its good to be home

i got my bike back today. i get to sleep in my own bed. i saw the girls. i ate some plain yogurt and granola. life is good.

i did as everyone must do in vegas and made a donation to the city. looks like i wont be quitting my job anytime soon.. though i admit i only put in about $3 to start. the word high roller does not apply. i figured it was better to use the extra dollars to purchase some chocolate than push slot buttons for another thirty seconds..
looking forward to getting some good workouts in this weekend as show time does not allow for regular schedules to happen. though i have to guess that over the past 5 days i have walked more than a marathon. no joke. just to get to the monorail you have to walk all the way thru 2 casinos and just dodging and weaving thru all the people and tables and statues (there were oddly a lot of statues) it was a work out. ok not really, but carry a computer bag and a box of brochures and its pretty close!

i hate vegas

i hate that is 107 degrees here, i hate that everyone says oh its dry heat, i'm sorry that is HOT! i hate that there are a million people everywhere. i hate that everything costs so much. i hate that you have to walk thru a million miles of casino to get anywhere. i hate that i have to spend 10 hours of my day at a tradeshow. i hate that i cant find any normal food. i hate that i broke down and had starbucks today as that was the only (semi) food source open on day one of the show. (does whip cream count as dariy?) i hate all the mexicans on the street who try to get you to take their ads for naked ladies. i hate people who run into you in cross walks. i hate that people buy m&m's here at the m&ms store cause they are in vegas and everything is different in vegas than the candy they get at the 7-11 in podunk kentucky.
i do enjoy that on my am run (crappy as it was) i saw 2 drunk cowboys, a blatent walk of shame, a man bidding farewell to a hooker and a man with no shirt and only one shoe, but managed to hang on to his eiffel tower souvenier cup, who reeked of rough night.

i want my bike back

i miss my bike. its been in the shop for 10 days now awaiting a part. its tough not to have it. i've been on this rental trek bike this week and while its an ok bike, it has not been the same. its not like driving a rental car where you crank up the speed and trash the interior.. this feels more like sleeping on someone else's couch. and when you have an intimate 4 hour session with something that is not your usual, its always a bit off. it was a very silent ride today, normally i talk to my bike here and there, but not so today.. we had nothing in common.. so please say a prayer for me that soon my bike will be functioning properly and we can be reunited. i promise to give it a warm welcome home!
in 2 hours i head to sin city. blah! having no desire to gamble, see cher or celine,or spend $12 on a beer, i have no business heading to this city. but alas cotton calls and i must. i've found out that i can get a pass to the UNLV student center to use their pool so thats good. tomorrow's AM run on the strip will hopefully be early enough that the drunken fools from the night before have not awakened, but the stench has had time to burn off. good times.

AARGH!

today bad dog (see mug shot above) decided that her late afternoon itinerary of napping, cat patrol and additional napping was not satisfactory and that perhaps her little legs needed a brisk bout of exercise. while said owner was out on bike ride, bad dog jimmied the door and excused herself from confinement. bad dog then proceeded to run free (picture toto in the wizard of oz "run toto run!") and explore every nook, cranny, bush, mud puddle, and burr tree with in a mile radius. (events are only an educated guess as said owner did not accompany bad dog on her eco adventure).

Upon returning from her bike ride, owner finds GOOD dog (see angelic tribute above) sitting in the open door waiting for her arrival. Good dog wags tail. Good dog, responding to plea from owner "go find your sister" first does a perimeter check around the house, then proceeds to the neighbor's porch, a likely hang out for bad dog (see above). with further encouragement from owner to "go get her", good dog dives into the forest/pasture/field of chest high weeds that is the wilderness behind our home. Because owner is still in socks from afore mentioned bike ride, navigating the terrain becomes a bit trecherous. however, like a true hunting hound, good dog flushes bad dog out of the brush (though she is neither hunter nor hound) and celebrates with a potty break on the lawn.

at this point, bad dog (again, reference mug shot) is giddy from the rush of adventure, and covered in muck (defined as mud, slop, burrs, grass and gravel). bad dog, pleased with her afternoon jaunt, proceeds back to the gate as if to say, i'm finished now and ready to go inside.

another day in the life of chaos, as this would only happen when owner has exactly 10 minutes to dismount bike and be in car to speed back to work for call with china.

division of labor

we've got a good system going in the mayhew household. splitting up chores and duties. bobby does the cooking (bobby was a good husband last night and made a batch of choc chip cookies. can you beat that?) and trash and yard work and bug patrol (including all creatures that come from the animal kingdom that is our back yard, ie snakes, coons, frogs) and dog care (to include washing, tooth brushing, flea medicine application, sharing dinner morsels and middle of the night bathroom trips outside). me- i'm laundry and cleaning, social scheduling and travel planning. its good. it works and we havent killed each other yet so see, marriage can be fun!

