Week 33- 05.19.08- 05.26.08

Race phase is near it's also known as the sexy phase..but I like to call it the "I'm so screwed" phase as the workouts get longer..my life is going to get just a little bit more demanding but I am enjoying!

Tuesday- went to a very hard M2 spin session in the morning accompanied by Heidi and then did a 45 minute swim out at Aquatic Park! Waters were a bit rough near the dolphin club..swallowed two big gulps during my time out there and then had a stomach ache for the next two hours at home..not good!

Wednesday- Heidi and I attempted to do the 8 mile Alcatraz run but the heavy wind and construction detour made it quite difficult.

Thursday- Renee and I were supposed to ride the Alcatraz Loop but she called in the morning and kept repeating, "It's windy outside..I was standing outside and it's windy." It was very cute and funny. We didn't go on the ride but took an evening spin session at M2 instead.

Friday- Ran Lake Merced in the morning before work and then did a 3400 yard swim after work in the pool. Ended my workweek with a sports massage session at my beloved Senspa. I told her I had a long ride tomorrow which meant..go easy on the legs!

Saturday- This was some day! Woke up at 5:30am to meet at 8am! A bunch of us girls (Deb, Renee, Hez, Meg, Kara and myself) drove up to the Russian River area known as Wine Country and did a mellow 52 mile loop..Hez, Renee, Deb and myself had to tack on another 23 miles to make it 75! The ride itself was beautiful but the elements (rain, wind and cold) made the ride a bit tough but nothing that us ladies couldn't handle..it just sucked being cold..wet!

Below- Hez, Renee, Deb and I..Ironteam 2008!

Below- Kara and I with Meg in the background getting ready to ride!

Below- Kara- "How come you didn't swim yesterday?" I asked. "I was at the pool ready to swim but my swimp3 didn't work." said Kara. Love it!

Below- Hez, Renee, Deb, Kara and myself..missing Meg in this picture..she was taking the picture. "Do you always have to wear that helmet? How do you expect to meet any boys with that dorky helmet on all the time?" asked Kara's mom. Makes me laugh everytime I put my helmet on!


Sunday- Hez and I did the Sawyer Camp Trail..6 miles out...6 miles back.. for a total of 12 miles..a nice run! A great week of workouts..and what can you justify buying if you're training for Ironman and you're experiencing back pain..? A new mattress! Heidi and I went mattress shopping..did you know that there are mattresses that cost $16 grand?!?! Holy moly..I'd rather spend that money on a sweet top of the line custom built bike! Mattress comes tomorrow..oh yea! Going to hang out with Susan, Anthony, Moser and company later..asked me what I wanted to do? Anything.. just no excessive walking!

Workout Summary-
Swim- 2 hours and 0 minutes
Bike- 7 hours and 23 minutes
Run- 4 hours and 5 minutes
Total workout- 13 hours and 28 minutes

Week 32- 05.12.08- 05.18.08

Beautiful Thursday AM- Renee and I rode the Alcatraz Loop backwards from our house. The views never cease to amaze me! At 5:55 am..I am pumping air into my tires and breaking out a sweat as it's been in the 80's and 90's in terms of temperatures! Out in short sleeve jersey and shorts..it was perfect!

I made it to two M2 classes this week- Tue AM and then again on Sat. If you've ever been to a M2 class..you know the stairs you have to climb to get into the studio is sometimes harder than his class itself! I asked him if he can install escalators? He said,"Come on Yi, you're training for an Ironman!" I said, "Exactly..these legs shouldn't do stairs..that's excessive..it takes away from the swimming..biking..running strenth. He didn't fall for it..no escalators.

Sunday, some Ironteam folks signed up to do the Uvas South Bay Triathlon in Morgan Hill which is a .75 mile swim, 16 mile bike and a 5 mile run. Kind of a weird distance..longer than a Sprint but not long enough to be an Olympic. All I've heard about Uvas was that it's fun! It's short! It's fun! And it's short! So..all week I was thinking..this is going to be easy because it's fun and it's short! As we're waiting to park..I see participants walking pass with their spiffy bikes and wheels and etc. I thought..wow..people bring nice bikes to this short triathlon! 7:40am my wave got underway for the swim..and since 7:40am..my heart rate was going bonkers! The race was short but because it's short..people are crazy! Crazy as in you just go...go...go at a fast and furious pace! At times you want to slow down so your heart rate can calm down but then you can't because everyone else around you is still going bonkers so by human nature..you continue on! 2 hours and 22 minutes later..finish line crossed. 28.5 on the swim (2.02 pace), 55.3 on the bike (17.3 mph avg) and 52.04 on the run (10.24 mile pace). Annoucer guy is very good with names! He got my first AND last name right! Despite the lack of organization with the race, Uvas was a fun event! Afterwards..the Team went to IN-n-Out! I broke in my new shoes during the 5 mile run..my ankle felt good..all in all a good day!

