Second Annual ChickenMan (Indoor ½ Ironman) Race Report

Note: This is a little long for such a silly event, my apologies, but I write these things mostly for my own posterity because when I reread them I usually find something good in them. I have no ego invested in whether anyone else actually reads this, but I know some people like race reports, so here goes.

Preamble
It’s called ChickenMan since last year (when I did it with 2 friends) after finishing, we went to Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket in Willowbrook, IL, which has the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. Also the best homemade biscuits, hush puppies, mashed potatoes (WITH SKINS!) and chicken dumpling soup.

This year I decided to go solo, because I needed the timing of this to be far enough out from the Goofy Challenge to not impact my run training. Because of that, and the fact that one of the usual suspects has a sprained ankle and can’t run, and the other was out of town this weekend, and I can’t convince anyone else to partake in the lunacy, I was happy to do this alone.

The format is all indoors—swim in the pool, bike not on my own bike on a trainer, but on an evil Precor C846 stationary bike, and run on the treadmill. I say the Precor bike is evil because if I push known wattages from training on my bike on it, my heart rate is always higher, so I don’t sweat it and figure the conversion factor for me from regular bike to Precor means I need to bang out only 47 miles on it. It still sucks, and I know you, the reader doesn’t care, but it’s a technical detail. Trust me, it would be MUCH easier to do this on one of my own bikes, but then it wouldn’t be as fun or challenging to me!

I got 9 full hours of comatose sleep the night before. Not that I had anything to be nervous about that would disrupt my sleep—I figure I can get out and do a ½ Ironman pretty much anytime except for maybe the week after I just did one or within 3 weeks of an Ironman. And of course, my coach would NEVER have me taper for this—he thinks it’s crazy, but understands and helped me pick the right weekend to do it.

I awoke at 5AM with the intention of beginning to swim at 7AM, giving me plenty of time to finish before the Masters swim, which begins at 8AM. I live ½ mile from the YMCA that I belong to, which is cool because I don’t have to spend much time at all to drive there to swim or run (I lift weights exclusively at home, where I have a range of dumbbells from 2-30lbs. each, a 40-lb. barbell which can be loaded with way more weight than I need, and a Parabody machine, that provides high and low cables, a pec flye station, etc.). So I knew I needed to leave the house like 6:45AM, and I would already have my swimsuit on.

My pre-race nutrition consisted of 2 mugs of coffee with creamer, one Powerbar Triple Threat, and a ½ serving of Glycoload, for a total of about 500 kcal. I got the Powerbar down by about 5:30 while futzing around online, and then chugged the Glycoload at a little after 6AM. I then packed by swim and run/bike bags, put defogger into my swim goggles, put my swimsuit on (today’s choice was the black leather-look suit), got dressed and headed to the YMCA.

The Swim
Data: 2100 yards, leisurely (OK, I’m slow) pace, :39 on the dot. Average HR=101, Kcal=250.
Experience: The best choice for open lane had one guy in it, who had his name written on his pull buoy and Zoomers—Russ Nelson. I had actually met this guy before sometime at the Y, but I don’t think he remembered. No matter, I wouldn’t have remembered his name, either, except for it was there for the whole world to see. When he stopped at the wall, I asked if it was OK for me to swim next to him, and he said yes.

I then began futzing with my goggles, and I was watching Russ swim, and it seemed like he continued to swim down the middle of the lane. Apparently, out loud, I said (not too loudly, though), “Why are you swimming down the fucking middle, you know I’m going to be next to you?” Another man who had just arrived noticed the situation, and I said to him, “Did I just say that out loud?” He said, “You said why are you swimming down the fricking middle.” I smiled that he had made a word substitution, explained that I was sorry for my language, and that I thought I had worked it out with Russ. Russ returned to the wall, and I politely said he was kind of swimming down the middle, and he smiled at me and said, “You mean I need to move my ass over!” I smiled back and said, “Yes, come on I’m only half your size you can still have most of the lane!” and then I got in and started swimming.

Russ was pretty sweet to swim next to—he doesn’t create a huge wake, and he isn’t one of those splashy kickers. But I did notice from time to time he would veer a little too close to me, and since he was wearing paddles for a lot of his intervals, I was a little concerned. He rapped me lightly once, but other than that, I enjoyed swimming next to such a good swimmer! He has a really great backstroke. He’s not so bad to look at, either. Very tall, fairly muscular, not much fat on him.

