Check It...

Finally added some recipes to my Tri To Cook Blog.

Only three of them, but they are all fabulous! Grilled Vegetable Salad with Greens, Tomatoes, Herbs and some other stuff, Chard and Salami Frittata - made with prosciutto, and Roasted Cod on Large Garlic Croutons which may be one of the best things I have ever made.

Enjoy!

Thirteen About The Move

1. My townhouse rented, it showed for two days, got five applications, and one person is moving in on 26 June.

2. Which is great! Think of all the $$$ I can save in the next 4 or 5 months until the house is built!

3. But, now I have to pack. I hate packing (but I love unpacking). So far the “stuff” in my office, spare room and bedroom are done. By the end of the weekend, the closets, living room and kitchen will be done.

4. Storage facility is reserved, movers come next Friday, and the carpets get cleaned on the 25th then I am D-O-N-E with that place!

5. Except that whole being a slumlord, I mean landlord.

6. And I have to do that whole change of address thing. Hopefully my junk mail will decrease.

7. I didn’t expect this to happen so quickly so training has taken the back seat this week. Missed both bike rides during the week, both strength, and one swim. ARGH!

8. And because of the timing of this, our weekend getaway is cancelled.

9. But still, I’m glad it rented and I’m looking forward to saving some money over the next couple months!

10. I didn’t think I had a lot of stuff until I started packing. By my guesstimate, I have about quarter of stuff then Dude has. This means packing his place is going to SUCK!

11. New House News – Apparently we are NOT on the neighbor’s schedule. If we were we’d be getting the foundation poured by now. So far we have an excavated basement. In other words, no progress since last week.

12. But the neighbors have all their exterior framing, roof, most interior framing, and the porch done (again, they signed a week before us).

13. I hate the neighbors. OK, I don’t really hate them but I’m really jealous of them. They got my first choice house (not that we could afford it), the lot we wanted (no ugly green box in the yard), the stone we wanted (but ours is still awesome), and now a much faster build. But I am 1/4 acre closer to Wegman’s then they are!

13

1. Two posts in one day, and a Thursday 13 on time. Apparently miracles DO happen.

2. I’ve finally gotten into the Training Groove. And just in time since IM-AZ is 5 months and 11 days away!

3. I am doing strength training with Barry the Strongman. He had me flipping 375 pound tires, over and over again. Pretty cool stuff, and great for the core muscles! Unfortunately, he got a new job and so far, aligning our schedules has been difficult.

4. My calf is all heeled now but I’ve had back pain for months. I finally let Dr Tara take x-rays and here’s the results:

I have mild scoliosis – lower back.
Then where my spine is SUPPOSE to curve (think side view towards the bottom), it is perfectly straight (has no give).
AND the lowest disk is almost non-existent due to arthritis.
But wait, there’s more…
bone spurs on my spine and hips.

And THAT is why I wake up in pain everyday and why I have to build up my core muscles!

5. Along with the Training Groove, I’m also on the Eating Groove. Which, by the way, is counter-productive. By IM-AZ I'd like to look like Princess Leah in this picture, but the way things are going, I'm more likely going to look like Jabba the Hut!



6. House News!!! They STARTED!!!! (3 ½ months after we signed all the paperwork and without telling us, sigh …details). As of last Sunday, they have excavated the basement and as soon as Dude gets around to sending me pictures I’ll post them. If they work at the same pace as they did with our neighbors we should have basement walls this week, floor next week, and metal beams the following week!!

7. Townhouse is on the rental market (through a realtor, I don’t have the time or energy to deal with it) and besides not wanting to pack/store everything I hope it rents soon!

8. Back to the eating thing, we just started getting veggies delivered to us though South Mountain Veggies and it’s pretty cool. Since I tend to stick with veggies I know when shopping this will give me a chance to play with new items. Last week I got beets and rhubarb as part of the bag. The beets made their way into a grilled veggie salad and the rhubarb was used in a fantastic strawberry-rhubarb pie.

9. Speaking of cooking, and the above mentioned dishes, I am WAY behind on blogging on my Tri To Cook site. I have at least 8 recipes written down, just need to type/add them to the blog. Maybe this weekend!

10. It’s been a while since I blogged, but Face of America was a rousing success in money raising. Team Steel Wheels raised over $24K and the event itself raised over $400K! As for the actual ride, day one was a freezing wet adventure and day two was great. Definitely an inspiring weekend made more so by one of our team members, Jothy Rosenberg, who lost his leg and half a lung when he was a teenager and was told he would not survive. He’s in his 40’s now – check out his book and you will probably never say “I can’t do that” again! I love this picture of our team after the race!



11. It’s Thursday, Dude’s birthday is Sunday and I have NO IDEA what to get him.

12. Dude and I are taking a quick weekend getaway in 3 weeks. Either Blackwater Falls or Seneca, WV. He wants to camp, I want to cabin and it looks like he’s going to win.

13. I just got my bonus and I know I should save it for everything we’ll need at the house, but Penny has been eyeing new wheels. Not ZIPPs mind you, but something more lightweight/racier. Hmmmmmmm….

General Smallwood Olympic Relay Race Report

Back Story This was a complete last minute, “sure, I’ll ride the bike in a relay”. Found out my pal Becky would be my relay partner – cool! To make sure I did not get roped into doing the full race (it’s been known to happen) I did not bring running shoes, goggles, or a wetsuit. Just me and Penny!

