oh i hate him. i hate him i hate him i hate him! he totally grosses me out and i think he is the worst!!! but we watched Knight and Day yesterday and it was really pretty good. he was funny, and cute (OMG, i i almost threw up right when i typed that) and the movie was entertaining. we saw the previews for it a while back and though it might be pretty good except for gag Tom Cruise gag, but, ugh, it was good, better than expected even. i'm not really a fan of Cameron Diaz either. Like, i think she is the worst part of Shrek, but i can tolerate her and she doesn't make me sick the way Tom Cruise does, but gosh darn it, it was entertaining and i'd suggest putting it in your queue if yer looking for something entertaining.
other news - its the last day of 2010. Wow! that's kind of crazy! i am not going to dedicate the last post of 2010 to just Tom Cruise. Instead, we are trying to figure out our plan for 2011. I've got some exciting plans coming up for the new year as far as training and racing go. can anyone say "tri bike"? oooh!! scary but exciting, and oh so pretty! new mtn bike on the horizon, too! eric got two new bikes last year, and it looks like 2011 will be the year of new bikes for me! i've got xterra worlds on the books again for 2011, only this year eric isn't so sure he is going to come with me, so it might turn into a girls trip! but i think he should come! why would he be so silly as to pass up a week in the sun and on the beach! seamus is turning 7 in feb - yikes! that is coming waaaay to quickly. the two of those kids are so cute - sirus gave me big hugs last night right before i tucked him into bed and he told me he loves me more than anything. apparently i'm ok even if i am bossy!
eric took the kids out sledding this morning. every morning around 8 - can we go sledding??? so we bundle them up and eric take them out. they love it!
i took the 2nd Bar Method class. it was much better than the first. found out that if i get higher on my toes i don't shake as much - hooray! - and then the whole building doesn't shake. this instructor seemed to incorporate a bit more ballet into the mix, too. not a ton by any means, but more. makes me think screw yoga or this class, i should take ballet again to work on core and flexibility. i remember i had a rock solid arse when i was doing all those plies and crap back in the day - chiseled man's ass. gonna have to check into that. just looked it up and wow - there are a lot of offerings locally. will i have to wear a leotard? can i wear a biketard instead?
yesterday we swam - i tried to do some drills and concentrate on everything i learned on tuesday. seemed ok. then i ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill. i was flying along, i felt good and wasn't even working and was pushing a good pace. and gosh darn it, Inception was on the big screen and i hate Leonardo Decaprio right up there with Tom Cruise but ugh, he's aging quite nicely i have to admit.
Happy New Year!!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
criss cross apple sauce
so back when i was a kid, it was called indian style, but now that is not pc. we heard a new variation today, criss cross apple sauce, put your hands in the spaghetti sauce. gracious, kids these days.
we are still all missing pawpi very much, but she is now back with us in a little box on a shelf in the family room. and what was super nice was that the emergency clinic sent us a hand written note expressing their sympathies and then a few days later we received on from the vet clinic in west seattle that did her surgeries and got her well back in july. when i saw the return address on that card, i almost didn't open it because i was worried it was a holiday card, but it was a sympathy card, with a bunch of hand written notes from the vets and vets assistants there. i didn't realize they did that and i thought it was a very nice gesture. we're just not sure how they found out.
i think nadj knows what happened. she has been very sweet and is spending more and more time with me and eric. she even goes into the kids rooms, not sure if she is looking for pawpi, or what the deal is, but something is definitly going on with her.
other news, i have been enjoying my time off from work. oh how wonderful it has been! i have cleaned the house over and over, and have helped with laundry, made the beds every day and making lunch and all kinds of things!
i've even gone swimming a few times, been running a few times and been on the trainer a bit. our DVD player stopped working a week or two a go, so only basic cable tv while on the trainer, unless we take the computer out there, which i have been, which has allowed me to watch Lord of the Rings... again. wow, i don't know how many times i've actually watched that movie, but Sam annoys me in the way he calls frodo, Mr Frodo, and Frodo just annoys the hell out of me, he is so damn lame, and then good gracious, how can Legolas Greenleaf be sooooo much cuter and cooler than Will Turner?? Although Greenleaf is a pretty funny, last name, seems more fitting for a fairy rather than an elf. dude, he walked on snow! but another thing i noticed with the movie, is that once again, i found out that i didn't remember any of it!! makes me wonder what the other two are about, since i've seen them both but can't remember a damn thing, other than the trees fight back. i do know the last one, i think went on and on and on and on. maybe it was the 2nd one, but i know i was super pregnant with seamus and it just went on and on, and every time it was over, it kept going!!
other stuff, i went and had some swim technique work done today which was incredibly helpful AND got my fancy mavic road shoes finally fitted. i've had them for almost a year but stopped wearing them right before the onionman since they didn't feel right and then never put them back on after I got hurt. but today, i think we got them figured out and i'm pretty excited. i also found out i have a pretty smooth pedal stroke which i was happy to hear! Hooray!
tomorrow i am headed to my 2nd and last Bar Method class. good grief. last week i did it and it about killed me. i was sore for days after - DAYS. here's hoping this week is better.
OH! and we had xmas! it was very fun! the kids were great and happy with their presents, and eric liked his lederhosen! sirus was very funny when he noticed that eric and my stockings really didn't have very much in them. he very casually said, as he was walking into the other room, oh, santa must have not left you very much because you are so bossy. nice. and we had a lovely xmas dinner with grandma, xtie and jon, and jon' mom and we used grandma's beautiful china that i have loved since i was a little girl! it was a perfect day!
we are still all missing pawpi very much, but she is now back with us in a little box on a shelf in the family room. and what was super nice was that the emergency clinic sent us a hand written note expressing their sympathies and then a few days later we received on from the vet clinic in west seattle that did her surgeries and got her well back in july. when i saw the return address on that card, i almost didn't open it because i was worried it was a holiday card, but it was a sympathy card, with a bunch of hand written notes from the vets and vets assistants there. i didn't realize they did that and i thought it was a very nice gesture. we're just not sure how they found out.
i think nadj knows what happened. she has been very sweet and is spending more and more time with me and eric. she even goes into the kids rooms, not sure if she is looking for pawpi, or what the deal is, but something is definitly going on with her.
other news, i have been enjoying my time off from work. oh how wonderful it has been! i have cleaned the house over and over, and have helped with laundry, made the beds every day and making lunch and all kinds of things!
i've even gone swimming a few times, been running a few times and been on the trainer a bit. our DVD player stopped working a week or two a go, so only basic cable tv while on the trainer, unless we take the computer out there, which i have been, which has allowed me to watch Lord of the Rings... again. wow, i don't know how many times i've actually watched that movie, but Sam annoys me in the way he calls frodo, Mr Frodo, and Frodo just annoys the hell out of me, he is so damn lame, and then good gracious, how can Legolas Greenleaf be sooooo much cuter and cooler than Will Turner?? Although Greenleaf is a pretty funny, last name, seems more fitting for a fairy rather than an elf. dude, he walked on snow! but another thing i noticed with the movie, is that once again, i found out that i didn't remember any of it!! makes me wonder what the other two are about, since i've seen them both but can't remember a damn thing, other than the trees fight back. i do know the last one, i think went on and on and on and on. maybe it was the 2nd one, but i know i was super pregnant with seamus and it just went on and on, and every time it was over, it kept going!!
other stuff, i went and had some swim technique work done today which was incredibly helpful AND got my fancy mavic road shoes finally fitted. i've had them for almost a year but stopped wearing them right before the onionman since they didn't feel right and then never put them back on after I got hurt. but today, i think we got them figured out and i'm pretty excited. i also found out i have a pretty smooth pedal stroke which i was happy to hear! Hooray!
tomorrow i am headed to my 2nd and last Bar Method class. good grief. last week i did it and it about killed me. i was sore for days after - DAYS. here's hoping this week is better.
OH! and we had xmas! it was very fun! the kids were great and happy with their presents, and eric liked his lederhosen! sirus was very funny when he noticed that eric and my stockings really didn't have very much in them. he very casually said, as he was walking into the other room, oh, santa must have not left you very much because you are so bossy. nice. and we had a lovely xmas dinner with grandma, xtie and jon, and jon' mom and we used grandma's beautiful china that i have loved since i was a little girl! it was a perfect day!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
what happened
after eric got to the cat ER and pawpi was looked at he gave me a call. she weighed 4.4 pounds and her temperature was 96, when it should have been closer to 100. they did some blood work and when the results came back, apparently complete kidney failure is a 10 and she was a 9.9. pawpi was very very sick. the vet said she could stay the 3 days through the weekend, she would need constant attention and be pumped full of IVs and medicine. they would test her again on Monday and see if there was any improvement. if there was, and if she was well enough to come home, which they were not optimistic about, we would need to give her daily injections of fluids, and bunches of medicines because not only were her kidneys in bad shape, but her thyroid was going too. eric said that every time he would say "year" the vet would correct him and say "month". so eric called me, i cried and cried and cried but we decided it was time. poor poor pawpi, she was so so sick. i knew when we were packing her up to go that night that she wasn't coming back, i knew she was dying. i also knew that if we didn't take her in she likely wouldn't last through the night. eric was with her, he cuddled her, petted her, gave her kisses. then he called me again and i cried and cried some more. i cried the entire time until he got home around 2am and then cried some more, all the way until around 3am when i finally was able to fall asleep.
we decided we weren't going to tell the kids in the morning and then send seamus off to school. we didn't think that was a good idea, but if sirus asked during the day where she was, eric was going to tell him. but he didn't ask. later we had my company holiday party and decided when we got home it was too late to tell them and we would wait until the next day.
saturday morning we sat the kids down and told them what happened. seamus instantly understood and instantly sobbed. sirus looked confused and asked if that meant she wasn't coming home, and then he began to cry, too. we all cuddled and talked about it. seamus asked a lot of questions like how she got sick and what the vet was going to do with her. we told them she would be cremated and turned to ashes, and we will put her little box on the mantle and how she will always be with us. sirus said, ok, so she will be here but we just won't be able to pet her. apparently he didn't totally understand because later in the car seamus was crying and he asked her why. sirus then told me that seamus was crying because she thought pawpi had died. i had to tell him pretty directly that that was what happened. and he cried again, too. he had said earlier how we would miss pawpi but we still had nadj and seamus mccat. even later when seamus was crying again, he tried to comfort her by telling her that it was the normal life cycle, just like the salmon - the salmon lay their eggs, then they die. the eggs turn into fry, the fry turn into fish, then they lay their eggs and it goes on and on. it was pretty cute to listen to a 5 year old try to comfort his older sister like that.
it had already been a rough day, but we headed out, to get some shopping done and to just get out of the house. we went to bellevue square, and much to my surprise, many of the stores were having better sales than last week, so we stopped in a few and got some really great price adjustments.
then we went to the play area. its an indoor play area with a cushy floor and there is a ferry boat and a sand castle and a bunch of other shinny, slippery, slightly squishy things for the kids to climb on. its generally a mad house there, and yesterday was no different. i let the kids play for almost 40 minutes when i started the 5 minute count down. with 2 minutes to go, i saw a woman carrying sirus towards me, with seamus trailing behind. sirus was covered in blood - OMG - what happened? The woman said she didn't see, sirus was too upset to say anything. because he was so upset i knew it wasn't just a normal, no reason bloody nose, but i couldn't tell where the blood was coming from - nose, mouth, where? what happened? so i thanked the lady, picked sirus up and grabbed seamus and we headed out, blood gushing the entire time! we saw mall security and they took us into the mall security lair. he got the first aid kit, asked if i wanted them to call 911 and then i cleaned sirus up. while i was cleaning him, trying to find out what happened, seamus stepped up and told me that she accidentally kicked him in the face. i was proud of her for telling the truth and told her how very important it is to always tell the truth because when someone is hurt its very important for grownups to know what happened so they know how to help the hurt person. i was very proud of her because i am sure she was scared she was going to get in trouble. eventually the bleeding stopped and we headed back to the play area to get the kids shoes and then to finish up what we needed to do and go home. the lady who had helped came over and we talked a little, she said that at first, seamus was trying to pick sirus up and carry him to me, which is very sweet of her, and explains why seamus's dress was covered in blood. i was wearing my black puffy jacket and seemed like i was clean, but it was awkward walking through the mall with two kids with blood all over their clothes. :(
we made a quick stop at starbucks for some hot chocolates, and then sirus sneezed and a big deep red bloody snot rocket shot down all the way to his chin! i gasped in horror and quickly cleaned him up! then we stopped in one last store at the mall and headed to fred meyer. we got our business done there and headed home. only then did i finally go into the bathroom and look in the mirror and see that i had blood splattered ALL OVER MY FACE!!! OMG, dude, walking around, holding two bloody kids hands, with my face totally splattered, we must have been a sight, and WTF, why didn't anyone tell me????
around 4pm, seamus came to give me hugs and said, mommy it feels like its night time. she had a rough day, that is for sure.
we decided we weren't going to tell the kids in the morning and then send seamus off to school. we didn't think that was a good idea, but if sirus asked during the day where she was, eric was going to tell him. but he didn't ask. later we had my company holiday party and decided when we got home it was too late to tell them and we would wait until the next day.
saturday morning we sat the kids down and told them what happened. seamus instantly understood and instantly sobbed. sirus looked confused and asked if that meant she wasn't coming home, and then he began to cry, too. we all cuddled and talked about it. seamus asked a lot of questions like how she got sick and what the vet was going to do with her. we told them she would be cremated and turned to ashes, and we will put her little box on the mantle and how she will always be with us. sirus said, ok, so she will be here but we just won't be able to pet her. apparently he didn't totally understand because later in the car seamus was crying and he asked her why. sirus then told me that seamus was crying because she thought pawpi had died. i had to tell him pretty directly that that was what happened. and he cried again, too. he had said earlier how we would miss pawpi but we still had nadj and seamus mccat. even later when seamus was crying again, he tried to comfort her by telling her that it was the normal life cycle, just like the salmon - the salmon lay their eggs, then they die. the eggs turn into fry, the fry turn into fish, then they lay their eggs and it goes on and on. it was pretty cute to listen to a 5 year old try to comfort his older sister like that.
it had already been a rough day, but we headed out, to get some shopping done and to just get out of the house. we went to bellevue square, and much to my surprise, many of the stores were having better sales than last week, so we stopped in a few and got some really great price adjustments.
