Chronicles of a Serial Smartass

Hello people searching for mexican jello flavors

2012-01-27T15:49:00.000-06:00

This is a recent (and not so recent) phenomenon. Waaay back in August 2005, I wrote a small post about mexican jello flavors. It seemed to be a draw to my blog, as I had people visiting my digital space to read my entry.

It appears that, 5.5 years later (!), people are once again searching for mexican jello flavors and are coming here to read my thoughts on it.

random

And if you are one of those searchers/visitors, please post a comment expaining exactly why mexican jello flavors is something that you're searching for.

Powder days and power outages

2012-01-26T11:53:00.000-06:00

I bought a season pass for this winter with the idea that I'd be skiing every weekend. Season opened mid-November (or earlier, I can't remember). I've been 3 times. Partially because the snow has absolutely sucked, and partially because life has taken over. I think I need to go 8 times to make the pass worthwhile - hoping I DEFINITELY make it up there at least 5 more times in the next 2 months.

The snow this winter has been very sad. We got a ton in October, the ski areas opened up with enthusiasm, and then its barely snowed since. (sad face). The past 2 weeks, however, have been really snowy, with the areas consistently getting 4 inches every other day or so. Last weekend was the first big powder day - finally.

My pass is for Winter Park and Copper Mountain. It looked like Copper would get more snow than WP, so my friend and I decided to go to Copper. Good call - Copper had 9 inches of fresh snow, WP had 4. We were up on the slopes by 9 AM and strangely, there weren't a bazillion people out. I actually got to cut fresh tracks in a few places.

I am not a very good powder skiier. I'm more of a "spring skiier", meaning groomed, packed, and sometimes icy slopes are what I'm used to. Powder is tricky. Instead of leaning forward, you have to lean back, or else you'll catch your tips and tumble. Its also a LOT more work. You can't ski as fast and you have to be more alert and able to pick up a ski quickly if it gets buried. This is the one time where snowboarding looks better than skiing. On mogul runs (we took several), my friend was gliding all over. The definition of the bumps were harder to make out under the powder, which freqently led me to go *oof* into a knee-deep gully of powder. Much more work. Fun work, but work. (especially after racing the day before).

We had done 5 long powdery fun runs and skiied down to the center base to hit the Super Bee lift and see what the bump runs looked like on the far side of the mountain. Halfway up and the lift stops abrubptly with a pretty serious bounce. A bit freaky as we didn't have the bar down on the lift. Stopping on the lift isn't unusual, however, stopping and bouncing like that is. We waited a bit. Then waited some more. And some more. For what seemed like an unusually long time. A guy on our chair whipped out his phone and saw that Copper had updated their facebook page:

A little more facebook investigation, and we discovered that Copper had to fire up diesel engines at the top of EACH lift to get us up the mountain and off the lift. Huh.

Occasionally we'd see a pack of people ski under us, presumably newly rescued from their own lift. We were still stuck. And we couldn't see the top of the lift, or any other lifts (trees, clouds, snow, and wind obscured our view) to see if things were moving. We also saw Copper staff hauling ass up and down the hill on snowmobiles, moving too fast to give us an update. We assumed they were the mechanical crew zipping around, trying to get things running.

Also: it was COLD. I had somehow decided to wear an extra layer before we left the car. I had a new jacket and I wasn't sure how it would do in the forecasted windy conditions that afternoon. This new jacket had vent zippable flaps under each arm, which I had unzipped that morning. Sitting on that lift in the wind, I had to zip those suckers back up. Once I did that, my body was pretty warm. I just had a cold spot on my cheek (I think the wind was getting under my goggles at that spot) and my fingers were incredibly cold. I kept making a fist inside my glove and moving my fingers around, but they were pretty cold and tingly. I think if we were stuck another 30 minutes, my fingers would have been in trouble.
Finally, the lift moved forward with a jerk. And then it stopped. And then we inched forward a bit, and stopped again. We weren't bouncing so much, but a few chairs back were bouncing quite a bit. Lots more stopping and starting, and each time, we were just hoping that we'd eventually make it up the hill. Finally the lift was moving (although quite a bit slower than normal) and we could see puffs of exhaust from the diesel engine. And hooray, we were finally off the lift after 30-45 minutes of being stuck. A very nice Copper employee was handing out free comp lift tickets to be used later, which was a nice surpirse. I would have been happy with a voucher for hot chocolate. But seeing as the ENTIRE RESORT was out of power, hot chocolate probably wasn't even an option.

We took a bit to re-arrange our gear and to try and warm up our hands and took off down the mountain. This was the final run of the day, so we had to make it count. So we did, by taking a long bump run. We got to the bottom at 1:30 and debated sticking around. In the end, we decided that without power, even getting food or using the bathrooms at the base would be challenging. Factor in traffic from thousands of other Denver people getting their powder on at the other resorts and crappy road conditions from snow and we decided to pack it in. I would have liked more runs, but 6 is respectable, given the situation.

All in all, I think Copper handled things as best they could. I would have appreciated more information when we got to the top of the lift (turned out they kept aux power going on the 4 main lifts to stay open for the rest of the day). But in a power outage, communications even become challenging, as radios are operated by power. And how do you communicate things to thousands of people spread out over an entire resort? In in the end, everyone was off the lift safely and pretty quickly (all things considered), and the free lift ticket is a nice bonus.

The only after effect is that my right index finger is numb. I only notice it when I type or use my mouse. Its weird. And it tells me how close I was to getting frostbite. I may have to look into getting better gloves.... Hopefully my next powder day goes a bit smoother :)

Veggie Garden Planning - 2012

2012-01-25T13:11:00.002-06:00

I somehow have some time on my hands, so I thought it would be fun to start planning our 2012 veggie garden. Last year, we constructed a raised bed and planted seedlings we purchased from a nursery. I think we spent almost $100 on the seedlings. The problem was that due to IMTX, we couldn't actually work on the raised bed and garden until June. Sadly, our garden hardly did anything. I think I got a total of 1 zucchini (from 3 plants), 4 cucumbers (from 2 plants), and a ton of basil. The egglplant and peppers had fruit but they didn't actually grow or mature into something edible. The winter squash and cantelope were a complete bust. The herbs did really well, although it wasn't until August when the basil really took off.

Weirdly, our strawberries (which produced TINY but awesome berries) are still green. In JANUARY.

The plan this year is to start plants from seed in March and then plant them in April or May, depending on temperatures. My plant list is based on some items that I really LOVED from the CSA last year (romenesco summer squash), some herb favorites, and some veggies that I really like but didn't get much of with the CSA. I also had to keep in mind which plants I recieved in crazy amounts from the CSA and resist planting them myself. (although, I did buy cilantro and green onions.....).

In addition to the veggies, I bought one pound of seed garlic to plant in the yard. I got 4 varieties and it turns out that one pound equals about 60 individual cloves. You plant the clove of garlic in the fall and they magically turn into full bulbs of garlic. So.... I'll have 60 (!!) bulbs of garlic next summer. Interesting.

The list:
Golden wax bush beans:

Delicious, golden-yellow pods are stringless and are of good quality with extra- fine rich flavor. This old-time favorite has bush plants.

(my mom's turtle LOVED these last summer)

Telegraph improved cucumber:

Smooth, straight, dark-green fruit, to 18 long. Flesh is very crisp, tender and mild, superb flavor. Very few seeds, vigorous high yielding vines, great for greenhouse production; also good cultured outdoors. This is an excellent English heirloom variety, introduced around 1897.

(I did get a ton of cukes from the CSA, but I like the idea of having my own home grown ones too. Here's hoping this variety does better than the 2 types I did last year)

Malaysian Dark Red Eggplant:

Tender and delicious violet-colored fruit are long and slender. This productive and tasty variety comes from the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia. A hard-to-find but very good variety that is perfect for frying.

(I LOVE eggplant, but tragically, the CSA only gave me ONE of them last year. And my garden eggplants fruited but never actually grew.)

Early purple vienna kohlrabi:

Delicious cabbage-flavored bulbs that grow above ground. Purple skin and sweet, white flesh good cooked or raw. Kohlrabi makes a real staple crop, with high yields; cold hardy. A pre-1860 heirloom.

(I freaking loved the kohlrabi I got from the CSA last year. Excellent raw in salads. Texture of jicima (crunchy) and tasted sort of like a broccoli stalk.)

Rocky top lettuce mix:

Hopefully we won't get tired of salad.....

Ho shi ko bunching onion

An heirloom Japanese, perennial bunching onion; talks grow and divide from the base. Mild and tasty. These are an essential ingredient in both Oriental and American foods. A non-bulbing white type.

(I got a ton of green onions from the CSA. I'm planting these out of sheer curiousity)

Orange bell pepper

Super sweet, brilliant orange fruit are blocky with and good-sized thick flesh that is flavorful and among the best tasting of all peppers. Plants produce large yields of this most magnificent pepper
(who doesn't love a good pepper?)

Romenesco squash

Famous ribbed zucchini from Rome, Italy. The distinctive long fruit are fluted with medium-green striped skin. The cut slices are scalloped. When small, they are popular fried whole with the flower still on. Rich and very flavorful. A perfect gourmet variety for the market grower.

(I FREAKING loved these. Very buttery tasting. Yummmy!)

Patisson golden marbre scallop squash

A unique French scallop squash; fruit is a beautiful bright golden-orange color, very beautiful. Young fruit are very tender and well flavored! Also makes good winter squash. Tall bush plants are very attractive, and yields are good. A favorite of mine.

(I have no idea if these will be good or not. Its an experiment)

Green tomatillo

Deep green fruit; a standard, richly flavored type. Huge yields as with most tomatillos.

(I've never grown these before, so its an experiement. Something tells me we'll be innundated by tomatillos.....)

Herbs: genovese basil, sweet thai basil, dill, and cilantro. I will probably go and buy some oregano and thyme that's been started already.

Chilly Cheeks Duathlon #2 - Race Report

2012-01-23T18:46:00.000-06:00

PSA: anytime you are thinking to yourself the week before a race, "hey, I'll do a heavy weight workout AND a heavy bike workout 2 days before a race. Surely, I'll be recovered enough and I'll be fine". Don't do it. Just don't.

This was the second race in a three race series. Its the winter "snow or sun" duathlon series. If you sign up for all three, you get sweat pants. I'm a sucker for sweat pants. I just wish they said "Chilly Cheeks" on the ass. Instead, the text is down the leg. Ass placement would have been much cooler.

Anyways, I did NOT attend the first of the series because of this. For the second race, the weather gods decided to be kind. No snow all week and highs in the 50s and 60s. No snow on the course (ok, there was a tiny bit of crusty ice) and no freezing temperatures. Woot!

This race format is really funky. 1.6 mile run, 3.6 mile bike, 2.5 mile run, and a 7.2 mile bike. THEN a 50 yard sprint to the finish. Strange. So strange, that I really couldn't take it too seriously. And honestly, how serious can you be when the only time you've ran in the past 3 months was during races. Seriously, my total running mileage since October has been 10 miles.

Pre-Race
This race was pretty awesome because it didn't start until 10 AM. That meant I could sleep in! I left the house at 8:30, got there by 9. Had to pay admission to the state park ($9! boo!). Parking was easy, racking was easy. I decided to wear layers. My Sony tri shorts under my light running tights (I don't know how people do the reverse - cycling with those running tights seams sounds awful!), my favorite light weight longsleeve tech shirt, my Sony jacket, and my long cycling gloves. I got everything set up and then hung out eavesdropping until the race started. It was a bit funny, as people were taking this thing WAY seriously. Disc wheels and aero helmets seriously. ok!

The race had ~300 participants and was broken into 3 waves. For the first time ever (!!) I was in the first wave.

Run 1
I was freezing, so I just kept my jacket on. I figured I could tolerate being warm for the short run. We gathered at the start as a group and took off. Immediately I was left in the dust... only I was running a 9:15 pace, which is WAY fast for me. Holy crap, people are fast. Damn. A whole herd of people ran away, off into the distance. I had about 6 people behind me. I passed a few people and then I was by myself (and I really tried to slow down a bit so I didn't die later). I loosened up about halfway through the run and felt really, really good.

Run 1 time: 13:52 / 9:54 pace. good!

Sooo many people did the first run with their cycling gear on. Very serious stuff.

T1
Way too much time was spent trying to put on my VERY tight long fingered cycling gloves. PSA: its a good idea to put your helmet on BEFORE you put on your gloves. Seriously, my T1 time was ridiculous.

T1 time - 1:51

Bike 1
I hopped on my bike. I was smart enough to remember to set my pedals to the correct position for easy clipping in. I got on my bike, being completely unfamiliar with the course. First up was a big hill. Remember my PSA about lifting weights? Yeah..... my quads were VERY ANGRY at me during that climb (and pretty much for the rest of the race). And my heart rate was crazy high... really, way too high for what I was doing.

The hill wasn't that bad, really. I will admit that I'm a bit cranky that I wasn't stronger going up it, with all my weight training and heavy bike intervals. Boo. The rest of the course wasn't that hard. There was a sweet downhill where I easily hit 30 mph on. Nothing to exciting, except the ride was really over before I got started.

I wish I could find a picture of Serious Racers. Tons of people (with their fancy wheels and aero helmets) were riding with their running shoes. I guess the 15 seconds it takes to swap shoes is too much when you're on your bike for 8 minutes.... Instead, I found a pic of a guy with an aero helmet, aerobars, and a mountain bike....

wtf?

Bike 1 time: 11:49, 18.3 mph

T2
I nearly forgot how to get off my bike, its been that long (September). One poor lady next to me hit her brakes too hard trying to avoid someone and toppled over. I went to my rack, ditched my cycling stuff, and my gloves and jacket and took off running.

T2 time: 1:45

Run 2
Oh wow. Unhappy legs and heart rate. This run was a different course than the first one. It was on dirt and paved trails with a bunch of roller hills. My heart rate was screaming. Legs weren't awful compared to the heart rate. For a whole 2.5 mile segment, I had to walk twice. My heart rate limit is ~176 to 180. Definitely 180. If I see that, I start walking until its down to 160. That happened 3 times. Boo. Maybe I should run more often than once a month, during races!

Run 2 time: 28 even, 11:12 pace (not horrible for walking so much)

T3
Decided to skip the jacket and gloves and hit the road.
T3 time - 1:34

Bike 2
Decided to skip the jacket and gloves and hit the road. Pretty uneventful as this was a repeat of the previous bike, only it was for 2 loops. A bit windy, but nothing crazy.

Bike 2 time: 24:21, 17.7 mph

Sprint (!!) to the finish
Some people changed into their running shoes. Really? For a 50 yard sprint across a parking lot? I kept my helmet on, took my cycling shoes off, and just ran across the parking lot. Probably looked like a dork. Fortunately, there aren't any professional race photographs of this.

Sprint time - 52 seconds (which included time to rack my bike and take my shoes off)

Total time: 1:24:01
24/33 in my age group (W30-39)
157/200 overall

Colorado people are fast. I am not (yet).

Seeing progress and a cute for the day

2012-01-20T13:34:00.000-06:00

I haven't been very dilgent with my weight lifting. I'm supposed to lift twice a week. I just checked my workout logs for the past month, and there has only been ONE WEEK where I've managed to do this. Damn.

blue is weight lifting. sad.

So clearly, I'm not very consistent. (bright side - at least I've been lifting once a week!)

Last week I couldn't lift because I was out of town. The week prior, I had bumped up my resistance. Yesterday, I went to lift and I wasn't sure if I would be able to maintain my resistance from before we left. To my suprise, in nearly everything, I was able to not only maintain, but increase my resistance. Woot! The only decrease was in chest press, but really, I hate chest press and don't give it my all. Leg press and lunges, I love, though.

So, yay! progress!

And here's your cute for the day. Zipper really is a fantastic fetcher. She'll fetch until either a) she loses her mouse (they keep disappearing under furniture, but she permanently lost 3 in the first 2 weeks of playing. I think the house ate them) or b) we get tired of throwing the damn mouse. She really won't stop - its tremendously cute.

Wednesday Ramblings

2012-01-18T11:44:00.000-06:00

On a cheerier note, here's some rambling about other things that are going on...

Paleo eating is going pretty well. Lunch and dinner are super easy. Lunch typically consists of a salad with some sort of meat. I either bring my own or I can very easily do a paleo salad from the office cafe's salad bar. Dinner is also super easy. We have a faux-Whole Foods grocery store here called Sprouts. Its like WF but soooo much cheaper and easier to navigate. They have all sorts of chicken sausage varieties (brats, southwest, apple, basil) for $2.99/lb and they don't contain any funky filler ingredients. WIN. I've also found that their yams (the skin on these guys is almost red) when sliced, coated with olive oil, seasoned with red hawaiian salt, and roasted are to die for. Really, we could eat those things nearly every night. So a basic dinner would be some sort of meat and some sort of veggie. Pretty simple and easy. Breakfast is a bit more of a challenge, mainly because I'm so dang picky about breakfast. I was eating hard boiled eggs for a while, but they got tiresome really fast. Then I made up some paleo pancakes and they were just ok. This week I did omlette muffins and they're also just ok. Dang gag reflex in the morning just makes things tricky. Last week was a complete disaster in terms of paleo. Something about driving across 4 states and me not really planning ahead for food made it a disaster. And working my ass off in the house and not having time to actually cook. I didn't really eat anything awful (lots of subway, although we got Wendy's on the way to Idaho and both of us felt sick after. I think that says a lot about how healthy we've been eating and how shitty fast food really is). But really, it was a bunch of bread and some stress dessert eating of really yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies. But this week is a new week and I'm back on track. I still don't know if paleo is life changing but I'll give it another month and see how things are.

My plan to ski every weekend really hasn't happened yet. Mainly because the snow here has been shit. The ski areas opened up around Halloween which is really early. Things looked promising with a 20 inch base in October. Then at Thanksgiving, the base was a whopping 21 inches. And Christmas.... 25 inches. The past week the mountains have been consistently getting 4-7 inches every few days, so I'm hoping that the rest of the season can be salvaged. Still, we're doing better than Idaho. Bogus Basin in Boise still hasn't opened. Nothing but dead grass on the slopes. Its sad.

Training (in a very vague sense of the term) is going ok. The cycling I've been doing is going ok (when I do it - I seem to only get in 2 of the 3 workouts each week). Lifting is very much the same story as cycling. Swimming is getting a bit better. Still, I'm behind on fitness and getting ready for Boise in April will be interesting. I've got a duathalon this weekend, so it will be an interesting test of my fitness level. Its a weird one, though. 1.5 mile run, 3.6 mile bike, 2.5 mile run, 7.2 mile bike then a 100 yard dash to the finish.

Our kitties are really turning into great cats. Zipper is hilarious and exactly what we needed. She loves to attack drops of water on the shower glass doors as we shower. She's also a very enthusiastic fetcher. Ernie was a good fetcher, but it was on his terms and he wasn't very good about returning it to you. Zip will fetch any time of the day (or night - she's brought her toys to bed) and she's really good about returning the toy within arm's reach. She loves it so much that we'll often tire of the game before she does. She's also a daredevil and lately, has taken to jumping on the railing at the top of our stairs, which forms a bit of a balcony with a ~20+ ft drop. I saw her jump up there one night and it was not graceful. I know she's managed to pivot 180 while on that thing. Hopefully she won't fall, but if she does, there's not much I can do about it. Gunny is slowly coming out of his shell. He's very responsive to me and loves to be on my lap, kneeding and purring (although we call it dancing). Lately, he's been jumping on Will's lap during the day, which is huge progress. He's still really skittish and jumpy. Hopefully he'll chill out in time.

Clearing hurdles

2012-01-17T11:00:00.000-06:00

Last week was a rough week. Will's dad's (Carl) heath has been pretty bad for the past 3-4 years and has rapidly been declining over the past two months. To the point where he needed to be placed into Hospice Care. Complicating this need is the fact that Will's dad is flat broke. No money for retirement at all. No money saved up at all. None.

(related PSA - PLEASE do retirement planning for yourself and get long-term health care. And make sure your loved ones do the same)

So last week, we drove 11 hours up to Idaho to get stuff done. It sucked and I'm more than a little angry at Carl. His place was disgusting (cat pee and a complete absense of house cleaning. I actually painted over human poo on the wall in the bathroom. not awesome). But Carl is now in a nice assisted living facility and his home is cleaned out and on the market. Hopefully it will sell soon, or else things get really complicated.

Not the best way to kill a week's vacation, but honestly, there was no other way. My efforts last week weren't for Carl - they were for Will. Poor guy is really taking this hard, so I did what I could to stay organized and make sure we got everything done that needed doing. I feel good knowing that when we left on Sunday, it was mission accomplished. Carl is getting good care now and his house is listed to sell. There were a lot of hurdles to clear last week to get to that point, but somehow we got it done.

Now all we can do is sit and wait. For the house to sell and (unfortunately) for Carl to die. Yep, 2012 is well on its way to not being a great year. I wish I could fast forward and get to 2013.

2011 Distance Wrap Up

2012-01-03T10:47:00.002-06:00

As suggested in my last post, 2012 most likely won't be a good year. This feeling was more or less confirmed by my truck being diagnosed with a cracked head gasket yesterday, while getting a routine oil change. Who knows how long its been cracked - my suspicion is at least a year, maybe more. We were lucky that it didn't totally blow up while driving around in the middle of nowhere or while we were moving. Timing for this is perfect too, because we're driving to Idaho on Saturday and need my truck (with a new hitch installed) to haul back some things. Good times.

Moving on, I want to compare my 2010 and 2010 totals. For grinsies.

2010

Bike: 106h 20m 16s - 1438.6 Mi
Run: 125h 24m 37s - 652.94 Mi
Swim: 101h 05m 38s - 254039.3 Yd
Pilates: 15h 50m
Yoga: 36h 05m

2011
Bike: 156h 20m 12s - 2124 Mi
Run: 89h 49m 24s - 497.56 Mi
Swim: 77h 59m 24s - 209457.5 Yd
Strength: 4h 30m
Core Training: 1h 50m
Elliptical Training: 48m 08s
Hiking: 13h 30m
Skiing: 4h 00m
Snow Shoveling: 20m
Snowboarding: 5h 00m
Spinning Class: 3h 00m
Yoga: 2h 00m

Bike - it is important to note that the majority of these miles were before May 21, 2011. Only 335 of those miles were post-IM. I'm a bit disappointed I let my bike fitness crash and burn like that. We'll see how it rebounds as I train for Boise.

Run - my IM focus was the bike, and my running was mostly 60-90 minute runs with the occasional 2-3 hour run. In other words: I really didn't train for a marathon. In 2010, my initial summer and fall goal WAS a marathon, thus the higher training mileage. And in 2010, I wasn't injured from March - Oct (where I quit running all together)

Swim - I'm down by nearly 20%. I'm guessing this is because I took 2.5 months off. hmm.

Notice the complete absence of pilates and pitiful amount of yoga. I loved this stuff.... I just didn't have time in 2011. Maybe I will look into doing more of this sort of thing in 2012.

But look, I have logged some diverse activities. Hiking up a 14'er. Skiing. Snowbarding. Sweet. Diversity is a good thing.

2011 Retrospective

2011-12-30T14:43:00.001-06:00

On my way into work this morning, I realized that it was a year to the day since we left Houston and started our life here in Colorado. Wow.

I would like to say that 2011 was everything I wanted it to be and more. Say that it was an awesome year. But I can't. While we had some big highlights to the year, 2011 was one mostly marked by loss and drama. I've never really had anyone or anything die on me before. Nothing could have prepared me for losing 4 close souls this year. I still can't really think about it much - it still hurts too much.

I would like to say that I have high hopes for 2012, but we have some more family health hurdles to get past. Big, uncomfortable ones that will be drawn out and painful. Lets just say that I'm hoping for a good 2013.

Some highlights have been:

30 min PR at Texas 70.3, while taking it easy (thank you IMTX training)
IMTX (really, this is THE highlight of the year)
Exploring Colorado on my bike for IM training, even if I whined about it a lot.
Beer. Lots of beer. Probably too much beer.
Buying a great house in a town that we really love
Camping
Being able to spend time outdoors, pretty much anytime I want

Looking forward, some vague goals are:

Surviving the next few months getting Will's dad into assisted care (or nursing care). This means dealing with Medicare/Medicaid, selling his house, blah blah blah blah. More stuff then one should deal with when your dad is 68.
MOAR skiing. This is of course dependent upon the ski areas getting some snow. Its pathetic right now.
Getting stronger on the bike. I got tired of getting my ass kicked on the hills here.
Enjoy training with a group. My club is doing IM Kansas 70.3 as the club race. Boise is the day before. This means I have instant training buddies.
I would put a time goal down for Boise, but with the crazy weather, I know better. Lets just say I want a stronger performance on the bike.

And really, I can't think past June at this point.

Snowboarding Fail

2011-12-27T18:12:00.000-06:00

Will and I both had last Friday off and decided to hit the slopes. I had bought a 4-pack of lessons for Winter Park, thinking Will could really figure out how to snowboard (he's ok, but I think he needs some instruction so he will really enjoy it). I said I'd use one of the lessons to learn how to snowboard myself.

I think I learned how to ski when I was 5. At any rate, I've been skiing for 30+ years. That's a long time when you think about it. In the past, Will and I have only had maybe one day a year to hit the slopes. Will usually was good for a half day of snowboarding before the frustration took over and he was done. I would spend the whole day skiing. Will wanted me to take a snowboarding lesson, but each time I'd refuse because I was NOT going to spend my one day a year on my ass hating life.

Now we live here and I have a season pass. I think that means I have more than one day a year on the mountain. This also means I didn't have an excuse to not give boarding a try.

I went into it knowing I'd be spending the whole day on my ass, but I was optimistic. I'm a great skiier. I was excited to learn something new from scratch. Think about it, how often do you get the opportunity to learn something completely new? I went into this with an open mind. I came out with very bruised knees and probable moderate whiplash.

