New Bike Porn!!!!

My bike frame arrived at the bike shop yesterday, so I HAD to go look at it! OMG, the thing is a work of art! Photo above, plus pics of some of the components. Don't worry--once she's put together, I'll post pics of herself here!

• Frame/fork: Pinarello Dogma FPX, magnesium alloy (go here to read more about it)
• Gruppo: Dura-Ace 10-speed (no I did not go Campy--I trust Shimano and like it)
• Wheelset: Fulcrum Racing Red
• Pedals: Dura-Ace 7800
• Skewers: Salsa Titanium Flip-Offs, Red
• Bars: Salsa Carbon Poco (yeah, I'm small, he he)
• Cages: Arundel Trident
• Power Meter: Ergomo Pro, compact carbon crankset (yes, I would have liked the SRM Pro with FSA compact carbon crankset, but a girl's got to save SOME pennies)
• Tires: Vittoria Open Pave CG green sidewalls (to complete the Italian flag)
• Shoes: Sidi Genius 5 Mesh (of course I had to pick friggin' expensive shoes, to boot, but you know they HAD to match!)
• Helmet: Limar 908 (amazingly I did not spend over $100 on the helmet!)

You cannot believe this frame--to me it's just plain sexy--to my LBSG, it's "bad-ass." Yeah, I'll be a bad-ass on that thing. The frame/fork weighs maybe 1.5 lbs.? I held it up by my pinkie finger! Both the fork and the seat stay are unpainted carbon fiber, and are just plain beautiful! I have seen a lot of nice bikes, but this is in a different league!

It's tough to say just how excited I am about this--I should have my parts next week, meaning I may be on the thing in under 2 weeks!

And her name? La Gazza Ladra. Figure that one out!

Weekly Workout Totals 3/12/2007-3/18/2007 and Miscellaneous Stuff

Sorry this is a little late.

Recap of last week: I toned things down as I have been feeling like these crazy weekend race/long run combos have been doing a number on me. I've still got 2 1/2 months until Triple T, and I'll be ready for it, and then another 2 1/2 months until Ironman Lake Placid. No worries! Can you believe the Crackhead is not concerned about her training volume?

Truth is, I've been doing a bit of spring cleaning in the house. One thing led to another, and I am going through much of my house and doing detailed cleaning, which to me includes assessing every object and whether it needs to stay or go. I ended up shredding a bunch of old checking account ledgers (I've switched to paperless) and other financial stuff (word to the wise: if you are going to buy your own shredder, GET A GOOD ONE! The one I bought is a piece of crap and gets jammed if you look at it the wrong way), cleaning all exposed hardwood floors, vacuuming every closet to remove spider webs and dust bunnies, etc. I've got 2 cell phones that I am going to recycle, and an old IBM Thinkpad that is probably toast that I need to find an environmentally-friendly way to dispose of.

The other thing that's happened is buying a new bike has unleashed a spending binge of sorts, but on stuff I need. I already got 4 new swimsuits (my Splish addiction grows; but 3 of my old ones are nearly worn out so this is justified), I ordered shoes to match my new bike and the Bitch (I'm not talking about bike shoes here--these are REGULAR SHOES THAT MATCH!!!), ordered seeds and plants, some underwear (my basic Jockey stuff), a few CD's, a new triathlon book (I'll review it here when I've read it), a helmet, and I just ordered some winter cycling clothing for later this year and next year in my "big cycling year of 2008."

I used to be a real stickler about an insanely clean house, and then I took up triathlon. My house is still usually cleaner than any friends' homes I visit, even though they mostly have cleaning services, but I always think it could be cleaner. I've let go of a lot of my former cleanliness obsession, but getting back in touch with it on a temporary basis has been kind of fun. I remember in my pre-triathlon days when I'd have the house just so, and I would love spending a leisurely Sunday reading, cooking or sewing in a fully clean house! Now I'm just happy if I get the dishes done....

I've located a buyer for my Power Tap, and I'm close on selling my Trek road bike as well. Both will have great new homes and bring much enjoyment to their new owners. I hope I have the new steed next week!

I wrote to the head of a local bike club regarding membership, and I included my typical training paces. The response I received was that there are a "few" riders in the club that go that fast, but that most are recreational riders. Oh well, I'll keep looking...

Oh yeah--I have my last indoor triathlon this Sunday. Frankly, I don't care if I beat SBH--she's already won the series by beating me 3 times--but I decided this week that all my exercise is easy aerobic stuff--I am not doing a track workout on Wednesday, and I am not doing hard bike intervals except maybe today, and then next week will be my last week of rest, and then I really need to START TRAINING! My sleeping is improving--this morning I woke up at 3AM, and I read for 1/2 hour and then fell back asleep.

Have I commented yet about how my strength training has paid off this season? My arms, chest and back are all bigger and stronger than a year ago. My legs, hips and butts are still the same size, so WOO-FUCKING-HOO! For awhile there I was doing an extra session of upper body work, so I guess it has paid off. Funny thing is I haven't gained any weight, so my guess is my body fat went down maybe another .5-1%? Whatever, I can certainly tell how my new swimsuits fit that I've gotten a tad bigger across my chest and back. Now if only I would start swimming faster...whatever.

Happy Spring, by the way! It's only a matter of time before the daffodils are blooming, and I'll try and remember to take some photos of my flower beds, as the beautiful parade of blooms begins!


Weekly Totals 03/12/2007-03/18/2007
Swim: 7700 yards (4.37 miles) in 2.65 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 927 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 81.39 miles in 4.65 hours; 38% of weekly workout time; approx. 2131 calories burned
Run: Approx. 22.04 miles in 3.39 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 1532 calories burned
Strength: 1.48 hours; 12% of weekly workout time; approx. 370 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 107.8 miles in 12.17 hours; approx. 4960 calories burned
Sleep: 8.21 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.27 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours

That's Amore! (free recipe included)

That's the helmet I just ordered online for the new steed. Hint: Italian. I love Italian stuff--Italian red wines (favorite is Barolo), Italian food (been cooking it for years), Italian men (Mario Cipollini would be proud of my soon-to-be bike styling), Italian cars (if only I could afford or even RIDE IN a Ferrari), Italian bikes (he he).

Speaking of Italian food, I must be cooking too much. My freezer is jam-packed with goodies! But they should last me a few months, and come in handy once I begin doing double long rides on the weekend.

I don't know what's up with my body--but I keep waking up starving. My guess is that I am way off on my calorie needs, especially since I don't wear my HRM any more to give me a clue as to what I'm burning. I feel like a damn Ferrari--I run on high performance fuel! A few other very low body fat athletes I know report the same phenomenon, so I'm really not complaining--it's just a bit unnerving to wake up at 4AM because my body is done processing my last meal (if you know what I mean, wink-wink!) and my stomach is growling!

This racing every other week with big, intense weekends has been fun, but man, it's exhausting. I am truly glad this will be over in 2 weeks. But the intensity has been revving me up in other ways, as evidenced by a recent sewing binge, and today I pulled down drapes in 2 bedrooms and took them to the dry cleaners, drove around looking for a helmet to match the new bike (gave up on bricks and mortar as you saw above), ordered seeds and plants for my flower beds (I always order a bunch of annual seeds and I need some fill-in perennials as well), managed to get in a 2:15 workout (I actually cut it short because I was bonking because I started late and should have eaten another meal before I started but oh well) and I just finished making 2.5 batches of the following, which you just HAVE to try, especially if you love garlic! If you don't love garlic--what's wrong with YOU????

Linguini Fini con Salsa di Noce (Thin Linguine with Walnut Sauce)

Ingredients:
1 pound Linguini Fini (the smaller linguini), or Spaghetti works great, too.

Sauce:

1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pignoli (pine nuts)
2 large cloves garlic (I’m like Emeril LaGasse—more garlic is better, so you might go for 3-4 large cloves)
4 TBSP lightly chopped fresh parsley (do NOT use dried parsley in this recipe--basically remove the stems, and your food processor will do the rest)
1 TBSP softened butter (salted, please)
1 TBSP olive oil (good, extra-virgin)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese (I used fat-free, and it works just great—otherwise you might need to drain the regular kind)
1 TBSP water (more if needed)
1/2 tsp salt (Kosher salt is the best in almost all recipes)
liberal grindings of fresh pepper (at least 1 tsp.)
pinch of dried oregano (actually about 1/8 tsp., which is like a pinch to me—you can use ground oregano, and it works quite well)
1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan or Romano cheese (Locatello Romano works best--don't use the stuff in a can)

Put all the ingredients into the bowl of your food processor, and process until smooth--there might be some chunks of nuts visible (not in my giant Cuisinart, though), which is OK. If it is too dense, add drops of water sparingly. This makes enough to fit into one of the 1-lb. deli containers, and keeps in the fridge for several days. It's good by itself! It also freezes well.

