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

Oh hey there blog

It's been awhile.

Between KJW's wedding and my work putting on our biggest event of the year (a 160+ person, 2 day conference and a 125+ item auction), I neglected both my blog and my tri training for a couple of weeks. But the conference is over, and I celebrated with too many Tecate Pluses and poor decision making.

Here's what my training looked like:

Week 11: 22 minute run, 29 minute swim, 3 hours of dancing.

Week 12: 33 minute run, 19 minute run, 2 hour bike, 15 minute ride of shame.

But this week is a new week, and I am already off to a better start. On Wednesday, I did a real brick (10 mile bike, 2 mile run) and yesterday, I ventured out for my first open water swim with Katie and Christa. We swam from Katie's office's private beach (jealous? I am.) and swam about 400 m to a pier, treaded water for awhile, swam back and then did a short loop around a moored sailboat for about 1000 m total.

Open water swimming in Lake Taco is much more difficult and choppy than Lake Padden or Davis Lake, but we survived, and I made the decision not to rent a wetsuit for the race.

Unrelated to anything, here is a picture of me and Scott, my co-wedding officiant grinding during Kelly & Drew's reception:

Work to Workout Quick Change

Sometimes, I want to leave work and be sweating it up as soon as possible. One easy way, make workout clothes part of your work ensemble. Here I am, in one of my more stylish work outfits (we are a very casual office)- a navy cardigan, black top, and lacy skirt. However, the black top, which is mostly hidden by my cardigan, is a Prana workout top, and (like most days) I am wearing a sports bra.

Two easy steps- remove the cardigan, switch the skirt for shorts and bam! I am ready to go.

My parents left early this morning, so I skipped out of work a little early yesterday. We headed to the beach and rented a stand up paddle board. This was my first time going stand up paddle boarding, but it wasn't too difficult to get the hang of. It was a little bit windy though, and I definitely fell off once when a giant boat wake crashed by.

I did achieve my summer goal of doing a yoga pose on a stand up paddle board!

From here.

Although my poses were more in the Savasana and Uttanasana realm of difficulty, than the ones in the picture above

CAMPING

After the craziness that is 4th of July weekend in Tahoe:

I needed to do something a little more low key. Sleeping in a tent and swimming at a (slightly) deserted beach were exactly what my body required. Luckily, a couple of Katie's friends were visiting from the Bay Area, and they had scored a coveted summer site at the campground at Sugar Pine Point State Park.

We left early (too early) Saturday morning for the West Shore, and we ended up arriving something like 4 hours before we could check in. We were more than happy to hang out on the beach until we could set up camp.

Secret Beach:
I need to try stand up paddle boarding. It looks like so much fun.

These pictures don't do justice to the color of the water in person. It is seriously turquoise. Like tropical ocean turquoise. Except not warm:

Perhaps Katie and I have acclimated to Lake Taco, but we definitely didn't think that the water was that cold. We spent a lot of time in the water, practicing our "open water swimming" for the triathlon.

Better than our last "open water swim" which involved pool floaties and cans of beer.

Reading by the campfire.

It's a little early for headlamps, but we wanted to be prepared. Katie may or may not have whiskey in her orange plastic cup. Hint: she does.

I'm just eating a Tofurky sausage (#2 of the night) out of a plastic cup. No big deal.

Scenes from this weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Mine consisted of a lot of sun, Sweet Tea Vodka, biking, beer, too many tourists, and swimming in Lake Taco.

I finally took my new full suspension bike onto Corral/Sidewinder trail. It's definitely noticeably heavier for the 2 mile ride up to the trail head.

Halfway up!

I'm excited to finally be at the top. I had to get off and push uphill twice with my heavier bike.

The view towards the end of Corral Trail

The very end of the trail, before it intersects with a gravel road that dumps you back at the parking area.

Enjoying beers in the sun at the new outdoor bar at MacDuff's.

My sweet 4th of July outfit

Katie's awesome outfit.

We are so serious about our patriotism.

Katie works in a building with a private beach and balcony overlooking the lake, (My office looks at a trailer park and a dumpster. I am so jealous.) so we headed there for 4th of July festivities. I spent a lot of time on a floatie in Lake Taco, drinking my beer, only coming to shore to eat more Smart Food. Eventually, more of Katie's coworkers and friends showed up, and we had a nice little beach party going on. Eventually, we moved inside and watched one of "the top 5 fireworks shows in the US" from their office balcony. I don't know who votes on the top fireworks shows in the nation, but the Lake Tahoe one was pretty impressive.

Then I walked home and laughed at all the cars stuck in the horrible traffic along Hwy 50.

The marsh is full & my Chacos are wet.

My bike commute to work is awesome. It is almost entirely on a completely off-road, paved bike path with views like this:

My goal is to see a bear on my ride to or from work. I've seen a coyote and a lot of birds, but no bear yet.

As you may have heard, the Sierra got a lot of snow this winter. Now this snow is melting, and the marsh is full. So the water has no place to go, except on the bike path. The bike path was 6 - 10 inches deep in some parts.