Pre: The race was less than an hour away so I got up at 4 and headed out. Pop Tart breakfast with a bottle of water plus I had time to have a pancake at Team Z Central. This was a very small race venue and by appearances, Team Z made up a good 80% of the field.

Swim (Becky) – ~29:25 minutes Becky has been having issues with nausea when swimming and with (stupid) Cozumel coming up, she’s testing new things and trying to get more time in the water. She had no issues during the swim. YEAH!

T1 – 2:50 There was a 1/4 mile run from the swim finish to transition. I was waiting in transition and had a “she looks familiar, doh, that’s Becky, it’s time to go!” moment.

Bike 25M – Ride Time 1:23
First I will say there was absolutely NO DRAMA during this ride. I ate, drank, and stayed upright through the whole thing!!!! I wanted to do the ride at this race because it is the same venue for Waterman in October and I have to say I really like the course. Only two “I F-ING hate hills” at the beginning and the rest were rollers. I rarely came out of aero and only shifted to the small ring twice.

T2 – :32 Now THAT is what a transition time should look like!

Run 6.2M (Becky) – Run Time 1:11
Becky was grousing about being such a slow runner but I think she did a FINE job especially since it seemed like the first half of the run was uphill!

Final –3:07
In typical “Es Relay Fashion” I missed seeing the finish (unless I was the runner, I have never seen my team finish). All in all a fun time, beautiful day, great relay partner, fabulous Team Z burger (with hand-cut shoestring fries), and a single serve box of wine (due to the whole “no beer” resolution).

Oh, wait, there is one small detail I forgot to mention.


Yep, Team “10 Less” (there’s a story behind the name, but I don’t want to type it out) came in 3rd place. BOOYA!

5+ months until 11/20/11 – IM Arizona – It’s gonna be IM-AZing!

Kinetic 2011 70.3 Race Report

Alternate Title 1 – So…Nutrition IS Important
Alternate Title 2 – Kinetic Curse
Alternate Title 3 – I’d like a do-over please!

Back Story: I did Kinetic in 2009 in prep for Ironman Switzerland and pulled the tendons in my hamstring. If you recall from that race report I dragged my bum leg behind me for 13.1 miles but by golly I finished. This year, the race was my kick in the pants to start training for Arizona, and my opportunity to overcome the Kinetic Curse.

Pre: We were expecting rain so I had all my gear stowed in big Ziploc bags and under a giant garbage bag. I also got Rock Star parking right next to transition so I could put my gear bag away after setting up transition versus lugging it over to Team Z Central. That caused me to linger in transition longer then norm so I didn’t get my secondary breakfast at the tent (pancake or bagel) so the bowl of oatmeal was going to have to hold me (Mistake #1). Got into my wetsuit (otherwise known as sausage stuffing) and was all ready to go. No fear since I didn’t have lofty goals for this race.

Swim 1.2 Miles – 43:18 (includes run to timer): 5m 28s slower than last time here, but not a PW either. “Easy” swim, no contact and relatively straight line. I think the swim to the first buoy caused the slow time because I couldn’t find a rhythm and was just flailing arms. Or it could be that I haven’t been to swim practice in over a month. Whatever.

T1 – 6:40: What the…?? Last time I did this race my T1 time was 3:07! I do remember telling the woman next to me that at this point my swim was only slightly slower then transition time.

Bike 56M – Ride Time 3:28:18:
A PR at this race but it was a different course then last time so it probably doesn’t count. So I’m riding along, drinking my Gatoraid/water every 10 minutes like normal. When I was on the bike an hour I ate my first Hammer Gel. Almost immediately I started having vision problems. It was raining so I wiped my glasses off and noticed that I had tunnel vision and my head was feeling kind of loopy. I stopped and was standing over my bike when I realized I was about to pass out. I just got off the bike and was laying Penny down when I blacked out. No idea how long I was out but came to and immediately panicked. I seriously thought I had a stroke because it was exactly the way my Mother described hers. I kept trying to stand up and kept falling over so I assumed I lost function of my legs. So I did what any normal person would do – I laid on the side of the road crying like a pansy-ass sissy girl, thinking OMG I had a stroke, OMG I had a stroke, OMG I had a stroke.

After a bit of blubbering I was able to stand, I drank some Gatoraid and soon was able to ride again. My plan was to get to the point where you start the second loop and head to the end instead. Instead, by the time I got there I was feeling better so I decided to keep on going (Mistake #2).

Around mile 40 I started feeling nauseous. Around mile 45 I got sick (lesson learned – stop the bike, there’s no place to get sick while riding without getting it on you or your bike). And again some 20 minutes later and THAT is when I knew my day was done.

So What The F Happened: I’m calling this a nutrition FAIL. I had a small bowl of oatmeal around 4:30 AM. I didn’t eat again until almost 9AM and that was after “pre-race nerves”, swimming, and biking for an hour. My blood sugar had to been bottomed out. The episode happened almost immediately after eating gel which is almost all sugar so I think it shocked my system (causing the blackout). All my food on the bike was sugar based so I think the getting sick was a result of too much sugar on an empty stomach and a bit from drinking nuclear lake water.

So my lessons learned are eat sooner on the bike and be prepared (like I have been in the past) with salty food, sweet food, and some miscellaneous food just in case.

Still plenty of time to TRAIN, practice, and get it together before 11/20/11 – IM Arizona – It’s gonna be IM-AZing!

I would like to say Thank You to all of my Team Z family for checking up on me, both Saturday afternoon and on Sunday. If my Mom only knew how much people watch out for and take of each other she wouldn’t worry about me so much!