ive disappeared

The Last of 2010

2010-12-19T22:40:00.001-08:00

There is something about wearing a wetsuit in public that just reeks of superhero...

I have slowly been getting back into the groove of exercising: a few spin classes here, a 6am ride there and a dash of open water swims. They have all been great- and most importantly knee-problem-free!

Most happily I have found an open water swimming buddy in Kai :) This has been the most happy new development. We've gone for a few swims at the SF Acquatic Park- last week we even logged a full 2 miles total- but this weekend we were able to convince Erica to get her ass out of bed on a rainy Sunday morning to come swimming with us! It was pretty awesome :)

The morning definitely started with a few texts that read:

"It's raining pretty hard. We still swimming?..."
"Its not raining here"
"Hum ok..."

I decided that it was in Erica's best interest to give Kai full authority when picking her up to use force if necessary to get here into the car :)

But we all made it to the Acquatic Park and even though it was deary it wasn't raining! Then it was the task of putting on the wetsuits. Erica had forgotten how to put hers on- luckily I was able to introduce her to the wonderful new world of pam pre-wetsuit.. it's as magical as you would imagine! I also had a new wetsuit that I was trying out so I was pretty excited to take this puppy for a joy ride.

Clearly Erica had forgotten how to put on her wetsuit!

The weather was easily in the 40's, misting and the water was also in the high 40's. So... we needed a bit of pre-swim hyping up before we got into the water.

Hence these:

and this...

Oh ya... and then we took a video:

Any who, after all of these shenanigans we actually did eventually hop into the water!

I must say for Erica first real open water swim in....a year? or more she did a great job and was up for everything that we asked of her. We didn't do a huge amount of meters, but we were able to work on our siting - which got increasingly harder as it started to rain more and Erica was even able to do a full 250m straight in her wetsuit multiple times- which is pretty great! She even listened when I kept shouting for her to put her head in the water!

All in all a great reintroduction for her to open water swimming- AND she even liked it enough that she is excited for more in 2011!

I have to say that I am pretty excited for 2011 too. Not just for the ability to do some more triathlons, but I really want to do some open water swim races. I sort of missed the boat on the whole open water swim season this year, but really want to explore more of it next year! Hell, maybe I'll even be around to do my bridge to bridge swim that I so want to do...that would be pretty awesome!

In prep for 2011 and swimming I went to return my rented wetsuit to Sports Basement and actually ended up impulse buying this awesome Orca wetsuit that I have soo been coveting! It's the Orca Alpha and I am super in love with it- so much so that I think it might be bordering on wrong. Can a girl love a wetsuit too much?...

And what is even better I got it for more than 50% off :) So it was like finding the love of your life AND realizing that they are a cheap date :)

I am super excited for my first open water swim in 2011 when I get to try it out for real! It has these great blue neoprene panels on the arms that make it much easier to swim in- so no more my-shoulders-are-so-tired-they-are-going-to-fall-off mid swim. They were on the Blue Seventy wetsuit I rented for the swim today but only on the shoulders and it made a pretty big difference.
The specs are below if anyone was to check it out:
http://www.orca.com/product/orca-alpha-female-

So all this will probably be the end for 2010, but there will hopefully been much much more to come in 2011. There will inevitably be more running in 2011- and with that comes more self-deprecating posts- and hopefully I'll be able to actually get in a long ride here and there.

Have a great holiday season all and see you in 2011!

I'm Back Bitches! (Literally and Figuratively)

2010-11-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

YAY! I am back in action!

After over a month of baby-ing my knee and two weeks of a very painful pinched nerve in my back- that kept me from doing anything- I am finally back to cycling, running and swimming! And it feels good!

This break also taught me a very important lesson- Stretch like the dickens pre-workout and post-workout!

Well, Sunday was my first ride in over a month and it felt really good to get back to cycling.

We decided to take it easy on my knees and my legs and do a mild ride that went over the

Golden Gate Bridge and into the Sausalito/ Tiburon area. Happily this was the first time I have biked over the bridge and it was also probably the last beautiful day in the bay area for a while.

Erica and I enjoying a beautiful day and clear skies!

So we started out a bit late in the day (and as we realized later too late to be starting a ride in the winter time), but were still able to enjoy some incredible views of the city from Sausalito. We quickly made it to in n out where we of course had to make a pit stop. You know that it is nearly impossible for me to pass up a chance at in n out (and when I say "nearly" I actually mean "certainly").

After that we started to ride again and Erica thought that she had a flat tire... turns out yes indeed it was- and it only took us another hour and half for her to fully get a flat. Sadly on her folding bike the tires and tubes are too small to bum a tube off of another rider. At this point Andrew and I had biked all the way to the tip of the peninsula and by the time we biked back and figured out the issue with her bike it was getting pretty late. Andrew and I thought that we could bike back all the way before the sunset- but after we got to in n out I felt that we wouldn't make it. We had no lights nor did we have any reflective gear- it figured it was better to be safe then sorry and since Darwin was coming to get Erica any ways we figured that we would just get a ride back with him.

It took some AMAZING bike/ human tetris on Ze'ev and Andrew's part but we managed to fit four people, two normal sized bikes and a folding bike into Darwin's 4 door Toyota!

Here we are smushed into the back of Darwin's car - I said that we managed to fit it all I never said that it was comfortable!

So it was a strange first ride back, but two things came out of it: 1. my knee seems to be in good shape and not hurt any more - even though my legs are WAY out of shape now. 2. I got to wear my new awesome arm warmers!

Here I am capturing the moment of de-virginizing my awesome mini-skull arm warmers!

I love the ridiculous shit that you can wear as a cyclist!

Since then I have been back to swimming and running. Neither were as hard to get back into as a thought. My running actually stayed at a decent level as well (which, might I add, is still very slow).

I even think that my time off might have been a good thing because now I feel super motivated and am really excited to be training again! I can't wait to get back to really biking and all the fun that comes with harder work outs!

An Ode To My Two Tadpoles!

2010-10-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

Because real pictures of Tadpoles are quite ugly!

Just wanted to put a shout out to Laryssa and Erica who are becoming quite the swimmers!

After 2 months of from-scratch-swim-lessons, Laryssa is finally doing a full freestyle stroke across the whole 25m pool length! Whoot whoot! Now that we are over that initial hump it is time to start to work on arm- kick coordination and arm strength. I am super excited to introduce Laryssa the Tadpole and soon she will be kicking tri butt in 2011!

And a second shout out goes to Erica- who is FINALLY realizing that she is a way better swimmer than she thought. Congrats on doing 2950m last swim practice and look forward to many more painful swim practices that I will concoct for you. :)

Yay swimming and yay tadpoles!

Oh, on a side note, I got a new swim buddie Kai. We are going to start to do open water swims in the frigid cold of the SF Bay come Oct 30th! Wish me and my extremities lots of luck!

Down for the count...i.e. how I am slowly falling apart

2010-09-27T15:49:00.001-07:00

Lesson 1: Do not get yourself stuck on a ride with no shade in 90 degree weather and your only way out is up, up, up.

Lesson 2: Liz makes bad decisions

These were the two crucial lessons that I took from my Saturday ride.

Saturday was going to be my great return to riding after 3 weeks of not being able to do anything due to life and the hectic-ness that has become its norm. I was super excited to do the three bears ride- one that I hadn't done since way back when in June when it was just me and Erica riding. I had even planned my whole weekend so that all the other things that I needed to do this weekend could happen around this ride.

So I get up and over to Berkeley with all my gear ready and plenty of water (it was to be in the 90's down near the reservoirs). We start up Spruce and start to head into Wildcat Canyon and oh no... my left knee starts to hurt. At this point it could just be warming up pain due to the fact I hadn't done this in a while.

Ok, so I keep going. The pain moves from being localized in the back two tendons behind my knee and starts to creep up the inside of my left leg. Probably not great- luckily we all stop at Inspiration Point to assess.

Inspiration Point is the point of no return on this ride. I either: A. go down Wildcat and do this whole damn ride (37 miles) or B. jump ship and head home at this point.

Of course a normal and sane (I have to add sane here- it is crucial) would have said it was time to pack it in and go home since this was a particularly hilly ride. Of course, see Lesson 2 from above, Liz makes terrible decisions.

So of course I decide to "just go down Wildcat Canyon" and then "see how I feel". Some how this ended me half way through the ride in lots-o-pain thinking who the HELL can I call to come and pick me up?! Of course, even in the day and age of ubiquitous cell phone usage, I managed to have a group of car-people who collectively don't pick up their cell phones at that exact moment. I was even hoping that a mini-van filled with a happy, non-deranged family would drive by and pick me up (ya that didn't happen either).

Since I had gotten myself into this mess the only way out was to finish climbing up the rest of the hills... so not good.

I couldn't even finish the ride completely. By the end of it all my knee was in too bad of shape to finish the last climb up Wildcat Canyon- I had to bike to the bart station so I could get out of the valley. ::sigh::

Luckily, Andrew's family's bbq was filled with a whole slew of doctors all of which thought my left knee tendons were inflammed.

So basically I need to take it easy until my knee stops hurting and then be "reasonable" about working out. HA! reasonable?!

But they did say that if I wasn't more careful I'd only suffer for it later. So in order to listen to the doctor's advice I am taking this week off from training and only doing yoga. I have personally decided that part of this is due to lack of stretching on my part. I have noticed lately that my flexibility has gone way down. So I have decided to do yoga/ stretch everyday regardless of whether or not I am working out. Hopefully this will kick the bad knee habit in the bud.

Attempting to not be a mono-athlete any more

2010-09-21T15:29:00.001-07:00

So I finally went back to running to day - the first time since my tri for fun! It has been a good hiatus, but it was sure hard to get back into the swing of things. I have decided to do some nice easy short runs during my lunch break, since my after work schedule doesn't allow me to do much training until my grad school apps are over with.

Today was shitty, but it is probably a good thing that I am back to running. I am hoping that by March I can do 13 miles no problem.

I am also hoping that even though I am only doing a few miles at lunch that that qualifies as me as bi-athlete again, right?!

Also, went back to the Cal's swim practice on Monday for their recovery workout swim. It was good and no cramping happened - although it came close at one point! I think that I need to do some calf strengthening exercises when my foot is flexed and pointed so that my calf doesn't cramp during butterfly and breast.

Here's our recovery workout (we were in a 33m long pool so the work is a bit wonky):

Warm Up:

200m free

10 X 66m: 1st 66m: build up (i.e. start slow and get fast by the end), 2nd 66m: cruising pace, 3rd 66m: build down, 4th 66m: slow and 5th 66m: fast. Repeat

5 X 100m: 1st, 3rd and 5th are free style, 2nd and 4th were either free style drills or non-free

5 X 100m: 1st 100m: free, 2nd 100m: IM, 3rd 100m: free, 4th 100m: backwards IM, 5th 100m: free

4 X 133m: 1st 133m: regular IM, 2nd 133m: free, breast, back, free, 3rd 133m: free, free, back, free and 4th 133m: all free

Cool down:

200m free

And that's all she wrote folks! Enjoy!

Sad Calf is now Just-Barely-Making-It-By Calf

2010-09-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Oh and the workout

I forgot to post the workout that we did so that anyone training can do it as well.

Here we go:

Warm up:

200 free

10 X 100m free sets: 1st 100m: is 25m fast 75m slow, 2nd 100m: is 50m fast 50m slow, 3rd 100m: is 75 m fast 25 slow, 4th 100m: is all fast, 5th 100m: is all slow. Repeat

Main Set:

6 X 300m free kick sets: the kick set is comprised of 7 kicks with the left arm stretched out in front then 3 strokes then 7 kicks with the right arm stretched out in front then 3 strokes and so on. This is to work on rotation as well as working your kicks. Also you learn to appreciate the 3 strokes you get in between.

It goes as follows: 1st 300m: kick set for 100m and 200m free, 2nd 300m: kick set for 200m and 100m free, lastly 3rd 300m: is all kick set. Repeat. These should have a 10 sec rest in between the 300's

3 X 300m free and non-free: 1st 300m: 100m non free of your choice (but you could do an IM to make it spicy) 200m free, 2nd 300m: 200m non free 100m free, 3rd 300m: 300m non free

Cool Down:

200m free

So that is it folks! I also gave a modified version to Erica which is basically the same just less intervals.

Here is that:

Warm up:

150m free

6 X 100m: Every 3rd 100m (so the 3rd and 6th) do the close fisted drill for the whole 100m. There should only be a 5 sec break in between 100s.

Main Set:

3 X 300m free style and kick board: 1st 300m: kick board for 100m and 200m free, 2nd 300m: kick board for 200m and 100m free, lastly 3rd 300m: is all kick board. These should have a 10 sec rest in between the 300's

3 X 300m free kick sets: 1st 300m: kick set for 100m and 200m free, 2nd 300m: kick set for 200m and 100m free, lastly 3rd 300m: is all kick set. These should have a 10 sec rest in between the 300's

Cool Down:

200m free

Sad calf is Sad

2010-09-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

So Monday I went to swim with the Cal Tri Team for the first time while I try and decide if it is a good idea for me to actually join the team. There are a couple of reasons why I am still on the fence about joining- even though it is a great team and would be an awesome way for me to push myself- the least of which is the fact that all the Cal-Hoorah kinda scares me a bit. (What can I say I went to NYU for god sake... college spirit just isn't in my nature! I'm trying to reform and be happy/ spunky about it... also, not in my nature!)

I was also worried that I was going to be the "old" person on the team with a bunch of über- spunky freshman and they were going to shame me... which actually sorta happened- just not in the way I was imagining.

