Get some East Coast!

Besides eye-balling Rock'n'Roll Virginia Beach next fall, I've found three more races that I'm totally in love with:

The Lejeune Half Marathon is pretty much what made me want to do a marathon. I did my first race in August 2004. When we first moved to NC, I saw a flier for an 8k Mud Run that I wanted to do so badly, but I thought that there's no way I'd ever be able to survive 5 whole miles of running. The next summer while Chris was in Afghanistan, I started running to get into shape and decided fuck it - I'm signing up for the 8k. I never thought I'd make it past 2 miles, so crossing that 8k finish line was like being reborn. I discovered that the person I thought I was is no match for the one I really am. The next thing I knew, a flyer showed up in my mailbox for a 10k. Well, if I made it 5 miles surely I can do 6. And I finished my first 10k. Then a flyer arrived for a half marathon. No way, everyone told me. You'll hurt yourself, that's too much for you, you'll never make it. So I didn't sign up.

Then I started see people wearing these beautiful long sleeved blue shirts from the half marathon. I wanted one of those shirts. And I realized, I didn't even try. Once again I gave up on myself, once again I let fear control my life and keep me from doing something I wanted to do with my whole heart. I decided, not any more. I made my 2005 New Year's resolution to do the most foolishly impossible thing I could think of - a full marathon. I finished my first half marathon in September 05 and my first full January 06.

Coming back to Lejeune to do the race that got all of this started would be a dream come true.*

The OBX Marathon was started just months after we left NC. I've done marathons in Oregon, Washington (next month), Virginia, and Florida and I'd love to add Cackalacky to that list with OBX :) I've read that the organizers have fixed the major issues with the race. The only major complaint I've come across is the difficult spectators have getting to the finish line. But if I run the marathon, I'll probably be running by myself (the baby -knock on wood- either with a good friend in Jacksonville or at the base day care. Hubby will either be too busy with TBS or in need of a good long weekend of sleep and I understand that).

Beach2Battleship is an Iron distance tri in Wilmington, NC. I love Wilmington! If I were to chose a place to live on the East Coast, Wilmington would be it. I've ran parts of the course doing some 10k's in Wilmington (one of which started my addiction to Bojangles chicken biscuits), so I'd love to be able to come back and run the complete half marathon course. I also really need to replace the 26.2 sticker on the car and I refuse to replace with anything other than a 70.3

Plus - I haven't even scratched the surface of what's going on around Quantico and DC. Marine Corps Marathon is in the fall and I'm sure there's plenty to explore around the base.

Of course, all of this depends on when/if I get pregnant, how much training I'm able to do comfortably while pregnant, how our finances are doing, and when Chris begins TBS in Quantico. We've still got over 9 months before we know where we'll be next year. The Marine Corps has been very good to us with MECEP and being stationed at OSU, we'll just have to see how things work themselves out. As the saying goes, anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything.

Holy flipping crap - I'm getting excited about returning to the fleet :)

I miss the smell of cammies every morning, I miss driving on base to pick up my Marine at odd hours of the day and night, I miss forgetting to bring tip money to the grocery store, I miss KV meetings, I miss watching his LCAC disappear into the ship, I miss having an endless supply of boot bands all over the house, I miss the OWC ladies, I miss going to the beach hoping just to catch a glimpse of the lights on the horizon, I miss homecoming sex, I miss phone calls at 3am where all you get to say is "I love you" before the reception is lost, I miss reading the trashy gossip magazines every Sunday during Hubby's hair cut, I miss scrubbing cammie paint off the tub, I miss knowing that no matter how far away he is I'll always be in his heart, I miss having to translate for our civilian friends, I miss running through fake protesters and real riot squads, I miss the guys in the unit, I miss the incredible liquor selection at every c-store, I miss seeing a movie with a coke and popcorn for $5, I miss stressing out because I can't find the POA, I miss getting hit on everywhere by you go, I miss his smelly PT shirts, I miss every other store being a tattoo parlor, strip club, or pawn shop, I miss SOCEX and CAPEX and TRUEX and all the other EX's, I miss being called Mulkey's Wife, I miss feeling like a family with an entire town...

