A new milestone!

Wow, time sure flies when you're having fun! This weekend Joey and I celebrate our first anniversary! Sometimes I think it seems strange that we have only been married one year when it seems we have been together for so long.

One question I have been asked a lot is, "Does my husband run too?" I reply his standard answer, "Only if chased". It is not his thing, but that is OK with me. He shoots guns competively be it trap, silhoutte, etc. ...not my thing either, which is OK with him.

He is a night person and I am a morning person (which works so I can get the workouts in while he sleeps!)

We have our differences, but we are so much the same....

We ride motorcycles together...one thing that has become our thing.

We enjoy dining out together...probably too much so!

We are a lot alike in that we are both very laid back.

We both can appreciate a cold beer.

We both treasure our families and friends.

We are both looking forward to the rest of our lives together!

Weekend details are being worked out, but rest assured we will be spending some quality time together....and I think I will squeeze in a few early workouts :-)

Below are a few of our memorable moments together to commemorate this upcoming day!

Watching the ocean on the beach over dinner on the honeymoon!

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Honeymoon Ride!

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Whatcha going to do when wrestlemania runs wild on you?

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My Coors Light Guy!

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My favorite joke!

Agghh, taper week and I needed it after my busy weekend!

Sometimes when life seems too serious, I really enjoy a good joke. So today I share with you my favorite one for some twisted reason!

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Three men lost in the forest were captured by cannibals. The cannibal king told the prisoners that they could live if they passed a trial. The first step of the trial was to enter the forest and get ten pieces of the same kind of fruit. So, all three men went separate ways to gather fruits.

The first one came back and said to the king, “I brought ten apples.” The king then explained, “Next, you have to shove the fruits up your butt without so much as an expression on your face, or you’ll be eaten.” The first apple went in, but on the second he winced in pain, and was killed.

The second one arrived, and showed the king ten berries. When the king explained the trial to him he thought to himself that this should be easy.

1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…and on the ninth berry, he burst out in laughter, and was killed.

The first guy and the second guy met in heaven. The first one asked, “Why did you laugh? You almost got away with it!”

The second one replied, I couldn’t help it, I saw the third guy coming with pineapples.”

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Well it's paid for..........

Well it is official...after a 7 year hiatus, I will run another marathon, Columbus 2006!

I have been debating this for the last two months or so, and me being the bargain hunter that I am, figured I was just going to have to bite the bullet and commit to it before prices went up on 4/30. No backing out now, because I just can't stand to waste money!

So here is the history on my one and only completed marathon (Columbus 1998)....

Summer 1998
It was between my junior year and senior year of college. I was running about 5 or 6 miles 4 or 5 days per week. My college pal, Shannon came to visit me in Cleveland and we decided to go have lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. As we sat there drinking our tall bones of beer, there was a triathlon on the tv showing the marathon runners. Jokingly, I said "How about you and me run one of them marathons?" In my head, this was completely not an actual question just my random meaningless babble, yet she was on a totally on a different line of thinking. She replied, "Really, I have always wanted to do one!"

And that was how we decided to run the marathon, end of story. Funny what happens with a couple beers in ya!

So she went back to her hometown of Dayton to train and I continued to train over the summer back in Northeast Ohio. School came and we started to train together back on the roads of Oxford, Ohio and some surrounding communities. Back then, I trained routinely, yet training was often done sweating out the mass quantities of beer I was drinking the night before. Distance was all that mattered and time was not so much of a concern.

More to come on the actual race at another time....but to make a long story short, we both finished. Afterwards I remembered thinking that the training was so overwhelming and although I felt good the entire race, I did not want to put myself through the training again. I thought it took up too much time.

Funny how things change. Eight years later and I am ready to give it another go! I have every confidence that I will be able to smash the time from my younger years as I have learned how to train much more effectively. Additionally, I think it will help that I am not quite the boozer I was back in my college days.

I feel the half marathons are challenging for me to work to improve my time, but the distance is not the daunting distance I thought it was 2 years ago. It is time for another chapter in the running career! Ending unknown..........

Race Reports

Saturday was the big 10 miler. That morning, I skipped my regular pre-race breakfast as we ate so late on Friday night (more beer can chicken!) that I was still full. I did however wake up plenty early though so I grabbed a nice shower and sat down to make my 10 miler playlist for my Ipod. Then I headed downtown and parked at the first parking garage I came to.

