Semi-sucky Swim

Breakfast with my friends was nice.  I got to listen to some lovely speakers talk about all of the great things that the Girl Scouts do.  I pretty much knew, but they had some moving stories from our area.  It is one of many times I wished our financial picture was more stable to allow more generous giving. 

Worked a little on a project at a friend's office and then headed over to catch the last hour of lap swimming at the ARC.  It was super quiet today - one guy finishing up in one lane shortly after I started and another lady finishing up shortly after that leaving just me swimming my laps with a bored lifeguard and one old lady walking against the current in the lazy river. 

To say that this swim was semi-sucky really is not 100% the truth.  It wasn't even that it sucked for any particular reason...I just wasn't all that excited about it.  Felt like I was just going through the motions.  I tried to focus on form, but I was feeling tired pretty quickly into it.  I watched the minutes slowly tick by and then pushed to finish kind of strong.  I guess 40 boring minutes in the pool is better than nothing.  Some days you just feel it and some days you don't.  Guess my "inner shark" just wasn't awake today.

Mom/Daughter Bike Ride

As I sat on the porch enjoying the continued beautiful weather and contemplating bailing on trying to get in a bike ride, my daughter (7) overheard me and decided that indeed SHE wanted to go on a bike ride with me.  She suggested a route that, although wasn't all that far, has a wicked uphill return and is on a arterial street that has no bike lane or sidewalk.  My husband was sitting there and suggested I take her down my usual direction (to the industrial area near our house which has little traffic in the evenings).  So I threw on my bike shorts and headed out with my daughter anxious to show she could keep up with me.

She did much better than on previous rides in finding the correct gears to try to keep up with me.  I did try to focus on a stupid easy ride, but we ended up averaging about 9.5 mph which I could tell was more of a "medium" pace for her little legs.  We stopped once about 3.5 miles in so she could catch her breath and get a drink (she doesn't have a bottle holder on her bike) and then again right before the steep hill on the way back - which, by the way, she managed to pedal up the entire way!  I was SO proud!  She has never attempted it before - the last time I took her this far, my husband picked her and her bike up about 3 miles in as he wasn't sure she could do it.  I should have known she could - she has got wicked strength for someone who doesn't even break 60 lbs!

Here she is last spring when she got her new bike (with dad)

Ended up getting in just under six miles which wasn't really the workout I had planned, but she'll remember it as a time her mom put her plan aside and spent time doing something we both like to do together.  And that is just fine too.  Up early for a charity breakfast with some women engineer friends in Columbia so tomorrow will be my swim day.  Yay!

Edit:  Forgot to note that it was very breezy today (like flag straight out) and kind of chilly on our bike ride.  Days are getting much shorter.  I made my daughter wear a light fleece pullover while I stuck with just a tee and am now "getting" why people use arm warmers.  I'm going to have to invest in some warmer gear soon.

Morning walk/jog

It was in the low 40's and the sun had been up for less than a half hour, but I decided to take advantage of being free from mom-duty and get my workout in.  Put on some tunes, walked to the corner, stretched and then did my usual walk/jog combination - just under 3 miles total with one big hill.  Fighting some shin pain that is annoying, but not awful.  Mostly frustrating.  Most will tell you that you are doing too much too soon, but how can jogging a few minutes out of a 30-40 min workout be too much?  May lay off the jogging until next weekend (Jog for the Cause 5K).  Should be able to get a couple bike workouts and at least one swim in this week even with my husband going back to work (thank you Lord for a brief respite from unemployment).

Cool, Long, Easy(?) Bike Ride

First off, autumn has officially arrived in central Missouri.  Not just by the calendar (which has been known to tease us), but with the weather too.  The "cool" in this post title was as in temperatures - not as in "awesome".  Alarm went off at 6:15 (on new sports watch - thank you walmart for being so ridiculously cheap) and it was still dark so I thought I'd sleep a little longer.  Umm..nope..it went off again 5 min later because I failed to read the instructions on how to turn it off.  So I got up and dressed and ready to go out the door as my family continued to snooze.  I left as the sun was just starting to ooze oranges, reds and purples over the horizon.  I failed to look at the temps, but forecast was for mid-40's at sunrise and I'm guessing it was pretty close.  When I got home 1.5 hours later, it was mid-50's.  So what I really want to know is: Do they make bike helmets with those fuzzy little ear flaps your child's winter hat has?  What am I going to do when it is actually cold? 

