A Wee Bit of Help

Howdy y'all, if you want to help a cool Big Island girl fulfill her dream of racing her home course as a pro, please give what you can to Bree Wee. She has a hard time asking for help when it comes to money stuff, but she has no problem giving what little money she has to others. I know this first-hand because I was on the receiving end when I trained with her on the B.I. As broke as she was, she would still treat me to lunches post training at Island Naturals, or she would buy the ingredients to make me things like granola and energy bars. She would chauffeur my ass everywhere on the B.I. to grocery shop, to and from swim practice, to the beach, and she let me use her truck to run errands, never asking for gas money. I know that there are people asking you for money to cure cancer, and compared to cancer, a dream of racing your home course seems frivolous. I know it is important to give to worthwhile causes like finding a cure for cancer, but I also think we should allocate some money just for fun and frivolity, and for helping dreams come true.

Bree is trying to make her dream of racing the Kona World Championships this year. She is chasing points to be one of 35 female pros who will tow the start line. In order to chase these points, she needs money to travel to the races. Any amount is a good amount. I tried to get her to open a PayPal account but she's old skool, so drop it in the mail to:

Bree Wee Po Box 1033 Kailua-Kona, HI 96745

If you are in the Bay Area, I can swing by and pick up your donation and mail it to her. I have a PayPal account so if you rather do it all electronically, just hit me up and we can arrange it. Mahalo!

Forced Rest

After putting in 20 hours of training, this past week was supposed to be all about recovery. But I think I might have biked a little too hard, and ran a bit too much and too fast this week. It was nice to feel fit and I think I just went a bit overboard, one of the pitfalls of not having a proper coach. Summer weather can also be brutal here in SF, and combining a tired body with a relentlessly cold and windy track workout on Thursday night left me waking up with a sore throat. The poor swim workout on Friday morning told me my body was under metabolic distress. But instead of going home after the workout, I proceeded with my planned weight session for the day. I'm a bit addicted to the weight room as of late. I always say I only need to be in there for 45 minutes, and lo and behold, 90 minutes later....I even snuck in an extra day of weights this past week. Once again, do yourself a favor and get yourself a proper coach. Well, since I wasn't taking proper care of myself, I guess the Universe decided to step in. I've been down and out for the past two days with a bad cold. I am now forced to rest and recover. Did I mention you might want to get yourself a proper coach? If so, this woman just recently started coaching.

Train-Cation

I'm feeling a lot more fit since coming back from my train-cation in SoCal. Today, I did a ride that usually gives me an idea of my fitness. I will admit to having a bit of a bad attitude toward getting fit for the second half of my season, going so far as to entertain the idea of just calling it quits for the year. Post illness, I've just had a hard time getting back into race shape. But by the conclusion of today's ride and run off the bike, I am feeling pretty fit, and more jazzed to race again. Right now, I am planning to race the Donner Lake 70.3 at the end of the month.

But back to the train-cation. I spent several days in San Clemente doing some easy rides, longs runs, and easy swims. Between workouts, I hit up some of my favorite places like Pedro's Tacos, Thalia Surf Shop and the Rainbow Sandals outlet. I was hoping to have more beach time, but unlike the rest of California which was experiencing a heat wave, San Clemente was under a bed of coastal fog. But the weather was still nice and warm. From San Clemente, I headed up to LA for an overnight stay at the Ritz-Carlton to see the Beyonce concert. I think the last time I went to a concert was Lollapalooza. I felt a bit out of place not only at the concert, but also at the Ritz. Do any of you just feel like a country bumpkin at these fancy hotels? I never know what to do or how to behave when they want to open doors for me, carry my luggage, or want to park my car. It just feels awkward. Also, I never know if I should tip, and if I do, how much. It just seems like you end up paying so much more money for things that you have no problem doing yourself. But it was nice just to walk across the street back to our hotel after the concert. I don't think I've ever bought any of Beyonce's music but I must say she gives a great live performance.

From LA it was off to Thousand Oaks to train with the Monicas, Tom and Maria. I trained with this couple when we all lived in SF from 1996-98. They convinced me to do my first ironman. Tom has since moved on to being a multiple world champion in his age-group at Xterra, and he started getting back into road triathlons this year. Maria was an age-group podium finisher in Hawaii, and she moved on to cycling races in the Pro, CAT 1 for awhile. We had a nice time catching up while riding our bikes up the mountains and along the coast, doing famous climbs like Latigo and Mulholland. The best part was that every training session concluded with a jump into the backyard pool. Making trips like this makes me realize how much I love the triathlon lifestyle. Oh, and if you are ever in Calabasas, check out the Pedalers Fork, it's a restaurant, a coffee shop, and a bike shop all in one place.

In Search of Loops

Summer means road trippin' and new training venues. I'm currently down in San Clemente enjoying the warm (and humid) SoCal weather. Arriving here involved a one night stay at the Madonna Inn. I had never heard of the inn until a friend I was driving down with made the reservation. The Madonna Inn is a kitsch hotel of sorts, and the pictures should give you an idea of how "kitsch" the place is. Surprisingly, I liked the hotel and its amenities, and I think I would stay there again. I did a morning run at nearby Lake Laguna, and as customary, I was in search of a looped run. I'm a big fan of loop runs. It seemed like I would be able to run around the lake but no such luck, the trails just kept leading down and into the water. So I set out to find a loop that would lead me back to the hotel, but once again, no suck luck. I did eventually get my loop, but not on the run, but rather on the bike today when I rode from Irvine out to Laguna Beach, up to Newport Beach, and back to Irvine.

Favorite Things June 2013

The sinus infection as predicted, lingered, and is still lingering. After losing about two weeks of training, I finally was able to start some training this past week. My run always feels great after some time off, the bike and swim, not so much. It's been awhile since I've had mt. bikers, men 60+, and yes, even recumbent bike riders pass me...very humbling yesterday that ride. And today, I got sucked into doing 5000 yards of swimming. My legs and arms were so thrashed that I was left blowing water with my mouth as a means of forward propulsion. Until I have more training stories, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite things of late.

I've been swimming since I was a kid, and never did I ever have ear infections. But starting around 5-6 years ago, I started getting ear infections from the pool on a fairly regular basis. The ear infections would sometimes lead to sinus infections, and linger, as it did this time around. I'm not a fan of ear plugs, and thus, I found a different remedy. Mix one part rubbing alcohol with one part white vinegar in a dispensing bottle and shake. Put some drops in each ear after each swim. I ran out a couple of weeks ago and I was too lazy to make more. After several swims without my concoction, I developed an ear ache, which led to an ear infection, and then finally to a sinus infection. After getting back on the concoction, things immediately got better.

I recently stopped using whey protein powder, and I switched to a plant base source. I like it. I found this stuff and I compared it to Vega. It's almost identical, but it is about $12 cheaper.