Day 2 - Retail therapy

Highlight of Day 2 of my blogging and trying to stay consistent with my habits and daily routines included flossing, buying shoes, applying to about 10 jobs and gardening. Well atleast on the 10th day of October, I applied to 10 jobs and I am happy I started.

 Started my day with job applications and knocked those out before I got distracted! In the morning, I did some gardening, which makes you feel grounded literally and metaphorically! Spent sometime swimming in the pool where I am definitely getting more comfortable and agile in the water. And I am so happy to make progress with bilateral breathing. The power of consistency!!

Also ended up tasting some luxurious cookies - vegan french macarons from Veron. Oo laa laa!! Those tasted luxurious and also made me waste a lot of time looking for vegan macaron recipes!!!😛 Gotta give those another try sometime!

Can't believe I bought yet another pair of running shoes, this time it is Saucony's Endorphin Pro 3 and my 5th pair of shoes for this year!! Oh boy that calls for it's own blog post altogether. But yes, I invested in one after I heard rave reviews about it and it was called the 2022 shoes of the year and I have an A race coming up at Big Bear where I want to PR and break 4 hours marathon time.

Basically I yielded to FOMO as I did not want to miss out on a great deal and regret for the rest of my life lol!

How do I feel?

Much better compared to Day 1 although I didn't accomplish everything I set out to.

Gotta keep making progress. Motivation gets you going but discipline keeps you growing. I will be pumped to do more when I stay consistent. Gotta keep at it.  

Day 1 - Flossing

 This is a title I want to remember for a while and think about it one day that it all started one day with flossing.

Context 

In a pretty bad state mindset wise where I feel pretty useless most of the time and at times it does get overwhelming when I do break down and let it out to my crazy partner! Being out of a job sucks! Being out of a job for over six months sucks big time! I can’t seem to get over the fact that it happened to me and I am now in a state where I feel kinda stuck while everyone else moves on. I don’t want to think and overthink about what others might think of my state or not! I want to live in peace and not be robbed of happiness because of a silly job. It is a job and it will work out but today I need to be patient and not worry and waste my time future tripping! 

After a meltdown I decided to start with baby steps. 

1) Drank water (which I don’t do enough!!)

2) brush and flossed my teeth (As mundane as that is, I don’t do it consistently and haven’t flossed in months!!)

3) Oiled my hair 

4) Put a bandaid to my right toe wound in prep for the upcoming marathon 

5) Decided to blog about my intrusive thoughts and also have a plan on what I want to accomplish.

Need to mention a little bit more about flossing because it’s not easy for me. It’s not easy to get started with it, to do it, like everything about flossing seems a fluster for me! It took about 12 minutes for me to floss my teeth and I could see that there was a lot of bleeding when I did it. I couldn’t remember the last time I flossed but I remember telling the dentist at Hemamalini Dental Clinic that I would floss everyday!!! And that never happened!! 👎 

But patiently flossing every teeth although a painful and bloody process was satisfying to be able to stick through and complete it!! That led to a chain reaction of other things including me resuming to write about my blog which I’ve only thought about doing but never got to it 

Plan for tomorrow (want to start with baby steps)

1) Clean up clutter ( basics, nothing too deep)

2) Swim for recovery

3) Check out Long Beach Marathon course

4) Decide on a book to read

5) Meditate for 5 minutes 🧘‍♀️ 

So if I accomplish these 5 things on 10/9, I consider it to be a win! Good luck. 🍀 

San Diego Half Marathon race report

Medal Monday! 

Well, here I am writing a race report for a half marathon after I failed to write one for both the Ironman 70.3 races last year or may be this will inspire me to go back and write about those experiences! 😃

San Diego Half Marathon. This was one of the races that I had registered last year in order to earn a triple 👑(something that you get when you run Carlsbad half/full, San Diego half and AFC half in one calendar year). I learnt about it last year when I did AFC half when I mentored folks from Team Asha to cross and PR! I then decided that I’d try and sign up for these races and it’s probably after about 5 years when I am officially signed up for half marathons. The last time I remember doing that was in Chicago! 

