Race Report: Triathlon #2 = sprints are fun

Two weeks ago I completed my 1^st of 3 Sprint triathlons and a week later I finished my 2^nd of 3 Olympic triathlons. This brings me to the mid-point of my 3-3 triathlon challenge. Now that I know what I’ve gotten myself into, I’m alternatively freaked out or excited. Below is the race report on the sprint tri.

Benaroya Research Institute Triathlon at Seafair (Sprint) – July 14
.5 mile swim, 12-mile bike and 3.1-mile run.

This triathlon was a ton of fun – there were over 2,200 participants and the energy was really good. There were lots of fast people and lots of first-time triathlon people. I ran into a bunch of people from team in training, it was nice to see familiar faces.

Since it was a local race, I got to sleep in my own bed. This was tough! I hit the snooze button many times – and only left for the race at 5:55 am after brushing my teeth and packing my tri-bag (a timbuk2 messenger bag) in a flurry. I was lucky I didn’t forget anything – like my bike! I arrived at the race site ~20 minutes before they closed the transition area. Which basically gave me enough time to find a location for bike + gear and lay things out and check the air pressure on my tires.

Swim:The swim was not warm, but it was short enough that the temperature didn’t slow me down. I had that initial “ohh, it’s cold I can’t breathe” feeling for about 50 yards and then I warmed up and it was fine. The hard part of the swim was the milfoil. This is a water plant that basically grabs onto you while swimming. It was scratchy and a little unnerving.

Bike:The bike was shorter than I thought and when I got to the turnaround I was surprised. That’s it? Oh man, I should have pushed harder!

Run: I think this may have been my best run all month. Even with walking up part of the steep hill at mile 2, stopping for water and needing to go to the bathroom…I ran my fastest 5K time in the recent past. I think it was partially adrenaline and partially just the realization that it was going to be quickly over..and hey, that wasn’t so bad.

Things I learned:

There are mistakes you can make in a sprint distance that you might not be able to get away with at longer distances. In this race the biggest mistake was probably nutrition. I ran out of the door so fast I didn’t have time for breakfast. In an Olympic or a long bike ride, I’d be recovering from that throughout the race…not so in this case as the race was over before I got hungry!

Taking the time to prepare your stuff the night before makes a lot of sense. During my transition from swim to bike I had to attach my race number to my tri-top. Having to open up teeny-weeny little pins and attach them to yourself when your hands are a little bit stiff from the cold water is, uhm, not so easy. I also forgot to untie my shoelaces on my running shoes…so before the run I had to untie them before I could start running. These are the kinds of things I could have skipped with a little preparation.

Triathlons don’t require a lot of “stuff.” Before this race I pretty much believed that in order to be in the right mind set I needed to have the perfect towel, a bunch of water bottles for rinsing post swim and lots of extra foods (i.e. alternate flavors of gu and shot bloks) and general stuff in order to be prepared for the “worst case scenario.” This time I had the bare minimum: some basic nutrition, 2 water bottles on my bike (only one with Nuun, the other got multi-purposed for rinsing), my running shoes, my clip-in bike shoes, socks, a towel and suntan lotion. That’s it.

I like races with lots of people. Since I’m slow I’m not in the “pack” and can sometimes be out on my own (esp on the run!). This race was crowded the whole time – and I loved it. I was in the third wave, of I think 12. This meant that there were lots of fast people after me – and it was fun to see them zoom by and it made me run faster to have them next to me on the run.

I highly recommend this race and definitely plan to do it again next year. Just, you know, faster.

travel tune hell

right now, i am buying music on iTunes that i already own.

Well, ok, some of it is new -- specificaly this new order/ bizarre love triangle/ remix is new -- but the other songs, i so own them!

THE STORY...

So why am I doing this? Well, my ipod nano died.
So i i went to the apple store to get it replaced, since it's new and it should work but it doesn't. My appointment with the guy at the "genuis bar" starts out fabulous. They can replace it. No charge! But.... they don't have any in stock. So i need to have one shipped. But they can only ship to the store. oh, and i'm in chicago.. and the nano will arrive "3-4 business days from now" when i'll be in NY. They can't have it sent to NY or Seattle. I have to call Apple Care. Because, apple clearly cares.

