R & R

Recovery & Re-entry:

• We've had a couple of three mile runs - in spite of cold, drizzly rain.  I've had about enough unstructured time now.  I'm ready to have a schedule - as long as it has fun words on it like yoga, weights, stretching, and running.  I'm ecstatic to give up the pool and the bike for a short while.
• We're thinking about doing this as our first marathon.  It's local - on a trail we love.  It's flat, which seems like a smart choice for first time slow pokes.  It's affordable.  Yay.  
• Even more affordable is this race.  Woo hoo!  We signed up and are looking forward to it.  
  
• I'll be doing a post soon with more details - but my business is fantastic!  I love school, I love weight loss coaching, I love my clients - the whole thing is tremendous.  It's wonderful to be full-time busy doing something I love.
  
• There's a lot of really cool stuff going on out in Blogland - but mostly I want to point you in the direction of DC Rainmaker.  If you haven't visited him already (and I realize most of you have - but still) here's the dealio - the guy takes the coolest trips, cooks/finds the most amazing food, manages to get his training in no matter where he is in the world, and he blogs about it all in gorgeous detail so that we can live vicariously through him.  What is not to love about that?
• Finally - best of luck to all the marathoners and IMAZ peeps this weekend!  

Peace.
TODAY I LOVE: adding pecans and yellow bell peppers to my salad - yummy!

Iron Buddies

So much happening today! Donna left for three weeks in Austin for a temporary job that came up 48 hours ago. (Scramble!) We've coordinated all the Father's Day things that complicated families do who share custody across 500 miles. (i.e. Scramble!) AND... I'm wearing out the refresh button on my computer as I check the IMCDA site for news of RBR, Formulaic, and Sage!!

RBR had me a wee bit panicked on her swim - first because I didn't realize at first that Coeur D'Alene is up in the part of Idaho that is on Pacific Time, an hour behind Mountain Time which I thought she was on. And then, even with that calculation in place, she cut it close. Three-ish minutes to spare - eeek! But now she's on the bike. Phew. She's been a hill riding fool for months now. Go RBR go! (#74)

I was cool as a cucumber about Formulaic (who if you didn't know is a brand new dad as of three weeks ago!) Then I hear from Stef that he lost his wetsuit last night. (I'm sure he'll give us the details of that when he gets back!) It was too late to get one at the expo so apparently he was set to swim without one - eeek! Thank heavens that someone returned it to him at the last minute. Phew. His numbers look great. Go Formulaic go! (#546)

Sage - having sliced the hell out of her hand a few weeks ago - used up her "eeek!" from me before she got to Ironman. She's a coach, the one I will hire in a NY minute if a pile of money should come my way, so even though she'll surely do absolutely great, I'm tracking her obsessively to cheer her on. Go Sage go! (#2274)

I'm so excited for my friends. Today is a remarkable milestone. I have truckloads of respect and admiration for all the work they've put into getting themselves to today. Really, I am in awe. GO BUDDIES GO!

TODAY I LOVE: two of the coolest fathers on the planet (my own father and my fabulous partner John) and my soon-to-be IRON pals

**Edited to add - Live tracking is great but agonizing too! It was wonderful to see the numbers keep pouring in for Sage and Formulaic but when RBR's stopped after the first bike split and 5:30 (Pacific Time!) came and went, I was torn. I wanted it to be a website issue or a chip malfunction. I desperately wanted my friend who had worked so hard not to be disappointed. And then the worry monster got me. Maybe she'd had a crash or mechanical or worse. I began to hope after a while that it was "only" an issue of being pulled from the course for missing the cutoff. I sent her some text message love to let her know how much we cared and how proud of her we were. She wrote back that she'd finished the BRUTAL swim and the bike but been missed the cutoff. She was headed to watch Formulaic finish. I heard via Stef and her other connections that the swim was windy and awful. It totally sucks that RBR missed the cutoff but I am impressed beyond belief by her effort and courage. That goes for all of them. Way to go pals!! **

Four Things I'm Doing

Eating Veggies:
You know how I was going to do this vegan thing for six weeks starting April 1st? Well, I did it and then some. Actually, I guess I never became totally vegan as I take fish oil capsules every day. Also, I "cheated" by having sushi a couple of times. (Mmmmm. Crunchy shrimp rolls. Turns out they are more addictive than cheese. Who knew?) I guess I'm a mostly vegetarian girl with vegan tendencies. I will add back in eggs as soon as our friend who has an organic farm starts selling her chickens' eggs. I know those chickens are happy, healthy, and having wonderful little chicken lives. I don't think I'm going to add back in skim milk or cheese like I thought I would. I have found a substitute cheese that I like just fine. I know some people are all het up about soy products but I don't eat a lot of them so I'm not worried. In fact the only processed food I eat these days are my vegetarian refried beans, fat free pretzels, and my veggie shreds! Even so I try to limit them because, oh my, they have a surprising amount of sodium in them. The rest of my diet is fresh fruit and vegetables. I eat fruit and only fruit in the mornings, a big honking salad and sometimes a tostada for lunch, and mostly cooked veggies for supper. For snacks I have my pretzels, raw almonds, natural cashews, and a half an avocado here an there. I feel more fueled and more content about food than ever before in my life. I don't feel deprived or have food cravings at all. I have no idea how I'll feel in the Fall - as fresh fruit is harder to come by and I get cold. (Being cold triggers all kinds of food things for me!) But for now I'm relishing my happy relationship with healthy foods.

