Rebecca's 'Turning Forty' Triathlon: An anniversary ride on San Juan Island

Friday, July 3, 2009

An anniversary ride on San Juan Island

It was a gorgeous day in the islands, and after sleeping in until 10am (wow, I think that may be a record for us since the boys were born!) and having a leisurely breakfast, we loaded our bikes with snacks and water and biked down to the ferry terminal. The 7 mile ride from our cottage to the terminal was hilly but beautiful, and we got a nice rest on the ferry ride to San Juan Island. We biked a 22 mile loop on San Juan, through pastoral fields and along winding roads up into the interior of the island. We even passed an alpaca farm with baby alpacas racing us along the fence line! It was so much fun to be able to ride with Charles who has been trying desperately to get me interested in cyclacross so that we could ride together. I hate to say it Charles, but riding past baby alpacas on a hilly climb toward a dairy farm is much more my style than slogging through mud and sand in a downpour in late October! We did our 8 intervals while on this ride, 4x1 min intervals with a 3 minute rest in between, and then 4x30 sec intervals with a one minute rest in between. Charles was a trooper and actually seemed to enjoy the intervals. Then of course, we had the 7 mile climb back up to our cottage once we made it back to Orcas via the ferry...thankfully the beer I had in the pub at the ferry landing was just enough carbohydrate to fuel me home. Total mileage today was 37 miles....straight into a hot bath for me!

Today was our anniversary, and we ended it with a late dinner overlooking Deer Harbor where they put on an early fireworks show...it was a perfect ending to our day.

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WHAT YOU WILL FIND ON THIS BLOG

This is a diary (complete with photos) of my experience training with Team in Training for the Pacific Grove Triathlon on Sept. 12, 2009. I am participating to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and to get my ass in shape! There is nothing that says turning forty shouldn't herald the best damn decade of your life.

I hope you will visit often. If you do, you might just catch a glimpse of my team running with pringles between our fingers, or on the pool deck doing plank in our speedos!

Although this triathlon is a personal fitness journey, it is more importantly an opportunity to give back to the community by raising money for an incredible organization, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). LLS is helping children, families, and individuals fight the battle against blood cancer; all of us at one time or another have known someone who has struggled against Leukemia, Lymphoma, or Myeloma. In my life, its been my grandmother Virginia, a little boy who goes to school with my kids, Zachary, a grandson of a co-worker, Ethan, a sister of a dear friend, Cindy, and the brother-in-law of a colleague, Tom. Now it is also our team's honored teammate, Dean who is in remission, but is struggling to surmount the side effects of his treatment. You can help out too. Please donate to my fundraising campaign by following this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/pactri09/rramsay . All the money goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and then to children, adults and families who need all the support we can give them.

I am participating in memory of my grandmother, Virgina Wrigley, who died of Leukemia.

Tri.ath.lon

A triathlon is a multi-sport endurance event consisting of swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall course completion time, including timed "transitions" between the individual swim, bike, and run components.The demanding nature of the sport focuses primarily on persistent and often periodized training in each of the three disciplines, as well as combination workouts and general strength conditioning to ensure the highest levels of endurance, strength, and power possible come race day. Proficiency in swimming, cycling, and running alone is often not sufficient for success in triathlon.....truth be told, what is really needed is an almost unnatural capacity for denial and an unruly belief that anything is possible...(a good masseuse, buckets of himalayan bath salts, and an iron stomach capable of tolerating extremely high doses of Ibuprofen are the other critical prerequisites).