The last few days weren't bad, but this is starting to get tedious. I'm tired of saying no. There have been a lot of cookies that have passed in front of, rather than into, me. We went to one of our favorite places for dinner/lunch, Sweet Tomatoes, which is a big build-your-own salad, pasta, soup bar and they have a frozen yogurt machine for dessert and I love that after my meal but I said no since I'm not doing substitutes either and I know frozen yogurt is still yogurt with a lot of sugar in it, real or fake.
Yesterday was my big workout day where I ran again 6 miles, and this week followed it with a 10 mile bike ride. I didn't do the same hilly route that I did last week, which helped considerably I'm sure. I still didn't feel strong but I wasn't stumbling the last mile either. So I'm still holding to the plan of keeping this distance each Saturday (adding bike miles) until I feel more comfortable. I have 2 more Saturdays to train before the next duathlon, The Big Sky Duathlon. The distance for that is a 2 1/2 mile run, a 15 1/2 mile bike, and another 2 1/2 mile run. My working theory is that if I keep running 6 miles and work up to a 15 mile bike that I'll be fine. The bike route is very flat and the bike is my strength so I'm not worried about that. And the 2nd transition to run doesn't worry me since I'm so warmed up at that point it doesn't hurt my knees. And I'm thinking (dangerous territory, I know) that if I'm running 6 miles and biking consistently leading up to the race that the race will actually seem easier than what I'm doing now. I will let you know in 3 weeks if my theory holds true.
What I can't seem to figure out it where that runners high is and where all the energy I'm supposed to have after working out goes. On Saturdays after my long workout I'm done for and good for nothing for the rest of the day.
So enough of that stuff now on to the most exciting thing to have happened in a long time. First a little back story: Some friends of mine and I all take a spin class together on Wednesday mornings, over the winter we each got a road bike. I made a pitch to them a couple of months ago that we all do this women's only bike tour at the end of August called the Venus de Miles which is not a race but just a supported ride. They have 3 distances 32, 50 and 62 miles - I was campaigning for the 50 miles but the 32 miler was agreed upon on since at least a couple in our group hadn't even ridden a real bike in years before buying their road bike. So here we are all signed up for this ride and starting our training and I hatched this plan that we should all have matching jerseys for the ride and be a team. I first spoke to the cycling director at our gym since we all have that in common, but while she was excited and understanding she did not think the owner of the gym would go for donating jerseys to us at this time. So then our spin instructor suggested some places that do custom jerseys, but I was hesitant to take on the challenge of thinking up an idea and then designing something that everyone would agree on.
The one day after spin class when we make our fairly regular trip to Tokyo Joe's for lunch, it hit me while I was ordering my ever-yummy Nikko Salad that Joes has a their own pro-bike team so I asked if they sell their jerseys. She said no, not in the store, but I should email Larry, The Man, at Tokyo Joe's and ask him. I thought that sounded a little crazy, emailing the president of a company, but for some reason when I got home I did just that - I sent him a very short email simply saying:
A group of friends of mine and I are doing the Women’s ride up in Longmont at the end of the summer called Venus de Miles and are looking for a cool jersey for us all to wear to be a “team” and we were thinking a Tokoyo Joe’s jerseyI didn't even expect a response but I got one the very next day saying:
would be cool, since we are largely fueled by our addiction to Nikko Salads. Do
you sell your jersey’s to the public,and how can we get some?
Fun ... Tell me your sizes and we'll see if we have some of last year's team jerseys for you all.
So after a few more emails back and forth - sometimes more than a couple of weeks apart, making me think that the whole thing had fallen apart - I went on Friday to my favorite Joes location with one of my "team", Heather, and was handed a bag full of pro team jerseys AND shorts - just like their team wore last year!! I can't believe how very cool the whole experience has been and how great and generous the Tokyo Joe's company to a bunch of strangers. I was already an addict for their food (love me some Nikko Salads and MoJoe bowls) as is my husband and my 4-year old daughter, but I will be singing their praises even louder now and proudly be wearing my new gear.
2 comments:
We've made it through 13 days?? Wow! I'm still with you here. I've had some serious tests, but I'm holding strong!
Love the jersey! In my past life as a professional fundraiser, I remember all the back-and-forth that would happen with these kinds of donations, and that whenever I thought they'd fallen through, the company came up with the stuff.
And thanks for stopping by my blog. I'll get to reading Angel of Darkness again, once I stop playing Guitar Hero so much!
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