To serve, cook the pasta al dente (which is 8-9 minutes in rolling, boiling, salted water), add the sauce and toss with forks until blended. Yum!!!

You can double the recipe and only use a bit of the sauce at a time and freeze the rest. It freezes quite well.

More sewing and bike shopping

I made this shirt for my coach for his birthday, shown above finished and also a close-up of the print. I had this fabric in the house for a few years--I bought it in Kealakekua, Hawaii (on the Big Island) 3+ years ago. At one time I was planning on making a dress from it, but I ran across it and thought, hey, that would make a cool guy's shirt. I have no idea if the coach will wear it other than perhaps camping, but I think it's cool, and if it were mine, I would wear it when I was in a "Bite Me" sort of mood!

I have located all my new bike's parts except for the shoes I want, but those should not be a problem. It's been interesting finding things in my CORRECT size for this bike--turns out my existing road bike wasn't fitted too well to me, but the new steed will be perfect. I went nuts on the components, as this is my dream bike, so everything is going to be top-notch. This bike will be more precious than my Griffen, which itself is pretty high-end. Of course, I didn't NEED another power meter, but hey, that's what I like, so the new girl gets one, too.

If anyone is interested, I have a Power Tap built into a 700cm wheel that I am looking to sell for a good price. It's a Powertap Pro, very lightly used, but needs service, probably just the battery. Contact me if interested.

I seem to be recovering from the last weekend pretty well, although I'm still not sleeping consistently over 8 hours. Maybe I've just been too excited about too many things, who knows? If I can make all my scheduled workouts this week, though, that will be good. Only 2 more weeks until I'm back on a "normal" training regimen!!! Which is good, because by then, it should be more reliably warm out and I'll have a new bike and I'll be ready to rock and roll on it!

I'm in Love

...with my soon to be new road bike. My Bitch (pictured above chillin' in Kona) is going to have a new sister, and my existing road bike is going to be sold (anyone interested, let me know and I'll send you the specs and pricing information).

My new frame has been located. I'm told I will have a one of a kind because this frame is a rare bird--I suppose I could have named her "rara avis," but once I have her, I'll reveal her name.

In some ways, I'm a miser--I don't spend money on the "typical" things many people do--going to the movies, stylish clothing, makeup, fancy car, home renovation and decor. Since my 20's I've been saving as much money as possible, because I have never felt financially secure. Why? Because growing up I wasn't. My Dad had his own business for awhile, and when that folded due to technological advances (even though he's an extremely intelligent man), I believe he fell into a depression of sorts and didn't work for many years, and my Mom took over the family upkeep. I can't complain too much, though, because we still had a roof over our heads, we didn't suffer for good food (my Mom was a great cook--not the way I cook, but great for the family), and we still received Christmas and birthday presents, although they were usually necessities. I did spend a bit more while I was married because we had 2 incomes, but it's just me now, so I'm still careful.

I never felt like I was missing out on much because I had many things going for me--we had a piano, and I could play it. Out of 5 kids, I was the only one who was drawn to it instinctively. I began playing tunes I had heard in cartoons by ear at the age of 4. Mom threw some music in front of me by age 5, and I picked up the notation as if it were my native language, and I began lessons by age 6. That piano is still in my childhood home, and I believe my Mom has left it to me in her will, but I do not wish to take it away while my Dad is still living. It's a beautiful, upright Wurlitzer with real ivory keys. You cannot get ivory keys on a piano now, and I would not want them--but the piano was made about 70 years ago, and back then we thought we could kill as many elephants for their tusks as we wanted to make pianos and jewelry! I loved playing the piano--now I just have an electric Rhodes (88 keys, though), that I just tinker on every now and then.

Sometime during grade school (while my Dad was still employed), our ONE TV died, and Dad decided not to fix it (he had at one time worked for Admiral TV, so he knew how to fix it) for an entire summer. No problem! I went to the pool to hang out every afternoon, I taught myself to crochet, and Dad made us read books and do book reports. So I developed a love for handicrafts and reading.

I was into school from the get-go. Back when I was in grade school, it was acceptable for teachers to single out the brighter kids. Lucky for me, because I was one of them, and there were competitions held in reading and math, and I was all over that. So my competitive streak was developed beginning in the first grade! If there was a prize, I was going to win it, dammit, even though the age group was coed!

In 3rd grade, we had the first "election" for a Class President. It was me against a boy. The boy won by one vote, and I was crushed. Welcome to sex discrimination! That one incident set me out to excel even more and show that I could play with the big boys--I DID win the very next election, so I guess I was pushing for women's rights way back then!

By 5th grade, my teachers knew they needed to do something special with me, as I was well beyond the rest of the class, even the other bright kids. My parents did not have money to send me to a private school, and they had tried skipping me 3 grades when I was in first grade, but the principal wouldn't do it because he didn't think my emotional development could take it (in retrospect, I bet if I was a boy they would have skipped me without batting an eye). So early on I was progressing beyond the rest of my classmates, no thanks to a rich intellectual environment at home--we played a lot of mental games including "Go to the Head of the Class" (the precursor to Trivial Pursuit, only it wasn't about trivia), watched a lot of National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau specials on TV, and my Dad took me on regular trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and Ravinia Festival.

So in 5th grade, my teachers allowed me to "fast track" myself in math, reading and Spanish, and I would just "sit through" the other subjects and keep quiet, unless the teacher specifically called on me to answer a question nobody else could. I went to summer school beginning in 7th grade, not because I HAD to, but because I WANTED TO.

My high school was forewarned about me (still public school), since they would need to do something for me lest I be royally bored. So I studied 3 foreign languages at the same time (Spanish, Russian and German), became a teacher's aide in all three, and they put me in math and English classes with kids 2 years older than me, and I was still rather bored and threw off the grading curve. Yes, back then we had ACTUAL GRADES and we were all evaluated against one another. It was a beautiful world to me! I graduated high school as one of 4 valedictorians, but I am always careful to point out that I was the only 1 of the 4 who had perfect straight A's for the QUARTERS, not just at the end of each year! I also graduated with twice the credits required to graduate.

Oh, and the only sports I did back then was badminton--I was on a coed intramural team with this guy and we beat the pants off everyone else. The very first arrow I shot in gym class was a bulls-eye, but I never pursued that. I sucked at golf and kickball. I would ride my bike recreationally as a way to cool the mental jets and get fresh air.

7th grade was when I took up sewing and cooking and learned to type. My typing teacher was amazed at how fast I was right away (80+ wpm), and I told him I played piano, and I asked him if that explained it, and he grinned and said, "Yes, it most certainly does." I moved up to 100+wpm over the summer, and this enabled me to begin working part-time alongside my Mom.

The sewing thing was initially a necessity, as my Mom had been sewing my clothes, but since she had to return to work because my Dad decided to stay unemployed for awhile, she wouldn't have time to sew so much, and as a young girl, I wanted to be somewhat fashionable, so I taught myself.

My academic glories paid off, as I earned a full scholarship to Northwestern University, where I decided to "have fun," and didn't worry so much about my grades. In the end, I graduated with an A minus average, and I was perfectly OK with that. I started out pre-med, then switched to biomechanical engineering, then education, and finally, I majored in math. If I had honed in on math right away, I would have had a graduate degree in 4 years, but I wasn't worried.

I worked while I was in college, too--for 2 years as an assistant to a genetics professor (mostly feeding and cleaning up after fruit flies, ah, Drosophila!), and then doing night office work typing from dictation. The night job was a buzz, because they paid me for 4 hours no matter how long the work took! Since I was still a speedy typist, I would get the work done in 1.5-2 hours max. But I was so honest, I kept telling them to leave me more, and they just couldn't believe I was getting it all done so fast. After a few months, I began CORRECTING what I was hearing and putting little notes on the finished product to let them know what I had changed. After another month or so, they told me to stop leaving the notes, because they trusted me to correct things! What was I typing? Group insurance quotes from Underwriters. So as I typed, I learned another new skill. The year I took off from college to earn some more money (the academic scholarship didn't include extracurriculars like my Sorority dues), this company (Washington National Insurance) happily allowed me to work full-time, and even as they saw me work live, they couldn't believe what I could do. So they immediately promoted me (much to the chagrin of some other young women who had worked there for a few years), and asked if I wanted to become an Underwriter. But lucky for me, the Group Actuary asked to speak with me about a career as an Actuary. So I began taking those exams, finished up my last year of college, and during my last year I got a job at a consulting firm doing actuarial calculations and working with computer programs to calculate numbers required to be reported to the government about pension plans.

