Week 31 & 32: Hez Does a Fundraiser and UVAS

Week 31:
Yes, a two week lapse. I didn't write anything about last week mostly because nothing happened in the way of training. It took me a long time to recover from Wildflower. I was plagued with stomach issues for almost 10 days afterwards, only being able to eat cereal (granted rice cereal and almond milk, but whatever). I was also extremely exhausted. I ended up having to take Monday off because I couldn't move from my couch. Tuesday was pretty much a waste too as I just stared at my monitor. Who knew that exerting yourself for 8 hours and 9 minutes would be such an energy suck?

Hez and Deb at Renee's Eyelash/Moustache Fundraiser

On the Wednesday after Wildlflower Deb and I had our fundraiser at Elixir Bar in San Francisco. The owner allows regular people to come in on a Wednesday night and bartend. At the end of the night you get to keep your tips and the bar will donate them to the charity of your choice. Yay Elixir! Now, only if we could get them to donate like 5% of the bar, too.

The night started off at 8pm for Deb and I. Our friends Lindsay and Misty were on hand to help us too. We all had fabulous shirts made that said, CANCER SUCKS on the front and then our names on the back. Eddie, the extremely nice and patient (actual) bartender, "trained" us an hour before our official start time of 9pm. Basically the training was: "every beer we serve has it's own special glass." SHIT! Luckily, I was a bartender in Boston AND I drink a lot of beer so this wasn't too stressy for me. During this time Eddie kept reminding us that we make our money from the tips so don't forget to keep reminding people to tip well. He also said most charities make about $300. Deb and I kinda looked at each other because, dude, we need like $3,000. Hahaha.

Hez and Deb at Elixir

The night was amazing. The first hour we were totally slammed and Deb and I were running around crazy taking orders, filling them and then having Eddie ring them up. People were throwing money at us. Eddie just kept saying, you guys are doing great! You have so much money! I myself took a $50 tip and Deb took $100! It was so great to be bartending again. I really miss it. Though, I coulda killed Rick for ordering a cosmo and a Maker's Mark manhattan...I am so rusty!

Misty pouring shots like pro!

So many people came to support us. Some of our teammates came right from the track workout ready to drink and tip. So many friends came too and it just goes to remind me what awesome people I know and how willing they are to support me and my cause.

All in all we grossed almost $1000 in tips. TIPS, people! Misty told me later that Eddie had commented to her that he had never seen anything like it! Amazing. Unfortunately, we had to tip out Eddie and the barback (which is only fair, that is their normal shift) so Deb and I took home $666. I laugh that maybe they finagled that final total since I had a discussion about metal with the barback and I saw Eddie rocking out to my iPod mix that included Iron Maiden. Heee!

I am one more step closer to my goal of $8000. I have about $2000 more to go. If you haven't donated yet, now is your chance! Go here.

That Saturday I did my first workout since Wildflower. The group was doing a 60 mile ride, which I think was a bit excessive for people recovering from the race, so I planned on cutting it short. Turns out I didn't really have a choice as my body was just losing it. Tired, headachey, nauseous and crampy. Deb, the great friend she is, turned around with me and we did about 32 miles. I went home, ate, slept for 2.5 hours. Ate. And then slept another 1o hours! Holy crap!

Week 32:
All I did this week was swim twice. I wanted to get in as much swimming as possible (which I guess means twice!) as I am having a procedure that will keep me out of the water for 3 weeks! Talk about anxiety promoting. I also was racing UVAS this Sunday, which is a cute, little race of a .75 mile swim, 16 mile bike and 5 mile run.

At the pool: no more russian lifeguard? Didn't see him either day. My swims weren't all that great as I was kinda bored with the back and forth and didn't really stick to the workouts. I did, kind of, but ended up shortening them both days.

UVAS: On Saturday a bunch of us drove down to Morgan Hill, which is just south of San Jose and checked into the Comfort Inn. It was really hot down there, but I love it so it didn't matter. Yi and I picked up our race packets and then got to the business of setting up our stuff and putting our numbers on our bikes and helmets. I was number 33, which is one of my lucky numbers! Then the 15 of us Ironteamers went to Mama Mia's for a pre race dinner.

Now, can I talk about how difficult it is to go to an Italian restaurant when you are not supposed to be eating wheat and dairy? I was drolling all over the yummy sounding pasta dishes but ordered the pork chops and mashed potatoes, though, technically, I shouldn't be eating potatoes either (gluten). But I just couldn't do the salmon and rice. PLUS, after my G.I. issues at Wildflower, I really wanted to lock it down and do this race wheat free to see if it made a difference.

