Like a lot of women I have many pair of shoes. Unlike most women my shoes tend to be flat and comfortable. I own heels but they stay in boxes at the back of the closet unless I’m going somewhere fancy and dressy. Most of the time I wear flat, comfy shoes or short heels.

I have one pair of shoes I’m particularly fond of. I picked them up at Ross for $20 before I went to Peru. They are slip on, low rise, leather shoes and they are like walking on air. I also went to Clarks and bought a cute pair of $120 Mary Janes but the $20 specials turned out to be the shoes of choice.

My shoes also have kind of a life of their own and they live in various places in my room. Most of the time they sneak out en masse and park themselves in front of my dressers. Occasionally I toss them all back in the closet - generally on the right side. I have a shoe rack but the shoes rebel, scattering themselves helter skelter as they please. I also have a shoe bag thing on the left side of the closet for seldom worn shoes.

A couple of weeks ago I went to put on my favorite black shoes and they were not in front of the dresser. Hmm.. a lot of other shoes were there but not those. I looked in the closet - I didn’t see them. I started hauling shoes out and re-arranging them in pairs but no favorite shoes were to be found. I was sad and confused.

I found another pair of shoes (2nd favorite pair of black shoes) and went off to my meeting. I decided that I must have left favorite shoes in Oceanside and they were gone. That hardly seemed possible since I was pretty sure I had worn flip flops and/or running shoes down there and yet my shoes were gone and there was no other explanation.

I was so sad. I thought about how I tramped all over in Peru in those shoes and about how they could never be replaced - I didn’t even know who made them. Then I thought about how for many women in Peru a lost a pair of shoes would leave them with no shoes at all or with maybe a pair of sandals. That was a sobering thought and forced me to rapidly get over my sense of loss and count my blessings.

A few days ago I was trying to figure out which of my many running shoes I wanted to wear. I just wasn’t in the mood for the ones currently in circulation and needed an old stand-by and I knew some of them were in the shoe bag on the left side of the closet. I looked in there and what should I spy with my little eye? FAVORITE BLACK LEATHER SHOES! Not lost at all.

In a similar vein, as I was getting ready for Anchorman I went through my transition bag and mentally through my transitions and I realized my race belt was missing. For the uneducated a race belt is an elastic belt with a couple of clips on it that you use to attach your bib number to. It keeps you from having to pin the number on your shirt which, for a triathlon that starts with a swim, doesn’t work so well. So I’m frantically ripping apart the transition bag trying to find the belts. No belts. I go through the drawers where they should be. No belts. I clearly remember unpacking from The Relay and putting them away but I cannot, not for the life of me, remember where I put them. It’s now 10:30 PM and I have to get up at 3:45 to get ready for this race - CRAP! I think to myself, don’t panic… just go brush your teeth, relax your mind and you will remember. Teeth brushed - memory gone. Finally I looked at another drawer unit and thought “oh yeah- I have some room in there. Maybe that’s where I put them” and sure enough - there they were. Phew! I finished packing and hit the sack.

I thought about all of this for a while and it occurred to me that it’s really nice that I can turn my thoughts from my personal loss to the plight of shoeless women in Peru. It’s also nice that if I put something on the back burner of my mind it will usually wander forward and I’ll find it. But mostly I thought…. I had a thought… what was that thought? I know I had one….hmmmm… I’ll get back to you when I find it.

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I guess this is the Thursday edition of Hump Day Miscellany.

Things I love

1).  A great day in the wine country going on a bike ride with Juls, Runner Susan and her lovely husband The Chef. We had such a great time!  Runner Susan is everything you ever dreamed she was and more - sweet, adorable, entertaining and the hostess with the mostess.  The Chef is charming as only a man in a white cycling kit can be.

We had a beautiful ride and then we went back to Susan’s room to shower and go for lunch.  The Chef provided glasses of ‘recovery juice’ that looked and tasted remarkably like red wine and was just what I needed.  Then The Runners Susan took us to a delicious lunch where we consumed some more wine.  Fabulous.  After lunch I would rather have gone back to the hotel with the whole gang for a group snuggle nap but I’m pretty sure Julie and I would have fought over Runner Susan and The Chef would have gotten jealous and felt left out so it was better to just hit the road.  Not sure I was totally legal for that but we made it to my house where Julie and I proceeded to pass out on different couches.      

