Endurance Turtle A journey through this turtles triathlon adventures

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….

Oh where, oh where has the turtle been? I have been in my little shell…it was raining every time I wanted to get a workout in last week so I didn’t do much except for my physical therapy workouts. And then Friday to Saturday I volunteered for the Ragnar Relay…it was so much fun and such a great experience and my report is on its way, just want to get in some groovy pictures!

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!

Lately, we have had a lot of earthquakes in the America’s section of the “ring of fire”. It makes me think, are we prepared? People say that the first 3 days are what you need to prepare for. That means enough food and water to get you through until society stabilizes.  I know we probably have enough food, but water is something we should definitely stock up on. Another thing that a lot of people don’t think about, is what would you do if you were at work and an earthquake hit. You can’t drive home, your car is either stuck in a parking structure or the streets are too dangerous. Well, you can always do what we were meant to do….walk. But with our societies increase in obesity, there would be a lot of people that would not be able to get home.

Fitness is something of a new thing to me, being able to work out for hours at a time. Being able to sustain that level of output, and I know now that if I had to I could run/walk the 8 miles to my house. Would it take me a couple hours? Yes. But I could do it! So I keep running gear in my office so that in case of an emergency I can run home. Because when a crisis hits, we will only have ourselves to rely on…no taxi’s, buses, cars…just our body. It would truly be survival of the fittest.

I know it is a bit far out there, but it could happen and wouldn’t you want to be prepared? So think about that, if you had to what would you be capable of? I know for a fact that I would be able to get on my bike and ride 50+ miles. I know that I could put some running shoes on and run the 8 miles to my house. So sometimes it isn’t just about the next triathlon, or marathon, but what would you be capable of when it came down to it? When it came down to survival, something we as Americans are very unfamiliar with, how would you survive?

Yesterday, after work, I got in an unexpected 4 mile run. I am trying to up my mileage since 6 miles will be the standard for a while (for the olympic races). I want to get comfortable with mileage and I don’t want my body to completely revolt on me when I try to do longer distances so I am working my way up. So far what I notice is that immediately following the run my body feels pretty beat up. But I have also been drinking this stuff called Gotein and it does a really good job at making me feel better the next day. It comes in a little pouch and mixes in with a regular bottle of water. I bought it at the Pasadena Marathon expo on discount, $20 for 2 boxes and there are 12 packets in each box. So I drank that immediately after my run yesterday.

I also picked up the new PTC running shirt over at Run With Us and did my run in that yesterday:

These shirts are so much better than the last ones we had. Those were very boxy and the logo was really small. It was about 65 degrees when I went running and very sunny and this shirt kept me comfortable. I like it!

Feeling good today, nothing is sore…time to get a pedicure