Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!

Today is a very special day - My Dad turns 60 today, so happy birthday to you Dad!  I can't wait until we can celebrate together in April!  I understand that the day was blessed in the mighty mitten state with a new blanket of snow.  I'm taking this moment to publicly remind you not to shovel the driveway and to fix the snow blower (or purchase new) instead.  :)  This will guarantee a quick end to winter for you!

Week 12 has come to completion today, with a nice 90-minute run along beautiful Pacific/Mission beach.  Finished up with a couple hill repeats, just because.  Week 12 was recovery week and provided some much needed ramped down workouts.   Now we're on to the final stretch - Week 13 begins tomorrow and with it comes new speed/interval workouts!  Should be lots of fun!!  

As a fun factoid, was at a dinner party last night - We discussed the Amgen Tour de California, which

concludes today in Rancho Bernardo/Escondido, a few miles up the highway.  Apparently the average speed yesterday (including the hill/mountain climbs) was 33 mph.  Hmm... Quite humbling,  if you recall from my last post, my TOP speed in Palm Springs (going downhill) was 34 mph.  Can't imagine riding that as my average speed.  Guess that's why they are professional ;)  

All right - that is it from me!  Ciao Ciao!!

P.S. I Love You!

This weekend I traveled to the lovely Southern California oasis, known as Palm Springs.  I've been to Palm Springs two other times - the first time was to give a (enthralling) talk at the CWEA Annual Conference a few years back.  The second visit to Palm Springs was for the 2007 Tour de Palm Springs with RB.  It was a quick in and out in the same day.  I don't think on my previous visits, that I fully appreciated the place.

Arrived bright and early Saturday morning after a 5:00 a.m. departure time.  It was raining when we left and we traveled through patches of fog.  Upon a quick gas/bathroom break 15 miles prior to arrival, was a bit nervous at the conditions.  It was windy and COLD.  Decided upon tights, sleeves, jacket and a hat.  This was slightly different than my 2007 experience (it was in the low 80s and I got a sun burn and bad tan lines from my shorts).  We parked the truck and changed into awesome bike attire (see previous posting on bike attire).  I was also EARLY this year!  This is wonderful because in 2007 I was about 30 minutes late with RB.  Actually, that is how I met RB in 2006 - we were both late to the Tour de Poway....So thank goodness for my tardiness or I never would have met RB!  Anyways, fast forward to this year...  I'm pleased with myself for being on time... They let us take off for the 55-mile race in small groups so as not to overwhelm the streets/police/etc with the 8,000+ riders.  

AJP and I took off heading north through the streets of Palm Springs, which is a cute town. Suddenly we were out in the desert.  It was still brisk and we were biking directly into the wind.  All of the windmills were cranked and I struggled to keep my speed at 10mph (yikes!!).   But, the scenery was amazing.  I really had somehow missed the mountains during my previous visits - I'm not really sure how, as they were AMAZING!   Snow-capped (somehow never noticed snow-capped mountains in So Cal before)... and all around.  It made riding into the strong winds for the first 10 miles totally worth it!  

Next we turned and headed east.  This part of the course is FAST.  There are rolling hills (mostly down) and we're out in the middle of the desert with minimal traffic and people.  This part was super fun.  The Lemond was feeling extra fast and got up to a ripe speed of 35 mph down some of the hills.  The ride continued on like this for quite some time (maybe the next 25 miles or so?).  Then we turned and headed south back towards another town - Thousand Palms (not to be confused with Thousand Oaks many miles to the west).  The rest of the ride was through town and was quick and flat outside of the occasional stop light.  I kept thinking throughout the ride how nice the scenery was!  Not sure how I missed that before!  We finished up the 55 mile (actually clocked at 56 mile) ride by 1 p.m. (note cheezy finish picture for a good laugh on Monday morning - love bike attire - also notice new white handle bars on Lemond taped by yours truly!)...

The ride was extremely well organized and lots of fun to participate in.  I would recommend to anyone who likes to ride!  Aid stops were well stocked and filled with volunteers and high school bands, which was fun.  The end of the race was in downtown Palm Springs complete with balloon finish arch (in red, white and blue) another band, cheerleaders, a whole festival of sorts and lots of smiling bikers.  A great experience!  Felt pretty good after 56 miles!

Moving on to today - Today was a 100-minute training run.  Instead of the normal out and back beach routine, opted for the trails.  I suppose you could say I hit the wall today.   Felt out of sorts - achy, tired, over-trained, and a bit grumpy.  From then my mind/attitude crumbled and it turned out to not be the best run ever.  Luckily, tomorrow begins week 12, which is RECOVERY week.  Couldn't have come sooner...  Speaking of which, my goal was to be in bed 30 minutes ago.  Tomorrow will be here before I know it and another trip to the pool is in store for the early morning hours.  Must get to sleep!  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Ciao Ciao!

The work is over (TGIF) and tomorrow its off to Palm Springs for the Tour De Palm Springs.  Will be doing the 55-mile route.  Send the sun!   Ta - Ta!

Some news for the cause...

I found this article today about prostate cancer (research at that other school in Michigan) on msnbc.com:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29141013/

Here is an interesting statistic: "Prostate cancer kills about 254,000 a year. In the United States, 29,000 men die of it each year, making it the No. 2 cause of cancer death in men, behind lung cancer."

This is the cause for all of this hoopla, this go around! Countless training runs, rides, laps in the pool, for the prostate. A friend of mine wrote "It gives me goosebumps to think that years ago when another athlete like yourself did the same, their monies went to research that may have eventually led to procedures and knowledge that assisted your father beat this disease today." This is true - money being raised now, will help fund studies (like the one at that other school mentioned above) that help other people's Dads, Brothers, Husbands, Sons, Nephews, Uncles, Grandfathers, Friends, Etc. I haven't forgotten this and am still working to reach my goal!!

http://athletes.kintera.org/other/kstreams

Thanks for reading!

Week 10 was tough...

The migraine put a damper on training last week.  Skipped my run on Tuesday.  Wednesday, despite my better judgment, racked the bike up on the trainer.  Unscrewed the cap on my front tire so I could fill it up.  All of the sudden, the valve popped out and went flying across the room.  I've never seen anything like that before!  As I didn't have a backup tube, decided that it was a sign - I wasn't meant to bike.   Woke up on Thursday and the headache remained.  I found some relief in the pool for a bit, but upon my exit the same sharp pulsation returned.  Survived a tough day at work and on my way home that night, blew out my car tire - 2 tires in 2 days!  AJP came to rescue me and all was well.  Made it through the run that night and started to feel better.  The weekend was good and head ache free.  Made it through long run on Saturday and long ride on Sunday. 

Now it's week 11 and the fun continues!!

I hate headaches. Knew it was coming last night and went to bed by 10. Woke up this morning and it's here. Ugh. Good thing I have Treximet to drug myself with. Only problem is it makes me less than productive at work. If I had sick time, I'd be at home in bed with my little eye mask on counting the hours/days until it's gone. Instead I find myself in cube wonderland. It could be worse - the MRI of my brain last summer showed my brain is "unremarkable". Really, this means nothing is wrong with me. These lovely migraines are most likely caused by something I eat, hormones, or stress or a combination of all. At least its Wednesday....

Happy MUNDAY. I'm taking this short little break from my life as an engineer, to remind you of something very important. Please, no band-aids in the pool. It really is disgusting to see them along the bottom, by the filter, floating on top or laying beside. If you are so bloodied as to need a band-aid to stop the transmission of blood or other nasty bodily fluids, then please, avoid the pool altogether. Thanks and have a splendid day!

Halfway There!!!!

Today marks the end of week 9, and thus the halfway point of training! I am sitting in my room, staring at all the crap strewn out on the floor, corners, dresser, bookshelves, closet, drying rack, etc, etc, and grumpy. For whatever reason, have decided to organize my room/life by throwing everything out on the floor. This was a terrible idea. It has now been like this since before New Years - sigh - Yes. New Years. Anyways, worked on it today since about 3 and have made little progress. Have decided to retire to bed since an early day of swimming awaits.


Today was a good day (other than the cleaning). For whatever reason, I decided to run the 15k Xterra Mission Gorge Trail Race (see previous posting from around Feb 7, 2007). Maybe I just like to punish myself, but knowing what I was getting myself into, I signed up again. AJP and I headed out to the course early this morning to avoid the chaos of the closed 52. Made it there plenty early and I quickly looked for the bathrooms as the a.m. coffee had yet to work its magic before we left the house. I was a little irked to see a LONG line at the 4 port-a-pots. That's right - 4. For the entire race - 4. They ended up delaying the race because of the closed 52, but I think it sounds better to blame it on the port-a-pots backup. Literally, but I'll save you from those details.


8:30 rolls around and we line up at the start. It was a little chilly, but sunny and sure to be a beautiful San Diego day. (yes, it is rough to live in Southern California). Finally, at about 8:40, we took off. I started to remember the course and the hell that loomed ahead. AJP was clipping along and soon moved up ahead of me. As he darted around another runner, I thought I heard him chuckle "If she dies, she dies.". That's it. All of the sudden, I was in communist Russia, circa the early 80s. I was running in the middle of winter up a snow-covered peak with the KGB trying to follow close behind. They get ticked off that they can't get through the snow in their shiny black cars - they can't catch me - I'm running and running. Next I'm doing situps with a giant log on my belly. I hear "eye of the tiger" in the background..... In all serious, this year was a better experience than 2007, even though it was quite painful. Probably because I knew what to expect. Made it all 15k and didn't feel too bad!


Well muchachos - it's time for me to go to bed. It's after 10 and the pool awaits tomorrow. Week 10 here I come!