and the winner is...

i just got it last night. still needs some accessories. but its mine and i'm so happy. his name is champ - for the time being - he is black and gold after all.

Fireflys

I read an article in some magazine, I can’t remember which one, I’m a junkie.. but it was talking about how expending mental energy can really affect your athletic performance. I think I’m seeing that these days to some degree. Not that I’m doing brain surgery at work, no way, not by any means, trust me! But we did have an unprecedented round of layoffs last week and I think the build up to that and then the actual act, and now the aftermath – for me that means a lot of extra work coming back my way. Perhaps something that I’m not ready for, or wanting honestly. BUT doing my best to get organized and just take it one day at a time.

I actually feel like I’ve gotten some quality training in the last month. The first part of the year I was always either tapering or recovering and didn’t seem like there was any room to get some good heart pounding work done. But no fear, that’s been taken care of. The heat has been a big factor lately. Riding and running in 90+ degree temps and high humidity is really not fun and sometimes I feel anti-productive but then again, maybe I’m teaching my body to work hard under tough conditions and hopefully that can come in handy at some point. But still, in the meantime, I find myself running around in dripping wet clothes and a water bottle that seems to empty itself out before I can even start to quench my thirst. Gotta love the south…

I’ve been on a mission to get a new bike. I’ve spent the past week or so riding a bunch of bikes and have narrowed the field down to 2 pretty sweet rides. So hopefully tonight after a final ride I’ll have made a decision. I’m pretty stoked to get a TT bike. More to come on that…

Watched some of the us national track championships yesterday. Wow. Talk about leg turnover. Though I have to say I was most amazed with the long jump. Holy crap do they get some air! I actually took a minute and measured out 26 or so feet just to see how far they were jumping. WOW. Try that sometime. The best I got was like what 12 feet? Sad, oh so sad.

Also spent some quality time at whole foods. If I was independently wealthy that would be my full time grocery store. We got these salmon burgers that were fabulous. I was trying to justify buying tuna steaks at 19.99 per pound, considering they looked like ones you’d get at bone fish…. But thought that was just a little too much… picked up some ground flax seed which I’m about to try on my oatmeal, some good cheese and fake bologna (love that!) , some naan bread, and a veggie stir fry. All items that I could most definitely do with out, but what the heck.

Had the weirdest dream last night that I’ll go ahead and share.. it was a Monday morning masters practice and for some reason there were like 100 people there. So weird. Normally we have about 12 or so… so I knew something was up. Especially when the pools were filled with wood chips and part of the workout was going to be to swim and pick up the chips to clean it up… I also noticed some large tables set up along the side of the pool with banners above them with greek letters.. turns out we were learning how to throw a large dinner party this morning. And the master mind behind this morning workout? Who else but jen. I never actually got in the pool, I was actually having a good hair day and didn’t see the need to ruin it to swim in a random figure 8 pattern with the 8 or so others who decided to brave the water. Hmmmmm that’s enough sharing for today.

oh wait, the reason for the title.. out side last night at dusk walking the dogs and catching fireflys. no i didnt put any in a jar nor did i tear the glow part off to make a diamond ring.. too many mishaps in my youth to know that neither of those ideas lead to good things..

ADD

No not math, lack of attention. That’s what I seem to have lately, or well always. And it’s affecting my ability to write in complete sentences. Therefore I will be creating a bulleted list of updates and well that’s as good as its getting today.

• My little brother came thru town last week. When I say came thru I literally mean used Raleigh as a stopover point. Nothing like the love between siblings. Ha. He was headed to the beach house for some r and r. he managed to buy a somewhat decent though perhaps a bit ill fitting cross bike while here, that will carry him on a 5 day trek from Pittsburgh to DC this summer.

here we are waiting for a table at bone fish...he's so happy to be my brother. haha

• I’ve become a groupie. No not like the old pat mcgee days… but I’ve been doing some group workouts lately – mostly on the bike – which have been mostly great. the one ride gets a bit squirrely at times, but I figure I’m still riding above where I would alone so its maybe worth the extra grief. I still enjoy the girls ride much better, we still ride FAST but take longer pulls and spend less time jostling around and more time chatting (on the cool down of course!)

