See Mom Run

Crazy Train

2011-12-25T07:28:00.000-05:00

The other day, I woke up in a crabby mood. As is usual during the holidays, I felt overwhelmed and stressed out about work and the end-of-the-year craziness. I had worked late, stayed up too late watching "It's a Wonderful Life" with Doug and the girls and did not feel good. Rather than just rousing me from that drowsy almost-awake place like it usually does, my alarm jolted me out of bed. Nevertheless, I sallied forth at 5am for my run.

UGH. It was horrible. My feet hurt, my knees hurt, the weird ache in my right bottom cheek flared up, my tummy was upset and I had overdressed so I was hot. I made it up to the clubhouse, pottied and went on my way.

I did not feel good enough to exit the neighborhood for my usual loop and bargained with myself about the easiest way to get my miles in. I ran down to mom and dad's house and dropped off their paper, then headed back towards the clubhouse, thinking I'd just avoid the giant hill and maybe do loops of the regular neighborhood. Stopped again for the potty. My tummy was very bad and I started to think I might actually be sick - lots of viruses going around at school right now. The general malaise that usually only comes with a fever enveloped me. Rather than attempt any hills at all, I ran back to mom and dad's house (it is mostly flat to their house) and realized that running anywhere without bathroom access was going to be a very, very bad plan. So, I hit upon the idea of running slowly up to the front of the neighborhood (2 miles uphill) since I could hit the golf course bathroom on my way if necessary. If I felt good, I would turn around and return home the long way and go by mom/dad's one more time to hit my mileage. If I continued to feel badly, I could just head straight home.

In addition to the tummy issues, my mind was in a bad place. I could not erase my frown and the heaviness of being in that bad place made every step irritating. I was mad at Doug for making ants in trees because it was giving me the GI distress. I was angry at the work folks for all needing everything done at once. I was crabby with myself for not being more efficient with my time. Something had to give. I gave myself a stern lecture.

You have to snap out of this!

Do you remember the T.V. show "Fame," where Debbie Allen says "You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying"? I told myself a variation:

You want to feel better? Like a human? Well, you need a run to burn off the bad. And this is your run. This is where you make it better.

It was not working. OK, maybe a little. But then those angry thoughts kept creeping back in to try and pull me down and exacerbate my foulness.

So, feeling a little desperate, I thought of something Rebecca told us at Hot Vinyasa class.

You have two sides, two wings - the feeling and the action.

Identify the emotion you are feeling, take it out and hold it in your hand. It is good to have feelings. Everyone has them. Examine the feeling, its breadth and shape. Then, YOU decide what to do with it on the action side.

OK.

I took the hard, gnarled stub of my frustration and held it in my hand. It was ugly. It was muddy green and brown with an irregular knobby shape and needle-like thorns and it smelled like rancid meat. I rolled it around for a minute and let the points bite my fingers and palm. I thought about how I could be more productive and how I could have eaten less of the ants in trees.

Then I put the feeling back and kept on with my run. The run to the front of the neighborhood plan was a good one because the long uphill is rewareded with an easy, non-GI-irritating downhill. I made it to the front of the neighborhood and while the running part didn't feel any easier and my GI was still protesting mightily, I felt like me again. Sure, I still had to stop at the dark golf course bathroom and I went home the short way so I didn't get all of my planned miles, but I got most of them and felt better for it.

A year ago, I read The Cranky Princess's exercise logs and Kate from Big Peach's blog posts about yoga and made faces. Yoga might be good for them, but it was not for me.

But after that Hot Vinyasa class, I thought, maybe it might be OK.

And this coping skill, the two-wings theory. It might just prove it.

Or that I'm on the crazy train. Either way.

Thankful

2011-12-08T12:33:00.001-05:00

In November, several of my Facebook friends (they are real friends too) and Elena started posting one thing they are thankful for every day or week as a Thanksgiving project. I could not remember the day of the week for Elena's thankful thing on BT so I just post my things whenever I think of them.

Thanksgiving came and went, but I'm still posting the things.

Trying to think of a relatively new thing every day (or every couple of days) has been a good exercise. It makes me stop and notice little happy things where perhaps in the past I would have rushed right by. I see decorations, pretty trees, how the fish gets excited when he sees me coming. [I am thinking right now that I should be looking for more of these things] Looking for the thankful thing makes me look for the bright side of a bad mood, a bad situation, a disappointment, everything. One morning recently, I got up in a terribly ugly mood. Everything about me was foul and I just hated myself. I got on the bike trainer (a stand for the bike so we can ride indoors) and rode my heart out. I added some extra "personality" minutes the way we used to give the kids personality naps before dinner. It worked!  That day I was thankful for endorphins and their capacity to smooth the bumps and for Doug for setting up the trainer for me.

A similar thing happened when we got the new Christmas tree.  Our previous tree (both trees are fake, by the way) was a stop-gap measure that we bought when we realized that Annika would be pulling up on or near the tree at her first Christmas. The potential for disaster was too scary to imagine with a heavy real tree, so we got the fake one, planning to replace it with a "good one" after the holidays. That was in 2003. Things don't move fast at our house. Doug found some trees on sale this year at Sams and brought one home the day after Thanksgiving.  The new tree is more telephone pole-shaped than tent-shaped and it did not make my heart sing. So, I jumped on my bike and then took a nice, cool run and though the tree had not improved in my estimation, the kids were REALLY excited (jumping up and down) about decorating it. And that day I was thankful for Dr. Seuss and the Grinch saying that "perhaps Christmas means a little bit more."

It is interesting, though, that most of my thankful things are repeating themes. My family, running, my family, running, friends, my family, running, work, my family etc. . .   I think, perhaps, that they are so extra-great that I keep coming back to them for my thankful thing. Then again, it could be because I am subconsciously making up for the years of not thinking of the thankful thing.

A Tale of Two Races

2011-11-26T07:53:00.001-05:00

WTC v. Rev3 in a subjective race-off

WTC is the World Triathlon Corp. They own all Ironman races, the Ironman name and all things Ironman. They charge approximately $700 per full distance race and the races usually sell-out in less than 24 hours. People choose to do Ironman-branded races because they believe them to be (a) better organized, (b) better supported and (c) bigger, showier, more exciting events than non-Ironman-branded races. Ironman is not the easiest company to like. They put on crowded events, disqualify racers if family members cross the finish line with them and take a hard-line with any races that use a name similar to theirs (iron-distance races, for example). I raced Ironman Louisville last year and they ran out of water at several aid stations in the fourth hour of the bike ride on a day when temperatures reached 95 degrees. I am not a fan.

Rev3 is Revolution 3, a challenger group that claims to deliver a family-friendly events and a racer-focused experience. They charge approximately $425 for a full distance race and the races take a long time to sell out. People do Rev3 races because they believe them to be (a) more fun for the spectators, (b) a lower-key atmosphere and (c) cheaper. Rev3 is organized by pro triathletes, has great prize purses for the winners of its races, puts finisher photos up on the jumbotron at the finish, encourages family members to run through the finish line and makes personalized nameplates for each racer. Before this year, I had never done a Rev3 race. They looked nice, but were not much cheaper than Ironman-branded races, so I thought "meh? what's the difference?" However, this year GU sponsored Rev3, so I had the opportunity to race for free. OK, my race entry was free. Travel to Knoxville, the hotel and meals we had there were not free.

Rev3 Knoxville Half (race report here)

My only experience of Knoxville prior to the race was a UT/UGA game, that the Dawgs lost miserably. It was hot, the stadium was steep and crowded, the food was uninspired and we were not impressed. Driving in for the Rev3 race, though, we saw the other side of town.

The Sunsphere and World's Fair park were beautiful green expanses along the river and we found a good brewpub for pre-race fueling. Doug signed the kids up for the Kids Adventure Race (a family scavenger hunt) while I checked myself in. Then, I joined them for the second half of the race until Dagny got tired and needed to ride on my shoulders.

The kids practiced running down the finisher's chute in the grassy park where the expo was located. I met Tyler, king of GU and spent the afternoon hobknobbing with him as we gave out samples of GU to the expo attendees. Overall, Rev3 had a very welcoming, easy feel.

At the actual race, the swim was pretty cold and the current was challenging. I just told myself that it was hard for everyone, so I did not stress. The bike course was hilly! I knew Knoxville was a mountainous place, but I was slightly under-prepared for all of the climbing on the bike. This was my first try going easy on the bike, so I just rode along. Coming off of the bike, I was a little loopy and lost my water bottle and then the jacket for the bottle before I finally started the run. As you can see, I was a bit discombobulated.

The run was hilly, but not any harder than my neighborhood. In fact, some of it was in a neat Knoxville neighborhood! I had a blast and brought it home fast to find Doug, Phat and the Blackmons at the finish. The kids didn't get to run it in with me because they were having too much fun in the bounce house.

I loved this race and would encourage anyone considering a Rev3 event to give it a try. It was a lower-key atmosphere than Ironman races. There was no rush to buy Rev3 branded goods, the expo was not crowded and the race course was not full of spectators. However, I found this to be a refreshing change from the craziness of Ironman races. All of the aid stations and other support were exactly where promised and plentifully stocked. The finishline was exciting and it was very cool to be on the jumbotron. : )

Ironman Wisconsin Full (race report here)

As anyone who has talked for me for longer than 3 seconds this year knows, we raced Ironman Wisconsin this year in Madison with Team Buttercup, Tom and Doug's awesome family. If you have never visited Madison, it is just plain awesome. Doug's family has been telling us this for years, I know, but sometimes we are just slow. We had a blast checking out all of the cool stuff in and around Madison. Doug's sister Michelle and brother-in-law John drove up and corralled the kids for us. Here are my girls checking out the finish line.

Here they are with Owen at the Stube in New Glarus. New Glarus Brewery is also a must-see. We also tried Linberger cheese at Baumgartners in Monroe, and toured all of the good restaurants and the farmer's market in downtown Madison.

Here are Doug, Katie, Becky and me at the swim start. I am on the left, then Becky in the long-sleeve, then Doug and Katie on the right. We found Karen once we got in the water, so it was a perfect way to start.

Love this photo. I look tough! Grrrrr!

Here is John, who tirelessly cheered all day.

Uncle Ray and Aunt Rodonna waiting for the slower racers (me!).

I got to finish with Katie, which was AWESOME!

The gang, minus Doug, who was taking the photo. Love these ladies. The kids powered through and were up to watch the last finishers come through at midnight, which was really cool. I cry every time.

I loved this race, too. However, after experiencing Wisconsin, Louisville and the Rev3 Knoxville, I would make the argument that the race-director/owner of an event does not matter as much as the venue. After Louisville, I was really down on WTC, but Wisconsin was awesome in every way because the town was excited about the race and there were tons of neat things to do there. Knoxville was great for the same reasons, plus the event venue was fabulous.

However, the best thing about Madison was the monumentally huge bonus of Doug's family making the trip to support us. We don't know if there could ever be another race as great as that. : )

You Can't Always Get What You Want

2011-11-12T08:19:00.001-05:00

I wanted to feel strong for the Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon. My pals at GU gave me an entry for the race, so I wanted to represent! I wanted to have an easy day on Friday, a good night's sleep and break four hours on Saturday.

Well, a bunch of life happened. I worked the expo all day on Friday, ate peanuts/bananas/tylenol for lunch with GI issues, and could not sleep because I got another of those sinus headaches. You are not supposed to take anti-inflammatory medicine prior to a marathon, but I took a LOT.

Here are Nat and Desiree at the expo. From my place in the GU booth, I got to see all of my peeps come through on Friday and meet a bunch of racers, which was really neat. There was a great energy in the building, even when the traffic had people waiting for two hours to get in. It was a good expo.

On race morning, Doug dropped Nat, Michelle and I off for the shuttle at 5am, and we made it onto the first bus. Then, the driver promptly asked if anyone knew the way to the start. Whaaaa? But we got there, and dropped our bags and it was fine. Natalie found some peeps and Michelle and I huddled in the lee of a building to stay warm. Doug found us, which was doubly-awesome for me.

Michelle and I ducked into the nearest corral for the start and met a couple of nice ladies and then we were off! I started with my race outfit, a long-sleeved shirt and garbage bag on. It was that cold and windy! I started out at a good clip for the first few miles (8:45; 8:12; 8:30). I joked around with the people around me when I tore my garbage bag off like the Hulk, "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

Crickets.

Sheesh. Tough crowd!

I ditched the shirt at the first water stop in mile 4 (8:47) and worried that perhaps I was not going to be able to keep up a sub 9 minute per mile pace for the whole race. I had picked 8:50 as my goal pace after narrowly missing the 4 hour mark at the Publix GA Marathon in March, which was way hillier, but who knew what impact Ironman Wisconsin in September would have on my speed.
I stopped for the potty in mile 5 (10:55). I'm not fast, but I did find some sanitizer. I told myself that potty stops are now called the Bachman/Galloway method and tried to relax while I was in there as if it were a planned break. And, just like our dearly departed Annie-dog, I felt much better after stopping. I got to see Doug and Amy in the next few miles (8:11; 8:52) and used my emergency Advil to shush the persistent pain in my IT band (should have worn tights!). We ran through throngs of screaming people downtown and everyone sped up (8:24; 8:38; 8:38), but slowed down again exiting through the neighborhoods, on the highway, and entering the park (8:47; 8:47; 8:46). Since the band was not playing on the highway, I amused myself by pretending I was Godzilla as I stomped on all of the discarded cups. GRRRRAAAAHHHH!!!! Then a guy and I made ourselves into torpedos for better aero-advantage in the wind.

The park, though it was a paradise of extra potties, was a dark place for me. My body started to hurt and I wondered (like I do in EVERY race) why the heck I was doing this.

While I wallow in the valley of darkness, here are some photos that Doug took of all of the gang.

Please note that my support tank provides very convenient glove storage in the rear.

Here comes Jerry!

Karen is still smiling. Honey badger is still asleep.

Katie smiling, as usual.

It turns out that I just missed seeing Doug in the park, because you can see that he caught Karen and Katie and their color-coordinated outfits. For me, mile 14 was 9:08 and mile 15 was 9:14. I was convinced for a good half mile that after the mile 15 marker that I had only 9 miles to go. Whoops! Guess who had low fuel, despite never deviating from the one GU every 4 miles plan?

Then, I met my new friend Cathy in mile 16 (8:56). She was looking for a buddy too, so it was perfect timing. Cathy raced at Kiawah when Doug and I did in 2009, has registered for this year's Goofy and was also trying to PR by breaking 4 hours! Yay - tons in common! We talked nonstop for the next few miles (9:11; 8:57; 8:51) and it was awesome. I started feeling bad again before mile 20, though, and thought mournfully to myself, "wow, she is too fast for me - I am going to have to let her go." : (

Seconds after I finished this thought and made the accompanying sad face, Cathy turned to me and said "Steph, this is going to be tough and I will need you to help motivate me to finish."

AHA! A job!

JUST WHAT I NEEDED!

It was like a light turning on and I felt instantly better. Mile 20 was 9:02 and though it still hurt, we climbed out of that stupid valley of darkness. My GI got a bit uppity in this stretch and I had to stop again in mile 21 (9:57), but remembering how Nat recovered herself and chased Doug down in the Atlanta marathon a few years ago, I used my Bachman/Galloway relaxation trick and told Cathy I would catch up.

And I meant it.

Mile 22 was much better (8:31). It was great to have Cathy's pink socks as a beacon and then Doug was there! He ran with me on the windy highway as we chased Cathy. It was great! After Doug dropped off to find the next buddy (he ended up running 17 miles total), I ran a bit with a guy named Gary who was using this race as a training run (he was not even breathing hard!) and he ran with me and helped bridge me up to Cathy. I was very glad in this stretch that I had been too cheap to ditch my Red Top Rumble gloves and tucked them in my shirt instead, because I wore them on and off for the rest of the race.

Levitating!

Here is Jerry! First marathon!

Amy ran this stretch with Jerry and her sign!

The remaining miles were tough and they hurt a lot. Cathy and I cursed at the pain and wished for very loud, make-your-ears-bleed music, but we brought it home with only a little slowdown (8:53; 8:58; 9:00; 9:20) and sprinted in the last 0.2 at 8:20 pace! WHOO!

Nat and I changed clothes and headed to the finish line to cheer in the finishers. I alternated cheering and tearing up as the racers came through. It never ceases to move me to see folks when they realize that they have finished and it dawns on them that people like us can do a marathon or an Ironman.

Here is Michelle with her awesome Team Buttercup cheering section. You can't see John because he was running down the other side of the road taking the photo.

Here are Nat and I after some freshening up and the application of dry clothes.

I broke 4 hours for a PR and final chip time of 3:55:37, met a new friend, saw Michelle's first marathon and had a great day. : ) Now, to see if I can sign up for next year . . .

Happy Running!

The Agenda

2011-10-29T13:46:00.001-05:00

No, not The Association.

The Agenda.

It turns out that I have one!

I had no idea.

Let me backtrack. Last winter, when Doug and I took the girls to run in the Polar Bear Run, some ladies who did not recognize me as a runner remarked in my hearing that the winner of the race must have "an agenda" because she ran the race in capris and a jogbra. Granted, it was cold that day, but WTH? Who cares what she was wearing and how does the wearing of a jogbra turn into an agenda?

Anyway, this scene has replayed itself in my mind many times since that day. I still can't figure out why those ladies thought the winner had an agenda. And when I think about it, I say (in my head) "She must have an AGEEEENNNNDAAAAAA" in a very ridiculous voice.

Anyway, MY agenda appeared the other day when I was reading my blogs. Yes, I keep a list of blogs in my Google Reader and new stuff just shows up when the writers post it. Magic! Anyway, I was reading along and it turns out that the writer of one blog that I have read since Annika was born (Dooce) has started running. She wrote about some of her running and her first taste of GU. And then, I had to reply. You have to sign up for an account to post a comment and I never have because I never do anything that requires a sign-up. Not even online shopping. But I had to do it, because she was talking about RUNNING.

So, I thought about it a lot that day and realized that I am like that kid in college. You know, the one who would sit down next to you on the bench outside of the library in college and want to tell you about his best friend Jesus Christ. If this never happened to you, you either did not go to college in the South or you were never alone in college because it happened to me a LOT.

Anyway, I am that guy! I want to tell everyone about my best friend, running. Running has helped me deal with stress (work, taking the bar exam, motherhood). It has helped me avoid becoming the fat Steph from middle school. It lets me get outside and see the town or just the neighborhood. It helps me stop and smell the roses or taste the muscadines (just look at the vines in front of the VG Bistro!). It helps me remember stuff that I have forgotten. It helps me forget stuff that has irritated me. It gives me the patience to do stuff that I don't like. It lets me think through problems. It lets me blow of some steam. It lets me wave and smile at the cops and the neighbors and people I don't even know. It helps me accept what my body is, but also tells me that I can do more than I thought I could.

Sure, I have bad runs or hard runs or runs where I have to go potty a zillion times or worse, when I can't find an open potty or where I chafe the skin off of my armpits, but every time I am always glad I went and I never return from a run wishing I had not gone.

In all honesty, Doug is my best friend, but running is right up there. So, when I wave to you from my car or the sidewalk and am happy about my running, it is because running is my friend and I want to share it with you.

Try New Things - Class #5 - Hot Vinyasa Yoga

2011-10-24T13:04:00.001-05:00

After the warm yoga experience in Class #4, my yoga-riffic buddies convinced me to try out a vinyasa class. Apparently, vinyasa is movement-based yoga and each movement flows into the next. So, we agreed to meet for a Hot Vinyasa class yesterday.

Elena, Karen and Mila are all experienced yoga students, but Michelle joined us and she is about my speed of yoga (remedial). As is my habit in a new class (OK, in any class), I tried to get on the back row with Michelle, and not one, but two other attendees literally elbowed me out of the way! Whew, who knew that people were so particular about their yoga locations! So, I ended up front and center, which is way outside of my comfort zone, but it was probably better since it kept me on my best behavior and in the moment.

We did a warm-up with closed eyes, which was surprisingly relaxing. It was really more of an ease-in because the room was plenty warm, but we started moving around gradually, which was a nice way to begin. The instructor did not model the poses for the class, but walked around the room while guiding us with her voice. While I felt a bit adrift at times when I didn't recognize the pose she meant, it was easy enough to open my eyes and copy what everyone else was doing. And, while she was guiding us through our warm-up/ease-in the instructor told us about the meaning of the word yoga and gave us some deep thoughts on the idea of unity. This part, when combined with some other stuff I was thinking about, made me cry. Luckily, I am used to crying during the songs in church, so I didn't worry too much about it. I learned that it is not unusal at all to cry in yoga. The instructor also had a few things to say about accepting your body, which I thought was pretty awesome. This jibed very well with the varying degrees to which we could perform the poses in the class. Some could touch their toes, some could not. Some were on left feet, some on right. Some could back-bend, some could not. It was nice to see all of the variations and hear that they were all OK.

The flow class really was about constant movement, which I appreciated. We moved from pose to pose in a similar order to the sun salutations I remember from my last (only) real yoga class and did a LOT of yoga pushups in between the different poses. The pushups were very difficult, but even some of the routine stuff like going from downward dog to warrior pose was challenging for me. I liked this flowing kind of yoga a lot. It was hard, but relaxing at the same time. The heat, instead of being an afterthought, really wove in with the class so that while it was gently warm at the beginning of the class, it got oppressive at the end so that it was a complete relief to do the cool-down poses that felt most comfortable.

Our last exercise after the flowing exercises was to join arms for a last stretch (almost a runner's stretch) on each side. While you'd think that we might have felt silly doing this, it was really nice, except that the lady next to me did not want to touch me. Not her fault that I am a sweat monster. The instructor left us with some good thoughts about the duality of emotions and actions, which was a good way to end.

All told, I give Hot Vinyasa an enthusiastic thumbs up. I would definitely look forward to another class.

Try New Things - Class #4 - Warm Yoga

2011-09-26T11:56:00.000-05:00

This class was supposed to be Hot Yoga, but the heaters in the yoga room were on the fritz. So, we convened in one of the regular exercise studios with the heat turned up. This provided a warm class (no pulled muscles) but not a hot class (no sweating). I learned after class that the format of this class is similar to that of a Bikram class, in which you do a set of 26 poses (same poses every week) in a 95-108 degree room separated by rests between poses.

I really dreaded this class because yoga is just not my thing. I failed miserably at the class I took with the kickboxing ladies. I would lie in corpse pose (savasana) and think "wow, I am not burning any calories here" or "how much longer?" or "what do I need to do at work tomorrow" or "maybe I can poke Michelle with my big toe". Luckily, Mila and Elena (who are good at yoga and way bendier than me) agreed to meet me and Natalie told me what to do in the class.

I arrived ridiculously early, procured and sanitized a mat, picked up towels, a block and strap and brought iced water with me. As we went through the poses, the instructor told us to look ourselves in the eyes in the mirror, so it felt like cheating to watch what she was doing to emulate the poses (I still did it). This class had the soothing music and dim lights, but it lacked a lot of the hippy-dippy stuff that intimidates or irritates some people about yoga. After I worked through my desire for incense, deep thoughts and encouragement, I realized that if you just want to stretch your body without a lot of fluff, this is the perfect class. Now, if you could eliminate some of the savasanas (boring!), it would be only an hour and perfect!

Interestingly, I really enjoyed the distractions of the karate class next door (they were breaking boards!) and when one of the other students' teenaged kids were dancing outside the door impatient for her to leave. On the other hand, as I was struggling to turn my body around for yet another savasana (I am still ridiculously sore in my calves, core and triceps from Total Conditioning on Saturday), I had the nicest thought about the crisp, delicious apple that I had for snack before class. It was nice to just think about that instead of being embarrassed at how un-bendy I am or how much struggle it took me to get into and out of the savasanas.

So, I give the class a thumbs up, despite the fact that it did not go according to plan and that I still suck at yoga. It helped me stretch when and parts of my body that I otherwise would not have stretched and that is a good thing.

Try New Things - Class #3 - Total Conditioning

2011-09-24T17:13:00.001-05:00

Well, as I type this, my arms are still wet-noodley from this morning's Total Conditioning Class. It totally kicked my ass.

Total Conditioning is a lot like what I imagine Cross-Fit to be: intervals of strength training (weights), followed by more reps with a bit of cardio or cross-functionality (adding legs while lifting with arms, for example), followed by hard cardio (zone 4 or 5). Go to the next interval and repeat that process for a full hour.

Before class, I met a nice man who showed me how to set-up my area and advised me to start easy with the weights. He was really helpful and even checked in after class to see how I did. LifeTime should buy him a coffee because he was an excellent ambassador. He needn't have worried about me heeding the weight warning! I selected the lightest weights (green, which are actually 3lbs and not 1lb like I thought and blue 8lbs that I didn't even touch). I did go up one level on the bar to the yellow 15lb bar, which was OK. I selected a red stretch band - huge mistake. Midway through the first set (not the progression to add cardio), I had to drop it and go without. My swim muscles are fine, but the rest of my upper body is still downright wimpy. Seriously. I had the lowest weights of any person in the class, even the grammies!

As with last week's Strike class, our instructor started early and we warmed up fast. I had tried out the '"floating" elliptical machine on the cardio floor to warm-up for 10 minutes, so I was fine with the fast warm-up. Apparently, this is what everyone does, because I recognized a lot of the people in the class from the machines around me. Quickly I realized that wearing my Vibrams had been a mistake. While they were perfect for Strictly Strength (the instructor even wore them), I found them terrible for the cardio portions of Total Conditioning. I gazed longingly at the cushy Brooks on the lady and man beside me while I changed some of my cardio to low-impact when my feet started complaining. If you can run in your Vibrams, though, you could definitely do Total Conditioning in them. I would have preferred a securely-laced running shoe or flat.

I really enjoyed the progression format of the class and the way you could do the low-impact, medium or hard-core versions of each exercise. The class was all over the map on the variations, so I didn't feel self-conscious about modifying when I needed to do it. I don't think the guy next to me was ever doing the same exercise as the instructor! And the cardio was hella-fun. I channeled my college step-classes and middle-impacted when my feet didn't want to do the high-impact stuff. At one point, we did squat-thrusts, then had the option to (a) step up on the step, (b) jump with both feet onto the step, or (c) jump over the step. At another point we did three two-footed forward jumps in a row, then spun around and jumped back to repeat. It was awesome. I was dripping sweat at the end of every cardio interval and it usually took me the whole first lifting set to recover.

Total Conditioning was fabulous. It allowed me to bring it the way Strike did, but because the lifting was more controlled than my crazy punching, I don't appear to have hurt myself as badly. I will try it again with shoes next time! Thumbs Up!!

