Coming up, Random week stuff.

1) Hold onto your pants! This weekend, the Bottomless Sprint Triathlon. It was at this tri in 2005 that I said, "I'm definitely going to try this triathlon thing" back in 2005. I did it in 2006 and in 2007. This year I'd like to beat last year's time by at least a couple minutes. It's a mini-sprint: 400m/9 mi/2.4 mi., but it's super hot when you finish and the run is an out and back along blacktop that is not shaded. In July. In Southern New Mexico. All the time you're racing, there are loud cicadas singing (don't love that term, "singing"?) actually they're SCREAMING, adding to your perceptions that it's just, well, f***ing hot.
SSSsssssssssss (dramatic hot-sounding noise effect).
And yet, for some reason, I always remember this little sprint fondly and can't wait to do it again. Crazy.

2) Mini-baboo is home. So, once again, there is missing food, dirty dishes laying around, and lack of privacy. Mini spent 6 weeks in Dallas working in an un-airconditioned shop changing tires, moving furniture, and other sundry stuff. He used his earnings to purchase a Comprehensive Encyclopedia Set Nintendo Wii. Appears to be enjoying it.

3) Mini is a senior this year. Shouldn't there be a checklist or something? Like: take senior pictures, take ACT, order invitations, etc. I know and have accepted the possibility of this year being a giant money hole. I just need to be able to plan how fast the money drains down the hole.

4) Speaking of holes, once again I have to ask myself if there is possibly a bigger time hole than Facebook. I'm not saying I don't use it. I just saying I waste a lot of time there.

5) Someone I know referred to a random blog I found on the Internet (nobody you know) as a "brain toilet." That is still the funniest thing I've heard in a while.

6) Tonight is #6 of my summer classes. That means there's only 2 weeks left of summer school. I've been taking classes in PTSD and Substance Abuse. There isn't a whole of open-mindedness in these classes. It's all pretty lockstep, "this is how we treat this."
I just nod and practice my favorite phrase, "Well, you've given me a lot to think about."
What this phrase really means:
"I don't agree with what you say and I think you're an idiot for saying it but in the interest of diplomacy and because you are either grading me on this and/or a future colleague, I'll say something really passive aggressive that you, in your nacissistic way, will take for agreement."

7) Tomorrow, the state of New Mexico will probably finally approve my provisional counseling license. I'm pretty happy about that.

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Oldest woman to make the American Olympic swim team.

Torres, 41, Sets Records At Olympic Swim Trials

Click here to listen to the story. Morning Edition,July 7, 2008 · The U.S. swimming trials were held in Ohama, Neb., to decide who would make the Olympic team. Steve Inskeep talks with USA Today columnist Christine Brennan about who made the team and the records set by 41-year-old Dara Torres, the oldest American swimmer to ever make the Olympic team.

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New York Times Story: "A Swimmer of a Certain Age"

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Hell, yeah. You go, girl!

The following is offered as consolation for those who think they're dumber than me.

So, Tiger Lily and I are cycling on Old Route 66 east of Albuquerque and we're headed back in, and at one point she motions to a fork in the road ahead. "See where it splits over there? We're going to the left."
Left. She said LEFT.
She said it loudly, and clearly.

"Okay," I said. Because I had heard her, loudly and clearly, say LEFT.

And here's what my brain decided, as it listened to her and looked at the split in the road, was:
We're going THIS way.because this way is left.

Yeah.

So I took off - I was in the zone......speeding along, legs pumping, and I headed right at the split, just like my brain said to do, I was thinking, "this must lead up over to Tramway Road."

Then, Holy. Cow. I was thinking, as several cars and motorcycles went by me at a high rate of speed.
There is a LOT of traffic out today, I thought, as I sped up. The road became beautiful, clean, and even.

What a great road, I thought as I sped along on the nice, clean, even shoulder surface.

A semi sped by me, leaving a gusting wake.