The 4-pack had two options. A semi-private lesson whichs started at 11:30, meaning we'd waste the morning waiting for the lesson to start. Or an all-day group lesson with lunch included. We did the group lesson. I know Will was hoping to be in my group, but he can do things like stand, turn, and stop. I could not. He was placed in the beginner group. I was placed in the novice group. And we parted ways for the day.

Winter Park. See all those trails? Well, I didn't go on hardly any of them.

I had ~10 people in my group, ranging from high schoolers to some guy who was maybe in his 40's. I wasn't the oldest, but I was probably the second or third oldest. At least I had altitude and endurance training to my advantage, as most people were from out of state.

We started the lesson figuring out our bindings. Pain in the asses, those bindings are. We strapped one foot in and practiced scooting along like you'd ride a skateboard. Only I'd never ridden a skateboard so the motion was incredibly awkward. We practiced scooting up the hill like that. Hey, I was good at this and beat everyone up the hill. Then we practiced turning by leaning back towards our heels with our back to the hill (one foot strapped in, the other loose). Ok, it felt weird, but I got it. Next we practiced turning by leaning forward on our toes. Got it.

Then it was time to go up the lift! Scary! We had very minimal instruction on going up the lift. I figured I could fake it, if needed. The guy who was supposed to ride up with me freaked out, almost got tangled up in the lift side pole, freaked out even more and didn't make it onto the lift. At the top of the lift, I successfully dismount and did not crash. We all got to the top, but were missing random guy, so our instructor zoomed down the mountain to get him. Only as soon as the instructor took off, random guy appeared. Ugh.

First lesson - standing up. You can either sorta dig you heels in and magically stand up or you can be a yoga master and dig your toe side in, do a back bend sort of thing, and stand up. The easier sounding way didn't work for me - I kept sliding down the hill as I tried to stand up. Good thing I've done a bunch of yoga, as that worked for me.

We finally made it over to the "bunny hill" area, which is a bit weird since its mid-mountain. We practiced falling leaf patterns, where you zig-zag across the run. First we practiced leaning back to our heels and turning/stopping, then going across the other way. It was awkward. Also: it was easy to lean the wrong way (down the hill) and fall on your hands and knees (and face). Knees don't have much padding. Falling on them hurts. After a few runs of that, we practiced going "toe side", where you face uphill and lean towards you toes to turn and stop. This was HARD. Very tough on the calves and feet, as you're almost tippie-toe. Heel side is much easier, even if its hard on the quads.

Cropped view of the area I snowboarded. Yes, that tiny yellow shaded area. Very sad.

The hill we're on is pretty flat. Half the time I have to jump around or throw my feet around to get going. A bunch of the time, my balance sucks and I crash.

Lifts suck on snowboards. First, you have to undo your back foot and scoot around everywhere. Then if you don't angle your leg just right as you get on the lift, your knee gets turned awkwardly as you take off. Then the dismount. The bunny hill lift has a harder dismount than the first lift we went up. So you'd point the board perpendicular to the lift and place your free foot on top of the board. Then you'd gently push off the lift and coast downhill. Each time, I'd crash HARD on my tailbone. Only I couldn't sit there and curse to myself. I would have to gather myself and move quickly out of the way. Then I'd have to stand up (which isn't hard when you have one foot free) and scoot to where my lesson people were, sit down, and buckle my feet in. Buckling in sucks. You wouldn't think it sucks, but it does. Especially since, when I ski, there is none of this up and down, crash, stand, sit, buckle business. You just get off the lift and go.

So after ~maybe 2 hours of this ride the lift, crash, sit and listen to our instructions, board falling leaf style, crash a ton, and ride up to do it again, it's lunch time. We board part of the way to the lunch spot (Snowasis), only the slope isn't quite right and we get stuck and need to walk most of the way there. We have lunch and walk back to our little bunny hill. Only we had to walk through a pretty busy flat spot, where the skiiers/boarders hauled ASS to get through. So it was like we were playing frogger. Not cool.

Apparently over lunch I'd forgotten what I learned that morning. I was having a lot of issues and crashed pretty hard backwards, which made me really appreciate the free helmet that came with my rental. Yup, definitely not liking things. And each time you crash, each time you have to awkwardly stand up. And each time, you'd have to flop your board around to position it so you can stand up. Such a pain in the ass. I finally figured out that I could face the mountain, stand up with my back pointing downhill. But that was only ok if it was flat enough for me to hop around 180 degrees so my face was pointing downhill. If it was too steep for that, I'd have to get up the other (more challenging way). Somewhere along the way, I tweaked my shoulder and my hand. My knees were killing me. And my ass was well on its way. We practiced some more, in a way that was more like "real" snowboarding, where you point the thing downhill and use your heels and toes to guide you. I'd get freaked out and heel it all the way down, which was a ridiculous quad workout. I think I had maybe 2 runs total where I didn't crash. They wweren't fast runs, but I didn't crash. I think at the end of the day, I had 3 lift dismounts that were successful. And each time up the lift, I was spending more and more time (while buckling my foot to the board) gathering my wits to head back down.

So I'm watching my watch (please, when will this end!). I was trying to figure out how we were going to get down the mountain to the base. Lessons ended at 3, and it was 2:40. Our instructor gathered us and announced that we'd be heading down after another run. I asked how we were getting down, if we only had 20 minutes. He replied that we were walking to the Gemini lift (the one we originally took up), and TAKING THE LIFT DOWN. I have never in my life had to ride a lift DOWN. Oh, the humiliation! Ugh.

We got to the base and I found Will. I'd seen Will a few times during the day (he was on the same bunny hill for part of the day), but he generally kept his distance since he knew I wasn't happy. He had a good lesson and learned somethings. I had an awful day. Honestly, the best part was riding the lift up each time. It was a spectacularly sunny day with fresh snow on the mountains. Beautiful. But I was dead. And frustrated. And sore. And I missed my skiis.

So we went and had beers and really tasty gorgonzola/spinach/artichoke/bacon dip at the Cheeky Monk and then went home. I told Will he can have the remaining 2 lessons. I'm not snowboarding ever again. :/

Not what I had in mind for a workout this morning

2011-12-22T10:28:00.002-06:00

8 inches of snow. And dummy here left her laptop at work. My arms are tired now.

I only shovelled my side of the driveway

8 inches on the ground and the snow pile was probably 3 feet high. fun.

What a week (and its only Wednesday)

2011-12-21T18:19:00.001-06:00

I started eating Paleo Sunday night. I went to a tri seminar a few months back, and they had a dietician talk about metabolic periodization, where you restrict grains during the build phase of your training schedule. I've been feeling like crap for months now and have had a little voice telling me to think about Paleo. After doing some reading the past few weeks, I'm giving it a shot.

My first full day eating Paleo - my coworkers dropped off a bag of chocolates. Ugh. Bad week to start a diet which restricts sugar. Fortunately, my boss was asking around for chocolate, so I gave her the whole bag.

So far its not awful. I think my stamina is a bit reduced (which is common). Yesterday was sprint day for swimming, and I was more gassed than normal. And I was sweating more than usual during my lunch time weight workout. Supposedly after the 2nd week, your energy goes through the roof and you access your fat stores. We shall see. If anything, it will be an interesting month.

Last night, I got conned into going to this sort of self help seminar by a coworker. She's a friendly acquaintance and did this seminar and it changed her life. I really didn't want to go but she wouldn't let it drop. I went, and its basically a cult. Or cult-like pyramid scheme. Do some googling of L a n d m a r k F o r u m. I'm glad my radar went off in the first 30 seconds I was in the building (everyone was SO HAPPY) and it kind of went downhill from there. They even had a portion of the evening dedicated to registering for the 3 day course ($500). I didn't want to give them any trackable information, so I didn't even get a name tag at the event entrance. I saw that you had to fill out a contact card when you got your name tag, so I just kept walking. Even though several worker people said "I see you don't have a nametag, have you been offered one?" The whole thing was weird. People were having epiphanies (but they call them Breakthroughs!) but while people were talking about their problems (Breakdowns!), the moderator was guiding their words to match the program's bizzaro language. Sometimes it was subtle (and the people mirrored his wording with barely any promting), sometimes he flat out made them repeat his statement. And while the words were english, they were assembled oddly. They said specific sentence structure led to empowerment and words were powerful. And magically, by using the modified language, they reached their Breakthrough! I thought it was creepy. And when said person reached their Breakthrough! the whole room sighed in amazement and applauded. Even my coworker was saying "you just witnessed 2 breakthroughs tonight, wasn't it amazing!" (the issues were not life changing, and in one case, the class led some guy to apologize to his ABUSIVE FATHER. The son apolgized to his father because the son had allowed their relationship to lapse. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking if you don't want a relationship with a guy who beat the shit out of you and your family, that's probably a good thing!) In fact, you couldn't simply talk to someone. You were "sharing" and "having a conversation". Everyone was talking and using identical phrasing. Sooo weird! I'm sure it helps some people, but I really do not need an organization telling me how to think, right down to how I express my thoughts. Ick. Seriously, I get the heebie jeebies when I think about last night. I'm so glad I didn't get sucked in! I'm sure my checking account thanks me as well!

And now I have a coworker who was/is friendly to me, but she is in what I believe is to be a pseudo-cult. Awkward! I really am destined to not have any friends at work.

I just want to get through tomrorrow and then I'm off for a 4 day weekend. Will and I are going to learn how to snowboard on Friday. The snow is shitty, but you really don't need good snow when you learn. Hopefully I won't die.

So that race didn't happen

2011-12-06T10:31:00.001-06:00

I woke up Saturday to this:

maybe 3 inches and another 2-3 on the way....

Big puffy flakes, wind, and really cold temperatures. This was at 7:30 AM. No road plowing had been done. I hung out for a bit and debated going. Then I decided that even driving to the race was sketchy, much less racing it. So I went back to bed and slept in until 10:30 AM. Will and the kitties were very happy about this decision.

This was my second ever DNS. My first was for the Kemah Olympic tri, where I had a horrible stomach virus the night before (morning of?) where I was puking every 30 minutes from 11 PM to well after the start of the race.

I checked out the race results, and it looks like over 100 people raced. On their bikes. Colorado people are crazy.

I, on the other hand, was very happy to be home, in my jammies, fire going, and being lazy.

Zipper likes to try and catch snowflakes as they fall outside the patio door.

mountain bike... what is that?

2011-12-02T12:00:00.001-06:00

It snowed all day yesterday. It will snow tonight and tomorrow morning.

The problem? I have a duathalon tomorrow. 4 mile trail run and a 10 mile bike. With snow. And the roads/ground was nice and warm, which meant that the snow melted at first and turned to ice, and then got covered with more snow.

I have seriously thought about turning my tri bike into a ski bike.

Condition update from the race director:

*** DECEMBER 3RD RACE UPDATE!!! (updated 7pm Thursday December 1st) As always, we issue a course conditions report the Thursday before each Chilly Cheeks race. Yesterday, the roads and trails were dry. Tonight, there are a few inches of snow on the ground at Cherry Creek State Park. It's Chilly Cheeks Season!!!

The forecast for Friday calls for morning sunshine and afternoon clouds with temps getting just above freezing. So... I would anticipate some slick conditions on at least a portion of the bike course on race morning in the form of packed snow and patches of ice. Saturday's race forecast is for temps around 20 degrees at race time with the potential for light snow falling.

As always, your bike choice is up to you, but a mountain bike might be a good option. If you arrive on Saturday and you are uncomfortable with the bike course conditions, you can switch to the run-only prior to the start of the race. Just let us know when you pick up your number.

Here are some last minute instructions for everyone. Packet pick-up will open at 8:00am, with the race starting at 10:00am. Please bring photo ID with you to packet pick-up. Your race number and timing chip can only be picked up by you on race morning.

Directions to the park are listed below this update. Please enter through the west gate off of Dayton. Parking will be available in the Hobie Hill lot, immediately adjacent to transition. Once this lot is full, we will cone off the entrance, and you will need to park in the marina parking lot, just 200 yards further down the road. Please do not park on the grass (park rangers will ticket you) or attempt to park in the Hobie Hill lot once we have closed it to parking. Any available spots you see are reserved for race volunteers and our ambulance. We are only permitted to park in these two lots. Please do not park elsewhere or it will jeopardize our ability to hold these events in the future.

There will be two starting waves on Saturday morning - all men at 10:00am, and all women just a few minutes later. During the first 1.75 miles of the run, you will need to stay to the left side of the road facing traffic. There will be an aid station serving water at 1.75 miles. From there, you will run on dirt trails for about 1.5 miles, then on bike path for the remainder of the 4 mile run.

Run-only participants will conclude their event when they cross the 4-mile timing mat (all miles will be marked), and a volunteer will retrieve your timing chip. Duathlon participants will continue to transition, grab their bikes, and head out for a 10.8 mile ride. Helmets are mandatory on the bike, and must be buckled before you start. You will not be allowed to start without a helmet.

The bike course will be open to light park traffic, so please stay to the right except to pass, and no crossing the centerline of the road (even if it is covered with snow, you know where it is). Also - this is a low-key fun winter event, but please - no drafting on the bike. You must leave at least 3 bike lengths between your front wheel and the rear wheel of the bike ahead of you.

There will be volunteers at all intersections and turns on the bike course to direct you. The finish of the bike will be the same point as the start line for the run. After crossing the finish mat, slow down immediately and return your timing chip. Please do not blow past the chip retrievers as you will cross the path of runners who may still be on course. You may also miss out on a great raffle item that we award to random finishers at the finish line. We have helmets and glasses from Rudy Project, training DVD's from Carmichael, gift certificates from Boulder Running Company, Koobi Saddles, KompetitiveEdge, Excel Sports, and more. Lots'a great swag!!!

Once you are done, stop by the food tents for home made banana chocolate chip bread (my house smells so good right now!!! As well as hot cocoa, hot ramen noodle cups, and plenty of other drinks!

I know, after weeks in the 50's and 60's this blast of winter is a real shocker, but this is what Chilly Cheeks is all about. Come out and have some fun with us!!! Online registration closes at 5pm on Friday, and race-day registration will be available. We'll see you on Saturday morning!!!

I have a mountain bike that I bought ~10 years ago. Will and I used to ride them a lot. Then I found masters swimming and really didn't want to work out 2x a day (swim in the morning, ride after work. little did I know what my future would hold....) Then I got a tri bike and have completely forgotten about the mountain bike. The only time in recent memory that I rode it was a year ago, only because I needed to get to/from the car detail shop by my house and I didn't have the time to run to and from the place.

So, I busted the bike out last night. Aired up the tires (hopefully they hold air - those tubes are original. probably just cursed myself here). Played with the shifters so I remember that they do not shift like my tri bike. And wow, this sucker is heavy. (Will actually told me not to whine about how heavy it is before I went in the garage to mess with it)

Dressing for this thing is a whole different animal. My transition time will be ridiculous. For the run, I figure I'll wear my fleecy run tights (with tri shorts underneath), a long sleeve shirt, my SONY jacket, a hat, and my new windproof baclava (that I just got for skiing). And probably gloves. For the bike, since I'm using my mountain bike, I won't mess with the cycling shoes. I've debated about putting my SPD pedals on my mountain bike for more power, but I've decided that its probably safest if I'm able to quickly put my foot down if I start sliding. I will bitch about not being able to pull up on my pedals, but its only 10 miles. Still debating on wearing my warm winter cycling gloves or my ski gloves. I will also probably have an insulated water bottle with warm water for the bike. And maybe another jacket. Although with the mountain bike, its not like I'll be generating that much speed/wind.

When I heard about this, I thought it would be interesting to race in the snow, but secretly hoped that it wouldn't come to it. Guess I'll find out tomorrow if snow racing is fun or horrible.

Back on a plan

2011-11-30T11:06:00.001-06:00

I've decided that I really don't want to run outside in the dark and cold. I've also decided that I have no interest in running on the treadmill. This means, no running during the week. I may occasionally run on the weekends - but only if the weather is good and I'm not up skiing. Skiing is my winter weekend focus this year.

My 1.5 month break has been amazing. Luxuious. Restful. However, not doing much of anything has lead to weight gain - probably 10 lbs. Not cool. Also not surprising.

I've discovered this late summer and fall that if I do not have a plan, I simply won't follow through. I'm generally self-motivated and accountable, but if I don't have a specific something planned on a daily basis, then its way too easy for me to sleep in or bum around on the couch. As much as Will and the cats love me blowing off workouts, my waistline can't take it anymore. So, I'm playing "coach" for myself. Monday, I sat down with a calendar and created my own version of TrainingPeaks (in Word) which lays out a daily plan for the whole month. With specific exercises. A plan.

My focus for this off-season is to gain strength on the bike, so I'm better able to ride up hills, canyons, and maybe even a mountain. I started (and then stopped - but I was sick) lifting weights, earlier in the month with an emphasis on leg strength. Knowing that I needed some sort of cardio to build strength, I found a 16 week free cycling program - "Winter Cycling", which is designed to build critical power. Cool. Most of the workouts are short - usually 45 to 60 min long. I can get by on 2 workouts a week, I could do the 3 short rides, or I could do 4 rides a week (3 short and 1 long). I highly doubt I'll get in the long weekend ride (hello, skiing!) but 2-3 short rides on the trainer are achievable.

I've also joined a new swim team, my 3rd this year. Hopefully this one will stick. I know that the workouts won't completely meet my swim-snobbery standards, but for the time being, just getting in the pool and having friends there with me will be enough. I can always show up early if I want to get more yards in (which I will probably do this spring).

Finally, I registered for the Chilly Cheeks Duathalon series. I have no plans of really racing these. Its more like an excuse to get out there, run at least once a month, and keep my skills sharp. The first one is this Saturday. And we're expected to get 5 inches of snow tonight, and the high temp for the day is 22 degrees. (!!) (the low is 10 degrees and the race is at 10 AM.). My lovely husband, upon hearing that I signed up for the race AND upon hearing the weather report laughed out loud. I told him, just for that reaction, I should make him go to the race and spectate. So, yeah. Snow and cold. Looks like I will be racing with my ski gear. All this so I could get a pair of sweat pants that say "Chilly Cheeks".....

So, my plan, is roughly like this:
Monday - weights at lunch, bike after work
Tuesday - swim team before work
Wednesday - bike after work (or before work if something fun is going on after)
Thursday - weights at lunch, bike after work (depending on how things feel)
Friday - swim team before work
Weekend - ski and maybe run. Tri club has a Sunday run group, so I may join in.

This is my third day on the plan, and my legs are sore. Not dying sore, but more like "hey, what is going on?!?!". Was I sore like this every day during my IM training? I don't remember being sore all the time. Hopefully this is just an effect of being a couch potato. Either way, it feels good to be back and doing something.

Post Thanksgiving Ramblings

2011-11-28T11:41:00.001-06:00

Things are still kind of blah. Here's a recap of the past week and other random thoughts...

I love to cook for Thanksgiving. For the first time this year, I got to cook for my mom (pretty much all of my "family"). Normally we'd fly to Denver for Thanksgiving for the week, but now we live here. Yay! Also, last year was a bit depressing as we were selling our house and moving, and cooking a big meal would mean making a mess. And we needed to keep our house clean. So no turkey at our house last year. So, this year, I went with tradition and made: apple cider brined turkey (really, the BEST turkey recipe ever), homemade rolls, traditional stuffing (which for the first time, turned out near perfect - I have a hard time seasoning it properly), roasted and mashed squash (I used the Chirimen squash I got from the farm... it was just ok), and homemade cherry pie, including the crust. Mmmm

My mom came over (her second visit since we bought the house). She arrived 15 min before food was served and stayed a whopping 1.5 hours. And she asked for her pie to-go. No idea. And also, kind-of weird.

I love making Thanksgiving because that means I get all the leftovers! Sadly, a 15 lb turkey didn't last very long. We had leftovers for dinner on Friday and that was it. I think that Will had a bit more than he should have for lunch, though. I was really hoping on 3 meals total from the spread. *sigh*

Friday I went skiing with my friend D. My first day of the year. My first ever trip on a season pass. We went to Winter Park because the weather said we'd get 2-4 inches of snow during the day. Copper had more runs open, but we wanted SNOW. Sadly, the weather report lied. It was a good test though - we had pretty much every kind of weather: sun, clouds, wind, snow, sideways snow. It was a good test of my gear and helped me figure out what I was lacking. I then bought a new ski bag (which holds my boots and gear), baclava (protects your face from the wind/cold), some light weight fleeces, and some before and after winter boots. Wooo. Skiing was fun but with the limited runs, it was fairly crowded. I think we hit the slopes at 10, had a short lunch break at 2, took 2 more runs and was done by 3.

Sadly (or maybe this is a good thing?), my winter running gear = ski gear. I used my heavy running tights (which are fleecy on the inside) as long undies. And I used various run shirts as layering for my top.

And speaking of winter running, I ran for the first time since the Denver RnR Half Marathon (Oct 9th). I was supposed to start back up 2 weeks earlier but I got this annoying cold that just wouldn't go away. I did the local Turkey Trot 5k. It cost $15 and I got a fleecy hat. The race was at the local rec center (a whopping 4 miles from my house) and we ran on the hike and bike trail. The race wasn't timed, so it truly was just a fun run. Suprisingly, there were 750 people at the 5k. That's a ton of people for a hike and bike trail. I met up with some of my tri club buddies and fortunately, we all run at about the same pace. We stuck together for the first 2 miles and then I just had to walk. So did one other person, so I didn't feel so bad. And we were both sick. Still - I can't even make it 3 miles? Full disclosure: I actually had to walk 3 times in that last mile. At 2 miles, 2.5 miles, and somewhere way too close to the finish. The last 0.2 miles is uphill (very mean) and I was trying to push, but that made me feel pukey to the point where my stomach was starting to roll. And some chick right in front of me lost her breakfast (over a 5k - REALLY?) so I stopped to regain my composure. My time wasn't awful - 33:03, a 10:36 pace. Not bad considering I walked 3 times. Ugh.

I have a lot of squash, spinach, and apples from my CSA. Its crazy. So yesterday was "processing day", where I basically get things prepped (or processed) to sleep in the freezer. I roasted 3 different pumpkins - a pie pumpkin, a cinderella pumpkin, and a long island cheesecake pumpkin. The pie one only yielded 2 cups. The long island one yielded probably ~6-8 cups and then became pumpkin-lime-coconut soup (with turkey added in). The cinderella pumpkin was so huge I had to cook it up in 2 batches. It yielded 17 cups (!!!) of pureed pumpkin. Crazy. Four large bunches of spinach shrank down to fill a large bowl. And I had 3 medium and 1 large bag of apples. I bought one of those apple peeler-slicer-corer devices a month ago. I always thought those were kind of a worthless kitchen item. That is, until I had a mountain of apples to peel. This device is the shizzle. I went to work prepping apples, intending to just chuck them in the freezer. But then I decided to make a batch of crockpot applesauce. Holy crap, was it the best applesauce ever. And it smelled amazing. And really very heathy for you. I just took apples (enough to fill the crockpot up 3/4 of the way), 1/2 cup of apple cider, 1/2 cup of agave nectar (although you could use sugar), and a few dashes of cinnamon. Then put it on high for 8 hours. Amazingness.

This is the week I will get on the ball and start working out. I finally registered for the new swim team. If I pay for it, I will actually show up. The problem this past month is that I didn't pay for it... which meant I had no motivation to go. Its going to hurt. I haven't swam in 2.5 months. I will also ride my bike on the trainer at least once this week. And resume lifting weights. Being sick really put a kink in my "back on the wagon" attempt from 2 weeks ago.

I'm doing a duathlon series - Chilly Cheeks. First one is this Sunday and go figure, I haven't trained. The first one is a 4 mile trail run and a 10 mile bike. Hopefully I can fake my way through. The second race (in January) consists of a 1.5 mile run, 3.6-mile bike, a 2.5 mile run, 7.2 mile run, and a 50 meter run to the finish line. Mkay! The final race (February) is a 10 mile bike and a 4 mile run. The distances are so very random and conditions could be snowy (they don't cancel due to snow - you just ride your mountain bike) that I really can't justify taking this series very seriously. So I'm doing it for fun and to ensure that I touch my bike once a month this winter.

I had a really bad dream experience on Sunday morning. I dreamt that I was on the couch and Ernie was next to me, lounging, purring loudly, letting me love on him and rub his belly. Then Swift popped up and was on my lap, loving on me. I was so happy to have both of them - acting just as they used to. (Ok, maybe Ernie wasn't quite so friendly - but he could be when he wanted to). Then I rolled over and *poof* the dream was gone. I was still half asleep and found myself sobbing - ragged painful sobbing. It was awful. They were so real and then they were gone. It was like I lost them all over again. :(

New kitties are adjusting (although, awkward - they were snuggled next to me when I woke up sobbing over my other kitties). Zipper has run off with Will's heart. He liked Ernie and Swift, but they were always mine (I had them before we got married). Zipper has claimed Will and they really love eachother. She'll jump up on his lap while he works, just to say hi, stays out a few minutes and zooms off to do something else. They'll play fetch in the mornings for 30 minutes. She'll sit with him at night while we watch tv. She's very playful but in an innocent and nice sort of way. She just likes to be where ever the humans are and wants to play all the time. Gunny is doing better. He's over his bladder issues that was making him want to pee on anything. My hope is that the issue was stress related. He's still really shy but will spend most of his time snoozing on the couch. He will jump out of his hidey hole (under the coffee table) when I'm around and want me to pet him. And he'll cuddle on my lap at night. He's still a scaredy cat, though. Any new visitors, no matter how friendly, and *poof* he's off hiding under the laundry rack in the laundry room. Poor guy - hopefully in time he'll mellow out and let our visitors get to know him.

Scalloped potatoes with ham and leeks

2011-11-21T10:04:00.001-06:00

I have an overabundance of winter veggies from the CSA. In particular, squash, potatoes, onions, and leeks. The squash and potatoes are happily sleeping in my basement until I feel like using them. The leeks were massive and taking up space in my veggie drawer. Seriously, these things were as big as my arm.

one of two ginormous leeks. and to think, last month I got a
small leek and I was actually whining about how small it was.