After amping myself up for the whole evening (the practice is at 8pm) and telling myself that I was a highschool swimmer and "God damn it can TOTALLY do this", I get there and the practice starts. First of all let me preface this by the face that in highschool our swim coach was an ex-navy seal, and while he was an amazing coach and great guy he was a yeller. Actually I have NEVER had a swim coach that was not a yeller (now that I ponder on this fact it could be due to the fact that when you swim your head is in the water and you are actually unable to hear your coach talking to you so by the time you DO get to the wall they are irate from trying to talk to you the whole way and there for are ready to yell at you. Just things to ponder...) And by yeller I mean: point at you in the pool "Why have you stopped swimming?! Did you completely misunderstand the concept of sets with only a 5 second rest? You are not fast enough for this lane today" and suddenly you have been demoted a lane IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE TEAM. So... going on THAT experience I really thought that it would be more along those lines.

In actuality I don't know if the swim coaches really cared if anyone new was there or not. Not because they don't care- they do- it was just that there was only two of them and a WHOLE lot of us with seriously varying skill levels. They could not keep track of what everyone was doing. It would have been much more helpful if they had a board to write the sets down on so that they didn't have to recite them to us each time we finished one... but oh well you live and you learn I guess.

Once there you kinda just hop in a lane that you *think* you might swim at the same level as everyone else and you just start down the lane in a crazy free for all and hope you are able to make due. It was actually kinda crazy/ fun in a way - I have never been to a swim practice that was that disorganized, but it was a great way to sorta just melt in with the rest of the team without sticking out like a newbie-sore-thumb! I must say tho, not all the lanes had lane lines and in the frenzy that was the swim I got smacked, kicked and even scratched while swimming! A bit too reminiscent of water polo practices, HAHAHA.

The sets were great, but not too challenging. I got to be the leader in my lane- which was bad because I was in a lane too slow so I didn't really get a great workout. I should have bumped up a lane, but it was just too crazy so I stuck with it. And here is where the most embarrassing thing that can happen at a swim practice happened: mid butterfly, in the deep end of the pool I get a majorly intense calf cramp. So intense I actually started to sink to the bottom of the pool because I could not concentrate on anything but the pain. Of course this holds up the whole lane that I am heading- and I have to struggle to the surface and pathetically doggie paddle over to the wall where the coach is standing and staring at me. Let me reiterate: I doggie paddled at a freaking swim practice! Needless to say I am glad that they really didn't know me at this practice.

Any who, after a few minutes of waiting to see if this cramp would go away I sheepishly crawled out of the pool and left the practice hobbling down to my car. Unfortunately by the time I drove home (Thank GOD it was my left leg or else I would have been stranded there) the cramp had become so intense that I couldn't put any pressure on it and therefore was stranded in the garage. Of course it was also the day that Andrew had left his phone in the car so there was no possible way of calling for help. Finally I got up stairs to my bottle of ibuprofen and a heat pack- it took over an hour for the cramp to die down enough so that my foot was not forced into a relevé.

Of course Erica, the-soon-to-be-great-doctor, diagnosed it over the phone: evidently the leading cause of cramps are dehydration and imbalance of electrolytes. I.e. me: not eating pre-practice and drinking coffee the day of were my downfalls. The succubus that is coffee strikes again! Now, I am once again going cold turkey with the no-coffee plan, thankfully I have ol' reliable green tea to get me through the day!

Now we are on day two and it is still super sore and hard to walk. I feel like such an old person right now. I asked Laryssa if this is a sign that I am officially old and she said that I wasn't officially old until I was sore and hurt, but couldn't remember why... So I guess I'm not old. I'm just young and embarrassed instead... Great!

Laryssa's Birthday Ride

2010-09-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

It was a BIG weekend for team Shut up & Sweat.

We kicked off the birthday festivities on Saturday with a 9am Laryssa- Liz swim lessons. It was nice and frustrating- just the way I am sure that Laryssa likes her swim lessons! We have been working on kicking, breathing and proper body alignment and even though it doesn't seem that way to her we ARE making progress. I WILL have her ready to swim come race season 2011 damn it!

After that it was a little R & R time until the big night where we caught dinner at Ryoko's near Union Square and then off to MJ's Birthday Bootie Mash Up at DNA.

Where we were doing a bit of this:

and this....

oh, and of course some of this:

You know, exactly the kinda of things you want to be doing til 4 am the night before a 30 mile ride that ends in a climb up Pinehurst!

Any who, we were all back up bright and early at 9 am to go to St. Francis's Fountain for a breakfast so huge that the waiter's couldn't believe how much we were consuming. They kept coming over to our table with orders and asking "Do these waffles with strawberries really belong at this table that already has hash browns, huevos rancheros, many sides of eggs, two cheesy-potato-egg-sour cream-concoctions and a milk shake?!". Oh yes they do!

Then off to Berkeley for our Sunday ride. The Pinehurst ride is Laryssa's nemesis just the way that Wildcat is mine. The first time we went on this ride Laryssa and I had only stopped drinking about 3 hours before the ride and it was brutal going up that hill. So of course it was the perfect ride to do on her birthday!

We had a few new riders as well: Erica's friend Sven, his friend Paulie, and Erica's boyfriend Darwin who cycles with us off and on.

All in all the ride went really well and luckily it turned out not to be too hot or cold that day. It was Erica's first hang-over ride and she was quite the trooper! It was also my first ride after a long night of dancing in heels- and let me tell you my knees did NOT appreciate that decision by the end of the ride!

While my knees might not have appreciated the weekend I sure was happy to have a chance to wear my favorite Pepto-Bismol T-shirt that was happily donated to me by Erica :)

Of course Laryssa had that Birthday Energy going for her so when it came to Pinehurst she powered up that hill and put us all to shame!

Her victory photo at the top!

That girl dominated that hill and can now proudly say that Pinehurst is no longer her nemesis! We all have to move on to bigger and better things eventually...

Darwin, happy to be at the top of the hill- he was a bit worse for a wear since his job has been working him 24/7!

After that it was smooth sailing down hill and off to a yummy Chinese dinner at Mandarin Garden- where we actually ate the restaurant out of food! HA!

Poor owner he had no idea what he was getting into by having us all eat there after a long weekend and long ride!

Team Shut up & Sweat good thing we aren't obese after all the food we consume!

For good measure, here's a video that Erica filmed while biking- very safe of her!

First Triathlon: Tri for Fun 8.21.2010

2010-08-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

My first tri is over and done with and I can honestly say not only did I have a great time doing it, but I met all of my personal goals!

Laryssa helping me pin on my very official bib!

I participated on Saturday in the 23rd annual Tri for Fun in Pleasanton, CA and I have to say that it is a great race if you are looking to do your first tri race in a not super competitive environment. Before the race I was really worried that no one was going to be crazy enough to wake up at 4 am to go to a tri race in Pleasanton and I would only be one of a hand full of people competing- which would have been intimidating and sad. Luckily, there are plenty of crazy people who want to get up early, pay money to work out and be in Pleasanton way too early in the morning! I should never underestimate the outdoorsy-ness of Bay area folk!

Pre-race photo with a back drop of all the people participating. I am looking very sleepy eyed in this photo because well- I was very sleepy! A big thank you to Laryssa and Andrew who woke up pre-sunlight to watch me race. You're the best!

About 1,000 people were competing that day and most of them were tri newbies like myself! That made the whole feel of the race very welcoming. A few days prior to the event I was starting to get a bit nervous and second guess my ability to even finish this short little tri, but once there at the event, the fact that so many people were new like me, made all the pre-race butterflies go away.

I was definitely happy that I had gone a few weeks before to watch Brian's race so I wasn't totally clueless on what to do/ expect. But it was nice that they had people there assisting you in setting up, understanding the course and walking you through the ins and outs of the whole experience.

Everyone waiting for their swim leg to start.

The swim was a short 400 meter in warm 70 degree water- no wetsuit needed thankfully! Those things are a pain in the ass as I am realizing. I got some really good advice pre-race from Brian to just sprint when the race starts so that you can get away from the throngs of other swimmers and have some actual room to swim. So I waded up right into the front of the crowd and started the race with a nice sprint to the first marker. I had SO much adrenaline going at that point that all my training to pace myself went out the window and I ended up sprinting the whole 400 meters- which isn't too bad cause it was a short distance. This turned out to be good because I ended up being one of the first girls in my division out of the water. Laryssa and Andrew said that they had to run over to the transition area to even see me get out of the water. Ok, swim part done!

Waiting with Laryssa for my portion of the swim to start. It was quite cold outside of the water, but once inside it was a great sprinting temperature.

The biking was 15 miles, short, not hilly and actually really beautiful. It was a really nice ride and we were all able to go pretty fast due to the mostly flat terrain. I did quite a bit of passing on my bike (but don't worry all those people whizzed past me when it came time to run!) and it was quite the array of bikes that people were racing with. Some people had full out tri bikes with special wheels and tri handle bars and others were doing the race in totally beat up old bikes or beach cruisers. It was a huge mix.

Lastly, the run... my nemesis! All I can say about the run is this- I really wanted to stop running- often, but all I could think of was 'what will I tell Laryssa if I stop running and walk? She will kill me!' Oh and she would know if I walked- since she pretty much knows my running times and ability (or lack there of!). Any ways like I said all those people I passed on the bike ride went right past me in the run! Hahaha! This race definitely showed me that I have a long ways to go before I am ready to really run an Olympic distance tri.

This was a hilly run on a loose gravel trail so there were some obstacles for me as a new runner, but I am very happy to say that while I ran slowly, I ran the whole time. Thus completing my goal of wanted to be able to start and finish my first triathlon without stopping in the middle.

I was also able to accomplish my other goal which was to finish in under an hour and a half. I finished at 1 hour 14 minutes with the winner finishing at 55 minutes. I am super super happy with that time and am glad that it is my jumping off point for future races.

Finishing the race after being passed up on the run by many many people. But finishing strong. my actual time was 1:14- you have to deduct 15 minutes from the time due to the swimming wave I started in.

All in all I think that this race was great closure to a summer of training and I can say that I fell in love with this sport. Sadly, for the next few months I need to back off of the training so that I can get my grad school applications over and done with. Also so that I can save some money for X-mas and 2011 races (the start up for this sport is mad expensive!)

However, since I am reducing my training schedule it has opened up time for me to really start to teach Laryssa to swim! We have started with the basics (kicking and breathing) but I am hoping to get her ready to do some tris in 2011! I can not wait to see her progress in the pool and be at HER first sprint triathlon! In exchange she is going to attempt to make me a runner :)

We'll have to see how the trade off goes for the next few months! I am sure there will be many peg-leg days in my future, but I do feel satisfied to know that Laryssa will also be feeling the burn from swimming!!

Elevations a Bitch: Liz:0- Running:1

2010-08-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

Went for an easy 4 mile run today now that I am staying with family in Utah for the next few days... and I nearly died. Why did no one remind me that I run at sea level in San Francisco and that my family lives WAY above sea level. It is also damn hot and dry here. I think I was only able to run about 2.5 miles of it and the rest of the time if felt like ralphing on the side of the highway.

Oh running, my evil nemesis, you never go away do you?

A shout out!

2010-08-03T16:56:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to two people here.

1. Robbie- for being an awesome sport and now swimming with me on Wednesdays (when I don't flake on his ass...). He pounded out two 500 meters last time with a smile on his face. I am super excited for next Wednesday when I KNOW he will be up for a pyramid of 400's, 500's and 600's :) (I might even be able to eek out a 800)

2. Laryssa- who on her first time swimming went into Lake Anza with us on Sunday and did some open water kicking drills. Open water swimming is totally scary, but she pulled through and didn't give up! Next time- swim class in a pool, and I know it will be so much easier.

A big Whoot Whoot! to all of my new swimming buddies!

Somehow we are now in August!

2010-08-02T22:32:00.001-07:00

Wow I can't believe that we are now in August! I have no idea how that happened. Well work has been crazy- which is the main reason for why I haven't posted anything in ages. That and my mom came for a visit so no training happened when she was here.

The past two weeks have been pretty standard. I have been running more with my co-worker Laryssa and she has been helping my running a lot. It has been a nice change of pace to get out and run around the neighborhood instead of on a track or on a treadmill. It is a bit easier to try and keep myself motivated when I am running on the streets, plus Laryssa keeps me entertained the whole time :)

I've had a few good swims here and there, but apart from our last long bike ride I hadn't been on a ride til this Sunday. This Sunday we all decided to take it a bit easy since some of us were sore, some of us were still reeling from the party we went to on Friday and some were feeling a bit lazy. So we all decided to do the "steepest" hill in Berkeley.

It was short, but tiring. Centennial gets up to 11% in its grade at one point so it is by no means a little hill. Luckily, it doesn't last for too long.

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/748128081348037115"&amp;gt;Centennial grizzly&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ca/berkeley"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Berkeley, California&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

That was a good push for all of us. I must say it was very taxing on the legs and was by no means a piece of cake. On the way up we ran into a guy trying to do the hill as well. He was doing little switch backs to try and make it up- I think he almost took down each of us as we tried to pass him! He almost ran right into me and I don't think that if he had I would have been able to do anything fast enough but just fall flat on the pavement!

After our short little ride we went on a 3 mile run- which was not super enjoyable, but something that I need to get used to doing more and more. On the way we ran into a little blue and white Budgerigars Bird (a budgie) that was clearly a lost house bird. We were able to scoop it up and spent some time trying to find the house that it came from. Luckily one neighbor was home and we left the bird with him in hopes that if he couldn't find the house the little guy belonged to at least he would take him to an animal shelter. Then back to the run.

My running is slowly getting better- ever so slowly. I am still not up to running on real hills yet, but at least I have figured out a way to keep going even when I feel like giving up. It is a short 100 meter improvement each week, but at least it is improving! And thank god I don't get as horridly sore any more!

This coming week I'll be in Utah spending some quality time with my grandma and the only thing that I will be able to do is run, so I hope I am able to push myself to do it!

Mile Marker

2010-07-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

I swam my first mile yesterday! YAY! And it felt really good. Swimming is by far the thing that I am the best at in this whole thing, but even though I have been on swim teams, and usually put in 3,000 to 5,000 meters in a swim practice, when you practice for speed swimming they never make you swim over a 800. So this was very exciting to actually swim a mile for the first time. It makes me feel very confident that I have a good stroke pace down and that at the end I will still have tons of energy left to really push towards the finish.

