Triangle Ride

Yesterday I went out on a ride that I've been threatening to do for a long while . . . the "Triangle" Ride. So named because:

. . . well, it's kind of obvious. The three points of the triangle are Truckee, Kings Beach and Tahoe City, making for a scenic and challenging 38 mile ride. Yes, 38 miles . . . I do believe this is my longest bike ride EVER, certainly since I was a teenager. By the end, it really felt like it, too. We elected to ride clock-wise, to get the huge climb over Brockway Summit (7200') completed early on.

That shark fin shape in the beginning represents a 4.5 mile climb which I tried to deal with by just being slow and steady. Hell, it's easier (if longer) than Donner Summit, so I think I did ok.

The ride was a nice mix of road, bike path, and construction. EVERY LEG of the triangle had some huge construction project going on, giving truth to the adage that Tahoe has three seasons -- WINTER, summer and construction (also, June-uary). This made for some tricky riding and detours onto bike paths. It was really nice being on a bike and not driving, 'cause the delays were looong.

Tom joined me for the ride, though I took a 20 minute head start -- he thought he'd catch me somewhere around Kings Beach (10 miles in), but I actually stayed ahead until Dollar Point, something like 18 miles in. I guess I have improved as a rider, at least a little bit, this summer. Maybe someday I'll actually improve enough to ride with a group . . .

Anyhow, the ride was 38 miles long (though Gary only recorded 36 of them, operator error for sure), completed in 3:01, for an average of just over 12 mph. Not bad for me, and I was happy to remain strong through most of the ride, though I did lag a bit at the end -- thankfully it was mostly downhill at that point. Interestingly, my legs felt very strong; I really suffered in the low back and especially in the neck -- if I had ridden much longer I think I would have spasmed out in those places. My guess (based purely on, um, guessing) is that this neck and back pain would go away if I spent some more time on the bike and just got used to it.

Also, I wouldn't mind building up a vajayjay callous, either.

Is that too much information?

This is amazing!

I just . . . wow.


Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.

River Run

It's a little odd to discover a hitherto unknown running trail lying right under your nose. This happened yesterday, as for the first time I ran along the Truckee River -- running right through the heart of my downtown. Perhaps I had vaguely known of this trail, which for a time runs alongside the much more established (and now regretfully paved) Legacy Trail, but it wasn't until we floated the river on tubes (another story . . .) that I actually SAW it and said, Oh, I gotta run that. Then, it took another 3 weeks for that memory to resurface and WaLa! however you spell it yesterday I found myself with this awesome feast for the eyes:

I got as far as the sewage plant (perhaps negating the 'feast' designation for the run), then turned back, making this an almost perfect 5 mile trail run arrow to add to my quiver of local runs. Mostly flat, a little technical, great river views and sounds, and very close to home.

I ignored the artfully placed rocks along the trail telling me which way to go, sure that I knew better, which led to some unnecessary route finding, which led to me taking a tumble down a little hill, which led to this . . .

. . . which did NOT lead me to the Emergency Room, though over the weekend I saw a patient with "injuries" only very slightly more traumatic than this. Really. It's amazing what people think constitutes an emergency, but that too is another subject all together. Meanwhile, I'll just blog for attention . . . ;-)

Winter's, uh, here . . . again

Yes, I have not posted in forever. I'm a little (ok, a LOT) ambivalent about this blog and sometimes (often) wonder, what's the point? Yet, I keep coming back months later telling myself, THIS time I'll stick with it. It hasn't worked so well in the past, leaving me with few, if any, readers, but here I am again. Why, I'm not sure . . .

As one might imagine, lots of things have been happening since my last post forever ago. I did another sprint tri in Grass Valley, with my friend T, who basically got up off the couch (with a little swimming and even less running thrown in) and came in 5th in her AG. Why do I hang out with these people! We had a great time, and I think this is my newest favorite venue. Women's only (not much of an issue for me), extremely supportive crowd and spectators, very interesting course, not ridiculously far from home. Random pics of the event:

T and I, way early, pick out our HUGE transition spots.

Yeah, super early, like the first ones there. This fills in quickly!

After another hour, everyone else showed up!

