kids get all jazzed about running. Future stars in the making! For a small 5k race, they had chip time, pacing services, free parking, cash prizes to the overall winners, raffle prizes, and good refreshments. I was quite impressed! I've been to races that cost a whole lot money that did not provide these things. And hey, did I mention I podiumed? haha. I know. I'm bragging. So sue me ;)

After the race, I went on a 35 mile bike ride. It was one of the most miserable rides ever. It. Was. So. Effing. Windy. No matter what direction I was heading, it was incredibly windy. WTF. How can it be windy in all four directions? Ughhhrrr. But I figured, if I can't train for hills (for Vineman Half Ironman!!!!!!!!!omgomgomg), at least wind riding will make me a slightly tougher rider. Right? Right? Please tell me I didn't go through all that for nothing! haha.

Anyways. I'm not officially training for Vineman yet, but I am going to try to ramp up my riding mileage slowly but surely. The bike is where I can use all the help I can get. If you have ANY bike advice, about hills, bike maintenance, aerobars, shoes, nutrition, ANYTHING! please feel free to advise. I could use it desperately. Thanks! :)

So wow, this is getting long. Hope you all have a fantastic week!

What am I getting myself into?????????? Am I ready for this?

2010-11-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Dang. Novemeber? Already?
Pinch punch first day of the month.
Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend!

I didn't necessarily party it up on Halloween this year, but I did get to do a few fun things! Like this spooktacular Halloween bike ride with the Long Beach Tri Club!

We had a blast Friday night dressing up, riding around in the dark and hooting and hollering. Good times for sure.

Sunday morning was my second brick workout with the tri club.

Ass has been whooped both times.

Big time.

40 mile ride followed by a three mile run.

I thought the run was going to be tough. No. It turns out the run is the easy part.

I though I was decent on the bike. WRONG! Turns out I have no idea what the HECK I'm doing with my gears, am positioned wrong on the bike, and am very slow. Very humbling for sure, but also very informative and supportive. I feel like I am learning so much more every time I get on my bike. I'm always the last one coming in on the bike, even though I feel like I give it my all. I have a lot to learn for sure! I am thinking about going to get professionally re-fitted on my bike. I was fitted when I initially purchased my bike, but apparently it's not the right fit. I have to agree, because my body just HURTS all over the place after long rides, and not just because I just rode my bike for three hours. I also got my cables readjusted and my chains lubed up. I also need new tape on my handlebars. Man. Bikes are a lot of work! I have some serious learning to do in regards to my bike because....

I did something totally crazy this morning. I'm still kind of in awe.

What did I do?

Signed up for my first Half IRONMAN!

July 2011. Vineman Half Ironman.

9 months to prepare.

HOLY MOLY!

Hills. Lots of hills. 70.3 miles. DANG.

All I know is that the wine better be flowing freely at the finish!

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I am going to be a half Ironman???!!!!! Wish me luck! I see lots of swim bike run posts coming up!

For now, please enjoy some beautiful images of the sunset from Friday. I got out of the pool and just gasped it was so beautiful!

Podiumed is a word, right?

2010-10-14T06:39:00.001-07:00

OMG I can't believe it's already Thursday and I still haven't written a race report from this weekend. Life has been hectic.... but for an amazing cause this weekend... hang on till the end!

Let's dive right into the spontaneous triathlon I did this weekend; the Hermosa Day at the Beach Sprint Triathlon. The triathlon consists of a quarter mile swim, a ten mile bike, and a three mile run, so its a nice and quick sprint tri.

Now why did I sign up a day prior? Well, that comes out of not knowing my schedule, good old procrastination, and $$. Haha. I'm glad they let lazy ppl like me sign up a day before :)

On Saturday, the day before the race, I prepared by doing a brick workout of 20 mile bike and 3 mile run. I felt good and strong; chased it with a protein smoothie, foam rolled for a good 20 minutes, packed my bags, and went to bed for the 3 am wake up call.

Sunday Race Day:

3 am wake up. uggggh. soooo early......

Ate a yogurt with a banana, chugged some Starbucks canned coffee on the drive over. The one thing I don't mind is early morning driving. For some reason, I find it very soothing. There's just a hint of light in the sky, and you basically have the whole road/freeway to yourself, and the radio has very few commercial interruptions. But I digress.

I packed my bike in the car, and took off at 4 am. I had no trouble finding the race location, though I had never been to Hermosa before. I arrived early enough to score a SICK parking spot, right next to transition area. Though I had to pay $6.25 (ouch! Poor grad student alert!), it was nice to have my car and Transition area within two minutes of each other.

Packet pick up went smoothly, and I went to rack my bike.
Score! Sweet Transition area alert! I was VERY pleased with my rack location. It was the rack closest to bike in/bike out.

Now why does this make this a sick location? In my opinion, there are four separate transition runs.

Running to bike after swim
Running with bike out of T1
Running with bike into T2
Running out after bike

Out of those for instances, #2 and #3 for me are the most cumbersome. Trying to shuffle out of transition quickly with a bike is much harder than just hauling your own booty. Because my bike rack was the closest to bike out/bike in, the distance I had to clumsily haul my bike along was greatly reduced. Plus, it made finding my rack REALLY easy!

Anyways, back to the pre-race report. I was really stoked to find a friendly face in the crowd; my friend was a volunteer there, and she did my body markings and took this lovely photo for me.

Hanging out with my wetsuit half on cause it was kinda chilly. PS I rented a Blue Seventy Wetsuit.

The transition areas. Doesn't it just scream southern CA to you? I thought it was so pretty, as the sun started to come up and all the palm trees that were lit up gave off this slight glow. :)

The race started at 7 am with the swim. By the time my wave went off, it was already a gloriously gorgeous day out. The sun was out, the sky was clear, and it was so beautiful. I was in one of the last waves of swimmers, with the individual females 25-34. The swim waves were organized extremely well, and they did an amazing job announcing how much time there was in between waves.

Speaking of waves..... WAVES. That's exactly what we had to tackle going into the ocean. Holy bejeeeeeeeeshus it freaked me out, standing on the beach, with these seemingly huge waves coming in. It's a relatively calm ocean, but the waves were breaking real good. Like, if you were standing in the water, the waves would break over your head. I watched as the swimmers braved the waves. I've never really experienced swimming INTO the waves, and the lady gave me invaluable advice to 'duck UNDER the waves' as they came in.

When it was finally my turn to head into the water, I kept that in mind, and that advice literally saved my sanity, cause I was kinda freaked out by the big waves. I actually maneuvered them just fine, but GOODNESS! They really drain your energy! Trying to swim out against the waves was taking a toll on my energy levels. SO I had to slow down, and really focus on taking long strides and relaxing my body. I had no trouble with crowding or swimming off course, but man, the waves made it tough for me. I was so glad when we were finally swimming back TOWARDS the beach again, and I could just riiiiiiiide the big waves back in. I definitely body surfed back in. LOL.

Running into T1, I had a loooong ass run, but managed to take my wetsuit off pretty quick and head out of T1 without too much hassle. The bike ride was pretty uneventful.... it was three loops around the neighborhood. I really really booked it on the bike. I haven't told you guys yet, and will in a later post, but I've been working on my bike a lot. I think it helped tremendously on this bike. The 10 miles were over before I knew it. Sorry this part is boring, but it really was uneventful. I just kept my legs going and going and going. Nothing too exciting happened.

T2 was ok. just changed my shoes and took off.

The three mile run was along the beach on the paved bike path/walking path thing. It was a nice and flat out and back course..... except there were tons of dogs and walkers on the path that we had to go around, which was really annoying. I saw one dog taking a pi$$ right in the middle of the course, and another one taking a dump right in the middle of a REALLY narrow section.

I know you can't stop ppl from using public roads like that..... but it was really annoying. Why can't you just quickly carry your dog across to the other side, instead of leisurely letting them go potty while hundreds of runners are almost tripping over your dog? grrr

Anyways. My Garmin actually worked this time, but I didnt want to look at my pace. For some reason it felt really slow, and I was kind of struggling, and not having that super duper high I was having in Long Beach Tri. What kept me going, strangely enough, was that song 'Stronger' by Christina Aguilera. Weird I know. I haven't heard that song in ages, but it was going through my head.... "makes me that much stronger, so thanks for making me a fighter...!" haha. That really got me through most of the run. I also channeled all my inner rage and anger and stress into the run. Thankfully, it apparently translated into speed, and I finished the run in 22 min 34 sec or 7:30 pace. wow. I didnt even know I could run a sub 8min mile! lol
After the race, I got some food, water, milled around the transition area, and decided to go back to get more food. hey I was hungry! Since I was kind of embarrassed about bee lining right back to the food, and then hightailing it back to my car, JUST for shits and giggles I decided to look at the results posted on the wall.

I found my name..... and a '3rd place' next to my name.

WTF?

OMG I GOT THIRD PLACE!

NO effffffin way!

Really?

REALLY?

Wow.

ME?

I seriously like, quadruple checked that it was, indeed my name next to that 3.

It was.

AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You bet your ass I stuck around an extra hour for the awards ceremony!
I mean, it is most likely the one and only time I will podium. Podiumed is a word, right?

And another perk about the awards ceremony, is that by the time it was over, they were desperately trying to give away all the leftover food. You bet your ass this poor grad student took full advantage of that. They said 'take it' and I said 'sure'. haha
Here is the pretty medal! WOO HOO!

My official time 1:09:37. Not too shabby! And if I was only 27 seconds faster I could have gotten second!

So now I am definitely signing up for my third tri in November. Can't wait!

OH! And who is running the Long Beach Marathon and Half Marathon this weekend?! Let me know, because I will be working at it! :)

Thanks for reading!

off to do tri numeros dos!

2010-10-10T03:53:00.000-07:00

so i kind of signed up to do a triathlon yesterday.... here i am, 4am, and about to head off! see you on the flip side!

Long Beach Tri - WOWNESS

2010-09-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

Good morning athletes!

Repeat with me these three glorious words:

Weekend! Weekned! WEEKEND!

Not that that makes a huge difference in my life right now; as I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off with. It's a good day if its 'only' a ten-hour day, but I'm not complaining, because for the first time; I actually love what

I am doing!

So this is why this race report has been super duper late. Sorry, yeah? Well lets not dilly dally any further.

Just to set the tone from the beginning, and just to make it absolutely clear:

It was EFFING awesome.

It rocked my helmet off. I'm a convert.

Let's see, Saturday night I started getting all my sh!t together for the race. I had really no idea what to pack. I relied on all your blogs, and all the exper

iences you've been kind enough to share to guide me as to what to bring.

That was my list... you can click on it to make it bigger I think. Since I was biking to the race start, I needed everything to fit into my back pack. It was challenging making towels, shoes, wetsuit and multiple bottles of water fit into my high school, but I made it work!

I went to bed early for a nice 4am wake up call.

Sunday Race Day:

Woke up dark and early at 4 am, and made myself a bowl of oatmeal that I am absolutely obsessed with right now (in fact I had it for breakfast 6 out of the 7 days!) It's chocolate and protein and banana oatmeal and it is soooo fantastic.

Anyway, as I was eating my breakkie, I decided, "hey..... wouldn't it be a good idea if I knew what to do during transitions...?" (I've never practiced a transition before!) so 2.5 hours before race start, I started Googling transitions. I learned that when you come out of the water, as you are running to T1, you should take off your swim cap/goggles/ear plugs, and pull the wetsuit down to the waist. Great info! I also made a mental note to REMEMBER THE ANKLE STRAP! I had read a blog post (sorry dont remember who!) about forgetting to put the ankle strap back on after taking off the wetsuit. I basically spent the entire race looking at my ankles in utter paranoia every five minutes :)

I arrived at around 5:30 am, and it was already pretty crowded. I had no idea what to do, so I asked the volunteer guy... 'um, where do I put my bike? Do I just find an empty rack or something?" Yup, total rookie right here! But he was kind enough to gently tell me what to do ;)

Since I was early enough, I got a really good spot; a corner with easy access and a street curb to sit on. I put my bike on the rack, and started laying out all my stuff.

I told anyone and everyone who would listen that it was my first tri, and it was awesome the kind of camaraderie there was on race morning. Everyone was SO helpful, nice, enthusiastic, and encouraging. I felt right at home. Thanks to everyone who was so friendly! It really made my first tri experience special. I spent some time wandering around, drooling at all the bike-gasm tri bikes, getting a quad massage, and waited in a long ass line for the porta-potty.

Before I knew it, it was time to put on the wetsuit and head out to the ocean. (I wore my new tri shorts and a sports bra under the wetsuit) Now........ the swim was the only section I was worried about. 59 degrees. Murky. Crowded. I have no problem with open water swimming. I actually love it. But 59 degrees? That's COLD! I seriously was very, very, anxious about the swim. Given that I had never tried a wetsuit prior to this morning, I had no idea what kind of protection it would provide me from the freezing waters.

I pushed those fears aside as I bravely marched down to the beach. Swim cap check. Ear plugs check. (Ohhhh how I love my new earplugs!) Goggles check.I was in wave five, so I knew I had about ten minutes after the gun went off. I marveled at all the brave souls going in without a wetsuit. Dang. That takes balls. Big Balls. 59 degrees. Yeesh!

I watched all the elites go in, and started getting kind of nervous. And seriously, before I knew it, I was running into the ocean.

Brr! I tried my best not to think about it, and just found a nice, calm spot away from the crowd. I was literally the second to last person in my wave to get in the water.

Surprise!!! The wetsuit worked! The wetsuit worked! Though my toes, fingers, face, and neck were kinda cold, I was generally really comfortable! OMG OMG OMG PHEW! As soon as I realized I wasnt gonna freeze to death, I relaxed and started swimming.

