This week in training...

Last weekend started with the Folsom Sprint Triathlon where what I thought was going to be the race from hell actually ended up being a pretty good time with some pretty awful race photos.   After an early morning at Folsom Nick and I rested up and packed up to head down to southern California.






Sunday: I planned to get a long run in before we left, but that was an epic fail, I was just too tired.  Oh well, I needed a rest day anyway!  Instead we took our time traveling by stopping in San Luis Obispo and hitting up Firestone and Splash Cafe, thinking about how much everything has changed since college.





Monday: I knew I planned on getting 7 in today so I got up and headed out on the beach.  I have always loved running on the beach, but today my legs weren't too happy about it, probably seeking revenge from last week.  Plus, no garmin, so 8 horrible miles later I was finally finished and relieved.  Then we headed off to Laguna to enjoy the sun and check out the rooftop lounge.

Tuesday: Nick and I headed to Catalina and since I didn't have the motivation to wake up before I had to I decided this would be a rest day.  I haven't been to Catalina since high school and we got lucky with perfect weather.

Wednesday: My mom wanted me to try out her Zumba class and I had to get 6 miles of intervals in so Nick and I headed to the gym for some treadmill intervals (2x800, 2x400, 4x200) and then I shook my butt for an hour (oh to be a fly on those walls).  Then we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific and met up with our friends Mary and Tom for a late evening happy hour later on.



Thursday: We headed home, much faster than on the way down, and despite my exhaustion I headed out for a 5 mile very easy run, finishing at sports basement for the Walnut Festival Run registration party.

Friday: My friend Kim asked me to join her for 14 miles of Mt. Diablo trails.  Unfortunately,  the morning wasn't treating me so well.  My  car battery was dead, but luckily Kim's husband picked me up and took me to the start.  I felt real great for a while and after 7 miles we headed on the summit trail.  I walked some of the steeper hills and got a bit ahead of the other ladies so I missed the turn off.  Kim caught me, but since I had to add a 1.25 mile home after the run I ended up with 17.6 miles of running and 2,446 feet of climbing.  My long run was supposed to be 10 this week, needless to say I was walking slow the rest of the day.

Saturday: Both Nick and his roommate got sick Friday and didn't feel any better on Saturday.  I woke up early and headed out solo to volunteer for Tri for Fun #3.  Once I made it home I was stiff and exhausted.  I planned on riding a bit, but ended up just being a lazy bum occasionally running errands for the sicklys.

Sunday: My friend Laney and I met up for a ride and I was relieved she wanted to start at 9 so I could try and sleep a bit.  We met down the street and headed out to Moraga.  We had a great 33 miler on my favorite route and now my legs can retire until tomorrow.

My week ended with:
Run: ~37
Swim: none: just didn't have time
Bike: 33
Other Crosstrain: 1 hour Zumba

Need a new 5/10k PR?

Come on down to Walnut Creek on Sunday, September 11th and help support the schools of the WC.  A few friends of mine are working hard to put on the annual Walnut Festival Run for Education.     Although this is a great PR race, it is also open to joggers and walkers who just want to get out there and take part in this fun event.  We will have entertainment, vendors, and of course a very supportive group of volunteers out to cheer YOU on!

If you are familiar with Walnut Creek this is the course profile. Very flat and very fast, and rumor has it a certain local sports store might be doing a trial run on the course during their tuesday night run.  Last year this was my first REAL 5k, by real I mean I was actually racing.  I was so excited with my time and I managed to walk away with 1st place in my age group, which was a huge surprise!

Although I have not tested the waters of the 10k, the course does the same loop as the 5k and then repeats the course one more time to cross the finish line.

If you're looking for a race/run/event to put on your calendar this is really worth checking out, plus, your registration fees are low and go toward a great cause-->EDUCATION!

For more information and details please check out the website  WALNUT FESTIVAL RUN

HAPPY RUNNING!

Sprinting into 2nd...

I had really put my legs through a lot this week between 11 miles of trails on monday followed by a swim, 33 miles cycling on tuesday, track, and then finals for my 2 summer courses this week to top it off.  I had planned on going to Folsom triathlon as a spectator to watch my boyfriend tackle his first official triathlon.  However, a friend ended up having a free entry up for grabs so I decided to race and just have fun with it.

