Workout Week in Review

Turns out I've got at least one more of these in me after all - I have to post about last week not because there were stellar workouts or even good quantity, but for me it was an epic week. Check the workout start times in particular - astonishing. I am not a morning person.

With work, traveling for work, grad school, and my kids being out of school for the summer, I have had a really hard time fitting in any workouts. Quite literally, the week before this past week, I ran one time... and that was it. For the entire week. Pathetic, I know. As evidenced by the fact that my stomach is sticking out further than my boobs. Not that that takes much. But I digress...

Without further ado, here's my exercise report for last week.

Sunday: Nothing. I didn't say it was a great week.

Monday: I met Megan at 6 a.m. and we biked through Goochland - 18 miles, 17.5 mph average speed. That's lightening for me lately given my limited cycling. Once we got moving, I was really glad to be up that early, and of course it was great to catch up with Megan. We were pretty even last fall and she's smoking me now but I'm okay with that.

Tuesday: I met the Bean at 7 a.m. for a run. To be completely factual, I woke up at 7:01, raced downstairs to let the Bean know I was awake, raced back upstairs to throw on running clothes and swish some toothpaste through my mouth, then I met the Bean to run at about 7:05. We ran three miles together before she headed to a tennis match; I ran another two on my own. My average pace was something like 9:40 min/mile, negative split.

Wednesday: Flush with the success of my Monday ride, I committed to another 6 a.m. ride with TG40. Too late to back out now! We rode River Road from Patterson to Cary and back with a detour through a gorgeous neighborhood for a total of 21 miles, 17.0 average speed. I totally slowed TG40 down but she was her normal wonderful self and let me draft and hang on for dear life. Again, I was glad I pried my fat ass out of bed to do it.

Thursday: Beanie and I met for a 7 a.m. run, but this time she overslept. We got going about 7:15 and ran four miles in muggy weather. We were slow - about 11 min/mile, but we were chatting the whole time and that raises our heart rate, right?

Friday: Nothing. I didn't even pretend to myself that I would attempt anything.

Saturday: I had an early class for school but I set my alarm for 5:45 to get in a few miles beforehand. My alarm went off but the volume was set so low that I didn't hear it for 20 minutes, at which point I didn't have time to run. Do I get points for effort? My waistline says no.

I'm exhausted since in addition to these early morning workouts, I was up late every night working on two group projects, one individual project, and six papers. My speed-semester of grad school is over and I have the month of July blessedly off. I'm hoping to get myself on a more consistent schedule and fit some weight training in (my favorite).

Perhaps I will have more to write about next week...

But don't count on it.

Blackbird

This is for Siren - my favorite martini recipe:

Berry mix:
1 cup strawberries
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blueberries
1 cup cranberries
1 oz brandy
1 oz Cointreau
1 cup superfine sugar

Drink mix:
2 oz lemon vodka
1 oz lemon juice
¾ oz Cointreau

Berry mix: Place all the ingredients in a large bowl, stir once and leave overnight. Stir once more before serving.

Place a scoop of the berry mix into a frosted martini glass and press down. Pour the drink ingredients into a shaker filled with ice; shake sharply, then gently strain the mixture into the martini glass.

Enjoy!

Mommy of the Year

This is a new feature I'm introducing at blog 'o TriDi, potentially replacing the nearly defunct Workout Week in Review. Turns out Kermit isn't interested if I'm not posting Zumba updates.

My sweet baby Taz celebrated his birthday recently (and yes, I owe updates on that and many many other things). For his birthday, that child raked in some cash. He had a hard time deciding whether he wanted to buy a guitar or an iPod. I steered him towards the iPod Shuffle, and just like Mommy, he loaded it up with Nickleback tunes.

I've got to tell you there is nothing that warms a mother's heart quite like seeing your eight year old son walking around with headphones belting out lyrics about cheap drugs and Playboy bunnies.

I am a Rockstar.

Story of My Life

Thanks to Cathy for this great cartoon. Guess which one is me?!?!?

I need closure...

I recently discovered that one of my good friends had a girl crush on me. Had. That's the operative word.

I find myself oddly and deeply disturbed.

Not because she had the girl crush on me in the first place. But that she doesn't anymore.

What did I do wrong?

Happy Birthday to Me

Another year older... wow!

It's so much fun to have little ones who are thrilled to celebrate a birthday. Scott planned a special dinner with ice cream cake and everything. And he gave me an awesome wine chiller and new wine bottle opener - the man certainly knows what I like.

At the end of the night, Taz wanted to know if I was done... because it's all about him now. He turns 8 on Saturday. I can't believe my baby will be 8!

.

Now that makes my hair turn gray.

