SWTrigal

Old lady syndrome..

2011-02-07T09:30:00.002-07:00

I am really bad about commitment as you can see. I have not posted for over a week. I WANT to blog, I just get caught up in the "getting going". I do have a problem with procrastination-only about some things though..Housework, bills, blogging..that kind of stuff..It is pretty strange to have that combination with my overly anal retentive, compulsive personality don't you think?

It's sort of like when you aren't in contact with a friend for awhile..Then it gets uncomfortable to think about calling..then I just don't contact that friend at all because..well it is awkward..That is how I am with blogging. It gets to be so long that then it feels overwhelming to start AT ALL. How weird is that?

Anyhoo, the health issue is still looming. I went to see the neurologist who basically tested me and indeed, I do have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome . Duh!! This didn't really surprise me..I think it is a garbage diagnosis if you ask me. However she did say with the weight loss and all, perhaps it was something else causing the CTS. So back to the drawing board. She referred me to a rheumatologist, who I see tomorrow..Of course my blood work is completely normal so I anticipate the new Dr. will still be searching for answers..

I did a sleep study, the Neuro doc (who BTW is a very sweet young woman..she could be my daughter's age which still blows me away!) thought it would be a good idea. So off I go to the "sleep lab" to be hooked up like Frankenstein and expected to "sleep" like normal. I actually did sleep! I was strange, but I did it! The tech told me in the morning I do not have enough REM sleep . And that I have movement in my sleep. Not very informative but I will get a full report hopefully this week.

In the meantime, my symptoms are improving..of course..So my cyberchondria diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis is slowly dissipating..How could it be that if I am getting better? My mom got it one day and very soon afterwards, woke up and could not get out of bed! Grateful, thankful, happy that I am better! It is like how your car stops making that noise as soon as you are on you way to the auto shop..I am like that..

My running continues to improve. I kept up with my "real running" friends for 3 miles this past weekend. It thrilled me to no end. Then Sunday I was hoping for the same but as luck would have it, the minute I started running I had to go to the bathroom. H is use to this with me so we went in search of a bathroom, while the group faded in the distance. It ended up being outside bathroom on the Bosque. Thereafter my stomach issues did not stop. It is extremely difficult to pull down my compression tights in the woods, freezing ass temperatures and wind blowing 20 MPH. I did this several times on the run. My GI issues were BAD. The wind, the wind. It was one of the suckiest top ten runs I have ever done..But I did it! 12 miles-wasn't pretty-but done. Quite a contrast from the day before when I thought I was a rockstar. But oh well, can't get too confident, can I? Geez..

OK, so off to Sedona half marathon this weekend with our peeps..I am "only" doing the half. I wanted to sign up for the full marathon a couple of weeks ago but then I realized my longest run was only 12 miles at the time and changed my mind..I feel like the second string, once again. I do not think I will ever quite get into "the club", the ultra running group. I feel there is an unspoken barrier between those who can run well, and those who are slower (like me)..kind of elitist but hey, if I could run fast I would be one too!

We are planning a trip to Alaska this summer, tentatively. I lived in Alaska in my late teens and worked at a lifeguard at a ski resort. It is kind of hazy-the memory of that time. Perhaps it has to do with all the substances I was putting in my body which was the beginning of my life long struggle with addiction. I sure had fun though! I remember the following:

My parent lived in Anchorage for about 5 years in the 70s. I spent a summer+ with them in 1972(?)

I lived in the woods and worked at Alyeska probably for 6 months(?)..It will be interesting to see if the resort has changed and how..I also worked in the bakery at the resort and as a cleaning person for the hotel. I was a “jack of all trades”, huh?

I remember going on a cruise in the Kenai Peninsula with my mom back in the day..It was cool to see the glaciers..

I went to Fairbanks several times-don’t remember much there.

I do remember summer in Alaska playing volleyball at midnight because it was still light! The Land of the Midnight Sun it is!

IT rains A LOT in the summer so be prepared with rain gear..It will probably rain A LOT in July. When I worked as a lifeguard, the temperature hit a record 80 degrees or something. So it is generally cool up there..

Those are my remaining memories of Alaska and my short time there..

I really lived it up back in the day! The Alaska tour includes an overnight in the hotel I worked at. A full circle moment for sure!

That's it for now. More about the doctor visit later. I feel like one of those old ladies who obsesses over my body breaking down and discussing it Ad Nauseam. :)

Music and training...

2011-01-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

Here I sit with music piping throughout the new digs. We have a new system called "Sonos" which, is magic as far as I am concerned. They could have told me little green elves are in our walls making stupendous sounds throughout the house and I would understand as much. This new invention (well it is new to me) allows us to listen to different music in almost every room of the house. We get to choose from any music on our computers or any radio station, throughout the world. There are so many choices of songs to listen to, it is almost overwhelming. The good news is I am listening to WAY more music than I ever have. Alot less TV and my psyche must be jumping up and down..Less "Survivor", more soothing tones and Debi is a happier camper. I am hoping my newly rekindled love of music will stick with me..The "Sonos" is magic...

Training: If one reads my last post and then reads this, one would think I was two different people. As poopy as I feel when bedtime comes, during the day my running has gotten better. Don't know why, maybe the less weight is less to drag around. The running path is 2.5 minutes from our house. We have to hop a fence but then thousands of acres of beautiful mountain foothills are our new backyard. I will try and get pictures of that soon. We run up and down these rolling hills and I can finally, finally understand, after all these years, why folks like to run. I never have had that real "love" for running as I hear pray tell can happen to one..These past few months, I have only been running. I went out on my bike a big total of twice, maybe three times since the summer...Swimming..well, I will leave it at that. Let's just say I do not miss the smell of chlorine, at all..

We are training for several running races. First off is the Sedona Half Marathon in February. Damn, that is soon! A bunch of our crazy tri/running friends are going. I anticipate much fun as well as good weather (I can hope for the weather). The following weekend, I signed up for the "Austin Half Marathon". Oh just because I can, I suppose. It seemed like a good idea at the time..Really though I am doing that race to see 2 of my kids, who are racing too..It is a girls' weekend in the big city of Austin. My youngest lives there and from what I can tell, it is a pretty cool place, even if it is in Texas! (no offense to my Texas people..:))

The big event seems to be in April. H and I are going to do a 50k running trail race in Oklahoma-"Hog's Hunt"... I am pretty sure there are no pigs involved..That is 31.07 miles. I know because I just looked it up..say what?? I know, I know..it is insanity but believe it or not, this is childs' play in the gang I run with. It is considered an "ultra" running race, but just barely! Most of my people are getting into running 50 and 100 mile races..you know normal stuff like that..I somehow got a hold of the Koolaid and drank a bit, but not too much. I have NO DESIRE to run 50 miles, AT ALL. I am doing the 50k to see if I really like it at all. I know how to hurt, Ironman taught me that but this is a whole new level of pain so "they say". Not sure I am that much of a masochist but we shall see. I will admit I have gotten the whole "trail running" bug for sure. It takes the boredom out of running for me big time. I also downloaded a bunch of music that is 180 beats per/minute. I try and keep my pace at that when I run. I read somewhere this improves your running..It sure makes it more interesting!

Am I done with triathlon? No, I don't think so. H is talking about doing Ironman Florida in 2012. Some crazy talk like that. Again, I reiterate, I do NOT want to do another Ironman. Can resist come this November when we are in Florida cheering on the athletes and watching H sign up? Hmmm..we'll see..

Off to the doctor tomorrow where he will tell me exactly what is wrong with me at night..oh, wait-that was my crazy dream last night!

Health issues..

2011-01-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

Some strange, somewhat concerning health issues have arisen in my little world..

A. Unintentional Weight Loss-Now who knew this would ever be a problem for me. I spent years as a teenager and adult, trying to lose that "last 5-10 lbs". Through all my Ironman training, I only lost weight during my first one and it was very quickly packed back on after race day. When I was 40 years old, I participated in a body building competition and my body fat percentage got to an all time low. I dieted like a maniac for that show, it was torture. After my divorce in the 1980s, I got down to a frightening low weight-well it was a divorce-'nuf said, it was very temporary. So when I recently dropped 15 lbs in 2 months without even trying, I had mixed feelings. For one thing, happy that I finally reached the ever elusive weight goal I had when I was a teenager. All sorts of fad diets, wishing and praying for the almighty flat stomach seemed to evade my young life. Fast forward 40 years and here I am, goal reached! Now I get 2 kinds of reaction to this. "Wow you have lost alot of weight. Are you OK?" and "Wow you have lost alot of weight-you look great!" To which I reply to both "Thank you"? Weight is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. My family does not think it is all that cool. H wants me to GAIN WEIGHT. Something I never thought I would hear him say..I have lost weight in well..some important body parts..I have had to buy smaller clothes, bras, etc. I finally, after all these years, have a "skinny closet". I have mixed feelings about all of this. I am happy to not have to worry about my weight or food for once. I am a bit alarmed because "sudden weight loss" which is "not voluntary" can be cause for alarm. I go to the doctor's office and mention it in passing and no one there seems alarmed, at all. As a matter of fact the last time I said something to the medical assistant, she got kind of snippy with me and said Your BMI is within normal limits! I have had my thyroid checked, and have normal routine blood work. So I am somewhat enjoying my current body with some reservations. I miss the muscle mass, which I need to work on...I am not continuing to lose, I have plateaued for the time being..

B. Numbness and tingling in extremities-This has been WAY more of a pain in the ass than the weight loss. At the beginning of December I woke up one day with my hand asleep-you know like everyone does at times. No big deal, except the next day it happened again, and daily again until both hands were now asleep upon awakening and hurt until I stood up and got blood to my hands. As time has gone on this has gotten worse and worse to the point I can't sleep some nights because my hands hurt so much lying down..And since I have not mastered the art of sleeping standing up..this has become a REAL annoyance. I have seen the doctor twice. First time, he just did not seem alarmed at all but thought it might be nice to see a neurologist. I got an appointment for the end of January. After 2 weeks I could not stand it so I went back and this time saw my regular doc, who took me more seriously and ordered an MRI and blood work. In the meantime I am getting more pissed off by the day that I can't get in to see a neurologist until this week. After the MRI, my doctor called me himself, which was amazing and scary. I thought for sure I had cancer of the hands if he were calling me. NO, he just wanted to tell me my MRI showed some changes in my cervical spine from 3 years ago, degenerative changes, etc..He is not sure that is what is causing my symptoms. He asked me how I was doing-I was floored-isn't that sad? Well besides the fact that I dread each night's bedtime and am barely sleeping normally and am scared out of my mind when I wake up from a dead sleep not being able to feel my hands, I'm great! Not only that, it was starting to come during the day just walking around now..He said he would try and get me into the Neuro guy sooner but I have not heard a word. So I see this Neurology guy on Thursday and if nothing is found there, my P. doc said something about a Neurosurgeon-holy crap-don't even want to think about that yet. I am appropriately scared for many reasons. First of all I am a hypochondriac of the highest order-I google symptoms to death and convince myself I have all kinds of ailments and am practically polishing up my will by the time I see a real medical person. Cyberchondria is my middle name. Secondly, women in my family tend to die young of auto-immune diseases. My doc checked my blood for a couple of them..normal..but the worry is constantly there for me. I just have to be patient and have learned to somewhat live with this condition and go with the flow as much as I can. I wake up often crying out from the pain in my hands and jump out of bed wringing them until blood flow gets to my extremities..It really, really sucks! I am having horrible nightmares and H says my whole body shakes like crazy when I sleep. It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that I have something obviously going on in my nervous system. I have tried the wrist braces used for Carpel Tunnel Syndrome and it makes everything a hundred times worse so back to the store they went. I have tried sleeping on my back, with different pillows (this was the first doctor's suggestion-really?) I HATE it when doctors talk to you like you are 12 years old and do not know a thing about medicine. At least my PCP gets me and is aware that I know some stuff and he does not have to spell out much medically for me..

I am afraid that if this Neuro guy is an idiot, or tries to treat me like one, I may go screaming out of the doctors office at this point, my frustration is so bad. I am taking H with me to testify to my woes and hopefully bring that "male energy" that seems to sadly, but truly bring some answers in the male dominated medical world.

On a brighter note, my running has never been better..Go figure! More about that later...

I wait patiently and continue my daily stuff until Thursday, when I pray I will get some answers!

Heeellllooo 2011!

2011-01-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Maybe peeps will still read this, maybe not..I don't care really..I am back to the blog world. I think I felt better when I blogged. Facebook has taken over most of my energy..and most of my bloggy friends..I am going to try and write more often. My life has expanded since IMWA, Australia and New Zealand. I find myself referring to old posts just to remember what the hell I have done the last few years. Isn't that sad? My brain cells are just not firing like they use to..unfortunately..So documentation is really necessary if I expect to leave any legacy at all, which more and more seems to be the goal in middle-aged life! My grandchilren can read about me or at least see a little bit into my world, when I am long gone and they become curious..someday..as I did in recent years. I wish my mom had kept a diary or something just so I could imagine more what she was like, how she thought, felt..I am filling in some of the blanks. My kids can fill them in on the rest!

The past year has been pretty rough. My mother in law became pretty sick in May. She was one tough older lady, had fought some pretty courageous physical battles over the last few years. But alas in August, she lost the battle and she departed this world. It is very strange to think loved ones are not here anymore. Many times I have wanted to pick up the phone and call her..just to check in like always..I believe on some level she is still around. When she appears in my dreams, this is when I feel like she is present, helping us out, laughing at our latest escapades, wagging her finger and giving us her opinion (she liked to do that sometimes!).. Following dear Bea's death, I went to a dark place emotionally, probably the darkest since I lost my own mom in 1994. After about 3 months I emerged to find the world had gone on without me and if I wanted to still ride, I would have to jump back on the merry-go-round! So I did, maybe slowly at first-eventually running up to speed and jumping on..

We did what most normal grieving people do-we bought a house! Not that we were really looking..just checking out lots to maybe buy, etc. And just "by chance" a friend told us of a lovely home on the market just behind them. We checked it out and it was love at first sight for both H & I. We scurried and made an offer which finally worked out and the keys were ours! Should we move before or after Christmas became the big question. One of our friends told us they moved before Christmas and it basically ruined their holidays. Oh, that was a no brainer after hearing that! All of our clan was coming home for Christmas so we stayed in the old house until after Christmas. Half our house was gone to the new house but it was fun nonetheless. We even managed a family picture session, in which the 3 little ones cooperated so much, I watched in amazement. We are all hams, it seems!

This makes me smile.. Our bunch are quite the crew..I have so much love for my family-I can hardly stand it!

Two days after Christmas, we made the move. Granted it was only a 2 mile move but it still took mega energy. This was met with vigorous enthusiasm as we took dozens of loads of "stuff" even though the movers took the bulk of it; we still had bunches to get over here. It was a fine time to purge all our old s^&*t! I love purging organizing. You can ask H-this is one of my favorite things ever. I can organize for hours, days and never tire of it. The new house is almost as perfectly organized as I could imagine. Old stuff, new stuff, different stuff. It is all here. The one difference in this move was the partnership of H & I planning and decorating the new digs. H is really good at decorating it seems, so between my compulsive organizing and his brilliant decorating skills, we make quite the team! There were minimal "discussions" about where to put things, how to fill the rooms, etc. I was able to be as flexible as my little Virgo brain could be and had to walk away a few times to keep from acting like a 2 year old. It was remarkable how much we both have the same tastes after all these years. I love my hubby and moving to our new home was one of the most fun experiences we have had together!

So as I am settling into our new abode, I am walking into the wrong room less and less. We have a whole new kitchen and appliances. The new GE Advantium oven is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! It is, as one friend described a " triple threat microwave, convection and ultra-violet oven cooks and browns and does it quickly and better than an actual oven."

I have actually COOKED 3 times since we moved in. Two successes, one failure. Not bad for a rusty chef..do I like cooking? Well, I guess when it is a new toy, yes!

More about training, health issues in future posts. And since I can't figure out how to change the damn font, I will stop for now!

Refuse to Lose...

2010-03-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

That is the motto of our University of New Mexico Lobo basketball team. Now me and the Lobos go way back..I arrived in ABQ when I was 19 years old, that is 1973 if I have my math correct. I was a Lobo fan back then..It just seemed second nature to get behind the local basketball team. I had done that all my life in little Findlay, Ohio where I grew up, where the whole town backed the high school basketball team, the Trojans. I use to listen to a portable radio to Lobo games and once in awhile, if I was lucky, I got tickets to the Pit, where seriously if you have never been, you must go. It is kind of a fish bowl, with the basketball court at the bottom and Lobo fans are SERIOUS about their Lobos. The sound of the crowd on a good night is deafening! It is known to be one of the LOUDEST basketball venues in the country..

Anyway, back in the day when I was a mere child (19), I use to ride my bike down Central Ave. in ABQ at 8:00 PM, to get to my shift called the Bar Run at Village Inn Pancake House. The bar run is where all the folks who have shut down the bar come in and have their "breakfast" of pancakes in order to sober up. This meant I rode my bike, back down Central, at 4:00 AM home to what is now pretty much the hell hole of ABQ..Back then it was safe.I never worried about getting hurt. This was 1973 mind you! Sometimes I would just hitchhike to work..Seriously! I use to regularly wait on a man named Norm Ellenburger, who was one of the greatest Lobo coaches ever. He coached the Lobos from 1972-1979 until there was Lobo-gate, a recruiting scandal that left the program in tatters...His team was ranked in the top ten..

Fast forward a few years or decades and we have Season Tickets to the Lobo games from 1987 to probably around 3 years ago..We saw some good games and a good coach for a few years. Then we saw a few really, really bad coaches come through. We went to the NCAA tournament a few times...never really got to far..I think the best was 2nd round back in the 90s..We were die hard Lobo fans..Then as life went on, and the team got worse, we finally gave up our tickets. Oh the few games we went to here and there since then were OK, but never did we have a good team. I can count on one hand how many road games we won in 5 years previous to this year's team.

Enter Steve Alford three years ago to the NM basketball program..Who the heck was he? Oh just another "bad coach" recruited to "better the program", or so I thought. I do not think we were the only fans that gave up our season tickets. There were many "fair weather" fans out there. I do not think I even followed the Lobos that closely the last two years..I admit..I am a fair weather fan. We had gone through so many bad years, bad, REALLY bad coaches..I just could not bare to watch anymore..

This year: OK, so we were gone the first half of the basketball season..we hear word from home that the Lobos were doing well this year. Say what? They were picked to finish somewhere in the middle of our Mountain West League. When we got home, we started paying a little closer attention. We went to a game. The Lobos had only lost three games all year! Suddenly we came from virtual obscurity to ranked in the top 25 teams in the nation. I started listening to the post game shows again..I am not believing we gave up our season tickets. All the games are sold out by this time..We have watched on TV as the Lobo kids have been behind at the end and pulled off a victory at least four times in the last month..Holy crap!

Here is the deal: this team cannot lose on the road..They cannot lose period. We just pulled off the biggest upset of the year, winning against BYU, at BYU in front of 22,000 people...I was SCREAMING at my radio once again. We were behind and just pulled it off one more time! I am in shock..At the airport yesterday, 1500 people greeted the team coming home from Utah. It was mayhem! The Lobos are serious contenders in the NCAA tournament. They are now ranked 8th in the nation!! They could actually be seeded 3rd in the post season tournament!

This takes me back to my Norm Ellenberger days, the bar run days in which we had a REALLY REALLY good basketball team...I am sad we cannot get tickets to the last home game this Wednesday. The team is 23 and 3. That is only three losses all year!! I am stunned and happy for those kids and Albuquerque and all the die hard Lobo fans. It is front page of the paper almost everyday here in ABQ.

I watched a video today of the players after the BYU game. Here is the deal. Their motto is We refuse to lose! And that is how every game I have seen looks..I am thinking what if I incorporated this into my life-I refuse to lose! It just proves that no matter what anyone says, a team with the same mentality and winning spirit can make anything happen..Even if we suck the rest of the year, I have learned from this team of young Lobos (most of them will be back next year).

I refuse to lose!

Oh and we got tickets to the Mountain West tournament in two weeks in Las Vegas so we can see first hand our team do their refuse to lose thing!

Friday fourteen (I think I made this up)..

2010-02-26T12:46:00.001-07:00

1. I have crawled out of my post-race, post "fabulous trip" depression..time to get on with life!
This is directly proportional to the amount of training I have been doing...It works! For 2 weeks I have been running, biking and weights..

2. I am now accepting my new weight. I weigh the same right now that I did the day before IMWA so this must be my new weight-it is 8 lbs heavier than 2 years ago, 10 lbs heavier than I was in high school. I am over worrying about it, stressing about it. I eat healthy, do not overeat, train daily and nothing has really changed in the past 2 years except I am older....When I die, no one is going to say Wow did you see those extra lbs she gained over the years? Well, no one I care about will anyway! I sucked it up and bought a size bigger jeans which H says are laughable, they look so baggy. But they are not tight in the waist, which makes me feel better..
(I love a husband who will tell you you need smaller jeans...he has learned!)

3. Speaking of husbands, mine does all the shopping and cooking. I can't remember the last time I set foot in a grocery store at home. The deal is; he cooks..I clean and do laundry (which is no small task I must say). The problem is I am use to hiring people to do the real dirty work house cleaning. I am having a harder time justifying this these days.I am perfectly capable of cleaning my own house. Actually I do a BETTER job than the folks I hire. So why do I detest it so?? This is one area of my life that I procrastinate (like I am doing right now) until I know people are coming over or company coming..

4. I have been running into a lot of stories of children dying lately. This makes me really, really sad...and grateful that we have 4 beautiful daughters and 3 granddaughters that are relatively healthy. I have had my share of deaths, but never a child. For that I am so thankful!

5. I have about 5 running socks that have no match. I keep waiting for mate of the socks to magically show up. These socks have been in my drawer about a year. I do not know why I can't just throw them away! I keep thinking But what if the other sock turns up next week? Ahhh..the trials of the retired person!

6. As athletic as I am, I really, really suck at golf. I tried to golf a few years ago, even went to "Golf Camp" but to no avail. My kids can attest to my horrible hand-eye coordination as they witnessed me trying to "play" volleyball at the last family reunion..Maybe when I am old(er), I will try golf again. I would like to be good..I just think I do not have the "golf gene"..I like the vision of hanging out with other little old ladies at the "club" someday, sipping tea after a round of nine..We'll see.

7. An old high school friend found a picture of me in our HS musical, singing. I had a lead role and I keep thinking Who was that person? I actually SANG in front of an AUDIENCE? I wanted to be an actress ever since I remember but have long given up that dream..I look in the newspaper and see auditions for local theater but just can't seem to imagine myself acting again..Hmm..maybe someday?

8. I signed up for 2 races this week. One is a half marathon on April 17th. The other is a local Sprint triathlon in May. The triathlon is a relay with H and my daughter..I am doing the swim-the easy part! The half marathon I am running with another daughter-well we will start together anyway. I think she got the "running gene" but not from me!

9. I tried Hot Yoga yesterday. I became very ill at the end of the class, which was only an hour and should have been "easy". I almost passed out after the class and was mega nauseated. I remember trying this kind of yoga a few years ago and had the same reaction..I had vertigo at the time so thought it was that but no..I pretty much have concluded that I found something I need to accept I can't do..It also brought back memories of IMWA, which was pretty much like racing in a sauna..didn't do so well with that either..I really LIKE the idea of being able to "detox" while twisting around into unnatural poses (which by the way are ridiculously hard for me anyway because I am as flexible as a statue)..Well, now I just need to find a good regular yoga class that I commit to doing at least for the next couple of months..

10. The Olympics have been great. I am, however getting a little bored with them after three weeks. I do not remember ever getting tired of the Olympics before. I loved the figure skating and those amazing aerial tricks off the ski jump. That looks like the hardest thing in the whole Olympics to me!

11. When I am trying to be patient, I count..Like at the airport, or in the middle of a ride or race..I just start counting. It is probably some form of O.C.D. Don't figure it really impacts my quality of life enough to do anything about it..

12. I realized on our trip how very little I need to live. A suitcase full of clothes, some toiletries, a purse and a credit card is about all need to be happy..A nice 5 star hotel thrown in there once in awhile and I am good!

13. I am really, really slow right now running and biking. Kind of like when I first started doing these things...I am trying to convince myself that yes indeed, my RBC's have not come back yet to give me that extra oxygen we living at altitude get to enjoy. Sure hope that is it otherwise...I just suck...

14. The scab on my infamous leg wound is almost off. After almost 5 weeks, I am almost able to swim, take a bath, stop looking at my leg so much. It is now the size of a pea..They were not kidding when they said shin wounds take forever to heal..I am sooooo lucky the infection cleared! I could probably take a bath by now but am too scared to get infected again. My friend told me about tea tree oil, a natural antiseptic that I used once the scab formed. I do believe it has helped the healing process. Probably not what the doctor would have ordered but it sure did not hurt anything..

OK, now I really do have to get back to cleaning the house!

What now??

2010-02-16T11:38:00.001-07:00

If you want to know the truth about yourself just ask your kids. Mine told me recently I was this (Debbie Downer-wah, wah, wah). Thanks Bec!

Truth is...I have had shall we say mild depression since my re-entry into the real world..to say the least. First of all post IM depression is real..I have had it before. After the race, the let down can be intense. All that training, all that anticipation, all those endorphins, then BOOM..you land on the ground again...hard..Couple that with a predisposition to depression anyway and you have Debbie Downer for sure!

Well, I have a cure for this..at least temporarily. Travel for 2 months!! It certainly kept the blues away for awhile, that is for sure. Being in a new place every couple of days certainly keeps the excitement level going. Guessing what you will be eating the next day, trying new restaurants, flying in scary planes, fighting flies, ants in the bed..it all works! We spent a glorious 2 month vacation in which things went pretty smoothly and it was WAY better than I thought it would be. So then we landed home..

THEN..the STOOPID leg infection which, if you ask me was completely unnecessary to get me back to earth. I got the being home thing as soon as I put my first load of laundry into the machine at home..really I did. But the universe had other ideas...After 3 trips to the doctor, 2 antibiotic shots, 10 days of antibiotic pills I think the damn thing is finally healing. It is now the size of a penny and scabbed over (nice, huh?). So I can stop my cyber chondria now...I went from- probable gangrene sure amputation and MRSA (this is bad-you do not want to know how bad this can be)-never ending infection in leg to- damn I may live to see another day and even swim sometime this year!

Now what?!? I ask myself. It is cold outside, I have no desire to run, bike, swim even leave the house. Sounds a little like Debbie Downer doesn't it? So I do what I do best..I PUSH MY ASS out the door!! That is what Ironman racing does for you. It teaches you that you can feel like shit one minute, SO SOMETHING TO FIX IT, and feel great the next. So that is how I am treating this little post IM, post fantastic vacation depression. Shoving myself out the door to run, to the gym, to shop..anything to break this nasty little blues feeling..

I am still lamenting over the damn IMWA race. I made a slide show of our adventures down under and I still cringe when I see myself on the bike, at the finish...it is hard not to still think I suck! Power walking a marathon is not recommended...ever....it was the major suck fest that I never want to experience again. To work that hard last year and to have the result I had (I know I should be happy I finished at all..blah, blah, blah)-really really sucks! So why is this still bothering me??? I cannot put my finger on it really..I have this expectation that if you want something bad enough and work hard enough, it should be yours! Is this realistic? Maybe not at my age...

Swimming is out for awhile with the whole leg thing (again MRSA-bad idea to have open wound at gym)..Which also is tough because it appears that is my strongest event..Maybe I should take up competitive swimming..I am sure there are faster women my age in that sport too (wah, wah wah..)

I am gonna figure this thing out eventually..in the meantime I am training for something, what I do not know yet. Probably some sprint tris, and maybe a half IM next year, because this is what I do! I also need to fix my expectations...this is probably some damn life stage I am passing through where I have to accept my limitations or something stupid like that (wah, wah, wah...)..

Rough re-entry!

2010-02-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Warning: this blog includes descriptions of yucky wounds, kind of depressing thoughts..so if you are having a great day..do not read:

Wow have I only been home 6 days?? That seems crazy to me..so much has happened. The trip home was uneventful although I noticed an increase of pain in my leg where I had fallen on the Milford Track. You know the one caused by neglect by a NZ company I cannot sue? The wound is on my right shin, only about 2 inches long but had been deep, near the bone. I had not really had any pain on the rest of the hike. After arriving home, Ibuprofen was not really helping the pain all that much anymore. Being an ex-nurse who saw ALOT of open chest wounds after heart surgery I was not particularly alarmed..This is just healing..I thought..I was pretty jet lagged..in general feeling yucky anyway..

Then on Tuesday, my leg REALLY started to sting..and I began to in general feel worse. No fever, just yucky. I hate going to the doctor these days. I actually have an aversion I think after all those years as a nurse..I am cynical about medical care in general and scared of hospitals. This is not particularly rational..Hospitals and doctors saved my mother in law 4 years ago. Medicine and a tough will to live has kept her generally healthy and alive. Then again, my sister died at the age of 52 in a hospital in 2001 of an infection that went into spinal meningitis. So I suppose my fear of hospitals, infections in general is warranted. H & I decided to call one of his friends, a GP who happens to practice up here in our hood. He said to come on down and he would take a look. I was pretty sure he would say It is fine-you are over-reacting. I know you are worried but it is just part of the healing process. He actually took one look at me and my leg and said, wow you are infected! You see I have this fear that I am either: a) going to die and b) over-reacting and a hypochondriac. Totally rational, huh? Holy crap! I thought..this is real!

There was some relief that I was not imagining my plight and felt fear as well. So he wrote me an antibiotic prescription and sent me on my way. OK, I think, this is it..now this thing will heal! I had trouble sleeping Tuesday night; the pain was keeping me up, now it was the whole bottom of my leg as well as the wound. Damn! I thought-this sucks. Wed afternoon I started throwing up. Convinced I had eaten something bad, I just stuck to liquids the rest of the day and hoped the damn Cipro would kick in soon. Then our friend, the angel doctor actually called me to see if I was OK. That was so sweet! I told him what was up; he gave me his private office number to call if I was not better soon. So yesterday, I felt like dog doo-doo. No fever, just general malaise as they say in the nursing business. I had no appetite and the pain was worse in leg and now there was nasty drainage involved. Oh shit! I thought as I went over to his office for the 2^nd time in a week. The office staff freaked out that I was there since this doc is not taking new patients. Amazing how quickly things happened once I insisted they go back and talk to Dr. Friend himself. I was in a patient room in no time. This time, he looked at me and my leg and said Now I am worried..But said it in a way that was not too alarming..I shared with him my history with infection and sister gone and he validated my fears. OK, so maybe this is overkill, he said but we are going to take half your blood in little tubes and culture the wound. AND you get a fat ass shot of antibiotics in your butt. I spent the next hour in his office getting all of this done. Today I go back to get the results of the tests and probably another SHOT in my butt..There was some talk of possible complications, infection in blood, bone, etc. Not good info for a hypochondriac such as myself but I listened,trying not to freak out.

I must admit yesterday I felt pretty crappy. Still no fever but generally blah..Stayed on my couch and watched TV and tried not to worry. H started looking up blood infections on the Internet. NOT A GOOD IDEA! We laughed when he said I had a 60% chance of making it if the infection went into my blood. We retired folks have WAY too much time on our hands!

I can’t get into cyberchondria on this one. Too scary..So am taking one day at a time. This AM I feel a little better, leg still hurts like a SOB (drugs are helping), still not much appetite. Can’t I at least lose the 5lbs I gained on vacation from this? Isn’t that only fair?

So for a neurotic like me, this is not a good situation. Not terrible, just not good. I am trying to distract myself with TV, Facebook, magazines, and my new Motorola Q phone (really nice-I love it)..Feel like I am somewhat losing my sense of humor on this already. This is NOT how I saw my re-entry into real life at home going after such a fantastic, beautiful fantasy 9 week vacation but hey, shit happens! You take what life dishes out and go on to the next thing.

I feel much support from friends and family…

In the end, that is all that matters really. I am looking forward to the future in which I can organize my house, start training again..

Milford Track..