then we went to the play area. its an indoor play area with a cushy floor and there is a ferry boat and a sand castle and a bunch of other shinny, slippery, slightly squishy things for the kids to climb on. its generally a mad house there, and yesterday was no different. i let the kids play for almost 40 minutes when i started the 5 minute count down. with 2 minutes to go, i saw a woman carrying sirus towards me, with seamus trailing behind. sirus was covered in blood - OMG - what happened? The woman said she didn't see, sirus was too upset to say anything. because he was so upset i knew it wasn't just a normal, no reason bloody nose, but i couldn't tell where the blood was coming from - nose, mouth, where? what happened? so i thanked the lady, picked sirus up and grabbed seamus and we headed out, blood gushing the entire time! we saw mall security and they took us into the mall security lair. he got the first aid kit, asked if i wanted them to call 911 and then i cleaned sirus up. while i was cleaning him, trying to find out what happened, seamus stepped up and told me that she accidentally kicked him in the face. i was proud of her for telling the truth and told her how very important it is to always tell the truth because when someone is hurt its very important for grownups to know what happened so they know how to help the hurt person. i was very proud of her because i am sure she was scared she was going to get in trouble. eventually the bleeding stopped and we headed back to the play area to get the kids shoes and then to finish up what we needed to do and go home. the lady who had helped came over and we talked a little, she said that at first, seamus was trying to pick sirus up and carry him to me, which is very sweet of her, and explains why seamus's dress was covered in blood. i was wearing my black puffy jacket and seemed like i was clean, but it was awkward walking through the mall with two kids with blood all over their clothes. :(
we made a quick stop at starbucks for some hot chocolates, and then sirus sneezed and a big deep red bloody snot rocket shot down all the way to his chin! i gasped in horror and quickly cleaned him up! then we stopped in one last store at the mall and headed to fred meyer. we got our business done there and headed home. only then did i finally go into the bathroom and look in the mirror and see that i had blood splattered ALL OVER MY FACE!!! OMG, dude, walking around, holding two bloody kids hands, with my face totally splattered, we must have been a sight, and WTF, why didn't anyone tell me????
around 4pm, seamus came to give me hugs and said, mommy it feels like its night time. she had a rough day, that is for sure.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
ER
we spent the evening watching Scott Pilgrem vs the World. It was quite entertaining, not at all what i expected. i'd recommend it to anyone wanting a kind of funny movie that isn't going to be what they expect, unless of course you already know about it. we also watched From Paris with Love. I liked this movie too. Eric kept saying we got it from netflix and that we should watch it but i kept thinking it was a romantic comedy because he does like the rom-coms, but finally i was like, ok, lets watch it and it was good! not a rom-com at all. highly entertaining.
we watched the Wizard of Oz with the kids yesterday. It was the first time they had seen it. sirus was all pist because he wanted to play a video game but no, mom and dad are so mean we made him watch the wizard of oz! he moaned and groaned that it was in black and white, then started freaking out when the tornado came but then laughed as soon as the house lifted up into the air and everything was flying by her window. and when she opened the door and everything was in color he gasped! it was quite cute. he did not like the munchkins at all, and although both kids sat there glued to the screen the entire time, not looking away for even a moment, after it was done, sirus said it was only ok. he said he liked the girl but that was about it.
so tonight we watched the movie and after as we were heading to bed we noticed pawpi just sitting there in the hall way, staring at eric's shoes. this is common behavior for her, so it wasn't that alarming, but eric made the comment that she was looking quite thin, and usually she at least looks around if we call her name or walk by, but she was just staring. he petted her some, her back legs slipped from under her and she just left them there, all spread out to the sides. after a while she worked really hard to pull them back up under her. she walked a few steps and clearly something wasn't right with her hips and legs. we got down on our hands and knees, and saw that her nose was bleeding. not gushing, but there was blood there and it looked like her nose collapsed on the one side. just like even though she is so puffy we were able to tell when her cheek was swollen, this time, even though her face is squished, we could tell something was wrong with her nose.
so even though its late, eric called the emergency vets clinic and is taking her there right now. there is no way we could have gone to sleep knowing she is not right like that. something is terribly wrong.
we watched the Wizard of Oz with the kids yesterday. It was the first time they had seen it. sirus was all pist because he wanted to play a video game but no, mom and dad are so mean we made him watch the wizard of oz! he moaned and groaned that it was in black and white, then started freaking out when the tornado came but then laughed as soon as the house lifted up into the air and everything was flying by her window. and when she opened the door and everything was in color he gasped! it was quite cute. he did not like the munchkins at all, and although both kids sat there glued to the screen the entire time, not looking away for even a moment, after it was done, sirus said it was only ok. he said he liked the girl but that was about it.
so tonight we watched the movie and after as we were heading to bed we noticed pawpi just sitting there in the hall way, staring at eric's shoes. this is common behavior for her, so it wasn't that alarming, but eric made the comment that she was looking quite thin, and usually she at least looks around if we call her name or walk by, but she was just staring. he petted her some, her back legs slipped from under her and she just left them there, all spread out to the sides. after a while she worked really hard to pull them back up under her. she walked a few steps and clearly something wasn't right with her hips and legs. we got down on our hands and knees, and saw that her nose was bleeding. not gushing, but there was blood there and it looked like her nose collapsed on the one side. just like even though she is so puffy we were able to tell when her cheek was swollen, this time, even though her face is squished, we could tell something was wrong with her nose.
so even though its late, eric called the emergency vets clinic and is taking her there right now. there is no way we could have gone to sleep knowing she is not right like that. something is terribly wrong.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
pineapple express
dude i was so mad that i actually thought that movie was kind of funny.
but we are having one right now! rain rain and MORE rain. apparently pineapple express is a real weather phenomenon but really here in the PNW anything weather related is blown way out of proportion by the new stations an given silly names.
the after effects of the shot seem to now be wearing off but the discomfort and pain that the shot caused was alarming. "flipping the pancake" and "scrubbing the kitty puke out of the carpet" both caused pain yesterday when in the past both were ok. this morning "flipping the french toast" is still a bit of a concern and typing is actually bothering me for the first time. i haven't yet tested the actual injury itself but think baking a pie might be necessary soon to test it out. i wore the wrist brace on the trainer last night which i don't ever do but the brace just feels good and so i did it and it kept my wrist in line and it all worked out. i'm keeping the spiderman band aides on the injection site although i am pretty sure i can go without them by now.
other news, i have a new way of testing out my swimming fitness without actually getting into the pool! hooray. sort of. i have determined that i have at least two dressy dress up dresses that if i am in good swimming shape i can get them up over my ass but cannot zip them up the back. if i am not in swimming shape, they can still get up over my ass but i CAN zip them up. currently both of these dresses can be zipped up. that means i better get my ass in the pool ASAP!!! but i might wait until after the holiday party i am going to next weekend, so i can wear one of the dresses!
but we are having one right now! rain rain and MORE rain. apparently pineapple express is a real weather phenomenon but really here in the PNW anything weather related is blown way out of proportion by the new stations an given silly names.
the after effects of the shot seem to now be wearing off but the discomfort and pain that the shot caused was alarming. "flipping the pancake" and "scrubbing the kitty puke out of the carpet" both caused pain yesterday when in the past both were ok. this morning "flipping the french toast" is still a bit of a concern and typing is actually bothering me for the first time. i haven't yet tested the actual injury itself but think baking a pie might be necessary soon to test it out. i wore the wrist brace on the trainer last night which i don't ever do but the brace just feels good and so i did it and it kept my wrist in line and it all worked out. i'm keeping the spiderman band aides on the injection site although i am pretty sure i can go without them by now.
other news, i have a new way of testing out my swimming fitness without actually getting into the pool! hooray. sort of. i have determined that i have at least two dressy dress up dresses that if i am in good swimming shape i can get them up over my ass but cannot zip them up the back. if i am not in swimming shape, they can still get up over my ass but i CAN zip them up. currently both of these dresses can be zipped up. that means i better get my ass in the pool ASAP!!! but i might wait until after the holiday party i am going to next weekend, so i can wear one of the dresses!
Friday, December 10, 2010
omg
NOW the pain is setting in. WTF! dude, if it had been hurting this bad all along i would have totally gone to the doctors waaaay sooner. this is no good.
today i got a manicure
not really, but it sure looked like i was going to get one.
i went to the hand surgeon. i was nervous about going, i was pretty confident that i would not be needing surgery but at the same time, i didn't know what to expect. on the intake form it asked me how far i could comfortably walk. i didn't know what to put down, i almost wrote that I knew I could comfortably run 13miles but instead i just put in 20??? wondering what that had to do with hands.
the exam room looked just like a nail salon. it had one of those little nail salon tables with a stool on one side and a chair on the other for me. there was a little lamp on it and then a bunch of liquids and crap over where the manicure peeps keep all their liquids and crap. weird!
as i sat there i heard the same weird suctioning noise i had heard when i was getting the MRI. after a bit, there was all the super loud banging and clanging from the other parts of the MRI. turns out there is an MRI place right next door which made me wondering if i was being exposed to something that maybe i didn't want to be.
the doctor came in, i sorta expected him to shake hands but he didn't but maybe since he is a hand doctor that doesn't work out so well a lot of times so he just doesn't do it.
he started doing the exam and writing a ton of stuff. i told him the whole history of it all and tried to lighten the mood by telling him that although a life without push ups would be bearable, a life without pie would not be, since making pie crust hurts. he didn't comment or react. he left the room a few times and came back, he looked at the MRI stuff somewhere else, he grabbed the grabber mesurer and had me squeeze it with both hands, he left the room. he came back and moved my bones around and stuff. then he left and got a hand skeleton. he said, this is where the torn cartilage is, this is where the cyst is and this is where the pain is. none of it is near the other. sweet. he said there are two bones that in some people are fused but for me are not and he suspects they are smashing into each other. so he said he'd toss a cortisone shot in there and have me come back in 4 weeks.
so he left the room and i started to worry about this shot. in my joint. in my hand. and OMG it is going to hurt because he is going to dig around in there with the giant needle and omg its going to be terrible. i started to sweat and feel a little not good. then the nurse came in and started prepping everything, the sterile gloves, the alcohol wipe, the bandaide, the syringes!! i asked her how much it was going to hurt and she didn't say, but the after affects can hurt more than the injury itself, at least for a while. it depends on the person, blah blah blah but some people it really really hurts. she left.
i rested my head on my left hand which was sweating profusely, with my hurt wrist sitting on the manicure table. and just waited.
the doctor came back and got to work. i felt one stick which was for the numbing stuff. that didn't hurt much at all. then i felt that he was putting in another one. next thing i know he was like ok see you in 4 weeks. what? that was it? that was easy! nothing to it. i assumed the numbing stuff would be like the dentist where they stick you over and over a hundred times, but nope. totally easy. makes me wonder how bad the cortisone shot would have hurt with no numbing stuff? i was so over joyed with the lack of pain that i almost told the receptionist about how awesome it was. then i assumed she probably either knew it really wasn't a big deal or really just didn't care so i kept it to myself. but wow, i was really happy. now to wait if its going to start hurting during the next 48 hrs and also to see if the shot possibly cures the whole thing for good!
i went to the hand surgeon. i was nervous about going, i was pretty confident that i would not be needing surgery but at the same time, i didn't know what to expect. on the intake form it asked me how far i could comfortably walk. i didn't know what to put down, i almost wrote that I knew I could comfortably run 13miles but instead i just put in 20??? wondering what that had to do with hands.
the exam room looked just like a nail salon. it had one of those little nail salon tables with a stool on one side and a chair on the other for me. there was a little lamp on it and then a bunch of liquids and crap over where the manicure peeps keep all their liquids and crap. weird!
as i sat there i heard the same weird suctioning noise i had heard when i was getting the MRI. after a bit, there was all the super loud banging and clanging from the other parts of the MRI. turns out there is an MRI place right next door which made me wondering if i was being exposed to something that maybe i didn't want to be.
the doctor came in, i sorta expected him to shake hands but he didn't but maybe since he is a hand doctor that doesn't work out so well a lot of times so he just doesn't do it.
he started doing the exam and writing a ton of stuff. i told him the whole history of it all and tried to lighten the mood by telling him that although a life without push ups would be bearable, a life without pie would not be, since making pie crust hurts. he didn't comment or react. he left the room a few times and came back, he looked at the MRI stuff somewhere else, he grabbed the grabber mesurer and had me squeeze it with both hands, he left the room. he came back and moved my bones around and stuff. then he left and got a hand skeleton. he said, this is where the torn cartilage is, this is where the cyst is and this is where the pain is. none of it is near the other. sweet. he said there are two bones that in some people are fused but for me are not and he suspects they are smashing into each other. so he said he'd toss a cortisone shot in there and have me come back in 4 weeks.
so he left the room and i started to worry about this shot. in my joint. in my hand. and OMG it is going to hurt because he is going to dig around in there with the giant needle and omg its going to be terrible. i started to sweat and feel a little not good. then the nurse came in and started prepping everything, the sterile gloves, the alcohol wipe, the bandaide, the syringes!! i asked her how much it was going to hurt and she didn't say, but the after affects can hurt more than the injury itself, at least for a while. it depends on the person, blah blah blah but some people it really really hurts. she left.
i rested my head on my left hand which was sweating profusely, with my hurt wrist sitting on the manicure table. and just waited.
the doctor came back and got to work. i felt one stick which was for the numbing stuff. that didn't hurt much at all. then i felt that he was putting in another one. next thing i know he was like ok see you in 4 weeks. what? that was it? that was easy! nothing to it. i assumed the numbing stuff would be like the dentist where they stick you over and over a hundred times, but nope. totally easy. makes me wonder how bad the cortisone shot would have hurt with no numbing stuff? i was so over joyed with the lack of pain that i almost told the receptionist about how awesome it was. then i assumed she probably either knew it really wasn't a big deal or really just didn't care so i kept it to myself. but wow, i was really happy. now to wait if its going to start hurting during the next 48 hrs and also to see if the shot possibly cures the whole thing for good!
