I ate at a new restaurant yesterday and I must share!  Yama Sushi & Grill in Round Rock.  It's on 620 in a strip center between O'Connor & Great Oaks.  It's been open about 6 months, and it's delicious!!  Jeff had Shrimp Yaki Soba and I had Bara Chirashi, which is a big box of sushi rice topped with sashimi.  A lot of sashimi.  For a very reasonable $15.  This has become my favorite sushi dish and I order it at every sushi restaurant I visit.  This one is by far my favorite!!  The sushi chef created a dish almost too pretty to eat!  He created flowers out of the sashimi.  We walked in on a Saturday night at 7pm and we were the only diners there.  One other table filled while we ate.  Go visit this place and keep them in business! 

I've been building my cycling time over the last several weeks, in preparation for our cycling vacation. 

I think we decided that this is our fourth year to do the Urban Assault Ride (formerly Race) as Team Insomnia.  Except I just looked it up and our first year was 2004, so this was our 5th UAR!  Wow, time flies when you're having fun.

First Trizones session of the season means only one thing - mile time trial!  In approximately 150 degree heat!  I did it in 8:09 and felt slow as molasses.  We were supposed to run our own time, not pace ourselves with our buddies.  My buddies all ran their own miles faster than me.

Then we did 2x400 at 2:00.  My times, this time running with my faster buddies:
1:59
1:49

I am a lemming.

Hope you're having a great day!!!!!

Wherever did that new Userpic come from?  Could it be here?  Click now!  It won't last long!

This link will last longer I hope.

Well, I can't expect to PR every year. 


Now I don't have another tri planned until September.  Hm.  Have to find another.

First season ever I did a tri earlier than Danskin. 
First tri in my new age group (dammit, I don't turn 45 until December)
First time ever to get hardware at a tri - 3rd place, 45-49

Woohoo!!

Trizones went to the Run-far bike time trial this week.  What a great thing that is!  If you have a chip, just show up and ride and they magically record your time.  It took an hour to get there from work during rush hour, but it was worth it to do something new for a change.  I haven't been feeling fast lately, so I figured if I averaged 17mph I'd be happy.  Tracy & I did 2 mini-loops on the veloway to warm up, and we were afraid to do any more for fear we'd miss the 7pm cutoff.  My Garmin battery lost it's charge for no apparent reason, so I was riding a little gadget-blind.  I didn't reset my bike computer, so I just roderoderode and didn't know my time until I got home and checked the web.  anetmarie hung back to let me start ahead of her, but she blew by me after not too long.  Going out we had a tailwind and more uphills, and coming back the reverse.  I finished after Tracy (about 50 secs later upon review), and we did another full Veloway loop to cool down.  When I got home I was pleasantly surprised to see my time was 25:12.65 for an avg mph of 19.0 mph!!  That's a fast crowd though.  The winner did it in 16:23.15 / 29.3 mph.  Whoosh! 

What is it about TTs that makes you go so much faster than you normally do?  Even when you're trying?

Last week I finally felt like I got back into the swing of training. 

M - rest day
T - TZ track workout - mile TT previously posted
W - No workout for me.  Team Leader at TZ Beginner swim workout.  If I'd brought my swim stuff, I could have swum too but I didn't so I couldn't.
Th - lunchtime swim at Balcones Pool - 45 minutes - enough to get sunburned.  Must wear sunscreen.  I think this was the workout that launched the momentum. 
F - Neighborhood bike ride - 5x5:00 intervals
Sa - TZ bike workout x 2.  Once with the beginners, then again with the intermediates.  25 hilly miles in Steiner Ranch.  The return of all of Quinlan Park Rd.
Su - 6 mile neighborhood run.  The wind was impressive.  I should get extra credit for the last mile full into the wind.  It took me long enough.

The calendar says this week is a taper week for Skeese Greets.  I just got my build-up going! 

I couldn't stall any longer.  I had to do it.  I missed the first opportunity when I was out of town.  I missed the second opportunity when I was sick.  My time - 8:06.  Not my fastest, but I wouldn't expect that with my current level of training. 

The remainder of my workout was 3x400 at 2:00.  My times:
2:02
2:00
1:57

I just watched the Kentucky Derby and I have tears in my eyes.  I think horse racing should be outlawed.  