I searched around for my pal Carol with no luck, but I did see Lou (who had such an impressive race at 6th place overall with a time of 1:01:10). I also ran into Earl, who is a friend of my folks and I went to school with his kids. He is an inspiration who is 57 and only been running a few years now. I thought he deserved major props as he was running the 10 miler on some sore legs after his 3:31 Boston Marathon finish on Monday!

So my goal I did not want to mention on Friday was that I hoped to finish within 80 minutes or an 8-mile pace. An 8 mile pace is one I can keep without too much discomfort for runs 6 miles or so long and I was hoping that perhaps I could maintain it for the entire 10.

It was a perfect morning for running, mid 50's with a light breeze, & extremely foggy. So here are the splits.

Mile 1 7:04 (A little fast for this race, better slow down I think)
Mile 2 7:18
Mile 3 7:54 ??? (not sure why I slowed here)
Mile 4 7:48
Mile 5 7.26 (a little downhill)
Mile 6 7.58 (water)
Mile 7 7.24
Mile 8 & 9 16.20 (I missed mile marker 8 on thought it was the longest mile ever...& then there was a hill that seemed never ending at this stage...my spirits picked up tremendously when I heard the race director saying mile 9 marker was just around the corner as I still was waiting for 8)
Mile 10 7:56 Not sure this is accurate as I just backed out my other splits from my finishing time.

The ending...I was so happy to come into the home stretch and see the board reading 1:17. I had picked up the pace when from out of no where 3 people passed me with 5 feet left. Even though I was happy about my time, I was upset about being passed at the end. If I had been paying more attention I would have pushed a little extra harder at the finish. Oh well, a 1:17:18 finish at a 7:44 / mile pace was way better than I even thought I could do.

There is no way last year (or any other years in the recent past) I would have ran that time. I finished 29th of 402 women and 8th of 90 women in my age group. So no actual award to speak of, but I did feel rewarded in knowing that I had beaten my goal and ran a good race. I felt tired at the end, but still wondered if I could have still pushed harder.

And that was to be it for the weekend..........until...thunderstorms Sunday morning woke me up and I could not fall back asleep. I kept trying and then the sun started shining in my window so I got up. My legs hurt a little as I walked around the house.

Heck I am up and I know there is another race right up the road, why not just go and leisurely do that one too??? So I changed and got in the car to drive to the 5 mile Maple Sap run in Chardon.

It was in the low 50's and probably about 200 people lined up at the start of the 5 miler. I chatted with a lady who I had seen several times on the 10 mile course the day before who was also running. Her legs were tired too! I figured this would definitely not be a 5 mile PR given my tired legs and the hilly nature of this course. But with the horn I was off again.

Mile 1 6:50 (lot of downhill)
Mile 2 7:29
Mile 3 7:49
Mile 4 8:10
Mile 5 8:15 (strong finish given the amount of uphill here)

Total time was 38:30...

This time one lady passed me with a half mile left. After Saturday, I was going to make sure no one passed me in the last part of the race. So with a quarter mile left I started my push towards the finish line and passed the two people who had recently passed me as I just had to do it! I crossed the finish line and took a bit to catch my breath.

Not bad for what I had planned to do as a leisurely run. It was good enough to get me 1st in my age group with a nice plaque! Official results have not been posted but I think I was the 7th overall female. So a full weekend of running...today I will take it easy and recover!!

Darn Goose!

10 Mile Race on tap for tomorrow. This is a distance I have never raced. Last year I had signed up for the Hermes 10 Miler, then ended up sick and was getting married the following weekend. I figured with the terrible weather that day, it would not be the wisest decision to run it. So skipped the race and got myself healthy for the wedding! I would say that was a good call!

So tomorrow I am not sure what to expect for a time. I have a target in my mind which I would be excited to beat so I will let ya know how that goes...it may be a little aggressive, but I think that is a good thing. I am just crossing my fingers for no rain during the race!

In preparation for tomorrow's events, I did some cross training today. Hit the gym this morning for a swim and some time on the stupid stationary bike (yup, even though I shoot to do all road bike riding yet this is often just more convenient).

