What's Next?

I received the following comment on my last post from the lovely Doll, "I'm...curious to know what you two will be doing after your next race. Will it be an endless stream of training and racing training and racing? Or will there be a transition of maintaining a sensible workout without the end goal of a race?" I began to reply and then my comment grew enough to merit a separate post. Why not, right?

Good question, what ARE we doing? The major triathlons (70.3 or Half Ironman distance in particular) open up registration a year in advance for the lowest rate. Registration can fill up or prices increase before you know it! As races we want to do began opening up for registry, we've snapped up our spots, making 2012 a pretty well planned out year already. The rest of this year will be focusing on the Orangeman Half Ironman (1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1 mi run) with two small sprints thrown in for fun (Pacific Coast Tri and Newport Beach Tri). After October, we will be doing some serious rest and recovery to allow our minds and bodies a chance to heal. Our focus will shift from having a training schedule to having fun while being active. Adam's wanted to get into rock climbing for awhile, and I haven't climbed in a few years, so we may take a few months and climb or hike a bit.

2012 is going to be a fun and exciting year for us! We will begin training at the end of 2011 as I find that starting training during the holidays keeps me grounded to my goals as opposed to slipping non-stop into the holiday madness of over-indulgence. We'll do our first race of the year in Oceanside at the Oceanside 70.3 at the end March. A month later, we're flying to St. Croix for a getaway of epic proportions! We're signed up for a Half Ironman dubbed "Beauty and the Beast" that's a world class event. It's beautiful, it's difficult, and best of all, we're staying for a week! After that, we'll have some time to recover and gather our cajones for our crowning achievement - the full Ironman.

What?! I know, I swore I would never do a full Ironman (2.4 mi swim, 112mi bike, 26.2mi run). Adam swore he'd never do a full Ironman. It's insane. It's brutal. It's impossible, right?! I mean, the two of us doing an Ironman?? Well...somewhere along the line...we started thinking we are capable of anything. At some point, we went from thinking, "That's insane!" to "Hey, we're insane! Yay!". I'm not sure what it says about us, but I think we're on the right track. I don't know that it's a distance we'll ever repeat and right now, the thought of doing it seems unfeasible and unrealistic. If there's one thing I've learned in the past year or two, it's that I just can't trust myself to know what's possible or not.

After that, we'll need some real time off. Mentally, emotionally, physically and financially. We've been tossing around the idea of doing the whole John Muir Trail for a long time. It would require taking about 20 days off work (which sounds like a great idea) so that would take a little planning. It will require some logistical wizardry to organize our food drops, how we're getting up there and back, and who's watching the cats...but it will be a journey of a lifetime. The JMT begins in Yosemite and traverses 211 miles through the stunning wilderness of the High Sierra up to Mount Whitney. We also are tossing ideas around for our own company (!) and we'll be dedicating more time to that as well. I don't think either of us will be leaving triathlon for many years to come, but we are going to mix it up a bit in the next few years!

Rest & Recovery Time

It's hard to believe it's only been about a week and a half since Escape From Alcatraz it feels like at least a month has gone by. I let my stomach recover last week and began easy workouts last Thursday. I find that an easy swim is one of the best recovery methods. Your muscles warm up, knotted fibers lengthen and stiff legs loosen up. Friday I joined my sister at the early morning spin class at our gym for a brutal one hour sweat-fest. I usually do my weekday bike rides before work outdoors, but I am looking to increase my speed and power on the bike and this spin class feels right for building that. Honestly, I can be a bit lazy on my ride during the week and I don't get as much of a workout for my one hour as I should. With Orangeman looming in the fall, I'm ready to focus and get stronger on the bike. The easier I make that insane uphill first half of the OM bike leg, the easier the half marathon at the end will be.

I originally intended on taking most of July "off" from triathlon training, but after an unstructured week, both Adam and I were feeling listless, crabby and soft. Everybody needs days off and breaks, but I can really feel when my body is ready to go again. It's surprising how fast my mind was ready to get back into training. We're starting too loosely form a routine again in the mornings and fill mornings up with swim and bike and evenings with a few easy runs. This weekend we'll be joining Joby Gutierrez of Fitness Coaching for a free running clinic that will help implement good running form early in our summer-fall season triathlon training. I've come to enjoy form work and drills as they not only set the stage for efficient movement and injury-prevention, they are a nice slow start as opposed to the hard and fast hill workouts and interval sprints that come later in the season. I like to remind myself that the more efficient I am running, biking and swimming, the less work I have to do in the long run. And that's what I'm really about, doing less work! :)