Swim swim swim. For some strange reason, the words "And She Swam Like a Fish" kept repeating in my head. WTF, right? I dunno where it came from, but I kept repeating it like a mantra, and swim I did. Since I'm actually comfortable with open water swims and spotting, I found a really great route, inches inside the buoys. I started passing people like crazy. I got in a groove and just swam. I even started passing people in the two waves before me! As soon as I saw the shore, I got excited though. I read on another person's blog that you should swim until your fingers touch the sand. So though I looked like an idiot swimming in a foot of water while everyone was already walking, I grinned as I easily passed them all.

The run to T1 is about a quarter mile of sand. UGH. I felt like I was running FOREVER in the sand to get to T1. I managed to take off my swim stuff, and get my wetsuit down to my waist.

Ran into T1 and got to work getting the sand off my feet. I had a little towel and a bottle of water for this purpose, and it worked excellent. I took off the rest of the wetsuit, REAPPLIED my time chip, put on my bike jersey, my bib #, helmet, and was off.

The bike was the bike. 11 miles, two 5.5 mile loops.

Photos from Brightroom Event Photography

As you can see, it was really foggy/misty. I didn't mid though... it kept it nice and cool. I was still starting to sweat though.... I felt like I was giving it a 85-90% effort on the bike. I was feeling kind of confident, but just kept getting passed by these guys in their $6000 tri bikes. OH MAN! These guys were FLYING! It was insane how fast they were! I spend much of the ride envying aerobars, aerodynamic helmets, and tri bikes. One day, Julia. One day.

Though I was getting passed left and right, I tried not to let that pressure me into going faster. I didn't need to burn out my legs right now! I tried to conserve some juice for the 3 mile run coming up.

Other than the fact I got wupped during the bike, it was pretty uneventful. Oh! Though I did make it a personal mission to beat this one chick in my age group who was in front of me the majority of the ride. For some reason, I got uber competitive against this one chick and decided I MUST BEAT HER! I have no idea why. But I just HAD to. So at the very end, I sprinted, and achieved my secret goal. Still dont know why I had to beat her, haha, laughing about it now.

T2; took off my bike jersey (I was wearing a wife beater under the jersey), put on my sneaks, and walked to the run start as I redid my pony tail. As I started running, my legs felt unusually good. I saw how many people were infront of me though.... And started getting competitive again. I didn't have my Garmin, (it crapped out on me. It WOULD crap out race morning. UGH) so I had no way of gauging my speed except counting how many people I passed.

I seriously felt unusually good on the run. I just started passing and passing people, and I didn't even feel like I was running. It was one of those magical runs where everything just clicks, and you feel like you're flying. I was just having so much fun! There were spectators cheering us on, guys dressed as bananas, the ocean to look at, people's tri outfits to look at.... I was just getting lost in the moment, and just generally LOVING the experience. It really felt effortless.... and pretty soon I was running towards the finish line.

Out of nowhere, this older gentleman pops out from the sidelines and yells "It's only 100 meters to the finish line! Now's the time to sprint! Now's the time to go fast!" I looked at him, smiled, and BOOKED it to the finish line.

Photo from Brightroom Event Photography

Official Time:1:26:10, 13th in age group

Swim 16:22 (though I was told I can easily take 1.5-2 minutes off the swim time because of the quarter mile run into T1)

Bike 41:41

Run 22:13!!!!!!!!!!

It was probably a blessing in disguise that I didn't have my Garmin. I felt no pressure to speed up, no pressure to slow down. I just listened to my body. And it felt good. The whole triathlon felt good. I was beaming from ear to ear.

I seriously had SOOOOOO much fun. It was incredible. The whole time, I was just having a blast! The swim was good. The bike was good. The run was spectacular. AHHH! SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!

Though I was disappointed that no medals were provided for the finishers, I was still just so incredibly happy. My mood was elevated further when I discovered chocolate cookies and chocolate covered Red Vines at the Long Beach Tri Club Tent. HOLY COW! These chocolate covered Red Vines are to DIE FOR. so so so incredibly good.

Oh man, and the Long Beach Tri Club. Wow. What an amazing group of people! They invited me to their post-race potluck party, and I had SUCH a blast. I met some incredible people and at some phenomenal food. I must join!

All in all, I LOVED the tri experience, and I can't wait to do more. But what I am most proud about is not the fact that I finished a triathlon. I knew that physically, I could handle the distances. In fact, the physical aspect of it was the least of my concerns. I was really proud of myself for actually DOING it. Doing it alone in a new city without knowing what on earth to do. Proud of myself for meeting new people, stepping out of my comfort zone to do something I wanted to do for so long. For not whimping out at the thought of the cold water. For making new friends. For going out there and just doing it. WAAAAAYYYY out of my usual comfort zone. But I did it. And I loved it. LOVED IT. And I can cherish this little personal victory forever. :)

Thanks for reading this behemoth post. I am headed off to return the wetsuit now and go on a loooong bike ride :)

Hermosa Triathlon, anyone?

HOLY MOLY! Triathlon is tomorrow! EEEK!

2010-09-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

Yowza!!!!!!

My first triathlon is frigging tomorrow! How'd it creep up on me like that?

Tomorrow at 7:15 am, I will enter the frigid waters and pop my triathlon cherry at the Long Beach Sprint Triathlon!

Am I prepared? hmmm good question.

Body is feeling good. I'm faster and stronger than ever. My non 40 hours/week in-front-of-a-desk lifestyle certainly eliminated a lot aches and pains. I am actually working more hours than I ever have; 12 hour days are now typical for me. However, not being glued to my chair has been tremendously good for my sanity and body. God how I hated sitting 40 hours a week on a chair! Goodness gracious.

I swam for an hour and a half straight yesterday, and felt tremendously awesome. The loooong swims in the Hawaiian oceans have been extremely helpful in making me a better swimmer. Dare I say it now; I LOVE swimming! Something about the water on my face is so.... relaxing and natural feeling. Of course, I probably will end up hating the 60 degree dirty ocean water tomorrow morning, but that's besides the point.

I've done one brick workout; a ten mile bike followed by a 5k run on the track. The run turned out to be one of my fastest!

So my body is feeling good. But um.... transitions? What's that? California ocean? Um.... never been in it. Wet suit? Gonna try it for the first time tomorrow. Ear plugs? Ditto. Tri-shorts. First time tomorrow. What to wear tomorrow? Still deciding.

I know I know. I am woefully unprepared in terms of all the technical stuff. So sue me :) I'm just gonna kind of.... wing it. Hahaha. I dunno.... For some reason, I am planning on just riding my bike there with a backpack full of gear, and just seeing what happens. Dive right into it. Not think too deeply about it. Enjoy it as it happens. Learn. Discover. Experience. It's uncharacteristic of me to just wing it like this.... but with my support system gone (James) and with my life being as hectic as it is, and it being a sprint distance, (1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run on a flat course), I figured I'll just let this one happen and see where it leads me. :) AHHHHH! Can't believe its friggin tomorrow!

So this morning was the Triathlon Expo. I arrived as soon as it opened at ten, and stayed for three full hours!!!!??? That's gotta be some sort of record for me! Look at the above photo for the free shwag I scored. I actually got another box of those FUEL Wheaties, but promptly inhaled it :) It was surprisingly good. I've never had Wheaties before, so I have no idea what makes this a special "FUEL" version, but it sure was tasty! I plan on drinking that Gatorade during the race tomorrow, and those things of sunblock sure will come in handy!
Check out the cute pink swim cap! Funny story about the swim cap; we get different colored swim caps depending on what wave we are in. There are waves for the elites, the masters, the age groupers, and so forth. By chance, by randomly overhearing a question about wave starts, I discovered that I had been placed in Wave 1 with the Elites! The Elites!!!! WTF! WTF! WTF! I kind of freaked out. No way in hell I'm starting off my first ever triathlon with the ELITES! I rushed on over to the registration table and got it all figured out, and now am starting with the age groupers. Phew! :) Can you imagine if I hadn't overheard that conversation, showed up tomorrow morning, and all of a sudden had to start with the ELITES! LOL!!!! I can just picture the faces of the people as they scratch their heads in utter confusion as to why this chick is a god-awful and slow swimmer! hahaha!

I also picked up a pair of TYR tri shorts for only 25 bucks! 25 BUCKS! These suckers retail for like, 70! I was debating weather or not it was a worthwhile purchase when two bad-ass, totally triathlete looking ladies (OMG talk about INSPIRATION!) told me it was an awesome deal, and that they are totally worth it, totally comfortable, and that I should definitely invest in a pair. Since it was marked down so low, and since they looked like they knew what they were talking about, I purchased a pair. I know they say don't try new equipment on race day, but I am breaking the rules. Hope they turn out good and don't give me awful chafing! haha
WETSUIT. Initially, I was just gonna go bare. 4o bucks to rent a wetsuit for a half mile swim seemed too expensive. Plus, I was too lazy to deal with thinking about having to rent one or buy one. Denial. Totally.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I got freaked out about the fact that the water temps are gonna be in the low 60s, high 50s. Yowza. That, ladies and gentlemen, is EFFIN COLD. BRRRR! Not only that, but I have to get out and ride my bike with wet hair, skin, and clothes. The air temps are also only gonna be in the 60s before 8am. BRRRRRRRRRR! I would definitely just freeze to death! The more I thought about it, the more awful it started to seem. I don't have to make my first triathlon harder and more unpleasant than it needs to be. So even my stingy broke ass inner self agreed that a wet suit would be a brilliant idea.

This rental suit was 40 bucks, and dude, this stuff is warm. By the time I tried on three different sizes (apparently, my body is extremely wetsuit UN-friendly. My upper half is too skinny compared to my lower body, and they could not find a suit that fit a pear like me!), I was sweating like a pig. Seriously, I was dripping in sweat just getting in and out of those things. Hopefully, this will keep me relatively comfortably warm in the frigid waters tomorrow morning!

I also talked to the local triathlon club at the expo. I am thinking about attending a few of their training sessions before deciding if I want to join or not. But since solo training is getting boring and lonely, it would be lovely to have others to train with! Are any of you members of tri/running clubs? What have your experiences been?

I also got a bomb massage at the expo. Ahhhhh. Then it was study time, grocery shopping time, an easy 4 miler, a date with the foam roller, dinner, more homework, and now I'm packing my bag for tomorrow and gonna go to sleep form my 4am wake up call.

AHHHHHHHHH!!! It's finally happening! I'm gonna be a triathlete!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's no place like HAWAI'I!

2010-09-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

Phew, time sure is a-flying! Between grad school, life, 3 internships, training, and sleep, I feel like I have no time! BUT, I am really enjoying this new chapter in my life; with all it's changes, excitement, and adventures. Now, only if I didn't have to move again in a month.... My current situation is just NOT working out. The location, housemates, and amenities are....well.... really super duper sucky. Oh well. You can't win them all.

As you know, I spent almost 40 days in Hawai'i recently, with James and his family in Honoululu. I think it goes without saying that it was amazing beyond control. I really frigging love Hawaii. The ocean, the mountains, the air, the sun, the food, the culture, the sand, the driving..... oh le sigh. I miss you Hawaii!

There was not a single day in 40 days where I rested. EVERY SINGLE DAY was action packed with swims, hikes, runs, yoga, kayaking, biking, walking, racing, you name it! It was absolutely glorious, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The best vacations are the action packed ones!

And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's about 10,000 words for ya;

Lanikai Beach Bike Path 8k race

Kailua Beach 8K; this race had it all; sand, rain, wind, sun!

Gosh, the views are amazing, aren't they?
Big, juicy, out of this world pineapple from the KCC Farmer's Market
Leonard's Malasadas. I swear they fill them with crack or something because they are so un-fricking-believably addicting
Manoa Falls Hike; I ended up with 13 mosquito bites!
Hawaii Loa Ridge Trail Hike on my 25th birthday. What better way to spend a B-Day?
Top of Hawaii Loa Ridge Trail Take 2

Huge tree during Manoa Falls Hike
Koko Head Staircase climb. Dang did these hurt my quads!
Post Diamon Head Trail Run. James and I ran up Diamond Head twice in a row....all before breakfast!
Maunawilli Hike.
Jump!!!!
Epic 5 hour hike
Of course, I had to run!
Kayaking from Lanikai Beach to the Mokulua Islands in the background.
KCCN FM 100 Birthday Bash. Epic Jawaiian concert all night long.
Stand up paddle boading at Ala Moana Beach Park. Well... the photo was taken before I stood up! haha

There are lots more photos you can check out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2516010&id=3600075&l=41536dec68

and here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2515590&id=3600075&l=2dd488979e

And guess what?????

In less than two weeks, I will be competing in my first triathlon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More details to follow.... but for now, have a great Tooooosday!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!! I will be back I promise!! :-)

2010-08-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

Bad Julia

I know I should win some sort of a bad blogger award for being MIA for um... two months?

But boy oh boy has my life been.... a whirlwind these past 60 day

Laid off from work. Move my life into storage. Say goodbye to SB for good. Hawaii for 39 days. Move into a house I've never seen in a city I've never b

een to, with people I've never met. Grad School. Internships. New bike routes, new running routes, new sights and sounds. Projects. Broke. Man. I promise I promise I promise I will get caught up! Please don't abandon me! :)

I have lots of exciting things!

You can now officially bonk me on the head, call me names, and poke fun at me.

Here's one of my favorite photos from a hike we did in Hawaii. My life is still pretty crazy.... but I WILL find time, and I WILL find it soon!

*****If anyone is running the CA Disneyland Half Marathon this weekend, I will be at the EXPO working at a booth. Lemme know if you are gonna be there! :-) ********

Thank you for all your well wishes and patience!

Much love,

Julia

Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half Marathon

2010-06-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

Rock and Roll baby!

The San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon last weekend was SUCH a blast. I'm still riding on an adrenaline high from a weekend filled with running, sunshine, friends, and good food :-)

Let's start from the top.

