SWATquathon Thursday

Tuesday we did the usual Tri-Out at Rockport (only a couple more left - WAHH!). Wasn't a big turnout, but it was a nice night ad a good moderately hard workout. I got eate alive by a couple of really big mosquitoes or small birds - not sure which- on the run ad the bites have been itching like CRAZY ever since.

Tonight, Mike and I went to Rockport for the SWATquathon (or Surf-n-Turf depending who you talk to...). Got 1100 meters in and a little over a 5K run. Mike went up ahead on the run with Gary Clark who I think was trying to kill Mike but he seemed to be holding his own. I was feeling pretty good on the run tonight, not like FAST mind you but good. I even ran up Rockport hill all the way, which I never do and it felt pretty good.

Sunday we are biking the IMWI course with Alison and I think Darin, not sure who all else is going. I have never done the whole course, just bits and pieces of it, so that should be interesting!

So T-10days to Pigman. The water temp is 80 per Mike, so not wetsuit legal..... still haven't decided if I will wetsuit it anyhow which will disqualify me from awards (award for what? slowest chubby lady??). I can swim. I can bike. I will TOTALLY be faking the run. Don't tell anybody though..... I want them to think I know what I'm doing!

Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler!

Been a few days - sorry about that.

The 100K Rotary Pie Ride:

Click the title link to view the route & stats.

This was an awesome ride as usual, made even more fun by doing it as a group with SWAT. The Rotarians do an awesome job with this both times I have done it and the weather was BEAUTIFUL, sandwiched between days and days and days of thunderstorms and gloominess. I was a little worried that we may run in to trouble with flooded or impassible roads (as much of Southern Wisconsin these days needs scuba gear to pass through) but the roads were fine. we started early, so we missed much of the heat of the day but we hit most of the aid stations for cookies, pretzels, and fruit!The route is challenging with plenty of hill work, and the last 20 miles of hills was also into a stiff headwind (blech). It was my longest ride of the year and it went rather well, with only one minor windy patch about mile 50 where the wind and the hills sucked the life out of me and I got a little whiny and tearful. Once I figured out my slowness at that point was due to gearing and made some adjustments all was well with the world again and we were rolling.

Tuesday Tri-Outs:
Our summer group workouts with the SWAT Team have started again. There have been 2 of these so far, glad to be rolling again! This is just such a great group to be a part of, they are so much fun! We also got to finally meet Mike and Sherry in real life after doing like tons of the same events and never crossing paths. It is always nice to meet new folks with like interests! This week was a small group of riders, so Darin tricked us into adding an extra 5 miles or so onto our bike, which by the way was 5 miles of life-sucking hills. Once back at the park, we took a short transition run to Pizza Hut, sniffed the air around the building and headed back. Our usual run route through the bike path is underwater so this has been our alternate route, which works for me because it bypasses the biggest hills of the route.

Whitewater Well Bike (A/K/A the Mutual of Omaha bike route) :
last weekend, Mike and I rode this 50 mile route with Alison. Honestly, I thought I had taken this route before last year with Janet. I kept waiting for something familiar and it just never came, but what did come was the realization that what I was really thinking of was the Whitewater LAKE route. No matter - both routes are pretty and fun so we enjoyed the scenery. We saw turkeys, pheasants, foxes, herons, woodchucks, chipmunks, red tailed hawks, a couple of dogs that didn't chase us, and a lot of dead stinky stuff on our ride. it was very rural and deserted for much of the route, which made for good wildlife watching and very little traffic so we could ride a s a small pack and chat a bit. We didn't set the world of fire speedwise, but that wasn't really the point either.

Nick's graduation party:
Last weekend, we hosted Nick's grad party and had a perfect day for it. Sunny, breezy, and dry after a brief AM shower, couldn't have asked for better weather for an outside party. We got to spend time with family and friends we haven't seen much lately and get caught up. Even our friends from Iowa showed up near the end and we had a nice long visit with them.
It was kind of funny watching Nick talk to the folks that came to his party. Socializing isn't really his thing, so he made an attempt to talk to everyone but it was obviously not particularly comfortable for him. It is a good life skill to learn so glad he had the opportunity.

Swim Bricks:
The weather here has been a little soggy lately, so we have used the opportunity to get some serious swimming time in, and Mike has actually been itching to get in the pool every day if he can. Most of our days have been at Rockport pool (a 50M Olympic size outdoor pool) with some other days at Edison Middle School pool (25 yd) if it's rainy. One of the nights we showed up at Rockport as they were closing because someone puked in the pool. Uh, yeah.....gross.
We are following almost all of our swims with a 2-4 mile run afterwards. That whole brick thing kind of bums me out, I do a lot of run/walking as my legs cramp up more than a normal run but it is getting better. And my IT band has not bothered me much at all since my 2 week hiatus from running after the marathon fiasco, which is awesome. I have been reading up a little on the Galloway method and trying to work that into what I am doing to see if that makes any difference in what I am doing. So far I am liking it, although I think I have probably bastardized the method enough that it might not make a huge a difference in my speed. Time will tell I guess.

This week:

The end of this week we are chaperoning the bus for Beefcake and his teammates at All Pro Lineman camp. We did this last year too and it is in a good area for exercising. It's at Bishop O'Connor Pastoral center in Middleton area and they are not far off the IMWI bike course and they have a nice dirt track where we can get in a nice long run.

I think it's kinda funny that they want me to chaperone the bus.....for the O line and D Line. These are pretty big boys, like all 250-300+ pounds of muscly testosterony man-size boys. What exactly would I do if one of them got unruly?? girly slap them?? Yeah right.

