So, what happened in October?

Lemme tell ya...

9/30 - I had a great interview for an Executive Assistant position with a company in Menlo Park.

10/3 - My recruiter called to let me know the company was considering an offer.

10/4 - I received an offer letter.

10/5 - I gave my two weeks notice. No one was surprised, including my boss who said, "Everyone is leaving, I hope people don't think that I'm a bad boss. . . *nudge* *nudge*"

10/21 - I found a remarkably good temporary replacement for my position, I trained her, and I left my job.

10/23 - I ran the Morgan Hill Half Marathon, and completed it in just one minute under my personal record. I am stoked because the course is more difficult than my current PR course! Yay for tri training!

10/24 - I started the new job. They are currently honeymooning me, but I don't mind the slower pace (for now). People are generally cool, and they are very open about how to/not to do things. The company has direction, and focus, and everyone works hard.

10/30 - Halloween.

I finished.

In case I kept all two of my readers waiting on the results of my triathlon. (Is anybody out there? Seriously.)

Swim 41:52

The fear that I would not be able to complete the swim was resolved by many swims in the Foster City lagoon, and two trial ocean swims at Aquatic Park and Lover's Cove. By the time the day arrived, I knew I would make it. Mind over matter. I read the book, "Born to Run" while training - "You don't have to be fast, you have to be fearless."



Bike 1:24:04

A week before race day, I acquired a bike from my boyfriend's co-worker. This bike is a rad racer, used by a professional triathlete maybe 10 years ago. It is super small and speedy, comes with tri handlebars, gears that make slight adjustments automatically, and just looks cool. I took it to my local bike shop for new tires and pedals and they thought it might be worth a couple thousand dollars. My boyfriend is a good negotiator, and I got it for $350. Long story short, I decided to use the new bike for the tri, although I'd only ridden it on one training ride. It was super fast, but I also got some super rash in unmentionable areas. Lesson: always check the height of the seat with the shorts you will be wearing that day, and use Glide - lots of it.



Run 53:50

As I came out of the transition area for the run, my boyfriend comes running towards me, "If you run 8 minute miles, you can finish in under 3 hours!" He is so sweet for thinking I can still run an 8 minute mile after swimming a mile and biking 24. My miles were more like 8:40, and I was pretty happy with that.

So, to recap.
#1) I finished.
#2) I could take 6 minutes off of the swim next year, and possibly finish in under 3 hours.
#3) Lubricant.
#4) I would not have survived this summer without going into therapy without this triathlon and everyone who supported me through it.

Water +1, Suzanne +2 (Aquatic Park)

Saturday was the last opportunity I had to swim in a bay before the Pac Grove Triathlon on September 10. When I arrived in front of the Dolphin Swim Club in San Francisco, it was a drizzly 60-something degree summer weather, typical of San Francisco. The Aquatic Park swimming area, between the swim club and the Maritime Museum, has a series of buoys which mark a 1/3 mile course from the first to last buoy, and back again. For those of you who are bad at math, you have to swim three circles around all of the buoys to complete a mile.

Over at the Aquatic Park benches, the stands and beach were full of happy Team In Training (TNT, but I like to call them TIT) groups getting ready to take the plunge in 50 degree water. My wetsuit, fortunately or unfortunately, is borrowed from someone who did Team in Training, and it has the TNT logo on the front. Everywhere I go, people yell "Go TEAM!" at me. I usually just play along.

Although the Team in Training folks had yet to approach the water, I was ready to hop in and get used to the cold. They all looked at me, confused to why I was going ahead, then wondering who I was. The water wasn't bad at all. In fact, it seemed much warmer than the water the last time I swam in Monterrey. After 5 minutes, I could still feel my feet. When my swim friends showed up, I was used to the cold and ready to swim!

The first half of the first lap was the most difficult. I had other swimmers kicking and swimming around and over me, much like a race-day situation. Over and over I had to convince myself that I was doing fine, that I was well trained for swimming, and that it would only be 45 minutes of exercise. A few times I was tempted to go back to shore, and believed that swimming open water was too much for me. Then, I thought about how hard I've trained and how disappointed I would be not to finish this triathlon. I literally had to take in some soothing breaths, and calm myself down. Mental games. Total mental games.

