Colchuck Lake

way back last summer a co-worker of mine showed me photos of his hiking adventure out to Colchuck Lake and the Enchantments. I said, hey, that looks pretty amazing. I wondering if we could do that too! So I asked xtie what she thought and if she would be interested in joining in on a little family hike and camping trip into the wilderness and she was all in for it. so, way back in february i applied for a camping permit for one weekend during the summer and that weekend happened to be July 24 & 25. it seemed like i found out pretty quickly that our dates were accepted and permits granted and from that moment on my anxiety about the trip began to sky rocket. i tried not to think about how we would be out in the wilderness, away from everyone and everything and oh no, it would be desolate and barren and no way of getting help if something happened to us and the kids. i kept telling myself, that if there was a natural disaster up there in the mountains, we'd be ok. it was only a 4 mile hike and eric is very fit and could run out to get help if we needed it. i tried not to think about what if something happened to eric! as the weekend grew closer i got new fears, like have you seen the abyss? and how like that one guy got the depth sickness where he started to lose it? what if one of us got some sort of mystery wilderness sickness and started to lose it right there up in those mountains right by the lake? good grief. i wasn't so concerned about getting eaten by bears or mountain lions but still the whole thing was very concerning.
xtie helped us get prepared by making a packing list and then lending us all kinds of gear and equipment. she lent us some tents, some sleeping bags, back packs, coats, pants, therma rest mattresses, she got us each our very own sporks and then fancy mugs and foldable plates that turn into bowls for the kids. she brought her stove and camping food and since she is has a lot of wilderness experience having climbed many mountains including kilimanjaro, yes THAT kilimanjaro, i figured we'd be pretty set. between her and eric, as long as neither of them succummed to the wilderness sickness and lost it, we would be a-ok.
we all had a busy week or two leading up to the adventure, but xtie came over friday night and we got everything organized. i had been prepping the kids that we would be hiking, and although it was only 4 miles, i myself mentally prepared for 7 hrs of hiking. we woke up early, got everyone in the car, and drove out to Leavenworth to ye old ranger station to pick up our permit, then off onto icicle road to ye old trail head to get going.
i had read that the first two miles were pretty flat and mellow and then it would become more challenging. yeah, well, for someone not used to hauling an extra 35+ pounds on one's back, those first two miles seemed a bit more uphill than expected. what didn't help was that i didn't know that the funny structural support thing at the top of the back pack was going the wrong way and it really should not have been banging into my neck, forcing me to look down like that. i thot it odd that the back pack would not allow me to look up, but what did i know?
there were a few crazy, really scary river crossings that really were very scary. i held onto which ever kid i was in charge of at that moment so tight that i remember one of them telling me i was hurting their wrist. pretty sure i had the death grip on them for fear of falling off of those bridges. totally scary. beautiful, but a reminder that this is some pretty serious business.
xtie lent us her treking poles which proved to be the BEST THINGS EVER and once i got the hang of them, i was doing ok. the kids did an amazing job getting up that first few miles and then we stopped for a lunch break. i was very amazed that they were doing so well. i know they like to be outside and all but i just wasn't sure what they would think.
when we started heading uphill for real, it got pretty tough. again, i was amazed at the kids and how they were able to climb up all the rocks and get themselves along. sirus did get upset a few times, but we would try to stop and take a short snack break and we would be off again. i lead the pace, which was slow, partially because i wanted to make sure the kids didn't wear out too quickly and mostly because i was just slow. eric took care of the middle and xtie made sure we were all together and not losing anything from the back.
we saw some amazing views and went up some pretty technical rocky sections and the kids did great. xtie started to get concerned about us getting a nice camping spot so she took off ahead, while the rest of us just trucked along. at the first toilet sign we came across a mountain goat and the kids thought both were fantastic! it took us 3 hrs to get to this spot.
by now we had gotten a few glimpses of the lake and the mountains and it was unreal. even now thinking back, its hard to believe someplace so beautiful exists.
we met up with xtie and she found us a sweet camping spot! we set up the tents and then we ALL TOOK A NAP. i was exhuasted and apparently everyone else was a little bit too.
at some point eric took the kids to see the toilets which they renamed the box potties. the kids thot they were awesome and even appreciated the swarm of flies that came out when they opened. sirus amazingly even used one!
we had talked with the kids about seeing the snow, so we took them around over towards the mountains to see if we could get to the snow. the trail quickly turned SCARY with huge monster boulders and complete trail chaos so we decided that it was too dangerous to even try to go further. sirus lost it, total melt down right there on the side of the mountain. i had to have a quick talk with him about how i knew he was disappointed but he needed to stop crying and pay attention to what he was doing because where we were hiking was really dangerous and he could get really hurt very easily. he went on to cry to everyone we passed how he wasn't going to get to the snow but eventually came to terms with it and decided that when he was 10 we would come back because he will be bigger and stronger and then maybe he could make it all the way to the snow.
once back at the camp site xtie started up dinner, we chowed down and then we just hung out. the bug were bad and the mosquitoes were the worst. unfortunatly we spent a lot of time in the tents because of this. i did pull out the iphone so the kids could watch some stuff, and i did watch xtie's brain cells pop as she was forced to listen to Dora the Explorer. luckily she has a lot of brain cells and i don't think it did too much damage to her.
we called it an early night and we all slept through the night, all the way past 7am even!
seamus was excited to get out of the tent in the morning, dressed in all her layers and new rain coat but sirus on the other hand did not want to wear a coat and let the entire wilderness know it.
we enjoyed the view, watched a duck swim right by our camp site, and also fly circles over head. we saw some sort of raptor like bird and the water was so clear we could see the fish.
we had some amazing oatmeal and other tasty breakfast items and then started to pack stuff up for the trip back. it was amazing as the sun came up over the mountain that it went from cold to very hot in a matter of just a minute! we got everything loaded, sirus even found a tiny toy pig that someone had left behind and we headed back down the mountain.
the trip down was just as hard as the trip up. the kids did great though, not needing as many breaks, and for a while, seamus was leading the group with xtie right behind her. they were trucking, dropping me and sirus in their dust. the trekking poles were awesome again, and since xtie showed me how to fix my pack so that support bar was not banging into my neck i was way more comfortable. i was surprised at how steep and rocky some of the sections were, even though we had gone up them only a short time earlier. while going down them, the thought of going up them was almost too much to bear! we got to the scary bridges again and then to another fallen log bridge that seamus ran across while i passed out while watching her.
all day the day before and this day she asked to carry my pack. non stop she was asking. so we decided that close to the bottom she could carry it. she strapped it on and carried it for a ways even though it was 3/4s her body weight. she did a great job but once we got to the parking lot she did say it was too heavy and she needed some help. I on the other hand really enjoyed those last few minutes of the hike and think a day trip next summer will be the way to go.
by the time we got to the bottom it was like 400 degrees out or so. we quickly washed up as best we could and headed into leavenworth for some ye old bratwursts that were so good i can hardly beleive it.
on the way home i passed out in the back seat between the two kids who both passed out as well, until we hit the milk shake place.
i was worn out. this trip was amazing. the views were incredible, the kids were unbeleivable, it was great to hang out with xtie and it was a good workout. i did do some soul searching though and realize that while although i liked the physicalness of the hike i might be too much of a princess for the camping part of it. i caught myself thinking while at our campsite, wondering if tom cruise decided to camp at colchuck lake if he would have some luxury items helicoptered in, or if he would rough it.
regardless, another trip will be made at some point and i highly recommend it to anyone looking for an amazing trip!

