Worthless Lying POS App

So turns out that "Find My iPhone" app is a lying POS.

If you followed along on Facebook the last few days maybe you saw my posts about looking for my phone... was SO BUMMED when I couldn't find it yesterday but then I remembered that I could use that awesomely cool Find My iPhone app so I tried that out. Here's how it went...

Realize I can't find my phone. Check that iCloud thing and have it locate my phone via gps... Oh! Tah Dah! It shows a map of our town and dials in a picture of my iphone and tells me it is at Moana's gymnastics... which makes sense because that was the last time I saw it (Tuesday night at her gym). No problem I'll go pick it up there after I pick up Moana from school.

So yesterday afternoon I show up at the gym and look around and ask around but nobody seems to have seen a phone and we can't find it anywhere. We call it several times from anotehr phone to see if we hear it ringing but don't hear anything. Crap. I wonder if someone already took it from the gym? I go home and check my computer again... It relocates my phone and places it at THE MALL. OMG how the heck would I ever find it at the mall?? Must be some teenager who took it from the gym and is now hanging out at the mall... well I'll just wait til he/she goes home and I'll find him/her there. So I continue tracking the phone and like 20' later I see that it has left and is now showing up at a home a few miles from me. AH HA! I'm going to get this damn thief. Moana in the car with me we drive to the house where my iPhone is showing up on the gps map and while I am a little scared, it looks like a nice enough house so maybe it was all a mistake and I can just ask for it and they'll give it back? So, I leave Moana in the car for a minute and go ring the doorbell. Grandma comes to answer the door looking quite skeptical so I introduce myself and explain to her that Find My iPhone app assures me that my iphone is indeed in her home. She stares at me like I have three heads and assures me that she has been home with her husband all day and that no, they don't have any kids who attend gymnastics. They don't even use those iPhones. Unfortunately she comes across as believable so I put my tail between my legs and drive back home to check that GPS app again.

At home I'm back on the Find My iPhone app and now it's telling me it's been located in another neighborhood down the road... near a boat ramp. I use the feature that allows me to send a message to the phone and give my husband's phone number and ask them to call it to return the lost phone. Then I use the remote lock feature so at least they can't use it in the meantime. Then I put Moana back in the car and we drive down to the boat ramp which is all fenced off and it seems no one is there at all? GAH. CRAP.

Back at home- check the gps map again and see that the phone is on the move and it appears to be in the water?? Would it ping from underwater? It's moving. Must be on a boat. A boat? OMG what are these thieves doing with my phone on their boat?? Eventually it stopped moving and seemed to be stuck here. Did they anchor?

Finally Scott arrives home and I tell him the saga up to this point and he suggests I call the police before I go all vigilante again and swim out to that boat demanding my phone. So I call the police and apparently it must have been a slow night because an officer actually came to my house right away and filed a report for me. I showed him my iPad with a picture of the map (above) and he said he'd go drive by but there wasn't much they could do until the phone came back to land. He did suggest that I report the phone stolen to ATT so that if/when someone went to try to make it work it would come up as a stolen phone... That sounded like a good idea to me so I came inside and googled ATT stores in kaneohe trying to see if the store I knew of was still open at 8PM and wouldn't you know it? A little dot popped up on a map showing there was an ATT kiosk at THE MALL! Ok now I'm in full on detective mode so I grab Scott's iPhone and head off the the mall with my police report number so see what I can find out since obviously the first thing the thieves did with their newly acquired stolen device was to take it to the ATT kiosk at the mall to try to have it reset! Why hadn't I thought of that before??

I asked around in Radio Shack and Verizon stores if anyone has come in asking about having an iPhone reset but once again was greeted like I was crazy so my three heads and I left the mall feeling defeated once again. But this time I was armed with Scott's iPhone so I could be checking the gps map on the fly and wouldn't you know it? The phone was now showing up in the water but much closer to the harbor... they were coming in to the harbor again!?! I called the police back right away and informed them that the thieves were heading toward land and I was sure this was it! I would greet them there with the police as they were docking their boat and we would get those bastards!!!

