Back to my roots

Yesterday I took a break from the swim, bike, run. My brother is racing the transpac regatta. It is a sailing race from Long Beach to Honolulu. I rarely get to see him race, so I took advantage of the opportunity and went up to O.C. for the weekend. After an awesome swim workout at masters I didn't feel like riding. So instead of going out solo in the July 4th traffic I drove up to Newport Beach to ride with Brandy. We had a blast on the road! Then it was off to Long Beach to meet up with my brother.
It was fun to meet some of the guys my brother has been sailing with over the years. He is the navigator on a boat called Holua, out of Marina Del Ray. It will take the larger boats approximately 8-10 days to make it to Hawaii. Matthew gave us a quick tour of Holua, and the crew was sent on their way.

Meanwhile, one of the wives of a crew member of Holua arranged for me to join her on a cruise out to the start. I invited Brandy to join me, but didn't realize she had only been on a boat once in her life (and has never been on a sail boat). I guess I take it for granted that growing up I spent almost every weekend sailing on the great lakes of MI.
The boat we went out on was not your typical sail boat! First of all, the 56ft yacht docks right outside the owners house. Snazy! You know when you can park your 56ft yacht at your house that you're doing ok in life. Oh, how I miss the sailing world and the generosity that goes with it. We got on board and made the beautiful 1hr cruise up the Cali coast towards the start.


The race would start and all the boats had to stay north around Catalina. From their each would choose it's own path to Honolulu (predicting the winds and choosing the best route will be Matthew's job!). 2 minutes to start.



Holua was pushed over the line early. After turning back to recross the start they quickly positioned themselves on port and were back in the pack.




We followed Holua (pictured above) for a while, and cheered them on. Matthew did you hear us? haha! The race boats were keeled over, and off to the races. 9 days of that! Realizing they'd be sleeping in small bunks sure makes me appreciate my comfy bed!
We watched the boats sail towards Catalina, and then put our own sails up and took a cruise around the Pacific. Man I miss boating!!! (however this boat was nothing like what I'm use to. Instead of trimming the main with your muscles, you simply push a button and the sails go up, down, in and out). I was in paradise! and Brandy enjoyed her first ride on a sailboat (for not having "sea legs" she did very well moving around the boat!). I think I might need to walk the docks of the San Diego yacht club and get out on the water more often!

Matthew will be updating their progress on his blog. http://sailvolvooceanrace.blogspot./ But thus far things look good!

Every once in a while a break from the swim, bike, run is quite nice! I needed it!!!

Pics here, race report below...

Heading out of the long swim and into T1:


Onto the bike and into the wind!


The wind isn't enough....can we order up some rain too?!?!?


Up and over one of the shorter climbs on the course:


And finally, onto the run (clearly I still need to work on dropping the shoulders and arms!):



Thanks for reading and thank you to everyone for the comments, emails, texts and calls!! Having such awesome support from friends and family makes racing so much more fun!

If I were to share a picture with you from today's activity it would involve a pull buoy, the san diego sun, and me floating slowly up and down the 50m pool. Seriously, running down those 15% grade hills does a number on the legs!

Bermuda Birthdays

The ship has landed. It is beautiful here!!! It is quite nice to be on land again as far as working out goes. The boat's workout room is nice, but I don't get how people do that everyday! If I had to workout in a gym everyday I wouldn't do it. Yuck! I hammered out a great "track" interval run yesterday but I struggled with the treadmill today. I just want to get back to land. Oh and running on a treadmill when the seas are rough is not easy. Luckily we only had a day of rough seas before the beautiful blue waters and blue sky came out to play.

It only took about 20mins of being on land before we walked by the island bike shop. I darted across the street (I think my mom thought I saw my favorite store, but nope it was just a bike shop, and I wanted to know where to swim and where to run). I inquired inside and found a triathlete who lives out here. Looks like I'm all set. Tonight and tomorrow we're going to go out on his boat and get in a 2mile ocean swim. Ahhhhhh, just like that I feel like I'm in love with this place. I like being a tourist, but would hanging with locals is always a ton more fun.

