So.Much.Fun.

For Posterity

2011-03-31T11:19:00.002-04:00

A few months ago, at my grandmother's wake, I commented that my sister and I would be lucky to marry a man as good as my grandfather. There are many reasons for this and today I'll talk about a few.

With my grandfather, you knew what you were getting. There with things he believed and he believed them un-waiveringly. These things ranged from the mundane - his belief that a key to a long life was to NOT drink a lot of water and his feelings about the yankees v. the mets, which I understand to be vaguely related to the Brooklyn Dodgers moving to LA - to the serious.

My grandfather was a man of faith, he believed in the Church and among other things, he was part of [his parish] from the beginning.

My grandfather was also a true family man. If he knew you, he likely knew your birthday, and if you were married your anniversary, and if there was a major snow storm on either of those dates, he knew that as well. And it never ceased to amaze me how, after meeting Melinda, the chiropractor, or one of the home health aides or any of the guys from the neighborhood, they would know all about my brother, my sister and myself.

Of course, you can't talk about Mike without Millie. My grandfather's devotion to my grandmother, especially in the end, defies words.

Recently, I was driving my grandfather away from the nursing home, when he told me that he was reading the Bible. My grandfather was a cradle Catholic and a prolific reader so it surprised me that he hadn't read the bible. He told me that he knew most of the gospels but had never gotten to the part where they tell you what happens when you get to heaven. I told him that I didn't think the bible went into that much detail. He told me to think about all the people that have gone before us and asked me how you would find who you were looking for.

After 90 years, I'm sure that there are a lot of people my grandfather is looking for in Heaven, but we all know that he was worried about finding my grandmother.

I'm sure that my grandmother has spent the time since her arrival in heaven exclusively worrying about my grandfather here, among other things, the quantity and quality of the food has been lacking, and preparing for his arrival there. If there is food in heaven, my grandmother has been cooking it, if not, she has made the appropriate preparations and found him when he arrived. She likely made a comment about how long it took him to get there.

My grandfather's last days came quickly and went too fast. I can't really belief he is gone and I miss them both, but I am comforted knowing that they are now together forever.

A Marathon Haiku

2010-11-06T19:36:00.002-04:00

While I did sneak a triathlon into September, I've basically been focused on training for the marathon the past few months. Unfortunately it turns out that writing about running 20 miles is only slightly more exciting then actually running 20 miles, so instead, I leave you with a little poem.

Marathon to run

Tomorrow to the start line

Tonight restless sleep

I'm overwhelmed by my own creativity lately. I'm sure you are too!

A Tale of Two Races - Part II

2010-11-01T21:49:00.004-04:00

Local Olympic Tri in the Middle of NoWhere, NJ

or, the day I remembered that I love small home grown races, they're fun

circa late September, 2010

Before

At some point in my marathon training I was gearing up for a 20 mile run that followed a step back week. Just two weeks prior to the planned 20 miler I had run 18, but after an "easy" week with a long run of "only" 10, 20 was daunting. It seemed so long and far. Liz assured me that my muscles have memory and they'd remember what to do and it would be fine. And that 20 mile run was fine.

So, before the race I hoped that the same muscle memory logic would get me through this race for which I had done minimal (at best) biking and swimming preparation.

One of the best things about local races is sleeping in your own bed. It actually might have been a bit of a stretch to call this race "local" but having done the sleep in own bed and drive further v. hotel analysis, my own bed won. So it was local.

One of the best things about small races is that you can dilly dally a bit in the morning and getting there just under an hour before the start is actually plenty of time. I think I took two or three trips from my car to transition because it was just that close.

It was a bit chilly that morning so my wetsuit went on faster then it might have otherwise but before long it was time to get in the water for warm up. The race is in a pretty small lake, and I swam close to all the way across it while warming up. The water was much warmer than the air, so even after deeming myself sufficiently warmed up (when you've only swam twice in the past two months it is a fine line between warming up and tiring yourself out!) I stayed submerged.

The Swim

All things considered this was a good swim. It was a bit chaotic because, due to the small lake, you had to essentially double back across the lake before you were allowed to make the final turn and emerge. It seemed clear when you were standing on shore, but once you were in the thick of it, it was easy to disorient and now know how far you had come or how far you had to go.

My biggest issue with the swim? The dude that backstroked the whole thing - I went through the photos to confirm that this is indeed what he did (it is). He was actually quite a good backstroker but its hard to tell where you're going when you're looking up at the sky (or so I would imagine) so he kept crashing into me and/or crossing my path - it was frustrating and took some time to get by him but probably led me to speed up a bit to just get away, so maybe I should actually be thankful he was out there cruising along ...

Other than that, I swam well and met my goal of getting out of the water in under 35 minutes (at least according to my watch).

The race was only one wave and I was about in the middle of the pack which is a nice place for me to start the bike.

Bike
I've never been so thankful for pre-riding a course. There is just so much slow grinding up. My goal here was to stay focused and to ride as hard as a I could (because actually, riding anything short of as hard as I could would likely have meant walking) and to finish in less than 2 hours. I met all of my goals, finishing in about 1:57. Clearly this wasn't fast, but to put things in perspective, the fastest mph average of the day was 18. Its a hard, hard course.

Run
My goal for the run was to not finish the race last. I knew there were a few people behind me on the bike and perhaps a few catchable people ahead of me so I set out. The biggest issue was that the run was falsely advertised as flat. That run is a lot of things, but flat is NOT one of them. Later the race director would query whether anyone would actually have done the race if he hadn't lied! I finished the run in 1:00:27 (why do those :27 bother me so much? why?) - a 9:44 pace which, after considering that I've been stagnating at marathon training pace for awhile, isn't bad.

The Best Part
I had fun. I attribute it to the smaller low key aspect - I was far from winning, but really no one was out there to "win", everyone was there to do their best and have fun. The shorter distance might have also helped. And of course this:

It was a very, very, very small race. But I was second in my age group. And when you're me, you take awards whenever you can.

the end.

A Tale of Two Races - Interlude

2010-10-29T16:59:00.004-04:00

Random Training
(or lack thereof)
Up and Down the Eastern Seaboard
(ie, Northern NJ and Massachusetts, I'm not really sure what a seaboard is)

circa September 2010

Between T-Man and the second race in this two race tale, I was supposed to rest for a week and then transition directly into marathon training. When I threw in a come back race I didn't really deviate from that plan.

Thus in the one month between the race in which I almost quit triathlon, and my comeback race I rode my bike 4 times (one of those times was the hybrid bike at the beach and two of those times were "easy spins" on the gym bike).

So that is one bike ride on a road bike between races. And that ride?

Well, I had planned to travel to the race site early one Saturday with a random girl I met on the internet (sort of - the triathlon club message board) and pre-ride the course. We planned and discussed all week and then the Friday before the Saturday ride I left work with a fever.

A smart person would have bailed. Note: I never claimed to be smart.

I took advil, napped, took more advil, ate dinner, took more advil, went back to bed, woke up and took more advil and drove with the random girl out to the race site. I might have taken more advil when we arrived. The night before this advil fueled adventure we realized that there was an organized course preview this day so we also had the opportunity to preview the swim course.

So what I'm saying is that I swam an open water mile and then rode my bike for 25 miles most likely with a fever that was only held at bay by the copious amounts of advil I had consumed in the preceding 18 hours. I survived, but barely.

This race was all uphill. There were tons of steep, 4 mph, ifIgoanyslowerI'lltoppleoverbutIdon'tknowifIcankeepupthispacebutI'malreadygoingtooslow-

toclipoutsoI'mprettymuchscrewedisthereanicepatchofgrasstolandin

slow. And when we weren't dealing with that ... false flats. The course started and ended in the same place so there were obviously also some downhills but they were the white knuckle feather the breaks and try not to die sort of downhills - the sort of downhills on which, if you're me, you can never make up enough speed to make up for the slow, slow, slow uphills!

Honestly, I can't imagine how the people the encountered this for the first time on the day of the race handled it.

Somehow, the day after this adventure, I managed to run 19 miles. I'm still amazed that I survived that weekend. But I did survive and I threw in one extra swim (for a total of 4 bike rides and 2 swims for those keeping track at home) and then headed to the race for real ...

A Tale of Two Races - Part I

2010-10-24T21:20:00.004-04:00

Part I

T-Man Half IM, New Hampshire

or, The Day I Almost Quit Triathlon

circa August 2010

The Good

At the end of the day, I remembered that I participate in triathlons for fun. And fun to me is certainly "racing" my own best times and "competing" with myself, but it's also being out there suffering with and cheering for others and in turn being cheered for.

The Bad

For reasons that I can only sort of articulate, T-Man was not fun.

The Ugly

(aka, the reasons I can only sort of articulate)

The race is huge. I was good about getting things done early this year but the traffic and people still seem to take a lot out of me. Everything takes so long.

I was in the last wave. In a race this big, the last wave is over an hour after the first wave.

The conditions deteriorated as the day went on (and, did I mention I was in the last wave?). Thus, the water was choppier - disorganized lake chop - and I couldn't wait to be done swimming. That is never a good way to start a long day.

Starting that far back and being a less then super biker, made for a pretty lonely 56 miles. It also started raining. I dropped my chain. I forgot that the end of the course was net uphill.

I was happy to be off my bike but as I set on the run, I saw most of my friends finishing up the run. It was raining. I wanted to put on my sweatpants and hang out. But instead I had to run a half marathon. In the rain.

Maybe it's the back of the pack, or maybe it was the rain, but last year it seemed like everyone on the double loop run was cheering and chatting and having a good time. This year ... *crickets*. Except for the poor dudes who commented on my smile and friendly demeanor (seriously, this is one of the rare times in life when I'm friendly and chatty with strangers) the third time I saw them I made them promise to stay on the course until I passed them again. Of course as soon as they promised and I was pass them, it stopped raining and started pouring. I hoped they would go back on their promise and go inside. They didn't, they were still there as promised and it made me smile.

But, at the end of the race, I still declared myself unfit for triathlon. I was going to look for a new sport. Or maybe just run.

(More Good)

Then I drank a beer. Or three. And ate an oreo cookie, or 8, and remembered the good and started plotting a come back - I could find a small, local race perhaps reminiscent of my most favorite race and it could be fun ...

I woke up at 3 am unable to sleep and ate some more oreo cookies and looked up races on my iphone. One month later I would be back ...

One weekend in August

2010-10-24T21:12:00.003-04:00

found this in the drafts ...

My mother has tiny, tiny feet and she claims that they used to be smaller - that while she was pregnant with me, her they grew half a size. Right before I graduated from grad school my feet grew half a size. And I assure you I was not pregnant. This leads me to believe that her feet would have grown that year regardless.

This summer, I feel like I've been nesting. I've done my share of travelling but sometimes, when Friday rolls around, I just want to relax, eat sushi, watch Friday Night Lights and follow that up with a mellow weekend at home enjoying August in the city with half the population at the beach. I can still assure you I'm not pregnant which makes me wonder if sometimes everyone needs to nest, regroup and then emerge back into the craziness.

Anyway, this nesting (or, if you don't buy into my theories above, staying at home and being anti-social) has left me with plenty of weekend time for training which is good because I have a half IM coming up. Two weekends ago I had volunteered to lead our club's less aggressive ride and woke up in plenty of time to pump up my tires and fill up my bottles. Plenty of time until the tire valve broke and I wound up needing to do a quick tire change and, unfortunately for me, "quick tire change" isn't really in my repertoire. I notified the group to head out without me - they offered to come help me, but I was too frazzled and knew that there probably weren't any less aggressive people there waiting to be led - and I took my time tire changing and left about 30 minutes late. This would have been fine but somewhere in the madness I ate like half a granola bar for my entire pre-long ride breakfast. If you've ever wondered if the pre-race/ride meal is really important, I'm here to tell you that it is!

I was rather starving in the middle of my ride (at which point I hate some pretzels) and in the middle of my run (at which point I stopped running and went home and inhaled some eggs and waffles) but I did get in a 4 hour ride 25 minute run all solo and was quite proud of myself. The first long, long solo ride of the year always freaks me out a bit and this year, this was the long, long solo ride. After eating I rested and headed down to the beach to meet some friends (b/c nesting or not you can't be reclusive all the time) and amazed them with the amount of food I ate before I declared myself comfortably full. I then told them about my 60 mile ride/2+ mile run and I think they found that more amazing then the post ride food.

After a fun night out I got up the next day, ate some breakfast (having learned my lesson) and headed out for a run. I told my friends I'd be gone for awhile but didn't let on as to distance. Pretty much as soon as I left it started pouring but it was kind of nice because it scared all of the people away and I had the roads to myself and I ran and ran and ran and jumped through puddles and wrapped my iphone in a garbage bag which kept it dry for 14 miles! And with that marathon training commenced.

Probably as close to the perfect combination of reclusive athleticism and summer fun as I'm going to get ...

There is hot and then there is HOT

2010-08-09T22:01:00.002-04:00

or, NJ State Race Report

Somehow, going into this race I tried to pretend like the oppressive heat we've been having would not effect my day.  I thought I could just gut it out and be fine and have a great race.  And to some extend I did, I finished in one healthy piece, which makes a race great - but the heat definitely took its toll.  I pretty much switched from go go go race mode to survival mode when I felt the first bead of sweat drip down my bike as I walked to the porta potty.

Of course, when I stepped into the water for my warm up and realized that the water was maybe warmer than the air, survival mode took on a whole knew meaning.  The water was 85 degrees and it kind of made me gag - it was like swimming in pee (not that I've ever swam in pee, but you know).  You just knew that there was some nasty stuff growing in there and you weren't even afforded a wet suit for protection!

Now that we've established that both air and water were HOT ...

SWIM

The only thing I regret about this race is my swim position.  This race has had some bad experiences with weak swimmers so the RD was seemingly trying his hardest to discourage people from even getting in the water (I do see his point, but it was extreme to the point that I thought about bagging the swim and I'm a good swimmer) - in light of this and the fact that it was an in water start, I thought that to the outside and a bit back from the first buoy was a great place for me - right up until with barely 30 seconds left I realized that there were hardly any people behind me.  I tried to reposition a bit but when the gun went off I had ALOT and I mean ALOT of breast strokers to get through and while I've become more aggressive with my own swimming and less afraid of getting man handled, I refuse to be the man handler.  So it was slow going at first but I eventually found clear water and then went for it - I think that in the end my fear of what was growing in the water and the awful ear (or worse) infection I could get from it counter acted my fear of spontaneously combusting because of the heat!  I was :20 seconds slower but given my starting position, I'm not complaining.

Ts

I won't bore you with details, but both Ts were faster than last year and both were 2:27.  What are the odds??

BIKE

I somehow failed to notice that the one loop bike course was made into two - I noticed before the race, thankfully, but not say before I signed up.  All of the turning took away any advantage I may gain from a flat course.  I'm a wimp, I slow down when I turn, its ok.  Other the turning (and the head wind, I didn't like that either and if I'm going to complain I might as well complain) the bike felt good.  My pace was .1 faster than last year but my time was 8 minutes slower??  So apparently they made the course longer in addition to more technical.  Good to know.

RUN

Did I mention it was hot? And they ran out of cold towels at the cold towel stop and I thought about re-using a used cold towel (no worries, I didn't)?  I was glad that I had the experience of that crazy hot half marathon earlier this May because I knew that if I just went at my pace I'd be fine and the miles would tick off.  What was my pace you ask?  Well, there were three options: walking, running and not moving.  There was only one pace that I could run and it was SLOW but it was running and it got me to the finish even if it took 7 minutes longer than last year.

In the end, the race took 15 minutes longer than the year before but I left knowing I did the best I could with what I was given and knowing that the elusive sub 3 hour oly is still out there somewhere.  I also left thinking that with the change in this race course, I might be done with NJ state because ... its just not that pretty.

Between Pat G. being over my brother's wedding weekend and being maybe done with NJ state next year could be a whole new adventure!  But first, some epic training stories and epic shopping at lulu (yikes!) and then ... Timber ... man!

Stay cool out there kids ...

Scenes from Criminal Minds and a PBS Special

2010-07-20T22:34:00.003-04:00

(with a triathlon thrown in for fun!)

Thursday after work I left much, much later then I had planned for my weekend getaway for the local (to my parent's summer home) sprint triathlon. It was a long, long night of driving but I finally arrived at the hotel where I was crashing before heading to the Island. The lobby was empty but the check in dude was nice enough and he suggested I leave my bike in the hotel's ballroom (at first this seemed odd to me but then I remember that many people travel with bikes - mostly beach cruiserish bikes, but whatever - to the island so the hotel clearly had a plan) - it was late and I was going to be in the hotel for less than 8 hours, so I said fine. I was totally down with the ballroom right up until he emerged from behind the desk and I realized he was like 8 feet tall and walked with a weird limp and he unlocked the door to the dark ballroom and suggested I bring my bike to its far back corner ... um, nothankyouverymuch ... scenes from every creepy crime show I've ever watched flashed through my head and I was certain that as soon as I was fully in the ballroom that door would lock behind me and I would belong to the 8 foot tall dude and he would keep me locked up for years. So I did what any good triathlete with a nice bike and an active imagination would do - I gave the bike a shove in the general direction of a table and hoped for the best - my feet at all times stayed firmly in the hallway of the hotel and I then went quickly to my room and double locked the door. Crisis averted!

Friday was a great, relaxing day and Saturday was the race. Really, all I can say about this race is that it was what it was. Its not an A race for sure and not really even a B race - its mostly just a reason to get away to my favorite vacation destination for a weekend. I obviously wanted to improve from last year but the conditions were so different that its almost impossible to compare ... but I'll try, starting with the swim (obviously).

I was hoping for a solid swim because I always hope for a solid swim, its the part of the race where I feel, well, solid. During the swim I felt way off course, but I always had people around me. I also felt like when we made the turn towards home you could swim and swim and swim and get nowhere. This swim is in the sound and it later became clear that there was some sort of current going on. Despite this, I was hugely disappointed to see that my time was 4.5 minutes slower than last year (10:56 v 15:28). However, post race analysis reveals that I had the 15th fastest swim of the 74 people in my age group and that the fastest female swim time in the WHOLE race this year was 10:40 ... so to compare the two is really apples and oranges and I was solidly in the top 1/4 so in the end it was all good.

Someone also told me that the swim was all anyone was talking about in T1. I didn't notice, I was too busy catching my breath after the long sand run and putting on my bike shoes and helmet 18 seconds faster then last year - and considering how hard I worked in the swim this year, that's impressive! Ha.

The bike is what it is. And it is just not long enough for me to get into a groove (not to mention I was stewing over the swim a bit) ... it was about 2.5 minutes faster (44:33 v 47:17) so I'll take it.

T2 was when I realized that there was a distinct chance that we would all spontaneously combust on the run. It was now about 1:30 and it was HOT. Despite this I moved through T2 12 seconds faster then last year.

The run was, as expected, HOT and it was one of those runs where you're trying and working but your legs just aren't moving quickly - it was about 2 minutes slower (31:15 v 33:25).

Overall my time was about 4 minutes off (1:38:06 v 1:42:01) but a fun time was had by all so I can't complain. My super athletic Boston friend got a last minute spot in the race and had the fastest female run time. That is THE FASTEST FEMALE RUN TIME. She was also 4th in her age group.

Unfortunately the next day she almost drowned in the ocean. Seriously. Literally. A good samaritan rescued her because we were not at a lifeguard beach and while I'm a solid swimmer I'm not down with the ocean these days. All an attempted rescue by me would have done is left two people to be saved. Prior to the incident I was thinking that I needed to come to terms with my ocean fear so I'm not one of those scared moms (not that I have imminent plans to become a mom) but now I think I'm down with being scared - I'll just add "not afraid of the ocean" to things I look for in a man. Anyway, keep this in mind for any trips you might take with me to the beach: unless it calm, you're on your own out there!

Seriously though, she didn't know that if you are caught in a rip tide you swim parallel to shore. Despite the fact that given the rough conditions, swimming parallel might not have been an option, everyone should know that, thus the PBS special. And for those that know me and could envision me freaking out, know that I was alone in that general part of the beach (there were others that would have heard me if I yelled) except for the good samaritan's friends who, like the good samaritan, might have been 12, and therefore I remained incredibly calm - I kept my eye on her so I could point her out to anyone else that might have been needed to assist and I was ready to call 911 (the only reason I didn't do that initially is that we were down a long dirt road and far from town ... it would have been too late). It was only later that I wondered what happens when you're on vacation with a casual friend and she drowns ... it freaked me out a bit, but in the end I was just grateful that I didn't find out the answers to that question!

I anticipate this weekend's triathlon to be much less eventful ... more on that later.

Stay cool kids!

2 days. 150 miles.

2010-07-07T21:10:00.003-04:00

Given the number of times in the first 12 hours of my epic 150 mile weekend that I thought about not doing the ride, it is rather amazing that I can preface this story with ... this was so.much.fun! And I want to do it again! But, once I tell you about it, you will think I'm insane ...

Sitting at work on Friday, I really couldn't get my head around the fact that I was driving to Boston that night. By myself. I almost forgot to print directions and when I got home after work to collect my bike I sat on my couch and thought about just staying home. I didn't. I packed up the car and 15 miles into the 200 mile trip there was a detour. And traffic. And I almost turned back. But I didn't.

And eventually, 4 hours later I was in Quincy and could not find the hotel. I was so close but I just kept missing the proper turn - at 10 pm on a Friday night though I did not consider turning back. I eventually found the hotel and there were no parking spots. Seriously? Really? I eventually found some staff parking and in an effort to get everything packed up and into the hotel in one trip I spilled a bottle of water in my purse - under normal circumstances this would have been nothing more than an annoyance but it almost ruined my weekend.

An hour later after I was checked in, had made a few phone calls, sent a few texts, checked facebook etc. I went to charge my iphone and realized that the charger was wet and ... would not charge. My battery was LOW so I emailed the Boston people I knew that were doing the race and begging for an extra charger ....

I woke up early the next morning and read one email that said an extra charger had been packed when ... my phone died. Awesome.

I gathered up my stuff and headed out giving myself 45 minutes to travel 6 miles and get breakfast. Unfortunately the last mile of that trip took 1 hour - and that was without a breakfast stop. I parked when the ride should have started. Fortunately, it was delayed. I checked in, grabbed 1/4 of a bagel and a shot of coffee and could not find my team. And I had no phone. I had to put my luggage on the luggage truck but I had a decision to make: keep the luggage and head home or check the luggage and risk not finding anyone I knew until the first night's stop (at best).

I soldiered on and found the group with seconds to spare. Literally. Things were going ok - I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with the faster group if I had any hope of finishing the second day so at the first rest stop I fell back with the next group which - as is typical of my life - was mostly couples. As we approached the second rest stop I decided I needed a bit of solo time to get my head together so I pressed on and ... got a flat.

I can change a flat. But its slow and I did not want the group to pass me because ... all together now ... I had no phone. So I did what I could in terms of changing the tire without really taking my eyes off the road. I basically jumped into the road to prevent the group from passing me and while I can change a tire slowly I get even slower when under pressure so I delegated what was left to one of the group. I kind of wanted to cry but he did great.

Or so I thought for 5 minutes until it went flat again. The guys in the group wanted to macgyver the tire together with a gel wrapper but I convinced them to let me SAG to the next rest stop (about 10 miles) and get professional help. Interestingly my SAG was a couple dressed in tiger costumes.

Don't ask. I didn't.

I still felt awful for taking up time and attention and wondered why I came on this journey once my friend bailed and I did briefly consider if there were any options that resulted in me going home but there weren't and the professional declared my bike to have a mere pinch flat that was remedied while I scarfed a turkey sandwich and chugged a pepsi that someone brought to me. They were awesome and once I was all set we were on our way and the experience ultimately led us to bond. Or at least led me to think we did because for the rest of the day I was much more at ease. Although I should note that in the latter half of the days there were hills. And I was promised a flat ride. Liars.

We arrived at the first night's stop, which was beautiful. I had a normal roommate who I had spent most of the day with. There were showers and food. Once I was clean I think I ate more then I've ever eaten in one sitting. And then we just sat around looking at the ocean, drinking beer, listening to music and rehashing the day. I was the flat girl - this was not a reference to my lack of boobs - by the time the story had spread up the line I had 5-7 flats.

Lights out was at 9 so we went to bed. And ... I don't think I've ever said this before, and I might not ever say this again, but I should have camped because that night in the top bunk was the hottest, most miserable, restless night sleep I've ever had. Lesson learned.

The next day was more of the same. Except there might have been more hills. And when it ended I decided to forgo the booze cruise and bus back to Boston to begin my 5 hour ride home.

Doesn't really sound fun, right? But for whatever reason it was. So much so, I'd like to do it again. Crazy.

Of course, it took me close to a week to recover and then it was the fourth and now I leave tomorrow for my favorite local but not local to me sprint triathlon!

Happy weekend peeps.

I swear I offered to circle swim ...

2010-06-24T21:50:00.002-04:00

and a big weekend coming up!

