Who stole my tiara?

Sock Monkies!

2010-03-17T21:37:00.005-04:00

If this picture doesn't make you smile, laugh, or feel downright silly then we can't be friends. Just saying.

(Thanks J)

Excellent Venn Diagram

2010-02-15T17:23:00.002-05:00

Every so often I search my email for something and stumble upon something completely different. A friend of mine had sent this Venn Diagram to me several years ago and it's still hilarious so I thought I'd share. If you know me well, you know exactly which group I fall into. Those of you that don't know me, I'll give you a hint. It hurt my brain a little to analyze the diagram.

If you like humorous Venn Diagrams, you'll enjoy this blog - Indexed

Airport Companions

2010-02-09T15:25:00.002-05:00

Everyone should have some friends when they are traveling - even if they're just toys.

Happy Birthday!

2009-11-11T23:30:00.004-05:00

A friend of mine posted this on my FaceBook page for my birthday. Apparently it was done by a british newspaper in honor of the Queen mother's 100th birthday. I love corgis. They look like big dogs with short little legs, but even more importantly, they think they are big dogs and act accordingly. At any rate, this would be funny with any dogs, but I like it even better because I happen to like corgis.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-02T08:12:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted in forever - more on that in another post. Ironman Florida is this weekend so the crazy is upon us. My sister posted this picture and I just had to share it. I know I'm family and so automatically biased, but keep in mind that I also work with kids so when I say that my sister has the cutest kids ever, I've got a pretty good basis for comparison. Seriously, these are some cute kids. Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.

Jupiter

2009-07-26T23:18:00.005-04:00

Photo taken on April 16, 2006

I haven't done an educational post in quite awhile. Since I'm in summer camp teaching mode and this is a particularly cool event, I thought I'd share. I took most of this info from a news release on the Hubble website. Incidentally if you haven't visited the HubbleSite, you should check it out - especially the photo gallery.

On July 19, 2009 an Australian amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley, observed a spot on the surface of Jupiter. The spot was created when a small object plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrated. A similar phenomena was observed 15 years ago, but there is no other recorded history of such an event. Telescopes around the world have been focused on what is now a new, expanding spot on the planet's surface.

It looks like NASA got the Hubble up and running just in time. They were in the process of calibrating the telescope after recent lens upgrades and other refurbishments when the impact occurred and they interrupted the checkout to aim the telescope at the spot. A team of astronomers is now using the Hubble to study the event.

The spot was caused by the impact of a comet or an asteroid and is changing daily in the planet's clouds. According to Amy Simon-Miller of NASA, this magnitude of impact is rare. She estimated that the diameter of the object that slammed into Jupiter was at least the size of several football fields. The force of the explosion was thousands of times more powerful than the suspected comet or asteroid that exploded over the Tunguska River Valley in Siberia in June 1908. Details seen in the Hubble view show a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere. The spot is currently twice the length of the United States.

The Hubble picture, taken on July 23, is the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the impact feature. The observations were made with Hubble's new camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The WFC3, installed by astronauts in May, is not yet fully calibrated. It is possible to obtain celestial images, but the camera's full power cannot yet be realized for most observations. The WFC3 can still return meaningful science images that will complement the Jupiter pictures being taken with ground-based telescopes. This is a natural color image of Jupiter as seen in visible light.

Note: If you pause the slideshow, you can advance the images manually so you can spend as much time as you like looking at them.

Charlie the Unicorn

2009-07-11T18:43:00.007-04:00

Have you ever wondered what children find amusing? Watching an episode of SpongeBob will answer that question pretty well as will this YouTube video. As I get ready to teach another week of Summer Camp I thought I'd share this amusing tidbit from the previous week of teaching. I had 5th and 6th graders so ages 9-11. They were a great group of campers and we had an awesome week. Every once in awhile, I'd catch one of them saying "Charlie, Charlie..." in a wispy sort of voice and then the other kids would start laughing. I finally asked one of the kids about it and they said it was a really stupid YouTube video. After I got over the initial shock that 9-11 year olds are visiting YouTube - not that it's a bad thing, it just never occurred to me that there would be any reason for them to - I asked for details. My Junior Volunteer explained it in a little more detail and I figured I was going to have to check it out at some point. A video that 9-11 year olds think is really stupid, but funny enough that they all remember it must be viewed. I finally had a chance to check it out. It turns out that there are now three Charlie the Unicorn videos. All strange, silly, and poorly animated. Of course I'm going to share. Here's the first in the series - all kinds of wrong.

On Vacation

2009-06-29T23:33:00.003-04:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted to my blog. I've actually intended to post quite a few times and then it doesn't quite happen. Summer is in full swing here in Florida and the early morning workouts are now the norm. Early wake-ups mean earlier bed times, which means less evening computer time. Since the evening is when I usually do my writing, the blog posts have suffered. I'm trying to get back in the groove, though, and my plan for this week is to finish up several posts. I've got three race reports among other things. Summer camp has started, too.

This week, Brian and I are on Topsail Island, NC with my brother, Chris and his family. It was a bit of a last minute trip, but it came together nicely. I love the North Carolina coast. It's very natural and not overly developed. I'm looking forward to a week of good cycling, some running, and lots of playing in the ocean. I brought my wetsuit and may plan an openwater swim, also. Lots of my favorite activities and quality time with the family - perfect. I've included a few pictures I've taken with my phone. I keep forgetting to get the real camera out.

Topsail Island is part of the southern North Carolina beaches so it's a lot closer to the mainland than the Outer Banks. It's about an hour north of Wilmington and just a bit south of Camp Legeune. We are at the north end of the island about a mile from where it ends. I ran up to the end and you can see across the inlet to Camp Legeune. Of course, you can't really see any of the base, but the view is nice.

Pilates Reformer

2009-04-22T22:23:00.005-04:00

It's been so long since I've written a post. I guess I haven't been much in a writing mood the past couple of weeks. I was sick for awhile after the Austin trip and I've just been focused on training trying to get ready for Gulf Coast in two weeks. I've been pretty slow at replying to my emails, also, which is really a bad thing. I've got my first race of the tri season this Sunday in St. Petersburg. It should be a fun race and a fun trip. I promise a race report.

I thought I'd write a post on the Pilates Reformer. Those of you that follow my tweets have seen me mention this before and may be wondering what I'm talking about. The reformer is a piece of equipment that is used to add variety and intensity to a pilates workout. The reformer can also be used to assist you in doing an exercise that you might not have been able to do unaided so that you can build up the strength needed. Now I'm sure some of you are asking "what is pilates?" Pilates is a form of movement that strengthens the whole body by focusing on breathing, proper alignment, and core strength. Some of you are thinking that sounds a lot like yoga and you would be correct. There is a lot of yoga in pilates, and they can be quite complimentary. There is also a lot of pilates in strength training methods and the core workouts that have become so popular.

So what exactly is the reformer? It is basically a long frame with 4 legs, a platform that slides along the frame, ropes with straps that are attached to the platform and run through pulleys on the frame, and a variety of springs that attach the platform to the frame. There is a bar on one end and shoulder pads on the platform. The springs are a variety of tensions and can be used to increase or decrease resistance.

In the exercise shown in the photo, it's actually harder to do with less resistance. You start in the piked position and push the carriage away to come in to the plank. To get back, you have to use the core muscles to pull the carriage back. If you are using more springs then they will help you get back, less springs means it's all about the core. FYI - this exercise with the lightest spring possible will make you cry.

Now that you know all about the reformer, you may be wondering why I'm doing this. Actually, I had an opportunity to use a reformer years ago and I did pilates before I started practicing yoga so it's not a reach. My gym has reformers and I've been interested in using them. I've lost a significant amount of muscle in recent years - most likely due to the decrease in quantity and intensity of my yoga practice - and that muscle loss is affecting both my swim and likely my weight. Those of you that know me are probably thinking that I'm crazy, that I have plenty of muscle and strength, and compared to most people, you would be right. I am a naturally strong person, and what I consider weak most people have to work to get to. All that means is that my baseline is higher, it's still all relative, and I've come to realize that my body likes muscle. I do everything better when I am very strong, but I don't put on as much muscle by running, biking, swimming the way other people do. I also don't think that it's any coincidence that the strongest I've ever been also coincides with the thinnest I've ever been. You might be wondering why I don't just increase the yoga, and the truth is that I just haven't found a teacher that I love here in Gainesville. I practice on my own as much as I ever did, which is daily, but I'm not taking the 1.5 hour classes three times a week. I've been doing a fair amount of strength conditioning on my own, but consistency has been an issue. I decided that since I wasn't spending money on yoga classes that I would go ahead and start taking reformer classes.

I started last September going once a week. I figured this was a good time since I was training for Ironman and I would have to do at least one session at a beginners level. By the time I would be ready to pick up the intensity, Ironman would be over. It almost worked that way except the holidays got in the way so I ended up at a Level 1 longer than I needed to be. By January, I was in an advanced class with a new teacher, and taking classes twice a week. The classes are only 4 people so it's very personalized, and I've had the same group with me. My teacher has been kicking our butts and that's a good thing. She just keeps upping the ante. Just when you think you are getting good at something, she changes it up completely and it's like starting over. I love it! The other women think I'm nuts because we would all be collapsing in sweaty heaps and our teacher would ask how we liked the exercise and I would reply that it was awesome, and I laugh - alot. The harder something is, the more I laugh. It's better than groaning. They still think I'm nuts, but they've gotten used to me by now. Incidentally, my teacher now considers our class a Level 3. We are losing a few people for the summer, though, so I'm kind of bummed.

So here it is, almost 4 months since I started at the higher intensity and I am definitely noticing a difference in my strength and flexibility. It's going to take a lot more time to get back what I lost, but I am well on my way and having fun doing it. Honestly, if I hadn't bought a new bike last year, I would seriously consider getting my own reformer. They are about the same price.

Here is a short video of some of the basic exercises that we do on the reformer.

Bruce!

2009-04-05T19:56:00.000-04:00

I've been in Austin, TX for the past few days and am heading out in about an hour to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I guess I have what could be considered eclectic musical tastes - my ipod has something for just about everyone on it, and if you asked me what kind of music I like, you wouldn't get a straight answer. It'd probably be easier to ask what I don't like - most current pop, but even that has a place. Brittany Spears while I'm driving or hanging out - no way. Brittany at a dance club - whole other thing. Anyway, I have listened to Bruce since I was in middle school, and have always enjoyed his music. Yes, I have Born to Run on my ipod running playlist. Yes, I know that's cheesy. Actually, Badlands and This Hard Land are better running songs - FYI. Anyway, this will be the 3rd time I see Bruce - it's been about 6 years since the last time, and I am looking forward to the show. I'm super tired and not feeling all that great from a busy couple of days here in Texas, but it'll still be great. Bruce was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd share the interview portion. Don't worry - I left off the performance for those of you that don't care for Bruce's music.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Bruce Springsteen - Interview

comedycentral.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

Yum!

2009-03-30T22:39:00.004-04:00

Hey guess what? I'm hungry! Apparently training for a half-iron makes you hungry. Who would've thought? I'm trying my best to eat lots and I thought I'd share my two newest snack food discoveries - White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif Bars, and Kashi TLC Dark Chocolate Coconut Fruit & Grain bars. Yes, they are both really as good as they sound and more than take care of any cravings for sweets. The first time I had the Clif Bar, I ate it so fast I was surprised when I went to take another bite and it was all gone. The Kashi bars really are as good as they look on the box. If only my grocery store would stop running out of them.

On a separate but related note - my grocery store stocks all the diet meal replacements, things like Slimfast, directly across from the chocolate and the candy. I just think that's really wrong! Not that I was getting Slimfast - they put the Clif bars with the diet stuff.

I love this woman!

2009-03-22T13:40:00.004-04:00

I know it's been awhile since I've posted - I actually have 3 unfinished posts and 1 or 2 more floating in my head. Apparently I'm having some serious attention deficit with regards to my writing. Anyway, I just thought I'd take a moment to share this picture of Michelle Obama. She is preparing the ground for a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. The children are 5th-graders from a local elementary school, who have a garden at their school and will help to plant, care for, and harvest the White House garden. How cool is that? The garden will provide food for White House dinners and will be located in a spot that is visible to people walking on the street. Part of it's purpose is to help educate people on the benefits of eating healthy, natural foods. The NY Times wrote a nice article about the garden. Here's the link: Obamas Prepare to Plant White House Garden

So why do I love Michelle? It's a growing list starting with she's smart, educated, independent, fit, healthy, attractive, but right now it's this picture. Lots of First Ladys and Presidents have visited schools and taken part in the classroom, but when was the last time you saw a First Lady outside digging in the dirt with a bunch of kids? Those of you that know me well, know how important I consider outdoor education, so this picture is great to me. Sure it's a nice photo op and I'm well aware that she might never work in the garden again, but even if it is just a nice photo op, it still says alot about her that she chose digging a garden as her school children photo op instead of something more traditional, and regardless of wether or not she ever works in the garden again, those kids will get to and that's very cool.

Training Update

2009-03-09T00:05:00.003-04:00

As most of you know, I'm not big on writing about the details of my training. There are a few reasons for this, one is that I know most of my readers aren't triathletes and so the details don't necessarily mean all that much to you, and the other, bigger reason is that I don't like to obsess about my training. I do this for fun and I choose to not let it consume me and be the be-all end-all of my existence. Also, I don't like to make a big deal about my training because while I do think that doing triathlons, especially the longer ones, does take a lot of work and commitment, I also think that most people are capable of doing a triathlon if they put their mind to it. That being said, I fully appreciate everyone's praise and of course I love the compliments - who wouldn't?

So while I rarely post just about my training, I do occasionally feel obligated to share. I've had quite a few questions from non-triathlete friends and family about my training schedule. What, when, how long, how often? Well, I'm not really one to track numbers all that much. I have a coach, Brandon Marsh - check out his blog for good triathlon training tips and amusing insights - and he puts together my daily workouts and long term plans so tracking numbers hasn't really been a huge concern for me. I log all my workouts and I could dig up everything from recent years and put together totals, but it's not really my thing. Anyway, Brandon has been using a spreadsheet for the past few months to track my workouts so the totals are right there. I actually haven't even been looking at the grand totals for the week, I just log my workouts for the day and move on, but it's time to start ramping up my training in preparation for the Gulf Coast Half-iron in May so I was curious about this week's totals.

My basic weekly training schedule is this - 3 set runs- Tuesday - quality, Thursday - tempo, Saturday - long, there are other runs that get scheduled, but those 3 are always there; 2 swim workouts Tues and Thursday, straight swim on Sunday, other swims get scheduled depending on volume for the week; bike - Wed - interval workout on the trainer, Fri - ride, Sun - long ride, other rides as scheduled or as I feel like. Sometimes I ride the trainer in the evening if I have time to kill before dinner or I feel like it. Sometimes I go for a ride if the weather is nice and I want to. I like riding. I have other workouts on my schedule - these are for core strengthening, so pilates, yoga, the stadium workout. Brandon started putting them on my schedule to help keep me motivated to do my strength work. So here are my totals for this week, which was an easy week. Swim: 1:50 hr, 4100 yd Bike: 6:45 hrs Run: 3:25 hrs, 20 miles Other: 5:45 hrs Total 17:45 hrs of training. 17:25 hrs was scheduled. This doesn't include the yoga classes I teach or any other yoga I do that is in addition to the specific core workouts.

I can't really put these numbers into much of a meaningful context since I don't have much to compare them to, but I do know that quantity and duration of several of the workouts will go up considerably as training ramps up. This is probably the last time I'll go into this much detail about my training so I hope you got your fill.

Happy Square Root Day!

2009-03-03T18:37:00.002-05:00

I know this post is late in the day, but I totally spaced that today is March 3, 2009 - that's 3/3/09. It's Square Root Day! For the math challenged, that's a day when both the day and the month are the square root of the last two digits of the year. In today's case the square root of 9 = 3. The next Square Root Day is 4/4/16 so you better celebrate while you've got the chance. Embrace your inner math geek.

Square Root Day was first celebrated by a high school teacher in California on September 9, 1981 - 9/9/81, and he still publicizes the holiday to this day. I'm sure everyone remembers a high school teacher that would come up with some sort of crazy, loopy thing just to get students interested. If not then you definitely missed out. So celebrate Square Root Day and drink a toast to wacky high school teachers for giving us silly things to liven up an otherwise ordinary day.

On again, off again

2009-02-22T22:52:00.003-05:00

So once again I've let too much time pass between my blog posts. You know what that means? I will probably have a post a day for the next week. I don't know why I can't seem to post more regularly - oh wait, yes I do. I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats to hear this illuminating fact about me. Well, here goes. It's actually not anything that special. It just takes me a long time to write something that is publicly presentable. Heck, it even takes me a long time to write an email, and I don't edit those nearly as much - as a few of you are quite familiar. I'm not a slow writer, quite the contrary. I write way too much, and then I have to edit. I've always written this way, and when I was in school and writing scientific papers, the editing was easy. The important stuff just kind of jumped off the page after a read through. I find that editing personal essays written for a specific audience is a bit more difficult. I want to share the details I think everyone wants to hear without making the post so long no one has time to read it. Is this what it's like to write for People magazine?

Anyway, things have been status quo here in Gainesville. Training is good, Brian is good. The weather has been all over the place, but I'm not going to complain about it now. I was feeling a bit under the weather this weekend after yet another cold snap on Friday, and decided to skip running the Gainesville Half-marathon on Sunday. I'm a little bummed, but not too much, since I was basically using it as a faster training run. I slept 9 hours Saturday night after sleeping all afternoon on Saturday so I'm ok with missing the race. Hmmm...I don't think I've got anything else to report right now. Oh, if you are interested in my training check my Twitter updates - I'm going to make an effort to tweet more about it. More later.

Racing fun

2009-02-11T14:08:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I was in Austin to visit some of my favorite people and run the 3M half-marathon. Last year I set a PR at 3M, and several months ago I had been hoping to beat that time. Joey ran with me last year, and I had been hoping that would happen again this year, but he was recovering from a surgical procedure and wasn't quite ready to start running. My run has been so inconsistent that I re-evaluated that goal, and decided that I would just go for a steady pace, and see what happens. 3M is always a fun race and Joey and Maggie were planning on coming out to cheer me on so I was looking forward to it no matter what my time.

It was really cold on race morning, 37 degrees, and I found myself happy that I had brought my heavy fleece ear warmers, and bummed that I hadn't brought my heavier tights. I do not like the cold and I never really warm up when it's that cold. Most long distance runners think temps like that are perfect for a race. I don't and I never will. It was 55 and party cloudy when I ran the NYC marathon - I think that's pretty darn close to perfect.

Joey got up at 5am with me and accompanied me to the race start. If you are thinking "What a great friend!" you are right. It was dark and cold, and he was tired and not feeling great, and I was really glad he was there with me. We met Maggie at the start - she and Joey were going to travel the course and cheer. Again, another great friend - especially since Maggie hates the cold as much as I do, and standing out in the cold to cheer is much worse than running in the cold. Thanks guys! You are the best! Joey had his sombrero ready to go. I knew I would be able to spot him wearing that hat, and I did. Brandon and Amy - my coach and his wife for new readers - were also out to cheer, but I totally missed them. Bummer! Thanks for being out there in the yucky cold! It wasn't my best half marathon but the race was still fun. Here's a couple of pics. By the way, finding a good hamburger in Austin at 10am on a Sunday is not an easy thing.

This should be on a T-shirt

2009-02-06T12:31:00.002-05:00

If you are looking at this picture and don't get it, that means you didn't read my previous blog entry so scroll down and then this will make sense. This painting was done by an artist, Cisco Manzo. Liz Hatch thought it was hilarious, and so do I.

