Pupdate: 12 days old

Leezza has been a WONDERFUL momma and is clearly conferring her sweet relaxed nature on these puppies.

Fat happy shiny puplets are the best!

Their eyes aren’t quite open yet but they are starting to get up and really move around the box.  Things will get very interesting soon!

And as a side note for any interested parties, Pat IS coming to California for the NCBCF Regional specialty in June, right around the time these guys will be ready to go to new homes.  You know, just in case…  I did already volunteer to handle puppies in the show ring if any of Stan’s kids end up out here.

Anatomy of a Birthday – April 29, 2010

6:00 am. Walk 3 dogs in the dark on the high school field.

6:45 am. Bike in garage.

8:00 am. Giggle at Stanley disemboweling his blue penguin.

9:30 am. Go to office.

10:45 am. Time for a birthday cookie and hot chocolate.

11:45 am. Laugh at exuberant greeting husband receives from dogs after 2-day business trip.

11:50 am. Run around yard with dogs until we are all panting for air.

12:15 pm. Lunch at Santana Row + 2 mimosas.

1:30 pm – 3:30 pm. Nap.

3:45 pm. My very own bike case from Jeff!

4:00 pm. Pre-game dog walk.

4:20 pm. Flowers from Yvonne!

5:58 pm. Hockey time. The 2nd round begins.

6:00 pm – 9:00 pm. Sharks WIN.

10:00 pm. Bed. End to a very very good day.

Wherein I Am Spoiled

Or just a cranky bitch.

Maybe I started my little race career with some really well-run races.  Or I just have high expectations.

But it’s simply not acceptable that 10 days before a major race that includes a 1/2 Iron distance, there is no athlete guide out (goodness, even the SPRINT I did last week had a race guide out 4 weeks in advance with ALL relevant information), the distances on the online race maps don’t match the advertised distances, and the website is distinctly lacking in information (location of aid stations? swim course map? what bike support will exist at the expo? bike shipping options? a little late for that).  For that matter the website is extremely disorganized and difficult to follow. 

Yes, Rev3, I’m talking about you.  And for a race series that touts its superior management, I’m not impressed yet.  I really sincerely hope that the experience in Knoxville next week reverses my first impression.

Rant over.

New Trial Photos

I finally got photos from the Silver State Kennel Club trial in Vegas a few weeks ago. I don’t have many agility pictures of Stanley yet so I do tend to buy more of them right now than I do of Max.

The Steady Experienced Dog

The Speedy Youngster

Photos courtesy of Pyro Images

10 Honest Things

I got tagged by Maria to post 10 honest things, so here goes, I’ll try to incorporate it into my week’s wrapup.

1) I’m not squeamish about lizards.  This guy has been making appearances around our house for a few months.  He must be eating well as he’s nearly 12 inches long.

2) Running gives me such a high, it’s amazing.  I finished up my little training week with a reasonably hard run that involved a series of intervals at 10K pace.  I had to laugh at my own swagger when I was done, I just felt so good!

3) I’m pretty well in love with the 1 week old babies – they’re growing so fast!  There should be individual 1 week photos of them posted sometime soon here.

4) Their sire does a number on me too.  Who can resist those eyes?  Can you believe those little goobers grow up into big goobers like this?

5) It’s always interesting to see what happens to old classmates.  I stumbled upon my ultimate junior high bully on Facebook.  Yeah, not so impressed with how he’s turned out.  And I was just informed that Paris Hilton’s newest squeeze, a fashion model she used to date, was a college classmate of mine at the University of Chicago.  Gee, I guess I *really* wasn’t paying attention in the dining hall.

6) Everyone I know is dropping like flies – I know it’s a function of our age group but it seems like everyone everywhere around me is pregnant.  It sort of makes me wonder how one survives their 30s and finds friends to do things with if you don’t have kids…while I know we’ll still be friends, I also know that priorities and availability DO change.  I’m happy for everyone, don’t get me wrong, but it just feels like it’s achieved critical mass lately.  Talking to Jeff about how he got through it is no help – his friends were all guys who just leave the kids at home with mom and go out for a beer.  I suppose time will tell.

7) I have a total hockey hangover today.  No, I didn’t drink but the Sharks have played some real heart attack hockey in the 1st round and the Avalanche gave them a serious challenge.  The series was clinched in Colorado last night and now we wait and wait and wait to see what happens in the 2nd round.  Kudos to the Avs for a series well played!

