My first century, and I only cried a little.

Well, it wasn't pretty, but it's done.

You wouldn't, you couldn't, possibly believe, or comprehend, how much my ass hurts.

Today's ride was from north Albuquerque, heading northeast to San Felipe Pueblo, then back to Bernalillo, and then northwest to the tiny town of San Ysidro.

100.1 miles, my longest ride evar.

Today's epiphany: I've decided that Sweet Baboo is no longer "The Evil One Who Rides Much Faster And Makes Me Feel Bad Because He Is So Effortlessly Fast" ("Evil One," for short).

Instead, he is now Geek Girl's Support Crew.

And that's your reframing of the week.

Most interesting sighting: loose cows on the road, including what appeared to be a bull...and me in my bright red shorts. Yep, nothing like pedaling by a horned bull with a big, bright red ass.


Luckily, he seemed much more interested in chewing on grass.

After the ride, I went and did a 2000 meter swim with Pirate.

I sure as hell couldn't run. I tried to "jog" at the grocery store to get something I'd forgotten...but my legs refused to bend UP.

So instead, I kind of shuffle-skated. I'm looking forward to that...26.2 miles of shuffle-skating at Ironman Louisville.

It's gonna be great.

...

Friday long swim.

Across Cochiti lake and back with SW Tri Gal.

About 2.2 miles, in 1:33:02.

It's not great, but it'll beat the swim cutoff at IMKY.

My shoulders are aching.

But there's a pina colada in the mini-fridge with my name on it.

Tomorrow's workout: Run 15 miles, then drive 250 miles to pick up Mini-baboo at camp.

Sunday, I'm doing my first century ride with Sweet Baboo.

Yikes.

A 40-mile ride, in 6 hours and 20 easy steps.

1. Starting at 10 am, prepare yourself for a 50 mile ride: get your frozen water bottles, sunscreen, and fig newtons, and put them in the car.

2. Search for your favorite Terry cycling tank for about 45 minutes: in the hamper, laundry room, where you keep your swim stuff and where you keep your running stuff, under the bed, in the closest, finally finding it exactly where it was supposed to be in the first place, with your cycling stuff. Go figure.

3. Get your training wheels so that you can use them instead of your race wheels. Except...one of your training wheels is flat.

4. Utter your favorite curse words.

5. Since you don't feel all that confident fixing a flat right before a 50 miler, take it down to the bike shop and ask them to throw a new tube on there. You might even get a couple gels while you're there. Except...you don't have the checkbook.

6. Utter your favorite curse words.

7. Drive back home to get the checkbook. Which cannot be found. On the way out, notice grab your helmet.

8. Return to the bike shop and dig through your wallet to get a couple gels and pay for a new tube.

9. Drive self, gear and bike down to the little park by the bike path.

10. Put training wheels on bike, bottles in bottle cages, and spray self with sun screen.

11. Try to ignore the van full of men in orange jumpsuits that are lunching, staring at you. Put away the thoughts that there's nobody else but you around...just you, and a panel van full of men doing community service.

12. There! You're ready to go. Except...you've left your bike shoes at home.

13. Utter your favorite curse words.

14. Take the bottles back off your flatwing, take the front wheel back off the bike, and put everything back in the car and drive back home, leaning forward so as not to get the wet sunscreen all over the car seat.

15. Get bike shoes, and decide to go back to a different parking spot. One not so full of guys in orange jumpsuits.

16. Drive down to a different park by the bike path, and begin your ride at noon.

17. Except...at mile 30, you notice ugly black clouds have now taken over the sky. Call Pirate at work and ask her what the Doppler radar looks like.

18. Based on Pirate's recommendation, turn the bike around, spending the last 10 miles of the ride heading into a stiff wind and watching the "average" speed on your Garmin drop precipitously.

19. Utter your favorite curse words.

20. Go home and take a nap.

Now, wasn't that easy?

...

"Distance Creep" and foolish optimism.

I wanted to say thanks for all the encouraging words I've gotten on my finishing worry freak-out. Krissy emailed me and helped me to put it in perspective. I mean, the best I can do is train, and then show up and do my best, right?

I was reading AndreaSue's blog yesterday about "distance creep". I have a 100 mile ride scheduled for this weekend. I figure "Distance Creep" is one of the benefits of training; you're less freaked out by the longer distances.

At work yesterday one of the other teachers told me that she actually walked her very first 5K this summer. I was thinking, that's so cute! but not in a nasty, condescending sort of way. I was thinking of my first 5K almost wistfully, the way you think things like, Man, if I could redo my senior year in high school I would SO blow them away with how much more I know now.

I was also thinking that it was interesting that she singled me out to tell me about this, since, I guess, most people would say, "OMG, three miles? WHY?"

In that vein, my training today will be a triathlon, out of order, with really long transition times. I have a 50 mile bikethat I was supposed to do two days ago. Then I'm going to hit the pool for 2000 meters. Then I'll eat, go over to the high school and get Mini-baboo registered for his Junior year.

Then in the hottest part of the day, per the Jimmy, I'm scheduled to do a 7 mile run, down on the bosque, where it's nice and humid. Yay. You know I loves me some heat. The feeling of the sweat rolling down parts of me - where can I get me some more of that? And the river flies biting my slow-moving ass? Mmmmmm.

