Woodsy

Oh, and then there was a race

I've taken my time with this report, trying to make it more interesting.  But nothing really catastrophic or entertaining happened on race day.  I know that's good, but makes for a boring race report.  Wardrobe malfunctions, falling over, puking- all good blog material but sorry, you'll just have to suffer on through what really happened.

Swim

I showed up bright and early for at 6 am for the practice swim on Friday morning, and was the only one there.  Hmmm.  Where are all the other type-A triathletes?  The race director was there setting up the swim start and advised me to wait until a few more people showed up, which finally happened about 6:30ish.  Interesting. 

I did 2 practice swims before the race and felt a LOT better going in than I did at CDA 2 years ago.  The water was comfortable in a wetsuit, and since the swim was actually in a river instead of the ocean it was calm without chop or swell.  There was a current, noticeable only in that my "back" time was significantly shorter than my "out" in practice.  The course was a "lollipop" - deep water start, swim out, loop around twice, and come back to shore.  My only worry was missing the loop turnaround point- which was silly as I knew there would be a FEW people in front of me to follow.  In fact, my plan was to stay behind someone/anyone as much as possible for the drafting benefit.  

Mass start.  Hurry up dude, you're behind already!

I started somewhere in the middle which was new for me, usually I move to the back so not to get clobbered and swum over.  Although I did get clocked more times than I can remember, it paid off in my swim time.  Along with several 4k+ pool workouts and ocean swims in Kona!  Swimming outside made those long workouts SO much more enjoyable.  I might even go so far as to say I liked swimming.  Went to masters practice a couple times a week too, that was a lot of fun (seriously).  There were 10 people in my lane one time!

Swimmers streaming in

My goal for the swim was to PR (anything under 1:26) and I ended up with a 1:15- super excited!!!

 
Bike

The bike course was 2 loops.  I pre-rode some of the course including "Heartbreak hill" which was a doozie but not super long.  You could see the top anyhow.  But even in the granny gear it was sure to lay down some hurt on the second lap, since it's near the end.  Overall the course was pretty hilly, comparable to CDA.  Some long flat sections but a decent amount of climbing.  The weather on race day was pretty close to perfect with the exception of some wind; headwind on the way out and tailwind on the way back which is the better scenario.  After a couple of nasty windy rides on the Queen K, I was prepared for that.  Launched a bottle almost immediately after I started riding...damn, tires are probably overinflated.  Oops.  I had the bike shop pump them up and didn't really think to check the pressure other than noticing they were "full" and figured that would be fine.  Not so fine after mile upon mile of chipseal- ouch. 

Coming into town after the first loop

Overall the bike was slower than I expected, after seeing 3:08 near the end of the first loop I was a little discouraged, but stuck to the plan and was able to hold almost the same pace on the second loop.  The week after, I compared average wattage to CDA (where I biked 6 hours) and Aus was only 2 W less, so then I felt better about it.  Had a much more consistent effort this time around.  I didn't have aero-anything at this race either, unlike CDA where I was lucky enough to have a friend loan me some sweeet aero wheels and dorky helmet :)

Bike time 6:20- I had hoped for something closer to 6 hrs but without knowing the course or conditions, hard to predict.

Run

My run mileage was pretty conservative for this race, since I was coming back from injury.  The goal was really just to make it to the start line.  I started running again last October, which seems like plenty of time except that I was starting with a half mile run/walk.  I kept telling myself in training that I didn't have to run fast, I just had to keep running.  That's really what an Ironman marathon is all about!  Did a few split runs where I ran once in the morning and then again later in the afternoon.  My longest "day" was 18 miles, split 5/13.  My longest single run was 17 miles, which I did once.  Did quite a few in the 13-14 mile range.  I didn't have any injury problems, with the exception of a slight twinge during my biggest training week 3 weeks before the race.  Think I tweaked something during big ring intervals on the bike, and one knee bothered me a bit while running.  Pushed and rearranged some runs, took extra days off, and all was fine.  But it did freak me out.  Glad to know that I have a healthy sense of paranoia about such things, now!

 

Early in the run, apparently.

As for the race, I was targeting an 8:45 pace and basically hit it, although the first miles were closer to 8:30 and I fell off pace a little in the last few miles.  I walked through a couple of the last aid stations and up a ridiculously steep but short hill, but was never forced to walk due to the stomach issues I've had in past IMs.  A very good thing!  I noticed a couple times near the end that my pace was slowing- actually didn't feel like I was slowing down, it was just happening.  Eventually it got even slower due to congestion on the course (disadvantage of a 4-loop run) and getting dark.  After each loop you got a wristband to put on- your last wristband was a different color indicating you could veer off to the finish line shortly.  The hardest point in the race for me was finishing the second loop, as my legs were starting to feel fatigued and I was only half done!  My brother was race photographer extraordinaire and I saw him on every lap, though I never knew exactly where that would be.

Run time was 3:53, PR for an IM marathon.

Finished!  8 min faster than CDA and 20 min slower than IMC.  Three very different races.

 

I got to hang out in the med tent for a while, again.  I'm always really nauseous after finishing, but that's about it.  Really, REALLY sore the next few days- had forgotten about that part!  The next several days were also spent eating and walking our way through Australia, so much fun!

Rugby game- the Waratahs

Waterfront dining by the Harbor Bridge.  We also climbed the bridge as part of a tour.

Took a ferry out to Watsons Bay

Saw the Opera house inside and out.  An engineer's dream, or nightmare?

Wine country with Hello Kitty

The Blue Mountains

More silliness

Got the nerve up to take a dip in the Newcastle ccean baths on my last morning.  Holy crap it was cold!  Was a VERY short swim.

Haven't decided on the next Ironman, but it will probably be late next summer or fall.  Considering IMC again, IMAZ or Cozumel.  As for this year, I'm deciding between the Soma 1/2 or Austin 70.3 on Oct. 23rd.  Any opinions on either?