One of the cooking blogs I read is Three Many Cooks, and I found this recipe for Creamy Leek Gratin with Garlic Breadcrumbs and Bacon. I had some ham steaks from the farm and decided that this would make a nice main course for the week. However, upon slicing up the two massive leeks, I realized that while massive, they were only about half of what I needed for the recipe. And then I went off-recipe and created something which I consider was WAY tastier. This was done on the fly and measurements are approximate. Really, I just used whatever I had lying around.

I'm guessing this makes 6 servings.

Ingredients:

~1 lb leeks, sliced
~1/2 cup onion, diced
garlic
spinach (I used one bunch - next time, I will use 2 bunches)
5 fist sized potatoes (they may have been smaller). Maybe a pound? Type doesn't matter - I used both russet and red. Slice thin, no need to peel them.
~2 lbs ham, fat removed and cubed
panko breadcrumbs

Bechamel Sauce
(I think this is a bechamel sauce.... its my version of it anyways)

2 T butter
2-3 T flour
milk (really no idea.... 2 cups maybe?)
half and half (same amount as milk, but really no idea on the quantity. Also, you could probably just use milk here)
8 oz shredded smoked grueyre cheese
pepper
6 oz plain greek yogurt

Steps:

Preheat over to 425.
Quarter and slice leeks and let soak in 2 water baths to remove dirt and grit.
Get a big mixing bowl. You can layer everything in a casserole dish, but I just dumped everything in a huge bowl, added the sauce, mixed it up well, and dumped it in a pan.
Slice potatoes, dice ham and put in mixing bowl.
Sautee leeks, garlic, and onion until translucent, about 10 min on medium heat.
When done, transfer to bowl, keeping about 1 cup of leeks separate.
Sautee spinach. Honestly, the spinach could be cooked with the leeks.... I just didn't think of adding them until the leeks were almost done. Add to bowl.
Make sauce

prepare a roux. Add butter and melt it, then add flour. Then slowly add the milk, stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps. Really, you want to add the milk slow. Once that's combined, add the half and half.
Bring it up to a warm temperature - you don't want it to boil. You just need it hot enough to melt the cheese.
Add ground pepper to taste.
Add cheesy goodness. And stir a lot to melt.
Once the cheese is melted, remove from the heat and add leeks and greek yogurt. Whisk to incorporate/mix yogurt. Then I blended it a bit with an immersion blender - although you could totally skip this step. (also, if you don't blend it, you can skip adding leeks to the sauce). I thought the yogurt was a bit odd, but it added a nice creamy-ness to it and you couldn't tell it was in there.

Add sauce to bowl with the rest ingredients and mix to ensure everything is coated. You want this pretty soupy.
Add to casserole dish (I used a 13 x 9 glass dish), coat generously with breadcrumbs
Bake in oven for ~45 - 60 min. It was probably done at 45 minutes, I just wanted to make sure. Also, after 30 min, check every 15 min or so to ensure your breadcrumbs don't burn. I had to cover with foil after 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and let it sit for ~10 min.
Try not to eat the whole pan.

Horticulture

2011-11-07T18:16:00.000-06:00

Sad looking front yard. Ok, maybe it just looks sad to me.

I don't know why, but each time we buy a house (you know, all of two times) the yard sucks. All the plants still have their nursery tags on them, the plants are mostly kinda junky, and we have tons of empty bedding space. Also, these houses don't have any mature trees.

Our current house had only 5 trees - 2 mystery trees that could possibly be cherry trees, one which I was hoping was an apple tree but sadly, its a crappy crab apple tree where the fruit is a good 2" in diameter and makes good throwing weapons for the neighborhood urchins, and 2 austrian pine trees.

Really pretty crab apple blossoms in mid-May. Not sure
2 weeks of pretty blossoms is worth 3 months of picking
mini-apples up from your lawn.

NOTHING that would considered be a shade tree.

The front yard is really horrible. Ok, I'm exaggerating. We have a very cute porch and in front of it are very ugly and mis-matched bushes. There are some sort of juniper/evergreen shrubs combined with these weird pale green leafy bushes (which did turn a very pretty shade of red this fall). This is completed by generic river rock underlain with weed fabric. BLAH. The back yard is slightly better. We have 2 types of lilacs (I love lilacs), some really fugly ornamental plum bushes (they're very scraggly and we have a TON of them. And we have some creeping blue juniper (which is ok) in the beds under the plums. And a stand of aspen - which really are just big weeds. The weird thing is that there were NO FLOWERS at all in our yard. How sad is that?

veggie bed. Strangely, this HUGE space was completely
devoid of plants. Also see aspens behind it.

We bought the house in May but then had IMTX to contend with. Which meant no time for the new house until June. Which was too late to do anything substantial to the yard. We did install a 5 x 8 ft raised vegetable bed. Planted a ton of herbs (peppermint, 3 types of basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro), eggplant, zucchini, japanese cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, green peppers, butternut squash, mini-canteloupe, strawberries, and spaghetti squash. I think it was just too late to plant anything, because for the most part, the garden was a collossal flop. We managed to have nice herbs (although the cilantro died nearly right away - I never have luck with that stuff). We got 3 lemon cucumbers, 2 japanese cucumbers, and a whoppiong 2 zucchini. So weird. I did get one decent sized spaghetti squash but when I picked it, it was fairly green and watery on the inside. Ick. And we did get a few tiny strawberries.

Sad little cukes....

They were small, but actually SUPER tasty. All I can say is THANK GOODNESS for my CSA and the weekly veggie deliveries. Otherwise, it would have been a sad, veggie-free summer.

I also ordered a ton of plants from Spring Hill Nursery. Huge disappointment. They arrived as little plants, and I think by the time they got in the ground (mid-June) was was too hot and we were too far into the growing season for them to do anything. Also: Will decided to "weed" some areas with a shovel and killed several of them. Boo.

After about a month of being in the house, we knew that we needed some real trees. Our living room / kitchen / bedroom face west with big windows. Western sun + nothing to block the sun = HOT rooms. Seriously, in the past 15 years, WHY did no one plant a real tree for shade?!?!?!? Also, our house in situated on a corner and our back yard faces the front door and driveway of our perpendicular neighbor. Fortunately, they don't have windows on that side of the house so its not like we're starring at each other. Still, I really don't want to be aware of their house features. So in late June, we ordered a HUGE (probably 20 ft tall) autumn blaze maple. This thing will get

Maple tree. Small green shrubs were the existing lilacs.

to ~50 feet tall and should provide awesome summer shade. We also got a baby blue eyes spruce and a vanderwolf pine. Picking pine trees for this area was a bit tricky, because we didn't want the trees to be wide but we wanted them to be fairly tall. Hopefully these trees will do what we need them to do.

Summer went by and we didn't really do anything with the yard. In August, we came back from Idaho with some irises from grandma's yard. I also got some seeds from some ornamental poppies and hollyhocks that went to seed in the yard. (I totally forgot about these until now... hmmmm). Then my mom found some random guy who had "award winning" irises that he had split up and was giving away. Apparently these things are expensive and lovely. So we planted a TON of irises in the outskirts of the yard.

right to left - vanderwolf pine, baby blue eyes spruce,
austrian pine. With icky scraggly plums in between.

And hopefully in a few years, we'll have iris flowers. Oh, and we got some hops from Will's grandparent's mountain cabin. They were growing, but the bunnies ate the leaves off. They now are surrounded by chicken wire. Maybe next year we'll have hops for beer?

Its fall now and has snowed 3 times. Fall is the time to plant bulbs, so you have a pretty spring. And once they're planted, you typically don't have to do anything with them for years to come. They just do their own thing and come back every year. When I lived in Houston, the first year we had a house I planted something like 150 bulbs. Most of them came up. But over the following years, I'd say that maybe half came back, then half of that half, then soon, nothing. Something to do with a lack of a hard freeze, bulbs rotting, crappy soil. Simply not worth the effort. But in Colorado, bulbs do great! So I ordered some daffodills, tulips. hyacinths, grape hyacinths, and alliums. And for the garden I got garlic. We got some garlic in August from the CSA and it was some of the BEST garlic I'd ever had. Small bulbs but they packed a punch. A coworker told me about this garlic internet "farm" where you could order seed bulbs, so I got a small garden pack, containing 0.25 lb amounts of four different types of garlic. I've never planted garlic before, so this whole thing will be an experience. Apparently, you have to break up the garlic into individual cloves and plant each clove separately. You want the big cloves, as they determine the size that your garlic will be at maturity. So I got to work splitting up the cloves. It was weird because it just looked like a bulb of garlic that you buy at the store. Still not sure why these were special "seed" garlics, but whatever. So after they were split up, I counted the cloves and we had over 60. Which means I could have 60 heads of garlic next summer. Good thing we're not vampires or we'd be in trouble. Also: holy crap, that's a lot of garlic. I didn't want to take up space in the raised garden bed, but the soil surrounding the bed is pretty good. So I picked 4 distinct areas for each variety and planted those. I probably should have planted them a month ago, but I didn't. Hopefully they'll survive. We shall see.

This spring, I would like to re-do the area in front of the front porch. That means getting rid of those crappy ugly bushes that don't do anything and replacing them with other things. I'm thinking miniature pines or spruces with maybe a flowering shrub. This area faces to the north, so it could be tricky. And I'd also like to get some potted flowers for the front porch - to make things cheery. I also want to get into this area by our dining room. Its a deep corner of the yard and it has 3 VERY scraggly plum bushes. (can you tell I hate those things?) We have at least 7 of those damn things and they really don't do anything at all. Instead, I would love to do a cute xeriscaped area or maybe a rock garden. Of course, this will depend on my training for the Boise HIM and how much time I feel like spending on a part of the yard that I don't see very often. And we're going to start veggies inside and move them into the yard in ~April. Two months earlier than this year. Not certain what I want to plant, but I do know I want more basil, would like to try cukes and squash again, and I definitely want to grow romanesco squash (its like zucchini but so much tastier!). We are thinking that we planted too late and our plants just couldn't get a good start in life, thus the very poor production. I may also do some spring crops like lettuce and things.

So that's the plan for next year. We're still at least a good couple of summers away from things looking really nice, but its a good start.

Oh hai there

2011-11-03T18:29:00.002-05:00

Wow, October kind of went and knocked me on my ass. In the past month, all this happened:

Adjusting to life with two new cats, Zipper (~6 months) and Gunnison (Gunny, ~4 years). Zipper is crazy, in a sweet kitten sort of way. She rarely sits still. She runs in all 3 dimensions, ala The Matrix, banking off of furniture and walls. Gunny is really shy still and has a chronic bladder inflamation issue. Soooo, we've been working through that. I think he's been feeling better, though, as he's been more social and cuddly. Also: now that its cold, they both sleep with us at night. Yay.

They were not cage-mates at the shelter. Oddly enough, they really like each other.

Half marathon was fun. Somehow, I was only 3 minutes slower than my PR, with about half as much training. Goooo IM training base! I ended up running with my tri-club friend Steph. We were chatting and some girl behind us said she was listening in and figured we were tri-dorks (my words, not hers). Turns out she's training for IMTX 2012, so we had many miles of conversation. Sadly, though, at mile 10, my legs/body definitely felt the lack of training. I ran 10 miles 6 weeks earlier, and that was my longest run since May. Also: consuming less than 1 full gel (because of stomach issues) was probably a problem. At mile 10 I tried to push and just couldn't. The really sad part was that the last mile was all downhill. Again, I tried to push and nope, there was nothing in the tank. Afterwards, we (as a club) went to two bars. Steph celebrated by doing a tequilla shot and push-up. Some of our club people did the full marathon, and at mile 14, they did a keg stand. Impressive. And also a tiny bit scary.

So we saw the photographer and tried to run and take a group photo. This is what that looked like. Cracks me up everytime I look it. Its like Steph is trying to kill me or something.

Our 12th wedding anniversary was on the 16th. We went up to Steamboat for a long weekend. Did some hiking and some beer drinking. Had a nice dinner out. The fall colors were amazing. The weekend was a bit low-key though, as Will's grandmother died on the 14th.

Fish Creek Falls. Will is convinved that I try to kill him on our anniversaries, because we always go hiking. Hiking = sweating a ton for Will. Its kinda funny.

So yeah, Will's grandmother passed and we flew up on the 21st for her funeral. Grandpa (her husband) passed in February and she was actually more worn down more than he was. In July, she asked to be placed in assisted living. In August, we spent a week in Idaho, mainly to say goodbye for her. In the week leading up to her funeral, I barely even cried. I think its because we already said our goodbye. But then the day of the funeral, wow. Major tears. I was ok during the funeral (it was fairly heavy on religion* and I spent most of the time thinking just how very strange religion is. One of the sermons likened a wife to a supply ship. For reals.) Then afterwards, I went to look at a quilt they had out on display - one of her best ones. Then I lost it. People kept trying to talk to me and I was trying (and failing) to not cry, so I just bolted out the church and down the street a few blocks. If I had my running shoes, I honestly would have ran for a few miles just to clear my head. UGH.

Grandparents on their wedding day - some 66 years ago.

After the funeral, the cousins went to a local (awful) winery for wine and shuffleboard. Wine was bad but it was nice to have some fun. After the winery, we gathered back at the ranch to scatter grandpa's ashes in the meadow across from him home. So sad. But really nice too. We probably spent 2 hours in that meadow, drinking Squirt and Crown Royal (grandpa's drink of choice), sharing memories and stories of them. After that, the Aunts had taken what remained in the grandparent's house and set it up, sort-of like a garage sale. They invited us all over, asking us to take what we wanted, and said that anything that was left would go to Goodwill. I was really weirded out by everyone looking over their trinkets and things. That, and I'm generally not good with crowds. So I went upstairs and found grandma's fabric room. I started looking through her things and found what I consider the lottery. Grandma was a master quilter. I *covet* her quilts. Will's mom pointed out a box, which contained the last quilt that grandma made. Its not complete - but all it needs is the back sewn on and for it to be quilted. Its cream and purple and beautiful. I also found a hand-quilted unfinished one (needs a border, backing, and quilting) with grandma's notes on how to finish it, saying it was for charity. Um no, this one will not be going to charity. I also found a zip-lock bag full of random finished squares - without instructions. My mom is an amazing sewer, and I figured if anyone could help me with this, its her. Also, suprisingly, no one wanted grandma's sewing machine. Its one of those old metal ones (electric) that folds down inside a wooden cabinet. I think I'll have to learn how to sew.... Will got one of grandpa's tool boxes, since he spent quite a bit of his childhood and teen years working with grandpa on the ranch. It was a really sad day, but also a really good day.

Grandpa's favorite tractor - June 2010

Also while up in Idaho, I got to ride a horse (yay!) and moved cattle around on 4-wheeler. The terrain for the 4-wheeler was really hilly with dry streambeds (and steep drop-offs) and really thick sagebrush. I was kicking ass dodging sagebrush and going up and down hills, until I got to a mini-ravine, and freaked out. I couldn't figure a good way down, then the 4-wheeler started sliding sideways (breaks didn't really work). It felt like it was going to roll sideways (on me), so I chucked myself off of it. Somehow I landed flat on my back in the streambed, missing all rocks and bushes. LUCKY. I did get a minor case of whiplash (my neck HURT) and my back was sore. And I freaked Will out - he was on the hill watching all of this. And I freaked myself out. Riding back on dirt rutted roads, I would spaz at the tiniest bump that sent the 4-wheeler off course. *sigh*

We've also had 3 snowstorms. And I've lifted weights twice. Still haven't been swimming, biking, or running. hmmm.

* I am not religious in the slightest, so religion in general is really awkward and weird for me.

A bit lost but trying to find my way

2011-10-07T13:55:00.001-05:00

I used to be so motivated. Check out my workout stats in the right side of this blog - I've barely done anything lately. It took a while, but I think I've finally hit burnout. Maybe crash and burn style burnout. After ~15 months of always having something to train for, I really have nothing on my calendar. Or rather, anything that I care enough about to take seriously.*

Seriously.... sad stuff here. Especially the swimming.

I'm just tired. I have really icky peely rough skin around my rib cage from who knows how many hours of wearing my heart rate monitor. Seriously, its gross. My feet still get achy easily from IMTX. And my calves are fubared. So messed up that, after running with what I'm going to call "shin splints"** since February, I finally went to get physical therapy a few weeks back. That therapy involved very painful massage and even more fun - sticking acupuncture needles into my trigger points (muscles) and letting my muscles convulse around the needle. Good times!

I want/need a break. However, I'm also gaining weight. Rather, I suspect I am because I feel blah and pudgy - getting my actual weight would require me to go to the gym. This is bad. I also don't want to lose the muscle that I worked sooo hard for this spring. What to do.. what to do.

Moving forward, I think that once I get through the Denver RnR half marathon this weekend, I'm putting up my running shoes for at least a month. Probably should have done that in June.

I also think I'm going to lift weights at the gym at work 2x a week. One of my "winter" activities was supposed to be weight lifting. Something I totally forgot about until maybe February then ditched completely. This winter I will lift weights so I can ride my bike up these Colorado hills more easily.

I'm also going to enjoy winter*** and get myself a season pass to some ski areas. I will then go skiing as often as I feel like it and not feel guilty. (although, training for Boise 70.3 will get interesting.... I have to start riding in February or March).

I will also join a new swim team and actually go to practice. For the first time since 2007, I've been "swim-homeless". The team I'm going to join is far from perfect, but I will have friends on the team, which says a lot in keeping me motivated in going. There's a lot to be said for having people keep you accountable. Which is a big part of why I'm so blah lately - no accountability.

I'm also going to TRY and make myself get up early and hit spin class once a week at the rec center. Also, for the past month, I have not woken up any earlier than 6:30 AM. That's right - no morning runs or swims. A few times I've set the alarm, but then realized the air temp was below 50 and decided it was too cold and I would be happier asleep in my bed. Need to work on that, as it was 37 this morning (brrr!) and it will only be getting colder.

So that's the plan (sort-of). We'll see if it sticks.

* I have a half marathon on Sunday. Normally that would motivate me to train for it. This time though, I really don't care about my race time or splits or anything. All I care about is drinking beer with my friends when the race is over. I just hope my IM fitness will help me through it, because my running volume in the past month sure as hell won't. Also: how jaded and sad am I when a half marathon isn't a big deal anymore?!?!

** "shin splints" is code for I may have a stress fracture but I don't actually want to think about it or find out for sure that I have a stress fracture. Smart, huh!

*** Enjoyment of winter is skiing often with no Ironman in my way. Also, enjoyment means no running in the snow (or when its below 20 degrees) and definitely NO BIKE RIDING IN THE SNOW AND COLD. Really, I see snow reports coming in and I want to cry. I am so scarred for life from training outside last winter. I think I've got IM-training PTSD. I used to love winter, now the thought of snow makes me cringe. Hopefully skiing will fix this. If not, I'm in trouble.

Salsa Verde Chicken with Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings

2011-09-22T12:14:00.000-05:00

I love the website The Pioneer Woman (and her associated site, Tasty Kitchen). One day, at the bottom of the Tasty Kitchen page, I noticed a link for a cookbook for Perfect One-Dish Dinners. I clicked on the link, which took me to Amazon. After reading a few of the sample recipes, I knew I wanted to give this book a try.

This recipe was one of the featured ones on Amazon. It was crazy-easy to make. Seriously. Mostly chopping up some herbs, mixing things, and opening some cans. It took about 30 minutes to cook. Will said that this was easily one of the best things I've ever made. As a bonus, the "dumplings" (which are more like drop biscuits that you put on top of the chicken/sauce mixture) would easily be very tasty bisciuts on their own, as a compliment to another dinner.

From the cookbook:

Courtesy of Amazon / Perfect One-Dish Dinners. Mine did not look quite so pretty.

Serves 6
This stew can be made 2 days ahead up to the point of making the dumplings. Reheat it before topping and baking. If you want to double the recipe, use a large heavy roasting pan set over two burners.

Ingredients:

For the Chicken
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth
1 jar (16 ounces) salsa verde (2 cups)
1 can (5 ounces) evaporated milk
1 large rotisserie chicken, meat deboned and left in large chunks (about 6 cups)
Erin note: I also added some swiss chard (because I got tons from the farm share). It was really good and added some veggies and color. Spinach (or something similar) would also be good.

For the Dumplings
1 cup whole milk (I used 1%)
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion greens
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions:

For the Chicken
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees (for the dumplings).
2. Heat butter over medium-high heat in a large (11 to 12-inch), deep ovenproof sauté pan or 5-to 6-quart Dutch oven.
3. Whisk in flour to make a paste.
4. Mix broth, salsa verde, and evaporated milk and whisk in all at once. Whisk, vigorously at first, until mixture simmers and thickens to sauce consistency.
5. Stir in chicken, heat through and cover to keep warm.

For the Dumplings
1. Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan until steamy.
2. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, scallions, and cilantro in a medium bowl with a fork. Stir in milk mixture to form a smooth, firm dough.
3. Pinch off Ping-Pong-ball-size pieces of dough with your fingers and drop onto chicken mixture.
4. Return chicken to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cover and transfer pan to oven and bake until dumplings are cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve.

Erin Note - I don't have a dutch oven, so I used a regular skillet (which can go into the oven) but quickly realized that the poor little skillet was no match for how much food this was. After preparing the chicken on the stove in the skillet, I poured it into an 11 x 9 glass baking pan, then added the dumplings. Then it all went into the oven for 15 minutes.

Swift - 1995-2011

2011-09-21T12:04:00.001-05:00

I really don't recommend losing both of your kitties within two weeks of each other. :(

Swift kitty was really about the sweetest and prettiest kitty around. We got her at the Butte, MT pound for a whopping $10, where they thought she was a boy and 2-3 months old. Hmmm. Immediately, she was very loving and affectionate. The roomates and I were kicking around the name Valentine - that's how affectionate she was. She was also crazy. I don't know if it was from her hard time on the heavy-metal laden streets of Butte or if she was happy to have room to run, but she spent most of her time zooming up and down the stairs of our duplex. She zoomed around so much, we decided to name her Swift. Swift was also a bit crazy. She liked to run up and bite the ankles of random people, then run away. Not cool. She was so crazy that we actually debated her future as our collective kitty, but then one fall day, Ernie was left with us, and she became incredibly sweet. I guess she just needed another cat to act all her agressions on, although usually, Ernie was the agressor and she was the victim.

Ernie claimed me and Swift had claimed my roommate. So much so, that when Brandee would leave to go to class, Swift would sit in the window and cry as she walked down the street. Swift really only liked Brandee - whenever I tried to pick her up, all I got was growling and hissing. Ok! Then, in May 1997, Brandee got married to someone who was not a cat-lover. She offered to find Swift a new home, but I figured, two cats aren't much more work/money than one cat, and Swift and Ernie got along really well. It was decided that Swift would stay with me. And then Swift became my shadow.

Swift was affectionate to the point of being incredibly annoying. When I came home from work, she would run up to the door to greet me and then follow me around the house. As soon as I sat down, she was on my lap, sometimes without me even realizing it. She looooved Will (much to his annoyance, although I think he secretly loved it). Will could get her to do these drunken-love flops on the bed, on command. He'd say "roll over" and point to the bed. Swift would drunkenly flop sideways and roll over. Very cute.

As much as Ernie didn't want to acknowledge humans, Swift was the opposite. She was very social and friendly. Occasionally talkative, mostly at food time. She was actually very annoying at food time with her incessant meowing. It was so annoying that we would lock her in the spare bathroom - aka "kitty jail" - so we wouldn't have to listen to her demands.

Swift was always my sleep buddy. At night, she would curl up on my hip and spend the whole night there. For naps, she was really weird and liked to sleep under the covers. She would paw at the sheet near your head until she got her way, and then happily curl up under the covers somewhere near my feet. A few times Ernie figured out her hiding spot and attacked her from the top of the covers. Good times.

In June 2010, right after I signed up for IMTX, Swift was diagnosed with high blood pressure and probable pancreatits and/or lymphoma. Her once beautiful fluffy fur was greasy and she wasn't eating and was down from 12 lbs to 8 lbs. The prognosis was uncertain. Some kitties lived a long time with this, others didn't. Only time (and a lot of vitamin B-12 injections) would tell.

Swift was my nap buddy. I loved to come home after a long (early) run or a race, grab her, and take a nap for a few hours. I knew that with my IMTX training that I would be taking a lot of naps and would NEED her. There was just something about her being there, lying on me, that made me go to sleep. It was our routine. I needed that routine for my training. I remember holding her up to eye-level, looking her in the eye, and telling her that she HAD to live through IMTX because I would be needing my nap buddy a lot. She held me to my word. The literal day I returned from IMTX, she started to decline even more. Her digestive system wasn't working well and she wasn't absorbing nutrients - her weight was down to 5.75 lbs. Even while she was getting sicker, she was still very cheerful and cuddly. Finally, about 1.5 weeks after we lost Ernie, her breathing became labored and finally we knew that she would not be around anymore as the cancer had likely spread into her lungs. She had a great life and my naps aren't the same without her.

Nicknames:

Swifter
Rooster
Swifter-roo
Princess (when we were feeling sarcastic)

Favorite things:

She really didn't care much for toys, but she LOVED shoelaces. She loved us to play "fish" with her, us holding one end and she'd grab the other. She also just loved carrying the thing around. Frequently, we'd go to sleep with the shoelace in one room and wake up to find it in another room.
She LOVED catnip. The first time we gave her catnip, she actually managed to cup it in her front paws and throw it up in the air like confetti. She would act 10 times of crazy for about 5 minutes and then pass out in a catnip-induced haze.
Laps. She just loved to cuddle.

