In which Sascha finds herself in Bizarroland - you know, the one where she could actually swim?

So I swim over a 2 minute hundred. That's just the way it's been. Hey, when I started this a few years ago, I was swimming 2:50 hundreds. Then with some practice 2:20s and then, after some breakthroughs last summer, I got down to 2:10-2:20. Now, if I'm working really hard, I can hit a 2:01 or 2:03, but I've only seen < 2:00 once or twice when I was totally killing myself. It was a huge deal to do <1:00 50s.

I use my heart rate watch to count time, not the clock, so I've been told this adds seconds to my time. Whether or not this is a "true" count is pretty irrelevant for me, it's definitely a true relative time count since I've always done it the same way.

I've been stuck in this spot since last summer which hasn't had me too worried, I don't care much about the swim anyway. And I've been slacking on the swimming because, well, I haven't enjoyed it that much. I also ended up with a new, small strength imbalance in my upper back, exacerbated by some stress at work that turned my shoulders into screaming pain. So I was skipping a lot of my swimming.

I've been trying to be a good girl though since triathlon #1 of the season is just 4 short weeks away.

Last night I went to the pool. Assignment: warmup 3x100; 7x200; cooldown: 2x100. I hop in the pool, swim my first hundred, feeling kind of slow. It's 2:05. Huh. I swim the second hundred, still not in a hurry, and it's 1:58. wtf??? My brain can't even process that number, I'm really confused now and have to turn off my watch to figure out what I did wrong because I don't understand. My brain processes and I think to myself, no freaking way! No. Way!

By now I'm all excited to see how my 200's come out, without a lot of hope that they will be exceptional as I lose form pretty quickly and can't really maintain excellent form past about 75-100 yards before I get tired. My 200's usually come in around the 4:10 to 4:20 with the occasional 4:05.

Every 200 came in under 4:00. They ranged from 3:53 to 4:00 exactly. And the thing is, I wasn't killing myself. I wasn't out of breath. I wasn't kicking to make time. I felt comfortable at the end of each set. Hence, the bizarroland remark. How did I get here? Here are some of my remarks from the last few swim session:

* 4/22 This was one of those days where shooting me would have been kinder.

* 4/15 I'm a few seconds off on my good times, but swimming went fairly well. Pretty sloppy on the second half of the two hundreds.

* 5/2 Still felt pretty good although a little achy in the neck/shoulder area today. All my hundreds were under 2:10, even cooldown.

None of this adds up to a removal of 6-10 seconds off my hundreds. So I ask you, what happened? I got a new swimsuit? Did that do it?

Texas Hell Week, the Fourth Edition

Here I am in Texas. It's my fourth time. While I don't want to live here, it kind of feels like coming home anyway. I know the places. Some of the people still work in the same places. The brewery menu is the same. The beer is still good. We got the same room in the hotel that we had last year, except it's on the top floor. We're hanging with Robin (and her bf), which I have done to some extent every year.

It's cold here though this year. The last of a storm system is going through today and it was 37 degrees when we got up this morning with a high forecast of 50. I committed to two runs this week and decided that today is an ideal day for a run, not a ride. My roommates all disagree, using the argument "but it's the first day!" Obviously I am crazy because I don't understand this logic. Robin and I have been here 3 times before and Steven twice and we've all done this ride 2-3 times (Stonewalled).

There are some fantastic rides coming up this week including the ever awesome Wine and #9 AND a century called the Whole Enchilada which includes Enchanted Rock, Luckenbach AND the Willow City loop. Supposed to be 70s/80s and sunny all week. As far as I'm concerned, this calls for a non-biky day. I can get numb fingers and toes in Minneapolis.

So anyway, I'm here, drinking coffee at the Java Ranch, reading the news and kicking back. Good to be on vacation.

Stray

So yesterday afternoon I came home and found a kitteh on my back porch. It was huddled back in the corner of the porch and looked a little wildeyed. So I said, "here kitty kitty." I can't resist the urge to pet a cat. Ever. My neighbor cats adore me and come visit all the time, even when I'm not around. This one was shy. I had to coax her to me and then she couldn't get enough of me.

She followed me up on the porch and I noticed she was really bony. I went inside, got some kitty food and brought it out and she ate it like she was starving. I invited her into the back room thinking that maybe she was lost. I put her in there with a blanket and some water and posted to my neighborhood discussion list.

But it's chilly in my backroom and I'm a total softie. So I tried to let her hang out in the kitchen with the baby gate in the doorway. But she apparently leaps baby gates in a single bound. I guess I'm used to old lady cats who are scared of the gate.

So this adorable new kitteh is living in my spare bedroom until I can get her to the vet and get her checked for contagious diseases and things. Whenever I go back where she is, she follows me around like crazy. I've stepped on her foot once and nearly stepped on her whole body a couple of things when I've discovered that she's lain down right behind me when I'm standing at the bathroom sink or something.

Tonight I went to take a bath and she had to be right there the whole time.


She is a strange combination of domestic and feral. She snuggles like crazy and totally trusts you to pick her up and move around with her and things. But I tried to nudge her out of the way with my foot once, and she totally snapped at it, which made me realize she's been kicked at least once. So I spent some time petting her after that so that she knows that no kittehs get kicked around here.

She is total snuggler and I need to find a good home for her. My cats are 17 and 10 and both declawed. They don't need a young spry thing around making their life hard. I really hope I can find someone with no cats or maybe one cat who would like another. Or maybe the vet will discover a chip in her tomorrow and we'll be able to find people that she used to belong with. She is awfully trusting of people for an actual born feral cat and her coat is pretty glossy although it's matted right now too.




I hope I can find her a nice home.

I have a new bike

It came with reflectors:



Steven provides a sizing perspective:



It's sleeping in the bedroom with me till spring:

Why do I live here?

The Early Days

I was digging through my filing cabinet tonight, looking for the Title for the Mazda. This is my ancient filing cabinet, a handmedown from my grandmother, covered in band stickers: Einsturzende Neubauten, KMFDM, other stuff. I moved here over 12 years ago now.

Things I found while seaching for the title: manuals from when I saved all my manuals and receipts, in the days before reliable internet archiving. All the (now empty) folders where I stored all my bills once they were paid. I would write the check #, amount and date mailed on the invoices and store them in the folders with their names: Sears, Visa, City Mpls, Minnegasco...

