ironclm's tri world

January Goals:
* run 50 miles--check
* lose 1.5 kg--pretty close, like 1.3 kg
* ride 200 miles--yeah! almost 344 miles
* swim 15 times--no (only 5x)
* PR at San Diego Half Marathon--cancelled this one
* do four of the five early bird crits (bike races)--check
* read two books--finished one, started another

Numbers for January:
swim: 10,340 yards (this is actually a lot for me)
bike: 344 miles
run: 50 miles
time: 28:22 (includes s/b/r/trainer/weights)

Goals for February:
* run 80 miles and average 4x/week
* ride 400 miles
* swim more consistently, at least 2x/week, if not 3x/week
* maintain workouts with work travel

I woke up this morning in a bad mood for some reason. It would have been so darned easy to lay in bed all day and drink coffee and read books, but I didn't do that. Instead I headed out to ride. I was supposed to ride 85 miles today and thought about doing the local Paradise loop about 3 times which would have been close to that distance. Or, some of the guys were doing another ride and if I figured out where it was, I'd probably meet up with them at some point. Problem is, I had no idea where this route was or how to get through southern Marin County to get there. Well, I'd ridden to Fairfax ONCE, back in 2000 or 2001, so I kinda knew, but not really. My roommate showed me on the map and said there were a couple of big hills once you got out there. So, I was undecided all the way to the bottom of Camino Alto where you either turn for Paradise or go straight to the longer ride. At the last second, I decided to venture into the unknown.

It was a gorgeous day here in Northern California--blue skies, not a cloud anywhere, near 60F, but with a wind coming in from the west and north. Hundreds of cyclists were out today, including a nice Prime Alliance guy who said hi on the big hill. I got to Fairfax with no problem, then started up Sir Francis Drake Blvd. and White's Hill which is 0.9 mile long and steep. For some reason, I had in my head that once I got that hill out of the way, it would be pretty flat and a good aerobar ride. Hell no! Turned onto Nicasio Valley Road and there was ANOTHER long, steep hill! I was really pissed now. And, on the other side was some serious headwind. I got out to the end of NVR and forgot which way to turn. I guessed left and rode on out to Pt. Reyes Station, near the coast. Of course, before I found the stupid town, I made a wrong turn and started heading towards Tomales Bay. That added about 5-6 miles to the total, which was fine in the long run, but irritated me at the time. I got to PRS and saw my friend Melanie. She had a map and showed me where I was (I had no clue--it was the first time I'd ever been to this part of the area.) She said there were a number of ways to return back to SF, but the least steep way of getting back would be to turn around and ride back the way I came. Of course, none of the ways would be flat. She invited me to ride with her and her friend, but I didn't want to hold them back and actually wanted to ride solo and not have to talk to or deal with anyone.

So, that's what I did. All in all, 85 miles of solo riding and about 4,000 feet of climbing, plus lots of wind. I didn't eat/drink enough, but felt good enough at the end of the ride on the flats to hold 20 mph. The hills, well, that's another story. And the guys? Well, I saw them in PRS and yelled at them, but did they stop? Hell no. That fueled my pissed offness for the ride back. I seem to ride better when I'm pissed. I set no speed records, but considering how hard the ride was, I'm fine with the time, but I set no speed records. And, I'm glad I made myself go ride this by myself. I figured I had a lot of cash on me, an ATM card and a credit card, so somehow, someway I could eventually get home if need be. I had my cell phone too, but of course, no service out there.

One weird thing today...when I got home, I had a huge blood blister on the roof of my mouth. Not sure why or what caused it. What I had on the bike was:

3/4 large bottle of Accelerade (yuck)
1 large bottle of blue Gatorade
a couple of squirts of Hammergel
one Powerbar
All the above were while riding. And, I know..not enough.

Only 3 short stops--first one to buy the Gatorade and use the
bathroom (5 minutes).

Second one of about 10 minutes--drank a Coke, ate what was about 4
Fig Newtons and a bag of salted peanuts (craving for salt).

Third one of about 5 minutes to slam down another Coke.

Got home and started to eat a sandwich and drink a Red Bull and felt
something funny on the roof of my mouth. The next thing you know,
blood is gushing out of my mouth and a huge blood blister had popped.
Yuck! Anyone know what causes this?

