New shoes!

I've had trouble with my feet since, well, since I've had feet. I've got very narrow heels, high arches, and a wide forefoot so it's very, very rare that I get a properly fitting shoe on the first try. I normally have to take shoes back to the running store at least three times - it would be fine if the shoe companies didn't keep changing the damn things, but each time I go into the store, I have to start from scratch ("Oh, they don't make that model anymore? Well, what's similar?"), so I'm not very popular with some of the nice salespeople at the store near me. Apparently I'm high-maintenance, which I guess anyone could have guessed.

So a month or so ago, I took advantage of a combination of a Groupon and a wicked sale at a shoe store to pick up a pair of Sketchers Go Runs.

I initially grabbed them off the shelf because I really liked the deep turquoise color (which, of course, has been discontinued but they did keep that horrible lime green. WTF, Sketchers?), and when I tried them on they were very comfortable in the shoe store so I figured the worst that could happen was I wouldn't really like them and I'd be out a few bucks but could still wear them just to walk around - no returns on sale shoes at those warehouse stores.

I've gotten a few runs on them, and there are things I like about them and things I don't like about them.

I'm a mid-strike runner, so the padding on the center of the foot is perfect for me. They also don't irritate the neuroma in my right foot the way my Newtons do. They've got a slight heel drop, which is much more comfortable for my Achilles tendons (which still have a tendency to stiffen up).

But - for runs of much longer than about three miles, they just don't offer enough support. Saturday, I did my long run (about 10 miles) in them and the balls of my feet and knees hurt for about three days.

I think I'm going to stick with them for the shorter runs, and wear the Newtons for the longer runs. The Newtons have much more support, but they irritate the hell of of that neuroma, and I can't seem to resolve it with lacing. Oh, well.

This weekend is the dreaded "Carmageddon" - the 405 freeway will be closed and in a display of stunningly poor timing, the Los Angeles Triathlon is Sunday. I'm not participating, but have a friend who's doing it, so I may bike down and see them off.

But I'm not driving!

I feel so left out!

We've had two smallish (4+) earthquakes here in Los Angeles in the past 24 hours, and I didn't feel either of them.

I don't mind earthquakes (although I prefer them to not destroy the city like the 1994 quake did). I guess I'm just kind of used to them, but this many so quickly makes a bit nervous that we might have a big one - there's some thought that hot weather we're currently having brings on quakes. The 'Shake and Bake' effect, if you will.

I'm going to stock up on my emergency water, just in case, and then I'm taking the bike to the beach and staying there until it cools off! Like many folks who live near the beach, I don't have air conditioning so huddling in my living room watching Netflix isn't an option.

The advantage of riding the bike to the beach, is, of course, that I don't have to pay for parking. The disadvantage is riding home all sandy because I can never really get it all off in those beach showers, but it's better than sitting at home, slowly roasting.

Food, drink, and non-biking stuff

I'm now contributing at the TJays Yay or Nay blog - a place to write about everyone's favorite grocery store, Trader Joe's.

Come on over and watch me wax poetic about paprika! 

Back at it!

After Vineman, I decided to give the working out a bit of a rest. I didn't bike (except to ride the commuter to yoga class), I didn't run and although I still went to swim, I didn't put forth much effort in the pool.

I also ate just about anything I could shove in my face.

It was a lovely vacation, but it must come to an end. I'm racing the Malibu tri in September, the Santa Monica 5000 ( a 10k), in October, and then the Los Angeles Half Marathon in January.

All events are considerably closer to my house than Northern California!

I'm looking forward to seeing how I can do on just the half marathon (with no swim or bike beforehand!), also this gives me a training goal which will see me through the normally fatty-food filled holiday season ("No pie for me, thanks. I've got a race in three weeks").

My run program officially started yesterday, and I'm really shocked at how much fitness I've lost in two weeks. Or maybe I'm not. There's been a lot of butter.

It'll come back - I'm just doing the sprint at Malibu, and the half marathon is five months away. 

Sometimes the Mountain Wins

When I had my Solvang-related broken spoke fixed, the bike shop guy looked at my wheels, shook his head and said "Your wheels are really old, and you're probably going to need new ones pretty soon."

They then warned me that if a spoke broke again it would be time for new wheels. I hoped and prayed that the old ones would hold.

Saturday was my last long ride before Vineman, and sure enough, on mile 40, the back wheel popped a spoke and the back tire started coming apart - you know, just for good measure.