I also found taxes going back to 1996, the year I moved here. My federal 1040EZ form was filled out by hand and came from the back of the tax booklet. My gross income and adjusted gross income were the same: $4927. The year I moved here I made less than the standard deductions.

Man I don't miss those days.

No wonder I'm tired

I went in to look at the reports on Training Peaks today. I was just going to check my monthly hours because I've been pretty active lately and was wondering what my hours looked like for December. When I was there, I noticed they had annual totals as well. This was interesting. So I thought I'd share. Since I started logging on April 1, in the last 9 months, excluding bricks, races and trainer rides (which I only log time, not miles)I

Swam 87,984 yards
Biked 1800 miles
Ran 417 miles

When you include all my time for races, trainer rides, yoga and strength training, I put in 379 hours over 9 months. I need a nap just looking at these numbers.

My brain is toast

I'm sorry about never blogging. I guess I'm sorry anyway. Facebook has sapped my desire to blog more than pictures or 2 sentences at a time. And I worked 67 hours this week. Brain hurts. Here's what I've been up to lately:


On the hinges


Side 1 done on the kitchen floor


Side 2 started in the basement


Really getting there

We may never get to Amsterdam

Alis and I have been googling all the great places in Denmark and may never get to AMS at this rate.

We got into Gothenburg yesterday about 3pm local time. Tired and cranky at this point, from trying to sleep upright on a plane, we'd gotten about 3 hours of sleep. Checked into the Radisson downtown Gothenburg. Sat in a coffee shop called Kafe Froken Olsson's for an hour and then hit a pub for dinner. When I asked for vinegar for my fish and chips, I got cooking vinegar instead of malt, despite the place being built and looking like a british pub. Odd. Food was good though.

We have been exploring where we want to overnight on our trip through Denmark to AMS. We'd settled on Slagelse which has a great Viking settlement. Then we found a hostel in the same area in a favorite forest area of Hans Christian Anderson. Unfortunately we've also decided to make a sidestop at Helsingor which is the place that Shakespeare based his Hamlet on (which I adore!), so we may never make it that far today. Oh the terrible choices!

We are off to the factory in about 5 minutes to get the Volvo!

Bork Bork Bork!

I totally forgot to tell you guys! I'm going to Sweden. Today! Why? Because I'm buying a Volvo and participating in their Overseas Delivery Program. Last winter, while I was still going back and forth to Michigan all the time, I was musing out loud to Steven that I'd really like to drive a Volvo, despite my Mazda only coming up on 5 years old. Instead of being smart conservative boyfriend and saying, "You don't need a new car," he said, "oh I hear the new Volvo C30 is teh sexee!" Thanks boyfriend.

So I test drove a C30. Then I test drove a GTi and A3 as well just to see what's what. I almost bought an Audi A3. Then I met the Volvo Overseas Delivery program. This is where they give you two free plane tickets to Gothenburg, Sweden, a night at the Radisson there, factory tour and 15 days of car insurance to drive your new car if you want.

So here I am, it's october and my girlfriend Alis and I are about to start an epic plane journey to Sweden. After riding on 3 planes over the next 15 hours or so, we'll land in Gothenburg, try to get a little sleep and then head to the factory first thing to pick up the car.

Then we're driving the Volvo to Amsterdam, where the real fun begins.

The fourth annual Ashland Half Marathon weekend

Rented a cabin with the Ashland peeps, Heather, James, Annie and Nate. Steven stayed home to race cross. Great view, fun times. There were lots of growlers purchase from the South Shore Brewery and much fun to be had. We made a fire and then sang and played guitar on the screen porch when it rained. Minor drama when we found out that the guys had left for the 10k with Annie's purse in that car with the keys to the car we needed to get to the half marathon start. Trauma all around. The resort owner drove us to the start like a true hero. If we didn't already stay here every year, we'd have made a pact at that point to never stay anywhere else.

I pulled in a 2:25 half marathon with an average heart rate of 172 and a max heart rate of 190 coming into the chute. So no one can say I didn't work my ass off, despite coming in 15 minutes off my best time from two years ago. Yesterday was obviously limited by my cardiovascular system. 175 was a smidge too hard for me to hold for long as I could feel myself starting to pant. I ran at 179 and above for the last two miles and felt like I was going to vomit for most of it.

Something in me kind of broke around mile nine. My cadence and coordination went to hell and I really had to concentration to keep a pace that was focused. I was down about 30-50 seconds/mile in speed as well. My last gel kicked in somewhere which allowed me to finish the last two miles with dignity if not speed. Now that I've fixed the iron deficiency, this winter will be dedicated to working on my running with some tempo and speedwork mixed into the winter base stuff so that I can take care of this too slow running stuff.

Here endeth the 2008 racing season. Good weekend. Awesome friends. We've already reserved a cabin for next year.

Larry the Squirrel

He comes over every day to tease the cat.

Confused cat

I started letting my cat outside this summer. It started by me only letting her out when I went out with her to keep an eye on her. Then I would let her out for a few minutes and keep her in site of the door. Then I realized that she never leaves the yard. I now let her out for quite a while each morning when I'm working at home, although I check on her about every 5 minutes.

Lately she's been "feuding" with a squirrel who likes to scavenge underneath the bird feeder. I say "feuding" because she couldn't catch a squirrel if she wanted and she wouldn't know what to do with one if she did and I certainly hope she never gets near one since they are probably covered in vermin. I just went out to check on her.

This is what I found. I would like to know what exactly she's doing, lounging down in the grass, 2 feet away from mister squirrel. Having tea?

Republicans Love Welfare - who knew?

Not only are they dying to give handouts to domestic banks, but the bailout of foreign banks is imminent.

From CNN

On Sunday, the Financial Services Roundtable - a lobbying group representing the nation's banks - called on Congress to make the plan "broad enough to include different types of assets."

And the Treasury Department has amended its original request to give it authority to buy up not just troubled mortgage assets, but troubled assets period.

From the New York Times:

The financial crisis that began in the United States spread to many corners of the globe. Now, the American bailout looks as if it is going global, too, a move that could raise its cost and intensify scrutiny by Congress and critics.