Got up and ran 1:15 this morning. Most of it in the rain, but it wasn't too cold, though I was stiff the entire time. Oh, to be one of those smooth, effortless runners. Maybe some day.

Now, should I skip the last Early Bird crit on Sunday and run long? Or do the Early Bird? Or, run the Home Depot Half Marathon? It's a bummer that I didn't go run the San Diego Half since there is also the full on the same course and if you are at the less pointy end of the speed spectrum, then there are still lots of people on the course. Not so at HD Half. Yes, things like this stress me out. Still.

Yes, I'm going to borrow them from Tim Goodman, TV writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. You put on your cranky pants when things and life irritate you and you can then vent. Mine have been on this week. After a great week of training last week, I had to fly down to Orange County Sunday night, then sit in an audit all day long Monday, then fly home Monday night. That made for a long day. I did get a short treadmill run in before work Monday, but got home late Monday night, so slept in Tuesday. Tuesday was really, really busy at work and I was there until around 9PM. Tuesday became a rest day.

Wednesday I thought about getting up and running long, but ended up only going out for about 30 minutes. I was stiff (probably from sitting too much on Monday) and tried to call to get an appointment with Dr. Hal. Nuts! He's out until next week. Still busy at work on Wednesday, but left in time to get home to watch part of "The Apprentice" (that stupid show is addicting) and "The Bachelorette." (My God! What the heck was she thinking for keeping dorky blabbermouth guy??? Just go for Ian the hottie and be done with it.) I digress. But if anyone ever wanted to do "The Bachelorette...Iroman Style", I know two beautiful, funny, smart tri gals who are available.

Today was supposed to be long run day, but I got up and the cranky pants were still on and getting tighter. So instead of running, I goofed around, doing stuff around the house that I'd been putting off and didn't get to work until 10:30. No run. Tonight I made myself go to the pool and swim. Once I got there and got started, I got into it and swam an hour non-stop. I was the only one in the pool, it was dark and quiet and outdoors and was really pretty nice. I did 60 laps, doing the alphabet twice, plus 8. The alphabet is an easy way for me to keep track of the number of laps (not that I'm anal and would stress to not write down the correct workout). The first time through was a French word for each letter. X was hard. And, I need to work on my French vocabulary. The second time through was cycling words and people. G is always George and H is always Hincapie. By the time I finished, the cranky pants were gone. Melted away in the water. I sat in the steam room a bit, then showered and came home. A great way to end the day.

And a great week it was! Volume was 12 hours 30 minutes, the most in a long time. 135.5 miles on the bike and a couple of trainer rides. A good long run. No swimming--my bad, but mostly due to my schedule this week.

I wasn't sure how my legs would feel today after the long ride yesterday, so my plan for the crit was to do the mentoring, then see how I felt in the race. If my legs started to blow up, I'd drop since I don't want to fry myself just when Ironman training is getting going. The mentoring session was good, then four of us Hypercats went and did a warm up ride. Felt pretty good. The weather was cold and there was a brisk wind, but it was sunny, so that is always nice.

We lined up to start the race and I was in the first row. The field was a lot smaller this week, so they didn't have to split the field and only a few juniors, mostly at the older end of the junior age range. We took off and I rode mid-pack for a few laps. On one lap, I was on the outside and we hit the last turn and came along where the start/finish straight was. This stretch really had a good headwind and the pack dramatically slowed down. I kept my same speed along the outside and suddenly, I was off the front! That was pretty fun as it was right where all my non-racing teammates were and they were shouting. Nikki yelled to move right and she caught my wheel and as we came out of the next curve, I moved back in the pack to let someone else do the work. After 25 minutes, my legs were starting to go, so I dropped. It was a good day's work and didn't leave me fried. I'm quite happy with the week.

My longest ride (and biggest volume week) since the Ultramax race in September. And I feel great!

I was sitting in North Beach at dinner last night and my friend says to look outside as it was raining. Nuts! No rain please, as I was riding today and really looking forward to it. Got home and fell asleep and it was still raining. Got up this morning and the rain had quit, but it was pretty foggy. Headed out to Contra Costa County with clubmate Aussie Mick and we got to the meeting place and it seems everyone else had bailed due to the weather. It was chilly (low 50sF), really foggy, but no wind and the streets were wet. We got ready and headed out. In the first few miles....a flat! Stopped and changed it and took off again. Let's hope we got that out of the way early.

