Endurance Turtle A journey through this turtles triathlon adventures

On May 8th, I participated in the Revlon Run/Walk 5k in Downtown Los Angeles. This is a fun and meaningful race because it raises money for women’s cancer. I participated in the race in 2006 and 2007 as well. The other cool part is that it finishes in the Coliseum and then there is a concert on the field. Anyway, here is how it went…

The night before I used my Compex Sport Elite on my quads. I put it in the “strength” mode hoping for some miracle or PR the next morning. In order to put the pads on correctly, I had to referred to the manual. It was very helpful and I remember that you needed to put the red wire farthest away from your body to get the best effect.

I didn’t crank it up to high, since I am still trying to figure out my limitations. So I left it at a comfortable level and watched Glee online during the 30 minute session.

The next day I woke up and got ready to head down to the race site. Because there is an absurd amount of people that run this race, I parked near my Alma Mater and jogged the mile down to the race site. This seems to work out really well and by the end of the morning I had gotten in about 5 miles (I had to run around some construction).  I was supposed to meet my team that I was doing the race with in the coliseum, but they got caught up in all the traffic and didn’t make it in time. Here is the coliseum before the race:

Here is where the whole day started to go downhill and precisely why I don’t like to rely on other people. I was told that I would be getting a t-shirt to run in, so I wore a “throw away” shirt that I had. It was just a black cotton long sleeve shirt, fine for walking around in…not cool when it is time to run a race.

I also wanted to get down to the start as soon as possible, but I was still waiting on the people to show up. Time kept getting closer to the start and they still weren’t there. I finally came to the conclusion they were never going to make it and I would have to run in the hot shirt and head down to the start. After fighting through huge crowds I got as close as possible, which was still quite a ways away.

The race was supposed to start at 8:45 but they kept introducing a bunch of people, presenting checks and having a gospel choir sing…so we didn’t get going till 9AM. That was a bit annoying because it was starting to get warm out. They finally blew the horn and tossed the confetti and we were off! Sort of…it was the pre-start line shuffle for about 5 minutes. I finally got past the start and was off trying to dodge all the walkers. While I was waiting in the crowd before the start, I remembered that I had parked right along the course, and I might even have a chance to change into another shirt I had brought with me. I knew this would kill my time…but so would that hot black shirt! I also had to pee, but since I was trapped in the death trap of people (seriously, doesn’t that creep anyone out? All those people?) I couldn’t go. So the whole time I am running up Figueroa I am thinking I can stop in one of the restaurants…but everyone else had the same idea! About a mile in I get to my car which is parked along this tree covered street a little off the course. By this point I was hot and I had to pee like no other…so I did what I had to do… I opened up both car doors and popped a squat… Slightly illegal? yes…Worth it? YES! Fortunately, I had parked next to a HUGE tree so that covered me as well. Once I was done I changed tops and was back on the course. After my stop I ,for whatever reason, could not get back into the groove. my time was shot to hell and I figured I should just deal with it and finish. I don’t want to say my time…because it was really sad But when I came through the finish, I gave my best sprint and finished strong:

I also tried to flash my way cool Compex tattoo that I had on my arm, but it is kind of hard to see. After the race I jetted out and went over to get my goodie bag and some other freebies and walked back to my car. Later that day I actually had to go to the bank and the teller asked me if the Compex tattoo was real…I said no and that made him happy (for whatever reason…guess he didn’t like it).

All in all a fun race, too crowded and I don’t think I will do it next year.

A friend of mine sent me a message on Facebook a month back looking for people who wanted a free entry into a local 5k. Since my 2nd favorite word is free (first being “love”), I went for it! Plus, this is the FIRST 5k I had ever done back in 2006 and is what started to get me to think about living a more active lifestyle. Corporate Co-Ed softball was okay, but the beer drinking that followed would usually cancel out anything I did during the game. The race is the Revlon Run/Walk 5k in Downtown Los Angeles. I really like this race (not only because it was my first one) because it is SO well organized and the finish line activities are great. It ends in the coliseum and they usually have a concert. The first year I went The Bangels were there! This year it is Chaka Kan. It is also a fairly flat course, which I am all about…George and I also did this race in 2007 and that is when HE realized he needed to be a little more healthy. So I guess this race is more than a race because it reminds me how far I have come. Back then the idea of doing a triathlon or even riding my bike was so far fetched. Now I try to ride my bike as much as I can and love being active.

So, my goals for this race! (Because I have to beat all my previous years times) is to hold a steady 10 minute pace and to really kick it up at the end. NO WALKING and get as close to the front as possible, since a lot of walkers do this race. They also have timing chips, which they did not have the previous 2 years when I did it, so this year I will have an accurate time….maybe a PR?