After I had a PR in Carlsbad marathon, I was motivated to try and beat that at SD Half but had been on and off with my training because of my move and laziness. But I was sure to give it my all and see what happens! 

My coach, Mandy Leonards gave me some great tips and advice which was helpful and I was motivated to try and execute them! 

Night before the race: Got done with dinner around 9:30(rice, lentil curry and okra and jack fruit). I clearly couldn’t sleep the night before and I remember doing laundry 🧺 around 1am to wash my new top and tri shorts. I should have kept everything ready and taken a picture of my gear to share with all, I didn’t and clearly suffered at the race!

Race day and breakfast: Raghu and I had planned to leave home at 5:15am to drive to San Diego and figure out parking situation and also collect my bib from a friend, who had picked it up for me! 🙏😊 I was up by 4:15am and fiddling with my phone, downloaded workout from TP onto my watch and started to get ready(watch and AirPods were charged) HRM strap was ready and was also going to carry a waist band to hold any gels/chews that I forgot to carry!🙄 I washed my running water bottle but forgot to carry that as well! Soo I basically had to stick to on-course nutrition for fuel. I drank cold UCAN protein shake in the morning and ate a banana while driving. 

We made it on time at 6:40am, parked and power walked/jogged to Harbor bridge. 

I made a quick stop to the porta party and headed to my coral 3. Was a little nervous but felt better after I saw a few familiar faces from Tri Club of San Diego! Said bye to Raghu when he reminded me  that I should warm up and do some dynamic stretches ( I did none of that!! 😝). I just wanted to get started and get on with it because the anticipation was making me kinda nervous!!

The gun goes off and I started my watch in workout mode (which I had never used for a run before). Just around then I didn’t want to risk it soo I simultaneously started tracking my run on Strava too just in case!

My first mile, I felt great and kept zipping! I did feel fast but when I looked at my watch it says 6:50 something and I knew I was going faster than expected! I tried to slow down and get my HR down but with the workout mode I couldn’t see my HR show up as one of the fields on my watch! (Lesson learnt - never try new workout/settings for the first time on race day!! Ai ai…I should have known that!!) I wasn’t even sure if my HRM got paired with my watch so I kept going. I kept clicking pictures and listened to music to distract myself! I couldn’t understand any of the fields (step timer, pace and something else) that I stopped looking at my watch and continued to run. I knew I started my run around 7:33am so I kept checking my phone frequently to look at the time! With all the gadgets I own, I finally resort to manual mind calculations during a race! 🤷🏻‍♀️🙆🏻‍♀️

I felt great when I crossed the first couple of mile markers that I did not stop for water and kept going. My first sip of electrolytes was at mile 3 when I picked up a pink colored liquid and felt great drinking that sweet stuff! 

Plan was to pick up my pace between 2-8 miles after going slow on the first mile. I clearly had to do the opposite after I realized that I was way faster for mile 1. I took another quick sip at the next station and waited for gel around mile 6.2 which was where they had on course nutrition.

The first noticeable incline was at Nimitz bridge around mile 5.5 and I was soo happy to see Crystal at the top cheering 📣  for everyone! She took a pic and I was glad that I was headed downhill. 

It was time for some on course nutrition at around 10K. Running and picking up gels on the go ain’t a great idea after I had dropped a couple while trying to grab them from the volunteers. It was around 50 minutes into the race and I was having my first gel/fuel and trying to chug along. I tried to keep going and took a couple sips of water at the next water stations.

 I kept cruising until I came across the hills between mile 8 and 10.

 It was a slow and and gradual slope and as suggested by my Coach, I tried to chug along and not walk! I was tempted to stop at the end but didn’t have to. I kept sipping my gels here and there and kept thinking may be chews would have been better lol! 

After passing through Hillcrest, I was at mile 11 and felt good and tried to pick up my pace which was hard!! I wasn’t really tired but it wasn’t easy to pick up the pace. It had to be a downhill to get some momentum and get that negative split! Phew! As I was running, it felt forever to get to the finish and I don’t think I could have done any faster? Or  may be I could have? 

Finally crossed the finish line arch and spotted Raghu right at the finish line when I took his picture(for a change :P) and posed for pictures! 

