Posts Tagged ‘Running’

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We Did It Again

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Back in May Susan and I got sick and gave up our spots in the White Lake half iron distance race. Well this weekend we did it again. We were suppose to run in the Victory Junction half marathon on Sunday, but we had both been sick on and off for the previous 3 weeks.  Because of that we hadn’t run in almost a month. When we woke up in the morning it was 35 degrees and poring rain so we decided not to go (we had really decided the night before).  All and all this hasn’t been our year for races. I had my blister issue in the marathon and we had rain, we were both sick and had to skip White Lake, I was running a fever during the Blues Lake triathlon but did it anyway, blisters again for me at the Mission Man triathlon, and then we got sick and couldn’t do Victory Junction (not to mention the weather). Hopefully next year will turn out better for us as far as races go.

On a brighter note Susan got us tickets to a Carolina game for my birthday so we will be going to that next week. This will be Susan’s first time in the Dean Dome which makes it even more exciting. I went to a exhibition game earlier this year while Susan was at her fall “camp crop a lot” so it will be my second game of the year!

Eric Clapton is coming to Raleigh in March and we got tickets for that this weekend. I had heard a few weeks ago that he is going to be in New York with Jeff Beck in February so I think Susan was relieved when she heard on the radio that he is going to be in Raleigh. She of course made sure to call and let me know right away. Before I heard that I was buying plane tickets and headed to New York. It would be fun to see him with Beck but the cost savings of going to Raleigh instead is too much. So between going to B.B. King, a Carolina game(s), and Clapton we are doing good on the entertainment front…now if our racing would only catch up.

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Posted in Family | 5 Comments »

Updates before the wild rumpus

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Not too much to report really. I am at Camp Crop a Lot right now waiting for breakfast to open at 8am. A couple weeks ago I had moved all of my scrapbook pages to the server at home so Paul could back it up regularly. Alas, I neglected to move them back to my computer before I left Friday to come to camp. So I have none of my projects that were in progress. I did a few traditional pages (about 10), but I cannot put them into an album b/c the order will be wonky b/c I mixing and matching digital. My plan for camp was to have an extended period of time to carefully map out the album mixing digital and traditional. Riiiiggghhhtt.

I guess you could say this is the calm before the storm that is the holiday season for us. We are in the meaty part of our training for the half marathon. The time change and the COLD has really made it a challenge for us. But the race is only 4 weeks away (read: TAPER IN 2 WEEKS!).

Halloween was fun. We took the kids to the Fall Festival at their school on Friday b/c they were Trick or Treating w their mom. It was neat to see them so into their friends (boy, I will regret those words in a few years, huh?).

Halloween-Fall Festival

Halloween-Fall Festival_0001

Halloween morning we walked in my work’s charity 5k for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Anna and Tyler were so cute they got on the “jumbotron.” Anna was REALLY angry that we only did 2 of the 3 miles (we took a shortcut b/c to get back to do all the other fun stuff that day). That was funny b/c 1 week before that she said she “really wasn’t in the mood to walk.” That seems to be a new phrase for her and Tyler. Love it.

Cuties on the "jumbotron"

Cuties on the "jumbotron"

The whole family at JDRF

The whole family at JDRF


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Congratulations, Paul!

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Great news! Paul won an award at work for a project where he ROCKED. Basically they were having duplicate records in their data files and he wrote code for the software to get rid of them. Translation: he saved the company a TON of money. He got major props in front of a global audience by lots of big wigs and a cash award.

My handsome smart husband demonstrating the ligaments in a "wrist" of an Alaskan King Crab.

My handsome smart, husband demonstrating the tendons in a "wrist" of an Alaskan King Crab.,

Tyler will be a vampire for Halloween and insisted on wearing his costume all day Saturday. Paul thought wearing the cape would help him run faster. Not even Jake buys it.

Tyler will be a vampire for Halloween and insisted on wearing his costume all day Saturday. Paul thought wearing the cape would help him run faster. Not even Jake buys it.