Ironman Australia, an introduction

Wow.  I realize this blog has pretty much been decommissioned but I'm still going to use it for this race report.  Maybe I'll be inspired to write more once I am settled back into reality.  Maybe a blog-worthy change will be coming up soon.  Maybe I'll change my blog picture. 

I had 8 weeks of sabbatical time to burn so what better way to spend it than training for an Ironman?  I can't think of any other way!  Wanted to escape at the rainiest/crappiest/most depressing time of year in the Pac NW.  Also wanted to use the extra time to travel internationally.  So my choices were

1.  Ironman New Zealand - Pretty but tends to be a little cool-ish as I understand it.  It is also inland, and I wanted to be on the ocean.  Not necessarily to swim in the ocean, but to look at it.

2.  Ironman China - Seriously considered this one, as it would be pretty adventurous and almost assuredly hot.  But I decided I was not adventurous enough to swim in a river in China (won't even swim in the Willamette)!  As it turns out they cancelled the swim this year, so at that time I instantly regretted my decision.  Totally should have done it.  But then they cancelled the whole thing.  That would have been kind of a let down! 

3.  Ironman Australia - Yes!  I've never been to Australia, Port Macquarie is on the ocean, and Hawaii is "on the way".

So from Hawaii I was off to the Land Down Under.  My time in Hawaii might be a separate blog post, or a pictorial essay at least.  I posted a lot on Facebook while I was there so I'm sure my FB friends got pretty sick of hearing about how wonderful it was.  Transporting a bike Down Under turned out to be more of an ordeal than I expected.  Since I had 2 different tickets on 3 different airlines, I had to claim my bike in Honolulu and again in Sydney to take it through customs, then finally in Port Mac.  That means I got to pay twice too.  Just glad it wasn't three times.   When I landed in Port Mac on Wednesday night it was raining- arrgggghhh.  This is what I was running away from!  Luckily the rain diminished each day and race day was totally clear.

 

Race kit, courtesy of Christine.  Note the band-aids are open for use!

 

Race monkey, courtesy of Chris

 

Hello Kitty came from Hawaii, in the bike box.  The wine?  From Australia of course.

 

And my brother came from LA!

New York City *or* how to vacation without training or racing.

August was been a busy month.  Work, pack, unpack.  Rinse and repeat.  Two weekends ago, Sarah and I went up to Mt Hood to volunteer at the PCT Ultramarathon.  It was inspirational to see people finish 50 MILES of running and although I can't say I've ever had the desire to run that far, I do miss trail running.  I did the 50K a few years ago though.  A 50k is easier to wrap your head around, especially if you are crazy, because it's "only" about 5 miles longer than a marathon.  If you take on a 50 miler, you run a marathon and you're just over half done at that point.  OMG. 

To continue the weekend of insanity, after staying overnight in the cabin we drove to Larch mountain for a time trial.  I could not think of any excuses as it was kind of on the way back to Portland.  An x-mile uphill time trial also known as OUCH (Oregon Uphill CHampionship).  Appropriatly named.  Since I haven't done this race before, and haven't been "training" with any intensity, I had no expectations.  No power meter, no target heart rate, and no clue how sore I would be the next day.  OUCH indeed.  I ended up doing OK though, and right behind Sarah again.  I thought it was funny that although we haven't been training together, we still finished 35 seconds apart on a 1hr 17min TT.  We both got second in our respective categories.  To round out the weekend, I went to work at 2pm and worked until 2am.  As is normal for Sunday but didn't help work with the lactic acid buildup in my legs. 

Worked Monday, Tuesday, and then was off again, this time to the airport.  Airborne just a few hours after getting off work at 2am.  I suppose I was asking for it; caught a cold somewhere between Portland and New York City.  Landed in New York, found the fro yo place (had a sore throat, you know), and crashed at the hotel for 5 hours.  I regained consciousness just in time for my brother to text me that he had landed.  Go time.

First day, Rockefeller center.  We took the NBC studio took and checked out the Top of the Rock.

Having fun with the Empire State Building.

 This would fit perfectly on my mantle!

 Bird's eye view of a running mecca, Central Park.
 

Evening was dinner at an Italian restaurant and people watching in Times Square.  And coffee of course.  Lots of coffee throughout the entire trip.

Second day got off to a really early start.  We decided to go see the Black eyed peas who were playing in Central park as part of the Good Morning America summer concert series.  Up at 5am and joined the line filing into Central Park by 6.  With Tim Horton doughnuts and coffee of course, we have our priorities- peas or no peas.  Got into the concert area at about 6:30, and the "concert" was advertised to be from 7-9.  Imma be tired of standing around by 8.  We listened to this band called Sound Check that played the same thing over and over, and the Black eyed peas came out at 8:30 to play 3 songs. 

Peas talking with the show hosts.

So when you see these concerts on TV and they seem to cut into the show part way, they're really not.  That is the whole show.  So, free was a good price!  But it was pretty cool, and kind of strange to be at a concert just after dawn.  Off to do some shopping.  A discount department store called Century 21, where I bought a leopard-print purse.  Walked up to Soho and ran into Kanye West at Jamba Juice.

Don't know what he ordered, neither Darren or I are big fans.  He definitely stood out at Jamba Juice though.


 

Pretzel from a street vendor and off to a Broadway show, Promisies Promises.  This was just an awesome show.  

The show's billboard in Times Square.

Sean Hayes was really funny, a lot of Jack-like humor if you were a fan of Will and Grace.  We got our Playbills signed after the show.

Stage door action.  Got my autograph!

Kristin Chenowyth is super tiny, but the woman can sing big. 