I'm also catching up on a ton of nutrition reading - from the comprehensive Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes to Bob Seebohar's Nutrition Periodization for Athletes and Metabolic Efficiency Training. While it's no secret that I have a passion for cooking and food, I have a growing interest in nutrition for both athletes and as a form of general healthcare. As someone who has struggled with GI issues on a day to day basis in both my regular life and my workouts, I am turning to diet as the means to solve the problems. Already, through removing dairy, fried foods and alcohol I've noted a complete change in my body. I am no longer in pain and am able to be active and healthy without use of any drugs or invasive actions. I still suffer from GI issues during long workouts and races, and am turning to the concept of Metabolic Efficiency Training to remove my body's dependency on carbohydrates during extended workouts and to teach my body to burn excess fat instead. It's a fascinating and surprisingly common sense approach by a hands-on dietitian, coach, physiologist and athlete. Once I get a good handle on it, I will post some information!

We leave next Saturday morning for our 4 day hike across Catalina Island! It's going to be a good, steep climb up and a nice getaway for us both. :)

Escape From Alcatraz - Race Recap

What a weekend! I'm happy to report that I successfully escaped from Alcatraz. It was a weekend full of accomplishment and some valuable lessons. 

Day #1: We arrived in San Francisco after an easy day long drive from Orange County. The weather was just beginning to turn wet and windy and I began to seriously fret over the race going as planned. We opted for an early dinner and to get a head start on well needed rest with a early bedtime. A friend suggested a little Italian place a bit off the main tourist drag and we figured it'd be just the right place to get a decent plate of pasta with a simple homey sauce. Due to my dietary restrictions (and that we both cook/eat really clean food) we avoid dairy, fried foods, too much butter, oil etc... I should have known the moment we got our food that it was a bad move to stay and eat. One dish was swimming in butter and the other, a pool of oil. I tried to pick off the top as best I could, but that single bad choice would haunt me for the rest of the weekend via major stomach pain. Lesson #1: Never, never, never deviate from your regular diet. Even if it's days before the race. Even if other people ask you to go out with them. Even if it means you pay for a dinner and leave it on the table.

Day #2: we woke up to a steady downpour of cold rain and headed out to the race expo. Packets picked up, waivers signed, and free stuff gathered, we headed out to drive the bike course. I felt a little intimidated by the bike course (serious hills and rough pavement), but was in complete awe of the beauty of Golden Gate park and the Baker Beach area. After much more running around, we made it back to the hotel in time to get ready for the big day. 

Day #3: I actually slept the night before! What?! Who is this crazy person! My stomach was still a wreck (cramping, bloating, etc...) but I ate some Breakfast Cake we brought with us and packed a banana, a bar and some gels. I felt relatively calm and completely stoked on the dry roads and lack of rain falling from the sky. Setting up transition for uncertain weather is hard. Will I need arm warmers? A beanie? A hat? Which lenses in my sunglasses? I had a lot of stuff in a little space. I think I can just stick with less and be fine in the future. We loaded onto the buses and then boarded the boat!

The Swim: I wasn't nervous until we got on the boat. We were packed like sardines in a tin; sweaty, hot, nervous sardines. Brad finally had the genius idea to move outside. We could relax, stretch, move and breathe! We aligned ourselves pretty close to the door and prepared to launch into the icy waters of the Bay. It's a little uncomfortable as everyone starts pushing and shoving and yelling and cheering and before you know it, SPLASH you're in the water! They said it was 52', but it didn't feel that cold to me. We did some open water swims this winter that were much colder. Perhaps it was nerves and adrenaline, but it felt manageable. Sighting was excellent and the water was relatively smooth. I was enjoying the easy swim right up until the last 1/4 of the swim. That's about when the water changed from ocean-like to insane river-like. I watched in horror as a buoy zipped past me and I realized that it wasn't the buoy zipping by, it was me, going with the current sailing past the buoy. Sad face. I re-sighted and despite all better judgement gave it all I had to dig in and swim slightly into the current and towards the beach. By the time you see crowds, you better be in position or it's just about too late to change course. I barely made it to the right beach, and I swam like all hell. Relief, joy and pride swept over me as my hands scraped sand and I stood up to make my way towards the swim exit. 

