a hot day

This week was sort of a blur. A bunch of workouts a whole lot of knee pain and more rain. Rain keeps ruining our saturday workouts. Yet again we had to cancel a workout and move it to sunday. Since I had my saturday free I went to hot yoga in the morning. It was pretty annoying because something is wrong with my knee. Hard to straighten it, hard to bend it all the way which made for some uncomfortable poses. Also the broad next to me stuck her foot in my face not once, not twice, but THREE frigin times. And its HOT yoga, like sweat dripping off yourtoes into my face hot. EW EW EW. I was aggro oh AND she knocked over my water and spilt it with her stupid shweaty feet.

After yoga my friend LG invited me to a "spa day". I have never done anything like this. I figured it would be a good way to spend a rainy saturday. I signed up for my first facial. NOT A FAN! At one point I had stuff over my eyes so I couldnt see, my hands in baggies inside gloves under a towel close to my body and steam blowing up my nose. I was soooooooo claustrophobic it was not even remotely enjoyable for me. I felt like it was a mix between an mri and a cat scan, neither of which were enjoyable for me and both of which I needed to pop meds. Oh then she brought out the pic to poke my blackheads with. They all happened to be on my nose which is apparently the most sensitive part on your face. I flinched and teared up the whole time. The lady kept saying "does this feel good?" ummmmmmmmmmmmmm "NO!!" A few parts were nice but I would take a massage over that nonsense any day of the week!

After that we spend the day in our robes and slippers. It was glorious! We got lunch sat in the jacuzzi, then went to the sauna, then out to the roman waterfalls, then back in the jacuzzi, then the steam room (i lasted about 2 seconds in there), someone gave me a loofa bath (that was odd, but free), and some more time in the jacuzzi. It was awesome! Such a relaxing day. I realized I spent much of the day in over 100 degrees so I drank tons of water.

Not so sure what is happening with my knee. I woke up to this feeling last week and it has not gotten better. I kind of have to limp. It feels okay when I workout but definately something going on. Resting it did not seem to help, ice and lots of ibuprofen help. Oh and all the heat yesterday definately helped it. Kind of feels like I have a floating knee cap or something. Maybe fluid? Who knows ?! I guess it would not be a true training season without a good injury. On the bright side I get to go on my first ride out on the roads today on the new bike!

isn't he lovely

Isn't he wonderful! Its my NEW BIKE! I finally broke down. I have been walking by bikes that I want for a year now. I went to a TREK tent sale last night and knew that there were some great deals. I went back today to "browse" and left with a new bike! Well new to me but it is a 2008 demo bike. I basically got it for half off. It rode like a dream. I had to bid farewell to my "old bike" and I have to say with all my issues this riding season it was not a tough one. I got a good trade in value for the bike so that helped with cost as well. Need to name this bike. I decided that it is going to be a he. I often feel like I have an extremely intimate relationship with my bike so its only fitting that it is a guy. Name suggestions are welcome. He is a Trek Madone if that helps you to get the creative juices flowing.
Belle was extremely helpful at our workout today. Due to my testicles I decided to stay off the bike for the weekend and heal up so that maybe one day my husband will have that loving feeling for me again. I volunteered with a few other mentors and helped out at todays "time trial". The team rode the same bike path I did last weekend for 15 miles and did 2 loops. We were simulating the bottle exchange for them so it was actually kind of fun. We had a minor mishap when Bri showed up a bit earlier than expected and I got frazzled, the dog got away and Bri almost ran her over and he almost crashed. Definatley not my fault.

Bri killed it which is semi annoying since he did not work out a single time this week. I guess he was making sure he was rested up for the big time trial. He is going to crush the triathlon. Maybe he'll get a bike as gorgeous as mine someday.

