Inspired to Make a Difference

Last year, I had picked up an issue of TIME magazine and read an amazing, inspiring article by Jeffrey Sachs on simple steps the developed world can take to help eliminate the despair of third world countries. He also wrote a book on this topic called The End of Poverty which I plan to read.

The article really moved and inspired me. After reading it, I decided that when I sign up for Ironman and pour my heart and soul into training, I won't do it in vain. I'll do my part to help make this world a better place.

On Nov 24 2008, I did the deed. I signed up for Ironman and with it, came the desire to fulfill the promise that I had made to myself after reading the article.
When (inshallah) I race the Ironman Triathlon in Arizona next year in Nov 2009, I'm not just going to train and race without having it mean something more

No. I'm going to do something bigger than that. Through my training for Ironman, I want to create awareness of our responsiblity towards our fellow human beings. I dont' want to race just for me, I want to race for those little girls in Tajikistan who desperately need schooling and education in their village. I want to race for those brave Pakistani women who risk their lives at search and rescue missions to save other women who may otherwise be left to fend for themselves. I want to race for clean water in African villages, I want to race for food and shelter for those who can't provide it for themselves. I want to race for something bigger than my own selfish reasons for wanting prolonged endorphin highs. I want to race for theAga Khan Development Network .

And I want to do it big.

I hope to successfully train and compete in Ironman Arizona in November 2009, and I have about a year to raise as much capital as possible for this organization. I'm not gonna just hit up my friends and family for some change and call it a day on this one. From creating my own website or at the very least, a specific blog, to utilizing social networking avenues, to knocking on company doors for pledging, I want to see just what it is I'm capable of doing and who out there will help me accomplish it all.

And for this mission, I don't want to set a "goal" on how much money I can garner in donations, because I may get smug and satisfied if I achieve this goal and not try to push beyond it. I just want to keep this open ended and collect pledges and support non stop until I race. I want to put my heart and soul into this, like I've put my heart and soul into triathlon.

And maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my tenacity and determination, physical,mental and emotional, but most importantly, maybe I'll witness the compassion and generosity of others and the extent to which they're willing to help out their fellow human beings.

Maybe, just maybe...I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Stay tuned for updates on my progress on this mission as well as my updates on triathlon :)

Ironman Arizona 2009...Destiny Awaits

Ba-bump, Ba-bump, Ba-bump...my heart's about to leap out of my chest. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump.. After numerous failed attempts to try to log into the website to sign-up, I'm staring at the final page, the final step, the point of no return, the 'don't look back and jump head first' plunge into something big, something much, much bigger than myself, something monumental, something life-altering, something that'll dictate my existance for the next 365 days.

Do I click 'submit'? Do I pull the trigger and take the leap of faith in myself, in my abilities, in hopes that I have the perseverance and the determination that it takes?

Then, I take a deep breath, and before any voice of reason could dissuade me from fulfilling my dream, I click the button that will change my life forever.

With that final click on the active.com website, I signed up for Ironman Arizona 2009 on Nov 25th 2008.

Since then, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I can't believe I did it. 2009 is going to be my year. MY year. And I'm going to rise to the challenge. I'm going to do it.

I'm going to become...An Ironman.

At times I get scared, at times I wonder if I did the right thing by signing up, but if I hadn't done it, I know that I would have regretted it. I know it. And just that fact alone is enough justification for what I did. Ready or not, I need to do this. I need to see if I have what it takes. I need to see if I can fulfill my Destiny.

I signed up for Ironman Arizona 2009 yesterday, and I've been prepping myself mentally for the training that is to come and the sacrifices that i'll be making. Happy hours with friends, Crazy nights of partying, fun vacations out of town, and all extra activities that aren't swimming-biking-running-strength_training-yoga-massage-stretching-icing will have to take an absolute backseat.

I've been watching Ironman finisher videos today and absorbing as much inspiration and motivation as I can for the days ahead of me.

I'm remembering why I wanted to do Ironman in the first place. I'm remembering the need to accomplish something so monumental and daunting that it seems near impossible. I'm remembering the emotions and the feelings of pride and accomplishment that come with it.

Just thinking about crossing that finish-line has gotten me teary eyed so many times.

I want this so bad, so, so bad, and when the time comes, I'll be ready.

Just you watch...I'll be ready.

Signed up for the Big K...Triathlete, Stratergize!!

Hey y'all.

I done did it. I've been talkin about signing up for the Big Kahuna for the last what...3-4 months now? Well, last monday, two weeks before the race, I finally pulled the trigger and signed up. Yeah I like to cut it close like that. I've never signed up for a race more than 6wks in advance. For Ironman Arizona though,I will be signing up a whole year in advance...wowza. Wonder how that's gonna work out for me haha

Well Back to the Big K.

I had been waiting for some sort of confidence booster, some sign that yes, despite my lack of training, I'm ready for this race. Last week in training was awesome. My 2h Long run on tues felt really good, especially the second half. I did a brick with hill repeates mid week and my legs held up fine under the pressure.

The clincher, however, the sign from the heavens that made me finally do the damn thing happened last sunday.

I did a 55 mile ride in relative hot weather at 15mph on a course that is definitely hillier than the Big K and then I still had a little something left for a 15-20min run after. The run felt good, granted I was slow, but it felt like I could have kept going at the pace for at least an hour. I was a little out of breath, but my legs weren't dead. Hell, I kinda wanted to keep going on my run, just to see how long I'd last before collapsing, but I hadn't brought any fluids with me and I didn't want to push my luck too far. I was happy enough that I finally had what I needed to feel good, and excited and pumped up about the race.

So now that I've signed up, I need to plan and strategize on how I'm going to execute this race.

Overall Summary:

Get through the swim somehow slowly, steadily. Gun it full throttle on the bike and make sure you fuel right in preparation for the run. Worry about the run when you get to it. If you fuel right, you can be confident that you'll pull through in the end.

My weakness is the begining of the triathlon, the swim, it always has been and it always will be. Running, my first love, my savior, my zen, is the last leg and is the leg that I'm the most comfortable with. The middle child, the bike ride, the one that I have a love/hate relationship with, is my wildcard.

During most races, I hold back on the bike just a little (sometimes a lot) so that I have enough gas left for the run..and when I'm done with the triathlon, I always feel like I could have endured the pain a little better on the bike, sucked it up, and pushed a little harder.

Well this time, I'm gonna try something different and see how it turns out. This whole race is a bit of an experiment anyway so why the hell not right?

So now I'm going to break down my strategy individually:

Swim:

This section will be short. Umm, I ain't trained up for this ish (big sorpresa) so I'm hangin back with the slow pokes. Navigation through the waters and spotting bouys shouldn't be too difficult since there's this big old pier that I'll be swimming around that'll always be to my right to sight off of. The waves are supposed to be tame, save the first few breaks on entrance. Besides, I can always just sneak under the pier and pretend to come out ahead with the smokin fast swimmers hehe.

Equipment needed: Wetsuit, goggles, body-glide, 1 Accel Gel.
Optional: Neoprene cap in case it's ridiculously cold in the water
Extra Transition items: basting pan filled with h20 to clean off the sand (buy a gallon), extra towels.

Bike:

This area will require the most planning and execution. I not only need to smoke the bike (well for me at least), I need to make sure that I fuel properly, don't overheat/underhydrate and am in good shape for the run.

T1 Prep and Nutrition Strategy:

Before I even begin the bike ride, I'm going to pop two thermolite pills (fancy pills that basically make sure I have enough salt/potassium in my body for the ride)

I notice that I love gatorade and the liquid energy it provides me on the ride, but sometimes, I just need some plain ol' water without any flavoring or nutrition. Also, three bottles filled with fluids generally suffices for a 3h ride in 70-75 degree weather. So I plan on carrying two bottles filled with Melon flavored gatorade (my fav) and one bottle filled with H to the izo (H2O).

In addition, I plan on taking 1 cliff bar and 5-6 packs of gel with me for calories. That's a lotta food. Like 850 calories worth. I will most likely just consume 1 cliff bar and 3-4 packs of gel, taking in solid energy (bar) towards the beginning/middle of the ride and liquid energy (gels) towards the end for easy digestion before the run.

I would avoid the solid all together if my body liked it that way, but unfortunately I start getting heart burn/uneasiness if I don't have at least a little solid food on the bike.

Yeah, I know, I've got like the finickiest stomach ever.

Also, I need to take a few pills on the ride with me. A couple of thermolytes are definitely to be consumed circa mile 30. That's when my legs start to cramp sometimes, and thermolytes will help with that.

I'm also gonna take along with me some gas-x or beano, a couple of heart-burn pills and some ibuprofen. Yeah yeah, go on, point and laugh I don't care. I've had major gas, major heart burn and throbbing headaches during rides before, and I'll be darned if any of those cause me to lose focus on my race and take away from the experience.

The Ride Strategy:

The first few miles, say 2-4 miles, out of the transition area, I need to take it chill. I need to get my bearings together, let my legs get used to riding, hydrate up a little and take an accel gel.

