Boot Camp Month - Week 1

I'm toward the end of week 1 of boot camp and this is what I've done so far

June Workouts

June 1 - 7 mile run/10:06 pace

June 2 - 3.5 mile run/11:00 pace (hills) and 90 minute CorePower Yoga 2 at CorePower

June 3 -Hot Power Fusion Yoga at CorePower

June 4 - Bootcamp at SWEAT

June 5 - CP2 Yoga and Spin class at Spinage

June 6 - Bootcamp at SWEAT & Run at Lake BP 3 miles

June 7 - 2 hour ride (later today w/Mik, Betty, and Seven. The crew rides AGAIN!)

June Weight

June 1  - 163.5

June 7 - 166

Here's what I've learned so far:

1. I am sore. Adding in the bootcamp element is a completely necessary part of bootcamp month. I haven't done any weight/resistance training since I stopped working out with Kelly a couple months ago. I'm glad I'm doing it again.
2. Doing yoga for the last two months is saving my ASS as far as the bootcamp workouts go. Nobody is more surprised that I like Hot or Corepower Yoga more than I am. You no doubt remember back to all my bitching and whining about haaaaaaaaaaating the heeeeeeeeet. I don't complain like that ONLY on the blog. I'm a real joy to be around in the heat in person as well.
3. I did not do nearly enough cardio this week. Not enough cardio = not enough calories burned.
4. Also related to #3 above - substituting crackers and chips for wine will NOT result in weight loss. I'd be better off consuming 100 "empty" calories drinking wine than consuming 500 "empty" calories by polishing off a bag of Cheez-its. 

So that's it for now. Now for a two hour ride... I haven't been on my bike in months. This should be interesting!

Boot Camp Month

Oh, hello there blog-o-world! How are ya?

Is there a blog world any more? See...not only have I been a very, very, very bad blog-writer, I haven't even been a good blog reader lately. ((bows head in shame)).

In truth, I've composed MANY, MANY, mental blog entries in the last several months. Blogs in which I ponder the whether or not hot yoga will prepare me for running in the hot and humid SoCal summer, blogs in which I make witty commentary about being married to the same dude for 21 years, blogs in which I comment on the nutty things that regularly happen when one teaches at a two-year college, blogs in which I boast about the accomplishments of both my amazing kids, followed by additional blogs in which I question my ability to successfully parent two teenagers. 

I have an almost finished blog that I REALLY WROTE about the San Diego Half Marathon last March. For some reason, I never published it. I'm not sure why. It's not a bad race report. It certainly was a fabulous event... I'm sure I'll finish it and post it eventually. 

Here's one pre-race photo of Me, Betty, Mik and Tak (Kat's hefferblog name)

But lamenting on the myriad of reasons why I haven't written recently is NOT the reason I am writing today.

The real reason is that I'm making a BIG change in my life for the month of June. June is BOOT CAMP MONTH!

Here are the rules of BOOT CAMP MONTH

• Workout at least twice a day five days a week, and at least once a day on the other two days.
• Alternate between hot yoga, running, boot camp, spin class, or cycling.
• Eat well
• No alcohol
• Be accountable

You read it right. A whole friggen month* with no mimosas, no margaritas, NO WINE. The whole focus will be to be on getting into the most kick-ass shape of my soon-to-be-51-year-old life.

I know... Scary

Why?

Well...I've been thinking about it for awhile. It started with my last doctor's visit last August (yes... it took me almost a year to do this. Don't judge.) Apparently when I turned 50, I became more interesting to my actual doctor, so for the first time in my 7 or 8 year relationship with this particular doctor's office, I had an appointment with THE doctor and not the physician's assistant (truth be told, I prefer the assistant).

There were a number of things that I didn't enjoy about that visit, most of them having to do with the doctor's manner. She was rather rude, abrupt, and made some judgements about me that I thought were unfair given that she'd only known me for, oh I don't know, about 10 minutes.

In short, she told me that I should lose some weight. I told her that I could run a half marathon (and wondered if she could) and that I really didn't focus on the scale.

Then she asked me about my eating and drinking habits. You know, the kinds of questions that doctors are supposed to ask, and when I honestly answered revealing how much and how often I drink, she said something like.