Wear your helmet - just do it!

2009-02-05T15:08:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, pro cyclist Liz Hatch had a nasty crash. Here is how she described it:

I was participating in the “Ride the Route” fundraiser for the Women’s Tour Of California Criterium. It left from Santa Rosa and went to Calistoga and then doubled back to Santa Rosa. I arrived a bit late due to traffic and was attempting to catch the main group with few friends. On the last descent into Calistoga I was a bit off the front and enjoying a great time down the hill when I came up on a corner full of pine needles a bit too quickly (understatement) and my only choice was to try to lay the bike out or hit the guardrail… Apparently the second choice was better (???) and I went head first into it at 45k. Specialized helmets, THANK YOU! Also, ROOLY glasses!!! I am so glad I was wearing those things, they kept my eyes protected and all of the dirt and pine needles that ended up in my mouth, nose and ears, yes ears, didn’t touch my eyes! Not only that but they look like new post crash, cannot believe it.

Liz is not shy and had no problems with sharing photos of the crash. I'm not going to post them, my husband occasionally reads my blog and he is already unhappy that I go on long rides alone. The thing is I can't promise that I won't be going downhill at 25-30 mph - that's not all the fast for a downhill. I can promise that I won't go that fast on a curving downhill, and I always wear my helmet and bikeglasses. Here is a photo of Liz's helmet just in case you wanted to know what it looks like when helmet meets guardrail at 45kph.

Liz was fortunate not to have any broken bones and seems to be rehabbing well. I am quite sure she is thankful for all the research and development that has gone into bike helmets over the years. While I hope to never experience it first hand, it is a comfort to know that my helmet really is capable of saving my life. Ride well and ride safe!

Flashback

2009-02-01T14:28:00.002-05:00

Liz, one of my roommates in college, posted this picture of me and Brian from when we all lived together at the Berwyn House - so dubbed because it was on Berwyn RD in Berwyn Heights. There were lots of good times living in that house. It's where I was living when I met Brian, and it's the first place Brian and I lived together.

I thought this picture was funny because on any given evening, you could walk into our house and find a similar scene. I guess some things don't change even after 15 years. Brian sometimes complains that I am smothering him so when I showed him the photo, he laughed. I told him he had his chance to nip this behavior in the bud years ago and now he was stuck with it. He laughed some more.

By the way, I'm wearing long underwear in this picture. I am very happy that I live in a place where long underwear is not necessary.

Update

2009-01-18T22:35:00.002-05:00

So apparently I let another whole week go by without a post. I didn't mean to do that. I actually had a couple of thoughts for some posts this week, but never got around to writing them. Of course now I can't remember what they were so I figured I'd just dash off something quick to let everyone know that I'm still writing.

This week has been pretty low key. The weather was a bit less than perfect. Cloudy and rainy a couple of days and then downright cold towards the end of the week. It's warming up, though. That's the great thing about winter in Florida - even if there is a cold spell, it's always very short. My training has been consistent, but a little on the lackluster side. It's ok, though. Every week can't be awesome - the body just doesn't work that way.

I'm heading to Austin soon for my first race of the season, the 3m Half-marathon. This is always a fun event. Last year I set a PR, and a few months ago I was planning on beating that time, but my running has not recovered from my Ironman training the way I would have liked so I don't think that's likely. It's okay, though. The race will still be fun, and really, it's the trip to Austin that matters - not the race. I plan on running the Gainesville Half next month, and I feel confident that I can get the time I want.

I still haven't decided on my first tri of the season. I am registered for two tris already, but neither of them will be my first. I am waiting to see how my March calender develops before I make any decisions. This is Florida and tri season started last weekend. There are tris going on all over the state every weekend until the end of November so it's not like I have to decide right away. I am thinking a long weekend trip to the Miami area for a race and visiting some family and friends might be in order at some point, but we'll see. I definitely want to race more this year if I can get it all scheduled.

That's all for now. I'm sure as soon as I hit post, I will remember the things I really wanted to write about and so will end up with several back-to-back posts. Oh well!

Resolution fun

2009-01-11T12:57:00.005-05:00

Here's a funny take on New Year's resolutions from one of my favorite comic strips of all time. Enjoy!

Welcome 2009

2009-01-08T11:49:00.003-05:00

I just realized I haven't done a blog post in a week - that's craziness! Usually I do my writing in the evening after Brian goes to bed, but I've been trying to stay off the computer at night so I can get to bed earlier, and get up earlier. I'm not a morning person, but my day seems to go much better when I get up early. Somehow I manage to get more done. Besides there might be a chance for a nap later - you just never know.

In case you've been meditating in a buddhist monastery or have a calender phobia, the new year started last week. It's 2009! Wow - seriously, where does the time go? So what are my plans for 2009? Well, 2009 is going to be a repeat of 2008 in a lot of ways, although hopefully with better results. I'm not sure I'm off to a great start, though. I'm running the 3M half-marathon in Austin in a few weeks just like I did last year, but I don't think I'm going to make my time goal. I'm not even sure I'll hit my time from last year. I'll do my best, though, and I'm ok if I don't make my goal. I've been consistent with my training, and I feel really comfortable with my routine, and that's very important. The ultimate goal is Ironman Florida so if I miss my goal at 3M, it's not tragic. I will be running the half-marathon here in Gainesville a month after 3M and I feel confident that I can make my time goal for that race.

So I've already mentioned 2 races on the schedule, there's also St. Anthony's Tri at the end of April, and Gulf Coast tri in May. I haven't decided yet on my first tri of the season - I'm still waiting to see how the month of March shapes up. You'll just have to tune in and find out.

On another note, I'm adding a 2nd yoga class at the Veteran's Hospital. I am looking forward to continuing to work with my current students, who are progressing quite nicely, and will hopefully add some new students.

I'm a generally optimistic person and rarely look back on a year and am grateful that it is over, but 2008 had a few big disappointments, and I must say that I'm glad to move on.

One big goal I have for this year is to be so well trained for Ironman Florida that I could ride on a completely flat tire and still make the bike cut-off. Of course, I am going to have a nice set of race wheels so tires should not be an issue.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T22:58:00.004-05:00

Last year's New Year post had an Irish blessing and a toast. They are two of my favorites so I was thinking that I would do something different this year, but then decided against it. The Irish comes from my father and December 23 is his birthday so it seems appropriate to honor my Irish heritage at this time of year. Also I realized last month that's been 10 years since my father passed away so I think I'll stick with the Irish blessing. Incidentally, December 23 is also Festivus Day. I think my father would have approved of that.

In case you are wondering why a blessing and a toast, why not one or the other? Well, I feel that sharing both reflects something interesting about the Irish. They are very caring, thoughtful, and emotional, and yet mischievous and full of fun. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year surrounded by the people you love.

May your glass be ever full.
May the roof over your head be always strong.
And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.
-Irish toast

May the sun shine, all day long,
everything go right, and nothing wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you,
and may all the wishes you wish come true!
-Irish blessing

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T15:49:00.003-05:00

Driving, driving, driving

2008-12-22T22:48:00.004-05:00

Saturday afternoon, Brian and I headed out on our annual Christmas trip to Maryland. This year we decided to drive from Florida to Maryland, since we are making it a longer visit. I figured the drive would take us about 12 - 13 hours, which is totally doable in one day. It ended up taking us 14 hours but that had to do with the freezing rain we encountered when we got to D.C. There's not much you can do about the weather. Fortunately the salt trucks were out doing their thing and the roads were pretty good.

Overall, the drive was fine. There were the typical issues with Virginia drivers. I don't understand it, but VA drivers don't seem to understand the concept of the left lane as the passing lane. I don't usually make blanket statements about a group like that, but in this case I've had nearly 7 years of experience driving through VA, and it is a consistent thing. There could be three lanes and the right two lanes will be empty and there will be a VA driver in the left lane driving below the speed limit. Seriously! and they won't change lanes when you come up behind them. This occurrence is so common that even Brian has noticed it. Considering he doesn't drive, that's kind of a big deal. I can only assume that the Driver's Ed courses in VA are somehow deficient. At least it was late at night when we were in VA so the amount of drivers on the road was minimal. That really is my only driving rant. For the most part, everyone was driving reasonably well. Considering it's holiday time, I was surprised.

Pros - Brian getting silly/punchy due to sleep deprivation - always good for a laugh - and getting to use my new music player. It was awesome! I think I'll write a separate blog entry/review, since I just realized I can't write about my shopping adventure today without revealing my Secret Santa. That story will have to wait until after Christmas.

Cons - freezing rain, VA drivers, closed interstate due to an accident, and road salt all over my bike. I'm so glad I brought the bike, even though I will likely be confined to the trainer all week - the high temp today was 22 - but I was very unhappy about the thick coating of ice that was on it by the end of the trip AND the crud that was caked on it after the ice melted. I was especially annoyed because I had the drive train cleaned and a new chain put on it and a full tune up done last May and then I only rode it for 2 more months while the tribike was MIA. Before the trip, the bike was as spotless as it's been in a long time. The components were so clean they looked new. Now - not so much. I spent at least an hour cleaning and lubing. Oh well!

I will say that driving is definitely the way to go if we are staying for a week. I don't know if this will become a regular thing for Christmas, but it's not off the table. Whenever I get around to doing Eagleman 70.3 - maybe 2010 - I will definitely drive.

Grossology

2008-12-19T00:59:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, Brian and I went to the Florida Museum of Natural History to visit the Grossology exhibit. The official exhibit title is "Grossology: The Impolite Science of the Human Body". The exhibit is based on the book "Grossology" by Sylvia Branzei. We had gotten this book for my niece Emily a few years ago. As I'm sure you've guessed, the book and exhibit are all about bodily functions - explanations about burps and farts, boogers and poo - and are directed at children.

The exhibit was a blast! All the slang terms that children are used to hearing were used as well as excellent scientific explanations on everything from burps to zits. There were lots of games to play and giant models of the nose and stomach, and a small climbing wall that depicted the skin. Just in case you were wondering, we played all the games and did all the activities that we weren't too large for. We couldn't go down the esophagus slide or climb through the rectum tunnel - that was only for the small children. Dang! I did beat Brian at Grossology trivia - yes, I know more about disgusting bodily functions than my hubby. That really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Here are a few pictures.

Laugh, Think, Cry

2008-12-10T00:57:00.010-05:00

My next post was going to be on something completely different, but last night, as Brian and I sat down to watch the Texas-Villanova game, ESPN aired the Jimmy Valvano speech from the 1993 Espy Awards. The game was part of the Jimmy V Basketball Classic played annually at Madison Square Garden to help raise money for the V Foundation, which is dedicated to funding cancer research. In between games, ESPN was doing segments about the Foundation and cancer. I walked into the living room just in time to see "1993 Espy Awards" flash on the screen. I told Brian "They are going to show the Jimmy V speech. Is ESPN trying to make me cry?" Sure enough they showed the speech. Sure enough, I cried. ESPN followed the speech with personal commentary by people who knew Jimmy V, and I cried some more. Dammit! Then the game started and everything was good. Texas won - yay!

Now maybe you are wondering, "Who the heck is Jimmy V and why would he make you cry?" Jimmy Valvano was the men's basketball coach at NC State from 1980-1990, which included 1 national championship in 1983, won by a basket at the buzzer. In July 1992, he was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer. In March of 1993, he was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award at the inaugural Espy Awards. He died the next month. He was 47.

I've included the speech in this post. It's about 10 minutes long, but if you've never seen it, it's worth watching. If you have seen it, it's worth watching again. Laugh, think, cry - thank you, Jimmy. I did all three just watching your speech.

Twitter and things

2008-12-07T17:34:00.003-05:00

Again I've been light on the posting. It's been a bit on the slow side here in Gainesville. Brian and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday in Rockport with our Texas family. There was the usual delicious food, lots of pie, and lots of love. It seems like everyone is doing well there, and we enjoyed the visit.

Since we've been home, we've been enjoying our regular routine. I find it's nice to have a few weeks of same-old same-old before the Christmas craziness begins. Brian especially enjoys the routine. He doesn't particularly travel well, and by that, I mean he doesn't really enjoy it. He loves visiting new places, and he always enjoys visiting family and friends, he just doesn't enjoy the process of getting there and back. I keep telling him he needs to build a transporter. Then we can visit whenever we want and still sleep in our own bed - wouldn't that be great! We have decided to drive to Maryland this year for Christmas, since we are going to stay for longer. I'm hoping that driving will make travelling during the Holiday more tolerable for Brian - and me. It will certainly make packing easier, and I am considering bringing my bike. How bad can biking in 30 degree weather be? After all, I have a ninja mask from my days in NC. Actually, I think all the hills in MD will kill me before the cold does. Maybe there'll be a warm spell.

In case you haven't noticed, I've made a couple of additions to my sidebar. The new countdown clock is for the 3M half-marathon in Austin. This will be my next big race, and I really need to focus more on my run. Right now I've just been going through the workouts, but haven't really been giving it my all. It really is time to put it into high gear.

The other addition is a Twitter Update box. What is Twitter, you ask? It's a microblog service that allows you to post 140 letter updates. I call it FaceBook Lite, but I actually think it could have a broader appeal than FaceBook. Anyway, it's a nice way to provide short updates to the blog on events that don't necessarily warrent a full post, and it's supereasy to do updates from my mobile phone. That way if I haven't posted in awhile, you can always check the Twitter Update.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-24T19:11:00.006-05:00

I know I've been a bit light on the posts lately. Truthfully, I haven't been much in a writing mood. Nothing bad, just a slight post-ironman hangover. This Thursday is Thanksgiving! I thought I would announce it for those of you that haven't been paying been attention. I love Thanksgiving! Aside from the traveling, which doesn't really bother me, I view Thanksgiving as a low stress holiday. Of course I might feel differently if I were hosting Thanksgiving, but I doubt it. I love company and I love cooking - just as long as someone else washes the dishes. Some childhood scars never heal. At any rate, Brian and I will be heading off to Texas for a lovely visit with our adopted family in Rockport, and I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Love you all!

I thought I'd share a little classic Saturday Night Live with you to celebrate the occasion. Enjoy!

Adam Sandler - New Music - More Music Videos

Follow-up

2008-11-22T15:50:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that Serena is doing much better. She has most of her tubes out, is starting to eat solid food, and is even out of bed and moving around. She has had several visitors besides family and has enjoyed them all. As soon as a bed becomes available, she will be moved out of the PICU - it may have already happened. Becky has Guard duty this weekend - she is an Airforce reservist - so there won't be any updates until Monday, but it looks like Serena is well on her way to being fully recovered. That is great news!

Good Thoughts

2008-11-19T11:38:00.002-05:00

If you have some moments today when you are sitting around doing nothing or just zoning out at your desk, please take some time to send some positive thoughts and energy to Serena, who is in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore recovering from cancer surgery. Serena is the daughter of my friend Becky. She is three years old and was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma last June. She had surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, and has been undergoing Chemo since July. Friday she underwent the second surgery to remove the rest of the tumor. The surgeon was able to get all of the tumor, but it took 8 hours instead of the expected four, and was an incredibly intense surgery that involved removing some of Serena's organs to get to the tumor. She is having a difficult time in recovery and had to be moved back to the Pediatric ICU last night. She is recovering but the danger of pneumonia is very high. Becky has been keeping everyone updated via her online journal. Hang in there, Serena and Becky!

Happy 10th Anniversary!

2008-11-14T17:51:00.002-05:00

Last month was my sister Sarah's 10th wedding anniversary. She scanned in a bunch of the wedding photos and posted them up on her Facebook profile. I thought I would share them here. I didn't do it sooner because I was in the middle of Ironman frenzy. It was a truly wonderful wedding. Everything was perfect and we all had a great time. Great company, great food, great music - and don't we all look fabulous? Happy Anniversary Sis!

IMFL 2008

2008-11-10T19:07:00.003-05:00

I guess since I am now officially registered for IMFL 2009, it's about time to share what happened. As most of you already know, I did not finish or DNFed. Here are the details. It's still hard for me to talk or think about because I'm so mad at myself.

Leading up to the race, I was very concerned about making the bike cut-off; not because I didn't think I was capable of riding 112 miles in the allotted time - I knew I could do that - but because I was worried that the swim might take a lot out of me, and would impact the bike more than I anticipated. IMFL is in the Gulf and water conditions are variable. When I was there in May for the Gulf Coast Tri, the water was horrible. I was worried that if the water was like it was that day that I would be really tired, and if there was excessive wind then I might be in trouble. I was never worried or concerned that I could finish the entire race - for some reason running a marathon after all that wasn't bothering me. It was going to be hard, and it was going to suck, but I knew I could do it. However, if I missed the bike cut-off then I wouldn't even get the chance to suffer through the run.

Well, the weather leading up to the race was perfect. The Gulf was like a lake, and the race day weather prediction was more of the same so I was starting to feel good about everything. I had put in the training - a lot of it in pretty crappy conditions, and much of it by myself - and I was ready. I was surrounded by my friends from Texas, and my husband and my brother, Chris. Of course, I was nervous, but also excited, and ready to see what I could do.

The weather on race morning was just as predicted, and the water looked great. I've swam in lakes with more chop. I stuck to Joey and Maggie like glue before the swim started. After all, they've done this before. I stuck with my swim plan, which was to be conservative, but steady. I wanted to be out of the water in under 2 hours AND feel good. I did both of those things. I could've swam harder, but I was less concerned about the swim time, and more concerned about feeling good when I got on the bike.

I went through transition where I had two lovely volunteers, who were around the same age as my mom and whom I've never met, completely undress and redress me. Good thing I'm not shy. Oh, and they fed me, too. Actually, they wouldn't let me do anything for myself. I had put a bunch of different things in my T1 bag - some of them I likely wouldn't need - and it was really funny listening to them go through and tell me what I needed to take with me. They even stuffed my bike jersey pockets for me. I wonder if that's what royalty felt like back in the day.

I exited the tent to see my awesome bike waiting for me. I grabbed the bike and headed out of transition. I was riding well to start, but stuck with my plan. On shorter races, I like to start off fast to get my legs warmed up and get moving, but for IM I knew I was going to be hungry exiting the swim so the plan was to start eating soon after getting out on the ride. I felt really good on the ride, and the weather was gorgeous, so I was really puzzled when my speeds were not reflecting what my training indicated I should be doing. I kept thinking maybe the wind is stronger than I thought, maybe I'm more tired than I felt, all kinds of things started going through my head. Around mile 30 when my pace was starting to concern me, I thought maybe there's something wrong with my rear tire. Now that may seem like a random thought to have, but the day before when we were riding our bikes up to bike check-in, I noticed that my rear tire was overinflated and had a bulge in it. I let out some air and everything seemed fine. I thought about changing the tire, just to be safe, but in the bustle of check-in, it didn't happen. So now I'm thinking maybe it's the tire. It didn't feel flat - it's easy to tell when you are riding on a flat tire - so I just kept going. I figured I'd check it at the special needs stop, since I'd be getting off the bike anyway. I hurried through special needs - only taking the time to scarf one of my PBJ sandwhiches. Time was really starting to become an issue. I almost forgot to check the tire, but remembered at the last minute and squeezed it, and started cursing - very soft. I gave it a shot of CO2 and headed out. I was going to have to stop soon for a bathroom break so I opted to just give it some air as opposed to changing the tire. If it was low again when I stopped, I'd change it. Well as soon as I started out, I could feel the difference. I was flying. I started cursing - I hadn't been slow, it had been the tire. When I stopped, the tire was low again so I changed it, and was back on my way. I haven't changed a tire in forever, but I remembered what my coach said about staying calm, and got it done fairly quickly.

