We Tried and it was Fun

Saturday was the kickoff of the 25th Annual Tri for Fun series.  I know I wrote about Tri For Fun last year.  It's a 4 month series every summer and a great introduction race.  People wear whatever they want and ride whatever they want in whatever kind of shoes they want.  Ages range from 6 to 86 and everything in between.  The race director joked that if anyone got lost on the run, to just "run around for 40 minutes and come back and we'll call it good."

I signed up for this event because two friends from high school said they wanted to do it.  They have been following my journey over the past year and it was going to be their first triathlon.  Unfortunately, Mike said he was dying in the pool after 4 laps and decided not to sign up.  However, BJ has been training for several months, so he came down from Folsom.  

And, Sedonia, who is tapering for IMCDA, was looking for a short workout.  She already needed to be in the area that day, and signed up.

We saw DJ Strawberry from 99.7.  It was also his first triathlon.  

Although we have no timing chips at Tri For Fun, I told myself I was actually going to race it this time.  To get uncomfortable.  My attitude toward training and events is focused toward accomplishment rather than breaking records.  Of course, I want to get faster.  And, with the exception of Lavaman, I do make an effort to work toward that goal, even if it doesn't happen.  

So, I raced.  Despite consciously going faster, I think my swim time was pretty similar (Sidenote: I swear, you race in the pool and your lungs pop out of your chest and you gain all of 3 seconds.  Totally not worth it in my mind!).  I saw BJ in T1 and he had a flat tire! :(  He was worried about it before the start because it didn't act normal when he was pumping them up.  By the time the swim was over, it was not holding any air.  I wanted to help and give him an extra tube, but mine are not compatible with his tire, so there was nothing I could do.  

I started the bike and pushed myself.  The wind was consistent and noticeable, but not bad.  My bike sensor got out of alignment so I was blind on cadence and speed.  Sedonia had suggested awhile back that maybe I should ride without it because sometimes it makes me negative.  Very true.  Not having a choice, I rode blind and rode for feel.  Something worked because I finished the bike faster than I ever have.  Although it's just a sprint distance and there's only one teeny tiny molehill, I averaged 18.9mph.  I typically ride at 14mph.  I was over the moon.  I also got my first "you kicked ass on that swim girl" shout out, which is really just code for, "hey I'm passing you on the bike."  But that's ok.  I'll take any encouragement I can get, even if it's passive aggressive.

And, the run, well you know how that goes.  I ran.  It was hot.  I was slow.  Mostly I just enjoyed the people watching that you can do while running.  Like listening to people complain about the "hills."  I wished I could have told them to go try trail running and then come back and tell me if this park really has any hills!  Coincidentally, when I crossed the finish line, the announcer said, "you weren't the only "hill" on that course today."  

Naturally, I told Nick I really shouldn't change my last name otherwise the announcer can't make that joke anymore.      

The 10K Swim

Nope, not me.  I did not swim a 10K.  I can't even claim to have run 6.2 miles recently.  But Nick and Sedonia swam 6.2 miles last weekend!  The fact that they swam that far deserves some major kudos!

This year was the inaugural 10K swim at Lake Del Valle.  You had to be US Master's member to participate so it really was a swimming event.  I doubt there were many triathletes there.  This was evidenced by the lack of athletic fashion.  Swimmers wear t-shirts and sweats.  Triathletes like gadgets.  Therefore, their clothes are high tech and match head to toe.

I did not participate because a) I'm not a member of USMS; and b)  I would not make the cutoff time, which was 3.5 hours.  Nick even said it would be challenging for him to finish in 3.5 hours.  

Nick's mom and I headed to the lake after the race started.  I went for a very pretty run along lake and then waited at the finish line to watch the early swimmers come in.  The swim was four 2.5km loops.  There was a "feeding station" in the water.  It was really just a boat and they had these long poles with cupholders on them.  One cup was water and the other was Gu Brew.  They also ripped open packets of Gu and threw them at the swimmers.  Sedonia was worried about lake water getting in her Gu, but the volunteer reminded her that she was swallowing plenty of lake water as it was.  There was another pole similar to the net that cleans up the leaves in the pool.  That's where you put your garbage.  Sedonia observed that swimmers have no idea how to "eat and run" so her advantage of doing triathlons was she refueled and went on her merry way while others just doggy-paddled there and chit chatted.  

I was pretty sure I spotted Sedonia at the turn (I can tell her stroke and her sighting). 

She crossed the line at 2:45 (exactly as she predicted).

She told me she thought Nick would be around 3:15.  We saw some people in pretty bad shape come in.  One older gentleman kept trying to get up and was super wobbly.  He fell in the water face down.  I handed my phone to Nick's mom and was heading toward the water fully clothed, but he raised himself up in time.  Another guy could barely walk, seemed hypothermic, and the paramedics had to tend to him.  You just wouldn't associate that kind of exhaustion with a swim, but it happens. Plus, since this was really a "swimmer's" event, very few people had wetsuits and being in cold water for 3 hours is definitely a strain on the system.