So I drove back to the boat ramp and waited, in the dark... no police showed up. No boats were coming in. Blah. Check the app again and WHAT?? Phone was now showing up at a house across the street from the one I'd actually gone to earlier... could it be? Probably not but I drove over there anyway. Totally and completely obsessed at this point. Did a drive-by of the house where it said the phone was but it all looked dark and not likely that the phone was actually there... check the map again and WHAT? It was now showing up at the Police Station? OH THANK GOD. Someone was finally being honest about it and turned it in! Sweet.

Next stop Police Station where they knew me already as that crazy lady who had been following her iPhone around town for the last 4 hours since I'd called them several times already. And no- my phone was not there and no one had come by. I was beginning to feel like this Find My iPhone app was indeed a lying POS so I finally gave up and came home. But of course I checked it one more time from my computer and it showed my iPhone back out in the water where it had been located previously?? Argh. I went to bed and thought I'd try again in the morning.

So at 6AM this morning I checked and indeed, phone still appeared to be out to sea. BUT, by 7 AM it was back on land and spent about an hour at what appeared to be a little breakfast joint right near the mall? I wait to see if it stabilizes at someone's home where I figured I would go ask one more time before I just gave up and bought another new iPhone...

La la la this continued on for several hours where I was sort of working but mostly checking that gps map and watching my phone move all around Kaneohe. So weird these thieves would just be driving around our little town like that?? Anyway, at last resort I used that feature on the app that said it would sound an alarm on the phone until it was found and the password was entered correctly... I figured maybe if the thing was just beeping non-stop the thieves would get sick of it and throw it out the window of their car so I could just go retrieve it from the side of the road? Desperate times call for desperate measures... So I activate the alarm and right away hear a BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. Um, what?? I follow the sound of the BEEP to my hall closet where I open up a backpack and find my phone... battery nearly dead. Are you kidding me?? This thing has been here all along?? Unbelievable.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that the gps mapping on that Find My iPhone is a completely worthless lying POS. But the beeping alarm feature might be one to try before you call the police and go on a witch hunt around town.

Motivated!

I was out riding this afternoon and feeling more motivated than I have in a long time... I think racing this year (so far) has been so good for me... mostly b/c I have walked away from every race feeling partially satisfied... yet not fully satisfied... And that has been so good for me because while I feel like I am on the right track, every time I race it's clear that I have more work to do. And I love that!

So today I rode an easy lap of Tantalus and then my second time I up stepped on the gas a little and went nearly a minute faster than I've ever gone before. So that was cool, except I knew I had one more lap to go and it needed to be the fastest of the day so I gathered myself at the bottom and mentally prepared to really get after it... which I did... so that 2nd lap PR lasted a very short time because I crushed it the 3rd time up. It was awesome and satisfying and further proof of the fitness boost I gained  this last month- all those miles and all that climbing in AZ paying off every time I get on my bike these days. I love that! :)

Anyway, as I was riding down the mountain for the final time today I started thinking about why I push myself so hard and what my goals are, etc. And it was so crystal clear to me... I want to win races! But there are so many fast strong women out there (yes- you!) and I have such tremendous respect for you all and that just motivates me to work my ass off in training... because that's the only way I might even possibly win a race around here. I do not have a huge amount of genetic talent, but I do have an unusually strong work ethic so I'm using the tools I've got. And I find myself viewing it all in such a healthy way this year- way healthier than I ever have before in the past. I think in years past I have put too much of my own ego on the line... like my self-worth was directly linked to how fast I went in a race... I do not feel that way now, which might just be the most refreshing (and healthy!) change an athlete can make. Now I just feel like I want to win- And I'll admit that I want to win (seems women are never supposed to admit that??). And when I don't win, I simply feel a huge amount of respect for those who did, and I feel more motivated than ever to out-train them so hopefully I'll be more of a threat next time. So in conclusion, the reason I train so hard is because you all are so freakin' fast! ;)

So... until next time...

WaterFront Sprint!

So it was a beautiful morning for a little local triathlon action...

This was a fun race this morning- made more fun by the fact that Scott decided to jump in and play too! (Funny aside- yesterday he asked me to go to the pool with him and give him a few swim tips.... He is not a bad swimmer! In fact, I gave him 2 fairly standard tips about what to do with his head and his hands and he swam a 100 right next to me yesterday! He's got some freaky talent. And ~40 years of big wave surfing experience which I guess counts for something.) So cut to the chase- I only beat him by less than 2' in the swim this morning! The swim was advertised as 750M but it was short b/c I came out in like 9' flat but he was out in <11. Solid.