Xterra BlackDiamond 2010

this past weekend we raced the xterra black diamond. this was the 3rd time i've done this race. the first was a big fatty DNF and then last year had a much better race.
so this year, i wasn't sure what to expect. the other weekend i went out with a guy i work with and we rode some of the trails. i wanted all the practice i could get. this of course on top of the injuries and illness and then my knee, i wasn't sure. i had a good race at the sprint earlier in the month and then managed like a 10 minutes run an i think a 1/2 hr or something. i was doing better, slow but better and still going to PT each week and getting my knee all taped up.
the day before the race we went out to pre-ride. i did the ride with jason jablonski which was fun and it was even more fun because i got to chat with the girl that beat me in idaho and she is super nice.
that night i was pretty excited and i slept maybe 20 minutes at a time, it was bad but i powered through it. :)
in the morning we snuck out before everyone got u and went to the race site. i saw janet right when we pulled in. i set up my transition and then just hung out, stood in the potty line with the girls and then just waited for the race to start. did get to chat with mat which was good since i hadn't seen him in forever and then jumped in the water for a 2 minute warm up. the water was warm and i was set to go.
the swim:
it was a wave start and the ladies were aggressive! i couldn't hold a straight line to save my life but i was swimming well, even managing ok through the lilly pads. the swim had the best buoy markings ever! onto the island, off of the island and the swim back was super smooth and i felt like i was flying. ok, thats a bit of an exaggeration but i did feel pretty good. my swim was like a minute or so faster than last year.
t1 was awesome. in and out, socks good, gloves and wrist brace were good, the time was so fast that it made me think they made a mistake.
the bike:
i started off on the bike and began passing people right away. i felt really good and was having fun. i was taking risks and pushing hard. i almost went down a few times and once in particular my poor knee saw its entire life flash right infront of its cap when it was headed right for rock. luckily i saved it, because that would have been horrible! another time i clipped my pedal and totally endo-ed but manages to just roll on that front wheel and then rebalance my self and keep on riding. whew! that was a close one! i passed sara a ways in, she was doing awesome! jenny had gotten their team a major boost with her super fast swim and sara was doing a good job holding her own out on that crazy course.
i was riding with another girl for quite a while until she said the magic words of "i'm not in your age group" which was awesome because although i was still working to get away from her, we could work together to get past the larger groups of men that were ahead of us. it was pretty fun and really helped me stay focused. after a while i came up on the girl that beat me in idaho - she is a super fast swimmer! but she was on the side of the trail working on her bike. turns out she had all kinds of mechanical problems with her bike and shoes.
during the pre-ride jason had asked me what i thought of the first part of the 2nd loop since i had done it before and we weren't going to do it on the pre-ride. i said it was no big deal and nothing would be as bad as what we would see on the rest of the course. so yeah, when i got to that first part of the 2nd loop i was like, wow, i apparently do have a terrible memory, because it was really really hard, way more rooty and super technical. after the race i was talking to the girl from the idaho race and she said she started to laugh on that part too since it wasn't anything like i said it would be. oops, sorry! two loops down, 9 minutes faster than last year.
t2 - fast! now sure how i got those to be so fast but i was happy!
the run:
i remember the run really sucking last year. i remember it hurting and being just bad so i wasn't sure what to think this year since my running has been so infrequent and just bad lately. turns out i was like 2 minutes or so faster on that run course. who knew. the girl with the mechanicals, who if you recall flew by me in idaho on the run, flew by me again about 3/4s of the way into the run. she was even so nice as to ask how my knee was doing as she passed me!
the race was good, i was 10th F overall, i made it onto the podium in 3rd since the 1st place girl was the overall winner and got bumped out of age group awards and i was also the winner of the speed trap which was funny and unexpected! eric tied with 2 other dudes for the man speed trap and won his age group.
so we've got 2 new pint glasses to add to our collection!

updates!

a coupla things.
the other weekend we all went to the US Women's Triathlon Series race in Federal Way. i wasn't so sure about this race for a few reasons - one being that my knee is still a problem.
there was an expo there and we had a booth and it was sunny and warm and awesome. it was so great to hang out in the nice weather, talking about triathlons and stuff, and just chilling out without a care in the world. ok, i was a little concerned about getting dehydrated by sitting in the sun so much but what's a girl to do?
in the morning after waking up in the 4s, i stopped or swung by 3 starbucks in the hopes of getting some coffee, none were open. i made th hr drive down to the race site, and parked about a million miles away. this was actually pretty good since the ride from the lot to the race site turned out to be my warm up. it was so fun to see all the girls in transition! the race was so mellow and it was just so fun to see everyone. we were racked by wave, so we were all over the place but we all met up for some pre race chatting.
we meandered to the water for a warm up swim, but a minute after ignoring the "swimmer's itch has been reported at this beach, swim at your own risk sign" they said we had to get out of the water for the race meeting, etc. so no swim warm up. the water itself was really warm so that was nice, but it would have been good to get a few more than 3 strokes in before hand but it was what it was.
it was a deep water start which was kind of cool, and the swim was good. the water was warm but it was foggy and hard to see the buoys. i was sighting often which was good because every time i was very off course, at least what i could tell as being off course since really i was siting off of other people a lot of the time. i swam all the way to the end to the point where the volunteers reached down to lift us out. they were grabbing my arms before i even stood up. i think i swam more than 750 since i was so far off course all the time.
transition was 1/4 mile run up through some grass and through the parking lot. transition was nutty and they through in the run through the parking lot to even it all out. t1 was quick once i was actually in it - no socks, no gloves, and out i went.
i was riding hard from the beginning. they totally shut down some major roads so there were no worries about cars or anything, that was very cool. there were some hills, but not any long sustained climbs but i started passing people, and i even started lapping people on the 2nd loop. i also got to see every one of the girls i knew that were out racing, so that was pretty fun, too. i did not get passed by anyone. i didn't take my garmin or hr monitor, i was just going hard and that seemed to work out pretty well. i wound up with the fastest bike split of the day! thinking back there were a few places where i think i could have even ridden harder.
i wasn't sure what to expect out of the run. the tape from PT stayed on, even after the 40 minutes in the pool the day before, and i think it helped. i didn't have any pain! at least not in my knee! i was huffing and puffing and working pretty hard. i will admit i wasn't going all out, but i'll also admit i was a bit afraid too, even step expecting it to begin hurting. i was going at a comfortably uncomfortable pace but frankly i was just worried about getting it done. despite all the huffing and puffing i was feeling like i was going pretty slow. the only chatting i did was to tell the police man who was riding a police bike that he really should be wearing a helmet (next time i saw him he had put one on!), but i was surprised that no one was catching me. eventually one girl did and she flew by me, she was out of site almost instantly. the 4.1 miles went by pretty quickly and I was really happy to be done. and as a bonus, i won my age group! yahoo! what a fun race it turned out to be! it was so fun to have all the girls out there and it was a good confidence booster after having had such a rough couple of racing and training weeks.
i have since run one more time since then for 10 minutes with no pain. my knee was all taped up again, but i have been swimming like crazy and aqua jogging and using the elyptical, and doing some good mtn biking and road riding. i did my first wednesday night mtn bike race this week - wow! its been a long time. i realized it was only the 2nd stand alone mtn bike race i've done this year, which is very different than last year. i am eager to get this whole racing thing on the road again.
other news, pawpi seems to be getting better. the vet called to say that the antibiotics she is on this time should get rid of what they found in her bone cultures. she seems like she is recovering quite well, too. she is pissed off having the cone on still, really i can't blame her since she has had it one a lot since february.
this coming week is going to be crazy busy at work. crazee. followed by a weekend of camping at colchuck lake. we're taking the kids and hiking in. yikes!!

pawpi

yesterday pawpi went in for a 2nd surgery. she is definitly the most surgeried upon one in the family.

a little back story. in february we noticed that pawpi's face wasn't looking quite right. she's a puffy cat, so for her face to look unusually puffy was pretty extreme. having the extra puff on one side helped to distinguish that something was wrong.

we gave it a day then called the vets that first week in february. they said it looked like one of the other cats must have scratched her and it was infected. they shaved her cheek a little, lanced it, pushed the goop out and then gave her some antibiotics.

it seemed like it was getting better then it got worse. she went back to the vets, more lancing and goop and antibiotics. then she got the cone which she seemed to have a love/hate relationship with. she loved to lick the plastic. lick lick lick, all day long. who needs the plastic bags and paper towels to lick when there was plastic right infront of her face. the other cats however did not like the cone and wouldn't get near her. she had to re-learn how to go up and down the stairs and would bump into everything. she went to the vets a few more times, about once a week and they would give more antibiotics but she was dripping juices ALL OVER THE HOUSE. it was terrible. she looked horrible and it was aweful.