Friday, December 03, 2010
M to the R to the I
i went for an xray on my wrist the other day. the people are so funny. they just look at me and are like, whats wrong with you? i tell them my wrist hurts and then they just look at me funny. i wonder if its because when i go in for stuff i am walking and talking? there was the time eric tried to kill me by feeding me salmon that still had bones in it. i was 8 weeks pregnant with sirus and there i was eating this amazing salmon when i totally started choking. it was terrible. i remember gagging and gagging and eric just sitting there, not even paying attention. i went into the bathroom because i was sure i was going to puke but instead i just gagged and gagged and my eyes were burning and watering and my mascara was all down my face. finally i composed myself a bit and asked eric to keep an eye on me all night, ya know, in case i died. in the morning a friend at work convinced me to call the doctor who told me to go to the ER right away, so I did. they did that horrible horrible thing where they shove the scope up yer nose and down yer throat but they couldn't see anything. even tho i was all preggo they did an xray which turned out to be an adventure. the girl doing it was new or something and someone said to double me up on lead barriers since i was pregnant, so i had on the normal apron like thing then she took this lead sheet like thing and rolled me up in it all burrito style. when the first person came back, they were just like, oh, ok, i guess that will work. anyway, they went on to take a billion xrays because the lady kept putting in slides that had no film in them or something like that. and once the ER doctor took a look at the xrays he came rushing in, OMG how are you not just screaming in pain! you have a 2 inch bone vertically wedged in your throat, OMG, why can't we see it? so they called in the ENT doctor to take a look. everyone who came into check on me was just like WTF, you have a fishbone stuck in your throat and yer just hanging out? so the ENT doctor and i looked at the xray together, he made a funny face and then i said - that's not a bone! that is my retainer! but then he found the bone on the xray, they took it back to the radiologist to confirm and then yeah, it was small, but it was stuck in there. the ENT dr insisted on putting the damn scope up my nose again but then they put me under general anethetic and went in to get the bone out. but alas, it wasn't there! they saw where it had been but it was gone by the time all was said and done. when i was getting prepped to go in for "surgery" i asked if i could keep my clothes on. they said sure, and i told them while i was starting to get all happy that i was going to be really pissed if i didn't have my pants on when i woke up. sure enough when i was being wheeled into recovery and was starting to wake up i heard one of the nurses ask "why does she have pants on?" people coming out of "surgery" and general anesthetic, normally don't have on pants i guess. i won't even go into how eric went to the wrong hospital when he came to pick me up and wound up driving all over the place in the middle of the night or how he always has to one up me.
so on friday i went in for an MRI on my hand. the people were nice but at the same time, totally like what's wrong with you? dude, my wrist really hurts! really it does. i haven't ever had an MRI so it was a little exciting but scary, too. i got to wear all my normal clothes but had to take off all of my jewels and assure them any lotions or makeup did not have any silver in it. i had to wear ear plugs, and lay on my stomach with my hand above my head. then in went my hand and head! dude, it was really freaking loud and would get louder and then louder at times, too. and it kept going on and on. what i don't understand is why does something that is so amazingly high tech live in a room that looks like a storage closet and why can't they make it not so loud? really, what is all that noise about?
on monday i got an email from my doctor with the results - a tear in the cartilage and a cyst all up in there somewhere. along with this was a referral to a hang surgeon. yikes! no me gusta! so of course i started doing all kinds of research on the things that were wrong and saw all kinds of horrible horrible photos and read many horrible stories about botched surgeries and such. so not cool!
so on friday i'll go see what is up with all of that. yikes!!!
so on friday i went in for an MRI on my hand. the people were nice but at the same time, totally like what's wrong with you? dude, my wrist really hurts! really it does. i haven't ever had an MRI so it was a little exciting but scary, too. i got to wear all my normal clothes but had to take off all of my jewels and assure them any lotions or makeup did not have any silver in it. i had to wear ear plugs, and lay on my stomach with my hand above my head. then in went my hand and head! dude, it was really freaking loud and would get louder and then louder at times, too. and it kept going on and on. what i don't understand is why does something that is so amazingly high tech live in a room that looks like a storage closet and why can't they make it not so loud? really, what is all that noise about?
on monday i got an email from my doctor with the results - a tear in the cartilage and a cyst all up in there somewhere. along with this was a referral to a hang surgeon. yikes! no me gusta! so of course i started doing all kinds of research on the things that were wrong and saw all kinds of horrible horrible photos and read many horrible stories about botched surgeries and such. so not cool!
so on friday i'll go see what is up with all of that. yikes!!!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Seattle 1/2 Marathon 2010
this week has been interesting. to start off, the "big" snow storm on sunday and monday caused the short work week to be more disruptive than normal. it was fine, i got a lot of work done, but now, with work looming again on the horizon, i wish i would have gotten more done.
wednesday night we headed to yakima to spend with the in laws. the drive was fine although dark and a little scary because of the snow, and it took a really really long time. once there we discovered that it was very very cold in yakima.
when i finally crawled into bed i realized i forgot my romance killer, damnit. i know all you ladies wish you had one, and ugh, i forgot mine. really, the romance killer is just a mouth guard to help with my jaw clenching i do at night time, but eric named it that because he knows that once it goes in at night, he doesn't have a chance in the world.
luckily i was able to fall asleep without it but slept terrible and wow, i really do clench my jaw when i sleep because when i woke up, my face hurt, and my neck and shoulders were killing me. ugh. the last time i did the seattle 1/2 I had just been diagnosed with too much romance and was prescribed the romance killer and was taking muscle relaxers because i was in so much pain!
on thanksgiving day we went for what was supposed to be a 30 minute tempo run. we headed out on a loop that turned out to be a 40 minute tempo run + 15 minute walk in the snow and freaking 14 degrees. burr. i had on some fancy hincapie gear that kept me toasty warm which was pleasant but running all geared up and in the snow is hard to do. it made me worry a bit for the race, although the website assured me that the weather would be nice.
after the run we went sledding some with the kids, ate way too much turkey and pie and then chilled out.
another night with no romance killer and in the morning we headed back home.
the passes were scary but clear, ok, not clear but the roads weren't bad. ok, they were bad but not un-driveable. it was crazy to see all the semi trucks on the side of the road putting in their chains. we managed without them but i was happy to be on the west side where the roads were just wet, not covered in snow.
we drove directly downtown to pick up my race packet and then headed home.
i don't know how eric does it but as i sat on my ass, he went right to work finishing painting sirus's room and installing the remaining trim work on the windows. have i mentioned lately how awesome the windows look? seamus's very pink room is very cute! and sirus's very blue rooms look great! no one is totally moved in yet, i think sirus is in for one more night sleeping in seamus's room. he keeps complaining that she keeps crawling in his bed with him but then last night when i went to check on them, he was in her bed all snuggled up next to her in her bed. silly.
when the alarm went off at 5, i was thinking hmm, it wouldn't be too bad to just bail on this race, right? maybe i'll just go pick up melinda, drop her off at the start and then pick her up after, letting eric and the kids sleep in and allowing myself to not run. i had prepped for this race a little differently in that i wanted to start out hydrated. i think i have been very dehydrated lately so i made sure to get lots of water the day before. i wound up pretty darn bloated in the morning, but maybe that is what hydrated feels like? ugh.
there was almost zero traffic and we got a parking space like a block away. then we sat there. eric and seamus walked over to the start, then eric and sirus took a trip to the potty. i decided to switch from long sleeve running shirt and light weight cycling jacket to short sleeve shirt, arm warmers and vest. knickers were the way to go and i tossed on a trash bag for good luck.
we headed to the start, stood in the very long and strange potty line. luckily i made my visit really count because by the time we were out it was like 5 minutes to start and there was no time for a 2nd visit.
i tried something else new which was that i took a clif shot right then and then jumped over the fence and looked around for the pacers. i saw the sign for 1:45 and was pleasantly surprised that my friend stephanie was the pacer! we hugged and chatted a little and then we were off! i had already taken off my trash bag and tucked it into my vest pocket but managed to toss it in a trash can somewhere in mile 2 i think. weaving in and out for those first two miles was tough, but stephanie did a great job getting the group up to pace. i held on until we started up on to i-90, and then watched the gap open until i totally fell off by the time we were in the tunnel. i was sorta bummed but man, according to my garmin, that 2nd mile was at a 6:56 pace and yeah it might have been a little too much for me heading into that I-90 hill.
but then i was also bummed because i was all excited that i set my garmin to show average pace, but then didn't unset it for auto pause!! so when i went into the tunnel it totally shut off!! so when i came out of the tunnel my average pace was 6:44 or something which i knew was not even close to what was going on. so i was sort of on my own then. i tried to keep track of each mile, and keeping splits and it seemed like it was all going to work out but still it was a bit of a crap shoot since really I had no idea and ya'lls know i can't do math when i run.
all along the lake was fine although i don't remember too much. there was a hill i remember riding on my bike but not running before and at one of the parks there were a bunch of people with big american flags which was kind of neat.
finally we got to galer and OMG i walked. ugh. just for a bit, because it flattened out then i had to walk a little more when it got steep again. ugh. i thought i had run it in the past, but just at that moment i totally thought, wow, the treadmill sure doesn't have many hills - need to run more hills!
madison was fine but i think i slowed it down quite a bit, but then down the arboretum. last time i was hurting pretty bad at this point but i was ok here. i really didn't start feeling good at this race until mile 5 or 6 or later, but by the time i was at mile 8 and 9, i was like, hey - almost done!
interlaken went well, it wasn't nearly as bad as in the past - seemed flatter and less as though it was going on and on which was a pleasant surprise.
i hit mile 10 and was surprised i felt as good as i did. every other time i walked, and pretty much gave up, not being able to do math and just almost throwing in the towel, but i was almost done, so other than a quick stop at the water station to wash down the 2nd clif shot, i kept on running.
again, i didn't remember that there was an uphill on lakeview but seeing the kids made mile 11 better than ever and off i went down, down to the finish. i even managed to run that horrible hill on mercer or whatever that is.
i was able to pick up the pace to the finish, although i almost had to stop to tell the girl in the bright, shiny gold ugg like boots that they were pretty bad ass but instead i kept on going.
they had soldiers in their army gear giving out medals which i thought was pretty cool, and then i met up with stephanie to chit chat about the run. she wound up finishing about 4 minutes ahead and had a good race as a pacer. she said i was totally under since she said it took 2 minutes to get to the starting line. still i wouldn't believe it until i saw it.
the kids and eric were awesome spectators, showing up at uwajimia, although I didn't see them there, but they were also down by leshi, up on interlaken AND at mile 11. i told eric that someday maybe the kids will run the race and i can be a spectator and see how he manages to be in so many places!
when i crossed the line the clock said 1:50:55. i was pretty happy but wasn't sure if that really meant i was under 1:50 or not. on the drive home i was able to look up the time and my chip time came in at 1:49:20. yahoo! i am pretty darn happy about that. i think some of it is sheer luck especially since i lost track of all my timing stuff, but still pretty good. i ran a pretty even race, 55:18 and 55:50 which i thought was pretty good since the 2nd half is so hilly. i think the first half was hampered by that first mile which was the 2nd slowest behind the galer and madison hill mile. but actually, those splits are based off of the *official time, not chip time, so it wasn't quite as even as i thought. hmph.
after the race, melinda and i chatted and walked together to the car. she had an awesome race beating her 2hr goal! its been a fun couple of months training together!
once home, i put on the compression socks, cleaned the house and then fell asleep!
other news, remember way back in february, around the same time that pawpi's face started falling apart? right about then i hurt my wrist. doing push ups.
so i stopped doing push ups. but then maybe i fell on it, or maybe i would push on the kids' car seats to get them in the car straight, or maybe i would push my bag into the locker at the gym, whatever it was, it continued to hurt like a mofo.
i went to the dr and she said to wear a brace for two weeks. i did, but it still hurt. i wore a brace every time i went mtn biking at every race. it still hurt.
i finally went to PT. i've got 50% of the mobility in it compared to my left wrist and my bones are stuck. so i've gone 4 times and the mobility is better but on tuesday night i was making pie and gosh darn it, pressing the dough down to get ready to roll it with the rolling pin totally hurt. so the PT suggested i go in for an xray. so next week i will go. hoping to get that taken care of!
wednesday night we headed to yakima to spend with the in laws. the drive was fine although dark and a little scary because of the snow, and it took a really really long time. once there we discovered that it was very very cold in yakima.
when i finally crawled into bed i realized i forgot my romance killer, damnit. i know all you ladies wish you had one, and ugh, i forgot mine. really, the romance killer is just a mouth guard to help with my jaw clenching i do at night time, but eric named it that because he knows that once it goes in at night, he doesn't have a chance in the world.
luckily i was able to fall asleep without it but slept terrible and wow, i really do clench my jaw when i sleep because when i woke up, my face hurt, and my neck and shoulders were killing me. ugh. the last time i did the seattle 1/2 I had just been diagnosed with too much romance and was prescribed the romance killer and was taking muscle relaxers because i was in so much pain!
on thanksgiving day we went for what was supposed to be a 30 minute tempo run. we headed out on a loop that turned out to be a 40 minute tempo run + 15 minute walk in the snow and freaking 14 degrees. burr. i had on some fancy hincapie gear that kept me toasty warm which was pleasant but running all geared up and in the snow is hard to do. it made me worry a bit for the race, although the website assured me that the weather would be nice.
after the run we went sledding some with the kids, ate way too much turkey and pie and then chilled out.
another night with no romance killer and in the morning we headed back home.
the passes were scary but clear, ok, not clear but the roads weren't bad. ok, they were bad but not un-driveable. it was crazy to see all the semi trucks on the side of the road putting in their chains. we managed without them but i was happy to be on the west side where the roads were just wet, not covered in snow.
we drove directly downtown to pick up my race packet and then headed home.
i don't know how eric does it but as i sat on my ass, he went right to work finishing painting sirus's room and installing the remaining trim work on the windows. have i mentioned lately how awesome the windows look? seamus's very pink room is very cute! and sirus's very blue rooms look great! no one is totally moved in yet, i think sirus is in for one more night sleeping in seamus's room. he keeps complaining that she keeps crawling in his bed with him but then last night when i went to check on them, he was in her bed all snuggled up next to her in her bed. silly.
when the alarm went off at 5, i was thinking hmm, it wouldn't be too bad to just bail on this race, right? maybe i'll just go pick up melinda, drop her off at the start and then pick her up after, letting eric and the kids sleep in and allowing myself to not run. i had prepped for this race a little differently in that i wanted to start out hydrated. i think i have been very dehydrated lately so i made sure to get lots of water the day before. i wound up pretty darn bloated in the morning, but maybe that is what hydrated feels like? ugh.
there was almost zero traffic and we got a parking space like a block away. then we sat there. eric and seamus walked over to the start, then eric and sirus took a trip to the potty. i decided to switch from long sleeve running shirt and light weight cycling jacket to short sleeve shirt, arm warmers and vest. knickers were the way to go and i tossed on a trash bag for good luck.
we headed to the start, stood in the very long and strange potty line. luckily i made my visit really count because by the time we were out it was like 5 minutes to start and there was no time for a 2nd visit.
i tried something else new which was that i took a clif shot right then and then jumped over the fence and looked around for the pacers. i saw the sign for 1:45 and was pleasantly surprised that my friend stephanie was the pacer! we hugged and chatted a little and then we were off! i had already taken off my trash bag and tucked it into my vest pocket but managed to toss it in a trash can somewhere in mile 2 i think. weaving in and out for those first two miles was tough, but stephanie did a great job getting the group up to pace. i held on until we started up on to i-90, and then watched the gap open until i totally fell off by the time we were in the tunnel. i was sorta bummed but man, according to my garmin, that 2nd mile was at a 6:56 pace and yeah it might have been a little too much for me heading into that I-90 hill.