"You are consuming a lot of empty calories. You know if you stopped drinking, you'd probably lose 10 or 15 pounds without really trying, since you are so active. (and I swear to effing-god, she said that last part with a fair amount of snark...as if she didn't really believe that I ran 10-15 miles a week and at that point, I was training for a century, so I was also logging about 50 miles a week on a bike...grrrrrrrrr)

Needless to say, I'll be finding a new doctor, but her comment sorta stuck with me.

If I stopped drinking, I'd drop 10-15 pounds.

Then this happened.

Mik got me interested in CorePower Yoga, and suddenly I became addicted to it. I've been trying to go at least twice a week.

And this happened.

Elsie goes here...and it was such a good deal, so I bought it. Then Elsie broke her ankle, so we didn't go. The Groupon expires in July, so I need to start using the sessions I paid for. I HATE not using a Groupon.

But the final straw was this

I was going to personal trainer (Kelly)  last fall, but that became too costly to continue. Then Kelly started her own personal training business and is doing a June Boot Camp.

I figure the fitness-gods were conspiring, so June is officially BOOT CAMP month. I have a whole calendar worked out that includes Kelly's Boot Camp on Tuesday and Thursday. Spin classes on Monday and Wednesday. Yoga at least 3 days a week. Running at least 3 days a week. Weekend rides AND I'm taking up THE doctor on her challenge... No alcohol. Let's just say that I am testing her hypothesis.

And I decided to add some accountability by posting regularly about my workouts AND my weight.

June Workouts

June 1 - 7 mile run/10:06 pace

June 2 - 3.5 mile run/11:00 pace (hills) and Yoga

June Weight

June 1  - 163.5**

_____________________

* full disclosure. It's not really a full month. BOOT camp month starts today and goes to June 27, which is my and Walter's 21st anniversary. 

**Kelly took measurements, but I didn't write them down. I'll get them from her on Tuesday and post them as well.

Happy New Year!

Wow...  Only 22 posts last year. I don't have anything really to say about that other than, I am still hanging onto this blog anyway. I'm not sure why. I guess I am afraid of losing the mojo that came along with starting it. People who have met me in the last five years are surprised to hear me talk about my life before blogging/running. They assume that because I run, ride, workout now, it's always been that way. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, so like a baseball player who is reticent to give up his lucky bat for fear of losing the ability to hit a ball, I am unlikely to give up my "lucky blog" for fear of being sloth-like again.

That being said, I was really flattered over the weekend when one of my young cousins, who has started running called me to ask me (the family running expert!) for advise about her shin splints (yeah, if there's something I can give advice about, it's running injuries!)

So, it's January again. Five years ago, I started writing about my adventures with the herd as we embarked upon running our first (and so far only) marathon. To be honest, the last 4 years, I've been pretty much going non-stop. This year, I really slowed it down. A LOT. This past year, I ran in only THREE (3) organized races, but set a PR in two of them (the Carlsbad 1/2 Marathon last January, and the SuperRun 10K in February. Most of the year was somehow dedicated to cycling. Betty, Mik and I rode in four organized rides including the Bike the Coast Century in November. Elsie decided that riding was not for her, and sold her bike. Wilma joined us occasionally.

I'm not sure about this cycling thing. Betty loves riding, but I'm sorta MEH about it, especially the longer distances and especially THE HILLS (hate 'em). It takes a long time to ride a bike 100 miles, and even longer to train for it. I'll continue to ride this year, but I'm not sure I'll do another century for awhile.

That being said, we are looking into again doing the  Senorita Century (the 60 mile course) in March, because I almost NEVER mean it when I say, "I won't do THAT again!"

I've also been working out with a personal trainer since June, which I've rather enjoyed. I certainly enjoy seeing something that resembles arm and/or (gasp) stomach muscles. If I were to have a resolution for the new year, it would be to have some mad ab musclez... and to have calves that are thin enough so that I can wear boots.

I feel like I'm sort of stuck in a place right now where I'm not sure what my next big goal should be. This leaves me feeling a little disconcerted. Since it is January, I have joined the San Diego Track Club's Rockin' and Runnin' program again. Right now, several of us (Betty, Mik, Elsie, and Edith (!!)) are signed up for the San Diego Half Marathon in March, which is the week after the Senorita Century. So March is also looking to be a pretty crazy month.