I just miss being a real Marine wife :(

* I forgot to mention, in 2005 the entire race series for Lejeune was cancelled due to lack of Marines to participate and we left before the race in 2006. I'm not sure why the race organizers thought that OIF3 would make participation so low, or maybe OIF2 made 2004 such bad year they didn't want to try in 2005. Regardless, I never got the chance to run the "one that got away".

Leaving...

We're off to Yellowstone :) Tonight we're headed up to Portland to drop off Hank with my brother. Tomorrow we'll drive to Boise to see our friends Colt and Chelsi before they get married. I'm not sure what there is to do in Boise, but Colt has promised to show us around downtown. Hmmmm. I think I'd better take Apples to Apples just in case lol Then we arrive in West Yellowstone to meet the rest of my family on Thursday.

Getting a little worried about the up-coming marathons. My long runs have been lacking recently. The weather's been pretty darn hot, so I either squeeze in a short run before the sun goes down or get up early for a longer run. I've been having some major trouble sleeping lately (my brain won't shut off before 2am even with sleepy pills). I'm not much of a morning person anyways, so getting up early has been next to impossible.

I'm taking a break from triathlons. When I got out of the water during the PDX tri, I knew that it was time that triathlons and I see other people. Just feeling a little burnt out and frustrated. My first year running I only did 3 races as well (an 8k mud run, and two road 10k's), so doing only 3 triathlons this year seems about right. Maybe next year I'll up it to an Oly, then the year after that go for the HIM.

For now, just gotta focus on getting those long runs in and finishing school. I'm taking 17 credits this fall and probably another 17 or 18 in winter. I'm trying to set up my schedule so that I can return to OSU for my last term and that I'll only have to worry about transferring one more class before graduating from UO next spring. I'm pretty excited about my fall schedule. I'm taking the required 4th year spoken and written Japanese classes, and for my electives a cyberpunk film class (we're watching Akira!!! wooooot!!), a history class about the US in the 1960's, and an intro to fencing PE class. I'm going to be one busy bee, but spending only 6 months away from Chris instead of 9 months will be very much worth it.

I need to finish putting away the dishes before we leave. Boo. I hate dishes.

PDX Tri

Saturday afternoon I picked up my packet for the tri. I was surprised to not see that many people there; I thought the tri would be much busier. I switched from the Olympic to the sprint distance. Even without the staples in my noggin, I think 1/2 mile swim is barely doable for me. There's no way I was going from the 1/4 mile swim at the Midsummer tri to a 1k swim :P

After the packet pick up, we headed to Psycho Safeway downtown for a little brown bag lunch/breakfast. That place never changes. Even though it's been very nicely remodled, it's still a swirling malestrom of the unwashed/elderly masses (and a richy rich down from Goose Hollow every now and again).

The wedding went nicely. The Marine wives got to sit around and chat while our hubbies were getting dressed in their blues and taking pictures. The coordinator was a little odd. She would not let Nikki and I sit with Jiana in the church, so Jiana had to sneak across the aisle like we were in grade school or something. The ceremony was beautiful, especially the touching homily. I always cry at weddings! :_) lol

The reception had the most delicious peach, vodka, and sparkling wine cocktails at the hosted bar, so of course I had to drink plenty of those lol Chris helped himself to lots of Black Butte Porter too. For some reason, Chris and I kept getting bugged by the bartenders about getting two drinks when we're the oldest Marine couple there. Even our friend Ed, who is married to someone under 21, wasn't getting harrassed about double fisting. Guess you gotta keep an eye on us "skeezy eastsiders" as Ian put it lol (Ian also grew up in ghetto fabulous SE Portland, although I think I'm the only official Felony Flater, and the reception was held at the Multnomah Althetic Club in the afore-mentioned Goose Hollow neighborhood.)

Chris decided it was time leave about 9:30pm. He said that he was only thinking about getting me to bed for the tri in the morning, but it was suspeciously after the host bar closed and as soon as the dancing began. Hmmmmm....