but then i was also bummed because i was all excited that i set my garmin to show average pace, but then didn't unset it for auto pause!! so when i went into the tunnel it totally shut off!! so when i came out of the tunnel my average pace was 6:44 or something which i knew was not even close to what was going on. so i was sort of on my own then. i tried to keep track of each mile, and keeping splits and it seemed like it was all going to work out but still it was a bit of a crap shoot since really I had no idea and ya'lls know i can't do math when i run.
all along the lake was fine although i don't remember too much. there was a hill i remember riding on my bike but not running before and at one of the parks there were a bunch of people with big american flags which was kind of neat.
finally we got to galer and OMG i walked. ugh. just for a bit, because it flattened out then i had to walk a little more when it got steep again. ugh. i thought i had run it in the past, but just at that moment i totally thought, wow, the treadmill sure doesn't have many hills - need to run more hills!
madison was fine but i think i slowed it down quite a bit, but then down the arboretum. last time i was hurting pretty bad at this point but i was ok here. i really didn't start feeling good at this race until mile 5 or 6 or later, but by the time i was at mile 8 and 9, i was like, hey - almost done!
interlaken went well, it wasn't nearly as bad as in the past - seemed flatter and less as though it was going on and on which was a pleasant surprise.
i hit mile 10 and was surprised i felt as good as i did. every other time i walked, and pretty much gave up, not being able to do math and just almost throwing in the towel, but i was almost done, so other than a quick stop at the water station to wash down the 2nd clif shot, i kept on running.
again, i didn't remember that there was an uphill on lakeview but seeing the kids made mile 11 better than ever and off i went down, down to the finish. i even managed to run that horrible hill on mercer or whatever that is.
i was able to pick up the pace to the finish, although i almost had to stop to tell the girl in the bright, shiny gold ugg like boots that they were pretty bad ass but instead i kept on going.
they had soldiers in their army gear giving out medals which i thought was pretty cool, and then i met up with stephanie to chit chat about the run. she wound up finishing about 4 minutes ahead and had a good race as a pacer. she said i was totally under since she said it took 2 minutes to get to the starting line. still i wouldn't believe it until i saw it.
the kids and eric were awesome spectators, showing up at uwajimia, although I didn't see them there, but they were also down by leshi, up on interlaken AND at mile 11. i told eric that someday maybe the kids will run the race and i can be a spectator and see how he manages to be in so many places!
when i crossed the line the clock said 1:50:55. i was pretty happy but wasn't sure if that really meant i was under 1:50 or not. on the drive home i was able to look up the time and my chip time came in at 1:49:20. yahoo! i am pretty darn happy about that. i think some of it is sheer luck especially since i lost track of all my timing stuff, but still pretty good. i ran a pretty even race, 55:18 and 55:50 which i thought was pretty good since the 2nd half is so hilly. i think the first half was hampered by that first mile which was the 2nd slowest behind the galer and madison hill mile. but actually, those splits are based off of the *official time, not chip time, so it wasn't quite as even as i thought. hmph.
after the race, melinda and i chatted and walked together to the car. she had an awesome race beating her 2hr goal! its been a fun couple of months training together!
once home, i put on the compression socks, cleaned the house and then fell asleep!
other news, remember way back in february, around the same time that pawpi's face started falling apart? right about then i hurt my wrist. doing push ups.
so i stopped doing push ups. but then maybe i fell on it, or maybe i would push on the kids' car seats to get them in the car straight, or maybe i would push my bag into the locker at the gym, whatever it was, it continued to hurt like a mofo.
i went to the dr and she said to wear a brace for two weeks. i did, but it still hurt. i wore a brace every time i went mtn biking at every race. it still hurt.
i finally went to PT. i've got 50% of the mobility in it compared to my left wrist and my bones are stuck. so i've gone 4 times and the mobility is better but on tuesday night i was making pie and gosh darn it, pressing the dough down to get ready to roll it with the rolling pin totally hurt. so the PT suggested i go in for an xray. so next week i will go. hoping to get that taken care of!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
H.R.RuninStuff
sitting here on a lovely saturday afternoon. went for a fun 10mile run with the crew in the morning. it started chilly chilly!! but it warmed up quite nicely and was SUNNY. oh it was lovely!! the run itself was fun, i have no idea where we went but it was nice to be with friends and to be out running. i did manage to take a layer off but i am still at a loss as to what i'll actually wear on race day. will have to wait a little bit to see what the weather will actually be that day, they keep threatening us with snow. not cool man, not cool! so the potential for miserable race day conditions is totally there.
i haven't been doing a very good job sticking to my plan, i only got one weekday run in this past week, never mind it was on the treadmill and my iphone earbugs were sending electrical shocks into my left ear and my neck.. at least i think it was a quality run and i should be well rested, right.
yesterday we took the kids to sirus's school for kids night out. we dropped them off for 4hrs and out we went. i tried to look slightly more stylish than normal in my 12+year old betsy johnson velvety pants that sorta don't fit very well, but still they are pretty cool and i even got a compliment on them! we had a good dinner and i had a fabulous vodka martini with blue cheese stuffed olives that i was still feeling this morning at the start of the run.
now i've got on my awesome hincapie compression socks, seamus is in her sleeping beauty princess dress and eric is working on the widnows. they look awesome. he has done a great job, i even got a little misty eyed looking at the one room. we are painting some of the rooms too and i am totally not good with colors. ugh. sirus was red walls with yellow flames, seamus was teal. so none of that is happening for sure.
last week of the swim clinic is tomorrow. hmm, not sure how this thing is going. maybe if i swam more often it would go better.
i haven't been doing a very good job sticking to my plan, i only got one weekday run in this past week, never mind it was on the treadmill and my iphone earbugs were sending electrical shocks into my left ear and my neck.. at least i think it was a quality run and i should be well rested, right.
yesterday we took the kids to sirus's school for kids night out. we dropped them off for 4hrs and out we went. i tried to look slightly more stylish than normal in my 12+year old betsy johnson velvety pants that sorta don't fit very well, but still they are pretty cool and i even got a compliment on them! we had a good dinner and i had a fabulous vodka martini with blue cheese stuffed olives that i was still feeling this morning at the start of the run.
now i've got on my awesome hincapie compression socks, seamus is in her sleeping beauty princess dress and eric is working on the widnows. they look awesome. he has done a great job, i even got a little misty eyed looking at the one room. we are painting some of the rooms too and i am totally not good with colors. ugh. sirus was red walls with yellow flames, seamus was teal. so none of that is happening for sure.
last week of the swim clinic is tomorrow. hmm, not sure how this thing is going. maybe if i swam more often it would go better.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
stuck
way back in february, around the same time when pawpi's face was first getting infected, i was on a mission to participate in the navy seal challenge. back then i thought the pull ups were going to be the problem... turns out it was the pushups that proved to be the blocker.
i cut out the pushups because my wrist just couldn't take it. ugh, and i like push ups! i went all summer wearing a wrist brace every time i went mtn biking. i wasted precious seconds in t1 of every race putting that thing on.
finally, now in the off season, i am getting it taken care of. turns out my wrist bones are stuck. there may have been trauma at some point, push ups maybe?
then soft tissue (eeewwww) damage and then all my babying of it cause the bones to get all stuck, and i've got 1/2 the mobility in it compared to the other one. sweet. so now the PT is going to get those bones unstuck and make it not hurt anymore, ya know. and stuff.
i cut out the pushups because my wrist just couldn't take it. ugh, and i like push ups! i went all summer wearing a wrist brace every time i went mtn biking. i wasted precious seconds in t1 of every race putting that thing on.
finally, now in the off season, i am getting it taken care of. turns out my wrist bones are stuck. there may have been trauma at some point, push ups maybe?
then soft tissue (eeewwww) damage and then all my babying of it cause the bones to get all stuck, and i've got 1/2 the mobility in it compared to the other one. sweet. so now the PT is going to get those bones unstuck and make it not hurt anymore, ya know. and stuff.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
sometimes i throw my hands up in the air
yesterday was a terrible day. that is with a t and two r's even.
it started out not so bad, prolly got the only real swimming compliment ever. dude, swimming in the morning was so hard. we were doing breathing stuff, gittin all hypoxic and stuff, is that how its spelled, 100s breathing every 3rd stroke, every 5th and every 7th. then a few 25s with no breathing, the some attempts at 50s breathing once on the way down, twice on the way back. good lawd they were hard and i was only ok with them. i do know my stroke count for 50s is down by about 10 since the clinic last week. amazing what a few laps in the pool will do for you. at the end we practiced flip turns. i never ever do flip turns. ever. there was a week or so early last year i think where i tried to do them somewhat regularly, getting them in about 1/3 of the time. but then i stopped. i said sure, i'll try one, after which the swim coach asked why i don't do them all the time when apparently i do them so well? yeah, so that turned out to be the highlight of my day.
i won't even go into the rest of the day, remember the t and the two r's?
but later, eric and the kids picked me up, we went to the cactus down in madison park, i chugged a couple margaritas. i was bummed my chile relleno wasn't quite as great as the last time we went, but it was still good. better though was that the margaritas were damn good.
after we headed over to the UW. all the years we lived in seattle and even right by the UW we never went. but seamus came home from school last week so excited that her PE teacher had given her tickets to go see women's volleyball at UW. i don't like to play volleyball at all. never liked it. it hurt my wrists and we all know i have gimpy wrists. plus the pressure of having the ball coming at you and having to react quickly, yeah, it really wasn't for me at all. but i want to make sure seamus is exposed to women's sports other than swim/bike/run so we decided to go. it turned out to be really fun! i was surprised the crowd was a big as it was (the photo below was from the warm up and even more people came!), the band was great, the announcers, the score board, and, gasp!!! the cheerleaders!!! there were cheerleaders!! even guy cheerleaders!!!
"Point Huskies!" was sirus's favorite part, always cheering along with the crowd then a point was announced. i appreciated the quiet, barely audible "Point Bears :( " the announcer would make when the other team scored. seamus asked when we'd get to cheer for the bears.
i was surprised at how tall the girls were! they looked regular height but when the introduced the first team's starting line up, and the first girl was 5'11" and shorted than the rest of them I was like whoa. i had no idea volleyball players were so awesome!!! the tallest girl out there was 6'5". yeah! I love it!!
today melinda and i headed out for a super casual 1/2 marathon race out of bothell along the sammamish river trail. i think its odd to do a 1/2 marathon race as a training run for a 1/2 marathon race. but it was fun. we went at a mellow pace, just chillin, happy the weather was cooperative, although chillyish, it was not raining, hooray! i was happy with how we did, but wonder how difficult it will be to shave 15 minutes off of that on race day, especially since today was super flat and race day will be hilly. should be interesting! one more long run to go next weekend, and a handfull of hr longs along the way. yikes!
it started out not so bad, prolly got the only real swimming compliment ever. dude, swimming in the morning was so hard. we were doing breathing stuff, gittin all hypoxic and stuff, is that how its spelled, 100s breathing every 3rd stroke, every 5th and every 7th. then a few 25s with no breathing, the some attempts at 50s breathing once on the way down, twice on the way back. good lawd they were hard and i was only ok with them. i do know my stroke count for 50s is down by about 10 since the clinic last week. amazing what a few laps in the pool will do for you. at the end we practiced flip turns. i never ever do flip turns. ever. there was a week or so early last year i think where i tried to do them somewhat regularly, getting them in about 1/3 of the time. but then i stopped. i said sure, i'll try one, after which the swim coach asked why i don't do them all the time when apparently i do them so well? yeah, so that turned out to be the highlight of my day.
i won't even go into the rest of the day, remember the t and the two r's?
but later, eric and the kids picked me up, we went to the cactus down in madison park, i chugged a couple margaritas. i was bummed my chile relleno wasn't quite as great as the last time we went, but it was still good. better though was that the margaritas were damn good.
after we headed over to the UW. all the years we lived in seattle and even right by the UW we never went. but seamus came home from school last week so excited that her PE teacher had given her tickets to go see women's volleyball at UW. i don't like to play volleyball at all. never liked it. it hurt my wrists and we all know i have gimpy wrists. plus the pressure of having the ball coming at you and having to react quickly, yeah, it really wasn't for me at all. but i want to make sure seamus is exposed to women's sports other than swim/bike/run so we decided to go. it turned out to be really fun! i was surprised the crowd was a big as it was (the photo below was from the warm up and even more people came!), the band was great, the announcers, the score board, and, gasp!!! the cheerleaders!!! there were cheerleaders!! even guy cheerleaders!!!
"Point Huskies!" was sirus's favorite part, always cheering along with the crowd then a point was announced. i appreciated the quiet, barely audible "Point Bears :( " the announcer would make when the other team scored. seamus asked when we'd get to cheer for the bears.
i was surprised at how tall the girls were! they looked regular height but when the introduced the first team's starting line up, and the first girl was 5'11" and shorted than the rest of them I was like whoa. i had no idea volleyball players were so awesome!!! the tallest girl out there was 6'5". yeah! I love it!!
today melinda and i headed out for a super casual 1/2 marathon race out of bothell along the sammamish river trail. i think its odd to do a 1/2 marathon race as a training run for a 1/2 marathon race. but it was fun. we went at a mellow pace, just chillin, happy the weather was cooperative, although chillyish, it was not raining, hooray! i was happy with how we did, but wonder how difficult it will be to shave 15 minutes off of that on race day, especially since today was super flat and race day will be hilly. should be interesting! one more long run to go next weekend, and a handfull of hr longs along the way. yikes!
Sunday, November 07, 2010
the horse
i'm gettin back on it. after nationals i was tired. i took a week off from everything except chowing down. then i started running. the running was going well! i told my self i'd get in the pool a few times but that no need to touch the bike. yeah, well, i didn't get into the pool, so i said, ok, once november hits, i'll start going. yeah, so a week of november has passed. i started to get anxious and worried about what allie had told me last year - not swimming is adictive, so be careful! so i signed up for a 3 week swim clinic. today was the first day it and it kicked my ass.
the guy running it said not to worry, i could totally do my long run in the morning and be fine for the clinic. i even had the bonus of the extra hr of sleep, which turned out to be a wash since i was getting up at 6 anyway, but i did a 10 miler, came home and napped! pawpi has recently discovered multi level living! she hasn't ever been up on the bed, she just can't jump that high. but the other weekend, the kids and i picked up a new cat tree to put in the bedroom and now she gets on the cat tree, walks across the night stand onto the bed. now ALL 3 CATS and suck the life out of me while i sleep.
i was pooped. wondering how this whole 13.1er will go when a 10er at an easy pace totally wore me out. whatever. i woke up from the nap and needed a tall, xtra hot, non fat with whip salted caramel hot chocolate from starbucks that very instant. so i got in the car and got one. i saw eric and the kids walking along while i was speeding off to satisfy my craving.
the clinic was good, the water was warm, the sun was shining, it was great conditions for the first swim back. but it tired me out, and my calves and feet were cramping like mo-fo's. but i got it done. two more installments of the clinic to go, the big question is will i get into the pool between them.
