Pick your Poison..

So would you rather be dealing with this?:

Hurricane Dean

Or this?:

Earthquake

during travel on vacation? Seems that is what we may

be facing if we go. Now I am a neurotic traveler as mentioned before..but never had

to face the possibility of aftershocks of an earthquake before. Not to mention we

are planning on flying through Houston, which may be on the path of Dean

say oh about Friday (day we are planning to leave next week.).The

earthquake hit about 100 miles away from the epicenter from where we are going,

Cuzco. Apparently there is no damage there and business as usual hiking the Inca

Trail. I am still a bit nervous about the aftershocks they keep getting. The poor

people of Peru, which is third world anyway..I have mixed emotions about this trip.

Part of me feels guilty going and hiking near a place that has such suffering near

by-maybe we should be HELPING instead of vacationing. Then I read on one board that

the best we can do is support tourism because that is much of the country's income.

Then there is the hurricane.Last time I flew out from Houston, I experienced the

worst turbulence ever during storm over Texas. Storms+Texas=BAD! I have been stuck

in Dallas before-weather related. Anyways, i could go on and on. i need to choose

either to look at this positively and GO or decide to bail. Hartley and I were on

the side of bailing last night but today the news seems brighter.....If

it were up to my mother in law or daughter we would NOT go! The others in our group

seem un-concerned..Guess we will wait and see. In the meantime there is still all

this unpacked stuff on my floor, feeding my anxiety..

OK, it must be true..

The lighter you are, the faster. I am on the scales this AM and I couldn't believe my eyes. I have lost 4 out of the 7 lbs I want to lose in 4 weeks. I lost a total of 1 and 1/2 inch around my waist-you know-those "love handles" (some overweight person made that up I am sure).. I haven't weighed my fighting weight for 3 years..

SO-I have to give the credit to my new coach, Josh Hillis for the weight loss.I bought his book, the "Stubborn Seven Pounds" and the weight lifting, changing diet thing is working. Who knew that 3 egg whites in my oatmeal and eating all the beef i wanted would make for losing weight? Anyway, I am also taking "Purity Perfect Multivitamins" which is the first multivitamin I can stomach (literally).

So enough about me: I am packing for this hiking trip to Peru, surrounded by clothes, hiking stuff-it is all over my room. I have a secret phobia (amongst my many neurosis)-packing for a trip. Every time I think of packing it up, I feel anxiety. I feel completely overwhelmed..Not sure why. I think i am deeply afraid of forgetting some important object like a bar of soap, or drugs for diarrhea or the perfect hiking clothing. I believe H and I fixed that by going to Sportz Outdoors and spending $400 on their "sale" this week. Geez-do NOT go into that store. The "I have to have that" Debi creeped in again. I have been trying to keep her in check for awhile now. Oh well-i have some really cute hiking attire..i am sure the Peruvians will be impressed!

Training notes: H & I did a marathon workout yesterday-track workout, swim workout, Josh workout in the gym. My legs are tired-we will do a nice ride on the Bosque this morning then I get a massage from Juan, the torture man this afternoon. My how i have missed being prodded and poked to death!
On to my day..

Addendum to race report..

Total time: 1:21:38

Swim 5:24
T1- 0 :50 secs
bike 42.42
T2 - 0 :24 secs (better than i thought)
Run 32:20 (this is where I need the work!)

It FINALLY all came together..

