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Trip to the alter

Friday, September 26th, 2008

Mike’s mom Shirley, brother Rich, and Rich’s girlfriend Maria flew into LA the Tuesday before the wedding and then made the trip to the Bay Area for the wedding with us. They landed at LAX, and we picked them up and did a whirlwind single day tour of LA. We saw Santa Monica, and Venice beach. A close up look at the ocean in Venice…

So it was a long, and fairly sandy and wet, drive home. But it was some good body surfing
We left at 4 am the next day to drive up north (it was 7am for them since they were still on Toronto time) – with no rear visibility in the car thanks to the massive amount of material in my wedding dress. We had a full day planned: not only the 10 hours of travel time (too extra long since we went the coastal route), but also stopping to see Elephant seals, trees in Big Sur, Monterey and the aquarium there.

While in Monterey we got a call from our dog sitter, who was picking up Gracie that afternoon. “Everything is fine…” Uh oh… good conversations never start that way… “… but she ate your couch.” I told her not to worry, that it was already ripped, but “no… there was fluff EVERYWHERE!!”. Guess the little girl knew we weren’t coming home so soon.

We reached our destination around 10pm, exhausted. Off to bed, ready to get up and have another big day: this time touring part of Sonoma (where I grew up).

And then off to the east bay for dinner with my dad and my brother’s family. We saw a metal gorilla on the side of the road on the way.

Friday we went over to San Francisco, and for that trip Mike’s dad Bert and stepmom Gisela joined us (for part).

After that it was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and then Mike left to the hotel with his mom and it was the final night single! It would be wedding day when we woke up.

Posted in Life Outside of Tris, mike, pics | No Comments »

Alive and married

Friday, September 26th, 2008

I’m alive and married Just haven’t posted in a while. But going to try to get a bit caught up now. So a number of posts are coming… stay tuned for

Posted in donutdogg, Life Outside of Tris, mike | 1 Comment »

mom was right

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

When I was little I was given the impression that if I ever got near superglue my fingers would end up glued together. And to never pick my nose because if I did they’d get stuck there, but that is another story.

Anyways, we needed some glue to fix a couple wood chips on a dresser. We headed over to trusty Home Depot (the first place in this new town where we are known by name) and hit the glue section. Mike grabs the superglue, and I balk. Hey this one says for wood, so let’s go with it! Plus it had a gorilla on it.

Convinced, we take it home. Only to head back to Home Depot later to get some glue for plastics (BBQs do not land softly in the night). Again Mike grabs those scary little tubes. After reading the packages, I agree it is our best bet, and let him know we can’t glue our fingers together! We take home the innocent little tubes, and the package gets placed on the counter.

The next morning I see both glue packages are open. I’m not really sure why, since the BBQ handle still hangs and the dresser is still missing a tooth. But they are. And then I see it: the CAPS ARE NEXT TO THE SUPERGLUE! Horrified, I touch the tubes. It moves, and I end up picking them up. I notice there seems to be a seal on it, and relieved I put the tops on them, put them down, and finish getting ready for work. The gorilla was of course behaving himself and I left him alone.

Lunch time I come home so the donut dog can play for a bit (yay for 7 minute walking commutes!). And as I do so, I see it. The internet box that Mike was supposed to return is still on the counter. Damn it Mike! Grumpy about not having internet at the new place yet doesn’t make me feel better about still paying for it at the old place, and I move the box to the side. And see the superglue. And it appears the tubes are not full. And I touch the list of important wedding addresses that they are on. And nope, it won’t move. They are strongly glued to the paper. And each other. And the counter. Damn it Mike!! And then I remember — that must have been what those tops did. It was my fault. Well, at least I could still blame the internet on him.

I peel them off each other, try to tighten the tops, and place them more completely on a corner of the paper they can glue as much as they want. A wet drop got on my finger. Panic set in, but I kept my fingers spread wide, ran to the sink, and managed to take care of it, avoiding attaching any of my fingers to the infested one.

Crisis avoided, and I called Mike to let him know. I am no longer allowed to help with the supergluing. But he better remember to return that internet box!

Posted in Life Outside of Tris, mike | 8 Comments »

definitely a memoriable memorial weekend

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

I took full advantage of the 3 day weekend — the first one I’ve had since classes started in January.