T .5, Transition Run + T1: I was so excited that I didn't drown and landed on the right beach that I didn't give a damn about transitioning in any speed. I remember looking around all happy-like and taking my sweet time getting my wetsuit off and my shoes on (that and my hands were claws from the cold). The run was okay, it seemed a bit like cruel and unusual punishment, but it was only a half mile to T1. When I hit T1, I learned Lesson #2: If you don't pee in the ocean, you're still going to have to go pee when you get out. In all the flurry of diving off a boat, swimming 1.5 mi to shore, the crazy current, etc... I forgot to pee. I'll leave out how I solved this problem ;)

The Bike: I think the race directors were trying to kill us. We make it a point to do plenty of hill work in our training rides and I like to think that I'm pretty on point with it. The hills on this ride are no joke. The  part that I didn't like was the poor road conditions combined with insanely steep downhills and/or into sharp turns. The downhills made me uncomfortable. I know I'm a bit of a chicken, but I'm not cool with super high speeds with a side of crappy roads. Neither my body nor my bike are worth trashing for a race. I felt sketched most of the way out on the ride. The way back, however, was all up hills. There are hills that lead to more hills, with false tops, and hills on the side. The ride up Seal Beach is intense, long, grueling and steep. It's backed up by two of the steepest little psychotic climbs that only SF can offer. I was so relieved to finally make it back down the long flat chute to the transition area.

T2: Something's definitely not right...my stomach is in major distress and I feel like I'm running out of energy. I wasted a ton of time switching out my lenses in my sunglasses (next time I'd just bring different pairs) and looking for my hat (missing). Regardless, I headed out on the run, feeling a bit disheartened as I see Thierry running back in (and almost done with the race) as I'm just starting the last leg. 

The Run:The run makes the swim look seem like an easy warm up. It began with a flat 1.5 mi, then heads up stairs and up a muddy trail barely big enough for those going up and coming down. The trail offers the most stunning views around - giant trees, windswept cliffs, miles of ocean and city views. It's unbelievable and it helps ease the pain of the trail. After a nice downhill section, you head down on to the beach right into deep sand. My training guide had said to head to the wet hard pack, but this year they set it up with a good long stretch in the deep sand and then the loop back to the sand ladder was on the hard pack sand. Deep sand has a way of sucking the life out of your legs! At this point, my body was refusing any nutrition and cramping at both the Heed mix I had with me and the water on the course. My run became a run/walk and I forced water in as necessary, as 8 miles without hydration for me is worse than cramping. The sand ladder was surprisingly not that bad! I mean, it's sandy and laddery and long and whatnot, but by taking it one step at a time, it was manageable. The hard part is that the next bit is all uphill after the sand ladder! I was in a small pack of guys and we took turns motivating each other to jog up the hill and keep moving faster. I was relieved to hit the downhill section and head back in to the finish. The last two miles were painful - my legs were strong, my cardiovascular system ready to move, but my stomach was threatening to do something bad. It took all I had to sprint into the finish and I gave it all I had. My time was awful, but I did finish!

Summary: I'm researching alternative solutions to gels/gu/etc... I need to find a real food nutrition I can take in while exercising and/or research metabolic efficiency to remove the need for so much nutrition on the course. All 3 of us who did the race came down with a nasty stomach bug from swimming in the Bay after so much rain. Nasty, nasty, nasty. I broke out into a fever early Tuesday morning and am still feeling a tad shaky. I'll also bring more of my own food on road trips and clearly explain to friends that I can join them at dinner, but I'll be eating my own food as to not begin any type of chain reaction of stomach issues. I'm not sure if I'd do the race again, to be honest. It's a lot of money and the bike course was a bit sketchy. On a good note, it's an extremely well supported, well organized and well run race in a beautiful location and you do get to say you "escaped from Alcatraz". I highly advise any future escapees to check out a coaching plan tailored to the race such as the one I used by Rachel Casanta of Hypercat Racing and to really focus on hill work both on the bike and on the run! 

I'm looking forward to a few weeks of light training and pursuing some other hobbies (what?! I know!) and then diving back into a rigorous training plan for our first 70.3 at Orangeman on 9/25!

Fear and Courage

"You have to keep showing up, being open, and doing the work. The journey into the self is not a group experience. It's solitary work. But so many of us are afraid of being alone. So you need to experiment... The whole process of following these spiritual instructions has a lot do with conquering our fear." 

~Beryl Bender Birch

My post yesterday was relatively positive and optimistic, but I think it's important to show the other side of things as well. When I tell people that I do triathlons, or that I'm swimming in the ocean, they frequently tell me that I'm brave or courageous, and that they could never do that because they are terrified of the ocean. I've got a secret.

