goings on, tri

Weekend (Tri) Report

Man it’s hard to stay on top of these things. I’m not sure to split catching up into several posts or to jam ’em all together. Not that it really matters, I guess…

Lessee here… I guess I’ll do it chrono style, instead of the backwards blog way…

Saturday
I woke up hella early (like 6:45) to get picked up to go out to Marin for a group training session. Fortunately, my mentor lives reasonably close and was gracious enough to pick me up. We bopped out to Redwood High School in her Mini, pretending to be awake. Today was a swim/bike session. I felt good that I had gone for a swim workout that week, but was a bit surprised that some sadist had decided to put me into the fast swimmer group. I did not belong there. Those people dogged me, heh. By the end, I was sucking a heady combination of water and air–quite lovely. Good workout, I guess. I’m still amazed at how friggin’ tiring swimming can be. I remember swimming for hours as a kid, but I guess it’s different when you are just horsin’ around vs. actually doing laps. Anyway, after a brutal workout, we jumped into bike gear. It wasn’t really a workout so much as a bike clinic. Most of it was pretty remedial stuff: clipping in and stopping, turning, grabbing your bottle without looking (actually kind of hard, at least returning the bottle w/o looking is). I picked one new thing though — countersteering into a turn. We also did this fun drill where we ride in twos, side-by-side and lean into each other, practicing riding close to others. This guy and I actually locked elbows and almost fell over at one point, but we recovered quick…

After the drills, we had an honoree potluck, which consisted of sitting down, basking in the sun, munching on sammiches and listening to a few speakers. It was pretty inspiring to hear the stories of two honorees who had recovered from Hodgkin’s Disease and are now in remission. Some peeps also told personal stories about family or loved ones. I expect I will probable have to say something at some point, but I’m pretty uncomfortable right now. It was actually fairly hard to listen to all of those cancer stories. Got me a little sad. But it’s nice to know that I’m good company. Good company that is trying to make a difference.

Swim distance: about 1200 meters
Bike Distance: maybe 4 miles (maybe)

Totals:
Swim: 3200 meters
Bike: 14 miles
Run: 10 miles

Warshed up after ward and ran a few errands before heading out with roomie Bill for the evening. We hit Zeitgeist with buritos in tow and a pitcher of Franziskaner before heading out to Berkeley to see Wilco at the Greek Theatre, meeting up with my friend Kerry and a friend of hers (Dave?). It was perfect weather for an outdoor concert and Wilco didn’t disappoint. They played a real good show, including the three songs I wanted to hear (that I haven’t heard them play live before): Kamera, California Stars, and Heavy Metal Drummer. Funnily enough, the songs I wanted to hear most weren’t my faves of the night. I guess I like the studio versions so much that I was disappointed by their treatment live. A minor issue as the show was a really good one. I’ve seen them three times now and I think that’s probably enough, unless their next album just blows me away…

Sunday
Was picked up by Lawrence, who’s pretty sporty and we headed out to the East Bay again. This time is was a biking excursion. Instead of riding with the group, I decided to do a bit more of an agressive workout. Well, it about killed me. Lawrence has done tris before and is generally more in shape than I. It was a beautiful ride with a lot of views and a lot of hills. We started in Berkeley and climbed up into Kensington, along Bear Valley Road and down Wildcat Canyon into Orinda, stopped for a beverage and then rode out to Moraga before making the climb back up, past scenic Canyon, CA, up Pinehurst Road (really neat school there–I would have loved to gone there–nestled in the woods) and along Skyline Drive and back down to the car. As we climbed back up the hill, we encountered swarms of ladybugs–you would ride through them and find several passengers on your clothes. Sure beats swarms of locusts, heh. The hills were challenging and the views were great–really good workout!

Bike: 32 miles
Total Bike: 46 miles

After the grueling bike, I showered and headed over to Deborah’s, and we hopped into her roomie’s car and went out to East Bay (yet again–some kind of record for me). To Berkeley again to meet up with a bunch of Deborah’s friends, including her friend Seldon in town from NYC. I missed hooking up with them after the Wilco show, so it was good to meet him and see some of her peeps. We went to La Mediterranee, which is generally good for food, though I would have rathered hit a restaurant that is unique/specific to Berkeley. Anyway, it was a good time with a good group of folks.

ramblings

A visit from an old friend

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Early last week, I got word that my bestest friend David was going to be in town later in the week. He’s in Boston right now, finishing up a Master’s at M.I.T. He’s majoring in "I Have More Degrees Than You," but is now staring the end of school in the face and seeks alterrnate ways to ensure  he has no free time whatsoever. The first step was getting his lovely wife preggers. Now he’s looking for a job well-suited for his considerable array of skills. Anyhoo, he had a phone interview with PDI, which is Dreamworks’ animation studio, based down in Redwood City. Apparently the interview went well as they booked him a flight later in the week. This was doubly great news as it meant I got to see him and also enjoy thinking about the prospect of him, his wife and their meatball to-be moving out here. I would LOVE to be closer to them. I lived in NYC for two years with David and we are still quite close, even if we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like.