2010-01-28T20:05:00.003-07:00

How can I possibly describe the most beautiful hike in the world? I do not even know where to start.
Day 1: We met up at the "Ultimate Hikes" shop and boarded a bus with 33 of our new best friends along with 4 guides and drove a few hours to a boat, where we were picked up and got our first taste of the "Fiordlands." The immense mountains were a bit overwhelming even from the start. We landed 1.5 k from our first "lodge" so day one's hike was simply a 15 minute walk to my way of camping-indoor plumbing, shelter, spotless rooms and clean beds. That was easy! H and I had our own room at each lodge. We ate all meals with our new friends, who came from all over the world! England, Japan, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Israel, Canada and even a couple from the US. We had a meet and greet kind of meeting on the first evening. You know how there is always one or two folks in a group that are a pain in the ass? Well, I have to say that in this group there was not ONE PIA! It was an amazing group of people who seemed to gel from the beginning. We had to stand up and say who we would like to "have lunch with." I said Obama, H said his grand-daughters (isn't that sweet?).

Day 2: We woke up at a decent hour, made our own lunches with all the others, then enjoyed a fantastic breakfast of oatmeal!! My first oatmeal in weeks..it is those little things in life that I miss! Day one we started out walking a fairly easy flat track. The beauty of the river, the green, green plants and trees were amazing. Even more amazing was the fact that the sun was shining! More about that later..We walked an "easy" 9 miles to our next "lodge" where we were escorted to our rooms. There was a "laundry" facility which consisted of several wash tubs, soap and two of those old fashioned "ringers" to ring out our clothes and a drying room in which to dry said clothes. Of course I had brought WAY too much clothing but wanted to wash some stuff. I headed over to wash our clothes. On the stairs that led to the "ringers" was chicken wire that was all along the stairs. It was explained to me later that this was to prevent "slipping while wet." Well, come to find out some of this wire was sticking up, which I promptly tripped on and BOOM I went down. When I looked down it wasn't good. There was a chunk of flesh missing along my shinbone and my toe looked like hamburger meat. To make a long gory story short, the guides responded by:

a) Getting the only doctor on the trip to look at it, who put steri strips to hold my skin together-kind of like fake stitches and deemed me healthy enough to keep hiking. H was totally freakout and thought I was a goner for sure. Also the day before I had told this particular MD not to tell anyone he was a doctor for heaven's sake-everyone will want free advice! But then there I was lying in my bed with this Dr. looking at my leg...Can anyone say EMBARRASSED??
b) The guide made it PERFECTLY clear that there is not suing in New Zealand! No liability cases-not ever! I think this was to make us feel better?!? There was a report made to the powers that be about the incident...
c) There was alot of worry and fuss over me the rest of the hike. All of the guides constantly asking me if I was OK. Hey I did IMWA-this is a walk in the park!! I must say although the wound did look kind of nasty, it never hurt. My toe hurt worse than the flesh off my shin wound. I ended up covered in all kinds of bandages..

Day 3: We hiked over a pass! It was the most beautiful of mountains..Again the weather was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky...I was a bit tired but it was nothing harder than hiking up the Sandias except with a pack. We had to carry our own packs-imagine that! I was not expecting this for sure. So all the extra clothes kicked my ass in the end. This day was 10.5 miles up and down the mountain and it was hard and easy at the same time..Afterwards, we hiked another 1.5 hours to a spectacular water falls. I did not want to go but H convinced me you will never be here again-you HAVE to go! So I did and was glad...these water falls are the 3rd largest in the world and did not disappoint! Dinner was in the mess hall and the food was just OK, the people were again delightful.
Day 4: The longest hiking day-13 miles. Nothing like a good old half marathon to end our hike. It started with all three guides flittering around me and my wounds. One was massaging my legs while the other re-dressed my leg. The other one just gave me words of encouragement. It was kind of embarrasing really..
The day was easier than it sounds. Despite being somewhat tired of walking, H and I finished at the front of the pack this day and got to "Sandfly Point" a mere 33.5 miles to the end of the Milford Track. Now a bit about these "sandflies" They are the DEVIL!! I got so many bites on my feet that I really thought I would itch to death that night. Even with DEET, those little buggers got me! And good..I was never so glad to get to a "hotel room" in my life that night. We all arrived at a little more upscaled place at the end of our hike and to our delight more spectacular views of Milford Sound, a beautiful place in the world really..We all got certificates for "completing the trek" along with pictures..The guides were amazing..and made the end so fun!

Day 5: A trip around the sound (lake leading into the Tasman Sea) for a couple of hours then on a bus back to Queenstown. This got a bit long and I was tired of traveling, sore..Ready to get back to our current location..HOTEL WONDERFUL in Queenstown. I immediately went out and found cortisone cream for my 50 bug bites, dressings and bandages for my wounds and I was good to go. We strolled around Queenstown last night and it was so magical. This town is a quiant little tourist place on a huge lake with mountains surrounding-a bit of paradise really!

I can only say that this area gets the most rain in the world! January has the most rain in the summer. We were EXTREMELY lucky to have 5 days of no rain, no clouds, warm weather! The guides say this hardly ever happens, often they have to helicoptor folks out because of flooding. In some ways it is nice when it rains I guess because the waterfalls are more plentiful but I will take the sunshine anyday!! The sun is STILL shining-we went up to the top of a gondola today and enjoyed even MORE paradise views..

Hard to believe but we are off to home tomorrow! I am in shock about this..I am very use to living out of my little suitcase and having my meals served to me each night. Oh wait! H does that at home!!

Tally-ho!

Almost time to come home..

2010-01-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

Wow the last few days have been a total blur! We did manage to get a hike in up north of the South Island. We tried to summit a mountain but when we saw the ridge we had to walk over to get there and the clouds rolling in, better judgement ruled out and we headed down. The car ride just to get to the car parking area was an experience in itself. It was like 4 wheel driving without the 4 wheel part. Straight up a gravel road is not my idea of fun. I closed my eyes while H drove and insisted on doing the driving down or else I would have had a heart attack!

The next 3 days we were either on the road or in a bed. The views of the ocean were spectacular, "Panacake Rocks" were a sight to see. We only had one night stays along the western coast of SI, too much driving and not enough rest. The glacier hike on Franz Josef Glacier was a half day of wonderment and excitement as we scaled the temperate ice in the rain with about 50 other folks, with guides (pics on FB-it was so fun!). Quick night's sleep then off to our current location, Wanaka, which is near two BEAUTIFUL lakes that are surrounded by mountains. We have yet to see the tops of these mountains because it has been cloudy/raining the last few days here. It is still stunning scenery. We are at a cute little B&B with really nice rooms overlooking the garden. The main living area is for all guests and we even saw our first taste of CNN in about 8 weeks last night! TV in New Zealand is even worse than Australia. Which is fine..I am out of my TV withdrawal for now.

Today is H's birthday. I surprised him with flowers and "Tim-Tams" this AM. Tim-Tams are New Zealan's version of devil food. Little chocolate cookies (they call them biscuits) that are to die for. I HOPE we cannot find them in the states! We will go out for dinner tonite for his BD, in one of the thousands of fabulous seafood restaurants we have seen/eaten at on our travels.

Tomorrow we head over to Queenstown for the last hour and a half of driving. I will be SO GLAD to get out of the car! The drive stress for 2400 miles on 2 lane highways has been a bit much although it is really the only way you can see this beautiful country...Sunday we start our trek on the Milford Track, a 4 night 5 day catered hiking experience where we will truly be remote for awhile. The hike is suppose to be overwhelmingly beautiful and hopefully the weather will clear for at least part of the walk. There will be 7, 8 and 13 mile walks in the daytime, lodges at night (thank goodness)..

A week from tomorrow we are heading home. Today we have been gone 8 weeks. It seems like in some ways the time has flown by and we are getting a bit homesick. The vacation has been outstanding, more than what we ever thought it would be but I think in a week it will be time to get back to real life, which may take awhile to adjust to again! I miss my people!!

I hope to blog one more time before we leave next week. This is the only way I remember what the heck we have been doing here!

Laundromats are funny..

2010-01-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

We managed to get our car turned in and took the 3 hour journey from the North Island to the South Island in NZ, where we picked up our new car. The terrain already looks very different than the NI. Lots of very large mountains and deep valleys. The roads are still very windy but seem to be wider and less drivers out there. We drove from the ferry station to our first stop in the SI, Kaikoura. H wanted to go there especially for the whale watching. When we arrived at this B&B it was much cooler and raining. Not what we have been use to the last 7 weeks! Our host greeted us, I guess in a manner of speaking. These hosts did not seem as friendly and “hands on” as we were use to but the room was another wonderful view so not much to complain about. The breakfasts were the best food we have experienced so it was all a trade-off I suppose. We were more “on our own” in this little town to figure things out. First order of business was to drive to the Whale Watching place and try and book a tour to see the whales. No boats had gone out that day because of the rough seas and stormy weather. We were booked on “standby” for the following days on several of the times although the weather outlook didn’t look much better then either. That evening we enjoyed yet another great seafood dinner (I am, to my astonishment, starting to actually LIKE fish-new for me). We awoke the next morning to more cold and wind. We called the tour operation and the first boat tour was already cancelled. It was beginning to look like we had driven to Kaikoura for nothing because other than whale watching and some hiking, there was not much to do there. Around 9:00 A.M. we were about to go hiking and I suggested we try the waiting list for the Whale boat. We got to the place and there were big signs about strong seasick potential but that a boat was going out. No problem for us! I had some Australian seasick pills so we took our dose and when our names were called, we felt like we had won the lottery! Which we did because sometimes they do not see ANY whales, in which case they refund your money but alas we managed to see not one, but FOUR Sperm Whales. It was amazing really. These very large creatures only stay on the surface about 15 minutes before they dive down and feed for about 45 minutes. You can really only see about 25% of their size (they were as long as our boat). Spectacular sight!! Even with the very rocky boat ride, it was a highlight of our trip! On the way back we were treated with a pod of about 150 dolphins, who did acrobatics for us as we circled them in the boat. How lucky we were getting to do this tour in that little window. I think they cancelled more boats that day and the following day when we left, there was even more wind!

We did the hike that afternoon. The guilt of eating so much and knowing we have a pretty big hike to do in a week spurred us on in spite of the cold, windy weather. It was a nice 2 hour hike that followed the east coastline with mountains on one side and rocky beaches below. I am certainly not in Ironman shape anymore but I can still walk!

The next AM we were off to our current location, Abel Tasman National Park which is back up on the north coast of the SI. The drive here took about 5 hours with spectacular scenery of mountains and rivers. I did appreciate the beauty but I am getting pretty tired of being in the car, I must admit! Good thing we are in our current B&B for 3 nights. This place is totally different than any place we have been. It is deep in the woods next to the National Forest. We have a little “chalet” that is kind of like an apartment/cabin. It has good and bad things. Good thing-the beauty of the location is ridiculous, it is remote and the birds singing at night make it pretty magical. The not so great thing is we have to cook our own breakfast! See how spoiled I am getting! It is called “self catering” if you opt for the chalet with no lodge dining, which I guess we did via our travel agent many months ago. So rather than a B&B, this is a B&do-it-yourself Breakfast. Also no internet connection in the chalet. Oh well, I can make the 100 meter walk to the lodge to upload my pics. I have decided that B&Bs are made or broken in the first encounter you have with the hosts. If they do not seem enthusiastic and love what they do, it shows and the B&B experience for the guests suffer. Well that has been my experience anyways. I could never run a B&B so never should-it looks like really a lot of work and you have to be “on” all the time for your guests. Well these hosts (we only met the wife, the husband waved and ran away when we arrived) are less than enthusiastic. And want $20 to do a load of laundry when you are paying for 5 star service? Forget it-we will do our own. Which we did and have a VERY funny story along with it.

After we got settled in to our do it yourself B&B, we headed into town to do the laundry and shop for dinner. Mind you it has been awhile since we have used Laundromats-I think we did last summer once but anyway it has been since my late teens that this has been part of my routine. H & I went into the place and I put 2 loads in while H went to get change. After starting the wash I went to the nearest internet café to catch up on my emails, etc. After about 20 minutes, H offered to go put the clothes in the dryer. Sure I said, engrossed on Facebook, I am sure. When I got back to the Laundromat there was H and all our stuff was in one dryer. I asked H why and it was obvious the other BIG dryer was being used. A cute little couple was there watching that one with some stuff in it. I noticed one of the washers I had used was not opened. Hmm, I thought that was weird. I looked inside and there was one of our loads of laundry. I asked H didn’t you put these in? He said yes had put 2 loads in the dryer. Then I realized-he had put this couple’s laundry into the dryer with ours. This was something out of a Seinfeld episode I swear. I opened the dryer and asked the woman as I took out some thong underwear is this yours? She said why yes it was. I took each item out and as each piece of sexy underwear, hosiery and bras came out I handed them to her. It was hilarious! Then they offered to pay us for drying some of their stuff! I said no and we all laughed. H at this point had to leave the Laundromat he was so embarrassed and could not stop laughing. I, on the other hand was MORTIFIED that my husband had actually touched another woman’s underwear and put it in the dryer with our clothing. Also how strange this couple did not say anything about half their clothing missing before we discovered it! We left the Laundromat laughing so hard we could not stop. The funny thing is H kept thinking I have never seen Debi wear this as he pulled each one of those items out and still put it in with our stuff! (Note to self-men really do not pay attention to what underwear we wear after all)..
Such is a day in the life of world travelers!

OK so we are still laughing about this today! This morning we headed out to the ocean to do a Kayak Tour of the “Tasman Bay” I have never done this kind of sea kayaking-where you wear the skirt thingy that attaches to the kayak. H & I were in a double kayak. There were 3 other folks and the guide, who was wonderful. It is a beautiful sunny warm day here in northern SI New Zealand. We enjoyed the 2 hour kayaking observing golden sand beaches, seals, birds and fantastic forest and mountainous scenery. We were back in our chalet by 1:00. We feel compelled to do some hiking, this place is so beautiful and it would be a sin to NOT hike in it. But it is also nice just sitting here relaxing and enjoying the privacy and loveliness of this place in the woods…Like Chama in New Zealand!

Views, views and more views!

2010-01-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

After leaving the “forest” and the big trees of the west coast, we drove back over to the east coast, a little further south through many incredibly tough, hairpin turny roads to our next destination “Hahei”. The B&B here was overlooking a beautiful beach with many little islands jutting out of the protected harbor that led out to the ocean. The nearest land to the east of this place was basically South America, so this was considered the “real east coast” of the north Island. Each of the Bed and Breakfasts has had a different flavor to them. This home was a million dollar home with amazing views. The hosts were very nice although a little more rigid than we have had in the past, breakfast times had to be arranged the night before and “happy hour” kind of an expectation. It’s all good,..We had our little glasses of juice at happy hour and enjoyed meeting another very nice German couple who we ran into again in another town the next night. Two nights here and we packed it full of boat rides around the fantastic coast, a hike up to “Cathedral Cove”- a moderately difficult hike up, along with about a thousand other tourists-not our favorite part but was good exercise and killer views at the top. I was dragging that day, had not slept well in a couple of nights and after the harrowing drive and yes I was a grump! We did have 2 VERY good dinners in this town. Lots of lamb offered and beef but I did manage to sneak in a good chicken dish here. The breakfasts in the B&Bs are pretty standard-Muesli, juice, toast, yogurt and eggs cooked in some way. Usually bacon is involved but we have managed to escape the bacon route in most places. This town “Hahei” was filled to the brim with tourists and I was a bit happy to be leaving there.

Onward to a completely different terrain and accommodations. We were near a lake in “Rototura” which again is somewhat of a tourist town and it is high season here. The draw in this place is all the geothermal lakes and sulphur springs. Our B&B here was away from the town however in a quaint Victorian home away from the hubbub, and had spectacular views of mountains in their back yard. I have pics on FB. The hosts here were delightful. They were the friendliest and nicest folks we have encountered so far. We felt sad to leave! Onward to another hike down to a lake, where on the way we encountered some amazing geothermal steam spewing from a previously erupted volcano (100 years ago). A boat ride around the lake and more fantastic natural phenomena and we were thermaled out! We also had a dinner cooked by the “Maori” people along with an authentic dance and singing-followed by a “forest walk” where we managed to finally see 2 of the endangered Kiwis we have heard so much about. It was kind of a touristy event but I enjoyed it just the same..

While there, we found a little secret restaurant overlooking Rotorua and the lake, where Reindeer were roaming in the yard and 180 degree views of the lake and mountains. Very romantic and fantastic food! OK, so now we have “run”/hiked 3 times this week. My clothes should start fitting better right? I am truly going to have sugar withdrawal when I get back home after all the chocolate desserts I have consumed in the last 6 weeks!

We passed through Lake Taupo (Taupoo they say here) for lunch the next day. It is a HUGE lake where Ironman New Zealand is held in March. The town itself is adorable and we shopped there where I bought more warm clothing in case the South Island is colder and the trek has snow or some oddity like that. We could have spent a few days in Lake Taupo-I sighed when we passed a spectacular looking HILTON there. Oh well, off we went to our next digs, which were not too shabby. Another ridiculously fantastic home, where our room is so high up, I was almost afraid of the heights looking down at the ocean. Glass windows surround our bedroom and again the views are different everywhere we have gone-here is no exception. The hosts again seemed very nice. It is customary for most of these folks to kind of give you the “low down” of the area, good places to go and eat and see. I think here we may hang out in the room a bit and rest-it is quite an experience in itself. The town “Napier” again on the eastern coast has an interesting history in that it was flattened in 1930 by an earthquake (OK this makes me a bit nervous but the host says they only get “4 or 5” small ones a year now”)..The town was rebuilt in art deco architecture so I got some good photos of the town and its unusual buildings.

Next drive was a bit less harried-I think we may be past the really tight turns and tiny lanes to drive in on the left side of the road. H & I are finally not turning on our windshield wipers every time we want to turn and so far have survived the stress of driving. I will say this part of the trip is a bit of a surprise for me (stress of driving) but other parts have been good surprises, such as the excellent food we have had most everywhere and the views-well what can I say? All that I expected and more. And we have not even gotten to the South Island yet…

We landed here in Wellington yesterday. We are in a restored 1920s style home right in the heart of the city. The host served us “tea’ when we arrived in the pouring rain yesterday afternoon. Another fantastic Kiwi, who drove us around town to give us a tour then up on “Victoria Hill” where we could see a 360 degree view of the city, the bay and straight to the South Pole almost out over the ocean. Unreal! After canapés and “drinks” served by our hosts here last night we had dinner at a buzzing restaurant in Wellington, which is about the size of ABQ. It seems folks eat pretty late here. After a really good dinner, the place was still abuzz with people as we walked back to the B&B.

I got a bit homesick the other day briefly. I miss my family-thank goodness for our new found Skype, where we can see the grandbabies! I also miss my routine mostly and having more clothing to choose from and the feeling of being “trapped” if there is not a store close by, etc..But for absolutely the most part, I am still having the time of my life on this “adventure” which seems to have gone very smoothly so far, no disappointments so far. The only bad thing is at each place there is WAY more to do than we have time for! I will be definitely giving most of the clothes away I have been wearing now for 7 weeks straight. They are getting a bit worn!

Tomorrow we turn in our present car, aboard the ferry and travel across to the South Island, about a 3 hour ride. Then we pick up a new car in Picton on the South Island and start our drive to the next B&B. The adventure continues!

Beaches, big trees and I ran!

2010-01-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

Auckland Hilton 5 star anniversary went by way too quickly. H & I spent New Year’s Day just hanging out in our fantastic hotel robes on the fantastic deck watching the boats come in enjoying the day. We ordered room service since we had gone out to eat the night before at a great place overlooking the harbor. We celebrated the bringing in of the New Year and our anniversary, which is always conveniently on NYE! It has been many a year since room service has been part of our vocabulary. I loved that Hilton so much H even bought me the little Hilton Teddy Bear that was on our pillow when we arrived. It was outrageously expensive but I am sure they sucker in many softies like me into buying the cute little things! One of our best anniversaries ever and it was our 18th. So after 3 nights of prompt service, electric blinds, soap that smells like a spa (including a loofah), the killer view in the anniversary suite, we hit the road.

After spending an hour in the Avis line to get the car (they were suppose to deliver it), we finally got a little Toyota. Not the Pre-Ass mind you, but close enough (Corolla). This will be our home for the next 3 weeks. We left Auckland and apparently so did everyone else there late that morning. The guy who picked us up at the airport the day before “Uncle” told us to hit the road early to avoid traffic. What did he know? A lot I guess because a 4 hour trip took about 6 hours to our next destination, Kerikeri, Northlands, New Zealand. This is on the east coast of the North Island of NZ. It is close but not next to the ocean (now the Pacific Ocean). The scenery on the drive got better and better as the greenery is stunning and mountainous views became more and more interesting. I was a bit stressed about halfway into the drive as the road became more windy and sharp turns and one way bridges abound. Riding on the left side of the road when you are the passenger is a nail biting experience. I finally took the wheel and calmed down a bit while H bit his nails for awhile.

We finally arrived at the Bed (that is “beed” in NZ) and Breakfast, the Summer House where our delightful hosts, Christine and Rod greeted us and helped us settle into our new abode, a suite with a garden view that is unbelievable right out our back door. The room was great (not the Hilton). Our hosts were the best part. Rod had many facts about the history of New Zealand which is fascinating in itself. A country not so old, again a story of the British coming and taking over the natives although this time the natives seemed to appreciate it a bit more from what I can gather. The first day in Kerikeri, we drove to the touristy section Pahaiu (sp?) which was not so impressive on the Harbor so we took off down the ocean and found our own little secluded beach to have a picnic lunch. It was so relaxing..no flies..OMG that is such a treat after Australia!! The Pacific Ocean is considerably colder so did not swim but lay on the beach for hours. Afterwards, we went to a fantastic place for dinner, where we met up with some of our B&B mates and had dinner with them. They were a delightful English couple, traveling like we are throughout NZ.

The following AM we thought it just may be time for us to start running again. Our gracious host Rod, is a very fit 71 year old man, who just happened to know a great place to run, probably 5-6 miles round trip up to some pretty nice Falls. We invited him to join us and he did! Although he kept saying he would “hold us back”-Ha! He is in great shape and since the last time I actually “ran" was many weeks ago (walking the marathon at IMWA does not count), I did pretty well! We made it to the top of Falls in no time and despite a bit of rain running felt great!

Afterwards, we were suppose to go out on a boat for some dolphin viewing and view of the “Bay of Islands” , the general area we were in but after a conversation with the captain and something about “gale force winds” and rain in the forecast just did not sound like fun for a 3 hour tour on the ocean to us so we skipped that. H found instead a great Museum of the heritage of the “Maori” people, indigenous to the area, where we spent a cultural afternoon learning and enjoying entertainment from the local natives. Beautiful grounds, great art in the “meeting house”. It was a place I will remember about the history of New Zealand. Again another fantastic seafood restaurant where H wolfed down giant mussels as big as your hand, another favorite of the area. Since I had run that morning, I justified a huge piece of cheesecake afterward with little guilt.

Yesterday morning we said goodbye to our amazing hosts at the "Summer House" and made our way over to the west coast of the North Island. We stopped at a cozy little café for Espresso on the River which led to the ocean. It was quaint and a great stop on our way to the big show, which was an amazing Reserve on our way to the “forest.” At the top of this Reserve was a view of the mouth of the river and then the Ocean crashing against the rocks on the other sides with sand dunes and green mountains all in a 360 degrees picture perfect-almost too much to take in-experience. It seems like every beach or ocean view we see on this trip is better than the last. I almost can’t take it all in and the pictures again do not do New Zealand justice.

We soon entered the “Waipoa Forest” which took us up and down hairpin turns (H used the word “harrowing”) for a good 45 minutes and I was a bit seasick by the time we got to our current location, The “Waipoa Lodge” at the edge of the forest. It is another write home about accommodation, complete with its own “Rain Forest” bush walk which words cannot describe..

We went for a “Night Bush Walk” last night. It was guided with a local Maori native, who explained the history and information about the “Kauri” trees, big OLD trees in this dense forest. The oldest one was 4000 years old, which was magnificent and as majestic as can be. Was spiritual in a way but I think the mosquitoes got the better of us by the end. I ended up with massive bites on my legs and by the time we got home I was itching like crazy. I hardly slept last night, it was so cold in our room. I didn’t realize it would be so much colder here near the “forest” (duh) and did not find the room heater until this AM. So a restless night to say the least. We are off back south to the east warmer side of the North Island again tonight so more fabulous beaches I would imagine…It will be more toward the southern end, where we will be for 2 nights.

More later..

The almost $200 banana..

2009-12-31T14:23:00.000-07:00

Time is moving so quickly if I do not record our trip every few days, I will forget. I am right now on the plane from Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. It is hard to believe our trip is already half over..

Our last day (yesterday) in Melbourne we went on a very long tour on the “Great Ocean Road” a 150 mile or so road that follows the ocean starting about 2 hours from Melbourne. We were on a small tour bus, only 8 people, which made it cozy and nice. The other folks were from other countries, one couple from Auckland so we got a bit of the lay of the land before we even arrive there. The day started at 7:00 AM. We were driven to our first stop on the beach where we enjoyed “Tea and Lamingtons.” Lamingtons are little cakes that are so good it makes you want to keep eating them so I am glad they probably do not make them in the states. Our first view of the ocean was spectacular but this was only followed by even more fantastic beaches as the day went on. We saw a forest with Koala Bears, a Rain Forest and ultimately were taken to “The 12 apostles” which are 12 monolithic structures jutting out from the ocean in majestic form. It was so beautiful words cannot even describe it or pictures capture it. The flies and people were out in force at this magnificent tourist attraction. So that dampened the experience a bit. That and the fact that we were whisked away pretty quickly from one site to another. If we had it to do over again I think we would rent our own car. Although the roads were pretty narrow and windy so that may have been a challenge on the left side of the road and all…H and I agreed it was probably best to let someone else have that task this time. There were several cyclists on this road..I can see why-it is a gorgeous place to ride. But the shoulder is narrow and think I would pass on that one too…The day ended about 10:00 PM back at our hotel (they fed us lunch and dinner too-quite nice)..

We had already packed for today’s trip. What a challenge to keep each suitcase under 20 KG!! I think we carried on board more than we checked. The airport today was also more of a challenge, I guess because it was International but all went well and we will arrive in NZ at 3:30 PM New Years Eve, hopefully with our tour guide for the next part of the trip awaiting us. We are doing a self drive tour but a company has arranged everything for us. So far, so good-we shall see as we go how good of an idea that is!

To step back a couple of days, my favorite day in Melbourne- we woke up and met one of my Internet friends, Alison for breakfast. We have met now 2 people I have met online that live in Melbourne-how cool is that! She was as delightful in person as her blog is..Felt like we already knew each other so well from blogland..We breakfasted in a little café in one of the “arcades” (sidewalk malls). It was lovely!

Following breakfast we made our way over to the IMAX Theater in Melbourne, the 3rd largest IMAX in the world to see the ever so popular “Avatar.” I was a little hesitant knowing my seasick tendencies at these big screen, up close, things moving around in 3-D things, so I took a half of an Australian seasick pill and was fine on that account. The theater was packed but we had great seats and the funky 3-D glasses. The movie is pretty long and although I wish it was not so violent, it was a familiar theme..Bad guys vs. good guys in ultra spectacular images that will for sure earn these movie lots of Oscars. I loved it!

From there we went back and packed our bags, then headed out for more fantastic Chinese food (H can’t get enough of the real deal) before making our way to the live theater to see “Jersey Boys.” I really did not have high expectations of this play as anything that is not really “Broadway” is always a little suspect but I was sorely wrong. It was one of the best plays I have ever seen. The acting, the music and the great music and did I mention the music?!? It is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and every hit was done to perfection. At the end of the show, the crowd went wild, in their seats. I stood up immediately for a standing “O” and looked around for those to follow and alas no one did. I guess standing ovations are a bit over the top for the Aussies. I finally sat down when I saw I was the only one. Hopefully the cast saw my little one man standing ovation for them. They were FANTASTIC! The perfect ending for a perfect day.

At home I guess things are pretty cold because we heard from Heather that our pipes at home have frozen. Damn! We had this happen a few years ago and remembered we had called the city of ABQ to come out and fix it so she did and they did and now all is well-thank you Heather! So nice to know she is checking on things while we are halfway around the world. Our next door neighbor sent us pics of our house covered in snow. This all seems like another planet away as we sweated around with 100 degree heat at the beach yesterday.

I had to dump some of my clothes to pare down the suitcases. It is amazing on how very little I can live with. This trip is teaching me this as well as a lot of other things. H and I travel so well together, which is good when you spend 24 hours a day together! We are best buds as well as married and tonite we celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary!

Addendum: I think our plane must have crashed and we have died and gone to heaven. We saw the New Year/anniversary in last night from our 5 star balcony in our 5 star Suite at the Auckland Hilton. They even have a “pillow menu” and a teddy bear on the beds and chocolates and bath soaps galore. We are on the harbor and at dinner at the most beautiful restaurant then watched fireworks at midnight off our balcony. WOW!

Only glitch came when a cute little dog at the airport (little innocent looking Beagle) sat by me and I guess that meant I had fruit in my bag and come to find out dang! I did have a banana (H tried to tell me I had taken one from Australia but I did not remember-duh!)…The guy at customs could have charged us $200 but took pity on the stupid Americans and did NOT charge us. That would have made for a very different arrival to NZ. BUT we got off lucky. And that dog was so darn cute-who knew?

We had banana cake last night to celebrate the almost $200 banana fiasco!

Melbourne loves to shop!

2009-12-27T15:09:00.001-07:00

Day 5 here in Melbourne and we love it here! (think I mentioned this already)..We have traveled all over the central business district and beyond, mostly on foot. I would say after about 15 miles of walking and 2 blisters, I can say I am still in shape! I do not miss my bike one iota..maybe swimming a little...

The day after Christmas we went out on "Boxing Day" which is a National Holiday here which has nothing to do with fighting or anything. Traditionally it is when people were to "box up" the X-mas gifts from the day before. Now I just think it is a good excuse to go shopping and get some killer deals. Reminds me a bit of "Black Friday" back in the states when all the stores have ridiculous sales and crowds galore. And crowds we saw! Did our own little walking tour of the malls and "arcades" (alleyways with very cool shops) throughout the city. When we got to "Bourke Street Mall" where they do not allow cars and many mainstream stores are, we just stopped to take it all in. There were literally thousands of people in "Myers", a store comparable to "Penney’s" or something. We could not even move, there were so many people in there. It was nuts! There were lines outside of the Gucci store down the block. They must have been giving away purses or something!

It was a fabulous day which was topped off by an amazing dinner in Chinatown at the "Supper" Chinese restaurant. Real Chinese food..not the fake stuff we get in the states. It was jam packed too. Then we walked to the Italian part of the city and found a delicious Gelato place. We found one of the many, many parks here and sat to enjoy our cold treat. Fantastic dinner and I felt good we were walking so much so we could eat more!

The weather: It has been in the 70s during the day, some wind and cooler at night. I have needed a light jacket at times but not much. The weather feels perfect! I have a feeling it will be raining more when we arrive in New Zealand. We carry our light backpacks around, stuffed with jackets, water and snacks. It feels sacrilegious that I did not buy one thing at the Boxing Day sales. We are a bit worried about luggage weight though. Some of the airlines charge per kg for luggage. We were soaked $75 on our last flight for being about 10 lbs over the 40 lb limit. Do you know how hard it is to pare down to 40 lbs for a 2 month trip? Now after the almost bombing in Detroit, I have a feeling carryon luggage may be a problem, where I have managed to haul some of my heavier stuff. Guess we will see. About that bombing stuff. I am so disappointed and sad we still have to worry about this crap. I am not really that worried being over here. Australia virtually has had no problems with terrorists so feel we are pretty OK here and traveling to NZ. Now getting back to the US we may need to adjust things a bit as far as luggage goes. We will find out in a month!

Yesterday we took a tram (trolley car) down to St. Kilda Beach, which is south of the city..We saw the beach, walked along the promenade. again very clean area, people shopping at the Sunday market along the beach. Saw a very OLD amusement park was open-don't think I would allow my kids to ride on the rusty rides I saw! Had much character though..

We walked along passing many shops again in this area, some funky stuff, some high end. I called Richard, my friend I met on Facebook who did IMWA. He did VERY well at the race despite the heat. He lives here-met us in a little cafe and we had such a great time chatting with him for a couple of hours. What a great perspective to see from a local! It is amazing people here have no concept of "no health care" or "racism" Refreshing!!