As for the "long", I headed across town on what is one of my longest non-looped routes.  I made minor modifications to the version of this ride I did in August, but it is generally a little over 15 miles. No dropping of the chain this time, but did have to push the hill by the cemetery again (along with a very short section of High Street after the rock cut and part of Landwehr Lane).  I know for more experienced athletes, 15 miles is a warm up, but it is still a helluva workout for me!  I try to remember that 5 flat miles completely gassed me only 6 months ago.

Which brings me to the "easy?" - I really tried to focus on not fretting about speed and just keep going.  I've come to the realization that I'm not sure a 100% easy ride is possible in Jefferson City because of our hills (or what to me are hills).  I go from easy (enough to "break into song") on the flats to OMG I'M GONNA DIE hard on the hills.  My lungs burn as I continue to gear down and try to avoid getting off the bike.  I also haven't really mastered the coordination of standing and pedaling.  I did better at it today on my first big hill, but it is still a challenge.  So I guess we'll call this an easy ride.  I definitly didn't break any land speed records, but I got through it. Average speed (including the walking) = 9.3 mph. 

And as an odd side note, I need to check if it is squirrel mating season or something.  I swear I rode past like 3 dead squirrels and nearly hit a few more.  I don't remember hardly ever seeing any (much less the heavy road kill) on previous rides.  The weird things I notice and think about on a long ride.

Last night was PAL (5-8th grade Parochial Athletic League) night at the Helias football game where my son got to walk out on the field in his jersey and this morning was a heartbreaking lost of the "purple" team to the "navy" team.  The cool weather definitely made it feel like football and fall.  Now the kiddos are going camping with their dad (cub scout pack event).  I'm sitting here trying to decide between calling some friends for a girls night out and just enjoying the peace and quiet alone at home. :)  Either way makes for a happy mom!  Tomorrow morning we'll go to mass and the rest of the day is kind of up in the air.  I'm hoping to do some walk/jog miles at some point.

Benchmark Bike Ride

Benchmarking is something I had read about last spring and early summer when I was following Eric Harr's "Slice above a couch potato" training plan, but something I never really did.  My goal was just to get through the prescribed minutes of workout in whichever discipline was on tap for the day.  But benchmarking is one of my current goals - to have more of a way to measure my progress.  So today I did my first benchmark bike ride.  The weather was again beautiful (seriously, I would LOVE it if we had this weather every day). But there was a bit of a westerly wind (9 mph) that I did feel on half of what was mostly an east-west ride.

I rode in the industrial area near my house about 20 minutes after the shift change traffic (although found out that the prison shift change must be about 30 min later, but this didn't affect my benchmark route).  According to Map My Ride - this is a 9.37 mi ride and I did it in 47 min for a 11.9 mph average.  I peddled at more of a "warm up" speed the first couple of miles, then tried to push it for the middle part of the ride and then rode pretty easy to recover after coming up the big hill and on home.  But my cool down was really a short walk and stretch afterwards.

Time to kick my kids off the couch and head outside to enjoy the last hour of daylight.

5K - Give or Take

Today was another beautiful day in central Missouri.  The sun was shining, the sky was so blue and the temps were perfect!  But I almost managed to miss it by working inside doing some research on stormwater treatment units for a client.  But with my daughter needing to go to Brownies tonight, so I thought - perfect!  I'll run from church/school until I think I've gone about 1.5 miles and turn around and go back.  Gotta make this all "fit" in my life and Brownies lasts about an hour (and I walk/jog slow).

