Race Toes

For this Sunday...

Beginning of ZebraMan Weekend

But first a little food porn:
I was invited to my friend Matt's for dinner yesterday, as his wife was out of town with family, and Matt and I haven't seen one another since the infamous spring ride where he was taking pics of me peeing. Matt had cooked for his family who had been by earlier in the day, and he always makes tons of excellent food, so there was plenty leftover for me. That's one of his dogs, Micky, on the chair. I couldn't get her to look at me--she was too interested in Matt! I started with bruschetta, some olives and then the pasta was with a shrimp and cream sauce. Of course, TONS O' GARLIC!!! The food was great, and we had some Chianti that was awesome, too. We went downstairs into Matt's newly finished basement (it's like an Italian den of iniquity--travertine floor, beautiful woodwork) and continued talking non-stop, and then Matt showed me pictures from his most recent trip to Italy (Tuscany, to be specific). I swear I am half Italian! Anyway, the food and company was awesome, but I made it an early evening since I was pretty tired from lifting for an hour, skiing for about 1/2 hour, and then I tried to bike but gave up.

This morning I'm going to do a sprint ZebraMan, just because, why well not? Here are my race clothes (plus one additional item that I will wear when finished):


I did my toes up special for this weekend, too:

And finally, this evening, I will sleep in my brand new pirate sheets:

Did you know that pirates go with most any decor? ;) I do need to make a new duvet cover, and I'm thinking pirates on one side and zebra on the other...I am such a cliche!

Don't worry--there will be pics of me racing...check back later for sprint results, and have a great Friday!

Back 2 Skool and Getting Ready for Triple T

Last night I went back to school. Massage school. Not to learn, but to be a volunteer body. It was heaven! The class is all women, so you guys go ahead and fantasize. The woman who worked on me is just learning, and I was telling her which muscles she was on and she was impressed by my knowledge. When she was working on my upper back, I requested work on my subscapularis, and the instructor showed everyone in the class how flexible I am and she dug right underneath my scapula, and it felt oh so good! I get to go to school for many weeks now. I ended up getting basically an hour of good massage. Of course, as is typical, I always asked for more pressure, since I am used to people going quite deep on me. So here's me laying on a table, and every few minutes it was, "Harder." Or, "Deeper." And Helen was nice enough to keep asking me, "How's the pressure?" I've learned it's good to always reinforce the person working on you with encouragement, like, "That feels really good," "Keep doing it that way," and "Right there. You are right on it."

I am also, little by little, getting my shit together for Triple T. The amount of crap I need to bring is incredible. And then there are all the little odds and ends that need to get done before I go away. I started on my race toes Sunday night and finished them up yesterday:









Race Toes

I also defizzed these happy fluids yesterday in some pitchers and put them back in the bottle where they will await their call to duty this weekend:











Defizzed Coke and Ultra Violence

Lastly, I don't know how they got there, but I spotted a bunch o' whores on LGL:









Whores on LGL

Today my objective is to make my "food bag" and make piles of crap all over the house that I'll be taking with me. Oh and there's that pesky brick workout and my job to do also. It will all get done, though.

Here's the theme song for the Tiki Hut at Triple T:

Happy Feet and Not Enough Calories

I was feeling a little introspective and it got me a little down yesterday, but once I started making my toes all sparkly it fixed everything. It's tough to be unhappy with happy feet! I couldn't decide which color I liked more which is why I ended up doing each foot a different color. I have gone with 10 different colors at once. I thought I wanted the blood red, but once I put it on I didn't like it so much, but that got fixed up when I added the sparkle coating. Yes, I'm like a little girl sometimes with my love of pink stuff and sparkly stuff. But I have my limits. You will not catch me in a matched set of sweats with rhinestone lettering on them. Sandals with rhinestones? Sure. Diamonds? Hell yeah.

I woke up early again today feeling very hungry. I thought I had been eating non-stop in the evening, so after eating something right away, I added up what I had eaten on Tuesday. I can pretty much remember whatever I've taken in, harkening back to when I've needed to watch my intake more closely. I added up conservatively and it was about 2500 calories. I biked 1:25 and the Ergomo said I burned 830 calories in that time! I wasn't even going hard! And then I lifted weights for :45 which I figure is only another couple hundred calories, so I probably did undereat by about 500 calories or so. I'm not really sure. Which is why I'm trying to find somewhere I can get my RMR/BMR measured again so I know what I should be doing.

I used to be obsessive about wearing the HRM and noting the calories on the power meter and using those numbers to guide my food intake, but I no longer use an HRM and I haven't been looking at the bike numbers, either. I've sort of just been guesstimating what I think I'm burning, but if that bike number from yesterday is right, I am way underestimating. Yet I hate to just eat like a total pig until I gain weight--that seems stupid to me.

So today, so far I've swum for 1:05 (fairly hard) and I ran for an hour, slightly slower than tempo pace, and through lunch and recovery stuff, I've had about 1,300 calories. I think I need to eat a lot more today yet...I should probably get in about 1,800 more. I think I may need to start drinking a carb supplement . Or get back on pasta more often.

I think part of my problem is the nervous energy I'm burning up with my Dad's stuff. There is still some stress going on, I can't deny that, and one thing I don't need more of is stress or additional calorie-burning activities!

But I won't know until I find out some real numbers, so stay tuned...I really don't like it when someone says to me, "Nice problem to have." No it isn't. I need to time my calorie intake based on when I'm going to train (typically once before work and once in mid-day), and at some point I just can't put any more in. But I just thought of some other snack foods I need to start buying again--string cheese for one--and really it comes down to a couple hundred calories here and there, and that should do the trick!

Oh and there was some excellent scenery at the pool this AM. Swam this workout:

WU: 200 swim, 200 pull, 200 kick, 4 x 50 (10") Swim Golf
MS: 10 x 150 (15") as 100 Hard, 50 Easy.
100 easy swim.
2 x 200 (15") pull, Steady with excellent stroke.
8 x 25 (15") as 25 Hard, 25 Easy
CD: 100 easy swim

I was pretty fried after the 150's, but the rest was easy so no big deal.