YES!!!!

I typically never win anything. Raffles...races...whatever. It's really not that big deal, but it would be nice if I had my name drawn in a raffle for something....Tonight at the club meeting, i WON 100 dollar gift certificate to one of the local bike shops. Talk about making my DAY...or WEEK...or COUPLE OF WEEKS. I'm already plotting what to buy. (Probably a new saddle for my track bike)

I've been having a particularly rough go of it lately. Maybe a little over trained, maybe not enough sleep, way too much stress which has turned me into a cranky, crabby girl who is notsopleased with training and UTTERLY exhausted. I'm told it will pass. I'm still waiting for it to pass. Waiting...

I will say winning the gift certificate definitely lifted me and my crabby mood. AND my friend BG even won a 50 dollar gift certificate. YEA!

While in many ways this week has sorta been down in the dumps, one of the highlights this week was the best-est trigger point massage...ever. And if you follow any of my yammerings you might know...i hate massages. They are uncomfortable. They usually hurt...a LOT. There isn't a lot of relaxing involved for me. And while this massage wasn't exactly pain free, my massage therapist somehow knew my edge and was able to keep the massage not too painful but work out a lot of my trigger points.

Granted by the end of an hour we were nowhere near done...and my neck even spazed out the next day as it does. I kinda knew I needed more work so I'll be going back next week and we will focus on the neck a little more.

I think I need my head checked

Today my training was: 'ride 50 miles hard' ...zone 3/4 hard. I'm not so good at pushing myself by myself at times...i definitely lolligag way too much on my own...so I recruited (or suckered) my two fast rodie friends Elaine and Mark into being my rabbits. They are faster than me...so it was good to just try to keep up as best as I could...but I also realized at mile 10 when I saw my HR reading 171...i might need to chill it out a little bit. So I dropped back a bit but tried to keep them in my sights as much as possible.

The other part of this was: do a big hill at mile 40...considering the route we decided on,mile 40 turned into: Torrey Pines. Torrey Pines is what people like to do hill repeats around here because well its a steep and reasonably long hill. Since it was a little steeper than necessary we decided on the outside of Torrey and not the gnarly inside of Torrey that I RAN up during La Jolla half...but it still is a big grade for 1+ miles. In truth, I've never done hill repeats on Torrey...i've only heard fabled tales of them. But as far as the outside hill is concerned, I realized today I really need my head checked. My little secret...I fell in love with that hill...i did. In fact I am now wondering when I can next do some actual hill repeats on that hill. Who likes doing hill repeats??!

Something is seriously wrong with my head.

My turn

Trying to buy a condo again...we are up to counter offer number 3...the ball is in my court right now. I don't like this very much. More will be known i think in the next few days. Yep...i really thought that closing escrow RIGHT around the time that I would also be tapering for Vineman 70.3 would be super good timing. How about throwing in a big work trip the week after Vineman too with lots of insane planning that has to go into that? All or nothing for me I guess. Just mash it all together...right?

Realized that I have triathlons on the calendar for a total of eight months this year...March-Oct. I also realized...that's a REALLY long time for me...i think things are going to be shaken up after Vineman. Been having a lot of funny conversations in the past week that have all ended with me saying: Sure, I'd love to...but not until after Vineman in August. I like all my training and am TOTALLY enjoying it...but anytime I have to say that to other people or even to myself i do feel a little bit like a little kid and my mom won't let me come out and play. Sigh...i do have some serious athletic ADD. And no...i can't start them now...not enough hours in the day or in the week. Too many fun things to do!

My schedule said: Have fun

I loved him...i did...my first road bike that is. He was totally ghetto. I found him for 75 bucks at a pawn shop in Puallup, WA when I was an undergrad. Took a BUS 45 minutes to try the bike out, and eventually bought the bike . Why? Some days I still am not sure. I had a vague notion in undergrad that I wanted to learn how to 'ride' a road bike or something. I think I even bought a 'Bicycling' magazine and took a PE class...but that class didn't last too long. Extenuating circumstances sorta killed that idea.

He wasn't ridden much our first 8 years together. And then...triathlon came into my life and he was dusted off. I was told that I somehow wound up with an entry level racing bike from the early 80s. The down-tube friction shifters were the sexiest part of the bike.

But sometimes things just don't work out. It may have been the fact that we weren't the right fit for each other. Also...he was a little bit of a pest at times too and I think he tried to make my life difficult on purpose, typically during a race. I once wound up in the middle of a race with only my front two chain rings for gears. I think it was around that time that I knew we wouldn't last much longer.