Foreign banks, which were initially excluded from the plan, lobbied successfully over the weekend to be able to sell the toxic American mortgage debt owned by their American units to the Treasury, getting the same treatment as United States banks....

The prospect of being locked out of the bailout set off alarm bells among chief executives of overseas banks whose American affiliates also hold distressed mortgage-related assets, like Barclays and UBS. The original text provided access to the $700 billion bailout for any financial institution based in the United States.

Letter to My Senator

I am a voter and homeowner living in South Minneapolis. I have never been late on my mortgage and have always been financially responsible. I have never, in all my 36 years been motivated to contact any gov't representative, until now.

I am rendered speechless with fury at the first draft of the bailout bill for the financial industry. While I understand that the situation is complex and that allowing some of these financial behemoths to fail could be globally disastrous, I do not want to see one single executive of any company seeking assistance to be rewarded. No 2008 salary, no obscene bonuses or other salary loopholes while many people with 401ks and pensions that are invested in these companies watch their retirement plan amounts plummet!

I am not interested in what kinds of problems this presents for said executives. If this is the worst crisis since the great depression then all of these people *should* be jumping out of skyscraper windows anyway, not being rewarded with severance packages, bonuses and whatever else is in their contracts. If you can vote for FISA which instructed a judge to not find any wrongdoing with obvious Telecom industry illegalities, then you can fix this bill so that executives salary contracts are rendered null and void when they ran their business into the ground and asked for a welfare handout.

I am disgusted with the entire situation and angry that so much time, energy and money are being spent on this, when they could be better spent elsewhere. What could $700 billion do for renewable energy or any one of the other issues confronting our nation today?

I am also contacting Keith Ellison and Amy Klobuchar about this. Anyone who votes for a version of this bill that rewards the guilty will not only lose my vote, but I will make maximum donations to their competitor as well as blogging, facebooking and screaming my words at the top of my lungs to anyone who will listen. This administration has a lot to answer for, but this situation may be the most egregious yet when measured in consequences to the American People.

Steelhead 70.3 in 2009

I am considering this event next year. Anyone have any opinions about it? Anyone done it? It's August 1 so it'll prolly be hot. But I have family in Michigan, so I figured I could combine it with a visit.

The Grand Columbian - The crazy man's Half Iron

Ok, I did it. And I survived. I keep forgetting that I have readers who aren't facebooking. Everyone there knows I survived because I kept statusing.

Here's the numbers:

Swim: 41:11 (222/254)
T1: 4:17 (159/254)
Bike: 3:40:00 (213/254)
T2: 3:19 (191/254)
Run: 3:03:00 (235/254)

The swim was awesome. I originally set a goal time of 40 minutes when I first decided to do a half ironman. Recent results made me think I'd be lucky to hit 45 minutes and figured I was more likely to hit 50. So to hit 41 minutes on my swim was huge for me and makes the rest of the day palatable. Part of the reason was that you could see the buoy connecting line about 80% of the time. So it was nice to be able to position myself a little to the left of the line and site once in a while to make sure I wasn't halfway to Seattle. But the reduced need to site was awesome.

T1 - I totally lollygagged in T1 and am trying to figure out why my T times are so zippy compared to so many others.


The bike: Ok, so here's the thing. I did a couple of dumb things. The biggest is that I forgot to mark my seat post prior to dropping the bike off for shipping. So the day before, I spent 20 minutes riding around in a parking lot trying to see if we could get the saddle height right. I think it was a smidge too low.

Second, I bought a dorky triathlete drinking reservoir but didn't try it before I did the event. It was kind of a disaster. I lost the straw in the first 5 miles, rendering it pointless, and it had the bad taste to keep sloshing out all over me and the bike with the rough road I was on. So I discarded the drinker by the side of the road, thinking I would come back for it later.

I had second thoughts about not having bottle cages on the frame, so I put one back on the morning of the race. Turns out I put it on upside down. So any drink I got had to be shoved into my one back pocket on top of my food.

Steven was waiting for me in two places on the bike. The first was on the stand-up-or-fall-over section of the first climb. He ran along side me and pretended to be a crazy cycling fan at the tour de france which was fun. It was really good to have someone with me. Definitely felt less lonely.

I already wrote about the bike in the previous post. My average was 15.2. That's pretty abysmal, even for a hard course like this. I had massive cramping in my inner quads combined with some demoralizing uphills. I think now that I was under-eating or under salting more than having a saddle issue though, based on the surreal feeling I had going into the run.

I got back to T2 and felt completely out of it. It was a 2 transition race, so we were supposed to rack bikes in the order we arrived, and grab the transition bag from a volunteer who found it for us. I felt kind of out of it, grabbed some water at the station out of transition and started the mile or so downhill portion of the run. It was 82 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and the headwind I'd had on the bike had died. Just the sun beating down on my back and bare shoulders.

By the time I got to the first aid station at mile 2, I was positive I would never make it and wondered if heat stroke was too high a price for getting to quit. I drank about three dixie cups of gatorade, 2 dixies of water, dumped some ice down my tank and then had some more to drink. Then I left. I didn't want to keep going and had to work some milestones out with myself and also acknowledge that I really wanted a finishing time, not DNF next to my name. So I talked myself into going as far as the Olympic turnaround cone before thinking about quitting. And then I was like, well, now it's 3+ miles down, you've got less than 10 to go, just do it. So I kept moving forward because moving slowly forward is less humiliating than admitting I quit.

It was like that at the next aid station where an awesome volunteer smeared some sunscreen on my back and shoulders as well. I was completely out of it and drinking stuff like crazy at all the aid stations for the first 5 miles. Around mile 5 I started to feel lucid again. I made a friend around mile 6 and Adrienne and I walked/jogged the rest of the course together. At this point neither of us cared about time as as long as we got it done. We stopped and drank and ate grapes at aid stations and took frequent walks. I finally drank too much and got sloshy tummy. Eventually we hit the last 3/4 mile uphill at the end and finished.

The run was gorgeous. The Columbia river is huge and wide with a canyon wall running along one side. The sky was bright blue with no clouds (oh and no shade either). The run was also, as promised, pankcake flat except for the run down into the valley and back out.

