The Oregon Is Awesome Give Away

Have I ever told you how much I love Oregon?  If not, let me tell you now.  I love it, and always have.  I'm a big fan of the entire Pacific Northwest actually.  But I like Portland more than Seattle.  And the Oregon side of the Columbia River is dope.

Anyway, because I love Oregon so much, I thought I'd do a give-away to celebrate the awesomeness that is the Beaver State.  As you may know, I am a member of Team Odwalla this year.  As a result, I've got a pretty good supply of Odwalla energy bars with a stated purpose to share them with fellow athletes.  I'm also going to Boston this weekend.  And though unfortunately I'm there on other business and leaving Sunday, I'll be down in Copley Square.  So I'm going to grab some sort of genuine Boston Marathon souvenir directly at the source, bring it back home to California and throw it into the prize box.

So how do you win?  Well, this one's really easy.  All you need to do is qualify with at least three of the following four requirements:

1) Live in Oregon
2) Have the first name "Amanda"
3) Have a blog called "Runninghood"
4) Be a huge Oregon Ducks fan

So good luck to anyone named Amanda from Oregon who has a blog called "Runninghood" and may or may not be a Ducks fan.  Claim your prize by leaving a comment.

Four Things For The Third Day Of The Week

For anyone who missed Saturday's 12 hour live video stream of my bikes sitting in the living room, here are a few screen shots to give you a little peak of what you missed.

Most of the time it looked like this...

But once in awhile it looked like this...

Today I did a run/bike brick.  It's been awhile since I've done one.  I'd like to think that I'm a pretty good runner off the bike, but I forgot what it's like.  I have to force myself to slow down because even though I pedal at about a 100 RPM cadence, I don't run with that kind of turnover.  So the first 1/2 mile of any run off the bike is a combination of my body thinking I am running really SSSLLLOOOWWW and then looking at my Garmin and seeing a pace (and thus a heart rate) that is way too high for where I am in the workout.  My legs still think I'm on the bike.  It happens every time.

To make this an honest to goodness brick workout complete with a speedy transition I wore a 1 piece tri-suit.  But it was too cold for just a tri-suit and tri-suits by themselves are only acceptable in certain contexts, like races.  They are NOT something you wear for solo mid-afternoon bike rides or runs.  I feel really strongly about this, so I wore a cycling jersey on top for the bike and switched that out for a tech tee for the run.

Running in a tri-suit takes some getting used to.  First there is the chamois pad - there is not much too it, but I'm aware it's there when running.  Then there is the overall concept of having a snug one piece suit on.  I don't notice on the bike since I always wear cycling bibs anyway, but when I run, it's a different story.  In the last few months I've definitely got used to straight running clothing.  So the tri-suit was weird for the first few miles, but once I got into the groove everything was fine.  Which is good, because that suit is back on official duty in 2 weeks.

Last Friday while I was making a left turn onto Wilshire Boulevard in the pouring rain, I heard an email beep into my phone.  And despite being in the middle of a left turn and despite the rain, I grabbed my phone and checked it.  I REALLY need to stop doing this.  Anyway, the email was from the Odwalla Triathlon Team saying that I had been excepted for the 2011 season.  I don't know too much about the details yet as the first team call is next week.  Being a part of a team has been on my bucket list for awhile so I'm stoked I was selected, and look forward to being a part of the team in 2011.  More on this as I know more...

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know my story.  And if you know my story, you've probably picked up that I have a strong desire to give back whenever and wherever I can.  Recently, I found another way to do so.  As of today, I am a coach with coachmetriathlon.com.

CoachMe Triathlon is a national online service that matches athletes with coaches.  Given that this is my first foray into coaching, I'm hoping to get matched with either beginning athletes or athletes with a few races under their belts that are looking for some improvement.

I don't ever want to forget where I came from.  Obviously, I don't wish the drama I went through on anyone, but if there is a chance to help athletes that are at a level that I was at not all that long ago, I'll be thrilled.  I can't wait to get started.

If you are looking for a more advanced coach, not to worry.  CoachMe has coaches of all experience levels, including USAT level I, II and III coaches.  Please check them out if you are looking for a coach.  And if you happen to live in Orange County and would love to be coached by the guy responsible for the first ever interview with EMZ, then my coach ID is M2011-229767.