Perms are so in

So this week was a great week for training. Monday I went for a run through the canyons at the house, about 45 minutes or so. Feel good so far, no major aches and pains. On Tuesday I returned to the personal training place that I had to forgo the week before. This week we started out by doing our strength circuit training, and then spinning. I definatley liked this order alot more. And for once I was actually able to semi keep up. I was able to get my sprints up to 130 rpm (that is rotations per minute), granted I could only sustain that for about 10 seconds, but still I got there which I have not been able to do as of yet. Anyways I felt good and did not get yelled at by the trainer any more than anyone else. YAY! (caption: I woke up from my nap to come swim!)
Wednesday night was our team swim. It was rather annoying because there are water polo teams there now, so about 100 of us have to split 8 lanes.

(caption: The pool before it is filled with teammates and ballers)

That basically meant that after ever lap I had to tread water for about 10 seconds waiting for the people in front of me to go. It really stinks, but I think that from now on I will pay to go to a nearby pool so I can actually get a continuous swim. We are up to about 2250 yards swimming, I really have no idea how long that is but I am told over a mile.

Thursday I was still feeling the burn on my legs, but managed to make it out for another run through the canyons. Friday I took off, I was feeling my IT bands get pretty tight this week so I have to be so careful not to get flareups this early on in training. It is inevitable that I will get some sort of injury but I'd like to see how long I can go without one.

This morning I got up at 6 and got ready for the days workout. I drove up to Carmel Valley which is right next to La Jolla. We rode north for a bit then headed east into the Rancho Santa Fe area. There were TONS of bikers out there today. I seriously think that the biker groups are more dangerous than cars. They ride about 100 people, and you just kind of hear a buzz like a bee is near. And then they swarm by and don't bother to give you a nice "on your left" so that you can prepare. Can't stand these guys, in fact I yelled out "showoffs!" at one point. I'm sure they didn't even hear me cause by the time it came out of my mouth they were 100 yards away.

(caption: Taken during our Saturday ride)
So this area of San Diego was just gorgeous. Lots of rolling hills and beautiful farms and homes. Loved it, except for my chain falling out, and losing my water bottle on one of the hills. I had to go back for my water bottle cause I needed all the liquids I could get. I lost the group I was riding with due to my chain and water bottle debackle, so I called my coach at one point cause I had no idea where I was going. Luckily some teammates were not too far behind so I rode with them the rest of the way and they made sure I knew where I was going. Very helpful. We rode back west towards the pacific highway and ended up in Carlsbad. This was actually familiar to me cause it was my half marathon route that I did a few months ago. So the ride from there was along the ocean once again and I was feeling pretty good today so I enjoyed it more so than last week. I tried to eat some peanut butter and jelly on the ride, but really only ate one quarter of it, and then swallowed down two gu's. Apparently I should have consumed about 500 more calories than I did. It is definately taking some practice on how to fuel for this ride. Each weekend I am going to try to perfect my intake. I found my stomach growling towards the end of the ride, and it was brutal because it is down a long stretch that is COVERED with yummy restaurants. We were instructed to spin our legs out really fast towards the end, and to stretch out a bit while still on the bike. It will help to get our legs ready for the run. It gets all the lactic acid out of your legs. I threw the bike back into the car, and took off running. We were also instructed to do a "triathlete shuffle" for our whole run. This is not too much of a stretch for me cause that is pretty much how I run all the time. But anyhoo it felt alot more comfortable this week than last week.

As I got home I realized that I am going to have to do something about my bike seat. There were a few moments along the way that I felt like I had just been sexually violated by my bike seat. There has also been some uncomfortable chaffing, so I gotta figure something out. Tomorrow was supposed to be our first open water swim in the ocean but not everybody got their wetsuits in time so it was officially called off. However, the team is meeting unofficially. We are going to brunch with some friends and their parents so that may not happen for me, but if I am back in the area in time I will check it out. I will be running tomorrow regardless. And back to the grind to do it all over again!

Since this blog does have Brian's name on it as well, I will share a Bri story with y'all (sorry I am watching Paula Dean right now).
So Bri was smoking our pizza the other night in the green egg, when all of a sudden, I hear a little shriek! Bri came running in and I immediately recognized the smell. You see, many years ago at Kingston Terrace my brother and I were trying to get the fireplace going really well. So he threw some kerosene oil in it, and it backfired and singed off all of his hair.
Well, it smelt just like that. Bri opened it up too fast and the flame blew up at him and singed off his eyebrows, eyelashes and the front of his hair. HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brick by brick

First things first, thanks to all who have donated so far. I have raised close to $2,5oo and am in second place in fundraising on my team (and no I am not competitive but lets face it, I want to be first)!!

If you have not donated yet and still want that tax break here is my fundraising website:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/VineHIrn09/jmerrill

This week was a little rough. Bri and I were missing sushi, so on Monday before my swim we went out for sushi. It was apparently bad seeing as we both ended up sick at the same exact time. Needless to say I did not make it to the pool in fear of contaminating it. No 29 year old wants to be the cause of a pool closing down.

