racin'

dude, i was so tired on saturday night. we went out for pizza with catherine and eric and their cutie little girl. it was different being out with another couple with their kid and us being kid-less. the kids spent the night at grandmas and had two fun days of going to the beach and exploring during low tide. saturday night i slept so well. i think since i was tired but also didn't have to worry about the kids i was just able to really sleep well. my neck was killing me and my thumb, well, it was doing its own thing, but other than that, i was great.
i don't know what time i got up, but i did, had some breakfast and then didn't know what to do - the race wasn't until noon! eric headed out to his race prolly around 9:30, just as i was finishing up a PBJ. then i sat around some more. eventually i decided to start getting my stuff together, changed my clothes, mixed some discontinued LUNA Sport Electrolyte Splash in pink grapefruit and headed out the door. i rode out by the same Private Property/No Trespassing sign that took me out on Friday and made it through A-OK. i headed through the short cut and up the road and then i realized i forgot my bottle with the LUNA Sport Electrolyte Splash in pink grapefruit. i determined i was too far on my way to turn around, but now i think i should have....
i got to the race site and registered. then i went out for a short loop through the course, riding the descent at the beginning and doing a little climbing. i headed to the car to take off my jacket, my vest, the arm warmers and knee warmers because by now i was sweating. i did a little more riding around, and some chatting and then got ready to line up.
they called up the women first! which was an interesting twist that no one expected. then we were off. i had a good start and was 2nd into the single track and into that descent. i was worried about being up front since i'm not a great descender but i stuck to the front girl's wheel and didn't let a gap form. after maybe 5 or so minutes the girl in the lead bobbled and went down. i took the lead! it was kind of fun since not only was i in front of my field, but i was in front of the entire category! but not for long. the SSers that started 3 minutes back started to catch me 10 or so minutes in but i hit the total tight hair pin turn at the end of the 1st lap with only 3 guys ahead of me. going into that turn i had two guys right behind me - i told them i was going to take it painfully slow and actually almost ate it right there in front of everyone but managed to only put a foot down and get going quickly again, and those guys took off. i was so sad to not have my electrolyte drink, but chugged some water on the gravel road and then it was into the descent again. the course was hard an the mud was sticky. i was working hard and it was tough. i was getting passed by more of the men, but i was happy with how i was riding and how hard i was working. as one guy was passing me, we totally bumped and leaned into each other, but we both stayed up right! whew! i was happy about that! then on one of the climbs one of the jr boys fell into me and i had to stop and get off and run up. the 2nd place girl was right there at the bottom of the hill! she was right on me for at least 1/2 of the 2nd lap and most of the 3rd lap until she passed me 1:02 into the 1:08 race! doh!! once she passed me she took off and gained a minute on me. it was fun, yes i would have liked to have won, but i was happy with my riding and how hard i pushed. plus i know the girl is a good racer, she works hard and when push comes to shove she can really push.
then off to the car to change into my running stuff. i really could have used that electrolyte drink. i had taken a clif shot with 1 lap to go and then had a few moons at the car. then i was off. gracious. for the first 17 minutes i was dying. pretty sure i was going to pass out right there and be eaten by the bears. but then i started to feel better. i did have to walk some of the hills, but i ran for most of it. i was not going fast. i was supposed to pick it up for the 2nd 1/2hr but yeah, i was just doing what i could to hang on. my hammys were cramping but i kept going. ok, so i did have to stop once or twice to check the trail maps, but i was working harder than i did in ogden. not sure if i was going any faster but at least i was running and working hard. i got onto the pavement for the last 10 minutes and finally kicked it up a notch. it was tough but managed the whole hour. yikes! vegas is going to be hard!!

