IronButterfly

A week ago, I wrote how Danette and I saw thousands of butterflies migrating north following Hwy 101 as we were driving south to Monterey county. These butterflies are currently passing through Contra Costa County. This past Sunday, I ran the 10 mile Contra Costa Canal Trail loop in Walnut Creek. During my 2 hour run, I counted ~1250 butterflies that fluttered pass me.

Contra Costa Times, columnist Gary Bogue wrote in his column today:
Thousands, perhaps millions of painted lady butterflies are migrating through the Bay Area this month, on their way north from where they hatched in Southern California desert areas. The northward-migrating butterflies can fly from Southern California desert area to Davis in three days. Their scientific name is Vanessa cardui.

"These butterflies are powered by yellow fat carried over from the caterpillar stage, and fly like 'bats out of hell' from (southeast) to (northwest) a few feet off the ground, not stopping for food or sex until their fat reserves become depleted," says Art Shapiro, a UC Davis professor of evolution and ecology.

Wow! This must be the IRON BUTTERFLY event. I'll try to remember the image of the butterfly come 8/1/09 when I am doing my IRONMAN event. The article says that beginning in August, the movement reverses and the butterflies head back south toward their desert wintering grounds. Sonoma County where Vineman is held is somewhat in the northwest. So hopefully I'll see the painted ladies during my bike and run for inspiration.

Bald Guys & Girls Rock

One of youngest IronTeam honoree, Tyler, has just finished his last in-patient chemo last week. He'll start daily radiation in May and after that will have chemo once every 2 weeks. Before week before our team left for Lake San Antonio, Tyler's mom Holly shared with the team a video of Tyler shaving his friend, Michael Zindell's head. Inspired by that video, the clippers were busted out at Lake San Antonio in honor of Tyler. Along with several guys, Moddie was our brave Ironwoman who shaved and in doing so raised $1500 on the spot! All around great ironman & LLS volunteer Mike K created this video documenting that night:



Our other team Honoree Kev who was present sent out this e-mail:

... it was my pleasure to hang out with the team at LSA. I had a lot of fun, and the head shaving thing got me remember of when I woke up one morning (I was about 5 or 6) and my hair was on my pillow. I cried for days.

So it really means a lot to me that the team did this, and it goes to show what kind of people you all are. Hair is something we take for granted, and we are very attached to it and when you lose it it is extremely traumatic. I couldn't control losing my hair, or getting cancer, but those that did shave their hair - you did for the cause, because Tyler lost his hair. I applaud you all for you giving up your vanity for Cancer.

Lake San Antonio Training Weekend Recap

The IronTeam's three day training weekend at Lake San Antonio in Monterey County was a fun and excellent experience that included camping, upclose wildlife (but no wild pigs), completing my first half ironman distance triathlon (70.3 miles!), bonding with teammates and slaying a few more mental demons.

Friday morning at 10:30am, I picked up my ol' marathon buddy and tentmate Danette. My SUV was packed full with our camping & triathlon gear. The ride to Lake San Antonio takes 3.5 hours from our area. Within 30 minutes of driving I was already hungry and thinking about where to stop for lunch. I thought about stopping at Santana Row in San Jose for a nice lunch but knew it was best to drive at least halfway otherwise we might never get to Lake San Antonio. We stopped to eat lunch at Black Bear Diner in Gilroy and afterwards took a photo with the bears in front.

For the last hour of our drive traveling South Hwy 101, my windshield was being pelted by swarms of large flying insects resulting in large 2-inch yellow-orange splatters on the window. At 80mph, we couldn't tell what kind of swarms we were driving directly into and worried that the camp was also going to be swarming with these large bugs. When we got to the campsite and I looked at my SUV's grill, I realized that we had drove head onto the northerly Spring migration of the monarch butterflies. Very sad. I counted over 50 splatters of the beautiful monarch on my car.

Arriving at the campsite, the temperature was an unexpected 80F and I was relieved about this because that will help warm up the lake water. We found a level spot and set up our tent. Danette stayed up to midnight the night before creating the decorations for our tent. The paint, lettering and stars on her signs glowed in the dark. She won the tent decorating contest and received a gift certificate to a spa which she plans to raffle off for her fundraiser.








After we finished setting up our tents, it was time to start dinner and then go to our respective team meetings where Coach Dave gave the IronTeam an overview of the Saturday race route. Friday night, I got no sleep at all and stayed up listening to my iPOD.