I finished in 7:32 which was longer than I'd planned on. But I have a classic problem with getting to the run portion of a triathlon and no longer caring about results. This was exacerbated this weekend by having less than full preparation for the run portion. I just got my iron count turned around at the beginning of August which did not leave me enough time to really fully prepare for long distance running.

I'm still pretty sore in spots today although I had a lovely massage earlier. My ankles feel kind of brittle and my quads are still a bit tight. But I feel ok and I honestly did have a great experience with the half. I'm looking forward to doing two next year, probably close to home. I would like to do an easier course after the gut buster I just did.

After the race I iced my inner quads and drank half a coke. Didn't need the bathroom until about 2 hours later when we got back to Moses Lake. I was so tired we gave up on going out to celebrate and just ate at Dennys because it was across the street. It seemed kind of pathetic, but I just didn't have the energy to do anything more than that. Then the next day we packed up and flew home.

Half Iron Bike Profile

This was a tough course. The first 3.5 mile climb was not bad. It was tough and straight up, but I've done that before and I knew how long it was. What was even tougher, even though I knew it was coming, was the 10 mile false flat on big chip seal. On the profile, it's obviously going up, but you couldn't tell on the road. It was completely flat-looking, harvested wheat fields all around. Somewhere in there I got off the bike to see if my back brake might be rubbing. The rollers were interminable. There was never a good chance to recover in there and it seemed like I was always going up something with very short down hills.

This was also very road bike friendly. There were three descents where I was only comfortable riding in my drops and did not envy anyone a bullhorn-only descent option. The last descent was on a busy road with oncoming traffic including a giant semi and a big pickup towing a boat. I only had to pass one person, for which I was grateful. I'd say I spent only half the time riding in the aero bars and more time using my hoods to climb and the drops to descend.

It was a hard ride and I believe now that I was not eating/drinking enough despite thinking I was. My inner quads were cramping, which I initially attributed to a saddle that was a smidge too low. I don't really know now. My triceps hurt when stabilizing on the descents too. Not to mention the effect of chip seal on my saddle area when only riding in tri-shorts.

Countdown to zero

It's the night before the race. I'm all packed and ready to go. I have almost nothing to report. Two flights out here through SLC in first class. No plane drama. No missing luggage. No problems with car rentals, hotels or race registration. Everything is happening the way I planned it.

Today we went out on the swim venue, Steven in a kayak, me in a wet suit. The lake is cool and clear and doesn't taste like skanky lake, which is a bonus. Good food is a bit hard to find in the hinterlands of Washington State, and it's frighteningly republican. But the hotel bed is comfy, the double jacuzzi bathtub is nice and the scenery is great.

Biggest drama all week is tonight. Steven slammed on the brakes going from 60-0 almost instantaneously to avoid hitting a coyote crossing the road. And I looked at him and said, "Hey! I need all that adrenalin for tomorrow!"

We drove the first 4 miles of the bike. It's brutal. Think Colorado mountain pass, minus the elevation. It's a lot like going up Hoosier Pass actually.

Had a calzone for dinner. Having a small glass of wine now. It's only 10pm PST so I'm in good shape.

If I survive, I'll post something tomorrow night.

Taper

Well here we are. 4 days out. I'll be doing my best to survive a half-ironman on Saturday. The good news? It will be cool enough to allow wet suits. Daytime temps forecasted to be high 70's maybe 80 and sunny. Right now they say weather stability means calm winds. Although what I've learned about the bike course leads me to believe that wind won't make a big diff. You see, I managed to find a race that has 3800 feet of elevation gain over 56 miles. The start of the bike portion has switchbacks for 4 miles. SWITCHBACKS! There's also a 10 mile stretch of 1-3% grade.

My motto for picking races is "hilly bike, flat run." But I think I overdid it this time and am worried about completing this event. I guess I'm not afraid of not finishing, since the food is at the end of the run, along with the boyfriend and the car, I'm kind of obligated to get there somehow, and running is faster than walk. But with the work required on the bike, I'm afraid I'm going to have nothing left for the run.

On the other hand, I'm not particularly inclined to leave myself a lot for the run since it's going to be horrifically long and slow whether I start fresh or start tired. I feel lucky all of the sudden that I have experience riding mountain roads and knowing what it feels like.

So I'm feeling pretty intimidated this week. But on a positive attitude note, I'm going to take a moment to appreciate where I've come from. The first week of May, I ran 4 miles on a treadmill. It was one of my better runs. I managed to exhaust myself in order to average 12 min miles. I didn't record average heart rate, but I'm sure it was dreadful.

Tonight I went out for a 4 mile run around Lake Calhoun. Supposed to keep it very easy as I'm in full taper mode. I didn't care if I averaged 12 min miles since I was just taking it easy. I kept my pace so calm that I could breath through my nose most of the time. No cramps, no discomfort, no need to stop and I still did the distance in 11:30s. Treadmills are also easier to run on than actual running. You work less with the world rotating underneath you.

So, 4 months later, I now run faster outside than I could on a treadmill. I no longer suffer from toe/foot cramps or back pain. I can probably run the Ashland half this year in 10's or better, which will be nice after last year's embarrassing 11:30's or worse.

I don't see being able to complete the half-iron half marathon in better than 11's considering how beat up I'm going to be after 56 miles on the bike. 11's might even be ambitious. But we'll see.

I can hardly wait for this to be over.

Politics

I never talk about them. In the past it was mostly because I had a fixed set of ideas and paid very little attention to the day-to-day wranglings of politicians, all of whom I believe are just a bunch of dishonest, dirty bastards. One of my fixed beliefs was that I disliked the intolerant, bigoted, sexist, fundamentalist Right. I always felt there was something vaguely wrong with my attitude because I didn't feel the same virulent dislike for anyone on the Left, even though I don't really consider myself a liberal, just a hater.

But I feel better now. As I've been following the election politics this year, I recently subscribed to the RSS Feed over at the Daily Kos. And I can now say that I feel a similar distaste for the smarmy, misrepresenting, self-righteous, out-of-context quoting smug bastards that appear to make up 90% of the posters over there.

So I feel better. I really am just a hater.

ROL Wheels

About 3 weeks ago, ROL Wheels sent me a solicitation email asking me to write something nice about their wheels. Specifically, their form letter said,

We are interested in innovative marketing solutions and would like to offer our services to your website visitors as a resource link. I believe our sites co-align, but do not compete, and that our offering would be relevant and beneficial for your audience.

