The waning days of summer

Summer is winding down fast now, the sun sets noticibly earlier, the air is chilled in the early morning, the geese are sequestering for their move to Disney World and The Tribe is getting antsy for change. We've had a good summer, and I think the greatest thing for me is to watch The Tribe develope in their relationship towards each other. They get along fairly well, and we've crossed what seemed like the impossible bridge; the two boys are playing together. I think until recently they just assumed the only way to communicate was by fighting. Now, they seem to have their pecking order arranged, and they just play. On most days. They still all have their moments, and sometimes those moments last for hours. Last week we had one of those days. I was running out of discipline options, and was tired of refereeing, so, I decided they could just fend for themselves. One hour, on the couch. No talking, no drinks, no food, just sit. I set the timer and continued cleaning. At first Hyphen Girl sat in a harumph by herself on the ottoman with arms folded. She couldn't imagine why she had to endure an hour "time out" when she had been working all morning on chores. I advised her to check her attitude, it's what got her there in the first place. Soap and Buck Naked crashed in a tangle of arms and legs on the big chair, completely unfazed by the discipline. Life is a game to them and I probably should have separated them, but my goal was to get them back in harmony with each other, and I figured the two otters could help things along. At one point I asked BNB what they were doing and he informed me they were playing "Statue". No games, this is a time out. Standing Long Jump, being the 8 year old boy that he is, and tired from his chores, decided to make the most of it and stretched out full length on the couch. He, of course, had to register his complaint by throwing all the pillows on the ground, but he seemed too tired to make a real protest, and the next I knew he was reclining peacefully on the couch.

"How much time is left?"

Oh, about one minute less then the last time you asked. And so it went as I washed the floors (having them trapped on furniture was actually pretty handy- the floors dried with no foot prints.)

Unbeknowst to me, the worse punishment truly fell upon HG, a music afficianado with her dad's tastes. I have a "cleaning" file in itunes with samples of The Eagles, Gillian Welch, Simon and Garfunkel, Trishia Yearwood etc and

OH MY GOSH....JOHN DENVER! (I tend to sing JD songs out loud on the bike-so be warned IMFL friends)

I can't help it, I grew up in rural Colorado. I love John Denver. By default, so does the younger 3/4 ths of The Tribe. They were happily belting out "I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane" during their captivity- a little ironic, no?

HG bemoaned her fate to Trihubby when he got home. He took her out for ice cream.

You might think different, but I'm fairly certain John Denver meets the criteria of the Geneva Convention and doesn't rise to the level of undue torture, but I'm open to contemplation. To think, I could have played Patsy Cline.

For now, the extended time out is a weighty punishment, and the threat, and occasional sentencing seems to be working. There are only three days of summer remaining, I think we are going to make it just fine.

Happy final summer days to all-enjoy!

Racing for kids who can't

A picture is worth a thousand words, therefore, about fifty pictures might suffice to demonstrate how awesome the Miracles of Mitch Triathlon was. The kids did a fantastic job, everyone raced their hearts out, and that with no prize, nor podium, nor timing device. They raced in the spirit of their fellow kids who live every day too sick to run. Hyphen Girl related to me how inspirational it was to run for someone else, and how when she was getting tired she drew strength from that to not give up. In turn, when I was racing on Sunday, I could chastise my irrational mind with the thought, no matter how tough this course is right now, there is no comparison to the endurance of a family living with a sick kid, or a kid living with a severe disability. It's humbling to race when others can't. The body marking in this race gave each kid the name of a sick kid to race for, and then HG got a little extra confetti marking for her birthday. Ironically, the volunteer who marked her leg is a friend from my tri group, and who went on to take 4th overall women/1st AG in her first Half Iron race. Both Soap and HG were nervous before the race, but that didn't stop them from having a great time and making some new friends. It's always difficult to know what to do when Soap wants to give out our home phone to a stranger she just met, so she can plan a play date with them. The race was remarkably well organize, and included a parade of athletes, by age and gender, down to the water's edge. A group of competetors sang the national anthem, a prayer was offered up for safety, and for the kids and families not racing and then it was on to the water. There were hundreds of spectators cheering and yelling for the kids as they made their way to the start, how fun would that be? The challenged athletes went first, and the smiles on those kids faces was priceless, especially when they came out of the water and the crowd erupted in cheers. Then the waves of age group kids began. The swim was 200 yards for 10 and over The girls were all laughing when they had to round the buoy, you pretty much had to walk around the tight curve.The girls exited the water like a pack of hens, then down the beach, and up to the transition area. The path to transition was lined with cheering fans and parents snapping pictures, their own "red carpet" experience.