Getting Faster:
Sunday we had a longer double brick - bike 20 miles, run 3, bike 20 miles, run 3. Poor Donna was dealing with some serious hormonal grumpies and discomfort already but then at the very start of our first ride, she had a bizarre allergic reaction to something (maybe on her chin strap?) She itched and had welts and was miserable. But she refused to quit even when I suggested we stop and put the whole thing off until the next day (Memorial Day.) I had the first great ride I've had in probably a year. It was hard but I was in a great zone. And then we ran our first three mile set. Our paces were 11:17, 10:45, and 10:31. HOLY CRAP that's fast for us! (Seriously - a good day is when I can have a couple of miles that come in under 12 min/mile.) But our average for those three was 10:51! And it was POURING rain. (Miraculously it rained only while we ran, not once as we biked for the whole day. It was a little odd.) The rain was nice in a way because it wasn't stormy (just wet) and it cooled us off - but WOW were we soaked. My second run wasn't as fast, averaging 11:43 over the three miles, but each mile came in under 12 and I felt great when we finished. I'm thinking the consistent training, the new hill workouts, and the group runs with speedy folks are beginning to show some results. Yay!

Weirding Out During Recovery:
I think I need to learn even more about recovery. I keep having a significantly "down" day after big workouts. Sometimes I feel feverish, sometimes just out of sorts, but always needing not to be around other people for awhile. I'm sometimes a little sore, but not in a way that would keep me from working out if it weren't a recovery day already. (In fact after Sunday - the only part of me that was at all sore were two new bruises and the muscles in my arm from what Gazelles would call a "small falling down incident" when I tried to make a u-turn on my bike too slowly.) So I think I have my nutrition down but what's up with the blues?? Anybody else have this happen to them or know what I can do about it?

Balancing Everything:
I LOVE being a blogger. I thrive on the community and connection. Y'all are totally fabulous and my triathlon journey would not be the same without you. And my life journey wouldn't be the same without triathlon. But I'm having a hard time being consistent in keeping up - so here's my new plan. (OMG - I LOVE plans. I'm now addicted to them after following training plans that actually get me to my goals!!) I've been torn between limiting my blog reading or limiting my commenting. I've decided to do a bit of both. I've narrowed my reading list as much as I can (mostly weeding out the Russian blogs I used to follow that took me too long to translate anyway - so sorry Glaven - no more weirdness coming your way from them.) And I've got a plan to comment, not on fewer blogs - but less frequently, like once a week. I'll be in a perpetual state of catch up for some blogs, but I'll recover my sense of blogpeace. So - if you don't hear from me for a while, don't think I've stopped being a fan! I've got some great things going in my 3D world - like my kids all being home for the summer (yipee!!), a book project that's going well, and launching a new career that will dovetail with my writing/training/whole life. (<--More on that when I finish my training and the thing's taking off.)

TODAY I LOVE: bath pillows and dumpster diving (in the magazine recycle bin to make collages)

Was THAT The Hill?

Last night was our first official run with Team Sakina. It's exciting to be a part of a women's running group, especially one like this. Team Sakina operates on many levels: bringing together women runners to encourage them individually and to build community among them; supporting the mapping, care, and use of local running trails; and supporting academic and health initiatives in a small village in Tanzania. I love it!

And yet I was nervous about going. Shocking? No. Not so much. Not if you've read, say, any other post I've ever written. I pretty much operate in the world by vacillating between peppy enthusiasm and abject nervousness.

It would be lovely if someday I felt worthy of being in the group I'm attempting to join. Don't get me wrong - I'm totally fabulous and they're lucky to get me - but in terms of fully meeting the running requirements of the group...it's a bit of a stretch. I can do what they said are their requirements. When they said 11 to 12 minute mile pace, I took them at their word! I can do 12, but I bet they were hoping for closer to the 11. It's very clear I'm the absolute slowest one in the whole group. And it turns out, there is also an unwritten agility requirement for Team Sakina. (I may not have mentioned it recently, but I am not the most graceful land creature.) Last night we met up and then jogged (i.e. everyone else bounded like gazelles while I huffed and puffed) along the highway for a half a mile or so to get to the field/trails. Then the thirty of us hiked another quarter mile through the damp mugginess until we got to a narrow, slippery pipe bridging a creek which the gazelles (all 29 of them) pranced across. (Ok - Donna would sooooo object to being called a prancing gazelle! But she bravely and sure-footedly traipsed across that pipe.) My options were to slide down the creekbed and climb up the other side as quickly as I could or attempt the pipe crossing, fall, crack my head and die. Hmmmm. Let's see, which should I choose? (When Donna saw the pipe, she didn't even say anything - she just held out her hands in an offer to carry my towel and water bottle for me. There is a lot to be said for a partner who knows you so well and loves you anyway.)

