I'm Back

Hello. Again.
I've found my password again. I still have a presence in cyberspace. I still love triathlon. I have finally found some motivation. Yeah.
So the last year has been a long one.
No regrets. Time to start again. Time to find the love of sport. Time to find the love of health. That feeling that your lungs aren't going to burst even though you've just run ten miles. Time to feel the muscle ache from lifting weights rather than the stress of the world.
Time to swim.
Time to bike.
Time to run.

Soccer Season-Done

Another soccer season has come and gone. Both Alex and Arianna had a great time and both did really well and scored lots of goals.

Alex's team had a really slow start. They came together as a team after about a half dozen games and then finally started to tie and win a couple of games. This team struggled for a while, but in the end totally redeemed themselves in the tournament. All the soccer teams play tournaments at the end of the season. The regular season's standings are wiped out and everyone starts fresh. Each game is sudden death, if you don't win, you don't go on. Alex's team....the one with some pretty bad regular season standings....WON the Championship tournament! These kids really wanted to win and it showed. The picture above is Alex taking a shot on goal...yes, it made it in. Next year Alex will move up to U16. I'm not sure if he will play High School soccer next year, he's already committed to football and hockey. I do hope that he sticks with the rec league next spring though.

Now Arianna.....Well, let's just say "she's good!" She was one of the oldest girls on her team and will definately move up to U12 in the fall. She scored every goal that her team made this season....I'm not kidding here. She has been watching her brothers play from the time she was an infant and it is unreal how good she has become. She was invited to join a National AYSO team and travel to Hawaii in '09 for the National Tournament. We're still thinking about it. She will be playing at a regional tournament in a couple of weeks here in Michigan with some girls that she played with over the winter. I am looking forward to seeing this team play, they were really good and were beating some of the local travel teams.

This years medals are already adorning the bedroom walls. Nice job.

Cool Things

Sometimes when you bike you get to see some pretty nasty things. Country roads are full of road kill that one must be adept at riding around and forcing one's self to, at all costs, not look at. Yes, there is always the bad, but then there is the good too. And when we get to see the cool stuff it just makes riding all worthwhile. Today I got to see the good and the bad, but mostly the good. I always ride in the country. Not too much traffic, some bumpy roads and mostly beautiful landscape. About twenty minutes into my ride I spotted a small yellow plane. It was flying close to the ground, about 100-200 feet, really close. My first thought was, this guy is either goofing off or crop dusting. Once I crested a small hill, I found myself right in front of a vineyard, I could see him come back around making a tight turn and then diving once again over the grapes. Crop Duster. I watched him swoop down and then quickly back up and around again over and over for about five minutes. I took a few photos with my phone and really wish I had had my camera with me. It was really fun to watch. Just one of those cool things.

Hey Rocky Raccoon

This is who came for dinner last night.

Blossomtime Race

First let me just say that yes, I am alive and well. Spring has been fine, but....I'm ready for summer :0)

I ran my first 5k of the season on Saturday. Our local YMCA puts on this race and does a really nice job. It runs the route of the Blossomtime parade which is a big deal here in our little town. The race takes place about an hour and a half before the parade. The route is an out and back through the Twin Citys of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. It includes running over the Blossomtime bridge....which I've discovered, people really do not like to run over the grating on this bridge. A lot of people scramble to get up on the sidewalk edge, which is narrow, so they don't have to look down at the water far below. There is a great hill that we ran down at the very beginning of the race....but wait, there is the same killer hill that we have to finish with on the way back. The official results aren't posted yet, but I think I ran a straight 30. That gives me about a 9:30 pace. Pretty normal for me. I didn't push. I didn't stop either and I especially didn't stop on that hill and was still able to sprint the last 100 yards to finish up. It looks like I was about a minute slower than last years race. I'll just have to make it up later this summer at the Venetian 5k.

We stayed after for the parade. The weather was perfect and we had a great time with lots of friends and kids!

Fixed Tire & Flip Turns.....a little bike porn too

There was blood involved, but more on that later.