Soap was in the nine year old age group and had to wait a good thirty minutes for the start of her wave. The kids looked cold, which helps explain their explosion into the water. Things quickly slowed to a walk/swim event, which Soap decided to leave behind and torpedoed through the water. The bike was a 3 mile loop for the orange group and a 6 mile double loop for the blue group, Apparently there was quite a hill climb at mile 2, and HG sounded like her mom (aaaggghhh hills) after the race. The kids charged on, and went to the run which was a half mile and mile based on age. It was like a cross country course, winding through the park and the woods. I smiled when I heard them exclaiming how beautiful if was to go through the woods and over the course. I think a huge benefit to training is taking in all of nature around you. The announcer called out the kids names at the finish line, it was fun to see the kids come down the chute. Soap had the extra benefit of finishing to her favorite song "Unwritten" coming over the PA system. Then what better way to end a race than with a gatorade mustache? Followed by hot dogs and frozen custard.

The kids all had a great time, I think in part because this wasn't a competition, they could just go out and race and have fun. There were 700 competitors at this race (a North American record) and 500 were new to the race, and a huge percentage of those kids had never raced before. Something tells me the race will double in size over the next few years. I can't think of a better cause, or race. Count us in for next year.

Stuck on you

I am well supplied with TGD and Trimama stickers-if you want one just shoot me an email with your address and let me know if you want the 3 or 5 inch size. You have to get your own finisher medal.

Dig the Big Pig Gig or 70.3 really long miles

When I planned my tri season last winter it seemed brilliant to me to set my base training through the spring and conclude it with a half ironman race in June, then maintain my base but drop the intensity through June and July, completing a second 70.3 in August to commence the final push to Florida in November. Here is what I learned (for the record, the post below is more important to me, and I can't wait to help Soap and HG blog their race reports, but I learned some lessons this weekend, so I'll share) and my apologies in advance for not setting all the names to follow as links-boo to me-but, I'm in the process of updating my sidebar-so booyah for all of you-

1) It pays to have friends in virtual places. Thanks to Spence who turned my racing image into an action figure, and to Spandex King for the stickers of the Kahuna and Trimama, I carried these two with me from beginning to end. No, I'm not that vain. TGD epitomizes the battle of the common person to take on these races and overcome everything life throws at them, and still cross the line- I pIan to carry these stickers at IM, but I'll use a sharpie to add all of my bloggie buddies names to them. I was carrying my blog family with me in those two stickers. They were even in my bento box and they carried me over a lot of tough miles

2) It pays to train with a tri club or dedicated group of partners. Thanks to them I'll never race alone.

3) Note to self: Buck Naked Boy is now six, and is bigger and longer, it is not a good idea to press him up on your shoulders and hold him there for 15 or 20 minutes, wiggling to get a view of his sisters, the day before a half ironman. It will torque your lousy lower back and you will pay immensely on the bike. Duly noted.

4) Snakes in the water. Not a campy action film, but a reality. Which I thankfully didn't know about until the following day at breakfast when our waiter informed us that the large family of water snakes that reside in Plesant Lake don't like visitors.

5) Swimming in a straight line rocks. I ran into 2 buoys and grazed a few more. Mission accomplished on swim!

6) Averaging one swim per week through the summer is not going to cut it for Ironman, but holding your 1.2 swim pace through the summer and still being around for the Tribe makes the lack of extra effort worthwhile.

7) Transitions with little changing rock!

