Logan update

Logan had his 15 month old checkup last week, which Marty took him to since I was working. He's 24lbs and 32.5 inches tall. I swear he gets more and more fun with each passing day, suprising me with what he picks up on and what he can do.

And he has, curly-ish hair?

Only when it's humid and warmer - we didn't see this last summer as he didn't have much hair, but when we took him to Florida it got pretty curly. I don't know if this will stay or if he will end up having wavy hair like his dad. Probably, since he seems to be a carbon copy of Marty right now (also, the bruise on his cheek is due to a fall into the corner of a table at daycare). Do not be alarmed by the next picture of Marty and his sister - I just wanted to illustrate that when he had hair it was not straight.

My hair was always stick straight, but is sort of wavy like now after having Logan. So weird what pregancy can change in you. But it's not like it's a nice wavy, it's just sort of mangy wavy and if I blow it dry it will be nice and straight - unless it's humid where it will then turn yuck again. And let's face it, I live in the south and humidity is part of daily life. So that's one good thing about the winter. Nicer hair.

But back to Logan. His favorite words right now are 'dog' and 'ball' and he has also recently started saying "choo choo" (really, 'too too') when the train goes by. We live near a set of tracks, so this is a couple of times a day. He also has been saying 'shoes' (again, more like 'tooos'), but hey, he's trying. And it's adorable.

Marty and I went to his St. Patrick's day party at daycare and it was fun watching them all eat green cupcakes and get so messy. We're both amazed at how the teachers can get the kids to sit so obediently at the table and eat without any fuss. When we walked in, Logan got out of his chair and ran over to us so he could give us both hugs, then he went back to the table.

I so appreciate that his teacher made all the kids hats to wear for their party, even though she knows the chances of them wearing them for more than 3 seconds is low. I know a lot of teachers may just blow it off and say, 'Eh, they're one and won't remember it anyways.'

Marty also took him to the pool last week so he can continue to be comfortable in the water. Logan did a class for 6 weeks when he was 7 months old, but we haven't been great about going to the pool with him since then. So we're going to make an effort now.  Again, because of work, I wasn't able to go, but Marty sent me a detailed report:

Change, no probs

Hang out on stairs 2nd step, discuss water safety basics, examine fundamentals of water properties, splashing

Go vroom vroom through water, somewhat anxious

Sit on side of pool.

1-2-3 into pool and under, OK

Go vroom vroom

Hang on side of pool, work on getting out by hisself

Go vroom vroom back to steps, happier

Lying face up work, no likey water in ears

Back to side for more 1-2-3 into pool-under, OK

Vroom vroom to side to get out.



20-25 minute in water, all good, locker room was freezing though. He does not like shower right now.

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Cary Duathlon

We have a local duathlon that I have never done until this past Saturday.  They have a long course (5mile run - 31mile bike - 5mile run: hello crazy! that is way long for this time of year!) and a short course (2.5mile run - 17.5mile bike - 2.5mile run: for us wimpier types).  I didn't do this last year, but I did spectate with a 3 month old:

The week leading up to this was not the greatest. I got sick/was super tired, probably both from camp. I was a little worn out from the training and would typically blame it all on that, except the amount of yellow phlegm that was present every morning and my husky (sexy?) voice pointed to possibly a bug.  I did sleep a TON, though.

Marty was all, wah wah you are going to beat me I'm so slow and I was all, you are a faster runner right now then you are giving yourself credit for and you know I'm not that strong on the bike.  He was sandbagging and (spoiler alert) was strutting his stuff after beating me by a minute.

It was a beautiful day, albeit chilly in the morning. But with blue, sunny skies and a 9am start it was nice early season racing weather. Not going to lie, I was happy there wasn't a swim involved :)

There were over 300 people at this duathlon, and although I haven't done a whole lot of duathlons before, this seems like a pretty big turnout. Apparently, there were people who drove down from New York and Pennsylvania for it. 