Of course, I'm also cash poor at the moment. How could this not happen when I'm sort of funds? Thanks, Murphy's Law. Thanks a lot.

So I slunk back into the bike shop, admitted I'd been a fool to not buy wheels when they told me I needed them and the sales guy cheerfully showed me a really sick pair of Reynolds carbon race wheels - such a deal! Normally $1200, now marked down to $850!

Except I don't have $850 right now. Can't beg, borrow or steal it, either.

I asked to see something more within my budget range, and they went in the back and came out with a pair of Shimano A500 wheels that were $200. Still painful, but manageable.

Of course, there goes my plan to have a really nice lunch and wine while in Napa Valley (I'll be on a PBJ that I brought from home diet), but at least I've got new wheels.

I just wish they hadn't shown me the Reynolds wheels first. Makes the ones they sold me look super cheap.

On the bright side, at least it happened here and not on course at Vineman!

It was a beautiful day to ride - enjoy some photos:

Looking inland at Malibu

Ah, ocean. 

Latigo Canyon Road 

View from Latigo, about two miles up the hill. I didn't go all the way to the top. 

If only...

This afternoon, I spent a few hours bartending at a wedding which took place at an incredible house high in the hills above Malibu. The wedding and reception were wonderful and filled with very nice, sweet people who I wish nothing but the best.

Near the end of the party, I wandered into the master bath and took this:

That would be a whirlpool tub with a view of the amazing sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

What I really wanted to do tonight was sit in that tub, filled with bubbles and getting a water jet massage while I watched the last of the sunlight fade over the ocean.

However, what I did was drive back to my tiny apartment with a tub I can't actually stretch out in and have a glass of wine.

Someday I'll have the 3.3 mil it would take to buy this view.

If only that damned lottery would come through for me.

I'm so glad I drove my car today

I've hit that mid-training cycle slump where I hurt, I'm tired, nothing's funny any more and I can't sleep. Small slights become worthy of a three generation long blood feud, and even worse, I've stopped caring about puppies and kittens. And rainbows.

Fuck 'em all.

So I used a Groupon for a massage - usually these can be a waste of time at best, but lucky for me, the awesome masseur was a hiker and really knew where to put the pressure to get all the gunk out of my muscles.


I didn't even consider riding my bike the 7 miles to the massage place. Well, okay, I did, but dismissed the idea as silly as I'd be undoing any good of the massage right away.

One has a much different perception of traffic when one hasn't driven for almost three weeks. Sitting in gridlock with the A/C running, listening to music, not having to dodge doors and road debris. Awesome.

I got to the massage place, and met the masseur. We talked for a few minutes about where I hurt, and he got to work. 

He used a lot of pressure and it hurt like hell while he was doing it, but I feel really great now. Even the glute that's been sort of sore for a few weeks feels fine, and the Achilles tendon's finally stopped bothering me, although I don't think I can chalk that up to the massage.

I feel so good right now I'm not even dreading the hill repeats on the bike tomorrow.

I'm so glad I didn't drive my car today

Lately, I've been on the early shift, which means I'm getting off  work around 3 pm.
This is great as I've got swim practice from 5:30 to 6:30, so the plan today was to ride the bike to work, then come home, shove the gym stuff into the panniers and head out.

It's 6 miles to the gym (downhill there, uphill back), and when I left work the wind was blowing so I almost talked myself out of taking the bike.

"Oh, it's windy. I'll be hurting coming back, and I have to run tomorrow morning."

It's close enough to summer that the trip home is in the daylight (not that riding in the dark ever stopped me, but it does make a handy excuse), so eventually I won (or lost, depending on how you look at it) the argument with myself and rode the bike to the gym.

I'm so very glad I didn't chicken out and take the car.

The wind was dying down a bit as I headed out, so it certainly wasn't unmanageable and I had a lovely ride under the blue spring sky (the sky in LA is normally sort of a taupe color - the winds blow all the smog out) down to the gym, where I had a wonderful swim with the new coach.

Then, I sat in the steam room, hit the showers and headed back home.

The ride home was just before sunset, so the sky was turning that nice orange color, and the mockingbirds were starting to sing - I love mockingbirds when they're not imitating car alarms outside my bedroom window at 3 am - and these were singing their hearts out (or warning other birds away from the tree. It's all good), treating me to a car alarm-free tune.

I had enough of a tailwind that I didn't even notice the gentle hill, and got home just as the sun set.

