Week 29: Or How to Save Yourself From Bonking

I missed a week again? What happened to Week 28? With Wildflower around the corner I decided it was time to shape up and get back on the food tracking plan and on doing all 6 workouts. Lately I've been managing 4 or 5 a week, which I guess is not a good way to prepare for an Ironman. It's hard tho! It's hard to get out of bed when you know you're gonna swim close to 100 laps and it will take an hour and 15 minutes and it's just so. boring. Anyways...

Monday - Rest Day
This was the day after my OysterFest birthday party. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling so sick, no doubt from all the delicious food I ate. The kind of food that has not been allowed in me for almost 6 months... Or maybe it was the Sancerre. Whatever it was it sucked. I just felt queasy and gross from 3am on into the whole next day. It made me eat a bagel! Crap.

Tuesday - Spin
I just dyed my hair the night before so instead of swimming decided to spin at home to keep that dye locked down for one more day. Sigh. The things we have to do. Did about 65 minutes and felt pretty good. Got a last minute hair cut at Glam-o-rama. The truth was that I saw my hair in photos from last Sunday and was like, oh my god. WHAT is going on. Then I realized that I hadn't had it cut in almost a year! Yes, it's true. I'm not really good at being a girl. It's so high maintenance!

Wednesday - Run
Got up super early to be able to run with Yi. Met her at her gym, The Bay Club, and we ran along the Embarcadero, through Fisherman's Wharf (which is so awesomely deserted at 6am) and then on to Aquatic Park and over the hill to Fort Mason turned around and came back. 50 minutes. Went to work. Zack came over later and we put my Raleigh together. You know, the one that I got in Boston in November and my dad shipped to me in December? The one that has been sitting in a box in my front hallway for 4 months. Yeah, that one. Anyways, put it together and clearly neither of us knew what we were doing because it has some "issues." So I just sat it in my living room, assembled but not safe to drive at all.

Thursday - Swim
I finally managed to get swim scripts, which are these little tickets to the pool. Normally to gain entry, the pool is $4 and they only take exact change. However, if you buy a script from the city it's only $3.60 per swim! Today I got to use my first script and did not have to worry about scrounging dollars/change at 6am. (On with the math) Was supposed to swim 2900 yards, which in my pool would be 3863 which is about 116 laps. Wellll, it was just too much. So I ended up swimming 2100 yards, which in my pool is 2797 yards. Felt bad about myself all day. But if I put it in perspective, I swam slightly over a mile and a half.

Friday - Spin
Did about an hour of spinning at home. Came to work and had the most dismal day ever. Felt like crying about 800 times and/or drinking a bottle of wine. Alas, I am off the sauce for the next 3 months. Went to see Baby Mama with Misty and it was really funny. Tried not to cry in my car on the way home. Made a modest dinner of a potato. *blink blink* Watched America's Next Top Model on the laptop. Went to bed at 9pm.

Saturday - Brick Workout
Went to Sports Basement for our 8am start time. The plan was 15 minutes spinning and then 45 minutes running, three times. I felt great! The first run was awesome. I started running at a pace that I usually work up to by the end of a run. Didn't feel out of breath or anything. Was trying Carbo Pro too just to see how I reacted to it. Usually I use Perpetuem, which is a highly caloric workout drink and can be made concentrated to hold about 1,000 calories or more in one bike bottle. I like it. It works for me but when I think about Ironman and how I'll have to carry enough nutrition with me to last 16 hours and knowing that I mix my Perpetuem in a blender at home well...it doesn't seem like the most "easy" choice for nutrition on race day.

Carbo Pro is a light, tasteless powder that easily dissolves into liquid. You can add it to whatever sports drink you are using and it doesn't effect the consistency or flavor and you can effectively add anywhere from 200 to 1,000 extra calories per bottle. Right now I carry 4 bottles on my bike, one filled with Perpetuem, one with water (to wash the thick Perpetuem down) and two with Accelerade. With Carbo Pro I'll be able to carry 3 bottles of Accelerade mixed with Carbo Pro and one bottle of water. Today I also tried out Endurolytes - again. They're basically salt capsules holding about 40mgs of sodium each. I have discovered that I can't take the capsules whole as they make me really sick. My mouth and throat get really dry and I feel like I can't drink enough and then I get a stomach ache. So today I broke the capsules apart and put them in my sports drink bottles. Genius! I felt a little of that dry mouth feeling but not as bad when I take them whole. I think I'll do that from now on.