AND i went for a mtn bike ride yesterday! it was pouring down rain, but xtie wanted to test out a bike she was lookin to buy, so we were for a nice, wet ride. it was waaay fun and a great first ride back on the bike.
we are getting new windows!! earlier in the summer we looked into getting the windows. i wanted a crew to come in and get them done quickly. turns out that costs millions of dollars, so a few weeks ago i said, screw it, lets get the windows. and eric is putting them in. he did a great job on the ones at the old house and he is doing a great job on these ones! plus i think her looks darn cute when he wears baseball hats, and he only wears them when he is doing construction like work.
i can already tell a difference that they are keeping the house warmer. but its getting me anxious about the other things we want to do at the house. we are going to paint everything, but the horror of it all. turns out A LOT of the house used to have wall paper, and actually still does and they just painted over it. what a mess. but we (by we i mean eric) is going to start with the play room and the kids rooms. gracious, the colors they are picking out, oh no! the living room and dining room are already totally ghetto with the partial carpet and plywood flooring, so that room might just have to wait for new paint for some unknown period of time.
halloween happened the other week. work was allowing for dress up on friday. i started out as zombie, but wasn't gray enough, so turned vampire, but seemed too bruised so was worried i was looking like i had gotten beaten up but settled on Ugly Pretty, as in Tyra Banks, America's Next Top Model - can't you see how I smeyes? Yes, I had a little self photo shoot in my office. i couldn't help it, i was looking damn ugly pretty.
This one xtie said I looked like a broken doll. hmm, broken, yes.
this one looks like i am totally strung out on meth or something. maybe it has something to do with the starbucks cup right next to me.
this one is called "eat a sandwich already, damnit!"
and this is the original Ugly Pretty. i really like how all the purple brings out the green in my eyes.
I found this when looking through Seamus's school work. Its her plans for the other weekend!
i love looking through her school work and trying to understand how her brain works. i am pretty sure she just knows everything already.
the guy running it said not to worry, i could totally do my long run in the morning and be fine for the clinic. i even had the bonus of the extra hr of sleep, which turned out to be a wash since i was getting up at 6 anyway, but i did a 10 miler, came home and napped! pawpi has recently discovered multi level living! she hasn't ever been up on the bed, she just can't jump that high. but the other weekend, the kids and i picked up a new cat tree to put in the bedroom and now she gets on the cat tree, walks across the night stand onto the bed. now ALL 3 CATS and suck the life out of me while i sleep.
i was pooped. wondering how this whole 13.1er will go when a 10er at an easy pace totally wore me out. whatever. i woke up from the nap and needed a tall, xtra hot, non fat with whip salted caramel hot chocolate from starbucks that very instant. so i got in the car and got one. i saw eric and the kids walking along while i was speeding off to satisfy my craving.the clinic was good, the water was warm, the sun was shining, it was great conditions for the first swim back. but it tired me out, and my calves and feet were cramping like mo-fo's. but i got it done. two more installments of the clinic to go, the big question is will i get into the pool between them.
AND i went for a mtn bike ride yesterday! it was pouring down rain, but xtie wanted to test out a bike she was lookin to buy, so we were for a nice, wet ride. it was waaay fun and a great first ride back on the bike.
we are getting new windows!! earlier in the summer we looked into getting the windows. i wanted a crew to come in and get them done quickly. turns out that costs millions of dollars, so a few weeks ago i said, screw it, lets get the windows. and eric is putting them in. he did a great job on the ones at the old house and he is doing a great job on these ones! plus i think her looks darn cute when he wears baseball hats, and he only wears them when he is doing construction like work.
i can already tell a difference that they are keeping the house warmer. but its getting me anxious about the other things we want to do at the house. we are going to paint everything, but the horror of it all. turns out A LOT of the house used to have wall paper, and actually still does and they just painted over it. what a mess. but we (by we i mean eric) is going to start with the play room and the kids rooms. gracious, the colors they are picking out, oh no! the living room and dining room are already totally ghetto with the partial carpet and plywood flooring, so that room might just have to wait for new paint for some unknown period of time.halloween happened the other week. work was allowing for dress up on friday. i started out as zombie, but wasn't gray enough, so turned vampire, but seemed too bruised so was worried i was looking like i had gotten beaten up but settled on Ugly Pretty, as in Tyra Banks, America's Next Top Model - can't you see how I smeyes? Yes, I had a little self photo shoot in my office. i couldn't help it, i was looking damn ugly pretty.
This one xtie said I looked like a broken doll. hmm, broken, yes.
this one looks like i am totally strung out on meth or something. maybe it has something to do with the starbucks cup right next to me.
this one is called "eat a sandwich already, damnit!"
and this is the original Ugly Pretty. i really like how all the purple brings out the green in my eyes.
I found this when looking through Seamus's school work. Its her plans for the other weekend!
i love looking through her school work and trying to understand how her brain works. i am pretty sure she just knows everything already.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
all on a sunday
i'm sitting here, watching live updates of the xterra world championships and am about to pass out from the excitement and anticipation of it all. luna pro shonny vanlandingham had an amazing swim and was in the top 3 women into t1 (ok this turned out to not be true - continue). she will kill it on the bike for sure (this turned out to be very true!) and then what will happen on the run? omg, i am going to be glued to this computer until 3pm for sure. ugh. i am sad to not be at the race this year. this week at work was tough, not only because it was just a tough week, but last year I had spent it in maui getting ready to race. after nationals i was pretty burnt out and happy that i didn't have worlds to deal with, but after my week of doing NOTHING i was really kind of sad about not going. i am excited to see how everyone does, super excited for trish who i've been racing with all season - so exciting for all of them!!!
instead of almost 5hrs of xterra racing in tropical paradise today i did the UW Dawgdash in 50 degrees and torrential dowunpour. i did this race last in 2007 and the last stand alone 10k was in january of 2008 when i PR'ed at the Nookachamps Winter Run. i was also super lean back then, right now, not so much, gawddarn, spare tire and all.
after nationals and my 1 second improvement on my run from last year, I was kind of bummed about my whole running situation. granted i had some bad, run hammpering injuries this year that took me out for prolly 2 months of run training right in the middle of the season when i should have been killing it at the track, but still, i was pretty bummed. so decided that i'd start training for the seattle 1/2 marathon in november. i thought about doing it last year because i was so super fit after worlds, but then i realized, i was really tired and wanted to relax. which i did.
this year i found an online plan and have been trying to follow it. not to the letter, but am logging 25 or 26 miles per week and am having fun. i got some new running knickers and new shoes, too. yahoo!
so i shelled over the $105 to enter the dawg dash and the seattle 1/2 and then i was committed.
last night i had the first tsunami dream i'd had in a long long time. apparently i was stressed out. i knew i was a little nervous
(Xterra update - mile 4 of the bike my boy friend Dan Hugo is neck and neck with Conrad Stoltz for the lead!) but i think all the rain i could hear on the sky light all night must have been more powerful than the totally delicious margarita that eric made for me. 630 and the alarm went off. its been a long long time since i had to get up at 630.
and it was raining. :(
we got in the car and it was pouring cats and dogs. i was shivering, whole body convulsions as we walked to the stadium. best part of the race is the stadium start - warm, indoor bathrooms and plenty of them!!! i did a 5 minute warm up, stripped off some clothes and then headed down to the starting line.
i lined up in the 7-8minute range, got a little weepy during the national anthem and then we were off.
first mile was 7:12, omgosh, that was fast. 2nd mile i started thinking the margarita last night wasn't such a good idea, and wow, did i really drink that whole cup of coffee on the way over? wow look, porta potties all over the course - i could really go for one of those right now.
(xterra update - something happened, where is shonny? she is out of the top 5, unless they messed up)
mile 2 was 7:55 and we started heading back against the crowd, and then UP. it wasn't too long but it was sorta steep, and had a roller or two in it. common mistake for me - over dressing. tossed the gloves to the kids, wished i was in shorts. not terribly overdressed but a little on the warmer side of things.
mile 3 was 7:55, then stupid mile 4 which is all UP HILL or something. its terrible. the course weaves all around the UW campus and also weaves in and out of the 5k course. mile 4 was done in a whopping 8:41. mile 5 was better at 7:33 then not sure what the hell happened in mile 6 because it was 8:18 with the last .2 in 1:36, mile 6 was mostly downhill i thought? maybe its the double chin? i've seen this in my photos before, heel striking and putting on the brakes with my face, not attractive and not fast.
there was a lot of dodging around wet leaves, wet man (people?) hole covers and storm drains, and dont' forget about when the course weaved in and out of the 5k race and then all the dogs. for the most part all of that was ok, although i had to fight hard when we mixed with the 5k-ers to not slow down and go with the flow. overall unofficial time was 49:14 which is a PR, not quite what I had hopped for but, it was a really hard course. :) (wow! they have results up already even, 14 in 30-39 and 41 overall Fs. 49:14 is the official time, too!)
after, the sky opened up and the rain really started dumping.
we headed up past our old house to go to top pot donuts. the kids had THE BEST conversation in the car:
Seamus: hey look, its our old house.
Sirus: when we grow up we can live in that brick house again.
Seamus: yeah
Sirus: we can live there together when we get married.
Me: who are you going to marry?
Seamus: Sirus
Sirus: Seamus
Sirus: and we can get some children to live there with us.
Me: where are you going to get the children?
Seamus: from my belly
Sirus: yeah, because when you are a grown up girl you get babies in your belly.
good grief, as long as your brother doesn't put them in there i guess.
the top pot donuts were awesome!! sirus and eric both had pink rainbows, seamus had a chocolate rainbow and i had the pink feather boa! yum!
yesterday we headed to the pumpkin patch right down the road. i actually ran there and eric and the kids followed in the car.
Yeah!!! Xterra Update!! Shonny is in 2nd, 1:40 back, they must have messed up the last update. Boy friend Dan Hugo has fallen off the lead, but I am ok with that. I just hope he isn't too grumpy about it later. :)
ok, so they did mess up the first post after the swim, Shonny was not 3rd into t1, BUT she is totally KILLING it on the bike, in 2nd and gaining! Go Shonny GO!!!!
instead of almost 5hrs of xterra racing in tropical paradise today i did the UW Dawgdash in 50 degrees and torrential dowunpour. i did this race last in 2007 and the last stand alone 10k was in january of 2008 when i PR'ed at the Nookachamps Winter Run. i was also super lean back then, right now, not so much, gawddarn, spare tire and all.
after nationals and my 1 second improvement on my run from last year, I was kind of bummed about my whole running situation. granted i had some bad, run hammpering injuries this year that took me out for prolly 2 months of run training right in the middle of the season when i should have been killing it at the track, but still, i was pretty bummed. so decided that i'd start training for the seattle 1/2 marathon in november. i thought about doing it last year because i was so super fit after worlds, but then i realized, i was really tired and wanted to relax. which i did.
this year i found an online plan and have been trying to follow it. not to the letter, but am logging 25 or 26 miles per week and am having fun. i got some new running knickers and new shoes, too. yahoo!
so i shelled over the $105 to enter the dawg dash and the seattle 1/2 and then i was committed.
last night i had the first tsunami dream i'd had in a long long time. apparently i was stressed out. i knew i was a little nervous
(Xterra update - mile 4 of the bike my boy friend Dan Hugo is neck and neck with Conrad Stoltz for the lead!) but i think all the rain i could hear on the sky light all night must have been more powerful than the totally delicious margarita that eric made for me. 630 and the alarm went off. its been a long long time since i had to get up at 630.
and it was raining. :(
we got in the car and it was pouring cats and dogs. i was shivering, whole body convulsions as we walked to the stadium. best part of the race is the stadium start - warm, indoor bathrooms and plenty of them!!! i did a 5 minute warm up, stripped off some clothes and then headed down to the starting line.
i lined up in the 7-8minute range, got a little weepy during the national anthem and then we were off.first mile was 7:12, omgosh, that was fast. 2nd mile i started thinking the margarita last night wasn't such a good idea, and wow, did i really drink that whole cup of coffee on the way over? wow look, porta potties all over the course - i could really go for one of those right now.
(xterra update - something happened, where is shonny? she is out of the top 5, unless they messed up)
mile 2 was 7:55 and we started heading back against the crowd, and then UP. it wasn't too long but it was sorta steep, and had a roller or two in it. common mistake for me - over dressing. tossed the gloves to the kids, wished i was in shorts. not terribly overdressed but a little on the warmer side of things.
mile 3 was 7:55, then stupid mile 4 which is all UP HILL or something. its terrible. the course weaves all around the UW campus and also weaves in and out of the 5k course. mile 4 was done in a whopping 8:41. mile 5 was better at 7:33 then not sure what the hell happened in mile 6 because it was 8:18 with the last .2 in 1:36, mile 6 was mostly downhill i thought? maybe its the double chin? i've seen this in my photos before, heel striking and putting on the brakes with my face, not attractive and not fast.
there was a lot of dodging around wet leaves, wet man (people?) hole covers and storm drains, and dont' forget about when the course weaved in and out of the 5k race and then all the dogs. for the most part all of that was ok, although i had to fight hard when we mixed with the 5k-ers to not slow down and go with the flow. overall unofficial time was 49:14 which is a PR, not quite what I had hopped for but, it was a really hard course. :) (wow! they have results up already even, 14 in 30-39 and 41 overall Fs. 49:14 is the official time, too!)after, the sky opened up and the rain really started dumping.
we headed up past our old house to go to top pot donuts. the kids had THE BEST conversation in the car:Seamus: hey look, its our old house.
Sirus: when we grow up we can live in that brick house again.
Seamus: yeah
Sirus: we can live there together when we get married.
Me: who are you going to marry?
Seamus: Sirus
Sirus: Seamus
Sirus: and we can get some children to live there with us.
Me: where are you going to get the children?
Seamus: from my belly
Sirus: yeah, because when you are a grown up girl you get babies in your belly.
good grief, as long as your brother doesn't put them in there i guess.
the top pot donuts were awesome!! sirus and eric both had pink rainbows, seamus had a chocolate rainbow and i had the pink feather boa! yum!
yesterday we headed to the pumpkin patch right down the road. i actually ran there and eric and the kids followed in the car.
Yeah!!! Xterra Update!! Shonny is in 2nd, 1:40 back, they must have messed up the last update. Boy friend Dan Hugo has fallen off the lead, but I am ok with that. I just hope he isn't too grumpy about it later. :)
ok, so they did mess up the first post after the swim, Shonny was not 3rd into t1, BUT she is totally KILLING it on the bike, in 2nd and gaining! Go Shonny GO!!!!