Through all of this, I lived frugally, because it was just how I had been raised. When I got the job at the consulting firm, though, I couldn't believe how much money they were going to pay me, and yet I still didn't go wild spending. And even as my career marched on through my 20's and 30's, it was always difficult for me to make big purchases. Still is.

So now I'm about to drop major cash on a new bike. All I needed was some encouragement from a few "enablers" to convince me I deserved the new bike. I do have the money, and even though I don't live as frugally as I once did, I still do not spend to the same level that many people I know do. But I also love the fact that I can cook really well, sew really well and even fix a few things myself. My Mom said, right up until her death last year, that she was always conflicted about how "independent" I grew up to be. Needless to say, it can get me into a bit of trouble with men, because I am not one to act dumb or helpless. But it applies equally well to other women, who can be puzzled by my assertive nature. Triathlon is a good thing for me because it allows me to be myself 100%, even if at times I appear overly aggressive in my goal setting or race expectations.

And I'm still cheap in some ways. But now it's more of a selective cheapness. I could care less that my kitchen could use an overhaul--I'd rather have a new bike! I should have the entire interior of my house painted, but I can't stand the thought of how much time it would take to move all the furniture (which invariably leads to assessing every single object and whether it should stay or go) and all that--I'd rather be out riding my bike!

My new bike comes at a good time for me. It seems that I go in 5-year cycles, where there is some major change. I suppose this new bike is sort of a mid-life crisis, but I don't feel like I'm in a crisis--just that it was time for me to be a little frivolous.

I'm not saying what the new bike is--when it's built, I will take pictures (good ones), and tell all about it. And now I need to begin saving for my 2008 exploits, which will involve my butt on that bike for many miles. I'm definitely going to California in February to ride the Tour of California ahead of the peloton, and someone gave me another idea for one of my dream trips--cycling in Italy! So those 2 things will bracket my next year, and I have no clue what will come in between, but I suspect my Bitch will feel left out if I don't fit in a few triathlons, at least 1/2 Ironman distance. But so far, 2008 does not include an Ironman.

I suppose I'm also feeling good today because I slept a solid 9 hours last night, even though I had my first near-death experience riding outdoors. Yes, that's right--my first outdoor ride, and I almost got killed! Good thing I was paying attention to the stupid fool turning right trying to run me over and was able to swerve to avoid being hit. The man apologized to me, but I told him, "You need to look BOTH WAYS AND USE TURN SIGNALS." Of course, that nice statement followed on the heels of an extremely loud diatribe, whose contents I will not reproduce here.

It's spring, I'm in love, life is great!

Weekly Workout Totals 3/5/2007-3/11/2007 and Race Report

I failed to best my nemesis, SBH (Surly Bitch Hag) today. What can I say? She was better than me on the day. But at least I looked good doing it and smiled and was encouraging to the rest of the racers and extremely thankful to the volunteers. Unlike SBH...

Maybe you think I am using a strong name for a person because I didn't take first place today. Not so. Me--I just didn't have it, even though I gave it the old college try, and I was bested by a worthy competitor. I am chalking it up to still getting less than optimal amounts of sleep and a crazy workout/racing schedule that has been making it difficult for me to recover. Oh well, my choice (except for the sleep thing)!

Two weeks ago I thought I had spotted my nemesis, and I was right, but today we got to be up close and personal, racing in the same wave. I am positive she knew who I was (#2, we tri harder, right?) and she commenced scowling at me from the get-go. Geez, lady, lighten up a bit! I know I am damn competitive, but that has never stopped me from wishing my fellow competitors good luck, thanking the volunteers (today my man was Ken, who had lost his wife to MS just 2 years ago-- the race proceeds go towards MS, so it was very poignant), and doing at least one thing to make the day fun, even in the midst of a hard effort.

Today I wore a hot pink/black zebra stripe bra top and my lowest of low-cut black Desoto tri shorts. NOTE TO ANONYMOUS: YEAH I LIKE SHOWING OFF MY ABS AND YOU CAN KISS MY NEAR BUTT CRACK THAT WAS SHOWING TODAY. And I looked damn good in the outfit. So SBH is glaring at me, perhaps because of how I'm dressed (tough shit, bitch I have aged better than you--just ask all the men taking a gander), or perhaps that's her way of getting her "game on" (I may get serious looking, but I don't think I've ever scowled at a competitor), and she knows we are closely matched in speed, and we are probably both out for blood today. No smiles for her, though! I am smiling, trying to be relaxed (as relaxed as I can be at the start of a race), SO thankful that Ken is my guy, encouraging the woman I am sharing a swim lane with (who I can tell is a poor swimmer--she ended up doing some combination of pretend backstroke/treading water, but hey, she's here, right? Better than 99% of the people out there) and frankly, as is the case with every race I do, just incredibly grateful that I can DO this shit, you know?

There was no snow to shovel today. I stretched for 20' at home and got a nice pre-race massage. The pool was a bit warm for my tastes, but I should be able to swim OK today, and I did. Still not quite as hard as I would have liked, and I may have even equalled SBH (who is at least 4" taller than me and quite the swimmer, but she was breaststroking there at the end).

Nice, quick shower, change out of my swimsuit bottom (I wore a black swimsuit bottom because I don't like swimming in the tri shorts and we have TEN WHOLE MINUTES FOR COSTUME CHANGE), and on to the bikes. I know SBH and I are pretty equally matched here, as I complete the first mile first in the wave. As we bike, there's a white board where volunteers move a little bike next to your bike number each time you hit a mile, so you know who is on which bike, and me and SBH were scoping one another out. She did complete 1 of 6 miles before me, but I was first on all the rest. So we had to have finished the bike leg neck and neck in terms of mileage completed.

Get off the bike, nearly puke, change shoes (I wear trail shoes on the bikes because they are stiffer than running shoes, and since the bikes don't have clipless pedals, this allows for a bit more power transfer), and head upstairs to run. About 5 other women in my wave, including SBH are at the front of the line. My thought is they can't all be that fast--and I was right--since the entire lot took off like stuntmen who had been shot out of a cannon. I thought to most of them, "I'll see you in a few laps," and I was right. I am certain some of them were surprised to be passed by me, but hey, I think I know what I'm doing.

I didn't even look at my watch or bother with splits, as I thought I was running well enough, but when I hit 1 mile I did look and it was uh-oh, I suck today. I did manage to pick it up for the remainder, but it just wasn't good enough today. SBH may have gone 3/4 lap more than me on the day. Even once when she passed me, I said to her, "Nice run," and I meant it. What did she do? She made some waving hand gesture like "WTF are you doing talking to ME?" Oh well, I tried anyway. When someone says that to me in a race, I try and at least make a thumbs up sign to show that I heard them and I appreciate it, since I may not feel like talking. When I would pass other girls, we invariably exchanged words of encouragement like, "Nice job," "Good pace," and mutual, "Thank you's," even as we are barely able to breathe!

As competitive as I am, hey, it's called COMPETITION for a reason. The word is derived from the Latin word competere, meaning, "to strive together." If there are no other people, it ain't no competition, and I am grateful for others out there pushing for their best and also pushing me to do my best.

So when it's over (after nearly puking, so I did give it my best), I see SBH, and come on, she knows who I am. I extend a hand to congratulate her and she puts her hand out like it was some big inconvenience! I think she only did it because there were other people watching. And of course, she didn't smile. I should have said the big, "Fuck You" right then and there. But I didn't. I said to her, "Great race!" with a smile on my face, and I meant it. But seeing that woman continue to grimace, you can imagine what I was thinking. I feel sorry for her if she couldn't get a bit of good feelings from doing what she did, especially since she won!

And next, I needed to run 1:30, but I couldn't use the treadmills at the race facility, so I gathered up some takeout snacks (they had pizza and pretty good guacamole and chips, YUM!), and drove home to run at my Y. I could have run outdoors, but I just wanted to control my effort and I did NOT want to run hills, and that's all there is from my house.

I had a pretty good run, considering, and I am pretty fucking beat up right now. Tomorrow I have to put on my happy face and give 2 presentations at a conference. Too bad I won't be wearing shorts, because I love to show off my numbers! If anyone tells me I look tired, I will be more than happy to roll up my left sleeve and display the evidence!

