On the road again

On the road again
I'm back in the road. That isn't such a bad thing. I planned this trip much better than the last. 
The last trip was to Seattle. I tried to maximize my time in the office and in so doing, well, screwed myself. 
I went to work early that morning after getting up at 5:30 am. I worked until around 1:30 or so and hopped on a flight to Seattle. The plane landed around 8:40 pm and I then had time to rent a car, drop my bags at the hotel and then drive 2 hours to the job site where I was meeting the crew. 
I got back to the hotel around 6:30 am and had to be up at 10:00 am to meet the crew for some training. So a 25 hour day followed by a "full" 3 hours of sleep. There's a good idea! 
The rest of that day went fine but I only managed another 3 hours of sleep before I headed off to meet the crew at another job site about 1.5 hours away. 
I did finally manage a few hours of sleep that week. No workouts though. Only 2-3 meals. 
I followed that week with the LA 13.1 mentioned in a previous post. I did fine. 
So this week is much better planned. 
First, the job sites are within 30 minutes or so of the warehouse and they don't start until 5:00 am. I am using today to travel and visit some previous job sites and I will get to bed early after a short run.  Tomorrow will be an early morning but the day won't be too long.  I will visit the crew at a job site, do some more store visits, and drive to Colorado Springs. I have one more store to visit there but that will be a fairly short trip and then I am done. 
Much better planned. And besides, killing yourself for a boss who doesn't even know you are gone seems silly, don't you think?

On a side note. I'm a bit worried about this flight. They said it was full but there are only about 7 of us here at the gate. I got a seat at the "back" and I'm in isle 4. This should be fun. At least we don't have to go over any mountains to get from LA to Denver.     

Success!!!

There are various kinds of success when it comes to sport. Most of them are related to finish times. You want the best one you can get, usually. I had a different kind this weekend when I did the Los Angeles 13.1. The kind of success I had isn't graded by my finish time, which was a PR by the way, but was graded by my ability to stick to a plan.

I had a few people comment to me something along the lines of, "You sure do blow up a lot," and "Why do you keep doing exactly the same thing and hoping for a different result? If you go out too hard you are going to blow up."

Amazingly, I took this to heart.

I decided that instead of trying to "race" the LA13.1 I was going in with a plan!

PLAN:

Run 10 miles at a 9:00/mile pace.

Run 3.1 miles as fast as I could.

Do it in that order, not the other way around, like you usually do.

RESULT:

Ran 10 miles at an 8:57/mile pace.

Ran 3.1 miles fast as hell.

Success!!!

Final time, not that it matters was 1:53:39. Most importantly, I ran really strong at the end of 10, I have never done that before, and I ran my desired pace and proved to myself that I could do it. Pacing and patience, never really a strong suit of mine. I know I have a long way to go before I can say that I am good at it but this was a huge step in the right direction.

Writing blog posts in your iPhone sucks.

No really. It sucks. I say this not only because of the difficulty of typing on this litle tiny screen bit also because, aparently, if you don't finish your post before you have to go find your gate, it erases the entire thing. Well, that would suck if I had just finely crafted a brilliant blog about why my travels suck more that yours. Of course that would be whining and self serving so I probably didn't do that. Probably.

Of things learned, and then forgotten.

I ran today. It went terribly. Oh, the first part of the run was good. You know, the first half, the part where you run as far as you are going to be from where you are done. That's the beauty of the out and back, you have to run back.

It's also the pain.

I started the run around 11:00 AM. I went down to Santa Monica with Charrissa and we met up with Eve. It was a beautiful day, as soon as we got there we started stripping off layers. It's January for god sake, we should need layers. I had an 8 mile run. 4 miles of warm-up and sub-tempo pace and then descending pace on three of the 4 miles back with a 1 mile cool down.

I should have figured something was up when I was about to start and I realized that I was thirsty. Oh, there's good news.

I felt good at first, easy miles, had to hold myself back to keep my pace where it was supposed to be. Then at about mile 3.5 everything fell apart. Just before my turn around the wheels came off. The respiration rate shot up, the legs felt a bit wooden, and I was no longer having much fun. It no longer felt as though I was running with a tail wind, it felt just the opposite.

At the turn I did stop for a second and get a drink from a fountain, my second stop, but at this point I think it was already over.

Post run analysis: I ate about 1700 calories yesterday, didn't drink enough water, and had dark urine when I woke up. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, especially when you combine it with a rough bike ride spent mostly in zone 4 two days prior. Not a good idea, not a good time.

Positive observations:

1. I don't suck. Well, I do, but mostly because I can't seem to remember simple things like, "You should not be dehydrated before you start running and you should probably eat enough that you don't bonk." As for the not sucking, well, I felt great and ran well until I ran out of calories and fluid.

2. My new shoes rock! They are like strapping pillows to your feet. I felt no pain, and for the first time in a bit my Achilles didn't hurt at the end of my run, good news.

3. It was 72, sunny, and beautiful. What a great run in Santa Monica. This is one I won't forget for a while. Oh, don't worry, I will likely forget the lessons. That seems to be what I do.

Ok so lets have some beer then...

Here is the workout on TrainingPeaks.

Beer of the Month Club

So, I am sure I am not the first to say this, but this has got to be one of the coolest presents ever. No, really, it's the greatest. The beer of the month club. Here's the idea. Somebody goes out, drinks a bunch of beer, and then sends it out to a bunch of people to try. It's great! (and by the way that sounds like the coolest job ever!)

