Thursday, June 28, 2007

Random thoughts from someone who obviously has time on her hands today..

Here is a nugget of info. There are several questions you may want to ask before you and your spouse decide to take a significant amount (maybe forever) time off of work together. Questions like: Do we have enough to live on? How will it be being around each other so much? What do we want to do? travel? Triathlons? Take dance classes?

BUT-the most important question you need to ask yourself is: (drum rolling)....

How much do I like to do laundry?

Now this takes careful consideration especially if you: a) are use to a professional -cleaner doing alot of your laundry for work-takes 10 min to drop off and pick up b) Both of you are training maniacs so there are several sets of clothes, some sweaty and smelly everyday. I do at least a load of laundry every other day-for 2 people! This brings back memories of always hearing the sound of the washing machine going when we had 4 teenage girls in the house (I made them do their own laundry since they were 8-my daughter still thinks that was neglect).

I actually came up with a new system using this laundry organizer my daughter turned me on to from Target. This daughter is the one who shares my love for organization. we have firmly decided that the "Container Store" is our absolute favorite-only beating Bed, Bath and Beyond by a hair. We could spend hours on the phone (she lives in Denver) discussing new products to make our lives more orderly. She is not a Virgo but definitely has the Virgo gene from me.

I digress:

So now that you are informed you can make a rational decision when the time comes. Listen, the laundry takes on a whole new dimension when it piles up everyday. My hubby cooks and shops so I agreed this is my duty but I swear every time I think I have it all done-more sweaty clothes show up..

Feeling my age..and day dreaming..

I finally got tired yesterday. Hartley and i did a 30 mile bike ride on the Bosque Trail-nothing hard but my legs felt like someone had poured cement in them. Afterwards a 1900 meter swim-again felt tired. Oh and weighed myself and gained 2 lbs since before BSLT. That is depressing! My body doesn't feel recovered which scares me a little after the reviews i am reading about Farmington (very difficult, hilly, etc). I guess i wasn't thinking this was going to be a hard course for some odd reason..Oh well, I'll do how I do after the big race last weekend. I will think of it as a "long training day" . Yea right-that never works for me! Once I get around you other athletes, I get revved up and push myself anyways..I have allergies and they are bad the last couple of days. NOW what the heck is blooming? Seems like allergies are always here in ABQ. My dream is to find a place where no pollen exists, still has the perfect weather we have here and is preferably near an ocean, but not expensive. Oh, and while I am dreaming, i would like to be not farther than 200 miles away from any of my children and grandchildren. No crime and with mountains like the Sandias I am looking at outside my window right now..Does such a land exist?

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

My other half caves and we do a half!!

Guess what? After 6 years in the sport, 3 of which my husband didn't even know how to ride a bike or swim, he finally agreed to do a half Ironman with me!! I had to PROMISE I would stay with him, literally- Realistically, I am sure I can't even keep up with him on the bike and run at this point but I promised. Then I immediately, before he could change his mind, signed us up on Active.com for Soma in October. I told him the course was easy-so I really hope it is.. (is it for those who have done it?). He has a coach and can bike and swim now of course and think he can actually kick my ass in racing at this point..I can't believe it-I mean we use to have major arguments about my training/triathlon obsession-now he has caught the bug! I am lucky really and I have more confidence in him than he does at this point. I always said anyone could do a half or whole IM if they put in the training time-I really believe that. I think when he saw the folks at BSLT this weekend-he saw that these were just folks like us only some faster,some slower-all crazy triathletes like us.

I feel great 2 days post BSLT.I decided to take a second day off since we are planning to do Farmington this weekend. I have 2 theories-either i will be dead and really slow or I will be trained after doing BSLT to the point I will do a PR. Whatever-I don't really care-I am just having fun playing and tri-ing with hubby and friends. The people who do triathlons really are some of the greatest folks on earth!

Continued tales of jury duty..

Well, they informed me at 7:55 AM this morning I had to be at the Courthouse for jury duty at 8:45. Apparently, someone "forgot" to put the message on the machine last night-the one you call to see if you have to come in the next day. I went in the crappiest clothes i could find and not be considered homeless so they would not pick me. The questions from the lawyers took about 5 minutes. Really bright questions like "do any of you hate lawyers" and quoting Shakespear or something..I almost laughed out loud. Then did anyone own a Harley? I almost said "No, but my husband is Hartley-does that count?" The only question I answered was "do people who ride motorcycles bother you?" I said "Yes, when they do not have a helmet on. I hate seeing their brains all over the road when they crash" Well, I did say the first part..Seriously, I have seen in my old hospital nursing days that the guys who did not wear helmets ended up dead or quadriplegics and it was SAD. Well, apparently this was not a personal injury case but I said enough that they didn't pick me-yea! I had a very important hair appointment this afternoon-if you are a girl and you have that hairstylist it takes weeks to get into-you understand! I am so over my civic duty at this point-3 more days.....

Monday, June 25, 2007

Addendum to race report..

1. It shows I got 14th out of 15th in my AG so doesn't really take into consideration the 3 women that DNF'd or no showed (grrr).

