It has been a long time since I did a bike ride that was over 25 miles. I'll have to go back and look, but possibly even since June 1 when I did the Tour de Cure! But Walter and Prenavi were doing so much more this weekend with their MS150 ride, that I felt like a loser if I didn't get off my duff and get some time in the saddle. So I posted a request for an early Saturday ride to Brie and she was game so we met at her house at 7:30 AM. My husband dropped me off and I was ready to go.
We headed down Green Berry, turned down Leslie, jumped on the greenway to Dunklin, down Dunklin back onto the main greenway, out to Country Club, past the furniture store, out to Meadows Ford, up Scruggs Station, back to town and back to the greenway and headed back to Brie's. At the bottom of the Dunklin hill, I slowed way down to make the 90 degree turn back onto the greenway and forgot there was a barricade gate there to keep cars out. Good thing I wasn't going that fast because I hit it plenty hard enough. OUCH!
I suffered a bit going up the Leslie hill, but I caught my breath by the time we got back to Brie's. Stopped there for a bit and refilled my water bottle and talked to her and her husband, Eric. Finally drug myself back out the door. I wishy washed about whether to ride home or downtown to meet my family for the Labor Day parade. Decided there were less hills to go downtown and headed there as quickly as I could. I got to the place where my family normally watches parade and called my husband. Turned out they were walking IN the parade. And at that moment, they were actually right in front of me! So I asked if I could meet them at the truck after the parade and was told they brought the CAR! Doh!
By this time, it was 90 degrees and the sun was so bright! So there was nothing to do but head back home. It was only another 4-5 miles, but with two pretty good climbs and after about 30 miles, I wasn't looking all that forward to it. I spun up in my easiest gear and before long, I was home - though I shot past it to the first side street and back because I was just under 35 miles and wanted that extra little bit (and I actually finished with exactly 36). I grabbed some Gatorade and tried to cool off while I posted on FB. Then I took a shower and ate a little lunch. I took it pretty easy the rest of the day, but felt pretty decent overall.
The hard stadium benches at the football game (high school) last night didn't feel good on my backside and the bruise on my arm had gotten very colorful. Today, I slept in a little, went to mass, chilled out and finished a book, and took a short nap. Nice to have a relaxing weekend. Back at it tomorrow.
Swimming = 10.25 mi
Biking = 1107.1 miles
Running = 166.9 miles
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Epic Mud Run 2013
After testing out this race last year with my husband, we felt like the kids could probably handle it so instead of signing them up for the junior race (much shorter with fewer obstacles), we signed up as a 4-person co-ed team to do the full course - "The Luebbert Lunatics". It was also a little bit to make up for them not getting to do a kids triathlon this year.
A couple days before, my dear daughter (DD) and I picked out some dry fit shirts at Walmart so we could all match. I couldn't find a matching one in her size so I put her in an adult men's small and tied it off in the back with a rubber band. Since my dear son (DS) has been in men's clothes since he was 9, this wasn't an issue for him. I had them both designate a pair of old worn out shoes for the race. My DD wore her black unpadded bike shorts (though I couldn't convince her of the value of going commando in them) and DS wore his swim trunks (which aren't likely to be around by next summer anyway).
We got up fairly early Sunday (having gone to mass Saturday night) and headed to Columbia's Midway Expo Center. We had signed up for one of the earlier "competitive" waves after the lady at Ultramax said that most waves weren't full and to just pick the time that worked best for us. This was only the 4th wave so we were definitely on the early side - as shown by our awesome parking spot. The sky was getting dark and we wondered if we were going to get rained on (it did sprinkle a bit - barely noticeable). The overcast sky kept the morning temps in the upper 70's. Almost cool! What a blessing! We got our packets, put our timing chips on, etc and walked over to the start area (which was in a different spot this year - as was nearly all of the rest of the race/obstacles).
They had a color station right outside the start area with folks spraying or tossing color on you as you wished. DD got some on her, but the rest of us waited a bit. I got someone to take a pre-race team shot and then we stood around and watched the 3rd wave take off and we got in the starting corral.
It was kind of neat because the race course actually went over a bridge over the starting line towards the end of the course and we could see a few runners from earlier waves jumping off the bridge into the ice trough where a guy was standing to the side emptying a pallet of ice bags into the water.