So before we even got to the trail, I was an adrenaline-charged mess. I was grateful that we did some team building stuff (=name games and "What does running mean to you?" type things) before we started in on the hill workout. The other women were kind and funny and admitted to not being as confident as they all looked. Then it was time for the not quite mile long hill loop. Somehow as we started off, I ended up about three quarters of the way back in the line. Not good. I was totally stressed about holding up the gals behind me! Flat, flat, turn into the field and then up, up, up. As I (finally) crested the hill I heard one of the ladies up ahead of me say in an incredulous voice as she started the descent, "Was that the hill?" So. Demoralizing. But inspiring in a twisted, rankling kind of way. I want to be the person who gets to the top and doesn't even think it qualifies as a hill!!!! I want to be that strong. I'm pretty sure I need to run a lot of hills to get there. Sigh.

But it was gorgeous! The sun was setting and the trees were literally shimmering in the light. The uphill part was on a mowed path through the tall grass and the downhill was along a shady trail through the woods. It was humid as only the South can be, but so heart wrenchingly beautiful. The second loop was still physically hard for me but mentally and emotionally more comfortable. The third loop - when I'd finally managed to get everyone ahead of me and could run at my own pace - was much smoother. It was 30 seconds slower but my breathing was better and I actually enjoyed it. I could have done a fourth but I was glad to stop at three and rest on my (relative) laurels. I'm looking forward to Team Sakina's long run tomorrow morning.

TODAY I LOVE: my 39 year-old (today) sister!!

Capital City Classic 10K - May 9, 2009

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the Capital City Classic 10K in Raleigh. It was my first standalone 10K and I may have mentioned I was oddly stressy about it. I had a hard time getting myself out the door - in part because registration for Team Sakina was online, limited to 30 women, and starting at about the same time as the race! (John sent our registrations in for us. Thanks honey!) I felt discombobulated - did I have my inhaler? Water? Gels? Body glide? Was I missing something?

(There is something unnerving to me about running races because once you're dressed, there's just not that much more to do to be ready! No bike to check, no transitions to plan for, no wetsuit or goggles to keep up with, etc. Weird.)

This 10K takes place in the heart of downtown Raleigh. In spite of the lack of directions on the website (the link didn't link anywhere - fail!), it was easy to find and park (for free in a parking garage that wasn't charging for the day - yay!) Packet pick up was inside the Sheraton and smooooth. Also? While there were a couple of porta-potties outside near the race start, I was all about using the nice hotel facilities. It had been a little breezy and slightly overcast but was clearing up (and heating up, dammit) just as the race started (later than advertised). Oh well. I had expected a much bigger crowd (possibly because the race had billed itself as friendly for beginning runners and walkers.) It looked like there were only about two hundred people. And almost all of them looked fast. Oh well.

For us this race was an extra training run (on top of an extra trail run we'd already thrown in on Thursday night) and we still had a big swim ahead of us that afternoon and a brick on Sunday. My goals were to enjoy the experience, see Raleigh in a new way, and to run the whole thing. Not to leave you in suspense, I accomplished a measley one out of three of my goals. Sadness.

The beginning of the course was interesting - winding past big, downtown churches and into great neighborhoods with jungley sidewalk gardens and huge, wraparound porches on display. The volunteers were fantastic and there were cops at every single intersection holding traffic and pointing the way. That was great. Our first couple of miles were fast (for us) - but they always are in races. The tightness and worry I feel starting out gave way in short order to a smooth pace and good rhythm. At mile 2 I snagged a cup from the water station. Donna was smart enough to grab two and pour one on her head. It was getting hot! I was wishing I'd gotten more than the dinky little two swallows but knew there'd be at least one more stop along the way. Mile 3 was a bit slower and mile 4 seemed to be entirely in the sun. There was one fantastic view of the city skyline as we ran over a highway overpass. Part of me wished I had my camera with me and part of me didn't give a flying ratfuck. That's a bad sign.

The heat was getting to me. I felt melty inside and my skin felt weird. I had to slow to a walk a couple of times to try to bring my heart rate down and feel better. I didn't feel better. I was looking forward to the water stop which we guessed would be at the 4 mile mark. It was! But when we got there - no water. WTF?! It was in the upper 80's or low 90's in a not-crowded race billed as beginner friendly - and they didn't bring out more than one cooler of water?? (Seriously - my son's lacrosse team of 20 boys always has three or four coolers of water. This race had one.) My bad attitude about the lack of water may have had something to do with me making a total newbie mistake to compound the issue. I took my gel when I saw the water station and all the cups. Calories and water get me through hot runs. Calories without water? NOT good. Feeling as bad as I already did from the heat, having ingested a gel with no water to chase it much less to rehydrate me, and knowing I was stuck for the rest of the race - sucked. Totally sucked. Note to self: no gel until the water is in hand!!!