After 3 hours, we still did not see Nick.  Nick "looks so pretty in the water" that he's easy to spot.  But, when you're antsy, you start to wonder if everyone approaching is him.  For half an hour it went something like this:

"Is that him?"

"No, he doesn't swim that wide."

"I think that's him in the 4th position."

"No, the left arm is too low."

"Maybe that's him by the buoy"
"No, Nick's not that buff.  He hasn't been doing *that* much TRX!"

"Do you think that's him?"

"No, that's a girl."

At 3:26, we saw the last swimmer coming in (all the others had been pulled out after 7.5km).  At 3:28, he was still at the buoy.  It was so stressful standing there watching the clock count down and knowing he was right there, but not there yet.  Then Sedonia said, "Now you know how we felt during your Ironman!"  Fair enough!  Sedonia swam back out to him and he finished in 3:29!

Stick a fork in him!

They both finished.  And, Sedonia got 2nd in her AG!

IM Lake Tahoe

Today's big news was the announcement of Ironman Lake Tahoe -- September 23, 2013.  I would guess a lot of people will be coming out of retirement for this one.  The news is exciting -- a full distance Ironman in California!  There was discussion that it would be in Santa Cruz. San Luis Obispo was also on the table.  Apparently, Lake Tahoe won.  I admit I looked at the course and the profile maps and there was this tiny little "Hmm...." going on in my head.  It's hilly, but not like St. George.  However, the elevation/altitude sickness is definitely going to be a factor in this race.  

Registration opens on Monday.  They are predicting it will sell out quickly.  I believe Tahoe, during the summer, might just might be one of the most beautiful places in the country (where else can you sit on a beach, look at the water, and be surrounded by snow-capped mountains?).  But I won't be registering.  There was a tiny little pull there... until I remembered how much I enjoy my weekends.  

Dancing With Myself

Oh how I love spin workouts.  They are efficient.  They are effective.  They are convenient.  Granted, long rides outside are necessary for bike handling skills, mental toughness, etc.  But the other reason I love spin workouts is I get to listen to music.  No music when swimming.  No music when riding.  And, I'm 50/50 on music when running (simply because no earphones are allowed in races).  


I'll be the first to admit that I dance when I'm by myself.  I used to scare Mr. Phoebe with my dancing.  Now Braveheart has to deal with it.  Nick and I usually spin together, but tonight I was on my own.  Naturally, I was dancing with myself during rest intervals and the cool down.  I finally looked at my heart rate and laughed because it was in Zone 4.  Apparently, my awesome dance moves on the bike get me just as worked up as Dr. Tabata.


Billy Idol's Dancing With Myself has been one of my "pre-race" songs for the past year.  Now you know why.

On a completely unrelated note, my little brother's dance crew won the finals at a battle competition in San Francisco yesterday.  I really have no idea how he moves like that.  It's a 28 minute video, but he kills it around 19:40 and 24:30.  I tried to just insert the last 10 minutes, but YouTube is not cooperating today.  Sorry!

D-Day

I guess this post could be about counting down to 70.3.  I don't even know how far away it is -- I think we're under 6 weeks.  Oh boy!  I actually had to look up the cut-off times the other day to make sure I will make them. *sigh of relief*   But, since today is the anniversary of the real D-Day, the Universe has WWII on my mind.  A friend who is a US military and Allied Forces history buff is posting all sorts of D-Day trivia and photos on Facebook today (thanks, Chris).  Yesterday, one of my former teammates, Jen, posted this video about an honor flight on US Airways.  I cried my eyes out.  I wish I could hear the actual audio and not the song, but the impact is still there.

And, two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Tolerance.  I had to work in Los Angeles over the weekend for a system conversion/ implementation.  The project ran fairly smoothly and we ended up having a free day on Sunday.  Nick was also in LA and we visited the museum with our friend, Mike.  Little did we know, we would get the opportunity to listen to a Holocaust survivor, Dr. Henry Oster, speak of his experience.  


I could talk/write for hours about what I learned from him in those two hours.  I felt grateful that my job took me to Germany a few years ago where I met up with some college friends in Dusseldorf.  They took me to Cologne (he is the last survivor from that town).  The next year, my job took me to Poland.  I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau (both camps he was in).  He spoke of the gas, the crematorium, the barracks. He talked about what they ate and what happened to their bodies.  He managed to survive by working in the agriculture fields, finding hiding places, and he spoke German.  


A few pics from my trip to Auschwitz...

Top of the gate at Auschwitz

Lots of flowers placed in various places like this at Auschwitz

Sunday Funday -- He made friends with the guy that did the executions here.  And, sometimes got bread from him. 

The crematorium

Birkenau -- barely any buildings here, since it was a death camp.