Just think what I would have missed had I driven. 

A very pleasant surprise.

Since the run has been my weak event, well, since forever, this season I've really been focusing on running.

I've been using the Adidas MiCoach App - set to half-marathon - for my run training instead of the standard 70.3 triathlon training plan.  I'm also doing a run-centric weight plan from the same website.

So far, it's been a good choice, as my run has improved greatly, but unfortunately it's come at the expense of the bike. Somethings gotta give, right?

I've not been getting in the bike workouts that I should, so today I went into work early with the idea of leaving early and getting in a bike this afternoon.

Despite leaden afternoon skies, I headed out to do a few hill repeats.

To my utter astonishment, not only have I not lost any bike fitness at all, but I'm actually going faster and stronger on the hills than usual.

I don't know if it's the run or the weights or the break.

I'm fatiguing a bit sooner - I was beat to shit three repeats in instead of four, which is what I can normally handle, but I'll chalk that up to not having been on the bike consistently in six weeks.

I'm very happy right now!

The need to feed an addiction

I hate it when I get addicted to a product, and all of a sudden it's gone. It happens more often with bras (I'm hard to fit) and underpants that won't ride up, but this time, it's happened with sunscreen.

I've got very sensitive skin that's prone to burning (curse my Irish ancestors), so many of the sunblocks either don't work well enough or make me break out.

Neither is good, of course.

So when I found Scape, I was happy. They made an SPF 50 which didn't run into my eyes, didn't wear off and didn't make my skin break out.

Except that I'm out and I've had a horrible time finding it.

I checked all the usual places, and no one had it, but at Tri-Lab, they told me that the company  has simply stopped responding to vendors. They've been ignoring re-order requests and aren't returning phone calls.

Supposedly this has been going on for two months, and the assumption is that the company is out of business.

Dammit.

What the hell am I supposed to do now? The other sunblocks on the market either stink like death, don't work, make me break out, or cost so much I can't afford to use them.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Bicycle Christmas!

Twice a year, the city of Los Angeles sponsors CicLAvia, which closes streets downtown to cars and lets the cyclists, runners, roller bladers, etc.. take over the streets.

It was conceived as a way to force Angelenos to interact with each other and think about our streets as a public, shared space, and it's become so wildly popular that it's starting to become a victim of it's own success, but despite the crowds, it was a wonderful way to cruise downtown. This event always leaves me with a huge smile on my face.

Double Dutch in the street.

Pinata district. Yes, this is a real thing.

Fairy wings, and a sweet Xtracycle.

Steel drums. Gave the intersection a Caribbean feel.

Car-Free streets! Yay!

Traffic jam

4th St. Bridge, downtown, closed to car traffic.

The next event is in October, and I wish it was sooner. I always have such a good time!

Starting over

Today was my first day back on the road bike since Solvang. I've taken a few trips on the commuter, but nothing resembling actual training - like keeping a minimum cadence or speed or paying attention to form.

Since I'm going to be working long hours for the next few days, I decided to do a brick today - 2 hours of hill repeats on the bike, followed by a slowish run (out of the water, yay!).

Admittedly, the hill I did was a very gentle hill, maybe a 2 % grade, if that, but I've lost enough lung power in the few weeks since Solvang that the first lap really made me wheeze, especially trying to maintain 90 rpm.

Once I warmed up, though, I was fine, and as a bonus today was a beautiful day with temps in the 70s and blue skies.

Also, the coral trees are blooming, and they make me happy. I thought they were poinsettia trees for the longest time until someone with actual knowledge of botany set me straight and kindly didn't mock me.

After my ride (26 miles in two hours. Not great, but good enough for the first day back), I went for a nice easy run. The heel held up very well, which is good, but just to be safe when I got home I sat in a tub of cold water for 10 minutes.

The cold water that comes out of my tap is impressively cold (or maybe that's just because in my old place the cold water was tepid on a good day), so much so that I'll go completely numb after sitting in just cold water for a few minutes.

Which is good, because not only do I not have an ice-maker, I don't have space in my freezer to store half a bag of ice.

The two ice trays I have are full of serving sizes of the raw food diet I feed my cat (whole different story there).

So - tub of cold water for 10 minutes.

Tomorrow, before work, I'll go swim, and that will have to do for the rest of the week. 

Finally, I have found the most boring thing in the world.

Ever since my bike-cleated uphill trek through the Santa Ynez Valley, my Achilles tendon has been acting up.

