Tour de Cure

next month Mike and I will be riding in the Tour De Cure ride in honor of our neice Sarah.
Here is the link to the page describing our story. (and Mike's page)

Juvenile Diabetes affects so many young lives. We want to see a cure, not just a means of managing this disease. If you can help us with a pledge, large or small, it would be appreciated. If you aren't able to help, please donate your time, write a letter to support funding, say a prayer, or whetever you can find within you to help JDRF.

Biting off more than you can chew isn't always a bad thing

Today we biked 1 loop if the Ironman Wisconsin course with Alison, Brian, and Jen, who are all on the cusp of an Ironman event (Brian and Alison are doing Wisconsin, Jen is doing Arizona). They have spent lots and lots of saddle time in the past few months, and while I started on a level playing field with Alison at the beginning of the summer, they are all far and above my abilities at the moment.

So of course when Alison suggested we do the IMWI course, I said sure, of course, love to. I have never done this course before but assumed it is much like everywhere else in Wisconsin I have ridden, so how different could it really be? Should we do one loop or two? Mike's response was he would rather do 1 loop (63 miles), but if we did 2 (85 miles) he and I would do an extra 15 somewhere to make it an even 100.

Fast forward to this morning. It was cold....I had on a tank top and bike shorts. It was chilly at 7am, but we hoped to warm up a bit as we went forward. Right from the start I felt like I was struggling. I was at the end of the pack, hanging on for dear life and more often than not I was falling off. We went up and down a ton of hills right from the start. Flying down hill on Whalen Road, I was smacked square in the mouth by some sort of mammoth bug that left me with a welt on my lip and bug guts on my teeth. They tasted awful. By the time I got to about 7.5 miles, I had nearly convinced myself that I couldn't do this today and I was going to turn around and nap in the car until everyone up ahead of me got back.

Problem: I realized Mike had the car keys. Rats, guess I keep going.

Thankfully for me, Jen doubled back a couple times to ride with m and offered up some encouragement. (She is a wicked fast biker by the way.) I was glad she scooped me up, it made a big difference to have someone turn around and realize I was still back there when everyone else was quickly biking out of sight.

Problem: I had no map and was constantly worried that I was going to be lost somewhere on the side of the road in BFE and no one would notice I was gone.

I kept running through what was going on ....... why was I going so slow? Why was I working so hard and not able to keep up? I had no explanation and was feeling just plain outbiked.

About mile 28-point-something, we pulled into a Kwik Trip in Mount Horeb felling just grouchy, bitchy, and hungry. I hadn't had anything to eat along the way yet, I was working too hard to keep up to even think about eating a bar or popping some beans. When I came outside after using the potty, Mike is messing with my bike. Uh, honey, you have been biking with your front brake on. So, I guess that explains some of the question of why am I putting forth so much effort and going nowhere. Here I thought I just sucked. Come to find out I only kinda sucked and had my brakes on.

Well, the front wheel was free-er after that, but my legs were feeling cooked. There were some nice screaming downhills coming up, some of them kind of technical with twists and turns. There were also plenty of hills. I got up the first of the Bitch Hills, but ended up walking at least a part of each of the last 2 hills of the Bitch Hill trio.

I was never so glad to get off my bike and be done as I was today. I was outbiked, overconfident, and underprepared. But I did it, and it's ta-done. Now the question is, would I be able to add another 50 miles to that loop and follow it up with a marathon?

Lessons Learned the Hard Way Today:

* IMWI bike course is way hillier that I gave it credit for and it totally kicked my ass. I need to get my butt on my bike more and spend plenty of time on hills, especially those ones I hate on Johnson Road.

* Um, check to make sure your bike is in proper order before you climb on and take off. Biking with your brakes on is flipping hard!

* Take your allergy medicine before taking a 4 hour ride in the country, past hay fields and farms. Makes for a much less snotty day.

* Chamois butter just makes your hiney feel greasy. And when you stop to pee you end up wiping it off the important parts anyway.

