Merry Christmas!

I've been having a good time visiting the parents, seeing old friends, and hanging out in my old 'hood. I always like coming up here. I even went to track practice one day and ran with the distance girls. It was fun, and it was great to see my old coaches, but it was weird not knowing anyone on the team anymore!

The day before, which was the day I got here, I had a tempo run. I was supposed to do it two days earlier but because of the Missing Shoe Saga I hadn't done it yet. Talk about a rude awakening- I leave New Orleans in the morning, where it's close to 70 degrees, and by the evening I'm running in windblown snow at 12 degrees with a wind chill of -4. Gah! I actually felt really good, or maybe I was just so numb I didn't feel anything at all. I did keep thinking to myself though, "I used to LIVE here?!? And run outside all winter??"

I also participated in a fun Christmas tradition- the Candy Cane Relays. On Christmas Eve morning, the current track athletes, coaches, and any alumni who are home for the holidays meet up at the school and run a relay race (with candy canes as batons). It's a lot of fun to see some former teammates, hear what everyone's up to, and laugh and cheer for each other as we try to hand off broken remnants of candy canes. It was even funnier this year because we had to run around the bus loop. PHS is getting a brand new all weather track (yay!) but it's in the process of being built so there's no track right now.


Henn giving the pre-race instructions



All the alumni lining up to give their introductions (I'm the one on the left with the red thing on my leg)... there were more alumni than current athletes!



Ready... set... GO!



Look at that handoff! Henn, you taught me well :)



Mike T posing with his winner's trophy



It was good seeing you again, Henn!



Christmas morning was great as always. My mom and I both love having presents under the tree and stockings filled, so Santa still comes. He brought some great stuff this year, including the umbrella I asked for, the really cute coat I reluctantly left at the store a few days earlier (Santa is so sneaky!), and a 100-qt crawfish pot for my parents for next year's crawfish boil (Santa's helpers are pretty sneaky too!). One of the best gifts, and biggest surprises, was my brand new....

WETSUIT!



I'd never worn one before and I wasn't sure if it was going to go on all the way... it was TIGHT!



Getting closer...



Ta-daa!




It's Super PBG, here to save the day!



Jay-R got some presents too, like always. Unwrapping presents is one of his favorite things to do!







Merry Christmas everyone!

The Missing Shoe Saga

So if you're pbg, and you're leaving town for 10 days, and two days before you leave you realize that you've lost your running shoes, what do you do? If you answered "freak out", or "panic", then you know me pretty well :)

The shoes are old anyway so losing the shoes themselves wasn't that big of a deal, but they have my custom orthotics in them. I wouldn't mind running once or twice without them but ten days is a long time. I couldn't get new ones made before I left, since I was leaving town before my PT's office opened again. I didn't know if I could even find a suitable replacement pair of shoes, since the Hurricane 9 has been retired.

Friday morning when I didn't have them, I assumed I had left them at Greg's. So instead of running at lunchtime I'd just get them after work and run then. No biggie. Except when I got to Greg's.... no shoes! That's when I really started thinking and realized I probably left them at the gym Wednesday night. I wore them to the gym after my run, which I never do. I must have forgotten to pick them up on the way out after swimming.

Got to the gym and checked the lost and found... nada. I was very upset at this point. The next morning, Saturday, was the group bike ride. I headed back to the gym immediately after to check the locker room where I probably left them. I saw the masters swim coach, George, while I was there. He suggested a few more places to look and told me he'd call me if he heard anything. I looked in the locker room, all the open lockers, at the pool area, the back entrance desk... nothing. I called my coach and we talked about contingency plans- I'd try to run in new shoes with no orthotics, and possibly substitute some elliptical in case the running bothered my legs. I wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much choice.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot, dejected, George called. He asked, "what kind of shoes were they again?" He had them!! I couldn't believe it. I said, "really??" so he said, "no, I'm just making this up to waste my time." Aw George, what a sweet guy. I raced back in there, grabbed the shoes, and gave him a huge, dirty, sweaty hug (I was still dressed in my bike clothes) because I knew that's exactly what he didn't want me to do :) He found them in the lost and found, in the Friday bin. They must have been turned in after I looked in there.

PHEW!! Crisis averted! I didn't realize how attached to my shoes I am until I couldn't find them. We've been through a lot together! When I thought they had been stolen, I felt so violated.

So that's the story of the missing shoes. And yes, I will be much more careful in the future!!

Hardcore Moment of the Day,

brought to you by the letters R-I-D-E and R-A-I-N.

What a crazy day Saturday was! And not just because of the bike ride where a few people wiped out, one necessitating an ambulance call (more on that later), or the Missing Shoe Saga (more on that later too). There was also all the last minute stuff to take care of before the next morning's early flight to NY for Christmas. PHEW.

Saturday morning, 5:00 AM rolled around way too soon and I *almost* stayed in bed and skipped the group ride. The plan was to ride with the GNO Tri group for the first time and I was excited, but also a little nervous. I'd never ridden with more than two other people before, and what if I was the slowest one there? Or what if I did something stupid and caused a crash? But in the end, I knew that as good as the bed felt, I'd regret it if I didn't go, So up I got, packed Stella in the truck, and headed for the meeting point.

