I love the rain, but it's not very good for my workout/daily schedule. I didn't get to ride the Dilloman bike course on Sunday morning and Stepan and I didn't get to swim after work yesterday. This morning I was suppose to either ride the bus or bike to work...I did neither! I'm such a wimp :-) Rumor has it that the rain is clearing up. My fingers are crossed that it will at least let up enough for our swim lesson this evening. In any event, I need to stop eating as if I'm able to maintain my training schedule or else it's not going to take long for me to balloon to tremendous proportions!
I've been terrible about writing this week...and there's so much that has happened!
I've been training for the Wichita Falls Sprint Tri (which happens this weekend) and the Dilloman (scheduled for the end of the month).
Step and I are taking semi-private swim lessons with Dan Lawson at St. Stephen's school.
I co-hosted a wedding shower for John and Shannan and got to spend quite a bit of time with them over the 4th of July weekend. I could go on and on here. I had a great time and wish we could see them more often. Step's ex-girlfriend was there as well and barely looked at us the whole afternoon. I got to see JenBen who left on Wednesday for 3 weeks of salsa teaching in Amsterdam. etc. etc.
Wedding stuff continues to stress me out (I was in a really bad mood last night). This week it's the invitations which should have been ordered last week and Stepan and I STILL don't agree on style, wording, font, or layout.
There's tons more, but I've got to hit the road. Mom is expecting me around 3:30pm and I just made a lunch date with my honey:-)
I think...I hope...I've infected Mom with the triathlon bug. We had a great time in Wichita Falls this weekend. On Friday, we arrived in WF around 8pm, went to the YMCA to pick up our race packets, then met Uncle Matthew at the Olive Garden for a carb-loading dinner. At Grandma's house, we prepped our race bags, checked the fit on Mom's new helmet, and went to bed around 11:30pm which was way too late considering we needed to be up at 5am.
Saturday was Race Day. Matthew was kind enough to give us a wake up call. I don't think he realizes how invaluable that was.....especially since he went back to bed before either Mom or I made it out of bed. I did have my watch alarm set. It woke me up right before Matthew announced the time....right after my alarm beeped, there was a quiet but long roll of thunder. I didn't know what (if any) rain plans the organizers had made, but their was only one way to find out. Mom and I got up, got dressed, and were at the race site by 6:15am. It had rained pretty hard at the Y in the early morning, but the weather had cleared by the time we arrived. The ground was all wet in the transition area, but at least it was on pavement (and not mud) and it did stop raining for the race. This was a really fun event. There were only 90 participants (more than twice as many as the 40 they had last year). The "trophies" were these big rocks that the race coordinator found in Colorado with brass plates labeled with 1st, 2nd, or 3rd and the age category. I think their were 7 or 8 people in my age group (25-34) and 7 or 8 people in Mom's (50-54). I'm not sure what place I won yet, but I do know that I didn't get a rock. I enjoy these races without placing in the top of my age group...if I ever want to be really competitive, I'll need to invest in a street bike.
Here are my personal stats for this race:
| 7th Annual Wichita Falls Sprint Tri | |
|---|---|
| Swim (300M in pool)............................. | 6m 40.2s |
| Transition 1............................ | 2m 28.2s |
| Bike (15 miles)....................... | 58m 13.2s |
| Transition 2............................ | 0m 55.7s |
| Run (5K).................................. .. | 33m 16.4s |
| FINAL....................... | 1h 41m 33s |
Mom doesn't have a watch to track her splits, but she finished in 2h 14m 36s....very nicely done for a first time tri-er.
Afterwards, we got cleaned up at Grandma's then went shopping (I was with Mom!). I bought us maching rhinestone, butterfly toerings as our own personal trophies for completing the tri. Then we both got really hungry so we grabbed lunch at the Olive Garden which made us crash energy-wise. So it was back Grandma's were we completely vegged for the rest of the night. It was great!
One last word about the race. In my heart, I know I owe my success to my darling Stepan (well, him and my training). He couldn't make the trip to cheer us on (and take our pictures), but before I left Austin, he hid a card and a big bag of M&Ms in my race bag. It was such a treat to find it - I love getting unexpected surprises and Stepan is fantastic at arranging them. What can I say?....he's my Sugar Bugar!
One of my worst fears has just been realized. I was getting out of the stall in the WHM shower room - the tiny WHM shower room - when I noticed something small and dark and moving around on the wall. I froze. I was wet and naked and I didn't have my glasses on and I was positive that I wasn't alone in the bathroom. Slowly, slowly, I reached for my glasses. Sure enough, there was a big, ugly roach clinging to the wall. I opened the stall door to use it as a barrier between me and It, quickly dressed, grabbed my bag and workout gear, and rushed out of the bathroom. Now normally, if I find a roach in my room, I leave the room and return ten minutes later - the bug is usually gone. But being trapped in the bathroom with one is not a precedent I want to set so before beginning my work tasks for the day, I located the Raid and killed that bug dead!...I feel a lot better now knowing the It can't go tell all It's buddies where they can find a peep show.