Well, I still need music.
I mean I HAVE TO RUN! I have a freaking triahtlon on the 15th of July and another on the 22nd and I have been a total lazy bones since I completed my first olympic tri earlier this month. So. I need NEED music. I mean if I had music, I'd be working out all the time right? It's the lack of music that's keeping me lazy. really. So. I left the apple store with a lime green ipod shuffle. I really had NO choice! Well, I considered the orange one (aka the little mandarin).

So now i'm downloading music to "Swish".
Swish is the name of my lime green shiny ipod shuffle. Music downloading hit a predictable snag: I'm on my PC. All my music is on my Mac. At home. In Seattle. Yep. So here I am. I need music. I have Swish. I download, repurchasing songs I have so already bought on iTunes -- but never transferred to my PC because, well who has the time to copy them to CD and reburn them here? i hate this DRM stuff. I hate transferring. I hate paperwork (yes, just for good measure i'm throwing that one in!)

...
Somehow, even with all this apple evil-ness, i'm still sorta thinking about those "june 29th: The wait is almost over" t-shirts all the apple employees were wearing at the store. i know. i know.

Race Report: Olympic Distance Triathlon #1 - Complete

I hope to update this entry with a longer, more detailed post on the King's Trail triathlon -- but for now here are the highlights:
(1) it was hot and humid
(2) I almost bumped into a sea turtle on my swim
(3) I biked all of the bike
(4) I ran more of the run than i expected, but i was still slower than i expected
(5) i feel fantastic!

I'm excited that this first triathlon is over. I now have all this data and information and I can't wait to make HUGE improvements on my next 5. WooHoo.

3 - 3 Triathlon Mania

I've decided to do 6 triathlons this summer. Below is my schedule. I'm still kinda in shock that i'm really doing this...but here i go.

Date Distance Race Location
10-Jun Olympic King's Trail Maui, HI
15-Jul Sprint Sea Fair Seattle, WA
22-Jul Olympic ChelanMan Lake Chelan, WA
26-Aug Sprint SB Tri Santa Barbara, CA
16-Sep Sprint Kirkland Tri Kirkland, WA
23-Sep Olympic Black Diamond Enumclaw, WA

Additional Races
28-May 40 mi (bike) 7 Hills Kirkland, WA
24-Jun 10K (run) Pacific Crest Sunriver, OR

whirlwind weekend

some weekends are just "one of those" weekends -- and this weekend was one of them.

(1) Minnie came to visit! It was just awesome to have her in town and visiting - even if she was here for less than 24 hours. It's just really nice to get to hang out with someone I've known for so long and to get to show them around seattle and all my new habitats.

(2) I got a flat tire on the first leg of the multi-brick workout on Sat. Yep. full on blow-out. We pulled over to the side of the road and luckily i had an extra tire in my bike-pack. Phew. This was the good news. The bad news is that it was the back wheel and changing the tire was hard! Thankfully "jason" -- a friendly seattle rider stopped and helped us switch out the tires and get going. Unfortunately my back tire just wouldn't fully pump up... so i rode it slightly less inflated than ideal back to base camp. I ended up doing 3 of the bike sprints and 3 runs (instead of the 5 I was supposed to do). I really need to focus on triathlon training. Also, see #6.

(3) KT and I went to see "The Queen" -- at this random theatre in northern seattle. I say "northern seattle" because i really have no idea where we went. We were practically in shoreline. But get this -- the movie was only THREE DOLLARS! I didn't know you could see a movie at a non-matinee time slot for under $5. We got some candy which brought the total entertainment bill to $4. I loved it. The movie was good to. But i didn't love it as much as JB or my mum.

(4) My dog got LOST. She's in California with my mum and step dad. Apparently when the meter-guy came by he left the gate open. Cuba, being an escape artist, ran away this morning. My mom called me after they had been looking for her for an hour and couldn't find her. I, uhm, FREAKED out. Seriously. My dog is super precious and losing her -- particularly when I'm so far away -- completely freaked me out. I booked my flights home so i could help with the search -- or be at the hospital should she be injured. Luckily, 4 hours later she was found at the next door neighbors. She'd been hanging out there while the lady tried to figure out who she belonged to. She came back home to us safe and relaxed after her morning adventure. PHEW. Thanks to KT for coming over and consoling me while i was, well, a wreck.