Nick and I loaded up the car and headed for Folsom.  I already wasn't so sure about the swim since I knew this would be much colder than what I was used to, so I kept focusing on the fact it was only half the distance.  I set up my transition area, headed out for a warm-up run and stuffed myself into my wetsuit.

The Swim: So I decided to go sleeveless to cut down on transition time and sure enough I did.  Although my swim was atrocious, as usual, I did get the fastest T1 out of the whole lot of women!  This was the most aggressive swim I've done, I had to dodge kicks from every direction, praying my goggles wouldn't get knocked off.  Although I may have some bruises in the morning and managed to get hydrated on the swim I finished with a 16:49.

The Ride: I headed out confident that if I'm going to catch anyone I need to do it here, this is my sport (well at least out of the three).  Unfortunately, I would also to have to overcome my bad luck of flat tires in order to make it to the run.  I decided early on that a flat tire would mean DNF this time.  Fortunately, this didn't happen, I made it around all the turns and past the debris without a flat tire or crashing, but there were quite a few close calls.  I dismounted the bike with overwhelming excitement which I would later find out was a 43:09 ride.

Now my T2 was not as great as T1, it was faster, but I'm a little nervous about unstrapping my tri shoes while riding is a little nerve racking for me.  So I took the extra 20 seconds to take off my shoes and slide on my Zoots.

I had hardly anything in my legs by now, but I just kept saying, "3.1 miles is not that far, you can do it, you won't die."  Although I was in pain I started to notice there weren't very few women on the course.  I ran into Nick on my way out, gave him a big high 5 as he headed toward the finish and I conquered the  very warm run course.  I have to say the trail running is paying off, because I made it up and over the hills, around the turn around, and past a few girls out on the course.  I cheered all the women I did pass on, "Great job, way to go!"  I even cheered on the few female athletes in front of me and of course the FOMO crowd.  I used the last bit of energy I had to sprint toward the finish...End time 1:25:14

After all was said and done, I secured 2nd place and 10th in my gender, Woohoo!!!  Turns out Nick and our friend Eric made it to the podium as well, so we all collected our victory wine bottles and headed home!  

Trying to get in the fast lane

I used to think I was just a slow runner, I mean ever since I was in middle school I only remember running 8 minute miles and thinking I'm just not athletic.  Turns out I was wrong, there are actually ways to get faster it just takes INTERVAL training!  There are a couple of different ways I feel people do intervals:

First of all there is the TRACK:  For instance yesterday's workout I ran 1.75 miles to warm-up followed by 3x800 (2 laps) at 10k pace and 3x800 at 5k pace with 200 recovery in between (half a lap).  Now if you don't know your pace times there are a few ways to look it it up.  I usually look up times on http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm You just plug in your most recent race time and the distance you raced.  I use my Garmin to keep track of laps and according to this calculator I should be about 3:38 to 3:43 for my laps according to my half marathon race time.

Then there is TREADMILL INTERVALS:

During the school year I can't hit the track as often, especially since food and speed workouts don't agree with my stomach.  I'm big on treadmill intervals!  I will often do whatever I have planned for track on the treadmill, this one sometimes gets hard because I have to do math in my head, but it still does the job.  I find these often break up the monotony of the dreadmill.






You can also do HILL REPEATS!

I actually love these, but my piriformis doesn't so much.  Usually there is a certain amount of time you will run up the hill i.e. 90 seconds and a certain amount of sets you will do i.e. 4.  Your recovery is usually the downhill, but be careful of your knees.




Then there is the FARTLEK:

I'm just starting to get these into my routine.  A Fartlek is a combination of sprinting and jogging during a run.  This means that you might run 2 minutes hard (after you warm-up of course) then 2 minutes easy about 5 times or so.

Then there is the TEMPO RUN:
tempo is when you warm-up and then start running for a certain number of miles at your half marathon or marathon pace (depends on who you talk to about this).  So I may have 2 miles warm-up followed by 4 miles at half marathon pace and 1 mile cool down.  This means during my 4 miles I would try to maintain a 7:28-7:47 pace.  I usually try to find flat areas to do this.