Last weekends race is still in my legs and my arms, but I'm trying to work through it and not just sit around and eat cake ---

--- seriously, one day last week, I found myself post workout in the pharmacy after a run and I was starving and I totally gave in a bought the entemans chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that was sitting right there by the check out and the darn thing is still around - I eat a bite or two or three every day and it seems never ending ---

so I stopped into the pool yesterday and planned to do the master's workout that was sure to still be on the board from the morning. Usually after work the pool is packed, but I timed it right and got my own lane which was awesome. Mid way through the warm up a girl joined me and said we should split the lane which was great. Then a guy who either was or wants to be her boyfriend jumped into the lane. I paused to confirm that we were going to circle swim but before I could even say a word the dude told me to "just keep swimming."

So I did. And they essentially circle swam in one half of the lane. She just did her thing but when it looked like they were going to collide head on he dove and swam under her. It was actually quite impressive but had to look odd to anyone watching - I wondered if any random people on deck thought I refused to circle swim? Reminiscent of my camp announcement that this was "not my bike" I wanted to put everyone on notice that I do in fact have good pool etiquette.

Anyway ... this weekend my plan was to go to Boston with a friend/neighbor and do an MS 150 ride with some people that I work with on occasion. As is my life, my friend bailed last minute. I've decided to be brave and go alone because I've realized that there are some things in life that you'll just never get to do if you sit around waiting for the right person to do them with. I'm actually more worried about the driving then the two days of bike riding - I know the people I'm riding with will stick with me but they live in Boston so when the ride ends, I'm on my own. I won't tell you about each of the 150 miles, but I'm sure it will be an adventure worthy of a blog!

Two 'Fer

2010-06-23T22:05:00.005-04:00

Before we get to my two for one PRs (yes that's right, one race, two PRs ha ha), let me just note that aging up is ... interesting. Other then with myself, I'm probably one of the least competitive people you'll ever meet (or not meet as the case may be) so age groupiness is really irrelevant to me, but I found it incredibly interesting that there were over 3xs as many people in the 35-39 age group as in 30-34 and those ladies are fast! It seems like an odd phenomena to me, no?

Anyway, it was Pat G. time and I was sooo ready for this race. For one, I'm a big fan of repeating races I've done previously - its a great way to judge overall progress. For two, I LOVE this race. Its so low key and just easy. And in a lake. And at an amusement park. And for three, it was my first race of the year and I've been training a ton and I was just ready!

When I was preparing for this race, Liz commented that I have race plan creation down. And I do. This is old hat now, so I'm going to spare you the nitty gritty of how we got there and what we ate for breakfast and get straight to the good stuff.

Swim

Last time I did this race I went way off course and swam into some geese. I also suspected the distance was long. This time, it was pretty much acknowledged that despite all the literature saying this is a .9 mile swim, its really a 1.x mile swim. I stayed on course, drafted when I could, kicked an old man in the face and finished exactly 6 minutes faster (and what are the odd of it being exactly six minutes faster? last time I swam x:27 and this time I swam (x-6):27. strange). I was psyched. I am also psyched because that time included 90 seconds of running back to transition so this makes me excited for my HIM distance swim.

I'm not big on comparing transition times race to race. So much is dependent on rack placement and wet suit cooperation. But I will not that even this was 25 seconds faster.

Bike & T2

This time the course was about 2 miles shorter due to construction. Despite this I knew more or less what to expect. I expected to go down, down, down and then up, up, up and to repeat that several times. I did. In the detour I also climbed up something so ridiculously steep that I was basically pedaling from soft spot of grass to soft spot of grass so that if forward movement ceased to be an option, falling over wouldn't hurt. Fortunately, forward motion was always (barely) an option. Liz advised me to play "how long can I fend them off" with regard to the women that I would come out of the water ahead of. I played the game and it was fun while it lasted! My bike + T2 time for this race was 14 minutes faster (and 2 miles shorter) then last time. I've been told to stop talking about the missing two miles because it was only 2 miles and they were on the bike and the detour was wicked. So I will stop talking about it and note only that no matter how you cut it, 14 minutes is a solid improvement.

Run

I noted last time that this double out and back course was up and down a mountain. The terrain hasn't changed, but this time it only seemed like a big hill. That in and of itself is an improvement. In addition to an improvement in my geographical perceptions, there was an actual 5 minute and 6 second improvement (and it felt great, even after swimming and biking I was flying - for me- on the down hills and flats and making it up the ups and cheering and chatting with my friends that were out there double out and backing with me). And not only was it a 5:06 course PR it was ... a 1:42 distance PR (beating a record from 2004). I guess I just need a long warm up.

The 10K PR left me with a total time that was almost 26 minutes faster then my previous time racing Pat G.

And that is the story of how I got two PRs for the price of one and did it surrounded by friends that make me super proud. I am super psyched for the rest of the season and hopeful that this race is indicative of how the summer in general (cheesy, but true)!

Goals

2010-06-16T23:31:00.002-04:00

We all need them.

In fact I have some for my triathlon this weekend (more on that later).

I also have (at least) one to be accomplished within the next 365 days (hopefully less).

Specifically, I need a date to my brother's wedding which is in ... 367 days (you see why I'm hoping for less then the allotted 365 days - their caterer will thank me).

I'm taking suggestions/solicitations/introductions whatever. There might be a prize (which might be limited to good karma and my charming smile) to anyone who helps me to this goal.

Maybe he'll be at the triathlon this weekend - in which case I hope we don't meet because he tries to drown me. I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime, if you see I have a slow transition - assume I'm brushing my hair or putting on lipstick;)

Camp Highlights

2010-06-04T16:52:00.002-04:00

There are a lot of posts floating around out there about our women's tri camp and since none of you really want to know about how I got to the airport or the details of getting our rental car (although the enterprise dude sure was friendly), I'll spare you and just hit the high points:

For a long, long time I resisted the call of lululemon. Now that I've given in I'm worried that I might be addicted.
Illinois is big. Getting around it requires a lot of driving.
Driving a SUV when you're used to driving a mini cooper is interesting ...
I like open water swimming but only if I remember my body glide.
It is possible to ride 60 miles on a bike that it much too small for you. But, it might be better to learn how to travel with your own bike.
Tailwinds rock. Headwinds? Not so much.
Never underestimate what you would do for cold water.
If the dog chases you stop pedaling and say "no" firmly. Shrieking and riding your bike into a corn field is less effective.
Good new friends are the ones that give you the towel soaking in their cooler of ice water.
Sleeping through yoga is totally socially acceptable.
Never underestimate what you would do for cold water (in the pool).
Running up and down a highway overpass is about as fun as it sounds.
Sometimes telling someone to act like they are "really chopping wood" won't actually help them do the "wood chop."
99% humidity can turn to torrential rain quickly. Driving through torrential rain is less fun than it sounds.
Elle & Neil make the best breakfast ever. Seriously.
Beer at the airport makes flight delays more tolerable.
When your flight doesn't land until 1 am the extra money spent to park in short term parking is worth it.

Camp in a nut shell. Happy weekend everyone!

Chicago Bound

2010-05-26T20:50:00.002-04:00

Again.

Every time I tell someone that I'm headed to Chicago this weekend for some "triathlon stuff" they get excited about the Chicago part. And while I'm happy enough to be going to Chicago, a trip there lost its allure about 20 trips ago.

My first trip to Chicago was senior year in high school (technically, senior year had ended I guess because I had already graduated) and we flew there a few days after I was un-wait-listed at the college I attended. We flew into O'Hare and drove the 2-3 hours to Northern Indiana and toured the campus (and asked for a copy of the letter proving I was in ... proof is always nice, just in case). Now that was an exciting, memorable, life changing trip.

And there have been other great times in Chicago ... my first Cubs game, visits senior year, the Incident at the Irish Oak, bachelorette parties that taught me who my friends were and weren't, beautiful runs, crazy New Year's Eves, post college football games, meeting parents and being nervous to meet parents (for some reason that was a one time thing, of course flying in on the bomb scare plane probably didn't calm my nerves) ... etc.

I've often thought about moving to Chicago. Still do sometimes - even though the people that made me want to live there in the past are all in suburbs more-or-less, the midwestern lifestyle (that many deny exists) still holds allure. That and the Well Fit training center. Of course, then I remember that the coldest I've ever been in my life has been in Chicago (did you know that your teeth can get cold?).

So for whatever reason, going to Chicago isn't that big of a deal to me. Its kind of like going to the mall except it takes longer to get there.

Packing for this trip however is a big deal. I couldn't sleep last night and right now the thought of packing is exhausting so it will have to wait until tomorrow (after I bribe someone to take the pedals off my bike and before my 7:30 am flight). I don't think I've ever made a written list of items needed for a trip but ... if there is any hope of me not forgetting anything I think I have to now. So, for most of you, this is the end of the blog:)

Pajamas

Toiletries

Camera

Garmin & Charger

iPhone, ipod & charger

Book

Granola Bars

Tri Clothes for under wetsuit

wetsuit

cap & goggles

towel

bike shorts, sports bra, jersey, vest, jacket, socks, bento box (?)

bike gloves, shoes, pedals, helmet & sunglasses

sneakers, running shorts, visor & hat

real clothes (Saturday night)

bathing suit

running shorts, sports bra, shirt, socks

biking shorts

different shirt, capris for yoga

real clothes (Sunday night)

running shorts, sports bra, shirt, socks

real clothes (travel home)

3 water bottles

fuel belt and bottles

6 bottles worth of gatorade

10 or so gus

flight & rental car information

directions to various places

It doesn't really seem that bad all written down. But I'm sure I'm missing something (Sara?)?

Sort of Maybe Update.

2010-05-25T23:56:00.003-04:00

I was email bantering with a friend the other day and he commented that there hadn’t been a blog update in awhile. Usually I have things to write but I have trouble finding the time until one of my 3 fans comments that I’ve written nothing in awhile – then I find the time. Because that’s me, always aiming to please. And usually I like to write and to post stuff in the space.

Usually. But not lately.

Lately I have nothing to say. Or I have things to say but they don’t fit into the so.much. fun theme. Its not that life has totally ceased to be fun – it still has its moments – but I’m caught up in the boring suckiness. And I don’t want to be the girl that writes about the boring suckiness …

So that’s where I’ve been. I think there is a forest for the trees analogy that could come into play here. Maybe.

Anyway, today, I came back again to wanting to write and to write something here. I figured if I paid enough attention something worthy of a blog post would happen and sure enough, when I got home I looked at my bike and realized the rear tire was flat. After dinner I set out to change it and the first try took, a long long time and I had a few moments of “I am never going to be able to do this and I am going to have to take the tire to the shop which is so embarrassing” but eventually I got the tire on and decided to do it again and the second try took a long time but only half as long as the first time. Success. Twice. It’s the little things.

Sometimes you have to work at what you want. And that doesn’t just apply to tires.

Of course, in my 4^th (I don’t count the first danskin year) year of triathlons I should be a little bit better at this, but its not my fault, it’s the bike tire gods’ fault. They’re the ones that only gave me 3 flats in these past 4 years- two in the past 2 weeks. Hopefully I’m good for the season nowJ

Although, did I mention that when the tire changing was all done there was a lone screw lying next to my bike? Yeah, no idea where that came from. Hopefully no where important ...???

And there are other things on the horizon – things more fun than changing a tire. A newish bike fit that I think makes me hate the bike less (despite the flats), new sneakers if my achilles ever stops hurting enough for me to actually run, a fun girls weekend trip to Chicago when I’ll meet Liz and workout and hopefully see my college roommates and their children and a 150 mile charity bike ride in the Boston area.

I used to think I’d meet my husband in a field in Iowa during a cross state bike ride but on further reflection, Boston seems like a much more likely scenario.

So … I’m going to try to cheer up (even though its hard) and try to become a better tire changer (even though its hard) and try to write more things on this blog … because if I focus on the non-sucky things maybe I’ll see the forest for the trees or the trees for the forest. Or something:)

Random Thoughts

2010-03-22T22:29:00.002-04:00

1. If you live in an apartment building and want to have an all out screaming, yelling, cursing fight with your girlfriend/wife/lover and you opt not to use your inside voice, you risk people like me listening intently while we wait for the elevator to take us to the gym. People like me who then scrutinize every couple that lives on that side of the elevator bank and wonder if it was them. I really need to get to know my neighbors better. And I hope it wasn't the newly wed couple, but they do live closest to the elevator bank and anyone else would have to have been yelling really loudly.

2. Sometimes you spend the day in a weather/hormone related crappy mood obsessing about the state of your (non) dating life and how you're destined to spend the rest of your life alone and when you hear the couple down the hall having a screaming, yelling, cursing fight you realize that maybe the state of your (non) dating life is just fine, thank you very much.

3. Sometimes you also stalk an old person of interest on FB and realize that yes he is married but he also has serious man-boobs so again, maybe the state of your (non) dating life is just fine, thank you very much.

4. What exactly goes through your head when you decide to elliptical in just a sports bra?

5. More importantly, what exactly goes through your head when you decide to elliptical in just a flesh colored sports bra (or really do anything in just a flesh colored sports bra - in fact, what goes through your head when you buy a flesh colored sports bra?)?

And we will call him Matt.

2010-03-19T14:10:00.004-04:00

or, Dave was right.

Last night, I learned gym dude’s name.

Publicly at least. Privately, I’ve known it for awhile.

The conversation went something like this: “My NCAA brackets suck. What is your name?”

Actually, first we talked about my brackets sucking because of two particular picks only one of which we shared. I mentioned that I was obligated to pick those picks because I attended both of those schools. He was super impressed with my smartness. Or at least my ability to get into schools that people have heard of. Or that play in games that are broadcast on TV.

After we established my pedigree, I asked the big name question. So now we’re friends. Marriage will probably follow soon.

And Dave was right. It wasn’t that hard (of course Dave might have proposed me proposing we get a drink – a step I’m not ready for). So if I continue to take Dave’s advice, the next easy thing on my list is to buy a tri bike.

QOD

2010-03-08T12:20:00.002-05:00

A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it you feel that you can do anything. - Anonymous

True. Which is probably why I finally signed up to do another one. Of course for now, I'm reserving the right to defer!

A Decade in Review

2010-03-07T22:16:00.005-05:00

(because all the cool kids are doing it)

I spent the penultimate (heh, love that word) day of this decade at my parent's house drinking a martini and playing wii. I thought it was a good way to end a not particularly good year. The next morning I was one block into my drive home, stopped at a stop sign when another car skidded into me. I'm really not mentally prepared to handle things like this and after I called the police, and insurance and the tow truck I declared I was cancelling my trip to Vermont and (once someone transported me to my apartment) I would never leave again except to go to work, the grocery store and maybe the gym.

It was rather reminiscent of how I kicked off the decade - freaking out about the world potentially ending before I even graduated law school. Going to Costco the day before Y2K will do that to you - people were stocking up on generators and bottled water like we were gearing up for nuclear war. That year, I eventually pulled myself together and headed to a party with some friends of law school friends at the beach. Like everyone else we watched the new decade begin in country after country and nothing catastrophic happened. I might have been accused of over reacting.

By the second half of 2000 I was in my 3rd year of law school and ready to be done. Apparently that is a common occurrence although I think I had an extreme case of it. To get me through and shake things up a bit, I befriended a 2nd year law student (we shared a night class and he had a car - a great catalyst for friendship) who would go on to work at my firm and who had gone to college with me (although we didn't know each other) and made his friends mine for the rest of that year. Many of those people arrived in New York a year after me and are still part of my circle of friends. I spent 12/31/00 in Chicago and wondered if maybe committing to New York was a mistake. I know that Chicago would have worked out fine, but I'm pretty sure New York was the right choice. At the time, I just wanted something with no law school association and Chicago was all college.

In 2001 I graduated from law school, took (and passed) two bars and spent 3 weeks before my new job (and the end of life as I knew it began) in Europe (Prague, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Cannes, Dijon & Paris). Then the day after I signed my first Manhattan lease, the world fell apart. Somehow I handled that much better than Y2K - I guess tangible horror is easier to deal with than horror of the unknown variety. Ten days later I moved in and started work. I think the sadness all around me made the newness of work and city living easier to handle. Any feelings of loneliness or disconnectedness were really nothing compared to what was going on around me. And you couldn't help but feel inspired by the way the city came together.

I think I worked more in 2002/2003 than ever again in my career. I remember regularly arriving home from work at 5am on Saturday morning and heading back to the office on Sunday. I went on my first business trip which was also my first trip to California and for the first time rented a car and drove myself to the hotel in the dark (funny how that was anxiety causing then, but now I wouldn't give it a second thought). I felt like I was a kid playing grown up and was impressed that I pulled it off. In the winter/spring of 2002 I dated the teacher and the lawyer but both had disappeared by the summer which was fine because there was too much work to allow for any sort of balance.

All of the work I was involved with finally ended or came to a natural pause at the same time - the Friday before labor day weekend and I found myself lost and slightly despondent (and by despondent, I mean just plain out of it - free time for socializing was a novelty) as I realized that I would be able to enjoy the weekend and the much anticipated football game and scrambled to come up with a plan. My former 2L law school friends were arriving to New York as was the ND football team for the Maryland game at Giant's stadium. They came to my rescue and convinced me to head to Jersey for a party the night before the game. I went reluctantly, taking the long way and listening to sad music and drinking coffee on the train. I knew that I needed more than just work in my life, but with the teacher and the lawyer gone, I wasn't sure where to look.

Sometimes I wish the insane busyness at work had lasted one more week. [ha ha]

Because, it turns out I didn't have too look far. That night I met Ryan - I believe we complimented each other's sunglasses. Mine were children's sunglasses purchased in France during my post bar trip. Ryan's were from one of the Chicago festivals near the Irish Oak. Funny what we remember. Anyway, Ryan reads this blog sometimes. So ... that was a fun, drunk, flirty weekend that cheered me up and got me excited for the fall in general and then of course more specifically when we stayed in touch and visited and then became a couple. Seven years later I can admit that success in that scenario would have been hard to impossible, but at the time I couldn't imagine an ending that didn't involve a house in the suburbs and a kid by the time I was 30. It was easy and comfortable and made the hours I was working a means to an end. Plus I got to get out of town to Chicago and see my college friends on occasion. It was my first grown up relationship and while it was fun and easy and comfortable while it lasted, it was crushing when it ended. Fittingly on Labor Day weekend (and over the phone [insert snide comment]). Fortunately I had just purchased season 1 of 24 on DVD. I think I watched all 24 hours in 2 days because every time I stopped, I'd hyperventilate.

For the most part it was a miserable fall of 2003. And while its easy to place blame for that, I probably would have been fairly miserable regardless of who I was or wasn't dating. I was again super busy at work and at some point, no matter how much you like your job (and I did still more or less like it then) the inability to have a "life" gets to you. I recall it being touch and go for awhile, but somehow, despite the busyness I made time for Brian's wedding after which Ryan made out with another girl and then called me at work to change his flight and ask to stay at my apartment. Which I allowed because I'm a schmuck. But it at least made the transition from sad to angry complete (although it took a few days to really get my head around that situation)! My friend's (now ex) husband also came to town twice that fall and hit on me both times. I remember wanting it to just be quiet but there was all this chatter and it made me want to scream. Fortunately, around then I started running with a group in central park and that saved my winter. When you're running it is quiet except for your breathing and I liked that. I needed that. I met some great girls and ran my first 10K (it snowed and was made a 'fun run' so I have no idea what my time was).

Running made me feel connected to the city for the first time since living there. And since I started running, I've tried to run in all the cities I visit. One of the group's coaches, Jen, mentioned once how running is a great way to get to know a city and I couldn't agree more. It was also a great way to at least feel like I had a life despite the hours I was working - I could sneak in a run before work (or when normal people are sitting down to dinner - and then I'd head back to the office) and at least feel like I had done SOMETHING.

I went to a lot of weddings in 2003-2004 many of which I was in. I travelled to Virginia in a blackout and risked eating little gnats that felt the need to die all over the place. I learned that weddings can ruin friendships and suspect I may never agree to be a bridesmaid again. I also ran a lot of races - enough to qualify to run the NYC Marathon in 2005 - and tried to be more New York by going to fancier bars and restaurants. Basically I tried to become the anti wholesome relationship girl (to the extent you can while still enforcing all my ND rules). It was fun, but maybe not fulfilling.

By 2005 I was tired. Towards the end of 2004 I met Mike, I moved to Hoboken, someone threatened to send me on a business trip that would have prevented me from running the marathon, I got out of the business trip, I turned 30 and I ran the marathon. It was a lot. I then stayed with Mike for months longer than I should have, just because I didn't know what to do next and being with Mike afforded one a lot of time for rest.

In 2006, when my relationship with Mike finally ended I felt a profound sense of relief. On the surface I was sad, but deep down I was ecstatic and terrified that I would repeat this horrible mistake. That not quite a year is one of the few things in the past decade and maybe my life that I regret. I feel like it spiraled out of control and all I wanted was for someone to tell me it was wrong and needed to end, but no one did and so I stayed because it seemed, on the surface at least, like the thing to do. I still can't imagine how I'll trust myself if I ever actually start talking to boys again.

For the end of 2006 and well into 2007 I celebrated my freedom. Some might say I went on a bender:) But, I l like to think that I was just taking advantage of my surroundings, embracing the city on my terms which happened to involve a lot of irish bars and beer and bar food. It was fun. I also trained for and raced my first triathlon - a sprint. It of course came at an awful time work wise, but I got through it. And sucked Sara into this madness in the process (I've never seen such a willing accomplice!).

In 2007 I made some large purchases pretty much all on a whim - a bike and an apartment! I went to Pat's wedding in Costa Rica and spent the week pre-wedding with Sara, Scott, Dave, Ara, Ryan and Ryan's now wife and somehow everyone got a long (at least to my knowledge) and it was probably one of the best vacations I've ever been on. There was pretty much nothing to do except relax - we ran, drank, swam, sunned, hiked, played cards, laughed uncontrollably and then saw Pat get married and we all headed back to our real lives. While I was gone, the senior associate that I worked with ALL THE TIME, had a baby and upon my return I picked up much of her work.

And wile her maternity leave was hectic, it was eye opening. When she returned, I didn't want to continue being her junior associate when it was clear that I had managed more or less her work load on my own. Unfortunately (at the time, fortunately in hindsight) it soon became clear that my options were limited. Therefore ...

In January of 2008 I started my second grown up job. A life changing decision that I have yet to regret. More then anything, the new job gave me time to have a real life. I have some semblance of control over my life so I hired Liz, did one half IM in 2008 and two more in 2009 (one of which - Rev, was the hardest physical thing I've ever done - I still have my race number on the refrigerator and think of it often!). I joined a summer share. Made new friends. I have time to cook dinner and/or get drinks after work. I started skiing again and took a trip to France! Other then France and Rev, nothing in the past 2 years has been epic, and it certainly hasn't all been rosy, but its been good and it launched me in to 2010 and a new decade ready for ...

More.

This post has been around for awhile, but I hadn't put it up (and am only now putting it up because Dave responded to a post that was over 3 months old so I felt I had to put something new up) because while it was a fine decade (not awesome, sometimes depressing and bad, but for the most part tolerable and fine) it ends with wanting More. And while on some level I guess we should always want More, this particular version of More is hard. I can stand up straight and smile (and maybe finally tell gym dude my name) but for the most part there is little I can do to make More happen. For someone like me, accepting that is hard. I'm used to trying and practicing and getting some incarnation of the goal of the moment. But with More, I realize (although its still hard to accept) that whether or not More happens and the exact form it takes is out of my hands. So even though its hard and seems to get harder everyday, I'm focusing on living and being and having fun and not hyperventilating or obsessing over More.

And I've been working out a ton and broke the "no sports with balls" rule and started paying tennis - a game that is sure to result in some funny stories. I'm sure you can't wait!

Random Updates

2009-11-30T22:52:00.002-05:00

A quick trip to Vegas (my first! and probably only!) followed by a 10K are all that separate me from my two weeks of rest. And I can not wait.
But I will still have to go to the gym and pretend to work out. In order to see my gym/church boyfriend.
Speaking of which, I think I led him to believe that I run 20 min/miles. I'm slow but not that slow. But when I tried to explain I started to sound defensive. So I let it go.
Next time I see him I'm going to ask him his name. Or should I first tell him my name? How does that go?
Also, what do you call the person who collects the money in church? Because he did that this weekend and almost touched my boob with the collection basket. I might bring this up as well. The fact that he was in church and served as the [money collector?]. Not that he almost touched my boob.
It is finally getting cold out. Which is good because I have so much skiing planned this year. But bad because I might have to turn on the heat in my apartment. I made it through November and was going to try for December with no heat. But right now my hands are numb from the cold.
I am so tired and hungry that I wonder (again) if I have a thyroid issued. But I'm always accused of having one (an issue stemming from the thyroid) and never actually found to have one. So I should probably just eat a cheeseburger. Except the NYT scared me away from ground beef. Another reason to hate the NYT.
Goodnight.

In the Name of Love

2009-11-23T22:09:00.004-05:00

The first time I noticed him he was talking to a guy in the gym and querying when his expecting wife was due. It was appealing in a someday sort of a way. As in someday, I hope that my husband goes to the gym. And I hope that he is friendly with the other guys at the gym and remembers if their wives are pregnant and queries as to their well being.

The next time I saw him we shared an elevator with two other people. He was wearing scrubs and explaining his job selling medical devices to his neighbors. And, particularly because their questions were annoying, he seemed nice. I added that to the someday list: gym, friendly, nice.

