Feb

28

Far too accustomed to Farewell

Category: trials and tribs | 1 Comment

The bittersweet portion of my weekend in Boulder has arrived. I just said goodbye to Ben, he is driving back to the Olympic Training Center and I am about to meet up with my good friend Sharon for an evening of chatting and catching up before flying back to Honolulu tomorrow (and then to Seattle via layover in Dallas on Tuesday). This year is going to be really hard. Ben and I will be apart until early May, so just over two months, our longest separation yet. After that we may have a week together, and then another month or ...
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Feb

27

How will I ever decide?!

Category: Grad School, i'm moving here, training, trials and tribs | Leave a Comment

Last we spoke, I was enjoying a smoothie in the tropics on a Sunday afternoon. Monday presented more of the same, plus a Makaha Sons concert with my brother which was really awesome. Tuesday was a whirlwind of training, packing, and grad school acceptance. I got into Columbia and Duke! Which, since this news was in my most popular facebook status to date, you may already know that. Then I hopped on a plane from Honolulu to L.A. on Tuesday night, from L.A. to Denver on Wednesday morning, supershuttle to Boulder, and good lord it is freezing here. I went to Rory's and Mojdeh's apartment and hid indoors until ...
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Feb

22

How to spend 6+ hours riding for ~5 hours

Category: cool stuff, i'm moving here, training | 3 Comments

I went on the most amazing bike ride yesterday. At first I was dreading it - long ride at the end of a long week, and ALL by mySELF. All my other 2+ hr rides here have been with at least one other person. But, when you're by yourself, you can take photos! And go where you want! I loaded a ride I did previously with Boca Hawaii onto my Garmin, I haven't utilized the "course" feature before and it was great. I had a little route map on my screen and I just followed the path I rode before. Garmin would complain "off course! off course!" when I went the wrong way. I'd either turn around and get back on ...
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Feb

20

Aloha means Goodbye

Category: enjoy the blog, i'm moving here, in my opinion, training | 1 Comment

Everything about my Hawaii Christmas Vacation is now winding down. Today was the last day of Team Jet cycling clinic, where I was a member of the coaching staff. The title phrase of this post, "Aloha means Goodbye", was printed on the butt of the Team Jet cycling shorts a few years ago... Aloha! I am really going to miss everyone. We rode together 21 times over the past 7 weeks, which, as it turns out, was the perfect amount of time for me to give lots of great advice and get to know everyone without anyone (that I know of) getting tired of me :D . We ...
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Feb

17

In Search of the Perfect Water Droplet

Category: Splish, quotables, training, trials and tribs | 9 Comments

In my Later Gator suit from SplishToday I had a little encounter with "if you're never going to be the best, then why bother trying." It's an encounter I've had many times, so thankfully I've learned to deal with it efficiently and effectively. 1. Call someone who won't be available and leave a message, 2. (optional) post on twitter detailing how awful everything is, 3. maybe shed a tear, and then 4. get on with swimming (it's always something to do with swimming). I bother trying because even though it sometimes sucks, it usually ...
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Feb

14

Not-So-Lonely Valentimes

Category: cool stuff, family | 1 Comment

My second consecutive Valentimes Day without my Valentime is going nicely thanks to the Olympics and to my brother. So that's nice. Here is what I was up to on Feb. 14 last year. I seemed pretty excited and hopeful in the post, but my memory from that camp was that we were all freezing cold and soaking wet and exhausted all week. Funny how that week seemed to set the tone for the rest of the year. I'd be pretty stoked if this trip in Hawaii set the tone for 2010 - warmth, great training, lots of time with people I love, acceptance into grad school, warmth, sun, warmth... yea!...
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Feb

12

Swick!

Category: cool stuff, four-leggeds | Leave a Comment

"Swick" is a word I made up by myself. It means "sweet" and "sick" at the same time ("sick" as in "cool", not "sick" as in "ew" or "can I stay home today"). It started as a joke but now I can't stop saying it. Appropriate use of "swick": You: "Hey Courtenay, I found this photo of you where you won a prize for a project your mom made for you in 4th grade." Me: "Swick!" My "big head" in Manila (Maybe for next Halloween I'll update the bull to Bizco!) ...
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Feb

9

Oh the Cruelty of the Rest Week!

Category: training, trials and tribs | 4 Comments

Complete loss of momentum, lack of energy, and surplus of time on my hands with which I know not what to do. Go away, rest week! Or at least send me some good Netflix to watch! (Which, tomorrow, This Is It arrives!). It's actually not so bad. I am catching up on emails, I scrubbed my brother's sink and intend to maybe clean some more stuff, walked 3 blocks to the store, maybe I'll do my nails, and then chicken out on posting some incendiary comments on either Slowtwitch or the elitebeat forum. I'm also giving up my coffee habit (last vestige of my time at Amazon!), and ...
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Feb

8

I can swim 7k. That is cake.

Category: anthropological research, i'm moving here, training, trials and tribs | 3 Comments

Am I the cat or are you the cat? (Life and blogging could be easier for all involved if I would just get a camera! As you can see, I've kind of given up. So now all you're getting is random pet photos from cheezburger.) On Friday night, Ben, my brother, and I went to the Elite Distance Carnival at the UH Track. They had a women's 5k followed by a men's mile race, and they'd flown some elite runners in from the mainland. Even though promotion ...
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Feb

5

Here’s your chance to get my numbers ;)

Category: Base Performance Nutrition, nuun, training, trials and tribs | 7 Comments

Yesterday I wrote a post and then deleted it. I wrote it to let off steam, but later in the day I decided that I didn't really want that on my blog. Now I keep getting error emails from my server saying that people keep trying to read it but it's not there. Sorry. So, here's something else for y'all to read instead. Yay! I'm wrapping up a big training block. Just two more days. So is Ben. This morning he got up at 5:30 to go swim with the UH swim team distance squad. I wasn't planning to get up til 7. But thanks to the snooze button, two necessary instances of overhead-light-switching-on, and "our" general lack of ...
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