Short maybe long summary

So what has been happening in my life those past few days. I still haven't replaced my sunglasses. As I mentionned earlier I saw the perfect pair of Oakleys but the color I like is only available in polarized and I hate to spend an extra 55$ for lenses that I'm not gonna use anyways.

On top of it I have been thinking about doing Lasik for my eyes to avoid spending a fortune each time I need a new look or I misplace/break my glasses. I haven't made a decision and I do really need a new pair of sunglasses.
Last thursday I took my day off hoping to be able to fit in a 2H00 ride ahahah if running around packing is considered a ride then yes. I did manage to go to a bike store and talk to one of the guys. I felt like I had a big $ sign tattooed on my forehead kindof like I show up at a mechanics. I was asking about upgrading my bike a little and putting aerobars. I have talked to a lot of people and they all recommend it. Now I'm all excited.
So we left that day to visit my father in law in the Shasta Valley which is just off the 5 freeway about 13H00 from here. We flew to Redding arrived there at 10pm. We spent most of our time there in the swimming pool. The kids had a total blast and spent some quality time with their grandfather, the cats, looking at the vegetable garden (so jealous) and the chickens. On the last day we went to the Shasta mountain to go walk a little bit and we saw the end of a century ride... The end was going up the mountain about a 14M climb but so beautiful. I was drooling with envy. I don't think I'm in good enough shape to make that climb just yet but it looked very appealing.
Then we went to dinner in the best Thai/Vietnamese/Laos place ever smack in a small town. We flew back the next day, arrived at home after 11pm.
Since then life is back to its crazy self. After a week off training, I'm trying to figure out my training strategie for my next event in October. I was all about improving my speed like every single person out there. After bending a few peoples ear about how to train to get faster yadi yada I decided to just focus on building up the pace and strength. If I do all this then speed will come. This is what I am going to attempt:
week 1: 1-2Swim/3Bikes/2Runs/1Strength
week 2: 1-2Swim/2Bikes/3Runs/1Strength

My schedule is going to look like that:
Week 1:
Mon Off or easy swimm
Tue Bike AM
Wed Strength (swim AM if not done on Monday)
Thu Bike AM / Run Lunch
Fri Swim
Sat Long Bike
Sun Long Run

Week 2:
Mon Off or easy swim
Tue Run Lunch
Wed Strength (swim AM if not done on Monday)
Thu Bike AM/ Run lunch
Fri Swim
Sat Long Bike
Sun Long Run

If I am very couragous and I feel good I could probably double up both tue and thur and thus have 3B/3R but we will see. For now I would like to do a hill repeat on the weeks I have 3 bike workout and same for the run.
That's the plan. So this morning I got my butt out of bed at 6am to go ride. I did an easy ride because I was dog tired (didn't sleep very well) and thus I was sluggish. I still logged in 11M in 42min. Yesterday strength session left me really really sore. I can't barely move my pecs, bicepts. My inner thighs and abs are sensitive!
Finally to wrap up this lengthy post, we sent the kids to the circus with their uncle. We weren't too sure about this since it is at night, it is their first show besides Seaworld and Disneyland, which were both too loud. They seemed to be all excited and we haven't heard the phone yet.
We are also expecting my brother in law, his girlfriend and their puppy tonight. They will be staying with us through the week end.
Tomorrow I will try to go to the pool (probably at lunch time) saturday I am super excited since I'm going riding with a girl I have been wanting to ride with for a looong time and who has been so supportive and helpful. Yay MK!
Unfortunately other of my friends won't be there but another time RD & Bex.
I am not girlfriend type of girls. I mean I like to talk clothe and fashion but I am so much happier in an art store and now bike store. Bunny was awsome to train with but she went to the dark side of Yoga (jk) where I couldn't follow her and I miss our runs side by side huffing and puffing listening to our music, running together but still in our zone. I think I found a new running partner at Illumina JE and some riding and swimming partners that are into their training but who I can still follow.
One last funny annecdote, on tuesday I was planning on running with JE and I grabbed my sports bra, my running shoes and a towel. As I was looking for my stuff in the car before heading to the gym and change I realized I didn't have shorts! I asked all the girls around for a pair of something Michigan's full trunk only offered a pair of slacks. I wasn't about to give up my run for a forgetful event. As I was heading to Sports Chalet to buy a pair of shorts, a guy that I knew was just finishing his run. Shamefully I asked him if he didn't have any pair of shorts. He offered me a clean pair (not the one dripping off sweat) saying jokingly I hope they will stay on your body. I go to the gym victorious, put the shorts on and to my dismay they fit perfectly!
Some of the Solana Beach pix
This is me coming out of the water after 17min swim for 0.25M 80/88 looking exhausted

This is me on the bike chanting you can do this you know how to do this. I was able to maintain a 16.8mph avg speed.