When the liberation happened, he was placed in an orphanage in France.  Newspapers all over the world listed the names of children in all the orphanages, in case any family members that escaped may know the children.  An uncle, who lived in Los Angeles, saw his nephew's name and brought him to LA.  He was illiterate, having been working in the ghetto, and then the concentration camp, and then the death camp since he was 7 years old.  He learned to read and write English, graduated from high school, and went on to UCLA.  He wanted to be a dentist (because his teeth were not in good shape due to malnutrition and starvation and his dentist managed to save them) and during his interview, he saw the interviewer write "Germ Jew" at the top of his application.  He didn't get in.  He said he wouldn't give us the name of university, but the initials were USC (sorry...just had to make that jab).  So he became an optometrist.  Having worked under the Nazi regime for 17 hours a day, it was all he knew how to do -- work.  He's 83 years old.  He tried to retire awhile ago and went back to work.  


Lastly, he told us about how either his son or son-in-law came across the "stumbling blocks" that Cologne placed all over the city.  As a monument to what happened, a local artist placed a gold block in the sidewalk in front of every home where a family was taken.  His son noticed there wasn't a stumbling block in front of Dr. Oster's original home and contacted the city.  Much to the city of Cologne's surprise, it had no idea there was even a survivor from Cologne.  Parliament invited him to Germany to come speak.  After much encouragement from his family, he went.  And, he said he finally got something off his chest.  He told them that Germany is the richest country in the EU.  And yet the German border today is the same size it was before the war.  Yet over 60 million people died in the process.  


So, today, instead of writing about headwind or sore muscles or how I really think I'm allergic to water or any other triathlon-related first-world problem, I'm thinking about how grateful I am.  I had a choice to toot around a city for 17 hours for ONE day with food in my pockets.  This man was forced to work every day for 17 hours a day for 6 or 7 years with one bowl of cabbage, and if he was lucky, a stolen raw potato hidden in his pocket.

Healing the Heel

After several months of searching and waiting, I have finally started getting my foot, heel spurs, and plantar fascia treated.  A western doctor will say surgery is required.  However, most will agree there are many other alternatives to consider before surgery.  I heard about microcurrent.  It took awhile to find someone with the right machine, but I finally did.  I've had 3 treatments so far and I can honestly say that a lot of the pain that was plaguing me before, is very reduced and some days non-existent!  

Microcurrent is a faint electric current.  The frequency is so low that you do not feel a thing.  Unlike a TENS unit or ionthoperosis where you actually have a muscle spasm and feel the electricity running through your body, microcurrent is extremely relaxing and pleasant.  Microcurrent allows the electricity to penetrate the cells, whereas high frequency treatments have to go around the cells.  The treatment stimulates mitochondria to increase the production of ATP, which is your own chemical energy, protein synthesis, and waste product removal.  The ultimate goal is to break up the crap in there causing the pain.

The therapist puts on silver ion plated gloves that conduct electricity, uses a jelly very similar to an ultrasound machine, and very lightly massages the area needing attention.

Thirty minutes of microcurrent is equivalent to 4 hours of massage.  My legs are usually trashed a few hours after the treatment and into the next day.  But being able to run and not feel the pain in my foot is a great feeling.  Of course, my running is completely shot since I was in pain for so long and I was never able to build a proper base over the past 18 months.  But now that things are starting to feel better, I hope it will inspire me to finally build that base and any pain I feel will be in the muscles and heart and lungs getting stronger, as opposed to the pain from an inflamed tendon in my foot that renders me unable to bend my toes the way most people can.  

Back in the 80's microcurrent was first used to treat Bell's Palsy and stroke victims with lifting features of the face.  Then it turned into sports therapy and pain relief. Lance Armstrong and his entire team were treated with microcurrent therapy every night of the 7th Tour de France win.  Accident victims get treated with microcurrent to break down scar tissue.  And, now it's being used as a beauty treatment and being marketed as a non-surgical facelift.  Whatever its purpose, it works.  It is effective and it is permanent 60-80% of the time.  And, while not inexpensive, the cost is reasonable.  

Maintaining

This morning, Nick and I did a lactic threshold test on the Computrainer at Coach Dave's house.  As I was warming up, I told him that in 20 years when he is coaching full time, he is always going to remember "that one girl" who didn't train and whose LT worsened under his coaching.  I didn't remember all my stats from last year, but I was pretty sure I topped out at the same wattage.  Dave went to his computer and came back and said my threshold is either exactly the same or one heartbeat higher than last August when we did the test.  I was ecstatic.  That means I have hopefully maintained my level of fitness since before IMAZ  despite my severe lack of training.  This also means Coach Dave knows how to give a busy girl efficient workouts!!!


I've been debating about whether or not I am capable of Vineman 70.3 and considering pulling out.  The work schedule, traveling, moving, merging and purging of households, rental property, wedding planning, etc. has just taken a toll on my ability to get the time in I need.  But knowing that I haven't specifically lost any fitness makes me hopeful that maybe I actually can do it....