At the sight of the first hill after the warmup phase, I need to gun it up and push through the pain. The reason is that once I get used to the pain in my quads, it's easier to spin my legs and go faster on the flats. I guess going hard up the hills conditions my legs for the pain better and the ride just feels good on the not so hilly parts.

I also work better if I push it for a little while say 15min, and then chill it and get my Heart rate down for 1-2min. This is perfect because while i'm 'chilling it' I can take time to rehydrate and refuel and be energized and be good to go.I plan on utilizing this strategy for at least 2/3 of the course.

The last third of the course can go one of three ways.

1) (Ideal situation) If I'm making good time and feel good, I'll continue with this strategy and be even more careful to fuel up for the run. The last 10miles, I'm gonna let it all hang out and just floor it, but definitely not compromise on the hydration and fueling. The very last mile of the ride, if time permits, I'll gear down to the easier gears, spin my legs out, get my HR down and prep for the run.


2) (not the best situation) If I'm making good time (i.e. I'm confident that I will make the cutoff) and don't feel good, i.e. my legs are cramping, my head hurts from dehydration etc. I'll concentrate more of my efforts on rehydration and maybe I won't be 'flooring it' for teh last 10 miles. Grr. I hope I don't have to pull back due to improper fueling.

3) (the worst situation of all) If I'm not making good time and am actually worried that I won't make the bike cutoff all bets are off. The primary goal here would be to get to the effin' transition area before the 1pm cut off time. Fuel to the best of your abilities, no doubt, but don't slow down, don't look back, and don't listen to your body when it screams out in pain. Period.

Let's hope it doesn't come down to that.



Equipment needed: Bike, helmet, shades, socks, bike shoes, tire tube changing essentials, 3 bottles, 1 profile design bento box.
Nutrition needed: 2 melon flavored gatorades, 1 H20, 5-6 accel gels. 1 cliff bar cut in half.
Pills: a baggy with thermolytes, gas-x, ibuprofen, heart burn pills.
T1 Area: Take 2 thermolytes


Run Strategy:

To be honest, I haven't thought nearly as much about my run strategy as I have about my bike strategy mainly because I feel like my strategy on the bike is what'll help me the most during this race and greatly affect my run as well.


-T2 and Nutrition Strategy:

take two more thermolytes in transition and two for the road. I'll be popping those like candy if the temperatures are higher than expected hehe.

I also need to have the following waiting for me in transition: 1 packet of gel and two 8oz bottles filled with fluids 1=gatorade, 1=H20 and the usual collection of medication (gas-x, beano, ibuprofen, heartburn). I will be stuffing all of these in the side pockets of my shorts before taking off for the run section.

I ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, 100% need to have hydration with me at all times.

If there's one thing I learned from my last half-ironman's run portion, it's that relying on aid stations to provide you with your fluids is a baaaad idea.

Baaaad. Baaad. Baaaaad. (Yes, I'm a sheep today)

Sometimes they're not spaced evenly, sometimes there aren't enough of them, and sometimes they run out of stuff before you get there!! I need to freeze my fluids the night before so that they're still somewhat cold by the time I get to them. I will also Take a gel with me to be consumed mind run.

So hydration on the run will be a combination of sipping from my fluid bottles and grabbing a cup of gatorade and a cup of water at every station or maybe even every other station depending on how they're spaced out.

At ~1h into the race, I'll take the gel that I brought along with me, esp if I'm feeling a little weak. If I feel like I'm cramping or that I might start cramping, I'll take another thermolite as well.

Run Strategy:

The goal at this point is to finish smooth and not blow up mid run. I really, really, really don't want to suffer unnecesarily if I can help it.

So the first third of the run, I'm going to take it super chill. No worries about time or speed, enjoy it, get my legs back into it, humm a nice song in my head, look around and enjoy the scenery. Don't push and don't get out of breath. It's just the first third, the start of the run. Take it slow and cherish it.

If I'm still feeling good, I will let myself kick up the pace just a teensy bit and get a little competitive. No triathlon would be feel right without at least a little bit of competitiveness now would it?

I'll start sizing people up that are ahead of me, see if I can chase them down (slowly but surely) and maybe even pass them :).

To be precise, the mental game that I usually play at these races is called "I'll shoot 'em down one by one". Yes it's a little violent, but hey it works for me.

In this game, I size up the people ahead of me, esp those that look like they're struggling or just plain old slow (i.e. plain old slower than me), find someone to target (i.e. pass) and then, I start shit talking to them in my head:

"Oh you think you can get ahead of me huh? You think you can beat me? Well I got news for ya buddy, I'll hunt you down like a dog. I'll hunt you doowwwwwnnnn. You don't even see it coming do you? Run for your life cuz when I come for you, you'll have no where to hide!!"

And then, as I'm passing my prey, I point a mental gun at them and I shoot them down. One Runner Down...who's next??

Yes it's kind of pathetic, maybe a little sadistic even and yes i'm a big dork and yes I still get an immense amount of joy from playing my mental shooting game and no I don't care what you think about it so hah :)


If I feel not that great, or just barely hanging on, I'll see if I can just hang on to my pace a little longer and not worry about anything/anyone else. Maybe I'll even resort to (gasp) a bit of little run-walking. I'm really hoping it doesn't come down to that though!



The last third of the race, maybe more like the last 5k, if I'm still feeling good, and still having fun shooting people down I'll kick my legs some more and really pick it up. I know that there's a fair bit of sand running along the beach involved at this point so i'll just do what I can with that.

If I'm feeling just okay,or not that great but not terrible, I'll see if I can at least push myself just a little more and run this last bit a little faster. Of course, if I'm feeling like absolutely crap I'll just focus on keeping pace and keep running.



During the very last mile, unless I feel like I'm about to die, I'm gonna try to give it all I've got. I need to take every ounce of energy, every iota of strength and put it all into my run.


In the last 100m or so, I'm gonna Push that final sprint kick in. It's the last stretch, time to leave every bit of your heart, your soul, your everything you have left in you out on the course no matter how you feel. Find it in you some where, and just push it to the finish line. Smile for the camera as you cross, and try not to throw up on the announcer :)

Equipment needed: sun glasses, visor, running shoes 2 8oz bottles filled with fluids, a little baggie of pills (gas x, beano, heart burt, theromolites, ibuprofen).


Wish me luck y'all I hope that I'm able to come out with the best of the scenarios that I've hypothesized and not face anything more tragic than the worst of the situations I've delineated in this post.

Emma Snowsill Wins Gold in Triathlon! I raced with her!!

Last year, I did the LA triathlon which is by far, my favorite triathlon of all time. The swim was at beautiful Santa Monica Beach...all the streets of hollywood were closed down just so we could bike through it in peace and the finish line was at the LA convention center..what more could you want?

Side detour: I'm not doing the LA triathlon this year because it falls on the same day as the Big Kahuna (which I'm hoping, will become my new fav).

Back to the title of the Post.

Emma Snowsill won the Olympic Gold for Triathlon this year.

Last year Emma Snowsill was the same woman who Won the LA triathlon which is the same freakin LA triathlon that I was competing in! That's crazy!! I actually raced with an olympiad!

In what other sport does this actually happen? (well, besides running)

During the pro triathlete swim start for the LA triathlon (they let the pros go first), I actually got to watched Emma and other pros sprint through the sand down to the water, hit the waves and dive right in...butterflying their way over and past the crazy breaks and out to the bouys....absolutely amazing.

In what other sport do you actually get to watch the people you idolize and admire up close (like 20ft away)?

In what other sport do you get to see them compete with you?

Many of the pros were warming up for their swim in the Ocean before the race started....just like us regular joe triathletes..so in reality I could have been warming up with Emma Snowsill.

For those of you who are football fans, this would be akin to warming up with Tom Brady or Eli Manning or something to that extent.

Being able to freely talk to and warm up with and interact with pro triathletes...just another one of the many reasons why triathlon is an awesome sport :)

Azra

What do you say after being MIA for so long?

It's been almost two months since my last blogpost and I've gotta say I've missed blogging. Blogging started as something to do while I kill time at my boring old job and also as an attempt to document my life as a quarter lifin' gal trying to figure things out.

A lot has happened since. Well main a series of things leading to a huge, monumental, life changing event:

On June 20th, I got laid off from my old boring job.

As luck would have it, on the same day, I had a phone interview for an Analytics Research position with Slide, a facebook apps and widget making start-up founded by Max Levchin, the founder of PayPal.com.

They liked me on the phone and wanted to bring me in. I was scheduled to visit my parents in San Jose that upcoming weekend and so I extended my visit for an 8-round deep interview process at the Slide headquarters in San Francisco...amazing, beautiful, vibrant San Francisco.

They grilled the hell out of me in that interview, asking me all kinds of questions from brain teasers, to "how would you solve xyz metrics related problem" to prove that a limit exists from my Real Analysis class. It was non-stop talking and thinking and rinse and repeat and wait you think you're done but you're really not so let's grill you some more. Man, it was an intense, intense experience..but strangely, secretly, masochistically..I enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it.

It had been so long since I'd been challenged to think, challenged to use my brain, that part of my body that I value the most, that I had neglected for a little while. As scary and intimidating as it was, I really liked every one who interviewed me and some how I knew, I knew that they felt that I belonged at Slide.

