Endurance Turtle A journey through this turtles triathlon adventures

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!

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