I rode as hard as I could, I knew it was going to be close to make the time cut-off. Around mile 85 or so, the road got really crappy, and started slowing me down. By this time, I had a motorcycle escort so I rode close to the yellow line to find smooth road. It's not like I'm going to get hit from behind with a motorcycle behind me. I'm sure that police officer never expected to hear such language coming from a woman triathlete, but I can swear with the best of 'em, and every time I hit a patch of crap road that dropped my speed below 18mph, I let one fly. I was also crying at the same time because I was doing the math and I was pretty sure by that point that I wasn't going to make the 100 mile cut-off time. I was so mad at myself for all the things I could have done to prevent the tire from slowing me down.

Around mile 95, I spotted my car. Mike had used it to spot the female pros out on the bike course, and had an official race vehicle sticker so he could go wherever. Brian had been tracking me online and when he realized I was close to missing the cut-off, the guys piled into the car and came out on the course. They followed me until I got pulled off the course at mile 100 and then pulled in to pick me up. They totally confused the guy telling me I had to stop, but when he realized they were going to take me, I think he was relieved to not have to deal with an upset athlete. I handed him my bike, and climbed in the car. No one really knew what to say, and I think I suprised everyone by babbling on like a crazy person. I had already cried and cursed for the last hour, and my endorphins were crazy from all the exertion. Mike commented that I needed some sugar. He was probably right.

Once we got back to the house, I changed and went out to cheer for Joey, Janice, and Maggie, and everyone else, too. I was extremely upset, but I also had a ridiculous amount of energy, since I was suposed to be running a marathon. Being able to cheer on my friends made me feel so much better even though I really wanted to be out there running with them. They all looked fantastic even if they felt like dying. Watching them finish was so wonderful, and so disappointing for me at the same time.

The next day, I got up and registered for IMFL 2009. If at first you don't succeed... Mike was registering, too, and Janice decided, as we were standing in line, that she was in again, too. Joey and Maggie are coming as support, and my brother, Chris, is coming back, too. My sister Sarah is also coming next year so it will be a lively group.

I will be mad at myself for a long time. The tire issue was completely avoidable - if I had changed it before the race, if I had stopped sooner, if, if , if. I even questioned my training - I have an awesome coach, and I never questioned that I wasn't doing enough, but when something like this happens, it does creep into your thoughts. I pulled up my training schedule from the summer, and it made me feel good. I put in a lot of work, and I'm really proud of my effort. A few days ago, I saw the professional photos from the race. You can clearly see the low tire in one of the pics. These pics were taken pretty early in the ride so it definitely wasn't my training. I got mad all over again. Right now I'm dealing with it okay - after all, in the grand scheme of things, it's not the end of the world - but I am quite sure when I am training through next summer that I will be mad at myself all over again. Brian assures me that it's not wrong to wish for a drought so I don't have to deal with excessive rain and 95% humidity, but then again, he hates rain.

Ironically, awhile back Joey and I had been talking about the ridiculous amounts of money triathletes of average ability will spend on bikes. He had been in Jack & Adam's when a guy had spent $2500 on race wheels. I had mentioned that I would not mind having a set of race wheels - not because I think they will make me faster, but because it would be nice to have wheels that don't get ridden everyday. I ride through all kind of craps on the road, and it would be comforting to know that I had good tires for races. I had no idea how prescient that conversation would be. Yes, I am getting race wheels. No, I am not spending $2500 - that would be ridiculous.

Even with the DNF, this was a great experience, and I had a great time. When I line up on the beach next year, I may technically be an "Iron Virgin", but I know full well what to expect - at least for 2/3 of the race. I still can't decide what it says about me that my first ever DNF is an Ironman - any thoughts?

My Birthday Present

2008-11-07T14:28:00.002-05:00

This was inside the birthday card that Brian left for me that morning. I started crying. It was a very sweet gesture. I know I haven't posted my race report yet so for those of you that don't know, it was a problem with my rear tire that caused me to not finish.

Forward Progress

2008-11-04T09:37:00.005-05:00

After I DNFed at Ironman Florida - that story is coming, I promise, but it's still hard to think about - I went out on the run course to cheer on the runners and the rest of my group. Joey and Janice were running together and looking strong, and Maggie was just 15 minutes behind them and looking like she could run forever! Yay team!

At any rate, I had a total runner's high - I guess if you push that hard on the bike, the endorphins go just as crazy as they do on a run. Plus I was mentally and physically prepared to be running a marathon at the time so excessive pent-up energy doesn't even begin to describe it. I was totally loopy - even more so than usual. I know many of you are thinking "Wow, that's a lot of crazy - glad I missed it. " Our friend Mike, who was there providing sherpa services, refused to go get the cowbell for me. Probably a wise decision because I would have been ringing that thing non-stop.

As I was cheering on the runners, I kept saying things like "You look great! Stay strong! Just keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other." Well, the phrase "one foot in front of the other" must have triggered a childhood memory because I started singing this song. It's now stuck in my head so of course I have to share. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T17:47:00.005-05:00

As many of you may have heard, my sister opted not to come to PCB for Ironman like she had originally intended because it turned out that Halloween was the day before the race. Just in case any of you were thinking that was an odd decision - bail on your sister's first Ironman in favor of Halloween - here is a picture of her family. Halloween is a BIG DEAL for them! Don't they look great! Turns out it was the right decision and she will likely be joining me next year for IMFL 2009. By the way, I have a new countdown clock going. Check it out!

PCB!

2008-10-29T14:45:00.004-04:00

That's Panama City Beach, FL - not Polychlorinated Biphenyl. One is a lovely town on the panhandle of Florida, which is host to Ironman Florida; the other is a toxic organic compound that will make you very sick. One is good, the other is bad. Now that we've got that all cleared up, on to the post.

Joey and I arrived in PCB yesterday evening. The house I rented for us is awesome! I'm always pleased when a vacation property looks as good, if not better, than the photos. I will try to remember to take pics. We spent today just taking it easy. Maggie, Janice, and Mike arrived this evening, and we all had dinner. All the athletes in our group are now in town. Brian arrives tomorrow afternoon, and my brother Chris arrives Friday evening. This Ironman thing is becoming more and more real. Since Joey's arrival last Thursday, I've been a little bit in vacation mode, and in a bit of denial too. Tomorrow I have a pre-race workout so it's time to get into race mode and get down to business. I don't know how good I'll be about updating my blog before the race, but I promise a post-race entry. Joey is likely to be better at posting so check out his blog.

If you want to track us online, you can go to Ironman.com on race day and go to Ironman Florida. My race number is 2243, Joey is 858, Maggie is 2421, and Janice is 2530.

I wanted to take a moment a give a big THANK YOU! to Rachel and Jordan for being willing to part with Joey for so long. Having him here sooner has been great. I am quite sure I would be a serious basketcase by now if he hadn't been here. I just wish you were both here, too! I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

MS Bike Ride

2008-10-26T23:28:00.002-04:00

Last month I did the Cycle to the Shore bike ride to help raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. If you are unfamiliar with these rides, they are typically 2-day events and involve cycling around 150 miles. They are often referred to as the MS 150 rides. Usually the participants cycle from point to point with an overnight somewhere in between. The particular ride I did was from St. Augustine to Daytona Beach and back again. It was 84 miles one way so 168 miles round trip. I decided to do the ride as part of my Ironman training - I love riding alone, but doing 6 hour bike rides by myself was getting a little tiresome so the opportunity to ride with a group was appealing. Since the ride was on the coast, it's perfect for IM training - flat and windy. Aside from the obvious training advantages, doing a ride like this is a good way to give something back. Training for an Ironman is a fairly selfish endeavor. The time commitment is big and it is inevitable that other things in your life are going to be neglected - you should see my post-IM to do list. Taking all that hard training effort and using it to raise money for charity just seems like a good thing to do.

It was a somewhat tough ride. Saturday started off with a coastal wind advisory. This was the same kind of weather that caused the swim at the St. Augustine Tri in 2007 to be canceled. The first half of the ride was inland so I wasn't concerned that the wind would be too bad. The 16 miles heading east to get to the coastal highway were into a brutal headwind and then a crosswind as we headed south. It was a bit rough, but not hideous. The real fun started around mile 50 when it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Don't forget the wind. The next 11 miles or so were in conditions that would make me nervous to drive a car in - torrential rain, flooding roads, wind gusting over 30 mph - but we put down our heads and kept pedaling. The ride course turned away from the coast again as we approached Daytona and I knew that at least the wind would diminish and there was a rest stop after the turn. The last few miles before the turn were in Flagler Beach. The highway was right on the beach - no dunes, no buildings, no buffer. The waves were coming up over the wall and onto the road. I could taste salt mixed in with the rain. I have never witnessed in person an ocean looking that scary, and hope I never do again. Once we got away from the coast, the conditions weren't as bad - some wind, some heavy rain, lots of flooded roads, but nothing as bad as that stretch along the beach.

The conditions the next day were much better - sunny with some wind - and the ride was pretty nice. At mile 56, I caught a ride to the finish. They weren't feeding us lunch on the ride since there was a big cookout at the finish. Dinner and breakfast had been marginal and I needed a little more than clif bars and bananas. Really, a PB&J sandwich or three would have made me happy. There was a rumor that the next rest stop had some, but I decided that I had accomplished what I set out to do, and that it was time to stop. I had an 1.5 hour drive home and I didn't want to be too tired. Weather aside, it was a good ride. I had a lot of fun and it is a definite possibility for next year.

I got a letter a few days ago letting me know that the fundraising deadline is October 31. For some reason, I thought it was September 30. So if you haven't made a donation yet, click on the link below to do so. If you already made a donation, thank you so much for your support!

DONATE NOW!

Has it really been 20 years?

2008-10-24T23:44:00.001-04:00

I had a request - more like a demand - yesterday to please update my blog. It's been 10 days since my last post so it really isn't an unreasonable request. It's not like I haven't had anything to write about; it's been a busy couple of weeks, and if you check out the countdown clock to your right, there's a little race called Ironman Florida that I'll be doing in 7 days.

So what has been going on? For starters, two weeks ago was my 20 year high school reunion. That's right - 20 years since graduation. I haven't been to a reunion since the 5 year, and that doesn't really count. I haven't lived anywhere near my hometown since 1992 and not even in the same state since 1995. There are only a couple of people that I graduated with that I have maintained contact with over the years. Most of the people I went to school with, I haven't seen since graduation. When I got the invitation for my 20 year, I figured why not go. I didn't skip the 10 and 15 year reunions out of dread or disinterest, but out of scheduling conflicts. Since my family lives in the area, it's really not a big effort to go. Just a nice weekend home.

At any rate, the reunion was superfun. I got a chance to catch up with lots of people, and it was a lot of fun to see how everyone turned out. Overall, everyone looked great! As a group, we are aging well. I did have a hard time recognizing most people, but not because they looked old, but more mature. As soon as I would hear their name, though, everything would click into place. Overall, it was a fun time, and I will definitely make an effort to attend the 25 year. This is my yearbook picture from my senior year. It's a pretty good pic, I think, even with the short hair.

For Maggie

2008-10-14T00:07:00.008-04:00

Taper, time to rest

prepare for the coming race
restore the body

-a haiku by Teresa McDonold

Woosh!

2008-10-09T23:15:00.002-04:00

Woosh! That's the sound of our investment portfolio going down the toilet. In case you didn't notice the Dow closed down 679 points today for the 6th consecutive triple digit loss. Oh well! It's not money we depend on at this point in our lives, and the market will rebound eventually once people stop going insane and divesting their funds. Granted stock in banks or credit companies may not recover, but there is no good reason for tech stocks or energy or consumer merchandise, etc to be tanking other than people are panicked and want to put their money under a mattress. I feel like the NYSE should hang a big "Don't Panic!" sign outside their doors. Brian and I actually thought it might be a good time to pick up some more shares in companies we are already invested with. It's a sale on Wall Street. Granted if I were retiring soon or had a kid in college, I might feel differently about all the hits our accounts have been taking this year, but in general I'm not overly concerned about our losses.

That's not to say that I'm not concerned about our economy, but I've been concerned about that since Bush was first elected, and just about everyone I know has been expressing concern about the housing market since the crazy boom started. There was no way it was sustainable. I didn't expect the crash to be quite so brutal, but looking on the bright side, as I try to do, it'll be a long time before we hear the word "deregulation" coming out of any politician's mouth.

Anyway, the brutal plunge reminded me of a Stephen Colbert segment that aired on Sept 23 after Bank of America bought Merril Lynch, Lehman Bros went bankrupt, and AIG collapsed. Sometimes you just have to laugh - either that or go nutso.

Facebook

2008-10-06T13:34:00.002-04:00

I have joined the ranks of Facebook. Actually, I had created an account awhile ago - out of curiosity more than anything - but had never done anything with it. No picture, no profile, just my name. My sister is on Facebook and kept telling me I should join. I mentioned awhile ago that I had an account, but wasn't using it. Apparently she took matters into her own hands and sent me a friend request on Friday. Her request was followed by a bunch of other friend requests from friends we have in common. Well, since she outed me, I figured I'd better go ahead and set up a profile. I basically used the info from my blog profile so it didn't take too long. Then I sent a few friend requests of my own. It's been fun seeing what people are up to, although I haven't spent that much time looking around. I do try to limit my computer time. I did get to hear about my neice's birthday party, and my sis had posted pictures of mine and Brian's last visit to NY so that was nice. I've been harassed about being a Duke Alum by one of my old roommates at Maryland - too funny! - given a hug by my sis, and some nice words of encouragement by Maggie. In some ways, it's like keeping a miniblog with a little more interaction. It really is good to reconnect with people - I'm really bad about keeping in touch.

Holy Bleep! (insert expletive of choice)

2008-10-04T22:01:00.003-04:00

28 days from now, if all goes according to plan, I will be in the process of completing my first Ironman. Needless to say, I am completely freaked out. I've actually been freaked out for a while. Many of you may have noticed that I haven't been posting as much or writing about my training or the event, and that is mostly due to the freak out. I had every intention of explaining why I'm so freaked, but I am about ready for bed. Tomorrow is another long ride, and at this point in the training, sleep is as important as anything. 4 weeks and counting - more to come.

Some nutritional info

2008-10-01T22:57:00.004-04:00

This is a quick post for me, but not a short one as I am hijacking a post from someone else's blog. I'm really tired - 1:45 hour lactate threshold bike workout followed by teaching my yoga class followed by an hour on the Pilates reformer. I had a solo session today so my instructor focused on moves that would loosen up the muscles that get tight from riding, and open up my upperbody in preparation for my swim tomorrow. Very nice! I feel good, but I'm a bit fried.

Anyway, I'm trying to post more often, and this particular post kind of stuck with me - mostly because it's something I realized about two years ago had become a problem for me. It actually became a problem in grad school - I got in the habit of forgetting to eat - but I didn't realize it was a problem until a couple of years ago. I haven't done a great job correcting it, but I'm trying. As I was eating a bean burrito - organic, of course - while driving to yoga, it made me think again of this post so I'm gonna share. It's from the blog of James and Lindsay Cotter, The Cotter Chronicles. He's a pro triathlete and she's a nutritionist. They take turns posting, but when Lindsay posts, she shares all kinds of nutritional info - and recipes. Here's the post:

Number one Nutritional Mistake

Not eating enough -- or often enough.

The trend these days with most of my clients is that they don't have time to eat enough of the RIGHT foods and end up going hours without fueling their bodies properly. Here's a little explanation of how it works!

While overeating and undereating may seem like contradictory nutrition mistakes, they are related.
"If you don't eat at regular intervals throughout the day, you risk disrupting your blood sugar and insulin levels, which in the end can promote fat storage and lower your metabolism -- both of which lead to weight gain," Brandeis says.
The solution: Eat something every four hours and never let yourself "starve" from one meal to the next, Brandeis says.

Below is a sample day of someone who might need 2000-2200 calories. Most likely an active female. Athletes of course need more but this person is recreational athlete who works out 5-8 hours a week. Although this sample is not a set calorie range for everyone, it will give you an idea of how to structure your diet.
(EXAMPLE DAY)
• Breakfast
o 2 hard boiled eggs with 1 yolk
o 1 cup hot oatmeal and 1tbsp nuts and 2tbsp 1% or soy milk
o add in 1/2 sliced banana and sprinkle w/ a little honey and cinnamon

• AM Snack
o 1 reduced fat string cheese
o 1 c. grapes or small apple
o 10-15 almonds

• Lunch
o 1 whole wheat pita bread
o 3-4 slices of turkey breast
o cucumber and tomato to stuff the pita bread
o 1 tbsp. of light mayo or mustard
o Piece of fruit or whole wheat crackers if fruit is not available

• PM Snack (pre-workout snack)
o Cliff bar (whole grain) OR Luna Bar with 1/2 banana

• Dinner
o 1c. brown rice or wild rice
o 2 c. steamed broccoli w/ 2 tsp olive oil and 1 or 2tbsp Parmesan/feta cheese
o 4 oz. Grilled or baked Salmon–sprinkle with choice of seasoning and/or lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil for more flavor

•Evening Snack- 1/4 cup of dried apricots and 1/2 cup lowfat greek yogurt with honey and cinnamon mixed in.

I know its a VERY healthy sample day but I like to follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time you eat healthy and 20% you can satisfy your cravings. This will keep you sane.
Hope this feeds some minds out there.

Cheers,
LCotter
Posted by James and Lindsay Cotter at 12:55 PM

Beware of Ninja Cat

2008-09-28T22:27:00.006-04:00

My next post was going to be about my MS ride last weekend, but this week has been crap. I've officially dubbed it as "Big Steaming Pile of Poo" week. It's a month until IMFL so maybe I should call it "Little" instead of "Big" just in case, but I'm going to be optimistic that the next month will be better than this week.

At any rate, instead of complaining about my crap week, I thought I'd share an amusing Youtube video. There's a bit of an introduction so you don't think the video is completely random and I am insane - although those two things aren't mutually exclusive. My best friend's son got a Nintendo DS for his birthday and he was so excited to play with it the next day that he woke up early and stood next to his sleeping dad until Daddy woke up. My friend said it was kind of creepy, and I commented that it was like a cat when it wants to be fed. He said it was exactly like that. I was telling Brian about the Nintendo and relating the story when Brian asked if I had ever seen the Ninja Cat video. I hadn't so here it is for your viewing pleasure. It's much better than reading about my week.

Skirt power

2008-09-23T23:26:00.005-04:00

What do you do when you've had a somewhat crappy day, are freaked out by your impending Ironman, missed meeting your running group, and would rather go to bed than go for a run, but don't want to squander the beautiful weather you've been blessed with? No, it's actually not a rhetorical question. If you happen to be a woman - or Joey, you can put on a running skirt. It is impossible to be bummed out while wearing a cute, snazzy running skirt. If you think I'm lying just try it out. That is exactly what I did this evening. I donned my latest Skirtsports acuisition - a red skirt with white racing stripes. That's right - red AND racing stripes. Everyone knows those two things make you faster so put them together and that's double the speed. That's my theory, I'm sticking to it. I topped off the outfit with my NYC marathon singlet for more motivation, and pulled on my Zoot running shoes. I really can't explain why wearing a running skirt gives such a lift, but it really does. I guess it's the cuteness factor. I've also noticed that lots of people smile when I wear skirts to the gym, and the college guys are way more attentive when I run the stadium steps in a skirt. Too funny! Brian said I looked way too cute to get sweaty so I considered the outfit a success, and headed out the door for a lovely evening run. I'm still feeling blah, but not nearly so bad, and I'm glad I got the workout done.

Super cute new skirt!

