Another Vegan Passover

I was far more inspired to cook last Passover, but this time around I made my veggie loaf, which came out far better this year:

This is my vegan Passover dinner. Accompanied by the Passover Frog, my niece Samantha's new toy, starting from upper left and going clockwise: Vegan kishke, veggie loaf, pasta with mushrooms (unleavened pasta of course), sweet potatoes in brown sugar, sauteed broccoli and asparagus.

Shark Attack Kills Triathlete

Dave Martin, a member of the Triathlon Club of San Diego, was killed on Friday while swimming at Solano Beach near San Diego. He was out for a training swim with eight other tri club members. Apparently, sharks can mistake a person in a wet suit for a seal.

The last shark attack in San Diego was in 1994, and the last one in the Los Angeles area was near Malibu in 1995.

It all gives me pause before I head to Manhattan Beach tomorrow morning to swim.

Training Progress

I'm feeling pretty good about my first race, the Wildflower Olympic Course on May 4.

I've been biking longer, consistently doing a weekend long ride up to 35 miles and two spin classes during the week. Today we climbed one of the canyons on our bike ride. Now, the last time I climbed with a triathlon club group, I was dead last up the hill. Totally different story today. I was toward the front of our group on our twenty minute climb!

One month ago, I ran hard for one mile and finished in 8 minutes 38 seconds. This week, I completed the distance in 8:21

Master Swim Experience

I've done Master Swim, an organized swim program for adults, in many places. I'm always one of the slower swimmers, but in my current Master Swim, these folks absolutely blow me out of the water (ok, perhaps not literally).

Amongst triathletes, I'm an okay swimmer. I'm somewhere in the middle of the pack. And of the three sports, it's the one that I place best in at any triathlon that I've done. But in Master Swim, I'm in the slow lane.... oh no, I stand corrected, it's the "development lane". And I'm the slowest person in that lane!

The workouts are written for elite swimmers. For an hour workout, we may have 700 m to warm up, then 6 x 150, then 10 x 50's and then something else, oh I don't know, maybe 4x10000m. I lose track after a while, so it doesn't really matter to me, because were I to complete all that we are supposed to do for that workout, I'd be in the pool until midnight. I get through maybe two thirds of the warm-up and then we move on. The 150's are supposed to be on 2:45. Are you kidding me? My 100's are on 2:30!!! And if we're doing this in the big 50 meter pool, then you can bet I'm missing that nice wall that I expect to find at 25 meters across so that I can jet myself to the other side.

They expect us to do backstroke and butterfly. While attempting to do the backstroke, you can call me Crash. I'm weaving back and forth in the lane just trying to propel myself forward. And as for the butterfly, I think I can flail my arms up and down once or twice to look like I'm attempting the stroke.

Now I do understand, I'm one of those triathletes who "crawls out of the woodwork" sometime in March or April to get back into the pool. I was a little bit busy training for a marathon during the winter, and I'll admit, I don't love to swim. I like it, but give me a chance to go run an hour, I'd take that any day over swimming laps in the pool.

The coaches are welcoming and encouraging and give some good tips on technique. But a part of me feels out of place amongst these swimming all-stars.

Photo courtesy of http://www.ci.san-marcos.tx.us