Endurance Turtle A journey through this turtles triathlon adventures

This weekend George and I are heading up to Solvang for the Solvang Prelude. We will be doing the metric century which is 65 miles. My longest ride to date has been 70 miles and I did the Tour de Palm Springs half century last February…so this should be interesting. However, I am less worried about the distance because we will be stopping a lot. You see…George and I are winos. One of the first little trips we went on as a couple (so many years ago) was to Solvang for wine tasting. So when we heard that a fellow PTC member would be planning a wine tasting trip along with the Solvang Prelude…well…we were in!

At first George and I were really stoked about doing this ride…but we started doing research on the price of hotels and it was ridiculous. Most places averaged over $200 a night and a cheap motel was at $100. With those prices we would on;y be able to spend one night and then head back home after a long day on the bike (a two-hour drive). So then I suggested camping and after doing some more research I found an RV park in Buellton that also has camping grounds all for the low price of $30 a night, SOLD! They also have full showers, a heated pool, hot tub, recreation room…this is my kind of camping. George had all the tents, sleeping bags, air mattress, we just picked up some headlamps and a lantern. It should be a beautiful weekend and I have lots of cozy warm clothes to keep me warm at night. I am really excited and George is too. I just have one problem…I am not sure what to wear :-/

Bring on the bikes, camping and wine!

I took this photo in 2006 on our first trip to Solvang, really hope the weather is as nice this weekend.

Or, Halloween costume #3

I wanted to do a fun 5k, so I googled Los Angeles 5k’s and found one on Halloween morning in the Santa Clarita area. I figured this would be a cool race because I could dress up and have some fun with it, plus it was only $25 and came with a technical tee I am easily bribed…

At first George was like…”Have fun! I’ll be sleeping!” but I think the idea of doing a fun, non-competative race got him and last minute he decided he would do it with me. He also got a free costume from work, and it was a pretty cool costume!

So the morning of the race we woke up bright and early and headed out there. We got there a little after 7AM, I got my race packet and George purchased his race entry. We were way early so we headed back to the car and got our costumes on and also stayed warm. Now, it was abut 47 degrees out so for us Southern Californians that is ASS cold! I had to go potty a couple times and the 2nd time I went they didn’t have any more teepee in the porta potty :-/ Well…turns out there was a whole set of porta potties around the corner that I could have gone to and didn’t…so that was a HUGE fail on my part. It was finally time to head over to the start line, so after stripping down to my little outfit I was ready. Here is I am waiting in the sun because I was so cold:

As you can see…not much to keep me warm.

And here is George in his costume…he was much warmer than me:

For someone who wasn’t that into the race…he sure got into it with that costume! HA!

They warned us that this course would be hilly…but I am not sure I was so prepared for it. I have this tendency of totally forgetting that I have asthma and forget to take my inhaler. Well, I forgot to take my inhaler…so the gun goes off and we start running. Within a few miutes my chest was tight and I was not doing well. The air was really cold and my poor lungs were not prepared. So I had to walk almost right away…not to mention we were already running up a little hill. We ran through the sunflower fields then went onto our first hill, walked up it and ran down then turned a corner, and went up Dead Man’s Hill…once at the top it looked like this:

It was a bit of a climb…the path then ran along the top of the ridge then turned around and went back down through the corn fields then through scarecrow alley and eventually to the finish. They had people hiding in the corn and sunflower fields and on actually scared me because I was so focused on breathing…after he scared me I didn’t let it happen again!

They had masks and stuff and looked like scarecrows so it was hard to see what was real and what was fake.

After coming through the finish we grabbed our little pumpkin cakes that they gave out to everyone and we also stuck around to get some pumpkins! I picked one out and George picked out the other one. Here are George and I in the pumpkin patch area after the race:

Our overall time SUCKED! It was a cool 43:10, HAHAHA! My excuse is the afro…

But guess what? It was such a blast and the people were great and I would love to do this race again

There were other people dressed up as well, there was a Barney, cupcake, hot dog, Cesar, another 70s runner like me and a bunch more that I can’t remember.

For Halloween I took the dogs on a walk to see all the trick or treaters and then went back to the house to intercept about 5 groups of kids that came to the door. Since we don’t get many kids, we give them huge hand fulls of chocolate and that way I don’t end up eating the rest.

Hope you had a fun Halloween! Time to think about the big bird now!

