Busy...

Busy few days. I left for UConn on Tuesday and had an 1.5hr delay out of Denver. An hour of which was spent on the plane. Then I arrived in Chicago to have three gate changes and a 2 hr delay, another hour of which was spent on the plane. After arriving to CT late, I quickly went to the hotel then to coaches house for dinner. There were probably a hundred people at his house. Current players and the 2000 team, plus any staff that helps the teams.

After a late night there, I went back to the hotel and slept until noon! Which really is only 10am Denver time. I did a short workout changed and left for pregame dinner at the game site. Followed by the game. The game was pretty good. UConn won by 15 or so, the first half was close but not close at all in the second. At half time we had a ceremony where they had us take pictures at half court and then introduced us individually and gave us a plaque that had a team picture and an image of the national championship trophy.

After the game we went out for a bit then back to the hotel at the airport for an early flight. I had about 4 hours of sleep then I got up and traveled pretty uneventfully back to Denver.

We then had a Christmas eve party at Kurt and Denas. The gifting was the white elephant but some of us ended up with our own gifts because we liked what we brought!

After a tiring few days, I think I am sick...again, I slept till late today and Pedro is off at work. Since most people are doing their own things for Christmas Day, so my mom, dad and I went to see It's Complicated. It was very busy at the theater and the movie was pretty good.

Then my mom and I went to visit Mary at her place...now I am home and planning dinner for the evening.

Here are a few pictures from the past few days. This first one is of our first gingerbread house. Pedro was all excited to build it...then he realized it required patience, something he does not have. After he put the walls up he quit. This is where I began the decorating. He even accused me of having done this before!


Santa Stella...


Polar and I after a festive evening...


Svet, Marci and I at the game


Svet and I before the game

Getting things done...

Since Pedro proposed I have been on a mission to get most everything done that needs to be done, because right now I am not in the middle of long training or busy basketball. So, it is a great time to get other work done.

We have chosen a location, Lake Shore Lodge at Estes Park.
The date: August 14th, 2010
Time: 6-10pm
Reception food choices...
Rehearsal dinner and after bargaining a great menu and deal for the meal.

We have gathered our lists of invited guests.
Bought save the date magnets
Found invitations, rsvp, thank you cards I will be buying.
Bought my dress, which was the ONLY dress that I tried on and LOVED. It will be in in Feb.
Bought bridesmaids gifts.
Picked out Pedro's ring.

Found a good place for flower petals to line the aisle.

Working on planning our honeymoon, to TAHITI! If you plan on getting us a wedding gift...Please make donations to our honeymoon as your wedding gift!!!!

Setup a website: www.keirstenandpedrowedding.com

We still need some ideas for groomsman gifts.
Figure out what we want for a cake
Register for gifts (or honeymoon registry).

Besides this stuff I have been doing workouts and bball stuff. Season starts for my two teams in January. That makes the weekend a bit more busy.

For races for the next year, I am trying to figure out our budget. I really would like to do Orlando again in May, but not sure we can afford it because of our wedding (honeymoon) and going to Puerto Rico in April for Pedro's cousin's wedding. I am already signed up for Boulder 70.3 the weekend before our wedding, August 8th.

Since it has been the coldest winter I can remember, I have spent a lot of time indoors training. Biking inside and stairmaster. Currently, the stairmaster is my favorite because I can read while I am on it and it is very hard to do. When it is nice out or with run club I run outside. I haven't biked outside in forever, there are hardly any days that have been good for outside.

The next two weeks are a little busy. We have Collin's bday this week, shopping for Christmas presents for the gift exchange, practice this week...then next Tuesday early morning I leave for UConn for induction into the Husky Hall of Fame...well not really me, but our team. I think there is more time spent flying than there is in CT. On Tuesday we have dinner at coaches house, then the next day we have a dinner before the game...then the highlight, Stanford vs. UConn game..then I leave on Christmas Eve day at 6am to come back home.

