Um

I still feel like I have nothing exciting to report. Entries closed for the agility trial of the bearded collie national this week and I've been going crazy trying to process them all, put together the catalog, contact people who owe money, etc etc etc. I will be very happy when this thing is over, in precisely....24 days.


Next week I start masters swim. Shit. Time to put my big girl panties on and face the humiliation. They tell me this will make me a better swimmer. I sure as hell can't get any worse!


Many of the women I admire in the blogosphere are headed to Kona soon to compete or spectate at the Ironman World Championships. I'm nowhere near the level of that kind of competition but I'm still jealous of everyone getting the opportunity to just BE there, close to the action, surrounded by so many people involved in this sport. And come on, it doesn't hurt that they'll get to ogle some incredibly fit triathletes as well.


Good luck to Melissa who is racing the Twin Cities Marathon this weekend! Melissa is going to be my roommate at All Women's Tri-Bloggers camp in Florida in February. Also good luck to Lisa at the Longhorn 70.3 tri in Austin! The #$%&*ing airline destroyed her bike on the way there but she's carrying on with a replacement bike and a positive attitude.


Stanley and I visited with his sister MacKenzie at an obedience/rally trial last weekend. She did great and got her first two Rally Novice legs! These two aren't related at all, are they? One thing to look forward to at the National...we'll have a bunch of Stan's littermates together and should get some wonderful photos of the goofballs!


We're cocooning in this weekend. Stan and I were supposed to go to an obedience trial ~150 miles away but with the first storm of fall rolling in have decided to bag on it. Instead we'll be hanging out at home and I'll be doing some swimming, biking and running (what a shock!).

Have a great weekend!

Breaking the silence...

Every time I thought about blogging this week, I thought nothing exciting enough was happening to bother. But now that I think about it, I've been pretty busy:


I took Fiona out for her maiden voyage on Thursday, for a short ride, and was very happy with how she felt. We went out today for a longer ride and I'm getting better at changing gears and generally figuring out how to ride a new bike.


Stanley and I went herding again on Friday. My chin was split open from an enthusiastic greeting by a dog at Herding 4 Ewe (and while I feel quite disfigured, it is healing nicely and just looks like a big cut down my chin).


Hockey season is here! WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! We went to Sharks pre-season games Friday and Saturday nights. The season opener is October 9th.

I ran a trail 10K on Saturday. The folks at Pacific Coast Trail Runs put on many lovely small trail races and I could see why they are so popular. I was not planning to run all out but to use this as a training run - that said, I still came within 2 minutes of my (flat course, 3-year-old) 10K PR. I came in 6th out of 22 in my age group!

My running is going to pick up this week, as I start training for the Las Vegas half marathon. Last year I nearly ran this race in an Elvis costume and chickened out at the last minute. This year I'm hoping for a new PR and will be enjoying Vegas with several of the ladies of Smofit.* It's also my last week of pre-masters swim and then I have to get out of the kiddie pool and swim with the big girls in masters.

*super-secret fitness message board that some friends and I frequent

Look what came home today!

Finally, our new family member is here! Jeff says I need to sell my mountain bike to clear up some room in the garage - apparently 5 bicycles is putting us a bit over our limit.

Thanks to the guys at Willow Glen Bicycles for all of their help, free stuff, and advice!

Tri For Real Race Report

Adapted from my email to Liz

Nothing went right in the day before the race. Stan is wearing a cone collar to keep him from chewing on a sore spot and banged it around all night. The alarm did not go off this morning and I woke up 5 minutes before my planned departure - and still left the house on time (except without Jeff) because I had packed well. The body marking lady was mean to me. I accidentally let the air out of my tires trying to fill them (usual Jeff duty). I couldn't get the tire pressure high enough. My friend did it for me and broke the stem of my tube, necessitating that I change the tube out. I couldn't get the tire off...thankfully some nice guy helped me change the tire.

But I did get to the race site on time and get my favorite spot in transition there - right near the bike in/out and run out.

Swim: Shadow Cliffs has dropped a couple feet since I raced there in June and grown some nice green mold around the edges. But the water was warm compared to air temperature. The swim was out about 300 yds, turn left for about 100 yds, and turn left for 300 yds back to the beach. There were only 2 buoys total - at the turns - and this made it a bit hard to sight. I was to take this swim easy and just focus on being smooth and relaxed. I followed feet out to the first buoy and through the turn. After the 2nd turn, I was more alone and had a hard time sighting to the bland non-marked beach. I wandered around a bit more than I would have liked in the water but finished feeling good and not tired. In talking to people, we think this course might have been longer than 700 yds.