Saturday Mike, the mountain bikes and I all climbed our way up the same basic route we did back in December. It was still beautiful and fun. We went a bit farther this time, and made it all the way to the summit of the fire road. And again froze our asses off on the way down. It took forever in warm water in the shower to get my toenails not blue. And I might never listen to Mike about when to bring my cold-weather gloves again. But about 22 miles and 6000 ft of climbing kicked off the weekend right.

Sunday started with a pretty relaxed 30 mile loop on bike paths, basically flat (just under 1000ft of climbing). Then some shopping for a dress for one of my sister’s wedding in a couple weeks. A fun dinner, and then a nice evening 4.5 mi run.

Monday no alarm clocks were allowed. And we relaxed in the morning. But got out the door barely before noon for a great climby loop chasing Mike or sometimes riding with him — 71 miles and a bit under 10,000ft of climbing. Knowing it was going to be a long day of climbing, I just spun up pretty much everything, relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous views from the ridge road and seeing down the valleys. I loved the miles and miles with no cars, since about 20 of the miles each way were on roads that are currently closed to cars (ok currently closed — but lots of bikers still play up there). And the french dip sandwich at the turn around, complete with a fire to dry off and thaw a bit from that last cloud, also rocked. Oh yeah, and on the final stretch, I got a bit playful and I think Mike got tired of me finding sprint points I just knew I could make it home from there!

And thanks to Marky, a nice little run followed the ride. Just 20 minutes, 2.2 miles, but there weren’t really any completely flat parts.

So I earned my spaghetti!

Oh and the “song” stuck in my head lately? “It’s too cold for holes in my arse… it’s too cold for holes!!” (inspired by a pair of bike shorts that were torn on a fence).

Posted in biking, marky, mike, mountain biking, running | No Comments »

wedding update

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Well time flies when you are having fun, so the wedding just keeps getting closer and closer! A date and location has been determined, and I have a dress already. The main things we need to get going with are the announcements and rings!!

And today I emailed the honeymoon race and gave them an update on what my name will be, which was fun.

At least we already have a somewhat “theme” (basically how our invites and favors and such will all tie together and to us). But yet so much more to do!

Posted in Life Outside of Tris, mike | 1 Comment »

watt was I thinking?

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Ok so it’s a geeky title. But no surprise then, right?

I rode this morning — my 20.5 mile out and back that is basically flat. And it was a bit windy, but nothing super crazy. I just had no power. None. Felt like I was running on empty or something. Even 100 watts felt unholdable. Not a great feeling, but I did the whole ride, home, and off to work.

Talking to Mike just now he reminded me that I haven’t been sleeping well at all — or have been working til crazy late for some unknown reason. Oh yeah. I always forget that sleep is a part of performance. But today’s looooow power numbers for similar perceived exertion to other rides sure reinforced it! Maybe next time I’ll remember.

Posted in biking, mike | 1 Comment »

Oops – should tighten that!

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

I started my ride on Tuesday planning to get in just over 20 miles with one of my favorite routes from my door. Mostly flat, and very little traffic (and many miles on a bike path). I was feeling pretty good, but realized I had forgotten my phone. Did the little hill at mile 1, and on the descent from it at about 30 MPH all of a sudden I had almost no control of the bike! I was fishtailing, and heading straight for a T-intersection where I was coming from the hard to see direction. Hoping no car was going to turn and right into me, I braked and looked at the back of my bike, expecting a flat and wondering how that had happened, and so fast.

Instead I found that the wheel was no longer in the drops! Yes, the wheel had basically fallen off my bike. Luckily the brake calipers held it sort of in place, so it was still in the chain. I smelled burning rubber and took the bike to the top of the T to put the wheel back in. And found a couple HUGE bald spots on my tire. Oh right, 30mph to 0 without spinning… yeah, that will take off some rubber.

Popped the wheel back in place, remembering how I had thought it was a bit loose that morning but hadn’t bothered to tighten it since I had raced on it that way and figured it was fine. Um oops.

I headed down to the running path I was just above, and where Mike had either just passed our would be passing soon on his run. I found him, and just rode home easy next to him while talking.

