Posts Tagged ‘Training’

What snu?

Friday, April 30th, 2010

It is funny how life seems to be so hectic, but when I go to list what has been happening, there really isn’t too much.

Anna is playing softball again this spring. She is on a team w a different coach, but a couple girls are the same from last year. Funny thing about softball–the socks. One is purple and one is gold. The purple one went missing (wherever missing socks go) after 1 game. Instead of just wearing regular socks, she wore the gold one and a regular sock. Didn’t want you to think it was a gang sign or anything.

PS–the purple sock turned up this past weekend (after about 3 weeks on vacation). It was under our bed.  Imagine that–a dirty sock 2 feet from where the clothes got pulled off and dropped. Who would have thunk it??

Anna rounds 3rd on her way home.

Tyler is playing baseball (T ball really). He is the only kid who gets overhand pitched to and he SMACKS it every time. He has a great swing and really crushes it. He gets that from me I am sure. The main thing he has been doing though is GROWING! This past weekend I think he ate and laid around the entire weekend. He even put himself down for a nap (normal for me, NOT for this 6 year old boy).

What do growing 6 year old boys and lazy 77 year old dogs have in common?

A few weekends ago Paul and I went to see Simplified play at the Blind Tiger again. Their songs are great and it is always a good time (made better by the recent legislation banning smoking in bars and restaurants). Turns out the band’s drummer broke his wrist so they had a new kid who did ok. Just a little different vibe since he was new.

Simplified in concert April 16, 2010 @ The Blind Tiger

We like that band so much that their song, “Home,” was the one that we walked down the aisle to at our wedding. Lyrics:
Never thought I would be the one who,
Found someone to make me feel like you do,
It’s true I dreamed of you,
And you came in right on cue,

At the Simplified concert April 16.

Tyler and I were playing basketball one afternoon (which means I was rebounding for him–I am allowed 1 shot per 1 million Tyler shoots). All of a sudden he stops and runs over to the yard by the fence. He wanted to pick me flowers and insisted that I put them in water right away so they would last. Here is a photo of my gift:

What more could a girl ask for?

I have been reading quite a bit lately (Paul would say “as usual”). I recently finished House Rules by Jodi Picoult. She could make the phone book a best seller. LOVE her writing style. I also finished Walking on Broken Glass. It was ok. I am part way through The Irresistible Henry House. It is quirky so far. Henry House is an orphan who is adopted by a Home Ec Dept of a college in the 40′s so his 6 “mothers” rotate weekly for a semester, then he gets a new batch of mother every 4-5 months. It follows him through life to watch how messed up this makes him. It is supposedly fiction, but I think these programs really did exist. I introduced Paul to Bill Bryson and Dave Berry. That’s right, Paul is STILL reading! He even said his next book will be FICTION. Imagine that!!!

We have been riding a lot more now that the weather has warmed up. We are doing our first mountain ride this weekend. Can’t remember exactly how much climbing, but its a lot. Hopefully the bike Garmin will work to measure climbing feet like it is supposed to. Last weekend there was such a drastic change in pressure w that big storm that it said at one point that the incline we were on was 850% grade! WHOA!

The Training Has Begun

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Susan and I are planning on riding the Blue Ridge Parkway this summer, and our training officially began this past weekend. We are planning on riding for 6 day with a total distance of about 469 miles, all in the mountains, so we have plenty of training left to do.  Unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our training schedule and we got rained out on Friday.

Saturday was a little cooler than it has been but still not too bad so we were able to get in 38 miles.  Susan said that she had a new route that she wanted to try that she had driven the other day.  I was feeling adventurous so I said sure.  For those of you that don’t know, letting Susan pick a route and having her do it from memory is a BIG risk. She is still convinced that I am taking her new ways when we do our “normal” routes from the house that she has done hundreds of times now.  All and all the ride turned out nice.  We only spent about 4 miles on a 4 lane highway, and I only had to overrule her turn choice once. When we got on the highway I asked her if she knew this was coming and she said “no, I was listing to NPR on the way and not paying attention” which didn’t give me to much confidence that we would ever make it home. After we got off the highway was when I had to overrule the turn choice. I knew we were east of our house and she wanted to go east. Normally I would have gone with it because we could have gotten home (it would have just been a lot longer) but we didn’t bring food or money so we probably would have starved to death. For those of you that haven’t notices we aren’t exactly spindly little climbers and I proved this when we got home by eating a pizza and a half. Probably not the best way to lose weight before a ride like this but I still have plenty of time :) .

