what were you thinking?

remember this stuff? i was reading an article today by the creator (he actually admitted it was his idea!) and he said that all in all it was a good plan, he had done all the research, found the right target market, designed a great ad campaign.. one thing he forgot was to make sure it tasted good. duh!! and i do remember trying this - it was horrid. well a long story short, that guy went back to the drawing board and now owns YUM! poster child for "if at first you dont succeed..."

anyway nice slow day in the pool for me today. i almost didnt know what to do with myself when i was home and done for the day at 6 pm. that is an odd phenomenon for me. do i watch the news? do i wash some clothes? do i take the girls for a walk? survey says: D. all of the above. ... so this is what normal people do after work.. hmmmm...

balance - or more appropriately titled: my name is kari and i'm addicted..

so last night we went to the durham bulls game. i think we only stayed for about 6 innings since we got there late and left before it was over. no shortage of small children doing what small children do - yell the same 4 words over and over, spill things, make numerous trips to the bathroom, yell for the mascot to come over...

i do find it interesting to see what songs the players pick to play over the loudspeaker when they are up to bat. always a bad a$$ bumpin' song you might hear coming out of a pimped out ride, that you think has to belong to a large black man who has not only memorized but lived the lyrics... but alas its usually a small white guy coming up, guess they are trying to prove something. i thought about what song i would play and its a toss up between jack johnson's flake and foo fighters all my life. though i would also like to do something like madonna's "express yourself" just to make everyone say "huh?" figure that one out!

anyway no food purchases at the ball park, every time i go i get a soft pretzel which i love,but here they are always not hot and not soft.. so a stop at harris teeter was made on the way home and cookie cake purchased. we always get the one with the most icing, though now they actually sell tubs of the stuff. .but thats a bit much right? we got the one that said congratulations on it. we always pick the one with the most icing.. our best one yet was a "hats off the the graduate" comeplete with iced hat and diplma. yes!!! easter and spring are the best times as flowers us up large quantities of icing. yes there is an art to choosing your cake! i do eat cookie cakes, and brownies and ice cream. its all about balance and i do believe quality of life. i'm giving it my all for triathlon right now but there has to be room for the other stuff too. and darn they are good!!!!

tunnel vision

so i've realized that i need to change my thinking both going into workouts and when i'm in the midst.. its overwhelming for me to look at a week and think - oh geez i have to do all that in the span of seven days? and sometimes even breaking it down to just what my daily workout is can lead to a few heart palpitations.. so what i'm trying to do is put on the blinders. take it one day at a time, one workout at a time, even one set at a time. when its only the next 6 minutes i need to get thru, i can trick my self in to going harder if thats all i have to do. no room to even entertain thoughts of the pending 2 hr ride or even the next set of 6 minutes just looming ahead. being in that one moment and doing the best that i can for just that time. in the past when i have gotten ahead of myself i've turned on the conservation button and probably not given a good effort in order to save up for the work ahead. but i'm finding that its not a good way to go. nor is it benefiting me. if i want to get better at this i'm going to have to learn to push from start to end. so if it takes me faking a bit of amnesia about the future... i'm ready.

hierarchy

i do believe this is not to far from the truth for some!

a random smattering

so a few odd thoughts that needed to come out..

on my run/ride on sunday i saw exactly 6 dead animals on the road. 3 rats, 1 frog, 1 squirrel and 1 unidentified remain.. was a bit reminiscent of the Apocalypse.. reminded me of an incident in college.. the rats did.. freshman year. dorm life. my RA was a not nice girl who was especially not nice to the guys on the hall below us. anyway one early morning i awake to screaming.. turns out they (in all their maturity) had pinned a dead rat by its tail to the bulletin board on her door.

just because something costs more and is in a nicer package doesnt mean its better. case in point the sourdough bread i bought at whole foods the other day. gorgeous label, wonderful display case, high price tag, --- blah! honestly the bread at wal mart is like a million times better. long live capitalism.. or at least off shore sourcing.. ha ha

my dogs lead the best life. try and beat it! they have their own bed room. yes really, sleep all of the night and then some of the day, have a mostly green yard they can frolic in when ever they please, have a plethora of birds, squirrels and rabbits to chase, food at all hours, a treat for doing nothing more than just walking in from outside, more belly rubs than a Buddha, walks around the neighborhood to just see whats up, they puke on expensive rugs that we have to replace and because there are 2 of them we are never sure which one it was, and they are blessed with good looks.