a few days before we went to las vegas, she had surgery to insert a drainage tube. this was an option from the beginning, but since she is an older cat they wanted to avoid putting her under if they could. they did some biopsies at the same time and checked out her teeth which apparently were in good shape. when she came home she had no whiskers on that side of her face, a giant clear plastic tube sticking out the top and bottom of her face and a bunch of stitches. it looked super scary, but she seemed ok with it. she just did her own thing.

we decided to board her at the vets while we were gone, which was a good idea because after writing a note to the cat sitter that said "pawpi looks terrible, but if she starts to look more terrible, please take her to the vet" we decided that it would be a good idea to not worry the cat sitter like that. she stayed there 5 nights i think and they took good care of her. meanwhile they took out the tube and then later the stiches.

she stayed on the antibiotics and she seemed like she was getting better. her whiskers started to grow back and the cone even came off! she was still going to the vets pretty much every week, and they stopped charging us each time, thank goodness, but we did have to pay for the antibiotics each time.

after a few more weeks the vets said she wasn't healing. it looked better but the hole wasn't closing. there was somethign going on inside that was causing the hole not to heal. the antibiotics were helping with the secondary staph infection but not healing her.

so we took her for a 2nd and 3rd opinion.

a friend suggested a vet in west seattle which is about 23094523 miles away but the recomendation was very good, so eric took pawpi in. we found out that pawpi had lost about 2 pounds since this ordeal began. thats 28% of her body weight. that is like me loosing 38 pounds!!! they suggested the same thing as the others - CT scan. On the drive home, eric let pawpi roam freely in the back of the station wagon. it was a warm day and there was bumper to bumper traffic, so much of the drive, pawpi stood on her hind legs looking out the back window. a car with two ladies pulled up next and called over to sirus who has his window open "we like your cat!" to which sirus replied "her name is pawpi. we have two more cats named nadj and seamus mccat but they are mean cats" and i guess he went on and on.

eric scheduled a CT scan. pawpi was put under and they did the scan. then eric and the kids looked at the scan with the CT person. seamus said it was very cool. eric said it was kind of freaky. he said they looked at pawpi's head with no fur, then they took off her skin and her muscle so they could look just at her bones. they said her cheek bone was all messed up and there was obviously something wrong with it. they said there was no tumor, but some or part of her cheek bone would need to be removed. they also said she had an abnormally thin top of her head. we suspect that all that patting on her head we like to do is actually probably jiggling her brain.

back to the vets in west seattle, he took a look at her and did the surgery that day. the vet was scheduled to leave for vacation, but stayed so he could do the surgery and said it was a good thing they did it that day because her cheek bone was so messed up, that parts of it had turned black and when he pressed on it, puss came out. how horrible is that!! so he actually did more than he planned on when he was in there, scraping away the bad bone, taking biopsies and hopefully, hopefully making her better.

she came home yesterday and has been a little not like herself. she is normally the nicest most mellow cat, but she now does not like eric. she bolted out the door which is very unusual since pawpi doesn't run and eric had to chase her down, making a pro baseball out fielder's flying leap to grab her before she ran out into the street. she has also been running from him whenever she sees him.

its been 18 visits to the vets, 2 big surgeries, one CT scan, 3x under general anesthetic, multiple shavings and lancings, too many days to count with the cone and lots of trips in the box. i guess i would be pretty pissed off, too, but we are hoping its the pain medicine and that she will be back to her loving self in no time.

knees and stuff

went to the pt today because my knee basically sucks ass. she said to go get an xray to make sure it wasn't fractured. i was pretty sure it wasn't. the other idea was that my knee cap is just bruised on the front and back, that seemed to make more sense to me.
so i had to go to the dr and then had to go to another clinic to get the actual xray, i think it was a hospital, but not totally sure what it was, but i do know the people there were SO nice. the lady at check in was so nice and the guy who took all the xrays was super nice. the dude walked back and forth between where i was on that table to behind the little wall probably 50 times.
the verdict? are you ready? no fracture! yahoo! that is great! the not as good news - i've got arthritis. what the hell. that isn't what is causing the problem right now, but it does not help me with my old feeling lately. maybe my old feeling is what is causing the gray hairs and now arthritis? hmmm, gotta get over that!!
i also gotta get healthy cuz i'm gittin squishy.
but good news is that last week was may highest volume swim week ever!! well, that is good since june has been my LOWEST run volume month since sometime in 2007. and we are talking lowest by A LOT. oh well. thinking knee healing thoughts.
pawpi on the other hand. poor cat. she is headed for a ct scan tomorrow. poor kitty's face is leaking all over the house again and she's back in the cone. sending more healing thoughts to her.

caps

you know those neoprene caps they have for open water swimming in the super cold? every time i see someone wearing one, i think of these painting by Odd Nerdrum:


see the resemblance:

most of my injuries are sports bra related

at least they used to be. or sleep related.
i swear i did a number or two on my shoulders a few times trying to get the sports bra on, or trying to get my hr monitor all up in there just right, or goodness, trying to put any of it on while slightly wet. i am not meant to bend that way.
i went to the massage lady today and i am going to the pt on wednesday. my knee is still not great. its waaay better than last week, and i thot it was pretty good. i did a great hill repeat workout on saturday and felt awesome. i followed that on sunday with a hard 3000yd swim and a 20 minute easy run. that 20 minute run made me sad. i felt really really good, but my knee started to hurt around 5 minutes in. it got to a certain level of discomfort and just stayed there so i came home and iced. i made the massage appointment because my hammys were really tight after the hill workout and my neck was hurting and just i hadn't had a massage since october so i thot it would be good. she poked my hammys and said they were Inflamed and swollen. i said, are you sure that isn't just fat? she said no. she said she didn't want to work on them too much and instead told me to come home and ice them. she said i should spend more time stretching, too. yes i should.
we started talking about the contortionists in circ du solei. what do they do when they retire? do they stay bendy? do they get all stiff and full of arthritis? internets, please tell me! sirus loved to watch them tho, going on and on about how beautiful they were and how beautiful their costumes were. they were doing thei act on a spinning circle and when they were done they stood on it and it left the stage to which he said matter of factly: there they go on their plate.
we took pawpi in for a 3rd opinion, which was the same as the 1st and 2nd. we're waiting on some test results and will go from there. poor kitty. she's lost almost 2 pounds since february. thats a lot when you start out at 7.2 pounds. hoping she gets better soon!