While taking a look at your blog, http://firstlastalways.blogspot.com/, I noticed that your site and ours target the same audience base. I would like to extend to you an invitation to review our website. If it is up to your expectations and standards, would you be willing to write a blog piece about ROL Wheels?

Translation: We're looking for free advertising and marketing from bloggers who can be convinced to pimp our product for free.

I responded to them, saying that I really knew nothing about ROL Wheels and would be happy to ride on some and review the product if they sent me some, but that I would not just give them a free writeup for the fun of it.

Strangely enough, they never replied. Go figure. I hope this is the kind of publicity they were looking for.

Another Day, Another Derailleur Hanger - bike collision

Let me preface this sad story with another. My boyfriend borrowed my Eastons for his time trial this week. I told him that, as payment, he could change my tires onto them when he was done and swap them with the Mavics in preparation for the half-ironman in two weeks. So last night he came over, cleaned off the cassette, cleaned off my skanky chain and tuned up the drive train, along with swapping tires and wheels. Because he's an awesome bf like that.

Tonight I went out for a ride and got all of three blocks before disaster struck. I'm riding down Park, a one way-street. I'm in the far right lane so that I can make a right turn onto 36th, also a one-way street. I'm going about 18 mph trying to make the green light. I take a look to my left to make sure there isn't any speeding traffic coming down 36th. As my head swings around, there's a complete moron coasting on his department store bike the wrong way down 36th, right in my line. I yell, "watch out!" and he just crashes right into me.

I go down, on the drivetrain side of the bike of course. And all veneer of civilization falls away from me, as it is wont to do in stressful situations. I totally laid into him. "Jes*us f*cking Ch*ist! What the F*UCK do you think you're doing you stupid motherF*CKER! That's a one way street and the way you were riding is totally illegal you f*ucking moron!" I stood up, totally freaked out, wheeled my bike to the sidewalk to check it out. I got out my phone to call the police and then wondered why, since we all know the police don't give a flying f*ck about cyclists, especially if it's just another bike involved.

The guy was giving me an assload of attitude, telling me I was going too fast (wtf!) and that he wasn't doing anything wrong. I think he said something like "you should watch where you're going!" And at that point I started stalking back toward him and said, "You wanna talk about the rules of the road?" in my pissed off grown-up voice. I started to say something else, but he gestured to the crosswalk and said, "Sign says walk!" and rode off.

I actually tried to memorize what he was riding and what he looked like since he looked like a hoodlum and a thug and I figured that filling out a police report couldn't hurt. One more thing against him if he ever gets picked up. Or maybe he can get run over have both his legs broken, that'd be cool, except for the part where he'd probably be a burden on the system. Of couse, he's already a loser and probably will just end up in jail and a burden on the system anyway. That Schwinn Ranger was probably stolen and he's probably some skanky south side gang member who tags other people's property when he's not selling drugs. He was a skinny pale guy, of indeterminate nationality. Although he'd bleached his hair and it had that pee color to it so he might have been latino--big dark glasses on, so tough to say.

Feeling shaky, I called Steven to see if he was home and I walked my bike back to his place where he looked at the drivetrain and bent the derailleur hanger back out of the spokes. I was kind of contused and my right elbow hurt like crazy, but I went out and did my ride anyway.

Pulled out my last spare derailleur hanger tonight and my wonderful boyfriend is going to come over tomorrow and retool the drivetrain, yet again.

Iron Supplements, better than doping...

I don't even know where to start. About two weeks ago, during the Brewhouse triathlon, I started to feel really good, clocking a better run than I thought I would. I felt pretty strong all week after that despite a training schedule loaded with hard work.

This last week was the clincher though. I have a regular 27 mile route that is basically the Betty short ride. I do it often because it's a good distance and offers the chance to do some short intervals between lights on Summit and a chance to storm up the High Bridge. Sunday I came in 10 minutes faster than I have all year. The previous two days had seen a couple of hard workouts and I had some sore muscles. I was entirely unmotivated and didn't get out until late in the day because I was sure I would be miserable. It was also hella humid that day.

So I got out riding finally and lollygagged through my warmup period and then started stomping on the pedals because I was suppose to do a 60 minute tempo after warming up. And I discovered that, despite a sore ass, I felt really good. So I stomped all the way home and came in way faster than I have all year. And then I ran my 30 minute run (for which I used a fixed distance) almost 2 minutes faster than I have all year without trying to cook myself. I was entirely dumbfounded.

I did it again on Wednesday night (without the evil run). Wed night was a bunch of hard 10 min intervals. My bike computer borked on Sunday night so I did the same route so that I'd have a known mileage and time to compare myself against. And I came in two minutes faster than I had on Sunday. Talk about thrilling.

Also, this is something I might not even admit if it had not already been a long road back health after miserable back problems last year. But I did the entire ride in my big ring. That's not too surprising. I usually do 90% of that route in the big ring. But, for the first time all year, I actually went up the High Bridge comfortably in my big ring at a comfortable spin that was not super taxing - 164 bpm max. It was such a happy moment for me. No longer will my heart rate hit 180 desperately trying to keep the faster girls in sight going up the bridge. Yeah, it's been that kind of a year for me.

Just to make sure I could still do it, and because my computer is still borked (I need to mail it in), I did the same route on my Friday ride. Same time as Sunday, whole ride in the big ring. I do the happy dance.

Today I went out on a different route that is pretty easy compared to riding through Eagan. This was supposed to be moderate effort after the hard week I'd had already, so I kept my heart rate lowish and never really went much past 155. Between the tail wind up Summit and the flatness of Lilydale, my moderate/recovery ride averaged me 16.5 for the day, which I follwed up with an utterly miserable 30 minute run that I actually ran in 28:40. It was supposed to be hard paced on the way out and easier on the way back. Man I hate running hard.

But holy freaking cow. You can't know what it's like unless you've been in that place where you used to be a decent rider, able to keep up with the faster riders on occasion or at least if you got a good draft some of the time. And then to find that nothing works and you can't hardly average 15 mph when working your ass off...well, it's utterly demoralizing. I thought hard work would bring it back, but it's still been a tough summer. And then I went on the iron supplement and BANG, three weeks later, I'm actually fit and able to perform!