All in all, I really can't complain about my performance--it's my own damn fault that I am stacking these nasty fucker workouts over the last 6 weeks, but thankfully only 2 more to go and then hey, a 4 hour ride sounds like a piece of cake! I mean really! So that's the beauty of what I'm doing right now--it's all about making the next stage of training as well as the Desoto American Triple T go well, although let me tell you that will be no cakewalk.

No news on the new bike yet--stay tuned, this shall be done!


Weekly Totals 03/05/2007-03/11/2007
Swim: 5735 yards (3.25 miles) in 2 hours; 16% of weekly workout time; approx. 700 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 89.06 miles in 5.08 hours; 40% of weekly workout time; approx. 2388 calories burned
Run: Approx. 26.91 miles in 4.08 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 1850 calories burned
Strength: 1.43 hours; 11% of weekly workout time; approx. 358 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 119.22 miles in 12.59 hours; approx. 5296 calories burned
Sleep: 8.14 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.6 hours.
Massage: 2 hours

Goals from Last Week:

• Finalize bike frame and component: Well, I have the parts list together...waiting on some details.
• Kick ASS at the next race on Sunday 3/11. I gave it my best, and it was only good for 2nd place, but I'm good with it.
• Kick down the coffee one more notch. DONE.
• Enjoy the fact that I'm on MAINTENANCE STRENGTH TRAINING!!!! Yeah, baby!
  Increase the sleep. Did better than the week before, but still needs work.
• Lose that last stupid pound of weight that is hanging around (although I suppose it could be muscle, so it's not really a concern). DONE.
• Hope that nothing weird or strange happens and nobody close to me or any wild animals die in front of me or bite me. It was a good week.
• Enjoy the heck out of my next week of life. DONE.

Goals for Next Week:

• Improve sleep to over 8 hours per night.
• Less alcohol (hey, I couldn't eat pizza without a beer after a race, could I???)
• RECOVER!

Thank You, Slow Guy

Today I got to do my track workout. I skipped yesterday's bike ride because I woke up too early again and couldn't fall back asleep, but I slept well last night, so I'm getting there on my sleeping.

The track workout includes easy running, strides and a mix of 10K and 5K intervals. I was on my 3rd of 3 sets of the 10K/5K stuff when new runner guy shows up to the track. I had a few minutes of walking time, so I, of course, scoped him out. He didn't appear to be running too fast, but maybe enough to help me out with my next repeat.

So I'm running next to this guy and we're talking, and I'm supposed to be at 10K pace, but I'm running faster than I thought. Anyway, we are chatting (guess I can run faster if I can talk at 10K pace, huh?) and this guy has only run 4.5 miles at the most ever. He's doing a 5K race soon, and he tells me he is going to win the 40+ age group! I tell him he had better run faster if he thinks that (after he already told me this is as fast as he can go), and he says it's for charity so "real runners" won't show up, and I tell him yes they will, because we like to win stuff! Anyway, I'm hanging with him easily on my 6' at 10K pace, and then I gracefully tell him I need to pick it up (I needed to accelerate to 5K pace for 2'). Eat my dust, slow man!

But I must thank him, because all I needed was a slight challenge, and it got me running faster than I had in awhile; in fact I think I may have actually become slightly faster! I ran the 10K pace at 8:00/mile (I believe my 10K pace to be more like 8:10, but hey, now I think I can go 8:00), and the 5K pace at 7:23 (I have my current 5K pegged at 7:50/mile). Yes, that's SEVEN FREAKING 23 FOR THIS OLD LADY! Maybe there's hope for me as a runner yet!

This has me all fired up for my sprint race on Sunday, because I get to go head to head with my nemesis, who has beat me by a hair the last 2 times out. I am going to give her a run for her money, that's for sure. Since I've been at or beyond puking speeds in biking and running workouts for 4 weeks now, it's good to see something is paying off on the track, and since I'm rearranging my workouts later this week, I should be all nice and rested for this race (ha ha my definition of "rest" is just an easy swim and ride the day before).

There are only 2 words to describe how I feel right now--FUCKIN' A.

Weekly Workout Totals 2/25/2007-3/3/2007 and Happiness/Sadness

The week ended pretty well, although almost not.

This morning when I opened my front door to retrieve the Sunday newspaper, there was a youngish raccoon asleep curled up in a ball just outside my front door. The net net is that my neighbor called the police to have animal control retrieve him/her, who is hopefully, resting in peace in raccoon heaven. Poor little guy was either injured or sick, and while I truly wanted to take it to a wildlife shelter, they just won't accept the common raccoon. It did munch a little on a pine cone before it was taken away. I balled my eyes out. Again, I was thinking why do I continue to be tested? See, I'm a lot more sensitive to certain things than many people think I am. Ever since I was a young child, I would care for injured/sick wildlife and you win some you lose some. I appreciate the food chain in nature, yet it always pains me to see an animal suffer. I'm crying as I write this. I've watched every Jacques Cousteau, Nature, and any animal educational TV since I was tiny; so I appreciate all the variety that nature provides us. I am a many-year contributor to National Wildlife and the Audobon Society, and I try my best to live a life that has the least impact on the wildlife and environment that I can.

I did pretty well against my goals for last week and training, but not good enough. I can do better, but at least I know I'm coming around. I did go get measured for the bike, and sadly, the Eddy Merckx frames are too big, so now I've got my sights set on a Pinarello, and I better get it, because I already have a name picked out (secret until said frame is confirmed to be mine). I had so much fun at the bike shop yesterday, I can't describe it, and then I hung out at the nearby running shop to jawbone for about an hour. I am truly blessed in that I know so many excellent athletes who are all extremely intelligent and seem to share most of the values that I hold dear.

Well here it goes, and now I'm back on my old format:


Weekly Totals 02/26/2007-03/04/2007
Swim: 7900 yards (4.48 miles) in 2.75 hours; 21% of weekly workout time; approx. 963 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 77.87 miles in 4.45 hours; 34% of weekly workout time; approx. 2140 calories burned
Run: Approx. 24.12 miles in 3.78 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 1722 calories burned
Strength: 2.25 hours; 17% of weekly workout time; approx. 563 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 106.47 miles in 13.23 hours; approx. 5388 calories burned
Sleep: 8.07 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.47 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours

Goals from Last Week:

• Work no more than 40 hours. CHECK!
• Sleep at least 8 hours per night. I average over 8, so CHECK.
• One less cup of coffee in the morningl. Not so much--but let's say 1/2 cup less.
• No alcohol for the foreseeable future. Well, the chicken fricasee tonight called for "a good red wine," so NOPE.
• Stretch :30/day except the day I get a massage. Not quite, but good enough.
• No more Valentine's candy until my weekly hours go over 14. Had to finish the last open bag. NO CIGAR.
• Back on strength training (I skipped it last week except for shoveling). CHECK.
• Get in 3 solid swims of at least 2500 yards. CHECK.

Goals for Next Week:

• Finalize bike frame and component (fingers crossed, you won't believe it if I get what I want)
• Kick ASS at the next race on Sunday 3/11. Since I'm going to be (cough, cough) SICK on Friday, I will have Saturday off.
• Kick down the coffee one more notch.
• Enjoy the fact that I'm on MAINTENANCE STRENGTH TRAINING!!!!
• Increase the sleep. It's coming, trust me.
• Lose that last stupid pound of weight that is hanging around (although I suppose it could be muscle, so it's not really a concern).
• Hope that nothing weird or strange happens and nobody close to me or any wild animals die in front of me or bite me. PLEASE GOD I'M BEGGING YOU!!!
• Enjoy the heck out of my next week of life.

Check Out My Jammies! (also free recipe)

I bet you thought this was going to be something racy....not today, sorry.

I finally finished sewing 2 pairs of flannel PJ's this morning. It's hard to photograph them 1) because I only have a stupid camera phone (no, I am not buying a digital camera just for blogging) 2) because the prints are rather large, but I did anyway.

The first picture is of the poodle print. It has pink standard poodles all over and their names--Fifi, Mimmi, Coco, Frou Frou, Lulu. But even better, EIFFEL TOWERS!!! So not only is this a French theme, but it is bicycling-related.

The second picture is of the Chinese takeout print. You can't see all the things on there, but they include: a takeout box, chopsticks, eggroll, fortune cookie, soy sauce packets, tea cups and a menu.