Randomness:

She was pretty dingy. I swear, there would be times where she would be in one part of the house, freak out thinking we weren't home and start wailing. Also, whenever it was time to put her in kitty jail, sometimes she'd run, but 8 times out of 10, she'd hunker down in the center of the room, like she was hiding into the floor. Yes, the brown floor will hide a white cat. Sure.....
We had issues of her peeing in her carrier on long road trips. The first time was in 1997, when I moved back to college from my internship. I was in the middle of nowhere, MT when it happened. I hauled her into a gas station restroom to wash her up, only there was no sink the bathroom - just a utility sink between the bathrooms. I got a lot of weird looks as I bathed a yowling kitty. Second time was on our way home after evacuating to Denver from Hurricane Rita. One hour into our 17 hr drive back to Houston, just as we were about to get on I-70 at Limon, she got very meowy. We pulled over to give her a tranquilizer, only to find out that she was really trying to tell us something important. So, here we were with a cat with pee-soaked legs and tail on a dirt pull off, at sunrise, with wind and semi trucks BLOWING past us on the way to I-70. All we had were Starbucks napkins and bottled water. She freaked out and I was going to lose her, so I held her to the ground, which resulted in a cat with now MUDDY pee-coated paws. We had to smell cat pee the 16 hrs home. The final time was moving to Denver, just outside of Limon (what is it with Limon?!). Only this time I knew the signs and pulled over to a rest stop. Not in time to prevent the accident, but at least she didn't get covered in pee. The air temperature was -15. I was cleaning Swift up, Will was outside trying to clean up the carrier with paper towels (we learned) only the pee was freezing in the -15 air. Fun times!
The summer I had an internship in Wyoming, I had a 2nd story apartment with a patio. I'd let the kitties roam on the patio. One day, Swift twirled around the iron fencing on the corner, lost her footing, and fell to the grass below. I tore downstairs to get her, and she was happily relaxing on the grass.
She loved to roll on concrete, the hotter and dirtier the better.
She really did love to go outside. Most of the time she was supervised (except for when we sold our Houston house and the dumb selling agent let her escape outside....). Occasionally she would try to run off. One time, she and Ernie somehow coordinated things, so that Ernie misbehaved and distracted us as she bolted off.
Taken on that same Feb 1996 day with Ernie's snow shots. That's the duplex neighbor's dog in the window.

1996 - Will and Swift

laser eyes (and James)

So, Ernie was orange and was naturally ready for Halloween. We thought Swift was missing out on the fun, so we dressed her in an orange t-shirt. She really didn't like this very much.

Kitteh in a box!

roaming in the grass

Pretty typical view at night watching TV, with Swift lying on my chest.

Swift acting as Quality Control when Will works from home.

More QC support for Will. She would often rest her paws/head on his mouse arm.

Ernie and Swift, 1995

Swift had BEAUTIFUL blue eyes but for some reason, they were really hard to capture in a photo. This is one of the few which really show off how pretty she was.

more torture, in the name of Stuff on My Cat . com she was unamused.

Ernie - 1995-2011

2011-09-13T17:23:00.000-05:00

Its been 5 weeks since we lost Ernie. I'm getting better (the first week was ROUGH) but I sure do miss him.

Ernie came to us very randomly. I lived with 2 other girls in a 2 story duplex. Swift was really insane and she needed a buddy. A friend of my evil roommate had Ernie and "couldn't keep him because he wasn't supposed to have pets". (isn't that something you should check on before you get a pet?). The guy's roommates throught Ernie was too hyper, so they'd put him in a box and blow pot smoke in the box to chill him out. Poor kitty sneezed for a year and had what I call the "perma-munchies". The guy came by on a Friday, was supposed to check in on Monday to see how things were working, but he never came back. I was fairly indifferent to cats. My roommates wanted a cat, I had an iguana. But Ernie had different plans - he chose me as my human and stole my heart. (just typing this is making me cry again - UGH). Ernie was tiny when we got him - maybe 6 weeks old and so small he'd stand in the palm of your hand. He grew to be a big monster kitty - weighing 15 lbs at his heaviest. He was obstinant, crabby, stand-off-ish, hungry, a pain in the ass, but he could also be sweet, and warm, and gave me kisses on demand. He was very much an "on my own terms" type of cat - pretty much wanting to be left alone until he decided to grace the humans with his prescence. That, or if you had food, he was your best friend. At least until the food went away. Even though he preferred to be left alone, he was very tolerant of my affections. He'd let me flip him over to smother his belly in kisses, pet him on demand, hold him upside-down. Once he started growling, I'd play kitty-bagpipes (growling edition) by squeezing him. He would eventually have enough (and boy, you would KNOW it), but generally, he put up a front of a tough kitty but was really a big teddy bear of a cat.

Ernie didn't meow (unless he was in the car, and then it was the most pathetic, mournful meow). He chirped and squeaked. Especially around dinner time, where anytime we would stand up, he'd take off for the kitchen (where the food was locked up) and made sort of a peeling out (like a car) chirping noise.

Most of the time he didn't acknowledge humans, unless I'd hurt myself. I'm clumsy and it was not unusual for me to drop something on my foot or walk into a wall. I'd invariably do something, drop to the floor yelling in pain. Will would ignore me. Ernie would come running, looking very concerned, to make sure I was ok.

He loved all things food and was such a pain in the ass that we couldn't leave food out in the open. Even if it was in plastic or in tupperware. He would actually try (and sometimes succeed) in eating through the tupperware to get to the food. No food item was safe, even for a short amount of time. I can't even begin to say how many times I was cooling muffins on the stove to find little Ernie-munch marks in the tops of them - while they were still hot.

Ernie hated little kids until a few years ago. Hated them to the point where he'd just hide under the bed. One night we were babysitting for a friend and were having dinner in the kitchen. It was also kitty-dinner time. Poor Ernie, as much as he loved food, he REALLY hated kids - and his dinner was in the kitchen with the kids. He really couldn't decide between eating or running. It was pretty funny.

Ok, enough stories, although there are 16 years of them. Just a few more random things about him and some pictures.

Nicknames:

Ernie-monster
Ernesto (when we were feeling Latin)
Bug (his first nickname)
Bugger
Rat
Raccoon (he had a racoon tail and had very raccoon-like traits when it came to food)
Boo

Favorite things:

sunbeams - he LOVED to lie belly up in the sun
blankets which were orange
food, especially squash (seriously, he'd go crazy for squash). But really, he just loved food.
Body slamming Swift
acting as a paper weight. Really, any loose paper or bag around on the floor and he was ON IT, holding it down.

Randomness:

He would never cuddle or sleep with us until wintertime. I guess he was cold. So at night, around 8:30 (or after dinner), he'd decide to cuddle on me for about an hour or so, until he got too warm. I'd go to bed and wake up at some point in the night with a very large cat sprawled across my chest (back toes at my chin). If you acknowlegded his presence by petting him, he would leave, only to come back when you were asleep again. ("do not let the humans know I need them!"
One time I had a dream that a snake was biting my toe. Turned out it was Ernie. I kicked the "snake" in my sleep and sent him flying. Oops.
During our last move (from Houston to Denver) he did NOT like our Oklahoma hotel. AT ALL. He was fine on the drive but when we got to the hotel - wow. Unhappy cat. He growled non-stop. Walking around - growl. Eating - growling WHILE eating. Peeing in the litter box - growling while he did his thing. He hopped up on the bed to be near us, but wouldn't let us touch him. Poor guy. Fortunately he was better when we got to Denver. Maybe he just didn't like Oklahoma?
Repeatedly, the vet lectured me about his weight. Poor guy was on diet food. What was I supposed to do next, put him on a treadmill?
He loved catnip toys - so much that I had to put a playing time limit on him. If he went longer than 5 minutes, his toy would be gutted, catnip extracted.
He fetched, although not on command. This started when he was a kitten, I tossed a milk ring and he fetched it. At least once a week for most of his life, we'd play fetch. Our Houston house had a long tile hallway, which was perfect for fetching. Early morning was usually good for fetch, although he would also decide that my bedtime was good too.
He had the BEST PURR EVER. Very loud, easy to start. And when he was very happy, he would get this high-pitched squeak to his purr.

I'm glad that he chose me as his human. :)

Feb 1996 - Ernie was maybe 6 months old. We just had our typical week where it never got above zero degrees, and this day was sunny and in the 20's. It was a wonderful day. For some reason, we thought it would be amusing to take the kitties out in the snow.

wiggly kitties- Feb 1995

Feb 1995

Houston - June 1998. Ernie and Sumo

My favorite photo of Ernie. This captured how he would look at me

How can you resist a belly like this??

typical monorail cat pose

cat-skin rug

classic sunbeam pose

sprawl

more napping sprawl

Race Report - Fall Frenzy Sprint Triathlon

2011-09-12T11:42:00.000-05:00

This was my first (and only) sprint of 2011 - weird!

I signed up for this one mainly because it was 4 miles from my house. Meaning: there was no excuse not to do it, since I could ride my bike to and from the race. When I signed up, some weird flags went off in my head about the race organization, but I signed up anyways. The swim was a 500 yard pool swim, so they asked that you provide your estimated time. I wasn't sure how this was going to go, so I was fairly honest (but agressive) and I put down 8:10. Turns out, they group you in heats by your (self) seeded number and you swim together as a group. Soooo, if people weren't honest, it would lead to a bunch of frustration (on my part). Also, they (for whatever reason - I guess so everyone finishes together?) have the slow swimmers go first, which means that I started towards the end of the race. They did have a fast lane option, which was dedicated for the whole event, but you had to be able to swim 7:30 or faster. In all honesty, even when I'm on my swim game, I don't think I could swim a 7:30, so I was just hoping I'd get a decent group.

I went to the pre-race meeting (actually I accidentally timed my packet pick-up at the start of the meeting, and we parked poorly, as in we parked right in the middle of the meeting and felt bad leaving when the meeting was going). Soo, the race details got even more icky. Apparently they take ~25 people around your proposed swim time and put you into a wave. And then it was up to YOU while you're standing around waiting for your wave to find 4 other like-minded swimmers to swim with. The race started at 7 AM - my wave was at 9:25. UGH. Apparently there were a ton of people seeded to swim the 500 yards in 23-25 minutes. I can't even imagine how you could take so long swimming that. I mean, that's almost 1 minute PER 25. I think you would water-walk it faster than that.

So, I guess in an effort to make things nice for the later racers, transition never closed. Typically in a race, transition closes ~30 min before the race starts. That way, you don't have people mulling around haphazardly while people are running to and from their bikes. An open transition meant that people could come and go as they please. So, as I am leisurely setting up my bike, racers are running to and fro. This did NOT sounds like a good idea to me. Honestly, if I hadn't paid money, I may have decided on Saturday not to race. Instead, I decided to suck it up and to try and go FAST. I was secretly hoping for a podium spot, since I knew a bunch of speedy people were racing long at other races that day. Based on past recent races, I should have some speed and I should be able to post a pretty decent time.

Pre-Race
I set my alarm for 7 AM, woke up at 6:45. I haven't slept in that late for a race since Boise 2010, which had a 2 PM start. I leisurely dinked around the house for an hour then hopped on my bike and rode 4 miles to the race start. I forgot my jacket in the garage and it was COLD. That was the one good thing about starting later in the morning - riding my bike soaking wet out of the swim in 50 degree temperatures would be CHILLY.

I showed up to transition and it was really weird. Most people had their areas set up and there were a few empty spots left. You had to be very careful with where you racked you bike because in some cases, it was very hard to tell if the place was already taken. A lot of the slower people were newbies and don't use cycling shoes. Sometimes all you'd see in an "open" rack was a hat or maybe a bag - no running shoes, since they were using their running shoes on the bike. Really weird. I ended up finding a decent spot with a good amount of room and then marked my rack with hot pink duct tape, since I knew everything would look alike when I came into T2.

I then went and got my bike number (because they weren't in yet during packet pick-up!), got body marked (numbers were placed on my arms like normal, but also down the front of my shins :/ ), then I headed to the pool to see what the deal was. It was around 8:30 and I had almost an hour to go. I was very aware that things were going to get warmer the longer I waited so I scoped out the fast lane.

Fast Lane: We will have a fast lane once again this year. In order to swim in this lane, you must have a swim time of 7:30 or faster AND be able to do flip turns. If you do not meet these qualifications and swim in the fast lane, you will be assessed a 5 minute penalty. Once we have moved through all the fast swimmers, we will open it up to the current heat the rest of the pool is on to speed things up. The fast lane will run from 8:00-9:30a.m.

People's race numbers were in reverse order of swim time (slower people had lower numbers). I was watching the fast lane and there wasn't a line of swimmers waiting to swim, and they weren't getting 5 swimmers at once to swim. Also, by around 8:45, the swimmers didn't appear to be all that fast. It didn't seem to me that they weren't really enforcing the 7:30 pace rule, which meant I might be able to sneak into the fast lane. I began polling people with numbers similar to mine: "do you do flip turns?" EVERY single person said no. So, my hope of finding a group of people around my pace to sneak into the fast lane was dashed. No flip turns is a SURE sign that you don't belong. (I still don't understand WHY you wouldn't do flip turns!?!?). The current group of fast lane swimmers was nearing the end and I noticed that there were only 2 guys waiting around. I went over there and talked to them. Turns out they needed a 3rd swimmer so they could start the swim. They were faster than I was (one guy was about 7:15, the other guy had no idea), so we arranged a swim order and I snuck in. Success!

Swim
They had the 3 of us get in the water together, and they started us ~10 seconds apart. For whatever reason, we decided I should go second in our group of 3. This was my first non-tech-assisted swim of the year (meaning no wetsuit or speedsuit). It was also my first time swimming in my Team SONY kit. I did my first flip turn and *poof*. It turns out, my SONY tri shorts turn into a parachute during flip turns. Lovely.... My swimming hasn't been great lately - my current team doesn't believe in swimming longer than 125 meters. The longest I've swam since May is 200 meters, which is my cool down. I haven't swam 500 yards straight since May and it showed! The guy behind me passed me maybe halfway through. He tapped my foot and I paused on the wall to let him by. Then at maybe 350 yards, the first guy lapped me, but again, he was nice about it, tapped me, and I paused at the wall to let him by. All this pausing killed my swim time though. Blech. Still, it was better than me trying to pass people, knowing that most male triathlete guys have huge egos and don't let people pass easily. Normally, I like to descend my swim races, but I could tell I was fading. I tried to keep my kick strong, but my arms and my breathing were no where near as strong as I like them to be. Still, I finished ok and the guy who started behind me (who passed me) was still in the water when I touched the wall, so I couldn't have been too far behind.

The other lame thing about this swim is that they have you start at the far end of the pool, so once you're done, you hop out and run all the way around the pool (no running on the pool deck!) to get to the swim exit. And THEN you hit the mat. So who really knows what my swim time was.

"Swim" time : 8:55 (seeded for 8:10)

Age Group: 4/38
Overall: 54/333

T1
They had you exit the indoor pool, run across a lawn to a parking lot, then you ran down the road adjacent to the parking lot and THEN you got up to transition. It was maybe 200 meters or so of jogging? Watching people (newbies mostly) made for some good entertainment. Many people stashed clothes at the pool exit on the lawn and they were putting on shoes and clothes there instead of actually in transition.

I hit the door and kept my pace a nice fast jog. As I was on the grass I heard a "Go Erin!" but I have no idea who was yelling it. Still, it was nice to hear my name :)

The rest of transition wasn't too exciting, just lots of quick jogging and grabbing my stuff. Transition was in a soccer field which is always interesting. Grass on your feet and in your socks. And grass/mud in your cycling shoe cleats.

T1: 2:40.4
Age Group 7/38

Bike
When clipping in, I start with my right, pedal some, then clip in my left. Right foot was no problem, as I was smart and arranged the pedal properly for a quick clip-in. I somehow missed my left pedal twice. Each time, my foot slipped and the pedal smacked against my ankle and shin, making some pretty sweet bruises! No idea if I had mud/grass in my cleat, if I was just rushing too much, or if I was just being a dumbass. Finally, third time was a charm and I got into left pedal.

The start of the bike was a bit strange. Instead of being on roads, we were on the paved hike/bike trail, which had lots of sharp corners and turns. Its also quite bumpy (due to concrete seams every 5 feet) so its hard to get into a rhythm. Finally after maybe a mile (?) we were able to ride on open road. For some dumb reason, I thought the course was flat. DUMB DUMB DUMB. It wasn't ridiculously hilly, but there were some good hills. My mission was to GO FAST on the bike, but the hills made it interesting. And hard.

The RDs made a comment in the pre-race meeting that we should know the course, specifically where to turn. Apparently intersections which required a police officer did not allow volunteers to be present for safety reasons. Police officers are not always the best at telling you where the course goes (say, if you need to turn) and you could miss your turn. I was very pleased to see that the RDs marked the bike course with spray paint arrows, so there was never any question of where you should go. VERY nice.

One cop pulled a near-IMTX, letting traffic through, which made me slow down on a downhill leading into an uphill. I had to hit my brakes but I didn't stop, and he felt bad and apologized. Several other cops were "directing" traffic from inside their cars. I'd approach and they'd decide to get out of their car and see if traffic needed to be stopped for me to proceed. Fortunately, Sunday morning isn't high traffic and I never had a near collision. Still, you're getting paid to do an EASY job. Get out of your car and keep us safe, mkay?

Bike course wasn't too exciting. There was one nasty downhill into a u-turn, which meant you got to climb back up that hill from a near full stop. That wasn't very nice. The course going out was mostly uphills and you circled back and had 1 nasty uphill and one medium hill that just went on a bit too long. I could tell I'm not used to going hard on the bike and I think I started to fade a bit. Or maybe the wind was working against me. All I know is I saw 20+ mph going out and was working to keep it at 18 mph going back. Still, for 12 miles, I pushed. Since I started the swim early, it was impossible to see where I was in relation to my competition. I as passing a ton of people, including some dude on a mountain bike with a kid-carrier, which had a stuffed animal (dog?) belted inside the carrier. (I wish I had my camera, it was amusing). Only one person passed me, and she was in my age group. I passed her on the flad and downhill, only to have her destroy me on the next hill. Must work on hills this winter.

A quick 12 miles later I was done with the bike. Always trying to work on my T2 time, I undid my Garmin while I was still riding (I'm sure I looked cute, riding and holding my Garmin in my teeth) so I wouldn't have to mess with it later on.

Bike:
00:41:13 17.47 mile/hr
Age Group: 10/38
Overall: 108/333

Ok, maybe I'm being hard on myself with the bike split... my fastest bike split was 18.7 mph and I've got a bunch of 17.6-17.9 mph splits on FLAT courses. Given the hills (and my lack of bike training lately), maybe that's not too bad? Plus, I my pace was right in the middle of the top 10 finishers in the AG. Still, hill strength will be a good off-season goal.

T2
Nothing remarkable here - just tried to keep it fast. Swapped out my shoes and grabbed the rest of my junk to put on while I ran.

1:02.6 (my fastest T2 except for the questionable 20 second T2 at Rattlesnake).

Run
Since I had crushed the 10 miler on Monday, I had HIGH expectations for my run. It was only 3 miles and I wanted to run FAST. My calves, however, had different ideas. As did a wicked side stitch. I was trying to push the pace and the best my legs would allow was somewhere around a 10:00-10:30. The side stitch was irritating but not awful. But my calves were so tight they just couldn't move any faster. I walked the first aid station, which eliminated the side stitch. Leg were still tight until the turn-around. I knew there was a big hill at the finish, but most everything from 1.5 miles to the finish was downhill, so I tried to push it. I did a decent job pushing (but walked the aid station, probably only 10 seconds though). My legs loosened up a bit at the turnaround but I didn't ever get my awesome flying while running feeling. I tried to do some speed pick-ups as an attempt to trick my legs, only my legs didn't fall for it. Ugh. Not a bad running performance (my 3rd fastest 3 mile pace for a sprint) but it wasn't what I knew I was capable of. My energy and spirit were willing - this time my legs were just not wanting to play along. Probably because I crushed the 10 mile race 6 days before. *sigh*

Run time: 30:29.9. 10m 10s min/mile
Age Group: 19/38
Overall: 185/333

Overall time: 1:24:21 (right at my predicted time)
Overall Rank = 111/333
Age Group Rank = 13/38
Post Race
I got my feet rubbed by a reflexologist (felt nice but wasn't long enough), had good italian grub from a local restaurant (spaghetti and meatballs!), then I stuck around for the raffle/award ceremony. They posted overall race results, not AG results. I was in the top 1/3 overall that there was a slight chance I'd podium. I would have podiumed if I was 1 year younger. Sadly, I was 5 min away from 3rd place and over 1 minute away from 10th place. 5 minutes for me, right now, is just too fast to overcome for me. Maybe in a few years. I did win a free massage, though. Post-race stuff went on WAY TOO LONG, and it was 12:45 before I hopped on the bike to hit the trails home.

Lost: Motivation

2011-09-09T11:37:00.000-05:00

I think I've finally hit burn out mode. I've been skipping workouts like crazy, which is so not like me.

This week:

Monday: 10 mile running race
Tuesday morning: yoga
Tuesday: track night was rained out, so we went to a bar for beer and food.
Wednesday: swim team. Also: should have done my track workout but I did not.
Thursday: should have run 6 miles. Instead, I got up, the house was cool, which meant it was "cold" outside. So, I turned my alarm off and slept in. Could have ran after work, but instead, I peeled, sliced, and froze about 30 peaches. Priorities.....
Friday: should have got up to hit swim practice, but the forecast was for a low of 47, and we swim outside, and Friday is sprint day (which I hate). So I slept in.

What is wrong with me? I never skip swim practice!

Here's some random analysis of where my motivation has gone.

I really do not like my current swim team. The workouts are not challenging, I've been there since June and really haven't made a connection with anyone. Even thought at Highlands Ranch I never made friends, at least the workouts were challenging and I was learning new things. At Inverness, the coach pushes the easy button on the workouts, which doesn't exactly inspire me to do anything more than "easy button". And since I really don't know anyone there, there's no one to hold me accountable. After my tri this Sunday, I'm even thinking of taking the rest of the month off from swimming (and getting my Ironman tattoo). I dunno though. This would be the longest break from swimming since 2006.
Based on my recent racing experience, I'm rocking it without really doing much training. Normally, I train out of fear that I won't perform to my expectations. Only lately, I'm exceeding expectations without training. Soooo, why train if I don't have to?
I think I'm so scarred for life from training in the snow last winter/spring, that I really just want to stay in my warm bed. I am not ready for winter. Even though 47 really isn't cold, its more the idea that real, true cold is on its way, so I'd better start hibernating now. Or maybe its more like I didn't get to stay in my nice warm bed at all earlier this year, so I'm making up for lost time.
I only have one more tri this season, and its a sprint. I could do that in my sleep. Or I've got myself convinced I could do it in my sleep. We'll see how true this is Sunday. :/ Besides, with this sucky swim team, I haven't swam anything longer than a 200 (which is my warm up) since May. This sprint is a 500 pool swim, which I suspect will hurt.
I've been battling shin splints since February. They're not awful, but lately, I'm just more and more annoyed with them. When I run, they hurt for ~2 days after. Its irritating. If I don't run, they don't hurt. No irritation. So therefore, I just don't feel like running. (I do have a physical therapy appt for Monday for this).
October will mark the anniversary of the start of IMTX training. I trained HARD for 8 months. I've been training sorta-hard since then. Well, not hard for me, but hard for the average person. I think I just want a break.

Maybe next week will be better.

Race Report - Park to Park 10 Miler

2011-09-06T10:59:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back, one of my facebook friends posted one of those "hey, I'm thinking of running this, anyone want to join me?" posts. I vaguely knew about this race but never thought to research it. September is "get serious about training for that half marathon in October" month. I've been HORRIBLE at getting in my long runs on the weekends. I also had to find 2 more races to do for Team SONY. Even through the price was a bit steep ($60) I thought that this would be good for me because a) it would force me to run 10 miles and b) it would count as one of my Team SONY races. Win-win!

The run starts at the Natural History museum / zoo and works its way through 5 parks, with the finish line at South High School. I know Washington Park / South High School very well (my dad lived near there) but I wasn't very familiar with any of the other parks. I was excited to explore Denver as a runner and see some new things.

Since this run is a point-to-point, getting to the start or finish is interesting if you show up by yourself. The website offered 3 suggestions: 1) park halfway and run to the start and from the finish (about 4 miles each way); 2) get a group of people, stash a car at the finish, then ride to the start; 3) pay $8 for a shuttle that will either take you to the start or from the finish. I opted for option #3, the shuttle. You could either park at the finish and take the shuttle to the start or vice versa. I know South High School very well AND I thought it would be handy to have my car right at the finish so I could leave when I wanted to leave, so I chose the early option. That meant for a 7 AM race start, I had to catch the shuttle at 5:50 AM. UGH. On a holiday no less!

Race Plan
My last "long" run, all of 8 miles, was on July 16th. SEVEN weeks ago. Granted, I've been ok about doing mid-week 6 mile runs, but horrible about doing anything over 6 miles. I really had no idea how 10 miles would feel. I remember last fall, when my IM coach was getting me ready for a December half marathon. She had several of my long runs as descend tempo runs, where you get faster in the last half of your run. So that was the plan... descend this sucker. I wanted to run the first 5 miles as I felt, keeping my HR in the 150's and warm up nice and slow. Then miles 5-8 were at Zone 3, with my HR somewhere in the 160's. Then mile 8 should have my HR in the upper 160's lower 170's. The last mile should be fast where I'm working but not all out, and the last half mile would be as fast as I could sustain until I crossed the finish line.

Race

The pre-race was very low-key. They had last-minute packet pick-up at the race start, a van for you to drop your gear bag (they'd take it to the race finish, a VERY nice feature since it was chilly out and I needed my jacket before the race), and the start line with pace groups. As part of Team SONY, I have a running kit and a tri kit. Only one problem with the running kit - no pockets! I need gels for anything longer than 1 hour, so I wore my tri kit. I think I was the only one (out of 971 people) wearing a tri kit. But at least I had my gels! I found some of my Saturday running club buddies (who I haven't seen in 7 weeks) and said hi. They were going to run faster than I was (how'd that happen? we were the same speed!) so I put in my SONY MP3 player in my ears and decided to be anti-social for the race. Also: my bib number was 777. Such a cool number!

