Walnut Creek Meet

Here's one of my favorite girl swimmers of Tsunami, Marieke Kruidering, a PhD from UCSF ! Originally from Holland, she swims fast and her determination is quite remarkable. While I always sandbag my time so I don't have to be too nervous on the starting block, Marieke always pushes herself ;-) !

Walnut Creek Short-course Meters

So guys, I'm a bit embarrassed to post my pics from this past week, since I'm so skinny-looking compared to the animals that I swam against. There's a great picture of Adrienne, on of our swim coaches (Mondays evenings and Fridays mornings) that is posted below - but you see what I mean? But oh well. This picture was taken right after I finished my 50 back and Adrienne also finishing her 50 back. It was such a gorgeous weekend, it hardly felt like October! The weather was so beautiful, albeit being on the colder side in the early morning- but on both Saturday and Sundays, the weather turned so warm - actually, hot - that my team mates Lou and Jason had to take refuge under the shades. You know me with protective tanned skin... I was ok ;-)

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

We look much much better.. except... CiCi, Mike and Renee's dog was looking the wrong way ;-)

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

Mike just arrived finishing his biking leg and I'm all relaxed and already ready for a nap. Mike is still panting from his bike run.

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

In these modern races, the way they track our time is by using timing chips that we strap on our ankles. I swam with it and it must have felt wet and mushy for Mike. He took it from me and is putting the velcro timing chip on his ankle. This gets transitioned to the runner after he's done.

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

I look dorky again, but this triathlon required that the swimming run from the lake to the bike racks where Mike was waiting...

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

I'm not sure if you can see me, but I'm in the middle of the picture, trying to find the gang on shore... I look so dorky in the yellow swimming cap...

Great day ;-)

So I had a great day today. Worked hard, long meetings but fruitful, and had a chance to go to swim practice at our beautiful Hamilton Pool near Japan town. Tonight's sets were coached by Adrienne, my favorite coach, and it included lots of IM work. The workout was the following:

Warm up:
5 x 100 free descending 2 x 1:55, 2 X 1:50 and 1 x 1:45
33 choice

Main set:
9 x 100 IM work as follows:
3 x (33 Fly + 66 Back)
3 x (33 Back + 66 Breast)
3 x (33 Breast + 66 Free)

100 free strech

16 x 66 Free as follows:
4 x 66 at 1:15
4 x 66 at 1:10
4 x 66 at 1:05
4 x 66 at 1:10

Warm down:
3 x 200 on the 3:45

We cheated the last warm down... I only did a 200 back plus 100 free.. but oh well. It was just yet another great workout, and I had a great lane mate, Mike. See you guys again on Saturday!

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

Another Team GAMBARO pic

So you must be wondering... what GAMBARO means...

So GAMBARO is a Japanese word. The word comes from an infinitive, GAMBARU, meaning to "try your hardest." For instance, if you see your boyfriend swimming really really hard, you'd say "GAMBARE!" which is an imperative form of the verb. GAMBARO is the third person plural form, or in English, it would be LET'S "try our hardest." This team name, being the Japanese that I am, sounds if it came from me. However, it wasn't. To my surprise, it came as a combined suggestion from Mike AND Patrick. You'd wonder WHY THEM? I assumed wrong. Both of them have good Japanese friends (Mike through the sport of Curling, and Patrick from college) and they have both learned the words from those contacts. You should have seen them email each other (copying me) arguing if the team name should be Gambaro or Gambare or Gambaru (let's do our best, Do your best, or Do best). It was really heart warming...

His Tri - TEAM GAMBARO!

Here's me and two other greatest relay teammates, Patrick (on the left) and Mike (on the right). We found each other through someone that Mike knew at the Dolphin Club. I swim at the Dolphin Club - aquatic park - and one of other members (Mike's friend) posted a "swimmer wanted" ad about a month ago. I thought - hmmm... my knees are bad, I can't run or bike, but why not do a swimming leg of a triathlon! I'd get a kick out of swimming for the two other guys, and at the same time enjoy a team sport (swimming tends to be a loner sport like running and cycling). So we've cautiously signed up for the triathlon together, not really sure about the compatibility of each other, but after doing this mini-triathlon (for me, it was only a 1/2 mile swim), we realized how compatible we were with each other. We aren't hyper competitive, only competitive about ourselves but without pressuring each other too much. I really enjoyed every minute of being a part of a team of such great guys, and I look forward to it. By the way, I'm quite impressed by my own time of 11 minutes for the 1/2 mile, as it is pretty fast for me. I'm glad that I didn't let the other two down ;-) Thanks guys for the greatest teamwork!