Try New Things - Class #2 - Strictly Strength

2011-09-19T08:02:00.000-05:00

Today's class was Strictly Strength with Wendy. I have never done a strength class, so I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly surprised.

I have not yet regained a full range of motion after Saturday's Strike! beat-down, but I gave Strictly Strength a try anyway. To prepare, you set-up a step like in step class, lay out a mat, gather two sets of hand-weights (heavy and light) and a weight bar. I picked the lightest weights possible (green 1lb and blue 2 or 4lb hand weights and my pal the 6lb pink bar) and set-up my area just like my friend Carolyn did. Carolyn picked WAY heavier weights than I did. My ego wanted to get bigger weights (some of the other class members had 9lb weights and a 15lb bar!), but I knew it was better to start low than have to swap out in the middle or drop the weights entirely.

We did a little warm-up, then two rounds of shoulders, chest, lunges, squats, calves, biceps, and triceps. Last, we did glutes, abs, core and back. I missed the last bit of this and the stretching because it was 6:15 and I had to leave, which is too bad because I am really good at the core. However, I was able to do the whole workout, except for a few reps of the lunges and squats when my glutes and quads burst into flames. Apparently, the exercises that you do in each workout change every time because Wendy mentioned that there would be no pushups today. The music was good and my only criticism was that I had a hard time following the number of reps. I think I will get better at this with some practice.

I would definitely do this class again, but I think I might run a few miles first to warm-up and after to cool-down because (a) I am addicted to cardio and (b) I am not young or flexible enough to jump right into the warm-up.

As of today, I hereby change the rating scale to thumbs-up v. thumbs-down instead of N out of 10 because the numbers are very likely to be very Steph-o-centric. The overall quality of a class should not be evaluated on my foibles. Other folks may just not like to punch or value the sweating as much as I do. : )

So, Strictly Strength gets a thumbs-up!

Try New Things Offseason Challenge - Class #1 - Strike!

2011-09-17T13:11:00.002-05:00

Climb every mountain

or just try every class at LifeTime Fitness!

Now that my triathlon offseason is here, I was thinking about what I could do to keep in shape and avoid the post-race lbs I put on last year. So, I was thinking, maybe I could just try out all of the classes at my gym. The gym has classes all day, every day and I have never tried any of them except for spin.

Class #1 - Strike!

So, this morning, I found a buddy and we gave Strike! a try. It is basically an aerobic kickboxing class merged in intervals with a strength class. You select a weighted bar and in between sets of kickboxing you do sets of lifting or sparring moves with it. The kickboxing took me right back to the classes Corinne, Michelle, Katie and I used to take at Kim Brothers and LA Fitness ten years ago. SO. MUCH. FUN!

We did lots of punching (which I love), lunges, squats, and cardio. I picked the lightest bar (pink, of course) and was still dripping sweat for the whole class. Some of the other ladies had really heavy bars, but I don't think I could have done the whole class with a heavier bar. The instructor started early and appeared as if she would have kept going if not for the hard stop at 10am. She gave good directions and played music with a good beat.

My glutes are sore to the touch and I may not be able to move tomorrow, so I give this class a 10 out of 10. I will definitely be back.

Brick the Cancer Ride Report

2011-09-04T15:50:00.004-05:00

After the 100 Miles to Nowhere event, I swore off of events. I figured that the craziness of the ride was an indication that I was just not ready for primetime and hosting an event is a lot of work for the family, especially if I am riding in the event.
So, when Katie decided that she was going to raise money for Athletes for a Cure so she could do Ironman Wisconsin, I thought we would just donate some money. Those Athletes for Cure folks are doing such good stuff by even mentioning prostate cancer since no one seems to be able to mention a prostate without giggling – I am a sucker for them. Well, the donation turned into “let’s host a party to solicit donations for Katie.” Then Doug did the math and realized that we needed to widen the net. Couple that with the silly brick workouts we had been doing (10 mile Mountain Park bike loop + 3 mile neighborhood run loop) x 3 and voila – another event was born!

Brick the Cancer was held on Saturday, July 30 and we raised over $500 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation via cash and donations on Katie’s site. We planned to ride three circuits of the 30 mile down-to-the-river loop, alternated with running three loops of my street (3 miles with cul-de-sacs) for a total of 90 miles of riding and 9 miles of running. Doug made awesome boiled peanuts and BBQ and we got to ride bikes with a lot of neat folks.

Adam posing for Annika

Barry and his magic shoes.

The Blackmons

Brian - Mr. Speedy. He was the only other person to ride all 100 miles of the 100 MTN

Cindi - fastest woman alive on platform pedals

Dave, my spin class buddy and superfast marathoner

Katie the Event Girl and awesome Doug, who manned the fort despite having the flu.

Doug's awesome sister Michelle, who is going to Wisconsin with us and who escorted Susan and Lynn on their ride before running with her sweet husband.

Susan and Lynn - their run plan sounds like the most fun ever. They skip and dance and everything.

Tom. We are going to convince him to do a triathlon one day. He is already way faster than me on the bike.

GU donated GU Energy Gels, neat banners and schwag and allowed me to buy event-sized quantities of GU Electrolyte Brew and GU Chomps.

You'd think I would have made my artful arrangement so that you could see the labels on the GU and Chomps, but no.

Brooks Running chipped in some schwag and discounts too and everyone loved the Brooks transition zone in the driveway!

Betcha didn't know that trees and bushes make super bike stands!

Schwag box - choose your own!

My neighbors did not complain, we had a few flat tires and other than both of the crashes that I caused, no one wrecked! Katie and Greg brought their margarita machine and made alcohol-free GU Brew-a-Ritas to cool everyone off,

plus some lovely macaroni and cheese. Becky made awesome cake and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Tom made lemon cake and Karen brought peanut butter crackers to share. It was awesome.

On loop 2, we powered through the flat tire events – good practice to change them! Then, as we climbed back from the river to the house, the sun turned into a ball of flame. Doug had to hose Adrienne and Marlin (who, along with my buddy Larry, miraculously appear to have been immune to Annika's awesome photography skills) down to cool them off after they rolled in early after electing not to ride down Stroup Road to visit the goats with us. Karen loves those silly goats!

This let to our newest running innovation – the hose chair. Some strategically placed holes in the chair, a cup of iced beverage and a hose = instant relief.

After the loop 2 run, Doug packed me zip-lock bags of ice to put in my shorts and all riders refilled our bike bottles with ice and the GU-a-ritas. As we sallied forth (or ground painfully up the hill, whichever) on loop 3, we decided to do two 10 mile loops instead of a longer loop so that we could come back by the house for more ice. It was that hot.

This proved to be a genius idea because loop 3 was blazing and miserable. Luckily, as we came within two miles of home (I had to calculate this later because my math had escaped me by that point in the ride), the heavens opened and it began to pour with rain. The rain was a welcome relief from the heat and oppressive humidity. After a few minutes of wrangling, the group elected to run our remaining run loop and then reassess the weather situation. After an uneventful and rather painful (at least for me) run or run/walk, we called it quits and tucked into the delicious BBQ, cakes and homebrew.

I am very pleased to report that Katie met her fundraising goal and that we are all looking forward to Ironman Wisconsin next week! YES!

So, I am still pretty amateurish at the event thing, but we had a great time. Who doesn't enjoy a yard party with a little exercise thrown in for fun?

Brick the Cancer July 30!

2011-07-17T07:28:00.003-05:00

What? Another silly workout day at the Bachman house? That's right! It's time for the Brick the Cancer workout to benefit Katie's Athletes for a Cure fundraising.

The fun happens on Saturday, July 30 at 6:30am. Three bike/run loops plus GU, Brew, PB&J, Doug's BBQ and recovery beverages. Ride or run (or not!) as much and at whatever speed you like. Finish in plenty of time to go to Kate's Cake party or the NAMC Braves game or just hang out with the Brown Dogs.

Bring your beach chair and children with bathing suits for sprinkler action.

Details here or let me know your email address so I can add you to the Evite.

100 Miles to Nowhere - Roswell, GA Edition

2011-05-30T15:10:00.013-05:00

Or, more accurately, the "Not Quite Ready for Prime-Time Race Direction and Hot as Blazes Edition."

When I signed up for Fatty's challenge, I thought it would be cool to be part of the event and a good excuse to do a nice long ride. Originally, the plan was to do loops of my neighborhood but my partner in crime (Natalie) thought it would be more fun to do a longer loop.

A longer loop.

Of hills.

So, I thought, why not? You get extra credit for doing 100 HILLY miles, right? Brett has a joule and calculated that we actually did 8,333 feet of climbing in our 100 Miles to Nowhere. Regardless, I thought it would be challenging and Natalie and my husband would ride with me and it would be a great day.

Well.

It was a great day, but the pie-in-the-sky plans I had for a seamlessly organized and perfect event miraculously did not materialize when I overscheduled by doing the Rev3 Knoxville HIM the weekend before (race report will follow), work got crazy and it turned out that my daughter's First Holy Communion was the day before the event. I was still putting up the directional signs at dawn and screeched into the garage in time to change my shirt and hop on my bike. No shower, no tooth-brushing, no breakfast, no artfully-arranged display of GU and schwag.

Oops.

Both the City of Roswell and the City of Mountain Park were friendly and accomodating when I asked them about our event. They did not require me to get an event permit and since they were not for a commercial purpose, were small and removed quickly, there was no fee for the signs either. Yes!

Here is the very professional-looking result of my handiwork, which I realized once we were riding, is really small. And hard to see. Next time, I'll have to print them at a sign place. They were really cute, though. I even put "encouragement" signs going up the big hill. Like, "Suck it Up Buttercup" and "You Can Do It!"

One of my many signs indicated a stretch of downhill that was very bumpy. Unfortunately, I failed to heed my thoughtful warning and pinch-flatted my front tire on one of the larger bumps. And, because we had not had time to remove my race wheels from the Rev3 Knoxville HIM, it was a tubular tire, which I've never actually changed. Darnit!

Nat and I successfully wrestled the tire off of my wheel but could not get the valve-extender off.

It turns out that the reason Doug puts my multi-tool in my Bento box when I race is not really to crowd out my GUs. It is because you need the allen wrench to remove the valve-extender from the race wheels. AHA! Nat and I did not figure this out until Brett and then Seth and finally Brian lapped us and stopped to provide advice/assistance.

Apparently, it takes five triathletes to change a tire. (Sorry Nat, for purposes of this discussion, you count as a triathlete).

Luckily, I knew enough to stretch out the tire while Brian removed the extenders for me. Brett helped us get the new tire on and we were back on track. Whew.

During the planning stages, GU stepped in and supplied me with enough GU and Chomps to feed an army. They also said it was OK if I used the Electrolyte Brew that we had left over from the Run at Work Day event. Super! So, we were well-fueled and Doug kept the coolers full of delicious lemon-lime GU Brew and water all day. He also set-up the tents, brought out chairs, boiled peanuts, grilled BBQ, served frosty beverages, handed out water balloons to the kids and kept track of our loop times. See, it was actually super-lucky that he didn't want to ride. Or is just super-smart.

I publicized the event on BT and sent email soliciations for donations to everyone on my phone list and suddenly, my 3-person event rapidly grew into quite a party! There is a secret here, you see. If you put out Doug's beer and BBQ, the people will come. Here is a photo of a guy from Team Awesome, Doug's dad, and my friend Larry. You can see Doug and kids in the background.

In addition to the original six (Brett, Brian and Seth in the fast group with Nat, Kevin and me in the slower group), another twenty-three people showed up to ride at least one loop of the course. It was AWESOME! We raised over $1,000 for Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation!

It is not to late if you want to donate. Just click the links.

So, back to the ride. Dan and Mindy (Team Carpenter) came down from Athens ride. They are real cyclists and quickly left Nat and me in the dust.

Cindy brought a bunch of work buddies and kicked all of their behinds with five loops (on her platform pedals with no clips!). Here we are in loop 5 or 6.

Shortly after this photo, I ran over a piece of glass and flatted again. I had no repair kit on my bike, of course. After I had run about 1/4 of a mile with the bike, Doug's sister Michelle showed up and drove me back to the house where Nat's brother-in-law, Wes, who is a professional cyclist, changed that tire for me while I took a pit stop. Pretty darn cool. Here are Wes, Pookie and Ryan (Team Awesome).

Then, after one solo loop (the only one of the day!), Neal and Scott joined me for the last two loops. They waited until the heat of the day to ride so that I would not have to do the last bit alone. They rock! Justin made sure we were hydrated and we were on the home stretch.

Scott and I headed out on the final lap together. You can see him behind me, looking decidedly less loopy. He thoughtfully pretended that he wasn't coasting to keep up with my slow pace.

Shortly after the photo, I high-fived Doug on the way out, lost my balance and promptly wiped out in the driveway. Yep. Grace is not my middle name. Might have been a bit loopy also, because it was super hot. But we finished and Scott didn't even mind taking the longer loop home so that I could add back enough miles to make up for the running and car travel.

Final score: 27/28 riders in all. 8,333 feet of climbing. 101.40 miles in 7 hours, 21 minutes, and 36 seconds for a whopping average speed of 13.78 miles an hour and 2,863 calories burned while raising $1,118 for 2 great causes (plus some extra for the Colon Cancer Foundation).

And, because I can't resist photos of my kids and their cousins, are photos from First Communion. It was a beautiful Mass and we had a great party after, too. Team Bachman can throw down.

100 Miles to Nowhere

2011-04-19T12:35:00.013-05:00

May 22, 2011 is the much-anticipated Roswell, Georgia 100 Miles to Nowhere Ride through the cities of Roswell and Mountain Park, Georgia. The Fat Cyclist started this event as a trainer ride to raise money for cancer research and the idea is to suffer for 100 miles. Every year I read about this ride and think "I should do that." Well, 2011 is my year.

My dad is a prostate cancer survivor. My uncle Joe is too, and so is my friend Allison's dad. Prostate cancer is very common, but you don't hear as much about prostate cancer as you do about some of the other cancers, so that is why I am raising money for both Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. If you read this blog and feel motiviated to ride with us or donate, please follow the links shown below and give a few bucks to these good causes. Every little bit helps, even $5. The Prostate Cancer Foundation is a support/research organization designed to help men and their families/loved ones learn more about, avoid and/or cope with prostate cancer. Livestrong is a simlar organization, but they also promote healthier lifestyles for everyone. You can log your food, log your workouts and get information about getting active on their website - all for free!

The "official" 100 Miles to Nowhere event is on June 4, 2011 and you can still sign up by following this link.

Here is the thing, though. This is a virtual event. So, since we are busy on June 4, I've scheduled my 100 Miles to Nowhere for May 22. After I decided that I would do the 100 miles, I thought it might be more fun if some friends did it too. Hmmm. Who could I talk into doing a ridiculous athletic endurance event with me?

NATALIE!

So, Natalie and I (and hopefully Coldfire, Team Awesome, some work and NAMC buddies and others) are riding 100 Miles to Nowhere on May 22. And, because Natalie nixed my idea of riding thirty times around my neighborhood, and because we are fun like that, it is a really hilly 100 Miles to Nowhere. Our 10 mile loop includes the climb from mile 80 of the Hospitality Highway Century. Now, don't you want to ride with us?

If so, here is the route. There is no cost to ride with us and I will give you some of the schwag I will be getting because I paid to sign up with The Fat Cyclist and provide you with GU Electrolyte Brew, GU Energy Gel, GU Chomps and other aid-station fare, regardless of how or when you choose to sign-up.

HOWEVER, if you join us, you must sign a waiver and please donate to either the Prostate Cancer Foundation or Livestrong to join the fight against cancer. You can click on the links in this paragraph to donate online, you can mail donations to either group or you can give me a check or cash and I will donate for you. Failure to donate will result in merciless teasing, name-calling and insulting of your manhood, even if you are not a man.

Doug will be cheering us on with the kids (more cowbell!), so if you poop out before the full ten laps, you can always hang with them.

Please note the following Pros and Cons to the route we have chosen:

Pros:

Beautiful sun and dappled shade on a lovely 10 mile loop in Roswell.

Fun riding buddies.

Horsies.

There might be singing.

Definitely some trash-talking.

GU Electrolyte Brew, GU Energy Gels, GU Chomps and PB&J for your dining pleasure.

Cons:

The route is very hilly.

It might be really hot.

Have I mentioned the hills?

We will pass your car every 10 miles. That could be a good thing, though.

That thing about the hills, I'm not kidding.

If you choose to accept this mission, please come prepared to identify your division of the 100 Miles to Nowhere race. I, for example, will likely (depending on the heat) be the "38 year-old women with hives division." Creativity is encouraged so that you automatically win your division

We roll at dawn, which is forecasted to be 6:32AM on the day. If you arrive late, you will receive a map in exchange for your waiver and you can follow the turn markers (already approved by both cities! Yes!). And, what good would a ride with me be without rules?

Go at your own pace. Since everyone wins their division, you don't need to blow it out.

There are speed humps, road bumps, gravel, cars and other road hazards so you must be responsible for your own bike maintenance and safety.

I respectfully request that you please wear a helmet and follow all traffic laws. Yes, even the stop signs.

Gu Electrolyte Brew, water and an assortment of snacks will be stationed in the shade of my garage with good-natured taunting from Doug and encouragement from the kids. Bring your own water bottles and refill as necessary. You don't think 10 miles is a long way, but it is.

I will repeat: YOU are responsible for your own bike maintenance and safety.

Mountain Park Road will cause you to curse and beg for your mommy. If you could, please try to limit the cursing if there are children around. If no children around, colorful cursing is encouraged. The hilly part is only 0.5 miles, though, so try to suck it up.

Oh yeah, one last thing. In Ironman training, Doug always says that a ride doesn't count unless you cap it with a run. So, consider that too.

100 Miles to Nowhere - May 22

2011-04-11T06:50:00.002-05:00

REGISTRATION FOR 100 MILES TO NOWHERE IS OPEN! If you want to register with the Fat Cyclist and get the tons of schwag, go here now. It will sell out today so get busy if you want to sign up that way. I will be riding 100 miles to nowhere on May 22. This is in advance of the official race day. If you want to ride with me on May 22, registration with Fat Cyclist (or at all) is not required but a donation for Livestrong is strongly encouraged. In other words, I will rib you mercilessly if you do not donate. The route is still under discussion but the two top contenders are the loop in my not-so-gently rolling neighborhood (2.85 miles) or the Mountain Park loop (10 miles), including the hill of doom. Ride as many or as few laps as you feel like. I will have plenty of GU Electrolyte Brew and GU Energy gels to share and other schwag and everyone gets an award. I'll post an official route once I decide which one we are doing and make up some rules. So, mark your calendar now!

You Have to Believe in the Publix GA Marathon

2011-04-03T06:02:00.011-05:00

Who didn't go see Xanadu for their 9th birthday?

Go ahead and click the link. You know you want to.

So, I've only ever done one marathon and I was not running it to beat any time goal - I just wanted to finish. I have trained for the Georgia Marathon four times now and finally (FINALLY!) with mucho help from Doug, I did not injure myself and got to the start line this year.

On race morning, we drove Jamie downtown and met up with Natalie, who had graciously volunteered to run with me.

Because Natalie is crazy.

She and Doug had the ridiculous idea that I could break 4 hours in this race. Keeping in mind that my one and only marathon time to date was over 4 hours and 40 minutes. They based this theory on the fact that McMillan's magic running pace calculator says I can run 3:26 if I were fully trained.

Which I am not.

So, anyway, they decided I could do it and I secretly wanted to be able to do it so I went along with the joke. But inside, I harbored both a tiny flickering flame of hope and the nearly empty glass of pessimism (realism?) water ready to dash upon it.

I wigged out about the race and made my tummy sick worrying about it. Then, one day while I was driving home from work, I had an "aha!" moment. Sure, Doug had been telling me this for weeks, but sometimes (all the time), I am hard-headed and have to work it out myself. I asked myself what would be the worst thing that could happen in the race. Performing a walking tour of the porto-potties and taking 7 hours to finish? Well, I've done that and it's really not so bad. And if I only walk the last three miles, that is really not bad at all. It's still a PR.

And that little tiny flame just might light the way to a breakthrough performance.

Maybe.

It is interesting that what makes some people seem great or attractive or talented is that they commit to the performance or finish the drill or give it their all. Lady Gaga isn't worried about looking stupid. Singers aren't worried about someone hearing them sing. So, going all-in was the plan. No reservations. No holding back to make sure I didn't blow up.

So anyway, back to the story. On race morning Doug drove Jamie and me to the race site. I realized in the car that I had forgotten my hand-bottle of water. The one I always run with and had carefully filled and put in the fridge the night before. The one with four GUs in the front pocket for my nutrition.

@#$%*

I texted this (in letters instead of symbols) to Natalie. She was unfazed, so I made up my mind to be unfazed too. No taking it as an omen. I had packed more than enough extra GU, even after sharing with everyone. I could carry my plastic water bottle. No problem. Deep breath.

We met up with Natalie and Brent and all of our other buddies. I distributed GUs to all requestors (plain and blueberry-pomegranate Roctane for Natalie, strawberry-banana for Brent and chocolate and pineapple Roctane for Jamie).

We performed the obligatory line-standing and potty-visiting. Natalie was the fastest and had to wait for the rest of us pokey puppies.

Then, we skipped to our corral and danced to the fun tunes with the folks standing near us.

I tried to turn on my very-carefully-crafted-just-longer-than-4-hour running mix, but alas, the i-pod was dead. Almost bad omen #2. Very disappointed that I would not get to hear "Superfreak" or "Sickbed of Cuchulainn" or Prince on my run, I tucked the headphones in the back of my shirt and put it out of my mind. I have run plenty of long runs without music and if all else failed I could always hum "Tom's Diner" which always works to calm me down. No problem. Deep breath.

Here is the start! Whee!

Just after the start, my Garmin said it was full and I had to quickly delete all of the bike history as I was running, which is not as easy as you'd think. Whew! Crisis #3 averted! Lisa zipped up to us and posed for a quick Brooks Babes photo before she was gone in a flash.

The start was chaos and I kept trying to speed up because I knew we had to bank time in the beginning. Natalie had to tell me to slow down, that we were going too fast. That was not a good sign. I was scattered because of the Garmin and the headphones and the crowds.

We made it to North Avenue and met up with a nice guy named Kevin, who decided he would run with us. We had lots of fun discussing the relative merits of padding in jogbras and other similarly inappropriate topics.

Kevin is in the Army and was running his second marathon in a very short time. Here, we are flexing for Natalie, because we are buff like that. OK, I'm really just sucking my tummy in because my shirt kept showing it, but I told Kevin to flex and he obliged.

We met up with the 4:00 pace group at some point and ran with them for most of the race. They were a nice bunch and Matthew, the guy who ran 20 miles in the mud and rain to pace a total stranger at the GUTS Reactor Run was one of the group leaders. It gave me some comfort to run with them, even if I forgot that they had started behind us. As you can see, the rollers had begun already.

What you don't know is that running with Natalie is always fun. She is the life of the party. Even if you are feeling like crap or having a bad day or your GI is acting up, she sings, makes up distracting games or generally acts silly. And, she takes photos and meets everyone. Just before this photo, she tried to explain a very complicated punch-buggy game to us to distract us from the fact that the hills had begun. Like a couple of drunks, Kevin and I could not follow the logic of the game other than that it did not involve actual punching. Then, Natalie zipped ahead for a potty stop and (apparently) photos with Santa.

I got some water and continued forward progress. Except that this was the aid station dedicated to the Amanda Riley Foundation. Amanda died of cancer at age 17 and her foundation works for children's cancer research. At the end of the aid station there was a poster with photos of her running a race a year before her death. It made me cry. When Natalie came back, she thought something terrible had happened. No, just too sad. And mile 18-ness.

Just after this, I think - it could have been before this, we turned into the hills of Druid Hills. The plan was to continue progress on the uphills and recover/pick up time on the downhills. Natalie reminded me of this, but my legs were already on fire and every downhill step hurt. I told her to go ahead. I did not feel like this until mile 22 of the Kiawah marathon, so it was very upsetting for it to happen so early in this race. So, Natalie went ahead to challenge the hills and I plugged along with (behind) the 4:00 group. Kevin had dropped off before Decatur so I was on my own. This required a small pity party but I gave myself a stern lecture and worked it out.

In Piedmont Park, John, Desiree and Kim were a happy oasis. I knew they had ibuprophen and had planned to stop, but just didn't do it. Stupid, I could have gotten some water here and may have not needed to walk up North Avenue later. Dumb mistake #3? #4? Who is counting?

I was worried about the GI and walked just in that last bit. Once I hit Marietta Street, I knew I was home free so I turned up the pace. It hurt less! I realized I had less than 2 miles to go. No need to conserve anything for any additional hills because Marietta Street is more of a grinder than a hill. Why not see if I could turn it up more? I could! My cardio was still OK. It was just my legs that hurt so I turned it up even more and sprinted to the finish. YAY!

I just missed 4 hours. My chip time was 4:00:55.

It is OK, though, that I missed the "magic number" because I had a fabulous race. It was a complete breakthrough for me. I think I am prouder of this finish than of the first marathon because I didn't play it safe (and I'm a safety girl). I committed to the race and now we know I can run a marathon for time and not be dead at the end and not tour the porto-potties. Yes!

What else could I do if I really tried? If I really gave it my all?

Here we are after some water and food.

So, at several points during the race, I thought to myself "this sucks - I'm never running this fast again" and "Kirk was right - getting fitter doesn't make it hurt less, you just get faster."

But you know what? Those thoughts passed (usually after I had some GU - low fuel makes me very negative) and after the race was over, I found myself making plans for next year and hoping that we would get the great 2-for-1 deal so that we would HAVE to sign up again. And 'lo, Doug has already signed us up for 2012 so there you go. Publix Georgia Marathon, I'll be back to run with Doug and Natalie and all of my other friends next year. : )

If you want the gory race details, here is my BT race report.

GU the Brew!

2011-03-01T10:57:00.003-05:00

Hooray!

The new GU product has landed at last! GU Electrolyte Tablets!

The tablets are quarter-sized servings of electrolytes with little to no calories. They dissolve by fizzing into your water in about 2 minutes. You can either drop them into your water ahead of time and let them sit for a few minutes before applying the lid or leave the valve open on your bike or hand-bottle for a few minutes and the extra gas escapes by itself. The tablets are sweetened with stevia leaf extract (unlike the acesulfame potassium/aspartame found in some other tabs). The GU Brew tabs will be great to add to my hand-bottle in longer runs or races when I'm sweating like a fiend or to use on the bike when I don't need the calories of the regular GU Brew.

