Crash

Well, I kept saying that I was a spaz on the bike. Yesterday I totally proved it with my first crash. I'm a little embarrassed, but suffice to say that I'm escaped with only some (deep) bruises, a little road rash, and one big scab. Pretty lucky.

Still trying to decide what to do today (off work). I was going to do a brick and maybe some lifting and core work. My knees and quads are pretty bruised up (and I've gotta say, a little painful), though, so I'm thinking maybe just lifting...

I've been in Minneapolis for the past several days, and didn't do formal workouts, though I did do *tons* of walking. Need to get back on tri track.

Sweet.

I bought this this weekend.

Inspiring

I've made no secret here that when I started this venture, my sole purpose was to lose weight. At 150 pounds and 5'5", I could stand to lose a good 25 pounds. That was January 2007.

I selected running as my goal activity because it was the most difficult thing for me, historically, so I reasoned that it would also be the activity that would get me in the best shape. But I wasn't going to be picky. No, my first goal was 21 days of exercise in a row, because I read that it took 21 days to form a habit, and I knew that I needed an actual lifestyle change. Any sort of exercise would do. Tae Bo, running, yoga, whatever. Just get off my butt and do something, anything, for at least 20 minutes per day. I succeeded in more ways than one. I streaked those 21 days and I did, indeed, form a habit.

Since then I've lost 23 of those 25 pounds. I've run up to 7.5 miles at a time. That's up from running 0 miles at a time. I've started biking. I've started swimming (again). I'm signed up for a triathlon!

But something else has happened along the way. I've fallen in love with my lifestyle. I love how it makes me feel. I love how it gives me goals. I love how the first thing I do every day is something just for me. And I've talked to people about it. And apparently, so has Preston.

The other day he told me how the wife of his co-worker has started working out after he told the co-worker my story and the man relayed it to his wife. How cool is that?? This morning a co-worker of mine stuck his head in my office and said, "I went to the gym this morning," despite a conversation the past week where he had asked me how I made time for it all and stated that he would never have the time for it!

I'm in this for my health (physical and mental), and that of my family. But what a wonderful thing to discover that I've inspired others to get into exercising too, for their health and that of their family.

Seven Things About Grimmy and Cal

I heart my kitties, so when I saw Jess's example, I had to follow suit.

1. Grimmy and Cal are littermates. They look alike in their fluffiness and build, but not their coloring.

2. Grimmy and Cal are nicknames. Other nicknames that they're known to go by include: Coofy, Squishy, BFP (stands for Big Fat Poof), Poof, Poofy, Poofity, Calli-poofity, Calli-poof, Poofer, and Limikus-poofity. Grimmy has fewer nicknames than Cal. Cal just seems to inspire nicknames/variations.

3. Both cats actually respond to all their nicknames.

4. Poofy lurves him some human clothes to lay in/on. He can be totally zonked out on the bed, and you put something down on it, and when you turn back around, he'll be totally zonked out on it. Even if your back was only turned for a second.

5. Grimmy thinks I'm his mom. Soon after we brought him home, he developed an interesting habit of sucking on my hair. Eventually this turned to sucking his own arm while kneading my hair. And when he was almost 3 he finally migrated to just the kneading with some occasional lip smacking. He "sucks" every day at least twice: before I get out of bed, and right after I get in bed.

6. The kitties have three biggest fears: people who aren't Preston or me (read: doorbell ringing and knocking), the vacuum cleaner, and anything that sounds like hissing (read: letting air out of bike tires, keyboard air cleaners, people blowing on food to cool it off, etc.). For any one of these things they'll haul ass to their special hidey hole in my bathroom. And I mean haul ass. Don't be in their way.

7. Poofy likes to drink out of the bathroom sink. I think he learned it from Sugar. Every morning he runs into the bathroom ahead of me, and jumps up and into the sink, tilting his head sideways and waiting for the water to flow. His tounge splashes water all over as he licks it out of mid-air. Sometimes Grimmy will join him and they'll jostle for space at the sink. Other times Grimmy goes straight to his preferred water source: the master toilet. Don't ask me why this toilet and no others. It must taste better... I do provide them with one of those flowing filtered nice cat water bowl thingies. Seriously!

Btw, been out of town on business. Did my first brick last weekend (6 miles bike with 4 mile run), and another this past weekend (10 miles bike with 4 mile run/walk). I can totally be ready for CBI in May. Totally.

My First Tri-Dream

I think this dream was a result of stress at work and also starting to train for CBI Sprint Tri in May...