xterra solstice

after the xterra in idaho i caught the flu or something equally as bad. i knocked me on my arse but i shook it in like two days and we decided to make the trip down to la grande oregon for the xterra solstice. we left thursday after work, drove the 2.5 hrs to yakima to drop off the kids and spend the night then woke up early and headed out for the next 3.5 hrs to la grande.
when we got there eric did a quick swim and then i suited up to pre-ride. i headed out around the lake and then came across this rock section that i couldn't figure if we were going to go up or not, so i didn't. by now eric had driven the car around, and was parked at the top and we saw tape there, so we knew we must at least have to ride down it back to transition. so i decided to ride it. and i crashed. i was down 3/4s of it, it wasn't hard, but okok, eric was standing in the middle of the trail trying to take some action shots and i was about to crash into him and then instead off the side of the trail i went, knee right into big hard rock. uuugh. it really hurt, and i was shaking. i asked eric to drag my bike back up the little hill. i got back on and figured i'd be able to shake it off, no biggie.
i continued with the pre-ride, going up into the cow pastures, towards the pipeline trail. i got to one gate and was fiddling with the chain when the cows they started a mooing and started getting curious. i started to get scared that they might come and get me so i got through that gate as quickly as i could. my knee was still hurting, but i figured still too soon, need to just work through the pain! the descent down the pipeline trail was sketchy, it reminded me of Maui but i got down it, through some mud and then saw eric. we got in the car, i complained about how my knee was hurting like crazy and we drove up the road for a mile or so.
we started the rest of the pre-ride, which ya know i like a good fire road just as much as the next person, but i was dying. i was in my grannyest of grannys and my knee was killing me. eric was chatting away and i was just trying to get up that hill. then we hit the flats and it was hurting just as bad. then we got some down hill and that hurt, until we got to another flat and it hurt even more.
we got to suicide hill and all my confidence was lost and i just walked down the damn thing. the whole thing. and it was really long.
we kept riding, and i kept complaining, and eric kept riding along. i just wanted to be done with the pre-ride but i was going so slow it felt like it wasn't ever going to end.
so i decided to not race. totally a bummer. i had zero fun on that pre-ride, my confidence was in the gutter and i was in pain. i've crashed before and hit my knees like that before, but nothing that kept hurting like that. ugh. what a mess.
eric had decided to not race too, since apparently he had the chills and was all dizzy while we were out riding since he had been sick, too. we had originally thot we would just drive home that night but instead decided to stay over. we met up with cori for dinner which was way fun, she is a total riot and then we spent the night in la grande.
we got up pretty early and it was cold and windy. my knee was aching still, but felt like a 4 compared to the 10 it was the night before. we drove to kennewick and found the state patrol trails and rode around for about an hr and 1/2. the knee was doing ok until about 45 minutes in when we started doing some hard climbing or something but the trails were so fun, i was feeling really good and had some confidence back, so we kept riding.
later we made it back to yakima for the night and i slept in until 10:30 on sunday. i cannot remember WHEN the last time i did that was. it was so glorious.
i'm bummed i didn't race, especially since i took a day off from work and we drove all the way out there. but as of tonight, my knee is totally messed up. it doesn't hurt as long as i am not doing anything. i don't know much about knee injuries so i don't know when to go to the doctors vs just let it see if it will get better. i'm icing and adviling. i don't think its swollen any more, so i think that is good. any other advice?? i think, too that i have a sinus infection, so going to head to the drs this week for that. maybe i'll have them look at the knee while i'm there.

xterra farragut

i was pretty excited about this race, i had a lot to prove after last year's disaster. can anyone say 51 minutes for a 1500m swim?
i was bummed after hurting my obturator internus at the onionman, but after doing all those kegels all week, i was feeling good and ready to show idaho who was boss.
we headed out early on friday morning. we met eric's mom in Ellensberg and dropped the kids off with her. they were so excited about a weekend with grandma that they could hardly contain themselves. we did the kid exchange and then we were off the rest of the way to idaho. we stopped in ritzville for lunch at taco del mar. we pulled in to the parking lot in our ghetto 14 yr old volvo wagon with our bikes on top and parked across from a fancy team car with top end road and time trial bikes on top. turns out eric knew those people, they are from a local team and were headed out to a stage race in montana. fun!
after a lot of hours we got to the race site and got ready to pre-ride. we parked next to some guy and he and eric chatted it up. when eric told him about his stellar swim time from last year the guys was like, what? were you dog paddling or something? then we were off. my stomach was feeling a little bleck from the fish tacos from lunch but i was hoping it was just nerves or something.
they changed the course a little bit, but it was still long, coming in as two laps totally a little over 21 miles. the course isn't terribly technical, but its hard and fast and there is a good amount of climbing. i was dying on the pre-ride. i kept asking eric if we were at altitude because i was dizzy and couldn't breathe. sweet.
we finished up the lap and then got suited up to go for a swim. we had heard from some peeps that water temp was 46. onionman was 55 and that was COLD, so i didn't even know what 46 could be like. janet lent me her booties and i was quite pleased with them when i stepped into the water. i got in about waist deep and put my hands in. they instantly hurt from the cold. eric went out, but i stood there, waist deep with my cap and goggles on and my hands on my head for about 10 minutes. eventually eric came back and i tookd a dive in. i swam out, turned around, was back on shore in a minute 12. not cool, or apparently a little too cool.
we were staying at the same place as last year, Macdonald's Bayview Resort. i love this place and someday hope to come out and stay a few days. they are so nice, the cabins are nice and the views are amazing. plus when i went to check in, the guy made the comment that i was the fittest person he had seen all day so i must be the lady there for cabin 2. they knew we were coming for the race, but he totally made my day, i almost hugged him.
then we went back into coeur d'alene to the MacKenzie River Pizza Company for dinner. we went there last year, and its our couer d'alene favorite. my stomach felt super blecky, so i was still worried maybe i had some food poisoning from lunch, but i piled some lasagna into my lasagna hole and it took care of those pesky tacos. i felt better after.
back to the cabin and chillin' watching Say Yes to the Dress for a few hours before bed, the whole time freaking out because we had no internet connection and i was worried about my Tiki Farm crops, afraid they were going to go bad or be destroyed somehow. i tried to block it out and we went to bed.
that's a whole lot of pre-race stuff going on there.

saturday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn, despite the race not starting until noon. we headed over to the race site and registered, i cornered the race director and asked him about the water temp. he said they hadn't decided yet, but yelled over to another guy saying they needed to go check water temp. we went back to the cabin and watched 2 episodes of law and order and ate breakfast and chilled out until it was time to go.

the transition area was tiny! they were saying 3 to a rack and everyone stood around wondering what to do with all of their extra space. it turned out to be more like 4 or 5 per rack, but still it was spacious. mat racked right next to me and eric racked one rack back. chris and shannon racked over that direction, too.

next thing ya know it was time to suit up and head to the beach. i got in and swam around a little. i knew when push came to shove i would be ok but it was super cold. they called everyone to the beach and said that all racers would be doing only 1 lap! hooray!!! then someone yelled - hey that buoy is floating away! so they had to go chase it down and re-anchor it.

the race director shot his shotgun into the air and we were off.

the swim:
it was cold. unlike onionman there was no contact, everyone was spread out quickly. i felt good the whole time and even got used to the water. i swam well until i rounded the 2nd buoy when the waves were hitting me weird and we were swimming through these giant pools of pollen that had settled onto the water's surface. but i got through it in considerably less time than the previous year. i was happy to get out and even happier that i didn't have to get back in for a 2nd lap. swim time - not sure, results aren't up yet.

T1:
OMG, we had to run across the beach and up this hill and these stairs and then across this field and then like 1/2 mile later you finally are at transition. the only good thing about it was that my hands were mostly warmed up by the time i got there so i was able to get my ear plugs out and then everything else went ok. i do have to mess with my gloves and that wrist brace so that takes forever, but finally i was out.

the bike:
the bike is really long, but i had decided i was going to go hard and concentrate on the bike only. i was done with the swim so i didn't need to worry about that any more and i would worry about the run when i got to it. now it was all bike. the only sorta technical parts are in the first few miles. last year there was a root that i had worried about for days but they bypassed the root this year and put in a smaller, easier root instead. there was also a steep road climb last year that they bypassed through the trails. it was still a good climb but much more tolerable. i passed a few people right away and then played cat and mouse with a few for the rest of the race. i also passed a girl from my age group right at the end of the 1st lap. finally i came to the end of the 2nd lap, when i realized i was at the end a huge smile overtook me because i was so happy to be done. i felt good for the whole thing but my back did start to cramp up at the end of that first lap and was killing me. i took two clif shots and went through a little more than a big bottle of electrolyte drink.