Now, that's a crappy race report! I really enjoyed the race, and my time was something like 1:55, give or take 5 minutes. Of interest, I did NOT almost die during the swim . . . this represents a huge change. I wasn't fast by any definition, but usually I'm all freaked out and waterlogged by the end of the swim, and this time I just got out of the water, fell down (some things never change) and . . . kept going. No drama. Nice!

In other news, I guess the biggest deal is yesterday there was a knock on the door and Who's there? It's fucking WINTER! We've been dealing with our 4 cords of wood, moving it from the back yard to against the house now that fire season is over, purchased a cord of oak, I cut down my fledgling garden in preparation, but yesterday, wow! Tom and I went to the gym together, he finished earlier than me and drove on home. I worked for another half and hour or so, then started to run my way home, about 3.5 miles. It was a little chilly, in the 40s maybe, but I run very hot so no biggie. About 1/2 way home it starts getting a LOT colder and then Snow! and Wind! and holy shit winter has arrived! I was doing ok with it, but then stopped for a 5 minute phone call. Still ok, I took a right turn and found myself running right IN to the stuff, and suddenly it was too much. Lots of snow flying, 10 degree drop in temperature (my guess, anyhow, it felt like more and might have been less) and 30mph winds. For the first time in my little running career, I caved and called for a ride home. I thought my skin might freeze.

If I'd had a jacket, I would have fared much better. Note to self for next time.

Hello, winter.

Whew!

I guess I'm making up for lost time.  I started yesterday with a huge workout at the gym.  I have not done any strength training since before I started running, so I have pretty much forgotten everything I once knew (not much!) about it.  Even though we joined the gym a coupla months ago, with the exception of a few visits for cardio, I have not been.  But this was my third time in a week, as I am trying to establish another routine.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the stairmaster, and was confident with those activities.  Then, I descended into complete nerd-dom and felt totally self-conscious among all the grunty guys as I picked my way through the machines looking for the machine chest press and rotary lat pull down as outlined in my "Ultimate Body Perfect Workouts for Women" book that I held clutched to my chest along with my iPhone, which I dutifully logged all my lifts into.  I know once I get my routine down I'll sink into the background, but I felt ridiculously obvious as I tried to balance all my gear from machine to machine.  I've got this cool program for the phone that lists every exercise known to man and makes it really easy to keep track of your reps and things, pleasing my geeky heart to no end.

I spent the rest of the day doing who knows what, then went out for a bike ride with Tom and T, a 30 mile ride to Tahoe City and back.   Yeah, the ride kicked my butt and was further and faster than I would have gone on my own.  Yay!  30.3 miles, 2:02 moving time, av. speed 14.8.  Gary goes on to say that we climbed 2124 feet, but that just seems like too high a number.  Maybe 1000, but more than that just seems excessive.

Tom and I left from our house, and met up with T maybe 3 miles into the ride.  She was off the front like a shot, and remained there for the first 1/3 or so of the ride.  Tom (bless his heart) hung back with me, reinforcing tips he's given me on cadence and utilizing my energy smartly, and -- for the first time! -- I worked on drafting.  I think this is the skill for me.  What a difference getting on that wheel makes!  It took lots of concentration, and if I saw something shiny I'd look back up and be way off the back.  This'll need some practice.

T wanted to climb up to Alpine, but I put the caboosh on that because by this point the morning's workout was starting to make itself known.  We continued on mostly flatly to Tahoe City, then turned around for the mostly downhill ride home.  Throughout the ride I paid lots of attention to my cadence (and Tom was there to remind me when I forgot) and shifting patterns to keep me at a high rpm.  These little lessons are starting to soak in.  We blasted on 89, dropped T at her car, then Tom went on ahead to get home (on a huge time crunch, him) while I slowly limped the last bit home -- I was really feeling worn out at this point.  Then, OMG, I actually CHICKED 3 guys!  Granted, it was 3 middle aged-ish Mexican guys on their cholo bikes in street clothes, but I'll take my victories where I can get 'em.  These guys were just amblin' down the road when I passed them going all of maybe 10 mph . . . they all got their macho up when I passed and started hootin' and hollerin' and trying to catch me.  I looked back at them, smiled, said "Mas rapido, andale, amigos" put the hammer down and actually left them in my dust!  Omy!