A friend told me her house to church was about 1.5 miles and it is on the route I planned to take so I went a smidge past her house trying to make it a 5K (plus or minus).  It starts out with a long (±0.5 mi) downhill that I walked most of to warm up.  Then I did my "jog the chorus of the song" program - sometimes having to walk an extra chorus at the end and sometimes trying to push just a little further at the end of the chorus.  Unfortunately, Jefferson City has its fair share of hills and this route is no exception (East McCarty Street from basically Clark Lane to Landwehr Hills).  But I finished up.  Map My Ride said it was 3.03 mi, but my odometer said it was about 3.2 - so I'm going to call it about a 5K.  Yay me!

I recently lost my watch so I only have a vague idea of how long this took (40ish minutes - still oh, so slow).  As for the watch, I'm pretty heartbroken.  It is a gold watch my husband gave me as a wedding gift that I've worn nearly every moment of every day for over 16 years.  I still have hope it will turn up, but will probably stop by Walmart (hmmm...maybe jog there? it's just over the hill from our neighborhood) and pick up a cheap sports watch to hold me over as I hate looking down at my bare wrist only to remember the loss.

Swim/Walk Day

Just when I had finally sat around long enough to tell myself to quit with the excuses (shut up and walk/jog as the case may be) yesterday, it opened up and downpoured - then it got dark.  No real excuses, but I just didn't get off my duff and get moving yesterday.  But I knew I was going to Columbia today for a dental appointment and to check in with my surveyor friends so I also knew that I would get in a swim workout - YAY!

Knocked out 35 min in the pool.  Until the last 10, I was the fastest one in the lanes - seriously lapping two old guys and a younger lady that had web finger gloves on.  But then a CMC guy got in the pool after I offered to share my lane with him and he was way faster than me.  Not a big deal although he looked about 10 years my senior (although I'm getting really bad at guessing age).  Tried to keep up with him on one of my last laps just to see if I could - it was close but no cigar.  I'll chalk it up to having swam for 25-30 min longer than him.  Overall, it was a good workout and I continue to be amazed at how far I've come in just six months of swimming regularly.

Got home and ate a little supper and hung out with the family enjoying a GORGEOUS fall evening (our cloudy skies this morning gave way to some serious blue sky with sun and a cool breeze).  So when my dear husband wanted to go for his evening walk, I tagged along (again thankful that my newfound fitness allows me to do this now - he is tall and walks fast).  We did our fairly standard 2.1 mile loop in the neighborhood and chit chatted about the day.  I felt like I was working a little harder than normal to keep up with him - hoping that maybe he had just picked up his pace for some reason or maybe I was a little tired from my swim time.  Got home and downed some water and sat on the porch watching the kids play with their neighborhood buddies.  What a beautiful end to the day!

Long bike - why so slow?

So today turned out a little different than I expected.  It started out really drizzly and cloudy.  I sat in a mist/sprinkle with a pretty cold breeze watching my son's first tackle football game this morning.  As we drove home, the rain seemed to increase.  I thought "There went my plan for an afternoon bike ride."  But like they say "If you don't like the weather in Missouri, just way a few hours."  The clouds remained, but by late afternoon, the rain appeared to be gone.  I haven't rode much in cool weather yet so I wasn't exactly sure what to wear.  It was 59° and still pretty "wet" so I opted to pull my black capris (bday gift) over my bike shorts, leave on my long sleeve tee and pull on my husband's red sweatshirt over that.  He told me I'd be hot 2 miles in and he was generally correct, but not crazy hot - but duly noting it for next time.

I wanted a "long ride", but didn't want to worry about cars so I opted to head towards my "normal" route in the industrial area near my house.  I just decided I'd add whatever extra loops and stubs to make it "long".  I also wanted to push my speed a little more so I really tried to focus on peddling at a higher cadence in harder gears.  I felt like I was going faster than normal.  I only dropped into easier gears to get up the hills (3).  Home to Militia, back to loop around Scholastic, back to Militia (and up to the interchange - first hill to kick my butt), back to Shamrock (up to quarry road), back around Scholastic and up to the interchange again, back to the quarry road and one last Scholastic loop before heading up Algoa (last and longest hill), into Wakoda and back home.  I was feeling like a rock star and curious to figure out how long it took me (no watch - another issue) and how far I went.