t2 & the run:
t2 was uneventful and sort a quick, i think? the run is lovely. it was the only part of the race last year that i liked. it goes along the lake and the views are great but this year i actually didn't check them out very much. i ran out of transition with a guy and ran with him for about a mile then i passed him. i wasn't going very fast but i felt like i was moving. i was even running the hills and feeling pretty positive. at 2.5 miles in we head up hill, for what feels like forever. at this same time my knees started to hurt and everything from my sports bra down felt like it was going to cramp and any second. 3.5 miles in that girl from my age group that i passed on the bike passed me on the run. she was flying! i might have been walking backwards for all it was worth. she was maybe 20 feet ahead of me and she rolled her ankle. i couldn't believe it. i felt horrible but at the same time picked up my pace. i did ask if she was ok, she said she was, so i took off. but that didn't last long. she shook it off and then came flying by me again and i didn't see her again until i was telling eric about her and she was parked in the car right next to us. i was trying to stay strong but my knees were on fire, i haven't ever had them hurt like that before. my obturator internus was fine but my knees! ugh!!! i tried to pick it up for the last mile and then had to stop for a truck that was crossing the course ??? and then up the last little hill, around the sand pit and to the finish. i was really happy to be done, i sat down in the shade instantly because my knees couldn't stand any longer.

a few things about the race:
i was happy with the swim
i didn't get lapped on the bike
i was out of T2 before the first finisher came through
i came in 3rd!! but need to check results because there was low turn out so i might have some in last, too. regardless i am happy with my effort, but bummed about my knees.
Eric came in 2nd overalll and won his age group!!
Chris won his age group and came in 3rd overall!!
Mat won his age group and came in 6th overall!!
Shannon won her age group and came in 3rd F overall!!

it was a good day!!

are you doing it?

i am on the road to recovery. i went to pt today and she said the swelling is down, but that there is something wonky with the muscle, as if there had been some problems going on with it for some time now. i didn't have to do the thing with the golf ball! but i did have to do kegels. apparently they help your obturator internus. so i did that a few times with the pt lady standing there asking me if i was doing it or not. then there i was laying there, doing my kegels when she said i had to start marching my legs and swinging my arms. what? i kept laughing because its actually pretty hard to do.
after work i did some aqua jogging. i did 20 minutes in the therapy pool against the current and then decided i was done with that so i got in the bigger pool and did another 10 minutes. i am pleased to say i can swim faster than i can run in the pool. only a little faster, but still faster. i was definitly surprised as to how warm i got and how tired i was after. hoping to be better soon because i'm not sure i can do much more of that.

diagnosed

i called the pt this morning and they told me the first available appointment with any of the therapists wasn't until June 8th. i wanted to cry. when they told me that i said, okok, i'll even see a dude, which i didn't want to do since my injury is strategically located. they still said june 8. i made the appointment plus a follow up. then i called back and asked if i could get in at their clinic's other location, and yahoo! they had an appointment open today! i jumped on that.
i got there, told the lady what was up, where it hurt and what was going on. i stood up, bent over, twisted, bent to that side then the other side. sat down, laid down, she pulled and twisted my legs all over the place. nothing really hurt too much, it was just very obvious that i have some very tight muscles. she said i had a strain of some sort on some sort of hip muscles, and maybe some minor tears, but she still couldn't figure out what the real injury was and what caused all the pain on race day. and then, bam, right there, she got it, the obturator internus in the below image.

yeah, so that was awkward. so its swollen and hurts like crazy, but she was just poking it and figuring out what was going on with it. turns out is all hip related, pelvic floor related and was likely aggravated when i got out of the saddle in that last mile of the race, to go up the shorter steeper hills and i pulled my knees out to keep them from bumping into the arm pads of my aero bars. sweet.
so i sat on some ice for a while and she came in to talk about the treatment plan, starting out by saying that next time she was going to give me a golf ball to, at which point i totally interrupted her with a yelp since i was NOT going to be doing anything with my pelvic floor and a golf ball, but she just laughed and explained i would not be doing anything graphic with it and instead using it to help with the spasm. still not so sure about that, but at least its a golf ball and not a roll of quarters.
good news is that it's not my back and it' not my hammys. she says i can do whatever training i want just as long as it doesn't hurt. so we'll see how that goes and hopefully it gets better soon! so now i'm sitting on ice wearing my winter coat.

onionman 2010

wow, i had been looking forward to this race for a long time. i've raced it twice before and i'd say its probably my favorite race. the first year i had so much fun and then the 2nd year i had taken so much time off the first year that i was so so excited. so this year i was looking forward to seeing what progress i had made. >eric was headed out to spokane for the 24hr mtn bike race, so my mom came with me and the kids out to walla walla. we left right at 8am on saturday. the kids were amazed when we got to walla walla that it was so close! after the vegas trip they just assumed we would be in the car for ever. they wouldnt let us check into our hotel yet so we went out to the race course and drove the course. its so beautiful, but the sky was dark and it was very windy. we got back to the hotel, checked in, i changed my clothes and headed out on my bike to pick up my race packet. i wasn't gone long but did a little tour of walla walla and then came back to the hotel to take the kids swimming. we headed out to dinner at the strangest italian/chinese resturant. totally weird. the kids both slept with grandma and i had a bed to myself! i didn't sleep too well, but whatever.the alarm went off and i had my normal pb&j and then just layed in bed. at 730 i packed up the car and headed to the race site. yikes! i was late apparently and had to park up on the ridge. but really i had plenty of time. i carried my bike down the rocky hill which i had decided if this were an xterra they would make us run up it to get to T1. i set up my transition and ran into janet and kate. then we kind of just hung around, listened to the pre-race meeting, janet informed me that the water was indeed cold as balls and then we went down to experience it for real. and yes, it was cold as balls, rumor has it 55 degrees. i swam for about 3 minutes but that was plenty.
the swim:
this year they started the race in waves. women and teams went 3 minutes behind the men. 10 seconds before the race started the woman in front of me announced to everyone that this was her first ever race, so i wondered what she was doing in the front row of the swim. i have never been in a swim with so much contact. it was crazy. i got kicked in the face, i was swum over, i got hit in the head. but i managed to be ok. the swim was two loops and i was still pretty cold but doing ok about 1/2 way through the first lap. i was swimming well and my left arm wasn't hurting at all like it had been in the last few open water swims. there was a funny little current by the 2nd buoy that kind of carried you right to it and around it, it was a pleasant surprise and i was looking forward to it on lap 2. finally i was out on lap 2, still getting pummeled, still having crazy people swim right into me, still all kinds of chaos. around the 1st bouy the water got choppy and i swallowed a few gulps but i was doing ok. i kept coming up on feet and being afraid i was going to get kicked. eventually i noticed my left hand was going all wonky. i started to wonder if i had broken my finger and not realized it. i was just flailing around in the water with each stroke and i had not control over it. i decided to just let it do its own thing. finally i got to shore and was happy to have enough energy to run up the hill to T1.
T1 - DISASTER. what is up with T1 this year?? i got to my rack and noticed janet's bike was gone! i was so excited to see that she had a good swim! yay janet!!! my hands were so cold that i couldn't do anything. i could barely get my cap and goggles off my head. there was no way my ear plugs were coming out but i kept trying. i managed to get my helmet on, but my abs cramped when i bent to put on my socks and shoes, both of which were taking extra time due to the frozen hands. i tossed on my vest since i was so cold and then i struggled with the ear plugs again, wondering if it would be totally weird to ask a volunteer to pull them out for me. thankgoodness they eventually came out. i saw kate run into T1 as i was headed out.
The Bike!
i was pretty excited about the bike. i'm a stronger cyclist now and i have been doing a few really good workouts lately, and i've been feeling good, so i was psyched. i was working hard and passing people right away. i was in my aero bars and big ring and pedaling hard. about 15 minutes in i caught up with janet and gave her a cheer, and then stuck to my orders to suffer more, chat less. the course is all up hill on the way out, then you turn around and go downhill the way back. i was caught by one guy on the way out but passed a lot of people and was feeling really good. i got to the turn around and was looking forward to the downhill only to find the wind to be very strong, so even going downhill i had to work really hard the whole time. i was caught by a few men along the way back and then a woman in my age group. i could see her ahead of me a ways and was determined that if i could keep an eye on her i'd be able to catch her on the run. finally we turned off the main road and started the 1.5 miles back to transition. i was noticing that i was having a harder time staying comfortable and was fidgeting on my saddle. with about a mile left there are some up hill rollers and it all went bad. i had an immediate sharp pain all up in my business. i wasn't sure what it was but it hurt like a mothrafarker and with every pedal stroke sent a sharp pain down my leg. if i stood it wasn't as bad but my legs were thrashed from the first 24 miles and i couldn't stand for long, i was breathing hard and i had to fight hyper ventilating from the pain every time i stepped down. i slowed to a snails pace, fighting the urge to just stop. i'd say 10-15 people passed me in this last mile and i saw several from my age group go by. i just had a terrible feeling of helplessness. i had no idea what was going on but hoped i'd make it to t2 and be ok once i got there.
T2.
i rolled up to T2, dismounted and hobbled in. two volunteers came running asking me if i was ok. i wasn't but kept hobbling in, not sure what to do. still on the verge of hyper ventilating, i got my stuff together and hobbled out.
The Run
i stopped and tried to stretch. strangely, the girl that passed me on the bike that i thought i would catch on the run came running by, slowing to see if i was ok. not sure how i wound up in front of her but then just watched her run away. i hobbled for a bit. i tried running but the pain was shooting down my leg, the stretching wasn't doing anything, didn't seem to relate to anything, so i walked. i resolved to walking the entire run, assuming that even at that hobble pace, i might still be able to beat my maui run time. :) i watched as more and more people passed me, and more from my age group. i watched as the men's leaders ran back in, and was surprised that a few of them called out encouragement to me. i'd run 20 steps or so, and realize my messed up gait was tweaking my back so i'd walk again. at around the 2 mile mark, 25 minutes into my run i tried running again and just kept running. the pain wasn't getting better, but it wasn't getting worse. then i got to the 3 mile mark and began passing people again, no longer being passed. i got to the turn around and saw Janet! I was hoping she would catch up to me so we could run to the finish together. As i was catching more people again, i got a 2nd wind and just pushed through it. i wasn't going fast, but i was getting it done and the last mile i started to work really hard, there were two people i wanted to catch, and i managed to catch one of them. whew i was done.
i hobbled to the girls to get my chip cut off and the girl looked at me and told me i had lost my chip. i was just like WTF, you have GOT to be kidding me.
turns out my chip came off at some point in the run so all of my splits were recorded.
i know that my swim was about 2:30 faster this year, despite the super cold.
T1 was 40 seconds slower 100% attributable to those ear plugs. not sure what would have happened had i just ridden out with them, but i wasn't ready to try it.
bike was 3 minutes slower. this bums me out. some of this is the wind, which i am totally fine with since everyone had to deal with the wind, but i know i lost at least 3 minutes in that last mile.
t2 was 5 seconds slower - i had a pretty good t2 despite my ordeal, which makes me laugh.
the run was 13 minutes slower. ugh. not horrible since i walked those two miles, but i had figured i would be under 50 this year, i was very much not under 50. not even close.
eric called within minutes of me finishing and getting my clothes changed. i cried to him about it all and then was over it.