* I need to spend less time in the pool and more time on the bike and the run if I want to have a prayer of finishing in 17 hours.

* Bring a map so you can get back to the car if you get dropped!

* I bit off more than I can chew, but I made it through to the other side. Next time I will be ready.

Save the Ho Ho: Cycling Shorts Review...... Part 2

I have now had the chance to try a couple more pairs of shorts since my first post about this, so here is the the low down on the last 2 pairs:
Pearl Izumi Ultrasensor Shorts: First off, why do they call themselves Pearl Izumi? Their logo looks like IQ, so I am always calling their stuff IQ instead of Izumi, then no one knows what the french toast I am talking about.... Anyhoo, these shorts really were great. The pad was comfortable and it held up to the long ride well. As with every pair of shorts I own, they were tight around the leg opening because of the elastic, making some very unattractive leg bulges. I am CERTAIN it is all about the shorts and has nothing to do with my chubby flabby legs. (Don't burst my bubble here of you know what's good for ya).

DeSoto 400 Mile shorts: These were the first shorts I bought and the last to arrive. The shipping was free and I got my money's worth on it I guess. These shorts had the thinnest pad (the Century Pad) and were every bit as comfortable as the other 3 I tried. I haven't yet had a chance to to take them more than 20 miles, but they get 2 thumbs WAY up for the short test drive. I put them on after swimming (it's always a treat to try to get into spandex when you are still damp/wet from swimming), and they were fairly snug, but not the way the Trashy Cat shorts were -tight- but rather like they were trying to compress things and support, a lot like a good girdle or a pair of Spanx. Best of all, they don't have that elastic band around the legs, the legs are open which is what makes the 5 pairs of DeSoto tri shorts my favorite tri-shorts for short distance rides. These shorts had a back pocket, a deep mesh pocket you could fit a lot into - a phone, a sandwich, a camera, and perhaps a small dog. The downside to this pocket is it is very deep...... and bottoms out pretty low like you could pretty much fart all over whatever you put in that pocket. Not that I did. Or would admit it. That wouldn't be dainty, and I am so all about daintiness. Now here is where my decision was made. I was riding out Tripp road towards Footville on Tuesday and Alison rode up behind me and said "I don't normally check out people's asses, but those shorts make your butt look really narrow. I didn't recognize you." So there you have it. DeSoto wins, my butt looks narrow..........DING DING DING DING DING ......WE HAVE A WINNER!

Weekend Update: The Horribly Hilly Half Hundred

Friday morning, Alison and I did a 25ish mile bike ride. I always enjoy having someone to hang with on the bike so I was glad she called and the rain held off while we were out there. Here are the details.
Later Friday, Mike and I rode the school bus to Middleton to chaperone the Parker linemen to All Pro Lineman camp. The boys were good and we were able to get in a run on the track at Bishop O'Connor Center. The track there is not great -dirt and gravel- and not maintained well so there was a lot of ruts and plant life on the track making for a challenge. I was doing my own bastardized version of the Galloway method (running 3/4 of each lap and then walking the last 1/4), stopping a few times to watch the BeefCake in action on the field when I could find him. I got in just short of 6 miles (my goal was 8) before I felt a little tweak in the left knee and decided to stop and stretch, calling it day. They ate their half of a Rocky Rococo pizza to celebrate the end of camp (Thanks Coach Dye!) and we were on the way home.
Saturday, we took a rest day and got ready for the SWAT party that we hosted at our house. It was a lot of fun to get together with everyone and Mike makes a killer beer brat. Pictures can be seen here.
Today we took a long bike with Alison. We wanted to do 50ish miles of something different, so we looked up a route on MapMyRide.com that went through Cooksville, Evansville, and Magnolia Bluff. Holy Moly - it was about the hilliest ride I have ever done. I rarely get off my bike with jelly legs and I was feeling the hills for a couple hours afterwards. Not only was it suck-the-life-out-of-you hilly, it was also pretty windy and thought for a while a rain cloud was going to pour on us but it held off for an hour or so after we got back. And as usual, now that we are done, I can say it was a good ride and I'm glad I did it.
Went to Madison in the afternoon (since the rain ruled out a good OWS) and picked up some replacement pads for my tri-bars, an aerobottle for my beloved Hubba Bubba (that's the Diva, not my hubby), and a couple other miscellaneous things - Suit Juice, etc.
Thought we were going to Rockport for some evening laps but when we got there it was closed, I'm sure because it was coolish today and sprinkly/cloudy. It's funny to see Mike all jazzed up to swim and then pout because he couldn't......... who'd have thought THAT would ever happen?

