Big Dam Bridge Duathlon

Sunday morning came with spitting rain and cool temps. Niiiiice. Except for the fear that the spitting would turn to pouring. Last year was the inaugural Big Dam Bridge Sprint Duathlon. The mightly fine folks at DLT multisports and the incomparable Fred Phillips put this sucker on. I competed last year and thought I could do better this time. We'll get to that delusion later. Joe and the small one both came along to cheer and take pictures. That was sweet. It gives Joe a chance to ride the trails amidst the road route and play photographer. But I digress. The race. It's a 2.2 mile run, 11 mile bike (complete with hills!), and 2.2 mile run to finish.

This is a SPRINT race. That word makes me cringe. I am just not a sprint type. Endurance is the game, yeah? There is some disconnect between my head and my feet that says "you don't have to go fast, just go long" This does NOT work when it's a 2 mile run.

Acckk. I thought I'd been working on speed more lately but hell no, my legs really enjoy a 9.5-10 minute mile pace regardless of distance from 5K to half marathon. Geez Louise!! It's 2.2 friggin miles for Kite's sake, you could go faster you know! I got passed on this run like I was standing still. What a load of crap. Got on the bike and the bike felt good. I was passing people! Okay, so a few of them were riding mountain bikes but still... I was taking the hills well and felt like I was flying on the downs-I love that feeling.

I found a rabbit-a nice guy who let me play along for a while and I stayed with him until the last of the 3 laps around the course we had to do and he got just a bit ahead of me.

The rabbit and I came out of the transition together and stayed with each other for about 3/4 mile. Another woman that I had passed while on the bike passed me early on in the run. Dangit. I had noodle leg like you wouldn't believe until almost halfway in. When I finally get my legs under me, I just can't seem to push it. My head is screaming at me but the legs won't cooperate!! I finish the race with enough steam left to run another 2. This would be great if there was another 2 but nooooooo the race is done. I told myself I had better be ready to puke at the end of this one. I just could not seem to get that message to my legs.

Finished at 1:22:28 I think. I gained all of 46 seconds on last year. I was hoping for MINUTES. Oh well. I wonder what would happen if I TRAINED instead of just working out? hmmm Joe says I shouldn't be allowed to race anymore because regardless of the outcome, I am never pleased. I always want more. Guess that means I should put more effort into it, eh?

Bitches

So there's a group of men who regularly run together around lunch time here at work. One of those regulars is my division director. And these guys run, they don't jog. Many are the days that they basically blow by me and C, waving as they do. As I hit the 1 1/2 mile mark I see them. They're coming back in from a longer run, but if I turn now I'll have at least a tenth of a mile on them. GO GO GO! I try not to kill myself but I'm not slowing up-and then I hear the footfall. It's right at 1/2 mile later so I think I've done okay. The "fast" one pulls along side and says he's slowing to let the others catch him-there was a "hill". They all catch up, R says something nice-he's always nice-and they get a good 1/4 mile in front of me by the time I've traveled another 1/2 mile. I try to sprint while they're going around the outside of the loop and I go straight, I meet them at the head of the loop but I'm winded now and just look pitiful. They just glide by me like they're floating on clouds of cotton candy while I return looking more like a one legged duck. A wet one. Bitches.

It's Vomitastic

Spring has sprung and today at 10:30 a.m. it was already 80 degrees outside. And sunny. And humid. So of course, I went outside for a run. Or so I thought. 1 mile in C had to turn back because some kind of flying insect was so attracted to her aroma that they were dive bombing her en masse. Apparently, I lack said attractive aroma and they weren't bothering me so I lumbered on, literally. I have no idea what the pace was because as usual I was not wearing a watch. Do you think this is my subconcious effort not to ever post a run time? It was uncomfortable, wet, hot and slow. Wait, if I hadn't started with uncomfortable that sentence might have been a good one. I made it thru just under 3 miles when I stumbled toward a bldg with a water fountain. I slowly walked back around "the block" and ended up with some knee lift, butt kick, side jump, jogging maneuvers. My stomach doing cartwheels and my legs screaming "BITCH" at me the whole time. I couldn't stop sweating so I came back to my office thinking I might get some work done then head back for a shower. C says she wanted to throw up and the bee things chased her all the way back to the building. Yup, it was vomitastic today.