His trip out here was rather whirlwind. He came in Thursday evening and left Saturday morning. I’ll take what I can get though… Thursday, he picked me up in his sweet-ass rented Azteca. It drives like a dream. A very bad dream. We picked up Deborah in the Mission and headed over to Sirr’s for dinner. He and Vadan cooked up a vegan meal that was quite tasty: a nice Italian bean soup, with two awesome salads some rice stuffed red peppers. Great stuff, especially for a first try with the vegan fare. David was getting pretty sleepy so he dropped us off and headed for his hotel.
Friday was pretty much a write-off, work-wise as our office got moved. It was just across the hall, but it was enough to be disruptive. Which kind of sucks as we are releasing a major product on Monday morning. Heh. The upside is that since the network was down, I got to skate out a little earlier than usual. I was beat (I think the Tri training is catching up with me), so I took a quick snooze on the couch. David then came over after his grueling five hours of interviews (which went pretty well–sweet!). We decided to take it easy and just headed into the Mission, ending up at one of my faves (for character, anyway): Country Station Sushi. It’s kind of a punk-rock sushi bar–high marks for ambiance with pretty decent fish. There was only one chef, so the service was a bit slow, but that was fine with us–gave us some time to catch up.
It’s funny–it’s so easy for me to get caught up in living the day-to-day stuff and forgetting about those I care about that are far away. Hanging out with David made me realize how much I miss him… I hope he gets the job and manages to get out here.
After some tasty slabs of fish and a little Nigori, he dropped me off and headed back to his hotel. I hit the sack as I had get up early for a group swim/bike in the morning… It was great to see him, even a short trip is great. I hope it’s the start of seeing him more often!

I’ll get the rest of the weekend updated in a bit…

uncategorized

flickr test

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IMG_5156, originally uploaded by xispo.

My peeps brings the party. Testing flickr blogging functionality. This shot from a fun time at Hog Island Oysters on Memorial Day. Then went to see the Pixies rock it at the Warfield. Good times…

ramblings, tri

Trip down memory lane…

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Today was a group train for the triathlon. Work was pretty grueling today, so if felt good to get out and do some running. Jesus. I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth. Heh. Oh well. It was raining too. It actually wasn’t too bad. Of course, it wasn’t raining too hard either. We did some hill springy things and ran for a few miles. Nothing too bad. I’m feeling pretty good, considering this is only the third time I’ve run in a week. Before that, I seriously can’t remember the last time I ran. Maybe to catch a bus. But certainly not loping around for a few miles. I think I’m going to keep track of distance, just for yucks…

So far:
Running: around 10 miles or so.
Swimming: 2000 meters or so
Biking: 10 miles or so (slacking on this. Ironic as it’s probably the most comfy area for me)

After training, I swung by Tu Lan and picked up my favorite bean curd in tomato sauce. Good eats.

Then I went through two shoe boxes full of pictures. My friend Anne is amassing photos for a collage for our friend June, who’s getting married next month. Unfortunately, I can’t go to the wedding–it’s in Wales and shit with my Dad prevented me from booking tickets in time. Oh well. At least I found some good pics to share…

It was also a pretty jarring experience. A lot of history in those two boxes. Ex-girlfriends. Dead friends. Ex-wife. Ex-friends. Dead parents. Lots of good times too, but man, it was kinna draining, I have to admit. A lot of funny/incriminating photos too, heh. Maybe I’ll scan some and put ’em up….

Anyhoo. Orf to bed I go. Have to putter about a bit. My best friend David is coming out for an interview with Dreamworks. I am a bit psyched (to put it mildly) at the prospect of he and his wife moving out here. Not holding my breath though as he’s threatened to do it in the past. At the very least, I’ll get to spend a few days with him. Hizzah.

tri

TriTriTri

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Teamintraining_logoSo, I’m a tri-athlete. Well, not yet, but I’m training to be one. After returning from seeing Dad off, there was a flyer for Team In Training‘s program to help fight Leukemia & Lymphoma. I took it as a sign and decided to go for the Triathlon. Call me a glutton.

Training has just started and I’m already in the swing of things. Got up at 6:30am on both Saturday AND Sunday. Saturday was the second time I had been running in years (first was last Wenesday and my legs have just started to think about forgiving me). It went pretty well, actually. I’m not a big fan of running, but I have to say running’s not so bad when you have the Golden Gate Bridget to look at. I’m sure when summer takes hold here I’ll be singing a different tune, but it was acutally pretty nice.

Sunday was the first time I’ve been swimming in a looooooong time. It slayed me. Seriously. I was sucking wind mixed with just enough water to make me wish I had gills. Fun. Then, after a grueling training, they timed my 100. Heh. I guess the good side of it is that I have nowhere to go but up (or down, if you are talking about my time). In the interest of full disclosure here’s my time: 2:24. Yuck. I stopped briefly to catch my breath (pathetic, I know), so I’m hopeful I’ll see some gains as the weeks progress.

I’ll be updating here with my progress. Just a fun little experiment and a first foray into the blogging world…

Last night was a team dinner, which meant no workout. Sweet. The group I’m in is cool–four of us are actually work for video game companies, so there’s no lacking for conversation.

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 and hit the gym for a swim. It went better than Sunday did, which is a relief. Still have a ways to go. Swam 1000 meters in various combinations. Trying to get my breathing down right now. Hard to establish a good rhythm without it.

Anyhoo, if you happen to find this and want to help me in my efforts, you can donate here.