Luckily, I was wearing my adventure sandals and shorts. So I just slogged through the marshy grass to the side with my bike. Fresh meltwater is still pretty cold at 8:15 am, even all the way down at 6,200 feet.

Powerline Trail

After working all day Saturday (urgh, board meetings) and being scared off by a possible thunderstorm on Sunday, yesterday I was ready for a ride!

I headed up (and up and up and up) Ski Run boulevard to the trail head. After a quick push up a short sandy hill, I was greeted by the gorgeous views of Desolation Wilderness and Lake Tahoe.

The first part of the trail is mostly loose rocks and deepish sand- not my favorite material to ride on. I miss the hero dirt of the PNW. The trail pretty quickly turns into dirt single track, barely rooty or rocky in just a few places.

The very beginning area has some more technical rock features off of the main trail. These features are definitely above my skill level, but there were a few I'm planning on trying out.

I only had my hard tail this time, but when I finally get pedals for my new bike, I plan on bringing it (and my full face helmet - safety first!) and working on my technical skills.

This area would also be a great place to run. I haven't really run all month, because I am so excited that I can finally bike, but I need to get going on that again. At least I am keeping up on my weightlifting!

I'm sure it was chic in the 70s

I was talking to a woman from Santa Cruz who was visiting South Lake Taco. She described her first impression as:

"It's like the 70s happened here, and then time stopped."

While there has certainly been some new buildings and development since the 70s, that description seems pretty accurate.

Especially in regards to the shower in my new apartment.

I couldn't get a picture that conveyed the majesty of this shower. It's about 1.5 times the size of a regular shower, tiled, and features some really special decals.

Don't worry. I took some close ups.

I thought that the fake polaroids really helped to establish that 70s ambiance present in my new shower.

The designer of this shower took special care with his or her work. The decals are not just placed haphazardly about the shower. The lowest level of decals are fish. The next level are butterflies. Bird decals are only found around the top.

It's spectacular.

Tahoe is a weird town

Tahoe is a strange and wonderful place. A mix of beautiful nature and horribly planned developments and strip malls. New luxury homes and old log cabins. Super modern resorts and creepy abandoned carnivals.

"What?" you say. "Creepy abandoned carnivals?"

Yep:

Doesn't this look like it should be in a horror movie? Starring a clown zombies or something?

But just past the creepy abandoned carnival is this gorgeous view:

Oh, Tahoe. You are odd, but I love it here.

Life's a beach

It was a beautiful day in Tahoe yesterday, so I took my dog-bff Lassen to Camp Rich for a walk on the beach. I hadn't been there since Katie and I had gone cross country skiing there, and there has been quite a change since then.

There's a beach!

Lassen enjoyed snarfelling the sand. A few times he snarfelled up too much sand and then sneezed sand all over my legs. Gross.

My socks do not match. Oh, well.

Spring must be here; boats are starting to appear on the lake.

There was a giant fallen tree. I made Lassen pose artfully in front of it, staring off into the distance. He was probably staring at some ducks.

Spring may be here, but there is still plenty of snow in the mountains!

Weird Weather

The weather has been so weird here lately!

Snow, sun, snow, sun, rain, fog, sun, rainbow, snow, sun, etc., etc...

I almost never know how to dress. I either am wearing too many layers and get sweaty, or I'm wearing flats and it starts snowing, or the sun comes out and I sweat off all my sunscreen and end up with a peel-y forehead.

Giant clouds were sitting right on the lake.

Oh hey there, bright sunshine.

Patches of blue sky among the ominous clouds.

These pictures were all taken in a twenty minute period.

Three Things Thursday - Zombie Edition

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted! Time flies when you're having fun.

1. I have been house sitting for a girl that I work with while she is in China. The best part of house sitting is this:

This is Lassen, swimming in the barely-above-freezing Lake Taco. Don't worry. He loves it.

Lassen loves the water!

2. It was my 27th birthday on Tuesday! That meant beer, cake, and more beer.

Terrible picture, delicious cake.

3. No internet + awesome bookshelf = a ton of reading. I went on a reading binge this weekend and read 4 books in three days. It was amazing.

• World War Z by Max Brooks: If you like post-apocalyptic fiction, zombies, and being scared, or preparing for the coming Zombie Apocalypse, you'll like this book. Note: do not read late at night the first night you spend all alone in a strange house in the middle of the woods.
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston: This is a great instruction manual for chopping off your own hand. Possibly a useful skill in the coming Zombie Apocalypse.
• Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris: The first book in the series that True Blood is based on. Enjoyable, smutty vampire romance. Useful if it's a Vampire Apocalypse instead of a Zombie Apocalypse.
• The Lost City of Z by David Grann: The Victorian Era- when men were men, women didn't have any fun, and everybody was really, really racist. Famed explorer/scientist/boat builder/gentleman Percy Fawcett disappears searching the Amazon jungle for the Lost City of Z. Made me realize I'd rather brave the Zombie Apocalypse than get lost in the Amazon Jungle.

Anyone else read any good books lately? Anybody else have a plan in mind for the Zombie Apocalypse?

Don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes

This is out my office window...and it was about a 2 hour time lapse between the two.