Third day: haircut on 5th Avenue.  I did this after the NY marathon a few years ago, it's quite the indulgence :)  Darren passed on that opportunity and went to see a matinee of Phantom since he hadn't seen it.  I proceded to get my hair nice and sweaty with a run in Central park.  I am not supposed to run on pavement yet, which I figured would be a challenge in New York City.  Luckily the NYRR website described a cinder trail around the reservoir.  I think it was about a mile, and totally perfect.  I couldn't believe my luck finding this trail; rehabbing an injury can be fun.  If not for that I would have run just anywhere.

This is what running is all about.  I love running in new places when I travel, so being able to do that here made me very happy :) :)

After that we saw a different kind of show called Next to Normal.  Completely different than the one we had seen the previous night, but very good. 

"Next to Normal" might be pushing it for us.  Why be Normal?

The next day was basically spent sleeping in and getting to the airport.  Bagels, check.  Pizza, check.  Actually we had done a lot of the touristy things last time we came to NYC a few years ago: Empire state building, Statue of Libery, WTC site, Today and Dave Letterman shows.  So this trip was a bit more relaxed.

Back to work for 3.5 days- ugh.  Unpack, grab laundry off the floor from two weekends ago and do more laundry, pack it.  Clean the bike and pack it.  Oh, and go through the *mountain* of mail that Lindsay has piled up for me on the table.  It was literally toppling over, without much room for two more weeks of mail.  This morning was the Garlic festival 10K, where I volunteered at my usual spot on death corner and saved lives.  A quick track run followed, and then it was off to the airport again, bike box and 47.9lb suitcase in tow.  I'm blogging on the plane with an Alaskan Amber; Off to Barton springs, Mellow Johnny's and Sixth Street. And per diem.  Oh, and I might learn something.

**Update- I did!

After I return from 2 weeks of play-work in the Lone Star state, I work-work for 2 days and head north to Ironman Canada for a weekend of swim, bike, run, volunteering and cheering. Hmm...I may have overextended myself for the month of August. 

**Confirmed!  I just want to sleep for the next week, after handing off the on-call pager.

A Real Vacation

I'm back from Tucson and the numbers are in- 26 hours of training in 9 days (about 25 hours in the full seven days, excluding travel days).  Most of my training weeks so far this year have fallen into the 11-14 hour range so this was quite a push!  We didn't have any single epic 7-8 hour BT days as I'd done for Ironman training, but between 3.5-4 hours most days.  Every day.  We had a house in Tucson where we started almost all of the riding and running, which made things convenient.  There were only 3 of us plus the coach so we had a lot of space too, and personalized attention!  And a pool in the backyard to ice down the legs after workouts.  All we had to do was swim, bike, run, eat and sleep.  Seriously, that's it.  No cooking even.  There was wine and dessert.  There's all this, and then there's family-time vacations.   Sometimes the two overlap (as I'm hoping to do with my sabbatical next year).  All the best ways to spend vacation time, for me. 

The highlight for me was the ride up Mt Lemmon- 6000ft of climbing in 26 miles.  Some pics courtesy of our coach:

Happy before the start.  We're all "Pac NorthWesterners" and haven't seen this much sun in months! 

We struggled with the wind during the first part, but it's still warm.

 
And now...snow!

8000 ft and more snow!

8600 ft and DONE!   In more ways than one.  Time for a ride to the bottom and In-N-Out :)

Thankfully we didn't have any killer swim sessions, although some were more difficult than others since they were in the evening after a bike and/or run.  But in a nice outdoor pool.  I was able to do some running, still doing the run/walk routine although I'm up to 9 minutes of running at a time for a total of 50 minutes.   I think I'll stay at 40-50 minutes until I'm actually in some kind of running shape- ugh.  Still hard.

I swam in the morning before leaving Tucson on Thursday, then was easily coerced into driving out to the Dalles for a team ride on Friday.  TOTALLY worth it.

This picture tells a thousand words.  Not a cloud in the sky, and a view of Mt Hood.

My longest ride of the year so far, 70 miles.  Including "Rowena Crest" and "7 Mile Hill".  Doesn't quite sound like an "easy" ride does it?

After the 7-Mile descent.  We take our rest stops very seriously!  

Today I was planning to meet Ashley and A.J. for a ride at 9:15a and totally overslept!  I slept 11.5 hours :P  Maybe the body is trying to tell me something.  Rest day it is.
 
  

 

Sunny day

Sweeping the clouds away...

I spent last weekend in Phoenix enjoying the sun, it was a nice little escape.  Fit in a couple rides on the rental bike, swims in an outdoor pool, glasses of wine (maybe more than a couple!) all with good company!  Even waited 'til afternoon for my Saturday ride so I could go without leg and arm warmers.  Just to say that I did.  Started to get anxious to run outside again, but must have continue to have patience.  Still bustin' out my 2 min run/1 min walk intervals on the 'mill.  At least 10 of these are not as draining as they once were.  I think my next run with have longer running blocks- still waiting to hear from the PT but I'm guessing 4 minutes.  4 minutes, 4 minutes...do I hear 5? 

Hopefully I will be running outside by March 10th, the day I leave for camp in Tucson.  I'm irrationally excited about this camp and getting my butt kicked for 10 days in a row.  I've done shorter camps and love the simplicity of eating, working out, eating, foam/trigger point rolling, sleeping, eating and various combinations of the above EVERY single day.  Reminiscent of Cycle Oregon when the only thing I had to worry about was getting from point A to point B in time for dinner.  That's what I like to call "vacation".  When I first did that ride I was a novice cyclist and didn't have a whole lot of time to spare.  On my second Cycle Oregon years later, I made it in time for the beer garden AND dinner.  Now we're really talking vacation.

All this talk of sun has me thinking about sabbatical next year.  I have a plan forming in my mind that involves escaping the rain around January/February.

Fly away and train in warm weather, ~8 weeks.
Race
China, ~1-2 weeks.

Some details need to be filled in. 

Sabbatical is earned every 7 years at my company: eight weeks of paid time off.  You can add vacation time to make it longer, thus increasing your desire to never ever EVER go back to work.  The point of sabbatical is to refresh yourself and come back with renewed drive and motivation.  This post-sabbatical "glow" lasts approximately one week, until reality sets in. 

