Refueling. The Hot Topics.

Today I was surfing some triathlon forums and I found some stuff about refueling during a race. Since I have SERIOUS GI issues, this is always a hot topic for me. Well, I didn't find a cute for my problems, but I did find a creative solution on how to stow your Clif Blocs during the bike.

"Before I got my Bento box, I was able to squish the cliff blocks in the holes in my helmet so when I needed them on the bike, I just had to reach up and get one. Silly, but it totally worked."

Hahahahaha - awesome. And so gross. I know where my helmet has been...THAT'S how the swine flu gets spread.

I'm a LOST fan. And a Republican.

And therefore, this is funny.

Ha.

Stupid Strippers.

I mean, I wouldn't expect a stripper to be a genius, but you would think that an IQ over 12 and at least 2 social skills woulnd't be too much to ask.

Right?

Wrong.

A few weeks ago, we all went to Wild West for Reagan's going away party - she needed one last dose of Tejas before moving to Colorado. So we all put on our apple bottom jeans and our boots with the spurs and prepared for a night of cowboy hats, country music, two-steppin' and cheap beer. Wild West is a magical place.

Our friend Lino showed up, late and wasted, and had a 'lovely' girl with him. We will call her Fluffy Aspen (because that's what my stripper name would be, using the first pet, first street combo). Fluffy was a stripper. Not only that, but Fluffy was a stripper that Lino had picked up AT THE STRIP CLUB just prior to arriving at Wild West.

Fluffy was a remarkable young lady.

As you all know, I have a scar on my forehead that looks kind of like a zit, or a mole or a birth mark, or what have you. Truthfully, I don't notice it anymore. It doesn't bother me - it hasn't bothered me for years.

But apparently it bothered Fluffy because when I joined the group to chat, she SPIT ON HER DRUNKEN STRIPPER HAND AND TRIED TO WIPE OFF MY DOT. She tried to wipe it off. SHE SPIT ON HER HAND AND TRIED TO WIPE THE SCAR OFF MY FORHEAD. Omg. I couldn't shower fast enough.

I'm pretty sure I have a staph infection on my forehead. There's a pretty good chance that my head will just fall off now...I mean, it's probably so infected. I'll probably die. Can syphillis be transferred through the forehead?

Thanks Lino. You owe me. You me big time.

It's a BOY!!!

Yup, that's right, I'm having a boy. NOW we know why I can't lose weight.

Ha. Just kidding. I'm not pregnant. I don't think.

But I DID determine that training for the Ironman is like having a child because it is so all encompassing. It's all I think about or do. It's all I think YOU should think about or do. It's all I want to talk about, because it's all I have to talk about, because it's the only thing I do. It IS my little unborn child named IMCOZ (pronounced: IMCOZ).

I know you will love him when you meet him. 221 Days until his birthday - feel free to buy gifts.

In other news: My sister signed up for a marathon!! Go Cathy go! Let the countdown begin!

All Good Things Must End.

I had an amazing week of training last week. I got a reasonable amount of sleep (for an insomniac), rocked every single workout, felt like a million bucks and just generally felt awesome.

But the wheels started to come off on Sunday. Tommy and I went for a long-ish run on Sunday afternoon. The plan was to do about 13-15 miles - I really needed to see how my knee was doing. So, we set out. The first mile was painful, as the first mile usually is, but as usual, you puch through mile 1 and mile 2 is generally pretty enjoyable. This was not the case on Sunday. Mile 1 was painful and mile 2 was worse. By mile 3 I was resigned to not enjoy the run, but knew I would put the miles in anyway...so I hunkered down and kept pounding the pavement.

My knee held out pretty well till mile 7 when the pain started setting in, and by mile 10, it was done. Which meant we had 3 miles to walk home...blah. Walking sucks. We had a good time, ran into some friends, but all in all, a crappy workout. A good run is one where you can space out and then all of the sudden you are at the finish line...this was not a good run.

I knew my week of workouts were in trouble. You don't have a week like I had last week without repercussions - I knew I was in for it.

