jump to navigation

Marky said…. June 25, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, marky , 3 comments

… try to find some hills (for my long run this week). So I said

Happy? I am :)

definitely a memoriable memorial weekend May 27, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, biking, mountain biking, mike, marky , add a comment

I took full advantage of the 3 day weekend — the first one I’ve had since classes started in January.

Saturday Mike, the mountain bikes and I all climbed our way up the same basic route we did back in December. It was still beautiful and fun. We went a bit farther this time, and made it all the way to the summit of the fire road. And again froze our asses off on the way down. It took forever in warm water in the shower to get my toenails not blue. And I might never listen to Mike about when to bring my cold-weather gloves again. But about 22 miles and 6000 ft of climbing kicked off the weekend right.

Sunday started with a pretty relaxed 30 mile loop on bike paths, basically flat (just under 1000ft of climbing). Then some shopping for a dress for one of my sister’s wedding in a couple weeks. A fun dinner, and then a nice evening 4.5 mi run.

Monday no alarm clocks were allowed. And we relaxed in the morning. But got out the door barely before noon for a great climby loop chasing Mike or sometimes riding with him — 71 miles and a bit under 10,000ft of climbing. Knowing it was going to be a long day of climbing, I just spun up pretty much everything, relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous views from the ridge road and seeing down the valleys. I loved the miles and miles with no cars, since about 20 of the miles each way were on roads that are currently closed to cars (ok currently closed — but lots of bikers still play up there). And the french dip sandwich at the turn around, complete with a fire to dry off and thaw a bit from that last cloud, also rocked. Oh yeah, and on the final stretch, I got a bit playful and I think Mike got tired of me finding sprint points ;) I just knew I could make it home from there!

And thanks to Marky, a nice little run followed the ride. Just 20 minutes, 2.2 miles, but there weren’t really any completely flat parts.

So I earned my spaghetti! :)

Oh and the “song” stuck in my head lately? “It’s too cold for holes in my arse… it’s too cold for holes!!” (inspired by a pair of bike shorts that were torn on a fence).

learning the Marky Way May 21, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, biking, marky , 1 comment so far

More focus this year. Not on just doing, but on improving. On building speed, so that instead of having a long run I have a strong long run. Sometimes it hurts. As I started my run this morning, I really thought just stopping and stretching for the hour would feel so much better. But while visions of coachy-pants danced in my head I kept going. And of course the warm up loosened up my legs, and things fell into place.

After the ultra to kick of the year, it feels odd to have my “long run” day be 8 miles. But the focus this year is on shorter races, so even the long run is shorter, and at a better pace. Today I threw in some intervals, doing a mile hard, 1/2 mile easy, and repeating that 4 times. Then (because Mike was about to catch me and because a certain hill and I fight over who gets to make me hurt more) I added a HARD 1/4 mile on a bit of an uphill to finish off the mainset.

And about that spinny bike ride I did last night? Well it felt awesome — my focus was on a higher cadence to let the legs spin a bit more, but even with keeping the highest cadence I have in a while, the winds made for a bit harder of a ride than I had pictured. Oh and I’m bad at the high cadence game — you’d think that means I’d go into easier gears even for slight hills, but often for me it really means I just push a bazilliondy watts up the hills to keep the cadence up. I can be soooo lazy about shifting.

So my legs are a bit sore, and I can feel it walking today. Man I love that feeling. I wasn’t really getting it the same with the ultra format of training. And it means time to see if my massage girl Brianne has time for me on Friday! Because only this kind of leg feeling makes a massage reward even sweeter.

100 lefty steps at a time May 9, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running , add a comment

I was good! The couch was comfy, I was in pjs since I had been working from home for a couple hours, and I got up and went for a run last night. Telling myself “at least 20 minutes”, by the time I was out the door it had changed to some trails with the last of light, an out and back that is special since it is where I got engaged :)

It’s just over 3 miles each way, with plenty of climbing on the way out. The only climb that sucks is a paved hill up from a trail along a drainage section to the park with the hiking trails. Not horrible, but long enough I think I’ve always walked on it. I started up, and told my self that I could make it to 100 left foot steps. So I started counting, and it gave me a rhythm, and at 100 I was just barely from the top so I kept going and made it. And then I made it up all the trail switchbacks and all the climbs the whole route! I’ve never ran that whole thing before!

