On a stage in front of 600 PEOPLE!

So last night my co instructor, his lovely lady, and I went to a show called Backfence PDX. It's an unrehearsed storytelling show like The Moth. It was so fun and the stories were hilarious. The theme was "Our Bodies" which is easily my favorite topic of all time. For everything. So I was really enjoying myself.
At intermission they announce that there will be an audience lightning round and you can put your name in a jug if you want and if it's drawn you can tell a one minute story with the theme "Our Bodies" in front of the 600 people audience. 5 people would be drawn.
Of course I go and put my coinstructor's (who is an amazing story teller. Riding bikes with him is like a hilarious personal podcast)name in. Then Surprise! I find out his ladyfriend has put both my and her names in the jug. shit.
So we come back from intermission and THEY CALL MY NAME! I have never spoken to 600 people at once and that was about to change.
It was easily one of the most nervous and exciting experiences I've had lately.

But here's to going for it! The five of us who were drawn went up on stage and lined up (coinstructor and ladyfriend were not picked) The sweat ran cold and fast as I listened to the first story. I told a little story about blowing out a wetsuit that was too small for me and ended up realizing I had a blast once I got back to my seat. I smiled all the way home on my night bike.

Training: Good, splitting it around work, today is run at lunch and afterwork. Yesterday was bike at lunch, afterwork and afterstoryshowdown. Tomorrow is drills and swimming with Belle. Highlights have been: people that run in full sweatsuits make me feel like I'm in their training montage, boathouse lights on the river, night biking with coinstructor along the springwater corridor, and Dogs, dogs, dogs.

Training Update

Back in Oregon. As long as I can remember, whenever I am in Hawai'i there's this little taskmaster in my head plotting "how can I live here forever now?" This trip, taskmaster was alive and well, but so was my deep excitement and gratitude for my amigos and family on the mainland.  Getting back to Oregon was good.  I'm sorry not to be warm and in the sea and with my people in Hawai'i, but coming home to a full moon, running into an old friend with a homeless airstream (!) on the Max, full moon witchcraft and ribs dinner and a big soft blue bed in Portland remind me that the magic is alive and well wherever I go.

This is a video Sika made about how much I love Ribs!



So I'm in the last week of base two.  That means next week is recovery, which is nice as I am about to learn how to work all day, work on No Shame In My Game, be in Portland, and get my workouts in starting with the WFR that we start teaching on Saturday in Portland.
A highlight of this trip to Hawai'i was going to the pool with Opa and sharing a lane.  The waves were too big to go in the sea and it was a treat to swim and do math with him.
The swim these days is:
Warmup: 200 (that's 4 roundtrips) side drill, 200 free, 200 pull buoy (which sounds like pool boy and goes between your legs, haha)
Workout: 1 x 400 (8 round trips), 3 x 200, 4 x 100
Cooldown: 200 free with fins
I wanted to write that down so later I can look back at it and see if I think it looks big or small.  It's funny how much math I do in the pool, it's the ultimate brain trick, breaking down numbers so things seem the size you want them to be but the totals are the same. Math.
So that's the update. I think I'm getting a little tired. I have some crud at the top of my lungs and I'm slurping down the vitamin Cs and fighting the good fight. I think I'm ahead. Ribs help.

Surf's up

I changed my ticket.  I don’t have to work until Saturday and the Northwest though filled with the best of the west, also sounds really cold.  I'm coming home Wednesday!  I’ve been in love with long hot rides and runs here.  I am still struggling with swimming in this surf.  It’s been huge since I arrived.  When I get full of salt water I chicken out and take my snorkel.  The waves are crazy huge today.  22 foot.  We went this morning to watch them and they are sending 30 foot plumes of water straight in the air when they hit the rocks.  Beautiful!
 With the changed ticket and huge surf I’ve jimmied the training a bit, I’m swimming in the pool today which will be nice to get into the rhythm of things without getting slapped around quite as much my the awesome ocean.  I’ve been doing a great ride up Hualalai through flowers, wet smells, mists, coffee shacks, and little doggies.  I’ve worked in a few more Mana Road runs which are five star.  Some good beach days and tomorrow is another long bike ride out the Ironman route.  Training here is a dream.  No wonder the triathletes here are jacked.  I have been sleeping a lot which is new, and eating like a beast.  I’m still nervous for the race, but feeling like I’m making progress.  I had my first Ironman anxiety dream the other night.  I missed the start and realized the race was now, not in five months.
 It’s been a wonderful week beyond jock tock too.  Visits with friends, wine coolers at the beach, playing in the waves, playing with babies, waking up to whales, lilikoi and coffee in bed, working in the garden, swimming with Opa, hiking neked, finding a perfect cow skull, making banana bread, eating avocados as big as my head, and soaking in the warm beauty that cradles me here.

