101 Things About Me

It's a little cyber-narcissistic, but it also seems pretty standard to have a Things About Me list on one's blog.

So here's mine:

101 Things About Me (as of July 15, 2008)

1. I wake up every morning to a caramel soy latte on the bedside table, made by my husband. God I'm lucky.
2. I really do think my daughter is the smartest, most amazing child to have ever lived. God I'm lucky.
3. I am not planning on having another child.
4. I think about having another child, and reserve the right to change my mind about #3.
5. I stopped eating meat and dairy after I read The China Study.
6. Going sorta-vegan was purely a health decision. I do not have an inherent ethical problem with the eating of animals.
7. I have a lot of ethical problems with factory farming and how animals in the U.S. are raised for food. A lot.
8. I still eat a lot of seafood and, very, very occasionally, lamb or duck. I really am the world's worst vegan.
9. For nutritional purposes, I overlook dairy if it's in desserts.
10. For nutritional purposes, I overlook dairy if it's in Indian food.
11. Cutting out cheese and milk wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I really miss yogurt.
12. Even though I'm a good mom, I feel really guilty for the amount of time I spend on "me" things: my business, fitness, garden, training, etc...
13. My husband helps out a lot around the house but is not allowed to do laundry except for towels and his underwear.
14. I weigh myself every day. I weigh 155 pounds, and have for over a year.
15. At my heaviest, I was over 260 pounds. But I was pregnant. Not counting my pregnancy, at my heaviest I was around 205 pounds.
16. It took me seven months to lose the first 40 pounds. It took weight training to lose the last ten.
17. When I started eating a plant-based diet, I lost 5 pounds from the increased fiber, if you get what I'm saying.
18. I'm a Chef. I went to culinary school and everything.
19. I currently work as a Personal Chef for several families in the Puget Sound area. This means that, within the limits of my clients preferences, I get to cook whatever strikes my fancy and be my own boss.
20. I love my job and my clients. They are all just awesome.
21. I do not specialize in vegetarian or vegan cooking. None of my clients are vegetarian. All love filet mignon with red wine reduction.
22. I have a six page questionnaire my clients fill out before I cook them anything. According to my survey, 70% of people will list mashed potatoes as their ultimate comfort food. The rest pick pizza.
23. I love pizza.
24. I believe half of all statistics are 100% meaningless.
25. I asked my daughter to describe me and she said, "Hugs and snuggles."
26. I love to garden and grow vegetables. One summer I would like to grow enough food to be self-sufficient. At least for a month. And not including wine.
27. I drink way too much coffee. 4 or 6 cups a day. I'm thinking of cutting back.
28. I recently completed my first triathlon. I freakin' loved it. Now I'm obsessed.
29. I do tend to get obsessed and throw myself into things.
30. I never forward on emails that promise good luck for forwarding or threaten bad luck for not forwarding. So far, it hasn't hurt.
31. I absolutely, positively believe I'm lucky.
32. Sometimes I will forward on really funny videos.
33. I think my abs and shoulders are my best physical attribute.
34. I never do crunches. I do a lot a shoulder presses.
34. I subscribe to Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, Oxygen Magazine and the Crossfit Journal.
35. I never ever thought I would do a marathon, but now I'm thinking about training for one just so I can say I've done one.
36. I like to pretend I've won Powerball and design dream houses in places like Paris and Hawaii and Lake Como.
37. My husband and I have discussed starting an island commune with all our friends.
38. I am very concerned about the food children eat.
39. I believe that if a kid gets to harvest a vegetable, she will almost always eat it.
40. I make my S'more's with two squares of graham cracker, two uniformly toasted golden brown marshmallows and 1/4 of a Hershey Bar.
41. My husband uses 1/2 a Hershey Bar, which I think is excessive. My daughter has been known to use a full Hershey Bar, split into two, in lieu of graham crackers. I think this is genius.
42. I love camping, and not just for the S'mores.
43. At the beginning of 2008, I could not swim. I'm not exaggerating: 50 yards in a pool almost killed me.
44. I taught myself to swim from a book. For three months I didn't take a full stroke, I only did drills.
45. I now regularly swim a a half-mile to a mile for my swim workouts. And I really like it.
46. I would never have learned how to swim if my best friend hadn't goaded me into signing up for the Danskin Triathlon. She was right.
47. I graduated from college a month after I turned 19.
48. When I was 16, I lived in Japan for almost 4 months.
49. I traveled by myself to Tokyo, got homesick, saw the movie Pocahontas in the theater because it was the only film in English, and was the only person to laugh at the jokes.
50. Diabetes and obesity runs in my family.
51. I don't believe genetics is an excuse not to take care of myself.
52. I envy people who have a legitimately healthy relationship with food. Like the Italians.
53. I like to deep-clean my stove, organize things, and use the crevice tool on my vacuum.
54. I hate doing dishes, making the bed, and folding laundry.
55. When I was a kid I was in the local paper advertising a belly-flop contest at the local pool.
56. Almost every piece of art hanging in my house is something I painted.
57. I consider myself artistic.
58. I do not consider myself musical.
59. I don't have very many close friends.
60. I seem to know a lot of people.
61. I am really picky about my chocolate, but I love banana laffy taffy's.
62. We used to own three cats. On my daughter's fourth birthday, one of them passed away. We found him curled up by the front door. After a proper burial in the backyard, I asked my daughter if she was okay, and she said, "It's okay, mom, we have two more cats."
63. I wasn't sure what to make of that.
64. I am a Taurus, but do not drive one.
65. In the summer, I could live on Taco Del Mar Vegan Burritos, Spicy Tuna Rolls and cold beer.
66. In the winter, I could live on stew and roasted root vegetables and cioppino and tea.
67. I have traveled to Iceland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, UK, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan.
68. In 2003, My husband and I organized (and payed for!) a four month long adventure tour in South America. We were to fly into Quito (Equador), spend a week or so in the Galapagos Islands, then bus/hike/bike/fly/taxi along the Western-ish side of S. America until we got to Tiera del Fuego. From there we were heading north through the Patagonia region of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Three days before we were to get our travel immunizations we found out I was pregnant, and had to cancel the trip.
69. I drag my husband into adventures and he's usually happy I do.
70. Cases in point: traveling through Europe; parenthood.
70. My best friend drags me into adventures and I'm usually happy she does.
71. Cases in point: I tried out for The Amazing Race because it was her dream to do so; doing a triathlon.
72: My child drags me into adventures and I'm very nearly always happy she does.
73: Case in point: running through sprinklers instead of weeding; going to the park instead of the grocery store.
74. I have every Billy Joel album ever released. Until he went classical. I don't have those.
75. Reading "Love and Logic" made me a better parent.
76. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who will ever read this list.
77. I'm competitive. Mostly with myself, but not completely.
78. I live in the same town where I grew up.
79. I love reading.
80. I don't read nearly enough.
81. I consider myself a good friend.
82. I consider myself lucky to have the friends that I do.
83. Every ten years, whether we need it or not, I fight with my best friend.
84. I consider myself a good wife.
85. I consider myself blessed to have the husband that I do.
86. I fight with my husband, but it's not too often, and we usually fight fair.
87. I buy organic veggies but regular laundry detergent. That eco stuff doesn't work as well as Tide.
88. I consider myself somewhat of a sell-out for recently hiring a yard maintenance service to mow and edge and weed. But I think it might be the smartest thing I've ever spent money on.
89. I didn't have health insurance when I got pregnant.
90. Things that seemed very reasonable five years ago now seem really irresponsible.
91. I hate it when wives bitch about their husbands just to have something to bitch about.
92. Sometimes I bitch about my husband.
93. I think I could be a decent writer, but I don't have the discipline for it.
94. Sometimes when I am working out really hard, I smile because I'm so pleasantly surprised to have a body that can do whatever it is I'm doing.
95. I used to really really love barbecued brisket.
96. Part of me always will.
97. One day we took our daughter to a restaurant and she ordered mac & cheese. The server told her that the mac & cheese came with grapes, chips and an oreo. My daughter looked at the server and asked, "what's an oreo?" This was one of the proudest moments I've had as a parent.
98. There are 13 happy houseplants in my living room. People have said I have a green thumb, but I just think it's just easy to grow houseplants when you have a lot of south-facing windows.
99. My 30th birthday is about 10 months away. I'm sort-of looking forward to it.
100. I'm becoming more and more like my mother. But it's cool.
101. It's taken me an entire day to put this list together.