Happy weekend to all! I will bea much happier camper once I get my bike on Monday after my bike fit!!! ooooooohhhhhhweeeeeeeeeee

moo

um yeahhhhhhhhhhh, not sure what to even title this post with so I will hold off on that. Mondays ride was a long one for me, this I know. Perhaps I should have eased into mileage. My legs feel great, my cardio is up there, HOWEVER my ass this whole season has been killing me. Correction not my ass but my girlie parts. Not sure if it is the new tilt of my handlebars which changes my position on the seat, or if its the shorts. However I have worn these shorts forever and have never had this problem in the 3 years I have been riding my bike. Anyhoo I had some slight discomfort and now am in full blown FULL ON DISCOMFORT. I have saddle sores. They are right on my underwear line so I am goign to have to go commando til these things are healed up. It is almost as if I have giant balls growing. Not sure if they are like turning into cysts but I am pretty miserable. I called the dr. That was fun trying to explain it to the receptionist, but they can't see me til Monday. I am not so sure how the hell I am ever going to sit on a bike seat ever again, I can barely walk. I did some reading and people suggested the above Bag Balm. This stuff is actually made for cows and horses, I think they put it on cows udders. It makes it even more ridiculous. I am just going to lather this stuff on and try to see if it heals up in time for our time trial on the bike on Saturday. Not a good time for this. Now I am going to have to go for yet another bike fit and really all I want is a shiny new bike so I have been trying to stay far far away from bike shops. We still have to pay for taxes and a gazillion trips back east bf I can buy anything for myself....WOE IS ME! Due to this discomfort and the fact that someone called us at 4am today I figured I would just get up and go for a swim. The masters practice was there and I gotta say the old men were such d-bags. It further convinced me that I will never go to that because they have NO patience for people who are not fast. How are you supposed to get fast if you are not slow at first??? Oh and the bathing suit kills the sores as well so I had to kind of pull it up my bum and give myself cameltoe. No wonder why noone wanted to share a lane with me.....

our first sd wedding

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
this is where I can be found from here on out!

view of the sunset from the cocktail hour

Shabby setting for a wedding aye?

before many glasses of wine

the beautiful bride!

We had our first San Diego wedding in beautiful Del Mar. It was nice to only have to travel a few miles to attend this wedding seeing as I have to fly to the east coast for 8 weddings in the next 6 months. ouch! still hoping all of those are going to be possible only time will tell! Anyhoo I met my friend Susie in graduate school and she and a few others came out to SD right after graduation. I am so glad they did! She also trecked it to Cabo for our wedding and I am almost positive that SD is where we belong. I could not help but think if we had come to the wedding from the east coast to 75 degrees and sunny I think Bri and I would both be thinking "lets move here." We are living the dream alright! This weekend has been beautiful and warm and sunny and glorious! Bri bought me my new favorite piece of furniture...a chaisse lounge chair for the yard. Due to the weather this weekend means I have some rather crazy tan lines. Saturday morning I was not feeling up to the 40 mile team ride so I went swimming. We usually swim at night so I didn't even think about the crazy straps on the back of my suit til I got home from my 2500 yard swim. Really cute. THen I came home and read on my new chair and forgot sunscreen and got pretty burnt. Sunday I ran in the lagoon for a good 7 miles and really took it easy at my "base pace". Sometimes I do not have the patience but it felt right.

I was not sure if I would be able to bike after the wedding, afterall I do love an open bar. But I was a good girl and only got buzzed. Although I had enough in me to go into the photobooth and moon it for their photo album. Priceless pics. hope they are available digitally soon. Everyone deserves that sight. I am just so damn funny. Regardless I still woke up to join another teammate in Coronad to ride the silver strand bike path. He is training for ironman in a few months so I knew he would want to log some longer mileage and I was up for it. Apparently he likes to tell himself he is doing double the distance that he is really going to go. So we joked the entire ride that we were going 100 miles "at least" and when people would whiz by us we would say "heh I bet they are not riding 100 miles today" or "whoo hoo only 60 more miles to go". This way of thinking actually worked pretty well. My feet were numb most of the ride but I felt very good. It was hot and had a nice headwind so it was very "lavaman specific". On our last loop he started getting bored so he would come up behind me and say things like "its bri right ahead lets sprint and pass him" it made the way back go by alot faster. Sometimes on a flat ride you have to switch it up and fire up some different muscles. It was a great ride and I so appreciated the enthusiasm. We went 50 miles and I have not done over 30 miles yet in training so I was pretty pleased. I honestly felt like I could have run after. Maybe another HIM is in my future!

A great wedding weekend, a great vday with my lovah and the in-laws, beautiful weather and our anniversary this week with even more visitors! life is good!
Happy Monday!

this is how I "roll"

One bottle of wine and I am shoving bread rolls into my pants, stand on chairs, and thrust them into the faces of strangers. Good times.