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!

Suck it up Buttercup

Took a quick bike in the country with Mike. It was windy, but felt pretty good. The hills were easier this time too which is a dfinite plus. Mike showed off and was climbing like a goat up every hill. I made myself giggle several times if thats possible by chanting my new going-up-f'ing-hills-mantra........ repeating over and over to myself "Suck it up Buttercup." Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 827 ft Location: Rock, WI Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 05/06/08 Up/Downhill: [+1082/-1079] Time: 05:29 PM Difficulty: 4.9 / 5.0 Weather: Mostly Cloudy 79 F temp; 23% humidity 76 F heat index; winds SW 17 G 25 Performance Distance: 23.20 miles Time: 1:28:25 Speed: 15.7 mph Pace: 3' 49 /mi Heart Rate: 147 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1323 169 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 167 - 185 0h 02m 2% 0.11 mi Zone 4 148 - 167 0h 44m 50% 11.93 mi Zone 3 130 - 148 0h 37m 42% 10.67 mi Zone 2 111 - 130 0h 09m 10% 2.53 mi Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 00m 0% 0.05 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0% 0.00 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 4' 10 +0' 20 14.4 -1.3 129 0 ft 2 4' 33 +0' 43 13.2 -2.5 153 +9 ft 3 3' 29 -0' 20 17.2 +1.5 144 -50 ft 4 4' 04 +0' 14 14.7 -1.0 131 +20 ft 5 3' 39 -0' 10 16.4 +0.7 155 +10 ft 6 3' 57 +0' 07 15.2 -0.5 146 -56 ft 7 3' 46 -0' 03 15.9 +0.2 146 -16 ft 8 4' 11 +0' 21 14.3 -1.4 146 +17 ft 9 4' 16 +0' 26 14.0 -1.7 152 +27 ft 10 3' 20 -0' 29 18.0 +2.3 150 -66 ft 11 3' 39 -0' 10 16.4 +0.7 147 -13 ft 12 3' 46 -0' 03 15.9 +0.2 144 +13 ft 13 7' 32 +3' 42 8.0 -7.7 152 +108 ft 14 2' 21 -1' 28 25.5 +9.8 130 -121 ft 15 0' 00 -3' 49 5378.1 +5362.4 140 0 ft 16 2' 47 -1' 02 21.5 +5.8 -- +6 ft 17 3' 44 -0' 05 16.1 +0.4 159 +49 ft 18 2' 53 -0' 56 20.7 +5.0 151 -76 ft 19 3' 40 -0' 09 16.4 +0.7 143 +20 ft 20 2' 55 -0' 54 20.5 +4.8 147 -20 ft 21 3' 19 -0' 30 18.1 +2.4 154 +33 ft 22 3' 48 -0' 01 15.7 +0.0 147 +29 ft 23 4' 27 +0' 37 13.5 -2.2 145 +43 ft 24 3' 56 +0' 06 15.2 -0.5 149 0 ft end 5' 18 +1' 28 11.3 -4.4 157 +36 ft Versus average of 15.7 mph

Posted from bimactive.com

Six Word Meme for today's bike ride

After work tonight I set out on my pretty pink ride out into the country. I have a 25 mile ride on deck for tomorrow with a swim, but I won't have time for both after work tomorrow so I swapped out the ride for tonight.

