Randomness

It is amazing how little time one has in the day. Now, I know everyone says that  -- training is so time consuming, but when you are in the toy industry in the peak of the holiday season, you REALLLLLY have NO TIME.  It seriously crazy.

I am up at 5:30 /5:45 to get to training sessions before work... 6:30-8:30... and then working all day, though lunch, on holiday pitches and exclusives and samples and everything else you can imagine.  Hopefully I get out by 6:00.. but usually it is around 7:00, sometimes 8:00, when I then head to the gym to swim or elliptical, since I can't run home to hop on the trainer for a bike session... and then into bed and out by 10:00/10:30 to do it all again.

I truly have no life, LOL... but I am OK with it.  I am really excited about this race.  I can't believe that it is just around the corner.

But despite all the hours I have devoted, I am truly enjoying it. I know you must be thinking, Rach you are crazy, but I am!! Each and every day and training session i am conquering some new and difficult... Some have been solo and some have been with friends or random strangers and for that I am greatI have had

Kelie has been great... always up for a ride, run or swim, even if we are socked in with fog.

Marica is an awesome running partner!

Sunrise in MDR before a swim

View from MDR

Steph and I for a midweek swim... She is such an inspiration

Clark Little... AWESOME Ocean Photographer that met on one of my rides through the Southbay

I LOVE that I Live in SoCal... the views are amazing.

Santa Monica

MDR during an evening ride

Meniscus or IT Band...

After Silverman, my knee was really bad.  So I finally went to an Orthopedist.  He was worried that I tore my meniscus and frankly so was I.  Something was not right.  But thankfully after a MRI, results showed my meniscus was fine, but my IT Band is sooooo inflamed that it actually showed up in the MRI, which apparently DOES NOT HAPPEN... so needless to say, HOLY MOLEY, I am F-ed! No more running for me.  Cortisone Shot done and fingers are crossed that I can push through come race day.

 

Silverman 70.3 Ironman

Silverman 70.3 Ironman was hard.

I think it was hardest for me because I was coming off of the intense running and aggravated knee from NY as well as traveling... so going straight into this race was tough.

That being said.  I arrived on Friday and met up with Lilias and David, newly married and both competing in Silverman as well as IM Arizona.  They are awesome and waited for me to arrive so we can drive the bike course. I have to tell you, I am so glad we did.  I was able to put a mental note on hills and turns and equate them in my mind to hills I had bike before... this hill is like Pepperdine, this one is like Mandeville, etc.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early, had a delicious breakfast and headed to the swim start to get in a pre-race dip.  The water was AMAZING. It was about 75 degrees, so on the boarder of wet suit legal or not.  Given that Cozumel is NOT wet suit legal, I opted to take my dip and race in the skin suit I bought for Cozumel, one to test it out and two, to practice without a wet suit and gauge my time.  After the swim we bike the course for about 7-8 miles.  It was nice to shake off the cob webs and see what it was like... after our "test drive" we headed to registration to pick up our packets and hear the athlete brief.  Lilias and David's coach is the emcee of the event and multi IM Winner --1st place at Cozumel! So, it was really nice to hear some tips from him and get our selves sorted.

Not paying attention to the time, we realized that our other stuff was at the hotel and that we needed to get a move on it as we had to bring all of our gear back to the two transition areas.  Yes. Silverman had two transition areas, similar to Vineman and IM Cozumel.  Which works out great for me in training to get used to packing multiple bags.

Dinner and rest Saturday night and we were ready to rock.

My alarm was set for 3:45. Knowing that it would probably take me 15min to get out of bed for my targeted 4:00am wake up.  Of course I couldn't sleep. I was hot, I was cold, i had to pee, you name it. Then, just as I fall back asleep, I wake up to what felt like an earthquake.  3:11am... I am of course confused and try to fall back asleep, but no such luck, so now I am up and getting ready and probably only have about 4-5 uneasy hours of sleep. Fumbling around the room, I put my knee tape on, eat some breakfast and chill.  Ready for the day ahead.

As we all load up the car and head to T2 to catch the shuttle, I ask Lil and David if they felt the earthquake and they looked at me like I had 10 heads and told me it was probably just nerves that kept me awake. I agreed.  So i boarded the shuttle and reality was setting in.

