What the ...Week!!!

Dang!  Where did it go?  I don't go to work.  I don't have kids and yet my week is gone! 

Last Saturday, we celebrated my niece's 1st birthday and I cooked.  I never cook.  I don't make things.  I can't draw, knit, sculpt nothing.  It took me two weeks to prepare, with one day of prepping and one day of cooking, but when all was said and done I managaed to make two pan's of cheesy potato casserole (one without onions for my brother and sister-in-law) and 3lbs. worth of mussels in garlic and beer.  I was extremely gluttonous and only slightly guilty.  The food was a hit with no leftovers to be had.  I made sure to get my niece two loud toys so her parents wouldn't forget her and she completely inspired me to get my own "smash" cake for whatever thrity-something birthday I have coming up in September. 

Sunday, A broached the idea of selling my road bike.  I had been kicking the idea around for the last year and a half, but being the type of person that has an emotional attachment to certain objects in my life I had not seriously done anything about it.  A convinced me it would go to a good home and I could get a decent price and within four hours it was cleaned-up, test ridden and sold!  Gone was my trusty red and black Trek 1200 that had carried me over thousands of miles, that had taken me 50+ mph once down a hill out by River Road and had only ever flatted on me one time in three years.  It went to a good home and I hoped it's new rider would enjoy it as much as I had.  The upside to all this was it got me a few bucks to get through these unemployed weeks until the dough starts rolling in from my new job. 

Monday with all the crappy weather I was dreading the drive to South Pointe for my phsycial and physical capabilites test only to discover the power was out in some areas of the buildings and only half of my appointments would be completed.  I was a little bummed.  It had to be the physical capabilities test that would require me maxing out all 4 of my appendages in less than 45 minutes.  I was told I would have to come back Tuesday following the same protocols, eat well, sleep well and avoid strenuous activity.  This was messing up my running and boot camp.  I peed in a cup in a pitch black bathroom, managing to avoid peeing on my hand and sacrificed three tubes worth of blood.  I only ran 7 miles after and opted to skip boot camp once the weather became sketchy around 3pm.

Tuesday I traveled down to the main campus to turn in my new hire paperwork, get my ID badge and parking assignment.  I originally was assigned the same parking deck as when I precepted down there, but switched to a surface lot to save $15 a month on parking, so now they only dock my paycheck $45/month (GEEZ, no wonder I make what I make -- they are gonna take most of it back in gas and parking!!).  It was really quick and I went directly back to South Pointe thinking maybe I could get in an hour early, but no such luck.  They checked me in and left me sitting in the lobby for an hour.  My appointment was at 2:30pm.  They called me back at 2:40pm.  The max test required I be strapped into a seat tighter than the Dragster at Cedar Point.  The straps criss-crossed my chest and after writhing, left and right, pretty much foaming at the mouth and grunting like a pissed off wild hog I had two thoughts. 

1. If I had breast implants and did this test I bet I would have popped one if not both it was so tight
2. My shoulders were gonna be wrecked for days (I had hickey looking marks on both traps and they are still sore 3 days later).

The test was new as of this year and to fail would result in my job offer being rescinded.  It was supposedly being used as an indicator for worker's comp and injuries, but it seemed flawed to me.  How does my max strength determine if I know how to lift appropriately?  Needless to say, it sounded like I had put the best numbers up at their facility by a female thus far when the administrator stated "Wow!  I think these are the highest I have seen so far.  She's set the bar for the girls."  I left sore but happy knowing if I didn't pass that test nobody would. 

Wednesday I ran down by my old high school and silently cursed all the high school drivers going by on their phones.  Damn kids!!!  And then it occurred to me -- I had been out of high school for 15 years (that was an unpleasant thought).  I looped back down the all-purpose path and back home for an exhilirating 12 miler.  Thinking back and looking outside now, I debate banging my head on the wall for not just making that my long run day as the weather was perfect for me and today is...well, less than ideal.  Boot camp that night was rough.  I had a really hard time doing anything that required my shoulders.  I looked forward to the deadlift station, for once. 

Thursday, I had set-up a reunion at Ray's for my classmates.  I figured about 10 people were coming as I had not received that many unofficial RSVP's, but a little after 4:00 pm, person after person trickled in.  It was amazing!  The majority of my class and even one of my teacher's had made it out.  I had meant to be home by 7:00 pm, but with so many great stories and an unending amount of ridiculous jokes and laughs it took me until 7:30 pm to muster the will power to say good-bye to them and head home. 