Anyway, I think I was like 4th woman out of the water? We were all really close though... I was swimming right next to my athlete Elizabeth for a good chunk of it and it was so cool to look over and see my logo on her cap every time I took a breath. She pummeled right over me at one point and my instinct was to just knock her out but then I decided to be nice (since she was my athlete and all) so I let it go. Next time though, Elizabeth, I might not be so nice! Ha! J/k of course... ALL IS FAIR in love and triathlon!!

So I got through T1 pretty fast though I did make the rookie mistake of not paying attention to which rack my bike was on. Duh. My little mistakes in this race were all pretty much due to me just taking too much for granted... and it was a rookie move to not be super attentive to where I put my damn bike! Actually, rookies would have actually paid attention to that! Oh well.

My goal on the bike was to rip Rae's legs off (After the race we were jogging down and I told her that and she told me she knew it so it's all fine me posting it here! ;). Rae can swim faster than me and she can run faster than me... and last month she biked a 20K faster than me... so I knew my chances of beating her this morning were slim but also knew that the only chance I might have had was to make her work ridiculously hard on the bike so I just stomped on it and hunted her down... I passed her... She passed me back (good girl showing GRIT)... I passed her back... It was definitely a rather violent effort on the bike but it did not scare me. I think I had maybe 45" on Rae going into T2? The bike was advertised as 13 miles but last minute they cut like 3 miles out of it with a new course- short bike rides are never in my favor so this was disappointing.

Whatever my lead was, it was not enough and Rae caught me fairly early on after we started running. Then maybe the only thing I'm sort of disappointed about was how I sort of settled in on the run and just ran what felt like hard enough... I specifically remember getting to the mile 2 sign and thinking This is not a violent effort I said I was going to put out a violent effort but this is not that... but I wasn't motivated enough to do anything else about it? And make no mistake... I knew there were plenty of girls behind me who were running faster than me but somehow I was missing that SPARK required to really take it to myself. I got passed by Marianne with maybe 1/2 mile left and just sort of watched her go and thought about how efficient she looked... She made it look so effortless and easy... Then my athlete Elizabeth came up on me right before the finish and she was gutting it out and I just sort of cheered her on as she ran by! WEIRD b/c I can show so much GRIT on the bike but then on the run I am just like la la la totally content to just run my own pace instead of RACE. So anyway, that is the next thing for me to work on. :)

Here's Elizabeth running me down for 3rd OA. Good girl!

The best part about local races is chatting with your friends afterward... This is Patrick who is another athlete I coach who put together a good race and came 2nd Military.

All of my athletes actually put together great races out there this morning so that made me happy! And of course my husband finished his first triathlon and we celebrated with beer. :)

So get this... after the race we went to breakfast (where Moana ate more than I did!?! Hungry girl!) and there was Scott... studying his race results and hypothesizing how fast he could have gone with a real bike instead of his old mountain bike... then he said "How long is the Honolulu Triathlon?" Uh oh. I really did create a monster. It's so cute though... He's sleeping on the couch right now wearing his finisher's shirt.

I Hope I Am Not Creating A Monster

So the other night I was chatting with my mom (who is here visiting this week- Moana is in HEAVEN) and she was asking about the triathlon race I am doing this weekend. I explained it something like this:

It is the opposite of Ironman.

The only 2 races mom has watched me do in the last ~5 years were IMCdA and Kona... so I thought it would be fun for her to see something a bit different. You know, like the whole thing is over in just over an hour! (Mom was like REALLY? You swim and bike and run and all done in an hour?? Opposite of Ironman indeed!) Yes. And it is way more exciting for a spectator! Anyway, I told her the distances and she noted that it sounded like a perfect race for a beginner and then made an off the cuff comment about how Scott could do that and I was like YEAH HE COULD and ta-dah. An idea was born.

I wasn't even sure if he would agree to do it, and truth be told, he didn't at first... but then he checked his soccer schedule and sure enough no games this weekend so he sent me a text yesterday and said he was in! Awesome! So I went into town yesterday and got him a race number and a pair of goggles. He rode his old heavy knobby tired mountain bike to work today (~8 miles each way) and said he was going to swim to Flat Island over lunch (~400M each way) so I guess we can't say he didn't train. Lol.