The mile sorta happened by accident as I was only going to swim a 500, but when I got done with that I felt really in the zone so decided to go for a 1,000. Once I got there I figured well it's only 18 more laps till I hit a mile-lets do it! Luckily I was also timing my 500 so I figure that I did my mile in 26 minutes. Which I am very happy about as a base number to work off of.

I am now very excited to get a wetsuit and do some longer swims out in the open. Doing a mile in the pool is definitely a bit boring and it was hard to keep track of my laps.

I also must confess, half way through the day my arms became very sore- something I hadn't felt from swimming in a long time. I have to say that it felt good. :)

In-N-Out Ride photos

2010-07-22T10:34:00.001-07:00

Panoramic of the view at the top of Redwood

Finally some photos of our trek last Sunday. Even though it was very hot and sunny we did go through some really nice patches of redwood trees and pine trees.

Brian on a really scene stretch of Redwood

Mile 52- the point of no return... or at least that is what I thought at the time. My legs were pretty damn dead at this point.

Waiting at the top of Redwood after a long, hot and mild climb

Brian chilling

Week 6

2010-07-20T17:04:00.001-07:00

I am not quite sure how I got here but somehow, someway I am done with week 6 of my training! Ahhhh!

Okay, week 6 went well and I am happy to say that I only took my two alloted days of rest during the whole week. I think that my training is progressing quite well. I am happy with the amount of biking and swimming that I am doing- although I would like to be swimming more, but it's just so damn cold here! I am definitely getting stronger and my stamina for biking and swimming has gone way up... however as for my running it is slow going. I can't lie though, it is definitely getting better, but not by leaps and bounds like the other two disciplines are.

I am now about 4 weeks away from doing my Tri for Fun in August and 5 weeks away from doing the Luna Bar Race and I really need to start running more. I need to be able to show up at these races with these running distances under my belt at least a few times.

That is definitely the intimidating part of this whole triathlon process for me- the running. I am worried that I am going to push and push during the swim and biking and not be able to run at the end. Or just have not pushed my self hard enough during training and not be ready. However, maybe now that I know the magic of Shot Blocks I will be able to push through... hahaha!

In-N-Out Ride..formerly Fruit Stand Ride

2010-07-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/607127959311813894"&amp;gt;in n out ride&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ca/berkeley"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Berkeley, California&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

So yesterday we went on the Fruit Stand ride... a whole 62 miles! It was a crazy long ride and I almost didn't make it!

The ride started out well, albeit we had to go up my nemesis to start it. Damn that Spruce Hill! It's not even that hard, but we start every damn ass ride going up that hill and every time I get about 5 minutes into it and my brain starts saying, 'why don't we just stop now and go back home to being lazy?' Then about 15 more minutes we are out of the hill and my legs are warmed up and its not so bad- but damn starting every ride on that hill!

On the Berkeley side it was a beautiful day for riding, but once we crossed over the hill into Orinda and Moraga man was it hot! You could actually feel it burning your skin. Good thing I wore sunscreen and a full coverage shirt or else I would have some irreparable tan lines right now! Unfortunately Laryssa didn't make out quite so well. Not only does she have tan lines to prove it, but also the burn :(

Sunday was also the day that Laryssa introduced me to Shot Blocks from Clif Bar. I had one before I started the ride and man that did it go to my system! It was like I was biking on speed. I am not used to taking anything that is supplemental and I abstain from coffee for the most part because the caffeine makes me crazy hyper, so biking on this was intense! For the first two hours it was kinda like being in a cracked out spinning class! HAHAHA. Needless to say Laryssa and Erica were a bit stunned- they had never seen me like this- and Brian was amused and maybe partially annoyed (but he's a curmudgeon so it's okay).

The first 30 miles went great and we made really good timing. We were at the in-n-out (the half way point) in exactly 2 hours from the time we started. I know that some people like to mark the middle of the ride with the Fruit Stand in San Ramon that is exactly across from the in-n-out, but let me say this:

I don't ride the distance for no damn Fruit Stand... I ride the distance for a double double with no onions and an ice tea!

This was also a big day for other reasons- it was East Coaster Laryssa's first time at in-n-out; a very very important mile stone in the life of every Californian! She did us proud by eating a double double, but next time we need to get her to have a milk shake! We took an hour break there and then were back on the road.

The rest of the way was more or less all up hill and man was that a bitch! Going up Redwood up that long, never ending, mild grade was took forever. The only way I got up it was by skipping between the shady bits. I would see a patch of shade up and head and think, 'just bike to that next bit of shade...ahhhh shade...okay now to that next bit of shade..' Eventually we all did make it up that hill and to that great view of what I suppose is Lake Chabot.

Then back down. After that things became a problem. So we went down Redwood and are doing a slow climb back up Redwood towards skyline. Laryssa and I are pretty much biking on flat ground with minor hills, but we are in the lowest of low gears... and we are maybe going 3 miles an hour! We are dieing - I am dieing- and I am thinking how the HELL am I going to climb up Pinehurst. Eventually I had to stop and when I get off my bike my legs are furiously shaking. I had no more control over my legs any more- I was the most tapped out I had been since this training started. It was bad. But what can you do? There is no other way to get back home. So back on the bike-going even slower- we start the slow climb up and luckily we didn't have to do Pinehurst- thank god!- we were able to by pass it. We only had to do one last hill to Joaquin Miller and then it was home sweet home- all down hill!

The next day I wasn't sore- more just my body was exhausted! My legs were in a totally new place they had never been before- it felt like the bottom half of my body had been pummeled repeatedly and my brain was totally fried. I was going to swim, but instead went home and went to bed at 7:30! I woke up around 10pm ate chili for dinner watched some Tru Blood and then went back to sleep. Ahhh sleep is amazing! Today I feel like a totally new person- so back to training!

More photos are to come later when I get my camera back!

Morning Swims- A Warm Encounter

2010-07-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Robbie this post is a shout out to you...

Back to morning swims and my goal this morning was to do 4 500's.... ya that totally didn't happen, but not for lack of trying! The pool was freaking over 85 degrees! It was like swimming in my own saliva, i.e. pretty gross. A lap pool should be between 75 and 78 degrees, never above 80.

Any ways, I did a few drills (I had to remember them all since I am going to try to teach them to Robbie in the near future), some kick board work outs and then 2 500's. After the first 500 I was so hot I actually had to get out of the pool and lay down on the marble to cool off. I have never had that experience before! However, terrible the water temperature was the first 500 went well and I did it in under 6 minutes. The second 500 I could tell that I was much more sluggish, but I actually timed it and came in at 7 minutes 25 seconds. Not bad, not great. It is definitely a good start.

Open to Comments....

2010-07-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Guys I am leaving this post completely open to comments and help. I don't know what to do... I am eating easily between 2,500 and 3,500 calories a day- including usually 2 or 3 cliff bars- yet I am still getting really low blood sugar feelings and worse really bad hungry pains. Today I got such low blood sugar that I felt dizzy, sick to my stomach and eventually ended up throwing up all the food I had eaten. These hunger pains came on AFTER I had eaten a large serving of quinoa, garlic, onion, spinach and mushroom sautee and some bread.

I don't know what to do. I am usually eating protein for dinner along with lots of veggies and fruits. Lunch is usually a sandwich, a salad and some other veggies and breakfast is usually either oatmeal and fruit or greek yogurt and fruit.

I don't know what to do to stop feeling so hungry all the time-help me. Any suggestions at this point would be helpful.

1st Triathlon... as a spectator!

2010-07-14T14:15:00.001-07:00

Yay spectating as a sport!

So last Saturday I went with Erica and her mom to cheer on Brian during the Treasure Island Triathlon. It was a pretty awesome thing to watch and Brian did a great job. He only raced because he received free admission- so for a guy that hasn't been training he finished in just under 3 hours.

Brian at the start of the race, looking mighty spry.

Erica informed me that it was a more low key race than others. There weren't many people there cheering and there weren't too many people even there racing. None-the-less it was exciting to get pumped for a race and cheer someone on.

It was absolutely freezing on Treasure Island that crisp 6:30 am morning and of course I was not wearing enough layers. You would think that after living here for a year I would finally understand that it will just NEVER be warm in the summer time. Yet some how each time I go out I get tricked into thinking that it will be.

Here we are huddled together for warmth while we watching the swimming portion of the triathlon. There was even one guy swimming without a wetsuit! I have no idea how he made it.

I wish that the first triathlon I watched was filled with screaming and cheering, but on the other hand this race was good because it was easy to see all the of the technical aspects of the race, such as warming up, the transitions and the layout of the race area.

For most of the race we were watching the collegiate level, since that is the level at Brian competes in (he's still a baby). However watching all of those spry youngins' really made me feel old! I am not looking forward to doing my first triathlon and being completely annihilated by some 18 year old. it isn't going to be pretty....

Well, the day ended well and Brian did very well for himself. We then all went out for a celebratory Chipotle lunch :)

I have posted more photos on my flickr account if anyone wants to partake and of course I can take no credit for the awesome shots. All credit for the photography goes to Erica: A fantastic photographer and someone Brian is very lucky to have as a sister.

Moraga- Skyline- Tunnel Ride: Liz-0: Clips-2

2010-07-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/run/united-states/ca/berkeley/104127895996255891"&amp;gt;07/12/2010 Route&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-run/united-states/ca/berkeley"&amp;gt;Find more Runs in Berkeley, California&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;
Sunday's ride was quite beautiful, but painful. Sadly there are no pictures to be had for that ride- we were a bit time crunched. On the flip side though I think we made really good timing on the whole thing!

Let me preface this ride by saying Laryssa and I went out the night before drinking and dancing and then continued to drink while watching the World Cup Final on the same day as the ride! Those were both such bad choices I can't even tell you. Most of the ride I was torn between wanting to throw up, give up or rip my legs off. I only got about 10 minutes up Spruce hill before I was thinking "Maybe if I turn around now and use a different route back Brian won't notice that I left and gave up!" HAHAHA! I would however NEVER have lived it down if I did that.

Some how I managed to make it through the ride though and up Pinehurst. Which was hard, but not too bad actually. Pinehurst was by far the most beautiful ride I have ever been on. The pine forests below were incredibly magical and the smell was sensational! Even the winding part at the top still gave you a great view. At the top of Pinehurst while waiting for the rest of the crew to make it up I stopped, unclipped my right foot and wham fell to my left and into a pile of hay and grasses! Both Brian and Darwin (Erica's boyfriend who finally joined us for a ride) were just staring at me like I was some moron. It was fantastic...

On the way down it was freezing! We crossed over Skyline and into Berkeley and you could see the fog rolling in and it dropped well into the 50's within minutes. Needless to say it was an uncomfortably cold ride back where Erica had to give me her sweater and gloves so I could continue. Of course she grew up here so this cold snap was nothing to her- while by the end of the ride I couldn't even feel my toes!

Then on the last leg right when pulling up to Erica's house I learned my last lesson of the ride: abrupt stopping on a hill leads to not clipping out in time and therefore falling...again. It must have looked so comical and in fact Laryssa who was behind me thought I had done it on purpose. Imagine me riding up to her house, stopping and just flopping over on to the pavement- it happened so fast I didn't even have time to clip out EITHER of my feet! Erica had to actually hold up the bike while I was on the floor so that I could unclip one foot at a time! Uggg, these clips are totally getting the better of me and now puts me at 3 falls total! All of which were totally pathetic, but luckily not when there are any cars.

::Sigh::

Blast you clips!

Week 5

2010-07-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

Week 5 has come and gone. I can not believe that I have been training for a whole 5 weeks!

This was the week of taking breaks. By the time that I had hit this week in my training I was getting too burnt out. And as Brian, in one of his fleeting moments of kindness, has told me- "The worse thing you can do is to over train." Of course from Brian this is a mixed message since he later told me - "with the training schedule you have I don't understand how you could be burnt out at this point." Ah, the joys of being young and not having to work for a living!

Any who, taking a bunch of days off was really really good. By the time that Saturday rolled around I was once again able to think about going to the gym without wincing, plus I was able to buy groceries in those off days... always a mood elevator!

Saturday was a great training day. I finally broke 3,000 meters during my practice- which was something I was building up to. Usually in a swim practice we did up to 4,500 meters easily. However, since I am doing other types of training I want to try to keep my practices between 2,800 and 4,000 meters each time. It was a good mile stone to have broken during the week that I was feeling the least into my training.

Here is how my swim practice broke down:

Warm up:
3 X 100 warm up free style, quick so as to get warmed up

4 X 100 free style kicks 20 second intervals, quick and with my new fins!
4 X 100 butterfly kick 20 second intervals, quick and with fins
4 X 100 backstroke kick 20 second intervals, quick and with fins

Pyramid:
200 m, 300 m, 400 m, 600 m.

Cool down:
2 X 100 back and free style
1 X 100 free style and butterfly

So that was my work out. Two things of note: 1. I had not worked out in fins since I was in highschool- and I had completely forgotten how much they work your quads! At the time it burned, but when I went on a ride the next day it killed! 2. Butterfly is tiring! I was never really good at it as a stroke, but used to be able to get across the pool with decent form and not too out of breath. This time I was dieing! I need to really work on that; since that is the stroke that gives you awesome abs.

Any ways that was week 5. Still feeling a bit wary of my motivation behind training these days, but slowly getting back on track.

Things went well

2010-07-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

After taking a few days off as a breather I went back to the gym yesterday and had a good workout that helped bring me back around to the idea of training again. Sometimes you just get into these life slumps and it is hard to pull yourself out of them and get back to doing what you need to do. Work is a bit slow right now and I am not doing the things at work that I normally love doing- so I feel that that has really been affecting my performance in all other aspects of my life. Go figure that something you do from 9 to 6, 5 days a week would affect how you deal with the rest of your life!