So I got up, got it done, and felt great after. Remind me again why I almost skipped it?

PossAbilities Triathlon May 1, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, swiming, Race Tales, biking, mike , add a comment

2 years ago I almost skipped this race, but ended up going since I’d done it every year I’ve done tris. And while there I met a pretty cute boy, and now I get to keep him, so we like doing that race and signed up again this year.

So off we went to the races in a clown car! We took Mike’s 2door Civic. My bike fits standing in the back seat with only the front wheel off, and his fits in the trunk with the seat folded down. Then the wheels and our race gear squeeze in around, and when we get to the race site you wonder where all the stuff we have in there was stored for the drive.

I got ready, leaving my shoes on my bike for the first time. I had practiced it the night before on our street, and figured why not. Then a quick warmup, and to the line. Where I realized I was not interested in running. I felt exhausted and just wanted to play on my bike. As the national anthem was sung, I remembered my bike shoes were still velcro’ed — so getting them on would be a bit more complicated than I had practiced :) Mike told me it was too late — to not race (which I didn’t reallly want to do anyways) or to fix the shoes. And he even noticed how I just wasn’t giggly excited like I usually am before a race. So the horn blew, and I just ran.

I didn’t really push it — cheered for Mike as he went by the other way, and got to run with some of the kids from the Exceeding Expectations program (they were all there racing, so it was fun to see them). Finished the run, put on a helmet and dropped my visor and GPS and jumped on. Shoes on successfully, and I pedaled.

I still wasn’t really in the zone, and the bike was over. Into the water and I swam a bit hard. But it was sooo crowded. With the serpentine swim I kept getting pushed into the lane lines if I tried to pass, or caught up in others arms. So I just swam hard and passed pretty much everyone around me. I’m by no means a good swimmer, I just think that is often one of the weakest things for most people who show up to the little local races.

Out of the water, jog to the line. I didn’t even notice the time, just gave Mike a high five and was ready to go pack up so he could get on his way.

Mike had a conference in Palm Springs all weekend (which meant I got to commute with him on Friday, which was fun). And then he had to leave immediately after he was done racing to go for more, but would be back around 2 or 3, so I just hung out at the race site until he was back — there was a tri club meeting, and it is my gym, and I had a book. I was a bit sunburned when all was done, but it was a good day.

This post has me sounding like I really didn’t like the race. I did — I felt ok for it, and it has a great atmosphere. I just felt kind of blah in general, and for some reason wasn’t too excited about it being race day. It was fun to cheer for some of the exceeding expectations kids (I just couldn’t cheer for the ones that beat me ;) ). And I do like the feeling of that race: some very fast people (Kate Major, Julie Swail) but also tons of people just giving triathlon a first go.

not a bad weekend! April 6, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, swiming, Race Tales, biking, pics, mountain biking, mike , 4 comments

Saturday was a 5k. The same course I set a PR on last year. I went faster :) 23:44! Although their times were a bit odd in that I was in a group and they have no one right by me — my watch had me at 23:19 and a 7:21 pace since the course is long, but also didn’t have the 5 seconds of getting to the start line. Either way, a PR. And yeah, it kinda hurt. But it was a beautiful course, and I’ll take it! Official stats:

23:44 (7:38 pace) — 282/3015 overall, 43/1505 women, 8/171 W25-29

Sunday was Mike’s and my first off-road tri, and from there we were going to head to Redlands and see some of the Redlands Classic bike race on our bikes, so Saturday night we packed up the car and the bikes had a sleepover in the car (which left our house looking a bit empty).

