Centerpieces

This morning in the pool Brian told me his new goggles came with Centerpieces.

REALLY?! Are there candles and flowers in them? (I only got a GLARE for this comment).

I always thought centerpieces were things my mother set on the table at Thanksgiving dinner. You know, the decorative sort of things that are supposed to be the perfect finishing touch to a lovely hand-made meal.
Some people even get a special table-runner to set UNDER the centerpiece - just to draw your eyes to it or maybe to catch the candle wax that drips?

I NOW understand though, that many pairs of goggles come with centerpieces! In the event that you lose your original centerpiece, step on your goggles and break the centerpiece (but of course not the actual goggle portion), or just feel the need for a fresh and new centerpiece, you can replace this portion at any time!

Only 11 days til Kona - I can't wait!! Oh, and I'll be sure to pack an extra centerpiece!

Cousin Chris Coming to Kona!!

Who wouldn't want this guy cheering for them in Kona?!!!
I am the luckiest girl ever!

Martha and the Godfather

Martha Stewart had nothing on me this weekend! Here's a recap:

1. Made pancakes
2. Vacuumed (took me a while to actually locate this Device, but I even vacuumed the STAIRS once I found it!)
3. Laundry (and not just throw it in the dryer and leave it there until I can't find the shirt I want to wear - I even FOLDED!)
4. Made cookies (not really from scratch but nobody noticed!)
   
5. Made small floral arrangements for my girlfriends and had them over for a tea party taper-celebration. (OH WAIT - that is something Martha really would have done - instead I did a bike ride up to San Clemente complete with Diedrich coffee stop in the middle - WAY BETTER!)
6. Watched the Godfather

Ok, so most of you have probably seen this great movie of our time. I however, had not. No really, I had NEVER seen the Godfather I (and no, I haven't seen II or III yet either - they are on the list). I rather enjoyed it once I got it straight in my mind who all the characters were.

Thankfully everyone in the room had already seen the movie so I didn't feel I was disrupting Jeff, Brian and Steven everytime I asked, "Wait, who is he?" "Which Italian family is he with?" or "What is going on?!"

So now all the heads of the 5 families are dead!!! How does this happen?! They were all getting along so well and then BAM - eliminated! I'm not really sure where it can go from here, except of course they are apparently moving to Vegas now, so I'm sure there's drama in Vegas to be had.

Our next Godfather viewing party will be held in the next few weeks and we'll be eating Italian food to go with the great Italian themed movie. I've been told I'll be VERY confused while watching this movie. I'll keep you posted . . .

No plan . . . it clicks

So this past week was a week of BLAH BLAH BLAH workouts. They sucked. If Liggett and Sherwin had been commentating my bike workouts "She's going backwards" would have filled every other sentence. In the pool one day our coach Amanda asked if I was still alive because I was so slow. We won't even discuss the run.

Steven - often neglected husband extraordinaire - had to listen to me whine multiple times this week about how my workouts were not happy times. I am not one to skip workouts and this week I skipped workouts. A LOT of workouts.

I can pull a number of excuses out of my hat: 

1. I worked over 40 hours this week (I know, I know, everyone pull out their violins in unison please!!)

2. Maybe mentally I was just "done" after the last big weekend - my body forgot that when I taper I still do a few workouts!

3. Or MAYBE this is how it's supposed to be! TAPERING.

So I got tired of the workouts "not working" by the time Friday rolled around.

Now I'm one of those "Type A plan ahead" people. (STOP LAUGHING!!) I like to get my workouts in early so I can do other stuff the rest of the weekend. Plus - how fun is it to check that workout off the list?! You non-type A people will not understand this - don't even try!

So I decided to sleep in and just do my Saturday workouts when and if I felt like it. NO PLAN. (gasp!!!) I slept in (ok it was only til 6:45, but it felt wonderful!) Instead of throwing on shoes or hopping on my bike I SAT ON THE COUCH and did nothing. FOR AN HOUR! It was great! Steven and I went for a walk - not a run or a ride, just a walk. We got coffee. We went to church (and it was the first time in ages they haven't asked us where we are visiting from!) Then we went for a ride. 

And it was a good ride. I got my HR up and it stayed up and I felt good! I felt like I could keep going forever. Then when I got home I ran - and it felt GREAT. I believe it's referred to as being in "the zone." Whatever it's called - it rocked! Everything just clicked. I was running 6:30s and they felt effortless. I felt like I could run forever at this pace. Any of my friends coming to Kona - please please remind me of this when I'm out in the energy lab!

Now I know everything is already "in the bank". From now til Oct. 11 my workouts will not make or break anything. But having a good workout two weeks before sure makes me happy!

Ohhhhhh a penny!

I have a small problem. Well, actually I don't think it's a problem, but maybe some of my friends do. I REALLY love finding money on the ground. I've been known to stop riding my bike to pick up a quarter (errr, or a penny). If I'm at an intersection and the light is red and there is a penny within a few steps of my bike I would probably clip clop over to pick it up.

I have picked up pennies in races.

A few years ago I kept a jar full of all the money I found on the ground over the course of a year. The total . . . $41.22!! That's a LOT of money! Of course the $20 bill I found definitely helped. But still - I could buy a lot of coffee or even froofy coffee drinks with that!! Since the year of my money-jar collecting, the jar of coins has come in quite handy for occasional poker games and Brian's laundry lack-of-quarter issues.

Penny photo is courtesy of one of our microscopes - and FYI, you can NOT see an entire penny at more than 10x magnification! (NERD ALERT!!)

But back to the penny itself - I still think it's a bit of luck each time you find a penny. And I do not buy into the head vs. tails thing either - a penny is always good luck in my book!