Mark Livesay (the announcer and owner of Ultramax Sports), had us repeat a pledge that was essentially a battle cry against the course and to pump us up to have fun. Then he counted it down and we were off. Just about 20' in was the first obstacle, a fairly wide expanse of muddy water with a super squishy bottom that you had to get across - and it got deeper and squishier as you went across. Here is a pic of my DD and her dad ahead of me. By the time I was on the other side, I practically had to crawl to get out. Between my slowing for a couple pics and my struggles with the mud, all three of them were a smidge ahead of me on the run up the hill out of the obstacle.
We headed across a field and very quickly went into the woods. This was a lot different than last year where a lot of the running was more in the open. They had cleared essentially the width of double track, though I had seeded us fairly far back to avoid holding up any of the speedsters. My son wasn't too big on this running, but still had some start line fever so he didn't walk much yet.
Pretty soon we popped out of the woods and had to climb over a wall. The "step" was about waist high and too high for my daughter. I sent my husband over to help her down the other side and thankfully another racer helped her up. Then we raced across a field to the big slide. This was about the only "obstacle" that was the same - and that is because it was once again super awesome! I was trying to wipe off my camera and get it ready to take a pic, but my son was too fast and already mostly down the slide when I got this snapped. He's the orange dot about mid-pic. I'm pretty sure that is my husband on the left slide about the same distance down.
At the bottom, you headed to the left and there were big power pole logs to walk across balance beam style (which is hard when you are wet and muddy!). This was followed by monkey bars that were impossible to cross. Bill helped my daughter try since she was too short to reach the first rung, but her hands were too slippery. I tried to just swing out from the first bar and then landed in the mud below and lost my shoe having to crawl out with mud all over my sock.
We headed to the hay bale maze. It wasn't covered this time (so less crouching and not nearly as miserable hot). It also had less dead ends. But it did have a couple of zombies! My husband and daughter laughed when I squealed with fright (since they were a little ahead of me and my son and could look back and watch). They jumped right out at you! Way better than going past them in the barn like last year. There was one part you had to crawl under in the stinky mud and it made my poor son gag a bit.
Then, it was back into the woods for some more relatively open running. My son wasn't too keen on the running part and walked more than I had hoped he would. My daughter was a freaking rock star and was regularly asking her dad to run ahead of us with her. It was down and up through some ditches and crawling out of a couple ravines on wood ladders. There were a few more zombies to jump out at us and some eerie banjo music playing from a stereo run off a generator. At one point, we popped out of the woods again after a pretty good hill to a water station and caught a quick pic (because we take the term "race" pretty loosely):
Shortly after this was some cool tractor tire obstacles. There was one that my daughter wasn't tall enough to jump from one tire to the other so she got down and climbed back up. But she was looking as strong as ever. Her brother just tried to look like he was feeling strong in this pic.
Then it was back into the woods and my son was starting to fuss about all of the running. My daughter was still anxious to go faster so they ran ahead of us for a while as I tried to talk him into short bursts to just get us through. But he walked A LOT here. We came out of the woods and went through a color station and back towards the starting line. We went up and over into a big metal dumpster type structure (ladders up and into and then across and back up the other side and over the starting line bridge you see in an earlier pic). Then it was time to jump into the ice water. It was brisk, but felt good too since we were pretty muddy and sweaty at this point.
Then it was across the same mud pit as the beginning (except a little over so not in the same spot). It was even squishier and you were even more tired. DD got her shoe stuck and I had to help her get her foot out and then again with my son (like buried his leg almost to the knee and I had to dig down for his super stuck shoe). He also cut his hand on a rock and was really ready to be DONE. We knew we were almost done so we tried to do a little running.
There ahead of us was the last obstacle. There were ropes about 2' off the surface of the mud so you had to nearly army crawl through it. My son walked around because he was just not up for it. But the rest of us powered through:
Then we ran down the hill to the livestock barns. I had to stop and wipe some mud out of my eye with a paper towel that a volunteer had there. The barn had the "car wash" song and a disco ball going with water misters. I'm sure it felt great later in the day when it heated up. We ran through the barn and out into the finish chute. There was another color station and a big sudsy foam machine that had bubbles we had to run through to get to the finish line. It took us just over an hour to get through the course.