I assumed, for whatever reason, that he had a wife (probably because of all those someday characteristics), but the third time I saw him was in church. And he was alone. And the wheels started spinning.

Following that there was one random elevator conversation (about running) and some cyber stalking on my part.

And then, the fourth time I saw him, it was love. It was love because in addition to being a gym going, friendly nice guy that goes to church (alone and doesn't wear a wedding ring so might be single), he roots for my college's football team.

Since it was love, when I saw him in the gym on my way home from work tonight, I had to make an appearance. So I put on my cutest gym clothes (and some lip gloss) and went to the gym. The problem was that the plan called for a bike (which I wanted to do on the trainer while I watched house) and a swim (which I never really intended to do) so I decided on an upper body/core workout. I think it was a good choice because I caught him looking at me while I did sit ups and I'm sure he was impressed with my push ups (he spent some time in the armed forces). Despite him being on the treadmill we commented on last week's game and the likelihood that my team will get a new coach.

I timed it so that we'd leave together and we talked more. About football. And he still doesn't know my name. And he might have a girlfriend. But I'm pretty sure its love and he's the one. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully I'll be lifting weights in the name of love again sooner rather than later, because I'm ready for someday.

T-Man Race Report (FINALLY)

2009-11-11T22:57:00.004-05:00

So, I'm only 2.5 months late on this one ... there is so much other fun stuff to blog about that I finally decided to just get this out of the way.

The Days Before

I left work early the Friday before the race and embarked on my solo journey to NH. Packing had been quite an adventure because I was headed for a week long vacation immediately following the race. As was typical for my summer, as soon as I started out on the drive it started torrentially raining and I needed gas before I left NJ (no self pumping for me) so I was forced to deal with getting gas in the torrential rain - which in and of itself isn't that bad, but I also needed snacks and water. Anyway, the attendant had a million questions for me about my braces and how much they were and weather they were covered by insurance because his wife apparently had bad teeth that needed to get fixed.

I didn't think that excessive conversation with the gas station attendant necessarily boded well for my trip but a few hours later I saw the most stunning rainbow which I figured did bode well - or at least well enough to negate the gas station attendant. It took close to 8 hours but I made it to NH where Marty was waiting for me in our SPACIOUS (seriously, huge) room. We made a plan for the morning and headed to bed.

In the morning we swam and I felt good - the water was warm and clear and we got out and were drying off to bike when I bee started buzzing around me. I tried to shoo it away and then I tried to run away from it and then I ran into the water because it would not leave me alone. It continued to fly around my head but eventually seemed to loose interest. Or not. Because as soon as I got out of the water it came right back and actually stung me through my bike shorts! Bastard. Finally Marty had to gather up my stuff and I sprinted out of the water towards our bikes finally eluding the bee.

After the bee incident we biked the run, got lost driving the bike course and spent most of the rest of the day doing normal pre race stuff. After dinner we got ready for bed and even though it made me slightly nervous I took an actifed (which had no adverse effects) and slept like a baby.

The morning started off smoothly until we hit traffic a mile from the race and couldn't get in to onsite parking. Marty had an earlier wave and was getting nervous so I finally kicked her out of the car and headed to park on my own. I would have been cutting it super close but the whole race was delayed because of a car accident on the bike course so as it was I had plenty of time to get ready and go for a nice swim warm up.

Swim - 39:38

Awesome is really the only way to describe this. I just felt great, I drafted, I swam hard I got out of the water and saw that there was still a chance of going sub 40 and basically took a girl out crossing the line. Strangely, I think this girl was Marty's friend. Fortunately she survived my brute force;)

T1 - 3:37

Wet suit strippers rock. I got in and out of transition as quickly as I could - making sure to put on my multi sport mastery socks and headed out on the bike ride.

Bike - 3:40:25

Someday I will go sub 3:40 on a 70.3 bike. Due to our failure to read a map well enough to drive the course, the hilliness of this course caught my by surprise. It was no Rev3, but it was also far, far from flat. My way of getting through these bikes is generally to keep the computer on cadence and time and to check my progress at one hour and then every 30-45 mins thereafter. This worked well through 3 hours and 3 gatorade bottles but then sort of backfired. At 3 hours I knew I was close to being done (relatively) and never started the fourth gatorade bottle (which also had my salt tabs mixed into it). I just kept thinking I was "almost there" and add to that some stomach queeziness, I had no desire to shuffle around my bottles to get more gatorade. The last 20 minutes of the bike seemed never ending and I couldn't have been happier to arrive in ...

T2 - 3:26

In and out as fast as I could. I stopped for sunscreen and was careful to make sure that I had everything I needed.

Run - 2:26:19

And this is when the missing gatorade comes back to kick me in the ass - or legs as the case may be. The run at this race is fun (except for the part where you have to run right past the finish line before running an additional 6.6 miles) - its a double out and back with awesome local fans. I started off WAY TOO fast and soon realized me legs were on the verge of cramping. I basically binged on salt tabs for the first 3 miles and managed to survive but it was close. I manage to run the whole way (except for water stops and one steep hill) which was a huge goal but next time I will start off super slow and aim for a negative split. I kept a close eye on the time to make sure that sub 7 hours didn't slip away - I knew the key to that was to avoid things that might make it hard to start running again. Like walking and porta pottying. With 2 miles left the guy I had been playing cat and mouse with all run totally cramped up and became that guy sitting on the side of the road unable to move. I wanted to avoid that fate so I didn't stop for any reason until I hit the finish line in 6:53!!

For the last few miles of the race I really had to pee but didn't want to stop and no matter how hard I tried could not pee while running. When I finally finished I was sooooo hot and nauseous that a porta potty would not have worked so bee lined straight to the lake where I managed to cool off and finally pee. The lake was full of race finishers though so I decided not to go under since I was likely swimming in a bunch of gatoradey pee. Gross.

I felt like death for a good hour or so after the race but eventually recovered enough to be super pleased with my sub 7 performance (guess the chatty gas station attendant wasn't a bad omen after all). And super happy to have a week at the beach to celebrate.

NJ State Triathlon

2009-10-28T22:37:00.002-04:00

So, I told myself no more blogging until I wrote race reports for NJ State and Timberman. Sadly I have just not been motivated to write those reports ... they're in my head, but getting them down on paper, not what I want to do after a long day. BUT I love going back to my race reports before each race so ... here we go:

Pre Race

Paying the extra money to sign up for day of race packet pick up was huge. I got to hang out the beach Saturday and shoot across the state to Mercer County Sunday morning. For my Saturday pre race workout I actually did a 5k (don't tell Liz) - I took it slow though. Sunday morning I woke up early to torrential rain. Seriously. But hoped it would clear and headed to the race site. I was running way late but while transition closed at 7 am (or something) my wave didn't go off till 9 so I wasn't too stressed out. I eventually got my transition set up, found Sara (& Scott) and sat around. And sat around some more. And when the sprinters had all gone off and the oly was gearing up to start I got in a solid swim warmup. This is SOOO important for me and I was glad to have done it (plus, once I was wet I was FREEZING and since the water was warmer than the air, the water was a good place to be - I'd soon be wishing for some cool air though).

Swim

('09 =34:07; '07 = 36:11)

I love the swim at this race. Its super well marked in a lake where they row crew so you can follow the little crew buoys the whole way. And its basically not wetsuit legal and I'm kind of a big fan of non wetsuit swims so ... I got in and swam. It wasn't a bad swim, but I felt I could have done better. Again and again I come back to needing to not be so set on finding clear water and to be willing to just get in there and draft, draft, draft. But, it was a 2 minute pr so I'll it.

T1 ('09=2:42; '07=?)

Not much to do without a wetsuit to take off.

Bike

('09=1:22:39; '07=1:37:20)

Woah, what a difference 2 years and a coach make. Liz told me to keep my cadence up and I did and it worked. Once I got on my bike after the world's longest run from transition, I seriously felt like I was flying. Its an at times technical but flatish course and after Philly and certainly Rev well ... you know why I felt like I was flying. I also noticed that the day was heating up (which was expected due to the late start) and while I was thrilled to have such a solid bike, I was more than ready to just get off the bike and see what I had left for the run!

T2 ('09=2:30; '07=?)

No socks. Read to run.

Run ('09=1:01:16; '07=1:08:37)

WHY DO NOT STAND ALONE 10Ks FIT INTO MY SCHEDULE? I soooo want to do one. Anyway, I was trying to chase down a sub 3 finish and that motivated me right up until I knew it wasn't going to happen. I was trying to run a race that I could finish and that took precedence over trying for an arbitrary time goal. And it was hot and well, hot. And while its mostly flat there is some grass and path type running and again its technical so a sub 1 hour run was not meant to be. But I did my best and again, was pleased.

TOTAL: 3:03:12

If you're wondering if I'm haunted by those 3 minutes and 12 seconds, the answer is YES. I played all the "if I had just" games and for awhile I really, really wanted another oly in the season to chase down those minutes (thank God, I didn't find one, I was DONE after T-man, but I'm getting ahead of myself) but there were none to be found so I decided to just focus on what I did do and not what I could have done. And once I did that I was super pleased with my performance. It was totally a day in which everything just came together and while I'll totally be chasing those minutes next year its seriously an arbitrary goal that doesn't take away from an otherwise great race (and I'm really bad at beating PRs so I'm trying not to make it more than it is).

Up next ... Timberman!

Local Sprint Triathlon

2009-09-03T19:32:00.002-04:00

There is something nice about waking up in your bed at 9 am the day of a triathlon. And having a margarita and glass of wine the night before the triathlon. And leisurely eating some cereal and pumping your tires with your sister and then asking dad for a ride to the race start.

Of course, a NOON race start also means the race could get a little toasty, but we were on an island and it was a sprint so it all worked out. I don't normally sprint because I don't like that "(metaphorical) balls to the wall" feeling, but my sister wanted this to be her first race and I can't say no to the first timers, so I said yes.

Transition was on a tennis court a long, long run from the water. I helped my sister get set up and we played around in the water getting comfortable. She had barely trained for this race but the training she had done was mostly for the swim and with me and every time she kept up with me stroke for stroke. I was a little afraid she'd beat me, but I resisted the urge to deflate her tires;)

It was an in water start (mostly because you had to walk out mostly the distance of the swim before the water was deep enough to accommodate our arms!). Despite being 9 years apart, my sister and I were in the same wave (it was a small race) -we started mid pack to the outside of the buoys and I had this idea that if my sister stayed just behind me and to the right I'd block her from the fray. It didn't work I lost her and she freaked out a little - next year she'll beat me in the swim though. For me though, except for one instance when I swam RIGHT INTO a 65 year old man (who the lifeguard subsequently begged to get out of the water and who refused and went on to finish the race), the swim was uneventful. There was some water running in the end and I finished the .25 miles in 10:56. I don't sprint though so I have no idea if this was a good time.

T1 was in a tennis court far, far away. I was traveling to T1 and/or in T1 for 4:39. Stupid wetsuit.

The bike was frustrating. I wanted to go faster but this was before I knew about the high cadence secret. So I got through it. 14 miles in 49:33.

T2 was fast! 1:33.

The run was fun because it was out and back so I passed my sister twice and tried to get the people around me to cheer her on. The run was also long. I passed the 3 mile mark and had a chance at sub 30 - fortunately I knew that we really weren't that close to the finish so I didn't go all out - which is good because I ran for 4 more minutes finishing up the run in 31:15 and the inaugural running of the race in 1:38:06.

Definitely do this race again - it was a super fun long weekend away in one of my favorite places. I wonder if I can go 8 minutes faster if I forego the margarita. I wonder if it is worth it:)

Amazing

2009-08-05T15:26:00.002-04:00

I can complete a half ironman and drive home 3 hours and go out to dinner after but one scary early morning phone call followed by 45 minute of minor chaos leaves me wiped out for the rest of the day.

Don't ever get old kids. Ever.

Answer Me This ...

2009-08-04T22:46:00.002-04:00

The most recent edition of Triathlete Magazine (or whatever the free one that comes with your USAT membership is called) has an article about GI distress. One of the suggestions is that you know where public restrooms are on your run and if you're running on trails (which presumably have no public restrooms) you bring an emergency kit of zip lock baggie, toilet paper and ... lighter.

So ... tp, got it. Baggie, sure why not. But what exactly are you supposed to do with the lighter? I assume (no ass pun intended) that you're not burning the tp because that's got to be what the baggie is for, right? So that means you're either lighting a fire to poop by, or sending up smoke signals or burning your poop. None of which seem obvious enough to warrant no explanation?

In other news, I'm two race reports behind. I'll get them done before the next race. After the last race I was on cloud 9 for awhile but seem to have since succumbed to the post race blues because now I just want to strangle everyone. Everyone.

LONG Ride

2009-07-28T18:12:00.000-04:00

(July 4th weekend - still catching up)

Fourth of July weekend the plan called for a 3 hour bike ride … I was leaving from the beach and knew that my usual “follow the MS Ride” route would not take 3 hours I decided to get creative on mapmyride. I searched for a 45 mile ride and found one that began and ended in a place I was familiar with that was 50 miles ... close enough I figured and made my own cue sheet from the map. The morning of the ride, I loaded up with gel and gatorade and was out the door by 8 am.

The first 10 miles or so were on my usual route and I felt fine. I was only traveling with the cue sheet, not the map and around 10 miles tried to visualize where I would be on the map – and that’s when I realized that I forgot to account for the fact that I started my ride 5 miles before the 50 mile mapped ride “officially” began and would be ending it about 5 miles away from my final destination. And like that my 50 mile ride became 60.

The next 15 miles were off my usual route and less than straight – I thought about doubling back to keep the distance down but wasn’t sure that I’d be able to easily reverse the directions in my head. I also wanted to hit the hills that were yet to come on the complete course. I was hopeful that I would at some point know where I was and be able cut out some miles by taking a direct route home. If not, I had an extra gel and money so I figured I’d be fine.

At about the 35 mile mark things were still going fine and I estimated I’d come in around 3:30, go for a run off and enjoy the rest of the day having done some solid training. And then, just as I was feeling good about my direction following ability, I realized I missed a turn. I doubled back and still couldn’t find the road I was looking for. I tripled back and having added another 6 miles to my already too long ride, started to panic. So I pulled out my phone and used the gps function which told me I was only 1 mile away – I quadrupled back and STILL COULD NOT FIND it. And the fact that I was by myself and miles away from home on a hot summer day started to freak me out even more. So I had the gps give me turn by turn directions and realized that the road I was looking for had two names, only one of which was on the street sign I had ridden by 4 times already.

Unlost but realizing I was going to be on my bike for a long time (both in terms of hours and miles) I decided to stay focused and get home as quickly as I could. I was still doing ok, and thankful for a passing shower when I hit the head wind. Ouch. Before long I was down to my emergency gel, conserving warm Gatorade in the middle of farm country without a 7-11 or gas station in site and I still had at least 15 miles to go. But I was fine, more or less, and didn’t think it was worth using a “help come get me” card with any of my friends. So I pressed on and eventually made it home having covered just over 70 miles in just under 5 hours.

And was never so grateful for GPS and the emergency gel!

Philly Tri

2009-07-16T11:14:00.001-04:00

(Sunday, June 28th … yes, I’m late)

Going in to this race I was fired up. I was exactly 3 weeks post Rev and I had finally stopped laughing at the bizarreness of the hills and coming to grips with the fact that I in fact rode my bike up those hills. After that an Olympic Tri seemed like pie (and it rhymes too). Plus, I was doing this race with a good friend (S) and she was handling logistics – all I had to do was be at her house the day before the race. She had arranged for our hotel and a ride for us. When I arrived we were both wearing the same 5 year old JCrew skirt – what are the odds? S and her friend K were doing their first oly race and I was psyched to be there with them. It kind of reminded me of the small handful of random science and math classes that I took over the year and actually understood – I would help friends learn the material as well and wind up acing the test. Talking S&K down and through the race didn’t leave me much time to worry about things myself and I sort of went on auto pilot right until the gun went off and it worked.

Anyway, we made it to packet pick up and then back to the hotel and dinner where another of their mutual friends freaked them out about the “hilly technical course.” Um yeah, it was a hard course but there were never going to come in first and they were always going to grind up those hills so why freak them out un-necessarily? Whatever. For a variety of lame reasons we didn’t get much sleep that night but got up and to the start rather un-eventfully.

One of my only gripes about the race is that Transition was at the bottom of a hill right next to the river and the trek in and out was long and tiring. But we made it down, got set up and body marked (I only advised S&K when asked but politely suggested that they might want to forego rinsing their feet off with water and then applying baby powder before putting on socks – I mean really, who comes up with these things?). We had to take a short bus ride to the swim start and S&K opted to porta potty before getting on the bus – I opted to do whatever had to be done to get myself in that river before my wave started. It was my first ever river swim and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that … it was fine though. The water was warmish and we were swimming with the current. I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as clean but there was nothing floating in it (that I saw) and compared to the Hudson it was narrow and calm so I wasn’t really worried. Although, I will say that without S&K to distract me I started getting nervous for the first time all day.

We waited around for a bit – monitored the earlier waves (this was a BIG RACE) to see what the current did to them and then we were called down to the dock …

The Swim
(27:05)

Clearly this was with the current. We slid off the dock and into the water and I positioned myself to the left (the outside of the turn line) and about ¾ of the way back. I breath mostly to my left and S breaths mostly to her right and strangely we were together breath for breath, stroke for stroke for several minutes. Eventually though I decided I was lolly gagging and was READY TO BE OUT OF THE WATER so I picked it up and we got separated (she would only finish 20 seconds behind me though – go S). I was happy with the swim but I still maintain that I can do better if I just get a bit out of my comfort zone. Someday.

T1
(3:45)

Not great but not bad either. I did not put baby powder on my feet;)

Bike
(1:40:53)

As promised, the course was hilly and technical. But the hills were shortish up and over in 3-5 minute fellas – no Rev type monsters. And there were flats. Where you could go more than 12mph. Seriously, I saw numbers like 18 and 20! It was a two loop course which I don’t really like but at least you know what to expect on the second loop … and for awhile I fully expected that if I picked it up just a little bit on the second loop I could come in under or at least really close to 1:30 and then I flew by K who had crashed (but was up walking around and talking to volunteers) - I yelled back to her to ask if she was ok and she said she was and I should go on. So I did but immediately wondered if that was the right move … I had more or less decided that she was in good hands and there wasn’t much I could do when I found myself at the bottom of a big hill in a high gear and shifted too fast and dropped my chain and COULD NOT get it back on – I had tried to get it back on without dismounting and got it jammed in their good. When I finally had things fixed I decided to walk the few yards to the bottom of the hill and start over. I also said good bye to 1:40. But at least K was okay (although her race was over).

On the next hill I found myself behind a young man whose shorts at ripped right up the center of his ass. Nice fella. He apologized to me for the view.

T2
(3:04)

Um, this was a big race with a big transition area.

Run
(1:01:19)

Early in the run I saw S’s husband and indicated that K had hurt her hand (seemed like the body part least likely to cause alarm – K had actually scraped up much more than her hand) and was probably not finishing the bike … fortunately a friend went to retrieve her from medical. The run was weird in that it was flat. I almost don’t know what to do without some terrain changes to keep me on my toes. So I ran and ran and it was hot and got hotter and my water proof watch had decided to fill with water so I had to really strain to see splits and overall time. By now I was feeling Rev in my legs and wile I would have loved to come in under an hour I was pleased with just over. I crossed the finish line and would have loved to jump into a tub of ice. Unfortunately there was not one available.

So I drank some water, ate some bread and waited for S who had stopped to be with K for a bit but then decided to finish her race. And she did finish strong.

So in all, it was a solid 3:16 performance and 12 minute PR. I don’t think I’ll do this specific race again because its big and technical and at the bottom of a big hill (seriously, walking up the hill to the car was probably the hardest part of the day! S&K had husbands to carry their crap but I was on my own!) but I know that without any mechanicals and without having done Rev 3 weeks prior I can continue to improve!

Up next … why you should never leave home without an emergency gu and a gps …

Since Rev ...

2009-07-02T14:32:00.002-04:00

At first it was tiredness, like can't keep my eyes open past 9pm tiredness that kept me from updating. And then it was work insanity. And now its a combination of the two.

I am so tired, but there is so much work to do.

But I hope to find time over the long weekend to write more because ... there was this race in philly that I've just got to tell you about.

Happy weekend kids!

Rev3 Part 2

2009-06-12T17:10:00.002-04:00

or, If I could just dive through it, it'd be so much easier.

We left as I got out of the lake with a minute or so PR. I trotted into T1 and in 4 minutes and 56 minutes I was on my bike (a PR by 30 seconds ... ha, ha. Go me!) ....

THE EPIC BIKE

And I peddled and peddled and peddled and then peddled some more. We drove the course the day before and I obviously looked at the elevation profile but nothing prepares you for being at the base of a mountain on your bike until you are in fact at the base of a mountain on your bike with nowhere to go but up.

Strangely, it reminded me of playing in the ocean. You're having fun and then a big wave comes and you think "Ok. It was fun but now I'm ready to be done. I'd like to get out of this ocean." But you can't because the wave would crush you, so you take a breath and dive through the wave. It tosses you around a bit but you come out the other side and then ride the next manageable wave home to shore. On the bike however you would wind a corner and there would be a huge mountain and I'd think "Ok. I'm ready for T2 now. Getting off the bike would be great." But alas, mountains separated me from T2 so I took a deep breath, peddled (very slowly) up the mountains, got beat up a bit and then came out the other side. And eventually, just shy of 4 hours and 20 minutes later I was done (although, in my defense that included a 2-3 minute pottty break).

And even though it took about 37 minutes longer than the last race of this distance, the course was SO MUCH harder so I still call it a victory. For example, I initially decided that my goal for the bike would be 4 hours which is only a 14 mph average which considering that I was either going 4 miles up hill or 30 miles down hill for the whole race, was actually aggressive ... I was right on pace though through 2 hours/28 miles and at 3 hours I wasn't too far off at 40 miles. The next 10 miles were mentally challenging, but I got through them in 45 minutes ... which meant that 4 hours wasn't going to happen but I should have been close. Except that the last 6 miles is when the course goes from hard to brutal. The math reveals that the last 6 miles took over 30 minutes and I can tell you that nothing unusual happened in that time - no mechanicals, cramps or bonks. It was just brutal, grueling, hot, achey and ALL UPHILL and I was so done ...

I remember early in my college career after one of the first home football games my roommate summed up the day by saying she was hungover before she was even done tailgating. And sort of, that's how I felt in the last 6 miles of that bike. Except I was sore before I even stopped working out. Grinding to the finish my legs just ached.

But I made it and while it wasn't a PR it was a victory.

4 minutes and 13 seconds. A minute longer than last time but I think its because I had to apply my own sunscreen and wow, thank goodness I did because the few spots I missed were crispy!

THE "ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME?!?" RUN

If only the whole run had been downhill ... the first 2 downish/flatish miles were great and ticked off in 9:42 and 9:52 and I thought "this might not be so bad." And then I rounded the corner and the course became totally ridiculous. When it was flat or down I ran and I ran well but there were SO MANY portions of the course that were up bizarrely steep hills it was ridiculous. I held on for mile 3 coming in at a respectable 10:26 but after that finishing became the name of the game. The miles ticked off in 12-14 minutes each and the goal of finishing under 7 hours and 30 minutes was replaced with the goal of beating my previous Half IM run time. I ultimately missed this goal by 2 minutes and 30 seconds but the fact that I continued the run after it took me by the finish with 3 miles left is a small victory in and of itself (seriously, that was the cruelest part of the run ... seeing the finish and knowing you still had well over 30 minutes left ... but we got a cool finishers tee shirt so I'm glad I kept going ...). The last mile of the run was probably the only truly miserable part of the day - I remember seeing some rocks in the shade and thinking that they were probably cool and if I could just sit down and cuddle up to them and close my eyes it would be a nice nap ...thank God I didn't do that;)

I finished up (finally) in 7 hours and 51 minutes and just wanted for someone to please take me somewhere not in the sun with a place (rocks or otherwise) available for sitting. Sara was like a mirage bounding (or so it seemed) down the hill and directing me to the shade (and the seats and the food).

And that was that. Post race thoughts, what I've been doing for the past week and what's next (unlike last year, I actually have some races I intend to participate in on the horizon) are yet to come. I will tell you now that next year there are going to be some flat races on the schedule. Or at least one. Its pretty much an order from Liz!

Rev3

2009-06-08T21:36:00.003-04:00

or, It appears I AM actually doing a Half IM today.

Before I can tell you about Rev, we need to talk about Harriman. The race in and of itself would really warrant no attention at all, except that it messed with my head right up until the gun went off at Rev.

I thought about discussing Harriman in a typical race report format but I never got much beyond the alternate title of "or, At least I got a bathing cap." So in summary, I was excited and ready for that race and then they cancelled the swim due to fog. That sucked because I like swimming. It sucked more because they made it a duathlon. And that change threw me for a loop, so to speak. Desperately hoping the fog would miraculously disappear and refusing to accept that I would have to run 1.5 miles BEFORE I biked 26 miles and ran 6.2 more, I somehow failed to warm up. My day thus began with a 1.5 mile sprint instead of a warm up followed by a swim (ie, a TRIathlon). This might not seem like such a big deal, and in some circumstances it would not have been a big deal but, on a tough course with a smaller field it left me in almost last place from the start.

