My new ride

Fuji Finest 2.0 2008

I've been cycling for over 3 years now and after about 1 year of riding I wanted to upgrade my bike.  I really love my Fuji Finest 2.0 and although we have traveled all over the greater bay area together it is time for her to retire.  So as of next week I will be going from this...
to this...

Trek Mondone 5.2

Now the problem with cycling is bikes look pretty similar at first glance, but there should be a world of a difference between these two bikes.   Here is how they compare:


Components: Both bikes are Shimano, but the fuji is all Tiagra except for the rear derailer which is 105.  The trek is all Ultegra which is the second best level of components for Shimano (best being Durace).  I felt I needed a smoother ride and a shorter reach which the mondone offers.

Weight: The obvious way to drop weight is to diet, but an easier way to do it is get a lighter bike.  The weight of a bike really changes your times and makes hard climbs a bit less difficult.  Or at least this is the theory behind it.  With the Trek I am going from a 21.5 pounds to about 16.5 pounds.

The Cassette:  The fuji finest has 3 cassette rings in the front, otherwise known as a triple.  When I first started riding I was greatful for having this extra gear, but as the years have passed I rarely use this "granny" gear.  I decided that I'd like to have a compact double for the Trek Mondone.  Although one day I may regret going with one less gear, but for now this will help decrease the weight of my bike.

Everything else: I picked this bike for a few other reasons too.  Firstly, I can't do white bar tape again, I got so many flat tires that my white bar tape is no longer white.  Secondly, The cables are all wired within the frame which makes it look really clean and stylish.  Lastly, I just love the way it looks!  So if anyone wants to head out for a ride I'm so excited to test out my new wheels!

The past, the present and the future...maybe?

Growing up I always thought I was horrible at athletics and thought I would never get faster or better even if I worked at it.  Of course I was wrong, I mean I'll never go pro, but I have definately improved from where I started.  Upon the completion of my first olympic triathlon I thought I would take a look at my old times and reflect on how I've improved and set some goals.

My first long Sprint: Luna Bar Tri at Rancho Seco Park

My love of endurance athletics began with my completion of my first century ride in Solvang. So my first area of focus is the bike.  Cycling tends to be my strongest event so I'd like to make it a little stronger.  During my second long sprint tri I averaged a 16.8 pace for 20 miles, now this is actually faster than my pace from Wildflower, but Wildflower has several rolling hills that slow me down to 16.2.  I would like to improve my time for the Pleasanton California International Triathlon by at least 1mph on the bike.  I plan to do this not only by training, but by getting a better bike. 
Right now I ride a 2008 fuji finest 2.0 with purple flowers.  Although I love my bike it weighs a ton.  It is aluminum with a carbon fork and has all Tiagra Shimano components except the rear derailer which is a Shimano 105 derailer.  If I lighten my load a bit I'll be able to fly a little faster.  I have a few bikes in mind and I might possibly head in the tri bike direction, but as for now I'm more of a road cyclist

Now for the swim, during the Luna Bar Tri I swam 800 meters in 17:48 which means I may have swam an olympic at that time in 32 minutes or slower.  During this event I struggled, went out too fast, and even resorted to back stroking.  Luckily with the help of tri-valley masters and Pleasanton Club sport masters I managed to cut my time down.  This past weekend I swam faster than I predicted at a bit over 28 minutes.  Right now I've really only been getting in the pool 2x a week and I've been neglecting masters swim so I really am going to try and push myself to go to masters and get in the water 2x or more.  This is the perfect time of year to work on my swim because the weather is nice to test out the open water.  I'll have the summer off so if anyone wants to head to Shadow Cliffs to swim open water hit me up.  My goal is to cut off 30 seconds to a minute on my time.


As for the run, I have improved tremendously on the run.  I went from running a 10:35 pace for 4 miles at Luna to a 8:48 pace at Wildflower.  My half marathon has gone from 1:51:57 a 8:33 pace to a 8:08 pace at primos to a 1:41: 57  a 7:47 pace.  I have even dropped a full minute off my 5k time.  This year I'll be marathoning again at CIM in December so I'll really be focusing on my run come august.  I'd like to work on improving my half marathon while I work on my marathon and I'm trying to decide which one to do this fall so if you have any suggestions please let me know.  I would like to cut down my half by about 5 seconds per mile meaning a 1:40:52 half marathon.  I've learned that I can't really force it or I'll blow up so I'm praying to the running gods to keep me healthy and help me improve my speed, but I feel as though I'm really going to have to increase my mileage to meet this goal.  So here I go!