Then we will be mailing out our save the date magnets, so they don't get lost in the Holiday mail. So, keep an eye out for them in early Jan :)






Still need some ideas for groomsman gifts.

It had to happen sometime, right??

Well after knowing Pedro for 8 years and more than 6 months (most of that time spent dating) he finally decided to ask me to MARRY him!

On Weds the 28th, we had a huge snowstorm here. We had about about a foot a snow at our house. After shoveling the driveway he decided he wanted to build a snowman. He said he had never built one before. I was not too excited to build one, however. So, he built a snowman and I got him a carrot for the nose but we don't have any trees or anything so I wasn't sure what we could use as the arms. Pedro told me that he would figure it out and since I was cold to go wait inside and he would tell me when it was done.

I went inside and got the camera for a picture of his first snowman. He came inside and told me to come out but to close my eyes because he had done such an awesome job. I usually don't close my eyes, I cheat, but he was soo excited I decided to keep them closed. I am glad I did.

He had me stand in front of the snowman and he said hold on...and then he told me to open my eyes and this is what I saw:


The ring was on the snowman's "hand". Of course I said yes!

The next question is when is the wedding?? We are thinking in August.

What have we been up to???

Long time no post. Since my last post, I have decided that I will not be doing Ironman Florida. The cost of the trip (which was going to be outrageous) and the lack of actual running, made me decide it wasn't worth the money being spent since I have had so many injuries during the whole training.

I think the late season Ironman in Colorado is a difficult one to do anyway, because of the change in our weather. One of my last long bikes, which was 6 hours was spent INSIDE biking because the weather was not cooperating. This year it seems to have snowed or been really cold more times than I have remembered in the past few years.

A few things we did in Oct. We went to the Broncos Patriots football game. It was a very cold day and Pedro had spent most of the last two years talking trash about how the Broncos sucked. We got to our seats and a little boy sat next to Pedro that was also dressed in solid Patriots gear. The boy knew everything about the Patriots and may have actually owned more Patriot stuff than Pedro.

Here are a few picts from that day...

Us before the game, notice our conflicting team clothing. Under that outer layer of clothes we both had on two more layers on beneath the outer layer.


My brilliant idea, they gave us a shirt when we got to the game, I used mine as a face mask.


The FINAL score of the game!! I would have had a picture of Pedro, but he was crying (just kidding!)


We also had a pumpkin carving contest. This year nobody won, we all had very different pumpkins.


Karen made the flowers, Pedro had the scary face, Kory the gigantic face and my pumpkin was a boxer.

My carving actually looked better without the light in it because the cheeks were not suppose to be carved all the way through the pumpkin.

Training

The last two weeks of training have brought up some strange things. I think because the addition of running, since I had only run about 10 times total since June, the new pounding have made my legs tired. I am not sure tired is even the word to best describe them. Achy and tired is probably a little better. With the addition of the stairmaster during all of my "non-running" running, it definitely kept my conditioning at a higher level than the elliptical did, when I had to do that awhile ago. With the higher level of conditioning it is hard to gradually build on the run, because cardio-wise I am feeling fine! I have however decided that the best idea is to gradually build.

My long run this week was 1hr 35min. On top of that, it was all on the treadmill this week because of the change in weather. It was cold and rainy the day of my long run and so I decided to make run club, run with me inside on the treadmill.

My legs have felt a little better this week than last. Last week I had to take Friday off and lay around all day. My legs were definitely not happy. I am hoping that between now and Florida they gain the ability to run a marathon, and feel good!

I have been nervous about the prospect of racing FL IM. Because of the lack of running that I have done. I will have to build that base up, almost until my race. Doing that will allow me to have about a 2.5hr long run.

This week has also not been helpful because the weather has taken a change for the worse. Today I had a 6 hour bike ride, which took place all indoors. Three hours on a spin bike and three on the trainer. I figure if I can mentally do that, then FL shouldn't be too bad?!