(5) Boys. I finally called one of the 4 boys I've been flirting with and asked him if he had a crush on me or not. This was NOT an easy thing for me to do since, well, I avoid intimacy and vulnerability at all costs. I am also pretty judicious about how i spend my time -- and who i spend my time with -- and this thing had just gone on long enough. Sadly, there's no mutual love-connection. I felt good about the conversation though -- it's important to be up front about one's emotions -- even if they aren't reciprocated. I can definitely relate to this post by eric.

(6) I learned to be true. My bike had been making a sound ever since the blow out. This sound made me nervous. I decided to check it out and made a make shift bike holder to play with the mechanics of my bike and figure out what's going on. Turns out that I seem to have bent my back wheel -- so I now have to get it "re-trued" -- i.e. aligned. *sigh* i love my bike! i am pretty sure with some spoke adjusting it will be just fine, but i'd hate to have to buy a new wheel.

(7) I forgot my dad's birthday. Seriously. And I called him this morning (his-b-day was yesterday) freaking out about the missing micro-mutt (see #4 above) and still completely forgot. I think my family thinks i'm insane.

(8) I realized I'd never survive seattle without KT. Friends are so important, and this girl just rocks. She's been here for me and all my crazy drama this weekend -- with laughter, insight, and just generally being a great friend. I have lots of friends that helped me this weekend -- all of them so special, and some of them such long-time friends (V, JB, kyle). But, it's super nice to have someone local, and I'm lucky to have KT.

rob lowe

i love that rob lowe is playing a candidate for president on brothers & sisters. Maybe he should really run for president. the next Reagan!

dating rule #1 "don't date the coffee guy"

My friend adam recently posted an entry to his Blog yesterday about the "levels of a relationship." His post has images from ppt! this is a guy after my own heart and as a result of his post we've been bantering back and forth about different relationship thoughts. I shared my spreadsheet and some of my core philosophies. He challenged me to blog them -- and before he went to he bed he gave me a 400 word challenge! so here i am blogging about my first dating rule ever.

Rule: Don't date your coffee guy.

History: I came up with this one in High School when my coffee guy had a crush on me (he was very cute too! and a good tennis player...) and i realized that I was going to have to make some tough choices. Do i go for the cute boy? or do i keep the coffee shop where i spend an inordinate amount of time?

How it works: Essentially, my reasoning was that if you date your coffee guy (or in college, your bartender) you have to be willing to give up going to the coffeeshop / bar if you break up. This means I had to evaluate which was more important to me -- keeping my coffeeshop or a new boy. In most cases, at least for me, it seemed that the boys who were interesting tended to work at the places i frequented. I attribute this to having more interaction and so I could see their coolness... This lead, in most cases, to me determining that the shop was more important than the boy.

Bear Down Wildcats!

As many loyal readers know, i LOVE my wildcats. And it's that time of year again. They are playing right now...and I haven't been channeling my love.

Go Wildcats!

back from vacation

I'm back from a lovely vacation in maui.
Check out my twitter log from that time:http://twitter.com/natala
Kelly's Pictures: http://kellyannthomas.spaces.live.com/
My fuzzy phone pics on flickr.

What did we do in maui?
kayak, swim, surf, suntan, drink, eat (particularly pineapple), more surfing, boy-watching, sunset-watching, mai tais, pina coladas, bike ride, running and more running, grilling, sunrise watching. it was good times.

On another note, i'm in the full swing of triathlon training -- thanks to a great kick-off in maui. I'm about to go out for a run -- and thanks to JB I'm now completely addicted to the gmaps-pedometer. I just mapped the route i typically run from my house to the water view and back. It's 2.8 miles (not long enough!) and the route that I walk cuba every morning (somewhere between .5 and 2 miles depending on how far we go).

I'm absolutely in love with pedomaps! No wi need to map out a 6 mile run to get in tri-shape...

on vacation

thanks for checking out my blog. i'm on vacation through most of next week in Wailea, Maui. I'll be snorkeling, biking, hiking and of course - spa-ing! I won't be checking e-mail and I probably won't blog (although I will twitter...).

anyways, ma halo!

it's raining, it's pouring...