Bike vs. Car

I've been trying to multi-task / save the planet more by riding my bike. (Also I'm cheap and when gas went above $4/gallon I noticed). I really don't commute that much (this could also be read: I lack a social life, but I beg to differ). I made a list of the places I drive most often:

1. work
2. the pool
3. track practice
4. races
5. ART (Dan Selstad) appointments
6. Trader Joe's

I bike to work sometimes, but our lack of shower has made this tricky - also it's only 1 mile from my house, so it's very difficult to convince my coach that this qualifies as a "workout".

The pool - actually never ridden my bike there only because I'm already missing over an hour of work time at lunch. Maybe if I didn't have a job this commuting option would work . . .

Riding to track would be great except that it's dark when I finish, so I'm deeming this "unsafe".

I have ridden my bike to/from races. If they could start most races at 10am instead of 7am, this would really help my bike-commute cause!

ART - this is my favorite one to ride to. I am never late to an appointment because I don't have to sit in traffic, AND Dan gives me a towel when I show up (so I don't contaminate his table).

And finally Trader Joe's - if I could only learn not to purchase half the store when I show up it would be easy to bike there. OR, I could just get Steven to install a basket on my tri bike! I could get rid of my ugly bento box!

#1587

I absolutely LOVE the day IM race #s are assigned. You can always find something exciting in a race number. For example, last year my Kona number was 1625. How could you get a better number?! That is 4 squared 5 squared!

At IM CDA this year I was 1889. When I picked up my shiny #1889 bracelet the elderly woman helping me said "Oh, that's a good year my dear, my grandmother was born that year!" I told her "It is also the year that the backward pedal brake was patented for the bicycle. AND the year the Eiffel Tower opened in Paris!" At this point I am quite sure it was confirmed in her mind that all triathletes are indeed crazy!

So - here it is - my Kona #1587:

1. To my great surprise this is the year that Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. Oh my, scandal! That castle sure looks to be a in lovely place though.

2. Adding 1+5+8+7 = 21, that seems pretty lucky!

3. 1587 is a lower number than last year's 1625, so that must mean I'll be a bit faster this year!

The Gift

Last year I was given a gift. Now all my friends will swear it was not a gift and that I earned it, but I see it as a gift. I raced IM CDA, had a blast, finished 8th and was happy as could be. I had knocked time off my PR and had a great race. I went to the roll down just because "YOU NEVER KNOW", but had no expectations.

There were five slots and awesome triathlete Rhae Shaw didn't take her slot (well that's also because she was so good she already had a slot). So #6 and #7 didn't show up for rolldown and what do you know - Rhae Shaw gave me a gift!

I was elated, excited, shocked, terrified (what if I blow off my bike or the heat kills me in the lava fields??) and amazed. I thought this happened when you turned 50 and everyone else in your age group wasn't fast anymore?! And then there was the "OH JEEZ, now I have to keep on training til October" thought.

Chance of a lifetime so I figured I better grab it and jump in with both feet. That gift was more than a slot though - it was confidence. Confidence that I can do more than I thought possible, confidence that I'm strong enough, have enough courage and enough ability to laugh at myself in this crazy sport.

Kona didn't kill me last year - I loved every minute of it. Loved it so much I wanted to go back. This year I earned my slot without having to use the rolldown, which I know it really doesn't matter how you get there, but I am proud of this.

I'm grateful for that original "gift" and excited about the opportunity to have the Kona experience again. Even though last year at mile 90 on the bike I'm pretty sure I was swearing up and down I never wanted to do another (edited for language) ironman ever again!

15 days til departure day!

Final Monster Weekend = DONE!

And it was great! The final monster Kona training weekend is now over, finished, completed!

Cross country race this weekend was a 10k (whooo hoooo, a little bit longer - perhaps I can hang with those speedy girls?!) It was a 4-loop course. Since I have not come from a cross country background, I'm not really sure if this is typical of a cross country course?? I found it slightly repetitive, but perhaps I shouldn't be so picky! The course was fun - one hill smack in the middle, the rest was grass, dirt, etc. I loved it - nice things to look at, different terrain to run on, etc. So I figured the first lap I'd settle in, then try to build my speed, but coach's orders - don't race all out since this is final Monster weekend and there is much more to come.

Lap 1 - started easy (or "smart" as I like to think to myself)
Lap 2 - my legs still do not feel fast, oh well, only 2nd lap
Lap 3 - girls are passing me, oh dear, this is probably where I'm supposed to "pick it up"
Lap 4 - go go gadget legs! And in the final mile I started to feel warmed up - rock on!

Our team did great - we got 2nd and I believe we are still first in the series. Go BSK girls!!

After an awesome breakfast I hopped on my bike to ride home via a birthday party. It's amazing to me how many places your bike can take you! Four hours later I showed up at the birthday party (thanks for letting me use the shower Netta!!) and a feast of food! I have decided all rides should end at a party!

Sunday was the final Henshaw loop - 2nd half at a higher HR. I felt awful for the first hour or two, but I usually do, then the legs warmed up, got the HR up and life was good. It must be close to Kona because the market at Santa Ysabel was selling Halloween candy when I went in to get my iced coffee. Kevin was awesome and let me pull him all the way home, although whenever my HR started to drop he was right there jumping up in front of me to get it back up.

Home again, home again . . . oh no wait, off to run! 2hrs, I wore my fun Alii shoes because they make me look fast (or maybe they just make me think I'm fast - whatever, they are fun!) I ran past crazy soccer moms (only because I had to use the outhouse by the soccer field), beach tourists and my favorite - an old man watching football in his garage. I could just envision his wife inside very happy with herself for getting her husband to watch all football in the garage! The run felt good - nothing amazing, nothing terrible, it was 'A RUN'.

Pizza, a bath and a flop on the couch completed my day! What a great life this is!!