I managed a bunch of workouts this week, but took it easy on running because my feet were aching for some reason. Made it to two pilates classes this week. If Thursdays class had been Tuesdays class I definately would not have made it to two but its always good to start our your morning with total muscle fatigue. My legs have never shook like that before. It was a little weird but happened to all of us. I did a few two a days with either a swim or a bike at the end of the day and then of course I had to get sick again. I woke up THursday night certain that an alien was trying to come out of me. I kept running to the bathroom to throw up but I just couldn't bring myself to actually do it. Then I got sick of going from bed to bathroom so I kind of just hung out in there for a couple hours. Anyways I managed to make it into work for a few hours to see my kids and then took off and just moaned on the couch all day/night. You know its bad cause I bought a variety of cupcakes the other day and still have not been able to eat them. Brian just said "you must be feeling better, you stopped moaning" haha he is so right. It just helps to moan when sick. I stand by that. Anyways today I am not going with the team on the 50 mile bike ride. I am going to take it easy and do a swim and possibly yoga it up. Frank and Rhonda are flying in today as well so we are super psyched for their arrival!!! We also have a Valentine's wedding on Sunday so that should be super fun!! Can't wait for my first San Diego wedding!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Bri and I do not believe in this silly holiday and I am lucky to have a husband who sends flowers just because and takes me out to wonderful dinners on a regular basis. HOWEVER my wonderful father has always made this a special day with a card and a little something. I got a fun package from him with a personalized keychain from Brighton collectibles. SOooooooooooooo cute. Its got a pineapple that says "hawaii" a yellow VW buggie just like mine and a palm tree,,,,,,does he know me or what?! Oh and he got me a cute bracelet that says "believe in yourself" which I love but I have too tiny wrists so I will see if I can exchange it for a smaller one. I have the ass of a rapstars girlfriend, but the wrists of a 2 year old. haha thats funny.

no rain, no rainbows

Saturday night I set out to do what I planned on doing....being inappropriate and drinking too much wine...done and done!
We met up for our friends 30th bday at a wine bar/restuarant close by our house. I planned on sharing my bottle of wine, but everyone ordered their own, sooooooo drink it I did! By the end of the night I had a french bread roll stuffed into my pants coming out of my zipper and was pelvic thrusting the window while standing on a chair for all the patrons inside the restaurant to see. Some people laughed, most were horrified but I am pretty sure I was the hit of the party. Brian was oh so very proud. Notice the distance between us at the table!!!haha!! It was super fun and a night I needed oh so badly!

Drinking too much, and not sleeping hardly at all meant that Sunday was a no workout day for me. I don't know when Sundays became yet another training day, because it has always been an "off day" until this training season. I kind of don't mind cause I have all day to workout, and it just means that on another day during the week I can sit and relax, perhaps clean and bang out some laundry that I let build up the whole week.

Monday night Bri and I headed to the local pool and did some nightswimming. LOVE nightswimming. ESPECIALLY when we do not have to stay and cover the pool and ESPECIALLY when it is super warm. So warm that the mist is rising off the top AND when the lights are on in the pool. Its just magical like that and so reminds me of the many nights at friends pools throughout the summer nights. We did a build up that I made up, 100 swim 100 pull, 200 swim 200 pull, 300 swim 300 pull, 400 swim 400 pull. Totals to 2000 meters which is just over a mile. A good workout and tough on the arms. I was secretly racing with the middle aged bald man to the right of my lane. I love when I find someone who is just about my speed and I secretly race them the whole workout. I know he was pushing a little more effort as well. I swam way faster than I would have had I been alone and I'm sure he did too. But I smoked his ass the whole time. At the end of the workout I decided to see if I could still do flip turns. I did them growing up when I would swim but havent in many years since the vertigo started up. I decided to wait til the end of the workout to see if it would make my head spin or not. To my suprise I was okay. A little loopy but really I think I will be fine. Maybe now I can stop making excuses as to why I can't join a masters swim....

I woke up this morning to do my now weekly pilates class. I may even start doing it twice a week, but really its just to hang out with LG and hope that she brings me more cookies (need the recipe LG!!). Not sure if it will ever get easier but I can only get stronger.