By 4am, I decided I should just get up and go for a walk to calm my nerves. It was dark and foggy and I could only see a few feet with my headlamp. Thought it best not to walk too far from camp and get lost so I headed back to start boiling water to make breakfast. At 4:47am, Coach Dave woke the IronTeam camp up with Scotland's National Anthem followed with the theme from Rocky.

By 6:15am, we drove down to the Transition Area, set up our gear and put on our wetsuits. Swim start was at 7am. I was still very nervous. This would be my first swim where I didn't have a coach swimming next to me, but I was reassured that four kayakers would be out in the water keeping an eye on everyone. I headed down to the beach and got into the water to warm up. Coach Alex suggested to me the night before that I just swim back and forth along the dock to just get use to the environment before the start. The water temp wasn't freezing like Lake Del Valle or SF Bay and was actually tolerable. My breathing didn't get rapid in the first 5 minutes and I realized I was going to be fine.

When the swim started, all the fast people took off and became further and further away. I told myself not to think about the others. I sighted the first red buoy in the distance. My goal was to just reach the first buoy. I broke my swim down even further by just counting my strokes to 20, which is approximately the # of strokes it takes me to get across the pool. When I hit 20 strokes, I evaluated the distance of the buoy and tried to make a game of it to figure out how many laps I had left and repeated the 20 stoke count again. The buoy became closer and closer. After reaching the 2nd buoy, my left calf kept cramping up and made it difficult to kick. I told myself to stop thinking about my leg, because the pain always became sharp when I thought about the area that was cramping. I distracted my mind by continuing to count stokes. By the time I was near the 3rd buoy, the faster swimmers were heading back. Teammates shouted out encouragement to me that I was doing great. Finally, I hit the 4th buoy and was ready to head back.

By the fourth buoy, I felt really confident in my swim. On my way back, I spent my time concentrating on my form - reaching with full extended strokes, strong pull, exhaling completing in the water and alternating sides to breath. I heard Coach Nancy's voice in my head. The 1.2 miles took me exactly 1 hour to complete. Looking at my training log, it was about 12 minutes slower than what it would take me in the swimming pool. I think I did an excellent job swimming straight to each buoy and was not off course.

Transition took me 23 minutes, including the walk from the beach. I didn't feel like running. Coach Nancy said that my leg was cramping because I didn't have enough electrolytes in my body and said to be sure to take electrolytes before I left on my bike. I took my time in transition to refuel, take electrolytes, dry off and change.

Immediately when I started out on my 56-mile bike ride, I heard a clicking sound. Another cyclist next to me said that my cadence sensor was hitting my spokes. I pulled over, tightened the screws and continued on. It came lose again, so I had to repeat shortly after. I usually check all screws on my bike after the bike gets rattled up a bit on a long car ride, but I forgot to do this on Friday afternoon and during Transition set-up. Lesson learned. The ride was exactly how Claire described in my previous post. My Garmin reflects an elevation gain of 5,338 feet. My total moving time was 4:32 with total stopping time of 31 minutes (time includes fixing my bike, stopping at 2 water stops and 3 port-o-potties). Temperature was 50.4F, which was a little chilly when I started out wet, but comfortable as I dried off. The "Nasty Grade" was a long, steep and nasty, but I'm proud that I never had to get off my bike and walk up the hill.

When I arrived back at Transition, I asked if I had time left to do the run and they all laughed and said that I had plenty of time. Transition 2 took 7 minutes to use the restroom, change into my running gear and eat a little bit.

The run was also exactly how Claire described it. The first part was like a hike where I mostly walked the trail in the steepest grades up and down since I didn't want chance slipping on the loose gravel and spraining my ankle (which I have a history of doing). I thought that I couldn't spend so much time walking and needed to try to run. So I counted how many steps I was able to run before being out of breath and that's how many steps I was going to take to walk before running again. I repeated that method and found that my count was getting longer and longer. My moving time was 3:02 and stopped time was 14 minutes (stopped at 3 waterstops and then another two times to figure out if I was still on the right trail.) This was the most beautiful and challenging half marathon course I've ever run. My time was 45 minutes longer than the San Francisco Nike Half Marathon course.