Any who, yesterday I did a cycling class and then a 2 mile run. I took the 2 miles at a slow pace and ended up doing a 19 minute, 2 mile run and not being out of breath or over exerted by the end of it. I am trying to build up my stamina so that this point I would rather run slower and longer distances than faster and short distances. This run was on a treadmill-which is new- and I had the setting at 5.9. Next time I am going to up the setting and try to maintain that pace throughout the whole run. Still hate running and dread doing it each time, but at least it isn't as painful as before.

I am hoping to get a good swim in this weekend. Haven't been in the pool since last Friday and the weather here is so cold that it is hard to get myself motivated to go for a swim! Bleck! These are the times that I wish I was back in LA!

A Hiatus... and then a Wall

2010-07-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

So after a brief holiday hiatus I am back at it. And man did I need a break!

Last week I was desperately needing to take a bit of time off and to reorganize my life. All of this training is taking a LOT of time! Sometimes I am at it from 6:20 am (when I get up for a morning swim) to 10pm. Luckily I have only decided to keep up this crazy workout schedule until September when I am planning to do my Olympic length tri. After that I will let it all cool down a bit for a the winter and then pick it up again in the spring.

All this training is definitely putting a strain on all my other side projects as well as my personal life. Simple things like buying groceries is even hard- cause when do it do it? If I get to work at 9 and stay till 6 and get groceries after than there is no time to train that day or if I work out after work till 9pm then I can't get groceries. Plus little things here and there, like going to a birthday and staying out till 1 am means not only am I tired at work the next day, but I am exhausted by the time training comes at 6pm.

So a break was definitely needed- I am still feeling a little burnt out and trying to pick myself back up again. I think the issue is that to train this hard the rest of my whole life needs to be put on hold, but I have too many irons in the fire right now to be doing that.

I really need to sit myself down and figure out a reasonable schedule so that everything fits in- a task that I should have been doing this weekend, but alas was not!

I don't want to completely hit this wall I am facing and not have any energy to train. So I think I am going to continue to take time off until I get the rest of my life back in order.

On a side note, last week was a good week. And I feel good about the work I put in. Now, if I could only train like that every week.

I am really excited to see my first in-person Triathlon with weekend. Erica and I are going to be there to cheer on Brian. Then next weekend I am going to go to the Tri For Fun in Pleasanton. I know that I am only doing a sprint and that this is a relaxed affair, but I am none-the-less totally nervous about it and scared I won't be able to finish. Race anxiety already :(

Any ways, to night I figure out all my shit, do LONG over due laundry, by groceries (I haven't had anything to eat in the house for a few days now) and make a plan of action! Tomorrow back to morning swims with a hopeful 3100 meter planned swim workout.

Knee Issues... am I officially old now?

2010-07-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

This was one of the first images that came up when I searched Google for "Knee Images"!

Totally not related, but hilarious. It is a pillow sold in Japan in the shape of a seated woman.

So after my first ride with my new bike, shoes, pedals my knees were aching a bit, right above and below the knee cap. It was a dull kinda pain that went away by the time I woke up on Monday. I figured the knee pain might have been due to a number of things: new bike, first time with these shoes, first time using proper alignment, and maybe my bike just need a bit of tweeking to fit better. Until today they hadn't been bothering me. Unfortunately yesterday I went to a core class that had us doing a ton of squats and now my knees hurt :(. And have been achy all day.

This is something that I am not taking lightly. I have brought it up to a bunch of people to get there opinion on the subject. Brian thinks it's just because I was using my shoes for the first time and therefore my knees and feet had to be in proper alignment the whole time. My co-worker Sara thinks it is cause I might not be stretching enough after my workouts and that I need to get my bike re-fitted. And lastly my co-worker Laryssa thinks it is because I am not stretching enough. These are all very valid points and things that I need to take into consideration. I guess that I should be stretching more after runs and rides. I mean I can't hurt to stretch. I am hoping that this is a stretching issue and it could easily be since a lot of knee issues are due to quad muscles and the way you work them during a training session. I have also had perpetually sore/ tight quads and calves since I started training 3 weeks ago so all of that tightness could easily now be affecting my knees.

I have also made a new appointment at Mike's Bikes to have my bike refitted. So we will see what comes of it.

Not injured, just a bit sore and wanting to make sure that everything goes back to normal soon!

1/2 mile swim

2010-07-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

Ahh... the good ol' days when we used to all hang out at the gym in our togas

Yesterday was another good morning swim. It almost wasn't due to the fact that people do not know how to A. pick lanes that are appropriate for their swimming skills and B. know what to do when someone faster than you is swimming on your ass and you come to the wall. I think that swimming it pretty self explanatory, if you are slower let the other person pass you when you reach the wall and if you choose to do drills on kick boards or with a buoy then go into one lane down. Swim lane etiquette... the trials of life.

Any who, yesterday was the first day that I have ever swam a 800. That was pretty exciting. In swim practice we used to do about 3,300 meters a practice, but I have never done 800 straight. I was never much for the long distance swimming, but it seems that now in my older years I have come around to it. :) I was always a sprinter before. Doing the 800 felt really good and I wish that I was able to time myself, but alas the Hearst Pool doesn't have a real swimming clock. I am hoping to get a stop watch this weekend so that I can start timing my longer swims. It was exciting to know that I had swam half a mile without fatigue and was feeling really good after. Seriously, swimming it the only positive reinforcement that I am getting these days as far as my training goes!

I also made a swim work out for Erica the other day. We have decided to make a deal: however many times I run in a week she has to get into the pool that same amount of times the next week. Hopefully this will push me to run and her to get in the pool.

Here's the basic swim workout I made for her.

Warm up:

2 X 100 meters slow 20 sec recovery

2X 100 meters medium 25 sec recovery

Practice:

4 X 100 meters medium kick with kickboard 15 sec recovery. This should be with your head in the water tol promote proper alignment. Also I like to work on bilateral breathing when using kickboards- something that was never too important when racing, but very important with open water swims

2 X 100 meters zipper drill working on proper alignment (i.e. being in perfect gliding form) and shoulder/ back rotation

2 X 100 meter catch up drill working on rotation and breathing

6 X 50 meter fast kick with kickboard 20 sec recovery. These should be fast and really get your heart rate up!

2 X 200 meter at whatever pace you think you can sustain for the whole thing. This is so that you can start to figure out the best pace of your arms and legs for the longer swims.

This whole work out is about 1,800 meters total which is a good amount to start at since a mile swim is just over 1,600 meters.

I am excited to see how she did during this practice and hopefully increase the times and lengths for next time!

Brick Work Out 1

2010-06-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I did my first brick work out (or at least that is what Erica calls it). That is when you do two events back to back. Yesterday I did a 45 minute spin class and then ran with Erica for two miles! We finished off our work out with a few reps of dips, pull ups, squats and the rowing machine in the weight room. It actually felt pretty good.

To be fair the spin class yesterday wasn't that hard. It was more of a cardio past paced spinning class than a heavy uphill class. None-the-less after the class Erica and I went out a did two miles straight on the track. She said that we did the two miles in well under 20 minutes, which for me a very very good. I've never timed myself while running before so I feel that this is as good a place to start as any. I have also been working on my breathing while running due to the fact that I get so many stitches when I run. It really gives me something to focus on while I am pushing through the pain. I kinda like it; it's like thinking of puppies when you are getting a bikini wax.

I also found that the run I did yesterday was the least painful run I have ever done. Usually when I run my legs feel very heavy and that I am just pulling them along, but no so this time. Maybe it was because my muscles were already very warm at this point. Maybe I am better at running after doing other things than just cold? It is something to think about.

I think that my mental attitude about running has also changed greatly. I had a conversation yesterday with my co-worker Laryssa about running- recall she has finished 5 marathons including the Boston marathon in under 4 hours- she told me that she actually doesn't like running at all. Sometimes she even hates it, but that she keeps doing marathons as a way of challenging herself. This concept completely blew my mind! The thought of disliking running, but choosing to do marathons is a crazy concept. I had always figured that people who run love to run- just like how I love to swim. I mean I really love to swim. It is a time for me to just turn my body to autopilot, stare at the black line on the bottom of the pool and think. It is also a great time to work out aggression/ problems. All of that completely surmounts that fact that it just so happens to be great exercise. Lastly, I just feel great after swimming- unlike with any other activity.

So keeping in mind that Laryssa doesn't really like to run all the much yet still manages to have finished 5 marathons puts me in a mind set that in fact I can do this running portion of my triathlons. Hell, if it doesn't require the need to love running to want to do it I can get on board with that. I will never love to run, but can I get to a place where I can get through it without wanting to pass out on the the track right then and there? Probably!

And then there was a little thing called a 10k

2010-06-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

These are NOT what my legs look like...yet :)

So yesterday I did the unthinkable... I went running- on a track- by my own volition! Hell has officially frozen over and it is all my fault.

Okay, so I went running- it was terrible. Every moment, if I could think over the din of my body screaming 'WHY God WHY!', I was thinking 'Why the hell am I doing this?'

Will I ever over come my hatred of running? Laryssa says: yes, my mind says: maybe and my body says: no and stop trying....

Any who, this was my work out:

Four 400 meters at a jog with two sets of stairs in between each 400.

Four 100 meters of lunges

Four 400 meters with a 200 meter of walking in between

Four, 15 second, 20 second, 25 second and 35 second chair poses with my back against the wall and my tights at a 90 degree angle.

Lastly, two sets of sit ups holding a 6 pound weight, sit ups with legs raised and moving the weight from side to side to work my obliques, leg raises with my legs straight and NOT touching the ground at the bottom, and reverse crunches were you curl you legs towards your chest but when you bring them down you don't let them touch the ground- 15 of each.

I try before I start to do a workout that I hate to set limits for myself. Such as 'today I will do everything in sets of X', like yesterday in sets of four. This helps me push through some how. It gives me the mentality that if I start one portion I MUST continue until I am done with the amount that I set for myself. Without strict rules when doing a workout I find that I flounder and end up slacking off.

I also really like to us the carrot/ stick method for doing work outs. Like if I push extra hard I can skip doing some part of the workout as reward, but if I slack off then I am punished by having to do something I really hate. Hench the whole reason I am running three times this week. I could have pushed through the run after the ride we did on Sunday- but I was just plain lazy and didn't feel like it. THAT is not a real reason to not do something... so my punishment is running. Sadly, it probably always will be.

This 10k that I will eventually do after my swim and bike is going to be a killer, but I have to practice and practice for it if I am going to finish it!

Like I said after the failed run on Sunday: "Get me in a God Damn pool!"

Week 3

2010-06-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

Week three was a bit of a mash up. I took off more time than any other week, due to Father's Day, but I also ramped up my work outs the days that I did actually train. So not bad. On the plus side however I did find the joys of morning swimming and on the negative side I also realized that I need to run more. So this coming week I decided that I must run at least 3 days out of my training week and I need to start to make that a mandatory thing. What is going to keep me from my goal of doing an Olympic length tri from start to finish without stopping will most definitely be the run! So I need to just force myself through the pain.

On a side note, my co-worker Laryssa does marathons (5 in fact- very impressive!), she said that eventually the pain that comes with running will go away. And that even when she doesn't run for two or three weeks her body starts screaming at her when she starts again. So in the mean time while MY body is screaming (and might I add very loudly and adamantly) at me I have to just trust her and hope one day it stops.

Joaquin-Miller Ride

2010-06-28T10:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went on a very mild ride into the Oakland Hills that over look the 24 and 13 freeways. It was a beautiful day and we didn't set out until 5 due to the heat.

We also had a few new characters join us on our ride. Kindly, Erica's brother, Brian, came along so that we didn't get lost on this new ride and my new co-worker, Laryssa, also joined. It was nice to ride with a group of new people. Brian is training for triathlon nationals and it was great to have him around to bounce questions off of. At this point any and all tid-bits are useful! He was a very good sport going slow and being patient with us :)

The Joaquin Miller Route is a 30 -40 minute mild up hill climb. It really was quite mild after doing the 3 bears a few weeks before! I think that Brian was worried that if he took us on to difficult of a ride we wouldn't make it all the way! :) But it think that it was a good ride to test out my new bike and use my new clip-less shoes.

But on the way we ran into the goats again and of course to Brian's chagrin we HAD to get off and feed the goats a bit. He also kept telling us that the wired fence was probably electric- even though it appeared to be made of plastic. None of us however believed him until Erica kindly tested the theory by accidently getting shocked while feeding one!

Erica and Laryssa feeding the goats and testing the theory of conductivity

From there we emerged on Skyline which gave us some amazing views of the whole bay area. Too bad it was a bit foggy that day or else we would have been able to see all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge!

Not bad guns huh?! ** On a side note YAY new bike and new shoes!**

So after we got to the top it was a very nice ride down the backside of the mountain. Luckily for me it was a mild ride that day since many a thing went wrong! First on the way up my contact decided to take a little trip around to the back side of my eyeball.. now for those of you who don't know I have really bad eye sight. And if I would have managed to loose my contact I would have not been able to see much on the ride back. Okay, fixed that eventually, but then on the way back going up a minor hill I accidently unclipped my right shoe. Which was not good cause then I couldn't clip back in while going up the hill.... uggg. Luckily I was almost at the top so I sorta had to just scoot up the hill with one foot clipped and the other pushing along. A very sad sight to see indeed. Lastly, you remember how when I was practicing with my shoes and pedals for the first time and I had only fallen once? Well my second time came on this ride. Happily we were on a bikes-only part of the ride so no fear from cars when I fell. Some how my chain became derailed and as I was looking down at it and unclipping my right foot my bike just sorta started a slow descend to the left. I was able to sorta get my left foot unclipped, but not in time and I just fell to the floor. Really more embarrassing than anything else. Erica of course was right there with the video camera to capture it all on film. What great friends I have! Ha!

Well at least all of those calamities are out of the way! Good riddance!