Map My Ride says it was about 16.3 miles, but the climbing isn't right because they don't recognize the interchange (it is comparatively new) in their topography.  I was disappointed to see it took me about 1:26 - avg pace just over 11 mph.  WTF?  I felt like I was pushing the speed as much as I could and was sure with all that time in basically flat terrain I'd do better.  I only stopped for like 10 seconds to stretch my right hip (cramping) just before finishing the last hill.  I only drank when I was going downhill and still peddling.  I'm annoyed.  I know my bike is part of the issue, but really?  Is 11-12 mph the top speed for it?  UGH!

I stretched a little when I got home, but obviously not enough as I started to tighten up while at the computer mapping the ride.  Holy cow was the soreness coming on strong.  So I went outside to walk it off (kids and husband were outside anyway).  Will definitely feel this one tonight/tomorrow.  Will pop a couple ibuprofen before bed. 

Will probably try to do some kind of benchmark ride early next week to better track progress.  I know that 16 miles used to scare the living crap out of me so I guess I should be happy that it doesn't so much anymore.  Will try running/walking again tomorrow evening.

Wednesday Swim

As alluded to yesterday, I made it to the pool today and got in a nice workout.  I had watched some Total Immersion Youtube videos and thought a lot about them while in the pool.  I also tried some different drills I had seen or read about.  Still struggling with trying to breathe on the left.  And sometimes I forget to breathe altogether (focused on form and then I'm like "Oh crap - I need air!")  Helps to remember how far I've come since April.  Still feeling some tightness in my right hip that I can't really explain.  Will do some stretching tonight and see if it helps. 

The cool weather came back today.  It was rainy and cloudy most of the day with temps in the 60's.  Going to soon have to think about how I will get in my workouts either indoors or with more appropriate clothing.  May have to break down and join the YMCA so I can use the pool more conveniently (instead of having to schedule around trips up to Columbia) and then I'd also have access to the indoor track, treadmills and bikes.  It isn't crazy expensive, but still a cost that has to be figured into our budget.  But I'll revel in the awesomeness that is fall for now. 

Trying to Run

It got warm again today - upper 80s with tons of sunshine.  I waited and almost punted the walk/run I had planned.  But in the end, I set out after my son got back from football practice.  I just told myself to "Shut up and run".  Love Beth's blog!  Really should get me a sticker or two. :) 

I plugged into some nice tunes to keep the pace up and briskly walked for the first song, then stretched at the corner, then briskly walked the next several songs breaking into a jog on the choruses (my own kind of adapted couch to 5k).  Occassionally, I'd walk through the chorus repeat at the end or jog from one power pole to the next or the length of the little retaining walk along the sidewalk.  Whatever I could do without pushing too crazy.  But I got my heart rate up a bit more and went a little farther and faster than I normally do.  Walked up and down my cul-de-sac for a cool down and then came inside and did some stretching and further cooling down while shuffling kids through the shower and teeth brushing.

Hard to imagine ever getting to the point where running doesn't suck so much.  But I guess it is time to embrace the suck and just look forward to the swim and bike parts of the training.  Missed swimming last week since I never made it to a pool.  Have a meeting in Columbia tomorrow so will hit the ARC and get in some laps.  That works out nice.  I had been going up there a few times a week most of last winter and fall, but now I have less work all around and can't really justify the gas or time expenditure for a 30 min swim. 

Anxious to read all the race reports from last weekend, but some folks must have way more of a life than me because I've only seen a few.  Is it shameful to live so vicariously through other athletes?  I admire everything they do/have done to get to where they are now.  It gives me hope that I could possibly get there in a few years too. 

Forgive, but not Forget

Like so many others, I am reflecting today about that horrific day 10 years ago when life as we knew it changed forever.  I remember hearing it on the radio as I pulled into the driveway of the office (central time) that a plane had hit the WTC.  I remember thinking that some novice pilot had probably dinged the building with his Cessna or similar small plane and that had to have been a jolt to whoever was in that office.  Never once even considering the type of tragedy that was about to unfold. 