We got our finisher glasses, but decided to come back after we washed our hands for the drinks and food. We took a couple of pics and then jumped into a big swimming pool they had for a rinse before getting some Gatorade and granola bars and bananas. My husband had a beer too and the kids split a Monster energy drink with me.
The boys went to get our flip flops and we took another couple pics before heading to the showers to do a bit more rinsing off. We managed to clean up and change clothes at the truck and then I drove us home since my husband had enjoyed a few of the free beers and I didn't have any (not a beer drinker).
It was a fun time. I took a couple days off this week and then joined Susan this morning for a 5.7 mile run. Had one pic left to burn off my disposable camera so you get a post-run sweaty shot. Thankfully, the camera isn't that great and the lighting wasn't that good so you can't see how bad we look. It was a beautiful morning - 60's with a bunch of shade on the trail.
Swimming = 10.25 mi
Biking = 1071.1 miles
Running = 166.9 miles
A couple days before, my dear daughter (DD) and I picked out some dry fit shirts at Walmart so we could all match. I couldn't find a matching one in her size so I put her in an adult men's small and tied it off in the back with a rubber band. Since my dear son (DS) has been in men's clothes since he was 9, this wasn't an issue for him. I had them both designate a pair of old worn out shoes for the race. My DD wore her black unpadded bike shorts (though I couldn't convince her of the value of going commando in them) and DS wore his swim trunks (which aren't likely to be around by next summer anyway).
We got up fairly early Sunday (having gone to mass Saturday night) and headed to Columbia's Midway Expo Center. We had signed up for one of the earlier "competitive" waves after the lady at Ultramax said that most waves weren't full and to just pick the time that worked best for us. This was only the 4th wave so we were definitely on the early side - as shown by our awesome parking spot. The sky was getting dark and we wondered if we were going to get rained on (it did sprinkle a bit - barely noticeable). The overcast sky kept the morning temps in the upper 70's. Almost cool! What a blessing! We got our packets, put our timing chips on, etc and walked over to the start area (which was in a different spot this year - as was nearly all of the rest of the race/obstacles).
They had a color station right outside the start area with folks spraying or tossing color on you as you wished. DD got some on her, but the rest of us waited a bit. I got someone to take a pre-race team shot and then we stood around and watched the 3rd wave take off and we got in the starting corral.
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| Can't see it too well, but she has orange legs and purple splatters on her upper body/face/hair |
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| Luebbert Lunatics team shot - pre race |
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| Me and the kids in the starting area - just behind us you can kind of see the wood that is the bridge and to the right (behind the "EP") is the trough of ice water - it'd be about 45-50 min before we were back here |
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| Daughter and husband ahead of me on the first obstacle (before it got deeper) |
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| My teammates running up the first hill without me |
Pretty soon we popped out of the woods and had to climb over a wall. The "step" was about waist high and too high for my daughter. I sent my husband over to help her down the other side and thankfully another racer helped her up. Then we raced across a field to the big slide. This was about the only "obstacle" that was the same - and that is because it was once again super awesome! I was trying to wipe off my camera and get it ready to take a pic, but my son was too fast and already mostly down the slide when I got this snapped. He's the orange dot about mid-pic. I'm pretty sure that is my husband on the left slide about the same distance down.
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| Would have loved to wear my Garmin and get the speed on this big slide. It was FUN! |
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| Daughter is up on log ahead of her dad, monkey bars in the distance (fighting wet disposable camera) |
Then, it was back into the woods for some more relatively open running. My son wasn't too keen on the running part and walked more than I had hoped he would. My daughter was a freaking rock star and was regularly asking her dad to run ahead of us with her. It was down and up through some ditches and crawling out of a couple ravines on wood ladders. There were a few more zombies to jump out at us and some eerie banjo music playing from a stereo run off a generator. At one point, we popped out of the woods again after a pretty good hill to a water station and caught a quick pic (because we take the term "race" pretty loosely):
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| Glad I thought to make my husband take at least a couple of me |
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| Daughter is out of the ice water, husband heading up the ladder |
There ahead of us was the last obstacle. There were ropes about 2' off the surface of the mud so you had to nearly army crawl through it. My son walked around because he was just not up for it. But the rest of us powered through:
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| Two orange shirts crawling are daughter and husband |
We got our finisher glasses, but decided to come back after we washed our hands for the drinks and food. We took a couple of pics and then jumped into a big swimming pool they had for a rinse before getting some Gatorade and granola bars and bananas. My husband had a beer too and the kids split a Monster energy drink with me.