Mind games

2008-09-18T13:54:00.003-04:00

I enjoy brain teasers. Every so often I'll get on a kick and go looking for some fun puzzles to play around with. The other day I did a google search - I can't remember what term I used - and the Mensa website came up. I decided to check it out. Surely the Mensa people have some fun puzzles. They didn't have a whole lot on the site, but there was a Mensa workout - a 30 question, 30 minute test similar to an IQ test. Since IQ tests are basically logic puzzles, I went ahead and took it. With my results came a statement that said "you would have a very strong chance of passing the Mensa test and joining Mensa." I laughed, and went looking for another game to play.

The next day when I was driving Brian to work, I did something silly - as is the norm - and he started laughing at me. I was laughing too, and I mentioned the test, and said that he might be married to a genius. He replied that even if that was true, if the Mensa people spent one day observing me - not interacting with, just observing - they would not offer me membership. We both started laughing because it's probably true. He pointed out that there was a reason my nickname is SB. I won't share the meaning because it could be considered insensitive to a segment of the population and certainly isn't politically correct. In case you are thinking that was a mean thing to say, it really wasn't. Most of you don't ever get a full dose of me. Certainly not the way Brian does.

At any rate, this exchange reminded me of a Colbert Report segment I had seen recently. Really, don't try to follow my thought process, it'll just give you a headache. I love Stephen Colbert. The more I watch the show, the more I'm sure we think alike. Pay close attention to the end of the segment. That is definitely something I would do. "Curiosity killed the cat" is a proverb that applies to me. Enjoy!

If you want a little more Daily Show/Colbert Report funniness, follow this link. Stephen and Jon both end up cracking up at the end of the segment.

Make it stop!

2008-09-10T12:11:00.002-04:00

Every Tuesday evening, I meet a group at the UF Stadium to run the stadium stairs. It's a hard workout, but a lot of fun. Yesterday the UF marching band was on the field in full uniform complete with the band front, baton twirlers, cheerleaders, and Albert and Alberta - the Gator mascots. It looked like they were doing shooting some video footage, maybe for media relations. At any rate they looked fantastic and at first I was excited at the idea of having the marching band playing while I was running the stairs. However, it soon became apparent that they were only going to play one song - the theme from Idiana Jones. Now this is a well written piece of music and is certainly energetic enough to run to, but after about the 8th time through, I started to get tired of it. By the end of the workout, I wanted to beat the band director sensless. I now have the song stuck in my head.

Football Fun

2008-09-08T15:19:00.008-04:00

I was treated to the sight of ESPN's College Game Day setting up in front of the UF stadium during my Saturday morning long run. The UF stadium aka Ben Hill Griffin Stadium aka The Swamp is usually where I make my first pit stop on my long run. On a typical Saturday, there isn't a soul to be found, but it's football season. I couldn't believe the number of people that were up and about especially considering the game didn't start until 8 p.m. If I was tailgating for 12 hours before a game, I don't think I'd make it to kickoff. At any rate, it was fun running through the crowds. Although people kept looking at me like I was nuts - perhaps because I was carrying a waterbottle instead of a beer bottle. The only downside was that the stadium was closed so I had to pit stop at the track instead. No biggie since it's only a half mile further and it's on my route, but I really had to pee.

Welcome Class of 2012

2008-08-21T17:15:00.005-04:00

A friend of mine asked me the other day if he was getting old. After spending a large portion of Saturday in the hot sun, getting up at 4 a.m. to spend Sunday morning out in the sun again, as well as doing some swimming and biking; he was a bit dismayed that he could only make it through 3 innings of a baseball game Sunday evening and was heading for home around 7:30 p.m. Since we are about the same age (I'm 8 months younger, though) I'm supposed to have an answer. Actually everyone knows how I feel about age - we're not getting older, we're getting better. As Dara Torres stated "Age is just a number". Since she just won her first ever individual Olympic silver medal at age 41, and she's bigger and stronger than me, I'm not going to argue with her.

I will freely admit that there are times when I do feel my aging a bit - the realization that I am the same age or older as the parents of many of my summer camp kids including the ones in middle school, my approaching 20 year high school reunion, my niece Emily, who was born when I was 23, starting high school in a few days. These things occasionally cause me to feel my aging. Of course, as long as I continue to get the response "No way!" when people find out how old I am, what does it really matter?

Anyway, since the subject of aging came up, I thought I would aid my friend in feeling old. As college campuses around the country prepare for the start of the fall semester, they also prepare to welcome a new batch of freshman. I thought I would share the Beloit College Mindset List with you. The following paragraphs are from the Beloit College Website. Due to it's length, I put the list into a slideshow below. The list in text form can be viewed here.

This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. However, the mindset of this new generation of college students is quite different from that of the faculty about to prepare them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

I guess everyone is thirsty.....or something

2008-08-18T21:04:00.005-04:00

On my Monday evening visit to the grocery store, this was the sight that greeted me as I walked down the beverage aisle. I know it's summertime, but isn't this a little ridiculous? Just kidding! In case you haven't been paying attention - the Olympics are on after all - there is a tropical storm or something heading our way. I think they are calling it Fay? Brian and I keep yelling every time they interrupt the Olympics for a weather update. We have our priorities straight. The Olympics only happens every four years; we'll probably get another storm next week.

Seriously, we have been paying attention, and we are mildly prepared - it's only a tropical storm after all, and we do live in the middle of town less than a mile from numerous restaurants, grocery stores, schools, churches - our gym is going to be open as a shelter if necessary We always have plenty of food, candles, batteries for the flashlights, etc. Worst case scenario, I probably have enough energy bars and gels, protein bars, clif bars, luna bars, etc. for us to live off for at least a week. I knew that Ironman training would come in handy. The car is fueled up, the cell phones are charged - and can always be charged via the car. One thing I didn't do was buy extra water. Now for those of you that are concerned that I am tempting fate, I'm really not. I don't usually buy extra water, we fill up the 2 gallon Brita and that's about it. Recently, I found out that not having water is probably the least thing people in Gainesville need to worry about. Let me explain.

The last week of summer camp, we took the campers on a tour of the drinking water treatment plant. Of course, one of the things the plant manager talked about was all the back-ups, etc. the plant has in the event of power failure. They have diesel engines that can run as long as there is fuel, and enough fuel on site to run for several days. I'm sure many of you are thinking "If there is flooding, won't the water be too contaminated?" That was always an issue in North Carolina where the drinking water comes from a river, and if we lived there still, I'd be stocking up on water; but Gainesville water comes out of the Floridan Aquifer. The city is essentially on a giant well. As long as there is power to pump water out of the Aquifer, we are golden. I asked why we are told to have enough water on hand for 72 hours, and the manager responded that we really don't need to, but he did say that there is always the possibility of a water main break. Maybe I'll fill up one of the bathtubs, just in case.

At any rate, I'm not too concerned about getting around. I rode my bike to the Duke campus during Isabel, and that was a way worse storm. Yes, I was very wet - imagine riding while someone is pouring buckets of water over your head, and the wind is blowing superhard, and that will be pretty close. It was warm out so I rode in a pair of shorts and a rain pullover, and wrapped dry clothes in a plastic bag. No, I'm not stupid - they hadn't closed campus yet and I had class. If I had driven, I would have been soaked from the walk from the car anyway, it would have taken me longer to get there, and I would have had to pay for parking. The point is, if I need to get around, I know what to do.

Just in case you were wondering, the bread and toiletpaper sections were nearly as decimated as the water.

On a separate note for you educators, taking a tour of the wastewater treatment plant is way more interesting to children than the drinking water plant. There is nothing like seeing nasty raw sewage transformed into water so clean you could drink it. The kids are always disgusted and amazed, and completely fascinated.

Yippee!

2008-08-17T22:39:00.003-04:00

Warning: This post contains some content that might be considered adult and may not be considered appropriate for children. I don't think so, but then again I tend to have a different view on these things so I figured I should put in a warning.

I've not been in love with the bike seat on my tribike. Before my bike went MIA, I was considering replacing it. After only 2 weeks on the new bike and 250+ miles, I'm liking the seat even less then I did before. Every seat has a sweet spot and I just can't seem to find it on this one. I'm definitely at the place where discomfort in the nether regions is affecting my speed over longer rides. I went online to Bicycling.com, the website for Bicycling magazine. They are always a good place to go for equipment reviews and suggestions. They did a lovely review on my tribike, by the way. As I'm conducting a search on bike seats I spot an article titled "Fit and Frisky" among the search results. With a title like that, I must have a look. I assume it's something about sex and am not disappointed. Here is the subtitle "Sex can be a great training tool. Here are 6 ways getting busy boosts your pedaling." What's that - sex can help my training? Yippee! I read the article and contemplated emailing it to my cycling friends, but then just decided to share it in a blog post. So if you are interested, just click on the title of the article and it will take you there. I found the article rather humorous because it was actually very seriously written. I'm pretty sure my husband will be more than willing to help out with this aspect of my Ironman training.

I feel like I should point out that many of the benefits discussed in the article would be beneficial to non-cycling athletes as well, so if you aren't a cyclist don't feel left out.

Olympic Fun

2008-08-13T14:49:00.006-04:00

This pic just makes me laugh! Brian showed me the story Saturday morning after my 5k race, but I was on the phone at the time and didn't have an opportunity to fully appreciate the humor. I fully expected either The Daily Show or The Colbert Report to have some fun with it, but so far there has only been one slight mention. Maybe they just couldn't come up with something that wouldn't be highly offensive - who knows? At any rate for those of you that don't know the story, it's totally benign. President Bush was playing beach volleyball with Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh - our kick ass women's team who are on a crazy winning streak. If you've never watched beach volleyball, there is a lot of butt slapping that goes on between the players. Way more than baseball, if that's possible. Keri Walsh is what I would deem an excessive butt slapper - I don't know if it's her indoor volleyball background or just her exuberance, but she slaps Misty a lot, which just made this pic even funnier to me. After volleying for a bit with the President, Misty offered her backside to him for a butt slap. President Bush very tactfully tapped her on the back. I do have to say that I bet Misty May-Treanor is fun to hang out with. Anyone that has enough balls to offer the President of the United States an opportunity to slap her butt has got to be fun.

On a side note, when I first saw this picture, the caption I gave it in my mind was "It's good to be the King." Whoever names the movie it's from first gets a prize - no Googling. Feel free to share your own photo captions.

Wow!

2008-08-11T15:07:00.008-04:00

The results of the Men's 4x100 meter freestyle relay is all over the news, but just in case you couldn't stay up last night to watch it, didn't set your dvr, or haven't checked out the replay on line - here it is. I wanted to post it last night but NBC wasn't that quick with their website updates, and I haven't been at the computer yet today.

At any rate, this race was the most amazing race in a pretty spectacular day of swimming that saw world records fall all over the place. When the USA men's relay team broke the world record in the qualifying round with what was essentially their B team, you just knew the final was going to be a ridiculously fast race - and it was! Team USA was not the favorites to win the race, the French were with the current world record holder, but our guys didn't let it phase them. They swam their hearts out and ending up winning by a touch at a the wall. Michael Phelps started out the race and set a new 100 meter American record, and the Australian Eamon Sullivan set a new world record. Jason Lezak, who anchored the race for the third time in an Olympic Games, swam the fastest relay leg ever. After a silver in 2000 and a Bronze in 2004, Jason really wanted Gold. Oh yeah - he's 32 years old. Way to go Jason! The winning time was a new world record - actually the top 5 teams all swam faster than the world record the Americans had set in the prelims. Crazy! Michael Phelps got his 10th gold medal.

Men's 4x100 meter relay video

The NEW new ride

2008-08-04T23:02:00.002-04:00

So here it is - my new bike! It looks just like the old one. It's not the old one, but in time it'll make me just as happy. I had my fit with a local bike shop, Chain Reaction, and they did a wonderful job. It's not the guys at Jack & Adam's, but they spent lots of time with me and made me feel like royalty. I got lots of compliments from the guys at the shop and everyone loved the bike, of course. Most importantly is that I feel like I got a pretty good fit. Now I feel like I can truly focus on my bike training.

Sunday is long ride day and this week was 4.5 hours. Obviously, I didn't want to head out of town for a ride of that length on a brand new bike whose only miles were on the trainer during the fit. Also, there's little adjustments that need to be made to a bike once you start riding it, and you want to be sure it's mechanically sound and that you are comfortable with gears, brakes, etc. I decided the best option was to start the ride on the trainer so I could futz around with everything as needed. After an hour or so on the trainer, I headed out to the neighborhood to ride around and just see how I felt. I was a little wobbly starting and stopping, but that's just rediscovering where my center of gravity is with that bike. Overall, I felt comfortable so I headed out to the road for a bit, and then came back and did the last hour on the trainer. It feels good to be back on the tribike. There's definitely some work to be done, but it's all good.

On a side note, it was absolutely beautiful on Sunday. We had completely clear skies for the first time in I don't know how long. It was hot - 96 degrees - but the humidity dropped to 60%. I couldn't believe it. It was dry! It was the first time in quite awhile that I was only wet from sweat. I had to check my speedometer to make sure I hadn't slacked during my ride because I wasn't completely drenched. I didn't even smell all that bad. Seriously, it actually felt good to have the sun on my back and it was a lovely ride. Yay!

The weather today was equally as lovely, and none of my campers complained once about being outside. I was outside earlier this evening and I saw the stars in the sky. I hadn't realized it, but it has been a long tine since I remember seeing the stars. That realization really drove home how oppressive clouds and rain can be. I will never live in the Pacific Northwest. At any rate, it's been a pleasant break from the typical Florida summer and I hope it lasts a while longer.

Clothing review

2008-08-02T18:03:00.028-04:00

Summer is in full swing and I just have to say that it sucks! It has been a truly unpleasant summer here in Gainesville. About midway through June, the humidity went through the roof. Before that, it had been getting pretty hot - temps in the mid-90's, but the humidity was only around 60-70%. The temps have dropped a bit - mostly due to more cloud cover, but the humidity regularly hovers around 95%. It's horrible! It's like being wrapped from head to toe in a warm, wet blanket. It has also been raining/storming almost constantly, and not in any predictable manner. I've been muddling through my training, but it hasn't been all that enjoyable. I keep thinking longingly of last summer. It was quite hot, but not nearly as humid. I didn't mind being outside at all - I just made sure to wear sunscreen, a hat, and drink lots. I've realized that it is much easier to deal with heat than it is humidity. Of course, the lack of rain from last summer put us into a pretty serious drought. I guess you can't have everything.

I didn't write this post to complain about the weather, I merely wanted to set the stage. When you step outside, you are immediately wet. If you are exerting yourself in any way, you are completely soaked through in about 10 minutes - I'm really not exaggerating, I promise. I discovered that on my long runs, I needed to carry more with me - more energy gels, more Nuun tablets, more than I could stuff in the pockets of my trishorts. I really hate running with a fanny pack so I started thinking about other options. As many of you know, I am picky about my clothing. It has to fit, it has to be made well, and it has to last. I don't mind spending a bit more if it meets those standards. When it comes to technical clothing, there are considerations like fabric and construction, also. Where seams are placed is a big issue when it comes to preventing chafe - and when it's 95% humidity, chafe is an issue. I'm sure a few of you are thinking "Why don't you just do your long runs in a bike jersey? It has pockets." That's actually a good idea, but I had a few issues with that. I only have a few sleeveless bike jerseys - most of my summer bike tops have built in bras so they aren't appropriate for running. The sleeveless jerseys I do own are made out of a little heavier fabric than I wanted - I usually wear them in the fall. Super thin fabric is a must. If I'm going to be wet my entire run, then I want the wet fabric to weigh as little as possible. The only bike jersey I had that was really thin had a high neck that I knew would annoy me when running.

I actually have the perfect running shirt - my New York Marathon Asics singlet. It lacks pockets, though. So what I decided I was looking for was a singlet that had pockets, preferably with a v-neck. The more of a racerback that it had, the better. That requirement is pure vanity to try to limit crazy tan lines. Obviously, triathlon clothing is the place to start looking. So with my requirements clear, I went shopping, which for me means hitting the internet. I found some really nice tri singlets, but they were either really, really expensive or had built in bras - or both. I finally found what I was looking for - the Castelli Fascino top and the Craft Wave Tank. See pics below. They are both cycling jerseys, but are fitted and super thin, and have pockets - yippee!

I have to say that I am really happy with both these tops. They weren't cheap, although the Craft recently went on sale so I bought another one. The Craft is more fitted than the Castelli, and has three back pockets to the Castelli's two, and has a small zippered pocket. I love the zippered pocket because I can put my I.D. and emergency money in there and it doesn't get in my way when I am getting gels out of my pockets. The Castelli is beautifully made - Castelli is an Italian cycling apparel company that has been around forever. As everyone knows, Europeans know cycling AND clothing so European cycling apparel is usually really nice. From a best value for the dollar veiwpoint, I'd have to say the Craft comes out ahead. Having these tops has made it easier to carry my running necessities, and even my cellphone so it's made my long runs just a little easier. I thought I'd share my finds with my lady readers. A little something for the guys - and ladies - I love running in my Zoot trifit shorts. They fit really well, and I don't notice how wet they are. I still think I prefer Pearl Izumi trishorts for racing, though.

Cookie!

2008-07-30T23:16:00.010-04:00

I was eating cookies after dinner and watching The Colbert Report so of course the episode when Cookie Monster made an appearance came to mind, and I thought I'd share. This segment was absolutely hilarious! I love Stephen Colbert and I love Cookie Monster. When Cookie Monster said he was like the Robert Downey Jr of cookies, I seriously lost it. It's not part of the clip, but at the very end of the show Cookie Monster does eat Stephen's Peabody Award - too funny!

Awwwwwwwww! Cute!

2008-07-24T23:43:00.008-04:00

Last week, my summer camp group went on a trip to the Single Vision Animal Sanctuary near Gainesville. The children got to feed grapes to the lemurs through the fence, get a close-up view of tigers, and actually pet a baby leopard. I was rather impressed with the facility and I have to say the cuteness factor was really high. Don't worry - the proprietor was very good at pointing out all the reasons these animals don't make good pets. It was a fun learning experience for the children. Here are pictures - completely unedited and uncaptioned. I guess I'm getting lazy. The pics were taken with my cellphone camera so no photo criticism allowed.

I can't look at ringtailed lemurs without thinking of the movie Madagascar. This movie is too funny, and is one of my favorite movies in recent years. I have seen it a few times and always find something new to laugh at. Here is a video with clips from the movie.

Where's my ride?

2008-07-22T12:30:00.004-04:00

Don't everyone fall over - yes, this is a new blog post. I know I've been really bad about posting. It's been almost a month since my last post, which is just ridiculous. I've started several posts including birthday posts for both June and July birthdays, and just haven't finished them. Honestly, I've been a bit down for a while and just haven't been in the mood to post. I kept hoping that the situation that's been bumming me out would have been resolved sooner and I could have written this post with a happy ending, but that is not the case.

So what's been going on? Well, on my last trip to Austin at the end of May, I had my awesome tribike shipped to Jack & Adam's. It's where I bought the bike and I thought it would be a good idea to have them give it a check up, since I'd been riding it for 4 months and it'd gone through 1 half-iron distance race. Also, Rachel had planned the Team Fantastic X Super-Sprint Tri for that weekend and I had a training ride to do so I was going to need a bike. Shipping my bike wouldn't cost much more than renting a bike for the weekend so why not. I was pretty nervous about shipping it because UPS and FEDEX aren't known for their kindness to bikes. The guys at The Bike Route here in Gainesville did an amazing job packing the bike, and the shipping guy put all kinds of "fragile" and "this end up" stickers on the box. I shipped it FEDEX and really, they would have had to drive over the box with a truck to do damage, but I was still nervous. The bike arrived just fine and the guys at Jack & Adam's put it together and gave it a nice tune-up. I had an awesome visit in Austin with some good riding - even with 2 flats and a crash that should have hurt, but didn't.