Desperately Seeking Begonias

Today is Earth Day. I only know that because my kid's school asked us to send flowers and planting implements with them today. As much as I'm sure the school yard could use some beautificationing, I think I'd rather donate a shrub or tree rather than a full flat of annuals but then what would the other 43 kids do while the 5 expensive plants got put in the ground? I made the mistake of not buying flowers until last night. See, I keep my calendar at work. Which means if it happens Tues-Fri I'm right on top of it. If it is supposed to happen on a Monday, you get what you get. Do ya feel lucky? Well do ya, punk? After several weeks of storms, general rainfall, cold, and sometimes cylindrical downdrafts that tear trees from the ground and shift houses off their foundations- we had a gorgeous weekend. Which meant that the garden areas at all the local stores got cleaned out. But I wasn't thinking about that. It was Monday. I needed flowers. Lots of them. Crap. I almost resorted to a "box 'o' seeds" with a note about how patience is a virtue blah blah blah. Then around a corner I see them. A couple of flats of begonias. ick. Come on. Begonias? Not my favorite. I admit, they can be pretty. So can azaleas but every house I've ever lived in has seen any azaleas that weren't bigger than I am (yes we have 3 of those monsters at our current abode) torn out. And the roots chopped up. I loathe them. Back to begonias. I put one nice looking flat in my basket and proceed to pick out 6 or 8 small perennials for myself even though I swore I was done planting anything else to add to our 10 year plan for our yard. Okay so I bought 2 of these gorgeous creatures despite the fact that I am almost positive our frigid winter will kill them dead. For $3 a pop, I'll savor them as long as they last. I wonder if I'll get to visit my begonias in the school yard. I wonder how many bazillion flats of begonias got brought to the school today. I wonder if anyone else forgets what they're supposed to be doing unless they come to work to see their desk blotter calendar.

workout Monday 4-21:
After the exercise in annual flower futility-
cycling on the trainer 5 min warm up, 30 minutes HARD, 3 minute warm down
The TV was on so in between cooking a dinner to be refrigerated for the NEXT night, I did upper body work with light weights (10-15lbs) and resistance bands. I totally lost track of time and reps but I know I included: push ups, RBand bicep curl, lateral raises and tricep pullovers, shoulder press, french press, flys, pec flys and chest presses

Guilt Gene?

Is there like some special guilt gene that turns on when you make the jump into motherhood? Last weekend, I only felt a little guilty, at least while I was spending hours out in the yard there was another kid in our house to help entertain the one who actually lives there. This weekend wasn't so bad, I spent less time in the yard but not by much and we had the oldest at home with bfriend in tow for dinner and then to the middle one's play at school. By the time Sunday rolled in, the little one was bored and ready to go to Gma's house. I know for a fact that all she'll do is sit, eat and watch TV or play on the computer but what can I offer her? Do I say, never mind the yard or my own workout plans, let's go for a family bike ride or a walk? No. I say grab your stuff I'll take you over there. It's not like we never do anything as a family on the weekends. It just feels like I'm often more concerned about a clean house, a nice yard, or getting my own idea of a weekend workout in to be concerned about the kid NOT sitting at a computer or TV all day. Guilt trip over.
This weekends workouts included- several hours of yard work, a very short mountain bike ride and the calorie burn of anger, bitterness and guilt.

Sherlock Holmes and Running

Wednesday- 3 miler. Again. And I wanted to throw up. I really need to work on my stride. I know it's keeping my speed way slower than I want. It isn't about the power.



