Occupational Hazards

...sort of. In many ways, I think one's co-workers can be the biggest threat to one's well being. You know, bosses and/or colleagues can drive you to seek the services of a mental health care professional. Then there are people who do wonders to improve your health. Its a mixed bag, what can I say?

A few Saturdays ago, Lizzie asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Lizzie is wonderful! She's really, really being very sweet -- or was she? I in turn asked her the same question because I likewise wanted to know what I could get her. Big mistake. Open mouth, insert foot. Either that or she set this up deliberately to drive me nuts.

This is why Lizzie is good and bad for my health/sanity. After I have agreed to do the Disneyland half-marathon with her, what she wanted for Christmas was to do something "fun." For those of you who know her, you have a pretty good idea what that would entail. Yes folks, I have now committed to do an Olympic distance tri relay. Of course, I won't be doing the swim part on account of my recent DNF experience. I mean, I always find myself doing things that are healthy but with high injury potential. The way I see it L is just great for my physical well being but is racking up mega-points in the "Are you insane?" column.



The moral of this seemingly pointless post is: If you're thinking about what to give Lizzie for Christmas, just BUY the darn gift! NEVER ask her what she wants, or pay the price. Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

Indecent proposal

Against my better judgment, I went running with my friend Paul last Tuesday. You see, I can't even remember when I last ran on asphalt. Of course, the trail that Paul and I ran had to be asphalt. Yes, I am guilty as charged -- I'm still in love with the treadmill. Sue me! Anyway, we did 4 miles that day and felt good about ourselves but didn't really feel good physically. Whatever!

Needless to say, I was semi-limping for the next couple of days. It was hardly noticeable, or so I thought. The day after I ran I went to spin class. When I got to the locker, a woman from my spin class asked me "What's wrong? Why are you limping? Did you injure yourself?" I was genuinely surprised that someone noticed. This woman had an eye for injury! She was very nice though, I 've spoken to her a few times but I don't know her name. She's a great swimmer though, I've seen her work out in the pool. Same deal with spin class, she's a serious athlete. After I told her how I got injured she said: "Well, since you're injured and everything and it looks like you might not want to run for a while, I'll do the "Swim to Alcatraz" with you if you like."


Now where the heck did that come from?! An indecent proposal out of the clear blue sky! Although she's nice and everything, I hardly knew her. I tried to hide my shock at her invitation. I mean, seriously, do I look like someone who could swim to Alcatraz? I think not! I said thanks, but no thanks. I said that water temperature is enough of a deterrent for me from doing it let alone the actual swimming itself. She replied "Oh but I heard that the water isn't really that cold once you start swimming. They said you start out on a boat and when they give you the signal, you jump out of the boat and start swimming to Alcatraz. It sounds like a lot of fun!" "Like hell it does!" I thought. Of course, I said no as politely as I could. She said "Well, if you change your mind just let me know" and left the shower.

I guess I shouldn't be too hard on her for thinking that swimming to Alcatraz is "fun." I mean, I am so not a non-freak myself seeing that I do find some form of enjoyment in doing triathlons. Still. Anyway, I think its safe to say that my "jockness" as Ben calls it would only go so far. After all, I'm the least "jockiest" (sounds almost obscene there) among my non-freaky athletic friends. Maybe I'd do more freak stuff on Thanksgiving like I did with Lizzie last year. Like run 6 miles to justify stuffing myself afterwards. Happy turkey day to all if I don't get to post again before Thanksgiving. Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

My DNF

As most of you who read my blog know, I got my first (and hopefully last) DNF (for those of you who are not familiar with it, it means Did Not Finish) some time last August. Of course I didn't post it due to the obvious fact that its nothing to be proud of. However, I did See Jane Tri this morning with Lizzie and I must say that I was very happy being on the finished column again.

My DNF race was at the FIT, Folsom International Tri near Sacramento. It was my first Olympic distance attempt and I'm pretty sure, my last. Lizzie drove me there and back -- bless her heart. I did the tri with my friend Paul who finished with flying colors.

The one thing I was proud of in my DNF race was the fact that I finished the swim part. It was my first time to swim a complete mile. It took me 1 hr. & 15 mins. to get out of the water. The last racer to get out of the water before me was 40 mins. prior. The lifeguards were just happy to get out of that lake I had a full lifeguard staff escort as I came ashore. I mean, look at this photo!

The best part was when I got out was that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was screaming and cheering and ringing cowbells and stuff congratulating me for finishing the swim. It was a proud and embarassing moment thrown together. With my DNF, I'm afraid I put people in a subdued mood. I felt like I threw some cold water over Paul's moment of triumph for finishing easily. For this, I apologize to Paul. Here's Paul in his "moment of glory" or relief or whatever. I'm really sorry for stealing your thunder.


Anyway, Lizzie and I didn't have anyone today to take a single photo for our Jane tri. We'll just have to wait for the "official photos" to be released then maybe we can post. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the weekend. Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

Pretty Bride

The cutest bride that I ever did see...



