More Shopping than Sweating

Due to a seriously gross case of bronchitis (phlegm...ugh.) and travelling to Seattle to see family & friends for Thanksgiving, I didn't do much working out. I managed to go to yoga on Tuesday, and I'd planned to do some light ellipticalling, but forgot shoes. Oh, well. Judging by how I felt during yoga, cardio would have been a bad idea.

It was great being up in Seattle, hanging with my family, eating the vegetarian Thanksgiving side dishes, and letting my mom buy me socks. I was really running low. The laundromat liked to make my athletic socks disappear.

Another highlight: The Apple Cup. The Apple Cup is the yearly rivalry game between University of Washington and Washington State University. This year, the game was in Seattle, but the Husky Stadium was recently demolished, so the game this year was at Century Link Field where the Seahawks and the Sounders play.

My dad and I at the Apple Cup. I was wearing ski socks, fleece lined tights, jeans, a wool base layer, a hoody, and a down puffy vest. I was prepared for the cold.

My aunt and uncle have had season tickets to the Huskies since 1907 or something ridiculous, so we had awesome, awesome seats.

We were 11th row, at the 50 yard line. I could get used to this kind of lifestyle.

And the Huskies won! Go Dawgs!

XTerra Offroad Tri Training - Week One

Since I couldn't really find any plans to train for this slightly odd distance triathlon, (1/2 mile swim, 16 mile mountain bike 3.5 mile trail run) I decided to use a modified free Olympic distance training plan, and try to do at least some work outs on the trails. Due to snow factors, we'll see how that goes.

Monday:

Goal: 48 minute bike, 24 minute swim

Accomplished: 50 minute spin class, 15 minute run. A super busy time at work led to no swimming this week. Oooops. Next week.

Tuesday:

Goal: Run 24

Accomplished: Unplanned rest day due to 16 our work day. Ugggh. That's all I have to say about that.

Wednesday:

Goal: 40 minute swim

Accomplished: 35 minute run, weights. Again, no swimming. But the run felt good, and I'm really trying to hit the weights this training cycle. Also, I started moving into my new place!

Thursday:

Goal: 80 minute bike

Accomplished: 25 minute bike, weights. Cut my bike ride short and did some quick weights before heading to MacDuff's for a work going away party for our AmeriCorps members. Sniff. I'll miss them so much!

Friday:

Goal: 32 minute run

Accomplished: 35 minute run, 55 minute bike. I made up my shortened ride from Thursday by alternating bike/treadmill. I did 30 minutes on the bike, 20 minutes running, 25 minutes biking and finished up with 15 on the treadmill. It was a nice way to break up a large (for me) chunk of cardio.

Saturday:

Goal: Rest Day

Accomplished: Did some moving, and prepared Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower and some Brussel Sprouts for a Thanksgiving Potluck. There was excellent food, cheap but decent wine, good beer, lovely people, and, as a result of the latter three, sneaking into vacation rental hot tubs to go hot tubbing in the snow.

Sunday:

Goal: 40 minute run

Accomplished: Unplanned rest day. Woke up feeling super sick. (Not just a hangover!) Went for a walk, rehashed funniest party memories, watched True Blood.

This morning, I woke up not feeling any better, so I called in sick to work and headed to the doctor. Turns out, I have bronchitis. Booooooo. I got a prescription and the doctor said I should be feeling better by Wednesday, just in time to travel home for Thanksgiving!

Life update

In bullet form!

• I moved again. For the third time in the year that I've lived in Tahoe. It was a serious upgrade this time, (and only $15 rent increase!) so hopefully it's the last time for awhile. Our new place is beautiful, furnished, has cable (!), has a garage, and we have the most adorable landlords of all time. They had cake and champagne for us when we signed the lease, and they picked us because we remind them of their daughters. I now have two awesome roommates instead of just one:

Allison

Katie

• I think I am going to do this triathlon. It's an off road tri, and I won't have ridden a mountain bike since October, but it sounds like lots of fun. Maybe it will be a reason to start snow biking to get some off road practice in. I started "officially training" for it this week so get ready for training updates. Woo hoo!
• A couple of my friends are moving to Boulder at the end of November, so I'm thinking of doing a summer road trip out to visit them and doing Iron Girl Boulder. I know Heather has done it. What do you think?
• My HLP came to Tahoe with her boyfriend and an array of friends for his Dirty Thirty (is this a thing?) party. We had a great time, drank a lot of champagne, and took many, many HLP pictures.

