Random Thoughts

Rain - Went on a recovery ride Monday and was captivated at the greenness that's come from all these storms. However, not stoked that the rain generally seems to enjoy weekend-only appearances.... really screws with a schedule, i.e. Xterra Crystal Cove 17k has been pushed back 3 or 4 times; now on for April 25. (Some people seemed frustrated at Xterra over this, don't be. It's not their fault! They don't make trail rules.) PE Kids Matter Too - I was running my "devil" track workout on Wednesday at my old high school (btw: I hit a sub-6 mile [5:56] on mile 5 of the repeats, a first for me woo hoo), while the PE class was running the mile. I noticed Coach was asking for their heart rates when recording finishing times. Apparently my alma mater invested in some heart rate monitors for students. I think it's absolutely great they're investing precious dollars on the "non-athlete" high school teens. I asked the coach about it and he told me the HR monitors are in effort to get kids more in tune with workouts & their body. Nice! Now I hope I can motivate some of the kids to not walk as soon as lap 2, but I'm still "the freak" when I do track workouts there.
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Cephalic Vein - Ya know that one you see running up the bicep of super lean+fit athletes? Yea. I want that vein to pop out on each of my arms. When/if I get cephalic vein bulge (is that ew?) then I'll know I've achieved a higher level of fitness. Genetics partly define how much it develops, so hoping mom and dad pull through on this one. In the meantime, I am noticing vascular adaptations from training--some veins are legitimately "popping out" more these days. But it's the cephalic one that I'm waiting for... I can see it hiding down there! I'm curious what the male population thinks about vascular feature on a girl??
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Bridal Guide - Remember that writing project I was doing a couple months ago on weddings? Well it finally published. I'm no wedding buff, but it looks awesome! If weddings are your thing or if your curious about South Orange County and some cool places/businesses/restaurants (wedding or not) or if you just want to check out some of my work, you can see the online pdf here: www.socbridalguide.com.

Writing + Cool Opp - Speaking of writing, I've been doing a lot of it lately. Most of it's school & thesis related, but some of it is what I consider dream-job status. I'm hesitant to even bring this up, but what the heck.... A cool opportunity came my way that I couldn't pass up despite already having "a million jobs." The gig? I met with Matt Fitzgerald and TJ Murphy back in January and have since graciously agreed to do some writing for Triathlete Magazine. My first story will be out in the June issue. As a journalist who's enamored with the sport of triathlon, this is truly dream-come-true status for me. Not to mention, in a time when Triathlete is going through so many changes and with other new magazines surfacing (i.e. Lava), it's more than an honor to be a part of this legendary publication.
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Gran Fondo - My last post had me questioning whether to do the 53- or 101-mile ride this Sunday. I want to give a sincere THANK YOU to everyone who gave their two-cents on the matter. Surprisingly, the comments were pretty divided on 53 vs. 101. I got everything from essentially "HTFU and do 100" (not so bluntly stated) to "you'd be stupid to do anything more than 53." Well, I've made up my mind. You'll have to wait until next week to find out my decision :)

I saw myself SWIM & it sucked - I got a swim video analysis done recently at MVN, and although some people say save your money and just swim more to get better, I think the video was an well-worth-it investment. (I'm already swimming 4-5x/wk; can't take much more!) Coach Mark told me exactly what I was doing wrong movement by movement and how to change. Like golf, I have a ton of little tweaks I'm working on, and already I've already seen HUGE improvements. I'll save you the technical details (ask me if you're interested), but I've already dropped ~10 seconds on my 100-pace average.

Sweet Potatoes vs. Yams - Ryan beat me to this topic, and did a damn good job covering it, so I'll direct you guys over to his blog for the lowdown (and a funny story). I did the same research as him a while back after getting confused at the grocery store one day: There was a sign for sweet potatoes and yams, but only one pile of various colored and shaped of orangeish potato/yam things. Wtf? Well which is which?! I asked. No one at the store knew the answer. I was told by employee "experts" that it doesn't matter, they're the same (a restaurateur even dropped in the convo and said it's no biggie). Um no! Look at the nutrition data--it does matter!

These days I notice my local stores do a good job at carrying the white sweet potato, which is by far my favorite variety and I can always guarantee it's a SP. With the orangeish sweet potatoes--like the bag full we get from Trader Joe's--I'm still not sure if it's a yam or SP. Bottom line: I literally eat one sweet potato (or sometimes a yam on accident) per day. No joke. So yummy.
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That's all for now.... SD bound on Saturday to hang out with Tatiana and everyone else, then GF on Sunday rain or shine!