Friday workout

Tuesday I rode my bike to/from work and man, I was wiped out after that. I'd planned to swim the next day but still was pretty beat, so I blew it off. As it turned out, I wouldn't have been able to make it anyway as I got stuck in traffic and wasn't going to be able to squeak in a workout before a dinner party anyway.

Thursday I was "sick" but managed to work on my backyard quite a bit. Nice! It's making great progress (and I have a whole blog in my head about this...to come later).

Friday morning, I was wide awake at 4 so at 4:30 I just decided to get up and go work out. I hit the gym as it opened at 5. Ran a slow, tough 3 miles on the dreadmill. The legs were still pretty beat from the bike, amazingly enough. I didn't want to hit them too much more as I'd planned to go cycling again on Saturday (cancelled for wind).

Right after running, I changed into my suit and swam for 30-ish minutes and got in 1300m. Yay! Each time going, I've tried to up the distance by 100m (including warm/cooldown). This time instead of doing 100's and 50's, I did 4 sets of 150 on the 2 minute intervals, then did 8 50's on the 1 minute interval. I'm trying to leave the shorter, faster intervals at the end to help get the body ready to really produce speed at the end of the race. I hope it works out.

This was a nice way to get the body cooled down after running and before heading to work. I might do these a bit more often.

Still gotta get the bod ready for when I meet dreamy Jeff Probst in a few weeks. Sigh...

It's in the air

One of the pure enjoyments of riding is being able to appreciate the air and sights around me as I wander through the neighborhoods. Yesterday, it seemed like my sense of smell was heightened for some reason. I probably looked like a happy dog hanging out a car window, sniffing the air as I pass by.

The morning part of the ride, I enjoy the quietness of most of it. There aren't as many cars on the road. I didn't smell as much going as I did coming home. Here are a few from the day...

Watering lawns - that wonderful smell of wet dirt and grass
Bacon frying
Onions sauteeing in butter (reminds me of Germany)
Barbequed meat - couldn't figure out exactly what was grilling, but it smelled fantastic
Car fumes - ugh. Not my favorite, but definitely something I get to encounter
Old Spice - I swear I could smell a guy's cologne or deodorant from across the street while I was waiting for a light.
Roses - intoxicating!
Honeysuckle-like smell, probably the last vestiges of the red-tips blooming
Dog poop - someone needs to clean up their back yard
Laundry detergent - passing by a laundromat
Sweat - the sign of a great workout!

Good training day!

Last night I watched the Weather Channel to get an idea of how the week would shape up for training and to see if I could get a commute to work in early in the week. Sure enough, Monday and Tuesday look good. I decide Tuesday is the best day for a commute so I can pre-plant work clothes in my locker at work and not have to worry about packing them with me.

So as I'm packing one bag, I'm trying to figure out what to do with Monday. If I go to the gym on the way to work, that means I have to pack another bag of work clothes. Hmm...I think about it a bit more, check my calendar at work, and realize that a lunchtime jog is in order. I figure I've got to run down to the locker room anyway to plant Tuesday's clothes so I might as well change and get a run in. I throw in my swimsuit as well, just in case I get the urge to throw in a swim after work as well.

Ahhh...today was PERFECT! It was 68 degrees, sunny and the wind was barely moving when I went down at 11 to change. Though I wanted to get in 4 miles, I figured I'd better back off for the ride tomorrow. It's going to be a beating, I'm sure. My hamstrings were still tight after doing a lot of yardwork over the weekend. What a nice run it was though. I got in 3 miles and it was just right.

I did end up going to the pool on the way home and got 11oo yards in today. I figure I'll just keep upping each workout by 100 yards or more. Woo hoo! Fun day!

Tomorrow, it's a 52 mile r/t bike ride to/from work. Again, the weather should be perfect. Wednesday should only be a swim as I know my legs will be shot.

Carry on, y'all!

Training - Swim today

Yay for Deeann. She's making me get into the tri training. Thank you, chica.

Spent 30 minutes swimming today, which is the first time in a long, long time. Probably since last fall. I did 1000 yards and it felt pretty good. I had to get out of the pool before the next swim team practice started so this worked out well.

Have you ever gotten a toe cramp while swimming? It shouldn't be much but man, it does! It caught me off guard which made me kick my foot into the wall, which then scraped the shit out of my foot. Gawd only knows what kind of nasty kid pee I have in the scrape now. LOL!

One workout down. Tomorrow, either run or ride depending on the weather.

Oh we oh we oh we oh waaay aaahhaaahh...

Yippee skippy! One of the best e-mails ever came through at work yesterday.

You see, last summer I was recapping the TV show "Greatest American Dog". It wasn't the best show around, but it got me a great little perk. CBS wanted to promote the show more so they asked the site I write for, http://www.realitynewsonline.com/ if we wouldn't mind interviewing the contestants as they were sent home. Why not, right? I had a fantastic time doing that, but in the swing of it, I got to be good phone friends with the guy who is the CBS rep.

As it turns out, we got to talking about Survivor and he became the contact for the contestants. Woo hoo! I do enjoy talking to him and make a point of it about once every week or two during the season.