The guy in the adjacent lane, though, not so much. He was wearing a swimsuit that should go in the rag bin, it’s so ugly and worn. And he’s got a nice pot belly, and his right arm just smacks the water when he’s swimming freestyle. I’ve seen him before and call him Splashy. He creates a lot of turbulence with his kick, too, and a few times I got a mouthful of water care of Splashy. Oh well. It made things interesting to focus on not getting smacked by Russ and not getting drowned by Splashy.

T1: 17:47. I obviously took my time here. Took a full shower, including washing my hair, because I didn’t want to smell too chlorine-y for the rest of the day. Plus I knew this would be the best I’d smell for about the next 5 hours.

The Bike
Data: 47 miles on Precor C846, Time=3:06.49, Average HR=118, Kcal=1550.
Experience: I took my trusty tall, 16-banger (that’s how many 12-oz. beers it holds) cooler plus a gym bag with my running shoes, gels and CD player over to the bike, loaded up a CD, put one 32 oz. bottle of Gatorade on the bike and 2 gels, and took off.

This part of the day was pretty boring. Just ride, internally curse the damn Precor machine for being geared like some alien torture device, sweat like a pig, hydrate (I drank ½ of a 12 oz. can of Ultra Violence (Code Red) about halfway through, and finished it at 2 hours in), occasionally look at the TVs on the wall, look around at the other crazies in the cardio area, change CD’s on the hour, wipe some of the sweat off my head every so often and stand up on the pedals every 10 minutes or so.

Things became a little more interesting with about 20 minutes (by my estimation) to go. I saw a woman get on one of the treadmills with a Timex M-dot hat on. And it looked like it had the Ironman distances printed on the back. My Kona hat has the distances printed on it and also Kona 2004, so I was wondering if it was a Kona hat. I was also wondering where she got the hat, since she didn’t look like someone who’s done an Ironman. OK, get your fucking grenades out and throw them at me for saying that, but you do know what I mean. She was wearing slightly flared Capri pants and “tennies.” That seemed to be the dead giveaway, and then she had the treadmill set to barely jogging. So I thought it was safe to assume SHE wasn’t the one who did the Ironman. I figured her husband. And I wanted to know. I was hoping she would tough out at least 20 minutes so I could ask her about the hat. Which I was obligated to do. Because I wanted to know who was the mystery Ironman at the Y? I thought she might be the wife of someone I know there who just did Ironman Florida for the second time, so I thought it would be nice to have her say “hi” to her husband.

As an aside, even though the effort was not easy, many times during the ride, my legs felt totally weightless, and I was truly in a “flow” state.

I finished my ride (after cleaning off the smelly bike, of course) and went over to the treadmill. I asked the woman in the hat, “Which Ironman did you do?” To which she said, “What?” I pointed to the hat and said “You’re wearing an Ironman hat, so I figure you or perhaps your husband did one, and I’ve done a few myself, which is why I recognized the hat.” She said she didn’t know what Ironman is. So I asked her where she got the hat and she claimed her husband got it at a 5K race where they were being given away. I just said, “Oh, how nice.” And walked away. Everyone who believes that’s how the story ended, raise your hand. Nobody? You can fill in your own blanks. At least it was free entertainment!

T2: 11:27—changed shoes, nabbed a treadmill under a high-speed fan, got some more fluids out of the cooler and 2 gels, and started out.

The Run
Data: 13.1 miles on the treadmill, Time=2:04, Average HR=125, Kcal=1225.
Experience: I noticed I had salt streaks on my bike shorts, how interesting! The treadmills at the Y each have their own TV, but I almost never watch it, and today I sure wasn’t going to. I’m on there to run, to focus on running, to keep running, and then stop. I just can’t pay attention to anything on a TV in front of me while on the treadmill. If I do turn it on, it’s usually The Weather Channel, where I can periodically go, “ooooooh---look at the pretty colors.”

My legs didn’t feel too bad coming off the stupid @#@^$&@$ Precor, but hey, treadmill running is boring no matter how you cut it. So I played with the speed control to mix things up a little, and wasn’t terribly motivated to go real fast, although this is probably the fastest I’ve run 13.1 on the dreadmill. For some reason, I can’t run as fast on it as I would outdoors, if you go by my HR, and I don’t let it bother me. I mostly run by time and intensity.

I had my “floaty” legs a lot during the run. I think the hardest thing was just being on the treadmill going nowhere! I probably could have amped up the intensity, but without a taper, and considering I will be back to normal training on Monday (I get Sunday off, oh joy!), I didn’t see the point.