I had a hard time really getting into Halloween this year…so when my mom told me she was dressing up as a Star Trek person and came home with a costume…well…I borrowed it

Here I am in all my Star Trek glory, my father would be so proud!

I actually did some research and fixed what you see there, I pulled the flap up and centered the little symbol at the center of my belt. It’s not red, but I think it is supposed to be like these:

Eh, not like I am going to a convention!

My mom got it from a local costume shop called Glendale Costume Shop and you rent them for Halloween. It costs about the same as buying a cheap polyester one at the Halloween stores but this one is nicer!

Not to mention, I used to do plays with the owners so they take care of us. the costume shop also owns Glendale Centre Theatre and all the costumes are used for the plays they do.

Anyway, tomorrow is the Monster Dash 5k and I am looking forward to it. Got a little outfit for that one too I also get a Corner Bakery pumpkin upside down cake when I am done, SWEET!

Happy Halloween!

Oh, and the first Halloween costume was this:

George and i went to a zombie party and went as Mexican Zombies. I know…the creativity is overwhelming you right now.

I know you have been just waiting for this report, so I figured I would go ahead and write it (you can stop biting your nails now).

So bright and early after dinner, George and I headed over to the USC area and met up with a few people at a wine bar. The wine bar is called Bacaro Wine Bar, everything looked amazing! But George and I wanted to eat earlier than 9 so our bellies were already full. We also held off on the wine and just shared a (really good) beer because we were running later. George and I will definitely be going back there, the food looked and smelled amazing and we are always up for a good glass of wine.

We left there and drove closer to the start. We parked on a side street and decided to walk to the start line. Once we got to the main area it was PACKED, there were so many people…this was the first (and probably last) year of doing it and I could tell he wasn’t a happy camper. He much rather be in a huge group facing an ocean wearing a wet suit.

George and I were in the 11+ min pace area (because we don’t plant our selves in run paces we don’t belong in!). Here is a picture of all the people who were in front of us:

And here is a picture of George and I before we started running:

They kept playing music and had people talking, I really just wanted to start the run…at midnight the gun went off and we were…walking :-/ We basically shuffled until we got to the starting line…once we passed it everyone started jogging then it quickly stopped when we made the first left turn and everyone was acting STUPID! It was so ridiculous I can’t even begin to go into my frustrations. Since it was an out and back course, they had the other side blocked off for the returning runners. Well, everyone thought one side was for the 5k and the other side was for the 10k. So when the return runners started to come the police escorts had to practically run down the crowd!

The running was pretty slow and George and I weren’t sure if we would do the 5k or the 10k. Originally we were thinking the 5k but when we got to the turn around point for the 5k we just sort of kept on running. The race went up Figueroa, turned around, had a little arm on Washington, turned around and then there was even a smaller little turn around on Greek row. Now, George and I both spent some time at USC. He went there his freshman year of college and I went to the college 2 blocks north of USC.  So we both spent some quality time on Greek row and I thought it was cool that we would get to run down it. Well, turns out…we ran on Greek row for 2.5 seconds and then had to turn around. I really felt like they could have made it go longer especially because the race ended up being 6.02 miles and not 6.2. We made our way back to the finish and I sprinted through (Norman said I got up to 11 mph…cool). George tried to sprint, but he started cramping so I just stopped and waited for him at the finish. Once we were all done we walked through the finishing chute looking for water…we looked and looked and looked….we passed up the table with the medals because it was so crowded and we were still thirsty…then we came to the realization…there was no water Thanks Nike..

Overall this is a poorly run race. The website is miserable to navigate, there are SO many people…I like the shirt but it is a tad annoying that everyone is ultimately wearing the same thing and no water at the finish? That is a HUGE fail in my book! On the way back to the car we stopped at a gas station and got some water. By the time I got home I was so cold from my sweaty shirt and I cranked up the heater and snuggled into my bed by 2:30AM.

I think next year I will pass on this event….too big and it is not run well.

Dear Nike and Brightroom Photography,

Thank you for the race you put on, and thank you for only charging $25 since that is what it is worth. As with all of my races, I always go to the website of the company that takes pictures at the event. This year, that was you Brightroom. I go on and look under my name and find absolutely no pictures. I can understand why, it was Nike’s fault. So Nike, thank you for putting the bib number in the weirdest place EVER so that now we cannot identify any pictures. Now, the only way to look for me is to sift through the 15,000 pictures of everyone wearing THE SAME SHIRT. I must admit though, I have had a few chuckles and I will share with you what I came across as I have been looking for my pictures:

Really nice composition on this one

I especially like his shorts...he looks a little like Conan

This looks a little like what I tried to do at the finish line at the Nautica Malibu Tri

You would have thought he won...he didn't

she looks like a great multitasker...wonder if she is looking for a job...