Now, today I have spent a large amount of the day re-hashing the wonderful week I had and posting pics and thank-you's, watching some old show called "Moonlight" on the SyFy channel and periodically looking out the window to see if I am ready to brave the snow for my run.  I will probably just hit the treadmill and keep watching TV before I possibly venture out to Bike Authority to spend time with another group of amazing people that have shared their friendship with me over the years. 

Deadlines

I was really excited to take one month off from TCON (The College of Nursing), but they found me yesterday, emailing me that I needed to have a federal background check into Akron Children's by Friday...hahaha, go "F" yourself. It just isn't going to happen the week of Christmas. Escape is apparently impossible.

As, for the USAT National Club Challenge. I am really going to miss the swim miles for the month. It was too hard to get to the pool during school and now I have no vehicle...bugger!! It really doesn't matter anyway, I guess. I emailed my mileage almost two weeks ago and it is not updated. One commitment off my back.

In other news, I have been zooming and zooming around for a few months now, racking up all the miles I missed in the beginnning of the year. I managaed to crack the 50 mpw in November and got really, really close to 200 miles in October, so this month I got it in my head that I HAD to break 200 miles for month. Right now, I am sitting pretty at a little over 150 miles. I have never done this before and my legs are feeling pretty tired, no matter how many days I rest. My "comfortable" pace is hanging between 8:20-8:40/mile. I did notice however, that it used to take me 3-4 miles to warm-up, but now it is taking me nearly 6!! I even dropped an 18-miler in at 8:30/mile 2 weeks ago. I was shell shocked! I didn't run faster than 8:55/mile when I was doing my long runs for the Philadelphia Marathon. I feel like I am a superhero! I mean really, how many turtles can run as fast as this turtle?

Oh man, is Christmas really only two days away? I haven't done any shopping. Sometimes, I really think these holidays are more stressful than they are about love and family and a that mushy stuff, course I don't like stress or mushy stuff. Cripes!! I really wish Santa did stop at our house.

Agua, H20, Lake Erie Cocktail = I need WATER!!!

Just got off work and was hoping to get in a my 2nd workout late tonight (a 5 mile tempo). I usually leave my run to the night time and get the other stuff out of the way when there are daylight hours. It's hard to swim in the dark (can't see the buoys on my parents lake) and dangerous to cycle (cars can't see my bike and I don't have lights). It seems though that even running at night may be a problem, errr well actually the entire idea of getting hot and sweaty is down right impossible now. We have no water!!

This means no showers, no flushing toilet, no drinking water, zip, zilch, nada! I have checked the local news and all I know is that it was a MAIN water break (you don't say), yes, the city and the police know about it so don't call unless you have a fire and no they don't know when the heck our water will be back on.

Dammit!!! I can't run and sleep all hot sweaty and stinky!! Yuck. I had to make the executive decision to NOT run and try to minimize the my smelliness until I can get to the gym and shower (that is if they have water) or my parents sometime Thursday.

I just hope I can stand the smell of myself for a few more hours. I am definitely a biased person...I don't like stinky people!!!

Missing in Action

I am as usual too busy to blog so I will highlight my last 2-1/2 weeks.

And this picture has nothing to do with my update, but it is too funny not to post!

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  4th of July my dog Bailey turned 6 and he ran his first 5k ever with me. We have run together since he was a pup, but never in an official race. We managed a 3rd in AG and finished in 25:07 with 2 stops to rehydrate. I was so proud of him as we normally train at 9:00/mile and he never gave up (he did poop out with about a 200 meters to go).

• Same day my little brother is officially kicked out of the military due to the injury to his knee during a live fire drill so he will never be returning to Iraq. I can't explain what a relief it is and how it still brings me to tears to think about it.

• A terrible awful cannot explain the rauchiness of the smell came about downstairs in our laundry room about 2 weeks ago. Long story short (as I may vomit just to think about it), a nasty, filthy rat had crawled in our dryer duct and died! There was maggots and lint everywhere...eewww...ralph! Thank goodness for my roommate Twizzle who bravely cleaned it up while I stood dry heaving and holding the bag. Needless to say we replaced the duct and the stench is gone.

• Last Wednesday the walrus and I took Austin, his son to the Maple Leaf track meet to run the 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m. We also saw KP and his twins, who just like there daddy are fast. I got some great pictures and Austin managed a 2nd in the 400m at 1:40. He is only 8! I am so proud of him. We stopped at DQ on the way home to get him ice cream, but I had to get in my run, so while the boys ate ice cream I ran home for about 5 miles and got no ice cream...booo!!!