Overall, my total time was 9hrs 46minutes to complete the 70.3 miles. I added another notch in my open water swimming confidence. I learned places where I can improve my time. I experienced another beautiful part of California that I would never have seen if I didn't come here this weekend. And I was reminded that camping isn't so bad (probably because there were no mosquitoes). Saturday night we encountered lots of wind and rain, but I was sound asleep and didn't hear a thing. Sunday morning when we woke up, the skies were clear and the coaches and staff made a spectacular breakfast for us. Thank you Team in Training and my coaches for putting together a great training weekend.

I'm ready for this weekend!

I'm overwhelmed with the support, encouragement, prayers and good vibes being sent my way for my three day camping trip to Lake San Antonio and half Ironman on Saturday. I'm (almost) packed. I'm ready physically and now ready mentally! Thank you to Paul, Peni, Claire, Roseann, Diana, Carol, Veronica, Barbara, Sandi, Steve & Carol, JoAnn, Monica, Jill, Rita, Carlos, Cyndi, Megan, Kelly, Prax, Lorraine, Lucy, Steve, Mary, Kay, Diane, Marc, Margaret, Jan, Brandonn, Joyce & Dave, Mary Ann & John, Barry & Marcia, the many others at Wednesday night's Spaghetti Feed for all your words of encouragement and my husband John for ensuring that my car is ready and safe for the journey. I love all this positive reassurance.

I loved this thoughtfully written letter that I received from my '08 Solvang cycling buddy Peni:

Hi Jen,

Thanks for the update on your training. It really is impressive the progress that you have made. I love reading about what you are doing and where you are at with your training. YOU are such an inspiration to me, and now you have me thinking tri. If only I could run, but I have not given up, I keep trying.

I still remember the first time I met you at the info night in Walnut Creek, and how you said you would be learning to ride all over again, that you had not rode a bike since childhood. Remember that night? Yet you were determined to ride, and look where you are at now. I also remember riding the 3 Bears backwards and you were right there with me riding up Papa Bear. If you stop and think about our first training ride, and look at where you are now, you will see that you have come a long way! I believe that there is nothing that you can't do! I wish that you could see yourself through others eyes, and see how inspiring you make us feel. Don't worry about the small stuff, concentrate on having a good time, and why you decided to broaden your horizon and took on this new adventure.

Some day when I grow up I want to be just like you, to inspire others to become fitter, to take on new challenges and to challenge themselves, to help educate others about how great their lives are because they have not had to fight the difficulties of going through some type of cancer, and to raise money for a great cause.

When all is said and done, you will look back on your training days, and realize that it was all worth it, because you will have become a better & stronger person. Be proud, stand tall and know that you can do this! I look forward to reading how you did this weekend, and I look forward to reading your progress as time goes on.

Have FUN!

Love,

Peni

Upcoming Lake San Antonio Half Ironman Weekend

This Friday, I will be driving down to Lake San Antonio (in Monterey county) with my old marathon running buddy Danette. The San Francisco Bay Area IronTeam and the Spring Triathlon team has a three day training weekend there. This Saturday, I will be doing a half Ironman (swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles. And I think that the Spring Team will be doing an Olympic Distance triathlon.

My friend Claire, sensing my anxiety, sent me this e-mail giving me a heads up of what to expect at Lake San Antonio:

This weekend is going to be such a milestone for you and honestly, a TON of fun. I am very bummed Matt and I are missing training weekend this year, because it is always such an amazing weekend.

The lake is much warmer than anything you have probably swum in this winter in this area. The worst part about the swim is getting in - you jump off the dock. The drop from the dock is very short -- it's not the height that's an issue, more the just dropping in as opposed to walking in. I'd say the dock is about 2 feet above the water. You just jump in feet first and go - and then there is space once you are in, to just tread water for a bit to get your bearings and adjust to the water and whatnot. When everyone is going in together, a moving line forms, so you can't take your time and everyone just goes commando style. I'd recommend jumping in once for practice before you do it with your whole team.

It will probably be foggy in the morning, but you are never too far from shore and there is a lot of support along the way. Expect twigs and other random floating things. I wasn't expecting all the stuff in the water the first time and it totally freaked me out. If's just twigs and grass and other harmless stuff.