We decided to walk back to our hotel. It ended up being about 7 miles or so by the time we got to the grocery store and home. H cooked us up a "home cooked" meal here in our little suite. I did laundry in the 5 star Laundromat, where it felt more like college when folks turn off your dryer, take your clothes out of the washer, etc. Hmm, this process took about 3 hours. Very annoying and our room now looks like something out of the movies with clothes hung everywhere to dry (I did not want to stay up to let them all dry after my dryer got turned off)..This is a small price to pay for what we are doing!

I thought I was coming down with a cold the other day. I started the cough, stuffed nose and everything. One day of "Cold-Ease" and I was fine. Amazing stuff!!

We got to "Skype" all our kids on Christmas Day..That was really special. We "saw" everyone except Lane, who is in Houston with her dad. Video skyping, although is VERY annoying when Oprah does it on her show, is the best invention ever!
Today is a low key day. So much to do here but I need some rest! We will be going to the movies tomorrow to see "Avatar" in 3-d at IMAX. Also have tickets to the "Jersey Boys" tomorrow night (Broadway play). Wednesday we will be on an all say tour of the "Great Ocean Road", a beautiful area south of Melbourne which is supposed to be spectacular. Then on Thursday our month in Australia is over! I can't believe it is almost over..but grateful we will have our month in New Zealand to look forward to-starting the New Year there will be fun.

We may cave and go to the top of Australia's tallest building today. It is 80 something stories high and quite a view from the top. There is also the Victoria Market and the famous Zoo. It may be hard to sit still today after all!

One thing I miss about home: Good TV. Everyone here is out and about and in shape we are convinced because because there is LACK of good television here. We can sometimes get BBC so we know kind of what is going on in the world..I have no idea who won "Survivor" or "Amazing Race" Oh well, maybe this is a sign I need to stop watching so much damn TV at home! I know I can watch all this on the computer but I am too lazy to do so. And Oprah is not online. Oh well!

Today is the 8th anniversary of the death of my sister Sara. Hard to believe she has been gone so long and missed so much of our lives! I have to believe she is somewhere watching it all..and we will see her again.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

I think I have died and gone to heaven and it is called Melbourne, Australia.

After flying out of Alice Springs here yesterday, it is like we landed on a new planet. Although our last day in the middle of the Australian Desert was pretty awesome in Alice Springs (we visited Alice Springs Desert Park-fabulous!), I was happy to be air born and on to new surroundings where hopefully most crawling things live outside and not in our beds. We found such a place-YAY! The Stamford Plaza Hotel, an all Suite hotel which will be our home for the next week even has a pillow top mattress-another big YAY!! It is a lovely and definitely 5 star service hotel. Nestled in the heart of Melbourne CBD, we are a walk away from most anything...

Arriving on Christmas Eve was a bit chancy, we did not know if anything would be open. Well, the streets were bustling with last minute shoppers and many businesses were still going. We headed, in the pouring rain, to the nearest grocery store, where we stocked up with our first in room foods since Busselton. I was so happy to see Oatmeal and blueberries again..my staple breakfast for the last 20 or so years...Amazing how I miss really only little things in life right now..Grocery bags in hand, we scurried home in time to take off to the nearest church down the street. I wanted to go to a Christmas Eve church service and sing Christmas carols and that is just what we did. The church was a very old and ornate Anglican Church..I was moved to tears really as the guitars played and we sang X-mas carols. Afterward, H & I went back to our room and actually had a lovely dinner in our new home, the Stamford Suite. The roasted chicken, bread and salad were one of the best meals I have had lately! We then commenced to sit and watch on TV the "Candlelight Carols" being shown live from the park band shell just down the street. There were no tickets to go down there live and glad not because it poured down rain the whole concert. Under the shell though the dry singers gave quite a Christmas musical performance which lasted 3 hours. A perfect evening for these weary travelers!

Today was a whole new day-it is Christmas here! There are not too many peeps on the streets here in Melbourne except many obvious tourists like us. We walked about 5 miles today down to and through another beautiful park and Botanical Gardens. The views were breathtaking as we wandered through a botanist's dream..People picnicking throughout the park, birds chirping, lakes, many different species of trees and plants-everything is so green here!! H and I enjoyed our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by a pond in the park and both agreed it was surreal to be here. Melbourne is a very pretty and clean city. The structures are both old and modern mixed together. Very magical place so far!

By the time we got back to the room, I was pooped! Now our task is to find a restaurant that is open on Christmas night, not a small task. Looks like we will be relegated to the "Casino" district. Oh well, everything is an adventure right?

"Uninvited Guests"

2009-12-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

Boarding our (oh so little) airplane from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock it occurred to me that this would be a short flight. It was a quick 30 minutes, in which Qantas managed to give us a “snack” the first free food we had seen for awhile on an airplane. I figured the landing would be tense as it was getting into the Outback the day earlier. And it was..The runway was about 10 feet long and I will admit, there was some seat clutching for me there at the end. We stepped off the plane to a new world of heat and desert. It looks very much like Arizona here, sans cactus. We rented a car at the airport as Ayers Rock and other sites are too far to walk and we did not want to be tied to a tour bus.

Our new abode is the “Sails in the Desert” a part of the “Ayers Rock Resort” group. H picked the highest quality of 4 hotels just for me I know. This one is considered “5 star” and we got the “Spa Suite” The property does not disappoint. Beautiful sails around the pool and property (thus the name). The hotel lobby has beautiful Aboriginal art and clean marble floors. If you do not faint from the outrageous prices of food here, you can enjoy dinner at one of the 2 restaurants here. We are opting for the “cheaper” yet good quality restaurants to dine for dinner at the resort.

The room was nice when we arrived. A very cute spa Jacuzzi bath on the back porch with flowers in a garden overlooking the pool area. Kind of dated..but nice…We immediately high tailed it out to “Uluru” or Ayers Rock, which has been here about 600 million years according to science. The aboriginal people have their own “stories” of religious lore around each nook and cranny of the rock. To look at it far away it just looks like a big rock but close up it is magnificent! We stopped to watch the sunset, where the rock can change colors in moments. Unfortunately, it was cloudy but we did get to see some magnificent changing of colors in the sky and I took a million pictures of Ayers Rock.

Now a bit about the flies here. We had been warned (swarms of flies in the summer at Ayers Rock) by at least 2 Australians. The first thing we did here was go to the store and buy fly net hats, which look as dorky as you can imagine but I say comfort before beauty in this case. We also bought the strongest DEET we could find. It is probably illegal to sell this stuff in the US because I guess DEET is toxic not only to insects but humans too. I do not care. I will not be suffering with flies anymore..So we are equipped with net hats, enough DEET to kill an army of insects..STILL, the flies are relentless. As we tried to sit and watch the sunset last night and meditate, which I suppose is what you should do at Ayers Rock, I was busy shooing flies away from my netted face. I overheard a guy next to me say f^&(ing flies! So I knew I was not alone. We finally had to get in our car and watch from the windows in the not so serene nature of our rented car. A shame really, these flies. I thought I had seen the last of them at IMWA. I guess summer in Australia brings out the little buggers. They do not bite..they just BUZZ and fly around your lips and eyes, especially-just enough to make you nuts. The fact there is BUG SPRAY in the closet should be a clue!

OK, so I was thinking this was all we really had to deal with in this beautiful place in nature. We got home from the sunset and a quick dinner and I went to jump in the 5 star pool to get all the DEET off of me while H stayed behind to meet the guy who was going to show him how to get the Jacuzzi on. When I arrived back in our 5 star room, H opened the door with horror in his eyes. What?! He told me we had a problem..and ANT problem. I went to look at the beds in our nice 5 star room and much to my dismay there were little tiny red ants in our beds. Not just a few ants but HUNDREDS of them on the beds, on the counters in the bathroom, everywhere. I freaked out.. to say the least..H called the desk and they mentioned he could come down and get a key to a new room. No, he said-No-you can BRING me a key to a new room. The guy arrives..I am in my robe frantically trying to get our stuff together and not bring the ants with us..He went on to explain that this was bug season and he even has bugs at his house to which I think I replied Do you spend this much for your house? He said no of course and he was sorry. I asked him how does he know there will not be ants in our new 5 star room? He said because the ants are finicky and do not go in all the rooms..Oh dear lord..H and I were pretty willied out by then and obsessively checked our beds many times before we finally crawled into our new beds. The only saving grace is the hotel guy comped our breakfasts here for 3 mornings, so that saves us around $186. That is how expensive breakfast is here. We found a card in our new room that said:

Uninvited Guests

You may notice one or two uninvited guests. Please do not be alarmed, these creatures are native to the area and it is quite normal for them to appear throughout the resort. If however you are disturbed by their presence, please contact reception.

WTF?!?

We awoke the following day and alas were still bug free at least in our rooms. We popped awake at 5:00 and raced out to Ayers Rock to see the sunrise but we missed it by about 10 minutes by the time we got there. We were so not awake yet that H forgot for a few minutes and drove on the right side of the road. Right after we realized it, 2 very large buses came driving the other direction. Whew!

Got to do the morning tour where the history of the rock was given. Ayers Rock or “Uluru” is the largest monolith in the world and one of the wonders of the modern world. There is an area to climb the 350 meters to the top of the rock but a) you have to do it before 8:00 AM and many times they do not open it because of wind, rain, etc and b) the park Ranger said that the indigenous people do not want anyone to walk up there for religious reasons but according to the 99 year lease that they made with the white people, they have to allow it. So we opted not to do it. We decided to do the hike around the whole rock which is about 14k or 8 miles or so. This is the first real exercise I have done since IMWA. It was pretty easy so I must still be in shape. The views up close and personal to the Rock are amazing..do not think the pictures do it justice. We were swarmed by flies the whole hike and it started to reach about 100 degrees by late morning, when we finished. I was very happy to get back to our air conditioned hotel room (sans ants so far). I got a 5 star massage in the afternoon at the resort. This was in the top ten best massages I have ever had and for the price it should be! I must admit the Jacuzzi tub on the back deck is pretty darn cool!

Today we went to hike “Kata Tjuta” otherwise known as the “Olgas”. They are massive and beautiful. Again the pics cannot take in the grandeur of this area. On the way there early this AM, we saw a wild camel on the road, then we saw many camels in a herd-amazing. The temperature at 11:00 was well over 100 degrees and the UV index here is about 16 (off the scales-there is a “UV alert here), which is way higher than anywhere else I have ever been. We did another shorter, but hotter hike through this area. The hike was more difficult and the one time I wish I had my hiking shoes with me, alas I did not (we left about 100 lbs of stuff back in Alice Springs).

The rest of today we will relax then back to Alice Springs tomorrow for one day. Then we are Melbourne bound! Hopefully the little bit of exercise I have done will make up for the massive amounts of food I am consuming!

Random Travelogue..

2009-12-19T01:34:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to formulate my thoughts of the last week in Australia and what seems to be coming out is stream of consciousness so I will blog in random order:

1. We shipped our bikes by SEA, which means that we will be arriving in ABQ before the bikes make it. Margaret and Mark-your cases are on quite a journey and I hope we see them all again (we insured them in case of loss, etc).

2. While in Adelaide, we rented a car and drove in traffic on the left side of the road, which is quite a challenge especially when we hit “roundabouts” which practically caused me a heart attack a few times as doing this is like rubbing your head and patting your stomach. Try it..Eventually we became use to it as we both took turns driving and navigating. We are still married after this.

3. While in the car, we rode along the coast of Southern Australia (SA to the locals). The number of stunning, beautiful beaches are too numerous to mention. I was awestruck by each one. Plus NO PEOPLE..Empty clean, stunning beaches. H mentioned this is what California must have looked like hundred years ago. Seriously amazing!

4. It was god awful hot while we toured above beaches. Over 40 degrees C, which translates into well over 100 degrees F to us. The ozone layer has a hole in it here as told to us so the sun is VERY hot!! The water however is cool and you can see forever to the bottom of the ocean in most beach spots.

5. We had the most amazing Italian dinner in Adelaide the night we left. Adelaide is a pretty cute city, there are street cafes everywhere. This restaurant was the best we have had so far. A perfect ending to our stay there.

6. Off to “Kangaroo Island” on a ferry that took our car with us. It was a 2 hour drive from Adelaide along again stupendous ridiculous views of the ocean. 45 minutes on the ferry and we were there. The island is 75 miles from one end to the other. Some of these are hairy dirt roads which were challenging at times but totally worth it.

7. The first day in “KI” we saw the honey bee farm, the sheep farm where they make their own sheep milk products. We got to see the feeding and milking of the some of 1400 sheep. Who knew this would be so much fun?

8. KI was named the “Best Island in the WORLD” by National Geographic so comes highly recommended. 15,000 kangaroos on the island, 4000 penguins, 6000 fur seals, 5000 koalas, 254 species of bird life and 500,000 wallabies. Could we see them all? Unfortunately, we did manage to see tons of dead Wallabies on the roads, which had some bad luck in their ventures.

9. We got to our “hotel” basically a Bed and breakfast overlooking the “American River” (something about Americans landing here to fish a few hundred years ago). The view was fantastic, accommodations fair and the folks that run the place where gracious and friendly. They told us about the “Penguin Tours” that happened after dark about 20 miles away that night. It was still sweltering hot but as we took the tour, a storm came in and we enjoyed the tiny penguins that only come out at night as we became soaked and cool at last. These penguins are 13 inches high and as cute as they can be. It was so awesome and this was just the beginning of our wildlife adventures!

10. First stop was the Koala sanctuary. Wild koalas perched in trees, wild kangaroos. It was magical to say the least..

11. Next was “Admiral’s Arch” where we commenced to witnessing the many island seals. So many we stopped counting…The views were well, I do not have any more adjectives to describe it. Crashing waves into arches..Seals galore. How else can I explain it?

12. Next was the tour to see the colony of sea lions along the coast. This was the highlight of our visit. We got to get within feet of the most beautiful sea lion grand-daddies and pups. It was magical..

13. Just when we thought it could not get any better, we had dinner at a seaside restaurant in “Kingscote” after we witnessed the feeding of hundreds of HUGE pelicans on the wharf.

As we said goodbye to KI this AM, it was with mixed emotions. I wanted to stay and see more wildlife, yet anxious to get on with the next chapter of our adventure. We hopped on a plane to Alice Springs, Australia, where we are staying one night in a VERY nice hotel, until tomorrow when we fly to Ayer’s Rock, one of the Wonders of the World, here in the middle of the desert of Australia (the Outback). It certainly looks and feels like the “Australian Outback” I have seen in the movies so far. We are relaxing tonight before the 3 day trip to the magical wonders of “Uluru” (Ayer’s Rock). It is suppose to be one of the most magical places in the world. Will let you know..

I am still ruminating about IMWA. When I read that the field was “decimated” and more than half the pros did not finish, I felt better. When I felt the heat and heard the “UV warning” with temps well over 105 degrees, I felt better. But DAMN, I am still pissed at times! But hey look where I am??

Tidbits about Australia:

They have hands down, the BEST drinking water I have EVER tasted.

They have the weirdest coffee drinking system ever. Heating water in "hotpots" then adding instant coffee..OK, the coffee shops have "REAL" coffee that will put hair on your chest..

There is no tipping here. They take your money first, then serve you. Interesting..

Only those “hand dryers” in most bathrooms. Kind of annoying.

People are happy here. The economy is booming. It shows.

The airport security is EXTREMELY lax. That is nice..NO shoe removal or worries about liquids.

The airlines attendants are nice, friendly. Much less uptight than in the US.

More later…

Sweet Adelaide..

2009-12-14T14:52:00.001-07:00

Here we are in Adelaide, Southern Australia. It was a 3.5 hour flight from Perth, where we lost 2.5 hours. Not sure where that .5 hours comes from, an Aussie thing I guess. I do not question. When we arrived, I was a bit disappointed, well a lot disappointed in our “5 star” accommodations. I guess the star rating is different here because the hotel we are in is : a)very old and b) some stains in the furniture and c) not the “nouveau décor” they advertised. Sorry- these things make me worry about bed bugs, etc. but I cannot right now.. We do have a one bedroom suite which makes up for the bed bug worry. (Did ANYONE see the Dateline story but me? about this issue-old beds=bed bugs)..

We are in the heart of the city of Adelaide, which seems to be growing on me. We ate at a great Indian restaurant last night and tumbled into bed at a decent hour, even with the time change. This AM I felt like a new person walking out on the street, we immediately found a McDonald’s which offered FREE Internet service as opposed to the $40 per day at the hotel-seriously? That was OK..we enjoyed our McCafe and Muesli per McDonalds. I have yet to figure out the whole “hot plate” water warming system here to make coffee in the rooms. They all have it so I know it is possible but darned if I can figure it out!
Next off to the Southern Australia tourism office, where the poor chap spent an hour with us while we figured out what the hell we are doing the next few days. We settled on a car tomorrow (god help us in the big city driving), where we will travel down the coast to the beaches of southern Australia, followed by a ferry trip Wed to “Kangaroo Island” where we will spend Wed-Sat there exploring wildlife and hopefully see some real Kangaroos at last.

Next we were off to the Adelaide Zoo where we were some of the first folks to see the “Giant Pandas” just shipped in from Japan. They were very cute (pics to follow on FB). Sleeping 10 hours a day did not give us much active Panda watching but it was really fun. After the zoo, we walked around and visited the “Migration Museum” where we learned that the British took over the Indigenous people here (sound familiar?) and killed them off to create a new society. I think some of the native cultures are finally reclaiming their heritage and past. It is unreal how white, Anglo-Saxons thought they ruled the world at one time. I am a descendent of one of those I suppose..

Tea on the mall, people watching, lots of walking today..Hopefully will walk off all the food I am consuming. We are off to try out a great steak house tonight and hopefully see the Christmas lights of the VictoriaSquare tonight..

As an aside I have tried “Nads” to take off my facial hair, since my wonderful esthetician is not here with me. I think it works..I have taken half my chin skin off as a result. I am getting tanner by the day, although using 50 SPF sunscreen. This is not attractive on 55 year old skin..Holy cow I feel old!
I try to use my cell phone to call the US. No one here seems to know how to do this. Is it that hard? Will have to stick to Skype I guess..

We are somewhere over here!

2009-12-11T21:12:00.001-07:00

We are now in Perth, Western Australia. We have been here for 2 days after taking a bus trip from Busselton. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to the little town of "Busso" because well, other than the 15+ hours there on IM day, we had a fabulous stay there. The people in Busso were ALL friendly, happy..they must put happy pills in all their water I guess.

Perth is more big city with 1 million or so folks here. We are staying right in the heart of downtown, where the outdoor mall is. It is quite bustling at the moment with Christmas shoppers, which feels really wierd since it is sunny and around 80 degrees outside. We are in a very European type hotel, "Miss Maud's" where breakfast is a feast every morning. The rooom is tiny but comfy beds. We have eaten out the 2 nights we have been here in amazing restaurants. Very European style again, with tables outside and things hopping around 8:00, which seems to be dinner time here. We have enjoyed King's Park, a HUGE very clean, beautiful place a meer short city bus ride away. We have done our share of walking too. The sorenss of IM seems to have subsided, especially after the massages we got as soon as we hit Perth. It was MAVALOUS!! I am eating like a pig so will probably gain a ton but for the moment do not care!

Yesterday we took a boat to "Rottnest Island" where beaches are galore and no cars allowed. We did have the option of taking bikes around but the sound of that just turned our stomachs so we took the bus around the island. On the last island a stingray swam right up to H just long enough for him to pet him. It was the most amazing thing ever, almost one of those once-in-a-life moments where you can't believe it happened without any warning. I got one shot of him close to H but missed the petting picture, I was mesmerized..

Only scary thing that has happened is I thought I lost my passport and credit cards this AM but alas they were in our hotel room-whew! Only annoying thing was the very loud drunks on the boat back to Perth yesterday. Otherwise has been a perfect vacation so far! Tonight we are hoping to go to a free X-mas concert in the Eplanade-the Australian Symphony Orchestra.

I am trying to figure out how to download a map on here to show where we are. For now I will say we are very, very FAR from the US!

Lessons learned..

2009-12-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

OK 48 hours to reflect on IMWA. I trained my heart out for 17 weeks for this race. I did the "advanced program" and have never put so many running hours into my training before. I PR'd a half IM a month before the race, my head was in the right space to get a PR. I was convinced I would. IMWA is considered one of the fastest race courses in the world. Many get PRs on this course...I saw no reason why I would not make the podium. I felt great the days leading up to and on race day. So what the hell happened? I ask myself..I spent yesterday beating myself up..today is more introspective:

1) I should have brought and worn my Garmin that I have used on every single bike and run workout I did leading up to the race. Could have monitored myself better on the bike and run..Stoopid mistake..

2) I think the whole first out of the water in your age group! really f^&(*d me up. I thought then I was some kind of rock star, that IM rules did not apply and I could just go as hard as I could on that first lap of the bike. I did do well, but at the expense of the rest of the race..This is a rookie mistake..I knew better at the time and knew better before. NEVER spend all your energy on the bike -you will end up WALKING the marathon..

3) I cannot control what I cannot control..heat being one of those factors..I do not race well in heat. Over 100 degrees and my body freaked out. Take Rage, Buffalo Springs as cases in point. I sucked and hated my performance in those races too. The fact I could not control the weather is a metaphor for life. You cannot control alot in life and you just deal with it..

4) I have always thought that when you feel like dog-doo doo in an IM, you just fix the problem and you can feel better in no time. This race it literally took me 5 hours to feel better. Guess it does not always work that way..

5) I have always thought secretly that folks who wanted to quit in IM were just sissies and not in the right mental frame. Well, I was wrong-DEAD wrong. Those 16 pros that DQd this race must have felt that way too! I have never been so close to quitting an IM. I have NEVER felt like quitting like this before (well except at Rage in the Sage half IM). So I am humbled and had to use all the mental tricks I have read about and never had to use before.

6) If I had not had such a shitty race, I would have not gotten to finish with H. That almost makes it worth it. Sure was fun coming in together!

7) Had I only even matched my best IM to date, I would have finished on the podium. But of course maybe those other gals were suffering too and would have kicked my ass anyway..

8) It is only a triathlon. Not life or death.

9) Maybe I overtrained. Maybe I undertrained for the heat conditions. Over 100 degree heat is not something I have been training in for sure. Maybe my body peaked a month ago. Who knows?

10) I got my PR 5 years ago when I was that much younger. Maybe this is all I can really do at this age..

11) Lastly, I know there are millions of people who would love to finish even one Ironman with the time I had. I guess I set the bar too high. I do have limits..

So off we go and this will fade into the sunset as we embark on our trip across Australia. I am still disappointed but I will go on and still race but only half IMs or less. Maybe take up competitve swimming? Seems that is the only thing I am getting better at..

A good day that went to hell-but all is well..

2009-12-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

Pre-Race: We got up at dark O'clock and were on the bus to the start by 4:15. It seems like it took the whole 2 hours to get ready, doing what I am not sure..But ready we were..

Swim: As I jumped in for my practice swim at 6:00 AM, the sun was already up. I felt strong and fast as I swam in the nice ocean water. I knew it would be a good day in the water for me. H & I said our goodbyes, we waded into the water waist deep with the 1400 or so other athletes and bang, we were off. The swim goes along a 1 mile jetty so there is not much sighting to do. At first, I did not get beat up too bad but as time went on, I felt myself get hit quite a bit, once in the eye. That kind of sucked. When I did raise my head to check out in front of me, alas it seemed I was in the front group. Push, push, and push I told myself. I sang songs in my head. I thought of the weird dreams I had had the night before. I tried to occupy my brain as I slugged it out. The never ending jetty finally came to an end and so did the sun in my eyes. As we rounded the jetty another slugfest ensued. I got on the feet of a faster swimmer and drafted for what seemed like about 15 minutes. The jetty again seemed like forever..Finally, finally we rounded the lst buoy and although the sun was in my eyes, I headed into shore. I had started my watch at the beginning and as I crawled out of the water I looked down and there it was, the elusive PR I had wanted all year-1:09! When I crossed the mat, the announcer said, Debi Wess, first out of the water in her age group! The thrill of that was indescribable..As I made my way into transition I really thought this could be the day all the stars would align and I would get a race PR. Feeling incredibly positive as I ran my bike out of transition, the announcer said, And it is Debi Wess from the United States of America, first women on the bike in her age group! Another fantastic moment in my career of triathlon. I was really psyched now and just took off. My legs were strangely sore, which confused me since I had not used them hardly for a week.

Bike: The bike is a 3 loop course that takes you away from the beach through the trees and is Y shaped. I rocked the first loop, pushing way beyond what I should have been doing. Wow, I thought, I am actually RACING an Ironman! A woman in my AG passed me. OK, so I will probably not WIN. Although I must admit I was wishing that she would get a flat or something. I played chicken with another woman, until I realized she was not even in my AG at all. As we headed back to town, I knew I was rocking the bike. The first loop took me about 2:10. I thought, OMG if I keep this up, I will PR the bike as well! Well, then is when things started to go downhill. The heat started coming on. Not just a little 80 degree heat but hotter and hotter until one guy said the temp on the bike course was 42 degrees centigrade-yes folks that is 107 degrees Fahrenheit! OK, I thought, I better a) stay hydrated and b) keep the salt tablets coming. Which I did. I drank and drank and took in electrolytes. I started to feel woozy, then I would take a salt pill and would feel better. I notice people on the side of the road, puking. This is not a good sign..The pros seemed unfazed as they whooshed by me probably on their 3rd lap by now. I made my way back to town and saw that my split was considerably slower-damn! Then things really got rough. The wind picked up, with probably 30 MPH gusts in some parts. I was sweating, I knew that was a good sign but I had not peed at all yet. I stopped a couple of times just to catch my breath. I was having trouble breathing-not sure why. And I felt better in aero-position although it was hard to stay there for any length of time at this point. As I rounded the last “Y” I started to feel dizzy. I tried eating, taking in more nutrition. I was dousing myself with water at every aid station. Oh and the flies were unreal. Each person that passed me had about 100 flies on their back. I had used bug spray but I guess the little critters have figured out how to get beyond that stuff because every time I stopped, they swarmed me. The poor volunteers were covered in flies. I felt sorry for them too. On the last stretch home, I have never felt so hot in my life. I made myself stop and pee-although little came out. I was starting to see double at times, not a good sign. The last road in had the worst headwind. It was brutal. I was starting to get really negative by now, vacillating between fuck this race and maybe I will feel better on the run. This was the first time I really thought I may quit. I was worried that I was doing some kind of permanent damage to my body in the heat, trying to remember what the signs of heat stroke were. I knew being chilled was one of them. I did not feel that at least. As I rounded the last turn in town, I was really low. I finally, finally got off the bike and much to my dismay, knew I had a marathon in front of me. I was really cranky by now, kind of short with the poor volunteers in the changing tent. Got the Injinji socks on the wrong feet. T-2 seemed like it took forever. I never saw anyone else in my AG. Maybe they had all DQd? Ambulances were going up and down the course on the bike, not a good sign! My stomach was completely and utterly shut down for the last lap of the bike-I could not take much in nutrition wise.

Run: Well, what can I say? I was ready to quit for at least the first 4 hours. I could not run, could only power walk. At least 75 % of the folks out there were walking, most of them on the second lap of the 3 lap course. I talked to myself, what would be the harm in quitting? I am not having fun, this is stupid, etc… then I thought about my One Thing, the One thing that would keep me going if I got in this place. Mine was a PR. OK, not doing that today. Had to switch my One Thing. I thought, hey I could not claim that first out of the water and PR on the swim if I did not finish the race..For some reason I believed that and kept going. I had bought an IMWA jacket-had to finish to wear that. Then I thought of all my kids that were watching at home. I could not quit and let them down. These things kept me plugging along, one footstep at a time. The run looked like the walking dead. I actually passed people walking! I was really low emotionally, pissed-there were flies everywhere! Millions of them! I was so pissed because the course is so beautiful and I could not enjoy it. The run is along the beach, where all the flies reside I guess. I tried to take in nutrition but my stomach was cramping. Finally after some Tums, things started to move. I finally after about 10 hours of racing-peed. I started to wonder where H was. I had seen him on the bike behind me so knew he was finishing that. I started to look for him in the crowd. If he had quit, then I was going to also. PLEASE let me see H in the crowd. I started wishing they would pull me off the course for medical reasons. All these crazy thoughts were in my head…After the first turnaround, where they gave you colored “scrunchies” to put on your arm to signify the lap you were one, I saw H headed for the turnaround. Not only was he running, he looked like a spring chicken! He said he felt great. I told him I was dying and begged him to catch up with me. He said he would. I kept walking, plugging along. Me and flies. The local people were out in force and cheering almost the whole course. The folks at the aid stations were fantastic. I stopped and got some more bug spray at one and told the woman I actually thought I was going insane from the flies. When I was heading back to the second turnaround, a woman stopped to talk to me. She was from here and it was here 2nd IM. She confirmed the brutal conditions. She walked with me for about 15 minutes. That helped me so much I wish I knew who she was-I would call her and thank her. It was about this time, the sun started thankfully going down. It started to cool off and amazingly, I started to feel better. The flies started going away-guess they only like scorching hot temperatures! I was taking in only coke and Infinite at this point, an occasional Powergel. I even ran for about 20 minutes..The second turnaround and scrunchie came, as did the glow sticks. I saw H again-he was gaining on me and finally he caught me about ¼ of the way into the 3rd loop. I almost cried. He was on his way for a PR. He was running this whole time. I told him not to walk with me-this was his day. But he insisted on walking the rest of the way with me. This is a true partner-not sure I would have done the same for him! We discussed our war stories of the hot bike..He saw way more casualties than I did. I wonder today how many folks DNFd because of the heat. H said he even passed a Pro woman on the bike course who was struggling. It got dark-there were still folks on the course cheering us on. God Bless them all! The last 4 miles seemed to take forever but we thought how cool it was going to be to finish together-I knew the kids would see that and that made me happy! I knew I could keep my “first out the water” status now. We passed Dave, the guy we had seen speak at the pre race dinner. He finished the first IM in 1978. He told us the conditions at this race were similar to Kona. OK, I never, never want to go to Kona! I also decided (I know we all say this) that this is my 4th and last Ironman. My body can’t take a beating like this again.

At last, H & I went down the chute, holding hands and heard the best sound in the world, Deb and Hartley Wess, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!

The bus driver that took us home said it was the hottest day of the year so far and by far the hottest race they had had in 6 years. OK, I did feel a little better about my performance hearing that.

Today, we are moving VERY slowly. I slept fitfully probably from all the caffeine I ingested. But I have the medal, the really cool finisher’s shirt and the finisher’s towel. I get to say I did Ironman Western Australia and I worked for every single second of that race..and I was FIRST out the water in my AG at a friggin’ Ironman!!

I have had much better races than this one-well most of them. But I really saw yesterday what the human will and power of thinking can achieve. I have never fought so hard for anything in my life. I have a sticker on my bike that says “Pain is temporary, quitting is forever” I repeated that constantly yesterday. If I can complete IMWA, in those conditions I can do anything!

6th out of 10 in my AG is not bad considering…I’ll take it!

Craig Alexander and me..

2009-12-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

OK, I got to talk on the phone with the Hawaii champion from Australia. Well, me and 1500 other folks! At the carbo dinner last night, they got him on the phone from Sidney and he spoke to the audience. The next best thing to being there I suppose and those Aussies are quite proud of their triathlon star! If you do not know who he is, google him. He is right up there with the greatness of the sport!

The day started with my getting my "stuff" ready for the race. A little concerning we did not receive special needs bags. Not sure why-we are off to the race meeting this AM so will find out then I suppose. We took a cab into town yesterday to Woolworths (Woolies). I was standing outside waiting for H and who should I see? My friend Richard, whom I met on Facebook from Australia-he has been filling us in with details of the race since day one. I recognized him from his picture and said "Richard?" I think I scared him but once he knew who I was, we just laughed at such a coinicidence..He has really been a wealth of knowledge about the race and is a very positive person so was great to meet him. Off to the bike store where they have no idea how we should ship our bikes home after the race either, something we knew we would have to figure out once we got here..we will deal with that after the race I guess.