I wish I could go on vacation with the Susans all the time and that we could take Julie with us.

2).  My jet lagged daughter apparently left her wallet on the roof of the car when she got gas and a man picked it up and walked to our house with it.  He removed not one cent of the roughly $85 that were inside.  I got the call about that while drinking wine and eating delicious food in Napa which made it a doubly lovely day.

3).  I  found a new cycling route today and it has a big hill - just enough to make me work but not terrible.

Things that make me mad:

I had some of these.  I remember thinking “grrrr… I need to put this in HDM” but now I foget what they are.  And that’s probably one of the things I like the most.

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Last Sunday I raced the inaugural San Francisco Anchorman.  Great race! (check and see if there is an Anchorman race in city near you!)  If you have always dreamed of doing Escape from Alcatraz you should consider this race as a solid alternative.  The course is very similar but it’s half the distance for 1/4 of the price.  All the thrills without emptying your wallet - good stuff!

My particular participation in this race was, in a word, Supah!  I had a really good time in spite of having to drag my tired kiester out of bed at 3:45 AM.  Is that even legal?  Had to be done, though because I needed a few cups of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal and it was into the car and off to the big city!

All of that went flawlessly.  This race was pretty small (too small - you should ALL do this race next year!) so there wasn’t a bad spot in transition.  I found one of the many great spots, set up and headed off to find a potty.   Turned out the only ones available had flush toilets and running water.  Ahhhh….

Back in transition I said hello to fellow team mates, put on my arm warmers and started to pull on my wetsuit.  If you are doing a race on a chilly day this little trick will save you a ton of time in transition.  Anyhow,  I got the wetsuit 1/2 way on, put one arm in and realized I didn’t want to do that because we still had to ride a bus to the ferry (it was a bay swim) so I decided not to put the other sleeve on.  But I didn’t want to take the first one off, either.  So I didn’t .  I just walked around and got on the bus with one arm on and one arm off, wearing an arm warmer.  It was a look.

We got to the ferry landing for what we thought would be a short wait.  Only it wasn’t.  There was a snafu with the buses and I don’t know what else that left us hanging out there for almost an hour.  That part didn’t bother me.  By then I had pulled up the other sleeve and didn’t look so much like a crazy woman.  The problem was that I really needed to pee only I had a wetsuit on and I was not in the water and i was not really willing to run to the rest room and deal with it as others were doing.  So I just held it.

Finally the ferry was in, we were on it and on our way to the spot where  you jump off.  I really had to pee but I wasn’t about to chance hitting the head on the boat and jumping last so I just dealt.  And then I jumped and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD that water was cold - roughly 55 degrees.  That might have scared the pee right out of me but it didn’t and the timing mat  was on the boat so it was game on - SWIM!  So I swam.  I tried to stop and tread water hoping I could, you know, warm things up but no.  These things take time for me and time was of the essence - I swam on.  Then I tried to focus on relaxing and just letting go but that was slowing me down and I’m slow enough in the water so I just decided to HTFU and swim.

For once I held a decent line and didn’t have to have a kayak guy chase me down or tell me where to go.  This was one of these races where you get out of the water, pull off the wetsuit, put on shoes and start running.  The run was about 3/4 of a mile and it was a perfectly reasonable way to warm up.   But I really had to pee.  There was nothing to be done about that, tough so I just sucked it up and kept going.

Finally I get to my bike and it’s off with the running shoes, on with the socks (pre-powdered), on with the bike shoes, on with the helmet, on with the sunglasses and I’m out of there, trotting across the grass to the mount point and boom!  It took about 1/4 of a mile to have to start climbing.  I get up the first hill the guy says “good job - just 2 more!”  This was not what I wanted to hear because you know what? I had to pee and climbing was not helping but oh well.  I just kept going because this ride is onlyl 9 miles so how bad could it be?

Here is the elevation map for the bike:

Bike Elevation - Anchorman

So it was a little bit hard.  Be that as it may I dropped 9 people on the bike which has to be the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in a race - EVER!  I was so happy with myself I forgot about how bad I needed to pee.

