A lesson from Toonsis & Spokes

Saturday I woke up ready for my training mission for the day; a patented duathlon prep workout that would have me running & cycling up a storm. (or make that in a storm!).

Aside from a flat tire during one of my strongest parts of the ride, the day's sessions went well. I tested some new fancy run shoes and was happy to still be far on the healing side of the plantar fasciitis that I have had since Jan '06. Yippeee, with the healing nearly complete, I am feeling more excited than ever to get back to 'real' training!

At any rate, with the days work behind me I showered, changed and ate a snack. Normally it would be time for a nap, but today I decided to be productive with some errands. I had it all planned out - drop off mail at the post office, pick up pictures at Long's, drop a deposit in the bank, pick up some shoes on order at Transports and perhaps grab a bite to eat along the way.
Simple tasks, so it seemed.

First I revved up the ratmobile and headed the whopping one mile to the post office. The lobby was open but the counters were closed. Hmm, it was 1:30 pm. I'm not sure if the post office isn't normally open or if it was closed in observance of the Easter holiday weekend. No worries, I thought, I just try another post office. I have found each neighborhood office can have different hours. I jumped back in the ratcar and cruised to Fairmount street in El Cerrito. En route, I determined that everything felt a little 'off'. Cars seemed to be zooming chaotically out of driveways and merging into the traffic at a rhythm that screamed accident-waiting-to happen.
I shrugged it off and with car parked, headed up the block to the post office for try number two.

I didn't even make it into the lobby - doors closed, post office closed. Smack down on the mailing of my package. Clearly, this was not going to happen today. No biggie. I'll just drive over to the bank and drop in a lone check for deposit.

I pulled into the parking lot and the random, scattered feeling of cars darting everywhere continued. I was happy to pull into a parking spot, clear of the traffic maelstrom and walked across a few lots to the Wells Fargo bank. I walked in and promptly positioned myself in line for the next teller. Funny thing, there was no line and a teller was waving at me to no avail to come to his window. For some reason, I didn't register his gestures and stood there, staring blankly like Patrick the star fish does so well on Spongebob Squarepants. Finally I came to and quickly scampered to the teller's window. At that point I futzed with the two pieces of paper and nearly dropped them on the floor. What a spaz! The teller, finally getting a hold of my deposit slip and check, took a look and virutally shouted "These are for Bank of America!" Doh, oops...silly me. Hee hee. In my spaced-out state I was on auto pilot and went to WF which was my bank for years (until of course I changed to Bank of America!).

Ok, so now...I have managed to not successfully drop off the mail OR deposit my check.
I figure I will try to pick up my film that was developed. That should be easy - the film pick-up was at Long's just across the street. Yeah, right!

After nearly getting run down by various land yachts I made it inside of Long's and bounced off about three customers as I walked towards the photo counter. It took the attendant about 10 minutes to find my photos and then she remarked, "I hope these are good pictures." "Yeah, me too," I thought. Well, once I saw the price tag I understood her comment. $24.95 per package. What? Hmm. I felt some more weirdness on the horizon. I reluctantly paid for the pictures and went to the security of the car to see what I had just paid for.

I found three little plastic cartridges in my drawer before I left for Ventura at the beginning of March. Since I have had a digital camera for sometime I had no idea what these plastic thingys were. I figured perhaps they were long lost photos and I was excited to see what they were.

I quickly figured out why the photos cost so much. I had inadvertently ordered reproductions of photos from negatives. Argh! The interesting detail? The photos were from Italy/Holland in 2001 from the ITU Duathlon short and long course world championships. Not only did Saturday mark one week from my return to duathlon (since those races in '01), but the photos included many of the girls that I will race next weekend in Alabama. Bizarre!

Anyhoo....well, at least I managed to pick up the photos. So I was onto my next task....exiting the parking lot. I have no idea how I managed to do this, but I kept getting into the wrong turn lanes and was driving in circles all over this shopping complex. When I finally got to the proper lane to head out to my next errand, there was some road construction and my exit was blocked!

Quick change of plans...I decided to try and go to the proper bank - a Bank of America.
Happy to say, I succesfully found my way to the neighborhood BofA. Of course I managed to enter the parking lot going the wrong way (ah, who says you have to follow the arrows!) and tweaked a few patrons en route (oops, sorry!). I sheepishly parking the car and headed inside.
Wow - no challenges. I actually got the depost in. Imagine that!I figured my luck, vibrations or something must be changing back for the better...just as I was leaving, the bank manager was fixing to lock the doors. It was 2 0'clock - closing time on Saturday. Whew, I made it!
Deep breath...next stop Transports in Rockridge.

I noticed that the freeways looked jammed up so I decided to take surface streets to get to the running store. I wasn't in a hurry and a good thing, because I think it took nearly an hour. (mileage...hmmm maybe 8 miles). In all fairness, I made a few detours. Somehow I wandered onto the Berkeley campus. Doo, doot, da doot do...driving along with no freakin' clue.

Hmm...I can't tell you how I did it, but I somehow got off the Berkeley campus and just pointed my car in the general direction of Rockridge. Eventually I did find the store and I did pick up my training shoes, along with some new, snazzy TYR swim suits and an orange (Syracuse colors, you know) silicon swim cap. After talking with Richie, the store owner, about some possible shoes to try on, I decided maybe I should come back another day. I desparately needed some food and a nap. I gathered up my goods and headed back to the car.

