Saturday, March 31, 2012

This and That - By the Numbers


  • 4 - Number of Blog Posts for March (counting this one - so long as I manage to post it by midnight).
  • 10 - Miles I ran this morning - longest run since the Carlsbad Half in January.
  • 4 - Miles I ran yesterday
  • 1 - Number of condoms I ran past this morning.
  • 2 - Number of times I ran past above mentioned condom.
  • 1 - Number of bugs that flew into my eye during the run.
  • 4092 - Code to get into the ladies room at some coffee house I ran into in Encinitas. "Please!" I shouted, "A bug flew in my eye, can I use your ladies room?" She gave me the code immediately. I may have to remember this next time I have that other type of runners emergency...
  • 4 - Times I yelled "BIKE BACK!" this morning, so that runners ahead of me would get out of the way of riders.
  • 0 - Number of photos I took during the run this morning, which is a shame because we ran on the coast, and the surf was awesome!
4 - Number of photos that were taken of us consuming mimosas after the run - Priorities, priorities
  • 46 - Miles that Mik and I rode last Saturday with the Trek bike group. By the end of the ride, I KNOW I needed someone barking "RUNNER RIGHT!" at me, so making runners aware of bikes is now my thing.
  • 473 - Times I barked "SLOOOOOOWINNNNNNNG" and "ROLLLLLLLLLINNNNNNNG" on that long ride. I am slowly realizing that riding in a group is a LOT about letting everyone else know what's going on.
  • 7 - Schools we rode past last week. I have no idea where any of them are though. One of the things I do notice about riding in a group. I'm paying so much attention to what everyone else is dong ("SLOOOOOOWINNNNNNNG, STAAAAAWWWWWWPING, ROLLLLLLLLLINNNNNNNG, POLE!, HOLE! RUNNER UP! BIKE LEFT, WALKER RIGHT! CAR DOOR!) that I barely pay attention to where I even am!
  • 200 - Number of riders who stood in line to use 2 restrooms at our 1/2-way point SAG stop.
  • 10 - Number of people who would have stood in line if it were runners. Come on, you know that many of you would have found a bush.
  • 4 - Times I've seen the play L'il Abner this week (you weren't expecting THAT were you?)
Turbo is playing "General Bullmoose" in the PPJT production of Li'l Abner. No, I wasn't familiar with the play either. Here he is after Thursday night's performance with DramaGirl and Millie
  • 9 - More days until I have to teach again...thank GAWD for Spring Break this year.
  • 188 -Papers I graded last week.
  • 16 - Number of classes I taught.
  • 4 - Meetings I attended - Three of them were on Wednesday.
  • 3 - Spinning classes I've now gone to, and nobody is more surprised by that than I am, but I like the workout!
  • 1 - Number of massages I got this week. I have NO IDEA why I don't get massages more often because It was WONDERFUL. Next time, however, I'll get one AFTER a long run, and not before. I certainly felt the effects of the deep tissue massage...well basically the whole time I ran this morning.



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Run then Ride - Senorita Century Ride Report

Tooth update: I no longer look like Quasi or Marlon, but I still have to go back to finish the root canal, so stay tuned, that may change.

Despite my dependence last week on painkillers, I still did manage to get in a pretty nice run over the weekend, and one pretty challenging 40 mile ride.

First, the run, briefly. My goal was to meet up with Mik and Elsie with the track club at Coronado. The club is up to 2 hour long runs. I am no where near that, but they were running around Coronado, which is lovely, so I figured I could do one lap, about 6 miles.
Sadly, the Tylenol 3/Ibuprofen combo interfered with my plan to get up early on Saturday to meet Mik and Elsie, so while I managed to pull my ass out of bed EVENTUALLY, I missed the actual start of the track club by about 20 minutes and didn't see EITHER OF THEM on the run.

That being said, there may be no place better in all of San Diego County to run than around Coronado. The homes are beautiful, the streets are wide, and there is precious little traffic other than when we cross 4th street, which is the street that goes into the naval base, and this particular Saturday morning there was plenty of this...
Ahhhhhh. I love running by the ocean. I'll never get tired of it. Never.
Beautiful weather...Clear. Cool. Sunny. Perfect place to run an easy 6 miles.

But the big story of the weekend, had to be the Senorita (sorta) Century. This was the inaugural event of this all women's metric century ride. Our Heffer team consisted of Mik, Betty, Wilma, Alberta, and Me.
We learned that we CAN put four bikes in the back of a Honda Pilot...and also have four seats for riders (this is VERY important information) 
At the start, Yours truly, Alberta, Mik, Betty, and Wilma. It was Wilma's virgin organized ride. 
My initial plan was to do the metric century - 64 miles. My longest ride so far this season has been 36 miles, but I figure, if I can do 36, I can do 64 right?

