Recently in Hump Day Category

While everyone is writing about fall and the colors and the crisp air we are having our usual Indian summer here in the Bay Area and it just gets hotter every day. After hot comes wet so I'm not complaining. Onward to the humps miscellany in Hump Day Miscellany.

1). My friend, Michellie Jones injured herself doing a 70.3 race in Cancun and can't race Kona. So sad. No - she isn't really my friend but she came and spoke to my masters swim team and she let us fondle her silver Olympic Medal and I'm pretty sure doing that helped me with Vineman 70.3.

2). This morning I heard a loud voice doing a monologue outside and looked out the window to see a man cycling down the street talking in his cell phone. Dude - turn off the phone and enjoy your ride!

3). I went for an almost 9 mile run with the other 2 women in that picture above, this morning. We kept up a sub 10 minute pace and chatted and I did not die. Actually, I only ran the first 1/2 with them and then I turned around and headed home and I kind of almost did bonk in the last mile but I made it! That's my longest run this year except for Vineman, I think. Nike Half - here I come!

4). Four was the right place to put this bit of news. I came in 4th in my age group on Sunday. 4th out of 7. I was 3 minutes and 5 seconds off the podium which is a big enough margin not to get too mad about in a race this short. I was also, for the third race in a row, exactly in the middle. This means that I have officially moved from BOP status (back of the pack) to MOP (middle of the back) status. I'll take it!

5). Why is it that some days it seems like there has been a Squirrel Hari Kari convention? I must have gone past 6 or 7 squished squirrels on my ride last Thursday. I was on high alert for the ones that want to go out with a dramatic bang by launching themselves at my wheel - it's not a happy thing when the spoke they land on makes its way to the frame. Ouch.

6). Jane Jetson will be making a come back but in a different spot. I'll be announcing a move in a few days. As someone I know would say - stay tuned.

1). Small Things Amuse Me - Shout outs to the Super Poke people on Facebook for the Hump Day poke they did today. Hysterical. If you don't know what I'm talking about consider yourself to be a person who uses your time a little more wisely than do I.

2). J Lo! Who am I not to say something about J Lo and her initiation into triathlon? First of all I'm proud of her just the way I'm proud of anyone who trains up and toes the line - way to go! Second of all 6+ minutes in T1? I guess that insane tunic she wore took some time to get on. And third of all - what was up with that thing? I know she just had twins and is probably sporting a gut but that was just the most absurd cover up job I've ever seen. For the love of God, girl - you did a triathlon just after having twins - it's okay if you have a belly. Of course the press would give her no peace so I should just shut my pie hole about it. I'll just stick with You Go, J Lo!! Well done!

3). Learning the Hard Way - There are some lessons some of us need to learn repeatedly. Such was the case with me and a flat tire. I was scheduled for a Sunday ride with my friend, the Good Doctor so Friday night I checked the bike and the rear tire was flat. I went to get it off and it was too hard so I put air in the tube, pretending that that might work. Oh sure - it went flat in moments. I gave it 2 more tries and finally was able, with the help of 2 levers, to get the damned tire off the rim - on one side. I pulled out the tube, made a rough assessment of where the leak was, reached up under the tire and felt around and didn't feel anything so I stuffed a tube in there, blew it up, got the tire back on (easier than getting it off, oddly enough) and put it back on the bike. I checked it in the morning and it was flat again so I decided it was a bad tube and repeated the same process. When the Dr. arrived I had to invite him to have a seat while I changed the tire, yet again, only this time I took the tire all the way off the rim (like you are supposed to do) and really felt around. It had a pin in it. A very sharp, nasty pin that stuck out about a centimeter. Lesson learned. Being lazy when changing a tire puts you on the road to HELL!

4). No Wonder My Arms are Tired - I looked at my swimming mileage for the year and as of today I have recorded 98.78 miles in the water. That doesn't include races, though so with races I'm over 100 miles - whee! That makes me happy.