Me on bike at Uvas- I think I am climbing some hill..

Below..pics of Hez and I at mile 4.5 at Uvas..one of Hez and I striking a pose..and finishing up!

Rosio (Caesar's girlfriend), Myself, Caesar and Christophe after the finish-

Workout Summary-
Swim- 2 hours and 16 minutes
Bike- 4 hours and 45 minutes
Run- 1 hour and 22 minutes
Core Strength- 0 hours and 0 minutes
Total Workout- 8 hours and 23 minutes

Week 31- 05.05.08- 05.11.08

Rest Week! Not sure if a rest week was on the training calendar or not..well actually I am pretty sure it wasn't but my body needed one so I took one! I took a few days off to let my ankle and my knee heal a bit before I put them through a workout again. After four days of doing nothing, I was being driven nuts so I made an appearance at M2's Thursday evening class. He was surprised to see me as I am a Tuesday AM usual! That turned out to be my only workout for the week as he agreed that I needed to take a few days to break and Coach Alex advised I not run until this coming Wednesday and even that will be a run..walk..for 30 minutes at the track to test my ankle out with the torn ligaments healing.

Wildflower seems like years ago and I can now sit down and say that was one of the best weekends ever! As the results were posted, I found out that only 1,740 actually finished the Long Course and of those 1,740, only 452 were women which makes us a bunch of tough cookies! Below are a few more pics..

Deb, Heidi, myself and Hez relaxing at "Ironcity"!


Transition area on Friday..the calm before tomorrow's storm!!The storm!!


Me..when is this bike going to be over?!?!
Me..finishing the final mile of the run..down Lynch Hill-At last- the Finish Line! Wildflower Long Course finisher's medal....check!

Workout Summary-
Swim- 0 hours and 20 minutes
Bike- 1 hour and 5 minutes
Run- 0 hours and 0 minutes
Core Strength- 0 hours and 0 minutes
Total workout- 1 hour and 25 miutes- I know I know but I prefer to take it easy now with my ankle than try to push it prematurely!

Week 30- 04.28.08- 05.04.08

Wildflower Long Course Race Report-

When I went to bed last night..I had every intention of going to work but when I woke up this morning..my body had other plans in mind..stay in bed and recover! Read on about my Wildflower Half Iron experience..

I woke up Monday AM panicking with the pain I felt on my left hip when I walked. Talked to Coach Alex on the phone..he had me do some exercises in diagnosing me..told me I probably over worked it last Sat and for me to not run until Wildflower on Saturday. By Wednesday..pain went away! Phew! I spent all week eating a relatively "clean" diet..no candy..sweets..junk food to prep my nutrition for Wildflower weekend. I had done the course in it's entirety during a training weekend with Ironteam but I signed up to do the Long Course (1.2 mi swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) Official Event as a training day to work through my race day nutrition and just go through the motions of being at race events.

Friday AM..Hez comes over..we load up my car and on our way to Lake San Antonio we went! Saw Alex on Highway 101 and we caravaned together for the remainder of the way. Arrived at 11am..thanks to Nick and Ted for setting up out tents! Spent the rest of the day getting our race packets and exploring the expo. At the race packet pick up..there were 7 age group lines for the men and only 3 lines for the women! Of all the athletes racing the Long Course..only 30% were women! What a ratio! The Olympic and Sprint ratio is a lot more even.

Sat AM- the day has come! Swim- Transition area on Friday was empty..Sat AM..it was mayhem with about 3000 people setting up!

The swim course- starts from the big red chute..swim out rectangularly to the triangle bouys and back. 1.2 miles!
2007 IM Kona Champion- Chris McCormack- eventual 2008 Wildflower Long Course winner at T1.

