A Precursor

I know, I know. I still owe you a race report but something arrived in my e-mailbox today that I thought was the perfect precursor:

______________________

Here's to us, those born between 1930 - 1979 !!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets on our heads.

And when we had our sleds, we tied them to the bumper of a car and had a really neat ride as long as you made sure you didn't slide under the car when it stopped.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts, air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter or lard and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight ... WHY? Because we were always outside playing. That's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps, and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We didn't have Play Stations, Nintendo's and X-Boxes. There were no video games, 150 channels on cable, video movies, DVD's, surround-sound, CD's, cell phones, personal computers, Internet or chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS, and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms didn't live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house, knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

______________________

Next up will be my race report, I promise!

Friday Randomness

1. My son-in-law got a job! OK, so it's just a temporary job with the U.S. Census Bureau, not what a recent graduate with Masters Degree in Civil Engineering would normally want, but times are tough. We're proud of you, Kevin. You never know whose door you might knock on and where it may lead.

2. After years of trying, our neighborhood finally has a Neighborhood Crime Watch program. Of course, I volunteered to be one of the Crime Watch Block Captains. Today I came home from a run around noon and saw a suspicious looking car idling in front of my neighbor's house. Late model sedan, dark blue, Buick Marquis, very dark tinted windows, can't see anyone inside. I decided to extend my cool-down so I could walk past it and note the license plate on the back. Then the driver's side car door opened. Crap! I reached for my pepper spray and prepared for the worst. Oh hi, Deputy P. It was our off-duty sheriff's deputy in an unmarked car.

3. Eeks, can I say I'm LOVING logging my food?! Yeah, I know I'm weird. But I've had some concerns the past couple weeks in training. Am I fueling myself enough for my workouts? Is hunger a good indicator of when I should eat? What the heck am I eating??? With Livestrong's Daily Plate (thanks Jeanne for mentioning it to me), I now know the answers: sometimes, not really, and mostly good but some bad stuff too. It's not rocket science but I think knowing more about my nutrition will help me go further and faster.

4. Cliff Bar rocks! Remember that peanut butter recall a few months back? Well, that caused us to have to throw away a couple boxes of bars we'd bought. But not before I filed for a refund on their website. In the mail recently we got coupons for new bars. But get this, each box contained 6 bars and they gave us 12 coupons per box claimed. Thank you, Cliff Bar. We will most certainly continue to buy your products.

5. Silly sign!! (clickable)


Have a great weekend, everyone, and good luck to all who are racing!!!

Booty Haul

Hey, who knew Christmas would come first week in February?

Two new tires for Buffy, my travel bike. She loves new shoes!


Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon race medal and long sleeve t-shirt with race results printed on the back. Unknowingly, I beat the other woman in my division by only 16 secs!


Souvenirs Dave brought home from Singapore: Silk scarf and gold orchid necklace/earrings. They're actually gifts for Dave's boss and admin (I wouldn't know what to do with them).


What he brought home for me: Free slippers from the Intercontinental Hotel and United Business class slippers and snacks. These I can put to good use. In fact, I'm wearing the white slippers right now and there were originally 3 of those airline snacks :-)


Another cold spell from Mother Nature. Coach Bill cancelled the 6am group swim today because it'd be below freezing outside so I got to sleep in and then hauled my booty down to my local Y pool around 11am when it'd warmed up a little. The pool is heated now but still deserted.


WIN Sports Detergent and a stinky workout shirt of Dave's. He brought it back from Singapore all rolled up and still sweaty (Yuck!). It will continue to ferment and ripen along with our other workout clothes until laundry day, usually Sunday. Stay tuned for my WIN Detergent product review next week!

Kids House Fundraiser

Last night MarathonChris and I swapped out our running shoes for dress shoes to attend a fundraiser for Kids House of Seminole, a local charity that provides services to help abused children. It was a triathlon of sorts: a formal dinner, an auction and then a concert. During the transitions, there was socializing.