• Something clicked last night in the pool. Despite having a really sore back – which I think may have happened fighting the waves in the lake on sat- I felt really good, and well maybe it was because I was also practicing my drafting (thanks to jerry!) but my stroke was strong and smooth and for once I didn’t feel like a fish out of water, (ha that was terrible!).

• Got my first- and hopefully only- flat of the year last night. Coming home, about 1.5 miles from my house I was rolling over some rough road and all of a sudden I hear PSSSSSSSSSS… ugh. Yep flat. So even though I had an extra tube I decided to just kick of my shoes and run the rest of the way home. Ok jog, tough to go fast when you are holding your bike, carrying your shoes, and wearing just socks, and still sporting your helmet… I only got a few weird looks and beeps..

• I have been looking at bikes lately… its amazing to me having never ridden a TT bike the difference in feel. Everyone knows that I LOVE my six-13, love it! But I just know that a tt bike is necessary to keep moving forward. Don’t worry, as soon as I get one you will know.

• Work is work is work. Nothing really terribly exciting to say there. Never is. But the GOOD thing the past few months is I have not been traveling. Which has been awesome. I definitely don’t mind that part of my job but for a while there I was gone about half the time and that makes for a very complicated and hectic life. Something that I’m defiantly appreciating now!

• Bobby graduated with his MBA 2 weeks ago. now he is ready to bring in the big bucks. ha.


• Finally, a little “hey” to all the folks who read but I don’t know that you read but I’m glad that you do

cue the pointer sisters

i'm so excited! i might just might be buying a new TT bike in the very near future. yippie!

sucker!

three years ago today, someone made a pretty hairy decision... somewhat similar to jumping off a cliff... or hitting on 18 at the black jack table...or signing up for triathlon.. yep CRAZY!!! three years ago bobby decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. and i have to say i'm pretty happy he did. its been a great ride so far with miles still to go.

Dare I say it?

I’m boring. Yep. BORING. Havent had much to report lately so I’ve negleted the blog. I mean who really wants to hear about the dogs running away (totally not my fault so you know where the blame lies there!) or that its now hot enough to eat the ice pops in our freezer (yum).
I had a great week of training last week which included a few new group workouts, the lake swim, and also a ride with some pretty speedy girls that made me ride out front with a bit of fear in my heart that they were behind me! Also finally managed an 80 mile ride, which was mostly good, except for the last 30 or so minutes when the pain came. Not really fatigue or legs or back, but my feet. Yes. The right one felt slightly cracked and the left a bit tender. Not sure what that’s about. Maybe I need to assess my pedal placement on my shoes..
This weekend we headed up to philly for graduation. We had booked the flight months ago, in no way being able to predict that Game 7 would be on, when the penguins had to lay it all out to grab the cup. And not knowing that the exact moment we flew down the runway, the puck would be dropped. And not understanding why, upon arrival in the philly airport, there was NOTHING open to even get a glimpse of the game. And then not making the train to the city by exactly 35 seconds. And then not saying happy things to the hotel operator when NBC was the only channel we didn’t get in our hotel room. And finally finding a bar that had the game on and watching the last 10 minutes. Well worth it to see the sheer joy on the faces of the team. But quite the fiasco, and much love to those who sent me endless updates on the game 

The pain in my leg has subsided greatly over the past few weeks of therapy. It still is quite bothersome some nights, shaking me awake with the need to move my legs around (and perhaps swiftly kick anyone who might be in proximity..) but I’ve learned that is due to some smaller nerves that may take a bit longer to adjust to where they need to be. And the pain is waiting until the last maybe 20 minutes of long runs to make its presence known so that is also an improvement. Baby steps right?
I finished a great book – the ultramarathon man- confessions of an all night runner. This guy dean is crazy! But good crazy. He’s got an amazing competitive spirit and has pushed himself to limits that I think few people could even fathom. Talk about living in the pain cave! He’s great inspriation and actually a decent writer so if you’re looking for some good summer reading….
A huge congrats to everyone who raced this weekend (and the past few weekends!) I can honestly say that I’ve never known such a group of WINNERS! Its absolutely crazy to know people who are truly amazing in this sport. You guys inspire me to want to be better and to go harder.
Happy “holy crap the summer is flying by” june everyone!

believe it!