I am also going to rock my Team Compex hat, I have a couple of sponsorships this year that I will be talking about and Compex is one of them. I am supposed to get a shirt from the team I am running with, and I am probably going to rock my lululemon groove shorts or my capris (only downside to the capri’s is that they sort of fall down). Still not sure about my shoes…should I go for it with the Zoots? Or just stick to my regular New Balance…decisions, decisions!

I won’t take my fancy camera…just the camera phone…don’t want to be weighed down.

Yay! I really like this race

A while ago, Gail (in Pasadena Tri Club) asked me if I wanted to participate as a runner in the Ragnar Relay. The Ragnar Relay is a 24+ hour event, 200.6 miles with a 12 person relay team. Each runner gets legs that they run ranging from 2 to 8 miles (3 sets). I told Gail, that it sounded like fun…but to put sleep deprivation and running together would be my worst nightmare! So I offered to drive…

Fast forward to Friday morning, we rented the two 15 passenger vans from Enterprise Thursday evening and the team decorated them with some AWESOME decals that were donated by a fellow club member who works with that kind of stuff. I had to leave early for choir practice and they would drive the vans to my house to leave them overnight. I suggested my street, only because it is SUPER safe and we needed room to park a bunch of cars overnight and my street is great for that. It would also be very convenient for me in the morning not to have to drive anywhere I came home after 9 Thursday night and saw the vans and they looked great! Here are the vans:

Back to Friday morning, everyone was meeting at my place at 7AM, I was driver of van 2 and while we didn’t have to start till 2PM…we still drove up with van 1 to see them off at the start. We finally got going around 7:30AM and headed up to Oxnard for the start. We got there with time to spare and pulled into the parking lot. The instant we drove in, we realized we could probably have a good shot at winning the best van contest, our vans were really THAT good! We went through our little safety training session and before we knew it we said bye to van 1. Here is everyone at the start:

Since we didn’t have to really be anywhere till 1PM, we went over to Denny’s and pigged out on some food. Once we were done there we hopped into the van and headed to our first exchange point. By the way, I will use the word “exchange” quite a lot…that is where one runner passes the baton/bracelet to the other runner. There were a total of 36 exchanges. Here I am, hard at work (trying not to kill everyone in my van) 10 & 2, my mom would be proud:

Around 2:30ish (not sure because I was napping) Shawn came through and passed the bracelet to our first runner. We now started our set and we followed each runner through their run then met them at the next exchange. The first set took us till about 8 or 9PM, we had made our way into Woodland Hills by then and we had about 3 hours before our next set. George met us at that stop, so I got to be with him for a little bit and that was really nice. This is where I took off the passenger side mirror… I was parallel parking and the street was really dark and there was this HUGE oak tree next to the curb. I parked a little too close and the tree matched up with the mirror and the tree won. The actual mirror plastic thingy stayed on, it was just the mirror part. We were eventually able to tape it back up so that I had a little visibility on that side of the van, but THANKFULLY we had full insurance  coverage on the vans. Phew! This is also when it was dark and everyone had to wear their reflective vests and lights so no one would hit them. Here is Neil and Marvin all lit up!

I am not really sure what Marvin is doing in that picture…I think he belonged in another van…. (Runagaydes? Marvin????) lol

While at that exchange they had a dinner for $10, so I got that. The team ended up eating at corner bakery…I just kind of hung around with George. We finally took off from there and headed down to Santa Monica where our next exchange would be.

We pulled up in a remote corner of the parking lot so that we could get some rest. I was 10PM and our runner would probably get there around 1AM. We set the alarms to 12:30AM and tried to sleep as best we could. Marvin had a sleeping bag and went for the homeless look:

Around 12:00AM a white truck parked RIGHT next to us and was bumping their music. Seeing that the driver was a little ghetto…we opted to just deal with it and not say anything. So our first nap was not that effective.

Around 1:30AM Shawn came through the Santa Monica exchange point and we would be going till about 4AM. Because these legs were a bit shorter, I had to get a little crazy with getting people into the van. Good thing though, at one of the exchanges a runner was waiting for their other runner because the van wasn’t there on time. Here I am around 3AM or so, videotaping the exchange. I am not really sure why I look so annoyed….oh yeah…I have been up almost 24 hours and had a short nap and it was cold….

Once we were done with our set we ended up somewhere near Compton…I just remember driving the streets trying to get back to the freeway and a little voice in the back of the van said… “I think we are in Compton…” That was really fun, considering that we were in a van decorated to the max in hippie decor! We quickly got on the 405 and were on our way down to another beach town. At this point, the places got blurry and Garmin was mostly leading the way.