I thoroughly enjoyed my ride, although it was painfully slow at times and I actually had to walk one GIGANTORIFFIC hill just on the other side of Hanover. You see, I hadn't ridden there since last fall and I knew the turn was coming up and couldn't recall exactly where it hit on the hill, so I was going slow looking for my turn and simply lost momentum. I had some mean hill climbing goat like skills last summer, I need to get those back into shape soon.

I did manage to get in a little blog reading and so I was thinking about Misty and Pirate's posts about the 6 word memoir. Seeing that it took me almost 2 hours to complete my ride, I had plenty of time to work on a few myself. Here is one to describe my experience today:

Riding outdoors, country roads, exquisite bliss.

To see the pretty graphs and stuff from my ride on Bones in Motion, click here.

In other news, we got the call that Nick was accepted to Charter School. He starts tomorrow morning. It is self-paced so hopefully that will be motivation to work on this as quickly as he can and get that diploma in his hand in time to graduate with his class. Yeah! We will get the chance to update his last graduation picture!

My Life in Pictures

(Click To see my Bones in Motion Log for this run with all the data, maps and graphs.)

Today, we took a slow run down to our usual pre-winter running grounds. This used to be a nice run for us that was quite scenic, picking up the bike path that runs alongside the Rock River. In the fall, we could watch the boats go by, watch the Water ski Team practice their pyramids, and watch a whole host of birds and critters go by. Quite a different story these days. The river is flooded and much of the neighborhood that the bike path passes is underwater after the snow melt from massive quantities of snow, followed by the last week or so of torrential rains. Our path is closed from the hospital through Riverside park, our usual turnaround spot to head back towards home. Today, we ran into Riverside Park a different way and this is what we saw.

This first view is from higher ground coming down into the park after going through the Riverside tunnel and turning right. You can see a street branching to the left. Going forward from there you see a house and what used to be a street in front of it. This next shot is a little closer up of the same area.The part underwater? Yeah, that's our run path, there along that tree line.

See that line of posts sticking out of the water? That is the spot where the path becomes a run/bike-only blacktop path. If you look closer, you can see the street sign there behind it. It normally stands about 8 feet high, but most of it is submerged.

See Mike crying? This is the spot where the path goes underwater inside the park. Behind him is normally a winding path that goes behind that stand of pines and around to the right, back to the spot where the street sign looks to be about 2 feet tall. Not running there today buddy!











Here is the sign pointing to the start of that Kiwanis trail from Riverside park. Apparently its a true triathlon trail now. You can run, bike, AND swim on it!



















Here is a shot of the pavilion where I normally would refill my water bottles for the first time on my long runs last summer. See that speck in the middle of the picture? Yeah, that's a park bench. We didn't wade out that 200 yds or so to sit on it though. Not today.

Here is another park bench in the middle of the river. No thank you, I'll just stand on shore.

When I took this picture, I patted the pocket of my jacket I had taken the camera out of and had a mini-panic attack that my cell phone was not in it. We then back-tracked our steps around the park Family-Circus-style for the next ten minutes. Then I patted the pocket of my tights and realized my phone was in my pants pocket. I forgot to take a picture of Mike's happy face ;-)

Looking back through my camera, I realized we never posted pictures of our bike fittings, so here they are. What a difference it makes to have someone make your bike just the perfect fit for you and the way you ride. It was an awesome experience!

And last but not least is a picture of Nick with Mike after picking him up in Bessemer Michigan to bring him home last Sunday. we had just stopped for lunch about an hour back south into our drive home. Notice how high the snow is around them. Did I mention this was in April? Insane. This same day in Janesville, it was in the 60's sunny, warm and beautiful. Best day for a bike ride all year. It's a good thing we like this kid!

