What am I doing?

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T15:58:00.005-07:00

We kicked off the New Year in our usual way.... a family hike! This year we had 9 people in our group, and a dog. It was fun. The last couple of years we have hit the more popular Phoenix hikes- Camelback and Piestawa Peak, but this year we tamed it down so that JT's aunt and uncle would join us. Also, I wasn't sure how my knee would handle really steep descents. We started late due to finding a stray dog on the road to the park. I was able to locate the owner, it only held us up by about 30 minutes. Nice to start the year with some good karma! We hiked for almost 3 hours on the competitive loop in the White Tank Mountains enjoying 75 degree weather.

I still have some vacation left but own kids go back to school tomorrow. My folks are still here, they are loving this warm, sunny weather. It's been an awesome vacation. We saw 2 great movies- War Horse and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. We have eaten great food both at home and out at restaurants. I'm also engrossed in great book- The Hunger Games. I am riding more and starting to feel it coming back on the bike, whatever "it" might be.

I finally remembered to get a copy of the pictures from my surgery, so here are the gross images. They show the 15mm pothole in my knee as well as the piece that they removed.

Happy New Year everyone!

Year End Blogging

2011-12-30T12:23:00.007-07:00

I guess it's time to reflect but I just don't feel like doing a recap.
I'm a terribly optimistic person, just ask my family, it's annoying. However, I have to say that 2011 wasn't my best year. Rather than dwell on it, I will say that it ended on a pretty good note. It's hard not to be happy and optimistic around the holidays, especially when I have great friends and family to share it with. My parents have been here with us since mid-December.

This past week of Christmas celebrations seems to have flown by, I didn't get out of work until the Thursday evening and then it was full steam ahead. I had a full blown, nasty, 3 week long cold before the holiday. I finally got to feeling better a few days before Christmas, but it meant I still had a lot on my To-Do list. There were last minute gifts to pick up, the house to clean and food to prepare. We did Christmas eve at JT's Aunt's house. She has a beautiful home, delicious food and is the most elegant of hostess. Rather than try to live up to that, the next day at our house was casual. Very casual.
We had the usual Christmas morning excitement. For the past several years it seems that the grown-ups in the house are up long before the kids. We had already downed a cup of coffee before the boys came out. Highly caffeinated Grandparents made for some laughs as we opened gifts. The boys have a lot less toys under the tree now that they are older but they still did very good. Sean got his BMX bike and Cam got a new phone and a chess set. They also got some video games and lots of money.

This is most of the family on Christmas day.

We did "home-made" gifts this year for the family, I "made" vases with flowers rather than subject people to my baking. Plus, it's better for their health!

As soon as the presents were open, we had to clean up and prep for the day. I did pretty good on the cooking front, except I messed up the lemon Meringue Tarts, by forgetting to put lemon in them, LOL. We quickly dumped them, and they were not missed amoungst the copious amount of food we were serving. Luckily the weather was beautiful and we were able to seat some of the 15 guests outdoors. The highlight of the meal was Sean's Snowmen Cupcakes. He got a cupcake book from his aunt last year and took it upon himself to make these. They were so cute!

Hard at work in the kitchen (actually most of the food came with the guests, I had it easy!)

Cute, but a little creepy, Snowmen Cupcakes.

I think I finally sat down at around 8pm on Christmas but it had been a good day. Since then I have been chillaxing, shopping, cycling and hanging with my folks. There will be more of the same in the week after New Year.

All the best for 2012!

McDowell Mountain Frenzy 50k

2011-12-12T13:45:00.005-07:00

NO, not me- I wish (well, not really), seeing as I don't race now, I have to live it through my husband and kids. This was JT's day to race, the day before his 39th birthday. Last year we both raced the 10 mile here and JT said he would like to do the 50k next time. And so he did. JT has never ran a marathon, his longest race to date is one half marathon a couple years ago. Despite that resume, I knew he would do great because he loves trail running and he is in awesome shape right now.

I have to go back and give a little history about JT's journey into running. When we met, 16 years ago, JT was not a runner. He was a Skater, he skated street, bowls and vert ramps. He only ran if he had to, he wore baggy "skater" clothes and the only way I could talk him into a run was to promise coffee and donuts at our local bakery at the end. He felt the same after we had moved to Phoenix but I kept working on him, I knew he would be a great runner- he has the build and the aerobic engine. After several skateboarding injuries, he went into semi-retirement and took up soccer, he started running to get in better shape for that and (surprise) found that he liked it and was really good at it. He ran some 5k and 10k races, very fast. Pretty soon he had branched into Mountain Biking and then one day I found my skater dude dressed in spandex and heading out on a road bike which led to triathlon and Xterras. Not being the typical type A triathlon guy, JT has stuck mostly to Mountain biking and trail running. He's also not one for training plans and goal races, so I was surprised that he stuck to a plan and trained so well for this race.

Race day was Saturday, we had failed to find a sitter for the kids, so we were all up and in the car by 4:45am to ride over to the other side of the valley. We arrived in plenty of time for JT to get his stuff and warm up. Temps were chilly in the 40's so the kids and I huddled in sleeping bags and watched the Lunar Eclipse while drinking hot chocolate. It was a beautiful morning. The 50k runners were off at 7am without much fanfare. The boys and I got to work helping at the finish line aid station, we cut food and prepped the run-through aid station for the 50 and 25k runners. There were 3 other distances of race that started after the 50k so there was always something going on. Unfortunately, the 50k course only came through one time at around mile 24. Due to the fact that it was a trail race, it was hard to judge which time JT would be coming through, but we finally saw him and he was hurting. He had fallen at mile 11 and had a twisted ankle and some cuts, he was also cramping. We filled his bottles and got him some salt and sent him on his way, knowing that we'd see him in another 6 miles or so. I was busy volunteering so I sent the boys with the video camera to look out for him, and up the hill he came. He crossed the line in 4 hours 33 minutes, which is awesome and just off his goal time of 4:30. He was in rough shape but happy. We stayed around after the race to help clean up and JT chatted with the other runners. I have to take a moment to say that the runners were probably the most humble, down to earth, kind and unassuming group of people I have ever been around. The race itself is very low key but extremely well organized. The whole vibe is one of camaraderie rather than competition. Very different from Triathlon. JT ended up running some of the way with a guy we know from cycling. His ankle swelled pretty good so we got him home and onto the couch in time to watch the Kona Ironman on TV.

On Sunday we celebrated JT's birthday and went out for dinner. JT did a pretty good impression of an 80 year old man, LOL.

Now it's on to the holidays. My folks arrive tomorrow, things at school are very busy and we have lots of fun family things planned over the next few weeks. Life is good! :-)

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-24T06:57:00.006-07:00

I wasn't going to keep up this blog but I actually miss it. It's like my online diary in a way. The older I get, the more I forget and this is a good way to keep track.

A lot has happened since my last blog post...so I will try to give a run down while keeping it short.

My Knee:

* The MRI showed a Grade 4, full thickness cartilage defect of the lateral trochlear surface of my knee. There was also a large loose body in there. My options were: Arthroscopic surgery to remove the loose body and smooth out the cartilage or Microfracture.
* I had arthroscopic surgery on 10/28 and it was successful in as much as the loose body was removed (12mm) but the cartilage/chondral defect was larger than expected (15mm) and the adjacent surface of the patella was damaged also.
* Recovery from this surgery was pretty quick. I never did need crutches (I was so sick from the anesthesia that I couldn't get up and walk anyways). I was full weight bearing within 2 days and it has progressed well ever since with minimal pain or swelling.
* I am back on the bike and back in the pool. I am also walking pain free. Physical Therapy is going well and I feel that I am getting stronger, there was a lot of work to do as I had been limping for months!
* So where does that leave my knee and my future as a Triathlete? Well, I am essentially retired. And I am OK with that. This is not the type of injury that you come back from. It is almost impossible to completely repair a chondral defect. It's not like a meniscus type cartilage injury. Microfracture is the procedure that drills holes in the defect with the hope that the body will produce fibrocartilage (fake, squishy cartilage) and buy you a few more years. Other procedures include cartilage plugs or transplants from your own knee or a donor. I have an appointment with a cartilage repair specialist next month to go over options. In the mean time, I am focusing on getting healthy and strong, I am enjoying my life as a non-athlete and I am thankful that I do have other things that I enjoy.

What else have we been up to?

* We held the 5th annual Kid's Tri, we had our biggest turn out ever with over 150 kids racing. It was a bit stressful when we woke to rain on race day but it cleared up with 15 minutes to go. My boys both raced really well. Cam did the long course and took 2nd place male. We also raised $1000 for a local charity!
* JT is training for his 50k trail race in December.
* Cam is starting track again which will run through to the summer. Sean is gong to play Flag football.
* We spectated at Ironman Arizona last week and saw our friends become Ironmen. Spectating that race is so much fun. I was hoarse the next day!
* JT is building a motorcycle that belonged to our neighbor. We plan to sell it.
* Cam got his braces.
* We are spending Thanksgiving at the In-laws- always a good time!
* My parents are coming in a few weeks to spend Christmas with us.
* I'm skipping a lot of stuff but we are all happy, healthy and busy. Life is good!

Still here....

2011-10-15T05:28:00.003-07:00

I haven't been updating the Blog because this kind of started out as a Triathlon Blog but seeing as I don't bike or run at the moment, and my swim is never anything to worth writing about, I kind of quit the blog too. There's not going to be any Triathloning in my near future, so I could continue to ignore the blog but my mom commented that she likes it, so this is for you mom!

Being injured is no fun but I am beyond being injured from the sport I love, my knee has been affecting every aspect of my life. It was hard to get through the day at work without it swelling and hurting, there were weeks when I walked with a limp which caused all kinds of other aches and pains, and times when I felt like I was moving backwards with this injury. It's been a rough couple of months. My family are very active and the hardest part (way harder than not running or missing out on group rides) was not being able to do the usual family stuff like play soccer at the park or walk the dog.

I was very frustrated with my progress. I was resting, icing and going to PT but getting nowhere. One day at work, I took a couple of fast steps to chase down a child and my knee totally gave out and swelled right up again. That was when my wonderful PT suggested I get a 2nd opinion. I was referred to a Sports Medicine clinic in Scottsdale, far away but worth the drive. The doctor spent almost an hour with me and went over all the films in detail. He did more X-rays and thought he saw a loose body behind my knee. He also gave me a cortisone shot. I had always been against having a shot but really needed something to reduce the swelling and make it easier for me at work. The shot wasn't a total success, it helped just a little so the Doc ordered a high quality 3T MRI. I had it done last Thursday, and brought the films home. JT and I played a game of "Guess what is wrong with Sally's Knee" and found about 10 things that looked odd, however as neither one of us has any experience in this area, we best leave the analysis to the professionals. I was hoping to get the results yesterday but I called at 4pm and it hadn't been read yet. Now I have to wait until monday/tuesday.
I am generally a very optimistic person but in this case, I am braced for the worst. I know the difference between a minor injury and something more serious. As I mentioned in a previous post, my knees have not been great for years and I could sit here and lament about how I should have taken better care of them but the reality is, I used my knees a lot, played a lot of sports, ran a lot of miles and had a lot of fun. I wouldn't change any of that. What I do need to do is figure out what I can do with what I have so I can get back to being more active. That starts with an accurate diagnosis....stay tuned .....

Patience

2011-09-18T15:19:00.003-07:00

At the start of 2011, I picked my word for the year. I chose PATIENCE. I chose it because, at the time, I was unhappy in my job and feeling a little stuck. I told myself to be patient and good things would come. Little did I know that Patience would play into a lot more than my work life this year....

So, the knee injury. I have not had much to write about it because I believe that the best thing for it has been to do NOTHING. I have been stretching, swimming a little, doing some Yoga and some Physical therapy exercises, but most importantly, I've been resting my body. My knee got pretty sore again over labor day weekend, probably from walking around a lot and from tweaking it slightly playing tetherball with the kids. Since then, I babied it like crazy and this week has been good. I am actually walking normally, no limp. However, because I was gimpy for several weeks, it still feels weird to walk on and I need to re-train all my leg muscles. Now that my work schedule has calmed down, I am going to go to PT 2x per week. I am looking at this as a long term commitment to getting my body healed. I'm not sure what the future holds in terms of running but I would like to get back to cycling again. In the mean time, I am really enjoying Yoga, it's my new hobby and I leave the class feeling GREAT! Along those lines, without going into too much detail, it is funny how things work out sometimes. During one of my recent doctor visits, the doc decided to check something out and ran a few tests, uncovering some other health issues that shocked me. In all honesty, I had been so tired from work and training and life earlier this year that I didn't notice some pretty significant health changes. Now that it's been brought to light, I can start to take care of that too. Again, this will all take patience :-)

My patience at work paid off. I accepted a teaching position last week at a charter school. I worked there part time last year and started out this year as a sub. The perfect job opened up and I am so excited. I started in that classroom last week and tomorrow is my first day as the lead teacher. So happy!

Finally, because I don't have many new pictures, I am posting this picture of my dog. Rudy is the most awesome little dog ever, he is getting old but he still has a lot of energy. He loves this ball and he carries it everywhere with him.

9/11/11

2011-09-11T05:26:00.002-07:00

Today we remember those who's lives were lost on that fateful day 10 years ago, and we honor those who continue to serve.

Our lives have never been the same since September 11th 2001. Our day started as usual, my son was 2 years old and woke up before 6 as he always did, I had turned the TV on to cartoons and was going about my morning as usual. I was almost 3 months pregnant and still not feeling great in the mornings. JT was working shifts and had the day off, he slept in late and I played with Cam to keep him quiet. After JT got up, Cam went out into the backyard and JT flicked the TV channel to the news. He called me over to show a "fire" in the World Trade Center, just as we started to watch, the second plane hit the second tower and we slowly sat on the couch as it sank in. Minutes later my parents called from Scotland, they are hours ahead and had seen it all unfold. They were terrified that this was a U.S. wide terror attack. As were we.

Our day went on from there, I still took Cam to preschool, we lived 2 miles from an Air Force base and many of the kids in his school had parents in the military. The mood everywhere was somber. We had an appointment with a landscaper that morning, he still came to the house but it seemed really trivial to be picking out plants and trees at that moment. Life went on but we were forever changed.

I think that 9/11 impacted me so drastically because I am a parent. I had a toddler with another on the way. This was their world now, the world they would grow up in was attacked. Their freedom, their safety, was taken. I was deeply sad and scared. It was a selfish feeling, an anger that now I had this to worry about. I grew up in Britain during the time of the IRA bombings, I knew what it was like to check under your car before you got in, I knew why there were no trash cans in bus and rail stations, I had been evacuated several times from trains and public buildings due to bomb threats. I didn't want that for my kids and this seemed way worse.

This past summer we visited New York City for the first time since 9/11. I had been many times in the 1990's but never since. The city is amazing and as we visited the site of the WTC, I expected it to be eerie but it is not. There is an air of respect, resilience and honor.

Thank you to our friends and family members who continue to serve in the military, thank you to those who helped in the aftermath of 9/11 and thank you to those who still honor and defend our freedom.

Granola!

2011-09-10T11:03:00.003-07:00

My family loves Granola but it's expensive. I try to buy the granola fromt he bulk bins at Sprouts but I find myself being able to get to that store less and less these days. So, I have been trying to make Granola at home. It has all been edible but some recipes are too sweet, some too salty, some have too many nuts or come out soft (we like crunchy). Yesterday, I made a perfect batch using my own recipe:

Dry Ingredients:
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts (we like almonds)
2/3 cup coconut
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups oats
Mix these together well, then add:
Wet ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
4 tbsp maple syrup

Mix well, spread on a cookie sheet (with sides) and bake 1 hour at 275 degrees, shake/mix the granola every 15 mins.
Once it is cooled, add raisins, choc chips, cranberries or just leave it as is.
I am going to try it with Honey instead of maple syrup next time.

Success and Disappontment

2011-09-01T06:12:00.004-07:00

The grocery challenge worked. Our freezer and pantry are looking a lot emptier. I only had to run to the store for milk and for something to take to "feed the teacher" yesterday at the kid's school. We didn't go hungry and we didn't have to resort to eating any weird combinations of food. The challenge is back on to stay under budget for the month of September. I am debating whether to renew my Sam's club membership or not. Still trying to figure out if Sam's actually saves us money????

Now, onto the bad news. After months of wondering what is wrong with my knee, I headed back to my Ortho for some advice. It's no secret that I have bad knees, a combination of playing competitive soccer, bad genes, bad luck and not taking care of them when I should have. In any case, I can usually manage the symptoms of my knees and they have been quite happy this year but always feeling a bit weak. I successfully ran the 5k summer series here (placed 3rd in the series in my AG). Then a few weeks ago I started to get some pain in my right knee, it came on quite suddenly and got to the point where it felt very weak and unstable, not something I could work through. The Ortho ordered an MRI and I was actually pretty scared at what might be going on in there. The good news is that there is no torn meniscus, no loose bodies, but the bad news is that I have a pretty good size bone contusion. At first, I was confused. I hadn't impacted my knee to get a bruise, but this is different, it's possibly a bruise from the bones rubbing together, so most likely something mechanical. First goal is to get rid of the pain and irritation which could take 1-6 months depending on many factors, unfortunately being on my feet at work all day will slow the healing process. Then I need to do lots of PT to get the knee strong again (there is already nerve impingement and muscle atrophy). It's going to be a bit of a long road.
I'm actually not freaked out by this. I knew the day would come when I had to take care of this. I'm going to get a Dexa-scan to check bone density due to hereditary factors, and I am going to do the PT that I really should have done 10 years ago. Having my knee feel this bad is a wake up call. I want my knee to feel good so I can enjoy my life, I am not even worried about training right now. Like I said in a previous post, I have achieved a lot of my Triathlon goals and if I had to hang up the running shoes (which I won't without a fight) I would be OK with that too.
I will continue to update the blog and maybe some of the stuff I am going through will help other athletes with knee issues :-)

Can we do it...?

2011-08-27T16:12:00.002-07:00

We have a bit of a grocery challenge going on in our house right now. This month, I was determined to stay under budget on our groceries. Not an easy task, especially with a kid in tackle football. It was going well until I realized that we came close to the limit a few days ago. So, with one week left, we decided to see if we could make it until September on the current contents of our fridge, freezer and pantry. The only exception is Milk. I am weird about making sure we have the freshest milk, so I only buy a gallon at a time and that lasts less than 2 days in our house. I have enough in the budget to buy a couple of gallons this week but nothing else. I think it is going to be OK but we might have some weird combinations of food towards the end :-)

Rehab!

2011-08-17T13:55:00.004-07:00

I made a tough decision today. I decided to go back to the wonderful people at Endurance Rehab in Phoenix to try and fix my knees once and for all. I have managed to "band-aid" my body over the past couple of years and come back from some minor little injuries but my knees are not getting much better. My training has been going pretty well over the past month and there is the temptation to ignore some warning signs and push on through but I know that is not the right thing to do. My knees will probably hold up OK through another short tri season this Fall, but I can't train or race with confidence if I am waiting for the inevitable knee pain to come.
In order to rehab my knees properly, I have to make some significant changes to my training and commit to some serious strengthening and Physical therapy. Eventually, I will have to have some surgery on my knees but my goal is to try every other avenue first. I understand that arthroscopic knee surgery is no big deal these days, but my gut tells me to wait as long as possible.
Lately I have been thinking long term. I have achieved many of the triathlon and running related goals that I had when I started out in this sport, and there are many other goals that I have that don't involve swim/bike/run but do involve being active for a lifetime.
Today was a nice long appointment at Endurance Rehab, we went over the info I received from the Ortho at my last visit and came up with a plan of action. The plan is to try and get my body back on track. I can't use and abuse it like I did in my 20's and get away with it. I have some serious weaknesses that need to be addressed so I stop future damage to my knees. I am having some therapy done on the knees (esp my right one) and it will be sore for a while after. I'm going to cut back on the s/b/r, probably no running at all, until my knee feels great (not just OK). Once I start training again, I'm going to have to come up with some creative ways to lower volume and train smarter. I think this will be the hardest part because I love to train and would do as much volume as time allows, apparently this is too much and will require some patience and self control on my part (something I lack when it comes to training). I am committing to the Physical therapy until at least the end of the year.
So, that is it in a nutshell. There won't be many/any races for a while, I am going to miss my group workouts and have to be a bit more of a loner, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end and I will be able to re-assess where I can go with this sport.

:-)

Good eats!

2011-08-02T12:20:00.006-07:00

I have been cooking more lately, so I thought I would share. One of my motivations for baking at home versus buying store bought items is that my youngest son has Tourette's Syndrome and food coloring, preservatives and HFCS really trigger his tics. To make his life easier and allow him to have treats outside the home, I try my best to make our home made stuff as simple and wholesome as possible. It's hard enough to be a bit different, I don't want to ban him from participating in the usual kid activities such as b'day parties and treats at school.

First up is my home made jam. My dad is the ultimate Jam guru. His jam is a family favorite and is requested by everyone he knows, he has been known to trade his jam for items such as eggs and car repairs. I figured that I could never re-create his amazing jam (they get the sweetest strawberries for about 3 weeks in Scotland during the summer) so I tried a different version using strawberries, blueberries and maple syrup (no sugar or pectin). It turned out delicious and was easy to make.

I made 2 batches of home made granola this week. The apple-cinammon turned out great, the chocolate-peanut butter one not so much, but still edible.

Then for treats I baked up some sticky monkey bread (on the right)and made my own recipe to try to copy a yummy cookie bar we ate in CA. If you are ever driving down the PCH in Leucadia, be sure to stop at the Pannikan restuarant, it's in an old railway station building with lots of character and great food and coffee. After 3 days of drinking hotel coffee (blah!) I was so excited to get to the Pannikan for some breakfast. We used to make a weekly stop there when we lived in So Cal. The kids chose a yummy chocolate coconut bar to eat and I promised I would try to recreate it at home. I was very lucky and it turned out perfect the first time. It is sort of like a copy cat Samoa Girl Scout cookie. I have found that cutting recipes down to make smaller quantities works best in most cases, that way we don't eat to much of one treat or end up throwing stuff out.

California Dreamin'

2011-08-01T11:30:00.006-07:00

We are back home in hot, dusty AZ after an awesome beach vacation. Why on earth did we move from So. Cal???? Oh, that's right, we couldn't afford it there, LOL. I still love it just as much though. We had an awesome time in the little town of Encinitas, our hotel was 1/2 mile from the beach and 1/2 mile from the main street full of shops and restaurants. We hardly drove at all once we were there. Our 4 day trip included lots of beach time, some (poor) surfing, eating outdoors, walks by the coast and a little bit of running. There were no theme parks or excursions, my boys were in the ocean from 9am until 6pm everyday and perfectly happy to be there. My batteries are totally recharged. We met up with some friends for lunch one day but other than that, we had no schedule at all, which is perfect as school and sports are about to start!
Our drive home was eventful as we got caught in a freak hail storm! We had to take cover with some of the other cars under a bridge. When we got the courage to get out and try driving, we were about blown sideways and worried that the hail would damage our car. However, 10 minutes later we were over the mountain and it was hot, sunny and completely dry. So weird!

Now it's back to reality. We have had a great summer. We went to Flagstaff/Utah, NYC, Pennsylvania and CA. We have spent quality time together as a family and had fun times with my parents and other family members. I know my boys have some good memories. School starts in 2 days and I am going to miss my kids so much. It;s time for me to get back to training. I have picked a couple of fall races to train for- a hilly, tough OLY in October and an International distance in November. I am still undecided about the Soma Half-Ironman in October, I am going to wait and see how my training is going. I have raced so many times in Tempe, not sure I want to again. I may throw in a local sprint in Septemeber. JT is going to start training for his 50k race (December) so I am planning on being supportive wife during that!

Here are some vacation pics:

Birthday Weekend

2011-07-24T18:08:00.004-07:00

Birthday #37 was a great one thanks to my 3 awesome guys! It kicked off Friday when the kids set about making me an M&M cake, they came up with it all themselves, baked a chocolate cake, decorated with green colored frosting and wrote the big M on it. They know how much I love my M&Ms :-)

Saturday was my actual birthday but I was up and out before anyone woke. I met my friend and we rode down the hill to meet the WV bike group for the saturday ride. It was a good ride until the 2nd half when there was a bad crash. The 3 riders in front of me went down, I have no idea how I managed to avoid going down too. I made it onto the dirt shoulder somehow but the guys behind me didn't. There was a lot of minor road rash but 3 riders were seriously hurt. An ambulance took one guy (broken collarbone), another guy went home with his wife but later got an x-ray that shows a fractured collarbone and the girl in front of me has major road rash. I swear I had a bike angel on saturday! I also credit the fact that I never ride in the aerobars in the group, I was able to manouver quicker out of aero. Once everyone was picked up, the rest of the riders (about 20) went on. I was planning to ride into Buckeye and meet the guys at Football camp. I was really shaken up, I am honestly not quite over my own crash from last year, but I tried to enjoy the rest of the ride and be very thankful that my day didn't end on the pavement.

