21st Century Mom

A couple of weeks ago I was a volunteer at a local Tri for Fun. This is the same event where I manned the water station in mid June and that I competed in in mid-July. This time, the mid-August event, I hit the volunteer job jack pot - transition area monitor. I even got the bullhorn so I could call out - 'Please walk your bikes in transition!" "You must fasten your chin strap before leaving transition!" "Runners over here! to get to the course!" It was way fun.

What amazed me was the variety of participants and gear. There was everything from the guy on a super duper Cervelo carbon dream machine with deep dish carbon wheels wearing an aero helmet, to the guy who clearly grabbed his child's helmet on the way out of his garage and nearly choked himself to death while putting it on. There was a 10 speed bike that had a big plastic milk carton attached on the rear fender with bungee cords. There were people in tri suits, regular bathing suits, and surfing jammers.

I was especially pleased to see these 2 women who in the June event were the last 2 in by quite a big margin but who this time left at least 20 people behind them as they exited T2 . They struggled so hard their first time and this time it was obvious that they are making significant progress on their journey to wherever they are going with triathlon. They both looked really happy heading out for the run, knowing they were no longer last.
If you are skimming tri blogs just thinking about doing one for the first time in the future, keep nurturing that thought. If you are intimidated because you don't have a nice bike or you aren't a strong swimmer feggedaboutdit - just do it. Find a local Tri for Fun and see how it goes. You will be in great company and you may well surprise yourself. Most of all we may soon be able to give you our wry triathlete smile as we welcome you to the crack house.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

At the SF Marathon Saturn was passing out cowbells. Shiney red cowbells. Of course I took one and I'm glad I did because in the crazy ebb and flow of my life I have just decided to go to IM Wisconsin, afterall. I won't get there until Saturday afternoon but that's plenty of time to show up on the course Sunday morning and spend the day cheering and watching and drinking in the Ironman zeitgeist. I can hardly wait!

I will have to have Laurie give me some good spectating tips - she is the master.

This will be a bloggerpalooza. In addition to a bunch of racers there are a whole ton of spectator/sherpa types. I hope I have a chance to meet all of you! Just look for me near the finish line starting at about 6:30 PM. I'll be there - glued to the action.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Public Eavesdropping is a regular feature in the San Francisco Chronicle. It's always funny and sometimes hits very close to home.

From 7/31
I know it's an accomplishment, but right now I feel like crap."
Man to his family, overheard at the finish line of Sunday's San Francisco marathon by Dan Tintor

From 8/24 (not available on-line)
"Now I understand why my dad was into bowling"
Overheard while standing waist-deep in water waiting for the start of a triathlon in Pleasanton, by Jonathan Lance

Other great examples of this very funny feature:

"Personally, I've had it with Downward-Facing Dog.''
-- Woman yoga semi-enthusiast, overheard on line at Tartine Bakery

(blog editors note: if you are ever in San Francisco and want a delicious, calorie packed gastronomic delight visit Tartine. Yum, Yum, Yum)

"Think thong."
Trainer to female client, overheard at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center by Peter Schumacher

And then there is this all purpose, always timely quote:

"Stop telling everyone the world's ending in 2012. It makes me feel hurried."
- Woman to man, overheard at a sushi bar in the Sunset by Tosha Silver

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

First of all I completely forgot to mention that I met Bex a couple weeks ago. We had drinks and the most delicious Brie and pear quesedilla in the world. Oh how i love living in California with all this great food and how I love meeting my internet friends, not necessarily in that order but both at once is a real bonus.

Second of all thanks for the well wishes on my neck. It started feeling better Saturday so I rode on Sunday (even though I spent 1 hour in the trainer on Saturday). This is elevation map of the ride. It looks so completely crazy!

I let the hill win for a little bit on the way back. It's hard to see from that elevation map but there is a sharp hill with a summit that falls along a general incline. I gave it up about 60 feet from the top and at the time it seemed like a total defeat but overall it was but a blip in a pretty tough ride. The coolest part about this ride is that I went with a woman from my race club who just needed to find a riding partner for a 5 hour training ride for her next HIM. It was a huge win/win for both of us to find each other because I just needed to get out there. I went 3 hours to her 5 but we both had a great time. All hail terra firma race clubs and email lists!