Keep your fingers crossed for Nick tonight. We interviewed yesterday for the Rock River Charter School yesterday and we will find out on Monday if he can get in right away. Best case scenario is he can start right away in the self paced e-learning program and he moves quickly enough through it to complete the coursework in time to walk the stage with his graduating class in June. I've been crossing my fingers, toes, legs, arms, and eyes since yesterday, which might account for why I was running so fricking slow today!

Diva's Maiden Voyage

The bike is awesome, the wind was wicked! Activity Route: Jwim's Black Angus SW Elev. Avg: 832 ft Location: Rock, WI Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 04/05/08 Up/Downhill: [+964/-967] Time: 01:05 PM Difficulty: 4.2 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 63 F temp; 33% humidity 63 F heat index; winds SW 17 G 25 Performance Distance: 23.10 miles Time: 1:38:50 Speed: 14.0 mph Pace: 4' 17 /mi Heart Rate: 148 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1294 174 bpm (Peak) Map Rock, Wisconsin Elevation (ft) Speed (mph) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 167 - 185 0h 10m 10% 1.65 mi Zone 4 148 - 167 0h 51m 51% 10.90 mi Zone 3 130 - 148 0h 50m 50% 11.51 mi Zone 2 111 - 130 0h 05m 4% 1.51 mi Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 00m 0% 0.00 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0% 0.00 mi

Posted from bimactive.com

Todays Update (SSDD)

Today I was off for the rest of my "weekend" after working and extra shift and a half Saturday night. I slept in, then got on the spinner to watch a movie for 2 hours. The flick was "A Love Song for Bobby Long" with John travolta and Scarlett Johanssen - not a bad film and definitely not the sappy love story I was thinking I was going to watch. When it came in the mail, Mike tossed it at me and said "It says love song in the title, I don't want to watch it." :-)

Other random bits:
- Today I watched a truly inspirational bit of video, an excerpt from Oprah. It was a lecture given by a man named Randy Pausch, a university professor with terminal pancreatic cancer. He delivered a speech to his class that was his "If you were going to die tomorrow, what would your last lecture be" lecture. He reprised it for the Oprah show, and it was incredibly inspirational. You can see it yourself here. Do it - it will change the way you look at life.

- Team EvoTri is taking nominations for the group of regular traithletes that do great things for thier community. These folks will get a year of sponsorship and coaching as recognition for the great things they do every day. One of the top 10 applicants is someone I know. Michelle Alswager is someone I went to high school with. She was a lot of fun way back in the day. These days she is a major fundraiser for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) in Middleton, a cuase near and dear to her as her son Jesse is a diabetic. last year we took part in the first annual Rock N Roll Rookie Run 10K in Middleton which she organized. It was one of the most fun events I've done ever. Oh yeah- she's an Ironman too, doing it again this year I think at Wisconsin. Submit your vote for her to receive sponsorship this year by emailing vote@evotri.com with "Michelle Alswager" in the title of the email. Good luck Michelle!

Totally Discombobulated

The past few days have been a complete blur. Last week, I put in a lot of longer days early in the week, so I left work early (about 2pm) to make a total of about 46 hours in for the week. Before I left, I called to verify that the agency I scheduled to staff that evening still had my nurse on their schedule and I was ASSURED that she would be there for the 6-6 shift. ASSURED. Had a nice afternoon with Mike running around town, then hopped on the spinner for a nice long workout. About 2 minutes after I got going, the phone rang - the 6-6 night nurse didn't show up. Choice. As usual, no one was available or answering their phones to cover the shift. One of my pool nurses did agree to cover the shift until midnight, then I went in at midnight to finish out the shift. I would like to thank this SUCKY agency who I will respectfully not name (Staff One Staffing Network - OK I lied) for the most tired I have been in a while. It made for a long day - got up at 4am Friday, worked, worked out, worked again, then finally got to go to bed about 730 Saturday morning. Major Suckage, I wont lie. I actually walked the unit halls from 0330-0430 because I was afraid if I sat down I might go to sleep. I was whooped by the time I got my crack into the sack and slept for a few hours until about 1230. The thing with working nights is I never know what to do for sleep. I'm not used to them so I don't sleep well, and I don't want to sleep a full 8 or I wont get to sleep that night and get back to normal. The I walk around in a giddy daze until its bedtime again.