• The HIM is looming like a dark cloud. The nerves have begun to accumulate. I had a really fun brick last Sunday cycling with Daisy and MN. Started out wet, but got nice and hot just in time to run (of course). Daisy mentioned how quite a few jokes could be told starting with "A brunette, blonde and a red-head go cycling...." There was also some water fighting with rear wheels going on. We managed to stop for a bathroom break and to refuel quick a little over half way through the ride and Daisy and I managed to pack sand in our cycling shoes preventing us from clipping in for a few minutes until we conceded to pull over and bang the sh#t out of them. Picked up TZ for a few miles and rode the windiest stretch of headwind ever out near Fairport.

• Monday night the Walrus and I decided both our legs were just hammered from the week before so we went down to Wildwood to swim with B-bop (my single roommate ladies). The boys, of course wanted to swim outside the breakwall. I had originally planned on going sans wetsuit, but it was way too choppy. We donned our suits and as soon as we passed the breakwall .... it was insane! Chop coming from all directions. The walrus described it as being in a wash machine. I could see both the boys pulling ahead of me and I felt so uncomfortable I even panicked a little. I thought..."this is how people drown...isn't it?" I immediately silenced the voice in my head and began swimming after them. I was not to be stopped. If they could do it, so could I. B-bop was having a little trouble at first keeping the water out of his goggles so I caught up to him, but that only lasted until he replaced his goggles and began swimming away again. It was rough and the longer I swam the more adapted I became to the random chop,but at the same time just couldn't find a comfortable rythm. I was getting tired and working way too hard to try to close the ever widening gap on the boys. Lucky for me they would stop and wait every 50 or so meters. I felt bad and offered to cut in, but they would have none of it. I had made it this far and if I could keep swimming, they would keep waiting. Onward I went and 15 minutes later with a few stops in between we reached the end (.25 miles). Yes, it was that choppy. I told the guys I would swim back on the inside so as not to slow them up, but when I made it inside the breakwall there was trash and dead fish floating everywhere and I freaked out. I began hyperventilating and splashing around trying to get out of the water as quickly as possible. I was so grossed out I thought I might hurl. There was a guy sitting on the rocks looking at me funny. He probably thought "girl you swam through all that chop outside the wall and now you are drowning?" As I ran out of the water and explained to him how all the debris in the water was freaking me out. He laughed and said we were crazy for swimming outside the walls. He then asked if we were in the Olympics. I smiled said no and re-entered the water on the clean side. I swam easy all the way back through the smoothest water ever (or so it seemed) in 9:00 minutes. We decided to call it a day after that.

• Same night we hit up the Tavern Company and picked up other roommate, Twizzle and watched her drink (2) 16-oz chocolate milks. Now, that may mean nothing, but the second one she sucked through a cocktail straw in 52 seconds thanks to the "Walrus timing system." I do think however that had the walrus not made mention of her sucking talents and refered to the possiblity of "sucking a golf ball through a garden hose," she would have finished sooner. Her eyes got really big and she made a very strange sound in her throat before all was said and done. I was trying to scold everyone for being so immature at dinner, but we all ended up laughing. Ahh, I love Monday nights with the roommates and the walrus...good times.

• This past Tuesday after work I hit the track around midnight with the Bails. I managed a 2 mile warm-up and then 6x400 with one lap recoveries, followed by a half mile cool-down before heading home. It was nice and cool. I would have liked to have done a few more as I was feeling good and it was my first speed workout this year, but Bailey who was NOT on a leash of any kind and free to run around and explore took it upon himself to run every darned lap with me. I even put out water before the workout for him, but he is so stubborn. Tongue hanging and heavy breathing (and no I am not referring to myself) I called it a night. I wasn't sure where I needed to run but I figured in the 1:40's would be good. It was dark though and I couldn't check my watch, so I had to run by perceived exertion (P.E.) and what do ya know, I hit everyone except the first (1:51) right in the 1:40's getting a tad faster each time. I am hoping this is a sign I will be running sub-7:30's in stand alone 5k-10k now. I also saw the fallen police officer's shrine on Glenwood. It was right on Corbett's farm property. I stopped my truck for a minute to say a little prayer for the officer's family. I grew up in Twinsburg and to think some dumb motherf#cker shot him just pisses me off to no end. It wouldn't shock me if the shooter was killed before trial and that would be justice!