The mountain bike race was chosen since Mike won an entry by winning the Redlands Tri, and since I have wanted to do one for a couple years we went for it. Although it was a bit confusing at the start (missing Mike’s early reg and no one sure what we needed to fill out) we got registered and got a great spot set up in transition. Wetsuits on, and down to the beach. There were only 2 waves (it was a pretty small local race) and Mike’s was off fairly quickly. Supposed to be 5 minutes after, my wave was bumped to 20 minutes after. I watched Mike come out of the water in second :) and got ready to go. And our start time was bumped back by another 20 minutes. So much for that well-planned gel and warm-up! About 20 minutes later, we suddenly we had a 30 second warning, just enough time to wipe the fog out of my goggles, and we were off. I had a pretty good swim, and felt my spotting was not as bad as usual.

It has been a while since I had to wiggle out of a wetsuit on my own! I made it, pulled on bike shoes and a helmet and was off in about 5th or so according to one of the race guys telling us things. I passed a couple other women early in the loop, and later was passed by a couple. Oh, and in one section, there were TALL weeds, taller than me on my bike, with just barely a path through them. One of the weeds caught my handlebars and pulled me into the weeds. Where I didn’t fall over since they were strong, and just had to pull out of them and keep going. And then I made it up and over a curb without pausing (I still feel like I have TONS of mtb skills work to do!). One loop down, off the bike at the dismount, run through the TA, and then back on the bike at the mount line for loop 2. Weird, but it worked (there was a one loop race as well).

Second (and final) loop about 10 miles into the race I could feel that PR from the day before. My legs were tiring fast! The 2 women I had just in sight moved well ahead, and I started wondering how that hilly 3.2 mile run would feel. But first things first, and I kept pedaling. And found that I had launched one of my 2 gels, so I had one and wouldn’t have one at the start of the run. Oh well, keep moving. As I came around the final turn there was Mike (and a camera)!

Back into transition, and a nice smooth change into the run gear. My mtb shoes are so hard to get off! I will have to try out my new ones (with a tongue instead of elastic) next time.

I got off the bike in about 7th place Mike thought, and I started my run. My plan was to enjoy it. There were some pretty trails, and I knew my legs were fairly shot. Someone forgot to tell my competitive side though! It was a tough course, with the first part having tons of climbing. I guess the ultra training has helped — feeling pretty bad I still passed the 2 women right in front of me! And then later another one that had passed me on the bike, and into a fun little single track, and with .8 miles to go I could see another. But she had a decent lead, so I didn’t think I’d make it. Then she walked a hill, and I went for it and made it past. Since most of the climbing and harder downhills were all in the first half, this last mile was a lot of fun. Almost done, around a turn, and again Mike. He was chatting, so I had to talk for him to see me. But he still got a picture as I told him that if I beat him to the finish line he owed me lunch *and* dinner (he already owed me lunch).

He did beat me to the line, but still ended up buying me dinner. He’s that awesome.

The other nice thing about a first off-road tri is the automatic PR! :) Although I didn’t do too shabby:

2:29:36 — 53/112 overall, 5/20 women, 2/5 W25-29

After the race we hung out for quite a while waiting for results. They still had nothing, and finally announced that they’d have to mail out the awards and weren’t going to get them done that day. It was chipped timed, but they were having computer issues. Honestly, I’m not so impressed with the race organization. For how expensive it was, I expected better. While I had a lot of fun, it was so behind schedule and disappointing to not get results, so I’m not sure if I’d do it again. When they announced results would be online this evening, we left, and headed to Redlands and had a nice easy 11ish mile ride around the Redlands Classic course. With In N Out burgers on the way, and then great Thai food before heading home.

Mike had a great race as well and was 2nd or 3rd overall! He says 3rd, but right now results have him 2nd. So the results might all change — oh, and it now says splits won’t be available until Wednesday night. So there are definitely some issues still there.