Now those who know me, know that Survivor is my all-time favorite show and I'd just about kill to be on it. I've tried to get on for a long time, but nothing has quite hit the spot yet with the casting folks. So in the meantime, I'm working as many other angles as possible.

Back to yesterday's e-mail. My guy came through. The e-mail essentially is a ticket into the LIVE SURVIVOR: TONCANTINS FINALE in New York at the Ed Sullivan theatre!! I can't tell you just how excited I was to get that note, too. I squealed enough to have the prairie dogs pop their heads over their cubes to see what was happening. Once they saw that it wasn't that exciting for them, I tried to find a few of the people in the pool.

Ended up calling my brother, who is also an avid fan and he seems to be excited for me too.

Now I'm in travel mode, trying to figure out where to stay, how to get there, what the trains are and to which airport to go. Wow!

Once that's done, I have to figure out what to wear to make sure Jeff Probst drops whomever his latest girlfriend is, 'cause this chick is gonna get at those dimples.

I'll update you all again after the show.

Jake

It's been over 2 years since I had to let Big Jake go. My 22 pound orange chatty cat with a head the size of a softball was part dog, part human (he'd belch and snore with the best guy), but mostly an obnoxious cat. And I loved him. The day I had to put him down, he had been sick for nearly a month and down to 14 pounds, which on him, was emaciated. Many times, mainly when he was "talking" to me in the middle of the night I threatened to shoot him, but I never really meant it. I was a blubbering mess for several weeks afterwards.

But why do I bring this up?

Yesterday I was flying home from a fabulous bit of tropical therapy in Belize (another blog) and the airline had Marley and Me playing. I'd read the book and knew the ending. I remember laughing through the whole book, then actually crying in the end. And this was before I lost Jake.

The movie was good, but not nearly as good as the book. But I knew about the ending. I kept a napkin from my drink back just in case I teared up. What I wasn't expecting was the outright rush of pain as the final scenes were coming up. It got to a point where I couldn't see anymore through the tears and that I thought I'd start sobbing if I continued watching. I unplugged my headphones, grabbed a book, and refused to look at the screen until we were on final approach. I never did see the ending, but know what happened. Just thinking about it kept my eyes wet.

How is it that 22 pounds of fur can still affect me so much several years later? As much of a pain-in-the-ass my boy was, I loved him dearly. I can't believe I still miss him so much.

Random stuff

Much like watching elementary school kids, it's hard not to laugh at the lineup of carpool vans at 4pm outside one of the entrances at SWA each afternoon. Each van is waiting for its charges before hitting the roads for home.
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I leave the door to my backyard open sometimes when I'm home and it's warm enough to do so. My cat, Tweak, enjoys rolling around in the dirt and hunting lizards. The other night the winds were high and something obviously spooked her. She came tearing through the door; into the hous, tail poofed out like a bottlebrush. At that exact instant, the wind blew the front door open (I didn't have it shut all the way apparently) and she took the opportunity to continue her tear through the house and out the front door. The door immediately slammed shut behind her. It all happened so fast, it didn't seem real.

In my laughter filled with tears, I wandered to the front door to find Tweak's fur completely blown up and pupils dialted to the fullest. She scampered back inside, then gave an insolent sniff in the air as if she meant to give that show.

It still makes me giggle thinking about it. Dumb cat.
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I also giggle when the cat snores. Sometimes it's a slight wheeze. Other times, it's a tiny snort. Either way, it's just so dang cute!
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The wind in north Texas is awful this time of year. It's just so dang gusty in the spring. Not a week goes by without a trip down the alley in search of an esacped garbage can. You'd think I was beating it or something. Sheesh. I'm ready for May and the wind to die down so I can ride more.
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It's almost time to start riding the bike to work again. I noticed on the drive in to work the other day that there was a bit of light on the horizon at 6:30ish. This is a great sign! One check with the sunrise/sunset tables and sure enough, the nautical sunrise, which is the glow on the horizon before actual sunrise, will start to be between 6:15 and 6:30 starting next week. Yay!
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I've had nothing but junk food this past week. Birthday celebrations are bad for the ass.
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There are 4 more days until I'm in Belize again.
There are 61 days until the Danskin triathlon in Austin (gotta seriously start getting ready for this).
There are 110 days unti RAGBRAI (7 day bike ride across Iowa - google it) kicks off, and yes, the getting ready for this also applies.
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Our RAGBRAI team is made up of mostly people from my flying squadron. Okay, they're still in and enjoying the flying time, but I'm retired. Yay!

Over the years, we've spent many days worth of St Croix per diem on Cruzan Rum, mine mainly on Mango rum. In honor of that, we named our team "Cruzan Around".

Thinking that we had a great opportunity to get the word out, I've been trying to get hold of either the company or a local distributor to see if they'd sponsor us by helping us with jerseys or donate rum to the cause. Surely we'd give some away to the other 10,000 people cycling across Iowa? No luck.

Fortunately, yesterday I got a text from my great friend, Greg, who said that we were now being sponsored by Boudreaux's Butt Paste. Wow, what a change, huh? Sadly, I think there will be just as many cyclists excited about this as they would've been for the rum. Either have a way of soothing the chafing.