Three Days of Fun, Friends, and Fitness!

This past weekend was filled with Fun, Friends and Fitness!

 

And now I am recovering.

 

It started early Friday morning with an open water swim at Lake Perris. Even though I got over my fear of open water swims last year, I had about a 200 yards of panic swim.

Luckily, my guy stayed near me so I eventually focused on my swim and not my fear.

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Teri, Robert, me, Linda and Orietta at Lake Perris. More open water swims WILL be on the calendar!

Saturday I evented at the Grape Stomp reverse sprint triathlon!

I came in 4th in my age group. I rode Hector (my tri-bike) as a test on how well he does on hills. Hector is great on the downhills and the flats, but OUCH!!! he is not great on the hills. I think Hector will be left at home for Wildflower and Sara will be my ride of choice as she is geared for hills.

 

One of my Triathlon Connection friends and Baby SEAL in training friend took pictures at the triathlon. I have NEVER had a good picture of myself at a tri.....until NOW!!!

Thank you Enrique!!!

PS - Enrique is the only non-SEAL that KILLED the "O" course in our day of training with the Navy Seals, so he is not only a great athlete, but a great photographer.

 

Here is some of his work:

 

My transition area.

 

Walking to the start...My number is also my race age.

 

Running into transition. I CAN breathe and keep my eyes open.

 

Hector and I leave transition. Hector failed the hill riding portion of the tri. Unless he gets a different cassette, he is going to have to stay home when I go to hilly tris.

 



No I am NOT picking my nose. I am taking off my noseclip. 

And I am done!

Thanks Enrique for the awesome pics.......love them!!!!



Then we celebrated with breakfast! Peggy (in the middle) ran the 5k and Orietta won 1st place in her age division.

After breakfast I raced home and threw my wet, stinky tri-clothes in the laundry, put Hector away and packed my stuff in the car for a "rest-of-the-weekend" get-away with my guy to Carlsbad. We were going there to event in the Carlsbad 5000, a 5k race we had signed up for dirt cheap while at the Tri-Rock San Diego event this past September.

 

We started at the Carlsbad Flower Farm.

It was beautiful.

 

We walked the entire perimeter of the field and then some. By the end of the day my legs were getting tired.

 

 

 We walked from the Surf Motel where we were staying to the Ocean View restaurant for dinner. I had my first glass of red wine in I don't know how many days. I had given alcohol up for Lent, and since then I have had a couple of beers, but not wine. The first glass out of the bottle was good, and so was the second one.



 

On our walk back to the beach motel, we stopped at Starbucks to get our breakfast for the next morning. I had forgotten to load the food in the car.

 

Breakfast for Two!

 

Then we stopped at the corner liquor store to buy water, lottery tickets and ANOTHER bottle of wine.

 

We drank the wine while watching a sappy love story movie that lasted way too late.

 

You can make a prediction now about my 5k run on Sunday morning.

 

Too much wine + not enough sleep = crappy run

 

 

If you look at the results page using the bib number I am wearing in the picture below you will see that I ran a 34-minute 5k in the MEN'S MASTERS DIVISION.

 

First event representing SunRype.

 

Robert, on the other hand, ran a 31:05 5k in the WOMEN'S MASTERS DIVISION.

 

 

 

Yep, we accidentally switched bibs and timing chips when we got ready in the morning.

 

Good News, though, we had lots of fun!

After the run we walked up and down the entire town enjoying the sights and watching the other running events.

Some of those runners are bananas.

 

I saw a BUNCH of these runners!

 

We love Carlsbad and we booked the hotel for 2 nights next month when we event at the Encinitas Sprint Triathlon.

Next month, though, we booked the Ocean View 2-bedroom Suite..and we will bring boys and surfboards.

 

But I will be leaving the wine at home.

 

 

 

 

 



Ride On!

Everything I know about riding bicycles helped me immensely this past weekend in my Motorcycle Rider Course.

I already have my motorcycle permit, but with this course I can now bypass the DMV riding portion of the test and get my motorcycle license.

