Monday, January 28, 2008

Week 16- 01.21.08- 01.28.08

I am so glad that this week was taper week! It's been extremely busy at work so timing was just right for a taper week! In fact, it's been so busy that my response to everyone's question of, "Are you excited about your birthday?" was, "I haven't had time to think about it." I struggled with whether I wanted to celebrate my birthday on Saturday (the actual day) or not because of the Louie Bonpua Triathlon that was taking place the morning after. I decided to go ahead and celebrate but that I made it a promise to still show up at the triathlon to support my fellow Ironteamers and to honor Louie! Team In Training does a lot of their practice triathlons on the Island so I've done the course at Treasure Island many times...in the cold...in the pouring rain..let me emphasize on the word "pouring" as it took days for my stuff to dry last year! The week of workouts was easy. With the rainy whether and the cold air, it was timely! Wednesday evening, Deb and I met at the track for a quick run..15 minutes into it, it started to sprinkle..then about ten minutes later, it started to down pour so I ran my way to the pub to meet Steve and Ben for some Wednesday night witty banter.

Saturday was my birthday. My 30th birthday to be exact. I remember when I was five years old..it was my mom's 32nd birthday..I told her she was really old. Boy, do I take that back! Some say that 30 is the new 20 but in my case, I don't want 30 to be the new 20. I want 30 to be 30! I started my birthday morning by going to M2. Micheal had a surprise for his 8:30am class..instead of one hour..it turned out to be an hour and a half of a class! A very tough but good hour and thirty minutes on the CycleOps! I spent most of the day with my family and when evening came..it was time for the festivities to begin! Met up with 15 of our close friends for a dinner at Straits Cafe before heading to the Cantina for a night of mingling birthday fun! THANK YOU to all our friends who came out and celebrated with us. You braved the rain and the difficult parking..it was a very special occasion and a very special night! Thank you for making it memorable!

Sunday AM came too quickly as I struggled to get up with an exhaustion headache and a resting heart rate of 72 (55ish is normal for me)! Deb came by to pick me up..we then picked up Heidi and off to Treasure Island we went! A great weekend overall!


With Mel! Yes, we were both born on the same month..same day..same year!


Dinner with our close friends! Thank you so much for coming out to celebrate with us!The next morning at Treasure Island..does my smile disguise my tired eyes?!

With Heidi at Treasure Island..so happy and proud that she is getting back on track after a broken ankle!
With Kara from the Summer 06 team!

Workout Summary-
Swim- 0 hours and 45 minutes

Bike- 2 hours and 4 minutes

Run- 0 hours and 30 minutes

Core Strength- 1 hour and 0 minutes
Total Workout- 4 hours and 19 minutes

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Week 15- 01.14.08- 01.20.08

Back pain! Knee pain! It's all beginning to be a big pain in the @ss! Not the training, the aches and pains! I am not sure what happened, maybe my body is adjusting to all the mileage ran last week but I was not able to really so anything on Monday or Tuesday in terms of training. I made an appointment with my goddess of a masseuse Pauline at Senspa! Her hands does wonders and she is so in tuned with the body- amazing! What I thought was my IT band causing knee pain was actually my glutes and all that was somehow connected to my back pain. She told me what I should have known..I need to stretch more after my runs! You hear that Steve and Ben? No more rushing to Kezar Pub- must stretch! After 50 minutes with Pauline and what actually felt like 50 minutes on a foam roller, I felt fixed and healed!

This week was a week of milestones in terms of running. Hez and I saw some strong improvements in our run time! Every few months, our Coaches have us do run marker sets. In a marker set, you run for 30 minutes on the track at a pace that you can hold for that time. Between November and now, Hex and I improved our average run pace by 1'22''!! For whatever reason, Hez and I love running now! We used to hate it for different reasons but it's not so bad now!

On Saturday, Hez and I headed down to Canada Road to do our 15 mile bike marker set. It was quite balmy out there! 10 minutes into the ride, I actually said to myself, "You know..it's not too late to turn around..you can still make it to M2 spin where it's nice and warm!" What can I say? My fingers which were covered with long gloves were frozen! Alright, enough whining. The last time we did this was back in October and I just gotten back from Greece. From then and now, my time improved by 50 seconds- talk about disappointing results! Had the temperatures not been as cold, my time could have been slower. What does this mean? I have to worker harder in my M2 spin classes! No more fooling around in there! Have to hit those wattages!

This week was a swim week. I swum about 9,000 yards which is the most I've ever swum in a week's time. Along with Coach Nancy's program, I've also been very focused on the stroke improvements that Chris wants me to work on. Chris taped me swimming before the New Year and let me tell you, I do not look cute or graceful swimming! My face looks complete dorkess! My eyes appeared big as frogs..just not very cute. I think I was more horrified by how big my eyeballs actually looked vs. paying attention to what Chris was telling me..at least for the first few minutes..then I got over it..quickly!

This next week is taper week due to the Ironteam Louis Bonpua Olympic Triathlon. I celebrate my 30th birthday the prior evening so we'll see how it goes! Yes, that is right! I am turning 30. No, I am not sad about it. On the contrary, I welcome it! My 20's were well lived and it's time to move on to another chapter of the ages so bring it on! Since it will be my birthday, it is only fitting that I made a birthday wish list! So here it goes- do not question the items- after all it is MY birthday!