Just because I am swimming from Alcatraz to the shore of San Francisco does not mean that I am not terrified as well. I sit here at my safe little office desk and to be honest with you, I'm wracked with fear. When I'm in the water, sometimes the panic swarms inside of me until it's blinding and white hot. Sometimes I see a shadow in the water and freak. Sometimes I look to shore and it's...so far...away. Sometimes I inhale seawater and as I'm spitting it out I want to just give up. Sometimes as I am tossed around in the chop, I want to cry. That's not very brave at all. But it's the truth.

I've let fear like that stop me along the way in life. I've sat down any number of times at the foot of an obstacle and said, "That's too hard. That's not for me. I'm no good at it. I'll just stay here." I've done that in relationships, I've done it with my job, I've done it with dreams and I've done it with experiences. By now I've realized that the only way to grow is to do those things that scare you. I've skydived out of planes and hot air balloons, rock climbed all over CA, trekked in the Andes, hiked through the jungles of Costa Rica, whitewater rafted wild rapids, made new friendships, ran a half-marathon, train for triathlons, am in a long term relationship, and am contemplating changing my career path. Oh, and I learned how to swim a few months before my first triathlon last year. 

Fear will always be present inside of me. It's like a nagging voice that can never truly be shut off, but it can be controlled. I look at it this way, I can either let fear rule me or I can be in control of my life. Being in control means that I can no longer use being afraid as an excuse. It means that if I "can't do" something, I have to learn how. It means that if I am "scared of doing" something, it's just the thing to try. I've never gotten anywhere by accepting limitations. I've never learned anything new or grown personally by settling for what's comfortable. With that in mind, I squash the fear down and muffle it until it's no longer paralyzing. I imagine a big hand shushing it up and I feel myself regain control. 

I am scared sometimes. More importantly, that doesn't stop me from "showing up, being open, and doing the work". My journey takes me to San Francisco this weekend, and I will squash my fear down and I will not only survive, I will thrive, be joyful and have fun.

3.5 Days Till Alcatraz!

I'm a few days away from hopping off the Hornblower and jumping into the freezing cold waters of the San Francisco Bay! I will swim 1.5 miles to shore in icy water, wild currents and crazy triathletes. Hopefully I will swim my course accurately and not add any extra miles to my swim. I will run 1 mile out of the cold water into cold air and to my bike. I will then ride my bike up and down and around the curvy hills of San Francisco for 18 miles. I will hop off my bike (okay, it's usually more like a fumble) and begin the immense bitch of a task of running 8 miles of trails, road and the awful Equinox Sand Ladder (400-some steps of sand smack dab in the middle of the run). At some point on Sunday morning, I will run my tired body down the finishers chute and cross the finish line!

Adam's funny photoshop of me conquering the sand ladder!

As of right now, there's a 60% chance for rain. I'm trying to just push all my "what if" thoughts aside and wait and see what the weather is actually like. Worrying is a waste of my time and won't change the weather. For weeks, nothing but sunshine was in the forecast and the moment I saw "40% showers" my heart fell. Then it increased to 60% showers. The race is held rain or shine, but it will mean rough seas, a slippery bike course and a cold, muddy run. On a good note, it will pack the dreaded sand ladder firm instead of pillowy soft sand!

                 

I'm somewhere in between wanting to pout and feeling zen about the whole thing. I realized the other morning that the important lessons for me have already been learned. When I first heard of this triathlon, I was horrified. When I won the registration lottery, I was mortified. I felt sure of failure. I was terrified of the open ocean, sharks, swimming long distances and it seemed completely insane. Armed with only a training plan and dedication, I have made my way to where I am now - a few days from jumping off the Hornblower and swimming the San Francisco Bay. Today, I know that I can complete the triathlon. Today, I am not afraid of the ocean. Today, I can swim a mile and a half. Regardless of what the weather does, I'm out there to have a good time :)

          

I've done all the work that I can do and have trained for the race with the fantastic help of Rachel Casanta at Hypercat Racing  in Ventura, CA. The last week since the OC Tri has been a week of healing and rest, and I feel like I've successfully beaten off the cold that was threatening to take me down. I'm injury free and ready to go. Mostly, I'm looking forward to the 2 hour massage I have scheduled on Monday after the race!

This funny weather business is another reminder that life is about the journey, not the destination!* 

*However, if the Weather Gods are listening: I would really appreciate it if the weather was calm on Sunday. Cold? Ok. Damp? Ok. But some calm seas and semi-dry roads would be totally appreciated.