Thursday- Took the day off to go on a school field trip with the middle school. 6-8 grade. I must be insane. I've had a headache all day. We went to see Sherlock Holmes: the final adventure at The Rep. I thoroughly enjoyed it but when I asked the kids what they thought, the most common response was "I didn't get it". Good, some of the humor was adult-ish. Then we went for lunch at a pizza buffet. I don't know, but that was a madhouse. The school supposedly made a reservation but the staff seemed totally unprepared. I dropped my clan off and by the time I parked and made it back inside, the salad bar was empty and there was a crowd of kids standing at the buffet area waiting for pizza. And waiting. And no one had drinks. You would think that knowing 150 kids are showing up for pizza, you'd have more than your usual amount ready to go. Maybe it was a good thing there wasn't enough food to go around, it kept me from eating as much.
I dropped the kids back at the school and went home, changed clothes and hit the door for a run around the neighborhood. I was just going to run to the school and get Mc to walk home. What little pizza I ate was sitting like a rock and those hills in my hood really made me want to lose my lunch. 40 minutes later I arrive at the school and we start a nice walk home. We get to a 4 way stop intersection and a cute bald guy jumps out of a car and hugs Mc! OH Jeez, it's a friend of ours who normally calls Orlando, FL home but for some odd reason he was driving close to our house with a friend (actually they were scouting tornado damage but anywho) They came over for lemonade and a tour of my house which was unfortunately in complete disarray. It was a nice surprise.
Did an hour or so of gardening just because I could. It was raining pretty hard this morning, I hope the freshly planted things are good and I still have some things in little pots too...hope they aren't drowning!

Dash

Only had a few minutes at lunch today. Went out for a 3miler. Tried to push it here and there but once again, did not wear the watch. Really tried to go for it the last mile, especially the last 1/2 mile. IDK. My legs feel like concrete bricks. I didn't think I was still tired from the gardening but when I went to take a shower, I could barely lift my arms. Dang.

President's Fitness Challenge Points and Gardening

What is the thread that connects these things for me? I know it's a thin one, but I've been logging activity on the President's Challenge site and noticed after this weekend that Gardening, as an activity, can really rack up points considering most of us can spend hours on yard work versus an hour or less working out at the gym. This weekend I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 hours in the yard. And I didn't even mow grass. That was tilling, weeding, weed eating which I guess is sort of mowing, planting, raking and bagging. Whew. Man am I exhausted but the jungle behind the house no longer looks like it could contain wild animals. I mean ones more wild than the 2 unruly beasts that inhabit the fenced in area at the bottom of the yard. The one with the 3 foot tall grass patches and multiple "large dog" sized holes that we could race model boats in right now. I've now uncovered parts of long lost rock gardens and flower beds we didn't know existed or were half buried in the dirt. I feel a bit like Hiram Bingham and I want to rename my yard Vilcabamba. I should have Joe make me a sign. "Welcome to Vilcabamba" you just THOUGHT the Incas died out in Peru. We have an english ivy and periwinkle carpet that would be enviable if it weren't for the invasiveness. I love the beautiful blue flowers and the evergreen vines but puhleeese. I hate having keep constant vigilance over the ivy climbing the trees. The periwinkle is in everything, everywhere. I swear that stuff just creeps around and pops up where you least expect, or want it. It's a stealth plant. Then we have the juxtaposition of the bareass terraces that can't grow anything but weeds. I tried wildflowers last year but I planted too late and the summer sun just destroyed them so we're going to try grassing them. Now I'm starting to think that a controlled burn may be in order. Hmmm, I wonder who I call for THAT permit? Those who know of my poison ivy woes- I only saw it twice this weekend. The good news is the first time it was on the other side of the fence. The bad news is the second time was on a trail during the 2 hour break we took on Sunday to play with kids. We needed to plant a travel bug in a geocache. That went well but I, as per my usually disagreeable body, had to pee. On the trail. Couldn't wait. Saw the club leaves. After. Oh well. If anything comes up it will make for a great post.