The only excitement during the entire run was when I grabbed for a gel and spastically dropped it on the belt, and it went flying off. There were 2 or three guys who grabbed for it and one of them handed it up to me, and I thanked him. Whoa…..you could make an entire movie about THAT.

I drank primarily Ultra Violence while on the treadmill, as the caffeine makes it slightly less boring. I don’t remember much of anything else during the run except that I was running, and I felt like I kept up a good cadence.

Race Nutrition
Item Kcal
4 gels 400
76 oz. Gatorade 475
32 oz. Ultra Violence 450
Total 1328

Looks like I nailed it for calories taken in and fluids--about 22 oz. fluid per hour. Perfect!

Post-Race
Everyone knows that the BEST SHOWER EVER is after a hard workout, and this one was going to be no exception! I was just about done showering when an Asian woman that I usually see at the Y when I’m swimming came into the shower area. She’s all suited up to swim, and I’m butt naked. She remarks how she hasn’t seen me in awhile, and I told her it’s because I swim early in the morning most days now. Then I’m just staying in the HOT water because it feels great (I did manage to stretch about 15 minutes before I showered), and this woman looks at me and smiles and tells me I have such a nice shape. And while she’s saying it she’s making the outline of the, ahem, curvy aspects of my figure. I said thanks (really, I wasn’t the least embarrassed, why should I be?), and then she said, “No, really you have the nicest figure” while drawing the curves in the air again. What could I do but smile? I’m all endorphined up, someone’s telling me I look good, what the hell, I’ll take it. What I find interesting is how many women will be very direct (and they are not gay women, either), while men just stare. I have no problem going up to male bikers and telling them they have a nice ass or legs, though. I hope they appreciate it, because I only say it if I mean it!

I’ve just finished getting my post-race nutrition down, at least the start of it. I need to lie down, and this will be a good time, because I think the chain saws are about to be retired for the day, as twilight is approaching. Nothing more for me to do the rest of the day but eat, drink and rest!

Thanks for reading!

I Am Getting This

Pele. The goddess of fire/volcano. I have this exact poster in my office/weight room. She has been with me the last 10 years of my life, which has been a period of change and increasing self-awareness.

I have been reading several books that contain common themes. One that I'm almost done with has a quote from Sariputta:

"Do not look upon your body as your self. Do not think that the body is the self or that the self is the body, or that the self is in the body or that the body is in the self. Do not look upon your feelings as your self, your thoughts as your self, even your consciousness as your self. Your body can change and become otherwise, but grief, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair do not have to arise."

I am finally getting this--that my thoughts, emotions and body are NOT MY SELF. Even as this should be almost obvious, and I've heard/read this before, now I KNOW IT. Yet, I can take comfort in using my body as a vehicle for my mind to LEAVE MY BODY. Pele is not the image you see--she is the spirit of Hawaii--its volcanoes, lava, lush green forests, deep blue sea, insanely colorful fish and terrifically handsome people.

Today I celebrate the totally fucking AMAZING body that I've been given to use in this short Earthly journey. It has opened up many new windows into my hearts, thoughts, but most importantly, MY SELF.

Today's Workout (YES, ONLY ONE!!!)

All right! Only one workout today, because tomorrow is ChickenMan 1/2 Ironman!

1:52PM Run 60'. The plan was easy to steady, self-selected upper steady. Ran on the treadmill, and at first I just wasn't into it, but then I "let go" and got that floaty sensation. Man, I am really running differently now! I feel like I can just drive my legs, and that my upper body is staying relatively still, i.e., I AM TRANSMITTING ALL MY POWER INTO FORWARD MOTION!!! How fucking cool is that? I am still not fast, but today was the first time I was thinking to myself, "Hey, maybe I actually like running."

I am tired, just because I trained hard this week, but also because I know I am "racing" tomorrow. I will not be going terribly hard tomorrow, but I do want to see how well I can run at the end of the festival. If I can be all floaty in a 1/2 Ironman, well, baby, that's pretty fucking significant, don't you think?

Winter is settling in here in the Chicagoland area, and that always changes my mood somewhat. It's dreary, cold, all I want to do is cuddle up in my bed (and yes, it would be nice if there was a hunky guy in there with me so we could have some raucous, enduro-sex) and sleep a lot. Thankfully, work wasn't a bitch today, and so I think some of the mental strain of the week is coming out, and I'm trying to let go of it.

Tomorrow will be happy happy with lots of Ultra Violence being drunk and then lots of beer afterwards.