We didn't have a TV in the office and internet reports were slow at the time (no Twitter or FB back then).  But soon we were frantically trying to get ahold of our construction superintendant that was working near the area on a couple of projects.  He usually flew from KC to NYC every Mon or Tue and back every Thur or Fri.  It wasn't until that night we found out he had been safe at our Secaucus job site - standing, horrified, as he watched from a distance as the towers fell.  He was essentially trapped where he was though - bridges and tunnels shut down.  So he stayed and worked.  It was all any of us could do.

I went home that night.  I hugged my sweet 3.5 month old baby boy and couldn't put him down.  I was so sad for the world I had brought him into.  I just watched it over and over on TV.  Still so shell-shocked at it all.  I slept poorly, but drug myself to work the next day anxious to hear if Joe was alright while still reeling from the rising death toll.  I had nightmares for a while - about people I knew and loved dying on planes mostly.  And I got on a plane in October, a little over a month after the attack and prayed for all who dared to fly in those first months. 

Yesterday, we went to 5 PM mass and I teared up numerous times as I prayed for peace in my heart.  The readings and homily focused on forgiveness.  And it occurred to me how important forgiveness is in our lives.  If we hang on to the hate, anger, hurt, sadness - we fail to remember the beauty, laughter, kindness.  It serves no one.  While it feels insane to try to forgive those that did this terrible thing to our nation, I will try.  There are so many ways I've been hurt in my life by people much closer to me and I struggle to continue to work on forgiving them too.  There are ways I've hurt myself - and I need to try to forgive myself too.

So many things have changed and so many have not in these ten years.  That baby boy is now a strapping young man - no longer the colicky baby, but now a 5th grader.  He now has a sister.  We live in a different home, drive different cars, have different jobs (or none at all as the case may be), we have different worries. We've seen my husband's baby brother go to war - twice (Iraq and Afghanistan). Yet some things remain the same.  We have faith.  We have hope.  And we have love.

Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?

God bless.

Just Dance 2/Pilates

My friend Stacy rocks!  I was sitting here reading blogs - having just told dear husband to go on his walk alone - when she called and suggested we work out tonight.  Umm...ok.  She came to my house (nothing better than delivery, eh?) and we did several songs on my Just Dance 2 game (she knows most of them and picked the harder/faster ones save a couple my 7 year old picked out to do with us).  Then we did a 20 min pilates dvd that was a lot of leg and ab work.  Felt how tight my right hip is - hadn't noticed it really before.  Got some good sweating and stretching that sucked less because I was doing it with a friend.  Wish our lives jived more so we could work out more often.

15+ mi on Katy Trail

The weather continues to be amazing here in central MO.  Wow!  Coolish mornings and sunny days.  I could live like this!  And this time, life actually HELPED me git'r done.  I was tasked with taxi mom duty tonight.  I had to take 3 boys to football practice and then approximately 90-105 min later, take 4 boys back to their respective parents.  The good news?  The field is spitting distance from the Jefferson City trailhead of the Katy Trail.  I tossed the bike in the back of the husband's truck, stacked football pads all around and headed out. 

Once the boys were suited up, I strapped on my helmet (plus fannie pack with key, phone and ID since I still don't have the cool bracelet) and jumped on my bike riding out of the gravel parking lot, down the road a bit, across the JC Parks Greenway spur and onto the Katy Trail.  For those not familiar, this is a fantastic rails to trails project that now stretches essentially across the entire state of Missouri.  I rode from the trailhead to MM 149 and back.  I tried to map it best I could guess and with the to/from the football field, I think it was about 15.25 miles.  Unfortunately, the mile markers aren't available on Map My Ride so I just went off what I remembered seeing as geographical references (creek crossings, river bend, levee wetlands). 

Some ladies I saw leaving as I was heading to the trailhead said to go "to the left" (NW) as there was more shade (not that it was that hot).  I took their suggestion though and did enjoy a lot of pretty tree cover.  You also pass over some beautiful old RR bridges and two sizable tributaries right before they confluence with the Missouri River.  You also go by a gorgeous bend in the Missouri that come right up to the foot of the trail.  This is a historic area where Lewis and Clark traveled and there were some markers I didn't stop to read.  But I did take a couple pics of the views with my phone (will try to figure out how to post those after I figure out how to get them off the phone).  [EDIT: added them above]

Did experience some trail snobs though.  I said "hi" to everyone I passed - or at a minimum smiled if they appeared to be Ipod zoned.  Most of the bikers appeared to be "cruisers" - not folks hammering out miles.  Most of the runners also fit this category (though a couple looked more hard core).  And hardly any gave me the time of day!  What's up with that?  Missourians tend to be more friendly than this so I hope if you ever grace my state and enjoy some trail riding you are treated more kindly.