I tried to re-set. I focused on smiling at the volunteers and thanking them. I sent D on ahead because even though it was hard for her, she was still running. I resigned myself to walking the rest of the way. I had chills on my skin but my insides were still boiling. My brain was hazy. I was mad at myself for not having my own water with me - though almost no one else in the race did either. I was disappointed and felt like a loser for not even being able to keep up a slow jog. But I was just too hot. And I was not about to get sick or fall and hurt myself by pushing hard in a race that essentially didn't matter! Still...loserdom. I finished in a terrible 1:19:something or other. I didn't care. It was minutes slower than my PacGrove Oly Tri 10K. I was not, however, DFL. There were at least 4 people behind me. The announcer called them the last finishers but later (like 5 minutes or more?) the announcer was talking about even more finishers coming in. I was too busy sucking down water and trying to adjust my attitude.

There were LOTS of people complaining about how challenging the course was and how hot it was. I did not add my voice. I'll admit though, it did make me feel a bit better when a local running star, Victor (who won the 10 miler last weekend) told me he'd gotten cramps and quit at mile 5. He said, "Some races are like that."**

I know this is long already so I'll say one last cranky thing. Since it's only the second year for this race, I was all set to cut the race directors slack (except for the water station fail). I thought "resourceful" instead of "tacky" when I noticed that they were using race numbers/timing chip holders with last year's date on them. I forgave the late start and lack of working links for important things like directions, parking and race photos. But I just saw that the "overall" race results end inexplicably at least 15 minutes before the last finishers crossed the line. I'm not in the results. Donna, who finished 5+ minutes ahead of me, isn't even in the results. Beginner and walker-friendly my ass!!

Saturday continued to be odd and disconcerting. It took me quite a few hours to feel like my body temperature was stable enough to attempt the swim workout. Then about three quarters of the way through our swim (just before my final descending 50's) it started getting really dark. I was still processing the fact that we must be swimming waaaaay slower than I thought for it to be getting dark already when the lifeguard pulled everyone out of the pool. Lightning flashed, thunder thundered, and the power flickered. Sweet. We did vindicate ourselves on Sunday, though. A Mother's Day Brick: we biked for 58 minutes (avg pace 13.3) and then ran for six miles - including warm up, cool down, and fartleks in the middle for speed work!! (mutter, mutter, stupid 10k, take that, mutter, no water mo-fos, muter, mutter)

And (last thing - I SWEAR!) we went to see Star Trek. It was fan-flippin-tastic! I loved every minute of it. It's a total must-see.

TODAY I LOVE: science fiction everything and fresh pineapple!

**I had the hardest time not responding to Victor with , "Even in Australia."

In Which I Inhale Ants (Again)

It's that time of year again. I braved the morning downpour to snip this lovely for my desk. I think I'm addicted to the scent of peony. Can't. stop. sniffing. it.

In other news...I rocked my bike trainer workout Tuesday (after reading Iron Snoopy's inspiring IMKY race report) and then totally bailed on last night's swim. To be honest - I'm not worried about the swim. I love water - and being in water - especially the ocean is what makes me feel most at home. The swim part of the race being in the Intracoastal Waterway is interesting and a totally new experience for me but still...not stressing about the swim. (Yet.) This week, I realized I needed to pick my battles. Letting myself off the hook for a swim workout makes it practically impossible to skimp on any of my other (i.e. bike and run) workouts this week. Which is good. Because I'm stressing pretty hard about being a fast enough cyclist and strong enough runner. Hoolies - the B2B is 6 months from today!! And we have a road race this weekend. A 10K. I've never done a stand alone 10K race before. I've probably only run 10K in about a dozen training runs in my life. Granted, I do have an Oly tri and two half marathons under my belt in addition to those dozen 10K (ish) training runs. Why doesn't that give me more confidence?? Good news is it'll be a PR, right?

We have speedwork on the plan for tonight with upper body lifting and core work for tomorrow. AND Donna found an awesome women's trail running group called Team Sakina that we're going to join tonight! I am super excited about that.

Finally - I'm celebrating the scale numbers! I'm jumping the gun a bit since my monthly weigh in doesn't happen until tomorrow (the 8th) but I don't care. My weekly date with the bathroom scale is on Thursdays and as of this morning I've lost a total of 17.4 pounds (since Jan 8th)!! Woo hoo and YAY ME! (Only 22.6 more to go on or before November 7th - and to keep it all off for the rest of my life.) I feel great; my workouts are strong (well - except for the very, very few that I blow off!); and I'm eating a ton of yummy food. I'm not sure it can get better than this. I love my life. LOVE IT!

TODAY I LOVE: my life (did I mention that?) and peonies!

When The Word Brick Is Followed By An "S"

First, a little Linky Love because Blogland is so awesome right now:

• Have you seen Benson's Swine Flu post?? OMG - I've had this open on my desktop for days now and it cracks me the hell up every, single time I see it!!
• If you haven't already - head over to Brian's for the chance to win the Big B Swag Bag (including a piece of The Wall!) from his upcoming Great Wall Marathon on the 16th. He needs some songs for motivation and you can help. BTW, how freakin' cool is that for a marathon??
  
