Lake WA Loop Plus Some

 

On Saturday, Kim and I completed the our longest ride yet for this season, 60 miles.  Our original plan was to do 80 miles with a group of Kim's friends but we quickly realized that their speed was much quicker than ours and that trying to keep up for 80 miles would be no fun.

 

 

So we ended up backtracking from Montlake to I-90 and back, watched some of the UW vs Cal races on the Montlake Bridge above the cut, went back and forth a bit in Kirkland, got caught in downpour rain for about 10 miles in Renton, but overall had a good, adventurous ride.

 

 

Attempting Seattle to Portland in One Day

This year, Ashley, Kim and I will be attempting to complete the Seattle to Portland bike ride in one day.  It is going to be a doozy.

Total distance: ~205 miles
Total elevation gain: 4,828 feet

 

I Have Amazing Friends

Poker Face

My physical therapist consistently tells me I have an impressive poker face.  This usually happens during the deep tissue massages where I grip the sides of the table and try to ignore the searing pain through my body.  While I don't think my poker face would be useful in an actual game of poker (I get too excited when winning), it works well for being an athlete.  After spending the last two decades in sports, I have encrued various injuries.  Due to that and phrases from coaches that include "Dig or Die" and "Sacrifice your body for the ball" I have learned how to hide the pain that I am in.  Luckily, Costco sells monster-sized bottles of Ibuprofen.

Alas, here is a laundry list of all the major injuries that I have encountered in the past 20 years:

• tendonitis
• juvenile rhematory arthritis (JRA)
• torn miniscus
• torn cartilage
• blown ACL
• sprained ankles
• sprained wrists
• jammed fingers
• pinched sciatic nerve
• separated bone from tendon
• stress fractures
• bone spurs
• joint injury (apparently only resolved by exploratory surgery - no thanks)

Majority of these issues still bother me today, even if they are quite old.  I am pretty sure I am keeping my physical therapist, multiple specialist doctors and Costco afloat.

60 Days

Today marks officially 1 week since I have been allowed to start training again and exactly 60 days to Lake Stevens.  In the past week, to start getting my endurance back, I have had my butt kicked in just about each thing I did:

• Spinning classes - these can and will kick your butt no matter what shape you are in
• 100 mile bike ride - definitely challenging when you have not worked out for 2 months
• 7 mile hike - the morning after the century ride
• Masters swim - was planning to be a recovery workout, but instead turned into a 3000 meter swim in 60 minutes

It still hurts to run, even to eliptical, so my new strategy is to race the swim and bike as fast as possible in order to not be kicked off the course during the run, even if I have to walk most of the way - which is very likely.

I also just signed up for the first Olympic distance Seafair Triathlon (they have only had sprint distances in the past).  This will be a good indictor on how painful and tough the run for the 70.3 will be.

With only 2 months to go, I am already getting butterflies and second guessing myself.  What if I don't make it?  What if they kick me off the course?  Not only will my group of friends (aka my team) be racing or cheering but my parents are planning on driving up from California to watch me as well.  Which is great! I love having my parents be there and support me and I know just how lucky I am to have that, but it definitely adds another level of nervousness to the race. 

As an athlete, my biggest competitor is myself and I definitely don't want to let me down.

Sorta New Bike Trainer

I will admit it, I am a fair-weather biker.  Riding in the rain scares me, and although I do it, I would prefer not to.  As the PNW is prone to rainy days, I decided that the best thing would be to invest in a bike trainer so I can get the miles in while dry and toasty in my home.

Bike trainers (at least the good ones) run about $300, which is a bit pricey for me.  So I thought for a bit and realized that a friend of mine used to really be into biking and no longer is.  He is one of those people that always purchase the best of the best, so chances were that he had purchased a top of the line bike trainer a few years ago.  I contacted him and asked him if he was willing to sell me his bike trainer that was currently in storage, not being used.  He agreed.  I now the proud owner of a Cyclops Fluid indoor bike trainer.

Training Schedule All Set....Well, Kinda

With the help of Runner's World SmartCoach system, I just built out my 8 month training program for the Seattle Rock n Roll half marathon and the Lake Stevens Ironman 70.3.  Runner's World has an incredible amount of great information on their website, but their website could use some work.  So if you are willing to sort through to find the gems (much like shopping at Ross or Nordstrom Rack) it will be worth your while.

I built out a powerpoint deck, with a slide per month on what I will be doing each day, with countdowns to the actual races.  I plan on browsing the college dorm section of Target tonight to find a fun whiteboard or bulletin board to hang on my wall in my apartment.  In plain sight, my schedule, inspirational quotes and goals will be in front of me constantly, motivating me.

I purchased The Triathlete's Training Bible and Triathlete Magazine's Week by Week Training Guide and plan to go through them to build out a triathlon training program for myself.  Once I have this program built (and once I finish going through the large books), then this program will be incorporated into my running program.  As running is my greatest weakness in the multisport event, I feel like it would benefit me to focus heavily on running in my training.

Off to Target!

Lake Swims

In the last couple of weeks I have participated in two different lake swims.

The Swim for Life was 2.5 miles from Medina to Madison Park benefitting the Puget Sound Blood Association.  The water was warm but there was a nasty current in the lake.  While some may have not appreciated the white caps the entire way, I felt like I was swimming in a roller coaster type ocean.  The chances that you inhaled a wave of water while breathing were high, but I like how it trained me to adjust my stroke and really learn how to move as one with the water.  Surprisingly, my course was pretty good and I was able to finish in under 90 minutes.

The Park to Park swim was 1.4 miles from Matthews Beach to O.O. Denny Park benefitting the Children's Hospital.  The water was actually warmer than the temperature outside (welcome to summer in Seattle).  There were a few rollers through the middle of the swim, and I definitely went off course (thanks to the kayaker that pointed me back) but overall the swim went well.  Having very little to spot on (besides an assortment of trees), this swim was tough because you had to constantly find the specific location on the beach where you were heading.  I finished this swim in about 35-40 minutes.

After the Park to Park, we jumped on our bikes and did the Lake Washington loop.  As I haven't biked since the STP (Seattle to Portland), we did the North loop and ended up at about 40 miles.