The "Parade of Nations" took place starting in the park downtown. It looked like only a few folks were going to be in it then all of a sudden there were about 300 athletes tha participated, representing 46 countries. We lined up behind the US flag, carried by a guy named Dave, from Milwaukee-I thought "oh how nice-he traveled so far" Well, I found out later, when he spoke to the crowd of 1500, that this was Dave Orlowski, the guy who finished 3rd in the 1st ever Ironman in Hawaii in 1978! Seriously? Well if I would have known that I would have at least gotten my picture with him or something! Tears were welling up in my eyes as we "marched" down Main Street in Busselton to Ironman Village. I had to pinch myself. Am I really here doing this? There were folks lined up on the street cheering for us! It was magical..We arrived at the "Event Marquee", where the "drum band" continued to play until we were let into the big tent for dinner. The place was huge! It was decorated with flags everywhere. The food was amazing. All different types of pasta, salad, fruit, rolls, dessert-it was all there. Although we don't drink, we could have even had beer if we wanted it (I guess the Aussies like their pre race beer). There was entertainement-not just some local group they got to come play, but a real singing act that sang and danced a bunch of internationally themed songs. It was good!

Then came the emcees, who were dressed in some kind of dwarf type costumes. I think it means something here but it looked pretty ridiculous to us! They introduced each of the 46 countried represented here and played their national anthem in part-there were some countries that had only one person and they still did that! The US has 82 participants, topped only by Singapore who had 100 athletes here! We stood and cheered when they called us and played our NA. Of course Australia had the most athletes and it was a booming sound when it came to announcing the Aussies! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

They got Craig on the phone sometime during the evening..that was cool. He told ME (and a few hundred others) good luck and have fun! We saw a 20 minute video from last year's race and those folks..well I am not sure they were having fun but it will be an experience. I already feel like I have died and gone to heaven here and am very blessed to be here.

Off we go to the athlete's meeting this AM and to bike check-in and try to correct our State. If not you can hear from Albuquerque, Alaska, you are an Ironman! Hopefully we fix this today..

Registered and chilling...

2009-12-01T23:54:00.004-07:00

Since I received a criticism after my last post for my literary skills, I hesitate to write this but will with this disclaimer: I do not claim to or ever will be a writer. I am posting on this blog for me, my family and friends who are hopefully tolerant of my writing skills (or lack there of). When I am tired and/or jetlagged, I do not make much sense-ever..

That said, we have officially been in Aussie Land for 5 days now. My body is starting to feel right again as it gets use to the "upside down" schedule the new land has us in. Last night I slept all night and woke up at 5:30 instead of 4:30. So slowly but surely..

Yesterday, we were invited to cycle with the local "Busso" triathletes at 5:30 AM. Of course we were up way before then and the sun arises here at 5:00 AM so we were bright-eyed and bushy tailed awake and riding by 6:00. We were lead along the bike course along with 9 other locals, who were friendly and nice as you can imagine..23 miles later we felt like rockstars with all the extra O2..The course is beautiful, along the beach and "forest" with wind at times..Apparently they have wind here too..not just in NM! We will be treated with some wind on race day it seems, if the weather gods have it right. That's OK-we can take it-bring it on!! The folks then invited us to coffee, where I was schooled in how to order a cup of coffee (a long black)..Our new found friends even invited us to come swim early today but alas we overslept!

I read a whole book yesterday, we rented a movie and generally just laid around after our early morning excursion..H cooked a fantastic "steak on the barbie" in our new home away from home. It was cold and started raining off and on yesterday so was a good day just to rest.

Today, off we went to walk the 2.5 miles down the beach for our "organized swim". Well, things here at IMWA seem a little more relaxed. There were no Gator-Aid folks there to take your stuff so we just hopped on with an IM tour group and swam with them. The water is as clear as it gets. I was a little nervous when the first guy I saw get out said he was stung on the face by a jelly fish. There are NOT suppose to be jelly fish in this ocean! We managed to swim for about 25 min. No stings, the water temp is cool, but not cold. I felt FAST in the salt water....

After the swim, we ate lunch at "The Goose" Fantastic food, great view..Then off to the Expo. Seems they were not quite all together either as most of the booths were not even set up yet. Our biggest disappointment so far is the IMWA gear. Not only is the clothing pretty "cheap" looking, they have the iron-on kind of IMWA logos (you know the kind that washes off over time)-that is if you can actually see the logo beyond the "JAGGARD" label (clothing line I guess)..Bummer because we were planning to buy the store out on IMWA stuff but not that stuff at those prices ($150 for a cheap ass jersey). OK I can live with this issue. We will scout it out again on Sunday for finishers' stuff. Oh and apparently I am skinnier in Australia. When they weighed me today (they weigh all the athletes), I weighed 7 lbs lighter than in the US. Amazing!

The people here are so friendly and helpful-it is hard to describe. They laughed when we went and "got in line" for the registration a few minutes before it opened- we were FIRST! Only the crazy Americans, whose IM races sell out a year in advance were there to be FIRST! Quick check in..The only funny thing is I guess we did not put in our state on the application so the guy, never having heard of ABQ, put in the first state he could think of I guess...Alaska. So we are from Albuquerque, Alaska..Ha!! Also, we were given a "Safely Utility Knife" in our shwag bags. Really? I guess that is to cut down the competition? We will not make it past the first airline flight out of Perth but until then, at least I know I have a huge KNIFE if I need it!

Tomorrow, we will be in the "athlete parade" of nations. We will all be parading down mainstreet to the carbo loading dinner. How cool is that?

Chilling out the rest of today..Life is good in the Land of Oz..

Our Adventure Begins.

2009-11-30T02:42:00.000-07:00

Our odyssey began on Thanksgiving Day, which was only about 4 days ago but feels like a million years ago right now. We had Thanksgiving lunch with Nana and Heather. After leaving ABQ late afternoon, bikes in hand we began with our epic travel day. I was pleasantly shocked when the SWA representative actually KNEW what our bike cases were and we seamlessly got our bags checked, yes even the one I had that weighed 51 lbs. Gawd-you really expect me to fit everything I want to bring on a 2 month trip in one 50 lb. suitcase? We got on the plane and alas we were off! When we got to LAX, not only did our bikes actually arrive with us, we found some kind soul to cart our ever so heavy bike bags and 4 others on a huge cart over to Air New Zealand (we gave him $20). I was so happy to see those bikes get checked in-we were at last a 10th of the way there. Then to top off a perfect day, Allison and Lane met us at the airport and we had our 4th Thanksgiving dinner with our 4th child. Wow are we ever lucky-seriously..all our girls and granddaughters are the most amazing adults-I am one proud mama!! OK, so bye bye to Lane and Ally..we got to our gate and at 9:15 PM on Thursday night we took off to make our way to our final destination, Perth, Australia. Now this is where it gets a little fuzzy for me. The crossing of the International Date Line thing is a mystery to me. I never did get it right but I do know it took 12 hours to fly to Auckland, New Zealand and somewhere between the 2 movies, 5 hours of sleep and 2 meals, we lost a day. Arriving at 7:30 AM SATURDAY in NZ, we did our best to sweet talk our way into the Air NZ lounge to spend the next 7 hours until our next plane left. No amount of money or good looks or begging could get us in. So we sat, and sat and sat for most of the day in the main area of the Auckland Airport. We did find a public shower which was not very busy this hour of the morning so after a quick shower with paper towel drying, I felt a bit refreshed. I managed to get a back massage, do about 4 crossword puzzles and perked up a bit when H got us some REAL coffee as we waited. I had tried to limit my caffeine up until this point and drank tons of water. The thigh high compression hose that was suggested REALLY helped with the ankle swelling all this air time could have given me. At around 2:30 PM, we left for Perth on another 7.5 hour flight. This time I watched another 2 movies, ate, more crosswords, got REALLY tired of traveling but was still very excited that we actually pulled this off and were able to leave the States without any emergencies or crisis. A miracle!! Finally, after 35 hours of traveling including the layovers, we arrived in Perth around 5:00 PM, Saturday. We went to baggage claim and wonder of wonders; there were our bikes-in one piece! I have heard horror stories of bikes getting lost, getting broken, etc so I figured if ours got here it would be amazing-it was! The customs folks are not too keen on Infinite drink powder that looks like drugs and is not in the original packaging but they let us through anyways. We hauled all our stuff out the airport door and to our amazement, it was summer!! And there are flies here..not just a few but A LOT of flies! That is the only downside I have seen of Australia so far. And bug spray seems to have handled that already.

Off on the shuttle we went with a couple who had just had their plane turn around after almost reaching a remote island and they had to try again tomorrow. I was so thankful we did not have THAT experience! I was quite loopy by this point. We got to the hotel in Perth and found a restaurant on the premises. H assured me this was the worst hotel we would be staying in. However it was close to the airport and the shuttle would pick us up the next day there to head to Busselton. It was a bed..that is all I needed after traveling so long. I almost fell asleep in my dinner so needless to say I slept OK that night, despite the horrendous jet lag. We awoke to a beautiful sunny Australian day the next day, hung out by the pool to set our circadian clocks and waited for our shuttle, which was to take us 3 hours to Busselton. They forgot to tell us we may be waiting and hour or two at the airport for other travelers. But it was fun, as we met another American, who is a professional and triathlon coach whose goal is to break 9 hours in this race. My goal is to get done with the BIKE in 9 hours-holy cow! Some other very sweet ladies got on the van and we were off! The chatty annoying bus driver made the trip go fast. He took us on our first glimpse of the bike course as we headed into Busselton. One word-FLAT. It is flat as a pancake and that is for real!! And beautiful, tree lined forest for part of the ride and ending up near the jetty on the beach for transition and finish line. As we drove into “Busso” we got really excited and happy. We made it all the way here! The bus driver found our hotel, which is more like the luxury Inn on the beach compared to the previous stay. We have a very nice 2 bedroom with kitchen modern “villa” right near the beach and bike path that we will be running on. It is so pretty here I can’t even describe it. I am posting pics on FB..The 50 inch TV isn’t bad either if you like anything on the 4 TV stations they get here. We were pretty exhausted when we got here, disoriented by the time change and HUNGRY. So the very sweet young lady who was at the front desk did what every hotel does (not really), She DROVE us to the grocery store and waited while we bought food…and brought us back! OK, now I know we are in for small town friendliness! The people here are happy, friendly, and helpful. One of the guys that works here came over this AM because we could not figure how the hell to get our bikes together-we looked like the 2 stooges as we searched in Internet for PICTURES OF BIKES so we could copy them…The guy phoned the best bike shop in town (well there are only two) and made us an appointment for us to bring them in. We managed to assemble them well enough to ride the 4 miles into town, on the LEFT side of the street. Now that makes for interesting bike adventures in a new town with plenty of roundabouts and traffic. We dropped our bikes off, took off to the store with our backpacks so we could fill them with food. We looked like vagabonds as we trudged to the “Woolworth’s” (yes I guess they do still exist in some parts of the world!); in our socks (we had forgotten our shoes). It may have made more sense for us to rent a car, but I think both of us are scared at this point to try the whole driving on the left thing even in this little town. The folks we ran into were the best-I had 3 people ask me if I was here for “the Ironman” and told me they were volunteering. There are 1500 volunteers from the community at this race! That must be half the population! You know you are in a small town when:

1. The guy in the bike store asks you to “watch his store” for a minute while he goes and test drives your bike.

2. The guy that works here invited us to go riding in the AM with a group of locals.

3. You can leave your hotel room unlocked because you just know no one will rip you off.

4. You see a very nice Cervelo P-3 sitting outside a barber shop-no lock, nothing..

5. EVERYONE says hi to you-that is EVERYONE!

We still have not figured out how to get a phone card, although we think we know where to do that.

So today we managed to get our bikes in order and ready to race, ran and walked about 7 miles in all and got some new food…heard people say words like “gooday mate” and “great bloke” and ran into great folks everywhere we went. I am still a bit foggy from the time change but getting clearer every day. The ocean is amazing here. I cannot wait to swim in it!

Tomorrow we will probably go on the ride, since they are riding part of the course, although 5:30 is awfully early to get going..The sun rises about then here and sets around 8:00. I have yet to see a cloud. The only thing I forgot is my charger for my camera battery-AGGhhhh! So $55 went for a new charger. I need my pictures of Team Wess’ adventure!

11 Days and counting...

2009-11-23T10:23:00.001-07:00

Have been using this since IMFL. I can't figure out my "One Thing" for IMWA yet...I would like to say "place in my AG" but feel too intimidated to do so:

The One Thing (by Rich Strauss of Crucible Fitness)
The run is where the rubber meets the road. Let's consider the entire Ironman starting field and the likelihood of these athletes running to their full potential on race day. A percentage will be eliminated due to improper training. The classic example is training for a marathon, not a 26.2 mile run after a 112 mile bike ride. Another percentage will be eliminated by nutritional and pacing mistakes that begin to express themselves either late in the bike, or mid way through the run.
So when we reach T2, we have a small subset of the entire field who have created the opportunity for a successful run through the skillful manipulation of many variables: training, physical fitness, nutrition and pacing. Of this subset, what then determines who runs to their potential and who does not? The One Thing.
First, a successful Ironman run = slowing down as little as possible. Not slowing down is almost entirely a function of maintaining focus, not fitness. If you are not cramping up on the run, you don't need to be running very fast to have a successful marathon, by Ironman standards. Despite what you might think, the difference between a good and bad marathon time is just continuing to move forward, as best you can, for the entire 26.2 miles. Sorry, but that's about as sexy as it gets out there.
You MUST expect your body to have a conversation with your head at some point during the run:
Body to Mind: "Ok, I'm truly suffering here. I can keep going, but you need to give me a very good reason to continue suffering like this."
Mind to Body: "We suffer because of the One Thing. The pain won't last forever. Just keep doing the best you can do and we'll get there."
My One Thing
The One Thing is whatever has motivated you to do this to yourself in the first place. Before the race you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and identify what your One Thing is. And this is no time for bullshit. Be completely honest because your body will play your bluff when the chips are down. You can't lie to yourself out there.
After four Ironman finishes, I have identified my One Thing as very concrete goals, time or place based.
Ironman Florida, '00: I came off the bike with a shot at going sub 11hrs for my first IM. I used this goal to maintain complete focus on my run and had a successful day, despite donating blood 18 days before the race and to this day not remembering miles 13 through 22. One Thing = sub 11:00, determined in T2.
Ironman California, '01: 30-34 AG qualifying time in 2000 was 10:20. I wanted to qualify but wasn't completely committed to it. At about mile 10 of the run I had seen many 30-34 calves pass me and knew I wasn't going to qualify. I began to lose my focus and ran into some nutritional issues by mile 22. Picked myself up and finished in...10:19. Just below the qualifying standard but a year too late :-) One Thing = Kona, but I wasn't completely honest with myself. After that goal become unrealistic, I should have set an alternate objective of sub 10:10, as a tool to maintain my focus.
Ironman Wisconsin, '02: Not confident in my run fitness and expecting a dogfight with Pedder. However, I came off the bike 15th overall, with a very good chance of qualifying or even standing on the AG podium. Maintained complete focus and ran 3:45 on about 3:30 marathon fitness. One Thing = Kona and AG podium, determined in T2.
Ironman Hawaii, '03: Injury and first time on the island combine to set my goal at having a successful race. One Thing = no execution errors. Without a concrete, quantifiable goal I struggled to maintain my focus and failed to do so, relative to my performances at Florida and Wisconsin. I was a machine on those days, but not in Kona. My One Thing became pain and the desire to make it stop. I had a strong last 5 miles, considering.
Your One Thing
My One Thing may or may not be yours. I know what mine is now and will plan my race goals around it to increase my potential for a successful race.
How do you determine your One Thing?
Identify why you want to do the race before signing up. Are you doing it for you or to prove something to someone else? Be completely honest with yourself. "I'm a doing this Ironman so I can earn a unique title that is mine forever." One Thing = title of Ironman.
Take that One Thing and mate it with your race goals and expectations: "The title is important to me, not the time. I want to finish with a smile on my face."
Remind yourself, daily, of your One Thing and the race goals and expectations you have built around it. Through this process your One Thing will provide clarity of purpose to your training. When the Phunometer is pegged during a 6 hour long ride, you'll know why you are still out there.
In your mental rehearsals before the race, visualize the conversation between Mind and Body when the Body begins to question the Mind's commitment to the One Thing. Prepare your rebuttal beforehand.
On race day, continually remind yourself of the One Thing. Focus completely on its accomplishment. Remember, you can never disappoint your friends or family. They will be proud of you regardless. However, you can let yourself down. In the end, the best we can do is follow our commitment to our One Thing.

Last big Push..

2009-11-15T08:32:00.001-07:00

This was on the schedule for yesterday: 5000 yard swim, 120 mile bike, 4 mile run brick after bike. A month ago I would have said that was crazy, never could be done. But as the days of training have rolled on, so has my strength and confidence. Lastly being the B2B half IM, in which my confidence got a BIG boost with a 2nd place finish and a PR. So H & I were on track to do this thing yesterday, even after I obsessively looked at the weather the day before and decided to go with Accuweather, which is not necessarily so-but it said partly cloudy all day-humph! Anyway we knew it could rain anyway so came dressed accordingly.

We learned that the Westside gym does not open until 7:00 AM on Saturdays-are you kidding me? Guess you Westsiders all like to sleep in after a Friday night out...the peeps I know out there do NOT! Ok so we started at 6:00 AM at the Eastside gym, where I guess folks like to work out early on the weekends. We got to the pool at 6:10 and already all the lanes were taken-say what? We were pretty surprised but oh, well off to tackle to 3 miles of swimming. H decided we should break it down into 1000, 500-repeat times 3 after 500 warm-up. This proved to be a little faster, as we knew we had a big day in front of us. 1 hour and 50 minutes later I was in the shower and drying my hair. We arrived at the Westside gym and were off about 9:15. Who should we see but Steve B., who graciously rode with us the first 20 miles or so. He informed us cheerfully that the rain was coming at noon-thanks Steve..See our friend Joe is the local weatherman so Steve has the inside scoop..so much for not-so-accuweather.com! It was cold to start, cloudy but not so bad. I warmed up quickly-that wasn't so hard. Steve also informed us it was goathead season-thanks Steve! More flats to worry about.. We got north to Bernalillo and beyond, heading out to San Felipe or Hollywood Casino. The clouds were all around us, but no rain yet. As we got to the dog part of the ride I saw a dog and we immediately considered turning back.(one of our friends got bit by a dog out there a couple of months ago and is still recovering-scary) Then we saw about 30 riders in a pack going the other way and let them get between us and the dog, who never seemed to see any of us..So got to the casino and H (who is never in a hurry, ever at stops) said Quick let's go-the rain is coming! I gulped down a Red Bull and then by golly I was ready to GO! I had this never-ending hunger the whole ride. I was not tired, my legs never hurt but I ate 3 bars, about 10 powergels, and 4 bottles of Mark Allen drink-and was still hungry from time to time. We shot back to Bernalillo into a headwind-of course..Then came the sprinkles. Nothing too strong, nothing that ever felt uncomfortable so we just kept plugging away. If I was not in such a hurry, I would have taken pictures, it was surreal..Dark clouds all around us and no real rain to speak of..We stopped minimally, just to eat, adjust, etc. By the time we were almost back to the car again-midpoint, the sun was out-yay! So this helped us make the decision that indoor riding for the next 4 hours was definitely out-we were off to head south!! After replenishing drinks, goos and adding arm warmers, extra hoodie, wool socks and warmer gloves I was ready for the next 50 miles at least.

We took off south down the bike trail, where it had apparently rained. The farther south we got, the wetter the road. We were headed toward very dark clouds, hmm, not a good sign..And instinctually, I figured wet leaves are probably slippier so we took it easy over the massive amounts of yellow wet leaves on the trail. It started getting colder..I had no idea what time it was at any point of the ride. I just blindly rode on..We saw at least 2 people fixing flats-not a good sign..One good thing about riding on the bike trail in crappy weather on a Saturday-there were hardly any people-imagine that! We hit the road to take us out to our southern Casino Isleta. I thought I knew a shortcut, which took us about 3 miles out of our way in what appeared to be a not so good area of town. It was an adventure of sorts and we finally found our way out of South Valley industrial land. Still no rain but very dark clouds around us. I felt warm and comfortable though so on we went. Just as we turned the corner to go to the gas station at the turnaround, H says I've got a flat.. Oh sucky bummer! We assessed the situation at the stop and changed the flat, only to have it flat again. Oh shit..after about 4 air cartridges (note to self-do not keep spent air cartridges in Bento Box) and another tube we held our breath and the tube held air-whew! By now it was raining-like real rain...Quickly we took off north on Broadway street that although sounds good in the movies, in these parts is like taking a chance on life..The cars ZOOM by and actually try and scare you as you ride on the not so clean shoulder. I was pretty worried at this point that we may not make it home alive..FINALLY we got back on the trail. It was raining, the sun came out and then I saw it-a rainbow! We were riding toward the end of the rainbow! How cool is that? It was sign-we were going to the end of the rainbow!!! A good omen for sure. Then came the wet leaves again and we gingerly made it through that. I was keenly aware the sun was sure going down fast-still raining...Then it started getting dark..About 4 miles from the car, the rain stopped but so did the light..Finally H said I can't see anything.. Oh-not a good sign. I got in front and tried to guide although I could not see either. About 1.5 miles from the car we turned up the trail, into lights from cars that blinded us. So we walked about a mile until we could see again under the streetlights. As we headed through the parking lot I said We lived to see our car! H looked down and announced 104 miles! We did it! Not the 120 we were suppose to do but with the elements and flats-that was pretty good and we were happy. I could have kept going-that is how good my legs felt. But I was tired and hungry and said I wanted to quit. H said Oh no we are not quitting-we got this far-we are going to finish the workout! This is new for us-I am usually the slave driver. OK, suck it up-I told myself. We gathered our stuff, headed into the gym. I am sure as bedraggled as we looked, we must have looked like hobos or something as we checked in to do our treadmill run. I hopped on the treadmill and to my surprise my legs felt fine. I ran/walked 4 miles in 49 minutes..not so bad.Then H said Look outside..It was POURING RAIN! Wow-we just made it! My legs did start to get tired at the end and man I was HUNGRY!!! There were not enough powergels to ease my hunger..We both looked at each other at the end and at 7:00 PM, we were done!!

Home-quickly rinsed off the oh so dirty bikes, got our stuff inside and I ate and ate and ate dinner. We both felt great-like you do after a race but within 2 hours I crashed..really crashed.I was in bed by 9:15 and OUT! This morning my legs are sore-should have done that ice bath last night but just didn't have the energy after the day...We are suppose to do a "36 mile recovery ride" which will be done at the gym because it is snowing outside this AM.

IMWA here we come!!!

B2B Race Report..

2009-11-09T09:12:00.002-07:00

We arrived Wednesday with a couple of our folks, Miguel and Lorraine. Margaret and Corey were already there with our bikes. They graciously drove our bikes in a van across the universe to this new home called North Carolina, where there is so much oxygen you feel like superstar when active. Soon the rest arrived and we settled into our 1970's version of a beach house. Comfortable, but old. The views from the house of the ocean was amazing! So we had Mark and Lorna, DP, Tim, Miguel and Lorraine, Margaret and Corey, Michael and Michi, Mark T. and Naomi, Orlando, H & I.
Athletes=12 Sherpas=3. The sherpas were so amazing, I cannot begin to tell how much of a difference they made! Lorna made us all cookies (twice) and dinner on Friday night. Now that is a sherpa! Corey kept us all organized on race day-he rocked!
On Thursday, we went swimming in the ocean channel for practice. The water was cool, but not impossibly cold. I ran into Vickie from blog land and that was a great surprise! Later, we went to check in and go to the athlete's dinner. Everything was extremely organized in the check in process, I think NAS could learn a lesson or two from the B2B folks in this department. The pre race dinner was great food, OK speaker (something about "recycling our passion"-kinda corny but OK). Loading 15 people into our "passenger van" was quite an art and Mark drove us downtown for the experience in Wilmington. I felt nervous all week about the logistics of getting us all everywhere. But it really did all work out like it was suppose to, despite with my anal retentive barking of orders..Our house on the beach was about 10 miles from downtown. I was really glad we opted for the quiet beach house as opposed to staying downtown with the nervous athletes. It was a good decision..
Friday was rather low key. Some went to the pre-race briefing and filled us in. We found T-1 and dropped off our bikes and "stuff" Again my nerves about ever seeing my "stuff" again were high, as this was a point to point race. The energy at this pre-race was much different than "Ironman" races (official ones). People did not seem as uptight-atmosphere more relaxed. Again Corey, Lorraine and Lorna had "a plan" on how to get us all to the race start and picked up. I was so grateful someone was in charge of this aspect as I had nightmares about not getting to the start on time or not getting us all home in one piece. We took a walk on the beach, had great food, entertainment per MG, who quizzed us all on deep and not so deep subjects post dinner conversation..It was so much fun..we had the best group of people I can ever imagine living under one roof for this experience. The memories of that will stay with me forever..
Sat. AM, the 7 Ironfolks were taken to T-1 at 5:00 AM. There was a "cool front" that had come in making the air temp in the 40s. That actually made for a cool start but perfect race day temp later..Corey came back and got the rest of us and we headed to T-1 way too early but "they" said T-1 would close at 7:00. Which made for a bus trip to the half IM start-there we were 90 minutes before our start time. That kind of sucked but we sat around and laughed and watched the Ironman swimmers ZOOM by with the current. Ahhhh, an easy swim I thought. And I was right. When my wave took off, the current was so strong I could hardly hold the line in the water but BOOM, we were off! I was trying to sight but having difficulty because of the sun. So I followed the two women ahead of me and thought Wow, I think I am third in this wave (new experience). Everytime I turned to breathe, I was acutely aware of the extra oxygen and this just gave me more encouragement. I did not have a watch on at this point so you could have told me I did the swim in 25 or 45 minutes. Come to find out the former was true. I climbed out a the ladder, they pulled off my wetsuit, I found my shoes, ran about 50 yards and crossed the mat.
Swim time: 27:51
The run to T-1 was 400 yards (thus the shoes). Then into transition, where I found my bike and proceeded to dink around trying to figure out whether to wear all the clothes I had brought. I made the quick decision to not put anything extra on, I felt warm. This turned out to be fine..Out of T-1 after what seemed to be a 10 min. transition.
Bike: It was suppose to be "pancake flat" Not so sure about that. There were about 4 little bridges to go over although I will say for the most part it was flat. There was suppose to be an aid station at mile 25. I had drunk all my water and when I did not see one I was pissed. The aid station ended up being at mile 30 but I suppose that was OK because I hauled ass to get to it. I stoppped, took off the plastice bags I had put on my aerobottle, which I had forgotten to take off, readjusted everything and it all felt like a new race. My Garmin HR monitor was not working, I do not know if this was the salt water or what but my HR either said 52 or 182. So I decided just to go at a pretty hard pace until it worked. It never did. At the turn around back to town we encountered the wind, of course but hey..we train in wind all the time..I told myself..About 6 miles from the end, a woman in my AG passed me. Oh no you're not! I thought and passed her..I knew I had probably PRd the swim, was PRing the bike and was going to walk/run the half marathon. I knew she would probably be a runner but damn if I was going to let her get me on the bike! We crossed over a bridge into transition (ow!). I crossed the mat and saw the Battleship. It was impressive all big and in the water..Didn't have much time to enjoy..
Bike time: 3:13 (this includes T-1 because the timing chips were screwed up or something) I think my real bike split was 3:04.
In this transition they guided me to my stuff-there it was! Magically had made it across town over the harbor into a new transition area-magic! I dumped it all out, sorted what I wanted and boom, was off on the run.
T-2: 3:40
Run: Now I had to got the the BR-bad! So I waited until the first aid station and had a nice little break, ate, drank, etc..even though my feet were kind of numb as the blood rushed to them, I felt great! Woman from bike in my age group passed me early on the run and I never saw her again-as expected..I planned my run, ran my plan. Run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute. My running was pretty fast for me, between 9 and 10 min miles. I loved doing it this way. My feet became un-numb. I was able to mentally stay focused and just chugged along. I met up with a few Outlaws going the other way. Caught up to Orlando and we walk/ran together for awhile. Two more pit stops and I felt so good. At the turn around I was so GLAD I was only doing the half. I knew I had it in me to finish the half, but to run a whole marathon like this, after pushing the bike, I knew would be tough. (Note to self: do NOT push the bike that hard in IMWA). The last hill was brutal before the last mile of the race. Now I started to see some of our Iron folks out on the run-that was really AWESOME! I knew we were all having good races. Being in kind of a race fog, I could not for the life of me figure out what my time was. I had fiddled with my Garmin at the beginning at the run (note to self: read the instructions) and finally got it to work in run mode but still could not get what the hell my time was..
At last I crossed the finish line and the clock said 6:50. So I was thinking, OK, I need to add 20 minutes to that since I started in a later wave. No that was not right, I had to subtract the 20 minutes..Duh!
Run time: 2:46
Final race time: 6:31-PR by 14 minutes!!
Wow! I was really happy about that. There were our sherpas and sweet Courtney at the finish line..It was a party! Pizza, doughnuts, lots of PRs. H finished not too long after me for his own PR. I heard in the background they were doing awards but didn't think much of it at first. Then Michi found out she WON her age group and I thought well maybe there is a chance? I had not seen anyone else on the race course except the one woman. There were 7 women signed up in my AG. Could I have placed? After some time they finally gave out the awards for my age group. When I saw bike woman go up for first place, H & I looked at each other and whooped! I got SECOND place..oh yes I did!! I do not think I have ever been so excited before in my life..I have not gotten an award in so long..this was surely a surprise! The award plaque is a piece of the original deck of the Battleship we were standing next to. And some dude in a military uniform gave me my award.. how cool is that..
Wow..very long story short, we managed to get back to the car eventually (the logistics of this is a nightmare Mr. Race Director)..Somehow got back and gathered all the Ironman folks, who many had a PR, finished there first and Miguel even won his age group! We made it "home" by 10:30. I was so exhausted but happy. All of us were abuzz with the day's events. It was a very well run race (except the post race wait to get on a trolley to the car)..Everyone had their stories, it was hard to go to bed!
After a slight meltdown when I realized there was no coffee the next morning at the house ( I went and got some) we were off for the long trip home...
As I sit here today, I am pooped, sore and happy. Next stop-Australia!! We leave in 17 days!!

Quick update from the Ironhouse..

2009-10-26T08:17:00.003-06:00

OK, these will be bullet points. My brain is heavily into Ironman Crazies. Some may call it "Bipolar Ironcrazy" but really it is only the extreme tiredness and fatigue that accompanies Ironman training. H & I woke up the other morning and promised each other that next year NO IM training!!! We must stick to this as partners..otherwise one of us will get weak and pull the other in. That is how the madness starts..

1. I am tired. Oh, I think I mentioned this already.
2. I have no idea what my goal for Ironman Western Australia is. Sometimes I think it is just to finish, sometimes I think it is to have a PR. I can't decide.
3. I will run over 100 miles the month of October. First time ever over the century mark!
4. My house looks like hell. Not only is is dirty..there is laundry piling up everywhere.
5. I got to see my five year old granddaughter go to Kindergarten when I visited Long Beach a few weeks ago. That and dance class. I still remember her mom at dance classes for goodness sakes. What happened to to all that time in between?
6. Fall is officially in New Mexico. The Balloon Fiesta is over, the leaves are turning, the heat is on and the damn chamisas are blooming. I know because I can see them and feel them everyday!!!
7. My ankle is so much better. I do feel twinges of the previous sprain but usually after I bike. Weird...
8. One reason my foot is probably not bothering me is because we are getting into a groove of running 2 minutes, walking 1 minutes. We average 13 min miles, which some may say is not really running as a recent NY Times article alludes to. Shame on you NY Times!! I could actually plan on doing this at IMWA and be fine with it.
9. After said running training, I ran the whole Long Beach half marathon, only walking at the aid stations. I did NOT have a PR but felt great. Sea level is a wonderful thing.
10. I have done 2 century rides in the past month. The first, the Acoma Century Ride was a wonderfully supported ride with plenty of aid stations, bike support and happy volunteers. The next one was yesterday the Day of the Tread, which was basically a suckfest. Now part of this just might have been the 4500 yard swim and 14 mile run we did the day before. I am not discounting that. Part of it could have been the 20 MPH headwind we had for a good 30 miles of it. The wind was suppose to be 5-9 MPH. WTF??? So I was not prepared to be blown all over a road that has traffic whizzing by at 80 MPH like a highway..It was miserable. The good news is on the way back on said road we were flying at 25-27 MPH! Still, the support on this ride was miserable. There was one aid station during one 40 mile stretch-not what I would consider "support". There were no bike support vehicle in sight the whole ride. We barely even saw anyone riding the 100, only 2 pretty fast groups that passed us early on... Now on our part, we should have started earlier looking back. The start time was 8:45, we started at 8:30. Nevertheless, when we got to the "finish line" there were only workers putting away the food and drinks and not one race volunteer in site. I know we were late and added on 4 miles to make the full 100 miles but 7:45 for a century with stops is not THAT late! I am very disappointed in this local ride and they heard from me this AM. They could take a few lessons from our Acoma friends to the West.
10. We are heading out to North Carolina next week for Beach to Battleship half IM with several of our NM Outlaw buddies. This should be a nice reprieve from IM training. Logistically, it looks like a bit of a nightmare but I will try and not worry too much about this as this is not really my "A" race. Many of our friends are doing the full IM. Can't wait to cheer them in!
11. I am heavily into "list making" for our trip to Australia. I feel stress about getting ready and if I ponder the lists too much, I get crazy. One thing at a time....I need to remind myself.
12. We leave for Australia one month from today. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! OK, settle down..Once I get there I will be fine, the preparation makes me nuts..
13. I need to stop watching crime solving shows. I think the negative energy is affecting me..
14. It is suppose to snow in ABQ this week. Oh dear..not ready for indoor training!
15. Did I mention I was tired? Time for rest....