After football camp we headed to Wet N' Wild waterpark. I guess I hadn't had my fill of excitement for the day, now I had to deal with my other fears- heights and dropping. We had so much fun though. I have never been on such extreme water rides, there were a couple I swear I will never do again, LOL.
Including this one:
http://www.wetnwildphoenix.com/Rides--and--Attractions/Tornado.htm

On the way home we stopped for dinner (Italian, of course) which finished up the perfect day (minus the bike crash).

Sunday was a very chillaxing day. I went to the farmer's market, cleaned the house and helped with yard work, all while getting in and out of our pool. I also make the most awesome (and huge) burritos for dinner. Next week is the kid's last full week off school. Going to make the most of it!

Back to school shopping- our style!

2011-07-21T11:18:00.005-07:00

To those of you who know me well, you know how much I dislike shopping, that includes shopping for clothes, the house and groceries. Internet shopping is the best invention ever and is my preferred way to shop. For some reason, I just don't have the shopping gene. As a teenager, I hated it when my friends wanted to go to the mall. I don't know where this hatred of shopping came from, perhaps it was because for the first 12 years of my life, we lived so far from shops that it was a twice a year event to go to the city and shop (before Christmas and for back to school clothes) therefore I never practised, or maybe because I wore a school uniform most of the time and didn't need to shop for fashion, or maybe it's because I never have any money, LOL. In any case, I was forced to go out into the world and shop with my boys this week. It's crazy to think that we are doing back to school shopping already, where did summer go? But last year I waited too long and we were scrambling at the last minute to find those "essentials" (ex: red 1" binder filled with 100 sheets of loose leaf college ruled paper). The school supply list from the boy's school seems to get longer each year. This year we are actually providing printer paper and Clorox wipes.

So, armed with the printout of the supply list and accompanied by two grouchy boys (they hate shopping as much as I do), we headed out. First stop was Walmart where we dropped $70 on school supplies but it felt great to check everything off those lists. Next up was the big Mall. I explained to the boys that we couldn't just shop online because they seem to grow bigger before my eyes and it's important to try clothes on. I tried to sound convincing as I told them this would be fun. We shopped for about 30 minutes, found a few shirts but the enthusiasm just wasn't there so we made a stop in the food court. This lifted our spirits and fueled us for the rest of the mall. I am proud to say we left with 2 hats, 2 backpacks, 10 shirts, 4 pairs of shorts and 2 toffee apples (thank you Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory for the mid afternoon sugar boost). I didn't buy one item for myself but mom, you will be so proud, I even went into stores like Ross and Marshalls (I usually have an anxiety amidst those disorganized racks of clothing, and what the heck are "knit tops" anyways?). I tried not to think about the credit card charges and congratulated us on a successful shopping trip.

Now that is out of the way, we can enjoy the rest of our summer. Next up is my birthday celebration at Wet N' Wild which is a big waterpark. This is a family blog! And a trip to So Cal to the beach!
In the meantime, this little guy is keeping us busy. We are petsitting our friend's tiny Yorkie. He is adorable but so tiny. I was so worried he would get stepped on around here, he's like 1.5 lbs full grown, and I won't let him outside by himself in case a bird of prey flies off with him. We are loving how cute and snuggly he is!

My family

2011-07-19T14:48:00.003-07:00

This is my favorite picture from our family get together over 4th July. It had been 11 years since I visited the family in PA, way too long. My oldest son was just a toddler when we last visited. Although it had been so long, I felt right back at home with my extended "American family". I grew up in Scotland but some of our family had emigrated to the USA in the 1960's. As a child, we would fly over and spend the summer in NY, OH and PA. I have such fond memories. When we lived in VA, it was quite easy to get up there to visit but since moving out west and having the kids, we just haven't made it back there. Now my own boys have fond memories of these awesome people. We got to spend Independence day in small town America. It was perfect. There was great people, good food, fireworks (everywhere) and fire flies! What more could you want?

I wish I could figure out how to post it, but 11 years ago we took a family picture in the exact same spot and I swear nobody looks any older. There are several more kiddos in the front row this time, which is awesome! This is a reminder that there is nothing more important than FAMILY and I am blessed with a great one!

Another 5k and some decisions to make

2011-07-16T10:04:00.007-07:00

A close call in the pool this week: I was the only one swimming in our community lap pool when a huge swarm of BEES came. I am super allergic to bee stings but I had no idea they were swarming above me until the Gym manager came out and yelled at me to get out. Luckily I was wearing my Splish Wonderwoman swim suit and was able to make it to the locker room in a flash :-)

Saturday morning was the 4th in the AZ road racers 5k summer series. We missed #3 because we were on vacation. I don't know if we could have ben less prepared for this race! The hubby and I have not been consistent at all with running this summer. I took a good 2 weeks off after the last 5k because my knee was bugging me, then we went on vacation which included a lot of walking, sitting and eating, but no running. I did a track session on wednesday and was sore before I even went to bed that night (my body didn't even wait for DOMS) and I have been nursing a nasty chest cold ever since I got back to Phoenix (or it could be from all the dust here?). In any case, armed withour list of excuses as to how this was going to suck, we left the house bright and early with 2 sleepy boys in tow. We drove over to Kiwanis Park in Tempe and my spirits were immediately lifted by this great location and the 1000 other runners who were there. It is awesome that so many turnout to run in the summer heat! We were to start on a canal path so they requested that we seed ourself into waves. The 6 min pace group were to go first, then the 7 min, and so on. Hubby lined up near the front and I hung back. I decided to go at the end of the 6 min group which turned out to be good because I was always around people but never over crowded. We turned off the canal path and into the park for a loop, it was a nice course. It would have been a good PR course because it was flat and it wasn't too hot out, however this was not a PR day for me. My first mile of 6:10 was way too fast even though I felt good. You see this is where you find out you have no endurance when the next 2 miles feel like hell. But 5ks hurt and I was in the pain cave. At least they are short! I finished in 20:45 which was OK. Good enough for 3rd in my AG. I was expecting to be over 21 so I'll take it. JT ran a 19:01.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I am going to do next in terms of training/racing. It's like I have a split personality right now. The first "me" wants to have no goals, no plan, just go with it and have fun. The other "me" wants to pick a race and train for it. Some of my friends are racing the Soma HIM here in October and it's been on my mind. It's a fast, flat course close to home and I would get to race with my buddies but I have done Soma twice, and many other races on parts of that course, and I'm not sure I want to do it again. There's Pumpkinman in Nevada around the same time which offers a completely different 70.3 experience (hilly and tough). Then there's my body: I am honestly not sure if my body can hold up to the training for a HIM. I lost a lot of confidence in myself over the past 2 years due to illness and injury. My problem is that my motivation is there but the reality is that I have bad knees. Of course, I could look at that as a challenge rather than be down about it. I could experiment to see how well I can do at the 70.3 distance on less training, not under train but train differently?
So, all this is mulling in my head. The first option (training for fun, no goals) is appealing but I also know deep down that it is the easy way out. I can't be let down if I don't put myself out there? I am reminded of this quote “You have to go in, commit 100%, be totally passionate and risk it not working out” (Mark Allen, I think).
I have to make up my mind pretty quick if I am going to train for a fall HIM. Today's 5k was a good reminder that I have a long ways to go to get my fitness back.

Slowing it down....

2011-07-10T11:21:00.011-07:00

That is my life right now and I love it! I just got home from church and, very appropriately, the Pastor talked about our obsession with time and the need to fill it with what we feel is "meaningful stuff". As a mom and teacher, summer is all about letting go of the schedules and clock watching. I laugh at my friends who have their kids in this, that and the next thing all summer. Up at 5am for swim team, then onto Science camp, Baseball camp, Kids club etc. I'm all for keeping kids busy and please, do whatever works for your family, but over-scheduling is not for us!

We are just back from a wonderful vacation back East with my family. We left Phoenix with my parents in tow, landed in Newark airport and spent a couple of days in NYC. That part of the vacation was NOT about slowing it down, LOL. We just loved the city. The hustle, the noise, the sights, the people! It was exciting and, at times, overwhelming for a group of suburbanites! I would fall asleep with the sounds of cab horns ringing in my ears. We had a blast though, and didn't lose a child or grandparent. There is so much to see and do, my parents and I had been to NYC several times, so I wanted JT and the boys to pick the sights we would see this time. We hit Battery park, Rockefeller plaza (Cam is a huge SNL fan), Central Park (we spent hours there), Ground zero and Times square. We ran out of time to get over to the Statue of Liberty or at least ride the Statten Island Ferry but we did one of those open top bus tours that allowed us to cover so much ground in Manhattan and Midtown. We also had a lot of fun riding the New Jersey Transit to and from Newark. I have to say how friendly and fun everyone was, there was never a time that we felt unsafe, although we always kept our wits about us. The weather was great: warm, sunny and humid.
After NYC, we picked up a minivan and headed into Pennsylvania. This is where things slowed down. We had no real time deadlines, we just drove and enjoyed the beautiful countryside. We marvelled at how GREEN everything was and pulled over for a break whenever we felt like it. We made our way to Gettysburg on the first day and were checking in to our very crowded hotel when we realized that we had chosen the anniversary weekend to visit this popular tourist attraction. We ended up doing a self guided tour of the battlefields because all the tours were full and that worked out great. We showed up at the Pennsylvania monument just in time to see a full blown reenactment. Cam knows a lot about the Civil war and proudly shared all that with us. My boys cracked us up by buying civil war hats in a gift shop, of course they chose different sides!
After Gettysburg we dipped down into Maryland and across some beautiful countryside and then up north toward the Pittsburg area. My mom's uncle emigrated to the USA when he was 30 and raised his family here. We have always kept in touch and I spent many happy summers with them in PA, Ohio and NY as a child. It has been 11 years since I visited with them, Cam was just a baby. We spent 3 awesome days with the extended family, it was so much fun. We laughed so much, ate some great food (the extended family included some great Italian and Polish chefs!), swam, played soccer and immersed ourselves in small town USA. We visited some underground caves and an old Fort. It was such a relaxing time and I can honestl say there are some great genes in this family. These people haven't aged at all! My boys had plenty of "cousins" to play with and I got my baby fix with my cousin's 7 month old twins!
We were very sad to leave PA, not only were we saying goodbye to the family but we were taking my parents to the airport to fly back to Scotland (we miss you guys!). We said our goodbyes at Newark and headed back to dusty Phoenix.
You may have seen on the news that we had a massive dust storm (Haboob) here last week. We saw it on the news while we were travelling. Some crazy lady on our plane even started a rumor that we were going to land during another one! Thanks! We landed without any problems but the airport, our car and everything around us was covered in dust. The air was thick with it. We came home to a brown pool, tree limbs down (the winds got up to 60mph) and a 1-2" layer of dust over everything. Yuck! Several days later and we are still dealing with is. On my ride this morning I noticed that the cars are churning it up off the roads.

So, in keeping with the Slowing It Down theme...training has taken a back seat for now. I have been "working out" a little bit and enjoying some good down time. I am mulling over some goals for the rest of the year. I am actually leaning towards not having too many goals, LOL. I kind of like this style of training.

Here are some family pictures of our adventures back East, in no particular order.

What we have been up to.....

2011-06-17T07:22:00.009-07:00

It's been a busy week or so. I had my last day at work last Friday- yipee. This was a happy day but I am also nervous- I am officially unemployed, hopefully that is just temporary. I haven't really thought about or actively looked for another job yet. I need some time to unwind!

Celebrating my Dad's 67th birthday:

My parents arrived last week and after a few days to recover from jet lag, we hit the road to Northern Arizona. JT and I ran the 2nd in the 5k summer series last sunday, we both managed to better our times but I was still unable to break 20 mins! Thanks to racing with a girl I knew from a previous race, I did push myself to the limit and took 1st place in my AG. We hit the road soon after that, JT had to stay home and work, and take care of the animals, so the 5 of us loaded up the Toyota for a trip to Flagstaff and Monument Valley. We rented a gorgeous cabin just south of Flagstaff (gotta love vacationrentals.com!) with 2 spacious bedrooms and a great location amoung trees and trails. We had a lot of fun just exploring the neighborhood, puffing up the hills (hello 7000 feet elevation!) and enjoying the nice weather.
We took a day trip up to Monumnet Valley on the AZ/UT border. It was a long day with a lot of driving but well worth it. This was on my mom's bucket list and during her cancer treatments, my dad promised to take her there. My parents love the old west and cowboy movies, so this was a treat for them. It was also an interesting glimpse into the Navajo way of life and the barren beauty of the reservation. Monument Valley was spectacular, we opted to drive ourself around the 17 mile roughly paved loop which was tough to drive on at times. There were open air jeep tours but they looked really miserable due to the wind, heat and dust combination. Our little Toyota did fine but was covered in a thick layer of red dust by the end (so were we!). We spent some time at the visitor center before driving back to Flagstaff, we got back in time to take a sunset hike and enjoy some pizza at the cabin. We had 2 more days just to relax and enjoy Flagstaff. We fished at Lake Mary and I even got in for a swim (60 degrees, Brrr) and chatted with some other triathletes who were practising for the Mountain man Tri. We drove home down Oak creek canyon into the beautiful town of Sedona amoung the red rocks.

Pictures from Flagstaff and the Cabin:

Monument Valley and Sedona:

Back here at home, it is so hot. I am good until it hits 105 degrees, then it feels too hot. This is just the start of summer so I better suck it up. It's very hot for my parents so there will be lots of time spent by the pool and at the mall/movies until we all head to the East coast!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Random blogging

2011-06-08T17:15:00.009-07:00

I think I fixed some of my Blogger issues by downloading Google Chrome. And I have a camera! :-)

Here's some random stuff that has happened/is happening around here:

I have ONE more day at work (Friday) and today was my last day to sign a teaching contract for next year (I didn't).

We had a fun last weekend. Saturday was a loooooong day at a state track meet. My kiddo ran the 200m at 9am, then threw Javelin, then we had a long break/ It was some fun mom and son time at the mall and a movie (X-men, pretty good). We had fun eating and people watching (there was an open audition talent show at the mall). My son commented that we never go to the mall, it's true, only in emergencies or extreme circumstances, LOL. Then it was back to the track at 6pm but he didn't run his 400m until 9pm, we got home after 10. We took it easy on Sunday to recover, except for watching my youngest play indoor soccer. And we did get down to the lake for some paddle-boarding.

My folks arrived! Granny and Grandad are here! Everyone is super excited. They will stay with us for 3 weeks. During that time we are heading up to Flagstaff and Monument Valley and then at the end of the month, we are all flying to NYC and Pennsylvania for a family reunion. I am so excited, I haven't been back East in 10 years! The rest of the time with the Grandparents will be spent swimming, shopping and laughing!

My training is going pretty well. Except I am not really training for anything at the moment. So I am just taking time to unwind, ride with friends and train when I want to. My knee has been a bit achey lately which is a sure sign to cut back a bit anyways. I had actually forgotten about my darn knees for a while but they always come back to remind me that they can't do as much as I'd like them to.

Memorial Day weekend and a 5K.

2011-05-30T08:32:00.007-07:00

We kicked off our 3 day weekend with a Saturday morning 5k. The Arizona Road Racers Summer 5k series #1 at Papago Park, Phoenix.
Ever have one of those races that you haven't really trained for (no speed work in this case), you wake up feeling kind of sluggish, the weather isn't great (too hot) and you feel like you are going to have a poor race? Then you start and it all just comes together and you totally surprise yourself?
Well, this was NOT that race!

JT was very excited to sign up for the 5k series, we can do 4 out of the 5 races and he is a very good 5k runner. He has been training consistently for this, tempo runs and speed work. Me, not so much. In fact, not at all. When I heard that the Saturday group ride was having a big turnout with teams from all over the valley, I was sorry that I had signed up for this 5k. But JT was excited and he had talked a co-worker into training for this so the kids and I were happy to go along. This first race of the series has a weird format, it's handicapped and you start after the gun based on age and gender. I am sad to say I am closer to the gun time than I would like (in other words closer to the 80 year olds and stroller waves than the 20 year olds!). We hearded ourselves up the chute and found out that there was no need to panic because due to the chip timing, the start time on the bib was just a suggestion. I was, however, anxious to get this started so that it cold be over and I could be out of the crowd of sweaty folk. No such luck, even after I crossed the start mat, I was still in a crowd of sweaty people. The temps were already in the high 80's and 1050 people were racing up this hill and along the narrow canal. It was a cluster.
Mile 1: 6:24, that was fine except it felt way harder and I was already hot. This spring in AZ has been much cooler than usual and I'm just not used to running in 85 degree weather. JT had blazed past me at 1/2 mile. Mile 2 was 6:31, I had come to a stand still twice due to an crowded underpass with 2 way running traffic. It was hard to pace due to the crowds but also just not being able to find a rabbit to run and catch. I found myself behind a skinny runner girl who was much younger than me, so she obviously didn't start at her correct wave time. I fell in behind her and kind of zoned out, Mile 3 was 6:45, uh-oh, too late to do much now. I glanced at my watch as we came back into the zoo area and realized I was running my first 20+min 5k in many years :-(
I crossed the timing mat in 20:25, saw my kids who said that dad looked in rough shape. I found JT wandering around. He had blown up and had not hit his paces (5:40/6:03/6:40 for an 18:45) and ran his slowest 5k in years too. We went back out onto the course to cheer in our friend and were getting ready to head out on a hike with the kids when we heard them announcing the awards, JT got called for 2nd in his AG and I was 3rd in my AG (7th overall female). Then we hiked in Papago park with the boys.
I can't complain much, I am not a good 5k runner anyways and definitely didn't train for this. I am always inspired by all the people who show up to these races and although I would have rather been out on my bike, I am looking forward to the rest of these 5ks. I like the vibe and simplicity of running only races and we met some really cool people.
I am still missing my camera and having to make do with phone pictures which are not very good.

Photos: JT and his Co worker Laura-WTG girl!!!, JT and I after the race, Hike with the boys in papago park (beautiful red rocks)

The rest of the weekend:

We recovered on saturday in the pool and then I went to the movies with a girl friend. We saw Bridesmaids- hilarious!
Because I missed my saturday ride, I headed out with a couple of friends on sunday morning for a 50 mile ride in the wind. We also got in lots of hills! Thanks guys!
In the afternoon we took the boys to see Pirates of The Carribbean, another great movie then dropped them at Grandmas so JT and I could have a date. Our date consisted of a short hike in the White tanks and dinner at the Pita Jungle- yum!

On Monday, our tri group continued our Memorial Day tradition: Transition workout at Montecito park. This is 1000m run-1.9 mile bike (up a hill and back) for as many as you want to do. I always shoot for 1 hour then try to do one more. Today I did 7 transitions in 1:10:00. Its like a tempo/track workout combined with hill repeats on the bike. We caught up on stuff around the house the rest of the day and swam. We had panned on going to the Yacht club to do some kayaking and paddle boarding but it was closed. Boo! Finishing off the day with a BBQ late :-)

I'm having problems with Blogger :-( I can read everyone's blogs but can't post to most of them. It tells me to sign in, I do, then it takes me back to the sign in page over and over. Going to email them about it. So, I have been reading blogs, just can't leave comments! Also, my followers list is gone. Hmm.

Summer is here!!!!

2011-05-26T15:02:00.002-07:00

Technically I consider Memorial Day to be the official start of summer. That comes from living on the East coast, I think. It definitely didn't come from living in Scotland because a) we don't celebrate Memorial day and b) we really don't get much of a summer at all and if it does come, it comes in July-August.
In any case. Summer vacation from school is here. My boys finished up last week and I am only working part time. Going from 40+ hours per week to 12 hours feels like a major vacation! In a few more weeks, I will be completely free.

The first week of vacation has been a success. We saw Thor at the movies (2 thumbs up) and went to our community water park. We spent yesterday out at Lake Pleasant. I rode out with my friend Amy and her family, we took turns open water swimming and watching the kids. I love OWS so much more than pool swimming. The new road out to the lake cut some time off the journey and we found an awesome quiet cove to swim in, so hopefully we will make this more of a regular outing. The best part was our friend picking us up in his boat after our swim, we hung out for a couple of hours cruising the lake, swimming and wakeboarding. Unfortunately I lost my camera the last week of school so I don't have any pictures. I do have a camera coming my way, my mom's old one, when she comes in a few weeks :-)

Upcoming plans include a 5k this weekend with JT, a dinner date on sunday and maybe a BBQ and swiming on Monday. We also finalized our summer plans for 3 trips: Flagstaff & Monument Valley, New York & Pennsylvania and SoCal beach trip. It's shaping up to be a great summer!

One more week....

2011-05-16T15:24:00.004-07:00

....of school. Yipeeeeee!

I have never been quite as excited about the end of the school year before. I still have to work part-time for a few more weeks, until June 10th but after this Thursday, I will no longer be putting in 40 plus hours in the classroom :-)

My own kids are excited too. We just came off another busy weekend of school functions, track meet, soccer game and some other running around. I made the saturday group ride this week- 70 miles of hanging on with the A group for this girl. It left me exhausted but satisfied. We finished off the busy weekend by re-grouping over at my in-laws house for dinner last night. They have a beautiful back yard in a peaceful neighborhood that backs onto a regional park. My boys christened their swimming pool, which is actually warmer than ours and we enjoyed good food and wine.

Mother's Day weekend and a race!

2011-05-08T05:16:00.011-07:00

Happy Mother's day to all the incredible moms out there! Being a mom is the most rewarding/challenging/frustrating/amazing thing I have ever done. I am blessed with an awesome mom of my own, Patricia, the most kind, caring and sweet person I know. She honestly does not have one mean bone in her body. Then 15 years ago, I gained an equally amazing mother-in-law who treats me like a daughter. I am so glad that my boys have these great women in their lives, as well as an aunt who spoils them and teaches them all sorts of rude jokes and poems that they would not otherwise be exposed to, LOL.
I am happy that it has become tradition to have mother's day brunch at our house. This year we enjoyed egg souffle, sausage, french toast, fruit and cinammon rolls. My son, a future master chef, make cookie dough cupcakes as gifts for his aunt and Grandma.
Our house is looking good and put back together after the new carpet installation. We got our pool table put back, re-felted with a beautiful burgandy color and re-levelled. JT worked wonders on our yard this weekend and it looks great, all ready for summer!

Now to the Race, let me back track to friday:
After another busy week at work (are you tired of me complaining about being busy?), I had to drive with the kids over to Tempe (no easy feat in afternon traffic) to do packet pick up. I made a stop at Baskin robbins to load the kids up with ice-cream and make up for the fact that we had to drive over an hour each way to register and drop my bike. Check in was easy and we were back on the road by 4:30 which meant we hit some heavy traffic. It once again reminded me how blessed I am that I don't commute to work and that my husband doesn't deal with traffic either. It must really wear you down!
Anyways, after that, we got my son ready for a school dance- his last 6th grade dance of the year, and I finally put my feet up at 8:30pm. Not the best pre-race routine.
I was up by 4:30am on saturday and in the car by 5am, eating breakfast on the way. Got to Tempe, parked, got my timing chip and found my frinds. I watched the sprint start, my good friend was doing her first tri in 2 years and it was so great to be out racing with her again. I got into my wetsuit and into the water with my wave (#7).
Swim: This was a good swim for me. I got out the water in 28 minutes, they had wetsuit strippers which was awesome.
Bike: 1:05:10 (22.85 mph) The plan was not to hammer the bike course (boo) but to hold back a little and see if it helps my run. I think I was pretty even in pace on both loops of the bike course. There are many turns on this course but overall it was less crowded than I expected. I enjoyed catching up to my friend on the bike, he knew I was coming for him. It was also great to have friends out cheering for us.
Run: 43:40 (6:59 pace) This was OK, it got pretty hot, probabaly into the 90's, so I made sure to dump water on myself at every aid station. The 2 loop course goes around the lake, the first loop was pretty quiet. I passed a few guys from the waves ahead. I had a comfortabel pace going at just under 7 min/miles. I would have liked to negative split the run and be closer to 40 mins but I think the heat played a factor. I never felt bad, I just couldn't go any faster. I tried really hard to run faster over the bridge to get under 2:20 but came in at 2:20:02. An Olympic distance PR for me by 9 minutes on a very accurate course.

I had a good race and was very happy with the results. I still see areas for improvement.