After that the ride finished uneventfully- sadly however somewhere earlier in the week in a moment of total insanity I suggested to Erica that we should run after the bike ride. We tried to go for a 3 mile run- which I just couldn't bring myself to do. Not that I was too tired to do it- I just don't have the drive to run and push myself through the uncomfortable part of running. I need to really work on that- so more running this week. The only way I can get over it is by just forcing myself to do it right? ::sigh:: I STILL hate you running!

<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/155127774437523680">Joaquin Miller road</a><br/><a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ca/berkeley">Find more Bike Rides in Berkeley, California</a>

Morning Swims- my new bestest friend!

2010-06-25T14:00:00.001-07:00

I guess in the 1930's thats what type of "sports" women were allowed

to do at the Hearst Gymnasium!

Thursday I woke up bright and early for a morning swim again- and let me tell you it was an awesome swim! I have recently tried to explain this phenomenon to people: of when you just have an excellent workout and the amazing high it gives you for the rest of the day. THAT workout was this morning swim.

For the past few weeks, especially with running, I feel like this training has been an uphill battle all the way. Nothing has come smoothly and I have never had the "in the zone" feeling while working out. Thursday swim was a final break through moment.

I got in the pool at 7:20am and started the workout that I had set out for myself.

It started with:

Four 100 freestyle each with a 20 second interval in between. These were at a quick pace to get the heart rate up enough so so that I needed the full 20 seconds to catch my breath.

Then:

Four 100 freestyle kicking with a kickboard. Facedown in the water so that I could work on my streamlining and be in proper alignment. These had a 15 second interval between each.

Then:

Three 100 freestyle zipper/ high elbow technique swims with a 10 second interval in between. These were at a slower pace so that I could work on my glide and my bilateral breathing. Something that doesn't matter so much when you are a 100% in the pool swimmer, but when you get out on the open ocean you want to be bilaterally breathing so that you are not lopsided and slowly start to swim off in the wrong direction. It happens- easily in open water swims!

Then:

I did a 100, 200, 300 and 400 back to back. With only a 10 second interval in between each one. And that is where I got in the zone. It was blissful! I am NOT a distance swimmer and always was a 25 meter, 50 meter, MAX 100 meter freestyle sprinter. So I have really been working on slowing down my initial pace and just working on my arm technique- cause that is what is really going to pull you through the long swims. So doing a 400 meter at a good pace, finishing in 8 minutes and NOT feeling out of breath at the end is a good sign. That means that in the pool I am doing a mile swim in 32 minutes- which is a good baseline for me to start at.

I also ended up swimming 2,100 meters that morning- which is a good workout

Any who, I felt really jazzed after that swim and went to work on cloud nine :).

Later that day I also went to a cycling class. I am working up to having a Trifecta Day- which is where I do all three sports in one day (however not necessarily in order or back to back).

So Thursday was a good day for me to end my workout on. Friday and Saturday I am taking the days off and Sunday doing a long ride. I am feeling pumped again; that swim was the ego boost that I needed to keep me going! Whoot Whoot!

Learn-To-Not-Fall-On-Your-Ass Day!

2010-06-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was my day to learn how to bike with my new pedals and shoes. I took the advice of the nice lady at Mike's Bikes and went to a grass field where all the people playing with their dogs could see me while I biked around attempting to clip in. Luckily I had only one fall and it was on the grass so it wasn't too bad. I am however still a bit wary about biking around in traffic with them, but I just have to dive in head first and go for it.

After I sorta successfully celebrated Learn-To-Not-Fall-On-Your-Ass Day I then met up with Erica for a run. We started with a medium jog around the track which turned into a little more that a 2 mile warm up. That's not bad for me! We then did reps.: a fast sprint for 200 meters with a 200 meter recovery jog. We did about six of these and called it a day.

During the warm up jog I did however have an epiphany. I realized that while throughout my life I have been very active and involved with sports not one of the sports I have ever been involved in required running! And the sports that I did that should have required running I participated in on the non-running side! Such as I used to play soccer- I was the goalie and I did do track and field- I did long jump and high jump! My other sports have included competitive equestrian, volleyball and swimming- all none running sports. This was quite the revelation to have and I guess sorta puts my running into perspective now!

Morning Swims- My new best friend

2010-06-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

UC Berkeley's Hearst Pool at the old women's gymnasium

So I thought waking up at 6:20 to do a morning swim was going to be the worst idea ever and that by mid-day at work I was just going to crash from morning exercise and forcing myself to stay awake manually (i.e. NO coffee still!). But HOORRAH! I have found the joys of morning swims- and let me tell you they are amazing! It is like I have been awakened to a whole new world where I can work out AND still get home in time to cook dinner and have a little me time - which is highly essential for my sanity.

So my first morning swim was on Tuesday and after wandering around the UC campus for a while trying to find this gym I was finally in the pool by 7:30am. I didn't realize that the Hearst Gym was the old women's only gymnasium- ergo they had to make it look the most un-gym like possible, ya know to suit our womenly sense and all! It is a beautiful building totally done in the style of the late 1910's and 1920's of art nouveau and very well preserved. However, not what you are expecting to be a gym when you see it from the outside.

Inside it is a bit creepy and very sanitarium-esque. I do love the old signs that they kept about the place from the time when it was a women's only gym. Such as "MEN if you are here ring this bell for service". And the pool is gorgeous-I mean the pool is completely marble people! I have never swam in a full marble pool. It is pretty luxurious!

So of course I get there at 7:30 and they tell me that Tuesdays are the one day that they close early at 8:00 to do a pool cleaning. ::Sigh:: Oh well at least I got in a 30 minute work out and had the glorious revelation that working out in the mornings isn't that bad. And to boot I didn't crash mid day like expected even without the wonderful life sustaining fluid that is known as coffee.

A little Behind....

2010-06-25T09:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, so this week I got a little behind on my blogging/ recording of training. However, I am going to do the best to catch you up on the training that I did this week.

To start, the running clinic actually wasn't that bad. I mean it wasn't fun- but it wasn't as painful as the first time I went running with Erica where we just did a few miles straight without stopping.

So the workout for the running clinic was so:

A warm up of a few stretches and lunges- nothing too intense and nothing to bring up the heart rate.

Then:

One 400 meter at a jog with a set of 4 stairs

One 300 meter run, 100 meter jog with a set of 3 stairs

One 200 meter run, 200 meter jog with a set of 2 stairs

One 100 meter run, 300 meter jog with a set of 1 stair.

That part was HARD - and I actually just ended up jogging the whole thing. I can't sustain that kind of a run and have anything left over for a set of stairs! It was a damn good set and one that I have to try again. When I am more fit...

We then moved on to a 1 1/2 minute plank followed by:

20 squat jumps and 100 meter sprint... we did this five times.

That actually wasn't that bad. Not that I am in any way a sprinter, but I am much better at bursts of energy then a cool down then a sustained long run that is slower.

After that we did 50 sit ups with a partner pushing us down and 50 leg lifts with a partner pushing our legs down. Those were great for the abs and was still feeling it even on Friday!

So that was the running clinic- not terrible, but still not on any level enjoyable. HA! I felt not triumphant- but good for getting through the whole thing and not being the slowest- until Erica told me that this teacher had let us off easy and that most trainings were harder :(

::Sigh:: What a total bubble burst!

3 Bears Panoramic

2010-06-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

I know that it took me a long time to post this photo, but here it is! The panoramic shot from the 3 bears. The rolling hills of California just never get old! This was our pit-stop refuel break.

Week 2 Summary

2010-06-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

So, I won't say that I completely failed on my week two training schedule.... but it definitely didn't go as planned. Life definitely got in the way last week. I am having a bit of a hard time trying to balance life and all of this training- and I have come to the horrid conclusion that I might have to start to do morning workouts. Not that I have anything wrong with getting up early, its just doing a morning workout at 7am and then going to work from 9 to 6, coming home cooking and doing everything else I am suppose to do sounds a bit exhausting! But I will be giving it a try tomorrow.

So, as you can see, I ended up taking the whole weekend off- Father's Day what can ya do? - as well as taking Monday and Wednesday off to buy groceries and to buy my bike. This week I definitely need to step up my game. Starting with running workshop today that Erica has tricked me into thinking I am in enough running shape to do.... Why do I let her trick me into such things?

I'll shamefully have to let you know how quickly I pooped-out during the practice tomorrow, that is IF I can walk to my computer....

New Bike!

2010-06-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

So lady's and gent's I am officially the proud owner of a Cannondale Six Bike! Whoot whoot!

I went to the Mike's Bikes sale on Wednesday and scored myself an incredible bike for more than 50% off. It sure didn't hurt that it is a 2009 and right now it is currently more than half way through 2010!

But clearly I must have never been to a bike store that isn't a douchey NYC bike store- because this place treated me like a real person! Having all my previous bike experience be from NYC- and therefore I am now sufficiently scarred by bike store owners and fixie jerks- I was expecting not only a run around (that is pretty much expected in NYC) but also a bunch of jerks perpetually testing my "knowledge" of bikes and what is cool/ not cool in the bike world. (Clearly, as you can tell, I have some issues to work out in therapy with NYC and its biking culture...)

Luckily none of that was to be had at Mike's Bikes.

So three cheers for my new bike... as my wallet cries softly in the corner!

The specs are below if anyone is interested.

It is definitely more than just a beginner bike, but after riding it and seeing what a steal I was getting I figured that I might as well go for it. Since the 2010 Dolce Specialized were only selling for $100- %200 less.

After riding my friends Allez Specialized bike on the last ride and finishing with major upper back pain due to the handle bar being too wide for my shoulders and too far away from the saddle I decided that going with a women's bike was probably the way to go. Unless I wanted to completely replace the handle bars on a brand new bike- which just didn't seem worth it to me.

I did test drive a Dolce before buying the Cannondale, but it was a bit too upright for me- and not as aggressive as I would have liked the frame to be. I think after using guys bikes that have always been a bit to big for me I am used to a more horizontal feel. And the Ruby Specialized was just too expensive. So that I how I ended up with the Cannondale.

Also, after test driving a bike that had ultegra gears... there really was no going back-shifting was as smooth as butter!

But I don't have the bike yet- they needed to bring my size in from another store. And I am having some serious separation anxiety. You know the kind where you stare at pictures of it on the internet or when you want to brag about it to other people, but no one even understand why the hell you spent that much money on a bike no matter how you try and explain that it is carbon with amazing gears.... ::sigh:: The with drawl is hard!

But I get it on Tuesday and then Wednesday I have to do a crash course in how to use my new pedals and shoes. Hopefully that does not turn into a literal crash course on the subject...

Also one of the employees at Mike's Bike suggested that I try them out first on a grassy field so as not to hurt myself or my bike if I do happen to take a tumble. Good points all around!

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?ItemID=17502&Type=bike

Week 1 Summary

2010-06-15T16:51:00.001-07:00

So this is how my first week ended up being in comparison to my earlier schedule. Not too bad, but definitely not as full throttle as my original schedule mandated.

By Friday I could barely walk down the stairs properly, so I figured that if I was going to actually do a ride that Sunday I needed to rest up. Basically the run killed me and I am NOT looking forward to the next one that I am going to do (i.e. this evening). I've figured that if the running is going to make me that sore I needed to start doing it earlier in the week if I have any prayer of doing my rides on the weekends.

Also, I was able to give up coffee for the whole week! Whoot whoot! But have recently fallen off of the no-caffeine band wagon. Having coffee on Monday was like having a religious awakening... god, coffee is good! ::Sigh::

On that note I have been pretty exhausted at work since I started training. I can't tell if it is because I am working out more and not sleeping enough or if it is more because I am a bit stressed out from work and trying to maintain my social life WHILE training. Hopefully I will stop feeling so tired all the time and thus be able to kick my coffee habit again.

I have also been very very good about my resolution to drink more water, but not so good about cutting down on the red meats. However, this grocery trip I did buy some beans and lentils (which I don't really know how to cook yet...) so hopefully that will get me started down the lesser meat eating path.

So this week taught me a few things: A. Exercise is tiring, B. Coffee is a gift from the gods, C. I am a totally out of shape runner, D. BUT I am in pretty good cycling shape for someone who has never done it before and E. There was no way I was going to be perfect on my first week and actually keep to the schedule I made.

So, keeping all of that in mind I think it was a pretty successful first week!

Wildcat Canyon and the Three Bears

2010-06-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today was Sunday and the first day that I was able to walk successfully down stairs without looking like I had pegs for legs. Ever since that run on Wednesday my inner and outter quads have been killing me! So much so that my work has decided to give me the nickname of peg legs, since it looked like I had peg legs for the past few days.

Luckily I woke up today in not perfect shape- but being able to walk down the stairs like a normal human being sure was a plus!

Originally Erica and I were going to do a 30ish mile ride out in Pleasanton, but it was just WAY to hot for that. So we decided to do an easy ride early in the morning. Little did I know that the ride Erica was going to make us go on was any thing but easy!

She decided that we should do Wildcat Canyon and the 3 Bears and since when it comes to biking I just do whatever Erica tells me to do... at 9:45am we started back up Spruce toward Wildcat Canyon.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/berkeley/504018499"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;3 Bears 06-18-2007&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ca/berkeley"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Berkeley, California&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

As you can see it was a pretty intense ride, but I am really glad that I had not seen it on a map before I did it or else I think I would have psyched myself out of it.

This time I had invited Andrew's cousin's husband, Eric, and one of his friends, Dirk to join us. It was really fun to ride with them and they definitely pushed us (or me!) to ride a little bit harder. Unfortunately they didn't stick around for the whole day- but it was fun for the part that they did join us on!

Riding down Wildcat canyon was awesome and you were able to have some amazing views. Once you got all the way down the hill and were trekking around the dams the hills (there are three of them hence the name the 3 Bears) were moderate- but with no shade. It was a full 85 degrees or higher, but with a nice wind at times and going back up Wildcat canyon was in the shade. For me, a So-Cal girl and someone who has lived in Thailand, I thought that the weather was perfect! And I got to work on my tan along the way! But Erica, and I think Eric and Dirk, might have thought it was a bit too hot to be riding.