So, even though I PR'ed the bike and the run (despite some pretty scary fog situations on the bike) and even though I remember (thanks to my race report from last year, which is why I'm writing this down now) to bring extra water on the last run and had pretty decent race execution, the race was frustrating to say the least and left me grumpy. And no matter what I did, I could not shake the triathlon grumps.

The fact that 2 weeks before Rev I hurt my neck and didn't do much of anything didn't really help matters.

I wasn't grumpy enough to bail on the race, but I was grumpy enough to be unable to accept that it was really happening. It was just not something I could get my head around. Maybe because I've just been busy, or because I've raced at this site or because the field was smaller so things were less hectic, but even after the practice swim on Saturday and witnessing the insanity that was going to take up 69.1 miles the next day, it all seemed kind of pretend.

The morning of the race was like clockwork. With just me and Sara in the room (ie, no non-racers) we got ready and fed and out the door without worrying about waking others at 5 am. We got to the race site easily and did the normal bathroom, transition, body marking stuff. I even went for a quick practice swim. And before I knew it I was standing on the beach waiting for the gun to go off ...

The Swim

I was pretty much as calm as could be. Per usual I waited for everyone else to go before finding some calm water to call my own. I think I need to be more aggressive in these swims and not be so afraid of getting touched. I have some less than 1/2 IM open water swims coming up and I think I'm going to have to try getting in there. When the guys from the wave behind us (2 minutes back) caught us, things got a bit crazy and I survived. I never freaked out, so I should be able to handle some 30-34 yo girls, right?

Eventually, after cruising along and feeling like the swim would never end, I decided to go faster. Funny how that works, right? I never really went fast, per se, but I went faster. My average HR for the swim was 142. I'm not sure how swimming HRs work, but I feel like I can go faster if I get over my fear of getting hit in the head or stranded in the middle of the lake/ocean/river. Regardless, in 42ish minutes I was done. It was a swim PR of roughly a minute, but I know I am capable more than a minute faster than I was in RI (even without any waves to bring me home). Buy bygones kids. We'll get that one next time.

And on that note, while I'd love to tell you about the bike and run, I'm tired. So, to bed I go. More later.

Because she asked ...

2009-05-18T22:48:00.003-04:00

I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said something to the effect of "people will come in and out of your lives, but true friends will leave a mark on your heart."* I have friends. And then I have friends that have left a mark on my heart for reasons I really can't explain.

S is a true friend.

We first met when our mother's decided that in an attempt to make our transitions to high school less awkward we should join the field hockey team and enlisted the local gym teacher to give us some lessons in my backyard. We both made the team and played for one year.

Field hockey wasn't our thing and really, there was no escaping the social awkwardness.

We did however both swim on our separate swim teams and we spent our summers life guarding. And let me tell you ... those were the days.

But I digress.

S is now a triathlete and I take some responsibility for that. I encouraged her to sign up for her first race and brokered the deal pursuant to which she bought Sara's first bike and made it hers. I convinced her to sign up for her first oly race, which she DNS because she wound up pregnant - which was good (the pregnancy - not really the DNS).

But she is back in the swing of things and I will be with her for her first oly in a few weeks. I also knew that she was planning on her first 1/2 marathon a few weeks ago. As is typical of my life lately, I got the weekend of her race mixed up and told her I was going to be in town for it and would be there to cheer (I in fact had plans to be in town the next weekend).

When S asked if I wanted to run the race with her, I couldn't say no. So I said yes, only sort of querying as to whether it fit within the plan (it sort of did). As a result I was with S for literally every step of her first 1/2 marathon.

And let me just say, we've come a long way since field hockey in my backyard.

I was there to run with S, not to beat any records. So the goal was to beat 2:30 and we did with 7 minutes to spare. In the beginning I thought I'd stay with her for a few miles, maybe half the race, maybe even the first 10 miles and then I'd see what I had left. But as we ticked off and talked through consistent rainy 11 minute mile after consistent rainy 11 minute mile I really had no desire to go off and suffer on my own. I did have the desire to make sure that S met her goal.

I remembered back to when I started running and would meet my group one night a week and every Saturday. I thought of the people that stayed one step ahead of me offering up distracting banter through my first 10K, my first 1/2 marathon and my only marathon. I remember those friends fondly even if they didn't really leave a mark on my heart.

So together we ticked off the rainy miles one by one. I was with S when ran further than she ever had before, I was with her when she ran longer than she ever had before, I was with her when with 1 mile left she was ready to be done and I was with her when I lied about where the finish was (I was really confused, I THOUGHT it was right there) and she started her sprint to the finish too soon and thought she'd have to walk in it - she didn't, I slowed down so she could catch up and with puking a distinct possibility we finished strong together.

So despite the crappy conditions, it was a good day, a fun day, with a friend. And really that is why I do this. For the friends (and the license to eat).

Subsequent to my race with S I did my first multi-sport event of the season. And, um, wow. More on that later this week.

*Yeah, I know that the real quote states that "many people will walk in and out of your life, but true friends will leave footprints in your heart." The cheese factor there is a bit too high for me though.

Coming Around and Maybe Even Buying In ...

2009-04-28T19:33:00.004-04:00

I'm still livid. But after I saw the front page of the NY Times print edition, I'm willing to consider that maybe the President himself didn't know about yesterday's debacle (b/c, in my mind, the NY Times covers for the President). And while I'll never be down with the administration (so to speak) I will respect the President if he does the right thing. I'm not sure what the right thing is, but it definitely involves personal accountability, making sure people with decision making power are qualified to make those decisions and not sweeping this under the rug. It wasn't just a photo op or a bit of poor planning. It was a really big deal.

I guess we'll just have to see but wanted to update to clarify that while I'm livid I remain an intelligent rational person.

If I didn't, I'd be no better than the brain washed masses (and the fact that I can't resist these digs, means that I'm getting back to normal);)

And then they told us to say "cheese" and smile ...

2009-04-28T14:26:00.002-04:00

It started off good. At least for a Monday. I swam before work and made it in before my office mate. Both good accomplishments. Especially for a Monday.

Despite the fact that my corner office on the 37th floor has a view of the Statue of Liberty we keep the blinds closed to keep the glare off our computer monitors and to manage the temperature in the warm weather. I had finished my breakfast and was diving into the week’s first project when I heard what I assumed to be a cruise liner honk its horn. Loudly. I figured a boat cut it off and decided that when I finished my thought I would open the blinds to investigate. It’s fun to watch the water traffic interact.

Before I could finish my thought our IR guy came storming through my section of the office yelling “I’m getting the FUCK out of this office.” And I thought, “wow, his Monday is NOT off to a good start.” And then he re-phrased, “EVERYONE get the fuck out of the building.” One of the partners was running close behind him yelling “Everyone out, we’re evacuating now. GO!”

And so we did.

A coworker behind me yelled “Get in the elevator NOW!” And so I did. Although, I wondered at the time whether it was a bad choice. It could have been, but it wasn’t. Thankfully. As we piled into the elevator one of my co-workers said (or so I thought) “… was with a bomb and then he came back with another bomb.” And for second I thought a disgruntled investor or former employee had come to our offices claiming to have a bomb. It seemed a bit silly and farfetched but would maybe explain why the IR guy was freaking out initially.

7 floors and an eternity later, the elevator opened and a hysterical woman got on. I thought she was going to faint, or hyperventilate or puke or some combination of the 3. And then I realized. It wasn’t a bomb. It was a bomber. Trailing a plane flying erratically and dangerously close to our buildings. And the poor scared woman thought she was living through hell for a second time.

30 long floors later the doors opened and we got out and ran. As fast as we could.

I saw the plane and the jets come by for another pass. The noise was deafening. I called my mother to let her know that for now I was ok but to call my father and sister and the city and tell her we were under attack. Because if the plane had mechanical difficulties, I’d like to think they wouldn’t scramble jets to shoot it down, right?

We knew that we were not in our evacuation spot, but the evacuation spot was in the direction of the plane and it didn’t seem to make sense. Of course we also knew that we were backed up against the river so if the plane crashed and the monster cloud of dust came our options of where to run were limited. I figured in a pinch I could swim, but I knew the water was cold. And murky. And rough. I wondered if I should take my shoes off. I wondered how far west the plane would get. I wondered if they would shoot it down before it came back.

And then. Nothing. No news was being reported anywhere. It was as if it hadn’t happened. We met up with coworkers who had walked down the 37 flights. We were told it wasn’t an emergency. It was NEVER AN EMERGENCY. We could go back to work and call our local representatives or our President (THE President) if we had questions. And finally we learned that it was just a photo opportunity for the administration. Because the administration and its President aren’t already full of themselves. Because they don’t already have enough bull shit propaganda to continue to brain wash the masses.

Later, there was some blame placing and lame apologies. Excuses of ignorance. And it seemed like we were just so supposed to say cheese and smile for the camera. But I can’t. Because I’m livid. To put it mildly. There are no good excuses. No apologies will make it better. Even with the proper publicity, no one with half a brain would think that this was a good idea to do in an area with so many people who remember too much about the last time the planes flew by. It is inexcusable. And miles below the virtually non-existent expectations that I had for the next 4-8 years.

So in addition to livid, I’m terrified. And unlike the masses who buy into the propaganda and treat our President like the second coming oblivious to the fact that he is not qualified preside over a country in the best of times, much less in the worst of times, I’m not going to say cheese and smile.

I aim to please ...

2009-04-15T21:19:00.004-04:00

and my fans (fan?) have been clamoring for a blog entry. So, a blog entry they will get. Except I don't have that much interesting to say.

I could talk about how Friday I met THE CUTEST boy who I kinda want to marry (today, I'm sure I'll be on to a new flavor by next Friday) and I knew that I liked him when I realized I was being really mean to him. Because that is how I show affection - through biting sarcasm. Normal, no?

Or how on Saturday I rode my bike inside for almost a million hours and 20 minutes short of a million hours, there was huge BOOM and I would have dove under the table had I not be connected to my bike - turns out I got a huge gash in the tire and it exploded. BOOM!

Or how tonight, after I got the tire fixed, I was in the elevator in my building with my bike still wearing my work suit and some guy asked if I rode my bike to work (in my suit? with my work bags? um, no. ). He was obviously flustered by my beauty.

Or how after the elevator incident, I realized that Whole Foods charged me $.99 for the ridiculously expensive steak I bought (b/c I was soooo tired today and blame it on low iron) that was .99 lbs. I feel kind of bad about that, but I'm not about to go back to the store.

So yeah, those are the things I could tell you, but they're all kind of boring. Thus, the silence. But I have a few monster training weeks and then the summer coming up and those things always yield good stories so I'm sure I'll be back soon with more!

69 Seconds

2009-04-06T14:38:00.002-04:00

I ran a four mile race on Sunday and beat my (5 year old) previous best time by 69 seconds. In addition, I negative split the run and 3 of the 4 miles were sub 9 minutes per mile (which for me is smoking).

I was pleased. To say the least.

And then, after a nap, I celebrated and found myself having some post brunch drinks in a bar where 3 of the four boys I've flirted with in the past year were also enjoying post brunch drinks. And it was interesting. A fun end to a fun weekend.

In other news, my first half ironman is 2 months from tomorrow. Talk about interesting ...

Some Things Never Change

2009-03-11T23:00:00.003-04:00

As I've mentioned before, my first foray into swimming was before the era (but certainly not error) of jammers (although, naming them 'jammers' certainly does seem like an error or funny depending on whether or not you're wearing them). The only option for the guys was the good old fashioned speedo. And whether you're wearing a speedo or swimming next to someone wearing a speedo, when you're in high school, its awkward.

So the "real" swimmers, wore gym shorts out of the locker room and mastered the art of going from on deck in gym shorts to in the pool in a speedo in one fluid motion. Impressive really.

Fast forward to the present and jammers exist so the guys don't have to do magic tricks to spare themselves the indignity of strutting (or me the horror of observing them strut, because face it, I'm not in high school anymore but some things are still awkward) around the pool in speedos (this is a particular blessing to me when the old dudes who shouldn't be strutting in anything less than a snuggie decide to go for a swim).

Anyway, recently there have been two "real" swimmers at my pool. To be clear, I'm not a "real" swimmer, but I've spent enough time with them to know one when I see one: they do all four strokes, they flip turn and have amazingly streamlined push offs, they pay attention to the pace clock and for some odd reason the girls like to pull their bathing suit straps off their shoulders whenever they can (I respect and admire the real swimmers and all, but honey, you're shoulders aren't so big that they can't be contained by your swimsuit's lycra straps). On Monday, the girl real swimmer was there but initially her usual male counterpart was not. She was finishing her workout as a youngish non-descript guy came into the pool - he was wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt so whether he was her real swimmer friend was unclear.

He put on a cap and jumped in the pool in his gym shorts.

It appeared, from the gym shorts, that he was not a real swimmer and I wanted to tell him that the cap could not possibly cut down on enough drag to make up for the baggie gym shorts. And then, he took them off to reveal ... a speedo. Which definitely, without a doubt, made him a real swimmer who was rusty on the old out of the shorts into the pool maneuver and who somehow hadn't learned of jammers (or maybe he had, and realized that even with a few extra inches of leg, jammers don't leave enough to the imagination).

Sick is Over Rated

2009-02-18T18:17:00.002-05:00

or, thank God for DVR.

or, at least it was a rest week.

And I was doing so well, with eating and workouts and life ... and then a mysterious achey, hot/cold fever.

But at least its not during the progressive cycling class thingie. Or the summer. And in fun news, Sara and I are planning to video tape ourselves swimming and biking to send to Liz. If it isn't too mortifying, or technically challenging, maybe I'll post some footage here;)

That's it. Just trying to kill the hours until the next nap/tv show I can tolerate. Ergh.

Girly

2009-02-09T20:49:00.002-05:00

It would appear that I've gone all girly on you with this layout ... bear with me.. It might not last. Or it might. I've got to sit with it for a bit. Just figured it was time for a change. If you have an opinion on the matter, I might listen to it (depends on who you are;)!

Outside

2009-02-07T18:38:00.003-05:00

Today I rode my bike outside. 24ish miles or 4 loops of Central Park. As I got in my car to drive home I kind of, sort of, maybe a little bit, wished I still lived in NY rather than 2 miles away. Anyway, I still remember how to drink and ride. Sadly I did not suddenly learn a method for getting off my bike that does not jeopardize my unborn children.

Tomorrow, I might be really crazy and run outside. Maybe I'll even wear shorts!

That's all I got though. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Puking: The Good and The Bad

2009-01-30T11:52:00.004-05:00

I think I've stated before that I swam prior to my relatively recent foray into triathlon. For many years growing up I wore a back brace 23 hours a day - if I was in the water, with its reduced gravity, I got an extra hour. A bonus. Any actual swimming time counted as exercise, which didn't even count toward the extra hour. Double bonus.

Until high school I only took advantage of this exercise hour in the summer - swimming on the local pool's swim team. Starting freshman year, I began swimming through most of the fall and winter. I was by no means fast, but I was reliable, generally for a third place finish. Sometimes fourth. I helped fill the lanes and became comfortable in the water. I liked the quiet punctuated with inter-set gossip. And it was a sport that didn't require coordination of the eye hand variety. Triple bonus.

Fast forward to my recent foray into triathlon. I was nervous jumping into the pool having not swam a lap essentially since college when I would occasionally visit the University's pool. My return to the chlorine was far from triumphant - I was horribly out of shape and had no speed, but I knew what I was doing. The mechanics were rusty but there. I'm not sure my triathlon career would have lasted this long if I was picking up swimming from scratch.

And, for the past 2-3 years, as I've continued to practice and read the TI book and drill, drill, drill, the kinks of worked themselves out, and while I'm sure that if I actually saw my stroke I'd be horrified, it at least feels good. Smooth. Fluid. And I still look forward to the quiet of the black line (almost as much as I miss the inter-set gossip, but alas, my town is lacking in non-NCAA caliber master's teams).

In addition to working out the kinks, I've apparently built up some speed.

Liz occasionally has us do "swim tests" which consist of 10 100s with 10 seconds rest between each. You time yourself for the whole set, subtract 90 seconds from that time (for the rest) and dived by 10 to get your base pace (or something like that) per 100.

My first swim test was over a year ago and it was fine - acceptable to me.

My second swim test was this past December - almost exactly one year after the first test and in that year I dropped 30 seconds off of my total time or 3 seconds per 100. To a normal person, 3 seconds is nothing. But, to a swimmer, 3 seconds per 100 is a fair to good improvement to make over the course of a year.

After my second swim test, I did a timed 500. The 500 used to be my second favorite event when I swam in high school (my favorite was the 200) and I REALLY wish I knew what my best time was from back in the day. But, since it was from the dark ages, before everything was electronic, I suspect I'll never know. Anyway, for the timed 500, my average time per 100 was the same as my average time per 100 for the test which was ... good to very good. Because, while the timed 500 is (obviously) only half as long, there is no rest. I was please. Very pleased. And curious.

And then, this month, we re-tested. I saw the test on the schedule in the middle of a week in the middle of our craptastic winter and I was, in a sick, sick way, looking forward to it. I was actually a bit sleepless the night before the test - I had intended to do it in the morning but that plan was foiled by snow that would have made the trip to and from the pool too long for a pre-work workout. I worried that my plan to reschedule in the evening would be foiled by ice, but mother nature cooperated and I started the workout just before 8 pm.

I started the warm-up and almost bailed on the test. My arms were heavy, my legs were tired I worried that I hadn't waited a full hour since eating my banana, I worried that I hadn't eaten enough through out the day ... was I feeling light headed? I decided I was just worried about the degree to which I would be crushed if I hadn't gotten at least a little bit faster in the month since my last test and decided to just do it.

I almost bailed after the first 100 - I thought I was going to puke or wet my pants, but then I realized that I had swam those laps in a time 15 seconds faster than the base pace from my previous test. I chalked it up to that and continued a bit more controlled. The test is sort of a mind game to me - the first 100 always feels good until I stop and want to die. I'm 'fresh' so I go out too fast and then reign it in a bit for #2, which is better. On #3 I focus on the fact that I'll be half way done in 2 more 100s. #4 is all about survival and #5 means I'm half way done - I've made it that far so I can finish. #6 is super exciting because when its over I'm over half way done. #7 is the hardest but #8 isn't too bad to get through, because after that there are only 2 100s left! #9 is the light at the end of the tunnel, its okay to kick a little harder. And then #10 is all out, breathing less, pulling faster and stopping the watch while trying to get in as much air as possible and feeling like I'm going to puke. Its a good almost puking feeling though.

I looked at my time and knew it was faster than the test one month ago, which was good. But subtracting 90 seconds and dividing by 10 is hard with an oxygen deficit. I was unwilling to get too excited about the improvement until I got back to the locker room where my phone has a calculator.

I took a few more breaths and prepared for my cool down. While doing so I noticed the creepy guy. The creepy guy is an overweight, older, hairy man who I see when I swim at night or on the weekends. My pool is in a gym in a condo complex and right off the pool is a sauna and a steam room. The pool deck is kept warm and surrounded by lounge chairs so some people come to the pool just to steam and, well, lounge. I think creepy guy lives in the building and he seems to come to lounge most nights. He showers, but never gets in the pool, he saunas and then sits in a lounge chair and I always think he's watching me. But I convinced myself that he wasn't watching ... he was just watching the pool where I happened to be. Plus, I'm pretty generic looking in cap and goggles - could he really know it was me from one day to the next?

Apparently, yes.

After my cool down I went to grab my towel and he spoke. To me. I was SO OFF GUARD. I asked him to repeat himself and he said ... "I see you here swimming alot. Did you swim in college?"

And for the second time in my 1 hour workout I felt like puking. But this time, not in a good way.

ANYWAY, back in the locker room, I did the math on my phone's calculator AND ... 30 seconds faster. Again. That's 3 more seconds faster per 100. 3 seconds faster in a month. That's very good to great in my book.

So yeah, I'm pleased. To say the least. I wonder when they'll ask me to be on the olympic team? He, he.

Now if only I could feel this way about riding a bike ...

Happy weekend folks. Stay warm ... the sun has to come out eventually, right?

Tests, Plans, Weather and Other Non-Sequiturs

2009-01-16T21:35:00.005-05:00

I went to college in Northern Indiana and many of my college friends have settled down in Chicago - as a result of, or maybe in spite of this, I have on several occasions given fairly serious thought to moving there. Like to live. Except the coldest I have ever been in my life has been in Chicago in February - so cold that I can still remember getting back to the apartment where I was staying, watching in horror as the person I was staying with struggled to get the keys out and the door open and when I was finally in the apartment, sitting there with my coat on wondering if there was a legitimate way to stay both in Chicago and in the apartment until Spring. I think the horrific weather (and the fact that I'm not licensed to work there and my family is here and by the time I really was ready to maybe move there most of the people I would have wanted to be spend my days with were married) play a big role in why I never pulled the trigger on that whole moving to Chicago thing. Anyway, when its gets so cold here in the East that its all they talk about on the news and walking the four blocks to lunch* leaves me so tired and cold that I just want to crawl up on the couch in reception and stay there until Spring, it makes me happy that I don't live in Chicago - it might be 15 here but its 15 below or something crazy there.

But, the weather gives me a good reason to stay in on a Friday night and blog. And, if nothing else, I'm thankful that I wasn't standing in the Hudson River recently - when the plane crashed they said that air was 18 and the water 40 - only 14 degrees cooler than the water in this race.

Kind of crazy that I did the race in the first place knowing that the water was going to be that cold. Crazier still that I'm thinking of doing the race again ... especially with this weather we're having - the lake might be even cooler this year. Anyway, for the spring/summer I'm thinking something like this:

The Harryman (freakishly cold water) - olympic (more or less) distance - May 16, 2009
Rev3 (super hilly) - Half IM - June 7, 2009
Philly Tri - olympic - June 28, 2009
NJ State - olympic - July 26, 2009
Timberman - Half IM - August 23, 2009

I'll train with a fairly intense (for me) bike training group in March and April and train for a half marathon in October ... so it'll be busy (especially June) but hopefully fun.

I've been trying to be diligent about training and was super happy with my tests - I improved from all of last year's tests especially in swimming and running (I mis-recorded last year's bike test results so it was hard to know how this year compared to last) perhaps proving that even after all these years I'm still a good tester. Over the next two weeks I'm going to do a new bike and run test and re-do the swimming test. I'm looking forward to the swim test (in a sick, sick way) because I haven't missed a swim since the new year - with any luck I'll continue to be a good tester;)

I'm trying to keep this up while maybe fitting in a day or two of skiing (I feel like someday far, far away when I'm finally grown up and settled down, skiing will be a great thing to do as a family but I also feel that if I don't ski this year I might never ski again, so I'm going to try to fit it in) and yoga (in the next 2-3 years I'd like to become a yoga instructor - but I need to keep up my practice to make this a reality). So overall things are good. Busy, but good. You might say I'm content. Which is really more than enough right now, basically the wisdom to know the difference.

* This was only the second time in two weeks that I went out to lunch. I'm on a home cooking/clean eating/no processed food (she writes as she drinks a beer) kick and have brought my breakfast and lunch to work everyday (except for the day a false fire alarm in my apartment building caused me to leave sans lunch). I admit that I was never really a believer in the whole you are what you eat logic until now - it seems that there might be something to it. Maybe.

Anyway, stay warm kids. Happy weekend.

2009: Off to a Good Start

2009-01-10T21:11:00.003-05:00

or, in addition to remembering my watch, I need to know the time I'm trying to beat.

There has been so much to say, so many good posts floating around in my head, but it seems that I've been to busy living and doing, eating well, bringing my own food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, working out before work (even swimming), having Christmas parties, celebrating Christmas (but not yet taking down my Christmas tree) and, well, living and doing, that the posts never get written.

But, I will tell you about my first "race" of the season. "Race" and not Race, because I decided a week ago to run a 5 mile race instead of my 50 minute scheduled training run. There was no race specific training, no tapering, no involved plan with the coach. Just me, going for a 5 mile run followed by brunch.

I arrived on time enough to get checked in and warmed up before the 8 am start. Had I known about the NYRR's new plan to keep us corralled in the running lanes I might have arrived earlier. Or not. I'm not good at arriving places before 8 am. Anyway, the "race" started and I crossed the starting line shortly thereafter with the same - Oh God, how am I going to get through this feeling that I always have and in addition to the "will I finish?" panic, it was super crowded. Trying to find room to actually run (v. shuffle) was, at best, like playing a game. But I suppose it distracted me, because the 1st mile flew by in 10 minutes almost even. I thought this odd because given my training runs and the crappy, crowded conditions, it seemed that I should have been going slower - I actually thought the markers might be off which is virtually unheard of for a NYRR race.

My original pacing goal had been to try to keep up with Sara, but in the game of find some free space to run, I managed to misplace her, so I had no one to keep up with and decided just to run and I did and I ticked off the next 4 miles in about 9:15 each and while this wasn't easy, I never really thought that I was going to die - perhaps my giddiness at running paces I haven't seen in years masked the pain.

I finished strong in around 47 minutes and I was pleased to say the least. Given that I DNF'ed my last Race, I was due a good race. Post race I decided I was also due a good brunch and headed to sarabeth's with sara and theresa (a potential future triathlete). Post brunch I swam and ran some errands so by the time I got home, official results were posted ...