Saturday, October 09, 2010
sexy
oh what to be for halloween! what to be!!
i think sexy finding NEMO is totally appropriate, family friendly and exactly what i've always wanted to be!!
but then again, i do like history.. and why not, sexy George Washington would be a great tribute. maybe i'll save this one for 4th of july instead.
but really when i think sexy i think tom cruise. ok i just threw up a little bit, but yeah, maverick in top gun was HOT, so yeah, i'll be the sexy girl version!
but really, ya'lls know really i love starwars and princess leia as jabba's slave is so boring and over done. so yeah, why not sexy chewbacca!! nothing says hot like a hair beast! or sexy storm trooper or sexy darth vader. now yer talking!!
but really i want to be this. eric says i can only if it comes with the pompoms. sadly it doesn't.
screw it!! i am going to quit my job and be a sexy construction worker. for real. every day.
i think sexy finding NEMO is totally appropriate, family friendly and exactly what i've always wanted to be!!
but then again, i do like history.. and why not, sexy George Washington would be a great tribute. maybe i'll save this one for 4th of july instead.
but really when i think sexy i think tom cruise. ok i just threw up a little bit, but yeah, maverick in top gun was HOT, so yeah, i'll be the sexy girl version!
but really, ya'lls know really i love starwars and princess leia as jabba's slave is so boring and over done. so yeah, why not sexy chewbacca!! nothing says hot like a hair beast! or sexy storm trooper or sexy darth vader. now yer talking!!
but really i want to be this. eric says i can only if it comes with the pompoms. sadly it doesn't.
screw it!! i am going to quit my job and be a sexy construction worker. for real. every day.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
the off season
its the off season and i am celebrating by running! i think i am training for the seattle 1/2, but we'll have to wait and see how this first week or so go. so far so good! its been almost 2 weeks since i've swam or been on a bike. not that interested in doing either of those although i don't want to lose my *love* of swimming.
what i do want to lose is these 40 pounds i've gained, sheesh! and i KNOW that the tasty beer in the frosty glass is not helping but whats a girl to do?
the bed time routine is that eric takes one kid, i take the other, we read a story or two to the kid, tuck them in and then change rooms to tuck in the other kid. last night i had sirus. i read to him, sang a little, cuddled a little then tucked him in. then i went into seamus's room. the light was off and she wasn't in her bed. i started looking for her, and sure enough there she was propped up against the wall, balancing on her head - no hands!!
what i do want to lose is these 40 pounds i've gained, sheesh! and i KNOW that the tasty beer in the frosty glass is not helping but whats a girl to do?
the bed time routine is that eric takes one kid, i take the other, we read a story or two to the kid, tuck them in and then change rooms to tuck in the other kid. last night i had sirus. i read to him, sang a little, cuddled a little then tucked him in. then i went into seamus's room. the light was off and she wasn't in her bed. i started looking for her, and sure enough there she was propped up against the wall, balancing on her head - no hands!!
Friday, October 01, 2010
post posting
so its come and gone and now what to do? this week has been probably the loveliest we have had all year as far as weather goes but i have zero inspiration to do ANYTHING. i did take my running gear to work with me every day since wednesday but never actually went running. i think that is ok, i'm hoping its ok. my ass and hips think otherwise, but the rest of me is exhausted and needed the rest.
i'm still trying to figure out how i feel about the race, but i know i want to go back.
both eric and matt qualified for worlds which is super exciting. eric isn't going but haven't spoken to matt, so don't know what his plan is.
i'm headed out on an hr 30 run tomorrow. good lawd i wonder how that will go. i'm exhuasted even thinking about it but i'm looking forward to the activity and hoping it will bring my spirits up a bit. and then!!! we have exciting EXCITING plans for sirus's 5th birthday!!
remember when sirus was born?
and how about when he turned 1?
and when he turned 2?
and when he turned 3?
and when he turned 4?
and now he is turning 5, good gracious! how did THAT ever happen!
i'm still trying to figure out how i feel about the race, but i know i want to go back.
both eric and matt qualified for worlds which is super exciting. eric isn't going but haven't spoken to matt, so don't know what his plan is.
i'm headed out on an hr 30 run tomorrow. good lawd i wonder how that will go. i'm exhuasted even thinking about it but i'm looking forward to the activity and hoping it will bring my spirits up a bit. and then!!! we have exciting EXCITING plans for sirus's 5th birthday!!
remember when sirus was born?
and how about when he turned 1?
and when he turned 2?
and when he turned 3?
and when he turned 4?
and now he is turning 5, good gracious! how did THAT ever happen!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Xterra USA Chamionships 2010
aka - i write long race reports. :)
Leading up to the race:
i slept pretty poorly for probably a week or more before the race. Not sure what the deal was with that, but i was really stressed out at work, i was on the tired end of things and just a little overwhelmed by all that i had to get done before heading out of town. i was happy that this was going to be my last race because i wasn't sure if i could put in another month of training. The weather wasn’t helping the situation.
The sore throat was lame. I don't know if it was allergies, totally in my head, or whatever, but earlier in the week i was worried it was turning into something else, but by the time we got to Ogden on Friday it was pretty much ok. The dry air was tough on it though, especially on race day but i don't think it actually factored into anything, i just feels like maybe i've been smoking a few marlboro reds is all.
The travel day was totally relaxed, way more relaxed than last year. i think that had a lot to do with eric being there and him taking care of so much of it all. it was a good trip down, the pre-ride was fun..jpg)
we met up with trish from Bellingham which was fun. We started at green pond like last year and then tried heading up out of snow basin for like 10 minutes and we all decided yeah, no. the air was getting mighty thin on us so nothing would be gained by us riding that last part, and thank goodness we didn’t.
We went to the dinner which was fun, saw Cori and Mat and his parents. Mat was regional champion again, so that was fun to see.
Eventually we headed back to the hotel.
I just chilled out but Eric started to organize his stuff. I finally realized it was pretty late and I should really start organizing my stuff too, but I was still in denial. I was chugging water from the minute we got off the plane until the minute I went to bed but not sure if it was helping me at all.
I had bad dreams all night long then got up at 6am, ½ hr later than last year. I had my normal pre-race PB&J the second I got up to ensure it was about 3hrs before race start and we were off to set up transitions. It was chilly in the morning but the sky was clear so it was pretty obvious it was going to be a beautiful day..jpg)
We set up T1 first then drove up to Snow Basin for T2. Mat and his parents gave us a ride back down to T1 so we didn’t have to take the shuttle. When we got back to T1 I found out that Cori and I had racked right next to each other which was a fun surprise! Then I tracked down Shonny, we checked out the bike exit and then went down to the swim start.
The Swim: 1500m, two loops at Pine View Reservoir; about 4800ft above sea level
While I was swimming, I thought the swim was going really well. The start was nutty. I have been trying to be more aggressive in the swim starts, pushing up into the mix so I've gotten more used to all the contact but this was the first time I got hit really hard in the back of the head - pretty sure my brain jiggled loose in there and it was the first time my goggles got kicked off. Luckily only off one eye and thank goodness i didn't totally lose them! I was surprised how aggro people were but then remembered this was the national championships. There was still lots of contact until probably turning after the 2nd buoy. Heading from buoy 2 to the turnaround took FOREVER. I could have been standing still, but more likely I was off course. Once I looked up to site and I saw nothing. No swimmers, no boats, not Xterra arch, no kyakers. Nothing. I was going 100% the wrong way, i was totally confused and disoriented and had no idea where i was! After that i sighted more frequently.
I thought the rest of the swim went pretty well. I didn’t get lapped by any of the pros and only got caught by maybe a handful of the folks in the long course race who started 20 minutes after us and were on their first loop. I was surprised and disappointed to see 35 minutes on my watch when i was coming up out of the water. I swam the whole way and was working pretty well especially on that last lap. I hobbled up onto the pavement, the chip seal really hurt my feet but I got my way to transition even getting called out by the announcer.
T1 was really bad. I couldn't get one of my socks on and had to take it off and mess with it, whatever. Everything else was ok i guess, but i still wear that wrist brace and it’s a pain in my ass. Eric says to ditch it, and i thought about it for this race, but considering i still can't support my weight on it, i didn't want to risk it. In the scheme of things any time savings would have been minimal. but it is one of the things i am going to have checked out more this winter. Total swim and T1 time 39:25; 52 seconds slower than last year.
The Bike: 18.9 miles, 3000ft+ of cumulative elevation gain, climbing up to a max of 7500ft above sea level.
The bike starts off with about 2 miles on the gravel shoulder of the road. I was right on this one girl's wheel and last second she swerved and I almost nailed one of sign poles right off the bat. That would have been a disaster. It got my heart beating a bit and then i was extra cautious as to how close i followed her for the rest of that road section.
Once you cross the spillway, you head up into Wheeler Canyon. I was surprised how chilly it was and only then realized that my feet were pretty much numb from the cold of the water, too. i was working hard, i felt like i was riding well, i was passing lots of people and i don't remember getting passed by anyone, but could have been. that canyon part might just be my favorite part of the race. i was happy to get up to the green pond area and was happy that none of the fast dudes from the next race were up in my business through the descent. i thought i was going pretty fast for me through all that stuff and was happy the leaves along the trail had all been whooshed away by all the faster people since they were kind of freaking me out during our pre-ride.
i had this guy on me for that entire fast fun section and every time we hit a rocky section he was grunting and groaning and i swore he was crashing each time. it made me laugh but at the same time totally worried me.
i tried to stay in my middle ring as much as i could but fell into my little one every once in a while and sometimes for a long time. my right quad was on the verge of cramping and i was having a tough time getting comfortable on my saddle. my left arse was hurting (and still does!) and my left sit bone was getting all wacky, worrying me that my obturator inturnus was on the verge of a freakout again. luckily everything stayed in check. i was happy to get to snow basin and felt like a bad ass when i got to head up the hill while the sport racers turned into transition.
i was riding up up up, and that is when i saw shonny running up the hill. i kept riding because although i was willing to tell her if i walked, i didn't want her to actually see me do it! She was good inspiration at that point because obviously I was able to ride it no problem.
later on though there were two sections i had to walk up. the first about made my calves cramp with every step, then the second was that last final push up a total wall. i was happy to get to the top of that because i thought i was done with the climbing but it turned out we weren’t even close. i started to get a little panicky because we just kept going up and away from snow basin. i was feeling sick, on the verge of puking a few times, and just trying to keep it together. again i almost got off at one point but there was a guy sitting by his truck so i just kept going which was good because there was actually a short downhill once i got passed him.
once i got to the downhill i actually had some fun,. i was happy to get through all of the switch backs and i felt like i was actually getting through them well. i had two people behind me the whole time and they never asked to pass, so i was pretty happy. my right elbow was starting to hurt, which was new but i had to be almost done, really, right? I got to t2 and almost fell over trying to get off my bike - awesome!
i took 2 clif shots on the bike and drank about ½ of a big bottle of electrolyte drink - yeah, only ½. I was not drinking, which is odd for me because i usually drink like crazy. i wasn't thinking about it, and when i did drink i had mixed it too strong and my throat was burning from the air, and i just didn't even want to drink anything the whole time. bad move. my stomach even started to rumble because it felt empty and i just wasn't listening. it was a bad mistake on my part.
T2 was fast and easy and i ran outta there like no one's business. Total Bike and T2 time: 2:29:12, 1:38 faster than last year and on a longer course, too!
The Run: 6.3 miles, starting around 6300ft above sea level, topping out at 7500ft.
The mean thing about the run is that you head away from transition then go STRAIGHT UP HILL, so I ran out then started to walk almost right away. I got passed by some runners and I was passing some too. By the top of the hill i was ready to start drinking again but couldn't believe it when the cup of water I grabbed had only a tiny splash of water in it! Once the course flattened out a bit I was running all the flats and down hills and a few of the smaller up hills. Really i just couldn't breathe. Nothing really hurt, I had a little bit of a side cramp but it went away. I just couldn't get any air. When I got to the 2 mile marker I was convinced that they marked the course wrong. The 2nd aid station seemed like 100 miles away but I took two cups of water there. I was fighting the negative thoughts, trying to enjoy it. I chatted only with one guy for a short time about how I was pretty sure they said the run was only a 9k but he said no it was at least a 10k. so for the rest of it I tried to stay focused on what i was doing. On one terrible uphill i got pretty dizzy and was pretty sure i was going to pass out, and wondered how long i'd lay there before any help would come, but i managed to keep it together. That would have been embarrassing! And THEN my feet cramped up. I haven't ever had my feet cramp while running and it was particularly bad on the downhill. i did manage to run the whole run down the big hil to the finish, fending off the feet cramps the whole time, i couldn't not run that part - sheesh!
I was happy to cross the line. Last year when i crossed the line i was just like, oh, ok. now it’s over. this time, i was like, damn, i am pretty worn out, i want to go lay down somewhere. Total run time: 1:08:28, 1 second faster than last year.
Total race time: 4:17:05, 47 seconds faster than last year.
After sitting in the shade for a little I recovered quickly it seems and was able to get moving and changed my clothes and stuff pretty quickly. I couldn't eat anything for a few hours, and couldn't really drink anything either. Other than that I was in a pretty good mood.
Once indoors i cornered dan hugo and eric took my picture with him. poor guy didn't have his shirt on but that was his fault, not mine.
so looking at the times and the numbers and stuff. i went into the race saying really that i didn't care if i came in last place, i just wanted a faster time. so, I didn’t come in last place! and i was 47 seconds faster! Hooray! but really I wanted to come in under 4hrs, so i am disappointed in that. i am disappointed in my swim because i don't know why it was so slow and i was disappointed in my run just because it was a disappointing run. on the bike i felt like i worked really hard, i wonder if i could have worked harder, but i am pretty content with how i did there. the last two weeks of training riding with april with her on her single speed 29er and me just trying to hang on on all those hills made me realize that i wasn't working hard enough on my hard mtn bike rides earlier in the season.
Eric on the other hand had a FANTASTIC race coming in 3rd in his age group only 2 minutes behind 1st place! I was so proud of him but knew he would wind up on the podium! He is a amazing!
We headed down the mountain, relaxed, showered, then went out for dinner. I had a frozen strawberry lemonade that with every sip gave me terrible brain freeze.
After we relaxed some more then went out to the Harvest Moon festival where we sat next to a giant great dane who farted non-stop, saw a totally drunk dude who had fallen, was covered in blood and had the Utah police all over him and we watched the highlight video from the race.
After we went to i-Fly Utah for some indoor sky diving then called it a night!
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Sunday we chilled out, had some delish banana bread French toast served by the same waiter that served me breakfast last year, packed up then headed over to Matt’s house. Matt was one of my best friends from high school but sadly I hadn’t seen him since December of 1997. His parents and sisters were all in town visiting, too, so I got to catch up with all of them as well which was very fun! It was so great to see Matt again and I hope to see him again soon!
This morning I woke up more refreshed then I have in months. This week is for resting, attending the LUNA Chix end of year auction and planning for Sirus’s 5th birthday on Sunday!
