13 Things

1. Pulled tendons.
2. Micro tear in calf.
3. Probable Heel Spur.
4. Possible Plantar Fasciitis.
5. Can't go barefoot...ever again.
6. I get tortured twice a week with Active Release Therapy.
7. It literally brings me to tears.
8. But today, for the first time since 5 March, I am walking without a limp.
9. Haven't been able to swim, bike, or run for over a week.
10. And can't for another week.
11. Which gets me to the day before National Marathon.
12. Should I run it?
13. Do I dare?

13 on time!

1. Weight – I’m going the wrong way. I was thinking today that I lost a lot when I first joined Team Z, and the next year when I was training for Ironman. Then I realized I was working out six days a week, often twice a day. Maybe that is why I lost weight.

2. Exercise – See above. My run this weekend was slow and steady. Issues with my calf/ankle/Achilles and now heel and back pain cut my Monday run short.

3. Injured?! – See above. Now this whole calf/ankle/Achilles/heel/back pain (I think it is all related) is cutting into my swim. Only lasted half of practice this morning before my back was hurting too bad to continue. Time to see Dr. Tara and get this fixed!

4. T.E.A.M. Steel Wheels – Letters and bribery went out yesterday and I’ve raised $340 in 24 hours. 70 emails went out last night – wish me luck. So far I have 2 dinners and 2 baked goods to make. DONATE HERE!

5. Personal Hell at the Office 1 – It’s raining. A LOT! And apparently my window leaks. When it hits the windowsill it splatters to the back of my neck. FUN!

Then there’s a car parked outside my office where the alarm goes off ALL F-ING DAY! Oh, it shuts off and I start to think joyful thoughts, then within 60 seconds it starts again. We have NO IDEA who owns this car. I swear they’re stealth!

6. My Back – is KILLING me! And Dr. Tara’s office doesn’t open until 3, then I have to make an appointment. Fingers crossed she can squeeze me in today.

7. Musselman – House is booked! Looking forward to a relaxing weekend on the lake. Oh, and the Half-Ironman. And goofing around at the Micro-Mussell (watch out Iron-Cat)!

8. House Update – Sunday is our full day at the “This is What You Get” Center. I mean Design Center. I’m thinking Bailey’s in my coffee, a liquid lunch, and maybe some Vicoden is required to survive this trip.

9. Rental Property – My place is on the rental market. I’ve had four people look and one is semi-interested but she doesn’t want to move in until the end of May. At this rate, it may still be available!

10. Personal Hell at the Office 2 – The cafeteria is at the other end of the lobby from where I sit. In the morning I get to smell bacon – salty, wonderful bacon. About an hour before lunch they start baking cookies – sweet decadent cookies. It takes ALL of my will power to not succumb to these temptations!

11. Vacation (I mean very important work meeting) – I’ve arranged a business trip to Denver next month. I love having employees out there, especially during the end of ski season. I mean Performance Review time.

12. Netflix – Dude found Netflix streaming. I’m afraid we will never leave the couch again! We’re in the middle of Season 3 of the show 24 (I didn’t start watching until the final season). It’s hokey…but strangely addicting.

13. New Blog – Tri To Cook! Check it out!!

Thursday (Friday) Thirteen

1. Weight Goal – Nothing to report. Still the same and I’m considering joining Weight Watchers – in-person. I’ve done the on-line thing and stick with it for about 30 seconds. If I have to check in somewhere so I feel accountable (she said as she finished the slice of cake from an office mates birthday).

2. Exercise Goal – 5 am still sucks. I need to run more. I wonder if I’ll ever do weight training again. Anybody want to buy a Kinetic bike trainer??? Daylight savings is around the corner and Penny is getting antsy (but my seat bones are not)!

3. Red Nose Race #3 Recap – This was supposed to be my 16 mile run. Started running and just below my calf muscle feels like a tight ball and as a result I can’t flex my foot/ankle. I’ve been having this problem for a year and I’ve learned that usually by mile three it works itself out. Well, not today. I only did 10 miles, most at a 5:1 run/walk. Because of the pain in my calf, my form was completely off so it jacked up my hips and lower back as well. I really need to see a Dr about this!

4. T.E.A.M. Steel Wheels – My letters will go out this weekend and am going to resort to bribery. For one week only, if you donate over $50 and live in the local area, I will make you dinner. If you are not from the local area, I will send you baked good (I’m experimenting with scones and biscotti now). We are also going to do at least two Happy Hour fundraisers, hopefully details will be out within the next week.

5. Change to Race Schedule – After looking at the long-term schedule for IM training I will most likely have to remove the Covered Bridges ride and possibly the Great Pumpkin ride from the schedule. I’m down to the marathon, three 70.3’s, and Ironman.

6. Run Faster – Well, I’m putting the run faster on hold until after the marathon (but I have every intention of incorporating it into my training) but I have implemented it into my swimming.

I now swim in the fastest lane at practice. Now, before you start thinking “wow, she’s bad ass” you should know our Team Z West pool is often quite empty. Joining the fast lane started because last week there was only one person in the lane so I joined him. We actually swim at the same pace but Competitive Me just had to “beat him”. Mind you, we were splitting the lane so we weren’t even really swimming together. My only goal was to catch and pass him, regardless of where either of us were in the workout.
So today, we’re all getting in the pool and someone had to go down a lane. He looked at me and said you get the fast lane, you’re faster than me.

I think he was setting me up. New guy leads, first set is a 500 in Zone 2. He TAKES OFF. Competitive Me tries to keep up. We finish the set and I ask (pant) was that your zone 2? Yep. CRAP!!! I ended up doing the entire swim practice in zone 4 except when we were doing a 200 in zone 5. And that’s when I caught him. BOOYA!