My other favorite part of the ride was when I was heading out for loop 2 going up that steep part right at the beginning.  I got passed by a guy on a very nice Kestral who was just mashing his way up that incline.  I thought “oh dear - I don’t think that’s going to work out for you, Mr.”  but I let him go.  It didn’t take very long before I was spinning right past him on the last big climb and I never saw him again until he finished the race - 20 minutes after me.  He’s 41.  HA!

I finished the bike and headed into transition to swap the helmet for a hat, the shoes and grab my race belt.

Off toward the bridge and right past those nice potties with the flushers and the running water.  OMG but I’m on a mission!  I’ve dropped these 9 people and I want desperately (and futilely) not to have any of them drop me on the run.  As if… and I really had to pee but there was nothing to be done about it -  I had to run.  Down to the bridge, around the cones and back to the stairs.  The long stairs.  I got up those and remarked “there’s no sand!” and the guy up there pointing the way said, “not yet”.  The famous sand stairs are a part of this race but I sort of forgot where they were.  The run went on and on and it went up and up.  And then it went up some more until we got to Baker beach and the famous sand stairs.  Only problem was a whole lot of sand was missing so a lot of them were just logs that were cabled together.  Macca says “don’t bother running them” and I thought that sounded like a fine idea.  Kind of hard to run on logs that go down a steep slope anyhow.  So down to the bottom, high five the guy who is there to tell you to turn around and it’s back up we go - ooph!  I thought about just running into the water to pee but no - I had to keep going because someone had already passed me on the run and there were more on the way.

Here is the run elevation:

The way back was way more fun than the way out.

Back past the potties with the flushers and the running water and holy crap I’m desperate now and into the chute!  Race over.

I did a 180  to head back to the potties with the flushers and the running water but of course I had to stop to say hi to my team mates and have a little chit chat time.  It’s a wonder I didn’t just die on the spot but I didn’t - I made it back to the potties and peed about 3 gallons and felt so good I considered just curling up on the floor for a nap but I figured other people also needed those potties and I was thinking I had a trophy to fetch.

And I did get a trophy.  I would have gotten a tropy if I had stopped and peed, too because I was the only one in my age group but if I had honored my bladder I would not be able to say that I beat both of the women in the 50-55 group and both of the women in the 45-49 group and 2nd and 3rd place in the 35-39 group so I earned that trophy!  I suffered and sacrificed for it and   I won it fair and square.

I’d go take a picture of it to post but I need to pee and I’m not putting it off.

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I’m okay with a Monday Tuesday post because this Tuesday is Monday for most of us.  Monday was Memorial Day and I hope you all remembered to remember and honor those who died in service to our country no matter how you feel about the conflict they served in.

Here’s what I did over this long weekend (warning - this is probably really boring but I’m doing it anyhow because I don’t have time to be interesting and you asked me to blog so I’m blogging!)

Friday - Swim masters (2100 meters with a lot of kicking and breast stroke); run 40 minutes having to pep talk myself the entire way (come on - one more song.. just keep going.. you can do it), OWS in the evening with a whole flock of people for probably about 1400 meters.  Of course I zig zagged all over and could NOT get to the rest of the people and they just kept being ‘out there’ so I finally gave up and swam in, blinded by the sun.  Note to self - wear mirrored goggles next time and stay on someone’s feet!

Follow up swim with burgers and wine with favored training bud Caroline.

Saturday - leisurely ride with BFF masters friends and  former riding partners, one of whom is recovering from a back problem then drive out to time trial clinic and do 2 laps (3 miles) in the horrific wind.  Got 5 seconds faster the second time around so yea!

After ride head out to East Stump Hole to spend the day with CASA kid.  Get home at 9:00 PM (because it’s a 2.5 hour drive out to see CASA kid)

Sunday - run with newbies in my New Triathlete Progam (I got 20 people in the program - woot!), talk about importance of stretching and demo foam roller.

Then go for trail run up Mt. Diablo with Caroline.

Monday - get ass handed to me riding with my training BFFs Dana and Maggs who were doing a dress rehersal for IM CdA.  I thought that if they already had 56 miles on their legs I could keep up. WRONG!  I struggled desperately to hang on to a wheel and was successful at times but would then lose it.  Net result was 40 miles at 16.7 mph average - PR!  I’ve never ridden that far, that fast before and we were going into the wind much of the time.   I ♥  training with those ladies.  They did another 16 to finish off a full 112.  They are machines!   I think they ran for 6 miles after that, too.  I ran for 15 minutes and baby it was HOT.