5). And speaking of swimming - I was looking at the times for the Nations Triathlon (a race I SO want to do next year) and the swim times are long. The first person out of the water took 19:41 which is a really long time for a 1500 meter swim. I suspect the swim course was long so if you did that race and weren't happy with your swim time feggedaboutdit - it was the course.

I have done almost nothing but obsess over my race for the last 2 days. I've had some positive thoughts and I've continued to suffer a little frustration and for a very good reason which I'll reveal toward the end of this post.

1) I got an email Monday from a reader named Suzanne who did the race and whose family caught a picture of me in the water dealing with my leg as her Sister In Law ran out. She also reminded me that while we were waiting for the horn (it was a deep water start) some woman yelled "let's all give ourselves a cheer!" So we did. That was fun. Here's the start:

And here's me sitting at the Swim out dealing with my leg:

3). When I looked at my official results I discovered that another woman in my age group came in 10 seconds behind me - 10 SECONDS! Man that was close. I thought she was a woman I had passed at about mile 5 but I looked up her picture and it was not her - it was a different woman who I beat in the swim, both transitions and the bike but she's got some run mojo. She must have been chasing me down for quite some time. I need to get some more run mojo. On the other hand, I beat the woman I passed by 6 minutes.

4). There is a woman in my race club who is 10 years younger than me and who finished only 5 minutes faster than me. That made me feel good.

5). This bike course is not without challenge. I think it was harder than Wildflower although there was no initial Lynch Hill suffer climb. I did Wildflower in 2:06 and this race last year in 1:38 and I did it this year in 1:23 so I declare victory and HUGE bike improvement. Here are elevation charts for you to compare. I'm feeling good about this ride (almost... see below)

6). Apparently I'm a sandbagger. Monday and Tuesday my calf was really, really sore. I was limping. Nothing else was sore, though. Nothing. Not my glutes, not my hamstrings, not my abs, not my arms - nothing. Clearly I didn't work hard enough and yet I got a 31 minute PR. I WILL do this race next year and I will go sub 3. Mark my words.

And with that I need to let FIT go with a Yay Me! I had a 31 minute PR!!!! and move on to Tri for Real where I NEED to come in in under 2 hours. Oh yes I do.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled feature - Hump Day Miscellany. I missed it last week (like you even noticed!), an oversight I did not want to repeat.

1). Word to Amanda Beard - EW! - Apparently there were rumors that she and Michael Phelps were dating. He simply and graciously denied them. She went on some cheesy radio show and offered the following:

"Ew, no!" Held hands? "Ew, no! Not even that." Even the mere suggestion that Michael might be attracted to her inspired an "ew-that's-so-nasty" response....."C'mon, I have really good taste," she told the radio hosts. "He's not really my type, personally." Laughing, she added, "I go for a little bit different-looking guys."

Oh sure honey - you have great taste. You're the one who has posed in her b-day suit in Playboy so that really ugly, fat, dirty men can gaze at your gorgeous bod while they polish the bishop. Classy! I guess really nice guys with more money than God and a zillion times your level of sophistication are just so not right for you. You just go right ahead pimping yourself out to girlie mags and low brow radio shows. I'm pretty sure Michael will be too busy with his millions of dollars worth of commercial endorsements to take you out on a date, anyhow.

2). Every week when I go to roll the garbage can out to the curb I open it to see if there's any room (a habit of years) only to notice there is 1 bag of garbage in there. 1 bag. I'd like to feel really good about that but frankly it seems sort of pathetic and lonely.
Am I green or blue? Hard to say.

3). Some people have issues with cookies and will eat the entire pack. For some it is candy - if there's a bag of any size in the house it becomes 1 serving = 1 bag. For me it is cereal. I have to stay away from the stuff because once I have a bowl of cereal I am so mesmerized by its sweet, crunchy goodness that I want another.. and another... and then more. Even when my stomach hurts from eating it I have to actively refrain from filling up the bowl again. The solution is to just not buy any at all but Pookie is home so there it is and there I was - chomp, chomp, chomp. *oink*

4). I had a weird triathlon dream last night. The swim was finishing up in a dough boy pool where you swam 'round and 'round and 'round and when you got out you had to run into the woods to start the bike. I was confused about which way to go and I couldn't remember where my stuff was. I finally decided that I left it by my bike instead of in the car and when I found my bike (in the woods) I got in trouble for changing to my bike things there. Pre-race anxiety dreams are so amusing, aren't they?

