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.

Unreal AZ Weather

This is going to be my third spring in Arizona and it still amazes me how The Weather during spring can get so summer-like so fast. I mean, this weekend, we had gorgeous, 80 degrees weather with the beautiful sun smiling down on us, beckoning us to come out and play. People were layin out by the pool tanning, I went for a nice little run and a bike ride, everything was just perfect. But the sun is very treacherous here you see, and it never ceases to horrify me how, within the matter of a couple of weeks, the weather turns from the beautiful spring-summery spledor of march and april to the 100+ degree, dry, burning, smoldering nightmare from hell in May. But it doesn't just stay that way for a day or two, oh no no no my friend, it continues to be hotter than hell all the way through September with nary a day with a high temp below 95 degrees. May through september, let's do the math here, that's 5 freakin' months!!


Last summer we had a record breaking 32 days of over 110 degree weather...32 days!! It's crazy!! If you ever want to go for a run, or a bike ride, or anything out doors, it better be short, sweet and at the crack of dawn, when it's a nice, cool, 95 degrees out. As little exercise as walking from your parked car to the Grocery store is enough to get your back drenched in sweat (depending on how far your car is parked). Thank God for airconditioning!

Summer 2007 was definitely my least favorite summer of all time because I was training for the SOMA Half Ironman triathlon (1.2mi swim THEN 56 mi bike THEN 13.1 mi run). Try riding your bike for 60 miles when it's 105 degrees out, then going for a nice half our run immediately after. On second thought, don't. Just take my word for it, it is NOT fun.

So whenever spring starts to show its colors and the temperature starts to slowly warm up in Arizona, I try to enjoy it as much as possible; but, in the back of my head, I can't help but be afraid of the imminent doom that is to befall on us poor Arizonans in the months to come.