Don't tell Phil, but I parked right near Zachary's pizza....yummy! I couldn't resist. I stopped in and grabbed two cheese slices to go. I fired up the capri and jumped on the 24, 580 and then despite narrowly missing the exit to home, I peeled off onto the Carlson exit and made it to Hypercat headquarters.

When I walked in, Toonsis and Spokes, were just were I had left them two hours earlier - napping on the bed. The boys taught me a great lesson, yet again...sometimes a cat nap is the better way to go.

:) Rachel

California 70.3 Race Report

I was feeling confident heading into this year’s Ford California 70.3 triathlon. I put in a nice month of training in Ventura and I was ready to see what I could do, albeit on a non-rested body. I put in my biggest week of training pre-half ironman due to the early time of the year. It would be interesting to see how the body would respond.

Friday, Jim (Phil's mom's husband) drove Shirleymom and I from Ventura to San Clemente where Phil booked our hotel. In turns out that the location was prime. I loved San Clemente and it was much removed from the normal pre-race circus of Oceanside. Phil and his mom shared a room with the chihuahuas so that I could focus on race preparations in a separate room. Pro pal, Alexis Waddel shared the hotel room with me, which made for some extra pre-race fun.

Race morning went smooth, although Alexis and I enjoyed some extra excitement on pre-race morning. While Alexis quickly navigated our super van from San Clemente down the highway (with zero navigational help from me), we hit a bump in Oceanside. After making the exit towards Oceanside harbor, we were directed the wrong way and instead of headed towards parking; we were waved directly down the racecourse towards transition; along with hundreds of athletes who were riding their bikes into transition. It was both comical, embarrassing and nerve wracking at all once. We couldn’t back up; we couldn’t turn and were in constant danger of running over all of the athletes riding in the pitch-black darkness of 5am. Ultimately we arrived at a T-junction where some Camp Pendleton Marines were directing traffic…straight was into the ocean, right was into transition and left allowed us to drive back out of the harbor area. Whew, with only a stern look and some shouting we were back rolling towards a proper parking area.

With the van parked and our gear unloaded Alexis and I made the teeth chattering spin in the blackness to the transition area. It felt like a weird dream, riding a bike with hundreds of apparitions towards the blinding lights of the transition area. Due to our later-than-planned arrival to transition, there was no time to waste!Bike racked, gear laid out, transition flow reviewed, potty line time and put on the wetsuit. Before I knew it, it was time to head to the start.

The pro women’s wave started at 6:43 am. I was pleasantly surprised to find the 60-degree water felt reasonably brisk, but not distracting. The gun went off and so were we.I quickly got into a groove, albeit solo and off any draft packs. In hindsight, I remembered seeing a small group of 3-4 athletes swimming a short distance ahead of me before the turnaround at the far end of the swim course. This is where I should have put in a surge to make that pack. Instead I saw them gradually put more and more time on me between the half waypoint and the swim exit. Lesson learned, get on some feet, don’t go it alone. I exited the swim in one of my personal best swim times for 1.2 miles. A small consolation with the leaders out of the water 9 minutes earlier.

I flew through transition and hopped onto my Blue T14. Now, the early morning temperatures made themselves felt. BRRRR…being wet and riding a bike, soaking wet is one way to wake up!

The bike went extremely well. Within minutes of starting the bike I began passing girls.Naturally this was great for my confidence and kept me on task. Throughout the entire bike I was making continual and constant progress through the field. With every pass, I gained more confidence in my training and myself. Though I did start to feel some significant pain in my back on some low grade hills, I tried to pay attention to what my back can handle...yet ultimately I pushed it a bit too far.

I got off the bike in 15th place, just off of a pack of the top athletes. (I rode from close to 40th place up to 15th).When the run started I could feel my back getting ever more stiff. Still, I put a smile on my face and ran steady. I definitely kept an even, steady pace from mile 1 to mile 13. Unfortunately steady wasn’t fast enough. I dropped back to 22nd by race end. Place aside I was satisifed with my race, I couldn't have done much more. My nutrition was on, my swim reflected my pool training times, I smoked the bike and ran as best I could given the situation.

I crossed the line in 4:57:14. Overall, it was a solid early season effort. Mentally I kept it together and felt strong on the swim, bike and run. I have a good idea of where I am at fitness wise and look forward to more training and preparations for upcoming races.
Next event: Powerman Alabama on 4/15 in Irondale, Alabama.

Congratulations to Andy Potts (rockin' sub 4 hrs!) on his win, to Kate Major for showing us how its done, to Alexis on her 9th place finish and all the Hypercats, SF Tri folks and everyone on course for giving it a go!

Many thanks to Blue Competition Cycles, Optic Nerve Eyewear, Pro Gold Lubricants, Powerbar and Oomph! for your continued support!
-Rachel

Side note:After the California 70.3 I had an appointment with a specialist for my back. Dr. Andy Pruitt of the Boulder Sports Medicine Institute reffered me to Dr. Jeffrey Saal at S.O.A.R in Redwood City. Dr. Saal and his staff is considered among the nations best experts for back issues like those I have been suffering. Dr. Saal reviewed past x-rays and MRIs and promptly recommended another MRI for Monday, April 9th. Based on what the doctor said so far, I won’t have to stop training or competing, which is great news. We are simply looking to get a reality check on what I can expect with the disc degeneration that I have.