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Posted in Family, Running, Training, Work | 4 Comments »

Action packed Saturday

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Its 7:40pm and we are all lying on the couch wiped OUT. Here is a rundown of our day:

4:50am–alarm goes off

5:50am–leave house w kids and Paul

6:30am–triathlon training w Team in Training heroes @ Belews lake (what the kids call Quiet Lake b/c when we go at dark o’clock they have to be quiet since all of the locals are asleep.) We swam 1 mile, they road 4 miles and ran 1 mile. I ran 3 miles after the swim instead. Tyler found 2 more clams to bring home to join Clammy, the clam he found at Quiet Lake 2 weeks ago. Yes it is still alive and lives in his trash can. Did I tell you a nuc. power plant drains into this lake?

8:45am–left the lake, McDonalds for breakfast, drove home

10am–it takes all 4 of us three attempts to get Barton in to the cat carrier. Bluesy sat in the driver’s seat of my car with a dog leash on him. I take the cats to the vet for their check up. They are fine, Paul and I are $200 poorer.

Noon–home, kids play outside, Paul and I whirlwind clean, give them lunch and clean out my car.

1pm–pile in the Fit. Yes, 300 pounds of dog in the back, 2 kids in their car seats in the back, then Paul and I in the front.

1:30pm–return home, we forgot a wallet; back on the road everyone naps, except poor Paul.

2:30pm–arrive in Burlington for the Dog Splash, the dogs and people can swim in the Aquatics Center pool. It was CRAZY FUN until Maggie and Jake’s toe nails started bleeding from climbing out of the pool.

4pm–leave pool with kids in dry clothes and dogs w bloody feet.

5pm–arrive home, drop off dogs and fix dog feet to stop bleeding. Leave again for dinner

Losing track of time–Ate dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Natty Greene’s Golden Ale and Ceasar Salad pizza is my new favorite food.

7pm–home, pass out on the couch

We will ALL sleep well tonight. HOPEFULLY kids and dogs will sleep past 6am….

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Belews Lake Tri

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

As Susan said yesterday we raced the Belews Lake Tri, and all things considered things went well. As expected the water was freezing but it did feel a little warmer than last week when we went to swim. Other than the cold water we couldn’t have had better weather. It was sunny and in the mid 70′s by the time we finished. Susan and I haven’t done too much training lately so we weren’t sure how we would do. In the end Susan finished 2nd in her group and I finished 3rd in mine. Susan has been having some problems with her cycling shoes lately where her big toe has been going to sleep and she had that problem again today. I am going to move her cleat a little which should fix the problem but she wanted to wait until after the race to make the change (the golden rule is never to change anything before a race). Obviously a numb big toe makes running difficult but she still did well. I on the other hand had a horrible race. All three of my events were much slower than I expected (although I still finished with the fastest bike split in my group). The past few days I haven’t been feeling good, but we have had a ton of pollen out lately so I thought that is what was bothering me. During the race I felt horrible and when we got home from the race we took a nap. That is nothing unusual for Susan but I never take a nap. When we got up I still felt bad so I took my temperature and I was running a fever. For Susan to have a numb toe, me to have a fever and neither of us with much training we are both happy with 2nd and 3rd.

My friends Tamara and Bryan from work also did the race with us and they both did good also. This was Tamara’s first triathlon and she looked strong when she finished, even sprinting it out with a guy that was trying to pass her. This was Bryan’s second triathlon and he looked like he felt much better this time. All and all a good race day!

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Posted in Races, Triathlon | 2 Comments »

A Great Easter

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Yesterday turned out to be a great Easter day. The kids woke up around 6 excited about the Easter bunny. After they ate way too much candy for breakfast we made a trip to the grocery store then came home and played outside with the kids.

Around 1 we went out for a 64 mile bike ride. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. Our plan for the day was to go exploring new roads which is one of my favorite kind of rides. We found a few new good roads to add to some of our current rides and a few dead end roads (but they were still nice to ride down). When we got home we did a easy 1 mile run which went well.

After the workout we ate grilled salmon, asparagus, and couscous (all at Susan’s request). On a side note, when Susan’s parents bought their new house they no longer needed the grill they had at the Crown Point house so they gave it to us.  This is the first time we have had a chance to use it and it was much easier to cook on than our old one which was really nice. We sat outside to eat, relax and enjoyed the weather.  That is about as good as a day can get!