As mentioned previously, I'm doing the King's Trail Olympic Distance triathlon in Maui on June 10th. I've been fussing around trying to be focused on getting back into shape and, being goal oriented, i knew a triathlotn would do the trick. Well, I'm now realizing exactly what I've gotten myself into. It is 7:30 AM on a Saturday and it is RAINING and yet here i am getting ready to go on a 20 mile or something bike ride on bainbridge island called "Chilly Hilly" -- who is this person? what am i doing? it's cold. I could be snuggled in bed. where it is warm. and cozy. Instead i'm trying to decide if maybe i really do need toe covers for my bike shoes because my feet might really get that cold. really.

Ok, i've got to go catch the ferry. wish me luck!

holiday cards...

I usually send out holiday cards for new years...however, the last couple of year's have been busy - travel, work, moving etc. So i decided that this year I just had to send out cards... however I missed the new year holiday ... so this meant i had to send out valentine's day cards! It has been so much fun. In the past, I had designed my own cards -- but i knew that this year I just couldn't do it so I contacted one of my favorite local artists, Todd Karam to see if he could design my card -- and he said yes.

I met Todd at our December ArtReach event -- he also designed the new artReach logo and was one of our December artists. The picture below is of him with one of his pieces that I purchased (the one with the birds on it right next to his shoulder).


Todd was just a dream to work with -- we actually got this card designed with one sample - he just nailed the concept from the get-go. We then did a round of reviews on text and color and things like that. I think it took 3 weeks to go from our first conversation to printed product.

Below is the card he designed (along with some of my notes) -- I absolutely LOVE it - -i think it captured the sentiment of good vibes but not too much romance that I wanted (i mean afterall i am just a little bit of cynic right? i can't be all warm fuzzies! - i must have some edginess -- even if it is wrapped up in morkie cuteness).

So what was the core concept? Well, I wanted "love birds" -- i have just been into birds lately -- three of my new pieces of art have birds on them...! And I wanted something that reflected the northwest -- and had some color and cheer to it. I didn't want a card that was sappy -- it needed to be fun. Todd captured this with a "Northwest rock-and-roll screen print" and wazzam we had a model to go from. We based the front cover text on the Beatles song "All we need is love..." but i was worried it would be sappy...


I really loved the sun setting in the back. Originally it was a darker color but i wanted something brighter and more cheery.

Figuring out the text inside the card was HARD. I have to give mad props to my cousin, Jasmine, who was a huge help sharing her wit and charm to come up with the right text. The addition of chocolate was key.

The back of the card might be my favorite because of the cuba-cut-out. This was all Todd's invention and it is just perfect. Cuba is a 4 lb. dog. She's nothing but ridiculous -- and the cut-out just nailed that silliness.



Ok, i'm in London and it is close to 3 am. I need to sleep! Happy Valentine's Day to all my beloved readers! Email me if you want your own Cuba cut-out!

blackjack

People! we have entered a new era. The rumours ARE true! I have upgraded and am now off of Sprint and on Cingular with a Windows Mobile BlackJack.

More details to come (you know on thursday, when i blog for reals)...

long tail discussion group + blogging

Image from: hinchcliffe.org

Last night we met for the long tails DG. I was also supposed to blog! I'm realizing that i can't pack my Thursday's if I want to blog on Thursday OR i have to blog in advance and *post* on Thursday. This has been a good reminder of the value of preparation. I'm going to raise the bar on my Thursday blogs by actually getting them done on Wednesday so i can blog them Thursday. we shall see how this works with my currently hectic schedule of triathlon training, work and socail life (what social life, i know...).