It was a bit crowded at the start, and even though I absolutely hate going off too fast I lost all confidence and upon seeing so many girls ahead of me I went way faster at the beginning then I meant to.  I definitely didn't feel great this entire race, I was honestly pretty flat and tired but I felt sort of strong if that makes any sense.  It's also the first race of the season when you use T1 as a place to rest, ha.  The run was not flat and had a couple of hilly places, and the bike was not easy/fast, but I knew all this going in.  A headwind on the return portion of the bike just added more *fun* to the whole event.  Marty put a lot of time on me on the bike after I outran him on the first run, and I figured I wouldn't be able to catch him on the 2nd run. Quote of the Day goes to the guy I was passing when Marty was running the other way: "If he loved you, he would wait for you." 

I finished 2nd overall for females, and 2nd overall for the Gaal household.



Hopping off my bike



Maybe I'm smiling because because T2 means more resting?



Winner, winner, chicken dinner



One Step Behind, har har



Logan was having fun with Rita, and right after our race Marty went to get him and he had a great time waving at everyone and trying to bounce in the Bounce House (which looks like he is doing baby squats).  He also will stop whatever he is doing if he hears some music and start dancing (again, baby squats). He feels the beat and has to MOVE.  



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FL Camp 2013

Florida Camp 2013 is a wrap. This camp could have alternatively been named "That's What She Said" as that phrase was uttered no less than 500 times throughout the short week. I was usually teeing it up for everyone, but I got the hang of it by the end and had a few good ones. Oh what? You thought I was going to talk about all the training? Ha.

No really, it was a great time with our smallest group yet. Which was actually really fun because the logistics of everything was super easy, whether it was making dinner or heading to the beach for an open water swim. I'm actually going to let Marty give the play-by-play because he said he was going to make a big blog post about the week - I'm holding him to it because his blogs have been few and far between and he took most of the pictures.

Since this is my blog I'll talk about me. Me me me. Isn't that what blogging and triathlon are all about? Just kidding you Type-A-triath-a-geeks, I kid! I kid!

But no, seriously.

Because of job/being a mom/being a wife/second job I have been averaging a stellar 9hrs/week for the past couple of months. This is swim-bike-run-strength hours all together. But in 5.5 days I got in 13 hours! No wonder why I slept 9hrs a night (well, that and also not hearing phantom baby cries during the night).

We once again were down in my neck of the woods of St. Pete, and stayed right across from the beach. We even layed out this year and got lots o'sun on our pale winter faces.  We rode a lot, ran some, and swam in the outdoor pool of my childhood. We also got in some open water swimming where Marty swam sans wetsuit since it was 72 degrees.

It got a little chilly towards the end of the week, but it didn't really stop us from anything. We even rode at Fort DeSoto on Sunday morning even though it was quite windy, and that place is windy on a calm day.

We 'ended' the camp with a road race. It wasn't actually the end of the camp, but close and we all had many miles in our legs so that always makes the end of camp race interesting.  The past several years we did Gasparilla, but since we were going a week later we did the Suncoast Classic. We were all signed up for the 10K, but in a moment of weakness, I switched to the 5K. I just like them better and figured that it would be easier. Of course, it wasn't, but it was shorter.

Race Report time! It was a cool morning (for FL) with a little bit of rain for the start of the 10K which was was 30min prior to the start of the 5K.  Even though the day before we had ridden close to 60 miles and swam, I had a couple of things going for me.

1. It was flat. I haven't run a flat road race since the last time we were in Florida. We just don't have that up here.
2. I had not 1 but 2 slices of Publix cake the night before. There is a rumor about a Publix going up near our house, and if so, I will really need to work on my cake addiction.

