If I'm Not Fast, I Might As Well Look Good

Last night, after it cooled off (we're in the middle of another heatwave), Miguel and I headed out for my training ride. A 53 minute ride was on the agenda. We were going to ride our usual ride down Novato Blvd toward Stafford Lake but decided instead to ride toward Lucas Valley Road, a road I'll ride during the tri. Here's our route:


We did a little over 11 miles. On the way home Miguel wanted to take this shorter route over this big a$$ hill. Ah! No! Can't do it! Well, after a few minutes I started feeling like I could give it a try. I made it about 1/2 way up before needing a break - but I made it. Pretty amazing. Miguel declared the hill conquered but I will declare it so when I can ride up with no break :) At its worst it is a 12% grade according to Garmin.

And that's my new jersey!! It's Bert and Ernie. Isn't it cute? It's actually a men's jersey but I love it so I got it anyway. How cute is that?! I can't believe how blinged out I look in all the Pearl Izumi stuff. The socks are Miguel's. I couldn't find any of my socks I like to wear so I borrowed his.

My Polar said I burned 479 calories. Someday I'm going to have to wear both heart rate monitors (Polar and Garmin) to see just how inflated the Garmin numbers are. In general I trust the Polar. It always seems to give reasonable numbers. I have a Polar A5 if you were curious. I'm a big fan of heart rate monitors. It entertains me to no end and gives me some feedback on how hard my body is working vs. how hard it feels like I'm working.

Alright, I've been tagged by TallMama & Matty. [The rules: Link to the person who tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Write six random things about yourself. Tag six people at the end of your post. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.]

6 Random Things About Me:

1. I like Hamburger Helper. Ok, maybe like is too strong a word. I eat Hamburger Helper, and it's not bad. I make it with Lean Ground Turkey Breast and the Points are reasonable. A quick meal that will probably give me cancer one day due to being so heavily processed.

2. Documentaries are my favorite movie genre. Recent faves include Word Wars, For The Bible Tells Me So, 51 Birch St, and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

3. I'm trying to be slender with long hair too. Each time I've gotten "in shape" in the past I have short hair. The thing is, when I start exercising hair becomes irritating. I end up chopping it all off. Thus, I've never been skinny and had long hair at the same time. I'm trying, but the urge to cut off my locks grows stronger every day.

4. I was honored by NAMI as part of their 2007 Mental Illness Awareness Week Thank You Campaign. A grandmother was really grateful for my work with her while her son was having trouble. She wrote a nice letter to NAMI and they acknowledged me. These things happen pretty rarely so I hung the letter in my cube.

5. I sunburned my a$$ at Kehena Beach, a "clothing optional" black sand beach on The Big Island of Hawaii. When I was 25 and in the best shape of my life (about 10 pounds less than I am now) this was the closest beach to my place by miles. It took me 2 months of hanging out there before I finally bared all, 1 month to take my top off, 1 more month for the bottoms. After a while you feel silly being the only one with clothes on. Well, I didn't think about the fact that my buns had never seen the light of day. I couldn't sleep for days because of the pain. That's a picture of the actual beach.

6. I'm not a tattoo person. I love them on other people, especially the really nice ones. But I fear I don't know myself well enough to make such a commitment. Isn't that sad? That said, if I ever do an Ironman, I'm getting a tattoo.

Well, there you have it. I'm tagging Megan and Kristy. Wait, you want more pictures? Ok...here's another one of the jersey in which you can see a bit of the back. Then a full frontal shot of the jersey. There are socks too! But I have to have my limits.





Weigh-in comes in only 2 days. Right now I'm actually up a little but hopefully if I continue eating clean until Thursday I can put together a loss. I'll update here for sure!