I guess that gut feeling was right, because that friday, the 27th, I got an offer.

I packed my bags up, took off for good old SF and started my position on the 21st of July.

Since then, I've been challenged day in and day out both intellectually and emotionally, as a I swim upstream to get up to speed, work long hours and feel exhausted. But I welcome it. I welcome feeling humbled, I welcome feeling like there's so much to do and so little time to do it in, and I welcome feeling overwhelmed to my fullest capacity....I guess these feelings have been missing from my life for so long that I had forgotten how much I secretly enjoyed them.

Alas all this does come at a price. All other aspects of my life have taken a bit of a backseat. My relationships with family and friends, my triathlon training, my desire to read more books and of course my blog. My days just sort of fuse together into a long string of work-sleep continum with a little bit of eating and working out.

I am definitely struggling to keep my triathlon training schedule and am just now starting to get back on it with less than 4 weeks left until my big race, the big Kahuna.

Luckily I had built a nice cushy run/bike base while I was in AZ. Th swim...well you know how I am with the swim..I'll just have to wing it some how..like I always do :).

It was already tough to be on a strict workout regimen with working 7-8 hrs a day in arizona, but now, working 12-14hr days..it's even harder. But that's what makes it that much of a challenge..and predictably enough, that's what makes me wanna work out even more.

Scarcity.

It's an amazing phenomenon

When you have the time, you don't know what to do with it, but when you don't, alluva sudden you wish you did.

Now, I look forward to all my workouts. I cherish them whole heartedly and I love each and every one of them because every time I make it to a work out, I thank God that I was able to find time in my schedule to run, bike or swim.

That fire that I talked about a few blogposts ago..it's back. it's here. that fire to do something big. I feel like being here in SF is my callng, I feel like working this much and being so involved in what I do has reminded me of the passion I used to have of being something bigger, achieving something grand. That combined with my desire to be Ironman...I'm on top of the world.

And, I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of a nice place to be. All I can do is just work hard and hope that I don't get knocked off this cloud :)

Azra

Really? You're kidding right?

So if you've been following my blogposts..esp the ones about triathlon, you've probably caught onto the fact that I-don't-swim-well. That I down right suck at it.

In fact, this is what I used to look like in the water just 3 months ago:



Not pretty.

I blogged about it in an earlier post and promised to upload this horrendous (but incredibly useful) video of my swim indicating my dire need for proper swim stroke critique.

Well, my appologies for not actually posting the video until now.

So anyway, after a couple of months of struggling on my own, I decided to take serious actions to fix my stroke and joined Learn to Swim classes for people who already know how to swim that just want to get better at it. They are offered by the local masters swim coaching group called sundevil masters. The group is really well known among triathletes and though these semi-private lessons (3 individuals per class) are pricier than regular masters swim sessions ($20/class vs. $6/session), I knew that I needed that extra special attention to my stroke.

It's been frustrating trying to re-learn proper swim stroke methods but it's what I need to do to get better at swimming.

Well, today, as I was getting done with another struggling swim session, I got a major confidence booster :). Just as I was getting out of the water, the life gaurd watching over us asked me:

"Are you training for something?"

Me: "yeah...trying to, haha"

Her: "Well, you look like you're a good swimmer"

Me: "Really? Are you serious? Wow...I've never heard that from anyone...ever...EVER!"

Her: "Yeah really...you make it look effortless in the water"

Effortless huh...well it sure don't feel effortless. I can't believe someone actually thought that I make it look like i'm effortlessly crusing through the water.

AHHHHHH!!!

That, right there made my day....hell it made my week.

I know I'm still slow and I know that I have a long ways to go before I get to ber where I want to be but that little confidence booster...I really needed that.

I haven't had anyone video-tape me again since the first time but I think it's fair to say that I probably look at least a little bit better than the windmill-parachute girl you witnessed in the video I posted :)

We shot the shit a little bit about swimming and she told me about how she watches so many people train and how they don't finish the stroke properly or how their entry is all off...and I definitely used to do those things until pretty recently. I'm still struggling to get these things right but God...it feels so undescribably good, so-so-so good to know that I'm actually making progress, even though sometimes I don't feel like I am :)

I guess that's why I'm in love with triathlon.

I guess that's why I stick with it because I know...deep down inside I know...I can get better, I can get faster...and it's that chase that keeps me going...it's that chase that makes it worth the frustration and the struggle...

Besides..you know me. If it was easy...I wouldn't be doing it :)

First Half-century and Bubbly Back

Yesterday, i.e., on Sunday I did my very first Half-Century ride of the season. I did a little over fifty miles on the bike but calling it a Half-Century sounds so much cooler . In reality when I got back home from my bike ride, I had only done 48.7 miles or something like that so I just did laps around my apartment complex until I reached 50 miles. Sounds silly, I know, but I wanted to officially reach that 50 mile marker and then snap the picture of my bike computer proudly displaying my achievement.

I won’t complain about the fact that I didn’t get to riding until 9 am (ridiculously late for Arizonans) or the fact that the temps were around 105 degrees by the time I got back or the fact that I had a hard time stomaching anything besides water during the last 15miles…well now I’m complaining aren’t I? I know I sound like a broken record when I complain about the heat here but I swear, there’s a new issue that arises every time I go on a long work out.

This time, the heat was blistering…literally! I definitely struggled a lot during the last 15 miles, feeling like puking every time a gust of hot, furnace-like breeze would blow into my face...in fact I think I did puke up a little gatorade-stomach acid mix in my mouth during one of my burps. That was nothing new.

When I got home, however, I experienced something I never even thought could happen to me as a result of the heat! My roommate was home when I stumbled in from my ride and after re-racking my bike and throwing off my shoes, (definitely didn’t have anything left in me for a run right after) I proceeded to dish it out on how hot it was and then pulled back my sleeveless cycling jersey from my shoulder to display the new layer of tan that I had just put on myself.

Roomie: “Ughhh…what’s that on your back?”

Me: “What….what are you talking about?”

Roomie: “Man that does not look good…ughh!”

Me: “What….what is there? What? Tell me!!”

Roomie: “You have a huge patch of blisters on your back! Like your skin is bubbling or something!”

Me: “What? Are you serious? You’re kidding right?”

At this point, I’m pulling back my jersey further and still not seeing anything.

Me: “Dude stop lying…you’re just messing with me. I don’t feel anything!”

Roomie: “I’m telling you dude, you’ve got blisters all over your back, go check it out in the mirror!”

Still in disbelief, I ran to the mirror in my bathroom and peeled the jersey off my back a little further to take a gander at the supposed blisters.

Feelings of masochistic astonishment and loathsome disgust came over me as I viewed my back. Little water blisters had bubbled up all over my shoulders and back in the same areas where I got sun burned last week!


Holy Hell!

Me: “Oh my God! Wow…wow. Haha…I can’t believe this!”

I ran my fingers over the raised blisters and one of them popped. Ewww.

I shook my head in horror and fascination.

Me (to myself in the mirror): “This is wrong man. This is just plain wrong.”

I thought “blisteringly hot” was just a figure of speech until now.

Don’t worry, they didn’t hurt at all. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have realized they were there if my roommate hadn’t pointed them out. They kinda looked like sweat beads on my back…except they’re under my skin. Most of them popped during the shower I took after my ride.

If you notice, the bubbles only appeared on either side of my racer back tan line on my shoulders and nowhere else. Normally, I wear a racer back running top or triathlon top when I ride because I find them more comfortable than cycling jerseys, hence the deep tan line on my back. Yesterday, however, in an attempt to protect my shoulders from being burned again by the sun, I decided to wear my sleeveless cycling jersey, which covers the areas on my shoulders that would normally be exposed during my rides.

I guess my skin was not used to being covered in that area and decided to rebel against the change by bubbling up.

So now I’m faced with the ultimate dilemma: Should I wear the racer back top and get burned again or should I wear the cycling jersey and get blisters? The burn doesn’t look nearly as bad but definitely hurts more than the blisters. Of course, I could avoid all of it by simply waking up at 5am like I’m supposed to and go for my ride when it is still some what pleasant out.

But that wouldn’t be any fun now, would it?

Birthday, Sunburn, Iphone and more..

Alright folks, there’s a lot to cover in this blogpost so uhh…try not to fall asleep while reading and I’ll try not to bore you into oblivion :). No promises though. I’m a rambler as we all know (and hopefully love).

a) Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes. A little surprised at how many people wished me happiness on my special 25th birthday, even IF many of them were informed about it through Facebook. Still takes a little effort to dial in that text, pick up that phone to call or send in that FB message ya know? Quarter of a century old….wowza. But I feel surprisingly happy with the way things are in my life. Mainly because I’m excited about the future. Don’t get my wrong, I’m very proud of my accomplishments so far, but I’ve got my eyes set on quite a bit more. Looking forward to see what else life has in store I guess that’s all.

There used to be a point in time around senior year in college when I was absolutely terrified of the future. I felt like life was forcing me to sprint ahead, faster and faster, and there was nothing I could do to pull back on the reigns. Scared of failure, scared of settling, scared of not accomplishing enough....I wanted time to sit still so I could just have a minute to sort things out.

