San Diego or BUST

We are biking to San Diego.  WHAT!? Yes, you heard us right.  San Diego or BUST!

With that mind, we mentally prepared for weeks and the day was finally here.

Saturday morning we met at the Angels Stadium, threw our run gear, recovery and change of clothes into the truck and we were ready... ready for the next 80 miles to Solana Beach, San Diego.

As we took off out of the parking lot toward the bike path, we were all giddy.  full of excitement, nerves and crazy thoughts for what we were about to do..80 miles. and just as we get comfy in our saddles, Kelie "Crash" Anderson completely wipes out two lanes over.  She threw us all for a loop and was totally fine, in fact she finished waaaay before i did... but needless to say, i was nervous that was going to set the tone for the rest of the ride LOL.

For the first 15 miles along the bike path i was pretty much riding by myself.  i had caught up to a few and passed a few others, but for the most part i was solo.  i actually liked it, i got lost in my thoughts, sang out loud to myself, it was fun... but I also knew that the remaining 65 miles could get quite boring by myself.

 GoPro Pic of Bridge over Bike Path River

GoPro of bike Path

GoPro - End of Bike Path onto PCH

So at the "semi" first pitstop where Becky's awesome family was there to cheer us on, i hopped into the ladies room and then hooked up with Becky and Ashley for the remainder of the ride.  And to be honest, I am so glad I did.  It was so much fun, hysterical and nice to have teammates that are also friends along for the ride. It made the ride that much more amazing. -- So THANK YOU BECKIE & ASHLEY. :-)

Beckie's Awesome Family - Mom, Sister and Two Nephews

We headed out of Newport and Laguna, knowing Dana Point, San Onofre, San Clemente, Camp Pendleton and more were still on our radar.  We had some headway to make. But we were ready. We chatted along the way, I of course took pictures and videos and chilled out.  it was a beautiful ride.

 Dana Point - Just Before SAG 1

 Dana Point Just Before SAG 1 - Photo Bomb by Beckie

 Ashley & Beckie Heading out of Dana Point

With Beckie as our fearless leader, we left SAG 1 and attempted to make out our way out of Dana Point and on to the PCH.. Granted, Beckie nominated herself as our fearless leader, but Ashley and I did not mind, as we had no clue as to where we were going, LOL.  So why not let Beckie take the lead, right? What could possibly go wrong? Well... I am not going to lie, that may not have been the smartest move... She directed us right onto the 5 Freeway.

It was hysterical. Luckily, we caught our mistake early and were able to course to correct.  Strike One for Beckie. :-)

Continuing on our way, we all kinda zoned out and got in our rhythm.  It was relatively flat for the next 20 miles through San Clemente and the state parks, so that gave me a good chance to practice my aero-bars and get the feel of that position for a while and i liked it!  I definitely felt faster and of course was moving faster, but my body was comfortable in that position.  I definitely need to do a few more sit ups and planks, LOL.. as my "mommy guy" was hitting my legs at every turn of the pedal. .. :-)  but it was good, non-the-less.

 

50 Mile Marker within San Onofre State Park

Beckie, Me & Ashley

After San Onofre we were pumped.  We had passed the 50 mile marker and were heading into Camp Pendleton which would lead us right into SAG 2.  Camp Pendleton was pretty neat.  Very desolate. I am not sure what I imagined, but I am pretty sure it involved tanks and HumVs driving around.  That was not the case.  But it was pretty cool. 

 Camp Pendleton

 Selfie.... Obvi.

 Just Because it is Awesome

Amazing Thank You for your Service 

Army Gear Trucks in the Distance

Team Selfie

Love the wave for a still image.

As we continued on, we realized we were cutting it close to the cut off for SAG 2... we needed to be there by 12:45 in order to make with enough time to get us to Solana Beach for our run and pizza before taking the train back.  We hustled and luckily made it to SAG 2 with 5min to spare.  Clearly me stopping for photos every five minutes, LOL. did not bode well for our time, but we made it. While there, of course I snapped a few more pics and hit the ladies room, while Beckie attempted to reapply her sunblock. This would be Strike Two for Beckie -- although I would chalk this up to a personal strike for Beckie and hysterically amazing for us. :-)

This picture is soooooo amazing. I love it so much.