So, gun goes off and I ease into my pace as everyone sprints ahead.  I really had no idea how I would feel so figured I would just go with it and try to increase the effort throughout.  My first mile was 6:27 and it felt pretty freaking comfortable so I upped the ante. By this time I had moved into 2nd/3rd with another lady who also started off conservatively. I was told that 1st was 20 seconds up, so she obviously went out much faster. My 2nd mile was 6:00, hmm, possibly upped the ante a little too much. But whatever, only 1 mile left now! I could see 1st place coming back to me, and I could also see she was sporting bunhuggers (or the modern day version of them anyways) and what looked like a real running tank top. As opposed to my t-shirt and heavy trainers (I wasn't packing racing flats for this thing).  The really annoying thing was I had this volunteer on a bike next to me for almost the entire race saying what were supposed to be motivating things, but it got old quick. The kicker was when when she told me that I would hate myself if I didn't catch her.

I figured this girl had a kick, and I knew I wasn't going to, so I tried to pass her a bit before the line, only to have her sprint by the last 50 yards which was a bummer but whatever. I ran a 19:24 and am very happy with that! I felt strong and it was fun.

The End.

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Basketball

Here's a video of Logan, and Marty, showing off their b-ball skillz. Marty might look like he knows what he's doing with this kids hoop, but all credential went out the window when he said to me, "Yeah, I was a center-strong-forward on my high school team."

Right, and I made 5 pointers.

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Don't forget to floss!

This is a clever ad campaign from Colgate to sell dental floss.

Gross, right? Who wants food stuck in their teeth? I'm also wondering why it's all the men who are pictured with food in their teeth. But, here's what you might've missed:

• In the first picture, the arm around the guy doesn't belong to the girl
• In the second picture, there's an extra finger on the women's hand
• In the third picture, the guy is missing an ear

Bottom line, people will notice little else if you have food stuck in your teeth.

It's a cute ad, but really it's telling me to look at my teeth after every meal, when it's actually more important to floss every night. So Colgate, nice try, but get to working on a new one. 

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1600 Meters

This past weekend I flew down to Florida for two reasons. To see my mama and hang out with her and run in my high school's intrasquad alumni/parent track meet. Marty was on Logan watch all by himself and they had a great time during their boy's weekend.

I flew down on Friday morning, easy-peasy less than 2hr flight to Tampa, where my mom was waiting to chauffeur me around. Which she did, all weekend. It was even a little funny having her drive me to a 'meet.' I felt like I was back in high school!

The weather in Florida right now, as per usual this time of year, was G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S. I immediately went to the Southwest Recreation Complex for a swim. It was 75 degrees and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. I left the pool with a bit of a Speedo tan. Score.

My mom and I went to see Argo that night (highly, highly recommend this movie) before getting dinner where I ate so much that my stomach hurt. Winning.

The track meet was Saturday morning at 11am, but was very loosely organized and I didn't exactly know what was going on. Turns out they were using this as a practice for this year's team as well as for the parents since they were now hosting a meet this season. The old track (the one I ran on), was a six lane cement nightmare that had many cracks, sand, and grass growing through it. The school put in a brand new rubber track and updated all the field events areas - it is NICE! This is the first season with the new facility, which was one reason to have this weekend track meet.

They ran it just like a regular track meet with field events first, followed by all the running events. Track meets in general can be difficult to time properly with a warmup, and this one was even harder since I really had no idea what was going on.  I went out and jogged for 15min, got a stomach cramp, and wondered who's great idea this was to try and run a mile all out.  I also realized that it might've been smart for me to actually get on a track prior to this and run some 400's so I knew what they would feel like. Nothing I could do about that now - my original plan stayed. I was going to wing it.

I'm not sure if it was lack of getting the word out, or people thinking they would embarrass themselves, or what, but there weren't a whole lot of alumni who came out for this. That was a bummer. I was hoping to see people I hadn't seen in years.  A few parents were brave enough to jump in some events, and of course all the kids were competing.

Anyways, they ran the 110 hurdles, 100 meter dash, and next up was the 1600 meters. Myself, several moms and dads, and a handful of students lined up.  I'm smiling here realizing that this was going to hurt.