 

Really I would be happy to just have a permit forever because even with a "M" license I won't be putting a passenger on the back of my motorcycle (just like I won't sit a passenger on the handlebars of my bicycle....oh you have seen those people)...

 

 

Oh, yes, I realize she is in the front and not the back...but still.... these are DUMB people...they don't even have helmets on.

Survival of the fitness, I say...And my word, who let's the guy steer the bike? At least I would be smart and insist on being the actual bike rider, not the handlebar rider.

Do you think he took a BIG insurance policy out on her earlier in the day?

Did he put some happy pills in her wine"

Well, she is blond.

(sorry to me and all my blond friends, but in this case she is the poster-child for blond).

 

 

 

I am not riding after dark - on my motorcycle.

I am happy as can be riding my bicycle after dark. I have my awesome back reflector strobing enough to give someone a seizure, and my front light is so bright that it may as well belong to a '69 Volkswagen. The only difference is my bike light doesn't shine up into the trees.

(Man, I just had a flashback!)

 

I also am not going to be riding my motorcycle on the freeway.

 

 

Well, maybe if I was in a big group of motorcyclists and we were all going the speed limit.

Then it would feel more like a peloton.

 

But this.....NO! NO! NO!

 

My "M" license will arrive in the mail, but it won't make a difference. I still won't ride with a passenger, at night or on the freeway.

 

I am so motorcycle safe that I can barely ride my Honda Rebel in my neighborhood.

 

Really, riding a bicycle on the street seems way safer than a motorcycle.

 

So what are the statistics?

Well, I had to shut down the stats on motorcycles before I got sick to my stomach, but it was something like 8.2 percent of motorcyclist die in accidents.

According to the Department of Transportation only 1.9 percent of bicyclist were killed in accidents.

 

Do you think bicyclist are just smarter about riding out on the street with cars and big trucks?

 

During my Ride Rite training this past weekend I wondered how much "smarter" I was as a motorcyclist because I was already a bicyclist....

For example....I already knew about the outside/inside/outside for turning corners.

I already knew about slowing BEFORE I got to the corner and then speeding up through it.

When others in the class didn't know how to ride their motorcycle over the log in the road...I just quipped, "Can't we just bunny hop it?"

Yes, I got a lot of funny stares from the guys in the class.

And when at the end of the exercise the instructors asked how everyone like it, I was the only one to shoot out that I "love it....bring on more."

 

One guy actually sneered at me

 

Really, riding the motorcycle over the log was more like riding a horse over a log, but I didn't want to say anything because I was already pissing some people (MEN) off.

 

 

Similarities/Differences

On a motorcycle you have to wear way more gear to be safe.

I just don't think you could pedal a bicycle without having a heart attack wearing all the protective gear as you wear riding a motorcycle.

But here is the funny HAHA thing...I have gone WAY faster on my bicycle than I have on a motorcycle.

 

 

 

UHmmmm.

Makes me glad that I have St. Michael to call on to protect me with his sword, (or broom) whenever I go fast on (insert word motorcycle/bicycle).

 

And my fast is YOUR slow.

 

Just in case you didn't read my blog about my angels and St. Michael...here is the post:

 

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=489460221981185313#editor/target=post;postID=4833831326733346963

 

Good thing I have lots of experience in swearing...I mean, swerving on my bike. It really helped me in my motorcycle class. I am an EXPERT swerver.

 

My bicycling experience was also good because, well, let's face it, for numerous years bicycling has been a man's world. MEN, MEN, MEN and more MEN.

 

Well, motorcycles are just like that and MORE!!!

 

In my motorcycling safety class there were 8 men and 2 women....

I don't know the stats on bicycles but when I ride the SART it is WAY more men than women.

 

I am just glad that I am one of the women!

Just give me two wheels and I'll do my best to ride them!!

 

 

 

 

 



Train With What's on Course

Thank you Tri-California!

One of the triathlon tips coaches throw out is to train with the nutrition that is provided on course during an event.

