Catching up

Every time I think "Oh, I'm going to blog about that" and then it just never happens. Needless to say, we've been busy over here trying to fit it all in.

Over the long weekend we went to Pismo Beach and had an AMAZING time. Seriously, the California weather was perfect for a long weekend at the beach. It was such a great time that we booked a return trip.

Many beautiful sunsets were enjoyed

We'd spend all day at the pool, then the girls would take showers and put pj's on to catch the sunset

Lots of scootering along the path

We visited the beach and tide pools every morning before heading to the pool

We even all got some running in

After that it was home and business as usual. It also meant that I was going to see an increase in training with some double workout days. Which seem so much harder than if I just did the two workouts as one, but I guess that'st he idea. Finding the time to get afternoon workouts in with kids, homework, tutoring and getting dinner ready is really difficult, but I did pretty well managing it all. Not to say that I can do that all of the time. I got lucky with my husband taking Thursday off which allowed me to get a second swim in Thursday early evening. By the time Sunday rolled around I was exhausted and I do believe my family was exhausted of me and my double workouts, and I was out of sports bras.

While I'm not exactly where I had hoped to be fitness wise, I do feel like I will survive my first race of the season in two weeks. I've run the run course, so I know what to expect there. The bike course is a 5 mile loop and is unfamiliar to me, but I figure I should be able to fake it, I think.

Swim etiquette and hot tub conversations

I'm sure we could write a billion books with all of our swim related stories and funnies. I have been swimming less than a year so I am certainly no expert when it comes to swim etiquette, but I do think of myself as a courteous person in general. If presented in a situation when I have to share a lane, I always ask the person occupying the lane if it's okay to share and what they would like to do; circle swim or split the lane. If I'm swimming and I notice the lanes are getting crowded, I pick a side and swim on the side to make it easy for someone to jump in and share the lane.

Based on the three outdoor pools that I swim at the most, this is generally never an issue as most of the folks there are lap swimmers and with so many lanes to choose from I very rarely had to share a lane and I never had to circle swim.

Recently 24 Hour Fitness opened a new facility in Walnut Creek with an indoor pool and childcare. I've been sucking it up all winter with my outdoor pools, I swam in torrential downpours and freezing temperatures. The only real issue is that I have a four year old who goes to pre-school 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. In order to get my swims in I would have to drive to Walnut Creek to Clarke Memorial Pool right after her drop off to get my swim in. This would leave me just enough time to come home, shower and eat before I had to run and pick her up. This also meant that it left no time to run errands, grocery shop or go to doctor's appointments without her. The other downside was that on days that I needed to run (non school days for her) I would have to bring her to the gym and run on the treadmill, which we all know is uninspiring and boring. When this new gym opened up, I was thrilled. This meant I could swim on days she didn't have school, bring her with me and she could play at the childcare while I swam laps, sat in the hot tub and took a shower. This is also meant I could run outside on days she was at school. I became a seriously happy camper and not a mopey athlete not thrilled with her schedule or training.

This is where the fun starts. While there are some folks at the gym who lap swim like myself (like the guy who swam in his tri kit) there are way more recreational swimmers. I'm not even sure if they qualify as recreational swimmers, lets call them "plungers". The lap pool, hot tub and steam rooms are all together and co-ed. This makes for lots of good people watching during sets. Lots of folks work out (I think) and then come to use the hot tub or steam rooms. Most of these folks are older men, who I'm guessing are retired based on the time of the day they are there.

I've seen lots of fun things. A woman swimming with a shower cap on. Not a swim cap, but a shower cap. She was swimming with her head above water so I guess she really didn't want to get her hair wet. Earlier this week I was sharing a lane with a gentleman who simulated a very nice open water swim for me. Every time we passed each other I would get a nice mouth full of water instead of air. I'm not going to complain, because I really need practice with this. It was a great exercise in spitting out the water and coming back for another breath. With six of us in the three lane pool there was lots of chop to simulate an open water start, again more great practice. In the lane next to me was one lap swimmer and one lane walker. Interesting, my outdoor pools are too deep for lane walkers so this was a new one for me.