This is all just in time of course. My half ironman is a month away and did I mention the bike portion has 3800 feet of elevation gain? Someone was really not paying attention when they signed up for this thing!

Here's what I'm doing this week to continue getting ready:

Monday: 1 hr Yoga, 2100 yard swim
Tues: 6 mile run with 3 miles in the middle at tempo, 1 hour easy bike
Wed: 90 minute ride with several hard surges, strength training
Thurs: 4 mile run, 40 minute open water swim
Fri: 1750 yard swim, strength
Sat: 10 mile run
Sun: 2.5 hour bike w/half ironman efforts, followed immediately by 30 minute run

I think someone is trying to kill me. Needless to say, my strength training has become a bit slim these days and tends to mostly focus on core strength exercises. It's good to know I have my iron supplement. That should take care of the efforts, although it certainly doesn't mitigate the pain.

Bungalow Projects

So after putting in about 1000 hours of work by May 31 and having some free time on my hands after Memorial Day, my thoughts turned back to the Bungalow. The last project was the kitchen remodel which replaced counters, sink, appliances but left the walls with ugly green plaid wall paper in place. A little free time last summer found me peeling wallpaper and scraping paint off the woodwork but then two intense projects from August through May left me with little time to follow up. So I lived with the walls like this until June:





In June I had my handy-woman over for another problem with some peeling wallpaper in the living room. I showed her my kitchen and explained the dilemma which had kept me from completing the kitchen for so long. The wall with the big window had been replaced with sheet rock at some point and wallpapered without priming first. This causes the sheetrock paper to tear when trying to remove the wallpaper. The only way I know how to fix this is to knock out the wall and start over. But Roberta called her "wallpaper lady" who came over and inspected. She was convinced that she could get most of the wallpaper off the wall without terrible damage and then skim coat anything in bad shape.

So I took a day off work and we scrubbed the hell out of the walls. I worked on the plaster walls and she worked on the sheet rock. Then she skim coated the entire wall and parts of the plaster wall too. Then there was priming. Then there was painting. Now there is this:







Still to do, I need to scrape the 90 layers of paint off all the woodwork in the kitchen. It's going to be repainted, but I hate how all the corners and edges are round from massive layers of paint on everything. So I'm at least going to chip it down to sometime less obnoxious.

Up next, a view of foundation work and landscaping projects.

Brewhouse Triathlon Long Course

Where to start? This is my last triathlon before the half-ironman September 13. I skipped reporting on the Minnetonka triathlon, which is too bad. That was a raving success for me. I took 10 minutes off my swim time from two years ago, ending with a 2:15/100 average. The bike was the same and the run was 2 minutes slower, which is not surprising given my condition this year. I was ecstatic of course.

Today I did the Brewhouse triathlon in Duluth. I signed up for this one because it seemed like my chances of tolerable weather in August were better 160 miles north of here. I didn't want to do Turtleman again this year because the bike is flat with too many corners and the run is uphill too much of the time and it's damned hot!

How about I start with pre-race prep? I have had kind of a bad week. Like PMS from hell which is exactly what I think it was. It started with a bad 10k last weekend where I bonked partway through and only kept running because the food was at the end of the run. I felt fatigued all week and tired. I couldn't get up in the mornings and I was massively craving sweets and fatty foods. Bad, bad, bad.

Then Saturday rolls around and I'm still feeling tired and and can feel fatigue in my legs from the 2 hour bike ride the day before (Jason switched it to 1 hour after I said I was tired, but I didn't look at the schedule, so oops). So I complained to my coach and he told me to do a short, easy pre-race brick instead of the 1 hour one on the schedule, or to skip it if I was too tired.

I skipped it.

Saturday morning I spent time messing with the drivetrain on my bike trying to eliminate chain rub and still get the chain to shift between big/little rings. This is a huge pain because every adjustment requires me to climb on the trainer where I had it mounted and test the adjustment with real weight and force. I finally got frustrated and quit and told my boyfriend that he needed to come over and help because this was a two person job. So he did. We played with it for a while and he still couldn't get it to behave.

At this point it became a huge operation where he started changing around the bolt position and other things. Eventually he called me over and told me to try it out. And it shifted beeYOOteefully! There was silence everywhere except in the smallest cogs with the small ring, which I never use anyway. I can even use big ring/biggest cog without noise. Awesome! I have the best boyfriend! So while I skipped the brick, I did get several short intervals pedaling on the trainer and shifting through the drivetrain.

After that, we drove up to Duluth, picked up my packet and went to our hotel downtown. Then we wandered down to Canal Park and went looking for food, hoping to find a place that didn't have 90 million screaming kids like our hotel. We ate dinner at Grandma's Bar because it had an outdoor patio and we thought we could see the lake. We were wrong. I tried to order a burger medium rare and was informed that "all our burgers are well done." Well gross. So I had some chicken strips and fries. We know better than to go back there. I also had a pint of Summit with dinner.

Then we walked over and looked at the Tall Ships and walked back down the Canal Park beach eating a bit of Coldstone.

Two things I never do the night before a race: drink and eat sweets. Oops.

Race Day

62 degrees at 7am. Yes!

My wave wasn't due to start until 9:30am and they were racking us by bib number, so we took this rare opportunity to sleep in until 6:15. I felt all wrong and sinful but it worked. My bagel digested on schedule and we just sat in the car and finished our coffee when we got to the race site. Very leisurely. I got set up in transition with no major drama, did my time in the Biffy line and got into my wetsuit for a pre-swim. That went fine. Then I got out of the water and hung out with Steven waiting for race start. They were sending all of the short course people out first and my wave was the last of the long course, so it was kind of a long wait. I was also annoyed about having to sweep the course since I'd be close to last out of the water.

Waiting for the race to start, I started to feel some low level anxiety. It was low level because I couldn't really tell I was anxious, but I was laying in the grass and my heart rate was 107. It had been in the 70s less than ten minutes before. I don't know why I was anxious, but I was. This was my first long course race of he year and only my second ever though, so that could be part of it. Eventually I lined up with the smallest wave ever and found the hard way that not many women over 30 were motivated to do this race. Darn.