So, I had totally trained for a sprint tri, but I end up at an Ironman competition. Which for some reason, I didn't drop out of, even though I was totally unprepared. The competition was starting at 6am, and I set my alarm for 4:45am. But when I woke up I realized that I totally hadn't allowed enough time to eat and then poo before the start. And when I started getting ready I realized I hadn't packed my special needs bags or my T1 and T2 stuff. I hadn't even labeled the bags or taken them off the strange grocery bag type holder, you know not the roll of bags, but the flat one where you pull the bag off. I also hadn't read the rules/regulations/athletes' instructions. So I'm trying to read the packet to figure out what to do, but instead of reading the instructions, I get in this loop of reading the list of athletes' names that was included in the packet and cross-referencing the list with some other list that suddenly appeared in my hand (this is totally the work part). And I couldn't read the instructions until I finished.

Then I woke up. Feeling very very frantic.

Then I went to the Y and swam 2700 yards in 70 minutes to get out of the dream. Woot.

Which, btw, this week is my first week wearing a swim cap. Not my favorite. Not my favorite to get on (real struggle with the long hair, which I braid first). Not my favorite over my ears (makes funny noises, allows a little water in, then hurts eventually). Not my favorite feeling (is there an oven around my head? Oh, no, it's my swim cap! Grr.). But my hair loves it, and I know I have to get used to it. Surely it'll get better.

I'll Bet There Are a Whole Bunch of Grumpy Women Wandering Around Downtown

Why?

No hot water at the Y this morning.

I'm one of them.

Joy.

Rodeo Run 10K Race Report

Let me start with a little background. On Saturday, February 23, I ran a 5 mile personal best in approximately 50 degree weather. On Monday I ran a recovery run in similar weather. On Wednesday I skipped my scheduled run because the thermometer read 30 degrees outside, and I opted to bike indoors instead. On Saturday at the Rodeo Run, it was freaking hot. Almost freaking 80 degrees.


I didn't even notice the heat amongst the angst of getting to the start line. Preston has a parking pass at the Medical Center that makes it free on weekends, so we parked there and took the train into downtown to avoid traffic. There was some issue with where we'd park, though, so we were running a little later than I hoped. Then we had to walk from the train to the start. Where about 8499 of my closest friends had gathered. Then I had to get a chip and stand in line for the porta-potty. After all that I only had about 5 minutes to get into place. I was frustrated because I saw some pace signs near the front, but ended up freaking out near the 7 minute milers because I couldn't make my way farther back and couldn't find another sign after that. It sucked - I didn't want to be that person that was all up in everyone's way.


It turned out that it didn't matter, though. There were enough people (read - at least 95%) there ignoring the signs that I was passing waaaaaaaaay more people than were passing me. The first mile or so was lovely (aside from people-dodging), shady, and heavily crowd-supported downtown. Mile 2 was more of the same, but less shady. In the third mile, we ran past a sign that read (I kid you not) "Mount Rodeo Run: Elevation 100 ft.". I think that is BS, though. The amount of suckage that immediately ensued means that it *must* have been more than 100 ft. of elevation gain!! Ran through a lovely misting station just past 3 miles, which at that point was sorely needed. It was HOT. Walked through an aid station just after that to drink some water and pour the rest on my head. This is where you know that I knew that the wheels were about to come off. My experience with watering myself during races is bad. Quite simply put, once I drink water I become almost intolerably queasy. I knew when I took the water that it was giong to be the same old story. But it was so hot and I was so thirsty I just couldn't see another way, and so began the hell-march to the finish. At least, that's how I felt about it. I felt like it must have been 80 degrees. The Texas sun was out, beating down on us. There was a breeze, slightly cooling, but strong enough in places to make me feel like I was running just to stay in place. My mind wandered. My form faltered. My abs felt sore (for no good reason that I can discern). I quit paying attention to pace and just fought to stay running. I did, and I finished, but those last 2.2 miles weren't pretty.


My splits:
Mile 1: 8:45
Mile 2: 8:50
Mile 3: 9:15
Mile 4: 9:03
Mile 5: 9:49
Mile 6: 9:33
.2: (Garmin read .3 - so assume 2ish minutes, whatever it takes to make up the rest)


The race also provided 5K splits:
First 5K: 28:15
Last 5K: 29:43


Totals: 57:59 at a 9:19 pace per mile.

When I got home, I weighed myself. Before I ran, I weighed in at 128.2. After the run and after 4 bottles of water, I weighed 126.4. Seriously. And I did get mildly sunburned. So, all in all, I'd say that just over a minute over my PR is really quite good for the day, but I've been training for a PR, and I really felt like I could have done it, so I'm disappointed with how the race went down.

This is probably my last 10K of the season, too... I don't think I'm up for Bayou City Classic this weekend, and after that the races shorten down to 5Ks for the summer heat. Might look at the Law Week 8K on March 29th and definitely want to run the Bellaire Trolley Run 5K in April, where I'll be gunning to blow my 5K PR out of the water. As you can see above, despite my rather disappointing total time, my 2 5K splits are my 1st and 3rd best chip-timed splits of all time, so I *know* I've got a stand-alone 5K PR in me... a time 27-28 minutes would be sweet sweet sweet heading into the summer...