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| Immediately after the finish line |
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| Wish the lady would have been a smidge closer, but this is the team shot after the dip in the pool |
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| After a little bit of a shower |
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| Selfie with my girl after our garden hose showers |
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| Katy Trail and soybeans behind us - beautiful morning for a run! |
Biking = 1071.1 miles
Running = 166.9 miles
Monday, September 2, 2013
Another Catch Up Post
Not sure what is going on in my head these days. Been battling a bit of depression - not all that uncommon for me, but frustrating nonetheless. It also tends to lead to a strong gravitational pull from the couch and self-medicating with Netflix (which I heard on the news the other day does have a similar brain chemistry effect to drugs and alcohol - just peachy). Thankfully, Susan is coming off of a stress fracture earlier this summer and is happy to restart some of our weekly runs - though they haven't been quite as long as she would like and included plenty of walking as summer really hit with the higher temps and humidity these last couple of weeks.
I haven't signed up for the century in October yet and I think I just missed a cheaper price by not doing it last week. Oh well - $5 or $10 isn't the big deal. But my husband pointed out that I had better be getting my ass on my bike more if I have any hope of completing it without a lot of suffering. I hate when he is right.
I've gotten a few runs in and finally got back on my bike tonight after a hiatus since my birthday:
- 5.4 miles with Susan on the Katy Trail on 8/15 (13:27 min/mi - nice day, but purposely kept it slow as it was her first long run in months)
- 3.0 miles with Stacy after kid dropoff 2nd day of school 8/20 (12:39 min/mi though I got a call from a client and walked/talked for a few min)
- 5.0 miles with Susan looping 3x around Stephens Lake on 8/22 (miserable hot/humid - tough to even keep the 12:58 min/mi pace)
- 3.0 miles with Susan - testing out the 5K course (except the last 0.08 mi which was on school grounds) for the upcoming race our school is sponsoring that she is co-chairing - another miserable hot/humid run with way too much walking (it was so bad my heart rate was still sky high while walking for 13:25 min/mi overall moving pace) - this last Thursday
**EPIC MUD RUN** - 9/1 - did this with my entire family. My 9 year old daughter was a freaking rock star. My 12 year old son whined some, but overall seemed to understand that sometimes "epic" isn't all that "fun" while you are doing it and thought it was overall pretty "awesome". I was proud of him. My husband and I enjoyed it. Full report with pics from my disposable camera yet to come. Still some debate on the distance, but it took us just over an hour and we did some running in between obstacles so I'd like to hope it was around 3 miles (which is what I'm putting in the total - didn't want to gunk up the Garmin).
- 10.3 miles solo hill repeats on my bike in my neighborhood; bummed to see that my favorite "loops" in my area have fresh gravel/oil (ie. "chip and peel") that do NOT look road bike tire friendly. So tonight I did hill repeats for lack of a better term. I did the nasty "Wavco hill" 3x with a little loop up past my house, down to the Moreau River bridge and through one of the other cul-de-sacs. It was getting pretty dim on the last one and I had my goal of ten miles in so I called it good. But I do need to spend some serious quality time back on the bike for the next 6 weeks or so. Susan said I just need to keep Thursdays as run days for her.
So to sum it up, have ran a little, but my workouts leave a lot to be desired. Not in a great head space, but some of that is work stress the last few weeks that hopefully will get better this week or next. Gotta take the bad with the good - finding a way to hang in there and at least get something done. Hope to be less MIA in the coming weeks.
Swimming = 10.25 mi
Biking = 1071.1 miles
Running = 161.2 miles
I haven't signed up for the century in October yet and I think I just missed a cheaper price by not doing it last week. Oh well - $5 or $10 isn't the big deal. But my husband pointed out that I had better be getting my ass on my bike more if I have any hope of completing it without a lot of suffering. I hate when he is right.