We took off and it was a long hopping start in shallow water. I don't like shallow starts. I don't like the way it feels to get my heart rate up too high before swimming because I'm afraid of sucking in water the wrong way when I start swimming. And there's nothing like high-legged jumping through water to do just that.

I had a terrible time today doing extra distance. Every time I sighted, I was either heading away from the buoy line or on track to go too far to the inside. I put in a few extra yards going back and forth for some reason. Maybe it's because it was a triangle. All my other races this year have been arcs. So I never was that far behind the group but I wasn't able to catch them even though it seemed like I might for a time.

Also, I found that a lot of my newfound form technique seemed to desert me with the donning of the wetsuit. Partway through I realized that I was just letting my upper body hang there in the water without straightening my torso or legs and was not focusing on pulling through either. I tried to focus on those things, but then I would sight and forget. The second side of the triangle was easier to sight down, but it was tough to see where the finish was and we were getting some major chop right in our face. Me no likey, but it was pretty gentle chop compared to my epic swims in Minnentonka and Lake Michigan.

I also passed some people on this side of things, which made me feel better. Amazing that, with a lake that size and not that many of us left in the water, I managed to swim right up on a guy and put my hand on his ass without knowing what I was doing. o hai!

Also, my left thumb totally feel asleep which was a little freaky.

On the good side: 15 seconds off of last year's 100 yard time for a 2:25/100. On the not-so-good side, 10 seconds more on my 100 time from the Minnetonka tri with only an addition of .3 miles. Not so good. I was a little disappointed in my swim results today but feel like the problems are ones I can work on and hopefully improve before swimming 1.2 miles.

Final swim time 35:27, 2:25/100; 56/58 women. This pace would have put me at 22/47 women if I'd done the short course. That's 47 women alone in my age group. There were 209 women doing the short course. These long course apparently are a little more competitive and only good athletes and crazy people do them.

The Bike

The bike was the bike. Two loops on roads so bad they made me yearn for Texas chip seal. Patched to a faretheewell and potholed and bumpy. Oh and with false flats. A few spots had been recently repaved. I can only guess this momentous repaving happened because the road had been potholed down to complete dirt. Because I was in the last wave, I was only passed by a few guys on snazzy bikes finishing up their second loop. I passed several people and was never re-passed. I negative split my bike loops which was kind of cool. I only averaged 18.4 which was less cool. I felt ok on the bike, but I haven't done enough of these long courses and was afraid to kill myself and have a complete blowup on the run like last year.

I also had a followup bike fit last week and had my saddle moved forward, but not raised at all. I felt a little squashed today and like I couldn't ever get a comfortable, regular cadence going. Although it beats the guy who went past me see-sawing back and forth on his saddle. I don't know how he managed to stay put in his aero bars.

Final bike time 20.6m@1:07; 30/38. This pace would have put me at 13/47 women in my age group on the short course.

The Run

Can I tell you how much I was dreading this run? I totally blew up last weekend on that 10k and had a dreadful 6.5 mile run around Lake Calhoun on Tuesday. I did some things differently in prep for this run today. First I ate a gel at the start of the race. Then I ate a gel 7 minutes into the bike. I also finished my entire bottle of sports drink on the bike. Usually I consume about 4 ounces and forget about it. Finally, I took a 10oz running belt bottle and filled that with sports drink as well.

One of the trends I've noticed in my racing is an utter obsession with the location of the water stops and desperately wanting the water stop to hurry up and get here. Then, when I get there, I drink a bunch and make myself sick. Last year at Turtleman, I gulped a bunch at the water stop heading out of transition and had an immediate tummy ache. It's just that I'm always so hot and thirsty! So I packed the 10oz bottle in an effort to stave off this destructive behavior. I think it worked.

As always, when I hit the run portion of things, I have trouble finding it in my heart to care about what my time split ends up because I'm tired and sweaty and hot and I suck at running. In short, I have a bad attitude. I actually felt kind of ok today when I went out on the course, but didn't have any specific expectations and knew the course was rolling hilly from having ridden next to it. The first 3/4 was a gentle uphill which I knew could push me into the red zone all too easily. So I settled in and just resolved to keep running to the top at a steady pace. That worked and I felt pretty good when I hit the short course turnaround point. I had no desperate worries about the water station since I had my own brew with me. Also, it was overcast, low humidity with a thunderstorm on the way. Conditions don't get any better than that for me.

I went out thinking it would be cool to run 11 min miles but resigning myself to something resembling 11:30's or even 11:45's given my recent performances. So I just did what I could and ran how I felt. I let gravity take me on the downhills and tried to keep it steady going up. I also tried to keep my heart rate around 168 which I managed. I reached the turnaround somewhere in my 28th minute I think and was thinking I was doomed to 12 minute miles as my second halves are invariably worse than my first halves. But I just kept going. I gave myself drink/walk breaks at 10 min and 20 min and then a short one at the 2nd water stop which was also the third water stop and at the top of an uphill on the way back. So I walked through there again briefly and had some water which my stomach didn't entirely appreciate.

I felt ok and was cheered to see the turnaround for the short course again, telling me I had 1.25 miles left to run. Yay! I still didn't feel bad, but I was tired. I grabbed water at the last water stop and dumped it on myself and kept going. It was uphill to the last corner and I was passed by about 4 people at once which was demotivating. I picked up the pace and looked at my watch. Egads! I was ahead of schedule and if I hurried I thought I might make 55 minutes! So at the corner leading to the down hill back to the finish, I ramped up my pace and let my heart rate go to hell. I let gravity take me down hill and then, when I hit the flat/false flat leading to the finish, I just picked up my pace, passed a girl who'd gone by me a half mile before and managed to finish at 55:12. That's kind of cool. For me. Of course that puts me last in my age groups for the run and 56/58 women, but after my abysmal week and overall wretched running condition, it was pretty fantastic.

And I totally negative split my bike and run times. That's an actual first.

When the woman I'd passed got to the finish, she was like, nice way to finish. My brain hurt and I don't think I even answered her which makes me kind of sad. It was such a nice thing to say especially when it looked to me like she was hurting from her pace/gait when I was behind her. I felt like a snot after I realized what I'd done.