And it occurs to me, the only part of this day that I'm worried about finishing is getting Mini-baboo registered for school. I mean, standing in line for 30 whole minutes. Ugh!

So I figure that at least part of all the training and the miles and the miles and the miles for the Ironman has to do with preparing me emotionally for the distance, so that I don't say, OMG 100 miles? and instead I say, 100 miles. Well, here we go. Where's those four water bottles I froze yesterday? Are my fig Newtons still in the drawer?

Yesterday I 'volunteered' for registration for the new school year, which starts August 9th. (Ack!) Right after I got there the secretary pulled me aside and asked me if I wanted to "comp" my time. In other words, the two days I was going to take off to do "your iron race thing in Kentucky," would I like to come in and do registration and then get those days off instead of using up my two personal days?

Hell, yes I would! I was planning to do the 25-miler when Baboo and Bigun have their big show-down at the Tri-101 in the fall and was wondering how I was going to get that time off.

Lesson learned: go head and sign up for that race, even if you don't know how you're going to get there or get time off or pay for it or anything. Was this a lesson I needed to learn?
(Is this a new GeekGirl law, perhaps GeekGirl's Law of Foolish optimism?)

Anyway as much as I dread going to work today, it primes me for fall. Gets me into the right mood. This year I'll be a "floater" because we don't have enough classrooms. I won't have my own room; I'll share rooms with other teachers during their "off" period. I've done it before. It's no big deal. I'm also switching to teaching Algebra, something I did for about five years, by choice. It's actually easier than teaching science; there's fewer props involved.

On the downside, it means I won't get to decorate a room in Happy Bunny posters, something I've sorely been wanting to do. So, I'll have to put them on my teacher blog. Parents are always thrilled by stuff like that "Uh, Mrs. P? I was wondering if, you know, we could talk about some of the posters you have? They seem a little, uh, you know, not related to academics."

On the upside, administrators are extra grateful that you're willing to put up with it and they kind of afford you some latitude when you need a bit of time off. Or when you show up wearing a pair of crop pants, cycling sandals, and a race T-shirt instead of "professional dress".

It's disturbing how I'm beginning to manipulate my professional life to conform to triathlon.

Anyhoo, extra time off will be useful because I'm already thinking ahead to IMCDL next June. This means my longest and hardest workouts will occur while I'm still teaching, in May. I can't imagine fitting all these in while working and trying to wrap up a semester, when the kids are at their most hyper. Yikes! But, It'll work out. GeekGirl's law of foolish optimism says so.

...

Random Thoughts and Worries

33 days left until Louisville. Thirty-three. Days. One month from now I will be in my hotel room in Louisville, while the voices in my head (not literal ones; I'm not psychotic) will be shouting at me about how slow I am, and how much I suck.)

Last week I rode my bike 180 miles. 180. Miles. It was supposed to be more. Pretty damned slowly, too. I'm never going to finish that stupid Ironman. Some guy is going to leap out in front of me, like they did to Krissy, and pull my chip.

I stopped answering the phone last week because the school where I work is calling all the teachers to volunteer to work registration this week. I have trouble saying no or lying without a lot of practice, so I avoided answering the phone during the day. Then the secretary called me last night at 8:00, and I answered the phone because I wasn't expecting it. Bastards. They are so not getting my cell phone number.

If I'm running and biking so much, and working so hard, why aren't my thighs all nice and smooth? There's no justice. And my butt. What's up with that?

I have to have, like, the weirdest tan ever.

Why does everyone keep sucking air in through their teeth when I say I'm going to do a swim in the Ohio River? Then they get that fake, forced cheerful look and say, "Oh, well, I'm sure it will be just fine."

The little beeper things I bought from Sharper Image so that I could find all my lost stuff were a waste of money. They don't go off when they should and they do go off at random times like 2 am, or when I'm standing in line somewhere, or driving in my car.

Mini-baboo has been gone for two weeks to camp. Other than worrying about him, it's been a nice break, the first one I've had since age 19, when I had my first child. I bought a box of cereal that I love while he was gone and didn't eat any of it for a day or so. It was all still there after two days. The whole box. Uneaten. The. Whole. Box.

I really like the accelerade stuff. I don't get stomach cramps when I drink a whole bunch of it before I run, like I do when I drink too much water or gatorade. That's important, because I will perseverate no end on things that are bothering me.

I am, like, addicted to this website, thanks to Pirate. If you've never visited this pace, you should, but I warn you: it's addictive. Here's an example of something from their site:
(I'm surprised that 'getting off heroin' wasn't, like, number 2. At least.)

Sometimes when I look at how sore Sweet Baboo is in after a hard workout I wonder if I should be working out harder. Then I look at how sore Sweet Baboo is and think, um, No. But then I worry about getting pulled from the course at IMKY. That will never happen to Sweet Baboo. It might happen to me.

After coming in nearly last at the Mountain Man, I've decided to reframe things. My goals from now on will be to finish triathlons. Reframing is when you take something that you think of as negative and look at it in a different way, rethinking or restating it so that it is positive. Some people call that "denial," Myself, I prefer to reframe "denial" as "positive reframing."