So the gardening was a big part of the workout scheme this weekend but I also managed a short walk on Friday, a 30 minute bike ride plus some stability ball exercises on Saturday. I'm not doing anything today. My entire body hurts. All of it. And I still have a vegetable garden and at least 2 shrubs and a tree to plant. That has to wait because I have 1 dinner with a USAF neice about to deploy to angry areas, 2 softball games and 2 practices, and 1 piano lesson between now and Saturday. I need a wife.

Rest Day

I think I need a rest day. Work has been rather hectic and today was just nuts. Home hasn't been exactly calm either with Joe working late every night, Mc and her new braces-broken braces-wart blistering-piano lesson and softball practice on the same night but lost her cleats issues and me being my normal manic self because the floors are filthy, the dishes are in the sink and the laundry won't fit in my 4 bin hamper! Jeeeesh. If I could just do away with the commute, I could work 44 hour weeks instead of 52 hour weeks. I can't believe the commute adds an entire work day of time to my week. What the *&^% was I thinking when I moved? Anyone got one of those transporter dealies like on Star Trek. I need one of those.

Tonight is more softball and a trip to buy new cleats. Yea. I made out a to do list for the weekend. Going to try not to think about the Disney vacation/new furniture/plane tickets to Boston/braces down payment I already have to pay for. Or the taxes, the tree removal or the retaining wall that's coming apart that is on the horizon. And people wonder why I work out and then pig out. Mindless. Pure. Stess relief. Comfort

ISO Vocabulary Lesson

Each time I want to log an exercise, I have to ask myself "do I even know what that's called?" Most of the time the answer is yes, but there are those moments when I am in search of a vocab lesson.

Today:
Treadmill 25 minutes
15 walking incline at 2%-10%
running 8 minutes at 0-2%
3 minute walking cool down 0-4%

vocab needed- a couple of weeks ago my stepson showed me this move-
single arm dumbell rows while in push up position.
1x10x12lb 2x8x15lb

seated cable row 1x10x50lb 2x8x60lb

single arm cable lat pulldown 1x8x20, 1x8x25, 1x8x30lbs I think. I still haven't figured out the weight on this darn thing

flys- 3 x 8 x 15lbs

assisted dips 1x8x73, 1x8x80lbs

5 minutes of ab work

Treadmill Burns

It was raining at our "normal" workout time today so we headed over to the fitness center. I knew C wouldn't last long, she abhors the "gym". I as usual, only got more into it as the time passed.
Started with 4 minutes of walk/jog warm up then walked but increased the incline 2% each 1:30 to 10%. 2min @ 6mph, 2 min @ 6.5mph, walk 1 min, 6mph 2 minutes, 8mph 1 min, walk 1 min repeated 3 times. Jog/walk cool down with 1 minute at 10% incline to total of 31 minutes.

bench press 2 x 6 x 65lbs, 1 x 6 x 75lbs
incline bench press 3 x 8 x 50lbs
cable crossover pull 1 x 8 x 20lbs, 2 x 8 x 25lbs (not sure on those lbs)
reverse push up 2 x 8

back on treadmill for 2 x 1min x 8 mph sprints, tried for 12mph like on the biggest loser but only made it about 10 seconds, twice. I just knew I was going to get spit off the treadmill and have treadmill burns on my face. Jogged a bit to make it up to about 5 minutes

Good workout, still sweating. ewww

How Much Pizza Can One Woman Eat?

I'm missing 5 days of posting, I'm not sure I even remember what I did on Friday. I know I walked for a few minutes and did some upper body work along with some traveling lunges .

