Endurance Turtle A journey through this turtles triathlon adventures

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

So last night, George and I were eating at The Habit and discussing what all couples talk about…our upcoming training schedule for the Spring/Summer. We realized that the Nautica Malibu Tri is about 5 months away and Strawberry Fields is 3 months away. We also know that we would really like to improve our performance this year and challenge ourselves. So I put the following together, what would an Endurance Turtle post be without an Excel screenshot!?!

This is just a preliminary schedule and we will get a bit more granular as time goes on. Specifically, we are going to put each workout in our calendars so that we actually get reminders each morning of what is on the schedule that day. We are actually backing off of the training on the swim a bit and will pick it up more as we start to do more open water swimming. I feel like the pool is hard to compare to the open water and I much rather spend the time training in open water than a pool. We are really turning our focus to the bike and the run and then from there really focusing on running. We will integrate some speed work in there as well as some tempo stuff. I am hoping this will help with our overall fitness. A couple of other things we are cutting out is excessive drinking. We don’t drink much now, but we will be more aware of what we consume. We will also be focusing on rest and recovery. PTC has their weekly bricks on Wednesday’s and after they usually go to a restaurant to eat (and usually includes margaritas). With our new little regimen, we probably won’t go out too often. Still trying to keep to that budget (budgets are no fun….but necessary), trying to cut out drinking and rest we will be the social butterfly’s of the season! Not sure why George and I are taking this a little more seriously this year, I guess we just want to get better…what a concept…

So, as you may know, George and I are planning this little event…called a wedding…and we have to be very careful with the money we do spend. Therefore, races every month are just not in the budget! However, one thing that is in the budget (because it is free) and totally fun, is volunteering at these races! To add to my list of volunteer events, this Saturday I will be helping out at Oceanside 70.3. I am driving down with a fellow PTC’er (Nicole) and we are going to help out somewhere…not exactly sure where yet, I just know I get a free shirt. One of my goals is to complete a half ironman. Not sure exactly when it will be happening since next year is going to be busy, so it just might fall in 2012 and George and I can do it together. I hope to really see how everything works at a half ironman, not sure how different it is from a regular tri…but I guess I get to see

I will also be conveniently cheering for everyone that is racing and is in the Pasadena Tri Club. I am also hoping that I get to see a couple of really cool pro’s, Michael and Amanda Lovato. I follow her blog and it would be cool to see her in person, maybe even say hi to her and act like an idiot (which I do so well with famous people…or pros).

Another reason why I volunteer is so that I can give back to the sport that I love so much. If it wasn’t for all those people that volunteer their time out there for our races we really wouldn’t have a race. So I want to be one of those people!

That’s all I got, till next time.

Let’s get to the bottom line first, then I will fill in everything else:



Because I over analyze things, here we go (where is my powerpoint clicker)….I went up in over all division ranking, in 2009 I place 9th in Athena and this year I placed 5th. I was slower on the run, but faster in the bike and swim. The part that killed me was the INSANE bike to swim transition and the entirely TOO long of a run to get to the pool. I would also like to point out my bib numbers were a palindrome both years

So this is how it went, on Friday I went over to Whole Foods out at Hastings Ranch and volunteered. I got assigned to the goody bag area outside and camped out there from 4-7pm. It was fun seeing everyone and I was answering a lot of questions that people had about the triathlon. The group I was with were all runners, so when someone had a random question about transitions or clothing…I was the designated person to ask. As a suggestion to the race organizers, I think there should be an “Ask Me” table where people can go up and ask their last minute questions about triathlons. There are a lot of people that make this their first triathlon and they do have an Intro to Tri Clinic, but it is sometimes hard for people to make it out. I also have some other suggestions for the race organizers that I am keeping to myself for the moment. Let’s just say it got a little ugly….and I got a bit bitchy….

Moving on!