I did NOT want to swim last night.  I need to swim.  I had swum only twice this season before last night.  Cool weather does not motivate me to swim.  I figured if I just showed up at the workout swimming would follow.  I showed up.  I still did NOT want to swim.  I told myself if I put my hand in the water and it felt at all cool, I could bail.  I put my hand in the water.  Damn.  It felt nice and warm.  So I got in.  And I swam.  And I wanted to be done and I checked my watch every two minutes and finally it was over and I was glad I swam.  I bailed on the last 100 when my calf started cramping but I swam 1200 yards total including drills and all.  Not bad for swim workout #3 of the season.

I also do NOT want to do what I'm supposed to be doing at work right now and I think that attitude is spilling over into other areas.  Unfortunately, I can't bail on my work assignment if the water is cool. 

Friday night we went to the invitation only, "soft" opening of the new location of El Chile, at Greystone & Mopac, where Mesa Hills Cafe used to be.  We got our invitation courtesy of a new Trizones member.  I always wanted to be one of those cool people that goes to these things!  Free drinks and half price entrees - how cool is that?  I had a Sangria Margarita and Mole Pork Enchiladas.  I enjoyed them both very much!

Saturday morning was a Trizones beginner hill workout.  We didn't have the usual number of Team Leaders due to a bunch of last minute cancellations.  This was a hard workout to be short-handed, as there were 3 levels of cyclists going 3 different places at the same time.  It all got mucked up when one cyclist came to me with a back wheel that wouldn't turn just as the group was heading out for the warmup.  For a while we had too many Team Leaders trying to help her and not enough for everyone else.  But we recovered quickly and got everyone moving again.  This is also a hard workout to be a team leader - not much warmup, lots of sprinting up hills to catch up to people. 

After the beginner workout was our workout - more hills!  I did the Steiner Ranch D-Loop 5 times (in addition to the one time I did it with the beginner workout) and then one trip down Flat Top Ranch Rd and back up.  I must do more hilly workouts! 

And then we geocached.  I got 7 and thought I had found all the remaining caches to find in Steiner Ranch but when I got home I found I missed one.  Oh well.  Next time.

Saturday night we saw a play, Doubt, at Zach Scott.  Excellent play.  Very thought provoking.

Sunday I was supposed to go trail running and then kayaking, but the weather shut both of those down.  Instead I slept late and lounged around and did absolutely nothing.  It was the best thing that could have happened.  I think my cold finally took a turn towards going away with all that laziness. 

Saturday Jeff & I rode 50 miles from South Austin to San Marcos and back with shubbe & sweetmonster.  The 25 miles out was delightful.  I needed one pit stop at mile 9 and everyone obliged.  We had a tail wind and we flew!  It was awesome!  And then we had to turn around.  15ish mph headwinds the entire way back.  We pace lined most of the way.  I just put my head down and pedaled.  Continuing my habit of combining everything I do with geocaching, we found one geocache not far from San Marcos, another on Old San Antonio Road near the low water crossing, and a final one at a corner gas station when we were almost done.  And then I had my closest call ever with traffic on a bike.  One mile away from finishing, waiting to go straight through the intersection behind a line of cars.  The light turned green, the cars ahead of me went, I followed, and all of a sudden a car was coming right at me, turning left across the intersection.  They waited for the last car in the line and didn't see me on Tiny following behind.  Yikes!!  Somehow we avoided each other and I made it to the other side but my heart was pounding! 

2 weeks to Rosedale and I think we'll be ready for the 63 mile route.  We also signed up for the Austin Autism Ride a week later.

Sunday was a geocaching run with Tracy.  We planned to run 5 miles, so we ran out 2.5 miles, then geocached our way back.  Somehow we ended up doing some backtracking and the final total was 8 geocaches and 6.5 miles. 

My geocaching total after an excellent week - 221!  Weekday caching does bump up the total!  I introduced  shaayla to geocaching this week and now I've got another lunchtime geocaching buddy!  Yay!

Tuesday - core strength, swimming with Trizones - the water was heated, but still cooler than I wanted it to be.  It felt surprisingly good to swim for the first time since last fall.

Wednesday - bike with Jeff - 3 neighborhood loops after work.  I love DST!

Thursday - 30 minute early morning run.  Ugh.  It took me 20 minutes to warm up.  Maybe that was because of the headwind going out.  Very hard to make myself get out there in the dark for the first time this season.  I hate DST!