Goodness! why, this road is practically a FREEWAY!

Just then, my phone rang.

Annoyed, I reached for it. At first, I couldn't quite make out what she was saying, from the noise of the traffic.

Then I finally heard it, "YOUR OTHER LEFT! COME BACK!
YOU'RE ON THE FREEWAY!"

oH. $#it.

Which is what I almost did, when I realized where I was.

So, okay - if you did something really dumb today, or hell, this week, this might make you feel better.

No need to thank me. It's what I'm here for:

Random stuff.

Today's LOLCat picture is for Pirate. -->

So today, I went on about an 11 or 12 mile LSSR. (Long, slow, sweaty run). I'm not sure about the distance because for some reason Msr. GarMEAN wouldn't turn on, so I just ran for about 2-1/2 hours. Slow. Sweaty. It was in the mid-seventies when I started, and low eighties when I finished.

The spaghetti I ate last night seems to have helped, because I felt pretty good. I also started the day off with a Power Bar. For some reason, it takes about a half hour for me to eat these things, which appear to be combination of cement and various sugars. I made the mistake of setting an unwrapped one down on my kitchen counter, 5 minutes, tops. Then, I couldn't get it back up.

I finally pulled it off the counter, leaving parts of it behind. I tried scraping it off with a knife, until Baboo finally expressed concern that I was removing countertop instead of removing the Power Bar. Finally a combination of a Formula 409 soak and scouring pad got it up, and am I crazy for worrying that something I'm EATING is that hard to remove from a Formica countertop?

I drank some Accelerade on the run, and stupidly, only took one bottle. I did surprisingly well, though, and chose a way back that was mostly in the shade, but when I got back to the car, I gulped down the other bottle so hard and fast it was running out of my mouth and down my chin. Then I took a cold bath and ate some leftover spaghetti.

Sweet Baboo and many other Outlaws went out for a 100 mile bike ride.

100 mile. Bike. Ride.

Hey, are you coming?

Uh, NO, Thanks. I'll pass, thanks. I'm doing a 40 mile tomorrow. But hey, don't use up all the fun, okay?

When I got home, I looked up problems with Garmin online, and then licked my finger and ran it over the contacts on the back. Then, it worked. Magic mom spit. It ain't just for faces anymore.

Anway, I'm tired. Mini-Baboo comes back from 6 weeks in Dallas today, and I have to put all the passwords and locks back in everything and then take a nap.

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How not to recover from an Ironman PSA.

Well, in the past two weeks since Iron man, I've run 15 miles, biked about 45 miles, and swum about 2000 meters. Not all at once. it was spread out over mostly this week.

I was surprised to find, as the week went on, I just wore flat down. This morning I swam for about 30 minutes at Lake Cochiti - which, FYI, is warm enough at 65 degrees to eschew the wetsuit and wear my point zero3 fastskin instead - and then went for a 2 mile run afterwards.
Did you read what I just wrote? A TWO. MILE. RUN.

And I was barely able to keep running.

True, the first mile was all uphill, but still: barely able to keep running. Tired legs. Breathless. I complained to Baboo about it and he quizzed me about what I'd been doing this week. Finally, he said, "You can't recover from an Ironman AND be on a diet. You need more carbs." I looked that up and, as usual, he's right:

According to this website, factors that can slow recovery include these that I've been doing for the past two weeks:
* Delay in intake of carbohydrate after exercise.
* Inadequate amounts of carbohydrate.
* Reliance on carbohydrate-rich foods with a low glycemic index.
* High-intensity exercise during recovery.

Oooo. There's that whole "high intensity" thing. For me, most of the time I'm moving I'm honestly going as fast as I can; running any slower would be, well, walking. Or standing still. So, yes, I've been running "hard" and biking "hard". Breathlessly. And drinking sugar-free drinks.

And little did I know, that even though my weight was dropping, I was depriving myself of much-needed carbs that I needed for recovery. I wasn't having problems when I was training with this system, and I figured recovery would be the same.