As for Long Tail -- it was interesting - our focus was to think about how to access the long tail. From a search perspective, we often think of the LT as the location where you get long-multi-word queries like [9.5 blue stripe adidas runners] that narrow down to a very specific result. It made me realize that these types of queries are expressions of uniqueness and desire. It's also when people are further down their search path -- they might have started at [shoes] but they now know exactly what they want and if they can find it, they will buy it -- and likely at a premium price. But we also talked about the Long Tail as the function of personalization. Imagine if you went in to the doctor and instead of prescribing a generic drug he took a look at your symptoms, your genetic profile and history and had a custom drug made for you? It would probably be more effective as it was designed specifically with you in mind. The problem here is that today this type of drug-making is prohibitively expensive. This then got us thinking about the economics of plenty - are these conditions required for long tail access? Do the distribution costs have to be minimized to such an extent that distributing along the tail becomes nominal - some sort of up front work to customize for the tail but no additional (or very minimal) cost to support it. This seems to be the case - the industry has to flip from economics of scarcity to those of plenty. Once this occurs, the long tail within that industry becomes accessible.

What do you think?

Also - here's a link to out readings:
http://bluedot.us/users/mndoci?st=tag%3aLongTail

i heart my 1997 honda civic

In November 1996 I bought (with help from my dad) my first brand new car. A 1997 Honda Civic EX Sedan. Flash-forward 10+ years and here I am with the same car, now with over 175,000 miles! I've been trying to decide what to do with my car lately... as every now and then those shiny new Volvo CX 90's and those Audi A6's just seem damn appealing...

The Pro's:
- it's paid for, the only costs are maintenance (oil changes, new tires and brakes as needed).
- it's mostly fuel efficient. On average about 27 mpg.
- it's silver. i named it firefly.
- it already has a few bumps and scratches so when a new one comes along...
- it has history. roadtrips roadtrips roadtrips.

The Con's:
- no seat warmers
- that little rattling noise in the air conditioning (but i could fix it!)
- it's not "cool" in terms of style but it's "respectable" in terms of value.
- it's not exactly a speed demon (which is probably good as one speeding ticket is enough)

After careful consideration, I've decided to recommit to my car for at least another year. I'm tempted to commit to getting us to 200,000 miles. But right now, I realize i have too many things to figure out beyond my vehicle so i'm just saying, this will work for another year.

Updated: Yes, I meant November 1996...oh how time flies!

ala mid-winter

My mom was in town last weekend for the American Library Association (ALA) mid-winter conference in Seattle. It was SO MUCH FUN! Primarily because I got to hang out with my mom -- but also because I got to meet all these cool librarians and get a little peak inside of their world and the world of information management. It was fascinating. Librarians are true activists. I was a little surprised by their constant activism -- it seems so natural to them that most didn't notice they were being activists! But every single one I talked to (and granted this was a skewed set as they were hanging out with my mum and she's always been an activist) was up to something to protect their library users' rights to information. They were concerned about censorship, about access to literature in book format or digital format. Across the board people were frustrated by internet laws that were trying to prohibit the content users could access.

There were a number of interesting trends:
(1) The Card Catalog is dead. Just knowing what one is dates you!
(2) Lots of questions around how to validate the source and credibility of online content. Can the internet be a resource of validated, citeable, information? There was a lot of discussion around this process of information validation online -- how do you know the quality of a source?
(3) Book length for kids has increased. This was interesting -- I heard repeatedly that kids are reading longer books post-Harry Potter. Apparently JK rowling's books showed readers that 400+ pages can be interesting!
(4) Science Fiction was huge at the conference. Everyone was talking about how they were expanding their shelf space to accomodate Sci-Fi. Particularly for teen readers. They love Sci-Fi, more so than fantasy.
(5) My Space - I met about 5 librarians who were putting their libraries up on myspace. They told me that their young readers use my space and if they can get them to use the library via my space, they have to be there. Fascinating.

The other fun thing we did? Crash parties. As with any good conference there are also a number of parties to go to! We went to one at the EMP -- the experience music project sponosored by Wiley Publishers. It was fun , I got to walk through a "history of hip hop" exhibit with my mum. The next party we went to was at the top of the space needle. However, it turned out that we had the wrong invite! They let us in anyways (it was supposed to be the Innovative party but instead we were at the Thomson Scientific party). Thomason was completely wonderful and the views from the top of the space needle were great.

All in all, I have to say that hanging out with Librarians was good times. I'd like to do it more often!