I keep thinking that maybe I'll run another marathon this year, but we'll see. I am pretty sure I won't be able to convince anyone other than BBJ to run it with me.

I also think about blogging regularly again. My biggest regret for 2012 is that I didn't blog enough. Instead, I put together an end of year slide show for the herd. It's long (about 12 minutes), but it definitely highlights some of the adventures this past year. I'm not sure if the audio will work... if you want the original slide show, click on this link to my dropbox account public folder. (It may take awhile to download...it's a huge file!)

100 Miles...

... is a long time to ride on a bike!

or when asked this week, "How was the ride?" My line was, "Well...the first 90 miles were easy..."

In truth, it felt pretty self-indulgent to do a century on the beautiful SoCal coast when so many on the east coast were without power and were (and still are) trying to have patience while getting their lives back into something that more closely resembles order. As I am now a very, very, very part time blogger at best, I have sorta lost contact with some (many) of my east coast blogger friends. Some blog regularly, some less so, some maybe have stopped all together, but luckily due to the magic that is Facebook, I still keep in touch with more than a few of you. 

In any event, as I cruised up and down the SoCal coast last weekend, on a particularly brilliant and perfect day, I couldn't help but think how blessed I am to live in this part of the world, how lucky I am to be able to do the things I love to do, and even while I write this, I am struck by how enviable my life may be, if only for the fact that our home has electricity and I have the power, literally, to use my computer.

100 miles gives you a LOT of time to think about things...

Yeah... I know, a brutal day to be in SoCal...

The herd (well...three of us) completed our first Century, and Wilma completed a 50 miler. The course for the century was one that we have been on, in shorter segments, plenty of times. Up and down the coast, from the Oceanside Pier through Del Mar, then a short loop around Carmel Valley, then back up to Oceanside...Twice for the Century, once (obviously) for the 50 mile route.

There you have it... back and forth...four times

On the way south, there was a nice tailwind and so we flew, as we headed north, it was into the wind, so we formed our pace line and pulled each other along.

Seven...pulling the herd along...about 85 miles into the ride.

So, here's a photo recap.

It was still darkish when we pulled into a parking structure near the Oceanside Pier. We were pretty efficient in getting our stuff together and organized for the morning. The biggest question was how many layers of clothing to wear. The morning was a little cool

At the start. The Century riders started at 6:50...we started at 7:05. Don't we look snazzy with our alternating lime-green and black sleeves?

The first 25 miles of the ride was crowded, which led to some frustrations along the way, especially through Carlsbad and Encinitas where there is lots of stopping and starting due to traffic lights, but for the most part, everyone was polite. Before the ride, Mik said she was going to say hello to everyone who we passed, so I followed suit.

Mik and I at the 25 mile SAG stop. The morning wasn't cloudy, but it was so darn early when we started, and it was before the time change, so it was sorta dawn-y, so I wore the yellow lenses. They worked out really well.

I just love this photo because it illustrates my extraordinary photography skills and how I NEVER pay attention to anything in the background whenI decide to take a shot!

At the 25 mile SAG, we we caught up to Wilma (or she caught up to us). She'd left before we did, but had stopped at a 13 mile SAG. I was (and still am) so proud of her. We chatted for a little bit and decided to leave together, but we lost her at a stoplight.

The second 25 miles were back up the coast, and into the coast winds...and it was windy last Saturday. We headed back out onto the route which took a little loop up El Camino Real and then toward Villa De La Valle, the Del Mar Race Track, and the back to the coast. As we headed toward El Camino Real, we saw probably one of the scariest things of the day, a cyclist down on the road with paramedics around her. I could see the blood on the road and a VERY still body lying face up. It didn't look good. There's a post on Facebook from the ride that she's OK, but it definitely gave everyone something to think about. Being safe.

The ride up El Camino Real was probably the longest assent in the whole ride...maybe a 5 or 6% grade, but it's longish (maybe about 2 miles) But the good thing about going UPhill is getting to go down!