As everyone started showing up, it started to rain. Not hard, but enough to get the roads slicked up. The general consensus was that we'd ride anyway, since "what are you going to do on race day if it rains? DNS??" I saw some people that I knew and lots of people I didn't. I was surprised at how many people showed up- there had to be close to 50 of us. My friend said there's not usually that many.

When we finally rolled out of the parking lot at 7:00 sharp, it was kind of a rush! For the first time I was riding in a huge group of people. There were bikes all around me, and I knew I had better keep good control of Stella or there would be problems quick. It was also really cool though, this huge group of triathletes, and I was one of them! I already decided this group thing was much cooler than riding on the levee all by myself.

Kevin, the guy everyone calls Coach and who is one of the "leaders" of GNO Tri, knew that it was my first time. He rode over to me and told me not to worry, just stay on his wheel and he'd look out for me. And that's exactly what he did- I stuck right to his back wheel almost the whole time, caught a nice draft, and let him worry about the road ahead. It was so nice of him to take care of me like that. I was able to enjoy myself in what could otherwise have been a pretty intimidating experience.

Sticking close to his back wheel meant that I caught all his road spray though, and combined with my own spray hitting my back, I got pretty dirty pretty quickly. It was happening to everyone though. At least it wasn't cold.

On the way back, one of the guys in a group ahead of us wiped out. The group behind him came around a corner and found him laying in the road, unconscious. Totally scary. Kevin said he was a really experienced rider, and must have just caught a slick patch or hit one of those reflector things in the road. No one was around him when it happened and he doesn't remember, so no one knows for sure. He seemed OK after a few minutes, coherent and alert at least. A group of us waited until the ambulance showed up and then Kevin waited with his bike until someone came to pick it up. The rest of the ride was uneventful, thankfully, but I did hear of another friend of mine from the lead group who wrecked twice. Kevin made sure to tell me that this type of thing is very rare! I think he was afraid I'd get freaked out. I'm just glad everyone is OK.

It was my longest ride so far, about 45 miles I think. We were moving at a pretty good pace (for me anyway), had the rain and slick roads to deal with, and it was my first group ride, so I allowed myself to feel a little hardcore after we were done. Especially when I got back to the truck and was wiping all the dirt off my face. Aw yeah, bring it on!

Wait, what did I just say??

I've been feeling a change coming for a while now. There have been rumblings of it- the feelings of satisfaction after a long workout, getting excited over trying a new nutrition product, spending more of my day thinking about my key sessions for the week... Well it finally hit me the other day. As I was writing my workout comments for my coach, I realized that TWICE in two days, at two different workouts, I had very distinctly thought to myself, "This is FUN!" Once was a tempo run and once was a spinning interval workout. And I actually thought it was fun *while* I was doing it.

This may not seem like that big of a deal, but to me it's pretty huge. I've always enjoyed the fitness I get from working out, and I've always felt a commitment to keeping up with my training schedule, but I've never been able to say with a straight face that I really truly enjoy it. During school I used to get frustrated when I'd hear teammates and friends talk about loving running. Yeah, running was something I did and did a lot of, but it was always because of a sense of obligation, competitiveness, or just plain stubbornness. Definitely not because of any kind of love.

So how did this happen? I don't really know. It's not because I'm getting good at it and winning stuff, because that's definitely not happening. Maybe it has to do with being injured for a while and not being able to train. I'm finally doing more now than I was before the injury, and that does feel good. But however it happened, when I think of how I felt before my tempo run on Monday ("let's go, time to stretch the legs, this is going to feel good") compared to how I used to feel before tempo runs ("crap, this is going to hurt, when is it over??") the difference is pretty apparent! I'm still not going to go on the record and say that "I love running" or any kind of crazy talk like that, because it's definitely not all sunshine and puppies, but I have been having some good workouts.

And it's not all because of me by any means- I have to give a shout-out to my super-duper coach, Jennifer of Ironclad Coaching, since I would be a lazy blob without her, and to my PT, Mike of Babin Physical Therapy and Babin Tri-Sports, who keeps me going with regular tune-ups :)

With my next race being my biggest one so far (the New Orleans 70.3 in April) and my training volume increasing, I hope this new-found enjoyment continues. I'm still not too crazy about my long bikes... it would be great if those became fun all of a sudden, but I'm not holding my breath :)

Can Anybody Hear Me?

Some of my favorite lyrics from one of my favorite songs:

And I fail
But when I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will

Can anybody hear me
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will


Tonight I can't. I was excited for today's run, it was the first one that I got to do some targeted pace work. It was going to be fun. But I just can't. I went back and forth on it a few times, but I guess I'm just going to have to move my schedule around and fit it in tomorrow. I hope I get out of this funk soon, this sucks. Especially because physically I feel great.

Today I learned...