We started in Alamo and rode south through Danville and turned east onto Sycamore Valley Road and headed out to Livermore. Even though there is traffic along here, the lanes are quite wide and there are big, wide bike lanes, so it's really nice riding. The first 25 miles are pretty flat, with a few rollers, but once you get out to Livermore, you can head east, up over the Altamont Pass. Carroll Road doesn't look that steep....until you are on it. You ride alongside the freeway and up, crossing over Hwy. 580, out where the wind turbines are. Out there, there is no traffic on the roads--lots of birds singing and cattle, horses and sheep.

We came down the backside of Patterson Pass Road and into the south part of Livermore. The great thing about this ride is you can spend a lot of time in the aerobars and a lot of time riding two abreast, so we had lots of time to chat. Mick was a great riding partner. After our tour through Livermore, it was into Pleasanton and then the trip back up San Ramon Valley Road to the car. This ride seems pretty flat, but there are a few hills and some rollers and generally, wind. We were within about 5 miles of the car and we were down in the aerobars riding about 20 mph and one of the Healthnet pro riders comes by us like we were on cruiser bikes. We caught up to him at the stoplight, so when he took off, we were right with him, about 6 feet off his wheel. We decided, what the heck, we'll try to keep up with him as we weren't that far from the car, so we were cruising along at about 25 mph. He was still riding easy, but I was working hard. About a mile of that and we let him go. We got back to the car and the sun came out. We ended the ride with burgers in Walnut Creek. Man, did that hit the spot.

71 miles; avg. speed 14.8 mph
I'm pretty pleased with this as I'm just building up my bike miles and this is the same average speed that I was riding this course back a few weeks before my September ironman. I'm at 11 hours for the week, which is the highest volume since, well....the September ironman.

Tomorrow...Early Bird mentoring and crit.

Well, my friend and I had a little heart-to-heart talk last night. Mostly he talked, I listened. He said it's time to decide...do I really want to do CaliMan (May 22) or not? If so, I have to FOCUS on ironman training, ramp up the volume, and not do bike racing, track bike racing, goofing around, etc., etc., etc. for the next four months. He's right, I am much too easily distracted and want to try everything. But yes, I've decided I DO want to race CaliMan. So, after the last two early bird crits, no bike racing (or the women's track series) for me until later this summer.

Since it's the 3-day holiday weekend, I rode 3.5 hours on Saturday and 3.5 hours again today. I rode about an hour and a half yesterday at the mentoring and crit and I did get an hour straight swim in later in the day. So, it's been a good weekend....about 9.5 hours over the three days.

The ride I did today was a solo ride and it was a little cold and drizzly when I started out. The drizzle stopped, but it stayed cold and cloudy the entire ride. I wouldn't have gone out on a day like that last year, so that's a big deal for me.

Today was Early Bird crit #3. I was feeling a little tired after my ride yesterday, so my goal was to just sit in and get in a good workout and see what they talked about in the mentoring. I thought that since it was a holiday, the field would be a little smaller. No...we had a field of 80(!) in the women's/juniors race. The mentoring went fine (rotating pacelines) and I felt pretty good. Warmed up with my team and then I lined up in the second row to the left. We took off in a flat balls-out sprint (stupid thing to do) but slowed going into the first turn. As we took the turn, I thought I heard something behind me but didn't think about it as we were sprinting out of the corner. We got to the third turn and the mentors were saying, "slow down". I was thinking, "Good! They've realized we are going at way too fast a speed." We got around to the start/finish and they were neutralizing the field, then stopping us. They said there had been a crash on turn one, so they sent us to the infield (parking lot) to ride around. After about ten minutes, someone said it was one of the juniors who had crashed, but then someone else said, "Where is Renee?" (one of our Hypercat teammates). We had about 12 teammates there and had accounted for everyone but Renee. One of my teammate shouted out that it was Renee was in the crash so we rode over to Coach Phil to see what he knew. He was an eye witness, since he'd been riding as a mentor in the race and it happened right in front of him. It seems that one of the (squirrely) juniors either slammed on his brakes, or did something else he wasn't supposed to do and took out himself and another rider. Renee was right behind them and couldn't much do anything but go right into them and did an endo. She is spending the night in the hospital with a concussion and busted clavicle. The junior kid was unconscious. My roommate got an email tonight saying it was thought that he had broken his arm. Both of them went off in ambulances. About 20 minutes after the crash, they restarted us, though in two groups this time. I did two laps and my legs were tired from yesterday and I mentally wasn't into it, so dropped out and went and rode a few miles on the road to shake my legs out. They will be splitting the field in the future.