So well, now I know. I'm eating a large bowl of spaghetti and I have a 12-mile flat run tomorrow, so we'll see how I do. I'll fuel with sports drinks and gels and stop starving myself, at least this week. I've reset my WeightWatcher's Online points thingy to "maintenance"(you can do that) just until after this next half iron, and then I'll carefully go back into weight loss mode after that.


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Ironman: What it means to me now.

I guess everyone has something different that their goal means to them...and different goals that are meaningful.

I mentioned before that I had a voice that had been dogging me for most of my adult life...I think that to some degree, a lot of people have little nagging voices. It's just that for some of us, the voices are louder. Some people can drown out their bad thoughts with a 5K. For me, it took several marathons, a second master's degree, and a second Ironman.
Whew! That was a loud, incessant voice.

A loud voice that sounded a lot like my Dad.
But anyway.

So now what? Well, now, when I hesitate at some task, my brain pokes as me, but only when I'm not doing what I should be doing. It says things like, Hey, you did an ironman, remember? You can do this. For instance, I got a mammogram after putting it off for three years. I told myself, "Why do I keep putting this off? I've run 3 marathons in the past year, and I can't get some dinky mammogram?" So then I got the mammogram.

As it turns out, a mammogram is a lot easier than running a marathon.

So yesterday I was doing a 5 mile run. Okay, so it was a 4.8 mile run. Whatever. Anyway, one of my favorite routes is very hilly. There's about .25 mile of flat, the rest is uphill or downhill, and it's an out-and-back. My legs are still a bit tired, I think, and as I was climbing up the longest climb my legs were achy and draggy and I was breathless. I stopped and walked for a bit.

Then, Hey, walking girl! You did an ironman. This is an 8K. You can run this!

This happens a lot now. Things I used to put off doing I just go ahead and do them. Even mundane things are affected. Writing papers for school. Defrosting the refrigerator. Whatever.

Nothing seems hard now. Make no mistake about it; I'm Still. Lazy. but my procrastination is less frought with fear than it used to be.

And that voice? Well, it sounds remarkably like my voice now.

...

First half of the year down.

It's July 2nd, which means that half the year has passed. I set some goals at the beginning of the year, and wanted to assess how I was doing. Here's my totals so far for 2008:

2008 totals
Bike:	1,263.7 Mi
Run:	430.86 Mi
Swim:	34910 M
Strength:	2h 30m
Hiking:	2h 00m
Pilates:	4h 30m

Here's how I'm doing on my 2008 goals so far.
☐ Means that I've made progress, ☑ means I reached it, and ☒ means I haven't really started yet.


☑ 1. Become a "marathon maniac" this year.

☑ 2. Do a 50K run this year.

☑ 3. Finish Ironman Coeur D'Alene before midnight, without crying.

☒ 4. Get down to about 150 pounds. (68 kg or 10.7 stone) Current weight: 156. and holding steady.

☐ 5. Get my professional counselor's license.

☒ 6. I resolve to lower the amount of fat in my diet. On the short list of things that must be avoided: Cheap nachos.

☐ 7. Run a sub-10-minute pace on a 5K. Current per mile pace (5k) PR: 10:16

☑ 8. Bring my run volume up to at least 20 miles a week, 3 weeks/month.

☒ 9. Clean out the den/study.

☑ 10. Write more silly haikus. Here's one, for Tea:

Ah, the Ironman!
Cheering crowds, gels, gatorade,

and golden showers!

☑ 11. I will not consume wheat grass juice and chlorella.

☑ 12. Quit complaining about my job or get another job. I resigned from my teaching position, and am now waiting for the state of New Mexico to issue my provisional mental health counselor's license and my ticket to take the NCE.

☐ 13. Talk more like a grownup. Cha, I'm like, TOtally grown up. And stuff.

☐ 14. Be a better person, make the world a better place.

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