I wore a dress, which I rarely do, and had the opportunity to experience a few new things:

1. Eat beets (what the heck, they were on the plate)
2. Find out how a silent auction worked
3. Hear people bid nearly $10K for a weekend getaway to the Bahamas (note to self: do NOT lift arm to itch head or give toasts during live auctions!)
4. See folks wearing tuxes, suits and nice dresses along with sneakers, ball caps, ballgame jerseys, and other things usually seen at sports games.

Yes, the invitation had said "creative black tie" and folks were encouraged to show team spirit, but Dave and I had no idea what that meant.

Team Spirit? You mean company team? We were to be sitting at a table bought by his company, after all.

So we went traditional, just to be safe. And thanks to a friend, I didn't have to go out and buy another dress that I'd only wear once, maybe twice. She knows I don't like shopping and kindly offered to loan it to me. Thanks Kelly!

Funny thing, though, it's actually a black dress with a red liner. But since the black fabric is really sheer, the camera flash made the black nearly disappear. Good thing the dress was fully lined!

After dinner and the auction, we were entertained by Three Dog Night. Whoa, what a blast from the past ...

We decided to finish strong and took to the dance floor. I wasn't a big fan of the band when I was younger but recognized many of their songs. They were the ones who sang this?

The band came back for one encore song, Joy to the World, and then the pain set in. Four and a half hours in high heels had not bothered the cut on my heel much but the balls of my feet now felt the size of melons. I walked back to our car as slow as after running a marathon. No medal earned but the event looked to have been a huge success.

Hooray for the kids!!

You Know You Travel Too Much When ...

1. 15-16 hours travel time doesn't seem really long any more.

2. You know MCO=Orlando, IAD=Dulles, ORD=Chicago and many other 3-letter airport abbreviations.

3. You know which seats to avoid on most airplanes and consult www.seatguru.com before selecting any that you are unsure about.

4. You know better than to line up in back of tourists or families when going through security.

5. You can recite the airline safety briefing that they give you before take-off like the Pledge of Allegiance.

6. One of the most important items in your carry-on luggage is noise-canceling headphones.

7. You're usually one of the first to board and can grab all the pillows and blankets you need.

8. You know what the various bell dings during a flight mean and react before having heard the announcements, even while half asleep.

9. You have hundreds of little shampoo, conditioner & lotion bottles and never need to buy any of that stuff.

10. You don't bother to fully unpack your bags any more when you get home.


PS - I'm back in Orlando now and will be posting my application for the second Evotri contest later today or tomorrow. So please check back!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last year I had the bright idea to host Thanksgiving at my house this year. We invited my (step) daughter and son-in-law from Utah, Dave's parents from Texas, and Dave's sister and brother-in-law, who live only a couple hours north of us. So, a total of 8 people, including us, for our first-ever Thanksgiving dinner (no grandkids that I know of, yet).

What the hell was I thinking???

I'm now running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything for work done by tomorrow, my house cleaned, and all the various meals planned and prepared. Oh, how I wish I could cook like Petra and Bree. Or, at least use a crockpot like Wendy does.

So I'm going to say this early and make it quick because I don't know if I'll have time to say it later ...

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Odd & Ends

Things of note since my last post:

1. For the first time ever, I'm actually following the Tour de France on Bicycling.com. Though I have no desire to get cable or satellite TV at home, I admit the 3 minute video clips of the race highlights are pretty fun to watch ... that is, now that I know what a peloton, paceline, yellow, green and polka dot jersey all mean. I can't believe they showed one cyclist "heeding the call of nature" on the side of the road, though (how embarassing!).

2. And how is my new Kona bike jersey working out? Well, glad you asked :-) I've worn it the past two Saturdays and both times Dave and I have managed to join up with some faster cyclists that roll past our subdivision around 8am. Last summer, I didn't even try to keep up with them ... Now I have to wear that jersey every Saturday.

