New Blog!

Hello all!

I have decided to migrate over to wordpress, so feel free to follow me over to my new blog Sierra Skies.

Thanks!

Iron Girl Tahoe 2012

Wow! It's been awhile since I blogged. Life got in the way, but I hope to be back to writing with some regularity. I decided to do the Lake Tahoe Iron Girl again this year, with the goal of destroying my time from last year. Unfortunately, my work's GIANT HUGE ANNUAL CONFERENCE BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR moved to the week before the triathlon so I was not nearly as on top of my structured training.

I mountain biked (a lot), started swimming a couple of months earlier, went to yoga pretty frequently and ran at least three times in the two months before the triathlon. Mostly, I was confident that I could push myself a lot harder than I had the previous year. Because of a major change to the bike course (almost twice the elevation gain!), it was hard to compare times to the previous year, but I did end up beating my previous time and getting 10th in my division!

Pre-Race

Having learned from last year, we didn't show up mega-early, rented wetsuits, and wore giant fluffy socks. One of the things that I learned during my blogging break is that I am soy intolerant. Sometimes I forget to check things for soy in the ingredients. FYI, Clif Bars have soy, and I definitely regretted eating one pre-race. Ugh. 

The Swim

I loved having a wetsuit! I could get in the water early, not freeze to death, and my legs felt so floaty! I did an open water swim race (800m) with my mom earlier in the summer, and it was really good prep for this. The swim felt good, and I was really glad I had started swimming earlier in the year this round.

400 m swim

2012: 8:31- F 25 - 29: 9/66, Overall: 59/595

2011: 10:41- F 25 - 29: 25/56, Overall: 166/494

T1

I stripped off the top half of my wetsuit, threw on my Keens, and started the loooong jog back to transition. Once I got there, I knew that I had to somehow get into my biking outfit, but I was slightly mentally frazzled. After a few seconds of dazed staring, I figured it out and got myself on ready and headed out on the bike.

2012: 7:34

2011: 10:01

Bike

I was obviously not completely on top of my race prep this year, as I did not know the course had changed until the Friday before the race. Ooops! Instead of an out and back, there would now be two loops that involved going up and down the two big hills twice instead of once. The bike leg was where I knew I could really improve this year, so I pushed hard. I played leap frog with a couple of girls throughout the whole race which was great for helping me to push myself. The major downside of the two loop course (besides the leg-trashing hills) was that the participants were much less spread out, causing some traffic jams.

All in all, I was super pleased with my performance. Despite a slower time, I jumped way up in the placing, both in my age group and overall!

Bike 24 k: 

2012: 58:01- F 25 - 29: 10/66, Overall: 100/595

2011: 54:16- f 25 -29: 23/56, Overall: 215/494

T2

I didn't hang around transition this time, just headed off. Unfortunately, I had lost my water bottle on the bike ride and didn't have an extra in transition so I started my run already super thirsty.

2012- 1:59

2011- 7:15

Run

I barely ran at all this summer. I don't especially like running, so it is really hard to convince myself to go when I could be mountain biking instead. My goal was not to walk, which I achieved, though my shuffling was not much faster. It took until the halfway point to feel like I was doing anything more than slogging, and I definitely regretted my lack of running. I think pushing hard on the hilly bike also trashed my legs and contributed to my slow run. But hey, I finished and even was able to kick it a little bit in the end.

Run 5 k

2012: 32:56- F 25 - 29: 31/66, Overall: 252/595 (at least I kept in under 11 minute miles!)

2011- 31:22- F 25 - 29: 16/56 Overall: 166/494

Overall

2012: 1:49:01 - F 25 - 29: 10/66, Overall: 107/595

2011: 1:53:38 - F 25 -29: 31/56, Overall: 243/494

And here is the most important/best part of the triathlon, brunch:

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.