I got to try the Lemon-Lime flavor and it is very tasty. In the interest of full disclosure, I received a tube (size shown above) of the Lemon-Lime tablets to try for free. I have used it on several runs and enjoyed some while paying the bills after my long run on Saturday and could even imagine drinking it on a hot day at the beach. Just enough flavor and a hint of bubble.

I am very excited to try the Peach Tea flavor and will be ordering some for myself because the Peach Tea GU Chomps are my favorite flavor yet. They taste to me like peach Jolly Ranchers. I did not notice the tea flavor at all, but my riding buddies say that is very smooth and comes in at the end.

I have not tried the Orange flavor, but I like the Orange flavored GU Electrolyte Brew's light taste, so I think it will be OK.

Happy riding and running everyone!

Don't forget the Wiphan Warthog Waddle 5K this Saturday at the Fellowship Bible Church. In-store registration at Big Peach Running Company has closed, but you can still register on-site on race day. Doug is racing for time and I will be running with the "sag stroller" in case Dagny or Annika (or their friends) needs a little drink or ride during the race.

Get Your Motor Running!

2011-02-25T12:32:00.010-05:00

Or, How My Bike is More Efficient Than My Car.

I rode my bike to and from work twice this week. With Cobb County schools out for winter break and the nice springy weather, it was a perfect opportunity to reaquaint myself with the joys of traffic on the bike.

I had a lovely time. People waved at me and I got to enjoy the outdoors. You really feel like you are getting away with a good trick and sticking it to "the man" when you use your bike for commuting. And, taking a detour down a pretty street on the way in is almost scandalously fun. : )

As I rode, I was thinking about how on days when the kids are out of school (not as much traffic), I am not that much slower on the bike than in my car. Aside: I know that I would be faster if I rode up to the front of the line at stoplights, but I think that is rude. I only lost about eight car lengths between my office and the Corner Grocery, which is about 3 miles. Pretty good given the hills involved!

So anyway, I began to calculate in my head while waiting at a stoplight and here is the math:

My car goes 30 miles on a gallon of gas. Well above average. Doug's Aviator got 12 miles to the gallon.

A gallon of gas costs roughly the same as a gallon of milk.

A gallon of milk is sixteen 8 oz servings of approximately 125 calories each (2% milk since that is what we use) or 2,000 total calories.

I burn approximately 40 calories per mile on my bike when averaging 3-4 minutes per mile.

2,000 calories divided by 40 calories per mile = 50 miles to burn 2,000 calories.

Therefore, I get 50 miles to the gallon! Almost double that of my car!

Now, I know that my bike (40 lbs when loaded with rack, panniers, computer, clothes, toiletries, etc) and I (125 lbs, give or take) weigh significantly less than my very small car (2,496 lbs) so that means that my legs powering my bike are not *really* more efficient than the car, but it does beg the question of why everyone insists upon driving such large vehicles - the automotive equivalent of carrying your house around on your back everywhere like a snail.

I keep my work shoes under my desk and leave my purse at home when I ride to work because every extra pound makes it harder for me to pedal. Maybe we should think of that when we shop for transportation. Hm?

I Would Go Out Today

2011-01-08T14:36:00.003-05:00

The title is a lyric from this song that came to my mind when I started writing. Humming it will make my afternoon happy. : )

My cousin Caroline asked me at Christmas how she should dress for running in the winter. So, I've been keeping a mental log of what I wear at various temperatures so that I could make her a list. Then, I thought maybe other folks would benefit from this list.

Sooo, ta-daaa, here is a very general, Steph-specific guide to cold-weather run apparel. I'll link to actual products that I own and like in case you need to do some shopping.

Below 20 degrees: I don't generally run outside in the teens because I don't have a balaclava and my neck gaiter makes me sweaty. My nose gets too cold to be outside below 22 degrees for any length of time without covering it.

22-25 degrees: Headband, jog-bra, heavy or mid-weight half-zip, arm-warmers, vest, gloves, tube-socks on my hands, running capris, running shorts, running socks, shoes.

25-30 degrees: Headband, jog-bra, mid-weight half-zip, vest, gloves, tube-socks, capris, shorts, running socks, shoes.

30-38 degrees: Headband, jog-bra, lightweight long-sleeved shirt, vest?, gloves, capris, shoes, socks.

39-50 degrees: Jog-bra, lightweight long-sleeved shirt, gloves, capris, shoes, socks.

Caveats:

This seems counter-intuitive, but a vest is better than a jacket. You want to keep your core warm but allow any extra heat to escape so that you don't get sweaty (because that will make you cold), so a vest keeps your chest warm while allowing heat to escape at your pits and elbows. Perfect. If you don't sweat buckets like I do, a jacket would work fine.
Some people prefer hats and some people prefer headbands but you need to keep your head warm when it is cold. Pick what works for you and what you don't mind carrying if you get hot. Doug prefers a hat, but I prefer a headband. Because I am such a hothead, sometimes I just use the band from my visor to keep my ears warm.
The same is true with gloves. You don't have to buy fancy gloves - they just need to keep your hands warm. I have some fleece ones from Sears (gift), some brick-layer's gloves from Home Depot (race gift), and some "official" running ones (volunteering gift). Socks also make great gloves in a pinch if, for example, you have forgotten your gloves while on a trip. Not that I've ever done such a thing.
Sometimes your regular gloves are not enough, but thicker (or windproof) gloves won't keep your hands any warmer because your fingers are too far apart to retain any warmth. That is where the tube socks come in. I wear them over my gloves to keep my hands warm. They are also very handy for the inevitable nose-wiping. I read about this on a running board and it works like a charm.
I do not notice much of a difference between running tights and capris. I always thought capris were lame, but I bought some because I needed some winter tights and could not find any in my size. Surprise! The capris are actually perfect because they keep your knees/calves warm and you can wear them in a larger range of temperatures than tights. Apparently, you don't get a lot of temperature sensation from your shins because I don't feel noticeably colder in them. If my tights or capris are dirty, I just wear capilene long-johns instead with running shorts over the top.
While we are on the subject of the shorts, I will tell you that my bottom gets cold when I run. Doug and I used to joke that this happened because my bottom was so far from the rest of my body. Ha! Anyway, I usually wear a pair of running shorts over the top of my tights when it is under 30 degrees. Men also have this problem with their "equipment," so if is really cold or windy, put a base layer under your tights or wear a pair of running shorts over the top.
The slower you run or walk, the more clothing you need. If I am doing a long run at my slow pace in the low 20s, I will put fuzzy long-johns over my running tights. Very good look, I'm telling you.
The windier or wetter the weather, the colder you will feel and the more clothing you will want to wear.
You do not need brand-new running clothes every season. Running clothes are not like regular clothes because they don't go out of style and they don't seem to wear out. Sure, the labels and reflective stuff may wash off eventually if you wash in hot water (I do) or accidentally put them in the dryer, but the actual clothes last forever. I linked to some stuff on the Brooks site that I have in the 2000/2001 version with no apparent wear except that the labels have fallen off.
Go out a little chilly because as your muscles warm-up, you will feel warmer.
Layers are important because if you forget to go out chilly or if the wind dies down or the sun comes out, you will need to shuck some clothing to stay comfortable. This is another place where your running vest comes in handy - the pockets. For my run today, I wore my Equilibrium Vest and used the pockets to carry 2 GUs, my ID, $5 (in case I need to stop and have to buy something), my tube socks, my hat, my arm-warmers and my gloves. Granted, I looked like I was about 6 months pregnant with all of that stuff in my vest, but I was quite comfortable despite the gusting wind blowing me off of the sidewalk.

That is all. Hope this helps. Happy Running!

The Ballad of the Resolutioneer

2010-12-30T07:20:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again, when the gyms fill up and everyone starts planning how this year is going to be different.

We are going to get in shape, get ahead at work, get involved at church or do more in the community. For about a month.

And then, that wagon starts a-bucking and a-shaking and we fall off.

I regularly visit a couple of on-line communities for people interested in endurance sports and every January, the whining begins: "The gym is too crowded" "Someone is on my spin bike" "A slow person is in my lane" "People are walking on the treadmill" "I can't get on an elliptical machine" "How long until these Resolutioneers are gone?"

It's almost like people see the gym as an us versus them struggle.

Seriously.

Why not embrace the newbies?

Aren't we all at the gym to get in better shape? Isn't everyone happier as we get in better shape? Aren't looser clothes more comfortable than tight ones?

Full disclosure here => I had to wear a suit to work a couple of weeks ago and I chose one of the ones that I bought and wore before the girls were born. The jacket was fine (one of my work buddies thought it was too big), but the pants turned out to be too tight, way too tight, and hurt me all day. It was torturous. I was seriously crabby just because of those stupid pants. Now, can you imagine if all of your pants felt that way? Like they were torturing you? Biting into your waist all day? Reminding you that you used to be smaller? How pleasant would you be? How much would you be giving (time, energy, kindness) to those around you if all you could think of were those damn pants?

So, give the new folks a break this month. They have taken the first step and are poised on the edge of making activity a habit! That is such a great thing!

Help them out if they don't know how the treadmills work or where to find the paper towels to wipe off the equipment or that they even need to wipe off the equiment. Show them how to set up the spin bikes and where the earplugs are. Offer to split your lane or circle-swim.

Smile.

Say hello.

Give advice or answer questions if someone asks you.

Because you could make the difference between the newbies feeling welcome and coming back and making activity their habit or getting discouraged again and quitting. Soon, those folks that stick with it will be getting in better shape and their pants will fit better and they will be getting stronger and happier and that is good for everyone.

Happy New Year!

What You Don't Know

2010-12-26T17:57:00.002-05:00

I wussed out on my run this morning and lazed around the house. And brought a shelf of dishes crashing to the floor, but that is another story.

We ran errands this morning, scoring some after-Christmas deals and using up the gift cards the girls got before we could lose them. Then, we met some Doug's family who were driving through town on the way to Key West for a late lunch at Chilis.

Then, we got back and Doug said I could go for my run. I sucked it up, donned my winter gear and sallied forth.

Into the snow.

It was GREAT! I had so much fun catching snowflakes on my tongue and feeling the flakes melting on my face. Doug had loaded some tunes onto my i-pod since I finished listening to "Once A Runner" and they were great to hear as I was crunching around. Jimmy Buffet has an album called "Songs You Know By Heart" and my running mix today was like that, except that they weren't just songs to which I know the words. They were my up-tempo life's soundtrack. So fabulous. I'm sure I broke into song more than once.

I ran up to the park and around the trails. Even in the wind and snow, there were at least three couples there walking their dogs. They looked like there were having as much fun as I was. I was careful not to slip on the icy bridges, but I still tripped over a root (I think) and Superman-ned onto the path. I tried to channel Doug and roll, so it didn't even hurt.

So, the point is that the people in the cars that passed me on the way to the park and on the way home were totally missing out.

They don't know how much fun it is to feel the soft flakes on your head or to jump into the snowy yard when a car comes too close or to hurdle over the icy patches or to shake your booty when Morris Day says "oh, the THINGS I could do to YOU!" or to wave your hands in the air because the guy on the song says so or to take smaller steps on the turns so that you don't slide out of them (I've made that mistake before!). They don't know the joy of running so fast down that hill that you can feel your legs straining against your tired muscles as you struggle to stay on the path or to race your kid on the last bit home.

I so wish that I could explain it.

Over the Hill and Through the Woods

2010-12-12T08:36:00.006-05:00

Doug and the girls and I volunteered at the Pine Mountain 40 mile trail run last weekend. Doug has run the Twisted Ankle Marathon, but that is the closest that we have come to an ultra marathon. To save the trouble of linking, I'll just tell you that an ultra marathon is any running race in which the distance is longer than 26.2 miles. Doug and I have been interested in the ultra-running for a while and who wouldn't rather run on trails than on the road?

So, anyway, we signed up to volunteer for fun and to get a window into the action. Doug may be ready to run an ultra in the next year or so, but it will be a while yet for me to build the mileage. Volunteering was great fun despite the frigid temperatures. The race was held at the F.D. Roosevelt State Park, which is basically a mountain plopped down in the middle of the piedmont near Callaway Gardens and the Little White House. The mountain is hilly and the trail is what they call "single track," which means that there is only room to run single file. And there are rocks, lots of rocks, on the trail and they are covered with leaves, which meant that the race was very challenging.

Here is a photo of the girls on the trail. Notice how you can't really see a trail? You navigate by keeping the blue blazes on the trees on one side of you.

We arrived at the site to find a happy band of volunteers and a very organized set-up. Victor, aid-station director extraordinaire, had lugged three coolers of water, a table and 2 bins of food down the trail about 1/4 mile from the parking lot to the Fox Den location. There was a lot of talk amongst the regulars about how Sally would want to see the aid station. Here is a photo of the famous Sally (who was really darn fast, by the way) and the delightfully tidy and organized aid station.

Here is our happy band, from the left: the guy who runs 100 mile races, Amanda, me, Doug, the guy who was both volunteer and sweeper, and Amanda's husband?

And again, with Victor on the left. Not only was Victor super-organized and seemingly tireless, he had a really nice camera and took photos of all of the runners and got their email addresses to send them race photos. He sent all of the good photos included in this post. The grainy ones are from my phone.

The guy who runs 100 mile races was a trail veteran who started running ultras after he finished running a marathon in all 50 states. He told me all about ultras and was a cool guy. He left us right at closing time because he had to give a guy whose knee was tweaked a ride back to the finish.

So, here we are in action. Doug would grab the runners' water-bottles or camelbaks and fill them while he explained how many miles they had to go and that this was the last chance for calories though there was water a couple of miles down the road. Some of the runners were totally with it and hogged out of the food, while others were loopy and had trouble with conversation. Several runners were bloody from close encounters with the trail. You can see the 100 mile race guy in his chair on the right. He was taking down numbers of each runner and the time they came through. This is a safety measure to make sure that no runners got lost on the trail and that we didn't leave anyone out there when we closed the station.

Here are the girls enjoying a snack. They like to run down the trail and greet the runners and collect their water bottles to bring back to refill. When they got too cold, we put them in the car with a movie on the computer, which worked great. Then they returned to help out with the volunteering and run around like crazed monkeys. Notice that Annika is wearing her Brooks Ghost shoes too. Hee.

Victor put me to work making PB&Js, which is a good job for me, so I did that while I watched for numbers and called them out for 100 mile racing guy (across the trail) while Doug greeted runners and refilled waters with Victor.

It was really cool. We got to see all kinds of folks running in all shapes and sizes and levels of tuckered-out-ness. The guy who won was holding a 7:XX min/mile pace and looked as fresh as I would after 3 miles. He ran down the hill from the aid station like a deer. The two guys behind him were holding an under 8:00 min/mile pace, but they showed a bit more strain.

Some runners brought their own aid crews. Every few minutes some people would hike down the trail with a backpack and ask if their runner had come through. If not, they would hang out with us and bust out a buffet of food/drink from their backpacks and wait. One guy's girlfriend had a whole grocery store in his bag, but all he wanted was jerky. Beef jerky. There is apparently no "I-can-only-take-liquids-on-the-run" in an ultra. People were scarfing down the PB&Js faster than I could make them. This girl volunteered or ran last year (I can tell from her cool beanie) and she hung out with us for a while because she was early to meet her runner. She had on the Brooks Green Silence shoes. I've been lusting after these Green Silences but haven't been able to justify a purchase yet since I'm currently rotating through my four pairs of Brooks Glycerine 8s. But soon they will be mine. Yessss, they will be mine. In case you want some, I noticed that the Brooks site has a bunch of stuff available with free shipping. Whoo!

It was cool to see the different clothes and gear everyone brought. Lots of people had on these cool gaiters to keep the junk from getting into their shoes. They are called Dirty Girl Gaiters. Hee. As an aside, Ms. Dirty Girl looks like a heckuva lot ot fun and they have free shipping too. Score!

So, anyway, a good time was had by all and Doug and I both joined up with the G.U.T.S. crew for the year so we can aspire to trail greatness. : )

Bing Says

2010-10-01T12:06:00.002-05:00

Bing (insert sound effect here) advertising on one of the blogs I read says that it takes 200 crunches to burn off one 10 calorie cookie.

I hate Bing (except for the cool sound effect). It does nothing but clog up my computer as I attempt to get back to Google to actually find whatever I was looking for. I know my preposition is dangling. Get over it.
You can't turn Bing off. That makes me hate it more. Forcing me to use or work around something that doesn't work won't make me like it. Au contraire, mon frere.
There is no such thing as a 10 calorie cookie. That would be a crumb.

Gu has a new flavor, out just in time for Kona. Island Nectars Roctane. Click on the link if you will be in Kona for the race because they have free schwag or you can order some online. The advance word is that it is a fruit-punch-type flavor, which sounds awesome to me.

The Ironman

2010-08-15T07:27:00.003-05:00

Or, how time waits for no man.

So, Doug and I have been training (with a bunch of friends) for Ironman Louisville. We signed up after Ironman Florida closed out in 30 minutes last year and we missed the registration window.

A marathon. In August. After a 112 mile bike ride. And a 2.4 mile swim.

What a fabulous idea.

We've been talking of nothing else for, oh, seven months.

So, the race number list came out last week. Which means that it is actually going to happen. The race isn't next year, six months from now, next season, next month, later. It is now - August 29th.

I am scared to death.

I am bib number 480 and Doug is number 1941 (appropriate because of his birthday on Pearl Harbor Day, no?). Everyone on the Beginner Triathlete board tries to find meaning in the numbers we have drawn. I thought I was #840 and just had to check it online again. Nope, 480. That number sounded familiar so I went to check the numbers pinned to the wall in our garage and look, there was #48. It was my South Carolina HIM number. Cool.

But, the race. Holy cow. People like me don't do the Ironman. Interestingly, that is what Doug said when we were discussing the "motivation" (quotes are to be read in a sing-songy, derisive tone like Boortz uses to talk about things being "for the children") to do the race. It's funny, though, because I totally could have seen Doug doing the Ironman, even when we first met. He is tough like that.

Me, not so much. We don't camp because it's too dirty and buggy for me. My primary exercise until about 1986 was high-speed popcorn consumption. People like me don't do the Ironman. And I know I'm not fat. I haven't been fat in 24 years. OK, maybe I was a bit fluffy there for a while in the late 90s, but bear with me. Being bigger makes you doubt your worth, your abilities, your possibilities. And it takes a lot to overcome that. Like 24 years. Or the 26.2 miles in a marathon.

Or the 140.6 miles of the Ironman.

I have no affirmations, no motivational phrases, no magic words for my race. I will just keep moving forward until I am forced to stop and hopefully the finish line is where that will happen. Sure, there will be slow-downs or rests along the way, especially if the Fogle GI makes an appearance, but whatever. They give you 17 hours to finish for a reason.

Here is what I've learned in the months of training leading up to now:

My husband is awesome. He has planned my workouts, encouraged me in my many moments of doubt and saved me from my own stupid ideas more times than I care to count. And, he doesn't think Madonna-muscles are gross like Tosh.0

You have to eat a lot of food to fuel the Ironman training. At least double what you would otherwise be eating. It's a little gross.

If you do all of the prescribed training, you will turn into a big slab of muscle. You can't help it. With the calories burned by the hours of training, you might not lose any weight, but the layer of fat turns into muscle. Seriously. Our little gang is totally buff. Six packs and Madonna-ish muscles abound.

Insert musical interlude

-* - * - * - * - * -

So, I never actually finished that post, but I DID finish the Ironman and you know what?

It wasn't that hard.

Granted, I did walk about 20 miles of the run and I was last of the eight people in our triathlon club plus the three other guys we knew, but still. At no point was it insurmountable and most of it was really fun. I will do it again!

In the two weeks before the race, I had an epiphany and realized that by putting in the training, I have become the kind of person that does the Ironman.

That anyone who puts in the training can be the kind of person that does the Ironman. Sure, maybe some of us will never win or even be competitive, but it is fun to your bike and swim and run. It just is.

So there.

If you are interested in my stats, here are the official results - I'm finisher #1793, on page 26. Photos are here. Yes, I was totally crying on the bike and that run photo is very indicative of how I was feeling at the time, but I went on to finish, so it is OK. And, if you do not mind too much information about my GI and poop, here is my race report on BT.

Dancing in the Running Store

2010-03-13T15:42:00.006-05:00

This morning I loaded up the girls and drove over to the Big Peach Running Company to talk about my toe problem.

My big toe joint has been hurting me. I came up with several possible problems:

Gout
Hallux Rigidus
Arthritis
Running Gods are Angry With Me
Bunion

Originally, I had dismissed the bunion because I don't have bunions. My sister and Grammy have them, but I don't. At least I didn't. My orthopaedist said that I had a little bump when he did my MRI last spring, and he thought that I probably had shoes that were too narrow that were causing irritation. Really? All of my shoes are mens or wides!

Well, the beautiful Defyance2s that worked so well for me while traning for Kiawah still feel fine. But it turns out that the new Defyance3s in which I've done most of my long runs for ING don't feel as great. There is a line of fabric (like a strap) that runs across the bunion area. This area is frequently called the "bunion window" but my window in the new shoes has a bar across it. Screwed by the shoe revision!

So, I packed up all of my running shoes and took them to the Big Peach to see what they thought. I showed the guy (bless him for putting up with me) all three pairs of my shoes and told him which ones worked and which didn't and why I thought it was. He watched me run and walk. He did not not laugh or say that I was full of crap. He also did not think that I was overpronating and putting too much pressure on my toe. He didn't think I overpronated at all! He thought my feet were swelling and that was causing my big toe to point towards its neighbor toe and that was causing my joint to displace and swell and the swelling was causing the joint to rub on my shoe, which causes more swelling, etc. He offered to "fix" the Defyance3s for me.

Hmmm, what have I got to lose?

So, here is a photo of the new Defyance3s that I was going to return to Brooks, but which I will now probably just "fix" instead. : )

And, here is the altered shoe that I am wearing now and feeling great! : )

It never occurred to me that you could fix the shoes. SCORE!

And, since I was taking advantage of the shoe store's knowledge and expertise, I also bought a pair of new shoes to try out. Ooh, they are coool! They even look fast!

In other news, Annika lost her other tooth so now Dagny can't make fun of her any more.

And tonight, we are doing GNO for the birthday party. Japanese steakhouse for dinner, followed by a movie at the theater. Woo!

Snaggle-tooth

2010-03-04T13:17:00.003-05:00

So, as I was reading Anne's blog during my lunch today, I thought "I should send her a copy of Annika's tooth." And then I realized how easy it would be.

Voila - here is the photo Doug sent me while I was out of town on Monday with the following comment, "the other one is hanging at a 45 degree angle, but she won't let me touch it."

That tooth is stubborn. We even let her have an apple for dessert after dinner last night to encourage it to come out. No dice. It is wiggly (so much so that it grosses Doug and me out) but not coming out.

In other news, March is Red Cross Month so get out there and give blood. I will be doing so as soon as my phlegm stops being a color. Really.

The Need for Speed

2010-02-28T10:36:00.003-05:00

I've been running very slowly since my plantar fasciitis injury in the fall of 2008. Once I was finally able to run again last spring, I was out of shape and afraid that any attempt at going fast would re-injure my foot.

Now, in 2010, I'm still not fast. I run most of my mid-week (shorter) runs at 10 minute per mile pace. This once was my long run pace. My long runs are 11-12 minutes per mile, depending on how many times I have to stop to go potty.

Last week, I had to get some work done overnight. I decided to get up early and do it since I'm no good after 9pm. I finished my work about 5:10am. It was very frustrating, though, and I was in a bad mood when I got finally outside. So, I took off. I ran the shorter version of my usual loop with the bazillion hills but I went fast. I felt my tension bleeding away with every gasping, tortured breath. It was AWESOME.

I came home with frost on my head (it was 25 degreest that morning) and a song in my heart.

I had forgotten what a joy it is to run without a plan or the i-pod or any brakes. Just for the joy of it. : )

I hope to run fast more often. 6.03 miles - 8:32 minute per mile pace.

Every Little Step

2010-01-02T13:26:00.006-05:00

I had a post saved that I started on New Year's weekend. It had resolutions and stuff in it and I talked all about how cool it was to see the bazillion folks at the gym working it out to start off 2010.

But then some life happened and it's February already! So that post got deleted and here we are for February. Bygones.

Today, a friend of mine went back and looked at his last 4 Januaries worth of training for his month-end review and he's at his highest training level ever. I don't have 4 years of logs, but it was interesting to look back and see where I was last January (nowhere!!) and compare that with where I am now (slow, but consistent). So that is pretty darn good. Go me! It was also interesting because I could see exactly what I did to injure myself last summer - three months of over 100 miles of running without any kind of base to do it. It's a good reminder not hold back so that I don't do that to myself again.

Today, as I was working, I made yet another mental note to tell Doug about something later because we can't talk about everything in front of the kids and I try not to bug him on the email during the day. We walk the dog for 10 minutes each night in front of the house and talk about the non-kid-friendly stuff while we are out there. Dagny climbs up into her window to wave to us but she can't hear us. : ) It's weird that we have children old enough to require censoring the conversation. I really like that few minutes we get to spend together. When it's warmer, we take the kids with us, which is also fun because they are a hoot outside.

So anyway, this made me think about how I'm going to have to streamline some life stuff so that all of this working out will fit in as we start into Ironman training. I don't know where it will be yet, but I'm betting it's the facebook and possibly some of the blogs in my reader. I just don't want to give up my 10 minutes of quiet walking. Lent is in 2 weeks so that will give me a head start on whatever it is and by the time Lent is over, it will be a habit and I'll be so busy swimming, running and biking that I won't even notice. I still notice not sending Christmas and birthday cards, though. I miss that. And I miss knitting.

That Guy

2009-12-28T18:45:00.002-05:00

I did not write the following essay.

Someone posted it on Beginner Triathlete from Bike Sport Michigan, which is no longer in business. But whoever wrote it is good. It is awesome and just re-reading the pasted version has made me cry all over again. Here you go:

That Guy. You know him. He can also be That Girl, and often is.

It is that guy (or girl) who you see at every race. He's at every one. Everywhere in the country.
He is always more tan than you are. He is usually a good bit thinner too. His calves have those mysterious vertical striations that define each individual muscle; as if to say, "I have spent hours training each individual muscle in each calf- each individual muscle fiber in fact." He/she has triathlon clothing that is super cool that you've never seen before. You have no idea where it came from. If you were to ask him- if you mustered up the courage to approach him- you would get some vague answer like, "Ahh, well, I know Dave McGillicutty at Sweetass Trisports and he got these samples, prototypes really, that he….. blah, blah, blah…." And you just wanted to know where you could buy a pair of those cool trishorts he has. Maybe they would make your ass look like Michalangelo chiseled it too. Prolly not though.