8) Note to biker guy. Tri uniforms wear thin through the summer. Perhaps a look in the mirror at your buck naked self is in order before you dress. If you see big and hairy it might be a good idea, for all of us behind you, not to wear the transparent singlet on race day.

9) If you ask 30 athletes about the difficulty of a bike course you will get 30 answers-those who are wearing IMWI, IMCA, IMUSA, or IMCdA garb do not count. Profile charts mean nothing if you don't know how to read them. Knowing the course is priceless.

10) Cowboy up! Races in Iowa are marvelous and if a cowboy had really crossed at the two "Cowboy Crossing" signs I would have stopped my bike a snapped a pic with my cell phone.

11) Nutrition really does count when the race passes two hours, especially when hours 3-4 cover more climbing hills.

12) Pain that approximates stabbing knives in your lower back while on the bike really suck. Pain that intensifies over hills on a hilly course can be downright debilitating, particularly when you aren't minding #11.

13) Sunflower seeds provide a carnival for the mind in the middle bike miles.

14) M & M's are a great mental reward when you crest the holy sh#@ did I really just go from 22 to 8 mph hill.

15) M & M's comingled with sunflower seeds can be entertaining as you try to sort them in your mouth, amusing your loopy mind at mile 45, particularly when allergies make nose breathing an impossibilty.

16) laughing at yourself on the course is priceless

17) until it distracts you from your nutrition and you, sick to death of sweet powerade, switch to water, and duh, cause a glucose swing that makes you incapable of dealing with the knives slicing your back with every hill climb.

18) Historical demons suck, especially when they are waiting on your shoulder, ready to pounce on a mind already weakened by a fear of how you will rate in comparison to the other phenomonal athletes on the course-they are particularly potent against a glucose starved mind.

19) Thinking at mile 20 that you aren't going to look at the results, and therefore disarm the demons only works for so long.

20) Discovering that some of the demons are still there in a "c" training race, unbelievably valuable. That's what the throw away races are for, to test for weaknesses.

21) It really is true that you need to race with the nutrition you train with- duh.

22) A 20 avs for the first 20 miles, 16.5 second (ugh hills) and a final avs of 18.? just plain rocks for this stay at home mom who has only been tri biking for months.

23) Throwing out the time and distance for the final half mile of a bike course that is a traffic/people/runners/boats/campers mess to give yourself credit for your actual output is worthwhile.

24) A final half mile which takes four minutes to navigate because you are beginning to hypeventilate and cry profusely because the pain in your back and lack of nutrition has blown you away, and you are ready to DNF because you know you can run 13 miles but there would be no use in doing that and laying out your back for a week is unnerving. I've never DNF'd-but I've never cried either. For the record, I haven't known that level of pain since going through the early stages of labor.

25) Wearing your Florida uniform (just to assure that there would be no surprises on IM day) and gaining huge motivation to not quit because of the bad omen that would hold for race day was inspiring.

26) Reaching Trihubby by cell phone, who "just had a feeling" all morning that I would be calling in tears, and had been praying for me, and having him talk me down off the DNF ledge reaffirms my belief in marriage and the Big Guy looking out for me.

27) Oranges, pretzels and smiling volunteers make aid stations an oasis along the miles of sweltering black top.

28) Throwing out your PR ambition to walk with a teammate who is hurting is worth it every time.

29) "I love you mom" at mile 4 from HG gives priceless encouragement-the race was no longer in doubt.

30) Crossing the finish line with HG and SG, golden.

31) Being able to write a race report with the knowledge that many will never get the chance is humbling

32) Having a little extra weight on your key chain will make the long training miles to Florida that much lighter

Happy trails

Two Tri's, Two heros and one great weekend

Whew I'm tired.

Summary

Miracle kids tri-beyond description. So inspiring, I'll let the kids say it in their own words tomorrow.
Hero One: This kid rode the back of his mentor through the swim, then completed the bike and run. There was another kid who completed the race with cerebal palsy-wow, just plain wow!