Mary Meyer Tri & Open Water Clinic

In preparation for the Danskin, D and I attended the early morning tri and open water swim clinics put on by Mary Meyer Life Fitness. We first heard about MM early in our Tri adventure, when some more experienced tri-friends said "definitely go to these clinics." So we checked Mary Meyer herself out at a totally free REI seminar she gives on triathlon tips.

First of all, ANYONE in the Seattle area who is considering doing a tri for the first time should go to MM's free seminar. 1) It's free. 2) It's extremely helpful. 3) Tons of those newbie questions your a tiny bit afraid to ask (like, um, dude--what the hell do I wear?) get answered with awesome humor and candor. 4) You get exposed to Mary Meyer, who is so cool I am now sporting a major girl crush on her. 5) It's free.

After you go to the seminar you will very likely sign up for some of MM's clinics. D and I each bought the First Timer's Package: a punch-card good for one each of the Tri Clinic, Open Water Clinic and Pool Clinic, plus Two Clinics of Our Choice.

I will admit that the panicked need I felt to attend these clinics had faded somewhat since actually participating in the 5 Mile Lake Tri, but I was still exceited for the tips and tricks. So yesterday morning, at 'o-dark-thirty, I roused myself and put together my entire tri kit. All of it: wetsuit, hydration, bike, helmet, more pairs of shoes than I normally take on a European vacation...and swung by D's place to pick her up.

I don't know what it is about D. I think maybe she drove too fast past some Bayou swamp one time and a Voodoo practitioner cursed her tires forevermore. Or maybe it's that she habitually under-inflates. Dunno. In any event, in the past three weeks she's popped a bike tube and one of her car tires. So I get to D's place and as she's rolling her very nice, three-month-old bike out of her house to load onto my bike rack the side wall of her rear tire explodes. Note that she wasn't riding the bike, she was rolling it. For like 20 feet. We examined the tire and the side wall had a 3/8", triangle-shaped tear in it, like maybe a nail had snagged the tire and pulled a hunk back.

So we navigate our way along Lake Washington Blvd through the bicycling hoards starting their first few hours of the STP! (Go guys! You rock!) D says we should do the STP next year. Um, only if she makes amends to the Voodoo practitioner.

We get to the tri clinic and learn how to set up our transition area, then prepare for the swim. Speedy Reedy was there letting people trial wetsuits, and D wriggled into a full suit (and hated it!). We divided up into groups based on ability, and D and I self selected into the advanced group.