It was super dark out and I was really excited and of course nervous, the course was super hard.  The entire bike route was hilly and and it was basically climbing uphill the entire time... awful = hard.. and knowing that I was going into a stupid hard hilly run, I was freaking out internally, especially because of my knee, but I was also calmly ready... well.. except for the fact that I really had to pee. :-)  by the time we got to T1, I could barely stand up, LOL.  But I made it.

As I walked down to T1, The view was amazing. The sun was coming up over the hills, it was gorgeous. I was ready.

I set up my bike and put on my skin suit and headed to the water with my age group.  my heart was pounding and as the buzzers were going off and then it was my turn....

As I entered the water and adjusted my goggles, I noticed the girl to the left of me was wearing a snorkel!! I could not believe it.  Seriously!?!?  a snorkel. Now, I know they are legal, but DUDE that is lame!  I kinda chuckled to myself, because literally we were just talking about snorkel in our swim practice 3 days prior, so I knew Adrian and the group were get a good laugh when i told them later. That being said, I got back in the zone and BANG!! Off we went.

As I started swimming guess what happened... stupid snorkel girl, who wasn't sighting and swimming all over the place, elbowed me right in the face and knocked my goggles. Since I am a smart girl, I had them on under my cap, so they did not fall off, but they were all wonky and filled with water. So as I stopped to fix them, I sank to the bottom.  I panicked.  I wasn't wearing my wetsuit, which normally keeps me a float, so since I was just in my skin suit, down I went and since I am a strong swimmer, I was in the beginning of the pack, the girls started to swim over me.  It was scary. After what seemed like forever, I started to tread water, fix my goggles, and attempted to swim, I couldn't, i was actually freaking out... so I started to breast stroke and talking to myself to get my heart rate down, reminding myself -- Rachel, you are a swimmer, you have trained for this, you got this... slow breaths, deep breaths, how great is this water, so amazing, ooh buoy #3, see you are moving, now SWIM -- and finally, I was back and in groove... Buoy after buoy I was cruising and really liking skin suit.  I felt very slick! :-)  as i was getting close to the exit, maybe about 3 buoys back, I saw this guy trying to squeeze in next to me, normally, I am put up a fight, but I today, I moved over to the right and let him in .... big mistake.. BOOM, another elbow to the face, same eye, AGAIN!  I couldn't believe it.  I actually screamed under water, Son of a Bit@h! and then kept swimming and finally made it the the exit... and with all the punches in the face and almost drowning, I still managed to finished in 42min.  One Down, Two to Go.

The Bike was great... the first 18 miles I was seriously cruising.  I was taking in the view, which was gorgeous, "chicking" a few guys and having a blast. It was hot, but not enough to get to me.  It was however enough to get to my Gatorade.  By mile 25, it started to taste like melted Jello, it was super gross and started to make me nauseous. So I switched to only water and electrolyte pills.  I tried eating solids, but I just couldn't do it... so my energy was depleting, which sucked, because the mile 45-56 was all uphill and it was crap,  But I made it.. and only 10min past my goal time.  Total of 4:10. Not too shabby... Two Down, One to Go.

The Run... the run was S#!t. I think i probably ran a total of 2.5 miles throughout the entire time. It was 3 loops on one stupid hill... it was seriously awful.  My knee was done. My stomach was done. Literally, even the pressure of my water belt resting on my hips and grazing my stomach made it hurt. Just before the 3rd loop I had to ditch it.  I felt so dehydrated, despite drinking whenever I could and the fresh oranges were amazing.  But despite all that.. I soldiered on.  It took me 3:30 to do the 13 miles, which is not ideal. But I finished.  Three for Three

IRONMAN SILVERMAN 70.3 FINISHER!!!

On a side note, I am fully aware that I have to get better at the run, but the knee and my nutrition are not 100%.  ... these I have to fix ASAP.

Sunrise, The Course, The Winners and Me!

Silverman Finisher!!