I hung out with friends, got some food and waited for the results/awards. I was 2nd place female behind Pro Angi Axxman, they gave the pros their own awards so I got 1st place amateur- a beautiful glass vase. It was really hot by the time I left Tempe, got in my car and drove over to Mesa. I had missed my son run the 800m at his track meet (he got a PR) but stayed the rest of the day to watch his team take 2nd in the 4x400m relay. Not the perfect post-race activity- sitting out in the heat for hours geting dehydrated but I am so glad I got to se him run! We finally got home at 5pm, ordered some pizza and spent the eveing by the pool.

What a great weekend! :-)

Favorite Things

2011-05-04T15:51:00.008-07:00

Here are some of my favorite things just now:

1. My new Asics Noosa 6 Tri shoes. Thank you Asics for coming out with a shoe that is fun and functional. I'm a long time Asics fan but my 2150s are kind of dull. These are not. There are little Kangaroos on bikes on the toes of these shoes!

2. Vegan Spiced banana pancakes: I always try to keep bananas in the house. JT loves them. But lately, with the warmer weather, they ripen too quickly. I hate to waste anything (get that from my mom) so I love to use them in this recipe.

3. My new Splish suit. I got this from their grab bag deal. So cool that I got the British flag (I'm from Scotland) but now I am dying to get some of their other suits and they are pricey!

4. My new carpet! Not only did we re-carpet our house last week but we did a major overhaul of our home. We have lived here 8 years and it was so great to go through and de-clutter and clean out. Our trash cans were full and I made a trip to Goodwill :-)

5. My pool. Our backyard pool is open! There's nothing better than hopping in the pool to cool off or listening to your kids and their friends playing out there. Our backyard is small but we have a lot of fun out there!

6. Daylight! OK, so in a few weeks I am probably going to complain that it's too hot but for now, I am happy to have daylight at 5:30 to ride my bike and run. I can run on the awesome trails by our house:

It hasbeen a busy few weeks and the countdown to the end of school is on! I have a race this weekend- The Rio Salado Olympic distance tri in Tempe. It's supposed to be 100 degrees and I am in one of the last waves. Yikes! I'm also not sure that it will be wetsuit legal as the lake is warming up. But I am looking forward to racing. That will probably be it for the spring season, plan to focus on my swim and run this summer then back into Tris this fall.
Will update next week :-)

Another Easter in the books

2011-04-25T05:14:00.006-07:00

Busy week recap: sick day on Tuesday to stay home with my youngest who had bronchitis and an ear infection, spent the rest of the week getting over the cold that he shared with me, 2 Easter egg hunts at 2 different schools and one 12 year old that got himself grounded.

I take pictures of my kids on their egg hunt every Easter and when I look back at them, it makes me very sentimental. My oldest son is almost as tall as me and my youngest no longer follows his brother around looking for eggs, he finally figured out that they need to spread out and search. I love the fact that every year they sit together after the hunt and share their loot. I also noticed that this is the first year that one of my kids isn't missing teeth in the Easter pictures. This year we had Easter at my in-laws new house, a nice big yard for hiding eggs. Ours are the only kids, so 2 kids and 16 adults, guess who gets spoiled? We followed the egg hunt with a great lunch and relaxing on their beautiful patio.

Other stuff that happened this weekend: On saturday my group ride was a FAIL. JT and I were up and out to meet the group, I only made it an hour until the front of my bike came loose- the headset and bayonet :-( Luckiy I was able to roll ahead to where the group did an out and back, I caught JT on his way back and he and a few guys tried to tighten it but couldn't. The Felt has a complicated set up and we had to carefully roll the 3 miles home so JT could take the front of my bike apart. A bolt in the headset had completely broke, JT accused me of putting too much torque on my bike, LOL. Luckily he's a handy mechanic and was able to fix it. I was bummed about missing the group ride as it seems I can only make it out once every 6 weeks and saturday was the perfect day for it. Instead of pouting, I headed out on a nice hour trail run and met up with JT and the boys at the bagel shop for breakfast. Later that day I met some friends at FINS (Fantasy Island North) Mountain bike trails to do a photo shoot for our community's developer. I ran up and down some of our beautiful trails while they took pictures. I am scared to see them. I tried to look as graceful as possible :-)

I got up early on sunday and did my 50 mile ride solo. It wasn't the best ride. It was very windy out and I chose a bad route for that, every uphill was into the strong head wind. But I got it done. JT went out on an 18 mile trail run and we all met up & cleaned up for Easter.
Another great weekend! My kids are celebrating the fact that there is only 4 weeks of school left for them. Big stuff going on at our house this week, we get new carpet on friday which is a big project. JT and I have the day of on thursday to move the furniture and rip out the old carpet. It should all be straight forward except for the piano and pool table, that will be a challenge.
Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Just what I needed......

2011-04-17T16:18:00.005-07:00

After a very stressful time at work, I am happy to say that the worst is over and I plan to coast through the last weeks at school :-)

Friday was my son's birthday. My baby turned 9 years old. He got to celebrate at school, it was water day and the end of AIMS testing week. He also had a sleepover with his best buddy and we saw the movie Rio. Here is his awesoem B-day cake. Thanks to my coworker for making him a replica of his fave DC skateboard!

Saturday was race day for me. Last weekend didn't work out for me and unfortunately this weekend didn't exactly pan out as planned but those of you who know me well, know that I roll with the punches.
I raced the Trisports/DCB adventures Sprint tri out at Lake Pleasant. A quick rundown: Without going into too much detail, I had a very stressful week at work, the worst ever! I hardly slept this week (very unlike me). Then we had the sleepover, and an alarm clock malfunction: apparently the "daily" setting doesn't include weekends, that setting would be "EveryDay". Grrr! Anyways, I got up and quickly got ready, luckily had laid out most of my stuff the night before. Then started the drive. Turns out Lake Pleasant is farther from my home than I thought. No big deal, I though the races started at 7:30 and 8:00. Got stuck at every light then was behing a truck, then another. You get the picture, like one of those dreams where you are trying to get somewhere but everything gets in your way. Finally made it to LP. It was windy, actually more than windy. Things were blowing everywhere, and the lake! Yikes! White caps, they were struggling to put the bouys out. I was walking towards registration when they announced the water temp at 63, that is borderline freezing for me. Then they announced that the International distance athletes should get to the water. WTH? Apparently the race started at 7. The lady checking me in said I could still make it and they would rack my bike for me. So nice of them, but I needed a moment. That water looked brutal and I am not a confident swimmer. 2000m in that would be hard for me. I asked what the distances were for the sprint, turns out it is a long sprint 1000m/15 mi/5k. The bike and run distances on the longer race were 20 and 4.5, so the only difference was the swim. After the week I had, the last thing I needed was a stressful swim situation so I signed up for the sprint and chillaxed for an hour and watched the other racers.
So glad I made the decision, the swim went well. The bike was awesome and I suffered on the run because I was sure the lady behing me (Jane Gage) was going to run me down. Turns out I was OK. I won overall by 3 minutes. And it was very fun and stress free.

That is me with my awards.

Now that all the work stress is behind me and the school year is winding down, I am looking forward to my next 2 (flat and calm) races in Tempe.

So, the race was fun. That evening, we headed out to Mesa to a birthday party. 3 of our tri friends were celebrating their birthdays and we had a really nice time. I was tired but I always find the energy to hang out with good friends, esp those I don't see too often.
Sunday was equally as relaxing. JT and I got up to go meet our friends for a ride but the kids were still asleep- Sean is recovering from his birthday weekend. So, I told JT to go on ahead and I would ride by myself. An hour later the kids were up and my friends called to say they would loop up by my house and meet me. So cool of them to do that and totally change their usual route. So, I rode with them around Estrella then back down into Goodyear and back by myself.
My tri friends are of all different levels, we all have different goals but I like how they still manage to ride as a group. We did some looping and regrouing but it was a fun time. I see the training clubs that are out there and seem very competitive, I really admire that but that's just not my personality and I can't make myself be that way. I genuinely want everyone to do well. I guess that's a limiter when it comes to racing but WTH :-)

We spent this afternoon at a neighborhood get together. The kids played in the sprinkers, and now I am finishing up some work and laundry. Life is good!

Brrrr.....

2011-04-10T12:25:00.003-07:00

There should be a race report in here from the Marquee tri this weekend but it was a no go! More on that later....

It is April in AZ and I am cold!
Last weekend we basked in 90+ degree sunshine then on Friday, a COLD front came through and there was SNOW on the Estrella Mtns behind my house- that's down to 2000 feet.
Brrrr....indeed.
Friday night I froze myself under a blanket at the kid's elementary school outdoor carnival. Sean was singing in the choir, also outdoors, so it made me stick it out. Otherwise I would have just dropped the kids and left. The rain storm moved in overnight into saturday morning.
Saturday morning I was up early and did an ez run. It was downright chilly. I noticed the snow caped Estrellas on my way home. Then it was off to my school's fundraiser- a pancake breakfast. We usually hold it outdoors but had to move it inside the church due to the cold weather.

Now, the drama about the Triathlon. I was planning to race the Marquee Oly tri in Tempe on sunday. All was going well, I was in my taper week, and was doing an EZ 5 mile run on thursday morning. About 4 miles in to it, a coyote ran out of the trail behing me and startled me, I turned to look at it then turned around and ran off the side of the path into the rocks, twisting my left ankle in the process :-( It really hurt for a few minutes then I was able to start running again and ran all the way home. Unfortunately as the day went on, my ankle swelled a bit and was very achey. I had to be on my feet all day at work, so no chance to ice and rest it. I woke on friday to it feeling stiff but not swollen and less achey. I tested it out ont he trainer and with a short swim, it was feeling better. On saturday I tried a short run, it felt OK but the tendon around my ankle was still a bit achey. I was busy working at the pancake breakfast, and still undecided about racing, when I got a text from a friend down at the race site saying they had found E Coli in Tempe town lake and the race would now be a Duathlon. Seeing as I hadn't yet registered, I decided this was a sign and I wouldn't race. I was nervous about 2 runs on a dodgy ankle. I feel so bad for RedRock Co. which is an awesome race company. They lost races last year due to the Tempe lake dam breaking, now this. The other reason I decided not to race is that there is a Triathlon out at Lake pleasant next saturday and I have always wanted to race out there. So, I will do that instead. I have raced a lot down at Tempe, and although I LOVE the Duathlon format, my biggest challenge is the swim and I need to force myself out there. I am probably putting myself at a huge disadvantage by choosing the Lake Pleasant race, I trained for a flat, fast Olympic distance. Instead I will be doing a hilly International distance with an abnormally long swim (2000m/20 miles/8k run). But this year is all about fun and challenges. This definitely fits into that category :-) And I will get to race an Oly in May instead.

Turns out the ankle is fine. I did a nice 90 minute ride- 25 min run this morning. Had to look out the cold weather bike gear again. It was still in the 50's at 9:30 when I left the house.
Looks like the cold is heading out of here and we are heading straight up into the 80's by tomorrow, then the 90's by week's end.

In other news...Sean got his cast off on Thursday. He was stiff for a couple of days but appears to have a good range of motion today. He has to take it easy for 3 weeks then we will probably start Phys Therapy. I'm a bit nervous now that the cast is off and the elbow is unprotected. I had to stop him on his way into the jumpy house at the carnival and remind him that was not a good idea!
We have ended up having a very laid back weekend, just good family time. Its AIMS testing week, and only 6 weeks until the of the school year! Here goes! :-)

What happened to the weekend?

2011-04-03T18:04:00.003-07:00

I love, love weekends! I love weekdays too but now that my kids are older and in school for 7.5 hours per day, I just live for the weekends that they are off. And JT too of course! Problem is, this weekend flew by even faster than usual.

It kicked off friday night with dinner at Rubios with good friends. I don't care how busy or crazy life gets, eating & chatting with good friends should always be a priority!

Then it was up early on saturday to get in some riding before heading off to a 2-day track meet. This track meet "The Phoenix Invitational", is unlike anything I have seen before. We showed up on saturday morning at Glendale CC, along with 20,000 other people. There were hundereds of heats for each race. My son was running the 800m on saturday and the 1500m on sunday. We camped out with our track club under the shade of some big trees. This is the first HOT weekend here. The temps hit 100 on thursday and friday and it got hot out there on saturday too. Cam ran the 800m at 2pm and it had to be 95 and windy! He did great though, taking 20 seconds off his time from the meet last weekend. Either he was sandbagging last time, or he just had a really great day! We got home in the late afternoon, tired and sunburned! Then it was off to bed to get ready to do it again.

I was up early on sunday to drive over to Tempe to do the Splash and Dash #1. It had been a year since I swam in Tempe lake. It was time to get some practice. I signed up for the 1000m swim- 4 mile run event. I saw my friends Elliot, Tim and Michael out there. It was a beautiful morning. The lake was 72 degrees and not as yucky as usual. I swam pretty well but had troubles in transition with egtting my wetsuit off, it took me almost 2 mins to get out onto the run course. Once running, I felt good. The cold I have had all week didn't seem to bother me and I ran the 2 loop course at around 6:50 pace. I was 4th overall and 1st female. I didn't stick around for long afterwards as I needed to make sure I was back over in Glendale to see Cam run his race. I got there about 20 mins before his event. He ran his first 1500m ever and did well. I am so proud of him!

Next up was home, cleaning, laundry, play with the dog (who wondered where everyone had been all weekend), having some kids over to play and jump in the pool, make dinner and finally sit down!
The other big acheivement this weekend: JT got done with his online college classes! Thank Goodness!

In other news, some of you may know that my youngest son has Tourettes Syndrome. Well, thanks to a wonderful woman who lives in my community, we tried some dietary changes with him this past week and we are already noticing a big difference! I am so excited. If you know anyone who needs help/advice on tourettes syndrome, please don't hesitate to contact me. I have tons of research, resources and contacts! Our family has been dealing with this for years and I am so glad we are making progress :-)

Thats about it from around here. The thought of having to go to work tomorrow makes me want to cry. Hope everyone had a super weekend! :-)

Countdown

2011-03-27T11:23:00.004-07:00

OK, so it's still a while until the end of the school year but I actually had to make a mental note of the number of weeks, days until the school year ends. I needed to do this just to get me through. I'm definitely not someone who lives their life by wishing the days away, however, it has been a really tough year for me work-wise. I love my jobs but I realize I took on way too much this year. I am working at 2 different schools. And when I say different, I mean very different. The schools, curriculums and policies couldnt be more polar opposite, LOL. I am at one school on monday and fridays which are my long days, then I am at the other school tue-thursday. In addition to classroom time, I am spending more time than ever lesson planning outside of school. Somewhere around christmas, I fell behind a bit and have just not been able to catch up. I'm doing my best, but I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and sometimes my "best" doesn't feel good enough. I havent committed to either school for next year and I don't think that I will. My husband is working more hours than ever, and I still do everything that I used to do around the house. The boy's social lives seem busier than ever, therefore I can justify taking an easy year! So with that, I have 8 weeks (24 days) left at one of the schools and 11 weeks (22 days) at the other school. Then I have summer break.

Things have been busy around here. I have completed 2 training weeks of over 11 hours. I am feeling good. I was pretty tired on friday, so during a rare massage, I fell sound asleep. I have slept like a log the past few nights. A great wine from Bordeaux has definitely helped with that! My training has been consistent and has a bit of intensity in it. My new coach is great- tough on me at times, but definitely just what I needed. I wish I had started on this training plan sooner and I might feel more ready for the 2 Olympic distance races I have planned.
Today we headed out to Saguaro lake to swim in the open water. We left it kind of late in the day so I was pushed for time. The lake is almost 1.5 hours drive for us so we don't go very often, I guess we used to go on a week day, because we were shocked at how crowded it was. The weather was 76 degrees and sunny, so I guess it was to be expected. We arrived to a crowded beach area and country music blaring from a cooler-speaker-radio hybrid machine. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying the music. I kind of wish I had remembered the camera but at the same time, some of the sights on that beach were best forgotten. The water was nice, mid 60's ? And it didnt take me long to get in a rythm, a few boats and jet skis came a bit close for comfort (I was in a no wake, swimming area) and I got in just over 30 mins of swimming around the bouys. I came back to shore so that JT could get in. He got a new wetsuit last year but hasn't used it. He seperated his shoulder last October in our bike crash and was unable to swim. He was out today for 15 minutes and said he felt great. This is a good sign, he also loves his Tyr Hurricane wetsuit! The boys had ben playing around in the trees and water and managed to get themselves really dirty. We still stopped at Islands for dinner on the way home, we were so hungry that we didnt care if the kids looked like hobos and we smelled like lake! :-)

Other news:
Cam has been busy with his track team. He ran at a meet yesterday, taking 2nd in the 800m and 3rd in the 400m. It was a small meet but good experience for him. Sean gets his cast off in 9 days (that's another thing we are counting down), just in time for his birthday!
The vegan experiment is going well. I don't really notice much difference, I was feeling a bit bloated from too many carbs so I am working on that, we ate some delicious "Spiced banana pancakes" from Vegan Planet today- one of our family's favorites, I was going to take some pictures but tehy were eaten before I had the chance. Here's the recipe:

Combine the following in a large bowl
1.5 cups flour (i use 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 plain)
2 tbs sugar/sweetner
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice

In a blender combine the following
1.25 cups milk (I use almond milk)
3 medium ripe bananas

Put the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mix well then cook like regular pancakes.
I enjoyed mine with a little almond butter and agave syrup. The kids put Nutella and strawberries on theirs and JT went for the traditional pancake syrup.

Have a great week everyone!

Vegan Experiment

2011-03-16T05:39:00.004-07:00

Don't worry, I am not out to create a movement or try to change anyone's eating habits or opinions, LOL. I'm just setting myself a challenge to change my own lifestyle. It's not actually a very dramatic change, I have been a (lacto-ovo) vegetarian for approx 25 years. I remember announcing to my family at age 11 that I wasn't going to eat animals or fish any more. This might have come as a shock to most families, especially to one that lived out on a farm, but it was well received by my hippy parents. In fact, my mom has been a vegetarian since she was a child, first because she just didnt like meat, and later for ethical reasons. My dad is a meat eater, and he fly fishes some of the best rivers in Scotland, but he was also an organic vegetable grower, long before it was trendy. Their one rule was that I was to eat well, not just pizza and veggie burgers. It was very easy to be vegetarian, my school even offered vegetarian lunches, as did my college dorms. And it was good food, not just mac n cheese. In college, one of my good friends was Buddhist and I spent a summer being Vegan. She didn't eat any animal products, shealso didnt wear or use any products that had been derived from or tested in animals. It was a challenge and it was expensive for a college student, so I gave up and went back to my more economical vegetarian ways.
As an adult, I have dabbled in Veganism but my excuse is that I am always too busy to do it 100%. I have about an hour per week to grocery shop for our hungry family of 4, in addition I spend about half and hour going through the store ads and coupons because we are on a budget. I just don't have a lot of time to read labels and worry if it contains animal products. But all this time, something has not been sitting right with me. For personal reasons I have always wanted to be vegan. Ihave no problem with meat eaters and my boys will continue to eat meat, but something inside of me wants to eliminate animal products from my diet and lifestyle. So I put it on my list of things I would like to do when I am not so busy. Well, I can't see that happening any time soon. A few days ago, I was doing some online reading and came across this awesome link to everyday, easy to find foods that are vegan:
http://www.veganwolf.com/ready_made_vegan_food.htm
As I scrolled down, I realized that many of these are already in my pantry, so it made me think that I could do this now. If I take these everyday staples, and add my own fresh meals, then I could do it. But because I don't like to half-ass stuff, I decided to make the commitment and do it for 30 days. The 2 foods I will miss the most are Greek Yogurt and M&M's I eat them everyday. Just 2 foods, that isn't bad at all! As my husband pointed out, it will do me no harm to kick my M&M habit and hopefully it will have a positive effect on my waistline!
So, here goes! :-)

Weekend Racing

2011-03-13T15:47:00.009-07:00

It's a beautiful spring weekend here in AZ. Temps are creeping up and sunshine galore! Both the hubby and I raced this weekend.

First up was JT's trail half marathon on saturday. I signed him up for this because I got a Groupon for it. He had his doubts this week due to being tired from work, breaking a bone in his hand and just generally feeling under the weather. However we got up and ready and he felt good to go. The White Tanks regional park is about 35 mins drive for us, it's such a beautiful park. I love it there. I dropped JT so he could pick up his race number and then kids and I parked and met up with him. Also saw our tri friends Dean, Kim and Tom. I just love the vibe at these trail races, everyone is so laid back and friendly. JT took off at 8:00, he went out with the front pack because he knows this course well, it gets steep and narrow after about 2.5 miles. The boys and I filled our time by playing in the desert, visiting with various dogs and snacking on the yummy race food which the organizers were very kind to offer us! JT ran the half marathon in 1:44 for 9th place. So awesome for that course!
We hung out for a short time then left to go to the SkateFest at the local skate park- gotta keep the kids happy :-)

Sunday was my turn to race. There was a sprint and Oly distance tri at the Goodyear YMCA. Its pretty close to home and I've raced it a few times, they have it twice per year. The thought of doing an Oly distance swim in a pool doesnt appeal but I also needed to just get back out there and race. It has been 1.5 years since I did a Tri. My last triathlon was an Ironman. I have done relays, run races and a DU but when it comes to triathlon, I am rusty. I got to the race at 6am, in time to register and set up. Saw my buddy Elliot so we racked bikes close to each other. The race was running late (surprise) and they had the kids race first, then the sprint swim start then the Oly. There was no seeding in the pool, just line up by bib number and because I registered on race day, I was 2nd from last. Another thing- the swim would be 1600m to make it easier to swim it in the 50m pool. We would go in and do 400m 4 times, running across the pool deck in between. JT and the boys showed up just before the swim start. By the time I got in, the pool was full of bodies and I spent my 1600m dodging around people. The good thing was that I felt OK in the water. I have been a swim slacker this winter, only having been consistent in the pool for the past 2 weeks. I didnt have high expectations so I was happy to get out and see 31:xx on the watch.
Next up was transition, I thankfully remembered what to do and was out of there pretty quick. In the first mile I caught up to a girl in a blue 2 piece, she immediately got on my wheel and stayed there. This is a low key race, with no USAT officials. We did 6 laps of the 4 mile loop. I saw JT and the boys each time around which was awesome. The bike course was fast and I was trying to drop the chick on my wheel but she stayed right there. I was excited to glance at my Garmin and see 1:01:xx for the bike but I was worried I had gone too fast on the bike. As I left transition 2, the blue 2 piece chick was up ahead, she looked like a good runner so I was very surprised to pass her in the first quarter mile. The course is 2 loops with a couple of U turns. This is great because you see your competition, I was able to tell she had dropped back and I was able to start catching up to the other racers. The weather was warm and sunny so I poured water on myself at each aid station. I saw Elliot out on the course, and could tell he was up with the lead men. I was easily holding my 7 min pace, and just kept that until the last mile and pushed it. Finished in 2:16:33. I was first female and 5th overall including men :-) Very happy with this race and happy that I was able to feel good at the end. I have been swim-bike-running but was not sure how it would all go when I put it all together. This gives me some confidence to race again this year :-)

This coming week is spring break- sort of! My kids are off and one of the schools I work at is closed but I will be working at the Charter school 2 days this week. I am really just counting down the days until the end of the school year. I have some different stuff planned for next year :-)

Pictures and my ABC's

2011-02-27T06:26:00.005-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our races last weekend. JT made the local newspaper with this article:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/swvalley/articles/2011/02/22/20110222goodyear-heart-sole-run-walk.html
He looks very speedy in his picture!

Other happenings: Yesterday Cam did his first track meet, he ran the 100, 200 and 400m. I am so proud of him. It was a long day of waiting around in between events but a lot of fun to watch. His best race was the 400 and his coach says she will try him in the middle distance races soon.
Sean had his MRI last week which was a long ordeal, they had to sedate him to put in the dye, then do the MRI. He was a trooper and charmed all the doctors and nurses with his swet personality. We followed up with the ortho and sports doc on thursday and they put him in a hard cast for 6 weeks. The MRI showed ligament damage and a slight tear. The hope is that the time in the cast and some physical therapy will be enough to heal the elbow. I am glad they didnt suggest surgery except as a last resort. He is very upset that he has to sit out spring sports.

So, like many of my other blogger friends, here are the ABC's of me:
A. Age: 36
B. Bed size: California King
C. Chore you dislike: ironing (never do it)
D. Dogs: Rudy
E. Essential start to your day: Coffee!
F. Favorite color: Blue/Pink
G. Gold or silver: Silver
H. Height: 5’5”
I. Instruments you play(ed): None, unless you include the Triangle in a school concert. I want to play the guitar!
J. Job title: Preschool teacher, Mom.
K. Kids: 2 boys 8 and 12 yo
L. Live: Goodyear, AZ
M. Mom’s name: Patricia
N. Nicknames: Sal-bug
O. Overnight hospital stays: Only when I had my babies
P. Pet peeves: rude and inconsiderate people, texting while driving.
Q. Quote from a movie: "You come here with your laptop computers, your malaria medicine and you little bottles of hand sanitizer and think you can change the outcome" Blood Diamond
R. Righty or lefty: Righty
S. Siblings: none
T. Time you wake up: Between 4:30 and 6
U. Underwear: pink or white bikinis
V. Vegetables you dont’ like: I think I like all of them
W. What makes you run late: my kids
X. X-rays you’ve had: Lots. Most recently my ribs- cracked 2 ribs in a bike accident.
Y. Yummy food you make: Lasagna, cookies, coffee cake, volcano nachos
Z. Zoo animal favorites: I dont like zoos, would rather see animals in the wild.