Saturday morning we were up and hitting the road down to San Diego at 6 am. Why so early?
Well.... because I wanted to see her!:

Yup! That is Kara Goucher!

Ok. I may have freaked out a little. And she's really pretty too! She was there with Matt Fitzgerald, talking about her new book, and her experiences getting started in running. It was awesome to see someone I admire so up and close. I enjoyed her stories about her early years, and I admired the fact she seemed so passionate about helping/being a mentor to young girls. It was such a treat to get to see her at the Expo!

The Rock 'n' Roll Expo was an amazing one in my opinion. They had all the samples I was hoping to get (haha Larabars, what what?), lots of new products to drool over, a great line-up of speakers (Ryan Hall in the afternoon!), not too crowded, and awesome tech shirt in the goody bag.
Because we were cheapos and didn't pay the $10 Expo parking, but instead parked at a San Diego street parking meter, we kinda had to breeze through the Expo, and I wasn't able to spend the kind of time I wanted to. Though I am thoroughly amazed at the Competitor group for putting on such a great race.... please make the Expo free to park.... esp since its Mandatory!

The rest of Saturday was spent catching up with our friends who live in San Diego. The weather was perfect. San Diego is such a pretty city!

Ate some food, ate some ice cream (hey, I need my carbs!) and went to bed. I know. We are boring. It's OK. ;)

Sunday morning: Race Day
3 am wake up call. Go through all the motions: food, lube, change, pray to dear god for a pre game dump. You know. The standard.
We drove to the Chargers Stadium at 4 AM to take the free shuttle to the starting line.
I was very impressed at how smoothly the morning went. The race organizers did a fantastic job providing plenty of parking spaces, and enough shuttles to the start line. We got to Balboa Park (the start) no problem, and had about an hour to eat some more food, stretch, yawn, people watch, you know, the standard :)

I was also impressed at how many porta-potties there were. You can never have enough of those ;-)

What impressed me the most though, was HOW AMAZINGLY ORGANIZED the start was. They had corrals separating runners by estimated finish times. And guess what? The corrals worked! Each corral began about 1-2 minutes after the corral before it. Not only did most people respect and follow the corral system, but the organizers really did an amazing job spacing them out enough.

After the clusterFU*K that was the LA Marathon, it was glorious to be able to run almost freely at this race, even with about 25,000 runners. Big props to the race organizers for delivering such a smooth start!

The race:
I went in with only two intentions:
Have fun, and finish.
That is how I was running the race until mile 6.5. Rocking out to the live bands along the way, enjoying the sights, people watching, talking with James, you know, the standard :)
And then at mile 6.5, I looked at my Garmin for the first time.
Holy CRAP.
I could PR.....!!!!?????
I honestly couldn't believe how easily I had gotten to the halfway point.
Could I really....???!!!
That's when my one and only goal became:
Get a new PR!

I hauled some ass. There were lots of little ups and downs, and each little uphill made me feel like I was gonna hurl. But I kept trucking.
I even got lapped big time by the elite marathon runners who literally flew right by me, looking as calm as can be at mile 18 when I was struggling at mile 8. But I kept trucking. I couldn't even talk to James. But I kept trucking. I even saw a guy dressed as a turkey. WTF? But I kept trucking. All of a sudden we turn a corner and I saw the finish line. It seemed impossibly far. I feel like I am going to puke.
Of course, as it most often is, there is a climb towards the finish. Ugh. Why can't we finish at the BOTTOM of a hill, for once?
I literally feel like I am going to hurl any moment.
I sprint my little heart out across the finish line, take five steps, and collapse in the corner.
HOLY MOLY.
No puking, no diarrhea, and a new PR!

Wahoo!

I beat my previous average pace record by three seconds. Not bad, not bad. Imaging what I could have gotten had I decided at mile 2 to PR instead of waiting till mile 6.5! :)

James' friends who also ran the race:
I am very pleased with my results. I can't wait to run another HM, and run that one with the intention of getting a PR to see how fast I can go!

But more than being impressed at my PR, I was extremely impressed by the Competitor Group for putting on such a great race. They really paid attention to details. For instance, before the race, we all received an on-line brochure with all the details for race day, which I found invaluable. The Expo was great, the corrals worked efficiently, the shuttles to and from Chargers Stadium worked seamlessly, the live bands were excellent, aid stations were well stocked, the gear check went smoothly (unlike the LA Marathon disaster), and they gave us enough food options at the finish line. I definitely give this race a grade of A!
If you ever have the chance to run a Rock 'n' Roll race, I highly recommend it!

Conclusion: Half Marathons are fun. I think I will stick to the 13.1 distance for now ;)

Have a nice humpday!

One more week till the Rock and Roll San Diego Half Mararhon

2010-06-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Yay for four-day work weeks. It's awesome to wake up thinking it's Monday, but guess what? It's already Tuesday! Oh the simple things in life :)

I also can't believe it's already time for the Rock and Roll San Diego Half Marathon! It's in....gulp...5 more days!!!! EEEEEEEE.... the longest run I've done to date since the LA Marathon is a meager 12 miles.... Good thing I didn't sign up for the full marathon! haha.

Though I am woefully unprepared for the HM both mentally and physically, with all the things that have been going on lately, I am quite excited about this race. First of all, there's gonna be live music at every mile. Awesomeness!!! Second, it's in Sandy Eggo, where I haven't been since high school! I always enjoy exploring new places, especially since we are also going to go see the San Diego zoo. Must sees include LEMURS(!!!!), the Komodo Dragon (ewwww) and Pandas (yay). And third, it's the last HM James and I will be able to do together for a while.

I did a brutal, awful, no-fun, way-too-hot, killer 12 miles this weekend. I was really hoping for a 13-14 miler, but the heat would not allow for that. The heat was so unexpected too. We've been having a chilly, windy spring. Out of nowhere, on the one day that we run, it was BLAZING hot. Seriously. WTF. Of course, 24 hours later we were back to the cool, chilly, perfect running weather. C'est la vie my friends.
We somehow managed to hold onto a 9:30 average pace, but it was KILLING me. My goodness! By the end of 12 miles, I was completely out of hydration and miserable. I don't think I could have run a single more step.

However, I'm optimistic, and I don't think this is a bad pre-cursor to the upcoming HM. I'm sure that with the early morning start (6:15am), live music, and the adrenaline, I'll be able to complete all 13.1 miles of it.

Now the only question remains whether or not I want to splurge on a new pair of running shoes.... Currently all of mine are.... very close to slipper status. hmmmmmm........

Now some pics from the weekend:
The i madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival
It's an annual event where artists of all ages and calibers come out and adorn the pavement in front of the Santa Barbara Mission with chalk art.
It's really quite impressive what you can create out of pavement and chalk!

work in progress

Before

After

2010 version

flashback! 2009 version

Twas fun.

promise to be back with more exciting running news soon!

happy short week!

Finally! Update on my life

2010-05-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
Last week, a LOT of things happened. Life changing things.
And now it is all finalized, and I can finally reveal why I have been so MIA and where I'm going from here.

First of all, I got my wisdom teeth extracted two weeks ago:

(Please note: I had just woken up from being drugged and don't really recall taking this pic!)

All went well.... except I got a dry socket and peeling gums afterward.
HOLY @#!$%#(FKUSDYF&&&!!!!!!((!@#!!!!!
The pain was excruciating.
On a scale of 1 to 10, my pain was definitely a 12. Vicodin hardly helped. It was sooooo miserable. I've had to go to the dentist for 3 follow ups, and I still have to go back for more. Just yesterday I had to get my gums stitched up because they were peeling off my teeth. Yuck. No Bueno. Hopefully this disaster will be resolved soon.

Ok. Enough about my disgusting bleeding gums. haha. Moving on.

Last week I got laid off from my job.
Interesting.
I want to say that I'm sad about this, but it is actually quite fortuitous timing.
Because on the same day that I got my layoff notice, I received news about a new development in my life.

I've been hinting at this in a couple of posts, but back in January, I started preparing to apply to Grad School. I've been busy studying for the GREs (NOT FUN!!!), writing my personal statement, putting together my application, etc for the last several months.
I never really imagined myself going to grad school, but now, I am proud to say it's happening!!!! I just thought it was hilarious that on the same day I got laid off, I got accepted into grad school. Funny how life works.

In August, I will be on an 18-month track to getting my Masters in Sport Management!
I am really really excited to start this new chapter of my life. Of course, I am terrified. I have to relocate to a completely new city, find a new apartment, find a new job, make new friends. But at the same time, I can't wait to embark on this challenge.

I chose a program in Sport Management, because after A LOT of soul searching, crying, quarter life crisis, anger, etc, I realized that I really frigging love the endurance sports community, and this is where I want to stay. I always knew I wanted to be in the fitness field somehow, (I've worked at a gym, fitness magazine, got certified as a personal trainer, etc) and I finally came to the conclusion I want to get more involved in the endurance sports industry, more from a management perspective than a participant's perspectives. I have high, naive hopes and dreams, and I can't wait to see where life takes me. :-)

While we are on the topic of Grad School, James also got accepted... to Vanderbilt!!!! He is such a smarty pants and I am sooooooooooo happy for him and proud of him, for getting into such an amazing, respected program. He will also be starting in August..... in Nashville. I am in CA. There is going to be 2,050 miles between us. I am in complete denial about the fact that we are going to be apart for the next 18 months, potentially up to 4+ years if he goes for the PhD program.

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
:-(

I honestly can't even begin to think about this right now cause it's gonna make me cry. I have no idea what this really means. I guess the only thing to do is take it one day at a time. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. I think I will deal with it in August. Putting things off till the last moment always works best anyways, right? right? please tell me it's true. :-(

AND, because both of us are going off to grad school in August, and because neither of us took time off after college, (we both started working full time a week after graduation and never had a legit summer break) we are going on a real life summer vacation!

James and I will be spending over a month in Hawaii!!!!!!! in exactly 23 days I will be on a jetplane to paradise for 39 days! No work, no school, no nothing. Just relax, have fun, spend time with each other and his family (who live in HI), and enjoy life before crazy grad student life begins. Plus, the best part is, I get to celebrate my quarter-life birthday in my FAVORITE PLACE IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very very very happy about this.

So I gotta start packing my life up once again, put all my stuff into storage, go to HI, come back, move to a new city, find a new apartment, find a new job and start classes within a week of returning to CA. Totally doable, right? I mean.... haha. I know I am crazy. But for the first time in my life, I feel liberated, ready to take on any challenges, be spontaneous, and be independent. I know it's gonna be tough.... but for some reason, I'm ready. Bring it on, LIFE!

So thank you so much for your continued support. I really appreciate it. I feel like I have guardian angels all over the place looking out for me.
But I'm happy to report that you haven't seen the end of me yet!

I have the Rock and Roll San Diego Half Marathon next weekend, and I definitely plan on racing while I am in Hawaii in July. Stay tuned for some race recaps, and please understand that my posting will be sporadic until things settle down, most likely by September. But I will do my best to keep you updated!

And now some recent photos:

Feeling like Man vs Food with all that meat!

I baked my first yeast bread. It was so so so unbelievably good. I'm never buying bread again!

I have a lot of packing and tying up loose ends to do. Busy busy busy!
But I am glad I am finally able to reveal everything that has been going on in my life. Again, thank you so much for reading and leaving me such encouraging comments. It really brightens my day, and puts a smile on my face.

Thank you, Mahalo, and Alooooooha!

an interesting sorta day

2010-05-21T17:05:00.001-07:00

It has been an interesting day.

Receive bad news. Check

Receive awesome news. Check

1/2 day at work. Check

24 mile bike ride waging an EPIC battle against the gnarly wind. Check

11 min abs video. Check

Stretch. Check

40 min walk. Check

Awesome dinner to come!

And its Friday!

So... I get to reveal to you why I have been MIA recently. I will return with details shortly!

Have a runnerific weekend, everyone!

Cheers

XTERRA Malibu Creek Challenge Trail Run 14 miler Race Review

2010-05-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

OK OK First of all, a HUUUGE "sorry, yah?" (gotta love Pepper...!) for being a bad bad bad blogger. I am wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy behind on my posting and commenting.
However, I hope to soon be able to reveal to you all, for better or for worse, what has been going on in my life. There's been a lot of things put into play, and within a month or two, there may be some big changes in Chocolate Shoestrings land. Till then, I greatly appreciate your patience and continued support! I really do :-)
BUT! I do have an exciting blog post today:

The XTERRA Malibu Creek Challenge Trail Run 14 miler Race Review!

This past Saturday, May 8th, James and I drove down to Santa Monica to run this XTERRA event with one of my besties and her man. I mean.... I cannot think of a more fun double date idea than a 14 mile trail run. Can you? Sure beats going.... bowling...?!

On Friday night, we appropriately carbo-loaded with pasta primavera, Girl Scout Cookie flavored ice cream, and Mrs. Fields cookies. Perfect, no? :-)
We arrived at the race held at the beautiful Malibu Creek State Park, and we were blessed with freaking gorgeous weather and high spirits. We got our bibs, I picked up a few samples, we applied sunscreen, and started getting ready.
But my dear friend insisted on waiting in line for the bathroom with a LOOOOONG line. Ok.....
We were the last people to start. 19 minutes late. 2 mile head start for everyone else. There are no timing chips. Wonderful ;-).
Of course, not more than half a mile into the race, there is a bathroom with no line.
C'est La Vie.

My friend and her man had done this race previously, and raved about the "challenging climbs." I took a look at the elevation profile to gain an idea....

3,284 feet of elevation gain, what what! Don't ask why, but somehow, I thought "no biggie. I'm in good shape."

HA!

