Inspiration

Tim found this video a while back. It's an amazing combination of talent, strength, skill, and artistry. 


Some may say the star Danny Macaskill is crazy. There will always be haters. I bet it took countless hours to build those skills. I can't help but respect that kind of dedication. He talks about using his bike like a pogo stick. I'm not going to become the next Danny Macaskill. I'll stick to switchbacks and such. 


Santa and our friend "The Weekender" must have saw a little bit of Danny Macaskill inside of Tim and I  brought us a shiny red pogo stick for Christmas. It's really silly fun and believe it or not addicting.


I wasn't very good at first but my skills are steadily improving. I bet I'm just one hop away from better fitness, maybe two hops away from better gluts and abs.


Clearly Bruce, my father in law, has past experience. See what happens when you don't grow up with a Wii. When you grow up you can hop backwards in a circle. 

In celebration of Thanksgiving I enjoyed a slice of pie and a slice of the Palm Canyon Epic. The plan is to celebrate NYE in the same manner. 


In video #1 Tim demontates how to ride a technical rocky section in control. He also demonstrates how to be made fun of in junior high. Please note the camera sticking up from the top of his helmet. Points awarded for style there. 



Video #2

Question: Do I demonstrate clever or cowardly tactics by stopping upon entering full view of the camera?


Paul demonstrates good videography and narrative skills, with that in mind I'll stay out of the camera's view when the heat it on.

Merry Christmas


It's not that I don't have inspiration to blog, it's that Tim and I have had techincal difficulties with our computers.  Some people paint by numbers. I like to blog by pictures. Lately, the pictures seem to sync from the I phone to never-never land on Tim's Mac. After about 30 minutes of digging around the computer I realize I'm loosing the battle and I have plenty to do. Clothes are wrinkling in the dryer. Dinner is not cooking itself. My piriformis certainly isn't going to stretch itself now is it?  No, but there are lots of blog worthy entries as soon as I stumble across the photo files I'll get them published. 

Christmas is coming.

 I love Christmas trees. I tried to surprise Tim by getting the Christmas tree but it was Costco sized. After wrestling it home and onto the porch I bonked. Tim inherited a bit of a project. It's the first time that has ever happened I promise.


Tim was glad to help get the tree up as soon as we did some of this.


That picture is taken from somewhere near/above Bob Hope's house. I don't know much about Bob's house, but on the ride we heard a lot about it. I do know the "Palm Canyon Epic" is a ride that left me feeling like a kid on Christmas.

 I thought maybe Tim upgraded my ride to an automatic transmission for Christmas. The bike began to shift gears before I touched the shifter. It turns out I wore out the middle chain ring. What perfect timing.

For unto the tree a new ornament was born.

Thanksgiving

Thankful!


For Family, Friends, and....


 Times Like This!

Congrats

Congrats To My Father -In Law Bruce and My Pal Stacy.
 

They Rocked



I can't wait to hear the full details.

Weekends Rock

Saturday November 6, 2010

In The Dirt: Off Road Triathlon



Warning: this photo is a recreation of the actual event. 


FUN
Almost but not quite Famous. Kind of but not quite a big deal.
Grinning from ear to ear I flew down the mountain and into T2. I still had the run 4 mile run ahead but I wasn't worried because the run course was my dream come true. Super steep climb, single track on the ridge line then down it, a little bit of flat, then up, up, up, and time to descend the super steep decent. Yes! That type of terrain, it just agrees with me. Lots of people say their knees hurt when they run down hill. Lucky me, mine don't. I ran down that hill full speed ahead. Tim said he knew it was me from a mile away because I have a certain style up and down steep hills :) He was a mile away because he was finished already. I passed him about between about a 1/4 mile from the finish. I tossed him my water bottle and prepared for an all out effort up the hill to the finish. Timsaid I was the 5th place female. He teases a lot. Can't fool me I said. I'm "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner." Actually you are in 2nd Tim told me. Really? Oops.

Apparently a 42 year old female was actaully leading the whole race at one point. Rumor has it, the boys had to giddy it up a little due to her presense. She was so far ahead people just thought I was the first female.
I couldn't really be dissapointed because the mistaken information allowed me some great quality time in the land of make believe. It sure was good while it lasted.

 11th in my age at Xterra Worlds, 11th today including the boys, technically men. First in my age at a triathlon, that's a first. Yes, the field was small. Yes, there is always somebody faster. Guess what? If you want to win first you have to show up.  Tim won his age too. He went really fast because he was afraid that I might catch him.

2 Medals?
Trying to decide which one he likes best.

Even though our muscles were tired from racing and carrying around our medals all morning. We decided Temecula riding was to good to pass up.

Round 2 for the day. This time we did the "12 Hours of Temecula Course" It was even more splendid than our race course. I have my pads on just in case. Thankfully though they were just for decoration.