No Pain No Gain... If you are not having fun... Why are you doing it. :-)  

Despite being in Vegas for 4 days, I never once made it the strip. But I was able to see the Hoover Damn for the first time.  It is massive and the view is beyond! :-)

Traveling, Training and TOYS

So, as I have mentioned a million times before, I am in the toy industry and Sept and October are my craziest times.  With holiday pitches and events happening all the time, it is so hard to train, especially when traveling.

The good thing is my Canada Media tour was canceled, so I was able to get some training in during the week with some pals, including the last brick session with Adrian and the group, the bad this is my trip to NYC for TTPM Holiday event was still on.

As I flew into NYC, I knew it was going to be a tough weekend and week of training, especially since my knee has not been that great and felt like it was only getting worse and the majority of my training was going to be in the hotel gym.  That being said, I was coming off my high of my 90miler and I had also agreed to run the Bronx 10-Miler Race for Marc since he and Christy were doing the Ragnar Relay.

So, to make life easier, I stayed at their apartment for the weekend.  It is soooo nice.  Their new place is a sweet 2bed on the UES of Manhattan. Gorgeous. Marc gave me a semi-cool bike route. But when I woke up on Saturday, I wasn't feeling too hot, so I was just going to throw Christy's bike on the trainer, but they didn't have the right skewer, so by the time I got all sorted out it was already 9:00.  I wanted to be halfway over by then.. UGH.. but I grabbed the bike and headed to the route.  It was a very pretty bike path, but it is did end and I had to make my way through a town to get back on the path.  I got a little lost but found it.  I didn't last too long, only a total of about 45 miles or so.  I was so naseous and had a headache.  Totally sucked.  So when I finally made it home to Marc's I fell into the bed and I was out for a few hours. Luckily for me, when I am sick or getting sick, my body shuts down and needs sleep and once i get it, I am usually back to normal.  Which is great, because today i was able to pop next door to my friend Rosalind's for her son's first birthday, before heading back to bed to get some solid rest for the Bronx 10-Miler Run on Sunday.

On Sunday, I woke up and was ready... still having a slight headache and of course nervous for my knees, but I was pretty ready for the race and thankfully, Christy's friend Victor was meeting me at the subway to get me to the race on time. :-)  

The race was pretty fun.  Great crowd, fun music and a pretty decent route.  I was happy.  I managed to keep my 8-1 intervals at a 10:45 pace and my knees were pretty good and I was smiling, singing and dance/running the whole way.... Super fun.

Adrian had in my training notes that i had to do 15 miles that day, so depending on how my knees felt, I should either tack on 5 more or do the elliptical to do the equivalent.  Now, to be honest, my knees were hurting, but I also wasn't sure if it was tired knee pain or serious knee pain or mental knee pain... and after all, I will have to 26.2 in the race, so why not do the 15... well.. lets just say... that sucked.  I did the 15 and kept my intervals, but I was basically out of commission for the next few days.  It killed to walk up or down stairs and the elliptical and bike were out of the question, so that put a damper in the training in NYC... but come Tuesday night, I was back and able to get in the swing of it... which was good, because I was flying back home on Thursday to head to Las Vegas for Silverman 70.3 on Friday.

Oh.. and I must mention... Zoomer Dino, Paw Patrol Lookout HQ and Wackytivities Kinetic Sand won TTPM Most Wanted!! WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!! :-)

8000 Feet of Climbing and Redemption

It took me a few days to get over my funk.  It was hard.  but pulled myself together... and to be honest, I had to.  Sept 20th I was set to do between 6000 & 7000 feet of climbing.

So that week, I got back in the zone.  I had great trainer sessions at home. I hit the pool hard with the group on Thursday and I mapped out my course on Friday for my 90 miler with crazy climbs.

Saturday morning, I was up and I was ready.  I loaded my bike and head out from my house in West Hollywood. I do enjoy coming straight from my house, because i don't have to load my car up and freak out that I may have forgotten something.  But to be fair, the ride down Wilshire to PCH is not very safe nor are the roads very smooth, so I won't be doing that again.

So here I am making my way through town, up PCH and past Zuma and I reach Encinal Canyon for my first climb.  It is about 5mi -6mi of long switchbacks. It is not terrible, but it is not exactly "fun" either. LOL. And this day is it was raining... or is should say "misting" so it was really annoying to see and was actually quite cold.