I took my first sabbatical in the spring.  Went to Italy with my mom and drove to New Mexico throwing in a Colorado bike ride (Iron Horse) and a run (Bolder Boulder) along the way.  I spent time with friends in Albuquerque, my former stomping grounds.  I also visited family in Montana and Minnesota, and rode around Crater Lake on my last weekend before returning to work.  It was awesome.  This time I'm going to make people come to me, but I don't think it will be a hard sell. 

Back to the grind

More or less.  Fall in Portland has been fairly mild so far, which makes the transition from summer a bit easier.  Finally finding time to blog!  I was basically away from work and the computer for about 2 1/2 weeks in October.  It was much needed.  Though I have missed blogging, there is just too much else to do with my time.

After Grand Columbian I took 3 weeks off running and 2 1/2 weeks off workouts completely.  Nice in a way, but not totally sure it did me much good.  After basically going 3 years without injury, I came back into action with patellar tendonitis in both knees.  Actually this has been an issue since my break after Ironman Coeur d'Alene.  It was my right achilles that hurt on the bike first, then the tendonitis in both knees during running.  I'm not sure what it was about my time off or coming back into workouts that caused these issues, but I'll definitely be thinking about that during future "recovery" periods.  I spent most of that time on vacation in Montana, being lazy and reading books.  That is one thing I miss when my training hours get longer- I don't have time to read.  During this time I made it through 3 books, my 4th is in progress but going much slower due to actually having to work.  Stupid work.  Five days a week no less!  I'm training on day shift for a few weeks but will go back to my shift 8 schedule after Thanksgiving.

Returned from Montana and unpacked/repacked for Hawaii!  A few of my triathlon friends and I took a trip to the Big Island to train and watch the World Championships.  The training was hot.  Oh my was it hot.  My reintoduction to training was a 2 hour ride out-and-back up a long-ass hill followed a 20 minute run that about killed me.  I was so excited to run again; that lasted about 5 minutes and then I was sucking wind with my heart rate climbing to astronomical levels.  That reminds me, we took a drive up Mauna Kea to the observatory one night.  Had to wait out the rain but it was pretty cool to see some stars and planets through their telescopes. 

Swimming in the ocean was unexpectedly fun!  We went to the pier where the Ironman begins since they had the buoys out AND a floating coffee bar.  Ha!  We didn't get there until about 8:45 and they were closing at 9:00.  Sue asked me if I could swim that far in 15 minutes, for coffee.  Heck yeah!  Unfortunately they were out of coffee by the time we got there and handing out GU2O instead.  Probably a better choice and hey, I was there to see the mythical coffee bar in the sea that I've read about.  I took a swim lesson in the endless pool from Eric Neilsen, Aquatic Edge.  He and Karlyn were in Portland for a clinic years ago so I knew their technique was similar to the one my coach teaches.  The lesson was fun- I had been assured by Charlie and Eileen that I wouldn't end up pinned to the back wall of the pool.  They adjust the flow based on your speed, or lack of.  The coolest thing was that improvements I made were immediately apparent because I would start bumping into the front.  There are also mirrors on the front and bottom, which made it easy to see that I was fishtailing like crazy.  He also took a video so I could see this action from the top.  Yikes!  No wonder swimming takes so much effort.  By widening my arm entry I was able to get reduce the wiggle quite a bit.  Anyway, definitely worth the time and money for this lesson.

Here are some more pictures from the trip.  We rode the Ironman course, not all at once.  Got some snorkeling and coffee tasting in as well.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Two weeks after the Hawaii trip, I took off for the mountain.  This was the sixth annual Escape, aka Stamping Retreat, aka Girl's Weekend on Mt Hood!

 
Our mountain hideaway

 
Hard at work!  Not me, but some other escapees.

 
Check out our backdrop!  It was absolutely gorgeous up there.

There may have been some alcohol consumption as well.  As Lisa told me every time I screwed up a card, "drink more, care less".  It worked!

There is already talk of reviving our spring retreat, hope that works out.  I may have my Christmas cards done by then! 

And now, I have to decide on some races for next year.  I'm really not ready to decide this early!  I am really just planning to get back to pain-free running and go from there.  I think it's coming around based on my run this morning, limited to 20 minutes at a time which is just fine with me right now.  But there are a couple races opening for registration this weekend that I was considering: the Vancouver Lake 1/2 marathon in January and Vineman 70.3 in July. 

My only definites for next year:
Cascade Lakes Relay in late July as part of the Sick Sisters ultra team :) 
Ironman Arizona in November

Looking for a spring triathlon since Ralph's is full.  Recommendations?

 
 

Are you ready to rock?

We are.  I'm here with Tom and Sarah in Phoenix for the Rock 'n Roll marathon and let me tell you there is a party going on!  Water bottles everywhere!  3 cases and 2 gallon jugs, AND Pellegrino.  We just went out for an Italian dinner where I loaded up on carbs like I was about to run a marathon or something.  Skipped the wine- that's like 2 full weeks of sobriety now (not that I'm counting).  Tom and Sarah are now doing crossword puzzles as I blog...yes, we are OUT OF CONTROL.  Tomorrow I'm going out for a 3-hour tour on a rental bike and trying to get these two to join me but I don't think they're going for it.  It's 7:30pm in Portland and I could probably go to bed right now.  Yes Ironman, this is your life.  No worries, there is a Starbucks right across the street :)  Luckily Tom also has a knack for picking the right hotels.  This hotel also has an endless pool if you can believe that.  I'm kind of glad I forgot my swimsuit!  Sarah will have to demonstrate and hopefully I can get a few pictures.

It was a toasty 77 degrees when we arrived this afternoon, which felt great after 28 in Beaverton this AM.  Should be 45-50ish at the start for the runners.  I'm working on my spectator strategy as I have 12 miles on the schedule Sunday and will try to run most of it on the course with Tom and Sarah.