.

~~~~

Update: I should probably mention that my birthday was actually the day before this post. As usual, I am a day late a dollar short.

Race Report: Power Kids

My pups did the Power Kids sprint tri last weekend.

Last year, they were prepped and ready. We trained for months! Every weekend, they asked me for their training schedule and demanded more than I gave them.

This year... not so much. It's not that they weren't interested; it's that I never had time. I "coached" them to run the track at school and go to swim team practice. I also told them that all the hiking we've been doing this spring built endurance and leg strength. That's true, right?!?!? Anyway, it seemed to work. Triathlon is 3/4 mental!

The night before the race, I picked up their packets while they attended birthday parties and played baseball games. Taz and I had to go buy running shoes at the last minute as the entire front of his was falling apart. We packed their gear and laid out their bathing suits for the next morning. They even went to bed without too much complaining after I told them that triathletes needed a good night's sleep.

I woke up at ~ 5:20 the next morning and was so nervous for them that I couldn't get back to sleep. Were they ready? Would lack of training cause them to have a bad day and turn them against the sport? Am I the worst mom ever?

Finally at 6:30, Taz's alarm went off. He had insisted on setting it the night before. He sprang out of bed and into his bathing suit before flying into our room to make sure we were up. Rainbow hopped right up too. That pretty much never happens so I knew they were really excited.

Scouter loaded up bikes and we headed to the Y. They were asking last minute questions and remembered quite a bit from the previous year. I kept telling them that the most important thing was to have fun. Taz thought the most important thing was winning his age group!

The Y was pretty crazy by the time we got there. We saw Jackie's family as well as some other TriGirl and school families which was great. We headed straight to to transition and got their area set up, then went to body marking. TriGirls Jackie and Shannon were doing the body marking and it was one of the highlights of the kids' day. They love having race numbers and ages written on them!

By then, we had a plan. Taz gave his towel to Daddy with instructions for the post swim hand-off, while Rainbow entrusted her towel and similar instructions to me. They lined up and the smack-talking began in earnest between the two of them. I let them have the Gu they'd been begging for and they were extremely disappointed that it didn't taste like candy. Rainbow decided to go with the optional kickboard at the last minute.

The setup at the Y is not great for spectating the swim, so when their heat hit the water I pressed myself up against the window to watch. Taz took off like a shot down the pool and back and was the first or second out of the water in his heat. He was so fast that I didn't even get a picture and Scouter almost missed him with his towel. Rainbow chugged along with her kickboard and meandered out awhile later. She didn't look particularly happy but she didn't look shell-shocked like last year either. A group of TriGirls and other friends cheered wildly for her when she came out the door and she was all about that.

I ran with her to transition and caught up with Taz briefly as he headed out on his bike leg. This year, I was allowed to run with Rainbow but I couldn't keep up so after we weaved through the initial section, I sent her off on her own. I tried to help the volunteers direct kids while I waited for Taz to go by and Rainbow to return. Rainbow and Taz told me they expected me to be the loudest fan out there and I didn't disappoint - I cheered like a lunatic for all the kids and especially when Taz came smoking through. I waited and waited for Rainbow who finally coasted up to me. I started sprinting and challenged her to catch me which she found quite funny.

By the time Rainbow finished the bike, Taz had already finished the run. He wanted to win and kicked butt on the run especially, placing first in his age group for the run and fifth overall. He and Scouter were strategically placed to watch Rainbow run by, then Taz and I zipped over the the finish line to catch her at the end.

Medals for every kid are really smart. That made all the difference for Rainbow last year and was highly motivational this year.

We were able to hang around for a bit after their race to see some of our friends' kids finish strong.

What a great race. I'm a proud mommy!

The rest of the story...

Several of you have emailed asking who Thomas is. Oddly, I wasn't able to generate any arousal from the man himself...

If you'll excuse the double entendre.

And yes I'm aware that my PG rating is in serious jeopardy of late.

Anyway, Thomas is Annnn's husband. He has an annoying tendency to keep her from me.

Take last Thursday for example. We were supposed to cycle. It was an extremely hot day and I was not excited about the prospect. My car had been in the shop causing me to have to take my bike rack off. So I got home, hot and grumpy, debated cancelling but finally changed into my cycling attire, struggled to reconnect my bike rack, loaded up my gear and headed out to meet Annnn. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot at our meeting spot, she called to tell me she couldn't come because Thomas wasn't home to watch the kids.

Some other girls were riding a long hilly route that afternoon so I opted to stay in West Creek to ride safely by myself. I did two loops for 14 miles at a fairly decent clip for me, 17.5 mph. Then I intended to run 3-4 miles, but 1.5 miles in I bagged it. It was unbelievably hot. Melissa drove by as I was finishing my run and sweetly suggested that I was nuts. Seriously, it was in the upper 90s.

On the bright side, had I not expected to meet Annnn, I would not have exercised at all.

But I still think Thomas owes me a drink.

Back off dude - I'm married

Thomas screws me so much we may as well start dating. The least he could do is pick up my bar tab every now and then.

Okay, okay... it isn't really me whom he screws. It's Annnnn. Then she screws me.

It's a twisted tri. And it isn't any fun at all.

I'll have a Gray Goose, straight up. With a side of lubricant.

Is profanity hereditary?

When I was pregnant and again when my kids were very small, many people joked that my children's first word would not be "MaMa" or "DaDa" but rather "Fuck." It happened so often that I began to be offended.

Nonetheless, I managed to control my foul mouth and my children did not learn any profanity until a few years ago when my parents kept them overnight. Scouter and I had been somewhere and soon after we got home, Rainbow slammed her fist into the kitchen table over dinner and exclaimed, "God Dammit!" She was about three and she had the tone down and everything. Scouter and I could not look at each other for fear of laughing. And we are mature enough (just barely) to understand that we should not encourage that kind of behavior.

Finally, I was able to look at my child and ask with a straight face, "Pardon me?"

"She said God Dammit," Taz replied matter of factly.

After another moment of looking at the ceiling and biting my lip, I asked where she had learned that phrase.

"Pa Pa," she replied.

Ever since, we have asked my father to refrain from teaching the children any new profanity every time he sees them unsupervised. I quite enjoy it.

Fast forward to last week, when Taz at the ripe old age of seven announced that he knew "every cuss."

"Really?" I said somewhat skeptically - yet fearfully.

"Yep. I even know the 's' cuss," he replied.

I held a small internal debate until curiosity got the better of me and I asked him what the "s cuss" was.

He smugly responded, "Stupid. But don't tell Rainbow."