8) I am more grateful to Jeff, for supporting me as I completely changed my life, than he possibly ever realizes.  And to Max for introducing us in the first place.  And even to that big drooly lug Cujo for sharing in the blame.

9) I don’t have a very high opinion of most reality TV.  Blame the U of C elitist in me but…it’s such trash. 

10) While I don’t post them, I set ambitious race goals for myself.  Sometimes I achieve them, sometimes I don’t.  As long as I did my best, that’s OK.  But just in case you ever wonder if I am just winging it versus aiming for a certain number…oh yeah, I am.

Training totals for April 19-25:
Swim: 7350 yards
Bike: 64.3 miles
Run: 17.5 miles
Strength: 30 mins of TRX
Total time: 10.5 hours

Exactly 2 weeks till Rev3 race day!

The Wheels on the Bike Go Round and Round

Or, lessons in how random my brain can be.

Fear

Knoxville is 2 weeks away.  It’s “only” an Olympic distance race but it’s also only my 2nd Olympic ever.  My first was at Wildflower, with less than a year of triathlon under my belt.  Is it bad when the way I have been trying to calm my nerves lately is to say “it HAS to be better than Wildflower?” 

Last night I had a dream that I was there at the race, except for some reason it was in Mexico and my dogs were with me and chilling in the hotel room.  I got lost on the swim and when I got out of the water, I couldn’t find transition.  After running around in this town for an hour and starting to worry about my dogs, I realized the chance to PR was shot and I should give up on the race (yet somehow in my dream state I still thought “I should ask Coach if I can do the San Jose International in June as a makeup race”).  Suddenly I was dealing with the military guy from Rambo, who told me my husband was dead, Max was missing, and presented me with a hairless terrified Stanley who had been chased through brambles by people who thought it was funny.  And then the locals were chasing me and Stanley with rocket launchers.

So yes, the pre-race dreams have begun.  Lovely.

Puppies

All is well with the puppies, they appear to be growing like weeds when I check in on them on the webcam (not a public link).  Hopefully some new pictures will be taken tomorrow when they are 1 week old.

Hockey

Thursday night was a very good game.  The 1st round has been crazy across the board – no sweeps in any series and lots of ping-ponging on the series leads.

This was, I think, from goal #5 on Thursday.

Rollin Rollin Rollin…

Apparently spending the entire winter and spring on my trainer in the garage doing hard wattage intervals was worth it.  There is no doubt in my mind after today that I’m stronger on hills and in wind than I was at any point last year.

Jeff, Nigel and Val accompanied me on the bike portion of my swim-bike brick today.  They knew I had intervals to do and we decided they’d just wing it and if I broke off, we’d meet up again at the end.  As it turned out, we all stuck together fairly well.

With all the rain we’ve had, the hills are at their finest!

Egghead (forgot to take the sticker from Saturday’s race off)

Rewards

Make hard work worthwhile.

In Mah Belleh

I’m working on transitioning the beardies back to a raw diet.  I raised Max on mostly raw and fell off the wagon a few years ago just due to convenience.  I’ve recently found a local company that packages individual serving for each dog and delivers to your home so we’re going to give it a try.  In the meantime I am switching the boys over with Natures Variety raw patties until the new stuff arrives.  We’re fortunate to be friends with so many raw feeders whose dogs are in fantastic shape.  I think it will be worth the added $$ to give the boys even better food.

New Shoes

I finally got tri shoes for my bike after 3 years in road bike shoes.  It may be fairly obvious which pair is which :-)  If nothing else, the bloodstains from falling during my first clipped-in ride give it away.   I’ll be riding sockless in them and they feel great!

Puppy Picture of the Day

At the Milk Bar

Puppies!

Six beautiful healthy puppies were born last night, 5 boys and 1 girl! Jeff’s comment: “Way to go, Stan, putting the stem on the apple.”  Men. 

They are all beautifully marked and look promising - I’m excited to see how they turn out when they grow a bit.  Right now it’s a bit like looking at wet gophers.

Click on the photo to follow the link to pictures of all of them.

Randomness

* When I brushed my teeth last night and went to rinse, I spat out copious amounts of blood.  Hmm, I guess I got kicked in the mouth somewhere along the way in the swim?  I don’t remember it, but this happened to me in the Barb’s Race swim last year too.