The rest of the week was pretty much brutal workouts cause I felt pretty crappy but I am on the mend now.

I got to really prove my athleticism and play in a school basketball game against the kids. It was rather comical, and I am well aware that I have to play disabled kids to have an even slightly upper hand. I am okay with it and look forward to not throwing the game this week and winning. hahahah

Saturdays workout was my first real "brick" with the team. This basically means two sports back to back. It was a recovery week so we rode about 22 miles from the UCSD campus by La Jolla, and up the pacific coast highway to Encinitas. It was a beautiful ride along the ocean and the temps were around 80 by the end. It was a bit hot and I only put sunblock on my face and arms so my legs look ridiculous. The end of our ride was the Torrey Pines hill, which is a very long climb, that took what felt like a half hour to get up. It is a great strength workout, and from what i'm told the worst hill on my triathlon course is only about a third as long as Torrey Pines so I should be prepared for that.

I of course got back almost last, but whatever. I found someone to "run" with me, if you can call it that. I really need to get my nutritio during the race down. I felt really awful with cramps once the bike was done and really hate gatorade. I may try to contact a nutritionist to see if I can get some help with that because this event is going to take me about 8 or more hours and I need to figure out how to get nutrition in if I want to finish it. We only had to run for 20 minutes, but it was a long and slow 20 minutes. Its still early in the training season so it should only get easier from here. I am definately feeling like I am biking more efficiently though. I may be slow but I am keeping a 90rpm pretty much the whole ride which is a good place to be.

Since it was almost 85 yesterday and felt like summer, we took the dog to the beach and I tried to even out my terrible bike shorts tan line.

We discovered a new bar in our neighborhood with some friends last night so we are psyched about that. They serve high class tater tots, what could be better than that?! I got pretty drunk off about two glasses of wine last night, and i'm pretty sure I propositioned our gay waiter to be my gay husband. hmmmn, going to have to stay away from that restaurant for a little bit.

Bri being the wonderful husband that he is, booked a great bus for me for my 30th and it is going to take us and 30 people to the wine vineyards in Temecula which is about an hour away. It is on a Saturday afternoon after a workout so I should be a really good time.....

You're B'er than that!

Okay so I have not posted in a lil bit but thats because I was in MEHICO! But first things first. Last week's workouts were hysterical to say the least. I went back to the personal training place and hopped on my bike and new bike trainer the Cycle Ops. Once again the sweet olympic triathlete got to her yelling at me after about two seconds of watching me. I mean this chic was asking us to go at a 140 rpm. If you are wondering how fast that is, watch Lance Armstrong, because no joke, that is what he pulls. Me, not so much! So I just kept covering my cadence reader so that she could not see it which she did not like one bit. At one point she was yelling in my face "come on Jody, you're b'er than that" (picture that in a great scottish/english/australian (not sure which one she is) accent). I really wanted to say "No, i'm really not, in fact I am trying my damndest to not throw up on this floor, or to pass out." Instead I just put my head down and tried my hardest. The best part was then getting off the bike and doing our strength workout. Needless to say I was pretty out of it and have never felt so close to passing out because of workouts.
THE KICKER was that the next day I went with a coworker to her gym to swim. Who do I see when I round the corner?! THE TRAINER! She was in her bathing suit and you could literally see every ripple and muscle in her body. I wanted to strip down right there and be like "this is what i'm dealing with lady!" But instead I said hello. She asked me "what was wrong with you last night?" UMMMMMMMMMM how about I am not a professional triathlete, nor want to be. How about it was 130 degrees in there and I don't really sweat which poses a problem. How about I am just pretty out of shape and am here to get in shape. Anyways she was kind of chucking saying "oh Jody, I fell so bad yelling at you but I just need to scream at you the whole time."
Okay so I should note that it is Tuesday night and I did not go tonight. They were testing our levels and stuff and I do not really need proof of how out of shape I am. So instead I did my spin and lifting here at the house, but I tried to get the dog to bark at me. And I did it while watching Biggest Loser so I kind of felt like I had Bob and Jillian training me.

So Bri and I took off for Cabo for our anniversary on Thursday. It was such a great time returning and we got to spend the long weekend in the same room as last year. We went back to some of our favorite spots and restaurants and pretty much tried to keep a nice steady buzz the whole weekend. I think we were both pretty successful with that. It was a little strange being there without all of our friends and family, but nice to be on our first vacation alone together. Not that we don't spend much of our time in San Diego alone, but its just different. Anyway we hope on our 10th anniversary that we can all go back!!
I almost forgot the best part of Cabo.....they refer to us as "The Buonomo's". I will never get sick of seeing a fun Mexican calling Brian "Mr. Buonomo."