Desert Classic Duathlon

2011-02-21T20:30:00.001-07:00

I did it! here's a rundown of my day!

If you read my blog on Beginner Triathlete on Saturday, you'd know that I wasn't exactly excited for this race, LOL. The weather was bad, and I was questioning my desire to race. However, I woke up on sunday, checked the forecast and saw that the rain had stopped. It wasnt even as chilly as I had expected so I got on the road. It is almost 1.5 hours from my house to the race site, so I decided to just go alone, plus I knew it would be cold and muddy out there. Mud + my boys= disaster! I was on the road about 20 mins when I realized that I had forgot my Garmin. I have never raced without it. Its my safety blanket, so I knew this would be different! Got to the beautiful Mcdowell mountain park just after 7 and found a spot to rack my bike. The transition area was on dirt (aka muddy gravel) and I couldnt decide whether to leave my shoes clipped on. Then I saw how far the mount line was from the bikes and decided I better wear the shoes.

I saw my friend Elliot and chatted with him and watched the pros start. Elliot was in the next wave and my wave went off at 8:15. It wasnt as cold as I thought it would be and I almost changed out of my long sleeve shirt to put on arm warmers but didnt (later I really wished I had!). They lined all the women up in one wave.

It dawned on me as I was about 5 minutes into the first run that I didnt even know the distances. I was thinking maybe 3 miles for each run? I did this race last year but they changed the course to a different part of the park. I raced the 10 mile trail race here in December so I knew part of the route but I had no Garmin, the lead girls went out fast and I just planned to keep them in sight. Being in the 4th wave meant that we were catching up to the end of the previous waves and it was challenging to get around people on the trail. I probably ran a bit fast but I really had no idea what I was doing, LOL. I was getting hot by the end of the run. Turns out the run was 3.5 miles. I think I might have been 7th or 8th coming into transition? I havent raced much at all in the past 12 months and it showed in transition, I was a bit lost, spacy definitely not much HTFU.
Then it was out onto the bike. The bike course is beautiful and hilly. It's the type of hills I like- longer hills rather than steep and short. I passed a lot of people on the bike. Again, it was a disadvantage to be in a late wave because I was constantly slowing to get around people and having to "on your left" people a lot (that uses up a lot of breath BTW). A few minutes into the ride I went to take a drink from my aero bottle and realized I didnt have the straw, just the short plastic bit was sticking out about 1/2 inch. That was my only bottle, I managed a few sips by bending over and getting a little Gatorade thru the plastic part but it took some work! I passed at least 3 girls on the bike but I had a feeling they would stay right behind me and possibly run me down! At about mile 15 I heard "Go Sally" from the side of the road and my heart sank. It sounded like Elliot. I was really hoping it wasnt but on the way back in I saw his Cervelo at the side of the road. I just hoped it was a flat and not a crash!

In hindsight, I should have pushed the bike a little more. I have lost a lot of confidence on the bike since the crash, esp on the downhills. Also remember my aero bottle straw so I could actually get some hydration/nutrition.
The transition area was muddy. I pulled my shoes on but when I bent over, I got a wierd stabbing stomach cramp, luckily it went away.

The second run was actually tougher than the first with more steep uphills. A girl passed me within the first 1/2 mile, she was flying! My legs were heavy and I felt like I was hardly moving. I wished I had my Garmin, just to give me the confidence that I was actually keeping a decent pace! I passed a lot of guys, esp on the hills, and was waiting for more girls to come. I worried that if I was passed, I wouldnt be able to push it any faster. Finally I saw the tents of the finish area and heard the announcer. Managed to pull it together so I didnt look like I was dying the last 100m.
After I finished, I was really hot and thirsty! I saw Elliot and he said he had flatted. So bummed for him as he was having a great race. I got some food and then it started to rain pretty hard. Once the results were posted, I saw I was 4th female and 1st in AG so I waited for the awards. It got really cold, so I was glad I packed some extra clothes.
I am so glad that I went and raced. I think I just need to get out there and race more. It was fun. Turns out this was the Southwest Regional DU championships so I got a cool USAT medal for winning my AG along with a mug and Trisports gift certificate. It was a good day!

I am just getting back to racing. I did this race last year then had a series of unfortunate events. I'm about 10 lbs too heavy and need to get my confidence back. This was a start.

Tahnks for reading! I hope to get some photos from the race website to post soon :-)

Winter storm!

2011-02-19T12:54:00.002-07:00

I'm sitting inside with rain and wind pelting on the house. let's hope this is the last winter storm of the season! We were teased with typical AZ weather of high 70's earlier this week but that has suddenly changed. Fortunately the hubby was able to race his 5k this morning before the storm hit- he did it in a blistering 17:49 for second place (by 2 seconds!). Very fun to watch, which brings me to the rest of this post. I posted this on my BT training blog:

Warning: Whiny, self-absorbed, reflective post ahead:

I just love running races! I really wanted to be out there running today. I really wish I had decided to do it and skipped the DU tomorrow. I love the simplicity of running and the vibe around the running races. I didnt race a triathlon at all last year, my last tri was in November 2009 and at first I missed it, but now as I am trying to get back into it, I'm just not excited. If I am honest, I really don't like to swim. At all. There's nothing I enjoy about it. I like the bike but I dont love it, I love to run. My life is so busy nowadays that running just fits. I enjoy runnning in any weather-I love to sweat when it's hot, I love the burning in my lungs on a cold day. I do not like to ride in cold weather, wind or rain. I enjoy group rides but am lucky to get in one per month. I really do not look forward to cycling and it shows, I havent had a good ride or successful bike workout in months. I know exactly what to do to get faster on the bike, but I just dont do it because I dont enjoy it. My bike is mediocre and it's a reflection of my attitude and training. Just wanting to be good at triathlon is not enough, you have to put in the work and I have just been going through the motions. I guess most of all, it bothers me that success in Triathlon often comes down to who has the fastest gear, best coaching, latest gadgets, the list goes on. I cant compete with that. Running is simple. Its just your body on that given day! I like that better. So, here's the honest truth: I really want to be a runner and I only do triathlon because I cant run as much as I want to or need to. I have a bad knee and my running days are probably eventually numbered. I guess I am trying to extend that time. I wish I had ran today or I wish I was doing the half-marathon with my friends tomorrow.

So what now? I will do the few races I had planned this spring and hopefully I will feel differently come summer. Maybe it's the weather, or the winter blues (do we even get those in AZ?), and hopefully I will snap out of it.

I did packet pick up for the Desert DU but will not be making the 1.5 hour trip over there in the morning if it is still this stormy. I did this race in the sleet and wind last year, so no need to do that again! I am definitely a warm weather racer, lol, give me 100 degree temps over cold rain any day! :-)

Crazy weekend and finally a race report

2011-02-07T10:28:00.004-07:00

Well, first of all, the bad stuff. On saturday, my youngest disclocated his elbow for the 3rd time (same elbow) in 13 months! We had come from his basketball game with his friend, they ate lunch and went outside to play soccer. My hubby was with them, they were goofing and rough housing and his elbow popped right out again. So, off to the ER we went. We spent the afternoon and into the evening at Phoenix Children's hospital. It was a busy ER, there were actually 3 kids with broken arms from various sports in at the same time. We were able to compare and share stories with the familes to pass time, LOL. They did the usual, x-rays, morphine, concious sedation, pop it back in, wait for more x-rays, splint it, then release. The pain meds always make him sick and loopy, so it make for an interesting ride home! Luckily the elbow went back in easily but we have a follow up this week with an ortho, got to do something to strengthen that arm, it is not normal for it to pop out so easily. Sean's little buddy felt so bad, they brought us cupcakes and ice-cream on sunday :-)

I woke on sunday with a sore neck from sleeping wierd and/or holding Sean (who is not a small child anymore!). JT wasnt feeling great and we had kind of forgotten that we planned to race the Runner's Den Double Nickel in Phoenix. I wasnt going to go, but JT encouraged me to get up and stretch. Sean woke and was feeling fine, so I decided to go ahead and go on my own.

Drove over to the race and registered, sat in the car for a bit to keep warm and then did a quick half mile jog before the start of the races.
Race #1 5k (19:48). I haven't run a 5k since a year ago and I havent done any speed work, I thought I'd run around 21, was very happy that the 6:30 pace felt comfortable, splits were 6:30, 6:30, 6:20. Very happy to break 20! 2nd female, 1st in AG.
I had 40 minutes to kill before the next race so I put my warm clothes back on and walked around.
Race #2 was the 5 mile (33:30). I did the stand alone 5 mile last year in 32:55, and I am not in good running (or any) shape so I was thinking that if I could hold 7 min miles, I'd be lucky. Again, the pace felt good. Legs were getting tired towards the end, a super skinny chick passed me with less than half mile to go and I just held onto her and out sprinted her at the finish, which was brave of considering my legs were toast! Luckily I finished with my dignity intact! Slpits 6:40, 6:53, 6:47, 6:43, 6:27) 6th female, 4th in AG.
Felt pretty decent afterwards, just a tight IT band and my neck was still stiff.
The awesome part- I had the fastest female combined time for the double nickel so I ended up with 2 medals and a really nice race shirt :-)

The rest of the day was spent running errands- JT is looking at getting a new road bike and we are needing to re-carpet the house. We got home in time to watch the superbowl and create some of our traditional superbowl nachos!

Birthday weekend

2011-01-29T12:08:00.004-07:00

Apologies for the boring-ness of my blog of late. Been busy around here but not much to write about. One thing we have been doing is enjoying the great winter weather. The mornings are a bit cold for my liking but the days have been warm and sunny.

My oldest son turned 12 yesterday. Having a friday birthday is the best because you get to turn it into a whole weekend. He celebrated at school but taking donuts for his class, then after school I took him to get new runningn shoes. My kid's feet seem to grow an inch per week at the moment. Cam has been running track for the past few weeks so he needed some new running shoes. He got a cool pair of Nike as did his little brother. After that we picked up pizza for dinner, and Grandma stopped by. There were no presents this year- only cards full of money! The boys has more money than me but as he quite cleverly pointed out, he has to make this christmas and birthday money last all year. Today his buddy is coming over to spend the night and go to the skate park. On sunday some family friends are coming over for cake and some Xbox kinect competition! :-)

My tri training is going well, I am planning to do a 5k/5mile double race next weekend, and the Desert DU on Feb 20th. Hopefully after that, I will feel more ready to commit to spring races. The body is holding up well but it's all been base training so far, most of it solo. It's hard to get a read on my fitness just now. I know it is far from where it was last year. I miss that residual Ironman fitness which is now well and truly gone. I guess if I was better at using the HR monitor and actually using data from training, then I might have a beter idea of where I am. Truth is, I am pretty useless without a coach, but lack the funds to get one so I am doing the best I can right now :-)

This is Cam's birthday cake. He asked for a chocolate-caramel cake and I couldnt get to making one, so I compromised by buying a cake at teh bakery and decoating it with his favorite caramels (Rolos) and crushed cookies. It was delish!

A good start

2011-01-10T06:52:00.006-07:00

My parents leave to go back to Scotland today :-( It's always hard to say goodbye but we will see them again in June.
2011 has been awesome so far. On the 2nd we did our annual family hike. This year we tackled Squaw (Piestewa) Peak in Phoenix. The 7 of us set off at 10am, a later start because it was so cold, and made it up and back in 2 hours. A great day and always so thankful that we have our health to be able to do this every year.

We rounded out the holiday season with a trip to Glendale Glitters and Glows on saturday night (along with a trip to our fave restauarant- Islands!). It was super crowded there but we enjoyed walking around and seeing the balloons, including a ginormous Polar Bear balloon that filled the entire street.

Training has been going well. I don't want to jinx myself, but I feel great. It has been a long time since my body has felt this good. This is not to say that I feel race ready, or even in close to it but nothing hurts and I have a lot of energy. The biggest struggle is the weather, and I know it is unfair to complain about Arizona winter weather, but due to work and family commitments, I usually have to bike in the mornings and it has been COLD. Like below freezing cold some days. It does not make me want to get out, or stay out, on the bike. Needless to say, my bike volume has been down and I needed a good dose of HTFU. This past weekend I got it. I joined the saturday group and was determined to do the entire 65+ mile ride. I did it and the only tough part was the last 10 miles home by myself.
On sunday we were all up early to go watch JT race in the Xterra White tanks trail race 19k. I thought about doing the shorter event (8k) but the fee was $45 which seems a bit steep for a 4 mile race. So, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful trails and run while JT raced. I ran out and caught him at the first aid station then did the waterfall trail, for a total of 7.5 miles. I met up with my family and the in-laws at the finish line. JT did great in the race, it was a tough course with 4 miles of very steep climbing. He came in 18th, 4th in his AG.

Now it is back to reality, it has been so nice having my parents here, they are so helpful. I'll have to go back to doing my own laundry, LOL.

Happy New Year and a confession

2011-01-01T11:05:00.004-07:00

Happy New Year! Don't get excited, it's not a juicy confession, LOL.

We had a quiet, uneventful new year. Just the way I like it. JT and I got to go out on New years eve while the live-in grandparents took care of the kids. We saw The Fighter at the movies and had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We were home by 9pm, which was good as it was freezing outside. I couldn't imagine seeing the New year outdoors! I managed to pick up the cold bug that was going through our family. I was quite smug in thinking that I wasn't going to fall victim to it, then I woke up on the 31st with a really sore throat- by the end of the day I had a full blown head cold. I probably didn't help myself by going out for a 30 mile bike ride in 30 degree weather (I had to break 6000 miles riding for the year, and I did!).

JT and I talked over dinner about all the places we had celebrated New Year. Between us we have celebrated New year in many different places: Scotland (both), London (me), New York (me), Spain(JT but he couldn't remember the port), San Diego (both), VA (both), SC & OR (JT), and many times here in Phoenix. For me, growing up, New Year is a big deal in Scotland. Hogmanay (New Years eve) is a huge celebration, and on New years day we do the "First footing" where you go around friends and family's homes to have a drink and bite to eat. The 2nd was my aunt's b-day and a day that everyone got together with the leftovers for more food and drinks. It is hard to remember all the places we have been, but the most memorable was the millenium in Scotland- we had so much fun! I like this blog as it will serve as a reference for remembering where we were and what we did over the years.

So here's the confession...have you ever seen that show "Hoarders"? I think it's on A&E. I love that show, it's disgusting to me but also very fascinating. Don't worry, I am not a hoarder. I am the opposite. I don't know what that is called. I can't find a label or synonym for it but the antonyms would be pack rat, hoarder, collector etc. I am very unattached to material things to the point that I hate clutter in my house, it stresses me out. Well, along with Christmas comes clutter. First there's the tree, ornaments (I am a teacher, therefore I have many ornaments!), lights and cards. Then there are the gifts, which covered our living room and pool table. Thankfully over the course of last week those have made their way to the kids rooms. There are 2 extra people in our small house at the moment which means extra laundry, dishes, clutter on my countertops, LOL. Today it was put away. The tree is down, the ornaments are gone and as soon as it warms up, the outdoor decorations will be gone too. I'm not sure why clutter bothers me so much. My parents say that my favorite teddy bear was taken from my stroller when I was 2 years old, I was devastated, and never got attached to any toy after that. Maybe I was scarred, LOL. When I left home at 18, I left with one suitcase and that is all I needed. I stayed in a furnished apartment in college. JT and I married right after I graduated, I arrived in the U.S with that same suitcase and when we moved from SC to VA, all of my belongings still fit in that suitcase. We were practically nomadic the first few years of marriage due to being in the military. JT didn't have much personal stuff either. Once settled in AZ, our friends joked that we must be in the witness protection program because we hardly owned any stuff, we could move during the night if we needed to :-) I liked it that way. Then came the first baby. Yikes, who knew that these little people needed so much stuff! The baby shower alone filled our house with stuff, so after that I let my guard down and became a more normal member of society, collecting material possessions and the next time we moved, we actually filled the medium sized Uhaul truck!
My point in all this is that even as a 36 year old, I don't own many things that mean a great deal to me. I know a lot of people find that strange. The things I care about the most are people and experiences. The people I love, know that i love them, I try to show them everyday. The experiences that I have had are treasured memories. The "gifts" I like to get are candles, chocolate and books. I can use them, enjoy them and then they are gone.
I was laying awake last night (because my nose was so runny, I couldn't breathe!), looking forward to putting away the clutter today and I was reminded of something that happened as a child. My Grandma was my caregiver as a child, and possibly the most inluential person in my life. She had survived a very hard childhood and grown into a very graceful and intelligent woman. Even in her late 60's, she was poised and beautiful. There was a dress in the store window of the local department store, I remember that it was pale blue with white polka-dots. My Grandma admired that dress when she walked home from school with me every day. I talked her into going in to the store to try it on. She was a frugal widow but the dress fit perfectly and she looked stunning. She bought it and later tried it on for me at her house, the bottom of it the dress flared out and she said it reminded her of a dress she wore when she was younger and would go dancing with my Grandpa. That dress hung in her closet for years. Soemtimes I would ask her if she was going to wear it but she always replied that she was saving it for a special occaision. My Grandma died when I was a senior in high school. When we cleaned out her home, I found that dress. The price tag was still on it. She never did find the special occaision to wear it. It made me very sad. It also reminded me not to "save" things. To enjoy them now. So, if you were given a good bottle of wine, drink and enjoy it. An expensive perfume- wear it! A new pair of shoes, clothes, jewellery- put them on and feel great! If you want that yummy dessert- have it! Life is too short!
Now that the "stuff" is put away, I feel a lot calmer in my home! :-)

Happy New Year! May 2011 be the best ever!

Here's a picture of the boys standing beside the tallest Christmas tree in the country. It's at the Anthem outlet mall and on the day we visited, it snowed. You can't belive the excitement! My kids have never been in falling snow before, LOL. The rest of the family are not loving the arctic conditions here in Phoenix!

Wrapping it up

2010-12-24T06:37:00.012-07:00

Ahh...Christmas. I love it! Even though my boys are getting older and there seem to be less presents under the tree (the stuff they ask for is less toys, more expensive), it still looks pretty impressive on Christmas morning. More than presents, I just love the traditions that we have with family. We go to JT's aunt's house on Christmas eve for a feast. I love it because JT's cousins from CA are there, we only get to see them once or twice a year. My parents are here for the holidays so they get to participate in the Christmas morning excitement.

We spend the rest of Christmas day with the family at my in-laws house. They moved into a beautiful home this year, nestled by the White Tank Mtns. The great weather meant plenty of outdoor time:

When Christmas is over, thoughts turn ahead to New Year. This was always a big holiday for me growing up, maybe because the Scots like to party :-) But seeing as I don't do that any more, it becomes a time of reflection and looking forward to what is ahead. I don't make New Year resolutions, but I do like to stop and appreciate whathas happened over the past year and think about what I'd like to achieve in the new one.
2010 was a bit of a rough year for me. Physically, it was probably the most challenging year that I have faced. I am used to feeling really strong and healthy but I felt like most of 2010 was a physical struggle for me. I had a string of injuries/health issues (stress fracture in my ankle, a knee issue, broken toes, pinched nerve, 2 bike crashes that resulted in broken ribs and road rash, a melanoma and carcenoma) that not only sidelined me from triathlon trainign and racing, but made me feel very vulnerable.
I'm happy to say that I am going into 2011 feeling much better. In fact I feel great. I will never take my good health for granted. And the health issues cannot cloud the fact that a lot of other great things happened in 2010. We took some awesome trips with the kids: to Show Low, Sedona and Flagstaff AZ, our annual beach camping trip was a blast and we had fun biking and hiking in our local area too. The kids are doing great at school and in their activities, I am so proud of them. JT is very happy at work and continues to tear it up on the mountain bike and in running races.
I accomplished several firsts in 2010: I completed my schooling and got my endorsements, I did my first bike race (finished 4th in the Tour De Scottsdale) and my first trail running race (finished 3rd in the 10 mile McDowell Mtn frenzy). I also raced an aqua bike and a triathlon relay with JT.
Some other highlights were helping out with our annual Kids tri, this year was the biggest year ever and we even made it onto the news. I watched my kids race triathlons and I ran their first 5k with them. My oldest started middle school this year and is excelling in the advanced classes as well as on the math counts and cross country teams. My youngest was the star of his soccer team, and has fallen in love with mountain biking.
There's lots of other great memories from 2010 that are stored away in my heart, photo albums, and on this blog. It was a good year.
I wish all the bloggers a happy New Year and hope that 2011 is a great year for you! :-)

Here's a collection of pictures from over Christmas. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-18T17:45:00.002-07:00

I hope my last post didn’t come across as defeatist or negative. That was not my intention at all. I am very thankful for the health that I have and everything that I have and will achieve athletically.
December has been a very fun month so far. As a parent and teacher, the last weeks of school leading up to Christmas break are filled with crafts, concerts, baking and parties. I somehow manage to sit through similar Holiday Concerts each year and still find them adorable! I have to say that my class of 4 year olds were exceptionally cute at the Christmas program and I predict a few of them will go on to showbiz!

The highlight of this month was the safe arrival of my parents from Scotland. Just when I start to get overwhelmed with the holiday happenings, Granny & Grandad came to the rescue. They were late though- and made it here to AZ after 2 weeks of terrible weather in Scotland delayed their flights.

We celebrated JT’s birthday this month by doing a 10 mile trail race in the McDowell mountains. It was a blast but it kicked my butt- well mostly my ankles, but lots of other places too! It took me all week to recover. It was hilly and technical. JT came in 5th place overall, I was 3rd place female. The 2 girls in front of me were within sight the last mile of the race but I had nothing left. I even had to look down a few times to make sure my legs were still moving! Can’t wait to do another one though. We also celebrated in a more normal way by going out to dinner. Thanks to my in-laws, we were able to take the family out for Hibachi.

We have shared in holiday celebrations with our friends and neighbors. I love this time of year. My shopping is done and the presents are under the tree. All that is left is to enjoy this break from work and get in some good quality family time.

Training is going well. I am going into 2011 feeling very good. I did my first Saturday group ride since the crash today. It was great to catch up with the guys. I was hanging back with the B group and just enjoying the group ride atmosphere. Next time I hope to do the entire 60 mile ride. Today Amy and I turned so we would be back around 40 miles. I’ve been back in the pool too. That has been slow going- literally, but as always, I will work at it and hopefully it will come back by tri season.

We watched the Ironman World Championship on TV today with friends, so inspiring. It makes me excited for the 2011 race season!

Happy Holidays!

Knee update

2010-12-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

I forgot to blog about this but last week I went to the Ortho. You might remember that I almost had knee surgery this past summer. It didn't work out timing-wise and I thought I should get a 2nd opinion anyways. So, I took my MRI to a new doctor (thanks Chad for the recommendation!) and they were great. I have never had a doctor and his PA spend so much time with me. They took some more weight bearing x-rays and thoroughly went over the MRI and x-rays. In addition to the Plica, I basically have a jacked up left knee and ankle from years of playing soccer as a left wing/left foot striker. There's nothing I can to correct the damage to the cartilage. The doctor was very glad that I did not opt for the surgery though. There are other things that should be done first. A scope would not really help my knee, there isn't a lot of loose cartilage, just some worn down areas from my knee mal-tracking. They are very worn down and will eventually cause me a lot of discomfort and probably stop me from running. We don't know when that time will come exactly so the doctor and I set about coming up with a plan for the mean time. I am not the typical patient with knee issues in as much as I don't have the typical weak hips, glutes and quads. PT could help some but I already know the ST type exercises that I can do. The most important strategy will be to manage inflammation and discomfort. There is obviously shots (cortisone, lubrication) but I'd like to hold off on that for as long as possible. So, the remaining option is to run very conservatively. In other words find the threshold that allows me to still run but without discomfort. This is hard for me. I love to run and now that I am starting to get some run fitness back, I yearn to go farther/faster. I would run much more if I could and I am frustrated that I will not be able to do that. I do like to bike and swim but if I didn't have this physical limitation, then I would run much more. It is difficult to think that I can never reach my potential because my body just can't do it. That said, no part of triathlon is easy and this is just one more challenge to overcome. For some it is time, motivation or fear to overcome, for me it is this. The other hard part is not knowing for sure how much longer I can run on my knee without needing medical intervention. At least I have found a great team of doctors who are knowledgable, hopeful and capable of helping me.