Leading up to the race:
i slept pretty poorly for probably a week or more before the race. Not sure what the deal was with that, but i was really stressed out at work, i was on the tired end of things and just a little overwhelmed by all that i had to get done before heading out of town. i was happy that this was going to be my last race because i wasn't sure if i could put in another month of training. The weather wasn’t helping the situation.
The sore throat was lame. I don't know if it was allergies, totally in my head, or whatever, but earlier in the week i was worried it was turning into something else, but by the time we got to Ogden on Friday it was pretty much ok. The dry air was tough on it though, especially on race day but i don't think it actually factored into anything, i just feels like maybe i've been smoking a few marlboro reds is all.
The travel day was totally relaxed, way more relaxed than last year. i think that had a lot to do with eric being there and him taking care of so much of it all. it was a good trip down, the pre-ride was fun.
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we met up with trish from Bellingham which was fun. We started at green pond like last year and then tried heading up out of snow basin for like 10 minutes and we all decided yeah, no. the air was getting mighty thin on us so nothing would be gained by us riding that last part, and thank goodness we didn’t. We went to the dinner which was fun, saw Cori and Mat and his parents. Mat was regional champion again, so that was fun to see.
Eventually we headed back to the hotel.
I just chilled out but Eric started to organize his stuff. I finally realized it was pretty late and I should really start organizing my stuff too, but I was still in denial. I was chugging water from the minute we got off the plane until the minute I went to bed but not sure if it was helping me at all.I had bad dreams all night long then got up at 6am, ½ hr later than last year. I had my normal pre-race PB&J the second I got up to ensure it was about 3hrs before race start and we were off to set up transitions. It was chilly in the morning but the sky was clear so it was pretty obvious it was going to be a beautiful day.
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We set up T1 first then drove up to Snow Basin for T2. Mat and his parents gave us a ride back down to T1 so we didn’t have to take the shuttle. When we got back to T1 I found out that Cori and I had racked right next to each other which was a fun surprise! Then I tracked down Shonny, we checked out the bike exit and then went down to the swim start.
The Swim: 1500m, two loops at Pine View Reservoir; about 4800ft above sea level
While I was swimming, I thought the swim was going really well. The start was nutty. I have been trying to be more aggressive in the swim starts, pushing up into the mix so I've gotten more used to all the contact but this was the first time I got hit really hard in the back of the head - pretty sure my brain jiggled loose in there and it was the first time my goggles got kicked off. Luckily only off one eye and thank goodness i didn't totally lose them! I was surprised how aggro people were but then remembered this was the national championships. There was still lots of contact until probably turning after the 2nd buoy. Heading from buoy 2 to the turnaround took FOREVER. I could have been standing still, but more likely I was off course. Once I looked up to site and I saw nothing. No swimmers, no boats, not Xterra arch, no kyakers. Nothing. I was going 100% the wrong way, i was totally confused and disoriented and had no idea where i was! After that i sighted more frequently.
I thought the rest of the swim went pretty well. I didn’t get lapped by any of the pros and only got caught by maybe a handful of the folks in the long course race who started 20 minutes after us and were on their first loop. I was surprised and disappointed to see 35 minutes on my watch when i was coming up out of the water. I swam the whole way and was working pretty well especially on that last lap. I hobbled up onto the pavement, the chip seal really hurt my feet but I got my way to transition even getting called out by the announcer.
T1 was really bad. I couldn't get one of my socks on and had to take it off and mess with it, whatever. Everything else was ok i guess, but i still wear that wrist brace and it’s a pain in my ass. Eric says to ditch it, and i thought about it for this race, but considering i still can't support my weight on it, i didn't want to risk it. In the scheme of things any time savings would have been minimal. but it is one of the things i am going to have checked out more this winter. Total swim and T1 time 39:25; 52 seconds slower than last year.
The Bike: 18.9 miles, 3000ft+ of cumulative elevation gain, climbing up to a max of 7500ft above sea level.
The bike starts off with about 2 miles on the gravel shoulder of the road. I was right on this one girl's wheel and last second she swerved and I almost nailed one of sign poles right off the bat. That would have been a disaster. It got my heart beating a bit and then i was extra cautious as to how close i followed her for the rest of that road section.
Once you cross the spillway, you head up into Wheeler Canyon. I was surprised how chilly it was and only then realized that my feet were pretty much numb from the cold of the water, too. i was working hard, i felt like i was riding well, i was passing lots of people and i don't remember getting passed by anyone, but could have been. that canyon part might just be my favorite part of the race. i was happy to get up to the green pond area and was happy that none of the fast dudes from the next race were up in my business through the descent. i thought i was going pretty fast for me through all that stuff and was happy the leaves along the trail had all been whooshed away by all the faster people since they were kind of freaking me out during our pre-ride.
i had this guy on me for that entire fast fun section and every time we hit a rocky section he was grunting and groaning and i swore he was crashing each time. it made me laugh but at the same time totally worried me.
i tried to stay in my middle ring as much as i could but fell into my little one every once in a while and sometimes for a long time. my right quad was on the verge of cramping and i was having a tough time getting comfortable on my saddle. my left arse was hurting (and still does!) and my left sit bone was getting all wacky, worrying me that my obturator inturnus was on the verge of a freakout again. luckily everything stayed in check. i was happy to get to snow basin and felt like a bad ass when i got to head up the hill while the sport racers turned into transition.
i was riding up up up, and that is when i saw shonny running up the hill. i kept riding because although i was willing to tell her if i walked, i didn't want her to actually see me do it! She was good inspiration at that point because obviously I was able to ride it no problem.
later on though there were two sections i had to walk up. the first about made my calves cramp with every step, then the second was that last final push up a total wall. i was happy to get to the top of that because i thought i was done with the climbing but it turned out we weren’t even close. i started to get a little panicky because we just kept going up and away from snow basin. i was feeling sick, on the verge of puking a few times, and just trying to keep it together. again i almost got off at one point but there was a guy sitting by his truck so i just kept going which was good because there was actually a short downhill once i got passed him.
once i got to the downhill i actually had some fun,. i was happy to get through all of the switch backs and i felt like i was actually getting through them well. i had two people behind me the whole time and they never asked to pass, so i was pretty happy. my right elbow was starting to hurt, which was new but i had to be almost done, really, right? I got to t2 and almost fell over trying to get off my bike - awesome!
i took 2 clif shots on the bike and drank about ½ of a big bottle of electrolyte drink - yeah, only ½. I was not drinking, which is odd for me because i usually drink like crazy. i wasn't thinking about it, and when i did drink i had mixed it too strong and my throat was burning from the air, and i just didn't even want to drink anything the whole time. bad move. my stomach even started to rumble because it felt empty and i just wasn't listening. it was a bad mistake on my part.
T2 was fast and easy and i ran outta there like no one's business. Total Bike and T2 time: 2:29:12, 1:38 faster than last year and on a longer course, too!
The Run: 6.3 miles, starting around 6300ft above sea level, topping out at 7500ft.
The mean thing about the run is that you head away from transition then go STRAIGHT UP HILL, so I ran out then started to walk almost right away. I got passed by some runners and I was passing some too. By the top of the hill i was ready to start drinking again but couldn't believe it when the cup of water I grabbed had only a tiny splash of water in it! Once the course flattened out a bit I was running all the flats and down hills and a few of the smaller up hills. Really i just couldn't breathe. Nothing really hurt, I had a little bit of a side cramp but it went away. I just couldn't get any air. When I got to the 2 mile marker I was convinced that they marked the course wrong. The 2nd aid station seemed like 100 miles away but I took two cups of water there. I was fighting the negative thoughts, trying to enjoy it. I chatted only with one guy for a short time about how I was pretty sure they said the run was only a 9k but he said no it was at least a 10k. so for the rest of it I tried to stay focused on what i was doing. On one terrible uphill i got pretty dizzy and was pretty sure i was going to pass out, and wondered how long i'd lay there before any help would come, but i managed to keep it together. That would have been embarrassing! And THEN my feet cramped up. I haven't ever had my feet cramp while running and it was particularly bad on the downhill. i did manage to run the whole run down the big hil to the finish, fending off the feet cramps the whole time, i couldn't not run that part - sheesh!
I was happy to cross the line. Last year when i crossed the line i was just like, oh, ok. now it’s over. this time, i was like, damn, i am pretty worn out, i want to go lay down somewhere. Total run time: 1:08:28, 1 second faster than last year.
Total race time: 4:17:05, 47 seconds faster than last year.
After sitting in the shade for a little I recovered quickly it seems and was able to get moving and changed my clothes and stuff pretty quickly. I couldn't eat anything for a few hours, and couldn't really drink anything either. Other than that I was in a pretty good mood.
Once indoors i cornered dan hugo and eric took my picture with him. poor guy didn't have his shirt on but that was his fault, not mine.
so looking at the times and the numbers and stuff. i went into the race saying really that i didn't care if i came in last place, i just wanted a faster time. so, I didn’t come in last place! and i was 47 seconds faster! Hooray! but really I wanted to come in under 4hrs, so i am disappointed in that. i am disappointed in my swim because i don't know why it was so slow and i was disappointed in my run just because it was a disappointing run. on the bike i felt like i worked really hard, i wonder if i could have worked harder, but i am pretty content with how i did there. the last two weeks of training riding with april with her on her single speed 29er and me just trying to hang on on all those hills made me realize that i wasn't working hard enough on my hard mtn bike rides earlier in the season.
Eric on the other hand had a FANTASTIC race coming in 3rd in his age group only 2 minutes behind 1st place! I was so proud of him but knew he would wind up on the podium! He is a amazing!
We headed down the mountain, relaxed, showered, then went out for dinner. I had a frozen strawberry lemonade that with every sip gave me terrible brain freeze.
After we relaxed some more then went out to the Harvest Moon festival where we sat next to a giant great dane who farted non-stop, saw a totally drunk dude who had fallen, was covered in blood and had the Utah police all over him and we watched the highlight video from the race.
After we went to i-Fly Utah for some indoor sky diving then called it a night!
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Sunday we chilled out, had some delish banana bread French toast served by the same waiter that served me breakfast last year, packed up then headed over to Matt’s house. Matt was one of my best friends from high school but sadly I hadn’t seen him since December of 1997. His parents and sisters were all in town visiting, too, so I got to catch up with all of them as well which was very fun! It was so great to see Matt again and I hope to see him again soon!
This morning I woke up more refreshed then I have in months. This week is for resting, attending the LUNA Chix end of year auction and planning for Sirus’s 5th birthday on Sunday!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
soon, very very soon
yikes! xterra nationals are only a few days away. i'm excited but a little worried too. i don't feel very well. i was sorta on the verge of being sick for a few days but i seemed ok, saturday i was sorta on the verge but then did that hard workout then went to starcrossed and hung out in the rain. eric and i both realized that we are not built for standing around. if we are going to stay in one place, we best be sitting or better yet laying down. standing doesn't work so well for either of us. sunday was the start of the taper - a rest day with an optional 30' swim. i opted out of it to go watch eric race which i was very happy we did because he did awesome. but later that night i wasn't feeling so great. took my temperature and it was 99 then took it again a short while later and it was 101.8 but then quickly decided that the thermometer was wrong and instead used the kids' and it was normal. thats pretty much what i thot but wanted to be sure, just in case. i had napped both saturday and sunday - sunday being one of those where i'm sitting on the couch in full conversation with eric when oh no, i'm going to fall asleep, it doesn't matter that i am in mid sentence, bam, i'm asleep.
monday i slept through masters swimming, ok, i got up and debated as to whether i was sick or just wimpy or just tired still. i didn't go, went back to bed instead with intentions of going after work. which i did not. i went to bed early but woke up at 330 and couldnt go back to sleep. laid there for a few hours, dozed in and out then got up finally. i felt better this morning but not awesome. i really would just like to take a day off and really not do anything. maybe two days - first day clean the house top to bottom, 2nd day just chill out in a clean house. i'd like it to be sunny both of those days too.
went mtn biking after work with a co-worker which was quite, i felt pretty good. still maybe on the verge of sick. found out my water bottle cage is broken. :(
tomorrow is some swimming and some core, thursday is some running then FRIDAY is some traveling to SLC.
monday i slept through masters swimming, ok, i got up and debated as to whether i was sick or just wimpy or just tired still. i didn't go, went back to bed instead with intentions of going after work. which i did not. i went to bed early but woke up at 330 and couldnt go back to sleep. laid there for a few hours, dozed in and out then got up finally. i felt better this morning but not awesome. i really would just like to take a day off and really not do anything. maybe two days - first day clean the house top to bottom, 2nd day just chill out in a clean house. i'd like it to be sunny both of those days too.
went mtn biking after work with a co-worker which was quite, i felt pretty good. still maybe on the verge of sick. found out my water bottle cage is broken. :(
tomorrow is some swimming and some core, thursday is some running then FRIDAY is some traveling to SLC.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
plotting
seamus is up to something and i don't know what it is. i caught her climbing up the door jam to the play room earlier today. there she was just going up up up. she didn't have anything in her hands but she was just going up. then she jumped down.
later in the day she was climbing the walls in the hallway. again she was going up up up. i just stopped to watch, not letting her know i was there, i wanted to see what she was up to. next thing ya know, she launched off the wall and spun totally around in mid air, landing facing me. i asked her what she was doing and all she replied with was, wow, that was kind of hard. funny.
and sirus, he is a funny guy. i was wearing an old school star wars shirt today. sirus pointed out that it had princess leia and r2d2 on it and also had that peanut butter guy. huh? so when i had taken them to build a bear workshop a week or so ago, they had a display of the new bears and outfits coming in that were star wars themed. i thought i had heard him talking about the peanut butter guy there, too, but didn't think much of it. so i pulled up some photos of r2d2 and c3po and had him come over and tell me who the characters were and sure enough, there was that peanut butter guy. he claims its because c3po looks like peanut butter. seems to me that c3po must need a good buff and polish if that is the case.
later in the day she was climbing the walls in the hallway. again she was going up up up. i just stopped to watch, not letting her know i was there, i wanted to see what she was up to. next thing ya know, she launched off the wall and spun totally around in mid air, landing facing me. i asked her what she was doing and all she replied with was, wow, that was kind of hard. funny.
and sirus, he is a funny guy. i was wearing an old school star wars shirt today. sirus pointed out that it had princess leia and r2d2 on it and also had that peanut butter guy. huh? so when i had taken them to build a bear workshop a week or so ago, they had a display of the new bears and outfits coming in that were star wars themed. i thought i had heard him talking about the peanut butter guy there, too, but didn't think much of it. so i pulled up some photos of r2d2 and c3po and had him come over and tell me who the characters were and sure enough, there was that peanut butter guy. he claims its because c3po looks like peanut butter. seems to me that c3po must need a good buff and polish if that is the case.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
everybody's working for the weekend
wow, i am tired. long week. lots going on, the weather is crappy and last week of tough workouts before tapering for nationals. wasn't sure i was going to make it, and almost didn't!!