We waded out into the lake and swam two at a time towards our group's two swim instructors. When we reached her she gave us each a few words. My word was follow-through. After we had all completed our swim, the swim instructors went through the words. Those of us who had follow-through issues were told to make sure we completed our stroke by extending our hand all the way back to our hip. Apparently I was cutting my stroke off at the end. I think I was doing this because I am trying to concentrate on front-quadrant stroke mechanics, and after my arm gets past my shoulder I want to get it back up front as quickly as possible. But the reality is that cutting the stroke off is just shortening my "glide" time and increasing my stroke rate, both things I don't want. So it was a very helpful observation.

After our semi-individual swim assessment, we swam out to a floating pier and worked on group starts, rounding buoys and pacing. Then it was time to swim in and move to biking. I swam in until I was literally grabbing silt and sand at the bottom of the lake, then stood up. I was told I could have swam in 4 or 5 more feet. Shit! Okay, have to work on that.

Then the bike...oh the bike. Well, due to her flat tire, D was stuck with the beginners group for work on shifting, mounting, dismounting, etc. I strongly considered joining her because, although I am physically pretty solid on the bike, I shift the wrong way all the time and don't have a really solid feel for starts and stops. Other options were the intermediate group, with a flat ride, and the advanced group for hill climbing technique. I have flat's down (pedal!), so I was interested in either technique with beginners or hill climbing with advanced.

D told me to go ahead and go with the hill group, so I joined that group. As I rode up I said, "I don't know if I'm advanced yet, but I'd like to try the hill work." And then I fell over. Yup. I fell over, bike on top of me, right next to the hot Asian chick with the Cervelo P2. Mildly ego bruising. And knee bruising. It was the exact same thing that happened after the ride with my sister: I had my right foot out of my clips, ready to put my foot down as I stopped, and as I slowed my bike....slowly...tipped...to...the...left. The side where I was very much still clipped in and basically helpless. Lesson learned: unclip BOTH sides before I even begin to slow down.

A girl behind me did make me feel much better when, 30 seconds later, she also fell over. And we were the "advanced" group. Heh.

The ride itself wasn't much better. After describing our course, our bike leader took off. I was behind a gal in a green jersey. I followed her up Lk Wa Blvd, with other people following me, until it became clear that we were no longer following anyone but each other. Our leader was long gone, and we had missed a turn somewhere. Our second instructor, who had been bringing up the rear took us up a smallish hill, where we rejoined our original leader and half the intermediate group (apparently there was a convergence at some point). It was all very haphazard. So then original leader says, hey, we still have time to get in some hill work. Let's go back up Lk Wa Blvd and head up Madronna.

Then she takes off. Again! I'm determined to stay with her, but by a mile later it's her, a guy with a cool accent and strong riding skills, and me. When I glanced back there was nobody. I'm fairly sure we lost the rest of the group again. So Original Leader waits at a bend in the road and Accent Guy and I continue on. So now I'm following Accent Guy and it's just the two of us, and we eventually do go all the way up Madronna. I don't mind saying: that hill is a bitch. But I made it to the top, which amazes me, looking back on it. I even stayed seated for almost all of it.

And then we come down. A 10 minute up was about a 10 second down, and we get back to the MM Clinic a few minutes late. Everyone who wasn't totally ditched is already there. No one else did the hill. Mary Meyer, please take note...better communication and group management on the bike, please. When some people ride 22 mph native and some ride 13, the group can spread out pretty quick. And many of us don't know the neighborhood.

When I got back, I saw that D had managed to fall too. She got banged up pretty good, with a monster gash in the palm of her hand. Apparently they were practicing dismounts and she totally stole my moves and ended up with a bike on top of her.

Anyhow, the running portion of the clinic has started when I return from my almost solo bike excursion. We get an overview of proper running technique that sounds very familiar and off we go...a short little flat and then up (wait for it) Madronna Hill. I am really starting to hate this hill. The running doesn't take too long, but I do have the opportunity to talk to the run coach (who is very pleasantly not build like a typical runner: shorter, busier, nicely rounded) who confirms that she's giving people Chi Running technique. (Sidenote: Chi vs. Pose--still trying to figure out which one's for me. I like the whole detached leg feeling I get from Chi, but I also think working on my turnover ala Pose is key to getting my speed up.)

And then, that's that. There may have been some sort of Tri Clinic wrap-up for those people who stayed another 10 minutes; I don't know because for those who are also doing the Open Water Clinic, it was time to move 50 feet to the right and join that group.

The Open Water Clinic was like a sup-ed up version of the Tri Clinic's Swim section. It started with a lecture from Mary Meyer and some of the other coaches. Those who had already attended an Open Water Clinic could skip the lecture and get right to the swimming. The rest of us got an overview of swimming strokes and learned several ways to sight. We also learned how to modify our stroke if it was really choppy or wavy in the lake.

Then we repeated the 2x2 assessment drill, with D and I working rather concertedly to get Mary Meyer as our assessor. (I mentioned my girl crush, right? Don't judge! I'm not cyber stalking her or anything! I just want to be just like her when I grow up.) MM said "entry & follow-through" and later explained that I was continuing to cut off my stroke at the back (damnit!) and was also slapping the water as I came down, rather than cutting through it smoothly. She also said that those of us wearing wetsuits needed to be carful not to swim too flat, as the wetsuit wade it easy to stay really horizontal in the water. Interesting: I thought that it was maybe a good thing that the wetsuit cut down on my body roll, but now I know to keep a strong body rotation component in my stroke, even in a wetsuit. Great tip.