So in some ways, some disappointing numbers today. But I already knew I'd place poorly after my experience with Turtleman last year. Only fast people do long courses. I am really happy with my run and pretty sure my swim time can be improved on with some sighting practice and form practice. I have some solid ideas of what needs work before the half ironman and I have a pretty good idea now that I probably won't be able to do the run split in anything better than 11's no matter how hard I work over the next 6 weeks, especially with a bike course that has 3800 feet of elevation gain. I hope to focus on running and swimming here and just kind of keep maintenance levels on the bike.

All in all, it was a good race with no drama and no disasters. I felt pretty upbeat when we left, still feel positive about the day and am motivated to work hard for the next 5 weeks to improve.

Should it scare me?

When I get an email from a race promoter with stuff like this in it?

I got an email about the Brewhouse Tri tonight. Seriously, whoever wrote this must have been drunk or or something. These are not boding well for the quality of my race. Here are some excerpts:


- We use PICKEL EVENTS CHIP TIMING.

SHORT COURSE (8:30 am start) Waste Deep Water Start

*NOTE* FAMILY OR FRIENDS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE TRANSITION AREA FORANY REASON.

- THERE ARE AREAS ON THE COURSE WHERE SLOWING DOWN AND TAKING EXTREMECAUTION ARE EXPECTED OF ALL COMPETITORS. wtf? Are they going to mark those or just let us guess? Because I'm not slowing down.

- There are no aid stations on the bike course. Be prepared. Duh, this is like saying there are no water wings on the swim.

- No other form of locomotion other than walking and running will be allowed on the run course w/out consent from race director (crawling constitutes the need for medical attention). - Does this mean we can't skip?

If I were the race director, I would be mortified.

What's fun to do for an out-of-towner during the RNC?

The City of St Paul passed a special ordinance allowing bars to stay open until 4am during the Republican National Convention. Bar owner were very excited about this until they learned that the permit would cost $2500. Most stated that they wouldn't make enough to pay for the permit and other expenses to justify the cost of the permit. At least that's what I read in the Strib a few weeks ago.

I heard on NPR today that only one club has applied for the permit. And that club is?

Drum Roll

Sheik's Gentleman's Club

Now that's an entertaining statement about what people think the Republicans will be doing during their stay here. And here I thought it was to prepare for the upcoming national campaign. Oh wait...

Who Knew?

I've been waffling all spring and summer. Waffling. Running has not been coming back like it should. Had some incidents that made me wonder if I could possibly have exercise induced asthma. And then I began to think about it. Wouldn't it be cool to have a magic thing that just makes you go better? So then I started to worry that I was just a hypochondriac and whiner looking for excuses about why I'm not so great these days.

So I waffled and sat on it. In March my duathlon left me coughing up a lung for half a day. Buffalo was giving me a hard time, but I also got a lung full of lake water at the start, so I discounted the difficulty breathing I experienced during that race. During the Minnetonka triathlon (which I have yet to report on) I felt that my legs weren't tired but I was out of breath on the whole run. Then I had some bad runs outside and some posture self-adjustment that seemed to help some.

After waffling in indecision all summer, I finally made an appt with the doc for today. And I felt a little justified when I felt myself phlegming up on our hike in Colorado.

So I went to the doctor today. Doctor Heather agrees that I could have some issues with exercise induced asthma. She also ordered a ferritin level blood test to check iron levels and hauled in another Doctor Heather the Physical Therapist to look at my posture and consult on those issues as well.

The results? Doctor PT Heather says my obliques are still too weak and that I'm probably pulling my shoulders back too much which can impede my diaphragm. Also if my obliques are weak, I'm still using my back to stabilize and my pelvis is not tucked enough which is also hard on my breathing. More planks!

Also, it turns out that my iron count is 15. Doctor Heather says she likes her athletes to have an iron count of at least 30. And I was like, how is that possible??? I loooove my spinach and eat it all the time. Also there's something else that I really like to eat that has iron in it although I can't remember what it is. But that's the reality of it. My iron is way deficient and is probably a major contributor to my fitness troubles this summer. Who knew?

So I came home tonight with a shiny new inhaler and a prescription bottle full of iron supplements. I felt like a hypochondriac, but went to the doc anyway because last year I ignored all the bad stuff going on and hoped it would just fix itself. This year I'm doing the opposite and getting advice whenever I feel I might need it, even if it's overkill.

Dr Heather says it will take 4-6 weeks to feel the diff on the iron supplement. I'll let you know how that works outs.

Rocky Mountain Relief

I hear it's sucktackular hot in Minneapolis right now. So glad I'm not there.

Yesterday we drove to Colorado. 26.2 miles per gallon. Still cheaper and less stressful than flying. Steven prefers to drive the entire way. I like that he prefers it. Got in around 8 mountain time and stayed up to try and watch the late coverage of the Tour. We made it about 90 minutes and gave up. Way too tired. This year we are in a condo in Frisco, near the reservoir and bike path. Not a lot of big plans. I've got a half ironman coming up so I'm stuck doing all my sports while I'm here and boyfriend is recovering from the broken collar bone so he is not supposed to be riding yet. We might do some hiking. I will probably do long bike rides every other day with some swimming and running mixed in.





Today I did a little ride out to Montezuma. A mild uphill with a couple of pretty steep spots. Went a little slower than I could have, meaning I seemed to have more power in my legs than my cardio system wanted to let happen. Once my heart rate gets above 165, I get a little gaspy and it's not long after 168 that I start to feel a smidge light headed. I'm planning to challenge those limits a bit this week, just not on the first day.

Had a mechanical challenge today. Bike fell over when I went to lube the chain so it fell on the drive train. I think I bent the derailleur hanger because I dropped the derailleur into my spokes the first time I shifted down. Being less helpless these days, I tried to bend things back myself and mess with the limit screws to make sure I could ride without dropping it into the spokes again, since the nearest Diva derailleur hanger is in my toolbox in Minneapolis. I did drop my chain down the back inside on the way up the climb and heard a ting-ting-ting at the same time. So I unclipped, hoping not to fall and did a bit more adjustment. Erf. wiped my fingers on rocks to try and keep from getting grease on my kit.

Got a growler of beer from the Dillon Dam Brewery, watched the tour, cooked some fish and generally took it easy today. Condo has it's own hot tub. Yum.