I got back with time to spare (plus practice ran a little long) to do some light stretching.  I am feeling the workout though.  Think I'll pop a few ibuprofen before bed.

Setting Goals

Our weather has been awesome, but I haven't taken advantage.  Life just gets in the way sometimes.  Brownies with my daughter one night, both kids underfoot another (with husband gone).  But took a little time today to pick the brain of someone who has been there and done that in the triathlon world.  Thanks Joe!  And one thing that we talked about was setting goals.  But even more than setting them, I think it is important to throw them out there for everyone to see.  Something about making my goals public that will make it harder for me to blow them off.  Some are more general training goals and some are races I want to shoot for (as I find I stick to training better when I have that solid "I paid money" goal out there).  Although I'll have to update the list as 2012 dates come out.

General training goals until February (when I will start a tri-specific training plan):
- Swim at least once per week (30-45 min)
- Walk briskly at least twice per week (30 min)
- Slowly add in jogging to the walks
- Bike once per week "long" (1hr-1.5 hr); an "easier effort" ride
- Bike once per week "short" (30-45 min); a "harder effort" ride (maybe hill repeats)
- Benchmark at least once every 2-3 weeks
- Stretch after every workout!

Races:
- Jog for the Cause 5K on October 1
- Thanksgiving Day Pie Run (5K or 10K?)
- Maybe one more 5k during Oct? 
- Early April Shakespeare's Duathlon?  Never done a du. 
- Early May Trizou (Sprint)
- Early July Pewaukee Tri (Sprint) - probably do this with sis again
- Late July Show Me State Games (Sprint)
- Late Aug Olympic Distance Tri TBD (eyeing Lake St. Louis)

Additionally, this winter I want to work on some weight loss goals.  I need to figure out some more specific ones in this category.  Since Jan 1, 2011 to today, I'm down about 25 lbs, but most of that loss was early on and it has slowed a lot through the summer.  I'll think on these and come back. 

A little sore...

My labor day didn't quite go as planned.  I ended up helping out my sis-in-law and her teenage daughter with a long overdue cleaning out of two rooms (one 3' thick in CLOTHES!)  Then I got home and the weather was GORGEOUS and so I walked to my mom-in-law's house (1.13 miles away so 2.5 mi give or take round trip) to drop off something and chat for a few minutes while I got some water before heading back.  I listened to some music and really tried to keep up a very brisk pace.  But I failed to stretch when I came home (because I went right back into mom mode and getting everyone ready for the week).  So last night as I laid in bed, I felt things start to stiffen up - from the bending and stooping of cleaning or the brisk walk - hard to say.  But I was feeling it.

It is another beautiful day here in central MO.  Wow!  Blue, blue skies - lots of sun.  Cool morning - 48° when I got up, but it is supposed to be in the 70s later.  I have a meeting at one and I really need to do something that resembles work this morning so I might push for a bike ride late this afternoon.  I have some library books to return and that would be a reasonable distance to ride.  This is the weather I wish we had all year!  LOVE IT!

Fri/Sat Swim/Bike

The Osage River (near the confluence with the Missouri River) has dropped several feet in the last few weeks and there was actually some current again (as the MO has gone down too).  So yesterday, after we let the kids do some tubing, my friend and I swam (mostly in place) while the kids jumped off the dock and swam around while the husbands started dinner (yay)!  Then, the little kids went up to the cabin while we swam up river a ways (with my son - 10 - following).  For not really being an athlete, my friend swims FAST!  I was a little frustrated that she was whipping my butt even with poor form when I have been working at this for a while.  Swimming against the current made it hard to get where we were going.  We went up a few lots (measured it on a map - about 150 yards upstream) and did some more swimming in place while my son floated (life jacket) back to where we started and then we finally swam back.  There was quite a bit of visiting during all the swimming in place. 