Saturday morning, George and I head out to the Rose Bowl. We got there with plenty of time to spare and never felt rushed. We got to say hi to a bunch of friends and our goal was to stay warm for as long as possible. I was a little nervous about my blister, I had it covered up and came to the conclusion that wearing my custom orthodics would just rub the blister even more (since that is what I was wearing when I got the blister). So I made the last minute decision to just wear the regular insoles that came with my New Balance shoes and took the risk. This isn’t the best thing to do on race day, but I had to take a little risk…I also had to avoid getting overly body marked. George and I had a wedding to go to later and I would be wearing a dress…They wanted to put my number in permanent marker on both arms, both hands, my thigh, and something on both of my calves. I told the little young volunteers that they were being lied to and all I needed was my number on each arm and my age on my calf. Once 8AM rolled around, George and I stripped down to our tri gear and we jogged to the start line. I am glad we did this, I think it helped warm us up a bit and get us ready for the race…not like it helped my run any…but I definitely didn’t feel like I was going to die on the run. This year was a little different and we had 3 waves. 1st wave was the 5k, 2nd wave was the men (bye George!) then the 3rd wave was the women.

Run – 36:49:09

Not super impressed with my run. I was 1 minute slower than the year before and this is where I really wanted to improve. I hope the reason why I didn’t do well here is because I couldn’t run the week leading up to the race because of my blister…maybe if I could have at least gotten one run in I would have been a little better. Not sure what my splits were here, just know that their mile markers and my Garmin did not sync up! Their 1 mile was my .80 mile and their 2 mile marker was my 1.80 mile. Blister never bothered me, so I made a good decision with the insoles…phew!

T1 – 1:14

Very satisfied with my T1, it went smoothly and I got out quickly. The chute for the bike exit was small and I got a slow person in front of me, that was annoying. Mount line was a little too close to the chute….but I got on my bike without hitting anyone or falling over. Win for Kristen!

Bike – 35:52:01

Faster on the bike! YESSSS! Maybe the aero bars and embarrassing disc wheel worked! Or I just rode faster this year…. My big problem with the bike is the level of inexperience there is in reference to the riders. I had to yell at a guy for drafting off of me and there were numerous times I had to swerve in order not to crash. In larger races, you stay to the right of the road and only pass on the left. In this race, they have the whole street shut down and everyone is everywhere. No one stays to one area and you have to pass on the left and the right in order to pass anyone. I tried to tell people I was coming as much as possible, but it is what it is. I also noticed that people on mountain bikes tended to swerve a lot…I don’t own a mountain bike….but is it hard to ride in a straight line with those things? This will forever baffle me. The first loop felt great, I was hauling ass. Second loop didn’t feel as good and I started to feel a slight tinge of cramps in my calves coming on. By loop three I was holding off those cramps like nobody’s business. I wanted to keep those damn things away! The only time I cramp is when going from the run to the bike, so I don’t think I have any duathlon’s in my future. I finally get into transition and feel good about my time.

T2 – 4:14:03

WORST TRANSITION EVER! I get back to my rack and there is no room for my bike (other bike were poorly racked). I spend half my time trying to get my bike racked. I really couldn’t throw it on the ground…just couldn’t do it (my inner USAT rules angle was yelling at me over my shoulder). A guy was calling out places for me to put my bike and I finally got it racked. Threw my shoes off (put my crocs on), took the helmet off grabbed my goggles and left. Half way through the transition area I realized I still had my glasses on. THANKFULLY, Tammy, a fellow PTC’er and Disney Tri Team member was volunteering at the end of the transition area. I asked her if she could take my glasses and she did. Not sure if that is against the rules…but there was a lot going on in that whole race that was against the rules so I don’t want to hear it. Now, if you are quick you would have noticed I mentioned something about my crocs. Before the race, George and I were looking at the run to the pool and he said he would wear his sneakers because he is tender footed. I agreed and decided I would wear my crocs, GREAT DECISION! As I was RUNNING AROUND THE WORLD to get to the pool, I never thought about my feet…especially over the rocks, pavement and wood chips. Right before I got to the pool area I threw them off at Monica (fellow PTCer) and ran into the pool area. P.S. Thanks Monica for moving my shoes out from the middle of the path!

Swim – 4:14:03

Jumped in the hot tub and swam my 3 lengths. I had to catch my breath a few times and probably should have trained a bit more in the pool. I was definitely feeling it by the end of the 1st length! Ran out of the pool and crossed the timing mat/finish line! DONE!

Overall, I really wanted to podium in this race…and I didn’t. I will try again next year and I know if I could just knock off 5 minutes off my run I would be there. I am glad they had timing chips this year, that was a big bonus. I will always love this race because of the overall fun of it. There are so many people yelling your name when you are out there on the course and it is great. Thanks to all the volunteers out there, you guys were awesome! Pictures to come later.