 

Stopped both my watch and Strava recording and hoped that I got some good stats. I wasn’t sure if I had PR’d but I knew it’d be close! 

For whatever reason, my workout from my watch didn't get uploaded to Strava!!😢 Thank goodness I'd started tracking on Strava on my phone although I was not at a 100% on battery. As they say, It didn't happen if it's not on Strava!!😜

Yays:

1. Good race overall! Raghu accompanied me and waited and cheered for me!! 💗
2. I didn't walk up the hills and kept chugging along as directed by Coach!
3. Glad I finished sub-2 hours. Three mile splits under 8 minute/mile and negative split.

Nays: 

1. Gotta plan and prep previous day! Take a picture.
2. Fueling...still a problem. Gotta carry and take more frequently. May be practise during training runs
3. Gotta work with  gadgets and experiment during training and not on race day.

Next up, Ragnar relay and super excited and nervous about that! 200 mile ultra relay from San Diego to Huntington Beach! Phew!! Yet to decide on what legs and miles I will be running. Also thinking about Rock n Roll full in June...may be a sub 4 marathon?! 😍

My first 70.3 triathlon (albeit unofficial)

 Ok, a good rule to remember is to write a race report on the same night or the next day because if not, you will need to remember and think hard about what you intended to write.

Better late than never, so here it is!

SASD Tri Team 70.3  

When? March 28th, 2021 6:30am

Where? Fiest Island Rd, San Diego, CA-92109

This was my first time trying to try a 70.3 distance (although unofficial). There was enough buzz about it with postings on FB which tried to keep the athletes upbeat!

I was not entirely sure if I would really be doing the whole distance initially, but after I made it official with my coach about an unofficial tri that I could use as a practise event before IM 70.3 at St. George, it was on the training plan and it happened!

As usual, I was not completely prepared and ready the previous night with all my gear (I have always wanted to lay things down and get a picture) but that has just not happenned yet! :-( Gotta change that for STG! And I could not sleep early....infact the previous night/morning, I was up until about 3am doing something random.....yikes!!

So, I wake up early and made it to the venue (which was a 15 minute drive for me) and see atheletes trying to get their gear set up. We were given some instructions on the race course so I was trying to get some pointers on where that would be, etc.

There was a check in counter they had set up, where they handed out race numbers to all! I did not have a race belt with me!!! 

There were a couple of bike racks/stands put up for us to set up our bikes, and keep our other gear which was nice. Some of them opted to use their car for transitions as previously instructed.

After laying down my stuff, I was ready to take off for the swim. I had come with my wetsuit already put in half way, so I was half way ready for my swim at home. Said hi to a couple of familiar faces at the start of the swim, took a couple of pictures and tried to get a sense of where exactly to swim, before the start. We probably were TITW around 6:50am.

Swim  

I was not the last one in the water but took my time and started easy. My goal was to not stop, which I usually tend to do with OWS. I felt good for about 400 yards or so, but could slowly see my fellow swimmers swim farther away from me and I was trying to keep them in sight so I knew where to turn. Around then, my feet sensed something and I panicked and stopped to see what happened! Two more swimmers had joined the fun...I told them how I freaked out thinking she was a shark, we giggled and continued to swim. 100 yards later, I didn't realize that I drafted off slghtly west, when I noticed one of the swimmers who signed to me that I should head right, near the island...it was pretty shallow when I had to just walk to get back to swimming!  After the turn around the island, I could see where we had started and was glad that I had probably completed about half of the course. That's when my feet touched something again. I panic again, stop swimming and tread the water, I start swimming...and my feet touched something again....and this time it was OMGGGG....WHAT IS THAT....HELP HELP!! I could see the other two swimmers (one of them, who'd scared me earlier) noticed me struggling and they asked me if I am okay. I told them that I touched something and I panicked!! It's crazy how I can narrate stories when I am panicked instead of just swimming!! jeezzz....I probably spent a good 2-3 minutes floating on my back (still scared and just hoping someong would help!!). I finally made it out of the water hoping and praying that I don't touch anything else....Later I learn that there were lot of moon jellyfish in Fiesta-

I was soooo glad to be finally out of the water (probably last but one) and so took a good 51 minutes but didn't quite get the complete 1.2 mile distance. But it was over!!!! 😅

T1

I did struggle at T1, coming out of the water, where there was wet mud so my feet was completely soiled and I was struggling to get the sand off my feet. Rubbing against a towel didn't work, may be I should keep some water in T1 to rinse off legs! I got my wetsuit off, got my cycling socks/shoes in and was off with my bike and bike helmet!