So this guy (or girl): His bike is clean. It is also weird. It has parts you think you may have seen in a magazine and, is that what carbon fiber looks like? Half the stuff he has, no, all of it, is stuff you've either only seen in magazines or never even heard of.

He's wearing sunglasses. But he didn't buy them. They just kind of "got there". He drives a special car just for doing what he's doing now: Getting ready for a ride, a run, a swim workout or the triathlon you're at now. He has stickers all over it.

You know when he talks about "Hawaii" he isn't talking about the state as a vacation destination, but rather, an event that you've only seen on TV. He is either talking about getting into it, having already gotten in, or why his last race there wasn't as good as it should have been. It had something to do with some chemical in his body you've never heard of. "Too much polychondrotineospandoplasm in my maldochondriacts during the last ten miles of the run. I should have know better." Yeah, an obvious mistake for someone like that guy (girl). Another thing that guy knows that you don't. Polywhat in his maldowho?

So you get to the race and there is that guy. Setting up all his stuff in the transition area like he's done probably a thousand times before, or so it seems.

And that guy is the reason why so many people are afraid to give this sport (and many others) a try. Because you know you are not That Guy (or girl) and they will look at you and think "Oh, another novice athlete…." And maybe you are embarrassed by that. I know I have been.

That guy is experienced, dedicated, accomplished, fit, knowledgeable, well-versed and respected in the sport. You are a beginner. So you are at the bottom of the food chain here. You may be the big woman or man at work and at home. But here you feel like the first day of kindergarten and you don't even know where the bathroom is but you have to go. It's been a long time since you felt like that.

And you'll feel embarrassed in front of that guy.

Consider this though: You are that guy. You are that girl.

Don't understand? Let me explain.

On the hypothetical morning we're describing you got up early, loaded up whatever bike you have (the old ten speed you've had since you were 16, that old mountain bike from college, whatever), put the gear you scraped together in your car and went to the race. You stood there in your sweats and registered, set up your transition area as best you could.

Welcome to the show my friend. You are walking the walk.

You made that monumental leap off the couch and into the realm of That Guy. And now you, to millions and millions and millions of people - you are That Guy.

The next time you go to work when the conversation comes up about what you did Sunday morning you will say, "Oh, ahh, well I did this little triathlon, my first one, I'm not really any good, I was nearly last…."

But to the people at work, and your family, and your friends, and everyone else not there on Sunday morning (and some that were) you are That Guy. The guy who does those endurance races. Who works out all the time (even if you don't). Who eats right (even though you don't).
Pretty soon it will get around work, what you did Sunday morning, and someone will ask you, "Hey, ahh, have you ever done that one in Hawaii?"

And then you answer, "Oh, Hawaii, no, I'm not that good. I've never done Hawaii…" And to you now it is just "Hawaii". You are That Guy. To someone out there you are That Guy.

Everyone has That Guy. He's better, faster, smarter, luckier. The interesting thing about That Guy is, to someone - you are that guy. No matter who you are, there will be That Guy. Don't let him bother you. Do what you do. Remember, to someone, you are that guy.

When Pigs Fly

2009-12-20T08:42:00.003-05:00

Last night at the Fogle holiday party, my dad bragged on my marathon finish. I can't tell you how great that made me feel. My dad is old-school and doesn't usually see the need to exercise (except for tennis), but now he's thinking about doing some running. He even asked my brother-in-law the cardiologist about his heart rate zones. : )

I can't find the words to convey what a cool feeling it is to finish a marathon. Especially when you are carrying the baggage about weight, body image and sweating that most women seem to carry. All of that stuff is really heavy.

However, I firmly believe that anyone who puts in the training can finish a marathon. The key is that the training consists of not just the three month marathon build-up, but the also the base-building phase where you teach your feet, legs and body that running is a normal thing. The base-building has taken me over 9 years. I don't think this is typical, but on my two prior marathon attempts as I ramped up into training, I hurt myself. My body just wasn't ready to go 26.2 miles (or less). I had built up a good enough run endurance for 6 or 13 mile races, but not 26. For this year's attempt, Doug wrote the plan for me instead of letting me blindly follow a plan I had found in a book or a magazine or on the internet. We built up to 25 miles per week of running my way - by increasing the distance of all three weekly runs at the same rate. That seemed to be easier on my feet and knees. Then, Doug had me add another run during the week and we started increasing the distance of my weekend (long) run. We didn't do any speed work, tempo pace or intervals. All of those things are great for people who want to increase their speed and are racing for time. Those people can already go the distance (not me). So, I ran all of my runs at easy don't-look-at-the-pace speed. That took a lot of pressure off.

On race day, the weather was forecast to be 36 degrees, raining and windy. When it is that cold, my gloves don't keep my hands warm enough. So, I followed some internet advice and added tubesocks over my gloves. Genius! My hands were toasty! I decided that the tubesocks/armwarmers would be a good way to give a shout out to Brooks. Voila - Brooks armwarmers. It turned out not to be so cold, so I only wore them at the start but aren't they cute?

All of my other racewear was Brooks too, but it is so well-loved that the logos have fallen off. Check out my vest - very reflective. This is on the shuttle from the parking area to the race start. I think the blurriness of the photo really captures the giddiness of the morning. We were all smiles.

We stayed with my folks at their new house on Edisto Island. It is on the tidal marsh and is beautiful. On the day after the race, we watched the sunrise (not the actual sun because it was on the other side of the house) over the creek. It was lovely.

Kiawah Island Resort puts on a good race. Here is my official race report on Beginner Triathlete. It was a green race, so they encouraged us to bring our own water bottles, to recycle our shoes and old medals. It was neat. I always carry my handbottle, so that was no problem. The start line looked good in the dawning light.

We went to Joe's condo to stay warm before the race start. Joe was racing to try to get his Boston marathon qualifying time. Here are Doug and Joe before we braved the cold of the start line.

Aren't they good-looking? Joe got his BQ. 3 hrs 25 minutes. He followed one of the Daniels plans (not a high mileage one, Paul) and ran a great race despite nearly (or not-so-nearly) breaking his toe over Thanksgiving vacation.

Our friends Amy and Jerry ran the half-marathon and they looked great as they passed us in mile one. I stayed on plan, though, and didn't go faster than I had trained (10 mins per mile). It was cool to see the miles click by as the race went on. We had Gus every 4 miles (I alternated Roctane and regular Gu) and I drank from my water bottle whenever I felt like it. Doug had some Chomps and also had Gus when I did. My IT band got very angry in mile 14, but as I warmed up again by going faster, it felt better. Whew! I felt pretty good until Doug told me to go on in mile 22. He was a great security blanket for the race. I had a lot better race because he ran with me. It was easier to stay in my plan because he was there. If I had been by myself, I would have been tempted to speed it up or slow it down and that would have been bad.

Then, in mile 22, I was on my own. My molasses pace and his Ironman had made Doug's quads cramp up.

Other than the IT, my GI and the usual aches and pains, the race hadn't hurt until then. Or, maybe they had hurt, but I'd been too busy to notice. But suddenly, my foot hurt and my knees were flashing red pain with every step. The little hills on the path to get it level with the road were suddenly like mountains. It felt like was I doing 8 minute miles when it was really 10-ish minutes per mile.

I cried those last two miles. For the sheer ridiculousness that I was going to run a marathon. I remembered back in elementary school when we had to run the mile for the physical fitness test and how I couldn't even walk it. I remembered how I used to be fat in middle school and how much I hated my body. And it was so great to be coming to the finish. I wanted to share the love with all of the cops, the volunteers picking up trash, the folks giving out water and the other runners. I tried to thank them all without bawling, but ended up only thanking some and just patting the other runners on the shoulder as I tried to keep it together.

Then, our friends were there when I finished and it was awesome. I loved it. : )

Doug is an Ironman!

2009-11-14T14:43:00.005-05:00

Last weekend, we traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina for the Beach 2 Battleship half ironman distance race. Doug was racing and I was volunteering and sherpa-ing.

I think that I had as much (if not more) fun than Doug did.

Here is Doug taking his final bags to the car on race morning at about 4:15am. We arrived with all of our stuff at the race location at about 4:50am. I know! I was early! This load of stuff is after he had already dropped off four (4) other bags with his bike on Friday. We don't know how people fly to Ironman (IM) races - there is just too much stuff to bring!

For those who don't know, the Ironman race distances are 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling and 26.2 miles of running. That's a total of 140.6 miles traveled under your own power.

Anyway, our friend Neal was also doing this race as his first Ironman. Here are the two hotties as they came to be body-marked.

So, my first volunteer job was body-marking. That means that I wrote the athlete's numbers on their arms and legs and wrote their age on their calf. While I wrote, I made small talk with the racers and assured them that you really could float the whole swim and still make the time cut-off. They time this race start so that racers swim with the current and it is a beautiful thing.

Here is my new friend, Kelly, who has a 19 month old and is expecting her second child in February. She is a tough lady because she body-marked with me for three hours and then we helped load the transition bags onto the truck and then we stood around watching racers come out of the water and cheering them onto the bike course for a good hour and a half.

Here is the transition area before all of the bikes got there on Friday. 1500 racers if you count the full and half ironman participants.

Here is Doug giving the fist of strength as he comes up to transition area #1 from the swim. No idea who that bike guy is.

After Kelly and I watched all of the full ironman and half ironman racers come up from the swim and exit T1, I went for a little run. The race's swim start was in Wrightsville Beach, NC. This is a peninsula of Cape Fear. I ran to the fancy houses on the north end of the beach and then back south to the older part of the beach to where Doug had started the swim, then I added a loop of the park in which T1 was located (Hwy 74 to Hwy 76) to get to my 10 miles. Little did I know that that loop happened to circle a tidal creek park and was a beautiful sidewalk around the creek in the shade of oak trees. It was so great. What a beautiful run.

Then, after wolfing down some Fat Tony's dinner leftovers, I showered and drove into downtown Wilmington to begin my volunteer shift on the run course. You'd think that with all of my love for Gu, I would have remembered to bring some for my run. Unfortunately not. I thought the PB&H we'd eaten for breakfast would be plenty. I neglected to consider the 4.5 hours that would elapse between breakfast and my run, so that was a big mistake. Still, my run was lovely and I made good use of the Hampton Inn mints in the car to give me some fuel on the way back to the hotel. Speaking of which, the Hampton Inn was totally awesome. It was brand new, had a super breakfast bar, free fridge and microwave, wireless internet and a beautiful clean room and bathroom. And, it was very reasonably priced. Gotta love that.

After checking in at the volunteer station downtown, I took the trolley to the Battleship North Carolina park and situated myself for my shift. I kept using my phone to send updates on the race to Facebook. Natalie wanted to know if I had on a cute outfit.

Um, no. With the temperature falling into the mid-30s, I was rocking the rainbow layered look. Please note, however, the Moving Comfort thermal running shirt with thumb-holes and the Gu visor. Gotta rock the team colors!

I got to direct the bike traffic coming into the Battleship area (the finish of the bike) across Hwy 421. The New Haven Sheriff's Office folks directed the car traffic and I yelled my head off and waved my arms to tell the cyclists where to go. It was super-fun. The officers seemed relieved to have me there. Apparently, they needed someone with a big mouth! I had a good time talking with the officers, encouraging the bikers and yelling for the runners who were leaving the park and heading back in.

Here is Doug and his BT friend Mr.Tony as they came in after their first loop. They were moving!

Neal came by also and though he wasn't going as fast (his IT band had locked up), he was his usual smiling self. I ran with him a few hundred yards as he went back out for loop 2. Then, it got dark. I made another friend (Rebecca) who also had a 19 month old. She and her daughter were watching for Mr. Rebecca to come by. He was having a tough day because the swine flu had swept through their house the week before, but was determined to stick it out. It was so cool to see all of the runners come by and encourage them. As they came by for the final stretch, their strides eased and their limps went away (just like Forrest Gump's braces flew off in the movie) and they started to run gracefully for the final stretch to the finish line. It was so neat.

Doug came by right before 12 hours, just like he'd planned. I had put my backpack on so I could run in with him, but whew! He was still going really fast! He ran it in and finished at 12:01:40. This is rock-star pace for age group (not pro) triathletes. Way to go, Doug!

We got him dry clothes and some food and talked with some of the other BT folks and a nice lady who was waiting for her son to finish. Then, Neal came in and Bep, Doug and I ran in with him.

It was great. I really had a blast. Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach were totally fun and would be a great place to visit with the girls. The beach was lovely and I'd love to go back and tour the Battleship North Carolina.

Doug and I had planned to sign up for Ironman Florida 2010 on the way back to Atlanta. However, we stopped to eat early, so registration hadn't opened yet. So, we decided to wait until we got home. That proved to be a poor decision because IM Florida registration closed while we were still on GA 400. I wasn't too bummed because I knew that it would be a stretch for me to get in Ironman shape in 2010 and Florida is flat, which is hard for me. 2011 would be fine.

Then, we looked online and Ironman Louisville was still open. Sure, it's 2 months earlier, hot and hilly. We signed up anyway.

Ironman Lou, here comes team Bachman. August 29, 2010.

Atlantic Coast Half Iron Distance Triathlon

2009-10-22T10:18:00.003-05:00

Doug picked the Atlantic Coast Triathlon for us to do this fall because of its proximity to my Aunt Gena and Uncle Pat in Jacksonville. They volunteered to keep the kids for us, so we loaded up the car and made the trip.

Since I've been recovering from/living with my plantar fasciitis since last fall, my initial hopes for this race were low. I figured I'd try to get as fit as possible on the bike and swim and just hope for good things on the run. And, after some time and perspective on my actual race performance, I think that is exactly what I did.

In my actual race report here, you can read the gory details of my race. Here are the photos. I feel compelled to note that the photos are stretched in width because I'm not quite that big. I'm just saying. . . .

Anyway, the nutshell is that I did pretty well on the swim (despite discomfort with the ocean), hammered the bike and then crashed and burned on the run. Immediately after the race I was very disappointed with my performance on the run, but frankly I just used up too much juice on the bike so I was toasted for the run. Plus, my run volume (8 miles 3x per week) has just not been enough to support a good half marathon. I should have been able to hold 10 minutes per mile if I had appropriately paced the bike.

The real story here is that this was a GREAT RACE! Fernandina Beach is lovely, the weather was beautiful and the race was well-organized. They had 4 hand-ups on the bike and 7 water stops (some you passed more than once, too) on the run. It was great. I had a marvelous time and really enjoyed cheering on the other runners. I got crabby on the bike because of the drafters, but I just need to increase my bike fitness so I can pass these azzholes or suck it up, buttercup.

We had a great time with my aunt and uncle. They pulled out all the stops for our visit and it was great. They went to the zoo with the girls, where they petting stingrays and fed the giraffes. Dagny and Annika had a complete blast. They decorated cupcakes, made popsicle stick scarecrows, made lollipop ghosts and pipe-cleaner/button jewelry. Annika made dip-dye fans and art while Dagny took a nap on Friday, then she fell asleep before dinner on Saturday. While Dagny was asleep, Aunt Gena made the macaroni and cheese that Annika had requested earlier in the day.

Only, it wasn't Kraft or Velveeta.

It was macaroni pie!

In my house, macaroni pie is a lost delicacy. My Mama Maude (Aunt Gena's and my Dad's mom) made us macaroni pie every time we visited. It is almost a macaroni and cheese custard. But we believed the recipe was lost when Mama Maude died in 1986. Dad and Mom had no idea how to make it and Mama Maude was very vague about it when we asked her. And here, Aunt Gena was making it like it was nothing! She's known how to make it all of these years! Maybe she even knows how to make coconut cream pie too!

Macaroni Pie

Elbow macaroni, cooked
Shredded cheddar cheese
Milk
Eggs
Paprika
Optional - Cayenne Pepper and/or Hot Sauce

Cook macaroni according to package directions to al dente. Put in a corningware dish (Mama Maude used to use a big square dish, about 6 inches tall). In a bowl vigorously mix 3-7 eggs and some milk. Gena says more eggs, Pat says less. Pour the milk/eggs over the macaroni until the macaroni is floating. Yes, floating. Your actual amounts of milk and eggs will vary depending on the amount of noodles and shape of dish. Gena used a flat dish and about 1/3 lb of macaroni with 4 eggs and 1 1/2 cups of milk. Sprinkle the macaroni with the paprika and/or cayenne or hot sauce. Sprinkle the cheese over the macaroni to cover. If you want, mix some cheese into the macaroni first. I say yes. Mama Maude sometimes used Velveeta cheese with her cheddar, but Gena used just cheddar. Cook on 350 degrees until the pie is just getting set but still really jiggly in the middle. Allow to rest on the counter until room temperature. It will continue to cook while resting and firm up a little. Pat's family prefers a loose texture, so they use more milk and cook less. Mama Maude preferred a firmer texture, so she used more eggs and cooked longer.

Oh, and despite my crappy run at the race, I won 4th in my age group! I even got a nice trophy. Here are the 0fficial results. I can't say which of the ladies were the drafters, but Doug heckled one of them on the run. Hee.

In other news, the new Couch to 5K group is off and running. They are running 3 minutes and walking 27 minutes three times this week. Go runners - Happy Running!

Couch to 5K Club Rides Again!

2009-10-12T12:10:00.003-05:00

OK Gang, my race report is way overdue, and I'll get to it over the weekend. And with it will come some updates on our sweet girls and our fabulous trip to Jacksonville - including a great recipe.

However, in the meantime, if anyone is interested in doing the Couch to 5K run program (liberally copied from www.beginnertriathlete.com) starting this week or thereabouts, post here or send me an email through blogger. Or pop on over to facebook or beginnertriathlete and pmail me there. I'll send you a plan. No one ever seemed to get the hang of the shared google document, so I'll just post the results on here this time.

My sister is doing the aggressive couch to 5K plan (16 weeks), but I can adjust this plan to be longer or shorter depending on your needs.

Happy running!

Ironkids Race Results

2009-09-13T13:28:00.005-05:00

Whew! This was a tough race! Everyone in our house needs a nap after sherpa-ing Annika for the Ironkids Triathlon in Alpharetta.

Here are the race results from PRIME TIME. Local race directors should look into this company because they have the results up 2 hours after the awards ceremony. Very nice:
Age Group Finisher: 18
Name: Bachman,Annika
Race Number: 2
Swim Time (50 meters): 2:40
Bike Time (2 miles): 16:22
Run Time (500 yards): 3:02
Total Time: 22:05.8

There were rumored to be 800 kids registered for this race and it was a madhouse. We arrived onsite about 1.5 hours prior to the scheduled start, set-up the transition area, used the potties, ate a bunch of apple-cinnamon Chomps and then cheered on some other racers.

Here is Annika's bike in transition. Note the Gu Roctane stickers and packets of Gu taped to her bike and the "slicks" that Doug borrowed from the jogging stroller so she could be faster. You'd think that extra fuel would be unnecessary for a 22 minute race. You'd be wrong. Add in the extra hour of waiting around and you'd be really super-wrong.

Here is Annika ready to go - flexing for the camera.

Then, suddenly it was time! Annika and I went to the pool to get ready for her start. It took forever to start because the race directors wouldn't start the next group until after the previous group had cleared the bike course. A full hour after she was supposed to start, Annika's group made their way to the start line. It was a time trial start so each kid ran and jumped into the pool (no diving) solo and was timed from that point. Annika lost her chip on the jump, but the race folks fished it out and strapped it back on her at the swim finish. Very on-the-ball of them! I don't know if she even knew she had lost it. She motored through transition (it takes a long time to apply a skort, shoes and socks) and hit the bike. Dagny, Nana, Caro and I cheered from the mid-point of the course, while Doug ran the whole bike course with her and she did awesome. She never stopped and went up some pretty big hills.

Then, she zipped back into transition, ditched the bike and helmet and headed out for the run. Doug ran with her and when I realized how short the run was, I took off after them with Dagny on my shoulders. My mom and Caro came fast on my heels. We just made it to the finish with her - yelling encouragement all the way, of course.

Then, she wanted to wait to see Lilly finish. I asked if she wanted to go back onto the run course to find her and she said yes, so we ran back around the baseball fields until we found Lilly and ran in with her. It was great.

Annika did so well. We are so proud of her. What a trooper. : )

Doug's race yesterday went well also. We think he may have placed in his age group, but the race results are not up yet. It was a good race and Sloppy Floyd State Park is lovely, so we had a good time. We had some worries when Annika barfed in the car on the ride up to Rome, though. It turns out that she made herself carsick by staring at the lines on the road as we drove. At least she wasn't sick!

Dagny tolerated all of this race-watching with a lot of snacks and Mom's Team ZootGu visor.

Everyone is very tired after a weekend of racing and we will sleep well tonight!

You Say It's My Birthday!

2009-08-20T11:53:00.003-05:00

Whew! We have been busy these last couple of weekends, what with school starting and Dagny going back to her "school" and the two races that Doug signed me up for.

That's right.

He IS all that.

On my actual birthday, I got up and went for a run as usual. When I got back, Doug and the girls had made me muffins (breakfast of champions) and an unusual gift certificate. It listed two upcoming sprint triathlons and said it entitled the bearer to a ride, a sherpa and a cheering section.

How cool is that?

So, on August 9, Doug drove the whole family to Chattanooga for Quintana Roo's The Sports Barn sprint. It was a point to point race with two separate transition areas. We swam in Lake Chickamauga, then biked parallel to the river back downtown and ran a short loop in the downtown area. It was so much fun! Here is my race report. Quintana Roo is based in Chattanooga and raffled off a bike and a wetsuit. Though I won neither, it was pretty cool of them. This was a great race, especially for beginners and Chattanooga is a fun town.

Then, just 6 days later, Doug drove to Cordele and Dagny endured many ant bites so I could defend last year's 2nd place victory at the Georgia Veterans State Park Sprint at Lake Blackshear. This is our third year going to this race and it is still my favorite sprint, even with the gnats. And, as a bonus, Striplings grocery is located just outside the entrance to the park. They make fresh pork sausage and beef jerky to die for. Even the jaded legal department at my office was impressed. My friend Steph (who is from Sylvester, GA) was astounded that I had been to Striplings because she is well-acquainted with their goodness but couldn't imagine who in our department would be down there. Here is my race report for the GA Vets Race. And here are the photos - in the running shots you can see me gritting my teeth to pass the woman with the disk wheel who passed me on the bike and then my smile as I got by her. Hee. You can see that my trusty Adrenalines are holding up well, but I've got some weird outside-of-the-foot problem going on. I'm blaming it on all of the glide-stepping when I was in the band.

Here are the girls and I before the start. Annika wanted to try on my cap.

So, I had a great birthday and fabulous past two weekends. We are all low on sleep, the bills need paying and the house is a mess. It's a good thing we still have two weeks until college football starts!

In other news, we are still going full steam ahead towards our "A" races (the Atlantic Coast Half Ironman for me and the Beach to Battleship Full Ironman for Doug). I fully expect Doug to beat me at the Atlantic Coast race even though it isn't his "A" race and he won't be tapering. Apparently, those y-chromosomes just make you go faster. That, and the bazillion miles he has biked and run this summer. Notice I didn't mention the swim? Heh. Doug doesn't love to swim like I do.

Annika seems to be in good enough shape for her race in September. I've not found her any race attire yet, but I have a good idea on how to put the Gu name on her once we find an outfit. : ) Dagny is starting gymnastics this fall (through her school) and is over-the-moon excited. Annika is starting soccer in the church league, but is not so thrilled. We are hoping that it will grow on her enough that she won't mind it until lacrosse starts next year. She's very excited about lacrosse (pronounced "across") because her babysitter Meghan played it and Meghan is super cool.

Relax, Don't Do It

2009-08-08T07:28:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was "meet the teacher" day at Annika' school. We went through the obligatory rig-a-ma-role of joining the PTA, purchasing the lunch card, bringing the school supplies and kleenex, obtaining the useless bus card and filling out the transportation form. UGH. Seriously, all but the actual meeting of the teacher and the bringing of the supplies could have been done online. Instead, the whole school showed up at 8:30am to do it all at once.

Total chaos.

Here's hoping that it will be easier next year when Doug's sister is Queen of the PTA.

Open house day is also the time that you sign up to be the room mom or to do the basket for the Christmas Extravaganza (trust me, you don't want to know - it's horrible). Neither of these were in my plans. I signed up to bring baked goods. Calling people on the phone, I can't do, but I can bake like nobody's business.

Anway, after finishing up Annika's meet and greet, I went to work. Late. Then, in the afternoon, one of the other moms from the class called me. She said that no one had signed up to be the room mom.

Me: "Well, I'm working full-time now, so I can't do it."
Her: "Me, too. And, I'm traveling."
Me: "So, we are out."

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Much wasting of my work minutes.

This woman was relentless.

Me: "I'm working full-time now, so I don't have time to do it."
Her: "Yes, and I'm traveling."
Me: "Neither of us because we don't have time."

Then, we start theorizing on who might be able to do it. I thought of one mom, and the caller thought I should call and encourage her to do it. I declined and pointed out that I didn't know her well enough to call and "encourage".

I found out later that another mom in the class WANTED to be the room mom and had already volunteered to do it. The caller was just concerned about it and thought it would be good to line someone up.

Someone like me.

But I said no. I'm very proud of myself for not over-committing that way. It only took 30 minutes and sweating all the way through my shirt.

Affirmations

2009-07-18T06:31:00.003-05:00

You know how sometimes folks (especially women) write down or chant affirmations to themselves to get through the day or the athletic event? Like "believe" or "I can" or "strong."

I always thought that was a little weird. A little new-agey. Like incense and the Crystal Blue store.

So, I was listening to an Endurance Planet podcast yesterday in which the host (Kevin Patrick) was debating whether it was better to be cocky, confident or humble in racing or training. He was wondering whether it was better to be cocky (like the Aussies) in a race or humble. In the course of the broadcast, Kevin talked about ways we psych ourselves up (or down) in racing or training. He suggested keeping a journal of all of the things we say to or about ourselves during the day or while we are exercising to be able to analyze our self-talk. Like "wow, this hill is horrible, I don't know if I can do it" or "I'm too slow to catch that girl" or "I'm too jiggly to take my shirt off" or "I might have to stop to use the bathroom."

Wait, that last one is probably just me.

Anyway, it got me thinking about whether I do that kind of self-talk during a race. I thought no, because I don't need any silly old affirmations.

But it turns out that I do it! I tell myself "that hill is nothing compared to the one out of Mountain Park" or "it's too hot for a shirt, no one who has borne two children has a flat tummy" or "I don't care if I'm jiggly, at least I'm running" or "I can catch that girl" or "my neighborhood is hillier than this" or "you may pass me on the bike, but I'll get you on the run".