Saturday night we are hosting the SWAT Team for a cookout. It really is just a ploy to maintain the current level of cleanliness for my house and to get rid of some of the lifetime supply of potato salad and pulled BBQ pork I have left from the grad party. Anyone hungry? Stop by, we've got food!

The Cupcake Fairy Cometh

Earlier this week, I came home from work to find a package had been dropped upon my doorstep and my children had brought it in and set it upon the kitchen counter undisturbed, as it was addressed to Mike and I. I gave Mike a quick call and asked him if he was expecting a package.
He wasn't. As he waited patiently for me to open the package, I knew he was anxiously awaiting news of it's contents. I peeled back the packaging tape, cutting it open with scissors. Inside it, I found boxes of tasty little treasures...... The Cupcake fairy had sent us a little box of creamy chocolaty goodness! There were cupcakes and a variety of other snack cakes.

The Wimmer boys were definitely in Heaven. I waited to tell them about the plethora of snack cakes until Mike got home a few minutes later. After Mike posed for a few pictures of him simulating eating them double-fisted with the wrappers on, we called the pigs up from the boy-dungeon and as you can see, no time was wasted digging in. The crumbs and cellophane were soon flying. Anyone reaching into the feedbag zone was careful not to lose a hand or an eye while trying to get their sugar fix.

Big thanks to Dan and his family for the surprise treat!

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Monday we went to the Y to run on the track while Lucas was at drivers ed. It had been a while since I had run on anything but the elliptical or treadmill. I went to turn on the footpod for my Garmin, and found it to be dead - CRAP! Without the footpod, I left the Garmin in my jacket pocket and went the tried and true stopwatch and counting laps on my fingers method. I hate that- it makes me run really stiff to hold my hands in a way that I can keep track of the 15 laps that make up each mile. We got in what felt like a pretty easy 5.5 miles, nothing real special. Let me tell you though I was feeling all that real live track running by the time I went to bed, and I woke up the next day stiff and sore. My back muscles hurt, my quads were killing me, I felt like I did after my first half mary - ouch. I guess the lesson is I need to run more often on real terra firma more often so the muscles remember how that feels, and if I should bring a spare battery with me if I want to use the pod.

Tuesday I went swimming in the evening. I really didn't feel like it much but thought it might feel good to do some easy laps and warm up the muscles, plus some of the girls from work said they might be there. Plus, Tuesday is my sister Michele's swim night (although she hasn't come much lately) so I thought I better go at least for a while. The work girls were a no show, but Michele was there (yeah!). I still wasn't feeling much like swimming, the pool was cold, and I got in only about 1200 yds of lollygagging laps peppered with lots of stopping to chitchat.

Tonight we went for another swim night. I was ready for it. I had looked up a swim workout plan at swimplan.com . i knew what I wanted to do and how fast I wanted to do it. When we got there we discovered that the lifeguard hadn't shown up. We waited a while and CJ spent some time working on technique on deck with the group. Dave volunteered to be responsible for the group as the lifeguard and we got in for 40 minutes of swimming until he had to go. Mike's stroke looked good tonight. I can tell he was applying the advice CJ gave him and it looked much better.

Swim Heckling

Tonight we went for SWAT Team Swim and got in 2050yds of swim/pull/kick sets. We met CJ who is a tri coach who offerred her help.
She got some good video of Mike and I swimming. It was really cool to see what my stroke looks like - I've never seen video of it before. There is a big difference between felling it and seeing it, so that really was cool. It actually looked a lot better than I thought it would.
Maybe she'll email the video clip and I can post it....... who knows.

My New Name

Just thought I would update you on the new name I have been christened with.
I have moved from being "a douchebag" (as in "My mom is a total douchebag") to having this be what is used in place of, say, my proper name (as in "Douchebag will say I can't go do anything").
For those of you who don't really know me well yet, I guess that means you should call me Mrs Douchebag. Nice.
I'm selling teenage boys REALLY cheap this week. I might even pay you to take them off my hands.

In other news, got in 50 minutes on the elliptical, 50 minutes on spinner drills, and then 2050 yds of easy freestyle in the pool with my sister. (My wishlist includes having a lifeguard in future sessions who actually puts in the lane markers so I don't have to swim avoiding a collision with crazy old guy who swims on his back with flippers on his feet AND hands.)

No Butt Pictures At All

Misty pointed out recently that there has been a theme to the pictures I have chosen for my posts and as I look back, there does seem to be a trend toward the cherubic bare bottom. So I am making a concerted effort to make some more clothed choices, at least for a little bit here. Just thank your lucky stars they weren't pictures of my ACTUAL butt........ bullet dodged. WHEW!

Tuesday as many of you know was Big Mike's 40th birthday. No exercise was performed that day. The original plan was to go to SWAT swim and bring treats. Due to a huge snow and ice storm though school were closed and since we swim at one of the middle school pools, swimming was also cancelled. Instead we took Mike to Red Robin for the best burgers in the world. We were careful to let the cat slip out of the bag to our server. Before we knew it the servers swarmed around him to sing . They asked him his name, he answered "Miguel" and they announced that it was Miguel's birthday. (He later decided that if he had been thinking more quickly, he should have said his name was McLovin, like the dorky kid from SuperBad - we thankful his brain was in slo-mo). The song they sing goes "happy, happy, happy birthday" but Mike usually sings along to it (when we have been there in the past to observe) and his version goes "happy, happy F'ing birthday" so we were glad he didn't choose to sing along. When they were done, Mike sucked the helium out of the balloons and talked in funny voices and we headed home. He may be 40 on the outside, but he is more like 12 on the inside. Don't let him fool you into believing he is a grown up - he is totally lying.