3. But meanwhile, I have been dealing with a new pain in my right front shoulder :-( I got it after pressure washing my back patio and cleaning my pool for a few hours before the 4th of July. I was worried that it might put a big kink in my swim plans and so I took it easy swimming last week, even skipped mowing the lawn (*gasp*). But it's nothing compared to what my friend Cliff is going through. He recently separated his shoulder in a bike accident just 3 weeks before Ironman Lake Placid. He's still planning to do the race though -- GO CLIFF!!!

4. Also this week, I think I found a trick to staying awake after swimming in a 85-90 degree pool for an hour: DO NOT just sit around at a desk afterwards. Instead, go to the store, mow the lawn, do something active and productive ... and then take the nap ;-)

5. But sometimes one must do his/her duty and sit around for nothing ... I just received my 5th jury notice since I've been married (13 years), five compared to the single one that Dave has received. Too bad I'm not as lucky in the lottery (of course, entering would help).

6. I am lucky, however, to be going for a run now. So far, I've not found it hard at all to limit my runs to only 2-3 per week (it's just too darn hot!). Only 2-3 bike rides per week has been kind of tough, though. If I ride my bike to the pool, does it count as a workout?

Hills CAN Make You Stronger

Thanks everyone for their comments and emails to help me get over my "hill" about Dave's training plans. We're fine again and stronger than before, actually. It's been tough with him traveling nearly full-time the past couple years. There have been countless good byes, I love yous, I miss yous and welcome homes, but many things not said, come to find out. For instance, I had no idea he'd been planning to do this particular bike training plan for quite a while so it just seemed to come out of the blue. But now I know that he actually has been preparing himself for it and looking forward to it. We're going to work out a way that he can do it without me getting any more gray hairs.

I must admit that some of this was also the result of bad timing as well ... he told me just when my PMS monster had gotten loose! Yup, it was rearing its ugly head snarling and just looking to pick a fight, unfortunately. It's been a while since that nasty bugger got out, but the 3 conditions for its unwelcome appearance happened to occur this weekend: 1) the monthly P loomed, 2) Dave happened to be home, and 3) I had not exercised much this week (still recovering from my last race), which usually keeps it at bay.

Ladies, I know you probably know what I mean and guys, if you don't, beware ... Anyway, I realized later that much of my poor handling of the situation was hormone-related and apologized.

The other interesting thing is that my step-daughter, the person closest to both Dave and I, said something very insightful that made me realize something about myself. In her email to me, she said:

"Finally Shirley, I'm sorry but I don't think it helps to ask such a long list of people for their advice about your first really big fight in years. None of us are experts, so it sounds more like an attempt to get people to validate your opinion, and thus gain ammunition against Dad, than to really have an honest discussion to solve the problem."

You see, I've usually been a very private person in the past and, indeed, to ask for help from others on personal issues would have been very out of character. It would have been much more my style to stick to my guns, hold everything in until I could stand it no more and then explode. And the same with Dave, and probably Katie too. Hence, our few big fights have been real knock-em down, drag'em outside, kick'em in the head and then kick'em some more fight-fests ala the UFC ... figuratively, of course. (For those who don't know, we both have black belts in karate).

But because I don't interact with others much on a daily basis any more, blogging has become my main form of communication with people and also my main means for staying sane. Without a doubt, I can much easier write down what I'm feeling in a blog than pick up a phone and talk to someone about it. Another sad but true statement is that I also think I have many more friends out there in the blog-cyber-virtual world than I have here locally so reaching out to them for help is now second nature and it definitely beats bottling up emotions until I burst.

So thank you again, family and friends, for being there and responding so quickly to my plea for help. Though Dave and I both lost some sleep about it yesterday, there was relatively little "blood" drawn, we set a new shortest fight time PR (personal record), and Dave didn't even have to buy me 3# of Skittles to try to appease the PMS monster, which he's done in the past.

Hope everyone has a safe Memorial Day holiday. This will probably be my last blog entry until I return from Hawaii mid-June.