Anyway, just wanted to update the training info.

Harvest Moon Half (Relay)

On Saturday Pedro and I did our first ever half-ironman relay. I swam and biked and he ran the 13.1 miles. Since I haven't run that much I didn't want to take a chance and we decided it would be a fun thing to do. The race report is as follows:

It was cold. 50 degrees or so. I was not happy. When we left the house it was raining. I just kept thinking, I hope it stops soon, or maybe it isn't raining at the race. I was very lucky, it hadn't rained at the race site.

It was so cold I decided to wear a full-sleeved wetsuit. I have only done this once before in Cali half (the water was 54 degrees in cali!). Anyway, our wave was the last wave to start. I started the swim and immediately my shoulders were tired! It was horrible, I felt like I was swimming against resistance. The entire swim my shoulders were on fire! The swim was kind of annoying because it only had one line of buoys and on the way back you needed to site the shore because the finish was not in line with the buoys. I thought I had to be in last place. I was not feeling like a great swim and my arms were burning. When I got out of the water I didn't want to look back because I thought I might literally be the last one out of the water! I saw Pedro with my parents just chit chatting on a bench...my mom said "oh you must have been fast we weren't looking for you yet!" HUH??? I figured they were just confused.

I ran to the bike where I put on my tights with fleece on the front a dry shirt and a longsleeve shirt. I also put on gloves. Everyone else was just running out with shorts and tanks!! Too bad, I was so cold I figured I would be way more cold on the bike. So, I took my time and got dressed. Pedro, being allowed in transition, brought my bike to the exit so I could just grab it and go, which was very helpful. Off to the bike.

I have only raced a sprint race at Aurora before and I thought the bike was hard for that...this was a very difficult bike. It is all hills, except for a flat area of about 10 miles, maybe. The whole thing is up and up...with a fast downhill. The up and up is the bad part! There are no hills that require standing and pushing, like in Wisconsin, but instead a slow steady climb over and over.

The flat portion was good and of course that is where we had a bit of a tailwind. Then I turned to where there were smaller hills and for some reason I became starving. I hadn't planned on being too hungry because I only swam and biked. It was a poor decision to not bring a lot of food. I was starving. The aid stations only offered gatorade and water. I was fine for fluids, I wanted a banana or something, but of course when you need them they are not there.

On the final turn back (it was an out and back on hills, followed by a square) the wind was in our face! I knew we were on our way back but with the freezing wind and the lack of food, I was struggling a bit. I was still averaging about 20mph at this point, with about 50min left. The whole last portion was hills. I don't mind hills. I was passing a lot of people and was not passed by a lot of people...maybe only one female? However, I was one of the last waves so that doesn't mean too much. My final time for the bike was 2hr 53min with an average speed of 19.3.

Pedro then left for the run. I will have to let him post about his experience on the run, but to my surprise (and probably his) he ran a 2:05 half marathon! He did an awesome job! He wasn't all that sore, except his hip flexors. Other than that he is feeling fine.

Back to the swim part. We had no idea the time it took for me to swim. When the swim time was posted it says I swam 31:43! I am not sure how this happened!!! My fastest swim before this was a few weeks ago in boulder at 36min. The only difference is that I have started training with paddles...but I can't imagine taking that much time off my swim. I was thinking maybe it was short, or maybe that is why my shoulders were on fire!! I was swimming faster than usual! Who knows...but I will take it because that is way better than I have done! It means that since I started racing (and really swimming at all, for that matter)I have taken 13min off my half-ironman swim time! Ok, on a side note I just read someone elses blog and they think the swim was about 3min short...ok so maybe I am only a bit faster.

We took fourth place for coed team, which was good since I did two events, most teams are made up of three.

Here are a few picts from the race:

Pedro and Dad discussing race(run) strategy!

Me arriving back from the cold bike:



Pedro running strong to the finish!




Right after Pedro finished, it was so cold I have on a tshirt, a sweatshirt and another sweatshirt!