After the first lap, I was definitely ready to do another. After the second lap, I almost convinced myself that I'd done enough for the day. I had to tell my inner mental (psycho-ward) patient that I needed to complete the last lap, and that I needed to prove it to myself. At the beginning of that final lap, my neck started burning from the salt water - my neoprene cap was rubbing against my neck and I would most certainly have battle scars. I'd forgotten to put lubricant on my neck before the swim, and now the cap was digging into my body. This idea kind of excited me - YEAH! BATTLE SCARS!

Yet again, I swam one mile in open water. This time in the choppier, colder, San Francisco Bay with about 200 other people kicking around me. I don't know why it is taking me so long to realize that I'm awesome. And yes, I have the battle scars to prove it.

One more week to Pac Grove!

Professional Help

Not only has it taken a lot of personal support from friends and family to make me a better person, but I no longer believe that professional support is some kind of cop-out for dealing with problems.

8 months ago I felt pretty horrible about myself. In order to turn it around, I started to make changes where is was the most comfortable, and enlisted professionals from my gym to work on my fitness level. (Which is connected to your heart, mind, body, soul . . . the hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bones connected to the foot bone, etc) I met with Kolleen, the exercise physiologist, who suggested Dan, a personal trainer, who inspired me to sign up for TRX training with Garrett, which inspired me to get a swim instructor, Jessica.

3 months ago I decided to enlist a professional staff for my career endeavors as well. Actually, it wasn't by choice - while stumbling through job postings on Craigslist (see the desperation here), I found one for an Executive Assistant in Palo Alto. Although I knew it was coming from a staffing agency, and not directly from an employer, I shot over my cover letter and resume. Within one hour, I received a phone call from a bubbly recruiter named Amanda, who wanted me to come to San Francisco to interview with her at the agency. I really didn't want to hike up to San Francisco AGAIN (At this point, I've realized that taking a job in San Francisco would completely uproot my life.), but her agency also does staffing on the Peninsula and the South Bay - it was worth a shot. What could this "professional" do for me?

During the interview I told Amanda what I was looking for, and what I was not looking for. When I left I felt like I'd give her too much information, and sounded depressed, and I never thought I would hear from her again. I'd all but forgotten about bubbly Amanda and the Agency, until she called me within 24 hours to let me know she was updating my resume slightly to send it to a client. She had me in two interviews the very next week.

Not only am I working with Amanda, but it seems like my resume is being passed around to many staffing professionals in her office. Now, I'm getting job information from Molly and Kelli who have put me in touch with a few more employers.

I have not yet found a new job / career yet, but things are going pretty well right now. I had two interviews for VC firms, which seem a little stodgy to me (glad it didn't work out), have had a second interview with a really cool medical device company (fingers crossed), and took a preliminary English comprehension /copyright / attention to detail test for an internationally-known marketing firm (apparently most people fail!).

It has definitely perked me up to know that there are some new career paths where my current skills are relevant, that I'm not so desperate to take anything, and that I am a master of the English language. Thank ya veerra much *Elvis*.

Professional help = get some. It's ok.

Water +1, Suzanne +1

Following the aforementioned race, (race name AKA "Dashin' but not a lot of splashin') I was pretty bummed out.

I went to Palm Desert for my birthday weekend, which was an excellent, relaxing distraction. While on vacation I worked out every day. No time wasted here. Luckily I went with my two mommy friends who dragged my ass out of bed between 6am and 7am each morning (because mother's never sleep), and we made it to the gym each day. I also swam a little bit in the pool each day, and even practiced a couple of flip-turns just for fun.

I needed to get serious about this swimming thing, so I emailed my friends, Kem and Bryan, who lives in Foster City to see if they would be open to doing some open water swimming with me. Low and behold, they have the Foster City Lagoon (literally) in their front yard. We all checked it out, and it received online reviews indicating that it is both safe and swimable, so as soon as I got home we set a swimming date and I took Mr. Wetsuit up the peninsula.

Now, the Foster City lagoon is water from the San Francisco Bay, so it is salty like ocean water. There are also a few waves associated with boats, currents, wind, etc so it's not choppy like the bay or ocean, but it's not as calm as a pool. Visibility is low, but it is only up to 9 feet deep, so there isn't much going on down there to surprise you. I'm not even sure if there is fish. I don't think so.