My swim yesterday was blah. I did most of the workout, but I just wasn't feeling it - the guy in the lane next to me was the only thing that kept me going. I HAD to swim faster than him. Swimming is the only sport I am any good at, so I have to win pretty much all the time. Ha. I have been time trialing 400m each time I go to the pool to prepare for the sprint tri we are doing in May (it's my first sprint and I'm nervous - I am not a sprinter...at all). Lately my 400m times have been in the 6-6:30 range (a hard but not all out effort)...yesterday it was 7min and I was exhausted afterwards. Normally I am kind of out of breath but could have swum quite a bit more...yesterday I almost had to get out of the pool to catch my breath. Painful.

I do pilates everyday at lunch - it's a great way to break up the day and I don't get too sweaty so I can just come back to work. No one has commented on me smelling...yet. But yesterday, even pilates was hard. I only did about half my stuff. Everything about my body was just angry.

Then today...ugh, today. I didn't sleep well at all (typical, but last night was especially bad), but I got up and got on the bike. I had planned to take it super easy for an hour or two, to give my legs a rest, but they just weren't having it. Even my easy gear was tough...real tough. So I got off the bike and went back to bed for an hour. But then I couldn't sleep because I was so pissed off.

It's a vicious cycle.

I'm gonna do just pilates today, swim tomorrow and then, HOPEFULLY by Thursday my body will happy again and I can get back on track. I have to be in super shape to start the REAL training on June 1. 222 days till IMCOZ!!!

In other news, I'm getting my haircut today...let's all pray that my bangs have FINALLY grown out so I can give up the ridiculous teeny bopper hair do I have going on now. AND...AANNNNDDDD...it's Aggie Muster Day. If there is an A&M man in one hundred miles of you, you are expected to get together, eat a little, and live over the days you spent at the A&M College of Texas...and do that I shall.

BFF.

I'm pretty sure Tommy hates me. He knows me well enough to know that I cry at EVERYTHING. Seriously. EEEEEVVERYTHIIIING. And he hates me enough to send me articles at work that he knows will make me cry...because he thinks it is funny and ultimately, he is evil.

That being said, this IS a great article about training and racing with your best friend...I cried like a little girl. This article says what I want to say, but it says it better.

I absolutely love racing with Tommy - even when we don't physically race together, it's nice knowing he is out there too, going through the same pain as I am. I love training with him - the hours we spend on the trail are some of the best conversations we have ever had. Running with someone for 3+ hours really gives you the chance to talk about EVERYTHING. Does it get frustrating sometimes? Yes. But the benefits of us both training so hard far outweight the negatives. We both wake up everyday at 4:30am...we may do different workouts, in different places, but we both wake up at 4:30 and start the day - and afterwards, we send each other text messages wondering about the other workout. I doubt I could do what I do if my husband was still all warm and cozy in the bed!!

but most of all, I like crossing the finish line with him, knowing we just had a silly race and a good time together...because that's what it's all about.

Shout out: To Allison and Cayla for completing their first triathlon!! I am so excited for them and so proud! Nice job ladies - don't let the addiction take over your life!! :)

Why I Take the Elevator.

People always give me a hard time (and by 'people', I mean Francis) about taking the elevator and whining about 3 story homes. Their (and by 'their', I mean Francis)argument being that I run marathons and do triathlons and work out and blah blah blah, so a few little stairs wouldn't hurt, now would they?

HA! Ha Francis HA! I win.

My rebuttal has always been that I work out enough already. I don't need to take the 4 flights of stairs to my desk (I work on the 5th floor) or even take the stairs to the second floor of the parking garage. I already did my workout today, and frankly, I'm too tired to take the stairs. So there.

He gave me crap when I refused to even look at 3 story houses - too many stairs! And trust me, it took a solid month before my calves were used to my 2 stories...you can totally garauntee that there are nights I don't bother going up to my bedroom until bedtime...it's so high and far away!

But I think Francis finally figured it out.

Today Francis joined Tommy and I for a workout a the track. We met at 5am, which in Francis-time is close to when he normally goes to bed, but he was there (not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed, but there) - I was impressed that he just showed up!