• Last night I was supposed to do a long ride, but the kids really wanted to see me so I opted to hit a recovery trail run with a group at North Chagrin as I was on a time crunch. I arrived early to hit a quick warm-up and confirm my legs were available for use. I did not want to embarass myself by lagging behind and making the group wait on me, not to mention the heavy hitter e-speed would be putting in an appearance. I was good to go and met up with a group of 5 and we headed out for about an hour. I managed to stay with the group and chat with e-speed for most of the way. She was "trying" to taper for the Buckeye 50k, but she made mention of how her legs just don't understand what days off are and she finds tapering is just another thing to drive you crazy the week before a race. I have to concur. We hit Squire's Castle around 50 minutes and from that point on I knew one way or another there would be a nasty climb coming. The one I am used to usually causes my heart rate to sky rocket, but we turned off and did a hill that had 4 or 5 tiers which I liked much better. E-speed and SY took off up the hill like rockets. I just pushed forward nice and easy, but the hills were steep and my breathing became labored. I was okay though. It was nothing like Devil's Hill at Mountaineer. I could hear someone coming behind me. It was one of the guys in our group. We reached the final summit pretty much together, behind e-speed and SY. We turned to see AY, SY's wife coming up the last tier too. E-speed and SY felt it proper runner etiquette to go back down and check on the remainder of the group. The 3 of us thought it proper etiquette was to wait at the top :) We regrouped and took the non-scenic route back to the park entrance for exactly one hour of running. It was great. I always hated running in groups because I always struggled. I would run as hard as I could to keep up and the group still had to wait on me. It became so frustrating I trained alone for the entire year last year. I know there were certain people in the group last night that would hand me my arse in a race anyday, but it was nice to run with them even if only for a training run.

• My career is non-existant. I graduated with honors in my undergrad. I have 3 classes left to complete my master's, again with honors and no one will hire me because I don't have 2-3 years experience and ACSM certification, which is $400+ dollars. I thought about getting a different degree, but I am tired of school. I thought about going back to the company I used to work for that wrongfully laid me off because they want me back, but none of that seems right. So here it is, I am finishing my master's, called a local hospital, explained I had a degree and some work experience in cardiac rehab and voila they gave me a job working for FREE. The plan is to get more experience, get my ACSM certification as you need 600 hours of clinical work and I have about 300 hours and then get a job anywhere. This means next summer I may be leaving my walrus and friends in search of my career. I have hinted at this, but it is time to sh$t or get off the pot.

And here I am now, sitting in the air conditioning finishing this up before starting my workout and hitting the lake and then off to work. Blah!!

PS. - I am also really disappointed, once again tour riders are testing positive for drugs, specifically my boy Ricco. DUMBASSES DRUGS ARE ILLEGAL!!!

Spiderwick Chronicles

Jared, Simon and Mallory of course save the world from the evil clutches of Mulgarath... pheeww!

Last night the Walrus, me and the kids hit the movie theater with our popcorn and soda around 7:25pm. The movie started with the backstory of Arthur Spiderwick and his discovery of the world of fairies and goblins. He recorded all his findings in a field guide and then sealed it up and had it hidden by his faithful friend Thimbletack, who consequently reminds me of the walrus. The movie then fast forwards to the present day which is about 80 years later.

The great-great niece and nephews Mallory, Jared and Simon are moving into Arthurs house and they immediatley discover strange things. There are eerie noises in the house, things are missing and Mallory's hair is attacked! Jared eventually finds the book and ignores the warning not to open it taped to the front cover breaking the protective spell and alerting Mulgarath and his evil goblins that the book is active again.

The children discover the new world one adventure at a time by riding a griffin, finding their great aunt, escaping from the goblins and finding Arthur Spiderwick himself. This all culminates into the head-to-head battle at the end and the coming together of the family, including their protective and loving mother.

All in all I loved the movie and so did the kids. It was captivating for the adults yet, it followed a simple enough story line for the younger children and had very memorable and magical characters.

What the Hell is Up with this Line Spacing

I just had to put this disclaimer in now after suffering through the madness for almost a year now.

I DO put spaces between my paragraphs!!! The damn blog moves it together sometimes. I also have tried double spacing and it squashes those together into one long post too.

So I apologize for the distracting error filled publication that is my blog....

My Hero

This is the man. I love this show. I love this character. My mom got me hooked on the show a few years ago when it first came out and I haven't stopped watching since. I even spent last year taking a pool from my college buddies what kind of doctor he was. Some suggested a neurologist or an immunologist, but after thinking about it I had perked up their curiousity and had to resort to looking it up on-line. Turns out his is a diagnostician with a team that involves and surgeon, neurologist and an immunologist.