My journey of 1000 miles

ended at PDX on Monday.  Seventeen hours of travel and waiting to end up back home in Beaverton!

    
5:00 am, no one else here?

Many of you have already seen this facebook photo of my suitcase at the bus stop.  You do not realize how happy I was not to have to drag this *&#*%@ thing back UP my hill through the snow.  Note the lack of snow tires and shoveled sidewalks.

I wrote a ginormous blog about my day, but found it ginormously boring when I re-read it.  There's no sense in putting everyone else through the pain!  So I will hit the "highlights" instead.  The most exciting part was the cab ride home from Washington square to end the day at 11:00pm.  The driver pulled out all his tricks to get me up the hill to my front door.  I gave him a big tip.  In summary, my tri-met-athlon that was supposed to be "bus-MAX-plane" ended up as

walk-bus-MAX-bus            4 hours
wrong line at PDX             1 hour
even longer line at PDX     4 hours
coffee/eating/drinking at PDX, approx 2 hours
bus-MAX-bus-cab              6 hours

Seventeen hours.  6 hours longer than it took to do my Ironman.  The aiport was chaos; people camped out all over the place, lines snaking around the terminal, kids crying, old people falling over, TV cameras.  I came to realize my story is not sad enough for a TV interview.  It's hard to imagine being stranded en route, or traveling with kids, or traveling to see family on the few days you have off in the year.  I really feel for those people.   Looks like most flights are getting out today so hopefully people got where they were going.  The next available flight I could get to Montana was on Saturday, so I opted for a full refund and Christmas in Portland.  Seeing the streets thaw today lifted my mood considerably- maybe there is an end is in sight?  I've had lots of sleep and good workouts despite being trapped indoors without use of my 2WD car.  Nice Christmas eve service tonight.  Church has always been central to Christmas in MT, for the 32 years I have been there.  And the 1 year in Minnesota.  I think it was just 1 year-  can barely remember it since the BITTER COLD killed so many brain cells.

My brother drove all the way from Ohio, so sucks not to be there.  His task now is to come up with somewhere warmer we can meet up later, which is pretty much anywhere.  Maybe not Wisconsin or Minnesota :o)  He's currently serving up Christmas spirit in big-ass mugs.

Besides church, our MT Christmas is all about Tom and Jerrys, Lefse' and Chippers (we usually get 1-2 boxes from our MN relatives).   Don't know what the quarter is all about- guess he's taking tips.

Chippers were an integral part of my plan to put on weight. Now what?  Open to suggestions here.  Well the good news is that there are parties galore coming up between now and Jan 3rd.  And I'm taking full advantage before the hard-core IMCDA training begins!  Still haven't decided if I'm going to drink during training or not.  I mean, during the next 6 months, not like when I'm on the Computrainer ;o)  Thinking maybe just drinks on "special occasions"...like Wednesdays.  That's a whole other blog though.

OK so the Mormon Tabernacle choir show is over and there's burning logs and Christmas music on OPB- odd.  Check it out.  How totally...Oregonian?  Merry Christmas!

Oh right, pictures

Oh, you wanted to see good pictures from my week of vacation er...vendor class?  Beyond the parking lot?  So imagine I'm a good photographer and there are no power lines in this picture.

       
Lake Travis

Now imagine I'm good at using the camera's timer function and getting into position.

 
That's my front wheel and Austin in the distance

And then, after 2 more takes, I finally say "screw it" and just take a picture of the bike.

Also note my new house on the bluff there.

Here's where I swam last Tuesday evening in Austin: Barton Springs. 

Peaceful now, but filled with other equally crazy triathlete-types earlier.  200m long, spring-fed, simply awesome but don't forget your wetsuit!

Looks pleasant enough but freaking cold at 68 degrees.  The swim started out OK, cold but manageable, but 45 minutes later I started to lose feeling in my hands and feet and came out of the water all dizzy and nuts.  Very strange, and I can't imagine very good for you (killing brain cells).  So I found the Y for Thursday's swim.  Which may be unhealthy for other reasons, but not for literally freezing my head off!

Mellow Johnny's.  Large and overpriced, and Lance was no where to be seen.  But they do have a coffee bar.

I did buy one item at MJ's as I'd never seen it anywhere before: banana boy.  Click here for their main website.  I came across the banana guard too, similar concept.  But it's not a banana hammock- that is something else.  And you can probably find that over on Sixth street.

Riding with Lance

OK not really.  But if I'd seen him out there today, I'd have thrown down.  "I'll take your 'Livestrong challenge', buddy!".  My renter was a Trek Madone- not bad.  The shop even had it on sale for $2700 dollars.  For that kind of money, I better be able to keep up with Lance.

Rental car, rental bike, and the shop van.  I paid for the upgrade on the bike, but not the car :)

Speaking of Livestrong, this hotel is being overtaken by cyclists.  There is a 5k run tomorrow and the rides are on Sunday.  This event is a big deal here in Austin so will check out the expo tomorrow.  Oh by the way, I'm in Austin for a vendor school that ended today.  

This car had nothing to do with my rental but I just thought it was cool.

Had a great ride this afternoon, a balmy 77 degrees here today.  I love to run when I travel, but riding by myself in a new place makes me nervous.  I found a map online for the 46-mile Mansfield Dam loop, and Dam that was a lot of climbing.  I picked the simplest route possible to reduce my chance of getting lost; almost a big rectangle with about 5 turns total.  Of course within 15 miles of starting out I took a wrong turn.  Is this suprising?  No.  Luckily I recovered and just ended up doing the loop in the reverse direction of what I'd planned.  OK gotta go eat.