wednesday i came to terms with my fear of cyclocross and told my coach i'd rather do zn5s on the trainer than go to the cyclocross practice and race after. so she had me do some zn5s on the trainer. 2min at zn 5 follwed by 5 minutes of zn4 followed by 4 minutes recovery repeat 4 times. twice i thought i was on the verge of puking. eric says it was because i was in the garage. maybe it was because i was watching harry potter, or maybe it was the spider crawling dangerously close to the fan. regardless it was hard but i got it done and felt good about it.
yesterdays track workout... oh where do i start. i think i have a mental block on track workouts. or maybe just thursdays are bad days for them, but whatever it is, it seems like every time there is a track workout i find some reason for something to go wrong with it. yesterday was pouring rain, so i consulted with some friends and the responses included: "WWSVD?" "Suck it up buttercup", "Rule #5 - Harden the F up", and "Rule #9 Do a road ride instead since riding in bad weather means you are a bad ass. Period."
i opted for treadmill. since my car was in the shop eric picked me up from work and dropped me at the gym, and in the locker room i discovered i didn't pack a sports bra. its not that im totally boobalicious, but i am boobalicious enought that i cannot run if there is any bounce. called up eric to come get me since he wasn't too far away yet, drove home, changed into my clothes and drove back to the gym and proceeded to have my ass handed to me while watching the Bear Whisperer. i didn't hit any of the times, i was dying the whole time, and next time will opt to do the workout in the pouring rain because that was NO FUN AT ALL. it was scary though going up to 10 on the treadmill and i think that was part of the reason it went so bad, it was just damn scary.
i did sweat a lot which i like to do, it just didn't go very well. good intentions, poor execution.
friday was a good day! i got to pick my car up at the shop and it looks brand new! they totally detailed the car inside and outside, too! it even has new car smell which kind of made me sick, but it was so nice to have all the dents fixed and have it all so clean!!! also i got my wedding ring back. last weekend while at the mall we stopped into the jewelry store to get my rings cleaned and the discovered that one of the prongs had broken off! so i left it there and eric and the kids picked it up for me. it too looks brand new!!! so happy to have it back!
then today i met up with april. omg, she totally kicked my arse again. she was on her single speed 29er again and we did hills. and wow, she dropped me every time. and then we ran. 30 minutes uphill, 15 down. then i had to come home and GO TO SLEEP. eric got me a new pillow and between it and the flannel sheets i was in heaven!!
tomorrow begins the taper!!
wednesday i came to terms with my fear of cyclocross and told my coach i'd rather do zn5s on the trainer than go to the cyclocross practice and race after. so she had me do some zn5s on the trainer. 2min at zn 5 follwed by 5 minutes of zn4 followed by 4 minutes recovery repeat 4 times. twice i thought i was on the verge of puking. eric says it was because i was in the garage. maybe it was because i was watching harry potter, or maybe it was the spider crawling dangerously close to the fan. regardless it was hard but i got it done and felt good about it.
yesterdays track workout... oh where do i start. i think i have a mental block on track workouts. or maybe just thursdays are bad days for them, but whatever it is, it seems like every time there is a track workout i find some reason for something to go wrong with it. yesterday was pouring rain, so i consulted with some friends and the responses included: "WWSVD?" "Suck it up buttercup", "Rule #5 - Harden the F up", and "Rule #9 Do a road ride instead since riding in bad weather means you are a bad ass. Period."
i opted for treadmill. since my car was in the shop eric picked me up from work and dropped me at the gym, and in the locker room i discovered i didn't pack a sports bra. its not that im totally boobalicious, but i am boobalicious enought that i cannot run if there is any bounce. called up eric to come get me since he wasn't too far away yet, drove home, changed into my clothes and drove back to the gym and proceeded to have my ass handed to me while watching the Bear Whisperer. i didn't hit any of the times, i was dying the whole time, and next time will opt to do the workout in the pouring rain because that was NO FUN AT ALL. it was scary though going up to 10 on the treadmill and i think that was part of the reason it went so bad, it was just damn scary.
i did sweat a lot which i like to do, it just didn't go very well. good intentions, poor execution.
friday was a good day! i got to pick my car up at the shop and it looks brand new! they totally detailed the car inside and outside, too! it even has new car smell which kind of made me sick, but it was so nice to have all the dents fixed and have it all so clean!!! also i got my wedding ring back. last weekend while at the mall we stopped into the jewelry store to get my rings cleaned and the discovered that one of the prongs had broken off! so i left it there and eric and the kids picked it up for me. it too looks brand new!!! so happy to have it back!
then today i met up with april. omg, she totally kicked my arse again. she was on her single speed 29er again and we did hills. and wow, she dropped me every time. and then we ran. 30 minutes uphill, 15 down. then i had to come home and GO TO SLEEP. eric got me a new pillow and between it and the flannel sheets i was in heaven!!
tomorrow begins the taper!!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
HELLCATS
ok, so its not a total secret that I LOVE CHEER LEADING MOVIES. Bring it On is of course the best movie ever, and Fired Up was a pleasant surprise and quite funny considering its about guys who quit football to become cheerleaders, whatever. it was entertaining. so i about fell over last week when after America's Next Top Model, HELLCATS was on. I was like, what is this? the only thing that im not quite comfortable with is that its college cheer leading. the story line is a bit dumb and a little unbeleivable and as eric pointed out they covered too much in the first episode and some of what is going to happen is a bit too obvious but as long as they continue to put all the actual cheer leading in it each episode, and then mix in the drama around, it might wind up ok. oh and yeah she wears old school crocheted cycling gloves when she rides her two big 10-speed around with no helmet.
dude, hard workout today - masters swimming in the morning, zn5 intervals on the trainer tonight. ok, so yeah i said i'd rather do zn5s on the trainer then go to cyclocross practice because yeah, cyclocross is damn scary.
taper starts SUNDAY which is forever away it seems.
dude, hard workout today - masters swimming in the morning, zn5 intervals on the trainer tonight. ok, so yeah i said i'd rather do zn5s on the trainer then go to cyclocross practice because yeah, cyclocross is damn scary.
taper starts SUNDAY which is forever away it seems.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
NW Trail Runs
So last night i iced my knee for a while, took some aleve, went to sleep.
this morning i woke up and wow, yeah, i really hurt my shoulder! i didn't notice so much while i was sleeping but the sleeping sure didn't help it.
on the schedule was the 5 mile NW trail run race. i had pre-registered so even though i wasn't so sure about my knee and everything i went, figuring i'd take it easy, make sure nothin hurt and then see how things went. i was happy to see janet out on her warm up run before the race and on her way back she sat in my car with me for a bit. then we went to the honey buckets and then sat in her car for a bit. then next thing ya know, the peeps were headed to the start, so we got out and went, too. it was drizzling by now, and we listened to the pre-race meeting, chatted with kristen, looked at mark from afar, and then GO! so my plan of going easy was over in about 4 seconds when i couldn't get through the rocks at the starting line quick enough. so i jumped ahead and then kept going. i felt really good, nothing was hurting and i was having fun. i had a woman in front of me who had a gap on me but i couldn't catch her and i had a dude on my back who i couldn't drop. run run run, i was feeling good, pushing hard. looking back i think there are a few areas where i might have been able to run harder. when i headed out onto the chip path towards the water station i didn't see anyone heading back, but i ran down there, turned around and headed back. that path back is hard. it was better than the last time when it was all mucky and thick mud but its hard, its up hill and sucks the life out of you. i didn't see anyone ahead and no one behind, but i kept going.
finally i got to the 800m mark and was like, yeah, almost done! but man that last 800 took FOREVER!!!! finally i could see the parking lot through the trees and i was done! yahoo!! and as a big surprise i won! 1st place woman, which i don't think i've done before. they don't put any asterixes in the results, and although i am super happy with my race and excited to have won, the super fast people weren't there. that's ok though because you can't win if you don't race. :)
two weeks to nationals!
this morning i woke up and wow, yeah, i really hurt my shoulder! i didn't notice so much while i was sleeping but the sleeping sure didn't help it.
on the schedule was the 5 mile NW trail run race. i had pre-registered so even though i wasn't so sure about my knee and everything i went, figuring i'd take it easy, make sure nothin hurt and then see how things went. i was happy to see janet out on her warm up run before the race and on her way back she sat in my car with me for a bit. then we went to the honey buckets and then sat in her car for a bit. then next thing ya know, the peeps were headed to the start, so we got out and went, too. it was drizzling by now, and we listened to the pre-race meeting, chatted with kristen, looked at mark from afar, and then GO! so my plan of going easy was over in about 4 seconds when i couldn't get through the rocks at the starting line quick enough. so i jumped ahead and then kept going. i felt really good, nothing was hurting and i was having fun. i had a woman in front of me who had a gap on me but i couldn't catch her and i had a dude on my back who i couldn't drop. run run run, i was feeling good, pushing hard. looking back i think there are a few areas where i might have been able to run harder. when i headed out onto the chip path towards the water station i didn't see anyone heading back, but i ran down there, turned around and headed back. that path back is hard. it was better than the last time when it was all mucky and thick mud but its hard, its up hill and sucks the life out of you. i didn't see anyone ahead and no one behind, but i kept going.
finally i got to the 800m mark and was like, yeah, almost done! but man that last 800 took FOREVER!!!! finally i could see the parking lot through the trees and i was done! yahoo!! and as a big surprise i won! 1st place woman, which i don't think i've done before. they don't put any asterixes in the results, and although i am super happy with my race and excited to have won, the super fast people weren't there. that's ok though because you can't win if you don't race. :)
two weeks to nationals!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
compare
i am lucky in that i have a friend at work who is into making stuff like this:
he makes all kinds of cool programs with google earth and stuff and does all kinds of crazy stuff with my ride profiles. he is sorta interested in the actual rides themselves, i think, but mainly he is interested in the data and what can be done with it.
these charts are the elevation profiles taken from google earth from the ride at Paradise and the Mt Baker ride from last weekend. they are lined up with the appropriate starting elevations and it gives a good idea on how the two routes compare. i had been freaking out about the Baker ride, so he put this together so i could get an idea of what i was getting myself into. a few miles longer but really it was only about 10 miles of sustained climbing as opposed to the 18 up paradise, but mt baker had more overall elevation gain. regardless, both were fun, both were challenging and i'd like to do both again sometime when its not 2 degrees at the top of either. paradise i would still like to shuttle down, but the baker descent, other than that first few miles down, isn't so bad.
today i went and rode at tiger mtn with april. i hadn't been there since 2004. i don't know why it has been so long, but i know when i thought of going this year i was afraid of the naked guy and the guy with the taser. we didn't see either of those guys but we did see (barely!) two dudes in full head to toe camo with cross bows and stuff. it was a little freaky to see them out there, not sure what they were up to. but man, april kicked my ass. she was on a single speed 29er and just hammered up the hill and she is an awesome downhiller so she dropped me continuosly then, too. it was really quite fun and i should go there more often. a little late now for this season, but next summer for sure. i did have a crash on the downhill. i was doing pretty well, and happy with my ability to get through the wet and sketchy roots and rocks and then bam. down i went. i think i am ok, my left knee has a big old kitten head sticking out the side of it though. we'll see at tomorrow's trail run race if and how that might affect anything. but it was fun to ride with april, i just have to maybe try being a bit more aggressive and try to stick on her wheel a little. when we were almost done with the ride i remembered a bit more about the last time i had gone. it was prolly september or so, and a girl i worked with invited a few of us out. i hadn't been on a mtn bike in forever since i had had seamus and hadn't come out of retirement yet, but i said what the heck! plus another friend was coming, too. i don't remember that uphill being that difficult and the downhill for the most part was ok, too. the one friend however hadn't ever been mtn biking, was on a full rigid and in running shorts and shoes. given that she did an AMAZING job. but then the sun went down. since we had started after work, and since it was taking a bit more time then expected, the sun went waaaaay down. no lights! pitch black!! a few of the other folks went on ahead, got some lights and brought them back, but there weren't enough for everyone, so we wound up hiking the bikes out a good portion of the lower trail. it was nuts. luckily everyone stuck together and we got out ok, but yikes!
he makes all kinds of cool programs with google earth and stuff and does all kinds of crazy stuff with my ride profiles. he is sorta interested in the actual rides themselves, i think, but mainly he is interested in the data and what can be done with it.
these charts are the elevation profiles taken from google earth from the ride at Paradise and the Mt Baker ride from last weekend. they are lined up with the appropriate starting elevations and it gives a good idea on how the two routes compare. i had been freaking out about the Baker ride, so he put this together so i could get an idea of what i was getting myself into. a few miles longer but really it was only about 10 miles of sustained climbing as opposed to the 18 up paradise, but mt baker had more overall elevation gain. regardless, both were fun, both were challenging and i'd like to do both again sometime when its not 2 degrees at the top of either. paradise i would still like to shuttle down, but the baker descent, other than that first few miles down, isn't so bad.
today i went and rode at tiger mtn with april. i hadn't been there since 2004. i don't know why it has been so long, but i know when i thought of going this year i was afraid of the naked guy and the guy with the taser. we didn't see either of those guys but we did see (barely!) two dudes in full head to toe camo with cross bows and stuff. it was a little freaky to see them out there, not sure what they were up to. but man, april kicked my ass. she was on a single speed 29er and just hammered up the hill and she is an awesome downhiller so she dropped me continuosly then, too. it was really quite fun and i should go there more often. a little late now for this season, but next summer for sure. i did have a crash on the downhill. i was doing pretty well, and happy with my ability to get through the wet and sketchy roots and rocks and then bam. down i went. i think i am ok, my left knee has a big old kitten head sticking out the side of it though. we'll see at tomorrow's trail run race if and how that might affect anything. but it was fun to ride with april, i just have to maybe try being a bit more aggressive and try to stick on her wheel a little. when we were almost done with the ride i remembered a bit more about the last time i had gone. it was prolly september or so, and a girl i worked with invited a few of us out. i hadn't been on a mtn bike in forever since i had had seamus and hadn't come out of retirement yet, but i said what the heck! plus another friend was coming, too. i don't remember that uphill being that difficult and the downhill for the most part was ok, too. the one friend however hadn't ever been mtn biking, was on a full rigid and in running shorts and shoes. given that she did an AMAZING job. but then the sun went down. since we had started after work, and since it was taking a bit more time then expected, the sun went waaaaay down. no lights! pitch black!! a few of the other folks went on ahead, got some lights and brought them back, but there weren't enough for everyone, so we wound up hiking the bikes out a good portion of the lower trail. it was nuts. luckily everyone stuck together and we got out ok, but yikes!
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