Third of all I spent hours yesterday glued to IronmanLive watching people cross the finish. A great race was had by some and a race that resulted in a painful but successful finish was had by others but even that is a great race. Congratulations to everyone who got out there and toed the line.

I'll try to get back to being interesting soon.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I woke up this morning ready to fill the tires on my bike to capacity, fill up the water bottles and head out for a group ride with my race club. I had to overcome a lot of fear and lack of confidence to even think of doing the ride because I am, without question, the slowest person out there. Having me along would put a crimp in someone's day but I was going for it, anyhow under the assumption that some supportive, nice person wouldn't mind getting in an easy ride day. The route for today's ride was one of my favorites - the wild Turkey ride.

Then I woke up with 'the neck thing'. 'The neck thing' is a soreness in my left trapezoid that keeps me from turning my head. The first time it happened I pushed it and ended up in so much pain I fully understood how people in chronic pain commit suicide. It hurt that much. I don't push it anymore. No head turning = no ride *sniff sniff*. I have to use my damned trainer on a perfectly nice day.

So - use trainer = procrastinate. My personal post wasn't going well so I read blogs including a post by Sweet Baboo that ended with some pondering on the now canceled Woodlands 101 event for which he was registered. It was just a hop, skip and a jump to noodling around on the 101 site (which you can do since they haven't taken down any of the pages behind the home page), to do a little number crunching in search of a reason (I am an excellent procrastinator). So here you go:

The Bradenton event had about 109 registered athletes. At approximately $200/entry (the fees started at $150 and went up to $300) that's $21,800 in registration fees. They promised $50,000 in prize money payout. They also gave everyone a technical T, visor, water bottle, pre-race dinner, post race party and the 90 finishers got another t-shirt, a medal and a beach towel. That had to be about $50/participant in merchandise and then there is the cost of permits, set up, timing systems, publicity, etc. Enormous sea of red ink and only 9 sponsors including the photographers and the charity. Not a good thing and surely not enough to make up for the shortfall in registration fees. Even if they had 50 vendors at an expo at $500/booth (i have no idea - I just made that up) that's only an additional $25,000 in revenue and it costs money to set the thing up.

Clearlake looks much the same with ~150 entrants, 99 finishers, $50,000 in prized money - yada yada..

Woodlands had a whopping 420 entrants at probably an average of $250@. So that's $105,000 in registration fees but they promised a purse of $150,000. Halifax had only 120 registered racers. The math just gets really ugly.

The really baffling part about all this is that the producers were not rookies. This was a combination of the executive director of HFP Racing, producers of some really big and well known events, and a 'wealth management' guy. The advisory board included the founder of Quintana Roo and the president of Infinit Nutrition. Smart men - sort of. I see them sitting slumped around a table with dream bubbles turned rain clouds over their heads and a lot of egg on their faces.

It's really too bad because it was a great idea. Of course Bold had a much better idea - the 140.7 series with the tagline "'everything you always wanted in an Ironman, plus"® *snort* love that.

"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere." - -- Joyce A. Myers

"When you are dreaming big, don't forget to first run the numbers and account for the worst case scenario" - 21stCenturyMom

And on that note... my trainer awaits.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

There is video clip on the NYT website that has Steve Levitt of Freakonomics talking about blogging. I've included the link for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to embed the clip.

He basically says that there are 2 approaches to writing. There is the rigorous academic approach where all words are carefully considered, edited and fact checked prior to publication and there is the blog where we 'just toss out bombs'. I find it particularly amusing that he says, somewhat perplexed, "The amazing thing to me is... sometimes people care". Well duh - you co-authored one of the most read books in the country and have a NYT sponsored blog. Yes - people take your words seriously. And if you don't want anyone to care, why write?

But getting back to us mere mortals, I think there there is a place in between Levitt's 2 extremes where people write fairly well considered and crafted posts but nothing that would stand up to academic rigor. I"m mostly the drive-by type just tossing the words out there without thinking too hard about it. Every once in a while I want to be touching or funny and then I have to write a couple of versions and really engage my brain.