Holy Toledo

My dream vacation to OHIO continued with a half-hour flight from Cincinnati to Toledo where my brother is currently on assignment for Fluor.  So far his work assignments have taken him to Pasco (WA), Alaska, Florida, Kazakhstan and now Toledo.  See a pattern here?  No, neither do I.  Upon my arrival we ate at the famous Tony Packo's, home of the M.O.A.D.  We speculated on what this might mean before asking the waitress.  Massive Oblong Artery-clogging Dinner?  I guessed "MOndo-Ass-Dog", that was pretty close:  Mother Of All Dogs.  Since you're not supposed to eat anything larger than your head, I opted for the chicken chili.  But I did sample a little Dog (when in Toledo..).  And so begins a series of blank pages in my food log.  I just ran a marathon for crying out loud!! 

After lunch I got to experience a real slice of Midwestern culture at the local bowling alley.  My brother "pre-bowled" three games for his team since he was going to miss league night.  Of course he stretched properly and hydrated (Bud Light) before throwing his first ball, as recommended by his bowling coach no doubt- ha.  I sat back and soaked in the culture.  Asked him if he was going to come scope out some chicks at the "Singles Tournament" called out on a huge banner above the lanes.  He informed me that singles means individual bowlers as opposed to team bowling.  Oops- as you can tell I learned quite a bit about bowling.  Maybe I should have thrown a ball or two...but would have required effort.  Just sitting there felt so good.  Monday and Tuesday were all about sitting.

That evening we went to a Toledo Mudhens baseball game.  You may have heard Toledo native Jamie Farr mention this team in M.A.S.H.  He also wore a "T" hat in the show.  I got a hat too

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Believe the word we're looking for here is " Ole' "!  Cinco de Mayo, Toledo-style

We had really good seats.  A season ticket holder traded theirs in.

The opposing team was the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.  That'll be me in August- an IronPig!  Hens kicked Pig's butts in this barnyard showdown.  I am sad to report that the sombrero did not make it back to Portland.  Too bad, because you just never know when you're gonna need a sombrero.  I had too many carry-ons, but I could have just worn it onto the plane.  Would that have been strange?

Tuesday morning I ran an easy 4 miles in the park.  Then it was time for coffee and "Crackberry club"-  I got some good tips.  Engin-nerds, yes we are.  And always seeking out coffee.  What else is there to do in Toledo?  Drive to Ann Arbor!  Back to Toledo for my brother's company-sponsored dinner on Tuesday evening.  The propensity to take advantage of free food runs in the family I guess, and we know how to pick the restaurants.  And the wine flowed like beer.  Viva Ohio!

It's been a long time...

Shouldna left you without a dope beat to step to. 

Step to.

Six days to be exact.  Thanks to BJK for those words.  I've been in Montana visting the folks; my mom had knee replacement surgery 2 weeks ago and although she can't join me on my 9-mile runs yet, it's only a matter of time.  I saved my 18-20 miler for Sunday back in Portland and had the worst run I've had in recent memory.  We did run into Beth out on Springwater (along with over half the population of the Portland metro area) so that was a bright spot.  Last Wednesday's run was not good either but I will attribute that to the 3 glasses of wine I had on flights home.  Before you judge me, let me add that this is FREE wine, or microbrew if you so choose.  I love Alaska Airlines!  No excuse for a bad run yesterday, just didn't have it.  Hey, I skipped the drinks on my 7am AND 9am flights though they did offer!  Not exactly a confidence booster for the upcoming race in 3 weeks.  Would I like some cheese with my whine?  Why yes!  OK I'm done now, moving on.

Just realized I have nothing exciting to blog about today.  I am uninspired by the sight of rain again.  Might take the first outside ride on my tri bike tonight, weather permitting (read: chances are slim to none).  Hoping to have some significant blog-worthy news within the next week.

Genius

If you ever need to transport your bike trainer on say, an airplane, try stuffing it in a GARMENT BAG.

Bonus if it's a hideous paisley that matches your wall. 

If I hadn't told you there was a trainer in there, you'd have no idea.  At least until you picked it up and realized it weighs 50 pounds.  Sorry- obviously sleep deprived.  I do want to post about other people's weekend activities but need to finish packing first.  Just had to capture this because I was really proud of myself ;o)

Stay tuned for more when the trainer reaches it's final destination.  Setting up my Dad's old bike should provide some decent blog material.

Marathon weekend

Well boys and girls, tomorrow at noon our Portland Oregon contingent of three will be jetting off to Florida for Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge.  Yes you read correctly, that's a half marathon on Saturday followed by a full marathon on Sunday.  39.3 miles for those who like math.  If I see any Disney characters on the course I'm going to kick their collective asses.  And then I'll pass them :) 
Staying within heart rate zone 2 when doing so, of course. 

This will be a marathon weekend in more ways than one.  Interesting to note that Florida is on Eastern Standard Time, which is 3 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time!  So here's more fun for those who like math; we'll be catching the monorail to race start at 3am which is 12am here.   Yippee!  Stay tuned for blog updates over the weekend.  I'm going to bed now so I can get up at midnight and start getting acclimated.  All this for a chance to see that giant glowing orb in the sky known as "the sun". 

But wait, there's more!  The Rock 'N Roll marathon in Phoenix, AZ is on Sunday as well.  Best of luck to Marlene, Bonnie and Eileen!

Good news and Bad news

Do you prefer to get the bad news first?  I do.

Last night at PDX, I spoke with the Alaska airlines ticket agent regarding my flight to Seattle that was delayed for 2 hours.

me: I'm afraid I'm going to miss my connection to MT.
her: yes, let me check. (click-click-click-click-click)  Well, the bad news is that your flight to Seattle is delayed 2 hours, but good news is your flight from Seattle to Great Falls is also delayed...by 1 hour!  Since you had a 2 hour layover, you'll make it no problem!
me: Perfect!