We took off from Torrey Pines High School and headed down some nice hills toward the coast (oh yeah...we'd have to get back up those hills at the end). I was cruising along, about 15 miles into the ride, with a nice group of women. Alberta and Mik were a little bit ahead of me (we'd gotten separated at a light), and suddenly, I see Alberta's daisy shirt. She was on the side of the road, bike upside down, with a flat. So OF COURSE I stopped to help, even though, as we all know, I am not a fast tire change. We examined the tire for awhile, and I'll admit, I didn't try that hard to deal with it because this was an all women's bike race, and so I called the SAG bus to see, and a really nice guy showed up to change Alberta's tire.

Yes, I was a wuss. I admit it. I didn't want to break a nail.
Our own personal tire changer...and yes, Alberta was texting someone about it...or maybe she was posting it on FB, or maybe that was me doing the FB posting. 
I'm not sure how long Alberta and I were dealing with the flat (or more accurately, watching our SAG guy deal with the flat), but I knew by the time we started riding again, that there was no way I was going to catch up to Mik, and if I didn't catch up to her, that I wasn't going do the full 64 because I'd be doing the hardest part of the ride, all the hills, by myself...and with all the meds I'd ingested all week, I thought this was the excuse I needed to just take it easy.

Quite frankly, as we found out later. Alberta's flat was a very good thing.

We made it to North Carlsbad and to Magee park, the first rest stop. I'll just say that the Rest Stops were AMAZING. This one had croissant sandwiches, cucumber water, too many different pastries, coffee, tea, freekin' quiche...who could eat all that and get back on a bike? I have no idea. I nibbled a little bit, drank a lot, refilled my water bottles.

I did walk in on a guy in the men's room. I mean, it was an all women's race. The line to the ladies room was long. Who would expect there to be an actual DUDE in the men's room. His back was to me. I didn't look. I am a lady after all.

Mik, of course, has no patience with long rest stops, so she'd already taken off for the hills, and so I decided to ride the 40 miles and head back to the start with Betty, Alberta, and Wilma.
On the way back we advantage of the photo opportunities. Forgive the inside joke, but Betty knows that I was thinking about a snorkel and flippers for the rest of the ride after we took this shot.
So...now that I've gotten past the spoiler alert (I didn't do a full metric century), Here's my route
Uh...remember that nice downhill part at the beginning? To be honest, neither did I...but I do remember the up part now...I think it's mean to make riders climb in the 39the mile of a 40 mile race...really I do.
Wilma crossing the finish line...which brings up the observation...THAT'S the finish line? I missed it...I wasn't the only one. It really wasn't well marked 
As for the finish line festivities? Well, unlike the rest stops, there was a food truck with what they called Thai food (white rice with some chicken stuff or beef stuff over it...I mean really. It was called The SENORITA Century. Don't you think that warrants a taco?

Also... huge props to Wilma. There were some pretty long climbs...maybe 8% to 10% grades at places, and she's still pretty new to cycling. She hung in there. She finished the race. I'm so proud!

She really deserved a taco...and probably a margarita, but that would come later.
We were the main cheerleaders for all who came in after us. We do look happy to be finished.
And that's Mik... She is such a stud. She finished a really, really, really difficult 64 (she called it horrible, which coming from Mik is something) only about 20 minutes after we all finished our 40. Here was her climb.
See those little descents and climbs at that I was just complaining about at the beginning and at the end of the ride...then take a look at what Mik did between Miles 50 and 90...we just rode the flat part. Again...she's a stud.
We figured we needed something more than meat-type foods on rice, so we ended up at my house, where we consumed beverages and snacks and relaxed about the day.
I know...it's not a stellar shot of any of us...we were tired and VERY focused on food, drink, and relaxing at that point.
So..some observations about the Senorita Century.

The Good Stuff

  1. The 40 mile route was beautiful and for this beginning rider, challenging enough
  2. The 64 mile route was very challenging, and I'm glad I didn't do it at this point of my training, but I'm proud of Mik for doing it for us.
  3. The rest stops had great food, maybe too much good food.
  4. The race organizer was super nice and answered all of my emails, sometimes within an hour or so.
  5. It was a small field, and for an inaugural, that's probably a very good thing
The Not-So-Good
  1. It was kinda expensive. The full registration fee was $125.00. No race jersey. The medal at the end was kinda cheap. I'm glad we got in on a "tres senoritas" discount, so it was about $65 a person to ride. The only reason I ended up with a race jersey (it's a nice one) is because I signed up 6 people, and they messed up our registration once, so the race organizer sent me one. Let's just say that if it wasn't for the discount, we'd have never done it.
  2. The race end was really disappointing. A food truck? The food was cold? There was no beer garden (granted...we were in a high school parking lot, so of course there was no beer), but still. The finish line was completely unmarked. I felt bad for the race organizer (who was EVERYWHERE that day. As individuals crossed, she would chase them down and hand them a medal. 
So, we enjoyed the ride on the coast, and of course being with friends. We are all signed up for the Gran Fondo San Diego in about a month, so more fun will ensue then. 