Even with the help of some Tylenol PM's, I couldn't get to sleep until after midnight. Waking up about 4am sucks. I think that's the worst part of racing - tearing yourself out of bed at an ungodly hour. Why can't more races be like Boston and not start until noon??

We get to the race and find a great parking space under the Hawthorne Bridge. I get my transition area all set up, got a latte from Starbucks, then just waited for my wave to begin. (Although a good thing to note: go to the honey bucket before you put your wetsuit on.)

I didn't get nervous until we had to head down to the dock. I suddenly felt like calling the whole thing off and hiding under the bed with Hank.

The best part of the swim (besides when it's over): wetsuit=awesome! I wasn't sure what to expect, how warm it would keep me, how that water would feel, ect. I cautiously put a foot in Willamette. Yeah, it's officially cold. But there was no delicate way of slowing getting into the water, so sploosh - off the dock I went. And yay! the wetsuit made the water nice and snuggly :) I felt even warmer than getting into the pool sometimes.

The gun went off and I clung to the side of the dock for a moment letting most of the wave leave. I instantly hated putting my face in the water again. And as a bonus surprise, my goggles decide to fog up too. I tried to rinse them out like I do in the pool but without a bottom to rest on that wasn't happening. I gave up and decided to lick them. I went from foggy whiteness to spitty glopness. Ug. Well, I wasn't out there to sight see. As long as I can head in the direction of the blurry orange buoy I'll be alright. (Now I know that you can take a break on one of the kayaks, but at the time I thought that just touching one of the helpers would mean a DQ.)

I was cruising towards the turn around buoy. I wasn't setting any records but it didn't feel like I'd never reach the buoy either. Zoom under the bridge. Zoom to the turn around. Then, wait a minute, what the hell is this? Why do I keep getting closer and closer to the seawall? Why is getting back to the bridge taking so freakin long?? Oh. That's right, the current. I forgot, I'm now headed against the current >:( I tried telling myself it's no different than when you're running and there's a little head wind, but I kept feeling like I was just treading water.

Finally I'm passed the bridge, finally finally finally I reach the last buoy. Then it was time to get out of river. And my legs refused to work. The rocks were especially slippery and even though there were volunteers to help you stand up and reach the shore, I kept flopping back into the water. Reaching solid land, I'm usually overjoyed to begin the bike. This time, I left everything I had in the water.

I slogged through the bike. Two loops of ug. The hills killed me. If I had a cadence counter, I think it would be at 12. My derailer kept making an evil noise. I was scared to switch gears. Although, the sights were wonderful. I went past the new Andaluz house, where I hope to have our little Mulk munchkin at. The gardens, the OHSU trams, the Chart House.

One loop on the run. Down to the Steel, up to the Hawthorne. And I was finished :)

No finisher's medals for us :( We got a frisbee printed with "Yes, I swam in the Williamette". And yes, I've hung it on the wall with all my medals and certificates lol

1/2 mile swim - 31:22
T1 - 4:04
16.4 mile bike - 1:28:53
T2 - 1:29
5k run - 32:41

My weekend...

What were you up to??

Double or nothing

I have the greatest hubby ever!

Chris and I talked about doing the second triathlon after he woke up Saturday afternoon. When I told him how much the entry fee was, he said to do what I needed to do. Sunday morning at the lake, I was supposed to be doing some practice swimming before the tri but the water was too cold. I got about chest deep and refused to do anything else. Chris actually took off his shirt and shoes and jumped into the lake to swim with me. I'm sure the people on the shore thought we were crazy!

We did some swimming together. I felt fine about putting my face in the water and my stroke was smooth. I wasn't loving the dark, greenish water but if I watched the bubbles on my hands I felt just fine. Chris reassured me about the cold weather and I signed up for the Tri-it distance. (The swim is 1/4 mile instead of 1/2 mile, but the bike is still 12 miles and the run a 5k.)