46:55.

Not bad I thought and then began scrolling through my race history to see what my PR was. And then I realized that I missed a PR by 9 seconds - I really need to know these things going in, because I think I could have gone 9 seconds faster, right? Certainly without the 1st mile traffic jam I would have PR'ed. Of course, its easy to PR with the benefit of hindsight and almost PR or not, it was an awesome day that has me excited about the next few months.

So, 2009? So far so good, kids.

Flip Turns

2008-12-14T22:01:00.002-05:00

Tonight I swam and without giving it any advanced thought, swam the 2100 yd workout with all flip turns. Swimming is a lot harder without that extra breath at the turn. For the record, the longest set (interval? not sure of the right term) in the workout was 200 yds and I'm not sure that I could have done much more than that with all flips. But, I'll take your congratulations anyway;)

Yesterday I cleaned out my extra room and stumbled across a bunch of letters and cards from a few ex-boyfriends. Its funny no matter how long ago it was and how over it you are, reading these things can make you do a flip turn. Maybe its just knowing that there was a time when you read these things and didn't have the clarity of hind sight to realize that they were all bullshit that throws you for a loop. It maybe makes you appreciate the ones that just walk away without leaving a written legacy.

Maybe.

Busy is Better

2008-12-03T21:42:00.003-05:00

or blame it on facebook

I think alot of my recent melancholy is caused by facebook.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fb and can only hope that they never make it so you can see who accesses your page. Because then my stalking will be significantly curtailed.

But it also let's you know what is going on with people that you haven't seen or spoken to in years. All of whom seem to have kids or spouses or other pretty things that they can take pictures of and list neatly in their profile. Its much easier to evidence a baby and a husband on a facebook page than it is to evidence a job at which you are appreciated (even if you spend entirely too much time at it) or a workout that clicks or an apartment you love or that you have a crock pot and managed to make a pot roast that fed your grandparents for 3 meals.

Sometime it takes being so insanely busy (at work and otherwise) that you can't think about what you don't have and can't change and instead learn to appreciate what you do have and don't want to change.

Hard

2008-11-28T22:37:00.002-05:00

Admittedly, I tend toward the melodramatic, but I feel that life's been hard lately. Which is maybe why I haven't written. Because this is supposed to be about so much fun, and lately it seems that I can barely get through the day.

I've been trying really hard to go to yoga once a week, and in every class my 'intention' is to 'accept the things I can not change' because otherwise I labor through my day worrying about those things. Its a long list and it bring me to hyperventilation or tears almost daily. It includes broad out of my control things like: the economy, my personal job security, whether the country will possibly recover from the next 4-8 years in my lifetime, if the boy has disappeared or is just busy, if he's disappeared why, if I like him anyway, if I'll ever get married, if I'll ever have kids, if I could in good faith bring a child into this world given the way I feel about the next 4-8 years, when Joe Biden's predicted attack will occur ... and I'm sure there is more.

I've also been insanely busy at work (which is good) but makes it hard for me to fit in workouts which in turn makes me more inclined to worry anxiously.

A vicious circle really.

But I'm trying. Some days and weeks start off with good resolve. And tomorrow has potential - yoga and a haircut in the morning and then probably a long day of work ... not ideal, but at least a plan. And I am planning races and maybe ski trips and possibly a Christmas party - all things to look forward to and well within my control.

So just know that I'm here and I'm trying and I'll be back with more regularity when hyperventilating isn't taking up so much of my time:)

Later.

October is a Boring Month Anyway

2008-11-03T22:17:00.003-05:00

I mean really, I don't like Halloween and that means October is really just time after the summer and before birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I skipped it, at least for purposes of this blog. But I was out there doing whatever it is I do to occupy my days.

In this time I learned that trying not to care works right up until you start to care. And when you start to care, it all goes away. Its just the way life works. At least for me. The transition from caring to not is harder than the transition from not caring to caring but marathon and football watching with friends makes it easier. Right up until there is a lull in the conversation and the silence crashes down around you, leaving you to wonder how you'd explain breaking inexplicably into tears without sounding like a raving lunatic. And sometimes if you just express how miserable you are it makes it better. Even if you decide the easiest ear is your engaged ex-boyfriend. Which makes you pathetic in addition to miserable but at least not crying in the bar.

I also learned that its easier to work out before work now that the clock have changed. Its easier to eat well when there is good food in the house. And yoga. I like yoga. And as we sit potentially on the brink of a great depression and our country is faced with a decision that if made poorly will be disastrous, I just hope for the "serenity to know the difference" because if you can't control you can't change it no matter how hard you try.

On Wednesday I age another year. I hope this past month is not indicative of what the next year is going to be. Argh.

The IT Band Giveth ...

2008-09-29T11:26:00.003-04:00

and the IT Band Taketh Away

My good friend Dave had a blog post with a similar title. I feel a bit bad mimicking him, but there are worse people to mimic (Dave's good friend Ryan, for example ... ha, ha) and he hasn't updated his blog in 18 years (approximately).

With that out of the way, I'm going to tell you about the race I ran on Sunday. I'll be brief:

It was a half marathon and I wanted to beat my time of 2:08:18. I was ready and confident. Might have gone out a bit too fast but got to mile 6 in 58 minutes and thought I had it in the bag. Somewhere before mile 7 my IT Band, which has bothered me in the past - as in when I trained for the marathon in'05 went from a barely noticeable tightness in my hips to a shooting pain in my right knee. I played with my stride (shorter, longer, feet in a bit, feet out a bit) for a few minutes and then stopped to stretch. I made it through mile 7 but it really hurt. So I stretched some more, that got me about one minute. So I mostly walked and ran when I could through mile 9. Then it started to drizzle. I kept walking with a bit of running here and there and then it started to pour down rain. I wanted nothing but to high tail it to the finish which I could see, but there was the slight issue of the Hudson River between us. I don't swim in the Hudson River so I kept on going getting colder and wetter and more bored and miserable with every step. I finally crossed the river and emerged from the God forsaken park I was in and there waiting for me like a chariot was the lite rail that I knew stopped at the finish - so with two miles to go I took public transportation to the finish. I was honorable and did not cross the finish line - just turned in my chip.

I was with coworkers so I tried to be all "no big deal, just hopped on the train, wasn't my day" but I was a bit sad and cranky. Until I took a nap at which point I realized that I was ready and would have beaten my 2:08 but for the IT Band. And you can't mess with the IT Band - this lessened my disappointment and I went on to enjoy the rest of my day. Of course when I woke up this morning as sore as if I ran the whole race and covered in mosquito bites, I was a bit miffed. Talk about adding insult to injury.

As for the issue alluded to in my last 3 posts - I'm back to being content to take a let's see what happens approach. And back to being afraid to think or talk about the situation.

The End.

And it all Becomes Clear

2008-09-26T19:44:00.002-04:00

The last two posts? About a boy. But you knew that, right?

And tonight? I changed the profile on my phone/blackberry so that text messages and emails have a different notifying tone. Because otherwise, every time I got an email my heart stopped as I wondered if it was a text.

This is the metaphorical equivalent of starting to lead and stopping the dance. You find yourself standing there awkwardly wishing you were still dancing but glad you stopped before you stepped on his feet.

And now? I'm waiting for the next song to see if I'll try the dance again or retire to the bar.

Either way, it bodes well for the race on Sunday - the boy and running aren't related in reality, but in my head its as if I've got something to prove. Or at least I need something to justify heading to the bar. And for now, my vote for sushi won, so I'm off to dinner.

Happy weekend kids.

On Dancing as it Relates to Life

2008-09-25T17:29:00.002-04:00

It’s not that I don’t like to dance. I do. Sort of. I’m not very good at it, but like most things involving coordination, if you watch those who are good at it and take a deep breath, you can make yourself improve. Maybe not dramatically, but at least enough to make it look like you sort of know what you are doing. Of course, when those around me are “dirty dancing,” which was often the case this summer, I’d just as soon belly up to the bar. I guess it’s the Catholic schooled girl in me, I like to leave room for the Holy Spirit, thank you very much. And so, I’m left with people thinking that I just don’t like to dance and thus I don’t get many opportunities to dance. And it’s all fine. You can find me at the bar.

Because of this, I forget how amazing it can be to dance with someone who knows how to dance. And who leaves room for the Holy Spirit, thank you very much. It’s hard for me, because I … no surprise here … tend to want to lead. Which defeats the purpose of dancing with someone who knows what they’re doing. I was fortunate enough in college to have a standby, good friends-only guy who would accompany me to dances when necessary. And he knew how to dance; but, to make this work, I’d have to focus HARD on not leading and before I knew it, we’d be dancing.

I recently had the opportunity to dance with someone who knew what they were doing, and even after a few drinks I had to focus HARD on relaxing and only doing what he was guiding me to do. Kind of like when you get a massage and they tell you to let you arm or leg go limp. It’s HARD. HARDER than you think it should be since you’re essentially doing nothing … But if you try hard enough, close your eyes if you have to, you can be led. And before you know it you’re dancing and its fun, right up until you think about it and step on his feet.

And so, that’s what I’m trying to do now. In life, not on the dance floor. To focus on not focusing and see where it takes me. Its hard, really hard. But fun. Sort of. Right up until I step on his feet. At which point, you can find me at the bar.

There's Something Happening Here

2008-09-23T21:56:00.003-04:00

And its exciting. I think. I don't know for sure, because I try as hard as I possibly can not to think about it. Its as if I'm afraid that the force of my thoughts will make change it. So, given this state of paranoia, I certainly can't write about it here because WHO KNOWS what would happen then?

But fear not. I plan on running a half marathon this Sunday, so we can talk about that soon;)

Later, kids.

Two Years Old

2008-09-03T15:02:00.002-04:00

On August 29th, my blog was two years old.

So, happy belated birthday blog. Glad you surivived the terrible twos. I hope three is a good year for ya.

I'm Over It

2008-08-27T23:03:00.003-04:00

I still find the events described in my last post extremely hurtful.

And a bit immature in a way I could only explain if I went into the history. And at this point its not just worth it.

So whatever. Someday he'll be sorry. For now, I won't loose anymore sleep over it.

I bought a new shirt and I'm headed to the beach for the long weekend. I might even kiss a boy. Doubtful but possible. I mean, I did sneak into a pool to swim tonight. I'm apparently all about breaking the rules these days!

On Facebook and its Evils

2008-08-26T16:52:00.004-04:00

or, With a Lump in My Throat and a Knot in My Stomach

I think it was the way I found out and the silence that followed that bothered me more than the news itself. And maybe there was a small part of me that thought we’d always wind up together - although, deep down I’m pretty sure I knew we wouldn’t. I acknowledge that the recent silence was probably my fault, coupled with his travel and the girl. But it wasn’t an unprecedented silence. It had happened before and one of us always reached out. This time it was me. On facebook of all things.

And when I wrote on his wall that we had to "get together soon and catch up" he didn’t respond. He just updated his status to ‘married’ and posted a picture of Them.

So, yeah. To summarize, he was my first crush, my first kiss, often my best friend, the only boy I’ve brought to my parent’s vacation home, someone who has both seen me cry and made me laugh until I cried. And he told me he was married by updating his FB status. I guess that means he doesn’t want to be friends anymore?

Even though we weren’t actively friends, I still considered him a friend … until yesterday. And I guess this explains the lump in my throat, the knot in my stomach and why I couldn't fall asleep last night. That and the world at large was warned to save all Announcements until September. I guess he doesn’t read the blog.

As an aside, I have to decide whether to spend this weekend at my parent's vacation home or at the beach and I'm not leaning one way or another. What do I do about that?

On Fishing and By Request

2008-08-22T12:06:00.005-04:00

I've been quiet lately. Honestly, I've been in sort of a 'my friends are getting married and I'm still getting drunk' funk. And there is not much to say about that. Its not like I want to change where I am, I just wish everyone else would slow down and hang out with me here. I'm not sure why we're rushing to not live in sin.

But, Ryan complained about lack of blogging. And because I'm hypersensitive and like to please everyone and don't like to have anyone mad at me, I feel bad abandoning him and the other (four) readers of my blog. That's the kind of girl I am. I aim to please all, even anonymous blog readers and recently betrothed ex boyfriends. Ha!

So, I'm on vacation with my sister and my parents. Which is likely contributing to my current state of mind. Just so you know. And its also led me to start fishing. I never really saw the lure (get it, lure ... ha, ha) in fishing but I figured I'd give it a try. And on my sixth cast, I caught a striped bass which we brought home and ate!

I'm so glad I can be a hunter not a gatherer.

And the high of reeling in the fish ... better than the high at the finish line of any race I've ever done. And I'm hooked, so to speak. Even though I've yet to catch another. Its addicting because at any moment the fish could be swimming right by the lure, ready to latch on. Its in my blood I think. Grandpa Frank fished until the moment he died. Literally. They found him on the beach with a fish on the line next to him. I can really think of no better way to go. Not that I really like to think about 'going'.

So that's me. Fishing, swimming, relaxing on the beach and trying not to obsess about that which I can't control. Like I've ever succeeded at that. Having some wicked strong drink that made last night a little hazy and not wanting to go home. But not really wanting to stay either. I'm sort of in limbo I guess. But there are things on the horizon that I'm very much looking forward to. I'll write a funny less rambly post about those things soon.

For now I just wanted to say hi and let ya'll know I'm still here.

An open letter

2008-08-13T19:50:00.003-04:00

To Whom It May Concern,

If you are recently betrothed or knocked up, please wait until September to tell me. I have already received this month's quota of Announcements.

Thank you. And have a nice day.

Nada

2008-08-08T13:53:00.002-04:00

is what I've got to say.

Life is happening, but I'm not sure any of it warrants a post. Yet, I find myself not wanting to go a whole week without saying anything (and arguably it was Sara talking in my last post which would put me over a week) so I'm boring you with this. With nada.

For some reason I'm not inspired to tell you about how much fun last weekend was. The new bar. The guy that spilled not one but two TWO whole beers on me. The cute boys. The night spilling into the early morning. The fun dress.

I don't really want to talk about my workouts. They're there. Some happening, some getting cut short, some not happening at all. They've mostly been uneventful though. No epic solo climbs/rides or near naked gym exits. So nothing of interest to report.

One more non-holiday summer beach weekend, one week in my favorite vacation destination and then labor day is upon us. The summer is flying. And I'll be sad to see it go.

Perhaps next week, I'll be inspired to tell you more than nothing.

Happy weekend, kids.

Cameo Appearance

2008-08-01T15:42:00.001-04:00

Love it!

On Boys

2008-07-31T10:15:00.002-04:00

In the two+ years since I broke up with 1X, I've been pretty much on the dating wagon. There have been a few dates, a few fun nights, a few instances of intrigue, but for the most part, I've been happy to be alone. Or at least, haven't found anyone worth the effort of a relationship.

Until last weekend.

Monday came early and I started my week with crushes on two boys. One likely fun and one for serious. It was nice. And I spent the first three days of this week giddy and in SUCH A GOOD MOOD.

And then this morning, for no particular reason, other than that this next weekend is closer than the one that just passed and when interpretting cryptic signs I always assume the worse, I remembered why I was on the wagon in the first place.

Because coming down and the withdrawal sucks. You wake up despondant with a ball of anxiety in your stomach and it kind of makes you want to sleep for a long, long time.

On Shopping and Sleeping

2008-07-24T15:12:00.003-04:00

Its been 11 days since the Big Race, and I've not much to report.

I REALLY want to go shopping, which I think I'm programmed to want to do after finishing a big thing. But the new job is not proximate to stores and I'm trying to be responsible. So, I bought the pictures from the Big Race (they were not stealable, and I liked them) and some makeup on line. But its not the same as going to a store.

Other than that, in the week after the race I felt fine but dind't work out at all. Even if I had wanted to it was a busy week of 5K spectating and some happy hours. Friday there was a wedding and then the beach, another happy hour and a ball game. And now, I find myself wanting to sleep ALL THE TIME. I'm more tired than I should be and I wonder if my body is having a delayed reaction to the race. Sometimes it takes me a few days to sort through sad or mad emotions after an event warranting those emotions (which is hard ... wanting to fight days after the mean thing, or cry days after the sad thing is awkward at best) and I wonder if my body is doing the same thing now. Deciding to recover 11 days late. Or if I'm sick. I'm hoping I'm just slow to tire.

I would like to run tonight and swim tomorrow and dive back into the workouts over the weekend because there are small(er) races with Big Goals on the horizon. A mid-September oly and a flat half mary a few weeks later.

So thats me. Just checking in really. And trying to stay awake.

Providence, Rhode Island Half Ironman Triathlon (Part II)

2008-07-16T20:51:00.006-04:00

WITH PICTURES

T1 (Here I am coming out of the water and into T1, right before the strippers. You can kind of see that THERE WERE waves in the water.)

This can pretty much be summed up in three words: Strippers.Are.Awesome.

"Obviously" you're thinking (if you're a guy.) Which is fine. You should know that I had three strippers, I think they were a mother/daughter duo accompanied by a large man who I took to be their husband/father.

Yeah, I'm talking WETSUIT STRIPPERS!

Seriously though, they were awesome. There was a long sandy run up from the beach and then I saw them and just started giggling. It was SO COOL! I picked two nice looking ladies, they told me to just sit down and their male counter part yanked me up and I was off. There was another longish run to my bike where I dumped my bike stuff out of its designated bag, put my swim stuff in the same bag, put my bike stuff on and embarked on another long, long, long run to the mount line. Somehow this all took 5:24 seconds. Yeah, I don't know why either.

The Bike (This is the beginning of the bike when we were still passing really pretty things. Note tha thouse in the background.)

I had driven the bike course the day before so I knew it was doable. There is no real blow by blow way to describe a 56 mile bike ride. So I'll just hit the high points:

The first time someone cheered for me by name I was so confused until I realized I had my name on my race belt - reminiscent of the time I went to the group ride with my name on my bike helmet. Yeah, I'm smooth.

The first 10 miles were pretty and flew by in around 35 minutes. I kind of figured, and subsequently confirmed, that there was a tail wind but at the time I was just glad that I was moving at a good clip. After all of my hilly, hilly (and consequently slow) races this year it was nice to think that I might finish this ride with an average mph above 12.

Nutrition was spot on but it required water from the aid stations. I had never done this before but I disposed of a bottle at the bottle drop without incident and as I approached the lady I decided should give me water I said "oooh, I might be bad at this ..." She laughed and ran with me for a minute to facilitate the grab.

Next there were some hills, but they were rollers. Not like the Harriman mountain. I shifted well and got up them.

As the ride went on it got harder. I was not surprised and subsequently learned that there was a head wind. Knowing this still makes me proud.

I was really hoping there'd be someone in the penalty tent when I passed it. I'm not sure why. I guess its kind of like wanting to know who got detention and what they did. It was disappointingly empty but the volunteers looked tough, like they'd make sure you stayed your whole 4 minutes, not a second less. It made me smile.

Some guy rode by with a banana threatening to fall out of his pocket. I almost said something but didn't. A few miles later, I saw his banana on the side of the road. Of course this also maked me giggle.

The last 10 miles of the ride SUCKED. It was NOT the nicest part of town, at least judging by the number of potholes on the road. At this point, on the bike alone I had consumed 3+ bottles of sports drink and about 2 bottles of water - with each pothole there was a possibility of me wetting myself. Which for many triathletes is not a big deal, but in keeping with the "don't try new things on race day" rule, it wasn't on my agenda. I'm sure it would have been messy.

These 10 miles also had a million turns and a lot of traffic due to intersections being closed so we could turn. At one point some lady threatened to beat the traffic by pulling into the shoulder we (well, I - there weren't that many people around me at this time, or so I thought) were riding on. I waved my hand at her in what I thought was a "no" gesture and started grumbling to myself "just stay where you are lady, why can't you people just stay where you are? you're all so annoying." I'm sure there were some bad words in there too. Funny thing is that I wasn't alone at this point. Some dude was right behind me afraid to pass because of the traffic situation. When he did pass, he said "it makes me really mad too." Awkward.

The last 10 miles sucked but the last 5 miles were truly the worst. They were narrow, trafficy and just generally gross. They embodied all the reasons I currently tend to drive my bike to where I want to ride. But I guess all the times I have done 'junk miles' locally or in the city to get to where I want to go helped.

Finally I made it to T2 and was THANKFULLY informed that the only porta potties were before you officially entered T2. I have never been so happy to go into a porta potty. I think I peed for 4 minutes. Heaven in a green plastic box.

I apparently crossed into T2 after 3:43 for an average speed of 15.06 mph. Faster if you back out the 4 minutes of peeing and the fact that I maintain the course was a mile long.

For many, many, many people this bike time would have been atrocious, but I was THRILLED to have finished in less than four hours. Absolutely thrilled.

T2 (This picture is well before T2 but has to be a fair bit into the race based on the bright glow that is emminating off of my sunburnned shoulders.)

One of the good things about rolling in late is you get your own personal escort to your place on the bike rack and she'll put sunscreen on your shoulders (although, at that point I think I was already pretty crispy ... I had put sunscreen on that morning but that was a wetsuit and salt water and hours of sweating on the bike ago).

Again I took stuff out of the bag and put new stuff in it and took stuff off and put stuff on and was out of there after 3:09. Not bad.

The Run (This pictures is as I'm finishing up the first loop. Still looking strong.)

The run was a two loop out and back. As I was starting a lot of the speedy people were still finishing so the crowd support was awesome. Right up there with 2nd Avenue in the NYC Marathon. Plus they announced my name and that I was heading out on the run and I learned in this race that I really, really like hearing my name. It makes me smile. The run starts downhill and I felt pretty good. I admit that while dodging potholes at the end of the bike and trying not to pee my pants I was also worried about the run. 13 miles is doable under normal circumstances but we were now in uncharted territory for me. Given my doubts, I was pleased at how things felt.

And then I turned the corner.

Ladies and gentlemen, the first hill we come to on our tour of Providence was used as a luge when the x games were held here. A luge. And while you eventually have to run down it, for now you're task is to get up it and know that you'll have to do it again. When I saw this hill I laughed and decided the only smart thing to do was to walk up it. This proved to be the right decision since the only people running were either on their second loop and obviously much, much faster than me or on their first loop and running at the same pace I was walking.

The first mile with the silly hill took 11:51 but after that I ticked off the miles in the first loop in 10:13, 11:03, 11:00, 11:01, 22:34 (for two miles). At least I was being generally consistent and while not smoking and certainly not smoking if this had been a stand alone half marathon, I was pleased. I remember thinking around mile 3 (I think it was mile 3 - wherever 5 hours fell) that I had been out there longer than the marathon and was truly for real in uncharted territory and all things considered felt pretty good.

After 6.5 miles you run back up hill to the capital where, if you're not lucky enough to be on your second loop, you turn and head out for another loop. On the way up I slowed for a bit (admittedly to look strong for the spectators including C who should have been out there by now) and some guy pulls up beside me and says (I kid you not), "Hey, Sugar. I've been following you for 4 miles, don't let me beat you now." When I told him I had one more loop to go he LAUGHED and said "that sucks."

I saw C and waved and felt good. I was as close to certain that I would finish as I could be. I turned and headed back out. Mile 8 was the big hill again and I walked again, finishing that mile in 12:51 and realizing that if I ran the next 5 miles in 11 minutes each I'd finish in exactly 7 hours (this never would have worked because I forgot about the .1) and that would have been awesome. This was a great plan and a great goal for about 3 minutes at which point everything fell apart.

And by everything, I mean, really nothing at all. I was rather nauseous and switched to water only for the last 5 miles but I don't think I hit the wall or bonked. I wasn't lacking energy per se, I was just tired, done, sore, wet, salty, nasty, blistered, bleeding (from the blister) and just done. And I had to pee and knew that I couldn't run 5 11 minute miles with that full bladder feeling. So I decided I'd go to the next porta potty, use it and reevaluate. And by the time that was all done, I knew there was no way I was busting out 5 11 minute miles.

And this is when I pretty much decided I needed to take my time and focus on finishing and not worry about an arbitrary 7 hour goal. So, for the next 5 miles I made little not at all arbitrary goals. Goals like "run to the police man and you can walk to the tree" or "run to the hill and you can walk up it." It worked in that it got me to the end with the last 5.1 miles clocking in at: 12:04, 13:10, 12:37, 14:09, 14:59.

The last two miles? Yeah, I might have hit the wall then. I honestly don't really remember them other than worrying I'd fall going down the big hill and trying to rest up to look strong going into the finish. I think I accomplished both. I finished up the run in 2:37 and my day ended 7 hours and 11 minutes after it started.

After

I found C and got some cheeseless pizza and all I wanted was to (1) sit and (2) eat something that wasn't 100% sugary. We sat around for a bit, I'm sure I was saying random things and she updated me on the car situation and I started feeling kind of pukey and like I couldn't keep my eyes open so I went to collect my stuff and headed back to the hotel where I showered and then we hit the road probably 90 minutes after I finished we were on the road and after much traffic I was home, ate a ton of sushi and passed out.