We're the same height!

Because I'm standing in a hole.

Fake teeter totter.

Big chair

• Snow is coming in this weekend and it's opening weekend at Heavenly (where I have my pass this season). Unfortunately, It's only going to be about an inch, so I'm probably going to avoid opening weekend crowds and focus on moving/un-packing/pre-Thanksgiving potlucking this weekend. But when I get back from Seattle after Thanksgiving weekend, there had better be a big ass snowstorm.

Oh hey there blog

It's been awhile. It's been super busy at work, which has led to less working out and even less blogging. Here are some highlights from my time away:

We had an early morning bird watching event at work. Being at work at 7 am on a Sunday is almost worth it with views like this!

Salmon are spawning! Sadly I did not see a bear.

I visited a corn maze with my friend Detective Killer.

Down in the Carson Valley, you could see for miles. It's so different than being constantly surrounded by mountains.

I found a pumpkin that looked like a butt.

Detective Killer, Kirsten, Katie and I went to Hope Valley for a picnic to enjoy the fall colors.

Nature!

I did some hopping from rock to rock in the Carson River. Luckily, I didn't fall in, as the water is already really cold.

I spent Halloween weekend in San Francisco.

Where I dressed up as Sookie Stackhouse and made friends with some self described "southern gentlemen". Note: they were not gentlemen.

Katie, Jackie and I ate at an amazing all vegetarian Chinese restaurant called Golden Buddha. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone visiting San Francisco, especially vegetarians. I don't think that I've eaten at a Chinese restaurant since I became a vegetarian 3 years ago. Cashew "chicken" and broccoli "beef" were definitely missing from my life. Warning: portion sizes are huge!

I was extremely mature. Note: we were sitting by the window and our walrus tusks attracted a lot of pointing and smiles.

I finished out the weekend dancing my heart out and my feet off to Lady Gaga, Cher, and Madonna at a club in the Castro.

Since then, I've been trying to get back into the swing of hitting the gym after work, since it's now dark and snowy at the end of the day. I've decided that I really need something to train for to get motivated. I'm thinking of an Olympic triathlon in about mid-April, so if anyone knows a good one (preferably in Northern California), please let me know!

Hopefully, I will be back to blogging (and working out!) more regularly!

Three Things Thursday - Big City Edition

1. This weekend I made only my second trip ever into San Francisco. It was so fun to be in a real city again!

Concrete! Buildings!

I got coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee for the first time.

It was delicious, and the snobby baristas made me feel like I was home.

2. The reason I was in San Francisco was for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

It's a huge (free!) festival in Golden Gate Park that attracts 600,000 people over three days.

So many people!

Katie and I got there early to hold down the fort for our lazier friends.

And had some Breakfast PBRs.

3. We ended up having a mini-grad school reunion at Hardly Strictly. I got to see a whole bunch of people I hadn't seen since graduation last year, which was awesome.

Bren Awesomeness

Additionally, this is what it's doing outside my office right now:

Yep, that's snow. This is how I feel about it:

I guess I'm going to spin class tonight.

Proof that I finished!

No pictures of the swim, but that's okay, no one needs to see the muffin top caused by my tri shorts.

Cleavage!

Way too excited for this point in the race.

Flanhoodles across the finish line.

Bad asses,

Beverages I Drank Yesterday

Subtitle: Wine Hangovers are the Worst

• Sobe Lifewater
• Diet Pepsi
• Water
• Coconut Water
• Water
• Diet Orange Crush
• Kombucha
• Water
• Water
• Water

Triathlon By The Numbers

Subtitle: I heart tracking data.