• Don't go to DCRainmaker's blog unless you want to see some gorgeous pictures of Seattle and the first ever picture of his elusive Girl. Jeanne once called him the enfant terrible and that name totally made me chuckle. I love his blog even though it puts mine to shame. He travels and trains and eats gorgeous food 10 times more often than I ever will and he blogs about it all practically in real time with amazing pics. Good thing he's so nice or I might have to hate him.
• I've found two more B2B peeps! Missy is doing the half and KrissyGo is doing the full. Yay!
  

Now about those brickS! Bricks - we all know and love bricks. What's not to love about jumping off the bike and trying to run when your ass feels like lead and your legs may or may not even be down there anymore - oh wait, you can see them and there's a vague thudding sensation nearby so your legs must be kinda sorta working? Some bricks are better than others. I don't really mind swim-bike bricks. (Those are still called bricks, right? I know the races like that are called aquabikes but the training plans I've read still call those workouts bricks.) See, all of this talk about bricks plural and it's no big thing. But then our training plan (that I may begin to hate Formulaic for) called for bricks plural on Sunday. Us - two bricks, one workout. As in "15 mile bike followed by 2 mile run, times two." (BTW - we're doing this 18 week plan twice through - once at the "beginner" level and then after a two week break, a second time at the "intermediate" level to end at our first half iron in good shape. The double brick is the beginner level. Next time through it will be a triple brick. Help me, Sweet Baby Jesus.) Do you get the idea that this thing scared the kee-rap out of me? We'd already had a big day on Saturday so I was not sure at all I could do this workout as prescribed.

Guess what? We KICKED it. As in a) we finished both bricks and b) the pace of our final two miles on the run was 30 seconds faster than pace of our first two mile run - which was already slightly faster than our "normal" pace to begin with!! Boo-yah! (So, Form, you are safe from my wrath - in fact, I may owe you a great big, sweaty hug!)

All through the first brick we kept looking for ways out of the second. It wasn't happening. The weather was great, there were no mechanical issues, and even me leaving my bike glasses at a bathroom stop couldn't be turned into more than an excuse to ride an exta mile out of the way. So Donna and I started talking about how we didn't have to do anything but finish the second one. It didn't have to be as good/fast/easy as the first one. It merely had to be done. We could do that - just finish it. Every wheel revolution and run step taken on that second brick was gravy. Every bit was pushing into new territory - doing something we'd not done before. Gravy, gravy, gravy we kept telling ourselves. We were more than a little punchy at the end. Can you tell? Guess those endorphins had finally kicked in. The second brick turned out to be smoother, stronger, and faster! Forget it being plain old gravy. It was transformational gravy! (Which we decided would be a great name for a folk group but would suck as a punk band name.)

I'm still not sure how we did it but I'm beginning to trust and love the training process. Of course, I might not feel that way for very long. I still have an hour worth of sprint, hill, and leg drills on the bike trainer this afternoon. Peace peeps!

TODAY I LOVE: transformational gravy and recovery days (like yesterday - still savoring it!)

Philosopher's Way 7K Trail Race Report

Woo hoo! I ran a trail race! It was only my second ever trail run - and it was fantastic!! I have no idea what my "official" time was but my watch said 1:00 flat. (I didn't stop my watch at the water station or when I took pictures. Donna did stop hers so her watch says we managed 58:11. The official time is sure to be a bit more than an hour because it wasn't chip timed and it took us a bit to get to the line.) What a great race! And what super weather we had. Overcast and only in the upper 70's. Here are some pictures from the morning:

This is the 15K start. (We didn't do the 15K because aside from seeming like too much to bite off for a first trail race - we still have a 2100 yd swim and a 25 mile bike ride on the schedule for today.)

We were running on the mountain bike trails in the Carolina North forest so there were all kinds of coolie things along the way like this banked ramp.

They had PBR and pretzels at the water station. I LOVE trail races!!

Here we are at the water break. I carried my camera in my hand the whole time - so you can tell I wasn't terribly concerned with my time. I wanted to enjoy the experience and record what was different about trail racing from road racing.

Pretty much everything was different! There were rolling hills throughout. A few tougher climbs but mostly rolling, rolling, and winding. The above picture doesn't really do justice to this cute little curvy bump and tree bridge along the trail. I was fascinated by how different it feels to be in the forest. I got into a zone but it was an entirely different type of zone. For the first mile, we could hear the music from the "expo" area drifting over and through the trees. After that faded away, we heard each other - a little chatter, some huffing and puffing along the single track line, and the crunch and tramp of footfalls.

There was an entire glade of ferns at the bottom of one of the downhill curves. I love the lush mystery of ferns.

And rocks!! There were gorgeous rocks everywhere. Rocks make me happy. Seriously happy. At the start, we had chatted with a teacher Donna used to work with (Kirsten) and met some of her friends (Kristy and Blake) who were doing the race. Afterwards we compared notes about how great the race was and we might start our own training group! (Maybe even to include our dogs in some way.) How much fun is that?! This training and racing thing just keeps getting better and better! Peace.

TODAY LOVE: Mother Nature and the athletic community

**Hey RBR - look! I posted a race report on the very day I ran the race!!**

Spring Break!