Thoughts

From the moment I finished and at many points along the way I was pleased. I had finished. My middle of the road goal was close to 7 hours and I was close to 7 hours. On the way home I got an email from Liz (who in the hecticness of the weekend I never got to meet ... which was sad but pretty much unavoidable, but I'm going to crash her Ragbrai party next year so I'm not worried) in which she said this half ironman (to be clear, the HALF IRONMAN I HAD JUST FINISHED) was one of the hardest she had ever done. It was hard but I had no point of reference so reading this was awesome.

Now

This week I've been a bit sore and very tired but not sore like after a hard running race. At first I thought this meant I hadn't worked hard enough but after consulting the expert I learned that this is sort of how you're supposed to feel after long slower efforts - makes sense I guess. So I'm fine. Proud. Content. Happy to take the week off entirely (I haven't even logged onto Training Peaks). Thinking about goals for the fall/future. Monday I was tired and cranky but other than that ... the post race uneasiness hasn't even been that bad - mostly because I had plans last night and there is a John & Kate + 8 Marathon on tonight! The next few days will be busy as well.

This is really long and while I feel like I could go on forever, its time for bed again!

Providence, Rhode Island Half IronMan (Part I)

2008-07-14T21:30:00.010-04:00

Or, how I got my hat. If you look at this photo in a mirror, you'll see that is says "Finisher 2008."

So now we know how this story ends.

If you want to know more you can keep reading. I'm not usually a two post race report girl, but I just swam/biked/ran for 70.3 miles. I have a lot to say and I'm tired. Give me a break;)

Two Days Out

Yes, set up for this was a two day affair. Growing up friend, C, had graciously agreed to escort me on this adventure and we started the morning with a yummy local breakfast. We then headed out, sat in traffic and landed at the convention center where I registered seamlessly and bought some salt tabs*, a sports bra to match my awesome racing top and a race tee-shirt (which I was careful to ensure did not say 'finisher'). We checked into our better than the Extended Stay America accommodations, headed out for a quick dinner and were in bed early.

One Day Out

Saturday was the day that the logistics of a point to point race became apparent. I headed out early for the race meeting which reminded me of a grad school class ... lots of questions, many of them inane. After breakfast we headed to T1 to check in the bikes. More traffic. But we got there and I rode around the parking lot a bit to make sure everything was working. Also ran around the parking lot a bit to make sure everything was working. Not the full prescribed pre-race brick but more than enough for me and both the bike and the legs appeared to be in working order. Checked in the bike (got the tires professionally pumped and decided that was more then sufficient than self-pumping on race morning) and checked out the water (looked calm).

Drove the race course back to town and it took FOREVER but looked manageable. I've had some super hilly early races and was not intimidated by any of the hills - the distance maybe, but not any one hill. Back in town we ditched the car with the valet (the VALET) and went to T2 to check in bike gear. Another early dinner and I was home by 7. Decided to shower and was in my pjs contemplating renting a movie when the phone rang and ...

... someone had broken into my car. Yes, the car I had just valet parked. The situation was actually handled very well and it appears that it will all work out ok, BUT, not what I needed to deal with. And thank goodness C was with me. She spent most of race morning getting us a rental car etc. A true lifesaver.

After all that I went to bed for real around 10.

The Big Day

Pre-Race

3 am came early. 3 am is early. But I felt remarkably good. I ate my oatmeal and got ready largely in the bathroom (I had set everything up in there so as not to disturb C) and was out the door in time to get on the bus that would take us to the start.

The line for the bus was long, but moved pretty quickly and at that point, there wasn't much other choice. I was alone and mostly just listened to conversations and observed a few things:

1. Before waiting in line for the bus, you should make sure to put on the t-shirt from the hardest race you've ever done. Seriously, I saw more Boston and IM tee-shirts waiting in line for that bus than ever before in my life. I was wearing a plain tee, thankfully because I might have been openly mocked for my measly olympic distance shirts.

2. If you're not going to abide by rule (1) getting on the bus in ONLY YOUR BATHING SUIT AND FLIP FLOPS is apparently an acceptable alternative (if you're a girl, I thankfully saw no guys doing this). Enough said.

3. Pretty much everyone is talking about whether or not they have pooped. Its ok. Don't be shy.

4. If you find yourself having to take a bus solo to your longest race ever YOU WILL FIND IT INTIMIDATING. Keep telling yourself 'you belong'. It may or not be true and you may or may not believe it, but its the only thing that might, maybe help. It will help more if you say/think this while focusing on the least athletic person you can find (particularly if this person is wearing ... shutter ... street clothes).

The bus safely shuttled us to transition where there wasn't all that much to do since my bike was already there and it was a 'clean' transition - which meant that unless you were physically in transition all of your belongings needed to be on your bike or in a designated bag. I prepared my nutrition, sun-screened up, peed twice and stood around telling myself I belonged. The only familiar face I saw was Liz's husband - I felt kind of like giving him a big hug because I was a bit lonely and full of nervous chatter. But then I realized that while I recognized him (sort of from his blog and from the fact that he already had his race belt on) he has NO IDEA who I am and is super fast and might not want to be seen talking to (much less being hugged by) some random girl with a likely maladjusted road bike and a bright floral racing top. That and I remembered I don't like hugging random people (except, apparently, when I am desperately lonely pre-race).

Eventually I wandered down to the beach and realized that yesterday's calm water had developed waves. Not that big and given the protected nature of the cove they couldn't be that strong, but they would be a small factor. After a quick warm up mostly to make sure that the waves weren't that strong (they were stronger than I thought, but totally not scary) I wandered over to the start (my pre-race consisted of a lot of wandering while trying not to look like I was wandering) and picked out Liz! She really is the cutest and when the gun for her wave went off she danced right into that water and started swimming RIGHT AWAY with this beautifully aggressive swim stroke (I loved watching what I could of the olympic swimming trials because their technique to me is like ballet) and for at least her first few strokes Liz looked awesome. And then she totally got hit by a wave and I got nervous and wandered off (but she ultimately did an awesome job and everyone got hit by that wave, its just that she's little and I have that protective life-guarding instinct ...).

The F 30-35 group was corralled. We watched some guy get 10 feet into the water, freak out by a wave and call it a day. It was sad and odd all at the same time. And then faster than I would have thought, we were off.

The Swim

I dilly-dallied a bit getting into the water because I'd rather swim over/around than be swum over. I should have gotten right in there. But once I did get in there it wasn't that bad. 8 yellow buoys, turn at the orange, turn at the orange, 8 yellow buoys home. I told myself that by the 2nd buoy the water would be calm. That was a lie. But it wasn't rough. It was just up and down, up and down. Made me regret a bit the combos I ate that morning (yeah, don't ask - combos and oatmeal, what can I say?). But I was at all times making progress forward (not stopping to look around and/or freak out) and because the buoys were to the left and I breath left I did not have any issues swimming off course like in previous tris. On the way there I swam around a few people, got clobbered once when the guys in the wave behind us caught us (and then I drafted off of who I thought was the clobberer for what seemed like a bit but was probably 10 seconds and it rocked - might be worth my fear of too much swim contact to find some fast feet to hold onto) and got a face full of seaweed once (terrifying) and at the first buoy almost headed out to sea due to my failure to site (I think this is how I get so off course in multi-turn swims, I need to make sure I have actually TURNED before swimming off). On the way back the waves pushed us and 42 minutes and 45 second later I was done. And it was fine. I feel a bit bad saying that because a bunch of people have mentioned that it was hard ... and sure, it wasn't easy, but it also wasn't 54 degrees and it could have been a lot rougher. A lot. Like my practice swim with the rip tide. I'm just saying. I'm not fast, but I was impressed by my fitness (I could have swam forever) which maybe means I should just go faster and then I would think it was harder, but for now, I keep coming back to "it wasn't that bad."

*Liz introduced me to the idea of salt tabs a few days before the race. Which was fine, I like salt and I could put the tab on my tongue and let it dissolve. Ha! Not sure why I thought you would just let them dissolve on your tongue ... you have to swallow these BIG pills. While on your bike. If you've ever seen me take, say, an advil, you know that it is a process that involves a lot of water and the pill placed carefully in just the right place. This was going to be the end of my race - choking and dying on the bike. But then I was told I could dissolve them in my water bottle and all was well again.

Magic Number 588

2008-07-11T22:00:00.005-04:00

And all checked in. Already scoped out the T2 bike rack ... I think its a good number. Heading to bed because tomorrow will be busy ... but, the weather forecast is improving.

Can't believe its almost go time!

My List

2008-07-10T17:30:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow, I head out for the Big Race. As we head North, we'll stop at Target for some essentials:

eye drops (I have dry eyes)
sunscreen
water
pretzels (salt!)
combos (more salt!)
oatmeal
poptarts (just in case ... they are my crack)
hair clips

Kind of random.

I'm feeling good, relaxed, ready to prove this is doable. My biggest worry is how I'll deal with being done. After the marathon I got really sad - I don't transition well (from anything: the beach to home, finals to vacation, one work project to another) so I'm going to need a new focus. Stat. Suggestions welcome.

And yes, only I would be worried about what to do next before I even started the current item on the list.

Full report to come when I get back!

I'm not sure if ...

2008-07-09T07:50:00.002-04:00

I'm stressed about the Big Race (I don't feel stressed, but I could be),

off kilter because of last night's drinks gone awry, or

just depressed about having to go back to work after 5 days off; but,

I'm one big ball of cranky today.

The boys at work better tread carefully!

WWYD?

2008-07-08T13:58:00.001-04:00

That's: what would you do?

If the power went off at work and you got sent home early? I took a nap and now I think I'm going to swim and get a mani/pedi.

Maybe some laundry.

Kind of like a snow day in the summer!

The Weather Is Forecasted!

2008-07-03T00:00:00.002-04:00

You know the race is close when you can start compulsively checking the weather.

Looks like we're really doing this kids. And, looks like it'll be 85 and sunny. Could be worse for sure, so I'll take it ... although I bet it'll change a bunch between now and then ... I'll keep you posted;)

Going Long

2008-07-02T20:35:00.002-04:00

Last week I had my last long swim, run and bike before the Big Race.

My swim was documented in my pop tart post and I'd rather not revisit the experience.

My run was just shy of two hours and happened before work! Before work! And I was relatively on time for work. Nothing I could say would be more impressive than the fact that my just shy of two hour run happened before work ... so, I won't.

That, then, leaves us with the bike. Four hours with a 30 minute run off. I've been lucky enough to do most of my long rides at the beach this summer. The beach with fewer cars and intersections and hills. But the Last Long Ride was happening locally and I had worked myself into a state about it. I didn't want to get hit by a car (what can I say? I don't raise the bar too high) or get lost or have to get on and off of my bike a million times but I also didn't want to go to the local park and ride its 8 mile stretch for 4 hours.

So I decided to head to Harriman State Park and ride the course from my May Oly. You know, the one with the big hill that I had to travel to pre-race to make sure I could get up? Yeah, that one. It seemed like a good plan. A challenging plan, but good nonetheless. Each 14 mile loop of the course has 1500 feet of elevation gain and I figured I could get in a minimum of 3 loops ... which meant a lot of climbing, but if I could do that I could do the Big Race.

This all seemed like a good idea, until the alarm went off at 6 am the day of the planned ride and I was again riddled with anxiety - even in the relatively controlled environs of Harriman I was still planning to drive one hour to ride for 4 hours by myself. And really, anything could happen - I thought about tagging along with Sara on her 4 hour ride (and by tagging along, I mean, asking her and her friends to wait for me periodically and then hopping I wouldn't crash into them while trying to clip in and out) but I need this ride to be me and my nutrition plan and little to no stops.

So I decided to be a big girl and get on with me day. I also decided to see what it was like to ride for four hours in tri shorts. PLEASE, do not try this at home. There really is no need to put yourself through this unique and seemingly innocent form of torture other than on race day. And really, then, only if you don't have a place to put on biking shorts. Seriously.

Anyway, I was in the car by 7 and on the bike by just past 8 and I rode that loop two times without stopping, up that hill two times and sticking to my nutrition plan the whole time. I stopped once to pee and fill up water bottles and then I was back for 1.5 more loops. And I felt strong the whole time (except when, in the middle of the big hill some lady pulled up to me - in her car - to ask directions and got annoyed when I said I (a) didn't know and (b) couldn't talk). I passed a wide array of road kill (snake, deer - sad, other unidentifiable animals) and the same guy fishing three times (I wonder if he caught anything). The other bikers were very friendly - offering a hello or a nod and a smile, which gave me some comfort that if I fell over still attached to my bike they'd help me up without killing me and throwing me into the lake all still attached to my bike;)

After 50 miles and over 4500 feet of elevation gain I threw the bike in the car and ran for 30 minutes during which time I realized I was covered in bugs and had consumed over 2000 thousand calories that day ... none of which I really had to chew. And then I got back into the car, the sky opened up and I managed to drive home in the pouring rain without falling asleep (always a bonus). Although AS SOON AS I was out of the shower I passed out.

So ...? It was a long hard day, but I did it. Alone. And it wasn't that bad. So ... while I'm still terrified for the Big Race I no longer think that it will kill me. I'm ready. Ready to do it and ready kind of to be done and stay up late on the weekends without worry - exciting, I know.

At the Altar of Liz

2008-06-29T23:10:00.002-04:00

Six of us, in sundresses, stood on the Manhattan street corner post baby shower/tea. Passersbys, if asked to guess what we were discussing, would have chosen baby stuff, boys, shopping or maybe evening plans. They would have been wrong. We were discussing triathlon in general and Liz, the coach of three of us, specifically. Eavesdroppers, if asked to guess what we were discussing, likely would have chosen some new fangled religion. They wouldn't be quite right - not a religion, just a triathlon coach. But, once you become accustomed to having thoughtful workouts planned for you, you do become quite devout. And if coaching by Liz were a religion, I think I'd play the role of Moses - having brought her to the group on the corner - except if triathlon Nirvana were hiding on top of a mountain I don't think I'd be the one chosen to find it. I climb in constant fear of toppling over because I am THAT slow and I descend gripping the breaks in terror. So, I need to think of a Divine messenger that finds the hidden message other than on the top of a mountain and analogize myself to him or her. But I think you get my point.

The Girl Who Liked Pop Tarts

2008-06-25T10:16:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time, in a far away land known as New Jersey, there was a girl who liked to do triathlons. She wasn't very good at them but she persevered because they were fun, and they attracted cute boys and they made her arms look pretty.

But sometimes, the triathlons made her hungry. Very hungry. And one day in a state of extreme hungriness, she ate a brown sugar pop tart. It was good.

And the next day, when she was hungry, she wanted another one. So she had another one. And before long she came to crave a pop tart late every afternoon. So she would take $1 and her building id down to the convenience store and indulge. Sometimes they had no brown sugar so she would have strawberry, which wasn't as good, but she needed something to satisfy the craving. She couldn't resist, she was addicted.

But she tried to control her addiction - sometimes she thought about buying a box (or two) at the local food store but she always resisted for fear that she'd come to eat more than one package of pop tarts a day. She thought she was in control of her addiction, but the first time she craved a pop tart on the weekend she worried that her life was spiraling out of control.

So that Monday, she decided to go cold turkey. Instead of her late afternoon pop tart she had gold fish from the vending machine (a dubious choice, but at least not a pop tart).

When, on her first pop tartless day the girl left the office to head to the pool, her tummy was rumbling. And as she swam her laps the rumbling got worse and her head got fuzzy. Withdrawal is rough, so she hopped out a few hundred yards early to head home for some dinner.

In a light-headed daze, the girl showered quickly and threw her work suit back on. She was heading out of the locker room when she got a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Something wasn't right. Upon further review, it seemed that the girl had put on her bra and blazer but NO SHIRT. Horrified, and in the nick of time, she retreated back to her locker and found the missing shirt.

A close call for sure.

The girl had learned her lesson and the very next morning she went to the local food store and stocked up on brown sugar pop tarts. Addiction is a powerful thing not to be messed with 3 weeks before the big race unless you want to risk citations for indecent exposure.

The end.

Good News

2008-06-17T15:57:00.001-04:00

Athlete guides for the Big Race came out today. You'll all be happy to know that on the run, crawling is a legal form of forward movement.

Awesome.

Other facts of note: public nudity is *strictly* prohibited, give someone the special ticket to retrieve your bike from T2 *just*in*case* you can't do it, pump your tires race morning in T1 but your pump *will*not* be transported to T2 (which makes me wonder: do that many people have friends/family that will get up to watch a mass of colored heads swim at 6am?).

I'm nervous. But ready to get this done. I just wish that accuweather looked that far ahead, because you know that it is almost time when someone out there is predicting the weather.

Pat Griskus Triathlon

2008-06-16T22:47:00.003-04:00

aka, a lesson in confidence

On many levels.

This was a Saturday race that required an overnight stay and thus required me to get from work to CT with a stop at the bike store for gels using a route that was not entirely map quest endorsed (I wanted to take a less direct route to avoid city traffic). Back in the day when I lived here and drove to and form school and had friends that were scattered far and wide I knew my way to everywhere I needed to go. I never got loss or felt like I didn't know where I was. Now that I apparently live, work and summer in the garden state I find myself driving more than I have in years and in parts of the state different than the ones I grew up in. I always figure it out and I've never (NEVER) had to ask for directions but there have been some where-on-earth-am-I? moments. Not to mention that I'm not the most aggressive driver.

Anyway, I made it to the race site in time for an evening check in with no issues and then had a nice solo dinner at the bar while chatting with some people who were also doing the race and just felt content. I obviously would have been happy to have someone there with me but I was totally fine making small talk over a beer and a turkey club. It was something different and made me feel grown up. Sort of.

Race morning was uneventful (despite eating my oatmeal with a straw) - the race site was super close to the hotel which was nice. We got there in plenty of time to set up transition and I wandered down to the beach to check out the swim course. It was pretty. The lifeguards were hanging out on the beach being briefed on how to guard us. It reminded me of my lifeguarding summer and the quiet cool of the beach calmed me.

And then everyone else made their way to the beach and it was filled with adrenaline, neither quiet nor cool.

I put on my wetsuit and got into the water for a 5-10 minute warm up. And before I knew it, Sara's dad took a pre-race photo and we were off.

The Swim -swimming with geese-es

What a difference 20 degrees makes. Not being terrified by the cold was nice. I got in a bit behind the fray and just swam and swam. And swam right to the first buoy. And then I kept swimming to the second buoy which was a bit harder to see ... I've never been in a triathlon where there aren't smaller little yellow buoys in between the big orange ones that tell you where to turn, and while I have really good vision, goggles cloud and sun glares and its hard to know where to go. Pre-race I identified a house on the horizon that helped guide me to buoy 2 but once I rounded that buoy I had no idea where I was. So I swam, and swam and swam and realized I was pretty far off course. So I swam and swam some more trying to right myself and found myself even more off course. I kept swimming and a kayaker noted that I was doing well but sort of in no mans land. Thanks, dude. I kept swimming and made a WIDE turn at buoy 3 and then tried to take the most direct route to shore. At one point I looked up to sight and realized that I did have a good line to the finish but then nearly jumped out of my wetsuit because there was a large object just to my right ... which I quickly realized was a family of geese. And the geese aren't exactly hanging out in the midst of the pack of swimmers so I really was no where near everyone else.

At any rate, I focused on strong pulls and on kicking (I tend not to kick at all in the wetsuit but it obviously helps you go forward) and swam at race pace confident that I could go the distance and didn't have to go super slow just to make it through. I finished in 40:xx minutes which I was pleased with considering the detour.

I suspect I swam the Big Race distance, and if I didn't I was close and am not worried about the July 13th swim (as long as the waves cooperate, which I obviously can't control).

T1 - I hardly even remember this. I was breathing hard from the run off the beach, got my stuff on and got out. Post swim is the only time I'm not last in a triathlon and I try to make it last!

The Bike - "Take it as it comes and be thankful when its done."

My problem with the bike is that I either go All Out or Real Slow. When riding outside I go All Out more often than not, so its hard to differentiate between racing and riding. In addition, there were some hills with bizarre grades on this course and they tended to go straight up so you knew that while the bizarre grade might end quickly the overall up hill portion would go on potentially forever.

Not really knowing the course, I told my self that my only option was to "Take it as it comes and be thankful when its done."

I did take it (into a really low gear up all the hills) and, just shy of 2 hours later, I was thankful when it was done. And it left me confident that I'll be able to finish the Bike Race bike in 4ish hours (maybe?) - I'm hoping the hills are better.

T2 - Can I get your autograph?

When I rolled in to T2 some triathlete was standing there cheering for everyone to transition well. At first I just thought she was enjoying some sports drink before she headed onto the run but then I started to suspect she had FINISHED THE RUN. So, on my way out, I stopped to talk to her and confirmed my theory and congratulated her on coming in first. Probably not the best use of my time!

The Run - Apparently what you don't know can't kill you.

I never really grasped that this was a 2 'loop' out and back UP A MOUNTAIN. Had I known this I might have stayed in bed. I made it though. Down and up. And then down and up again. My run time of just over an hour makes me really, really want to Race a stand alone 10K. And I think I'll be able to run most of the Big Race run at a decent (for me) pace.

Finished the run in 1:02ish for a total time of 3:42:22, which I'll take (not that there are a whole bunch of other options at this juncture).

So, the dress rehearsal for the Big Race is done - final push and then its time to head to RI. Which, despite my new confidence, is still terrifying!

Today was awesome!

2008-06-14T17:01:00.004-04:00

And there will be a race report, but first a few questions:

1. To the three guys that got to packet pick up at the same time as me: I get that you weren't keen on leaving your bikes unattended on the bike rack while you one friend figured out the issue with his registration. But, I don't understand why when the two of you went back to the car to wait you tried on your bathing caps? Why? WHY?

2. To the guy walking around the lobby of the hotel in bike shorts and a tee-shirt: Did you not bring real pants? Why? What part of you thinks that this is socially acceptable??

3. To the guy or three that swam the swim in a speedo: Do you not watch the olympics? This might have been cool when you were 3 but times have changed and people wear bike short looking speedos. Please do us all a favor and give this style a try. Please!

Finally, RIP in Tim. I'll miss Mr. Russert.

"This course is a tough one!"

2008-06-11T21:57:00.002-04:00

Said by my coach in response to my statement that I'd be happy just to have a decent bike this weekend because if it took me 4 hours to bike 24 miles, the outlook for finishing the Big Race in one day was not good.

And, at first blush it seemed not the response I was looking for. The race was a late add when I got shut out of the (much more convenient) race that I wanted to do and I honestly never looked at the elevation profile until Liz's comment. Coming off of Harriman it doesn't look that bad, but if Liz says its tough, I believe it.

Anyway, after a pre-dinner nap last night I started thinking about the race this weekend. Prior to my nap (and well, after my nap too) I was over tired, not feeling great and generally cranky. This race is sort of a huge PIA for me to get to, I have to find some of my favorite gels between now and then and I was generally stressed so I napped and then started thinking ... I'm looking forward to the swim, it won't be super cold, its in a lake (and not a crazy big midwest lake) so it shouldn't be too rough and I like to swim. I'm looking forward to a strong swim. The run is two loops so the second time around you know what's coming - hopefully this will help me power through and finish strong. The only real issue for me is getting from the swim to the run ... biking with its fancy shoes, gears, breaks & balance issues STRESSES ME OUT!

I know I'll finish, I mean, I got up the big hill at Harriman and I'll get up the CT hills as well and then I'll cover the distance in the Big Race, but its the freakin bike that takes me from slightly above average to much below. And it just seems that riding a bike should be easy. And I guess that's when I realized that riding a bike is theoretically easy, until you decide to do really hard things on the bike. Like ride up a mountain, or ride 56 miles after swimming 1.2 miles and before running 13.1 miles. These things are really hard. But I do them. Maybe not super well, but well enough to finish (err, at least so far, knock on wood) and in the grand scheme of things - if you add up the freaky fast people that are finishing before me AND the lazy couch potatoes I AM SO COMING OUT ABOVE AVERAGE and by not devoting a million hours a week to becoming freaky fast I'm doing what works for me, what I need to do to have So.Much.Fun!

So yeah, above average and So.Much.Fun is cake and icing too. It just took someone pointing out that its REALLY HARD for me to realize. Stubborn, I am (and that is the second time I spoke Yoda today. odd.).

Where I've Been

2008-06-10T09:57:00.002-04:00

Hmmm, where to start.

Memorial Day I was at the beach, but I think you knew that. I deemed it acceptably fun, maybe not my first choice, but since I have to work and don't have a private jet, most likely the best I'm gonna get.

The next weekend was my 10 year college reunion. I've never done drugs or had a flash back, but if I had, I think that the experience would have been similar to my reunion weekend. Chicago has always been one of my favorite places, a couple of times I've even considered moving there, but the timing has never been right and in the end I prefer it to be the place where I go to see some of my favorite people in the world. The problem is that they've now mostly moved out to the suburbs and to a certain extent I knew this trip was going to probably be one of the last and maybe for that reason it seemed that where ever I went the whole weekend I was remembering a special moment that will likely never been repeated ... the nights in Chicago friends apartment (that she moved out of while I was in town), the places I went with Ryan - the mall type place on Michigan Ave. where I met his brother and sister (I think I was more nervous about them than his parents) the day I was on the plane that was subject to a bomb threat, the awesome downtown apartment where I went to a party with a then close friend that I no longer talk to, a lakefront run or two to clear my mind from the emotions that have lately accompanied trips to Chi-town. Even back at school, walking through the bar without the crowds of a football weekend and remembering the first night I kissed the special boy and how I woke up with gum in my hair and despite the gum and the hangover knew that I had met someone who would always hold a very special place in my heart (obviously at the time I had hoped it would be a very special place in my life, but that didn't work out as planned), walking through the quad where on a warm dark night our senior year a good friend made a startling confession, eating the same bbq food that we had at freshman orientation but realizing that as alums we're allowed to have fruit AND BEER!