Where are you on that spectrum? Bombs or brilliance? What drives your posting? Do you feel you need to post with a particular frequency?

ps- yes I do have things to write about my life. So many, in fact that I can't sort them all out so I'm turning the lights on you, dear readers, and hoping for some feedback. This temporarily interrupted show will return soon.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

No - I don't mean that this is an introductory lesson in how to let someone rest in peace or how to hold a funeral. There is a funeral in tri-land, though. The 101 series has announced that all remaining races have been cancelled. I'm sure you already knew that since the news hit the wires yesterday and the buzz has been furious.

Some people are sad as they liked the new distance and more importantly, they liked the idea of someone going up against NA and the Ironman brand. Some are angry as they bought airline tickets to fly to a 101 event and now they are stuck with tickets and no race.

I am curious as to the real reasons this series closed. I have my own ideas and I'm sure you have yours. I'm not sure it is worth speculating on why the race closed as I'm sure the 101 organizers will give more details soon.

I am curious as to your thoughts and feelings about the races themselves, t hough. So what do you think? Were you registered for a 101 event? Had you hoped to do one next year? How do you feel about what appears to be the early demise of this series? Are you hoping they'll try again next year, perhaps with fewer events? Were you planning on registering for the already announced Clearlake 101 2008?

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

No - I'm not curled up in the fetal position with a pillow over my head. I'm fine - really. Thanks to everyone who wrote to check up on me and make sure I am okay.

I've actually been 'managing editor' of the raceAthlete site while the real editor makes his way through the finishing chute of IM training. I also have responsibility for the Saturday Video over at the Complete Running Network. I'm also trying really hard not to spend my forced time off sitting in front of a computer.

Lots of stuff is going on and I do have a couple of posts in me but the other reality is that it is very, very hot here command central (my bedroom) is pretty much the hottest room in the house in the afternoon so I'm going to have to bail out of here until later.

Thanks for the well wishes - you peeps are just the best!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

That stands for Big Deal, It's Friday. Why don't I care? Because the startup I was working for didn't start up quite fast enough and another guy and I got laid off on Wednesday. Yes, it is a bummer but I"ll be okay. The economy is good and I'm pretty sure I"ll be back in some saddle within a couple of months. On the plus side I have plenty of time to train now! I've swum over 8,000 yards this week (including my triathlon on Sunday).

Now on to more interesting things. Triboomer has a wonderful campaign going right now as he moves closer to the start line at IM Wisconsin.

""500 Over 140.6" Honor Roll is just a week old and is quickly closing in on its goal of collecting the names of 500 cancer fighters, survivors, and souls. The good news, if you can call it that, is the goal of 500 names will be met. The bad news is that the goal will be met."

TriBoomer had dedicated himself to racing for cause with a goal of raising $10,000 this year. I'm not even sure how far along he is on that goal but he needs more names for 500 over 140.6 so please stop by and help him out.

**Important update - Boomer set a goal of $50,000 and exceeded it. Go Boomer Nation!

There are far worse things in life than to be unemployed. I am grateful for people like Triboomer who do so much to help solve real problems like cancer.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 08:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

I raced the Folsom International Triathlon yesterday and had a pretty successful day. In fact I had a big PR and I owe it all to Chris Lieto who gave me some really valuable feedback for my bike ride. I didn't get this out of a magazine or off of a DVD or a web site - I got it from the man himself.

I spent most of Saturday obsessing about this race. The event organizers didn't have elevation maps so I went to MotionBased and found an entry for the race. I went nuts with the pace calculator trying to figure out how not to DFL. I looked up results. I fretted and wrung my hands. Then I got the brilliant idea to go for a bike ride and see how fast I could go if I really tried. That tempered my expectations a bit but it was still a good thing to do.

I spent the evening at an event held by my race club. It was an Evening with Chris Lieto. Chris is represented by a guy in our club named Chris McCrary and I am embarrased to admit I had them mixed up - twice. I need to spend more time watching Ironman shows because although McCrary is a very accomplished triathlete himself he is not featured in IM videos.