When we swam back to her after the tips, she said I looked very good, so I guess my attempts to slice into the water, put a bit more rotation into it, and reach down to my hip on my stroke made a difference. Yeah! And then we swam out to the floating dock and I was the first one there. Not that it's a race, but yeah--kinda it is a race. So I felt like I really did belong with the advanced swim group and that was a really great feeling.

Aftter some more skill work we all assembled back int he shallows for a 300 yd mock race. We were to swim along the swim area boundry, out to a buoy and back to shore. About half way through I ran into MM. Plowed right into her. She said my stroke looked good but I needed to sight more. Yes, I guess pile driving your would-be swim guru is a sign that one should look up more. Point taken, Mary. I didn't have to fight back panic, but I did have to switch to breathing every two strokes. Something about being out there: even if your not actually panicking, even if physically you're not working that hard, it's reassuring to breathe more often. It seems to be my pattern that I am really calm for about 100-150 yds into a race and then start to lose a bit of that cool. I am hoping that the MM Swim Workouts will help with this.

I came out of the water probably 7th or 8th of maybe 75 or 100 people who were doing the Open Water Clinic, so I felt pretty good about that. D, this time sans wetsuit, was just behind me, and within a few minutes most of the field was stripping off swim caps and making their way to the complementary Clif products and vitamin water. Mini Clif Bars are just the right size; Shot Blocks are like the bastard child of a jell-o shot and a no-doz, and I think I love them.

And then, after several coaches including MM congratulated us on getting out there and doing it, we wrapped up.

All in all, a very helpful session. I would rank the OW Clinic as a bit more helpful than the Tri clinic, but mostly because I already had one tri under my belt. For a total virgin, I think the Tri Clinic would really help lay out the details. I also think that in some ways the tri clinic was tougher than the actual tri. Not physically, of course, but in the sense that it was all the confusing parts without any of the smooth, "okay, now I pedal for an hour" parts that are pretty easy to get your head around and give you the mental time to rehearse your next move. I.e., "When I come into transition I will be totally unclipped, move to the side of the dismount area, and go!"

Strong points include the individual assessment within a large group environment, particularly with the swim. Also extremely good was MM's no-bullshit attitude and emphasis on mastering the head game of racing in general and open water swimming in particular. Direct quote: "If you get out there in the water and you start to panic--and we all do--you have two choices: get over it, or drown." She believes, as do I, that almost everybody can do more than they think they can, but sometimes they have to get out of their own freaking way and do it.

Very well done. I did find the cycling as noted to be a bit disorganized, and would have liked to have seen references/credit given to outside study sources such as the Chi Running they obviously style from. I will very likely take the open water clinic again and/or do an open water workout to continue to get comfortable in open water, but I feel like this was a great start.

Oh, by the way, the folks up the road at Triumph Multisport replaced Ds tire with some super heavy-duty almost unpoppable tire. Here's her hands after getting her tire off to take it into them:

Greenlake, The Lake So Nice I Ran It Twice

Maybe I was feeling guilty about the skipped 10K from yesterdays Crossfit WOD. In any event, this morning I drove to greenlake and ran that biatch twice. Okay, so by the second half of the second lap I was talking walk breaks (5 minute run-30 second walk). So, through most of it gazelle like creatures leaped past me, comfortably chatting away with their running buddies while I cranked up the funk on the iPod to drown out the sound of my own labored breathing. So I thought really hard about turning back for my car as I passed it 1/8th of the way into lap 2. Who care, right? I had to take walk breaks not that long ago for one lap of Greenlake. There will always be faster runners. I did not quit. That's the point, right? Hell yeah that's the point.

So my not-quite-10K time trial came in at 1:01:25, and I'm pleased to say I did not foul: my first lap was 31 minutes (including a brief stop to chat with some obvious triathletes wriggling into wetsuits at the lake edge.) and I finished in just under 62 minutes. The 5.6 miles I ran is almost exactly 9K, actually, so scaling my time I would estimate my current 10K time to be 69 or 70 minutes.

Hit It.

Crossfit's WOD was a 10K. How ironic that I went and ran 5 miles yesterday. Skipping that WOD, sorry.

Instead, I swam! Yeah, the pool is my friend again and it feels good to have gotten back in this past week. I warmed up for about 15 minutes, then swam 30 laps in 30 minutes. That's 1200 yards in 30 minutes. (My short-pool is only 20 yds long, so 40 yds per full lap.) 1200 yds in 30 minutes seems like a pretty easy pace, but towards the end I was pushing to make up time, so the last third of the swim was definitely quicker than the first.

After the swim, I met up with my friend Rosemary for a weight workout. She skipped out on the group class to come bang weights with me in the big boy room, and I'm so glad she did! It was really nice to work out with someone again, and RM is quite strong for a cardio junkie. ;)

I did have one "why the hell did I say that?" moments when RM and I were at one end of the weight room pausing between sets of walking lunges. There was a guy-middle age, in good shape--doing bicep curls by swinging his entire back, torso, shoulders and hips into the move. I'm talking about the type of lifting form only a Sports Medicine Doc with a lot of bills to pay could love. So I look up at RM and say "See that? Don't ever do that. He's lifting that weight with his dick. If I put him up against a wall and locked in his elbows he'd have to go down in weight." So I'm pretty sure he heard me, because he gave me a super dirty look. Was is the thing about dick-lifting?