Sandy, the race organizer for the WF Sprint Tri, has sent me a link to the official race results. You can locate the times and ranks of all competitors here. In my age group (25-34), I ranked 5th out of 8 participants. Mom ranked 6th out of 6 in her age group (45-54). Sandy's email to me also reminded me that "The person who has the most fun wins" and I can't imagine anybody had more fun than me and Mom :-)
Somebody's having a baby! No, it isn't me or anybody who is related to me. I'm not naming names (it's early yet, and I want to give them a chance to spread the news themselves). I'm just so excited for them - I wanted everyone to know that someone near and dear to me are expecting!
Stepan and I saw Road to Perdition last night. I blame the movie on the weird gangster dreams I had last night.
I rode my bike to work this morning. Since Stepan and Homer left for their morning walk about 5 minutes before I did, I took the short cut through the park, hoping to catch up with them. Homer saw me coming and came running to my side. Stepan thought he was "attacking" the bike (he doesn't usually like passing bicycles), but I think he recognized that I was the biker and was coming over to say hello. Anyway, we said a quick "hi", "bye", "have a nice day", and went our separate ways...or we were suppose to. Homer decided he wanted to come with me and wouldn't follow Stepan back towards the house. So I stopped and Stepan whistled for the dog. Homer went running back to Stepan and sat down in front of him to get his treat. I waited until I was sure Homer was back with Stepan then took off for work. I didn't get very far before I heard Homer charging up and barking behind me again. I ended up biking back towards home to the spot on the walk where Homer gets reconnected to his leash. Homer and I had fun biking together. He certainly got a good run out of it!
My super-duper, fabulous, and fantastic Stepan has updated our router with a wireless one. I can now surf from anywhere in the house...and some points beyond! I'm posting this from my couch while watching the opening scenes of an old Saturday Night Live on Comedy Central. Life is good.
Another day, another triathlon. I must say I'm getting pretty good at tri-ing. The swim felt better than it ever has - thanks in no small part to the swim class Step and I took recently. The two things that would make me feel even better about doing these things are 1) a road bike and 2) improving my pace on the run. The road bike will one day be fit into my budget and the run pace, I'll just have to work on. I've been thinking about the classes offered by RunTex, but they start at 5:45pm and I can't imagine a worse time of day to work out. Here are my stats for this latest race:
| 1st Annual Dilloman Triathlon | |
|---|---|
| Swim (800M Open Water)............................. | 21m 25.3s |
| Transition 1............................ | 3m 35.6s |
| Bike (18 miles - 30K)....................... | 1h 22m 06s |
| Transition 2............................ | 2m 36.0s |
| Run (5K).................................. .. | 35m 41.2s |
| FINAL....................... | 2h 14m 40s |
The challenge on this race day was the wind. It was very strong and completely in your face for the last 9 miles of the bike. The 2nd hardest thing to deal with was the run which was mostly uphill for the first 1.5 miles. I enjoyed the swim - it seams like the course was wider than the one allowed in the Danskin. I realized on the run that probably results from having so many more volunteers at the Danskin. The kayakers in the Danskin form a corridor that was nearly half as wide as the one we got today. The run course was slightly confusing, but the volunteers were excellent in directing the running traffic. The other really cool thing on this run was that you got to pass the water station FOUR TIMES. In most 5k runs, the most you expect is one water break.
Stepan did wonderful on his swim. He finished in under 30 minutes which was his goal. Even better than that, I think he had a good time doing it. He even won a pair of $100 sunglasses at the picnic after the race....I think he's writing all about it now. The remaining members of Team Flab (Step's relay team) did exceptionally well, also. Doug McLean did the bike - I'm not sure what his time was - and Michael O'Reilly did the run (35m 39s - he's very proud that he beat my run time!)
Loud Cheers and Kudos the rest of my tri-ing family. Elizabeth and Felicia successfully completed their very first triathlons ever. I'll add their times when they're posted later today. I'm very proud of them for sticking it out. As I told Felicia after the race, triathlons are very hard, but they are also very doable and they are very rewarding.
It's sad to think that I'm done with triathlons for the year. I'm toying with the idea of doing the Cinco Ranch one in Katy, but I need to get working on my wedding plans before I commit to it. I definitely won't have as much time to train, so it would completely be a last minute decision to participate and I wouldn't be pushing myself to set a new personal best record....I guess we'll just have to see...
It's so nice to go to the CNN website and see nothing about the War on Terrorism, conflict in the Middle East, or corporate scandals and greed. Today the entire frontpage was all about the Quecreek Miner Miracle where nine miners were successfully rescued from a flooded mine after being trapped for three days. I heard the news early on Sunday morning. Just the night before, Stepan and I were talking about how slim their chances were. Thanks be to God and to all the rescue workers who had a hand in pulling off this miracle.
John Aielli, the host of Eklektikos on KUT, is playing I Want to Ride my Bicylcle by Queen which reminds me that our hometown hero, Lance Armstrong, has won his 4th consecutive Le Tour de France. Vive Lance! Vive Posties!
Just a sidebar, from Allenze Lance - I was collecing links for the previous entry, looking for the homepage of the rock band, Queen. So I first went to "www dot queen dot com" (except writen out how you would write it out in your browser). BIG MISTAKE Not only did I get redirected to a page with various links to p o r n sites, it popped open about 20 similar windows on my computer...my computer AT WORK!!! And they weren't the regular windows, either. They were the ones with "click here to close" message in really small type hidden amongst the other graphic elements on the page....ugh!