Oh… and for those of you still wondering how Oceanside was, Mike did a great job and I got some great photos. It’s all over on his blog, and I don’t have the energy to type it up now :) But I had fun cheering for people and hanging out with Marky and crew.

believing in Coachypants more and more! March 14, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, marky , 1 comment so far

You know those days when you just feel things falling in place? Well, last night’s run was one of those runs. Plan was 8 miles, with 2 easy, 4 faster (going by feel, but had thoughts of sub-8:30pace in mind), and then 2 easy to get back home. I was feeling tired, and not really in the mood to run, so I put on some music to distract me til I found my zone. And I found it –

My easy warm up was a comfy 9 pace, and then I managed sub-8 for the first hard mile! Good motivation came first when I spotted a guy ahead who looked like he shouldn’t be able to run a 10 min mile but that I wasn’t catching — I had to catch up just to see when I was by him what speed he was at (7:20ish)! Wow that was a hard mile, I thought. Huh, wonder if I can do sub-8 for another. So I did. Then came the thoughts of doing all 4 at that pace! I knew the outbound direction was a bit tougher, so I thought I could, but I was feeling the pace! My legs were starting to burn a bit. Made it though :) My 4 fast miles were 7:52, 7:56, 7:36, and 7:29!

Feeling a bit tired, I looked down and saw my total time. My 10k PR in a race is 53:07, and while I have come close to it in training, I was way under it! So I kept up a good pace for another .2 miles, hitting 10k in 50:30!!

Content, I stopped checking my watch, and just let autopilot take over. Yet in an hour I was just over 7.3 miles!! That’s my farthest in an hour EVER! And parts were not at all pushing it.

So in the afternoon run I almost skipped and just played by ear, I stayed under 8 min pace for the main set, PRed 10k and hour. Yeah, I’ll have some more of those training theories now Marky!

my butt March 6, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, biking, Planet X, R3, marky , 1 comment so far

So far today has been all about my butt. It started with the stupidheads in the car yelling at me about it when I was riding. But I completely ignored them and didn’t even glance their direction, so they didn’t get to see that I even could hear.

Then I kept riding, and man it was a bit tight and sore. And then I stopped riding and drove to work. Walking to my office I could again tell it was tight and sore. So yes, my glutes needs some love and I will be trying to get an appointment with Brianne, massage therapist extraordinaire, to help with that.

But they are how they are ’cause it has been a good week. Wednesday had an 11 mile run at sub-8:54 pace! Coach Marky has me running a bit shorter than I am used to right now, but doing more fast stuff and bringing that in, and it is fun! Painful, but fun :)

I also had some nice rides Sunday and Tuesday on the R3 and on the PX this morning. Sunday felt great — I did a regular 30 mile loop with a good bit of climbing, and was over 5 minutes faster than other times! I really worked myself on parts of it. I <3 Marky’s 5on/3off intervals.

On Tuesday and Thursday I could still feel that ride and the Wednesday run. I was moving alright this morning, but sooo windy. And I felt like I just didn’t have power really either day during the week. I had some on Tuesday, but especially today my legs just weren’t there. Since I’ve felt exhausted this week, it means I am sleeping in a bit on Saturday since my guess is I’m just worn out right now.

My butt is now on my office balance ball, so time to write the code that will take over the world!

Calico 50k January 30, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, Race Tales, pics , 4 comments

I’ve had a couple people ask how my first 50k went, and some even looked me up in the results but wanted the real story behind it. So here it goes…

Signing up for Calico was exciting all on its own. I had planned to do my first ultra in December 2005. Then on a trail run in October I rolled my ankle pretty badly, and ended up canceling those plans. So I moved the goal to that same December race in 2006. But being stupid I never really let the foot heal well, and had a constant ache (sometimes to pain) in the foot I had rolled — walking, running, or even just sitting around. So after it was pretty sore after an Ironman buildup and race, and meeting Mike and him starting to help make it better, I accepted that again it was not to be. So yup, in 2007 that same December race was calling me. But then I met a great trail running group, the Arroyo Trail Blazers (ATB) and started doing long trail runs with them. And I really liked my time with the group. So when they couldn’t all make the December date, and were thinking of January race instead, I set my sights on that one. And I’m definitely glad I did!

The night before the race the 14 of us doing it (yes, out of a field of about 200) all had dinner together in Sachi and Jon’s RV. And Mike and I stayed with them, a whole 5 minute walk from the start line. Race morning came, and I felt like I had slept for hours and hours! I was rested, and excited. But I was also sorta nervous, but not too bad, and not really about the distance. I felt no pressure at having a certain time or competitiveness, and just pressure to finish. I felt I had prepared well, and didn’t think that was going to be an issue. I did have a few other concerns — one being that my foot (the other one, not the old injury) had been a bit sore lately. But I gave it a number of complete rest days leading up to the race, and I thought it would be fine. I know I’m stubborn, so the dull kind of pain it had been wasn’t going to prevent me from finishing!