Anyhow, here's what RM and I did:

Superset 12 x 3
Leg Press
Sumo Squat Jump

Superset 12 x 3
Walking Lunge 50 steps
Wide Leg DB Deadlift

Superset 12 x 3
Alternating Chest Press on Med Ball
Elevated Pushups (20 pushups per set)

Superset 12 x 4
Wood Chop Up Cable (2 sets per side)
Wood Chop Down Cable (2 sets per side)

Shoulder Out-and-Around 12 x 3
Bicep 21's 12 x 3

Cardio, Sweet Cardio

Ran five miles in 2 chunks, with a stop in the middle at my girlfriend Deanne's place to watch her kidlets splash in the pool. Fun!

Focused on running form and feel I'm making improvements (strides, if you will) but it's going to take consistent, diligent effort to get up to the place where I'm comfortable with a 10K. In training for the sprint tri, I did multiple workouts at 2 and 3 times race distance in the swim and on the bike. I never ran more than 5K, ever. Never did overdistance training, never pushed my boundries in running. Why? Um, I don't like running. I don't feel good at it. I feel like if I push myself really really hard fr a very long time I might still not feel good at it, and that nags at me.

But then I remind myself that I used to be unable to swim two laps. I taught myself to be comfortable in the water, learned how to swim, and now I really like it. If I can learn to like swimming and can feel confident and competent in that skill, then I can learn just about anything. Maybe even how to run.

Hit It.

AM: 1+ hour rock climb with K-Lo. This was a tough workout. I had jello-arms at the end, but it was so damn fun!


Here's K-Lo. She was really great at bouldering, and showed me a few moves. Definitely a fun (and slightly scary) way to totally burn out your entire upper body.


Hanging on with all I had. K-Lo's lessons really helped, but by the time I started to figure out the mental side of it a tiny bit, the physical side was just done.


Less blurry pic of me on the same stretch of wall.


PM: 600 yd swim, then:

Crossfit WOD "Angie":
100 Pull-ups (Band Assisted; tore hand @ 85.)
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups (50 unanchored; 50 anchored)
100 Squats (butt to medball)

Time: 33:23

Just like the Fran from July 5, the thing that killed me here were the pullups. Okay, the pushups weren't great either, but the pullups are just so slow. And I even used a band assist! But hell, I did it and I have a benchmark now.

Hit It.

Cardio: 4 x 400 meter repeats @ 8:13-9:40 per 400. Hard to get a totally accurate number because I switched lanes mid way through set 3 and said hi to my swim buddy for set 4. If I want to be a "real" triathlete, do I have to start taking these "sets" and "sessions" and whatnot more seriously?

My comfort pace seems to be a bit over 2 minutes per 100. If I can get to the point where I can sustain a 2 minute/100 meter pace over a solid mile, so I'm swimming an open water mile in 32-35 minutes, I'll be very happy with that.

Crossfit WOD from Sunday 08/07/08:

As Rx:

155 pound Squat Clean and Jerk, 30 reps

The barbell goes from ground to overhead, passing through a front squat in which the crease of the hip passes below the height of the kneecap. The finish position is with the arms, hips and knees fully extended, arms overhead, with at least a portion of the ear visible in front of the arm. Dropping the barbell is acceptable.

As Performed:
65 pound Squat Clean and Jerk, 15 reps
75 pound Squat Clean and Jerk, 15 reps

Felt okay about this workout...it didn't kill me, so I think I modified the weight too low...will definitely try with 85 next time. I also feel like I'm not quite getting under the bar quickly enough. The drop to full squat was correct on maybe 10 reps. The rest I don't think I went deep enough.

Goals & Weight

In an old post, I think I talked about some of my fun fitness goals now that my weight and body composition is more or less where I want it. Josh Hillis talks about how women can strive for a certain weight or fat percentage for so long that when they actually achieve it it's hard to be done. The temptation is to keep going: to get leaner and leaner.

But unless you are literally a world class athlete or a woman in active preparation for a body building competition, there is very little reason to maintain a sub-16ish% body fat percentage (and for most of us, very little hope of that anyway). Josh says, and I'm paraphrasing here, that below about 17% body fat, most women will start to lose their "womanliness." This is where your personal ethicist come into play. I like a sporty, well muscled look on me and on women in general, but hold short of liking that ultra lean body builder look. I should note that I also don't really care for the willowy distance runner look, but that doesn't mean I don't covet the skills of both the body builder and the marathoner.

Whatever your personal ideal "look" is, once you've gotten down to a healthy, strong body composition and have maintained that for awhile, what's next? Unless you are going into competition, most women are not well served by trying to strip off every bit of body fat, but if you've caught the fitness bug you still want to keep pushing yourself.

And this is when it gets fun. When you're not thinking about how your diet and exercise will effect how you look and you start thinking in terms of what you can do with your body. Small successes build confidence and allow you to try things that you never imagined possible. My first small step into athleticism was a very intro-level pilates class at the rec center. Now I'm eagerly scanning MultiSport Washington for Sprint and International Distance Tris and even contemplating things I've sworn million times I'd never do: marathons, IM distance tris, long distance open water swimming....

