The 2010 fall session of Team in Training‘s triathlon season that I coached ended a few weeks ago. We had an amazing group of athlete heroes who raised tens of thousands of dollars to find a cure for blood cancers and support the families of those still fighting. One of the athletes put together a video to recap the race half of them did in DC. It will be the best 5 minutes of your day today! The other half raced in Wilmington. Here is a photo of the dinner where they gave me framed team photos:
Take note how I have coordinated my outfit to match the mat and frame!
Not much to report lately, which is kind of nice really. We have been getting a few requests to update the blog so here are the highlights:
SICK
I stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday of last week (9/28 and 29). At first I thought it was flu, which means automatic 7 days out of work. Luckily (?) it was only a sinus infection. I am finally feeling back to normal today (10/6) 1 week later. It has indeed thrown a wrench in my training and weight loss progress (more later). But as of tonight (great run!) I am back on track. Paul and the kids had gotten the respiratory funk a couple times in earlier weeks. I think we all are on the mend. I got my flu shot and the H1N1 flu vaccine will be at our site in a few weeks at the latest. Because I am a high risk person (asthma) in a high risk job (healthcare), I am near the top of the list. Which I feel mixed about since they are still looking at long term side affects. I did also get a pneumonia vaccine free at work b/c of the high risk thing and the fact that the H1N1 tends to affect respiratory system and turn to pneumonia.
HEALTHY
So Paul and I have been in a weight loss contest of sorts w each other for a couple months now. My goal is 11 pounds, Paul’s is 7 (I think). So we weigh in every Wed morning and if we have dropped weight we get a certain amount of money we chose put towards the kayaks that we want (but cannot afford). If we did not lose, but we did our workouts for the week (training for the 1/2 marathon in Dec), we put 1/2 the money back. So far I have lost about 6 1/2 pounds. This means that I am under the cut off for what our life insurance company thinks is high risk. So once I can stay there, I will get re-tested and save us some money!
KIDS
Tyler had a hard time w getting used to school and its routine/restriction/discipline, but he has been doing much better recently. He lost his 2nd tooth yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night (ok, 10:30) and heard him rolling around, then nothing, then…”yessss!!!!” He had found his quarter from the tooth fairy.
Tyler's first lost tooth
Anna is kicking butt in school. She has her dad’s spelling prowess so we have been working on that, but she has aced her test each of the last 2 weeks. She is very much into mermaids right now.
Both kids love riding their bikes, Tyler prefers trails and Anna the road. Tyler wants to play hoops this winter. Anna changes her mind daily, but did decide she wanted to do a craft from a book she got from Miss Sallie, one of the triathletes I coached through Team in Training this season. Sallie works at Edward McKay, a local used bookstore we LOVE LOVE LOVE. Anna got to go a couple weeks ago and pick some books ($3 worth) b/c she got to 10 on her reward chart (for following the rules at school and home).
FUN
Paul read one of my books about Michael Jordan–its about his retirement and (first) comeback. I recently read 2 books my mom brought me: Never Change (Elizabeth Berg) and Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen). Now I am reading Seven Summits–it is about the first 2 guys who climbed the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents. Next comes 2 books I got in Wilmington at one of my favorite little shops, Two Sisters Bookery. My choices are Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work (Jason Brown) or Breakfast with Buddha (Roland Merullo). The weekend of Sept 20th (our anniversary!!) Paul and I went to Wilmington for the race that my TNT peeps did.
L to R: Tom, Sallie, Kathy, me
The weekend after that my parents came down and we had lots of fun, especially at the zoo w Paul’s mom, sis and her kids.
Mom, Dad, Susan, Paul at lunch at Fishbones
Tyler stylin' in my cap while he fixes my hair (at the zoo).
Girl time at the zoo!
Then last weekend Paul and I went to see B.B. King in Myrtle Beach’s House of Blues. It was SO KICK ASS! I will let him tell the rest. No new real house projects in progress. Saturday will be an easy weekend at home so we will have chore day (shhh–Paul and the kids don’t know yet).
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….
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.
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?
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…
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!
We are working on packing for the race tomorrow. I am having a beer in my winners pint glass from this race last year (yes, I placed in my category). Paul is going to ROCK, he is fit and focused (and not having a beer). I updated the goal thing–check the column to the right. We both are sketchy about the freezing water. Paul is going to save so much time in transition not putting on all his cycling stuff now that we have turned him into a triathlete, he will surely win his category! OK, almost pasta time. Here we gooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!
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!
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.
We have been getting a few requests to update the blog so here are the highlights:
