01 September 2006

It's September!

That means only 4 more months until 2007. In November my training for Honu 70.3 starts in earnest. Wow!!! That's soon.

I just read a statistic that only 1% of the worlds population participate in triathlons. That puts me in a very exclusive club. I like that. I like to do things regular folks don't do. Of course, between the folks I hang out with and the blog world, it always surprises me when I run into someone who doesn't know what a triathlon is. To me it's so common everyone knows about it. Guess not!

I read about the team RaceAthlete.com is putting together for IMMOO 2007. At first I thought, wow, what a great opportunity. To get equipment and training just like a pro, I'm definitely going to try for that. But after more consideration I've decided not to go for it. I do intend to do an Ironman one day but I want to be ready, more in my head than body, and I'm just not there yet. I need to get more sprints and olys under my belt. I need to do a 70.3 and gain the confidence that I can do an Ironman. Next year is too soon for me. I'm also not in a position to put in all those training hours just yet. Soon I will be, but not yet. I know myself well enough to know that if I rush into this, I'll end up being discouraged and possibly never doing an Ironman. I have to have things right in my head first. But what an opportunity for some people. Maybe they will do it again and I can get in on the next round.

Swimming this morning. That small tweak in my stroke from Weds. has made a huge difference. I was doing 25 m in 19 strokes - woo hoo!!!! Apparently I filled up the memory in my watch because it didn't record all the laps. I did 2500 m in 1:18.

Lots to do today, better get to work.

31 August 2006

The comedy that is my life.

Let's see if I can relate the true absurdity of last night.

It all began Tuesday night. When out in the backyard we noticed a smell of something dead. Some very minor investigation lead us to believe it was in the neighbor's yard and we dropped it. When we went to bed that night the smell was strong. We had to turn the fan on to chase the smell away so we could sleep.

Yesterday, on the way home from work, hubby says, "we are going to find that dead thing even if it's in the neighbor's yard and get rid of it" I was totally cool with that, I did not want to smell it anymore.

Once home the hunt began. We searched around the side of the house where the smell is the strongest and realized it was under our house. We (by we I mean my husband while I hid) proceed to remove the slats covering the crawl space and look under. I am standing around the corner trying to avoid seeing whatever is there. My husband says "What's that?" very innocently and I just lean around the corner to look. Oh god, it's a dead cat. Eeeewwwwwww!!!

We (see above definition of we) then proceed to get trash bags and a shovel to dispose of dead kitty. My husband asks, "what do we do with it?" and I say, "put it in the trash barrel. Garbage is picked up Friday, it'll be fine until then." So ends the saga of the dead cat (or so we thought).

I need new tires for my car and I want to get new rims also, I've hated my rims since I got the car. A friend of ours had some tires and rims that he was getting rid of and said we could have them for cheap. So yesterday hubby had picked the tires up and brought them home. After the kitty episode we decided to slap those puppies on my car.

So here we are playing pit crew. Me loosening the lugnuts, hubby putting the new tire on and tightening them. We put the front one on first to check clearance - fit good. We then put the same side rear one on. I then tried to move my car only to discover there was not enough clearance in the front rim to allow my brake caliper to release. My brakes were jammed on.

Okay, we remove the front tire and put the old on back on. Hubby suggests that I put the new tires on the back and have the other new ones swapped onto my rims. Okay, good idea, put the other rear tire on.

The whole time we are doing this we are right near the trash can and plastic bag or not, you could smell the cat.

We decide to take the car for a test drive just to make sure the rear wheels are okay. As we are leaving I tell hubby to grab the dead cat. He jumps into the passenger seat with the plastic bag with the cat hanging out the window.

We live in the backroads where there are lots of flower farms, and ranches, and no one is hardly ever on the roads. Last night everyone was out. Driving around, standing on the driveways, talking to neighbors. It was crazy.

I finally find an area where no one is around and we chuck the kitty. I know, I know , this is wrong on so many levels but living with a decomposing animal is too.

We get home and innocently enough think we are done. We clean up and start dinner. I comment on how the rear tires stick out from my truck and isn't it cool. Hubby says, "Yeah, they are wide tires" Ummmm.....okay....wait...... If they are that much wider they won't fit on my rims. I race outside and measure and sure enough the tires are 2" wider than my rims. Okay, there will be no swapping them out. Now what???
We decide, it's late, we'll figure out what to do about this tomorrow.

As we are eating dinner it hits us both at the same time. We have to remove the rear tires tonight or sure as god made little green apples, something would happen tomorrow to wreck a tire and we'd be stuck with 3 tires and wheels we couldn't use.

After dinner it was back to the carport to remove the back tires and replace the original ones.

We ended up removing and remounting 6 tires last night. My car only has 4 wheels. What an insane night.

So let's recap: 1 dead kitty - gone.
6 tires dis & remounted.
0 new tires on truck

Such is my life.

30 August 2006

I love Blogs!!!!

I have a bunch of blogs that I read regularly. They cover a wide range of topics; triathlons, running, weight loss, strength training, nothing in particular. 99% of the time I read these blogs and while I enjoy it, no lightning bolts hit me. Last night I was struck by lightning.