So, with that said. I have a challenge ahead of me in deciding which races to do next year. I love the HIM and Ironman distance but it looks like those might not be a good idea now, or possibly ever. That's a hard pill to swallow but I am looking forward to finding out exactly what it is that my body can do.

Holiday Decorating

2010-12-04T12:48:00.003-07:00

We were going to wait for my mom to arrive and decorate the house but due to the very bad weather in Scotland, she didn't arrive this week as planned. Instead, she will travel here on the 14th with my dad and they will stay for a month.
We went though the usual search for the decorations, untangle the lights, say a prayer that they work and then set to work. Cameron and I worked indoors on the tree while JT and Sean worked outside. JT managed to drop a hammer onto his face and hit his front tooth, it looks a bit chipped but we'll have to wait and see if it turns black. I told him he might be getting a gangsta gold tooth for christmas!

Our tree is what you might call "loved", "homely" or "well-adorned". It would never be called "classy" or "color coordinated". It contains lots of ornaments, possibly over 100 and at least half of them are home-made. The fun part about decorating the tree is remembering where the ornaments came from, there's the ones that the kids created at preschool and elementary school, the many gifted ornaments I have received in my 9 years of teaching and some other special ones like the first ornament that JT ever gave me 15 years ago.

So, the house is decorated and I have started to shop. I did a lot of online shopping this year. The kids wish lists included everything from a soccer ball to video games to a laptop (sorry Sean, not going to happen). Neither one of my boys have come out and said it but I'm pretty sure that they don't believe in Santa. I know Cam has always been sceptical but I always told him just to believe in the spirit of Christmas. Sean still believes but has a lot of questions this year. I have to admit, I'm not a very good mom when it comes to the cast of fictional characters that we are supposed to lie to our kids about (Santa, tooth fairy, Easter bunny). I don't play them up the way that many parents do. This may be in part to my childhood dislike of these so-called magical characters that somehow wander into your house in the middle of the night.
We are going to the community festival this afternoon, complete with fake snow and a tree lighting. My kids are dying to go to the snow, I am hoping that a couple of hours of getting cold and hit by snowballs in the face will cure them of that, LOL :)

So, onto the holidays. We have JT's birthday next weekend which I think we are going celebrate by getting up at the crack o' dawn and doing a 10 mile trail race. Then we have a bunch of holiday parties that all seem to fall within a few days. I just have to try to remember which party requires the last name of A to bring a dessert, appetizer or main dish. I'm sure I'll get it wrong but there's always way too much food around for anyone to notice.

I want to finish with a link to a great post by one of my favorite triathlon coaches/bloggers, many of you probably read her blog anyways. This post really resonates with me, especially as I look ahead to 2011.
http://elizabethfedofsky.blogspot.com/2010/12/fitness-health.html

Stay Healthy! :-)

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T12:18:00.003-07:00

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I have to admit that I love this holiday. For me, it signifies the start of the holiday season. For many, the holidays are a source of stress. Not for me. I tend not to get caught up in the eating-spending-overcommitting-frenzy.
As a child, the holiday season was a lot of fun. We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but the cold weather in November, along with the first hard frost and possibly snowfalls, meant the holidays were coming. The days get very short in Scotland, sometimes it would be dark when I went to school and already dark when we were dismissed. This time of the year brings back memories of warm fires and comfort foods.
Now I live in Arizona, so there is only a slight change of season (ok, for us wimpy folks, it feels down right cold here just now) so the Thanksgiving holiday is what tells me it's the festive season.
I had a busy week at school, worked the wednesday before Thanskgiving so that meant a lot of last minute rushing around and cooking as we were hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year.
We have spent almost every Thanksgiving in Phoenix since JT and I have been together (16 years!), with the exception of the 2 years he was deployed (I can even remember what I did those times). We had planned on 11 people and 3 dogs coming to dinner, and then an extra one added last minute. That's quite a lot of people for our small house. The day started really early when my sister-in-law and her partner arrived to start cooking their 22 lb Organic Turkey. I was just getting back from an awesome 9 mile trail run when they pulled up. The dogs played in the yard-our Rudy was happy to have friends over- while Chelsea set to work on the turkey. She is a very talented cook. I have cooked a few turkeys in my time, usually the Buterball kind with the standard stuffing and some butter on the outside. Chelsea worked on this turkey for a long time. All sorts of things were rubbed and stuffed into the poor guy, including an orange!
Once the turkey was in, we had many hours to relax and hang out. There was a hilarious moment about half way through when we had to turn the bird over, we didnt want to get my one and only set of oven-mitts dirty so we had to compromise by using ski gloves covered in aluminum foil, LOL. We watched a movie and walked the dogs. Then the rest of the family started to arrive. The turkey got ready an hour ahead of schedule. We transformed our dining room/family room into one big dining room and loaded up the tables with the food. Dinner was a success! We had a short walk after dinner before digging into desserets. I worked hard on those this year- I made a pumpkin pie, pumpkin pecan pie, Cherry pie and an assortment of cookies :-)

It was a fun day but I was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch at 8:30pm! Today we are off to see Harry Potter and do a few errands, not planning to get invloved with the Black Friday madness too much.

Ironman Arizona 2010: Volunteer & Spectator Report

2010-11-23T07:07:00.005-07:00

I think this report will be as long as my actual Ironman race report from last year, LOL.

The weekend kicked off with having Friday off work. It was nice to have time to relax, workout and run some errands.
I had signed up for this race last year after completing my first Ironman. To say I had a rough year is an understatement and by August, it was very clear that I would not be racing. I thought this would be a tough weekend for me, but I was actually OK. I was excited to still be part of the race. I think because I have had a long time to come to terms with not racing, it was easier than if I had been injured at the last minute.
I also had friends coming in to town, so no time to dwell or feel sorry for myself.
On Friday night my friend Brittany, and her friend Ashley arrived from San Diego. I met Brittany at IMAZ last year and we’ve kept in touch. I am so glad we were able to host them for the weekend. Both girls were planning to volunteer and then sign up for IMAZ 2011 on the Monday morning.
On Saturday morning, Brittany and I got up early for a run, a quick 6.2 miles around the neighborhood then we all got ready to head down to the volunteer meeting at Tempe lake. We got our volunteer wrist bands and checked out the expo. I was excited that my friend Jen was also volunteering with us, her husband, Rhett, was racing his first Ironman..Saw my friends Elliot and Chad doing bike drop. We drove out on the bike course to show Ashley and then headed back to our house to do an easy hour ride. We had dinner at our local pizza place then went to bed early to prepare for an early start. The weird thing was, I couldn’t sleep. I think I slept better last year when I was racing, LOL.
We were up and out by 4:30am and at the volunteer site just after 5am. We were volunteering in Gear Bags. Athletes were starting to come in and put things in the bags, we helped them find their number, answered questions and made sure the bags stayed in order. I felt mush more confident answering questions this year because I was more familiar with the set up. I got to see many of my friends and wish them luck before the race.
Then I met athlete #280. And I quickly became part of the “adopt-an-athlete” program. This guy shows up in jeans, a plaid shirt, and arms full of clothing, bags, wetsuit. He looks lost so I start to help him put his helmet in his T-1 bag. He is young with crazy curly hair and what sounds like an Australian accent. He looks at me and says, “Now, what do I do?”. He has no tri clothes on yet so I suggest he goes to the men’s changing tent and ask if he can change in there. He emerges 5 minutes later, arms still full of stuff and asks “What do I do now?”. I help him put his clothes in his morning clothes bag, we go over and check his T-2 bag. Then I ask him if he needs to put anything on his bike? His face lights up, “I guess I should put a water bottle on my bike?” We find one in his T-1 bag and some gels, I tell him to put those on his bike and drop his morning clothes bags off. It is well after 6:30 so I tell him he has got to hustle and get into the wetsuit and over by the water. I take his Special needs bags (which contain a random array of stuff) and tell him I will drop those off for him. He hi-5’s me and is on his way. I am now very invested in athlete 280’s day. Ashley is manning his area of gear bags, right behind my section so I hope we will see him come through.

As am coming back from dropping special needs bags, I realize that many athletes have cut it very close, they are just getting out of transition and still have special needs bags in their hands so me and a few volunteers start running the bags over for the athletes so they can get towards the water. The last set of bags barely make it- I have to climb into the back of the rental trucks to put the bags in their correct boxes.

I make it back to the lake and find my friends so we can watch the swim start. It is, as always, an amazing and emotional sight! We watch for about 10 minutes then back to transition to prep for the arrival of the pros out of the water.
The shift in gear bags so by so quickly, I chose the section 100-200 because I have a couple of friends in that number range. Brittany and 2 others are in front, the numbers under 100 are the Pro numbers. It was so awesome to see the pros up close- Chrissie, Linsey Corbin, Jordan Rapp- this race was stacked with great Pros. The came the age-groupers and we were BUSY! I loved handing out the bags. Local Pro Lewis Elliot blew through and didn’t grab his bag so I chased him to the men’s changing tent but they stopped me at the door, darn! I got to see friends come through T-1 and as the morning went on, the racers came in bigger packs. My athlete 280 came through and we gave him his bag, he went to wards the tent then came back and handed me his wetsuit, LOL, I had to send him back to the tent so they could put his wetsuit in his bag. Oh man, I hope that guy pulls it together for the rest of the day! Soon, the athletes are only trickling in as we get closer to the swim cut off time of 2:20 hours. They are also colder, I walk a couple of guys towards the changing tents to make sure they get a volunteer, some of them don’t look ready to go out on the bike.

Our shift was over by 9:30 and we grabbed some lukewarm coffee and food from the volunteer tent. The we started to arrange the bags back into their places. JT was on his way and once the bags were re-arranged, we walked up to Rio Salado, and found our friends and family just east of the “hot corner”. Now it was time to switch to spectator mode for the rest of the day. We cheered on the bike course and then moved to the run course. The weather was unpredictable, we had a bit of everything- wind, rain, sun, and even hail! We situated our selves to see the runners twice each run lap (they do 3 laps). This was where my friends and family set up last year and I remember how awesome it felt to see them on the course!

As the afternoon went on, my friends and family started to head home so I joined Brittany and Ashley in the bleachers to watch the pros and fast age groupers finish. We made a quick Starbucks run and made it back in time to see my friend Elliot come down the chute. He finished in an amazing 10:26. Ashley and Brittany were also able to get updates all day on their phones so I could tell where my other friends were. Everyone was having a good day!

We left at around 6pm and drove home We watched the rest of the race online. It was an inspiring, fun and tiring day.

Brittany and Ashley left early Monday am to sign up for 2011. They got in. The race sold out in 30 minutes when it went online. I have to admit I was tempted to sign up- the energy from being down at the race makes me excited about racing again. But I didn’t. I am looking forward to racing next year, and of course volunteering at IMAZ.

I didn’t get too many pictures on Sunday but my favorite is a pic I was tagged in on Facebook. Chrissie Wellington smiles the entire time she races, but right in front of us, with about 1000m to the finish, she started to cry. (I’m the one in pink sitting on the wall). The other pictures are of our friends and family.

Congrats to all my friends who finished the race on Sunday. I have such huge admiration for all of you!
And my athlete 280 did finish! So congrats to you and thanks for making me feel useful!

Estrella Kids Tri

2010-11-01T13:27:00.008-07:00

We held our 4th annual kids tri yesterday. What an awesome event! It is a lot of work, especially the last few days when we finalize details, hold packet pick up and get up before dawn to set up. This year I had more time to help out, last year I was in the throws of Ironman training. It was a very successful day. Our event has grown every year. This year 132 kids started and finished the race. We run it as a reverse tri and have 5 seperate age divisions/waves. My boys both participated, and both of them beat their times from last year by over 2 minutes- probably because they have better bikes.
We made the local news today:
http://www.azcentral.com/video/?bctid=655667608001#/News/Triathlons%20and%20kids/40280768001/35150280001/655667608001

In other news, I continue to heal. My stitches never really hurt too badly. I over-did things yesterday at the tri and my ribs were not happy by the end of the day. Some candy and Sangria that we enjoyed with our neighbors really helped.
We Trick or Treated with friends last night and got the kids to bed before 9pm, they were still kind of dragging this morning before school though.
I did my first ride outside since the crash today. It was uneventful, just the way I like it!

Keep smiling!

Relieved!

2010-10-28T05:56:00.010-07:00

Yesterday I had the minor surgery to remove the Melanoma. Don't worry, I am not going to post pictures of that :-) I was in great hands with Dr Huls. She explained everything to me, went over the results of my previous biopsy and went in and removed quite a large area of my upper arm. Then we got the best possible news. The Melanoma had not reached the epidermis and she was able to remove it all with the 5mm margins. I have 18 stitches and will have a nice scar (but scars are cool, right!). My arm is very sore and tight- feels like I got an arm tuck, LOL, maybe I should get the left arm done too!
I got back in 2 weeks to have the stitches removed, then they will remove the carcenoma from my leg. The area should not be so big but again I will have stitches.
I am just so thankful that this all worked out. I tried not to worry but Melanoma is nothing to take lightly and I will for sure continue with my check ups at the dermatologist.

In other news, we got out of the valley last weekend and took the kids up to Sedona and Jerome. It was the perfect day. The weather was warm and sunny, the leaves had changed and we did some hiking and sight seeing.
Enjoy the pictures :-)

Diagnosis: Melanoma

2010-10-22T16:08:00.003-07:00

I have hesitated to write this post because it seems like I have nothing but bad news lately...however here it is: I have a Melanoma. In the midst of dealing with road rash, broken ribs and damaged equipment, I had forgotten that I went for my bi-annual visit to the Dermatologist over fall break. The nurse called me at work last week to report that the 2 moles they had removed for biopsy had come back positive. The one on my leg is a carcenoma and the one on my arm is Melanoma. I could hardly process what she was saying...I have had moles removed before and it has always been nothing. This is not nothing. This is Cancer. Wow!
I know I am at risk. I have fair skin, lots of freckles and red hair. I live in the hottest, sunniest state and I love being outdoors. I take all the precautions I can, wear factor 50 or higher SPF, I wear hats and I avoid the midday sun. It's not enough.
So what next? On wednesday I will go back to have surgery to remove more of the area of skin around the melanoma. From there they will see if they can remove it all or if it has spread to the tissue or lymph nodes. They are concerned because of the proximity to the underarm lymph nodes. I will have a big scar and stitches for 10-12 days, when they take the stitches out, I will have the carcenoma on my leg removed. I will have more stitches. The right side of my body is a mess from the road rash already, so what's another couple of scars? ;-)
I am trying not to freak out (my husband is doing enough of that!) and trying to stay positive. I don't know how long I have had that mole, it was on the back of my arm and I didn't notice it. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to get a skin check by a dermatologist.
Please send me some positive vibes this week. I need them. :-)

The Aftermath

2010-10-21T06:14:00.004-07:00

A quick update...the body is not healing as fast as I'd like. The road rash is getting better. I had so much of it that I was able to experiment with different treatments. So far, A&D lotion seems to work the best. The only areas still giving me problms are my elbow and shoulder, because moving those joints is painful and re-opens the wounds, and the deep wound above my hip bone where my handle bar dug into me.
I did discover that I had broken my ribs, an x-ray confirmed that the 6th and 7th rib are fractured. Ouch! I have never had pain like that! The first few days it hurt to breath but I was sore all over and not moving around much, it is important not to do anything to get out of breath, sneezing brings me to my knees and my core muscles will be getting a nice long rest! I quickly figured out that I could not lay on my back because it feels like someone is sitting on my chest, followed by intermittent sharp pains. This has left me with exactly one sleeping position. Needless to say I have not slept well in a week :-(

So, I am a sorry mess just now. Misery loves company right? My husband had to go and wreck on his bike too. He came out of it OK, but his bike frame and helmet are cracked, he had a little road rash and a sore shoulder. We promised our kids we would not ride for a while.

Life goes on though and we are enjoying some time off as "normal" people. Drinking coffee in our PJs instead of training in the early morning, walking the dog and hanging out with friends. Our tri group has brought us dinner every night this week.
Work has been challenging for both of us but we had to suck it up and go. I am noticing slight improvements everyday, just got to be patient and let the ribs heal.

Train safely! :-)

CRASH!

2010-10-15T05:23:00.004-07:00

Warning: I put the pictures at the bottom, don't go there unless you want to see gross road rash.

I had my first bike crash of the year yesterday. I haven't even fallen over clipped in so far this year. Some might say that the more you ride the more likely you are to crash. Well, I have been riding a lot this summer.
The ironic thing is that I almost didn't ride yesterday. I had a deep tissue massage on Wednesday night that left me pretty sore. However I talked myself into the pre-dawn ride to shake the body out. I was supposed to meet friends to do a circuit training class at Lifetime Fitness later in the morning.
I was about 20 minutes into my ride when I noticed that my rear blinky light kept going out, I reached back to fiddle with it and my front wheel clipped the curbing at the side of the road. My bike and I went flying into the gravel and bushes at the side of the road, I slid about 10 feet until my face hit a small tree, and there I stopped. I got unclipped and assessed the damage (to myself and the bike). My shorts were shredded and there was a lot of blood all down my right side. My bike looked OK, the chain was off and the right brake was twisted. It was dark and I was crying, the scrapes hurt but so did my knee and elbow on the left side. I thought about calling JT but I was 2 miles from home, and decided to get back on the bike and ride it in. A cyclist was coming from behind and I really didnt want to talk to anyone, so I pedalled as well as I could so he wouldn't catch me. I must have looked a sight- dirt, blood, tears- luckily it was still dark. I got home and JT helped me into the shower, the road rash was way worse than I had expected and anyone who has had it, knows how painful it feels when the water hits it!
I put some Aquafor and gauze over the worst of the rash but it was literally all the way down my right side from shoulder to ankle, the worst being on my elbow and hip. JT went to work and I started to fel worse, the pain from the road rash was unbearable and the gauze was getting stuck to it. My elbow and knee were becoming very swollen. I decided to go to Urgent care, I needed to get stuff to put on the wounds and I also wanted them to check my elbow.
I got to Urgent care and checked in, as reason for my visit, I put : Bike crash. When I saw the doctor, our conversation went like this:
Dr:"So you were in a motorcycle accident?"
Me:"No, I fell off my bike"
Dr:"Was it a motorized bike?"
Me:"No, my road bike"
Dr:"Seriously? I've treated motorcyclists with less road rash! How did you manage to be going fast enough to do all this damage?"
Me:"I was only going about 20mph"

I got some good stuff for the wounds, and they started taking X-rays. About half way through, their X-ray machine broke so I had to go to another facility for the elbow x-ray. I dont have the results yet but I dont think it is broken, there's just a few specific movements that are very painful. My knee hurts right where the quad inserts into the knee, there some scrapes and bruising there. I am thinking that my right side took all the road rash and my left elbow and knee probably hit the bars of my bike when I went down.

We finished off the morning by going to In and Out Burger (a reward for my kids) where I ran into my friend and trainign partner One of the girls I was going to meet for the Lifetime fitness class) and she couldnt believe the road rash! I was with her last year when she had a dramatic car Vs cyclist crash on one of our rides and she fractured her wrist. I probabaly grossed out everyone in the restaurant, LOL, but the drive through wait was too long!

Our next stop was Wal-mart, luckily I had thrown a jacket in the car, I was not going into Wal-mart with open wounds! We got my prescription for the cream and some first aid stuff. The kids got some Halloween decorations for our yard and Sean got new glasses. I found that keeping busy keeps my mind off the pain.

Taking care of the road rash is going to be a big job, I have to clean it and dress it twice a day. There is so much of it that I am only to cover the really deep parts. I took a few pictures for my mom. I tried to down play the accident but she still freaks out! She already thinks I need a safer hobby. And I'm starting to think she is right!

I headed off to bed last night with the expectation that I wouldnt get much sleep. I took a couple Tylenol PM and JT helped wedge me onto my left side. It's not the way I like to sleep but I was actually able to sleep OK at first, started to wake up at 2am and was very uncomfortable after that. The worst parts are on my arms, when I bend them, the scabs seperate (told you this was a gross post) and it feels really tight and sore.
I hope to get teh results fo the x-rays today. Luckily I am still on Fall Break until Monday. Hopefully the weather will be cooler next week as I will be wearing long sleeves and pants to work!
Here's the pics, I will say that fresh road rash actually looks better than scabby healing road rash. So my next post might be even more gross, LOL.

Catching up

2010-10-10T16:57:00.004-07:00

I have to admit that I enjoy reading bogs much more than posting, LOL. I haven't had any spare time lately so I am looking forward to catching up on the blog world this coming week of Fall Break (yipee).

Our family is doing great. Cam and Sean are exceling at their fall sports (soccer for Sean, Flag football for Cam). Cam also tried out for the cross-country team at school. He has been practising. Today I ran with him after my ride (on tired legs) but I had a hard time keeping up.

JT has a new position at work. This was a tough decision for us-change is always scary- but I am confident it is the right one. He has come home from work a lot happier. He'd much rather work on machinery all day than do paperwork and deal with personnel issues. I am happy that he is doing something he enjoys, life is too shirt to be unhappy for 40+ hours per week.

I did my first bike race last weekend. The Tour De Scottsdale. Anything that starts with "Tour De" sounds kinda fancy and intimidating. I emailed the RD and made sure that Tri bikes were allowed (I dont own a road bike) and they said yes, but not to ride in aero. 2010 has not been a great year for me and racing but I really wanted to salvage a couple of races before this year ends. I've been biking a lot and even though I didnt really train for this event, I figured this is a good time to try out a cycling event. I did feel like a complete newbie with my tri bike, but soon I was in the corral with all the other cyclists and they were very friendly. The fact that my tri group is sponsored by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (local rock band) made for some interesting conversation (their logo is on my race kit). Soon we were off and I was releived to make it out of the corrals without falling over. The course was beautiful, hilly and challenging. I had envisioned myself drafting behind a big pack but that rarely happened. I think I made some mistakes that made me work harder than I needed to but overall I was very happy with the ride. I didn't know the course or where the aid stations were, so it was a bit of an adventure. I was surprised to finsih 4th female overall and just missed the 3 hour mark (got 3:00:53 for 70 miles = 23 mph average). I'm looking forward to doing more bike races and hopefully will be able to borrow or buy a road bike soon.

I've been back out running, just short and slow. The plan is to slowly adapt back to running. I did have an infected blister on my heel that set me back a week but every run is a blessing, especially as the weather is finally cooling down. I had 2 great group rides this weekend that took me all over the west valley with some good friends. Life is good.

I have this week off with my boys. We have the usual round of doctor and dentist check-ups but will be sure to fit in plenty fun and relaxation.

Fun Weekend

2010-09-19T15:53:00.004-07:00

It came!!!! Halo Reach!!!!
For my mom: It's a video Game for the kid's Xbox.
The boys have been counting down the days since it's release date was announced, then delayed again and again. Cam had a countdown clock on his Ipod. It came this week and the boys were great. They got ahead ont heir homework, did everything they were asked (the first time) and were patient. The reward was that they got to play it as much as they wanted this weekend. We still fit in some family fun time but I have to admit that Halo Reach was the topic of conversation at just about any given moment.

I had been sick all week. The boys had a bad cold last weekend and shared it with me, either that or I picked it up from one of the many sick kids at school. I trudged on, not feeling too bad until wednesday when I got a fever. Went to work on thursday but really wanted to curl up in a ball onthe floor. I left as soon as I could after work. I called in sick on friday and spent a relaxing day with JT. I did get in a short run and Mountain bike ride but those were therapeutic! ;-)

We all got up early on saturday and drove down to Laveen for a local 5k. I had thought about running it just for laughs- to see how slow I am these days (I set a 5k PR in February) but I was still so sick, I couldnt even think about breathing hard. So I watched JT race, along with our friend Tim. There was a fire burning at a Hay farm close by and it made for poor air quality, I was worried about JT's asthma. He did great though, placing 7th overall in 18:40 up against some fast HS x-country kids. The course was more x-country than road race as it went over a golf course. Tim came in 3rd.
We went out for a nice family breakfast afterwards. I shot down Waffle House and we ended up at a slightly clasier joint- Ihop, LOL. Then we stopped by a nursery and got some plants for our backyard (although in hindsight, we should have waited until it cooled down a bit!). The rest of the day was spent int he yard, pool and of course playing Halo Reach!