I've gotten a few runs in and finally got back on my bike tonight after a hiatus since my birthday:
- 5.4 miles with Susan on the Katy Trail on 8/15 (13:27 min/mi - nice day, but purposely kept it slow as it was her first long run in months)
- 3.0 miles with Stacy after kid dropoff 2nd day of school 8/20 (12:39 min/mi though I got a call from a client and walked/talked for a few min)
- 5.0 miles with Susan looping 3x around Stephens Lake on 8/22 (miserable hot/humid - tough to even keep the 12:58 min/mi pace)
- 3.0 miles with Susan - testing out the 5K course (except the last 0.08 mi which was on school grounds) for the upcoming race our school is sponsoring that she is co-chairing - another miserable hot/humid run with way too much walking (it was so bad my heart rate was still sky high while walking for 13:25 min/mi overall moving pace) - this last Thursday
**EPIC MUD RUN** - 9/1 - did this with my entire family. My 9 year old daughter was a freaking rock star. My 12 year old son whined some, but overall seemed to understand that sometimes "epic" isn't all that "fun" while you are doing it and thought it was overall pretty "awesome". I was proud of him. My husband and I enjoyed it. Full report with pics from my disposable camera yet to come. Still some debate on the distance, but it took us just over an hour and we did some running in between obstacles so I'd like to hope it was around 3 miles (which is what I'm putting in the total - didn't want to gunk up the Garmin).
- 10.3 miles solo hill repeats on my bike in my neighborhood; bummed to see that my favorite "loops" in my area have fresh gravel/oil (ie. "chip and peel") that do NOT look road bike tire friendly. So tonight I did hill repeats for lack of a better term. I did the nasty "Wavco hill" 3x with a little loop up past my house, down to the Moreau River bridge and through one of the other cul-de-sacs. It was getting pretty dim on the last one and I had my goal of ten miles in so I called it good. But I do need to spend some serious quality time back on the bike for the next 6 weeks or so. Susan said I just need to keep Thursdays as run days for her.
So to sum it up, have ran a little, but my workouts leave a lot to be desired. Not in a great head space, but some of that is work stress the last few weeks that hopefully will get better this week or next. Gotta take the bad with the good - finding a way to hang in there and at least get something done. Hope to be less MIA in the coming weeks.
Swimming = 10.25 mi
Biking = 1071.1 miles
Running = 161.2 miles
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Wedding Anniversary
Finally got the scans cropped so that I could post some pictures. Yesterday, we celebrated being married for 18 years. We dated for 4 years and a week before that, so celebrated 22 years together 8/3. It hasn't always been easy, but I do believe we make a pretty great team. I also believe that the lifestyle change a few years ago helps me be a better wife and mom overall. For years, part of the problem was that I saw myself as that slim thing that shows up in that black dress in the photo below. I couldn't rectify that image with the heavy person I'd become - even when I weighed over 100 lbs more. But I'm glad to say that I probably weigh within 15-20 lbs of these wedding photos. Not too bad for a 40-year-old mom of two. I'm quite sure we didn't realize how crazy young we were. Enjoy the flashback:
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| Dressed up for a date on our first New Year's together (ages 18 and 19 - 12/31/91) |
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| Night we got engaged at my friend Betsy's house (8/3/94) |
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| Our wedding day - 8/12/95 |
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| Bridal Party - 8/12/95 in St. Peter Church, Jefferson City |
Sunday, August 11, 2013
This is 40...
In the movie "Knocked Up", I really identified and enjoyed the supporting characters played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. In the movie, they were a late 30-something/early 40-something couple with children when their sister gets Knocked Up while on the brink of having some career success. When they came out with a related movie, "This is 40", I was hoping it would be hilarious. It was ok, but a bit of a disappointment because of how good I thought their side-story in the original movie was. They are generally happy in their marriage and their life, but also suffering from many of the usual things that come with being together for a long time and raising children. As a woman who has slept with the same man for the last 22 years and been a mother for 12 of those, I could totally identify.