pawpi

poor pawpi. she isn't so well off right now. if you recall back in february pawpi got poked in the eye and it got infected. she went to the vet, had her cheek shaved and the wound lanced. she was put on pain meds and antibiotics. it seemed like it was getting better but then she scratched her face or something and it opened up and got worse. we thought it was odd that they didn't put the cone on her but after another visit or two since it looked so bad they did put the cone on her, but only after charging us $20 for it. poor kitty was dripping face juice all over the house. not cool but so sad. she has been back to the vets a few more times, each time getting it lanced some more and put on other antibiotics. she went in on friday and they were very concerned. they don't know why she isn't healing so they decided to do some exploratory surgery and to clean her up a little. they put her under, took a look at her teeth, they thought maybe one was infecting and contributing to the problem, but really her teeth are ok, but they cleaned them up some anyway. they flushed out the wound and found some abnormal tissue and bone, so they took some biopsies and xrays. then they put in a drainage tube and stitched her up. through all of this, they took out her whiskers on that side of her face. i don't know what will happen with them, if they will grow back in or how that works, but she looks terrible. when we were checking her out of the vets i was looking over the itemized bill. at the very bottom, there was a funny note that said somethign to the effect of "this bill contains a consolidated discount of $209,456.44" i asked them about that and it was some wacky explanation, but i was just like wtf.
later eric and i went for a bike ride. i was supposed to do a 2hr-ish mtn bike ride followed by 20 minute easy run. but my thumb really hurts and my neck is all fawked, so we decided to do a road ride. the fact that my fabulous new mavic road shoes showed up on friday had nothing to do with this decision. i got all kitted up, decided to take my new tri shorts out for a spin since i'll be racing in them next weekend and they were fantastic.

we managed to make it home right before the big thunderstorm rolled through. tomorrow is a mtn bike race follwed by 1hr trail run. that will be interesting!!