In the gym my goals have changed too. I don't care if I ever weigh 150 pounds. Honestly, at this point I wouldn't want to lose the muscle mass to make it happen. I do know I want to be able to perform 10 strict pull-ups and 10 kip pull-ups. I'm working on single-arm push-ups and handstand push-up. I want to squat my body weight (155 lb.--I'm at a 135# squat, so this is definitely in sight) and deadlift 1.5x times my bodyweight. Way out there--way, way out on the horizon--I'm wondering if one day I might be able to do a single muscle up.

I don't always know what fitness or life obsession I'm going to fall into next, but I do know that when you start setting goals to push yourself instead of a goal to shrink yourself, fitness gets a hell of a lot more fun.

Fitness Around the House (Part Two)

We can give the upper body a good workout at home, too--no gym bicep curls required!

Kiddo Push-Ups: when I'm feeling really good I can get 4, maybe 5 of these before I collapse, so I often drop to my knees before my form totally goes to hell. Another great exercise to build strength slowly as your child grows. I used to be able to do 4 or 5 when my daughter was 5 or 10 pounds lighter, so even if my reps haven't increased my workload has.



Laundry Basket Bent Over Rows: Why not? Laundry just isn't that fun; might as well bang out a few bent-over rows while I'm moving baskets of dirties around. Jeans and wet towels are the heaviest, but this is still a pretty easy lift.


One Arm Countertop Push-Up: One of my "fun" fitness goals is a true one-armed push-up. I'm pretty far from achieving that, but over time I can get there. For now, I modify my working off a raised surface (smith bar at the gym; countertop at home). I adjust the workload with my distance from the surface and the spread of my feet: closer distances and wider stance is easier. Note my daughter doing her own pushups in the background! Awesome!


Countertop Tri Dips: The distance between countertops in my kitchen is perfect for tri dips, but any chair or bench would work as well. For the longest time, doing these made me feel like my shoulder was going to jump off my arm in protest, but I think I'm finally built up the stabilization strength to do them right.

Hit It.

Crossfit WOD:
In any order, perform the following three workouts:

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
65 pound Thruster
Pull-ups (chest must hit the bar to count)

SubTotal Time: 18 minutes. This was sick. It almost killed me. The thrusters were fine; I could hip snap the bar up, and my final 9 were unbroken. The pullups were impossible. By the last nine I was resting 30 seconds at least between pull-up attempts to get ONE pull up. When I get my pullup ability together, so will my time for this Fran.

5 rounds for time of:
275 pound Deadlifts, 5 reps (185 pounds for women)
10 Burpees (with clap overhead while airborne)

SubTotal Time: DNF. DNS (Did not Start, actually). Not attempted; had friends over and ate chips and drank beer instead. Hell yeah I just said that. Will try to get this component in on Sunday.

Run 1.5 K on a road or track (Actual run: 1.65 km): 9:28

SubTotal Time: Not yet known.

Total time for all three workouts:

Fitness Around the House (Part One)

I was chatting with my friend Frannie, an inspiration of a woman who is on her own fitness journey. Her trainer Lauren was talking about little extras she does to burn off excess energy and get in mini-workouts wherever she is. She mentioned reverse lunges while pumping gas (love it!). I told them about the Sumo Squat with Heel Raise I do while brushing my teeth (a Hesper move). So that got me thinking of all my favorite weirdo workout-y things to do around the house. Here's part one:

Lower Body Around The House Exercises:

Kiddo Squats - Variation #1: On the shoulders. Great way to add a little more difficulty to an air squat. Also a good progressive exercise: as your kiddo grows, you get stronger! I'm up to a 48 lb. 4-year old here!


Kiddo Squats - Variation #2: Piggy back style. I think this is harder than on the shoulders, and a great indoor technique for gearing up for hiking/backpacking season.


Kiddo Walking Lunges: I love lunges. Excellent strength/power and shaping exercise. As you can see, my helper loves them too--because she gets to be really tall!


Sumo Squat Raise with Alternating Heel Raise: The video of this just looked a bit too--um--suggestive, especially when I actually brushed my teeth for demonstration purposes. Hubby exercised his veto power, so I'll add still pics asap. In the meantime, here's a description: hold a static Sumo Squat for two minutes, alternately raising one heel every 30 seconds (the SonicCare beeping will guide you). Do not raise out of squat when switching heels.


It turns out that nothing in the world makes you hold your core in while performing an exercise more than the knowledge that you are being filmed in a sport bra.

Dara Torres: One Badass Mom

Dara Torres just made history. I just watched her take on the best female swimmers in the U.S. at the Omaha Olympic Trials and win--WIN!--the 100 meter free. Not bad for a retired mom. Okay, so she retired from a career of winning Olympic medals in swimming, but this chick is 41 and has a toddler.

You'd figure that, to out swim kids half her age in a fast-twitch sprint of a swim, she'd be in great shape. And you'd be right. I think the picture below demonstrates that she has definitely gotten her pre-baby body back.

In winning, Dara earned a spot at Beijing and will become the only 5 Time Olympic Swimmer ever. She's going to make the women's swimming events even more interesting--a great Rocky V style comeback story. What a badass.

Tri Card From Bella

I didn't get a picture quickly enough to get this up last weekend, but this is the card Bella made me after last Saturday's triathlon.  She made this entirely on her own, without help or prompting, then gave it to me.  I almost cried.  Okay, maybe I did cry a little.  I have one amazing kid.

Hit It.

Crossfit WOD:

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

4 minutes completed, but I did this WOD completely wrong: I used an assist band and knocked out 1 the first minute, then just totally forgot what I was doing and did 8 the 2nd minute. Then I went back to 3 for the 3rd minute, and 4 for the 4th minute. Couldn't quite knock out 5 in the 5th minute. So, 4 minutes.

