Yay for Nice Weather!

It seems from people's facebook status's that a lot of us enjoyed some really nice weather this weekend. It was sunny and in the mid 50's yesterday and up to 60 today! I can't believe how hot 60 felt. Unfortunately, we didn't get to really take advantage of the warmer weather yesterday because we were running a swim clinic at TAC, but we still got in a nice 2hr ride with Angela (we all just had to bundle up a bit). After the ride, Marty and I got ourselves ready for the clinic and that lasted until 6:30. Then we were off to Steffan's for a Master's swim get together. That was a long day.

This morning Anglea, Tim and Steffan all met us at one of the Tobacco Trail entrances to have some fun with a bike/run/bike/run combo. The trail was PACKED. It looked like a freakin' road race out there. The nice weather and the Tobacco Road 1/2 and full marathon in a few weeks were the main culprits I'm guessing. Anyways, we got the broken brick in and were all appropriately tired upon completion.

Then we gorged at Biscuitville. Now that is some good post hard workout food!

Marty just left with Princess Tassie and they're headed to Florida. Our annual camp starts and I'll be joining everyone Tuesday night (stupid full time job!) :) I can't wait to get down there and put in some much bigger miles - hoping for some warm weather but honestly, anything above 40 will feel great to us.

And oh yeah, Channing Tatum looked very good in the movie :) That's all I got.

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Total Inane Celebrity Chatter

This is not triathlon related and probably any guys out there (husband included) will want to stop reading.

When Marty dragged me to the Lord of the Rings several years ago, I immediately developed a crush on Orlando Bloom. My family got a kick out of this and got me this really cute t-shirt that says, “Orlando makes me sweat” which was a great play on words since we lived in Orlando and it’s stinkin’ hot down there. Marty has gotten used to the t-shirt after several years of frowning at me whenever I wore it and knows Legolas doesn’t stand a chance over him.

Then cue Twilight and you all probably already know my addiction to Edward the vampire. The Edward in my head is WAY hotter than the actor (Rob Pattinson) but he does look pretty good in the movies. When I see regular pictures of him I’m not always that enamored, but he’s still nice on the eyes when they do the celebrity-treatment on him.

After seeing Avatar I decided I like this guy Sam Worthington, too.

And tonight I’m going with some girlfriends to see Dear John and I have a feeling Channing Tatum just might move up on my list. Stay tuned.

Don't you all worry - I'm totally devoted to my Marty :)

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That's Going to Leave a Mark

We made it back to the track last night! There have been lots of reasons and excuses for us not being there since January 5th, some valid, and some not so valid. And here they are:

• Took a bit of time to rest after the half marathon


• Too long of a long run the week after, made my hip hurt and then needed more time off


• Marty got lost driving to the track


• I got sick


• The weather was really crappy

Not only have I not run hard in over a month, I've also missed a ton of running during that time. I knew I would be pretty out of shape on the track, and the biggest way I could tell was the fact I had NO IDEA what type of pace I was running. I'm usually very good at determining a pace, running it, and then cutting down. Not last night, but the good news was I wasn't horribly slow. But I am horribly sore today (and I didn't run the whole workout; no way. baby steps when coming back to that stuff).

In other news, Marty has an obession with ferns. He's bought a few which sit out on our deck during most of the year, but he babies them when it gets cold and puts them all inside. Since it's been way colder than normal, they seem to have taken up permanent residence in our house. And our house is not that big.

This is what you see upon walking in our door - 2 ferns and 1 houseplant lining the front hallway.

And then since the 3rd won't fit there, it gets moved between on top of the trash can to on top of Tassie's food holder.

I'll be glad to get these things back outside if it ever decides to warm up!

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Hey - That's My Dad!

From the USAT website:

"...In addition to Ryun's appointment, USAT also elected a new executive committee: president Brian Harrington (St. Petersburg, Fla., Florida Region), vice president Eric Averill (East Bridgewater, Mass., Northeast Region), treasurer Bob Wendling (Springfield, Va., Mid-Atlantic Region) and secretary Candy Cheatham (Corpus Christi, Texas, South Midwest Region).

USAT's board is meeting at The Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs as a part of USAT's symposium and hall of fame weekend.

"I'm honored to be asked to take on the position," said Harrington, who has served as vice president of USAT. "I really want to make a push on the youth programs to tie in with the national recognition of childhood obesity and do what we can do to help that fight. Kids already run and bike, so we're almost there.

"Continuing to get our communications platform functioning on the highest level is also of importance, and I'd like to continue to find ways to remain relevant to our membership."