Wheeeeee. I got up to about 39mph on the first descent.

From there it was around the racetrack and then to the coast where we immediately felt the headwind. Despite the wind, we still maintained about a 15mph pace.

After the previous week's fall, I was a little concerned that I'd end up feeling an ache or two as the ride progressed. I was pleased that at 50 miles, I still felt pretty good.

Ah... 50 miles!

The 50 mile SAG offered us Subway Sandwiches (which I took), and both a view of the ocean AND the finish line. Note to self: don't sign up for another century that is a double loop. I felt fine, but I really wanted to stop and have a beer. I'm not gonna lie. But we had a century to do, so off we went!

Stopped at a light in We followed Arrogant Bastard Ale guy for awhile. Here's nice view of the backs of the Heffer jerseys on Seven and Betty. The day became sufficiently warm enough to take off the arm-warmer sleeves. 

Again... I have NO IDEA what i was taking a picture of...and I only add this photo now because I had noticed that Mik kept adjusting her "seat." She told us later that she'd gone "butterless" for the ride, something that we all found amazing and EXTREMELY AMUSING!!!

As we headed south, we saw Wilma again headed into Oceanside. She said she was done for the day. Big thumbs up to her!

Miles 50 - 75 miles were the same as the first, back down the coast, only warmer and THANKFULLY, less crowded. With the wind at our backs, we cruised down the coast. I turned off the 1 mile "lap" timer on my Garmin, so I have no idea what our pace was for Miles 50-75, but they certainly FELT faster. Before we knew it, we were back at SAG 1, which was now SAG 3.

At 75 miles, we took pix of our feet. And yes, we have matching cow socks.

Somehow Betty thought everyone needed to put their hands on my leg....

Also... no we don't know JM, nor do we know anything about JMs specialty parts (Clarence asked).

Just like we did in this shot (from the Nike Women's 1/2 LAST October) ... I have no idea how she remembers these things..

As you might guess, the last 25 miles were the toughest. Although to be honest, it was really the last 10 that were the worst. It was hot; I was tired (not so much physically, but mentally); AND because I was tired of PB&J or cookies or Powerbars or Sandwiches, I didn't eat anything at the 75 mile SAG, just some GU, I was HUNGRY! Betty pulled us up El Camino Real and out to the coast (2nd descent wasn't as fast as the first, but I think I got caught at a light...still I topped out at about 34mph); Seven did a masterful pull into the coastal headwinds (see below); then Mik pulled us along for awhile. I think she may have been frustrated (or hungry) because we kept asking her to slow down.

See how you can't see Seven in this shot...that's because Betty and Mik are in such a kick-ass pace line. 

I noticed along the way that Mik waved at all the trains. She's a kinder-teacher through and through. I love her!

With about 8 miles to go, it was my turn to pull. I do think this is where my "runners mentality" really helped because I just put my head down and pedaled as hard as I could. I felt how I usually feel in teh last mile of a half marathon, where I tell myself that it's only a mile, that I've run plenty of MILES, and that if I run really fast, I will be done SOONER, and then I can STOP.

Really. I was DONE! My legs at that point actually started burning (has NEVER happened to me on a ride before).

The BEST thing of all happened on the way back with about 2 miles to go, as we were headed back into Oceanside, there was an uphill left turn on PCH. I've made this left LOTS of times. Sometimes we get lucky and there's no oncoming traffic so that we don't have to stop on a hill; sometimes we don't. And it's tricky because we can't always see the oncoming traffic because it's a little rolling hill, so there's no way to really time it. 

We (and by we, I mean me, Mik, Seven, Betty, and a few other century riders who we'd been clumped with) crossed over to the left turn lane and as we neared the street where we needed to turn, a car appeared over the hill...which meant we HAD TO STOP...ON A HILL... AT 98.5 MILES... GAH!!!!!

But this guy is going to heaven because he actually STOPPED and let us go ahead! 

I screamed out I LOVE YOU!!! because at that moment, I did!

Within two miles, we were DONE!

Riders received one "free" photo. Here's my finishing photo. I almost missed the guy as I we neared the finish...also, do you think my seat should be higher? It looks like I'm squatting...hmmmmm. 

and DONE!