I'm missing the blogworld! I'm sorry I haven't had time to do more than skim last weekend's race reports. (Do you know how amazing my racing blog buddies are? Oh, wait - you probably do because it's freaking WEDNESDAY (nay - almost Thursday!) already and half of you have probably moved on to prepping for THIS weekend's races. Ay yi yi!) I promise I'll (try very hard to) catch up on my commenting one day (soon). John is crazy busy at his new job (and LOVING it); Donna is on Spring Break (and getting some desperately needed rejuve time away from her students); and my boys are here (which means I am squeezing them incesssantly and watching movies like Bolt and Clerks and finding out that Green Day is making a musical and U2 is on tour and ...). It's awesome. In between all of this I've managed to train, have my first mammogram (not bad at all!), and find both a new running store and chiropractor. And finally - I have to mention that January 8th was the day I made a commitment and a plan to lose this weight. Today - April 8th - the scale is down twelve pounds (12.2 in point of fact). Yay!

The Changing Why

Before beginning my training plan on February 23rd for the half iron, I'm supposed to write down three reasons WHY I want to do this triathlon. I did this three weeks ago. It wasn't hard for me to come up with three reasons why. Even factoring in my waffling about whether they meant this particular triathlon or this distance triathlon or what - I had three reasons written down quickly.

1. To push myself further than before
2. To gain the confidence that comes from reaching such a big goal
3. To get healthier and be a part of the community of endurance athletes (Yeah - I did sort of squeak four reasons into three numbers, didn't I? I suck at following instructions sometimes.)
   

What I've noticed is that on any given day since then - I have myriad variations on those three whys. Here are a few:
To see if I can
To have something no one can take away or minimize because I'll always know I did it
To have a focus/anchor for my training season
To get stronger
To get faster
To get leaner
To move through the world intentionally
To race (relatively) locally
To race period
To reach for something other people don't
To meet the people who do reach for it
To learn new skills - technical, mental, physical

Does anyone else have their big WHYs morph on them like that? Does anyone else write down their WHYs to motivate them on days when the training mojo ebbs? (Does it help? Because I have to tell you - on the days when I get in "aw fuck it" mode - I can't imagine my shiny, peppy, hopeful answers to the big WHY helping me do much. I could probably use some growth there, what do you think?) Do you think your WHYs narrow and/or deepen or broaden as you get more experience in this sport? I'm particularly interested in that last one. Does what brought you to triathlon turn out to be what keeps you?


TODAY I LOVE: the big questions

Progress, Not Perfection

Thank you a bazillion times over for the recovery nutrition ideas and information. You all* are an amazing group. I learn so much and really appreciate your willingness to share what you know. I am going to use or try something from every single comment. (And if you haven't commented on yesterday's plea for help post, there's still time! Armed with all these great new ideas and rules of thumb, I'm not desperate the way I was yesterday - but I am a comment whore enjoy seeing the range of solutions that work for others.)

In an effort to keep spreading the good ideas around - I have one for you. If you haven't done so already, check out Chic Runner and her giveaway this week. Great blog and free stuff is always fun.

The only other thing I have today is a new "feature" that I totally copied** from Sarah called "Today I love..."

TODAY I LOVE: hot peppermint tea and not having to go to the doctor's

*Do you have any idea how often I make myself go back and take out the word "y'all"? It slips into my typing more than my speech. I think.
**Copied with permission, I should say. That Sarah's a cool chick!

Snobama Day

Happy Inauguration Day!

I flew through snow clouds late last night to get home in time for us to have an inauguration party at the house today. Alas, the snow clouds dropped actual snow so our party guests ended up staying safely in their own homes. It was sad not to get to celebrate with our friends, but we tried to look at the bright side: more Inauguration Cookie (pictured above) for us! Also, Donna's teacher work day was canceled. She got to be home with us to watch Barack Obama become the President. I loved his speech and look forward to hope and integrity, hard work and inclusion replacing the fear and division and culture of entitlement that has reigned for too long. We'll see.

As we celebrated inside the hounds celebrated outside:

Donna smacked Tallulah with a snowball. (I'm pretty proud of myself for catching that on film!) Tallulah jumped around and barked excitedly. She LOVES the snow. She and Wasabi raced and chased for well over an hour this morning. Wasabi came in with snow encrusted fur leggings. Here is Tallulah taking a snowball from Donna:
Tallulah dropped her snowball in the snow and then dug for it. In the process of digging for it, of course, it disintegrated. She kept digging. And digging. And digging. She looked up and around and then went back to digging because she was sure it was RIGHT THERE. It was pretty cute.

I didn't get a picture of Wasabi scampering because he was too fast, but I did get this one of him waiting to come in the house. His look says, "I'm cold now. Can I come in and have some hot chocolate?":
We're not quite sure what to do with 3" to 6" of snow. It definitely means training inside today. I'm going to join Donna in her torture set (some weird combo of six bodyweight exercises which sound and look waaaay easier than they are) and of course we have push ups to do. Must work off that cookie somehow!