The second and third run were a little harder for me. Being that I am racing in Wildflower this weekend, our coach told us not to run the last set but to spin for an hour. However, the thought of sitting on my bike in the Sports Basement parking lot for an hour wasn't that appealing. So, I ran, which really was more like a walk since I was, um, actually walking. Afterwards we had a potluck lunch to connect with our honorees and to hear Christophe talk about his Ironman Arizona race (Christophe is an honoree too. Yes, he had cancer and is now an Ironman! Amazing!)

Went home and cleaned my bike.

Sunday - Ride
Soooo, again, because I am racing in Wildflower the coaches said to only do about a 90 minute ride. However, they said if you are just using WF as a training day (which I am) and not using it to race (uh, which I am not) then a long ride would be fine. So I joined Mike and Elaine who organized a 73 mile ride starting at Canada Road and Route 92. Yi, Deb and Pete also came along and Kristy from the East Bay. Yi was dead set on only riding 90 minutes,which she stuck too and left us all after 45 minutes. Deb and I thought that 50 miles might be a good stopping point. However at mile 25, when we should've turned around, we felt so great we decided to do the whole ride. The only problem was that I prepared only enough nutrition for 50 miles or less AND I left my money in my car. Deb said, no worries! I have a credit card and she ended up being my ride support for the day.

Nutritionally, I was worried since we had to use Gatorade, as that is what most gas stations sell,and for me it's not the best choice. I also didn't have enough calories when you consider that on the whole ride I burned almost 4,000 calories and I packed only about 900 calories. Sigh. And that mistake was evident around mile 60 when on a long stretch of Alpine Road, on a slight incline, in 90 degree weather and I felt the unmistakable feelings of bonking -- when your body doesn't have enough fuel to go on. I felt like closing my eyes and going to sleep, however I was currently on my bike riding at about 10mph. But wait! I remembered I had a Hammer Gel in my Bento Box! Some of you may remember my fiasco with a gel during training weekend 2006 and since then I have kind of stayed away from them. They really are gross. The consistency of Vaseline with artificial fruit flavor. Ugh. However, with my body running on a severe caloric deficit, the stuff tasted like manna to me. It gave me a little boost and when I rounded the corner there was Deb and Kristy waiting. I stopped and said, I need water and calories right now or I am not gonna make it. So we ran over to a gas station across the street and I downed a bottle of water, chowed a Kit Kat and got some more Gatorade. And I totally saved myself! Thank you Kit Kat! I rested a little bit and the weirdest thing was happening. If I was still, and then I moved my arms, I felt like the tendons in my hands were making guitar string twanging noises! That is the only way I can explain and it sounds so weird but when I mentioned it to Mike he was like, omg! I felt that when we stopped a while back to help Kristy with her flat! After the rest, I felt good enough to finish up the last 13 miles. We made it back to the cars and then all headed over to the bakery in Woodside for lunch. Came home and crashed.

Assessing Florida
I forgot to mention this last time but a few weeks before I left for my trip my mom told me that Russell Villarini, a friend of the family, died of cancer last month. I was pretty shocked because Russell was my childhood crush and he was just a few years older than me. I remembered being around 10 at the ski club and just being so enamored of him that I couldn't even speak or look at him. (Clearly nothing has changed about me when I am around boys I like.) He never liked me though and probably always thought who is that girl that keeps following me around? (Again...still use same tactics). When we were teenagers he would come with his parents to my grandparents' yacht club and gosh he was so beautiful, all lean and tall and tan with dark curly hair. He'd arrive with his older brother, Dean, in a white Volkswagon Rabbit convertible. I thought that was the coolest car!

So when at my grandparent's house earlier this month I wandered into my grandma's room and there on her desk was Russell's obituary cut from the paper. Right then I realized that he really was gone at only 40, having lost his battle to pancreatic cancer. It's hard for me to express what I feel about this. I never really knew him, and after moving to Boston did not see him until his obit photo. I'm not really good at being sappy so this is why I am here, doing this stuff for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. As I have said before, research funded by the LLS has made many discoveries on how to treat all kinds of cancer. I'm still fundraising!

More Caribbean Photos!

Week 26 & 27: In Florida and Then My Birthday!