Interestingly, while I do engage in a lot of negative self-talk in my regular life (I bag on myself because I eat badly, I procrastinate, I am lazy, I'm not patient, I'm not creative, I'm rigid and fear change), when I'm exercising, I'm only positive. And confident, and self-complimenting.

Maybe it's the endorphins.

Or maybe, it's so completely ridiculous that I run (or bike or swim) at all that I'm inspired by the act of exercising and any progress at all is great. Coming from a youth spent on the couch, anything I do is automatically super. Seriously. As a kid, we used to come home from school and watch TV (with microwave popcorn or some similarly bad-for-you treat, in mass quantities) from 3-7pm, break for dinner, and watch again until bedtime. Exercise was for the crazies. Sports? Didn't do them. Running, forget about it.

And then I got fat when I hit puberty. I think I gained 30 lbs in 7th grade. And at least that many more in 8th grade. And that is when I realized that exercise and moderating the diet was not just for the crazies, it was for me. It made me very sad. Exercise was not for my family, who were blessed with rabbit-like metabolisms, but I have known since that time that I have to exercise or I will get fat. So, I took extra PEs in college, I joined gyms, I made friends with folks who exercised. And the exercise, it makes me better. It makes me feel happier and stronger. It gives me confidence in other stuff in my life.

Sure, I still fall off of the wagon every few years. But then, I get back on and relearn how to ignore the wheezing feeling in my chest and the sweat pouring off of my body and the jiggling of my thighs and tummy. And because I know I've done it before, I am confident that I can do it again.

So, maybe those affirmations aren't so hippy-dippy after all.

The Tour de What?

2009-07-09T12:04:00.004-05:00

On our Beginner Triathlete board, everyone is talking about the Tour de France. I don't know anything about the Tour de France except that it is a bike race with beautiful scenery and Lance Armstrong. When Doug suggested that I join up in the Versus Fantasy League, I was dismissive.

"Pshaw," I said, "I don't know anything about it!"

"It will be fun and make watching the Tour more interesting."

Then, after Doug switched our cable company so that we wouldn't have to pay extra to get Versus (the channel that is broadcasting the tour and shows all of the good triathlons), the folks on the board kept talking about it and Doug and I watched the pre-game specials while I folded laundry at night. It was really cool to see all of the different stages and learn about what all of the jersey colors mean.

And finally last weekend, I gave in to the pressure. I now have my very own fantasy team. Just like all of those guys at work who have fantasy baseball or football teams.

I tried to pick riders from each of the disciplines (sprinters, mountain guys, and general contenders) as our friend Neal recommended. Since the only rider I know about is Lance, I picked other guys based on their bios on Versus or on the coolness of their names or because I like Russians:

Thor Hushovd - his name is Thor, therefore he must be tough.
Andreas Kloden - was mentioned in the pregame coverage and he is good in the mountains
Koen de Kort - his name sounds like "Boom Boom Clap, Boom de Clap, de Clap" from the Hannah Montana song
Yukiya Arashiro and Fumiyuki Beppu - first ever Japanese cyclists, so they will have something to prove
Rigoberto Uran - is 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighs less than me
Inigo Cuesta - "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die."

And folks, fantasy cycling is FUN! I love to check the news to see how "my guys" did today. And then, Doug and I watch the Tivo-ed coverage at night. Wow, check out the ad for the male enhancement pills with the ever so subtle pointing fingers and photos of wood. Hee!

I'm having a blast with my guys and not doing too bad in our little group (I'm 11th!) considering my lack of cycling knowledge. Next year I'll be unstoppable. For actual cycling knowledge, though, go check out our friend Brett's blog here.

And, Thor (the one who is tough) won today's stage. Yes!

Ridges Resort 5K Swim Race Report

2009-07-03T14:16:00.003-05:00

Since I injured myself again this year, there was no reason not to do the Ridges Resort 5K Swim again this year. I wasn't as excited about the training this year, though, maybe because it wasn't a distance record. It could also be that all of Doug's marathons just made me want to run.

So, last Sunday, Doug and I loaded up the kids and headed up to Hiawassee. The Ridges Resort is a neat area located just up the road and across the street from the Brasstown Valley Resort. When we arrived, I noticed a distinct lack of teenagers in the field. Apparently, the team that has raced together for the last several years had a conflict. There were, however, a lot of triathletes. We all milled around and sized-up the competition while waiting for the start. I ate a granola bar and made several trips to the car to retrieve things I'd forgotten.

Scott Hanna is the race director. He is really nice. He gave the same speech as last year with similarly vague directions and we were off - trooping in line down to the dock for launching. A lot of people waded out to start this year. which didn't happen last year. Then, Scott counted down and we started in unison. After about 30 seconds of trying to find a clear area, I found my place. Looking around, I saw only men around me. "Cool!" I thought, "I'm hanging with the guys!" Number 123 was on my right. He had a beautiful relaxed stroke so I listened to Doug's voice in my head telling me to "elongate my stroke" and copied #123.

I did a good job navigating around the first island. It has three points (the point-on-land-adjacent-to-a-body-of-water/regular-old-point distinction was lost on some people during the pre-race meeting) and I rounded them decently close to the shore because that is the shortest line. My strokes felt good and I was pulling strongly. There was no trace of my yoga-induced shoulder issue. All was great. The water was green and cool and it felt effortless to glide through it.

Until I saw the bottom. Ugh. The bottom freaks me out. Maybe that is my problem with swimming in the ocean - I'm not deep enough to not see the bottom. So, I chose to move deeper to avoid the view. That was probably a mistake.

After rounding the points, I headed for the two-story dock. Turns out that there are two two-story docks. Scott had told us to get close to it - so close you could touch it so I headed way over there. The rest of the field did no such thing. So, there I was all by myself in the middle of the lake. Awesome. I sang a little of the song to myself as I swam. We had escorts in boats and canoes, but they never seemed to be very close to where I was. No problem - I knew I could finish without assistance and boats make waves, which are disorienting. At times, the wakes were so big that the tops of my feet and legs would hit the surface of the water as I was tossed around. Annoying.

I had worried since last year about whether or not to fuel during this swim. 2 hours of swimming shouldn't require any fuel and I have never fueled during my training swims. However, on a bike or run of the same duration, I would have some electrolyte drink or a Gu. And, I really ran out of gas at the end of the race last year. So, I couldn't decide. Despite some rash claims about taping a Gu to my chest, I ended up just putting it in the side of my bathing suit. Guess what? Gu is about the same buouancy in the water as I am, so it just floated around inside my suit. Eventually it nestled around my tummy. I felt better just knowing it was there.

Finally, I crossed the channel and could see the buoys (there were 6, 5 yellow ones in the water and an orange one at the finish). You could only see one of them at the time, though, because they were pretty far apart. I made a deal with myself that I could eat my Gu at the first buoy. "Better safe than sorry," I thought. "I'd rather finish with gas in the tank than drag-ass across the line." I reached the buoy and had a slug of my Just Plain Gu as I did some breaststroke kicking. Mmmm, delicious Gu. It's hard to breaststroke kick without your arms, though, so I flutter-kicked with my hands out of the water while I squeezed the Gu from the bottom to get it out of the envelope. I'm sure I looked like an idiot. After 3 tries, I had consumed most of the Gu, tucked it back into my suit and resumed swimming. As I did so, the canoe escort came past me. "You don't need a gel in a 5K swim," the woman sniped nastily. They weren't talking to me because I was swimming; they were just talking about me. I resisted the urge to stop them to explain my whole fueling plan and rationale. They had probably just come over because it looked like I was drowning and now they were making conversation. Still, they hacked me off.

And, negative motivation, it works for me.

"I don't see your asses swimming 5K," I thought to myself. "Assholes." And picked up my pace from "two hairs above forever pace" to "hair slower than 1K time-trial pace." I felt awesome. Either the extra calories or the mental boost from the Gu or the anger-induced adrenaline kicked in and I flew to the next buoy and then the next.

And suddenly, there were the guys! I was back! I saw them over to my left - right in line with the next buoy. Oops, I had veered right again. I fell back in behind them and it was delightful looking up every few (15) strokes to see their blue caps ahead of me. Then, just as suddenly, they were gone! When I breathed to the left, I saw them again - I had drifted right about 50 yards. I tacked back left but couldn't seem to stay there. Next thing I knew, they were way left again. We continued this way for the last three yellow buoys. I tried to sprint up past them at the finish, but three of us finished together with me in the middle, which threw the whole finish area into an uproar. Apparently, they weren't used to more than one swimmer at the time. Ha!

There were 6 finishers in the Women 35 to 39 age group and 79 finishers in the race.
My overall finish place was 35 and my age group finish place was 3. My time was 1:47:38.0

Here are the official results. Apparently #123 was the guy who finished in front of me! Funny how that happens.

And then, I ran up the hill and got a banana and then we jumped in the car and came home because Doug had a long run to do and the girls had a birthday party to attend. Next year, though, I'll bring some peeps so we can hang out and enjoy the burgers that Scott's group were grilling up for the finishers.

Too Hot for Ladies

2009-06-21T06:33:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I was the second rider in our house. Doug got up at the crack of dawn and left the house as soon as it was light. He was going 60 miles so he would be home at 10:15am.

Meanwhile, instead of preparing for my ride, I lost my marbles and did laundry, changed the bed, cleaned the potties and vacuumed. Luckily, my sister Jen reminded me to pre-hydrate for the ride.

Doug came home while I was still vacuuming so I didn't actually leave the house until nearly 11. Oops. You don't want to ride at noon when all the weather forecast says is "HOT". My first 30 mile loop was OK. I was sweating copiously but there was a breeze and it was OK. I stopped for the second time at 30 miles to refill my water in our neighborhood (because there are coolers of water conveniently located on the golf course). Two guys that I know were stopped to get water also as they played golf with their kids. I greeted them by name, but they still looked at me like I was from Mars. I was wearing my Team Bachman jersey and made sure to mention Doug, but it didn't help. Maybe they were unnerved by my hives, which were brighter and more widespread than before.

Anyway, the ride went OK for the next 10-15 miles and then I started to get a little frazzled. I refilled the waters a third time and soldiered on, getting slower and slower. I usually eat a Gu every hour on the bike, but at the top of hour 4, all of my water was hot and I couldn't stomach another hot Gu. I almost got off of my bike to walk. Luckily, I had some Chomps in my bento box.

Hallelujah!

The Chomps weren't even a little gooey. I sucked on one at the time until I got home. The slowly-melting Chomp did not make me hurl and had enough fuel + electrolyte to keep me going. Whew. My water ran out again about 4 miles from home. Whatever, it's the home stretch - good thing that part is through the neighborhoods, though.

Doug had the fan set up and brought me a giant Nuun water when I finally rolled in. Thank goodness for him. In retrospect, I should have called it quits while I was in the neighborhood at mile 30. It just didn't occur to me that the ride would go downhill so fast.

In other news, after Annika blabbed the Father's Day present to Doug while we were in the car the other day. She thought so was so sly . . . "Dad, don't buy a Garmin until after Father's Day." Ha! But Doug was pleased to have his data back and we are all enjoying the blueberry muffins now. The girls get a big kick out of wrapping the presents and making the "surprise" breakfast. Doug and I have to plan in advance how to allow him to eat an actual breakfast before the girls wake up. And later, the pool!

The Indignity

2009-06-14T07:53:00.004-05:00

It sucks getting old.

Doug sent me the following while I was at work on Thursday.

Poor Annie. She is the world's nicest dog to put up with the tutu.

And this.

And the ears to the pig costume.

In dog heaven, she will get to eat lots of extra milkbones for enduring our kids and not biting their faces off.

If I could make the scanner work, I'd put the photo of Oscar the cat in Emily's bathing suit here.

My point, other than eliciting an "awwww" from the dog lovers, is to note that being an "older" woman sometimes sucks. Poor Annie can't hear the kids coming and can't move fast enough to escape them so she gets dressed up in costumes.

While on the 100 mile bike ride last week, and again yesterday, I got hives all over my upper thighs. Very sexy. Who wouldn't want red, swollen, bumpy upper thighs? Only on the front, though, and thank God for that!

It appears that I'm allergic to hot weather and cycling. So, I googled and binged with my friend the internet.

To discover that middle-aged women sometimes just get hives.

Like we get hot flashes.

And stress fractures.

Harumph.

As if cellulite and stretch marks weren't bad enough.

But you know what else middle-aged women get? Beer. And wine.

And those make you not really care about the hives. Or the pink fuzzy pig ears.

100 Miles Before the Day is Done

2009-06-08T12:30:00.004-05:00

But first I have to tell you about Annika's first swim meet. It was in Alpharetta at 5:30 last Thursday. Plenty of time if I left my office at 5:15, right?

Wrong.

I changed my clothes in the car, possibly flashing a bunch of drivers on the Old Alabama Connector. I chose to believe that they were not looking. And really, my bra isn't that sexy.

Despite the quick-change and running the half mile from my car to the pool, I missed Annika's first race, the 100 free relay (4 kids, each swimming 25 yards). Oh, the guilt!

Doug said that she did awesome and didn't stop the whole lap! I found her to give her a hug and was worried that she would be stressed because I was late. The guilt was killing me.

Luckily, she didn't care. I was chopped liver. She wanted to play with her buddies.

The second race was 25 free and she did great! She jumped in and swam the whole way without touching the rope. 4th place! Doug let her have a Gu before her third race because my kids love Gu. I figured that it wouldn't hurt because (a) Annika always needs calories, and (b) she was jumping around like a crazy child in the wading pool so she could have been low on fuel. Then, it was on to backstroke. She started out great, but tired fast. She had to rest several times on the rope.

But each time, she set her jaw and resumed her progress. 6th place by many seconds. Ooh was she mad! Apparently she was able to swim the full 25 without stopping at practice, so she was angry with herself about stopping to rest. Pretty tough girl - check out the form!

After that race, we went to Steak-n-Shake for dinner despite the fact that Doug had brought us all sandwiches to eat before and during the meet. Annika and Dagny both had the mini-steakburgers (sliders) and ate them ALL. Apparently, swimming makes you hungry.

In other news, Doug and I rode our first century (100 mile ride) with Natalie yesterday. My mom and Grammy kept the girls while we rode the West Georgia 100 with a bunch of our triathlon buddies (Karen, Neal, Courtney, John, Lou, Justin, Brian, Jessica and Ron). For accuracy's sake, we actually only saw Brian at the beginning and Justin at the start and end, and I never saw Jessica at all. Regardless, it was a great ride. There was cold water and gatorade and an assortment of food, plus sunscreen, portopotties and hand sanitizer at all of the rest stops, except #2 which had run out of water. This would have been fine except we skipped rest stop #1. Oops. Other than that miscue, the race was perfect and the roads were very clearly marked - it was a pleasure.

Doug kept the pace for us and we did great. We averaged right at 16 mph (rolling time only) the whole way, which is awesome for me. I didn't think I could go that fast, but was able to hang on to the back of the faster riders to catch some free mph. In fact, if Doug hadn't been there to hold the pace (and tolerate my valley of darkness in miles 40-60), I wouldn't have gone that fast and probably could have talked myself into quitting at 60 miles because I didn't think I could do it. I have yet to discover if this darkness thing is a fuel issue or if it's just mental. It's weird, though, to be riding along and suddenly and overwhelmingly hate yourself and everyone else. I dropped my chain after water stop #2 and fought to catch back up and got angry. I was saying bad words and shooting birds at Natalie and Doug. It was a bad place.

So the good thing about the ride is that we discovered that I can go farther and faster and power through that stupid valley. And, that there actually is an end to the valley of darkness. I still think the Cheetos helped, though, because of their delicious salty goodness. Because let's be honest, I'm all about the food.

For some reason, I broke out in hives in the last 30 miles of the ride. They didn't itch and weren't spreading so I don't think it was a big deal. Nat had her valley of darkness for the last 20 miles but perked right up after she changed clothes and looked cute again and had a beer.

And Doug? He ran 3 miles. Because he is going to do an Ironman. Holy cow. I have a newfound respect for folks who can ride 112 miles and then run after. My friend Brent, for example, who rode 125 miles yesterday and topped that off with an 8.23 mile run (at 7 minute pace!). He rocks.

So, what ride should we do next . . . hmmm.

You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby

2009-05-31T14:05:00.003-05:00

Today I rode 60 miles (61.92 miles, to be exact) around Roswell.

I thought it would be only slightly more difficult than last week's 50 mile ride.

Wrong.

The first 40 miles were fine. Nat, Jamie Corn and I chatted and waved to the other bikers and had a lovely ride. We even saw Kindzia and the lovely Angela down by the river. We even made fun of Natalie because she doesn't like to fuel. Insert foreboding music here.

Hey - did you know that Angela sells marathon and IM finish framing - check out her site here. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. After kicking my ass on the climb up from the river, Jamie peeled off to go up Lake Charles instead of down the big hill on Pine Grove (she is tougher than Nat and me). Nat and I made it down the hill and up Shallowford with only a minor stop because Nat's phone jumped out of her bento box and across the road. Nat veered off towards her folks' house at Jones and I headed back down to the river to get my remaining 20 miles, stopping at the park to refill my water/Accelerade bottles.

Here is where the story goes awry. I was OK on fuel, only a little behind on my Accelerade. I had eaten 1 Gu per hour for three hours (plain, expresso love and vanilla), so that was fine. But it was HOT and my mind got a little fried on the Coleman Road rollers. I coasted down to Inverness for my turnaround and had convinced myself that there was no need to eat another Gu. Because I was at 3 hrs 45 minutes and only had 10 miles to go. I even texted Doug at the turnaround that I would be home in approximately 30 minutes.

People, to go 10 miles in 30 minutes, I would need to ride 20 miles an hour. I don't ride 20 miles an hour. Not even in a race. And, the 10 miles I had to go was uphill - because the river is the lowest point in town.

Nevertheless, I convinced myself that it was silly to have a Gu at the turnaround because it wouldn't "hit" until I was home anyway. That would have been true IF I'd been riding at the aforementioned 20 miles per hour. But alas, I was not.

I started to realize the fuel/Gu problem as I plodded (if you can plod on a bike) up Wileo. However, did I mention it was hot? Blazing hot? Know what happens when it is hot? Your heartrate increases. With an increased heartrate, digestion slows or stops. So, with the increased heartrate, my Accelerade and water were not digesting and were instead threatening to reappear at any moment to paint my handlebars. So there was no way I could eat my Gu. I had Gus in my pocket, plenty of them (because I've made the mistake of not bringing extra before), but my tummy was emphatically opposed to any more admissions.

So, I suffered. And thanked my stars that you can coast on a bike. I hoped against hope that I would have only 3 miles to go at the top of Shallowford so that I wouldn't need to go down Stroup Road. No dice. I needed 4.5 miles. BIG sigh.

Good thing that all of the ride after Stroup is in neighborhoods because I wasn't in any shape to ride on the road with cars. Loopy! I hit upon the genius idea to use my water bottle to sprinkle myself to cool off. That helped a lot. And, luckily, the light at 92 took a ridiculously long time so that I could rest a little and get some more Accelerade in me. I made it, though, and learned (or re-learned) some good lessons for the next ride.

I don't have enough bike fitness to bust out a 60 mile ride on any given day yet.
1 Gu per hour, no excuses
Do not get behind on Accelerade
I don't ride 20 mph

The neat thing about endurance sports is that there are so many variables. It's not necessarily about who is the fastest, but who is the fastest without making stupid mistakes. And that is hard! Even the pros barf sometimes in a race because they've made a fueling or exertion error. So, next week I'll try to do a better job because Doug and I are riding in the West Georgia 100. Look out!

And, eventually, I'll be able to bust out a 60 mile ride without blinking an eye. Just not yet.

Home Again

2009-05-30T07:57:00.006-05:00

We are back from Walt Disney World! Let the laundry begin!

This was not our first visit to the mouse house. Because of the International Builder's Show appearing every few years in Orlando, we have been able to go several times in the past few years. We've done it the fancy way, staying on the club level at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and eating at the Crystal Palace for lunch every day.

This was not that trip.

Just after receiving notice of our income tax refund (a complete and fabulous surprise), Doug found a great deal to stay in the "budget" hotel (Disney's All Star Sports) and subscribe to the pre-paid meal plan. Game on!

We packed food, snacks and bottled water and drove down in my car. The only big thing that only forgot was Dagny's dresses - we had enough outfits for every day, but I had laid out an equal number of dresses for both girls in case they had wardrobe issues or got dirty. Oops. Good thing they wear approximately the same sized clothes.

I have to say that we had just as much fun in the budget hotel as in the posh one. Yes, the food at the lodge was better and the setting was way cooler, but the rooms were about the same size with similar layouts. Really, at Disney, anything more than a room with beds and a bathroom is extra. We would have been more comfortable in a two-bedroom with Wifi, but it wasn't a big hardship to share the internet cable and be silent while the kids napped. Other than the fact that the meal plan gives you ridiculously large amounts of food and is very dessert-centric, it was a perfect set-up. We ate dry cereal or granola bars for breakfast every morning, had a self-serve lunch and had a sit-down dinner every night in the day's park. The food was all tasty and it was nice not having to worry about how much everything cost, especially since Dagny ate nothing the whole trip.

Coincidentally, Doug's sister Katie was going to Disney the same week. We saw them a couple of times, but their schedules did not mesh with ours because they didn't require naps. Fools. Naps are mandatory at Disney, everyone knows that!

Waiting for the opening of Epcot:

Here is Dagny posing for me in the Magic Kingdom while Doug and Annika rode Splashwater Falls again. We were surprised how much the parks freaked Dagny out. She is a control girl, and usually the life of the party but blankie rode a lot of rides with us and she spent a lot of time in the stroller. You should have seen her vibrating with excitement to meet Aurora and Tinkerbell, though. It was awesome.

We had dinner at the Biergarden in Germany at Epcot one night. The food was awesome - tons of sausages, cabbage, saurkraut, potato dumplings, pretzel bread. Yummo! A polka band played a set every few minutes, including at least one drinking song. As they do in Germany, we sat at a big table with another family. They sang their "hie, hie, hie"s with Coke instead of beer. Needless to say, they were not impressed with our singing and left quickly. Too bad, because the restaurant was really fun. Michael, our delightful server, was super-fast with the beer refills and Doug and I had more than our share. We completed Annika's Kim-Possible adventure and watched the fireworks before toddling home. We had a great time, but really suffered through the "Magic Hour" (and all of the other hours) at the Magic Kingdom the next day.

Here is Annika polka-ing with the other kids. That could be Dagny with her - it was hard to catch Dagny because she was so fast. Or, it could have been the beer, I don't know.

Chicken Dance:

We had a blast. Disney just knows how to move large crowds of people. I love them.

In other news, Doug has signed up for the Beach to Battleship Ironman in November. I'll be volunteering because there is no way to get two of us into ironman shape in six months. I'm still doing the Amelia Island race, though, because Aunt Gena has thoughtfully agreed to let us stay with her and Uncle Pat. Now, if I could just get my run distance up.

Doug Rocks

2009-05-17T05:55:00.003-05:00

And Natalie rocks too!

They ran the Twisted Ankle Marathon in Summerville, Georgia yesterday. For those of you that don't know, Summerville is in the mountains. We got up early and drove to Sloppy Floyd State Park under overcast skies with sprinkles of rain.

The runners started at 9am. Everyone lined up to hear the instructions. This was a very low-key race, so the RD just yelled "go!" and they were off. The girls and I trekked back to the car and got money and the stroller and lined up for the ($5) kids' race. We ran across the playground and jumped a creek. At that point I decided that my run would NOT be on any trails - hefting a double jogger over a creek (even that dinky one) was too much. When Dagny and I caught back up to the group, Annika was crying and talking to a volunteer. She had fallen and twisted her ankle. I babied her a little and then said "let's go". She blubbered that the other kids had left her. I gave her some firm words about how if she kept crying like a baby and walking with me she would never catch them but she could be running and getting closer every second. And then, she took off. I tried to keep up. We eventually caught the end of the group and her new friend Christina. She was thrilled. Didn't care a bit that Christina sprinted at the end and left us in the dust. The RD made special ribbons from the buttons they gave all of the adult racers so Annika was absolutely thrilled to get one. I gave Doug's button to Dagny and all was right with the world.

Annika complained that her legs were tired so I put her in the jogger with Dagny and we started my run. I had planned to go 4 miles so I decided that would take about 45 minutes. We ran around on the roads of the park, which are not flat. At all. We actually ran for about 50 minutes so hopefully I got to 4 miles. Doug had my Garmin so who knows.

Then, it was back to the car to get the lunches, stow the jogger and on to the playground. Muddy. Ick. The girls had a good time on the playground and we noticed some weird bugs hopping all over the ground.

Turns out that they were toads. And when you picked them up, they played dead so it looked like the kids were smushing handfuls of toads, until they put them down and the toads hopped off. That is Dagny's arm for a size comparison. These toads were about as wide as a pencil eraser.

Dagny was even able to pick them up. Here she is showing them to me. Check out her button from the race.

Then, Dagny got hungry so we made our picnic by the finish line and watched the half-marathoners come in. Do you see the bridge across the lake in the photo from the park? That is the route to the finish line! The runners come across the bridge and the announcer reads their number and announces their name and everyone cheers. Awesome!

Annika and I had a little talk about how she kept going in her race even though it was hard. I gave her big praise for keeping going. Then I explained how that was "sucking it up" and we talked about "Suck It Up, Buttercup." It was a good lesson. Doug reinforced later with the "discomfort is temporary, quitting is forever." Annika has the button on her bulletin board so she is very proud of herself for finishing.

Then, more playground and frogs. The boys were throwing rocks at the girls. Then, the boys got on the merry-go-round on their bellies and spun as fast as possible while trailing their hands in the mud puddles. Whew, boy am I glad I only have girls! I packed contingency clothes for everyone but thankfully didn't need them. Some of the kids were running around with no shoes (squishing frogs!), even.

Then Dagny got tired and needed a snack so I was able to convince her to spread out the picnic blanket and read stories. Just in time because it was 4 hours into the race and Doug had predicted a 4:30-5:30 finish. The lady (Desiree) from the Rogue Runners group that I met thought that was optimistic. I was worried. Just as Dagny and I were almost finished reading "It's Not Easy Being a Bunny" (after she had run around like a crazy girl for 45 minutes and made the boys cry while I chatted with Desiree), we saw Doug! He looked great coming across the bridge! No shuffling and he didn't lose body temp. after the race! Yay! As we got him some fluids, Nat came across too. She wasn't shuffling either and really enjoyed a nice Coca Cola at the end. She said it was the shoes that got her to the finish. She couldn't quit and not get to wear the shoes. : ) hee.