No words...really...none

So thank you Nike and Brightroom, I hope the gentleman in the last photo will be able to find his picture because I am sure he will want to frame it.

Sincerely,

Kristen

So, I got wind of a little race up in Santa Clarita on Saturday (Halloween) morning. I like little races like this, especially on holidays because everyone is just in a really good place mentally….like everyone realizes it is for fun….what a concept!

The whole race takes place on a ranch in Santa Clarita and part of the run even goes through a corn maze…as usual…George thinks I am crazy but I was going to dress up too and make it fun.

Here is the link for the details: http://lombardiranch.com/MonsterDash.html

Like I said…small race….not expecting much except for a fun time!

I will be putting my race report together for the Nike Human Race 10k that George and I did on Friday night/Saturday morning, just waiting for the professional pics. Let’s just say that this one is coming off of the list of races to do… :-/

Interviewer: Hi Kristen, how are you today?

Me: I am good, it’s really a really beautiful day here in L.A….how can I not be good [smiles]

Interviewer: So Kristen, I understand that you are running the Nike Human Race today.

Me: Yes I am, I am really excited about it. I have never run a race that I have never been SO unprepared for.

Interviewer: Now, I understand the race starts at 12 midnight.

Me: Yes, it does. I am not sure if L.A. has ever had a race at this time of night before, but it should be interesting. You see, since graduating college so many years ago, I really have not stayed up that late. I usually start wanting to fall asleep at 9:30PM, so I am really excited that instead of getting a peaceful nights rest, that I will be running in the middle of the ghetto at 12AM. I am also supposed to be doing the 10k, which means that it will take at least an hour and fifteen minutes and by the time I get home we are talking 2AM. I really can’t wait to feel that level of exhaustion.

Interviewer: I also understand that you participated in the Nike Human Race 10k last year.

Me: Yes, I did…that one started a lot earlier and I think was larger than the one tonight. You see, Nike actually invested money in that race, so we had a really cool thing that they call timing chips. This year they told everyone to wear their Nike + sensors and to track their time that way. I really like how they have gone all out this year even though it is a smaller race. I even think there will be a wonderful start line for us, the website said “meet by the big flame at the coliseum”.

Interviewer: Wow, that sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. What has your training plan for this race been?

Me: I have had a very extensive training plan set up for this race. It mainly consisted of passing my bike on a daily basis, but not actually riding it. My running plan has been a 2 mile run 2 weeks ago. I have especially focused on my nutritional plan. This has ranged from sake bombs, pizza (lots of pizza), york peppermint patties, beer, french toast, churro’s, and of course…more pizza.

Interviewer: That is quite impressive, I wish I had that level of discipline to have that kind of diet.

Me: Well, it is hard to keep up…but I find a way to manage.

Interviewer: I also understand that you are doing this race with your fiancé.

Me: Yes, he at first did not want to do it. He pointed out that it was a late race that was not very well put together. I eventually convinced him to do it, so yes, he is doing it with me. Although, I am thinking I should have listened to him in the beginning and passed on this race…even if it was only for $25.

Interviewer: Well, it sounds like you two should have a lot of fun. Good luck to you both and we will see you at the finish.

Me: I really hope to be at the finish, I might just run to my car and go home after the first mile.

[Transition to paralympics coverage]

A few months ago I applied to become an ambassador for Omron and Active. They chose me, along with 100 other women across the country. My job was to put together a team of 5 people to walk their first 5k. We all received an Omron Pedometer, a t-shirt and a few race entry. Well, on Sunday was our official walk and it was awesome!

I had everyone meet there at 7AM so that we could get our packets and still have time to put the chip on, put our bib on, take the bags back to the cars and then do some stretching. The actual walk started at 8:30AM and we ended up being a tad early. Whenever I go to races, they are usually very crowded and it is best to just get there early. In this case, there were not too many people there so there were no lines and there were plenty of volunteers. Once everyone got there we made sure to go to the restroom and then do some stretches. I was very impressed by the race location, these were noooo porta potties!