So we start the race 2 miles behind everyone. The climbing starts at mile 2.5 ish. It's tough, but runnable. I am starting to hate this race just a little bit. "How the EFF am I gonna run 12 more miles of this?"I quickly discovered the answer: You don't.Just to give you an idea of the pace most people were going at, we only passed 6 people by mile 3, and didn't start seeing clusters of people until past mile 5. Why?
The climbs soon get STEEP!!!!!

Take a look at the angle of James' feet to see how steep it was! It wasn't long before it became way too hard for either of us to run for more than a minute at a time. I have never experienced this while running (only on bike) before, but a funny thing happened to my thighs while trying to charge up the mountain. I would go,go,go,go, and then suddenly.... psssssssssssssst. It's like a balloon deflating or something. I could literally feel the glucose from my legs disappear and get supplanted by lactic acid. My legs would literally just stop. Guess my muscles aren't really used to miles and miles of steep climbing... on loose gravel and sand, nonetheless!

Since we were going slow enough, we had plenty of opportunities for photo shoots!
I only ran for the photos! haha, cheater!
Though the "run" was tough(!!!), James and I were having a BLAST! It was just SO great to be challenging ourselves on a different kind of run, be outdoors on a beautiful day, and make friends with other trail runners. We met a man along the way who to me, did not look a day over 62. Turns out he is 73, has run 84 marathons so far, and is aiming for an even 100. Wowza! We also met a woman who turned 65 the day before, who was kicking out butts! I mean.... talk about inspiration and motivation right there!
That's the lady charging down the mountain. Doesn't the rock formation behind me remind you of Lion King?

On the elevation map, it looks like the climbing eases after mile 6.
NOPE!
The climbing remained relentless well into mile 10 before the true descent started. Oh how my hammies and glutes were a burnin'!
There were some really "interesting" parts, like running through a GIGANTIC BEE HIVE ( HOLY SH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!T!!!!) and scaling boulders. It certainly lived up to its name "Challenge Trail Run!"
And the thing is.... even when the brutal climbing ended and the downhills started.... it didn't get any easier! Running downhill on loose sand/gravel for 3 miles is.... painful, scary, and dangerous! After a while, both James and I couldn't help but wish for more... uphill! Who would've thought I would ever crave an uphill at mile 13, right? haha.

By mile 12.5, I was actually quite spent, and ready for the run to be done with! All the uphill was really taking a toll on my energy level. But thankfully, we were lucky enough to form a kind of "group" with an experience trail runner who set the pace for us. This helped tremendously.
I had enough energy to sprint to the end!
Look at how dirty my compression socks/shoes got!
My friend sprinting towards the finish line.
My friend is so cute. Look at her stylish shades. Underneath she is wearing mascara. In answer to my shock, she explained "I don't sweat. I glisten."
Haha, LOVE IT!
Come to think of it, I don't sweat either. I pour. Dump. Get sopping wet. hmm.... not quite as cute!
They had burgers, scrambled eggs, hot dogs, fruit, and chips for us when we were done. Yay! I was quite hungry by the end! Though they had run out of finisher's medals, we were promised we would get them in the mail. I can't wait to receive mine!

I've only done one other "true" trail run before, but I can see myself getting more and more into it. It doesn't hurt my shins (I've been plagued with shin splints recently... time for new shoes?), it's an amazing interval workout, and it works my hammies and glutes like none other. James is now in love with trail running too now. Perhaps it's not a bad idea to invest in a good pair of trail running shoes!

Post run festivities included Rocky Road Ice Cram on Nilla Wafers, amazing burgers at Counter Burger, more chocolate, and some shopping (I didn't get anything). A perfect Saturday, if you ask me!

However, I was extraordinarily tired after this trail run. On Sunday and Monday, I was exhausted! I was able to work out pretty hard on Tuesday, but since I had been planning to have an "easy" week anyway, I decided to make this week the one. And besides, I got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. Nothing like being put to sleep and teeth yanked out after a physically challenging weekend to force you to rest! hahaha. But for real. I am hoping to make a speedy recovery.

Again, thank you so much for continuing to read my blog. I promise as soon as I figure more things out in the next month or so, to continue a more regular posting schedule. But I really do appreciate your continued support~

Until next time~ keep on keepin on!

Gold Coast Ride for Literacy 56 miles. Finally a recap!

2010-04-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

Phew! FINALLY getting around to the recap! My computer went bonkers on me. It's incredible how much I rely on computers. When it's gone, I don't even know how to function. How on earth did humankind survive before internet and computers? Boggles my mind.

Anyhoo!!!! Onto the ride!!!

To sum it up in one word: OMGSoMuchFun!

I had an incredible time. I really honestly was not expecting it to be so rewarding and fun.

Gold Coast Ride for Literacy was held on Saturday April 17. Participants could choose from a 10 mile family ride, a 30, 55, 66, or 100 mile rides. I signed up for the 55. Never mind that the longest ride I had completed was a 35! I'm a daredevil, what can I say ;-)

Wake up call at 5:20 AM; an hour and a half after the housemates went to bed. Thank god for earplugs.

Had a delicioso breakfast of banana-oatmeal-protein-powder-peanut butter-pancake syrup-and cinnamon overdose, and hit the road!

It was a quick 40 min drive into the sunrise on the coast jamming to some great tunes. I was in such a chipper mood. Couldn't ask for a better start to my day. Oh, and I ate two more slices of bread in my car. Carbs. Yum. :-)The ride organization was Extremely Casual, to say the least. There was no start, there was no MC, there was no starting time, there was no clue as to what to do. Um.... OK. So there I am, the only solo rider, only female under 40, and no one to lead me. Hmmm..... So what's a girl to do? Make friends, of course!

I gingerly asked the two guys setting up their bikes next to me it they knew "what was going on." They didn't know either, but they offered "as long as you don't mind riding slow with two old guys, do you want to ride with us?"

Yes Please!

So the 55 mile trio was born: me, Mike and Zack, who were two very kind and friendly brothers.

Since there was no official start.... we just kind of took off... very anticlimatically. haha. We couldn't even tell where the start was! But no worries. It's all good. The route was freaking fantasitc. Ocean side. Ocean views. Ocean breeze. Ocean clouds. Ocean smells. Ahhh. I love living by the ocean!
From the starting point in Ventura, we headed up the coast towards Carpinteria. The first 15 miles was a nice, fast, flat course. The only time I freaked out was when we rode on the shoulder of the 101. Holy crap! Cars were zooming past me at 70mph no more than 5-6 feet away! And holy smokes, it was scary when trucks went by! phew! What an adrenaline rush!

It was a very small and intimate ride, but the aid stations were wonderful.

This is the first aid station by Rincon at mile 15. There were bananas, oranges, grapes, cookies, Soy Joy bars, lemonade and water, trail mix, Fig Newtons, Bagels, pastries....oh my, goodies galore! I wanted to shove my face with all this deliciousness, but exercises some self-control. I knew I didn't want to ride with a bulging belly for the next 40 miles, esp since I was um.... still waiting for the ever-elusive pre-game-dump. Woah crap that's TMI! hahahahaha.

We didn't rest too long and we took off for the second leg of the ride. We had a little snafu right after we left the rest stop... We made a mistake on the route and found ourselves riding against traffic on the 101. Umm.... NO BUENO. I realized the mistake, and we eventually found the right route. I just had a hunch, you know, that the ride organizers woulnd't have us being that much of a thrill seeker!

We rode up a couple of hills, and saw a bunch of BEAUTIFUL mansions. WTF! Who lives in these castles? Can I please live there with you? Oh man. I don't have a photo, cause I was too busy hauling ass up the hill, but trust me, it was gorge.

As we continued riding, I was surprised to see how far we were going! As we passed Carpinteria and Summerland, I couldn't believe I wasn't even tired yet! Driving on the freeway, the distance between Summerland and Ventura seems monumental. But I had now just cycled it! Crazy, my friends.

Mile 24. Oh boy. This was a climb to remember.
OMG. OMG OMG OMG. Quads turned into complete jelly. Lactic Acid overflow. No more power. The hill. Was long. Was steep. Was gravel. Was long. Was steep. When would it end?

I had a funny moment when I literally felt my quads bonk. There was a moment when it just stopped. I got out of my bike and walked up the remainder of the hill, about 0.15 miles I think. I made it up most of the way.... but oh man, my quads were shot! The above photos are how I felt about that hill ;-) (I don't feel bad about walking though... I saw three others doing it, and people at the rest stops also mentioned they had to walk up that killer hill)

Good thing though, that was basically the last uphill.

We wound our way through the luxurious neighborhood of Montecito. Unfortunately, there was no Oprah sighting, but I did see my fair share of Mercedes, Lexuses, and Grand Mansions. One day.... One day.... A girl can dream.

There were plenty of downhills. I just tried to enjoy the pull of gravity, but I couldn't help but hope to dear god "please don't make me go back up those hills I just came down!"

Mile 30 was the second rest stop and turn around point, and they had more great food, and even had sammy fixins'! Ham. Yum.
And the words "no we aren't going back the way we came" was music to my ears. The route back was a shorter, flatter route. Hooray!

So back through Montecito, Carpinteria, 101, and back to Ventura.

The crazy part is: There was no fatigue, and absolutely no pain! I felt like I could just ride and ride and ride forever. I was having a blast! Thought the 55 mile trio wasn't the most talkative, (we were each in our own "happy zones") it was nice to have company and the occasional conversation.

56 miles in 4 hours 15 min. Same time it takes me to run a marathon, same number of calories burned. Level of discomfort and pain? Not even close!

Donezo! Happy as a clam.

The ride was SUCH a positive experience. I can't wait to do it again! And I have a riding training buddy out of it too; I might go on rides with the trio again! ;)

So I know this post is quite scattered, but I really did have a great time. The weather was perfect, the views were gorgeous, I got in a great workout, and no pain. Seriously, what more can a girl want?

A barbeque perhaps?

Later that evening I celebrated a friend's b-day with some yummy BBQ steak. What an awesome day it was! Halibut never looked so pretty
Can you please just admire how incredibly flexible this puppy is? He is cradling his leg with his arms and balancing on a hand. Bravo.

Later this week I have some physical therapy updates and will hopefully finally get around to doing the product reviews I have been meaning to do.
In the meantime, happy humpday and Administrative Professional's Day!

be back later

2010-04-19T09:23:00.001-07:00

Good morning!
I have such a fun post on the Gold Coast Ride for Literacy 56 miler recap but my computer is gonezo. Please check back later for a recap!

Thanks and have a great Monday!

55 miles is like 35 miles, right?

2010-04-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Good morning folks! Top of a wet-right-after-the-rain and keeping-my-fingers-crossed-for-no-more-rain morning to ya!

Thank you to everyone for the encouraging comments about my hip and my knee pain. I am going to the PT next week armed with more information than he could possibly want. And this time I am going to make it crystal clear that I am a runner. And I plan on continue running for a long time :)

And until the HM in June, and until I see the PT and know what's up, I plan on keeping it low-key with the running. I think I'll stick to 8-10 miles MAX per week. Yup. Per week. I really don't want to eff my body up right now, ya know? Gotta nurse that hip, and make a strong come back!

In the meantime, I am getting pumped for the Gold Coast Ride for Literacy this weekend. I'm signed up for the 55 mile ride.....!!!
55 miles. From Ventura to Carpinteria and back.

I don't even like driving for 55 miles. And now I'm going to ride it, powered by nothing more than the muscles in my legs. Holy Smokes that's far. My heart's pounding just a little bit just thinking about it.

I rode 35 miles on Saturday. 55 miles is like 35 miles, right? Right? :) 35 miles seemed fine.... I never took a break so by mile 30 my back was a little sore, but I imagine that during the 55 miler I will take at least a couple of breaks to eat, drink, stretch, talk, etc.

And I am very relieved to know that they will have SAG assistance on the road and by the aid stations.

awww look at that cute puppy! (image source)

I pulled another totally rookie move this weekend right before I went on my ride. There I was, happily humming along and pumping air into my tires. I remove the nozzle of the pump from the tire and

"pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!"

Tire is now flat as a pancake. Holy Crap! What just happened? I look at my tire. The nozzle to keep the air inside the tire is now gone. WTF!! It's a little metal piece and it's gone! (refer to image on the right. image source) that Wha.....??? I look into the nozzle of my pump. It's LODGED in there. What the...? How the eff did that happen?

Commence freak out. I'm huffing and puffing and sweating.

"I broke my bike!" I text James. My ride is ruined! My vision blurs. NOOOOOOO!

Again, thank goodness for boyfriends who can save me from bike disasters, ie last week. "Julia, you just broke the tube, not the tire. Relax. Breath. The tube is the cheapest thing to fix."

Really?

He was right. The guy in the bike shop fixed it super quick, filled up my tires, and showed me how to do it, all for a reasonable price of $7.04. Sweet.

Thank goodness for James indeed.

And this is why I am glad they will have SAG Assistance next week. I have hunch they will be coming in pretty handy! :)

The rest of the ride went brilliantly. Now if only someone can confirm that 55 miles is basically the same as 35 miles, I'm all set for next week! Oh, and the rain stops too, that would be great :)

Let's see what the week brings!

I RAN again and why it's a big deal

2010-04-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Freedom is near!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

So I was going to do a product review today, but instead of a product, I am going to review my butt/hip. Exciting, I know ;) But first, let me explain.

I have been complaining about my hip/knee hurting since before the LA Marathon. It started on my 20 mile training run, and just kind of progressively got worse, with a highlight (lowlight?) being the 22 miler when I had super sharp, debilitating pain. Though the actual marathon wasn't too bad (because of the MAJOR Distraction of my GI system and the adrenaline), I haven't felt quite the same since. It's been over two weeks now, and it sometimes hurts to even walk.

