Jennifer's Joyous Journal

Lightweight

Last night, Stepan and I went to celebrate a friend's birthday. After enjoying some incredible hamburgers off their grill, we went down the street to The Pier to listen to Monty Montgomery. The music was great - bluesy, jazzy rock on an old acoustic guitar backed up by a drummer and a bass player. The Pier is an outdoor venue and there was a slow steady rain for most of the night, but the rain kept the mosquitos away and kept it nice and cool. We had a great time.

One of the guys in our group had a Digital Alcohol Detector which we all got to play with at the end of the evening. I had had two glasses of wine with dinner and a margarita when we first got to The Pier around 7:30pm and I had drunk several glasses of water while listening to the music. I was shocked when my reading showed a blood alcohol level of .06. Almost too drunk to drive and the highest number of the group!

Cinco Ranch 2003

As expected, everybody did a fantastic job at this year's Cinco Ranch triathlon. I haven't yet compared my times to my performance from last year - not sure I'm going to either - but overall I'm pleased with my performance which you can read all about in the extended entry.

If you know anybody who participated, you can check out their results on-line.

Many thanks to Auntie Kathleen for putting us up....it was fantastic having everybody stay in one place. And many, many congratulations to my family and friends to did this tri!

My Performance

My swim was slower than expected at 13:05.3, but I felt good during this leg so I won't complain too much. I'll just start adding speed drills to my swim workouts - something I don't do very often at all - obviously!

I went faster on the bike than I thought I would (1:02:45 - averaging 14mph). I'm not sure if this is do to the relatively flat terrain or to the fact that for the first time ever I too some power gel (Cliff Shot - Raspberry) halfway through the course. The Cliff Shot wasn't too bad. Next time, I would even consider doing 2 - one at the beginning of the bike and one at the end.

I'm most pleased with my run. At 31:46.4, I maintained a pace of 10:35/mile. When training, it's rare that I go faster than an 11:30/mile and usually it's between 12 and 15 minutes/mile.

My T1 was 3:36.0. T2 was 2:07.7. Overall ge group ranking is 33 out of 36. Age group swim rank was 28. Age group bike rank was 35. Age group run rank was 32. Overall rank was 621...I'm not sure out how many.

Cinco Tri Pix 2003

This is my sweetie running with me towards the finish line...doesn't he look happy and relaxed? He's a natural runner!

ADDENDUM POSTED 10-3-2004

The photographer of the picture from my original posting objected to my using her pix (see her comment below). I hope you like my substitute.

Please feel free to use this image.

Hurricane Isabel

I got this picture from CNN. It's an awesome picture! As beautiful as it is, my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone getting a more up-close and personal view of Isabel.

Storm Before the Storm

I'm looking forward to the weekend, but there is always tons of stuff that needs to be done...and tons of stuff that doesn't get done...when guests come to town. Luckily, this was a Molly week, so the house is in good shape. But we still have to come up with stuff to do, coordinate sleeping and eating arrangements, make sure everybody has directions, plan a menu, grocery shop, wash the dog, mow the lawn (isn't going to happen, but I can dream can't I?), etc. etc. etc. I'm going to try to leave early today, but you know how that usually goes. It's been fairly dead at work this week (I've been soliciting jobs from the business manager and receptionist to keep me busy), but today I have stuff that has to get done today...you would think our clients would be better time managers by now!

Karl Women Weekend - Quick and Dirty

Friday Night – dinner at Elizabeth's (chicken in rice nest) and Guy Forsyth at Hanover’s in Pflugerville…late night breakfast tacos from Taco Cabana …bed at 3am

Saturday - late start…12n swim at Mansfield Dam…estimate approx 1500-1600 meter swim…including stops and starts and my slow swim technique total 45 minutes…lunch at ez’s…shopping on south congress…last minute stop at Cost Plus World Market for new place mats…then raclette dinner….impressive, hand-decorated plates that served as place cards…Boggle… clean kitchen with mom…bed at 2am

Sunday – mass with Mom at St. Alberts…run to Whole Foods for breakfast supplies…brunch with stepan’s homemade bread (chocolate chip banana bread and zopf), elizabeth’s eggs w/herbs…mom’s fruit plate….felicia’s chocolate bars…many many thanks to Elizabeth for doing the breakfast dishes!!!!