Surprise myself..no go ahead..

2009-10-05T07:51:00.001-06:00

H and I were discussing the word "envy" yesterday. I have a good life, no I have a great life! I do what I want, pretty much when I want to do it and am not responsible for many things..We train, sleep in, eat what we want, travel where we want to. There is not much in my life I want. So who do I envy when life is so wonderful?
This woman:

http://epaper.abqjournal.com/Olive/ODE/AJEDITIONS/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=SkQvMjAwOS8xMC8wMw..&pageno=MjY.&entity=QXIwMjYwMA..&view=ZW50aXR5

This woman "decided to do an Ironman" and went about 3 hours below her expected time and qualified for Kona. Her marathon time was her PR for a marathon and could have qualified her for Boston. Are you kidding me? She also felt really strong the last 10k of the IM marathon. Seriously? Oh and she does not have a coach or really a training plan...No way!

I, for once would like to surprise the hell out of myself and just do great things in a race. Just by surprise..Oh my gosh I felt so good, I SMOKED that marathon and just surprised myself by coming in 2 hours below my goal time! Who does that??

I hear of these folks and this is where my envy kicks in. While the rest of us are busting our asses training for triathlon, most of us are lucky to just get a PR. Just barely...I wanna be one of those people who just comes in at 13 hours and Gosh I had no idea I was going that fast!

Probably will never happen. Because I am not a freak of nature and have huge lungs, great resolve, physical denial or whatever it takes to accomplish this..

Good luck to this woman although there is a part of me that wishes she were just mortal like the rest of us!

Tour de Acoma and my week..

2009-09-28T08:32:00.000-06:00

The week leading up to the century ride yesterday was challenging. I could not run, so Saturday brought a 12 mile run on the schedule. So feeling Ironman training pressure, I decided to walk the whole thing! This was an interesting thing to do. H is injured too, so we did it. We walked 12 miles. Now averaging 15 min miles was not my idea of a fast walk. I am tempted to take a course in race walking just in case, you know..At any rate, I should be able to run on the ankle this week, although may keep the ankle brace on just in case...Amazing how worried I feel about re-injuring it at this point in IM training. I would not be a happy camper if I had to walk the whole marathon. Although I would and could, if I had to at IMWA.

We went to a dinner party Saturday night. At this juncture of my training, I feel like a party pooper as I look at my watch at 9:00 and think wow I should be in bed by now-big training day tomorrow! But alas I did stay up until 10:30, WAY past my bedtime for this event...The alarm went off at an early 5:00 AM. I stumbled out of bed and into the car and we were on the road at 5:45. The website says the Sky City Casino is 45 minutes away. Let me correct that. It is one hour away. We barely made it there, threw our gear on and rushed to pick up our chips. As we wheeled our bikes to the start, the woman said GO! Wow, that was as close as I like to make it to a race, although we were registered as "recreational riders" it still felt like a race. I had thrown on the long sleeved race T-shirt on over my bike jersey, thank goodness. It was freezing at the start. The sun was not up yet at 7:00 AM and everything was COLD! I knew eventually it would warm up but I stayed behind H to block the cold wind which was mild at this point. I could not feel my hands or feet for quite awhile. There were about 50 century riders and we were at the back. I immediatey dropped my sunglasses so stopped and then we were last. Geez, we are with a fast crowd! I thought..Soon we passed a few folks and now my goal was not to be last..at least. It felt like we were in quick sand for the first 15 miles or so. The sun started coming up and we saw the most beautiful table rock mesa formation looming over us. It was magical. We picked up speed as the turrain seemed to flatten. Some of the roads were rough, which made aero position tough at times. The water stops were plentiful and the people there amazingly friendly and encouraging. The only food were oranges and bananas but plenty of water. We had been told to bring our own food, which we did and needed it..I was pleasantly surprised at the attention we did get. I guess in the past, there were not enough water stations and they seemed to have corrected that this year...

At mile 19 we hit a hill. Not the gentle "let's get up this hill". It was a full on, Heartbreak Hill kind of climb.I forgot to look at the grade on my GPS after about 10% but I know at some point I got off my bike and walked. I looked back and everyone behind me was walking. It was a short .5 miles or something until I got back on my bike. That was a little depressing having to walk and all but alas my little tri-bike doesn't like these sort of hills and when I am riding slower than I can walk, then I walk...Back on the bike at the top and there were no big hills to speak of after that..so glad someone told us about this beforehand, otherwise I might have been scared to do the rest. I knew that was it for the Heartbreak Hills..

After about 30 miles, we turned off away from the highway into the headwind, which was picking up by now. This 20 mile section out was a: getting windier by the minute b: slightly uphill and c: kind of rough road but beautiful. We finally saw the lead group of 4, with a police escort coming back on this stretch. It seeemed to take forever on this part. The wind was getting worse and we were headed straight into it. I felt really strong however and pushed it. Then I noticed something strange. Of all the folks heading back I saw no women. Now I had passed two women and thought, Geez could I be the first woman here? Not my slow ass. BUT maybe there were only 3 of us. I relayed this info to H, who said Great..He was struggling yesterday as he had a new tire on his back wheel which turned out to be like riding in quick sand for him..Then it occured to me I could not place in this race, I had registered as a recreational rider..Oh well. We trudged on. We made it to the turn around, where I saw two other women who said they had seen two women hauling ass back already. After stopping for 15 min or so, we started back. The wind at our backs, we were flying! I passed a woman again, the same one I had passed earlier. It was on! Everytime we stopped at a water station, she passed me..I felt my competitive spirit jamming by now. I felt so good yesterday. This is fairly new..I usually die at around mile 70 of these rides. Not yesterday. Around mile 65 of course the wind shifted and again, we had a headwind. This kind of sucked. Not unusual at all for New Mexico. Acoma Pueblo was still bringing us beautiful scenery, the kind you see on postcards of the Southwest.

Finally we hit the freeway access road and knew we had about 30 more miles. We turned away from the wind again and FLEW down the hill. Aha-we were climbing that last 25 miles afterall! I passed "the woman"again..then she passed me and I did not see her again for awhile. As we got to the last aid station there was lots of cheering-these folks were great! The road was suckingly rough these last few miles. We did another short out and back to get to mile 90. I saw "her" again, walking her bike up a short hill. Here was my chance to catch her! But I could not get to her..Until..I saw her stopped, hunched over her bike.. Good debi said Oh poor thing must have a flat or something, I should help her.. Bad Debi said Oh good I get to pass her ass and beat her! OK, good Debi won out. I stopped and saw she was doubled over in pain and crying..I asked her if she was OK and she managed to get out that she had a really bad cramp in her quad. I asked her if she needed electrolytes, she did not. I did not have any Ibuprofen but did give her encouragement and told her to knead the cramp. After a few minutes, she said to go on, she would be ok and walk her bike. I took off and did tell the next police officer, which were aplenty at every intersection, that she may need help..I had mixed emotions. I wanted to beat this young lady, but not like this. I hoped she was OK...H and I carried on and at about mile 95, there was the end! We were done! Short about 5 miles by all accounts but crossed the mat! At one point earlier we had heard there were 15 bikers behind us on the century so we were not last or even close! My Garmin said 6:03, not counting our stops. The tent looked rather empty and some very old barbecue left to eat, which we passed on. We loaded up the car and I saw my young friend riding over the mat and knew she was OK. She had a triathlete jersey on, so I knew she was one of us...

I have no idea what my chip time was or where I finished in the century. I do know it was a great ride. I felt strong, something foreign to me in these things...Well supported, great people, well marked, lots of law enforcement. The only negative is the shorting of the last 5 miles, although I can't say I minded that much!

Ate like a pig last night and today my legs are feeling that century!

This and that..

2009-09-23T07:39:00.000-06:00

Surviving the dog not being around. It is harder than I thought it would be..I look for her in the mornings still. Think of the 9+ years we took her for her daily walk every afternoon. Miss her little face and being able to pet her. Someone who depended on us. This is the first time in my adult life I do not have someone totally dependent on me, well except H and he does not really count. Who are we without our kids at home, pets to take care of? A new identity that has not completely formed I suppose. The grief of losing pets is very real. I look at some pet grief sites and some folks take years to get over it. I hope this is not me. I already feel better than a week ago so maybe not so long. H and I talk about it, how hard it is, how we miss M&M..

Ankle report: I went to the doctor as I reported. He said probaby not to run for 10 days (last Wed). So I am doing my best to take his advice. I was suppose to run 11 miles on Sunday. I only walked 3.5, then 4.5 mile walk on Monday. Walking uses different muscles, I am discovering. My hamstrings are sore! At least I feel like I am doing something! H is injured too so we both will be walking 10-12 miles this Saturday. That should be interesting. I will start to run next week, as long as my ankle is pain free. I feel it only occasionally now.
Yesterday we did speed drills on the bike. That was HARD..

We had a swim lesson the other day with Coach Eric. I felt fast! With him yelling at me at every turn PULL! it was no problem. I get lazy and do not do such a great job pulling when he is not there yelling. I will have to have an imaginary yelling coach in my head I suppose as I practice from now on. I really think I could nail a 1:10 swim at IMWA, all conditions in my favor and the water is calm.

The weather is turning cold. We are off to ride bikes with our Wed AM group. It is in the 40s so leg warmers, gloves are in order now.This weekend we will be doing a century organized ride in Acoma Pueblo. This is where I will really be able to tell if I am in shape...The run thing scares me as I lose valuable miles injured but if I can keep up my bike and swim training, I am hoping it will all be OK come race day..
Massage this afternoon..Ahhh...

Thursday Thirteen..

2009-09-17T14:56:00.003-06:00

1. I turned 55 today. That is 2 hands held up (both together)..I can't believe it..

2. I swam 55-100s in the pool to just say I did. It took me 2 hours and 10 min. I took 15 secs between 100s and a potty break in the middle. My arms got tired. The rest of me didn't.

3. I am really hungry because of #2.

4. We drove to Chama with Mocha's ashes in the front seat after my swim. They were about as lively as she was lately..it was very weird and sad to come up here without her..

5. I read someones blog that made me realize I will saying "on your right" in Australia alot..

6. My sprained ankle hurts sometimes..Just to remind me it is still there..

7. Heidi, Heather, Becca, Dan, Jack, Avery and Hadley will be here this weekend to see each other in lieu of Thanksgiving and Christmas. To celebrate mine and Heidi's birthdays and to spread the ashes of the 2 family dogs..

8. Moth balls around your car keeps critters from getting under the hood and building a nest. We know this because this has happened to us twice up here and it cost several hundred dollars to fix. So the downstairs smells like mothballs.

9. I feel very behind in my training. Just like every other Ironman training person probably does at some point..

10. I can walk 14 minute miles. I think I may count on walking some of the marathon this time at IMWA.

11. IMWA will be on a Saturday, which is Friday here. That is strange to think about..

12. I do not care what anyone says, Ibuprofen works!!

13. I can remember telephone numbers like you would not believe. Uncanny..I cannot remember what happened yesterday but I can remember my childhood phone number and many many others. Funny what the computer stores!

Sign of insanity?

2009-09-16T12:35:00.011-06:00

Dr: How did you sprain your ankle?

Me: I was ..uh..running at night..um..with a group of people doing a running relay.

Dr: Why were you running at night now?

Me: It was a 24 hour race. You know running..

Dr: Hmmm....

Dr: (after looking at a previous MRI of my spine and neck) Now why is it you are still running? Do you have sciatica or back pain or both?

Me: Back pain mostly. I use A.R.T. to treat it..

Dr: What is ART?

Me: A chiropractic thing....

Dr: Well, I suppose it is keeping you healthy and all. I don't know how long you are going to be able to keep running with this spine..

Me: Well, I guess my days are numbered but I am training for an Ironman.

Dr: Shakes his head...and smiles...

Dr: (after looking at my ankle). Not a bad sprain. Posterior pain but no anterior pain. That is good..I will give you an air cast to wear..

Me: Can I run in it?

Dr. Well, until the pain is gone I wouldn't.

Me: Can I walk fast in it until then?

Dr: Sure...You should use the cast for 10 days or so..

I came home, took 600 mgs of Vitamin "I" (I know, I know..don't send me those articles please) and immediately went out and walked 5 miles...

Is this the sign of a crazy person??

Colorado Relay Report..

2009-09-14T11:44:00.011-06:00

This is the second year I have done this "race" I call it a "race" because it is more of a fun 2 day event with lots of fun friends with running in between...It is in all, a 170 mile run between 10 people, 2 vans and 2 drivers...

We started on Thursday at the airport, where our plane left around 12:30. Orlando and I were the only ones there until about 12:00. I thought maybe they were playing a cruel joke on us and really we were the only ones doing the relay--ha! However alas, not everyone is as anal retentive as I am and has to be at the airport 2 hours before their flight. We all got on the plane..

Anyhoo we took off and even the SWA flight attendant announced our presence on the plane: the New Mexico Triathlon Racing Team-welcome! That was cool. We all were nervously excited as we made the quick trip to Denver. After a very smooth transition into 2-15 passenger vans, we made our way to the nearest Walmart to "stock up" for the race. Now between 12 people we managed to spend about $300 in shit to eat, drink, coolers, etc..this is besides all the nutrition we each had for our own legs of the race...Needless to say, there was a wee bit left over at the end! 2 jars of unopened pickles was the funniest leftover!

Off to Breckenridge, the start of the race. We did the race check in, which was very speedy compared to last year, checked into our hotel and were at a restaurant eating massive amounts of pizza by 7:30 PM. There was Dread Pirate, who is our "team captain" and organizer extraordinaire, Mark, Margaret, Tim, Paul, Kristin, Brian, Dave, Orlando and myself. The drivers were Damon, who has more electronic GPS equipment than the airplane we came in on, (plus high falootin radios to talk to each others' vans with) and Mike, who is a runner by nature but has been injured so opted to drive. This was our crew. Most of them are faster than me and younger than me. Well, all of them are, actually. I had carefully chosen my leg by saying I want one of the easier legs! Done! I had leg 7, which was basically a 6 mile run, a 4.5 mile run and a 2.5 mile run. I was in "van B" which had the leg 5-10 in it. In short, each person had 3 runs to do at all hours of the day and night in the next 27 or so hours after the race started...

After our very serious "pre-race meeting" in the hot tub the night before, and all had slept at least a few hours, our race started at 5:30 AM in Breckenridge.
This was out intended route:

The route got shifted at the last minute. Something about rock slides on a mountain pass. So the first 4 legs got changed up a bit and we had a second start with leg 5 further down the road at 9:00 AM.

Which meant we had Brian from Van A in our van for awhile. He is new and seemed to fit in quite well as he actually did run in his underwear his last run, as we had told him this was the initiation (it wasn't)-ha!

Our van's runs started around 10:30 AM Friday with Orlando and leg 6. At this point I drank a "Rockstar" energy drink, since my first leg (7) was to follow in about an hour. We drove around to the next exchange point and I awaited Orlando, and waited, and waited....DP and Margaret were about to kill me as the Rockstar apperently made me "a little hyper" :) I continued to wait, saw Becca come in, who was doing the race with some of her friends. That was cool. But where the heck was Orlando. Visions of him lying hurt in a ditch were a concern. Making a wrong turn was really a concern as there are some big ass mountains to get lost in up there..DP started getting worried and asked the race official what they do when we cannot find our team member. Time went by...they radioed the transition area we had just left-nada....Now 2 hours into a 6 mile run and we were worried..Then, DP got it! I bet he is running your leg too Debi! Just like that we figured it out. There was a turnoff 3/4 of a mile up the road where outbound runners were going and he took that turn. Yep that was it! They found him at the next exchange point. Well, crap now what do we do? We asked the race officials if I could run that extra 1.5 miles he did not run and call it good and they said yes! I ran or rather walked fast up the hill at 10,000 feet .75 miles then hauled ass down. Done! I felt kinda wierd at this point. Kind of annoyed, kind of relieved, kind of jealous..glad Orlando was OK!!

So we sped off to Exchange 7 and found Orlando, who never ever heard the end of it the rest of the trip, you can believe that. How does one just "accidently run 6 extra miles?" Well, you would have to ask Orlando that. However, I had a dilemma: a) I was caffeinated enough to run 20 miles now b) I had eaten 3000 calories in junk food and c) I had not run yet and it was 3:00 PM! OK, so I struck a deal with Orlando. I would run leg 16 with him (his leg) and 17 on my own (my leg).

After a fruitless attempt to "sleep" for a couple of hours at 7:30 at night...we got moving to our check point..

We did not start the run until almost midnight. As we waited for the runners coming in from Vail, we saw one hysterical woman who almost got run over by a drunk and one visibly upset woman who saw a bear. Holy crap I am glad I am not running alone..Last year I had run that leg and remember how hard it was to run at night down a trafficked road. Geez! We took off for our little 3.5 mile run along the highway and it was not so bad. Orlando and I were quiet, probably a sign of fatigue and night running, which by the way is so awesome! I could see the stars and mountains-very beautiful! Then, all of a sudden I twisted my ankle, heard a "pop" and down I went. Oh shit! It hurt...I can't lie..really hurt bad for about 1 minute. Orlando helped me up. I thought Oh no-my race is over! But I willed myself to start running again..the pain left..Thank goodness that is over! Or so I thought...

Exchange 17 came and went and there I was running alone in the dark against oncoming traffic. It really was pretty even so and night runnning with music is an ethereal experience in itself. To digress a bit, I was drinking so much G-2, water and anything to keep me from being dehydrated after the fiasco last year that I just kept having to pee. Constantly..I saw probably every porta-potty at every exhange point plus a few gas station BRs..So of course I had to go right the middle of my night run, 1:00 AM or so and NO ONE was around. I saw a fire station and thought Oh that should be a safe place to make a pit stop in front of, in the weeds here.. The only thing I did not count on was the very bright motion detector that came on just as I was "doing my business" Hmmm, wonder if these guys think I am mooning them? Oh I hauled ass so fast out of there, you would not believe! OK, back on the road. It was still pretty. Then all of a sudden, Bam! Ankle turned AGAIN and I am on the ground again! This time no one to help me up. Again I just ran through the pain, probably not such a smart thing. I just refused to think about it and the pain left again..I made pretty good time on that 4.5 mile run part. I had now run 8 miles, fallen twice and almost got busted for public nudity. Not the best run ever but my time was OK, I survived the night and the next run would be in daylight-YAY!!

After I got in the van, this time I was able to sleep. I smelled like a dead animal or something but somehow managed to stop and wash up then sleep-yay! I slept right through Margaret and Jane's run. Felt a little bad about that but 2 hours of sleep by now was like gold!! Last year I had no sleep, not enough fluids and ended up puking on my friends and the van, thus cutting my little adventure short. I was WAY more respectful of the elements this year. Last year, it rained, snowed and there was mud and cold. This year it was sunny and just plain cold at night. Fantastic weather for these parts!!

Finally, the sun came up and we were down the home stretch!!! Orlando did his leg 26 and I stood right in front of him and got the exchange this time. It was a quick 2.4 miles through a town I do not remember but I made it!! There was such a high after that last run-I was done, in one piece and feeling pretty good..We watched our last 3 runners do their thing and at the end, the finish line, DP took it on in with all of us running the last block:

We were done!!

I felt in pretty good shape, no dehydration issues, nagging pain in my left ankle but was good to go. We spent Sat night in a set of 2 fabulous condos in Silverthorne, with fabulous views. I was in bed by 8:15, probably a product of my age at this point. The next morning we all had a great breakfast where Margaret made her famous "scones" (ok you could market and sell these Margaret). Lots of stories shared, laughing done and in general relishing our finish. Here are the stats:

Total Miles 170.1

Total Ascent 13,651 feet

Total decent 15,127 feet

Our Finish time was 27:40:59

Average min per mile for the 170.1 miles was 9:46..

So not too bad, heh?

Oh the only bad news was that my left ankle was now swollen into a pretty bad goose egg. Damn! R.I.C.E. for the last 2 days and it is still sore but not as swollen. After horror stories on Facebook about not healing if you run on it too soon and surgery because I did not let my sprained ankle heal I am scared straight into not runnning for a few days. I see my MD tomorrow for a physical so will check with him on the matter but I think my running friends know probably more. So I swam yesterday and I am jonesing to run!!!

I loved every minute of the Colorado Relay, well except the falling part...Good friends, great scenery, well run race and fun, fun, fun!!

Spent the night with Becca, Dan and baby on Sunday night and flew home yesterday. As I sit here this morning, I still smile when I think of the weekend and cannot wait until next year!

A very sad goodbye..

2009-09-06T08:06:00.006-06:00

I am re-posting this part as a history of our beloved Mocha:

12 years ago, we lost a dog that got hit by a car. We had only had her a year. That was so traumatic. As a result one of my kids, Heather & I went to the Humane Association right away and found the cutest dog ever-Mocha. The woman who was showing us around said, "Oh, and this is her sister" pointing to a black dog huddled in the corner in the kennel next Mocha's. Oh god, how can we NOT adopt this one too? Heather & I decided we could not split these 2 up-I mean what kind of person would split up siblings? So we went and adopted both of them but they had to get fixed so we didn't bring them home that day. I got home and told Hartley we adopted 2 dogs-sisters! he flipped out-"No I won't have TWO dogs, ever!" So Heather & I schemed and she went with him to the shelter to pick out which dog we wanted. Well, Heather turned on her Heather charm and guess what? They brought home 2 dogs (Hartley muttering something about not being able to choose). We have had these dogs since they were puppies. (Yes that is pee stain on our carpet-they loved to do that-we did not love that).

So these dogs have gone through raising 4 teenage daughters (well i think the 2 older ones were gone by now), 2 houses, building of one cabin and many, many trips to Chama. We thought we lost them once when a bottle of Tylenol was found empty on the floor and we thought it had been full. They were puppies and of course eating everything-they even ate holes in the wall in picture above. The Tylenol scare ended up to be nothing or they never reacted I guess. They once ate a whole bag of chocolate Halloween candy. Now there was some serious diarrhea after that. We think the neighbor was poisoning our dogs because Midnite became really sick and almost died in our last house. She was on steroids for years for the autoimmune disorder she supposedly had but funny how she could get off of the meds after we moved (I hated that neighbor). The steroids made her one crazy hungry dog. She once ate a hundred dollar bill, 2 tickets to the biggest basketball Lobo game ever, and loved tissues and papers. Once we moved into this house things calmed down a bit.Mocha and Midnite were now inside dogs! They loved it. We kept them in the kitchen at night, they hung out with us all the time. By this time of course they were very attached to Hartley, whom they followed everywhere. He, of course grew to love both our puppies over the years and they are "his dogs". So the last 6 years we have been in this house and kids are gone, they are really like our children. just enough a pain in the ass that you wonder why you have them, then as loving as can be and you cannot imagine life without these pets..

Imagine how difficult it was in September when the vet finally said it was time to let Midnite go. She had a tumor in her head, we had her to the vet many times, all kinds of meds. They are now considered geriatric dogs and each day a gift. I can't tell you how hard it was to see Midnite in the vet's office fully awake, about to go to doggy heaven. Her last act was to come over to me and bury her head in my lap. Kind of like saying-oh I am not sure I am ready. Or maybe saying goodbye. Hartley, Heather & I were there. We watched her go to sleep, painlessly and it was the hardest day i think I have ever had, except maybe when my mom died. Hartley and I can still barely talk about her. We took her to the cabin her last weekend on the planet. We knew it was time when she could no longer run and chase animals in the woods. Here is our sweet, neurotic Midnite with Hartley that last weekend.

Sometimes I can feel her in the house still. Of course Mocha was a bit confused after Midnite was gone. She couldn't understand why she was able to eat her food, un-harrassed. Midnite was the dominate dog and now Mocha had the whole space to herself. She didn't know what to do! She really didn't seem to skip a beat until she got out of the kitchen one day and tore down a bunch of our wooden blinds-this from a dog that has never had an act of aggression in her life (except toward other dogs). An expensive acting out for Mocha and us. i must admit, it was a bit of relief to finally have daily walks where Mocha did not go after other dogs, they did not fight with each other anymore (that got to be a problem later in life). So there really are positives in having just one dog. But we miss that black part lab,part chow dog.

Here is Mocha-the remaining canine in the family:

Mocha is now 12 years old. She is not eating these past few days, has some blood in her stool. She is still very excited to go for walks-that is a good sign. We are taking her to the vet tomorrow-dreading the worst but hoping it is a passing thing. Hartley and I can't stand the thought of putting another dog down right now, our last "child". But we know it is inevitable someday soon-we just are not ready yet. Are we ever ready to say goodbye to our pets-those furry animals whose only goal in life is to comfort you, protect you and serve you? I think not.

Here I sit more than 2 years later and cannot believe Mocha pushed her little soul to live another 2 years. The rest of this post is really sad so if you do not want to read on..

Last weekend, we watched Mocha romping with the children (well, romping is a bit of an exaggeration). Here she is again, "taking a walk" with Ellie. She simply could not get enough "walks" that day..

I am amazed she was even able to walk that much and she seemed so happy. The last few months we have watched Mocha deteriorate to the point her walks have become ever so short. She was falling alot, having trouble with her legs locking up under her. Her appetite seemed to be good especially after we switched her to the ever so unhealthy cheapass canned food! I suppose when you are with a pet 24 hours a day it is difficult to see the deterioration. I know at some point last spring, we did make "the appointment" and then cancelled when she apparently got worried when she heard us talking about "the last visit" and rallied. We never thought she would make it through the summer. Last time I picked her up at the kennel after a weekend gone, I got the sense they thought we were nuts for keeping her alive...I felt guilty..

We realized that at some point we would need to put her to sleep before our 2 month trip. I would never put a dog through that separation at the age of 14, esp. when she appeared to be suffering at this point. She still followed H into his room every night to lay on his floor by his feet. When she gazed longingly up at the couch (which we let her get up on after Midnite died), we would lift her up to what seemed to be her favorite spot at times...She still "watched TV" with us. One time in the last month, she even barked when the doorbell rang, something we had not heard in a long time...Hartley started telling her about a month ago Please make this easy on us. We have been good to you. Please let us know when to let you go..and she did...

On Tuesday, she did not eat anything and was drinking water like crazy. On Wed, we noticed a huge lump over her right eye. This was the same exact thing that happened to Midnite when the vet had told us something is obviously growing there. Her whole face changed. She started labored breathing and we knew it was close to the end...her last walk was Wednesday and she got confused and started wandering into the woods. This is when we knew..it was time...Oh man the sadness is indescribable as we were calling people around the area to see what the hell to do..I called the mobile vet to see if he could come and do the deed but when he mentioned the word carcass I said no way! I talked to DP on the phone, crying and telling her that we had Midnite's ashes up at the cabin. We had never been able to open the urn, it was glued shut. I walked over to see and sure enough the urn was completely unstuck and I saw Midnite's ashes for the first time in 3 years. I thought H had "unstuck it" but when I asked, he had not. It was like Midnite was giving us the OK to finally let Mocha join her..

H finally got a hold of a vet in Taos, 1.5 hours away, who could not only put her to sleep but do the cremation and give us her ashes. The drive to Taos was the longest, saddest drive of our life. It was excruciating..

We finally arrived. Heidi and Jack were there, thank God..Mocha would not even move from the back of the car as we "checked her in" Of course the vet's office was full of lively pets and people and it all seemed so wrong.. I had really wanted our vet, the one that has known Mocha for 14+ years to give her the "last shot" but alas it was not meant to happen that way. We could not imagine driving her all the way back to ABQ, plus we wanted to stay in Chama. Whatever..we were there...The woman at the front desk was very sweet and sympathetic. She had a 16 year old dog named "Mochi"-something I called Mocha all the time. So again another sign I guess. Finally after 45 minutes, I picked Mocha up, (she cried) but with dignity, walked into the vet's office. He gave her the first shot to relax her and she immediately ran out of the room-great! Jack went and got her and of course she came over and buried her head in my lap, just as Midnite had done..I was balling pretty hard by now and Jack told me he would stay with her until the end..I left..maybe I should not have but I just could not take seeing another dog put down. I told her she had been such a good dog and I loved her and thanked her for staying around so long...After about 5 minutes, Jack came out and said it was over...We all cried forever it seemed, then went to pick up Avery and have lunch with her sweet little 3 year old face, which perked us all up even in our shocked state.

So H and I headed back to the cabin and it was so quiet! Mocha, mind you never made any noise, it just was so quiet! H and I cried and threw out all the doggy items...and cried some more..Don't think I have cried this much since my sister died 8 years ago..

We kept hearing the dog..Mocha sighing, dogs barking..H thought he almost "tripped over Mocha"-really weird stuff. We were suppose to have company again for the weekend but by yesterday AM, we knew we had to get the hell out of there. The memories of her being so sick, the whole thing..we thought distance might help...We did manage a mini triathlon on Friday. We swam in the lake, rode our bikes and were going to do a long run until we almost got hit by lightening and decided the 2 mile run off the bike was enough.We ran yesterday AM and did OK until we walked up the driveway to the house and the memories came flooding back. We are outa here!

We got home yesterday, went to some friends' house for dinner, where we related the whole thing, did some laughing and generally forgot Mocha for a bit. Last night I went downstairs and realized we had never been in this house without dogs..I looked out the back door, half expecting to see Mocha wagging her tail to come in..ahhh,....the denial part of grief..

Anyone who says losing a pet is not like losing a person is dead wrong. Maybe not the same type of grief? A person is not with you 24/7 except maybe a spouse. Mocha was always with us, giving us unconditional love. She had the sweetest spirit ever and anyone who ever met her, fell in love with her. So now she is in doggy heaven, Midnite probably fighting with her over who will be dominate dog up there..who knows?

We will get her ashes in 2 weeks and go up to Chama a spread both their ashes over our land up there. A place they loved the most.

We will go on with our lives. No pets for now. We have some sense of relief that we can now travel, be more spontaneous with our lives without the responsibility of pets. We still would rather have Mocha back any day though...Indescribably sadness here still but it will get better. We will keep training and living life and hopefully someday see our amazing dogs, who lived so long with us, again..

Goodby my sweet Mocha, Mochi, Mochi-bug, Mochachica, Mochapottomus,Mochster..all the names we called you and you always were there....

H.A.W.T.

2009-08-30T20:42:00.021-06:00

High Altitude Workout Training or:

High Altitude Weekend Training..

At any rate it was fun, hard, tiring and just as we planned...

Friday: H and I arrived around 5:30 with a car full of tri stuff, food, dog and miscellaneous items. Our home in the mountains is remote and beautiful, but not too far away from civilization. The official altitude is 7900 feet so we always feel breathless here for a few days, even coming from a mile high. It is 2 hours, 45 min away from the ABQ home so we can be in remote quiet world just a hop, skip and jump away. Soon our friends began to arrive. There was Mark and his 10 year old son, Orlando, an up and coming(now beating my ass) triathlete, Dread Pirate and husband Steve and their 2- 7 year old twins. We somehow got everyone into a bed except Orlando, who graciously accepted the couch bed. He had to fight over it with Mocha, our geriatric dog, who thought it was very entertaining to have the twins "take her for walks" about 50 yards from the cabin down the road and back:

This is Ellie taking her for one of her "walks". The kids seemed to love it up here..