the onionman is still my favorite race.
i was so happy to have janet and kate there.
i didn't get hypothermia from the swim.
it was sunny and warm
i worked hard and felt good with my effort on the swim and most of the bike
i am happy for finishing
i'm happy that that wasn't my garmin lying on the side of the road
i suffered the whole race although it wasn't all the right kind of suffering.

after the race, kate, janet and i shared race stories while enjoying the BBQ, then i headed back up the rock hill to see this dirty truck that parked in front of mine.
i drove back to the hotel, relaxed a bit with the kids, then headed out to pioneer park. who knew there were peacocks in walla walla. the day was beautiful, and the kids had a ton of fun looking at the birds and running around the park. i continued to hobble around, and try to stretch but just kind of felt blah. when we woke up this morning, it was raining and dreary for the 5hr drive home, but we made it back safe and sound. on the drive i realized that the whole ordeal likely has to do with riding aero. i don't do it very much, heck, the bars are coming off the bike today if i have any say in it, although i've been doing it these last few weeks when i've been on my road bike. i don't think there is anything really bad going on since i feel ok today, not worse. granted i've been sitting on my arse all day, but if it was really bad i think it would be hurting more than it is. i'm keeping my fingers crossed and will lay low for the next few days, try to see the PT this week and hopefully be better in time for the xterra idaho in two weeks. good thing we haven't registered yet, but i am hoping to be good to go. if not, hopefully we can get out to the one in oregon the following week.

cold as balls

you thought i was going to say ice, but no, balls.

yesterday i met up with annie and her husband to do a track workout. annie is super fast. she just started doing stuff, but you look at her and she emits fastness, so i was excited when she said she would come do my track workout with me. first off, she has a key to a track, so we got to actually run on one instead of the dirt. the workout was 8x400 and 6x800. i, being not so smart thought the 400 splits for the 800s were only 5 seconds slower than those of the 400s so i was really worried, then everyone filled me in and pointed out on the little piece of paper i printed out with 100 meter splits that really indeed it was 15! whew! so much easier! annie ran the first 400 with me, but ran faster for each one after that. but we all met up each time for the rest lap between which was fun. same thing for the 800s but it started to rain really hard and the temp totally dropped and my hands froze to the point of them being very painful, so we only did 4 of the 6. i was still really happy since the 800s didn't seem too bad! then i came home and slept for 2 hrs.
today i learned that there is a fine line between being a totally bad ass and hard core and being not very smart. luckily, annie and janet both chose to join me in almost crossing that border into not smartness, and despite it being 46 degrees and sprinkling, we went for a swim in the lake. this is where the cold as balls comes into play. at first i thought that really it wasn't so bad, until i was walking to the car to get ready for the cold as balls bike ride and i noticed my hands were purple. janet and annie both swam longer than me, they are either more hard core or closer to the border. :) i'll vote for hard core and bad ass.
next was a 1:30 bike ride, and although i put on knee and arm warmers, a hat, two pairs of gloves and vest and rain coat, i was pretty cold. eventually i warmed up some because i was working SO HARD to keep up with annie, but then we totally got lost. i had printed out a map, plus two sets of step by step instructions. note to self: when writing out instructions, make sure you know your left from your right. we got back on track and were flying around then we headed up hill but annie got a flat. we stopped to fix it but in doing so realized we had been out for a long time, we were both frozen pretty much solid and we were never going to get the whole route in. so we called it short, but wound up with about 20 of the 24 miles we were originally planning. just not all on the roads we were planning. hopefully i'll get to ride with annie, because she is super fast. i asked her if she was working hard and she said not really. yikes! so i've got a lot of work to do! but we did agree that if we head out again, we will bring someone who knows where they are going.
quick 4 minute transition into some running shoes and off on a 20 minute jog. by now we were kind of warmed up, but still the temp outside was only 51.
the race this weekend is going to be interesting. i really hope it warms up. if the swim is cold that is fine but i am not looking forward to a cold swim to cold bike. ugh.
now i have to figure out how to fix my gimpy wrist. i've been just getting by with it, but friday night at the pool i was showing off for the kids and did a handstand in the water. aaaak, even under water i cannot support any weight on the wrist, it was so bad and continued to hurt for the rest of the night. woe is my wrist.