We're off to the beaches to play in the water before I meet up with my islanders for an open water swim. Then we have to go to the Bermuda yaught club. My dad was insistent that we go and have some famous rum drink there.

CHEERS!

Camps end and back to reality....well kind of

Friday is the last day of the work week. But Sunday is the last day of a training week. Today was about getting in the workouts, putting time in the bank, and completing the training week. My workouts today seem like a blur. I shut off my mind and made my way through a good long run. I was at the ranch run early to get in a few extra miles before the group started. Ran the loop at a very slow steady pace.

Here's Lyndsey and I after the run. Yup, the pink compression socks felt like a must this morning!

As is often the case I really didn't want to swim after my run. I could feel the inflammation in my legs, and knew to do nothing would be a mistake. So I floated. 3000yds of being pulled from one end of the pool to the other by the leaders of the lane. Finally they believed me when I said "I am exhausted and am fine at the back of the lane." I looked up at coach Hux and commented that the pool was pretty cold. He kindly reminded me that if I was exerting any effort I'd warm up. Yardage in and done. Now, time for food. Quick nap on the couch while watching bball, and awake to watch the NCAA selection.
Yes...UofM is in- for the first time since my freshman year. Finally! I'm tired, but I still have one more run to get in before I can call the week complete. I tried to think of the fact that so many wish they could go for a run and take in this scenery...
This morning I was 4 minutes short of my planned 2 hours. So anal me had to add on a solid 4 minutes to this second run. More time to take in the beautiful Pacific! And now- the week of training is complete.













Only one more thing to do to complete the day and week: a ridiculously cold ice bath!It was a successful and jam packed week of valuable training. I enjoyed the ability to remove myself from this not so positive world and enjoy and quick escape from the stress! Tomorrow is a new week, with new challenges...Make it a great day!

Desert International Triathlon

I have to admit that I wasn't sure I was ready to start the triathlon season. However, it was quite nice that it started with an international tri instead of the typical Cali half ironman.
The race is low key, and even allows day of registration. So nice compared to the logistics of half and full ironmans!
A large group of us that train at UCSD together went out for the race. Everyone had awesome races, and San Diego athletes took over the podium! The swim was a bit cold, but after warming up for 20mins I didn't mind it all that much. I had a decent swim, but had to make up some ground on the bike. The girl furthest ahead of me was Hayley Piersol (sister of olympic swimmer Aaron). She too can swim! And this young athlete will be one to watch at this distance (future olympian herself perhaps?!?!?!)

I haven't been on my TT bike much since Kona (I think 4 times), so the aero position wasn't as comfortable as it should have been. I tried to hold my speed above 23mph and finish as close to an hour as possible. I didn't get caught by any of the guys in packs until the last mile. I was quickly swooped up. Why is it that us girls can ride alone, but the guys are always in packs. Annoying!

I came off the bike with a few other girls in my age group. I was able to run away from those close to me, and was on a mission to catch those ahead. As I approached mile 4 I had caught a few girls, and no one had passed me. I was told I was in 4th. Just then I passed another few girls - but was unsure what wave they started in and therefore didn't know what place I was in.
It wasn't until the finish that I knew I was third. 3rd overall at my first race....I wanted the win, but was very happy with my race. Shorter races aren't my strongest, but I wanted to hit the water and red line as long as I could. My legs were tired from training, and this was just another training day to get me ready for my key races.
I have been working on my speed, and finally think it is helping. Here's the overall podium pic:

This marked my last race in the 25-29 age group. The winner of our age group was the overall winner as well. I was 2nd, and Brandy was third. It was awesome to share the podium with my good friend, and great athlete, Brandy Bounds (3rd place below)!Huge congrats to all those that had awesome season opening race! It was a competitive field, that didn't disappoint!
I hope that is the beginning of many great races and podium finishes this season. Next up: California70.3 on April 4. This means there are 4 weeks to gain as much fitness as I can. I'll start with 20 x 400's on the track tomorrow morning...