Pigman 70.3

Hero Two: This is my friend Stephanie, who would shoot me for posting a pic like this, but her name needs a face. This is Steph's second year of racing and she consistently shows courage and determination in every race she takes on. Pigman was her "A" race for the season and huge for her. At mile 50, after a bike course that had me in tears, Stephanie watched a water stop girl scramble for a loose bottle on the road, and didn't see an oncoming motorcylce. The man on the cycle swerved to miss her but lost control of his bike and flew off to the road. Steph, a nurse, jumped off her bike to help, and stayed with the man bleeding by the side of the road, with his wife who had been following him in her car, the man cracked his helmet, his head and died on the scene. HG and SG were sitting with Steph's sister when she came into T2, still covered by this man's blood, explained to her sister and race officials what had happened and then proceeded out on the run. She finished the course in a little over 9 hours (including the time spent with the accident) That my friends is heroic.

We have a birthday party to go to at the grandparents, so more to report then.

Core Training Trimama Style!

Now, you can do your core training with a wimpy exercise ball, which by the way can pop and dump you hard on your hiney giving you a bruise that defies sitting for a day or so, (I'll spare you a picture of Trihubby's bruised butt:) or you can core train Trimama style aka Rocky IV-outer Siberia-down home-back to mother nature-training.

I guarantee one will build character as well as muscles.



The Tribe seems to have adapted to my training style, surprisingly there hasn't been any complaining while stacking wood this year, I think the key is to move the wood in small batches, a little each day. In all we will move and stack about 6 face cord as well as cutting up some brush and fallen branches in the back yard. You know you are an athlete when you turn the simple tasks of home into training endevours. I tried to explain this to Bruised Butt, who had incidentally declined my offer of core camp Trimama style, and he laughed when I explained the weight of each log and the equal distribution of exercises left (into wheel barrow) right (stack to pile). Well, at least I can sit down today. Kahuna had a funny post about training with his boys, but I really laughed at the comments which included strength training using your kids, yes, I've curled and benched mine.

If you heard the cosmos re-allign it's because Hyphen Girl turns 13 tomorrow. I'm not so certain teenage girls turn 13. A friend of ours suggested that 13 isn't an age, it's a mental disorder. I'm not sure where that leaves 14. Thirteen seems more like a hybrid of eight and twenty -two. For example, HG (who bestowed the blog name on herself when she was unable to settle on a single name when asked how she wanted to be identified) recently retorted to a younger friend, with much indignation, that she will not be adding to her American Girl doll collection, she has better things to buy, like clothes, duh. So the doll collecting was retired, until we went to Costco and saw the "Girls of the World" porcelin dolls. Now it's all dolls all the time. No, wait, it's all birthday "outfit" all the time. No, it's earrings, no balloons. I can't keep up.

I'm taking HG and Swinging Girl to Iowa for the weekend. The Pigman Half is Sunday, so we are going down Saturday after The Miracle Kids Triathlon. I rented a zippy little car (God, please dont' let me get a speeding ticket, in spite of myself) and we'll head south until Monday. HG and SG are all giggles and plans as they plot out their assault on Cedar Rapids, in particular during the hours of the race. I would be a little more nervous about this except that they are pretty responsible kids, not so much absent minded as goofy. I think we are going to have a lot of fun.

I'm totally psyched for the 70.3, which is a little frightening in and of itself-I should be scared, right? I'm just stoked to race. I haven't raced since June and I'm ready for another go at it. A contingent of my local tri club is going, including some of the girls I normally train with, so we should be able to race together (in a non drafting sort of way). It will be interesting to see where my conditioning level is, and where I need to go to make it to Florida. I think I mentioned this, but the run portion is basically rolling corn fields. I see a PR in my near future if I can't shake the images of Signs and Children of the Corn.