Wednesday night after work I was scheduled for a tempo run but it was so slippery out, I couldn't go. Instead I sat on the spinner and did some drills while I watched the movie Waitress. The movie was about a waitress in a pie diner who finds out she is pregnant and has a schmuck husband - the theme was how pie was a metaphor for life and the life cycle. Although I will never get the 1:45 of my life back I spent watching this stinker, I did get in a great spin workout, so I guess it evens out in the end.

Thursday was again swim night. We went to swim and I had the best intentions of trying the B workout instead of the C, which is a little lighter. About 1400 yds into the workout, I saw my BIL Jeff waving to me to get out the pool and come over by him and the lifeguard her was talking to. Apparently, he somehow got his finger caught in a hole in the top of the table he was sitting on. And it wouldn't come out. And he was getting kind of vaso-vagal so Jeff wanted his nursey friend there right quick. The guard says "I think I 'm gonna pass out" and I said in my best nursey voice "I think so too - even your lips are white.......put your head between your knees cause I don't want to have to catch you when you fall....." We tried some ice to try to shrink the finger. Didn't budge. We lubed it up with conditioner out of my swim bag. Didn't budge. There are always janitors around the building int he evening, so I set out to find one that could bring a tool or two. As I trotted off sown the hall in my swimsuit and swim cap, I realized that it was Christmas Choir Concert night and the halls outside the pool were FILLED with middle school students and parents. And I am walking through them in my wet swimsuit - Choice. I flagged down a teachery looking guy who happened to be the vice principal, told him to find one of his guys and bring the big tools. He decided that it would be better to call 911, which he did. So, before we know it there is a pile of firemen and paramedics there to rescue our lifeguard. Five minutes later he was free, but by that time, it was time to pick Lucas up from work so we were done. Turns out the guy is a swim coach and was covering for one of his swimmers who was supposed to guard. He gave the teachers there a pretty good laugh once he finally was set free.

This morning I got up early for the SWAT pancake run. I knew I would be running way behind the group so I tried to make it clear I didn't want anyone to wait for me or try to shepherd me in. It was absolutely gorgeous out. 22 degrees so it was was pretty cold, but it was snowing the whole time - great big huge fluffy flakes- which was just so cool. I was feeling really "on" today so after finishing up the 5 miler I drove home and ran another 3. It was awesome. We have had a ton of snow and ice lately and the sidewalks are pretty poorly shoveled for the most part, if at all and most of the corners are plowed in and no one shoveled them back out, so really it was more of a trail run today to keep from slip-sliding away or falling off snow mounds. Time was pretty slow, but really more as a result of me trying to be careful than having problems running. I got the Yaktrax I ordered in today's mail, so I will have try them out soon and see if it makes a difference.

Tomorrow I'll do another long spin to start off the training week and then we will get serious about scrubbing up the house for Christmas festivities.

Another Day of Snow and Surf

Tuesday and today were swim days. Tuesday we did the SWAT practice and followed the workouts Alison posted for us. I love it that she plans those out or I would probably end up swimming the same mindless plodding laps each time. I watched Tina doing laps of fly, which incidentally was my stroke once upon a time in the distant past, so I gave it a whirl myself. I did a 50 of fly and it was super fun. Mike was watching me as I came to the end of the length of the pool so I asked how it looked - he said "it looked like you were laughing"...... I guess I was, I had no idea I still had it in me anymore and I was enjoying it although it didn't feel nearly as fluid as when I was a kid. Anyhow, got in 1600 yds of 100 repeats on Tuesday, then did 1850 in a mixed 50s, 100s, and 25s tonight.

Both days were snowy and put our little clown cars to the test. They are a big change from the the 4WD SUVs for sure! I used the snow blower yesterday for the first time ever Wednesday after work - Man that was an adventure! I am not strong enough to manage that machine by myself but I bet I gave the neighbors a laugh. I hope no one heard the F bomb drop as I blew off the sidewalk that goes nowhere, right about the place where the blower dropped off the last flat and ended up spewing dirt all over.

My sister Tracy sent us the funniest thing today, thought I would share the video of the Keeney girls elfed up. I laughed so hard I think I peed a little.

The Miner's Return

I've had a good week so far.

Wednesday I got home too late from Leadership Meeting to do much outside so I spent a little over an hour on the spinner doing drills - single leg pedals, sprints, standing drills, etc.

Thursday was SWAT swim again. I went by myself since Mikey was still feeling snuffly and coughing. I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with the Packer game being on.......... but I digress. Since he leaked out on me, I went early, got there at 6 to get some extra laps in since I wouldn't be frustrating Mike by going long. There were several guys there for the first half hour, then all the guys piled out of the pool and there was just a handful of ladies in the pool. It was kind of funny to see it - Game Time 7:15, 6:30 every Y chromosome climbed out of the pool like lemmings....

Anyhoo..... since there was just Jeni Sauser, myself, and my favorite BIL Jeff left (I think Jeff stayed a little later than the other guys since he has DISH and didn't have to find a seat at the bar to watch the game), I just ran through one of the workouts we had done in the past 2 weeks.

200 Kick -200 Pull- 200 Swim

5 x 100 with 20 second rests

100 kick

4 x 100 with 20 sec rests

100 pull

3 x 100 with 20 sec rests

100 kick

2 x 100 with 20 sec rests

100 pull

1 x 100

500 easy

So I got in a good 3000 yds and it felt awesome.

