It rained!! It poured!! Our collective rain dances worked and the Bay Area is finally getting some of the rain it desperately needs! It was a little unfortunate timing because it coincided with my half marathon, but that’s ok, we’re on the right track!
I took a bit of a ‘recovery’ week leading up to the Kaiser half marathon which was smart, but the days I didn’t work out at all I noticed a big difference in my mood, productivity, and energy levels. It wasn’t good. On Saturday in particular I was itching to get on my bike but I knew I had to rest up. It felt like biking withdrawal; am I addicted?!
“Swim. Bike. Run. Fun.” GGTC Kick-Off
That was the text on the first slide of the Golden Gate Triathlon Club’s kick-off presentation to simplify their mission statement. The official team kick-off meeting was on Monday night where we met the coaches, board, and other leaders of the group. It seems like a really social and fun group but also packed with experienced triathletes. They do monthly happy hours, weekly track workouts, and tons of options for weekend bike rides, swims, and runs with teammates. I’m going to be officially starting with their Ironman program in April, but wanted a chance to meet people and get plugged into the network now. I saw some familiar faces (Tami, Pedro, Oscar, Chris) and met a few new people (Katie, Mark, Sam) and really looking forward to it. If anyone wants to join GGTC or has questions let me know. Would be awesome to have more friends out there.
The other fun part about the GGTC kick-off was actually winning a raffle prize! In fact, I sat in the front row with my new buds Tami and Katie, and all three of us won prizes completely randomly. There must’ve been 50+ people at the event! Crazy odds!
Half Marathon Personal Record!
I’m still shocked that after running 14 or so half marathons to date, I set a PR on Sunday morning. The day had disaster written all over it, but I toughened up and powered through the rain, cold, and wind. Full race report with pictures and detailed results can be found here.
“Go Team!” Team in Training Kick-off
Yet another team kick-off! This time for the Team in Training Summer triathlon team who I will be training with until the end of April for the Wildflower Long Course. This kick-off was a little more emotional and full of icebreakers and practical training plan info. We went around the room and introduced ourselves and talked about why we were there (connection to the cause, get in shape, triathlon goal, etc) and it was really astonishing how many people were directly affected by a form of blood cancer. It was touching to hear the different stories and I look forward to training with such self-less, healthy, and passionate people.
Our head coaches are also a husband and wife team(!), Nate and Michelle Klein. They met in Team in Training and Nate proposed at the end of their Ironman… umm how cute is that!? They talked to us about expectations for the next few months including training, gear, and nutrition. We’re going to have weekly track workouts, group coached workouts on Saturdays, swim clinics, nutrition clinics, and tons of fundraiser social events. Can’t wait to get the season started! I am currently raising money this season for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as part of the TNT program. If you would like to donate to my fundraiser, please visit this page. Thank you!!
What I’m most excited about this season is getting to know new people, learning more about blood cancers, and also working on getting faster & stronger so I can beat my Wildflower time from last year. I talked with Nate about this a little bit and we have a few ideas kickin’ around. He suggested phasing out Crossfit which I might do and instead incorporate TRX and yoga, but we’ll see. Track and hill repeats will also be important components to getting faster and stronger.
RMR Testing
Our gym at work was offering resting metabolic rate (RMR) testing to determine how many calories per day you burn when at rest and performing basic daily tasks like eating and moving around. This is a little different from basal metabolic rate which is simply the amount you burn at complete rest (breathing, circulating blood, etc) without taking into account any activity. Anyway, the data geek in me wanted to know how fast my metabolism was and how that compares to women my age. As it turns out I’m in the “normal” range and I burn on average 1397 calories per day at rest. They estimate that daily lifestyle activities burns another 417 calories and exercise burns 145 for a total of ~2000 calories. The guy that set up the test said his RMR was 2900 calories! Totally jealous. If your gym or health club offers this test, I’d take advantage of it, it’s pretty cool to see the results!
Gracias Madre (times two!)
I’m a lucky girl. I got to go to my favorite restaurant twice in a single weekend, and I didn’t have to plan either of them. Wow! Gracias Madre is a 100% vegan Mexican restaurant. It’s awesome for vegetarians but also for meat-eaters as the dishes are hearty and so delicious. I just love it! If you haven’t been to this restaurant yet, put it on your to-do list asap!
Friday night we went to celebrate Julia’s new job (congrats girlie!) It was a group of Team in Training friends and it was so great to get caught up with everyone. We even made a pit stop at Dr. Teeth for truffle tater tots. omg.
Then Saturday night I went out with Mike, a fellow vegan triathlete and coach, and some of the Brooks reps that were at Mike’s store, A Runner’s Mind, for a shoe launch event. It was pretty cool to hear about their launch and expo events and Brooks in general. I personally wear Nike running shoes but I love Brooks running clothes and maybe I’ll switch to their shoes down the road. They were visiting from Seattle so they’re probably pretty excited right now about the Super Blowout!
Wildflower Update
From the Wildflower website: “Wildflower is on! The Wildflower Triathlons is back for 2014…yes, triathlon. Even though Lake San Antonio is currently at a record low, Wildflower will occur as a triathlon (not duathlon) in 2014. The lake level as it stands today still has a capacity large enough to run all of our swim course distances. We’ve checked and measured! The Monterey County Parks Dept. is working hard, and in just a week or so there will be a practice swim course available to you. Suit up! (Though the Lake is available to us as is, throwing up an extra prayer or grooving to a rain dance wouldn’t be such a bad thing either…just sayin’.)”
This Week’s Training Log
Sunday the 2nd. Run. Half marathon race. 1 hour 57 minutes. 8:52/mile.
Thursday the 30th. Crossfit. 30 back squats, 36 power cleans, 20 power snatches, 4×200 meter sprint, 10 toes to bar, 20 V-ups
Wednesday the 29th. Run. 6.2 miles before work in Redwood Shores. 54 minutes 33 seconds. 8:52/mi
Monday the 27th. Run. 3 miles on the treadmill at 6.5 miles per hour. Core, stretch, foam roll
Thanks everyone. Swim. Bike. Run. Eat Plants.
Where's The Tofu? 
Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you penning this write-up and
the rest of the site is also really good.
thank you for your kind comment! 🙂