And in other news, here is Annika's swim team doing the kickboard. You can't tell here but Annika was first in line with her kickboard. her lane is the middle one with the blonde coach holding the yellow kickboard.

And here, they are kicking while on their backs. Notice how Annika is crashing into the kid behind her.

Instantly after I took this picture, she started to cry because the kickboard slipped away from her. It was downhill from there. Low fuel, cold water, performance anxiety, and nerves all combined to undermine her confidence. She told the coach she couldn't swim so she had to move to the 4-5 year old group on the steps - you can see them in the top photo. Oh, the humilation. We talked all evening about how to get back to the "big kid" group. And now she only swims with the big kids - all of her friends from school.

Where It's At

2009-05-10T15:59:00.002-05:00

For years, my run speed has been increasing. In 2001, I struggled to run just 1 mile in 8 minutes. I would warm up on the treadmill and then set it for 8 minutes per mile and hold on while I ran as fast as I possibly could. Then, I ran more and got faster and could do a 5K at that speed. I remember breaking 25 minutes in the Polar Bear Run 5K in 2002 the week we found out I was pregnant with Annika. I had thought I was just hung over on the day of the race. As I increased my run volume, my speed increased. It was amazing!

Last year at this time, I ran my 5K PR at the Big Peach 5K in 22:45.

On Friday, I ran 3.08 miles around my block in 33 minutes.

Now, I wasn't trying to go fast but it felt really difficult and I was sweating like a pig. It is the first time I have timed my run since the week of Thanksgiving. I should have left the Garmin at home and basked in my ignorance.

It was disheartening to know that all of my hard-fought run fitness is gone. Doug has trained for and raced one marathon (ING) and has trained for and will race a second next week (Twisted Ankle) in the time that I have gone from 17+ miles as my long run to 3 miles.

3 miles used to be nothing!

And now, it's work.

But, 3 miles is still way better than 0 miles - which has been my run volume for the past 5 months. So I just have to keep telling myself that I took time off when I was pregnant and I came back so there is no reason I can't do the same now. And the same thing goes for the extra lbs and cellulite that I've put on. I've taken it off before and I can do it again.

Too bad bathing suit season starts next week.

In other news, Annika is still sick with the weird flu. Which sucks because her first swim team practice is tomorrow. I'm SO excited about the swim team. I really hope she likes it. Just wait until I post a photo of her in her fish swim cap. It is awesome.

Easter Photos

2009-05-02T09:48:00.007-05:00

In lieu of an actual post, here are some photos from the Heslin's Easter Party.

The hunting begins. . .

And by "hunting," I mean "picking up."

Dagny approves of the candy. Notice that she is dressed as Cinderella. Nothing would do but to wear a pretty dress for the party. And Cinderella is the prettiest of them all when you are three.

Annika begins to enjoy the loot. She did her own hair after a nice trip from Grammy for a trim.

Dagny drives Wyatt's car.

This photo isn't from Easter, but is from Annika's school field trip to the farm on Wednesday.

Price of field trip - $17

Price of pants that might be ruined from mud- $8

Photo that Aunt Katie sent with her phone while I was in an interminable meeting - Priceless

My Way

2009-04-18T05:28:00.003-05:00

There is not a lot of time for during-the-week bike riding at our house. With work taking up most of the daylight hours and dinner/dog walking consuming the rest, it's hard to make time for a ride.

This week Doug rode with Neal and the North Atlanta Multisport Club group on Tuesday. Our friend Mark was supposed to ride (his first time!) so Doug picked that day. Mark had to bail because it was his birthday, but Doug still rode. The girls and I had dinner and took the dog for an extra-long walk. We have to do more solo dinners like that so the girls can remember that I'm still the Mom.

Anyway, Thursday was my day to ride. The NAMC peeps were going to do the Bike Roswell ride and try to hang with the B group. That would have been a very good workout for me, but I just couldn't make myself want to do it. I don't like the packs of cyclists on Thursday nights and the blatant disregard of traffic rules. And, I would have been really rushed to get there by 6:15, especially since I was close to talking myself out of riding at all.

So, instead of driving to Riverside Park, I just left from our house. I did the north of 92 part of the Roswell 40 mile ride minus the part where you have to go on Crabapple, then rode throught Alive After Five and down to Coleman, then headed back up Hightower on the regular route and home. I stopped at all stop signs and did not pass any traffic, even though Canton Street was stop-and-go with Alive After Five traffic. With my auto-pause OFF (that means my watch keeps counting the time when I'm stopped), I averaged 14.02 mph for 24 miles. I was racing the dark on the way home, but it was a lovely ride. Pretty good, considering.

I missed seeing the peeps and the possible achievement of hanging with the B group, but I had a great ride and got to follow my own rules. : )

In other news, Doug and the girls and I are running (I'm walking) in the Sweetwater 420 5K race today. I was able to run a few minutes on the treadmill on Monday, but my foot has been sore ever since so I'm back to walking for a while. Maybe I'll only need a week and then I can get back at it, but I'm not taking any chances.

The Facebook

2009-04-11T10:38:00.003-05:00

Once upon a time, I used to mull my blog posts for days. During my runs, I would compose and re-write them in my head. Sometimes, I'd even write them up and then delete them because they were too whiney or too political or too drunk or too bossy.

Now, not so much.

When I have free time now (which is way less time that I used to have), I check my peeps on the Facebook. This morning, I looked at Jason's photos of his new baby, watched Yvonne's proposal video, and took a movie quiz. All good things, but I found myself wishing I'd heard Jason's story of the 24 hours his amazing wife spent in labor and seen the smile on Yvonne's face and how her eyes crinkle at the edges as she recounted the surprise video that her fiance sneaked into her "Triplets of Belleville" movie. I like the knowledge of the good stuff going on in everyone's lives - but it's a thin substitute for the real thing.

And, have you noticed that a lot of the bloggers don't blog anymore (me included)?

We are too busy listing our top 5 beers, taking 1980s movie quizes, doling out flair or plants or rising up the Wordchallenge ladder or poking each other.

I miss Colin's long discussions of his bike and his diatribes against George W. Bush's administration.

Do you remember when people used to write letters and send cards? Going out to the mailbox was a treat because there might be a surprise note lurking in there. I used to write letters by the dozens, at least one every few days. And, I wrote little notes to friends that I saw in the paper or met at a luncheon or business associates after a closing.

Not anymore. The mailbox has only ads and bills and the occasional note from my Grammy.

I think I'm finally old enough to miss the good 'ol days.

Excuse me while I get back to see who Brian's top 5 is.

ING Marathon Race Escort Report

2009-04-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

Race escorting was a completely humbling experience.

I had prepared for the event by mapping the course on the computer and driving it. Then, armed with my cue sheet I rode 2 loops on my bike, only to find that I had a few of the streets wrong. Later, I did two more loops on the bike armed with a pen to correct the cue sheet. However, I didn't get to do the practice rides with actual wheelers so I was flying blind.

On Saturday night, I called my friend Curtis (a veteran race escorter and knower of all things bike) to get the inside skinny on my last-minute questions. Are there code words? Do I ride next to or in front of the racer? Should I yell encouragement or only identify hazards?

Curtis's number one piece of advice: If my wheeler was a man, I should wear a bikini. Yeah, I think he might have been doing some 16oz bicep repeats on Saturday night. : ) Seriously, though, he gave me some good answers to my questions and I calmed down. A little. Then I had to fold 4 loads of laundry to relax enough to sleep.

So we showed up at Centennial Olympic Park at 5:45 am on Sunday morning. I dropped Doug at the Omni hotel and went into the park with my newly-shod and washed bike, McGyver-ed light setup and ghetto cue sheet taped to my bars but completely lost as the to the actual plan. I avoided speaking to anyone because I was so scared. The wheelers started arriving pushing their race chairs in front of them like jog-strollers. They were very sinew-y and fast-looking. Whew, very intimidating. Luckily, the group of escorts was very nice and welcoming. No one said a word about my tri-bike after the zillion "which bike are you using?" questions from my friends. I rode THE bike. It's a yellow tri-bike with aerobars and red flowers. Not very professional-looking.

We posed for a photo. You can tell I'm freaking out. I do have ING orange and blue dealies in my braids. Check out the GU socks and Moving Comfort running top. Gotta support the peeps!

This is Jett's photo. Link over to his blog and read his race report here. He was a pro at the escorting. The fast guys wanted him to be their escort.

After a short meeting at the State Bar of Georgia headquarters, the escorts lined up and we were counted off like in gym class. I doled out Gus to the people around me - share the Gu love, baby. The national anthem played and suddenly, there was a mad "HERE THEY COME" and big gust of wind whooshed by, preceding a big group of wheelers who flew by us. There was a lot of yelling and noise and confusion and suddenly Leslie was on #20. I had seeded myself towards the back (#25) because I'm not fast, thinking that I'd be a sweeper at the rear. Wrong - a clump of wheelers came by and she got through 26.

Holy Crap! What next?

I got a little in front of who I thought my wheeler was and promptly forgot whether the guy in the blue shirt or the yellow shirt was mine. We went down Marietta Street. The guy next to me (Paul, maybe?) had the other guy. Paul(?) told me which one was his and I promptly forgot again. I stayed with the guy I thought was mine. Then, as we turned left and went down Piedmont I noticed that Paul and I had only guy between us. Crap! I listened to him tell Paul about how this was his first race and how he has only been in his chair for 10 months.

I started to slow down to look for the other guy when Leslie rode up and asked me to stay a little closer to my guy. "OK," I gulped, with tears in my eyes. Jeez, we haven't even been a mile and I've lost my guy. I SUCK! I'm totally ruining his race!

I found my guy (turquoise blue chair, yellow jersey). You can see a photo of him here (enter photo number 36339 and he is the 4th from the left on the top row). I explained that I was confused about which guy was mine and apologized profusely. He grunted. We were going uphill so that wasn't rude - he was working hard. When wheelers go uphill, you can see how gravity is making their wheels want to reverse and go back down. Then, we got to Publix and the turn onto North Ave was upon us and I had to tell him about the turn and how there is a really sharp right onto the next street at the bottom of the hill (danger spot #1) so there was no chit chat. I told him about the next hills - not steep but long and he grunted. I thought that he hated me. The racers had spread out a lot by this point in the race as we get closer to Sweet Auburn. I pointed out the road construction on the right on the way down Jackson. As we motored up that hill, I told my racer about Curtis's advice, thinking that I'd break the ice. "Not today," I quipped "too cold. Maybe next year." Big grunt. Maybe a laugh? We went past the King Center and I notice all of the homeowners sitting on their porches with their coffee and dogs. It was really neat and the sun looked so pretty as it rose over the houses. I wanted to point this out to my racer, but it was an uphill so he didn't look like he wanted any crap about coffee and sunrises.

We turned right on Randolph and left onto Edgewood. Then, sirens. Not blaring, just honking like when they want you to pull over. The first marathoner was coming through.

Let me just tell you that runners and wheelers do not go the same speed. Wheelers FLY down the hills but going uphill is an inch-by-inch struggle. Runners seem to step along at mostly the same rate at all times - their strides get shorter on hills but they are still turning over at the same pace.

Four motorcycle cops came by on Edgewood and took up the whole road. I had to whistle them. I was very hesitant to whistle at them at first, because they were the police, but they wouldn't get out of the way. My guy was about to go downhill and they were in the way. And then there was the pace car (SUV). So, 4 cops, an SUV, me, my guy, the woman escort with the glasses, her female wheeler (if you looked at the photos, she is the racer to the right of my guy), and the first marathoner all riding together at different speeds. What a cluster $%^$#. Finally, I strapped on my big girl panties and got more insistent with my whistling (copying glasses woman) and the cops pulled away as we got to the place where Euclid veers off and there was sea of cones - it was very confusing. I was worried about what the cones meant. Maybe they changed the course? Which way to go? I knew we needed to stay straight, so I sucked it up and told my guy to go straight and follow me. That darn SUV stuck, though. I just tried to be a buffer between my wheeler and the car because I didn't know if they could see him. I whistled them several times. They were mad. The marathoner passed us on Euclid - he looked free and easy loping away and whew - the pace car was gone too.

We turned onto Moreland and had new smooth pavement down to the turn onto Freedom Parkway. I told my racer and he grunted. Whee! We sped down the hill, turned and hit the hills. As he motored up the hills, I told my racer about the downhill past the Carter Center and the bad right turn there. 4 wheelers crashed there last year because it was wet. I did NOT mention this to him. The glasses woman escorting the female wheeler was a non-stop encouragement machine. They were close to us on that hill. The woman (whose name I've forgotten) was all "whoo" "you look awesome" "way to go" "keep it steady". Was I supposed to yell like that? If my racer was like Doug, he would have wanted to strangle me. I told my racer that I was going to yell, but that he could tell me to shut up. Grunt. Again, we were going uphill because you have to talk in the uphills because there is too much other stuff to worry about in the downhills. Then it occurred to me that maybe English was not his language. Aha!

Then, the downhill and turn. I kept yelling about it and hoped my guy heard me. I cleared the turn and waited around the bend. It was wet, but he made it through just fine. Whew.

We turned right again onto North Ave and then went up a looooong hill to turn left on Highland. I think I told my racer that this was the worst hill in the course. If not, I should have because it was the steepest. We turned and zipped down Highland. I whistled a lot of runners here "wheeler coming through" - we were near the front of the half-marathon pack. One guy in light blue clothes would not move. I was a little hesitant in my whistling and talking, though, and may have confused him by being on the right. I should have been more forceful and gone by on the left to lead my racer - people respond better to the "take charge" directions than "hey I'm going by on the right but my wheeler is coming on your left so move" discussion. I had to apologize to my racer for that too.

We turned left on Virginia Ave and then went down the hill past Inman MS. Sharp right turn here. Then a lovely stretch on Park Drive. We went really fast here and didn't have to slow down for anything. After crossing Monroe, there are four speed humps. I called them out to my racer and the big bump going onto the bridge. Then a hard left into Piedmont Park. It was so beautiful in there. We had smooth sailing in the park and I took that time to prep my racer for the hard right turn and long uphill out of the park on 10th.

It was getting cold as we turned onto Juniper. I told my wheeler that this section wasn't steep, but very long. Then as he motored up the hill, I warned him about the tight and bumpy turn onto 5th Street. That turn always feels like the beginning of the home stretch to me. We labored up the hill to Peachtree and all of the police started yelling for my guy - cheering him on with every stroke. I wanted to hug them all. My racer grunted really loud for them. : )

We took the right onto Peachtree and then the fast left back onto 5th and then we were in GA Tech. I warned my wheeler about the downhill turn onto Techwood and then we started the long climb back up to the finish. We turned onto North Avenue and lots of people were there to cheer for us going up the hill. We did the Tech Parkway section, the quick left onto Means Street and then Marietta Street was upon us. I yelled out whenever there were holes in the street and when to go into the other lane and yelled encouragement in between. Marietta isn't a steep hill, but it grinds on you. The female wheeler and glasses woman passed us here - that woman was tough. She did awesome! And then it was the last three lights and I told my racer we were almost there and directed him into the finishing chute. Escorts can't cross the finish line, so turned wide and exited thru a hastily opened gap in the fencing, stage-right.

And it was done. Whew. Glasses-woman and I held each other's bikes for a potty break and then I defied the access nazi to cross the road that the kids would be crossing, lifting my bike and hopping two fences to get out of the park. In the confusion, I forgot to get my shoes from the wheelers' tent. After making it out and back around the park to put my bike in the car, I realized my mistake and had to walk the half-mile back to the tent in my bike shoes. Oops. Had I gone to the bike tent (only 1 fence-hop required), I would have gotten to meet my racer, Muhammad, from the Dominican Republic. He was pleased with his race and had his girl friend there to help translate for him. : ) Go Muhammad, you rock!

If I can run again by next year, it will be a really hard choice between running this race and escorting. It was the best. I loved every moment of it.

Who Rocks the Atl?

2009-03-11T13:12:00.005-05:00

I do!

So, you know how I volunteered to be a bike escort for the ING 1/2 Marathon? Well, the group is doing two fun rides to get escorts used to the course and allow the racers to practice on the course. These fun rides are Sunday, March 15 and Sunday, March 22 at 7:00am. The actual race is Sunday, March 29.

Do you see a problem here? I take Grammy to church on Sundays. Attendance at these fun runs would require 3 weeks in a row of rescheduling for Grammy. Not very fair. So, I emailed the escort coordinator and he said that I can still escort if I go down and ride the course at least 2 times. OK!

So, the plan was to go do the first lap last Friday. Annika was home sick, so we rode the course in the car. It was painless and except for the gas wastage, I think we did a good job. I was able to pull over several times and make notes on the course so that I would be prepared on my bike.

Then, Sunday came along. Time to try it on the bike after I took Grammy to church (minus Annika because she was still sick).

I parked at Centennial Olympic Park. It cost $10. Don't park at Centennial Olympic Park on a Thrashers Game Day. Park at Georgia Tech or Marietta Street instead. I took a picture so Doug would know I made it.

Here is my very fancy cue-sheet holding device. You can't read it, but I have every turn listed on this piece of paper. You can even flip it down to see the other side of the ride. Pretty snazzy, huh?

I emailed Doug after lap 1 so he'd have an ETA. Then I saw these guys. They offered me a job. It sounded good until I saw the two very large ladies that the guy had to take all the way to the World of Coke. On a recumbent. Whew!

I took a finishing photo before heading home so Doug would know I wasn't dead.

Mission accomplished, sort of.

I corrected my cue sheet and emailed it to the coordinator who sent me last year's cue sheet.

Not the same. The differences are not major but it will be interesting to see which is the correct route. At race speed, no less.

So, today is my last Wednesday off before I go back full-time at work so I drove downtown again (parked on Marietta St this time - only $5) and did another two laps with what I think is the correct route. My phone apparently keeps only 4 emails at the time so I couldn't look at the one the coordinator sent. I spent 10 mins in my car trying to figure it out with a map, but no dice.

I have to report several things from my downtown riding experiences:

Downtown/Midtown/Little 5 Pts/Ga Tech/Va Highlands/Piedmont Park is way more bike-friendly than Roswell.
I only got honked at once during the two rides and that guy was from out of state. I think he did it just to let me know he was there because he didn't look angry and had plenty of room to pass me.
No one yelled at me on either ride. No yelling at ALL. One guy gave me the "hey baby" once over, but that was kind of nice. No one ever gives me the "hey baby".
In-town riding is easier because the cars treat you like a car (which is the law, people). Some of this may because the traffic moves slower so I'm about the same speed as the cars, even from a dead stop.
Once you start acting like a car, it's not so scary.
There are some beautiful areas of town that I never get to see.
I really want to run the whole ING marathon just so I can see that much more of the city from the ground.

That is all. Huge biking victory for me. : )

You, Yes YOU!

2009-03-08T06:18:00.003-05:00

Cyclists, you need to follow the laws of the road.

We had a family birthday party last night and two different non-cyclists illuminated the car driver's point of view on cyclists for me:

They HATE cyclists.
Cyclists don't follow the rules.

Legal or not, if a car is scared to pass you and finally they have gotten by and are breathing a sigh of relief because they didn't run you over, how do you think they feel when you blithely right up past them at a stoplight so that they must try to pass you again?

Or, how about when a driver cannot pass because you are riding in the middle of the road talking to your bud Susie about what kind of nachos to get at the Taco Mac on the way home? Can you drive two abreast in a car and talk while you drive? Don't you honk at people who do that in your neighborhood?

Same thing with buzzing through stop signs. If the car must stop at a stop sign, so can you. I've done the Roswell Ride both ways and the "come-to-a-full-stop-and-put-one-foot-down" method was only 2 minutes slower than the "roll-through" method over 40 miles. That is nothing. Think of stop signs as a part of your interval training.

Share Schmare

Doug thinks the whole "Share the Road" idea is part of the problem. He thinks it gives car drivers the idea that they are doing cyclists a favor by letting them use the car drivers' road. One of the family members above said as much to me last night and also pointed out that bicycles are not licensed and therefore don't pay taxes to maintain the roads. Extemporaneous speaking is not my strong suit, so I was stumped for a witty comeback to that ridiculous argument like "You mean the taxes that I already pay on my car?" Jeez.

But the hatred was palpable.

The one lady, who is admittedly not the best driver, wanted to know what she is supposed to do upon encountering a cyclist. She doesn't want to endanger herself by crossing the yellow line to pass and resents a cyclist "forcing" her to do it. When I pointed out that she could just slow down for a little while, she said "to 20 miles an hour?!?!??" like it was unthinkable.

That is the problem.

It is unthinkable for car drivers to slow down to the speed of a cyclist for any length of time.

That is why I'd like to live in Colorado, where it is not a weird thing to ride your bike and you aren't taking your life in your hands every time you do it.

I'm going to ride the ING half-marathon course today to get familiar with the course so I can be a wheelchair athlete escort on race day. Please nobody run over me.

Sometimes it Snows in March

2009-03-01T13:09:00.002-05:00

I know the song says "April," but cut us a little slack. It's pouring snow here. Two days before the Ride to the Capitol. Wow, I hope it warms up fast.

As you can see, the poll for the 5K group is up at the top. Group - don't forget to vote! There has been good news from all of the 5K folks. I'm so proud of their progress!

In other news, my MRI was done on Thursday. We hope to have the results for discussion on Monday. It's really hard to keep still in the machine. I told myself that I was tough and it would be easy, but no. I had to sing songs and ABCs to keep from twitching even though they tied my foot down. The CIA should think about using that machine to help convince recalcitrant terrorists to reveal their secrets. I think it would work. Seriously. Then again, those guys are probably a good bit tougher than I am. Worth a shot, though.

She Rides

2009-02-25T16:29:00.005-05:00

She flies, she flies, oh baby when she rides, she rides.

Annika decided a few weeks ago that it was time to ride without training wheels on her bike. We've had several "learning" sessions which consisted mainly of me pushing her down the hill in our side yard and her coasting until she fell over.

Until last week.

Doug took her out onto the golf course because there is a flat path there. In 30 minutes flat, Annika was riding solo. She can even start off by herself now and come to a stop without falling over. It's amazing.

Here is a side view.

And a view from the back as she pedals up the hill. She goes a little further each time and can make it within about 20 yds from the top now.

Here are Annika and Sarah Anne on their bike date. Aunt Katie chased them up and down the road and sent me this photo.

Now, if I can train her to stop and look both ways before leaving the driveway, we will be in good shape.

In other news, I walked up and down the biking road with Annika 3x today. That's about 0.7 miles. The foot is a little sore but not bad. Just in time for my MRI tomorrow. Still, 0.7 miles is way better than zero. Way better.

At this rate, I'll get to wear my new running shoes (Brooks Adrenaline 8s that I bought in September) before summer!

It's All About the Races, Baby

2009-02-21T16:40:00.000-05:00

Nearly a full month after I started this post, here is a list of the choices for the 5K race for the couch-to-5K team. It is not an exhaustive list so if you know of a race I forgot that folks might want to do, please say so in the comments.

In the 5K group, everyone is doing awesome and a lot of folks are exceeding the plan minutes by a huge margin. Way to go, runners! Racers, please comment back with your top 3 races and I'll make the next post a poll so we can vote on them. There were just too many races to vote from this huge list.

Saturday, April 18

Gwinnett Ecological Heritage Center 5K. This race appears to be a trail run at the Gwinnett Ecological Heritage Center in Buford near the Mall of Georgia and starts at 9:30 am. There is no info on the website yet.

Granite Grinder 5K. This is a 5K trail race at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers and it starts at 8am. It is done in conjunction with a half-marathon distance trail run. I could easily talk Doug into the trail run.

Eye Run - Chart the Course 5K. This is a 5K in McDonough (just south of metro Atlanta) that starts at 8:15am. Early registration is $15 and the proceeds benefit http://www.onesight.org/.

Covington YMCA Cheerios Challenge 5K. This race benefits the Covington YMCA and is part of the Healthy Kids Day Celebration. It appears to be a family-oriented event and General Mills is one of the sponsors so that means free cereal. There is a 5K, a 10K and a fun run. The 5K starts at 9:30am.

Phinizy Swamp Stomp 5K. This race is in Augusta and benefits the Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy. They have not listed the race on their website yet, but the start time is supposed to be 9:15am.

Sweetwater 420 Fest 5K - This is the 5K race associated with the Sweetwater 420 Fest in Candler Park. It starts at 11am on Saturday, April 18. The Candler Park location is a draw, but it may be difficult for everyone to park because the festival is going on at the same time.

Terrapin Beer 5K plus One More Mile. This race is actually 4.1 miles. Get it? 5K plus One More Mile. The registration fee includes a brewery tour and free samples. The race starts at the brewery in Athens at 4pm. Mmm, beer. I love Terrapin's Rye Pale Ale.

Water for the World 5K. This race starts at 7:30am and is located in the Johns Creek Area. It benefits Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church (the big one on Old Alabama Road) and clean water projects. There is a 5K, 10K, 1mile fun run and a tot trot.

Sunday, April 19

Radiant Systems Sprint for Cancer 5K - This race is at Atlantic Station at 8:00am on Sunday, April 19, which means that there are lots of food options for after the race. They also have a 5K and 10K at the same time.

Chickamauga Chase 5K. This is a 5K race done in conjunction with the half-marathon race at the Chickamauga National Battlefield outside of Chattanooga. It starts at 8:30am.

Stray Pet Strut 5K. This race is in Gainesville and benefits the Humane Society of Hall County. It starts at 2:30pm.

Saturday, April 25

Arbor Day 5K. This race is in Augusta, GA and starts at 9:15 am. There is no web info yet.

Fig Leaf 5K. This race is at the Paradise Valley Resort in Dawsonville and is clothing optional. It starts at 10am. I'm not running naked and am not taking my kids. No offense to any nudists, but my kids are a little too grabby to be around a bunch of naked people.

Grayson Day 5K. This race is a part of the Grayson Day festival in Grayson (north of Lilburn). The race director was my middle school algebra teacher. His daughter goes to Grayson High School, which is putting on the race to fund a trip for their cross-country team in the fall. The race starts at 8am and there is a fun run.

Jay Cullen Share the Roads 5K. This race is in Cumming and benefits the First Baptist Church of Cumming. It is done in memory of Jay Cullen, a cyclist who was killed while out for a ride. It starts at 8:30am.

Race for Riley 5K. This race benefits the Joseph Sams school and is in Palmetto. It starts at 8:30am.