The third picture is of 2 pairs of what I call "pool pants." I have a number of pairs of flannel pants that I've made from my PJ bottom pattern that I wear all winter long for, well, basically trips to the pool/gym. They are comfortable, warm, and since I make them myself, I get to choose interesting prints. The pair on the left also has poodles, but they are enjoying a bit of lunch at a French cafe. The pair on the right are made of fleece, which is also warm and cuddly. You should see how excited little girls get when they see me wearing these!

I've been sewing since I was in the 7th grade. I basically taught myself, although I asked Mom if she'd help me if I got stuck. I took to it like a duck to water, and in high school, I sewed clothes for my entire family, because I enjoyed doing it so much. While I was married, I made Ken shirts, PJ's (we had matching plaid flannel for a few winters and then matching brilliant orange and black tiger stripes) and even a few pairs of shorts. All the throw pillows in my house were made by me, as are all the drapes, except for the ones in the living and dining rooms.

When I worked in downtown Chicago in my 20's and 30's, before the advent of business casual dressing, I was dressed to the nines in dresses and suits I made, most of which I still have, since I was tiny but skinny back then (now I'm tiny and muscular!). Beautiful clothes, I might add--as I have a penchant for haute couture designer stuff. When you make it yourself, you can have a beautiful suit for maybe $150 that would go for 10 times that were you to buy it retail. And yes, I do all the tailoring stuff, except that I don't make bound button holes (I use the machine). I've got some amazing "party dresses" that I pull out every so often just to put them on and marvel at my handiwork, since they are not the kind of thing you wear every day.

I had cut out the PJ's back in December, but you know what happened--I was into a big training phase for Goofy Challenge, and now my weekends are filled by crazy training and racing, and then I had a 3-week spell of working too many hours.

But no worries, I live in Chicago, it's March, and it's SNOWING AGAIN, so the new jammies have at least a month of use in them, sadly probably more like 2. This morning I also finalized my shopping list of parts for the new bike, and shortly I get on the Griffen for a nice 2:30 ride followed by a :30 run, and then it's off to the bike shop I go!

I slept really well last night for the first time in about 4 weeks, so I finally think the stress of work is wearing off. And I've decided I'm going to move my Saturday workout to Friday next week so I have a *taper* for my next sprint race. I'll show that woman who has beat me--wait until she sees what a Crackhead can do with a day's rest. Or at least I hope I show her something great. I may still not beat her, but I'm guessing it will be damn close.

So today is a wonderful, wonderful day--I slept really well, I finished making something nice for myself, I'm looking forward to my workout, I'm going to get fitted for my new bike and hopefully pick out wheels, and when I get done with all that, I'll be eating something I cooked that is so incredibly good--see below for recipe. It's not exactly low fat, but after what I'm doing today and for what I need to do tomorrow (1 hour swim and 1:40 run), it's not like I can't use the calories. And oh--that extra weight from one antibiotic pill is GONE!!! I am 1 pound away from my fighting weight (112). Next week, I go on maintenance level of strength training, so I will be even more rested up for my next race. And tonight I get to wear new, homemade jammies--I am not sure which pair I will break in first!

Life is SOOOOOOOOOO good!

Farfalle with smoked salmon

(1) 16-ounce package farfalle or bow-tie pasta
2 tbsp. butter
1 giant onion or 2 large onions, coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, grated
¾ cup dry vermouth or dry white wine (vermouth is better, trust me)
1 cup light cream or half-and-half
1 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper to taste
¾ lb. salmon filet, broiled and flaked
4 oz. Nova salmon, chopped into 1/2” pieces
1 small jar red caviar (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter. Add carrots and onions and sauté until onions are golden (about 2 minutes). Add ¾ cup water. Leave off heat until pasta is almost done.

In saucepot, prepare farfalle as label directs; drain.

Add vermouth to carrot/onion mixture and heat to boiling; cook 1 minute. Stir in cream, salt, and pepper; heat to boiling. Cook 1 minute. Remove skillet from heat; stir in salmon pieces and chopped fresh dill and parsley. Toss salmon mixture with pasta to serve. Top with caviar.

To make the dish even more heavenly, put some crumbled bleu or Gorgonzola cheese on top before serving.

Crackhead is Getting a Shiny New Thing!

I am in process of specing components to go on this beauty, the Eddy Merckx Carbon 3XM. Dura Ace 10 speed gruppo, Ergomo powermeter on compact crankset, Oval carbon bar, carbon cage, and now I'm wheel hunting, although I already know I'm getting red Salsa Ti skewers. What could be more fun?

I already ride quite a bit, and have plenty of opportunities to be on a road bike; but my existing one is cheap (-ish--it cost me about $2k way back when) and has a crappy gruppo on it. I was considering just upgrading the gruppo, but I was convinced by my coach-and-near-bike-shop (a total enabler, by the way), to just get a new bike. So I'm doing that.

I'll get to use the new steed at least for the 200K and 300K rides I have planned this year, and this would be a sweet ride should I decide to do Silverman (I wouldn't even consider that course on a tri bike). Next year, I'll be attending my coach's elite camp that will follow the Tour of California course, only we ride ahead of the peloton every day (and really, I won't ride every day--I'm not that much of a Crackhead).

What the hell, maybe I'll even smack my new bitch up for Desoto Triple T, as that course is VERY hilly. Whatever her name (sorry, girl, but "Bitch" is already taken by the Griffen Vulcan), she is going to suffer and like it!

Weekly Workout Totals 2/18/2007-2/24/2007 and Getting Back on Track

Wow, is all I can say to the last week of my life. I came out alive and kicking.

Yesterday I awoke to about 3" of not really snow--it was more like the remains of a Snow Cone machine--covering my driveway. I am a nice guy and didn't want to drag the snowblower out at 6AM on a Sunday (not even to spite my neighbor who was the cause of no sleep the day before), and I wasn't sure whether the snowblower would handle it. But I had to leave home at 7Am to make it to my race, allowing for extra time to travel, since it was sleeting now, too.

It took me an hour to shovel my 75' driveway, and I didn't even do it as well as I usually do, because I didn't have time, and the snow was so heavy. I started a little before 6 and when I got back in the house, I had estimated :45, but it was an hour! So it was 7AM and I had to get rolling. I had packed earlier in the morning, so there were only a few more things to get ready and then get out the door. I removed my thoroughly sweaty shoveling clothes (it was 37 degrees outside), put on my swimsuit and street clothes, and took a moment to decide whether I was still going to race. I knew I had just cost myself some speed and power by essentially doing a strength workout (I don't shovel slowly) first, and as my mind quickly recounted the week's events, I just about lost it. The streets were not in good shape, and was I crazy to want to drive anyway just to do an indoor sprint? I thought about what I had written the day before and decided HELL NO I'M GOING.

I went to the bathroom one last time, and just for dramatic effect, the toilet (which I swear wasn't clogged) decided to overflow, as if to give me one more test of my will. At that point, I began laughing like some sort of crazed monster who is able to crush anything in its path simply by looking at it. I've got a race, dammit, and I'm like a bionic mailman at this point, because no snow, sleet, freezing rain, blizzard or some stupid dog who bit me is going to stop me. And I am the mailman that BRINGS IT.

When I got outside my house, it was raining. Not just light rain--big, almost pouring, rain. Great. Let's do this thing. My residential street was a total mess of snow, ice and slush, but as soon as I hit the main street (literally, "Main Street") the roads were pretty clear, but there were patches of ice and slush, so I had to keep things to the speed limit or slightly less.

As I got to the destination town, Wheaton, I recalled the last time I had raced at this venue--2 years ago, and the weather was almost as bad. On the bright side, I had wanted to get my car washed, but the driving rain did a pretty good job of rinsing the salt off! I got to the club, and some nice volunteers asked me how I was doing, and all I could do was laugh hysterically. I couldn't believe I was there, wanted to put myself through a redline sprint race. But I was going to do it. To add even more to the event, I noticed that I was all bloated from taking only one of the antibiotic pills. My body just doesn't like foreign substances in it. I felt fat (the scale showed 5 extra pounds), tired, but determined.

I changed and went to the pool deck. I had to ask another woman to clear her stuff off a bench so I could stretch out my back. She asked me, "You need the whole bench?" I said, "Yep." She wasn't sitting on the bench--it was her precious dry towel that was on it. What a bitch. She's lucky I didn't deck her right there, but I was more interested in stretching.

I met my "person," or my personal timer guy, Cedric. SCORE! I got another hottie, just like 2 weeks ago. He asked me if I wanted him to do anything special while I was racing, so I told him what position the bike seat needed to be, and a few other things. He had done one triathlon, and asked me if I'd done any. I said, "A few." Of course, I smiled and told him it was around 60 now.