Yi's Birthday wish list-

*A donation to my Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraising website-
http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/ironyi08

*The Stick - yes, this is referring to the blue massage stick.

*Sock Monkey- don't ask..I've always wanted one.

*The Nanny Diaries DVD- love that movie! Such a sap, I know.

*A subscription to Runner's World- as if I don't get enough magazines.

*A travel book to a destination that I will be traveling to this year..I don't know where that is yet! Taking
recommendations.

*Tickets to a Phoenix Suns home game..Lower Level preferably or better..yes I am fully aware that this would require travel to Phoenix!

*Did I mention
a donation to my Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraising website-
http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/ironyi08


*Another year of good parking karma- we know how important those are in the city! Oh heck, how about just good karma in general!

*A guarantee to arrive at the start line of Ironman Louisville 2008 injury free!

Workout Summary-
Swim- 3 hours and 19 minutes
Bike- 2 hours and 1 minute
Run- 0 hours and 54 minutes
Core Strength- 0 hours and 10 minutes
Total Workout- 6 hours and 14 minutes

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Week 14- 01.07.08- 01.13.08

First full week of workouts and work itself made for a tough adjustment. Like anything else, it got easier as the week progressed! My body will eventually adjust to the double workout days. Yes..I said double. It goes something like this...wake up...M2 spin class...go to work...meet Hez at the track after work for 80 minute run...feel my head spin post track workout. I can't tell if I was a little dizzy due to nutrition or because we were running around the track for so long that I was actually getting dizzy..? The track/run workouts are getting tougher to get through..but not nearly as tough as convincing my body to actually get up the morning after! But like I said, it'll get better with time!

Sunday, we had our coached workout. On the schedule was an open water swim at Aquatic Park followed by a 60 minute run. I didn't make it to the swim but showed up for the run. Because of parking construction in the Van Ness parking lot, I couldn't find any of my teammates. I was contemplating whether I should go home and get back in bed or do the run myself. As I was walking towards my car, I heard, "Hey Yi!" It was Raf..my decision was made..I was doing the run. On the second part of our run, Alex joined in. I made Alex run with me back to my car as I agreed to drive us back to Sports Basement..where everyone had gone after the swim. It's January..everyone and their grandmas are out running..keeping up with their New Year's Resolutions I assume..it'll be interesting to see how it all thins out in months to come!

The mileage I ran this week was the most I've ever ran in one week. Everything is still feeling good..well with the exception of my left knee. It's getting a little sore but feels fine when I run...so I am not going to worry yet..just going to work on willing it and foaming rolling it away!

Workout Summary-
Swim- 0 hours and 45 minutes
Bike- 2 hours and 8 minutes
Run- 3 hours and 16 minutes
Core Strength- 1 hour and 0 minutes
Total Workout- 7 hours and 9 minutes

Monday, January 7, 2008

Week 13- 12.31.07- 01.06.08

Week 13- With the Bay Are in the midst of an epic storm, I found myself to be very lazy! Actually, I went snowboarding for New Year's Eve with Mary and boy did that wipe me out for the week! I couldn't believe how much it took out of me but then again, it has been two years since I snowboarded.

Mary and I headed up to Tahoe the day before New Year's Eve and spent that evening getting settled and resting up for the day ahead. We woke up on Monday wide eyed and ready to hit up Squaw Valley! The most unforgettable part of our time on the slopes had to have been the run Solitude. We thought that going down the back side of Squaw would be less crowded...well we were right but there is reason. Solitude was full of big boulder rocks and more big rocks! I caught up to Mary in the middle of the run only to see her sitting down. As I got closer..I understood why..there was a big gap between rock we were sitting on and the snow ground. We sat on the rock wondering what the best and safest way to get down was without having to jump it...all the while..this random guy at the bottom kept yelling, "this way...go this way!" We said, "Nah uh!" haha..we eventually got down but one time down Solitude was enough for our day!

We spent the last minutes of 2007 star gazing by the lake and we woke up to 2008 with Lake Tahoe in front of us. Absolutely beautiful! We rescued our friends Joe and Ben from their overly occupied condo! Good times!

North shore of Lake Tahoe!
Absolutely beautiful!
Workout Summary-
Swim- 0 hours and 0 minutes
Bike - 1 hour and 8 minutes
Run- 0 hours and 40 minutes
Core Strength- 0 hours and 0 minutes but I snowboarded for 6 hours..that was all core and strength!
Total- 1 hour and 48 minutes

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Week 12- 12.24.07- 12.30.07

Week 12!

I, surprisingly got a good amount of training in considering it was Christmas week! Haven came to visit and that provided some motivation to work out. If we didn't put in a workout, he would probably be restless for the remainder of the day and not very much fun to be around so it was in my best interest that he puts in a workout! I still choose M2 spin classes over the ones at the gym hands down but we did what we could and it was fun!

Speaking of M2, I finally made an appearance with Doug on Saturday. I told Michael that I woudl show up to his class on Saturday and I stayed true to my word..though he was probably skeptical. I think Doug and I will both agree that it was an hour of kick*ss fun on the Cycleops cycle!

Sunday, I was off to spend NYE in Lake Tahoe but not before I put in a good hour of swim coaching with Chris Hauth!

Workout Summary-
Swim- 2 hours and 5 minutes
Bike- 3 hours and 1 minute
Run- 2 hours and 2 minutes
Core Strength- 0 hours and 0 minutes
Total- 7 hours and 8 minutes