I did it! Wildflower race report and then some

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, my stomach is dropping, yep folks that means it is Wildflower!  One of the most popular and most difficult races around, hosted by the students of my alma mater Cal Poly SLO.  Nick headed out to get my grandfather's RV in Placerville a few days before our departure so we wouldn't exactly be roughing it, but when you camp out 3 days before your big race you want to be fairly comfortable. 
At 2:00p.m Thursday I raced off from work to meet Nick, Ryan, Glenn and Eric in Walnut Creek to load up the RV and head out.  By 4 p.m. we were on our way hoping for as little traffic as possible.  Now I usually have a lot of pre-race anxiety, but not this time, after feeling a bit sick throughout the week, having Nick break his clavicle, and only getting two workouts in for the whole week, I had only one goal in mind, SURVIVE!  We arrived in Bradley around 9p.m., set up camp, and headed to bed.

On friday we all started to get our act together, ate breakfast and headed out for the festival area.  So people always say Wildflower is hard and they will go on and on about how hard the course is and give a detailed explanation of what miles to watch out for, but what they don't usually tell you about the hills you have to battle to get to the festival area or how if you lose someone it is about as hard to find them as it is to find someone at disneyland because of the lack of cell phone reception for anyone except Verizon carriers (Glenn and myself were the only ones with steady reception).  Anyway, we picked up our packets, t-shirts, and swim caps and this is where I was designated POWDER BLUE.  This was it I was really doing this race, but I got a little nervous upon running into a fellow FOMO friend in my age group who had a white cap.  Apparently I was in the faster group of my age group, which scared me a bit because my swim was no where near faster group status, but I figured no point in worrying about it now.  After checking out all the displays we took the shuttle back to camp and waited for my awesome friends and wonderful spectators Mary, Tom, and the new puppy who has yet to have a name.  The afternoon was filled with bocce ball, ladder golf and laziness.

Saturday was the big day for some Forward Motion athletes as they took on the half iron course.  We got up bright and early to see the pros take off and cheer on Leanda Cave a FOMO friend.  After seeing the pros blow through the swim we changed locations to watch the bike take off and then headed back to camp to see the run.  We were entertained by a Wildflower record holder who decided to yell PENIS! as he passed us.  After cheering on Leanda at mile 11 (Women's overall winner) we decided to rest our legs and call it a day.  I went for a short 2 mile run to loosen up my legs and a quick ride to make sure everything worked on my bike and then carboloaded my evening away.  Of course, it wouldn't be wildflower without the Cal Poly coeds jogging through camp completely NUDE.

Eric, Nick and I purple caps head out long before me

Now came Sunday, it was my turn to have at it.  I was estimating it taking me 3 hours to complete the race so I coordinated various locations with my friends and family and then headed off to transition.  After being branded with my race number, finding my rack with a very intimidating woman next to me and my morning warm-up jog, I stretched, grabbed my wetsuit and headed off to hang out with Nick since I wouldn't be starting until 10:10.  Here is where all the nerves set in, I was trying to take deep breaths as Nick told me "You'll do great!"  I still worried about my powder blue status, but my nerves were occupied by a few pre-race kodak moments. 



Ryan is hoping his 3 swim sessions pay off

The groups headed out before me

The beautiful weather and the transition area

I am somewhere out there

Glenn would be the first to take off so he headed down to the water while Kat tried to calm my nerves with her positive energy.  As the guys got in the water 1 by one I stood on the sidelines cheering them on when they reached the shore until it was finally here, my turn.

Before you start you get a few minutes to swim out and feel the water and then come back in for the horn.  I figured my swim is not very strong so I got close to the back.  I tried to shake all my nerves out and then it blew, I was off.  I tried to settle into my stroke and with every blow someone hit me with I just prayed I wouldn't get a kick to the face, saying to myself "not the goggles, not the goggles."  Before I knew it I was around the first bouy.  I felt great, I was passing people blue caps, purple caps, bouy after bouy until finally I was back on shore.  The water was fairly calm which I think I was lucky especially considering the heat I would be battling soon enough.  I raced out of the water thinking "Goggles on head, unzip, take off top of wetsuit, now cap and goggles, don't run into anyone."  After dodging everyone in transition I finally made it to my spot.  I raced to get my socks and shoes on and then off I went (yes I wear socks, I'm not that hard core yet).

I loved every minute on the bike, I felt great, I got road kill after road kill while old men said "You better be 20," "you're just going to pass me like that,"  "way to make me feel bad,"  I yelled "great job," "go team," and "you look great," as I passed competitors.  I worked hard on every hill and enjoyed every downhill.  At last, my bike was done and then I cringed as I saw the run coming. 