Friday, March 9, 2012

Call me Quasi

I had a root canal on Tuesday. I've known people who've had root canals and gone back to work the same day. I hate those people right now.
You could call me Quasimodo this week
Or maybe Marlon
see the resemblance?
BECAUSE that is not how dental work seems to work for me. What started off as a toothache last Friday, became a really effing bad toothache over weekend, which became an OMFG I need to see a dentist NOW toothache on Monday, that resulted in an emergency root canal on Tuesday morning, which didn't really improve things so I had to go in yesterday morning AGAIN for a SECOND opening of the tooth at which time I had a complete sobbing melt-down in the endodontist's office as a result of the frustration and pain.

In short, it's been a pretty sucky week. I seem to be OK on the pain front right now (tylenol 3 + ibuprofen is a beautiful thing). But it's not like I've been able to run or ride this week. Pretty much, I've just slept.

So...on Sunday, I'm supposed to do the Senorita Century (100K - a metric century), and I'm still planning on riding. But I may just do the 40 mile ride instead. I'll take along some ibuprofen and tylenol (not the tylenol 3 stuff...that seems a little risky) and see how it goes.

I'd really like my old face back though.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Runs, Rides, News

I ran twice this week and rode once. 10.5 miles running, 33 miles on the bike...and all of this took place in the last three days.
  • Friday - Run - 3.21 miles, 33:36 (10:29)
  • Saturday - Bike - 33:6 miles, 2:32:52 (13.9 mph)
  • Sunday - Run - 7:02 miles, 1:12:58 (10:23)
I don't really know how to think about or represent the riding time. I am riding with a 14-15 mph pace group, so this week I averaged a little less than 14. What I do know is that I am not at the BACK of this particular group, and we did ride UP Torrey Pines.

Learning to ride with a large group has been a learning experience. I'll admit, some of the whole riding with a pack thing makes me nervous. For example: I will never understand how people go flying down hills with abandon. My top speed going down a hill yesterday was about 30mph...and it was scary. I slowed down repeatedly on Torrey Pines (That's not where I hit 30mph). Although we were going downhill for about a mile, it was not my fastest mile.
See that 400 ft to 0 ft descent around mile 5 and then the ascent  around mile 30...that's Torrey Pines. It's a little more than a mile each way.
I'm a big chicken when it comes to speeding downhills. I'd rather go up 'em. I'm not kidding. I was really happy about going up Torrey Pines at the end of the ride. It wasn't a fast climb, but I never felt like I was shaky or had to stop, and I've felt that way about this hill before. Like I said, it's a long climb. AND I'd already ridden 30 miles...so BOO YA!

You may have noticed that all my riding and running activity this week took place over the weekend. In the long run, that is not good for me. This I know. Overdoing it on the weekends is a sure-fire way to get injured, but I had some good reasons for not getting in any mid-week runs or rides this week.

Walter's father was in the hospital all week; he has colon cancer. He didn't go TO the hospital because of this, but it was something that was unexpectedly found because he was there for something else. 

Yes, it sucks. There was a surgery. Modern medicine is downright, freekin' amazing! A surgeon, who did  the surgery (and who not really look old enough to be a surgeon BTW),  removed the tumor laproscopically (is that a word?), which is the huge, effing, amazing part to me. For my FIL to be able to have that kind of surgery (three small incisions) was a godsend because we were not so sure he'd make it through an actual surgery. He's 89. He came through the surgery like a champ. 

So, I mention this because this is a running (sorta) blog, and my father in law is the person who really started my running adventures. He didn't really do it on purpose, he just signed up the whole family for a 5K about 6 years ago, and I got the wild idea that I could actually run a 5K since there were so many other people running who looked a lot like me...meaning they didn't really look like what I then thought ALL RUNNERS looked like...you know like this
(Full disclosure: I still pretend that I look like that when I run, which is probably why I never purchase race photos, which never look like that, but I figure it's the photographer's fault for that, not mine).
So, really, today's blog is dedicated to my FIL. If it wasn't for him, I may not have ever started this craziness. He is just a stud, is doing well, flirting shamelessly with all the nurses, and is going to be OK.