i guess i'll blog about something

i am sitting here and have nothing to do. i caught up on all my reading of other blogs, there are no updates on facebook and eric is playing some game on the tv. what's a me supposed to do?
so this past weekend i ran the cougar mountain 5 miler. i did that same race in 2006. lets just say i had a pr by like a 1/2 hr or something like that. it was a good race. i wasn't feeling the race in the morning, wasn't sure how hard i'd be able to push it since i was feeling pretty tired and eh. i wasn't nervous, just not sure how much pain i was willing to be in. i started out at a pretty controlled pace. usually i go all out at the beginning, totally die and then real it in and then kind of fade at the end. so since i was already not sure of what i was up to, i went out at this good pace. i was working hard, just not like crazy. at about the 2.5 mile mark i started to pick it up. i had passed a few people and was feeling good and thinking, lets see what i can do. granted i did have to walk a few steps of some of the hills but my hr stayed high and i ran as soon as i was able, even if just for a few steps and still going up hill. i also ran really hard on the downhills which is not something i have done in the past. looking back at my hr data, my hr didn't drop at all on the downhills despite there being a few pretty long ones. this is good i guess, since it means i was working hard! downhill! who knew! with 2 miles to go i was really pushing, then with 1 mile to go i felt like i was flying. once during the first half of the race i was running behind this girl and she had awesome legs. i kept looking at her calves and being like, damn, those are some awesome calves. i almost said something to her, but then thought i better suffer more and chat less. i should have found her after the race though and let her know. i also thought in that last mile when i was running really hard about how my coach was telling me how the track workouts are really hard but they make you fast. i was totally feeling the benefits of the track workouts at the end. i was pretty psyched! i came in 12th F overall, and either 1st or 2nd in my age group depending on how you wanna break out age groups. they don't break them out, so i guess its 12.
after the race i got on my bike and rode an easy hr and 1/2.
sunday we went to the lake to swim. i was not really looking forward to this at all. i was worried it was going to be cold as balls and totally grody, but the water temp was ok and i realized that after las vegas, i don't think any water can be as grody as that. we swam for 20 minutes during which my left arm was really starting to hurt. i need to figure out what is going on. its got to be my wetsuit since i have no problem in the pool. ok, let me clarify, i have no problem with my left arm in the pool. after the swim we jumped on the mt bikes for a hard mtn bike ride. i was so stoked. i was having fun and i felt like i was riding really well. eric put some new brakes on there and a new, narrower handle bar and the set up and trail conditions were outstanding! it was so fun.
this coming weekend i'm a little nervous about this crazy track workout i've got on saturday. hoping to run on an actual track! an hoping to get through as much of it as possible! yikes!
pawpi on the other hand is all better. her whiskers and face hair is slowly growing back in. she seems so much happier and the other cats seem so too, although someone has begun throwing up all over the place. but now we can sleep better, too, since pawpi is no longer spending the entire night licking the plastic cone or scratching at it.

track workouts are hard

last thursday i had a track workout. 8x800. i went to the HS near by and they were having some sore of nutty track meet. so i went to another HS and tried to get some boys to show me how to sneak into the track since it was locked but they didn't think that was a good idea, so i went to the dirt track. puddles.
i got through all 8 of the 800s and was happy that i did. i was dying and really had to work hard to get through those last 2. i was happy with my effort tho. i felt that workout for the next few days and even felt it when i was trying to get on my bike 2 days later.
so today my workout was 10x400s at 90 seconds. i thought maybe my coach did some mis calculating but i said, ok i'll see what this is about. i didn't stress about it because i am instead stressed out about the open water swim on sunday. mothrafarker, that is going to be cold. so i hired a baby sitter! i went to the HS track and what? another track meet! so i went right to the jr high dirt track again. i did a little warm up and then started. the first one went well! the next few were ok and by #5 i was thinking this is going well and yeah, maybe i can get these all done. they weren't all at 90 but close, and definitely faster than anything i had done before, but then on my recover after #5 i was like uhoh. things weren't happening. so i did #6, and #7 and then i was like well, i gotta do #8 but then i decided i better stop or i might wind up with an injury. i got in 2 easy laps and then called it. yikes. hoping everything is ok, i imagine i'll be quite sore so we will see.
the other thing about thursday was that sirus had a mother's day event at his preschool. i left work early so i could go. they sang a little song and i had to fight the tears because i knew if any came out it would turn into full on crying and sobbing. i was so proud of him. then the mom's sat at the table and the kids brought us cookies and strawberries and lemonade. sirus made me a note pad with a flower made from his hand print. and he gave me hug after hug, and happy mother's day after happy mother's day. he is adorable and i love him.
today i went to masters swimming. we did a lot of IM. i kept looking at the board saying what is UP with that? why do much IM, since when did Monday turn into IM Monday. and then someone let me know its wednesday. and then i totally hit my hand time and time again until my knuckles were bruised and swollen. so i stopped with the butterfly and just did the other strokes. now it looks like i've been fighting.

Xterra West Champs - a 3 part series - race day

Morning:
Good grief I slept horribly. Eric and I slept in separate beds but I blame my poor sleep on worrying all night that Eric was going to suffocate in the compression tights he was sleeping in. Alas, he did not. I had my normal PB&J at 5:30 and then we just sort of hung out. I was totally parched and drank a bottle of water (maybe 2?) but still felt dry. Being right at the race site made for a very relaxing but also sort of nerve-racking experience. Everything was already done, there wasn’t any driving or organizing to do. Just waiting. At 630 we took our bikes and everything down to transition. We got our bodies marked and luckily we lined up with the person who was not putting the 3s on upside down! Then back to the room to hang out some more. With about 40-30 minutes to go we headed back down.
Swim:
I got in the lake and did a short warm up. The water was cold but felt good. I had picked up some new ear plugs (unfortunaetly from wal-mart, some sketchy US Dive brand) and was happy that I did. Next thing ya know, we were all on the beach getting ready for the start. First the pros, then Eric’s wave and then mine. Cori and I wished each other luck and then we were off.
The swim started off pretty well, I was moving through the water, feeling like I was keeping up. I was pummeled a few times but nothing that threw me off or made me panic. I was drafting off a guy for quite a while but finally had to give up on him because I kept creeping up on him and getting kicked. I wasn’t ever able to find anyone else after that. The time passed pretty quickly but I did stop a few times to do some breast stroke and to look around. I felt pretty good about the swim.
After exiting the swim you had to run for like, almost forever. At least it was pavement and it was flat, but it was far. I had to pee so bad so I ran right to the porta potty, finished taking of my wetsuit and took a little break right there. I am so glad I did because apparently I really had to go. While I was in there I heard the announcer say that Shannon was coming in and then went on to talk about beautiful Las Vegas Colorado and how not too long ago there was an Xterra in Saipan Colorado. At least that is what I heard but maybe I was already starting to lose it?
T1 was terrible. Not just because of the potty break but also because every time I bent over my abs would cramp up. I’d have to stand and bend backwards to stretch them out. I got my socks and shoes on and then had to fiddle with my gloves. I would have just waited until I was out on the road for the gloves I think but I have that wrist brace I have been wearing because of my gimpy wrist and I really needed to make sure to get that on. While I was in there fiddling around, I heard the announcer say “oh take your time – a slower transition will make for a faster race overall.” Again, did he really say that? Finally I was out of T1.
Swim time, plus T1: 35 minutes and some seconds.
Bike:
I had been thinking a lot about this race and how I was going to come and race the bike portion like I would a mountain bike race, not worrying about the run or anything else. Yeah, that was until the pre-ride when I started to doubt riding abilities and got freaked out about the gravel. The gravel bummed me out but I was also disappointed in myself for being so worried about it all. I went up the hills quickly but was in my 22 for a lot of them. I probably should have tried my middle ring more but that 22 was so nice. I had to push my bike up some of the hills because they were so tough but did manage to hop right back on at the top without resting despite all the huffing and puffing. I got lapped by Conrad Stoltz right at the top of the canyon section I described earlier. And I chatted with the blind rider and his guide, both of whom I had chatted with out on the course in Maui. I was still working pretty hard and concentrating on my riding, and other than the pros lapping me, I wasn’t getting passed but I was passing people. There was one hill where someone lost an Eddy Merckx water bottle. For some reason, on both laps while passing that bottle Balls the cat and his giant cat balls popped into my head and I had a chuckle. The one thing I did learn although I had heard it before was “look where you want to go and not where you don’t want to go.” I felt this was super important on this course and once I actually did it a few times I started trusting it more and feeling better about the course. To give you an idea of how steep some of the bike portions were, my garmin stops if I am going too slow. My garmin said my bike time was 13 minutes faster than the results. That’s crazy talk right there!! I drank two big bottles of discontinued LUNA Sport Electrolyte Splash in pink grapefruit and had 3 Clif Shots.
Eventually the bike was done!
Later we found out that Kris had the fastest amateur bike time and 8th fastest overall – way to go Kris!
T2 was better than T1 but you had to dismount your bike and then run almost ½ way around transition before heading in.
Bike and T2 time: 2:03 and some seconds. I should have been faster.
Run:
Oh the run. A few steps out I realized I had forgotten my back up Clif Shot. Oh well, I had just taken one towards the end of the bike and there would be drinks available on the course (I hoped!) so I should be ok. I kept going. I ran out of transition and felt pretty good. I was parched though so I got water at the first stop but kept running. I didn’t get to do a pre-run so I wasn’t sure what the course would be like. It was ok, with one major big climb that I can remember. There is a part that you head out to a water stop and then back around. Then there is a big long fun descent and changes into a kind of single track section. That part was fun and it is where Shannon caught me on her 2nd lap. I also met up with a guy from Redmond who works at MS and we wound up chatting and running for the rest of the race together (his gf won my age group!). He had been cramping really badly but my combo of running and walking some of the hills helped him out. Then we headed to the turn around. One of the best parts of the run I thought was that Kahuna Dave was out at that main intersection directing runners. I thought that was pretty great. By the time we got to the far water stop I was really dehydrated and a bit later got some chills. They didn’t last for long but still were a warning that I was out running in the desert. Finally down to the last mile and ½ or so and my Redmond running buddy was off the front. I was running pretty well, feeling good, probably since it was at the end and downhill but at the same time I felt like I was going to throw up. There was a tiny 20 ft patch of thick, green grass and a hint of shade that we ran through right before making a tight turn and up, up, up onto a ridge. At the end there I saw Eric and then down the hill, around the corner and to the finish line. Fantastic!
Run time: 1:06 and some seconds
Overall time: 3:45, 11th in my age group
Eric came in 4th in his age group which was amazing, I am really proud of him! Cori came in 9th and took something like 40 minutes off of her time from last year. Shannon came in 4th in her 2nd ever Xterra and Kris came in 5th. Nice work!
And Shonny won! How awesome is that?