anyway- on a much more relevant topic. i started back training yesterday. well kind of. a nice long rest week after du, and a good break to let the swelling come out of my ankle. i lived the life of normality for 5 days and it felt foreign to me. coming straight home from work with no bike ride or trip to the pool was somewhat odd, even more so when it was followed by nights on the couch to rest my foot. thank god the olympics were on, i might have gone crazy. very excited to get back on track and get a good month in before my first 70.3.

the land of waffles

so i guess its about time i wrote a little about our trip to belgium. definitely a place that should be on everyone's must visit list. its very european (well duh its in europe!) but not like paris or london which to me is so modern and commercialized. it was very cool to spend time in a small town where people still ride their bikes and get together for a pint every night of the week. (ok so that is all of europe) but still. anyway a few random smatterings from the trip, the race and beyond..

flying mounts by old ladies - i mentioned the bike riding all over town, to buy groceries, to commute.. but i was most impressed by the elderly ladies executing perfect flying mounts in long dresses and heels.. quite a spectacular feat!

i dont know german, and neither do people who live in belgium - it was my bad to assume i was told in no uncertain terms that they speak dutch.. note to self- spend some time to research where you are going. normally i'm really good about that but this trip seemed to bounce up out of no where..

seeing 4 x 100 men's relay on french tv! the Olympics perhaps did not reach the spectacle they have in the US, but we were able to catch some coverage on teh french and german (or dutch who knows..) channels.. how cool to hear the french commentators bursting with pride and excitement as the 2 anchors swam toward the wall. they thought they had the win.. and when the US started celebrating you could hear the WTF in the frenchman's voice. classic. that was a proud to be an american moment!

waffles and coke light - ok so everyone talks about beer and chocolate when visiting belgium. yes they were good. but in my heart of hearts, the waffles were to die for. warm and delicious, covered with powdered sugar that just melted just a little.. wow! and the coke light there was really good. a bit sweeter and more refreshing. simple things you notice..

cant judge an athlete by their bike - this was one of my race learnings. i get so siked out at bike check in when i'm ooogling other peoples $5000 bikes. thinking wow they must be awesome! but what i learned is yes, some of them are, but some of them are just normal people on expensive bikes!

no fat people and no long hair.. in belgium. why i dont know. just an observation.

the pros are FAST - lightening fast. it was a thrill to watch them compete up close.

i know my friend jen is loving that i got beat by an aussie. enough said.

always travel with your own pillow - this is a lesson for all - anytime any place. your own pillow beats the snot out of anything you might get at a hotel. plus if you are lucky it has the smells of home on it still to comfort you :)

morning surprise

when i came into work yesterday i had a really nice surprise waiting for me. makes you feel good when people are happy for you, even if they really dont understand what it is you are doing :)