crash

wow, so its been busy with a capital BIZ-E. lots going on in april, that is for sure. so that presentation i did, well, the sorta crazy thing about it was that i was out of town for it and someone else had to present it! i should have put the offensive hotdog in there after all. apparently the presentation went really well, so that was nice to hear. why was i out of town? i went to SF. it was the annual LUNA Summit where all the LUNA regional teams from around the country come to the bay area. this was my 3rd year. i am super lucky because i am able to get there early on friday and spend the day with allie! we all got to the airport with plenty of time, hung out at the gate, got on the plane and got to SFO without incident. all the girls dispersed to catch up with their transportation and allie came to get me. zach was with her and he had an itch. it was the funniest thing how he would raise his arm up and wiggle in his seat. it was a fun day and nice and sunny. we had lunch in SF which included bourbon spiked gelato. after we went to the park for a little bit and i soaked up the sun then we headed out on a little run. allie pushed zach in the stroller but she was still faster than me! i was dying, it was so hot, but we got it done. then it was off to berkely.
the weekend begins with dinner at ClifBar headquarters. they give tours of the building, we get to mingle with the pros, there are presentations about the Breast Cancer Fund and we get to hang out and catch up with the other teams.
saturday we headed out to aquatic park by the golden gate bridge for an open water swim clinic with retired LUNA pro Linda Gallo. After some of the girls went into the bay for a quick swim to which i said hells no. its too cold. then we headed out for a run along the water front up to the golden gate bridge. it really warmed up by then and it was great to spend some time bombarding Linda with questions. she's totally friendly and answered all my questions about her work and how she got into swimming and all of that. it was really fun. after we loaded up into the vans and headed back to mill valley. we sat in on some clinics, had lunch and then more clinics about LUNA marketing and other helpful topics to help our season run smoothly.
finally it was dinner and then we hopped on our bikes to head over to the LUNA Sport head quarters. LUNA Sport is a new clothing line. i picked up a pair of knickers which are THE best. i've now worn them twice and they are totally comfortable and i love them!
sunday we were up early to go mtn biking with Marla Streb and Katerina Nash. in the rain. it was pouring down so badly that they changed the route to one that had better drainage. we were only out for 1.5 hrs although i had hoped to get in 3-4hrs. bummer. one thing i learned on this ride - i am not a good descender and as such i should not try to follow Marla's line. :) she was jumping up and bouncing off of trees and up over big rocks and all kinds of crazy things. at the bottom she said she was just having fun, which i am sure she was, but yikes!! maybe someday i can do that, too. the ride was fun, i got to hang out with charity and cori from the SLC team. i raced with cori at nationals last year and i will see her again soon in vegas!
after i packed up my bike, i headed to lunch to chat with shonny vanlandingham. we chatted about the xterra season and what to expect in vegas.
later allie picked me up and we hung out. they are selling their house and we couldn't go home because they were having an open house. once the open house ended we went to the house to check out allie's handy work (totally awesome, not sure how she managed to get it all done!) and as i was curling up on the couch to take a nap they got a call that one of the people from the open house wanted to come check it out again. dinner plans changed and we headed out to chipotle. after dinner allie took me to the airport. i met up with all the other luna ladies on the flight, i think there were 9 of us and we found that the flight was delayed. delayed. delayed. until 130am. i was delierious, janet had me laughing so much to the point where i was crying - over and over again. she herself has a wonderful laugh and a great sense of humor, so it only fueled it more. but damn, i was tired. we eventually got on the plane, i passed out right away despite the really terrible turbulence. i was awake as the plane was landing. one of the girls we were traveling with is pregnant. i don't know how she managed the weekend but that delay and flight, too? i would have been crying out of misery if i was pregnant, but she was awesome. we all loaded into the car and got dropped off at various locations. i climbed into bed at 5am and got up again at 8am to go to work. if it weren't for the fact we had a bunch of people from out of town in the office and i needed to prep for a big meeting on wednesday and mondays are my busiest day anyway... i got through the day and even was up until like 9pm that night. tuesday i slept in and felt worse on tuesday than i did on monday. i went to bed early.
wednesday i got up at 5am to swim. i didn't do the masters workout but janet and i swam indoors. the big presentation went well, the day went well, the big meeting went well, it was good to see all of the out of towners. the weather was nice so i went for a trail run that evening.
thursday i did an easy trainer ride before work and then friday i swam at lunch (bumped into eric who was wearing his fancy speedo and looking pretty good in it actually)i did flip turns! like almost 1/3 of them were flip turns and it was ok. after i met up with matt and we went mtn biking. we rode the course for sunday's race and then just rode around for another hour or so. it was fun, the weather was nice and i was feeling pretty good. on the way back to the house we took a different route in, yeah the one where the entrance to the trail was kind of narrow, the one where i totally crashed into the private property sign and flew off the front of my bike. yeah, that one. dude, my thumb is killing me. my neck is all tweaked. i abs cramped up. it was classic. i just hope my thumb get better soon. its my left thumb so i only need it for shifting big, middle, small, but i do use those gears!
thursday we leave for vegas!!! yikes.

i'm done

so i was looking for some clip art for a presentation and i found this:

i found it to be very offensive. it did not make it into my presentation.
we had easter the other day. it was cold as balls out. i had to bundle up for the easter egg hunt. what you can't see is that the kids are wearing their christmas PJs. cold as balls.

i had two weird dreams the past two nights. saturday night i dreamt there was a a tsunami in the great lakes and it took out cleveland. no shart, for reals.
last night i dreamt i was on project runway. we were down to 3 remaining peeps. i spent all kinds of worry and stress getting my outfits together and was so super psyched that i finally came up with something good. i met up with my friend charity and told her all about it who reminded me ever so gently that i was supposed to actually make the clothes in the outfits, not just combined articles of clothing from my closet into stylish get ups. wow, i sure had a lot of work to do before the runway show after that.
went mtn biking on sunday. it was fun by windy. i was pretty sure a tree was going to come crashing down on me, but i actually got through it ok.
i've got a track workout tomorrow - yahoo!! and then its almost time to go to SF. i cannot wait.