The 18 or so miles around the dams were really beautiful and the path dumps you right out in farm and horse country. That was quite a treat to bike through those areas.

In front of some hay bales half way through the ride!

What is also great about the ride is that there a long stretches of road that open up where you can bike up and down baby hills in a higher gear- which is always just such a great feeling! After a few miles in a really low gear it is nice to once again feel the resistance of the bike and really feel like you are in control.

But of course what goes down must come back up again... meaning Wildcat canyon. After getting up Spruce with sore quads and the bike around the dams I really was scared that I wasn't going to make it back up that mountain! But Erica being the great Jitensha Sensei (bike teacher) that she is was able to instill enough confidence in me that I was indeed fit enough to make it back. Besides, we had no other way of getting home! It was a BITCH of a ride back up- I am not going to lie to you. Especially at the end of a long ride. But some how we made it back up to Inspiration Point. And Erica was right in the end- this was a perfect ride to challenge me, but at the same time a ride that I was able to do, even when I doubted myself.

Of course we needed a photo op with the beautiful rolling
Cali hills behind us!

After Inspiration Point the rest were easy mini hills that you could get through with enough momentum and then the down hill along Spruce- that was just fun! At by the end of it we reached home around 1:45ish which rounded out to about 4 hours to do the whole thing. I needed to take some stops to refuel and rest, but I am not going to begrudge myself that since it was only my second time cycling!

All in all Erica, like the story of the three bears, was able to pick just the right ride for the day. Even though at times I thought she was trying to kill me!

I Hate you Running

2010-06-10T09:00:00.001-07:00

Did my first day of running yesterday- and I still hate you running. Oh I hate you soooo much. We only did a measly 2.7 mile run and how sore I am today!

Erica sent me this uplifting image last night.

If only my relationship with running wasn't so antagonistic ::sigh::

2010-06-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of the AMAZING view from the top of Grizzly Peak, the end destination on our first ride.

Swim swim

2010-06-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Monday- after the bike ride on Sunday I am now determined to get back on track with my June schedule. Went swimming today for a full 30 minutes- which was not as painful as the first Saturday I went swimming- good sign. Tomorrow I will be doing 65 minutes of cycling- 45 minutes of which are a class and 20 are going to be on my own. I think that this will be okay after all.

Grizzly Peak and forays back in to swimming

2010-06-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so first post since I have started training!

To start I have already NOT stayed true to my June calendar that I created- but that wasn't completely my fault. Andrew's, my boyfriend, flight from the East coast was delayed a day- causing the already very short period of time that I could see him before he goes back to Thailand for 10 weeks even shorter. Consequently as a surprise he decided to stay til Saturday! YAY! But that also means that I didn't start training until Saturday mid-day. Oh well, that's life.

So Saturday I went to a public pool near my house (the Mission Pool- see above- is quite the San Francisco type of public pool!) to do a 30 minute swim, which was difficult. This was the first lap that I had done in a pool in a year and a half. UGG! It was hard getting back into the swing of things especially with all of those people at the public pool swimming all over the place. Finding my "swimming zone" was nearly impossible.

Any ways, after that I felt pretty down and out- thinking that I was way more out of shape that I had previously thought. Luckily, I had a moderate ride coming up the next day with my Hapa training partner Erica! And she was going to show me the ropes on how to cycle.

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Sunday we decided to do a moderate ride up to Grizzly Peak in Berkeley. It is a good beginner ride because while it is constantly up hill til the top the grade isn't constant and averages around 4%. What was great was that I was able to use Erica's boyfriend's bike, a MUCH nicer road bike than I have, and she taught me all about gear changing and the concepts behind it. I am very fortunately to have someone so knowledgeable willing to train with me- or else I would be floating out in cycling never-neverland not knowing what the hell to do!

The ride was also very very beautiful and at the top we were rewarded with some incredible views of the whole bay area.

Here we are enjoying finally making it to the top- Erica (who has done this ride a few times) said that we made pretty good time in getting to the top in 1 hour.

Neither of us felt very depleted after wards either, so that gives me hope that not only are we in a better place than I thought we were, but we are pretty even as far as athletic ability goes.

Here is Erica on the way up :) We are still looking feisty and this was only ten minutes from the top! It was nice to know that the ride didn't kill me and that I wasn't sore after wards.

The way down was a pretty crazy ride. I don't think that I am any where near as comfortable with speed as Erica is- but maybe that will come with time... I took it a bit slow coming down. And scarily enough was almost cremated by a car backing out of their drive way! Ekk!

But to end on a good note we did see a whole hillside populated by goats on the way down and that was a pretty cool way to end the ride!

Cans and Can Nots

2010-05-28T11:26:00.001-07:00

As the date to get-my-lazy-ass-up-and-start-training day approaches this is a few food rules that I am g0ing to *try* to abide by.

1. No more coffee (unless I am absolutely dieing at work)

2. Cut back on red meat to only two times a week. (This is going to be hard because I am WAY more of a carnivore than omnivore... but it IS better for me. Also, they say that reducing red meat and substituting it with things that are more easily digestable will help my body make the most of out my food while converting it into energy)

3. Eat more servings of fish. (Right now I am at about 2 -3 servings per week of fish. I think it would be a good idea to increase that amount to make up for the lack of red meat in my diet... it's not like I am going vegetarian here people!)

4. Drink at 4 - 5 liters of water a day

5. Up my legume, bean, tofu and chickpea intake. (Right now legumes are okay, but I should start to eat other energy rich foods too)

6. Reduce dairy product in take. (This will be the hardest because dairy products are the equivalent of gifts from god to me! Nothing is better than cheese... okay maybe bacon and avocados.... but few things can compete with the amazingness of cheese. I am not going to completely cut out dairy- that would just be wrong and mean spirited to dairy!- just reduce it a little and maybe cut it out totally a week before a large triathlon.)

Okay that is my initial list. Basically it is eat more veggies and try to be reasonable about what I put in my body. I figure it is no use to do all this training if I am just going to go home and eat stuff that is going to hinder my work outs and results.

On a side note, I am a big proponent of energy bars, i.e. cliff bars and the like, but I am interested in try out these energy gel things that are now on the market... they look totally gross, but maybe they won't give me that lump of coal stuck in my gut feeling that sometimes eating an energy bar and then running can do. I'll get back with more on that front later!

Calendar

2010-05-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Okay so in an effort to hold myself accountable for my tri training I have started to tell people about my training this summer. Hopefully that will help to keep me going and not totally give up at the first drop of sweat!

Also, I have joined a gym with a pool and created a calendar for myself.

I found this pretty nifty site: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/
And there I was able to use their simple tri schedule maker to make me a mock schedule for my training. In an attempt to spice it up just a bit in the first month and to tailor it to my schedule (i.e. I know I will NEVER go to the gym on a Friday night- please!)I created this June schedule for myself.

The one that they created was a bit different. Longer bike rides and less swimming. I am, however, a stronger swimmer so I felt that I would cut myself (and my ego) some slack and up the swimming in the beginning. I however kept the running amount the same because I am such a terrible runner any running advice is helpful! I figure that if I give myself a fitness out base in the first month by doing what I am best at- swimming- I will then have a better base for next month where I will do more running and biking instead of swimming.

We'll see how close to this schedule I actually keep! Ha!~

Swim-Bike-Run-Repeat!

2010-05-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after undisappearing from my year in Thailand I am back in the good ol' usa!
I've been here for about a year now and am finally settling into life in the bay area and the states. I decided that after a year of being here I needed to get on the triathlon bandwagon and actually try and train for one. I have been saying for about two years now that I want to do an Olympic length tri and I feel that this is the year that I am going to make that happen- or at exercise until I melt into a puddle of my own sweat... either way really.

I am, however, cautiously optimistic about this since
A. I hate running with a passion,
B. I don't know anything about riding a bike on a competitive level,
C. After growing up in LA and living in Thailand I have NO IDEA how I am ever going to get in the water here since it is NEVER warm and
D. Did I mention my extreme hatred for running?- it is really quite extreme.

All of that aside I am willing to throw myself into this and really give it a go.

I told myself that I don't have to start training until June 3rd (the day my boyfriend leaves to go back to Thailand for a 3 month stint- I figure less distractions couldn't hurt!). So until June 3rd I plan to pig out, drink red wine and not exercise in the least. After that I am going to give myself two to three weeks at the gym getting myself back in order before I embarrass myself in front of a San Francisco Triathlon group training session.

I guess I will be seeing you back here on June 3rd to let you know how my first day of training went.

Ciao!

On the way to work today...

2009-03-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

So, biking towards work today at 8:30am I was shocked to see "tons" of traffic in the middle of our simple one lane highway. The cars were bumper to bumper- but since I was on a bike I decided that I needn't be worried about stopping with them- and went around. Suddenly I found myself in the middle of a large marching band procession slowly moving down the center of town! A marching band procession, with hundreds of people all dressed in matching outfits during the middle of "rush hour"! Really? AND- guess what they were playing?.... Yankee Doodle Dandy. Yes folks that's right, Thais love their celebrations so much that they will let it interrupt mid-week rush hour traffic to play not even a Thai patriotic song. What can I say? The Thais are truly dedicated to their celebrations.
Of course I got to work and asked anyone else if they had also been stuck in this strange marching band, but of course no one else had been. In fact no one else even knew what I was talking about! Which is so amazing because Mae Sot only has two roads... one going into town and one going away.
Ah, life in Thailand!

Just for Kicks!

2009-02-23T21:26:00.001-08:00

A Romp at the น้ำตก Part 1

2009-02-21T23:30:00.000-08:00

So it is REALLY REALLY getting hot here and we decided that it was a perfect day to take a trip out to the waterfalls that we have all heard so much about, but never gone to see. They were beautiful! And it was so hot, which made the water temperature perfect! We were also covered in waterfall mud by the end of the climb, so we feel like we also got to roll around in special Northern Thai mud for free instead of going to an expensive Rodeo Drive spa!

We started by going to a lesser waterfall that you had to climb up the mountain to see the falls. Right above it was a beautiful golden pagoda! You could only see it from far away, so no photos of that.

Climbing up to the waterfall

After a really nice and cool dip in the waterfall. It was a perfect way to relax after sitting in a really hot office all week!

A VERY serious photo at a VERY serious waterfall!

Jade looks really really tiny in this photo!

A view of the lake from above

Jade and Matt

Under the falls

The falls were a perfect message

The lake below from our little hut that we relaxed and drank white wine in! A fantastic use of our one bottle of white wine

On the phone... HOLA!

A Romp at the น้ำตก Part 2

2009-02-21T23:04:00.001-08:00

This is the 2nd waterfall that we went to on the advice of a Maung guy that we met at the first fall. It was super nice and actually the one that you see photos of all around Mae Sot. It is a waterfall that the area is famous for. So beautiful and completely surrounded by forests.

Tha Wah being totally crazy in the background! HAHAHA.

A really beautiful tree with crazy roots!

Climbing to the top

It is REALLY hot right now in Mae Sot so the cold water was amazing!

Tree nymphs

:).. being romantic is hard in Mae Sot where public displays of affection are taboo... so this was a nice break

At the top

Picturesque!

Maung boys playing at the waterfall. TOTALLY surprised to see me and Jade in our bikinis and we were pretty surprised to see them too. No one was there at first and we had the whoel place to our selves. And YES the boys also wear pants made of velvet... I am not sure when the traditional dress started to include velvet! :)

Matt, Tha Wah, Andrew and Jade on a pefectly placed log over a fall

A Romp at the น้ำตก Part 3

2009-02-21T04:09:00.001-08:00

Tucking up the shorts in prep for our next photo

Everyone's in Tha Wah's short shorts!
SOOOO sexy!

A roomie photo

You have to have at least ONE FOB shot!

Monkey Boy

Andrew and Tha Wah with a Maung girl, a Northern Thai ethnic hill tribe. They really love the velvet in their ethnic outfits. They wanted to take photos of me and Jade because we were in bikinis....which to them is very scandelous... so we felt it was only right to reciprocate and take photos of them!

A really cool tree.

AHH Charity....

2009-02-11T19:30:00.000-08:00

So the other day the circus was in town.... No I am not joking. A group called Clowns Without Borders was in town to perform at some of the local schools. Yes the name is as hilarious as it sounds! There are Doctors Without Borders, Engineers Without Borders.... but frankly the world would not be complete without Clowns Without Borders!

Any ways, I went to go and see them perform at a local bar in town. They did a whole bunch of fire tricks for us, which were neat. Not super amazing... and they definitely did NOT amazing the locals. Fire tricks are part of Thai culture- which they should have probably looked up before they came here to entertain the kiddies. Oh well! And the Burmese people were just confused. I was talking to a Chin friend who was confused as to why the dances were so sexual when they used to do tricks like that back at home in Burma as kids! Ah, culture clashes!

But none-the-less it was a nice diversion from the normal Friday nights. Below are some photos I took during the performance. I think that they might make the whole thing look a lot better than it actually was.

Clowns Without Borders Photos

2009-02-11T19:23:00.001-08:00

Photos

2009-01-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

So, I've decided to slowly post some of my best photos every couple of months so that people can see a little bit better what Mae Sot is like. All of these photos so far were taken in my tiny 10-minute on a bike town. Enjoy. More will come.

Sleepy Space

2009-01-24T08:53:00.001-08:00

In our Mae Sot house

Drying Chillies

2009-01-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

Full Moon Festival

2009-01-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

Mae Sot Wat

Three Buddhas

Golden Shrine

2009-01-24T08:41:00.000-08:00

The Bike Grave Yard

2009-01-24T02:34:00.000-08:00

23rd Birthday Photos

2009-01-19T21:24:00.001-08:00

A roommate photo, pre-everyone arriving

Andrew and I... self explanatory

A photo of my with my very very special white pomegrante. To make a long story short, I bought one and was SOOO excited to eat it, because they are imported, went into the fridge one night to eat it- AND it was gone! I accused everyone of taking it, but no one knew where it went. So jen kindly bought me a new one for my brithday.