For a short event - such as a sprint (3 mile run, 12 mile bike and a couple hundred meter swim)  you can pretty much carry all you will need on you and on your bike. Even for an Olympic Distance (.9 mile swim, 25ish mile bike and 6.2 mile swim) you can pretty much carry your nutrition on each leg with you and restock in transition.

But for a half iron distance (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) or iron distance (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) it would be impossible to carry all the nutrition you need on you....even if you restocked in transition. That means you are bound to grab something from an aide station out on the course. And we all know you are NOT suppose to try something new on race day (unless you want to visit the porta-potty LOTS!) That's why the tip to train with what is out on the course is such a good idea.

 

At Wildflower, I will be competing in the Olympic Distance Course. Last year, I did the Mountain Bike Course and came in 2nd place in my age group. I am hoping for top 50 percent this year.

 

This is what they will be serving out on the Olympic Distance Course this year:

 

There will be 3 Bike Course Aid Stations and 5 Run Course Aid Stations. Earth Water, Gatorade Endurance, fruit, PowerBar and PowerGel will be provided.

Bike Course Aid Station Locations

Mile 8 (Water and Gatorade Perform)
Mile 12.5 (Water, Gatorade Perform, PowerBars)
Mile 16 (Water and Gatorade Perform)

Run Course Aid Station Locations:

Mile 0.8 (Water and Gatorade Perform)
Mile 1.9 (Water, Gatorade Perform, PowerBar Gel Blasts, PowerBars)
Mile 3.75 (Water, Gatorade Perform, Power Bar Gel, PowerBars)
Mile 5 (Water and Gatorade Perform)
Finish Line (Water, Gatorade, Fruit, Gatorade Recovery)

I had just put some of these items on my grocery shopping list to get the next time I went shopping, but before I got them a present showed up on my door.

 



 

And then I got this email:

THANK YOU TRI-CALIFORNIA!

 

I had to stash my NEW training supplies so my boys wouldn't drink them all up!!

Charity Miles - Donate Without Opening Your Wallet

Charity Miles

 

You put in the miles and earn money for a charity.

 

How it works:

Get the free Charity Miles app for your iPhone or an Android.

 

Turn on the app whenever you go out for a run, walk, or bike.

You turn it on and pick your charity from the list.

 

Sometimes I forget to turn it on before I start to run or bike, but I am getting better at remembering. Sometimes I remember in the middle of my run.

Sometimes I accidentally turn it off when I put it in my run pack. But I figure any miles I get in are better than no miles.

 

And this is why.

For every mile I bike I earn 10 cents towards the charity I pick and for every mile I walk or run I earn 25 cent a mile.

Charity miles has an initial $1 million sponsorship pool.

I haven't quite figured out who all the sponsors are.

I was urged to sign up for Charity Miles by SunRype. SunRype is my new ActiveAmbassador sponsor.

 

When I get done running or biking, I press a few buttons and Charity Miles tells miles me how far I have gone.

For this month, if I had remembered to turn on the app every time I ran or biked, I would have raised $40 for a charity.

 

I mostly pick Wounded Warrior Project for my charity.

 

 But one day I picked the Nature Conservancy because it was World Water Day.

 

Here's a list of all the charities you could be running and biking for:

      * Achilles International
* ASPCA
* Autism Speaks
... * DoSomething.org
* Every Mother Counts
* Feeding America
* Girl Up
* Habitat for Humanity
* Ironman Foundation
* Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
* Nothing But Nets
* Partnership For a Healthier America
* Pencils of Promise
* Shot@Life
* Stand Up to Cancer
* The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
* The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
* The Nature Conservancy
* The World Food Programme
* Wounded Warrior Project

	I am sure you can find one charity from the above list to walk, or run or bike for.   And if you really want to donate you can double dip like I do. I set my app on my phone for Charity Miles and I also record all my workouts to Plus3Network. Plus3Network has different charities, but they, too, have sponsors that donate money based on how many miles you log in. If you missed that blog you can read about Plus3Network here: http://train-n-tri.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-socks-for-me-for-your-charity.html     So help out a charity today by getting up and moving! It will be good for you and the charity!!!   