Before the thing started I walked up to Chris Lieto and asked, "If you were racing a triathlon tomorrow and you maybe didn't really train that well and you wanted to go much faster than you've ever gone on your bike before what would you do?" I could tell I pretty much lost him at "didn't really train" and he was thinking "lady, you must be kidding" but he's a really nice guy so he hemmed and hawed for a moment trying to get past that and then told me I should focus on cadence - hold a good 90 rmp cadence. Always looking for the magic in sports I responded, "Oh - so lower the gears until doing 90 is comfortable?" and he said, "Oh no. Don't do that". It was like being mentored by Yoda. "Easy path there is not. Pedal hard you must" I thanked him and sat down to listen to his presentation which was very helpful. After talking about training plans Chris told a funny story about Kona last year. You probably had to be there to get the humor but the lesson learned is pretty accessible.

At the end of the bike portion of IronMan Lieto was just behind Norman Stadler. At the beginning of the bike he was just ahead of Stadler but not by much as the swim had been particularly difficult due to the currents which cut down his expected lead. Not too far into the race Chris decided to do a strategy check so he asked Stadler "so what's your plan? You going to hang back for a while or are going to head out sooner?" In telling the story he dropped his voice about an octave and in a perfect Stadler impression he says "I go now". So Stadler took off and Lieto decided to hang with the group for a while. Long story short Stadler got way ahead of him and he had to work really hard in the second half of the bike and that resulted in GI issue which screwed up his run. He said he would never let that happen again. I got it at that point but that lession really came home at the end of my event the next day.

Race morning I got to the race venue, found some other FoMo members, got a rack spot close to the swim transition and also pretty close to the bike and run out. Life was good. I went down to the shore to watch the elite guys go off. Just as the first couple were coming in (16 - 18 minutes after the start!!!) a guy in the water started yelling "Help me - I can't move!" Everyone nearby mobilized and swam to him, a kayak went over and he grabbed on and that's when I notice he had no cap and no goggles. They got him into shore and he was wearing cut off blue jeans. The medics were there to help but of course it turned out that he was homeless, crazy guy who needed some attention. He got plenty, a reality that came back to haunt me later.

Swim - The swim seemed fine. I had company all the while which meant that I wasn't the slowest person out there. My sighting was good and I did not bump into a single boat - Hooray! It seemed very long, though - much longer than Wildflower even though I didn't veer off course over and over. Coming around that last buoy there was a little pile up and some guy gently and accidentally kicked me and my left calf got a little cramp. The bottoms of both feet started to cramp a little, too. I wasn't too worried because this happens to me in the pool at almost every workout. I tried to flex my feet while kicking to work out the cramp just as I do in the pool.

The shore finally arrive under me and went to stand up. It is really rocky right there so you have to find your footing over these big and small river rocks. As soon as I tried to stand my calf cramped up - hard. It hurt like hell. I fell down, on the rocks (hey ART for the hips right on the course!) I pulled on my foot and sort of got it under control and tried to stand again and then it really cramped up. I fell down again and started screaming "OW!!! My LEG!!! I nedd HELP!!" My leg was so visibly contorted that people coming out of water and running over me would look down and say "Oh- whoa. Ow" and things like that. Meanwhile I'm yelling, hoping someone will get a medic over to me to help me straighten out my leg. Then, this guy standing behind me says, "oh - do you have an annoying little cramp in your leg". As I live and breath the only reason that guy is still alive is because I couldn't stand up and kill him. I screamed again "I NEED SOME HELP!" One very nice woman stopped to help me and by then I had gotten things under enough control that I figured I didn't need to ruin another person's race so I thanked her and told her to get going. I wish I had gotten her name - she was the bright spot in a very dark moment. Finally, through the process of stretching and massaging my calf I managed to be able to stand and run out to the applause of all the people who stood there and watched me suffer. That cramp cost me about 2 minutes.

T1 - I was totally pissed off about not getting any help in the water. In that moment it was Crazy Homeless guy 2, Pamela 0 and it made me mad but I had a race to finish so I dried my feet, put on my shoes, sunglasses and helmet and headed out for what I wanted to be the ride of my life.

Ride - I spent pretty much the whole ride trying to ride harder than I have ever ridden before. For a while I watched my speed and just kept trying to get up and over 16 mph. That worked okay but not great. Then I heard Yoda Lieto in my head and switched the computer over to cadence and just focused really hard on staying at or slightly above 90. I got passed - a lot. I got passed over the entire race course. I got passed by all kinds of women who apparently swim slower than I do. I got passed by Clysdales and Athenas who started 6 minutes after me. I was already pissed off from the cramp incident and now, when I was giving it a lot more than I had ever given it before (notice I did NOT use the expression "my all") I was being passed repeatedly.