That place where I ordered the vegan running shirt is sending me a refund. Good thing, because I'm not really a vegan any more. I've started taking in whey protein and occasionally eating crepes. I think all I can really call myself any more is a "really strict vegetarian." Or as I'm sure some of my friends say, "Pain in the ass." That doesn't fit nicely on a T-shirt. But now I'm not really sure of my place in the whole food pyramid scheme of things.

Maybe I'm eating too much.

...

Mountain Man Oly 07

I had a good time at the 23rd annual Mountain Man triathlon, a well-organized race in Flagstaff at Lake Mary. Now, my point in doing this was to have a good strong brick workout, the last heavy one I'll do before Ironman Louisville. I relaxed and had a good time on this race, and didn't push myself.

The folks that run this race are friendly and enthusiastic. It's a lot of fun and well-organized. I also like that it takes off early, so you're finished earlier.

GOALS
None, really. Finish, and not be dead last, although I didn't really care about that. This wasn't even a C race. I was relaxed and had a good time.


SWIM
This was by far the most apalling swim I've had. I was wearing a new long sleeve wet suit that i'm not used to yet, and I felt smothered. The water was decent, about 70 degrees.
If you do this race: do what I did. The rocks going down into the water are sharp. Wear your flip flops into the water and then when you get to the oogy lake bottom part take them off and toss them up on shore. Works. No wetsuit strippers here.


BIKE
This is the second race where I tried it with no socks, and it was fine. In fact, my feet felt kinda breezy. Now, of course, I'll be putting my bike shoes out into the sun to destank.

On the Olympic, there's no aid station on the bike except for the one just as you leave transition. The thing about this race is, there's abundant supplies. Water, gatorade, etc., but you have to carry them with you. In face, your race packet even includes a couple energy bars, Gatorade endurance formula, e-caps, and a gel. You just have to make sure you get the supplies and carry them with you. Which I did. The bike is somewhat challenging, but the road is in good shape with a nice wide shoulder. No potties. I put two bottles onto my flatwing and took off.
I'll let the bike profile do the talking...


RUN
I did the 10K without socks, and it was fine except for the teeny tiny little rocks that found their wayinto my shoe...I'll need a 2nd towel next time for extra food wiping.
On the Olympic, there's two aid stations on the run, but it's an out-and-back so you get to hit aid stations 4 times. More than Adequate. Still, I carried my own stuff with me. I filled up with some water at one. No potties on the run, or in transition either. Accelerade continues to work well for me. I can drink a lot of it without the stomach cramps I usually get if I drink too much of anything else. The run included about a 1-1/2 mile run up a very steep hill. Volunteers at the aid station gave out cold water and gatorade and were extra friendly.
I'll let the annotated run profile do the talking...

RESULTS
I didn't win anything, but I wasn't last. I was nearly last. So there you go. There was no Athena or Clydesdales categories on this race, by the way. This race is a lot of fun, but challenging, especially since it starts out at 6800 feet above sea level and climbs. the weather was GORGEOUS today, and after I was done I had some muffins, oranges, and a cold beer. Then I sat in the cool shade and waited for Sweet Baboo.

All in all, a nicely done race. I recommend it! It's got beautiful scenery, not too much traffic nice roads with wide shoulders. My only change would be to somehow put some port-a-johns out on the course. The race director is friendly and enthusiastic and very hands-on. This is the 23rd year they've done this race, and it shows.

Brrrrrrr!

When Sweet baboo and I woke up this morning it was 54 degrees out.

54. Degrees.

Before we left Albuquerque yesterday morning it was already in the 90's. It had rained during the night, meaning it was all nice and steamy for my 6 mile Friday morning run.

(Still the toughest girl on the block)

I was supposed to be doing hills, which I did. The idea is that, by the time I get to Ironman Louisville I'll be all aclimated to the steamy August heat.

When Sweet Baboo and I do our Steambath Ironman in Kentucky, Ma baboo is coming out from San Antonio. I've adopted her as my mom now. She's like, the greated MIL evar. Sweet Baboo will have to get another mom. This one's mine. That's all there is to it. And, many people we know will be there. So it's gonna be a steamy August Kentucky triathlon party.

But, back to our vacation. I bought a light jacket just in case it got a wee bit chilly here, but holy cow 54 degrees? I'm not complaining! I love the break from the heat. Our hotel is near an iHop. Pretty soon, we're going to head out to the Grand Canyon, where I've never been. Yay!
Then we'll meet up with a couple of friends tonight at the Mountain Man packet.

Tomorrow is the triathon. I briefly considered doing the half, with Sweet Baboo, but decided that I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick. I'm doing the Olympic.

If I sound cranky it's because I have now gained 10 pounds during my Ironman training. And NO, as much as I appreciate the attempts to make me feel better, it is not all muscle, unless that muscle is concentrated in my butt and thighs.

My clothes are tighter. I feel heavier. Yuck.

Okay, now I'm just rambling.

I'm going to breakfast. Gotta maintain my Athena Physique somehow.

See you after the race.