My sister and brother-in-law got that for me for Christmas. So what am I going to do about it? Well, I am going to write about it. Yep, I knew you didn't care, but I am still going to do it anyway. Suck it up. Oh, and enjoy, lord knows I will.

Ok, maybe I suck a bit less now

I raced LA Triathlon this weekend. I did well. Very well, in fact.

On my swim I was pretty pleased about my ability to actually get through the waves. Many did not, in fact there were a few people who saw the waves and decided not to even start the race, a concept I can't even fathom (hee hee, nautical humor!) but I am sure they couldn't comprehend why I would even go out there. The surf was nasty, and so much fun. Fortunately I realized this on my warm-up so I was prepared for the ferocity of the waves. They were easily 5-6 feet and breaking in three surf lines. Once you got through one, you had another right behind it to contend with, and because they were right on the beach you had to get all the way to the bottom to avoid getting tumbled.

Once out, there was still a pretty big swell and on the return leg of the swim you were nearly in one of the breaks so you had to be careful not to get too close to shore you you would get tossed.

I got out of the water, completely dizzy and struggled up the sand to transition. I found my bike, pretty much all alone. That was disheartening.

The ride was nice. Not nearly as flat as everyone told me it was, but that was ok. On the plus side, we had a head wind for two of the 3 legs back and forth from the Staples center. I listened to my coach and pinned it pretty much the whole way. At the end I felt good and just barely managed to keep the girl who passed me in the last 2 miles of the ride in site. Sweet!

The run, well that was a kick in the junk. At mile 1 and 4 there was a nice big hill. About 300 vertical feet. We got to run it twice. But, on the other hand, you have the downhill! Yea, no you don't. That sucker was so steep you really couldn't run down it, you had to just hold on and hope you didn't blow a knee.

I came across the finish line in 2:41:41. That was good enough for 31 of 149 in my age group. Top 20%. I can live with that. If you want to see the splits you can see them here. Then type in my bib number (736).

Wow! I suck at this!

So I might be fighting a bit of burn-out. I raced this last weekend and I am really unhappy with the results. I did fine, 9th in my age group and 9.5 minutes faster than last year but I was hoping for so much more.

I am sure that there are people out there who will tell me that I wasn't prepared for the heat, or that my GI problems that caused me to throw up at mile 20 on the bike are partially to blame. The problem with that is that I don't buy. I wasn't ready. That's it, I simply wasn't ready.

I'm now torn between being upset by that and a single minded drive to prepare for next season NOW, and the realization that I might need to go play some other sports for a while and come back to this in a few months.

I have 2 more tri's this year. That will take me to 12, I think, races overall this season, certainly a lot but I am trying to catch up on race experience and the only way to do that is to... well, race.

I am also looking into the Cyclocross series and a winter mountain bike race series nearby. Both of those should help. Great for staying fit and a good break from what I am currently doing.

Anyhow, more later.

I ran into the ass of a bee today

Yea, you read that right. I was just cruising along, minding my own business when I ran into a bee. He was probably a happy bee, returning from a long day pollinating strawberries in Oxnard, California when I abruptly ended his life.

Well, I'm not sure I ended his life immediately, but I am sure I significantly shortened it. I don't think bees do first aid or have prosthetic stingers. I am pretty sure I ended his life because I distinctly had a stinger stuck in my leg.

I think what happened is that I actually ran into his stinger. I don't think he had time to actually hit me, it was probably an accident.

Either way by the time I stopped I had a welt with blood running from a small hole above it. Not only did I get stung, I also got poked by the same stinger.

Today it is a golf ball size bump on my left leg above the knee. I'm not letting it slow me down though. I can drink beer just fine with this thing all swollen up!

I might actually be Canadian now, eh.

I set off from Seattle early in the morning on the 27th of March in the year 2009. Ok, it wasn't all that early, I somehow managed to get people buying me drinks in the hotel bar the night before and well, it hurt to blink the next day.

So anyway, I set off from Seattle, driving the company truck filled with parts. I was going to import the vehicle into Canada. I had no idea what the process was. I had not idea what I was doing. In fact, I thought for sure I was going to get arrested so I secreted a paperclip into my hair, not because I thought I could use it to get the cuffs undone, but simply because I think that is what you do when you are about to get arrested.

I made it to the border in record time. The record wasn't a speed record, it was actually more of an amazement, but I couldn't say that in the last sentence, it doesn't make any sense.

So there I was...

It was ugly.

I won't bore you with the details but after several hours, a customs broker, several calls to the home office, and a large payment in small bills dropped behind the third bush on the right side of the building, I was permitted to enter Canada.

The welcome was actually sort of nice. I crossed the border to fanfare (in my head) and was immediately flagged down, pulled from the truck and forcefully kissed full on the mouth by the sweet smelling, flaxen haired border patrol.

Too bad it was a dude...

More Racing

Yep, I went out and did it again.  This time it was a national caliber race held right here in good old Phoenix.  What that means is that I raced the same course that the Pros did, except that I did it the day before, and FAR FAR slower.  

I still accomplished my goals though:  Don't fall down (much), and have a good time.  

I know I beat somebody in the race though.  I know this because he got a flat tire and as he was about to get back on the course I flew (its all relative) by him I kicked him into a cactus where he remained for the remainder of the day.  Part of that is not true.