I was so hating on Triathlon. I was hating on continuing to beat myself up doing something I am just no good at. Then I let it go. It wasn't about me and them it was just about me and what I could do better than I had done before. I carried on. I drank water and pedaled and watched the cadence and worked it. At the halfway point I decided to see how I was doing timewise so I looked at my Garmin and realized that although I had managed to put it on in transition I had failed to push the start button. Nothing but zeros. I decided that was also a good thing because I didn't need any more disappointment and I was already trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear so I just told myself to carry on and keep those cranks going!

T2 - could not find my spot. I knew exactly where it was and yet I didn't recognize it. I wandered back and forth, freaking out and finally gave myself a virtual slap across the face and went to the spot I knew to be mine and looked a little harder. Of course everything had been kicked around but there were my shoes, my towel, etc. I swapped shoes, helmet for hat and headed out. oops - forgot the thermotab and Gu so I went back, took the Thermotab and grabbed the Gu and headed out again. Of course there were all kinds of guys who had long since finished and lots of people telling me to 'finish strong. just find your pace and have fun'. Right - it's so fun when you are so far behind.

That little transition problem cost me another 2 minutes.

Run - I was running. I had on the Garmin and it was turned on but I decided not to look. I was running at a pace that I felt was sustainable and that's what mattered to me. What I really wanted was to run the entire run and not give up and walk as I had at Wildflower. I felt pretty good so I just stuck with that mantra - run, don't walk. I made it, too.

About 50 feet from the finish I was passed by a woman with a "52" on her calf. DAMNIT! I thought to myself, "you must pick it up and pass her - DO NOT LET HER GET AWAY!" Sadly, I am not a born competitor and I was just glad to be finishing and I let her go expecting she would beat me by a minute or so. If only.

Final result:
Swim 37:44.0 T1 02:43.6 Bike 01:38:24.7 T2 04:12.7 Run 1:10:36.5 Finish 03:33:41.6 9th out of 10 in my age group; 153 out of 164 women. I'd like to thank the poor girl from Sacramento Triathlon Club who flatted out and let me come in ahead of her. I did ask her if she had everything she needed as I passed her and she said she did.

That woman who passed me at the end of the run beat me by 18 seconds. 18 SECONDS!! All I had to do was find a little more strength - just a teeny bit of fight and I could have passed her and come in 3rd to last instead of 2nd to last in my age group. Like Chris Lieto, I will never let that happen again.

Overall I'm happy with the result. This is a 62 minute PR over Wildflower and although the Wildflower course is much tougher than Folsom not too many people enjoy a 25% improvment in time at their next event. It was definitely as much me as it was the course and the advice I got from Chris. So maybe I don't owe it ALL to Chris Lieto but he was and will continue to be a definite factor in my races. Thanks Chris!

ps - I already have an appt with my friend at Chez Marquis de Sade to get my calf worked on.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)

Update - for a full, first hand review of this thing go see Greyhound's blog. He took one of these for a stinkin' hot 100 mile training ride. And stay tuned for my race report from yesterday's Olympic distance event. I did okay.

iHome has developed a case/speaker system for your iPod for the bike! It will add a few ounces so if you are a carbon bottle cage freak who tries to cut the extra weight to as close to nothing as possible this might not be for you. Of course it is possible that this thing weighs less than the water bottle it displaces - I don't know. Then there is the issue of the displaced water bottle. Now what?

If you want to listen to tunes but don't like wearing earbuds on your ride this toy's for you! Especially if you lose your job and need to take on work as a bike messenger. Perfect!


Do you suppose it's race legal?

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Pirate tagged me so here goes a few lists:

Jobs I've held:
HoJos waitress
Burger flipper
plastic bag folder in factory
cheesecake maker
chamber maid in dodgy hotel in Bayswater London
tutor
TA
many jobs in technology

Expressions My Mother Used that want to come out of my mouth against my will
I'm not the village idiot
passed me like I was tied to a post
six ways to Sunday
The shadow is over the yardarm somewhere!

