Winter wonderland..

We arrived at our place in Chama yesterday to find no less than 2 feet of snow here. The folks on the road below plow up to a certain point on the road. Since we did not have anyone plow the last .2 miles or so, we got to trudge in the rest by snowshoe. Now H and I had snowshoes but Mocha did not. She is a 50 lb, 13 and 1/2 y.o. dog and this was quite a challenge for her. I had tears in my eyes as I watched her struggle even to leap through our snowshoe tracks! I take back all the bad things I said about my poor dog when she pee-ed on our carpet a kitchen at least 10 times this month at home..So there we are, really struggling up the hill (by now it was Mocha and I struggling in the snow). H was way ahead of us. I fell, of course...had no poles to get me up. I mean this snow is so deep that every time I tried to put my hand down to push myself up, my arm sank up to my shoulder . Here comes poor old Mocha hauling her poor little body up behind me and when I fell she just sat beside me and waited until what seemed like forever when H got back to me and pulled me up. What a great dog she is..Needless to say, she slept the rest of the day and night and wolfed her dinner down!

Here is the trail we made on our way up to the cabin.

















Here is Mocha..See she survived!







It is so pretty here and no Chucky here this year, thank goodness. The peacefulness of this place is almost palpable. Our bed is so comfy here, I never want to get up! However the plan is to run 45 min. today and snowshoe "run" tomorrow to prepare for this at the end of the month. After my little escapade yesterday, it is clear to me that poles will be imperative for the "race". I think the race track in plowed though so it should be easier..

We did hill repeats yesterday, before the snowshoe "workout" I may have passed on a couple of those repeats had I known what was ahead.

Meanwhile at home, we are having our carpets and ceramic tiles deeply cleaned at the old homestead in ABQ. When we get back the whole house, including sinks and toilets will be scrubbed and spotless. AHhhhhhhh...heaven..

It is a new year!

There are several reasons I haven't blogged for awhile:

1. Family here for 17 days over the holidays. I had a GREAT time with all the kids and grand kids. There is almost nothing better!

2. I got these annoying acrylic nails on to stop my compulsive nail biting habit. But they are about to come off because the nails are so annoying when trying to type.I may try the shorter version first.

3. I have been very busy playing with my new toys. The Neuros OSD
which is suppose to easily digitalized all my old home movies only I didn't realize it doesn't actually store the movies, you have to do that on a external drive. All of this is way more technical than I wanted it to be but I am trying to make it all work. The only problem is there is a annoying counter on the VCR tape that is showing when I playback and of course we can't find the old remote..blah...blah..blah..I'll get it done one of these days so we can remember what the kids & we were doing years ago..

Second toy is the Neat Receipt which is the coolest thing ever!! Goodbye mountains of paper receipts that I keep forever "just in case" . You just run the receipt through the mobile scanner, put it in a file on the software, shred the evidence and voila!..you have no paper..As a major Virgo organized, but menopausal neat freak, this is like manna from heaven.

Third toy is the Flip Video H got me for our anniversary..I love it although I didn't realize this version is not HD so will be returning it to Costco and getting the HD version soon.

Becca and Dan got us the updated version of the "digital frame" It is wireless and somehow magically (I still can't figure this one out) gets my pics from Kodak Gallery online and displays them in this. Can they build a better mousetrap than this? I can now look at at least 400 pictures while working in the kitchen..Very cool indeed! This is the simplest mechanical toy I received. Thank you Becca and Dan!!

OK so now I have room to breathe and write and train again. I have felt so good training since our month off. Wow! What a difference...and no 2 Ironmans hanging over my head this year-I am free!! I loved doing what I did last year but it did take a toll on the ole' 54 year old body. Hey I age up this year! Yay!!

My totals for 2008 were:

Bike: 4317 miles
Run: 809 miles
Swim: 229,146yds

I look at this and think I did that? Well, when you don't work it is pretty easy actually! This year will be a more balanced life for H & I. I want to see those grandkids more!

I am back on track training for the OC marathon in May. This will be the first in our rather sparse racing schedule this year. I feel rejuvenated, rested and ready to get back to running and biking. Well I have only biked outside once since IMAZ but it is a start! I was grumpy that day as the wind was suppose to be blowing 5 MPH and of course in was 20 MPH! Swimming..now that is one thing I need a kick in the pants to get back on track. I feel a little lost without any coaching. I am using a Marathon program from Beginner Triathlete, then adding our own bike and swims to get a base for the half IM in June. We ran yesterday in 25 degrees and wind of course. It really wasn't so bad...I felt like I could have run longer than our 90 minutes.