TV shows have really gone off the deep end. i cant even watch. it is quite possible they have explored and now televise every possible facet of reality that our own lives have truly become irrelevant. there is a dog grooming contest, too many chef shows to count, COPS is still on, every celebrity from kathy griffen to now denise richards has their own show, you can make over your home, your self, your best friend, if you have one iota of talent in your left pinky then surely you have thought to enter "the next best ______" or "america's newest ____" its all so terrible. if you need love, fame or fortune there is surely some producer out there who will exploit the heck out of you to make it happen.. ugh..

training and working is tough. a few rough days in the office and then a few long hours on the circuit will really ruffle your feathers a bit and your body definitely has a point when enough is enough and you start to falter. i'm learning to balance the two and to, even in the times of being tired, find that third gear and go. its definitely a battle sometimes.

waddle on friends (love that out of runner's world!)

bonk and beautiful

start of the ride.. with tons of people!!!

so today was the firecracker group ride. with it i learned two important lessons. the first was a reminder that i hate group rides when there are more than say 5 people. its like trying to leave a nascar event after the checkered flag - you have to dodge a trillion people who are not paying attention to where they are going, they are rolling along at all different speeds and will stop suddenly for no apparent reason. blah! the crowd did thin out about 20 miles into the ride, but that first hour was brutal enough to effect the whole ride. hence my second lesson - DRINK. drink often and early. i was spending so much of my efforts to not crash that i was not comfortable to sip- and probably super tense using up energy.. ugh! i really paid for it the last 1.5 hrs of my ride as even after filling both my bottles at the last stop i was empty and hurting by the three hr mark. the 97 degree temps and humidity didnt help either, but today was one day when i had to cut my ride short and just get home. my legs were not cooperating. i had lost all of the speed and drive i had the first 2 hours. it was a bonk.

sooo after what i consider a partially good ride (due to lessons learned at at least some good miles) i think i needed to make up with something positive and since we never had spring cleaning, we had summer holiday day off cleaning. woo! makes you feel good to see your floor again, and get all the dog hair from out of the corners. we even re-arranged some furniture. yes it was a very productive after noon.

very fitting was a trip to dairy queen to reward our efforts. who knew the inside of that place was so posh.. the last time i was in a dairy queen i didnt want to stay long but was forced to as i was stuck to the booth.. anyway.. now bobby is napping on the couch, guess his ride plus his forced housekeeping tired him out.

its official

the uniform has arrived. its actually not too bad looking and fits well. both of which i was a bit concerned about.. also got a few cool freebies including a hat that bobby has already claimed.. and a new water bottle. which brings our household total up to about 35. some women collect shoes, i get excited if i get a new bottle... call me crazy.. but now the reality has hit.. its funny, i know exactly how many days away the race is thanks to NBC and their constant reminders about the olympics starting - seeing that my race is 2 days after that. i almost feel like they are talking to me as well as the olympic athletes.. (hey i can dream!)

smokey is excited for the trials as well. something i learned 4 years ago in richmond.. she is a tv watcher. no joke. her favorite programs include meercats, the kitty litter commercial with the blood hound dog (no kidding. she comes running when that music starts), sci fi movies, and of course swimming. i'm not sure what it is about swimming but she is mezmerized. she follows the swimmers across the screen. i know its a case of everyone thinks their dog is the cutest.. but...

in the midst of my biggest training week ever so we'll see how i survive come sunday when its finished! bobby and i are doing the firecracker ride tomorrow am. its a HUGE annual group ride - i think last year they had about 800 riders. my goal is to get in with the front riders for a while and just hang on for at least 1/2 of the ride. seeing as i wont know where i am until that point its not just work out related but survival as well... i'm not that great at following the cue sheets they give you as i'm always looking for the wrong road. so we'll see how the 100k goes..

its been challenging balancing a full time job with the increase in training. thankfully my job is not overly stressful (as most of you know from the millions of emails i send out daily) and i've been able to work around travel.. but i do envy those who work from home or have flexible hours.. did a run then a ride on the trainer to night. caught up on my secret TV show i like to watch - days of our lives. i know possibly the worst thing on tv right now - or ever. bad acting, bad story lines, but just a guilty pleasure.. i mean the deceit, the manipulation, the love fiascos, the attempt to create a cool looking hip dance club on tv - or most recently the fitness club where people are pretending to work out.. so good.

but i do love what i'm doing, otherwise i dont think i could get myself out there everyday.

happy 4th!