I kept saying "You can do this, you got this Lauren, keep going."  Then off I went on the run, with water bottle in hand knowing the heat and hills were obstacles I would have to takle.  I started slow and just kept going feeling good that I was passing people.  I saw Nick on mile 1 which made me smile and push a little harder.  I knew though mile 3 was the butt kicker so I needed to conserve some energy.  I made it up the first difficult one throwing water on myself along the way, then came mile 3 and half way up I had to take a walk break with my hip hurting, but I pressed on and eventually got a bit of a second wind.  Just as I wanted to walk again I saw Mary and Tom cheering me on and thought well I can't walk now someone would see me.  Just a half mile until the down hill and I'll be off my legs will just follow the lead.  Then it came, the long downhill as I breathed a sigh of relief it was almost over.  I came in seeing the clock and the finish line.  I gave the last bit of effort I had buried in me and crossed the finish line.  I did it!  I finished my first olympic tri WILDFLOWER!  And if this post wasn't long enough here are my stats and pictures.
total time: 2:59:46  Swim: 28:57  Bike: 1:31:56  Run: 54:38
28th in my age group 104 in my gender and 542 overall
For my age 50th on my swim 27th on my bike 32nd on the run



Checking my results




Crossing the finish line




My mom and I post-race



Thank you for coming Mary...So much fun!



Next Stop Bay to Breakers!!!

A love hate relationship its complicated

Yesterday marked my second week trucking myself up Mt. Diablo from the south side this season and less than two weeks until Wildflower so to subside my anxiety I thought I would talk about my favorite and most hated ride.  I started cycling about 3 years ago when my boyfriend took me bicycle shopping.  He wanted to start riding more since his bike spent most of the time collecting cobwebs and I figured I would shop a little, but I wasn't entirely sold on the idea.  But then I saw her...the fuji finest 2.0...she was beautiful in white and purple the perfectly girly dream bike for me, although as I grow as a cyclist she feels more like a tank.  Anyways, I have gone on many rides by this time in my cycling career but I always return to 1, my first one, Mt. Diablo. 

It took me 3 tries to make it to the ranger station and one more time to make it to the top.  Even when I made it to the top I bonked so hard I fell in the gravel when I got back to the car.  Not only was the ride to the top challenging, but I ended up wearing out my break pads with how slow I'd go down the mountain.  I always feared crashing hard on the way down.  I've gotten better as the have passed and eventually my hatred for this ride has long since passed, so much so that I enjoy inflicting the pain of Diablo on myself on a regular basis, it really is a disturbing and abusive relationship.  Yesterday evening a friend of mine managed to capture the beauty of Mt. D as we decended down the mountain and I thought it is definately worth sharing



Does anyone else have this kind of experience with rides or routes they do?

Salud to the Marathoners!

Today marked one of the biggest and most exiting event in a marathoner's running career, THE BOSTON MARATHON.  This marathon is known as America's oldest marathon and has some very difficult qualifying standards.  Although I have about 7 half marathons under my belt I can say I've only ran one marathon so far and it was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do.  There are certain things that become normal to you that don't seem normal to the average person.  For instance:

Going out for an 11 mile run seems like an average everyday thing, not to mention a fairly short distance

Having 10 toenails seems unusual

Anti-chafe, nipple guards, vaseline, chamois butter and tri glide become your best friends that you'll never leave home without

Weekly hang outs with friends usually involve running or eating

No matter how much you eat, you can never feel full

7a.m. starts to become sleeping in on the weekends

You carry a water bottle everywhere you go

Ice baths actually start to feel good and sound like a good idea

And of course at the end of it all you feel accomplished and say, why do I do this to myself?  I'm attempting round 2 of a marathon this year in December, although I don't know that I'll make Boston qualifying standards I will be working hard to beat my current marathon time.  Cheers, to all you Boston Marathoners, you really kicked some butt today!  May your evenings be filled with margaritas, ice baths, and a sigh of relief that all that training really paid off.  

With 2 weeks to go...

This week was a GREAT week!  Why? Because this is the week of Spring Break!  There are a few perks to being a high school teacher and spring break is definitely one of them.  I started the week out in Long Beach after we previewed the Wildflower course in SLO.  Working out in Long Beach can be hard sometimes because there are so many distractions and I'm not too familiar with cycling routes since I didn't cycle when I lived in So Cal, but overall my week went pretty well.

Monday:
I slept in and then woke up to a bit of a hazy morning, the perfect weather for a late morning run.  Nick and I set out to do 5-6 miles and since the track workout was posted I decided I would try to tempo 3 miles of my run.  I started slow and easy running through the Long Beach Grand Prix course and then off we went down the beach.  I love running on the beach!  I've always been able to let loose and forget everything when I'm by the beach, this is the one thing I truly miss now that I live in the bay area.  After 5.5 miles we were back to shower and meet up with friends and family.

Tuesday:
I got ahold of a friend of mine from high school who is an awesome triathlete.  We picked her up around 9 and she directed us to a cycling route in Santiago Canyon.  After a great 35 mile ride with rolling hills we dropped Megan off and thanked her for getting us out riding (Thank you Megan!).