That is it in a nutshell. My goals for 2009 are simple. Enjoy my life, stay healthy and be positive! This is a pretty great life we have and I will breathe in all I can while I can..

Update and looking ahead...

As we wrap up 2008, we are already plotting our 2009 "challenges". I am already signed up for "Beach to Battleship" half IM in November. H is threatening to change to the full IM but I will NOT be joining him in this endeavor. Two in one year will carry me for awhile..We are also signed up for Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 in June. I just looked and there are only 5 women so far in my new age group!! Now if I could only learn to go faster to place! I may be looking to Eric to help me with this. He has proven to be a great coach in the swimming Dept. so maybe will hire him again...I don't know how serious I want to be about racing this year. The only reason I may want to try and go faster is because now I am racing in my new...ahem..age group-women 55-59 since my 55th birthday is next year..I am seeing that the numbers drop off the older we women get probably because most women see that there is more to life at this age than trying to relive our childhood dreams of winning a damn race but alas I do not think I am there yet. Still in high school trying to win that 100 yard swim!

H seems to have too much time on his hands even with the 4 year old running around because he has come up with 2 more events for us. One is the O.C. Marathon-well actually I picked that one because it had more appeal than the "Shiprock Marathon" in the desert. And little Lane lives less than 15 miles from Newport Beach, where the marathon is being held. Sea level too..ok maybe I will be doing that. Then last night as he was surfing the internet, of course he found a century ride in Lake Tahoe for us to do in June, a couple of weeks before BSLT. Will someone please give this man a job? I am worn out already! Not really, I am sure I will "have fun"at all these events. Then throw in Jay Benson sprint triathlon in May and Socorro in August and there we go...I am looking forward to doing less racing, more retirement this year. With 3 grand daughters to see now, I am counting on seeing those little ones more.

My body seems to be fully recovered from IMAZ. I am so glad I took a whole month off! My running, though short distances (5 miles the other day) seems to be easy. Back to weights... Allison being here has been helpful in getting me back on track. We are going to the gym frequently while she is here and taken 2 spin classes-her first!

I have been on track with my eating for the most part. Well except for for the "sugar free" white cakes we polished off... Now there is an oxymoron.."sugar free cake"!! I haven't checked my weight recently but clothes still fit..

Sluggish re-entry..

Geez-finally I am blogging again. After getting back from Mexico, guess I have been on strike from training and blogging. Well, this past Monday, I finally got back on the horse and ran outside 3 whole miles with my daughter Allison, who promptly kicked my ass. She has been running a whole 6 months and already running 9min/miles but afraid she couldn't keep up in a running club. I assured her that I am a turtle in my triathlon club and certainly if she can whip her old mom's ass, she will be good to go in a running club in Long Beach. I see a little budding (26 year old) triathlete in her of course. Just the biking and swimming to go. Something really nice about seeing your kids get into sports as adults. I feel like the role modeling of good behaviors may outweigh the bad after all!

We have Lane, our little 4 yr. old granddaughter here for 2 weeks. The innocence of a preschooler is just too cute for words.


Here she is writing a letter to Santa. So adorable. We played with playdough this AM and I am now fully engaged in "Hannah Montana" and know the theme song quite well...

Lane is such a girl..




A bundle of energy, Lane is keeping Grandma and Grandpa on our toes!
We had our other daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter here on Sunday, Heather was here last night when we opened presents. Becca, Dan and baby will be here next Wednesday-yay! We have an overabundance of love this holiday season. Dinner later today with Nana Bea, where H will make a turkey and we will all eat bad sugar foods again.

I know I will be back in full force training after January 1st. For now I am doing what I feel like doing, which so far includes a spin class, 2 runs and a weight workout. Amazing how weak and sore I feel after taking 4 weeks off post Ironman!

I will get my writing muscles back again soon. I feel like my creative blogging juices are gone for now and that is OK...Looks like snow is coming to ABQ today..Will be a lazy day here in Grandma and Grandpa land. We are now on our 4th time watching the "Barbie Diamond Castle" movie...It's pretty bad really, but Lane loves it..over..and over...

A Mexican vacation in short..

A quick post from beautiful Cancun, Mexico where we roughed it for a few days of cloudy weather but managed some great sun time the last couple of days. It has been nothing but rest, eat lay on the beach, by the pool and rest and eat some more. No training whatsoever unless we count the 2 mile walk on the beach yesterday which only got aerobic at the end when I had to walk fast to get to a bathroom. I am sure I have gained 5 lbs already but don't care at this point. One highlight is that I did not have to spend 2 days going to the dentist this year. A real improvement from last year!

Back to real life tomorrow as we travel back to the States and Christmas begins..

Back to training soon enough!!

Life is unbelievably good..