We did an easy 2 mile warm up and then some stretching and a few drills. This was followed by 6x300 on 3 minute intervals, 3x800 with 2 minutes rest and a 1 mile timed trial...followed by a 10-15 minute cooldown. This equates to about 7ish miles...which is also the farthest Francis had ever run in his life.

Track workouts are great because they can be as hard or as easy as you want them to be. Tommy and I can go and workout together, but he can go fast and I can go slooooow, but we still both get great workouts in.

Francis kicked butt. He did awesome. But apparently, according to co-workers, he is now hobbling around like an old man, and I recieved a message saying, "If all this healthy stuff is supposed to be good for me, why does it suck so much?".

Ha. I don't think Francis will be taking the stairs today.

Take that Francis!! Enjoy that 3rd story bedroom you have there. It's got a nice view and all, but is it worth it?

This is why I don't take the stairs.

Finish Line Videos of Lonestar!!

Here are videos of Tommy and I crossing the finish line at Lonestar...if you can have sound, you can hear how bad the wind was, especially on mine. It was terrible.

My finish -



Tommy's finish -

LONESTAR!

Only one man would dare give me the raspberry! LONESTAR.



Tommy, Thomas and I all participated in the Lonestar Triathlon Festival this past weekend. Thomas did the sprint on Saturday and Tommy and I did the half on Sunday.

A half Ironman is 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of biking, and 13.1 miles of running. In that order, all at once, without stopping, without passing go and without collecting $2000.

The weekend ended with a slight disappointment, but overall, it was fabulous.

Onto the race!!! This is going to be a VERY long entry, so don’t bother reading it if you aren’t interested in the precise details of the race. I’m mostly blogging about it so I have it documented, not really for your reading enjoyment. So, it’s up to you.

Tommy and I packed up our race gear and headed to Galveston on Friday after work. We were going to stay at Thomas’s parent’s mansion on Friday night, watch Thomas race on Saturday morning, hang out Saturday day, and then Tommy and I would race on Sunday morning.

Friday night, we arrived at Mansion de Dickson, unpacked all our junk and ordered pizza. Tommy, Janelle, Thomas and I watched Heroes and had a few beers. We helped Thomas get his stuff together for race day and went to bed early.

Thomas left before the sunrise to get to the race site, so Janelle, Tommy and I just met him there – just in time to see the first wave of swimmers take off.

The sunrise over the swim start
Thomas was one of the few and brave who didn’t have a wetsuit, but he toughed it out and did a great job on the swim! Charles and Amada met us in time to see Thomas getting out of the water. He finished the bike and the run in great form and looked good up until the finish…when Tommy saw him about 100 yards from the finish, he apparently looked strong enough to do the horsey dance and play around, but when we saw him, 20 yards from the finish, he looked very angry…Haha.
He did great, especially for it being his first triathlon – he finished in 1:48:31. I am so excited for him…racing is so much fun and I want all my friends to play with me!! I’m gonna recruit Janelle next…watch out!!

Thomas looking pretty good for the start of the run!


Amada, Charles, Janelle, Thomas (the WINNER!), Tommy and I after Thomas's race.



After his race, we got him his celebratory pizza and we all watched the awards with a few cold brewskis thanks to Michelob Ultra. Then we went back to the house and took naps and watched tv. Mama Dickson made us the most amazing chicken marsala for dinner, I tried out a new water bottle on my bike, and I was able to convince the boys to watch Madagascar with me before bed…instead of Batman or Top Gun. It’s like I have super powers!!

Tommy and I woke up at the crack of dawn – I hopped in the shower (showering before a race is silly, this I know, but I need wet hair to French braid!), and then began the grueling process of applying Chamois Butter and Body Glide to every surface of my body I can reach. Gross. I used the stuff like lotion. Disgusting. Then, comes the sunscreen…which I also applied liberally to every available surface, but judging by my angry red shoulders, I did not apply liberally enough. Ouch.

