HI MY NAME IS MONICA, AND I'M AN IDIOT....ORTHE HOLIDAY RECAP

there's a comfort to this blog world similar to that of a 12 step program. you can admit your deepest darkest secrets to complete strangers who will keep you accountable and on the right track. so i'm going to come out of denial and admit that i have a serious problem. it's plagued me all season in varying degrees of discomfort, but by ignoring it and continuing to train and race, i must have done some real damage. BUT I WANNA DO THIS IRONMAN SO BAD!!

i've developed what i suspect is a torn rotator cuff . it started at the beginning of '07 while training for the first of the 2 half im races i had planned for the season. i was able to manage the pain with icing right after all swim workouts and racing, and it seemed to do ok. but as the swimming has ramped up in base training for ironman, it's really gotten worse to the point where i can't get a full rotation of my arm without feeling something "crunchy." in fact while running the NYC Marathon, it was my shoulder, not my legs, that ached the entire run. but i just kept going with all of it, the swimming, the running, and THE WEIGHTS!!! then i found the pool at the gym looking like this just before Christmas:


no diving please...

cool, no problem. i'll take this as a sign. i'm just not meant to swim right now. i'll let the shoulder take a rest and come back fighting right after the new year. and then this came in the mail:


nutrition: the 4th event

i was so friggin' excited to order this stuff and get to testing my nutrition on my upcoming long rides. i'd read up and taken cues from all around me and decided to start with these two products. given that i'll be traveling to brasil for the big 140.6, i can't rely on having access to the same nutrition options as i would in the states, so i decided i'd try to work with mostly liquid sources that i could travel with and mix on the spot. the Hammer Perpetuem will be the key, and the Carbo Pro will just be an added supplement to put in my Gatorade Endurance Formula. i opted for the plain flavored Perpetuem, cuz, well, the taste of an orangesicle is the equivelant to the TASTE OF ASS (not that i know what ass tastes like). plus with the plain, i can mix it with all sorts of flavors of hammer gels and other flavor additives to switch it up a little. and i'm psyched that all these products come in bulk, cuz another goal of mine is to be the green triathlete, tryin' to keep my iron/carbon footprint as small as possible ya know...

but before the weekend of cycling, i had to host a holiday party for "the bitches," my bestest homegirls who i barely see anymore due to this obsession with triathlon. this would be a challenge since I CANNOT COOK TO SAVE MY LIFE, and i got a little ambitious when i offered to make the key dishes for this potluck affair. i decided to make the roast chicken recipe from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, one of my favorite restaurants in san fran. it all started to get complicated with salting the birds two days ahead of time and finding the proper bread for the accompanying bread salad. there were 3 pages in the book just on the topic of various salts!!! fuck it, i thought. i'm training for an ironman for christ's sake, i think i can roast some friggin' chickens.



AND DID I ROAST SOME CHICKENS!! even our token vegetarian in the group was watering at the mouth. we had a good ol' time exchanging gifts, catching up and swapping dating war stories. but then i kicked their asses out at 11pm so i could get up for a 60 miler the next day...

the next day i met up with fellow Iron Maiden, Juliet (forgot my camera for this one), to ride with the tri club valley ride. they typically only do 35 miles, but i needed to get 60 in, and Juliet needed 75, so we started an hour earlier and continued after the official ride ended. DAMN WAS IT WINDY!!! the guys joked to Juliet that this was good practice for the wind at IM Arizona, but i don't think she appreciated the humor. man, it felt like i was peddling and just goin' nowhere, i mean NOWHERE. at a certain point i was just slanted to the side holding onto my handlebars for dear life. the wind definitely slowed me down, and in the end i only got 56 miles in as i had to rush to finish and shoot an event later that afternoon. didn't try out my nutrition as it was just a little too long of a ride to have anything not agree with me, but no worries, there was a 40 mile/8 mile brick to follow tomorrow.....

opted for Griffith Park for the brick, but for the life of me, I COULD NOT GET UP EARLY. i was just exhausted from the previous day and then covering the event. so i slept in and didn't get started 'til 1pm. this would have me running a little into the dark, but it would be fun to run amongst the holiday crowd out to watch the Holiday Light Show. tried the Perpetuem mixed with apple and cinnamon Hammer Gel in the pancake batter consistency. it was weird at first, but pretty convenient to just eat from the flask at timed intervals. i felt a bit crampy in my stomach, but i think this was due to eating too much of the Perpetuem at one time rather than taking smaller amounts more often. ran into marathon and tri club buddy, Gerardo, on the bike path as i was finishing up. he was out for a short base ride, as he's training for IM Austria and coming back from injuries. he said he felt weaker than he'd ever felt, and it was gonna be a lotta work before Austria. thanks dude, that makes me feel so confident....


Gerardo on his Kuota

the ride went well. no wind this time, pretty good pace. just a quick pit stop before i head out for the run. the bathrooms at the ranger station in Griffith Park creep me out with these taxidermy displays of the park wildlife....


Rocky Raccoon???


please don't let me run into one of these on a ride...

the 8 miler went so great. i felt strong and consistent the whole way. it slowly started to get dark and the light show started. kinda surreal to be doing my brick on december 23rd amongst all the holiday gawkers, but it was a great start to christmas eve and i'd logged 100 cycling miles that weekend!!!

then came the next holiday party on christmas eve at my aunt and uncle's house....

what?? you don't celebrate with mariachis?? sucks to be you..

and that's when i got the fatal text message:

"GOING SURFING CHRISTMAS DAY. YOU IN?"

to which i replied:

"HELL YEAH, I'M IN!!!"

i'm gonna let you in on a little secret. if you really wanna have fun on christmas, HANG OUT WITH JEWS. the jews are the most fun. i opted to hang out with my two favorite jews, The Brown Bros. we went surfing at El Porto, a little late in the day because Bryan had been out cavorting with some gentiles at a Christmas Eve party the night before and couldn't get up before noon, but we went surfing nonetheless. 70 degrees in SoCal, a little blown out, but still decent conditions, and hey, i'll be able to say I SURFED ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!

yeah, that all sounds friggin' spectacular until you wake up in the middle of the night and a HOT AND SHARP pain goes shooting down your arm. you get up and realize YOU CAN'T MOVE YOUR ARM AT ALL. and then you feel like a friggin' idiot who has to wear one of these:


i went surfing for Christmas and look what Santa did...

I.AM.AN.IDIOT.

people, please send good thoughts. i really hope i'm not out of ironman for this stupid little stunt. i gotta admit, it's getting better every day, but i still can't lift my arm up over my head or put my hair in a ponytail even. and let me tell you, the world isn't ready for the huge ass fro i got goin' on....yesterday was a small victory when i could wash my face with both hands!! WOOOO HOOOO!!! i finally get to the doc tomorrow. he's supposedly THE shoulder guy. must be. when i called to make the appointment, without explaining my situation , the woman on the other end asked "left or right shoulder?" so we'll see what he says. doesn't help that everyone keeps saying how much it sucks to get an MRI.....shoot dye into me?? OH.HELL.NO.