Then, because, Crossfit or no, 16 pull-ups with an assist band does not a workout make, I did a mini circuit:

5 rounds:
-65# Bench Press - 12
-Sumo Squat Box Jumps - 12
-95# Deadlift - 12

3 rounds:
-22.5# Bent Over DB Row - 12
-45# Alternating DB Chest Press with Tabletop Leg Hold (22.5 #/arm) - 10
-GHD Sit-Ups -8

Cardio: Treadmill Intervals
3 rounds - 12 minutes total plus warm up/cool down
2 minutes @ 4 mph
2 minutes at 7.5-8 mph

Cardio note: I had some kind of running breakthrough today. My legs were moving so fast, but it felt like I was just doing knee-highs in place. I thought about leading with my knee, which really helped, and eventually I worked my way up to 8 mph, which is NUTS fast for me. Like the fastest I've ever gone. I'm interested to know how the treadmill experience will translate to the real world. It also helped to practice on a slight up grade--like 3%, because the strike at fore foot felt so much more natural.

My Shoulders Are Killing Me!

Curses, Crossfit Push-Jerks! Curses! My shoulders are up into my ears they are so sore. Now I might have to do yoga or that damn foam roller thing to get everything back in alignment. Or maybe swimming...I like swimming (did I just say that!?).

Speaking of swimming, not a lot of it has been happening (okay, none) since the tri. But, I'm signed up for the Mary Meyer Swim Clinic so that should change soon. All fellow tri-virgins in the Seattle Area (or near virgins--ahem) I strongly recommend the Mary Meyer Free Tri Clinics held around town at the various REIs.

And just in case you're feeling too confident about your swimming and want to learn a new stroke....say sthe the racing frog-kick side stroke (can you make that up?), here's how the Navy-freaking-SEALS do it...and it's kinda strange.

Hit It.

Cardio: Instructor Led Spin - 50 min high intensity. I sweated like a pig.

Crossfit WOD as Originally rX:
Five Rounds for Time
135 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
135 pound Hang power clean, 12 reps
135 pound Front Squat, 9 reps
135 pound Push Jerk, 6 reps

Crossfit WOD as Actually Done:
Four Rounds for Barely Surviving
95 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
65 pound Hang power clean, 12 reps
95 pound Front Squat, 9 reps
65 pound Push Jerk, 6 reps

Wasn't going to do any weights do to my double up yesterday, but I walked in to the weight room for some stretching and there was a cool guy - Peter - doing the WOD. I had to jump in! Doing the WOD with someone else is so much better! It's amazing how much much harder I pushed myself with the camaraderie of a fellow crossfitter! Thanks for the workout, Peter! Hope to see you at the gym again!

Hit It.

AM:
Crossfit WOD

Tuesday 080701
Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps @ 45-55-60-60-60
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps @ 45-65-70-85-85
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps @ 50-55-65-75-85

Cardio: hi cadence spin - 40 minute

PM:
Mini-Circuit x 3 sets
-Pull-Ups (band assist as I fatigued) - 8 reps
-Deadlifts 115 lb. - 12 reps
-Gripper Plate Swings 35 lb. - 15 reps.
Squat-Go-Round w/ 45 # Bar x 3 sets
-Back Squat - 12 reps
-Front Squat - 12 reps
-Overhead Squat - 12 reps
Single Arm Row 25# - 1 rep

Cardio: Fun Swim with Kiddo - 15 minutes (not counting it for training purposes)

Hit It.

Did Sat's WOD, modified:

45 Double Unders
45 Squat Cleans (30# until I get proper form training; but I am confident I could go up to 45#)
45 dips (was doing these five at a time by the end)
15 Double Unders (I owe 30 more - had to run to get to my delivery).

No cardio.

Got my first double unders today. Maybe the athletic confidence of the tri helped. Still have yet to get multiple DUs in a row...as it is I was pulling about three singles as a lead in to each double under. That worked for about 12 or 15 double unders, then I would fatigue, catch my rope, start over, fatigue, catch my rope...you get the idea. So it probably took close on 270 "unders" to actually get 45 DUs (perfect score 90, plus maybe 2 or 3 to warm up and get it going).

Okay, crossfitting moms, someone help me out with this. When I do the jumping exercises--jumping rope, box jumps etc for any length of time--I can get a little post baby bladder leaking going on. I know I'm not the only mom who deals with this. What's a girl to do? Seriously, I want suggestions. Anyone?

First Tri Ever! Five Mile Lake Woman's Tri.

My first triathlon! Impressions: this all-woman tri was very friendly and welcoming. I got tons of support from the experienced athletes around me, and had a great event. This was a sprint, the "easiest" of the triathlons: 400 meter swim, 14 mile bike, 5 km run. My goal was to finish sub 2 hours. I surprised myself, rounding the final leg of the run and seeing 1:29 on the clock. I sprinted to the end, determined to make a sub 1:30, and came in at 1:29:29, placing 12th in the 25-29 age group.

Here's pix of the whole shebang:

We arrived at around 6:30 to a nearly empty field: fast registration lines and a very open racking/transition area were a nice way to ease into things. I snagged the end of the bike rack (premium space, I figured, since everyone who arrived before me was set up on an end) and copied the transition set up of the people around me, adding what I remembered from the very helpful Mary Meyer Tri Info Session.