5). Tell me this. If you had a neighbor who went back to work 3 days after she had a special needs baby and then you learned 4 months later that her teen aged daughter was knocked up would think about what a great mother she is? Really. Just pretend you heard about someone in town who fit that description. What thoughts would pop into your head? Okay - forget I asked but give it a whirl internally. Be honest with yourself.

It's Hump Day Miscellany time and of course I have my own Olympic tidbits to share. I've mostly focused on the swimming for obvious reasons.

1). If you are having stroke issues try watching this all underwater version of the spectacular Mens 4 x 100M come from behind relay. Watch how these guys grab water and pull themselves through the pool while rotating their bodies. Beautiful

2). That particular relay was especially exciting for me as my son was the Jason Lezak of his relay team at the All City Meet the summer after his junior year in high school. This meet is second only to the end of summer conference and features about 20 swim teams. He swam anchor and when he went off the block he was close to a body length behind the leader. He had only 50 yards to work with. After his streamline following the 25 yard flip turn he was at the guy's ankles. After that he pulled himself forward, centimeter by centimeter to take the lead in the last 10 feet. Everyone at the meet was on their feet screaming and the boys set a new meet records with that race. It was a glorious day in my son's life and an incredibly proud Mama moment. I have some idea of how Debbie Phelps must feel.

3). There's a guy on the Olympic team named Ben WildmanTobriner. My son raced him for 2 years at the high school regional championships. Although Travis couldn't beat him in an individual event, his relay team took first at least one of those years, possibly both.

4). Am I the only one who gets a little sad every time they play the VISA ads with Morgan Freeman's voice in the background? The poor man fell asleep at the wheel recently and had a bad car accident. He's going to be okay but I'm sure it was terrifying.

5). Worst ad award goes to Hotels.com for that awful thing with the guys blowing bubbles into some man's bath. EW! That's just creepy.

6). Most idiotic commentary goes to the guy who when describing an incident in which Kerry Walsh lost her wedding ring in the sand prompting an all out hunt with metal detectors and an army of volunteers remarked, "I'm not sure what's so special about this ring". Hmmm... maybe it's because it's her wedding ring that her beloved husband gave her and that is inscribed with a special saying. That might make it special, don't you think?

7). I am 100% hetero but I have to admit to loving watching the women's volleyball. Oh those incredible bodies in those teeny little suits! What's not to love? Oh- and the winning. We LOVE the winning!

So to wrap up HDM on a positive note I give you this:

Post race time is all about recovery, right? I expected to be barely able to walk by Tuesday after Vineman but alas, such was not the case. I was sore but not that sore. By Saturday I could no longer live with myself being so sedentary.

1). Saturday - Masters swim (but not for long - I only lasted 40 minutes) and then a 3 mile run. It wasn't all that fast but it felt pretty good.

2). Sunday - off.

3). Monday off - old habits die hard. I'm not on a plan but Monday has been my "off" day for a while so that's just how I roll now. I got my bike back Monday, all clean and shiney and with a new chain - WINNER!

4). Tuesday - ride. Ahhhh.... I was so happy to ride again. I had to go solo because the Good Doctor is very busy but I was so glad to go. I had thought I'd get back in time to go to the 10:30 swim but I was having so much fun I just kept going. Not fast but lovely. The bike felt great for the first hour and then the chain started slipping in the back. I have to call the shop but I think I just need to adjust the cable with the barrel thingie (I know - the thought of me touching the bike when I use that vernacular is terrifying, right? Okay - the barrel adjuster. Feel better?)

5). Today - swam. I managed to gut out 2,000 whole meters. Go me. I'm sure I'll get back to my 2400- 2500 meter workouts any day now.

6). I'm missing my pre-race happiness and glow, though. I have a very nice sparkle when I talk about the race still because I'm still very happy with how I did. See? Happy!