The Birthday spread. Comprising of 5 kinds of cheeses and 3 kinds od salami all brought in mine and Andrew's suit case from the USA. We also brought two bottle of wine, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, italian seasoning and pesto sauce!
People at the partty were very excited because I had managed to find ritz crackers in Mae Sot- Don't judge us. We become simple people here!

Jen and I.

Roommate photo, with Tha Wah looking sketchy...

Blowing out the candles on my Banatofee Pie.

23rd Birthday Photos

2009-01-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

Ruby, my Burmese Teacher, and Jen. Ruby is dressed how all people that only live here are dressed at this "cold" time of the year. I must admit in the mornings and nights it is very cold... but not enough to warrant a beanie and down jacket!
Paddy, a new co-worker, and roommate Tha Wah. Probably drunk now and enjoying Taboo!

Jen, my boss's girlfriend and Christine, a friend from Hsa Thoo Lei School, enjoying our boxed wine. Which I might add some people back in their normal lives, where wine is easy to get, might be judging me for having 10 liters of boxed wine at my party... but to them I say - You don't know what it is like here without wine!

Stumped by Taboo.... it's tough when intoxiacted!

Cookin' Eggs

2009-01-18T03:16:00.000-08:00

So on January 10th my roommates and I decided to be true to our group new years resolution and go to the local hot springs.

The first time that I was living in Mae Sot I had no time to do any traveling or really relax for that matter. It was go-go-go from the moment that I got there. First it was doing all the craziness with the house and moving in. Then it was work- from Monday to Friday physical labor out in the hot hot sun of Thailand was way too much! I would come home some days so exhausted that I would pass out at 6pm and not wake up til 7 am the next day! Lastly it was weekend projects all the time. From the solar water heater, to the gardening, to the constant cleaning that our huge house needed none of us ever had any free time. And Andrew and Jade were working just as much at GHAP. So in 2009 we decided that it was mucho importante to have a social life and relax a bit.

My new job helps this out a LOT! It is a desk job from 9 to 5 and it feels so good to come home and actually have energy to do other things! I am able to cook now, go swimming, go to yoga or even study Thai. I never had energy like that before. Don't get me wrong- I really loved doing my other job, but I really needed a break from building.

So in that spirit we went to the hot springs. We had heard that they were super relaxing and set right out in the middle of nature. In fact they probably would have been this pristine get away if we had not gone when the local Thais were still celebrating New Years and Thai Independence on January 4th. It was PACKED with families and their screaming children. See in Thailand I have actually grown to sort of like kids. The children at the migrant schools are respectful, quiet and all around really good kids. But Thai kids are a whole other level of spoiled! And they are so fat and loud! It is really attractive for young boys in Thailand to be fat because it is a sign of being western and well feed - so this turned out not to be a quiet relax in the hot springs but a family vacation.

Luckily, we could rent a private hot spring for 20 baht and be secluded in a room all a lone. Having a physical barrier between us and the kids was a must. Also, no one could stare at us in our bikini's, because remember Thais are still pretty conservative as far as clothing goes.

We stayed there for most of the day and it was quite nice. One day I'd like to go back and see if it is maybe a bit more quite when it is not a national holiday!

Cookin' Eggs

2009-01-18T02:58:00.001-08:00

Cooking eggs is a major Thai past time at this natural hot springs. The water is un-touchably hot and it only takes a few minutes to boil your eggs

New Years Celebrations 2009 in Bangkok

2009-01-18T02:45:00.000-08:00

So, this is the first year that I have ever spent new years out and it was really quite fun to be a part of all of the celebrations.

We met up with one of Andrew's college friends who is from Thailand and now lives in Bangkok. It was great because she knew the city like the back of her hand and we didn't really need to do any thinking. Neither of us really like Bangkok - it is just too big, dirty and there are WAY too many candy colored taxi cabs for it to be much of a walking city. Although, their city wide mono-rail is very nice, if it actually takes you were you want to go.

So she was going to go to this super-swanky club that night with all of her friends and if we were going to go we needed to look nicer than we usually do in Thailand. Up in Mae Sot there is no reason to have a nice dress and high -heels. So we pulled together a nice out fit for both of us so that we could go. I am sure that I will never wear my 200 baht high-heels that I bought in the MBK mall. They were pretty cheap and hurt like hell, but worked for the evening.

The club cost 1,000 baht to get into- and let me put that in perspective for you. 1,000 baht is about 30 dollars! I've never paid that much to get into a club in my life, even in NYC! Our monthly rent in Mae Sot is only 875 baht and an expensive dinner in Mae Sot is about 200 baht. So this was a crazy amount of money to us just to go a club. Luckily, it turned out to be worth it. It had the most amazing view of the entire city and at midnight we were privy to all the fireworks. It was maybe the best fireworks show I have ever seen! Also the dance floor was made out of clear plastic that was built over the infinity pool on the hotel's top floor. We also ended up getting plenty of free Moet & Chandon. So all in all I can say that I am super glad I sucked it up and just went for it that night! It was a very romantic new years and our party had the whole dance floor to our selves, since no one every dances in Thailand!

After new years, we didn't hang out in Bangkok for more time than needed. We moseyed around the parks until our bus left at 10pm on the 1st and were back in Mae Sot to see the sunrise on the 2nd. It was wonderful to come back to our house - all-be-it it was really really dirty!

New Years Celebrations 2009 in Bangkok

2009-01-18T02:28:00.000-08:00

The crazy lizards that live in the Bangkok parks! This one was really quite big, over a foot long. We are not sure if they are dangerous or not, but no one else seemed to mind them.

Hanging out in the park- we never do too much in Bangkok. It's not really our favorite city of all time, but they do have nice parks.

We could see all of the fireworks throughout the whole city! It was 1,000 baht to get into the place but the view was pretty much worth it!

At the super fancy club in Bangkok. Both Andrew and I had to buy appropriate clothes that day so that we could get into the club. I even bought 200 baht high-heels for the occasion. They really hurt too!

I went to Myanmar for a coke and a chat in Japanese

2008-11-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Andrew on the Friendship Bridge where we are about to go for a visa run in Burma

People from Burma illegally crossing under the "Friendship Bridge" that connects Mae Sot, Thailand to Myawaddy, Burma on a large inner tube. And smuggling goods into Thailand, right underneath of where the Thai police are doing "visa" checks!

Solar Water Heater Part II

2008-10-12T04:43:00.001-07:00

Attaching the hay, which is our insulation, with tarping on the back

Our little coffins... I mean insulated collectors

A collector with the insulation on the bottom and the tubes all ready for the glass to be put on

This is how the finished collector looks. Pretty nice once it has all the glass on it. Sadly, we were not able to finish insulating the tanks..... another weekend :(

Crazy last weekend in September

2008-10-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

So last weekend was quite a weekend!

On Saturday Andrew, Tha wah and I, along with others, attempted to solve our house's hot water problem. We started to build some solar water heaters along with an NGO called BGET and Marcus. We started to build three water heaters: one for our house, one for Marcus' and one for BGET to have so that they can train others in the solar water heating making process.

To explain why we need a solar water heater: because we still don't get to take hot showers all of the time! The power that is needed to go to our electric water heater is too much for the fuse in our house to handle and after about 2 minutes of a hot shower we blow the fuse in our house! Sigh. Also we can't always take showers any ways because sometimes the water pressure isn't high enough so we have to take bucket showers. Which now that I am used to them aren't so bad. None-the-less I was determined to find away to heat our showers and a solar water heaters seemed like just the thing. It also just so happened that when I brought this up to Marcus he said "Oh ya I have built 5 solar water heaters in Thailand and know exactly what to do. And I was going to show BGET how to build one any ways. AND I want to build one for my house too."

So that is how last Saturday we started to build three solar water heaters and I must say I am pretty excited about it! It involved a lot of running around trying to find the right pieces in the right sizes for all of the compartments, but I think that we have pretty much got it all now and are ready to finish and install it this coming weekend!

We started by building the collectors, which were made from wood and corrogated iron, that we painted black. Then inside of the collectors we placed 5 sets of black tubes that we put permanately together with wire and cement tape. These tubes will be what will eventually pump in the cold water and heat it and dump it back out into a highly insulated garbage bucket to later be used by us for showering water. The collectors will be finished this weekend by adding a layer of aluminum foil, a layer of hay and a lay of plastic to the back to keep them super insulated and retain as much of the heat absorbed from the sun as possible. Also over top of the collectors we will be placing three sheets of glass so that it magnifies the rays of the sun on top of our black painted tubes that are holding our water. We also need to finalize it by insulating the garbage bucket with a layer of foil, a layer of hay, and a layer of linoium. I am hoping to have this installed by Sunday, so hopefully I will be able to post photos of the finished project soon!

Then after an exhausting Saturday that went from 9am to 7pm working on the heaters we went to pick up our three new kittens on Sunday morning! They were born to a semi-stray cat that lived at a small school in Mae Sot and the school wanted to give them away to a good home before they became street cats. So we are going to let them be indoor-outdoor cats so that they can learn to fight for themselves. But for right now they are only 5 weeks old and are keeping them inside with only minor outdoor excursions for their own safety. Luckily they are very smart and took to the litter box without any mess ups! They also love to be with one another and I am so glade that we took all three and didn't spit them up! Currently they are eatting, sleeping, pooping machines! - But cute ones! I am excited to see them grow up.

Our last edition to our house this weekend was a free papya tree! It is only a baby right now, being just 50 cm, but if we treat it right it should grow very quickly and hopefully product fruit before 2009!

Crazy last weekend in September Solar Water Heater

2008-10-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

Cutting and putting the tubes together.

Andrew and Salinee, from BGET, with the first of three tubes we created to go in the collectors and heat the water for our showers.

Tha wah helping to build our collectors.

Me and a BGET intern painting the collectors and heaters black to trap as much heat and water as possible.

Crazy last weekend in September Cat Edition

2008-10-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Katio and Padu enjoying a clean litter box

Our black cat named Padu climbing all over me!

Our little kitty enjoying an ice cold Leo beer!

All sleepy... aren't they just so tiny?

Andrew quickly became the new bed for some tired kitties after they spent a crazy 30 minutes exploring our house.

Finished Product Photos

2008-09-19T07:31:00.003-07:00

The new creation for this playground a tee-pee with the music cubby house sticking off of it and a sitting area for the teachers under the natural growing bamboo tree.

The big slide with the low maze infront of it

My beautiful hamburglar creation!

Music cubby house

Myself, Tha wah and Marcus on the big slide

A photo with all of the UK students that raised the money for this playground and helped to build it.

The biggest cubby house we have built yet. It houses all of the musical instruments that we built for this playground.

Lots of anxious kids waiting to test out the new playground

Enjoying the Playground

2008-09-19T07:31:00.002-07:00

Ribbon cutting!

Marcus looking cheeky with the flowers that were given to him after the ribbon cutting

Looks like we just graduated from playground building school huh?

Waiting to go down the big slide.

On the spinner. We often take for granted, especially those born in the USA, that people are use to being on fast moving objects that spin and drop quickly. Forgetting that not all countries have such luxuries we put the Burmese hired worker on the spinner so we could show him how it worked and made him completely sick by spinning him too fast! He probably had never felt centrifugal force before let alone so quickly! Needless to say he was sick for the rest of the day....

Enjoying the Playground 2

2008-09-19T07:31:00.001-07:00

On this weird octagonal tire thing that we made.

A traffic jam on the bridge

An adorable little girl taking it easy on the small tire swings we installed.

Here are some of the older kids enjoying the music cubby house that we built. It had a wood and metal xylophone, hanging chimes made out of rebar and a drum made out of an old gas can.

Finished Product!

2008-09-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

So, last Wednesday we finished the Lebe playground that Tha wah and I were working on with the 18 British Students and I am pretty thankful to have it all done with! It was exhausting - and I am not talking about the building!- by the end I was so sick and tired that I was barely up for enjoying the opening ceremony. The students were pretty hard to manage. They would drink all night and then come to the playground hung over and not ready to work. Getting some of them to work was really like herding turtles and by the end I was glad to have to playground finished on time.

But here are some photos of the opening ceremony and all of the kids enjoying the finished product! I am really proud of all of the work and management skills that went into making this one. It really looks good and actually has a color theme to most of it! We also went in with an actual plan this time, which made it soooo much easier!

Lebe Playground and disappointing British Women

2008-09-15T04:35:00.000-07:00

I felt that maybe I should give everyone and update on how the new playground is looking. Our deadline is Wednesday and these photos were taken Sunday. We are pretty much on track and I definitely think that we will finish on time!

For this playground Marcus had to go back to Australia to do some things, so it was all Tha wah and myself building this one. We had to build, redesign and manage the 18 unrulely British University students that came to "help" us. In reality most of them were more of a hinderance than a help... but what can you do? Half of them didn't really want to be here helping in the first place; they just came for the later trip to the beaches down south.

I must say though that out of all of the students I was most disappointed in the girls. I really hope that all British women do not act half as vapid as these girls do. Not only that but they actually play into the stereotype that women are not good at building or doing physical labor. I am going to be so glad when they finally leave on Friday. I have not enjoyed their company nor all of their attitudes towards building this playground. I just can not understand why if you sign up for a 2 week trip that includes building a playground why you can't just build the damn playground for the refugee children. It's only 2 weeks out of your life- but I guess that is what happens when spoiled British kids go on a trip where the main point is for it to look good on their CVs.

Any who, enjoy the photos and more photos to come of the finished product later!