Birthday Girl

Sorry for the lack of update last week but nothing really went on. I was in Florida and sick so no training happened. Though I did get caught in that American Airlines fiasco and ended up staying a day later with the grandparents in sunny paradise. Last week I tried to get back on track with training and eating but alas, it was my birthday week and there were lots of meals out capped off with a great day at Hog Island Oyster Farm on Tomales Bay for a little bday celebration.

Week 27 Monday
Rest day, even tho I rested all the week before. Whatevs.

Tuesday - Swim
Back to the pool. I missed it really. I did a swim marker set which meant warming up for 30 minutes and then counting my laps for the next 30. I didn't improve at all above 44 laps from last time even tho I felt a lot better cardio-wise. I was disappointed but our coaches told us that this would happen now and again.

Wednesday - Run (and my birthday!)
Went to track. Was kinda blase about it. Yi and I decided to take it slow even tho our workout was running a level 5 for two laps, a level 3 for a half lap and a level 7 for two laps and repeat 3 times, we ended up running a level 3, walking and then running a level 5. I think our coach was annoyed with us but whatevs. I had to skip out on the last exercise of hill repeats because I was going to dinner.

Thursday - ummmm
I really, REALLY wanted to get up and go swimming or spin in my house but sleeping in sounded awesome and I justified it by telling myself that technically I was still sick and should rest. Was gonna spin at home after work but on Wednesday when I was getting ready for my date I realized that I don't really own anything that fits, or is cute outside of t-shirts and jeans. So I decided to go shopping after work with Misty where I ended up buying "fancy" t-shirts. groan.

Friday - ummmm
I was totally gonna swim but whoops. Sleeping in felt better. That night I went to a metal show with Rick and Besty to see Symphony X. I wasn't so sure about them before the show but after I was in love with them (the band, not Betsy and Rick. I love them regardless). New favorite band.

Misty, Rick and Besty

Saturday - Bike
Because I knew I'd be out late on Friday I convinced Deb and Izumi to do a 10am ride. We were slated for 60 miles so I found a route on the Velo Girls website that started from the San Mateo Caltrain. We got down there and it was so cold and windy we all just wanted to pack our stuff up and go for breakfast instead. But we Ironman'd up and got ready. We headed out following the directions to the Bay Trail bike path and ended up getting lost. We went about 5 miles out of our way. We finally found the bike path but (if you can believe it) we got lost on the bike path too! Don't laugh. It was really easy as none of us had ever been on it before and it had so many forks that sometimes the obvious way wasn't the right choice. We were only supposed to spend about 9 miles on it but we ended up spending 14 miles on it with all of our retracing to find out where we went wrong. We were all tired and cranky too. We FINALLY made it off the bike path and had to stop again for the 80th time to pee and that was where we decided to end the ride....and take Caltrain back to our car! hahaha. So our 60 mile ride only ended up being 20 miles and a train ride. Heh.

Came home and ran some errands before going out to dinner with Mai and then heading over to Lulu's going away party. I love Mai and Lulu and even though I don't get to hang out with them so much, I like the idea of knowing that there are both there. But now Lulu is off to Berlin for 6 months. Sigh. She'll be back tho.

Sunday - Second Birthday
I booked some space at the Hog Island Oyster farm and invited a bunch of peeps to join me up there to chow some bivalves. About 20 people came which was amazing. On the drive up there I said to Zack that I'm always talking about how much I hate SF and yet here I have 20 people who want to spend time with me and who I all call friends. So, the moral is, I should just shut up. I ate too much. And, yes, drank too much but it was a great day and I got to celebrate my birthday with awesome people.

Future Bartenders

Hez and Zack

Lulu and Hez

Week 25: On a Work Trip

This week I was on a trip to the Caribbean with work. I had every intention of training and even managed to run in Ft. Lauderdale the morning before we left. I wanted to run for an hour but only made it 40 minutes as the humidity and heat at 9am kicked-my-ass. I became nauseous while waiting for a walk signal. What tha? Because I work such long hours on the trip, I decided it was better to remain well rested and healthy, rather than wear myself out with training AND working 14 hour days.