Update IV

Sunday, Pedro lucked out and got the day off, at the last minute. Kory and I were already going to the CU/CSU football game, but now Pedro got to go with us.

We had to arrive to the game really early to meet Jac to get us another free ticket because she had to be somewhere at 400. So, we sat inside the stadium for almost two hours prior to the game.

The game was horrible for CU..ugh. But we still had some fun. Before the game, Ralphie, the buffalo runs out, I told Pedro to take a picture but he only captured a blurry picture of someone in front of us! They also pinned up Chip, the mascot, next to Ralphie to have him run out..lol. Here are my two pictures before the game!

Ralphie a bit too fast:

Chip, a bit behind!


No pictures of CSU on the field after the game. Oh and I don't want to forget the best part of the game halftime!! Yes, seriously...during halftime CSU band was on the field when a streaker slowly ran across the field! Not sure why he decided he needed to try to exit the field since he was not chased, but it was reminiscent of the CSU mascot CAM the RAM...if you know what I mean!

Update III

I did VO2 max testing on the bike this week. My fitness level is not peak, but none the less.

The results were quite amazing.

The heart rate I begin to go anaerobic is at 170 (it will be higher while running). This means prior to this I am burning anywhere between 9.6-11.7 cal/min while burning 54-32% fat!. Once I hit the anaerobic state I burn 14.0 cal/min but only 7% from fat. It is quite a linear line through my zones (which is what you want) until I hit the anaerobic stage.

My VO2 max was stopped at 52 (but more accurately estimated around 56), at my anaerobic threshold it is 47, which means you want these two numbers to be almost the same, meaning I am not at my max shape yet (I'm sure running will help this some). VO2 max is mainly genetic, and luckily I am off the charts for male or female in this area, which means I have great excercise potential! Good to know...lol. Anyway, for example, Lance is said to be at 85, but males are generally 20% higher, so this would be around 65, still higher than my current potential but very close :)

The best part was my heart rate recovery. They want your hr to recover 20 beats after the first minute. Mine recovered 36. After two min 30 is great, mine was 49! One benefit could be my ability to control my heart rate to some extent and I was trying to relax and bring it down at the end of my test! But this means that my heart is strong and recovers fast from excercise, which is good when you go up a big hill and then can recover on the downhill. I am recovered going down while others are still trying to recover after the fact. Pedro and I see this when we run stairs. I recover going down so I don't mind going up, Pedro is still tired when he has to go back up.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me to continue my itb recovery!

Update Part II

Alright...

Training.

Oddly enough after a meeting with the running store people, they told me they thought my itb problem and other problems may be due to my orthotics. Which, if you know how many adjustments I have had, isn't too surprising. UGH!

Anyway, they told me to go to Boulder and meet with the people that make orthotics and also Newton shoes. After meeting with them they concurred and decided I don't need orthotics at all!! Now, I originally got orthotics to fix my achilles problems. They said I need to stretch and use a foam roller on my calves to help that, but otherwise the orthotics and the stability shoes were not good for my feet. I have worn the same style of shoes for 8 plus years! Great news! LOL.

Anyway, they got me in some Newton shoes and I bought another pair of neutral running shoes and have begun running. Now get this...pain free. I don't want to jinx it and I am slowly building my running, but seriously???!! I have had some achilles pain but the foam roller on the soleus has been very helpful. The ITB has been great so far.

This week I did my long run, as 65min of running followed by 65 min of stairmaster! It was probably one of my hardest workouts ever!

I have done stairs once and another run of about 45min. Today I did 30min on the tred. It has been going decently well. We will see once the time builds a bit more.

Yesterday I biked for 100 miles, or 5.5 hours. I came home to a great surprise!! Pedro picked up a drink for me at Sonic, it was so good since it was quite hot outside. The other best part of the ride was that I stopped at 711 and filled my bottles with 7up and ice, it was a great treat.