So I sat in the airport for 3 hours.  Lying sideways I fell asleep across my bags to some lovely Christmas clarinet music.  I guess that's the good news.  The bad news (no I didn't miss my flight) is that my left arm fell asleep and didn't wake up.  The numbness went away but I still can't straighten my wrist or grip anything over 24 hours later.  Anyone ever hear of sudden-onset carpal tunnel?  Seriously!? It's kind of freaky really.  So here I am blogging with my right hand.  I am hoping to regain full use of my left hand for Christmas. 

Good news:  Someone will have to wrap my presents for me if I don't get my hand back by tomorrow!
Good news:  I can still swim!  My left hand is dysfunctional but it was that way before, so no biggie.

Yesterday was bad news after a 19.5 mile-run, 8 hrs of travel and getting in at 2 am.  Actually 3 hours late when all was said and done.  A bit irritable, maybe?  Uh-huh.  Good news is that the temperature got up to 41 here today!  I'm ready to break out the beach gear man, that's unbelievably warm for MT.  Perhaps I've spoken too soon though...still 7 days left.

Local flavor

I'm going to backtrack a few weeks to talk about food on the road.  That is, food eaten while traveling.  Although we always eat VERY well at Grandma's house (who doesn't?) I would not say that the Scandinavians are known for their culinary delights.  Flatbread is good.  I tried pickled herring at the breakfast buffet as I heard that was a local thing.  As much as I like seafood I just can't get into fish for breakfast, though the Japanese dig it too.  I had rusk with lingonberry jam, that was also good.  But our favorite Scandinavian food is lefse.  Lefse is basically a potato tortilla that you eat with butter and sugar (healthy)!  On our boat ride through the fjords, I happened across packaged lefse at the snack bar so we had some fun with that...

My "Taste of Norway" ad shot.  Another possible caption: "Next time we're going to the Mediterranean".

Unfortunately we discovered that mass-manufactured packaged lefse tastes like a**. 

On a much better note, we found Nutella in a tube! 

We did NOT eat lutefisk, reindeer, or klub.  Don't even ask about that last thing, you don't want to know.  And so ends my eating adventures in Scandinavia.  I got a screwed-up look from my brother when I ordered an Americano at a coffee shop in Helsinki, strangely it turned out to be the smallest item on the menu.  So much for patriotism.  We went to a pizza restaurant in Kalmar Sweden, and out of 40+ possible choices my brother boldly orders "The Viking" while I ordered the ever-exotic "Hawaiian".  You will be relieved to know a Hawaiian is the same around the world, and remains the best kind of pizza EVER.  As my brother pondered "I wonder what kind of meat this is?" on The Viking, I reaffirmed my position that pineapple does belong on pizza and is even better with bacon.  Universal truth.

 
One of the restaurants on the Norway cruise featured a "wild west" theme, no joke.  So we amused ourselves waiting for the food by drinking and trying to capture pics with the American flags on the ceiling.  With varying degrees of success.

And then there was China.  Vegetarians may want to stop reading now.  Still feeling adventurous, I stuck to a mostly-Starbucks diet that still culminated in illness just hours before having to board the plane home.   I did have a lot of fresh seafood, fresh as in straight from the aquarium in the front of the restaurant back to the stove and out to the table.  I did not try a sea cucumber though they seemed to sell them EVERYWHERE...the grocery store, out on the streets and in department stores(?).  Can you imagine walking into Macy's to a case of dried these?  They are not really cucumbers at all but a slug-like animal with spikey things.  Looks like the Most Disgusting Thing Ever and I hear they don't taste much better.  Our tour guide said the Chinese eat them "for health" and their Chinese name "hai shen" translates roughly into "sea ginseng", but I'll take my chances.  Actually I just read that they are also an aphrodisiac, so there you go.  Gotta say they didn't do much for me, just looking at 'em.  Where else did I draw the line?  The neck.  I decided, as a general rule, I should avoid eating anything of or related to an animal's head.  I almost gagged eating an entire shrimp in Japan at a vendor-sponsored dinner.  Much to my relief, the Japanese guy next to me whispered "you don't have to eat the other one" motioning to the second one sitting on my plate.   So on this trip to Asia, I passed on the duck head.  And I've done pretty well avoiding meat-on-a-stick up to this point in my life, so I think I can hold the line on that too.

Zaijian

Don't be impressed, I just looked up "goodbye" in my Mandarin phrasebook.  I am about to set off for the states here in a few hours.  The jet lag and intestinal distress has been fun but it's time to go home, back to the land of fine wine and microbrews.  And rain, I'm afraid.

I was impressed with Dalian, China.  It's location on the ocean makes it quite pleasant; the sea breeze seems to keep pollution under control most days.  There are parks and beaches.  You feel like a celebrity amongst the Chinese, and actually the staring eyes on the street did not bother me.  Actually I think my funniest memory is the three young workers at Starbucks huddling behind the cash register grinning at me every morning.  I felt safe, though I also felt like an outsider looking in.  Learning the language would definitely enrich the experience, allowing one to interact with the locals.  I had a serious hour-long massage while drinking a pot of tea for 7 US dollars.  No kidding.  Westerners can certainly live a life of luxury here.  Definitely learned a lot about the city and Chinese culture.  A huge thank you to my friendly colleagues/tour guides for introducing me to some local flavor and and offering a lot of advice :)

All my pics are now uploaded to Flickr.  A few strange things to ponder...

 
Can you see the rock climbers?  They're just statues.


That tree in the background?  Concrete.


A sign that indicates this hole in the ground will someday be a factory

Who could argue with this?

Chinglish in Dalian

Sleepless in Asia

Those who can not sleep, blog.  I am in Dalian, China trying to figure out what time zone I'm in.  My GI system is trying to figure out why it's been punished with airplane food for 9 hours (from Amsterdam to Chicago) and then again for 12 hours (from San Fran to Seoul).  At least I think that's what is happening, I haven't ingested any "high risk" foods or tap water here.  Hope that wasn't TMI for you.