* My feet HURT.  Everything else is OK.  But the bottoms of my feet…it’s just about impossible to walk barefoot right now.  Let’s just say I am consistent about running hard in transitions and I don’t tend to notice rocks along the way when I am focused.  Ow.

* After 8 hours of sleep, it was time for a 2 hour drive to Sacramento for Stanley and I to hit the dog show.  Goober showed so nicely, I was very proud of how well he is coming along.  And his brown baby brother Bean went Winners Dog for his 2nd championship point!

* Puppies are on the way! So far it sounds like things are coming along well.  Hopefully photos tomorrow!

Training totals for April 12-18:
Swim: 4850 yards
Bike: 21.3 miles
Run: 8.2 miles
Total time: 4.6 hours

The “easy” race week is over, time for some big weeks of work before Rev3!

Vineman Showdown 2010

I had to do Vineman Showdown again this year…after last year’s issues at this race (fall, bike problems, wearing chain grease across my face, etc), I wanted to come back and be a little more successful. That said, I probably won’t do this race again with the course changes they made and my general lack of enthusiasm for afternoon starts (this year the race started at 4pm, my wave at 4:30 pm). Still it was exciting as today was Jenn’s first triathlon! I will let her tell her race story on her own blog but I’m very proud of her!!!

Enough waiting already, let’s start!

Our wave goes off!

0.25 mi Swim. Including run onto the beach and up a steep hill to the timing mat. 2009 time: 10:16. 2010 time: 7:25

T1. 2009 time: 2:21. 2010 time: 2:07 Got my wetsuit off a little faster.

New added course feature (blech): 0.25 mi run with your bike to the mount line. Uphill. 2:19.

9 mile Bike. Windy, hilly, bumpy and fun! 2009 time: 42:10. 2010 time: 33:31

New added course feature (double blech): 0.25 mi run with your bike from the dismount line to transition. Steep downhills. 2:18.

3 mile Run. Uphill, downhill, flat, uphill, downhill, flat. 2009 time: 25:49. 2010 time: 25:12. With that extra 1/2 mile of running with my bike weighing on my legs, I’ll take it.

Done. Really really really done. Total time 7.5 minutes faster than last year, even with that extra 1/2 mile of hill running thrown in.

After cheering Jenn in to her finish…*

*I may or may not only be posting this picture because it makes my butt look small.

we were happy to be done with our “evening” sprint and go home!

Super duper huge gigantic thanks to my wonderful amazing fantastic rockstar husband for driving me to and from the race, taking pictures and generally being awesome.

I have…

I have…pretty new tri shoes for my bike.  But I won’t get to wear them to race this weekend – Speedplay’s staff is off playing at Sea Otter and not fulfilling orders for my bike shop this week so cleats for my new shoes will wait.  It’s OK, now I get time to practice wearing them before Rev3.

I have…algae in my sinuses.  Not really.  I hope.  But I swam at Quarry Lakes yesterday and the water has apparently been a welcoming environment for green growth.  I spent the whole half hour watching green globs float past my face.  It made me feel like I was going fast LOL

I have…a crapload of work to get done before Rev3.  My first draft of a big regulatory filing have to be completed by the end of next week with the final done by the week of the race.  Busy little bee, I am! 

I have…one seriously full schedule for this weekend.  2 playoff hockey games (1 home, 1 away), 2 races (1 as a spectator, 1 as a participant), and a dog show.  Do you ever look forward to Mondays as being more restful than your weekend?

I have…one more event to look forward to this weekend.  Six hopefully bouncy and healthy Stanley-Leezza puppies (American/Canadian CH Highlander He Shoots He Scores HT NA NAJ PJ1 x CH Burlesque The Diplomat) are due to be born in the next few days!  I firmly believe this stuff is not to be undertaken lightly, with the showing and titling and health testing and temperament evaluation.  In addition, I’ve always felt it was very important for me to put titles “on both ends of the dog” – i.e. not just show my dogs in conformation but prove they are biddable, smart and can work in multiple venues (agility, herding, obedience, etc).  With that said, I’m very excited for Pat Colombo of Burlesque Bearded Collies and wish I lived closer to Ohio so I could be there to evaluate Stanley’s kiddos.

The Baby Daddy when he was a baby, already sleeping on his back

“It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year….”

It’s my favorite time of all: hockey playoff season!!!!  Win or lose, it’s some of the best hockey of the year.  The next couple months will be very exciting!!!

Broadcasting crew – love these guys

Here comes the fun!!!