And we were done... 6:53 riding time. About 8:20 total time. One of the HUGE differences between a century and a marathon is the time. Riding takes just a heck of a lot longer!

Bike the coast had a lovely bike valet, and the race organizer, coordinator person met us at the finish line and literally almost walked us to the bike valet and made sure we knew where the food was, where the first aid was, where are medals were. I am hoping that they did this with ALL the riders and not just us because we looked as if we needed the extra help.

Truth is, we did. I think we walked around pretty aimlessly for about 20 minutes before we figured out where the food was (they gave us $5 in vouchers to use at a number of food truck/tent type places. I was thrilled to find a Tin Fish on the Oceanside Pier because they have THE BEST FISH TACO...or at least they do at their location that is next to PETCO (the ballpark where the Padres play in downtown San Diego, not the pet store...that's just wrong). 

Afterwards... We used an upsidedown trash can for a table and had some food and beverages  You'll have to take my word on the bevvies because Betty told me it was the new rule to not be photographed with bevvies any more.... we'll see....

Once we ate, we were fueled and ready for some laughs... This was Seven's first even with us, so she needed to experience a full Heffer Event.

It started with Betty, who convinced the race announcer that we had won the "Best Jersey Contest," which, until Betty decided we'd won, there wasn't one.

Here we are... winning our awards! 

We also had some fun, posing for photos in front of the Green Screen.

Since the green in our shirts matched the green screen, the photographer had some difficulty getting us to
"stand out."

Apparently, that wasn't silly enough...

Mik thought Betty would be doing the other side of a "heffer-bump" but Betty was having none of it.

A random "Heffer Fan" took this shot and sent it to Betty. People did seem to really like the Heffer jerseys. They definitely make a statement, about what I'm not sure, but a statement nonetheless.

Seven was feeling strong, and probably ready for another 100...right then and right there.

Fabulous... it sucks living here. I know. I know. 

All in all it was a great ride, and while I don't see myself doing a Century in the near future (sorry Seven...the weeks of training leading up to the Century just ate a bit too much into family time on weekends), I am glad I did it. Once again, we Heffers proved to ourselves that we can do anything we put our minds to, and (perhaps most importantly) have fun while we are at it!

When the Nice Guy turns into a Bad Boy...

A long time ago (after all...aren't all my posts from a long time ago), I wrote about how running was the bad boy in my life, and cycling was the nice guy.

Basically my thesis was that running, for the most part, beat me up, caused injuries, and could be downright difficult; whereas cycling treated me well, didn't hurt me, and for the most part was relatively easy...I mean cycling became easy once I figured out how to not fall over in the clip-ins...but overall, cycling treated me well, really well, spoiled me even with kindness and injury free riding.

So here's how to make a nice guy turn bad; that is, here's how you take a nice guy, push him to his limits, and cause him to hurt you and abuse you.

Train for a Century.

Yep, that did it.

I'm here to say that my name is Alice, and I'm in an abusive relationship with cycling. In the last three or four weeks, I've been letting the nice guy abuse me. It's my fault really. I let him do it. I could have walked away. Really, I could have. But let's not kid ourselves. I've always been a glutton for punishment.

I've always been the kind of girl who thinks she can tame the wild ones.

The problem really started about two months ago. As the mileage in our training together increased, as did the elevation of the hills, so did the abuse. It started off with some little things. After some training rides, when I typically feel pretty good, I started to notice that my hamstrings actually ached. I noticed that I was going through a fair amount of Chamois Butter. I didn't take it seriously though. I was kinda happy that the nice guy was taking charge. In fact I probably encouraged the situation by taking on longer rides and trying to tackle more hills.

But I also started to notice that the nice guy was taking on more and ore of my time.

Five plus hours to ride 74 miles...and that's just riding time! My Garmin stops when I do at stoplights and SAG stops. That particular ride probably started around 7:00... 

and those looooooooooooooong-ass rides left me really, really, really tired.

Yep, Betty, Seven*, and I are a chipper looking bunch after 74 miles

I barely made it through the Aztec game the following weekend...or the KGB Sky Show that followed...

Even still... I came back the next weekend for more of the nice guy and for more abuse, and he served it up the following weekend, but with a cruel twist.