Tonight I went and swam 2,500 meters in the nice outdoor 50-meter pool. I'm still slow, but I have a nice stroke, so I hear.

The week:
s: 4,900 yds
b: 68 miles
r: 7.5 miles
hours: 8:31

Volume over the past three weeks: 4:36, 5:16, 8:31 hours
Next week will be another bump up.

I headed up to ride in Sonoma County today, meeting my buddy Paul in Windsor. Thought Kona Dave might make it too, but he ended up oversleeping. Paul and I headed out back along miles 50-40 of the Vineman course (in the reverse direction), up over Chalk Hill and then at the end of Chalk Hill Road, we turned east onto Hwy. 128 and rode almost over to Calistoga. The section along 128 is through a canyon, a little bit uphill (false flats) going east. We stopped at Ida Clayton to down a Power Bar and some drink and we noted that we'd started out in sunshine (but chilly--in the 40s), but now it had clouded up. And, we mentioned the fact that we had really only see a couple of cyclists, not the usual high numbers you usually see. Turned around and headed back, me in front down on the aero bars and doing some high cadence/big ring time trialing. It was awesome--not breathing hard (Zone 1.5, OK, maybe low 2, but not even near AT), but motoring along, about 22-23 mph. We passed a team out for a ride, going the other way, but couldn't tell who they were. We turned back onto Chalk Hill Road, went up Chalk Hill the race direction and back to the cars. Pulled into the parking lot with 36 miles in the bank. Paul was finished for the day, so he headed home and I rode another hour solo. I ended up with 50 miles and 3.5 hours. I wouldn't have done that last year. I'd have put the bike in the truck and finished up too.

We ended up seeing another big group of riders on Chalk Hill Road and then I saw quite a few folks out riding solo when I did my solo hour. Later I headed over to Paul's house to visit with Toni and the kids, and we ate lunch and Paul cleaned my bike. Sweet and THANKS!

Tonight it's legs up, fuel up and get ready for the crit tomorrow.

January Goals
A couple of goals for January have been revised.

* run 100 miles -- REVISE to half that
* PR at San Diego Half Marathon -- cancel that one since I'm not heading down to San Diego this weekend. I'll go out and run 13.1 on my own, just as a benchmark. I could do the Home Depot Half Marathon at the end of the month, but it's also the last Early Bird Crit so we know which one I'd prefer to do.

Long weekend plans.....tonight an Ironman friend is flying in to town and I'm picking him up at the airport and we'll go to dinner. He's crashing at my house tonight, then tomorrow he and a bunch of folks are leaving for the annual San Francisco to San Diego ride. I hope they get good weather! Saturday I'm riding with my buddy Paul up in the wine country. Sunday is the the crit, then maybe I'll swim in the evening. Monday--run and then kick back.

I got the lecture Sunday....it's time to quit fooling around and beging ramping up the IRONMAN training. Yes, I know. May 22nd will be here sooner than I think and I do have some time goals I want to meet. But, my first goal is to just finish the damned race.

Last week:
Swim: 2,800 yds (hey, I swam twice without being forced..and even liked it!)
Bike: 30 miles (most of it very high intensity...and loved it)
Run: 12 miles (this is where I need to focus and get back to the consistency)
Time: 5:12

Fun time is over and it's time to get to work.

Today was the second Early Bird Crit. I wasn't as nervous as I knew what to expect and, having done a little thinking about my motivation in various areas, so I wasn't so stressed about maybe getting spit out the back and being dropped. My goal--don't crash, don't get dropped off the main group unlike last week, practice the stuff they would tell us in the mentoring session.