The Blight family prays for a life blessed by God for the Zubers. Sorry I didn't get a picture of Wes as well. We wish you the best in your new life together. Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

Wish you were there...

Had such a blast at Granite Bay last week (June 30th to July 3) it was SICK!! We had a wonderful visit with our friends the Kelly's (Paul, Rachel, Chris & Mikey). I know, I know -- the Folsom area doesn't sound like such a happening place (on account of it just being famous for its prison) but we had such an awesome time!

The Kelly's have huge house which can accomodate lots of boys, thank goodness! They also have a boat and live 10 minutes from Lake Folsom. You're getting the picture now right? So what we do is go "tubing." This is when you ride in an "inner tube" for lack of a better term and get pulled by the boat. Here is Ben to give you an example of what it looks like.

You ride in the tube and get pulled by the boat at 20 mph max. It sounds slow but its not when you're in the water. This is what it looks like when you're being pulled:

So you get in/on the tube and stay in/on for as long as you can. The object of this exercise to disengage you from the tube. The fun part is when you get thrown off and hit the water hard. The driver of the boat then heads back and tries to find the person/s floating in the vicinity of the capsized inflatable water toy. Although looking like half drowned rats, you find these "victims" smiling after sustaing mild injuries as shown by Lizzie, Judith and Paul below.

I guess Ben got tired of tubing solo from last summer so before our visit, he wanted to get a new torture device where one can inflict pain to individuals "en masse". We went to Cope & Mcphetre's (a boat/watersport store) to check out if there was an inflatable that made tubing possible for more than one person at a time. There was. We got the "Saturn" which Ben & Joey refer to as the "missile." This baby seats 3 persons at a time. It wouldn't fit in the boat pre-inflated so it had to be blown up in the middle of the lake.

After taking turns getting on the Saturn 3, 2, 1 person/s at a time, Lizzie and I decided to go on just the 2 of us. Here we are just before the launch.

Here we were AFTER the launch and back on land.

After this trip I had a shoulder injury, Lizzie injured her ribs (or some organ close to it), and Ben hurt his knee. All 3 of us have not yet completely healed. It still hurts like a son-of-a-#*+! However, Paul says that if you do not go home with a "little bit" of hurt after 3 days of doing water sports, it means you didn't really have that much fun. I wonder about Paul...

We also went biking (prior to injuries of course) in between the water activities. There was this great trail that went downhill for 2.3 mi. (as per my odometer) in the beginning. Of course, it was a helluva job trying to get back to our starting point. Total we biked 16 mi. Not bad.

Thank God for the digital camera we had the opportunity to stop and enjoy the scenery...

...and a landmark

...or 2

There was of course, the inevitable mountain biking trail for Lizzie and Paul. This was an excursion I had to regretully miss --- NOT! After all was said and done, this was just a super duper holiday! It was awesome! All the while we were doing this, I kept thinking, wow, Elaine would have loved this too! Wish you were there E!

My biggest thanks to the Kelly clan! Thanks a million for your kind hospitality. You are so SICK you're contagious :) !! Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

Missing athletes & cheer crew

Not a very positive title for a blog on the first race of the season but hey, its the truth. It was Mermaid time last Sunday, June 3 Lizzie, Brian and I were at Quarry Lakes in the early hours of the morning.

I wised up and and "carbo loaded" the night before at the Old Spaghetti Factory and ordered an extra large portion so I could take the leftovers home. I woke up the following morning and had leftover spaghetti for breakfast. Mmmmm, good. This will be my tri ritual from now on! Anyway, Lizzie got us there in good time and met up with one of her biking groupie Ellen who will be doing a tri for the first time. I did not do the for "For Fun" wave this year because they started 10 mins. after the 40-44 yrs. wave. I wanted to start as early as possible so I did age group. We set up our transition area (I read the signs this year so I set up in the right spot) with not a whole lot of time to spare before the start of my wave. Here I am trying to find Lizzie and Ellen.

This was when I desperately missed Elaine. She's so good in getting folks focused in asking for God's help and does so with elan. As I was lagging (surprise, surprise), I completely forgot to pray with Lizzie but she caught up with me down the beach. Lizzie said a quick prayer for me which was good but I we didn't have time to do a prayer for her which made me feel bad. I just did it in my heart while waiting for my wave to start.

The Swim

The water was definitely colder this year but I didn't wear a wetsuit. I thought I could swim freestyle thinking it was warm enough. I breaststroked until I rounded the first bouy. Not good. I got used to the water temp and started alternating freestyle and breaststroke way before the next bouy. I thought I was swimming pretty well. I wasn't tired or anything and I saw I was catching up with some swimmers and felt I was going to pass them. I kept thinking, okay, I'm going to bump into these women any time but it never happened. Next thing I know, a gal on a surfboard tapped me and made go reverse because I needed to go around the bouy. Damn! That's why I never bumped into those ladies. I was going diagonal! I wasted time backtracking. In spite of that error, I thought I swam a lot faster this year. Wrong.