We all crashed Friday night, got up early on Saturday AM, me at my new waking hour of 4:00 AM-grrrr....

Run: We all had different plans on the run. Mark his 18 miler, Jane and Orlando 90 min. or so, me my 8 miles and Hartley walking his 5 miles on an injured but healing leg. We all took off together up and down the road near our place. It has some traffic but mostly beautiful views of he mountains, pine trees and glimpses of the river. I started out huffing and puffing feeling like dog-doo-doo. This soon passed as I turned around to head downhill and took a gel. We all ran into each other at different times of the morning as the paces differed (mine being the ever so slow 13 min mile). I ended the last 3 miles or so doing the walk one minute/run one minute uphill. We finally all made it back to the cabin and had a great breakfast, thanks to H's cooking:

Workout one completed!

Steve got to do a quick ride up Cumbres Pass as he was on "kid duty" the rest of the weekend. I think this was very noble of him to volunteer to do and think DP is a lucky girl to have such a husband as this. Perhaps this shows the generation gap between my young friends and I. All the men I know in their 40s and younger seem to have hands on parental relationships with their kids. This impresses me!

Swim: OK, no matter how I tried to WILL the clouds from forming, they did anyway. However after lunch we sped out to Heron Lake, a small wake less lake about 25 miles from our place up here. It was mid afternoon and no matter what the hell Accuweather said, the storm was coming...so we found out little spot to swim in the lake, hurriedly putting on our wetsuits, H & I with our new "Safe Swim" belts that will blow up into life vests should you feel like you need them. They are even race legal according to triathlon rules, but if you use them you are DQd (duh)...Anyway, here we are:

Notice how cold the poor kids look without the wetsuits! I had called the night before and got the terrifying news the the water temp in this lake was 52 degrees-say WHAT?!? Needless to say, they lied. The water temperature was probably a balmy 68 degrees, lovely weather for a swim. We still were seeing the clouds rolling in but off we took and decided it would make sense to swim to a green buoy somewhere "out there" and stick together.

There we are..before the squall. We got to the buoy after awhile and then I saw the darkness setting in. All of a sudden, the wind hit and so did the waves. I turned around and signalled Lets turn around NOW! Soon the rain was pelting down and I felt a bit like like I was in a washing machine. We were probably only 500 yards from shore and it seemed like we were going with the waves but every time I looked up,I was being blown off course to the left. I yelled over to Orlando that I was heading Over there and would walk back on the shore..I guess no one else knew that because they wondered where the hell I was going. I panicked a little a couple of times, rolled on my back, considered using the damn "safety sausage" as I call it, but decided against it. My heart rate was pretty high by now and every time I looked up the damn shore looked the same distance away..Damn! I saw a boat hovering near by. I think he was looking to see if anyone was going to start to drown. Finally after what seemed to be 30 minutes, I arrived like a sea wrecked passenger onto shore. There came Steve bringing my my flip-flops so I would not kill myself walking on the rocks..

OK, here is the really depressing part..I looked down at my new Garmin 310XT and all I saw was 1.25 miles..Holy cow! I thought..I swam much farther than I even imagined! Then my friends broke the news to me-we had only been out for a grand total of 17 minutes!! WTF?? This means either a: I swam the world's fastest 1.25 miles or b: my Garmin was SO wrong. It turned out to be the latter. I had forgotten to zero out the Garmin setting so DUH, as it turns out, we went only about 1000 very stressful yards in our attempt to swim 2500 yards. But alas, there was lightening at the end and hey-we did get out alive! That ended up being pretty funny after was all said and done.

On the way home, we turned down our dirt road on the way to our mountain getaway and alas, just as if mother nature thought we deserved a different experience:

Not one, two but FOUR young bucks, who seemed to befriend us when we pulled out the potato chips. They are quite tame around this area but I have never in 20 years seen this many bucks together, sans females..The kids of course LOVED it as the adults did and we all whipped out our cameras, Iphones, Blackberries and took as many pictures as we could as this is what you do when you see nature at it's finest!
We arrived home, tired but happy after our encounter with Bambi's relatives..

Another great meal from H, who loves to cook especially for people he loves so here we are having a picnic on our deck overlooking the Brazos Peaks:

Some of us were really tired:

Connor was taking a snooze (sort of)..

After dinner we all veged around the TV feeling like slugs watching some guy document his 5 month hike up the Continental Divide. We saw the sign for the CD up at Cumbres Pass-hey that is where we are headed tomorrow! Off to bed at a fairly early hour. I awoke again at 3:30 hungry...this time was able to get back to sleep...

Bike: The plan was to leave the end of our dirt road between 8 and 8:30 and by golly that is what we did. I drove the car down about 5.5 miles to a place where I knew I would not have to climb said hill at the end of a tough bike ride. Here are the rest taking off:

It was a cool ride down the hill, then we all rode the 10 miles or so to Chama to meet Steve and the kids, who were enjoying a nice breakfast near the train station:

After a pit stop, we headed up the 2,000 feet to Cumbres Pass. It is only about 12 miles from here but a difficult climb. We left NM:

and headed into Colorado. I was keeping my HR down, a steady but slow pace.

I arrived last to this stop, where we watched the train pass. It was pretty spectacular:

The last 400 feet or so seem straight up although it is only a 10% grade, at 10,000 feet, a very challenging climb to the top of the pass. The real challenge is to "beat the train" up to this point and two of our little group did, but we all finally made it:

The trip down was Wheeeee! Down in about 30 minutes back to town. Finally H & I made it back to the car, where we shuttled ourselves and bikes back to the cabin, then back to pick up the rest of the group.
Total bike miles for me: 45 miles
The longer group did 60 very difficult high altitude bike miles! Done!

We all ate and ate when we got back to the house. I was so hungry...

Then of course, the clouds opened up and it started raining as H & I said our goodbyes and headed to town to pick up some stuff we needed for the week. We are up here for the whole week! YAY! 11 days of high altitude training for us and I am so happy to be in the mountains even if it will be partly training, partly resting.

I LOVED having our NM Outlaws up here for the weekend. This is the second such annual event and it was even more fun this year. Now if we could figure out how to fit the many more folks into our humble abode, I am hoping next year many more of the team will come!

Today I awoke after sleeping like a baby finally! The sun is just coming up over the peaks, I am sipping my morning coffee and listening to the local radio station. We have a 5 mile run today-well run/walk I think with my legs feeling the way they are. We are heading out to the lake for another open water swim, the weather is again, not suppose to rain but just in case we will head out earlier today.

Thank you my friends for a great, great weekend!!

Time Trialled out!

2009-08-28T09:40:00.003-06:00

This week was "time trial" week in Ironman Training..

Bike: I went 11 miles in 30 minutes
Swim: I went from 1:52 (500 divided by 5) in June to
1:45 (1000 divided by 10) the other day.
Run: around 3.5 miles in 30 minutes.

Thoughts: I am really proud of my bike TT. I really, really suck on the hills but IMWA is flat, flat, flat and so was my TT. If I could only hold to 22 MPH for 112 miles, well I would be friggin' fast.

Swim: What can I say? I have been swimming 50 years. I remember the lifeguard jumping off the high dive with me when I was around 5 years old. We swam everyday of my childhood it seems. I was on the swim team for at least 10 years-never did so well but had a great time! So just when I thought I would never get faster, I found Coach Eric, a 26 year old swim genius who thinks I can do anything! Who knew? He changed my stroke pretty much completely. I had to learn to "undo" the 'ole "S stroke" I was using for the last 50 years. I learned to pull a whole different way, push back totally strangely..it all feels so awkward. BUT the proof is in the pudding. When they asked what my projected time would be in the swim at IMWA (I think they must have waves), I put 1:12! Seriously? What was I thinking? Now however I think I could actually maybe, maybe do it!

Run: Well, I just suck. It seems no matter what the distance-2 miles or 26.2 miles-it all feels hard. I was thinking as I was running this last TT, Why is this so friggin' hard all the time? It all feels like Ironman to me! I wish for once, I would have that smooth "this is so easy" feeling I have when I swim..OK, so I need some work in this area obviously! I try telling myself I am a runner, I love running, whatever..Nothing seems to work..I am considering doing a walk one minute/run one minute at IMWA though. I do walk pretty fast and doing this I can average 13 minute miles. Psychologically this may be easier for me and I do not think I averaged any faster when I "ran" the whole thing at IMCDA....Will run this by Coach.

We are off to Chama for the next 12 days of glorious training in the mountains. Where I can curse even louder when I run at 8,000 feet!

Time trialing and shopping...equally as fun!

2009-08-25T17:31:00.003-06:00

Today was a great training day for me. The "schedule" called for 30 minute time trial on the bike after a warm up. MG met me at the casino,which by the way I was tempted to go in and just stick a dollar in a slot machine and see what happened but my saner, older self did not let me give in. There was a time when my spontaneous nature was way more apparent than it is now. I digress...Despite the ominous clouds surrounding us, we took off from the casino down 313, a very flat road with a pretty good shoulder. A triathlete friend of ours got hit by a car this past week at the very intersection we were headed too. This was a bit eery-I have been super careful about cars since hearing of this accident. She is OK, has a broken hand and leg, very lucky I suppose in some sense but she had qualified for Kona (triathlon Ironman world championship), which is no easy task so I can't even imagine her pain over losing that opportunity this year. We went about 15 minutes and on my GO took off on a 30 minute time trial. With the wind the first part, it was quite easy to maintain 24 MPH and HR of 150. Then we turned around..oh shit.. The headwind was intense but about halfway through seemed to shift again, as it does here in NM often. At the end of 30 minutes I had gone 11 miles or so and my HR was more in the 159 range on the way back. I am very proud of myself! Then, of course between conversing with MG about his life and mine, it started raining just in time to climb the last big hill to our cars. Whew! We made it!

Heidi, Jack and Avery are here for a couple of days so I did what any self-respecting Grandma does..I took her shopping this morning! For clothes. I think How do people with boys do this shopping thing? I mean even at her age she had her favorite shoes and favorite color. Do boys say these things? Maybe I will never know! Avery was a delight to shop with and I have a feeling this is the first of many shopping excursions together. My great Aunt Bernice use to take us clothes shopping at least once a year and some of my favorite memories are "modeling" the clothes afterwards. This was such a treat as I was one of 5 girls in my family and "hand-me-downs" were the norm. I was working at 14 years old to start buying "my own clothes" as the inherited clothes were not really the "cool" thing to have in Junior High!

Today it has rained for two days in a row in ABQ. This is such an unusual occurrences...it totally changes the atmosphere or something..my whole psyche feels energized...

Where the hell have I been?

2009-08-24T06:01:00.006-06:00

(I made my blog private for awhile because paranoia was setting in after a bunch of people wanted to be my "friend" on Facebook, some of which I barely remember from HS. So if this is you, sorry-I am limiting my "friends" on FB)..I am over it..

BUT...I decided to take myself off the "do not read" list and make public again..nuff said..

I am in my third week of a 17 week "advanced" Ironman training program from Beginnertriathlete.com. Am I advanced? Well, that remains to be seen. My week last week looked like this:

Swim: 9400 yards

Bike: 108 miles

Run: 16 miles

We are off and running on our Ironman Western Australia adventure. There is some underlying hesitation in my training. We have two elders in our midst who could take a turn for the worst on any given day. First of all, 14 year old Mocha (dog) is still alive and well. And she has a brain or soul or whatever you want to call it because each time we see her faltering and start talking about the final trip to the vet, she rallies. Oh no you don't..I am still here and love to eat and take walks..don't even think about it! Every so often, her back legs just do not work, she falls and can't get up. We think..uh-oh this is it..Then she rallies.. I cannot believe this dog is still alive..We still love her and she seems to want pets once in awhile even still.

Then there is elder mother in law who basically is in the same boat. Just when we think she is down for the count, she too rallies and says Nope, not ready to go yet-got lots of living to do and great grandchildren to see! Honestly I think she is waiting for the two remaining grand-daughters to get married. After all women need husbands you know! God bless her..

You know you are in Ironman training when folks start to tell you that you look like you are losing weight. But the mistake I make is then getting on the scale and realizing I actually gained 2.5 lbs! Damn that scale!! I do realize after riding 52 miles yesterday up and down mountains, taking in gobs of electroylytes and ibuprofen, my kidneys are probably holding water...that's it-water weight! Damn scale..

I am still hesitantly excited for our 2 month vacation which starts in 15 weeks and 3 days. We leave on Thanksgiving day and return on January 31st. Tickets are paid for, hotels reserved for part of the trip, hiking the Milford track in New Zealand reserved...Even our ever so light suitcases are bought..We have friends who have offered to lend us bike cases for the flight..It will get real soon enough I suppose.

In 3 weeks I will be competing in the "Colorado Relay"again with 10 of my buddies. I am the "slow one" here and this year my legs of the trip look easier. Maybe I won't have to be transported off the mountain after vomiting all over the van after suffering from high altitude, dehydration and sleep deprivation. That is my goal...Amazed they wanted me back after that!

November 5th we are off to North Carolina for Beach2Battleship half Ironman triathlon, a prelude to IMWA. ("Eeeemwaaa" is what I am calling the Ironman)..Wilmington, North Carolina is where this race will be held. I am hoping it will be between hurricane season and winter there. 15 of our closest friends will be there and sharing a house and vans. Stay tuned for that adventure unfolding. I am on the planning committee for that one and it sounds like so much fun!!!

Amidst it all, we continue to enjoy retirement, whatever that means. I am so busy and can't get a damn thing done around the house these days although I know not a single person reading this will feel sorry for me!

Socorro Chili Harvest Sprint Triathlon Report..

2009-08-02T07:19:00.002-06:00

After driving 8 hours with a 5 year old the day before (she was really good actually), I hesitated to get up at 4:00 AM to do this race. H & I signed up many months ago before we even knew little Lane was coming to visit...It was the club championships for the state so I felt like one of us had to go and represent the New Mexico Outlaws. So it was me..

4:00 AM came very quickly. I hopped in the car and made the 90 min. drive to Socorro, NM. I have done this race many times and didn't feel particularly nervous..I was mostly exhausted and not too psyched for this day..

Pre-race: Seemed like a big rush to get my stuff ready. The race started early this year. I jumped in the pool and warmed up. There was a time trial start and I had seeded myself pretty fast up near the front-number 86. I felt really confident about the swim. I have been swimming more than anything else these past 4 weeks so wanted to do well at least in the first leg. Before I knew it I was off! I took off at a medium pace and after about 50 meters, a guy passed me. I thought I could draft off of him for awhile to save energy. I think this was a mistake as he slowed down eventually and I passed him again. I picked it up the last 50 meters..Thinking I had really nailed the swim, I looked at my watch and alas, I was about 40 seconds slower than I wanted to be.

400 meter swim time: 7:59

T-1-I forgot where my bike was. How many times have I made this mistake? Geez!

time: 1:50

Bike: I took off and almost immediately fell off my bike getting on. Not a good beginning..The first half of the bike is much uphill so I felt like I was going a snail's pace. A few folks passed me but I managed to pass a couple of people. There was much of a headwind on about half the course but thankfully on the downhill..After what seemed like an eternity, I finished the bike zooming down the hill and I was in T-2. I did not look at my watch, I was so afraid my time was so slow. Mentally, I was so tired and trying to psych myself up, telling myself I was not really on my "A" game today, this was just for fun and I would probably not have my fastest time.

To my surprise I found out later my bike time for 20k: 42.21 min. Not my best but surely not my worst..

T-2: Again seemed like it took me forever to get all my stuff on and head out to the other end of transition for the run: 1:42

Run: I really need to work on my mental game for this leg of triathlon. I started out with the Oh shit I hate this! My left leg, the one that has been giving me fits for weeks now, immediately started hurting. Oh crap and now another death march! I made myself run and just kept running, walking the water stops and part of a short hill. I passed 2 people, surprisingly. I looked at my watch when I started the run and it said 50 something minutes..hmmm...maybe not as slow as I thought! I knew if I could do 10 min miles I would finish under 1:30, which would be a good day for me. As I rounded the corner to take it on in to the finish, I picked it up and passed another person. It is hard to tell how you are doing in against your competition in this race, as everyone is seeded differently but I did see one woman in my AG at the end of my run, just starting out, obviously injured or something, because she was barely running, more like hobbling so I knew I had beat her..

Finally I made got there.

Run time: 31.22 min. Not quite 10 min. miles but almost. I'll take that..

Total time: 1:25:11

Much better than I thought I would do, given the circumstances. There were folks who were seeded way back that were just coming in from the bike. I knew that H was back holding down the fort with one tired 5 year old, so I hightailed it back to ABQ, not knowing where I placed or if the team had won the title.

Back to reality at home, I was kept very busy by Lane, who seems to have the energy of 100 triathletes. Maybe we should have had her race? After a bit, I got the news that I placed 3rd in my AG-Whoo-hoo!!! My first podium award of the season. Finally!!

While we were at Chuck E. Cheese with Lane for dinner, (which I do not recommend going to on a Saturday night), Mark emailed me with the final results. I looked at the hobbling woman and saw she had beaten me by 33 seconds! What?!? I found this hard to believe. As I looked at the results, I saw that I beat her on the swim, transitions and bike. Then it showed her having a 23 minute run?!? That is wrong, I know it. Now this is hard to believe as I have raced her many times and know she does not run 7 min miles. ALSO I saw the woman HOBBLING on the run..So now I got pissed! How could she get the award if she really did not get 2nd place? Did she know it was wrong and didn't say anything...

After mulling this around in my head, I emailed the RD. I am not sure if she would come clean but if she doesn't then I would be robbed of my second place! Not that it makes any real difference but it is the principle of the thing at this point..

So today I am hanging out with Lane, our last full day together..She has been a joy however Grandma is tired!

Next week back to Ironman training as my monthly totals in July were very low because I took 2 weeks off. Back on the horse!

OH AND WE WON THE TROPHY!!

private blog...

2009-07-26T10:13:00.002-06:00

I have decided to make my blog private..I will send as many invites as i can think of but if you want to be included, email me...

Thursday Thirteen...

2009-07-23T16:44:00.003-06:00

1. A.R.T. HURTS!! But in a good way. I love my ART guy who said today Running will not be bad for you. Just listen to your body.. Imagine that! I am still in pain when I run, maybe a little less..

2. I am enjoying watching Lance more this year than previously. I think because he is the "old guy" (37) and the underdog. Go Lance!

3. I went to the dermatologist, who "zapped" me with CO2 on about 12 places. Sun worshipping as a teenager may not have worked out so well for me in the long run. All the years I spent trying to keep a tan and now I send time and money to erase it..

4. I am getting the new GARMIN 310X in a few days. And a new Flow Plus saddle..I should be faster than ever, eh? I long for my mileage and MPH again!! H is getting me this for my "early birthday" gift..Awesome...

5. I can't believe I am training for another Ironman. It does not seem real to me...but I do it anyway..

6. Mocha turned a full somersault after tripping over the curb yesterday. She lived to tell about it. This dog is still alive. I think H wills her to live everyday. She still loves her walks..and cheap dog food we have switched her to. Who knew?

7. I think back and wonder how the heck we raised 4 teenagers? I must have been young and drank alot...oh yea..that is what I did..And spent alot of time in therapy. We also had fun and there was always excitement in our house!

8. I miss said children and grandchildren..The ones that live close I get to see more often..I like that they are all adults now..

9. Walgreens and CVS pharmacy are in an all out war for our business. We have gotten $75.00 in free gift cards just for switching prescriptions back and forth. I wonder how many times we can do this? H says it is like we have a part-time job and making money for nothing!

10. I cannot believe that in 2 months I will be 55 years old! That is OLD! Or I use to think so anyway...

11. Mother in law is getting better by the day. She will walk out of the extended care and back to her apartment soon...She is one of the strongest people I know..

12. I find TV very boring these days. I use to be such a TV fanatic and looked forward to my favorite shows..it all seems a bit bland for me now..

13. Looks like I will make it up to Denver to see my little Hadley (and Becca) next week. What can be better than a cute little 8 month old for entertainment?

Dreams, trips and more dreams...

2009-07-21T06:43:00.006-06:00

I dreamed last night that I got to an Ironman Race and forgot my wetsuit, bike shoes and other important gear. They told me I could go home and get it and start the race whenever I wanted. So went home, could not find anything so decided to go and watch. Then wanted to swim anyway so went with a friend, who's wave went off at 10:30 AM and we missed it. I saw a bunch of people swimming in a river, some were walking. I was so bummed not to be able to race!

Meaning of the dream: Nothing except I am Ironman Western Australia dreamin'! Everyday H tells me some new part of the trip he has planned. Should we rent a car in Perth or take a shuttle? Tough questions I know..then I remembered the whole driving on the wrong side of the road deal and the 24 airplane trip and thought maybe the shuttle may be the way to go! H is in charge of all travel arrangements. It reminds me of the trip to Eastern Australia we took 19 years ago, where H planned that one too and we had a FABULOUS time diving the Great Barrier Reef. It was such a great trip..we had only been dating about a year so was like a honeymoon to us. I still remember my first dive (first open water dive in the ocean) in the GBR, where the little Australian guy took me down and at about 20 feet I wanted to go up. So we did..he was pissed at the Stupid Americans who come over here and think they can go diving and have no idea what they are doing! Yea-that would be me..not recommended for first diving experience. I did finally get over my fear, after about 50 dives..I managed to enjoy some of the diving there and LOVED the Aussies. We ate alot, drank alot (my drinking days back then) and stayed in some fabulous places on the East Coast. This trip we will see the Western part of Australia. The whole country is as big as the US. Here is a picture of Perth, where we will be landing:

Can't wait!

Weather report: Oh my gosh it is so hot here the past week. I had forgotten the hot summers of ABQ in the past. The last time I think it was this hot for so long, was 1994. The temp stayed over 100 for days and days..We finally got an air conditioner then.. I see clouds and start calling Come to Mama..please..just a little rain! We finally got some last night I think..

Mother in law still in Healthcare Facility, hoping to transition back to her apartment soon. Has been a very stressful 2 weeks here in H&D land...Aging parents is something I have never really dealt with. Both of mine died in their 60s so is all new territory for all of us..

We still manage to keep training..Official IM training started last week. I totalled 119 miles on the bike, 9000 yards in the pool and some walking. Say what? My leg is still bothering me although 2 ART treatments later, I have hope. Also trying a new bike saddle since my old one was bent-no wonder I had inner thigh pain! I have never been injured enough to be told No running so this is all new to me. Talked to Coach Eric last night and he seems to think Water running would be helpful although when I watch people in the pool doing this, it looks like torture. We shall see. I have been speed walking, well my own version of it and it is HARD! You use different muscles walking so I have some form of shin splints after doing this a couple of times..

Oh and I am lusting after this so bad:

My 305 is officially busted so I really NEED this. Feel nekid without a GPS!

Thursday Thirteen

2009-07-16T07:13:00.004-06:00

1. I started to write a depressing post this week and decided to bag it. This is the 15th year anniversary of my mom's death..I am always more emotional the week of July 11th. (Something about trying to run away from home at age 5 and thank goodness my mom talked some sense into me...)

2. It has been a very stressful 17 days since we returned from Lubbock. Mother in law still in the hospital (extended care). Although she appears to be getting stronger, one never knows what may happen day to day when you are 88 years old.

3. Hospitals are uber depressing places, especially skilled care units..I really can't believe I worked in an acute care hospital setting for 17 years back in the day..the night shift is the most grumpy and that is what I worked the last few years of my nursing career.

4. My lingering, nagging leg injury is still there. I tried to run on Monday and had to walk much of the hour. I went to see my ART guy today. He thinks my bent bike seat set off some left side symptoms that seems to have settled in some tendons from my knee up my leg. Sure sucks but I have every confidence I will be healing soon after a few treatments.

5. I have found "the pond guy" who continues to make my life so much easier..the pond is flowing beautifully again..Ahhhhh!!

6. I went to see "Chicago" and "Earth, Wind and Fire" this week. I rocked out and had a serious flashback to high school. For two whole hours I was out of my head,which seems to be spinning alot these days.

7. I have had to bite my tongue a few times this week... 'Nuff said..

Wonder what the world would be like if there were no filters and we just said the truth all the time?

8. We received our uber light luggage this week for the trip to Australia and New Zealand. The suitcases weighs 8 pounds each! This means 42 glorious pounds for all my shit for 2 months..Awesome!

9. For the first time in about 6 weeks, we are riding with our "weekend" tri-bike buds on Sunday. I think the cell phone may be turned off this time! I can't wait!

10. We had a house full of families with small children for the past few days. I love little ones, they love us but I feel old..- one of those old folks that say Raising kids is for the young! Pathetic..

11. OK so hormone update. I am down to minimal doses and only a couple of times a week.Some symptoms relieved but the full blown treatment will never work for me..bummer..BUT they just came out with a study that shows HRT causes Ovarian Cancer. Great!

12. It is so hot this week, my house is still 85 degrees today with air conditioning!! Whoa!!

13. Finally, to end on a positive note, Big Brother started this week. For those of us that like totally mindless TV, this is like Christmas!

Thursday Thirteen

2009-07-09T21:10:00.004-06:00

Thursday thirteen:

(ripped off from Geekgirl, blatantly-although she is infinitely more creative than I am or at least willing to put more energy into her blog than I am)

1. I just spent 6 days with my bestest, oldest girlfriends, two of which I met when I was 8 years old, the other around 12. We have the most fun when we are together, which is anywhere from every year to every 5 years, depending on our lives. We come from Hawaii, Ohio and then there is me-here. This year, for our 55th birthdays, we spent a week here in NM, where I played tour guide, which meant I actually had to remember what the sites of NM are; Santa Fe, Taos, Chama, etc..We had a meaningful, fun, nostalgic time. I even corrupted one of my friends and she put her first quarter in a slot machine at Sandia Casino. I am still a bad influence! I cannot believe I have had these women in my life for 47 years!

2. Two weeks off from training should be making me depressed but I feel like I am on a vacation just from that..Just to plan my days around something other than training is a treat..really it is..By Monday, I will be just insane enough to start our 20 week program for Ironman Western Australia..

3. I cannot seem to decide what program to use for this IM. I have tried many approaches it seems. I come back to good ole' Beginnertriathlete.com and their "intermediate" plans, which seemed to get us through BSLT and a half marathon. That, along with track workouts with Coach Eric and swim program possibly from him, and I think we will be good.

4. Tickets to Australia and new Zealand for 2 months starting Thanksgiving Day..done! Accommodations in Busselton, Australia, home of IMWA...done! I have my beloved husband/travel agent extraordinaire to thank for this. Just tell me where to go honey and when..I will be so there!!

5. My mother in law is not doing so great right now. Without going into detail, it seems she has nine lives and I am just hoping this is her 5th or 6th she is working on right now...The stress of having a loved one ill is so very familiar to me. My parents both suffered for many, many years with chronic illnesses before they died at pretty young ages, both in their 60s. So it brings bad sad memories when I see my MIL sick like this..I am so aware that every day is precious with those we love, even if it is painful, stressful and downright an emotional roller coaster at times!

6. Can I come up with 13 things tonite?

7. Holy cow is there anything on the news except Michael Jackson? I have mixed emotions about this. I do believe he changed our music world and was such a great singer and star but now it is just getting into the "dirt." This disturbs me for some reason...Like a train wreck, I just keep watching..

8. My flowers this year are blooming out of control! I finally think I have a system that works. Oh, like watering every day! And the hanging ones..I put them on the ground every other day after watering, wait 45 minutes and water again..Voila! No dead hanging flowers! (so far)

9. Now that I have my maiden name on Facebook, I am hearing from really old friends from childhood. This is awesome except I have bits and pieces of my memory chips in my brain that are missing so I can only remember part of why I know them or what happened back then. They, however seem to remember much more..remember the time we went such and where and we did such and so.. then I start to get really worried about what the hell did I do with this person and why can't I remember? Oh man, it sucks getting old. If you are young, start a diary or you too, will forget someday..

10. I got my haircut by a new hairdresser yesterday. I have been through a few of them over the years. One for several years..I felt like we broke up when I left him..This guy was spot on with the color and cut..I must admit when the first chop went with the scissors, my heart skipped a beat. Oh well it is only hair..I told myself. Thank goodness I love it and have gotten tons of compliments!

11. I feel like Buffalo Springs was eons ago and really has only been 2 weeks, almost..The disappointment over my race is completely gone! Amazing how time heals all wounds..And really, in the scheme of things...it is only triathlon..not life or death.

12. I have lost 3 lbs. Not training! Go figure!

13. This is the end..I love my life and am grateful everyday for my friends, my family and the incredible life I have..that's it!

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BSLT Race Report from a somewhat cranky middle-aged woman..

2009-06-29T15:35:00.005-06:00

My tri friends are the only real friends who would tell me to STFU about how crappy my time was at BSLT 70.3 yesterday so I will refrain from being negative here. I will do as my granddaughter Lane says: "I am not complaining, I am just telling the facts here Grandpa" (yes this is a four year old going on forty)..

We arrived in Lubbock on Friday kind of late but managed to get in bed very early, like before the sun went down, so as to get that "night before the night before good night's sleep". H & I were well, how do I say two really, really cranky triathletes the couple of days leading up to the race. Which can make for a fun ride or really LONG ride to Lubbock in the car...We both kept catching ourselves and apologizing because it was all so pre-race nerves and we knew it but kept being mean anyway..we managed to get to the start line without killing each other so I consider that a small success alone..I am so spoiled. I am use to H being the "Observer"

and me being the pre-race "bitch" so this both being bitches thing is fairly new to me! I love that he is racing though..in the end sharing the stories with my partner in life is, well, the best!

Saturday, I rushed us out to Buffalo Springs Lake as early in the morning as I could because the heat index was about 100*. This had made me panic the few days before as I watched the fickle weather reports for race day: one day it was 96*, the next 88* and rain..Made me nuts.

On Saturday it was REALLY F*ing HOT!! So I took a test drive in my long sleeved wetsuit in the really warm water and was immediately too warm. On to my Point Zero Skin suit that I have never really worn in a race before. It felt infinitely better and more comfortable. So I went back and forth as to which to wear. It seems that most folks think the wetsuit is faster but I do not think I am really faster in it at all. So I called Coach Eric, who encouraged me to go with the Skinsuit, since I do not train in a wetsuit and swim just fine without it..thus not overheating..OK, I finally made the decision..no wetsuit! We ran around the course, biked a bit. It was windy (of course) but this seemed to cool things off a bit so I expected wind. The run was HOT, as expected..OK, we are in for a HOT race I told myself...

We connected up with GeekGirl, S. Baboo, Johnny Tri and some other folks from here and there for a great pasta dinner at Orlando's in Lubbock. We all laughed at the weather and excitedly talked about running, racing and stuff.. Off to bed at again an ungodly early time, then at 3:30 AM Sunday AM, the phone rang and H announced, It's race time!! I convinced him to get to the transition area early since I ha

ve been stuck in the clusterf*k of cars trying to get into the parking lot before and knew how stressful this can be. H relented and gave into my OCD, although his tendency is to wake up later and show up a little more on time. So we were at the parking lot in the front row, in the dark at 4:30 AM. I had my handy flashlight but did not see the cute little ant hill we were standing on and got bit HARD by a damn little ant in my foot. That hurt for some time..The usual PIA stuff..could not get air in my Zipps (oh they're OK, they feel full after my tune-up, etc), should I drink this, eat this gel...on and on..

At last I realized the wind had picked up..in the dark I could see the lake stirring up quite a bit and in the distance lightening..uh oh, there is a storm a brewing! It felt humid but not hot yet. The wind was whipping pretty good by the time we were setting up in transition..no one seemed to care in this bunch. No one was even talking about it. The announcer went on talking about the pros going off at 6:30, us going off at 6:35, while it appeared on the lake that a storm was approaching..Finally with about 2

5 min to go, the announcer went quiet for about 15 min. I really think they were trying to decide whether to delay the race or cancel the swim or what..The lake was pretty choppy, no whitecaps but really close..we took a warm-up run. It felt great. I was surprisingly calm even with the weird weather conditions..I started vacillating about the wetsuit again..I finally decided that I needed the safety factor of the wetsuit in case I needed to float in the choppiness. So safety over comfort won..The lightening seemed to go away but the wind was still intense..