And I truly believe my life is WAY MORE FUCKING OUTSTANDING IN PINK!!!!!

Something Besides Workouts

OK, so the topic of this post is: How do you know you are doing enough or too much towards increasing your self-awareness? Yesterday while getting a massage I made the statement about myself: "A few weeks ago I thought I was trying too hard, and now I feel like I'm not trying hard enough, and yet I know I was right both times." What does this mean? It's an intrinsic aspect of my personality, and yeah, go ahead and say it I AM NOT UNIQUE. I like things to be projects, with clearly defined entry and exit criteria (i.e., when it starts and how to know when it's done), yet I know that this process of increasing self-awareness isn't a project at all!

But what I find interesting is that I can look at myself and my desire for this to be well-defined and realize that's just another quirk of human nature and I can SEE that that's my instinct, and I can even sense when I feel anxious, and just let it be. So I guess that means that things are moving along quite nicely.

I am sleeping like a rock--or as I saw someone else describe what happens when you are doing consistent, high-quality lifting, like I'm in a coma. Coma, as in unconscious state, NOT the coma, or head, of a COMET. Not only that, but I can feel the fatigue daily now. I feel like I need a good 12-hour sleep. Maybe tonight...I have to give myself the best shot at feeling good throughout my 1/2 Ironman tomorrow.

What I'm trying to do is bring that ability that I have when doing my workouts to just go into my "flow" state outside of the workout realm. I'm sure I've said it before, but it helps to keep reminding myself where I'm heading. I've seen a similar theme expressed in a book that I'm reading--The Runner and the Path--so again, I know I'm not unique in thinking that I should be able to "extend" the gift I give to myself when I run or bike or swim into the rest of my daily life.

A good friend of mine thinks that what I'm doing when I exercise is just "focusing," and at one time it was primarily that, but now I have "refocused" that activity in just letting myself be in a free state where I am just letting my body go on autopilot.

There's a time and a place to let my brain do its thinking thing--and there's also plenty of time to let it shut itself down or become the third-party observer of itself.

Yesterday's Workouts

Sorry, I ran out of time--well, really ENERGY--to do this yesterday, as work was just crazy. I went from one conference call to the next, but at least I got some public kudos about my work. Although it was funny, during this huge, departmental web presentation, I was referred to as "Lisa." I believe it was a dyslexic moment on the part of the speaker, where he combined my boss's first name with my last name. It didn't phase me, but she PM'ed me and said she was sorry! I replied that it was no big deal. After all, people who know me know me, and I was PM'ed by several people in congratulations.

7:30AM Strength, abs and core only, 29'. When I woke up yesterday I felt stiff and tense, but as I began to move around, I didn't feel so bad, and then this workout got things back on track. Although afterwards, I felt like I had done a major workout! And then the madness of the work day began.

Luckily, I had put time on my work calendar to get my second workout in--if I hadn't, no way would I have got to it, since someone would have scheduled me something during that time. After call #1, I had to hop to and update a spreadsheet to the best of my abilities, and the information needed to be passed along to someone else to add even more information, and the whole thing needed to be delivered by end of day. I was hoping that my morning additions would be all that I was accountable for, but I didn't know. Basically, I finished my contribution, and then did my next workout.

11:12AM Bike 1:20 on trainer. Same fucking workout as on Tuesday. I had known I probably needed to dump the SRM data and charge it, but I hadn't, and sure enough during my second FT interval the thing began to act flaky, so that was that. Part of me just wanted to stop the workout, or else ride easy for the remainder, but NOOOOOOOO, I'm not that sort of girl, so I pressed on, using only my heart rate to guide my effort level. The rest of the workout sucked just as badly as if I had power to go by, and my heart rates seemed to be in line. No matter, I certainly went hard enough, considering I'm doing a 1/2 Ironman on Saturday.

After the workout, I went right into my next call, which I didn't know was happening until a colleague asked me if I was dialing in. Thank goodness for friends! And this was the call where I was publicly thanked for doing such a good job on this messy situation which has been going on since last week. Can I please see some CASH if I'm so fucking good???? Gosh, that would be nice. On a positive note, my boss's new boss is someone I highly respect, although I have no clue about his abilities as a manager, but I think he will be great. And we've worked together before, so he knows how I operate. So this could be a really good thing. Who knows? I can't predict the future!

Then I went into my next crisis call, where we firmed up that I had no further commitment to finding out any more information for the infamous spreadsheet. THANK GOD!!! Because I needed to next go and get a massage and then come back for ONE FINAL CALL of the day.