Bike 

Bike felt good, especially after that dreaded swim! This was more manageable and because we were going to loop that island, I ran into bikers all the time! Each loop was around 5 miles in distance and after about 5 loops, I lost track of that count and was going to stop when my watch showed 56!

The course was as flat as a pancake!! But it was hot and felt like a good day to train on. At about mile 25, I stopped to eat my second banana(First banana was ~6am in the car while driving) and then continued to stop every 10 miles to take a sip of UCan electrolytes that I had in my water bottle. Yes, I have to stop to drink from the water bottle and cannot drink on the go!! :-/ I was observing that my pace had started to slow down eventually on the bike - I had initially tried to stay above 16mph throughout the ride but nope! Total bike time was 3:30 which I liked! :-)

T2 

I was kind of tired by the time I got to T2 and starting a run at that time.....I was close to the car that I was thinking....may be I don't have to do the whole thing, swim and bike were good enough? ....

I tried to remove some more sand when I changed to running socks and put on my Hoka One One running shoes!! I didn't have the speed laces but was fairly quick at tying shoes laces before taking off with 3 tangerines in hand! What I also didn't realize was I was in my cycling jersey throughout for the run....

Run 

Run did feel tiring at the end, with the weather also being hot and humid! I also carried my running belt, which I probably should change and carry something more snug! There was one water station in the middle where I stopped for water during my last run lap around the island. I also remember getting lost at one point but didn't fluster because I knew I was getting the distance!  I was ready to stop exactly at 13.1  and not walk one extra step! It felt slower than normal but it was also because I hadn't swim and biked before run....especially that distance. I had taken 2:30 and I'd be happy if I finish STG around that time or sooner.

Also, I did NOT run with headphones which I normally do while running, listen to Tridot or Sonya Looney podcasts. It was a deliberate effort and was hard because I could almost sense every mile that I was running and it was hot and I was tired. Oh well!!

Ultimately, it was a good tri and the team had organized it well, also bringing in medals for everyone. :-) { Carrots are important too and not always the sticks! }

 I was just glad that it was over!! My total time was ~7:10 and I think I can do better. Considering STG is going to be a hilly course, I will target for something under 7 hours!

Lot of great learnings from the tri! Thank you SASD Tri team! What I really wanted from this tri was more of a race rehearsal to learn, change and make adjustments.

What went right?

• I was feeling great, had done sufficient training and felt nervous but wasn't too nervous!
• My gear cooperated well, after that I had a flat the next weekend. 
• I wasn't sure what clothing to wear, but ended up wearing my old speedo one piece trisuit. Planning to wear my new 2 piece gear from Zone 3 for STG
• Felt ok with nutrition but I have to incorporate more for long distance (better to fuel every hour or and not wait to feel hungry/tired!)

What went wrong?

• I could have been prepared a little more, the previous night (important to have it setup)
• Gotta learn to stay calm in the water without losing it!! 
• Had a hard time getting rid of wet sand off my feet at T1 
• Had to stay motivated and was missing music on the run....I am probably just used to listening to something while moving on my feet
• Probably got to drink more water (I didn't feel it but better to be hydrated)

What do I keep?

• From a gearing standpoint, I feel good. Getting my bike tuned up for STG with new tires/inner tubes, well lubed etc (only thing pending is to replace chain and cassette)
• Loved my Rokay socks (accelerate) (Might carry another pair just in case!)
• Didn't have to lube, might be better to carry during the race? 

What do I adjust?

• Carry more nutrition (atleast in unofficial races). Ironman course has nutrition laid out at each mile for the run
• More hydration! (Not wait to feel thirsty, but sip water more frequently)
• Sleep more!! atleast 4-5 hours the night before!

Looking forward to my next one in less than 10 days! Also looking forward to my Utah trip! 

Happy tri-ing!