8 years ago I weighed 225 lbs. It took me 1/2 hour to walk 1 mile. I slept a lot!! When I decided it was time for a change the first thing I did was head to Weight Watchers. They were a great help. I ended up losing 70+/- lbs. At this point I started doing triathlons. Now, I kept doing WW because my basic focus has been to lose weight. That has always been my goal and I was thinking triathlons would aid in the weight loss. This turned out not to be true. In fact, I found myself in a frustrating situation. I would try to restrict my calories and then would not feel like working out. So I would eat a little more and then feel guilty for going over my points/calories/whatever. I've been bouncing between these 2 feelings for a long time and have been trying to find a way out. I reached a decision the other day that I would really focus on weight loss until the end of the year, then I would start my training for the 70.3 in June. I know that training for distance events doesn't go with weight loss so I decided no distance events. The marathon was out, only a couple of more sprint triathlons this year.

Then last night I read a blog that literally smacked me in the head. DOH!!!! She said:

"Finding a sport, any sport. Dieting is not a sport, and for all practical purposes bodybuilding/fitness is not a sport. (I know I'm going to get a plexiglas hooker heel in the eye for that one.) You have to get the focus on what you can DO instead of how you look. The upside of that is that if you do something physically demanding that you love, you're going to look great as a result. Dancers, rock climbers, yoga instructors, fighters, and triathletes all have great bodies that are a result of their active lifestyle, not a lifestyle that's crushed and limited by whatever diet/workout plan they read last."

When I read this I agreed with it but it didn't particularly "speak" to me. Then I woke up this morning and even though it was 4:30 a.m., it was like a light had gone on. I know how to eat right and I do a pretty good job of it. But it's time to take the focus off weight loss and time to focus on triathlons. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to eat well and train hard. If I eat well, including good carbs, I will be able to train like a rock star.

I had been approaching this decision for a couple of weeks now. This blog just helped put it into focus for me.

Having said that. I swam this morning. I was doing a workout when I was interrupted by the lady in the next lane. I should point out that she is head lifeguard and has been teaching swimming for 30 years. She knows I'm trying to improve and said she had a pointer for my stroke. She said to wait to pull until the other arm begins to enter the water. Seems I was pulling before my other arm had completed my stroke. She said I was taking 4 strokes when only 3 were necessary. So I tried it at the side of the pool and then took off. What a difference. I felt like I was working 1/2 as hard and I was getting further with each stroke. Doing this allows for greater extension and rolling causing me to go farther. Wow, cool!!! When I was practicing this I realized that was what the instructor at the stroke clinic in July was trying to tell me I just didn't get it. He said I was pulling too quickly to wait a second or two to pull. Now I get it. I finished off my swim by working on this new stroke and it just felt better and better. Can't wait till Friday when it will have really sunk in.

Okay, that's all I have. Couple of revelations so I have some real mental work to do.

27 August 2006

Wow, it's hot here!!!!

Look at my little weather thingy. It's 81 with no wind, that's hot for us!!!

It's been a good weekend. My head's in a good place and I hope to keep it there.

Saturday was biking day. I had planned to do a 2-3 hour ride since I had nothing else to do until later and it was a beautiful day. After about 45 minutes some weird stuff started happening. I would get this ringing/buzzing in my right ear and then I would start to get dizzy. Since I was riding on the main highway in this area, I pulled over and stopped. It passed and I took off again. This happened a couple of times so I decided 2-3 hours probably wasn't a great idea. I did 1:15 and headed home.

Today was strength and running. Since it's so freaking hot I did not feel like running (you folks who live in this all the time have my utmost respect). Yesterday on my bike ride, I discovered the entrance to a trail I'd been looking for. It's just a mile from my house so I decided I'd go hiking instead of running and check out the trail.

A little background here. In April 2005 I was in really good shape. I was running regularly. I was trail running on the weekends. In fact, the weekend of April 9 & 10 I did 2 10k's back to back and did better on the 2nd one than the 1st. I was doing good and feeling great. Then on May 14th I sprained my ankle and that started a cycle that took months to break. When all was said and done I had sprained both ankles 3 times and went through physical. To this day my right ankle still aches. Okay, so I sprained my ankle while trail running and have not been back since then. This morning was scary and exciting. I decided to walk, slow, and not push it at all. I was also paying very close attention to the trail, I was determined not to injure myself.

It turned out to be a great trail. I walked out for 45 minutes then turned around. It was the ditch trail so there really wasn't any breathtaking views, but it was nice. I started early and was the first one on the trail. On my way back I ran into mountain bikers and horseback riders. I have a mountain bike but I'm not a very good rider. This trail looks pretty good for a beginner and I'm going to give it a go. I think next Sunday I'll try it out.

The rest of the day I've spent trying to stay cool and clean the house. The bird cages needed cleaning badly. And I have a real ant problem in the bird room so I had to take care of that. Ugh. I'm hot and tired and need a shower!!! When Charlie gets home we're going to take the dogs to the beach for a swim, oh yeah!!!!

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...