So it was a short ride, and a pretty easy one, but sure was scary! And next time I will be less lazy.

Posted in biking, mike | No Comments »

PossAbilities Triathlon

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

2 years ago I almost skipped this race, but ended up going since I’d done it every year I’ve done tris. And while there I met a pretty cute boy, and now I get to keep him, so we like doing that race and signed up again this year.

So off we went to the races in a clown car! We took Mike’s 2door Civic. My bike fits standing in the back seat with only the front wheel off, and his fits in the trunk with the seat folded down. Then the wheels and our race gear squeeze in around, and when we get to the race site you wonder where all the stuff we have in there was stored for the drive.

I got ready, leaving my shoes on my bike for the first time. I had practiced it the night before on our street, and figured why not. Then a quick warmup, and to the line. Where I realized I was not interested in running. I felt exhausted and just wanted to play on my bike. As the national anthem was sung, I remembered my bike shoes were still velcro’ed — so getting them on would be a bit more complicated than I had practiced Mike told me it was too late — to not race (which I didn’t reallly want to do anyways) or to fix the shoes. And he even noticed how I just wasn’t giggly excited like I usually am before a race. So the horn blew, and I just ran.

I didn’t really push it — cheered for Mike as he went by the other way, and got to run with some of the kids from the Exceeding Expectations program (they were all there racing, so it was fun to see them). Finished the run, put on a helmet and dropped my visor and GPS and jumped on. Shoes on successfully, and I pedaled.

I still wasn’t really in the zone, and the bike was over. Into the water and I swam a bit hard. But it was sooo crowded. With the serpentine swim I kept getting pushed into the lane lines if I tried to pass, or caught up in others arms. So I just swam hard and passed pretty much everyone around me. I’m by no means a good swimmer, I just think that is often one of the weakest things for most people who show up to the little local races.

Out of the water, jog to the line. I didn’t even notice the time, just gave Mike a high five and was ready to go pack up so he could get on his way.

Mike had a conference in Palm Springs all weekend (which meant I got to commute with him on Friday, which was fun). And then he had to leave immediately after he was done racing to go for more, but would be back around 2 or 3, so I just hung out at the race site until he was back — there was a tri club meeting, and it is my gym, and I had a book. I was a bit sunburned when all was done, but it was a good day.

This post has me sounding like I really didn’t like the race. I did — I felt ok for it, and it has a great atmosphere. I just felt kind of blah in general, and for some reason wasn’t too excited about it being race day. It was fun to cheer for some of the exceeding expectations kids (I just couldn’t cheer for the ones that beat me ). And I do like the feeling of that race: some very fast people (Kate Major, Julie Swail) but also tons of people just giving triathlon a first go.

Posted in biking, mike, Race Tales, running, swiming | No Comments »

not a bad weekend!

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Saturday was a 5k. The same course I set a PR on last year. I went faster 23:44! Although their times were a bit odd in that I was in a group and they have no one right by me — my watch had me at 23:19 and a 7:21 pace since the course is long, but also didn’t have the 5 seconds of getting to the start line. Either way, a PR. And yeah, it kinda hurt. But it was a beautiful course, and I’ll take it! Official stats:

23:44 (7:38 pace) — 282/3015 overall, 43/1505 women, 8/171 W25-29

Sunday was Mike’s and my first off-road tri, and from there we were going to head to Redlands and see some of the Redlands Classic bike race on our bikes, so Saturday night we packed up the car and the bikes had a sleepover in the car (which left our house looking a bit empty).

The mountain bike race was chosen since Mike won an entry by winning the Redlands Tri, and since I have wanted to do one for a couple years we went for it. Although it was a bit confusing at the start (missing Mike’s early reg and no one sure what we needed to fill out) we got registered and got a great spot set up in transition. Wetsuits on, and down to the beach. There were only 2 waves (it was a pretty small local race) and Mike’s was off fairly quickly. Supposed to be 5 minutes after, my wave was bumped to 20 minutes after. I watched Mike come out of the water in second and got ready to go. And our start time was bumped back by another 20 minutes. So much for that well-planned gel and warm-up! About 20 minutes later, we suddenly we had a 30 second warning, just enough time to wipe the fog out of my goggles, and we were off. I had a pretty good swim, and felt my spotting was not as bad as usual.

