My "Twin" Is Coming

I don't think I've ever really mentioned her (shame on me) but I have an 19-year-old sister, Karlee, who I absolutely adore. I probably haven't spoken about her much because she's busy up at Cal Poly SLO. But she's about to finish her freshman year and is coming home this week for the summer. Can't wait to have her back.

Here's us on my b-day last year (I still had my long hair)! We look a lot alike. Sometimes it's freaky--I'll look at a picture and be like "hi me."

Karlee is a riot. She is the funniest, most outgoing person I know and she radiates energy wherever she is. She's the type of girl who is friends with everyone and has no enemies. Not to mention, she's a stellar athlete. To this day, she smokes me in the pool--so jealous! She was a killer volleyball player all through high school and almost played in college but decided to take time off from organized sports and "have fun." And, oh is she having fun. Her life at SLO reminds me of how I was when I was unleashed into SDSU. We know how to have a good time :)

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Speaking of good times, Karlee and I really bonded in Mexico last summer, where she could legally drink. By bond, I mean we partied like rockstars todos los noches. (Glad we didn't give my poor parents heart attacks.) That trip was right before I started getting serious about triathlon, kind of like my last hurrah! Ha ha. Here's my mom, me and Kar:

Karlee loves surfing, so I know we'll do a ton of that this summer. But my real goal while she's home is to get her on a training plan and encourage her to do a triathlon by the end of the year, hopefully! So far she's down for me to be her coach, but she hasn't agreed to entering a triathlon yet. It's going to be tough work on my part to convince her how amazing racing is! But like I said, she's very athletic, so I know she can pull it off.... if she can balance workouts with her busy party life... uh geez.

ONE MORE THING...

On an unrelated topic, I have to mention what Michellie Jones said in her blog about the recent OC Duathlon. It made me smile.

"...This would have to be one of the hardest 40km's I have ridden or maybe it was the 5km run before hand. The first 6 miles were uphill not a lot of fun after running hard. At least that meant on this out and back course you could fly back home to the transition..." ~MJ

Props to my regular training route... Even my idol sees it as challenging :)

OC Duathlon Race Report

Warning: My parents actually came to this race so there's lots of pics and even some video in this blog. All tech'd out!

So June gloom came a little early and in the form of what I consider rain (those who have "real" weather would probably disagree). Into Friday night that was the name of the game, so I couldn't wait to see what Saturday morning would be like for the OC Duathlon. I was ready to race in any conditions, but to my surprise Saturday morning was fairly dry and not even that cold.

Now this was cool: How often do I ever get to ride over to a race from my front door step? Hm, like never. The du was 3 miles from my house, so I took off at 5:45 for a nice little warm-up ride. Here's Sydney seeing me off... you can see it looks kinda damp/crappy out.

Got to the race earlier than most (as usual), racked up and hung out with some familiar faces. Here I am with Pete and Corrine, they both do ultra-marathons and are just really good, nice people. Glad to know them.

Another plus to having the race close to home: Before my parents I came I made a special request: Bring deodorant! I forgot to apply before I left, so thank God they grabbed some for me. Would hate to offend anyone.

Wasting time b4 the race, overlooking transition and trying to scope out Michellie Jones' rack spot. Her Felt puts mine to shame, ha ha.

And here we are right before the race start.

Now, I didn't taper at all this week and it's been another hard training week, so I didn't have big expectations for this race. Plus it was my first du ever, so who knew how it'd go. My goal was to do the 5k's in 23 minutes or less, which I know I did on the first one--wore my Garmin and avg'd about 7 minute miles. I didn't try to kill myself and go all out. Good advice I got: leave some gas in the tank for the 2nd 5k!

A video of me finishing the first 5k:

Going into T1 was crazy. Since it was a mass start, there was lots of traffic in transition heading into the bike, as you can see below. I politely told the dude in front of me to "pick it up!" He was moving like molasses.

Onto the bike. Within 2-3 miles (heading into the canyon/mountainy zone), it was WET! Super heavy drizzle/light rain. Before I knew it, I was covered in specks of muddiness as was my bike. Visibility was sketchy, but I was glad to have my Rudy's blocking raindrops from stabbing my eyeballs.

It was crazy to race on my regular weekly training route... I liked knowing what to expect at every moment. The guy who normally sells beef jerky on the roadside wasn't there. Too bad. And too bad we didn't do Modjeska Grade Road! ha. It was also crazy how alone I was for most of the bike. It was pretty spread out and not a lot of passing went on my "time zone." It was even crazier to see Luke Bell, Michellie and all the other pros/elites fly by! I wonder what they thought of the course.

Overall, I was happy with my bike. I wanted to average 20 mph, ended up averaging 19 mph. I attribute that -1mph to the conditions ha ha; although, I did get up to roughly 35 mph several times. Adrenaline rush on slippery roads!

Here's me about to dismount with some beautiful blue scenery in the background. (That's not a lot of Port-o-potties for a race, huh!?)

The second 5k was of course more difficult, but I just went through the motions knowing it'd be over soon. I looked at it as if it were a regular T-run after a Saturday ride--with a little more oomph. I was not a fan of the surprise hill at the very end of the run. That sucked.