Happy weekend to all, race reports to follow (I'll bring the laptop)

Don't mess with my miney mo

Buck Naked, having just turned six, and therefore being given the dictatorial keys to the universe asserts himself into executive power with the fervor of a viking hoarde. Among his arsenal of decision making utilities is the "Iney, meany, miney mo". The world should be so lucky. Apparently the cosmos realign if you mess with the miney mo or so I discovered yesterday when he was about the business of choosing which lego train to put on his Christmas wish list. Because of course we have entered the season of "my birthday is over and now it's time to compile a list of everything I didn't get for my birthday and begin to ask for it for Christmas". I messed with the "Mo" and was duly chastised in a tone just shy of "you don't speak to your mother like that and do you prefer the flavor of Ivory or Irish Spring?" He backed down the tone, but then I had to ask; why are you choosing between the train you just got, and the other train?

"Because I want two of them."

And when does the law of diminishing returns kick in?

But then I remember this is the son of his father who years ago trudged house by house, block by block, day after day, week after week, year after year, 30 pounds of newspaper slung across his forehead, slogging along in moonboots through ice and rain, fog and heat, delivering news for nickels, which were accumulated to buy leggos and models. Then subsequent hours waxed and waned and construction of planes and cars and etc ensued. And more blocks were trudged, all just to buy two bricks of low grade explosives, and one epic battle later, there was nothing. Just charred, melted remains.

The male mind remains a mystery.

I'll do my best to hallow the "miney mo" from this day forward.

On to training.

It was a weekend of "not quite" I had 3XXX hundred yards planned and managed only 2800, because we left late and dinner time was blowing by quickly. So, I turned endurance into speed with a double 5-4-3-2 ladder alternating speed and pull sets with straight swimming. Felt good. Then I took a four hour ride Sat early am but only managed to "roll" for 3:30. I thought I chose a good route, and it was beautiful, but there were way too many lights and my chain dropped weird at the 35 mile break point, so it was four hours in the saddle but not nearly as many miles as I thought I might drop. The 1:10 run scheduled for yesterday I bumped to this morning. I just couldn't do another legs dragging on the pavement, hey it's ok this is my IM race pace run. I needed to go out and see if my fresh legs could still produce a 10K. Yes they can and I still find it surprising to see 7.28 miles at an 8:20 pace on the garmin. My brain lives in the 30 mins 3 times a week paradigm at times. Obviously that's shifted.

Which explains why Trihubby and I crashed early Friday night instead of going out for our anniversary. We took the Stella out on the town Saturday night, re living the days we dated on his motorcycle,
eating at the same greek restaurant that fueled our romance 16 years ago, and promptly arrived home at 8:30 pm. What???? No swank jazz club. No sipping martini s listening to the blues? No, we went to the local warehouse grocery store and grabbed a movie at the rental kiosk. We had the night. We were home at 8:30! Trisaratops has a great post on the IM effect, and obviously this is going to get worse before it gets better, but we're past the point of messin with the "mo", the jazz clubs can wait, we're in and it's going to be good.

I don't want to be accused of insider trading...

But a little hint, buy stock in Target. I took The Tribe shopping for school supplies yesterday, all four of them. We got pencils, notebooks and a handy little lecture from the checkout lady about the sorry state of public schools and how dismally our students rank among the world's intellectuals. I bit my tongue, smiled and nodded because I've long since come to understand that there are people who are asking for your opinion and there are those who want only to give you theirs and because 1) I had FeLady's virtual voice in my head reminding us that kids only spend about 10 percent of their youthful lives at school and 2) sometimes the price of freedom is to allow parents to be neglectful and stupid in their choices for their kids vs dissident parents being thrown into "re education" facilities, and 3) America has produced some of the world's greatest thinker's, inventors and contributors to society and I imagine a good deal of them completely whiffed standardized tests. I can think of a dozen people off hand, Bill Gates comes to mind, who don't hold a college degree or other moniker of achievement.

My new motto: Quit bitching, get off the fence and become part of the solution.