Another Selfie... Obvi... :-) 

Mile 63... we soooo close we can taste it.  17 more miles to go.  By this point, my knee is starting to hurt, but knowing we are so close, i just have to push through and i am so glad i did. Oceanside, Carlsbad, & and Encintas were beautiful!!

 8 Miles To Go.

Reminder: DO NOT GO ON THE 5 FWY! :-)

You cannot tell from this photo, but this Stop Sign is 4x larger than a regular Stop Sign.  It is MASSIVE

So close... Encinitas

So... we made it... FINALLY reached Solana Beach.  It was awesome!  Of course I was exhausted.  But it was well worth it.

I cannot wait for the next one!!

Solana Beach

 Training Buds... Me, Laura, Ash & Kelie

 The Invisible Man... or ME!  :-)

Can you tell we were tired? 

FINALLY ... ending the night with an Ice Bath... and man did my legs need it!

Rockin Teammates

This is just a fun post to show you my amazing teammates.  they are truly supportive and inspiring everyday.  

GO TEAM!

 Ashley after she lost the battle in a SPATTTER War

 Bally from Ironteam & Kelie

 Me & Jay

 Me, my AMAZING mentor - Chrystine, Kelie

Tina, Jay, Chrystine, Me, Kelie & Bucket

Conquering Mandy

I am so excited to recap this for you as i was able to see Billy Joel on May 27th.  It was such an amazing show.  he is by far one of my favorite musicians and i get completely lost in his music, all while singing my heart out.  it was amazing.  it was at the Hollywood Bowl and i took Jason & Mark for their birthdays and Liz was also able to join. Fun Fun Fun with Awesome friends.

Wednesday was a doosey.  We were "suppose" to ride up San V into the Mandeville climb... well, this "smart lady" bike Amalfi into Mandeville.  Lordy.  Now, to put this into perspective, Amalfi is a climb on its own, so to add in Mandy.. well .. this is hard.  Mandy's climb is 5 miles of a solid incline with the last .5mi super steep.  It was awful and it was mainly awful because I had never done it before so i had no idea when the end was.  Sure i looked at my watch for the distance part, but that didn't really help.  All I knew was they a massive gate at the end signifying that you at the end.  i swear at every turn i was straining my eyes looking for that gate.  then finally!!!.. AHHHHHHHH... it was like the clouds parted and it was there... as i push and pull to get myself to the top, I see Laura & Elisabeth there, cheering me on.  it was so nice to have teammates at the top and an utter surprise, since I had started later than everyone else.

Conquered Mandeville!

Amalfi & Mandy

 Sunset Transition Run - Santa Monica

 Sunset Transition Run - Santa Monica

Sunset Transition Run - Santa Monica

Thursday morning we were set to do Hill Drill Repeats on Amalfi.  I started off strong.  I made it 1/4 of the way up Amalfi almost to the steep stop sign, when OUCH!! the worst pain you can imagine struck my right knee.  I was baffled. I had not fallen or banged it, so WTF?  so i turned around and jogged back down the hill and made my way to PCH and up ocean, instead of finishing out Amalfi.  Man it is a zero fun pain.  Anyway.. I finished out my own loop that day and informed my coaches of what was going on.  They said, "sounds like classic runner's knee." .. so we are going to monitor it and see what happens.

On Saturday we had a BIG Build week.  we did a ride that is know as "Son of a Nasty Grade" as it simulates Nasty Grade that is part of the Wildflower race.  It was a SOLID 60miles. Not only did we HANDLE PCH with Canyons, but we ended on an Amalfi climb into Mandeville! WHAT!! i had to do it again??  The ride was gorgeous, but that ending was not at ALL what i had in mind.  It was tough, hot, i was running out of energy and of course, on those climbs my knee was hurting. Once we reached the top of Mandy, we were suppose to ride down for a mile and then do the climb again.  I didn't do it.  i thought about it, but my knee was killing and i weighed the pros and cons.. and that to me was a con.. so i did 59.87 miles instead and I am OK with that. :-)