I came back from school, worked a million hours and was back at the beach this weekend. And all I have to say about that, is if you're almost 30 and you decide to not sleep in the room that you are sharing with 2 of your friends, accept the consequences, whatever they may be. Do not sneak into the room at 8 am and ruffle the bed to make it look like you slept there. I mean really.

This weekend I have a triathlon on Saturday. Not sure how I feel about that, I know it'll be fine, I've done the distance before blah, blah but I feel like the past 2 weeks I've really only gotten my long workouts in (better than nothing I suppose). This isn't entirely true, I've gotten a bunch of weekday workouts in but, when you're working in excess of 12 hours a day it just gets hard to get them ALL done. And this scares me for the Big Race, even though it probably shouldn't. I mean, a few missed workouts won't cancel out months of training, but it still make me nervous. Anyway, as long as I can catch up on my sleep and this strange tickle in the back of my throat doesn't turn into a full fledged cold, I think it'll be fun. More on that later.

Good day.

Quick Update

2008-05-28T01:02:00.003-04:00

The beach was fun. I shan't go into details at the moment, but I ate, I drank too much, I went on two long bike rides and managed not to get lost but do have finger print marks from trying to apply sunscreen on my own back. I kissed no boys and I didn't swim. Swimming and kissing were assumed to be part of the beach scenario but, alas, the water was too cold and I needed to get my bearings and boundaries before breaking the spell.

For triathlon, this is a build week. Or something. I didn't get home until 12:30 tonight and the pool was obviously closed. We'll see. Even though I'm a horrific biker, I have some confidence that I will get the race done ... its hard to balance triathlon and the beach and work and the beach and the potential kissing;) but as long as I stay focused on staying healthy and having fun and not drowning and finishing the race and having fun it'll be fine.

Thursday, which is only two sleeps away (not something I would normally say but its technically Wednesday even though I haven't gone to bed on Tuesday yet), I head to Chicago where I will hopefully have dinner or at least a drink with my good friend Dave (who is getting no more links on this blog. for now.) and his gf/better-half/bff/roommate who I've never met but heard is lovely and then I might crash a bachelorette party to see some of my other friends and/or just hang out with my chicago friend and her awesome hubby.

Friday I'll run by the lake, get a pedicure and then HEAD TO MY TEN YEAR COLLEGE REUNION. I'm excited and nervous and hope it is fun almost as much as I hope that I get through the mountain of crap that I have to get through between now and then!

Oooh, I also got a new camera with which I will hopefully post some pics soon.

Ok. Bye.

Reason No. 846 Why Everyone Should Have a Coach

2008-05-19T12:50:00.004-04:00

aka, Harriman More-or-Less Olympic Distance Race Report

I was nervously anticipating this race because it was the first race that I had both planned to do (well, I planned to do Bassman, but only a few days ahead, this race had been on the calendar for awhile) and I had trained for it (unlike last year when most of my races were hope for the best type affairs). The anticipation was nervous because the water was expected to be VERY COLD and the bike was VERY HILLY (I rode the course last weekend, so knew this to be true - the statement that there would by 2800 feet of elevation gain over the 28 mile course was not a lie). We were in the first wave and were not slated to go off until 10:30 ... the ability to sleep in, and sleep in at home, was nice. Perhaps nice enough to make me forget the cold water and the insane course if I'm still in triathlon mode come next season. We'll see.

There were some logistical issues race morning but we arrived to the site with plenty of time to spare and were greeted by some pretty strong winds and not very warm temperatures. We registered and read, in awe, that the water was FIFTY-FOUR DEGREES (that's Fahrenheit, and that's cold!). Wetsuited up, I made my way into the lake with very little complaining and swam around for a bit. My face, hands and feet were quickly numb ... but it wasn't that bad.

The 'warm-up' should have served to 'cool us down' so that we were used to functioning in the cold water. Unfortunately, warm up/cool down ended and we were left to stand around in the sun, in our wetsuits and get warm before the swim started from the beach ... the beach start was a first for me but the gun went off and we were into the water ...

The Swim - belatedly victorious

And it was quite the shock to the system. Almost immediately people succumbed to (double armed?) backstroke and breast stroke. I made it around the first buoy and took a 30 second breather at a kayak ... and it was here the I learned reason No. 846 why its good to have a coach: when its cold and you're lips are blue and you're hanging out with the kayaker and it would be much easier to swim in and call it a day alot of things go through your head. For me, I knew that if I pulled out of this swim, I would never do another triathlon. I can't explain why, I just know me, and know that it'd be over. That would have a lot of ramifications - I'd probably loose touch with my triathlon friends, I'd have to figure out a new way to stay in shape, I'd have to find a thing to fill up my time and I'd have to tell people why I wasn't training and racing. The last two ramifications were the hardest to swallow in my 30 seconds with the kayaker. I took up triathlon to fill a void, and without it, that void would be back. I often joke about becoming a yogi, but honestly, I don't know that I could do yoga for 7-14 hours a week. I'd also have to tell my friends (all of whom would understand - I think my triathlon friends would get that this is such a commitment and sometimes its hard and understand with maybe a small bit of jealousy and a fair bit of smugness at being able to solider on and my 'other' friends would think that FINALLY I had seen the light and decided to adopt a more normal lifestyle), my family (who would, for the most part, think that I'd finally now have time to find a husband), my co-workers (who would wonder what on earth they were going to talk to me about now, and would probably think it confirmed that girls are weak and they shouldn't have hired one) and my coach. And this was the hardest. What would I say to Liz? Would she keep 'coaching' me if I refused to race? If not, would I be firing her? She's awesome, so I wouldn't want to do that. And even if it all worked out, I figured she'd think I was a dork for being a quitter and it would sort of vaguely remind me of being the girl growing up in the sporty town and being *encouraged* to play sports with balls and eye hand coordination and being AWFUL at them, always making the last out and feeling like such an outcast. And I don't want to be an outcast - I'm happy being the slow one in the group but I want to be in the group, and the coach more than the triathlon friends somehow makes me feel like part of the group. So, while a summer of margarita drinking at the beach and casual bike rides sounded fun, I assumed it was the hypothermia setting in and decided there was only one way out of the water and into the warm parking lot and that was around the next 2 buoys and so I thanked the kayaker and went on my way*. I swam for the next 22 or so minutes stopping only to realize again and again how horribly off course I was. I swam a circle around the triangle of buoys and finally, finally got out of the water. And even though it took 30:xx minutes until I crossed into transition (only 28 minutes of swimming though, there was a long, sandy run/walk out of the water) and even though it took several more minutes before I realized that I did in fact still have feet, hands and lips, I consider that swim a victory.

T1

Why is it so hard to get your wetsuit over your chip? There should be a better way. I put on socks, and a long sleever (and gloves, glasses, shoes and helmet) and 3:xx later I was out of there hoping to get warm on the bike.

The Bike - mission accomplished

I had two goals for this race: to ride the course faster than I did in the test ride the weekend before and to go faster than 29.8 mph on the downhill. I made the first goal with :50 to spare (finishing the 28 mile course in 2:14:xx) and went 32MPH ON THE DOWNHILL. Other than that, things were pretty much as I thought they would be. Because I knew sort of where I was at all times, I kept the computer on time and cadence and didn't worry about speed or distance. One of the people I rode the course with warned of two things: if you didn't slow down heading into the hairpins you'd skid out and crash and if you didn't gear down in advance of the big hill you'd drop your chain. Both happened, in fact one guy in front of me, dropped his chain and just fell over. I can't really articulate how giving and friendly some of the people in my tri-club are.

There were a large number of people riding the course in the race shirt, to a certain extent this might have been because they were too cold for sleeveless coming out of the ice bucket but, if not, what would they have done if they ran out of shirts? Did they really like that shirt so much that they opted for it over the one they brought from home?

T2

Nothing to see here. Carry on. 1:xx.

The Run - icing

Homemade icing. Not the overly sugary kind in the can. Despite being thirsty and it being hot and my legs being trashed and there not being enough water stops, I ran and I ran strong (for me). I was breathing hard for the first mile but I put my head down (metaphorically) and ran. For awhile, I thought I was cruising toward a 10K PR (in which case my coach would have gotten a raise, or at least some sort of coffee gift) but alas, the mile markers were off. But I finished only walking the water stops (of which there were not many) and running even splits and given all I had been through that day it was really more than I could have asked for. 1:03:xx

Later

After a nap and a shower some of the tri/running girls met up for beers and burgers. A fun way to end a fun (albeit long) day. Sore, full and sleepy with a smile on my face.

The end.

*If you doubt that I had all those thoughts in 30 seconds, I assure you I did. Which means that every night before you go to bed, you should count not having to live with my brain in your head among your blessings.

The Teacher and The Lawyer

2008-05-12T22:47:00.006-04:00

"So you avoided him, stalked him and then found out that he sneakily got married behind your back?"

That's not exactly how I would have phrased it, but yes. He was/is a lawyer and its important to note that before I avoided him I befriended him in a flurry of emails and make outs right up until he avoided me, which he did until I relocated to the Big City and ran into him at a random neighborhood bar (because really, the Big City isn't that big) at which point we resumed our friendship and emails without the making out ... which was good because I was also sort of dating the teacher at that time. I think that those few weeks might have been the most complicated my love life has ever gotten ... wanting to date the lawyer, or at least have him want to date me, but actually dating the teacher and liking him as well. Eventually they both went away, first the lawyer, then the teacher, suddenly gone. With the teacher it made sense, but with the lawyer I was confused. It was an on/off switch that got flipped. Twice. We just stopped talking and never ran into each other again until I found myself on the same corner as him this weekend and pretty much ran into on coming traffic to avoid an encounter.

So I avoided. And then looked him up on our mutual alumni site and realized that he's married. I immediately wished that I had noticed the girl he was with and wondered how he managed to get married without me knowing. I mean I googled him at least once a year ... it seems it should have come up.

But it didn't. And I'm certainly not upset to learn he's married, just a bit surprised. And kind of I wonder why we couldn't have remained at least casual friends - the first time I ever rode the subway I was with him and he introduced me to one of my favorite burger joints ... but I guess the friend to friends that make out transition is easier than the friends that make out to casual friends transition. Which is troubling. Even though it makes sense.

Blah, blah, blah

2008-05-09T21:10:00.002-04:00

It was a long week preceded by a long weekend. Work was stressful ... for no real reason, just because it wasn't cake. And because I was expected to be the one to know things, and I do know them, but because I'm the only one to know them, there was no there to confirm that I know what I know I know. And all my fears and insecurities came to the surface (well, that might be a bit extreme ... let's just say I was tense). Got it?

Yeah. Me either.

All I know is that the tension made me nauseous and tired and working out, well, other than one good swim, it was crappy (when it was anything at all).

And then my mother picked a fight with me, because she was mad at my brother! And of the three of us, my brother, my sister and I, I'm the sensitive one. I'm the one that takes it all to heart and winds up crying hysterically at work And while I have an office all lined up as soon as someone is ready to kick off the domino effect, right now I'm in a cube. Which is not conducive to hysterics, so I had to hide in the conference room until I could breath. And when I finally had it out of my mind, she called to apologize which got me upset all over again because WHY would you do that to ME when you know that you could it to the other two and they'd say "ok" and hang up the phone?

Anyway.

I needed to eat without puking and sleep for my road trip tomorrow (more on that later) but I wanted to run a little bit ... to make up for this week's crappiness. But its pouring. And once I start running outside I hate the t.mill. So ... I needed new music. Right? Right.

I'm not a huge music affectionado (although, this blog is named after a cowboy mouth song), which is to say, that I'm not all adventurous and going to shows and out there finding the next great thing. But if someone tells me about a band, I'll listen. As long as it has words, that I can understand, that make sense, that tell a story*. At my old job, a coworker would lend me cds (which is how i came to like the hold steady), I'd listen to them on the t.mill and decide if I liked them.

But, alas, I'm not at my old job. So here I am, at the end of a crappy week, forced to go for a quick t.mill run and no one to ask for some new tunes (I suppose I could have asked the old co-worker but, except for this blog, I try not to advertise my Friday night lameness). And then I remembered reading good things about the raconteurs. I was hesitant, because I'm not sure if the guy that wrote the good things, determines if he likes a song based on its lyrics (does anyone do that?). But I listened to some of the itunes clips and it seemed okay and it was Friday night and I was desperate for something, anything sort of good to happen ... so I bought an album (yeah, I know. a bit all or nothing. but how would i choose?) and I listened to it on the t.mill right up until my run began to suck (given the little I ate today, I can't complain) and then in the kitchen while I ate and ... that shit is awesome! I'll need more time before I come up with a favorite line, but I can go to bed knowing that there was one good thing in a week of bile producing insecurity. And that gives me hope that tomorrow's field trip might not be a complete failure. And that I can use my knowledge of this band to counteract my previously professed obsession with James Blunt;)

*Seriously. I have favorite lines, more than songs. Like EVERY word of So Much Fun or, for the Hold Steady: "I've had kisses that made Judas look sincere." Wouldn't you love to spit that at someone? You make Judas seem sincere! Followed by the slam of a door and the flip of some hair.

Priceless

2008-05-05T12:48:00.000-04:00

From the New York Times:

"James Carville helpfully told Eleanor Clift of Newsweek that if Hillary gave Obama one of her vehicles of testicular fortitude, 'they’d both have two.'"

A Random Thing Happened on the Way to Piermont

2008-05-04T16:48:00.003-04:00

But first, before we get to that, a few things. My single-ness is well documented on this website as are my efforts to not drown on July 13th (the date of the Big Race). But with the summer and my summer house fast approaching, and my recent propensity to be hung over after two beers, I decided that I needed to focus and really fine tune my training ... so that come summer I can have more than 2 beers and stay out past 10 and STILL get up early to swim/bike/run. So, Friday night (after a fun and productive trip to target), when I could have easily gone home, ordered in and gone to bed, I went out to dinner and then to the bar and STILL got up at 6 am to cycle the next day. Go.Me. And Saturday, after getting up at 6 am, biking 50 miles, running 1.5 miles and visiting grandma, I went out again until 12:30. You can admit it, I know you're impressed.

Anyway, Saturday was chilly, but my friend Christine and I had vowed to ride to Piermont and the three boys that showed up for the group ride seemed to be on board, so we were off. The boys usually take off on the these rides and we/I follow behind. They wait for us at the obvious stopping points, we re-group and solider on. We had regrouped for the last time before Piermont, our goal. We had chosen the coffee shop at which we would meet when we got to our Goal (we were each in various stages of under-dressedness and none of us had full fingered gloves on, we needed to HOLD the coffee more than we needed to drink it at this point). I admitted that I didn't know where to turn to get to our Goal, but Christine said she knew the way.

The first place we turned led us down a big hill to ... a dead end. Where we saw 4 adults walking 8 dogs and I promptly FREAKED OUT on the inside but managed to hold it together on the outside and even TOUCHED one of the dogs (with the palm of my gloved hands, no skin touched the dog) in an effort to get accurate directions. Because, not only did we now have to go UP the big hill, it was raining ... and the rain was coming down harder by the second. We needed to get to the coffee shop and we needed to get there soon without anymore diversions.

We went up the hill and to the intersection where the dog walking people told us to turn but we weren't sure if it was right, we called the boys who should have been there by now, but they didn't answer. We didn't want to waste more time so we asked a solo cyclist who was coming from where we thought Piermont was .... he shouted "its back that we, but I'm lost too."

Awesome.

We headed in the general direction from which he came, went the wrong way at one fork in the road, turned around and then, then saw signs for our Goal. Just in time, because it was REALLY raining now. And it was cold. The guy we asked for directions passed us, reconfirming that we were going in the right direction (or were all hopelessly lost, I suppose) and as he passed I thought he looked familiar. Like someone I went to college with maybe? But I wasn't sure who, and it was a vague resemblance and its hard to know what someone REALLY looks like in cycling gear.

But when we were almost there we passed him ... on the side of the road on the phone and it really did look like this guy, Brian. Sort of. Christine yelled out that she knew the way now, and potential guy from college, clipped in and followed us along. Finally, finally in the warmth of the coffee shop, the direction/potential guy from college was behind us in line and I said, "Did you go to My College?" And he said, "Yes. K.Michele, right?" I was floored that he knew my name. Honestly, I would have been surprised that he knew my name in college - he was good friends with my roommate, but we shared very few words between us during those four years, so I really didn't think he'd recognize me now, ten years later. We chatted. He's training for IMLP (which is why I didn't recognize him right away, his body has totally changed), introduced me to his gf (who somehow got there first ... either she's speedy or he put in a bunch of miles and was meeting her for the end of his ride).

At any rate, what are the odds of getting lost in the rain on a bike 25 miles from home and asking some guy for directions and having it be someone you know (or knew 10 years ago)?

Random.

Finally, I know this isn't fast for the vast majority of people out there, but you know those 10 minute miles I lost after the marathon? Lately, I've found them on occasion, but today, after my 50 miles of bike riding and 1.5 mile run off yesterday I ran 9 of them. So, I think I can say that they are back. Hopefully for good. Or at least through July 13th.

I'm scared.

2008-05-04T12:04:00.004-04:00

Look at the little inset in the bottom left hand corner.

If I was more technically inclined, I'd know how to just show you the inset and to make it bigger, but, alas, I'm not technically inclined ... in fact I just learned how to link words like this, if I knew how to do this earlier I would have given the appropriate credit for my earlier idea about open water swimming.

Anyway, I digress. The point of this post, is that I'm scared. That looks like one big hill to me. The run doesn't look like a walk in the park either, but there is really no point being scared of the run until I convince myself I can finish the bike.

Sooooo, with that being said, I'm off to do my long run because that is what is on my schedule. And later, when I stop being scared, I'll tell you about the crazy thing that happened on my bike ride yesterday!

problem SOLVED

2008-04-30T18:54:00.004-04:00

"No lines, no lanes. No walls, no mercy. The newest sport at the Olympics."

-Steven Munatones

Historically, I was never much of a dater. I have friends who are serial daters (strangely a few girls but mostly guys ... which is interesting, I never thought of this particular phenomena as a guy thing, but I bet it is, which makes sense on SO MANY LEVELS). One relationship ends and they're on the prowl for the next one. It makes sense - its hard to go from being with someone all the time to not being with someone all the time. I think this was particularly pronounced in college when you could spend close to every waking minute together (and I bet some of you floozies that went to colleges that were pits of moral depravity could spend every non-waking minute together too*) and then broke up and found yourself unsure of who to sit with in the dining hall - so you had a few or 10 beers and found a new person to be your person ...

Seems like a vicious cycle to me. Which is why I pretty much avoided it at all costs. Leading my college friends to declare that I'd meet and marry my future husband all within the same year. I claimed to need 18 months, but otherwise agreed with their assessment - I was going to avoid the heart wrenching cycle and just make one good choice.

Well, we know what they say about the best laid plans (actually, I have no idea how that phrase ends ...). My Master Plan was to be single basically until I was engaged and the plan worked right up until it failed miserably. And while the contrast between not single and single wasn't as stark as it could have been or would have been in college there was a noticeable void. So I started running and within 18 months, finished a marathon. I reverted back to being a firm believer in the Master Plan, a Born Again Master Planner perhaps since there was the one indiscretion, but a believer nonetheless and vowed off men entirely because while I believed in the Master Plan, it was apparently hard to execute and until the execution could be perfected it seemed safer to just keep running.

Apparently time and a marathon will heal all wounds because I found myself not single and then single again and this time the contrast was about as stark as it could have been (well, except for the little but persistently right voice in the back of my mind that was sighing in relief and thinking THANK GOD). To fill this void I did my first triathlon and have reaffirmed my belief in the Master Plan complete with promises to not even get out there until there was a way to know if the one was THE ONE before feelings could be crushed.

But now, I'm starting to waiver. Maybe, maybe after the Big Race when I have more time I'll at least consider if there is a way to execute the Master Plan with a tolerable amount of risk. Maybe. But I need a back up plan in case the Master Plan fails. Again.

For awhile I was at a loss. Running and triathlon would be old hat at that point but, given my extreme lack of eye-hand coordination anything involving a ball is out. And then I read the article in the WSJ about open water swimming (a 10K of open water swimming) being an olympic event ... and I thought, there's my answer. If the Master Plan fails again, I'll become an open water swimmer because if a participant in the sport describes it as having "no mercy" you'd have to think I'd be good at it. Ha! Can you imagine?

If I do decide to pursue a career as an open water swimmer, I can practice every other weekend this summer ... I've enlisted in a shared beach house which is maybe something that I should have done 6 years ago and not now, but whatever, my house mates are all roughly my age, so its fine. I'm just excited to be spend my weekends laying on the beach, listening to the waves (even if they are Jersey waves and not those of my favorite vacation destination, waves are waves at some point) and I'm thinking of getting this chair. But, given my lack of coordination and heightened startle reflex I feel like I might get stuck IN the chair. Which I'm sure would do wonders for the Master Plan!

*At my college, in an effort to preserve our morality, there were visiting hours, because we all know that people only do It between midnight and 10 am Sunday - Thursday and 2 am and 10 am on Friday and Saturday, so the rules make perfect sense, right?

You say Triathlon, I say Pentathlon

2008-04-27T19:58:00.002-04:00

Huh?

Today I did a race. My first (outdoor) multisport race of the season. Done on a bit of a whim.

During the day there were lows:

when the alarm went off at 4 am
when i got picked up at 4:45
when the one dude we were driving was an annoying back seat driver
when we got out of the car at the race site and realized that the "real feel" was 47 degrees
when we realized transition was on the beach, which, um was SAND
when 1/4 of the way through the swim the water was so shallow you had to stand up and run (NOTE: this is the 4th event of the pentathlon)
when you had to run 100 yards with your bike through the sand to get in or out of transition (NOTE: this is the 5th event of the pentathlon)
when it was so freaking cold on the bike that my legs just didn't want to work

And there were highs:

when I got PICKED up at 4:45 (no driving ... woohoo)
when the directions actually got us to the race site
when I got in a groove after my mid-swim walking break and cruised back to shore
when, after an atrocious bike ride, the run was fine, fun and WARM
when I ran with socks on sandy feet and didn't get a blister
when I was finally home, showered, fed and on the couch and realized I had done more in one day (a pentathlon. in the COLD.) than most people do in a week
when I fell asleep with the window cracked open and a blanket on me looking at the NYC skyline

So yeah, it was fun. I'm worried about the bike, but I think the cold factored in (or at least thats what I'm telling myself) and it was fun to hang out with the tri-club kids!

Is it cold out?

2008-04-26T09:35:00.002-04:00

Because hell has frozen over.

I swam before work yesterday.

Seriously.

The new pool that I'm hoping to not be allergic to, has better hours for pre-work swimming. Sadly its only 20 yards long.

I've got a surprise little activity on tap for tomorrow which I'm sure will make for a good post (or two). And good luck to my good friend Dave who is running a half-marathon in the middle of no where, um, I mean Iowa. I don't know why I said that? Anyway, good luck dude, I'm sure you'll finish in 7 minutes or so (:30 second miles? no problemo! es bueno.).

Ha, I'm off for a long day of grandma visiting so I've got to amuse myself while I can.

Later.

Maybe I should have said yes.

2008-04-22T22:15:00.002-04:00

I left work at 5:45 today. Whenever this happens I wonder what people who regularly leave work at this hour do. Especially if they don't work out compulsively. Signs point to me never really knowing the answer to this first hand ...

Anyway, when I get out of work at 5:45 I walk home form the train, go for a run and then head to Trader Joe's where I fill one more bag than I can really carry. Leaving me with a dilemma. I could park the car in my building's driveway, get a cart to bring the stuff up in the elevator, unload the bags in my apartment, go back down the elevator to the car, drive the car half a block to the garage, park and back track to the building. Or I could carry the stuff from the garage to my building.

Yeah, this is boring so far. But stick with me.

It was past nine and I was hungry, so I went the fast route and parked the car in the garage. As I was unloading the bags I realized that getting them to my apartment was going to be rough and I sort of hoped that someone would offer to help. I got into the garage elevator and was consolidating from five bags to four when someone (ahem, a guy) got in and, in an answer to my prayers, offered to help.

And I said "No, I got it. Just have to get organized."

Why?

Because I am a stubborn brat and don't like to accept help from strangers. And if I were to justify, I'll point out that this garage serves at least 3 buildings ... what if he didn't live in mine? I wasn't going to ask him to go out of his way.

As we walked toward the buildings (me struggling with my 800 lbs of groceries and wondering if his offer to help still stood) we discussed the perennial park in the driveway and get a cart v. save time by carrying stuff form the garage dilemma and I noted that he wasn't ugly. It had gotten a bit chilly and the random guy was walking fast and I was struggling to keep up and not stop to readjust the bags. Turns out he does live in my building and ... on my floor. In fact, he lives on one side of the elevators. The other side of the elevators is the trash room. And I live across from the trash room (its not bad, i swear, occasionally loud when people dumb their glass recyclables in the bin, but not smelly, for real). So we're very, very close neighbors.