Today I turned 40. In my book, that should be a big deal. But the reality is that it is really just another day. The good news is that it gave me a bit of an excuse to be selfish this weekend. Friday night, we left the kids and headed out for dinner where we could hold a conversation without being interrupted. We enjoyed our appetizer, a drink for me (that actually wasn't that good for the $6.50 price tag) and our meal - all while enjoying each other too. Then we headed over to a dueling piano bar and had a few more drinks (at equally disturbing prices). But we go out very seldom so I figure it was OK to splurge. We laughed and sang along. When we got there about nine, we brought down the average age. That gradually dropped throughout the evening until the bar was fairly full of kids that could have been ours had our birth control failed when we were dating.
We got home about one choosing not to close the place down. I think if some of our friends had joined us (as they were invited, but it just didn't pan out), we'd have stuck it out. But 40 isn't 20, so we came on home. I slept in a bit and then had some breakfast before heading out for 10+ miles on the bike. Hadn't gone in two weeks and was overdue. I felt warmed up about the time I got home. Doh! I chilled out after a nice shower and watched a movie as my husband napped. I also received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my sister which made me feel very special.
Later in the afternoon, I picked up Susan and headed out to the Kicks in the Sticks. She gave me a nice photo frame with a picture of us from a run last winter (not a great shot, but we took another one at the race so I'll probably swap it out). I also got a nice Asics headband and a gift certificate to a local wine place. Hope to take her there for a drink sometime.
We got there with plenty of time to get registered and hang out. The weather was perfect (if a little warm at the start). I said hi to Lukas Lamb from Team Virtus and a couple other people I knew. We took a picture or two and then stood in line for the bathroom.
Then we were off on our 3.5 miles through the woods. It started with a loop around the grassy area near the play structure, but most of it was single track. We tried to seed ourselves fairly far back, but still had a couple people pass us. We leapfrogged with another couple of ladies. It is a pretty run and all in the shade (where I ended up running holding my sunglasses - doh - I knew that from last year). Neither of us have run much lately so we didn't bust out any major speed and both were glad we didn't go for the 7.5 mi course. We popped out of the woods and hit the finish line. My watch kept auto-pausing when we'd go too slow and/or when it couldn't get a good signal in the trees. It said it was just shy of 3 miles, but the course listed as 3.5. Not sure which is correct or if the answer is in the middle.
I was pretty sweaty and very thirsty so we headed over to get something to drink and eat and listen to the great music while sitting in some folding chairs, enjoying the lovely scenery (Binder Lake) and perfect temps. G2 Catering had these chicken pesto wraps with an orzo pasta salad that had some feta and cucumber (to die for). We each ate two helpings (it was only about a 1/3 of a wrap). Susan grabbed a beer before they ran out and I had a Powerade. We visited and listened to the music and agreed it was a great way to finish my 30's.
This morning I got up early to head out with Walter for a ride around town. It was relatively cool with low humidity still and little wind - in other words, perfect! Who knew August could be so nice! We had to do a jiggity-jog through downtown as some streets were blocked off for the state championship crit. We rode pretty slow and easy, spinning up the hills and not particularly pushing on the flats. Garmin said our average speed was under 12 mph which seems a bit hard to believe though there are plenty of hills to drag that down. I broke 40 mph on the last big downhill though. Wahoo! We didn't stop too much though we seemed to hit red lights like crazy. Walter is super positive and relatively fun to ride with. I know he would ride faster if I wanted to, but is equally happy to just get 23+ miles in before church.
Came home and immediately headed out for some donuts I had been craving the whole ride. Ate those with my kids and then read the paper in peace while the kids were buried in their respective electronics. Later this afternoon, we headed to the pool. We had two free passes for them and today was the last day. Never have understood why the pool closes when it is still hot (though the water was plenty cool today). Found out that the OWS mode on my watch doesn't work for shit in a 25 yd lap lane. Several times I would do 25-50 yards and the watch would say 10. Guess I leave my left arm under water too long. I probably did 10-15 laps through the course of the afternoon - plus one water slide.
Back at home, my husband served me smoked brisket and rice and peaches for dinner. Very yummy. I finished it off with a candy bar I got this morning (Hershey's Almonds - favorite!). Not a bad weekend to celebrate 4 decades on this earth. It's a good thing as I've been a bit down the last week or so as I was annoyed that none of my friends could commit to going out with us Fri and was sad as I thought about all of the loss I've experienced in this decade of my life. I also was a bit sad to think about all that changes the next ten years will bring. By the time I am 50, my kids will basically be grown and I'm sure the losses will continue. Such is the passage of time.