Friday
Woke up at 2:45am to get ready for my 6am flight. I know, barbaric. But I really wanted to get into Florida early and have an afternoon to myself and relax rather than get in at 9pm and have to go right to bed. Nice thought, however I was such a mess when I got there it hardly seemed worth it. Went to dinner with Courtney, Christina, Megan and Elektra. Not sure how I stayed awake. Went back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday
Got up and ran and died (see above). Came back to the hotel and chowed and shopped at the mall next door. I have two pairs of the same jeans except one is a smaller size and I accidentally packed that pair. I needed some jeans that I could actually sit down in. Hello Gap! Later that afternoon we had a staff meeting and then a welcome party for our guests. I can’t tell you how awesome it is to be able to go outside without a sweater and actually stay out there and enjoy it for any period of time. Did some perfunctory dancing. Not really into it. Megan and I hung out afterwards on Jen Mac’s balcony and watched the few remaining (drunk) guests hold on to the party.

Looking down at the Welcome Party

Megan and Elektra

Sunday – Embarkation Day
I headed over to the port with our travel staff for early embarkation which means that we get walked onto the ship by Holland America staff AND that I could bring my luggage with me and have it delivered to my stateroom on board right then. If I embarked with the guests I wouldn’t be getting my bags til after 3pm as with a regular check-in process all the luggage gets loaded on the ship and then delivered. It’s always some form of organized chaos getting on board but we finally did. Checked out our staff room and started the crazy, crazy day of inventorying our boxes, sorting out cabin deliveries, meeting with the ships staff, finalizing the second day program, learning the ship and getting myself settled.

In my stateroom

Of course the bonus of the whole trip was that Heart was our headliner! SO STOKED. I haven’t seen Heart in about, oh, YIKES! Probably 15 years. Oy. I still love them so much and in fact, when the office announced that Heart was going to be on this trip I sucked it up and sang Barracuda at a work Karaoke party to show my dedication to the band. Luckily for me everyone was drunk so everyone remembers me sounding really awesome. Heh. I thought the show was amazing aside from some times feeling that Ann Wilson was “phoning it in” and also being really disappointed in her choice of footwear. Hello? White running shows with an all black velvet and spandex ensemble? What the hell Ann!?!? I also, sneakily, decided at the last minute to bring a 45 inch LP cover for them to sign. My girl, Jen Mac, hooked-me-up.

After the whole day I crashed hard and slept so good to the gentle rocking of the ms Westerdam.

Monday – At Sea
At sea days are really crazy because about 1700 people are trapped on a boat and want to be entertained. Lot’s of programming and running around making sure everything is where it’s supposed to be while maintaining a smile on my face and engaging everyone in conversation. DON’T LAUGH. I know about half of you are like, wait? Doesn’t she hate people? Well, yes but, you know. I can turn on the love when I need to. THANK GOD I had my own cabin to recharge in.

A standard schedule for me on these trips consists of the following:
Wake up and have breakfast in my room
Go to the internal travel team meeting
Attend full staff meeting
Meet with ships staff
(when at sea) run around and be crazy all day
(when at port) get off the ship and see/do things
Lunch
Nap
Dinner
Show
Disco

Of course there are always last minute crisis to solve in there too. I think today I realized that our Cruise Director is hot. Well, they’re all so dashing and handsome anyways, but dude, HOT. I totally had to ignore it though since a) I’m working and b) I’m probably about 10 years older than him. La la la, la la LA LA LA. Fuuuuuuck.

Tuesday – Cozumel
Dude, we’re in Mexico! (kind of). Courtney and Christina invited me to join them for a day of riding around the island on a scooter. Fun! Nevermind that we were totally getting scammed. It’s forty dollars. Wait, now it’s fifty with tax. Oh yeah, walk over there to that gate with the banana tree. Well, I don’t know about you but banana trees don’t grow in Boston so I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. No worries. We found our scooters and were good to go. Did I mention I’ve never ridden a scooter? The rental guy was like, um…can you take a test drive around this vacant lot before you go? Next thing you know I was speed racer. I want one! We drove around for a few hours and then hit a beach side bar/restaurant and had a beverage and tasty snack.

Christina, Hez and Courtney

Estrogens!