At 6:35, they announced the pro men and women would be going off. It was so cloudy and dark I could not see hardly anything with my tinted goggles...uh-oh.. Oh well just going to wing it I guess. Again very calmly I lined myself up front, as planned and when they said GO to our wave, I took off like a bat out of hell. After about 100 yards, I looked up and saw something new and different, There were only 10-20 -people ahead of me-are you kidding? I have always been afraid to start out fast but we have been practicing this so I just went for it. The only problem with this is there are not that many folks to spot to stay on track...I was veering off to the right alot because of the wind and waves..It was a tough few hundred yards until we turned..I still could not see shit but barely could make out the huge triangular buoys and managed to actually draft a few folks. I felt very strong and just kept pushing myself as hard as I could and stay aerobic. I got VERY HOT, in the wetsuit, as predicted but I pushed on....As we headed back to shore, the wind seemed a little strong

er and waves higher. I knew I was still having a pretty good swim, esp. after the last fiasco in this lake..At last I was done! I forgot they would strip my wetsuit so had to backtrack to get that done. At last I stepped over the mat and boom..into T-1

Swim: 39.51

T-1: 2:13

(note the darkness-yep that is how dark it was..)

Not my PR but in that swim , pretty good. Second out of the water in my AG. I was so happy when I got on the bike, I was practically in tears..Yes!!! I did it! One of my friends who was not racing yelled YOU ROCKED THE SWIM!! That was all I needed to keep going! The first thing out of T-1 is a very steep hill. I used this to just calm down and "spin" up..(not much spinning but slow churning more like it)..The race plan was pretty simple: negative split the bike, do not spend all of my energy on the bike-hold back a little...

I chose not to wear a watch in this race. Was this a good idea? I don't think so looking back. I may have pushed more on the bike, run, who knows? First thing I noticed on the bike, besides the damn hills was the wind..it was gusting probably 25 MPH at times, the course is a big square with some funky out and backs so about half the time the wind was in my face. I just tucked into aero position and went. I took it easy up the big ass hills and just kept it steady on the flats. I felt like I was PRing the bike . My legs started to get really tired by the end and pain was setting in. At about mile 40, the rain started..It was not pouring rain, just steady and the roads were way wet. We had just missed the worst of it I think as we were heading back into the park. As I pushed myself up the last big incline, I asked someone what time it was: 10:50! Oh damn! That meant I definitely was not PRing this bike. How could I be so way off on perception? Could I have pushed harder?

Bike time: 3:32.

2007 bike time: 3:32-no kidding!

, god bless him, had the brilliant idea to put our running shoes and socks in plastic bags in T-2 in case in rained. That rocked!! Except that my transition rug was SOAKED. My feet were squishing everywhere and the towel was soaked. I somehow managed to get my shoes on relatively dry, even though it seemed to take forever. Do I need sunscreen? Isn't it raining? Should I bring this goo bottle? All these thoughts and questions that don't make any sense in the moment at all.

T-2: 2:13

I took off on the run to "warm up"the first mile as planned. What I did not plan was the intense pain I had not only in the inner thigh that has been bugging me for weeks now, but in both my legs. Bad pain...I stopped and dumped the goo bottle and white arm warmer thing. I took some Advil and electrolytes. I then proceeded to have the mental fight for my life to stay in the game. Every time I landed on my feet, my legs were screaming...Whoa, I do not remember this run hurting this early! My feet did not go numb..that was one positive..I only had to go to the BR twice...that is another positive..all my mostly liquid no roughage diet was paying off now...But I was was suffering to the point I felt like crying..The "plan" was to go easy, then all out the last 10k. Say what? My plan shifted to "run for 60 seconds, walk for 60 seconds"...I ran probably more than I walked but not really sure..I just know when I saw that I had 11 miles to go at mile 2, I thought I would throw up..Then I thought about switching off the negative thoughts with mantras..like push, push, push, you can do this....etc..In between the Zen moments, I was cursing the f*ing race and why the hell was I doing this and my competition just passed me going to the finish line at mile 3..It was a sufferfest...I saw H at one point..he was only about a mile behind me and I begged him to catch up with me (little did I know he actually raced the plan and went all out with energy to spare the last 10k)..The last 2 miles of BSLT are torture..now I DO remember that part from the 2 previous years I have done this race..but never the pain the whole run like this...it was a pure test of my endurance..The sun came out of course out on the "energy lab 2" as they call it (energy lab 1 is in Kona)...So then I was frantically looking for sunscreen and taking more Advil. Trying coke, Gatorade, gels anything to keep me going..I finally took a disgusting chocolate Power Gel at mile 12, which they must have had a sale on or something..It was disgusting!! That did my stomach in..it said shut down..no more, I am done..then my stomach was swelling..great..

Finally, finally after about 50 people told me I was "almost there' I heard Mike Reilly say Debi you are done!! Really??? Holy crap that was hard..I felt like crying again but went back to see happy H in, who could have run another 10 miles it looked like!! We jumped into the lake and hugged...

Run time: 2:54

Run time 2007: 2:56

Total time: 7:12...It is a PR for BSLT for me..by 3 minutes..probably my transitions..

I was 6th out of 8 in my AG although there were 12 women signed up so I would rather say I was 6th out of 12, since those women did not show or did not finish! (not sure what the protocol is for that)..

Given the really difficult weather conditions, I would say I did really well. I REALLY wanted to get a better time, especially in the run. I do not know what happened, I probably pushed too hard in the wind on the bike, whatever..it will all come clear to me someday I am sure. I think my BSLT days are over though. The competition there is the best of the best and I am tired of getting my ego beaten up each time I go there..I need to find nice flat 70.3s at sea level, where I can do better..like Beach to Battleship in November!

One really cool thing was to have dinner with a gal from Santa Fe, who was in my AG and got the Kona slot with a time of 5:30!! (But I did BEAT HER IN THE SWIM!)..

P.S. At mile 40 or so, I stopped to take an electrolyte. Some kid was standing there with an obvious new tube in his hand and asked me do you know how to change a clincher? I looked long and hard at him and thought for what seemed to be a minute and said Yes, but I have to go-I am so sorry! He said he understood, he would wait for an official. Oh great, now I have really bad bike karma because I did not help this poor kid change his friggin' tire!! I did mumble something to him about practicing this before the race...I felt guilty the rest of the race and maybe the run was my punishment? Or maybe someday when I need help, no one will stop? It was a split second decision...H told me later I could have gotten disqualified for helping him..I hope this is true..

Thoughts 4 days out from a half Ironman..

2009-06-25T13:06:00.007-06:00

There is so much to write about:

1. Did the 5k run with half of the family on Father's Day. Who knew that H would get so fast that he beat 12 men in his AG to get 3rd? And Becca kicked ass to get 2nd place after having a baby 6 months ago. And me? I took one for the team and walked with Haldey in a stroller. Still averaged 13 min/miles..I have been getting sore way deep inside my left hamstring/inner thigh/back when I run longer than a mile lately..not a good sign if I have a race in 4 days!

2. Speaking of races, I am feeling quite prepared for the BSTL half IM this Sunday. I would venture to say that the only thing standing in the way of me getting a PR is ME!! Well, that and the 90+ degree Texas hot humid weather that it looks like I will be racing in..I have trained so differently this year. Fast paced, less miles..we shall see how that pays off. So far, except for the nagging left leg thing, I am feeling faster.

3. Speaking of faster, it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks..I have officially become faster in the swim. At first I thought the totally new way of swimming I was learning was slowing me down but alas..the clock says nope-I am really speedier at least in the pool..I have been swimming since I was 4 years old so after 50 years who knew I could get more speed in this old body? Sure would like to kick the 5 hour half IM woman's ass in the swim..just sayin'....There are 13 women in my AG. Is that unlucky?

4. Speaking of dogs, mine is old. Really, really old..Mocha is 14 if she lives until July that is.. One day I think this must be her last week, the next, we are spending $50 at the Pet Store to keep her eating another day. She pees every night on the kitchen floor now so we bought the "pads" that she is suppose to pee on now so I do not have to mop my floor every morning! Dog owners understand the intense feelings of guilt (damn dog just go already!) and sadness (please live alot longer..please?) and fear of taking the poor old thing to the vet in case there is bad news..Next week we will take her in for a check up if she is still not eating well..Emotionally roller coaster you have me on Mocha!!

5. I do not know how I ever had time to work. Honestly..We have been running around like chickens for weeks now. I do not remember the last time we were home, by ourselves, resting just being retired! This retirement stuff is not for cissies! If you work, you can go and tell yourself that all that other stuff does not really matter and it does not get done. If you are retired, you see every little shitty thing that needs to be fixed, mowed, cleaned, gone through, organized..the list goes on..on top of that you gain weight so then have to train more so you can eat more while retired. It's hell-I am about ready to go back to work just to get a break!

6. Speaking of weight, I have started my modified liquid diet today until race time. This includes chicken noodle soup, ensure, bagels, pasta, spaghetti sauce, etc..I am trying to keep my "problem" on the run that involves many trips to the bathroom or bushes, to a minimum. It has worked in the past...hope it works this time...I hate those bushes..

OK, so tomorrow we are off to Lubbock. Hopefully Mocha survives another kennel trip, my mother in law feels better and my house gets cleaned magically while I am gone. Well, actually we have someone cleaning it and the windows (I could not stand them another day)!

I am ready, well trained, for this race. Bring it on!! Left leg be damned!

Next week my 3 best friends from childhood are coming to NM for a week so we will run around the state while I am a tour guide and be silly middle-aged women who think they are still 16 years old!

Ironman Lessons Come in Handy..

2009-06-13T17:59:00.003-06:00

Now this is where IM training/racing comes in handy..this morning..running...We embarked on a 1:40 min run, at altitude near Heron Lake, near the cabin...

They told us the trail was 3 miles total..I tend to believe people who work at these State Parks that they probably know from the map how far the trail is. Silly me! So anyway,we took off thinking OK we will run the 3 miles then run along the lake to make up the rest...

I had felt a little shaky since our workout yesterday on the track. We did Speed Work w/Coach Eric...My leg started hurting about 3/4 of the way into a "pyramid" (it just sucked and was hard, etc)..I opted to stop before said soreness became an injury..So I was tired to begin with then we hightailed it up here last night..I was grumpy, tired and went to bed fairly early.

4:30 AM-I hear our beloved 14 year old geriatric dog coughing and stumbling about downstairs.Now she can't go outside without us carrying her down the stairs..40 lbs of dead weight down 2 flights of stairs..it is hard on a good day..At 4:30 AM I went down to find one thirsty dog and who obviously needed to go outside. So there I was, well not exactly "dressed" for the outside, carrying my old dog down the stairs in the dark, who by now seemed confused as to which way was the door..not a good sign. I let her out and she did her business only to take off down the road instead of back to the house. I am calling her, in my "nightwear" to no avail. I had to take off barefoot..and you get the picture.. It wasn't pretty as I chased after my senile dog to get her back inside. We finally made it. After many more trips downstairs, I finally just lifted her up to the couch and said "Go night, night!" Like a child..

I could not go back to sleep for anything. Then I got hungry..Damn! So up I was at 5:00 getting oatmeal and coffee and pissed! After an hour of this, I got so sleepy, I went back to bed...did manage an hour more of sleep or so..

Fast forward to our run by the lake: We start out and I just do not feel good. I start to get light headed, hungry (not a good sign at the beginning of a run)..I ate a Power Gel, to no avail..Walked a bit and the ground started spinning. I am not doing so good, I think I may need to stop I tell H. He slows down. We are in the middle of basically nowhere on a trail that is unfamiliar. I do not want him to get too far ahead...I eat another Power Gel, more water..Still feeling like crap,I am walking. As we continue to walk, H says hey let's just walk the rest of the 3 miles then call it a day. I obviously agreed, since by then I was barely able to walk...Time ticked by..1.5 miles...halfway there I think..I eat a THIRD gel and more water...I am starting to feel a little better. By now we are jogging down the hills, walking up....We get to some kind of turnaround at 2.7 miles. Hmmm. me thinks these folks so not know how far 3 miles are..Slowly we picked it up to a run and soon we were at almost 6 miles and back to the ranger station. We decided after my 4th gel, that my tank was full and we could keep going. So we did..The whole 1:45 minutes, slowly mind you, but done..

It just proves my point of Ironman: You can be feeling like dog doo-doo one minute, ready to quit...fix the problem and feel great in an hour! Honestly you can!!

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride..

2009-06-10T07:52:00.008-06:00

It was...I think..true...

Now I have not been everywhere and as someone mentioned, Jackson Hole is pretty spectacular and then there is Alaska of course-but do they have century rides like this? I do not know.

We left on Thursday after a swim lesson with Coach Eric, where we learned to reach and pull. Wow-talk about sore arms! It is hard work getting faster....better pay off! We drove the long 9.5 hour drive to Barstow, CA, where my head hit the ever so fluffy pillow at the Hampton Inn there. I love the Hampton. The fluffy beds, the big "free" breakfast in the morning, all of it..H & I are in the habit of just getting places..so we eat in the car on the fly. H is in charge of "car meals", well all meals for that fact. We managed to fit both bikes in the car, without both wheels, with plenty of room in the Pre-Ass for all our other sporty stuff and suitcases..This makes for better gas mileage. We found that dragging the bikes behind the car affects the gas mileage like by about 10 MPG. Got a good night's sleep in Barstow and woke up to a sunny California day to make the last 7 hour drive to South Lake Tahoe. It took us longer than we thought but the drive was beautiful through several mountain ranges. Of course I forgot my camera..grr..so was going to take flip videos, which I had with me, but that seemed too much trouble so alas I have no real documentation. Except my cheesy Blackberry pictures, which after seeing IPhone pics-mine look like they were taken with one of those brownie cameras I use to have as a kid..

Got to Tahoe around dinner time and it was raining. Apparently had been raining and cloudy for about 7 days. We read that it only rains a few days a year and we happen to hit right in those few days I guess. We could not really see Lake Tahoe or the mountains and did I mention it was cold? Around 38 in the morning and 50s in the day. Waking up Saturday to more rain, we managed to squeak out a run for about an hour before the rain started up again and it rained..and rained.. and rained..well you get the picture..I spent alot of time cleaning our bikes and at the local grocery store, gathering food for the morning and beyond..We ate dinner at one very busy Italian restaurant, where the food was, meh...ok..

3,000+ people descended upon South Lake Tahoe, populations 23,000 for this ride. So it was a very busy little place all day Saturday as folks were going stir crazy in the rain. I must admit I was a bit grumpy thinking about riding 100 miles anyway and in the rain? I don't think so. The weather forecast was somewhat encouraging for Sunday. Rain in the afternoon-OK so we have to be done by the afternoon, that is all.

6:15 AM-that is the time we started AMBBR, as it is called. We rode the 1.5 miles from the Best Western, where we stayed there (OK place, GREAT pancakes for breakfast made up for the crappy cell service and no wireless Internet-certainly not the luxury hotel it was cracked up to be)..There were the 3000 plus cyclists at the start, staggering to begin but still a clusterf&*#k for much of the first 50 miles or so...H and I wore our Outlaw jerseys but who could see them under the 5 layers of clothes we had on? It was friggin' cold in the 30s but we are Outlaws and we train in the winter here so we can take it, right? Really was not so bad and hallelujah, it was cloudy but no rain! We were so happy about this. I would not have gone in that pouring down stuff, which would have made for one long trip for no reason..

This ride was so well supported, I do not think we will ever be treated any better on a century ride. About every 15 miles or so there was a rest stop which had bars, fruit, cookies, pretzels, Cytomax, etc, etc...There were drop bags at each stop so you could lose the layers and layers of clothes you had one, which we did...Bike pumps, bike techs, everything you could imagine were at these stops and tons of porta potties..I can't say enough about those support areas...We stopped at the second one and hung out for probably 30 minutes just to hang out! This was after the first "hill" out of two hills on the ride. My antiquated Garmin only held a charge for part of the ride so here is the first bit of elevation:

So the hill was right at the beginning, which was good because it warmed me up enough to peel clothes...

The views from the top of this pass were...well I can't even describe it except to say mountains behind a beautiful clear blue Lake Tahoe, with the sun peaking out from the clouds finally was well, breath taking..

After around mile 33, we did an out and back on the most beautiful bike trail I have ever been on. It went right past a river/creek that was as clear water as I have ever seen. I kept say Why this really IS the most beautiful bike ride! Oohs and ahhhs abound here. It was a bit technical trying to keep from running into the person in front of you. Well imagine hundreds of cyclists trying to fit on one little bike path for 5 miles or so and well, you get the picture. People were polite and all and no run-ins which could have easily happened.

Around mile 70 was lunch. Now this was no ordinary lunch. As you came into the lunch area, there were about 200 folks cheering you in just for lunch! Out of the 3000+ cyclists, 1800 were Team-in-Training peeps. These folks are really organized!! Spectators abounds for these motivated people, many of whom I assume were doing their first century ride..We saw people from all over the country as the jerseys had TNT, with where they were from..I finally got to sport my Outlaw jersey and of course had some great compliments about that!

Lunch..well what can I say? What wasn't there to eat? Now I am not one who can eat alot on the bike, or my stomach rebels but I had to have the vege sub and chocolate brownie and chips..just had to...I have never seen so much food in my life! We stayed another 30 minutes at this beautiful rest/picnic area right on the lake, sun shining at this point, full on sunshine...wow!

Now by this time I was getting a bit tired. My legs felt fine, I was just tired..So we stopped at one of the many quaint little coffee shops along the lake and I had an espresso, which seemed to kick me into another gear for the rest of the ride. H & I were pinching ourselves asking ourselves if the happy police were going to come and take us away now!

Miles 80-86 were a bit tough as we had another long, long, slow climb. I was getting grumpy by now-at one point when there was about 2 miles to the summit, some (I am sure well meaning yet out of shape looking) volunteer told me it was 7 miles to the top. I had no Garmin by now and well, I was not a happy camper!! I was very happy he was wrong!

Finally at mile 86 wheeeee!!! We flew downhill the next 12 miles or so..It was exhilarating! As we sailed back into S. Lake Tahoe town, there were alot of those "grate" thingies on the side of the rode. So heard and yelled alot of "Grate!" warnings... Just as I thought wow I wonder if these things are really all that dangerous?, I watch as a lady gets caught in one, right in front of us and goes flying over her handle bars and face plants..Holy chit! We stopped..I went back and told her not to move her neck, as I remembered one of our Outlaws, who recently broke her neck and neck immobility when it happened probably saved her from being paralyzed. Well, this woman was having none of that as she tried to get up. I told her You snapped your neck, I saw you..please do not move! But she was insisting she wanted to finish the 100 miles. One guy told her..I think it counts you are at mile 98 or something. The sag people arrived immediately..I told them it looked like she snapped her neck as she face-planted to me (her face was bleeding too)..so figured they would take it from there, as there were also tons of people there to help here up..Oh well, I tried! I hope she is OK. We did see the medical helicopter take off soon after we finished so maybe she got airlifted out..Will never know I guess...

That kind of dampened my finish to the 100 miles. I was getting tired by now anyways. My legs were beginning to feel the distance although surprisingly not so bad. I was so glad since the longest ride I had done recently was 72 miles and that was in April. H & I rounded the corner at the finish line and there were all the roaring crowd again-you would think we just finished the Tour' de France, the way they were cheering. It was awesome!! I think it took us about 7 hours bike time but who knows..H accidentally zeroed his bike computer and then there is my whole Garmin issue! Anyhow, I deem it a 7 hour century!

Just to make sure we got enough to eat..they had quite a spread at the end, by the pool at the hotel/casino host hotel. There was pasta galore, salad, marinara sauce, more pasta, bread sticks, etc...Seriously, you really got your money's worth of food and support at this beautiful ride!! We ate, then rode back to the hotel, where I collapsed after a bath and Kentucky Fried Chicken's new grilled chicken dinner. It was fabulous!!! We ate on the beach, a bit cold and windy but at least we can say we were on the beach at Lake Tahoe!

I slept like a rock...

Conclusion: The America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride was spectacular. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Great support, food, roads, very organized..the views-well it was ridiculous!

To top it off we stopped off south of Las Vegas on the way home and spent the night. The next morning we did a 1.4 mile open water swim in Lake Mead, equipped with our own Formulaic as a tour guide. He is going to to IMCDA in 2 weeks so just happened to know all the buoy inside swim info and took us through a great swim in a stupendous lake. I am jealous they have this in their back yard! Johnny Tri was there too. Was so great to see these friends as the last time we were all there was the horrible Rage in the Sage half IM last year, in which I was totally traumatized but met great people! The swim yesterday was so much more pleasant. After the swim, we met up with Formulaic's wife and brand new baby son-11 days old! Very very cute and little and Kelly looked better than I did and she just had a baby! We had a great lunch and said goodbye-see you JT at BLST in 3 weeks!

So I have a new found confidence in the swim and bike. Now I just need to get that same energy on the run and I am there-watch out Lubbock!

And then there was hell week..

2009-06-01T07:24:00.005-06:00

This does not look as hard as it was last week:

Mon 5/25
B: 16.00 Miles
R: 1.80 Miles

Tue 5/26
S: 2000.00 Yd
(with Coach)

Wed 5/27
B: 32.25 Miles
R: 3.40 Miles

Thu 5/28
B: 14.00 Miles (hill work with Coach)
S: 2800.00 Yd

Fri 5/29
R: 3.00 Miles
(Speed work on the track w/Coach)

Sat 5/30
B: 40.50 Miles

Sun. 5/31
B: 15 miles
Run: 7.5 miles

I call it "triathlon boot camp, with Coach in town". The three sessions we had with Coach Eric were after we returned from Denver to see Hadley et. all..

Lessons I learned:

My left hand does not cooperate in swimming with my right.

On the bike: I get to AT much quicker than I thought..

Run: Well, I suck..that is all there is to it!

We took off to Chama after our track workout on Friday. Feedback from Coach on the run: I run "cute" but that does not cut it when racing..Need to pump arms more aggressively, lean forward, longer strides. Wow alot to remember!..We biked on Saturday to north of the town of Chama, up the pass a bit, high altitude cycling. We wanted to bike 4 hours but alas, Mother nature had other plans! It looked like we were going to get caught in a flash storm, which you do not want to be stuck in out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains so we cut it short. Only 40 miles instead of planned 60+. I sure hope next weekend when we are trying to do a century around Lake Tahoe (America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride supposedly-don't think they have biked around Chama though), I can make it! I feel very under trained for this ride and almost wish we hadn't signed up. It is smack dab in the middle of peak training for Buffalo Springs Lake half IM, which according to the "Beginner Triathlete" training program, we are already under trained by hours and hours, especially in the swim, for this race..I am trusting that the 3 races we did made up for this because it certainly cut out alot of workouts!

We had every intention to swim in a lake near the cabin, either Heron or El Vado. Water temperature hovered around 50 degrees and I am sorry but after IMCDA last year I swore I would never purposely swim in that cold of water again! So another swim workout missed-damn! We did an unusual brick yesterday. I have always done the long ride/short run brick..This one was one hour easy bike, 1 hr, 45 minute run (at 8000 feet). Was a challenging couple of hours. All in all I feel like I am light years stronger on the bike this year and a little faster on the run. The swim? Yet to be determined..

This is our 12th day of training today. We met with Eric again to do hills on the bike and gosh darn if my Garmin was not dead, AGAIN because I did not charge it all night. I wish I had the profile for this ride-holy shit! There were some kick ass hills, at the end of which I did yell out Uncle!! I think we were suppose to go up that last 15% grade hill but H and I just stopped! Hey I have my limits! No cursing the young agile athlete though-he is trying to help us and we are paying him for this torture!

I am pooped and we still have a 2600 yd swim today. Then tomorrow-a day off!! I am going to a workshop on ethics just to keep my brain alive and my counseling license current, just in case I need to counsel someone for money I guess. No real logic to it..I just like feeling all professional and all, even if I do not work in the field at all..

Random post Memorial Day thoughts..

2009-05-26T17:51:00.006-06:00

Random thoughts and experiences:

We just got back from Denver visiting Becca, Dan and baby Hadley. Hadley is starting to get the happiest disposition on earth. I have never seen a child so happy..well maybe not this year. She brought us more joy in 4 days than anyone can imagine..honestly..I know they eventually outgrow the baby phase and get into the "terrible twos" someday but until that happens, I am happy Grandma Debi . Even the older, more challenging phases are "cute" to Grandma and Grandpa most days!

It rained alot there this weekend but Becca and I managed to obtain and plant some awesome flowers! Seems to be a family tradition between her and I now that we have become "flower gardeners"in the last couple of years. Something I never really saw myself as doing but I do have vague memories of my maternal Grandmother and her "Rose gardens". She would get up everyday in the summer at 5:00 AM to weed and tend to the flowers. A genetic trait part of gardening I did not inherit..

Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 triathlon is a mere 4 and 1/2 half weeks away. We are meeting with our Coach, Eric for the next 4 weeks for some fast and furious training sessions before the big race for the summer. Eric is an amazing young man, who is the kind that you wish you had if you had a son. He is very motivating, young- yet wise for his years. I leave our workouts feeling like I really could do well despite my age or other limiting factors..

We swam today and I learned that the damn left hand does not cooperate 90% of the time so need to work on that really hard! Also practicing the sprinting at the beginning of the swim so I can get in front of the fray and not have a panic situation that I just experienced at Buffman and Squeaky. This is just something I need to teach myself to do and master. A new skill. The goal is to swim like hell for 300 yards or so, then settle back into an endurance rate. Can I do this? Well, after today I think I can.

I love to travel. I love to see my kids, go to races, be in the thick of a new and exciting world of adventure. But MAN I love being home, sleeping in my own bed. I guess I am a creature of habit that way...getting more like this as I grow older...

We are doing this in 2 weeks. just to say we did it:

Buffman and Squeaky Olympic distance Triathlon Report..

2009-05-18T06:51:00.011-06:00

I reached 2 out of my three goals. That is not bad for this middle-aged 3rd week in a row race woman..

We traveled to Lubbock on Sat. AM in the wind and rain. It was disheartening to see the weather. I am thinking it may not be so fun to race in this 50 degrees rain/wind. Michi and MG rode with us and we laughed and really had the best time all weekend. We stopped in Clovis, NM on the way, where we met Muffinman for lunch. He told us all the highlights of training there, which took about 5 minutes (just kidding Carl). It was a fun lunch and we were to see Carl again in Lubbock for the race (he rocked it by the way, sailing by his competition for first place). Which made the more "challenging moments" way more fun. We arrived at the Homestead Inn in Lubbock late in the afternoon but decided to hightail it out to the lake to check out H's new wetsuit.We were definitely the only crazy ones out there swimming in the cold/rain/wind! We were literally in there (with 2 ducks) for about 5 minutes. OK, wetsuit works. The water temp was cold, but not too bad actually! I decided the hood was not necessary-I would overheat for sure.

Pre Race night-

We went to Orlando's, a great Italian place in Lubbock for dinner. I pigged out, of course against my better judgement. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, this would come back to haunt me on the run the next day...it did....

I could not sleep for the life of me that night. I wasn't really nervous..We had lost an hour in Texas so there I was trying to go to sleep at 9:00 NM time..and getting more frustrated by the quarter hour. I finally managed to fall asleep, where I dreamed I was going back to work. Just as I was trying to explain that I needed ALOT of time off to travel, the alarm woke up-whew! That was a relief!

Race Morning:

Off to the lake early. The weather was perfect. A little cool-in the 40s but clear, no wind..I repeat no wind! Ever..all day! This is so bizarre for us! I met 5:38 half IM woman, who looked fast..of course..there goes my first place..I sausaged into my wetsuit which well, to be frank after gaining 10 lbs since I got it, was tight, to say the least. I thought it would loosen up in the water. The water felt cool, but not the 61 degrees the RD said it was...8:05 and boom! We were off!

Swim: The plan was to stay with MG, who wanted to break the 30 minute mark on the swim too. I started swimming and was getting shoved and kicked and beat up and started to panic a little..MG drifted off..I couldn't catch my breath so I just stopped for a second to re-orient. This seemed to go on forever. I finally swam over to a kayak and just hung on. I kept saying my wetsuit felt like it was choking me but really I am a good swimmer! I felt like quitting then and there! Somehow kept going. I was way behind everyone it seemed by now. I kept swimming, feeling like I was choking..got about 2/3 way there and again felt that panicky feeling. I hung onto another kayak, again telling the guy I really could swim, no really...Like he really cared..probably thinking Yea if you are such a good swimmer-why are you hanging on to this kayak?..He was very reassuring though. I asked him to loosen the back of my wetsuit and that felt alot better so off I went. I was just thinking this was the longest mile swim ever and it was probably taking me an hour. I saw H somewhere in here so knew I could not be that far back. I got kicked hard in the face at one point, thought I probably had a black eye (but didn't). Oh well, there goes my PR, just finish the race. The goal is to have a training day so just do it! I kept telling myself. Finally for goodness sake, it was over and they were hauling me out of the water at the end (It is steep). I saw Michi so again, knew I wasn't that far back. After a painfully long transition I was off on the bike.

Bike: It was a bit cold at first. The sun was out so I knew I would warm up quickly and I did. The first thing out of transition is a short, steep hill. It was tough but doable. Actually felt so good to get out of that lake, I was just happy to be on the bike. There was another hill or two on the bike but nothing bad. I raced without a watch, had no idea how I was doing but I passed a couple of folks. Saw H out there-he passed me. So did Michi. Just got it done...kept my HR in aerobic zone by feel. The weather was perfect...no wind...around 70 degrees...the most perfect weather you will ever see in Lubbock! I passed a dead snake on the side of the road as big as Texas. That was scary! The last hill came-it is very steep,. I thought I had another hill and what a pleasant surprise when boom I was in transition again. I managed to get my shoes off on the bike and cruise in and hopped off the bike. My feet were numb..

Run: My feet were numb the first 3 miles on the run. This happens to me just about every time I race. I saw a guy with compressions socks and thought Wow should have brought mine with me-that would have helped! Note to self: remember the socks for Buffalo Springs half.. I went to the porta potty at T-2 of course then I was off. I planned to take the first half of the run slow, then pick it up a bit on the second half. Other than the 5 times I stopped to the bathroom, I did do that. At some point some other damn woman passed me in my AG, probably as I potty stopped. H was about 5 minutes ahead of me and she finished just in front of him-damn swim came back to haunt me! I felt so good running, I held back for the most part. It was such a great day at that point! The best part was when a young woman ran up behind me and said You are 55? Man you look so good. I have been trying to run you down thinking you were in my age group! I looked at her leg-it said 33! OK, after my dreadful swim, that made me feel better. I saw MG around mile 2 bringing it home and knew he was having a great race..H was doing really well too. I rounded the corner at the end, saw my 3 teammates and knew it was over! I crossed the finish line in 3:20, a PR by 5 minutes for an Oly! If I just would have had the swim I wanted, it would have even been better. And I held back on the run...This made it all OK..

Post Race: There were disgusting Texas style hamburgers at the end...yuk! We did stay for the awards, which were scrambled because of no chip timing. Everything got messed up but after some confusion, I did end up with 3rd place, behind Kona woman and that other woman that passed me on the run. The other woman took a first place award with the confusion, even though Kona woman beat her-what a beeyotch!! She knew she was second and took the first place! H knew she had not finished first. I hope I kick her ass at BSLT! Just for that reason.. yep they will both be there!!! Kona woman is very nice and she had a stellar race-she will get that Kona slot for sure!

H got first in his AG and PRd by about 15 minutes!

Not sure of my splits yet as the whole no chip thing is not showing that but the PR is correct overall as I look this AM on the website. First and second in my AG is corrected and I still got third. Michi said she did a 36 minute swim and we came in at the same time so I guess that is what I did. Which shocks me!! I thought for sure my swim was 45 minutes or more! I must have made up some time on the bike and run..

Coach Eric is getting a call this AM. I need help on that open water swim thing!!!

Post Race: We got back to the hotel for a late checkout. Despite a very scary moment when H slipped and fell in the shower because there was no bathmat in the shower and it was so slippery (he is OK), we all fared the race well. Some very tired 4 people drove home from Lubbock in the afternoon after pizza again at Orlandos, ice cream on the way home and much laughter in the car. We had the best time with our friends! This is always my priority at these things-to have fun with friends!!!

Today, I am sore and TIRED!! No more racing until Buffalo Springs Lake half IM on June 28th!

Its a New Day People!

