Holy cow, I just did a TRIATHLON!!!

Y'all! I just did a triathlon. I'm still a little in shock. But there's totally photographic evidence. See:

That's ME. With a race number pinned on my shirt and a medal around my neck! Did I mention that I still can't quite believe I actually did it?

I've actually been training for a couple months now, but just never got around to writing about it. I have to say, this is something I never, ever thought I'd do. I've always loved soccer and hiking and being active, but racing? Not really my thing. I didn't even learn to swim for real until the past October, and I think I took driver's ed and learned to ride a bike right around the same time!

Anyway, I actually started training on a whim -- couldn't find a gym I really liked in my new neighborhood, was tired of sitting on the sidelines at my ex's triathlons (I'm not really a sit-on-the-sidelines kinda girl, in case you haven't noticed), and happened to stumble across this 13-week triathlon training program being offered by a local running store, See Jane Run. We have three team workouts a week -- a pool workout, a track workout, and a long workout on the weekend (bike rides, open-water swim, longer runs, or some combo). It's been SO, SO, SO motivating to have set workouts -- I push myself so much harder when I'm with a group than I ever could on my own -- it's part of what I've always loved about playing soccer.

Anyway, we're actually only in week 8 of training now, but my awesome workout partner, Emily, convinced me that I was ready for a race now, and she was totally right. Today, I swam a half mile in open water, rode 11 hilly miles, and then ran a hilly 5K. All in a ROW! And ohmygosh was it HARD. I mean, physically, it was challenging, but mentally, it went well beyond challenging. Have you ever tried to swim a half a mile in 60 degree water, with other swimmers flailing all around you? It literally takes your breath away. I had a few bad minutes early in the swim, in which I had to talk myself out of a panic attack a quarter mile from shore (it didn't help that they mis-set the course so that the swim was longer than it was supposed to be -- SERIOUSLY???). But I toughed it out and made it through the swim, the bike, and the run. And, look, I only bled just a little! ;-)

(Bike mishap -- chain slipped off the gears midway up a hill, I wiped out -- oops).

Anyway, now that I've done my first race, I've been sitting here all afternoon glowing with pride, and thinking about how full of awesome "first times" this whole training experience has been. It's not just the race -- It's all the ways I've pushed myself and succeeded along the way. Among the firsts:

-- running 3 miles straight and thinking it was totally easy.

-- running 6 miles straight, ever.

-- running while chatting with my running-mates and actually enjoying it (maybe because I now have the lung strength to talk and run at the same time!) Turns out, running is much more fun when you're hearing about so-and-so's boyfriend drama while you go. Who knew?

-- running and actually enjoying it. It might help that I've been doing my running in stunning venus. Our regular workout track is high in the Berkeley hills, with an amazing view of San Francisco at sunset across the bay, our weekend workouts are in places like Tiburon, and I've been doing my independent runs around Oakland's Lake Merritt or in Frederick Law Olmstead-designed Mountain View Cemetery.

-- putting on running tights and thinking, huh, my butt actually looks kinda cute in these. :-)

-- wearing a wetsuit. Someone should really video tape us trying to get in and out of those things. It's comedy gold! I get the giggles every time. Me, halfway into my wetsuit before the race today:

-- having to douse myself in body glide to keep said wetsuit from chafing

-- swimming in the San Francisco Bay (!)

-- swimming in the SF Bay and enjoying it -- seriously, y'all, there's nothing like being out on Treasure Island early on a Saturday morning, watching the sun turn San Francisco all rosy and knowing that you're doing something that very few people would even think about doing. Yesterday, I had to do a quick swim to save myself for today's race, and I was actually SAD to get out of the water!

-- Riding my bike more than 15 miles at a go. And then more than 20 and more than 30 . . .

-- Wearing cycling shoes

-- Riding with clipless pedals on my bike. Despite what the name might indicate, clipless pedals are actually pedals that you clip your foot into while you're riding, kind of like a ski binding. I think perhaps the bike dude who named these pedals didn't know the meaning of the suffix "-less."

-- wiping out horribly on clipless pedals while learning to use them, giving myself the nastiest bruise I've ever had. (Mom, avert your eyes) See:

Actually, that first picture doesn't really do it justice. How 'bout this one?