Ate some awesome bratwurst after we got out and then all the kids wanted to go back in the river so I agreed to supervise.  I mostly swam in place (against the current) while watching them climb up and jump off a million times as the sun set.  But this ended badly.  The bugs were out in full force so I swam out away from the bank a bit.  I started coming back in and got bit on the head by a horsefly.  Ouch!  So I tried to duck under the water to get away from it and didn't get my breath right and started choking on a bunch of river water.  Came back up and still couldn't get the dang horsefly away from me except now my overly full belly was revolting from the choking.  Yes, I know I should have waited before swimming after eating.  Duh!  So as I'm tossing up part of my dinner in the river (and thanking God for a little current to wash it away), I'm telling the kids to get out (still coughing up the river water) and the little ones panicked and ran to get my husband.  Lord, how embarrassing.  It was getting dark and I felt like a total idiot.  And as I was getting out, I was STILL getting bitten by that horsefly.  My friend's husband finally killed it and I was able to go up to the cabin and collect myself.  Ugh!  But I must have gotten a somewhat decent swim workout - I was feeling it as I went to bed.  Such a wimp.

Then this morning, as I saw the sun coming up through my bedroom windows, I was telling myself to pull my body (which felt like lead) out of the gravitional pull of my bed and go for a long-ish bike ride.  It was only in the upper 70's when I finally got going, but it is supposed to get hot today so I headed out.  Rode from home to a little past the Capitol and back.  The hills on this route were kicking my backside.  I had to stop and catch my breath a few times and flat out get off and walk a couple of times (by the National Cemetery and again by the daycare).  I did eat something this time (PB sandwich before I left) and drank water throughout the ride.  For a comparatively short ride (9.5 miles), it was a suffer-fest.  I've gone further with less suffering before.  Ugh!  My lungs were hurting from trying to breathe.  Someday this will be easier!

Birthday Package/Bummer Walk

The heat came back with a bit of a vengeance this week, but is supposed to abate again pretty quickly (as in, by Monday when the high is only going to be 77°!).  I didn't drag myself out for any kind of exercise yesterday so I did a little bit of light strength work last night and feel like I've tweaked nearly every major joint in my body - knees and elbows being the worst.  Grr...I didn't even do that much! 

Yesterday did bring one really lovely surprise!  UPS man rang my doorbell with a small package from my sis.  She was running a little behind on my birthday, but when the package revealed not one, but four new items for my workout wardrobe, I was just giddy!  Three capris and one pair of shorts from Target's Champion workout line.  One pair is a little big and not my favorite style so I think I am going to return them and exchange them for something else.  If you read my "Heart 5K" report, you will remember that I didn't own ANY workout/running shorts of any kind and had to wear my tri shorts!  Yay for new clothes!  Her birthday is right after mine and I just mailed hers too (apparently all the cool kids are doing that).  It is also tri-related.  She's doing Lake Geneva, WI tri next weekend.  Go sis!

Went for a walk with my husband tonight which was a total bummer!  I've really enjoyed my new fitness level allowing me to keep up walking with him (tall guy) and still have a conversation, but tonight he was in a mood and it was bringing me down.  It was not a nice time and it was crazy warm (with a breeze that was so warm it didn't even feel good). And it is mostly over stuff that is out of our control.

Tomorrow evening we're headed over to a friend's cabin on the Osage River.  I checked and I could bike there in about an hour (just under 11 miles with one long, nasty climb).  It is pretty curvy with narrow roads so the husband didn't seem to think it was a good idea.  Guess I'll figure out another option for a longish ride over the weekend, but at least I'll get some swimming in.

I haven't 100% decided about Club Nationals, but am leaning toward skipping it.  Haven't even had the guts to bring it up to my husband.  I'd really like to go and we have plenty of savings to cover the financial side of things, but the timing is really bad with the other business trip following so closely.  Sometimes being a responsible adult is just no fun.