Anyway, I think it will be so much fun to have him out there on Sunday! I will say though, while I hope he has a blast and totally enjoys it, I really hope I am not creating a monster. This house is not actually big enough for 2 triathletes. ;)

Variety In Terrain

I took my race bike to AZ so I could get some training time on it without getting it wet and muddy and nasty dirty. It was actually quite shocking how clean it was when I went to pack it up after riding so much... hardly any dirt on it at all! Refreshing. :) Anyway, I was sort of thinking that I was just going to leave it in it's box for a while and would go back to riding my training bike but then I remembered that I actually have a little race this weekend and it *should* be dry so I went ahead and unpacked the bike tonight.

My mom is here visiting and she watched me assembling my bike and couldn't figure out why I had three.


Are you going to sell one? No.


But you have THREE. Yes. But that one is a road bike. And this is the one I race on. And that is the one I train on.

I'm not sure she got it but it made perfect sense to me! :)

I'm still trying to recover from my two weeks in AZ and seem to be getting better each day. I am finally not looking like a marshmallow. What is that anyway that causes you to swell up like a balloon when you train a lot? Something about ADH I think but I'll admit I don't understand exactly what that's all about. All I know is that we should never weigh ourselves immediately after a big training weekend. Anyway, in good news I have ankles now and even a few veins.

Finally downloaded all my data from my garmin tonight too. It took like an hour! Fun to geek out on all the graphs. There was a good amount of climbing done in both Tucson and Scottsdale... total climbing (riding) ~26,000ft which is a lot for me given that I ride flat most of the time! I think one of the things that has been sort of missing in my training is variety (hello I live on an island) so the different terrain was awesome.

Madera Canyon:

Gates Pass:

Mt Lemmon:

Paradise Valley:

North Scottsdale:

Bartlett Lake:

Fountain Hills/Rio Verde:

Looking at these graphs leaves me feeling even more nostalgic for that awesome riding in AZ!

The Aftermath...

So camp is over and I am back in Hawaii... I got the best hug ever from Moana when she came to get me at the airport yesterday. She is so sweet. Before I left for AZ I kept telling her that I was going away for a little while but that I would come back. Last night before bed she looked at me and said You came back. Indeed. I reminded her that I might go away sometimes but that I would always come back.

What's interesting and what I did not expect (or maybe I just didn't think about it enough?) was how much emotional energy I would spend at camp... and how much I might need to decompress when I got home. But when you're gone for 12 days you actually come home and sort of owe a lot of people a lot of time and energy... but when you just spent all your energy on your athletes it can be fairly tough to manage. I swear all weekend I was 'on'... every training session was more than just a physical test... Training with people all the time (especially when I was in charge and felt responsible) was way more mentally and emotionally draining than simply heading out on my own for a solo session. I was worthless by the time I got home yesterday. Seriously just skipped dinner and curled up in a little ball and went to bed. Luckily Scott totally understood that (he was surprised I was still awake at 7PM). I slept 10 hours last night and woke up today ready to play catch up. :)

Camp was absolutely one of the highlights of my year... totally awesome... so awesome in fact that I am already planning my next one! Though I will tell you, right now I am seriously looking forward to getting back to some of my normal solo training simply to decompress. I'm thinking an easy jog this afternoon is going to start that process!

Scottsdale... Day 3 Smashfest

I don't have a bunch of scenic pictures from our ride today. We were hauling ass for a good bit of it and therefore rather than snapping pictures I was snapping things like, "GET UP THERE!" or "STAY ON MY WHEEL!!"

I do have one shot from today... of some of the athletes fighting over a coke slurpee at the top of 9 mile hill. Perfect.

At dinner tonight we were having a great conversation about how they've all taught themselves that they are capable of so much more than they thought... (mission accomplished! yes!)... We also heard each other's tatoo stories. This has all been so much fun and I am not ready for it to end! One more day tomorrow that consists of a long run and maybe another swim.

I probably won't post tomorrow b/c tomorrow night we are going to par-tay. If Krista has anything to do with it I will be in rare form.

Scottsdale! Day 2 in Pictures...

This morning we drove out to Bartlett Lake to practice open water swimming skills. It was another beautiful Arizona day.