Then Tom came and picked me up in the truck so I didn't have to ride the big bad ol' hill to our house.  I remain such a loser! ;-)

And we met up with T and her husband at Smokey's for some BBQ and beer, and all was well with the world.

Yesterday I met up with my new friend and training partner T and we went swimming at the kinda ritzy Tahoe Donner Clubhouse. I am really psyched to connect with this woman, who really seems interested in doing some tri training together. She's a total newbie and intimated that she was probably as slow as me. Well, that ain't the truth as she fessed up to running a 25:30 5k last year, thinking that was slow. I had to readjust her thinking and let her know what "slow" really is. Also, she rides with Tom's mt bike group (and in fact this is how we met) so she must be blistering on the bike. On the swim she was faster than me but not embarrassingly so. I am so psyched to find someone to play with!

We swam for maybe 40 minutes, I didn't really keep track. It was probably the most structured swim workout I have done (I *really* lack structure) . . . we'd swim a 50, then use a pull buoy for 50 (I think that's what it's called, the thing you put between your legs so you don't kick -- obviously my first time using this thing), swim 50, use the kickboard for 50, repeat repeat repeat. Using the pull buoy was probably the most enlightening exercise, because it really highlighted the sloppiness of my stroke -- I am all over the place. I could really do with a swim lesson, I think. SO much room for improvement.

We then sat in the hot tub for a half hour, which is a classy way to end a workout, one that must be replicated. We seemed to get along well and are psyched about future workouts, which -- as socially inept as I am -- is something I'm really pleased about. We have both signed up for the Celebration of Life Women's Sprint Tri in September, and suddenly I find myself motivated again.

I've been doing some casual running here and there, and have started to step up my visits to the gym. If this keeps up, soon I will be back on a schedule of some sort. Tom's off to Europe soon, and I'll be on my own for three weeks -- I think I'll try to be really really focused and physical during that time . . .

Oh, and ChicRunner is having another fabulous giveaway. I'm doing my part!

*sheepishly re-entering the blogosphere*

So I'm not really sure what happened. I finished the DLT in all my back-of-the-pack glory, looking forward to my next training schedule, then I just . . . stopped. Stopped running, swimming, biking, exercising and, subsequently, stopped blogging too. I'm not sure why. I've finished other races before and sort of stopped doing things for a day or a week, but pretty much gotten right back on the horse. This time? Nada. I couldn't have been less interested in even the thought of getting off my ass, never mind giving much credence to the thought that I do have some races in my future and maybe 2 regular readers to this blog (hi Tom!). I managed to keep up with the Underground Race series through my little running club ( a little run every other week) but other than that didn't even feel GUILTY about not doing anything. That's a little odd for me, because even in the depths of my laziness there is usually a part of me that's like, you lazy good-for-nothing yadda yadda yadda. Lately? Sure, read a book, sleep late, read blogs (and not even comment!), what was that running thing? Eh, who cares?

Well, finally that cloud of indifference has lifted. I did my usual thursday night run with the running group, and for whatever reason suddenly I'm interested again. I've been to the gym, (at least thought about) spin classes, did another WONDERFUL 5 mile run yesterday, am off to the gym again after I finish this and, potentially best of all, yesterday had a conversation with a woman I had briefly met once before, and she wants to become my training partner for future tri's! We're swimming tomorrow. She is a self-professed slow, lazy athlete (time will tell if she's as slow and lazy as me), though she is apparently quite the cyclist. Hopefully we can motivate each other when we need it most.

So no long race report about the DLT (I suffered on the swim, suffered on the bike and suffered on the run, came in damn near last, and was happy about the whole thing, ok?), no blog posts or much of anything for a month, mustof gained at least 5 pounds, have neglected myself and my blog and god knows how I'll get in shape for the Marin Tri (which I boastfully said I would be 'totally ready' for, ha!) and I still expect that the throngs will be headed over here to Back of the Pack to find out what I'm up to. Deluded much?

Anyhow, what I'm up to is this. I am back on the wagon with regards to what passes as my 'training', hopefully am cultivating a relationship that may turn into a fun workout partner, I'm still a contributing member of my awesome local running club, and the next thing on the horizon for me is a quite low-key sprint tri in September. I will try to keep up with blog reading and blog posts. I will run bike and swim.

I am still on the path.