Finally me crossing the finish line 49/88 and 9:06 min/miles pace for the run!

Stay tune.

Arghhhh

Lately I have been losing my mind. Stuff keep disappearing and it is so very frustrating because when I try to remember when I had the item in my hand I just draw a blank. Our spare key mysteriously disappeared about 1 month ago. If course after countless hours raking my brain and trying to remember what I did with the darn thing I gave up. Sunday looking in my little backpack I find my glasses hard case and inside the darn key. MEC decided to put it there don't ask me why. The joy of finding the spare key had a short life since I misplaced my sunglasses. I wouldn't mind so much but unfortunately I need prescription which puts the cost of a new pair of sunglasses in the neighborhood of 300$. I am seriously considering LASIK since I have lost like 2-3 pairs of glasses so far!
So today I ditched my scheduled run to go to lenscrafters instead since I am not elligible for anything until october. I find 3 pairs of sunglasses I like, 1- Cannot put RX on of course the cheapiest, the one I really really like is an OAKLEY with polarized lenses which I have to pay for eventhough I will remove them to put polarized prescription lenses on it! Of course they need my vision prescription thingy which I don't have and they have to custom order since only OAKLEY can put the prescription lenses on their glasses... Since the guy annoyed the heck out of me I decided to give up! So here I am annoyed, without sunglasses and my lunch break wasted on this stupid thing!
I should have gone for a run. We are leaving for vacation tomorrow and I have no idea what I'm gonna do to survive without sunglasses for a whole week end in the sun!
I am going to have to take the house apart to find those damn glasses! Comeon how far can they have gone without me!
So that is for the frustration...
Yesterday the race splits were finally posted on the website. I came out of the water 80/88 and managed to finish 49/88. I am pretty dam proud of that. I am not super thrilled with my bike split, need to work on that and I am pretty pleased for my 9:06 min/miles pace for the run. It did feel like a slow run except at the end when I couldn't breathe anymore....
I am enjoying well trying to enjoy a week of rest. I am trying to go for a bike ride tomorrow but I am not very hopeful.
I am also mentally and getting ready for my next race which is in 12 weeks. I am going to put together a focus training plan. The main goal being to improve my biking seriously. If it had the side effect of improving the run that would be even better!
Next race US Women Triathlon series Mission Bay (thank god no waves) 750M swim, 12.5M Bike, 3.1M Run. This race is a little longer than my previous, 300yards more to swim and 3.5 more miles to ride.
I am looking forward to our few days in the Shasta Valley coming up.
I have also started using this evil iPhone app called "Lose It" t helps you track your calories which is something I have tried to avoid for a long time. I am just doing it to learn how to know my portion size. Of course yesterday I blew by my calorie count by being extremely greedy. I was starving but paid the price later as I felt so stuffed before going to bed. I hate feeling full. I need to feel like I am satisfied but maybe on the hungry side. Anyways to lose 1/2lb/week and reach my goal of 108lb which may not be reasonnable I need to eat about 1450cal/day without counting the exercize.... I'll keep you posted on my progress. Speaking of which I better enter the info in my iphone

quick update

I have been wanting to post but it is late and I'm tired... So just a very quick post to say, I finished my second triathlon Solana Beach tri. The swim was brutal, of course after 4 month of flat ocean a big swell had to appear out of nowhere just in time for the triathlon. Surf entry and exit in 4-5 foot wave not fun at all. Thanks to Brian Long for being my swim buddy that day and dragging my butt out and then back to the beach. The rest went decently well, I am waiting for the splits and more time for a more in depth report! I manage to finish 49/88 of my age group at 1:20:34 I wouldn't be surprise if I got out of the water 78/88.
I am taking the week off, I'll try to go run once or twice. After that I will get ready for the last triathlon of 2009, thank god it is in the bay, no chance of a big swell right ;)

sooo busy sooo little to report

I haven't posted in ages. Time has been flying by at Mach 3 or even 5 speed. So since I have been dropping the kids off and picking them up I feel like my life has all of a sudden filled up. Maybe it is because the whole family leaves at 7:50 in the morning and is home at 6:15pm! Maybe with the summer being there the kids want to either play in the park or in the pool that we have in the backyard. We bought one of those 8feet pool and it is awsome.
Maybe it is training, or all the work I have to do, or just being a mom and all.
Anyways training does keep me sain by helping me releasing all that tension.
My training is a little out of wack. I am tapering this week since my next sprint is this sunday. I was all prepared for the woopie 1/4miles swim, 9M bike ride and 3M run before B told me about this big deep swell coming. I mean come on surf has been flat since march. Like Lake Torrey Pines flat, and the day of my triathlon with ocean swim the waves may be as big as 8ft! I am just not happy about that at all. I guess we will have to play it by ear.
Dude two week ends ago I even dragged my butt out of bed at 5am for a TCSD club beginner race. I realized that I was really a slow swimmer ah well, a bike with potential and a decent runner. I have to admit as the race approaches, my high dreams of beating my times are evaporating and at this point I just want to do the best I can and just have fun! Will I improve will I not is a big question! If I do great, if I don't well at least I tried!

