we all go through those moments when we lack motivation, when we are devoid of inspiration, when we find ourselves suffering from a massive brain fart... this is one of those days for me. so for now, while i try to find the best way to tell you how i'm doing and what i've been up to as far as training, i'm going to borrow some words from someone else to medicate all of you through your brain farts....

“… No matter how careful you are, there’s going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn’t experience it all. There’s that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should’ve been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That’s how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice. None of this matters. We’re just warming up.”

Where's my mind these days?

I got the two swimming days completely inverted and I showed up at the pool at 7:30 PM. The first thing that was a little strange was, "Hey! There's actually parking spaces." As I was walking to the pool, I thought, "Hmmm, why's everyone already in the pool? Argh! I got the days mixed up."

Lake Piru Camping Trip

The camping trip was our first swim outside of the pool and a chance to socialize with our team and the much larger Westside TNT triathlon team. After work on Friday, I scrambled to get my stuff packed into my car and I went to pick Jenn from her place. We raced against the sun to reach the camp site before the sun set. Setting up a tent in the dark is not fun.

Take notice of the cool sunbeams

We arrived in camp, unsure what the parking or campsite situation was, but we were able to unload all our stuff and parked a few miles down the road and got a ride by. I was really surprised when I got back and the tent was already set up. Super impressed that Jenn was able to set it up in the dark.

The next morning after breakfast, we headed out to the swimming area on the other side of the lake. I'm going to take a quote from Nancy because I think she describes the swim in the lake perfectly:

"The open water swim was hilarious - half the participants were calm, cool, and swimming just fine, the other half (clearly including me) got about 5 strokes in, and then hung on to the buoy! Waves, murky water, more waves, made it hard to see, and hard to relax. I did get some great advice to abort the freestyle and try breaststroke or backstroke instead, which I did, but, as Coach Scott said, didn't get me very far. I would say I had a total of about 7 good strokes in at the very end of my swim. The rest, calamity. BUT, it was great to be with other people feeling just as paranoid and frustrated as I was!! Go Team!"

That's me on the right walking on the gross clay like shore

I think the only think I could add about the swim was what freaked me out was the underwater trees. Since the lake is created by the dam. There are some old trees in the water and if you swim into them, you surrounded by algae cover branches. The slimy feel all around you just makes your imagination go wild.

After the swim, we had a BRICK workout and by the time I was back in camp, I was completely pooped. Unfortunately, my idea of relaxing isn't sitting around a giant fire pit and socializing, which was pretty much what we did the entire rest of the camping trip.

We sat around the fire pit for 15 hours over 3 days

If you're wondering, yes, I took this picture because I thought cooking bell peepers over a camp fire was interesting

For dinner, the staff made us a spaghetti dinner and after that we pineapple upside down cake and s'mores. With all the extra marshmallows, we played chubby bunny, which is you stuff a marshmallow in your mouth and say chubby bunny and if it's audible you continue with another marshmallow. It gets pretty gross as you keep stuffing them in your mouth and the heat just makes them melt into one giant lump of sugar.

Waymond, the only eastsider who was willing to play Chubby Bunny

The highlight of the night for me was seeing a double rainbow, oh my god.

It's a double rainbow, all the way. Woah it's so intense.

The next morning at the crack of dawn, I just needed to get out of camp. I took my bike out and rode along the lake. The road was really broken down and it wasn't the best thing for my bike but the view of the sunrise over the lake through the clouds was well worth it.

Sunrise over Lake Piru

By the time, I got back to camp, we all got together to do our morning run practice and I headed home right ahead, skipping breakfast.

Zuma Beach

Workout: Coached bike set practice

I'm woke up at 5 AM this morning. I must be operating on 4 hours of sleep. I was so excited about this workout and the wedding later today that I could hardly sleep. Good thing I packed my car last night; I've got plenty of time to get some breakfast and get mentally prepared.

Set practice is a new word for me. I heard it last night from Tik at the wedding rehearsal dinner for James and Vivian when I told him we were going to Zuma Beach today to ride the same course we'd be riding on race day.

UPDATE:
Driving down the PCH is really slow with all those traffic lights. Once I got to Zuma, it was still pretty early and luckily I was able to get a free parking spot right outside the parking lot.

They had a bunch of bicycle racks set up in the parking lot. This is the usual workout place for the Westside triathlon team. Their team comprises of members from only a few cities on the westside, while our Eastside team encompasses everything else in LA, but still they have more members than us. Many of their team was already there and they look like they meant business. We looks like the Bad News Bears in comparison.

Westside Coach Pete showed us how to set up our transition area and Coach Scott talked us through little tips and tricks to have a smooth, trouble-free transition. The mentors demonstrate how the transition is done and after that, we took our turn and tried the transition ourselves. I was a little surprised that instead of it being pretty low key. Some people were actually pushing and running into each other to vie for a better position off the transition.

Coach Pete showing us how to set up our transition area

Gabe demonstration how the transition is done

Amanda inflating her tires

After the transition clinic, we did a 13 mi. bike ride. I started cramping up in my calves on the way back. Got off the bike and ran 2 miles. I started my run off with Myra and we took a nice easy pace and just chatted. When she went to the bathroom, I tagged along with Quinton and man, we really took off running. He's super skinny and he just flies on the run.

I asked Victor about cramping up. I've been eating bananas everyday, but I guess I'm not drinking enough water. I really need to force down enough fluid for my weight. The formula is half my weight, that's the number of ounces I want to take in during my day. Kim and Tara gave me another tip for cramping, coconut water. It's got more K than bananas; an acquired taste though.

Why do I keep trying to talk to people at LA fitness?

Workout: Week 7 swim drills

As I was jumping into the pool, I notice this lady wearing a black swim cap with an American flag on it - just like the ones team USA wears. As I was swimming, I couldn't help but ask, "Are you an Olympian?" and she misheard me and said, "No, I'm Mongolian."