conconi

i was worried about today. i told eric that ya know, they tell you to visualize, but i find the more that i visualize, the more i stay awake and the more nervous i get. i actually slept ok but then was up for like 2 hrs in the morning and then went to take a nap, and it wasn't even 9am yet.
eventually i got out of bed the 2nd time and we got ready for my test. i was doing the conconi test to help figure out my cycling heart rates, we seem to be still not quite right. the test involved a 30 minutes warm up then increasing effort in 2 minute increments until exhaustion. yeah, and then brick to 30 minute run building to high zn3...
eric mapped out a route for me, and we drove it first so i would know kind of what to expect and plus there was a light and a left hand turn to navigate, and that only added to the worry of it all - what if i got stuck at the light? would that ruin the test? what if cars were coming when i needed to turn left? the route was out in issaquah, i think eric said issaquah hobart road?, we passed poopoo point, and before i got started we stopped at the country store. we saw a ton of teams out there training, apparently i need to go and do this ride sometime, just for fun. i think it could be a good ride for that, someday.
my warm up wasn't quite a 1/2 hr like it was supposed to be, but it was windy as hell but at least there was no rain.
the first 2 minutes were good, the 2nd ok, the 3rd fine, the 4th i was thinking oh dear, the 5th i was like WTF, the 6th yeah, there was a hill coming up and there was no way i was going to make it up that at that effort without falling, so i think i crapped out a little early. to give myself some credit, i was at the point where my vision was all blurred and i couldn't breathe, so i had to have been close to maxed out, right? so i turned around, headed down the hill and back and around and over. a semi-quick change into some running shoes (yikes - i ran in a cycling shorts, leg warmers, jersey and arm warmers) and off i went running. up hill? yeah, the route we figured for me, i didn't realize it was going to all be false flat uphill. but it was pretty and gravel-y and i was working hard but feeling good, so i was happy.
eric was at the end with the kids, so he headed out on a run and the kids and i drove to the top of the highlands to pick him up at the end. we got there just about as eric was finishing, so we put on some layer and took the kids out for a hike. in the hail! sirus loved the hail and we determined that he is going to be a darn good trail runner someday.
later the window guy came to the house to talk to us about windows. the window guy loooooved pawpi. it was kind of funny. windows are expensive.

track

i did my first track workout of the season tonight. i was supposed to do one last week but it was raining really hard and i was tired and waaah waah waaaah. i just didn't do it and i just didn't do anything that day.
so today i was working really hard on coming up with an excuse to not do the track workout again.
this week has been tough. we had 10, yes, 10 house guests, 7 of whom were kids. that puts us at 9 kids in the house and 5 adults. everyone showed up monday night but i still got up on tuesday morning at 5 to get my ride in and then even got up wednesday morning at 5 to swim. wednesday afternoon when we ran, we saw two bald eagles and some other huge monster brown bird. i was really tired. that run was supposed to be an easy 45. we were doing 10 minutes miles and i was dying. i was really worried about the track workout the next day.

(see the scars from my crash in maui? and the scar from when i was surgeried upon?)
work was work, i was tired. i went to the drs only for that to be non-conclusive. i came home and did work until the work day was over. then all the kids came home and woke me up. i used that as the kick in the pants to get out the door.
the warm up was good and then it was to do 4x1200s at specific paces. and omg - i was able to hold the paces! i was shocked! and i wasn't dying! there were times when i wasn't sure i was going to get through them but then it would be a rest lap and i would be all recovered and ready to go. turns out this workout was just what i needed. i felt so much better when i was done and it totally helped my confidence. hooray! :)
now i just need to drop the thousand pounds i've gained recently. oh but not sure how that big bowl of ice cream i just had is going to help me with that....

(looking like a man. seamus said she is going to have a costume party for her next birthday and has asked that i pick a costume that makes me look not so much like a man)
poor pawpi. her face is still all messed up. she went back to the vets today and they put on a cone. they should have done that the first time she was there, we don't know why they didn't but after continuing to drop her face juices all over the house for over a month, now they finally did it. she's on the antibiotics again and her cheek is full of scar tissue. she seems like her old self, just with a cone.