Today, I was happy to have a lane to myself, sort of. I was done with my main set and getting ready to do my cool down when I turned around to notice a woman getting into my lane. The other two lanes were open, but she was getting in my lane. Okay, I swam past her as I started my cool down hoping she would just swim under the lane line to another lane. She didn't. She was a plunger! She had come from the hot tub and was looking for a cold plunge in my lane. Okay, I won't give you the stink eye over a plunge, but it seemed to be more than just a plunge, it was more like a soak. As I headed out on my next 50 I made sure to kick really hard and splash her. Let's be honest, I'm a puller and not a kicker, so I may have exerted myself a wee bit much on that but I was trying to get my point across that there was a better place to lounge than the side wall of my lane. She sat there for my entire cool down, in my lane with an empty pool. I'm sure that was good practice for something.

After that I got in the hot tub, ah the best part of a swim. Unless you are in a gym filled with old men who like to talk, a lot. One was a skydiver, the other a former B-52 pilot and the third was a wannabe who liked asking lots of questions so the other two could talk on and on about about skydiving and free-falling and packing parachutes. I tried really hard to close my eyes and tune them out. I'm not sure what it is about the hot tub that drives people to talk endlessly. The first few times it was about the new gym and how all the other ones suck. For the most part, I close my eyes to avoid eye contact so that I don't have to engage in any conversations, this is my quiet time damn-it!

Don't get me wrong, I love my new schedule and that I can bring my youngest with me, I just need to get used to the new "etiquette" with the plungers. Maybe some ear plugs for the hot tub.

2013 TriSports.com Champion

I am super excited to be representing TriSports.com for 2013 as a TriSports Champion! This means another year of great discounts for you! I have a new referral code for 2013, MYOX (easy to remember) and this year my referral code earns you a 15% discount, so use it lots! It's always listed in the right side of my blog if you forget what it is.

I had started my training for 2013 in late November only to be plagued with one illness after the next. Needless to say I am just picking back up on my training for the year. I may have to rethink some of my early year goals based on this (as I recover from a sinus infection) but I am confident that I can get back on track for the rest of the year.

First up is the South Bay Sprint Duathlon in Morgan Hill. I had a great time volunteering at this race last year so I thought I would give it a try this year. This will only be my second duathlon and there are a lot of super speedy folks who compete at this race. For me, this will be a race to gain experience and work on transitions and nutrition. I'm also very excited because so many friends will be there, and one of the big aspects of the sport for me is the social part!

Right after that I will be running in the Oakland Running Festival's 5k. I was so impressed with how well run the event was that I really wanted to do it again this year, and maybe next year I'll do the 1/2 marathon to get one done early in the year. In addition to that I have signed on to help the race director this year. That means you may see me at some other race expo's promoting the Oakland Running Festival! In addition to that I am looking for high school or college sports teams and clubs who would like to volunteer the day of the race as course marshal's. With three distances we need about 100 marshals out on the course. All volunteers receive t-shirts and community service credits if you need those. The race is on March 24th, please let me know if you or someone you know would be interested in volunteering.

2012 in review

I feel like 2012 was finally a good year! It seems like the first time in a long time where I wasn't reflecting on the end of the year and thinking "phew, glad that one is over!" While there were lots of challenges this year, we seem to be ending the year in a good place and for that I am very thankful.

I PR'd in every running distance I raced this year, I did my first duathlon and triathlon this year, so it was a very exciting year for me. I hope next year is as much fun as I continue to try and balance being a wife and Mom and making time for my hobbies.

As 2012 comes to a close here are my stats for the year.

Swim: 39,666 yards (yay for a new sport this year!)
Bike: 536 miles
Run: 310 miles

For a total of 125 hours.

Dam Run 10k - January 2012

Oakland Running Festival 5k - March 2012

Diva's Half Marathon - 19 minute PR

Diva's Half Marathon May 2012

Daffodil Duathlon - May 2012

See Jane Run Triathlon - September 2012

Finishing my first triathlon

Walnut Creek 5k - December 2012

 Happy New Year and many thanks to TriSports.com for helping me to meet all of my goals and encouraging me to complete my first Triathlon!