Okay, so I'm certainly in shape. It's not like I just decided to jump into a race at the last second not having done anything, but I'm not in shape to run a mile all out.  Thursday mornings we do a run workout - a fartlek or tempo run on the bridle trails, but I haven't actually been on a track in many months.  My goal was to break 6:00, which I was pretty sure I could do. I just wasn't sure how much lower than that I could go. Top end speed takes lots of hard intervals. I figured that if I felt good I could get around 5:50.



My first lap was 82 seconds. Certainly a little fast for someone who's goal was to break 6:00 (which would be 90 seconds a quarter). The first lap is always a little fast and I really had no idea how to pace this thing. I backed off a bit on the 2nd lap, knowing that there was no way I could hold :82 right now. I came through the 800 in 2:48 (:86), the 1200 in 3:46 (:88), and finished in 5:40 (:84). So overall, not that bad from a pacing standpoint.

No one was giving out splits, so I was glad I wore my own watch (pssst, timers, call out splits). I was super happy with a 5:40! I didn't think I would get that far under 6:00.

While I was running, the current coach said some nice things about me, talking about how I won the most state championships of any student at the high school - I actually didn't know this because I couldn't hear the loud speaker, but that's what my mom said and it was funny to have everyone clapping for me down the homestretch. Hard not to smile when all these kids are cheering for you.

I'm really glad I went down there for the meet. It was fun to see my old coach, the new coach, all the kids running for my high school this year and some of my former teammates who came out to run and cheer.

That night my mom and I ate a delicious dinner at The Columbia Restaurant on Sand Key. I love their 1905 salad - YUM! I flew out at 11:10 am the next morning, landed at 12:50 and was on my bike at 1:50. So still got some good tri training in even with the mini vacation.

Throughout the weekend, Marty kept me up to date with how he and Junior Awesome were doing with texts, phone calls, and of course pictures. Here are some of the ones I got.

This was after the long run on Saturday morning. I imagine Logan is making that face because he always wants Marty's phone. Also, he was scared of Kory's beard and almost cried.

And finally, Marty went to Target and got Logan a couple of super hero t-shirts. Batman came with a cape - how awesome is that?! He wore it to daycare yesterday and it stayed on all day, amazingly.

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On Being (sorta) Hardcore

Marty and I lead several group workouts throughout the year for our athletes. More during the season, but even during the winter we have a handful. On the weekend we've typically been doing a long run on Saturday and a ride on Sunday. The Saturday morning runs have been chilly, but running in the cold is totally doable. It's biking in the cold that really kind of sucks.

If you have the right gear, it will make a world of difference. But geez, just getting it all together is a workout. Then you have to be all crafty about how and when you put on your clothes because the last thing you want is to start sweating before you make it outside.

Last Sunday, it was very cold for NC. I'm not sure the high even reached 40 degrees that day, and at 11am my phone was reading 28 degrees. Who knows what the feels like temperature was (and honestly, the 'feels like' temperature always confuses me, maybe that's the temperature they should just show?). 

Unbelievably, 7 others met me for the ride.  This is what I wore:

• short sleeve bike jersey
• arm warmers
• long sleeve bike jersey
• the warmest bike jacket you can ever have
• thick running hat
• scarf (yeah, this was overkill)
• bike shorts (duh, but I felt weird leaving this off the list)
• leg warmers
• warm running tights (our Auburn tights, Shana!)
• wool socks
• toe warmers on shoes
• plastic bags over shoes
• booties over plastic bags
• thin running gloves
• thick biking gloves

I was toasty. I was slow. But I got the ride done. And a run off the bike, so I did sort of feel like a bad ass even though I didn't ride fast.

In years past you wouldn't have caught me out of the house on my bike in that sort of temperature, but knowing others are counting on the group, having limited training time with Junior Awesome, and the 70.3 looming in the not so distant future all got my butt out the door.

And now, some Logan pictures.

Don't forget about Tassie!

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