real quick

i'm too tired to put in the race report so that will come tomorrow or something but before i forget, it was my birthday the other week. i turned 36. all day i was dreading the day, it was awful. it wasn't until almost right before bed that i realized i was turning 36 and not turning 37. i felt better.
i did 8x800 on the track today and it totally kicked my arse. i am tired.

Xterra West Champs - a 3 part series - the day before

After such a busy friday night of cruising the strip with the kids, we woke up early again and packed everything back into the car. We drove out to NW Las Vegas, to Eric’s sister’s house. The kids were so excited to see their cousins. In the few minutes we were there, Sirus climbed up onto the top of one of the bunk beds and had gotten stuck. After a short visit, Eric and I said our good byes and left the kids there to spend a fun filled day!
We drove out to Loews at Lake Las Vegas, parked and picked up our registration. We were lucky in that they let us check into our room despite it being only like 10am or something. We changed into our swimming stuff and then met up with Cori from the SLC LUNA Chix team and Kris and Shannon from Spokane down by the pool. The lake water was cold and a little grody. But I quickly got used to it and off we went. They warned that you would be DQed if you swam out too far so we stayed in the cove like we were supposed to and did 2 loops. We swam for only about 20 minutes. I felt pretty good but my left arm and shoulder felt a little weak. I hadn’t been in a wetsuit in a long time, so there was probably some adjusting there, too. I forgot my ear plugs in WA, and although I felt fine while swimming, I was pretty dizzy when we got out. I had also realized that I wasn’t freaked out at all while swimming. I guessed it was because it’s a man made lake so anything scary in it would have had to have been put into it by people. When I told this to Eric, he said I should be even more scared then because all the scary stuff would ooze up from the mud at the bottom, having been buried for hundreds or even thousands of years. Nice.
We got changed into our biking gear and fiddled with the bikes in the parking lot. We stopped by the LUNA truck and tent to see Chris Mathis and get a photo.
Then we headed out. It was really hot by now, close to noon, I think and close to 140 degrees. No shade, lots of glare and lots of heat. I took it really easy on the pre-ride. There were some good hills and then there were some bad hills, like really long, super steep, un-ride-able hills that were even hard to push the bike up! Once on the top of one, you head down and then bam! There is another one! I’m not used to riding on the gravel like a lot of this course is, so I was slow, even on the down hills. There was one downhill section you could see as you climb up another section – I turned to Cori and asked if we had to go down it. And yes we did! I got off and walked down it. Feeling a little wimpy but I also know I have a hard time on that loose gravel and I didn’t want to crash before the race even started. The glare in some spots reminded me of the glare on snow - where all you see is white - no bumps, it was all washed out. At one point we rode down through this crazy canyon, where the gravel was deep and the canyon walls were high on either side. Kris was just riding along, one hand on the handle bars, taking videos while I was holding on for dear life trying not to crash! Leaving the canyon there was this crazy section that must have been a bit of a mud flat at some point since it was smooth but had cracked in all kinds of ways due to the heat. check out Conrad Stoltz's photo of it, it was so cool. Not much longer there was a section that I can’t even compare it to anything I’ve ridden on before. Maybe it was an old river bed? Kris managed to ride it but the rest of us had to get off and carry our bikes since the bumps were so big up and down and all over and non-stop. I wish I could explain it better because it was crazy. After that crazy part the rest of the bike course was pretty fun with a short section of sort of single track but always with the gravel cramping my style.
Later we headed back out to NW Las Vegas to pick up the kids and take them to my brother’s. When we got there, Sirus was riding a big bike all around a park, just round and round. He did crash once, it looked pretty bad, but he got right up and started riding again. Seamus was on a push scooter just scooting along, getting themselves all worn out. We headed over to Rick’s and then out to dinner. I hadn’t seen Rick (or Carissa or Hannah) since Disney World, so it was fun to catch up. Rick is a funny guy. After dinner we dropped the kids at their house and headed back down to Lake Las Vegas. (yes, each of these trips was about an hour each way).

Xterra West Champs - a 3 part series - Travel

Week leading up to the race:
April had been a crazy month. It was busy busy with a trip to SF for the LUNA Summit, a ton of big meetings and presentations at work, a cat who is sick and isn’t getting better and just all kinds of craziness non-stop. I crashed into a No Trespassing sign and did a number on my left thumb and my neck and followed that up with a fun mountain bike race at Soaring Eagle Park two days later. I went to the PT during the week which helped with my neck and my thumb started to get better so that was good. We had our LUNA Fest on Tuesday, so I was out late but I managed to get all my workouts in. Late Wednesday night I packed my stuff for the trip, went to work Thursday morning for a few hours and then we were off.
Travel days:
Thursday we headed out a little before noon. We had arranged for someone to check on the cats while we were out but Pawpi was in such bad shape that last minute we decided to board her at the vets. After dropping her off, we headed south. The car was packed full and the kids did a good job on that first day. We stopped at a few McDonald’s for them to play in the Playlands and we made it to Boise, ID that first day. We woke up early and got a move on.
I was surprised at how beautiful the Nevada desert is, but also surprised by how much snow there was, too! The worst of it was from Wells to Las Vegas, which was 4+ hrs with no cell reception and no ability to surf the internet. I was going crazy, the kids were getting antsy and Eric had done a lot of driving – 18+ over two days. Eventually we got to the Excalibur hotel, dragged all the bikes and suitcases up the room and headed out to explore. I was supposed to get in a 30 minute run but I was too tired and I felt it wasn’t fair to the kids, so we went in search of fun stuff for them. Our first stop was M&M World – one of my all time favorite places, and then we stopped at the Hard Rock Café for dinner. After we walked up the Bellagio to see the fountain show, all the while feeling like terrible parents and the guys on the sidewalk tried to hand us stripper cards while we were walking with our kids. The fountain show was set to Celine Dion’s song from Titanic and as soon as it started Eric changed his mind about how cool the show can be. But the kids loved it, oohing and awing the whole time. Sirus, up on Eric’s shoulders even said “when I hear this song, I just have to stop and listen to it.” He is a funny little guy. Back at the hotel, we watched the 4-D SpongeBob movie and played a few games before heading up to our room for the night.