It's the Economy, Stupid

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Buying less stuff means less garbage. Who knew?
8. Doug is home more, so we get to hang out together. That's the best thing.

Just Can't Get Enough

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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:

1. Watch my kids grow up, get married and have kids of their own. Sappy, I know.
2. Actually learn to speak Russian. I took it in college and it didn't stick. At all.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Move to Colorado.
6. Run a marathon.
7. Have a piano in our house and learn to play it better than a 10 year old.
8. 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.
9. 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

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:

1. Finish
2. Finish under 6 hrs
3. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Racing for the Weekend

On Friday, we picked Annika up from school in the dreaded carpool line. UGH! And continued on our merry way (after the obligatory long wait and identification process from the school personnel) to Cordele, Georgia. We were on our way to the Lake Blackshear Resort for our second running of the Georgia Veterans State Park Sprint Triathlon. I think they've had a race here for several years, but we've only been going for two of them.


Doug's folks took the RV down again and the girls spent the nights with them, which was neat. Here is a photo of Annika playing with the toy RVs in the real RV and Dagny looking at me with binoculars.

That photo makes me smile every time I look at it because she was so happy to see me through the binoculars (which, as you might notice) are not connected in the middle.


Katie kept the dog, for which kindness we brought her a watermelon from the garden and some awesome beef jerky from the store located right outside of the park entrance. "Ew," you are thinking, but don't. These folks know their jerky.


This was Doug's first race last year and my second one so we were interested to see how we would measure up after a full year of training. Here are links to my race report and Doug's race report on Beginner Triathlete. And below is a list of my event times (wow, a blogger/excel interface would have helped here):


2007 v. 2008


Swim=> 8:41 v. 6:49


T1=> 2:21 v. 2:00


Bike=> 43:39 v. 39:16


T2=> 0:44 v. 1:02


Run=> 22:50 v. 22:47


Total=> 1:11:52 v. 1:18:13


Result 4th in AG v. 2nd woman overall



Overall, I'm very pleased with my race. The swim is a crapshoot because the distances change every year. I think this year's course was short or T1 included more of the run to transition because I didn't do my best on the swim even though my time looks faster. The bike was awesome - I'm thrilled with that. Almost hit a 20mph average!! I think I did OK on the run. I'd love to get down to 7 minutes per mile for the 5K but maybe later.


Then, we came home on Sunday and tried to catch up on the housework. Not so successful with that, but that's OK. I got the Mass times mixed up AGAIN (thought it was at 4pm, when it was at 5pm) but Annika, Grammy and I made it to our first Mass in the new sanctuary. It was beautiful and the coolness of having a kneeler helped Annika behave herself the whole time. We will, however, have to sit closer to the front next time because it was hard to hear the folks up front from the middle of the sanctuary. Oddly, the band and singers from the choir loft (it was the teen Mass) sounded like they were standing right at our shoulders.

Annika and I arrived home to find that Doug and Dagny had already eaten their dinner so we warmed up some spaghettios and watched the Olympics until bedtime.


Do you know what that means? It means that I didn't do any exercise for the streak on Sunday.

I'm souring a bit on the streak since Charlie broke his leg with what could have been stress fractures. I was up to 90 days again. Oh well. Nat is clearly going to win that challenge unless she gets sick. I'm thinking up a different idea for a streaking challenge next year and will post it in December.

Karma Police

There will be no more discussion about potty-training success here. After the last post, Dagny pooped on the floor in the bathroom (couldn't get her pants down fast enough) and the next day after ignoring my commands to sit down to dinner or sit on the potty, she dropped trou to poop on the stairs.

Nothing like picking up poop and disinfecting the floor to humble a person.

Seriously, though, it seems to me that every time I get excited enough about something to crow about it, I screw it up. So, there will be no more of tempting of fate on the blog. Dagny is working on her potty and some days are good. But some days still aren't. We visited the potty 4 times at dinner last night with no actual use of the potty.

And, on Friday I had to write my first "Dear Mrs. M" note to school to tell them that Annika would be picked up in carpool. Nothing like writing that note to make you feel like an actual adult. It feels very odd to be the one with the power to write the "Please-excuse-Annika's-absence,-she-was-ill." note - like they will notice that I've forged my mom's name and I'll be exposed as a fraud.

Um, not that I ever signed my own excuse notes so that I could have the maximum number of absences and keep my parking space, or anything like that.