While shopping with The Tribe isn't quite as big a deal as this guys feat, it's an endurance event all it's own.
Imagine four excited puppies all talking to you simultaneously, each asking a dozen questions at once and you are mentally sifting and collating, spewing answers left and right while trying not to overwhelm any other shoppers in the vicinity. Some items like pencils we can buy in bulk, others require individual attention. Some work with the sale prices, others are intuitively rejected with the knowledge that the cheaper item will break and you will be scouring the desert of "Holiday" season aisles in an attempt to find a replacement that is now priced at four times the current cost. Then there are the "add on" requests which occur at a rate of one every thirty seconds. "Can I get this pencil shaped sharpener for my teacher?" "I need this horse shaped pencil eraser" "Can I buy a candy jar for my desk" "Where is the glue?" "I need glue" (actually you need glue sticks-15 of them. HG and I figured they are going to glue all the kindergarteners together so they don't lose anyone) "I need this mirror for my locker" etc. This year had the added feature of HG embarking for the most part on her own, which explains the highly fashionable folders and spirals that emerged onto the checkout conveyor. Why buy a plain ten cent folder when you can make a statement with a bejewled, color coordinated spiral? HG was nonplussed when I informed her she would be paying the difference for her add ons.

"No problem, I'll just subtract it from what you owe me for babysiting" Which is an amount rapidly approaching the national deficit, largely due to the fact that HG has an accounting system that would impress the fellows who concocted the work comp system.

"I'm not even going to say your total out loud" Sales clerk lady intoned.

Why not? Say it out loud. Yes, I have four children. I am buying a year's worth of educational supplies for them. I have this in my budget. Trihubby and I worked hard, and we pay for our kids lives. That is what parents do. Heck, we even doubled up on most of the supplies to donate to a "supply drive" at a friends church. We saved and budgeted for that as well. It doesn't bother me that my list included hi lighters and a jump drive. Yes, I will be returning to Target for snow boots etc in about 2 weeks. I have that budgeted as well. These things do not overwhelm me.

Actually, they satisfy me. Immensely.

And if the budgeting scheme wasn't calculated correctly, I can always sell this guys forhead as marketing space.

I always know when there is a new camera in the house, suddenly goofy pictures abound.

I may have four times the supplies, but, I also have four times the laughs, the hugs and the general satisfaction that life is good.

3600 yard swim today
8 mile tempo run tomorrow
70 mile bike Sunday

Happy training and happy trails.

Victory is sweet!

Trihubby and I rode again with our Local Tri Club last night. Sorry to report, no stellar hill charges with
Chris, we were both feeling a little leggy from the training miles. We had a nice chat about training and racing for the first 8 miles and than it was all calves and off went the man of steel. I was pleasantly surprised to hit our meet up point with a 17.9 (that's almost 18!) avs, and that is the more difficult part of the course in terms of hills. The inclines that used to leave me crying for mommy are barely noticeable now, I can't tell you how surprising that is; to improve your biking ability you need to bike. The miles and hours are starting to pay off. Yea!

Now, the important news!

"Puke and Rally" our formidable tri trivia team crushed the opposition last night and took home the coveted "free night hotel suite" award and a nice bottle of wine. We actually fielded two teams and took 1st and 2nd place. You gotta love Irish Pub trivia night. We plan to continue competing, amass as many victories as we can and then have a great year end party at the hotel.

Of course, temptation rises and Trihubby and I briefly thought about taking the room and the wine and celebrating our 16th anniversary Friday, but we wouldn't want to defraud our teammates :) You gotta admit, a sneaky little rendevous with the hubby sounds so nice...thinking, thinking. I might just have to figure it out anyhow.

Some dufas stole my camera at the pool last week, so I've been picture deprived, but Trihubby was able to score a 7 mega pixel, metal cased Canon on clearance, so I'll be posting with pics again soon (allowing for Blogger boogery and all)

Happy trails!

Statement of Intent

First, a general question for Mac using blogland: If I use iWeb to create a blog will it allow for comments? I am so ready to overhaul my blog. Thoughts?