Here's Michellie Jones crossing the finish at 1:40:47... first-place female (of course). She's so amazing, love her! Luke Bell won with a time of 1:30:47.

Then here's me... 16 minutes after MJ came in. Official finish time: 1:56:48... That put me at 1st place in my AG and 15th female overall. Not too shabby for racing on tired legs I guess.

I caught up with my dad and Syd in the "dog zone" post-race. Saddleback Church (where the finish/post-race events were) would not let doggies close to the action so they had to hang out in the distance. I'm sorry, but I find that to be lame.

Then time for awards. Now here's something that makes the statement "it's a small world" so true. The OC Tri Series race director, Bill Leach, was my mom's teacher at Corona Del Mar High School back in the '70s. He and a student fell in love back then and together they went to the Olympics for kayaking. Then, she, Julie Leach (Bill's wife, who my mom had many classes with growing up) went on to win the Ironman World Championships in 1982! Gnar. And today, they are clearly both active in the tri world.

Here's what Bill had to say about my mom and her dad (my grandpa) when I got my award...

Then I had to leave cause I was freakin freezing. When I got home I realized how DIRTY my bike got. This picture doesn't even do it justice, but I assure you I cleaned it right away. Well, that is, after I ate a nice big meal first.
After eating, cleaning and looking at Honu 70.3 updates, I took my mom out for a 30+ mile ride (for Mother's Day I promised I'd "kill her" on a grueling swim, bike and run). We've done the run, so today was the bike. But unfortunately my legs were toast. I was pissed about how crappy I felt, but I'm still glad I got in some solid riding after the race... My mom kicked ass, so I'll have to really push her limits on the bike another time.

Patiently Waiting, Meeting Michellie, A New Gig and Jessi's Bag of Tricks

Still no running. It's been 2 1/2 weeks. The ankle sprain is lingering, and I don't want to make a bad situation worse. Just another lesson in learning to be patient and listen to my body. Thankfully, I can bike pain-free, swim (sometimes with a pull buoy) and strength train, so I'm not a total bum! But I never thought I'd crave running so much....

In the meantime, some pretty cool stuff has been going on (notice super-long blog title). I met an awesome triathlete/endurance sports enthusiast, Roman Mica, who runs a legit website called EverymanTri.com. It's got the latest news, interviews, etc., on everything going on in the tri world and endurance sports, with updates throughout the day. He also has writers who test and review tri gear for the site, and yours truly is now part of that team. Check out my first gear review here.

And on the topic of meeting people, I also had a chance to meet and talk with Michellie Jones at the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona pre-race expo. Totally rad person, very down to earth... everything I expected. I, on the other hand, actually became a little star-struck when I finally spoke with her!She and Triathlete Magazine Publisher John Duke were featured speakers at the expo. Basically triathlon royalty! Kind of funny because in the sea of race participants & expo browsers, I don't think too many people realized the significance of these two publicly talking and answering questions. Of the thousands scrambling around, only a handful made it to their chat. Of course I was one. My friend and I did a bike ride that morning, and all the while I kept saying, "we have to be at the expo by 1:30, I haaaave to see Michellie!" I feel a little more connected to her these days since I'm riding a Felt complete with SRAM components too. Not as amazing as hers, but it's a start :)

Michellie was running the half-marathon and said that her coach instructed her to run at a specific HR, which she was not allowed to go above. With that, she didn't know what time she'd run. Checked results the next day, and she did it in like 1:26. Amazing for not being able to "go all out!" Next, watch for her in Ironman Australia...

As for me, I didn't run in RNRAZ (I told Michellie my sprain story, and she commended me for staying off the ankle...it's not easy to do when you're all caught up in the race vibe)! Also, volunteering didn't work out due to our limited transportation options, and on race morning I was craving exercise. Bike ride! But I woke up so early that I had to sit around and wait for it to get light enough to safely ride. I planned a loop that eventually had me riding along the race course. Fun to see a race from that perspective.

...watching the runners about to finish, left the Felt in CA...

...gotta love the bands who are willing to set up and play at dawn, not the most "rock n roll" thing to do...

Lastly, I had another run-in with a pro-triathlete... Jessi Stensland. She was the guest speaker at the OC Tri Club meeting last week, and I didn't get to talk to her one-on-one, but I totally enjoyed listening to her. She's all about "being an athlete" first, in other words, building a fit body that will let you perform amazingly in your given sport. That means lots of core work, physical-therapy-type exercises, having good posture, stretching, strength training, etc., to keep all parts of the body in superb shape and injury-free. She swears by the Core Performance program, and after checking out their website, I was impressed with how many free videos and resources they have! It's cool because a lot of it's built around the idea that it doesn't take hours to benefit from the exercises; it can be 1 to 15 minutes of "body maintenance," i.e. a 5-minute warmup routine that will make your swim that much better. I recommend taking a look, I'm definitely going to start taking advantage!!

One thing that I related to and found pretty funny were the things Jessi "never leaves home without." This consisted of a running stick (pictured), quad roller, a set of exercise bands, tennis balls and some other workout stuff. Only an athlete would understand....