Keith is a freak of nature.

The water was cold for sure (57 maybe?) but the air wasn't too cold and the sun was warm and the athletes were all troopers! We practiced lots of great stuff this morning (or was that 4 days ago??) like how to get around a buoy most efficiently... how to dolphin dive... how to get out of the water faster... how to defend your space in a race... how to draft... etc.

Then we started riding. It was hilly today. I haven't downloaded my data yet but Tracy did and said it was 6000 ft of climbing. Pretty solid.

I had a bit of a moment (ok several moments) today while riding behind these guys/gals while we were all matchy matchy wearing our new kits! I couldn't help myself snapping away with my camera b/c it was such an awesome day and I was just just so freakin' proud of everyone.

Theresa and Tracy...

Krista is so much stronger than she thinks she is...

I think prior to this ride Texas Kate was fairly freaked out about all the climbing but she crushed it and clearly felt pretty good about that. :)

Shevaun and Shane...

I was having a moment watching this...

Check out these awesome empty roads! I'm trying to convince Scott that we should move here. :)

So all in all another fantastic day in the books! I can't believe today was even better than yesterday but there you go. :)

Scottsdale... Day 1!

I'm trying to remember when's the last time I had so much fun training? Maybe just last week I guess... ;)

I'm in Scottsdale right now staying at Krista's house and running my own little training camp here and just am beside myself with how much fun this is!! I'm not sure there's a better place to ride a bike than North Scottsdale in March... and these athletes I have here are meshing so well... it's just awesome.

We did a little meet and greet (ahem, time to drink more coffee) this morning before we took off riding. I knew some people were feeling fairly nervous and it was so nice to be able to say I GET THAT since I just experienced those exact same feelings last weekend... And I am just so psyched to give these guys/gals a similar experience of learning for themselves that they are capable of so much more than they thought they were. :)

It was pretty much like a little Cervelo convention this morning when 5 of us turned up with the same bike.

Turns out we even had shoes in common. Though it's pretty clear which one of us rides most often in the rain. (They were like, um, you can wash those you know...)

Beautiful place to ride... the next 2 days are going to be even more scenic!

The day went like this: Ride, run, hang out in the backyard eating lunch and chatting and laughing, swim, laugh some more. Everyone did awesome today too... big shout out to Krista and Shevaun who swam outside of their skins this afternoon. I instructed Krista (in no uncertain terms- there might have been an f-bomb- I'm serious when it comes to swimming hard) to STAY ON MY FEET and indeed- she was ripping off 300's at a pace faster than her previous fastest all out sprint 100. Good girl. This is what it looks like after you get done swimming like that...

Afterward it was all fun and games as they put Theresa in a swim cap.

Then I raced Matt in a 50 and LOST. I tried but sprinting a 50 is clearly not my thing. ;)

Anyway, now I feel like I need to curl up in a little ball in a corner somewhere for a few hours. Tomorrow is going to be awesome too. We get to climb out of Bartlett Lake on our bikes... ~14 miles of beautiful desert climbing and we'll all be dressed like a team looking pretty snazzy. I'll get lots of photos!

Tuscon Smashfest... Pau!

It's always weird typing on a different keyboard. Anwyay.

I am in Scottsdale at Krista's house this week. Driving in yesterday afternoon I was having all sorts of flashbacks to my days of living here. We are going to go ride our bikes in a few minutes and I can't wait to spin around my old 'hood.

Anyway, the Tucson part of the Arizona Smashfest week is pau (over). It was really awesome in a lot of ways and I came away from it with some super lessons... mostly about how I am capable of more than I thought... which might be the best thing you could learn from a weekend like that.

Sunday we climbed (and descended!) Mt Lemmon and then I ran for an hour and I swear to you that might have been one of my favorite training days of all time. It was kind of cold at the start but I worked fairly hard while climbing so I was okay in just vest and arm warmers and knee warmers...

We had sag with a lot of extra clothes at the top so even though there was snow on the ground up there past 7,000ft I was warm enough and happy enough to not stress it. Jimi's wife was there taking pictures all the way up and she told me she got some good ones so if/when I get those I'll post. I actually didn't take a lot of time to check out the scenery while I was climbing. Pretty much just focused on my power meter and what it was telling me... and tried to ignore the screaming my legs were doing... BUT on the way down I relaxed and cruised and took in all the sights and just had this overwhelming feeling of content.