They had an attendant, huge stalls, wash clothes to dry your hands, lotion and some sample perfume from the stores…and oh ya…NO LINE! I can deal with that. (sorry the pic is so blurry, I wanted to take it fast)

While we were outside, cookie monster walked by (a skinny one) so we took a picture:

I actually saw that guy in the costume running on the course, the Nesquik bunny was out there too and I cannot imagine how hot they were under those costumes…yuck! Also, would not like to be the person that rents that costume next!

We then wandered over to the start and saw some other Team Go Smart people, so we took another picture

Then a guy walked by and said they wanted everyone over at the stage, so we all walked over there to do a warm up led by another Team Go Smart ambassador!

Walking....

Warming up...

Melissa getting everyone pumped!

Once we were done with the warm up we went back to the start line and we stayed toward the back, here is everyone at the start line…what you see is basically everyone who did the race. A very small race if you ask me, but very well organized!

Then they shot off the gun and we were off and walking! I had my Garmin on and was able to tell my team how far we had went, our pace and how much we had to go. For the most part we all stayed together in one section and everyone did a great job! My mom was struggling a little bit, so we stopped so that she could drink some water and get her heart rate down. At one point I was ready to tell her we could cut through a section to shorten the distance, and she said “no, I want to do the whole course”…so i was like OK!

Here is everyone after we finished:

So proud of them!

And here are our results:

We all finished under an hour and kept a really good pace throughout.

After the race they had a little expo area, so we walked through 3 times and picked some things up. Here is my bounty that I collected:

Basically, they had these booths set up with all these giveaways that were being run by volunteers. There were not that many racers, but a TON of free stuff! So I took advantage of it…who wouldn’t?

Overall a really good race, I thought it was one of the most organized races that I have done. I will definitely do it next year and will probably run either the 5k or 10k, I also like it because it is so close to where I live. We also got really cool race shirts from Affliction, this is not your ordinary race shirt!

And there are some big wings on the back that I probably can live without…but still cool…

I am very proud of my team and I am glad that I could get them out walking! Being healthy is so important and I am glad that Omron and Active did this program this year, I had a great time!

Get ready for a long one here folks, first will be a bunch of pictures from the Pub Crawl last week (I think it was last week) and then a little story about getting my ass kicked…hard…still hurts…

So last week was the PTC un-official pub crawl, and by pub I mean bars and one actual pub. We did this to wrap up the brick season and lets face it…to get drunk…successful on both.

Their first stop was a Mexican restaurant called Amigo’s. George and I do NOT like the service there nor the ridiculously expensive margaritas ($18 for 2) so we ate at this little place called The Kitchen and started drinking some Italian beer there (as well as some pizza). Then we headed over to Amigos to meet the group, before we got there I wanted to make sure I had cash, so I did a modified drive through:

Ya, that is me on my super sweet beach cruiser on the sidewalk getting my cash…

George and I then rolled up to Amigo’s, locked up our bikes and headed in. We got a round of margaritas and sat down with the group. Here is some of the group at Amigo’s:

Took me a couple tries to get that with my camera phone :-/

It was also Gail’s birthday and that is why you see some presents there on the table as well as a ribbon (that goes to a balloon)….in case you didn’t know…

We quickly wrapped up there and we all rode our bikes over to The Yard House. The Yard House is cool because they have a ridiculous amount of beer on tap and we drank some of it…I had one beer because I knew there was more coming. here is a picture of all our bikes locked up outside:

Here we are hanging out on the patio:

And here I am with my beer (Red Nectar if i remember correctly):

Well, whatever is left of my beer….

From there we headed over to Red, White and Bluezzz…this is where we had our first shots and I had a “chocolate cake”

This is when it got a little blurry…

So after this place we went over to Sushi Roku….it got really blurry here:

After 2 sake bombs (for me at least) we headed over to Wokano, but before we went over we had to take a picture with the pumpkins:

And then a group shot:

We then rode over to Wokano and they were stupid because one person didn’t have their ID and so we all left because they thought we were weird anyway….bunch of grown adults riding on beach cruisers laughing…what is weird about that?

Okay….maybe that is a little weird…

So we changed plans after that and went to Lucky Baldwins…which is an actual pub. Here I am with Andy, the guy who organized the whole thing:

And here is Sunflower (my bike) parked outside:

I made sure she was all set up for this ride, I put some portable speakers on here, I got a bell,  I had my license plate that said “Kristen” and I bought a new seat and matching grips because I wanted to jazz it up a bit. George was there too….not sure why we didn’t have any pictures together :-/

Wait! Here is one….right as we were leaving Amigo’s:

Overall a very fun night, those sake bombs did me in and I am on a little bit of a break from drinking because over the past few weeks I have been really bad

Now for the second part of this post, Coach B.

On Wednesday I went up to Burlingame for work, and they have a trainer that comes there once a week to do a boot camp style workout. I had brought my workout stuff because I was just going to run, but I ended up doing the workout instead. This is Coach B:

He is really muscular and sort of intimidating in person, which I guess is a good thing if you are running a boot camp!

So we did some warm ups, then ran around a little lagoon (which is about 1/2 a mile) and then  when we got back we had tractor sized tires with ropes hooked to a strap waiting for us….yes…we were doing tire pulls…looks like this:

Then he had 5 cones set up about equal distance apart. We took turns and we had to run the nearest one, turn around and come back. Rest, then go to the 2nd one and come back, rest, 3rd one and come back…etc…it…really….hurt…bad

He really wanted me to focus on form and even had me do a larger tire. Once we were done we were all pooped and yesterday I was in serious pain. My ass was (is) so sore and the back of my legs. Seriously a great workout! I am also going to see if I can get a trainer here in my office to do the same thing, it is GREAT for team building!

Then this morning I woke up at the crack of dawn (6AM) to go swimming. George was there too, so that made it nicer…but shhhh…don’t tell anyone…I actually kind of liked it :-/ I feel really refreshed and it made me start my day off in a good mood.

Or maybe it’s because it is Friday and I am going to Disneyland tomorrow!

Yay for the Mouse!

And Yay for Friday!

The first part of this post will be G rated, but the other part will be W rated. Which means that if you are not a woman, you may not understand this post nor want to really want to know about any of this stuff. So I will tell you when it goes W rated so all of you who do not want to read about to much information, just stop there. And if  you do read all the way through….don’t give me crap for it when you  are grossed out because I did warn you ☺

First part: G Rated

G is for Garmin! For my birthday George got me a Garmin 305 because he is really good about presents. I honestly don’t know how I got so lucky. I mean, the reason why I like him so much is because he is really tuned into things, including me. So if he notices that I have been wanting something for a while he will research it and research it and finally get it for me for a special occasion and I am always a happy camper. My dad is horrible…he got me a snuggie for my birthday…WTF??? I still love him though.

So I got my Garmin last Saturday and I FINALLY got out and actually used it today. All week I have spent more time doing anything else but working out and it really has been bad. But today I dragged myself out and finally ran. I also just bought myself a pair of LuLu Lemon running shorts, that cost an arm and a leg, but so far I really like them! So here is my Garmin:

I don’t really have a huge tan line on my wrist, that is the shadow that is casted by the watch…

Fancy! And really, I now know what everyone is talking about when they say that they cannot believe that they lived so long without a Garmin in their lives. It is quite an amazing training tool. Normally, when I walk during a run I sort of just wander, but today when I was walking I did it with a little more purpose so that my Garmin didn’t read 18 min pace! George also went with the Garmin 305 (instead of the new 310) because it was so much cheaper and I really don’t need a $400 watch in my life, I much rather have a $400 SLR camera. He also got me the cadence sensor or my bike so that I can use it…on my bike.

And once I download all the information, I can do cool graphs like this one: (this is from my ride on Sunday)

This graph compares the elevation to my heart rate, and as usual…my heart rate is all over the place…

Garmin = Good

And I think I will call him Norman.

Now for the W rated version of this post. So if you are not interested….STOP RIGHT HERE

Okay, warning delivered.

So I got my “present” from mother nature and I woke up Saturday sort of feeling crappy. But I wanted to get a run in and also test out my new Garmin. Now, because I do a lot of sports…a while ago I went on the quarterly version of my “present” and I really like it (versus monthly). But when it comes….it is not pretty and intense. So while on my run I was cramping and just not feeling it, by the time I got home I felt like my ovary was going to burst and for the rest of the day I just felt sluggish and meh. But I am really glad that I only deal with this on a quarterly basis

I’ll be back with my Sunday training, it was a fun day and the weather was fantastic!