In progress Lebe Playground

2008-09-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Our local gas station

2008-09-14T00:25:00.001-07:00

So this is Tha wah and his motorbike getting gas at our local gas station... yes that lady is using a hand crank pump to get gas out of a metal drum. And yes, that is just a normal nose and nozzle that is being used to put the gas into Tha wah's motorbike. And all of those plants are the gas station lady's plants... she has cultivated quite the garden at her station huh?

Just thought people at home might like to see this one!

A man, is a man, is a... woman?

2008-09-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

I have never so successfully cross dressed before.

For someone to believe that after working with me for an entire day that I was a boy is quite a feat! Granted I am not the girliest of girls when I work on site; I usually wear a short sleeved baggy t-shirt, long shorts to my knees or long pants and a baseball cap - none of which however in the USA would be considered "guy clothes". But in the end it really has nothing to do with what I am wearing on site and everything to do with what I am doing- hard labor. And not only THAT but also directing other men - other white men. All of this together with the baseball cap, the physical building and the management skills was just too much for our new Burmese hired worker to comprehend and he spent the WHOLE day thinking I was a Thai boy until I took off my baseball cap!

He told my friend and roommate, Tha wah, how shocked he was to find out that I was a girl. In Mae Sot, unlike Bangkok and busier cities in Thailand, there are lots of Burmese and Karen refugees here and the community is very small and slightly more conservative. Women almost never wear shorts that are higher than their knees and you will never see a girl wearing a spaghetti strap shirt. Most women continue to wear the traditional long skirts with a loose short sleeved or long sleeved shirt. And while Mae Sot is not repressive towards women it is still traditional about what are women's jobs and what are men's jobs. And one job that is not a woman's job is building playgrounds with power tools out in the sun!

While I do get stared at ALOT while biking around town in work clothes, being all sweaty and unlady like and going into hardware stores to buy new drill bits and the such it does come with an interesting sense of responsibility. At the first school that I worked at, Morning Glory, there was a young teacher around my age from Burma. The first few days that I showed up to work she would sit outside and watch us work and after the 4th day she told me that she was worried that my hands were getting calloused and would hurt from all of the digging I was doing. After I showed her that my hands were neither calloused nor did they hurt she just looked at me, said “but you are so pretty” and went back into the school. Since that day whenever I showed up on site she would follow me around and I would often notice her watching me as I drilled or used the machines. Come the following week she started to help out with the work and soon she was carrying dirt and gravel, painting and all sorts of other jobs. It was quite interesting to see her working because all of the other teachers at the school were older women and while glad to have us building a play ground not in the least interested in helping us build it.

At this new playground I am constantly being watched by all of the little girls and they are often very interested in participating. People in Mae Sot are used to Farangs (white foreigners) coming and doing charity work; some of which I am sure includes women getting dirty and doing building. But to them Farang women doing work is different; it is a cultural difference that white cultures do this and that is okay, but Burmese and Thai cultures do not. So it is very strange for them to see me, a non-Farang and someone many assume to actually be Thai or Burmese, doing "man's work". On top off all of that the culture here is to humbly do and respect what the Farangs tell you to do. I feel that for me to be in a managerial position and often be consulted with about designs or building decisions by Marcus, my Australian boss, must be the weirdest of all and I know the hardest to adjust to for some of the Burmese hired workers that help us.

I must say that even though it is strange for a woman to be giving them directions on a building site they do not be grudge it. All of the Burmese workers that help us have take my role very seriously and often come up and want me to check and make sure they are doing the right thing. I feel that in the USA the same would not be so. A woman at a building site would probably be met with scorn, resentment and even hostility.

I never thought that I would be coming to Mae Sot to question what this small town thinks about it's set gender roles, but it is definitely gratifying to see all of the school girls, teachers and Burmese workers' reaction to me working with Marcus and Tha wah daily.

Morning Glory School Photos

2008-08-27T06:31:00.001-07:00

This are the photos of our lovely playground. We have a sandbox, a see-saw, a tree house, a bridge, a slide and around back where you can't see in the photos a swing set. The round structure where the slide comes from is made out of unused sewage pipes. The tires are keeping in the sand in the sandbox and used to keep a lot of the other structures together.

It was actually pretty interesting to have the slide made by a welder because he had never seen a slide before and was not really clear about what it was going to be used for so it was quite interesting describing what we wanted to him. Needless to say he did not get it right on the first try!

Also all of the sand in the play ground needed to be imported from the beaches down south and shoved in. That was quite a project!

But as you can see the kids really loved it and took to playing on it very quickly. Hopefully the school will be able to keep up the maintenance of it, because the weather out here is pretty brutal and even with all of the hard work and extra though put into it, it could easily fall apart in 6 months! But it isn't too bad. This one cost 40,000 baht to make the maintenance is only 2,000 baht a year.

Morning Glory School

2008-08-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

Today I helped finish Hands On Learning’s 4th playground in the Mae Sot area. I must say that the first time that I looked at it I thought that it was pretty ugly looking, but the more time that I spent with it and the more finishing touches we put on it the better it started to look.

The whole point behind them is creating playgrounds for free for migrant children, usually from Burma, out of recycled materials. So we use lots of old tires and logs. We also use concrete pipe barrels for the round play houses. And lots of bamboo. It is pretty inventive if I do say so myself.
I came in at the very end of this one so I mainly did a lot of the painting, which is fine by me because doing work out here is killer! It is so hot and humid that even sitting around outside you break into a sweat let alone digging a hole or cutting tires (which is really hard, because evidently they have steel right in the middle of the rubber going all the way around- who knew?). I am so tan right now, even though I wear a hat and lots of sunscreen. It is pretty neat because I get to do a lot, and I mean A LOT, of hands on work. I get to use concrete cutting drills, diamond edge hand saws, all sorts of drill bits, and of course the regular hammer, nails and screws. After this whole thing I over I think that I will be super handy, and probably really quite buff!

Hopefully in the next play ground I will have a larger role in the creation aspects; we start that one on Monday! I am pretty excited to start a play ground from start to finish even although right now I am pretty exhausted about this whole working out in the deadly sun from 9 to 6 pm!
Below I am posting lots of photos with the kids enjoying our finished product. It is really rewarding to see them so happy about something that is really so simple!

On a totally other note, the bathroom tiling is almost done! yay!!! I am giving the guy the final amount or money tomorrow and it should be all done by 9 am! I am so excited to not have to deal with this tile guy any more. He is a really good tiler, but it is just little things that a tile guy might automatically do in the States, he needs to ask me first about so that means setting up a meeting time with him after work, taking Thawa (my roommate and translator) with me and chatting with him through Thawa every time! I gets really tedious after a while! We are still trying to find a mosquito netting guy, hopefully that will get pulled together by the end of this week! But the house is starting to look good and we are going to buy furniture this weekend and do lots of room painting!

House Photos!

2008-08-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

So here are some photos of my house. This is the initial state that we got it in - unrented for months and home to SO many spiders it was scary. We are planning lots of renovations. The main ones are tiling the bathrooms and putting up full mosquito nets. We also have to buy a sink, stove and electric shower, which sound expensive and like a lots of work but aren't. Here shower, stoves and sinks aren't quite like what they are back in the States. I will plan to show you all when we are done. I hope to post a photo of the out side, next time I go there.

I am pretty excited about the whole thing. Since Saturday we have tiled the bathrooms and are now working (cross your fingers!) and that means buying furniture! YAY.

Luckily the guy that I am working for and building playgrounds is also an expat from Australia. So he has all these great tips on getting a house in order here and where to go for labor, furniture and the like!

The first photo is of our entery way and the staircase up to my room with Andrew. The second is our totally empty kitchen. The third is our upstairs common space and the last is a photo from Andrew and mine's room on to our balcony and the view that we have of our neighbors and the road.

A New York Minute?

2008-08-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

People talk about all the things that can happen in a New York Minute, but is nothing compared to what can happen in a Thai Day!

In one Thai Day I accomplished:
A. finding an organization to work with
B. find two new roommates
C. find a house to live in
D. putting the money down for the house
E. getting a mosquito netter, tiler and gardener to come and fix the house
F. buying a bike

All in one day!

So it all started early in the morning (thank you jet lag) when I sat down next to this guy, Rob, in our hostel’s common space, we start chatting and it turns out he is here using sustainable and recycled materials to build playgrounds for local schools. And it just so happens that they are looking for people to help out. Not only that but Marcus, the guy who heads up the project, is very keen on the idea of having an architect help them out! So not only will it get to build structures using eco friendly methods, but I will also be able to design some of them my self! Very cool! I never envisioned that I would be telling people that I build playgrounds in Thailand!

After Rob leaves to go off to work Andrew and I start looking for apartments to hopefully move into in the next couple of weeks. The hostel is supernice, but we want to be able o cook for ourselves and have a little bit of privacy. Than, the Ban Thai Guesthouse manager, takes us to view a few of the ones that are also owned by Ban Thai. The first one is like living in an apartment in the States- only nicer! Some of the perks I wouldn’t be able to afford back home. It had full wireless, a maid, someone to do your laundry, mosquito nets every where, air conditioning (which is almost unheard of here) all western furniture and amenities – but it just wasn’t like we were living in Thailand. It was too weird to have a maid come and clean up after us and to do our laundry. Plus it was a bit expensive, 6,000 Baht a month (which I know translates to like 200 dollars a month, nothing in comparison to what I used to pay!). I guess that I wanted a bit more realistic of an experience, I didn’t come here to be pampered! The next place he showed us was the complete opposite, a total dump. No stove, no sink in the kitchen, no mosquito nets and NO privacy. We are starting to worry- Rob had already told me how he had been looking for a place to rent for the past two months!

Being a bit disheartened by our lack of apartments we decided to go look for a bike to buy. We first tried the Chinese bike store, which was like being back in downtown Chinatown. Her store was filled with completely new bikes that looked like they had just come from the factory. I am still not quite sure who buys her bikes because no one in Mae Sot rides new bikes, they are all old 1950’s cruiser bikes, but none the less we are going to try and give some a go. But even the tallest one was way to small for even me, let a lone Andrew! (Have I mentioned yet that we are on the tall side here?) So we decide to go and try the other more expensive bike shop. There the bikes were ridiculously priced. Once again we were completely defeated in finding what we were looking for.

Andrew eventually had to run off to work and I decided to go around town a bit a see what things were like at the heart of Mae Sot. I was still on the hunt for a bike, since you really needed one to get around town on, and I was stopping at random stores that had a few used ones out front for sale. None of them were nice and too expensive- everyone just wanted to take advantage of the farang (read foreigner). When on the very last block I notice a little wheel poking out of the side of a shop. I stop in and somehow explain to the owner (no one really speaks any English here) that I want to look at her bike and once she realizes what I am talking about she opens up the whole side of her shop and there are about 20 perfect 1950’s cruisers sitting there. So that was where all of the locals bought their bikes! And at great prices, I end up getting a really cute red one –with a bell- for only 1,900 baht ($55). In New York this bike could have cost me like 200 bucks! I was so happy with my bike that I later took Andrew back there for him to buy one too!

After riding back to the guest house on my new bike, Andrew comes back after a few hours saying that one of his coworkers, Jade, had found a house to move into that she really liked but her old roommate didn’t want to move there and if she wanted to see it. She prepped us by saying that it hadn’t been lived in in a very long time and needed to have a bit of work done to it, but all in all it was a great house. So off we go to see it… and it is totally amazing! A 5 bedroom house with a huge kitchen, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies and 2 large common areas! This is a home improvement-doers dream (i.e. MY dream). So excited that Andrew and I have finally found a place to live we put half of the money down right then.

Later back at the hostel I am telling this story to Rob and he says “oh ya I have a Thai friend who is looking for a place to stay for really cheap” and it just so happens that this “Thai guy” that Rob know Jade also knows and now he is our new roommate. And because he speaks 5 languages he was able to broker all of the deals for the construction that we needed to have done on the house. Which is pretty considerable. Right now our kitchen is all concrete. So we need to have the two bathrooms tiled, the weeds all around the house dug up and the whole house needs mosquito netting! But hopefully we will be moved in by the end of this week! So currently I am running back and forth to the house trying to make sure that everything gets done, cause I am sort of in charge of that. Also next weekend we’ll be able to hopefully furnish the place- yay for furniture buying!

All of that happened in one day! Amazing huh? Craziness sure can ensue here.

An A Type Lost in the Jungle

2008-08-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

It is definitely hard telling people why I quit my job in Manhattan and left my apartment in Brooklyn to move to Thailand; without a plan or idea about what it will be like when I finally arrive. It is not really in my nature to make such a change – but I guess that at the core that is the real reason why I chose to leave. Because it is just something that I naturally wouldn’t do.

After graduating NYU and working full time in a lucrative art gallery in Manhattan I still wasn’t completely fulfilled, and if anything more neurotic. Manhattan has a unique ability of turning each persons’ little flaws into huge neurotic tendencies. I worried about the future, worried about my clothes, worried about working out – just about anything I could worry about I did. But most obsessively of all I worried about money. Did I have enough of it, was I spend little enough of it, did I have enough of it for the future, was I investing what I had properly…. on and on and on. Towards the end of 2007 it got so bad that I was having money anxiety dreams where I would wake up and my arms would be numb from stress. To cut to the chase it was stupid; I was saving and making more than enough of it. So then why was I so god damn stressed about it? Like I said, Manhattan is just a greedy little monster that feeds off of your anxieties, making them worse for its own benefit. So what I needed was a reality check and a change in scenery. If money, relative success for my age and living in “the greatest city in the world” wasn’t going to do it I needed to go some where that would. And for the most part that’s how I ended up in Thailand.
Sadly, I guess that my motives are no different than any American that goes to Thailand to “find themselves” – if it is even possible to do that! But while my motives might not be original I am really hoping that in the mean while I end up doing something meaningful for the people that live here and contributing to the community.

We’ll see how it goes. I just finally got to Mae Sot after 2 long days of traveling and tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully I’ll find A. an apartment to rent and B. an NGO to work with. This should be a whole new exciting adventure!