Why am I reminiscing about my old bike? I don't know, I think it is because every time I get my stuff together for a race I think about that very FIRST race I did. Six seasons ago...sprint distance. No clue what I was doing, but had pulled together a 10 week beginner sprint distance training plan from trinewbies.com and somehow trusted it would get me across the finish line. I was so nervous...and the awe and wonder of that first race was a little scary to me. I finished in something like 1:45...and you would have thought I won the race by how excited I was by that accomplishment. I'm a goofball like that.

I like to think about that first experience because it helps me remind me of how far I have come and how it IS a big deal for someone doing their first race even though it has become a little hum drum when the race isn't an A race for me. Last night I didn't even start packing my transition bag until 10pm...i knew I should have been in bed, but meeh...it didn't happen.

Today was the TCSD club race and it was great. Two weeks ago when i ran La Jolla, i prepped, i focused... i thought about PRing...i WANTED to PR...i tapered...i fussed about the weather a hundred times a day...i was nervous...i was excited...and in the end got what i was after. I PR'd. La Jolla was not quite an A race...but maybe an A- race or B+ race on my list. Vineman 70.3 is my A race. I still brought my A-game though...and it was a sweet accomplishment. Today's race was about a C or D race. I had barely thought about it this week.

Today I went to the club race with the one intention my coach had put on my schedule: Have Fun. Granted waking up at 445 AM is not fun to me...but as my alarm went off I reminded myself: have fun.

The race wasn't that eventful...few kicks to the head in the swim (normal)...the bike was pretty decent from what I can tell my avg speed was somewhere between 19.5-20mph(really flat course on Coronoado)...we didn't have too much wind, but on the way back what little wind there was, was to our backs.

I had fun playing the game I call: Can we go???(yes...we...me, myself and I ;-)) It goes like this: Can we go...23mph?...Can we go...24mph?...Can we go?... 25 mph...25.5mph...26? In the end I believe my max speed was 25.7mph. Sprint distance races are fun because I know I can push as hard as I want and while it might impact my run a little bit...it kinda doesn't matter.

I played a similar game with the run of: Can we go? I ended up with an average pace of 7:59mpm which was totally awesome in my book! First race I have ever had a sub 8mpm pace...for a tri or even a running race!

So total time...1:17:32...I know I PR'd the run and I may have PR'd the bike for a sprint distance too (i don't have the official results yet and me and Mr. Garmin were having a disagreement during the race). The total time is the fastest sprint race I have ever done...but those are tricky to compare against since distances always vary a little bit. My last PR on a sprint was last October...I was 5 minutes faster this time. Nice.

This PR just sorta snuck up on me...out of nowhere...but you know what? It's still a great feeling.

I know all of the huge improvements I have ALREADY seen this season wouldn't have been possible without the help and encouragement of my coach. Finding the right person who works with the way you think, the way you process information, and the way you train is completely worth it. I never thought I would see such huge improvements so quickly. I'm excited to see what the rest of the season holds.

CASUALTY ON THE TRACK!

FORTUNATELY...the casualty on the track was no rider....but a suicidal squirrel. You would think that they know better since they live on the infield of the velodrome. We were doing a paceline burn-out where the speed of the paceline gets faster and faster until you can't keep up and you 'pop' off the paceline...leaving the fastest people at the end. I think we were still warming up at that point, I was near the front of the group when I saw the squirrel starting to try to dart up the track. We were probably going about 25mph...he had no chance.

I was just glad it wasn't my tire that took him down. One of the bigger guys had the misfortune of being the squirrel killer for the evening but it was probably a good thing that HE hit it and not someone smaller like me...the rider to squirrel ratio was better and more favorable for not causing a crash. The next time around I was pulling the paceline and was a little concerned that the squirrel might be squished into the track or something, but fortunately he had slide down the track and onto the apron. The guys in charge managed to move him and give him a proper burial. Stupid squirrel.

The rest of class was pretty awesome. I'm getting a LOT...A LOT better at holding the tire in front of me, drafting, and getting stronger class by class. It's really awesome to watch my progress. My favorite part of tonight's class was a 5lap motorpaced sprint where the first 4 laps are a motorpaced paceline and then the last lap is a sprint. We had to do this 3x. I hung on the wheel ahead of me really tight, no gaps...after each sprint was able to hop back into the paceline behind the motorcycle and even came in 3rd on one sprint!

I even got a nice compliment tonight...we were discussing speed and one guy said: yea but you are getting stronger. It does kinda hurt whenever you are in the front the paceline.

Awww...I never thought I'd be proud to know that I can put a little hurt into the group when I am pulling the paceline. Funny things to be excited about.

As per usual...i love the track. Nothing more to say here.