Our team, Hypercat Racing (http://www.hypercatracing.com/), had 7 or 8 women out there today. We are anxiously awaiting our jerseys so we can keep track of each other during the race. They had told us last week that the first session is usually the biggest, then the numbers drop off. Well not this time! There were 46 last week and 64 this week! Add in the juniors and a handful of women 3s and you have a big field.

We worked on cornering during the mentoring session and that's something I can do fairly well. There were a lot of people who can't (or are afraid), slowing way down to go into a turn. Errr! After the rookie men's race, we went to line up, but they said, "Take a lap and then line up". Maybe to give everyone an equal chance at the line up? I was in the third row this time instead of fourth or fifth, but still ended up pretty far back when we got going. We took off at a pretty good pace and this time, I didn't get spit out the back! I was in the back half of the main group and with about 5 laps to go, was able to work up to the front, towing teammate Nikki up. Then, I got caught up in a turn and lost about 20 places. On the last lap, I went to the inside and was able to move past a bunch of people and just missed out on the mass sprint (like 25 people) at the finish, but I did pass 3 or 4 people in the last 100 meters and held someone off at the line. I ended up 39th out of 64, so percentage-wise, I'm improving. And, Nikki WON!! Two weeks and two first places for the Hypercats--a bunch of triathletes!!!

There were two crashes today, both minor. I also had a junior rider (the squirrely kid from last week) try to force his way between me and another woman. Luckily, neither of us women were freaked out by it and the kid ping ponged back and forth between us until we could go clear. A mentor told him to cut it out. I wanted to tell him, if anyone was going down, it would be him. Later, a couple of the mentors came over and told us we did great, which is nice. The people riding off the front all day got yelled at by the mentors for not taking the corners correctly which caused lots of breaking and bitching in the field.

Last week's average speed: 19.3 mph
Today's average speed: 21.9 mph

It was a blast!

I don't have a coach per se, but rather someone who tries to keep me on track, gives me advice on my training and tries to rein me in when I get too scattered. That is a big job and I thank him for that. I've been tasked with asking myself what my motivation is to do Ironman (and specifically, CaliMan on May 22nd). Thinking about that raises even more questions, all of which I am mulling over. But I did have some thoughts about swim, bike and run.

Swim: I actually don't mind swimming once I get going. If I had a 25 meter pool in my back yard, I'd probably get up and swim every morning. What is a pain (and why I put it off) is the getting to the pool, getting ready, dealing with other people in the pool, etc. If I go swim 30 minutes at the club I belong to (the location which is closest to my work), it's 30 minutes to walk there and change, 30 minutes to swim and at least 45 minutes (more like an hour) to sit in the steam room, shower, change and walk back to work. That is two hours out of the day. Drive there you say? That would take longer probably (and cost a fortune with downtown parking). This isn't the suburbs. I did swim last night in the dark which was nice. And I don't mind the Sunday evening swims we do down the peninsula, but I'm probably not going to drive down there myself. I'm rather liking swimming laps doing my "alphabet swims"--each lap is a letter of the alphabet so I can keep track of how many laps I do (yes, I'm anal, Type A). Usually it's cycling (A is for Armstrong, B is Bianchi, etc.) Sometimes it's triathlon. Last night was cities. Anyone know any city that starts with X? ha I don't really like Masters' swimming because I don't like swimming with a bunch of other people and being all structured. Why? Who knows. Maybe I got burned out swimming AAU as a kid and in high school.

Bike: I LOVE to ride my bike!! What I don't like is to be too structured. I love to ride with my buddy Paul up in Santa Rosa. We'll head out and either talk or not talk. Doesn't matter. We'll stop at the Dry Creek Store or Jimtown for a snack. We'll be Lance and Greg and do some sprints along the way. It's all fun. I also really liked racing the crit last weekend. It was hard, but way cool at the same time, though I can see my (ultra) competitive urges coming out right away and really strong. I really want to do some track riding and want to race a time trial sometime this year.

Run: Ah, the run. I still have the "you know you're not a runner" loop going through my head even though I've gotten faster and am running better. It's not fun, I feel like I plod along and that the fast, smooth runners go by thinking, "What does she think she's doing running". And running WITH people totally stresses me out since I'm so slow. The question is, how to get over this mentality?