The good news is, triathlon training is apparently turning me into a superhero, because that baby was almost completely GONE only 9 days later. My bruises never heal that fast!

-- and then, after a few tears, getting back on my bike and keeping on going to finish the hardest ride of the season (3 Bears Loop in Orinda. The "bears" in the ride name are the 3 big-ass hills, papa, mama, and baby).

-- not being terrified of riding uphill anymore. Or downhill for that matter -- I don't ride the brakes nearly as much as I used to!

-- swimming at the public pool. Which, as it turns out, is actually quite nice if you can ignore the skanky locker room. It's a heated outdoor pool, open year-round, with nice long lanes so you can get a good rhythm going.

-- sharing a swimming pool lane with someone else (actually 5 someone elses at my regular team workouts!) I only learned to swim in October, by thrashing about in the pool at the very swanky gym in my old neighborhood. I never had to share a lane there -- the pool was always practically empty. Which is good when you look like an injured seal as you try to learn freestyle.

-- doing swimming drills (I kind of love fingertip drag. Catch-up still gives me water-snarf syndrome, though)

-- swimming a mile straight, no stopping (just two days ago!)

-- Swimming butterfly stroke (yesterday!)

-- Swimming fly kick on my back -- fun!

-- Doing "brick" workouts (where you go straight from one workout to the next --e.g. biking to running. Called a brick because your legs feel like bricks at first when you switch events, supposedly, although that has not been my experience at all)

-- thinking that it's no big deal to ride my bike 25 miles and then run immediately afterward

I think when I started this whole thing, I just thought it'd be a good way to motivate myself to work out. But as it turns out, I've gotten SO much more out of it than that. I mean, first of all, I thought I would just do the easiest version of each of the workouts (they often give us a beginner option and an intermediate/advanced version) -- those looked hard enough. But as it turns out, I almost always do the longer version of the workout, and both enjoy it and find myself completely capable of it. There has been a time in almost every workout when I thought I maybe couldn't finish, or when I wanted to just stop because this or that was hurting or I was tired or whatever. But I've finished all of them. And now, today, I finished a race.

You'll have to excuse me while I go glow with pride some more:

Daily Dose of Gratitude #66

1. The smell of tomato plants and marigolds.

2. A fresh washed bedspread, dried in the sun (the cat is grateful for this, too!)

3. Working from home. (Please don't ask me what time I changed out of my PJs this morning. I'd rather not confess to that little gem :-)

4. Strong legs and gorgeous scenery -- Had an absolutely lovely 9 mile bike ride in Tiburon followed by a 4 mile run in the Berkeley hills last night. Views of the sun setting in San Francisco, so very grateful that I was out in the open air rather than stuck in one of the thousands of cars I could see crawling across the Bay Bridge.

5. Wonderful, amazing, happy friends (new and old)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #65

1. Swimming a mile straight, no stopping. The longest I've ever done.

2. A new handmade dress (terrible pic -- sorry! I promise it's adorable, though :-)

3. Fizzy pink drinks. (This pic is actually from February, when all I wanted to do for my birthday was to drink something pink and fizzy and play skee-ball. Skee-ball didn't happen, but I did get my pink and fizzy. Must get back up to wine country soon!)

4. Trivia night victory. Free beer, yeah!

5. The kind of incredibly satisfying kind of tired you feel only after a really amazing workout.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #64

1. An abundance of my favorite flowers at the farmer's market (and cheap, too!)

I am utterly charmed, by the way, by the misspelled sign.

2. Hiking with a good friend and seeing her old-school happy after several very tough months:

3. Starry night, wonderful conversation, live bluegrass in the background.

4. Dogs riding shotgun, tongues lolling, ears flapping back in the wind.

5. Yellow shoes.

Daily Dose of Gratitude

1. Tide low enough on my way across the bridge in the morning that I can see seals sunning themselves on shelves of exposed rock.

2. An awesome after work swim with women from my triathlon team. The longest I've ever swum in one work-out, in fact (nearly a mile and a half!)

3. And realizing that I'm strong enough right now to do a triathlon, even though I've still got 6 weeks before my scheduled race.

(Is there anyone who doesn't look a little silly in neoprene?)