On a final note - please send any spare good thoughts and luck our way. We're waiting to hear (today or tomorrow) whether John's company is going to fold or not. February could possibly really (REALLY) suck. That's my day today - incredible hope, extreme stress, and some joyful everyday moments in between. Peace.

Pains, Planes, And Push Ups

Pains - as much as going to the doctor stresses me out, some things just have to be checked on even when you're not sick. Note to self: next time please don't bring a book about a girl who has to have her leg amputated. NOT soothing!

Planes - I'm getting on a plane tonight to go spend a long weekend with my boys and meet their new teachers. I had no problems with either the elementary school or the high school, but I am still trying to get over my blood pressure spike from being told by the middle school that I am not "allowed" to meet Iain's teachers because we've switched custody. (Mind you - this is the school where Sheumais went for two years and Iain went for one year before we moved. I KNOW these people. I KNOW the policies. My ex was always welcome to be a part of school things. I worked my way up through the chain hearing along the way various explanations about how teachers don't like to do "double conferences" and how I can get my "questions" answered by an intermediary like my ex or the guidance counselor. I reminded the guidance counselor of how involved in the school I was when I lived there, explained how I still want to be involved in my son's education even if I live in a different state, offered my opinion as to the value of my interacting directly with the teachers, asked how I could be expected to make the regularly scheduled conferences from 500 miles away, wondered aloud how schools could justify turning interested parents away and what the school board would make of it if I complained investigated this "policy" further etc. Finally I either made enough sense or exhausted the administration and got a conference (of sorts) scheduled. What an infuriating PAIN IN THE ASS! I live with a middle school teacher! I understand how precious their time is but I'm not going to be shut out dammit!!) Anyhoo, the rest of the weekend should be great. Lots of plans to take the boys around to see grandparents, cousins etc.

Push Ups - I am still stuck in Week 3 of the Push Up Challenge! I'm trying not to get discouraged that it doesn't feel any easier the sixth time than it did the first. I don't feel like I'm getting stronger at all, much less getting strong enough to bump it up a level!

Other Training News - Thanks for all the comments and Spinerval confessions!! I'm going to get my first Spinerval training in today before I leave - thanks to Kathy! I'm not sure what kind of training I can do (other than push ups/sit ups) while I'm in Nashville. It's going to be cold (actual arctic air!) and I'm going to be focused on my kids. I am trying to remind myself that it really is still off season. Stretching and bodyweight exercises are fine for the five days I'm gone. There is time to build my aerobic base before our "official" training plan starts. Is it weird to be this anxious this far out?? I'm worried I'm already too far behind when we haven't even started yet. Gah.

Good Luck Racers - In case I don't get the chance to post again before this weekend, best of luck to all the racers but especially to my buddies running the PF Chang's Rock N Roll Half marathon - Running Knitter, Pokey, and JavaMom!

It's Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Christmas

We have a tree! And the massive Cookie Bake is Saturday. I don't know how anyone else does it but we have about five or six people that come over. Together we all bake a couple dozen of our favorite Christmas cookies. Then we line them up like a buffet line and everyone takes some of each kind. It's a terrific way to end up with lots of different cookies and to be very social in the process.

I'm up and down and all over the emotional map. I think most everyone has buttons that get pushed during the holidays. It is a crazy time of expectations and weird family stuff. Divorce and custody issues turn the screws that much tighter. I am tied up in knots. I'm trying to spin on the trainer to unwind. I'm stretching and foam rollering to unwind. I'm cardio dancing to unwind. You'd think I'd be unwound already wouldn't you?! Maybe baking cookies will do the trick!

Hope everyone else's holiday prep is going well. Don't know how much posting I'll have a chance for so I'll say it early - Happy Yule, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza - and general holiday blessings to all!

B2B RR Conglomeration

I thought I'd share a couple of Beach2Battleship race reports I found for anyone thinking of doing this race:
Scott DeWire - his full iron distance RR
Rebecca DeWire - her full iron distance RR (she took 2nd place)
And one more - Rob's full iron distance

Robyn from Tri To End Homelessness - her half iron experience
Sage's perspective - she's both a coach and competitor

Donna and I have definitely decided we want to do this race, but in Rob's RR he said it sold out in 12 days for this year's race and it's a brand new one. So I'm doing my part to help get the word out about a great-sounding race in my part of the country while simultaneously hoping there will still be half iron slots available when we save up the entry fee!

Outta Here

We are on our way out of town. Donna has a paper to present at a math teacher conference and then since we'll be most of the way there, we're going to head over to her parents' to help them do a few things. They're elderly and live in Appalachia so we will be out of range for everything electronic. (Otherwise we would absolutely follow Sage's advice and go watch/last minute volunteer at B2B tomorrow!) Speaking of racing this weekend - best of luck to the racers out there ESPECIALLY our very own Practically Iron Wes!!! Race hard, have fun!

Wondering

Is it totally crazy to think we could do a half iron a year from now? (Reminder - we have one sprint and one olympic distance under our belts.) Our watchword for the 2009 race season is going to be "local"! No more races on the other side of the country for a while. However - there are some fantastic races like White Lake, the RamblinRose, and... the B2B which I thought until last night was only a full iron distance but turns out to have a half. Oooooh!