My hope this time around is to bring down my marathon time from a 4:14 to at least under 4 minutes.

What is your speed workout of choice?

Happy Training!

So Fast and Furious...

A member of my triathlon club was diagnosed with ALS a couple years back and instead of feeling sorry for him and sitting idly by trying not to cry some wonderful people tried to do something about it.  What started out as an idea from El Presidente Chris McCrary turned into one of the most awesome and well organized events I have ever been to or been a part of.
Yesterday, on the streets of Pleasanton, California was not only a 5k race, but an elite mile, a kids race, and a criterium including cyclists of all levels to raise money to fight ALS.  Since I had raced last weekend and I hate 5ks I decided to contribute to the event by volunteering, but first Nick and I thought we'd watch our friends compete and get some breakfast.

Michael Stella Tackling the 5k course

The course was a loop around downtown Pleasanton starting on Main Street.  After a quick 17 minutes the first finisher approached sporting his FOMO gear Mr. Michael Parry.  He was followed shortly by a few other male finishers and of course the first FEMALE finisher not far behind was Ms. Tara Carriera!  We cheered everyone on, especially the B-day boy Mr. Michael Meaney.

What race would be complete without a half naked Meaney

After all the finishers crossed the finish line we headed for some breakfast, of course supporting the local eateries, and then went to watch the ELITE MILE.
Now I know most people think they can run a mile, but in order to run this mile you had to qualify and be up against some pretty quick company...no 6 minute miles here folks.

The studette in yellow kicked butt!

Surprisingly one of the runners was my sister's boyfriend's sister (if that wasn't too confusing).  She runs for Sac State, which made it exciting to have someone to cheer on.  The women were up first as we cheered GO RACHEL! on her lap around town.  Unfortunately, she finished 4th with a great time while the turbo 1st place finisher was around 5:02 for her mile time.  

And they are off

Next the men were up and rumor had it that we had a few 4 minute milers in our midst.  They were gone and done before you knew it clocking in at about 4:10, but the most impressive time was a young kid, probably in middle school who ran a low 5 minute mile time...you may see that guy on TV some day!

Next came the kids run, which unfortunately I didn't capture on film, but every kid received a medal for their efforts and even the tiniest of toddlers participated.

Ryan Capes, Don't be fooled he's really FOMO red and white

After the kids run I headed out to my volunteer post for the Cat 5 criterium race.  My job: to keep people from getting run over at turn 2.  Wearing my fashionable orange vest with lovely flag accessory I cheered on the cyclists.  Although I didn't know this at the time, our friend Ryan Capes managed to slide in the Cat 5 race.  After the Cat 5 race came the Men's Cat 4 where we had one of our own out in the pack.  Mr. Jeff Mapes headed the pack for a few rounds collecting prizes occasionally as he raced.

Speedster Jeff Mapes

Next came the women's Cat 3 and 4 race.  Where Ms. Tanya Grossman kicked butt coming in 3rd Place.
After my volunteer shift I headed home to take a cat nap and get some homework done before the pro-races.  Surprisingly upon my arrival back I found the guys at the VIP booth with some prime seating.  To watch the BIG races!

Winner of the Women's Pro race

I got there just in time to watch the middle of the Cat 1,2, and 3 men's race where we cheered on Mike Desubio on the Morgan Stanley team. Next, came the Pro women where team Vanderkitten cleaned house.  However, before the race the girls were led out by Pete Zucker and his wife Monica in a beautiful Ferrari. 

The women's race was awesome!  You couldn't tell the whole time who was going to win it because every round there was a new leader.

Ryan and the Champion from New Zealand

After the women were presented their awards it was time for the men's pro-race.  The teams lined up wearing logos like Yahoo, Webcor, and Cal Giant.  Some looked way younger than me clocking speeds at 30 to 40 mph.  It was intense and so fast that sometimes pictures were just colors flying by.  There are so many pictures I'll post them at the end.  This was an amazing day for an amazing cause and I will surely take on the 5k next year and volunteer for this event!  Great Job Chris McCrary and team!

Of course there needs to be a picture of the Mascot Charlie

Going Sock less...