I told myself that Saturday's race was just a warm-up and today was my day. The other people in the Tri-It distance were all really cool and we were chatting waiting for our wave to start. I entered into the start chute feeling good. I swam out to the start line and found a nice place for me at the back of the pack. Unfortunately, as soon as the gun went off, I instantly found putting my face in the water scary. I felt claustrophobic when my head was down and all I could focus on was that I couldn't breath. I tried to freestyle with my head out of the water, but I was just getting splashed in the face. So I flipped over and did the elementary backstroke. I'd do about 10 strokes on my back, then turn over to do a couple of front crawl strokes to sight. It was slow going but at least I was going.

There was some bumping about half way through the swim. A girl swimming next to me seemed to have a hard time sighting, so she was kinda all over the place. At one point she even swam right over the top of me. But I just kept doing my thing. After we turned the last buoy, I was doing more and more front crawl. I think I could smell the barn doors and just wanted to get out of the water as quickly as possible lol I stood up a little earlier than I should have, but I was just so relieved to be on land again that I didn't care about wasting the extra couple of seconds running instead of swimming.

T1 went well and I was off on the bike. I love to bike! So much faster than running and it makes me feel like a kid again :) The ride was pretty uneventful, which is so awesome! I forgot my bike's fanny pack with the flat tire repair kit and I swear I rode through every bit of broken glass on Marine Drive lol I did get a little bit of chub rub on my thigh from the seat, so lots more Body Glide next time. Before I knew it, we hit the turn around by PDX and were back to Blue Lake park. I was too nervous to try the trick of leaving my shoes on the bike and coming into T2 barefoot. Maybe next time.

The 5k went well. I hadn't eaten much because my ShotBloks were tasting like wax :P I was a little slower than I wanted to be, but I was in a nice groove by the end of the run.

Swim - 0:14:42

T1- 3:23

Bike - 0:50:17

T2 - 2:11

Run - 0:32:34

Total - 1:43:07

The only cruddy thing about the Sunday's race - I actually got an age group award! I was thrilled with just finishing and I've only gotten one other AG award ever before (and this was the 40th race I've finished), I didn't even bother checking the results before we left yesterday. When I checked my times this morning, I took 4th place in the Tri-It women's overall and 2nd in my age group. So even though I placed, I didn't get my award :( But I can't be too disappointed - going from a DNF to 4th overall is a nice way to end the weekend.

Yesterday I wanted to get into the pool to see what was going on with putting my face in the water. Without hesitation I was able to push off from the wall and start stroking away. No scary feelings about having my face down. Now I'm wondering if maybe I was holding my breath during the races. Hmmmm. My legs were pretty tired yesterday, so I just did a bunch of swimming with the pull-buoy focusing on zipper drills and bilateral breathing. Felt really good.

Another reason why my hubby is crazy awesome - I was feeling really bad about I how I looked in my swimsuit. There were chicks at the races who looked like they just finished a game of beach volleyball. Tanned, washboard stomaches, cute little tattoos, sporty bikinis, ect. Blah. When I started complaining about them yesterday, Chris hadn't even noticed them. He had been too busy looking at all the different wetsuits people were wearing so he'd know which kind I should buy lol

DNF

I'm very disappointed to say, I couldn't finish the swim at this morning's triathlon.

Not long after the start, I inhaled a bunch of water. I tried to catch my breath and get back into a rythym, but every time I put my face in the water it just got worse and worse. I ran into a patch of seaweed (which I know doesn't sound that scary sitting in front of a computer, but out there in the cold and murk, it was very unsettling to me). I started having a panic attack not even half way to the first buoy. I decided to drop out and swim back to shore before I got even further out and worse off.

I think Chris is relieved to see that I do have limits. I'm not happy about my first DNF, in fact I'm pretty distraught about it and been crying all morning. I hate that fear got the better of me.

Even though I failed, I tried. And I will be out there again. Now I know that I need open water swimming in my training and I had already reserved a wetsuit for the Portland Tri. Also, the Portland Tri just announced a sprint distance along with the olympic, so I'll be switching to the shorter course.

