Row Row Row your Boat, Gently Down the Stream....

Friday I took the day off so I could go to Lucas's first scrimmage of the season. I just love to watch my boy play football and I had a great time. Mike uploaded some video to youtube with some footage of my baby kicking ass. Awesome. (He is #55 in green and white).

That afternoon we ran some errands, then Mike and I went to Madison with my sister Michele to pick up her new pink bike, a Specialized Dolce - Sweet bike. I wonder if I could switch it with mine and maybe she wouldn't notice?? I will have to think on that.

Saturday morning I got up early to get Lucas off to football practice, then took off and ran a 6.5 mile route on my own and let Mike sleep in. He went out with his buddy and got in late. The route was different than normal and I looked for some hills which wasn't a problem since our neighborhood has plenty of them. When we got back to the house, we went to pick up a leopard gecko and some crickets to feed it. We had a tank set up ready and it was my nephew Jake's 8th birthday. He has admired our lizards (We have 4 currently) for so long I am glad I was able to get him his own. I think he liked it. His party was nice and Michele made great ice cream cake - yummy. (The lizard was a hit)

After the party we took a road trip to Endurance House in Madison. We were needing some new running shoes and we decided it was time to do their video evaluation of our stride and get recommendations for shoes based on our stride. It was pretty cool. They put you on the treadmill in flats and had you run. Then they slow the film down to watch the foot strike and load transfers, etc. I wish we would get a copy of the video, but I didn't even think to ask until we were gone. After watching my video, the guy said the mechanics of my stride were great, no pronation or other issues. He told me basically I could wear just about any shoe, but he brought out his top 4 recommendations - a Mizuno shoe, the Brooks Adrenaline, the Asics Nimbus, and the Asics Kayano 13. The arch it funny in the mizuno. The Brooks was OK, but felt like there was a lump under the ball of my foot. The 2 Asics both felt good, neither one really felt better than the other. I am just coming out of the Nimbus 7 and I have liked it, but I decided to give the Kayanos a try. One thing I found interesting was that he put me in a B width shoe and they felt fine. I have been buying D's because of my gargantuan Flintstone feet, but he said I didn't need them, they were supposed to fit snug for running. Go figure. He also said my occasional issues with forefoot numbness were possibly because I lace my shoes too loose down low and too tight up top. (I tried lacing them the way he said for today's run - no problems whatsoever....)

Today was another rainy day. it broke briefly about noon and Mike and I drove to the top of the hill and parked in the school parking lot (so we wouldn't have to get our new shoes muddy walking through the dirt road or soaking wet tromping though the grass). We ran a 4 mile loop to test out the new kicks and they felt so good we did another 2 mile loop back to Crosby and around. The shoes rock. And the run was fun. I have 26 miles in for the week - a marathon. I have been trying to follow my Runner World half marathon plan. I seem to run the tempos too slow and the long runs too fast. I guess it gives me something to work on.

Tomorrow is a much needed day off (from training anyhow). After work, I am headed to Studio 107 to wash that gray right outta my hair and get a fresh cut. I decided not to go to Stripper Girl at Salon Gianna this time and go see Jenny from the Tri Club. I like her and I bet she does an awesome job.

It has rained and rained and rained this week and no end in sight in the near future. It rained all day yesterday and all day today. We are supposed to get another ton overnight tonight. The Madison area is flooding like crazy, we just saw a house that is under a ton of water on the news. If this keeps up I am going to need a boat to paddle to work. I know my plants were thirsty but JEESH - Enough is Enough!!!