On Sunday we had our OWS. I love it.  This was the 3rd or 4th time that we swam in the ocean and dolphins have literally been less than 10ft from us.  it was amazing that we have that and makes traing so much cooler! :-)  

 Jenna, Me & Chloe

Jenna & I

After the swim, we had to do a 12mi run.  Now since I had a "BTW" (Below the waist) injury, i did not have to run to Troll bridge and up into Amalfi. THANK GOD!  But I did still have to run the 12 mi on flats.  Luckily for me, Kelie and Jose were also injured and Jose was on 4:1 intervals.  Which to me was a heavensent, as I was in so much pain I could not wait until we got our interval break.  However, on the flip side, Kelie runs like Flash Gordon, so our pace was pretty good.  if it wasn't for the two of them, i probably would have walked the entire time.... the other good thing about running with them is they know how to have fun!  ... we cheekily stopped for an ice cream along the way. :-)

Jose, Kelie & Me

 Santa Monica Strand 

 Santa Monica Strand

Santa Monica Strand

The Bug

OK.. so first off, I apologize for the delay in updating this.  I have been beyond crazy, but that is still no excuse.

So.. Going back in time, just after my last post, I was heading to swimming when i was hit with a tummy bug.  no fun and to be honest, i probably food poisoned myself as i am just getting back into cooking, but either way, it was not pretty and and it set me back for three days. I missed swimming and then biking on wednesday and just when i thought i was ready for the run on thursday, my body informed me that i was not. :-(

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo... needless to say that week i was a little weak, but its all good.  i was able to get in our ocean swim that friday, kicking off Memorial Day Weekend in weak, but in style.

Saturday we had a bit of a tricky training day.  In order to get us set up for Vineman and actually Cozumel is the same way, we have TWO transition areas.  So we had to put all of our running gear in a bag and have it dropped off at OSV... so what we did was swam at Tower 26 and changed and biked 3 Amalfi Loops into 3 SV Challenges with 3 (1mi) runs in between each loop.  It was tough, but i managed to do each 1mi in 10 flat.  my time has really improved on that.

On Sunday our Recovery run was 7mi.  and i have to tell ya.. i am really liking my 8:1 intervals.  it was pretty great.

Loving Life and Feeling Blessed

Today I was 100000000000% blown away by the love and support I received from my friends and family.

Yesterday we were asked to have an inter-team fundraising battle ... the prize cupcakes.

Not that I really want the cupcakes, LOL, but I did want to meet my minimum goal and not stress out about it.  Granted, we still have a few weeks to get our fundraising finished and I was pretty confident I would be just fine given i was only shy $728 of my goal as of 4:30pm... but needless to say, I put out a Facebook status update challenge... I am only $728 away from my goal... Soooooooooo. Can you join me in the 5 Day $5 Challenge... $5 towards curing cancer... come on, you can do it. Ya know you can forgo one starbuck's to save a life. OMG!! the donations and words of encouragement came flooding in... Literally at 4:30 today I raised over $1100!! I cannot believe it.

My friends and family are so amazing.  I am sooo thankful and blessed that I am able to do this crazy adventure and I knew that it was going to be tough... but to have my family and friends truly supporting me along the way is so inspiring and phenomenal, I don't even know where to begin to say THANK YOU.

So all I can say is just that .... THANK YOU!!!!  from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!  I promise you I will take on Vineman 70.3 and Cozumel Ironman and any other race along the way with authority!  I won't let you down... and hopefully we will cure cancer along the way.

Love always,
Rachel

Week 18...

Week 18 is starting off pretty good....

On Tuesday we had our swim session and thankfully, it wasn't too crowded, so Laura and I were able to split the lane. I like swimming with her.  She is slightly faster than me, so it pushes me to do better to keep up with her but she is also such a sweetheart of a person that she motivates me along the way.  Its inspiring.