I've mentioned before that I pinched a lumbar nerve back in Feb '09. The pain I am now feeling is the same kind of "pinched nerve" sensation that travels all the way down to my ankles and affects the way I can move my leg. When it's bad, I can't even bend my right leg because the knee and hip is in turmoil. For the last couple of miles of the marathon, I was doing a sort of "limp-trot-run" thing. No bueno.

Upon a careful inventory of my muscles, a closer look at how I walk, I noticed something. My left and right legs have different muscular placement.image source

See the Tensor Faciae Latae muscle near the top left? On my left leg, (the one without pain) the muscle comes all the way up to the hip and attaches to the hip, just like in the picture shown.

On my right leg (the one with pain), umm...... the muscle doesn't come to the hip. In fact, it kind of disappears and ends a couple of inches below the hip. WTF!!!! Even James confirmed he could feel the uneven muscle placement.

I'm no expert here, but having a couple inches of missing muscle just MIGHT be the key here. I am guessing that this causes my right hip to swing more since it is unstable. In fact, when I walk, my right hip swings considerably more than the left.

A quick trip to the Doc later, I have an appointment with a PT. Yay I guess.... I just don't know why my previous (and different) PT didn't catch this pretty glaring imbalance? He didn't even watch me run or walk now.... come to think of it.

At least now I have a sh!t ton of info I can give my PT so he can get me all fixed up!

Despite this, the weather was gorgeous yesterday, so I set out for my first run post-marathon. A whole 17 days after the marathon. The goal: 5 KM at whatever pace the body felt like.

The verdict? I missed running! (obviously) My legs and lungs were so fresh I ran at a much faster pace than anticipated. And it felt good! 5 KM at 8:30 pace. Not bad, not bad.
HOWEVER, I could feel the first twinges of nerve pain kicking in. Though three miles was not enough to aggravate my nerves, I could definitely feel some funky stuff going on. I'm usually OK until the 11-13 mile mark, and since I'm not running another marathon anytime soon, I should be OK. BUT, I want to get my leg fixed, because I want to be able to continue running for years to come.

And I HATE being worried. For the last 17 days, I have actually been afraid of running. Afraid that if I ran, it would hurt so badly again, and I would do some permanent damage. I know I'm just being paranoid, and I know I'm going to go see the PT, but I just had to get this all off my chest because I've been nervous up until now with no one to really share it with. So phew! Off my chest.

I think for now, I am going to stick to running shorter distances (13-15 miles MAX) and doing a sh!t ton of biking and swimming. Good thing I'm starting to fall in love with biking! In fact, I have a 30+ mile ride this weekend.... should be good!

Thanks for listening to my woe is me story.
I wish everyone the best of running this weekend, filled with sunshine and fresh legs!
Adios!

Confirmed!

2010-04-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

Um yeah. So it looks like I'm gonna do a 55 mile bike ride next weekend.
Somehow 30 miles was just too..... easy.
55 miles sounded more "up my alley."
I mean....why pay $$ for a race/ride if you're NOT gonna be challenged, right?
Never mind that I don't own correct bike gear either. I do own cycling shorts, but no jersey tops. That' OK.
And never mind that it might rain. I paid. That means I gotta ride, I guess!
55 miles for the Gold Coast Ride for Literacy. April 17. Just Do It. :)

And one other confirmed race: Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half Marathon in June! I thought about doing the full, but decided to give my leggies a much needed break. I have heard awesome things about the Rock 'n' Roll series, so I am very very excited. LA Marathon had a lot of live bands playing along the route, and boy, does that kind of energy make a difference! The Rock 'n' Roll race is going to have live local music at every mile. Since I run sans iPod, I LOVE the fact that they are gonna provide entertainment. I just think it ups the adrenaline level to the max! I don't think I will be running this Half with a PR in mind. More on that to come!

Speaking of cycling, I went on a 23 mile ride on Sunday. It was supposed to be 30 miles. What happened?

Well, it started off great. I had a new route; a challenging and hilly course into the wind. You would think that would deter me, but I actually welcomed the challenge. It really was a great ride; the roads were pretty empty, I was feeling strong, and I was getting a great workout!

It was going fabulously until mile 23 when I stopped at a bike shop to fill my tires up with gas. Seemed like a great idea at the time.

I was fumbling around with the air pump they had there.... only to realize too late that the it had the wrong nozzle for my bike. My rear tire is completely flat at this point. OH SH!T. It's too far to walk my bike home. The bike shop is closed because it's Sunday. I don't want to use my emergency kit. There is not a soul around. OH CRAP.

I call James: "HELP!!!! I'm stranded!!!"
Thank goodness for boyfriends. He promptly came to my rescue and somehow we managed to pack my bike in his compact car. A quick trip to Sports Authority and 25 bucks later, I bought a piece of equipment I probably should have gotten when I first bought my bike;

An air pump.

That's right ladies and gentleman. I am SUCH a cycling rookie.
Oh, did I tell you I'm riding 55 miles next Saturday????????????????????? Dang.
(at least they will have road side assistance and bike crews at the aid stations so I won't be left completely to my own devices)
You live and you learn.

Speaking of races/bike equipment, I realized my priorities are completely skewed. I have spent a couple hundred in the last couple of months on races, etc, and have completely denied myself of getting a haircut that is VERY MUCH NEEDED, and buying a couple of items from the bookstore that I also VERY MUCH NEED. I can't justify spending 80 bucks for things I absolutely need, yet I keep signing up for races and buying equipment. GAHHHH. Anyone else have this problem?

Anyhooooooo. I think I'm gonna cut my own hair. Since when is

Racing>every thing else I need to get

?????
oh how my life has changed :)

Anniversaries

2010-04-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

Rainy Monday?!!
Good thing it's my rest day or otherwise we would have had a very sad panda situation going on here.
What better than to spend a rainy Monday Rest Day than cooking and baking? Those are my plans for after work. Banana bread, anyone? :)

This weekend was a special weekend; James and I celebrated our third anniversary! The day was hardly about gushy gushy mushy stuff though; I started the day off with my longest swim to date: 2600 meters!!!!, while James went with his friends to a Kiteboarding tournament, which got postponed because... there was no wind, lol.

Anyways, let's focus on my bad-ass-ness for a while here, and let me bask in my swimming glory for a moment. 2600 meters, that's more than 1.5 miles! Holy smokes! Though my shoulders felt they were going to EXPLODE at the end, I generally felt amazing the entire time in the water. And can I just brag that I took no breaks?!!!! There was once or twice I came up for 5 deep breaths, but other than that, I was just a swimming machine!

I broke down my swim into 500meter segments. The first 500 was just a slow-ish pace warm up. (it takes me a while to "get in the groove") The second 500 I threw in a couple 90% effort laps. The third 500 I threw in 250meters worth of 85-95% effort laps, the fourth 500 I did "ladder sprints" (each leg of the 100 meters faster than the other), and used the last 500 to breast stroke, back stroke, swim slowly, and warm down. An excellent workout all around! And of course, nothing better than a quick sauna trip with the latest issue of Competitor Magazine to round it all off :) OK I am a bad ass. Done bragging now, haha :)

Ok now back to the mushy mushy stuff. After going for a semi-lovely 45min afternoon walk with James (sooooo windy!) we got ready for the main event; Dinner!

We went to one of my favorite Italian restaurants called Via Maestra 42.
And we ordered what is potentially the best thing we ever ate. Like ever.

Behold!
Pumpkin Ricotta Cheese Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Ummmmm. Foodgasms.
So freaking unbelievably good. So so good.
The sauce. Oh, the sauce!
I want to take a shower in this amazing heavenly butter sauce and then soak in a tub full of this sauce. I just want to drink it by the spoonful.
I would probably go to battle for this sauce too. I would be willing to don an armor and fight someone to the death to protect this amazing recipe. And then celebrate by taking a soak in the tub in this sauce.
Yeah. It's that good.

Don't let any of that good sauce go to waste!

And the tiramisu!!!! Please excuse the ridonculously ugly expression on my face, but that is my "Holy sh!t this tiramisu is out of the world! I am beyond excited to eat this thing!" face. I literally wanted to order the entire pan of tiramisu and shove it into my mouth with a shovel. Yumo. nom nom nom nom nom.

And it's ok. I swam over 1.5 miles and went for a walk. No guilt whatsoever!

And speaking of anniversaries, my one year romantic escapade with racing is coming up in two weekends. April 24, 2010 is the 365 days mark of racing for me. Before then, I had never run a race before! Can you believe it? I can't! I can't imagine WTF I was doing before I started racing! Good god, I must have had so much free time on the weekends.... (haha not really, I've always been busy)

I feel like I've accomplished a lot in one year. The full list of races I've completed is on my sidebar on the right. In 365 days, I've fit in 3 HM, two full Marathons, a couple 10Ks, and a couple other distances. And I might be able to add two more to the roster before the year is up!
Though racing has sucked a whole lot of these guys from my wallet,

I believe it was all worth it. And I've got no plans to stop anytime soon either. Year #2 will include triathlons. I'll make sure of it. :)

So that's all for now, folks. I have a bicycle adventure to catch you up on, and some valuable bike lessons I've learned :)

Have a happy one, and if you see any leftover Cadburry Creme Eggs, you can send them my way! heehee

What do YOU think Wednesdays: Bike race or running race?

2010-03-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

Guess who's gonna go hang out with star fish and octopuses and shark embryos today?
That would be yours truly here, and I am soooo excited! All this as a part of work, too. Shu-weet! :)

So here's something I would love to hear your guys' opinions about....

To bike, or to run: that is the question

See, there is a really awesome bike ride and a running race on the same day. I can't decide which one to sign up for!
Here's the scoop:

Bicycle Ride: Gold Coast Ride for Literacy

Pros:

My first bike "race"!
Flat and easy 30 miles
For a good cause
Chance to meet other cyclists
Support crew and aid stations

Cons:

Traveling needed (about 40 minutes)
Will be by myself (James doesn't have a bike)
Will end up costing me more than the running race (but less than $30 more)
If I can't make a friend to ride with, I might get lonely (but its only 30 miles)

Onto the running race

Santa Barbara Chardonnay 10 Miler (website currently down for some odd reason)
Here's a video from 2009

Pros:

Route is pretty
Only ten miles!
Run with James
No traveling required
WINE TASTING post race
Cheaper than bike ride
A new race distance

Cons:

Route surface not the best for running
same old, same old

So.... hmm... they both sound equally good to me. What would you choose? Please help me decide :) Thanks muchos muchos!

In terms of running, I am still taking a break. I am starting to feel and recognize muscular imbalances in my legs/hips that may be the culprit to my pain. Hopefully I can go see a PT or something, if not, work on stretching and strengthening my hips.

Have a splendid Humpday! Can you believe tomorrow is already April? 2010 is flying by. oh my.

So beautiful

2010-03-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Long time no see my dear friends.
I have been taking a much needed "break" and recovering from the LA Marathon. Well.... recovery week only consisted of one day of rest, but apparently, my body snapped right back into the swing of things. I think I have biking and swimming to thank for that!

I am taking a whole two weeks off from running though. I hope this will be enough time for my knee to fully recover. As of yesterday, it was still feeling a tad bit wonky, but I think it will be OK. And now that my max running distance is going to be 13-16 miles, I'm not too worried about it. Knees usually only hurt on 20+ miles runs.

Anyhoo. Short post today.
The weather outside has been absolutely ridiculous this past week. So amazingly gloriously beautiful. The crappy El Nino weather we endured this weekend gave birth to beautifully lush and vibrant flowers all over the city. Everywhere I go, the flowers smell so fragrant and sweet. The new grass, the yellow and purple flowers, the clear blue sky, the ocean at low tide... so beautiful.

I don't think I have ever seen the mountains look so beautiful as they did yesterday on my bike ride. Even though it was windy as Heck sometimes, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. And the more I get comfortable on the bike, the more I enjoy cycling. There is something so satisfying about the gush of wind in my ears, the fatigue in my legs, and the distance I can go. A great alternative to running.

I don't have too much else to report on; there's about 5 races I'm debating signing up for in the next few months, and I will let you know when I do! Three of the races will be completely new territory for me (hint hint) so I am very excited!

And in the meantime I will leave you with this gem I found recently:

OnlyinIV.com

Click on the ling. This basically sums up my college life. Yup. Good times, good times. :) Good to see things haven't changed since I left :) Enjoy!

Have a splendid Tuesday, and I promise to be back with more interesting news next time lol

LA Marathon: The Race

2010-03-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

It's already Wednesday! I love this week: a three day weekend followed by a three day work week followed by another three day weekend. Hooray!
OK OK I know I left you hanging on the edges of your seat yesterday with my LA Marathon Expo teaser. Or maybe not, :) but without further ado, onto the main deal; the race!

Ahh. The race. Let's preface it by saying it's always better in hindsight, isn't it? That's clue #1.
Yesterday I wrote about the HUGE crowd at the starting line. I mean.... look at all the people! The phrase "cluster f%$k, cluster F!@k, CLUSTER F**K" kept repeating in my head. I have never run such a huge race before so this was a shocker. The gun went off to start the race but it was kind of anticlimatic..... I couldn't even see the start, we weren't moving, we didn't know what was going on.... just kind of standing there twirling our thumbs. We didn't cross the finish line until after 5 minutes! Dang. That's crowded.

Even as we stepped over the starting line, there wasn't much running happening. It was utter chaos, I tell you. Right away, people are walking 4 deep, running in huge packs, little kids, strollers, costumes, people zig zagging in and out trying to beat the crowd.... CLUSTER F**K.

One pet peeve: If you are a walker, PLEASE START NEAR THE BACK AND PLEASE DON'T WALK 4 DEEP because that seriously pisses me off.

The first mile was around the Dodger Stadium. I could NOT get a pace faster than 11 min/mile because there were just too many people. But that's OK; no need to start with a 9min pace. However, the crowd never ever thinned out for the entire 26 miles. Clue #2.