Places I've lived
Yellow Springs, Ohio
Madison, CT
Amherst, MA
Bekeley, CA
Oakland, CA
Walnut Creek, CA

Things I Quit that I now regret
Playing the flute
Playing the piano
Playing the guitar
Singing
Graduate school

Things I will do someday
Play the flute
Play the piano
Play the guitar
Write a book

Guilty indulgences
Pizza
Soft serve ice cream dipped in chocolate
Chocolate covered raisins
Sleeping in (which has somehow turned in to 7 AM at best - WTF??)
Marshmallows in any form (s'mores, floating on hot chocolate, straight out of the bag, mooched up with chocolate chips)

Things I Read Every Day
The comics page
The front pate of the newspaper
Your blogs - way too many of them
Feministing
So Close

Things I love more than anything else
My Oldest Child
My Middle Child
My Youngest Child

I hereby tag everyone who hasn't done this yet. Go for it!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I had a dream last night that I needed to go somewhere but I didn't have a car. I hopped on my old hybrid bike and started pedaling to this place but soon realized that it was pitch black, I had no headlight, no reflector in the back and I had no idea how to get there. I found someone to give me directions but the first thing I had to do was head straight down a flight of stairs.

I consulted my friend Dr. Jung and he said, "Vaht ve haf here iss the anxiety." (he likes to be inclusive). "Ve haf to focuse on ze tahsk ut hahnd und trust our training"

English translation - someone is a little freaked out about her triathlon this weekend. Not on the surface, of course, but the good doctor can see what's going on under the covers, so to speak.

In other news - Sadly, I will not be attending IM Moo. I will be cheering on all of the participants from afar and wishing I were breaking bread and hoisting a pint with the spectators but alas, I have decided to dedicate the time and funds to being with my youngest daughter before she goes back to school. My son is also about to take off for school. My oldest daughter lives with her husband a couple of time zones away. The dog is very old and in rapidly declining health. The nest is about the empty out and I will be left a crazy old cat lady with my very fat cat. So - I need to stick around here that weekend and make the most of my non-empty nest time.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 07:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Today it is about 50 degrees, overcast and windy. Go figure

I fixed my bike computer. The cadence sensor was turned away from the pedal, toward the wheel so it must have been interfering with the speed sensor. And it's possible the speed sensor was turned too far toward the pedal. In any case I pushed them both the right way and now all is well.

My legs are sore.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

So today was supposed to be my practice run for next week's Olympic distance triathlon. I was going to try to figure out nutrion and salt so I wouldn't get sick on the run in the heat. On the plus side I had plenty of heat to work wtih. That was on the minus side, too.

Last night I had a mad dash to the running store to get Endurolytes because I hadn't yet done that. I was stuck in freeway traffic and careening around corners on 2 wheels, I made it to the store with 3 minutes to spare before they locked the doors. They were out. I tried a couple of other places - no go. Great. The whole point was to see how salt improved how I felt going long in the heat. Oh well - Momo told me to try salt packets so there was always that. But then I found a bottle of Thermotabs that I had purchased in 1999. They said they were expired but what could go bad - it's just salt. These things have 450 mg of Na and it is buffered - awesome. I put some in a little zip lock bag and put them with my stuff.

I went to a late Master's workout on Saturday that didn't start until 8:30 I swam 2350 yards in an hour which included kicking and drills and slack time. It was fine.

T1 took about an hour because, you know, T1 isn't my strong suit. I took a full shower, washed my hair, drove home, talked to my daughter, filled water bottles I had forgotten to fill, talked to my daughter some more, petted the dog and apologized for not taking her for a walk, loaded up my stuff and headed out.

I ate 3 Cliff Shot Blox on the bike (Cran-Razz), drank water, pedaled...blah, blah,blah. My bike computer is totally broken for speed so I only had cadence on the bike computer and I just didn't use my Garmin to check my speed. Every time I felt compelled to go race pace I held back - this was not a race, this was a test drive. My time was only slightly faster than Wildflower which was a bit of a bummer but we'll call that an improvement because at Wildflower I was racing so it appears that not racing is now faster than racing so that's good.