Run the River 5K - This is the 8th Annual Homestretch Challenge race by the river at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Roswell. It's a good race, very flat and fast. They have a 5K (7:30am), a 10K (8:00am) and a fun run (8:30am) all on the same morning. Because there is a 10K race, the faster folks tend to do that one and it's easy to place in the 5K.

Pebblebrook Junior Falcons 5K - This race is a fundraiser to benefit the Pebblebrook Jr. Falcons athletic association on Saturday, April 25 at 7:00am. I've never done this race, but it is located in Mableton, which is near Smyrna.

Athens Twilight 5K Run - This is the 5K race associated with the Twilight Criterium race in Athens. It is on April 25 at 8:30am in Athens, Georgia. The Gambler bike race/ride (50 or 100k options) is also scheduled for this morning at 10am.

Sunday, April 26

Run for a Reason 5K. This race is in Cumming and benefits college scholarships for Cumming high school students. The race is at Cumming City Park on Pilgrim Milll Road and starts at 8am.

Out of Practice

2009-02-13T18:00:00.004-05:00

Doug went out of town for a funeral yesterday. He will be home tomorrow. He was all worried about how I would fare without him. "I did OK when both kids got the throw-up virus the last time," I said, in reference to a trip he took a few years ago. "What could be worse than that?"

Maybe I'm just out of practice, but it is really hard to take care of the kiddos and go to work. Sure, I cleaned the stove and got caught up on the laundry, but I stayed up too late watching TV and doing my physical therapy (and facebook) last night. Then, this morning, I got up early, made Annika's lunch, got the Valentines packed and the grapes cut for Dagny's party, but we missed Annika's bus because I lost track of time while on the phone getting work advice from my friend, Steph. I must mention that I was also curling my hair and applying make-up at the same time as I was on the phone, lest you think that I can't multi-task. I also think I dropped the f-bomb when I realized what had happened. It was not my finest moment.

Then, while Steph and I were on the way to a post-meeting lunch, Dagny's school called. Dagny was coughing and feeling badly so we picked her up and took her to lunch at Moe's with us. She had 1 chip and a cookie. We dropped Steph back off at the office, picked up my computer and work and headed home. Dagny took a long nap, but we will be going to the store now for some medicine. That party we are all supposed to attend tomorrow is looking iffy. Poor old Dagny.

In other news, my foot is worse after all of the activity on Sunday. I'm sucking it up and still walking from my regular parking space this week because I'm done being a close-parker. I refuse to do it any longer. I did make another appointment to see my dear orthopaedist on Tuesday, so maybe he will have the magic bullet for me.

Also, I'm really enjoying the Brooks ID group. I'm living vicariously through all of the neat races the other members are doing and the discussions of all of the shoe models. Couch-to-5K folks, the Track Club still does not have their April race list up, so that is why I've not posted the poll for your race yet. Maybe over the weekend it will appear. I have a prelminary list, but want to be sure we don't miss a fun race because I posted too early.

One Man Down

2009-02-07T14:04:00.002-05:00

Annika is with Grammie and Grampa at the GymDogs meet this weekend. Dagny, who falls out at 7pm (which is right about the time the meets usually start) was not invited. So Dagny and I have had a lovely day on our own. We watched some shows, we had Dagny's favorite breakfast (cereal) and a picnic lunch at the park before playing on "all of the playgrounds" as requested. The queen is currently napping off all of the activity.

Doug and I have been invited to not one, but three (three!) adults-only events this evening. Doug is going to our friends' child's wedding, and we had to beg off of both the 30th birthday party and my cousin's girls-dinner. Dagny and I will have some spaghettios or other similarly simple dinner before reading books until bedtime. We might even shower. Or not. There is always tomorrow for a shower.

It's strange how much easier it is with just one kid. We didn't have to negotiate anything today - we just did what Dagny wanted to do, which is very similar to what I wanted to do. Except that she gets to nap while I go downstairs to pay the bills.

In other news, all of the couch-to-5K peeps are doing great. It's really cool to see everyone's minutes total growing each week. The April races are STILL not up on the Atlanta Track Club website, so I haven't posted the race-picking poll yet. Maybe next week.

In still other news, here is the link to the Georgia Bike Ride to the Capitol on March 3. Any of you readers who ae also bike-riders, get out there and ride with us.

Miss Independent

2009-02-04T13:18:00.003-05:00

Dagny wears underpants at night now. My Grammy can't understand why we didn't take the pull-ups away sooner, but Grammy isn't the one who has been changing and washing Annika's sheets 2-3 times per week for the last two years.

Anyway, Dagny told us last week that she was ready to wear underpants at night. Since she has been getting up to use the potty at night and taking her pull-up off anyway, and we were out of pull-ups, it seemed like as good a time as any. And so far it has worked well. She wakes up in the middle of the night, takes herself to the potty, and gets back in bed.

Awesome, right?

Unless she has a bad poop or runs out of toilet paper.

This morning she came downstairs and confessed to having dropped a washcloth in the potty.

"I'm sorry I dropped the washcloth in the potty, Mommy."

"Did you flush it?" [Eyes widening in alarm]

"No, I put it in the sink"

"After it was wet from being in the potty?"

"Yes." [thinking: where else would you put it?]

SIGH.

Yes, she peed and pooped in the potty, wiped herself with at least one and what looked like several washcloths, dropped one in the potty, carried it over to the sink and then went right back to bed. I disinfected the whole room. Ugh. I'm ignoring for now the idea that she brushed her teeth this morning in the sink where the potty washcloth was.

Just Like Honey

2009-01-25T16:08:00.002-05:00

Last week there was a thread on the BT board about Accelerade powder and whether folks liked to drink it during their longer workouts. Many people posted that they couldn't stand the taste or that they couldn't handle the lumpy texture or the protein in it. Doug and I discussed this at length and agreed that folks who have GI issues aside, the folks who couldn't stand the taste were just not working hard enough when they tried it.

Because on my bike ride today, that orange Accelerade was HEAVEN. Just like honey. And I've had rides where the lemon tasted like my Grammy's lemon bars. I am not kidding.

I was a trifle under-fueled today from what I would ordinarily take on a bike ride (1 bottle of Accelerade + 1 Gu per hour), but I'm a little over-fueled internally so I figured it was OK. I'm a little loopy now but not bonky so I think it was a good decision.

Further evidence of how good a decision was the uncomfortable moment when I saw what the elastic in my bike shorts was doing to my mid-section when I stopped for a potty break. Sigh. All that work from last year is gone . . . gone . . . gone.

Anyway, big thanks to Doug for changing the tire on my bike while I was at church with Grammy. I REALLY needed the endorphins of a ride today. It was yucky-looking when I started but the sun came out on my way home and more than made up for the fact that I couldn't go up the good hills. I got to wave to lots of nice bikers and told one cute young man (you know you are old when you think of cute boys as "young man") that his shoelace was untied so he wouldn't fall. What a difference a ride makes.

Last weekend I was so angry that I wanted to punch all of the walls and kick stuff. And there was no possibility of a run to even me out. And it was too cold to go outside. It got worse all week. By Friday, I was just foul.

But now I've had my ride and I'm doing better. Thanks Doug.

The update on my awesome 5K group is in the previous post. Still trying to think of a way to show everyone's progress and making a list of possible races.

Here I Go Again

2009-01-23T12:31:00.004-05:00

Overcommitted, swamped, busy. Wah, wah, wah. I'm just slack and haven't posted the chart about the progress of the fabulous couch to 5K group.

I've been having a hard time coming up with a good chart that will accurately highlight the achievement of each athlete. The group is all over the map on their activity levels so while it's a HUGE accomplishment for some of us to finish the plan minutes, others were doing more than that before the plan began so their minutes make the first person's minutes feel bad. You see my problem?

Charts aside, everyone in the group is kicking ass. I'm so proud of you guys! You rock!

Here is an update on the crew:

Aimee and Steve are probably going to Ethiopia next month to get their adopted daughter and Steve's foot is still sore from his surgery so their running has not been as frequent as they would like but that is OK! Babies are more important. Keep your fingers crossed for their court date!
Barbara keeps forgetting to send her run minutes but I know from Jen that she is doing great. : )
Elena is making a huge comeback to running after her year off last year.
Jen was sidelined with the flu and her oldest daughter had the throw-up virus so she had a bad week last week. However, Jen is going to run at the park with Julia in the stroller tomorrow while Sophie plays with Annika, Dagny and I at the playground. Or maybe I'll have all 4 kids and beer after!
Joe is still working up to running, but he is doing awesome on his 30 mins of walking and his healthier diet.
Lauren has made her 30 minutes of run/walking a habit and is frequently exceeding her goal minutes.
Lynn started late with the group, but has made a great start so far. She is a new runner like Jen so give them both some love!
Michele ran 24 minutes yesterday and her brother was able to come home from the hospital so it's all good news from her.
Ryan from my office is still thinking about whether he wants to join the group. C'monRyan!
Steph F. has been traveling a lot but I think she went to the gym a lot too. I keep forgetting to ask about her minutes but will do it on Monday.
Trish is exceeding her goal run minutes every week by a lot already, so she is going to be superfast by the time we get to race.
Me. I'm still not even walking for 30 minutes, so until my foot gets better I'll just make everyone look good.
I've not heard from Cindy, Charlie and Sara this week, but I'm going to predict that Cindy and Sara got all of their run minutes done even with the cold temps and that Charlie has surpassed 30 minutes per day of running already.

I'll be scoping out some races for us to do in April. Any suggestions are welcome.

In other news, my 2009 race plan is shot all to heck. I was supposed to do the Red Top Rumble trail race in February and the ING half or whole marathon in March. Not to mention a defense of my second place AG finish (and chase of Natalie) at the Chattahoochee Road Runners race. Sigh. These have all turned into volunteer opportunities, though, so it's not all bad.

The Red Top Rumble race director says that they have the perfect water stop for me to cheer on the racers and still get back to the finish AND I get to use my entry fee for next year. I was so excited for this race. The GUTS group is really neat so I hope that I get to do more of their events next year.

A friend forwarded me a link to a lady soliciting bike volunteers to escort wheelchair racers at the ING Marathon, so I made my application and I'm in! How cool is that? Do you know how fast a wheelchair racer does a marathon? 1 hr 30 mins! WHOOO! So it will really still be a race for me!

I've got an email in to the Chattahoochee Road Runners too. Doug is going to do this race so I'll definitely find a job to do there.

So, it's not racing, but I still get to play outside a little. And, volunteering is way cheaper than racing.

You Say You Want a Resolution

2009-01-02T12:20:00.004-05:00

I'm still not running. Heck, my foot hurt just walking the dog yesterday (less than 1/5 of a mile).

So, I googled and googled and googled. The best answer that I could find on the internet was from the Google Scholarly Articles database: stress fractures in a 320 person study were diagnosed in an average of 12-14 weeks and the average recovery time was 11-12 weeks. So, assuming that I am average, and I can't count any recovery time pre-Thanksgiving because I likely re-injured myself by running too early that week, I'm looking at mid-February before any kind of return to running.

Add to that the 10% rule (no increasing mileage greater than 10% in any one week), and it will be mid-April before I can go even one mile. The PT lady and I will be discussing this at my next appointment. She's tabled any discussion of running, but I need to know what my limit will be, even if it is vague and may change for the worse. I'm also interested to see how quickly I'll be able to add mileage back. Clearly the Rock-and-Roll-Man HIM in May is now looking questionable, if not impossible.

Sigh.

After much whining in my BT logs about my physical therapy and how it sucks, I realized that I just need to get over my bad self. Yeah, so what if I can't run. Or bike. And can't kick when I swim. What difference does it make?

It means I have to actually moderate my food intake. Which sucks. The whole point of exercise is to be able to eat a handful of nuts or a cookie in the afternoon or beers with dinner. It also means that I feel removed from my triathlete/runner friends (and Doug) because they are all gearing up for their 2009 race seasons and running/biking/swimming together while I'm gearing up for another 40 minutes stretching with the exercise band.

But it's not the end of the world. It just means that I'll do more race volunteering in 2009 and maybe I won't take my running for granted again.

Oh yeah, the resolution. Sing along if you know the tune:

Ac-cen-tu-ate the POSITIVE and E-lim-i-nate the NEGATIVE

POSITIVES

12 buddies doing the couch to 5K plan. I'm already getting emailed progress reports.
Annika ran a whole mile with Doug last week
I'm saving a lot of money on race fees and Gu
Volunteering at races is a really a lot of fun
The economy has to turn around sometime
I'm getting to spend more time with the kids

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

2008-12-28T09:47:00.002-05:00

It's time to start the Couch to 5K plan!

Two more recruits have joined since the last post:

Lauren (the "Butterfly") Starks from Transition - Here to Fe. Lauren is my internet and BT buddy and while she is not just starting out running, she is interested in the structure of a plan.

Barbara ("Crafty") Croft. Barbara is my doctor and is one of Jen's partners at Piedmont OB/Gym. Barbara has been out of running for a while and might want to get back in. We can certainly encourage her along the way.

So that brings our total number of participants to 12! Yay! It's still not to late to join in. And, if you know of any folks that might want to start (or start back) running, please feel free to forward the blog link to them. If they don't want to be included in the public group, I'll send encouragement privately too.

This week's plan is to switch the 30 minutes of walking on our 3 days to 27 minutes of walking and 3 minutes of running. All runners are supposed to report back after the end of the week on their progress towards the 9 minutes of weekly running and I'll update the blog on Monday with this information and a new chart.

I'm still not cleared to run so the pressure is off for everyone else. You can't do any worse than me. In fact, I'm still sore from a 30 minute walk on Friday, so it's not looking good for me to even walk 3x this week. But as soon as my foot is better, I'm going to catch up!

In other news, Santa brought a Wii to our house and we are all nursing muscle soreness from our virtual sports. Doug is the champ at boxing and tennis, but I'm killing everyone at bowling. I was the worst at bowling until I copied Annika's style and now I rock! She is not getting the "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" yet.

New Recruits!

2008-12-21T14:23:00.002-05:00

So, we've got some new recruits for the couch-to-5K plan:

Michele "LSU Runner" C. Michele is my tennis partner and swimming buddy who recently moved away to Birmingham. She is a college runner and high school track coach, but has had a recurrent ankle problem and is just starting her recovery plan.

Aimee "new Mom" W. Aimee's husband is in my triathlon club and turned me on to the "Spinervals" DVD series. In turn, I gave him "Yoga for Triathletes". I think I got the better end of that deal! Aimee and Steve are adoping a child from Ethiopia this year so keep them in your thoughts.

Cindy "Apple Queen" Z. Cindy is my aunt from Ellijay, Georgia (Ellijay is the apple capital of Georgia, in case you didn't know). and she is getting back into running after some IT band issues and a running hiatus. Uncle Mike is out with plantar fasciitus or I would have recruited him too.

Charlie "the Engine" (get it? The little engine that could?) from Running Nowhere Fast. Charlie is my internet friend who is also on the recovery train, and is hoping to get clearance from his doctor to run this week.

Sara "Yule" H. Sara and her husband lived across the street from us in our first house in Roswell, when Annie was just a pup and nobody had any kids. Sara has lost over 80 lbs and runs and walks a lot. She is starting to train for her first triathlon this year so she thought the running plan would be a good starting place to build to her triathlon.

I'll send out emails to the lot of you as soon as I've created a distribution list. I'm still not up to walking yet but am hopeful that I'll at least be able to do the walking portions of the training after Christmas with anyone who needs a buddy. I visit the physical therapist tomorrow and am crossing my fingers for a shorter recovery period. The internet research on the subject of stress fractures generally and calcaneal stress fractures in particular has really depressed me today.

If you or anyone else is thinking about joining in, it's not too late! Send me an email or pmail on BT or a Facebook note. Heck, it's never too late!!! I'll egg you on whenever you decide to start running.

In other news, we've cleaned our ovens today and are recovering from two pee accidents last night. And, if anyone has suggestions on how to contain/govern a three-year-old during Mass, please let me know. Dagny was horrible today - we have to leave twice for time-outs.

The Man with the Plan

2008-12-06T08:34:00.004-05:00

Ta Daaaa! Here is the 5K plan. I figured that no one would want to start their plan before Christmas. So, our running weeks start the week after Christmas. If you are a type "A," get started now by walking for 30 minutes three times a week:

Our illustrious runners so far are:

Elena "the Boss" from my triathlon club. Elena has been sidelined with injury this year so she is in the same boat as I am and is just starting back running.
Jen "Doc" Williams. Jen is my younger and cuter sister, who has not run since college. She is ready to get back moving this year.
Joe "Sailor" Elswick. Joe is my internet friend whose plans to run the Currahee Challenge were thwarted by skin cancer earlier this year. He is healed up and ready to go.
Steph B. This is me. My December marathon plans were foiled by a calcaneal stress fracture. Boo. I'm fighting to get back on the wagon, into my pants and away from the crazy.
Steph "Sky" F. My best buddy from law school. Steph has been running off and on for several years now, but now she would like the accountability of a plan.
Trish "Organic Fool" Sharp. Trish has been a regular walker/sometime runner for a while but is ready to make the jump to running.

I borrowed liberally from the Beginner Triathlete couch-to-5K program and the Cool Running program of the same name to make this plan. Thank you, Beginner Triathlete and Cool Running.

And, because I'm a rules girl, here are the rules:

We will do our walking (and gradually our running) three times per week. They do not have to be the same days every week.
We are committing to thirty minutes of run/walking on these days.
It's best to spread your running days out throughout the week, but it's not the end of the world if you do two days in a row. Pick whatever days work best with your schedule.
It is up to you whether you want to do your running minutes all-in-a-row or spread them out throughout the thirty minutes. Either way, we will all come to the same place at the end, which is a conversion of the whole thirty minute block from walking to running. Because I'm too lazy to divide up the thirty minutes, I'll be doing my running all-in-a-row after a short warm-up.
I suggest warming up by walking for five to ten minutes before starting your run minutes each day. As we get to weeks 14-15, that might mean five extra minutes of walking for the warm-up.
Start slow. You should be able to talk (with a little effort) while you are running. This will get easier with time, but you can't be too slow to start.
If it helps you to use an ipod or walkman, do it. I know that the sound of my own breathing (gasping) makes me feel awkward and out-of-shape. If you need music or a book to pass the time or mask the gasp, that is OK. Just do it with the volume low so you can hear cars or other people/animals if you are running outside.
Run outside or on the treadmill. Does not matter. It's more convenient and pleasant for me to run outside, but do what you like.
I'm available to do runs with anybody on the weekends - Annika will join in and make us feel silly and Dagny will yell encouragement from the stroller.
Do not do your runs in old shoes. If you've never gone to a running store (Big Peach Running Company, Fleet Feet, Phidippides, Spikes Running Company), you need to go and have them watch you run and buy some decent shoes. This is the only required investment. If you are nervous about going to a running store, I will accompany you with two loud children to deflect any possible embarrassment. If you have decent running shoes that are newish and don't hurt your feet at all, we can put off the shopping until later. It's important to get the right shoes for you, and the running store folks will help you find these for FREE. I love my Brooks and have worn this brand for 8 years, but you have to get the right shoes for you.
Please update me (email, facebook, pmail on Beginner Triathlete) with your weekly mileage on or after Sunday each week. Then I can update the chart and post it for all to admire.
I'll post a survey to see what race (if any) we all want to do together. This is not a requirement, but I thought it would be fun. And, afterwards I'll buy the beer.
If you are at all interested in logging your workouts, Beginner Triathlete allows you to log them for FREE if you join up (also free). And, there are cute little charts with different colors for each activity. I love a chart.

Any new recruits are welcome. Trish, Robin, Lotzie and Katie, this means you.

Hooray! Can we run it? Yes, we can!

Lemonade, That Cool Refreshing Drink

2008-12-03T10:59:00.004-05:00

Today I went for my x-rays with my cousin, Evander. He is an orthpaedic surgeon at Resurgens. We think that I have a stress fracture in my heel, which is not visible on the x-rays. This is what we thought before the x-rays but at least we were able to tell that there is nothing badly wrong with me. So, while we might know more about the stress fracture, if there is one, from an MRI - the recovery would be the same so I don't think we are going to bother with it. The plan is just more of the not-running. SIGH.

I did get some very comfy heel cups to wear in my regular shoes and a prescription for anti-inflammatories that I will likely not use. Ander said I might want it if the pain flares up. Also, I'm to do more stretching of the heel cords (those things that go up the back of the foot from the heel to the calf) and the hamstrings. I already do the heel stretches after every run because they feel really good but the hammies have been neglected. So, the new plan is to rest for a while (that means swimming, biking and core work only) and then start back again REALLY SLOWLY. Like only a half mile at the time.

So, I was on the phone with my sister later on and she mentioned wanted to get back on the exercise train.

AHA!

I can't run at all. Jen has not run since college. PERFECT!

So, I'm working on a 3 day per week couch-to-5K plan for us, borrowing liberally from the plans I found on BT and that I know from the Cool Running site. The only question is whether to start out on a run/walk plan or to run the planned minutes all in a row. Hmm. I'll have to ask Jen's preference, but I'm leaning towards the all-in-a-row. Then I need to identify a goal race for us. Something in February. . .

Yay! All of this running talk is making me feel better already.

Anyone else want to join us? Trish? Robin? Katie? Emily? The only apparent requirement is the ability to walk for 30 minutes in a row three times per week. Then, we begin to mix the running minutes into our 30 minutes of walking. I'll track our progress with a chart that I can upload to the blog on a weekly basis. : ) Fun!

It's the Economy, Stupid

2008-11-23T16:21:00.003-05:00

Since the economy is stagnating and no houses are selling, we have been economizing. And I, at least, have realized that there are many things that we have or do that just aren't that important. Here is a list. Feel free to add your own things if you are doing the same thing:

Store-bought bread for dinner. Thank goodness Trish posted about the bread she makes. She gave me the courage to finally attempt baking bread again. Some batches are better than others, but the it's really empowering to master the yeast. And it only costs about $0.50 per loaf instead of $4.50. Now, I just need to learn to make sandwich bread.
Friday night dinner out. We used to go to Mexican, Mellow Mushroom or Taco Mac every Friday for dinner. Mediocre food and crappy service but there was always beer. How else to celebrate the end of the week? Now, we make pizza (from scratch!) and watch a movie together in the basement.
House cleaners. Sigh. I was sad to see this go, but scrubbing potties is easy and I can do a better job on the floor anyway.
Fancy hair-dresser. After a couple of missteps, I've gotten the hang of coloring my own hair. And, when I took the girls to the Crossville Family Cuts, the lady who cut all of our hair (in 20 minutes flat!) told me that I didn't actually have any layers. Those folks at the salon had been charging me $50 to cut my hair straight across.
Expanded channels on the TV. We won't get to watch Top Chef (Bravo) or the Ironman series (Versus) or Ninja Warrior (G4) anymore, but with some thoughtful Tivo-ing, I think we will be OK. Last night we even saw a "Keeping Up Appearances" that we'd never seen before.
Grocery store produce. Doug planted a marvelous garden last spring and greens for the fall. The vegetables from there really make the other stuff seem lame.
Buying less stuff means less garbage. Who knew?
Doug is home more, so we get to hang out together. That's the best thing.

Just Can't Get Enough

2008-11-16T11:21:00.002-05:00

Running.

Just can't get enought running.

So, you know how my foot is hurt and I'm still not running regularly yet?

I hit upon the great idea that I could run with Annika. She is learning to run and I can't go very far so we are equally matched. I told Doug about this idea over dinner and while we were discussing how we could do the 0.4 mile loop behind the house once or twice, Annika piped up.

"I need to run by myself Mommy."

"Why? Wouldn't it be fun to run together?"

"Yes, but I'm FAST, Mommy."

Ouch.

So, for the Thanksgiving marathon, Doug is doing the full marathon. I'm going to drive him to the start and then volunteer at a water stop. I'm at water stop #2 for the marathoners, at the Artlite Supply store. Then, once my time is over, I will hightail it to the finish line to watch the half-marathoners come in. I'll miss all but the over 2 hr, 30 min crowd, but will be there for all marathoners. Anyone who has a friend running or wants to volunteer, here is the link. You can pick your time commitment and location from the list and register all on the convenient form. And, there is really good schwag. I tried to get them to let me bring the kids but they said no - the race is too cold and too long for kids. Luckily, we have an excess of family in town who are more than happy to have the girls for a couple of hours.

And for the ING marathon, it looks like I'll be relegated to the half again this year. Doug thinks I have time to train for the full, but I just don't think it is possible with the current heel situation. Seriously, my long run is 1.5 miles right now. I don't want to jump into training to far too fast and risk being out for next season. Sigh.

Curses, Foiled Again

2008-11-04T16:34:00.005-05:00

I got to run this morning, which was awesome and gave me a chance to scope out the voting line (already there at 5:45am). I wasn't fast, but that is OK. Running is so much better than not running. And exponentially better than not walking.

Meanwhile, Doug made waffles for the girls and fed them breakfast. Then, Doug went for his run while I cleaned up the kitchen, showered and got everyone dressed. While Doug showered upon his return, I went to vote. I counted myself lucky because I got a parking space and sucked it up with my audiobook for two hours. Standing around is tiring. We scrounged some lunch and headed to the movie theater to watch High School Muscial 3 with Katie and her kids. Ugh. It was terrible. They did reprise some of the better songs from the first movie, but not enough. I kept telling myself that this was no worse than Footloose or Dirty Dancing. Or any of the other crappy movies we liked as kids. On the way home, we dropped Doug and Annika off at the polling place so Doug could vote. The front parking lot was not full and when I turned the corner to see the place I'd parked, there was not a car in the lot. We turned around and went back for Doug and Annika to find exactly zero (0) people in line to vote. There was a line for check in, but that was all.

Curses. I should have voted in the afternoon too!

In keeping with the witchy theme, here are Halloween photos of my scawwy witches.

First is Annika at the Book Character Parade. Just the title of this event is reason enough to pay for private school. Sigh. If only it were that simple.

Next is Dagny, after she comandeered some kid's tractor. Note Doug chasing her around the cul-de-sac. Luckily, the parents disconnected the battery shortly after this photo.

And lastly, photos of my two friends, courtesy of Aunt Katie who remembered her camera (unlike me).

Annika was right that witches don't wear pony tails. I should have left Dagny's hair down too. Aunt Jennie couldn't believe this was Annika's real hair. Hee.

The girls had a blast at the pre-trick-or-treat party and then going around with their friends and all of the other folks we found in the neighborhood in Papa's truck. I had to put the kaibosh on the nasty halloween rhymes from the over 7 set but true to form Dagny was the big winner again this year. I think it's because she was so loud with the "thank yous" and the "Happy Halloweens" and not so quick to dash to the next house. We spread the wealth around and divided the total haul between the kids. It's open for discussion how long the candy stays, but our church is collecting any extra to deliver here, which is a really cool idea. Much better than leaving it at the office to tempt everyone.