Oh, the cookies at the top? Ya. They were bigger than my head. I thinik we ate like 6 of them- tried one of every flavor (we shared them community style). I think the butterscotch one may have been my favorite. :) Maik brought out one that was COVERED with a mound of ice cream and whipped cream. I've really never seen anything like it! I stayed away from the ice cream b/c it was not appealing when there was snow on the ground and I was shivering.

Yesterday morning we all met up at a trailhead (Star Pass maybe? I don't really know). It was beautiful (I think? I don't know I didn't really look up... Hillary took pictures so I would think those will go on her blog later?) Super rocky fairly technical trail and we were just jogging but still somehow I managed to catch my foot on a rock and totally face planted into some very rough rocks. Hillary said it was okay because pretty much every time she takes someone new out onto those trails they eat shit so I guess it was like a badge of honor to leave some of my blood in Tucson. After almost 2 hours on those trails we headed out onto the open road where the pace ramped up and before we knew it our long run was turning into a bit of a race and I wanted to try to play... Damie is a rock star and would put in little surges up hills and I would try to match... I was gritting my teeth and was successful for a bit and then at some point the rubber band just snapped and she was gone. Still though, the last 15' or so of that run (straight uphill) were some of the hardest minutes I have ever spent running and I finished and ended up flat on my back in the parking lot next to Dawn who had also pushed herself right through her own glass ceiling.

So there you go. I'm pretty much sold on the concept of training camps at this point... More on overall camp 'lessons' later... :)

Tucson Smashfest Update!

Ok I don't even know where to start here?? First off, I'm on my iPad and don't have pictures so sorry about that- go see Hillary's blog for pictures... She's been snapping plenty! And Damie has some on her blog too so go look there (and sorry I'm too lazy to link those as well- cut me some slack I'm working my tail off and I'm tired! :)

Tucson has been great so far. A bit cold for my liking but I compensate by cranking the heat in my hotel room. It's like 80+ degrees in here so I'm comfortable. I'm borrowing lots of cold weather cycling gear too. This morning Damie said something about how she's going to be wearing the same dirty tights every day. I responded that I would be wearing the same dirty BORROWED tights every day!! Mahalo to Kris who was smart enough to bring an extra pair and gracious enough let me use them all weekend.

So blah blah blah.... Yesterday we rode for a long time and climbed a ridiculous mountain that for which my flat lander gearing on my TT bike was completely inappropriate. Hillary said those last 3 miles of Madera Canyon were the steepest we would ride this weekend which was a bit of a relief... Then of course this morning she reneged that and said that the back of Gates Pass might actually be steeper than Madera Canyon but that it would be ok because it was shorter. So my kneecaps might be ready to pop off but I have a new all time high max power output from this morning just from hoisting my bad self over that hill in my 39/23.

Tomorrow we ride Mt Lemmon which of course I have never done and even though Hillary says I'll be fine in my 23 I'm not sure I believe her? She's crazier than I thought. BUT she is teaching us all that we are capable of way more than we ever thought we were. That's probably the biggest take home from this Smashfest weekend and it's a fabulous lesson.

Today we did the epic 100x100's in the pool. Hillary assigned lanes for everyone and wrote workouts for each lane... Except ours which she said she would make up as we went along, which I took to mean that she was going to wait and see how far off the back I fell prior to randomly assigning intervals for the sets. Prior to getting in I couldnt really tell her my send-off times for SCY because I haven't swam short course in so long I really didn't know? So here's how it went down:

15x100's easy @1:30 straight into 15x100's @1:30 bands only. I actually did just fine on those and even with the bands was getting plenty of rest. I think this gave Hillary some extra confidence in my swimming ability so she dreamed up the next part of the set...

24x100's done like this: 4x (2 @ 1:25, 2 @ 1:20, 2 @ 1:15). So that was pretty much a 2400 straight fartlek swim where I got a little rest sometimes. Turns out 1:15 is a tough interval for me to make even when I'm drafting.