Friday was interesting. I had just a half day at the hospital and the afternoon I went to Blackhawk Tech for a meeting of the ADN/CNA Advisory Board. Not the most exciting afternoon, but was able to get out of the office for awhile, which was nice. I was asked twice that day if I was interested in teaching a class at the tech school next semester. That is really tempting and I am torn. I have never taught a class before, but I would love to teach. The hitch would be that the classes would be evening classes. That would mean a huge chunk of my workout time would take a hit. I am sure the money isn't fabulous, but it really wouldn't be about money anyway. The other downside is that the classes would be the Youth Apprentice students from the high schools, so would be very young, inexperienced, potentially squeaky whiny 16 year old girls. (I am a firm believer that you only get what you can handle in life and there is a reason I was blessed with 2 boys.....). Something to think about.

When I got home, Mike was already there. I asked how he was feeling, if he was less sick. The response....."I'm NOT sick, I am just FIND!" (RANT: Um, Monica, if there is a "D" on the end of "Fine", you are not "Find" you are SICK!) He took off to Walgreen's for some more Aireborne (Uh, it's time to try maybe a decongestant and some guaifenesin honey), and I took off for a quickie run outside before it got dark. Since it was already a little after 4, I stuck my headlamp in my jacket pocket and some flashers with arm straps. It.was.cold. I'm not going to kid you. My nose ran and ran and ran, sometimes faster than my feet. But it felt good. I did a 10 minute first mile which is lightning for me, then settled into a comfortable pace and knocked off 4.2 miles. By the time I got home, it was dark and while I was trying to thaw out my nose, fingertips, toes, and butt cheeks (I have no idea why my butt gets so cold, it's weird really), my son was laughing at my headgear. "Mom, you look like a coal miner...." That's right buddy, I might look stupid, but I'm not a road pizza and I didn't break my neck running blind.

Today we were going to get our Invisible dog Fence redone since they FINALLY finished the sidewalk. (They put in sod next to the sidewalk this week - what are the chances that's gonna take? I have serious doubts....). The super (not) careful contractors from the city dug it up and cut it weeks ago while scraping the topsoil. So anyway, we were set up to have it fixed this morning. Unfortunately the ground is frozen rock solid, so we are SOL until spring. That totally sucks - I am sure the city will forget they told us they would pay for their mistake by the time spring rolls around and I will be out several more hundred dollars for their carelessness. We missed the Jingle Bell Run for this too. We will have to catch it next year I guess.

Snowing like CRAZY now - Guess We'll get some cardio in later shoveling. Yuck.

Feeeling Better

Wow. Whatever little nasty bug bit me, it sure bit hard. After feeling bad for almost 10 days I have been gradually trying to get back into the swing of things.
The first baby step was the Berbee Derby on Thanksgiving Day. That went pretty good, the 5K instead of the 10 but still a step in the right direction.
Friday I carried the admission referral pager and after going into work for a few hours, Mike and I headed out to do some shopping on Black Friday. We found a couple things -mostly for us- and realized that the Christmas shopping was going nowhere fast.
Saturday we went into Madison for a different bunch of stores. We actually got much of our shopping taken care of with just of couple of the nieces and cousins yet to find something for (TEENAGERS are SOOOO hard to shop for!!!). Not bad for a days work. Between shopping and laundry I didn't get much else done. Feeling guilty about it on Sunday, I climbed on the spinner while the football was going and I don't think anyone in the house even noticed I had left the room to watch chick flicks and Lifetime from the saddle for almost an hour.
Tonight we went to Marshall for the SWAT swim workout. I just plain love swimming. Did 2300 in an hour of drills and it felt awesome. I could have done another 2300 - it felt that good - but Mikey bailed out of the pool 400 before I did as it was and I am sure I'd have ended up walking the 10 miles home if I had even tried. But I thought about it......just for a second.
I have GOT to start running again outside. I have put it off and put it off and put it off. It's time to quit wussing out and get out there. But not tomorrow. Tomorrow I have Leadership, a monthly meeting that is always a marathon session, I'll be lucky to be home by 5 (ICK).

Back on the Road Again

Lately I will admit I have felt a little like a slacker. I look at my activity calendar for FitDay and see that there are several weeks where I only did 3 or 4 days of activity, far less than the 5-6 days/week I strive for. I still am striving for 1600-1800 calories a day, but finding the "extra treat" days are coming more frequently. My Google-15 weight average is creeping up a couple pounds too.
So, I made sure to get in a 6 day week for the second week in a row.
Today, I made up for yesterdays off day by hitting it hard. After work I did:
- 35 minutes of power yoga
-45 minutes on the spinner (alternating sprints, stand drills, SLPs)
-30 minutes of strength training at the Y using the Cybex machines
- 1+ hours of SWAT swim practice drill work

I need a focus for the upcoming months, especially the rest of November through Christmas/New Years since it is easy to get off track then with everything that goes on.
I ordered some more yoga and pilates videos from Amazon as well as a couple training books. Lucas is going to teach me some Ab work drills from football.
I will stay on the good eating wagon and get through the season. I will break through my plateau and lose that last 20 pounds. When I get there, I will reward myself with a Plastics consult to talk about trimming of all the hangy skin. (Someday I'll post a pic - it's gross...)