And as we were realizing that we lived on the same floor and discussing whether it was better to live next to the elevator or across from the trash room and commenting on how I should have accepted his help in the first place I was wondering if I should have said yes. And I was wondering if we should exchange names in addition to apartment numbers (he's 12X, I'm 12I ... its sweet) and how I've lived here for 10 months and only in the last month have I (sort of) introduced myself to any neighbors (12X and the lady who has 12H as a pied a tier). Of course even if I had let him help me with the groceries or we had exchanged names, anything more than random building friends with violate a Cardinal Rule of Dating (keep it out of the building). But still ... should I have said yes?

In other news, it took some pita chips, cheese enchiladas from Trader Joe's and some fresh Mango ... but I'm finally full. Finally.

New Question

2008-04-22T14:25:00.003-04:00

I kind of get why the second day is the sorest, but why is the second day also the hungriest?

I worked out for 6+ hours this past weekend and today I'm thinking about eating the paper on my desk. So far I've had oatmeal, yogurt with fruit and granola, chicken and pasta with broccoli and I'm starving. And the vending machine doesn't even hold much allure - I really want some fruit salad, a turkey sandwich and maybe a donut (which I admittedly could get from the vending machine ... hmmm) and either a diet coke or an iced latte or a chocolate milk shake ... mmmm. So yeah, its one of those days - if I see it I want it and I'm thinking of skipping my run to go to Trader Joe's.

With 2 Minutes to Spare

2008-04-21T00:20:00.003-04:00

I made my perfect week. And my legs almost fell off. Funny how a perfect week (at the end of a build no less) is less than ironmen do on race day. How do their legs not fall off?

I've got to get some sleep, but I'd just like to say that being friends with single girls? No my cup of tea so much.

Goodnight.

Almost Perfect, Definitely Random

2008-04-19T17:35:00.003-04:00

All that stands between me and a perfect week of workouts is 70 minutes of running and 60 minutes of biking. And a birthday party.

Today so far has been kind of perfect. The weather. The bike ride. The funny conversations. Its easier to go fast on the group rides because I know that someone is more likely to notice if I go flying off of the cliff on which we ride. Of course when my nutrition (cliff blocks, gel) went flying out of my half open bento box on the way down a hill it was less than perfect. Until I realized that my cell phone was still in my bento box - that was perfect. I finished my ride on the trainer at home to give myself a shot at making a run at perfect (I don't consider the fact that Thursday's run off was 18 minutes instead of 20 to put perfect in jeopardy - its my perfect and I can round up and I had already run around the block once - twice would have been weird at 10:45 pm).

I have re-concluded that I'm allergic to the pool. I might have to find a new pool because I'd be an awful du-athlete. I'm a bad biker and runner but an average swimmer. But I have fun. And I tell the boys on the group ride how to shave their legs. Which was really a conversation I never thought I'd have.

There was a Team in Training marathon group doing a long run on the cliff on which we ride. And for the first time in a long time, I thought it might be fun to do another.

The end.

Picky ...?

2008-04-16T19:47:00.003-04:00

The other day my grandmother told me that she was afraid that I would never get married because I'm too picky. By way of example, she claims that I would never marry a street cleaner or a post man.

Which got me thinking.

I think I'm comfortable admitting that I'd never marry a street cleaner. A Zamboni driver maybe, but a street cleaning machine? And even if you tell me that I'm a snob and that I'm assuming that all street cleaners are not overly educated and not particularly well compensated ... I don't know any street cleaners nor do I know where they hang out. I guess I could stalk them by repeatedly parking on the wrong side of the street and moving my car at the last minute with a flirtatious flip of my hair ... but, really? I have a hard enough time meeting guys the regular way (whatever that is) without concocting schemes to meet a street cleaner.

And then there is the post man. I can't say for certain that I wouldn't marry one. They probably get good benefits, they have to pass a test, they probably don't work late (although they do work Saturdays) and they've got to be in decent shape. They do go crazy on occasion and shoot people but ... what are the odds that my post man would go postal?? Again it comes down to lack of opportunity ... the lines at the post office are sooo long, I usually buy my stamps from the machine and when I see the post men walking down the street they seem preoccupied with you know, delivering the mail ...

At any rate, I explained to grandma that I'd maybe go for the postman so if she knew one she could give him my number ... but she refused. Siting my pickiness.

Which got my thinking about the guys I have dated. And then I decided that I really need to become more picky and make my standards MUCH MORE STRINGENT even if it means missing a wonderful romance with a street cleaner.

REJECTED!!

2008-04-14T23:23:00.004-04:00

My weekend was a whirlwind of life acknowledgments ...

Saturday, Sara & Scott FINALLY turned 30 and had a lovely party in their lovelier apartment. I feel like 30 is sort of an acknowledgment of midlife - hopefully its not actually your mid-life, but it leaves you wavering between young and silly and old and mature. For example, on one hand, there were two pregnant women and one set of parent's of two at the party ... on the other hand, I'd venture to say there was a fair bit of silliness fueled by lack of significant next day obligations. Where did I fall? Probably right in the middle, which I suppose is where I belong - I had much to do the next day but not so much that I had to leave early or not have that extra beer.

Sunday, I was up bright and early and back to the city for a baby shower. An acknowledgment of the very beginning of life. I LOATHE baby showers, but I'll admit that this one was kind of nice. Small. Just friends. Good food and not too much annoying oohing and aahing. Although, the mother to be did receive a swaddling blanket that came with DVDed instructions. I just don't understand.

The mother to be had her baby the next morning at 3 am. Talk about cutting it close!

I went from the shower to Brooklyn (with a pit stop at the bike store ... there was an incident with a gel that required me to get new gloves. once that stuff dries its like crazy glue!) to visit my grandmother in the nursing home type place. A late life acknowledgment.

If I was more poetic or profound I'd think of some nifty conclusion that reflected on the stages of life. But, I'm not that profound. I wrapped up my weekend of activity with a martini at the local bar. I'm not sure what that is reflective of. But it tasted good!

I started the week of exhausted and organized after loosing my Sunday to baby showers and nursing home visits and when I got home last night there was a note in the mail telling me I was REJECTED from the triathlon I planned to do in June. Apparently it filled up fast (although my friend who mailed his application on the same day as me got in) so I shouldn't take it personally. But I do. Who wouldn't want me?? Ok, don't answer that. Apparently the Wyckoff triathlon, among others, wouldn't want me. I think there is a race in Connecticut that I can probably do instead ... of course Connecticut is more than 25 minutes away and I really do enjoy to sleep. Sigh.

Questions & Confessions

2008-04-09T12:49:00.002-04:00

Questions:

1. Did the photographers at the race this weekend not take any pictures of me because they were mildly obsessed with Sara (I think there were 800 pictures of her!!)? Actually, there were two pictures of me in the lost and found, and I was wearing a jacket around my waste obscuring my race number for many of the miles. But there were really a ton of pictures of Sara. Most likely the photographers were liking her new running clothes!!

2. Why is the second day the sorest?

3. Does drinking water really help with the soreness? Because, all those trips to the bathroom were painful, so if the water wasn't helping I'm annoyed.

4. Does anyone else find it slightly ridiculous that I am going to spend $300 on baby gifts this month?

5. Does complaining about 4, above, make me a bad person?

6. Tomorrow, I have to do an easy 30 minute continuous swim. 10 minutes of which can be with a 'toy.' Fins or pull buoy? And if you say pull buoy, paddles?

Confession:

I am mildly obsessed with James Blunt right now. I think this is why I am single: if a guy were to listen to this stuff, he would be immediately emasculated.

Twenty-Two Seconds

2008-04-06T13:34:00.004-04:00

I went to high school a good 45 minutes from my house. I'm the oldest of three so, with two little sibs at home needing to be taken to the local schools, a ride was out of the question. For the first 2 years and 2 months I took either a school bus or two trains and one bus to get me there. The one way trip in the morning took close to 2 hours. So, from pretty much the day I turned 17, I drove. And if the stop lights were blinking rather than doing their normal green, yellow, red thing, I knew it was early and that I was in for a long day.

I ran a half marathon today. It was my sixth half ever and my third time running this race - its all women with an option for a full and even though I generally get along better with boys, I like the all girls races (and with the full option, if you run the half you won't come in last!). The camaraderie is awesome.

I had two goals for this race. The first was to get there on time (not my forte as Sara will attest). When I got to the first stop light it was blinking and I knew I was on pace to meet my first goal. I also knew I was in for a long day. In fact, it had already been a long day and it was barely 7 am.

I am not a puker. In fact I haven't puked in well over 10 years. And I don't get nauseous when I'm nervous (I got through grad school and a fairly big test at the end without ever feeling pukey) but I am now going to talk about puking and other bodily functions. You're warned.

I ate my oatmeal this morning, had a cup of coffee, got dressed and was relatively on time. Decided to take one more potty break and as I was sitting there the strangest thing happened. I got hot ... and then my mouth started to water and I had no idea going on. But then, like some repressed memory, it came to me that this is what happens before you puke. I quickly finished up what I was doing and got off the toilet to avoid puking into the bathtub. And after a few minutes of sitting in front of the toilet it passed with me keeping my oatmeal. But it was weird. And freaked me out a bit.

And wasted some time. I knew I could still make it though, so I decided to at least head into the city and see what happened. I made it into the city and realized in my post almost puking frenzy I forgot my watch. Great.

Parked. And the race started. Stomach still a bit off but I decided to give it a go. At the one mile mark I asked the people around me how long we had been running so I knew how much time to deduct from the clock going forward. One lady said 8 minutes and the other 12 so I split the difference with 10 ... that seemed about what I would be running anyway. I geared up to take my first gel knowing that if it came up I'd call the race and head home. It stayed down and I actually had a kind of awesome race. I felt SO STRONG on the uphills, really pushing them and I think that is from the time on the bike. On the downhills I would tell myself to just relax and let gravity take me ... and it did, I felt like I was flying. Every mile was under 10 and, unless my math and memory got fuzzy mile 8-9 was around 9:15. I ate 3 blocks at 40ish minutes and another gel at 1:10ish. Gatorade at every stop they had it and water where they didn't. The last 4-5 miles were COLD, I had my jacket on for the first few miles and then around my waste in case it rained but my hands were numb which was weirding me out (they just felt FUNNY) and it took a long time of being COLD before I convinced myself to untie the jacket and put it on, funny hands be damned. That lasted less than a mile before I was hot. I think gloves really would have been the answer because without the jacket I was cold.

I should have had 3 more blocks at 1:40ish but that was in the middle of the last big uphill and when that passed there were only 2 miles left so I pushed on. My ITBands were tight and I was worried that if I slowed at all to eat the blocks I wouldn't be able to pick it up again. And, unless my initial estimate regarding the time it took me to cross the starting mat was off I was close to goal number 2 (goal number 1 in case you've forgotten, was to be on time to the race and was accomplished hours ago).

Goal number 2 was to PR. My second half marathon was in October of 2004 and I finished it in 2:08:18. I trained a whole summer and then some for that half and ran it with a fast friend/running buddy (who I've since lost touch with) - I kept her in sight the whole race and finished strong. I was doing that this race too - I traded places with a pink shirt through out the race and kept a green hat in sight the whole time - if the green hat or the pink shirt got too far ahead, I knew I had to pick it up.

Anyway, with 1 mile left I knew that as long as my first mile was 10mins or faster it would be close but possible to meet goal number 2. Clockwise races in Central Park suck when they finish at Tavern on the Green. The last mile is essentially a switch back and largely uphill. You can see the finish and its deceptively close, and then you drop down into the switch back thingy and you can't see it and then you can see it again but you have to run up a hill and ... after 12.5 miles it kills you. And for some reason this is where the horses from the horse and buggy carriages like to shit. So in addition to being uphill torture it smells.

I ran as fast as my body would let me which sucked and hurt and I thought I was going to hurl right in front of the official photographers. But I didn't. I ran as fast as I could and I finished and was happy with my race because I felt strong the whole way and I knew all of my miles were sub ten.

And if I hadn't gotten pukey this morning, and I hadn't forgotten my watch I might have run TWENTY TWO SECOND FASTER and had a PR and met goal number 2.

But, alas, I can't let twenty-two seconds ruin a good day. Twenty two seconds is nothing really ... maybe in October at the actual 4 year anniversary of the PR. I can't worry about it now because now? Now I'm remembering the 10-K I ran in June of 2004. I was training for the half marathon and I ran with my same fast friend and I finished in 58:12 and I'm wondering if I ran a 10-K now .... hmmmm.

And I'm also wondering when I'll wake up if I go to sleep now and what I could eat without aggravating this weird nausea. And for the record, it would be immaculate, so don't even ask.

Dear Boobs,

2008-04-05T18:25:00.003-04:00

I can't say I blame you for leaving. Its not like you got that much attention when you were here (at least not in the recent past). But, I do miss you guys (err, girls) so you're welcome to come back at any time. If you do come back, I'd try harder to get you attention, but I can't make any promises (my standards remain high). And if there was something I could do to not have ALL OF THE WEIGHT I'VE LOST since January come from y'all, I'd do it (within reason of course).

So think about it and let me know. I'll be here.

Miss you -

K.M.

Walking on Rusty Nails

2008-04-04T19:38:00.002-04:00

I went for my annual physical today and because my previous PCP had become a specialist, I was with a new person. She asked me the usual litany of questions, one of which was "when was your last tetanus shot." To which I replied, "Sometime in High School."

Had I known why she was asking I would have lied (I mean, I already lied about how many drinks I have a week ... although, lately the number gets lower and lower, but I digress). She took some blood (I didn't faint!), gave me a TB test and then GAVE ME A TETANUS SHOT! Those things hurt!!! And there is running to do this weekend (more on the running after the weekend) and you need to use your arms to run ...

So, I'm trying to look on the bright side or see the silver lining if you will, because lately I've been getting way too upset about things that shouldn't bother me (old coworkers, old friends, current friends being dumb, current coworkers being dumb). But all I can come up with is that if I step on some rusty nails this weekend it won't be a big deal. And that's just not the ray of sunshine I was hoping for.

So I think I'm going to have a martini at dinner and see if that helps!

Happy weekend kids.

State Lines

2008-04-01T17:55:00.003-04:00

Sunday was my first outside ride in many months ... the state line was the turn around point for the 28 mile round trip (it was almost not a round trip, because the ride back was SO COLD I wanted to bury myself in the leaves until it got warm again). It makes me feel strangely cool to ride my bike from one state to another ... and on my next outdoor ride I'm going to go more than two feet across the line;)

In other news, my eyes are DRIVING ME CRAZY AGAIN. My mother was telling me to go back to the Dr. and I said "I just don't want to deal." And she said, "If it was your knee or something you could ignore it, but its your eyes - they're on your face!" And I thought, "If it was my knee, I would have been at the doctor a long time ago!"

I called today to make a hotel reservation for my ten year college reunion (how is that possible?). I wanted to make sure I had the right hotel, so I asked if my friend had booked a room there for the relevant night ... they probably shouldn't have given me this information, but they did and when I asked if I could book a room for that night as well the guy said "Sure. Would you like that on the same credit card as the other room." Yeah, I went to college in a booming high tech metropolis!

Finally, how is it possible ONLY Tuesday? At least I'm getting beer and wings with the tri club tonight ... mmmmmmmm, wings!

INTRUDER ALERT!! INTRUDER ALERT!!

2008-03-29T12:36:00.004-04:00

Kids, there has been a major security breach here at So.Much.Fun. and I'm not sure how it happened.

Actually that is a lie. I know EXACTLY how it happened. But if I tell you I'll be memorializing the act and giving the intruder attention which, if I know this intruder at all, and I do (or did) know him a bit, I suspect that is exactly what he wants. But its my blog, and I'll do what I want so ... let me start over.

TAKE 2.

Kids, there has been a major security breach here at So.Much.Fun. The perimeter has been breached and Ryan has found the blog. Ryan? Yes, Ryan ... and Ryan = 2x. 2x=Ryan. So yeah, you see the problem.

I obviously recognized this as a possibility when Dave started his blog and I left comments on it. But, I thought I was safe for awhile because:

1. 2x doesn't really seem like the blog reading type.

2. Even if he did read Dave's blog out of some sort of moral obligation I didn't think he'd read the comments.

3. Even if he did read the comments, i hoped (with not much optimism) that he wouldn't put K.Michele together with ME and click on it. This was a stretch ... but I was going with it.

Because ... back when Dave first learned about my blog, I did a bit of self censorship and moved some posts to drafts. In the end, I came back to it being MY BLOG and decided I didn't need or want to self-censor, particularly with the nick names - I thought I was protecting the innocent well enough so I re-posted all the posts.

When my good friend Dave linked directly to my post mocking his lack of swimming ability I knew that the perimeter was significantly less secure than it had been. I again considered draft mode BUT, as I said, I knew 2x a bit (once) and figured that:

1. As soon as he found this site, he'd want to either (a) mock me for it and/0r (b) let me know that he knew that I had a blog.

2. He'd want to take care of (1) before reading all the back posts ... meaning that if I moved fast I'd have time to delete.

Well, kids I was right about (1) wrong about (2). RYAN: WHEN DID YOU LEARN SUCH SELF CONTROL??? There was a 24 hour lag between 2x finding the blog and me knowing he found the blog ... so what was written was read. Whatever. Its not really that big of a deal. I mean, I wear my emotions on my face, I'm sure what I wrote wasn't that much of a surprise. And I did protect the innocent (Unlike someone who once referred to 2x on their blog by his first and LAST NAME which meant that if you googled it got picked up. Not that I EVER google exs. But hypothetically if I had googled I would have found this blog and it would have referenced 2x and his 'new lady.' And hypothetically, take it from me that if you read on a random blog that your recently exed ex has a 'new lady' it kind of makes you throw up in our mouth a little bit. Or I think it would. Hypothetically.).

Anyway, I digress. The situation is what it is now. The blog has been found and what is written is read. And now there is just one more thing to do ... give Ryan a new nickname (per his request). I don't anticipate him having many more cameos on this blog but I will nonetheless give him a new name. The initial one's I've come up with were inappropriate for a public, pseudo family friendly blog (and, er, that his girlfriend might read ... talk about security breach! HA!). So, I'm opening it up to my friendly blog readers ... suggestions are welcome.

But, because I fear there will be no suggestions (which will be disappointing, Dave), I'm going to go with RP for now.

So, for those of you paying attention at home, until further notice:

2x=Ryan=RP.

There. Now that we've got this security situation under control, you are all free to go about your weekends. And I, having finally gotten 12 hours of sleep, am going to work out for a million hours to make up for this week's slacking. Happy Saturday;)

The next thing I write will be happy, I swear.

2008-03-27T17:28:00.003-04:00

I'm tired. Mentally and physically tired. And emotional too. A great combination. Sunday we got home from grandma's around 10:30 and I went to bed at midnight. Monday I couldn't get up to workout and worked out for 1:30 after I got home from work. At nine. And then I made dinner. Tuesday a hockey game got out at the same time as my class and I got home at 11. Last night, our local bar that is closing wouldn't let me in, I got home form dinner and NOT going to the bar at 10 and decided to get in my workout. I finished around 11:30.

So its not surprising that I'm tired, physically or mentally really.

This time of year I always think back four years to when this Friday was April fool's day and my sister pranked me by saying she was pregnant. Except she almost gave me a heart attack and I didn't talk to her for 3 days. That Saturday two of my friends met and hit it off. The first weekend of this month they got engaged. And I only found out today because a third friend (who got married in Costa Rica last year) emailed to announce that he and his wife are expecting a baby so there'd be a one year old at the wedding of the other two friends that got engaged earlier this month. To find out like that made me sad. I know that people fall in love and weed out the relationships that don't matter as much. But you know what? If I had known I wasn't going to matter I wouldn't have given her subway directions to every single interview she went on that fall. I wouldn't have snuck out of work to rehash the interviews with her. I wouldn't have been there. Except I know that is a lie. I'm always there and even if I knew then what I know now, it doesn't mean that I would have mis-directed her to the 1&9. It just makes me sad, that they decided that they just didn't want to be my friend anymore. I think I'm pretty cool. Not a bad person to be friends with ... So yeah, imagine how I react when I find out that ex-boyfriends are getting married. Or when 'real' relationship ends.

And I realize that its silly to be this upset over something that matters so little in the grand scheme of things. So I must be mentally tired. Which is why I am leaving shortly to go shopping. And my next post will be happy. Really. I swear.

What I would have written ...

2008-03-24T23:42:00.003-04:00

This is the picture that I took on Saturday for the blog I intended to write last night. I wanted to call it 'Traditions' and I would have told you about Great-Aunt Angie and how she used to make this pie for seemingly the whole world. I can remember the first year that Aunt Angie decided that all the pies were just too much and gave my grandmother, her sister, half a pie which left us with barely a bite each. I guess, when you see 80 come and go, pie for the extended family is a bit much.

I was going to tell you how the year after the year that we only had half a pie, I started a movement for the next generation to learn the recipe. I was swamped at work, and despite working till early that Saturday morning, made my way to Brooklyn where it turned out, I was the only one of the next generation not to bale. I didn't really consider being alone with Aunt Angie until, upon my arrival, she gave me the itinerary: first, we'll have a muffin and some coffee, then we'll make the dough, then we'll eat lunch while the dough sits, then we'll make the pies and then, if you want, we can have dinner. Um, ok? So, I'm spending 12 hours with Great Aunt Angie??? I actually made it home for dinner, but the pie IS a day long affair. I understood why she hesitated to make them for everyone and their brother (literally) because rolling the dough is HARD.

The Easter after my lesson, I made 6 pies all by myself. It took 6 hours and there was flour EVERYWHERE. Last year my friend Carrie helped me ... it still took 6 hours but the flour was more contained and it was more fun. This year, as evidenced by the picture, there were more pies. When I was waiting at the deli for the supplies to be sliced, the deli guy asked me "what I needed all this stuff for." When I told him, he said "I didn't think people of your generation did this."

In the blog I intended to write, I would have told you how I thought back to my day with Aunt Angie and realized that maybe people of my generation don't make pie. But pie on Easter is a tradition and I want to keep it up ... this year, Carrie and Lisa came over and they each brought a rolling pin. We ate sushi and drank wine and rolled three pies at a time. It only took 2.5 hours. I wanted to sum up with my modern take on the tradition - you don't have to be a stereotypical little old Italian lady to make pie, it doesn't have to take days and days of back breaking dough making, it can be three friends, three rolling pins, some wine, spicy tuna rolls and good conversation. It can be fun. And you CAN get pies on Easter ....

Unless, when the phone rings Easter morning its not Grandma asking when you are leaving and when she should put the water for the ravioli on. Instead its Grandpa saying that Grandma fell and dislocated her shoulder, he called 911 and they're at the hospital. When they're finally home you begin the hour drive and when you get there you realize that the situation is a disaster. In one stir of the pot they went from getting by to not. And in our world of easy fixes, this situation does not have one. But you realize that even the hard fixes can't happen on Easter night so you put the water on for the ravioli because you have to eat. And then you realize that you left the pie at home.

So.Much.Fun.

For Posterity

A Marathon Haiku

A Tale of Two Races - Part II

A Tale of Two Races - Interlude

A Tale of Two Races - Part I

One weekend in August

There is hot and then there is HOT

Scenes from Criminal Minds and a PBS Special

2 days. 150 miles.

I swear I offered to circle swim ...

Two 'Fer

Goals

Camp Highlights

Chicago Bound

Sort of Maybe Update.

Random Thoughts

And we will call him Matt.

QOD

A Decade in Review

Random Updates

In the Name of Love

T-Man Race Report (FINALLY)

NJ State Triathlon

Local Sprint Triathlon

Amazing

Answer Me This ...

LONG Ride

Philly Tri

Since Rev ...

Rev3 Part 2

Rev3

Because she asked ...

Coming Around and Maybe Even Buying In ...

And then they told us to say "cheese" and smile ...

I aim to please ...

69 Seconds

Some Things Never Change

Sick is Over Rated

Girly

Outside

Puking: The Good and The Bad

Tests, Plans, Weather and Other Non-Sequiturs

2009: Off to a Good Start

Flip Turns

Busy is Better

Hard

October is a Boring Month Anyway

The IT Band Giveth ...

And it all Becomes Clear

On Dancing as it Relates to Life

There's Something Happening Here

Two Years Old

I'm Over It

On Facebook and its Evils

On Fishing and By Request

An open letter

Nada

Cameo Appearance

On Boys

On Shopping and Sleeping

Providence, Rhode Island Half Ironman Triathlon (Part II)

Providence, Rhode Island Half IronMan (Part I)

Magic Number 588

My List

I'm not sure if ...

WWYD?

The Weather Is Forecasted!

Going Long

At the Altar of Liz

The Girl Who Liked Pop Tarts

*Good* News

Pat Griskus Triathlon

Today was awesome!

"This course is a tough one!"

Where I've Been

Quick Update

Reason No. 846 Why Everyone Should Have a Coach

The Teacher and The Lawyer

Blah, blah, blah

Good News