The race went by in a blur - it really didn't feel like 10 miles. The course twists a bunch and travelling from park to park really does provide a good distraction. There were only 3 aid stations (2.5 miles, 5 miles, 7.5 miles) and for whatever reason, that helped things to seem shorter than it really was. Maybe its because I'm trained to see aid stations every 1 mile.

Nothing huge to report on this race report - I kept pretty much to plan. I ran with my hand-held bottle filled with water, as I'm trying to live off the course better. I had 2 Hammer Gels in my pocket, but they were really as a supplement if I needed them. On the way to the race, I had a Coke Zero and a PowerBar, trying to minimize stomach issues. The first few miles my stomach felt a bit icky, more like it was too full. Need to remember that I don't need to eat a whole bar - I bet half a bar would be fine. Fortunately my stomach worked itself out and was a non-issue. I took a gulp of PowerAid at each aid station. At mile 5 I started to get a bit dizzy, so I took in a 1/3 of a gel. It helped, but didn't fix the problem. At ~8.5 I took in more gel, so I'd have good energy for the push to the finish, and that seemed to do the trick.

Pacing was really good. There were some slight hills, and the uphills, while not steep, were LONG. I stayed focused, working on keeping my steps small and light on the hills. I actually passed quite a few people on the hills :) The fun part about going up the hills is when you crest over the top and go downhill. If you keep your foot cadence the same as you did on the uphill, you can FLY downhill. I really pushed the downhills, while staying in my HR zones.

The first 5 miles were pretty uneventful. Just running and getting warmed up, taking in the sights. I'd say that I never really felt warmed up until somewhere around mile 4 or 5. Also around mile 4 or 5, my bladder decided to make its presence known. The port-a-cans at the mile 5 aid station were busy and I was secretly hoping that my bladder was just confused and with time (and more running) it could be ignored. I decided to hold off until the 7.5 mile aid station and use the bathroom then. I increased my pace at mile 5 per my pacing goals and everything was going fine. At mile 7.5, I was happy for a bathroom break, only to find out that the port-o-cans were LOCKED. No idea what the deal was here. I just knew that I had 2.5 miles and no more than 30 min of running left. I decided to suck it up and push for the finish. If I was running hard, then chances are, I wouldn't be thinking about my bladder. This worked and I was fine for the rest of the race.

Miles 8-10 went through Washington Park, which is the area I'm most familiar with. I knew the finish wasn't far and I wanted to see how hard I could run. I kept looking at my watch and was seeing 9:30-9:15 pace. 9:15 is my PR for 1-mile repeats on the track. I didn't know how I could keep up the pace for 2 miles but I was going to try. We got the south end of the park and I pushed more. Then out of the park with 1/2 mile left. You could see the high school, only they were sneaky and made you run around the school into the staduim, and around the track to the finish. I kept the pace, passing people, and once I saw the stadium parking lot, I just lit on my afterburners. That's the best way to describe it. I was tired, but I wanted to push more, so I just went for it. It was such a cool feeling to demand MORE from my body and to have my body respond. I was now running somewhere around an 8:30-8:15 pace and passing all sorts of people, including several who had passed me early on. Then finally the finish line. I'm sure my photo is precious, as I'm redlining and feeling pukey. But I'm happy because I executed my plan, ran FAST, and barely trained for this. Maybe not training is the way to go.

Results
Chip Time 1:43:34
5 mile split: 53:21- I ran the back half of the race 3:08 faster, which is about 37 seconds/mile faster than the first half. PERFECT.
Overall Place 741 / 971
Gender Place 402 / 591
Division Place 86 / 128
Age Grade 48.5%
Pace 10:22

Mt Elbert

2011-08-29T13:52:00.001-05:00

About a month ago, my tri club posted on facebook about doing a hike up a Fourteener the last Saturday in August. Groupon had a half off coupon for an adventure race, but this seemed more fun. And besides, I'm a native and have never climbed at Fourteener! Originally, I wanted Will to come along, but once he heard that we had to leave at 3 AM, he was out. Also, this funny bit of conversation:

W: who are you hiking with?
E: people I don't know from my tri club.
W: you don't know these people?
E: nope, but what could go wrong?

There are 54 mountains in Colorado which have elevations higher than 14,000 feet. The common term for them are Fourteeners. Quite a few people are focused on "bagging" every one of them, sometimes all within the same year. Some of the hikes are 100% trails, some you have to scrabble up loose rock, some you have to very carefully walk along the spine of the mountain. And at Pikes Peak, there's even an oxygen bar. (eyeroll).

Our hike leader, Matt, decided that we'd hike up Mt Elbert, which is the highest mountain in CO and the Rockies. Its the second highest moutain in the continental US, only 65 feet shorter than Mt Whitney. The hike was 4.5 miles with a gain of nearly 4,500 ft elevation. The plan was to get to the trailhead at sunrise and summit well before thunderstorms could build. Lightening is the main danger when hiking above treeline, thus the 3 AM departure time.

green line is the trail to the top

The drive up wasn't as awful as I anticipated (it helped that I wasn't driving). Turns out I knew Matt from the club track workouts and we have done a bunch of races together (before I moved here). So we chatted the whole 2 hr drive to Leadville, where we met the other half of our group. Being up there in the dark was a bit spooky - and the trees were covered in frost. (not ready for winter... yet). After a quick pit-stop in Leadville, we drove to the trail head, where there were about ~20 other cars in the parking lot and more cars coming in. Elevation was just over 10,000 feet.

Pre-dawn parking lot with lingering fog

We started hiking and I just took off up the trail. I was hauling. No idea why - maybe I was just excited to get going after sitting in the car for 2.5 hrs. We took a break at the first mile for snacks, and I realized that I had an open blister just under my right ankle. Fortunately I had some blister block (and it stayed on for the whole trip!). After the rest break, I was no longer speedy. I think the lack of oxygen finally caught up to me and I was no longer the leader. Actually, I was in the back of the pack now. Boo. When we were hiking in the forest, the trees were pretty thick and there was little undergrowth. We started getting to where the treeline, the trees started getting a bit more sparse and you could catch glimpses of Mt Massive (another 14er adjacent to Elbert).

The group just before treeline

Our group was a pretty good one - very friendly and all willing to take breaks. Treeline was at ~12,000 feet and at that point, my asthma was becoming noticable. I just couldn't get in enough air or catch my breath for any sustained amount of time. Finally, I decided that it was better to go slow and to NOT get into an oxygen deficit than to go hard, ignore the breathing, get dizzy and then sick. The topography was also becoming more steep. As a result, I decided to hike 100 vertical feet and then take a 30-60 min mini-break to catch my breath. Sometimes I'd stop sooner, depending on the steepness and my breathing.

Mt Massive peeking through

So more hiking... up and up. Above treeline, the vegetation was high alpine meadow with sparse grasses and NO flowers. Once you went up and over a saddle, you got to the main climb, where it was all rock and dirt. But mostly rock.

hiking up out of the trees

the top of the hill was the first of 2 falst summits

this was the most sucky climb

the specs are people - top is the second false summit

Matt was hiking with me, which was nice, but I also felt a bit bad. I don't think I was holding him back, but I hate hate hate being in the back of the pack. However, my lungs were my limiter, and there wasn't anything that could be done except to take my time. Somewhere mid-way up the hill on the above-right picture, my Garmin read 14,000 feet. Matt thought my Garmin was wrong. Turns out Matt was wrong and we actually did have another 400 feet of climbing. This trail took us through two false summits. False summits totally suck, because mentally, you think you're near the top. Only to find out that you're not even close to the top. FINALLY we got to the last part of the trail, which was along the spine of the mountain. And then we got to the top and the rest of our group was there, but they'd only been waiting about 10 minutes. There were probably 40 (?) people also at the top. We ate lunch and hung out, took photos. Until a cloud over Twin Lakes started to look a bit too dark and scary, so at 11 AM, we decided to head back down.

Ridegline

scary cloud that made us think twice about lingering

survey marker

you can see the trail on the ridge below

Matt had planned on a 4:30 hike up, I made it in 4:20, so according to him, I was still "doing well". Nevermind the fact that I got totally lapped by dogs. We started down at 11, which was the time that Matt had planned on us reaching the top. On the way down, we were glad that we didn't linger, as the scary cloud started making noises, big ugly claps of thunder. Being on a mountain above treeline in a thunder storm is NOT a good place to be! We weren't in any danger, but the clouds were definitely building. Going down wasn't as lung-taxing as going up, so I didn't need very many breaks. I am a horribly slow down-hill hiker, though. My knees just don't like it and my legs become very wobbly. As a result, I take things very methodically and slow.

goal here wasn't to take a pic of these guys - I wanted

to show how steep the trail was, but they wouldn't move!

FINALLY, after 3 hrs, I made it to the bottom. The top of my right foot was sore, both of my big toes were numb, and my calves were shot. But we'd made it round trip in 7.5 hours (9.5 miles by my Garmin). AND we beat out the storms.

We met up with the faster group (who got lost on the way down - oops!), the drove into Leadville for lunch. PIZZA. Mmmmmm! After that, it was down to town and I was home by 6 PM. Where I became a zombie.

rain falling over Twin Lakes

Today (2 days later), I feel like I just did a half ironman, if not more..... My legs are super sore and I'm TIRED. My right toe is still numb too. :/

Race Report - Rattlesnake Olympic Triathlon

2011-08-26T10:10:00.000-05:00

The plan for the summer was to enter a few races for fun and milk my IMTX training for all it was worth. Why I decided to do yet ANOTHER Olympic race, I have no idea... especially considering there was a Sprint the next day. But the Oly was my club's race and the price was right. I was actually close to signing up for the back-to-back (oly and sprint), but somehow I was smart and decided that the oly would be plenty. Coming into this race, my swimming has been eh (not liking my new team at all), cycling has been non-existant (3 rides in 6 weeks, all crammed into the last 10 days before the race!). Running has been ok, doing 6 mile runs regularly. Not enough for my upcoming half mary, but plenty for an oly.

This race was set up very strangely.... the swim was a 2 loop swim, where you pop up at the end of the first loop and run on the beach for ~100 feet and head back into the water. I did that in a race last year and hated it. The swim start was also very funky - time trial (meaning you start 5 seconds apart), and the start order was women first, oldest to youngest. Blech. And it was a "run from the beach" sorta start, which meant you run in and (if you're smart) dolphin dive to get rolling.

Pre-Race

Really weird bike racking in transition

Getting to the venue was ridiculously easy. Took me maybe 20 minutes to drive, and that was taking the long, non-toll road way. Got to the parking lot (right next to transition!) at 6 AM. Transition was really funky. Instead of having rows of racks, they had these weird little bike stand thingies that you see in front of stores that hold ~4 bikes. The stands were scattered about and space was pretty tight in between the "rows". Since I got there early, I snagged an aisle spot. This was good because I could use the aisle for transition and I didn't have to worry about the tight rows. They forgot to turn off the sprinklers that morning, which meant transition was full of puddles. Quite a few people were complaining, but its not like you come out of the lake dripping wet anyways.

They offered body marking inside transition, which must be a Colorado thing (Boulder Peak had that too). I really like this because you don't get the bottleneck into transition.

puddles and awkward transition area - but look at all the
room I have

I got everything set up and chatted with some friends from my tri club. Said hi to my other Team Sony teammate who was racing. Then it was time to make the big "wetsuit or no wetsuit decision". I headed to the water and waded in about mid-thigh. Everyone was wearing wetsuits. They claimed the water temp was 71 - it felt more like 75. I decided (again) to not wear the wetsuit and wear my Torque. (Bear in mind, I bought a sleeveless wetsuit in July to wear this summer, and I've never even tried it on yet.....). I ran back up to transition to grab my Torque and to stow the rest of my stuff at the club tent. Then it was time to cram into the Toque and get into line, where I was one of maybe 10 people not wearing a wetsuit. I was the only one in a speedsuit, everyone else simply didn't own or rent a wetsuit. Hmmm, not too sure about my decision now....

Swim

swim start - rawr!

The swim start was awkward. You had to line up by number. I was 196 out of ~400 people, and 5 seconds apart meant I was standing around for 16 minutes. I think I prefer wave starts, as you know when you start and there's not so much mulling around. So, once I FINALLY made my way to the start chute, you stand single file on the beach. The woman in front of me left, and then I had a guy with a stopwatch count me down. I heard "GO" and took off. I've only done one beach start before, and that was as a relay and I was combined with all the 20-25 year old men.... so I let them go ahead and I held back so I wouldn't die. This time I wanted to be aggressive. I took ~4 running steps with high knees once the water was to my knees I dove in. I think I executed this pretty well - I felt fast and my goggles stayed on. The swim was a really weird out and back, with a u-turn. The buoys were connected with a yellow floating rope. So, my goal was to just stay on the rope the whole time. This worked pretty well. I hit the buoy and turned 180 degrees and was met by 2 women who were treading water or doing breastroke RIGHT AFTER THE TURN. WTF?!?! I had to swim between them, but as I did, I yelled (I think) "not a good place for social hour ladies". That pissed me off. Ugh. I had a harder time navigating the rope on the way back and I had some chicky in a pink wetsuit decide to swim RIGHT next to me. Fine. I survived IMTX with no wetsuit - game on chicky. That continued on for basically the whole back end of the first loop.... at the end, I swam until I could touch sand with my hands, jumped out, ran my ~100 feet in the sand, (made a comment to the photographer about that moment being cute/horrible), then ran and dolphined in for the second loop.

running into the water to start the
second loop

For some reason, my navigation wasn't great for the second loop. I think I got a bit lazy, knowing the yellow rope was there. Only the course was more congested, so I had to swim wide at times, which meant I should have been sighting but wasn't doing so as much as I should have. I had the same pink wetsuit chicky bouncing off of me - I actually converted this into drafting. If she was going to swim close to me, I was going to benefit from it! I hit the turn and hugged the yellow rope for a while, which turned out to be an error. The race finish was actually quite a ways to the left of the swim start, only it wasn't marked with buoys! Finally I realized that hey, I should look for the red finish flags", and found them. Then it was a weird open expanse of a swim, with only the red flags on the beach to guide me. (different colored buoys would have been helpful here....) Things finally got a bit congested towards the end - once again, I swam until I could touch sand with my hands, then I popped up and ran up the hill to transition.

this doesn't look as awkard as
it felt.....

From the water, you have to run up the beach, up the grass, to the wetsuit strippers, then up more to a sidewalk, then UP MORE to transition. They had strippers for this race (yay!), so I was trying to jog a steady pace while wrestling out of my Torque. I needed to get it down past my hips before the strippers so they could pull it off w/out damaging it. I got the top part down pretty easy, but when I grabbed on to pull it past my hips, I caught my tri shorts and almost pulled them down too. Oops!

Near-clothing malfunction aside, I finally got the thing past my hips and ran up to the strippers who were all "WTF?" when they saw my Torque. I told them it was mostly like a wetsuit and all they had to do was grab and pull. They did and I was off for MORE running up the dang hill. I finally made it into transition where it was super easy to spot my bright yellow bike. A quick socks on, shoes on, helmet on, glasses on, racebelt on, and I grabbed the bike and was out to start the bike. Also: my club was volunteering in transition and it was SO NICE to hear people cheering for me.

Bike
So I rode the course the week prior (after not riding my bike for 6 weeks) and it was hilly. Not ridiculously so, but it wasn't going to be easy. Fortunately, it was not windy, so I had that in my favor.

brown grass and power lines
not very scenic

For the first few miles, you wind around the reservoir park. Not really sure why they just didn't extend the course on the main road by another ~2 miles, but for whatever reason, we got to ride on really crappy chip seal with decent hills. Fun after swimming! Once out of the park, I focused on getting my HR down to something in the 150's and getting my cadence comfortable. Bike was mostly uneventful... I passed some people, mostly going downhill. I always push the downhill so that momentum will help me up the hill on the other side. So, that resulted in a game of leapfrog - I'd pass people going down and they'd pass me going up. Definitely need to work on going up hills if I'm going to be any good racing here.

The bike course is a simple out and back on varied road surfaces. Concrete, asphalt, bumps over bridges, and chip seal. I hate chip seal.

A compliating personal feature for my ride was my full bladder. It felt full during the swim (which I ignored) and now it felt full on the bike at ~mile 10. There wasn't anywhere to stop and I didn't think the remainder of the ride would be fun with a full bladder, so I pee'd on the bike. And I was proud of this! I made sure I didn't have anyone near me (no witnesses!), and propped myself way back on the seat and let things go. It was a bit icky (and I felt bad for my bike), but I knew there would be water at the turn around that I could use to rinse myself with. I felt badass and much better.

The final hill is this up, flat, up, flat, up push to the turnaround. It just goes on foreverl On the second to last hill before the turn around, I dropped my chain. I guess this was Buzz's way of paying me back for peeing on him. Unfortunately, due to going uphill, I didn't have momentum to fix it on the fly (although I tried), so I had to stop, dismount, and fix it. My Garmin was on auto-stop (I really need to turn that off for races!) so I don't know how much time I lost... but if I had to guess it was 30 seconds. I hopped off, did what I needed to do and hopped back on. Hardly got any bike grease on me either. Then I had to start the climb from a dead stop. Boo.

Turn around was uneventful. I got water to rinse the ickyness off me and got back to work. Since I dropped my chain, it was tempting to push hard to regain my position. However, I still had 10+ hilly miles AND a 10k run to get through. As much as I wanted to push, I knew a steady pace would be much better. And in the end, I ended up catching back up to some of the people who passed me.

As I approached transition, you have to go on those lovely chip seal roads UPHILL back to transition, which sucks. I was having a hard time, and I figured that after 23 miles (and little training) that I was losing my legs. It just got tough and for no reason. (the next morning, my back tire was dead flat.... not sure if it was going flat on the bike though). While I was riding, I was determined to have a quick transition. I was tired of getting to my rack and blankly starring at things, only to finally realize I was in a race and get moving... and have a crappy T2 time. So while I was riding back, I actually thought about transition, what I needed to do and the order.

T2
I came screaming in on my bike and ran into T2. Again, I was happy for my aisle spot, as it was super easy to park my bike. I fiddled with my garmin, and while I did that, I said "HEY - multitask!" to myself, so I unclipped my helmet at the same time. Got all that done, swapped shoes, and then grabbed the rest of my run stuff (hat, water, garmin) so I could put that on during the run. My transition was focused and FAST. Go me!

Run

this is the happiest I've felt
running in a race in a long time

I made a race-day decision on my footwear. I normally run in Brooks Adrenaline 11's but I also own some Newton Motion shoes and love them. I just don't run in them all that often. The one time I raced in them I ended up PR'ing on the run and placing 5th overall in my age group. My feet fly in these shoes. But if the run is on an uneven surface (trails) Newtons are a bad choice, as its easy to turn an ankle. I brought both shoes, but once I heard the run was 100% concrete, I knew it would be a Newton sort of day.

Also, during the run for both IMTX and Boulder Peak, I had really bad stomach issues. I was a bit gun-shy for this race and was very conservative with my nutrition. I probably under-drank on the bike (on purpose). And for the run, I carried only water and had a gel in case I needed it.

I got out of transition and my feet were flying. I kept looking at my watch and seeing a ~9:30 pace. I told myself to slow down and it just didn't happen. Finally after the first mile, I knew the heat would eventually get me, so I gave my feet permission to fly along as long as I could handle the heat. The first 3 miles were SO MUCH FUN.

this is my "I'm hurting but will try to
smile" face

gooo Team Sony!

Effortless running. It was amazing. And better yet, my stomach was cooperating! Then at the turn around (3 miles) the heat hit me. I ran to the 4th mile aid station and then I just got hot. My heart rate hit 180, and that's my personal HR limit, especially when you have 2 miles left to run. So I did some run/walk business to get my HR under control. I was also getting a bit dizzy (under nutrition) so I had a tiny bit of gel to get that taken care of. There was one girl in my age group, who I was just behind on the bike before I dropped my chain. She was having trouble, so I made it my goal to ease up, but not so much that she'd beat me. This proved to be decent motivation and by the 5th mile, I couldn't even see her behind me anymore. The final mile was a bit ugly, mostly because of the heat and these lame little hills. More walking. Then I finally sucked it up and ran the last half mile, as fast as I could. I don't remember the pace at the end, but it probably wasn't as fast as I'd like. I was trying to push and it just wasn't there. Hit the chute and raised my arms - wanted to get a good pic in my Sony kit :)

Post-Race

I had to pick my mom up from the hospital at a yet-to-be-determined time that day, so I headed up to the club tent to check my phone for messages. No messages - good! I can partake of post-race activities! They had bagel sammiches (so much better than pizza), cookies, fruit, pop, and beer. I sat at a table with my club-friends (I can't tell you how happy I am to have friends at races again!). I ate my stuff, figured I'd hung around long enough, and headed up to transition to grab my stuff. My club had beer at the tent, so I stuck around to drink half a beer (it wasn't that good), then I grabbed my stuff and drove home.

Nutrition

Goal for today was to avoid stomach issues. I modified my pre-race food. Normally I have a Honey Stinger protein bar and coke zero about 2 hrs before the race. I think the protein bar messed with me during Boulder Peak, so I swapped that for a Powerbar. Stomach was ok during the swim and great on the bike. I mixed up a 2 hr drink in my 40z oz bike reservoir and was careful to not chug it. I also normally have a gel on the bike for the oly-distance, but today I was being cautious and stuck to drink only. That seemed to work as my stomach felt great during the first part of the run. For the run, I carried water and had a gel for emergencies. I took a swig of gatorade at mile 1 or 2 (I can't remember), which ended up hurting a tiny bit so I quit that altogether. Then after mile 3 I started getting a bit dizzy. I ripped open a gel and took in maybe 1/4 of it. Just enough to get some sugar in but not enough to mess with my stomach. This seemed to work as the dizziness went away but my stomach was ok. Maybe next time I'll go a bit heavier on the bike with calories.

Stats
Swim - 29:04 (2 minutes faster than last year's 2 loop with run oly distance swim). Age Group - 10/33 Overall - 160 / 397. Was expecting to be a bit higher up with that time. Also, people were commenting that the swim was short, which I believe. My swim time included not only my swim, but also my long run uphill AND the strippers.

T1 - 1:29 (fastest T1 to date, probably because the chip mats were right at the transition entrance)

Bike - 1:28:37 / 16.83 mph. Age Group - 19/33 Overall - 297 / 397. For reference, last year's Oly (which was FLAT) was in 1:25 with no mechanical issues or hills. So I'd call this a success. Especially with my lack of training.

T2 - 0:20. Yes, 20 SECONDS. I was hoping for under a minute. I have no idea how I did this. I'm pretty sure that I can't even change shoes while standing up in 20 seconds.

Run - 1:06:40 / 10:45 min/mile pace. PR by 4 minutes. Age Group - 23 / 33 Overall 303 / 397

Overall Time: 3:06:10 PR by 23 minutes (Boulder Peak) and by 28 minutes (Houston Tri, Sept 2010). GO ME.

Crazy Week

2011-08-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

At this point, I just hope I survive through September.

Monday - recovery day, nothing special otherwise (honestly, I just don't remember Monday)
Tuesday - awesome 6 mile run, blah work
Wednesday - mom had surgery to remove a 20mm pre-cancerous polyp from her right colon. I took a vacation day so I could be the "responsible child". Got up at 5 AM had an "eh" swim practice (I think I'm going to switch teams AGAIN - this one just isn't doing it for me). Then I got home and figured while I was taking a vacation day and didn't have to be anywhere until noon, I should get in a bike ride. Normally I just ride on the trails by my house, but since it was after 8 AM I thought it was safe to ride on the roads. I managed to pick a ridiculously hilly route, which had wind from all sides. Went a whopping14.8 mph for 16 miles. Left a bit too late to run any errands, so I went straight out to pick my mom up. Got there 5 minutes late (she was waiting on the front porch). Got the hospital right at noon, got her checked in, and waited and waited. Her surgery was at 3. They didn't call her back until 1:30, which meant lots of anxious waiting. Poor thing couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight. I was thirsty and starving, but felt really rude eating/drinking in front of her, so I suffered as well. They took her back at 1:30 to prep her (hospital gown and an IV). I went back ~20 min later, where they told us her surgery was pushed back by 30 min to 3:30. She was a bit of a wreck so I distratcted her with random facebook photos of people she may know. They wheeled her off at 3:30 and I was free to eat and drink. Headed across the street for a bite and beer. I felt sorta guilty about the beer, but I also thought I earned it. The surgery people said I'd get a call ~30 min before the close of surgery, sort of a notification to get my butt up to the waiting room so the surgeon could talk to me. I didn't like the waiting room so I hung out somewhere else. At 5:15, I decided I needed to head up there, sat down, and 2 min later the surgeon showed up fully dressed. What about my warning call? Surgery went well, except instead of removing 2 inches, they took out the whole right colon, which is about 5 inches and included her appendix. At 7 PM they wheeled her into her room, where she was awake but loopy. She asked me the same series of questions about 3 times. And I'm a bad daughter and didn't ask the right questions of the surgeon and therefore didn't have good (detailed) answers for her. I helped her eat her "dinner" (clear liquids) and left at 8:30. LONG DAY.
Thursday - decided to sleep in and ditch my run. Got to work and realized my laptop power cord was making a popping noise and wasn't working. I called IT at 9 AM to tell them I needed a new charger. At 11, my laptop battery died. Meaning there was no work to be done. I called again, and was told to wait. I called again at 2 PM - same response. Considering I was now using my vacation time to sit in my cubicle waiting for a power cord, I decided to just head home. So I did. And played with the critters (Swift, my cat; and Molasses, my mom's tortoise who we are pet-stting for the next month or so). At 5 PM, Will and I head over to the hospital to visit mom. Not a bad visit, she's doing better but was still on IV pain killers and a liquid diet. Left at 8 PM. Ate pizza at this place by the hospital that we went to ALL THE TIME as a kid. That was trippy. It hasn't changed at all. And was YUM. Then home to feed/medicate Swift. And at 10 PM bedtime.
Friday - skipped swim practice. Not getting much out of it, plus I have a race Saturday, and I'm really tired. Alarm went off at 6:30, Swift came upstairs to greet us, only instead of meows and purrs, she's breathing so hard it sounds like she's gagging. SCARY. Will took her downstairs and she was doing better (slightly). Breathing hard but at least her mouth was closed. Gave Swift her 2x/week cancer pill, and went to work. I hate waking up and then trying to figure out right away if I'm going to have to put another cat down. Ugh. Patching things together for work to full my day (there's not much going on right now) but at least I have my laptop charger. Then after work its off to the hospital, dinner, and home for race prep.