So after that set, 5400 yards in, I asked Hillary of we could maybe not do any more on 1:15. She countered: What if we use paddles? You can do 1:15 with paddles! Then she said how about we do 3x (5 @ 1:25, 5 @ 1:15) with PBB. My turn to counter: How about 3x (6 @ 1:25 and 4 @ 1:15)? She countered again and we came to an agreement...

30 x 100's PBB 2x (6 @ 1:25, 4 @ 1:20, 2 @ 1:15) then 2,2,2 at 1:25/1:20/1:15.
Done. Mind you, Maik was silent through this whole negotiating process and ready to do whatever was decided upon. Short story. I drafted. I made it. And I decided that I am faster and stronger than I thought I was! So that was cool.

Then we did 10 more bands only @1:30 and I swear I am not even exaggerating when I say that was the easiest part of the workout. A least I was getting a full 10" rest after each one. :) Last 6 were just mixed stroke and kicking c/d. Pau! I drafted Hillary and Maik for that whole damn swim and did not get dropped and it was just a huge mental breakthrough for me. Buck up... Check!

Afterward we cheered on everyone else as they were finishing up and then I awarded Damie the first BSC swim cap for that swim- she doubled her longest swim ever today and felt the same confidence boost I did. See Facebook for pictures of the BSC caps!

Anyway, this mama needs to massage her legs and get to sleep. I think tomorrow is like a 5ish hour brick then Monday is a long run 18-20 miles. Smashfest. Love it!!!!!!!

Is It Time To Go To The Desert Yet??

So it pretty much hasn't stopped raining for the last 48 hours which has caused some serious flooding.  They are stand-up paddling in front of the Honolulu Zoo.

 Our island of Oahu is under that yellow/green blob somewhere.

Found this pic from last night on FB too... How pretty, huh? It was an Electric Storm last night! I heard that buildings were shaking in town b/c that lightning was so severe. Mother Nature is truly amazing sometimes.

This morning we were planning on running at the track but of course it is just a complete mud pit so we just ran around a 1/2 mile loop near my house this morning instead. It was cold (and wet) so we warmed up with long sleeve shirts on... but it wasn't that cold so we took them off for the main set and tied them around a light pole... After our 3rd loop we came back to our light pole and found that someone had stolen our wet sweaty running shirts! GAH! Couldn't believe it. And I swear that was one of my very favorite shirts too and I almost didn't wear it this morning b/c I thought it was too nice and I should have worn an older/crappier one but then I thought I'd live large and wear the nice one and see what happened? That's IT. No more nice clothes for me.

Anyway, I will only complain for a second about being cold... yesterday I was sitting here at my computer working and trying to convince myself to go swim but my fingers and toes were numb/frozen and the thought of getting into a pool just wasn't that appealing but guess what? I went. The pool I swim in is not this nice. It does not have lane lines.

Tomorrow I get on a plane and go to the desert where I know I will be cold but I'm guessing I won't be wet.

In an unrelated note, tonight I was putting Moana to bed when she happened to open my top dresser drawer and she pulled out a little pink lacy think with a tag that said Victoria Secret. She had some questions:

"Mama is this your princess dress?"
"Mama do you wear this after dance class?"
"Does daddy pretend to be a prince?"

Scott and I were in tears laughing. Somethinglikethat sweetie.

There's Always Someone Who Is Faster

You know what's the best about being prepared for the worst? (I've said this before) It's such a pleasant surprise when it turns out to not be as bad as you thought. :) And by that, I mean the weather this morning for our 20K TT.

It's been dumping rain here since ~11AM but in good news we were all done by then. Surprisingly the roads were mostly dry and as far as I know everyone stayed upright!

Speaking of staying upright, that was my #1 goal this morning. Last night I was thinking about my goals for this race:
#1. Stay upright.
#2. Get 30' CPT (power)
#3. Win.

Yesterday my stomach was turning with the forecast that said it was going to be howling winds with rain today. When I pressed myself further on why that was, I figured it out... Really it was because my plan had been to race on my race bike (instead of my training/rain bike) but the thought of riding that perfect pretty white bike in the rain just was making me sick so once I decided to just ride my black bike it was all good. :) And then I know I don't push quite as hard when the roads are wet so that was bumming me out too b/c goal #2 was to really test to see how many watts I could push and I was thinking dry roads would be better for that. And goal #3, well, that's pretty much out of my control. That's why it was #3 instead of #1. :)

That's not a smile it's a grimace.

