October Already?

Sometime a few weeks ago, I realized summer was officially over and fall had begun. I tried to hold it off as long as possible, but now I have resigned to the fact that the weather has definitely changed and the holiday's are rapidly approaching. I must admit, I love the feeling of the air in fall! Makes me miss living on the East Coast, but I get over that real fast when I remember the cold and snow.

Things have been crazy busy lately (note the lack of posts), but I have been having a ton of fun. Some of the highlights of the past month have been...

San Diego Triathlon Classic
The inaugural San Diego Triathlon Classic hosted by Moment Cycle Sport was last weekend. People kept asking me if I was doing it, and I had to tell them it was not on my race schedule. Honestly I was scared to race again after my pathetic attitude towards Santa Barbara. I thought for sure I only had one more race left in me and I would have to save that for SOMA. Well, about a week out from SD Tri my coach gets the great idea that both should do the tri since it is local and would make for a great training race. When I found out that a ton of my friends including Jen, Murray, Kris, Jay and Paul were doing it, not to mention all those volunteering, I was in. Had not seen some of my friends in way too long!

This race was just like a huge club race to me, which I think helped a ton mentally. I did not taper, gave my "race plan" no thought and threw my stuff together in a frenzy the night before. My race strategy was to have as much fun as possible while seeing how hard I could push my body now.

The swim was interesting from the time I put my feet in the water to warm up. Realized the sun would just be barely coming up as we went off, and I had tinted goggles. Duh! No idea of the swim course, except that it was an out and back. Figured I would not be in the lead anyhow, so I could just follow the people in front of me. Got off well, but still felt like I was struggling on the swim. As usual, I was praying the whole time not to drown and to be out of the water NOW!

The bike was the best part of the race. Took us up a "killer hill" through the sub base and out to Cabrillo. OK, so after hearing how hard the hill was, I was totally underwhelmed. I was riding mostly among the guys, and had a ton of fun dropping as many as possible. Too bad the idropboys.com singlets weren't ready yet!

The run was nice and flat. Unfortunately part was on a narrow dirt path, which made it hard to really open up the stride. Looking at my watch I got really excited when I saw the time as I approached the finish chute. Thought this would be a 10K PR by a lot... until I heard the course was 1/2 mile short!

In the end, the girls had a good day. We all (Jen, Kris, Lesley and I) all ended up on the podium!


I Like To Ride My Bicycle!
I've been getting a lot of good riding in lately. I'm not sure if I'm getting any faster, but I'm having a great time. I've been riding with some roadie type guys who sort of adopted me into their group. I'm pretty sure they just like having me around to have someone to make fun of, but laughing the entire way around the GWL is good by me! I'm looking forward to being able to spend more time riding with them in the fall, and getting back on my road bike so I can stop hearing how I'm going to skewer someone.

I've done a few Palomar ascents... some awesome and some sucked. Just a matter of what state my body and mind were in on the day. It never gets easier. And riding the coast still makes me happy, but more and more I get freaked out I am going to be hit by a car. But who can resist those ocean views?

Sure I'm Sponsored...It's Called a Job!
Work gets busier and busier as the days go by. We've had one doc leave the practice and another on maternity leave, so I have been given some extra responsibility. It's great, but leaves me exhausted by the end of the day. I've met some great patients lately and seen some really interesting things. I'm amazed day after day the strange things people come to the doctor for, and have to continuously remember to keep the laughter to myself. Just as long as no one gives me their cold or flu, I'm happy! Loading up on the vitamins before SOMA.

This Is Not The AIDS Walk Ladies
Or so my friend Tim would say when he wants Jen and I to run faster. So it wasn't exactly the AIDS Walk, but it was the AIDS 10K. Have been working a ton on my running speed lately, so I decided to enter a local 10K to see how fast I could run. Was one of the best races of my season. Cheap race entry, lots of entertainment, great post-race food and a very festive atmosphere. Ended up having a great run too!