Way to go, Dad :)

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Time for Some Bullets

It's the cop out way to blog but I'm not caring

• Marty flew down to Florida this afternoon to run a swim clinic in Fort Myers. It's just me and Tassie for the weekend
• And I'm so lame that I don't have any plans besides sitting here in the house and eating a big bowl of ice cream in a bit
• I had a Trader Joe's 'chinese' dinner tonight - called Trader Ming's. I love that store. The Fat Tire complimented the meal nicely.
• It's supposed to snow 1 or 2 inches tonight. And I'd like to give Mother Nature a big one fingered salute. I'm not cut out for this cold weather. If I were I would've moved somewhere like Pittsburgh, or Boston, or Chicago.
• I felt good on my run this afternoon for the first time in about 4 weeks. That was fantastic.
• They were having the NC high school swimming state championships at the pool we swim at. I can't get over how young high school kids look! And I didn't overlook the stink eye I got from several of them while I was getting ready for work, no doubt with their internal dialogue somewhere along the lines of, "why is the old lady in our locker room?"
• A few songs I realized I know every word to this week: Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-a-Lot), Ditty (Paperboy), I am the Walrus (The Beatles). Gotta love satellite radio.
  

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Getting There

3 different people suggested I take some Emergen-C for my lingering sickness. I don’t know if it was coincidence because it had basically run its course, or what, but after downing several packets on Friday and Saturday I was definitely feeling MUCH better. I still have a nice, phlegmy sounding cough (which means everyone gives me a wide berth at work) but I’m not having to lay down after I unload the dishwasher.

Saturday was pretty cold, but we bundled up and headed to Umstead for a run (jog). Marty did 10 miles and I just went out and back easy for a total of almost 50 min. It snowed on the way back in! Nothing stuck but it was pretty running through all the falling snowflakes. There weren’t a whole lot of people out there, but of the people I saw I knew about 75% of them (Paul, Barbara, Tom, Alicia, Katie) and it’s always nice seeing familiar faces. Tassie came with us and went with me when I turned around and Marty kept going. For the next 10 min or so, she was completely paranoid and kept turning around and wanting to go back to Marty and check on him. She’s so loyal :) But she almost made me fall on my face several times.

That night we met the IOS-Delta Triathlon club downtown at Rum Runners (loud dueling piano bar) and then to Tir Na Nog to give our ears a rest. I didn’t go to sleep until midnight which is way late for me now. It totally sucks that no matter what time I go to bed I can’t seem to sleep past 7:30. Is this because I’m getting old? I remember adults saying things like this when I was younger and I would think, “What the heck? I can sleep until late in the morning NO PROBLEM!!”

We actually saw the sun on Sunday! Still chilly, but nice and sunny for a mountain bike ride at Umstead. Then off to a superbowl party. It was a really great weekend.

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Like Brian Wilson Did

This is going to be a bunch of whining, so stop reading if you don’t want to hear it. I guess I’ve been sick – something has definitely been wrong. It started Saturday night. I could tell I wasn’t totally feeling myself and then Sunday I rode the trainer easy while watching Food, Inc (and now I have no idea what the heck I’m supposed to eat, but that’s a different topic). Afterwards I was SO TIRED. Like ridiculously tired for riding easy. I went to bed early that night and planned on swimming Monday morning.

The pool was closed that morning because they shut the whole state down when it snows. Instead I went for a very slow and painful 30min run. Then I laid on the floor for 15min immediately after.

Tuesday I ran on the treadmill after work and my mph was pitiful. I hopped on the trainer when I got home but only made it 30min before I thought I was going to die. Planned on swimming on Wednesday morning.

That didn’t happen so I decided when I got home from work I would run then swim with Master’s that night. On the drive home from work I was feeling AWFUL. Stomach cramping, dizzy, achy, the whole works (I didn’t say anything on the phone with you, mom, because it just kind of hit me right then). I came home and immediately got into bed, which is where I spent the rest of the evening.

I think I may have had a fever, although we don’t have a thermometer. But I had on sweats and a hoodie, was underneath two comforters and didn’t have the fan on and I was still freezing. I ended getting 9+ hours of sleep again last night, and when Marty asked me how I felt I said, “would you believe I’m still tired?”

Today I actually feel a bit better (fingers crossed), but I did tell Marty that I wasn’t going to be able to do any triathlons this year because I’ve barely gotten any training in the past 3 weeks and I’m a bit prone to overreaction.

But yeah, I do feel like I’m starting off from square 1. Or more like square -10. I took some time after the Disney half, then screwed up my hip for a week and now this. Think they’ll let me race Novice? (see, overreacting, I know).

Marty put this picture up on his blog so I’ll end with this because I like it and it’s pretty. That’s me riding in Wyoming in the summer of 2006. On the same aluminum bike that I still ride. Figured I get in just a little bit more whining :)

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