Yeah, I have an olympic distance triathlon tomorrow. Not sure why I thought this was a good idea. Part of it is because I'm sponsored now and I have to get in 5 races between now and January, and there aren't that many tris to do between now and then. Its also my tri club's race, and I will have friends and support there. Also, I thought I needed the distraction. Well, I'm distracted (and pulled in 4 different directions). Hopefully the race will go well. :/

Too many options

2011-08-15T13:52:00.000-05:00

I am easily talked out of training without a plan in front of me.

Saturday I was supposed to wake up at 5:30 AM do a 10 mile run with my (very informal) running club. Instead, I woke up at 5:20 AM, drove up to Idaho Springs to SAG (aka be a support vehicle) for my tri club's annual Mt Evans bike ride. I figured there was NO WAY I could ride my bike up that thing (28 miles, all uphill with a 6-8 % grade, ending elevation of 14,130 ft) but I could assist those who could and make friends along the way. We had 14 riders. Everyone made it to Summit Lake, 11 made it to the top.

There was a half marathon (Georgetown to Idaho Springs) that morning, so we "had" to park at the Cemetery.

Echo Lake

QUALITY pavement up above Summit Lake

The group. Fastest rider made it up in 3 hrs 15 min. Descent took 1 hr.

After the ride, we had lunch at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs. For my SAG duties, one rider bought me a beer. I got the Rye Porter. OMG TASTY! For lunch, even though I did in no way earn this, I got the waffles n chicken sammich. With another rye porter.

with maple bourbon glaze. I ate this at 3 PM and did not eat dinner. Too stuffed!

Sunday I NEEDED to ride my bike. In my last post, I made it pretty clear that my time on the bike has been non-existant. And I have an Olympic distance tri next Saturday. So, I organized an unoffical club ride on the Rattlesnake bike course. 25 miles of HILLS. With no trees or shade. Going out, I was actually holding 12 mph going uphill and my HR was only 163. I thought to myself, wow, maybe I did hold onto some of my IM bike fitness afterall.

We turned around and WHAM, headwind. Yeah, fitness? What's that?

Actually, the ride wasn't so bad. The last 2 miles of steady climbing will suck. Running a 10k after a hilly ride in virtually no shade will really suck.

Sporting my new TEAM SONY race kit after my ride on Sunday. I'm a sponsored athlete, yo!

Then there's my whole half marathon.... I won't be doing a long run next weekend. I haven't done anything over 8 miles since IMTX. I won't be able to run next weekend because I have the Oly race Saturday and I'm volunteering for the sprint on Sunday. The following weekend is a bust, as I'm hiking up Mt Elbert (a 14,000+ peak) with my tri club (organizer's notes: 9 miles round trip with 4700ft of elevation gain...your legs and lungs will be tested, but this is very doable climb. We shall see). My last "distance" run (8 miles) was July 16th. And my half marathon is Oct 9th. Sooo, this give me 5 weekends of running opportunity before my race. And that's if I don't do any more tri's. There's 2 more I'd like to do before season closes in October. I may just have to do long runs and then the sprint tris may (or may not) suffer. And then there's beer fest at the end of Sept. TOO MANY FUN THINGS ARE GOING ON. Ugh.

I NEED to get in 2x 6 mile runs during the week and I NEED to start working on my Saturday long runs. And then really buckle down in September if I don't want to die on Oct 9.

Two really great runs

2011-08-12T14:35:00.000-05:00

Trying to keep things upbeat here. Will do a memoriam entry about Ernie when I can think about him and not cry. :(

Onto rainbows and bunnies (happy thoughts).

We went to Idaho for vacation last week. Not exactly a happy vacation, as the primary objective was to spend time with Will's grandmother. Grandpa passed away in February, and since then grandma has been declining. She had a "cardiac event" in early July, went into assisted living 4 weeks ago, and asked to go off of all her medications 2 weeks ago. I can't say I blame her, she's lived her life and she's ready to go. Still, it sucks.

Even through we were on vacation, I needed to get some training in. Swimming is hard to do in the desert (yes, Southern Idaho is a desert). I could have brought my bike with me, but I didn't see myself trying to figure out which roads were paved in the area of the grandparent's ranch. So, I made it simple and brought ONLY my running gear. My goal was to run 20 miles for the week. I had 9 weeks until the Denver RnR half marathon and I've barely been running*.

What happened to running and biking??

I still don't have a real run plan. I'm going to try to run 3x per week. Tues should be track night, Thurs should be 6 miles, Sat should be my long run (10-14 miles).

Goal for the week was to run 4 times. Twice @ 6 miles, a 4 mile "recovery" jog, and another 6 mile run. We drove to ID (10.5 hrs) on Saturday and stayed with Will's mom. Her neck of the woods is still pretty "country" with farms, dairys, and pig farms (OMG, the SMELL) nearby. The roads are really simple - all based on 1 mile squares. VERY hard to get lost out here. Last time I ran here, I broke my foot. So, the running joke this time was that I should NOT break my foot, that it wasn't 15 degrees out, and my MIL's husband shouldn't have to drive around looking to rescue me. I got up at 6:30 (early, but still sleeping in since I normally get up to run at 5:20) and hit the road. (full disclosure: I wanted to stay in bed, but the MIL's husband promised to take us out to breakfast that morning. Pancakes = I need to EARN them by running) I ran on dirt roads the whole time with some decent uphills. I took the first 3 miles as a warm-up then did some fartleks every 5 minutes to build speed coming back on the last 3 miles. The first three were decent. Took a while to get warmed up, but I was happy running with new scenery and smells, as it had just rained and the fields were full (except the pig farm smell - ick!). Plus, its kinda fun to run with cows and horses as your audience. Coming back I ran fartleks at my 5k pace (which is actually faster than my 2010 5k pace now), starting at 20 seconds and building to 40 seconds every 5 minutes. Fartleks are great because you get burst of speed which don't tire you out, and it gets your feel moving faster, which keeps your non-fartlek pace faster than if you were straight-pace running the entire 5 minutes. For the last half mile, I pushed the overall pace to my 10k pace, to negative split the run. Really great energy on the back half of the run. Legs and spirit felt great. Speed was great. 10:47 overall pace. (My last run of a similar distance was at a 10:59 pace). Then we went out and had fantastic blueberry pancakes (soooo good) and then I took a 3 hr nap. Hello vacation!

Monday we migrated to the grandparent's ranch, so Tuesday morning I ran out there. Again, 6:30 AM. Sun was out and it was a bit warm (not Houston warm, but warmer than Denver). Same deal as Monday. Dirt roads, warm-up the first 3 miles, fartlek back the last 3 miles. The first two miles really didn't feel great. My right foot is developing minor plantars fascitis and was pretty stiff. Actually, my legs in general were pretty stiff, probably from Monday's run. But knowing my body, I stuck with it, because it usually takes me 2-3 miles to warm-up. My watch rang at 3 miles, I turned around and started pushing. Fartleks starting at 30 seconds every 5 minutes. At mile 5, I was flying and feeling great. I rarely get runner's highs, but I was feeling it that morning. I felt FANTASTIC. Running in the country next to a mountain with beautiful skies and happy legs. I decided to push the last mile, descending from a 5k pace to a faster than 5k pace at the 1/2 mile mark. I was flying and it was wonderful. 6 miles at a 10:32 pace. Sweet! (probably would have been even faster, but its impossible to run across cattle guards, and I had 4 to cross).

Tuesday I pushed myself to run again. This workout was a recovery run intended to loosen the legs but to also build strength. I knew it would suck. But that was the point. I got up at 7:30 this time (slacker!) and hit the road. Goal was 4 miles. Immediately, it was not a fun run. Legs were very stiff, nothing felt awesome. When things don't feel great (which is often the case), I stick to my "give it 20 minutes" rule. If things don't feel better by 20 minutes (usually almost 2 miles), then its time to bag it and head back. Usually things feel better after 20 min (as demonstrated the previous day). Today was no such day. I got to 1.5 miles and simply wasn't feeling it and headed back. Total run - 3.2 miles @ 12:10 pace. FAIL.

Wednesday was a planned (and needed!) rest day. Thursday I probably should have gone running, but I didn't. And then a dry storm moved through on Thursday, causing 30 (!!) range fires in the area. The air quality was horrible, which meant no more running for the week.

This fire was ~5 miles away from the ranch and 20,000 acres big. Will helped with fighting it (with his cousin) and they ended up saving a neighbor's house.

fire at twilight

Total mileage: 15.2
Maybe next week I'll hit 20 miles. Actually, I've got an Oly on the 20th, so it may be more like 3 weeks before I hit 20 miles for the week. Training plan??? Good thing I don't have one, or else I'd be blowing it big time!

* Holy hell. I just charted my weekly distance from late January until now. Can you say slacker??? Damn. I knew there would be a dropoff after IMTX, but seeing it graphically is harsh.

Camping Trip

2011-07-26T15:11:00.000-05:00

Rather than write a bunch, I thought I'd just post some pretty with commentary:

View as we're driving into Crested Butte. How is it that I've never been here before? Its GORGEOUS!

no idea what this was about, but it was pretty cool - Crested Butte

Campsite for 2 nights. Drove up Gothic Rd (dirt, but not bad), took the turn to Rustler Gulch. There were some "formal" campsites along the way (with pit toilets) and some "unofficial" campsites where you pull off the road. Nothing was suiting our fancy, so we decided to keep driving past the gate for RG (after I hiked up a bit to make sure it wasn't too scary). We saw one camp spot and almost took it, but it was out in the open and not "perfect". We decided to head up the road to see what's up there. Another 1/2 mile and we reached the end of the road. And this campsite, which was PERFECT. Some trees, but not so many that they block the view. Pretty view, and no people.

mountain creeks make a good beer cooler

Saturday's activity - hiking along Rustler Gulch

Gothic Peak

The trail called for 2 stream crossings (each way). I'm so happy I researched the hike and knew to bring along sandals. We saw the crossing at the trail and thought "surely there's an easier way". I'm pretty sure our "easier way" was much worse, as we had to cross 2x in the place and it was quite a bit wider than where the trail was. Snowmelt creeks are COLD and painful. I think I lasted maybe 20 seconds before the needles hit my feet and I was in pain. Will was ok, except for the burden of carrying his OWN hiking boots (which he's trying to hand to me in this picture, as I'm safely on the other side)

glacier lily - I love these

columbine - the state flower

humongous flower with Will for reference. Right about where his head is on the mountain is our destination.

so cheerful - there were fields of these

waist-deep sunflowers, all facing south. With the sun, it looked like the hill was glowing yellow.

Avery beer with Avery Peak

Gothic Peak with a huge field of sunflowers

Mirror Lake - camp spot for Sunday night. We had a couple options, stay around Crested Butte (just up a different valley) or go somewhere different. We did drop $70 on fishing licences, so we decided to camp at a lake. This place was in a guidebook "50 Best Tent Campsites in CO" and was close to Tincup Pass, which looked like fun. We were hoping that since it was Sunday, the campground would be empty (which is was - there was only 1 other group out of 10 sites). What we didn't think of was the mosquitos. Der. Lake = mosquitos, even if we were at 11,000 feet.

I think we maybe fished 1 hour? Fish were jumping all around but not biting. I ended up losing my spinner after 45 min. Will lasted a bit longer. I took this photo when I was sitting on the hill, eating chips and reading a book. Will also lost his lure. No fish were caught. I think we'd better learn how to use our fly rods - we'd have better luck.

Mirror Lake Campground. Nice campground but 2 negative things which would make me NOT stay here again. #1 - mosquitos. They were bad. Like swarming me as I was cooking bad. #2 - Tincup seems to be an ATV paradise, so we got to listen to dirt bikes and 4 wheeler engines all day long.

Driving up Tincup Pass. Some sections were steep/rocky. We had to get out and walk a few spots before driving them. I got out a few times to guide. We only scraped the bottom of the truck twice. Success! Something tells me this would have been more fun in an ATV. We had to go 4L and took it slow. ATVs were kicking our ass.

Near the top. This is going uphill, pretty steeply.

We made it! ‎12,154 ft. Ironically, the woman who took this photo was from Clear Lake (Houston). Funny!

view from the top

Mid-July Ramblings

2011-07-21T18:56:00.000-05:00

Finally starting to feel like I should have a training plan. After living and breathing by a plan since October, it was kinda nice to just play things by ear. But now I'm 2.5 months away from a half marathon. Not to mention I may do 3-4 other tri's before the end of Sept. I can do a bunch of coasting on my IMTX fitness, but not complete coasting. A plan keeps me accountable. If only these silly monsoon season afternoon thunderstorms would stop interfering with my plans. Grrr.

M - rest day or maybe yoga (assuming I can find a yoga class I like)
Tu - track workout
W - AM masters, PM bike (which hasn't been happening with the rain)
Th - AM run
F - AM masters
Sa - long run
Su - bike ride if I feel like it. 2x a month @ 40 miles is probably fine as long as I actually ride my bike mid-week.

Still undecided about the new gym I joined, specifically for Masters. My last team was crazy fast. This one is just not very serious. And what bothers me the most is the workout schedule. Mondays are distance, Wed is IM, Fri is sprint. This is stupid because the people who NEED the distance workouts typically take Monday off to recover from the weekend's running and biking. When I asked why the schedule was that way, I got an "I dunno, its always been that way" answer. Not the answer I wanted to hear. I went to a yoga class on Monday and it was the second worst yoga/pilates class I've attended. The worst was in 2006, in Windsor, MA (I was there for work) were the instructor was more interested in singing along (out loud) to Prince's greatest hits than actually cueing us. This class at the new club was like yoga/pilates set to up-beat music and it seemed choreographed to the music. Which meant that you never held a pose longer than 3 seconds. That is not yoga. Also, there was a club employee (I think he taught TRX) who spent the whole class loudly whining about how hard it was. I don't know if he was trying to be funny - like maybe empathisizing with the less fit people in the room - or what. But I thought it was disrespectful and annoying. Half way through the class I actually called him out on his antics and told him to suck it up and be quiet. Everyone laughed thinking I was joking. And he didn't shut up. All the "serious" yoga classes are during the work day - clearly this club, while located in a HUGE office park, is geared to women who do not work. Awesome. I did go to a spin class, and that was actually good. Not sure if this justifies the $101/month fee, though. Even if I do get freshly washed towels.

I could join the rec center. I swam with the masters team there, and it was about the same sort of thing. And they have yoga/spin class where I could buy a punch card. The net price would be much cheaper. Just not sure if I'd like it any better. And it doesn't come with freshly washed towels.

Swift-kitty isn't doing awesome. I spent $2,000 on her in May, between her IBS and high thyroid. She's not been doing very well (diarreah for 3 weeks) and now her back end is cleared up but she's really lethargic. We're going away for the weekend and I'm going to kennel her at the vet. Hopefully they will figure out the issue. Poor kitty :(

And to end on a high note, we're going camping this weekend. YAY! We're headed to Crested Butte, up a 4x4 road past Gothic (an old ghost town) and will do the "pull off the side of a forest service road and camp where we want to". Apparently the wildflowers are ah-may-zing right now. I'm excited for 4 days of exploring somewhere new and being outside in the mountains. I've even purchased gourmet smores supplies with DARK CHOCOLATE. mmmmm. They just opened the road this week up to Emerald Lake (due to snow) which is one of our camping options, so we'll see. Fortuately, there are plenty of options. I'm also hoping it doesn't rain a ton. We haven't used our tent in 3 years and I'm not sure how waterproof it is. Also: I hope we don't get eaten by a bear. I've never had a bear encounter in CO. I more associate bears with MT camping. But apparently, the bear problems are worse now than when I was a kid, so we need to be careful. Especially since we're camping in BFE. I also have to convince Will that 5 miles of hiking every day is FUN. He's not very excited. Hopefully he will change his mind once we get there.

I hope to post pics of our adventures next week. :)

Endurance Snobbery

2011-07-18T15:10:00.000-05:00

I've been working out with a bunch of different people lately - ranging from newbies to Ironman or multiple-marathon finishers. Its fun to share the excitement and nervous energy of the newbies but its also fun being the jaded "its not worth my time for X distance". My swim-snobbery is well documented. I have a hard time getting in the pool if the workout is less than 2,000 yards. I once had a recovery-week swim workout of 1200 yards, and I really debated if the 20 minutes of swimming was worth my time (and a second shower for the day). Lately, I'm becoming more that way for running and biking. I've been really bad in getting in the shorter runs. For some reason, its not worth the hassle if I'm not running for at least 45 minutes. Four miles is now my short run. I was running with a multi-marathoner on Saturday and she said that she won't even get out of bed for 2 miles.

Funny how far I've come from being a beginner. I remember the first time I was training for a 5k - and the first time my plan called for 5 miles. It was intimidating. For the 5k, I made Will show up to cheer me on and it was the. biggest. deal. ever. Really. Until until I discovered endurance events.

My first triathlon was a HUGE deal. I was so nervous but excited. I made Will get up at 5 AM so he could document the grande event. Finishing was the biggest thing ever.

Until I did a Quarter IM 5 months later (and made Will stay overnight with me in Galveston - "I don't know if I'll be able to drive home, I'll be soooo tired"). And a year later, same thing with a HIM. Then a full IM.

Funny thing - I think I was more nervous for my first sprint triathlon than I was for IMTX. I think it was because for IMTX, I've done this sort of thing before. Sure it was my first IM, but I'd trained for it and I knew I would finish. I had an idea of how much it would hurt (or not hurt, depending on what part of the race I was in). For my first sprint - and all other distances leading up to IMTX - I was in unchartered territory and I wasn't sure quite what to expect. That sprint was full of the unknown and "what-ifs", where IMTX was more like a celebration of the past 8 months of hard work.

In my post-IM life, I'm now having to motivate myself for these shorter sessions. Its so easy to ditch my short mid-week run (especially when I'm not really training for anything). Short mid-week bike rides are easily excused away. Long rides and runs - no problem getting those in though. But even those "long" outings aren't that long. 8 mile runs and 30-40 mile rides. I get done with the run/ride and feel like I've got a lot more left in the tank. The focus on these longer rides aren't on the training - they're on the social aspect and meeting new people. The Boulder Peak Oly last week took me nearly 3.5 hours, and THAT didn't even feel very long. I remember getting to the finish chute going "ummmm, this really isn't that big of a deal. Should I raise my arms anyways, because that's what you do in a finish line photo?" How sad/funny is that? What was once a HUGE deal even a year ago is just ho-hum, no big deal. Its cool but also really weird.

I suppose I'd better get a training plan set up for the Denver RnR half marathon in October to keep me focused (at least a little bit). Or at least a bit more accountable for when I feel like skipping my mid-week runs.

CSA farm shares

2011-07-13T16:56:00.000-05:00

A CSA (or Community Supported Agriculture) is something that I've been wanting do to for quite a while. Basically, its local produce that gets delivered to you in a box. Its all fresh and seasonal. In Houston, there weren't many CSA options and none of the delivery locations were close to me. When I transferred to Denver, I saw that a CSA delivered right to work. Score! I immediately signed up for a single share in both veggies and fruit. I like the idea of CSAs because it forces you to try new things and the food is very fresh. Not to mention you're supporting your local farmers.

Shares are a bit of a mystery box. You get whatever the farm has on hand at that week. I'm in the 5th week and here's a summary of what we've received:

Week 1:

spinach, cilantro, parsley, rhubarb, red leaf lettuce, spring salad mix, and green onion

Week 2:

Lettuce (red and green), spinach, green onion, radishes, rhubarb, and cilantro

Week 3:

Spinach, mixed salad greens, dill, green onion, garlic scapes, kale, and some sort of green lettuce

Week 4:

Green onion, mixed salad greens, spinach, mystery green lettuce, bag o' rhubarb, cilantro, and mystery purpley kale like stuff

Week 5:

eggs, spinach, kale, green lettuce, baby mixed greens, pea pods, garlic scapes, baby beets, garlic bulb, and brocoli

Finally this week (week 5) we've started to get some non-herb and salad items. Some random observations:

I REALLY like rhubarb. I can't believe I've never had it before but its AWESOME. Very tart and soooo yummy in cobbler. Do not be afraid of this stuff (like I was). Its the shizzle.
Kale on the other hand... I'm not so sure. I made some kale chips (with bacon salt). They were weird. Will liked them, though. I did make some thai curry chicken with kale last night, and it was pretty dang tasty. We shall see.
I've eaten more salad in the past 4 weeks than I probably did all winter.
The first week I actually cooked "real food" with my share. Made a green onion/spinach quiche. Salad. Cobbler. Now I've got a bit of an herb and spinach overload (really, I have SO MUCH spinach), so I've been cooking the spinach (or drying herbs) and freezing/saving them for later.
My mom's turtle is a happy pet. He's been getting a lot of the leafy things that we just can't eat. (because really, 2 things of lettuce and a bag of greens?!?!?) He'll love the snap peas this week.
It is possible to make scrambled eggs too herb-y. I used some dill and garlic scapes in scrambled eggs, but used the immersion blender on them before I cooked them. I literally had green eggs.
I do love the suprise every week (even though they email us with the list on Monday, you don't always get what's on the list.).

Fruit shares started this week. Bummer is that we had a bad (frosty) spring so all the cherries didn't happen. So I get cherry or apple cider and cherry wine. We'll see what we do with that. I can't wait for August when all the western slope peaches are in season. I lurve peaches.

Race Report - Boulder Peak

2011-07-11T12:18:00.000-05:00

aka - my first Colorado triathlon
aaka - I left my bike legs at home
aaaka - best part was the scenery, the Left Hand beer tent, and meeting Matt Reed!

I have no specific reason for doing this race, other than I was feeling like I wanted to do an Olympic-distance tri in July (no idea why I was thinking this!). There were 2 options, Boulder Peak (local race recently purchased by WTC for their 5150 series) or a Denver one (inaugural, 2 transitions, $25 more, but a finish at Mile High Stadium). Even though Boulder Peak has a crazy big hill and was early in July, I decided that the venue, presence of pro triathletes, and the fact that this race had been going on for 20 years would make this a good, solid Colorado debut. Even if it was hard - it would at least be pretty!

Saturday
Will and I left early-ish and got to the expo at 11 AM to check in. There was a mini-expo with local vendors (not overly WTC-influenced, which was nice). Check-in had the typical WTC steps, but it wasn't crowded and didn't take much time. We stoped by some tents, got some free samples. I met a facebook friend who was doing his first triathlon. Then we headed to the WTC clearance tent - compression gear for $20 and IM-branded race apparel for $5. THIS is where I have issues. They had a ton of gear from 2008-2009 races, including FINISHER GEAR for $5. Its bad enough you have people buying shirts/shorts/hats for races they've never raced in - but to sell FINISHER gear which is EARNED for $5 is outright disrespectful. I was wearing my IMTX visor, and I had some girls (who did not look like they've even done a 70.3) tell me that they liked my visor and asked me which pile I found it in (!!!!!!). I somehow managed to just stay quiet and not give them an earful of my opinions. UGH.

I stood in the reservoir to get a feel for temperatures - it was WARM. Ok, maybe not warm, but certainly not wetsuit warm. I was waffling over wearing my new sleeveless wetsuit or my Torque, and standing knee-deep in the water, I knew that I would boil in a wetsuit. Yay - I get to wear my Torque again! Then they had the finish line up, so I got a finish line photo, complete in casual clothes and my Chaco sandles.

I've got the finisher photo - do I still need to race??

After the expo, we were hungry, so we went to the Boulder Brewery for lunch and beers.

All this for $14! Carb loading Boulder-style

Pre-Race
Boulder is about 1 hour away from my home in South Metro Denver, so I left at 4:30. This is probably the EARLIEST I've left for a race, but the race start was at 6:30, which is also probably the earliest race start I've had. One of the guys from my tri-club wanted to ride up as a spectator, and he offered Sherpa duties too. He seemed like a cool guy from the group ride we did on Monday, so I thought it would be a good way to get to know someone and have company. And the offer to be my sherpa was awesome too. The ride up was uneventful, except for when we were on the Diagonal waiting to turn into the Reservoir, I got rear-ended! It was a non-issue as my bumper is solid steel and we were at a dead stop, but really??? I guess the guy's foot slipped of his clutch and he rolled into me. I'm just thankful that my bike was INSIDE my SUV, not on a hitch.

Transition was a bit chaotic - no water to fill up bottles, 1600 athletes all trying to get ready. The main differences between CO and Houston? It was already light out (no need for a headlamp so I can see my transition spot) and it was BEAUTIFUL.

Sunrise on the Flatirons

Bike racking was a train-wreck. I don't know if it was because I was racking with the 50+ men or if there were a lot of rookies, but it was so messy. People were taking up HUGE amounts of space (they had duffel bags!) and not alternating sides. I really wish the officials would have done something to clean it up - it was really one of the worst transition areas I've seen. Finally left to head to the swim beach - I was happy that I was in the 5th swim wave (6:50 AM) instead of one of the last. I put on my Scape 50 SPF sunscreen (its expensive but worth it!) and got my Torque on. Then my sherpa appeared and I gave him my gear bag. Perfect! The PA system was hard to hear (something about an ordinance preventing loud noise before 7 AM), so I didn't hear the anthem, race start, or anything. I freaked out that I missed my wave, but fortunately that was not the case.