I want to once again thank everyone for the donations. I still have quite a ways to go so please visit my website where you can donate online!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/VineHIrn09/jmerrill

BUENOS NOCHES AMIGOS

Thank you officer

So this week was filled with MANY workouts. I started to do a spin class with my bike and a trainer. Its basically a contraption that you put your bike on so it becomes like a stationary bike. I bought one a few years ago off craigslist. Turns out it sucks, I was leaning the whole time looking like I was about to fall off, and turns out I was about to fall off. So the wonderful professional triathlete that was coaching us told me not to do anything crazy on it. So I didn't. After class we did a strength class with one of their trainors, and it was like something from the biggest loser's last chance workout. So of course I got through it with lots of humor and grunts, but I did get through it. Wednesday night was another spin with my team and then a swim workout. We are swimming well over a mile so that is good. Even though it is California, it is dipping into the 40's at night. So right when we are finishing our swim, we get out into the cold air, and it is pretty comical to see everyone sprinting for their towels/hot tub/showers. So I was pretty much unable to move or sit down without grunting from being on the bike two days in a row. I am basically going to have a really sore ass for the next 5 months. I took Thursday off and did my run on Friday and was back at it on the bike this morning.
So last week I was awarded the "spirit" award from my team for my fundraising. I had to add something to a wheel and pass it on this week. I passed it on to my new friend Katie, and did a dedication to my mom and to one of my past honored heroes Lindsey who had open heart surgery this week because of complications from all her chemo she had the past 5 years. Anyhoo we took off for our 25 mile bike ride and it went very smooth. I had a good time and had fun chatting it up with Katie on our ride.
On my ride home is where it went a little south. I put my bike on the rack and must not have secured it enough. I was on the freeway singing, loudly, when I notice a cop behind me, when I take another look in my rearview mirror I noticed that my bike was not there, well it was there, but it was barely there. So for once in my life I was happy to see a cop behind me cause if it weren't for him I would no longer have a bike. And its a REALLY nice bike. So I made it over to the breakdown lane and the cop made sure I got there safely. My bike was literally hanging off the rack and was dragging by my back tire. Luckily I will only have to replace the tire. PHEW!!!
I drove home VERY slowly.

The boot, babies and bdays

So last week was the Ellen show. Now while I was told that you should dance crazy before the show, because Ellen is watching, it was apparently not in the cards for me that day. I was so super excited because while waiting for the show to start I realized that not only Jen Aniston would be on but Stevie Wonder, who I have been pretty obsessed with since childhood was also a guest.

Anyways we got to our seats, second row right in front and center. I danced, kind of like Chris Farley/Elaine on Seinfeld, and the producer came over to me with a not so happy look on her face. I decided it would be a good time to ask if I could "dance over Ellen's table", she looked at me in dusgust and said "no, don't move, actually please sit down." She then came back over and made me and my 3 friends move. I was then unable to sit on the end as well. FUN VAC!!

Anyways it was fine because we had a great view from our new seats, and actually got quite a bit of face time when they actually aired the show. The best part of the show was definately the commercial breaks where dance offs ensued. At one point they started playing Stevie songs right before he came on, and asked if anyone knew the words. Of course I raised my hand and practically fell out of our aisle and tackled the man with the mic. I got to perform my best and most exciting karaoke performance yet. 300 people, walking up and down the Ellen aisles, and actually dedicated it to Stevie who was in the same room as I sang Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

It was awesome. The 5 hour ride home from LA in the pouring rain,,,,not so awesome.

I got home and ran right for the airport for my suprise flight home to Boston to see my friends and family. I got to see new babies and celebrate bdays. Even though it was a super short trip with really long flights, it was great to be able to just hang with my friends and laugh til I almost peed. Good times.

Possibly the best laugh of the weekend was Nana almost getting beat up because she keeps calling a female resident a man "here he is Mr. America" and the woman got so pissed and started to get physical. I had to separate them and pleaded with my Nana to stop calling her "him". She looked at me totally serious and says "well Jody, i'm sorry, she has very masculine features." Good lord!

Stroke it

I had my first swim last night with the team. There are some pretty comical coaches so that makes it fun. We only have to share each swim lane with two other people so that is pretty fantastic. The pool is actually an outdoor pool in La Jolla, and its a salt water pool, pretty neat. The coaches taught us all the crazy strokes they want us to practice this season to make us more efficient. Anyhoo my mentor is the unofficial cameraman and is documenting the whole season which is great for me so I can post pics for you all!

On a way more fun note my friends Lisa and Matt had their baby girl Katherine Rose today! Can't wait to meet her!

WE WERE ON A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so beyond excited right now! So I got tickets for the Ellen Degeneres show and will be attending the taping on Thursday but it will be aired on Friday. The guest??? JENNIFER ANISTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am completely still obsessed with the show Friends and any movie she does, and have been TEAM Aniston since the break up. So very psyched!

Had my first bike ride with the TEAM this weekend and I met a few more people and had a great ride with a very sweet girl, whose mother was ironically diagnosed with Chronic Leukemia a week after she signed up to do the triathlon. Crazy how things work.

I am hoping to get something cool as a giveaway at Ellen so I can try to raffle it off for my fundraising. Still have plenty to go!!!!