Change of plans

My question to a half-awake Doug at 5:50 AM - "How about the one with a rainbow, a unicorn, and a gnome, Okay?"

(You know you want a new sweet swimsuit like this one... Psst, Splish is having a sale!)

Swam a couple of laps in the New Town lake as part of the Big Shark Open Water Swim series finale.  Would have followed that up immediately with my Big Shark tri club teammates and a ride to St. Pauli, but alas - still had the mountain pedals on the road bike from last week's Urban Assault.  Of course, I didn't realize this until I tried to clip in.  Doh!

This necessitated a long drive (40- minutes) home kicking myself the whole way.  Once I switched pedals, I traded the flats of the Missouri Bottom Lands for the bluffs and valleys of the Meramec River hill zones West of Clarkson Rd. and beyond all by myself.  I say that, but there were so many people I recognized on the road that the term "alone" really didn't apply.  Part of the reason I saw so many riders: I took different routes and changed it up a little bit so that I was riding up hills I normally ride down, effectively salmoning people's typical bike routes.  Made for a pretty sweet ride - change is good.

In summary, one Saturday, one swim, one ride, one chocolate banana recovery smoothie.

The swimsuit

Racing is awesome.  Racing for charity is even better.  Racing for charity while wearing the coolest, most ironic and punny swimsuit ever... a picture is worth a thousand words (see above).

I am now the proud owner of an OSU Triathlon swimsuit with the words "Fast Beaver" emblazoned and emboldened across the butt!  I earned it by racing a 400 IM and raising a little money for the Swim for Health.  We almost reached our goal of $5000... more than last year.  So, thanks to everyone for donating their time and money and arm strength.  The Tri-ing to Swim-mers finished third in the team competition and did a total of 119 laps in 30-minutes.  It might have been 120, but someone (don't know who tat could be) got a little tired of endless freestyle laps and through in some fly.  The winning team were a bunch of ringers, even recruiting a champion masters swimmer who could do a 25 yd breast as fast as I swam a 25 yd free (I raced him).

For the next eight days, I am a one-sport athlete who does biking and swimming for cross-training.  I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to keep to my marathon taper.  Earlier in the week, I turned a 4-mile run into a 6-mile run because I was zoning so much on the way out on an out-and-back run.  This morning I was so energized to find a hill near my house for my 4x15 seconds of uphill accelerations that my 3-mile run turned into a 4.65 mile run with some parkore practice.  I'm lucky I didn't hurt something.

It's going to be harder to keep to the taper this week-end as I head down to the Umpqua River Valley with all its gnarly single-track, scenic roads, and wineries.  Bike-wine tour anyone?

Swim for Health and the FB

That title sounds like a good band name.  I digress, already.


I have been double-dog-dared to do something that I had no intention of doing, wearing something that I had very little intention of creating.  Intriguing, right?


The dare involves the Swim for Health this Saturday.  I already told you that this is a fundraising competition to see how many laps a team of 6 can do 30 minutes.  For this portion, I am part of team "Tri-ing to Swim", a fantastic, motley crew of triathletes in swimmers clothing.  However, I failed to mention the other part of the event, the one that I was hoping no one would notice.... And I would have gotten away with it, but I was negotiating with a master-negotiator and world champion enabler (my friend H) who also happened to volunteer at the SforH last year and observed the second part of the competition — essentially a 400IM.    I was asking her to donate to the cause, and she suggested that I had to do more than swim continuous 25s.  Nope, she said she would give me $40 ($10 for each 100yd) if I did the Ironwoman 400 IM competition.


And then came the addendum... I had to do it wearing the Fast Beaver swimsuit. Duhn-duhn-duh-h-h-hn!


Let me explain.  Up until recently, the Fast Beaver swimsuit was a myth, a figment of my adobe Illustrator creation, only known by its presence in my computer's recycle bin... but the word was out.  And like any good fables, this one has a moral and begins with:


Once upon a time, a good woman designed a Splish swimsuit for the OSU triathlon team, as a kind of thank you for all the great training, and also to build team morale as they headed to their first Collegiate National Championships.  She had written "Go Beavs" across the butt of the design, because something had to go there.  After all,  a swimsuit without a design on the butt is missing the point of being a swimsuit.   The design process was a group effort that may have involved good food, good drinks, and goo-o-od vibrations.  It was decided that "Fast Beaver" should be written instead.  Chuckle, chuckle, LQTM.  She will admit that she understood the implication (sadly, it took a minute), but  felt it was appropriate enough to go ahead with.


Well, you can imagine the questions and inquiries that commenced.  Really what precipitated the change was a few womrn saying they would be uncomfortable wearing it... the last thing I want to do is actually discourage people from exercising and forcing uncomfortable self-expression.  So, without too much more ado, the "Fast Beaver" was replaced with "Go Beavs" and that was that.  The moral of the story: Free your mind, and the rest will follow.  Oh wait, that's a song lyric.  Real moral: Eat your vegetables.  Kidding, there is no moral.