Then on my lunch break, being the unexpectedly sunny day, I had to get outside! Since I did not want to run today with the race tomorrow, I changed and grabbed my rollerblades out of my office, and cruised down the stairs...

Sat down on the sidewalk and put on my skates...

Cranked the Ipod music ...and was off!

Skated up the little road by my office with my music blaring and took the turn on to the sidewalk.

Totally pysched about the weather and feeling good!

Completely immersed in rocking out while keeping my eyes down to ensure I did not skate over any goose poop which is all over that particular stretch of sidewalk.

AGHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Totally did not see that goose I scared to death which proceeded to scare me to death!!!!

It flew from the right side of the sidewalk to the left side just inches in front of my head and as I was trying to block my face I even felt feathers!!!!! That fat goose did not fly far as it landed just on the other side of me.

The goose and I exchanged a parting stare as I strolled on down the sidewalk before I turned around and tried to recompose myself.

"Silly Goose", I thought as I skated off!

Let's ride!

With every morning I get a little more excited about the earlier sunrise. The last three weeks or so I have cut back my days of hitting the gym in the morning in lieu of conducting my workouts from home outside. I still try to go 2-3 days a week to get in the swims which I definitely need to continue to work on.

I have been enjoying my morning runs outside so much that I thought perhaps today I would attempt my first pre-work bicycle ride. I was slightly nervous about it because it is still pretty dark out around 6ish when I leave. Although I can see good enough when I run, I was worried that while riding my bicycle, I might have trouble making sure I avoided any crap in the buggy lane. I did feel comfortable that between my reflective gear and being in the buggy lane it would be safe even without much light. This darkness did not last long on my morning ride, as the light came quickly while showing off yet another beautiful sunrise.

Happily I can report that I had no trouble seeing my way to maneuver and had no trouble at all and the road bike is way better than the stationary bicycle at the gym. I had to cut my workout a little short this morning since I needed to get to work early but I did manage to get in 13 miles. Even though I had slightly cold fingers and toes, this morning ride was a welcome change. My back did not really trouble me as I tried to switch positions periodically...but I am still dealing with some seat issues. I am working on my positioning...I'll get it figured out here eventually. Thanks for all the posts regarding feedback on the bicycling because I was thinking about the comments as I rode this morning and kept trying different things out. I will continue to experiment to see what is going to work!

After my morning ride and shower, I hopped on my other bike...my red Ducati monster and rode to work. Talk about a good way to start the day! Again a little chilly, but heck I should be getting used to a little chill at this point. Bring on summer!

Enjoying the gorgeous weather!!!

First off, I wanted to say thank you for all the kind get-well wishes. One of the most notable traits I have encountered in my tri training is the extremely supportive nature of all of the athletes. We are all so lucky to be among such caring people. My throat remains slightly off but nothing so bad that it is going to slow me down.

Last week, due to my sickness I cut back on the workouts a bit. It seems to have paid off as I had the opportunity to feel better and enjoy myself a bit as well.

My busy Friday I had planned got changed around since my husband ended up with the day off as well. So instead of my long workout and house work I had intended to accomplish, we ended up getting some house work and some shopping done. On our shopping trip, I re-purchased our patio table and umbrella that broke in a fall storm which I was excited to finally have again. I spent Friday evening putting the table together before enjoying our first beer can chicken of 2006....and it was sooooo good!

Saturday morning, I went to the Cleveland Triathlon Club's (CTC) Duathlon training race day out at the Towpath. It was a gorgeous morning and everytime I run on the towpath I enjoy the scenery and the crushed limestone surface so much. After some debate I decided to just wear shorts and a tank top which was actually warm enough for me surprisingly. The event was well-run (of course!) and there was about 20 of us that participated. My splits were 2 mile run (14:27), transition one and 13.2 mile bike (42:18), transition two and 2 mile run (16:07) for a total time of 1:12:52. Many thanks to the club and volunteers for such a great time!

Reflecting on my "race", I still could improve my transition times. Judging from my competitors' splits I lost ground on the bike. Prior to my race I only had 44 miles on my roadbike, so clearly I need to spend more time focusing on my bike. I know I have not exactly figured out where I should target as far as the gears and the cadence rate which is most effective for me. The second run felt somewhat painful (as expected) but it was not too bad and I managed to pass a couple people. I have decided that I enjoy these du's. I don't have to swim which is good for me. I wonder how I will feel if I do the long course which is double (4M run -26.2M bike -4M run). I know it would really challenge me and I think I will do it on 4/29. I figure it would be a good training session for the Olympic tri I plan to do in July.