Return to Hawai'i

Mana Road Awesome on my head

I’ve been in Hawai’i a week.  When I try to talk or write about being here I get this love lump in my chest and the words aren’t going to let it out.  Like trying to squeeze cookie dough out of a mustard bottle.  The outlet is too small.  It’s good to be home, to reconnect, to roll in the dirt and match my heart to my steps to the waves to the land and be home like a humpback whale. 
 It’s been a week of swimming and backgammon with Opa, knitting baby hats (which is a good way not to meet fellows at the beach), training with the hard corps, listening to birds, eating crepes at the farmers market, running Mana Road, coming home, laughing with old friends, watching whales and waves, and being totally in my skin.
 Training has been a dream.  I don’t want my runs or rides to end.  I’m warm, it’s sunny, and I’m in love with it.
 There has been huge surf, so I swam in the harbor which was smoother but choppy and currenty none the less.  It whooped and intimidated me and there was no way I could do a 45 minute swim without getting sucked out to sea.  So I am humbled and intimidated of open water swims for now.  This swim was very different that normal ocean swimming or surfing.  Its the next hurdle.
 I went on a 4.5 hour bike ride today.  I’ve been playing pretend Ironman here.  Running, biking, and swimming the world championship routes.  Be advised, a headwind can add an hour and a half to a three hour bike ride.  I got a new seat and put it on the bike I rented.  It makes a difference, but if I gave my parts the vote, parts would say no to biking.  I am telling myself more time in the saddle will get me used to it.  I also know that when I’m home on my bike I can do all the millimeter adjustments to make it as good as it gets. 
 I went back to Waimea which it the town where my heart lives.  I haven’t been back since I moved to the mainland two years ago.  I realized for the bazillionth time how lucky I am to have a place in my heart.  Here things work, I feel whole, miracles happen every day, and my gratitude soars.  I am psyched.
 So in a nut shell, training is good.  I am humbled by getting worked on my swims and passed by the uber triathletes (“I’ve only done six Ironmans because I like to focus on my biking” -Pilot I met at a coffee stop) I am excited knowing I have 5 months more to train, and I am thrilled to get to train here. 

2011

 A new year is like a fresh meadow of snow.  So clean and perfect and impossible not to go tearing into laughing and messing it all up and enjoying it.
  New Years was magic.  It was a four day binge of awesome starting with a night at the Edgefield floating in their hot pond and sleeping like a princess on the top floor, taking brother in law's '75 Uncle Rico camper van to the coast for a beachy camp, then renting a 1960s style beachside swinger pad with the best of the best of friends for 3 days of too much time in the hot tub, ocean dashes, bonfire, turkey, and laughter.  I got home yesterday still grinning form all the magic and excited to be back home with this big snowy meadow in front of me.
 I did a little values inventory here's how it went in order of priority:

1. Health = Eating healthy food, training, sleeping enough, doing things that make me feel awesome 
2. Connection = Sharing regular face to face or voice time with other people. Laughing a lot with new people, friends and family.
3. Home = Having a warm quiet space to do projects, work, entertain, reflect my values
4. Nature = being outside
5. Learning = practicing music, language, reading new books, developing programs
6. Creating and sharing beauty/Contribution = Sending mail, gifts, giving, surprises.
7. Warmth = Being warm
8. Having a partner= having another person who is a daily part of my life with a shared vision. 
9. Adventure = trying new things

For each value I have some goals, so here's my 2011 goals:

• Drink 1L water when I wake up every day
• Take vitamins every day including iron
• Eat a banana and something green every day
• Call, stop by, or send a note to friends when I am thinking of them.  
• Create my trailer home when it gets nice out.
• Go for a short walk outside every day minimum if I’m not exercising outside
• Sign up for spanish classes
• Learn some songs I can play with others on accordion
• Develop No Shame workshops for life design and money
• Do a free workshop
• Make excellent valentines cards to send to everyone
• Go to Hawaii, spend time at hot springs, keep the cabin nice
• Keep exploring my surroundings when traveling, explore new hikes with visitors
• Try new things I am not good at yet with others
• And of course: Ironman

Less than six months...

It's officially less than 6 months from race day. I started base 2 yesterday and the heat is on.  I dropped the ball over New Years weekend.  I got really anxious about it.  I am realizing how important this Ironman goal is to me.  I’m back in the game though, and terrified enough not to drop the ball again anytime soon.
 I live a really travelly lifestyle, am single, and have no kids.  It would be harder to spend all this time training if I had a regular job, a partner or a family.  This race is a celebration of the life I have created for myself.  I have worked hard to get to see the world the way I do, to get to work for an awesome company, to have my own business, to have so much independence in my life.  Someday I may have things like a family or less travel but now is a time I can spend on me, and that’s super exciting.  Being in a me time has easy and hard parts of course.  I can’t blame my shortcomings on others as easily.  It’s a daily study of my own integrity.  And it is wonderful to have big goals like Ironman training threading my days together.  Touching each day, it’s my consistency that some get from a partner, kids, 9-5 jobs etc.
 So all the sudden the goal of Ironman is bigger.  It’s a celebration of my lifestyle, a celebration of my health, and a firm consistency each day, and an opportunity to see my best.