Quick and dirty race report

Work has been an absolute pain in the arse (again?!? you may ask....yes, sadly it's just getting worse.) so I don't have time for my usual play by play race report. I'll have to give you the highlights.

T and I did the Santa Cruz Mermaid Sprint Tri last Sunday. We had previewed the course and to put it politely, we weren't fond of it. So my only thoughts about the race were that I'd be glad when it was over. Highlights of the day:

1. I'm psychic. I told T on the way to the race that I felt like I was going to have a flat on the bike. Yep, I did. (see highlight #5 below)
2. The ocean swim was no problem really. Except for the nasty salt water getting in my mouth I was fine. I wasn't even having my usual, sprint-distance, panic breathing. I think it may be because I was moving at a snail's pace. Also I didn't think of sharks at all once I got in the water.
3. T1 included a short run through the sand and a climb up about 100 stairs. No, I'm not kidding.
4. My feet were numb from the cold water. It probably didn't help that I don't really kick much when I swim in tris. They finally warmed up about the time we finished the run. So I didn't have to have amputate any due to frostbite.
   
5. I actually got a flat. Thankfully at the *top* of a hill. T stopped to help me change it. And a SAG (support and gear) guy stopped to help T help me change it. And he was so enthusiastic and excited to help that I told T to just let him do it. If I had known that Chatty Cathy SAG guy was going to give me a 15-20 minute recess from my race I would have smacked him away and T and I would have shoved that tire on there in no time.
6. I *almost* got creamed by cars, or by other bikes because of cars, no less than 4 times on the bike route. Traffic control, although they had a lot of cops out there, was horrific. There were not clear instructions to the cars about 'stay' or 'go' and it provided some heart pounding moments for sure.
7. The road was about as nice as a wash board. Crap road. Just crap.

So, as you might imagine, I won't be participating in this race again. Once was more than enough. Although finish time-wise it was a sad ending to a pretty good year, I'm glad to be through the season. With work sucking up my life, I don't have time or energy to work out anyway. Sigh.

Medical Mystery

Bam really needs to go on the Medical Mysteries show.

She's been having limping/neck pain issues for a while now. Yelping when she tweaks her neck. Keeping it really stiff when she gets up. Both her regular vet, and the orthopedic vet she was referred to, were sure there was a protruding disc in her neck causing nerve pain. Or worse, tumors on her spine causing the same symptoms. So today she got a contrast CT scan, some x-rays, and a spinal fluid sample drawn. And yes, it's just as expensive for dogs as it is for people. And once again they showed....nothing significant. Sigh. I wouldn't feel so bad about spending the money if we had some answers. But she continues to stump the pros. It may be wrong, but I'm hoping the fluid sample shows something because then we'll at least have something to fix. Right now all we have to show for the piles of money is this:

And yes, the other dogs *will* point and laugh.

Let's Make a Deal

Just out of curiosity.....can I count a run as a 'good' run if I have to play let's make a deal with myself for pretty much the last half? If so, then I had a good run at lunch today. If not, I'm still zero for....however many workouts I've done since the 1/2 IM.

I was able to squeeze in 5 miles at 'lunch' and it felt pretty good for the first 3 to 3 1/2. That's when the deal making started. It was "Just keep running until X or Y", like "Just keep running until this song ends OR you get to that building." And then it was another 'x or y' situation. I managed to deal my way into running the entire 5 miles and kept my pace around 9:30. Not great, but better than it's been going lately.

It's too soon to tell, but maaaaybe I'm rising out of the slump a wee bit.

Whatcha doin?

Not too much going on really. Work, work, work. Bah.

Last Friday T and I headed out for the Palo Alto Moonlight Run 10k. As you might deduce from the name, it was at night. We arrived just in time to grab our bibs, slap them on and head out to the 10k start. It was a little cool to start and massively crowded. I thought it was going to be a little local run, but evidently it's a pretty big deal. The crowd was actually a bit of a pain to try to negotiate around. Even worse when the run squeezed onto a bayland trail. We finished in just over an hour. And there was hardly any food left. And no goodies at all. I guess you have to hit the goodie booths *before* the run. Sigh. Cute long sleeved shirt tho. :-)

Sunday was a 20 mile ride up and down Calaveras and then a tiny run. It wasn't meant to be a tiny run, but we (okay, okay, I admit it it was ME) had the brilliant idea of running one of the trails. Even tho neither of us are really familiar with the trails out there. We figured, well, how bad could it be. Should be a loop, right? Uh, yeah, a freakin' straight UP loop. We did a tiny loop, less than a mile, and I wanted to spit up a lung. Or two. So that wasn't such a great idea. We forced ourselves do another mile along a stretch of the road and called it a day.