Sunday morning based on Saturday's bike performance I mapped out a 20 mile country road loop to take my bicycle on. It was somewhat challenging with at least 4 substantial hills. This weekend was the first time I used my aerobars. I find that at this position, my back is a little sore and the seat is also causing me some (to put it mildly) pain in the frontal region. Maybe I should angle the seat down or try to move further forward on my seat, I am not sure??? I had a proper bike fitting, so I am not sure if this is something that may just take some getting used to or what. From this point on I am going to try to do all bike training on my real bike (no more stationary and recumbent bike training if possible) as I think that should be extremely helpful.

The remainder of the weekend, I continued to remain outdoors as we drove our motorcyles back out the Valley and Hinckley area for some twisty roads with gorgeous scenery and also grilled out and enjoyed the weather with family.

This morning, I ran 6.5 miles outside in the buggy lane as the sun rose. What a perfect way to start the week!

Guess it is my turn....

Well the husband was sick all weekend, and now it is my turn. I could feel the tightness in my throat when I woke up Sunday. Then after the duathlon I chalked up the tightness in my throat to breathing in so much cold air.

Monday, managed to run another 10 miles and my throat continued to feel sore yet still not too bad.

Tuesday morning...alarm blaring...snooze, not going to happen. I just could not bring myself to getting up. It hurt to yawn. My thoat was so sore and the glands are swollen. I did manage to feel somewhat normal on my lunch hour as I decided to give my legs a day off from running and strapped on my rollerblades for my lunchtime escape. First time out on them this year and it felt great! Just good fun! Had a busy night, a little more motorcycle riding and dinner at the husband's parents. Totally felt horrible about missing my bike and swim workout but figured I could make it up Wednesday.

Wedneday morning...alarm blaring..must go to bathroom and if possible my throat hurts worse. NOT COOL! Yeah, I think about starting my workout but I am ready to fall asleep on the toilet so back to bed for one more hour of sleep. So the guilt is kicking in. Two missed mornings in a row...that is a first in a long time. Feel like crap. I am off work Friday and I am hoping to feel better and get in a nice long workout that morning.....must feel better by then.

First Multi-Sport Race Update!

Well leading up to the big day Sunday, I had intended to rest up a bit on Saturday. No such luck. I decided since I had missed Friday's swim I would do that early on Saturday and since I was at the gym already, I figured I might as well take my favorite aerobics instructor's class since it had been so long. I just love her classes and realized that I may have to fit in just one a week because I really enjoy them. After leaving the gym I went home to work on our remodeling project upstairs. In trying to organize and move everything from half the upstairs to either the other half or primarily down to the basement, I was absolutely wore out after working on it for 7 hours.

I hit the hay totally spent Saturday night but had trouble sleeping. I was nervous. When I was able to sleep, I was having dreams (nightmares) all about tri's and being late and having problems and other random crazy things. I was tired when I woke up Sunday and my legs felt sore from working out and lifting so much stuff on Saturday. But I got out of bed and went through my normal race day routine. It felt warmer than it did the prior 2 Saturdays that I went out to Hinckley so I figured that at least I should be OK temperature-wise.

I was able to figure out the setup (which I had been nervous about) issue-free and headed off to the start line. I was happy to see Angie Ridgel, the Clev Tri Club VP at the start and chatted with her a bit. I noticed she had the same shoe string clips on her running shoes that I had purchased and so now I was happy to learn what I could not figure out the night before about how those things actually should go on. The first 5K I went out and felt pretty strong. I am thinking it took about 23 minutes and then I was a little slow in transition but hopped on my bike and was off for the 5 loops. I felt pretty good. I could not get into the big gears on my bike so I think I might have put my chain on wrong which I will have to check on. I passed a few guys, a lot of guys passed me and one girl passed me on the bike. I was so troubled by my runny nose and all I could think of was how happy I was going to be to blow it when I got off the bike.