Now, I feel good about the future. Still don’t know what it has in store for me, still don’t know if I’ll accomplish all that I want to but here’s what’s different: This time around, I do know that as long as I try my best, keep my eyes open for opportunities and work hard, I’ll be happy. As long as I’m always pushing, looking for new ways to grow and keep life exciting, life will be amazing.

I’m a very goal oriented person; I’ve found this out about myself over the years. And the realization of this ridiculously obvious fact, believe it or not, has helped me have a much better outlook on life. Having goals to work towards is what makes me tick day in and day out. I need to keep on challenging myself and defining new goals to reach and new milestones to accomplish in order to lead a fulfilling and successful life. And that is exactly what I plan on doing :)

b) Enough heavy stuff, onto the fun stuff! Iphone 3G did indeed get launched on my birthday (thanks Apple!) and will be here July 11th (why you gotta make me wait Apple?). You best believe I'll be procuring one as soon as I can get my hands on it. Twice the connection speed and a full GPS system and half the price! ahhhh! I can’t wait!

c) I got sun burned for the first time ever on Sunday! I’m actually kind of excited about it. This is my third summer in good old A to the Zona and I finally got burnt! I didn’t know that I was actually capable of burning until Sunday :). I think of it as God’s little prank birthday gift to me haha. The real one’s coming soon right God?

Here’s how I got it:

Mama went for a nice long 3.5 h bike ride and forgot to put the good old sun-block on. 95-100 degree temp + no sun block + sun blaring down on your bare shoulders = sunburn.

Good to know.

What? Were you expecting a long, dragged out story? I’ll have you know that I’m perfectly capable of being succinct when needed! In reality though, there really isn’t an exciting story to tell so I’m sparing you the fabricated details. Now, if only my shoulders would stop itching.

d) I haven't done much else to prettify my blog besides changing the backsplash and putting up a banner cuz let's face it I'm a little lazy and also, I can't find my stupid book on blogging! Oh well, I'll get around to putting more pics and links up one of these days. For now, my attempts at humor and my irreverence for grammar will have to suffice as entertainment.

e) Whine session alert. This part of the blogpost is dedicated to whining about stuff. You’ve been forewarned.

I hate being a slow runner! I feel sooo much slower than I did last year! When I run, my legs are telling "me go faster go faster you can do it!" But my heart rate sky rockets when I put in even the tiniest little kick in my legs and I, being a mere mortal slave to my heart rate monitor, reluctantly comply and go back down to my boring, long slow, slow...slowwwwww pace.

Yawn.

This results in me always having lots of gas left in the tank after my long runs (which is good) but it also leaves me with this sad empty feeling (which is bad). Good lord I’m being forced to go 11:30min/mile pace! Am I really that much of a slow poke? Could I have completed this 9 miler if I had gone faster?

And then I immediately feel like an idiot for even questioning these things and instead, I try to focus my attention on my amazing ability to be able to go out and run for an hour and a half when it's a blistering 95 degrees out and still have gas left in the tank. Take that suckas! By suckas I am referring to the negative voices inside my head. Yes, I do have little voices inside my head. Make fun all you want folks but you and I both know that everyone has little voices inside their head whether they admit to it or not.

I couldn't do it last year. This running in crazy hot weather thing. The heat and dehydration would always get to me. I'd end up walking quite a bit during my runs, barely staggering through to the finish and on the verge of puking afterwards. I could never gauge how much fluid to take down or what pace to set for myself. But this year, things are just clicking, and, as slow as I may be, I know I have heart rate monitoring to thank for it.

Having a heart rate monitor is helping me be more cognizant of how much water I need to take during the runs. If I’m dehydrated, my HR climbs and that is a very clear indication that I need more fluids. As a result, I’ve been stuffing more of the little 4 oz water filled bottles into the waistband of my shorts when I go on my long runs, even though it’s cumbersome to run with the little buggers. Surprise, surprise, this strategy has actually been working for me. That and I’m probably adapting a little better to the nasty hot weather this time around.

I know I'm slow now, but it’s just a matter of time and miles before I get faster while maintaining the same heart rate. At least that’s what people tell me. I just need to have patience and faith that this whole following the Heart Rate Monitor training thingy will work out. After all, virtually every pro and half way decent triathlete trains with them! Apparently I have to force myself to be slower now to get faster later..or something like that.

Sigh.

Patience young road-runner, patience.

A Blog Post about Blogging.

So I’ve been blogging on and off for a few months now and it’s super fun! The more I blog, the more I want to blog. And considering that I already have a rather compulsive personality, I am constantly obsessing over new topic(s) to blog about and how to write more entertaining posts.

This might sound silly, but sometimes when I’m working out or driving, I even conjure up exact phrases and sentences that I plan on using when I come home and blog. Is that too much? A little wierd maybe? …Nahhhh.

It’s like when I was majoring in math and taking all these pure math classes with lots of theoretical problems requiring logic oriented and wordy proofs. I’d obsess over how to write my solutions, rehearsing the wording and the organization in my head over and over again before actually putting it all down on paper; reading, revising, re-reading, re-revising and then finally turning it in.

I guess old habits die hard cuz I do the same sort of thing with my blog. I think about the subject(s) that I want to write about, think about how I’ll start my paragraphs, which points I want to cover and have a mental outline in my head before I start writing. I never intend for my blog posts to be as lengthy as they turn out to be but that’s just my inner effervescence taking control over my keyboard and making me ramble on and on.

That and the fact that some of the things I blog about (such as triathlons and health care etc) require more detailed explanations since I do try my best to write posts that are easy to understand and entertaining to an audience that may not be deeply familiar with the subject of the post. Plus I’m a stickler for accuracy and getting my facts straight so sometimes I have to confirm some of the things I write about to make sure I really know what I’m talking about; especially when I know someone else might be reading my blog! Well, currently, it’s mainly Sadhana and my parents who read my blog but I’m hoping to change that.

So tonight and tomorrow night, and maybe even the night after that I’m going to focus on making my blog look purdy. Maybe I'll put up more pics and a nice, flashy banner or something. I even got this book on blogging! Never mind that I got it primarily because it was like 7 bucks on amazon.com and I needed to buy 5 more smackeroos worth of goods to qualify for free shipping. I haven’t cracked it open yet but maybe it’ll have some useful suggestions on how to improve my blog.

I’m also going to email my friends and some of my extended family and invite them to read my blog. I think they’ll want to read it. It’s pretty entertaining if you ask me. Sadhana agrees. My dad thinks I have “a flair for writing” which is pretty cool. But then again, this IS coming from my best friend and my dad so….

Anyway, they’d better like it and read it religiously cuz I’m going to quiz them on it. And if they fail, well then I shall never talk to them again! Nevar! Nevar! Nevar! Or the next 10 minutes...whichever comes first.

An assortment of things

Can you believe this picture? Yes my friends this is a real picture depicting a drunk driver plowing through a peleton of cyclists during a race in Mexico this sunday. Thankfully there was only one fatality, however, 10 people did get injured. Read the full article here. This has not been a very good year for us roadies and triathletes peddling on the streets. From cops falling asleep at the wheel to drunk drivers, seems like all you four-wheeled vehicle operators are out to get us! It's a wonder I still ride on the roads. People make fun of the amount of caution I sometimes take when riding but hey, if being cautious means being alive and healthy well then you call me Safety Sue.


On a completely different subject, word on the street is that he said, that she said, that the 2nd generation Iphone (drool) is supposed to be launched on June 9th. That's muh burfday! I turn a quarter of a century old that day! Birthday present anyone? haha. Maybe I'll just get myself a quarter life crisis consolation present if no one else gets it for me.

Also, I've been a very good little girl and have been trying my best to follow my triathlon training plans for this week that I outlined on sunday. I did modify the workouts and shortened a couple of them cuz I've been feeling really worn out this week. Gotta listen to the body you know. If she tells me "don't do it!don't do it! no mas! no mas" I have to comply. My legs have been pretty dead since sunday's run so even though I plan on following the schedule, I'll be shortening some of the work outs or decreasing the level of intensity to ease back into the schedule. Consistency is the key to success here. All right, so here's what I've done so far.

Sunday: Short swim (1000-1200, forgot to keep track) and 3.6 mile Chill run in 38 min

Monday: 12 mi ride (planned 14-17mi but it was crazy windy out!) then yoga immediately after(which kicked my butt, it's not all stretching people, lots of power moves)

Tuesday: 1200m swim then 2.7mi run with 5 20-30s long accelerations (planned to do speed workout but legs just didn't have it in them)

Alright, now I'm off to bed. Gotta wake up for a bike/run brick. I need to make a glossary of triathlon terms and post it here so that whenever I refer to a triathlon specific term, I can refer y'all to it and not assume you know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. For now, brick means a back to back workout. so a bike-run brick means i bike, then i run immediately after i bike, like within 2-3min. Triathlon involves 3 back to back sports so it's crucial to practice these, esp the bike-run transition,to prep for the race.