Weeks of training: 15

Number of (swim, bike, run) workouts: 62

Total number of minutes spent swimming: 641

Total number of minutes spent biking: 1,974

Total number of minutes spent running: 481

(Hmmm...I wonder which one I like to do the most...)

Number of cross training workouts: 5 (2 yoga classes, 2 weight lifting sessions, 1 stand up paddle boarding session)

Pre-Training Weight: 150

Post-Triathlon Weight: 156

Pounds gained/lost: +6

Pounds of fat gained vs. pounds of muscle gained, judged by the way my jeans fit after putting them on for the first time in 2 months: 2 pounds muscle, 4 pounds fat

Total calories burned due to triathlon workouts (according to Daily Mile): 33,962

Number of beers to equal 33,962 calories (150 cal/beer): 226.4 Beers

Ounces of Brie to equal 33,962 calories (95 cal/oz): 357.5 oz of Brie

Pints of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked equal to 33,962 cal (1,080 cal/pint): 31.4 pints of Half Baked

Longest Run: 4 miles

Longest Swim: 1 mile

Longest Ride: 25 miles

Total Miles Ran: 46 miles

Total Miles Swam: 13 miles

Total Miles Ridden: 303 miles

Total Miles: 362 miles

Worth it?: Every Second!

Iron Girl Lake Tahoe Race Report

Katie and I, one week before Race Day!

So I didn't really take any pictures...oops! But here goes the race report!

Pre-Race

Katie and I arrived at the Harvey's parking lot, at 6 am, definitely more early than we needed to be there, as transition didn't close until 7 am, and the first swim wave at 7:30. But we got everything set up, and had plenty of time to chill. (Literally, as it was pretty cold in the dark morning. My toes were definitely regretting my choice to wear flip flops.)

Katie and I had made the decision not to wear wetsuits at the end of August, as we had been swimming in the lake all summer in swimsuits, and didn't want to deal with the hassle of renting, practicing with them, etc. I started getting nervous about this decision when it appeared that we were literally the only ones not wearing wetsuits. Ummm....

As the group moved from the parking lot transition area to the beach where we would be swimming, we kept reassuring ourselves that we'd be fine without wetsuits- we'd only be in the water for ~10 minutes, the water was 65 degrees, we'd been in the lake since June in our bathing suits, etc. Luckily, as the start got closer, we started noticing other women only in swimsuits, or the sports bra/tri shorts combo I was wearing. They had been there all along, just hiding under their sweats, like I was.

I set up my flip flops in the "shoe transition" outside of the beach. There was a fairly long jog back to the bike transition area on asphalt, so they had a little area we could leave our shoes so we didn't have to do it barefoot. After what felt like an eternity of standing on cold, wet sand, the first wave was off!

The Swim

Katie and my leg was the last to be sent off for the 400 m swim. With the wave starts, there were about ~80 women in my wave, so the swim wasn't too crowded. I started towards the middle of the pack on the outside, and angled in toward the first buoy. There wasn't too much jostling and I didn't get kicked at all. Yay!

Katie and I planned to stick together for the race, but that proved pretty difficult in the swim leg, especially once we rounded the second buoy and the sun was in my eyes. The swim went really well. I'm glad I did so much open water swimming this summer. It definitely helped! Also, I totally didn't need a wetsuit. The water felt great!

Swim 400 m: 10:41- 166/494

T1

Katie was out of the water pretty soon after me, so I waited by our shoes and we jogged up to transition together. She had put her down jacket back on, and I was just in a sports bra and my tri shorts, so the announcer made a funny comment about that. I took my time, put on my bike jersey, socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, etc. and ate some Cliff Blocks (which tasted like candy!)

and headed out on the road.

T1: 10:01

Bike

The race had closed down the two middle lanes of Hwy 50 for us to ride on which was beyond awesome! I had thought that we were going to have to ride on the shoulder. The ride definitely had some tough hills, but I had the local advantage of riding the route all summer so I knew it really well. Being in the last swim wave gave the advantage of having lots of people to pass. I would just focus on someone's back and pick them off, then move on to the next person. I definitely passed more people than I got passed by, but I know I could have pushed harder on the bike. This is my only disappointment in the race.