Coming into the second transition, it was hard to get off my bike. My legs did not want to move. It took a lot of effort just to rack my bike. I blew my nose and was off for the last 5K. It hurt bad. I wanted to walk. I heard this happens a lot after biking and heard to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and I did. Slowly things started to feel better and I passed a guy, and another, and the girl that passed me on the bike, and a another girl. I felt tired but wanted to finish my first du strong. I crossed the finish line at 1:42:16. I was 1st out of three in my age group and 5th female over all. Not bad, I figure. It seemed like there were so many people at the starting line but after looking at the results page, I found it strange only 16 women did the du.

So all and all, a great experience and a good start to the day! I had to leave right afterwards as we had a huge family shindig yesterday to celebrate my grandma's 75th birthday, my grandpa's 80th birthday, and my aunt and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary...and that was a good time too!

What a mess!

That is kind of the general situation at the moment!

1) Have not caught up on laundry from the weekend since I went to Cinci to visit my college roomate, Kate! (That was a blast!)

2) Work...not even going there.

3) We'll say 'other' as a result of #2.

4) Husband decided to demo a wall and now we are embarking on remoldeling our upstairs of our century home with the goal of making the duplex-style of our 2 separate upstairs with 2 bedrooms on each half into one upstairs with a hallway that goes all the way across.

Thank goodness for some training which is my source of sanity at the moment. However fitting this in has become even more of a challenge. I typically go to the gym to work out in the mornings before work. However due to early appointments I have been trying to accomplish this at home the last couple of days.

So this week just feeling rather frazzled and trying to just roll with what comes next. On tap for the weekend is my first multisport event, the Hickley Duathlon. I am really looking forward to having Friday night and all day Saturday open for once to catch up on some stuff! And now time to return to all the work I should be doing at the moment..............

New pedal update...

Well this morning I decided was a good time to try out the new pedals and shoes. So I practiced clipping in and unclipping a couple times in the doorway and then outside for a reality check.

Mistake 1-Not trying to clip in while in the house not holding something as if I was actuallt about to go.

Mistake 2-Attempting this for the first time at the start of a hill.

Mistake 3-Making sure no one was around for my first try.

Yup, one foot in and before the other one could clip in to go, I need to be pedaling hard up the hill especially at the angle I had started on. I started leaning to the clipped in side and I was down before I started. Thunk!

Let me just brush off this dirt, hopefully no one saw this...crap, there's the neighbor and he probably already thinks I look silly with this helmet on.

Try 2-Let's reposition and start with no incline. And I was off. It was a short ride this morning about 11 miles up the buggy lane. It was crazy windy and I just could not seem to get comfortable down in the aerobar position with all the wind.

The road had a lot of cracks in it, it seemed. I was a bit concerned that they may be potentially bad for the bike. Any thoughts of how to know???? Clearly I tried to avoid them, but they were more like cracks in the road from water every 20 yards or so for a couple mile stretch--really annoying!

All in all, and OK ride. It was not quite the gorgeous run I had with the sunrise yesterday!

Anyway I must fly...Cincinnati bound!!!!!!

New pedal update...

Well this morning I decided was a good time to try out the new pedals and shoes. So I practiced clipping in and unclipping a couple times in the doorway and then outside for a reality check.

Mistake 1-Not trying to clip in while in the house not holding something as if I was actuallt about to go.

Mistake 2-Attempting this for the first time at the start of a hill.

Mistake 3-Making sure no one was around for my first try.

Yup, one foot in and before the other one could clip in to go, I need to be pedaling hard up the hill especially at the angle I had started on. I started leaning to the clipped in side and I was down before I started. Thunk!

Let me just brush off this dirt, hopefully no one saw this...crap, there's the neighbor and he probably already thinks I look silly with this helmet on.

Try 2-Let's reposition and start with no incline. And I was off. It was a short ride this morning about 11 miles up the buggy lane. It was crazy windy and I just could not seem to get comfortable down in the aerobar position with all the wind.

The road had a lot of cracks in it, it seemed. I was a bit concerned that they may be potentially bad for the bike. Any thoughts of how to know???? Clearly I tried to avoid them, but they were more like cracks in the road from water every 20 yards or so for a couple mile stretch--really annoying!

All in all, and OK ride. It was not quite the gorgeous run I had with the sunrise yesterday!

Anyway I must fly...Cincinnati bound!!!!!!