But enough with the complaining. I'm in LA, I'm here to have fun :)
I went into the race not knowing the course, not knowing the elevation profiles, not knowing anything, really. No home court advantage for me this time.

The course was interesting. Very urban. Very different from the lemon groves and "nature" feel of the Santa Barbara Marathon. Buildings, buildings everywhere. Concrete, concrete, concrete. What a big city LA is!

Immediately, what made this marathon special and memorable for me is the crowd support. Literally every single inch of the course was PACKED with supportive, enthusiastic, amazing, motivating spectators. It really touched my heart HOW many people were out supporting the runners; handing out sliced oranges, bagels, candy, water, and donuts (!!!) Thank you thank you thank you to all the supporters!

The first few miles were a complete blur; just trying to dodge the crowd and find a pace. Right before mile 8 we took a potty break, which was absolutely necessary, but ended up costing us a good 5-8 minutes. Ouch. After the potty break though.... I was unable to get my pants back up correctly. Little did I know this would be the biggest mistake of my life......

Let's jump ahead a few miles to a quick video I made of the stretch I was most looking forward to:

Rodeo Drive baby!

I'm not much of a shopper, and I most def can't afford to shop on Rodeo, but I was stoked about running down a Rodeo Drive that was shut down esp for us! It epitomizes LA glitz and glamor for me... I was really hoping to see Paris Hilton or someone! haha

Anyways, back to around mile 11. Because Mile 11 was right about the time I started wanting to quit.
Yup. quit.
I was tired! I was hurting! It was crowded! It was hilly! And there was15 miles left! Boy oh boy I was in trouble. I just focused on maintaining my form, and tried to distract myself as much as humanly possible with the sights and sounds.

There was a gnarly steep and long downhill at mile 14 which was good for my pace but awful for my knees. There was a "strip show", a band playing Eric Clapton (!), guys handing out beer and donuts (love!), cheerleaders, the Mann's Chinese Theater, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood sign.... all sorts of things to keep me distracted.

But right around mile 15/16 is when my real problem started.
So, up until this point, my tummy was feeling really gassy and painful. Annoying, but I could live with it. And then BAM!
I really had to use the bathroom.
Big time.
Really bad.
Not for a number one or two, either.
This was more like a number ten. If you know what I mean.
OMG. Talk about discomfort. OMG. That was all I could think about.
But there was no way in hell I was gonna stop AGAIN for a porta pottie. So I decided I will hold it in. Um yeah.

Running for ten miles needing to go to the bathroom ain't fun. Running ten miles with a camera in the SpiBelt bounding on my tummy ain't fun either. Bathroom bathroom bathroom. It was all I could think about.

Around mile 19/20 is when I really started hating my life. A lot of the promotional material and a lot of the spectators and volunteers kept telling me "this is the last uphill!" "It's all downhill after mile 19!" Of course, I believed them.

What they meant was, after mile 19, it's the last uphill until the next uphill.

UGH.
Believing all the hype, I gave my last valiant effort climbing up a hill around mile 20. Only to discover 4 more miles of climbs. It was pure torture my friends, pure torture. And let's not forget I was trying to "hold it in" as well.

I took quite a few walking breaks. I passed on my SpiBelt to James. I honestly don't know How on Earth I kept going.

Oh man.

Home stretch!

Only one more block to the finish!

So tired!

The last two miles were a complete blur. Bathroom. Pain. Discomfort. I just wanted to be done already! I honestly did not care about a PR or pace or anything by this time. I just wanted to sit on the toilet. A clean one.

That's a candid shot of me right after crossing the finish line. There is anger in my eyes, can you see? haha. In hindsight, I love this pic, but in the moment, I was hating my life.
Sooooooooooooo glad to be done!

Official Time: 4:28:08

After crossing the finish, we were given mylar blankets and more food than I could handle. I made sure though, to get as much food as humanly possible. James and I took official finisher's photos, got our medals, and made our way through the crowd to the post-race party on the Santa Monica Pier.

Getting our bags back from the bag drop-off was a complete DISASTER, but after about 40 minutes, we finally got our stuff. I was slightly angry (still trying to "hold it in" at this time), slightly hungry, and more than slightly tired. BUT, the post-race party was fun; I scored a lot more freebies again :) And I found a relatively clean Porta Pottie.

Official race tee and medal

And made our way back home where I discovered I had the WORST chafing I have ever seen "down there". No details needed except HOLY SH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!T the shower hurt like hell. And then I proceeded to use the bathroom like, a bajillion times. My stomach really took a beating on this run!

Nap/movie time ensued, followed by dinner!

get in my belly!

I actually did not have as much knee pain as I was expecting. Or maybe it did hurt, but I was too distracted by my tummy issues. Who knows. All I know is this happened by Monday Night:
HUGE bruise on my left quad. WTF!???? Where did you come from? It came more than 24 hours after the race finished, on the leg without the knee pain! WTF WTF WTF. It's monstrous! It doesn't hurt too much... I guess I'll just let it be and see what happens.

PHEW. Long post. And I didn't even manage to say every thing I wanted to! I will save it for a "reflections" post.

I am recovering quite well; and already thinking of what races I want to do next! I have a few in mind :)

Marathons. I think I am developing quite a love hate relationship here :)
But hear this marathon: I'm not done with you yet!

LA Marathon: Expo and Pre Race shenanigans

2010-03-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!
I am in SUCH a great mood today: I only have a three day work week this week, and I am still riding that Marathon high.

Yup! LA Marathon is done and done! Phew! More than anything, I am relieved, and for the first time in 9 months, I am going to take a break. I do have a couple of races I'm planning in the upcoming months, but capping it at HM distance. I can have my weekends back again. Yay!

I can't wait to share my LA Marathon experience with you all :)
No, I didn't get a PR (bummer...!) but that's OK! James and I had a great weekend nonetheless.

Today's post is all about the Expo and the Pre-Race shenanigans. The race post will be for tomorrow. Otherwise, it was going to be the longest post in the world :)

Alright.

Saturday: The Expo

James and I hit the road bright and early Sat morning to make the 2 hour drive to Dodger Stadium to attend the Expo.

And can I just say; the expo may have been the thing I was looking forward to the most! I've never been to Dodger Stadium before, and I've also never been to a big Expo either, so I had high hopes for this one.

We arrived around 11 am to a HUGE line of cars waiting to get to the expo. I started getting butterflies in my tummy; I was so darned excited! I couldn't WAIT to see what they had!

At Dodger Stadium, walking over to the Expo.

Despite the sheer number of attendees, I thought the Parking system at the Expo worked marvelously. We had NO issues finding a parking spot, and no difficulties finding the expo. Thanks to all the volunteers who made it possible!

I could just feel the energy in the air. There was a lot of excitement, jitters, adrenaline, hopes, and worries in the air. Gosh. It makes you so stoked to be a part of this crazy sport called the Marathon, doesn't it?

The Expo was huge!!!!! MUCH bigger than I had expected! And crowded! Holy Moly! It was like... a huge festival or something. People people everywhere. Vendors and samples galore!
I made it a personal mission to see every single vendor, and receive as many free samples as possible. Yup. I'm not embarrassed to admit it. I love me some freebies.
And this Expo did not disappoint. James and I walked away winners. We scored big :) I don't have a picture, because it's a little bit embarrassing.

Another goal for the expo was to walk away with a pair of compression socks. I have lately been having serious ankle/calf swelling issues. I blame it on my desk job. But it's actually a problem that is a huge pain in the butt for me. My ankles were pretty swollen at the Expo as well so I really wanted to try on different compression socks. I tried on a couple different brands, and decided on Recovery Sock. They felt the best on my calves, and you really couldn't beat the price: $35 for a pair of compression socks and a free pair of regular running socks! The guy helping me find my perfect pair was awesome too: he had run 6 marathons..... this month! WoW! Total inspiration.

Another highlight of the Expo was the free Kinesio Taping.
KT Tape was offering to tape people up who were dealing with pain. OMG. I was beyond stoked. Since my ankle/shins were hurting (due to pinched nerve a year ago that was causing ITB pain that was causing ankle/shin pain) I got that taped up like this:
Let me tell ya: as soon as the girl taped me up, I said "WOW! OMG I feel SO much better!"
It was fantastic. It really truly honestly felt awesome. I kept it on all day, and even slept with it. (I took if off for the actual race) I honestly think the KT Tape was a HUGE factor in reducing my pain. Thank you thank you thank you thank you KT Tape!
And this is Dean Karnazes speaking at the expo. I really like listening to him speak. One thing he said stood out to me. So much so that I made it my motto for the race:

"Celebrate the Pain."

On answering an audience question about how to deal with pain, Dean said that pain was a normal, natural, expected aspect of the race. There is no avoiding it. So expect it. Welcome it. Celebrate it. I had been freaking out about my knee all week, so his quote spoke to me. I kept telling myself "celebrate the pain" over and over again all day and throughout the race. Thanks Dean, for the inspiration and motivation!

James' highlight was visiting the Newton Running Shoes booth. I knew nothing of these shoes, so it was interesting for me too. Newton shoes are designed for optimal running form, and help you land on your mid foot. This is supposed to lessen fatigue and chances for injury, and also assists with cadence. We both tried on the shoes, and boy! what an interesting shoe! It has a really bouncy midsole. Like, really bouncy. It was a feeling I have never experienced in a shoe before. We got to try running in them a little bit; and I could tell that the shoes helped me hand on my mid foot. I can't afford a new pair of sneakers right now, but these shoes are something I would definitely want to try out.

The one and only complaint I have about the expo was the lack of vendors selling Race nutrition. There was one vendor selling GU products and one vendor selling Powerbar products. That's it. No Clif Products, no Honey Stingers, no Carb Boom! no Hammer products, no Sports Beans. Every other expo I have been to have had a myriad of race nutrition choices. Since I needed to buy some gels, I was very disappointed in the lack of choices. Oh well.

Sunday: Pre-Race

OK. Enough about the expo. I bet I am starting to bore you already :) Onto pre-race things.
3 AM wake up call. Waffles and cereal for breakfast. Coffee. The usual.

James enjoying his coffee. We stayed at my friend's house in Santa Monica.

Got dressed, got lubed up (or so I thought.... stay tuned), got ready, and left at 4:15 ish to take the shuttle from Santa Monica to the starting point at Dodger Stadium. The shuttle was only a couple of blocks away from my friend's house, and it was organized AMAZINGLY. Thanks again to all the volunteers!
We arrived at Dodger Stadium with plenty of time to spare. We walked around, ate some food, stretched, took a cat nap, you know, the usual.

At around 7:10 AM, we tried to make our way over to the starting line. "Tried to" being the key word here.
There were SO MANY PEOPLE that we could not get anywhere within sight of the starting line. So we just randomly picked a crowd of people and got "in line".
People people people people everywhere. Close to 25,000 people. Holy moly. We heard the gun go off, but we didn't cross the starting line until 5 minutes after. It was VERY crowded.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the race recap!

I am recovering pretty well; back in the office for a quick three day week, and already plotting some future races :) Thanks for your words of encouragement, and thanks for reading!
See you back here tomorrow :)

Off to run the marathon

2010-03-21T04:01:00.000-07:00

T minus 3.5 hours till the LA Marathon!

The Expo was a lot of fun.... and though my hip hurts, and I didn't get a lot of sleep; I think I am going to have a fun run! Yup, I'm running 26.2 miles "just for fun" and I wouldn't have it any other way. With a landmark at every mile, and 25,000 runners to share my misery with, who wouldn't have fun, right? ;)

Anyways, I think I've got some running to do.

later!

wow... something to think about Wednesday

2010-03-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Good morning all!
In my efforts not to get all antsy and actually rest this week, I came across two very interesting blogs. I've written about the Japanese way of eating before on the blog, and these two blogs represent exactly what I mean.

The two blogs are Fed Up With Lunch, and Mr. Ferguson's Classroom. Fed Up With Lunch is written by an American teacher about the deplorable condition of American school lunches for kids. In contrast, Mr. Ferguson's Classroom chronicles school lunches from a Japanese elementary/pre-school. The differences are astonishing.

I can actually relate to Mr. Ferguson's blog. I went to a Japanese pre-school and I remember my lunches being absolutely delicious. Though I don't remember specifics, I do remember the ceremony that went into lunch. Lunch was eaten in the classroom together with all the kids and teachers. Lunch would not start until everyone was served, and everyone had said "Itadakimasu," which is a ceremonial saying proclaimed prior to each meal, meaning something like "I graciously accept." The lunches were cooked on premises each and everyday, and I think it was different everyday too. Never were we ever served "mystery meat", "unidentifiable veggies", or "strange squishy things." Though not as pretty as Mr. Ferguson's lunches, my pre-school lunches were very tasty.

In elementary and middle school, my mom actually made my bother and I lunches every single day. Thanks mom! I loved loved loved all the food she made for us. We had cute little Obento Boxes, Thermos Bento boxes, cold bento boxes, you name it. Japanese bento boxes are really detailed and cute: I remember my mom would slice apples to look like rabbits, sausages to look like an octopus, onigiris (rice balls) to look like a princes, cute little toothpicks... kind of like this:

Bento box of a student in Mr. Ferguson's blog. (Image source)

In High-school in Japan, I went to an American School, and we had a cafeteria, as well as a "kiosk" that sold Subway sandwiches, KFC lunch boxes, bagel sammies, Omigiris (rice balls) and certain snacks like ice cream, brownies, yogurts, trail mixes, fruits, etc. The Cafeteria food was also very good. We had Daily Specials along with regulars. It was all a la carte, served on silverware, and handmade. We had Ramen Noodles (NOT cup noodles), Curry Rice, Meatballs, spaghetti, Chicken Katsu, Chicken noodle soup.... etc etc etc. Though both of the above mentioned schools are private schools, I have been to public schools too, and the food is not inferior to ours.