There's another triathlon at the same lake ran by the same people tomorrow morning. I'm not sure about spending even more money on another entry fee, but not getting right back out there is going to upset me. Chris is still asleep (I think he might be coming down with something), so I haven't talked it over with him yet.

We'll see. But for now, I have seaweed goo to wash out of my swimsuit. (Some of it even ended up on my back! Wtf!)

Back in the groove

Training has been really good today. I took a rest day on Sunday because I did my long run with Saturday night's 10k. I moved my swim to today so yesterday could be a rest day too. Seems to have worked out because I felt really good today. Feels especially nice to be back into the training groove after this weekend's funk.

I road around town with my new pedals for the first time today. The entire way to the gym all I could think was, "don't forget to clip out, don't forget to clip out, don't forget to clip out" lol I made it home without falling over on my bike, so I'm very happy with myself.

Swimming went well. Chris saw my bike at the gym and stopped in to join me, but he couldn't tell which one of the swimmers was me. He didn't recognize my new cap and suit, and I must have looked like the other real swimmers because he wasn't able to pick out my goofed up stroke :D

I did a 3 mile run after dinner. At first Jobber, my iPod, was being a jerk. I forget to put on my armband then put on my shirt, so the cord was flopping all over the place and wouldn't stay in my ears. I had to stop, shove my armband and cord under my shirt before I could keep going. Then my shorts would not stay out of my butt. Otherwise, nice and smooth. None of the problems from the 10k. Maybe I won't completely embarass myself at this Saturday's 5k.

Yesterday, we had a good afternoon with my mom, my grandpa, and my sister at my paternal grandparents' house in Lincoln City. We went through boxes mainly of my Grandpa D's things. We found some of his old medals, his military ID cards, a letter from Chesty Puller congratulating him for making the Marine Corps football all-stars, and their wedding invitation. I went through some of Grandma D's cookbooks and journals. Making the decision about what to keep and what to throw away is so difficult. Things that obviously meant a lot to my grandparents (my grandpa's report cards from grade school, his diploma from UNC, first communion items, ect) but there's no way we can keep all of it.

It's especially odd because we weren't that close to my grandparents. Of everyone in the family and my grandparents' friends, I would never have thought we'd be the ones to inherit this position of caring for their home and their belongings. (My dad was the black sheep for many, many years.) I almost feel like a stranger going through stuff at a garage sale. Makes you wonder what people will think when they're cleaning up my stuff. What would they keep? What would they throw away?

Chris and I will join my parents at the beach again this weekend. We're going to iron out some details for the Yellowstone trip in September and maybe rip out some smelly carpets. Until then I have some freshly picked raspberries to turn into scones (or maybe muffins, I haven't decided yet lol)

Just keep swimming

I've had a pretty good training week :) I missed a couple of runs, but other than that, I've been really good about consistantly getting my work outs done.

Chris has joined me in the pool the last couple of times. Swimming with him is much more fun! Plus, I feel like I'm getting a lot better with him there because he's been helping me with the Total Immersion techniques. I moved up from only kicking on my back to sweet spot yesterday and to the fish drills today. Kicking and getting somewhere without fins - nifty! Maybe swimming isn't evil after all :)

Usually in the pool I just feel like I'm fighting with the water the entire time. I look at the other lanes and there's old ladies just cruising along lap after lap after lap. They look so effortless and relaxed while I'm gasping and frustrated. It's like they're graceful little dolphins and I'm lumbering, fugly mantee. I know that I'm doing something (well, probably more like a lot of things) wrong but I don't know what. I'm naturally a floater (poor Chris is a sinker) but when I start to stroke I feel like I have to fight to move forward and struggle to stay afloat. Even after taking swimming lessons at UO during the winter, I made some improvements (putting my face in the water, rythmic breathing) but still struggle to even finish 2 laps. So I read the Total Immersion book and got the freestyle DVD. I feel like I'm making some big improvements lately, maybe I'm not getting any faster or going any further but I'm feeling much more relaxed. Once I get the hang of a drill, it feels stupid easy and like I could keep doing it all day. I actually want to go swimming now. Crazy! Watch out old ladies, I'm coming for you! lol (btw, this is a really good article for Total Immersion - "Why is Swimming So Hard?")