Arrived in Dalian last night (was it?) to begin my preview trip.  This is where I decide whether I would like to live in China for 2-3 years starting in 2009.  For a good description of Dalian see John's blog.  I had high hopes of quality sleep tonight after getting up early to see the plant construction site and walking around most of the day. 

Maybe too much Starbucks is to blame?  Nah.  Yes there are a few in Dalian and this one is close to my hotel.  Just started opening one hour earlier for those of us who need pre-office gratification.

Home for the next few days.  Not bad, not bad at all.  It's a bathrobe-and-slippers-provided kinda place

It's been easy going so far.  More photos here.  John's driver is very good but fear of death comes when you leave the relative safety of the car and start crossing the streets.  Negotiating multiple-lane roads feels exactly like playing Frogger, except it's for real.  And as described in Pimpin' with my Ride, traffic lights are merely suggestions.  In one day I've seen numerous cars run red lights and perform other tricky maneuvers like a u-turn driving off of the sidewalk (you may wonder why they were on the sidewalk in the first place), through an intersection around a couple people crossing the road.  Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way at any time and playing chicken is probably not recommended.  I have learned to go with the locals when possible, ensuring at least one person is between the oncoming car and myself to lessen the impact.  Once you've committed?  MOVE IT, hold your breath and don't look.  That's my strategy.

Tomorrow I meet up with the relocation company to explore the area.  I told them my interests were cycling and running...this should be good.

Dutch treat

Quick update on the last night of our trip.  I will fill in some gaps later, we've been on the go since disembarking "the Pearl" a few days ago.  Second night in Amsterdam, definitely one of the most "colorful" cities I've ever visited.  Never thought I would be one to get annoyed by cyclists but they're everywhere!  Darren almost got run over a couple times yesterday.  He left for the states today .  Not because he almost got run over...his ticket had him flying out this morning.  I wanted an extra day here because I've never been. 

Side story: Amsterdam was my brother's first international city a couple of years ago (not counting Canada).  That's pretty funny right there, because like I said it is an interesting place.  Anyway, he got off the airport train downtown, crossed the street, and proceeded to trip and fall flat on his face- LOL!.  Fully loaded with bags and backpack.  There's a curb in the middle of the road marking the bike lane so you have to watch your step.  He recounted that story which made for a good laugh and a careful walk to the hotel.

I soaked up the culture by running, walking around and shopping.  Wanted to rent a bike but to be perfectly honest, by mid-afternoon I was beat.  Definitely need to come back.  A couple people in the stores today were surprised I wasn't a local ("you look Dutch!!") so at least I'm fitting in.  Maybe the bicyclists won't target me.

Streetcar in Oslo.  This trip also saw us on train, bus, boat, plane, and car.

The weather is here. Wish you were Swedish?

Cruising on "the Viking".  Might be hard to tell from the lighting, but there is no actual SUN.  It's just like a Portland winter here.  Now you understand why we're so freaking pale. 

Warming my hands by the exhaust duct on the deck

The Wonder Bread twins are on day 5 and country 3 of their Scandinavian adventure, currently cruising on the "Pearl of Scandinavia" ship from Copenhagen, Denmark to Oslo, Norway.  I met my brother in the Amsterdam airport and after 5 European-size coffees we were off to Stockholm.   Got in a great 9-MILE morning run there, my favorite way to see a new city,  Today in Malmo, Sweden I went for a shorter run of only 8 miles, covered about 3 parks without a clue where I was going and almost got hit by bicycles only twice!

The trip has been great so far.  Darren and I share the same kamikaze approach to sightseeing; walk for miles on end to see everything you can, fuel yourself with coffee and eat/sleep as time permits.  We've been asked a couple times if we're "backpacking".  Well, we do have very large backpacks thank you very much.  But we've decided to call it "urban backpacking", which is what you can do after you've graduated from college, have a real job and can afford a decent hotel room or two.

Even so, we have been trying to economize a bit since these Northern countries are the most expensive in Europe.  So in planning our trip we booked ourselves on super-economy "Viking Cruise Line" for a side trip from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland.  It was advertised as the "party boat" and I was like cool, we're down with that.  I didn't realize it would be a frat-house-puke-in-the-bathroom-sink kind of party though.  Plus we were stuffed away on the "ballast deck" in a back corner room just across the wall from the engine, although calling it a "room" is a bit of a contradiction.  Oh and a shared bathroom...luckily with 2 sinks.  But hey we saved a few bucks!  And now the Pearl seems like the lap of luxury.

Other than that the most comedic aspect of our trip has been hauling these massive backpacks.  So far there have been no backpack-related injuries (to ourselves or others) but we still have 5 days to go.  We're going to bet on much they weigh, I'm guessing mine is about 60 pounds and Darren's is about 80.  Did you really think I could get by with only one pair of shoes?  Oh come on, I only brought two pair.

Objects in your rear view MAY be larger and heavier than they appear.  Enjoying the stroll in Kalmar, Sweden.

No Starbucks in Sweden, but we managed to get by somehow.  Wayne also makes a hella good Danish, known around here as "Wienerbrod". 

Next up Oslo and "Norway in a Nutshell".  I leave you with this for now
Swedish words that are funny.  Actually a paint store.

Hasta la vista, baby

I'm off for three weeks of globetrotting.  I'll fly across one ocean for pleasure, come home for ONE DAY then cross the other ocean for business...sort of.  Not all of you know where I'm going so I could have some fun with this.  Kind of like "Where in the World is" but without Matt Lauer.

AW photo.  Meaning, I took this picture.  How cool is that? 

Mr. Lauer was booked through the end of the year, sorry ladies.  Can I pique your interest with some potential future blog posts?

What I ate today
Fitting in and Sticking out
Near-death experiences with cars
Damn those are some tasty meatballs!
Cultural SNAFU of the day
I am not a Russian hooker

I'm sure the curiousity is absolutely killing you right now.  Keep your fingers crossed for internet access.