Swim
We waded in and treaded water. It was a bit weird as the official start line wasn't marked at ALL. It was also weird because most of the people in my wave (W 35-39) were hanging back - far back. I had prime front row position and no one was jostling for it.

The swim was a 1500 m clockwise rectangle. The bummer was that the first leg was straight into the sun. The guns went off and things were a typical wave start with some contact but nothing awful. I couldn't see the buoys for anything. I don't know if they just weren't very tall, if they were spaced REALLY far apart, or the sun (or a combination of all 3), but I just couldn't see any buoys. So I hoped for the best and swam with a pack of people into the sun. This acutally worked well as my pack stayed on course. The turns around the buoy were smooth and I really didn't have much contact. I swam with 2-3 people pretty consistenly, swam through some of the other age-groupers in a previous wave. I swam a pretty consistenly T pace without really pushing too hard. I thought about pushing more, but considering I haven't been training that much I thought it was best to swim strong but not hard to save my energy. Also, the Torque was perfect - the water was much too warm for a wetsuit and I would have been roasting if I was in mine. It was weird being one of 2 people NOT wearing a wetsuit in my wave, but this was definitely the right decision for me.

Swim time: 29:57 - PR by over a minute!

T1
You came out of the water onto a sandy beach, ran up a hill and into transition. They were nice and put out kiddie pools for you to dash through to rinse off the sand. Transition was mostly uneventful. I did well getting my Torque unzipped and pulled down to my waist, but I had a bit of a hard time getting it over my hips. Its sooo tight (which is good for swimming - not so good for fast transition times) and I don't want to tear it, so I do take a bit more care than I normally would in a race situation. Sherpa heckled me about my slowness, and I probably deserved it.

T1 time: 3:20

running into T1

Bike
The bike course is definitely different from any other race I've done in Houston. You leave the reservoir, ride west up to Lee Hill (or Olde Stage) and start climbing almost immediately. At mile 5-8 you have a big hill, its steepest part being 2/3 of a mile long and a 15% grade. From that point, you've got a SWEET downhill (that has a 35 mph radar-enforced speed limit), some more dowhills (no speed limit) out of the foothills, then back to open land with rollers. Going into this I knew I didn't have climbing legs but I would just see how things went. The goal was to have fun, not to torture myself.

Starting out the ride with a smile

I head out on the bike and almost immediately, I knew it was not going to be a good bike. We were heading west on Jay Rd, which is pretty flat, and I was barely hitting 13-14 mph. It honestly felt like I had a brake rub or a flat tire. Only this wasn't the case - my legs just weren't doing their job. This happened on a swim-bike brick I did a few weeks ago, where my legs were REALLY sluggish for the first 15 minutes, probably effects from IMTX recovery. So, I just tried to keep my cadence and hope that my legs would wake up.

We made the turn onto Lee Rd and started climbing. I don't think I made it even half way up - and certainly not to the steepest portion of the hill before my HR was at 185. Not good. A few people were already walking and I decided that it just wasn't worth the torture to ride up the hill. Especially if my legs weren't working properly AND my HR was sky high. So I dismounted and hiked up the hill. Sucky. Even with walking, though, my HR was in the 170's. And all the steep walking in my cycling shoes made me concerned about potential blisters - fortunately I was ok.

I got to the first aid station, which was on a false flat after the 15% grade. At that point, I decided it was ok to get back on the bike and do the last little bit of the hill. That went ok, fortunately it wasn't a very long climb. Then the fun began.

DOWNHILL. With the 35 mph speed zone, I just stayed up and tapped my breaks occasionally. They had a sign which shows your mph, and I saw 33 mph as I went by. Close to the max but not in the danger zone. Once you passed that area, the speed zone went away and you could just sail on down. I'd ridden this portion of the course 2 weeks prior and its beautiful. You're in a rocky canyon with a creek adjacent to the road and tons of s-shaped curves the whole way down. Riding in the shade next to the creek made the air COLD. So cold that I actually had goosebumps - a first during a race. I definitely wasn't in Texas anymore. I think I hit 38 mph and passed quite a few people on the descent, so that at least felt good. I may suck at climbing but at least I can fly downhill!

After we cleared the foothills, we had ~10 miles of rollers back to the reservoir. My stomach had been giving me issues each time I drank my Infinit - acting like it was wanting to cramp. I took half of a Hammer gel at 1 hr and again at 1:20, just to try and get some calories in. I also forced myself to have more Infinit, but still not enough to really be considered fuel. The rest of the course was wide open and rollers. By that point my legs were feeling better (but still not 100%). It helped that I'd been on this part of the course before and knew what to expect. The goal was to finish the bike as best I could and be set up for a strong run. The bike was bad, but maybe I could salvage the run.

Bike: 1:43:19 (15.1 mph) Note: this was a 42k bike, not the traditional 40k Oly distance bike. Not really sure why, but that's the way the race has always been.

T2
Even though I walked the transition area before the race, I really didn't pay attention to the bike in being on the left side of transition. For whatever reason, I got into transition and immediately ran to the center (probably because I ran to the center from the swim). About halfway over, I realized my mistake and backtracked. Not a huge mistake, but it probably cost me 15 seconds. The rest of transition was very smooth. Helmet off, shoes off, shoes on, race-belt on, grab my water and hat and exit transition.

T2 time: 1:44

Run
The run is an out and back along the reservoir with some small hills and barely any shade. I actually came off the bike excited to run.

starting the run with the Expo tents and mountains in the background

Almost immediately, my stomach started rebelling. UGH. I was determined to NOT have another run like I did at IMTX. Besides, it was overcast (for now) and only 6.2 miles. I could run this. I spent the first mile debating the pros and cons of puking. There really wasn't a good place I could hide and puke, and I really hate puking. My fear is that once I start, I won't stop. On the bike, I actually thought (briefly) about DNF'ing. Strangely on the run, I really never thought of that. Instead, I just decided that we'll see how things go. Slow the pace down and run 2 miles - just see if things don't improve. I slowed my pace down to a 11:00-11:30 pace and walked the aid stations and the hills. I wasn't brave enough to drink gatorade, but I did take tiny sips of water. My stomach wasn't awesome, but I could maintain this pace. Much better than the IMTX walkfest. It was only 6 miles - I could do this. At the turn around I felt ok and decided to up the pace a bit for a mile or so and see how things were. I could increase the pace slightly but definitely not to the point where I felt like I was racing. However, I also realized that as long as I was running, I could PR. I just had to keep my stomach together. By this point, when I burped, I could taste bile. Really not a good sign. The sun was also out now, but I dumped ice down my top and focused on the cool ice melting down my back and the beautiful mountains in front of me. I would have liked to have run the last mile hard, but in all honestly, I was back to an ~11:00 pace. At least I was running. Even in the finish chute, I couldn't put it together to sprint. But I was running, so at least there's that. I hit the finish line and saw my sherpa (also photographer - added bonus). I was greeted with a finish medal and a cold wet towel. We then headed over to the expo for food and to meet other club members who were racing.

Run Time: 1:10:40 (PR!)

don't you just see the enthusiasm here?

Post-Race
I hit the food tent and got a variety of things to eat. Also got a full sized blueberry-vanilla Mix1 as a recovery drink. Then we headed over to the run course to watch the pro race. Boulder Peak is unique, in that the pros race last (9 AM) so the age-groupers can watch the pros finish. The pro run course was a 1-mile out and back, so you got to see the pros plenty of times as you ate your post-race food. I managed to get down the Mix1 ok, only ate 1/3 of my sandwich (not unusual, I rarely eat much solid food after a race), and half of an orange. We saw the pros finish and then I noticed a Left Hand beer tent. I love CO races - no crappy Michelob Ultra at the finish line - we get good beer! We headed to that tent and found a few other club members

second best part of the race, right here

I didn't stay and finish my beer because I was driving, and by that point my GI tract was really rebelling. I swear, I've never had so many issues before. Its awful! After a trip to the bathroom I felt better but I also wanted to get home. I found my sherpa and we headed to transition to rescue my bike. It just so happened that Matt Reed was ALSO walking to transition to get his bike. HOW COOL. Matt won the Lifetime Fitness Oly in MN Saturday, hopped on a plane back to CO, and raced Sunday in Boulder. He came in 6th overall. I can't even imagine. He was awesome and nice enough to endulge my fan-girl moment with a photo. He even chatted for a bit and admitted that today hurt a fair amount. Such a nice guy - and definitely made racing this race worthwhile. :)

Sherpa jumped the gun and didn't catch me smiling. Bummer. But look how tall Matt Reed is!!!

Stats:
Swim: 29:57 523/1240 overall, 22/92 AG
T1: 3:20 643/1240 overall, 36/92 AG
Bike: 1:43:19, 15.16 mph, 1128/1240 overall, 80/92 AG
T2: 1:44, 640/1240 overall, 41/92 AG
Run: 1:10:40, 11:23 min/mile, 1102/1240 overall, 78/92 AG
Total: 3:29:00. 1051/1240 overall, 71/92 AG

Post-Race Ramblings

Swim was good, run wasn't bad (all things considered).
What do I do about my stomach??? I'm going to have to consult the Interwebz to see if this is a lingering effect from IMTX.
Strangely enough 3.5 hours of racing went by FAST. Probably due to a combination of coming off of IMTX and the fact that this course was new to me, so I had lots to look at. Still, except for the hill climb disaster, none of the course felt long.
I'm barely sore, except for my shoulders/neck. And my abs felt like I spent all day puking. Lovely!
Not sure if I'd do this race again (that hill is a big deterrent), however, I would very likely volunteer or spectate. The list of pros racing the course is just awesome. I'm going to try to do races all over so next year I can hit my favorites.

The Plan is to Not Have A Plan

2011-07-08T16:07:00.000-05:00

After 8 months of highly regimented traning, where I lived and died by my schedule, I have nothing really planned for the summer.

who am I kidding?

Ok, I don't have anything that requires 8 months of regimented traning planned. Good thing too, because Will would kill me. I want to race, I like to train. But simply put, I don't want to HAVE to do any of this. The rule: keep it fun; don't think too hard about it.

I've got a rough training schedule blocked up, but if a workout doesn't happen, its no big deal. If I decide that I want to swim at Chatfield Reservoir on Wednedays after work with a friend (and maybe get in a little bike riding too), its ok to skip masters swim practice that morning. Don't feel like working out at all - no problem!

I did get picked up by Team Sony Walkman. As part of my sponsorship agreement, I have to do either the full or half Denver Rock and Roll marathon. I registered for the full (at the time it was only $89 - cheaper than the half), and I knew I could downgrade. I've also committed to doing 4 events. Originally it was supposed to be between July and October, with the marathon in October = very doable. However, we won't get our kits until August. Doing 4 tri's in Aug/Sept AND train for an October marathon = disaster. So, I'm downgrading to the half.

But before I knew about the "no team kits until August" thing, I went and signed up for the Boulder Peak Olympic triathlon. I put all the local races on a calendar, with their venues, distances, etc. I want to do a few Oly's and a few sprints. There seem to be 4 major race venues here - Aurora Reservoir, Union Reservoir, Cherry Creek Reservior, and Boulder Reservoir (plus a few random pool ones). I wanted to do one race per venue this year, so I can get a feel for where I like to race. There's a few other Oly's this summer (one has you finish at Mile High Staduim), but those are a bit newer and (to me) unproven. Plus $150 is a LOT to spend for an olympic-distance race. So, I figured it early, but what the hell. Boulder Peak it is - besides, there's a ton of pros racing AND its beautiful. What I really didn't think through was the fact that you have to ride your bike up Olde Stage - a 2/3 of a mile long, 15% climb. Ouch. I'm hoping it won't kill me. (and how does this go int othe "keep it fun rule?" - if you figure it out, please let me know). So yeah, I'm racing Boulder on Sunday. Without much thought or a plan. Sweet!

And past that, I have no plan. No other races (besides an Oct 9th half marathon) planned. Just playing it by ear and doing what sounds fun.

Life after Ironman Texas

2011-07-06T17:39:00.000-05:00

Its been nearly 7 weeks since IMTX - what the hell have I been up to? Its been a weird (but nice) 7 weeks. Weird (but nice) because I no longer Live and Die by my Schedule. If I don't feel like working out, I just don't! I also have free time. (I know! What a concept!). I actually have been able to enjoy typical weekend-type things, which most normal people experience on a regular basis!

Here's a quick run-down of what I've been up to.

Memorial Day - went to South Fork, CO to hang out with some friends in college. It was crazy-windy, and there was a bit too much snow on the ground for any amount of hiking. But I got to sleep in and read books! And enjoy pretty mountain scenery!

somewhere in the mountains by South Fork, CO

Moved to our New House - We closed on our house May 5th, but there was no way I was going to move AND get ready for IMTX at the same time. So, we slowly started moving things from our rental house to the new house, a carload or two at a time. Then we installed hardwood floors on the whole second floor of our house (and had the first floor refinished). Finally, on June 10th, the movers came and took our furniture from the rental to our permanent home. The whole weekend was spent moving and unpacking boxes. I swear, my feet hurt more on Sunday (after standing long hours for 3 days straight) than after IMTX. Or maybe it was some residual IMTX issues that made them hurt. I dunno. Several subsequent weekends have been spent unpacking boxes. I finally have our bedroom, master bathroom, and kitchen unpacked. We are still missing some things from our move to Houston (4 glass shelves for a display cabinet) and I still don't have a clue where I'd like to hang our artwork. But things are functional and feeling more and more like home every day.

Got a Pedicure - my first one in I don't know.... a year and a half? at least? Of course, now its been 3 weeks and my pedicure is all chipped and looks terrible now. But it was fun while it lasted.

Joined a new swim team - With the move, swimming at the old team wasn't practical (5:15 AM start with a 30 min drive - no thanks!). Soooo, I've joined the swanky private health club by work, purely for their swim team. I'm still very undecided. The HR swim team was HARD and I was lonely, but I learned a lot and I was challenged. This team.... well, they seem to like their toys. We did a set where it was 100 pull, 100 swim, 200 pull, etc etc. And even for the 100 pull, they busted out their paddles. And we did some 50 kick/50 swim sets, and the guy in my lane kept taking his fins on and off for the kick sets. Just pick one (fins or nekkid feet) and stick with it. UGH. I really don't like how they have practice set up. Monday is distance, Wed is IM, Fri is sprint. I asked them why they have distance on Monday, because the people who actually need distance workouts usually trash themselves on the weekends and take Monday off as recovery. The answer: I dunno - its just always been that way. *smacks forehead* Also, since practice is only 70 minutes long, the workouts aren't that long. The Friday sprint coach claims that swimming 4,000 m (with this group of people) would only be junk yardage. However, if he's doing his job right, 2,500 m should feel like 4,500 m. I'm not convinced that this is the case - I'm pretty sure that those two distances feel pretty different. Soooooo, we shall see. I'm a bit limited on the swim team options over on this end of town, so we'll just try this out for a few months and I'll see if I can deal with it. (I miss my old MAC team very, very much).

outdoor 25 meter pool

Riding my bike with people - what a strange concept! I rode from Boulder to Jamestown a few weeks back. My friend got done with Ride the Rockies (a 5 day, multi-mountain pass, 50-70 miles/day ride) and didn't want to do anything serious. I wanted to do a "traditional" CO ride, so we did this one. Only we stopped at the top and had breakfast at the cafe. There was 8 miles of steady climbing to breakfast. I am not used to having a upper zone 4 to zone 5 heart rate for 45 minutes. I was DYING. If I wasn't bribed with pancakes at the top, I might have turned around early.

pancakes in Jamestown

Buzz in his new native mountain habitat

I'm also starting to do some group rides with my new tri club. I rode with them on Monday morning, not knowing their pacing or anything. I'm so used to being a back of the pack rider, that I prefaced my ride with "I'm not good on hills - I will just try to keep up". Well, I don't know who the hell I've been riding with lately, but apparently I ride with smoking fast people. With this group, I was consistenly 3rd or 4th and I was the fastest girl. The hills weren't substantial (mostly rollers, but some STEEP rollers), but still - I was surprised that I was faster than most of the group. Weirdness!

Running with people - sense a theme here! My IMTX training was mostly solo, so I'm really enjoying being out with other people. It really helps that I'm not seriously training for anything, which means I don't have specific targets. This gives me a LOT of flexibility. Tuesday nights I've beend going to track workout with my tri club. There's usually ~8 of us, I'm the slowest (usually). Track is a bit hard right now as I'm still recovering from IMTX, but its so nice to be out with people and to (at least try) to build some speed. Also, 6 PM track night in CO is no where near as hot and horrible as track night in Houston. AND I have a great view of Pikes Peak from the track. Its awesome!

Back in March, I joined a running club through a local running store. It was $60 for the year (deal!) and included Saturday supported long runs from the store, 15% store discount, and a 25% discount on Brooks shoes. I really just joined for the shoe discount (I run in Brooks Adrenaline 11s) and didn't intend to run with them until after IMTX (again, my training schedule didn't mesh with other people). So last Saturday, I got up for the 7 AM group run. I planned on just doing 6-7 miles, the most I've run since IMTX. But I was running WITH people, and those people wanted to do 8 miles. So I did 8 with them. Their pacing wasn't great (they went out too fast, I've been trained to negative split). And the group was small (I'm used to running with 300 people), which didn't give me many options for slower paces. They were really nice though - training for their first tri, and they asked some questions about training and racing, which helped to pass the time. At the end of the run, everyone was really hot and some were even dripping with sweat. I was dry and happy. It didn't seem very hot at all to me, however, I'm sure next year (once I lose my Houston heat-memories), I will be dying. Still, I'm loving the fact that I can run in daylight and not be dripping sweat from my pinky fingers.

BREAKFAST - yes, I can actually have breakfast on the weekends with my husband. Holy schmoley. The first Saturday after IMTX we went to this place called Snooze, where I got the panckae sampler - coconut snowball, lemon blueberry, and pineapple-upside-down cake. YUM.

pancakes at Snooze. YUM

BEER - I can have beer too! We have yet to really explore our massive list of breweries in the area. (Lefthand and Oskar Blues, specifically). However, we have found quite a few places for good beer by the new house, have visited a few breweries (Dry Dock, Elk Mountain, Falcon, Great Divide).

mostly empty beer sampler at Dry Dock

Baseball games - last Sunday, we went to the 1 PM game at Coors Field. I LOVE Coors Field. There's nothing better than a pretty day and a good beer. (a win would help, but who are we kidding here?)

Coors Field's in-house brewed amber on a pretty Sunday afternoon

Final Thoughts on IMTX

2011-06-28T12:13:00.000-05:00

Its been 5 weeks since the big day - here are some (rambling) thoughts about my experience:

My goal for the race was to kick ass on the swim, do well on the bike, and just get through the run. I made myself promise that, should the heat get to me on the run, that I would slow down and avoid the medical tent and IVs. I'm just not used to the heat anymore and one day wasn't worth getting a heat-related illness.
The swim was great - it was crazy, but what sticks with me was the feeling of being one of the purple caps (women) weaving my way past all the green caps (men). I remember thinking how INSANE the swim was with all the contact, but laughing and taking it all it. I mean, who does this sort of thing??? This was MY Ironman experience and I was going to enjoy it. Really, the swim was crazy but I loved it. That probably makes me crazy, but I'm ok with that.
I love the bike course. When I got to the national forest, I made myself breathe in the pine-scented air and ENJOY the scenery. Enjoy riding with people. Enjoy the easy hills and my awesome high-altitude conditioning. This was the LAST TIME I was going to ride here, one of my favorite places to ride in Houston, and here I was, doing my final ride here - my final ride in Texas - during an Ironman. The whole ride, really, was great. I stayed within my HR limits but still came in 11 minutes faster than I'd anticipated.
Transitions - should I ever do this again, I definitely know what to expect and where to improve. The changing tents were a bit overwhelming.
I will forever make sure that my socks are in my cycling shoes and NOT in my running shoes.
I need to figure something else out nutrition-wise for the run when its hot. My stomach mildly acted up during Lonestar and it most definitely did NOT like my Infinit during IMTX. I think it has to do with it being concentrated, as I can tolerate it at normal strength without problems. Definitely thinking about trying to live off the course for future races because for long events, I just can't carry enough drink mix in a practical manner.
The run..... I still have VERY mixed feelings about how much walking I did. I stayed with my plan of avoiding medical assistance. If I did push and ran more, I'm 90% sure that I would have been in real trouble. For some reason, I think that walking makes me less of an Ironman, I guess. Even though I'm pretty sure that walking was actually harder than if I just sucked it up and ran it. But given that so many people I knew, people who live there and are acclimated to the heat, had issues. Several puked, needed IVs, and were really hurting. I was slow, but I was fine. I executed my plan. I raced smart and inside my box. I kept my promise to Will about not pushing too hard. That right there is a victory. I just need to be happier about it. Maybe I will be, in time.
The volunteers were spectacular. The spectators were great. I loved the yellow signs on the bike (my favorite was "This sounded like a good idea a year ago") and all the funny signs that one family did for a racer on the run (Brent).
The race planners did a spectacular job. I felt safe, which is what matters most when I am racing. They really planned things well and had nice touches (like portable ice machines for each bike aid station - they used 45,000 lbs of ice on race day!).
Still not sure if I'd do another IM distance. Definitely not a hot race, but maybe (just maybe) CDA. The race was FUN, but I need to remember how challenging (mentally) the training was and how many lonely, cold hours I had from January - May. I need to remember how I had no time (zip, zero!) to do anything fun during that time. I think that moving forward, the HIM distance is best for me. I feel like I can train for that and still have a life. Balance is good.
I now have life-long bragging rights that I am an Ironman. :)

Ironman Texas 2011 Race Report - Run

2011-06-20T18:50:00.001-05:00

After a successful swim and a fun bike, it was time to get down to business - get through a marathon on my own two feet. Let me preface this RR by saying a few things:

I really don't like heat (I know - why did I sign up for IMTX in MAY of all things if I don't like heat!),
Since moving from Houston to Denver, I lost any semblance of heat tolerance that I had. Mainly because I kept getting snowed on, as documented here, here, and in my many cranky snow updates on Facebook. If fact, we were having a BBQ in Castle Rock a week before IMTX and guess what??? SNOW. ugh.

leaving for the run and feeling good!

Taking into account 1 and 2, I promised Will that I was not going to end up in the medical tent with an IV/puking due to heat stress. If it got hot and I had issues, I was going to be smart and slow down.

I came out of the changing tent started running. I went out the Run Start chute and saw a few friend faces and was remarking out loud "I can't believe my legs feel this good". My legs felt AWESOME - too awesome. I had just biked 112 miles - why were they feeling so good? (because you trained well and your coach kicked your ass - duh!) So I went a mile, took a drink of my Infinit concentrate, and that's about when the wheels fell off. Well, maybe the wheels went from round to square. The heat and nutrition in my stomach was NOT a good combo. It felt like I had someone taking all their fingers, wrapping them under my left ribcage and pulling with all their might. Not fun. I was still determined, though, so I did some run/walk intervals as I saw fit. The run trail was an 8+ mile loop, 3 loop course. You went out past Lake Woodlands (swim start), along the lake, then into a wooded path, then through a swanky neighboorhood, then into the canal area (swim exit) where you ran along the south canal, up past the Anadarko building, up and over the canal, then you had a mean out and back along the north side of the canal, up a hill and past transition, then you had a VERY MEAN run past the finish line where you started loops #2 and 3.

very early on in the run

Somewhere along the south canal stretch, Anne ran past me early on while we were in the woods - looking great as usual. I ran across my friend David (I still don't know how I was ahead of him) and he was having stomach issues also. We walked for a bit then did a long run strech, where then after ~5 minutes, I decided I needed to walk again and David kept running. And that's the last I saw of any other friend-athletes.

Loop #1 wasn't bad - it was long and hot, but not bad. I saw Will by transition, told him I was feeling decent. Then at the start of the second loop things got bad. With my stomach issues, I really hadn't had much in the way of nutrition - for over 2 hours. Which is BAD when you are 10+ hours into an endurance race. I started getting dizzy and loopy - a sure sign that I was low on sugar and had to do something STAT. Also: this sensation made is nearly impossible to run - or even run/walk. At the first aid station in the second loop, I started hitting the coke, usually 1 or 2 cups per aid station. I was trying to do a 2 min run/3 min walk, but in the end, it was actually faster to just walk. (sad but true). Just to show you how far down in the energy hole I was, it took the coke a full hour to do its thing. Not good.

near the end of loop #1. still felt good enough to smile

By that point, from all the walking, I was starting to get blisters, it was a loooong second loop, and I wanted nothing more in life than to curl up in a ball and fall asleep. I resolved to just fantisize about napping all while keeping forward progress. I was just generally unhappy with life. Unhappy that I was forced into walking. Unhappy that my "blister-proof" socks - seriously, I've ran in these socks for YEARS without even a single blister - had failed me when I needed them the most. Unhappy that my shoes also contributed to my blisters. Unhappy that I had done the second loop pretty much by myself with no one to keep me company. Unhappy that I was definitely doing my third loop in the dark. Yep, just really unhappy.

if you look closely, you can see me walking off into the
darkness. very crabby, indeed.

I found Will again just past transition (Loop #2). He was there with our friends that were hosting us. I was one crabby and unhappy camper. They were all "you're doing great! you look great! good job!" My only response was a very bratty "I have blisters, its hot, my stomach feels horrible, and I have another loop to do IN THE DARK. I will see you in 3 hours". And with that, I tossed my hat, sunglasses (who needs sunglasses in the dark!), and worthless hand-held bottle of nutrition at Will and walked off into the darkness. I wouldn't even let him take a proper photograph of me. I think I even told him to remind me later on, should I ever want to do another IM of how miserable I was at that moment, so I wouldn't do this again. I really can't recall a time when I've ever been that crabby!