Football Abs reminded me: One day when I was feeling sore last week, Lucas was going to teach me some of the "stretches" they do for football. The first was "inchworm", which really was Cobra Pose. Then he showed me a relaxation stretch- I know it as Childs Pose. He showed me a stretch they call the teepee or something.......... also know in yoga circles as Downward Dog. Funny how they manned up those yoga poses with manly-man names and called them stretches. Struck me funny. It's still YOGA!

Weekend Update

After a big swim night Thursday, I took a well needed night off Friday to rest my sore wings. Saturday Mike had to work in the morning, so I got up relatively early, read the paper, ate a good breakfast and waited for the frost on the grass to clear so I could take off on a nice long run before Mike got home. We had made plans to swim a few laps at the Y when he was done working. i took off from the house a little before 11, thinking I would get 6 or so miles in before going swimming. I headed out towards the country club and shortly after passing it I heard a clown car honking at me about 20 minutes into my run. Mike and Lucas pulled up in Black Lavender (Yarus), so I cut the run short and hopped in the back seat. He did a quick spin around towards home and we changed and went right to the Y pool. Got in 1040 yards and the shoulders were still sore, so Mikey wanted to call it a day. I am feeling pretty good about it. They were slower easy laps but I have taken to doing all my laps freestyle and no longer have to break the crawl up with breaststroke laps to be able to keep swimming, so that is forward progress.
Today, I went out an a nice long run by myself. It was pretty crisp out yet. The high for the day was 55, but this was long before we got the high for the day. I had some Sugoi running mittens I tried out today and they worked pretty well to keep the paws warm. Up until this point, my favorite long route (about 10 miles) stops in 2 city parks with drinking fountains, so I have had great places to stop and refill my water bottle. Today I discovered that this was the week they winterised the parks, which meant that among other things all the water fountains were shut down. Sooo......... I nursed my first bottle and for some reason (telepathy??) I had tucked a $5 bill in my waist pack, so I made a quick stop at a quickie mart for some Propel.
It wasn't a fast run today but I did get some miles in. Again, my right hip, knee, and first tarsal head were hurting me so I had to do a little walking or slower running when those twinges got too bad to run full speed. That's getting a little frustrating - not sure why it's happening, but seems like there is always something with me so I'll just ride it out and see.
Oh yeah - my microwave has been not working right the past few days. It has been causing a major crimp in our style as that appliance gets more play than any other in our house. Today Mike did some monkeying around with it (his electronics degree at work here) and rigged up a bypass within the panel so that it runs when you turn it on, but the plate spins when the door opens. It's kind of weird to grab your food off a spinning glass plate. We are probably irradiating our brains too somehow with this setup - I am convinced of it. I am the first person I know who has a hot-wired microwave....... too funny.
Went to the football awards program tonight for Lucas. He got an attendance medal and a certificate. He also got some good motivation or next year seeing the older boys who got all-conference honors and other recognitions. If he can keep that fire going, he has a lot of potential. It's nice to see the boys wind things up like that, but I sure do miss watching the games! Seems like they prepare forever and the season just flies by like nothing! I say we petition for year round football, anyone with me?

They Swim with the Fishes

Tonight we went to our first swim workout at Marshall Middle School pool. Mike and I got there about a half hour before the SWAT workout started and got in some easy warmup laps. Before long, my favorite brother in law Jeff joined us in the lane.

Once more of the group arrived, we got started with the true speed workouts Allison was nice enough to put together. We did 200x kick/pull/swim, 12 x 50 sprints on the 1:30s, 3 x 100 w/30 sec rest, then 100 x swim/pull/kick. We blew off the last 100 swim of the warm down and only did 50x the last pull/swim, otherwise we got it all done.

It felt good to get in and let her rip. I drove us home in Delilah and found I was having a little trouble moving my arms around. By the time we got home, the triceps were downright painful. I had to work really hard to get my arms out of my sweatshirt and honestly thought I might just end up sleeping in my swimsuit and sweatshirt because I couldn't move the arms to get them out. Finally, I managed it by leaning over so the arms hung forward.

I am in for a really sore night I think. I lathered them up in some freebie from a race called Sore No More, and know I have arms I can't lift above my waist that REEK of menthol and camphor - PHEW!

Tomorrow should be fun. Hope I don't need to do any CPR...........not sure I could make it happen.

It's a good sore though, the kind that comes from hard work and building muscles.

Catching Up with J-Wim

Thursday: Since it was my birthday, I took the day off from exercising. Mike took us to Mac's Pizza Shack for the buffet, which is my alltime favorite pizza. Mike let me mow the lawn on the rider because I like it, even though I know it was secretly driving him crazy that I didn't do it "right" (translation: Mike's way).

Friday: It was back to the grindstone after work. Mike, Lucas, and his buddy Justin lifted weights at the Y. While they were busy puffing out their chests and squeezing each others biceps, I went to the pool and cranked out some laps for the first time in a while. I did 2000+ yards, then wound it up since i figured they were probably about done lifting. It felt great to get in the pool again and after getting warmed up I was going nice and steady without dying (always a plus!).

Saturday: Did not do much of anything - some errands, some grocery shopping, took a nap while Mike waxed his cars. Lazy, lazy, lazy day. Boring. I loaded up the iPod with some new tunes (thanks Michele! She gave me a Itunes card for my birthday). Some of the great running tunes I added:

Kanye West - Stronger (great for hills!)

Soulja Boy - Crank That (I can't sing along, but it makes me laugh- when it's on I picture the Pooh style video to the right --------------> )

Run DMC- It's Tricky (great beat!)