The ride is stunning and actually, up until about 42 miles or so, it's not that challenging. Seriously! There is a false summit at nasty grade so it is not over until you've summited twice. After nasty grade it feels like you are done, but you actually have quite a bit left, including some pretty tough rolling up hills and some very long and pretty steep down hills - exhilerating, even if you ride your breaks down them! You will definitely be doing a lot of breaking the last 10 miles of the ride! Fortunately, as far as steep downhills go, they are the best kind because there aren't many turns, you can see the entire downhill out in front of you so you see how long it is, how steep, where it turns, any cars coming, etc.

The run is my favorite half marathon ever. Once you make it out of the trails, around mile 5 it gets much easier. So even though the beginning makes you think you are in for one hell of a long and tough run, just remember, around mile five, when you clear the woods and over look the meadow, it is soooo much easier for the remainder of the way. After that, there is really only one hill -- the pit -- but it's a 1 mile steady and not too steep climb and there's no reason to do anything more than a trot or even a walk, on your way up it. After the top of the pit -- go as hard as you can because the end is right there. You are going to be awesome. Have fun!

Open Water Swim #3: Lake Del Valle - Take 2

Week 18 was a physically challenging week and I'm glad that today is a rest day!

• Tuesday - swam 1.5 miles; biked 90 minutes
• Wednesday - ran 10.2 miles
• Thursday - Biked 1 hr; ran 20 minutes
• Friday - swam 1.7 miles
• Saturday - open water swim ~.8 mile; brick (bike 1hr; run .5hr) twice
• Sunday - Biked 47 miles (3.3hrs); ran 9 miles

Saturday was my second open water swim. I don't really count my first time at Lake Del Valle as a swim because I couldn't really swim in the 45F water back in January. Saturday the water temperature wasn't much better. The water was ~54F and felt colder than my 1st open water swim in the San Francisco Bay.

Within the few seconds of swim start, my body wanted to just shut down because it was so darn cold. Immediately, my breathing went into overdrive, I felt all that I could do was inhale rapidly but I couldn't exhale any air. My legs stiffened up and wouldn't kick. A full panic attack was in process and I had to think hard to stay afloat. I tried to do the breast stroke, but my legs weren't moving and I felt so constricted in my lungs. Need to stay up, control breathing and not drown, I kept telling myself...so I flipped over on my back to stay afloat. (I'm the one in the bottom center of the photo).

Coach Tom was next to me all this time and saying encouraging words. I told him to get Doug to come over right away in his kayak because I needed something to grab onto otherwise I was going under in another minute. When Doug arrived, I grabbed onto his kayak and said that I needed to take off my skull cap because the strap was choking me. He thought that it would make me cold if I didn't have it on. I was already cold; being able to breath was #1 priority.

Once I unstrapped the chin strap and removed the cap from my head, I was able to fully exhale and no longer felt constricted and was ready to swim. I made it to the first buoy and then out to the second buoy. The swim back to the dock was facing directly into the rising sun and made it difficult to sight. The water was really choppy from the wakes resulting from passing fishermen's boats. When I was walking back to the transition area, a fisherman on the shore said to me, "Are you crazy to go swim in the lake? Don't you know it's cold??!!" Buddy, the same thought went through my mind when I woke up that morning.

Following the open water swim, we did a three hour brick session - bike 1 hour, run 30 minutes, bike 1 hour, run 30 minutes.

We concluded the afternoon with Coach Dave going over his favorite points from the book The Triathlete's Guide to Mental Training. He said that he has spoken to the author, who has agreed to speak to us in the upcoming months.

Sunday morning, I wanted to sleep in, but knew I had to complete a 47 mile bike ride ~ more difficult because I'd be riding alone. I chose a route that allowed me to explore Solano County. I saw a lot on my route which began at the Benicia waterfront, up close to the Valero oil pipelines, California National Guard Armory, along Suisun Bay past the Mothball Fleet, along the marshes with beautiful white egrets, the Jelly Belly Factory (where I stopped to rest and get a handful of free jelly belly samples), thru beautiful Suisun Valley's wine region (I never knew this was here so close to home!), over a 100-year old historic United States bridge built in 1909, onto Historic U.S. Route 40, and back to my start in Benicia.

After my 3.5 hour bike ride, I drove home, ate lunch, changed into my running gear and went on my 9-mile run along the Walnut Creek canal trail when I really wanted to take a nap instead.

Top 10 Competitions You'd Have to Be Crazy to Compete In

I just read this article on the Top 10 Competitions You'd Have to Be Crazy to Compete In. While I am not training for the Ironman World Championship in Kona (#4 on the list) and I won't finish in under 9 hours like the world's best athletes, I hope to still be able to say on 8/2/09: "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life."