Sunday morning we went out early to try to beat the rain that was coming in. Of course as soon as we pulled out of the driveway it started raining. We decided to keep going and at least get in a short ride. In the end we made it 12 miles (we were originally planning on about 30), but we felt pretty good about it because 45 degree rain isn’t all that fun to ride in.

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.

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….

Good Choice This Weeked

Monday, May 11th, 2009

This past weekend Susan and I made the hard decision not to do the White Lake Half Iron distance race. Now that the weekend is over I think we made a good decision. I left work early on Friday and did a 44 mile ride and have started building back some fitness after being off so long sick. Susan went to the doctor Friday and he gave her some antibiotics and told her to get some rest. She did a lot of sleeping Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday she was sounding much better. Sunday morning she was feeling good enough that she wanted to go for a ride. We took it easy and she still isn’t 100% but she is headed in the right direction now.

With me just getting back and Susan being sick I am not sure if either of us would have finished the race. Skipping the race allowed me to get in some easy training and get some work done around the house. It also allowed Susan time to sleep and get better. Even though I wish we could have done the race I think we made the right choice. Now the goal is to get Susan 100% as soon as possible. We have our first ride in the mountain planned for Saturday the 23rd. Her asthma gives her a hard enough time in the mountains without a cold.

Race Weekend, Plan B as in…

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

…BUILDING!! Instead of racing the White Lake Half Iron Triathlon, we are going to tackle a home improvement project we have been talking about for over 6 months! Our house is about 1200 sq ft and with 2 kids, 2 cats, 400 pounds of Labradors, and 2 6-foot adults…needless to say we are crowded. Paul and I have mercilessly pared down, purged and simplified, but we still have lots of stuff. So we are going to build loft-like hanging storage in the garage.

I think it will be a lot of me standing around waiting to hold 4×4 beams in place above my head on a ladder while Paul measures and makes the cuts with the circular saw we got for our wedding shower.   So I plan to take pictures to post as we go so stay tuned!

Quitters, dropouts and failures, oh my!

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Yup, we dropped out. I have been feeling worse each day and can hear the raspy breathing in my chest just climbing a flight of stairs. Paul had a good ride w Tamara this weekend, but has not run successfully in over 6 weeks and even then his blister issue came back. I just emailed the race production company to give our spots to someone else.

What about the motto you ask? I guess if I am ditching goals, I should ditch mottos too, huh?

OK, off to wander aimlessly through life now…

NEVER forfeit an entry fee!!!

Friday, May 1st, 2009

As you know from a previous post, Paul was sick at Belews tri. He then proceeded to have 103 degree temp for 4 days. I thought I had dodged the bullet. Until yesterday morning. I think I was fighting it OK, but then training was intensifying and I think my body is worn down. My throat is sore, head ache, stuffy nose. The pollen continues to coat EVERYTHING here. I know it is not the swine flu b/c I do not have a fever. I fly tomorrow to Cincinnati for Elli’s baby shower. I contemplated bringing a face mask from work, but alas, that would be stealing supplies. And I think the hospitals will seriously be needing all the supplies we can use in the upcoming weeks.

So, here we are and according to the main page on our website, Paul and I race the White Lake Half Iron Triathlon in 8 days. 8 days?!?!? When did THAT happen?!?! I am only worried about my asthma now. I anticipate the race taking about 7 hours, which is hard enough w/out suffering from or recovering from respiratory illness. But alas, I have this motto…

NEVER FORFEIT AN ENTRY FEE!!!

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!

OK, We Can Go Now

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

We have a triathlon at Belews Lake next weekend so we decided to go out there for a open water swim yesterday.  We were thinking about not going because the water was going to be so cold but when we got up we had a email from the race saying the water temperature was currently 68.  That was the temperature of the water when we did the race last year and it was cold but still manageable so we decided to go. Susan is scared of open water and when we got there we saw some fish jumping right where we swim so she was nervous from the start. When we hopped off the dock the water was FREEZING even with wetsuits on. They were either wrong last year and the water was warmer or they are wrong this year and it was colder because there is no way that was the same temperature. It was so cold it hurt to put my face in the water. With Susan being scared, the shock from the cold water and her asthma I could hear her having trouble breathing so I said we could go back and she quickly agreed. I think that if I ease into the water next week and let my wetsuit warm up I will be better but I am still hoping for a big warm up by the race. I am also hoping it will be warm enough for Susan to be able to breath, otherwise it isn’t going to be a fun race for her.