AND OMG! I can't believe students get so little time to eat in American schools, and get so little recess! My school had a full hour devoted to lunch every single day, sometimes even more. We got 3 recesses every single day too, on top of regular Physical Education classes. I can't IMAGINE giving a kid only 13 minutes for lunch! OMG!!!!

Food from Mr. Ferguson's school in Japan. (Image source)

I've never been to a regular "American" school other than University, so I can't speak on American schools. I was very fortunate to go to a University that cares a lot about health and food, so our Dorm Food was actually very yummy. But looking at the food displayed in Fed Up With Lunch.... wow. I would feel Fed Up too!

Lunch from the American School in Fed Up With Lunch (Image source)

OMG ew. That looks worse than airplane food. Ew. I wouldn't want to eat that. I would rather go hungry than put that slimy yellow burnt thing in my mouth. And I bet those veggies are way overcooked and bland. Ew. Nasty.

I know School Food is a big topic right now, with Michelle Obama's efforts and Jamie Oliver's new show. Growing up in a different country, I had no idea what American school food is like.

I think school and food are emotionally charged topics and I definitely don't want to offend anyone. But it did give me a lot to think about; one of them being "Glad I grew up in Japan." And, wow. I hope Michelle Obama's plans work. Soon. I hope the American kids get more time to eat and then go to recess. I hope things get better.

What was your school food experience like?

What what! It's Marathon Week!

2010-03-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

LA MARATHON THIS SUNDAY!

as in.... 144 more hours! holy smokes! Am I ready for it....???

I haven't written about it on the blog in hopes that if I ignored it/didn't mention it, it would be a non-issue.... but my right knee has been bothering me. A lot. So much so that I had to ditch out on the 5 mile run yesterday. Not that that run was going to make or break the marathon, but.... It was the first run I ever had to completely ditch. Uh oh..... I hope 144 hours, LOTS of Aleve, Foam Rolling, yoga, and adrenaline will carry me through!

Also, are there bloggers out there running in LA who would like to meet up? I would really really be stoked to meet anyone and everyone who are gonna be out there! Drop me a line here or email me at chocolateshoestrings@gmail.com! I am very excited to hear from you!

I just looked at the M arathon Course Entertainment page, and it looks like there's gonna be some good stuff out there for us. I am particularly excited about the Taiko drummers at mile 3, seeing that I'm from Japan and all :) (Taiko image source)

There are also 4 "Block Parties" along the way; I am having a hard time envisioning what those are gonna be like, but anything with the word "party" in it has got to be good! :) And with 25 bands playing along the way.... it's a 26 mile carnival/festival/entertainment bonanza! I am giddy with excitement. As long as my knee holds up long enough.....

Besides getting pumped for the marathon, and not running (meh...) I had a fabulous, albeit extremely short (it felt like) weekend. I did my third session of Bikram Yoga (love love love love love it!) and on Sunday I did a 1600 meter swim followed by a 11mile bike ride.
The swim was glorious. I took only one super short break during the 1600 meters, and I really got in a groove. I felt like I could go on forever, which was exciting, because I've never felt that way before! It just felt natural for the first time. Hooray! Progress! I then proceeded to take advantage of the extra hour of sunlight, and took my bike out for a spin. Does a Swim-bike constitute a "Brick Workout", I wonder? Does it qualify for a "Taper"? Hmm.... both excellent questions to ponder while you read the rest of this babbling random post :)

Despite my knee being not-too-good, I'm really not anxious about this marathon. Since I've already accomplished my goal of "running every step of a marathon" last time, I don't care if I take walking breaks this time, or stop and admire the bands. If I get a PR, hey, awesome! But I'm not counting on it. I just want to experience a new course, a "big race" environment, run with James, and have a fun day. No goal paces, no goal finish times, no expectations, no pressures.

I truly am excited for this weekend. Plus, I get to eat lots of ~~good quality carbs~~ brownies this week :) I just have to keep reminding myself to TAPER. That's gonna be the hardest, esp since my adrenaline is pumping and the weather is gorgeous.

LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! And let me know if you're gonna be there!

Hope you all enjoy the extra hour of sunshine! :)
(sorry about all the !!!!!s in this post. I am just sooooo excited today)
Peace

Feature Friday: Bikram Yoga

2010-03-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Apple Fritter Friday! mmmm. I love this Friday ritual. Have you ever tried any interesting fruit fritters? In Maui I had a pineapple fritter and it was sooooo good. I wonder.... I bet a Peanut Butter fritter would be sinfully amazing.

So on to Today's topic. Bikram Yoga; aka oven yoga. Bikram yoga and I had an unexpected, yet pleasantly surprising reunion this Wednesday. I started Bikram 5 years ago, before it became the new "it" yoga thing. However, due to the cost (Hot yoga can cost major $$$!!!) I had to give it up for a while. (tears....) BUT! The studio near my house, the Bikram Yoga Santa Barbara has a special for new students ($20 for unlimited classes for ten days) so I eagerly signed up to escape the blustery cold weather we've been having. (Image source)

Ahhhh. Bikram. I have missed you so. I missed becoming a glowing red, sweaty, disgusting beast at the end of 90 minutes. I missed the heat guiding me further in my poses. I missed you! I can't believe we had to be apart from each other for so long!

Just to clarify, not all hot yoga is Bikram Yoga. Bikram Yoga is a specific series of 26 poses done in a room heated to 105* F. I have taken "hot yoga" classes that aren't "Bikram". I liked them both, but my heart is set on Bikram :)

Image source

Each pose is repeated twice; starting with the warm up breath exercises, the standing poses, and the mat poses. My favorite are the standing balance poses, such as the Dandayamana-Dhanurasana (Standing Bow Pulling Pose, #6), and the Padangustasana (Toe Stand Pose #12). My least favorite though, is the Dhanurasana (Bow Pose #19). The bow pose is hard! And since it doesn't include any Downward facing dogs, or Chaturangas, my shoulder and writst are happy campers :)

I find that the heat, though, is my absolute favorite part about Bikram. Ahhhhh. The heat. I don't know about you, but I would much rather be a tad bit uncomfortably hot and sweaty than a tad bit shivering cold. That's probably why I can spend hours at a sauna but hate hate hate wintery days. Anyways.

I often do "Bikram Yoga" poses in a non-heated room. Though I find the poses challenging enough, I somehow cannot get the same intensity, the same stretch, the same results without the heated room. Personally, I don't find 105*F to be uncomfortable; I could probably be comfortable a couple degrees higher. I find that the heat allows me to move further into my poses. And that extra inch or so makes a world of a difference in the intensity my muscles are working at. Also, strengthening moves that incorporate a stretch (also seen in Pilates) is less likely to make you sore the next day. Stretching myself beyond my usual range of motion helps me feel looser and more flexible.

I've now gone two days in a row, and though I do have a bit of soreness in my lower back muscles (my weakest muscles), my body feels surprisingly fresh. At the end of each class, my body feels like jello; like I can barely manage to eek out another move. So I know i have gotten a great workout. And unlike most other classes, I actually feel that I get a decent "cardio" workout with Bikram, because I can feel my heart racing after some difficult poses. And yes, I do think Bikram Yoga can assist in weight loss. Another great aspect is that unlike pumping iron, there is less delayed muscle onset fatigue/soreness after yoga. And boy! When I was a regular practitioner, my lower back muscles were STRONG! (probably thanks to these poses: )

Full Locust Pose (image source)

There are many benefits of Bikram Yoga, but there are just as many naysayers. I think Bikram Yoga is just one of those "personal preference" kind of things, just like barefoot running. It definitely does take some getting used to; and I do think it's a bit more intense and advanced than most yoga classes offered at the health clubs. Because the heat will take you further in your poses, you might not be ready for that kind of flexibility if you are a complete beginner. I would probably recommend taking at least a couple of non-heated yoga classes before plunging into Bikram Yoga.

If you've never tried it, but would really like to, here are some of my tips:

Google your city name and the words "Bikram Yoga."
Ask if your local studio offers promotions or discounts for first-timers. (most places usually do)
Maybe practice the sequence in a non-heated environment first. Yogadownload.com offers a great class called "Hot-Power Fusion"
Arrive at least15 minutes (20 is better) before class and get acclimated to the hot temperature in the room
Bring a BIG bottle of water and remember to hydrate WELL, both before and after class. (or else you will get headaches. trust me on this one)
Bring a big towel, maybe a change of clothes for after the class
DON"T be intimidated by all the devotees in the room with the skimpy shorts and bra tops bending like they're Gumby. You are there for YOU. Do what feels right for YOU. Don't overextend yourself the first couple of times. With patience you too will one day bend it like beckham. :)
Don't panic; it's natural to feel a bit dizzy and lightheaded at first. Calmly lay back down, take a big gulp of water, and return when you feel better. It's best to stay in the room.
Don't eat right before class.
Sweat! :)

As for me, I've got 8 days left of hot, sweaty gloriousness. I also have the LA Marathon coming up in 9 days. (which, surprisingly, I am not at all worried about, even though I should be.... hello ITB) I probably won't be able to go more than two or three more times (bummer!) but I just wanted to share my excitement for being reunited with Bikram again. Love! ahh. Happiness.

Well have a super super duper duper awesome freaking weekend! (remember daylight savings time starts on Sunday! yayyyyyy!)
Namaste. Peace

What do YOU think Wednesdays: Your Dream Race?

2010-03-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

Good humptidy humpday morning! Just 11 more days till LA Marathon~woo~! It is incredible how much calmer I am the second time around. Before my first marathon, I was freaking out hardcore, going through a major slump, and doubting everything. But now that I've already accomplished my goal of running every single step of a marathon, I feel so chill about this one. I'm just plain excited and that is how I like it.

With taper week going on, and having to scale back on the intensity of my workouts, I've had time a-plenty to daydream about my "Dream Races." You know, the races in exotic locations you one day want to race if time/money/work/real life issues (you know, boring sh!t like that) weren't a problem. The March issue of Triathlon Magazine has a list of the "100 Best Races on Earth." Awesome.

While sweating it out on the elliptical, I spent a good 20 minutes going through the list and daydreaming like it was my job. There are so many awesome ones!

Here's my top 5 "Dream Races":

Challenge Copenhagen
3.8K swim, 180K bike, 42K run
Because that's where my Dad is from!
Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore
1.9K Swim, 90.1K bike, 21.1K run
Because food in Singapore is the bomb diggity!
Rose Hall Triathlon Jamaica
1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run (shorter option available)
Because man....! Who wouldn't want to go to Jamaica man
Tahiti Nui Triathlon Series
1.5K Swim, 40K bike, 10K run (shorter option available)
Because Tahiti.... is probably just wow.
The Nation's Triathlon
1.5K Swim, 40K bike, 10K run
Because I've never been to D.C., and it will be cool to run by all the buildings I've learned about

I've actually been to Copenhagen and Singapore before, but it would be sooo awesome to return as an athlete. And as for Jamaica... I mean.... if they play reggae music at all, I'm there!

So what do you think? What are your "Dream Races?"

Can be pure running, biking, swimming, triathlon, or any sort of endurance event!

I hope you have a great great great humpday! And thanks again for reading my little bloggie even though I have not been a good blogger lately! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving comments; I love hearing from you all :)

To double or not to double. That is the question.

2010-03-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

Happy (?) Monday blog land! How was your weekend? Sunny? Windy? Chilly? Don't ask why I'm so obsessed about the weather esp since I live in CA where the weather is either "sunny" or "chilly" only, but I think it's just a remnant of weather anxiety from living in Tokyo for 17+ years. lol.

I had a tremendously fabulous weekend: I could get used to this tapering business! I felt like I had so much time on my hands to do what normal people do.... like go shopping all day, go to a cafe, go out for lunch.... things I've been missing out on since like.... April 2009!

Saturday was a big shopping day....at Target, Wal-Mart, and Nordstrom Rack. . What what! Yup. That's where this fashionista gets all her goodies. The only problem is.... all these stores are 45-60 minutes away from where I live. Sad I know. Even sadder are these facts:

Besides running shoes/clothes, the last time

I bought a pair of jeans = 4+ years ago. And I live in Southern CA mind you.
I bought accessories/jewelry = also 4+ years ago
I bought shoes = November 2008
I bought non-work clothes = 6+ months ago

um yeah. Pretty depressing. One of my new years resolutions for 2010 was actually to go shopping more often. I think I have the opposite problem from many young women... I need more clothes! I decided that every two months, I need to get at least one new piece of "grown up" clothing, in order to feel more ladylike and feminine :) So I got two shirts at Nordstrom Rack for $15(!) each, and a pair of shoes at Target for $19.99! And I got so much food at Wal-Mart, all for 60 bucks. It was unreal. Santa Barbara is so DARNED EFFING expensive. Most of the food at Wal-Mart was at least 30%-50% cheaper than at my local supermarkets. Def made the hour drive worthwhile (remember, I'm a broke-ass mofo). Stocked up on canned beans, sardines, spices, brown rice, and oatmeal. :) Yay.

Sunday was a quick and dirty 8 miler. Only 8 measly miles. I felt so.... incomplete. I mean...... breakfast was so boring cause I wasn't able to stuff my face silly. I didn't even get to carbo load on Sat night. Boo! 8 miles just felt so.... minuscule... like my weekend wouldn't be fulfilling unless I had one long, hard, painful workout. I was hell bent on making it a double workout day, to make up for the fact it was "only" 8 miles. As I wondered aloud whether I should go biking or swimming (or both) after the run, James had to remind me that we are in Taper Week; there is NO need to go all out so close to race day, I needed rest, and I didn't want to risk any sort of injury/pain. I was still not convinced.