NO RAIN NO RAINBOWS!!!!(saw that on the back of a guys shirt during this weeks 10K and love that motto)

I am supposed to do a track workout but its pouring AGAIN in sunny San Diego, so looks like a bike workout will occur tonight and a track workout later this week.

The flights and hotels are booked for Hawaii!! WHOOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!!

right on pace

I woke up early today for our Super 10K after. I spent all day Friday on the couch sick, and think I may have gotten up only for essentials. So I literally went from couch to 10K like all those silly workout websites say! Anyways my original pace after our time trial was to be 10:16 for my 10K pace. After we did the 2 mile time trial I was apparently super fast and my pace changed to 9:30. I knew after last weeks track workout that it would most likely be somewhere in between that. To be honest I am happy with a 10 minute mile since I have been so used to a slower marathon pace.

This was actually my very first 10k. The only other one I can compare it to was part of a triathlon so I am not sure that counts, but for comparison purposes lets say that it does. My 10K pace at Mooseman was 1:16 which was about a 12 minute pace. My 10K pace today was 1:03 which was almost exactly 10:15 my original pace. The race today went around Fiesta Island and with the storm coming in it was extra windy. The kind of wind that knocks your hat off as you are running. I was amazed at how much the wind can affect your pace. Its basically just like a hill. I would go from 9:30 to 12 minute miles like it was nothing. Very strange. That is what Kona will be like on both the bike and the run so it was a good way to get used to that. I was running with my girls for the first 2-3 miles then I started with a pretty uncomfortable stomach cramp. I felt it before we started running but just kind of hoped it would go away. I suffered. I pretty much wanted to stop and walk a bit the whole last 3 miles but it was a "race" and I wanted to see what I could do so I just kind of went for it. It felt like a comfortable pace and if anything hopefully the bike ride will serve more as a warm up and my body will be more ready and willing to run that same pace. Granted Kona will be about 30 degrees warmer than today (i hear it will be around 90 and even hotter on the lava fields) but I will also have good ole adrenaline helping me out there!

So my first 10K is over and done with. Now I will get back into that horizontal position and milk this rainy day for everything it is worth! Looks like there will probably be no ocean swim tomorrow so we'll see what kind of workout happens on Sunday! Plus I plan on drinking lots of wine tonight...yay!!!!!!!

Jody Grylls

Today something bad happened. Something so so very bad. As a child I had serious night terrors about bugs. My parents had to buy me a care bear that was supposed to ward off all the bad bug dreams. I can still recall them to this day. There was the one where there were all these bugs on the walls making it look like the walls were moving. Then there was the one with the giant lady bug who was attacking me. I bought the whole care bear thing and got over it but still to this day I cannot kill or be around spiders or any other creepy crawlers.

Cut to todays lunch. There I was having our Tuesday lunch meeting. I had a lackluster lunch today. Not much food in the house so I brought some brie cheese and carrots and hummus...oh and some wheat thins. The wheat thins were all smushed so I just dumped them onto my plate. I would take a little brie on my knife and dunk it into the smushed wheat thins and eat them. I was getting full when all of a sudden I looked down and MY GODDAMN FOOD WAS MOVING!!! There was a maggot/worm like thing in my GD WHEATTHINS!!!! I immediately screamed, spit my food out and ran to the sink to wash out my mouth. My coworkers did not know what the hell was happening. I just kept yelling "get rid of it get rid of it!" One of the women from next door to us came running in "is it a rat?!" (that happened to me last year there). "NO I JUST ATE A MAGGOT!" Oh goodness I still can't really think about it. Even though the cheese and carrots and hummus were new I had to have them expose of all the evidence before I could sit back at the table. It will be a very long time before I can eat any of those things again. My body eliminated the parasites immediately so hopefully there was no harm done. My dad tried to convince me that I should go to the emergency room. I think he was f-ing with me. I had Bri google it and he said "whatever jodes Bear Grylls eats that kind of stuff all the time,....you're fine." I am going to go with that.