Saturday was really a wash. I slept til 1230, then got up tried to shake the fog off, dinked around the house and then we watched movies for awhile, then went to bed. I was scheduled for a 10 mile run according to plan, but just couldn't do it - it was freezing-brrr cold out and I felt like a limp dishrag.

Sunday I was feeling back to normal again finally. Got in 99 minutes on the elliptical as hard as I could go (that's the highest it will let me go - apparently the machine is anti-triple digits). Not quite my 10 miler, but punishment enough.

Monday, I was off to make up for the night shift and the 53 hour work week last week. Yahoo! I slept in, puttered around the house a while, then climbed on the spinner. Mike and I were planing to go run at the Y that night for the 2 hours Lucas had drivers ed, so was going to get in some good solid activity hours. No sooner did I climb on the spinner, the phone rang. It was my boss. The NOC nurse had called in sick. Might want to prepare to work tonight, its not looking promising for a replacement. Crap. Crappity crap crap. Since there was really nothing I could do, I got back on the bike and did spinning drills for the next 2+ hours. I got in to work at 6pm to report for a 12 hours shift. I was having a really hard time keeping track of timelines. Mrs so-and-so has a procedure on Wednesday - tomorrow right? Well in a couple hours tomorrow will be Wednesday, but for right now tomorrow is Tuesday. I had several conversations like that during that shift. That's where NOC shift gets weird. Tomorrow is tomorrow except when it really is another day forward and yesterday is subjective too. Totally confusing. Did I mention the night shift I worked Monday was also a full moon? That's never good - makes for a crazy night. Anyone that says the full moon stuff isn't true has never worked one with patients, its all true, every last word.

Got home at 7am and instead of going to bed, I had to wait up a little bit since school was delayed an hour due to getting 8 inches of snow (blech). Got the kids up at 0730, asked them to please let the dogs out of my room when they came home for lunch (so they wouldn't wake me up) and headed to the nest. Slept. like. crap. They were plowing the parking lot behind us (that one no one uses. ever. ) for hours. Once I finally got sleeping good, the boys were home for lunch, With their friends. The loud boys slammed things around the kitchen. They talked in their loudest outside voices. NO ONE came to let the dogs out of my room as planned. Pretty soon I hear someone yell "Hey - isn't your mom trying to sleep?!?!?!" Uh yeah, I was. Not so much anymore. So after a whopping 3 hours in bed I staggered downstairs to the kitchen where food was flying out of the cupboard faster than I even thought possible. The microwave was going, the pizza oven was cooking, the quesadilla grill was oozing cheese out the side. I let the dogs out and waited for the loud boys to leave so I could try to go back to sleep. I tried to go back to bed for an hour or so, without any luck. So I got up and plopped my tired butt onto the sofa and caught up with my bloggie buddies everywhere.

When Mike got home, he wanted to go to the Y to run. I wanted to curl up in a ball and go to bed. He won. We ran an easy 4 at the indoor track and I am glad I did. It was the first time for the Garmin footpod, and I was pleased with not having to count out 15 laps to the mile. It makes the time just fly by not having to be painfully aware of each and every lap. What I like about running indoors there is that there are usually a few people running or walking the track when we get there. We run. Some people leave. We keep running. More people show up, walk a couple laps or run them. We keep running. It feel good to see them all leave while we keep going, until they are all gone and we are the only ones left. I might be slow, but I can outlast them all when the distance gets long.

Today I am off work again, the last of my time to make up for the extra night shift before heading back tomorrow. I finally feel like my head is on straight again. I am fixing to get on the spinner for a couple of hours, but I am little scared. The pattern the past week has been climb on, spin for 5, pick up the phone and get called in to work NOCS. Send me good vibes people - I can't take another one right now!