This morning Dani, Coach Riz and I headed out on our bike marker.  We had to bike for 80mins with a 10min run after.  I think I did pretty decent as I was able to squeeze in just shy of 18 miles - An Amalfi Loop, Golf course loop and a few out an backs up San V... I am sure I could have pushed myself a little more this morning, but I was sooooo tired.  I had the worst night sleep the night before.  I had the AC on, but it was still hot in my room so I kept waking up and then I was sleeping funny on my arms, so they were sore this morning.  I was all out of whack, but it was good.

Thursday was our run session.  Ok.. that was rough.  I dont know why, but I had zero energy.  I definitely need to look into my nutrition. Anyway, that night everyone was doing the Glo Run in support of Coach Brad's Birthday, but I couldn't make it, so I went in the morning and of course, since I was dragging, I arrived 3 min late and Eryn & Stan were already out conquering that Amalfi Loop. They did an awesome job.. me on the other hand, I was pushing myself to stick to the 8:1... which i did, but my pace was more in 11/12min range than the 10:30 i was trying to keep.  Needless to say, I finished the 6 miles, in 1:10min and did my strength and conditioning after.  I love doing those, but I have to be honest, I need to do them more. :-)

Friday... ahhhhhh.. friday.. Open Water Swim.  I LOVE THE OCEAN. And I kid you not, this past friday the ocean was so glassy, it was like swimming in a lake.  It was amazing. We managed to get in 3 non-buoy buoy loops which was about .9mi... I desperately wanted to do one more, but everyone had to get back for work. BOO. :-)  but it was beautiful.

After the swim... i had a busy day ahead... my company was volunteering for Play Your Part.. put on by the Toy Industry Foundation. Throughout the day, we unloaded and filled over 6,000 amazing packages with toys and personal notes of encouragement which benefited foster children across Southern California through the TIF's national partner, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA for Children) ... it was really quite a nice event.  Its only its 2nd year, but they are coming along.  Its great.

From there I flew up to San Francisco / San Mateo for Maker Faire.  Now, I have never even heard of this let alone been to it, but I have to tell you, it was pretty neat and i think my brother Billy would call it "heaven."  Now, we were there to reintroduce Meccano/Erector to the builder community and it was a hit.  Fans of all ages loved it and were happy to see it again.  For me, I was just really intrigued. Literally they had the "Game of Drones," where people battled in arena's with their helicopters or there was a guy that paid to have a booth there and he was "The Worlds Best Paper Airplane Builder."  it was crazy and hysterical! I was so impress and surprised by that guy, I really couldn't get enough of him. Overall... it was a pretty cool experience.  Glad I went, but I can also tell you I won't be going back anytime soon. :-)

So.. since I was up at Maker Faire, I missed the 2nd 60 mi bike ride.  I am totally bummed about it as i wanted to redeem myself from last week, but I didn't want to miss the 11-12mi run on Sunday as that is where I need the most improvements... so, I got up on Sunday and handled that run like a champ!  Of course, I was an idiot and went to the wrong meeting spot and when i realized it, everyone was just about to take off, so I had to catch up, which I did.  I ended up running with Ashley, Marcia, & Christal and it was fun. Marcia was our portable DJ singing to us along the way and Christal entertained us with stories of being a mom.  it was great... and in doing so, I convinced them all to join me on my 8:1 intervals... YAY and thank goodness for them as we had to run up Inspiration point TWICE!   it was gnarly but good... on the way down the second time, we bumped into poor Kelie who had fallen because she was running so fast down the hill.  Poor thing.

As we made our way back to the picnic benches i noticed i was running with Marcia at an 8:30 pace for quite some time, which of course, psyched myself out a little.. but i know i can get there... overall, it was about 12 mi in 2:10.. NOT TOO SHABBY!

after the run a few of us did an ice bath swim.. it was so cold and nice... of course we had our wetsuits on, so it was really nice... but let me tell you, the waves were rough and the current was strong... but it was still so pleasant to be out there.

Week 18 was amazing... i can't wait for Week 19. :-)

The Ice Bath

I forgot to mention in my last post... after our amazing run on sunday, a few of us dipped into the ocean for our "10-15min Ice Bath."... and I say that, because the ocean was freezing cold.

Of course of group shots started off happy and dry... but Stan of course saw a massive wave behind us and continued to shoot as we got drenched. :-)