And this week I've just been dealing with work, trying to squeeze in a workout here and there. And dealing with getting Bam into an ortho specialist (she goes next week). Oh, and more work, and a little more work. If only I got paid overtime....

If only I had listened to the stars....

"It might sound like fun, but you can't spend your life going from one adventure to another ~ you just won't have the energy for it....Quit while you're ahead and remind yourself how nice it can be to stay home and watch TV."

That's part of my Yahoo horoscope for today.  Man, those stars know what's what.  

I woke up yesterday with some kind of head cold/body ache thing.  But I made myself get out of bed and go to the cardio sculpt class at the gym anyway.  I really like that class.  She usually makes us do intervals of weights and cardio which makes the time go by pretty fast.  I was tired most of the day and had a huge nap and didn't get a whole lot done. 

So this morning I slept in a bit and then Jeff cajoled me into going for the "long" run I had planned.  I said I was planning to go 10 miles and Jeff asked "when was the last time you've run that far?"  Hm, good point. I guess it was Barb's Race, but that wasn't running.  So, listening to my own advice that I gave my brother, I didn't want to increase mileage too fast.  Since I've run a couple of 10k distances lately, I decided to do 7 miles and call it a day.  I looked out the door and the sun was shining brightly.  Well, no time like the present.  Yeah, it turned out to be quite warm and my run was what I will call "Junk Miles."  I couldn't keep the pace I wanted.  Couldn't keep any pace really.  I was sweating buckets and just felt weak.  To be honest I haven't had a decent run since before Barb's 1/2 IM.  I don't know what's up.  

I think I need some down time.  Some base building time, instead of 'training' for an event time. So I think that the Mermaid Sprint Tri on Sept. 28th will be my last event for the year.  Even though I had thoughts of running another 1/2 marathon this year.  A substitute for Nike, if you will.  But now I'm not sure I will. I may just take some time, figure out what kind of base training I want to do over the winter and get started.  My only hesitation is that I'm not so good at keeping up the training without the motivation of an upcoming event.  Well, I'll have to think about this some more.  Right now I'm too tired. ;-)

Should have listened to those wise old stars.

Weekend Labors

Here is just a quick summary of my Labor Day activities:

1. Some actual work, not as much as I should have finished. But, hey, this is supposed to be a *holiday* weekend. And Labor Day to boot. So fire me. No, really. Please fire me. :-)
2. Trimmed up the locks. Thought about chopping it off, but had a last minute change of heart. Maybe in October.
3. A bit of house cleaning, but not as much as I should have. Hey, see #1. :-)
4. Sunday morning T and I went to 'our local Road Runner' store to run the Nike+ Human Race. We showed up right on time at 9:00 to see folks finishing up. Um, yeah, seems the stores were setting their own hours for the run, and it started at 8:00. But the nice man from the store gave us the lowdown on the route, handed us our freebies (a Nike bag and a tech tee), and we were off. I told T that since we got the goods we could just skip the running part, but slave driver that she is it was no dice. Whew, was it toasty. Now we know why they started at 8:00 instead of 9:00. 10k in about 1:03.
5. Monday there was training with Elena. Yeah, we're hitting the weights again. One word...OUCH. Then T wanted to ride Palomares and I unwittingly plotted out a route back through the Hayward Hills. Well, we had been wanting to do some hill training. But I really didn't need to try to kill us the first time out. Wiped out.

The rest of the weekend was spent running errands, kicking back, walking the mutt (who may need an MRI, which is a long story), and a general mish-mash of activities. Hope you and yours had a fabulous long weekend, and may the next one last a little longer. Please. :-)