I dropped the bike off at Jack & Adam's for shipping home and that was it. That was June 2nd and it was the last time I saw my bike. When the bike didn't show up in a reasonable period of time, I called to find out what was going on. I wasn't overly concerned at this point because it's tri season and J&A's is shipping lots of bikes so it's possible that mine got shipped out later than expected. The last thing I expected to hear was that they couldn't find my bike. I was told that there was no record of it getting shipped out and that there were a few places it could be, and that they were looking for it. Okay, it didn't get shipped so it's there somewhere - they'll find it. No worries. The next day I get a phone call from Jack, the owner of Jack & Adam's. Now I start to panic because Jack is extremely busy and if he is calling then something is wrong. He tells me that he is almost certain that the bike got shipped out and that he is going through the shipping records with UPS to try to get detailed info, and that he'll keep me posted, but that I shouldn't worry because he'll take care of everything. Now for those of you that don't know anything about Jack, he is a supernice guy and all about customer service, and oh yeah, he knows a thing or two about bikes. During this whole process, I've never been concerned that I wouldn't have a bike. If he couldn't find my bike, I knew Jack would hook me up with a new one. Of course a new bike was not mine or Jack's ideal solution for various reasons, but here we are almost two months later and it looks like I'm getting a new bike. Hopefully, it'll be here this week.

I'm sure quite a few of you are wondering why this situation has me bummed out - it's not like I don't have other, quality bikes to ride, and it's not like my tribike won't be replaced eventually, and really, it's only a bike so in the grand scheme of things it's not that big a deal. Well, you would be right on all those things, and if I had just bought the tribike because I felt it was time for a newer, better bike then I wouldn't be anxious the way I am now; but I bought the bike specifically for Ironman Florida, which is this November, and it's important that I be doing my long rides on the bike I'm going to be racing on. I've been off the tribike for almost two months, and I was just getting really good at riding it before it got lost. I've got a race in a month and the first of my 6 hour rides in a few weeks, and I really need to be on the bike I'm riding for Ironman. Before this happened, I was feeling really relaxed about Ironman. My coach kept telling me not to think too far ahead, not to get obsessed about it, and I wasn't. After all, I pay a coach to be obsessive for me. Since the bike disappeared, I've been feeling more and more anxious about being prepared for the race. The fact that the humidity went through the roof in June and has seriously affected my running has just exacerbated my anxiousness. It's been storming and raining excessively almost everyday, which also means I can't swim outside as much. In general, I haven't been loving the training much the past month or so. I have moments where I find myself doubting my training, doubting my preparation, and doubting my ability to do this race. Just in case everyone thinks I'm bummed all the time - I'm not, but I'm bummed just enough that I haven't felt like writing. On a more positive note, my training seems to be getting better. I had a really solid 3.5 hour brick workout on Saturday. Maybe I'm finally adjusting to 95% humidity. Is that possible?

Just in case you are wondering, I am still a big fan of Jack & Adam's and would recommend them to anyone that happens to be in Austin.

More Sponch!

2008-06-24T22:59:00.005-04:00

Reading Joey's comment about how Sponch! is everywhere got me thinking. I have never seen Sponch! anywhere but Texas. With the recent Mexico sighting I really started to wonder.... One Google search confirmed my suspicions - not only did Sponch! originate in Mexico, but the brand it belongs to, Marinela, is owned by Bimbo Bakeries. What is the significance of this finding? Not much except that when Joey, Rachel, Brian, and I drove through Mexico a few years back, I ate a fair amount of Bimbo brand powdered sugar mini donuts during our drive. Really when the only coffee you can get is Nescafe, being picky about what else you eat for breakfast just seems silly. The donuts were actually pretty good and since the ingredients were in spanish, I got to be blissfully ignorant of what I was eating. Besides it's a roadtrip - I always eat junk on a roadtrip. Also, I thought it was really funny that there was a bakery named Bimbo - yes, I am juvenile. My intake of Bimbo donuts became a bit of a joke on the trip, leading to this picture.

I do have to go on record as saying that I will never eat Sponch! - not because it's pink, but because I don't do marshmallow.

Sponch!

2008-06-24T02:32:00.004-04:00

It's amazing how the strangest things can bring up a pleasant memory. Joey sent me this pic from Mexico - why you might be wondering? If you were at the Lisa Loeb show at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas sometime in 1999 then this pic is really funny. Otherwise, it's a bit frightening that somewhere in this world there is a factory that produces a pink, sugar-coated marshmallow twinky-like food item.

At the show, Lisa, accompanied by Dweezil Zappa, told a hilarious story about their roadtrip from Dallas and the discovery of Sponch! during a pitstop somewhere in the no man's land between Dallas and Austin. During the show, they raffled off the Sponch! they had bought and the "lucky" winner, Lisa, and Dweezil all sampled some of the Sponch! Eeeeewwwww! It was a superfun show, and now I'm laughing about Sponch! all over again.

Workin'

2008-06-16T21:10:00.008-04:00

I'm sure everyone is wondering about the lapse in posts. I know it's been awhile, but I was actually working last week. Don't everyone fall over at once. Yes, it's true I do still know how to work. Summer camp started last week and this summer I am playing the role of van driver for the Field Camps. I'm actually doing more than driving the vans - I'm the first aid person and basically handling all the logistics, and helping with the campers as much as possible. What I'm not doing during those weeks is teaching - oh wait, yes I am, but I'm not required to and I'm not responsible for planning those camps so any teaching I do is basically what happens during the course of the camp. Last week was the Aquatic Field Camp, so I did a fair amount of teaching since I can teach that topic in my sleep. The field camps are all day, 8 - 4:30, and are mostly outside, which is great but also tiring. They are spread out through the summer, though so it's really no big deal.

This week I am teaching a half-day camp in the afternoon, and I only have four campers so it's hardly like working. I am only working 5 weeks total this summer. Last summer I taught all seven weeks of camp. Between planning lessons and teaching, I was a bit fried. Since I'm training for Ironman, I decided to cut back a bit this summer. Working the field camps is perfect. That means I only have to write lesson plans for 2 camps, and one of them is spiders and insects, which I already have tons of lesson plans on the topic. So I'm working two weeks in June, two weeks in July, and one week in August. It's just enough to be fun, but not so much that I'd have to adjust my training schedule.

Before camp last week, Joey told me to have fun being the crazy bus driver. I immediately thought of Ms. Crabtree, the busdriver from South Park, and this particular episode.

On an aside, this episode was titled "City on the Edge of Forever(flashbacks)" Those of you that are Star Trek fans should recognize the title, and in the South Park episode, a kid wearing a red shirt leaves the bus and gets eaten by a big, scary monster. Again, Trek fans will get that reference. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a clip of that scene but you can watch the entire episode here

Fear, anxiety, and joy

2008-06-05T00:05:00.006-04:00

Since January, I've been teaching a yoga class on Wednesday evening for the employees of the Veteran's Hospital. I love this group! When I started teaching them, only a few had ever taken a yoga class. Most weren't even sure what yoga was - just that it was supposed to be gentle and good for you. I've got a regular group that has embraced both the practice and my ability to teach it. Today I was a few minutes late to class due to parking problems at the hospital and when I entered the room, my class was all sitting in sukhasana - cross-legged pose - and meditating. This is how I start all my classes, but this is the first time I've ever walked in and experienced it. Usually they are all sitting on their mats chatting and it takes me a few minutes to get them to settle. I was so proud!

The past couple of classes I've been having them do more of what I refer to as "power poses". I call them by that name because they require power to do them AND they make you feel powerful when you do them. These are poses that require strength - muscular, breathing, and mental. I explained to them today that we are focusing on these poses because it is time for us to start learning inversions - headstand and shoulderstand, maybe handstand. They all got different looks on their faces - fear, anxiety, concern - so I took a moment to explain how we will go about preparing to invert, and why we would would even want to in the first place. Aside from the physiological benefits, inversions are a huge mental strengthener. Think about it - when was the last time you stood on your head or your hands or put your feet above your head? Really, it's about going outside your comfort zone, and not just surviving it but embracing it. It's the ability to suck it up, although this is not a phrase I use in yoga. That is the true benefit of the practice - the ability to put your body into poses that might feel strange or uncomfortable, and then finding a way to live with it. As long as you can breathe, you can live with it. The physical benefits come from our ability to conquer our discomfort. The longer we can hold a pose, the more release we will get, and the deeper we will be able to go.

I wonder from time to time if my quick learning of yoga was aided by my endurance training or if it's the other way around - or if the mental toughness, the ability to suck it up, is something that I've always had, and I'm drawn to both triathlon and yoga for that reason. It's hard to say, but I do know that the mental focus I get from yoga definitely helps me survive the tough training days, and allows me to truly enjoy the good days. Mentally, there is very little difference between a perfect headstand and an awesome run. FYI - you can get a runner's high in yoga class.

On a side note, I've been working on increasing my upperbody strength, which is a sad shade of its former self. Today we were working on sideplank. My students were doing the modified version, and doing it well, I might add. It's all about baby steps. One of my students asked what the final pose looked like. Sometimes I won't demonstrate the peak pose because it's so different from what we are doing or just so intimidating that there is no value in seeing it. In this case, we have already done all the pieces of the final pose so I was okay doing it. I was thrilled because I was actually able to demonstrate it as shown in the picture below. I couldn't quite get my top leg straight - the hamstrings are tight from biking, and my arm couldn't hold me for long, but I'm pretty pleased. Hopefully the soft, squishy loaves of bread that are my upper arms will soon be a thing of the past.

There and Back Again

2008-06-03T22:38:00.003-04:00

It's been over a week since my last post so I figure I should get something up before everyone thinks I've dropped off the face of the earth. I've been in Austin since last Thursday and it was a superfun trip! I will probably do more details in other posts, but here are the highlights. I got to see Jordan play soccer - he has quite a kick. Rachel put together the 6th Annual Team Fantastic X Super Sprint Tri on Friday night. Yay! On Sunday Janice and Maggie were riding 100 miles as part of their Ironman training and Rachel joined them for part of the ride and Joey and I joined them for another part. It was a lot of fun riding with a group - our Ironman group actually - but it was also a little strange for me, since I am used to riding alone. I got two flat tires and had what could have been a bad crash but wasn't - just a few bruises and a booboo on my hand. I used up a lot of good karma on that one, I hope I still have some left. Joey and I had a nice swim in Barton Springs, and there was lots of eating out at the yummy Austin restaurants. It was a fantastic trip and it was so good to see everyone!

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Race

2008-05-26T14:01:00.006-04:00

Well it's been two weeks since the Gulf Coast Triathlon so I figure it's about time to post a race report. I know many of you have already heard the story, but I figure I'll post it anyway for everyone else even though it still bothers me to think about the race. As I mentioned previously, this was my worst race EVER! The fact that I've been training really hard and spent a considerable amount of money both on coaching and on travel for the race, not to mention a new bike just increases the level of disappointment. This post is pretty long, since I copied most of it from the report I sent to my coach. I didn't really feel like starting from scratch or editing much.

Just in case you forgot, Gulf Coast is a half-iron distance race. That's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run - 70.3 miles total. It's a credit to my training - Thanks Brandon! - that this distance doesn't really phase me anymore. I was nervous about the race - not because of the distance, but because this was the first time I was really going to push myself at this distance. I'm not going to include a critique of the event itself. Gulf Coast is one of the longest running races of this distance and they really know what they're doing. It's a great venue and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to race a half-iron.

I arrived in Panama City late Wednesday evening. I had decided to bring most of my food with me so that I could just sleep in and relax on Thursday as my coach had instructed. I went to packet pickup on Thursday and did some shopping at the expo. I cooked and stayed in Thursday night and went to bed early. Friday I had pre-race workouts that I followed exactly. The ride on the tribike went really well. I'd been feeling a bit nervous about riding it in the race because I was still a little wobbly on it when it came to eating and drinking, but I felt confident. I ate well all day on Friday - nothing new, all food I prepared myself, and I felt ready to race. I had been pretty bummed out leading up to the race because I was by myself. Due to an unexpected trip to New York the previous week, Brian couldn't come with me. Now I don't mind doing races on my own, but this was a trip we had planned on doing together so it sucked to be going on my own. By Friday, though, I was feeling good, focused, and ready to get it done. Unfortunately my body had other things in mind.

I didn't sleep that well Friday night, but that's not unusual for me the night before a race. I got up at 4 am and felt hungry, which I thought was a good thing since it's usually hard to eat that early. I started eating some cereal and felt a little queasy, also not unusual when I try to eat at 4am, so I drank some water, stretched a little, and tried to eat some more. I was still queasy so I fixed some oatmeal. I was also feeling pretty warm, but I'm due for my period so a hot flash isn't that unusual - at least according to my doctor. On an aside - everyone knows that I have a great attitude about aging, and that I rarely feel like I'm 38, and I don't consider 38 to be anywhere near old, but damn it! when I get a hot flash, I feel old, and it sucks! Back to the story. At that point, I had to use the bathroom and not in a good way, but I had eaten a lot of fruit and veggies the day before, and I'm very regular so I still didn't think much of it. Then I started eating the oatmeal and that was pretty much it - I started throwing up, and pooping (sorry - I don't really know a polite way to say that). Once everything was out of me, I felt better but I still couldn't eat. Oh well! I headed to the race, got set up and it was time to go. Now I'm sure quite a few of you are thinking that I can't believe she went to the race, but I have to say that as long as I wasn't trying to eat, I didn't feel bad, and I was able to drink without any problems. I was hoping that I had eaten enough the day before to get me through the swim, and that I could eat on the bike. I was able to eat a banana before the race started so at least I had a little something in me, and I drank a lot of water so I felt somewhat hydrated.

I decided to take it easy on the swim, since that's my weakest event right now anyway, and I didn't want to burn up all my energy. The water was really choppy on the swim - it was very overcast over the Gulf and I'm guessing there was a storm out there somewhere. Swimming out was hard, but swimming back in was even worse. I swear I was swimming in place at several points. When I got in and went to stand up both my calves charliehorsed and I screamed and collapsed - in the water. Two lifeguards had to come in and pick me up - one grabbed me under the armpits, the other picked me up under the knees. It was beyond humiliating and I pretty much had a meltdown right there on the beach after they stood me up - I was so frustrated. I started walking towards transition and gave serious thought to dropping out, my calves had stopped charliehorsing but were quite sore. I got into transition - sat down, ate another banana, drank a bottle mixed with Nuun (electrolyte tablets) - love that stuff! - and decided I just didn't feel that bad - except the calves. I figured if I could stand back up that was a good thing. I knew I wouldn't be able to push that hard or the calves would charliehorse again, but I at least wanted to get out on the bike and see how I felt. I figured I could always stop if things weren't going well.

I didn't ride well, but I rode the tribike well - so at least there's that. I was able to have some good spin - close to 90rpm, which is good for me on the tribike. It's amazing what you can do when you have no other option. I had to keep the resistance low on the bike so I wasn't putting a lot of pressure on my calves, which meant high spin in easy gears. Unfortunately, I couldn't eat my energy bars - I almost threw up when I tried - so I had to stick with bananas and Clif shots. Thankfully, they were giving out Mango which is one of two flavors of Clifshot I can tolerate. I actually stopped at the aid station around mile 20 - on and ate 2 bananas and chugged an entire bottle of gatorade. The bike course is an out and back. There was a 12 mile section where it was a fierce headwind, and I almost quit. Honestly, the main reason I didn't is that I probably would have had to wait quite a while for a ride back so I figured I'd keep going if I could. Any time I tried to push the pace a little into the wind my calves started twinging so I was going only about 13-14 mph. Being in aero in that wind made a huge difference. If I had been on my roadbike - I would have quit. It took me almost 4hrs to finish the bike, which is beyond frustrating.

Back in transition, I thought again about quitting but, again, I wanted to see how things felt. I had a hard time lifting my bike on to the rack, which considering how light it is, is not a good thing. I sat down again to put on my shoes - I didn't really care about transition times at this point, put on more sunscreen, grabbed the rest of my stuff and walked out of transition. I walked about 400 meters then started trotting - calling it a run would be too kind. I was sloooowwww. When I got to the first aid station - I stopped, had them fill up my water bottle, and dropped some Nuun in - I went through an entire tube of Nuun on the run, which is 1.5 gallons of fluid according to the tube. I grabbed a bunch of oranges, a banana, and two packs of Clif Shot bloks - think Gummy Bears made out of Clif Shots, in a cube shape. It was nice to actually chew something. Like the bike, I never felt bad on the run - until close to the end - but I just couldn't push the pace. The athletes I was passing - at my superfast 13 min mile pace - kept commenting on how strong I looked, which actually made me feel worse because all I kept thinking was "I'm not supposed to be back here. I should be done by now." I would never say that, of course, because those athletes have worked just as hard as I have, were giving it their best effort, and I would never belittle anyone's effort, but it just added to my frustration. I had some nice conversations, but it was not much fun. I must have looked bad around mile 10 - the heat and 8 hours of effort on nothing but bananas, Clif shots, and oranges was finally taking its toll. There was a Team-in-Training coach that had brought a big group of athletes from NY, who ran with me for a mile. He was nice and it was good to have company. The last 3 miles were tough. I knew at the very least, I could walk it in.

I finished, got more Gatorade, and just walked around a bit. The only post-race food left at that point was oranges and bananas - two things I don't want to eat for quite a while. I didn't really hang out - I wanted to get back to transition to my phone so I could let people know I was okay. I usually text Joey and Maggie after races, and I had told Brian I would call him. A couple of people suggested I go get an I.V. but I really just didn't feel bad enough to justify that. Joey told me to go get an I.V. after he yelled at me for racing at all, and then not dropping out after the swim. Of course he was right, but I never felt so bad that I couldn't go on, I just never felt good enough to go hard. I deserved a little chewing out, and he made me laugh, too. Actually it was really good to hear someone as experienced at racing as Joey tell me I should have quit. Rachel and Maggie both said very nice things on the phone that made me cry, but also made me feel better. It really sucked being there alone under those conditions, but having great friends always helps. I didn't get an I.V. - I just wanted to get my stuff and get back to the condo. I didn't have a whole lot of bland food in the condo, but I ate some plain pasta - blech!, and a big bowl of peas and carrots, and went to sleep for a while. When I woke up, I ate and drank some more and went back to bed.

I had a late checkout on Sunday so I just slept in and took it easy. I felt considerably better and was able to eat my normal breakfast of oatmeal and eggwhite omelet. I left the cheese out just in case. I hadn't cleaned up any of my stuff or packed so I spent the afternoon doing that. Before I left town, I went to Dirty Dick's Crabhouse and got some crabcakes. That was supposed to be my post-race meal and damn it! I wasn't leaving town without some crabcakes.

The general consensus is that I had eaten something that didn't agree with me because it passed so quickly; although I have had stomach flus that have also passed that quickly, but it didn't feel like a stomach flu or virus. In general, it was a miserable experience, but there are some positives that I can take away from it.

I think my coach said it best when he responded to my email about the race:

"You had a tough week last week, and often times it is not the training that puts us over the edge. It is everything else. So, when you couple that with the travel, being in a different place by yourself, riding a bike that feels great but might not be 100% great, and other travel related stuff you can sometimes get a less than desirable outcome.

Overall, it sounds like it could have been food poisoning or some type of virus, especially if it 'passed' in less than 12 hours. I probably would have stopped after the swim as well as you were probably very dehydrated after an early morning of vomiting and other less than pleasant things! Let me get back to you with a little bit more, but...

On one hand I'm glad that you pushed through. On the other, stopping probably would have been a little bit smarter. When you do the IM this year, remember this experience. In the span of 140.6 miles you will probably go through several peaks and valleys, and none will be as low as this one. We'll take these next couple of weeks very easy to recover and regroup a bit. "

Did I mention that I love my coach?