T1: Hurried through trying to make up time, I was in and out within 2 minutes.

Bike: As instructed, I took it easier for the first 10 minutes, eating and drinking and spinning my legs at a high cadence. There was more headwind than last time I raced here. I picked it up after 10 minutes and started passing a lot of people, especially those in my age group. When I came around for the 2nd lap I was much faster than the first and felt good. The course was under advertised distance here - most of us got ~16.5 miles. I averaged ~18.2mph.

T2: In and out in 30 seconds. Ah the beauty of being RIGHT. THERE. at the bike in/run out.

Run: Miles aren't marked on this course so I used blocks of time as approximate markers to increase pace as per my instructions. I took it easier the first half to full mile, letting my heart rate come down and focusing on good turnover. I was passed by one person in my age group during that time. I was not passed by anyone in any group for the rest of the run. I pushed as hard as I could, especially at the end of the run. There were some steep hills on the trails and as much as I didn't want to, I ran them all. It felt good to pass a lot of guys who started the race 10-20 minutes ahead of me! 4 mi run at avg 8:19/mi - probably my best pace on a triathlon run up to this point.

Total time: 1:48. My goal going in for the day was to break 1:55!

I also finally got to meet 21st Century Mom (who totally kicked butt and beat her goal time) and she did get a picture of us together, so keep an eye out for her posting it!

Need I say...busy!

Even when I'm supposed to slow down, life never seems to.

Friday - I went sheep herding with Stanley. Haven't been on stock in a few months so we were back at it with the knowledge that his first herding trial, the national, is just 5 weeks away. It went quite well! Stan is fantastic, I just need to figure out how to handle - and fast!

Saturday - Agility fun match. Max had a bunch of great runs and I took Stan out for a few jumps and tunnels as well. Just some basic exposure to a trial setting so that I could see how he would react - would he be one of those beardies who runs off-course to visit with people and dogs? Nope, he stuck right with me and had a blast. A bit too much fun if you ask me, and we've got a lot of work still to do, but he did well and people gave us a lot of compliments.

No videos or photos of either day of course because I forgot the camera on Friday and found out the video camera was not charged today. *sigh*

Tomorrow - my sprint race. Woooeeeee! It's going to be FUN!

If you loved Les Miserables

then you'll laugh at Les Misbarack!

*drool* or Why I Spent $15 On Chocolate Today

I have worked for a wonderful woman for the past 8 years, across 3 companies (4 if you include an acquisition). I don't think I could ask for a better mentor. She even understands my crazy dog and triathlon addictions enough to let me work away from the office as needed (sometimes thousands of miles away), train in the middle of the day, take off for races or agility trials, etc. Why? Because she knows that when she needs an emergency handled at 10:00 on a Friday night, I will be there on the phone and emailing with her to get it done. Seriously, she rocks and I'd follow her to any company (and already have several times).

BUT. (There's always a but, right?)

But. She usually has a variety of international delicacies in her office and encourages a taste whenever we meet. Sometime last year, she went through a phase where there was always a variety of chocolate on her table. And that is when it happened. I fell. Hard. For Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzapan.

As it happens, this delicious and highly addictive treat is not available at most big-name grocery stores. I have to drive out of my way to find it. For the most part, this has meant that I don't have any in the house and am safe from consuming large quantities at once. When I do buy it though, I have to stock up since I won't be able to get it easily, right?

Today we were out running errands (Sports Basement - goggles, pull buoy, swimsuit, Gu2O, Luna moons and bars, etc. Pet Food Express - bully sticks, frozen bones, treats, new stuffed toys because we can not resist buying more for the world's most spoiled dogs) and I made Jeff drive several miles out of his way, in a route that involved 3 U-turns, so that I could dash into Cosentino's (gourmet grocery store) because "honey, there's something I really need there."

Now safe in the knowledge that I have it available when I need it, the chocolate is stashed in the back of my training cabinet (storage spot for Luna Moons, Gu2O, bike water bottles, Cliff bars, etc) and I haven't even cracked open one package. Given how healthy I have been eating lately (and I'm talking uber-healthy, more vegetables than I know what to do with and losing weight I wasn't even trying to lose), I figure it's OK to have a small sweet reward when I need it. At least I'm consuming the high quality stuff and not total crap - I mean, this is fancy Columbian cocaine we're talking about, not your cheap cough-syrup meth here.

Just don't ask me if any of it is left in a week - I can't guarantee it won't all vanish in a post-race binge. If I have to eat the pain, then I'm eating the post-pain sweets too.