Training and More Training

Here's what has happened in my life since I've seen you all last:

Friday: Hill Repeats - Took Jillian to experience In-N-Out for the first time (she's been here a year and no In-N-Out)

Saturday: Rode Santiago Canyon about 6:30 am - Went to dinner at the Yard House and the Improv with friends

Sunday ~3/4 mile Ocean Swim - think I got seasick but stayed to help with the Challenged Athletes Foundation's Ocean Swim Clinic

Friday was great. Jillian, another Tridiva Nora and I did hill repeats. I only did 3 and I still can't break my 11 min mark, but I'm trying. I really wanted a chocolate shake at In-N-Out. It's been my goal to save 15 points and be able to drink the whole milkshake. I have not achieved this goal to date. Maybe after Pendleton this weekend I will. Also, I don't think I could have stomached that much dairy after the hill repeats.

Saturday I finally tackled Santiago Canyon. A few people sent word around that they were going and Jillian said yes. I figured if Jillian could do it after our hill repeats, so could I. Now there were 3 separate occasions on this 23 mile ride that I wanted to get off my bike and walk, but I kept making deals with myself to see what was over this hill and I never got off. These quitting thoughts may be fodder for an upcoming post.

Saturday night was good. Went to the Yard House and had some beer. They have hundreds of them there. We went to the improv and saw a comic that was meh. He had one subject for 90 minutes. Penises, vaginas, sex, him getting more sex now that he's famous. Although some of it was very funny, it wasn't funny for 90 minutes funny.

Sunday started off awful and ended up okay. We had an open water swim, the distance should have been at least twice around the buoys, 3 times if you were fast enough.

Let me set the stage, I ate a PBJ on the way because I figured we'd be getting a talk for about 30 minutes then into the water. Also, I've eaten PBJs before runs or bikes so I thought I could handle it. No dice. Not a long talk, just enough to assure the newbies to ocean swimming that there are critters out there, but the sharks we've seen are lemon sharks that *may* be 2 ft in length. And we're off.

My plan was to stick with Ann, the first lap went okay, the second 1/2 lap was horrible. I'm not sure if I didn't have my wetsuit on correctly or if the rough waters started my stomach going or if forgetting my daily inhaler in the morning triggered an asthma attack, or all 3, but something happened and I couldn't finish the swim. I couldn't catch my breath, I felt ill and I was towed almost to shore by one of our surf buddies.

I was so embarrassed, but then my friends Dina, Stacey and Laura (the first 2 are nurses) told me to sit down and drink water that I looked pale. At least it wasn't just in my head! I couldn't really run at all during our after swim run. Anytime I tried to run while we were helping the CAF peeps I was wheezing. I think I may have triggered a mild asthma attack while swimming.
Awesome.

The Challenged Athletes Foundation's swim clinic will be the topic of another post. I don't think I can describe how great these people are and how inspired and impressed I was by them.

In the afternoon/evening my brother came down. He was in the state because of a wedding in Burbank, which is NOT close to my part of the state, well not very close. If he hadn't of planned on driving down to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Northern Orange County, I would have driven up. But I knew he was going to come down and wanted to see our house, so I didn't.

We had a nice visit and we went to Bob's Kabob House for dinner. I really like that place.

Today is a DOR. I did take my bong hits of daily inhaler, if anyone cares. I do not want anything like yesterday happening again. EVER.