Halfway through the longest training ride. San Diego to San Clemente and back... we were looking pretty spry at that point. My goal that day was to finish the ride in about six hours so that Walter and I could make it to an Aztec tailgate party

Not more than ten minutes after that last shot was taken, I hit a divot pretty hard and blew out my back tire....

It took three guys, three tubes, four C02 cartridges, two C02 cartridge inflation devices, and almost an hour to change one tire...causing a 6 hour ride to become a 7 hour ride (which made me really late for an Aztec game, and the subsequent sky show...see above)

In addition, I think the nice guy was jealous of the herd's typical after-ride festivities and celebrations! All those loooooooooooooong-ass, multiple-hour, tire-changing rides, resulted in rides ending so late on Saturdays, and because The Herd has families, and other events to eventually get to on Saturday nights, we DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TIME FOR MIMOSAS!!!!

GAH!!!!!!!

I should have seen the signs, the nice guy was taking over my life!

I scrolled through three months of photos, and the closest I could come to a photo of a mimosa is this...the two beers Betty and I had after the 74 mile ride...and we only stopped for those because we needed food and luckily Rubios has both food AND beer!

But the ultimate hurt came yesterday, on our last training ride before next week's century. First of all, I broke almost all the rules of being prepared for a long ride. I stayed up too late the night before. I didn't eat anything before riding. I didn't eat enough during the ride. I figured it was ONLY 50 MILES... I mean, after the 60+, 70+, and 80+ rides I'd been doing, I didn't really need to take a measly little 50 miler, very seriously right?

I was wrong.

It was HOT yesterday. AGAIN!!! I don't like to complain about the weather because I know that the east coast is about to batten down for the storm of the century, but let's just say that it is NOVEMBER HERE PEOPLE...ENOUGH WITH THE HEAT ALREADY!!!!

Seriously, we have not seen fall yet. It's been HOT, DAMN HOT, since about JUNE. Almost all of our training rides have occurred with the temperature generally in upper 80 to lower 90 degrees...in FREEKIN' SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER!

Yesterday topped out at about 95F...maybe it was hotter. I would also add that when we started riding, it was about 46F. It's tough to prepare for a 50F swing in temperatures. Typical Santa Ana conditons...cold and dry turning to hot and dry. Miserable.

But for the most part, I ignored all of what I've learned about riding yesterday.

Which resulted in this

OUCH!

I crashed...while riding. Now I've tipped over a few times because I didn't get out of the clip-ins fast enough, but this is the first time that I actually crashed while riding, and I can pretty much attribute all of it bonking.

Bonking while running means that you sit down. Bonking while riding means that you fall down.

The best that I can describe it is that I we were coming to the last hill of our roughly 56 mile ride. On the left was traffic coming off a freeway offramp, and it was moving pretty quickly. On the right traffic merges from Camino Del Rio South (not a very busy street, but still). 

See...can't you visualize the situation much better now?

As I was looking over my right shoulder to make sure there was no traffic, I must have turned my tire sharply to the left (oops), a lazy, tired, move, and then, because there were probably cars zooming by on the left, I over corrected and (probably complicated by the fact that I was tired and hot) went BOOM!

Again, don't you appreciate my mad illustration skillz? 

And because I have nowhere else to post this...I screamed...

I carved this on Thursday night, I didn't know at the time it would be foreshadowing...

In any event, today, today my elbow looks like this... My right leg and right shoulder look about the same...

You never know how much you lean on your elbows, until it hurts to lean on your elbow...

I'll be honest, my thoughts as I was falling were: 

1. Fall on the dirt and not the street, it'll hurt less
2. Fall on your butt, there's lots of padding there (I do think that my butt hit the ground shortly after my elbow. I call it my ski fall. When you learn to ski, you first learn to not fight the fall. Betty told me afterward that my fall looked quite graceful!)
3. And most importantly DON'T TEAR THE NEW HEFFER JERSEY!!!!

The unveiling taken earlier that morning in Poway. No florescent, day-glo- neon, lime green, but they do look pretty sharp!

So...can I call the police and report cycling for assault and battery? I think I have a pretty good case.