I had my best race of the season today in Socorro at the Chile Harvest Sprint. Maybe it is because it was calamity free this time! No taking Hartley's bike out of T-1 by mistake, no falls on the bike, no flats..Amazing! H & I practiced transitions yesterday during which a very loud screech was coming from my breaks or somewhere in the rear of my bike. Well, I think I am a mechanic because I can change a tire AND put the white goop in it myself. This problem called for an EXPERT! So i called Mark, my personal bike guru friend extraordinaire. He gave me some good suggestions. I proceeded to try another swift transition with the shoes on the bike thing and promptly fell and road rash/bruised my hip and elbow. Oh well, my body is getting use to it. After fiddling with the bike some more, Hartley (who knows as much as I do but is a MAN and they have fix it genes) fixed/adjusted something in the back and all sounds went away and bike running smoothly. At this point, I told H that I really did not want to race the next day. i was tired, hadn't slept well and unmotivated. Well, we ended up going-left at 5:00 this AM for the short hour ride to Socorro. The swim was held in a 25 yd pool and they have a time trial start. The swim was cut to 300 yds, which doesn't really help me cause that is my best leg! I started near the front. My friend Mark, who so readily helped me the night before with the bike noise passed me-I think it was his evil competitive twin-I said "bastard" to him jokingly as he passed. He thought I said "faster" so wasn't offended at all and proceeded to kick my ass. I had a pretty good swim-I don't have exact times but around 5:45. T-1 is where I finally got it together and the shoes on bike, jumping on and sliding feet in thingy worked-I think I had a 40 second T-1. The bike was kind of hilly up the first 6 miles then downhill. I felt slow, saw my competition behind me but she was seeded later so who knows where we were in relationship to each other in reality. My goal was to NOT let that gal pass me, no matter what (she always does on the bike or run). I know this was only psychological but it worked. I think my bike time was around 41 min. T-2-another fast one for me-50 seconds. i figure what I lose on the run, I can make up on good transitions if they go right and I grab the right bike! The run was a very HOT out and back. I don't wear a watch, could have sworn I was doing a 9 min/mile pace but alas ended up either A.the run course was longer than advertised or B. I really did have a 32 min time. I think my overall time was 1:21 and my opponent never caught me but beat me by TWO minutes. I am closing the gap! Then she informed me she is aging up next year-bummer! Oh well, I am sure there are some 49 year olds just waiting to age up and kick my butt.

I got 2nd place-yes I did beat one gal (the one on the mountain bike that beat me in Farmington race from hell). hartley got 1st AGAIN! He looks about 20 years younger than the guys he beats-they probly all think he is cheating.

Was great to see all the Outlaws there. i love the comeraderie. Oh and I won a little Camelbak for biking in the door prizes. Great win!

We all went to the Socorro brewry and pigged out afterwards. That was the best part!

So here is the secret to a good race:

1. get beat up the day before while practicing

2. Not give a sh&^t if you even make it through the race.

3. Pretend that your main competition is about to pass you any minute, even if it doesn't make any sense.

4. Now this is my husband's explanation of my faster time-he says it is because now that I have lost 5 lbs that I am faster. Actually he said since I wasn't "lugging" that extra weight around, my times are getting better. Now you can imagine how the "lugging" comment went over. I told him never to use the words "chunky" "lugging" or "extra weight around your waist" or anything basically about my weight except, "My honey, you look like you have lost weight! So thin!" These are words of wisdom to any man who thinks it is a good idea to describe your wife's body in any of those unflattering terms. OK-I am a bit sensitive about this!

We ended up having a good laugh about it as i tried to grab his love handles while he was driving..

Up again at the crack of dawn in the AM to hike up the mountain with friends-more training for Peru. I swear-we have the greatest life and are so blessed!

No more racing until the end of September-YEA!

Hiking in Colorado..

So here are some pics we took from our hike yesterday in Colorado-not 20 miles from our cabin. After 10 years, we never knew this lake existed! It was a beautiful day and we got a good training hike in for Peru (Inca Trail hike).

The cabin looks alot better than the last time we were here. Post flood, it looks like all the work is done. We have new flooring, new carpet downstairs, new well pump. Now all we need is a new dishwasher (frozen water broke it-10 years old anyway), new heater, new washer and dryer (old). We are sure hoping insurance company will pay for alot of this. It went down like this: the heater broke, the well pipe froze, the well pump kept trying to pump and it burned out. In the meantime, the frozen pipe caused the inside pipe to burst and poof!-you have a flood! At any rate, the heating guy said we were "lucky" nothing worse happened. ??? Well, I the cabin could have burned down I guess! So the water is back, the heater will be replaced before the winter and we will have new appliances..Not all bad.. Anyway the hike was peaceful and calming..