Commitment

Last night I hit the dollar value (25% of $5,900 = $1,475) required for recommitment on Jan 24th. Basically Recommitment it is meant to be a milestone both for fundraising and training when you say you're all in. This was super exciting for me. I actually might pull this off!

Thanking my lucking stars for the bike shorts purchase

My camera is in transit from Canada, so this post will be sans photos.

I attended my first bike practice on Saturday morning. I'll admit it, I was nervous. It would be the second time on my bike, the first time using my clips and the first time biking longer than 5 miles or so.

We met at Darren and Nathan's apartment. Lucky for me, I live close by.

Problem #1 : Battery on my back light died.
Solution: Darren and Nathan save the day with AAA batteries from their remote. That's sacrifice!

The team rallyies and we begin the six mile jaunt out to the Mercer Island Park and Ride. I didn't even look at my may. Luckily my teammates were a little more prepared. There still was a little bit of confusion.

Problem #2: We overshoot the trail out to Mercer island by a few streets.
Solution: Hike up many stairs.

We make it out to the Mercer Island. I'm the slowest, but still on my bike so feeling pretty good. While trying to find the reset of the TNT people, I'm hanging out at the edge of an intersection.

Problem #3: I forget my left foot is clipped in, fall over in a bit of a timber like movement.
Solution: Brace the fall with my wrist (ouch), laugh at myself, get the guys to pull me up (I'm still clipped in and can't rescue myself), and suck it up.

At the end of the day, we biked about 24 miles with a few stops. Definitely the longest I've ever gone. I even felt pretty good after, just a little sleepy. My wrist was blue for a few days -> my first training injury, hooray!

There was not a lot (or any) training specific to the race this weekend. Instead I spent my time on the slopes in Colorado. The snow was beautiful, the company was great, but it was damn cold. The below pictures capture how much the wind was gusting at the top of mountain, me getting stuck in thigh deep powder, and finally the process of getting out. I did use my board as a sled, but that unfortunately only got me 1/2 of the way.

Working with what's available

I thought it might be fun to document the months leading up to lavaman. I'm inspired and feeling good about the whole thing. I must admit I had some trouble sleeping last night. The fundraising is a little daunting. Luckily, I've got a couple of great mentors that are showing me the ropes.

I'm in Cali right now for work. The gym at the hotel can be described very concisely as a converted hotel room. I decided that I wanted to do some of the drills that had been done at the last track practice. This was a bit silly of me. Imagine running sideways doing grapevines through a hotel room trying to avoid big pieces of exercise equipment. Not so affective, but I tried.

Grapevine: Run sideways alternating crossing your following leg in front and behind your lead leag. this helps build hip mobility and lateral stabilizing strength.