I haven't posted much lately.  Been too busy!  I've been enjoying the off time in between running season and tri season.  Exercise for the last couple of weeks has been mostly dog walking and the once a week free stability ball core strength class that IBM has been offering.  It's kind of weird to exercise in the cafeteria.  Not during meal time, of course.  But weird nonetheless.  I can't attend class without thinking of what happens when you swallow your bubble gum.


I haven't set any tri goals for myself yet this year.  I'm focused on the July bicycle vacation, with daily mileage ranging from 30-60 miles with an average of 45 miles.  And hilly.  So my short term goal is to ride the 60-whatever distance at Rosedale.  I've been adding 10 miles a week - 20 miles 2 weekends ago in the plains of Pflugerville, 31 miles last week in hilly Dripping Springs, 43 miles this past weekend in the wind tunnels of Round Rock.  My ride companions - jmtaustin, shubbe, sweetmonster, and sometimes pammyaggie.  On the last 2-5 miles of each week, I'm hating life.  Next week - 50?  Hooboy!

Today I added running back into the mix - 5ish easy miles on the Brushy Creek Lake Park trail, combined with geocaching along the way.  My legs were quite dead from the ride yesterday.  But the geocaching made it fun!

Geocaching has become my all encompassing obsession.  My current count - 201.  This is a significant milestone in the life of a geocacher.  I'm told that tomorrow I will see my name among the rankings in the state and country.  It will be at the bottom of the rankings, for sure, but there it will be.  So what's next?  300 of course!

I was a little annoyed at this race.  I was ready for running season to be over and this was in the way.  I never really considered not signing up, but I was still annoyed at having to do it.  I knew that beating my 3M time was unlikely, so I just decided to go out there and get it done and not worry about my time.  What I wanted was to run with Tracy.  She was doing the full, but we could run together for 10 miles before splitting up.  We didn't find each other at the start of White Rock or 3M and I missed running with her!  I told her that I would run her pace while we were together and then I'd see what I had left for the last 3 hilly miles. 

We drove together and stuck together like glue before the race.  We were in the portopotties on 3rd street when the gun went off.  Perfect timing if you ask me.  We merged in to the mass of humanity walking towards the start line and saw some of the fireworks - it was nice to have them in front of us this year instead of behind like last year.

At the mile 7 water stop we both needed to refill our water bottles, but didn't have a good plan for getting back together.  The same thing happened last year.  Only this time we really lost each other.  Neither of us knew if the other was ahead or behind.  I waited and didn't see her.  I ran a little, found Julie roving on her bike, and she said she hadn't seen Tracy.  I waited some more.  No Tracy.  I started running again.  Around mile 8 at Austin High I passed my family and they said Tracy was about a minute ahead of me.  I picked up the pace to try to catch her, but slowed to get up Veteran's Drive.  I was going to need some energy for the Enfield hills.  If I had to run the rest of the way alone that was ok.  I passed some of our awesome Trizones Cowbell Corp who told me that I was only 30 seconds behind her.  But I just couldn't catch her.

I was almost at the split when I heard from behind "Little Pam!!!"  Tracy had stopped for a free portopotty and saw me pass by just when she emerged.  So mere feet before the split we got to hug and say goodbye and wish each other good luck.  And then I was alone.  And I was really glad that I was not running the marathon.  No regrets. 

As I predicted, with 3.1 miles to go, I knew I wouldn't beat my 3M time.  I just ran it on out.  I hated the hill on Enfield past Lamar.  I did not appreciate the last hill on San Jacinto and thought about how the marathoners would feel at that point.  I turned the corner onto Congress and picked it up for the finish line.  Jeff and my parents were in the chute waving to me.  My time - 2:10:11.  Not the fastest of my 6 1/2 marathons, and not the slowest. 

And now I plan on enjoying my two weeks of downtime before I switch my focus to cycling!

I've been very lax in posting lately.  Last Wed I forgot my Polar, but I always carry my trusty Garmin in case of emergency geocaching so I used that instead.  I've never used the Garmin for a track workout.  Looky -

That cracks me up.  Anyway, the workout was 8x400 at a comfortably hard pace.  Our goal was 2:10.  None of my regular red peeps were there, so I was running with people who are normally faster than me.  Our times:
2:10, 2:08, 2:09, 2:07, 2:11, 2:09, 2:07, 2:01
Not bad.