I warmed up 100 yards and felt all wrong. I think the torque applied to my core from shoveling had messed me up. Oh well. I still managed 500 yards, all the while struggling mightily to overcome my body's attempt to stop me in my tracks, as well as the pontoon boat swimming in the same lane with me.

Hey, I'm still moving around--I'm OK. Head to the locker room and ask someone to point me to the shower. Another woman racer asked me why, as if I shouldn't want to rinse off the chlorine? Come on, we had 10 minutes to change and get to the bikes. That is like an eternity of time! So I took my shower and went to change.

We got to the bikes, and my main man, Cedric is there with everything set up. I tell him I'll be on my own tunes, Best of Motley Crue (as always in these races), and that I won't be able to hear anything else. They start us off, and I'm doing my same methodology as 2 weeks ago. The effort is extremely hard, but it isn't painful. I think I can do better in 2 weeks. At any rate, I once again put out the most miles in my wave (all of whom were younger than me and a few men included)--5.96 miles.

As we mosied a few feet to the track (the bikes were inside the track), one of the other women asked me how I got so many miles. I told her it was a secret. I would write it here, except you never know who's reading! At any rate, it's more a matter of the stinking hard bike workouts I am accustomed to. This woman and I exchanged names of our coaches (I knew hers; she didn't know mine), she told me she rides Computrainer, and I told her I bet I still do harder bike workouts than she does. I've been training by power for almost 4 years now--and unless you've worked up to it, many people would have a hard time doing what I'm doing.

Anyway, the next gun goes off for us to run. Running does not feel so good--I can tell I am going to be a little off here, and I was right, but I start out at a good pace (my man Cedric is calling out lap splits for me), and manage to hold it.

In the end, I was only slightly slower than 2 weeks ago. As it turns out, 2 weeks ago I was in the top ten women overall! I hung out to get a massage (the folks from the school were happy to seem me again), and then I saw a couple of guys I know on the bikes, so I went over to harass/cheer them. One guy, Jason, only did 6.2 miles on the bike, and he's a good athlete, so I think that shows my biking ability. I hope to actually beat him on the bike in 2 weeks (he's maybe 30?).

On my way to the treadmill, I decide to have a cup of Accelerade. The company had reps at the race 2 weeks ago, only I didn't drink any then. I figured it couldn't hurt, seeing as how I needed to stay fueled for my next workout. I was going on cup #2, when the dude hands me an Accelerade water bottle and tells me it's mine. SCORE!

I needed to go get my long run in, so I headed to the treadmills. At this facility, the treadmills are upstairs. Not a good sign. It has GOT to be hotter up there, and it was, but not as bad as my silly Y. I was about :50 in and feeling plenty tired and wanting to bag it when a young woman gets on the machine next to me. She sees the numbers all over me (I had a volunteer who was new to body marking do mine, and at first she did really small numbers, so I taught her how to do them right, and ended up with extras), and asks me about the bikes. I ask her if she's raced before, and she says yes, and I ask her if she expects to win her age group (seeing as how she's asking about bike strategy), and she tells me she intends to win overall! So I ask her her name, and it turns out I have heard of her--Jennifer Garrison, a local oustanding triathlete. I am delighted to meet her, and we share all sorts of stories as she warms up, and I continue inflicting pain on myself (she was also going to do a long run after her race). It was great, because by having a conversation with her, I got myself to run longer than I thought I could. I ended up doing 1:20 on the machine, and then went downstairs to run :05 on the track, which would be good enough for today (I was supposed to run 1:40, but no worries, this week has been challenging enough).

I'm running on the track and people are looking at me since I have numbers galore, and am running a decent pace, but I smile since I am just about done working out for the day! I get one more massage, where one of the therapists tells me I should go to massage school since I already know so much about the body (she's right, and I am thinking about going to massage school, and I had asked the school's owner and teacher earlier what the cost is, and I can easily swing it), meanwhile the girl working on me is a bit tentative as she's only been to school for a month or so. Still, she does a great job and I tell her so, and I look forward to some pizza.

I head to the post-race food area, and they only have sandwiches, but I'm told pizza is scheduled to arrive in about :20, so I grab a small sandwich and walk around a bit, and end up talking to a couple more volunteers, who notice that I am salivating over the Clif Bloks. They tell me I can have as many as I want, so one of them makes a bag of about 20. I've never bought them, but I think that was another SCORE!

While waiting for the pizza to arrive, "Dumb and Dumber" is on the beautiful plasma TV (I am low-tech in my house--I don't want to make it more attractive to do something I don't need to be doing in the first place, but I understand the allure of big, beautiful TV's), which is perfect, as that about describes several of the people I've interacted with in the past week, only they aren't charmlingly dumb--just numbingly dumb.

The pizza arrives, and I get a plateful and tie into it. Yum! I eat pizza maybe 3 times a year, but this was great. I washed up and went back to the track to see who was racing, and I spotted the woman who beat me 2 weeks ago--well let's just say I could pick her out of the wave. She's about 6" taller than me, so of course, she's a torpedo in the water, and she looks incredibly fit, so my guess is she beat me again. But I'm at peace (pissed I can't win, but still at peace) with it, given my life circumstances, so I finally get in my car to head home.

It is still pissing cats and dogs as I leave the club, but hey, my car is cleaner than when I arrived! The rain is pretty driving, and I approach a railroad crossing in town and a freight train is at a DEAD STOP. WTF??? I look up and roll my eyes and shake my head and ask the higher being why do you keep testing me? I drove a few blocks to see if I could see beginning or end or a way to get over the tracks and home. Even though I was refueled, my body was insisting that I lay down now.

In less than 5 minutes, the train began to move--slowly, but it was going. I only had to wait about 5 minutes more, and we were clear to go.

When I am about halfway home, the rain changes over to sleet and then snow as I watch the thermometer in my car go from 37 to 35, to 34 to 33 in all of 10 minutes. Great! At least I will make it home before it turns into another bloody mess.

But by the time I get home, my driveway has another 2" of new snow on it, and I decide I better get a head start, so I drop my bags in the house and go back out to shovel some more. I get lucky, because my youthful neighbor, Matt, arrives back home, and I decide to have a chat with him about the noise levels. I had rehearsed a nice way to do this the night before, so I was prepared. I told him I needed his help, but that it was quick. Of course the guy doesn't wear "real" winter clothing, because he's a young hipster (er--what is it you call a stoner with a job?), so he walks over, we meet halfway, and I tell him I can hear his stereo loud and clear in my bedroom. But I don't want to be a fuddy-duddy, and I'm OK with it up until about midnight. But after that, not so much. He says he didn't know (and I think he was stoned while I'm talking to him), and he was glad I had said something. I told him I would have called, but his number is unlisted. I was nice, but let him know that if it keeps me awake again, I will not be getting out of bed and knocking on his door--it will be the police (not so good if you are stoned, huh?). I told him I hope it doesn't come to that, and he is actually a bit apologetic. At any rate, he knows that I was being honest AND nice, so let's hope I don't get awakened at 3:00AM any more!

Once I am safe and sound in my house, I decide to look up what my race times and workouts were 2 years ago when I did these races and won my age group to see how I compare now. Turns out I am as fast as 2 years ago, but with much longer and harder workouts the day before. So in a twisted way, I feel pretty good, and I believe I can go even faster. We shall see in 2 weeks, as I taper off the long working hours and a few more things.

Now it's time for me to get back to weekly goal-stating here, since I've been a slacker about it, and if I really want to race well in 2 weeks, even if I do a nasty 2:30 brick the day before and even if more snow comes and I'm tired when I begin, I want to do better.

So here's what I managed to pull out for last week in the face of too many obstacles to count:


Weekly Totals 02/19/2007-02/25/2007
Swim: 4400 yards (2.5 miles) in 1.5 hours; 14% of weekly workout time; approx. 525 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 77.13 miles in 4.4 hours; 40% of weekly workout time; approx. 2114 calories burned
Run: Approx. 23.02 miles in 3.54 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 1608 calories burned
Strength: 1.67 hours; 15% of weekly workout time; approx. 418 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 102.65 miles in 11.11 hours; approx. 4665 calories burned
Sleep: 7.57 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.47 hours.
Massage: 2 hours

Goals for This Week:

• Work no more than 40 hours
• Sleep at least 8 hours per night
• One less cup of coffee in the morning
• No alcohol for the foreseeable future
• Stretch :30/day except the day I get a massage
• No more Valentine's candy until my weekly hours go over 14
• Back on strength training (I skipped it last week except for shoveling)
• Get in 3 solid swims of at least 2500 yards

Gee, from the sound of it, these goals are to get me back in line with my usual life. YEAH, BABY!