Or should I wait until after next week's Bike the Coast Century? Maybe he'll be nice to me next week...

____________________
* Seven has seven children, thus the nickname. We also call her Nascar because she got hit by a car on one ride with Betty (she's OK of course, but it was scary....yet another way the nice guy can hurt you). We also call her BIMP, because she rode one day with a "Burrito in my pocket" from a breakfast burrito that she decided to eat "later." On the 85 mile ride, she brought a potato...which means, of course, that she has ANOTHER nickname!

Rest Days...

I've been working out with a trainer at the gym this summer...about two days a week, and I'm happy to say that I'm seeing some results, mostly in my upper body (Let's face it, that's the easy spot. Heck any sort of attention paid to my arms and back would see SOME RESULT, seeing as I have the weakest arms imaginable.) It's nice to pull on a Medium top and not have it pull at the shoulders. (BOOOOOO to back fat!)

We work a lot on stability (I suck, but am getting better). The other day I managed to hold a one armed plank on a bosu ball for about 45 seconds...twice! We (what the hell am I saying "we" for? I am the one working...GAH!) I also pay her to torture me with some cross fit type workouts (actually, these are my favorite...I like running around then lifting or throwing something heavy...I can see the theraputic aspect of this once school starts again) and some for some really serious torture, we go to the TRX. Last week, we did some work on my quads and hamstrings (my strong suit), and I was humbled by some soreness the following day (maybe I'm not as strong as I think I am?)

We also do some serious core work, but I'm not losing a lot in my waist area...apparently, sit-ups and crunches of all sorts will only get you so far in toning and slimming up a belly...to really do that, I'm going to have to change my diet.... and summer is, apparently, NOT a good time for me to do that. I keep saying...when school starts and I'm on a more reasonable schedule, I'll get back to a more regular diet. Until then, summer on BABEEEEEE.

I like my trainer. She's super positive. She frequently comments on how athletic I am or how strong I am or how I have great endurance. Who would ever get tired of hearing that? I think as a trainer at 24-Hour Fitness, she probably spends lots of time convincing clients that they need to do SOMETHING on the days when they don't work out with her.

She tries to convince me to take rest days.

This is hard for me to do right now. I KNOW that there will be PLENTY of rest days when I return to school...too many perhaps.

And what counts as a rest day anyway? I have been in full cross training mode this summer. Twice a week, I work out with Kelly. Each workout focuses on different muscle groups. Occassionally, after a workout, I will spend 30 or 40 minutes on an ellipticle. One or two other days, I ride my bike...25 to 40 miles. One or two other days, I've been taking a spin class. And one or two days a week, I run. And with one exception, I've been doing only one workout a day.

Is that overdoing it? It doesn't feel overdone.

No matter, I guess I'm getting a "rest day" in today because I am on a plane, on my way to Salinas for the California Rodeo to see Elsie's dad rope calves in what he says is his last rodeo. I am sure I'll have many good stories about that.

Until then, wheat I can report (or re-report what I already posted on FB), is that cruising through the San Diego airport wearing a cowboy hat and Flipflops will get you some pretty funny looks. I can't wait to see what the response is in San Jose!

The response in San Jose was much the same...smiles and quizzical looks, except for one gentleman who was ALSO wearing a cowboy hat who asked me if my purple duffle bag was from TCU. my response was, "uh...no. Victoria's Secret." His wife laughed.

Posted with Blogsy

Hello Out There! (A Report on Maui and More!)

Everything is OK over here! (Snorkling off Molokini, Hawai'i - July 2012)

Sitemeter sends me a report every week about how many visits there were to my blog. Apparently last week 142 peeps visited my blog and found a post that was about a month old.

So I have to wonder who those 142 people are...

Apparently one of my regular visitors is my dad, who mentioned to me last week that he hadn't seen anything new on the blog recently. 

True That. 

He complained noted that the blog is one way that he keeps up with what is going on in my life (yes, I am a bad daughter and I don't call nearly often enough).