Then there was the debacle of French braiding my hair. Ugh. I can’t French braid. I can’t really style my hair at all. I’m pretty incompetent at all things that are hair styling, but my hair NEEDS to be braided for tri’s…going from the swim cap, to the bike helmet to the run – the French braid is the only way I don’t have to mess with my hair all day. When I originally determined that French braiding was the way to go, I tried to recruit Tommy to be my hair dresser. We watched YouTube after YouTube video of people teaching French braiding and Tommy tried to learn. I’ll give him credit here, not many men would even attempt to braid their wife’s hair…he is a good man. Unfortunately, he sucks at doing hair even more than I do. Our poor future children…they will all get spike hair cuts, regardless of gender. So, I had to learn myself. Aaaaand, I suck at it. Big surprise. But I braid my hair for races anyway, and it looks a lot like an impressionist rendering of a French braid…you can tell what it is supposed to be, but you don’t really know why. It’s definitely a work of art. I’m getting better though. Really. Ugh.

My French Braided Creation.



Anyways, so I French braided my hair. Pain in my butt. It took about 30 minutes and my arms were very tired when I was done. I had to take a break.

I started my pre-race eating, which consisted of a Diet DP and a Kashi Bar (which I ultimately blame for the stomach pains I had about mile 40 of the bike, but whatever – no Kashi again!!). I started slamming the Gatorade and finished getting dressed in my magical tri outfit.

We packed up all our gear and went to Moody Gardens to set up transition. I got my area set up ‘just so’ and continued to hammer the Hatorade. I checked and double checked all my stuff. Pulled my cleat covers off my shoes, undid the Velcro, made sure my helmet fit over my braids, stuffed my socks in my shoes, put my glasses in my helmet, race number under my running shoes, etc, etc… And then I checked it again. When I could check it no more, Tommy and I wandered off to find bathrooms and then head to the swim start.

It’s really gross to pee before a triathlon because you’re barefoot and you have to go into a bathroom…if you’re lucky, it’s a real bathroom, if you’re unlucky, you get to go into a port-a-potty BAREFOOT. OMG. I’m not a germ freak, but this is too much even for me. I’ve done it, don’t get me wrong, but dear god, it’s the grossest thing I have ever done. EVER. Luckily, at this race, there were proper bathrooms, that were semi-clean that didn’t even have a line…it was weird. So I was able to pee whenever my little bladder wanted…which was super nice and definitely not the norm.

We found Amada who was watching Charles start his swim for the quarter – and then we sat around and waited for another hour before the first wave of the half was scheduled to begin. Ugh. This gave me lots of time to fret over the oysters in the water, the fact that I didn’t have a wetsuit and whether or not the wind was going to stay calm. And I was worried because I have really only swum like 5 times since Christmas…my shoulder has been bothering me so much that I figured I was better off not swimming that trying to push it. I think I made a good call.

Tommy’s wave finally started and he was off…then I got to sit around for 30 minutes by myself waiting for my wave (the last wave) to start. FINALLY it was my turn and my wave (Women 35 and under) got up on deck…and everyone had a wetsuit, except me. Awesome. Luckily, the water wasn’t too bad…a refreshing 67 degrees. I mean, it was freaking freezing, but the swim up to the starting buoys warmed me up enough…I felt pretty good after swimming up to the buoys and treading water for 5 minutes.

Tommy running up the swim chute after a swift 40 minute swim.



Then the swim began. I started in the middle of the pack but on the outside, so that I could swim wide and hopefully stay out of contact with other swimmers altogether. I hate the ‘washing machine’ and try to avoid it at all costs. I would rather swim an additional 500m than battle with people. But alas, my plan failed me at first. These girls were all up in my stuff. I got punched in the cheek, some hoe grabbed my ankle to try to drown me…UGH! But after the first turn, I was able to break free a little. I took it easy on the first stretch, trying to get a rhythm and see if my shoulder was going to cause any problems (it wasn’t hurting at all – yes!), picked it up a little in the middle and then on the final stretch, I picked it up quite a bit. I was swimming really hard for the last 500m – not kicking really because I wanted to save my legs, but my arms were working hard. I was really proud of myself – I felt like it was an awesome swim. But after the race, I was kind of disappointed to see that I had only swum it in 42:06 minutes. I know I am better than that. I FELT faster than that. The fastest guys swam it in 27ish minutes and Tommy swam it in 40, so I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, but I am still a little blah about the whole thing.

