TGIF!

I continue my random post streak, it seems…lots of small things to share, never enough to constitute a whole blog post on their own.

I’m officially in love with kombucha.  I don’t know why I feared trying it or what it might taste like.  Now I need to find more! (there’s a bit of a shortage on the market right now)

Monthly departmental highlights were due to me at noon today from the managers I work with.  Based on their track record of timeliness, I opted to go to lunch at the beach!

The food at Zelda’s is so-so but the view is perfect!  The downside of a restaurant right at the beach is sometimes the people-watching goes a bit awry…I got to see far too much of one bare white ass as the guy closest to us adjusted his shorts repeatedly.

I really can’t believe all those people sunning in bathing suits.  I didn’t find it warm at all and was as bundled up as I could get!

Stanley and I are getting back to rally obedience practices so I can get him in the ring to compete.  It’s been a VERY long time for us (nearly 2 years) since we worked on this.  The nice part is that Stanley has passed through adolescence since then and has his brain back, even after playing with his new girlfriend (ah, the life of a 3-year-old boy, he falls in love at the drop of a hat).  We may just get back in to competition sometime soon…

After the expedited day of rest yesterday, I was back to training today with 5:30 am masters (1800 yards of kicking, OMG) and a trail run.  What a difference a day makes! My legs are a million times better.  Bring on the weekend!

It’s Hump Day

I had an easy soft-surface run on tap for this morning – I spent it doing circles on the soccer field at the high school.  I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to run when I started…still stiff.  After that I had a bike ride with some power intervals.  I was able to hit the wattages no problem but the whole thing just wore me out more than an hour ride should have.  I cried “uncle!” to Coach and she suggested switching Friday’s rest day to tomorrow.  So I get my day off a little early and I’m sure my legs will appreciate it.  I hadn’t expected that “let’s get back to basics” this week would mean “let’s hurt like it’s January and you haven’t lifted weights in months.”

I got some agility photos from recent trials by email and mail today.  Love these shots of the boys!

Stanley

Clearly making the jump height isn’t an issue.

Above photos by Dog Gone Digital, below photos by Dynamic Dog Photos

I love the look he’s giving me on this contact

Max

I *heart* my steady old teammate!

I thought I was entered in an agility trial this weekend but apparently I forgot to send in my entry.  Oops.  That will just mean more time to relax after training.  A free weekend after quite a few straight weeks of racing and trialing is not a bad thing.

In other news, I am always excited on Wednesdays because it’s the day I go to the farmers market.  They Today I grabbed some apricots, more cherries, cherry tomatoes and a flat of strawberries for my mom.  Berries are omnipresent at our farmers markets all season so I will wait to load up on them later in the summer, along with the 10,000 varieties of plums that will appear next month.  After several friends posted intriguing food pictures on Facebook and blogs, I had to hit up Whole Foods today too – I completely lack creativity when it comes to food so I have to steal idea from everyone else!  We’ll see what I can come up with from what I bought.

Phew! This week is dragging by awfully slowly…bring on the shorter workweeks around the holiday next week!

*whine* *sob* *moan*

I’m feeling those lunges alright.  *gasp*  Note to self: don’t try to foam-roll your calves and hamstrings when they hurt this much.  OMG!!!!

I got Stanley’s Open Standard videos from this past weekend’s trial.  He’s getting better, bit by bit!

Monday Miscellany

I just got video of Stanley’s Open Standard run at the NCBCF Regional a couple weeks ago.  It was nice to have confirmation that other than totally forgetting how to do the tire jump, he ran really nicely for me!  I hope things will continue to improve with age and we can harness the drive he clearly has.

I took the wild bunch to my parents’ house yesterday for Fathers Day dinner.  Stan enjoyed doing tricks for food for my 10-year-old brothers.  Cujo may be losing his hearing but he was smart enough to figure out who to stare down for snackies.

With six of nine of his children

I’ve managed to do absolutely no training since SVIT and it’s been lovely.  But today was back to training and, based on the way my thighs rubbed, back to cleaner eating.  Run drills at the track were a great way to ease back into things but the 200 lunges that went with them may hurt a bit later in the week.  There are some smaller events along the way but the big goal at this point is my A-race 1/2 IM in 4 months.  I suspect it won’t be too long until the volume picks up!

I hope everyone has a wonderful first week of summer!

Dawgs

No better thing than clean, freshly groomed dogs. 

Over 2 days, I’ve managed to do them both – bathing, drying, drying some more, brushing and grooming, and so on.  This is what happens when you get a week off of triathlon and suddenly have time to spare!

Max looks so puppyish next to his much younger nephew here!

Somehow it occurred to me today that I can show Max in veterans now.  He’s been eligible age-wise for over a year but I never really thought about it.  With several specialty shows still to go this year though, I realized I can take him back in the ring NOW.  Not with any intent of going out to win something but just to take the old dude for a spin around the ring and do something else together that we enjoy.

Why is it that just about the time you realize they’ve settled down and aren’t strung higher than a kite anymore, you also have to face the fact that your dog is aging?  Max is only 8 and his father lived to 15 and I’ve told him for years he is required to live 20.  But still…there is some recognition of the fact that he’s not the hyper adolescent he used to be, that he does a few things a little slower some days, and that we’re sharing this nice middle-age stage together.  And let me make this clear:

I AM NOT READY FOR IT!

It’s a good thing I have the goofball in the house to remind me we’re all old compared to Stanley.

Race Photos

I have a love-hate relationship with race photos and photographers.  I get all excited when I get the email that race photos are online, then inevitably I am disappointed at how tired/fat/etc I look when I see the pictures, after thinking I’d felt really strong when they were taken.

So anyway, a selection of the “official” photos from SVIT last Sunday.

Mermaid Photo

This was the only photo I really liked from last week’s Mermaid Triathlon. 

There were TONS of photographers on course for the Olympic yesterday – like 4 or 5 of them on the run course alone! – so I hope to have some nice pictures from that!