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..

Fascinating Facts About ME!!

I was tagged by GeekGirl-

Things about me, me, me:

Jobs I’ve Held pre-college: Lifeguard and swim teacher, selling donuts from a donut truck, lifeguard and maid at ski resort.

During College: Waitress at IHOP and Village Inn (love those pancakes)

After College: Licensed Practical Nurse at a hospital, RN at cardiac unit at hospital, RN working as hospital nurse for New Mexico Heart Clinic, Legal assistant, book-keeper for my husband;s law practice (CFO), Mental Health Counselor in private practice.

Movies I Can Watch Over & Over:
Camelot
Meet the Parents
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The King and I
When Harry Met Sally
Shrek
The Wizard of Oz

My Guilty Pleasures:
Chocolate cake, chocolate anything
Shopping online
Facials
Staying in Bed all day for no reason
Watching hours of "stupid TV"

Places I Have Lived (in order):
Bakersfield, CA
Los Angeles, Ca
Findlay, Ohio
Anchorage, Alaska
Girdwood, Alaska
Columbus, Ohio
Albuquerque, NM

Shows I Enjoy:
American Idol
Big Brother
Grey's Anatomy
CNN-Larry King
Survivor
24
Lost

Places I Have Been on Vacation:
Many States in the US including Hawaii
Many places in the Caribbean-Curacao, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Tobago, Jamaica,
Costa Rica
Fiji, Australia,
Mexico-Cancun, Ixtapa, San Jose, Cozumel
Chile
Palau
Spain

Favorite Foods:
Pizza
Chocolate Cake
Ice Cream
Indian

Websites I Visit Daily:
Google
Excite
Lots of Blogs
Outlawstriathlon.com
Myfamily.com

Awards I’ve Won:
Swim team awards when I was 8-16 years old
Voted class wittiest in junior high school
Some first, second, thirds in triathlon in last 6 years

Body Parts I Have Injured:
Knocked my 2 front teeth to the back of my mouth when I was a kid-they were pulled
Sliced my hand on a dog can lid when a kid-stitches
Fell down the stairs in my partying days and had stitches in my arm

Nicknames You’ve Been Called:
Bucky Beaver, Stits with big t#%^ts, Deb, Debs, Deebra, Big Debi, Ironmaiden, Maiden, Debster

Now, I guess I get to tag 5 more people:

Becca -she LOVES this stuff

Allison-if she checks her blog

Cody-cause he has time-ha!

Vickie -curious

Val-she's my bud..

Why did God make rattlesnakes..

Sometimes I ponder this question about certain creatures. The ones that hurt and prey on people or dogs. What is it's purpose on the planet other than scare the crap out of us? They even made a movie about this "Snakes on a Plane". Even the title creeps me out..

The other day I hiked with a man and a dog who had been bitten by a rattlesnake in the past. The dog was bit last weekend on La Luz trail. The man was bitten several years ago in California while hiking (great)..the man was able to tell me more about his story than the dog. He stepped on a rattler by accident of course and was bitten not once but TWICE in the leg. He managed to hike out 12 miles to help. He didn't die only because part of the hike back was in a stream and I guess the cold water kept the venom from spreading. (Note to self: If bit by a rattler find a STREAM to hike back in.). He got the anti venom and has no residual from it although some people do-the ones who live to tell about it. I decided then it was REALLY not a good idea to bushwhack (go where hiking trails are not).

The dog just was being a dog and got bit. After a nightmare experience at the 24 hour vet clinic up on Montgomery, my friend got her dog and she lived too. She looked pretty darn perky the other day so don't think she had any residual left either.

I have had limited encounters with rattlesnakes. One was a couple of years ago on the trail i walk my dog on near my house. I saw him near the path-I think he was dead but since I walked about 2 miles around it with my dog, I never could tell. Days later, it did appear someone had cut it in half (I guess one half can live or grow?). The other time I was on a a "Vision Quest" 2 years ago at Canyon De Chelly in Arizona with a medicine woman and some student and teachers from my grad school. The picture above is him or her. We were told there were no snakes in this particular side canyon..then I almost stepped on HIM! Of course being a Vision Quest and all, I was told snakes are a sign of change or transition. I didn't buy that too much. All I knew is now I had signed up to go out by myself for 4 days without food in order to experience some kind of clarity in the wilderness. This seemed like a good idea until I saw HIM (picture above). I was scared out of my mind. We did a few days preparation together then I did it. Now I didn't see any visions ot anything. I think I had some insight about my mom the last day but mostly I was hungry and looking for snakes and other wildlife to stay away from. I would do it again only if I could eat, which really defeats the purpose of a Vision Quest I think. Maybe the snake was a sign of things to come. Closing my practice the following year for instance was a transition (duh). So maybe the rattler is valuable after all..

Hiking IS a sport!

Yesterday, while we were hiking 8 miles at the top of the Sandia MTs and I was huffing and puffing, I decided that hiking can be VERY challenging. I am not sure, with the way my legs feel today, that triathlon training totally prepares you for hiking in the Andes. BUT, I went and got new hiking shoes afterwards, we tried out our Camelbaks, which were gathering dust in the cabinet (BTW-never leave them in the garage-the mice like to eat the bladder), and got to try out our goat legs..
We did some pretty technical stuff for part of the hike. Thanks to Josh Hillis and all the squats i have done lately, I think this was easier for me than it would have been. We had Gerry, the 70 year old leader, whom I liked ot call Crazy Power Man, who kept telling us, "just 50 more feet"! I finally caught about the 3rd time he said it that it was BS and we were in for a long ass day..Good news-we were with almost all the friends that are going to hike the Inca trail with us at the end of the month. Most of us have been friends 15+ years and we usually go scuba diving so this will be a new experience for the group. We laugh ALOT on those trips and cannot imagine this one being any different. i am always the resident "nurse" I guess cause I use to actually practice nursing so I come loaded with all the drugs-could medicine, antibiotics, Tylenol, Advil, etc..One year one gal got "pink eye" on a dive boat in the Bahamas. now try and find some eye drops there!
Today was swimming and Josh's workout. I is tired!!