When we got there, the group went to breakfast and I opted to sleep in the car since I had another set coming up and needed some rest (and since everyone got to sleep while I drove). Here are a few people from our van at the beginning of our final set:

Once we sent off Lisa, we headed over to a nearby hotel and got cleaned up. Marvin had this AMAZING idea of going to the bathroom only at hotels. It ended up being so much better than gas stations and we got to freshen up a bit too.

The final set went off without a hitch, I was pretty alert and we made sure to encourage our runners along the way. Throughout the whole trip, we also made sure to leave a mark:

Don’t worry….it’s removable paint…we think :-/

For whatever reason, I can’t find any finish line photos…but it looked a lot like the start line photo except on sand (in case you are curious).

Overall, this is a great race. We had a lot of fun and I would do it again. Next year it will fall around the wedding, so I don’t think it will happen for 2011…but 2012 might be a different story…and I might actually RUN it *cringe*

I shot a lot of video, and once I figure out how to get the video off of the camera, I will be sure to put something together.

Thanks to Gail for all the photos!

I promise that Ragnar Relay race recap is coming…just want some more pictures to show you!

Sunday, PTC had a free workout over at CATZ planned. They basically kick you ass in cross training until you fall on the floor. George and I went, there were about 20 people and it felt good to work hard. These are the kind of workouts that we are missing from our club. So I really enjoyed it and after we were treated by our fellow club members with smoothies! They were great!

Monday, I was a little sore but managed to get out a 4.75 mile run. I went on the trails around the Rose Bowl and I always like doing that because I feel like it is more engaging. You have to really look at where you are going or you might fall. I tried to cross the stream to get to the other side of the bowl, but because of the recent rain I actually couldn’t. But I spent about 5 minutes exploring just to try to get across. But no go….would not have been safe AT ALL!

Tuesday, I was SO SORE! And I felt like I was coming down with something so I stayed home and fell asleep around 9:30…I was really tired.

Wednesday I did the brick with PTC. We did a transition brick, that is where you bike – run – bike – run – bike – run. The Bike was a loop around the bowl (3.2 miles) and the run was .6 miles. We were supposed to do it 5 times…I went for 2 because I am cool like that. And I haven’t been feeling that great and have been fighting a cold. I did go for a good hour, so I was happy with that.

Thursday, I baked a cake for a friends birthday so I didn’t get to work out

Now today is Friday and the only thing that I will be working out is my face muscles. My friend and I are going to see Chelsea Handler, we are big fans of her and I am excited.

Tomorrow morning I am going to do the Glendale History Ride as part of Bike Month. Going to take the City Cruiser and will make sure to take lots of pictures! I am going to see if my little Toto is up for the ride too….

Nothing like dragging your bike on the back of your car all day for the much anticipated brick, only to realize that once you pump the tires, take the bike off and go to find your shoes…that they are not there. They are sitting comfortably in the closet at home instead of being with you at your car. Yes, this happened to me last night….major FAIL. I had forgotten that I went on a bike ride on Saturday and when I came home I put my shoes in the closet. Then Wednesday morning, in my rush, I thought my shoes were still in my car and walked right out. Despite all of this, I did decide to go for a run. I will call this my Forest Gump run…because I started runnin’, and kept runnin…tillI felt like turning around. I literally did the stop at no particular place on the trail and turned around. All in all I did 5.75 miles, which is really good for me. I normally barely get through a 3 mile run before I feel like dying…which starts to happen at mile 1. But last night I just figured I would use the time I had to cruise around. At mile 3.5 I did feel a little drained, but once I started going downhill I was good.

After the run I hung out at the parking lot with the other PTC people and chatted. It was nice, and I learned it was probably a good thing I didn’t ride because they were doing a lot of construction work around the bowl and it made everything one big Clusterf$*@k. After my run I quickly downed a PB&J and a Go-Tein drink, I also tried to keep warm since it was a little chilly out. Overall, a good workout and it feels good to be pushing the distance.

In other news, I got a fitness ball for my office:

I am already noticing that my body wants to be lazy and after just a few minutes I get uncomfortable in the position I am in and have to readjust…but it is just my body being a lazy! So we will see if it helps my back at all, I also have started to feel weird tingling sensations in my right arm and left leg in just the last two days. Not sure if it is caused by my position at my desk, but I don’t like it very much.

Not sure how much I will be able to work out this weekend, I have an appointment on Saturday at 1pm to try on a particular type of dress….add in the time it will take to get ready and I might not have enough time to workout. I will try though!

I entered George into a contest on another blog, go vote for him! If he wins (1st, 2nd or 3rd place) he will win some cool clothes for training.

His entry is titled “Hand Me Down Lover”

http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2010/04/vote-for-best-fashion-forward-your.html

George has been pretty busy with flying, so I am on my own when it comes to my Saturday morning rides. Yesterday, I did a ride that I really enjoy. It takes me a little over 20 miles and there are 2 significant climbs in there, the harder climb being toward the end of the ride. I also like it because it keeps me pretty close to home so if anything happens or I get tired I can get home fairly quickly.