So after that bratty display, after a few minutes, I felt really, terribly bad. My friends and husband were out supporting me, and all I could do was be crabby. As I passed special needs, I decided that it was a good time to get my bag and take 2 Aleve. I know its not a good idea to take stuff like that while you're racing, since your liver is under enough stress. But everything was hurting and I thought it would make me feel better. I'm glad I did. That loop #2 through the finish chute was just really uncool. People don't know what loop you're on and they're cheering "you're almost done!" Nope, I've got another 2-3 hours of this, but thanks. Finally, after the first aid station on the third loop, my spirits were doing better. They gave us glow necklaces. I found some walking buddies which helped pass the time. People were still out cheering.

The one cool thing that I got to experience that the earlier finishes didn't was this cool/spooky glow-necklace lit forest. Most of the course was well lit with street lights, except for maybe 2/3 of a mile though the trees. To keep us on course, the race crew used glow necklaces (only they kept them as sticks) and put them perpendicular to the path. They were placed every 3-5 feet or so along the whole trail, producing this really cool but also sort of creepy effect. Either way, it was really neat to experience. When we got to the swanky neighborhood, I started to out-walk my current company and was walking on my own for a bit. When I got to the waterway, I met up with a guy from Louisiana and we were well matched for pace. He was actually maybe a bit faster than I was going when I was by myself, but that was a GOOD thing. We walked and talked, thanked people for staying out to cheer. Passed the time and got it done. Finally we walked up the last hill and into the part that went into the Marketplace, indicating that the finish was near. He looked at me, and asked me if I was ready to run. And we both ran to the finish - although he was faster than I was.

The finish line is a bit of a blur. I remember that it was lined with cheering people. It was very well lit - not harsh lighting but warm, welcoming lighting. I ran down that chute towards the finish line, aware of my blisters with each step, but not caring. I was going to finish strong. I made the turn into the finish line - focusing on smiling and running strong. The nice thing about finishing late is that you can hog the finish line photo all to yourself. Well, maybe 100 yards before the finish line there was a guy ahead of me walking.

I was very irritated because I WAS NOT going to share my finisher photo with someone else. I had a choice - hang back and wait for him, or sprint ahead. I chose to sprint, which was fun, but I do not remember Mike Reilley saying that I was an Ironman. Hmmm.

I crossed the line, raised my arms, and smiled BIG. I was an Ironman. FINALLY.

I was immediately greeted my my finish line handler, who was VERY concerned about me. Apparently people were dropping like flies. He put my medal around my neck, handed me a water. Then a photographer took my photo. Fortunately I smiled because that was my "finisher medal" photo. No traditional IM background, which really irritated me! Anyways, my handler had my finisher hat and shirt and was grilling me on who I was with. I kept telling him that I was fine (I was!) but he insisted on walking me to the end of the chute to meet Will. He was nice enough to take a photo of me and Will together, and then that was it. I was done. I was an Ironman.

Ironman Texas 2011 Race Report - Bike

2011-06-16T16:15:00.000-05:00

Leaving Transition. I really wish I'd learn
howto put my helmet on straight.

Great swim, near crisis averted with me being an idiot and packing my ONLY pair of socks with my run bag, and I'm off for 112 miles on the bike through the forests and pastures of Texas. I've ridden the course north of 105 many, many times and love it.

Had no idea what to expect for the southern half of the course, but I figured it couldn't be too bad. I got off and rolling at a comfortable cadence - heart rate was in the 150's and my focus for the first third of the ride was to find a good cadence, settle into it, and get those calories in. The course had a few hills in the beginning, but nothing too bad. I was pedalling right along when all of a sudden I got stopped by a traffic "worker" as we were crossing FM 1488 because traffic had been waiting "20 minutes". We were all "WTH? there's a RACE going on". The worker said, not to worry, they'll make sure the time spent waiting was credited to our race time. (yeah, sure, because they had someone there documenting EVERYONE's bib numbers). I was towards the front, and as we sat there waiting, the crowd kept pushing forward, getting more crowded and angry.

The vibe was (understandably) not good. Finally after ~3.5 minutes, they let us cross FM1488 and we were on our way. It was really crazy for the first few minutes with the crowding and cranky people. Lots of people were unhappy. Very understandable, but being upset doesn't fix anything. The day before the race, Will's cousin Jeff (who did IMAZ in 2009) had some great words of advice: own your space. Own your physical space. Own your mental space. Do not let ANYONE affect your space. I didn't realize it, but it was great advice. I resolved to "own my space" which meant that I was going to have a GREAT and FUN bike ride. That really was the theme of the whole ride. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bike course.

I love this picture!

When we got into the National Forest segment (my favorite part), I just made sure that I took the whole experience in. I was racing an Ironman. This bike course, when I lived in Houston, used to kick my ass. Now I live in Colorado and the bike course felt like a really fun training ride.

Racers and pretty forest

My favorite part of the course is north of 105, when you get into the National Forest. The prettiest section is FM1791. Its a fairly narrow road, but you're surrounded by tall pine trees and the air smells so good and everything is so green. Really, the section of FM149 north of 105 through to Richards is all forest. Love. It. It was in this section I made it a point to ENJOY the ride. This I love riding here and this was probably the last time I would ever ride here again. I just soaked up every minute of the ride. Loving how easy these hills were now, loving the beautiful green forests and pine scented air. Loving the

Ironman environment I was racing in.

My awesome sign that Scott made for me :) Its
now hanging in my cubicle at work

Will and I made a plan for him to meet me at the corner of FM1791 and Taliaferro Road. The key was for him to not have to cross the course (traffic lines) and have an easy in/out by foot to find me. I turned the corner and looked in the crowd of people. No Will. Rode on a few hundred feet and there he was! I pulled off to the side of the road to stop for a few kisses. Even though I was only 40 miles into the bike, I was so happy to see him. I gave him an estimate of each aid station time, based on my expected pace, and I was WAY ahead of pace. He had only arrived to his waiting spot 15 minutes earlier.

We chatted for a bit, he showed the sign our friends made for me, I kissed him some more. A woman racer zoomed past and said "hey - no kissing", but in a nice sort of way. After probably a few too many minutes, we said goodbye and I was on my way. I'm glad he came out to find me - definitely made the ride that much better.

Much needed Will sighting :)

I stopped to use the bathroom at mile 50, which is pretty good for me. I normally have to stop somewhere after 2-3 hours (30-45 miles). The volunteers were great - I even had a bike handler when I got to the bathroom line! While waiting in line, I decided to have some Honey Stinger waffle. It was all crumbly from being in my back pocket, so I made the decision just to eat the whole thing, rather than eating half now and saving half for later. Boy was that a mistake - that whole waffle sent me into sugar overload. For the next 30 minutes, I was dizzy and buzzin from too much sugar. I stayed calm, though, and stuck to the plan. Drink fluids, keep my cadence, keep my cool and the sugar will absorb with effort and time and I'll feel better. I did feel better after 30 minutes, but I sure won't be eating a whole one of those anytime soon! During the sugar episode, I passed by special needs, and decided that I didn't "need" anything and kept going. I was doing well hydration and nutriton wise, so there was no need to stop.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. I kept passing/getting passes by a guy who had a whole stack of saltines in his back jersey pocket. Finally I just started calling him cracker. I'd pass him on the uphills, he'd pass me on the flats.

For the hills, I just focused on keeping my HR and cadence steady. Now was not the time for power moves by staying in my big ring and burning my legs up. I think there were maybe ~3 times where I went into my small ring, and only for about 2 minutes a pop. Normally I'd stay in my big ring and fight, but I really didn't think the effort was worth it. Bravado sure, but at the time, it was more about keeping my legs fresh.

I got stopped for traffic once more going south at 105, although it wasn't as long of a stop as the first time. The whole northern part of the course was a big parking lot with the traffic delays. Some people were pretty pissed (I'm suprised they weren't throwing stuff at us), but some people were actually really cool and cheered us on as they were stuck waiting. We had a bad patch of fresh rocky chip seal - and to make it worse, there was a line of traffic, so we were crammed on the shoulder with heat and exhaust bouncing off the cars. It was only for a mile or so - not awful.

I stopped at mile 90 for another bathroom break. I really didn't "need" the break for the bathroom - I needed it to get up and stretch and re-set my muscles after 6 hours of riding. Legs were fine, saddle area was fine, forearms where they rest on my aeropads started hurting somewhere around mile 50, feet started hurting around maybe mile 80. Arms were bearable - no numbness, just sore, probably because for all my training rides I had on no fewer than 3 layers to stay warm. That extra padding on my arms apparently made a difference in my comfort level. Nothing that the occasional reach out to my shifters (while still staying areo) didn't fix. My feet were swelling from the heat and were getting hotspots where my cleats were. My left big toe was also hurting, something which I experience during the Katy Flatlands Century Ride last July and which gave me my first black toenail. The pain was tolerable as long as I shifted my weight occasionally and even more occasionally unclipped my foot to stretch. Also at mile 90 the sun decided to come out and it got HOT. I dumped a bunch of cold water on my cool wings (special fabric sleeves that help cool you), and continued to dump water on them at each subsequent aid station.

We passed mile marker 100 and I pumped my fist in the air and patted my bike's aerobar. This was the longest I've ever ridden and I knew that I WAS going to finish the bike. I felt great. A bit warm, but otherwise great. I was even passing people!

The last 12 miles were on completely unfamiliar roads. You could tell you were close to The Woodlands but you never got a clear sense of how far away you actually were to transition. We turned on Woodlands Parkway and it just seemed that you had to ride forever. Around every curve, I was hoping to see the familiar transition area but the course just kept going!

FINALLY the crowds got thicker. I saw people running (holy crap - they looked HOT on the run course). And then I saw the flags and transition. I was done - I'd completed my Ironman bike segment and felt great. Total ride time was 7 hours even, clock time was 7:19.40. Not really sure how I wasted 20 minutes with traffic stops, a kissing break, and 2 rest stops. Maybe the traffic stops were longer, because I really didn't waste much time on the rest breaks!

I handed my bike off to a helpful volunteer - remembering to take my garmin with me for the run. I waved to Will and told him that the bike went fine and I felt great. Yes, I felt GREAT after a 112 mile bike ride. How crazy is that?!?!?

I grabbed my bag in the run transition bag zone. Made a smartass comment about how hot it was. Another lovely volunteer grabbed a cup of ice, which I promptly tossed down my shirt. I had a nice but only sort of helpful volunteer for T2.

Feeling good and ready to run!

Maybe I just wasn't very well organized and didn't know how to work with a volunteer? I dunno. I changed shorts, re-sprayed my feet with TriSlide, had the volunteer fill my hand-held with water to make my drink mix, put on more face-stick sunscreen on my face, decided to have the volunteer use the stick on my back. Somehow that all took 9:29. I think I must have sat there trying to cool off for a while, or something. Finally, I put on my running hat and left the changing tent. I had a job to do - and that job was to go 26.2 miles on my feet before midnight - and I had over 8 hours to get it done. Today I was going to be an Ironman!

Ironman Texas 2011 Race Report - Swim

2011-06-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

So here I am, in the water, surrounded by 2200 other athletes with Black Sabbath's Ironman playing over the loud speakers. No nerves - I'm just PUMPED. No matter what, by midnight, I WILL be an Ironman. The gun goes off and its just chaos.

Craziness up close

With ~75% of the field comprised of men, it was hard to be a girl. The men had green caps and the women had purple ones. As much as I liked the purple and appreciated not having the typical hot pink, purple was kind of a dumb color - it did not stand out at all in the water. I'm swimming, trying not to get swept up in the adrenaline, trying not to get swam over by the men, and trying to keep my spirits high. The swim was a ~1400 meter swim south, then a ~100 meter turn east, then ~1400 min swim back north to the canal, which was ~0.5 miles to the finish. My plan was to start wide to the right as the buoys snaked around a bit, with the idea to swim to the ~4th buoy and save myself some yardage.

Craziness from far away

The first 1400 meters was sheer insanity. As I was swimming along, I thought that I could either be really freaked out/angry about all the contact or just laugh about how insane this all was. I chose to laugh - I mean, who does this sort of crazy thing? It was also really cool to be one of the purple caps sneaking her way through all the (slow) men . So yeah, the first part of the swim was brutal but fun. Tons of people grabbing my ankles - if I didn't safety pin my chip together, I would have lost it with all the grabbing. Tons of people kept putting their hands in the center of my back and pushing down - ON ME - to take a stroke. As a result, without my wetsuit to keep me buoyant, I felt like a fishing bobber. It took a lot of presence of mind to remain calm with the pushing, but somehow, I did it. I got 4 elbows to the head - only one really hurt. And my "worst" contact was a solid kick in the breastbone. Before the race, I looked at my fingernails, thinking they were a bit long but decided they could make good weapons if needed. Well, after being kicked, I found that guy's ankle and latched on with those nails. Who knows if he felt anything but it made me feel MUCH better. During the whole "out" portion of the swim and the turn, I never found clear water. Instead of getting frustrated, I just tried to find some feet to draft off of.

The second 1400 meter swim back up to the canal was actually really nice. I had tons of open water and I felt like I could actually get a good rhythm and focus on form. I felt GOOD. I enjoyed being able to swim in my own space because I knew once I hit the canal, things would get tight. Sighting was never a problem as there were crowds or landmarks that made it pretty easy. Still, I probably sighted too much (just to avoid people). I forgot to body glide the back of my neck, and my torque was having a fun little snack back there. Oh well - hopefully it won't be too bad.

Is this a salmon run or a race?

I made the turn into the canal and immediately it got crowded. People were swimming all sorts of speeds, some were standing up (even though they warned us that the canal was only 4 ft deep and could have rebar and glass at the bottom!). I just did the best I could and tried to keep my cool. As I got closer in, the spectators were out in larger numbers and you could hear them cheering. I must say, as much as swimming in the muddy, crowded canal sucked, swimming with masses of people on either side of the canal was the COOLEST thing. Then, our salmon run was done, I saw the last turn buoy and made turn to the ladder and climbed out. I had no idea what my swim time was (I didn't find out until after the race) but I felt GOOD.

unflattering but at least I'm smiling
and don't resemble a swamp
monster

I saw some friends spectating as I ran to get my bike bag and then into the changing tent. I had heard about volunteers helping you in the tent, but when I got there, they were all busy with other athletes. No problem, I've done this before and can do it again without help. The nice part about the Torque was that I had my bike kit on underneath it - so I didn't have to change. I got my Torque off with only a bit of issue clearing my hips. Then I must have sat there in a stupor because my T1 time was ridiculous.

I then made sure to get some sunscreen on, lube up, and put on my Cool Wings (which took a bit of effort since I was wet). I put on my helmet, grabbed my shoes and looked for my socks. WHERE ARE MY SOCKS. I dug through my bag some more. Then emptied everything on the ground. No socks. Crap - I bet I packed them with my running shoes. I grabbed my nutrition and crammed it in my bike shorts back pocket, then grabbed my bike shoes and headed out of the tent. Very fortunately for me, a IM staff member let me into the run gear bag area to get my socks. Thank goodness! I probably could have biked 112 miles sockless, but I wasn't looking forward to it! Hooray - my socks were packed in my running shoes so all was well. I sprayed my (now grassy) feet very thoroughly with TriGlide, put on my socks, put on my shoes and trotted out of the run area. Nearly twisted an ankle on a crack in the pavement - that would have sucked.

Where's my bike?

Trotted down the grassy path to my bike. Again, was hoping for a volunteer to fetch my bike, but it was so crowded that just wasn't going to happen. I found my row, found my bike. Will was there waiting for me, cheering and taking pictures. He asked how the swim went - according to him I said it sucked. I remember saying that it went well. I like my version better.

Hi Will! Feeling good!

I started up my garmin grabbed my bike and headed out to the bike start to get rolling along on my favorite bike course.....

ready to ride!

Swim time: 1:21:04 My goal was ~1:20 and with the craziness, I'm SUPER happy with my time.

T1 time: 9:56. Something tells me having to go to a different transition area to find my socks may have something to do with this ridiculously slow time.

Ironman Texas 2011 Race Report - Pre-Race

2011-05-31T15:45:00.000-05:00

Thursday
We flew down Thursday before the race and leading up to IMTX, I didn't have too many nerves. But let me tell you, when we touched down in Houston, wow, did the butterflies light up. All of a sudden, I knew this was happening. We landed at 11 AM, talked with some other racers while waiting for our luggage, and were quickly off and running with our rental car, thanks to using TriBike Transport to ship my bike. I had a 12:30 appt with my old chiropractor for a pre-race tune up. While waiting for the appt, I stopped by and said hi to my old swim coach, who was overseeing a lunch-time practice. Once I was all set and adjusted, we drove up to The Woodlands for athlete check in. We showed up around 2 PM. It was hot and there were a TON of people. We stood in the athlete check-in line - it was loooong. My friend Anne stopped by and made a comment that they were selling out of a lot of IMTX gear. I was worried about there not being anything left by the time I got checked-in, so I made a slightly-smarmy move and left Will in the check-in line to hold my place while I power-shopped. I ended up getting a visor, a bike jersey, and a tri top. Its amazing how a person has no trouble what-so-ever forking over ridiculous amounts of money for things like this. The jersey logo is cool - Texas is made to look like carbon fiber. This is probably the first time I've ever wanted to wear something "Texas" - it helps that I don't live there anymore. By the time I was done shopping, Will was only ~15 people back in the check-in line - PERFECT. Check-in was smooth and easy. Then it was time to pick my bike up from TriBike Transport - I was very happy to see my bike.

We had several hours to kill between check-in and the manditory pre-race meeting. It seems that the race organizers wanted you to hang out in the Woodlands and spend money, as check in closed at 4 PM but the race meeting wasn't until 7:30 PM. There was an athlete dinner from 5:30-7:30, but it would have cost $30 for Will to attend with me. We ended up driving up to Conroe, where we were staying with friends, and hanging out in the AC for a bit.

Back down to the Woodlands and to the athlete meeting. Turns out my friends didn't want to make a special 1 hour drive up for the meeting, so I was also responsible for giving them the cliff-notes. We ended up sitting at table in the back with some empty seats - turns out, we were next to the people from our Denver flight. Very cool! Athlete meeting was nothing spectacular - no, you won't get your special needs bags back; wear your chip to the Friday practice swim; if the swim is delayed by weather less than 30 min, you'll start late but we won't extend the bike cut-off time (!!); if the weather is bad for more than 30 min, we may cancel the swim (!!!!!!). The meeting ended earlier than planned - we headed over to Chipotle for a late dinner. Then back to Conroe and bed.

Friday

I woke up before my alarm ready to roll! I had an easy 15 min bike ride to do - just to make sure that my bike was ok mechanically after its trip in a van. After that, I did the final once-over of my run and bike bags (we had to drop those off Friday). Then I left Will in air-conditioned comfort in Conroe to do the pre-race swim practice at the swim start. I met my swim team-mate Carlye at the parking lot across from Transition. From there, it was a 0.8 mile walk to the swim start. We really didn't know where we were going, so we followed the arrows, figuring they were meant to guide people to the swim start. Turns out we were following run course arrows, so we probably walked a bit longer than we should have. Got to the swim start with ~30 min left in practice, found Anne (also from swim team) and the three of us headed out on an easy 20 min swim. After spending many months training by myself, I was so incredibly happy to be swimming side by side with my friends. We had a good swim - the water wasn't too horrible (murky) and the water temperature was just right (78). I couldn't imagine a better way to spend my final training day - training with my friends with whom I started this whole crazy journey with when we all signed up together last summer.

After the swim, Anne went to ride her bike, so Carlye and I headed to Transition to turn our bags in and get our bikes set up. By that time, Anne was done testing her bike out. Carlye went home and I stuck around to hang out with Anne. Another swim team (David) friend showed up and we decided to have lunch together. Ended up walking over to the athlete check-in area (maybe a half mile away?) and had sandwiches. Then it was over to the check-in area to get a few questions answered (really - you won't give us the chance to get our special needs bags back?). By that time it was nearly 1:30 and I had been out in the heat for 4 hours - way too long. We said our goodbyes and I headed back up to Conroe to do final preparations and to put my feet up. Everything was pretty smooth and easy that afternoon, with a lot of puttering around. I discovered that I had developed three (!!) unfortunate blisters on my right heel - likely from walking around in sandals for the first time. Ugh. We went to a country Texas Roadhouse for dinner, where I had a really boring dinner of chicken with a baked potato. Then it was back to the house and a bed time of 9:30 PM.

Saturday

The alarm went off at 4:15 AM. I had a pretty decent night's sleep and was excited to get going! I had Will do a pre-race sunscreen application for me. After Galveston, I decided to get some super-strength sunscreen - SCAPE 50 SPF lotion and SCAPE 50 SPF face stick. We did a base layer of the lotion, put my tri top on, then we put a layer of the face stick (which was sort of a greasy, wide chap-stick kind of thing) around all my strap lines. I was NOT going to be burned! Once I was dressed, we grabbed my bike Infinit and my special needs bags, and we were off. The plan was to be at Transition around 5:15, as they closed it at 6:30. Parking was a ZOO. It was so bad that I ended up getting out of the car to run to transition while Will went and found a parking place. Turns out that they were closing transition down EARLY at 6:15, and with the crazy parking, it was now something like 5:30 AM. I got to my bike, gave Carlye my bike pump. Neither of us brought flashlights, so we ended up airing up our tires by cell phone light. Ahh technology. Then I had to run over to the run and bike bag area to put green ribbons on my bags for visability. By that time they were emptying transition and I was flustered. Carlye was waiting for me and by that time, Will had parked and was waiting for us. Then it was over to the swim start for body marking, special-needs drop, a pit-stop and the start of the race.

Things were really crazy and it took a while to find the body markers. One of my friends was volunteering as a marker so I wanted to make sure I found her. After several minutes, I did, and I got my good mojo. Then I dropped off my special needs bags, took a few pics with Will, applied a final layer of sunscreen, then kissed Will goodbye so he could get a good place to record the swim start. Then I stood in a long line for the bathroom - ended up standing next to someone from Golden, which was really cool. After a pit-stop, I put on my Torque but needed help zipping it up. I asked these two wetsuit clad ladies to help as I anxiously kept tugging at the zipper. I was over-zealous with my zippering and ended up getting the zipper caught, about 6 inches below the top of the suit. PANIC! I don't know what it is with me and Torque zipper issues, but I was having visions of swimming with my back zipper flapping open, with the drag negating any savings my fancy speedsuit would have afforded. Thank goodness for these ladies - they managed to fix the snag and get me zipped up. Then it was a quick run over to the swim start and squeezing in between people taking their own sweet time getting in the water. I had 5 minutes before the race start and I was not going to be on dry land when the gun went off. I managed to get in and positioned not too far back and over to the right side of the course, with the plan of swimming towards the far off buoys, and hopefully staying clear of the masses of people who were hugging the buoys.

They started playing Black Sabbath's Ironman and that's when I really got excited. I was in the water with 2,200 other athletes, and at the end of the day, I would be an Ironman!

15:56:45

2011-05-25T13:54:00.000-05:00

I did it - I'm an Ironman :)

Lots of thoughts are jumbled through my head and I know that I need to start writing them down before it becomes a blur.

But for now...

ready to race

2011-05-20T15:16:00.003-05:00

Bike is dropped off in transition. Run and bike bags are packed and at transition. Special needs bags are packed and ready to go tomorrow.

I WILL be an Ironman tomorrow!

You can track me at: http://www.trackmyathlete.com/VEmap.aspx?name=051628

or

http://www.ironman.com/

IMTX Nutrition Plan

2011-05-16T10:45:00.000-05:00

Race week is here! Race week is here! (I'm not sure if this is panic or excitement here).

Here's a summary of my nutrition plan for IMTX. I'm a bit worried that this isn't 100% proven since its been so cold here, but there's nothing I can do about that.

Pre-Race

3 hours before - Honey Stinger chocolate covered cherry protein bar, Coke Zero (my usual pre-race food).
right before the swim - debating on sucking down a gel, just not sure. I've never done this before and I prefer to swim on an empty stomach, so I may just skip the gel.

Swim

nothing - hard to eat/drink when you're in the water. And I am NOT drinking that nasty lake water.

Bike

Infinit bike mix - lemon lime. I've got my aero bottle (~28 oz), Profile bottle (40 oz) which will be mixed for a 3 hr intake, then I'll concentrate another 4 hours into a bike bottle for my cage. Goal is to drink ~24 oz per hour.

Water - I'll finish my aero bottle in the first hour, and use then I'll that for water. Plan is to get water at every aid station (every 10-12 miles).
Hammer Gel - half a gel every 30 min starting 30 min into the bike. Keep this up as long as my stomach will handle it.
I've got some Honey Stinger waffles and some PowerBar gels to try to eat if I get hungry. On my long rides, I would get a bit hungry but the gels would take care of things. Not sure how I'll feel during the IM, so I thought having some options would be helpful.
Salt Stick tablets - 1 pill every 20 min (3 per hour). Want to get in 1,000 mg per HOUR of sodium.

Run

Concentrated Infinit mix in a hand-held bottle. Still not sure how much I want to concentrate it or if I want to re-fill at special needs. I think a 5 hour concentrate in a 12 oz bottle is RIDICULOUS so I may end up concentrating 2-3 hours (which is the mix I had for LoneStar) and see how I feel at special needs. I have a feeling with the heat, I won't feel like taking in all that many calories, and typically, I take in fewer calories running than I do cycling.
WATER WATER WATER. ICE ICE ICE. at each aid station. I don't care how many bathroom breaks I make - I MUST stay hydrated.
I think I'll try out Coke too. Haven't tried it in training, but I hear its a magical elixer.

Dear Mother Nature (again)

2011-05-11T17:48:00.000-05:00

Its May 11th and I have my final taper track workout tonight.

STOP SNOWING.

UGH.