Yi and I totally crashed at 8:30pm and then woke up at 4:45am. Got ready, loaded our cars up and waited for 6am to roll around when the team was gathering. Then we all caravan'd to the race. In all the emails I got from the race oragnizers, my age wave was set to start at 8:05am. But when I got to transition that had changed to 7:40am! Whoa! That is a big time change and it kinda freaked me out. What made me happy, though, was that now all us girls were gonna be together and not split up.

Swim
Got to the business of setting up transition and then got my wetsuit on. The swim course took us around a little peninsula in the UVAS reservoir and that kinda freaked me out. When I swim in water like that I don't want to be anywhere near land or weeds. But I managed. I meant to use my tempo trainer but left it at transition by accident. This race was a water start, which I had never done before. We were all kinda in the water up to our chest and then started from there. I will say, for a tiny 700 person race, the swim start was the most vicious! I kept getting swum up on, and my feet kept getting touched and grabbed and people kept swimming 5 inches from me. People, there is a WHOLE LAKE. Move over! Finally, I settled in and actually was able to draft most of the time. The night before I had envisioned a 25 minute swim and I ended up with a 26:30! Yeah! I didn't dilly-dally either. Just head down and swimswimswim.

Bike
Mike, the coach from the South Bay team helped me rip my wetsuit off (very difficult, learned some things not to do for Ironman) and I was out of transition in a blistering 4 minutes and 45 seconds. I am never that fast and I contribute it to the fact that I chose not to wrestle my bike gloves over wet hands. Hopped on the bike and didn't slow down once. The course was so fast! My heart rate was out of control and I spent about 15 minutes trying to talk it down. Finally I could settle in and enjoy the route that took us around the reservoir. No major hills so that was good. I also employed a new tactic of GasX and Immodium AD. I strategically popped a GasX at the first sign of discomfort and then took one more for the road a bit later. I planned to take an Immodium half way through the bike to deter any possible G.I. issues on the run. Of course I didn't realize that the Immodium was not in an easily "pop out of the foil" wrapper but rather the kind where you have to peel off a paper backing and then pop it out of the foil. Not so easy with one hand while you are biking a course at 20mph. So I moistened the paper with my tongue and then was able to chew out the tablet....or half of it. Oy. Later on I decided to take the second one and was able to get the tablet out like a pro but then it accidentally broke in half and I watched the other part of it fall on the ground. Hahaha. Not so pro. About a mile before the bike finish I ate a gel so I could have some calories for the run. Zipped into transition, dismounted and got ready for the run. My average bike speed on this course turned out to be 17.2 mph. That is a first for me!

Run
I made it out of transition in 1 minute and 43 seconds! Wow! Hit the run course and tried to settle in. I was curious where my teammates were as I hadn't seen Yi or Renee the entire race so far. I figured Renee would pass me on the run since she is a lot faster. Immediately I realized my GasX and Immodium were not gonna work. Ugh. Though, unlike the Wildflower run, I was more uncomfortable NOT running. So I had to keep going. That plus there weren't any bathrooms on the course! I also kept thinking the turn around was at mile 1.5 (der) but it was really at mile 2.5. Silly me. I saw the fast guys on our team coming back from the turnaround and was excited that I wasn't that far behind them. Then Renee passed me. Then Nicole caught up with me and I ran her pace for a while until the turn around where the faster pace was effecting my poopiness. After we turned around I saw Yi! Yay! I kept running and then at some point I realized she wasn't too far behind me so I slowed down (aka stopped) and let her catch up. We ran the rest of the way together and even stopped to pose for the course photographer. Heeee! All in all I finished the race in 2 hours and 22 minutes. A lot faster than I thought I was gonna!

Jesus, I mean Mike Kyle and Hez in transition after the race

Weeks ahead (and when I say weeks I mean only 8!)
I have just 60 days left til my race. That is slightly more than 8 weeks! I can't believe it is just around the corner. In some ways 2 months is a long time but in others it is soooo short! We are also entering the Sexy Phase of training. Apparently we are all gonna drop about another 5-10lbs. I ended up gaining some weight these last 2 months but my body fat percentage went down so clearly I gained that weight in muscle. In June I'll be participating in our 3/4 Ironman Weekend up in Clearlake. That will be a workout consisting of 3/4 of the Ironman distance. Helloooo! That means a 19 mile run! The most I have done is 13! Yikes! After that I'll be doing the Folsom Lake swim, which is a 2.5 mile swim in a lake without a wetsuit. I want to make sure I can swim 2.4 miles! So scary!