Hez and Christina in Cozumel

Wednesday – Grand Cayman
I’ve always had a fascination with the Cayman Islands so was stoked to be able to go to them! They just seemed so tropical and different in my head I guess. When I got there tho, I was totally grossed out with the disgusting tourism. It’s like the same 5 beach and diamond shops and (shame on you Jimmy Buffet!) the chain restaurant, Margaritaville. WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?! I didn’t really have much planned and had gone onto the island alone, which made me kind of shy. Plus I was getting a massage at 3pm (ohhh the dichotomy!) so I just walked around. It was kinda boring. I stopped in at a little church to pray for a man of integrity and who is open to receiving and giving love and almost threw up when “…wasted away again in margaritaville” wafted in on the breeze. Aren’t we gross enough already that we have to destroy a tropical paradise with Jimmy-Fucking-Buffet!?!?! Sigh.

Praying Hard on Grand Cayman

Went and got my massage. I shoulda saved my money. Maybe I am just spoiled by Jez, my awesome sports massage guy. He always has “feeling” behind it. Or energy. I feel like he is drawing from a space deep within himself to heal me…I mean he made me cry fer crissakes just by touching me! Rodica, my massage lady on the ship, was nothing like that. It was like her touch was just doink doink doink. Nothing there. Then she says, “you have lost a lot of weight recently?

Yes.
“Now you have to work on getting rid of your cellulite.”
Um, I don’t have cellulite.
“Yes you do!” And then she grabbed a chunk of my side and jiggled it around.

OH MY GOD. Is she crazy? So then I kindly pointed out that I do not have cellulite there and that maybe yes, I have one patch of it on my butt and then another patch on the top of my right thigh. She then launched into this whole thing about how I need to burn the fat to get rid of it and bladiddy blah blah. Dude, Hi? Ironman? Hi? Almost a personal trainer?

Then she says, “You will have to go back and tell your partner about your trip.” And I say, oh, I’m not gay. She was very surprised by that. Hahaha. Then she asked me how old I was. Then she says, “So if you are not gay where is your husband?”

Um.

So, ok, I DID cry at this massage session but not because of some other worldly energy exchange, but because now I am suddenly riddled with cellulite and an old maid because I am not married at 37. WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?

Thursday – At Sea
This at sea day wasn’t as busy as the first one. I did, however, start to hang out with the most awesome woman. She is a new addition to our external volunteer staff and just totally awesome. Her name is Melissa and she lives in New York and that is why I love her. I cannot tell you how absolutely refreshing it is to be my normal, people hating, East Coast self and to be completely understood. In San Francisco I could never do that. NEVER. I have to sensor myself all the time. I really can’t even give you an example but in SF if there is any inkling that I don’t like someone people get really weird about it. They start saying things like, “way to not hold back” or “gee you’re telling it like it is” or they just don't understanding that not everyone blows rainbows out their ass.

ANYWAYS

MelSil is my new best friend and our minds are a zen-like “one” and we didn’t even have to finish sentences. Basic grunts and facial expressions were completely understood and agreed with. Check out her blog because not only is she unapologetic about what she likes and believes in, she is actually trying to make a difference. Hi? Activist? Favorite exchange of the trip:

Hez: wow Mel, you’re so politically active! I just don’t really care about people that much
Mel: (looks at me like, duuuude) Oh, I don’t like people…but ya gotta DO something.

Hahahah. LOVE HER because the best part of this is that when I said I didn’t really care about people she didn’t even flinch OR have some weirdo SF hippy moment.

Tonight was my shinning moment as coordinator of the White Party With A Splash Of Pink. Oh? Did I mention that on this cruise we were raising money for breast cancer research and awareness? That’s what the splash of pink is all about. We raised over $100,000 with a walk and an auction. Yeah! Danced the night away way too long and drank too many pink drinks and almost drunk dialed the cutey Cruise Director on my ship cell phone. That woulda been B-A-D (but totally funny!).

Friday - Grand Turk
Nothing to do here but lay on a beach. Awwww yeah! Met MelSil on the beach and we hung out for 3 hours. Came back to the ship and was so exhausted. Ran around and did some stuff then snuck in an hour nap before dinner.

Hez on Grand Turk

Saturday – Half Moon Cay
Holland America owns an island in the Bahamas, or they lease it or something and it’s awesome. The place is too good to be true. The beaches are too fine and white, the water is too clear and turquoise blue. But it kicked ass! Was on the beach for 5 hours. And I have the sun burn to prove it. Had our farewell staff party, dealt with some last minute crisis’ and got ready to go home.

Hez and Mel

More pictures to come.