I was up super early (even for me) on Sunday to head into Phoenix to ride at South Mountain. My friend, Elliot, had the idea for an Epic Ride. He is a crazy Ironman training freak who likes to torture himself. He decided to ride up South Mtn to the TV towers 9 times (or 100 miles). He invited his friends to join him, and many of us were crazy enough to go! 4 of us set off from the bottom in the dark just after 5am. I did 3 climbs then some others had joined in the fun and I went out on the San Juan loop, one more time up the to the towers and then another loop on San Juan. It was great because I had company the entire time and although it was hard work, it was nice to ride in a different part of town. My legs felt great but my breathing wasn't! I still have lots of crap in my lungs and nose! Gross! I quit after 60 miles, and almost 7000 feet of climbing.
The rest of sunday was spent getting stuff ready for another busy week at school. I always mean to keep track of all the prepping hours that I never get paid for but maybe it's a good thing- I'd end up mad! :-)

Up and Running!

2010-09-10T16:59:00.003-07:00

It's been 3 weeks since I started running again. I have to admit that I was very nervous those first few runs. My broken toes didn't bother me, my knee has been fine, and surprisingly, I havent lost all my run fitness! But I am still cautious and have been slowly building back into running. 8 miles total the first week, 10 miles the 2nd week and hopefully 15 miles by the end of this week. I plan on sticking right around 15-18 miles per week for a while so my body gets used to running and I can hopefully keep the knee happy and hold off on surgery.

It's amazing how much running boosts my mood. I wake up very happy to get out and run. The mornings have been a little bit cooler lately too. I have loved my summer on the bike but was getting a bit bored. I love the simplicity of running and even going out for 30 minutes gives me the endorphins I need. My work life has been pretty stressful and we are only one month into the school year, I hope I can continue to run off the stress!

I am almost ready to start setting some goals and commit to training for some races. I am thinking about Tour De Scottsdale and hopefully a tri of some sort before the end of the year. JT is doing a 5k in Laveen next week and I might jump in too. It will be depressing to see a slow time but also give me a good idea of where I am in terms of fitness.

We had a fun Labor day weekend with family. This weekend will be very low key as JT is working. The boys have started Football and soccer practices, and we are dog sitting for a friend. It's always fun to have Sam the black lab around to play with, she will keep our Rudy dog busy for sure!

This week's picture is of JT going up Death Climb in Buckeye (White Tanks). He's been enjoying getting out on the bike with his friend on his days off.

New running shoes make me very excited!...Hope I am worthy! :-)

Quick Update

2010-09-05T07:55:00.008-07:00

I started writing about how busy I have been....but really, I am sure we are all busy, so I'll keep the complaining and excuses to myself :-)

I cant believe it is September. Time is flying by. The boys and I started school last month. I have a challenging schedule this year at 2 different schools. I have around 40 students total.

Some highlights of the past month:
-I started running again 2 weeks ago. I am up to 4 miles for my "long" run.
-The charter school that I work at is awesome, a really fun team to work with and the curriculum is probably the best I have ever seen for pre-k/Kinder.
-My kids had their first report card and teacher conferences, so proud of them.
-Fall sports are starting, kiddo #1 is playing Flag football, kiddo #2 is doing soccer.
-We found a huge toad in our pool, we rescued him and he hopped away.
-We went to the Green Day concert- by far the best show I have ever been to. Cam sat with his friend in the box seats while JT, Sean and I hung out in the grass.
- I went Vegan for 2 weeks and felt awesome (I have been a vegetarian most of my life). Will be sure to try to stay mostly vegan from now on.
-I got stung again yesterday on my bike ride, this time on the arm and it is very painful. I have one huge swollen bicep!

So now it is Labor day weekend. We have a bit of a project going in the back yard- we had an old basketball hoop and the base was broken so JT decided to cut it and concrete it into the ground for a pool basketball hoop :-)

Really?????

2010-08-14T17:05:00.003-07:00

That is what I had to ask myself this week a few times.

So you know about my run of bad luck this summer with injuries- tendonitis, stress fracture, pinched nerve, broken toe...and now, drum roll, I am allergic to Bees. Specifically the bees that sting me.

I found out this interesting fact last sunday on our group ride. We were about 2 hours into our 3 hour ride and a bee flew up under my sunglasses. I didn't freak out even tho' it was right on my eye, freaking out while riding 20mph in a group is never a good idea. I just removed the glasses and the bee flew out, right up under my helmet. Now I can feel it on my brow, still trying not to freak out, I shook my head and the bee then landed down on my tummy - and stung me! I didnt exactly blame it, we had just had quite the fight. We were less than a mile from our water stop so I told everyone to keep riding, when we got to the park, I pulled the stinger out and didnt think much more of it. By the time I got home from the ride I was hot and the sting was irritated, but I didnt have time to dwell as I had church and then a movie with the family to get to. By night time it had a big red circle around it and was itchy, JT said it was because I didnt pull the stinger out right away and because my HR would have been high while riding, it spread the poison. I should add that my husband is a mechanic and has no idea about bees, or any other medical issues but he does love to make up theories! About midnight I woke to the terible itching, and it just got worse from there. I had meetings the next day so I took a load of Benadryl and downed coffee after coffee, by lunch my stomach was so swollen that I looked about 6 months pregnant. I showed my tummy to my boss and she freaked! Sent me to Urgent care where they told me I had an Allergic reaction- ya think! Gave me a strong anti-histamine (which I chased down with some more coffee). The irritation peaked at about day 3 then started to get better, just in time for me to GET STUNG AGAIN!!!! This time right down the shirt while riding. Imagine my horror as I watched one boob swell up over the next 2 days, luckily not as bad as the tummy reaction because I was already on the meds! But are you kidding me? It's like 110 degrees here every day and I am itching like crazy. Not cool!
Now I have an abnormal fear of bees (or anything that flies or buzzes). JT has always been the fraidy cat when it came to bees (sorry hon, selling you out). But I told him he cant be afraid anymore, he is going to have to be my protector.

In amoungst the madness, I went back to work. I love the start of a new school year. It's going to be great. Ironically...the name of my classroom is the Busy Bees. I tell ya, if I had enough funds to redecorate last week, I would have!

Training wise, still no running. I broke into a jog while walking the dog and my toes were achey afterwards, so it's more patience. I am dying to run again! I counted...it's been 17 weeks :-( On a bright note, I am seeing improvements on the bike and in the pool.

The non knee surgery!

2010-08-05T08:01:00.005-07:00

The knee surgery was a no-go. They had to bump me, and next week would be too late, just wouldn't work with the schedule. So, I have a few options while I wait it out. I could have the surgery over fall break (october), or over Christmas break (and my mom will be here!) or if it doesn't hurt I could postpone it until next summer...or longer. One thing for sure, I have had plenty of practice being patient lately, so none of the scenarios bother me.
Just to add insult to injury (pun intended!) I managed to break my toe on sunday night. That's right, I finally get out of the big uncomfortable boot and manage to whack my toes on the computer bench. X-rays at the podiatrist office confirmed that I broke a bone between the pinky and 2nd toe, left foot of course! They are "buddy taped" together and I have an ungly sandal-shoe thing to wear for a couple of weeks.
The good news, the light at the end of the tunnel, is that I got a follow up MRI on my ankle and the SFX is healed! This would be even better news if I was actually able to go out and run to celebrate. That will have to wait a few weeks, LOL.

Yesterday was the first day of school for my kids- 3rd and 6th grade. Wow! They both love their teachers and have their best friends int heir classes. I think it's going to be a great school year!

Summer round up

2010-07-31T06:10:00.011-07:00

OK, so summer is most definitely not over here, the monsoon storms are just arriving which brings humidity added to the heat. This is my 12th summer in Arizona and every year gets easier. The first couple of summers wore us out and sent us heading back to San Diego for 18 months. However, I think we have adapted very well to the desert and the heat- not too bad for a red headed, freckle skin girl from Scotland. Summer seemed to come later this year, so maybe it will last longer? but summer vacation does not! School goes back next week! Early, I think, compared to the rest of the country: On the East coast, summer started and ended with the 2 big tourist holidays: Memorial Day and Labor Day. It has been a great summer vacation, we still hope to get another small trip in, maybe up to Flagstaff or somewhere cool.

The back to school shopping is complete, almost $100 in school supplies, add to that clothes, shoes etc and it was a pretty expensive shopping week. The back to school clothes shopping was insanely easy, one store for clothes and one store for shoes. My mother in law met up with us for this event. She was totally shocked, her daughter (my sister-in-law) was an incredibly picky shopper. We were done in 45 minutes! And had plenty time for coffee and chatting.
I go back to work the week after my own boys. I am very excited about the new school year, I have a pre-K class this year and get to work with my wonderful assistant teacher again :-) My work days will be a bit longer and I am also going to be teaching part-time at a charter school. It will be busy around here.

One bad thing about this summer is that I have been injured in some way or another since before school let out. It started with what I thought was a sprained ankle/tendonitis, it took almost 2 momths to get an MRI, when I did , it showed a stress fracture on my heel area. I wore the Boot for a few weeks as a precaution. I also have a pinched/entrapped nerve on my foot (possibly from the inflammation), and my knee has been achey- all on the left side. I was in rough shape so I took the summer off. I have done some swimming and biking but nothing intense. This is possibly the longest period I have gone without running in over 3 years. The MRI also showed the issue with my knee, I have had this issue for years (since way before I ever got into triathlon) and seeing as I was already having tests, going to Physical Therapy and seeing an Ortho, I think it is time to take care of it. I have a Symptomatic Plica in my knee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plica_syndrome).
Lucky me! I guess it showed up really clearly on the MRI. I also have some loose cartilage (a result of playing soccer for many years) that needs to be scoped out. I weighed up the pros and cons and got a 2nd and 3rd opinion, then decided to do the arthroscopic surgery next week. I am very nervous but I know it's the right time, this is something I can maybe manage with very conservative treatment (ice, rest, NSAIDS) but it won't go away completely until I have surgery. We have met all our insurance deductibles for the year, I already chubby and out of shape, I have no plans to race againt his year and I can be off crutches before I have to start teaching. So, let's do this!
I have never felt like this before. My body is just not ready to run. I think the nerve entrapment in my foot is one of the main issues, it makes everything else feel "off". The worst part of being injured is that I don't get to spend as much time with my wonderful tri friends. I have missed training with the group, but as these guys are my friends, we have still been getting together for movies, dnner etc. I just miss those really grueling summer track sessions! Last year I was starting Ironman training around this time, wekend after weekend of long bike rides and runs. This summer and fall are different, it has been wierd to not have something that big to focus on but it has let me focus on other things and become more balanced. I have been doing Triathlon for 3.5 years and havent really had any down time, I went from sprints to longer races pretty quickly, especially as I didnt come from a background in any of the 3 sports. I have learned a ton about my body, limitations and expectations during this time. I have decided to take the rest of the year off and not even think about racing until next year (maybe even longer?). I have lots of other things that I want to focus on in the mean time, getting healthy is a priority and also just being there for my family, we are heading into a challenging year around here. It really hit me how much my kids need me, my oldest is going into middle school next week!
In my last post I dogged out our old minivan, well, unfortunately, the van didnt make it through another summer. The transmission and A/C started to go and the quote to fix it was about twice what the van was worth. So, we had to get a new car, we got a little Mazda 3, very cute (but where am I going to play my old cassette tapes?). And good thing it is an automatic as I'm going to be gimpy for a little while. It's all good!

Not much going on here....

2010-07-12T12:13:00.004-07:00

Thanks for checking in on me. It's just not the same when I can't be my usual active self. I am finding other things to do though, the kids are keeping me busy!

Another wonderful side effect of wearing the boot, is that I can't drive my Toyota (stick shift) unless I take the boot on and off which is a hassle. So, I got to switch cars with JT. Our second car is a circa 1999 Dodge Cravan (I know, you are all jealous) but wait, it gets better. It was the low cost model way back then and it has 120,000 miles on it, that car has been there, done that and has the stains and peeling paint to prove it. Some of the wonderful features of this car? Windows that you roll down (gasp!), a Tape player (yes, that is Green Day's Dookie that I'm listening to)and a loud humming noise over 60mph (JT's advice is to turn up the radio so you can't hear it). The wing mirror was broken about a year ago and is still duct-taped. And I fear that there is duct-tape on other parts of the car holding it together too.
Aren't you all jealous of my life right now? LOL.

Hopefully next time I update I will have some good foot news. I'm plugging away in the water and at PT. Just trying to be patient! :-)

The Boot

2010-07-09T09:45:00.008-07:00

Isn't it awesome? I am thinking of be-dazzling it!
Let me tell you how fun it is to wear a knee high boot in AZ in summer! It's flip flop weather here and I am in the boot and on my other foot is my running shoe with an extra insole to try and balance me out.
The podiatrist's suggestion of the boot was met with resistance and I walked out of his office on Tuesday without the boot and I promised him I would be conservative and careful. On wednesday I took the kids and their friends to the Science Center, by the end of the day, my foot was aching and when I came home, I sat on the couch defeated (or de-feeted, hah ha).
I called him on thursday and went and picked up the boot.
So what does this mean for me and triathlon this year?
Since I first hurt my foot/ankle on May 2nd, I have held onto hope. I hoped I could still race the spring Tris (didn't happen), hoped I could get back to running this summer (didn't happen), hoped I could at least start the 20 week IM training schedule (didn't happen). Here I was hoping that maybe I could find a 16 week or even a 12 week training plan. I thik it's time to stop hoping and time to get realistic. My foot and ankle are hurt, there is a stress fracture, a tendon issue and a trapped nerve. Not a good combination. There's the potential to do a lot more harm than good if I don't heal these up completely. I had a good long chat with an old and wise friend. He said that my body is telling me to stop right now and if I continue to ignore it, I could have long term problems. I have had injuries before but have always worked through them, the goal always being to return to training and racing as soon as possible, I haven't always chosen the smartest or most effective way to heal, I've always chosen the quickest and sometimes that is just like putting on a band-aid. It's a temporary fix.
It's looking like 2010 is not a great year for racing but I hope it is a year that I get stronger and smarter. This might just be a year for spectating and cheering on those who have always been there for me in the past.
For now it's time to embrace some Yoga, water running and lots of swimming! And spend lots of time with my kiddos- we all head back to school in 3 weeks. Yikes! Where did this summer break go?

4th July Fireworks, ghetto style in the back of the car, beside the street :-)

Beach Vacation

2010-07-01T19:22:00.016-07:00

It was time for the annual beach camping trip. This year we went a bit earlier. We usually go in July but the dates worked out better for work etc. Each year I can't imagine that we could have a better time, but somehow we do and this year was no exception. This was our 8th year going to San Clemente. We camp at the same campground each year. My kids and JT love to camp. I would rather stay in a hotel but the fact that they get such a kick out of it is enough to make me enjoy it too.
We loaded up the Toyota until there was literally no room for anything else and headed west. About 100 miles out of Phoenix, a huge slab of something hit our windshield and created a huge crack, luckily the window held up but it did give us all a scare. The rest of the drive was uneventful, just a bit slow because our little car was so loaded down.
We arrived around lunchtime and set up camp. The guys of course immediately started a fire. What is it with boys and fire? It must be the caveman insinct :-) After that we headed down to the beach, it was 70 degrees and sunny (why, oh why did we move from SoCal?) and the waves were good. The boys got right into the water for a couple of hours then we headed back to camp and cooked up some dinner.
Over the next few days we had a lot of fun, time spent at the beach, some surfing (the waves were huge the 2nd day!), boogie boarding, and hunting for hermit crabs etc in the tide pools. There were a couple of days when the weather wasn't so good, the "June Gloom" mist never lifted and it drizzled rain. So, we headed down to San Diego one day to do the museums at Balboa (Railroad museum and Museum of Man). We also visited the Birch Aquarium at UCSD, we used to take Cam there when he was little, I just love that place!
Some other highlights and notes:
The invasion of the squirrels, we came back from a day at the beach to find that the squirrels had chewed a hole in our tent and were in the midst of eating our Frosted Flakes and Bagels when we showed up.
There was a huge Rattlesnake living in the bushes right by our tent, it definitely made me nervous. I've lived in AZ for 10 years but the 2 biggest Rattlesnakes I have seen were not in AZ, one in the Blue Ridge mountains of VA and this one living on the other side of my tent canvas. Yikes!
We learned how hard it is to cook steak over a camp fire.
I found out that that no matter how many days we camp, the kids will never get tired of toasting marshmallows.
I realize that after 2 days of tent camping I am jealous of the people in the pop-up trailers, by day 4 I am hoping that the campers in the RVs will ask me to move in with them. By day 5 I am ready for a real shower, a meal that doesnt taste like camp fire and a bed that is wider than 3 feet!
I was pleasantly surprised that my kids can be away from their friends, TV, games and electronic products for a week and never miss them.
I love my family even more than ever, we spent a week with just each other in some very confined spaces but we laughed, talked and got along great!

As for training, there hasn't been much of it at all. I'm trying to look at this as my "off-season" and it has been in many ways: I haven't ran in over 2 weeks, my last consistent week of training that included running was April 25th and I have gained almost 10lbs- sounds like an off season to me! LOL.
It has been wierd to take such a physical and mental break from the sport. I have been doing triathlon for 3 years, the last 2 of that was pretty serious. I had a coach and training partners, most of my time away from family and work was spent training. I have met some really wonderful people through this sport and watched my husband (who swore he would never wear spandex) get into it, along with my kids. Triathlon is a big part of our social life. It has felt strange but also refreshing to take a step back from it all.
I'm probably about 9 weeks away from the initial ankle injury, had I taken care of the stress fracture (in other words, if I had known about it), I think I would back out running. Instead, I need to be extra cautious so I don't make things worse. The pinched nerve on my foot is still bugging me, I don't feel like I should be pushing it on the bike either until that sorts itself out (which apparently can take a long time). The top of my foot is still numb and tingling. So, I have no immediate plans to start training. I'm just going to have to go with how my body feels. And I am actually OK with that.
Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th!

Didn't see that coming!

2010-06-23T19:29:00.003-07:00

I have spent the week at doctor's offices- or at least it feels that way. My insurance finally said OK to getting the tests on my ankle (it's only been 7.5 weeks!).
I was almost at the point of just saying "forget it" because I was still having some problems. The ankle/lower left leg has just felt weak and I have this tingling and numbness sensation down my outer leg and across my foot. When it first started, I thought it was from the ice and Astym at Physical Therapy but I havent done that for weeks and it is still there.
I was actually browsing Barnes & Noble the other day for ideas for a new hobby seeing as my ankle doesnt seem to want to get better and I couldn't see running any time soon. I didnt find anything except for a great book about Scotland that just made me homesick.

Anyways, just before I gave up, I decided to have the tests done. Monday was doctor day! First was a visit to my podiatrist, he referred me to the Ortho who said I needed an MRI (ya think?) and a nerve test (possible impinged nerve causing the tingling).
First up was the MRI, had a nice nap. Then off to the nerve test- ouch! Very wierd test that had me spazzing my legs all over the place. It felt like getting your funny bone hit over and over. Then came the needles to check the muscles. Fun!
Stopped at the chiro ( a Tri friend) for a quick adjustment (incase he could help witht he trapped nerve) and then finally made it home for dinner. It had been a long day of waiting rooms and doctors but I did get all caught up on my celebrity gossip in the magazines!

Today I went back to the Ortho for the test results. The nerve test came back good, no significant difference between the left and right (I guess it's good but it also doesn't help explain the tingling). The MRI was the surprise. It showed this (in medical terms):
"There is evidence of stress fracture involving the calcaneus with a stress fracture line from the superior cortex to the mid portion of the calcaneus...associated bone marrow edema is present....There is some bone marrow edema involving the navicular bone..this could be related to some minor stress reaction changes".

Stress Fractures??? Didnt expect that. Explains the pain around my ankle and how I couldnt put my weight on it, or even run a couple of steps in the first week or so. Also explains why I thought I had hurt my achilles the week before the ankle started hurting.
Now I am almost 8 weeks from the original ankle pain, I am far along in the healing time but I also haven't been very careful. I have ran a bit, and am always on my feet. I probably didnt help it heal, I should have been wearing a boot.
My doctor asked if I had increased my running leading up to the injury. I said I had not, but I would like to start running again. I mentioned Ironman and got the "if you are going to do crazy stuff like that, then expect to get hurt" lecture.
So now I have an answer to the ankle weakness/pain but not an answer regarding the tingling/numbness. The ortho referred me back to the Podiatrist for that. Ugh!
I am off on vacation later this week. So looking forward to our week at the beach. We go every year to the same campground in South Orange county. I plan to do some walking, some surfing and lots of chillin'. I'll see how the ankle does and see if I need to do any follow up when I get back. I am all doctor'd out this week :-)

My running shoes are sad....

2010-06-19T14:19:00.007-07:00

Here they are in my closet, collecting dust instead of miles :-(
It's been a while since I updated. Summer break is going well, haven't been doing a whole lot of anything (a summer on a budget!) but we are finding fun things to do. Swim team practice a few mornings a week, swimming in our pool and the community waterpark, playing board games, Rock Band and catching up with friends.
My ankle is still injured, it's been very frustrating as we are not 100% sure what is wrong with it. I keep getting numbness/tingling down the tendon into the ankle and my foot feels weak. There's a possibility of a trapped nerve. I go back to the doctor on monday. Needless to say, training has not been going well, or at all really. I havent run in a while, and the few times that I did, it was slow and uncomfortable.
A few friends have asked why I haven't been more proactive with the training and injury? Some ask politely, some are more blunt, LOL. Some remind me that I have an Ironman this year. Shouldn't I be water running or something? The truth is that I don't really know the answer to that question. Really, I should be swimming more, aqua jogging and working my butt off on strength training. But I am not. I just don't have the desire right now.
In my mind I think I have written off Ironman this year and I am Ok with this.
As an explanation, it's not just the injury, it's other life stuff too. Last year I was blessed with a flexible schedule, an understanding family and a healthy body during Ironman training. This year is going to be different. JT's work schedule is crazy, he works every other weekend (it is hard to train for an Ironman when you can only do long workouts twice per month). I have accepted a new job. In addition to teaching my preschool class (with a new curriculum), I will be working at a charter school. So, I have 2 whole new curriculums to learn at 2 different schools. My kids are getting older and my son wants to play Club Soccer which will take up more of our time.
In other words, I have an arm length of excuses why it will be hard to train for Ironman. In reality, they are only excuses, I know I could do it if I really wanted to.
The fact that I am sitting working on the computer and playing in the pool with my kids instead of aqua-jogging or riding for 4 hours, tells me that my mind isn't into it. Maybe it will change. I still have time. If my body is healed by August, I am sure that I could pull out a few months of solid training and complete the Ironman. I did it last year, and I enjoyed it, part of me doesn't feel the need to do it again so soon. The disadvantage of signing up for one of these a year in advance is that life happens, things change. It's a good lesson. I already promised myself and JT that I wouldnt pre-register for anything next year.

As for this summer. I will be working from home, getting things ready for the new school year. Next week we head to SoCal for a fun beach camping trip. We have been going to this campground every summer for 10 years and each year is just more fun. Can't wait to get into the Pacific, sleep under the stars and eat at Senor Pedros!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. Dad: I love you, miss you and can't wait to see you in a few months!

Deuces Wild Tri Festival

2010-06-09T06:55:00.017-07:00

Disclaimer…This was only an Aqua-Bike race but it was an entire weekend of triathlon for my family, so this race report will be long.
This hasn’t been the best month for me- I sprained my ankle on May 1st and re-injured a tendon (partial tear). I had to sit out SheRox and do a relay at Tempe International- not the spring I was hoping for. The tendon is very slow healing so although I have been able to bike and swim, I have not been able to train hard or run much, I wasn’t even sure I would race this weekend, but my kids and hubby were racing, so it was going to be a great Tri vacation no matter what! However, life just threw us more lemons last week, we had to have one of our dogs put to sleep and my youngest son dislocated his elbow (again!) on Memorial day. By the time we headed out of town on Thursday, we were ready for a vacation! We drove to Show Low with our car completely loaded up- 3 bikes, 4 people, one dog and a whole lot of stuff in and on our little Toyota Matrix. It was a nice drive up and we arrived just after noon. We had rented a nice little 2 bedroom cabin about a mile from the race site. We unpacked then went to the lake for a little pre- swim. I was totally prepared for cold water with neoprene cap and booties, but the water was great!
After a quick swim and hike, we went back to the cabin to eat and relax.

Friday: We went to Pinetop to visit JT’s Aunt and uncle for brunch, we left the boys with them to go fishing while JT did the Xterra pre-ride and we did packet pick up. By the afternoon, I knew I wanted to race- the location was beautiful, but I was still undecided if I wanted to do the OLY or the aqua-bike. I finally decided on the aqua-bike and registered. We met up with our friends from the valley for a bit then went and picked up the kids (they caught 8 trout). We met Elliot for dinner and then hit the hay.