I wasn’t sure how to dress for it — I knew what shorts I wanted, and we were wearing our green ATB shirts, but tights? Long sleeves under the green? It has historically been a COLD race. In the end I went with the long sleeves under and the tights. I could have done without the tights, and I took off the long sleeves about 15 or 16 miles in, but it was windy and cold enough later in the race I was glad to still have them. I wanted to wear my Trifuel visor, but what gets cold on me easily running is ears. So I ended up leaving that in my drop bag and wearing the tribabe.com visor that Erika had given me at our last Gals of Slowtwitch training weekend.

Another concern was about carrying water and gels — I had no idea really how much water I’d want, and most of my training runs had “often enough” water spots that a small bottle (or sometimes even nothing) worked just fine. I was most comfortable running in my fuel belt, so I decided to go with that. I even learned on a training run that although a 2 bottle belt, my amphipod bottles can be added on making it into a four bottle belt if I really want. With aid stations about every hour, and it being a pretty cool day, on race morning I went with just the 2 fuel belt bottles.

But we had plenty of time in the morning, and got ready, and the four of us made it out the door. Jon on his mtn bike to take pictures of us, Mike ready for the 30k, and Sachi and I for the full 50k adventure! We headed up to the start, and met up with the rest of the “green shirts”.


We chatted, and drank water, and made bathroom runs, and soon it was almost time. Mike headed to the front, planning to see how well he could do and really push. The rest of us stayed where we were, knowing we’d have plenty of time to find our places in the pack. And it was time… and the countdown was done… but there was a slight delay as we waited for the starter gun and he had gotten distracted talking to someone :) And then we were off!


I quickly noticed that although a slight down hill I was going faster than I thought smart, and I did my best to keep myself in check. A bit under a mile on the road, and then we were onto the fireroads. Most of the other ATBers moved on by me, and although it is hard to see people you do all your long runs with getting farther ahead, I just focused on what I needed to do. I chatted with some other people around me, and just enjoyed the beautiful morning. I had (ok I came up with in the first hour) a nutrition plan — a really complicated one of a gel on each hour, and regular watering. And although not really planned out ahead of time it was about what I had been doing on long runs, just making sure I started taking in gels even earlier in the run, and it ended up being about perfect.

About 8 or 9 miles in we were directed on an out and back, and the flow of my day was first interrupted. I knew it wasn’t on the course map (yes, I’m a map geek) and it threw off all my plans of where I’d hit aid stations, and when I’d be at the top of climbing, by a mile and a half. It was a tough mental point for me for much of the race. Even though the plan was to run 31 miles, and it was such a little percentage, for some that extra 3/4 mile climb out and the sighting of where other green shirts were in relation to me was just stuck in my mind for the rest of the day when things got tough. Luckily (for me) the guy next to me was more upset about it and voiced that he thought it was a bunch of bullshit, and that triggered my thoughts about how things like that happen, and for all I knew they had changed something in the course. So although it was a tough point, that reminder was joined with it in my mind.

And I kept on… well… keeping on. Climbing and climbing. Mostly on pretty nice fire roads. Some sandy spots, and some rocky ones, but generally nothing too crazy. I thought of Anton and how I was becoming an ultra runner, and it was ok to walk up things. And I did, running and walking and just keeping moving forward. And I was excited for how the descent would be on them. My foot got pretty bad for a while — during one of the rocky parts it basically was feeling like I’d sprained the ankle, and the sides were feeling swollen on top of that. So I accepted that it might be a longer day that I thought, and just kept going. Turns out it mostly stopped hurting soon after that — like my foot gave up on me responding to it. “Oh, even if I hurt I get to keep running? Guess I might as well just get it done”. And closer and closer to the peak I started seeing more of the green shirts, and ended up right back with my running buddies for a while. And some of them moved ahead, and and then feeling good, I ended up moving on a bit, but we were all in somewhat of a cluster for the rest of the day. And one of my favorite things was all the people who’d cheer for green shirt, or ask who we all were. I really liked that group connection. And I made it to the drop bags just before the top. Where I refilled my gels and that was about it — they picked the coldest, windiest part of the course! But with a great view (stollen from Quadrathon’s blog)!