I really thought that thing had healed, but I guess I'm not all that surprised given what I did to it.

Any attempt to run, even on the treadmill, has been causing pain (which I'm told is bad), so I've been aqua-jogging.

I put a big, weird belt around my waist and go through the motions of running in the pool. Back and forth, running but not really running, but not swimming, either.  I look longingly at the swimmers, and count the minutes until I can take that damned belt off and get back to freestyle. I suspect watching paint dry would be more mentally stimulating.


 Were the ocean a bit warmer, I'd try to aqua jog there, because then I'd at least have a view (even if the belt would garner some stares!).

What I really need is one of those waterproof MP3 players, but that's not in the budget so I'm still trying to figure out how to keep myself sane while in the pool, pretending to run. Any suggestions?

It builds character

One of the things the training plans for just about anything mention is called a 'mental toughness day'.

Since you can't control conditions in races, you may have to power your way through rain, wind, dust, heat, plagues of locusts, etc..

With that in mind, I headed out to PCH for a long ride. Leaving my house it was a bit windy, but by the time I got to the coast the winds were very, very strong, and, of course, blowing south so as I rode north I got the full brunt of it (plus the occasional gust from the side, which was a surprise).

Although I desperately wanted to turn around, go home and curl up with a warm blanket, I kept riding. I knew I wasn't going to make my targeted distance of 100 miles, but I figured if I could just go a little further I'd be fine.

I stopped briefly at a farm stand where they had freshly dug green garlic (so tasty). I didn't have a backpack or bag since I was on the road bike, so I shoved the garlic up the back of my jersey, which made me smell great (I'm sure of it).

I don't know what a Zuman is, but apparently it's vital.

I continued up the coast, eventually turning around at Leo Carrillo beach, which is 30 miles from my house.

Enough! I turn around!

So I did 60 miles instead, but it felt like 100 in that wind. Even going back, when I should have had a really good tailwind, I still got gusts from the side.

Mental toughness, right?

The really interesting thing is that today, my legs aren't hurting at all, and they probably should be. I guess that's a good thing.

Bridge over the California Incline. The troubled waters are to the west.

My nether regions are hurting like hell, though. Forgot to bring the chamois cream with me. I won't make that mistake again.

Well, maybe not.

The Spring Death Valley Ultra Century is a little under 5 weeks away, and due to my averaging 60 hours of work a week at the moment I'm only getting in one training ride a week - the longest having been 60 miles.

I'm not giving up on the race just yet, but it's looking less likely that I'm going.

I'm scheduled to do the Solvang Century a week after Death Valley, so I may just take the DNS on the latter and focus on the century, which I know I can do.

Also, my car is psychic.

I've been working a lot and as such actually have some money in the bank. So of course, when I took the car to the mechanic to get the brakes done, I was informed that the suspension is shot (Los Angeles has some of the worst roads in the country - you really need a truck here and I have a cheap sedan).

Suspension repair? $400.
Brakes? $200, if  they can resurface the rotors. If not, more.

Guess I know where that extra money's going.

Work eats my life!

Work is normally pretty slow in December, but for some reason, this year it's been insane. I'm averaging 70 hours per week, which leaves very little time for enjoying the wonderful cool winter weather here in Southern California.

The bikes are gathering dust while I slave away (I'm at work before dawn and off after the sun sets so I'm driving my car, which I try never to do), but the overtime will make a nice check when I get back from seeing my family in Tennessee over the holiday.


Whichever holiday you celebrate, I hope it's wonderful!

Museum Day!

A friend wanted to see the exhibit inspired by Women Hold Up Half the Sky at the Skirball Cultural Center.

The Skirball is at the intersection of Sepulveda and Mullholland in West LA, and I figured since I needed to get a ride in anyways, that I'd bike it (and be thankful that I have the freedom to be able to move around by myself without needing permission from a male relative). The hill's not as steep as one would imagine. It's a solid grade, but not unmanageable.

We were due to meet at two, but I thought since I'd be riding right past it and it's free, I'd stop in at the Getty Museum and check out The Pacific Standard Time exhibit.

In the distance, the Getty

The ride to the Getty's not steep at all ( didn't even have to use my granny gear) and on Sunday, the traffic's light enough that I didn't fear for my life the few times I had to veer way out into the traffic lane to avoid some of the downed trees that the city hasn't gotten around to clearing away after last week's windstorms.