Saturday: Went to Star City for the dedication of the brand spankin' new multi use trail at Cane Creek State Park. Back in the fall, me-Joe-Sarah-Aaron did a photo/video shoot there and had a great time but only got to see about 3 miles of the 15.5 miles of trail. There was a "race" of 2man teams involving some of the boy scouts that helped build the trail. We started out about a half hour or so behind them. Saw many that only got a few miles in before giving up. Hit the lead group about 10 miles in and got back about a half hour before the first finishers. I wasn't paying great attention to the time but I think it took us around 3 hours. That's a crappy time for only 15 miles but we stopped a lot. There are 40 someodd bridges, 3 suspension bridges, several lakeside vistas to check out AND we had to stop to talk to volunteers and other riders. I hope it didn't give them such misery that they all decide mountain biking is a crock. It was a fairly miserable ride as far as the conditions went. It's been raining here. A lot. Much of the trail was either muddy or under water. Not really appropriate for riding, we wouldn't consider it but the dedication ride has already been put off once for weather so .... It's going to be a heckuva trail when it's dry and gets a bit of use to pack it down. Much of it is very beginner friendly but they left in some steep climbs. None of them long, just steep. They were my downfall. I just could not keep traction in the mud. All in all, I can't wait to ride in better weather.
Sunday and Monday I spent a ton of time out in the garden. By Tuesday I was sore. But it was biggest loser night so I cycled on the trainer for 30 minutes, had a good ride, even got into the big ring for a while. Then I did some upper body work with light weights and a resistance band. If anyone else is watching that show, I think Ali is my hero. MY goodness she is a competitor. I like that. She looks fantastic. I can't believe that even at 146 lbs she was able to work hard enough to lose another 11 lbs. I keep using the "it's those last few pounds that are so hard" excuse. She blows that for me. I'm betting she didn't scarf down a chili cheese dog, onion rings, dark beer or the 5 slices of pizza I had between Saturday afternoon and Monday night. Dang it. It's the diet, stupid!!

Strange Brew

Wednesday- inside workout:
Treadmill warmup, fast walking and some running for 15 minutes then a 1 minute sprint at 8mph, 2 min at 6mph
gravitron @74lbs for 2 sets of dips and pullups
another sprint segment 1 x 6mph 1x 8mph 2x 6mph
ab work
another sprint segment

Thursday- 3 mile run outside, tried to push the last 3/4 mile and ended in a sprint. Felt good during but my knee hurts today. Bummer.

Now for the strange brew. We had some nasty storms hit last night but because we totally lost power and finally decided to just go on to bed, we didn't realize that a tornado roared through our neighborhood and took out almost every tree on the street about a 1/4 mile away. Dang.

Hill Repeats, Kayaks and Medicine Balls

I did finally take a day off. Sort of. Rushed around all morning on Friday after a short stint of yard work then drove for 6 hours in a hefty wind with a kayak strapped to the car. That took a little more effort than usual.

Saturday- 3 mile run of nuttin but rolling hills. Ugh. Felt pretty good at the end but I wondered if I'd be able to stop sweating. Ever. Since we were on a lake, I took the kayak out for a short ride, short because there was a line of cousins waiting. 7 kids, 8 adults, 2 dogs + 1 neighbor dog, one house. Chaos. After lunch I took the pedal boat out with the hubby, and a beer. Much longer ride this time but had been out about 10 minutes before hubby pointed out that I wasn't really pedaling, it was his momentum carrying my pedals around. OOps. Caught.

Sunday- 2.5 mile run but had a rabbit to chase. The boy wanted to run with me but he is so much taller and so much stronger and uh so much younger. I didn't chase too hard after about the 3/4 mile mark but when he did the math via the minutes on his ipod and figured he was doing about 8 minute miles even on those hills, I didn't feel so bad. We had some breakfast then went outside and threw the medicine ball around for a while, did some exchange of push up techniques and I lost track of time. That was a mistake because about the time we came in all stinky and sweaty I hear my hubby say " Where's the plunger Dad?" OMG!!!! "uh there's something wrong and water is backing up into the downstairs shower" That's right, it was a whore's bath for me. I was oh so ready for that shower by the time we got home.

6 hours in the car again but this time I got to sit. I think it hurts worse to just sit there and stiffen up.