So instead of dropping my gloves, hat, or long sleeves the hat and gloves went back on. Seeing the aid station marker (which claimed it was a good mile and a half earlier in the race due to the out and back) became something I stopped looking forward too. For the rest of the race, while I wanted the water, I didn’t like the reminder of that stupid out and back.

Then it was truly the top, and the descending began. But not so nicely as I had pictured it. Instead, after running up for almost 20 miles, it was a steep, rocky, slippery, deep, crazy descent to introduce our legs to the down feeling. Wow that was tough! But at the end of that chute we were rewarded with about 3 miles how I pictured the descent. Oh and I finally got to pee! It was a hard course to find a spot on, and finally I just picked a scraggly bush. I couldn’t see anyone behind me for a bit, and it had been miles since I had to go! But then back on course, and the rest of the day was rollers. I hadn’t realized how rolly the second half was going to be, and it was a lot harder than my brain had set it as being. But what was my goal again? Oh right, finishing. So I took it nice and easy, running where I could, and keeping up a good walking pace where I needed to walk.

I remember rollers, and just that same view. Although pretty, anything (mostly) the same gets old after some amount of time, and by about 5 hours the desert brush was definitely old news.

I don’t even remember what I thought about. Just moving, I think. In that zone of going forward. And occasionally wondering how Mike’s race had gone, and how tired he’d be. He had brought his mtn bike, and planned to join Jon and find people on the course and cheer for them. And while I kept hoping to see him around corners, I also knew it would be ok if he had rested instead. But then coming out of a particularly rocky section, they were there!

And it was definitely uplifting, and a new wind, and all that stuff. And although definitely starting to feel the miles (past mile 27, so I was in unknown territory) I think I started moving a bit stronger. I also knew the end had to be closer! Up and down, up and down, rolling and through a tunnel in a rock and more rollers and a last ridge.

Oh and I remember wind! The race felt like uphill, rocky, windy, or some comb of those. Especially on the final ridge — crazy windy!!

Then it was back on pavement for the final half mile or so. Including the ass-y-est climb ever! Steep, paved, and at the very end! So that we could finish on a slight downhill that took us through the Calico Ghost town.

As I relaxed through town, grinning like a crazy person since I knew the finish was right there, I hoped that the tourists and their children didn’t step in front of me, as things like “no brakes!” flashed in my mind. Luckily they didn’t, and I crossed right through at 6:17 and into a BIIIG hug from Mike! Accompanied of course by my giggly “I did it” excitement feeling and a lack of legs to really use for a bit :)

And then I cheered in the rest of my fellow ATBers and other racers, and then back to the RV for an AWESOME earned shower and into my pjs!

Race stats:
6:17:43 for 32.2 miles and about 4800ft of climbing
4/7 W18-29 (first 3 were SOOOO speedy — awesome!)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4826460

And yes, I’m already looking to see what one I might do next. Now that I am feeling better — I got sooo sick the week after the race! I kinda expected it: my throat had been a bit sore leading up, and I did pretty much trash my body, including my imune system. Still worth it!

And thanks to Quadrathon and Tanya and Karen for company on the course and some pics :)

it’s the holidays December 21, 2007

Posted by Kylie in : nutrition, running, swiming , add a comment

I got in a run and a swim in a bit of a rush this morning, almost skipping one or the other. It was windy out there though!

But today is a big day… for eating! It was the office potluck holiday lunch, and then tonight is the office holiday party/dinner for Mike’s office. So I felt better knowing I got in a good workout. As much as I like the idea of “eat to train”, I really tend to look at the day from more of a “train to eat” perspective. And a “train to train”, since I really do enjoy the workouts I do. In fact, recently I don’t think I’ve had a workout I did because I should do it. Which is great! Means things are going well :)