4. The fact that I work out with a bunch of women who are impressed rather than horrified by the truly fabulous bruise I gave myself on Saturday, when I had a, shall we say, "unplanned exit" from my bike. (Sorry, no picture. My mom reads this blog, and I fear if she saw the bruise, she'd come out to California and let all the air out of my bike tires to keep me from ever getting on the confounded machine again.) (Love you, Mom!)

5. A chicken gyro with extra tzatziki sauce.

6. $3 bunches of brilliantly orange farmer's market ranunculus brightening my bedroom.

(An aside -- I just googled ranunculus to make sure I was spelling it right and learned that the gorgeous, ruffly ranunculuses (ranunculi?) that I get at the farmer's market are a type of buttercup. I had no idea - they look so different! )

Please hold . . .

Things are wicked stressful around here at the moment. We're in the "oh shit" phase of a huge project at work, I owe so many people emails and phone calls and coffee dates that I'm starting to feel like I'm never going to catch up. And, as usual, I'm finding myself dreaming of my favorite outdoorsy places. Always seems to happen when life is such that I am barely outside my office in daylight. And, of course, it doesn't help that I've been watching a little chunk of the Ken Burns National Parks special each night when I get home from work. Amazing, amazing stuff. I never, ever buy DVDs, but I think this one is going to have to be an exception!

Anyway, until I have time again for a real post, and until I have time to actually get back outdoors (still hoping for one last camping trip before the snow really sets in in the Sierras), here are a couple more of my favorite pics from this summer's wanderings:

High Sierras, somewhere near the Tioga Pass:

And on the North Dome Trail, Half Dome behind me. (Why is it that the sight of Half Dome in the distance still takes my breath away, even though I've seen it dozens of times? Seriously --every. single. time.)

Missing Autumn

For the past several days, I've been dreaming of fall. Apple-picking and pumpkin patches and of hills covered in red-garbed maples. Dreams of bundling up in a warm sweater and corduroy pants and getting lost in a good old fashioned corn maze. The midwesterner in me always comes out with a vengeance in the fall, because as much as I love California, fall never feels like autumn to me here. This is my 4th fall living here, and this is the closest I've ever found to the midwestern autumn colors in my heart:

This was taken last year in Lake Tahoe, somewhere near Emerald Bay. It's lovely -- the yellow aspens against the brilliant blue of the sky. In fact, I'm planning a trip to the Sierras in a couple weeks to enjoy the lovely weather again. (Anyone want to recommend where's best in October -- Tahoe, Yosemite, or Sequoia / Kings Canyon?) But, still, I'm lonely right now for home and the paintbox autumns of my childhood.

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 5

Enjoyed a lot of sunsets:

San Francisco, Land's End, June:

At an Oakland A's Game, June: (Fun game, lousy baseball stadium)

May Lake, Yosemite, July:

On the Trinity River, July: (My first time whitewater rafting!):

Lower Sunrise Lake, Yosemite, August:

Cathedral Lake, Yosemite, August:

Glen Arbor, Michigan. August: (The view from the porch of my parent's Lake Michigan beach house)

Lake Michigan, Glen Arbor, September:

(Don't know the guy fishing, but he sure does add to the picture, huh?)

Oh yeah, and lest you think I'm never home (Ken, I'm totally looking at you!), Right outside my own front door.

What I did on my summer vacation, part 4

Went hiking and in love all over again with the brilliant sunlit green of midwestern woods. Don't get me wrong, I love love love the California out doors, but we just don't have the same kind of gorgeous hardwood forests here.

I only wish I hadn't been too early for fall colors. The brilliant red orange yellow against deep blue sky of a Michigan October day has always and will always take my breath away.

Also, remembered just how gorgeous Lake Michigan is.

Especially seen from the top of a crazy steep sand dune in the middle of the woods.

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 3

Oh, and did I mention the jumping?

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 2

Made other people jump, too.

My sister, Dana:

My dad (jumping for apples):

Dorian:

(Aren't they all good sports, indulging my new-found joy in jumping pictures?)

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 1:

Jumped.

Molten Lake

On vacation with the family in Northern Michigan right now. I've been spending a lot of time NOT at my computer, looking at scenery like this. Just lovely.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #61

1. An awesome, challenging soccer practice last night. And dinner waiting for me when I got home.

2. Kiss My Face Ginger Mango lip balm (and Vanilla Honey, too).

3. D. packing up a lunch for me before sending me off to work this morning -- half a leftover veggie burrito from last night, with a few carrots tucked in the bag, too, since he knows I'm always craving more veggies.