Dam Jingle Bell Run

This will be my seven year old daughter's race report. Originally I signed us up to do this race together. We had so much fun at the Mermaid Run that I thought this would be a fun race for us to do. The goody bag is a stocking and they give you bells to pin to your shoes so we all jingle-jingle during the run. Since I had been so ill all week we made the decision to have my husband run in my place with our daughter. Having been sick for two weeks, I didn't want to push it and get sick once again.

The other great thing about this race is that's in our backyard and with a 9 am start we didn't have to get up super early. We brought the entire family and met one of our fellow Mini-Mermaids at the start line.

Mermaids ready to run

 I was a little worried that we had not done any running since the Mermaid run. She got sick over Thanksgiving, then I got sick and then I got sick again, I never was able to get her over to the track like I had hoped. Thankfully this was not an issue. Apparently, she decided that sprinting up the hills was a good idea (I have no idea where she gets this from). My husband said that she would yell "I love hills!" and start passing people as she sprinted up them. The girls also talked the entire time, non-stop. I did tell them that if they can talk while they are running, they are running a good pace. It's nice to see they were putting that to good use.

The time that they were gone was excruciatingly painful for the four year old. She wanted to run the 5k distance badly. 38 minutes is a lifetime when you are waiting for your Dad and sister to get back.

sprinting to the finish

This is classic

 After the girls finished Santa made his appearance! This was awesome, since we don't trek anywhere for Santa pictures. Although they did ask later if that was the "real" Santa.

Before the kids Santa Dash, I went to check the girls times and much to my surprise they not only PR'd they came in first and second in their age group (5-9)! Everyone was so excited and impressed!

Mermaids coming in 1 and 2. 

Finally, it was time for the Santa Dash! The four year old had been waiting all morning for her turn!

She is taking this very seriously

Finally smiling once she realized she got to Santa first

Another first place medal in the house! 

After running the 5k, the older girls ran in the Santa Dash also. 

I am so glad we did this. Wolf Pack Events doubled the amount of participants this year for this race. I think this will be a family event every year, we all had such a great time. We're even thinking about everyone doing the Dam Run in January, the little one so desperately wants to run a 5k, we may have to let her try. 

I couldn't be more proud of these two little girls and their love of running.

Walnut Creek International Half Marathon & 5k

I signed up for this race because it's close to home and I love supporting local races. I chose the 5k distance so that I could scope out the race organization and determine if I want to run the 1/2 marathon next year.

 On Friday I headed to the expo to pick-up my bib and goodies. I was in and out in about 10 minutes. The only booth I stopped at was the ZICO booth to grab some chocolate coconut water. I think if it's your first go around at an expo they are more fun. My first expo was the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon in Vegas, it was ginormous, I think everything sort of pales in comparison to that. I picked up my shirt on they way out (which is a really cute long sleeve tech shirt) and headed home.

With all of the craziness that took place the night before ( 7 year old tantrums, husband falling asleep and leaving me with said 7 year old tantrum) I some how only halfway managed to set my alarm, which means I really didn't. I was in the edit screen of changing the alarm time and never hit "done" before I went to sleep. Miraculously, I woke up at 5:20 am, the exact time I thought I had set my alarm for. I got up and did my usual race day morning routine. I wasn't able to stomach my usual chocolate cheerios for breakfast. This didn't raise any alarm as sometimes on race morning my stomach has other ideas about eating so early. I grabbed a banana on the way out the door instead.

Not being sure what to expect for race day parking considering the 1/2 started a half hour before the 5k I arrived to downtown Walnut Creek around 6:15 am, just as I parked the car Mary Sue sent me a text that she had arrived also. We sat in my car for about half an hour to try and stay warm before heading out. Once we decided we were willing to brave the cold temperatures (I believe it was around 37 degrees when I left the house) we headed over to the start just in time to watch the 1/2 marathoners start. I was amazed at how fast the front of the pack was running, it was impressive.

Once we reluctantly checked our jackets I manged to eat about 1/2 my banana before posing for a picture.