50 Cent - I Get Money

Timbaland- The Way I Are

Seether - Fake It

Maroon 5 - Wake Up call

Finger Eleven - Paralyzer

Plain White T's - Delilah

The Game- Lets Ride

Unk - Walk It Out

TI - You Know What it is

Rubberband Man

Sunday: I had had it with sitting around! Mike was out playing with his moneypit in the garage, so I decided to take off on a nice long run. I took off past the high school, over to the country club golf course, down through Riverside Park, up the Kiwanis trail next to the Rock River, over to Court Street, then zigzagged through my neighborhood for some hill work before I headed back past the high school and to home. My right hip, knee, and first tarsal head were really hurting me off and on through the run so I did have to walk here and there, but I did get in 10.36 miles by the time I got back home, in just about 2 hours. I played my new playlist over and over - it was AWESOME!!!!

It was a great day out, sunny and cool, so After grabbing a quick lunch I decided to take the dogs for a walk to Blockbuster to return our movies. It was about 4 miles altogether. It was good for the dogs and gave me a chance to burn off a few more calories and get some more activity in. let me tell you - the Gentle Leader Walk Harness is about the best invention EVER. I can walk my spastic unruly Springers with one finger once we get going. With anything else I pretty much feel like my rotator cuffs are completely ripped out from all the pulling, jumping, and yanking.

Today: Mike went for a run, but my legs were a little sore yet from yesterday's big run so I went to the Y pool instead. I got 2460 yds in. I was shooting for 3000, but a there was only 1 lane open and a couple got into the lane with me (there were swim lessons taking place in the rest of th pool) and they were all over the place, swimming a few strokes then stopping to pant and walk, then swimming a couple strokes. They were driving me crazy and I was kinda tired anyhow, so I hung up my goggles and hit the shower. The thing with the pool at the YMCA is that it is onyl a 20 yd pool. They dug up the regulation size pool and are r emodeling it into a waterpark (uh....hello?.....when did fitness become not a priority at the Y??). With the small size of the pool, you are forever doing turns, its hard to get a rythm going, and it is super warm so it feels a little like. say. someone peed. Give me Olympic distance anyday - swimming at Rockport outdoor pool all summer spoiled me!

Tomorrow is the SWAT swim practice at Marshall Middle School Pool. Mike is going to lift with Lucas then go to swim practice. I have an appointment to get my hair cut, so I proablaby will just go along for the ride to swim practice and do some stroke heckling from shore, and do a little coaching for Mike.

The Wonder Twins hit the Pool

J-Wim in her new pink wetsuit, feeling very superhero like. What should my superhero name be? No wait - forget I said that....... you never know WHAT Bigun's gonna come up with!

M-Dot in his new suit, looking equally HAWT, especially with the googly goggles and flip flops.

M-Dot practicing his floatation technique.

Wanna see Mike swim in his wetsuit? Come on I know you are dying to see it........... (drum roll please..............)

In other news, I found a new way to know when it is time to go home from work without even looking at a clock. I was doing some late day errands around the hospital, getting onto the elevator with one of the maintenance guys. he looked at me and I thought he asked me "Are you from my ass?" I looked at him a while, confused by such an odd question. Then he repeated himself.......... wait for it........... "Are you from IS?" No, fella, I am not from IS.

Yep. Time to go home for the day. The brain is tired of processing complex thought.

I’ll take mine without a jackhammer, thank you very much.

My week thus far has consisted of the following:
Monday: I swam laps for an hour while Mike took his swim lesson with Martin. That is always relaxing, swimming laps. For quite a while it was just me in the lane, back and forth, back and forth. Before long I was joined in the lane, first by Dr Kolste, who swam nice slow laps at a pretty comparable pace to mine, then in came Kitty the Ironwoman to do some laps. That was all good. Then we were joined by an old guy lapping the sidestroke. I think it was probably rude and it pissed him off a little that I kept passing around him in the lane but GEESH it seemed important to me at the time to do better than a 5:00 100m. Oh Well.
When the swim lesson was done, Mike and I went into “transition” and did a 5 mile out and back loop from the pool to the poop plant and back, fairly uneventful. Kinda slow, but that’s just me. I tried to test Jeff’s theory that the half mile before and after the plant would be fast, but I don’t think it made a difference in my plodding pace, sorry to say.

Tuesday: This was the next-to-the-last SWAT practice at Rockport, which makes me sad. I have so enjoyed the camaraderie of the group and the benefits of training with others at varying levels, most of which are faster than mine. It really pushes you to not only try to keep up with the stronger athletes, but also boosts morale to be able to offer support and encouragement to those less advanced (for me this is on the bike).
We swam (I got in a couple 1000m), then we took a bike ride. We chose a route that went on the back roads, which was great for me. I t was a really hilly route and when we got to the turnaround, I shared that there was a bitch of a hill just a couple miles ahead that we had not enjoyed riding (TWICE!) this weekend. So of course we took off to ride that hill. I still hate it by the way, but it is getting easier. We just backtracked our route on the way back, which was fine. It did start to get pretty dark on the way back, which makes me nervous because I hadn’t planned on it and the only light we had for the group was my taillight. When we got back to the parking lot we took the usual 2.25-mile loop around the trail and it felt pretty good. All in all a good training night – pretty easy pace with a good mix of activities, paces, and people to talk to. Sounds like there is a Masters Swim group in the works for the winter at the Milton HS Pool, which we will for sure take advantage of.