It has been a while since I had to wiggle out of a wetsuit on my own! I made it, pulled on bike shoes and a helmet and was off in about 5th or so according to one of the race guys telling us things. I passed a couple other women early in the loop, and later was passed by a couple. Oh, and in one section, there were TALL weeds, taller than me on my bike, with just barely a path through them. One of the weeds caught my handlebars and pulled me into the weeds. Where I didn’t fall over since they were strong, and just had to pull out of them and keep going. And then I made it up and over a curb without pausing (I still feel like I have TONS of mtb skills work to do!). One loop down, off the bike at the dismount, run through the TA, and then back on the bike at the mount line for loop 2. Weird, but it worked (there was a one loop race as well).

Second (and final) loop about 10 miles into the race I could feel that PR from the day before. My legs were tiring fast! The 2 women I had just in sight moved well ahead, and I started wondering how that hilly 3.2 mile run would feel. But first things first, and I kept pedaling. And found that I had launched one of my 2 gels, so I had one and wouldn’t have one at the start of the run. Oh well, keep moving. As I came around the final turn there was Mike (and a camera)!

Back into transition, and a nice smooth change into the run gear. My mtb shoes are so hard to get off! I will have to try out my new ones (with a tongue instead of elastic) next time.

I got off the bike in about 7th place Mike thought, and I started my run. My plan was to enjoy it. There were some pretty trails, and I knew my legs were fairly shot. Someone forgot to tell my competitive side though! It was a tough course, with the first part having tons of climbing. I guess the ultra training has helped — feeling pretty bad I still passed the 2 women right in front of me! And then later another one that had passed me on the bike, and into a fun little single track, and with .8 miles to go I could see another. But she had a decent lead, so I didn’t think I’d make it. Then she walked a hill, and I went for it and made it past. Since most of the climbing and harder downhills were all in the first half, this last mile was a lot of fun. Almost done, around a turn, and again Mike. He was chatting, so I had to talk for him to see me. But he still got a picture as I told him that if I beat him to the finish line he owed me lunch *and* dinner (he already owed me lunch).

He did beat me to the line, but still ended up buying me dinner. He’s that awesome.

The other nice thing about a first off-road tri is the automatic PR! Although I didn’t do too shabby:

2:29:36 — 53/112 overall, 5/20 women, 2/5 W25-29

After the race we hung out for quite a while waiting for results. They still had nothing, and finally announced that they’d have to mail out the awards and weren’t going to get them done that day. It was chipped timed, but they were having computer issues. Honestly, I’m not so impressed with the race organization. For how expensive it was, I expected better. While I had a lot of fun, it was so behind schedule and disappointing to not get results, so I’m not sure if I’d do it again. When they announced results would be online this evening, we left, and headed to Redlands and had a nice easy 11ish mile ride around the Redlands Classic course. With In N Out burgers on the way, and then great Thai food before heading home.

Mike had a great race as well and was 2nd or 3rd overall! He says 3rd, but right now results have him 2nd. So the results might all change — oh, and it now says splits won’t be available until Wednesday night. So there are definitely some issues still there.

Oh… and for those of you still wondering how Oceanside was, Mike did a great job and I got some great photos. It’s all over on his blog, and I don’t have the energy to type it up now But I had fun cheering for people and hanging out with Marky and crew.

Posted in biking, mike, mountain biking, pics, Race Tales, running, swiming | 4 Comments »

good motivation to get in the pool

Friday, March 14th, 2008

I was sleepy this morning, but Mike was getting up to go swim so I dragged myself out of bed. It’s just easier when he’s getting up, too, since bed is less cosy when only I’m in it. I tried to come up with a way to get myself in the pool and getting in a full workout. I know if I have a set plan (especially one someone else knows about) it is a lot easier.

Well my coach (Marky) was asleep on the couch, in town for a power conference. And he woke up to the sprinklers and then gave me a workout of 2100 yds. So that’s one way to get a plan

So I got to the pool, and I got it all done. Oh, and held near my goal pace of 1:50 for the 100s at the end of it. I want it to be my crusing pace, and that was definitely a bit higher effort than that, but it just showed me another step in the right direction.

Posted in marky, mike, swiming | 1 Comment »