But, obviously, it was a story still fresh on the mind and a funny one at that.  Occasionally,friends of the woman who knew the story called the her (we can all safely assume that the woman is me) "FB" for short, and thought that I should go ahead and get a suit with my sometimes moniker on the butt.


For clarity, the OSU mascot is the Beaver, and I do swim quite fast according to some people.  And so, for charity, and charity only, Splish has made me the suit, and I will wear it during that oh-so-painful "how-many-laps-of-butterfly-is-it" 400IM.  I'll upload some pics.  God help me, or at least help me raise some funds!

Stuff you should know...

I'm paying homage to my favorite podcasters here, Josh and Chuckers, of Stuff You Should Know fame.

Since it's been a few weeks (okay a month) there's some stuff you should know.

First, I signed up for a half-marathon.

Second, then I signed up for a marathon.

Third, then I signed up for an Ironman.... Not!

But, the first two are true.  I won an entry to the Eugene Marathon/Half-Marathon at the Tumor Shooter race.  I couldn't resist signing up for the half.  I took one look at the course profile, surmised that the finish was going to be in the Stonehenge of American distance running (Hayward Field),  and clicked the mouse button.  Boo-yaa!  As for the marathon, I am one of the lucky runners to be picked for the Brooks Inspire Daily P.A.C.E team.  As a member of the team, I get to race in one the the Brooks sponsored Rock 'n Roll Marathons or Half-marathons.  So, San Diego it is!  My sister, Shorty, will also be racing the marathon for something like the third or fourth time (she had completed nine overall).  Look for me on the start line in my Night-life uniform. Trust me, you can't miss it.

Which brings me to this fine morning.  I am so nervous and preoccupied, that I put four scoops of grounds in the French press instead of three... ye-ah!  My apologies, if the verbage is verbose and frenetic.  It's not my fault.  I swear.

Major props and prayers to the GSM go out to my BFFs the Rydholm's as they race Ironman St. George. Also, sending mojo and juju to fellow Corvegans Gordie (NW Multisport owner) and Nick.

I am headed down to Eugene, OR this morning for the race expo and packet pick-up with a few of my training partners (Ger and JJ)... I checked out the list of vendors and it looks to be a good one.  Also very interested in checking out the Flap Jack Stack competition (they are going for a world record for highest stack of pancakes).

And who says it doesn't pay to be a superfan of track and field?  I followed the Drake and Penn relays on FloTrack last week-end.  They had a competition going to guess the winner/winning time of the High School Relay events.  Guess who won a free pair of shoes from RunningWarehouse.com for correctly prognosticating the H.S. Gilrs 4x800?! Who me?

And on a final note, it is official.  I set a new personal record for the bike commute from my house to work yesterday!  10:52 I didn't have to stop or slowdown at any stoplights.  No pedestrians were harmed in the process.  And, I even had to go slightly out of my way to avoid marching Army squabs in full dress uniform on their way to some flag ceremony on the OSU's Quad.

If you want to try and follow my race tomorrow online, supposedly you can enter my name or number (6723) on facebook or twitter.  I am going to try and set two PRs in one week-end (Friday counts)!

That's all my stuff?  Did I forget anything?

Oh, I did forget something!!!  I won the 200 IM at the Oregon State Short Course Masters Champs a couple weeks ago.  Not to mention, taking second in the 1650yd (20:39), second in the 100 yd. Fr (1:00.43), and first in the 500 yds.  I also swam three relays... butterfly in the Womens 200 Medley, kicking it in with a 30.54!  My masters swim team, CBATS, finished second in the Medium-size team competition.  Very cool.  Stay-tuned for information about our annual fundraiser for Coach Bill's fitness foundation in a few weeks.  Who says triathletes don't know how to swim?

Back in the saddle

Ah sweet, sweet health (my cold is mostly gone, just some lingering sniffles and a sexy low voice) and workouts (got a swim at lunch today).  I hooked up with Meghan for a turn around Bald Hill yesterday morning.  And I have also put in a swim with the CBATS masters class that included an 800m IM (ouch!).  

I marked my return to normalcy with a mini-celebration that included Imagining Whirled Peace (the latest and greatest offering from a pair of ice cream geniuses and a tribute to John Lennon).  Or I could quote Bridget Jones and tell you that my most recent relationship is with two men simultaneously —Ben and Jerry.  I swear sometimes it feels like the only reason I do triathlon is so that I can eat as much ice cream as I want.  And spaghetti.  And Wahoo's Tacos... though, on that front, I guess there is no danger of going overboard since the nearest Wahoo's is 686 miles away, or about an 11 hour drive.

I have big plans for MLK Jr. week-end (they sadly do not include driving to Fresno, CA for Wahoo's), but I am currently house-sitting for Heather and Jim and they live a stone's throw from the Oak Creek entrance to the forest... I plan to take in some seriously awesome hiking and cyclocross riding this week-end to take advantage of the fact that the valley has been "dry" (no rain, just moisting) for the past week.  Yeah!