So I am a flat footed over pronator, which basically means all the shoes I wear are in the category of MOTION CONTROL, this severely limits my options.  However, I decided that socks were just taking too much transition time and since I'd already bought some tri shoes I figured it was time to go sock less in the running department.  Unfortunately, motion control aren't available in materials that make it easy to run without socks.  This meant I had to take my chances with STABILITY shoes!  The idea scared me and made me bite my nails, but I figured I'll just start out slow and I can return them if I have any problems.  I took the plunge and purchased my first pair of ZOOT Ultra tempo 4.0 shoes...

Aren't they pretty?  I can tell you that the shoes I usually have to buy never manage to be in a color that I like and always look chunky and ugly, but I loved the look of these and prayed that they fit.  I've taken them out on the track and raced them in a triathlon and I've had no blister complaints (although I still use anti-chafe just in case).  They are easy to slide on and my narrow heels don't slip out the back!  The best part about them is that it is getting close to the end of tri season so they are ON SALE!  I did make sure to purchase some super feet insoles for the shoes to give me some added support, but overall I'm very pleased with this purchase.

California International Triathlon race report

Marathoners fear blisters, swimmers fear water filled goggles, what does a cyclist fear?  A FLAT TIRE! Today, was just not my day...I felt surprisingly awesome although I was a little worried when at 5a.m. my legs felt achy.  This is the first year for the California International Triathlon in Pleasanton, CA and although I didn't really know the course I'm fairly familiar with the area between Tri for Real, Tri for Fun, and running around Pleasanton.  Anyway, I went through my normal routine for a race:
1) beans and rice the day before
2) getting plenty of sleep on Friday
3) shaking out the legs with a few short easy workouts
4) putting together my tri bag the night before
5) No breakfast just grab water and go

My boyfriend helped me get my transition area ready, and then I headed out for a warm-up run in my new Zoot shoes (I'll definately be talking about these soon).  Anyway, I waited until about 10 minutes before the Men's start to put my wetsuit on and jump in the lake.

The SWIM: I got a few warm-up strokes in before my start time and I was lucky enough to have the smaller wave of the two.  I sometimes feel real stiff in my wetsuit and I hadn't really been swimming long distances just short endurance swims so I was a little concerned to start.  I headed out feeling pretty good, but I felt like everyone left me in their dust.  Luckily, I think people went out too fast because I finally started passing people.  I made it out and around the first bouy and started feeling fatigue in my arms so I mentally coached myself to get through as best I could.  I got a little off track after the second bouy and I think the swim was a little long, but I finished in 30:44 which is a little disappointing compared to my 28:57 at Wildflower, but it seemed a bit choppier and other peoples times were a bit slower too.  I didn't exactly put the time I should have put in the water anyway.

Transition 1: Wildflower 2:31, Today: 1:27

The BIKE: I headed out feeling real slow and sluggish, but I found a rhythm and pushed it hard.  I felt awesome after a while and felt great as I passed the people who schooled me in the swim.  That is until the DAMN FLAT TIRE!  I swear Pleasanton hates me because I got a flat on the tri for real course.  I thought about a DNF but I was in the middle of nowhere, who was going to pick my butt up?  So I got my act together, changed it, and left pissed off and determined to finish.  This course was probably about equal to wildflower, but had I not flatted I would have shaved quite a bit of time off.  Wildflower: 1:31  Today: 1:30

Transition 2: Wildflower:1:46, Today: 1:28

The RUN: Nick saw me in transition, saw my flat tire, and knew I looked like I was about to cry.  He told me to just kill the run and so that is what I tried to do.  I headed out slow and steady powering up hills that others were walking.  I felt awful until about mile 1 and I started burping even though I'd only had 2 gus during the race and no breakfast ( I have a very touchy stomach).  I just kept going and wouldn't let myself walk.  I finally came to the finish and booked it for the last 100 yards.  Wildflower:54:38, Today: 51:24

My final time: 2:55:53...4 minutes faster than Wildflower, yay!
The bad news: I'm not sure how long my flat took me, but I'm pretty sure 5 minutes or so is a good estimate...I came in 5th in my age group and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th were all around 5 minutes or less from my time.  I'm happy with my performance, but definitely bummed over the final results.  Guess I'll just have to work harder the next time around.