Natala

frozen tankini's and some other things about 2007

I promised to blog on thursday's. I'm going to add to that promise: I won't blog about the weather or my dog on thursdays after today. They are easy back-up posts -- as we all saw, Cuba is incredibly cute and ridiculous ( you should see the videos...) and well, I can talk about the weather for hours. Really. Now mind you, seattle has been having some interesting weather this season...but even so, linking to photos of snow, wind and power outages aren't the best blog fodder.. so on that note, here's my final thursday blog post with a bit on the weather.

So...I decided to do a Triathlon. Not just any triathlon, but an olympic-distance triathlon in Maui at the beginning of June. I'm *so excited*! I've done two sprint tri's before ... but i was honestly not sure I was in the right shape to do an olympic distance triathlon. Which, being a goal-oriented person, meant i had to do it. So I signed up via Team In Training and I start officially training in February. In order to prep, I've been swimming twice a week at the pro club. It's so much fun to be back in the pool. On Monday, I pulled my tankini out of my swim bag. I guess it had been a little bit wet from the last time I had swam. And it has been cold. Very cold. Well. My tankini was now FROZEN! Yep. What's a girl to do but swim in her frozen tankini? I had to shake out frozen bits from my swim cap too. Ah, the fun of training in a non-temperate weather zone.

Triathlon's weren't the only thing I've decided to tackle in 2007. I don't really make new year's resolutions, but i do pick focus areas. So what are my focus areas? Well, one is going to be my diet. I'm not going raw or any of those crazy things, I just want to eat good combinations of mostly organic, whole grain real foods. And lots of avocados. And blueberries. Maybe some papaya. And bacon. Always bacon... I'm also focused on optimizing my living spaces. My house is great. But now I want to tackle the outdoors. I'm going to completely revamp my yard space. I'm soooo excited. Expect at least one post on gardening. Finally, I'm going to launch at least one of my side projects this year. I can't wait. I'm so excited for 2007. So far, it's been awesome. Best year ever!

cuba libre

So, last June I got a dog. And by dog I really mean a micro-dog. A morkie to be exact. What is a morkie…well, let the Cuba FAQ explain it all!

Cuba?
Yes, that’s her name. We have a history in my family of naming our pets after locations. And she’s small, so a small name seemed appropriate. But she’s tough. So this one really fit. As far as I know, she isn’t a communist…but when she’s bad, I call her Fidel. Boys tend to call her Cuba Libre. Lately I’ve been calling her muffin. My family calls her “the morkie” and my office mate called her the “micro-dog.”

Morkie?
Yes, she’s a morkie. That’s a Maltese – Yorkshire terrier mix. Which means she’s a scruffy little mutt.

How big is she?
Well, she’s small. Really small. When I got her she was barely 2 lbs. She’s since DOUBLED in size since then to almost 4 lbs! She’s pretty much going to stay this size. It’s like she’ll be a puppy forever.

Does she have a job?
Yes. She’s the official morale generator for my team. She loves coming into the office and provides joy and humor for everyone.

What’s it like having a micro-dog?
It’s ridiculous. She has hair – not fur, so she actually gets cold and needs sweaters. She loves to go on long walks – but she’s slow. She sniffs everything. And she doesn’t really walk, she kinda hops and traipses and frolics. She provides constant amusement. And she never really barks or yaps – she’s not that kind of dog. The best part is that because of her size she can travel with me pretty much anywhere. We’ve been to California 4 times already. She loves brizzie. Everything brizzie does, she wants to do. It’s hilarious.

Net-net: she’s awesome. She may be small, but she’s all love and sweetness and a lot of cuteness.

me + weather

So, sometimes I forget that I now live in Seattle and that it might be raining or possibly *snowing* outside. Like today. I dressed as I would in California in January -- a light sweater, cute skirt and heels. I grabbed a scarf, because well, it is Seattle and out the door I went. 5 minutes later it was *SNOWING*! Yes, really. I had no idea that this could be possible. It didn't even cross my mind. I guess I am still in my Californian mindset that, on average, the weather will be pretty good and I can pretty much wear anything. This is soooo not the case in seattle. *sigh*...by the time I adapt i'll probably be back in CA!

On another note, one of my new year's resolutions is to blog every Thursday. Woohoo. I can blog on other days, of course, but i'm going to commit to Thursdays. Happy reading!