K & B had mapped out a route from the park to the boat dock that was about 500 meters. I would have been pretty happy with two passes (1,000 meters) although I would need another 500 meters to complete a mile swim. The first thing I thought when I saw the route was, "This is a lot more than 500 meters, right?" Like the swim race, I tried to put it into perspective of time. "I am going to be in the water for 45 minutes. That's all." We three swimmers walked down to the park to start our swim; Bry and I wore our wetsuits and Kem was much more brave. The water was a nice 70-something degrees, it was a lovely day, and there were no boats out on the water.

"Ok, here we go," says Bryan.

I realized a lot about how far I'd come in those first 500 meters. First, I realized how far I'd come since not being able to complete a lap 4 months before. Secondly, I realized how comfortable I was becoming with my stroke and kick. Finally, I knew it was more about controlling the situation more than about my personal fitness ability. After 200 meters or so, I knew I was in control. As I breathed side to side, I was able to mark my place along the shore. It was also very nice not to have to stop and turn around like in a pool situation; I could just keep going long until I got tired or was finished. I wasn't tired. Instead, everything felt like it was coming together and I imagined myself like a little fish - like I belonged in that water. It wasn't more than 10 minutes that I'd reached the end of the first 500 meters, and I wanted to turn around and go back right away.

We swam 3 lengths, or 1,500 meters that day. The next week we did it again and went 4 lengths, and even rode 30 minutes down the Bay Trail.

I kicked the water's butt.

Water +1, Suzanne 0

I successfully completed my first 1,650 meters in the pool (the distance needed for my olympic triathlon), so I decided to test it in open water. The "Splash and Dash" event was a .93 mile swim in a nice, 78 degree, fresh water reservoir, followed by a hard terrain, 5K run that ends up a very steep hill.

Upon arrival at the Steven's Creek Reservoir on a lovely summer evening, I remember looking at the giant orange, Doritos buoys in the water and thinking, "Damn, is that a mile? That seems really far." But, I knew I had already swum a mile in the pool! Instead of dwelling on the seemingly long distance, I decided to put it into time. It's 45 minutes or less of exercise, something I have done 1-7 days a week for most of my life. It's only 45 minutes. No big deal.

I wondered if swimming was like running where you get excited when the race starts and end up going a lot faster than you would on your own. The thought of doing better in a race than on my own totally pumped me up!! Then, I started to see people changing into wetsuits. I thought the wetsuit was only needed in cold water. . . so I didn't bring one.

First of all, a mile is a long way to swim. Mostly because you don't know where the hell you are going. Sure, there are these huge buoys in the water and they are bright orange, but your head is UNDER the water most of the time. Furthermore there are a hundred people around you, kicking and swimming OVER you, that there isn't a lot of time to look around. You know?

I've taken for granted how easy running is for me. I know how fast I need to start, when I can give it more, and when I need to slow it down a bit. I don't know how to do this when swimming. I only know how to kick one way, stroke one way, and breath after every three strokes. I don't think about what my feet are doing when I'm running. I just . . . go!

Lastly, the wetsuit gives you buoyancy. This helps when your swimming form is completely thrown out the window due to the above mentioned distractions: no visibility, people swimming over you, and forgetting to breath.

The outcome of my first Splash and Dash was panic. I was the last person in the water. I started to swim, keeping an eye out for the woman's feet in front of me. Then I couldn't breath. I turned my head to take a breath but it wasn't enough, so I turned my head again. Then the hyperventilating began. Yes, I was breathing IN, but had completely forgotten to breath OUT.

"I can not do this." It was a thought that occurred to me only a couple of other times in my life. It was so far from my typically fearless attitude, that the clarity of hearing it in my own head made me know it was very real. "I can not do this."

I swam back to shore after swimming maybe 50 meters. Someone called out, "Wow! You're done already." Oh, that's right. I was so done.

Summer lovin'

Typically I love summer by slacking off a little bit in July. Well, not so much this year. For quite a few years I've logged my workouts in a hand-written calendar so I can look back on months gone by, count miles, know when my shoes need to be replaced, and for motivational purposes as well. If I see a couple of blank squares on the calendar, it makes me sad.

Here is July 2010 compared to July 2011. (The last week of July 2011 is in pencil to represent what I kind of workout I *should* do that day.)