When I got about a mile from the finish, I started to freak out that I would forget to clip out. I don't know why I panicked about that, but I did. When I got close to transition, I clipped out, but I probably did so waaaaaay before I needed to.

Bike 24 k: 54:16- 215/494

T2

Staying together on the bike leg proved too difficult, and I got ahead of Katie somewhere around mile 2 or 3, so I hung around in transition so we could start the run together, also, because I promised to yell at her to remember to clip out, as she'd only learned to ride in clipless shoes the week before. I changed into my running shoes, and gulped some Gatorade, as I didn't drink at all during the ride. Ooops!

T2- 7:15

Fun fact: This was the Third Slowest Overall T2!

Run

This was by far the leg I was most proud of. I am not a runner. I don't especially love running. I am slow. I had only done about 75% of my training runs this summer. But the run went so well! Katie and I started off pretty slow, chatting about the beer and cheese we would be eating shortly, and how usually we were just now waking up for bagels and coffee at this point on a Sunday. I slowly kicked it into higher gear, and kept picking off and passing people ahead of me. The course was two loops, so it was slightly demoralizing to see the "2 miles" sign and realize that I'd only run about a mile. At one point, we saw our friend Reina, who was on her second lap and bounding like a gazelle. The course was pretty flat, with only one hill (that we had to do twice, argh) and was mostly shaded, which was nice.

Finally, I came around the corner (for the second time) where the first lap people split off from the finish line people. I ran a little farther and saw the "3 mile" sign and kicked it into higher gear. I came around the corner and sprinted towards the finish line. I heard the announcer say, "...Lynn B., from South Lake Tahoe, and she signed up for this triathlon after drinking 6 beers!" Apparently, (after drinking the aforementioned beers) that is what I put as my "interesting fact" when I signed up! Ha!

Run 5 k: 31:22- 166/494

This is totally awesome because I usually run at about a 10 m/mi pace, so it was amazing to see I'd run that fast at the end of a triathlon! I guess now I'm going to have to speed up my runs!

Overall

The Iron Girl Lake Tahoe was a great experience, and extremely well run. I haven't done any of their other events, but I would assume that they are similar. Highly recommend!

1:53:38 253/494 (I think that 7 minute T2 really pulled me down in the overall, ha!)

While I didn't really get any pictures at the race, here is a picture of Katie and my post race beverages.

Katie went with a Bloody Mary, while I went with the drink that got me into the deal- Beer!

Also, I still can't get my race number scrubbed off my arms.

Iron Girl Lake Tahoe Tomorrow!

Fourteen hours from now, I'll be starting the swim!

AAAAAAAAAAH!

Triathlon Training - Week 15

It's so soon! Next Sunday.

Here's how triathlon training went for the week:

Monday:

Goal: Rest/Drive 14 hours

Accomplished: Katie, her HLP Jessica and I did the 14 hour drive from Seattle to Lake Taco in one shot. It was a long drive

Tuesday:

Goal: Swim 18, Bike 37

Accomplished: Bike 105. I know I'm supposed to be cutting back before the triathlon, but with the epic road trip, I only got in one workout the previous week, and I was feeling antsy for a nice long ride. I rode Powerline Trail, and like usual, I spent the first half mile cursing myself for picking it due to the deep sand and short but steep uphills, but then things smoothed out and I cruised past the spot where I usually turn around and found out that the trail gets even better! Then I cursed myself for not riding the whole thing all summer.

Wednesday:

Goal: 50 minute bike, 18 minute run

Accomplished: 27 minute run, 25 minute open water swim. I had a bike/run brick on the schedule, but when Katie and Reina wanted to go for an open water swim, I changed my plans. I love open water swimming, but going by myself is always a little nerve wracking, due to the dudebros on jet skis and Tahoe Tessie (Nessie's cousin). I even managed to get in a run before I met Katie and Reina for our swim!