Although parking at the Getty is $15 per auto, it's free for bicycles, so I rolled up, was directed to the bike racks by the super nice staff, and hopped on the tram which took me up to the museum.

I always forget to bring the good camera to the Getty. It's such a gorgeous place with amazing views and cell phone shots just don't do it justice.

View over the dining terrace

Landscape

Fountain in the main courtyard

View from the tram stop

Unfortunately, I didn't leave myself enough time to see the entire exhibit and the grounds, so I guess I need to go back and remember the SLR.

I continued up Sepulveda, and past the Getty it got a bit steeper, but still nothing too terrible. The road's a mess because of the construction. I'm not sure how safe I'd feel doing this ride during the week.

Diesel Hammers

I finally had to break down and use the granny gear on the bike, which dropped my speed to about walking pace, but finally, just as my legs really started to object:

Skirball at last

I guess it doesn't surprise me that the Skirball doesn't have any bike racks. After all, they're at the top of the Sepulveda Pass and this is Los Angeles. Center security told me to chain my bike to the handrails on the stairs.
I managed to find a section that wouldn't impede pedestrian traffic and went into the building to wait for my friend.

We perused the exhibit, which was education and depressing. I knew there was trafficking here in Los Angeles, but they had an audio presentation with victims and it just felt so wrong to hear someone say they were sold to a home in West LA.

After we finished, we decided that we needed something a bit more uplifting, so we went and got some dinner (lucky for my my friend drove, so we threw my bike in the back of her car) and saw Arthur Christmas, which was very cute and sweet. We were the only ones in the theater:

Just like having my own private screening room

When we got out of the movie it was cold, so I was very grateful for the ride home in the heated car.  When I got home, I had to turn on the heat, which I almost never have to do.

It's still cold today, but there's a gorgeous blue sky so I might bundle up and venture out to enjoy the day.  The really good news is that my heel feels fine this morning! I can't run again until the doc clears me, but this is happy!

Social Media FAIL

The only thing that could possibly have made this funnier is if they had referred to the site as "the Tweeter".  Does no one who works at this club have teenage children?

Open water season ends

It's officially fall here in Southern California, which means that the fun we've all had swimming in the ocean (and making friends with various sealife) is now officially on hold until next year.

Which sucks for me. I much prefer swimming in open water to swimming in the pool, but even though I'm totally game to hop in the ocean when the water's below 60 degrees, no one else is, so I'm stuck staring at the black line until summer.

Yesterday, a group of us went for our last OWS of the year - I just dragged my legs, although I could have kicked as the water made my feet, hands and face go numb after a few minutes.

The downside was the visibility - about 18 inches (although given what's probably in the Santa Monica Bay, that might be an upside. I don't really want to see the shopping carts and used condoms.), except that every so often, we'd swim through these odd warm patches of water.

I know that it's just an ocean current thing, but part of me kept wondering what it was that could pee that much and how close it was to our group.

We swam about a mile, which was a bit longer than usual, but we had to swim an extra few hundred yards to find a place to exit that wasn't crowded with surfers.

I don't mind surfers, but I don't want to be swimming near them when one of them loses a board.

We managed to go through the surf zone in between wave sets, which is good for swimming but bad for body surfing.


It was a great morning, and I'm sad to see the seasonal end of the ocean swims.

Guess I'll have something to look forward to for next year.

Because of the injury, I've dropped out of what was to be the final race of the year - the Palm Springs HITS Olympic. I'll probably go and cheer team mates, but it's not the same as actually doing the race.

My Achilles Heel

So the soreness in my left Achilles tendon escalated during Sunday's race, and when I went to the doctor Monday, he gave me the bad news that it's now full-blown tendinitis, and told me very firmly that there is to be no running of any sort in my life for at least the next four weeks. 

Which is fine, there's still biking and swimming - except that Tuesday, when I got in the pool and tried to do a flutter kick, the tendon hurt when it contracted, so now - no kicking, either.

Except that I won't give up swimming. I just won't.  You can't make me.

I figured I'd just use the pull buoy and still manage to get some swim work in - which was fine on Tuesday. Tuesday's workout is very drill-heavy and focused on form, so I really got a chance to pay attention to my catch and pull.

Today, however, was the masters workout with the Sadist (and yet he looks so normal), and true to his reputation, it was 2200 meters of speed work.

All of which I did with the pull buoy.

I can still feel my arms, but I kind of wish I couldn't.

The upside is that after a month of this, I'm going to be super ripped! Yay!