Am I Being Fair?

All right, friends, I need your help.

My husband Dave and I just got into a big fight about his wanting to do a certain bike training plan while we're in Hawaii for two weeks early June. Knowing that he's been very supportive about my running marathons and doing tris the past few years, I feel terrible about not wanting him to do it and he's very angry at me. But I am truly worried about what might happen if he goes through with it and need some input from others.

The training plan was developed by Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong's personal coach, and appeared in Bicycling Magazine May 2007 issue. It's a short 3-week plan called the Spring Break Build Endurance with the last week being pretty much a rest week so I'll just mention the first two weeks.

Week 1 (10-13.5 hrs):
Mon: Rest
Tue: 1-1.5 hr w/ intervals
Wed: 1 hr Endurance
Thu: Rest
Fri: 2.5-3 hrs Endurance
Sat: 3-4 hrs Endurance
Sun: 3-4 hrs Endurance

Week 2 (18-21 hrs):
Mon: 1 hr Recovery
Tue: 2 hrs Endurance w/ 30-45 min Tempo
Wed: 2-3 hrs Endurance w/ 30-45 min Tempo
Thu: 1 hr Recovery
Fri: 4 hrs Endurance
Sat: 4-5 hrs Endurance
Sun: 4-5 hrs Endurance w/ 45-60 min Tempo

The training plan assumes the person typically trains 7-10 hours and says don't worry about overtraining because these are moderate-intensity rides and the person will get plenty of rest the following week. Yet, I am worried, very worried ...

My husband is a 46 year old, 220# disabled veteran who just got back into riding a bike last year after a ~20 year hiatus with help of special knee braces provided to him by the VA. Though he says his knees still hurt while riding, he loves being back on his bike and has lost over 40#. This year he's been consistently racking up 100-125 miles/week (7-8 hours/wk) with usually one long 3-4 hour ride per week. The volume in the second week of the training program would be about 2 to 3 times what he's been doing and he’s planning to ride alone most of the time along the Ironman Kona bike course, which is notoriously difficult with its hilly, windy, and oven-like black lava heat conditions.

What I worry most about is that he's a very heavy sweater and does NOT do well in hot and humid conditions. He does not know his sweat rate, has never used salt tablets, and has no idea how many calories he needs to stay strong. Though he plans to bring fluids and food, he tends to drink and eat only when convenient and often when he is way past needing it. He also has no recovery plan between the 3 back-to-back long workouts each week beyond just resting (no mention of nutrition!), which means he'll probably not recover well and get progressively more exhausted. And there are very few stores/gas stations along the highway, 35+ miles to the nearest one once past the Kona airport, and cell phone coverage can be spotty.

I love Dave very much, but I don't trust his judgment when it comes to things like this. He's a former Marine who has been trained to endure pain and suffering, and has a history of pushing himself too far physically (I'm a wimp compared to him!). 20+ years ago, he completed a long course triathlon and lost nearly 8% of his bodyweight due to dehydration (a visit to the medical tent for most folks). He once ran a marathon with his longest run being only 10 miles and his knees gave out at mile 16, yet he kept going despite excruciating pain and that was the last time he was able to run. More recently on some of our long rides in hot conditions he's become very dehydrated and bonked because he hadn't drunk and eaten as he should. One time he even got dizzy after only 40 miles (2.5 hours) so I had to ride home to get the car to pick him up. Oh, and did I mention that he also has had a number of precancerous skin growths removed as a result of too much sun exposure?

I offered to ride along with Dave or provide sag support by car, but he refused knowing it would impact other things I'd planned to do like swimming, running and relaxing.

I don't know what to do.

To jump into such an aggressive training plan on such an unforgiving course as Kona with chronic knee problems and no sound nutrition plan sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. On the other hand, is it fair to deny someone you love the chance to do something he really wants to do even if it might be the last time he's able to do so?

He says he'd run that marathon again knowing that he'd probably never run again ...