To also help get me in the pool, I ordered some new suits. I was able to find another website, swimoutlet.com, that had the Speedo Flipturns suit I really, really wanted. I can't wait for it to get here! My old suit is looking pretty raggedy and the new one is going to be so cute. Since the cute suit has a strappy back that doesn't look very supportive for running in, I also order a blue Tyr suit for my tri's next month. (Sky blue has become my official triathlon color. My bike is blue and white, my helmet is blue and white, I have an old pair of Asics that are blue, my new bike shoes are silver and blue. Even our Passat is light blue. I didn't mean to start off all matchy-matchy, but now using another color like red or yellow would look really weird.) I gave up on ordering a tri suit because I've been biking in my swimsuit and running shorts just fine and I have no clue which tri suit I should get. Along with my two new suits, I ordered two new swim caps (one's sky blue and the other is pink) and two new goggles. I scratched up my current pair of goggles when I put the anti-fog in them (I read the directions that say to clean your goggles then apply the anti-fog after I used it - d'oh!), so I ordered a pair exactly like my current ones (which are also sky blue) and a pair in raspberry pink. The website also had some cheap but fun suits, like one with sushi and another camouflage, that I'm probably going to order as practice suits next time.

Other than training and spending money, this week has been a lot of fun too. We had Jason and Erin, Chris's brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law, over for some BBQ and sangria Tuesday night. (I'll post the sangria recipe below.) Wednesday we met our friends at a local bar for trivia night. We missed stupid easy questions like who played McGyver on TV and what do you say in Cribbage when you have no cards to play? (Dean Anderson and "go". If my mom knew I'd missed the cribbage one, oh lord lol) But I did score with who played the Scarecrow in The Wiz and what movie did the characters The Blue Raja, Mr Furious and The Bowler appear (Michael Jackson and Mystery Men). We ended up winning a couple of gift certificates and t-shirts - sweet!

We don't have much planned for next week. Chris has finals in some summer classes then starts two new ones. I'm going to try working up to the under-switch drills, pushing my long bike ride to 12 miles, and tomorrow's long run is going to be 5 miles.

I'm off to statisfy my pizza craving :)










The Best Red Wine Sangria (from RecipeGirl.com)

Simple and delicious...

2 large juice oranges, washed; one orange sliced; remaining orange juiced
1 large lemon, washed and sliced
¼ cup granulated sugar (I like to use superfine sugar)
¼ cup Triple Sec
One 750 ml. bottle inexpensive, fruity, medium-bodied red wine, chilled


1. Add sliced orange and lemon and sugar to large pitcher; mash gently with wooden spoon until fruit releases some juice, but is not totally crushed, and sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Stir in orange juice, Triple Sec, and wine; refrigerate for at least 2, and up to 8, hours.
(Becky's note: We found that waiting at least 12 hours makes the sangria much more mellow. The sangria also seems to stay pretty fresh for at least a couple of days, so definately the longer you can wait, the better.)

2 Before serving, add 6 to 8 ice cubes and stir briskly to distribute settled fruit and pulp; serve immediately.
(We found that mashing the fruit completely then straining to get rid of all the extra pulp works best. I also read somewhere that the fruit soaks up the alcohol, so def. mash that fruit up! lol)

Servings: 4

Cooking Tips
*Cook's Illustrated tested this recipe with more expensive red wines too and they found that the cheaper wine tasted just fine. It really is ok to buy an inexpensive bottle for this recipe. I used a Spanish wine... anything like a Rioja or the like is ok.
**The longer sangria sits before drinking, the more smooth and mellow it will taste. A full day is best, but if that isn't possible, give it an absolute minimum of two hours to sit.
***You can easily double or triple the recipe- just switch to a punch bowl instead of a pitcher.