Saturday: Elliot came over at 5:15 and we all rode over to the race site. Set up transition and chatted with friends. I wasn’t nervous at all. I felt really lame for doing the aqua-bike, it felt like a group ride day and not a race. Oh well. Got in the wetsuit and ready to go.
Swim: Time 36:20, 2100 yds.
This was a good swim for me. I felt comfortable the entire time, the water temp was mid-60s, and I didn’t really notice the altitude. Got out feeling good for the bike. Loved the wetsuit strippers!
T-1: Uneventful, bit of a run up from the lake. Got caught up behind some guys in the exit chute, it was on a hill and people were having a hard time getting going. Finally got into my shoes at the top of the hill.
Bike: Official time 2:47:17 (actual moving time 2:30:55)
This is where it got interesting. I started out strong, getting my lungs used to the (lack of) air. Mile 8 I got a front flat from a piece of metal, I quickly changed it. Mile 11, rear flat as I am coming down a hill! Really???? I get the wheel off, check the tire- another small piece of metal. I change the tube, go to use the co2 and as I screw it in, it blows out before I can get it onto the tube. Grrrrr. I only carry 2 tubes and 2 Co2. Now I am out. I start calling to the other riders for Co2 but I am at the bottom of a hill so everyone is going 25 mph or more. I finally give up after 10 minutes and am getting ready to put my wheel on and walk when a bike angel comes. Thank you to Shane from Tri Scottsdale. Unfortunately his day was over due to a stomach flu, and he was on his way back. He gave me Co2 and helps me put the wheel on. If it wasn’t for him, my day would have been over. If anyone knows him, please tell him thank you! I had stopped my Garmin so I knew I lost about 15 minutes to that flat, plus the other one. I am pretty much out of the race at that point. But it’s fun to play catch up and the other riders are very encouraging because, they saw me on the side the road. The bike course is beautiful and challenging, I don't really enjoy it because I am nervous. I am out there with no air or tubes (and I ride 650’s). I stopped twice to check my tires, the front is low on air and the roads are rough. Finally when we get on the 260 and the roads are really bad, I decide to just forget about the tires and go for it. I am now among cars and people so if my day is over, so be it. I push hard on the final hills and pass lots of people. I wish I had a sign on my back that says “Only doing Aqua-Bike”. The people I am passing, still have to run and it’s getting hot! I see a lot of people with flats. Some guys are riding race wheels on their rims. I get into Show Low and head back into the Lake area, I see my family and make the right turn to the finish, dismount and runt he bike in. I am told I am 4th overall and 2nd female. Wow! I must have made up some time. Later when the results are posted I realize that I spent 17 mins and 45 seconds on the side of the road due to the 2 flats. The female that beat me was only 8 mins ahead. Darn!
Overall time 3:25:42

Post Race:
Watched my friends finish the HIM and OLY. Bryan Dunn won overall on the long course, very impressive. Dano did great in the OLY, Mark did the HIM and Elliot had an awesome race to finish 3rd in his AG in the HIM. Also saw Tom, Brian & Robin out there- well done guys! The weather got hot and the run course was tough!
Later, my son did the kids duathlon (my youngest coudn’t race due to his dislocated elbow). Cam did great, but he did get well and truly “chicked”.
We stayed for the raffle- great prizes- but none of it came our way. I was very happy to get a $175 gift cert for Trisports as my Aqua-Bike award though! (new wetsuit for JT). It was 8pm when we got home, tired and sun-burned!

Sunday: Up again and off to watch JT and Amy race the Xterra. What a cool race. This was JT’s first Xterra and he did great. He had fallen on the pre-ride on Friday and hurt his tail bone (he had to ice his butt all weekend, LOL) but was determined to give it his all and he did. The Xterra was fun to watch- esp the part when they had to wade/swim thru the swamp during the run! JT finished 8th in his AG. My friend Amy absolutely killed the Mtn bike course and came in 2nd in her AG. She is my hero! We stayed for the food and awards then packed up for the drive home.
This was a fun race, well organized. I really want to come back next year and either do the Olympic or full distance. It was a much needed family vacation too!

Good Eats

2010-05-24T14:28:00.004-07:00

So, a quick update...when I last left you I was still nursing a sprained ankle. It didnt heal as quickly as I would like, so I have been cautious. I just started running again last week. Why does taking 3 weeks off running, make me feel like I am starting from scratch? I am still undecided about my next race, we are going to Show Low next week for the Deuces Wild Tri Festival. JT is registered for the Xterra and the boys are doing the kids duathlon. I may do the Aqua bike or the Olympic, or I may just spectate.

School is out for the summer. If you need me, I'll be by the pool. If not our backyard pool, then the city pool (swim team) or the community pool (water park) or the lap pool :-)

Some friends asked me to share a few of my favorote recipes. You will notice that the theme of them is sweets. I have an incredible sweet tooth :-) I also love recipes that use few ingredients and dont make a huge mess in the kitchen. One of my boys like to "help" me cook, the other just likes to help eat, LOL. So the fewer dishes we use the better! I don't have any pictures because they were eaten so quickly!

One Bowl Banana Bread (this is my moms recipe)

5 tbsp butter/margarine/low fat spead

2 browning bananas

1 large egg

1 C self rising flour (or use whole whaet or plain flour w/1.5 tsp baking powder & 0.5 tsp salt)

1 tsp Baking powder

0.5 cup sugar

(you can add some other ingredients such as chopped nuts, dried fruit, choc chips)

Melt butter in a large bowl in microwave, add bananas and mash, mix in egg, then dry ingredients. Beat 2 mins with a wooden spoon. Put in a greased loaf tin and bake 40 mins at 350.

One Bowl Choc Chip Cookies

2 stcks butter

3/4 C brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

12oz package of choc chips

Melt butter in large bowl, add sugars,vanilla and egg. Beat with a wooden spoon for 1 min. Add dry ingredients then choc chips. Mix well.

Drop spoonfulls onto baking sheets. Bake 10 mins at 375.

Sally's Energy Bars (these have some caffeine in them!)

2 teaspons instant coffee/espresso powder

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 C sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups crushed graham crackers/cereal/cookies (I use honey graham cereal)

1.5 cups of mix of chop dates/dried fruit/nuts

In a large bowl mix vanilla and coffee powder, add eggs & sugar and beat for 2 mins with electric mixer. Fold in crackers/cereal and fruit&nut mixture.

Pour batter into greased 8x8 metal/glass pan. Bake 35 mins at 300 degrees.

Team Tendonitis

2010-05-16T13:34:00.008-07:00

That was our relay team name at the Tempe International Tri this weekend :-)

I did my first Tri relay. As you will have guessed, the ankle is no good. No running. It's been 2 weeks and it's starting to get better. The good folks here: http://www.endurancerehab.com/ are taking care of me. I have damaged/torn/tweaked the Peroneal Tendon in my ankle. It was probably weak from my hiking injury last summer. In going to PT, I of course find out all the other issues I have, LOL. It's time to take care of them. In training the swim-bike-run, I neglect the other stuff like massage, stretching and strength training. Endurance rehab have been torturing me with the roller, Astym, leg exercises etc. Its all good.

So, I was already registered for the Olympic distance Tri. I thought about trying to do the sprint but I seriously couldn't run at all on my ankle last week without immediate pain, so not a good idea. I emailed the race company and asked if we could be a relay with JT as the runner. They said OK. So Team Tendonitis it was!

We headed down on sunday morning with the kids, set up the stuff and waited, and waited. Relays were the last wave . Had we been smart and thinking competitively, we would have recruited a good swimmer, but I kind of wanted to do as much of the race as I could. So, it was back into the Tempe Lake for me. Last time was Ironman, the water was a lot warmer and although I wasnt fast in the water, I did OK. I went a bit wide on the return swim and probably cost myself a minute or so by going under the wrong arch of the Mill ave bridge. Swim time 29:44 for 1500m. (includes a cautious exit fromt he water to transition because I didnt want to run barefoot)

The bike was fun, no saving my legs for the run, so I pushed hard. At the same time, the tight, crowded course with several U Turns isn't condusive for a super fast bike split. I had fun out there and came in and passed the timing chip to JT.

Bike time 1:03:34 for 24.85 miles= 23.23 mph.

The boys and I went out on the course and watched him run the 2 loop course. It was very hot by then, JT ran really well, coming in at 39:52 for the 10k.

Team Tendonitis total time 2:15:55. 3rd overall relay

We hung out for a bit post-race and chatted with friends then headed home for an afternon of swimming in the backyard.

Tomorrow I get to try the Alter-G treadmill at PT. I am hoping to be able to start to run a bit soon. I miss it! One more week of school for the boys and I. Yipeeeee!

Stopped me in my tracks....

2010-05-04T06:00:00.007-07:00

Pictures:

My cool little first base-man.

The perfect Lemon Meringue Pies (after months of trial and error)

....Or at least slowed me down. My ankle, that is!

Life gets pretty busy around here in spring, the boys play sports (and the youngest talked us into letting him do both baseball and soccer- we never do 2 sports at once!), my work gets busy with end of year & fundraising stuff, JT's work gets busier (which is a good thing but means lots more hours for him), the kids school activities start to pile up (why do we have to do a special "countdown-to-the-end-of-school" project EVERY night?), JT is in school, I have classes to finish up, and I signed up for some spring Triathlons!

I have been doing a pretty good job of juggling everything but to put it bluntly, everything ends up being half-assed, LOL.

Then in the midst of it all, I hurt my ankle. It's an old injury that I aggrivated by tripping over, the tendon was swollen and sore the next day. I tried to do my usual run but it hurt too much, of course I made it worse. Talk about slowing me down! Now my triathlete friends know how it is when you get an injury. You panic! Months of solid training over the winter had me in pretty good shape for the 3 Triathlons I wanted to do this spring. We have a whole family trip planned to Show Low in June for Triathlon. Now I can't put weight on my foot. I called my friend Donna who is a PT/massage gal, she came over and looked at it and worked on my legs. Told me not to worry, ice it and rest it. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Unless you are a triathlete, LOL. Rest is not in our vocabulary unless it is a scheduled rest day- we don't like Unscheduled rest!

To make matters worse, in my attempt to ice it really well, I got frustrated at our bulky ice pack and made my own. I strapped the ice bag onto my leg using Ace bandage, and I gave myself a nice Ice burn on the side of my foot- now I have a big blister that hurts more than the ankle. Geez!

BUT, of course I tried to look for the silver lining, maybe this is a blessing. Take training off the table for a few days (or possibly weeks) and now I have more time to get all the other stuff done. I might actually get all my school stuff squared away, my classroom put in order and attend all of my kids "countdown" activities. Maybe there was a reason for this injury and it wasn't bad timing after all ?

Onto other more positive things....

Before this ankle disaster, I had an awesome 70 mile bike-6 mile run brick on saturday.

My kids are doing great at their sports, so proud of them. They both scored some awesome goals at soccer this past weekend. Cam played Goalie for the first time and despite looking terririfed, played really well. Sean got to play an extra game after his team left, he played with the U-12 Club team (he's only 8), totally held his own out there and scored the winning goal. Later he got 3 great hits at his baseball game and got to play 1st base. Saturday was a tiring but fun day. Luckily for us, these sports all take place within a couple of miles of our house!

We had the family over for lunch on sunday, it was great to see everyone before they head off for summer activities. The only bad was that we all had to be inside because of the wind, made for a very cramped lunch in our small kitchen/family room.

School is winding down, less than 3 weeks. I will miss my school kids a lot, but will be so happy to have my own boys home with me!

So...I will have to play the waiting game with the foot and ankle. I was supposed to race SheRox this saturday, then Tempe International the following week. We will see...? I will have to practice patience- not one of my usual personality traits :-)

Honestly...

2010-04-23T13:37:00.002-07:00

...I got tagged by Christi (http://pedestrianrunner.blogspot.com/2010/04/honestly.html) so here goes. 10 Honest things about me.

1. I usually never particpate in these...this is just for you Christi :-)
2. I don't like knees or elbows (mine or anyone else's) they just gross me out.
3. I can't exercise for fun. Training for Triathlon is a sort of fun, but low intensity aerobics etc is not for me. I like to race.
4. My biggest fear is driving into water in my car (not really an issue here in AZ but it was in VA!)
5. I'd much rather stay home than go out and party.
6. I got a tattoo when I was 17 years old (and didnt tell my parents about it for years!)
7. My least favorite part of me is my belly button- it got ruined during pregnancy :-(
8. My most treasured piece of jewellery is a silver and blue flower ring that JT brought me back from Italy.
9. I eat chocolate every day, sometimes several times per day.
10. My dream job would be to work at Starbucks.

I left out the scandalous stuff as my mom reads this...j/k ;-)

Catching up

2010-04-22T05:53:00.011-07:00

Whew...I hate to say it after my previous post...but man, "I have been soooo busy..." LOL :-)

Last week was Sean's birthday (my baby turned 8!). His actual b-day was april 15th (I predict he will be an accountant) and every year he asks why people hate April 15th so much, LOL. I will add that our taxes were taken care of weeks ago so that we didnt deal with it around his b-day. He took cupcakes to Track workout on wednesday night, one of our friend's little boys has the same b-day- Caidan turned 4, so they all sat in the grass and ate cake while we ran circles! He also took cupcakes to school on his b-day, so mom had made 48 cupcakes by the time it was all over.

I had friday off of work and a big workout planned. It was a transition workout of 4 mile run-12 mile bike x 4. Coach said to go around 80-90 % on the first 3 then closer to race pace on the last one. Ouch! I started at 6am and it took almost 4 hours but I was very happy with my bike and run paces, I was able to get faster each one. JT had put his race wheels on for the saturday sprint and joined me for the last bike. I had no time to recover as I had too many errands to run and ended the day by meeting hte Tri group at swim. Luckily the pool was closing earlier so it ended up being a 30 min swim followed by a trip to Rubio's for some good food and socializing :-)

On saturday we had 2 soccer games and opening day of our Little League baseball. Sean talked us into letting him play soccer and baseball this spring. They dont overlap too much but the first few saturday do until his baseball games switch to week nights. JT left early to go to the Litchfield Sprint tri- which he won- speedy guy! It was hot and sunny here. We did soccer, ran home and jumped in the pool to cool off and change, then went to opening day. Sean didnt have a game but we did the ceremony and team pictures. The day ended with Grandma and Grandpa bring over pizza and (more) cupcakes.

On sunday I met up with some friends for a nice 50 mile ride. Amy and I finished it up with a trip up the newly opened road right near my house. I will have to post pictures, but man, it's a huge hill! It will be awesome (and killer) for doing hill repeats, I plan to add one trip up and down it into all my rides once it is officially opened.

I had a quick shower then we picked up 3 of Sean's friends for an afternoon of Laser Tag, Go Karts, Video Games and Pizza at Amazing Jake's. They had a blast!

The weekend went by too quickly. JT only has every other weekend off, so we cherish the family time. This week is the start of the crazy end of school period. The period that makes me so glad when the last day of school comes around and I have my boys home with me. Just 4.5 weeks to go.

JT and I did go to track last night in the crazy wind- what a night to be running 3000's. I did them though, and a lot faster than last year when I was training for IMAZ. I think it's because I am not so fatigued all the time, LOL.

So thats about it for around here. Will update more after the weekend :-)

Being Busy

2010-04-15T15:57:00.002-07:00

First of all...Happy Birthday Sean! My baby is 8 today :-) More details of the birthday celebrations will be posted this weekend after the parties!

Now onto the title of my post....I like to be Busy but I am not one of those people who consider themselves "Too Busy". You know, the person that you when ask how they are doing they give the big sigh and say something along the lines of "I've just been SO busy". My family is an average-busy family. JT works on average 50-60 hours per week. I work part-time and go to school part-time. The kids are busy with school work and are always in a sport- usually a team sport such as soccer or football, they also enjoy mountain biking, running and video games.
I like to feel busy because it means:
-We have jobs, incomes and responsibilities.
-We have friends & family that we enjoy hanging out with.
-The kids are involved in activities and not sitting on the couch.
-We are living life.

I do however sometimes feel we get too busy and that is when I know to cut back on activities, I know I am too over-scheduled when:
-My house gets messy (I'm a clean freak!).
-I dont have time to cook a nice meal or enjoy a glass of wine
-I dont return calls/emails to good friends.
-I forget to laugh at the stupid stuff.
-I get caught up with what is coming next, instead of being in the now.

There's definitely a pressure here in suburbia to be very busy. I have friends who live in their cars and shuttle their kids to every imaginable activity. Many of my friends live life like that, and you know, if it making them happy, I have absolutely no problem with it. It's just not right for me. There are times that I feel guilty that my kids dont play an instrument, play club sports or go to tutoring classes. It's easy to be made to feel that we are not providing enough social, cultural and educational opportunities for our kids. I have learned to shut out that noise though and I know that sitting laughing at episodes of SNL or playing "ninja warrior" at the park with the boys may not be expanding their minds, but hopefully they will appreciate the life we have made for them. It's not over-scheduled, it's full of fun. We tell jokes and put our elbows on the table at dinnertime. We stay up late to see new constellations of stars and sometimes we sleep out in the backyard. We sometimes eat pizza or cheesecake for breakfast. They play in the local soccer league because it is 1 mile from our house, instead of the expensive club team that travels all over the valley. I take comfort in the fact that their friends love to hang out here, so we must be doing something right. Maybe the boys will resent the fact that we didnt have the time and money for music lessons and extravagant trips to amusement parks but I have a feeling they will appreciate the huge amount of time we spend together even more.
That's all I have to say about that! LOL.

Liberty 5k

2010-04-11T14:31:00.009-07:00

My boys ran (and walked) their first ever 5k on saturday. The school district holds a 5k every year but we have always had something else going on, but this year we pre-registered. We probably should have trained, the boys do some running at PE and they are playing soccer, riding Mtn bikes etc but they have never ran for more than a mile. I did my long ride on friday, and got up early to get out with Amy for 1.5 hours on saturday am. I would feel wierd without my weekly ride with my buddy, we ride together to warm up and chat for 45 mins before hooking up with the West Valley group. As soon as we meet the group, the chit-chat stops and our HR's are up 20 BPM :-) I only rode for a short time with the group then looped back home to get the boys. We drove over to Liberty school, it's an old, small country school. The 5k was on farmland, a big rectangular course and well marked. The boys met up with friends and announced that I didnt have to run with them. Drats! I wasnt planning on running fast, wasnt even planning to run the whole thing. My legs were tired and stiff. I didnt warm up well either. When the whistle blew I decided to just keep a very aerobic pace and see how I felt, the legs never really came to life at all, the ground was dusty and uneven. Mile 1 6:46, I saw Dave speeding on ahead, there were still some teenage boys around me, Mile 2 into the wind 6:47, now I was in 2nd but Dave was starting to look like a speck, Mile 3 mostly tail wind 6:27, then I could see the finish. Please dont twist your ankle! Course was a bit long at 3.3 miles, time was 20:40.

Grabbed my camera and headed back to find the boys. Saw Cam running down the road, he started walking when he saw me so i pointed out he had only 1/2 mile to go and he was running again. Went a bit further and found Sean and his buddy. They were in a personal race with a group of girls who were dancing and skipping. I started jogging with the boys and told them they better not get beat by the skippy girls. We walk-jogged it in then they did a cute sprint to the finish. Sean was 2 seconds behind his buddy and took 3rd in his AG (7-9). That was his first medal and he was so proud.

We sat around for a bit and ate some food then headed home for a dip in the backyard pol. Later we went and saw Clash Of the Titans (my boys love Greek mythology as much as me) which was pretty good. By bedtime both boys were tired and achey- me too! But we were up and at 'em again on sunday. I did an EZ long run and then took the boys and their friends to the skate park for the weekly skate and donuts!

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house while the boys put up the tent in the backyard. Finished off the day with a BBQ and s'mores. Poor JT had to work all weekend, we havent seen him since thursday night, looking forward to spending time with him tomorrow. I think we are going to headout to the lake and see if we can stilll squeeze into the wetsuits.

Friday ride

2010-04-10T05:13:00.003-07:00

JT has to work every other weekend, which is such a bummer for us (and especially him!) so I try to get my long ride done on the Friday while the kids are at school. Yesterday reminded took me back to IM training. 80 mile ride on tap, getting bottles ready, stuffing the bento box, sunscreen on etc. I didn't get an early start though, had to get the kids off to school then met Jamie & Dan at 8am to ride down to meet 3 other friends. It was a beautiful morning and the first part of the ride was nice and social, we rode out to Verrado and then back towards Estrella, we had just over 40 miles when we got back up here. The wind had really picked up as usual. My friends went home and I had the rest to do on my own, I did Rainbow Valley then some loops of Estrella to finish with 80.55 miles- my longest ride since Ironman. I felt great. It was hot when I finished at noon, 89 according to my backyard thermometer so I jumped into our pool. It's only 72 degrees but it doesnt have that ice bath feel any more :-)

After my dip in the pool, I made some Buckwheat Pancakes. I love pancakes, that's no surprise if you read my blogs :-) And I like to try different variations to mix it up. I made up this recipe using whatever I had on hand, they are not as sweet as regular pancakes and they are vegan (although you could use eggs if you want instead of Flaxseed). You can sweetent hese up with syrup etc or eat them with eggs, cheese, something savory. I chose to eat mine with peanut butter, greek yogurt and honey. Yum!

Sally's Buckwheat Pancakes:

1 cup Buckwheat Flour

I cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp Baking powder

1 tbsp spices (cinammon, nutmeg, ginger)

1 tsp Vanilla

Egg substitute for 2 eggs (2 tbsp ground flax plus 6 tbsp water)

1/2 cup Applesauce

2 cups water

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. Whisk wet ingredients in another then combine. Cook. This makes about 12-16 pancakes.

Lots more going on here this weekend including a Family 5k on saturday :-)

Easter Weekend

2010-04-04T10:32:00.021-07:00

I hope everyone had a fun easter. I love this time of year here in AZ, this weekend was great for getting out and doing stuff...so we did.

On friday I did a run-bike-run workout and then cleaned up the house and did some cooking...not very exciting, I know :-) JT cleaned out the garage and worked on our bikes.

On saturday we got up and out the door by 7am to meet some friends for a ride. We warmed up for 30 mins before hooking up with the West Valley saturday ride. I was well rested and ready to ride hard. JT stayed with us for the loop in Estrella then headed home to the boys. I went and did the entire ride. I decided to ride with the B group on the 2nd part of the ride out to Verrado, but unfortunately the group was pretty broken up and I ended up either pulling or riding solo into the head winds which had really picked up. In any case, it was just what I wanted- a hard ride. I had company for the ride home from Verrado, a good group to ride with, then I broke off and came home alone. 65 miles at 21.6mph average.

In the afternoon we loaded up the car with the bikes- you should see our Toyota Matrix, 2 bikes on top and 2 bikes on the rear rack! we fit so much into that little car! We drove over to Scottsdale and rode the greenbelt for about an hour, then stopped back at the car to get the sports stuff. The guys skated at the wedge skatepark (note interesting group of people we met from the 80's), we played soccer and frisby, and when we were tired and hungry from being out in the sun all day, we went to Chili's for dinner. The kids were funny...they don't want to order off the kids menus anymore... their taste pallets go beyond corn dogs and grilled cheese, LOL. So they split an adult order of Salmon and Ribs. JT and I had burgers. Once we were re-fueled, we stopped by the Pavillions Car show. Sean is still totally into cars so he was in heaven among the hot rods, muscle cars and his favorite- the Ferrari- was there! 3 of us fell asleep on the drive home- luckily JT didn't LOL!

Easter Sunday: I got up early and was out running. I thought my legs would be fatigued from yesterday's ride but they felt good. I love running in my Newtons, they make my legs feel light and snappy. I timed my run to go by the lake at sunrise, the church has a short Easter prayer service there, I joined it for a few minutes then finished my run home. JT went to run after I got back while I made a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs. Yum. As a side note, my kids don't really believe in the Easter bunny- not sure they really ever did, call me a bad mom, but I've never really promoted the Easter bunny/Santa/tooth fairy characters as being real. My kids know they exist and they believe in the spirit of these holidays, but today they got a neat little basket with some candy and money...and I got the credit! ;-)

Later in the day we headed over to JT's Aunt's house for the family Easter celebration. The kids had a small egg hunt first then it was on to the group egg hunt. It is known to get kind of competitive with prizes and money at stake but this year, everyone was pretty mellow. I got the most eggs but I didn't win the Grand Prize, Carrie won that by finding the special egg with Jesus on it. We ate way too much as we enjoyed a big lunch outdoors in the perfect spring weather. Rolled home late afternoon and relaxed.

Up next is some good solid training for me. I have my training plan, it's 5 weeks until my first Tri of the year- SheRox and 6 weeks from the Tempe International. Time to get serious. I have a bit of winter weight hanging around that needs to go, this weekend didnt help that, in fact it may have added to it, LOL!