Like I said, many more questions than answers. But let me ask you....what is YOUR motivation?

The first quarter of the year is usually my busiest at work and this year will be no different. I sketched out my schedule, including travel, and it's not pretty. Probably two East coast trips, a probable trip to Houston and then three Southern California trips. Keeping up with the training will require diligence. Forget stuff like laundry (wash & fold is a god-send) and house cleaning! And, if I'm at work in the evening at 7PM, they feed me! Oh well, better to be employed than not. Though I see some early training mornings in my future. And the best thing about the travel is that I know triathletes in every city I'm traveling too, so hopefully I can hook up with friends for a workout, or at the least a beer.

I did get away in the afternoon yesterday to swim. I did 1,400 yards under a cool, cloudy sky, but the water was a nice 80F. That was followed by some time in the steam room. What a great way to spend a (late and long) lunch break. Last night it was spin class and that was a good workout. Tonight I think it will be to bed early, if I ever get out of the office.

Running the San Diego Half Marathon has been dropped from the plans. Instead, I'll run long that Saturday and do the crit on the Sunday. I may do the Home Depot Half Marathon here in San Francisco on February 1st. We'll see.

"I become a happier man each time I suffer."___Lance Armstong

Well, if that's the case, I'm danged happy today! I've talked about racing the bike for two years now so it was time to put up or shut up. Here in NorCal, there is an Early Bird Crit series, with mentoring, followed by some racing, with the mentors riding alongside during the race. I had planned to ride with a women's team last year and even did some training with them, then my racing year fell apart, the surgery, etc. etc. and I never did bike race. I thought about riding with the same team this year, but for some reason, never did commit, then in the late fall, a couple of people I know were putting together a team, men and women, focusing on beginning racers. I knew and liked the coaches and would know a lot of the people who were going to be on the team, so this was perfect! Sign me up.

It was nice and sunny, but very cold this morning (40s) as I headed over to Fremont. I got there, got signed up ($10 and DAY OF REGISTRATION!--unheard of for triathletes). Got my number, got the bike ready, hit the bathrooms and then it was time for the mentoring. First they went over things, talking on the microphone with the mentors showing us with the bikes, then finally, they split us into groups of about 10 and we did a little paceline riding, each group with two mentors. The group I was with was doing fine.....until the mentor told us to speed it up (from about 13 mph to 18 mph). I was in the front of the group and we went around a corner and....the sounds of a crash. "Keep going, just slow down", was the call. Not sure what happened, but I'm glad I was in the front. We finished up the mentoring session, then it was time for the men Cat. 5 (less than 5 races) to race. There were lots of them and they had a number of crashes going on. After the 50 minutes, it was time for the women and juniors to line up.

Well, the Hypercats had at least 10 women racing, all but 2 of us were virgin bike racers. The other big team had at least 15-20. I think the women's 4 field (we start as Cat. 4s, not 5s) had 46 or so total. I ended up about 5 rows back....NOT a good place to be as things started out fast and got strung out pretty quickly. And, one junior had a bike that was bigger than he was and he was all over the place. No one wanted to take his wheel at all.

When they announced 5 laps to go, I was so happy I was almost giddy. I figured that I could suck it up and make 5 more laps. With two laps to go, I was still pretty far back, but decided I would try to move up on the inside some, if I could. The folks further back were taking the corners wide and I was able to pass a few people. I also tried to sprint the last couple of hundred yards and passed two more gals at the end. I crossed the finish line and thought....I AM A BIKE RACER!!!!! Damn, that is hard work!

We rode about 50 minutes averaging almost 20 mph. No crashes in the race and I was 29th out of about 46. Lesson #1--don't line up more than a couple of rows back! Lesson #2--don't eat a PowerBar within an hour of racing. The mentor guy told me afterwards that I did great, and did a good job of moving up at the end. Our coach WON the race and another teammate was 3rd. I definitely need more miles in my legs (very little riding in December) and need to learn how to surge when needed. But the most important thing about today--IT WAS FUN!!! I'll definitely be back.