The massage was, as always, great. Given by Cindy. She knows my body really well. I was amazed that for all the hard training I've been doing that when she got in there deeply into the muscles, they felt really good--nice and supple, no trigger points except the usual ones in my upper shoulders which are just stress-related. Even my right hamstring, which has been truculent in the past 6 weeks, has worked itself out. I think this is due to running more on the treadmill, so there is no lopsidedness as I experience when running on the roads. Don't get me wrong--I HATE the fucking treadmill as much as the next guy, but it's good for me to run on it through the winter precisely because it allows my body to get into better alignment.

I keep looking at my workouts this year as compared to last year. I feel like I'm working harder--either that or I'm just getting old! Actually, I think I'm just attacking things with more intensity than ever, and each fall I forget how extra tired the strength workouts make me.

I am SO looking forward to ONLY ONE WORKOUT on Friday, and then my 1/2 Ironman race on Saturday!

Today's Workouts

Well kids, work was pretty stressful again, but the workouts, as always, did the trick:

7:15AM Swim 2800 yards, :59. The usual Wednesday workout, with 10x100 in it. However, the pool was FUCKING HOT. Like 87. And my arms were fried from yesterday's strength session. And my legs were fried from yesterday's bike session. So it was not a good pool session! I was swimming very slowly, but I focused on maintaining good form. Several other swimmers confirmed that the pool was hot.

11:00AM Lift 2x12, :18. Finished yesterday's mammoth session and did legs, finished back and tris.

2:24PM Run 1:00. I was tired before I started this, and while I didn't want to use any Code Red this week until ChickenMan, I just HAD TO. So I had a little of the Ultra Violence and was ready to go, but then someone from work just HAD to talk to me, and I had a delay of game of about 1 hour. I even had to eat a gel about 10' into the run. Oh, yes, this was on the treadmill. Only in the 20's here in Chicagoland today. Freaking high winds (the tree limb still has not fallen).

Now I am tired. Nothing left. Which means I've had a great day!

Today's Workouts

7AM Lift 2x12, 51'. I didn't get my legs done :) I may skip them this week due to ChickenMan on Saturday, or do them tomorrow. I decided I'd do just one workout of 2x12, but I'll do another abs/core/PT workout on Thursday. Felt strong doing this.

2:04PM The now infamous bike workout included 3x15' (2') FT watts. Damn, the workout is fucking hard! But I did it.

No particular thoughts today about myself. Started the work day off with a fire drill, and although I didn't want to be the one delivering the hard message to upper-level Sales, I did it, and it felt good doing it. Maybe sometime, somwhere, this will earn me a couple of brownie points. Who knows!

As I expected, there were no responses to my tri-drs post in response to using my name as in reference to the pool rage incident. Perhaps there was discussion on some "secret" lists, but I really don't care. I made my point which was emotions just are; they are not to be judged.

I am mentally exhausted from my work day today and also the workouts. I feel like I need to be doing more on my mental front, but I also think I'm in a good holding pattern. I'm reading another book--The Runner and the Path--which is pretty good so far. I keep seeing recurring themes in the books I'm choosing lately, so maybe I'm on the right track here.

Today's Workouts

7:22AM Swim 2750 yards 1:03. Did the drill workout I've been doing on Mondays for awhile. This was an optional workout, and truly I felt pretty tired this morning, but thought, oh well, I'll give it a whirl. Turns out I must have been doing something right, because when I played "swim golf," my score was the lowest ever. Sometimes it seems that when I am tired that I don't think so much and the swimming is better.

I need to remember my word from yesterday: HUMILITY. That's something I need to have, always!

1:12PM Run 50', including strides. Again, I was tired when I started, but I did most of this on the treadmill and kept a decent pace. I didn't need to go hard in this workout, so I didn't.

I did not drink any Code Red today! Also no beer. I am "cleansing the system" in preparation for this weekend's ChickenMan (indoor 1/2 Ironman), that I will be doing solo. Last year I did it with friends Matt and Judy. Matt seems unable to commit to anything lately (except he did manage to stalk the Ironman Florida participant list to notice I was registered), and Judy I wasn't going to ask anyway, and besides she fucked up an ankle and can't even run on it. I don't need any company to do this anyway. You know me (or might if you've read everything here). I just go and do stuff now. No spectators, no competition except myself, no expectations, no shirts, no medals! In fact, I'm sure that after this non-race event I will just go home, eat and pass out. Sounds delightful to me!