It was a challenging first 60miles... I was psyched when I made it to the top.  I had never done it before.  I know, every post i talk about my first of everything, LOL.  But it was quite the accomplishment.

As I continued on my way, I did hit a bit of a wall.  Not that I was tired, I was a little bored. After semi listening to music on my 90 miler to Santa Barbara, I told myself no music, because there is no music on the race, so despite having the ear phones handy, I didn't listen.  It was hard and the hard part is trying to come up with one-sided conversations with yourself. :-)  

After about 70miles or so, I was a tad lost.  I thought I was suppose to loop right around to Old Topanga from Mulholland, but somehow I either missed the turned or didn't get to it.  Either way, I modified my route to go through valley.  

As I hopped on the bike paths somewhere deep in the valley in Van Nuys or somewhere, I realized that I was now riding on flat paths and I still had climbing that I was suppose to do. Granted, at this point, I had no idea how much i had climbed, but i didn't want to come up short. So I told myself I would bike Laurel Canyon home.  WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!?!

mile 85 of a 90 mile bike ride, I decide to climb a super steep, winding, no bike path, crappy paved road == DUMB.  It wasn't safe.  At one point, since the road was so winding, I got off my bike and walked it up about a 1/8th of a mile ... just to get to a sidewalk for safety.. SUPER SCARY.  As I hit the peak at Mulholland Drive, I road on my breaks the whole way down, dodging pot holes and divots.  It was not a smart move... but I did it... and I got home alive and was able to knock that ride off my bucket list.

When I got home, I committed to running 30min or 3miles, which ever came first, because of my knee... i did about 2.5mi... All in all.. AWESOME RIDE!!  WAHOO!! oh.. and did I mention that I did OVER 8000 Feet of climbing!??  BOOM!  :-)

The Funk

I am a good sport.  I have a good attitude.  But I have to tell you, after Sunday, Sept 14th, I was in a major funk.  I was so defeated after sucking at Malibu the day before and that Sunday, it was close to 100 degrees and I was biking 60 miles and to be honest, I was OVER IT.

I kept thinking, why was I doing this to myself.  All these other bikers were passing me on the PCH. I couldn't a good rhythm going .. I was done.

I finished my ride. Watched a little football and called Marc and Adrian.  I was not in tears or anything.  I was just hitting a wall and needed to be talked out of it.  I knew I would be fine and that I would snap out of it, but I think I just needed someone else to tell me.

I am training for an IRONMAN.  It is not easy.  those people that were passing me on the PCH probably had been riding for years or just started where I was at mile 50.  Reminded me that I am training my own race and that this is my first IRONMAN and that I am doing a great job.  Even with injuries, I am still doing well.

it was exactly what I needed to hear to get me back into it.

Thanks boys!

Nautica Malibu Triathlon

After spending a week in Toronto training, working like a crazy person, sitting in presentations and then of course celebrating out 20th Anniversary, I flew back to LA two days before the Nautica Malibu Triathlon.

I was signed up for the international distance and to be honest, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park.  I do 2x-3x more than this course in training, so I thought it was going to be a breeze.  I was WRONG. LOL.

First off, the swim was tough!  From the look of the water, you thought it was fine, but there was a nasty rip current in the water, so at times, I felt like I was swimming and getting no where. Especially when trying to exit the water. 42min total for less than a mile! Unreal.

The Bike... 25 miles.. easy, right?  One would think. But I had dead legs, my stomach was all nauseous, and I was just not in the game at all.  it took me about 1:45 to do the 25 miles and I literally was miserable the whole time.

The Run.. lordy, well, we know my knees are shite, well, surprisingly, with my intervals, I was able to run practically the whole time, so it wasn't all that bad, but by the end, my knees where over me!

The funniest thing was during my run, the amount of hysterical jokes and comments about my knees kept me laughing and running.  The tape on my knees was peeling off, the IT Band straps were keeping them up.  It was hysterical.

The good news is, I finished with a smile.  The bad news is I was in a funk for a few days.