San Fancisco Half Marathon - I Did It!!

I am ridiculously nervous in this picture! This was about 5:45 (which is about when Willie's wave took off, but ours didn't go until 6:25. Willie asked me the night before what time my wave left and I had NO IDEA. He said, "It's written on your bib." I knew it had the wave # but Willie had to tell me to turn it over to find my start time. Doh! Can you tell I haven't done this very much?) Oh and can you see the sunburn? Apparently you can still get sunburned through fog. I'll post more about the tri-clinic we did the day before, but the sunburn was absolutely the only bad thing about it.
I bought a fun headband instead of a 13.1 sticker, but then felt all kinds of pressure! What if I didn't make the 3 hour course cut off?
But I had a GREAT race. I felt amazing the entire time. I had a gel and water at every station (=4 total) and it worked for me. I know that would be too much for most, but I had the best run I've had in a long time. Real race report (might) follow (someday) - but for now? PR baby! By like 30 minutes! (That's what happens when you RUN the half marathon instead of freaking out and walking most of it!) I did carry my phone and I took some pictures of the Golden Gate bridge. It was so much fun to run over it and back!! That was my very favorite part of the race. I'm too tired to figure out how to get the pictures from my phone to my computer. I'm not particularly skilled when it comes to my phone. Willie sent me text updates as he ran. I tried to respond in kind, but how the heck do people text and run at the same time?! I could barely read the ones I got, much less frame a coherent reply. I tried to send a simple one saying we were at Mile 11. Later I found out that what I sent was like, "Mh !@b!/" Willie interpreted that as "Mile WTF?" - which wasn't far off after all. Also, remind me to tell you how we ended up in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel - for FREE! (My birthday? I just keep celebrating it!) But for now... look who I got to meet!!! The RBR girls. All of them! How amazing that the day before they ran Barb's (Mary's) race (in 98 degree heat!!!!!) and then trekked to SF to hang with us! AND...
Willie! I got to meet Willie in person. He had a great race too. (Y'all know he flew out for this marathon spur of the moment? Who does that? Someday I'd love to be a good enough runner to decide at the last minute to go do a fun marathon!) We really missed Southbay Girl. It was her kind of weather - cool and overcast for the race, then sunny and pleasant for the "afters" party. Next time!
This is our whole crew: RBR girls, Willie, Donna, me, my college buddy Ray, who is local, and his son Josh. How lucky are we to drive all the way across the country and end up with this much support? We had a much delayed post-race lunch of seafood soup and sandwiches with Anchor Steam on draft. (Do you like how I could NOT take off my medal? Willie wasn't wearing his, but he did use it as a coaster for his Anchor Steam at lunch.)
Now we are heading East again. So. Tired. I can't wait for some time to catch up with what's been happening for everyone and to let these experiences sink all the way in.

Did I mention that I RAN further than I've ever run before? And I felt GREAT the whole time? Ya - hoo! I think I'm hooked. I is a runner! Peace my friends.

Driveby Blogging

What did the fish say when it swam headfirst into a concrete wall?
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DAM!

We have to be on the road in about 10 minutes to make it from Las Vegas to San Francisco to pick up our race packets and then scoot down to Pacific Grove today but...
The Hoover Dam was A-mazing! It was a wonderful juxtaposition to see the Grand Canyon one day and the Hoover Dam the next.
And even more amazing? Blogger buddies!! Stef met us at Lake Mead and we had our first OWS. We've decided to call her coach Stef because even though we peppered her with a ridiculous number of nervous questions before, after and in the middle of the swim - she was unfailingly generous with answers, tips, and encouragement. Then we got to go to her house and meet Brinley & Gaele (her sweet puppies), Chloe, Clarence, (and I forget the other bunny's name!), and Glenn (her fantastic hubby)! After that we headed out to meet Izaac and his lovely wife Kelly (Kelley?). These folks are even funnier and more gracious in person than you already think from reading their blogs!!

I wish we could stay longer! I had the best 40th birthday EVER!! Things might be whirlwindy for the next couple of days with the clinic in Pacific Grove tomorrow and the half marathon on Sunday. I just found out that I get to meet RBR after all because our races aren't on the same day! So until my next chance to post and run - good luck to all the weekend's racers (especially RBR as she tackles her first half iron!) and happy training.

Make Like A Tree

We're (almost) outta here. If you happen to need anything from my house (except one rather happy boy child and two somewhat forlorn dogs), you'll have to chase us across country to get it. We've brought everything. (Except of course that one vital something that we won't remember until we need it and then we'll be s.o.l.)

Oh and for those who asked - July 31st. Me and Harry Potter. (Want to know how high my cool points went with the kids when they realized that? Only now HP is over and I have nothing in common with any of the Cullens so my cool points are back in the toilet. Right where they should be if you're a mother of four teenagers, I suppose.) But someone we know and love is having a birthday today so skootch on over there and send her some birthday love if you haven't already.