Me running up the swim chute.



Swim Time was 42:06, pace of 2:11 per 100 meters.

Sidenote: For all your spectators out there, if you ever go watch a triathlon that is wet suit legal, find the wetsuit stripping area - it's always good for a few laughs.



I got out of the water (I didn’t know my time yet, so I was still boisterously happy) and hauled to T1. This was the first time that I didn’t have to change clothes and I am amazed at how much faster I was. I still sat down to put on my shoes though - bending over to put on socks just wasn’t happening – head rush! – and I lost some T1 time there. I had a semi-long run to the bike start in my bike shoes, which wasn’t fun, and then I couldn’t get on my bike for whatever stupid reason, so…

Transition 1 Time was 3:10. Much faster than previous transitions (last year my T1 was 5:20 – similar distances and everything).

I got on the bike feeling like a million bucks. I felt like I had rocked the swim and I was feeling awesome on the bike so far, I ate my granola bar, got re-hydrated and started fantasizing how awesome it was going to be when I broke 6 hours. Oh wait, what’s that Mr. Groin Inner Thigh Muscle? You don’t like biking? I HATE YOU! At mile 15, I pulled my right inner thigh/groin muscle and the pain began. I have no idea what I did or why, but my inner thigh was killing me. I couldn’t get comfortable on my saddle and I had to shift positions ever mile or so, which really hurt my aerodynamic-ness (is that word? Aerodynamacity? I dunno.). It was miserable. My back water bottle cage was loose and kept hitting my leg which was making me crazy so I ditched that bottle at the first aid station and then the Velcro on my new fun Bento box was rubbing against my thigh as well…all in all, after the first 15 miles, I pretty much wanted to strangle someone. I ditched the offending water bottle, readjusted the Bento box and forged onward. By the time I reached the San Luis Pass (mile 20ish) the wind started to pick up. I had been maintaining a steady 18-19mph pace (which is respectable, but not good), but by mile 20, I was down to 17-18mph. It was a crosswind, so it was easily managed, but it also meant that my shoulders and back were super tight and I couldn’t relax at all. At the turnaround, mile 28ish, the wind started getting really bad. Hard crosswinds, strong gusts, ugh!! And my groin was really starting to hurt really a lot, seriously, ow. And I had to pee. Awesome. I had just passed an aid station a mile or so back, and I seriously considered backtracking…that’s how badly I hurt. But I didn’t. I thought to myself, Keith (the race director) said there would be aid stations every 12 miles…I can make it to the next one. LIAR!! The next station wasn’t until mile 44…17 miles later. I was in tears, angry, tired, in pain, and desperately needing to pee. I stopped, peed, and stretched for about 5 minutes. I made myself get back on the bike and finish it up. I was able to maintain about 18mph over the last 12 miles so my average pace was in the 17.5 range…all in all a good day on the bike considering. Tommy found this wind information from the day of our race - http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/cgi-bin-mp/data_plot.cgi?mins=&datum=0&unit=1&stn=8771510&bdate=20090405&edate=20090406&data_type=wind&shift=&plot_size=large&metinterval= You can tell exactly when the winds started picking up – about 12pm…which is about when I was at mile 35 on the bike. Brutal. They went from about 8mph with 14mph gusts to 21mph winds with 32mph gusts. Ouch. Tommy pretty much escaped the hateful winds because he started 30 minutes earlier and he is faster than me…I am so very jealous. The final turn into Moody Gardens was hard…21mph headwind for 3 miles…it was rough, but the minute I got off the bike, I felt much better. Wind isn’t so bad when you aren’t trying to push against it so hard!

Bike Time was 3:11:24, pace of 17.6 mph average.

T2 was pretty smooth. Change shoes (didn’t sit this time), grab race belt, stuff Clif Blocs in my shirt, and we’re off…

Transition 2 was 2:08 (last year was 3:18 – the outfit pays off!)

And so the run begins.

My knee is definitely not healed. I’ve been able to do some 5 mile runs without much pain, but anything over that and it starts to hurt. I’ve noticed that when I incorporate walking into my run early on, the pain onset is delayed considerably, so my plan for this race was to take a 1 minute walk break at every aid station (they were about a mile apart).