2. I don't know who ever loses weight after a race. I am always puffy and swollen. Guess it was all the salt tabs!

3. I feel remarkably well this AM. I am now an advocate for ice baths after hard workouts/races.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Kona Bound..

NOT!!
Well, thought I would write my race report while it is fresh on my mind. First of all, when you get up at 4:00 AM in Texas, it is really 3:00 AM for us. That is the time Hartley and I woke up this morning. I had everything in the car-so only had to brew the in room coffee, eat my 2 bagels, red bull and bottle of Gatorade. Off we went at 4:45 and believe it or not, we got stuck in somewhat of a traffic jam at the race site. But all was OK and I made it to transition area in time. For those of you that have done the race, it has changed. Your spot was marked with your number, they changed the direction of the transition so you had to run about 1/2 mile out of transition if you were at the end I was (that is an exaggeration but seemed long with no shoes on after the bike-ouch!).
I was in the first wave of the swim-which had it's negatives and positives. First of all, it was not hot yet. We took off and I felt great on the swim. Just cruised, got a little over-heated in my wetsuit but all in all did well. It was a bit discouraging when some from the wave behind us started passing me but then the wave behind THAT was catching up and that was just a taste of things to come. You see, if everyone in the waves behind me is younger than me, then guess what happens? You get passed alot. And I mean ALOT! on the bike. I was feeling quite discouraged until I started to notice the young men that were passing me-of course admiring their bikes! :)
I had a good bike ride. There are many hills, some of them steep, but short. It was overcast much of the bike-it even rained a little which was a welcome surprise. But alas the weather gods finally pulled through, true to Lubbock and it got hot near the end. I sucked on my shot blocks the whole time, drank lots of water, took sodium tabs and Sustained Energy drink. I felt great on the bike. I decided not to wear a watch cause I get stressed looking at time these days. So I just go by how I feel. All was good on the bike and before I knew it, I was back in transition. The thing NOT to do is take off your shoes and jump off the bike barefooted in this race. Did I think I was a pro or something? The rocks in transition killed my feet. Hartley was there-I was so glad to see him. He helped me figure out where my bike slot was. There was no place to put my bike cause some menopausal woman had mis-parked her bike. So my hubby moved her bike so I could rack mine. Seems like my T-2 was about 3 minutes-sure was slow. I took off on the run and then it hit me-my legs HURT!!! I mean they were toast. At least I had learned from previous racing that you can feel like dog-doo-doo one minute and problem can be solved the next. Let's see-how many drugs could I take at once to deal with this pain??I took 2 Tylenol and one Advil-a no-no (the Advil) but I didn't care..I did my planned "run"-walk one minute, run one minute. Then came the hills. I am not talking little wimpy hills-I am talking BIG, STEEP HILLS! It was getting hot. I thought oh my it is going to be a long day! Of course I was trying to stay positive so you know those really annoying people who are always smiling and chatting to everyone that goes by? I decided to be one of those people. It did help a little. By the time I got to mile 4, the stomach cramps started-oh damn-I have been here before. After the "hills" there is a long stretch of flat with no shade. Then I started to have this feeling like I was being jet fueled ahead by air or something-but then I realized I was passing some major gas-I mean ALOT! I felt a little embarrassed but my previous coach, mark mico, told me once that when a woman is racing, all lady-like behavior should go away. So there i was farting like a college boy and still following the plan. I didn't chat much at this point-was too embarrassed! But I was feeling slightly better. I was afraid to eat any gel cause of the stomach thing. At aid station 5 or so I discovered nectar of the gods-coke! No, not that kind of coke, I mean Coca-cola. Oh man-that CURED my stomach issues. It was AWESOME! Of course there were still people passing me-one was a guy in his 60s. Oh well. but I began to pass folks too-that was different.. The run at Buffalo Springs is hard, there is no other way to put it. I drank Coke every mile until they ran out. Started to get a blister so had to stop and put band aids on it. Just another problem to solve. Eat, drink, take salt tabs, took in some gel finally-I got confused after awhile when to take what. I saw other Outlaws on the run-that was really cool and lots of folks commented on the Outlaw jersey..Still chatting-finally found 2 older men who chatted back and we got ourselves back the last 3 miles. I crossed the finish line in exactly the same time I did it 3 years ago-7:15. I looked and my splits for the swim (39 min.), bike (3:32) and run (2:56) were almost identical to the ones in 2004. I consider this improvement because I am older!! Unfortunately, I couldn't find Hartley at the finish line. I felt great at the end, jumped in the lake and that felt like heaven, finally found Hartley and here we are back in hotel room. i did the ice bath on the legs-first time-not very much fun-jury still out whether it helps or not. Believe it or not, there are 19 women who were in my age group. I finished 14th. At least I wasn't last! These are serious women who do Buffalo Springs..So no Kona trip for me or even Southwest Series points but I am left feeling like I really am trained and I still have it! For this menopausal lady-that is an accomplishment..So now we are going to pig out at the awards ceremony and watch the pros get their prizes and see my competition. Hartley finished FIRST in his age group on the sprint. He is becoming quite the athlete!! So I got a finisher's medal and a finisher's T-shirt which I will wear with pride!