...how right people are when they say you have to keep swimming consistently or you'll lose your feel for the water. I swam tonight for the first time since before I went to India, and it felt like I was learning to swim all over again! You would think that since I was just training for a half marathon that I'd be in decent shape, but apparently it doesn't completely cross over. After my first few sets, I was tired! And they were easy sets too! Finally by the end I was feeling a little more like my old swimming self, but still far from fishlike.

Before India, I was getting a little burned out on swimming. I think the weather turning colder had something to do with me starting to not look forward to my swims. Also I think I was just getting bored of up and down and up and down and up and down the pool all the time. I still wasn't thrilled about the cold today- I totally wussed out and swam inside. Even though I hate swimming inside, sometimes I hate the cold more. But even with that going on, I didn't have that burned out feeling about doing my workout that I'd been starting to have before. My break from swimming wasn't planned, but maybe it's good that it happened. It is the offseason after all so it's not like I have a race to worry about, and it's kind of nice to feel that swimming is new again. Maybe I should buy a new suit to celebrate. Of course, I doubt that my upcoming swims are going to be as easy as this one was, so maybe I shouldn't speak too soon about my newfound love for swimming and instead just get my arse in the pool and get better at it!

Ms Kai doesn't know what all the fuss is about. She thinks swimming is awesome no matter how often you do it.








And it's even better if you get to carry a big stick.

Just What The Doctor Ordered

I wasn’t feeling very well on Wednesday afternoon, which was exactly what I didn’t need with the race coming up this weekend. So to help it go away as quickly as possible, I went home early from work and pretty much stayed in bed the rest of the day and all of Thursday. Along with taking several naps and eating a lot of soup, I also got a lot of quality time with Kai. I felt a little bit bad that she might be bored with just sitting in bed all day. But one thing she does very well is sleep, and she performed that duty exceptionally well those two days.



Early on during that time, I was struck by the fact that we hadn’t spent that kind of time together in a long time- a kind of purposeful nothingness. We hadn’t simply been in each other’s company, not doing much of anything at all, for as long as I could remember. And I noticed things about her, things that I always notice but usually in passing while I’m on my way from one thing to the next- like the way she rests her head on the pillow like a person, or the way she smells when she’s sleeping. She likes to change positions every so often, alternating from curled in a tight ball to flat out on her side. Often when she uncurls from her ball to lie flat, she stretches- arching her back like a cat and spreading her toes. When she dreams, she twitches her feet and face and sometimes makes a noise almost like a muted bark, and I always imagine that she’s chasing squirrels. She checks on me every now and again, lifting her head off the pillow and blinking sleepily in my direction, yawning, then when she’s convinced that everything is still how she left it, she lowers her head back down with a sigh and goes back to sleep. I relished the fact that I was able to spend unhurried time soaking in all these wonderful things about her, all these things that I love so much and am constantly trying to imprint on my memory forever.





My house is poorly insulated so I hate to run the heat too much and waste it, which means it’s pretty cold inside in the winter. That meant that we also spent a lot of time cuddling those two days, much of it with her curled up to my side under the blankets. I always worry whether she gets enough oxygen down there, but I also love the feeling of her warm furry body next to me so I let her do it. She eventually gets overheated and has to come up for a break anyway. It’s secretly one of the things that I, as a person who hates to be cold, love about the wintertime- the summer is just too hot for that much body contact. But Kai, ever a creature of comfort, hates to be cold as well. So those cold winter nights more often than not find her snuggled up next to her mama, an arrangement that serves both of us well.



After two days of us lazing around together, I was feeling much better and went on to Vegas to have a great race and an awesome weekend. I met some friends in person for the first time, I made some new ones, had lots of laughs… and oh yeah the race was good too! My first half marathon- I finished feeling strong but also that I’d given it all I had, which were exactly my instructions so I consider it a success. I was satisfied with my time too. Even though I didn’t have an official time goal, I wanted to break 2 hours and I did (1:53). I’ll write up a more detailed RR later. Now it’s time to catch back up on some sleep, with a certain pit bull of course!!

On To The Next One

Home safe from India. It was a looong flight! We almost missed our connection in Newark. This was after over 20 hours of traveling already. It's a good thing we made it (barely!) because I think I would've lost it at that point.

Now time to focus on Vegas. And it's about time too, since the race is Sunday and I leave here in 2 days. It's been a while since my last race so I've been thinking about this one for kind of a long time. I was doing really well too, putting some great long runs in the bank over the last few weeks. Then my schedule got upset by the terrorist attacks, and my whole system was upset by the traveling anyway, and now I'm kind of stressing. I shouldn't be any less fit than I was a week or two ago, but I still feel that way.

I think I decided that if this race does not go well, I'm going to try to find another half marathon to do in the very near future. Then hopefully I won't have to deal with any issues like I did with this one and I'll be able to have the good race that I know is in me. But I'm not going to think about that any more right now, because there's still a race to run. And two of the things I know I'm good at are focus and determination. My head's not quite where I want it to be in those respects considering how close the race is, but I have faith that come race time I will be ON. Thirteen miles? Easy peasy. Bring it on!!