So in good news this morning we had dry roads for warm up and then only one section of rain during the TT... that lasted maybe 5-10'? Must have been an isolated shower because we rode right through it and then it was all dry again. I felt good warming up and during the TT... was watching power and pushing and grunting and everything and at the end I was pleasantly surprised at my avg power. So that was cool! Of course then when I looked at how long it took me to ride the course (32:30) I knew for sure that wasn't going to be enough to win it. 90" slower than last year which was just weird and I have not reconciled that with myself yet. I felt stronger this year and felt like I was riding better and did not feel like I was dying at the end (indeed my power in the last 3' was as high as it was in the first 3') so I don't know. I'd like to blame that on my heavy Powertap wheel but maybe that's a cop-out excuse and I hate excuses so I'll just live with the fact that there is always someone who is faster. And I am thankful there is because how boring would it be if there was no one to chase??

When It Rains, It Pours

So apparently we are in for another wet weekend.

I love Hawaii weather reports. I have lived here 7+ years now and still do not know the difference between scattered showers, isolated showers, and occasional showers. The forecast on Sunday calls for numerous showers, which sounds worse than occasional showers, and doesn't bode well for that 20K TT I'm entered in.

This is what the mountains by my house look like right now though, so I guess I should not complain.

Thursday Bullet Points

~I just spent the last hour emailing back and forth with my two athletes who are in NZ and were getting ready to try to complete an Ironman in the middle of the storm of the century tomorrow (What should I wear? How much less should I drink since it's going to be freezing? Etc) and then after we had it all figured out I got an email update from one of them (and then 10' later the other one) that said it's been postponed by a day and now it's going to be a 70.3. Ok new race plan: "Go balls out the whole time and don't let up til the finish". That was easy. So definitely a bummer that they went all the way to NZ and don't get to do an Ironman but that's the thing about Ironman... be prepared for whatever and be flexible and adapt your plan and when all else fails, cut it in half and rip your legs off in the process.

~This afternoon I was working at my computer when a HUGE bird flew right in the house and then got stuck and couldn't find its way back outside. (Oh the hazards of living in a climate where we keep the doors open much of the time.) So the dog went nuts barking and running around in circles and the bird flipped out and shit all over the hardwood floor and I just kept working. Ho hum. This is like the 7th time a bird has flown into this house (I should learn my lesson and close the screen door I suppose but then the dog couldn't go out.) So when Moana got home this afternoon the bird was still in the house and her reaction was so cute... she was so sad and almost crying b/c she was sure the bird was very very sad and missing her mama and her daddy and her brother and her sister. The story ends with us blocking off all the windows with dark blankets and turning off all the lights and then shooing the bird toward the open door with a broom. Fly to the light, birdie! Fly to the light! Moana was relieved and is convinced another bird is going to fly in tomorrow.

~I rode today with one of my local athletes who is fairly new to cycling. I think it was a very valuable experience for both of us b/c I got to know her as a cyclist so much better and was able to point out a few technique tips to her that made her way more comfortable on her bike. And I should note- she is going to be (already is??) a badass. Most of our ride was just fairly steady but I did a 7' interval where I was riding hard enough to see if she would drop off but turns out she's got some grit. There was no dropping her even at 27+ mph (nice tailwind!). Good girl!

~Speaking of riding with my athletes, I spent some time last night organizing details for some training two weeks from now that I'm going to be doing with 7 of my athletes in Scottsdale, AZ. Several of them I have never even met so this is going to be an awesome experience for all of us in a lot of ways! As I was thinking through all the details I got super psyched. Plus, I used to live in Scottsdale so the rides there are ones I know and cannot wait to go ride again. Scottsdale and the surrounding areas has some awesome riding. Of course Krista organized a party for my final night there where apparently she is going to try to get me as trashed as I plan on getting her. Of course our definitions of 'trashed' are different and mine does not involve martinis. Maybe she'll teach me a thing or two? See? It's a win-win.

~Before that I get to go to Tucson for a 5 day Smashfest Hillary Biscay style. Funny how nervous I am about surviving that. 100x100's on the schedule and Mt Lemmon and a long ass trail run... I probably shouldn't have joked with Hillary about tying my feet together for those 100's. I hope she didn't think I was serious.