race report - Long course DU

its been an interesting trip, both with sights of belgium and the race itself. just going to tackle yesterday's race and will get to the other stuff later..
the weather here has shown us all four seasons in the span of about 30 minutes. seriously. so it was a toss up what to expect. alas race morning brought cold temps, wind and rain. not just sprinkles, but full on rain. weather that makes you long to get back in to bed..nice. anyway start time was 802, right after the 40+ men.. yep if i cant catch some of those guyss...my ankle has been ok, i've been running on it and it hasnt been too much of an issue. the swelling refuses to go down though.. but some how i knew i would have other hurt parts during the race that an ankle would be the least of my suffering ...
anyway its always funny at the start as the guys stare each other down and try to look intimidating, while the ladies are all chatty and talking about uniforms and weather and post race goodies.. anyway - the first run.. at no time in my mind did i think about this leg as 11+ miles. it was four laps. no more no less. four is a much easier number to work with than 11... anyway there was definately a group of girls woho took off like rockets. i settled a bit behind them. i knew i wanted to be at a comfortably hard pace, and since the course was marked in km i decided to not look at mile splits, impossible anyway, and instead guage by lap times. it turned out to be a great run for me except lap four which brought on a terrible side stich. it lasted just about entire last lap, with me cringing on the right side - BTW pinching your side does not help as i had always been told.. i was so thankful for the bike leg.. i had a goal of 7:30 miles on the run (which i thought would be tough but doable for me) and ended up at 7:08. so that was a victory in it self. T1 was a bit of a mess for me, as all the bikes always magically look the same when lined up.. good thing they were in numbered order (a small luxury i've never experienced where they put your name and number on your bike spot!) anyway for some reason i kind of forget what i need to do here. so its was like put on one shoe, put on helmut and glasses, grab gels (bento box will be my next investment! shoving 5 gels into your uniform is quite teh trick..) then other shoe, ok guess i'm ready.. ok yes bike.. and switch number (they made us wear race belts the entire time). so off on the bike. i love the bike. especially the beginning when your legs feel good and you just roll. that is awesome. so teh course is flat. flat flat can be. good news. bad news is its over cobble stone and the wind and rain were tough. blow me over tough :)4 laps of this course as well. over all it was an ok bike for me. not spectacular but solid. not quite the split i was hoping for though. but perhaps that was a direct result of the 180. my nemisis on this course. so quick explanation - there was an out and back portion on a highway where you had to do a 180 at the end of it in a very tight turn. right hand turn. i'm not good at turns. and when i had to make 4 of those over the course of the ride, it was not pretty. turn #1 i went wide and up into the grass..(yep embarrassing!!) turn #2 thought i would be cool and remove shoes from pedals to help navigate. great idea o geting feet back in proved tto be daunting as feet were frozen and slippery. turn #3 determiined to do this right, i made the turn and lost momentum and yep fell on my right side. road rash galore. (which is now turning a matching shade of purple to my ankle. man i am BROKEN!) ha ha. sprawled on the road, one shoe off, it was probably humerous to on lookers - but very painful to me. turn #4, honestly i dont even remember this one, i think i took out one shoe and it was marginally better.. the point of this turn is that it took away my plans to pass the would be #2 in my age group... after the third mishap i never saw her again. ugh.. so the bike ended and T2 was much better though 2 more girls from my AG blew in right behind me out of no where. i think i lost a lot more ground on that bike than i thought.. losing sight of my target i forgot about the ones behind me.. oh and some chick racked her bike in my spot so that frazzeled me cause i was like where is mind supposed to go.. i just shoved it in the next one and hoped for the best...so the second run.. at this point i was just putting one foot out there as fast as possible. trying to stay tall and relaxed. i knew i could pass the girl from GB who came thru in T2 and was just ahead. the issue i knew would be the aussie girl. its like there was a 20 yd wall between us. and i could not close the gap. the last 2 km or so i tried to find the next gear and it wasnt there. i was done. i knew i would be mad that i missed third, but i also knew that i gave it my best shot and had no more to give. so i took fourth. 15th overall. it was a great experience all around. meeting all of these different athletes and learning some key things (know the bike course - volunteers who point to the left are not always correct..!!, dont let the no draft rule keep you from hanging back on people and not moving forward, practice quicker transitions.) i'm really happy to have been a part of it. and have now eaten my weight in waffles and chocolate to celebrate. to be running around town hearing people yell' go usa' is really cool. no it was not the olympics, but it was awesome.

ready to go!

bags are packed, bike is ready to be boxed up, lists are checked. so hard to believe we leave tomorrow for belgium. crazy. absolutely crazy. my first taste at a real taper and after a tough weekend i feel like i'm ready. felt good to day and hope to follow that track. ankle is still swollen but i think it will have to toughen up a bit :) i'm excited and nervous and scared and curious.. all at the same time. i know i'm going to learn alot on this trip and in this race so i'm wide open!

THREE

is the number of cupcakes in my hostess 100 calorie pack. its the number of miles it takes me to warm up in a long run. its the number of TV shows i regularly watch - Lost, Burn notice and sex in the city re-runs. bad luck also comes in three's. which i've learned first hand this week. first with the DNF, then the ankle and yesterday 20 minutes into my ride, my shoe clip breaks. nice. its been a tough week in my head as far as being able to get thru and even past these things and eventually laugh at them. i feel like i want everything to be on the upswing when i leave on wednesday, but i realized that i have to make that upswing happen. hopefully it started with my new bike shoes :) gotta keep the positive vibes going and i think it helps that every time i look down on my bike now I can smile and say I"m gonna make it.

slow down!

most times my brain lags far behind my other moveable parts (ie mouth and legs) and more often than not this combination gets me into trouble. i'd like to think its because my brain is top notch and always tuned in to brilliance.. but we all know thats not true.. so the trouble comes sometimes with my words that just kind of linger out in the open space after i've said them, and then regret saying them, and then think of a million different (better) things i could have said. or like yesterday when i tripped over my own shoes and twisted my ankle into oblivion - ending up with a baseball sized lump. smooth move. 24 hours later after a gimpy swim and mostly successful bike ride, the road to recovery seems to be longer for my ego than my ankle. i'm thankful this isnt too painful, and i'm able to keep on with the schedule. we'll see how a run goes tomorrow. dr. bobby has been pretty good at telling me what to do (and bringing me dinner while i elevated my leg. nice huh?) note to self- no more wedge heeled shoes, no more running at work and obey all STOP signs.