Go to other BFF training friend Vali’s house for BBQ which was both delicious and fun.

Today - rest day!  I worked but it felt like rest after all of that.

Tomorrow- swim/run

Thursday - conquer Mt. Diablo with Maggs. I am determined to make it all the way to the very, very top!  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I have been invited to participate in a book shower.  A book shower is where you do something more innovative for an author than just a vanilla review and in this case I am going to challenge you beat me at making a worry doll.  But, as usual, I’ve gotten ahead of myself.

 The book is The Double Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz who brought us the Daring Book for Girls.  These books are delightful compilations of fun activities and information that are good for girls to  have.  The information and many of the activities are applicable to boys, too but by and large this book is designed with girls in mind just as the Dangerous Book for Boys was designed to de-sissfy today’s growing boys and liberate them from the absurd molly coddling of the 21st Century (it’s so annoying when people try to keep their kids from getting killed).  Anyhow, I digress.

So here’s the deal.  We were asked to select an activity, do it, and propose a challenge.  On page 167 is the very fine activity - make a worry doll.  Worry dolls are not something to worry over - they are supposed to take your worries away.  From the book

Parents and children [fom Guatamala] have made these dolls for centturies to help soothe the fears of worried children.  Traditional worry dolls, made in ets of six are about a half inch to 2 inches in height….. Tradition has it that when a child is worried or anxious at bedtime, she can tell her troubles to one fo these tiny dolls and then place it under her pillow.

I made one and I challenge you to make one that is way cuter, funnier,wilder, or whatever you want - just make it “er” or “ier” than mine.

Here are the instructions:

Materials:

• 2 flexible, plastic twist ties (each about 4″ long) or skinny pipe cleaners work, too
• Embroidery thread or very thin yarn (6 strands 20 - 24 inches long)
• 1 bead for the head (1/4 inch or so with a hole for threading)
• Permanent marker
• Glue
• Scissors

Makig the Body - Bend one twist tie in half.  Tiwsti it once or twice in the middle.  The loop on top will be your doll’s head, and th eends on the bottom will be the legs (figure 1).  Curl the very ends fof the legs to make tiny loops for the doll’s feet.  Bend the other twist tie in half, and wrap it around the middle of the other twist tie to create the arms (figure 2).  (now I’m too lazy to type all this up so I scanned the page.  Click to make readable)

Easy!  I didn’t have a bead so I used a bedazzle bead and here is my little doll (please refer to 25 things about me #20  to understand how I both love doing this stuff and yet suck at it)

GO!

and send me a picture of the results, please.  I’ll post them when I’ve gotten a few.

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I’m having some trouble really embracing my training plan. It isn’t like I’m not training -I am.  Not compared to people like DPR and Muppet Dog Molly but still - I ride, I run, I swim.  Except when I skip my workout.  Like today.  Today was swim/run but I have a problem. Huge problem.  No Nano.  Nano es no bueno.  Nano has the white screen of death and I have tried everything including:

1) press menu and the middle button - no good (tried this over and over and over)

2).  reformat hard drive

3).  restore from iTunes

4).  press middle button and menu then middle button alone

5).  press middle button andm menu then middle button and play

6). turn off; turn on, lather, rinse, repeat.

White.Screen.Of.Death = no run and no run = no swim.

I know - ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?  I’ll deal with this issue later.

In other news:

Things that make me say EW! -  I went to Costco the other day and as I was loading the car I spotted a man with a raw foot long hotdog hanging out of his mouth.  It was still attached to a 2nd foot long.  He was eating this thing. 

Things that make me laugh -  the Jack in the Box. ad with the tiny cowboys herding teeny little cows.  The line in the song “herding  cows the size of Schnauzers - but they’re cattle” just makes me laugh every time.

Thing that make me roll my eyes - the Carl’s Jr. ad with the lady who has menopause and needs a smoothie to keep from going postal.  Please.  Not funny, not clever, and really annoying.