2007 swim: 19:29

2006 swim: 16:04

T1

You know what, this might come as too much information for you guys but you gotta get over it okay? It is no picnic doing a tri but to do it while you're having your period is just rock bottom. Unfortunately, I had to do it this year. Here is Lizzie, running up with me before I had to make a pit stop to the restroom. This stop cost me a lot of time.

2007 T1: 8:29

2006 T1: 7:34

The Ride

I felt I biked really, really, really well this year. I think its on account of being clipped to the pedals. I thought I was efficient thanks to lots of hours in spin class. I wasn't tired and my muscles weren't giving out on me. It was a good ride. After the race Brian even asked me if I did the whole course (can you believe that?!). He thought I went awfully fast. Well, it was faster than last year's but not by much. I was really disappointed when I saw the splits. I thought I did so much better than I did. Wrong again. Well, it was a 1 minute improvement.

2007 ride: 43:57

2006 ride: 44:54

T2

Here we go again. Lizzie wants me to practice transition seriously. She's going so far as to forbidding me to wear my biking gloves during the race. She says I spend too much time trying to get them off. I promised I'd take them off during the run and put them in my pocket. She was okay with that. Of course, one has to take into consideration that this year, I had to change from biking to running shoes. Still, I wasn't excused. Here I am changing my shoes (I think).

2007 T2: 3:33

2006 T2: 1:58

The Run

Now this came as a total surprise for me. I thought run time this year wouldn't differ much from my run last year. I felt good, not exhausted and my legs were actually feeling fresh. Its probably on account of riding in biking shoes which makes sure you don't use your running muscles to bike. This years course was different from last years. There were way too many loops. I don't remember going on those loops last year. Last year's was straight and this year's was loopy. There's no other way to put it. Nevertheless, I felt strong and get this, I took 7 minutes (well, almost 7 minutes) off my running time! Hooray!

2007 run: 32:05

2006 run: 39:22

Overall, I only improved 2 minutes from last year's tri. It was really fun this year because I wasn't as exhausted. I didn't even have to nap as much after the race! Of course, lets leave it to the first time triathlete to place 3rd in her age group. Oh well!

2007 tri: 1:47:35

2006 tri: 1:49:54

I'll try to do better next year and hope that I'd be doing it in better circumstances (i.e. sans period).

Lessons Learned

You know, there's something to be said for getting in that pre-race swim. I was wondering why Rebecca did that last year (Rebecca from last year just got married and was on her honeymoon in Peru during the tri). It gets your body used to the cold water. I will do that from now on (I think). I need to get a better space for transition. I think my movements were curtailed because of the itty bitty space I had. I'll aim for a corner bike rack next time and maybe get a balloon to mark my place. I need to wear my try top during the swim. It's hard to put on a tight fitting garment over wet skin. I need to take my biking gloves off during the run and just stick them in my pocket.

People Missed

My family. I really missed my 3 boys. However, I might just have to get used to this because my kids get bored waiting for me. It's also unfair to wake them up so early in the morning on a non-school day. Same for Ben. He only has a couple of sleep in mornings and I don't want to deprive him of that. They did however, pray for me and wished me luck before they went to bed the night before.

Elaine. As I said, she's good with giving thanks and asking for help from God. She is also tons of fun to be with and is wonderful in cheering everyone on. She also looks fab in pictures. Its amazing how she looks unruffled after a tri.

Rebecca. I only met her once and tri-ed with her once but you can tell how great she is. I hope she does Mermaid again with us.

Acknowledgements

Of course, none of this report would even be here without Lizzie who started it all. My endless thanks for training with me, driving for training (and race) purposes, storing the "baby bike," and a host of sundry reasons too many to mention. Thank you Brian for being my bike mechanic, sherpa, loaning me money to get a race belt (couldn't find my race belt the night before tri), cheer section and official photographer/videographer. Here's Brian down here.

I guess that about wraps it up for now. Next stop would be the Olympic distance tri at Folsom. I'm doing that one with my friend Paul and with Lizzie. That one I just want to finish and then I'll retire from doing tris. NOT! I just seriously want to finish that without getting driven away in an ambulance. Have a wonderful week everyone! Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

My boys...

Greetings! I know, I know, its been over a month since I last posted. Been very busy lately and its hard to load photos from our home computer. Timmy thinks its because our computer is 500 years old. I agree.



Anyway, I raced today. First tri of the season but will blog in a few days. Meanwhile, Ben has been trying the "couch-to-5k" running plan. Seems to be stuck in week 3 of the running schedule. He's experiencing pain when he runs too far. He's still chugging though, and I'm really proud of him for persevering.



He runs at the high school track. Most of the time he's by himself. Sometimes with me, sometimes with the kids and sometimes the whole family goes on that outing. Her are some photos. Ben knows stretching is very important.

Ben alternates running and walking. So, walk...

and then run!

We had my nephew Jack with us that evening at the track. Here they are playing while Ben does his workout.

Hope all of you are doing well. Will gave race report soon (I hope). Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...