It's only 8 miles.... it's sunny out.... it's the weekend.... I want to ride my bike..... Oh, the age old question; to double or not to double. That is the question.

I knew that if I got on the bike or in the pool after a short 8 miler, I would be too endorphined up, and would PUSH myself in the pool or on the bike. Don't ask. Maybe I like pain or something. I ruminated on the thought for a few miles, but finally decided to do the responsible thing and NOT DOUBLE. I know. Heartbreaking. Being an adult sucks. :) And you know what I did instead? You're not going to believe this: I went to the library. Yup. I am such a mature adult. I worked on a long-term project I am working on (not blog/athletics related) and gave myself a pat on the back. Shocking I know. :) I think that in the end, it was the smartest choice, because this morning, I woke up with fresh legs! Haven't felt that in a while!

It's going to be a tad bit difficult to tame my workout desires as taper week progresses. But I have to keep my eyes on the big picture (Marathon PR) and not the short term instant gratification (killer swim sesh or whatever). Oh the things you learn during training.

Well I'm off to brainstorm fulfilling yet "easy" workouts for the rest of the week. If you have any suggestions, throw them my way! Now have an awesome day and a spectacular week!

International Wednesday: Happy Girl's Day

2010-03-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Ohayo! Good morning runner friends!

Instead of What do you think Wednesdays today, I wanted to change it up because today is a special day in Japan.

March third is Girl's Day, or Hina Matsuri.

Girl's Day is a day is a super old tradition in Japan; it's a day for families to pray for the happiness, health, and prosperity of daughters :)

What makes Girls Day special to so many young girls, (and not so young girls like me, haha) are the dolls. Like this:

(Image source)
Isn't it so beautiful?
Every year, families will set up a similar display. Most people only display the main couple, which is the emperor and empress on the top shelf. They are dressed in the kimono style of the Imperial Court of the Heian Period. It's so intricate, detailed, gorgeous, and soooo beautiful!

I remember my elementary school had an impressive display of Girls Day dolls, and every year, they invited us to come see it. I remember the excitement and the admiration I felt every time I saw it. It really holds a special place in girls' hearts. My mom would also set up a display at home. We only had the main couple, but I remember them being so beautiful and delicate. And knowing I only saw them once, and knowing they were handed down from my grandma made it even more special.

The display is usually accompanied by blossoms and hina-arare, or pink colored rice crackers. It can also be accompanied by sweet rice sake. :)

A close up on the dolls:

(Image source)
To celebrate, my dad sent me a more modern, chic version of the Hina Ningyo (Girls Day Dolls):
Cute, huh?

The only thing is, as soon as March third ends, you have to put away the dolls.

Otherwise, as superstitions/traditions says; your daughter will have troubles getting married :)

True story.

So here's to all the girls and daughters out there! Happy Girls Day!

So I tried to come up with a clever way to relate this story to running. Hmm... the emperor goes on a jog. How to run in a kimono. None of them were that clever. So I gave up. :)

But on the training front, I guess things are going well. ITB pain is lessening, I'm taking it easier on the working out, and just generally hanging out. Feeling pumped for LA Marathon!

Peace!

22 miles hurt, thank goodness for taper weeks

2010-03-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

Pinch punch first day of the month!

Happy March everyone! March brings lots of good things, like Girl's Day, the Daylight Savings Time (yay more sunlight after work!) and of course, the LA Marathon! (21 days, what what)

Yesterday was the last official LSD run before the big day; all 22 frigggggin miles of it. It was only the third time James and I had run that far/long... and it was as daunting as the first time around. 22 miles. Does that ever become easy, I wonder? :)

Of course, my favorite part about LSD runs is the "carbo-loading." (cough cough chocolate doughnut what? cough cough who me?) For the pre-run dinner, we tried a new variation on a recent favorite food of mine: Polenta. At Trader Joe's, you can get ready-to-eat Polenta for only $1.99, and one of those things is enough to feed a very hungry James and Julia for two meals. (that's a lot of food)

The new variation consisted of Polenta Pizza: rounds of polenta topped with BBQ tri-tip, (James is the grill master) spinach, mushrooms, marinara sauce, Parmesan cheese, and shredded cheese. Pop it into a 390* oven for 10-15 min and voila: carb heaven.

Sorry for the yucky photo, but it was tastey. He had five, I had three, along with some fried rice.

Pre-run morning breakfast was the usual waffles/banana/coffee spread. Yum.

Ok. On to the run. We finally managed to start a run before 10 AM. Success!
The weather was perfection; clear and cool. (so glad the rains stopped the day before!)

The run consisted of two 11 mile loops. We parked one car at the start/stop/midpoint, and one car at mile 6/16, and stashed it with water/Gatorade/food/food/food.

Miles 1-13 was a blast. Body felt good. And we were having one of the most stimulating conversations ever. The time and miles just flew by. So far so good.

Waffles pit stop at mile 10.5. Yum yum yumminess. Please excuse the gross sweatiness. Yes. I like to eat solid food on runs. Is that weird?

Then all of a sudden, around mile 15/16(?) my right ITB started acting up like a bratty hormonal teenager throwing a tantrum. The pain was sharp. It hurt. It was annoying. It pissed me off. We took a break at mile 16-ish to stretch and re-fuel. I had a Banana Peach Carb Boom! (not my favorite flavor; a little too fake on the banana front, but still enjoyable, kind of like candy) and then James came up with the most genius idea ever. He squeezed his Double Espresso Carb Boom! onto one of the waffles as a topping. ummmmm.... WOW. It was incredible. I make some pretty bomb waffles, and the addition of the Carb Boom! as a topping was just like putting chocolate syrup on it or something. Absolutely delightful. Will definitely be repeating this again. I guess you know you're a runner when you start incorporating energy gels into your diet as an ingredient.

The stretching only helped for a bit. By mile 17.5 it was screaming at me again. I could hardly bend my knee it hurt so much. But for some reason I was just so full of adrenaline. I kept shouting and grunting, and James was so encouraging. The endorphins were racing through my blood. All of a sudden at mile 19, I had this surge of animal instinct to run for it. Just run my little heart out. Who knows where this energy suddenly came from, but it was fast. It was primal. It felt GLORIOUS. All of a sudden there was no pain. Only a desire to run as fast as possible.

After the little sprint was a two mile cool down and this:

I'm doing my best interpretation of "Try not to collapse into one sweaty, painful, miserable lump of flesh on the ground."

Every last step. Finito. Done. Booya.

LA Marathon; bring it on baby!

Though my ITB is tight as a mofo today and my knee still hurts, I know it's nothing some Ibuprofen and a lot of foam rolling, and 21 days can't take care of. I feel confident I'll be fine. LA: I am ready for you.

A huge shout out to my dad who completed the Tokyo Marathon this weekend!

Have a splendid week everyone!

Feature Friday: Totally nerdified

2010-02-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok that is all :)

Thanks for all your interesting comments on the nutrition label discussion. It really is interesting to hear different opinions, new knowledge, etc. I think for now, I'm just gonna have to brush up on my math skills. This is easier said than done for someone who needs to use her fingers to figure out 7X9. And I wish I were kidding. (Apparently, according to my fingers, it is 63)

So I know earlier in the week, I promised to debut my new look. So even though I look like a villain from the Matrix, or some deranged online stalker, here it is:

I threw in some Japanese in there per a reader's suggestion! :)

So um yeah. It is confirmed. I've always felt like a nerd, but felt that something was missing. Now I feel complete! haha.

The story is that I never realized I had bad eyes. I mean... I knew my vision wasn't perfect, but I didn't think it was that bad. I just thought it was normal that I couldn't see far away, or read the TV screen, or read street signs. I never thought twice about it until I went to go get my Japanese driver's license renewed back in December.

DMV Man: "Do you wear glasses?"
Me: "no"
DMV Man: "And you're driving like this? You're gonna kill someone!"
Me: "My eyes aren't that bad...."
DMV Man: "Let's just HOPE you see enough today to pass the test!"

Um...ok. Uh oh......
So I went to the optometrist, and WOW! I never realized exactly how much I wasn't seeing until I tried on some lenses. WOW! Everything is crystal clear now!

And what a difference it makes when driving at night! I never realized just how much I was "guesstimating" while driving in the dark. I was guessing where the lines on the road were, guessing the distance between cars.... oh boy! (Good thing I live in a very small town with only like, one major road)

I found these Danish frames at the Optometrist's office, and I am in love with them! Of course they fit my face well because I am Danish too! Yay, how perfect is this? :)

So I know it's not running related. But there is a life lesson to be learned: Get your eyes checked out! :)

Running related updates include the last long run before the LA Marathon. 22 miles.... no biggie, right....? I am just hoping and praying to dear god that it stops raining by Sunday. I am really quite tired of this El Nino weather. Wish me luck :)

Have a super splendid awesome sweet kick-ass weekend!

What do YOU think Wedenadays 6 - Nutrition Food Labels

2010-02-24T08:00:00.001-08:00

Rain, rain, go away, come again when I'm done marathon training..... If you sing it out loud, the words actually fit the tune. I'm quite the Mozart right here. I must be a born genius or something :)

So let's dive right in shall we? This week's What do you think Wednesdays is a topic that has left me frustrated quite a number of times: Food Nutrition Labels.(image source)

While I appreciate the fact that American laws require all packaged foods to include a nutrition/food label, even on salads greens! - I often feel like I'm being tricked; like I'm being laughed at by all the fat cats in the food industry with their nice leather office chairs. (BTW in Japan, only a handful of items come with nutrition labels. So I do like the fact that in America, even water has a nutrition label)

I feel like the food industry is having a good laugh at our expense - the unassuming, naive consumer. A feat of legerdemain for the food industry to make us believe we are eating healthy... but I can hear them snickering now.

Why do I feel tricked? Well, according to this article by William Neuman in the NY Times, "official serving sizes for many packaged foods are just too small. And that means the calorie counts that go with them are often misleading."

Have you noticed this too? Like, a bottle of coke is 20oz. On the nutrition label, it says it's 110 calories.

"Great! Only 100 calories? I'll take it," you think.

But WAIT! upon closer perusal...
it says Serving Size: 8 fluid ounces = 110 calories.
And wait!
There are 2.5 servings in the bottle.

WTF. So that means.... there's double plus half... wtf I suck at math.... so that's 110+110+(110/2) WTF! I don't want to figure this shit out. How annoying is that! (the answer is 275 calories BTW)

So now, all of a sudden, that seemingly innocuous drink of 11o calories is a whopping 275 calories. That's 3 miles of running! Yowza. Just for a quick thirst quencher.

Another case in point: My beloved tofu.
One package is 19 oz, and it has four blocks of tofu in it. So I'm thinking, that's about 20 oz divided by four pieces, which is about 5 oz per block. Easy, right? Not so much.

The food label says each serving size is 3 oz and there's 6 servings per container. Huh? WTF? 6 servings? But there's only 4 pieces in there! WTF! And besides... 6X3=18 oz... but the box says 19oz.... WTF? So each block of tofu is how many grams of protein? Ok Let's see. If there are 6 serving sizes of 3 oz each, that's 18 total oz. 18 oz/4 pieces = 4.5 oz each piece. If each 3 oz serving has 7g protein, each 4.5 oz block would have 7+(1/2X7)=10.5g protein. And if 3 oz = 60 calories, each block is 90 calories.

PHEW! That was a lot of work! WHY THE EFF ARE THEY MAKING ME DO ALL THESE CALCULATIONS?

I mean, who buys a 20 oz bottle and only drinks 8 oz? Why would I buy a tofu that's nicely pre-cut into four pieces, only to eat only 3 oz of the 4.5 oz block? WTF WTF WTF!
AND I HATE MATH! And I hate the fat cat food biz a-holes for making me do math! GAH!

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Anyway. So the above mentioned article goes on to say that "the FDA is now looking at bringing serving sizes for foods like chips, cookies, breakfast cereals and ice cream into line with how Americans really eat." Oh, you mean, you're finally realizing I'm not just gonna eat the 3 oz of my 4.5 oz piece of tofu? Well Congratu-freaking-lations! (insert sarcasm here)

Moreover, they are looking at placing the nutrition label in a more prominent location, like the front of the box, in hopes that there "could be a greater sense of public caution about unhealthy foods." Apparently, "If you put on a meaningful portion size, it would scare a lot of people." Furthermore, "To consumers, the serving size appears to be inconsistent and unintuitive... they have trouble trusting it." WTF! They needed professors to figure this shit out????? Wow. Um... hello, like, d'uh!

I mean... a serving size of granola is listed as 1/4 cup. Seriously folks? Who eats that little granola? That's barely enough to top yogurt with!
I mean.... I wouldn't be surprised to buy a carton of eggs, and have the nutrition label say "Only 35 calories!" only to find out later that the serving size was half an egg. Come on folks, get with the program. Stop trying to trick us, or make us USE MATH. meh.

Deep breaths.
Well sorry about the rant! I guess half the anger is that I really hate having to do unnecessary math calculations. But mainly, I just don't get why the nutrition labels have to be so darned misleading! When a serving of chips says 100 calories, it's easy to think that's not so bad. But when it consists of only 9 chips... come on now. Who can stop themselves at only 9 chips?

I'm not exactly a naive shopper or eater, so I'm aware of these things, and no matter how much I hate math, I actually take the time to figure it out. But I know my friends who take one quick glance at the label and decide it's "low-calorie" only to eat the entire package, not knowing the entire package is 2.5 times the calories listed!

So bottom line: yes, I'm glad the FDA is finally taking their heads out of their asses and realizing they are kind of full of BS. But it took them 20 years to realize this...? come on now.

*end rant*

So what do you think about Nutrition Labels?

Have you ever feel like you've been tricked?
What kind of changes would you like to see?
Do you think this kind of effort is too little too late in the fight against obesity?
Do you hate math too? :)