For the most part the ride was uneventful. I recently decided to go an a regular regimin of my asthma inhaler (even when I am not working out) and I felt as though that also helped with my breathing. I also wore my heart rate monitor, something I haven’t done for a while and I was able to keep my little rabbit heart in check. Normally, on a big climb I can reach 205 and I linger in the 190s. Max heart rate is supposed to be 220, I am 26 years old so I am not really sure why my heart rate is so high. It might be because I am a regular coffee drinker…or I have small heart. I do recover very quickly and can get down to the 170s within seconds.

The weather was nice, a little cold, but nice. I finally figured out the perfect clothing combination for here in Los Angeles. All you need is a pair of bib shorts, a jersey, knee warmers, arm warmers, a vest and long fingered gloves. The combo is so great because if you get warm you can unzip the vest, and pull down the arm warmers. I have a long sleeve jacket and that is just a little too much and hard to stuff in a pocket. The combo is also great for when you drop down into those cooler canyons on a decent and need to stay warm. Here I am at the top of Lida, feeling okay:

Arm warmer down and vest & jersey unzipped, it got a little warm on that climb. It’s about a 1 mile climb with grades averaging from 4-8%.

After the last climb I really started to make my ride more relaxed. I actually stopped by a historical landmark on Chevy Chase that I have always wanted to take a picture of. It is a house designed by Lloyd Wright (the son of Frank Lloyd Wright) and I think it is actually pretty cool:

There is a house in the Hollywood Hills that was also designed by him:

You can see some similarities in the design, it is somewhat of an acquired taste.

From there I traveled into Glendale more and went to the Americana. I decided to stop by because they have a farmers market and I was thinking about getting some food there. But what I ended up doing was getting some coffee, eating my cliff bar and listening to a live band. While I was sitting outside I was looking at an old building, a little more of Glendale history:

It is actually an old Masonic Temple which is now sometimes used by the theatre group, A Noise Within.

Sometimes it is neat to have fun with your rides, and Saturday I got to have a challenging ride and make it a little fun.

I also discovered a new great way to wear my hair, a bun!

Pretty good self photography skills, huh?

It’s great because my hair doesn’t get in the way and I don’t really have to think about it. I also like it because when I turn my head to look for traffic, or when I blow a snot rocket (yeah!) my hair doesn’t get in the way. Not sure if it makes me look like a boy or not…but I like it and I think I am going to try it out for a while.

So I did about 21 miles in 2 hours, did some climbing and enjoyed the weather. Saturday mornings are fun!

On Wednesday was the first brick of the season for George and I. The group actually started it last Wednesday, but we couldn’t make it to that one. Everyone met up at the usual place near the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center at 5:30PM and we rolled out from there. The idea would be to do 16.5mph the first time around, then go up to 17.5, then 18.5 etc. We went through the first lap, bordering on the 17 mph mark and by the second lap came around we were up to 19.5. It is a slight grade going up, so going that fast even in a pace line can be difficult. I made it half way up the second lap and had to drop off completely. And not just slow down…actually come to a complete stop because I could not breath. After that I went around the bowl by myself for 4 laps. In total I biked 12.5 miles in 47:34, we were supposed to do 6 laps but I thought I would get a head start on the run since it takes me so long. So I cruised back to the car, racked my bike and made a point to get out on the run quickly. I didn’t want to dilly dally because I need to get better at the bike to run transition and getting my legs used to running. When I first started running I felt really tight so about 2 minutes into the run I stopped and stretched my legs a bit. I struggled a bit in the beginning of the run and then picked up the pace on the second part. I did 3.56 miles in 41:34, which is about an 11:30 pace. Once I got back, George was not too far behind me (he actually did more laps on the bike than me) and we chowed down on some PB&Js and I drank my go-tein. We chatted with the group for a bit and then headed over to Subway and split a sandwich. I probably didn’t need that sandwich, because I felt ridiculously full after I ate it. So I think I will rethink my meal choice after the brick.

Next week we are doing the time trial, this is so that we get an overall idea of our fitness in the beginning of the season. Then in the fall we do the same thing and see how our fitness progressed. The time trial is just a 10k on your bike around the bowl, no drafting then the 5k running. You time yourself then enter it into a public spreadsheet. So we will see how I do, I have never been able to really do it before because I am either too lazy or just bored with going around the bowl.

I am going to try and get in some workouts this weekend, maybe a bike ride tomorrow morning. Sunday I am speaking at my Alma Mater to a bunch of students who got accepted into the college and are deciding if they want to go or not. Maybe I can convince a few young gullible teenagers into paying $30k a year for a great education!