Not only do I find his inappropriate and outlandishly witty comments hilarious, but the way this characters mind is set to not only think outside the box, but to just BE outside the box is refreshing. He is so unique in his approach to diagnosis of his patients I can only envy him. Self-sacrifice is not in his vocabulary, yet he works in the medical field where he spends hours helping people. He even has a motorcycle and a crotch-rocket at that.

He does however, have that gloom and doom trait that all heroes carry which keeps him from finding happiness and inevitably leaves him alone with his bike at the end of the day.

I guess what I am getting at is, sometimes I wish I was that intelligent and that tough throughout my life and my day, even at the cost of my own personal relationships. I sometimes think that life would be so much easier if it were just me and my bike.

Bow Wow Beach

Today was another scorcher. I had been promising to spend some quality time with my dog, "The Bails." I had read an article about a park for dogs in Stow called Bow Wow Beach and with the weather in the 90's I figured why not today.

I grabbed his leash and my sunglasses and off we headed. It was about a 20 minute drive and when we got there I could see it was fenced in as described in the paper and there were about 20 or so dogs running in and out of the water chasing tennis balls, there tails and each other.

Bails had seen the same. His body was erect and you could just see the excitiement. I had him leashed and he patiently waited for me to open the door. Then the patients ended. He began yanking me everywhere sniffing this and sniffing that. Whoa, stop slow down, but there was no stopping him today.

We got in the gates and he immediately started barking and chasing the other dogs. He was just playing, but he was indeed bullying them. I yelled at him to be nice and stop it. We walked to the water, but he wouldn't go in. People can't swim there, but I had sandals on so I walked in a little ways. He hesitantly followed for a second, but then jumped out to bark and chase a 3-legged dog. I yelled at him again to no avail.

A good samaritan who trains dogs came over and explained to me that I needed to leash him for a bit, tell him to be nice and then praise him when he was nice to the other dogs and scold him when he barked and bullied them. We began walking the beach introducing ourselves to each doggy that approached and I petted Bails and told him "be nice" and "good boy" repeatedly. We worked on this for about a half hour and then tried it off the leash. He was much better, but still slipped up every now and then.

We walked down to the other end of the beach and I waded in about mid thigh trying to coax him in. He would come in up to his chest and then run back out the first few times until he finally gathered up enough courage to go a bit farther. I was so proud of him. He was swimming!!! I thought he was an alligator circling me with his head above the water (haha).

We got out and walked back toward the exit when he ran into a black lab named Nick who was just a puppy but definately looking for a buddy. Bails tackled him and barked, chasing him all over and Nick did the same. I shook my head and yelled to be nice. Nick loved it. Oh no!! His owner came over to explain how her dog had no common sense and friended every dog even the bullies. Finally, the two dogs stopped goofing around and seperated. Bails took one more dip in the lake before we left.

The park provided us with a hose (Thank God some dog had taken a dump in the lake and there were fish too. Eeeewww!!!) so one more shower for Bails today. He trotted to the truck and shook off before jumping up into his seat. He laid down almost immediately in the truck for a nap and now two hours later is still chilling. Although, I myself skipped my swim and will have to make up a 15 mile run tonight after work at 11:00pm it was all worth it to see my doggie smile.

Back in the Saddle

As things have been very hectic I have not been as diligent with regards to this blog. I am currently missing blogs for ...

a) Willoughby Hills Du
b) Adam's Birthday Surprise Party
c) The Double Drop Falls
d) Tequila - No Te kill ya Night
e) Race Report for the not so Most Excellent Run 10K

Check that, they are not missing. They just don't exist yet. Ahhhh and with July (the month of 5 milers and the brink of marathon training about to begin I am in for hectic x 2!!!

I had one week of craziness with (4) races and (4) PR's followed by a week of easy easy training in which my butt barely got out of bed, followed by a crappy race and then 3 days of partying with only 2 days of cycling, although it was quality cycling and now I have turned over what appears to be a new leave.

I cycled in the afternoon for about 1:10:09. I did about 40 minutes at a decent pace and 30 for warm-up and cool-down. Around 9:00p.m. I hit a short swim until it was too dark to swim anymore and then transitioned into a short run around the shores until natured called. I made a decision to just run a loop to my house stop off in the bathroom for about 2 minutes, yes I timed it and then run for about 13 more minutes back to my truck.

Took my 3rd shower that day and felt happy about getting back on the horse. We do have a 5 miler in Canton on the 4th of July, but I am concerned about the Lorain Tri we are doing on the 8th. Clay's Park was not a good swim and I have refused to allow myself to bonk before I hit T1. Dr. J. did her Ironman, I can surely do a sprint....