The next race is October 17th, and back to a bay :)
We also had a unpleasant news as the church in our backyard (well not really in our backyard but just outside of it) started the construction of their community center. When we bought the house 4-5 years ago I remember quite well that this building wouldn't affect us but of course it will. We weren't too happy to know that a big 28ft tall building would be erected right outside our windows. I believe the most frustrating thing is that we can't even pack up and leave. We simply can't sell and afford a new house at this time. I hate hate feeling trapped.
On that note I am going to bed cuz I am really really tired.

On the house side, I have been cooking a lot. I have picked a lot of tomatoes from my poor ratty looking tomato plants. I can't figure out if they have too much or too little water. My herb garden is doing really well and I have been using thyme, oregano and basil yum yum.
Next year I will try other vegetables!

Happy moments

I have been using this blog a lot to share/brag/rant about my training. Eventhough triathlon has helped me somewhat balance/structure my daily life by imposing a routine it isn't my whole world.
I would like to put down on electronic paper those moments that reminds you why you do what you do. Those moments that reminds you that you did good and bring this inner peace in a turmoiled mind.
Of course now I can't find my words pictures would be so much easier.
Lets give it a go... My favorite one which happened more than once, is when I had a productive day at work, did my workout as planned, pick up two little angels, come home to a clean house thanks to Noemy prepare dinner listen to music or B playing the guitars, watch the kids dance or giggle.
Those do happen quite often, usually on thursday night since that's when my house fairy comes.
Gosh this post sounded much better in my head before I started typing anything!

Ah well, I started cooking again more, yesterday B had his piano lesson thus was home later. Since this week end was crazy busy I of course didn't make time to go to Trader Joes. My cupboards are empty of basics and so I decided to be brave, pick up the kids and go to Trader Joes with them. Thankfully they were in the angel phase and thus we were able to load up on goodies. Tonight, I decided to make marinated pork chops with a zuchini tian.
For the marinade, I squeezed a lemon, added some olive oil, then I added some chopped herbs from the garden, basil, oregano and thyme. B then bbq them.
For the side dish, you slice zuchinis, in this case they were the yellow squash, tomatoes (from the garden) and fresh mozarella. I rubbed the dish with garlic then put a slice of zuchini, a slice of tomato until the dish is full. After that I put some mozarella in between veggies every once in a while.
I drizzled some olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and some chopped basil. Put it in the oven until the cheese is brown and the veggies are cooked. Enjoy with a glass of pinot noir ;)

Yawn

Too late to post! Short version of the week end. We left Thursday early afternoon, after b hooked us up with iPhone. 6 hours later 20 are we there yet, about 300 miles of straight, deserted roads and 40 degrees later we arrived in havasu city. After putting the kids to bed we kicked off a week end of leasure, food and beers. Because of the heat 114 during the day and 90 at night we could be either found in the pool, reading by the side of the pool or reading inside! The kids enjoyed themselves. Watching them jump from the diving board their floaties making them pop out of the water like bobbers was priceless.
40 degrees cooler rested and a few pounds heavier we are back to the grind and training and healthy eating! Although since it is midnight morning trainer session has been moved to the evening. Just so I can hear MEC saying while touching my bike pants " you going on a ride" when I answer yes she continues in the backyard? Yes I have been putting my trainer in the backyard!
It is late, my eyes are watering from fatigue and I can't type ony phone anymore so good night!

Joined the crowd...

Yes I am the proud owner of an iPhone. B got me at of my weak moment when my phone was acting out. It is conspiration wondering if B conspired with the old phone. Anywaya I have no use for a phone not allowing me to neither call nor receive calls. So here am I blogging from my iPhone. So let's make it a short one. Trainingwise Im doing good went swimming with someone who could give me pointers. Then yesterday I took the day off and went on a 33miles bike ride on the coast. Just so you know the coast isn't as flat as you could imagine and torrey pines at the end of a ride is tough. Then it was quick lunch followed by shower packing and off to Havasu city. We are relaxing and it feels good!