Adventures in Mediterranean cooking

2010-03-21T07:54:00.009-07:00

JT jokes that I was born in the wrong European country. I am Scottish (and Irish on my mom's side) so you would think that I would love such foods as potatoes, meat and gravy. Wrong! Even though I was raised in Britain, I have never loved the traditional British food. Luckily my parents were big travellers and we vacationed all over Europe. I have been luck to go to countries such as Greece, Turkey, France, Spain, Italy and Germany. It was while in the Mediterranean areas that I realized that it was the food that I loved. You haven't lived until you have tasted a French baguette straight from the oven of a boulangerie, cracked open a watermelon on the beach of Corfu, bought grilled Corn on the cob from a street vendor in the bustle of the Turkish post of Izmir, eaten real pizza in Italy, washed SauerKraut down with a huge beer in Germany, bought the most colorful fruit from the local market in a spanish village or tasted a sample Greek platter in a tiny family run restaurant where noone speaks English but welcomes you like a member of the family. Yes, the Europeans know what to eat and HOW to eat. Food is wonderful, it is savored and enjoyed with friends. It is an experience. It is not rushed.

Growing up, I was lucky to be raised vegetarian. My mom was a vegetarian way before it was cool to be one. My dad and his family ate a very traditional British diet of meat and potatoes but my mom was always a bit more adventurous. We grew a lot of our own food and traded with neighbors for berries, eggs and milk. We rarely shopped at a supermarket for anything more than canned goods. Saturday was shopping day when we went into town to the butcher, produce stand , fishmonger, and bakery (my mom is still horrified that I buy pre-packaged bread at a grocery store, LOL).

So, as soon as I was old enough to get out an travel alone or with friends, I set off on Mediterranean trips. It is easy and cheap to get to Europe from Scotland. Approprately it was in Rhodes, Greece that I met JT. A year after we got married, we had a belated honey moon in Greece, we travelled the Islands, stayed in cheap hotels and ate the most amazing food. Everywhere we have lived, we have tried to find a local Greek/Med. restaurant so we can re-live some of the memories. Last week we celebrated our 14th anniversary with dinner at Pita Jungle. Over the past 15 years of living in the USA, I have become very Americanized, I shop for most of our groceries at Wal Mart (it's convenient and cheap). I have grown to enjoy pizza from Dominos (they deliver!) and Mac N Cheese from a box sometimes has to do for lunch. But there's something about this time of year when the weather warms up and we celebrate our anniversary, the backyard starts to look nice and the pool is getting warmer, that makes me crave that Mediterranean food...the fresh fruits, cheeses, olives and breads. So this week was greek/Mediterranean week at my house. Here are some of the dishes I created:

Home made Hummus, salsas, Bruschetta.

Moussaka (I dont like it but JT loves it)

Pitas with Falafel (I have a great healthy recipe thanks to Marni!)

Greek Pasta (new recipe that was a huge hit with the family, I made a vegetarian version too)

And just to add a family favorite: Chile relleno from scratch!

Lots of fresh fruit and salads.

Washed down with some great wine- thanks to my good friend for bringing me a wonderful wine from Argentina!

I have lots of great recipes, if anyone wants them, let me know :-)

Salud!!!!

Spring Break

2010-03-21T07:19:00.009-07:00

This has to be my favorite vacation from work and school. This year did not disappoint. The weather turned spring-like just in time and we had lots of fun. I'll post the pictures in no particular order, but here are the highlights:

Spring Training baseball with friends!

Yacht Club social night (good food and fun with friends by the lake)

Family BBQ at Jim & Carrie's

Backyard firepit and smores which ended with the Fire Dept at our door (LOL- who knew you shouldn't pour water on one of those 2 hour logs?- created so much smoke that a neighbor call the fire dept)

Outdoor Movie night at our neighborhood playground

Canal run followed by dinner with our Tri friends at Rubio's.

Some good training, including the Saturday group ride in the wind- 64 miles that kicked my butt but also showed I'm in pretty good bike shape!

JT and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary with a day out together at a baseball game and dinner at Pita Jungle.

Soccer games, birthday parties and The Science Center with the kids :-)

Tri training is going well. I have a "crunchy" left knee again so I need to cut back on the run mileage a bit. I've been on a long streak of running and built a decent base, so it's time to cut back. I skipped the White Tanks Trail race on saturday because trail running, or specifically running downhill aggrivates it. Other than that, the body is holding up pretty well.

One more day to relax. I love Sundays. My run is done and JT is out riding with friends, I made chocolate chip pancakes and the kids will probably still be in their PJs at noon :-)

Busy Weekend

2010-03-07T15:26:00.010-07:00

We did a little bit of a lot of stuff this weekend.

Friday: I got in a 50 mile ride in the morning. Cam was going out of town with his friend's family, so we picked Sean up early from school and headed down to the Spring Training opening day at the local ballpark. The Indians Vs Reds. It was a gorgeous afternoon, we sat out on the grass seats with our friends. The kids had lots to do over at the jumpy houses and batting cages. We didnt see them all afternoon. I didnt actually watch much of ther game, was too busy socializing. :-) I ended up a bit sunburned.

Saturday: JT was up and out early to race the Litchfield Park 10k. I like this race, have done it in the past, but it was definitely his turn to race. I was on soccer duty- team pictures then the game. JT called as soon as he finished and reported that he came in 3rd overall in a smokin' time of 38:23! Wow! Then he came and met us at soccer. After the game, I headed out on my bike. I was supposed to do a long run but the weather forecast was not good for sunday, so I decided to go out for my ride while the weather was warm and sunny. I got in a nice 40 miles. After a quick change, we headed out to the Skate park and stopped by our friend's bike shop. An hour later, we were loading 2 brand new Specialized Mtn Bikes into the car-no, not for me, but for the boys :-) See the pictures above- Cam's is the red one, Sean's is the Silver one. Sean has never had a new bike before, only hand-me-downs from his brother. These bikes are NICE!

Sunday: I was up and out early for my run, after an hour, it started to sprinkle rain. I ran the streets until the sun was up then onto the Mtn bike trails to finish up 12 miles. The rain got heavier as the day went on, we ate a pancake breakfast, we managed to get the garage cleaned, and Sean got out on his new bike for an hour between showers. I got my house cleaned up and my school stuff set up for the week. I am so ready for the winter weather to go, that little taste of spring on friday was great but I want more!

Desert Classic Duathlon

2010-03-01T05:47:00.006-07:00

The theme of this race was Weather! We don't get a lot of weather here unless you count extreme heat. Prior to most of my races, I am usually concerned with the High Temperature and how to hydrate well. Not this weekend, another winter storm came our way thanks to El Nino. In the middle of the night (sunday am) I heard the storm, wind, rain. I woke to my alarm at 4:10, got up and made some coffee. Checked the forecast: RAIN. I got on the road with my coffee and breakfast in hand. The kids and JT were still sleeping. JT had to work and the boys would be going over to a friends house. I was wishing that a) I hadnt pre-registered and b) I could think of a legitimate excuse to go back to bed.

I drove through rain most of the way over to McDowell Regional park. It was pitch black and I had no idea where I was going, except that it took way loger than I thought. I finally found the park entrance and paid the gate lady, thankful to see some other cars heading towards the race (I wasnt the only crazy person). The parking lot is 1.5 miles from the race area, within about 3 minutes of getting out my car, I was soaked through. Apparently my 2 rain jackets are not at all waterproof. See, I dont own any good waterproof gear with a name on it like "North Face". Nope, I own an Arizona bought windbreaker. I'd have been better wearing a garbage bag.

Anyways, I make my way in the dark to the transition area and set up my bike, get my chip and huddle under a canopy. The sun is coming up and it is apparent that the dark clouds are not going anywhere.

We walk the 1/2 mle to the start area and I try to warm up. The Pros start first and there are a few big names like Sam McGlone, Michellie Jones, Linsey Corbin and Leanda Cave. My friend Kathy is now racing as an Elite too. Next is the Collegiate wave then at 8:06 all females.

1st Run: 3.5 Miles

We are off and run down the road for about 1/2 mile then get on the trail, it is single track so I tried to get out with the lead group. The trail is muddy and slippery and I am worried that my shoes are going to come off because I switched laces at the last minute and didnt tie them tight enough (elastic laces). I was glad to be running and getting warmed up but wish I had stretched a bit before hand.

Into T2 which was very slow. I had my bike shoes in plastic instead of on my bike, in hindsight this was a waste of time as the shoes got soaked within minutes anyways.

Bike: 21 miles

Super tough bike course, 3 miles uphill out of transition then some good rolling hills. Beautiful location but I wasnt able to take my eyes off the road to enjoy it. I felt slow on the bike but kept passing people. The rain was getting quite hard and it was COLD. My feet went numb at about mile 5. We rode out to a turn around then back to the park.

T2 was a disaster, LOL. I couldnt feel my fingers or my feet. I managed to get my running shoes back on, they were full of water. I felt like I was in slow motion.

Run #2: 2.7 miles

This run went out on a different trail, it was a bit tougher with some good climbs, the trail was like a river in parts. My feet were completely numb, it felt like I had rocks in my shoes or that I was running on only my toes. I just kept trucking on, splashing through puddles and having a good time. After about a mile, I could feel my feet defrost but my legs were tight from the cold.

I have to admit, I was glad to see the finish line. I looked at the clock as I crossed the line 1:44:XX. That was good for me.

They wrapped us in foil blankets and I found some of my friends at the finish. The volunteer had to make me a PB bagel as my fingers were frozen. I wished they had hot drinks! I watched the finish for a bit then got into some dry clothes- heaven! I wanted to stay for the raffle/awards but I had long drive home to get the kids. I hit the road (and Starbucks!) just as the sun was coming out. WTH!!!

At home, I unloaded the car, not quite sure what to do with everything except toss it in the washing machine. My husband will be busy cleaning my bike on his day off, LOL.

Checked the results online later and was happy to see that I was 2nd Female amateur, 1st in AG.

This was an awesome experience, I can't wait to do it again next year in, hopefully, better conditions!

New Shoes and a 5K PR

2010-02-21T05:47:00.003-07:00

I. Love. My. New. Running. Shoes!
I get excited about running shoes the way other women feel about a pair of Luis Vuitton high heels, LOL.

I won a pair of Mizuno's at a road race a few weeks ago so on Friday, JT and I drove over to the Runner's Den store in Phoenix to get them. I have been an Asics girl for years and have tried other shoes, Avia gave me 2 pairs of awesome shoes but they didnt work out, a friend gaveme a pair of cool Zoot shoes and I really wanted to love them but they didnt work out. Switching to Mizuno? I wasn't sold. Until I put them on my feet. Hello Mizuno Wave Riders! They instantly felt great. I walked around inthem all day and then I did something you are not supposed to do. I raced in them the next day.

Heart & Sole 5K:
I wasnt committed to this race. My cold from last weekend is still lingering and it was supposed to rain but when I woke up on saturday, I decided to go. I drove down to the race, which is only a few miles from my house at the Spring Training stadium. Registered, quickly did a mile warm up and then we were off. It is a flat fast course around the Red's and Indian's stadiums. Mile 1 was good, 6:08, passed the female in front of me right before the first mile, she stayed on my heels and we started to pass some guys. Mile 2 was 6:09, nice and consistent. Time to pick it up, Mile 3 hurt as I brought it under 6 min/mile (never been able to hold it before) 5:52 and then I tried to sprint. I'm not a sprinter! 2 guys were racing each other and caught me right at the line. 18:28. 1st Female, 7th overall. I was so happy!! I had really been wanting to go sub-20 someday, with the cold and last week's half-marathon in my legs, I wasnt thinking this was the day but it was. I think it must have been the shoes!!

About 10 mins after the race, it started to rain and that was pretty much the theme for the rest of the day. I stayed for the awards and got to visit with local Pro triathlete Lewis Elliot for a bit- what a nice guy! Then I rushed to the soccer games, the boys LOVED playing in the rain. I now have a house full of damp clothing and grassy, muddy shoes.

IMS Half Marathon

2010-02-20T05:54:00.006-07:00

Sunday February 28th: Valentine's Day
The boys spent the night at their Grandparent's house so we could both race. This was JT's first ever half-marathon, and my first stand alone half for a few years. Training for this had it's ups and downs. I originally hoped to do the full marathon, but well, after IMAZ I lost quite a bit of my motivation, esp for the long runs. So, the half was perfect, I was definitely a bit under trained. Jt had stuck to the FIRST training plan and had a couple of injuries (tendonitis and shin splints) that set him back mid way but he was able to finish up the training program and I knew he would do great.
Unfortunately I woke up on friday with a cold. My kids at school were all sick this week and Sean had a cold too, I dosed up on Vit C and Zinc but to no avail. By sunday morning I had the full on head cold. However, I got myself up and ready, packed a few tissues and we headed off to Westgate to park the car and catch the shuttle. The race starts at Estrella College in Goodyear and finishes by the Cardinals Stadium in Glendale. We ran into a few people we knew on the bus and at the start line. We went for a jog, checked in our gear bag and used the potty. Then it was time to line up, saw some friends near the front so jumped in and joined them.
The gun went off, and away we went. JT had said he would start out conservative but I saw him take off after the leaders and just smiled to myself. Once I got going, I didnt feel too bad, although I blew my nose constantly which must have been gross to those running beside me. We ran though Litchfield park then East on Camelback road, a loop around the Dodgers Spring taining park, then straight toward the Stadium. It was a pretty flat course, one big climb up over the foot bridge at mile 12.5 was a bit painful. I ran pretty consistently. At one of the turn arounds, I saw JT, he was still quite far up front and running strong. I was chasing down a lady in bright pink and passed her at mile 11.5. After that I hoped to kick but I really couldnt as my head was so congested, making it hard to breath heavy. It was fun running in to the stadium area, saw many friends near the finish line. I checked my watch and was very happy to be under 1:35, a new PR.
I found JT and he told me his time 1:27- wow. We grabbed some food, then went to stand with our friends and watch the others come in. The marathoners had started at a different location and were starting to trickle in. My friend was 2nd female in the marathon. The weather was beautiful! We watched everyone we knew finish, then grabbed a coffee and bagel and sat in the sun. After that we went and got the boys and spent a nice valentine's day together :-)

The results:
JT 1:27:30 11th overall, 2nd in Age Group
Sally 1:34:20 3rd overall, 1st in Age Group

Road Races

2010-02-18T06:44:00.006-07:00

JT and I officially kicked off our 2010 racing season with 2 weekends of running races. First up was the Runner's Den 5k and 5 mile at Paradise valley Mall on Superbowl Sunday. When I saw this race advertised, I remembered that JT and I had raced there before, waaay back in 1998 when we first moved to Phoenix. Neither one of us was big into running, and it was a 10k race at that time, and the old results on the website showed that we ran it in 45 mins (JT) and 47 mins (Sally). Wow, we are faster now than we were in our 20's :-)

This race was good for us because you could do the 5K, 5 mile or both (double Nickel). As we had the kids with us, JT decided to do the 5k and then I would do the 5 mile. There were a LOT of people there, including some local pro triathletes (Lewis Elliot and Katie Ellis). JT was being a total sand-bagger, saying he wasnt going to run fast but as soon as the race started he was going out hard. I was guessing he would run around 18 mins (his previous best 5k was just under 19), so I was totally surprised to see him racing toward the finish line in 17:44. Awesome!

Next up was me. I wasnt quite sure how to run a 5 mile race. Slower than a 5k but faster than a 10k. I started out pretty fast (for me) and decided to just try to hold on. At mile 2 I realized i was running right behind the only other girl was up front. I just stayed on her heels. I was thinking we were the first 2 females and a few spectators called out and confirmed it. She picked up the pace at mile 4 and i just tried to stay with her, then with less than half a mile to go, I passed her. I could see the finish line down the long street and hoped that I didnt kick too soon. I knew the winner would get a pair of shoes, so that was a big incentive to make it hurt. I finished in 32:55, 6:36 pace, which is fast for me.

JT placed 3rd in his AG and got a medal, I got a pair of Mizunos and a plaque :-) We had a great post race breakfast at Chompies then headed home to get ready for the Superbowl- we went over to our good friend's Amy and Dan's house to watch the game and enjoy some yummy food :-)

The following weekend, Valentine's Day, we ran the IMS Arizona Half-marathon. Race report and pictures coming soon ......

Where do you train?

2010-02-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

You all know I love Triathlon training. As much as tracking my own training , I love to read about other athlete's training. I love to read other people's blogs. I follow many friends, local and across the world, on Beginnertriathlete.com and Runnersworld.com. Athletes post their daily/weekly training and race reports. It's a great way to get motivation, inspiration and advice. But the one thing the training logs don't show is the routes behind the numbers. And this is why I pose the question "Where do you train?". My friends are putting in countless hours on the roads, trails and in the water, but what does it look like where they train? Are they indoors on a trainer/treadmill, do they run in woods, or in the desert like me? Is their area urban or rural or coastal? Do they swim in a 25m or 50m pool? Or are they lucky enough to be able to swim in a lake or the ocean? Do they train alone or with friends?

One of my favorite Tri blogs is by Pro triathlete Bree Wee. Her blog is funny, informative and full of pictures of her training exploits in Kona, HI (lucky thing!). So, I was inspired to take my camera with me this week and take some snapshots of where I train. I love living in AZ. I love my part of town. There are trails, bike lanes and quiet roads right outside my door. The pool is 2 miles from my house and across the street from my work. I am lucky!

First up is my pool. We have a gym (which I never use) and waterpark (which we use all summer) and a small 25yard, 3 lane lap pool right in our 'hood. I don't love swimming but I do like our pool!

When it comes to riding in my area, there are so many choices. I can easily get out for a 30 mile ride without leaving our community, there are great bike lanes and drivers are courteous for the most part. Compared to most cmmunities here, we also have hills. There are some nice tough short hills good for repeats and some nice long, gradual hills that I try to incorporate into most of my rides. The scenery is desert of course, which is beautiful in it's own way. Here are some of the roads I ride:

Estrella Parkway up into our community is a good climb, then it continues out into the desert for miles of quiet riding!

This is the Cotton Lane hill, 3 miles of uphill :-)

The best part of our community is the many running trails- both on the street and off-road. There is an awesome trail system called FINS (Fantasy Island North) which are Mountain Bike trails. I love to run there too. Here are some of my favorite places to run:

And of course I am blessed to have many awesome people to train with too!

If you have time, please share with me a bit about where you train. I'm interested!

10 things that make me happy

2010-01-23T05:15:00.012-07:00

It has rained here this week like never before. In a way it was appropriate. It fit my mood. It has been a tough week but that's all I'm going to say about that. So, it's a chilly, wet saturday morning. No group ride, soccer has been cancelled and I was tagged last week to post "10 things that make me happy". So, here goes!

1. This one is easy: My Family. I love being home with them doing just about anything and I love going out on adventures.

(New years day hike up Camelback Mtn)

2. My Friends: I am blessed to have great friends, some are close by, others are far away but I love you all.

(These friends showed up at 5am on Ironman morning!)

3. Food: I could have easily wrote "10 foods that make me happy", LOL. I especially love Pancakes (perfect after a long ride), Pizza, a good salad (not made by me!) and anything to do with chocolate! And I love a nice glass of Red Wine with my meal!

(At one of my favorite restaurants: Grazie)

4. The Beach: there is no place on earth that I feel more at peace than by the ocean: the sounds, smell, feeling of sand are heaven to me.

(Berwick Beach in Scotland)

5. Camping: Love to tent camp, esp if it's by the beach. I love camp fires, s'mores and sleeping outdoors after a busy day. And I love that my kids have so much fun.

(Favorite Campground: San Mateo in San Clemente, CA)

6.Triathlon: I love this sport!

7. My Job: What could be better than spending my day with 12 adorable 3 year olds? I have the best job in the world!

(Halloween)

8. Cooking: I love to eat and I love to cook/bake. I also love to see my family enjoy a meal that I prepared and I love to cook with my kids.

(This is my Dr. Pepper cake for Cam's birthday)

9. Reading: I read lots of stuff, mostly non-fiction, history books but I can also get lost in a good fictional novel.

(Recommend this book: Skeletons On The Zahara)

10. Travelling: I love to see other places/cultures. I have been blessed to visit 14 different countries in my life, and I also want to travel all over the United States.

(My favorite place to visit is Scotland)

I could go on and on, which makes me a very happy, lucky girl but I'll stop at 10 like I am supposed to and now recommend 10 Blogs that are awesome:

http://annesirondream.blogspot.com/

http://breeweehawaii.blogspot.com/

http://irontrish.blogspot.com/

http://drivenpursuit.blogspot.com/

http://samiamfromfattofast.blogspot.com/

http://trimarni.blogspot.com/

http://hillarybiscay.wordpress.com/

http://katepallardy.blogspot.com/

http://www.linseycorbin.com/

http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2010/01/indoor-intervals.html

Our first broken bone.....

2010-01-17T19:42:00.003-07:00

Well, actually a dislocated elbow, but both the ulna and radius were sticking out his arm, so it was pretty much broken, not working, dislocated, whatever!

As a mom of boys, I have had a few trips to the ER but no broken bones until last wednesday. Sean was running down the carpeted hallway to his room, holding his Xbox remote, and tripped. He must have landed awkward on his arm and all we heard was the thud then the scream. I thought he had hit his head or something, but then he showed me his arm and ...yuck! I almost threw up. Luckily JT was home so we all ran to the car and headed for the ER. Once we were there, I could breathe, I like to be around medical experts in a situation like this. They x-rayed and confirmed the elbow was dislocated, it was a long visit but they sedated him, popped it back in and took more x-rays. Unfortunatley they couldn't say for sure if it was back in the right way, so they put a cast on it, gave us instrictions on how to care for it and reduce the swelling. We have to follow up wth the Ortho on monday to get more x-rays which will tell us one way or the other if everything is back where it should be.

The good thing is that he woke the next day with very little pain. It's his left arm and he is ,of course, left handed so we gave him the day off school to get adjusted to the cast and having to use his "wrong" hand. Friday he was back at school and managed OK. Things like dressing, washing and eating are a bit challenging but he's a trooper.

Keeping our fingers crossed that the Ortho says things are fine tomorrow.

Back to normal

2010-01-08T13:54:00.006-07:00

Pictures: My dad digging out his car, my parent's street, view from my aunt's house.

My parents left on Tuesday which officially ended the holiday season for us. The decorations are down, the kids have played with all their new stuff and it was back to work and school.

Unfortunately it took my parents almost 2 days to get home. It was kind of expected as they have had really bad weather in the UK, several feet of snow in Scotland. Their journey went like this: Depart Phx at 10pm on tuesday night (flight coming in from London was late, so they departed late), get near London Heathrow and begin circling in the air waiting for a landing spot (Gatwick airport closed and all air traffic backed up), finally land but are so far from the airport in a line of planes waiting to disembark passengers, (luckily?) one passenger starts having health issues so a bus is sent to get them off the palne and into the terminal. They have missed their connecting flight to Scotland and all domestic flights are now cancelled due to weather, they spend a while trying to locate their luggage, then get put on a bus to Edinburgh (min. 9 hour journey). They finally get to their car at Edinburgh, get it out of the snow and crawl home bcasue the roads are so bad. They can't get into their street because it has never been cleared, so they drag ther luggage to the house. They later dig my mom's 4x4 out of the garage so they can go pick up their cat at the kennels. They basically didnt get to sleep for almost 2.5 days! Thankfully they are home safe, my dad is able to get to work but they are mostly snowed in and there's no end in sight to the bad weather. Yikes! Ad to think it was 70 degrees when they left here!

As for us, it is quiet here. My dogs are pouting (they LOVE my mom). The boys start soccer this week. JT is waiting to find out if he is offered the permanent supervisor job. I got my Tri training schedule and am almost one week into proper training again. Yipee! Next up for us is the IMS half-marathon on Feb 14th.

One of our goals this year is to eat better (yes, I know, us and 90% of the population!). JT and I figure our family health history is against us and after almost 4 decades of eating whatever we want, it might be time to cut back on some of the bad stuff in our diet. I'm going to try to cook more (something I love to do but feel like I dont have time to) and the boys say they will try one of my Vegan meals each week. Tonight is Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo, we're following it with Toll House Pie which of course isn't a health food, LOL, but we are not perfect!

That's all I have for now :-)

We did it!!!

2010-01-02T05:22:00.004-07:00

My family hiked up Camelback Mountain on New Year's Day. There were 7 of us ranging in age from 7 years old to 65! It was so much fun. I can't tell you how proud I am of the family:

Two years ago my youngest son couldn't even run down a soccer field because of his chronic asthma, my mom has battled breast cancer for 13 months (and won), my dad had a heart attack 5 months ago and my mother-in-law has never attempted anything like this before. We all made it to the top and got some great pictures. It was an awesome day! :-)