Right after this was taken Berenice found us and we headed over to the 5k start. I knew that the course would be congested since this was the old Turkey Trot course, which was fine. I knew in order to keep myself from having a coughing attack that I would need to run a slower pace, so a congested start helps with that. As soon as we made the first right turn onto the trail we slowed to a walk. I kept to a slow easy pace and passed only when it was easy to do so. As we approached the Ygnacio Valley pedestrian bridge there was a  woman who was pushing a stroller and her child was asking why they were running slow. She was explaining how the course was crowded and that they would be able to pass once it cleared out. This made me laugh, because clearly she was saying it loud enough and hoping that the three runners in front of us who were running three wide in their matching shirts would hear and stop running three wide. They weren't getting the message. I ran up right behind them and said "excuse me, can I please squeeze though?", to which they parted and let me pass. This is me working on my runners etiquette instead of being grumpy about people running three wide.

At some point along the way I was certain I had run one mile but my watch had not buzzed alerting me to my first lap, so I peeked at my watch to see I had only run .80 miles. Ouch, that's when I knew it was going to hurt. I focused on just running slow and holding off any coughing. At any point that I felt that little tickle in my throat, I slowed down. Along the way I experienced lots of muscle fatigue, aches from previous workouts and just in general was not feeling great. It made me slightly sad, because I wanted to come out and have fun, not feel like crap. Even with all of this I was passing people, so I tried to just focus on moving forward.

In the last mile of the course we hit the muddy trail. In last year's Turkey Trot Scott had to run this portion and he kept complaining about the mud and how slippery it was, I think that was the point in his 10k when he hit the wall. Running in mud takes a toll on your form as you try to slow down and acclimate to the conditions in order to avoid slipping or falling. I focused on finding the driest part of the trail and running there, when there was not a dry portion I ran to the right of the path on the leaves and foliage that was growing to help with traction.

I knew that I needed to save energy to get up and over the Ygnacio Valley pedestrian bridge, so I took a short walk break so that I could run up the bridge and have never felt such relief as when I reached the top and got to run back down the other side of the bridge. I was in the home stretch and that felt good. There were two women running together that I had been following who were literally running in unison, they had the same form and matching headbands to go with their matching pace. I knew that the grass finish would be difficult, so I decided to pass them right before we hit the grass. They seemed surprised to be passed but didn't alter their pace any.

I crossed the finish line with the most relief I have had in a long time to be done with a 5k run.

glad to be done

I finished this 5k three minutes slower than the Turkey Trot, I knew I would need to run conservative in order to finish and that's what I did. Amazingly my finish ranked me 10/37 in my AG.

This week I am resting up to try and fully recover from whatever this super bug is that I have in order to run the Dam Jingle Bell Run with my 7 year old daughter and a couple of the girls from our Mini Mermaid Running Club. Should be fun.

Storms, flooding and colds

After having such a great Thanksgiving and launching into my training for next year I was hit with multiple obstacles over the last week. First, I got sick. This is a little early in the season for me to be getting sick, I notoriously get sick every year between Christmas and New Year's. Maybe this means this year I will get to enjoy that week.

As I tried not so successfully to get through my first week of training with my head cold, Northern California was hit with a series of storms. We are pretty fortunate because we live on a hill and we typically don't experience flooding but many places near us suffered damaged. Our gym's Kids Club was flooded, Starbucks flooded and I had a friend whose garage flooded. We were lucky that we never lost power here but there was plenty of damage to go around. Lots of accidents with all of the rain, in fact three of our local firefighters were injured when a car crashed into them while they were assisting with a previous accident. Did you know that when emergency personnel or Caltrans are working on the shoulder it's the law to move a lane over. If it is not safe to move over you must slow down. So many of our officers, firefighters and Caltrans employees are killed or injured because of distracted motorists. 

As a result of our storms the pool I have been swimming at was shut down due to flooding and contamination. 

Since I was still pretty sick and my back-up pool's hours are difficult to work with I skipped my swim on Monday. They are hoping to have the pool back up and running next week, but they need to be cleared by the County Health Department first. 

As I have struggled to get back on track and healthy this week I did manage a swim yesterday (why is it everyday I swim it's in the middle of a massive downpour?). Today is a rest day as I prepare for the Walnut Creek 5k on Saturday. It's hard to believe I'll be running on Saturday, lucky for me my only intention when I signed up for this race was to scope out the 1/2 Marathon course for next year. My only goal will be not to cough up a lung along the course and of course have fun.