I don’t remember if I have mentioned this before but our road is under some major construction this summer. It is a main road to the high school and had outgrown its simple country road status and needed some improvements. The process to widen it, add a bike lane, curb & gutter, and sidewalks began mid-June and we have endured some minor inconveniences up to this point. Our mailbox was relocated ¼ mile up the road onto Austin Rd, the dry weather creates a dust bowl effect whenever the people who ignore the “Street Closed” sign cut through, the bajillion stakes/flags/markers/spray painting all over the lawn, and cutting down all our mature trees from the terrace were annoying but we worked around them.
This week we reached a whole new level of inconvenience. They began the work of digging out the road in preparation for leveling the road and cutting in the curb. There is heavy equipment parked everywhere. There is soft mushy dirt everywhere. Every time I drive away from the house, I feel like on of those dad-burned Duke boys flying up the bumpy dirt road, mud flying everywhere. Monday I rode the scooter to work and couldn’t get down the road to get home due to all the construction, ended up baja-ing through the grass from the school and through my backyard. It was quite a sight I’m sure, but it worked.
Have I mentioned it has become monsoon season here? We have been DOUSED with rain the past week or so. It rained Monday overnight, so I was hard pressed to get up the hill from my house to reach solid road and get to work. I ended up getting up to the wheel well in mud in 4WD halfway up the hill, then having to chuck it into 4Low, turn sideways and gun it up the wrong side of the street. The only thing that got me out of the hole was thinking about having to call Mike at 0530 while he was still in bed to come get me unstuck. Man Rule #4440 – DON’T POKE THE BEAR. If you wake him he is very, very grouchy….
The way home was equally dicey. I came up Mineral Point Rd, a direct shot from work to find equipment busily blocking me off. I could see the house but couldn’t get there. So I turned around and drove around the block (which is actually almost a 2 mile re-route since there is a big chunk of school property that must be bypassed an a highway to enter and get off of – much more than going around a regular block…) to enter the other side of Mineral point from Austin Road. I stopped to get the mail then headed down the road, eventually getting there through the muddy soft road. I checked for the newspaper, then called to find out where it was since I hadn’t gotten one the night before either. The Gazette guy told me the carrier had dropped the off at the mailboxes on Austin Road (Wasn’t I just there!!!!). I walked back up to check and sure enough there was a pile rubberbanded together and shoved between a couple of mailboxes in the bank of 12 or so. Like I would have actually found that on my own, but whatever…..
O the way back from tri practice, it was dark and we saw 3 or 4 guys standing in a hole with shovels, which was surrounded by a huge flood light and some digging type equipment. They looked sweaty and grouchy and I couldn’t tell what they were doing. When we prepared to go to bed, I said to Mike it sounded like they were out there still working on the road… like a jackhammer sound. It went on for while. We listened to it. I got madder and madder.
Finally, I had enough. I got up out of bed and found some flip flops and a flashlight to go see what was up with all the racket. I marched across the wet grass, through the school lot and approached the small group of workers standing in the hole. They did not look happy to see me. Perhaps it was because I looked like a crazy woman- the hair looked like I was sleeping on my head, wearing jammie pants hiked up to my knees, mismatched flip-flops, marching up hill out of the dark. The noise was so loud it was deafening. I waved my flashlight and pointed angrily to my watch. I shouted “It’s 11:30 for gods sake!” but they couldn’t hear me. One guy finally crawled out of the hole and came over. I shouted “Is there a plan to be done sometime soon??????? It’s late , I’m tired, and we have to work tomorrow!!” After several repetitions, he said “Hopefully” and gave me a look like I was insane. I refrained from killing him. “Wahts the plan here?” I shouted. He gave me some cock and bull story about a power line that had been pulled by some machine, blah blah blah, had to be fixed so no one loses power….” I could see I was getting nowhere. I ranted for a minute more, telling them they better be done soon or I was gonna…. (They looked really scared at this point, or maybe it was just hurting them to try so hard not to laugh at me…) . I turned around, waving my arms, bitching over my shoulder at them, and stomped away home like a spoiled child.
Returning to bed, Mike rolled over and said, (with the jackhammering noise echoing through the bedroom) “I see you really were able to quiet them down.” Miraculously, he was not smothered in his sleep last night…….
The noise finally stopped at about 0300. Yadda, yadda, yadda, I’m really tired today. I see myself being called the crazy lady who lives on the corner in the very near future.......
This morning- another Baja adventure thru the mud pit. It is predicted to rain all day and into tomorrow. Not sure if we will even be able to get home, we may need to park at the school and walk home. What do I get in return for all these marvelous improvements and minor joys inconveniences you ask? I get a bill from the city for $6000 or so. Yeah me.

Are you for real?

The past few days have been interesting.

1) I still cannot seem to get the magic marker off my leg from the tri on Saturday. My theory is that my skin is sooooo dry that the marker soaked through to the bone. (does anyone have a secret trick to getting that crap off??)

2) Due to #1 and the fact that all my work and social clothes are either cropped pants or short skirts, people have had some really strange comments about why I have numbers on my leg.

Here are a few:

- while out to eat at the Speakeasy with the tri club Saturday night, a sweet young boy (who looked about 12 but was probably more like 16) who was seating people asked me why everyone had numbers on them......"Is it like a concentration camp thing?" Sadly, he was completely serious. I took a big breath in and explained that we had all done a triathlon that morning, they write our race numbers on our legs and arms. He said "Oh" and was obviously processing the info, then he asked "OK. Did you finish?" I just looked at him and stopped talking since I was getting nowhere. he was very cute, but very dim.

At work several people commented on the numbers.

- "Why would you want to do a triathlon? It's so much work......." (Exactly the point, beating obesity one mile at a time
- "How come you didn't wash it off?" (Umm yeah..... why didn't I think of that?)