Rolling with the Punches

I know that in the big scheme of things that I have very few life issues to deal with. I am not married and don't have that sort of relationship to maintain. I don't have children and all the responsibility they entail. So when I experience my own life stress, I tend to downplay how much it is affecting me, because I think that I should be able to "deal," given my generally easy life.

Now this is not to say that I don't have good coping mechanisms--I believe I do, and I cultivate resiliency on a daily basis. It's funny that exercise is spoken of as a stress reliever--but when you do as much as I do (and as much as many of you who read this blog do), there comes a point when the exercise has to go.

If you were here reading about a year ago, you saw me continue to train like crazy even while my mom was hospitalized and her condition worsened. Even the week of her death, I managed to bang out my heaviest training week in preparation for Ironman Brazil. On the plus side, though, I didn't work that entire week, so there was a sort of balancing act going on. I can usually handle life stress plus exercise; life stress plus work stress plus lots of exercise not so much.

And so that is what happened to me this week (and it gets even better--keep reading!). I got a new boss a week ago Friday. That was to the good. Then the almost old boss gets on my case about why am I working so many hours, as if to tell me that I shouldn't want to create a quality product (since nobody else was putting in the hours). Well (language) fuck me in the ass for wanting to do a good job. Then she (the almost ex-boss) instructs a coworker of mine to do the dirty work for her (who is also too clueless to understand what I am doing) by chewing me out in front of another colleague. This went down on Thursday.

I already hadn't been getting adequate sleep for 2-3 weeks. This past Tuesday, I got on my bike, and after about 1/2 hour, decided it just wasn't going to happen. On Wednesday, I skipped 2 workouts and decided that as long as I was going down, I may as well go down in style, so I had a few too many beers (3) and ate a bunch of chips as part of my dinner. This is not something I normally do, but I figured as long as I was temporarily a workaholic and skipping workouts that I may as well see how the other half lives. I do not like it!

Later in the day on Thursday, I had a talk with my new boss, and we agreed that if I was at a good stopping point for the week that I didn't need to work on Friday! Yippee. That is something the soon-to-be-ex-boss would never have done. So I looked forward to yesterday.

The day started out promising enough. I had a great swim, in cool, clean water (a direct result of the chat I had with the Aquatic Director on Tuesday). I went to Starbucks and bought 2.5 pounds of great beans with a gift card I got for Christmas. I contacted a few friends. I ordered FOUR more Splish swimsuits--I wrote in my order comments that I am addicted to their product. I ordered a new battery for my cellphone (I get a discount through work, which is nice). I did a little housecleaning. I guess I was catching up for my last 3 weeks gone badly.

I decided to get in a :30 run, since I had skipped Wednesday's track workout, and I was going to run outdoors. I had to call a customer at 2PM, and that call lasted longer than I had wanted it to (and I hadn't yet eaten lunch), but I controlled the situation (unhappy customer, part of my job), and we ended up on a good note. I checked my email, and I had received something about this project I'm working on from someone who, frankly, is a bit of a loose cannon at times. I wrote very detailed specifications about file manipulations, and there was extra data on a transaction record, and I had told him about it. From the tone of the email (which as you all know, you cannot read into, but it's natural to do it anyway), he was telling me I had written poor instructions. Rather than continue on in accusatory email, I picked up the phone and called him. We straightened things out, I think, but I still have concerns that he just goes off and does stuff when it's not necessary.

So now it's 3:30 and I still haven't eaten lunch and I go to run outdoors, because it's about 30 degrees, and I haven't run outside in awhile. I can tell that I am still stressed out, because of how the run feels to me, and my first mile was slower than I expected. But that's OK, I was just running for frequency. About 1.75 or so miles out, I turn around to head home, and thankfully the winter wind is now at my back. I'm at the 1 mile from home mark and out of the corner of my right eye I see 2 young boys (8-10 years old) walking 2 small dogs on the sidewalk (I'm on the road). No big deal, right? Nope. One of the dogs gets angry, the kid loses the leash, and the thing runs up and tries to grab my hand to bite. So I let loose of my glove (my hand is more important) and the thing bites me in the leg, all the while I am screaming at the kid to get the dog under control. It was an old beagle. I ask the kid for his phone number (because I am not going to chase him home with that angry dog), and he lies to me (as the police later verified), and I run home, loaded with adrenaline coursing through my body. I at least drank some Endurox R4, called the police to file a police report, and then I had to go to the ER to get a tetanus shot and antibiotics. I have not eaten since 10AM at this point, so I took a bar and a bottle of water with me so I didn't pass out from hypoglycemia. I was there 3 hours, so the rest of my "restful" day was not so much. On my way to the ER, I parked and walked a bit near where I was bit, and I think I know where the dog lives. Trust me, I will figure it out, and Nick, the nice policeman, said to give him a call if I can identify the house where the dog lives. I'm out $50 for the ER visit and another probably $25 for the drugs. I am also going to tell them to pay for my $80 running tights which are now ruined.

And then this morning my neighbor wakes me up at 3AM with the stereo blaring, which is why I'm now awake and writing, as once I woke up, my brain just started replaying all the events of the week. I figure I'll somehow make it through some level of workouts today, and then pass out and be raring to go for my race tomorrow. My left arm hurts where the nurse gave me the tetanus shot (I declined on having it in my ass because I am on my bike today), my right leg hurts where I was bit by the dog, I did not get any sleep last night, I am probably behind on my nutrition for the day, and I have a 2:30 workout to do and groceries to buy.

But wait, there's more--this afternoon we are under a winter storm watch, so I am crossing my fingers that it's not so bad early tomorrow when I'm driving to my race.

On the plus side, I am getting a lot of life crap over with in a few weeks. At the end of the day, I am still very happy about my new boss--he's a straight up guy (ex-Navy), and I already feel like I can say anything to him. And he's a CHUCK NORRIS fan! What's not to like about that? And I know that I am going to get back on my sleeping and nutrition.

I know that I am a person that is challenging to manage and relate to--I have exceedingly high expectations not only of myself but of others--but I also deliver, and I deliver well, and I deliver quickly and honestly. But more and more, I am coming to the conclusion that in business and in many areas of life, what the people want is mediocrity. I am not that. I will not be that, I will not become that, I will not stoop to the level of not having goals, not wanting to make a contribution, not becoming as knowledgeable as I can about things that matter to me and the rest of the world, not wanting to stand out and shine, not wanting to excel, not wanting to be my very best as often as possible. I will not be the person who learns nothing, knows nothing, says nothing, does nothing, acts randomly, cultivates excuses and coasts through life. Others may not like me for demanding so much of them, but in the end they like themselves better because of it. Why? Because that's how we become better people. By seeking new challenges and rising up to meet them. I cherish and will defend to the death friends and relationships (business and personal) that challenge me in ways that force me to learn and grow; otherwise, I mentally toss them aside as mere chaff. Harsh, you may say, but nobody ever became great by submersing themselves in mediocrity. When I find myself surrounded by mediocrity and piss-poor standards, I make my own challenges and raise the bar. Some would accuse me of being a troublemaker or malcontent. Fine. Keep living in your vacuum of consciousness and world of inertia. Not me. Not today. Not ever.

This One's for Momo

I can't believe I hadn't found Momo before. But now I have. Thank you, Momo, and others for being real people.

Those girls to the left? Them's be part of my bitchin' collection of Barbie dolls. I have others--the current count is 16. I got one at Ironman Brazil last year that's wearing FMP's. I have Cali Girl that I refer to as "Whore Barbie" (well, really all of them are stinking whores, who am I kidding?), because when my mom bought it for me, she told me she asked the store if they had "CALL GIRL Barbie." I have the first Barbie doll I got when they were first made, and she's wearing a hula outfit right now.

These girls do NOT exercise. And yet they have hourglass figures and are beautiful and have a nice complexion. BITCHES!

I'd like a Triathlon Barbie. I could make her outfit except that my vision is so wacky now that forget it trying to sew minute little things out of spandex. Damn, though, if I DID have triathlon Barbie (TB), then I would be firing up a whole NEW collection of gadgets for her. Like my own obsession isn't enough.

Triathlon Barbie gets her first tri bike.