Party Like a Rock Star- the Janesville Triathlon Report

First off, I should probably apologize to you all for leaving you hanging in suspense for so long for my race results. I am sure no one has gotten a THING done today waiting on me to get this report written.
This has been a very busy week trying to wrap up all the details of my last week of assignments and papers to be written for school. As of last Sunday, I had only to write up 6 lengthy written assignemnts, take 3 tests and a final exam for my last 2 classes (Community Nursing and Intro to Theater), and write a large, involved project paper for my last Nursing class. I somewhow managed to wrap it all up. At about 2100 tonight, I finally submitted my last paper which ended up being 25 pages of written work and more than 40 hours of writing and research. I am exhausted and my brain is completely numb, but sending in that last paper is my last task for completing the requirement for a B.S. in Nursing from Ball State University. Graduation will take place next weekend in Muncie Indiana. Even as tired as I am now I could cartwheel around my entire yard to finally be done. For this last 2 classes this summer I have entirely lacked in the motivation department, so I am ecstatic to have finally finished up. I might even try to find time to read a book that I did not purchase from a textbook library.
And now for the moment you have all been waiting for .............. (drumroll please) ........ the race report from the Janesville YMCA Triathlon yesterday. The day started well. I got up, got dressed polished off some cranberry oatmeal and tried to move the slow men in my household out the door at a reasonable time. (have you ever heard that women were slow? the opposite is true at my house.... I sat in the car waiting for everyone else to come outside when it was time to leave)
Mike was obviously on the verge of a nervous breakdown and watching him made me nervous for him. My mission was to remain as calm as possible and try to de-escalate his anxiety by being calm and comforting myself. So we drove down to Lions Beach, unpacked our stuff, picked up our packets, got marked, and set up our transition areas next to each other. We talked for a while to the SWAT members hanging around, said hi to my sister and her kids, chatted with my mom and some friends and before long it was time to hit the beach.
Mike and I stood together. he was in wave 7, I was in wave 9. After some race instructions we couldn't hear, they started us off. I watched folks swim out in heats of 30. It didn't seem to look all that far and they had a lane marker strung out to the turnaround buoy. I saw all kinds of chaos out there - breast strokers, sidestrokers, backstrokers, and some unidentifiable strokes. With the small waves, it looked like the takeoff was going to be manageable. I got Mike into the water and watched him swim out. It hit me then - I was going to do this and Mike's fate was in his own hands now.
As I waited for my heat, I worked myself up into a real lather. I lost sight of Mike and got worried. Then I started worrying about myself. Before long we took off. The water was cold and I was worked up. I got kicked in the chest as we waded out to where I couldn't touch anymore. I started out with a breaststroke, but when I tried to put my face in the water, I got panicky. I couldn't see a thing. My heart raced, I couldn't catch my breath and I was freezing. Mentally I tried to calm myself as I tried to move forward. It took me until I reached the buoy to finally gain control of my faculties. I found myself stuck between a freestyler that was weaving all over and I couldn't get around and a chick doing the elementary backstroke. On my right the weaver was ramming me, on my left the elementary chick wa kicking me like an eggbeater. I finally swerved way out and got ahead of them, hopefully for good. The last half of the way back I found my groove. By the time I realized I was close, I stood up and I was only in water up to my knees. I ripped off the goggles and cap and started running up the beach. I couldn't find anyone I recognized but I could hear the SWATs screaming my name. Man, they sure know how to make you feel like a rock star. I was looking around for a face who could tell me if Mike was out of the water and someone shouted "your husband just got out - he's maybe a minute ahead of you!" I was so happy to hear he was safe and had gotten the swim done. I ran up the beach and tackled him in transition with a hug and a peck and got to getting the transition thing done.
Here is where I dicovered I had not remembered to prep my shoes. I fought with the ratchet on my bike shoes, unable to get the quick release to release and let me get my Flintstone feet into them. They finally relented and I got them on, I picked up the gloves and threw them on the ground, threw on my belt and took off.
The bike was awesome and I got to pass folks right and left. one guy pulled up to me about halfway through and said "If you didn't notice I was just drafting off you for a while." He sat on my wheel and really started to piss me off so I took off ahead of him every time he tried to keep drafting. what an ass. I finally told him to stop it and took off. I was trying to see his number to report the draft, but I never was able to get it. The bike was really windy and the course was backwards from how we practiced, but I still knew it and felt really comfortable giving it all I had. I love the bike and I knew it was my only shot at making up time.
I got back to transition and started power changing. In the picture below I was asking the SWATs and my family type folks where Mike was. They said I just missed him and I remember saying "Now I'll never kick his ass!" and my mother kidding me about saying ass. I hollered back that if she had been listening better earlier she could have heard me say the F word. I remember hearing Lucas say "Oh my God I just heard my gramma say ass."
On that note I took off and laughed to myself all the way up the street. i was so twitterpated I forgot to grab my Garmin for the run off my handlebars. and my Ipod. RATS! that made for a long run with no tunes for cadence control and no idea how fast I was going.
The run sucked, plain and simple. I.HATE.RUNNING.
but it was the last 4 miles of the race so I sucked it up and went as fast as I could stand. People passed me right and left anyway, men, women, children, turtles, you name it. Trying to amuse myself without and Ludacris to listen to, I searched for a phrase to describe getting passed by so many . I remembered a RWOL post lamenting getting "chicked" at races (passed by women) and decided my version was called getting chiched and dicked. I approached the turn into Lions Beach preparing myself mentally to be able to see the finsh line and then get redirected out another mile before actually finishing. Whoever designed that has a cruel streak..... it was helpful to know I just had a mile left so I gave it all I had until I got to the finish. Final time on my watch 1:51:00, -about 10minutes for the swim shore to shore, 51:00 on the Garmin for the bike, and the rest was run and transition time. it was about what I had figured on, a little too long for the run but that is so variable from day to day that I just take what I can get. There were people behind me so I was not last, which is alwasy good.
Got packed up and headed home after some visiting, feeling pretty good about the whole thing.
After a while Martin called to tell me I took second place in the Athena group, with Allison in first place. So now I was not only an official traithlete, I was also sporting some bling. Sweet.
My brother in law Jeff and his brother Brad did the tri too and kicked butt. We went to a party in the afternoon at Brad's house, then joined the SWAT team at the Speakeasy for dinner. What an awesomely fun day. I had a blast (and I think I ate one of everything, but who cares? ).