So... Dad reads to find out what's going on in my current life, but those other 141 people (or maybe they are even non-people autobot Internet search engine thingies...I'm not entirely sure how these things work) were primarily interested in things I wrote last year and beyond. Top posts were:

• A June 2011 review of the San Diego Rock and Roll Swag Bag (59 page views)
• A March 2011 post about getting ready to ride the Grand Fondo (58 page views
• A October 2011 post about Elsie's bday-party weekend in San Francisco when we ran in the Nike Women's Half Marathon (54 page views)
• A June 2009 rant about my various foot injuries (47 page views)
• A January 2009 photo-expo in which I describe how I further injured my hip by using a massage stick...I think the title "The Dangers of Self-Massage" gets some people to the site by mistake. (46 page views)

Clearly, I USED TO BE, far mor interesting than I am right now.

My goal at the beginning of this summer was to get back into blogging regularly. Clearly THAT hasn't happened, even though I regularly have LOTS of ideas for things to write about, not all of them having to do with running. Still, when push comes to shove, I don't write. Not sure why. I just don't. I have all these great ideas, (or at least in my mind they are great), about things I can write about that come to me at the most inopportune times (inopportune = when I am nowhere near a computer and can't write them down). These inopportune times include:

• when I'm running
• when I am riding, 
• when I am working out with Kelly (the trainer at the gym), 
• when I am arguing with my soon-to-be-17-year-old-daughter, DramaGirl, about... well, about any number of things.
• when I can't sleep

In any event, I have come to one conclusion. Well... a kinda, in-a-way, sorta, but not really a conclusion, just a sorta inevitability. In the coming months I either need to somewhat repurpose this blog, write more frequently about specific things, than this past year's general "here's what's been going on this week" type things (sorry Dad)

or

I have to let it go.

I'm going to aim for the more regular posts about random things that happen in my life. Some of these posts may be about riding, running, working out, but others may not be. I hope that's OK. (of course it's OK...my blog, my rules, right?)

But as for the rest of this post, I do have to upload what will probably be too many photos of what's been going on this past month. After all, I can't force Dad to go all-cold-turkey-on-the-whatsgoingoninmylife-blog-updates.

Late June - Turbo's 8th Grade Promotion

My grownup baby boy...and Walter of course. They're lookalikes aren't they?

Went to a mascarade party with his buddies. Impressive to get 8th grade boys to dress up. They decided to wear vests. I don't know why, but stylish, no? 

Late June - Early July - Family Vacation to Maui

On the plane - All I saw was "complimentary Mai Tai!" 

And we arrive...in time for lunch and more umbrella drinks

We saw mandals everywhere (Betty's sandal of choice BTW) 

Our first morning there, we enjoyed the sunrise from the top of Haleakala (Volcano/Crater on Maui) - about 6am. We'd been up since 2am at this point. The sunrise was breathtaking. 

It was also breathtakingly COLD at 10,000 feet. Even if you are in Hawai'i!

We rode our bikes down from the top of the Volcano. 28 miles, all downhill. Fun! Here we are doing bike tricks. 

DramaGirl and I at Sunset

One (and only) morning run on the beach for Walter and me. Beach running was no fun for my injured baby toe

One very windy scenic lookout.  

DramaGirl and Turbo - Checking out the fish

DramaGirl and Walter checking out the fish  

On a boat, after snorkling. Walter did a good job of feeding the fish.

DramaGirl did not enjoy this adventure AT ALL

Toes in the sand at Sunset

Turbo on a Zipline (no hands!)

DramaGirl doing Crazy Legs

As I was doing this, I was thinking how awesome my life is, and how great it is to be fit and active and that I just climbed a ladder on a freeking 900 foot tree with no problem!

Too much fun (we were yelling at him to LET GO!!!!) 

Last night - Sunset Dinner Cruise

While we were in Maui, we celebrated our 20th anniversary - 20 years later... I think he still likes me :-)

Last morning beach walk. 

The family (before the Sunset Cruise)

Upon returning to SoCal - Back to the grind (I am still on vacation you know...)

40 miles ride with Betty and "Seven" to Oceanside and back 

This weekend, 40 mile ride with Betty and Mik to Chula Vista and around South Bay (to get there, Betty took us on a lovely ride down Imperial Avenue and Euclid...parts of town I have not been to before)

It's been a very, very, very, good month. 

Here's to 20 more (or more) just like it!