even more accomplished

as my training goes on, it keeps getting harder and harder and i keep progressing =). this weekend we camped out at lake san antonio and we had our half iron distance race on saturday. soooo...essentially i would have to swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles.

the swim was quite pleasant, as it was in a lake, and not the COLD & SALTY bay. the water was cold but definitely not as cold as aquatic park and we didn't have the waves fighting us. my swim went quite well, i finished in 54mins, and i beat my projected time by 4 mins =)!!! i would've been faster if i could swim straight and swam more by the shore, but that's something i can work on.


we all know that biking is my weakest point, so when everyone was warning me that this was one of the hardest bike courses for triathlons, i was not looking forward to it AT ALL! as i said this was a 56 mile course, so this weekend was the furthest that i rode my bike ever! not to mention all the hills and the biggest one of all called "NASTY GRADE." trust me it was VERY NASTY! i had to take a rest a little before getting to the top (and i was soooo exhausted that i couldn't clip out in time and fell over), but i finished it....and i didn't walk my bike up like some people. i was determined to get this done. although the ironman bike course is double the distance, it is not as hard as this course, so if i can conquer this, i'm sure to conquer the ironman course.

here is a picture of just the bike course and an elevation map so you can see what i'm talking about when i say it one of the hardest triathlon courses and you can see the elevation of "NASTY GRADE"

i also got to meet one of the cutest honorees. his name is TYLER. he's only 5 years old and he has the courage to fight with cancer. this is why i fundraise.

halfway there

i'm getting pretty anxious...my half way to Iron race is this weekend at lake san antonio. that means i'll be racing the half distances of the the actual race.

if you've talked to me you know that biking makes me the most nervous, even though every seems to think it's the easiest. the course that we are biking has the hardest bike course of all triathlons. of course that doesn't make me feel any better, but when i finish, i'm sure to have more confidance knowing i've conquered those hills.

i'll be sure to post pictures and tell you all about it when i get back...wish me luck!

Ironteam bootcamp

this weekend was a pretty crazy weekend. i worked out for 15+ hours just this weekend. i definitley pushed through my comfort zone and was pretty amazed at what i had accomplished by the end of bootcamp.

saturday, started off at 8am at aquatic park. i swam in the bay AGAIN! woo hoo for me. they had a little obstacle course set up for us where we would have to swim to a buoy and back, run up to the beach, and do an exercise. after the first buoy we had to do jumping jacks, after the next we did hinge push ups, and the next we did wheelbarrel races and then we had to swim around the last buoy and across all the other buoys we swam around and then run back up the beach. (i hope i explained that well enough so you can picture it) i don't know how the others felt about it, but i thought it was fun.

then it was off to the sports basement in the presidio. i missed the ride on the road, but we jogged over to green street where they have these MASSIVE stairs. and by massive i mean they go FOREVER and they are super STEEEEEEEP. then we ran back to sports basement and did a spin. Ran along the presido towards the bridge and spun again. Then ran to the safeway and did some core stuff, then back to our cars. we finish a little after 4pm.

sunday, our workout was in san jo, at gunderson high school. our day started off at 8am again! we started in the pool and swam for about an hour. then coach pete took me for a ride on my bike. i had to go up another MASSIVE hill, and nearly cried as i was climbing up. but, I MADE IT! but, b/c i missed the ride the day before, i had to do it twice, but only half way. and i did it again! woo hoo! omg if only you could see this street... then it was back to the school and we did two sets of spin/runs. our day ended at 3pm.

overall, i pushed myself beyonds limits with the help of coach elaine, coach pete, coach joe from the south bay team. THANK YOU!!! i swam really well in the bay and i got up the massive hills on my bike. and i know this may seem like a really little thing, but i can get my water bottle out of my water cage while riding...woo hoo!

so if you guys see me please don't be suprised that i'm super dark and have major tan lines...

reunited and it feels so good

sa~rah and me at XYZ bar in the W hotel

SA~RAH (that's my little nickname for her, her real name is sarah..duh!) and i have known each other for quite some time now. she was actually one of my many managers at guess. no i'm not asking you to guess, i worked in the retail store, guess?, for years. so as i was saying, she and i became really good friends and have managed to keep in touch this whole time. we would meet every so often and have lunch or dinner together and catch up, and nothing has changed. she currently resides in LA, but came into the city for a mini vacation, so OF COURSE we had to. we met and had dinner at straits in sf centre. we walked around the mall for a little and headed to her hotel. she stayed at the W, and the room was really nice and interesting. we met phil, ozz, and les at the bar downstairs and talked the night away. we even forgot to press the botton the elevator twice b/c we were so engaged in our conversation.

sa~rah...always so good to catch up with you. it seems like we never skip a beat. i can't wait until may to see you again!

swim marker

every so often we are told to do a swim marker so see how far we can swim in 30 minutes. i was very please with myself this time around as i DRAMATICALLY IMPROVED! ;) the last couple of times i only did about 31 or 32 lengths of a 25 meter pool, this time i did 40 lengths. WOOHOO! anddddd...i still had a minute and some left, i didn't want to go another lap b/c i would be able to hear the beep of my watch, so i just ended it there.

weekend update

i started the weekend off early on saturday morning. i met some of the IRONTEAM on van ness near aquatic park at 8am. coach mike and coach elaine mapped out a course of about 13 miles around the city and we were supposed to be done in about 1 hour and a half. i could never finish 13 miles in an hour and a half, so lesley did a moderation course and turned around after about 50 minutes, i followed. we ended up running for about an hour and 47 minutes. when i got home phil and i went to his nephew, cj's game. then it was off to phil's gig. he dj'd an 18th birthday party and i mc'd.

my sunday morning started at 8am again. i didn't get much sleep b/c of the party the night before andddd we lost an hour due to daylight savings. i definitely needed to IRONMAN UP today...and i did! =) we started out with a spinnerval, ran for 10 minutes and then we rode around lake merced and the surrounding neighborhood and ran for 10 minutes and i did it all again. the day was really nice today, i even got a couple of tan lines. and i got my first war wound b/c i bit it the second time we rode out. =P today was definitely a trying work out. but, i got through it with the help of coach pete, coach alex, coach elaine, coach larry, and coach izumi. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT. i wouldn't have been able to make it through the day, especially the second ride, without you guys.

scraptacular getaway 2.28 - 3.02

this weekend, i was exposed to some hardcore scrappers. =) i went to a scrap crop. basically, it's a big room with vendors around the perimeter and a bunch of tables in the middle for people to work on their scrapbooks. they have games and lots and lots of door prizes. i won a couple of mini prizes and i actually used some on the pages i worked on. the room is open all night, some people didn't leave until about 6am and were back at about 8.30am.

i was there mainly helping out vivien and her store scrappersXchange. i was mostly helping people and writing down their orders but i did get in some work. i was able to work on a few pages in my ironteam book and a few pages of a mini book that i have of me and phil. with all the help around me i was REALLY happy with the way my pages turned out.

FINALLY, here are the pages:

these are the pages in my mini book of me and phil...i'm still not too sure about the 3rd page...

on the first page, the tabbed paper, is the very first type of journaling that i've done, i hate my writing so it's hidden.
those are the pages i got done...hope you like them, please feel free to comment.