Wednesday:
I had a harder time being motivated this day.  Nick headed up to LA to visit with some friends so I decided I would head to the Belmont Pool in Belmont Shore and get some much needed laps in.  Usually once I get in the pool I get with the program and start enjoying the workout or approach the workout with determination, but not today.  I was sluggish and ready to get out, so I settled with 2200 meters and headed down to 2nd street to meet my mom.

Thursday:
Nick and I decided to test out the scenery and bicycle route that is the Palos Verdes Drive loop.  All 30 miles were gorgeous along the coast on a beautiful day.  Unfortunately, my legs didn't feel so beautiful, but I stuck with it and got the ride done.  I even managed to throw in a short brick run afterward.

Friday:
We headed back home where I set up an open water swim test with the Shadowcliff Orcas so we could do some open water swimming with the rest of the Forward Motion Triathletes.  Later on we returned to the lake in full wetsuit to swim a mile in the open water.  I can't say it went too smoothly for me since I took a long time to warm up while swimming and my chest felt tight from the cold 58 degree water.  I made it out to the rock pile and back even if it did take me a while.
We followed up the cold swim with a short trail run and then PIZZA to finish the night off.

Saturday:
I planned on going running with my sister around noon so I decided to truck my butt out of bed and up Mt. D.  Since I was short on time I only went up to the junction and back, but luckily my legs felt better than they did on Thursday.
I met up with my sister for a ride through the Haight, Castro, and Delores park where I had to climb a few hills and one giant mountain.  I definitely felt that one this morning.

Sunday:
I really didn't want to do anything today, but I felt guilty not getting my run in so I headed out to Clayton with some friends and went for a trail run.  After 5.5 miles and 800ish ft. of climbing I was glad it was over with, and then I finished the week with some tacos, yum!

Now there is only two more weeks to go and after seeing the course and freezing my butt off in the lake I'm getting a little nervous, but I'll just have to wait and see how everything pans out.

I have a lot of friends and team members out in Boston this week and I just want to wish them well and good luck as they race the Boston marathon tomorrow morning!  

Going a little SLO

So this week my training suffered a bit, but I decided to hit the road and test out the Wildflower course with my boyfriend and our friend Eric.  This meant a weekend in SAN LUIS OBISPO!  I haven't visited SLO for quite sometime since I don't have a Cal Poly couch at my disposal (my sister graduated 2 years after me).  Poly has changed drastically since I graduated: there are commercial retailers, twice as many bars, bars I wouldn't even have risked vomitting in have been remodeled, and the college campus looks all shined up fancy and new.  However, most of SLO remains the same.  Firestones is still mouthwateringly good, bubble gum alley is still disgusting, I can always find tank tops and dress shirts at Lucky Lulu's, High St. deli still makes my sandwich the way I like it, and all the ugliest buildings on campus still stand (yes, the rat maze and library of concrete have not been renovated, these buildings would make anyone wonder why Poly is one of the top Architecture schools in the nation).  However, I didn't just come here to relive my college days, but with a mission of seeing what I've gotten myself into by signing up for this race.

I did volunteer for Wildflower as a student, but as a volunteer you don't really see the full picture of the course so this weekend I not only saw, but experienced it.  We headed out around 9a.m. to ride, run and swim? the course.  Well we didn't have the drive to swim the course with the wind chill in the air, but we got ourselves together and headed out on the road.  Once the guys finished making fun of my tank of a bike I was off.  The crosswind made the out and back fairly painful, but the hills weren't nearly as tough as I expected.  Certainly Lynch Hill out of the transition area was long and slow, but I managed to get up to 17 or 18mph while on the gradual inclines.  Unfortunately, I missed the turnaround so I added a few miles, but I'm sure it will help me more than hurt me.  After the long decent back into the training area I felt relieved that all the fear people had instilled in me wasn't as bad as I imagined in my head.

Now the run is a different story!  I was told tales of the endless hills and how you can probably fry an egg on people's foreheads in the heat, but I needed to test out the course for myself.  Miles 1 and 2 started out pretty well, a lot of rolling hills with a few steep sections, but nothing too miserable, but come about mile 2.5 the long slow stretches of hills begin.  Mile number 3 was a killer slowly winding up, feeling like it never ends, but then I made it!  Mile 4 meant more rollers and I feared that there was much more in store for me.  I was huffing and puffing through the end of mile 4, but then...SALVATION!  The downhill began!  The last mile and a half is downhill so it was home free at the end.

After the run I needed a nap, but I felt accomplished that we made it through the course and breathed a sigh of relief that it was time to Party or at least eat all the awesome food in SLO.  So now I need to work on mental preparation now that I'm well aware of what pain I'll be putting myself through in 3 weeks.  So 3 weeks left and here I go!