Working on scanning in some pictures from my dating/engagement/marriage to share for tomorrow's anniversary (yes, I got married the day after my 22nd birthday - nothing like birthday cake at the rehearsal dinner, right?) God, we had no idea how young we were! Should be worth a laugh.
Swimming = 10.25 mi
Biking = 1060.8 miles
Running = 141.8 miles
Today I turned 40. In my book, that should be a big deal. But the reality is that it is really just another day. The good news is that it gave me a bit of an excuse to be selfish this weekend. Friday night, we left the kids and headed out for dinner where we could hold a conversation without being interrupted. We enjoyed our appetizer, a drink for me (that actually wasn't that good for the $6.50 price tag) and our meal - all while enjoying each other too. Then we headed over to a dueling piano bar and had a few more drinks (at equally disturbing prices). But we go out very seldom so I figure it was OK to splurge. We laughed and sang along. When we got there about nine, we brought down the average age. That gradually dropped throughout the evening until the bar was fairly full of kids that could have been ours had our birth control failed when we were dating.
We got home about one choosing not to close the place down. I think if some of our friends had joined us (as they were invited, but it just didn't pan out), we'd have stuck it out. But 40 isn't 20, so we came on home. I slept in a bit and then had some breakfast before heading out for 10+ miles on the bike. Hadn't gone in two weeks and was overdue. I felt warmed up about the time I got home. Doh! I chilled out after a nice shower and watched a movie as my husband napped. I also received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my sister which made me feel very special.
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| Not a terrible shot of the pretty day considering I was riding and my phone does not have two cameras |
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| The card reminded me that I am "Forty and Fabulous!" |
We got there with plenty of time to get registered and hang out. The weather was perfect (if a little warm at the start). I said hi to Lukas Lamb from Team Virtus and a couple other people I knew. We took a picture or two and then stood in line for the bathroom.
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| Susan and me pre-race - What a good friend! |
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| Cool bridge in singletrack - obviously we treated the term "race" rather loosely |
This morning I got up early to head out with Walter for a ride around town. It was relatively cool with low humidity still and little wind - in other words, perfect! Who knew August could be so nice! We had to do a jiggity-jog through downtown as some streets were blocked off for the state championship crit. We rode pretty slow and easy, spinning up the hills and not particularly pushing on the flats. Garmin said our average speed was under 12 mph which seems a bit hard to believe though there are plenty of hills to drag that down. I broke 40 mph on the last big downhill though. Wahoo! We didn't stop too much though we seemed to hit red lights like crazy. Walter is super positive and relatively fun to ride with. I know he would ride faster if I wanted to, but is equally happy to just get 23+ miles in before church.
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| Me and my "bike dad" after 23.1 miles |
Back at home, my husband served me smoked brisket and rice and peaches for dinner. Very yummy. I finished it off with a candy bar I got this morning (Hershey's Almonds - favorite!). Not a bad weekend to celebrate 4 decades on this earth. It's a good thing as I've been a bit down the last week or so as I was annoyed that none of my friends could commit to going out with us Fri and was sad as I thought about all of the loss I've experienced in this decade of my life. I also was a bit sad to think about all that changes the next ten years will bring. By the time I am 50, my kids will basically be grown and I'm sure the losses will continue. Such is the passage of time.
Working on scanning in some pictures from my dating/engagement/marriage to share for tomorrow's anniversary (yes, I got married the day after my 22nd birthday - nothing like birthday cake at the rehearsal dinner, right?) God, we had no idea how young we were! Should be worth a laugh.
Swimming = 10.25 mi
Biking = 1060.8 miles
Running = 141.8 miles
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Little Break
For no particular reason, I took a bit of a break from blogging. For part of it, I still continued with my regular workouts and just tracked them in my Garmin Connect account. But for a little over a week of it, I did nothing except sit on my ass and think of excuses not to get out and move. Before that became a habit, I accepted the invitation today to run with my friend Susan.