Tommy, looking like a million bucks...probably almost done with the run.



Me at the beginning of the run.



Towards the end of loop 1.



I had some trouble getting my ‘sea legs’ back from the bike, and it took longer than usual to adjust, but once I got the hang of it, I felt pretty good. I felt better than I probably normally would have because I didn’t push myself on the bike at all. Because I couldn’t go very fast on the bike, I had all this energy left over for the run. Unfortunately, due to my knee, I wasn’t able to really use that energy for anything, so that was frustrating. I made myself stick to my plan, because I knew that in the long term, having an unhurt knee was better than breaking 6 hours. Ugh.

It was really frustrating. I felt my knee, but it never really hurt. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 2. It wasn’t affecting my stride or anything, but I could tell something was ‘off’…so I continued to walk at every aid station. I took my time enjoying the coke and a few chips, but was disappointed that there weren’t pretzels…I’m a pretzel girl.

My groin pain went away once I started running, so that wasn’t an issue at all, and since it was a 4 loop course and Tommy is faster than me, he caught up to me at the beginning of my second loop.

Hey, look! It's Thomas! Smile!



Hi Thomas!!



We ran together for a bit, but then we realized that he had a chance to break 5:30, so I sent him onward and upward. We passed each other a few more times and he finally finished in 5:26:43. He did AWESOME. He and Thomas then found me a couple of spots on the run course to cheer me on for my final 2 laps. I felt pretty good and had quite a bit of energy – I was feeling pretty strong…despite the wind’s best efforts.

This picture makes it look like I might actually have decent running form. It's a lie.



The wind was blowing so hard that the waves crashing on the dock would splash me, the guy’s beer was getting blown out of their cups (tragedy!) and the dust blowing around was BRUTAL. I ran with one closed half the time to avoid getting junk in my eyes. It was pretty rough. Gusts of 35mph aren’t something to joke about.

I spent a lot of time running with my head down or one eye closed to avoid getting dirt blasted when the wind would gust. It was rough.



My underarms started chaffing pretty badly early on on the run, so I got some Vaseline at the second aid station…that helped quite a bit and I was able to prevent anything tragic happening in my armpits.

After each lap, you would get a fancy little wristband to wear so you wouldn’t have to try to count to 4. You would be surprised at how hard it is to count when you are that tired and hungry and hot. I kept having to look down at my wristbands to see how many more laps I had left.

Tommy modelling the sexy wristbands and the Worlds Crappiest Water Bottle Known To Man



My stomach was kind of angry on the run, but it wasn’t too bad…I was miserable after the race though, that’s for sure!!

I finished the run feeling pretty good with a respectable time of 2:24:45…nothing to write home about, but I don’t need to bury my head either.

Run Time 2:24:45, pace of 11:03 per mile.

Done and done!



At the end, they took off my timing chip, gave me the world’s crappiest water bottle (EVER), a pretty nice towel and a medal that in my opinion is too small, but that’s just me. We ate pizza, had a beer, packed up transition and headed home…Thomas’s mom was nice enough to let us shower one more time and then we hit the road. It was a painful drive home – both of our stomach’s hurt really bad. I almost gave myself a hernia trying to poop at a gas station. It was painful.

Thanks to Thomas for coming to watch us race...and to Mama Dickson for letting us crash for the weekend!! It was a blast!



Café Adobe is always my prize for a big race, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it that day…so we saved it till Monday. We went home and were in bed by 7:30. Now that’s a good day right there!!