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Posted in Cycling, Family, Training | 2 Comments »

Hoping For Warm Weather

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

We have our first triathlon of the year coming up on April 18th at Belews Lake.  I am getting a little worried about the race being so soon.  Not because of the fact that we haven’t trained much (which we haven’t) but because the mean water temperature of the lake right now is 55. I don’t mind cold weather but I am a big wimp when it comes to cold water so I am really hoping for all this rain to stop and that we get some warm weather the next couple weeks! The water was 68 last year when we did the race and that was about as cold as I want to be in even with a wetsuit.

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Posted in Races, Triathlon | 3 Comments »

Why Ease Back In?

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

Ever since we did our marathon the weather here has been either cold and rainy or cold and snowy so I hadn’t ridden my bike or run until today (I have been swimming so I haven’t been completely lazy). Susan is at her 48 hour crop this weekend so Tamara and I got together this morning and did a brick workout. In total we did around 24 miles or riding and around 4 miles of running. It was a beautiful day here with temperatures getting up to almost 80 and not a cloud in the sky so it was great to be outside. It was also nice to get back out on the bike and running. I was planning on going home and being lazy for the rest of the day, but while I was driving home I got a message from Susan that she was coming home for a quick ride and asked if I would go with her. I figured it was a beautiful day and I hadn’t seen her this weekend so why not. So I got home, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then we went out for about 15 miles.

Tomorrow’s weather is suppose to be like today and I am suppose to go for a 3 hour ride with Tamara in the morning (Susan will still be scrapbooking). I probably should wear some sunscreen because I got a lot of sun today but I am guessing that won’t happen. hopefully this weather is hear to stay because training like this is much nicer than the 25 degrees and 15 mph winds that we were training in for the marathon.

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Posted in Cycling, Running | 1 Comment »

The Aftermath

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Well it’s a week after the marathon and we are recovering fairly well. Susan’s hip has been giving her problems for several months now and it got worse during the marathon. The PT thinks it is either her IT band or hip flexors but it is so high on her hip that it is hard for her to get any stretches to work on it. The hip is still giving her a good bit of pain but other than that she is doing good.

All the dead skin from the chafing has come off of my leg and I have a lot of nice new pink skin. It is itchy and tender but healing much faster than I thought it would. The blister under my left foot was never very bad and is completely better now. The one on my right foot is still very painful and keeps trying to get infected. It is extremely hard to keep a huge blister on the bottom of my foot clean and covered. Hopefully it will be better before long.

Muscle wise we are both fine (I think the bike ride the day after the marathon really helped with that) and ready to get back at it. We swam yesterday and are ready to get back on our bikes as soon as the weather improves a little (it has been cold and rainy the past several days).

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Posted in Cycling, Marathon, Races, Running | 2 Comments »

Race Weekend Re-cap, part 3

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Feb 14, The Marathon, Finish line

Susan’s Point of View

After I left Paul, my pace slowed and I felt more tired. I was just hanging on. I finished w a time of about 5 1/2 hours. Goal #1 was to finish at all so I reached that. It was so cute to see how excited Tripp was to see me at the end. They did not have the metallic space blankets that they usually have at races–they just handed out rain ponchos (weak) and of course, the medal. It is pretty sweet. We will scan it in for you and post it so you can see it.

Paul’s mom and I debated going back out to get Paul. I was not sure how he would take it. We decided to risk it. I ran back in w him the last 500 yards. I was very proud to see him ball up and finish running. It was pretty incredible to see. He is a TOUGH man!

Paul’s Point of View

I am not sure how I made it to the finish line but somehow I did and then went straight to the medical tent. I only had them look at the blisters on my feet and didn’t even worry about the chaffing on my leg. They had these special bandages for blisters and it took 4 of them to cover the blister on my right foot. Susan slower than her stretch goal time but still finished with a great time and I was proud of her. For me the finish had mixed emotions. I was glad that I was able to make it to the finish but mad that blisters and chaffing had made me lose a hour and a half from the pace I started at. If I would have lost the time because I was physically tired I wouldn’t have been happy but at least I would have known that more training would be the answer. In the end I decided to be happy knowing I could make it to the finish line in all that pain. After all I made it 20.2 miles with a serious blister on the bottom of my foot and horrible chaffing on my leg.

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Posted in Marathon, Races, Running | 3 Comments »

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