 

 

  
      I

GMR to Mount Baldy Village

 

Today I rode my bike from Glendora to Mt. Baldy Village.

My guy Robert and two training friends, Terri and Orietta, joined me.

 

47 miles

5,671 feet of climbing

 

I averaged 10.2 miles an hour.

My slowest uphill speed was 4 mph.

My fastest downhill speed was 34 mph.

 

The weather was perfect for a long uphill ride and it didn't take me long to shed my arm warmers and vest.

 

 

 

View going up.

 

The first 10 miles up seemed to go pretty quickly. Not that I was quick, but my legs felt good and I talked to other cyclists along the way. And talking always makes a hard ride go by faster.

 

Most the talk consisted of "hey, nice morning for a ride," and then the other cyclists' big muscly spinning legs propelled their bike past mine and up the hill.

 

One guy went by and I said "hi" or something like that and he said, "Hi, Kandi....(and then something)." I asked who he was and he was someone from my triathlon club. Our conversation was that short because he was at the top of the hill before I could finish my "have a safe bike ride" sentence.

 

Another guy rode by me and commented on my socks.

"I like your socks."

"Thanks."  Then I yelled after him, "You can have some of these too. Just sign up for Plus3Network."

 

My Plus3Network socks

 I don't know if he heard the last part because he was gone....

 

Then I rode up behind two guys.

"Here I come speeding up on you at 6 miles an hour."

They laughed.

We chatted a bit.

One was 52 (my age) and the other was 60.

Once they knew how old I was, I guess they didn't like the idea of me passing them because one of them said, "I feel like I've been challenged" and then he sped ahead of me. Well, he really didn't speed because he was probably going 7 miles an hour.
Eventually I caught back up to them and we chatted for a while longer. They were training for a 10-day ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, with camping along the way.
I looked it up....about 385 miles. That would be about 38 miles a day.

I left them at about mile 10 at the shack.

 

 

 

After we passed the shack, it was basically just us and other cyclists on the road. A couple of cars slowly went by us and a few motorcycles, but mostly we had the road.

Until........

 

OMG....guys on skateboards were whizzing down the other side of the street. They were flying. A couple of times I got nervous that one would lose control on a turn and come over into our lane. Each time one went by I would say a silent prayer that they would make it safely to the bottom.

We had another 14 miles to Mt. Baldy Village. I had thought that the ride would be mostly up, up and up, but it was up and down and up and down and then tortuously up.

 

 

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the steepest part of the ride because I couldn't take my hands off the bars going 4 mph to get my phone to take a picture.

But after miles and miles of 5,6,7 and 8 percent grade....then to have some 10, 11 and 12 percent grades, well, it was a workout.

And parts of the road is an illusion.

 Just when I thought the road had leveled out, it really was at 5 percent.....and when it seemed as if I was going downhill, well, that was 1 or 2 percent grade.



This may look level, but it is really UP!

We did made it to the top in 2 1/2 hours.
Well, I should say I made it to the top in that time. I think Orietta (pictured on the right) made it up there LOTS of minutes before me!

 

Even though I had eaten 3/4ths of a PB&J sandwich, 1 GU, half of a snickers bar and two Chomp gummies on the ride up, I was happy to refuel at the lodge with chocolate milk, lots of coffee, and the biker's special of 2 pancakes, 2 eggs and 2 pieces of bacon.

Yes, the biker's special has pictures of motorcycles by it, but I'm a biker, TOO!

The trip back had lots of UPS!

 

When I saw this UP coming up, I had to pull over on the side of the road and pee. Well, I had 3 cups of coffee and chocolate milk just a few miles back. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

We had just been sharing the road with other cyclists, but slowly we were joined by some motorcyclists.

 And as we went farther down the mountain we started to be joined by some cars.

 

 

 

 

Most of the cars and motorcycles were great at sharing the road. I saw a couple that were going too fast in some turns, but they were going up while I was coming down and they all stayed on their side of the road.

The last 8 miles were down, down, down and I got to work on my descending skills.