Recipe Source
Modified from Cook's Illustrated

C'est la vie

I just get home and start getting back into the training groove, so now I'm sick :P Ug

The Mt Tabor Doggy Dash last weekend was a lot of fun. At the last minute, Chris decided he wanted to run too. (We have pretty different running styles, speeds and goals, which usual leading to more fighting than running.) I'm glad he did because it was such a nice day for a race. I had forgotten how beautiful the views are and being up there brought back a lot of good high school memories. We wore Hank out pretty good too. Poor poochy isn't big on running anyways and he had worn himself out making new friends all morning, so by the end of the race we were practically dragging Hank up the final hills. Didn't help that we took a wrong turn half way through the race turning the 8k turned into more like a 10k. But all in all, we had a lot of fun.

I got my bike tuned up and just got her back yesterday afternoon. I wanted to take her for a ride today, but now I'm not sure with being sick. I went out for my run after dinner yesteday; I had to fight to finish 2 miles then I got sick afterwards :S So we'll see how I'm feeling before heading out on a bike ride.

Although I haven't had a chance to get back into the pool yet (working on the membership thing with Oregon State's rec center), I've ordered some new goodies :) For starters - I am so ready for a new suit. Chris says my old one looks like I've been dragging my butt across the carpet. Thanks, hon! That's a great mental image lol I think my old suit worn out from sitting on the bleechers before swim class then not properly rinsing out the clorine afterwards. But anyways, my new summer treat:

I also ordered a little lap counter from Sport Count. I can never keep track of my laps either in the pool or on the track. I got the problem solved by either wearing my Polar monitor which counts laps for me or wearing rubber bands around my wrists when I'm at the track (for each lap I just move a rubber band from one wrist to the other until I'm done. It's ghetto but it works lol), but I hadn't figured out what to do in the pool. My Polar is too bulky for the pool and my mind wanders way too much. Hopefully the smaller lap counter is a good solution.

I've been wanting to get a real triathlon suit too, but I'm not sure which one to get. Been looking at a couple of TYR and Zoot models. I think I'm going to order some clipless pedals and shoes soon. Then I can be cool too :)

I think my Nyquil is wearing off. I'd better take another hit and get off to bed...

Getting back

Pics from the Xterra race are up :)

The du looks like it was a lot of fun too:


I'm starting to feel better. Last week, especially Saturday and Sunday, I felt like crap. No energy, no motivation, nothing. Feeling like this is so frustrating because I know my body is trying to tell me some thing's wrong but I can't figure out what it is.

Like I said before, I had originally planned to do my 20 miler on Saturday; I got about 1.5 miles in and had to walk home. I tried again on Sunday; got about two blocks from my room, my body slammed me with a headache and told me to piss off. Right then I decided that I'm done with caffeine and eating sweets. I walked over to the dining hall for a turkey sandwich and milk for my whey protein. My nutrition has been in the dumps lately, so I'm hoping that changing up what I'm eating will help. So far so good - today's the first day I haven't had any caffeine and I haven't taken a nap and I'm feeling grrrrreat! :)

I'm still sneaking in a few bites of sweets everyday, but that's a lot better than eating ice cream for dinner followed by a bag of gummy worms for snack like I was doing lol Plus, I have the debate with myself of what counts as a "sweet". Obviously, cake, ice cream, cookies, pastries, juice, pop, ect. But what about ketchup and peanut butter? I'm sure the university's ketchup has HFCS, so it's basically tomato flavored sugar. Why is HFCS in everything??? I just found out it's in Gatorade too. WTF >:P

I accidentally turned off my alarm this morning, so I slept through my triathlon class (today's swim day too, so I really needed to be there). But I got out for a quick ride in the afternoon. Mainly I needed to check out a race start to see if it's bike friendly. I'm doing the Recycle Run 15k on Sunday. The start is at a park in Springfield and I don't feel like walking or running over there, doing the run, then walking or running back. So I'll be doing a reverse du by biking over there, running, then biking back lol

I'm so in love with my new bike! :) Makes me remember the joys of riding a bike as a kid. And it's awesome how quickly the miles fly by verses pounding them down by running. This definitely means that swimming is by far my weakest link. I think I would like swimming more if I wasn't so frustrated by my stroke. I'm know I'm doing so much wrong but have no clue how to fix it.