Second,
Bolder wrote an inspiring post titled "Statement of Intent"- if you didn't read it, scroll back in his blog and give it a read-kind of gives you goosebumps. He concludes the essay by wrapping his bike in black tape. So, that got me thinking, and with 11 hours on my trusty ax last week I had a lot of time to think

Bubble bike has been good to me. Very good to me. I've never dropped a chain, suffered only one flat, no crashes, and she's given me an irreplaceable education in all things life. But she's a bit winged right now, tapes coming all unraveled and to be honest a little time worn. Now I could just pull the tape, re wrap it, slap on a new band of electrical tape and be done with it, but that just seems like so much garage sale frugality, mindless meandering, Sunday ride to no where thinking. In two weeks I race my final Half Iron of the season, a comma in a year long sentence, that ends at Florida. The Tribe goes back to school in 4 weeks, then it's pedal to the metal training to the starting line in November. I want new tape. I want my own statement.

I used to despise the color pink. Pink was weak, and girlie, and dominated by every other color in the pack. That was yesterday's pink. Now pink is strong and courageous, it identifies those who overcome, and those who are fighting to do so. It remembers those who didn't. Pink takes all the pieces, strong, broken and otherwise and combines them into sexy, strong competence. Pink is a bold statement.

Then there is yellow. Yellow smiles at four minutes of adversity and then runs like a champion. Yellow doesn't quit. Yellow remembers and is stronger for it. Yellow sacrifices to do what is right, even when the personal reward is fleeting. Yellow inspires and challenges others to rise up to the task. Yellow overcomes with warmth and style. Yellow is a 38 year old mom and world champion. Yellow is unique.

Rainbow sherbert striping isn't an option. I want to choose one. Either way I win.

Insight?

Riding High

Rode with the Local Tri Club last night.

I stayed with the group.

I passed Chris

Going uphill



Of course I had to raz him as I went by, letting him know that was absolutely blog worthy.

Ok, never mind he was talking to a friend at the time.

And that he passed me 5 seconds later.

My goodness, he has magnificent calf muscles. If I was a guy I'd be jealous :)

Glory is fleeting

Knowldege is forever.

I am a biker (well, almost)

I am a triathlete.

My baby turns 6 today, good times all around.

and if Blogger would allow me to upload a photo...it would be here

Pics tomorrow- have a good one

Sweet summer rain

A cold front has passed through and finally dispersed our record breaking heat wave. It was 101 on Sunday and horribly humid. I biked indoors on the trainer Sunday and ran on the treadmill Saturday. That's like winter in July with no Christmas. It rained somewhere between 1-3 inches last night. Everything is a little soggy, but the best part, the lakes are refreshed. The water was getting just too soupy for comfort, this ought to change that substantially.

Thanks to all for the comments and congrats to The Tribe, they feel like celebrities.



Next up is Miracle Kids Triathlon where they will be racing in honor of a kid with cancer who can't-they have the name of the kid on their leg and arm instead of a number. Check out the website, it made me cry. I can't imagine the sorrow of spending my kids life in a hospital watching them suffer and possibly die.

Hyphen Girl and Soap will be collecting pledges, shoot me an email if you want to contribute, and I'll send you the info.

SLJ, who had a great time at the race this past weekend decided not to do Miracle Kids.

"I think one kids triathlon a summer is enough. I'm going to do the same race next year" He wants to PR. Whatever that means, there was no timer at this race. I'll have to remember to ask him.

The race is on Hyphen Girl's 13th birthday. !Ay Carumba! We had planned for some time to go down to Iowa with a friend of hers and a friend of mine and make it a chicks weekend. Oh, and I have a half ironman race thrown in just to make it fun. Unitl this Miracle Kids race came up I was acutely focused on the race. We were leaving in the early am to get to the hotel in time for packet pick up, I wanted to drive the course, blah, blah. Now, the Pigman Half is just a race and Miracle Kids is huge. The kid who won the pledge contest last year has cerebal palsy. His biggest concern was to do as much of the race on his own as he could without falling down. I emailed my race to ask them to leave my packet at the hotel as I am staying at the host hotel.

Perspective is always nice.

This half is really just a long training day to further test nutrition and race strategy. How odd that a half ironman is only a comma in a sentence that is a little over a year long. I love this sport!

Lake swim today with The Tribe and club ride tonight.