Sunday November 7, 2010

Noble Canyon: This time without the bikes


Tim and I did Noble Canyon bricks while training for Hawaii. We romanticized about how much fun it would be to just run Noble Canyon.I don't know why these pictures have flipped over sideways but it about sums up how I felt most of the day so I'll just leave them alone. The joke is you don't have to run faster than the mountain lion to not get eaten. You just have to be faster than the slowest person. Oh yeah that would be me. Paul has recently taken up ultra running and was happy to join us. He runs on his forefoot nicely and for a long time I thought his foot prints were that of a large hungry cat. 
I wish I could better recall this event but it's a big fuzzy mess. I do remember laughing a lot. Hysterically, Inappropriately. Choking on my water and having it spew out my nostrils. After the run we went to "Frosty Burger". It was an adventure in itself best summed up by the statement " Get that vacant look off your face and eat the cheeseburger".
.

More to do in Maui

Snorkeling

 I am a "swimmer" now. No snorkel mask required.  I ditched the fins soon after.

Run Snorkel Run!


 I put a little wear on my shoes.




Haleakala


Couldn't complain too much even though the sun did not rise.



It was beyond cold, wet, and windy at 10,000 ft.

 
It took us 2 hours to finally work up the courage to brave the inclement weather.



We took the chance. 


 We had reason to believe the weather would be better below. 

After all we were in Hawaii.


This is better.


Tim likes it.




Running


Makena Beach isn't just for running on race day.


We added a climb up the cinder cone to the course.


 And found another great snorkeling spot.


Just the kind of running I love!






Waterfall Hikes


 Bamboo Forrest.



 Jump in with both feet!




 I think I'll go for a swim too.

 Good thing there is a rope.







Xterra World Championships

October 24,2010
 Makena Beach, Maui


Every aspect of the Xterra Wolrd Championships is awesome. I have been too many great races but this one has so many extras that make it unique. The Xterra website makes great videos and has great and flavorful descriptions of the coure. If you're interested my account here goes:

The race was guarded by these Hawaiian Warriors. I dare you to jump the gun.

  

I'm smart enough not to take any lava rock home from the island. Instead I took home kiawe thorns. Madame Pele must like me because by rights I should have flatted.



Some would say tubeless tires saved my race but I like to believe it was Pele. I"m learning so much about the physical and mechanical parts of mountain biking. Instead of an inner tube in my tire I have goop. When the thorn went in, the goop sealed around it. If I had an inner tube, it would have popped.  Note...let air pressure out of tire before removing the thorn. I didn't know this for the first thorn. We removed it and sealant erupted like lava from a volcano. I'm not sad one bit about this. It added to the post race celebration.


The Swim:


This guy was under buoy #3 when I warmed up on Saturday. How's that for awesome?
The course was 1500 m swim with a short run in the sand between loops. It was my favorite race swim ever. It was the first time I didn't want the swim to end. The water was clear and beautiful. I think I swim better in clear, calm water, at sea level. The clear water allowed me see my hands and arms so I could correct my form. Not having rip roaring chop at altitude made it so easy to breathe. It was a real treat. Not to pass judgement but if you don't like this swim, something is wrong with you.

I figured I would need all the energy I could muster on the bike and the run. I focused on swimming as relaxed as possible an not offing myself. Not sure that was the best tactic but it made for 30 minutes of enjoyable swimming.


Tim loved the swim too. His 2000 meters of freestyle twice a week must have paid off . He came out of the race in good time. I was a bit back, but not nearly as far back as I have been on other occassions. It was a good swim for me. I have a couple theories on why I had such a good swim. One is the quality of the water but the more reasonable is the stamped on numbers. After 4 years of triathlon and 3 full Ironmans I finally got body marked with more than a Sharpie. I must have hit the big time.

Transition: I spent a total of 4.5 minutes in transition this race. This isn't so bad all things considered. There is a fair amount of running in the grass. My off road swim to bike transition is slower than on road. I take time to put on my hydration pack and my gloves. I even give my face a quick wipe so my sunglassed don't steam up.  It's not that I don't care about racing off road, it's that I respect it. I don't want to spend the whole ride worrying about my hands slipping off the bars and crashing. I also spent the time to put on my Garmin. It wasn't so much becuase I wanted to see how fast I was going. Off road speed is pretty irrelevant. I really wanted this race documented. 


The Bike:



The bike course is everything it is described to be. Some define love as the refusal to give up. If so, then I love the course. It was challenging. I wasn't able to "race it" super well as I was gaining lava riding skills and confidence as I rode. I was lucky enough to ride the short practice course with some amazing females on Saturday. Thank you to San Diego's finest Xterra athletes Jessica, Lesley, and Tammy for sharing your secrets and skills. I think I was more nervous about riding with these standouts than the race course itself. They taught me the best was to handle loose lava. DON'T BRAKE. This was reinforced at the mandantory athlete's meeting. Usually athletes meetings are a snore but this was the most entertaining, important, and insightful prerace meeting ever been. Kapuna Dave the race director showed a film of the bike course. He gave instructions of what to expect in each section. He explained why braking in the loose lava makes your bike fishtail. He also showed a picture of two goat skulls. He said they would mark the bottom of the 8 K descent called "The Plunge". I will never stop loving how moutain bikers affectionatley name parts of courses.