Things that make me say WTF? - the pizza commercial (Dominos?  Pizza Hut?) about the meatball whisperer. Unbelievably annoying and stupid and uninspiring and I can’t even remember the brand so totally ineffective, too.  F-

Things that make me say  OMG! - McBikey and I were riding on Tuesday morning and he flatted.  He got out his stuff and I went to get the C02 from my bag and discovered I had no tube on me!  Yowch!  What’s worse is that I know I had put a new one in there not too long ago so not only was I vulnerable, I’ve lost a $6 tube somewhere.  Bummer.  I’m all fixed up now.

Things that make me say Yay!  - Adorable little Shawn Johnson won Dancing with the Stars.  Way to go Anton Apollo Ono for reminding everyone that the Olympic star should always get the trophy!

In te process they turned her from this

  to this:

and made her miss her Prom but she won and she’s a champion so GO SHAWN! 

Although I don’t condone factory farmed meat based food I think this ad is funny so here it is:
 to this:

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

And not just any date - oh no.  I’ve a got a three way scheduled for mid-June.  Ooooo baby!  That’s right!  I’m meeting up with Runner Susan and Juls for a wine country bike ride!  Wine will be involved.  Lots of wine.  And Cheese.  And more food.  And showers.  Yes…. showers. 

I think Mr. Runner Susan will be there, too.  Lucky guy, non?

In other dating news I got back on match.com last Thursday  and my profile has been view over 480 times.  I got 1 email from a guy whose profile reads:

“Im a old fashion country guy who loves rodeos and country music.  Im currently divorced and im looking for a nice country girl. I like fun and respectful women. I do have kids. I like football and warm nights by a fire. I guess u could say im adventrous”

You think he actually read my profile?  Me either.  I told him I didn’t think we had anything in common and his response was

Subject:  Your Choice

Body of message “I tried beautiful im a good man and i would treat you good “

I’m still taking a pass.

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I just ate an entire Pizza.  900 calories; 330 of them from fat.  Only I put some more cheese on it so make that 1200 calories with 500 of them from fat.  Awsome. 

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

No - I’m not talking about the California Propositions.  I’m talking about my friends’ most excellent short film.  I want her to win!  Most of her competition is pretty poor and not doing well at all but she’s up against a short animated thing that is behind in views but ahead in votes.  I really, really, really need your support so I’m posting the instructions for voting and both versions of her film.  Please - if you have a couple of minutes go vote!  She’s very talented and adorable and I want her to win!

TIA

The Youtube rating system is somewhat unclear, so i’m just being really nit picky and sending these easy steps out in case you haven’t rated yet.

How to vote: (first double click on the embedded videos so that you are on the YouTube site.  You don’t have access to the rating system, otherwise)

1. Make sure you are logged into YouTube

2. Click on the 5th star in the rating area of the video (just below and to the left)

3. If you don’t have a YouTube account, you have to create one (VERY SIMPLE!) by clicking on ‘Sign up’ in the top right corner of the screen

4. Repeat for every YouTube account (ie, email address) you have!

Now, for those of you who are a little sneaky like me (and who really want to help us win!) there is also a FRENCH VERSION of the film up here:

No one seems to really be watching/voting on these, so it might be a sort of back door way to get our numbers up!

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Mother’s Day 2009 went like this:

7 AM - Fabulous Open Water Swim Clinic where I learned some great stuff about sighting that might even keep the kayak guys from having to chase me down next time I race - awesome!

8:30 - coffee and fruit

9:00 - Trail Run.  I was feeling kind of trashed and really slow so I only went part way and then turned around.  I still managed 10 min miles so I’ll take it.

10:00 - Shop at Trader Joe for fruit, bread and other stuff

11:00 - make delicious French Toast and fruit salad with yogurt

12:00 - Nap!

1:00 - conference call with 2 lovely daughters to revel in Mother’s Day love (son had already wished me Happy Mother’s Day in person)

1:30 - work around back yard

3:00 - head to nursery to pick up some more vegetables and flowers.

4:00 - home again.

4:30 - Nap!

5:30 - spend some time with son

6:00 - head out to pick up delicious Thai food

6:30 - eat delicious food, read paper

8:00 - put clean sheets on bed

8:30 - color hair and shower

9:00 -  watch Desperate Housewives and decide it’s time for that show to toss in the towel

10:00 - watch Brother’s and Sisters and draw same conclusion

11:00 - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

In the spirit of sharing I’ve added a  good Dave Scott swim video that addresses the issue of sighting.

Bookmark and Share

Powered by Bookmarkify™