Bread: 1, Steph 1

2008-10-22T15:48:00.004-05:00

On Friday, since I'm not running, I thought I'd made a stab at baking bread. It's on my list, after all. My first attempt was many years ago and was a complete disaster. The bread looked lovely, but the sourdough starter had "turned' and therefore the bread was inedible.

Anyway, back to Friday. I gathered the ingredients and the Cook's Illustrated cookbook and got ready to make pizza crust for dinner. You see, the bread recipes all required bread flour and we didn't get to the store until too late to make them.

So, I started the pizza crust and made a list of stuff to buy at the grocery store. I put the pizza dough in the oven with hot water just like Alton Brown did the other night and we went to the store. Alas, when the rising time was over, it was not a puffy and delicious dough. It was some kind of gooey monster. We put in the garbage and had to go out for pizza instead.

Bread: 1, Steph: 0

Before realizing the crust disaster (while still full of confidence), I started a sponge to make bread on Saturday. For all of you that have never made bread before (me included), a sponge is basically a little bit of the dough that you make ahead of time and put in the fridge overnight to grow. So, on Saturday, we made the rest of the dough, added the sponge and some salt and continued with the recipe. There was not a lot of kneading. Apparently "Crusty Italian Bread" does not like be handled a lot.

Here are the results:

Top:

Bottom:
Yeah, you are supposed to let the stone heat up in the oven for an hour for a reason. Apparently this is not just a waste of energy and I shouldn't have skipped it.

Side view:

Check it out! Real bread!

How cool is that?

Doug had gone to the hockey game with the boys, so the girls and I did a taste test after taking the dog for a walk:

Dagny had Nutella and jam on her bread:

As you can tell, the Nutella was her favorite even though she also tried Annika's toppings.

Here is Annika making a thoughtful comparison of the bread pieces.

The honey chevre that I bought at Trader Joe's was her favorite. Trader Joes is deadly to the wallet if you go in hungry. Oh well. The honey chevre is awfully good. The plain honey is good too, though. I got to eat everyone's leftovers.

All in all, not bad bread. The loaf was huge, though. We've been eating it for three days. Next time I'll make three small loaves and freeze two. Also, you have to mix the salt in better than I did. Some pieces were pretzel-ish and some pieces were too plain.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

2008-10-17T13:12:00.004-05:00

I wrote a very long and thoughtful post on the political situation and political philosophy (believe it or not). I spent a long time revising and rewriting so as not to alienate anyone.

Then, I had a work phone call and the next time I looked up, I had missed the bus.

So?

So, if your kindergarten or first grader comes home on the bus and you aren't outside - they don't get off the bus. Yes, gone are the days where kids let themselves into the house.

Panic ensued.

I called the neighbors and hoped against hope that the bus was late. As I stood in the driveway in the rain with the cell and regular phones and the directory in my hands trying to figure out what to do, the bus came back.

Our driver has a "layover" before his next route so he goes back by to catch any kids whose parents are late. Bless him. He will be getting some cookies for Bus Driver Appreciation Day. Annika was unfazed.

I took that as a sign that my post was doomed.

Go out to the internet and read what you can. Read Atlas Shrugged and think how many more burdens the workers in this country can bear before they just give up.

In other news, in all of the limping on the bad heel, I've injured the forefoot. There will be no running this weekend. Maybe not even next week. The endorphins are not flowing.

You Say It's Your Birthday!

2008-10-11T15:00:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Dagny's birthday. She is three and completely full of herself. Doug was responsible for getting her gifts - it was a Sleeping Beauty theme so she got a beautiful dress-up dress, a Barbie and the movie. We got pizza and watched the movie for dinner. What a fun evening! We will be having more family movie nights this year.

But TODAY was the party. Monster Party Rentals brought the bounce house, I borrowed tables from all of our friends and the usual suspects turned up for a fun party. It was a beautiful day and I think everyone had a good time.

This is my cousin, Fletcher. He is very serious about this cookie cake. I think he had two pieces because I remember giving him one with blue icing. Hee! : )

Here is a crowd shot. In the back row, from the left are Pete, my mom, Grammy and Robin (Fletcher's mom). At the tables are Carmella, Caroline, Annika and Sarah. Then Eve, Wyatt, Dagny (in outfit #3), Kate and Alex.
Carmella and Annika appear to be attacking Beau as Alex crawls in front of them. Yes, Annika has on the pig costume. It goes nicely with the dress, I think.

Ryan, Nat and Doug.
After calling Publix to get a quote for the cake, I decided that I'd be baking the cookie cake. Instead of one big cake, I made two. This is the "good" cake - I got better with the pastry bag with a little practice. Inexplicably, one of the first two burned on the bottom and sides so I had to make another. I decorated this morning with icing that I made. Note to self - next time buy the black icing because it really did take 2 packages of food coloring to make black. The other icing worked great, though, except that I made it a trifle too thin because I didn't account for the thinning that would occur with the addition of the food coloring. I'm all empowered now about the cakes.
Here is Dagny worrying about how I cut the cake.

Then, Dagny and her blankie enjoying some cake with Carmella.

It was a lovely day. I'm watching the Kona coverage while blogging and icing my foot. We are having Ro-Tel and other bar food for dinner with the new stout that Doug made. Mmmm. Tomorrow is cousin Slater's baptism. Never a dull moment!

Hello Pool My Old Friend

2008-10-03T13:07:00.003-05:00

Apropos of nothing, my foot hurt when I got up in the middle of the night to use the potty last night. This morning, it hurt to walk.

Not right, I say. I SWAM yesterday. No bike. No run. We did take a walk after dinner but it was slow because Dagny likes to dawdle and spit at the fish when we cross the creek.

"Maybe it will ease up and I can do my long run today," I thought. Doug and I dropped Dagny at school and Doug took off for his run. Alas, I made it as far as the bathrooms at the park before the pain got too much for me. It was not easing up, but increasing. I drove until I found Doug and handed off the i-pod and went home to ride my bike.

That didn't hurt as bad, but my foot still throbbed after I showered to get ready for surprise lunch with Annika at her school. As I was dressing, the phone rang. It was the school nurse. Annika had cut her ear and they wanted me to come and look at it. Surprise foiled.

And now, I'm icing. Ibuprophen is on the way. The internet may tell me what the problem is but I'm afraid to look. Afraid that I'll be stuck in the pool all winter. Again.

On a happier note, here are some more photos that my friend Rivi took of the race last weekend. First, I'm starting the run looking strong.
Our tri-club has their priorities in the right place. They wrote notes to every member on the run course. This one says "run like there is free beer". : ) Mmmm, beer.
Put your shirt down, woman! Yes, I'm dumping water on my head. It was hot and the sweating wasn't working enough. And the shirt, thin though it may be, was hurting my stomach. Same with the shorts - that is why they are rolled down. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
This is my good side. : ) Rivi ran up next to me to take my photo. He rocks.

South Carolina

2008-10-01T12:20:00.002-05:00

Here are the pre-race photos from the camera that they gave us in the schwag bag at the race this weekend:

Nat and me, sporting our swim togs.
Nora, looking cute as always. She even looked cute on the run when I was drag-assing around the course with my belly hanging out.

Doug telling me not to take his photo - can you see his teeth are clenched?
Me, modeling my team ZootGu outfit.
Doug, getting in the race zone with some tunes.
Nat and Doug in swim gear. Look at that flexing.
So, I posted my race report on BT. Here is the link if you want to read all about it in nauseating detail. I had a marvelous time at the race. Sure, parts of the run hurt a lot, but the whole thing was fun from the time we started packing the car until we collapsed exhausted into bed on Sunday night. It has been awesome to share the experience with Nat and Doug and all of my internet (and real) buddies.

Soreness kept me to a walk yesterday and I left my i-pod in the car so I was alone with my thoughts about the race and triathlons in general. It seems like a longer distance triathlon is like a puzzle where you have to fit all of the pieces together just right (the swim, the bike, the run, but also the pacing on each one and the nutrition the day before the race, the nutrition the morning before the race, the nutrition during the race, the outfit, etc). Only, the trick is that first you have to make all of the pieces and then you have to grind or sand them to make them fit together and if you do it wrong it throws all of the other pieces off and you either have a complete mess or have to start over.

Given this complexity, it's a complete miracle that I was able to finish Sunday's race at all. I had the pieces - we knew I could swim and bike and run the distance. And, because of my GI issues, I knew what I needed to eat during the race and the day before. And, because we've practiced, a lot, we knew mostly what the paces should be. So, I had a good shot going in.

Then, I went faster than plan on the swim. That's OK because I didn't go hard. Wasn't breathing hard or feeling stressed at any point. I did sandbag a little on my goal pace for the swim. Then, I went out too hot on the bike. This is a common error and I tried to rectify it by slowing down for the rest of the ride. I tried to ignore my falling average pace because it was still above goal pace. This worked out OK. I finished only 0.2 mph over goal pace. On the run, I also started hot. It's easy to do this because you are already warm from the bike and the heartrate is elevated. I talked myself off of that ledge and was headed off just under goal pace when I was immediately slammed into reality with stomach distress. I don't have tummy problems on the run - it's the lower GI that gives me fits. My only guess is that I overfueled on the bike or the bike was too fast for my level of fitness or my run was also too fast for me. I dunno. Whatever happened, I was able to finish the run 10 seconds per mile over goal pace. However, when you add all that together, I came in well under my goal time.

Swim: 37:32

T1: 3:46 (yeah, wetsuit removal is hard)

Bike: 3:08:44

T2: 2:17

Run: 1:57:26

Total:5:49:43

Wow, it was so much fun. I can't wait to race again next year.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

2008-09-27T05:40:00.005-05:00

Last week, while I was trying to get Dagny's party invitations to print out, I said to the girls "cross your fingers."

Annika and I instantly crossed our fingers next to each other like you'd imagine.

Dagny quickly took the index finger from each hand and crossed them next to Annika's fingers. I tried to show her how to do it the way Annika was and she said "no, this way" and showed me again.

So, the workouts are all done.

The oatmeal is cooking on the stove.

Doug is in search of gas for the car.

The outfits are laid out on the bed, waiting for the kids to wake up so that I can retrieve the suitcases to pack us up.

I'm running transition plans throught my head - trying to decide if it's worth it to wear the wetsuit or not.

Natalie is coming in less than 5 hours. I've got to get busy. Good luck to everyone racing at SC HIM or the 6 Gaps Century or other races this weekend. Kevin and Wes and NAMC and Team ZootGu peeps, see you there!

Cross your fingers.

Will update with results and race report on Monday.

Superstar

2008-09-20T05:55:00.003-05:00

Doug and Annika are going to Cartersville this morning to ride in the Beautiful Back Roads Century. Doug loaded up the car last night while Annika and I washed a selection of sunglasses. Then, Doug and Annika filled their bottles and rustled up their gear this morning. Annika was briefly offended that she had to put a sweatshirt on over her Team Bachman jersey but was mollified with the idea that she could remove the sweatshirt before the ride actually started. Hopefully Doug thinks about putting the jersey on the outside of the sweatshirt if it's still too cold at the start.

As they walking out the door, Annika told Doug to make sure that he had her pink sunglasses.

Because those make her look like a movie star.

She is the cutest thing. Very excited to be going on a bike ride with Dad.

So, watch out for my superstar on her hook-up-bike behind Doug - wearing my new helmet and her movie star sunglasses.

In other news, Dagny and I are going to a jumping party this morning if her tummy is better. She had some kind of upset yesterday (my laundry area is still a biohazard zone) but I hope it has passed.

Before I'm Dead

2008-09-19T05:12:00.003-05:00

After law school, my friend Stephanie made a list of the stuff she wanted to do before she was dead. Then, she proceeded to check stuff off of the list. I never saw her list but I remember some of the stuff on it.

Fast forward to this week, when I found my friend Trish's blog here. Trish makes beautiful bread. Baking bread is on my list.

So, even though I don't think death is knocking on my door, here is my list, in no particular order. Feel free to comment with your own list or just ridicule my list:

Watch my kids grow up, get married and have kids of their own. Sappy, I know.
Actually learn to speak Russian. I took it in college and it didn't stick. At all.
Learn to bake bread - the fat, floury loaves that you see in restaurants. Several attempts at this have turned out very badly. Did you know that sourdough starter can go bad? Well, it can. I even have a bread machine and that sucks too.
Cross-country ski. Doug has always talked about this and regular skiing turned out to be fun so I want to give it a try.
Move to Colorado.
Run a marathon.
Have a piano in our house and learn to play it better than a 10 year old.
Learn to knit more than just a square. Learn to knit was always on my list and I can do it, but only in a square or rectangle - no turning or joining.
Grow old with Doug. He won't be able to hear and I won't be able to see and we'll both have to get new knees but that's OK.

I haven't put an Ironman on the list yet. I have to wait and see how this Half Ironman distance race works out. There are plenty of places that I've never been but would like to go (San Francisco, NYC) but those are "it would be nice to-dos". I don't think I'd regret them if I got called home tomorrow.

Guardedly Optimistic

2008-09-15T08:23:00.002-05:00

Today begins the 50% week of tapering for the half iron-distance race. 50% feels like a vacation for me so I'm enjoying the time to catch up on other stuff (like laundry, and Annika's art projects, paying the bills, actually writing on the blog). Next week is even less so I'll be coloring my hair and baking, I imagine. Doug won't even recognize me.

At any rate, here is my race plan for South Carolina HIM:

Swim: 40 minutes. This is slightly faster than 2:00 mins per 100. This is "forever" pace for me, so I don't intend to hammer the swim at all. It's the warm-up. 1 Gu pre-swim after magic oatmeal/coffee for breakfast.
T1: Under 3 minutes would be good here. Wetsuit removal could add time, though, so I'm considering going without it.
Bike: 3.2 hours (17.5 mph average pace). 3 bottles Accelerade, 5 oz Gu in the flask, and water in the aerobottle. "Pick-me-up" of fig newtons at halfway point or whenever I'm in the valley. This will be tough for me. I just have to tell myself that we've done it before with a pee break so I can do it now.
T2: Again, under 3 minutes is fine. If I can squeeze the potty break within this time, even better.
Run: 2 hours. This is just slightly above 9:00 min/mile average pace. So long as my GI cooperates, I can do this. 3 Gus and Nuun in my hand-bottle. I should only need 2 Gus but I'll bring the extra and an extra Nuun just in case.

Therefore, here are the time goals:

Finish
Finish under 6 hrs
Finish without touring all of the porto-potties

Plan B is to average 10:00 min/mile for 2hrs 11 mins for the run and come in later. If I have to stop more than once at the potties and get behind, this will trigger a shift to Plan B. Plan B is just as good, but less fast.

And on the marathon front, last week my long run was 17 miles. Huge distance record for me.

I know, holy cow! And, it didn't even hurt.

This week, I had 12 on my plan but I think I screwed up the plan so I aimed for 14 at a 10 min per mile average pace. This is not a fast pace for me, but when you add in the potty stops and water breaks it really is. Combine that with regular milk instead of soy for breakfast (we were out of soy) and what you get is trouble. I had almost caught back up to 10 minute pace when I had to stop the second time and then I was behind for the entire rest of the run. Next time I'll go out a little bit faster so that I don't run out of real estate at the end to get back to my time. It didn't help that the weather was overcast and the clouds kept spitting rain at me. It's harder to run when you are wet.

This week, 8-10 miles (tapering!) and then the race so my long runs will start back on the week of Oct 12 (earlier if I feel good and the blood donation doesn't wipe me out).

What She Said

2008-08-30T06:57:00.003-05:00

Or, On Breakfast At Our House.

We have new cereal at our house. It's called "Mighty Bites" and is produced by Kashi. I love Kashi. Their cereals have lots of protein and insoluble fiber, which are good for me. Anyway, I gave in to the pressure for the Mighty Bites because it has 4-5 grams of protein and some fiber in it so it's not all bad. It does, however, taste like marshmallows. Ick. But the girls like it. Even Annika. And, the cereal is shaped like little men.

Which has produced the following quotes of the day:

"Mom, I want MEN for breakfast!"

"Give me more MEN - I love men best of all!"

For the record, I mix the men with cheerios when I feed them to the kids.

Dagny, who only eats cereal for breakfast (because she loves cereal like I do) has eaten two bowls of "Os and men" this morning. And, Annika has eaten nearly a whole serving of oatmeal. She asked for oatmeal this morning so I made two servings for her, thinking that I would just eat the leftovers. What leftovers? There are about two spoonfuls left in the pot.

Best of all, it's after 8 o'clock and I haven't lost my marbles yet. Granted, our sole accomplishment of the morning so far is eating breakfast, but we did survive a poopy diaper accident and the preparing of breakfast (only 2 timeouts) so that is a victory.

In other news, I also survived my long run this morning (14 miles) but had to stop 4 times for potty breaks. I think I was dehydrated from yesterday and that made my GI issues worse. I mention this only because (a) it makes me feel better to confess, and (b) I know others have this issue and I don't want them to feel alone. Anyway, Doug and I wrote out my marathon training plan (just the long runs) last night and it was very daunting. There is no wiggle room or procrastination space if I'm going to get in enough training to finish without major strain. Gulp.

Stephanie Bites the Dust

2008-08-27T15:38:00.002-05:00

Or,

Why You Should Always Make Your Kids Wear Helmets

Today I rode bikes with Doug and our friend Neal. As we rode away from the park, Doug noticed that Neal forgot his helmet. "I'll be OK," he said. "Nah, we'll go and get it" said Doug. "Whew" said I. I didn't want to be the bossy mom. We looped back through Land O'Lakes and retrieved his spare helmet. The good one appears to be missing, which sucks, but at least he had a spare.

After the helmet application, we rode in the nasty drizzle all around Roswell and had a lovely time. I wasn't always able to keep up, but I always reeled them back in at some point down the line. You have to work really hard to REALLY drop me.

We took the big hill route down Pine Grove to turn right on Shallowford Road on the way home. Those of you familiar with the area know that the turn onto Shallowford is tight - you have to downshift in advance and slow down.

Apparently, you have to slow down extra when it's wet.

My rear tire started to fishtail a little as I crossed the bridge and slowed down to turn but I thought I had recovered. I turned my handlebars to the right and all of a sudden I was bouncing and sliding on the ground. Oops.

As far as I can tell, when I turned my handlebars right, my rear tire kept going forward so my bike and I laid down on our sides. As far as accidents go, this was really minor. I only have some road rash on my hip, shoulder and wrist.

However, I'll never forget the sound my helmet made when it bounced off of the ground. THWOP! It's really odd to bounce like that.

As we finished our ride, I was thinking to myself that maybe I wouldn't have to get a new helmet (it's not in the budget right now) because it didn't hit that hard. After all, it only has a minor scrape on the outside.

The inside of my helmet is all cracked, though.

At least it's not my head.

Perspective

2008-08-24T18:48:00.002-05:00

So, our friend Paul is racing Ironman Canada today. I've been checking online thoughout the day and scarily enough it is completely possible that Paul has been racing since before we left for church this morning (the race must be on Pacific time) and will still be racing by the time we get into bed.

Whew! And he is fast! That is one long race, people.

Off to bathe my kiddos. Race strong, Paul!

In other news, Dagny just told me that Annika was making her ugly (pronounced ughuhly) by calling her stupid. And that I needed to put Annika in her room. Ha!

And, I saw a snake at the Leita trail today. It was either a garter snake or a northern water snake. Watch out runners!

I Keep Coming Back Again

2008-08-23T17:33:00.003-05:00

Yeah, so we did the "race-plan-testing" ride/run in Cartersville today.

I packed all of the items mentioned in the previous post and we stopped at the clean and tidy truck stop near the Budweiser plant to potty. I also purchased and ate one of a two pack of cinnamon pop tarts. Doug ate the other. Nat had brought her own. I totally copied her because I had to buy something while we used the potty at the stop.

Upon arriving at the Bud plant, we (Nat, Doug and I) suited up and sallied forth into the winds. You could smell the wort from the brewing on the wind. Yummo! : ) That, and the fact that they let us park (for free!) in their parking lot made me really love Budweiser today. On the ride, I felt terrific for the first two hours. My Accelerade tasted awesome and I took a shot from my Gu flask every 1/2 hour. We stopped once to pee, but I didn't stop my watch. Doug was keeping the pace to see if I could hold 17 mph for a ride that long. Until the two hour mark, it was easy. I yelled "whee" down the hills and took in the sights on the beautiful ride. I saw a hawk at the Hawk's Heaven subdivision and a swan in someone's pond and mooed at lots of cows.

However, as we passed the crazy bike-chasing dog (who picked me to chase, by the way) and entered our third hour of biking, I faded fast. Doug had my third bottle of electrolyte drink and he was way ahead of me. I couldn't catch up and spend a lot of time saying bad words and thinking bad thoughts about myself and my riding. It was the Valley of Darkness. This happens to everyone in a race or during training but it happened in a big way today. I kept telling myself that it was just the fueling but upon further reflection, my fueling was fine until the 2 hr point and I still had plenty of Gu and water. Doug slowed and passed me my bottle at about 2hrs 30 mins so it clearly wasn't the fuel. So, the new plan is to (a) start the 3rd bottle of drink promptly upon the start of the 3rd hour and (b) bring some kind of treat to look forward to to help me avoid that bad place. I tried many things but I think an external stimulus (food) is probably better for this than what I tried. So, next bike I'll bring some Fig Newtons or pretzels or ginger snaps to help me snap out of the funk. I even thought about writing my kids' names on my handlebar tape. Maybe just their initials.

Then, even after the new bottle of drink, I got a cramp in my abdomen. Ugh! It could have been the fueling, gas, stiffness at so little change in position for nearly 3 hrs or the constant snot-rocketing that my headcold was requiring. I'm thinking it was the cold or gas. TMI, I know. Sorry.

So we finally finished and I tried to stretch out while Doug (thanks Doug!) loaded and locked the bikes onto our car. We started running and I let Doug and Nat run on ahead while I tried to hold a 9 min/mile pace. After about a half-mile I was able to drink some of my Nuun and even eat one of my run Gus. Therefore, I think the cramping wasn't a tummy issue. Doug and Nat turned around at the stoplight and I planned to follow them after reaching the truck parked on the shoulder. I had even identified a potty location on the way back. Then, I noticed that we were back at the truck stop. Da DAAAAAAAAA! I ran in, took advantage of the clean potties, washed my hands and ran back out, waving to all of the truckers as I passed. Whoo!

There is no way that I'll be able to do my whole race without a potty stop, even with the immodium. It's high time I came to grips with this. So, rather than feeling bad about it, I'll use it as a rejuventation break. Just like the Gallaway method. Perfect!

I was able to hold close to 9min/mile for the rest of my run and even talk myself into going beyond my planned 6 miles to an even 60 minutes, and then exceeding that to get to a good turn-around place. I ended up with 7.01 miles at about a 9:16 pace. Not too shabby. Using my perceived exertion, I could have continued at that pace for a good while.

We learned a lot today. I'm hoping that Doug and Nat got as much out of it as I did.

The girls had a fabulous time with Meghan today. Didn't miss us a bit. They are, however, exhausted from this week so we will all be going to bed shortly.

You've Lost That Bonking Feeling

2008-08-23T05:28:00.004-05:00

Anyone who has ever been overweight is afraid of calories. Calories are the enemy. They are the deliciously slippery Hansel and Gretel slope on which we will slide back to the fat pants.

But in longer distance training, particularly half-ironman distance (which is where we are now), those calories are essential. They mark the difference between finishing the race still running and either not finishing at all or finishing in an ignominious shuffle or the dreaded tour of the porto-potties.

So, after the near-bonk on my bike ride a few months back (couldn't find it in the archives - will link if I do), I've been diligent about my fueling. You know the ride - the one where I hit a bump, my hands flew off of the handlebars and I nearly wrecked in front of a car?

Yeah, so, the fear of that condition (the shakes, bad mood, confusion and nausea that we call "low-fuel" at my house) keeps me bringing plenty of electrolyte drink and Gu whenever I exercise. This could be a contributing factor to my ongoing GI issues, but I get those even when I get up and run without consuming anything so I don't think that is it. And, when I eat a Gu, I feel better. Comfort eater, that's me.

But - I've not had that bonking feeling in a while so I think I'm doing OK. I usually bring water and a bottle of electrolyte drink and a Gu for every hour of my bike ride and that seems to work well for me.

Anyway, David Warden at www.tri-talk.com has a nutrition calculator for use in triathlon. You input your weight, your race distance and intensity and it tells you your caloric spend and how many calories you should take in during your race. It's fun to play around with the numbers and compare caloric spend at different intensity levels and race distances. I checked out my sprint numbers as a test and it seemed pretty accurate (given the fact that I won't burn up all of my stored calories in such a short race).

So, according to this calculator, Nat and I (because we weigh the same - I know she's 4-5 inches taller, shhhhhh - we weigh the same!) should take in between 200 and 280 calories per hour. Racing at a higher intensity (87%) gets you to 284 calories per hour and at a lower intensity (82%) is only about 235 calories per hour.

We are doing our training run-through today to test nutrition and clothing. So, here is my nutrition plan for today:

Bike
2 200 calorie bottles of Accelerade on my bike
1 100 calorie bottle of Gu20 on Doug's bike
1 5oz Gu flask with Chocolate Outrage Gu (5 1oz shots of Gu inside)
1 aero-drink bottle of water for sipping

Run
1 20oz hand-bottle of water/Nuun
2 1oz Gus in pocket of hand-bottle

This might be a little low on the calories if I go at a fast pace. If so, for race day I'll replace the Nuun in my run bottle with Gu2O because I can drink that without a problem on the run. The race has hand-ups on the bike but (1) I'm worried that I won't be able to do them, and (2) they are serving Gatorade, which sometimes upsets my tummy. Because I only have 2 bottle cages on my bike, I'll either have to carry the 3rd bottle in my jersey (not a problem, except that my Team Zoot/Gu jersey doesn't have a back pocket) or get a water from the aid station and add my G2O to it in the race. Gu2O comes in single-serving pouches for just this reason.

So, bring on the test.

Grrrr

2008-08-19T17:56:00.004-05:00

Just to prove how painful the last miles of my race were on Saturday, here are some photos that my new Zoot/Gu friend David took and sent to me. I met David at the race because we both had on our Zoot/Gu gear. He was practicing taking photos of folks at the finish so he would be ready when his son (also in Team Gu gear) came across the line, and sent these to me. Thanks David!