After two hours of being outside, my heat rash on my quad returned. It is the first time this season that this has happened, it is not a pretty thing!

This weekend we have our half ironman race, Pedro has been having his own issues, but hopefully he is ready for the longest run he has ever had!!

Ooops a bit behind!

Ok, this will be a long entry since I have not been very good updating!!

On Aug 28th, Pedro turned 29!! We celebrated his birthday by going to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Mongolian BBQ. On top of it, his dad was in town and it was the first time my family has met him (yes, in 8.5 years the first meeting!) We decided to not overwhelm him too much, so we just had my parents and K/K and Grey go with us. Here are two picts of our evening. And if you think Pedro and his dad do not look alike you are crazy!



The next day we had a pig roast in celebration of both Pedro's birthday's! The day began with it's own unplanned event. The rotisserie, which was so brilliantly built was not capable of holding the GIGANTIC pig Pedro got at the farm! He claims it was the smallest pig they had! Anyway, while I was sleeping Pedro and roasting friend, Edgar placed the 190lb pig on a bar, that was no bigger than my wrist. Of course the result was a bent bar.

Here is the piggy before being cut:




Here is him being disected!



Pedro being very upset, decided we were going to have to have a pig bbq instead. We had bbq piggy and another style made with olive oil, garlic and wine.

BBQ'd Piggy!!


We had 30 plus people at our house for the party! Surprisingly, it was not too crowded with our house being so tiny! And we only encountered a few minutes of rain, thank goodness!

The main drama happened while the pig was being bbq'd. All the "cooks" left the pig on the charcoal grill (with a gas tank on the bottom) alone. Thank God for Karen, she was standing outback and saw a FIRE!!!! She calmly informed us all that there was a fire! The flames (though I did NOT see this myself, for reasons you will understand in a second) were shooting out the bottom of the grill onto the gas tank! The gas tank was so hot it was squealing trying to release the pressure from the heat! Pedro ran and turned the hose on and they sprayed the grill with the hose for a LONG time, all the while Karen and I were hiding in the washroom, because we were scared it was going to explode! Kory soon ran in and said he was sure it was going to explode! I gave him a fire extinguisher and he told me he wasn't going back out there!!! Way to be a MAN! LOL. Anyway, after they removed the gas tank, which had the hose burned off, it continued to expel gas for the rest of the day. Much prefered to an actual explosion!

Here is the gas tank after the fire:


Here are a few other picts from the party.

Linzy, Janice, Meg and Bren...is Linzy posing for the pict?

Possible mates? My mom always thought Linzy and Kory would make a great couple..maybe their kids will?? LOL!


Kory, because of the swine flu, was deaf..


Pedro and his Police Friends..


Pedro's with their birthday cake!


The only picture of me being at the house that day! Polar and I cleaning house before the party started!

Out and About...

This week was a recovery week for me in training. With the leg injury and no running it was even more so. I was thinking that this whole week, starting last Saturday we have done the following. Walked the mall in Boulder, went to lunch in Boulder, my race, watched three movies at home (my best friends girl, obsessed, the haunting in ct), had pt for my knee, went for mexican food, Marc's 30th bday party and finally, the zoo.

I am not so sure I have ever had such a laid back week!

Here is a picture from Marc's bday party (which I was frequently reminded that my bday isn't far away)



Today we choose a great day for the zoo! I haven't been to the zoo since I was in middle school so it was a different thing to do. The only issue is that there didn't seem to be as many animals as I remember. There was only one polar bear, a few giraffes, one rhino, two elephants and few gorillas. Now, there were a lot of birds. I even saw a vulture like the one I saw while riding my bike last year.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our day at the zoo.




This Rhino came over and took a flood of a pee, then proceeded to drink from the water in the spot the pee had foamed up...mmmmm! (Kory, I am sure you are thinking that is a good way to get nutrients!)


A few race photos:






Training is back on track for this next week. I am not sure I will be able to run, but we will see. