Pictures, pictures, pictures

Hot Wheels is thinking of being a goalie.

Superman has got his backfloating just about mastered.

It's not a pretty stroke, but Hot Wheels and get around the pool.

A rare moment of Cutie sitting. We've changed her name around the house to Little Miss Daredevil. She's walking, she's into everything, and she's FAST.

Our new strength training workout will be splitting this wood. I should have arms and shoulders of steel. Or maybe titanium.
My new training partner. The trail-a-bike is a bit tippier than I was expecting at first, but we've done a couple rides of neighborhood loops. It's fun.

Worthy? Technical bike confusion

Yesterday I went to the local bike shop to buy some clips for my new bike shoes. They had a "ladies night" sale a few weeks ago and I got new shoes. Since having the kids my feet have grown too large for my old bike shoes and I've been wearing my husband's. I decided to treat myself to shoes and ended up spending only $68 for shoes that were originally $120. They're very fancy for me- Louis Garneau, blue and silver, I like them. However, I don't really feel serious enough for them.

Anyway, I had my bike on the back of my car and I asked about switching out the gears from down tube shifters to the front handlebar (STI) shifters. (I know so little about bikes I don't even know what they're called) So I wheeled my Trek 420 into the shop and the two guys working back there got all excited about it. They both said they love that bike- and one seemed surprised that I'm thinking of changing the down tube shifting- and they would recommend I keep it and upgrade rather than buying a new bike down the road. Refreshing to hear from people that want to sell things that I should keep what I have rather than buy something new. However, there's a whole can of worms opened when thinking about upgrading my bike. To upgrade the shifters would run about $200. He said the front derailer will have to be replaced also. The recommends changing out my brakes in the future because I don't have quick release- another $70 or so. Then there's the shifting cassette. My bike has seven gears on the back and apparently that's out of date, and there's a larger chain ring for the front now that would give me more speed because there are more teeth on it. I could also get lighter wheels to decrease my rotational drag or something like that. It sounds like for $400 or so I could have a really nice bike. My question is- do I need a really nice bike. I'm nowhere near top fitness level and before I would even think about buying lighter bike parts I'd need to know that I'm as light as I'll get. What's a couple ounces with heavier wheels when I've got 10-15 pounds extra on me? I'm thinking of just upgrading the shifters and stopping there for now.

Yesterday I rode with a woman that's a pretty serious biker and I got my butt thoroughly kicked for 49 minutes. I think we averaged about 15mph, which was clearly nothing for her, but I was sucking wind big time. Right there was a big clue that three weeks from now, I'm going to get smoked on the bike. Oh well. I also went for a swim last night while the boys were in lessons. I had only 27 minutes to swim but I did get in a set of 4 x 100yd fast repeats. I was quite pleased that going on 2:00, I was able to do all 4 repeats under 1:40. The first was actually 1:28, but I was really pushing it. Unfortunately for me there aren't any walls to push off in open water swims, so I know those numbers don't mean much. An older gentleman in the lane next to mine complimented my form and I was flattered, but he was off on his next lap before I could ask if he had any pointers for me. Lunch time bike/swim/bike today and I'll get in either a run or ride tomorrow morning. Three weeks to go, gulp.

Been awhile

Been quite busy this summer. Swimming lessons for the boys- both are doing awesome. Soccer for Hot Wheels with a local chapter for disabled children, he gets to play on a team with my best friend's son, also a 5-year old, with some developmental delays. We always talked about our kids growing up and playing together and it's so cute to see them in their soccer uniforms together. Watching the other parents that deal with such major health issues in their children on a daily basis is a great reminder at how blessed I am with three healthy, happy children. Cutie is walking all over the place, started at just 10 months, I wasn't quite ready for that. She's still the happiest girl, just very active. And it's wonderful to watch the boys interact with her, they all love each other already. She's very amused by them, and they love to have an audience for their crazy antics.

My sister's wedding and the associated trip to Baltimore both went very well. The boys were on their best behavior and Cutie even got to join us at the reception for a while, which was nice. I'll share pictures when I've got some. Unfortunately I was hit with a major stomach bug just before the wedding- I did manage to lose the 5 pounds I had hoped to lose- but it was all in two miserable days. Fortunately everyone was recovered in time for the trip, but I lost almost a week and a half of training. Even yesterday, I only managed a mile and a half on the treadmill before I was queasy and dizzy again. It's quite a lingering bug. I'm going to be way behind in training for my triathlon August 7th. I'll be lucky to get a total of 10 rides in before the event. But, it's all for fun, I wasn't going to be competitive anyway. I'll just enjoy as best as I can. The other drawback to the bug was that my milk supply for nursing Cutie just tanked. I had to give in and give her a bottle of formula last week. I made it to ten and a half months, but I still feel like I failed a little- her brothers never had formula and I pumped for a year for them. I'm not getting much pumping, so she'll likely get more formula before we switch to milk next month. She's fine and healthy, just a little personal disappointment.

Other than that, not much going on here. I'll be around and I'm checking in on other people's training even if I'm not doing as much of my own as I should.

Sports amnesia, and a start

After one year and nine months, I went out for a bike ride this morning. I have this affliction, the opposite of childbirth amnesia- where you forget the pain because of the wonderful outcome. With sports like biking and swimming, I remember the pain or inconvenience and forget how much I enjoy them. Once we started I remembered how much I enjoy being on my bike- although being on it for over an hour did make me a bit uncomfortable- I've got to investigate seat options. It was not a speedy ride, 13.3 miles at 11.8 mph. I was with a couple people on mountain bikes and I wasn't really interested in pushing too hard anyway. I nice warm up. I've got seven weeks left, I'm hoping to get in at least two rides a week. We'll see how that goes. If nothing else, it's a start.

Next week. The pool.

I must have been dehydrated

For some reason this morning I stepped on the scale again, back to 152.5. At least I don't have to feel guilty about signing up as an Athena anymore, right? Ha,ha. In all seriousness, I'd love to get back to 140 pounds, but I don't have the motivation right now. I had forgotten about a work obligation that meant I needed to be at my desk by 6am this morning, so the swim did not happen. I can get ready for a sprint tri in only seven weeks, right? Oh, that bike is gonna kill me. And, maybe I should run again soon. Whatever.

Laziness Reward?

I've been quite uninspired for the past few weeks. After the ugly 5-miler, and then the ugly swim last weekend, last week it was all I could do to drag to the gym and slog through some half-hearted workouts. I've also just been so, so tired again, this morning I was up from 3-4:25 and then when I looked at the clock and thought "I'll get up in five minutes", I fell asleep until 6am- the start of my class at the gym. Oh well. I'm planning a pool swim tomorrow at 5am, I've got my fingers crossed that it happens.

Anyway, Saturday morning I stepped on the scale for the weekly home weigh-in, expecting about 152. I looked down and saw 149.5. I stepped off, stepped back on- 149.5. I picked up the scale and moved it, stepped on again- 149.5. Really? Finally, for the first time since probably 2000, I'm below the 150 mark?! Woohoo. Maybe that's the motivation I needed to get me back on track. Maybe not, given that I slept through this morning's planned workout, but maybe it will work.

Last week I signed up for my August triathlon, though, in the Athena category. I'm only 0.5 pound under now, and I just figured maybe I wasn't going to lose any more weight. I guess if I do, I'll contact the race director and switch to the open category.

I've organized a group ride for this Thursday morning, it will be interesting to get back on my bike. I'm looking forward to it, except for the obvious drawback of seeing how very far out of biking shape I have fallen.

I'll take the whole pie

Humble pie, that is. I got up this morning and experienced the most unpleasant swim of my entire life. There were a few contributing factors, though:
- Yesterday I was busy most of the day with my sister's wedding shower.
- Last night I attended her bachelorette party at a local casino and didn't get to bed until 1:15am.
- I was up at 5:45am with Cutie running a fever of 101 degrees, bringing the grand total of sleep to four and a half hours.
- The tide at the race was so low that for almost the first 200 meters and then again for the last 100 meters or so, it was impossible to swim. The water was not even as deep as my knees for much of that distance.
- Finally, and the part that was the most disturbing, I experienced my first swim panic.

Literally, I got into the water to start swimming, took a giant swallow of water and thought- "I've forgotten how to swim". I felt pretty sure I was going to have to swim with my head completely straight up out of the water at first. Then we stopped swimming to walk again, I was able to catch my breath and I calmed down a little. I started swimming again, was still very much out of rhythm, I could put my head in the water, but I had to breath every right arm stroke. After I rounded the first buoy I calmed down and was able to swim the longer leg, still only every third stroke breathing, before walking in from the final buoy along with everyone else. It was ugly and it was a wake-up call.

Time to swim, run and bike- the race will be here in less than two months. There's a smack from reality.

Swimming's like childbirth

I've been wondering all week whether I should try to find my wetsuit before Sunday's triathlon swim. I'm hoping that even though I haven't been swimming, at all, I should be able to cover the half mile in under 20 minutes. That's about the pace I was at when I started training for my '06 triathlon, and that was after about 15 years off from swimming. I was talking with another woman in the locker room and she equated the question to the whole natural vs. drug-assisted childbirth. Did having a child without drugs earn me some sort of reward? No, not other than having a baby, which would have happened even with drugs. It didn't really make me tougher than anyone else, it was just what I wanted to do. Would swimming with no wetsuit mean I'm tougher? Not really, maybe just stupid. The water temp is in the mid 50s, and I haven't immersed myself in mid fifty degree water for 20 minutes and tried to maintain a swim. I think I'll look for that wetsuit this afternoon, the epidural of swimming.

Last night Hot Wheels moved up to Level 2 for the last night of swim lessons. Not sure why they moved him for only the last day, but now at least we know what to work on over the summer. He was so proud that he completed Level 1, and he's really taken to the swimming. Superman will likely be a level 1 for a few more sessions. He'll have to float on his back, float on his stomach and demonstrate a seated dive before he moves to level 2. Even then, he can't move up from level 2 until he's 5 years old, still a year and a half away. So there's no rush. I'm just glad to see them enjoying the swimming lessons. Some day soon I'll get Cutie in the pool, too.

Another reminder

I am aware on a daily basis how lucky I am to be living my life. A very good friend of mine gave birth to her son back in March, 12 weeks premature. He's been such a fighter since then and things were looking good and then this week he took a turn for the worse. He's likely not going to make it more than a few more days, his little lungs just haven't grown to support a growing baby. The staff at the hospital are at a loss because they haven't had a child with this condition live more than a few days. I've heard that they are just waiting at this point and hold very little hope that he could ever recover. But, miracles happen, so if you've got a prayer to offer up for Fletcher, he could use it. His family could use some prayers, too, he's the youngest of four children, the oldest being only 5, so it's a tough time for all of them.

Who needs practice?

I was determined that this week I would start my swim workouts again. Then, yesterday, I was talked into swimming the 0.5 mile leg of a triathlon- this Sunday. My sister's bachelorette party is Saturday night and the last actual swim workout I did was in November. Of 2006. Should be fun. I've decided I'm not going to do any workouts before then, I'll just swim it cold. We're a very relaxed team, so my team mates are fine with that, they're just happy to have a swimmer. I'm shooting for under 20 minutes, under 18 would make me happier, though.

The boys went to "buddy night" with some friends that take karate. Hot Wheels was so excited to be there and he really took to the whole class. Then I found out how much they want to sign up- $189- a month. He was so disappointed when I told him it just wasn't going to happen. That's more than I pay for his preschool class. I told him he's got swimming for now, and he seemed okay with that. I was so sad to see his disappointment, though. I would love to sign up for karate again myself and I've thought about getting a family membership somewhere when the kids are older. At that place the bill would rival my mortgage. Oh well, we've got other luxuries, the kids will learn they can't have, or do, everything.