-"was that your finishing time?" (Yeah, they write your time on your leg.....wth??)

So, what the strangest comment you have gotten?

Monday we took a super slow bike ride with the SWAT folks - lots of stops and then one guy spoked out and had to wait for the SAG wagon to come get him. Got rained on and chased by a dog. Not really my favorite ride, but whatever we got out of the house for awhile.

Tuesday was SWAT practice. I went to work at 0600 forgetting it was Quarterly QA meeting day. We meet at 4 to accommodate our medical directors schedule (who by the way did not show up) SO did not get out of work til 5. Practice starts at at 5 at the pool so we were late and I was quite possibly the most ornery person ever. Got like 400 yds in, then biked out Afton Rd and back cranking out my frustration. Took a short (2.25 mi) run on the bike path loop and called it a day.

Tonight, we did some necessary errand running so not really much time for exercise, but that's OK.

Tomorrow, who knows..... big run after work? Maybe a big bike? Maybe I'll bike tomorrow and do a big run Friday morning before we take off for Indiana. We'll see what the mood is, plus I gotta pack still........

Figured out today I should have enough credits (and a 4.0 GPA) to qualify for "summa cum laude" honors at graduation. At last, the compulsive A student thing pays off...... (my study motto has been "nothing less than perfection is failure"---- basically driving myself crazy is just my thing).

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!)

Think Buoyancy

Tomorrows the day.
This week we have worked hard on swimming. in between trying to help Mike out a bit when he is in the mood for some observation and suggestions.
I have been swimming about a mile a day in 400 yd increments. Sometimes its the breast stroke, sometimes its my bastardized version of the TI freestyle, which I have adapted for my personal comfort level. 400s range from 8:50 to 10:55 and it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference if its free or breast time wise. So...... I plan to swim whatever feels good tomorrow, bike hard, and keep it together on the run. Oh yeah - and I plan to enjoy myself and have fun - sometimes I forget that part.

In other news, I found out my sister is the newest member of bloggerland. You can stop by and check her out here.

After a little big sister pressure, we have tentative plans to do the Danskin Womens triathlon next year. A very fun, ladies only sprint tri in Pewaukee. I know this is very unlike me, but I may have been a tad pushy suggesting it, but I am excited she is considering it........ maybe Tracy feels like making it a sister threesome?? Hmm?? You listening?? Bueller.......Bueller...... Bueller.....Bueller...... (seriously though - think about it..)

Be sure to send some buoyant thoughts Mike's way about 0800 tomorrow. My boy's freaking out a little, but I know he'll be just fine and probably kick my ass as usual.

Confessions of a Former Lifeguard

As a child/teenager, I swam all the time. I was on the swim team and swam endless laps for hours and hours, practicing my meet strokes- fly and back - but also doing my share of freestyle. I worked many summers at Rockport Pool lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons, and guarded lap swimming at Rock County Pool in the winter and did my fair share of laps at both of those jobs just for fun.
So, I had it in my head that now, after almost a 20 year hiatus from swimming laps, I was going to get back into the pool and be able to kick out 400 yards of freestyle like it was nothing.
Um, yeah. ... about that.....
A- I am pushing 40. I no longer have a 16 year olds swimming ability.
B- I haven't swam laps in 20 years and I can tell
C- just because I can run 10 miles and bike for hours, that does not mean I have the breath control to tolerate tons of swimming without losing my breath.

When we started swimming laps for SWAT practice a couple weeks ago, I realized I probably had some issues with swim endurance. I decided as long as I was starting over with lap swimming and Mike was learning to swim the right way using the Total Immersion model, that I would learn to swim using the TI method too. Then a) I can help Mike with drills and b) I might pick up some skills to help me with distance swimming if we ever get to Ironman or half-iron distances where I will need the technique to conserve energy on the swim.
The TI learning curve has not been as quick as I had hoped. We have 2 pool options. We can go to the YMCA and swim in the indoor pool where it is relatively quiet but has a short pool so doing a lot of turns. OR we can go to Rockport Pool which is an outdoor Olympic size pool, but there is limited lap swim times and they integrate the lap swim with open swim most days. This week we mostly have gone to Rockport because the pool is quite long so seems to more closely simulate open water swims because there are less turns (I know, not exactly the same thing, but it is in my tiny head). Today, I went to lap swim by myself and was set to do a few more TI drills. After a couple of unsuccessful laps, I focused on other swim strokes. It was 90+ degrees F today and I think every dirtbag in town was at the pool for the simultaneous open swim. Little kids were crossing through the lanes. Gangster wannabes were cannonballing off the side. Kids splashing around was creating a lot of turbulence. It messed me up. I was trying to practice underswitch and zipper drills and I was drifting all over the place and couldn't get in a comfortable place in my head.
So I decided on a plan B for next weekend's Janesville Sprint Tri. If I am not feeling comfortable with a 400 free in open water, I will do the breaststroke - that is an easier stroke for my to control my breathing, I can sight myself forward easily, and I feel very comfortable with it. So..... today I scrapped the TI drills and swam a mile of breast stroke. my 400 split was 11 minutes which I am OK with. The whole mile too 44 minutes. I just have to survive the swim. I can make up time on the bike and I can't do much more with my run. If I can do that I should be pretty comfortably in the middle of the pack.
The Duck Toilet Triathlon is a go and I have a swim plan. Excellent. (and shame on me for not practicing sooner).
Any other thoughts out there on my game plan? Flaws in the thought process? Let me know people, that's why I confess all my sins to you...... :-)

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.