I'm not really that girly (I hardly ever even wear lipstick) and yes, I knew I could do it. I took the wheel off the bike after disconnecting the brake...no problemo. I popped the tire off with the little tool that I have, once again, no problemo. I stuck the new tube in after I had inflated it a little and then put the tire back on the wheel. I did struggle just a little with the last bit of tire over the rim, but my brute force conquered and it went on, no problemo. Then I went to pump up the tire....problemo....the stem was not coming out of the rim far enough and I could not get the pump to attach. I have deep dish rims and bought a puny stem. oops, that won't happen again!

Since today is a swim/bike day I thought I would hit the bike shop before going to the Y. I went to pack up my gym bag and looked at the place where my suit hangs in the bathroom....no suit. This is the actual thought that went through my head..."who the heck took my suit!" I live with two teenage boys who are not going to take my Speedo, ever. My husband is not even in town (like, he would take it, NOT) and my ten year old daughter will not fit in the Speedo probably even when she's forty. What was I thinking?? No one took my suit. I had left it in my gym bag. Since I swam yesterday the suit was wet. Not just wet, but wet and cold. Great, that's gonna feel real nice. I can't wear my old suit cuz it I wore it out and it shows the crack in my behind....yep, that's nice too.

So, I got to the bike shop and got my new tube and some new clipless pedals. Way cool. I love them! See picture above.

I got to the Y and had a great swim. Actually it was just great getting into the water after putting on a freezing cold, wet suit. I was able to swim my main set with flip turns all the way through...how cool is that!! Some of my flip turns are still a little rough, but most are spot on. They are definately teaching me what it feels like to miss that breath and to control my breathing more going into the turn.

Oh yes, the blood. That had nothing to do with the tire, but it had everything to do with the pedals. I seemed to have punched a small hole into the pad of my index finger while trying to remove the pedals on my bike. I think it got pinched in the wrench. Bike pedals are weird. Left pedal is loosened to the right and the right pedal is loosened to the left. Once I got the direction correct the wrench and rubber mallet did the trick and they loosened easily. I am so gonna be a bike wiz this year!

Today was a good workout day.

Flat Tire

My bike has a flat tire.

This might not normally seem unusual, but it's been on the trainer since Christmas. What? Did I run over a toy? Did I hit a dog, cat, kid? Did I run it off the carpet and into the TV?? Nope. It has not moved! Now it has a flat on the front tire.

I picked up a new tube at my local bike shop. I told my devoted husband that I would fix it. Cuz I really need to learn how to fix a flat. Yes, that's right, I have never fixed a flat before. Not even in a car. I know a bike should be easier than a car, but, but... I confess, I'm girly when it comes to tires. Flat tires spook me. I can kill big, fat, hairy spiders, but start to sweat when I have to touch a tire. Go Figure.

I have a bike workout scheduled for today so it looks like I'm gonna have to tackle this tire thing. Wish me luck!

Countdown

13 weeks until Sunburst Half Marathon

22 weeks until Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon

My training plan is written. My goals are written. I know the exact hours that I will be putting in each week. My motivation is finally up. I am ready for another year of racing.

(my kids still think I am a crazy triathlete) :0)

Ski Bums

Yes, we are back from our Colorado ski trip. It was fantastic.

It was a busy travel weekend due to the holiday, but we eventually got to Colorado and then spent two days hitting the slopes. We stayed at my parents cabin in Frisco and the first day we skied at Copper Mountain. The snow was fresh with several inches of new powder, but the lines were really long. It was, after all, the biggest ski weekend of the year....it was the only time we could go....so we braved the lines and still had a great time. The second day we decided to head toward Leadville to check out Ski Cooper. This is a smaller mom and pop operation situated in the middle of national forest land. The powder was even better and the lines....none! We really had a blast and by the afternoon our legs were burning by the time we got down the mountain! We even got Arianna to do a couple of black diamond runs. Afterwards she would say "ok, now lets go back to the blue" and we did. This was the first ski trip that she has not done ski school the whole time. She was a trooper putting up with her kamakazee brothers and actually trying some of those jumps too!