I've talked about racing the bike for two years now so it's time to put up or shut up. Tomorrow I'm going to do the first local early bird crit. It's a series of four Sundays, each Sunday a training session with mentors riding along during the training, then the same day you actually race a criterium. It's every Sunday in January and a good way to get into bike racing. There should be quite a few from the Hypercats Racing Team (my team) joining in the fun and some tri club folks coming to watch. I have my stuff laid out and partially packed up and the bike cleaned, and I'm ready (I think). Though, I'm just a little bit nervous about tomorrow. Like I told Sarah (my roadie roommate--Cat. 3!), it's not that I'm a control freak or anything (hahahaha), but I don't like not knowing exactly what will be going on. At least with triathlon, I know how it works. It WILL be fun.

After sleeping in today, I finally got out and did an easy 3 mile run about noon, so that's 12 miles for 2004 so far. It was a beautiful sunny day here, but really cold. My legs are kind of stiff and sore so I think it will be early to bed.

Ran three miles this morning in the rain. Legs were a little tight and I'm paying for slacking off the second half of December. Ah, who am I kidding...I slacked off most of December. Maintaining consistency is definitely something to work on this year. But, I'm 9 miles further down the road on the way to my running 100 miles in January goal.

Tonight....the Fiesta Bowl. GO K-STATE! My alma mater and the university I wanted to go to even as a little girl. And now, 10 straight bowl games! I still smile when I think back on that first bowl game in 1982....the first in the history of the university. Man, was that a great time! I was a student athletic trainer at the time and everyone got to fly down to Shreveport, Louisiana on the charter flights and I remember that we spent all our per diem money on beer. There was one bar for the K-Staters and one bar for the Wisconsin players/fans, and we were out every night. That was one fun week! Even the torrential rains the day and night of the game couldn't make us down. And even though we lost the game, we were just so damned happy to be there, it didn't matter. Winning the bowl games now matters.

Kansas State Bowl History


All-time: 6-5

Season Bowl Score
2003 Fiesta Kansas State v. Ohio State
2002 Holiday Kansas State 34, Arizona State 27
2001 Insight Syracuse 26, Kansas State 3
2000 Cotton Kansas State 35, Tennessee 21
1999 Holiday Kansas State 24, Washington 20
1998 Alamo Purdue 37, Kansas State 34
1997 Fiesta Kansas State 35, Syracuse 18
1996 Cotton Brigham Young 19, Kansas State 15
1995 Holiday Kansas State 54, Colorado State 21
1994 Aloha Boston College 12, Kansas State 7
1993 Copper Kansas State 52, Wyoming 17
1982 Independence Wisconsin 14, Kansas State 3

I had an early evening last night since I've been fighting off a cold or something. I woke up this morning to torrential downpours and high winds and we seriously thought about starting work on the ark. Sent out some emails, talked to friends and family on the telephone, read the paper, drank two pots of coffee (they are small pots) and finally a little after noon the rains quit (but not the wind), so I headed out. I ran 6 miles out and back, along the waterfront, but boy, was it slow going into a stiff headwind along Marina Green and Chrissy Field, but it was nice coming back. There were some people out running and a couple of cyclists, but not the usual numbers. I followed the run up with 30 minutes on the bike trainer and some stretching, while watching (again) Ironman Hawaii 2003. I am still amazed at how Tim DeBoom was running right up to the end, in awe of how strong Peter Reid looked all day and so happy for Marc Herremanns to finish. What a great start to the NEW YEAR!

Food Note: It's an old southern and midwestern tradition to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day, so I threw together this tasty (and healthy!) dish. It's based on a receipe that was in today's San Francisco Chronicle, in the wine section. It will go good with the bottle of Kendall Jackson Pinot Noir that we opened last night.

THE BLACK-EYED/LENTIL GOOD LUCK STEW
Saute some onion and garlic in olive oil.
Add the following:
one can black-eyed peas
a couple of handfuls of dried lentils
a can of chopped tomatoes
some shredded Swiss chard or spinach or whatever greens you want
two cans water
a chicken bouillon cube
one potato, chopped into cubes
one carrot, cut up
one bay leaf
a couple of shakes of thyme
a couple of shakes of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
Stir all to mix and let heat over low heat (about an hour?) until the lentils and veggies are cooked.
Take off heat and stir in a couple of shakes of Tabasco (depending on your heat preference).

Would go good with rice or a nice dark rye bread. And the wine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!