My legs felt okay at the end of the ride.
But for good measure I had 2 glasses of my beet/veggie/fruit juice when I got home.
Yummy for recovery!


I'm planning another bike ride up GMR mid-April.
Who's in?
 



Solo Saturday

I was meant to spend the morning with myself.

 

At 7:30 a.m. I was at Sycamore Canyon waiting for the local bike shop people to join their Saturday morning mountain bike ride.

 

They never showed up.

Now, I have ridden in Sycamore Canyon numerous times with my guy and friends.

NEVER ALONE.

 

 

I've ridden my road bike out on the road by myself with the thinking that if I crashed or had a problem, someone driving by would see me and stop and help.

 

But who would see me out here?

 

I did have my phone with me and I could always call someone, but what if I wasn't able to call?

 

I paused and thought about it for a couple of minutes.

Darn it, I didn't drive here and get all ready, just to turn around and leave without getting some kind of ride in.

 

So I turned on the Garmin and clipped in and pedaled off, telling myself I would just play it safe and keep it easy.

 

 

I rode on the fire road for about 10 minutes and enjoyed watching the scampering bunnies and the low-flying hawks.

I stopped to watch a large roadrunner. I wanted to take a picture, but by the time I got my camera out of my backpack, the bird had run off. With my camera stuck into my back pocket for easy access, I pedaled on.

My next stop was a bridge.

 

This is NOT the bridge, but similar to the one where I stopped. Don't ask me why I didn't take a picture of it. My guess is my brain was too busy trying to decide if I was going to walk or ride my bike to the other side. The Sycamore Canyon bridge looks more professionally made than this one - but it did have a broken board toward the end of it. That broken board made my decision easy.

 

WALK.

 

 

I walked here, too. There is a stream that was pretty deep and you can see the pipe that goes across it. I walked across the pipe and pushed my bike through.

 

Normally - and normally being NOT being alone - I would have ridden across the bridge and through the water.

 

Really, I DID ride my bike, not push my bike, most of the time.

 

 

After getting over my nervousness of riding alone, I started to enjoy myself. A couple of times I even looked down at my Garmin and thought, "Yikes. I better slow down."

My heart rate monitor must need a new battery because it would cut out in some places. I laughed when going up a 13 percent grade hill, my heart rate was at 72. Actually I didn't laugh because I was breathing too hard to laugh, so I knew my heart rate was more like 160. I just took it as a message to enjoy the ride and stop looking at my heart rate.

But I did look again and it was ---. And since I was still alive, I stopped looking at the screen.

 

 

I did take another stop when I saw this lovely native plant.

While I was taking a picture of the plant, a Ruby Throated Hummingbird came down and buzzed around my head.

 

This is NOT my picture. I didn't get a picture of the bird because it was so fast and I couldn't look at it and enjoy it and look to point my phone camera at the same time. It took a quick drink from the plant and flew off.

My peaceful ride came to a close after about an hour when about 50 guys from the Specialized team hit the trails.

I was no longer alone.

 

I got home and thought I might have time to make it to the Mary S. Roberts' Walk with the Animals, a 1.3 mile walk to raise money for the pet adoption center. 

 

 

I asked Willie, my dog, if he wanted to drive in the car to walk 1.3 miles, or if he just wanted to use the time and run. He might have barked, "Rof," but it sounded like "Run."

 

 

I remembered to start my Charity Miles before we headed out and Willie and I ran 3.8 miles for Wounded Warrior, thanks to SunRype, which sponsors my run and bike miles for charity.

 

And my day was NOT all solo, though I did drive to Hemet solo and to pick up my daughter for her overnight visit with me. We stopped by Louie's Nursery and picked out some plants so she could plant my patio planter.

 

Lots of choices at Louie's.

 

Before Danielle could plant, I had to weed the planter and cut back some plants. This job was SOLO! 

 

My patio planter is now weeded and planted.

 

Solo is nice and reflective.

But teamwork makes things happen and is fun.

 

Hey, where is everyone? I have a garden that needs to be weeded.........