In other news, the tree limb is still being held up by the crown of the adjacent tree (don't remember if I posted about that). I had an estimate to remove it--$195!!! But also the power company came out with an arborist and said it probably won't fall on the power line anyway--it will just crash onto the ground. So do I take my chances? The entire tree is dying, and it will cost big bucks to get it removed--it's mostly on the neighbor's property, but I'm willing to chip in to have it cut down. Or maybe his dad will do it. Who knows? I just don't want this one limb falling on my power lines or whatever.

And then there's tri-drs. That bastion of stupidity and ignorance! Someone used my name today AGAIN as in "someone who's committed an outrageous act." This hearkens back to September, when I did have quite the pool rage incident. And I was fucking stupid enough to write about it publicly! I was totally honest about what happened and how I responded, and well let's just say it ended by me screaming at this man in the pool that the reason I got hit is "BECAUSE YOU FUCKING SUCK!" It was very memorable. I thought he broke my hand. He shouldn't have hit me except for him being such a suck-ass swimmer. OK, so some people reading my account figure that no matter how it happened, I shouldn't have yelled like that, it had to be accidental. Well, too fucking bad, because the asshole couldn't even figure out where he was in the lane and didn't even apologize to me, and then he insisted on arguing me about how it was MY fault and all. So I gave it to him. And I wrote about it! And ever since then, I have caught hell in one form or another from people on that stupid fucking list about my behavior. AND people use my name as in "pull a Sheila." Well, I decided enough of that. My name was used today as in "Sheila wouldn't have wanted someone filming her during that" in relation to Normann Stadler crying (it was on TV) after his second flat in Ironman Hawaii. First of all, dude has the right to feel HOWEVER HE WANTS. Secondly, nobody has the right to judge him for crying.

So I wrote back to the list as follows:

First, invoking my name as in some sort of
"episode" is now copyright infringement without my express
consent.

Second, if I had been caught on video, well it is what it
is, I would treasure the film as a learning experience. And sell
copies.

Third, emotions are emotions. Good ones,
uncomfortable ones. To cry, to lash out in anger, to jump for joy, all are
valid expressions. They come, they go. To judge them is
ridiculous. You don't have to like someone else's emotional display, but
it is not for any of us to tell another person that they had no right to
FEEL.

Yep, there's crying in triathlon. There's crying in
life.

Normann is still a champion. Even more so, in my book,
that he showed perfectly human emotions.

>Well, I certainly
wouldn't want to be photographed in my worst >moments..>and I don't think
that Sheila would have wanted to be on taped during
>her taper.

In case they didn't get it, that was a big FUCK YOU, and I did mean it about don't try and judge someone else's emotions. Fuck them all. And, no, I am NOT apologizing for what happened that day.

Today's workout

"Long run": 9:19AM 1:30, done on treadmill. 30' easy; 20' steady; 20' upper steady; 20' mod-hard.

I was tired and hungover when I started. Tired, still from Friday's festival of raking, gutter cleaning and working out 2 hours, and then yesterday working out pretty hard. Yesterday, Ironman Hawaii was on TV, and I didn't plan anything in between the morning workout and the broadcast, which started at 3:30. Good thing!

I am such a lightweight and shouldn't drink AT ALL....that will come in January when I go on my austerity plan.

So I used a little bit of the old Code Red (I should just call it Ultra Violence), and got through the workout just fine. I stretched afterward, and then came home to the high winds (25-35MPH sustained; gusts to 55) and saw a bunch of small tree branches in my driveway. I looked up at this one tree and see this large branch (about 6-8" diameter) breaking free of the main trunk. Luckily, the top of the branch is caught in the next tree, which seems to be holding it, and hopefully it won't break away until tomorrow, when I can get someone to cut it down.

I was checking out some triathlon forums this morning and people were giving Normann Stadtler shit about DNF'ing at Ironman Hawaii. Fuck, people should shut their fucking mouths until they are in his EXACT position. I've DNF'ed twice at Ironman races, and trust, me, it isn't fun. But you make the decision and then you move on. It's not fucking life and death to not finish a race!

My friend (and bitch) Shelley made the NBC TV coverage. I'm happy for her! We are designing these killer T-shirts together, and if they work, we will probably sell a bunch of them! They are pretty irreverent in terms of what they say, so they *will* offend some people. Too fucking bad!

I am currently being "pursued" by some guy....it makes me laugh, since I really don't give a fuck what happens now. I have goals, I am going after them, and that's that!

Oh--got some new pink shoes the other day--I should post pics of them they are AWESOME!!!