I woke up early today to go to pilates class. It was brutal. The instructor had these circular torture devices that made impossible moves even more difficult for me. I then went down to the local HS track that I had to do some searching to find to do my tempo workout.
Due to our 2 mile time trial I have a new 10K pace. When we did the 1 mile time trial that determined that my 10K pace would be 10:16. But after the 2 mile my new 10K pace is 9:31.
800M warm up
400M hard 8:00 pace-400 pace-400 hard-800 pace-400 hard-1 mile pace-400 hard-800 pace-400 hard-400 pace -400 hard
It was hard, my legs are certainly going to be toast. I found it pretty hard to hold the 9:30 pace, I was cramping (due to my lunch incident) and felt like I was either going at a 9:00 or a 10:20 pace. Will have to see what this means for our 10K this weekend. This is my chance to see what I am really capable of! Kind of excited for that!

warning: don't drink the water

Woke up Saturday morning feeling like I was going to puke. Not a great way to head to a brick workout at 6 am but I went. I quickly realized that workout was not in the cards for me. I stayed for the pre meeting stuff and listented to our swim coach give his mission moment. Always amazes me how resilient people can be and how you would really never know the true essence of a person just by looking at them. We have no idea what people have gone through or are going through. I have known him for 3 years and never knew his story so that was pretty moving. At TNT it really never is a true Saturday workout until tears have been shed. Doesn't take much for this broad!

So I left after helping our coach a bit and went home to pick up the dog and pretty much drove back to the lake we started at so I could get Bri. He killed it again on the ride, had his first flat, fixed his first flat and made it back to run about 3-4 miles or so.

I rallied Saturday night for a GNO! Ummmmmmmm lets just say that I got halfway to the bar, sneezed and pissed myself in the car. YUP had to drive back home, change, explain to Brian and the dog who were both judging me that I was not a 90 year old woman and made it back to the wine bar in record time! Seriously its been an issue since I was young I have accepted it and so should you.

Woke up Sunday and convinced my lovely friend LG to ride with me. We did the same ride that the team did the day before. Let me tell ya the people of Rancho Santa Fe were not a fan of her. She got honked at about 25 times for riding in the road. It was pretty hilarious to me. I can't believe she never flipped the bird. Being the nervous nelly that I am was pretty much begging her to move over the whole time. What can I say, she likes to live on the edge. We pretty much only did the ride so that we could go to our favorite breakfast/lunch spot, the Naked Cafe. It is seriously ridiculous and the kicker is that it is all super healthy stuff, located right at Solana Beach, AND there were people dancing to thriller outside. Doesn't get any more entertaining than that. OH and we stared at some woman with the largest most ridiculous looking diamond ring on that I have ever seen. We were not discreet about this fact at all. I think that if you have a ring of that caliber it is pretty much so people will stare, and stare we did. It was legitimately the size of my eyeball. Her ring could probably have paid off all of my school debt, and there is a whole lot of that!

Moving on!

I pretty much got back from lunch and got my stuff together for our 2nd open water swim at La Jolla Shores. I thought it would get easier but not so much. The water felt colder and I yelled like a lunatic, it was like I had tourrettes for a bit "F&#K S&*T" you get the idea. We did a whole bunch of swimming and that was great. There were tons of planes flying overhead for the golf tournament that was happening right next to us. I got home and was SUPER uncomfortable. I coudn't breathe very well and had intense pains in my chest and lungs. I figured it was the asthma flaring up from the frigid water (its about 56 degrees). Took a few puffs of the inhaler and that did not help. It hurt way worse when I ate or drank. I got frustrated and decided to sleep it off so I went to bed at 7:30.......yes I am so cool.

Anyways I was explaining this to my boss and she said "did you drink the water?" Well I mean of course I did not go into the ocean thinking "hmmn I am so thirsty, I could really go for 50 degree salt water with some algae in it" but I mean you do drink some water when you have waves crashing in your face. Apparently this causes awful heartburn which TOTALLY makes sense to me now. I am so releived that it is not the asthma flare up because the water is not going to get warmer any time soon. Although it will be about 80 in Hawaii!!!

Which leads me to another attempt to beg you all for money! We are almost there on our goal this year. It has certainly been more difficult with both Brian and I fundraising but we are getting there slowly but surely!

If you would like to donate to our cause please visit our fundraising website:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/lavatri10/bmerrilsti

Happy February!
The month of our dogs birth! Our Anniversary! And hopefully the month we can stop begging you all for money!! WHOO HOO!!