Okay now I'm really off to bed. Gosh I can talk forever. G'night y'all!

Azra

A Plea from the Heart

My dear Hillary,

Granted that you’d be a more experienced, quite possibly a more qualified president who can dig us out of the hole we’re currently stuck in; granted that “the other democratic candidate” has a whole lotta sizzle but not enough meat to back it up. Granted that you know in your heart that you’re a better candidate for precidency.

Granted that I’ve backed you up throughout your bid for the White House nomination, refusing to jump on the band wagon and fall for the “Change for America” rhetoric.Granted that I’ve often been the lone ranger debating against a forest of Obama supporters, holding fast to my conviction that you’re the right gal for the job, that you’ll prevail through it all and the nay sayers will side with you.

Granted that you’re fighting this up stream battle ever so tenaciously, refusing to give up because you feel like you’re almost there. Granted that it must be tough, unbelievably tough to be so, so close…yet no where near clenching the nomination.

Granted all of that and more. But girl, its time to give it up. Seriously. Be the better woman and give up the bid for presidential candidacy for the greater good.

People (including myself) are starting to get a little worn out by all this non stop election coverage and just want it all to be over. Obama’s got the majority here, fair and square. He’s charmed his way through many a stadium filled crowd and even I have to admit that he is very, very charismatic and sounds more genuine. He talks TO his audience, while Hillary, you sometimes talk AT them. And that, along with your bad luck with campaign leadership, may well be the reason why he was able to inch past you and is now swiftly sprinting his way to the finish line while you have no kick left in your campaign legs.

So my dear Hillary, I urge you, please bow out gracefully. Please don’t drag this sordid affair all the way into August. I’d like to see you run for presidency again in the future. I really would. Please don’t sabotage your political career by leaving a bitter taste in our mouths and refusing to concede. Historically speaking, dragging the bid for presidential candidacy all the way through to the democratic convention has only proven to result in a loss in the general election, and you don’t want that now do you? Us democrats certainly don’t.

So my dear Hillary, you’ve had a helluva run, and you should be very proud of the valiant effort you’ve put into this race. But it’s time to step aside. This isn’t to say that I’m a switch hitter and I’ve thrown my support towards Obama. No. I still have a hard time admitting that he’s the likely democratic candidate for presidency by a long shot. But, if supporting you to continue pushing on means potentially losing the general election then count me out.

So my dear Hillary, while I can’t say I’m now a full on Obama supporter, I do believe that, you’ve gots to go. I just hope and pray that Obama’s able to add a little more substance to his speeches and not make us dig through the internet to try and figure out what he actually stands for besides his “Change for America” slogan.

Blah sorta mood.

It's sunday afternoon, I've been a lazy little girl all week and the entire last week has been a very blah week. I've been having a hard time gettin back into the swing of things after last weekend's fun filled (but exercise lacking) activities. I guess I did quite a bit of walking but I don't really count that as a workout. So this upcoming week, I'm startin anew. Starting tomorrow, I'm gonna follow the schedule that I've written out for me. I think it would help if I post my schedule here and update daily about my progress, even if it is a few sentences worth.

It's tough you know. I want to take weekend trips, I want to visit my family. I want to go escape to flagstaff up north and go hiking. But all that means not being able to do my long training rides and runs on the weekends. The long runs are only about 1.5 to 2 hours, so they can be accommodated during the week. But the long ride/run bricks....where am I gonna find 3+ hours to fit that in in the middle of the week? Such are the dillemmas of a wannabe triathlete.

By the way, just thought I'd mention this: The temperatures are now climbing up into the 100s and that REALLY has not been a motivating factor in me wanting to get outside and do the damn triathlon thang.

Any hoo. Without further delays, here are my plans for next week:


Today: Short little swim 1200-1500m Then a 3-4 mi hello legs remember running? run

Monday: Easy short ride 14-17 miles (z2) Yoga

Tuesday: Short Swim 12-1500m then 4-5mi Speed Play run ( alternate fast running(z4-5)and easy running (z2) based on duration of songs in ipod)

Wed: Brick ride: Ride 10-14mi, run 15-20min (ride last 4-5 miles hard, run first 10 min hard, z3-z4)

Thursday: optional swim 1200-1500m then Long run 7-8mi super easy (z2)

Friday: swim 1800m then light strength training.

Saturday: Long ride (40-45mi) z2 then run (20-25min) z2.

Alright. So you might have noticed a bunch of z2's and some z4' with a z3 and a z5 sprinkled throughout my workout schedule. There's a definite reason behind their existence. You see, I started training with a Heart Rate Monitor a couple of months ago and the z2-z5 are the various Heart Rate training zones that I base my workouts on.




Now what is it that I mean by training zones? Well Your heart rate fluctuates depending on the amount and the intensity of physical activity that you do. For example, your heart rate may be 60 beats per minute (bpm) when you first wake up (that's your resting heart rate). It may be 100 beats per minute when you're walking and it may climb to 190 beats per minute when you're running really really hard (depending on who you are)

The heart rate zones help you determine the intensity level of your workouts based on your heart rate. The range over which your heart rate fluctuates as you're exercising can be subdivded into intervals or zones; Zone 1 is the easiest level of intensity (think walking) and z5 is the hardest level of intensity of your workouts (think sprinting). Thus the zones signify the level of intensities that I've designated for each work out.

Each person has their own set of heart rate zones since each person has a different resting heart rate and a different maximum heart rate.

To learn more about Heart rate training and how to determine your own training zones, see the following articles:

Article from www.beginnertriathlete.com

Article from www.performancetrainingsystems.com

The reason why I(and other triathletes) train with heart rate monitors is so that we don't get speed happy over exert ourselves as we're trying to increase the mileage and and duration of our workouts. Your body can only handle so much stress before it cracks! So the heart rate is a solid number that keeps me in check during my workouts. If I've planned a long, slow workout in zone 2, then I'd better stick to that intensity level and my Heart rate monitor helps me do exactly that :)

Azra

Breakthroughs

I know I haven't ben around for about a month..almost two. I won't make excuses for why I haven't blogged, and I won't apologize for being MIA. However, I will thank my wonderful friend Sadhana for expressing her apreciation for my words..kinda makes a girl feel special ya know? So Sadhana, this post's for you G :).Hope you enjoy it and ya better leave a comment ya hurrd?

Alright, so this post's titled Breakthrough for a reason. The last couple of weeks have been filled with realizations in triathlon and in my personal life..but the biggest break through of all has been in the making for the last few of years.

It started at Cal, when I decided to major in math, a field that completely terrified me yet intrigued me mentally and spiritually. I didn't let my fear of failure overcome me and I didn't settle for mediocrity in my pursuit of what I felt, at that time, was my calling. Years went by, I did my thang at Cal, then at ASU. After 6 years of higher education, I decided that it was time to venture out into the real world and I bid farewell (though not necessarily forever) to academics, sealing that chapter in my life with a symbolic tattoo of a circle, the infinitely symmetric, most fascinating mathematical object, on my wrist.



While I was going through the transition from academics to the world outside it, I picked up triathlon to keep me sane and grounded. Little did I know that what started as a little fling with sport would turn into a full fledged obsession. I went from "I can't swim, and I haven't really been on a bike since I was 7 but what the hell, let's see if I can do this" to.."I'm gonna be an IronWoman someday. I can feel it pulsing through my being...I know I'm meant to do this, it's just a matter of when".

And now, as I become accustomed to this 9to5/triathlon life, I can't help but feel that I'm meant to be someone grand. I'm meant to be more than a schedule, a routine day in day out. I'm hungry. I'm hungry for life, I'm lusting for everything else my future has to offer. In a few short weeks, I'll be turning 25. 25! And I feel like I'm still 18, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to grab the world by its horns and make things happen.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the biggest breakthrough of all is the realization that I'm not one of those people who can let life pass by and be content with it. I don't go with the flow, that's not my style. I make my own waves, my own path and I don't settle. My mind is always working, trying to figure out the next big challenge, trying to find ways to keep me excited.

Right now, my obsession is triathlon. It's the beast that makes me look forward to waking up because waking up means gettin on my bike and tearing through the streets. Waking up means running the Papago Park Loop listening to my beat up old Ipod mini, blasting up the hills. Waking up means jumping into that pool, pushing through lap after lap, whether it's below 50 degrees out or over 100 degrees. Waking up means embracing life, embracing my youth and humbly accepting God's gift of the time and the health to be able to do all of this.

Triathlon has lit this amazing fire inside me and helped me reinforce my faith in myself. I know I'm meant to accomplish great things in life. Whether it's testing my body's physical capacity to pushing my brain's mental abilities to discovering my heart's tenacity. I'm not meant to settle for less. Cuz Honey...mediocrity, it just ain't for me.