7. 20 Mile Run – Done. The good news is the calf issue worked itself out (this time). The better news, aside from the marathon I won’t be running anything over 14 miles until early fall!

8. Ironman Arizona Update – Bike transportation is set-up. If you know anyone in the Northern Virginia area racing, please let them know there is special pricing available through trisportexpress.com. Go to the bottom of the left column and use the Northern VA IM-AZ link! We haven’t nailed down the pick-up/drop-off location yet, but most likely Arlington. The next big planning hurdle is finding a place to stay. Then of course the training (kicks off a week after the marathon)!

9. House Update – Since I wrote the Design Center blog, there’s not much to report other then there is a boat load of paperwork involved. Got the call today that all of the permits were filed two weeks ago so anywhere between two to four weeks will be ground-breaking. I kind of want to go out there with a ribbon and big scissors but Dude will think I’m a freak! Can’t wait until they start though because for each delay it’s pushing closing/moving closer and closer to Ironman!

10. Dude loves me – As many of you know I do finance for a living. This means I live/die by spreadsheets. You can figure that I have a slew of spreadsheets built for the building/buying of this house. I was showing Dude my latest addition, where I went room by room of my place and have a list of everything I have. I then have it broken down by whether it goes to storage, gets moved to his place, sell, etc. Then I have where it will go in the new house. He got as far as reading the column headers, looked at me, said “I love you honey, but…” Then just gave me a look that basically said “you crazy”.

He’ll appreciate my organization skills in a couple months.


11. Hair – I got 4 inches cut off!!! It’s now right at shoulder length (shortest it’s been in 3 years) and I LOVE IT!! I wear it curly and it rocks! It also looks quite professional when I straighten it.



12. Vacation or lack thereof – Remember when I said I was going to save money this year? Well, BHP (before house purchase) we were planning on a quick weekend trip to Colorado to visit friends. Well, Dude’s sticking to our save money plan and that trip is no longer on the books. So sad! I need a break!!!

13. New Blog – Did you see that I launched my cooking blog? Tri To Cook! Check it out!!

My First Design Center Visit

I spent 3 hours at the Design Center for the new house and got the cabinets down to two colors (Java Glaze (brown with a wash where you can see black on the edges) or Sasparilla (black), granite is picked (Crema Bordeoux), and the tile is somewhat narrowed down. All choices still need Dude's look/ok.

One of the advantages of building NEW is because you get to make the choices and roll everything into your mortgage, right?!? That's what I thought at least. I know I'm not getting a custom home, so my dreams of the walk-in shower with jets is on hold, as is my dream for a pot-filler above the stove, and my custom built drawer for my pasta machine. OK, I'm fine with that but I still thought I would get "my kitchen" - an open kitchen with stainless appliances, double oven, beautiful island with shelves for my cookbooks, big sink....

Then I got to the design center, or as Dude calls it "Sorry, this is what you're getting" Center.

Three major things that ticked me off (and had I known, I may not have gone new).

Appliance packages:
1 - Builder's Choice - plain old white GE appliance (free);
2 - GE Profile Stainless - Dishwasher, cheesy looking 36" Cook top, Microwave above (with vent), Double Oven, Side-by-side refrigerator (relatively inexpensive);
3 - GE Monogram Stainless - Dishwasher, 36" Cook top, Wall Mount Vent Hood, Single Oven, Microwave, Side-by-side refrigerator (pricey, but within budget);
4 - GE Monogram Stainless - Dishwasher, 36" Cook top, GE Wall Mount Vent Hood, Double Oven, Ugly Side-by-side refrigerator (take out a 2nd mortgage for this one and you're still not getting what you want);

What do I want? Well...
I want a French Door Refrigerator - not exactly new technology and the number one choice in fridges these days. Oh, and they run about the same price as a side-by-side. But NO, a French Door Fridge is not an option but "that's one of the main things people ask for".
I also want the wall mount vent AND a double oven, or a single/double oven, or a single oven with a convection microwave (or Advantium but I know that's pushing it) and I want this without jacking the price up to the "second mortgage required" price range.

Kitchen Sink Choices
I want an under mount single bowl sink. Is that asking for too much? It's the same price as a double bowl. It takes up the same room. It's the same to install, no, actually, it should be easier since there's only one drain. But NO, not an option but "that's one of the main things people ask for".

Kitchen Island
Like I said, I have the color of the cabinets down to two colors. Here's a perfect idea, I'd like my island in Sasparilla and the rest of the cabinets in the Java Glaze (because the colors look great together). I mean, both colors are available, right?! And it's not like they have already built out the cabinets. But NO, not an option but "that's one of the main things people ask for".

So, at the end of the day, I'll probably get choice 3 in appliances, and I'll find a way to get the installers to install the sink that I want, and my island won't be contrasting but it will still look great. But going in, I already know that I will eventually be spending a lot of money to get the appliances I want (and dang it GE, post the prices of your Monogram stuff) and re-doing the island into something I want.

And did you notice the theme of "that's one of the main things people ask for", yep, every time I asked for something, that was the response I got. I have an idea...make these AVAILABLE CHOICES and you'll have happier customers.

OK Es, breathe...
count to 10...
and remember you are getting a beautiful house within a half mile of Wegmans.

Breathe in...Wegmans, Wegmans, Wegmans...
Breathe out!

New Blog

I've launched my new blog - no fear, this one will remain active.

My other blog is Tri To Cook and will be 100% about cooking. This blog will remain about triathlons, training, and life in general.

If you're interested in cooking, go take a look. Let me know what you think.

In the meantime, Happy Training! And stay tuned, hopefully a blog about my first Design Center visit is coming up and hopefully a Thursday 13 tomorrow!