Dharma

2008-05-22T03:07:00.002-04:00

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.

Home!

2008-05-19T00:01:00.001-04:00

I don't really have a reason for this post, but someone complained that they are tired of hearing the audio from the Monterey Bay Aquarium live webcam come on their computer every time they check my blog. Waaaaaaaaaa! They even threatened to stop reading my blog. Whatever. Now I will admit that the audio is a little annoying. I forget about it because I have my speakers on mute - perhaps this person should try the mute button. I happen to be rather fond of this particular person, and they did ask somewhat nicely so I figured I'd fulfill their request - after teasing them publicly, of course. It's no less than they would do to me. At any rate, I needed another post so that the webcam would move off the front page of the blog so here it is.

Brian and I are home safe and sound. The drive was quick and uneventful, although a bit unpleasant since we are both a little hungover. South Beach was awesome, but we are glad to be home. I'm looking forward to a relaxing week. It's going to be hot so I think afternoons at the pool are in order.

Mmmmm.....cuban food

2008-05-18T21:28:00.002-04:00

It would be a crime - at least as far as I'm concerned - to go to Miami and not get Cuban food. Friday night we planned on meeting my mom, her boyfriend Charlie, and Charlie's daughter Jessica for dinner. I had suggested to Mom that we get Cuban food. She mentioned it to Charlie and Jessica who were in agreement. Jessica's stepfather is Cuban and he recommended a place to us, Havana Harry's. He said it was the best traditional Cuban food in Miami. Since the restaurant was in Coral Gables, Jessica picked us up so we could all go in one car. Yay for not having to drive! We had a lovely dinner complete with sangria. It was really good to see my mom!

Saturday was more Cuban food. Brian's conference finished up around noon. We ate lunch and headed out to the beach. Brian mentioned that his students, Casey and Mamta, has asked if we wanted to go out with them Saturday evening. Of course we do! They had done a great job on their presentations and Brian was very proud of them and everyone deserved a night on the town. After an afternoon of playing in the ocean, I was definitely ready for some food. We decided to head to the Lincoln Road district in South Beach. This is an outdoor mall that runs from the beach to the bay and is lined with restaurants, shops, bars, some theaters, and just filled with people. We had the cab drop us off at Yuca, a Cuban restaurant that specializes in Nuevo Latino cuisine. We hadn't decided where to eat but Casey and I had both read about Yuca so we figured it was as good a place as any to start. Neither Casey nor Mamta had eaten Cuban food yet, and we liked the menu and the look of the place so we decided to go for it. The food was incredible, the service was fantastic - and entertaining - and we had a great time. They had the best mojitos, too. I really like not having to drive.

After dinner, we decided to walk and around and check things out. Now this is South Beach so even though it was 11 p.m. everything was open and there were people everywhere. We had fun checking out the different stores and restaurants. Brian started making fun of all the little dogs we were seeing, and started going on about how it's only a matter of time before people have a closet full of little dogs that they can choose from to coordinate with their outfits. This progressed into different little dogs being in style, and people getting picked on for having last season's little dog. I was walking a little in front of Brian, Casey, and Mamta when I hear "That is so last season's dog" and tons of hysterical laughing. My husband is not right, but pretty funny. After we walked for awhile, we decided to find a club/bar. We hailed a cab and headed to Ocean Dr in the Art Deco District. We went to Mango's Tropical Cafe, which is a hotspot, but the place was just packed and there was a pretty sizable line. None of us wanted to stand in line for an opportunity to stand in the club like a bunch of sardines in a can. There wasn't even enough room to dance. We went a couple of places up the street and sat in an outdoor bar and hung out for a while longer drinking and talking. It was a fun evening!

The Pool

2008-05-16T23:39:00.000-04:00

I feel I should warn you that this post is a bit of a rant. I was annoyed today and I just want to complain some. Anyone that knows me knows that I am an optimist. Anyone that knows me really well knows that I am also a bit of a cynic. I'm sure quite a few of you are scratching your heads and wondering how that possibly works. Let me explain. We'll use people's behavior as an example since that is what motivated this post. I firmly believe that people as a whole are capable of being polite, thoughtful, courteous, pleasant, etc if they just make a little effort to pay attention to their surroundings and take into consideration how their actions might effect the people around them. I also believe that intelligence is a choice to a certain extent - that people are as smart as they want to be. I'm not talking about Calculus - that's education, not intelligence. Now I believe that about people - optimist, but I don't expect it - cynic. The optimist is what enables me to be a good teacher, the cynic keeps me from bashing my head against a wall in frustration when confronted with the idiocy that seems to come from the average person on a daily basis. I know I'm not perfect and I know I have my moments, but by and large, I like to think I do pretty well.

So on to events at the pool today. I'm going to preface today's events with a bit about yesterday. The hotel Brian and I are staying in has a lovely pool - it's not quite 25 yards long but it's pretty close. It's a rectangle about the width of four lap lanes with a large half circle shallow area on one side. Considering it's not technically a lap pool, it's a good size and shape for swimming laps. Since there are no lap lanes, I knew that I would have to be cognizant of people in the water especially children. In these types of situations I don't expect people to curtail their fun just because I want to swim laps. I do expect that people would show me the same courtesy that I am showing to them by not swimming over them or swimming too fast. Things like not walking directly in my path and then standing there looking at me as I swim towards them. It's a big pool after all and there is plenty of space. Since my workouts are very easy and short right now, I really didn't foresee any issues.

Yesterday was just fine. I kept an eye on the pool and got in at a time when there were few people in the water. I moved to the middle of the pool and started swimming. The people that were in there with their kids moved along the long side of the pool so that they were playing next to me instead of in between me and the wall. How nice! I also noticed another funny thing about 5 minutes after I started swimming. Other people that had just been hanging out in the pool started doing exercise related activities - some breaststrokers, a couple of water aerobics people, an aqua jogger. It was almost like seeing someone else being active made it okay. It was kind of cool, and I had a really nice swim.

Today was a different story. I did the same thing as yesterday. In fact there was no one - not a soul - in the pool when I got in and started swimming my laps. I had done at least 10 laps before anyone got in the pool that I could see so my position was well established. All of the sudden there were a bunch of people in the water with their kids, and they had all taken up positions along the short wall so I had to start navigating around people to complete my lap. That's fine - there are no lanes, they had as much right to be there as I did. I was a little annoyed because there was no one playing along the length of the pool adjacent to where I was swimming like the parents had done yesterday or in the half circle area that was completely removed from where I was swimming. Everyone was clustered in the one area. It's not like they all knew each other either. I don't expect that people should jump out of the way for me but 1) I was there first and 2) it's a huge pool - spread out people! I was feeling some serious passive aggressiveness coming from the people at that end of the pool. I'm sure you can see where this is going. It was only a matter of time and the laws of probability before I ran into someone. I got to the wall, turned around, pushed off, took one stroke and smack! ran right into a man carrying a small child. I smacked her on the back of the head with my hand as I was trying to bring my arm down to the water for a stroke. I immediately stood up and apologized to the child who couldn't have been more than two and wasn't entirely sure if she should cry or not. Her grandfather gave me the dirtiest look and just turned away from me. At this point I was seriously pissed! How about apologizing to me, you jackass. What bothered me even more is that I had swum around this guy to get to the wall, and that he was facing me and looking right at me as I pushed off so the only way I run into him is if he moves in front of me. Whatever! I was almost done with my swim, but all the enjoyment I had gotten was gone. I felt really bad about hitting the child. At any rate, I was really annoyed probably because yesterday had been so nice so my expectations had been elevated. I really just don't get how people can be so clueless and rude. I don't expect people to jump out of my way just because I want to swim laps, but I also don't understand why a person wouldn't move to another part of the pool when they see someone continually going around them and their kids. It just doesn't make sense to me. I don't know why it's called common sense or common courtesy because very few people seem to have it.

Rant over! I feel much better now.

SoBe Fun

2008-05-16T00:12:00.003-04:00

I figured I should do a quick post before heading out for my swim. Wednesday night Brian and I rolled into South Beach. Brian has a conference and I decided to tag along. Really it wasn't a hard decision considering that the hotel is right on the beach and it's the week after Gulf Coast so training is minimal. Really can you think of a better way to recover from a half-iron distance tri than hanging out at the beach?

Here are some fun things so far:

running on the boardwalk with a view of the ocean
having a post-swim margarita while lounging under a palapa. yes, I know - a margarita is NOT a standard post-workout beverage, but Julio the pool boy REALLY wanted to bring me something so what the heck?
the view from our room
taking a cab to dinner
2 for 1 drinks - Happy Hour never ends in South Beach
People watching

Tonight we are having dinner with my Mom. Her boyfriend Charlie's daughter is graduating from Miami Law School so they are in town this weekend. What a nice coincidence!

Here are a few pics of the view from our room

I want my two dollars

2008-05-12T13:42:00.005-04:00

My friend Maggie has a blog post today where she figured out that even with a full time job, 8 hours of sleep a night, the other day-to-day tasks that life requires, AND Ironman training that she should still have four hours left a day for fun. She was basically wondering where the heck her four hours have gone. The tone of the post immediately made me think of the paperboy in the John Cusack movie Better Off Dead. This movie is a classic from the '80's and is too funny! A subplot of the movie is the paperboy following John Cusack around hounding him for the two dollars he is owed. Everyone can thank Maggie for this little piece of entertainment you are viewing today. Enjoy! Maggie, I hope you find those four hours - they are out there somewhere.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T12:34:00.005-04:00

I'm recovering from what was the worst race I've ever had -more on that later - and I'm trying to get packed up to head home from Panama City Beach so this is short. I just wanted to take a moment to wish Happy Mom's Day to all the mothers out there particularly my own mom - who is also a grandmother, too. Here are some pictures of Mom having a quiet moment with her grandson Julian at the beach. They aren't too clear because they were taken with my cellphone. It was one of those moments where you wished you had a camera, and realized you did. Yes, I said the woman in those pictures is a grandmother - hard to believe isn't it? She looks fantastic! I hope all you Mommies have a great day - you earned it!

Panama City Beach

2008-05-08T23:27:00.002-04:00

In case you haven't been paying attention to the Countdown Clock on your right, the Gulf Coast Triathlon is on Saturday, which means I am in Panama City Beach. I drove in late last night. I'm staying in a nice condo right on the beach about a half-mile or so from the race site. It's a great location and I have an awesome view.

Today was very low key. I slept in, although not as late as I would have liked. I spent the morning relaxing, had a nice conversation with my coach, and took a nap. This afternoon I was planning on going down to the beach to go for a short swim in my wetsuit. I have a rashguard to wear under my suit that hopefully will keep me from chafing and I want to see how everything feels. When I got down to the beach, the water was wavy and it was much windier than usual. It also wasn't that hot - not that that's a bad thing. I turned and looked behind the condo and noticed that the sky was quite cloudy and dark. Ooops - guess I should have checked the weather. It never rained, though. I decided to scrap the swim - the water was swimmable, but would have required effort, and today is a rest day. So instead I headed for the hot tub. After a nice soak, I got cleaned up and went to packet pick-up. I did some shopping at the expo and headed back to the condo to cook dinner.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good - I've been really tired the past two weeks and haven't been sleeping that great, but my training has been good. I'm really nervous about racing on my tribike - I'm over the wobbliness and I feel really comfortable in aero, even in the wind, but going fast on the tribike weirds me out for some reason. I don't know if it's a visual thing or the aero position or the smoothness of the bike, but I feel like I'm going so much faster than I actually am. When I try to go the speed I should be going, I get a little freaked out. I'm hoping that being focused on racing will take care of that. I just keep telling myself that the faster I go, the sooner I get to finish.

Tomorrow is race prep - I have an easy hour of workouts in the morning and then rest, rest, rest. Bike check-in is in the afternoon. I'm cooking and eating in. I did that for the Orlando 70.3 last year and it was really nice. Plus I'll have leftovers for after the race.

FYI - if anyone tries to reach me by phone and I don't answer - the condo is a cellphone void. I have wireless internet, but the phone is hit or miss.

It's about time for bed. Here are a few pics.

Tibetan Healing Mandala

2008-05-06T01:00:00.004-04:00

The Tibetan mandala is a tool for gaining wisdom and compassion and generally is depicted as a tightly balanced, geometric composition wherein deities reside. The mandala's purpose is to help transform ordinary minds into enlightened ones.

Mandalas constructed from sand are unique to Tibetan Buddhism and are believed to effect purification and healing. Typically, a great teacher chooses the specific mandala to be created. Monks then begin construction of the sand mandala by consecrating the site with sacred chants and music. Next, they make a detailed drawing from memory. Over a number of days, they fill in the design with millions of grains of colored sand. At its completion, the mandala is consecrated. The monks then enact the impermanent nature of existence by sweeping up the colored grains and dispersing them in flowing water.

According to Buddhist scripture, sand mandalas transmit positive energies to the environment and to the people who view them. While constructing a mandala, Buddhist monks chant and meditate to invoke the divine energies of the deities residing within the mandala. The monks then ask for the deities' healing blessings. A mandala's healing power extends to the whole world even before it is swept up and dispersed into flowing water—a further expression of sharing the mandala's blessings with all.

-from the Sackler Art Gallery

Amitayus Mandala

Amitayus is the Buddha of Boundless Life

In January of 2002, in response to the September 11 tragedies, twenty Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery constructed a sand mandala (sacred painting) at the Sackler gallery in Washinton, D.C. This seven-foot-square mandala, one of the largest ever created in the West, was offered for the healing and protection of America. In addition, the monks participated in chanting, meditation, and other traditional healing ceremonies.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Underwater Kelp Forest Cam

2008-05-04T00:05:00.008-04:00

This is the live cam that runs from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m pacific time. If you don't see anything go to the next screen, which displays activities recorded earlier in the day.

After hours playback

SpongeBob Fun

2008-04-29T13:41:00.005-04:00

Never mind how or why I found this video. I thought it was amusing and I like the song. I will say that it's partially Joey's fault and leave it at that.

A picture speaks a thousand words

2008-04-25T13:53:00.004-04:00

I wanted to write a post about Danica winning her first race earlier in the week, but then it was Earth Day, and then I was busy. I started writing all this stuff about gender barriers and role models and nay-sayers and then I saw this picture, which I think says it all, and is hilarious as well.

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T15:26:00.013-04:00

I hope everyone has a chance to go outside and appreciate this beautiful world that we live in. Take a moment and hug a tree. No, I'm not kidding. I'd encourage everyone to climb a tree, but I think most of my readers - myself included- would probably hurt themselves if they tried.

I was going to share some excerpts from Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac as some food for thought today, but my friends have been making me laugh all day and I've completely lost my train of thought. Not that I'm complaining, laughing is a good thing. Anyway, Leopold wrote an insightful and philosophical essay titled "The Land Ethic" that everyone should read.

Here are a few significant excerpts from "The Land Ethic" that I have highlighted in my copy of the book:

An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence. An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct. These are two definitions of one thing. The thing has its origin in the tendency of interdependent individuals or groups to evolve modes of cooperation. The ecologist calls these symbioses. Politics and economics are advanced symbioses in which the original free-for-all competition has been replaced, in part, by co-operative mechanisms with an ethical content.

All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.

-Aldo Leopold

5K Fun addendum

2008-04-18T18:19:00.002-04:00

Turns out that my time from the race on Wed - see previous entry - is a 5K PR for me; at least as far back as 7 years. I don't have any of my 5K times before that. Wohoo! Let's hear it for getting a PR without really trying. It kind of makes up for the crappy race on Saturday.

5K Fun

2008-04-18T02:10:00.003-04:00

Wednesday evening was the Community 5k run for Junior Achievement at Ironwood Golf Course. Now I know that a race in the middle of the week might seem odd, but it's on the golf course so it pretty much has to be during the week. I don't normally run on Wednesdays and I teach an evening yoga class so I had to scramble to get there, but I'm missing all the spring 5Ks because of my training, and I feel like I've abandoned my group. Plus how often do you get to run on a golf course and apparently the post-race food is really good and there is a bar in the clubhouse so really what's not to like.

The race was fun - some on the grass and some on the golf cart path - and pretty flat, too. The weather was perfect! We've been having a bit of a mini winter and it was about 60 with only 30% humidity. There were lots of Track Club members and many of the people from my stadium workout. I wasn't out to race, just to run comfortably hard - no heavy breathing, no suffering. I wanted to put in a good effort, but not go overboard since I have a crazy 5 hour brick on Saturday. I ran a 26:40 very comfortably. I also had an opportunity to run in my new Zoot shoes, which I love. Post-race food was bbq chicken, brisket, ribs, potato salad, beans, etc. and friends buying me beer. Wohoo! A good time was had by all.

All done!

The Veteren's Admin Team aka my Tuesday night stadium group
Left to right: Paul, Barry, Me, Bert, and Tony

Maasai Warriors Follow-up

2008-04-17T15:28:00.003-04:00

Here is the update from the Maasai warriors website. Way to go!

On Sunday April 13th 2008, a team of six Maasai Warriors ran the Flora London Marathon. Their aim was to raise enough money provide the village with clean water, anything up to £60,000.

Nguvu, Lengamai, Kesika and Ninna completed the race in 5 hrs 24 minutes alongside Soldier Bob and Matt, their personal trainer. Isaya was taken ill half way through the race and was taken to hospital as a precaution with Taico accompanying him. But showing the pride typical of the Maasai, Isaya walked out of the hospital that afternoon and the following day, on Monday 14th April, determined to complete the race they had come to England for, Isaya and Taico returned to the part of the course where they had to drop out and continued around the 14 miles of the course which remained. Aided by professional runners as pacemakers, they crossed the finish line on Monday afternoon in a total running time of 4 hrs 45 for the 26.2 miles.

Having completed the race, it was announced that the warriors had achieved their target of £60,000. We have been overwhelmed by the support shown by the public and this figure will rise as we continue to log all the donations which are coming in. A final total will also be posted in the coming days.

Escape from Ft. DeSoto

2008-04-14T23:18:00.000-04:00

Saturday was my first triathlon of the season at Ft. Desoto State Park in St. Pete Beach - 800 meter swim, 10 mile bike, 4 mile run, supposedly. I was looking forward to this race. Joey and I had done a race last August at the same park and had really enjoyed ourselves. The course was a little different for this race, but not by much from what I could tell from the course map. I was especially looking forward to pushing on the bike, but mostly I just wanted to see what I could do. Well, it turned out to be a disappointing race both from my performance and from the race itself. The race report includes some ranting about the race so be forewarned. Let me say that I fully acknowledge that none of these things were a big deal, but all of them together just bugged me, and I also acknowledge that racing in Texas has completely spoiled me, and things like not being helpful when someone has their own chip or having to look at race results in a crappy text file or not have results posted on raceday shouldn't bother me as much as it does. Anyway, here goes.