2009-05-13T14:34:00.003-06:00

I actually have my passion for triathlon back. I do not know how, after all the negative energy I put out to the universe on Sunday, this could happen but it did. Like a fire lit under me after that race. It may be that I had almost a PR (I wonder if you are 5 years older than your last PR, is it time to get a new PR?)..May be that I FINALLY got out of the middle of the pack, just once at least..

Whatever-I have been training these past 3 days like I really love it again! Did I say I hate racing? Nahhhh...not really! I just hate losing! I hate being average...I work my ass off for this sport and damn-I want to WIN! Now that is probably not going to happen much, I know that genetics has something to do with this, right? For instance, I found out that my competition (one of them) at Buffalo Springs this year did the last half IM at BSLT in 5:38! Huh? I know full grown kick ass MEN that cannot do it that fast! This is so insane, I just laugh...I will never go to Kona, or Clearwater as long as women 50+ just keep getting faster..yep, it is true..I have decided I might qualify if I go and do Ironman China, where some years there are NO women in my AG. If you win your AG, you go to Kona..

So I was sucked into going to Lubbock this weekend by my friend MG, who promised to get back on Facebook if I went. Now here is where you know the addiction has set in-you pray your friends will drink the Koolaid with you and when they don't, you will do anything to get them back to drinking it..I am so easily influenced! He tried this getting us to sign up for Ironman St, George in 2010. Thank goodness I had my senses about me when I turned that one down. Has anyone seen the profile to that race?

So now I just have to suffer through an Olympic distance to get my friend back on FB. Is that crazy or what? Off we go to Lubbock, where we will be doing BSLT in 7 weeks. It is the same course (only shorter), the race is called Buffman and Squeaky and is put on by the same folks. Guess who will be there? The 5:38 woman-there to practice too!!! WTF? She registered in the wrong age group though. Here is a moral dilemma-should I say anything? Is that cheating? If she stays in the wrong one, I will win, because so far I am the only one in the 55-59 year old women..

OK so here are my three goals for this race (my third weekend in a row racing). In this order:

1. To have fun. MG and Michi will be traveling with H and I. Drinking the Koolaid together.

2. To have a great swim. I would like to break 30 minutes..the water is usually cold this time of year but after IMCDA, it all feels like bathwater to me!

3. Go at about 80% and practice the course..can I do this?

Jay Benson Sprint Triathlon Race Report..

2009-05-11T17:00:00.004-06:00

Rule #1:

Do NOT go out the day before a race, when you are feeling body dysmorhic, which seems to be the case alot lately, and try on new bathing suits for the race! It seems my body has discovered back fat-you know the stuff that rolls over the back of a tank suit. I was looking at black one piece tank suits to go under my tri stuff, for the swim, at the end of Sunday's race. I was not a happy camper leaving the sporting goods store, size X in hand..H tries to be good to me when I am in this place but I am totally and ridiculously irrational. It is like there are two parts to me. The part that says, F^&*k it, I love my body the way it is. I am one lucky woman to look so good! Then the evil part chimes in and says OMG, you have never, ever been this big and had such a fat stomach before..and BACK FAT!? Are you kidding me? OK, it was a rough day but finally I resolved to do something about these 10 lbs. I think the hormones have got to go! More BD later..There is an article in Triathlete Magazine called "Body Image..Are Triathletes Obsessed?" Really?..You mean I am not alone?

Night before the Jay Benson Sprint Triathlon: I am still grumpy, not as bad..Eating little solid food so as to: please dear God, do not let me have to go to the BR on the RUN, which is first tomorrow. There are no trees, no bushes, nothing but me and the other 400 competitors out there and please I do not want to have to go! OK so this is a weird prayer for a middle aged woman but about as crazy as the bathing suit incident earlier...Pre race jitters..I am grumpy. I do not want to do this friggin'race. Who signed us up for this damn thing anyway? Oh yes, that was me..H is no help-he does not want to race either! Such a different space than last weekend when I was so excited to rock it with my daughter at the half, AT SEA LEVEL!! I told a friend one day years ago..Honestly, I HATE racing triathlon! I love the training. I HATE the pressure of the actual RACE! He agreed.

Race morning: I wake up before the alarm, still in grump ass mode. Waaaahhhhh!! I am whining before we even get into the car..Why the hell are 2 grown retired folks doing something they do NOT want to do at 6:00 Sunday AM? Well, we decided we were going for the picnic afterwards, which was planned as our team picnic and we LOVE our OUTLAWS!! Our buds! Right away I get a text from Michi, god bless her, saying Happy Mother's Day! A brief breath of fresh air! Thank you Michi..

We arrive on the base a good 1.5 hours before race time..Then I see it...I think it is a mirage! ABOUT 8 PORTA POTTIES outside transition! I have died and gone to heaven...I spent alot of time in those potties before the race..my prayers were answered!

I ran into my friend Anne, doing her 2nd tri, Geekgirl, Sweet Baboo, Dread Pirate, MG and Michi..many more Outlaws including Mark, who had the dreaded official uniform on! That was wierd..

Run:

OK so they decided since half of New Mexico showed up for this race, they would start the race in three waves this year. Let's put the old ladies last..GREAT!! More time to stand around and have to hit the porta potties. The gun went off for us at 8:40, a good 40 minutes past the men's start. I felt pretty good to start but always have a dry mouth in this race to begin with, until some nice lady gave me a drink of her water. I started my watch at the beginning and never looked again until the end. I figured I was running about 9:30-10:00 miles. Longest 3 miles ever in the desert. Just get me to that damn swim!

Run Time: 29:27 ..meh..the usual..

T-1: 18 I did manage transition practice on Saturday because often I can make up my sucky run time here.

Bike: Jumped on the ole' SWTrigal Cervelo and me Zipps and off I went. Again no sense of time but I was pushing it! I passed a bunch of folks, one lady in my AG. YAY!!! I hadn't seen too many in transition, aside from my friend Carol, who always wins, is a fantastic athlete..I have known her 8 years and she has qualified for Kona, etc. I aged up to her AG this year and when I saw her and chatted I knew, Oh well, there goes my first place! Ha! Like that was a possibility!

On to the bike. About 2/3 into the 12 miles, I was tired...My mental state at this race was light years away from last weeks run, where I felt like an OC Rock Star. This week I felt like a very grumpy old lady..So my thoughts were about to give into give up "F&*^k it" mode when I made a decision: OK instead of giving up here, take all that pissed offness and make it work in the race. Don't give up, get angry!! So I did. I blasted to the end, hopped off my bike and grabbed my cap and goggles.

Bike time: 40.05 A bike PR!!

T-2: 1:37 Why didn't I think to bring my shoes to run from one end of transition on the rocky road like DP did? Oh well, I got to the pool where to my horror were women walking down the ladder to get into the pool. Are you kidding me?

The Swim: Ok, so I had a coach tell me once, You can be a nice person and ladylike and all that but at race time, all bets are off!!! So there I was YELLING, LETS GO THIS IS A RACE-HELLO! and jumped in the water and pushed a couple of ladies out of my way so I could start swimming. Only to be confronted with someone doing the breastroke in the left lane! Now I have had my time doing breastroke in a tri swim, I know what that is like but for god's sake, get in the right side so we can pass on the left. I just pushed her over and swam on. I swam under folks, beside folks..but I passed alot of people. Around meter 300 I got tired, really tired and thought think I will rest for the next 100 then just push it in! H said he saw me slow down. I just was done...So that is what I did. I think I passed another woman in my AG so there-I think I beat at least 2 women in my AG! Ran across the mat and DONE!! Hit my watch and it said 1:21. That was a relief!

Swim time: 8:52 Not my best but I'll take it!

Post Race:

OMG I was so relieved to have this race over, it was incredible. Stayed to cheer my friend Terry in-her first triathlon at 54 years old!! That was awesome..

As I went to shower before the Awards ceremony, I saw Carol-she told me her time and that she has beaten some other woman right behind her. So I am thinking Maybe 3rd? Is that possible? The results were being posted right then so I asked H to and check to see if I placed, assuming Carol came in first.. I got out there and he said YOU DID IT! YOU CAME IN THIRD! I screamed!!! For the first time in my Jay Benson history I had placed in my AG. I was so happy for about 5 minutes until I ran into Carol at the awards thing. I told her I had come in 3rd and she said no, she thought she had come in 3rd. Oh rats! That means I was 5th! H hadn't looked above Carol's name because she usually wins but lo and behold 2 other women beat HER...That was so disappointing but soon my mind was on food at the picnic and listening to the announcer read all these ridiculously fast times of winners. Jay Benson is the biggest race in the state and literally people come out of the woodwork to race this Sprint Tri. Folks you will never see, ever again in a season. They must train all year just to do Jay Benson and kick the rest of our asses!!! It is kind of annoying.

Fast forward this AM. I am thinking I probably got 5th out of 7 in my AG. OK, I wasn't last, right? Then I look and had the surprise of my life! There were 16..count them..16 women in the 55-59 year old age group yesterday! Are you kidding me? My attitude immediately became one of joy. I got 5th out of 16 women!!! 91st out of 262 overall women. I can now say I am a step above middle of the pack, right?

Geez, and to celebrate, we signed up for an Olympic distance tri in Lubbock Texas next week with Michi and MG..I think I really am crazy or masochistic or both!

O.C. Half Marathon Report..

2009-05-04T07:49:00.004-06:00

Pre-Race:

Allison and her new boyfriend came over to our home away from home for dinner. H made his usual pasta with spaghetti sauce with my one token piece of chicken. We ate around 5:30 to give our tummies time to digest all before the AM. I was in bed by 9:00 CA time, which is 10:00 NM time so all was well. H & I both woke up at 4:00 AM. I took a warm bath-perhaps my new pre-race strategy to warm my muscles up. It seemed to help me wake up my legs. I had felt like crap the night before, sore throat, feeling like I was coming down with something..In the AM was all gone and I was ready to run! Bagel with PB, half bagel with cream cheese, one WIRED drink and off we went!

We met Allison and Scott at the finish line, where we left one car and drove to the start line. As usual, my anal retentive self had us there 45 minutes before we ever had to be, which left us standing in porta potty lines and nervously jogging around trying to stay warm. It was perfect weather. 50 degrees, cloudy. The ocean air always agrees with my hair, skin and general breathing capabilities..SEA LEVEL IS AWESOME!! All that extra O2. More about that later..

Race:

With 8000 of our California friends, we started the race with our chips. It took H & I about 5 min to get to the start line-not too bad. This race allowed ipods-yes even officially! I was stoked about this. I run better with music..So on came my Ipod..H & I ran together for about 5 minutes and he drifted off in front of me. I planned to race: the 1st 5 miles kind of easy, the 2nd 5 miles picking it up and the last 5k as fast as I could run. It was a bit difficult to start out this way because it was downhill the first few miles..but I held back anyway. Of course had to go to the bathroom about mile 3. I asked some poor unsuspecting teenager who was guarding the alleyway from runners who were going to cut the course, if I could use the alley to do my thing. I think she was too afraid to say no. The second bathroom stop I made at a store where I was practically screaming at the person in the BR ahead of me this is a race-hurry up! WTF is this lady doing in there? The porta potty lines were ridiculous. My last stop was in the bushes around mile 10-all in all lost about 5 minutes...Geez!! It seems no matter what I eat, don't eat. It is always the same deal..I ran faster after each stop, willing myself to make up for lost time...

After 5 miles, I looked at my watch and damn, it said 55 minutes! I was stoked. So I picked it up and felt like a rock star. I was feeling the best I have ever felt, certainly in a running race. I felt all O2 blasting my legs into gear. I thought of all the speed work I have done the last 5 months. It works-duh! At one point at a turning point, I saw H first, then Allison and Scott-all about 10 min ahead of me. That meant Allison was having a good race! I was so happy about this..I thought If I keep up this pace, I will have a PR-no doubt! The run was so beautiful-around a bay in the ocean. I could feel the ocean air just bathing my skin and lungs. It was so awesome..I took in a total of 4 Carbooms. The water stops were not quite every mile and I think I saw one water stop with Power Ade. Good thing I was not counting on that for nutrition! I was still passing people..alot. Then around mile 9 there was a small steep hill. I walked as fast as I could up the short hill. Mile 10-I started to feel my legs, a very slight cramp beginning in my left hamstring-Oh no!! I ran through it, took a Tylenol just in case...I don't remember ever pushing this hard in a half marathon before so the cramp thing was new. The last 5k took forever! My Garmin says we ran 13.4 and so does Allison's. So the course was long I think...We finally rounded the bend to get to the fairgrounds and it seemed like forever and bam! I was done! My leg by now was almost a full on cramp so I was so lucky it was over! Garmin said 2:17 but I knew the bathroom stops made it longer. I ran a half marathon in the late 90s or early 2000s in 2:19 although I cannot find the results anywhere on line. So I think it was almost a PR for me at:
Bib: 7745
Name: Debi Wess
Gender: F
Age: 54
Hometown: Albuquerque, NM
Overall: 2491 out of 4554
Women: 1184 out of 2666
F 50-54: 52 out of 175
Age/Grade: 57.52% Place: 780
Finish: 2:20:24 Pace: 10:43

I found H quickly at the end. He rocked the race on a bum leg and finished in the top 20 of his AG. Allison completed her first running race in the top 3rd of her AG!! I was so proud of her!!!

Post Race:

We went to a great breakfast place, where I PIGGED out on pancakes and eggs. The afternoon was spent resting then we all had a huge pizza and chocolate cake at our place for the evening meal. I was wiped out! This AM, I dreamt I was at the doctor with a dramatic pain in my left leg. I woke up to a dramatic pain in my left leg and hip. When I stood to walk I realized, My am I sore!!

Thoughts:

Speed work does what it is suppose to do..makes you faster..

There is hope for me getting faster,even at my age.

I wish I could run this fast at Buffalo Springs half Ironman in June..that is my goal..

It is the best feeling to see your kid go from non-athlete to athlete in 6 months!

I run faster with music..that is all there is to it..

I love my life! Soreness and all!

Chillin' in Chama..

2009-04-25T13:22:00.012-06:00

The view from our deck, where we took off to run this AM:

This is me in my very special "Dollar Store" cabin outfit. Sexy, huh?

These are the Brazos Cliffs..another view from our place..

Hartley and Mocha's favorite place to be on a typical Chama afternoon:

As we enjoy our first of a couple of days of "R&R" or whatever you call it when you are retired and want to get away from "it all"..

A few things have changed:

1. Chucky is gone! Oh thank you God for that!

2. The firehouse that exploded last year has been completely rebuilt.

3. The Chama store that collapsed from the snow last year is also rebuilt (last year not a good year for this area).

4. Our 14 year old beloved Mocha can no longer get up the stairs by herself. She can only occasionally jump up on the couch, where she sleeps up here. Yesterday, H carried her up the stairs to the main floor, put her down and she promptly fell and didn't look like she was going to get up. She falls from time to time now, just out of the blue. So H & I were having the talk that neither one of us wants to talk about-Mocha's last trip to the vet.. and all. Of course we got up this morning and not only was she able to get off the couch to go pee on the floor, she also managed to jump back up on the couch. Then she was jumping around like a puppy after we got up as if to say nope, not ready for that trip to the vet yet! I am ready for my walk now!

We took a run this AM up the road. I felt like I had rocket fuel in my shoes today. Somehow all this speed work I have been doing is making me faster. How about that! It is only a little faster but I feel stronger than ever these days, with the extra 10 lbs-must be muscle-(right)!

I am in search for what to do to train for IMWA. I have choices of course:
A. Self training with Beginner Triathlete IM program.
B. Use Mark Allen Online program without the one on one coaching part.
C. Ironguides..a new training plan I found online that emphasizes I think more higher intensity workouts. Hard to tell until you actually purchase the program which is already suspect to me..

I seem to be in charge of the decision although of course H has input. He thinks the Ironguide thing sounds a bit gimmicky. Also he has a tendency to get hurt with speed work so is not particularly in favor of that. Mark Allen training is great for us older athletes but in reality I will probably never get faster at IM distance with that plan. So do we go the safer route and stick with MAO? Or take a risk and try a new way to train for IMWA...choices, choices..

We will meet with Coach Eric next week, who will be taking us down the stretch to Buffalo Springs Lake half IM at the end of June...then July we will start Ironman training for IMWA. H is busy this weekend researching the rest of our 2 month adventure down under. I can't wait!

Sometimes when I am up here, I think I could just chuck city living and live up here. This is one of those times. So quiet, so simple..not much happening here at all..we are 15 miles from Chama itself, which is a town of say 500 people? Much different living up here. But..then I think what about our friends, our kids and grandkids? How we we see them as much.

It is not as if I cannot have all the alone time I want at home. It just feels different up here..All Walden's Pond or something. I remember reading that book and envying the guy in the book. Solitude was his friend!

Chances are slim we will be Chama-ites any time soon. I love my tri-biking with friends every weekend too much. Wednesday rides with bike friends. I love Starbucks and Albertsons too much. And then there is Kohls. There is not even a Walmart up here!

Funniest Facebook story ever..

2009-04-20T10:02:00.004-06:00

I have to tell this story..

Dread Pirate, Mark and I went running the other day for 2 hours. Or shall we say we started running and ended running together.

Mark-first running 8-9 min/mile

DP-next running 9-10 min/mile

Me-last running 11-12 min/mile

We met up every now and then as the route we took had us crossing paths every once in awhile. At one point DP hands me her IPOD earphones and says Listen to this-a funny song.. I proceed to hear a rap song for a bit, called "I'm in Miami Bitch". We laughed about said song and the BAD lyrics..should moms be listening to these words? OK, but NEVER tell the children..

So the next day, I think it is funny when I see a card on Facebook that says this:

After receiving my card, DP writes on FB: I'm in Miami bitch!
You know, playing on the words of the song.

Along comes an unsuspecting acquaintance that we ride with occasionally, sees this post and says:
I hope the weather there is nice. My wife and I were in Panama Beach a week ago and it was frigid.
I read this with horror..Oh no, he thinks we actually call each other "Bitch"
I am laughing out loud now even thinking about this..

I email DP and she is laughing too and posts this:

Just to separate us from those bitches who actually call each other that!

My world continues to change...

2009-04-17T11:21:00.003-06:00

Yep-it is snowing here in the "Q" after Easter..The heater is on..

Been a long time since I remember this late of a "winter"

Of course this is directly related to the fact I planted ALOT of flowers this past week..I fancy myself to be a gardener right now.

Today is Lane, my grand-daughter's 5th birthday. I was there when she entered the world, or a few minutes afterwards anyway. She is such a joy, words cannot describe. I called her this morning and she told me she really wanted to turn 5! She is hilarious...

This week I connected with my Coach and we are on for a 8 week program probably starting in May..This will give me a chance to improve, well everything in time for Buffalo Springs. There are now TEN women in my AG. I really don't care anymore..they all just keep aging up so it is impossible to win by attrition anymore!

Weight issues abound this week. Without elaborating, I have decided:

1. It is not rational...never has been about weight..
2. As Dr. Phil says, I would not be so concerned what people think of me if I realized how little they do.
3. With age comes pounds..there is pretty much nothing you can do about that except starve yourself, which I will not be doing..
4. Obsessing about weight is a very selfish, self-centered thing to do..
5. It is all about control and keeping things the same.."Nothing's Going to Change my World" I feel a Beatle's song coming on..
6. No one really knows how to treat someone who has an eating disorder. It is "multifaceted" and has many layers, is on a spectrum.
7. I have a mild case, although have been pretty bad at some points of my life. I will never probably go back there.
8. There are probably folks in this world who do not give a crap about their weight..ever..

Ok, 'nuff said..today..

I give up..

2009-04-12T21:04:00.003-06:00

I think I need a coach now..I am feeling less motivated this week so took 3 days off..Biked today in the rain to start out with, then just cold and actually not so bad for 30 miles. Now I do not know if my lack of motivation has to do with the weather but it SUCKS lately here in the "Q". I have not even donned my bike shorts here yet and it is Easter..Easter folks! Also the big "A" that has hit us all (allergies) with a vengeance this year...WTF?

I have a running race in 3 weeks and a half Ironman triathlon in 11 weeks. I feel like I am falling behind because basically I am following my own training plan and guidance..Is this a good idea? I sense not. Because now H is following me too and I may be leading us down the wrong path altogether. We are loosely following Beginner Triathlete's plans for the half marathon and half IM. I just do not feel the same about race season this year. Maybe it is because the big one is so far away...I have no heart in Sprints this year and I know they are good for me to practice..

H pulled a calf muscle this week again..poor thing has this weakness in his legs that just seems to put up a fuss when he trains alot (imagine that!). Soooo he is out for running for awhile which makes it even more difficult to get my engine going...

Yes Coach Eric will be hearing from me soon..I just do not trust myself after all these years..

Today is Easter. I miss my kids..remembering when they were really small and we use to dye Easter eggs and hide them. This seems like another life ago and now they are having traditions with their own families..I even remember the family of origin and back in the day when my parents thought it was a good idea to dress us all up in matching dresses (5 girls) on Easter Sunday. Now that is just a little weird..no wonder I question my autonomy..

A short bitch about the weather..

2009-04-08T08:03:00.002-06:00

And we, the supposed lucky people who live in the "Land of Enchantment" have this to train in the next few days:

TodayApr 8
Partly Cloudy / Wind
75°42°
10%
10%
FriApr 10
Partly Cloudy
71°45°
0%
0%
SatApr 11
Showers
55°38°
40%
SunApr 12
Showers / Wind
63°39°
40%
40%

Not to mention the allergy count is off the charts..
I am so spoiled...

Tour de Phoenix..

2009-04-06T08:23:00.003-06:00

This is it. It says 72 miles on my Garmin and 74 miles on the medal. I will take the medal!

The last few miles were uphill as shown on the profile. It was a bit tough but nothing worse than what we ride here.

Here are our friends we stayed with:

We actually stayed with Chris' sister in law in Mesa-very generous Margie, who opened her home to total strangers..

This is us at 5:00 AM getting our dose of caffeine before we joined 950 of our new best friends on the tour.

I was not really in it to "race" but felt compelled once we were out there to give it a valiant effort.

We ended up showing a 4:45 time, although 20 min. of that were at rest stops..and it took us 3 min. or so to get to the starting line..People seemed very serious at this ride. I tried to chit-chat with a few cyclists, but was met with very little return conversation. We drafted Chris for awhile (on his fixie of course) but alas he drifted away from us when my HR started getting into the 150s. My favorite line from the day was when Chris said "Thank you" to an officer who was stopping traffic for us at an intersection and a woman at the corner (without skipping a beat) said "F&*k you-I have to get to work!" Lovely..

The course was well supported buy local law enforcement at every intersection. The nutrition was a bit lame at the rest stops (bananas and oranges)..But all in all a great time.

Yesterday we had a 2 hr. 15 min. run to do before we hit the road. I could only do about 8 miles and that was run/walking. Had terrible RTs, allergies that made the ones here in the "Q" look like child's play..I was not a happy camper. We hit the Indian Restaurant when we got home last night which made things so much brighter! We got to see Avery, Heidi and Jack when we arrived home...

I still feel fat and have to cut back again on the hormones. Very discouraged about the whole thing really!

The Details to Follow..

2009-04-02T07:40:00.004-06:00

I honestly don't remember how this got started now..Seems we were looking at Ironman Races overseas, then there is the Milford Trek in New Zealand being planned for next March. Then we saw that there were only 1,000 people or so in the race and the idea was hatched...Hey why don't we do Ironman Western Australia? We make numbers 101 & 102 that have signed up for the race. Say what? There is one other woman in my AG who is from Hawaii (there goes my Kona slot!)..The course looks fairly "easy" although winds can be a factor. Wind, shmind, we have that one down pat! In my ever growing enthusiasm about the race, when they asked me what my estimated swim time was, I said 1:10...and overall estimated time 14:00 hrs! What was I smokin' last night?

View Larger Map

Of course this means we can't join all our local Ironman buddies at IMSG in Utah in May. Not as athletes anyway. However we are on board to sherpa and be volunteers at that race to cheer our peeps on..I feel a little sad about this and even entertained the idea of doing both but since we want to travel for 2 months after the Aussie competition, this is not practical..I have to admit even I have limits. Doing two IMs last year was a bit daunting and taxing on the 'ole body, I must admit..We can still train with our buds when we get back, yet stay inside on the COLD, WINDY days like we had the last week...

So much planning to do. I am in talk with a triathlon travel agency, although things seem a bit laid back over there. When I asked how we could get our bike sent back from Busselton (blogspot spellcheck does not recognize Busselton..hmmm) while we travel after the race, the person responded, you can just wait until you get over there and see...Hmmmm..may be time to research another travel company..I think things roll a bit different down under..

We are massively excited about this adventure. This is our dream.. to travel endlessly like really retired people...Now that the Internet will keep us relatively on the pulse of what is happening at home..it is more of a reality to do.

So now we have a half IM in June, half IM in November and Busselton in December..gulp..

Oh yes we did!

2009-04-01T19:25:00.004-06:00

It is official..
We have lost our minds..

Details to follow!

Deep Thursday thoughts that have nothing to do with Triathlon.

2009-03-26T12:13:00.006-06:00

Today is like many others that drift by..I get up, eat breakfast, get on the computer, go to the dentist (not normally), go to the gym for a swim, back on Facebook, going to eat lunch, get my waxing done at the local beauty salon, come home-watch Oprah, eat dinner, watch some more TV, then bed. Does this sound like a boring life? I am not tired of it at all yet. I still feel some days the giddiness of being on vacation or something. Like I am waiting for the Work Police to call and tell me it is time to go back to work..I still feel guilty most days for not accomplishing something, a task like laundry or calling the yard guy or not calling a friend. Anything my computer file in my brain can drum up to make me feel just bad enough not to enjoy the whole thing totally!

Daily guilt... it is very unlikely that this habit will die off easily. To live a guilt free life. What would that be like? To not feel guilty for some error in parenting that is now effecting a 3rd generation..I did that..to my kid...now this other kid is paying! Oh, and the endless guilt of never doing enough, being enough, working hard enough..retirement makes me feel guilty when I see my friends and family working so hard. I know intellectually I have paid my dues but emotionally, is it ever going to be enough? Oh and even more important, do I deserve this? I have spent many a year soul searching in therapy, I am not afraid to admit it..But somehow I have never accepted it all. That I am really a great person who deserves it all!

Now I can see this for others. They deserve the very best-why not? That made me a competent therapist-I believe the best in most everyone..Why not the best for me? Remembrances of family messages about being too conceited, or not being worthy come to mind. Deep inside the recesses of my psyche these messages abide. Will they ever be really gone? Probably not...this amazes me!

(OK, H just said this sounds really depressing..I am not depressed folks, it is just a feeling I am expressing today. I really do love myself..these are just feelings and thoughts of the day).
:)

The four words I never thought I would say..

2009-03-21T14:23:00.004-06:00

I love to run!

I use to envy people who said they loved to run. I thought they were either just gifted in running or lying..But today, as I began my 2 hr. 15 min. run, I thought: Man I love this! It just happened when I least expected it..Not only did I enjoy my run but I actually thought I was in heaven running in south Denver. Here in Denver it is like the Rolls Royce of running/biking venues..Bathrooms every mile, trails that go FOREVER, places to buy water and food everywhere..And now, several hours and 11.4 miles later, I feel like a million bucks! Maybe 8 years of training really does get you better with time!

Really no downside except today..was a high..uh hem.."bathroom day" as I call them. This is when my bowels go into overdrive and if I do not find a potty like right now! there is trouble..Some call these "runner's trots" I call them "shits from hell". It only happens on long runs and seems to be clearly related to the previous day's diet. So maybe the chocolate cake with cream cheese filling and frosting really wasn't good for me?

It is all Becca's fault..She is in a dessert mode and how can I refuse to join her? No more complaining about muffin top waists or weight gain here..

Oh and the baby..well here she is..'Nuff said:

Too Neurotic for the big time..

2009-03-19T08:51:00.004-06:00

I am feeling torn...when we found out the Amazing Race is doing auditions in ABQ on Saturday and Sunday, Team Wess was briefly ready to go try out. Except for a few little details:

1. I will not be in ABQ this weekend as I am visiting B,D and baby Hadley in Denver. This is changeable but I really would rather spend time with the baby!

2. Both of us are afraid of heights. REALLY afraid! So which one of us could do the 1000 ft. bungee jumping?

3. I am a nervous, neurotic traveler, even on my best days. Add jet lag, lack of sleep and lack of food and I could be a raging bitch on national TV.

So I really want this? The idea of being on the Amazing Race and possibly winning $1,000,000 sounds good in theory but do not think I could actually do it in reality..I think the neurosis would win over the $$...

So on a brighter note, I guess I missed the garage break in last night here at B&D's house. So glad I was not in charge of hearing the doorbell at 2:00 AM, when the cops came to the door to alert them that; not only was the garage open but a car door was ajar..B&D's Tom-Tom was stolen and a stack of homemade CDs (big market for that I guess) but not the nice bikes or tools. Go figure, and thank God B&D keep their door to the inside locked. Apparently the garage door inadvertently got opened last night (not by me-menopausal mom, I am 100% sure)..

D is away for 2 nites so B and I are left to fend off any would be thieves on our own tonite..I am not worried really plus we will have the cops do a driveby for the next couple of nights..

B & I are doing a run with the baby this afternoon. I will test my Bob-stroller skills. B is training for a 10k.

Hadley is adorable of course. She may not make the clone list though. I think she may have more than a hint of dad in her which completely breaks the clone chain..

In the meantime all my crazy friends are stampeding to sign up for IM St. George in Utah. My immediate thought is how the hell cold is the water in May up there? Anyway our plans for down under are taking our attention away from local IM races...otherwise I would probably succumb to peer pressure as usual..it is rather close on the IM scale! I am sure it will fill up within a couple of days. I finally posted on an Australian triathlon board (thanks to LBTEPA, who is a relative "neighbor" to Busselton). There are only about 70 peeps registered and I was beginning to get concerned-would there even be an IMWA? Well apparently down under they are not as crazy and obsessed as we North Americans are because most register in Sept or October, for a December race! Imagine that! They have never even have had a cutoff for the race there, last year only 1000 people were there. Wow! This laid back approach is very appealing to me and maybe no one else will be in the old lady age group..now that is an interesting thought! There were TEN women in my AG last December so I doubt if that is a possibility..but who knows?

I am here until Monday. The weather in Colorado is outstanding-highs in the 70s..
Rocky Mountain High!

I left Debbie Downer home today..

2009-03-15T14:40:00.005-06:00

OK, I don't feel so much like a loser this week on the bike...we just got back from a 49 mile bike ride and I kept up! Averaged 17.3 MPH!! I guess the Wired Drink I drank this AM after a few weeks off coffee helped..did I mentioned I had alot of energy? It was the good kind though. We even rode in a paceline for about 8 miles of the ride. That was fun. Made the fast ones slow up a bit and the slow ones (ex: me) speed up a bit..

I have hope again, even if it is due to caffeine. H & I ran 9 miles yesterday..well we won't talk about how long that took..I look at quality, not time-that is completely bullshit!

Next race the OC Half Marathon on May 3rd, then our local Jay Benson sprint triathlon on May 10th. Leading up to the Buffalo Springs Lake half IM on June 28th..

I leave for Denver on Wednesday to see the BABY!! Yay!

A Day of Me again..

2009-03-14T09:51:00.002-06:00

There were a few years in there post mom dying, midlife depressive, perimenopausal days where I was pretty much stuck on the couch in a fetal position for many days..That was several years ago..I had few close friends except party buddies and acquaintances but for the most part I was one sad puppy..that's OK-that is just where I was.

Fast forward many therapy sessions later, Master's education in Counseling, grief work pretty much completed and I got to have a day like yesterday! H & I playfully saying We have friends! Like it is something new, something to be treasured -because at the end of the day, friends and family are all that really count.

Spa day with Dread Pirate, Iron Geekgirl and Cindy was the BEST! We laughed, talked, Spa-ed and ate our way through the day..nary a care in the world. These are all women who are middle-aged, I being the oldest. We have triathlon, raising kids, having husbands in common. All of it appeared in my day yesterday..I look back and wonder who was that depressed woman who didn't even want to leave my house most days, much less hang out with my people, my women friends? I felt comfortable, at home at Girls' Day Out yesterday. Just like my old self, back in the days of High School, when my friends were everything to me..

There is hope for me forever now. I never again have to stay in that place again. That dark, depressive state of being.. Welcome to the land of friends and life and happy days again!