Thursday:

Goal: 31 minute swim swim

Accomplished: 25 minute open water swim, 45 minute bike. Katie and I met up for another open water swim, and I made it into a brick with a 9 ish mile bike ride afterward. I practiced swimming and biking in my tri shorts, and I love them! Still need to try running though.

Friday:

Goal: 62 minute bike

Accomplished: 20 minute run. With a Deadwinter Carpenters show on Friday at my favorite bar and a beer/bluegrass/camping wedding on Saturday, I knew there was a pretty good chance I wouldn't get any workouts in this weekend, so I squeezed in a run while my laundry was going at the laundromat. I need to multi-task like this more often.

Saturday:

Goal: Rest Day

Accomplished: Rode my bike to get bagels, ate bagels, ate Cheeze-its, attended an awesome wedding, danced, partied until 7 am

Sunday:

Goal: 31 minute run

Accomplished: Ha ha. Watched football, watched the True Blood finale, ate greasy Chinese food, ate more Cheeze-its

Mammoth Weekend

After work on Friday, I headed down 395 towards Mammoth Lakes to meet some friends who were driving up from Santa Barbara for a weekend of mountain biking.

The always lovely foothills of Nevada.

Mountains in the distance. It was pretty dry and brown and not that attractive.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a lake! I kept driving for another hour or so, and reached the scenic viewpoint for Mono Lake (pronounced Moe-Noe).

Sadly, this picture does not do Mono Lake justice at all.

A nice old British man offered to take my picture.

Even bigger mountains in the distance! I must be getting close. After arriving in Mammoth Lakes, I got the key to the condo we were renting, hit up the grocery store for some frozen cheese pizza (that I covered in artichokes, olives, spinach & pineapple) and sat in the slightly sketchy hot tub for a long, long time while reading trashy fitness magazines.

The next day we headed out bright and early to go biking at Mammoth Mountain Resort. We started off with a fairly easy blue run called Brakethrough that connected to a really easy trail into town called Downtown. When I came to Mammoth last year, Downtown was the only trail that was open. It was fun to see how much I've improved in the last year, as Downtown was super easy for me this time, though I think the trail crew had smoothed out some corners to make it even easier.

At this point, the boys ditched me to ride more difficult trails, which I was fine with, as I really enjoy riding by myself. My confidence up from success on Brakethrough, I tackled Flow, an "advanced" trail. I nailed some technical features that I didn't think I could, and, confidence flowing, I hit my first two foot drop. I hit a couple more drops successfully, but then...I misjudged something and felt myself going face first over my handle bars.

I've kind of gone over the bars before, but this was definitely my first over-the-bars face plant. My first thought after sitting up was "If I wasn't wearing a full-face helmet, I'd definitely be missing some teeth." I dragged myself and my bike to the side of the trail to recover, and I took advantage of the break to take some pictures.

The section of trail that took me out.

The view from the trail. I picked myself up, dusted myself off (quite literally, I was filthy) and rode the trail down to the shuttle pick up. I decided to do one more ride that day, and I don't think I could have managed anymore. I kept making stupid mistakes (like misjudging how far tree branches stuck into the trail, and running into them) due to how tired I was. I let the guys know that I was done and hung out in the village waiting for them to finish.

The best part about the end of a day of any strenuous activity.

On Day Two, I headed to the peak of the resort to ride Off the Top. Off the Top was not my favorite trail, as, until I relaxed, I was scared that I was going to fall off the side of the mountain, and, when I got over that fear, the trail itself was kind of boring. But totally worth it for the views:

The very top.

Partway down the miles of switchbacks.

The trail itself was, like most of Mammoth Mountain, weird dusty pumice. At least it was pretty soft to land in.

Epic sweeping mountain vistas on all sides.

And here is a lovely self portrait. I think that I can tell that I'm not smiling, despite the fact that my face is mostly hidden.

I went on to ride a couple of other trails- Follow Me (which I hike-a-biked more than I rode), Kamikaze (which I did not ride in a Kamikaze fashion) and Lower Velocity.

It was a great weekend, despite leaving Mammoth Lakes covered in many scrapes, bruises, weird tan lines, and dirt.