I have a bunch more that I want to write, however, it IS 11:30pm and I DO have to wake up early for a ride/run brick before I head off to work so I'll talk in detail about my little bursts of realizations in the next post. Yeah, Yeah, I know, I know, you want to hear more but hang in there, I'll post again. I promise! Before I leave, however, I'll leave you with a little something the road gave me when I crashed my bike last weekend. Long story short, I rode kinda fast over some train tracks on the road, they were not perpendicular to the road and mama wasn't payin' nuff attention. One thing lead to another, my skinny little front wheel got stuck in the tracks, I got thrown off the side of my bike and slid across the road and picked up this nifty little souvenir:




Ain't it pretty? :) If you think this is gross, you should have seen it last sunday when it actually happened. Lesson: Proceed with caution when you're riding over train tracks! To top it off I had to ride 15 miles home afterwards with a bloody shoulder that looked like the skin had been sand papered off it. I felt like one tough chick after that and I aboslutely HAD to use this opportunity to show off my battle wound, my little road rash. I call it Leaky...cuz it's been leaking yellow pus and nastyness all week, but I bet ya didn't need to know all that did ya?

Until next time,
Azra

Lake Havasu Race Report

Alright. I know I've been MIA for two weeks and I apologize. Things have been a little busy lately and I haven't had as much time to devote to my blog. Last weekend's transgressions however, do deserve a nice juicy, long, blog post. Why you ask? Well read the title! I had my first race of the triathlon season this weekend, The Lake Havasu Triathlon!

Lake Havasu at Night

Disclaimer: I’ve been working on this post for 3 days now, so it’s very long.

Last year, Lake Havasu was the first triathlon that I had trained for and I've been bitten by the tri bug ever since. After taking a 2.5 month Hiatus from training of any sort, I decided that I wanted to train for the Lake Havasu Tri to kick start my season. I wanted to see how much I've improved and how much I can beat my previous time by, and, I wanted to try to place in my age group, which is 25-29. You see, last year, I had the same goal in mind, to place in my age group, just once, just one tiny, measly little time but I just wasn't able to attain it.For the Havasu Tri, I had been training some what consistently for the last 5-6 weeks, which is a really short period of time, but I still wanted to see if I could pull it off.

So, excited, nervous and anxious, I set off for Havasu City on Friday the 21st with my good friend Karyn. This was her first triathlon ever, and, while I decided to ease into the triathlon season with a mere sprint (500m swim, 12.5 mi bike, 3.1 mi run), Karyn was going all out with a very tough, hilly, olympic distance tri (1500m swim, 25 mi bike, 6.2mi run). That's Karyn's style though, all or nothing. And she has the athleticism to be able to pull it off. Me on the other hand, I'm a little bit more calculated with my moves. I remember how overtrained and fatigued I felt by the end of the Tri season last year because I didnt' plan the season out properly. My goal this year was to NOT push it too much initially, be smarter about my race choices, increase training at a slow and steady rate, and peak in september or october for a half ironman. An olympic distance tri just wasn't in the game plan this early on.

Karyn drove us to Havasu, and I love her to death, but her driving scared the crap out of me! The drive to Havasu is generally rather uneventful, peppered with a few hills and brown desert terrain. With Karyn however, things were a little more interesting. From following cars a too closely for my comfort, to weaving in and out of the lanes to pick up speed, there was never a dull moment.

After what seemed like ages, we finally arrived at Havasu around 3:00pm, which gave us plenty of time to grab a bite to eat at Subways and make it to the race meeting by 4:00pm. The meeting was a whole bunch of the same old same old for me since I had done the race before. The Havasu olympic distance race doubles as a collegiate triathlon race, and it was amazing to see the amount of representation from universities near by, especially the ones from Colorado. There was a huge hoard of 50-60 of them at the race meeting and their presence and unity was intimidating yet very awe inspiring at the same time. Imagine the support system they must have and how they must push each other to achieve excellence. I must admit, I was a little envious.


After the race we decided to check out the bike race course and though it was the same exact course as last year’s, I could have sworn the number of hills had multiplied and gotten steeper since then! This was gonna be tougher than I had anticipated, but my concerns for myself completely vanished when we continued on and checked out the Olympic extension of the course, the one that Karyn had to ride.

We headed up the road to the infamous Crystal beach loop and drove up the first, steep, steep hill. The car shot straight upwards, struggling just a little to make it all the way up. Imagine that! The car was struggling! If the car was having a little trouble making it up, how were the bikers supposed to ride up it? But that wasn’t even the craziest part of the course. Following the gnarly ascent was an equally steep descent down a gravely road. My heart skipped a beat as I stared downwards out of the car and couldn’t see the bottom of the hill…it was that steep. A feeling of concern and anxiousness swept over me. How was Karyn gonna manage? My heart rate sped up and all the blood rushed to my face. All this and I wasn’t even going to ride that part of the course!

Karyn though, bless her heart, seemed to be even more pumped up about the race than she was before she saw the crazy hills. She had this fire in her eyes and a “I signed up for this, I’d better kill it” expression on her face. “Is it crazy that I can’t wait to tackle these hills tomorrow?” she asked me. Yes Karyn, it is crazy. But a good kind of crazy. The kind of crazy I wish I had more of in me. If it were me, I’d be scared to death wondering what if I lose control of my bike, crash, and break my ribs as I’m going down that crazy hill. Not Karyn though. I admire that about her.


After checking out the race course, the day was pretty much uneventful. We walked around some more, grabbed a bite to eat, I ate some ice-cream...well, a lot of ice cream, and then we went to bed.

Transition areas, i.e., the areas where you switch in and out of your swimming, biking and running gear opened at 6:30, so I made sure to be up and out by 6:20 to claim my stake on a sweet spot close to the bike exit. You see, the closer you are to the bike exit, the less distance you have to run with your bike along side you. Since transition time counts as part of your race time, this can save you precious seconds during a race.

After setting up my gear, I still felt pretty sleepy and it was only 6:30am. The race wasn't starting till 8:30, so I decided to go back to the motel (motel 6 baby, that's high class) and take a wittle nap.

The nap was rather refreshing and I felt ready to go race! So, around 7:45, I grabbed my wetsuit and my swimming cap and goggles and was out the door. I usually get a lot gastro-intenstinal distress during races/long workouts so this time, I decided to take a little bit of Gas-X before the race. They say don't try anything new before a race but I was willing to take that risk if it meant less discomfort during the run course.Besides, I really didn't wanna be burpin and tootin my way to the finish line.
All Suited Up for the Swim!
I got down to the race start just in time to check my transition area, suited up,and headed down to the water. The swim portion of the race is a wave start swim in Lake Havasu. This means that instead of dukin' it out all at once, they send the racers off wave by wave into the water to avoid overcrowding. My wave started at 9:00pm, we got in the water at 8:55. The director counted down the time until 9:00pm, sounded the bull horn and off we swam.

This year, I didn't line up wayyy in the back of the pack willing to let everyone go right ahead of me. No Sir. I started towards the middle of the pack, ready to throw down. With a few tris under my belt, I knew how the brutal swim worked. I wasn't scared of getting kicked in the face and clobbered over as people swam around and over me. Nor was I scared to throw out a few elbows and push people out of the way myself. Hey man, I know it sounds bad, but it's all part of the game!

The first half of the swim felt steady and good, which is unusual for me. I was able to sight the bouys that were set up for us no problem and I was also able to hang on to the pack for some time. The second half of the swim though wasn't nearly as nice. As the swim went on, the wind picked up and the waters got real choppy. It almost felt like I was swimming in the Ocean, not a nice little man made lake! I drank almost enough water during the swim to keep me hydrated through the rest of the race. Definitely snorted quite a bit of that water up my nose as well.

Gasping and choking, I finally reached the bank and dragged myself out of water. I looked down at my watch and saw that I was already off to a worse start than last year. But unlike usual, I finished with the middle back of the crowd as opposed to being one of the last people out. I guess every one must have had a tough time!

Get That Wetsuit Off Me!

I didn't have time to think about how my swim went for too long and off to transition I went. My wetsuit slipped off like magic as I tore through the bikes, trying to find mine. Ahh there it was, my red silver and black Beast. One bike, helmet, shades, pair of socks and shoes later, I was out the transition ready to go. I was girl on a mission and I couldn't wait to get on the bike course.

The course started off as a slow uphill climb and I couldn’t help but go out a little harder than intended on the bike. What made it even more painful was a very strong head wind blowing directly into me. The same wind that made the waters so darn choppy earlier was out to get at me on the bike course as well. Try as I did, I just couldn't peddle faster. I was starting to get very frustrated, cursing at myself for not training enough, cursing at the hill for being so long, cursing at my bike for being so heavy and then I remembered, the person who has a successful race is the one who adapts to the conditions the best. Frustration was just going to tense me up and waste my precious energy. I decided to be smart, monitor my speed and cadence and push as hard as I could. I kept peddling, I didn’t coast on the bike and I didn't give up.

At around mile three, the course required us to make a right into a very hilly residential area sprinkled with race volunteers and spectators who were pointing us in the right direction and cheering us along the way. The cheers and shouts of encouragement helped me get into a better mood and pipe down the voice of disappointment and frustration in my head. Just tackle them hills as best as you can, I thought to myself. The very hills that feel so awful and defeating on the way up the course will feel, so, so good to fly down on the way back. Come on, come on, go go go. And with that mantra, I chugged on. Up Palo Verde, and down Honey Bee drive. Up and around Cantina lane, tackling each hill one at a time and not letting the wind get the best of me, until I finally reached the turn around point.