Then, Nick, Bella and I checked out the swim course, hung around the park area, drank water, ate a power bar and just chilled for awhile, until I decided it was high time to get wetsuited-up. I smeared my ankles and wrists with bodyglide, wriggled into my wetsuit, spent 10 minutes pinching and pulling everything into place, and jumped in the water for a test swim. I swam an out-and-back of the final portion of the U-Shaped swim leg, getting a feel for what it would look like at the swim exit.

The swim was tougher than I thought in terms of catching my breath and getting into a good smooth groove. Frankly, groove just didn't happen, especially since my novice sighting skills had me checking around every four or five strokes for the buoys. But apparently that didn't slow me down too much, since my swim split was faster than the 400 meter practice I did in the pool. And, my totally dorky and never before worn seal goggles proved awesome, giving me leak proof comfort and high visibility for sighting.

My wave was the first to go. Uh, no pressure. They sounded the foghorn, and away we went. The first part was nuts: lots of kicking, grabbing, thrashing and other unladylike behavior as the athletes jockeyed for position and clear water en route for the first buoy. As we rounded the first buoy, the field spread out. I made it to the second buoy, breathing every second stroke for some time to try and calm my adrenaline-pumped breathing (didn't really work but it was a super short swim, so I guess I could muscle through it). I turned towards the exit, but as it turned out, my sighting got wonky at the end, and I stood up about 20 meters right of the exit area and had to do the high-knee run to the actual exit. Running through water is pretty slow. Still, when I crossed the mat and ran for the bike, there were a lot of pink swim caps still out in the water, and most of the bikes were still racked up.

T1 (the first transition) felt pretty smooth. I got my wetsuit off and my feet clean and into socks without too much trouble, snapped on my helmet and glasses, grabbed my bike and headed out. Nick said my mount-up n the bike was really clean. Apparently I passed several people who took a bit longer to get in the saddle and go.

I loved, loved, loved how quick I felt on the bike. Since all my training rides have been with the trailer and Bella, I really didn't know how fast I would be solo. Without the extra 70+ pounds of towage, I averaged 17.5mph, and felt great. Sure, some hills sucked, but in general I felt really on it. I definitely passed more people than passed me, and most of the people who did pass me were on badass tricked out Bianchi's and Cervelo's (bikes that cost--ahem--alot), so I didn't feel too bad.

Another highlight of the bike portion: I rode with a great athlete who acted as my rabbit for much of the ride. We had quite a bit of banter going, and passed each other --back-and-forth-- several times. Having that camaraderie was awesome! One big thing to work on for the bike leg next time: hydration! I had maybe three sips of water, but should definitely have had more.

T2, where I switched out of bike shoes and into running kicks was a bit less smooth. My race belt came unclipped and I had to fiddle with it; my lace locks and trembling fingers combined to tie the worlds stupidest knot, so I had to loop my laces around themselves in this gregorian kluge. It was okay, just not as clean.

I felt painfully slow on the run. Not a shocker, as I'm not naturally quick as a runner, and the first 1/2 mile I could feel the imprint of my bike cleats in the soles of my feet even though I had switched out to running shoes. They (those who have done this before) always say your legs feel like jell-o for the first mile or so. True! I had jell-o legs and despite my best efforts to keep up a quick fore-front cadence, I reverted to a shuffley jog on several occasions. The run was fairly neglected in my training, and it hurt me. I passed...um...no one, I think. But I was passed by quite a few people, even from different, later starting waves. A strong run really can make or break the previous effort on the bike, and my weak leg was pretty apparent.

My goal was to finish sub-2 hours, and for my first tri I thought that was ambitious but doable. Here's how I did, in cold hard numbers:
Rank (Age Group): 12
Rank (Overall): 79
Swim Rank (AG): 8 | Swim Time: 7:25.2 | Swim Pace: 2.02 mph
T1: 2:13.8
Bike Rank (AG): 10 | Bike Time: 47:59.9 | Bike Pace: 17.5 mph
T2: 1:19.7
Run Rank (AG): 15 | Run Time: 30:31.0 | Run Pace: 9:51 mph
Total Time: 1:29:29.6

All in all, an awesome first tri. I loved it, had a great time and can't wait to get out there and do it again!

To Run Faster, Stop Crosstraining?

New York Times article sent to me by training buddy D:

For Peak Performance, 3 Is Not Better Than 1

The article basically suggests that it is not possible to peak in three separate sports at the same time because human physiology won't allow you to optimize performance in biking at the same time as running. Opposing muscle groups and all that, plus basic time management...even a top level triathlete is unlikely to put in more than 10 hours a week into running because they need to have at least that into the bike, and a few swims too. Compare that to a pro-level marathoner-who's going to have more time to run?

Triathlon is about training to create a balance in your endurance capacity across disciplines. Here's my thought: is it really appropriate to think of tri as THREE sports anyway? Sure, the components look like open water swimming, road racing and running, but isn't tri really more (or at least different) than the sum of it's parts? Countless pro-level training strategems for tri will tell you that it's not how fast you run, it's how fast you run off the bike.

Tearing up the bike and taking top honors in that leg only to hobble through the run and get passed by 100 people doesn't get you anywhere. It's the race as a whole that matters. Everyone would love to shave 3 minutes off their bike time, but not at the cost of adding 5 minutes to the run.

Triathlon is about training to create a balance in your endurance capacity across disciplines. And that's why tri training is different, and why a tri should be viewed as a single sport, not three distinct sports done in quick succession.