Race morning started out just fine. I got up, ate, loaded the bike and left. No problems getting to the race site, no problems parking. I even ended up parking next to a bathroom so I went before heading to transition - no port-a-potty for me! 30 minutes before transition closes, doing just fine. Got to body marking - fine, didn't need to get a chip since I have my own AND I had checked to make sure it was in the computer at packet pick-up. It wasn't, but they fixed it. Heading into transition - "Where's your green wristband?" "What green wristband?" "It was in your race packet. You can't get into transition without it." WTF? I do remember seeing a green plastic strip in the packet but there was no instructions about it so I didn't think about it, and I didn't bring my race packet with me because I had put my numbers on everything the night before and packed everything in my tri backpack. I had the race instruction sheet in the car but nothing else. Normally, I bring everything - it figures the one day that I don't, I actually need something. So I explain to the volunteer that I don't have it, where can I get one. He doesn't know, maybe ask the chip people. I'm sure you can see where this is going - after getting pointed to several different places and told that it was explicitly stated in the race packet that I needed the green band, I finally get directed to pre-race packet pick up. Now let me first say that everyone was lovely and polite - they were all volunteers - even if they didn't know anything, which isn't their fault. I kept my cool even though I was getting irritated. I get to packet pick-up and a lovely lady helps me. I ask if she works for the race director. No, she's a volunteer. So I thank her and get ready to head to transition. There's no point in unloading to a volunteer - it certainly isn't what they signed up for. She says she can pass on the complaint so I very calmly explain to her that there was no information in the race packet about the wristband. She said there was supposed to be, but she would pass it on. I thanked her and headed to transition. 20 minutes to go - still plenty of time, and I've moved past the whole wristband thing. I find my rack, set up, sunscreen, and am chilling and drinking water. 10 minutes before transition closes - the announcer guy has been going on and on about how if you are just getting into transition YOU ARE LATE! Like those people don't know that. He also kept going on about how you should always arrive at least 1 hour before a triathlon and that EVERYONE knows that - whatever. This guy had a serious case of passive aggressive - Dude, you are not helping anyone at this point.

I decide that I'm ready to head to the swim start so I start walking, and walking, and walking. Really what Announcer Guy should have been saying is that it is a freakin' mile to the swim start so get going - that would have been helpful info. The swim is a point-to-point so as I'm walking along the beach, I'm walking parallel to the course. First I note that it is a good distance from the swim exit back to transition - about a half mile. Then I'm looking at the buoys and as I get to the start, I'm thinking "That course seems long". I guess other people noticed that because I hear the announcer explaining that the course is 800 meters from orange buoy to orange buoy - that the out and back aren't part of that measurement because the water is shallow for most of the way out. Seriously? Who taught these guys how to set up a swim course? Now I know several of you are thinking "So what? Everyone still has to do the same distance so it's all relative." which is true, except that I have been working on my swim and I wanted a good measurement of how I'm doing and now I don't know the actual distance. The other problem is that the announcer kept telling everyone that they could run out almost to the buoy, so what do you think everyone does - they run. Again, so what you say? Well, once you are past the breakers and the water is over your knees, it's actually easier to swim, but if everyone around you is running it makes it harder to start swimming. I was almost waist deep before I could start swimming - talk about a waste of energy. The swim itself was uneventful - not too choppy or wavy, the water was warm, it was easy to swim straight and sight the buoys. I felt okay, but not great. I must have passed at least 10 people on the way in to the beach because they stood up and started wading at waist deep and I swam and rode the waves further in. I stood up at just the point where the water is still deep enough that it can give you enough support to get your feet under you, and came running out of the water and up the beach. Let's hear it for being able to run barefoot!

I headed into transition and realized something I hadn't processed before - the transition area was long and narrow, just two racks on each side. I was right about in the middle. I guess it's relative - a long stretch to get to your rack or a long stretch down the racks but it seemed like it took me forever to get to my stuff. Helmet, glasses, bike shoes and go! I get out on the road and am starting to get up to speed when I feel the wind - damn it! Okay, it's not a brutal wind - maybe 15 mph tops, but it was steady. I don't remember it being windy last August, but it is the beach. The bike course goes South, East, West, North so I figured there's bound to be a break in the wind and maybe even a tailwind, but not so much. It was a lot of crosswind. There were a few places where the live oaks were close to the road and provided a nice break. I was doing about 16-18 mph in the wind and 22 mph easy out of the wind. Unfortunately most of the course was in the wind. I was feeling frustrated that the wind was bugging me because it's windy in Gainesville in the winter and spring so it shouldn't be a problem. Then I realized that it hasn't been that windy in Gainesville - I've been complaining about how erratic our weather has been this winter and I never noticed the lack of wind. Then I got bummed because I've been biking so much faster this year compared to last year, and I was really proud of how hard I've been working, but how much of that was the lack of wind? It's a good thing it was only a 10 mile bike - who knows what other depressing thoughts I might have had? I will say that I'm glad I didn't ride my tribike. I passed quite a few people in aero that were clearly not used to being there, and were wobbling all over in the wind making it hazardous to pass. No one wants to be one of those people.

I dismounted the bike barefoot - again, so nice to be able to run barefoot. Of course, the transition area pavement was that gravelly type, which is really hard on the feet, so I don't think it saved me any time. I can jog pretty fast in my bike shoes. Off with the bike glasses and helmet, put on running shoes, grab my bottle and hat (with all my other things stuffed inside) and off on the run. I get my sunglasses, hat, and race belt on, eat a Clif Shot and try to settle into a pace. At this point I realize that this is not going to be a good run. Nothing felt bad, but I just didn't feel like I had a whole lot in me, and I had some sore spots in my muscles. I was also having some breathing issues. I was only going about 11 minute mile pace, and I was breathing harder than I should have. I think it's because I had to double up on the sports bras. The bra I wore for tris last year bit the dust, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. Of course that style isn't being made any more. I will spare y'all my rant on larger-breasted women and tri bras - suffice it to say that it takes a bit of time to find a bra with enough support to run in without smashing your chest or giving you the dreaded uniboob, but that is still swimable and doesn't chafe when wet. After the run turn around, which seemed short to me for a 4 mile run, we headed out on the beach. This was an unpleasant surprise for me - nowhere in the race info did I read anything about running on the beach. If I had known that, I might have pushed harder the first half of the run, knowing I wasn't going to do much on the beach. Right at the mile 2 mark, my left foot comes down on a stick in the sand, which pops up and jabs me in my right leg and then scrapes it. I started cursing like a drunken sailor but kept running. I was pretty frustrated at this point, and just wanted to get done. I hit the mile 3 marker and I realize that we are pretty close to the finish - I guess they shorted the run course. I had opted to not wear my Garmin so I have no idea what the actual run distance was, but it felt like about 3.5 miles. I had no kick in me for the finish and just ran in at the same pace I'd been running. I grabbed some water and went looking for the first-aid tent to get my leg cleaned up. I couldn't find the tent. Shouldn't it be right by the finish chute? I spot an ambulance and go ask them. The paramedics pointed me to the first-aid tent, but also offered to clean me up. I thanked them, but said that was okay. I wasn't about to monopolize a paramedic for a superficial wound. The sign for the tent was on the ground facing away from the finish chute so it was easy to see how I missed it. I got cleaned up and decided to head over and get some post-race food. My coach had put an optional 45 minute cooldown run in my schedule, but I decided against it. I didn't think it would do me any good and I was feeling really frustrated to boot.

Now I have to say that the race redeemed itself a bit with the post-race food catered by Macaroni Grill. I ate some and drank and chatted with the other athletes, and started feeling a little better if still bummed about my performance. I found out via word-of-mouth that the deal with the 4 mile run distance is that the distance from the swim exit to the transition area was included in that 4 mile total. Are you kidding? What is up with this race? It's been going on for 22 years AND it's USAT certified so what's up, and why wasn't that bit of info included with the race info. Whatever.

I decided to check my time then go get my stuff out of transition. There was lots of food and beer, but Brian was waiting for me. We were going to get lunch and then go to the beach. Yay beach! I'm looking at the times in my age group and I don't see my name. Okay, well I know my chip was working since I heard the beeping as I crossed the mats so I wasn't worried. I know enough about chiptiming - thanks, Joey! - to know that my time was in the database so I go searching for the timing company. If it had been Run-far 1) they would have been easy to find, 2)this wouldn't have happened in the first place because they would have taken my chip code off of my race registration, and 3)I would have just gone home and sent Raul an email. I start asking around and finally find the timing people in a trailer. It was the same woman who had put my chip in the system at Packet pick-up. She had missed a number - no problem, she apologized, fixed it, and pulled up my time. I thanked her and headed out.

I go into transition, which is getting fairly empty at this point, but there are still a few full racks and some random bikes, and start cleaning up my stuff. This is the part of the race where it's really nice to have a sherpa. At any rate, guys are in there starting to break down the racks, and they are just bitchin' and moanin' at the top of their lungs about people not getting their stuff out of transition. It was after 10am but there was still someone out on the course - an elderly woman cancer survivor who finished in just under 3 hours. I was fortunate enough to get to see her finish. Besides someone still racing, there's a big post-race party going on with good food and beer, and the awards ceremony just getting underway. If you want transition cleared quickly, then you should make announcements saying so. At that point, I had had enough and decided to throw a little passive aggressive fit of my own, so I sat down in front of my racked bike and sent a few text messages. Yes, it was juvenile, but it made me feel better. At least I didn't stick my tongue out at them - although I considered it. I packed up and headed back to the condo, where I had Brian take this lovely post-race picture of me. After all, it was my first tri of the season - even if it sucked. If you look closely, you can almost see a bicep muscle.

Here are my results and post race analysis: Swim 20:52, T1 5:47, Bike 32:27, T2 2:47, Run 39:16, Total 1:41:06 I really can't say much about these results since the distances are wonky. All I can say is that going in to the race I thought 1:25 was a reasonable time and after seeing the distance from the swim to transition, I figured 1:30 was probably more realistic. It is important to note that there was no taper for this race, it wasn't an A race, just a training effort, and my coach had said I would be tired, but I still feel like I should have been able to run 10 minute miles. The bike ended up being about 18.5 mph average, which I'm also not pleased with. I can't even really comment on the transition times since the gravelly pavement definitely slowed me down. I don't know how people run full speed on that stuff. As for the race itself, it's unlikely that I'd do it again. There were just too many little things that added up to make it a mildly annoying experience, and the shwag consisted of a technical shirt, and a Gatorade bike bottle - lame.

Post-race authentic Maryland style crabby patty - mmmmmm!!!!

Afternoon on the beach - it was beautiful!!!!

Happy Birthday Danny!

2008-04-13T00:55:00.003-04:00

Today is my youngest brother Danny’s birthday, and like I said previously everyone is getting a birthday post this year. Danny is getting short-changed a bit because Brian and I are in St. Pete Beach for the weekend and the only internet we have is what little wireless we can steal from the neighbors. I had planned on writing this post on Saturday night, which I am, but I didn’t bring my laptop, since Brian brought his, and all the pictures are on my computer. So much for thinking ahead. Luckily I have some photos on the web that I can share - just not necessarily the ones I wanted.

Like I said, Danny is the youngest of the clan and doing quite well for himself. He got married last year to a wonderful woman, and they recently bought a house. I would have to say that he definitely has it more together than I did at that age – no I’m not divulging his age. Men seem to be more sensitive about that than women - at least the men I know. Anyway, I’m very proud of him.

Danny, I hope you have a great day!

Getting the hang of it

2008-04-10T22:53:00.002-04:00

Today when I took my tribike out for my Thursday easy ride, I rode it almost as well as I ride my roadbike. I barely even gave it much thought. I rode a little slower in traffic than I do on my roadbike, but it was faster than I have been riding, and I felt really comfortable. Once I got clear of the traffic lights, I got into the aerobars and pretty much stayed there for about 20 minutes until I turned around - downhill, uphill, and even a couple of wide curves. After I turned around, I got back into aero until I got back to town. What really made me happy is that I was able to go over 18 mph and I was able to spin around 80 rpm while in aero. Wohoo! Speed and spin have been the two things that have been giving me a hard time riding aero. For awhile, it's felt like I've been going so much faster in aero than I actually was, and higher spin makes me swerve all over the place. I still have some room for improvement on both the spin and the speed, but it's getting closer to what I do on my roadbike. My control in the aerobars is almost exponentially better than it was last week. I guess the weeks of riding around the neighborhood everyday for additional practice have finally paid off.

I had decided last week that I was getting comfortable enough on the tribike that last Sunday would be my last long ride on my roadbike for awhile. After today's ride, I feel really good about that decision. I really love the bike - it's so light that once I'm on open road I pretty much live in the big chain ring, and it's such a smooth ride. I have still decided to ride my roadbike for the tri this Saturday. It's only a 10 mile bike and the course is flat and fast. It's made for a tribike but I'm still not as fast on the tribike as I want to go for this race. I rode this course last August averaging 19.41 mph and I'm riding much better now than I was then. I'm hoping to go above 20 mph for the race, but after Saturday I'm retiring the roadbike for awhile.

Freak out moment

2008-04-09T23:53:00.002-04:00

The countdown clock hit 30 days today. 30 days and counting until Gulf Coast. Tomorrow the clock will be at 29 days. It will be officially less than a month until the race. I'm having a freak out moment, which will soon pass - I hope.

Maasai Marathoners

2008-04-07T22:19:00.004-04:00

I've written in the past about why we run marathons or do triathlons, but this evening when I got home Brian told me about six young men who are running the London Marathon this Sunday, April 13th, for a very different reason. Six Maasai warriors are traveling from their village in Tanzania to run the marathon to raise money to find clean drinking water for their village. Years of drought have reduced the amount of potable surface water and the goal is to raise enough money to drill a well to support the village. The warriors will run the marathon in their traditional Maasai garb - just like they dress every day when they are searching for water, herding cattle, or lion hunting. Yes, I said lion hunting. This story is quite compelling to me for a couple of reasons. I love that six young men from a remote, and primitive by our standards, region of the world are playing the charity fundraising game with modern world savvy. Sure, they have help, but still. Just goes to show that you can't judge someone by where or how they live, and in the case of the Maasai, how they choose to live. Check out their website, maasaimarathon.org, and here is a news article with some great photos of the warriors in London. They are still short of their fundraising goal so feel free to spread the word.

How much fun would it be to run a marathon with these guys as company? Awesome!

3 hours can be a long time

2008-04-06T22:57:00.002-04:00

I know what some of you are thinking "two posts in two days -what's up?" Rest assured the world is not coming to an end. There really isn't much point to this post, other than I feel like complaining a little out loud.

Sundays are my long ride day and as the Gulf Coast Tri is fast approaching - see the countdown clock to your right - my long rides are 3 - 4 hours long depending on what my coach schedules. Today was supposed to be a 4 hour ride, but the weather gods have been extremely uncooperative. It's been raining off and on since yesterday morning, and today was more on than off. I considered my options and decided against riding in the rain. I'm sure most of you are thinking that decision was a no-brainer, but it really wasn't. There is some value to riding in the rain - what am I going to do if it's raining for Gulf Coast or Ironman - not race? I don't think so - aside from the amount of money the race itself cost, there is the countless hours spent training for the event, and unless the race is canceled, you go no matter what the conditions. That being said - if it rains for either of those events, I might seriously cry. Anyway, it just didn't make sense to do a 4 hour ride in the rain today. Aside from being bad for the bike, the last thing I need at this point is to get sick. Plus I rode in drizzle last week, and I seriously wasn't in the mood. My long run yesterday had been tough, and I was soaked for at least half the run. I had no desire to be wet again.

So what are my other options? Postpone the ride until tomorrow - always a possibility, but it means rearranging my training schedule to accommodate, which is not ideal, plus there is great value in doing your long run and ride on consecutive days; or ride the trainer. The thought of four hours on the trainer made me want to cry, but not as much as riding in the rain. I decided that I would go for three hours on the trainer, but really push it. I knew I was going to need some visual stimulation so I chose The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the Extended Version for my entertainment. Nothing like a four hour movie to keep you entertained. It's two discs, but I've got the portable dvd player set up so that I can change discs without having to get off the bike. I like to be prepared. So with the movie in, my energy bars, clif shots, and water bottles all set; I got going. I started to lose it a bit around 2 hours - mostly because my girl parts were not too happy. That seems to happen more on the trainer than it does on the road. By 2.5 hours I was getting fairly uncomfortable, but decided if I pushed it just a little harder, I could make 56 miles in 3 hours. I swear at that point, the timer on my bike computer started going backward - it was a very long 30 minutes. I hit 56 miles with about 30 seconds to spare. I almost kept riding at a slower pace because the Battle of Helm's Deep had just started in the movie - a really kick-ass scene - but the girl parts were definitely done for the day. The legs felt really good, though, so that's promising. Now if I can just ride 56 miles in 3 hours on the road, that'll be something.

Coke!

2008-04-05T14:42:00.002-04:00

I keep starting posts with the intention that I'll dash off something quick and get it posted for everyone's reading pleasure, and then the post turns into something lengthy and my Attention Deficit kicks in before I get finished. Yes, that happened just a few minutes ago when I gave up on yet another blog entry because I'm tired, my lunch is ready, and I want to go to the gym and get in the hot tub. So here is a quickie for you.

I love Coke! Now I know what every one of you that knows me is thinking, and no, I haven't been brainwashed by aliens, and I haven't suddenly started drinking soda on a regular basis, and I do still think soda is bad for you in general, but there are times when Coca-Cola is a like a minor miracle. Today was one of those days. I came in from my long run - 2 hours in hot, humid, frequent downpours, and sometimes windy weather - and I couldn't tell if I was hungry or nauseous. After a few minutes in the air conditioning, I started to feel a little lightheaded, and decided I was probably nauseous so I grabbed one of the bottles of Coke I keep in the pantry for occasions like this, and after a few sips of the warm beverage - yes, warm - I felt infinitely better. I'm so glad warm, flat coke is a regular item at the aid stations for Ironman. I am sure I'll need it.

A little bit silly

2008-03-30T23:50:00.005-04:00

The other day I received a card in the mail from my sister-in-law Heather. It was a lovely thank you card and included some photos from her wedding. These were pics from the disposable cameras that had been passed out for the guests to use. Most of them were of my brothers looking so handsome in their tuxes. I was looking through them and having a totally gushy, sentimental moment until I got to the last two pictures, which were of my husband being way too silly. I started laughing, showed the pics to Brian, he started laughing, and commented that he remembered posing for those and that Emily (my 12-year old niece) had taken them. I'm not sure we are setting a good example but that is probably a conversation for another day. Anyway, Brian looks at me and asks "Those are going on your blog, aren't they?" I responded that they should go on my blog, but since I would have to scan the photos, I wasn't sure. He said I should definitely post them. Well okay, if you insist.

These photos are what I started viewing. So nice!

Here is the shocking finale!

Yes, that is me in the corner covering my face with my hands. I'm sure I was probably shaking my head back and forth, too.

No, wait ladies - I saw him first. He's all mine! Actually, Brian's silliness and sense of humor is one of the things I love about him. We definitely had a good laugh over these photos.

Lucky Coin

2008-03-27T16:21:00.000-04:00

I realize my posting has been really lite this month - honestly I don't know where March went. This year just seems to be flying by. I haven't been super motivated to write lately, but I'll try to do better. Anyway, I have about 7 unfinished posts going back to November that I hope to finish up. Some of the events happened a while ago so things may seem kind of random. Then again, those that know me, know that I often seem to be a somewhat random person. Let's just say that I'm rebelling against the concept of linear time. Humor me.

Different cultures and ethnicities have a variety of traditions to ring in the New Year. It is an old Greek tradition to bake a coin in the New Year's Cake. Whoever gets the piece with the coin in it is supposed to be blessed with good luck for the entire year. My mother has carried out this tradition as long as I can remember. Since my family is rarely all together at New Year's these days, Mom prepares the New Year's meal as part of Christmas. She bakes it inside a dish called tyropita - or cheese pie. My family scarfed down the pita this year and by the time I got a piece it was over half gone. No one had gotten the coin yet and my mother was warning everyone to be careful not to bite into their pieces too hard. Someone made a joke that they could use the coin to pay for their broken tooth, and at that moment I bit down on the coin. Fortunately I did not break a tooth. As I announced that I had gotten the coin, my sister remarked that this was a good year for me to get the coin since I'm doing Ironman. Good point. Let's hope that the luck holds true.