The good thing about the practice loop was I learned a good bit about manuvering in the loose lava. The bad was it really was loose. It really made me give Pele a lot of respect. It psyched me out a bit. I figured out ways of controlling my speed  by braking in the sections leading up to loose lava and by making my cornering really wide on the decent. This killed a lot of speed without using the brakes and allowed me to stay in control. Someday, I'll ride that course and look for areas to pick up speed but first thing first. Each time I passed it took me forever to muster the confidence. Passing required the ability to leave the good line and ride through rougher terrain. I wished I had a rear view mirror as trying to look over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't cutting anybody off was hard. I don't know if my tactics were good ones but if I make the video it will be not be in the crashing section.


There is a fair amount of climbing  on the course. It's manageable though. It seemed to ride best when I spun seated at a higher cadence in a lower gear. Pushing a bigger gear just made the lava pull my wheels around. I thought spinning an easy gear would allow me to run really fast. That was before the 8K decent called "The Plunge". I actually loved " The Plunge" It felt like skiing down a long sweeping ski run  and making turns in the high tuck position. Descending the plunge required a lot of static arm and quad strength to hold the body back on the bike while. Experience, fitness, skill and strength would help me with this. Jack hammering before running hill repeats wearing a garbage bag would be a good training plan. 

Tim and I would have loved to ride the course again during our stay. It would have been fun to take in the views, relive the moments, and plan for future races. The course is special and riding is for race day only.


The Run:
 It's a pretty amazing run course. Yes, it's hard but it's not heinous. The elements make the course amazing and incredibly challenging. I didn't have any feeling of hatred towards the course even though a max heart rate of 189 was very uncomfortable. I just wish I had more to give and execute on it.

 Like the bike you can only run the full course on race day. We went back and ran "The Spooky Forest" section, the beaches and the lava rock again later in the week. It seemed much easier. I'd like to think that I have developed lava running skills but we all know why that is.


Tim left his hydration pack on for the run. Probably wasn't a bad idea. I don't know if it was lack of coordination due to fatigue or the nature of the terrain. I had a tough time refilling my water bottle on the run. It only took in one gel on the run. It was really hard work getting the gel out of my pocket and I really didn't think there was any blood flow to my gut to digest it anyway.

The first three miles of the run are up. It starts gently and gets steeper. After mile three you have a nice long descent on a trail. The descent saved my day! The climb got progressively harder and hotter for me. I didn't really know how long I would climb before I had any "recovery" and how long I could endure it. There were lots of people walking. It didn't look like running was much faster in some spots. I walked more than I preferred to but I just felt like I could exceed my limits and I knew I still had sand and lava ahead. A 35 year old Brazilian triathlete with veins popping out everywhere was walking. I figured if he was walking I should be walking :) Maybe I could have pushed through it, but maybe I would have collapsed. I was happy for the down hill. I made decent time while recovering some energy for the challenges that were to come. I knew I'd be fine in those sections. I had an emergency plan. Sand is tough to run in, but if I felt really terrible I would just run in the ocean and refresh myself with a quick dip. Luckily I didn't need to. The Spooky Forest was really cool. Lots of down trees to leap over. I wasn't leaping to aggressively at that point. I was hanging on for dear life but I still appreciated the course. Finally it was on to the lava rock. Even with 300 yards to go I don't think anybody is sure they will make it. Quite frankly not everybody does make it. 


 Tim did.
I made it too.
What a great way to start a Maui vacation!
Love the dirty faces.

Maui Thoughts

I've got a thinking/working/get it done face on there.

 I think a lot. Maybe too much. The pros, the cons, the good, the bad, the best , the worst, the hope , the fear. Think too much. Anyway. Here's what I'm thinking. Starting to mountain bike less than a year before attending an off road championship race might be a bit much. Some people might say "you should have waited a year".  I'm glad I went while I had the chance. Once people read about all the fun I had they will all be competing with me for a spot at that race. That's what I am thinking.

More Maui

The book is still in the works. In case you need photographic proof of what an awesome experience Maui was here's a few photos.

 Tim and I with the overall champion Conrad Stolz. I love watching him ride the bike, he's strong like bull. In person he seems more like a gentle giant. Note: He is in his race kit still which means I must have finished right behind him.
A wave hello. I'm happy to be exiting the lava field even if it is in exchange for deep sand. The joy of finishing 28 minutes behind your spouse. He can come back and take a few photos.