Excerpt from www.realclearsports.com:
So, you’ve run a marathon? Trained for months and pushed your body to limits you never dreamed imaginable and finished the 26.2 miles? Big deal. Sure, running a marathon is a challenge, but it’s merely a jog in the park when you compare it to some of the events on our Top 10 Competitions You’d Have to Be Crazy to Compete In.

Think you’re tough? Try it after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles. Still feeling macho? Run 100km (62.12 miles) – in Antarctica. Clinging onto that last bit of pride? Take a sled and 16 of your fastest dogs for a 1,100 mile sled dog race through the middle of Alaska’s winter.

Amazingly, none of those examples are exaggerated, for they need no embellishment. The Ironman World Championship is a triathlon so intense the human body has been known to completely shut down in the middle of the race, begging for the pain to stop. The Antarctic 100k Ultra Race takes competitors through sub-zero temperatures in one of the world’s driest and windiest places. And the Iditarod, which begins this Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska, boasts windchills that are often well below freezing, whiteout conditions and 14-hours of darkness.

These are simply, and horrifyingly, the World’s Competitions You’d Have to Be Crazy to Compete In.

Week 17: Swam 4.5 mi/Biked 36.2 mi/Ran 17.3 mi

This past week was great. My cold congestion is finally slowly clearing up, making it easier to breath and think more clearly (since taking less cold-symptom relieving drugs). This week we began our build phase again with workouts each day. I swam a total of 4.5 miles, biked 36.2 miles and ran 17.3 miles. We had the best weather this weekend for our long workouts. Spring is finally here!

At Saturday's swim workout, Coach Nancy taught us the niftiest swim move to use to get out of a crowded swim start and get to the other side of the swimmer if we see more open space on their other side. In a mass start, we were told you got to keep moving forward because there are people swimming behind you. If you suddenly stop, swimmers will run into you. We learned that by rolling over and doing a single back stroke and rolling back to free style, we will continually move forward while literally rolling over on top of the swimmer next to us and getting to their other side. We practiced this move with a partner and I didn't notice when my partner rolled over me and I was not kicked, hit or bloodied when I rolled over her. We also practiced drafting to feel the difference in swimming in front (more effort) and swimming closely behind someone (less effort). I liked how it was less effort drafting, but I didn't like the constant bubbles in my face from the kicking in front of me.

Following our swim, we biked 21 miles in the rolling hills between San Ramon and Livermore, followed immediately by a 6 mile run.

Today a few of us met at Inspiration Point in the Berkeley hills and ran 9 miles. It was chilly up there, but we had great views of the San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Dam and were running just steps away from grazing cattle. I felt really good when I finished this run and felt that I could have gone further.

Belinda took this nice photo of us after the run. Front Left to Right: Kristie, Helen, me, Tammy, Nick and Belinda in back.

Just keep swimming

Today, I swam 1,550 yards in 30-minutes, which is 50 yard improvement over my 30-minute swim marker that I did a month ago on February 3rd! Woo hoo!

Time flies when you're having fun

I can't believe that 4 months have passed already since I began this journey to train for my first triathlon. I have 5 more months of training to go and I know that time will fly by as well.

This week was recovery week and I am battling a miserable cold. We still have workouts during recovery week, but not as intense. However, since I felt that this cold move downwards to my chest and I have a history of getting pneumonia and long term laryngitis, I had to ensure that I lessened my workout even more to allow my body to rest and recover. I didn't do all the fully scheduled workouts but I did swim ~4200 yards, biked ~40 miles and ran ~10 miles.

On Saturday, we had a coached workout in beautiful Marin county. We rode 18-mile Paradise Loop from Larkspur around Tiburon and back, but I ended up riding 23 miles because I missed a turn and had to back track. Here's a picture of me and Golden Gate Bridge in the back.

After the bike, we swam at Redwood High School, learned how to do flip turns, use a tempo trainer and freestyle hand paddles. I wasn't very successful or graceful at the flip turn and will work on it since it's something I've always wanted to be able to do in order to swim laps continuously. The temp trainer beep was annoying, but it was a cool gadget and gave me an idea of whether or not I was keeping to my expected pace.

Daylight savings time starts next Sunday. I can't wait. It'll make evening workouts nicer to have the sun out later.