Summary of results:
Swim: 42:06
Swim Rank Overall: 335/609
Swim Rank Age Group: 20/35
T1: 3:10
Bike: 3:11:24
Bike Rank Overall: 431/609
Bike Rank Age Group: 20/35
T2: 2:08
Run: 2:24:45
Run Rank Overall: 392/609
Run Rank Age Group: 25/35

TOTAL HALF IRONMAN TIME: 6:23:34

Race Day Diet:
Pre-race:
5:30 AM – Kashi bar and Diet Dr. Pepper
During transition set-up – Gatorade and Diet Dr. Pepper
30 minutes before swim start (8:30ish) – Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bar
Bike:
Drinking Propel Lemon Water (had to ditch the back bottle because the cage was loose)
Mile 3 – Chocolate Chip granola bar
Mile 13 – Orange Gatorade from aid station
Mile 15 – Peanut Butter Chocolate chip granola bar
Mile 24 – Water from aid station
Mile 26 – Chocolate Chip granola bar
Mile 34 – Gatorade from aid station
Mile 44 – Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip granola bar
Run:
Mile 1 station – sponges and Gatorade
Mile 2 station – Coke and chips
Mile 3 – Vaseline, water and Clif Blocs
Mile 6 – Clif Blocs
Spent the rest of the stations, alternating between coke, water and Gatorade, loading up on Vaseline, and trying not to be sick to my stomach.

Soapboxes.

I heart soapboxes. I heart it when people feel passionately about something. And I REALLY REALLY heart it when I disagree with someone about their passion and they are open minded enough to argue with me for hours on end (knowing perfectly well that I will never be swayed)...and I heart it even more when we are still friends afterwards.

[Begin soapbox]

I started volunteering at CAP (Citizens for Animal Protection) and I got to walk stray puppies for a few hours on Friday and it was the greatest day of my life. If you are looking for a pet, please go to your local shelter and pick up a stray. These dogs are adorable, well-behaved, and many of them are pure-breeds, but their families gave them up for whatever reason. Those of you who know me, know how much I despise breeders…it’s probably one of the few ‘causes’ that I feel strongly about. So, before you shell out $1000 on a pure-bred dog, please check out the shelters (and/or rescues) in your area and try to find a dog that fits your needs. The staff there is very knowledgeable and can tell you the characteristics of each of the dogs – do they shed, do they bark, do they need lots of exercise, are they cuddly bugs? Please. Save a puppy. If you don’t, I’ll probably end up as divorcee with a house full of mutts…this doesn’t sound like a good plan to me.

[End soapbox]

I got my wonderful mutt Donny at the Homeless Pet Placement League in Houston and he is probably the greatest thing since sliced bread.


I am now volunteering at CAP and there are so many adorable animals there that need to be loved...I would bring them all home if I could.

Other places to adopt a pet: SPCA, rescues for purebreeds, BARC, etc... I promise you that with a little effort you can find the perfect dog for you...one that NEEDS a home, not one that was bred with the intent of making money. www.petfinder.org is a great resource. Please, take a puppy off the street!!

All this being said, I also love the dog show...and yes, I know I am just perpetuating the problem. But all those puppies in one place...ZOMG. I can't resist!!

April Fools Day.

What a crappy workout I had this morning. Stupid Wednesday. As each day of the week progresses, it gets harder and harder to wake up 4:30 in the morning, put on workout clothes and get moving. Other than the fact that we are on day three of the week, I can't explain my exhaustion during my workout this morning. My workouts all week have been kind of tame because of the race this weekend, so I can't even use the old "I'm tired today, but man, I kicked arse yesterday" excuse.

Regardless, the alarm went off at 4:30, Tommy and I lazily snoozed will 4:50...ooops...and then got on our bikes. We watched Heroes and did an easy spin for about 45 minutes. I was so tired...even my easier gears were tough and I couldn't find the energy for more. Then we went for a 2.5ish mile jog...which started out great, but then the temperature dropped and my fingers froze off. But at least the run was better than the bike. The bike was brutal.

If the race wasn't this weekend, I would have pushed a little harder but there's no need. I think the plan is to do an easy run tomorrow, a mini-tri on Friday and take Saturday off. I heart days off!!

Oh, and Janelle and I watched Twilight last night. OMG. It's amazing. And Tommy didn't try to slit his wrists, so that's a good sign.

**UPDATE**
I was too tired to do pilates at lunch like I normally do - I knew I wouldn't be able to make myself do anything. So, I went to Strength and Conditiong instead. This was not a smart move a few days before a race. I told myself I would just take it easy, but let's be honest, that never happens. Soooo, I went too hard and I did too much and I'm gonna pay tomorrow. I'm gonna pay big. Should done pilates. Idiot.