I went into this weekend with the intention of using this event as a training event but felt race like emotions as the day went on. I was pretty relaxed through the day about the race.. until about 10 minutes before my age group was to enter the water. I think before any race..most people just want to be alone..get in their visualization..etc. My buddy Anthony spotted me about 10 minutes before my start..I was getting a little nervous..gave him everything that I didn't need..my water..my extra cap..etc! Warmed up in the water for a little bit..water was beautiful! Lined up on the right hand side..had a quick conversation with the girl next to me about how much we hated swim starts! 9:15am..horn went off..swim starts! The swim went surprisingly smooth for me! I didn't go off course as much as I had expected..my sighting was pretty good for the most part..tried to keep my heart rate in control. This girl with a sleeveless wetsuit next to me swum stroke by stroke next to each other for most of the swim. 46 minutes and 52 seconds later..I was out of the water!

T1..took a little longer than I wanted but I was pretty happy with my swim as I took 7 minutes off of my training weekend swim time!

Bike- was a bit tougher than training weekend with the temperature much warmer and the women having a bike cut off time to race against. Since the female waves start after the men..we have about 4.5 hours to finish the bike course. I find that the bike portion really screws with your mind! I was out there playing mental mind games with myself for most of the ride! I was at mile 5.5 when I saw Chris McCormack (eventual overall winner) finishing his bike at 3rd place behind Bjorn Andersson (last year's winner) and Chris Lieto (came in 3rd overall). The bike was long but I knew that going in! Nasty Grade was tougher than it was a month ago..as I was riding up..I saw three men walking their bikes up that climb thinking.."come on guys!"

Mile 41 is when Nasty Grade starts-

I saw Steve C. finishing up his run as I was flying down Lynch Hill finishing up the bike. 4 hours and 42 seconds later..I was off the bike! When I saw Steve the next day..he said you were going so fast down Lynch..I said..I was so over the bike ride by then..I just wanted to finish it!

T2..Went a bit better than T1. The girl two bikes over was just standing there looking at her stuff. I asked her what she was doing and she said that she didn't want to do the run. I said..you gotta go! You trained for this..come on..let's go!

Run- was good up until about mile 4 or 4.5..when I rolled my left ankle on the trails..fell over and scraped up my right knee. Felt my ankle numbing for a few seconds..then got back up and continued the run portion. The range of emotions I was feeling after the spill varied! Knowing that I still have to tackle the "are you f*cking kidding me" (a.k.a. big steep hill at mile 5.5) part of the run was not encouraging. I ran a little on the flats trying to nurture my ankle and walked the hills but there was no way I was going to stop and not finish! I saw Susan, Tessa and Heidi cheering at mile 7.5 up the hill through the TNT campsites. I saw Anthony and Mike a little bit after that. Anthony came and ran with me for a bit. I almost burst into tears when he asked me how I was doing. That moment really surprised me..I didn't know I had THAT much emotions bottled up through the day! I saw Rosie and Anna at the pit..and Emma Louise shortly after who walked with me from mile 10.5 to 12. 3 hours and 14 seconds later..the 13 mile run..well walk was over! I was really bummed about my little mishap at mile 4 but it could have been a lot worse..so looking on the brighter side!

Crossed the finish line..saw Kristie..headed into the medical tent to get my knee cleaned up. A big thank you to medical guy Mark who was really nice and gentle in cleaning out all the dirt that was stuck in my bloody knee. I was biting on my finisher's towel.. trying really hard not to squirm while he rinsed..sponged and bandaged my knee. The lady next to me from LA Tri kept conversation with me to keep me distracted..found out that her sister is my neighbor! Small world!

Overall, the race atmosphere and weather (well and my fall) made it so much tougher than training weekend. The Wildflower Long Course race is HARD yet I now understand why people keep coming back to it! It's tough..heck it's considered to be the toughest half iron distances in the world..it's a long day..unknown emotions are bottled up but it's fun with one of the best race atmospheres ever! I commend and respect everyone who has tackled that course on race day! All I am thinking now is..what is Ironman going to be like?!

My Wildflower collection of finisher medals are not complete..I did the Sprint as my first triathlon in 2002, finished the Olympic Distance last year with TNT and now the Long Course with Ironteam. Despite a hard day..it was an extremely fun weekend sharing laughs with friends and putting myself through a physical and mental test!

Btw, if you have an aero helmet and/or Hed wheels decked out on your bike..you're NOT allowed to walk the hills..not Beach..not Nasty Grade and definitely not Lynch! Phew..got that out of my system :).

Workout Summary-
Swim- 2 hours and 4 minutes
Bike- 5 hours and 10 minutes
Run- 3 hours and 14 minutes
Core Strength- 1 hour and 0 minutes
Total Workout Summary- 11 hours and 28 minutes