Everyone wanted to know when I has gotten the coin last. I couldn't remember but I knew it hadn't been that many years. Mom was very concerned that I had saved the coin - it's bad luck to spend it before the year is over. I assured her that I had saved every coin I had gotten as an adult. In fact, I was pretty sure I still had them somewhere. When Brian and I returned home from Maryland, I went looking for the one coin I knew for sure I had saved - it was an antique coin from my father's collection - and found it in a box with two other coins that I vaguely remembered getting in other years. I can't say for sure if the years I got the coin were particularly good years, partly because I'm not entirely certain when I got the coins. I do know they weren't bad years - mostly because I'm an optimist and it would take a lot for me to say it was a bad year. Mom has a habit of getting new coins for this tradition so I can make some assumptions based on the dates on the coins - 1993, 1999, 2001, and 2008. Now 1993 started out fairly crappy, but since I met Brian that year I'd say it ended on a pretty good note; 1999 was the year I got my wisdom teeth removed, but it was also my first triathlon, and the year ended with our first trip to Mexico with Joey and Rachel - super fun!; 2001 saw Brian complete his PhD. and get a job at Duke, the birth of Olivia and Jordan, and another super fun trip with Joey, Rachel, and Jordan - this time to the Florida Keys. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what 2008 brings - let's hope the luck holds.

I tried to take pictures of the coins since they are pretty cool - 2 gold dollars, a silver dollar from 1885, and a 50 cent piece -but it didn't work out so well. Here are pics of all four together.

Front

Back

I want......

2008-03-23T23:55:00.000-04:00

...to be here,
but I guess this isn't too bad either.

Mmmmmmmmmm!

2008-03-13T14:23:00.003-04:00

I started writing with every intention of talking about mine and Brian's recent weekend in Jacksonville, but I'm having a hard time concentrating so I thought I'd just share my lovely morning. Today I had a hot stone massage. I've wanted to try one for quite some time but I've never gotten around to it. Last time I was at my spa, I decided to go ahead and schedule one. I loved it! I get regular deep tissue massages, but this was completely different. I can't even describe it. If you've never had one, I highly recommend it. I've had a couple of really hard workouts this week and all the heat from the stones just felt so good. I was so relaxed I probably shouldn't have been driving.

After the massage, I went in search of lunch. I wanted something substantial, since I was starving. I've actually been constantly hungry for almost a week, but very much so the past few days. I definitely haven't been eating enough. I always eat a good breakfast, but sometimes during the day, I get busy doing things and I just forget to eat. I snack while I'm riding but don't always get around to having a real meal. I'm trying to do better. One of the ladies at the spa recommended a little breakfast/lunch place just around the corner called Sisters for Breakfast. All their food is locally grown from the farmers market and organic if possible. The place smelled so good! I ordered a spinach salad and a chicken pot pie to go. Unfortunately, they didn't have pecan pie. I just finished eating and let me tell you, this was one of the best chicken pot pies - it was a puff pastry covered with a thick gravy with white meat chicken and fresh, crisp veggies - not mushy. It tasted like it had just come from the oven. I'm totally relaxed with a full tummy and about 1 step away from a coma. My only regret is that it's absolutely gorgeous out and I would love to go for a ride, but I don't think I'm alert enough to deal with traffic. Maybe in a little while.

Feliz Cumpleanos Jose!

2008-03-05T00:58:00.012-05:00

I was so abysmal last year at getting most people their birthday presents on time that I have decided that everyone is getting a birthday blog post this year. Hopefully that will help me be on time AND remember everyone's birthdays. I love celebrating birthdays. I really love giving presents to the people I love - especially since I rarely get to be with those people on their special day.

Today's topic of discussion is Joey. That's right - it's Joey's birthday. I will refrain from saying lots of nice things about Joey that will likely embarrass him - if you read my blog regularly, you know he is a truly awesome friend, and I'm rather fond of him. I'll just stick to wishing him a Happy Birthday!

Interesting events, besides Joey, that occurred on March 5, 1970:

Dubnium, Element 105 on the periodic table, a radioactive synthetic element, was first detected
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty went into effect; interestingly March 5, 1946 is when Winston Churchill used the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his now-famous speech

Other events that occurred on March 5th:

1963 - The Hula Hoop was patented
1960 - Elvis is discharged from the Army
1953 - Joseph Stalin dies
1821 - James Monroe inaugurated
1864 - the first Oxford vs Cambridge track meet
1982 - James Belushi dies
1997 - North and South Korea meet for peace talks for the first time in 25 years
2004 - Martha Stewart convicted

Some other interesting people born on March 5:

1113 - King Henry II - First Plantagenet King and father of Richard the Lionheart
1836 - Charles Goodnight - Texas Cattle Rancher, started the Goodnight-Loving Trail, invented the chuckwagon, and founded the JA Ranch - the oldest in the Texas panhandle
1908 - Rex Harrison, actor
1955 - Penn Gillete, magician
1958 - Andy Gibb, member of the BeeGees
1966 - Michael Irvin, Pro football player
1974 - Eva Mendes, actress
1977 - Wally Szczerbiak, Pro basketball player

2008 Chinese horoscope for those born on March 5, 1970 - The Year of the Dog:

2008 is the year of the Rat. 58% (8 favorable and 4 unfavorable months) This year may be a bit more challenging than the last, but it still has the potential to be very favorable. The Dog is more comfortable with the Pig, which symbolizes endings, rather than the Rat, which is associated with new beginnings. If you are willing to leave your comfort zone, you can make significant progress towards your objectives and also achieve one or more notable successes. As with most things, your attitude is likely to determine just how well you do.
Career - If you have been considering a change in occupation, this could be the year to try something different. This is a time for action, not delay, so be decisive whether it is change you seek, or simply advancement in your current role.
Relationships -You will find the most comfort in your family relationships this year, be it with you parents, children or loved one. There is a chance someone in your immediate circle will need a good friend and you will need to find the time to step up and take care of them.
Health -Be alert for signs of increased stress or burnout. This will be an active year for you, which means you are at an increased risk for physical injury. Always be sure to exercise proper caution when out and about and you should be just fine. Your health, in general, should be good as long as you avoid stress related issues.

Historical Mojo?

2008-02-29T00:33:00.013-05:00

Frank Shorter, 1972

Can mojo be passed on in a historical context? There are a few of us here in Gainesville that are hoping so. Previous members of the Florida Track Club have included some pretty talented runners, and some of us want in on that action. Maybe it's in the water.

Bear with me, this is a bit convoluted. I was having a conversation last Saturday with OB, a fellow Florida Track Club member, after the 5K the Club held as part of the Five Points of Life Marathon and Half-marathon race weekend. We had been talking about the recent speakers at the monthly FTC meetings AND we were talking about the Gate River Run 15K race coming up in Jacksonville - the FTC has had a sizable contingent travel to this race in previous years, and OB and I are both going. The last two speakers at our meetings were early members of the FTC. Coach Roy Benson was our last speaker. Naturally, Frank Shorter's name came up.

From 1969-1979, Roy Benson was first the Cross Country and then the Track Coach at UF, and served as President of the newly formed Florida Track Club. At this point in running history, local running clubs served as training grounds for post-collegiate amateur runners. Coach Benson was running the FTC when Frank Shorter, Jack Bachelor, Jeff Galloway, and Ron Jourdan were training with the club and qualified for the 1972 USA Olympic Team. I'm hoping many of you know Frank, but I'd only be willing to bet money that one of my regular readers recognizes Frank's name. He is the winner of the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal in marathon and the 1976 Silver Medal. He is the last American man to win Gold in the marathon. He is also the last person to see Steve Prefontaine before he died - not a fact Frank likes to remember. Anyway, OB mentioned that he wanted to get a FTC singlet to wear for the 15K. The movie "Without Limits" which was about Pre, had been on TV and OB had noticed that in one of the scenes, Frank was racing in his FTC singlet. OB thought it would be cool to represent the Club like Frank did, and maybe get a little of Frank's mojo. Now OB is pretty fast and regularly places in the top three in his age group; he has the potential to do really well at the 15K so if dressing like Frank helps him feel faster, I say go for it. Plus it's always nice to represent - especially at an out-of-town race.

Steve Prefontaine leads his friend Frank Shorter.
It was Pre's final race, on May 19, 1975, at Hayward Field.

No, I won't be wearing a FTC singlet. There are some sizing issues with the ladies' singlets. I really just need to have Running Banana make me one.

Incidentally, my Saturday long runs almost always include a stretch of road that was one of Frank's favorite training routes. I didn't know that when I started running it - it just happens to be one of the hilliest sections in town.

Some quotes from Frank Shorter that I like:

Because running fast is more fun than running slow.

Hills are speedwork in disguise.

You don't run 26 miles at five minutes a mile on good looks and a secret recipe.

A New PR

2008-02-26T14:35:00.000-05:00

Brian and I recently went on a trip to Austin. The primary reason for this trip was so that Brian could attend a symposium that the UT Biomedical Engineering Department was hosting to honor Brian's Ph.D. thesis adviser, A.J. Welch. A.J. had finally decided to retire and because he was such a pioneer in the field of optics in medicine and largely responsible for the presence of a Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Texas, the Department wanted to honor him.

Now Brian hasn't been to Austin in quite a while so we decided that we would make a longer trip than attending the symposium required. That way we'd have a chance to visit with people and do some fun things. I had also decided that I was going to purchase a new bike while we were in town so I wanted to make sure we were there long enough to make that happen. We were in town from Thursday to the following Tuesday and it was a very good trip. We stayed with Joey, Rachel, and Jordan as usual, and as usual they were awesome hosts. Unfortunately, Rachel wasn't feeling good during our visit, but she still managed to do some fun things with us.

The timing of the trip happened to coincide with the 3M half-marathon so I decided to run it. 3M was my first ever half-marathon back in 2003, and it is an excellent race, but I haven't run it in quite a while . The course is primarily downhill, runs right through the middle of Austin, and has lots of spectators. My time from that race was my half-marathon PR at 2:08:03.80. That's right - my best half-marathon time was my first half-marathon. Now in all fairness to me, before this year I'd only run 3 half-marathons and two were done with injuries/health issues so I had no time expectations. This year was going to be different. I decided after the New York Marathon that I shouldn't have any problem setting a PR in a half-marathon and set about to make that happen. I decided to train to finish the half in 1:59. I know I've got a sub 2 hour half in me and I figured that even if I didn't get there this year, it certainly didn't hurt my running to train that way.

Some time around Christmas, I started getting nervous about the race. It was a little over a month away at that point, and my running had been feeling sluggish. I was doing all my workouts at the right paces, but my legs were not loving the pounding - probably too much running on the concrete, and maybe some delayed fatigue from New York. I decided to ask Joey if he would be willing to pace me for at least part of the race. Joey is faster than me, but he wasn't training to run this race so I thought he might not mind running slower than he is capable. He said he would be happy to run it with me, but had considered doing the relay so he would let me know. I was really relieved when he told me that he was going to run the entire race with me. Wohoo! Not only was I going to set a new PR but I was going to get to run a race with my best friend. I was still nervous, but now I was really excited, too.

I had discussed what pace to run both with my coach, Brandon, and with Joey, and had decided based on the humidity and how I had felt during my last few long runs, that breaking two hours was going to be extremely difficult. I had been having breathing problems and hadn't yet figured out that I was getting hit with high pine pollen AND high mold. It was 86% humidity at the start of the race, and I knew breaking 2 hours wasn't going to happen. I told Joey that I wanted to start out at a 9:30 min mile pace and just see how things progressed.

We were a little bit disorganized getting to the race - we had a hard time finding the clothing drop and the bathrooms. I decided to forgo the bathroom because I didn't want to miss the start. I did not realize how much this race had grown since I ran it last. It took me and Joey 6 minutes to cross the start so I would've had plenty of time to pee. Oh well! I could always stop on the course if I really needed to.

The morning was chilly, but not unbearably so, and once we got underway we warmed up nicely. The humidity was unpleasant because it made everything feel clammy. The first mile was a little slow, but then we got to a 9:30 min mile and stayed right around there for the next 8 miles. I was having some breathing difficulties which meant I wasn't a very talkative running companion, but Joey was right there with me the whole way. Occasionally, he would dash away to say hi to someone he knew, but he always came back, and it made me smile to see him having a good time. After all, if you aren't running a race with a specific time goal then you should be having fun. Somewhere around the halfway point, I saw Brandon. He said he was going to be out cheering, since he had several athletes running, but he wasn't sure where along the course he would be. He gave me a Joey a big cheer, and I smiled and waved.

Humidity and breathing issues aside, I felt really good during the race , and am really pleased with the outcome. Around mile 10, Joey really started to push the pace. Somewhere along the way, he had gotten it in his head that we needed to break 2:05 - for all I know, I could have mentioned it at some point, who knows. Plus I think he knew I had more in the tank. He kept pushing the pace and encouraging me. He was definitely in full-blown coaching mode. There were a couple of times when he was running just ahead of me and encouraging me to pick up the pace, and I thought "If I could catch you, I would beat you." Of course I wouldn't really, and I know that he would only push me until I said I couldn't do anymore. I was breathing pretty hard, and getting darn close to puking when we crossed the finish line in 2:03:47. Wohoo! I have to give Joey a lot of credit for that time. I would have definitely set a PR if I was running by myself, but there is no way I would have pushed the last 3 miles as hard as I did on my own considering how I was feeling. Thanks Joey! You are a truly awesome friend!

Here are our splits from the race: 9:51, 9:33, 9:37, 9:32, 9:29, 9:29, 9:33, 9:32, 9:28, 9:26, 9:11, 9:05, 9:08, 0:52 Total time 2:03:47

One other thing - I've had three major PRs since I started working with my coach back in July. Thanks, Brandon!

The View from Tuesday

2008-02-19T23:35:00.003-05:00

This was part of my view from my lounge chair on the pool deck. It was a beautiful day - 65, sunny, and super low humidity. Normally, I wouldn't be inclined to write just about the weather, but our weather here in Florida has been all over the place this winter. Sunday we had to turn on the AC and by Monday evening we had the heat running. Florida weather is usually very regular and consistent - especially this time of year, which is supposed to be fire season. At any rate, it was lovely to finally have such beautiful weather on the same day that I was able to swim outside. It's been well over a month since that's happened. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same and I'm hoping to get in both a bike ride AND a swim before my yoga class - although maybe that's being greedy.

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

2008-02-14T23:00:00.001-05:00

Today is Valentine's Day, perhaps one of my least favorite holidays. What do I have against this day, you might wonder? Nothing big, I just feel like lovers, spouses, life-partners, and any other term you might come up with for couples, shouldn't need a holiday to make a special effort to do nice things for each other or buy each other gifts. Couples should always make that effort, and part of me feels like a holiday devoted to love gives people an excuse to be a little lazy in their relationship at other times. It also makes single people feel bad about themselves for not having a date. Okay, the fact that everyone in Gainesville was trying to get home early today and the 5 o'clock rush hour was the worst I have ever seen it, making my evening run less than enjoyable, might be making me a little cynical, but I'm still not a fan of the holiday - other than as an excuse to eat chocolate, of course. Rant over.

Now there is a reason for celebrating on February 14th, but it is much more personal and has nothing to do with couples. Today happens to be my sister Sarah's birthday, and I am a big fan of celebrating birthdays. Sarah is my only sister and we are only 15 months apart so we are very close, even if we didn't always get along growing up. It's funny watching her two older girls interact - it's like going back in time 30 years. My sister has 4 young children and is an extremely busy stay at home mom. If anyone deserves a special day just for herself, she does. At any rate, Happy Birthday Sis! I hope it was a good one.

Barbie Girl

2008-02-10T16:50:00.000-05:00

This morning while Brian and I were watching SpongeBob, I saw a commercial that made me sit up and take note. Normally, Brian and I tune out the commercials during SpongeBob because they are geared toward kids. This particular commercial was for Beach Barbie and her friends. I swear I had heard my name. I rewound the DVR - I love the DVR - and sure enough, there is a Barbie with my name - spelled the same, and she's a brunette. Brian and I both lost it, and started laughing hysterically. Brian said he is getting me one as a present. Now to be honest, I'm a little disturbed by the notion that there is a Barbie out there with my name on it. I don't know why since I played with Barbies as a child and my nieces play with Barbies. Of course, the next step was a Google search. It turns out that Barbie Teresa was introduced in 1988 as a friend to Barbie. Here is a slideshow with some of the various incarnations of Barbie Teresa. For those of you out there that think it might be fun to start referring to me as Barbie Teresa - don't even go there!

Sweet!

2008-02-06T19:47:00.000-05:00

This post is going to be short. I'm having the worst case of allergies since I got hit with cedar fever my second winter in Austin. Basically, the weather has conspired to hit me with both a high mold count AND pine pollen at the same time. I can handle one or the other, but both together is killing me. I'm totally grouchy and completely pissed off because I have all this energy and my body wants to train except I can't breathe so when I start to exert myself, I feel like I'm going to pass out - I've been managing some workouts, but not what I want. It's also really hard for me to focus and spending time on the computer makes my head hurt. Okay, enough whining and on to the real post.

I bought a new bike when I was in Austin - a tri bike. I'll do a more detailed post about the purchase experience, and the bike when I start riding it. It is a Kuota K-factor and it is a sweet ride. The bike was delivered on Monday and I managed to get it mostly assembled and up on the trainer so I could make some adjustments. I still need to put on the seat and pedals so the picture I included is one I took of the bike when I was at Joey and Rachel's. It is so light and handles really well. I can't wait to start riding it. In case you are wondering, yes, I will still be riding my road bike - I love my road bike. The tri bike will be a much better bike for races - especially here in Florida. So now I have two really awesome bikes to train on. Wohoo!

Seriously?

2008-02-02T13:14:00.000-05:00

Two Saturdays ago - that was January 19 - I ran the Newnan's Lake 15K. This is a local Gainesville race put on by the Florida Track Club. As a member of the club, I try to be involved in the events if I can - either by racing or volunteering. Since I was in training for the 3M half-marathon in Austin the following weekend, I decided to run. I wasn't planning on racing it, but using it more as a supported long run. I've missed this race the past two years because I have been in Austin so I was also looking forward to running a new race.

The weather forecast for the race was not good and, sure enough, it was raining when I woke up. Raining, 51 degrees, and 96% humidity - not the greatest conditions for a race. I needed to do a long run that day anyway or I might have gone back to bed. I ate my usual morning breakfast, packed a change of clothes, put on some layers including my fleece hat with "Suck it up!" embroidered on it - a gift from Joey a few years back - and headed out.

The rain was slacking off and the wind was picking up by the time the race started. It really didn't matter, it was so humid everything was wet. There was a surprisingly good turn out, and everyone was in good spirits despite the weather. I opted to go without the ipod - it's only 9.3 miles, it's rainy, there's people to run with, and it's an open course so I didn't see the need for music. I ended up running with Susan, who is what I refer to as a race friend - one of those people you see at races, and who runs about the same pace as you. We first met back in August. We have a lot in common so we chatted most of the race. I wasn't pushing my pace and she was recovering from running the Disney marathon the week before so we were happy going along at a comfortable steady pace. I ended up finishing in 1:30.18 which was right on target with what I had discussed with my coach. All things considered, I was pleased and felt ready for the half-marathon.

Since it's a Track Club event, I planned on staying for the awards. Several people I know are usually in the top 3 of their age group, and I like to be supportive. I hung out at the finisher's chute for a bit, cheering people on, and chatting with some friends, but as I cooled down and the wind continued to pick up, I headed to the car to change into dry clothes, and deal with yet another case of bleeding jogbra chafe - ooowwww!!! Turns out it was good thing I hung around for the awards, since I ended up winning my age group. Too funny!! I was truly surprised and I felt kind of bad, since I hadn't actually pushed myself or tried to win. Oh well! I'm not going to complain - I got a cute bag, and a bit of an ego boost. Overall, it was a good race.