Here we go hills, it's payback time. With a new determination in my body and the wind now on my tail, I was ready to make up for lost time. It was mainly downhill from there, and I peddled as hard as I could. And, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was flying on the bike! It was surreal. I was consistently holding between 25-30MPH, even on the parts that weren't downhill. I couldn't believe it. I even managed to whiz by some people that had passed me earlier on! For once in my life, I was doing the passing and not being passed! I was the one yelling "Your left! Passing on your left!" instead of veering to the right to make way for others zooming past me. I was absolutely amazed at myself. I couldn't help but think, if I had started training earlier, if I had been more consistent, I could be doing even better than this.

Usually the run part is my favorite part of the triathlon and I always hold back a little on the bike so I have enough energy to finish strong on the run. This time, however, I decided to go all out on the bike and I loved it! As I rolled back into transition, however, I started coming back down from my biker's high and realized that I still had the run portion ahead of me. I started becoming very aware of the sting in my shins, the pain in my quads, the soreness in my calves and the dehydration in my body as a result of not drinking enough water on the bike. I knew that the run was not going to be nearly as fun and uplifting as it had been in the past.

As I was getting out of my bike gear and slipping into my running shoes, I glanced down at the time. No way. It’s already been an hour and ten minutes. No way I’m placing in my age group. I’ll be lucky if I beat my time by more than a couple of minutes. As disappointed as I was, I couldn’t dwell on that now. I had a 5k run ahead of me.

As if that wasn’t enough, they changed the run course around to make us run through sand for the first 200m or so. Why? Why would you do that race course organizers? Do you wanna kick us while we’re already down? I felt exponentially slower than I did during my practice Bike-Run transition bricks and I had such a hard time running straight and steady through the sand. I was out of breath, in pain and dizzy and then I remembered, I still had to climb the set of stairs leading up to the London Bridge ahead of me.

Climbing those stairs damn near defeated my morale and I started giving up. For a good 3-4min I stopped pushing the pace. Who cares? I’m not gonna place any way. I suck at this anyway. What’s the point? Here’s the point Azra. You can’t let this course defeat you. So maybe you won’t place, you still have to try your best. If you never give it your all, you’ll never know what you’re capable of. Stop this negativity and pick it up. And that is exactly what I did. I had a new goal in mind: Don’t let anyone, I mean ANYONE in your age group pass you.

With this in mind I carried on, and I started passing people. I’d have my eyes set on the person directly ahead of me, hunt em down and check em off my mental list as I passed em. With this attitude, I rounded the turn around point and picked up my pace a little more. I felt this new energy come over me and I continued to pass people left and right. My lungs hurt so bad, but I tried not to pay attention to that. My shins were throbbing out, threatening to give in at any moment, but I kept going. One foot in front of the other, I kept on running.

Alas, the last stretch of the course was finally in sight, and, as I rounded the corner to the finish line, I saw this girl slowly inch past me out of the corner of my eye. In panic, I looked down at her calf. 26. Her age was marked on her calf and it was 26. She was in my age group and she was sneaking past me, trying to beat me to the finish line. Nuh uh. No way was I gonna let that happen. A surge of adrenaline welled up inside me and I started sprinting with everything that I had left in my body. I huffed, and I puffed and I flew past her to the finish line, beating her by a mere 2 seconds. I wanted to puke.
Sprinting to the finish line
I hobbled across the finisher’s mat to a tree and hunched over, getting ready for the contents of my stomach to hurtle out my esophagus and splatter onto the ground. Luckily, nothing came out. I just burped a bunch (thank God) and, once I felt like I could walk, I limped over to check the race results.

It turns out that those 2 seconds that I beat the 26 year old by were very monumental because I ended up placing 3rd in my division! That’s right! Little old slow poke me! I actually did it! I actually placed in my division! Nevermind that this was a small time race, I accomplished what I had set out to do! I beat my previous time, though by only 2 minutes and even though I was slow, I guess so was everyone else this year.

As for Karyn, she got through her first triathlon just fine! She panicked a tiny bit during the swim but tackled it like a champ and though her bike was giving her grief because it wouldn’t shift through the gears properly, she made it up and down those hills A-okay! She can’t wait to do her next triathlon and is very happy that I nudged her to get into the sport.

Karyn and Me. Wow, I'm small.

The ASU crew
The award ceremony afterwards was rather uneventful and I couldn’t manage to get someone to take a picture of me since they were rushing everyone to claim their awards and clear the area. The award itself is an ashtray/jewelry box looking chotchky that has no real use but I don’t care. I am on top of the world.

I can’t wait for my next race. My tri spirit is back baby, and it’s bigger than ever.

So here are the lessons I learned from this race:

1) Adapt to the race. No two races are the same, even if they’re on the same race course
2) Stay positive and focus on doing well instead of being negative and letting things not in your control get you down
3) Take Gas X before the race. I realized afterwards that I didn’t experience any GI issues during the race and I think I have Gas X to thank for that.
4)Take more liquids on the bike! I thought I didn't need as much on the sprint but turns out that dehydration, even for the shorter distances, is a killer!
5) Be more consistent with training for cryin' out loud! That's one lesson I really need to drill down in my head.
6) Don't give up no matter what! It ain’t over till it’s over and you may end up surprising yourself if you give it your all.

Inspired...

Last year, I had picked up an issue of TIME magazine and read an amazing, inspiring article by Jeffrey Sachs on simple steps the developed world can take to help eliminate the despair of third world countries. He also wrote a book on this topic called The End of Poverty which I plan to read.

The article really moved and inspired me. After reading it, I decided that when I sign up for Ironman and pour my heart and soul into training, I won't do it in vain. I'll do my part to help make this world a better place. When (inshallah) I race Ironman next year in Nov 2009, I'm not just going to train and race.

No. I'm going to do something bigger than that. Through my training for Ironman, I want to create awareness of our responsiblity towards our fellow human beings. I dont' want to race just for me, I want to race for those little girls in Tajikistan who desperately need schooling and education in their village. I want to race for those brave Pakistani women who risk their lives at search and rescue missions to save other women who'd otherwise be left to die. I want to race for clean water in African villages, I want to race for food and shelter for those who can't provide it for themselves. I want to race for something bigger than my own selfish reasons for wanting prolonged endorphin highs. I want to race for theAga Khan Development Network .

And I want to do it big.

I hope to successfully train and compete in Ironman Arizona in November 2009, and I have about a year to raise as much capital as possible for this organization. I'm not gonna just hit up my friends and family for some change and call it a day on this one. From creating my own website or at the very least, a specific blog, to utilizing social networking avenues, to knocking on company doors for pledging, I want to see just what it is I'm capable of doing and who out there will help me accomplish it all.

And for this mission, I don't want to set a "goal" on how much money I can garner in donations, because I may get smug and satisfied if I achieve this goal and not try to push beyond it. I just want to keep this open ended and collect pledges and support non stop until I race. I want to put my heart and soul into this, like I've put my heart and soul into triathlon.

And maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my tenacity and determination, physical,mental and emotional, but most importantly, maybe I'll witness the compassion and generosity of others and the extent to which they're willing to help out their fellow human beings.

Maybe, just maybe...I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Stay tuned for updates on my progress on this mission as well as my updates on triathlon :)

Video Taping Zee Swim-ski

So last night, my triathlon coach Cheryl video taped me swimming. I've been wanting to have this done for a very, very long time because I fully know that I'm a very, very terrible swimmer. I'm not even sure you can call what I do swimming really. I just some how manage to move forward in the water at a painfully slow, but steady place. Just because you can swim a mile, doesn't mean you're an expert swimmer by any means.

Last year was my very first season of doing triathlons and, being a complete, utter novice to swimming, I struggled to keep my motivation as I was consistently one of the last people to get out of the water at each race. I tried swimming with the ASU swim, masters, advice from friends...but nothing seemed to make me a better swimmer. It's quite demoralizing you know, training week after week and not seeing any improvements, not to mention developing minor signs of imminent shoulder injuries...not fun! The key to success is consistentcy...and well, I became good at consistently skipping my swim workouts cuz "my tummy hurts" or "I don't feel so good" or "I can't find parking" and a whole sleugh of other excuses.

This year, I decided to come back with a different approach to swimming. Just get in the water. You know you don't wanna. But Just do it doggone it. And oh yeah, get someone to video tape you! Preferably a coach! Well, Cheryl is an amazing coach and a sweet coach who'll just as sweetly make you kick your own butt to Timbuktu and back during her workout sessions. Unfortunately, I can't make it to her swim sessions at 7:30am (It's this thing called work that gets in the way) but she does make an appearance from time to time at the ElDorado pool which I consider to be my new aquatic home after graduating from ASU.

So yesterday, I had her film my swim (that rhymes!) and uhh, it turns out that I swim like my head is dragging a parachute called my body behind it. No joke. My arms flail way outwards like wind mills plowing through water when they should really be closer to my head. This is very bad for your shoulders! No wonder my shoulders were constantly fatigued last year! My kick is equally as bad since I kick with my legs widely spread out, scissoring through the water and dragging me down with them.