Triathlon Barbie gets a power meter.

Triathlon Barbie gets race wheels.

Triathlon Barbie gets a coach.....

Then I'd have to start another blog about TB's training exploits. I can tell you that I, as her coach (who else would coach her? Oh wait, she has a huge rack I guess they'd be lining up) would make her do harder workouts than I do, and then I'd get to watch her boobs disappear because her bodyfat got so low and she'd stop wearing makeup (too time-consuming) and perfume (hard to hide that chlorine smell). Every other day I would yell at her, "Hey you stupid bitch, get on that bike right now and give me 5 FT intervals." And she'd be all like, "My legs don't bend so well I'm having trouble on the bike," and I'd be all, "Too bad, bitch, saddle up and make the best of it."

If I had TB, then I suppose I'd have to get Triathlon Ken (it is ironic that my ex-husband's name is Ken). But TK would get all wigged out because TB was getting so fast on the bike and even letting him draft occasionally in training (again, ironic, because my ex-husband was insecure because I am so much smarter than him and he told me so--not that he was a dumbass, he wasn't, but still he claimed I "intimidated" him. And I helped him with his master's Computer Science project which he couldn't figure out on his own). And TK would be all like, "Hey, TB, I'm not getting enough lovin' because you are so competitive and always training and tired from training." And then TB would have to boot TK's sorry ass. Sorry guys, I'm not saying you are all like that. But I KNOW that Triathlon Ken probably is :)

I guess it's a good thing that Triathlon Barbie doesn't exist. I really did try to write to Mattell to tell them to make one, but you aren't allowed to do that on the Internet. They could make a small fortune off of Triathlon Barbie and all her gear. Maybe I should write Graham Fraser and ask him to team up with Mattell for Ironman Barbie. They could sell her when you register on Active.com. That's a no-brainer. Even guys would buy her, or better yet, offer Ironman Ken for the guys (ironically he is built nearly anatomically correct for a male triathlete). I'd strap Ironman Barbie onto my X-Lab on the bike and make her suffer while I'm putting out wattage.

Thanks, Momo. You inspired me.

Dear Anonymous

I changed my Comments settings to disallow anonymous comments.

So whoever the anonymous folks are trolling around looking to post their little angry judgmental anonymous comments, "TA TA."

If you're not big enough to say who you are, then I don't care. I don't comment anonymously on your (invisible?) blog, so you don't get to do so on mine. If this gets you all fired up and you get a userid and still flame away, great, but no identity, no tickie. I'll be sending Chuck Norris after you. And trust me, he KNOWS who you are, even if I don't.

I didn't ask you to come here, so from now on, you don't like what you see or read, you can stew in your own juices, talk about me on some private website or whatever it is you do.

And oh, yeah, I have grown up and I DO, in fact, have a sense of humor, so sometimes I might post something a little risque or non-PC (according to your standards). But you know what? I accept whatever comments come my way, even the "get a life" ones, as long as the person is upstanding and willing to say who they are. Because all perspectives are welcome.

To all of you brave enough to have an identity (talk about an oxymoron) and tell me what you think, whether it's "you're inspiring" or "you're an ass" or whatever, that's what I'm here for.

Weekly Workout Totals 2/11/2007-2/17/2007 and Chuck Norris Helped Me Out Today

Have you seen the new Chuck Norris commercial for Mountain Dew? Go here and click on the link for Chuck. This is like combining two of my favorite things--Chuck Norris and Mountain Dew (well really Code Red, but I'll let that one slide).

So I'm at the Y today. I watched some sort of ski racing, where 2 guys would downhill together in a 1 on 1 race, then some pretty extreme snowboarding. At some point, the Chuck Norris commercial came on, and I had to even move my headphones to the TV set to listen to it. I like many of the Mountain Dew commercials--they are just so catchy and chock full of action. 1 hour into my 1:40 run (after a 1-hour swim) I needed to go to the bathroom. On my way there, I decide to ask two of the trainers there (one of whom I'm friends with) if they've seen this commercial. No they haven't, but one guy (the one I don't know well) and I exchange "Chuck Norris-isms" and have some good laughs.

I head to the ladies' room and I am just getting out of the stall when in rushes this woman who I notice has 2 bloody hands. I asked her what happened, and she said something about a basketball hitting her, and I could see she was bleeding profusely, and I just happened to have a sweat towel in my hand (I had picked up a fresh one to use once I got back on the gerbil wheel) and I told her to give me the hand that was hit. Here she was trying to wash off blood that wasn't going to stop coming. I compressed the towel around her hand and held it in the air and told her to try and relax that we would go get some help. On the way out, I told her that she wasn't to do anything but keep her focus and stay with me. I opened doors and knew what to do. I marched her back into the cardio room and told the people at the desk that she needs medical attention. I knew she needed constant compression on the hand (her pinkie finger, actually) to stanch the bleeding, and I thought she would probably need stitches. She was really frazzled, but we got her in a chair with her arm raised, someone called her husband, and once I knew things were under control, I returned to the treadmill for my last :40.

So if I hadn't seen the Chuck Norris commercial, I wouldn't have stopped by the trainer desk on my way to the bathroom and wasted about 3 minutes, and then I wouldn't have run into this woman who was bleeding like a faucet, and gosh, she might have passed out on the floor of the bathroom or hit her head on her way down or something! So hats off to Chuck Norris--he really does control everything.

This week in training was interesting trying to recover from last weekend's festival, and I continued to put in a lot of hours at work which caused me to sleep less, and you know what happens with that combination--my bike workouts were for shit, but I still swam and ran well, including another track workout on Wednesday (it seems I am running on a track a lot lately!), and today's suffer fest running after a swim, preceded by yesterday's, OF COURSE, fucking monstrous bike workout with a brick run afterwards.

Yes, there were days this week, actually every day, when I thought how the hell am I going to work out, but I know that I would feel worse if I didn't in terms of stress control, so I did everything I was supposed to. My workload eases up this week, thankfully, since I have another race in a week! And yes, I stalked the woman who beat me 2 weeks ago. My nemesis is in a wave after me this time, but that doesn't matter, I have to go harder than 2 weeks ago! Turns out we were pretty equally matched on the bike and the run, but she's clearly a better swimmer, and I might not be able to top that unless I really give it hell on the bike (since you are scored by total distance covered). On the plus side, in years past when I've done these races, I didn't hit my stride until the 3rd or 4th one, but I'm already doing better on the first time out, so maybe I can beat her. If not, well then, I just suck donkey balls. I did stalk my nemesis totally--turns out she's a "sprint" racer is all. Sure, I feel good knowing that I can haul ass in a short race, too, given that I train for the long shit, but I still want to be fast and place whenever I race. That's just me. Give me something to be competitive about, and I'm all over it.

Speaking of which, on Friday, we had a meeting at work in the late morning and there was a management shakeup. I think it's for the good for me, though, as I know someone who works for my soon-to-be manager, and the new guy is an ex-Marine, just like my fabulous, hottie coach, and I get along well with people like that, because I'm a no-small-talk, let's get it done sort of person (gee, could you tell from reading this blog?). But of course, when you switch managers you need to prove yourself all over again, and again, I think I'm in a good spot being the mastermind behind the current project I'm working on so that's cool.

Oh and we got a good dumping of snow here in Chicagoland this week, so I got in extra strength sessions shoveling snow. It's all good.

All I need to do now is get back on my sleep. I feel poised for some good--no, GREAT--bike workouts this week, and intend to hit the next indoor triathlon with all pistons firing.

As an FYI, if you went looking for a post that disappeared, well, sorry about that. I posted some pictures of myself that one person found offensive (I am not sure why--it's not like I'm disgusting, or if I am, someone PLEASE TELL ME), and then I thought about it and thought hmmmm...maybe I shouldn't leave those up for the world to see. But trust me, they are GOOD pictures, and I am not ashamed in the least, but then again I don't need pervs downloading pics of me to do whatever they like to do. Oh well, I am not doing this to become (in)famous!

Here are the happy totals for the week that was:


Weekly Totals 02/12/2007-02/18/2007
Swim: 7300 yards (4.14 miles) in 2.62 hours; 18% of weekly workout time; approx. 917 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 84.88 miles in 4.85 hours; 33% of weekly workout time; approx. 2321 calories burned
Run: Approx. 25.3 miles in 4 hours; 27% of weekly workout time; approx. 1820 calories burned
Strength: 3.37 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 843 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 114.32 miles in 14.84 hours; approx. 5901 calories burned
Sleep: 7.93 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.63 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours