This race report is a tad late, but better late than never!

George and I signed up to do a century and a week before the race we were completely unprepared. I hadn’t done a ride over 2 1/2 hours and I wasn’t really sure if this was going to happen. But the hotel room was booked and we were going to make the best of it. So the week before I put together a little training plan, went something like…ride Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday…HARD. Rest Thursday and Friday, and test myself on Saturday.

On Friday, George and I loaded up the car and headed up to Marin. We took the long way along the coast, and while it was a beautiful drive…it took ALL day and we will probably never do it again. Few pics from the drive:

Before we got into Marin, we made a quick stop at Sports Basement at Crissy Field in San Francisco. This place is like the athletes DREAM store and I envy all those NorCal people that get to go to it on a regular basis! The place is HUGE and has EVERYTHING. On top of that, they have some great deals and everything is really well organized. We cruised around there for a while, got a couple things then finally got to the hotel.

We were up fairly early on Saturday, and we were off on the ride by 7:30AM. The first leg of the ride to the first stop was absolutely gorgeous. We rode through some redwoods and it was so pretty. On the way back we stopped and took some pictures, more on that later. One thing about this ride is that there were a lot of cows…

This was at the first stop, and it would not be the last time we saw cows.

Our overall strategy for this ride was to keep our heart rate around 150, to lube our areas as much as possible and not kill ourselves. And for the most part…it worked. There was one little bit that had some viscous headwinds, that took the wind out of our sails for a bit but we just kept riding.

Here are some pictures from the ride:

Overall, the ride was incredible. It was very well organized and a pretty challenging century. During the ride I never wanted to do another century…but now I kind of want to do another one. My training plan worked pretty well, although for the next century…I think I might try to get some long rides in more than a week before the event.

The next day George and I headed a little south, and we stopped off and had root beer floats:

I’m not a big fan of root beer, and looking at this photo makes me a little sick. But we had to try them and we got some cool beer mugs out of it!

We also spent some time in the city, went into China town for the evening then stayed with a friend for the night. On Monday we loaded up and headed back home. We took the 5 this time and it took us 5-6 hours to get home. I also had my first Chic-fil-a…and my last.

Century ride = done!

This Saturday I am going to attempt to ride my first Century ride (102 miles on the bike). To date, my longest ride has been around 2 1/2 hours and a century will take over 6. I may be a little under trained for this one, but here is my plan.

1. George and I plan to keep our heart rates between 130 and 150. By staying in that range there is a good chance we could ride all day! Or at least until our butts start to hurt.
2. Stay hydrated and use endurolytes. I have discovered these little pills lately and they are amazing! I get a dose of endurolytes before the ride and go into the ride ready, instead of trying to catch up during the ride.
3. I am riding every day this week and Friday will be my rest day. I just got my bike fit last week so I need to get my body used to the geometry. Yesterday, I rode about and hour and a half and felt really good. Today I plan to ride over my Griffith Park, Wednesday is the PTC brick and Thursday I plan to do a ride.
4. In order to keep up the above schedule, I am going to use my Compex (muscle stim) to help me recover each day. Last night I spent about and hour hitting my quads, legs and lower back and today I feel really good. I am hoping that the Compex will allow me to recover really fast day over day and I can increase strength on the bike.

What it comes down to is that I am basically going to train for a century ride in 5 days, wise? No…but if it works…it would be kind of cool

So yesterday I did an 1:36:31 ride and went 20.22 miles, here is the link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43011510

There was some good climbing involved and I felt really good overall. There was some tension in my neck and shoulders, but that is from me not using my core.

In all of this I also plan to keep up my nutrition. So no alcohol for the rest of the week and only good, healthy meals! I might even start taking my vitamins again…

I also replaced the crank on my bike, I have actually replaced a lot f stuff, but the most recent was my crank. My new bike came with a standard double, so I actually got myself a compact crank I really like it.

So now I have a 10 speed on the back and my compact crank which gives me all the gears I need. The ones to get me up the hills and the ones to let me crank down the hills. Curious as to what else I bought my new bike? Well, I got a new bottom bracket to match the Shimano crank (they need to be compatible), a new cassette, and a new seat post (zero setback).  I swapped out my stem from my previous bike and I plan on getting new pedals…mostly because the ones I have now are starting to really show their wear.

I also have to say that I really like this bike, yesterday I was coming down a pretty technical road and I was able to take the turns much tighter and it felt really good. It is also a lot lighter than my old bike, so it makes it a bit easier to get up those big hills.

What I like to say is that my bike is top of the line, like 5 years ago….which I am okay with

By the way, we are doing the Marin Century…I am thinking this one will be a gorgeous one to do.

And did a final ride on my other bike

Last week I was in San Diego for a conference and on the last day I was finally able to get a ride in. I decided that I wanted to go over to Coronado, so I mapped it out the night before and wrote down all the directions. It was mostly on bike paths but there was some rough road riding as well. Since I was in a mostly industrial neighborhood, I must have crossed over at least 6 sets of railroad tracks.

Here is the route I took, I used the google maps bike feature for the first time and I liked it. I had some trouble at one point finding the where the bike path cut to but eventually figured it out:

This would be the last real ride I would have on my Specialized, and while I was riding I finally named it….Big Red….because it is too big for me and is bright red Overall, the ride was really flat. The steepest grade was 4%, and that was for 2.5 seconds as I went over a bridge. It started to get a little bit boring after a while, and I started to miss the San Gabriel Mountains. Once I got to Coronado, I hopped on the ferry and took it back to the convention center since I had to get back for my last session. I also had to get back because I was going to a Padre’s game with my cousin. We had pretty good seats, and I really like that stadium….makes Dodger Stadium look like a dump!

Then, when I got home, I coordinated a time to pickup my new bike! I bought it used off of a friend, it is the right size and is SUPER light. It has an all carbon frame and Ultegra components. I still have to get a new compact crank for it, right now it has a standard double, which i’ll get to later. Here she is in all her glory, I still have yet to name her:

I’ll probably change the handlebar tape to black, the white just gets too dirty!

So yesterday, I was finally able to get out and ride on the new bike. George and I started out near Northridge and headed toward Simi Valley. We climbed a pretty steep hill, and in my standard double I was struggling to get up but I managed to do it…which made me happy

Here are a few pics from the ride, this first one is when George said “we can take a left and go around or walk over the dirt.” I opted for the dirt…

Then we get to the other side, and George got slightly lost…. this was him circling while looking up on his phone where we needed to go:

We somehow managed to get to some sort of camp area for kids. But George figured it out and we were on our way. We eventually got to the hill we needed to climb and I told George that I would take it nice and slow. Being in that double wasn’t going to help me get up the hill any faster…. I eventually made it up, this is George and I under some shade after the climb:

George is very euro with his jersey all unzipped It got pretty hot on the ride up, we were in a canyon that doesn’t get much of a breeze and it was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

On our way back we stopped by REI and George picked up supplies for a new saddle bag, he lost his recently. Then we ate and headed back, on the way back I took this picture…I really don’t know how he does this. I have tried and I can never do it…

Hope you had a great 4th of July weekend! Time to get back to work!

P.S. Now my bike is for sale….2007 Specialized Allez, size 56″ for $650. If you know anyone looking for a bike in the Los Angeles area, let them know about it.

Craigs List posting: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/bik/1828314975.html

Here are some pictures from some rides recently, maybe it will help you catch up

First off, I participated in a race and had to DQ. It was a 1,000 meter swim and I got caught in a rip current, my calf severely cramped and I have to get pulled out of the water. On the drive home, I hooked up my Compex to my calf and let it go to work. Not sure if it helped, as I still was in pain for a few days after the race:

One Sunday, George took me for a nice challenging ride. We went up to Foothill Blvd where some of the grade’s were over 20% and then we rode over to Pasadena and climbed up to Sacred Heart High School. It took me a while, but I made my way up. Here we are at the top:

I also did a ride with a group call WE Ride, it’s mostly for women (men come to). I like it because it has a fitness component to it, not only are we encouraging people to get out and ride, but it is also a challenge.

I’m over on the right…

I have been doing my brick workouts pretty regularly, but this week I threw out my back and am just trying to walk at the moment. I know it will get better eventually, but it can get a little depressing when every morning I wake up in severe pain. I went to physical therapy on Tuesday and go again tomorrow. Just trying to relax the muscles and get them to shut up!

I am also planning on selling my bike. Our friend is going to sell me his Giant TCR all carbon bike and before I buy that off of him, I need to sell mine. The new bike will also be the correct size for me, which I am really happy about and a heck of a lot lighter!

Anyway, that’s all I got for now. One more day till Friday!

I love 3-day weekends, I really wish they were the standard. I seriously could get my job done in 4 days a week…I’ll write my congressman!

Anyway, my weekend was busy and fun. Friday, George and I put together his new bike that he got. It is a full carbon fiber frame and has Shimano Ultegra all the way around. It also has a pretty cool crank too that I am jealous of:

He rode it up and down the driveway a bit to test it out.

Saturday, I woke up when the spirit moved me which was 9AM, did 3 loads of laundry and then got my cycling gear on. I didn’t get out of the door till 11:30AM and it was already pretty warm. I decided to head north and do some gradual climbing. I went up a new street (for me) and at some points the grade was 13%. I was starting to get really hot so I was using my water to cool me down and my sweat was starting to make my sunscreen on my face drip off. So needless to say I was a tad uncomfortable…but I made it up to Foothill and biked over to Ross where my mom was. I surprised her and we decided to eat lunch down in Montrose. So my ride was only 40 minutes, but whatever, I was hungry!

Later in the day I groomed one of my dogs, Meeko and gave both Meeko and Toto a bath. I realize my grooming skills are not that great, but to get both of them groomed would cost me $80 and they are freakin dogs! They don’t care if there is a little wisps of fur on the legs

Sunday was pretty busy, but I got an early morning ride in. It was so beautiful out and I rode for about 30 minutes. I actually use the rides to clear out all the crap in my sinus’ because I have to sing for church and it isn’t pretty when there is left over snot from the night before. After church we actually had to go to church again! George was getting confirmed, so we met up with some family for lunch then went to church for the big event! Okay…it wasn’t that big….but now we can officially get married in the Catholic church…thrilling stuff really….Later we went to JAX in Glendale (a local jazz bar) and had a drink. There was a lot of drinking that day and I fell asleep with a bit of a headache.

Then Monday I woke up to go to church AGAIN! I was singing for Memorial Day mass and I decided to take my City Cruiser. I rode down and sang my little heart out then decided to go to the market after to get some ingredients for a cake I wanted to make as well as BBQ stuff. Well, I got a little excited and ended up having WAY to much stuff to carry back home. In order to get home, I put 2, 2 liter bottles of soda in the basket in the back along with my music book, shoes and purse. On the front I managed to hang a reusable bag on the front and it carefully sat on the fender. Then I had another reusable bag that I managed to sling over my shoulder like a back pack and I slowly made my way home. I seriously felt like a Nigerian woman traveling over the desert to get food back to the family. In retrospect, I should have just called my mom to pick me up…but I guess I wanted the challenge. All those bags made the bike a bit unstable, but the faster I went the easier it was to control.

Once I got home I unloaded everything and started on my cake. I made a Raspberry Lemonade Picnic Cake, with Lemon Buttercream Frosting and homemade Raspberry Purée drizzled on the top:

It was really good, and a great cake for a hot/warm day!

Overall it was a really nice weekend and I am glad that I was able to get on the bike all three days. I am also starting to lose some weight…so that is nice too.

P.S. I also don’t eat much of the cakes I make…got to keep that weight off!

Little Lion says hi -

You see, I applied for a sponsorship with a company called Compex and actually was selected as one of the ambassadors! They sent me one of their units to use through training as well as a nifty hat that gets too hot because it is black.

Hot Hat

They also sent over some temporary tattoos that you will probably see me wear in some races.

Anyway, what is Compex you ask? Compex is a muscle stimulator that can be used from warming up before a race, to recovering after a hard workout. Here is a quick description on the unit they sent me:

“The new Compex Sport Elite Muscle Stimulator features nine programs which target specific muscle groups and enables athletes to maximize muscle strength and development. The Active Recovery® Program increases blood flow and circulation, reduces lactic acid and promotes muscle relaxation so athletes can recover quicker after a strenuous workout or competition.”

It came in the mail about a month ago, and here is a picture of what came in my box:

If you have ever used a tens unit at a physical therapist, it is similar to that. From that little unit comes some chords which hook up to little pads and sends pulses to the muscles and it feels really good. Anyway, I have been using it during my training and I really like it. The biggest difference I have noticed is that I recover so much faster and then I can get back out there training. Sometimes, I would have to wait a day for my muscles to rest but now I feel great the next morning/day. If you want more information, you can visit their website here: http://www.teamcompex.com

I can also get you a 10% discount if you are interested in buying a unit, so just shoot me and e-mail and I will give you instructions (and the code) to buy it.

In other news, I went for a run last night and I am pretty dang proud of it. I also figured out how to use the Garmin Connect and I am pretty proud of that too! So now if you want to see all the nasty details about my runs or rides I will post a link, like so: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/34476172

I decided to just do 3 miles, but to do it hard and fast. And yes, 10:53 average pace is fast for me you rabbits! Anyway, I was starting to get some side cramps toward the end and thought I was going to die but I really wanted to test myself and see how well I could do and I am pretty dang proud of my run. If they had a medal for this training run I would wear it proudly around my neck! I have a 5k next weekend out in Huntington Beach and I am really hoping to do well.

And last but not least, my little heart. I had my physical yesterday, and we went over all the stuff you go over in a physical. A week ago I had my blood panel done and so I was able to see all my cholesterol levels. Everything looked great and I am not allergic to Pigweed…in case you were wondering. But I wanted to talk to my doctor about my heart, at last Wednesday’s brick while I was climbing up Lida…my heart it 217 (max heart rate is 220). After I got to the top I immediately got a sever migraine and barely made it back to the car. I have been battling some pretty severe allergies and took some Zyrtec D, so I think the D part assisted in making my heart rate spike. But on average I am hitting 205…which is still too high for me. So she is going to set up something with a cardiologist to do a fitness stress test and try to figure out why my heart rate is so high. Not sure when this is going to happen, but I am sure there will be a post about it

Today is my day off from training, George and I have a little potluck this evening and I will be making mini red velvet bundt cakes. Then tomorrow I plan to ride into work, then do the brick in the evening that will consist of a long run. Thursday, I am going to ride into work again and then Friday I will take off.

That’s all I got for today…

Here is our elevation chart for the ride, the first hill heads north then drops us down into Pasadena. It isn’t the most efficient way, but we wanted to get some climbing/miles in.

Click on image to enlarge.

We got to the Rose Bowl in 42 minutes and got ready to swim. We did a half mile swim, then hopped out to get back on the bikes. Here I am in the locker room, had to take a rogue picture.

No naked people behind me! Although…there were a few in there…

I was feeling pretty good, while I was changing I ate a Clif bar and really made sure to hydrate and George made sure to keep me in check with some electrolyte pills! We finally got back on the road and I could feel the drag in my legs, they were not excited about having to head back. Not to mention, we also decided to do a pretty tough climb in order to get home.  On the elevation chart, the second climb is between miles 10 and 12. Also, not sure what happened to my Garmin, it  makes it look like I dropped off a cliff and fell 600 feet. Most reasonable explanation would be that I forgot to press “start”, I really need to figure out that automatic stop- start feature….

Before we made the climb up Lida, George took that pack because I don’t think I could have made it with me carrying it. So up and away we went and I really pushed myself to get up quickly, my legs were burning but I knew that it was all downhill to get home so why not go all out? When we got to the top I took a couple pics, here is George doing circles trying to figure out why I was just standing there:

Then I told him I wanted to take a picture of us, so he stood next to me and we took this one:

It was such a gorgeous day out, it has been a tad windy the past couple of days (so we were fighting headwinds) but it clears all the crap out of the Valley and makes it look like this:

Ahhh, Southern California…gotta love it!

After that we headed down back to the house. Once we got back I hooked up George to the Compex and he got to experience the Active Recovery on his legs. He thought it was pretty cool, so now I have a set of pads for him to use as well. After recovering for a bit, we went and had some really good Mexican food then came back and I used the Compex on my quads, gluts and hammys. Today I am feeling really great and plan to go on a run later. I am noticing that with the Compex I am able to really push myself on a ride, and the next day I feel fantastic. I am not wasting time recovering for a day which means I am building strength faster. So far I am really liking having this as part of my training regimen.

First off, a fellow blogger is having a contest on her blog. She is giving away a gift basket from the American Cancer Society…so visit her blog here to find out how to enter!

Yesterday was Bike to Work Day here in L.A. I have participated in this event for the past 4 years and I really enjoy it. This year Pasadena was very active in the event, so I had a lot of things to do.

First off, being that I have commuted to work a few times on my bike, I know the logistics. For example, I keep clothes in my office at all times that I don’t necessarily miss from my closet but are nice enough to wear to work. If I know I want to wear something else, I simply bring clothes in the day before (which takes some planning). I also put a trunk rack on my bike to carry various things or even spare clothing. If you have a carbon seat post, you should not get one of these racks. However, if you bike is anything like mine and has a carbon “wrapped” seat post…then you are good!

So Thursday morning I woke up at 6:15 and was out of my house by 6:50. It would have been earlier, but I couldn’t find my helmet. I finally found it and was on my way. This week, Glendale was offering free rides to anyone with a bike. The plan was to go to the nearest stop (1/2 mile away) and take the bus up to Montrose where the first stop was. Taking the bus takes a pretty significant climb out of the commute. While it would be great to get that work in…it also cuts out 30 minutes of the commute time. By 7:03 the bus arrived and I got on. It took about 5 minutes to get to the top and I was dropped off a block away from the first stop. Nothing too fancy here, just picked up some small energy bars and said hi to the owner of Montrose Bike Shop. I didn’t want to spend too much time there and took off, I had more stops to go to! I climbed a bit to get to Descanso Gardens, then dropped down into the canyons. While this is a longer way to ride, it is absolutely gorgeous and there is hardly any traffic. Through the rolling hills I went and popped up in Pasadena. I took the Holly Street bridge-

From there I went up to Orange Grove then to Walnut and down Fair Oaks to my second stop, Subway. When I initially pulled up I saw the balloons and a table, but no one was standing there. I waited a little longer and a Subway employee came out and offered me free breakfast! So I got a Subway breakfast sandwich and an apple juice. I think he wanted to give me the whole store (yogurt, apples, more juice) but I was trying to travel light. They took a few pics of me and I took a self shot:

From there I went to Pasadena City Hall -

They had a pretty nice set up there with some breakfast items. My only complaint is that they have all these giveaways for the city employees and don’t offer anything to everyone else…but I did get a free water bottle from Incycle so that was nice

From there I went to my next stop, it was on Colorado and one of the building management companies. They had a nice spread of nutrition bars and some other little things. At almost 8AM I was only about the 5th or 6th one there, so they were happy to give me some stuff. Since it was nearing 8AM I knew I had to start moving to hit my last 2 stops. The next one was at One West bank, and they had a TON of stuff there. I picked up a Noah’s bagel with cream cheese, some cool little tool kits, and all sorts of other stuff. They took more pictures of me there, then I went to my last stop which was right across the street from my office. They had a bike mechanic doing free tune ups, so I handed over my bike while I enjoyed some nice coffee. They also had some cool stuff to give me and then it was to my office to start my day. Here is all the loot I got:

And here I am standing outside my office:

Good thing I had that trunk on my bike, I was able to carry everything back to the office.

After work I headed over to the Pasadena Museum. They were having a lecture about bicycles in Pasadena, a history. I stayed for a bit but had to get going, so jetted out and took the short way home, Colorado through Eagle Rock. I also got to cross over my favorite bridge, the Colorado Street bridge-

This picture is actually facing the wrong direction, I was going the other way…

I was home in 40 minutes and tired! I had put a good amount of mile on my bike yesterday and the day before. I was hungry and my legs were tired. After I ate, I decided to put my Compex to the test. I put the pads on and set it to Active Recovery and watched TV while I let it go to work. This time I cranked it up a bit more and like muscles were actually twitching…it was cool/weird… But my legs feel great today, it’s my butt that may be a different story…

All in all a really good day, my new goal is to ride into work at least ONCE a week. It feels really good to get out there and I know I can do it, so I should.

Happy Friday!