With swimming, aerodynamics are the key to success and I really need to keep my Legs and hands much closer to my body so I can slice through the water instead of painstakingly dragging through it. After watching myself swim, Cheryl helped me make some instantaneously adjustment to my stroke and kick it looks much better, though my pesky left arm still flails outwards a bit.

I'm supposed to get the video from her via email sometime this week so I'll post it for everyone's amusement as soon as I get it.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

I just watched Rudy for the first time last night on the CMT Channel and I gotta tell ya, I think I've turned into my mom as far as watching dramatic, poignant movies is concerned.

Growing up in an Indo/Pakistani family, one of our favorite family activities was (and still is) to watch Bollywood Indian movies together. Now Bollywood movies are absolutely nutorious for their sappy love stories and their melodrama. Infact, just about every Bollywood movie is a soap operaesque romantic comedy/tragedy or somewhere in between. Most of them are pretty much terrible,over acted and overdone, but every now and then, we'll find a "nice family movie" with "a good story line" that doesn't have too much "show sha" and "garam masala".(literally traslates to hot spices, it basically means gratuitous violence/ drama/ flashiness/ etc).

Anyhow, back to me turning into my mother. Well, I remember watching Indian movies with my parents as a kid and during particularly dramatic and poignant scenes, my mom's face would begin to turn a little red, her eyes would start to glisten, her nose would scrunch up slightly, her lips would start to purse..and a couple of tears would roll down her face. At first, I'd feel a little awkward. I just didnt understand why she was crying? It's not real, it's just a movie! Then, I'd look at her, start smiling, giggling and jokingly tease her "It's okay mom, don't cry! It's just a movie!" and we'd all have a good laugh about my crybaby mom.

Well guess who's the cry baby now? Me! Now, at age 25, I turn into a little crying machine when I watch movies about triumphing against the odds, persevering, shedding sweat, blood and tears to accomplish your dreams.

As I mentioned earlier in the blog, I watched Rudy last night, a movie based on a real life story about a boy from a working class household who dreams of playing Football for Notre Dame and strives to become a Fighting Irish despite everyone ridiculing his ambitions. It is an inspiring little feel good film and if you ever want to get a nice little cry out and you haven't already watched it, please do! This goes to you "manly men" as well since Rudy was named as a top ten movie that makes men cry by the Spike Channel (AKA the testosterone channel). Anyway, so I actually kept track of the number of individual times that I cried during the movie and get this, I cried 5 DIFFERENT TIMES!! My good God! This little "crying profusely during movies development" is pretty recent I tell you. I didn't used to be a crier until about 2-3 years ago and now I tear up at the smallest little things. I once got watery eyed during a Rice Crispies comercial for cryin out loud!

I guess I finally understand why my mom (and now me) cry during movies. If you're a privileged child in a middle class family, you live a carefree life with no real responsibilities, no doubts about your future and everything to be happy about. But, as you grow older, life happens, you succeed at many things but you fail at some. You lose people that are important to you through death or estrangement. You have doubts, you have worries, you have responsibilities but you also have victories, accomplishments, love and happiness. The older you get, the more experiences you have, the more you can related to others' trials and tribulations, including those of the characters you watch in movies. Sometimes, the connection to the characters is so heartfelt, that it actually conjurs up real emotions, emotions that you might have felt while you were experiencing something similar, and so, sometimes, you cry. You let it out. And ain't nothin wrong with that.

"Limited Benefits"

Some Health Insurance Companies (ehem Aetna and Cigna to name some top dawgs in the field) have been selling "Health Insurance" that have "limited benefits" to those who can't afford real Health Insurance. Now, what exactly do they mean by limited benefits you ask? Well, basically, these psuedo-coverage plans will cover a few doctors visits and some pharmacy expenses, but if you ever ohhh I don't know, get in a devastating car accident or develop cancer, you're pretty much SOL. Why is that you ask? Well, that's because many of these plans cap their maximum coverage $ amount at as little as $1000 per year. What's sad is that, as Health Care costs are rising, the demand for these types of benefits is skyrocketing. The limited benefits plans have a projected annual growth rate of as much as 20% (as of mid 2006)! Insanity I say! People are actually buying these things?!

These types of benefits are specifically designed for low income individuals, and as we all know pretty darn well, there's a strong correlation between low income and low education level. What frustrates me though is that, low education level or not, couldn't ya atleast find out what their max coverage cap is before you sign up for it? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a $1000-$10000 limit ain't gonna provide much relief on your health care bills if something truly catastrophic happens. Many of the individuals who sign up for these things and end up in the hospital are truly surprised when their bills are not covered, claiming nobody informed them about this.

It makes me wonder... who's to blame here? Is it the exploitative HI companies or is it the individual who decides to not fully inform him/herself of what he/she is getting into when he/she signs up for "limited benefits" plans?

It's not like there isn't a cheap alternative to these plans. A lot of company these days do provide cheap high out of pocket cost plans with Health Savings Accounts that are designed to cover you for the "just in case" situations. Aren't you better off being better covered for the huge expenses that may come your way in the long run but pay a little more up front? Shelling out $100 for an extra doctor's visit is wayy better than going bankrupt trying to pay off a $80,000 debt that you accumulated because of the chemo you went through for your breast cancer.

I done and over did it

This post is mainly going to be a "whine and complain session" so don't tell me I didn't warn ya. I definitely overdid myself a little with exercise yesterday and it feels like my apendages are about to fall off. Is that how you spell apendages? appendages maybe? Normally I'd be a little anal about checking the correct spelling on dictionary.com but right now I'm in the middle of my whine session and I don't quite feel like hitting ctrl+n, typing in the word and breaking my writing flow that I've got going here. Anyway, back to my whining.

On monday night, I was supposed to do a speed run workout on the treadmill at the gym in my apartment complex. When I entered the gym, there was not a soul in site. "Sweet" I thought to myself. I like working out in solitude and getting in my little runner's zen. I generally have a habbit of warming up for 5 minutes on the elliptical first, just to get my joints going and then ease into the run workout. So, just like any other day, I did my usual thing and got on the elliptical. Within one minute of my boarding one of them, a nice Indian woman who I usually exchange greetings with entered the gym and got on one of the 3 treadmills. That's okay, there are still two left, no need to worry right? Wrong!! Within the fourth minute of my elliptical sess, two more people walked into the gym and took my treadmills!! I was supposed to get on them doggone it! I was livid! Well maybe not quite livid, but I sure wasn't happy!

Now, if any of you are triathletes or know any triathletes, you'd know that they're very, very disciplined and set on their workout regimens, no matter what! Granted, I've been known to waiver on mine from time to time (work-school-life happens ya know) but I've been a really good girl for the last couple of weeks and gosh darn it I got a race coming up in three weeks!! Alright, now what to do. Oh, I know, I'll just do some upper body strength training and double up my workout on tuesday. Sounds like a good idea right? Yeah, right.

So on tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to do my speed drills on the treadmill (no one was there ofcourse). I think I definitely strained my left hamstring a tiny bit cuz it still hurts when I move it. So after the run, my legs were kinda sore and the soreness from lifting weights the night before was definitely starting to settle into my biceps and lats. fabulous. But did I stop there? Definitely not. A little pain here and there does a body good.

That night, I had a bike spin class with my triathlon coach, Cheryl. Well, yesterday, she was not sparing us any mercy on that bike I tell ya. She had us do sprints, hills and threshold drills for an hour and my legs just didn't wanna do it. I was drenched in sweat by the time we were done, and, as if I'm not enough of a glutton for a punishment, I decided to immediately follow that ride with a nice little transition run on the treadmill at 8 min mile speed. I was spent.

At that point, the soreness from the strength workout the night before had completely settled in, and though the stiffness in my calves, glutes and thighs was slowly creeping up, I knew that the worst was yet to come.

I had no trouble falling asleep last night, slept like a baby infact, until 4:00am when my eyes suddenly popped open and I had no idea why. Wait, wait a minute, ow, my back hurt, my arms hurt, my everything hurt!! The soreness in my limbs had actually caused me to wake up! I've never had that happen before! I'm a really deep sleeper, and I can sleep through just about anything (yes, that includes blaring fire alarms) so to wake up in the middle of the night due to the pain and discomfort I had caused myself was really quite remarkable. In a sick way, masochistic sorta way, I was kinda proud of myself. I must have really worked my butt off training yesterday.

To make matters worse, I couldn't fall asleep at all after that, and as the night turned to day, the soreness continued to settle in a little deeper. I even got up out of bed to stretch a few times but to no avail. The pain was there to stay. Needless to say, I've been walking around like a zombie all morning (more like sitting around but you get the picture). It's looking like I'm gonna end up having to take the day off working out today anyway so doubling up my workout really didn't serve the purpose I was hoping it would. Hopefully by some miracle, my legs will heal themselves today and i'll be able to manage a little something in tonight. Let that be a lesson to you all. If you can't make a workout and you're on a training schedule, take it as nature's way of telling you to take the day off and don't double up your workouts. You'll pay for it in the long run, if not right away like I did...am.