She is coming off a stress fracture in her foot so she hasn't been running, but she was game for a few miles - probably more than I was. It wasn't too hot, but the humidity still had us sweating. We were testing out a course for a 5K our school is going to host in mid-Sept. We talked about the fact that the planning hasn't gone quite as desired, but we got a general feel for where the start, turn around and end will be. It is hilly - very representative of the terrain in our town. She thinks maybe we actually use that and market the epic-ness of this 5K.
In addition to this 3.1 miles:
- Week ago Tuesday: Run with Stacy to Walmart (3.2 mi)
- Week ago Monday: Run with daughter to Stacy's house and back (3.3 mi)
- Almost 2 weeks ago (Saturday): Bike ride solo to Kleffner Ridge and back (25.1 mi)
Got all the way dressed and ready to leave this last weekend for a long ride with Walter, but then saw he had texted about a big storm cell that was coming and bailed. It wasn't raining yet here and I started to go out on my own, but decided to sit on my butt instead. Not sure what was up with that.
I turn 40 on Sunday. Susan kicked my butt into committing to Kicks in the Sticks trail run this weekend (though I'm pussing out and doing the short 3.5 miles). Tomorrow night, I'm going out to celebrate with dinner at Jazz and dueling pianos in Columbia. Saturday morning I had planned on doing a mid-range bike ride, but Walter is doing a longer ride with someone else so I'm not sure if I will motivate myself out of bed to do it or not. Probably going to take the kids to the pool (last day it is open - hate how early they close here!) on Sunday though Walter invited me for a shorter ride then. We'll see how it plays out.
Swimming = 9.56 mi
Biking = 1027.5 miles
Running = 138.5 miles
She is coming off a stress fracture in her foot so she hasn't been running, but she was game for a few miles - probably more than I was. It wasn't too hot, but the humidity still had us sweating. We were testing out a course for a 5K our school is going to host in mid-Sept. We talked about the fact that the planning hasn't gone quite as desired, but we got a general feel for where the start, turn around and end will be. It is hilly - very representative of the terrain in our town. She thinks maybe we actually use that and market the epic-ness of this 5K.
In addition to this 3.1 miles:
- Week ago Tuesday: Run with Stacy to Walmart (3.2 mi)
- Week ago Monday: Run with daughter to Stacy's house and back (3.3 mi)
- Almost 2 weeks ago (Saturday): Bike ride solo to Kleffner Ridge and back (25.1 mi)
Got all the way dressed and ready to leave this last weekend for a long ride with Walter, but then saw he had texted about a big storm cell that was coming and bailed. It wasn't raining yet here and I started to go out on my own, but decided to sit on my butt instead. Not sure what was up with that.
I turn 40 on Sunday. Susan kicked my butt into committing to Kicks in the Sticks trail run this weekend (though I'm pussing out and doing the short 3.5 miles). Tomorrow night, I'm going out to celebrate with dinner at Jazz and dueling pianos in Columbia. Saturday morning I had planned on doing a mid-range bike ride, but Walter is doing a longer ride with someone else so I'm not sure if I will motivate myself out of bed to do it or not. Probably going to take the kids to the pool (last day it is open - hate how early they close here!) on Sunday though Walter invited me for a shorter ride then. We'll see how it plays out.
Swimming = 9.56 mi
Biking = 1027.5 miles
Running = 138.5 miles
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Quadruple Digits!
YAY! I did it! I crossed the 1000 miles biked this year threshold! I took Monday off, but tonight I squeezed in a quick bike ride around the industrial area by my house after working through softball practice. It helped that the temps were in the mid-80's and dropping (without too crazy humidity). I knew I was getting close and figured I would put in enough time to cross the milestone. I spent 44:44 minutes (totally thought of EMZ) riding mostly flats for 11.2 miles! Nice average pace too! I've pretty much decided to attempt another century in October (Ride the Rivers) so I will have to make these kinds of quick rides routine a couple days a week on top of some longer rides on the weekend. If I can really put in proper training, I should blow all kinds of milestones out of the water. Go me!
Swimming = 9.56 mi
Biking = 1002.4 miles!!
Running = 128.9 miles
Swimming = 9.56 mi
Biking = 1002.4 miles!!
Running = 128.9 miles
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