I'm definitely in need of a coach. I need someone for at least swimming, but I'd love an all around triathlon coach too. Anyone know how to get started with finding a good coach?

Try again

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.” - Mary Anne Radmacher




Yesterday's run was a no go. For whatever reason, my body wasn't having it and when I try to push through the funk I ended up with a nice 1.5 mile walk home. Sigh. Heading out for another go at the 20 miles today. I hope today's weather isn't nearly as hot as yesterday's. (Two weeks ago we were having snow and I did the Xterra race with temps in the 30's and hail. Then yesterday we get a record high the 80's - wtf!)

At least I got some time in the pool yesterday. That's the one nice thing I'm learning about triathlons: just because you're having a craptacular day in one sport doesn't mean all is lost. The Beaver Freezer for example, I had one of the worst swims I've ever had, got on the bike and had an awesome ride.

Deep breath...

I've been going back and forth with myself for a few days...

I fell in love with the Portland Triathlon - such a perfect way to race in the city (not like running past the dump, Portland Marathon lol). The swim course is the Willamette River beginning at the dragon boat docks, under the Hawthorne Bridge, around the Morrison, and back against the current to the Waterfront bowl. The bike and run courses haven't been posted yet, but sounds like they'll include the Eastbank Esplanade and plenty of bridges.

The downside to this tri: it's an Olympic distance and it's a week after Hood to Coast. I told myself that I'd only do sprint tri's this year because I'm just getting started in the sport. My swimming is especially weak. Last weekend's Beaver Freezer swim was 500 yards or 10 laps in a pool. The Portland Tri's swim is 1.5km or just under a 1 mile or roughly 33 laps. That's a very scary amount of swimming to me - I felt like I barely survived the Beaver Freezer's swim. Plus, looks like I'll definitely need a wetsuit. I have no idea where to begin with rentals, how to put it on, how to get it off, ect. And the Willamette doesn't exactly have the greatest of reputations. The race directors are assuring everyone that the water is safe, but just the fact that you're testing for e.coli is a little unnerving (especially with the quantities of water I swallow lol).

I've been debating with myself if I should do this tri. Is this the type of fear I should listen to or push through? Is the swimming too much for me to handle or will I find a way? I'd have 20 weeks of training and the race website offers a training schedule that sounds very doable. I thought of waiting until next year, but then I worried that if we're trying for a baby this summer, who knows what type of condition I'll be in next year. (I plan to continue staying active during the pregnancy, yet as anyone whose been pregnant knows, there's no gaurantees.)

Finally it hit me: we won't be in Oregon next summer. We only have about 15 months until we're moving. Holy crap, it feels like we just got home. With Chris's commissioning and orders to TBS, this will be my one and only chance to do this tri for who knows how long.

So tonight I officially registered for my first Olympic triathlon - eeeepp!!!

In other big news, next week is the start of my taper for the Eugene Marathon. I'm extremely worried about my training for that race too. My school work took priority over running, so I feel I am no where near the level I should be for a full marathon. I think my longest run so far was a 15 miler back in February. I've only been doing about 15-20 miles per week, generally missing all my speed/strength work and long runs. I'm fairly confidant I'll be able to finish Eugene, but any goals for PR'ing have been abandoned. My stratery for the race is to keep my HR around 160, walk the big hills during the first eight miles, and hope for the best.

I keep reading that it's better to be under-trained by 10% than over-trained by 1%. Trying to believe that is true. I'm also trying to look on the positive side that I still have the Seattle Marathon in November. If I'm under trained now, that's much better than going into this summer injured and burnt out like last time. (In 2006, I did Disney in January and Shamrock in March. In about June or July, I developed ITB tendonitist and shin splints. I was able to be rehabbed through physical therapy, but I was not ready for my fall marathons at all.)

Got to get to bed. Tomorrow, Chris is coming down with my road bike and have a 20 miler...