The Aftermath - Very lethargic the rest of the day…movie: The Magdalena Sisters…tv night…yummy sandwich for dinner.

Too Late for Los Lonely Boys

I've been listening all week to KGSR for time and location of the ticket giveaway for tomorrow's taping of Austin City Limits featuring Los Lonely Boys. They finally announced it at noon today. You would think I had a fighting chance since the giveaway is at UT - just minutes from my office. Sadly my car was blocked in and I couldn't leave immediately. My co-worker, Lynn, who was leaving for lunch, came to my rescue and dropped me off. I had never tried to get tickets before, so I didn't know where to go. After wandering around the main communications building, I ran into one of the ladies from my bookgroup, Susan, who works in the building, and she directed me to where I needed to be. By now it had been about 10 minutes since the announcement was made on the radio. As I approached the door to the studio, I could tell I was already too late. There was a suspicious lack of people standing in line and two sheets of bright white paper taped to the door. The tickets for the ACL taping were gone - in less than 10 minutes!!!

This is the 2nd time, I've missed an opportunity to see Los Lonely Boys for free (they had a cd release appearence at Waterloo a couple of weeks ago). I guess if I ever want to see them play, I'll have to bite the bullet and fork over a cover charge.

Splash

Late September is the most perfect time to go to Sea World. I was there with Stepan, Mom, Kathleen, Felicia, and Cat. The weather was perfect for spending the day outside and there was almost noone in the park. Towards the end of the day, we were riding the Great White roller coaster; the ride would end and we would just get up and move to another seat without having to circle the entire apparatus to get back in line! (FYI - the ride in the front of the coaster is much smoother than in the back where you get the thrills of the coaster plus the whiplash effect of being in the back.) The only bad consequence of the day was the late dinner we ended up having at the Olive Garden...not something you want to do before an early morning triathlon.

Sunday morning came way too early. Mom and I crept out of bed before sunrise, gathered our gear, and were ready to go when Kathleen and Felicia came to pick us up. I was hoping to grab breakfast from the hotel lobby before I left, but Mom checked it out and they didn't have anything but stale doughnuts. I passed on those in favor of the Harvest bar in my race bag...not nearly enough before a tri, but way better than any of the alternatives. Mental Note: pack a breakfast next time I have to stay in a hotel before a triathlon.

This triathlon had the best swim start of any that I have done. The swim is in the ski lagoon inside the park and it has a chip-timed start. So you stand in line according to your swim cap color (which is assigned according to swim speed), then one or two at a time you cross the starting mat and go. I was towards the back (one of the slower swimmers) so I got to see most of the swimmers take off as well as cheer the first swimmer out of the water.

After the swim, there is an approximate quarter mile stretch back to the transition area. That's a long way to go without shoes, so the race organizers set up the exit with numbered rows where you can keep your shoes for the next event or even just so you don't have to run barefoot to the bikes. Mom and I started the swim together, but she beat me out of the water. I was able to catch up with her during our T1 so we did most of the bike together. I kept thinking about how much faster she finished her swim and how disappointed Stepan would be if she beat me so I sped past her at the end of the bike to gain those crucial extra minutes that would have us finishing in the same time. It wasn't until we were doing the run that Mom was able to convince me that we would have the same time if we finished together since we started together (yeah, it was kinda a "blonde" moment, but I was halfway through a triathlon...my brain was oxygen deprived...at least that's what I'm going to tell everybody!). Neither one if could remember which one crossed the starting mat first.

The run was great fun. The route was through the park and Mom and I did the whole thing together. I would make her run for 30 seconds at a time; when we slowed to a walk we would compare our heartrates.

All in all, it was a great event. The only complaint I have is the serious lack of food available for the athletes either right after the race or even at the after-party. I ended up sick (upset stomach, headachy, very tired) for our last afternoon at Sea World because I waited too long to eat and when we did eat, we had bar-b-q...very tasty, but not very good at replenishing the energy I used in the morning.