i swam 3 times in 2 days. yes people it is the truth. hard to fathom i know. but the mile in jordan sunday morning, masters monday morning (which was not fun or fast but came down to one stroke at a time after sunday's long day) and then again monday after work with a fun little group in another Jordan lake cove.

i've gotten this bug up my butt to really get something done with my swim. after seeing a slight improvement in FL, i really want to see some low digits at steelhead. partly motivated by a competitive edge, partly guilty for the amount of money we are spending to race another 70.3... but either way im trying my darnedest to get even a little bit better. maybe it wont even be my stroke but swimming in a straighter line or figuring out the whole "Finding feet" thing..

here is where we swam monday night. the water level is WAY up with all of the rain we had. last year this time there would have been about 15 more feet of beach here...

Open water swim challenge

Yesterday was my first ever swimming only race. First. Ever. Yesterday was the first time I would enter the water, swim and then be done. Weird. The race was part of a series put on by OSB (bri and marty’s coaching company) and the FS Series. I volunteered to participate thinking I need all the open water practice I can get and probably more importantly to score some brownie points with the coach! (not sure if that worked…) anyway to further the fun I decided to get bobby to swim in the race as well. i mean who doesnt want to get up early and jump in a lake?? When I asked him about it he kind of looked at me as if I just asked him to drink nail polish remover, but he didn’t say NO so signed him up. Perhaps not something most wives would do, but whatever. Its not like he is going to drown. Bobby was a swimmer. A good one, as I’ve mentioned before, and actually used to do triathlon back in the day (before I did). Lately though he’s been more of a gym rat so the cardio is not quite in tip top shape… ok lets be honest, he's strong as a horse but his cardio is crap.

So Sunday comes and we pile our stuff in the car. I brought my bike since I planned to do a long ride afterwards. Also thrown in there was my wet suit. Word on the street was temps were going to be legal to wear it so you betcha I was putting that sucker on. I did hear the comment that “real swimmers” were going sans suit, but we all know I am NOT a real swimmer so no harm done. Turns out it was about 50/50 polyester to rubber. A few of my fellow masters swimmers were there so it was nice to see some familiar (if not super fast!) faces. Marty did a quick swim clinic at the beginning and then we all made our way out past the dock to start. It was basically a triangle swim with 4 buoys to sight from.

So the race starts and immediately it’s the most congested I’ve ever been in a swim. Bodies seem to be everywhere (there were only 120 people total so I’m not sure where they all came from!) but now I truly understand (or maybe not even ) the IM starts. Had I done this a year ago I totally would have paniced, but I stayed calm and just swam, trying to avoid as much contact as possible. Looking back I might have tried to surge ahead to get out of their way but I wasn’t thinking to clearly at this point as the traffic was highly unexpected. so i just delt with it and tried to not get any road rage....

So I swam. Trying to give more than the normal effort I put out in a swim (which usually leads folks to say ”what were you doing out there?”) and get into a steady rhythm. I felt like I sighted a lot better on this swim and maybe only veered off slightly at a few different points. My biggest weakness (ok ONE of my weaknesses) is my non-ability to find feet to follow. Not sure if I’m not looking in the right place, or even what I would do if I found some.

Rounding the third buoy coming back I tried to pick up my pace a bit and maybe catch some people in front of me. I did and even passed one or two. Over all it wasn’t a bad swim for me and I feel like my time (29 and change) is on the right track. I ended up 4th in my AG (stupid AG) and didn’t get the coffee mug.

I was surprised to get back to the finish and not see bobby waiting for me. I was even more surprised when I went to get a towel and walked back to the finish and still didn’t see him. How could I miss him in less than 100 people? Apparently because he was still swimming. He came in 7 minutes behind me and to say I was shocked is an understatement. Bobby used to swim circles around me. But lately as I mentioned he hasn’t been putting in the lung building work outs (by lately I mean years!) he said he was spent by the first buoy and his pride kept him from flagging down the kayaker! But he finished a long race. So that makes both of us happy.

After the race we hung around and chatted a bit then I took off on my bike for a long ride. bobby went home and crashed with a plate of eggs and a pile of movies.
Thanks to OSB for putting on a great event. The next one isn’t until the end of august, but you bet I’ll be gunning for that coffee mug!

bri gaal and me. 2 very lovely ladies. ha!



me and bobby post race. see now he is happy -- its over.

just stuff.