4. An upcoming weekend with nothing, nothing, nothing planned. (Thanks to a canceled camping trip, followed by me very zealously protecting my down time).

5. It's Friday, yay!

Daily Dose of Gratitude #60

1. A lovely weekend backpacking the high Sierras.

2. Bedtime bourbon and hot chocolate by the edge of Sunrise Lake.

3. The purple of a post-storm sunset, reflecting in a cold mountain lake.

4. A good tent and rain gear, which kept us (mostly) dry in the deluge we were caught in Saturday night and most of Sunday.

5. A backpacking partner who was very, very patient with me even in the midst of a wee meltdown on the final stretch of our trip. (Soaking wet gear, slick and muddy trails, no hot breakfast or morning coffee). There might have been a little bit of bitching and moaning and few tears. I might have been the one doing the bitching and bawling. :-)

Pictures as soon as I find the damn camera cable.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #59

1. I am in a brilliantly happy mood today, for no particular reason that I can discern. It's lovely, though. I love those moments when you're just driving along, maybe with the windows down and a great song on the radio, and suddenly you're struck with this glowing feeling of pure happiness. That was my drive to work this morning :-)

2. A great soccer game last night. We won 4-1, and I had a goal and 2 assists. And it was fun, fun, fun - not always the case lately, since my team is a wee bit flaky.

3. My "emergency" curry -- chickpeas and whatever veggies I have around sauteed with tons of madras curry powder, chicken broth, and a big scoop of plain yogurt. Serve over quinoa. Healthy, yummy, and make-able in less than 20 minutes!

4. Passion fruit lip balm. (Though I think everyone should call passion fruit by its Hawaiian name, lillikoi. It's just so much prettier!)

5. An adorable shirt for just 3 bucks. Dear Gap, I LOVE your wicked cheap clearance prices -- 5 items of adorable summer clothing for, like, $30 :-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #58 -- Special Baseball Themed Edition!

1. A baseball game on a foggy San Francisco summer night. I love watching the fog swirl around the lights.

2. A very generous friend who gave us his rather awesome tickets, since he was chillin' in a VIP box and not using them anyway. I LOVE being close to the action at a baseball game.

3. Ballpark hot-dogs with lots of spicy mustard, relish, and onions.

4. Taking BART to the game. I miss taking trains on a daily basis!

5. The person blowing soap bubbles from the upper deck at the baseball stadium.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #57

1. Berry picking with an old friend, at a beautiful coastal farm.

2. A fridge full of home-made jam -- yum!

3. A lazy Sunday morning spent drinking coffee slowly and sharing the paper with someone who doesn't fight me for the crossword.

4. Hot summer days, at last, and nights warm enough to sleep with all the windows open.

5. Vacation planning (now if I could only decide which vacation to take!)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #56

1. Words I am grateful for today: Miniature, indubitably, Umber

2. The productive afternoon that followed my far-less-than-productive morning.

3. Watching a character I conceptualized come to life on video.

4. Baseball tickets for next week (Giants vs. Dodgers -- I don't much care about either team, but I'm told that it's a big rivalry and will be a fun fun fun game)

5. Giving myself permission to do the thing that is right for me tonight (go to the gym, read bad vampire novel, wash underwear in the sink so I don't have to go commando for the rest of the week) instead of going to a party that would involve a 3+ hour round-trip drive with traffic. Even though I feel horribly guilty (sorry Moose and Kristin) and a little disappointed over missing the party (Free! Gap! Jeans!)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #55

1. Watching Pretty in Pink from a blanket in Dolores Park . . .

2. . . . behind a group of very large gay men wearing sparkly pink prom dresses . . .

3. . . . after running into an old college friend, whom I haven't seen in probably 10 years . . .

4. . . . with the whole crowd cheering every time Duckie came on screen . . .

5. . . . and realizing that I'm so very glad I don't go for the pretty-but-jerky boys anymore -- as a teenager, I was thrilled that Andie ends up with Blaine. But I watch the movie now and all I can think is, wow, Blaine is really a dick. Andie should have gone for Duckie! :-) . . .