Now for the thank yous -

Thanks to Mike for helping me work so hard
Thanks to my boys for coming to root us on and take pictures
Thanks to my sister Michele for spotting Mike on the swim and helping him feel comfortable in the water, for supporting us, and all the million things she does to help us out and support us on race days

Thanks to my mom (pictured) for coming to cheer us on.
(Just in case you didn't know it, my family totally rocks)
Thanks to the SWATs for the support during practice times and for rolling out the ROCK STAR treatment before, during, and after the race. You have no idea how much that means to me and how motivational it is to have a cheering section.
Thanks too to all of you who read me and sent encouraging words, help, and support.
And let me not forget to thank the academy..........
(if I forgot to mention anyone, I didn't mean to)

here are the results: 170/224 overall, 2/3 Athena ---> swim- 10:50 (135th) bike+T1- 54:24 (109th) Run +T2- 46:15 (194th) = Final time 1:51:27

What I learned:
- I need to practice open water swimming........ alot.
- I can't forget to prep my shoes again. undo the bike shoes, untie the double knots on my running kicks.
- Do something different with the Garmin and Ipod. They make a big difference on the run
- swim 2 minutes faster than Mike so next time *I* win............ (you listening big guy? Bring it on!)

MTB Mayhem and the SWAT team

It's been a busy couple days.

Monday night, Mike and I went to the Velo Club Mt Bike ride in Rockport Park. I had an off night. The decision was made to work on some of the technical aspects of the trails, in particular hill climbing and some of the single track stuff. I fell down a lot. Several of them really hurt. I became convinced the Schlegels were trying to kill me. We ran through spots in the park named FUBAR, the figure 8, the roller coaster, and broken pinky. Broken pinky was especially heinous. It is a gimongous steep hill covered in loose gravel. I pretty much spun out midway up and fell off my bike onto to my elbow.

I struggled with:
- my clipless pedals. The shoes for my road bike and my MTB have different style clips. I could not get clipped in a lot of the night, kept using the wrong motion to clip, pushing forward instead of stepping down.

- my emotions. The more frustrated I got with the ride, the stupider I rode. I had trouble with shifting sensibly and just did some stupid crap for no reason except sheer frustration.

- my fears. The more I had clipping problems, the more I timid I rode. Because I rode scared, I kept riding into trees. Or flipping myself off my bike.

- my directional orientation. We rode the trails backwards from what we have done the last two times. Totally threw me off and just felt wrong. I think this led to my first (of many) falls off my bike where I slid backwards down a hill and took out a tree. The poor thing never saw it coming, but the scrapes down my back where I slid down the bark as I laid that sucker out will last me for a while - they are pretty raw.

- My balance. I fell off my bike a lot. Sometimes for no real reason at all. I felt like a big giant ass.

- my stupid bike. Did I mention I really hate her this week? I do. Just as I reached the peak of my pissiness, I was pedaling uphill and the chain broke. I let out a little whoop. "YES! I CAN'T RIDE ANYMORE TONIGHT! WOO HOO!!!" Unfortunately, Bob whipped out his fixy thing and fixed up the chain. I rode some more, then as we were fixing to leave the park it broke again. He fixed it again and we went home. I hate my stupid frigging bike this week. I'm sure it will pass, but I blame her for this ride. Lord knows, it's not MY fault..... :-)

Tuesday was our first Tri-out (like a work out tripled). We started in Rockport Park at the pool. We swam some laps. I swam/walked beside Mike trying to help until he got pissy and got out of the pool to pout. Then I swam some laps of my own and got out myself. I no longer want to help coach him since I just get the brunt of his frustration with it. I plan to call around for a coach for him, letting someone else get bitched at would be well worth it for me.

The bike was an easy 20 down Afton Road and back. I cannot fathom why they ride that busy road with glass all over the shoulder when there are tons of virtually empty country roads branching off it everywhere, but whatever -it was not my party so we went with it. Not knowing what to expect from this group, we hung towards the back at first, then took off and hammered it a little harder on the way back in, getting ahead of a big chunk of the group. We skipped the run, mostly because we didn't bring our shoes. Maybe next time. It seems like a nice group, very helpful and offered some good advice so far. We'll keep going for a while and see where this goes. The seem to keep a good pace for us, which is what I was most concerned about.

Gel Nimbus 8's - The Jury's still out

The day we have waited for is here - arrival day of the Christmas shoes. I took a short run tonight in my new Asics Nimbus shoes. I think I like them, but it may be too soon to tell. I did have some issues with numb forefoot, but that may have been due mare to the brisk January weather than the shoes aggravating my feet. Either way, it is a problem that has alwasy been easily fixed with OTC Orthotics.
THe run was a quick 3.25 miles through the hills in the neighborhood. I had intended to take a big run, but had to wait 15 minutes to give the ipod a chance to charge (it was DEAD) and it was quickly getting dark. I had intended to take my head lamp for when it got dark, but forgot to tuck it into my pocket, so once I noticed it strting to get dark, I took a turn for home instead of seeking out a longer loop.
Tomorrow is a big day, the anniversary of starting the VLCD diet. It's hard to believe it has been a whole year and I am just now transitioning back to regular food. I tried today to make an appointment with my dietitician to move into the final phase and work on getting to 1200 calories or so for maintenance, but I didn't reach her. I'll try again tomorrow - it's time.