About 20 miles in to the ride I felt the salt on my face so I took a Thermotab. I ate a couple of Cliff Blox. I got home and T2 was much quicker - maybe 5 minutes. Part of that time was spent getting ice and putting it in my bra because by now it was HOT! (this was 12:30)

I started running. It was hot - so hot. I had a water bottle but had forgotten to bring Thermotabs. No biggie - I had a Nuun with me so I put that in the water bottle and amused myself with the way it spurted out of the rubber nipple every couple of minutes.

3/4 of a mile into this run I found some shade and stopped dead in my tracks. It was hot - so hot. I gathered up my courage and ran some more. 1 and a 1/2 miles into the run I decided that this whole thing was just stupid. There would be no aid stations every mile or 2 with cold water and ice. Forget it! I ran a 1/2 mary last weekend and I'm doing a race next weekend and I'm officially leaving racing every weekend to less sane but better trained people like Kona Shelly and IronmomJenny (who are both sane but crazy about triathlon).I called my daughter and told her where to pick me up. My run was just under 2 miles.

When she picked me up I looked at the thermometer in her car that measures the temp on the road - 110. When we got home I looked at the back yard thermometer which is in the shade - 96.

I felt vindicated. I also felt great. I didn't even take a nap today. MIssion accomplished.

ps- Thermotabs cost $6.19/100 tabs - significantly less than all those 'sexed up for a triathlon' products on the market.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 06:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Mine is full of remote control devices because I need to spend time every day in my trainer because anyone who is anyone knows that in triathlon it's all about the bike and I need to get my bike on, big time.

I have an "A" race coming up but before the "A" race is a "B" race that I almost chickened out of. The "B" race is an Olympic distance event - the Folsom International Triathlon. I can't quite remember why I signed up but I think it's because I felt a need to redeem my Wildflower performance. Never mind the lack of need for redemption - that's how I feel about it and you can't take that away from me so onward.

After I signed up, I looked at last years results for this race. I was immediately discouraged. In my age group the finishing times ranged from 2:33 to 3:20 - gulp. How was I, a person who had finished Wildflower in 4:38 going to keep from going DFL? I knew this was a flat, fast course but still - how could I knock over an hour off my time?

Then I did a Tri for Fun. I was happy with my performance but I got passed on the bike by so many people and I started to have grave, grave doubts about my ability to manage FIT and not DFL. In fact, I was totally demoralized and had visions of hitting the run with nary a soul around and coping with a pile of self loathing on top of the heat. I went so far as to send an email asking if I could just withdraw since my fee hadn't gone through yet. They offered a race voucher for a fee of $20 and I decided to think about it. When thinking failed me I turned to the numbers. I found a triathlon pace calculator and using the numbers from the tri for fun plus some liberal padding (since it will be hot and will be longer) I came up with this:

Shablam! That is doable - very doable. If I could keep the transition times down to a total of 5 minutes then I can come in between 3:20 and 3:30 which might be last in my age group but not last of all. So I took it a step further and I did this:

Which gets me in under 3:20 and in under 3:20 = not DFL in my age group. And that makes me happy enough and confident enough that I decided not to withdraw and to just go for it.

This weekend I am going to do an Oly distance brick to see if I can manage that distance in the heat without getting totally nauseated. I'm going to test drive using Endurolytes or... (insert favorite product name here - if you have a fave please comment) Masters (swimming) isn't until 8:30 on Saturday which means it will be good and hot by the time I get off the bike and head for the run - just what I need. I will then spend the rest of the week doing a couple of light workouts to keep my muscles loose and then it's show time on August 12.

Guess I'll have to replace the remote controls with some Cliff Blocks.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

My friend who came to cheer for me at the SF 1/2 Marathon is about to have shoulder surgery. She is trying to prepare to live life somewhat one-handed and needs some information on certain products. I'm hoping some of you can help.

1). If you have used Yankz are you able to do them 1 handed?
2). Do you know of any sports bras that have a front closure? This person wears a "B" cup so Enell won't work

PS - to Stronger - this friend is now signed up for a Muddy Buddy in 2008 and she is holding you responsible - you had way too much fun doing your mud run.

TIA, everyone!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)