For some reason I don’t remember all of these thunderstorms last year. Maybe because I didn’t care that much about training, maybe because I wasn’t really paying attention or maybe because we actually were in a pretty severe draught…yep that would make sense… but it seems that every day holds the chance for rain. And me, newly christened “weather girl” has been glued to the radar on some occasions wondering at what point the drops will start and if it’s possible to get the ride in or not. I’m about 50/50 on my predictions. Clearly in the same realm as the real weather predictors.
Much to my not liking (ha) I’ve signed up for the one mile Jordan Lake challenge this Sunday. BUT I have roped bobby into it as well. He was not too thrilled when he learned that I had signed him up in the Clydesdale group. But, well, he IS. And has a good chance of winning that division. Ok well maybe. Should be a fun morning, I think they swim where the duke half course was… and as we all know I need all the open water practice I can get. Especially sighting. And not veering off to the right into unchartered (and lonely) waters! I can only hope not to be completely embarrassed by the speedy Gaals…wonder if I can tie a rope to bri and have her pull me… and just say it’s me learning to draft….
Therapy – my first appt on Monday was very informative. And honestly very painful. I had ice packs on my back for the next two days and was wondering if this was truly the way to go. I went back yesterday and had another look at my x-rays and some more explanation. Some more ART and some more adjusting. I’ve actually felt a bit better (well last night) but mainly this morning at work. (yep writing the blog at work.) normally after sitting for an hour I’m shifting and rubbing and getting ready to go find some ice. But today has been good. even sitting thru a now 2 hr conference call I have been only feeling a few twinges here and there. So happy to report that I seem to be making some progress. Though it’s early and it’s not magically cured.
I spent a good deal of time last night (between periods of the hockey game, go pens!) trying to teach Madison a trick. Not a new trick, as she does not technically know any tricks at all. thought something simple like “shake” might be up her alley as we tried the treat on the nose thing and that lead to disaster and perhaps some low self esteem. I don’t think her head is level… anyway. She did it the first time and then a second and I thought we were on a roll. But then she had one of her “fish 15 second memory” moments and looked at me as if I was speaking French. The then laid her head on her paw and tried to sleep. good thing she is cute….

the JINX

i believe. wholeheartedly. in the jinx.

diagnosis.

The first time bobby and I drove from Richmond to Atlanta for thanksgiving it was a disaster. We hit traffic at every possible turn and what was supposed to be an 8 hr drive turned into about 12. But what I remember most about that trip was how hard it was to sit still for any length of time. And not just because I have no patience and the attention span of a six year old…. It was because of the pain in my left leg. I thought it was a cramp or just stiff from sitting in the car for so long. I had to shift positions so much and I was literally begging to get out of the car.
Fast forward to now. The pain is still present and at best is a dull ache and worst – feels like acid radiating down my entire leg. Not so fun. I had some MRI’s and testing done early last year to try to find out what it was. After about 8 weeks of PT I knew what they were doing wasn’t working so I quit going. I finally said enough is enough and went to see a dr. yesterday. Sciatica. Or some form of it. That’s what I have. Stemming from 2 issues (or what I’m calling screwed up bones!). First- the last lumbar in my back apparently could not decide if it wanted to be a lumbar or if it wanted to be part of my bone structure of my hips so it morphed into some sort of hybrid. Trouble. Second issue is that my right and left hip are basically almost perpendicular to each other. These 2 phenomenons are creating a messy place in my lower back where the nerves come thru.

So- the word is therapy. Twice a week. BUT the good news is that I should start to feel better in a few weeks. HALLELUJAH! No more sitting at my desk in agony trying to figure out a position that will feel ok. No more waking up in the middle of the night (note I have no idea what time I wake up as I REFUSE to look at the clock, ever. After seeing a very scary movie where the 3:33 am time was revealed as the devil’s something.. I am scared to see that on the clock) feeling like I want to chop off a limb. No more long runs that end in a shuffle. And the one person who is more thrilled than me? Yep you guessed it. Bobby. After years of complaining I might finally shut up… ok well that not going to happen, but one less thing!
It's funny. I guess sometimes we all take our health for granted when it’s good. I’m looking forward to just feeling normal for a change.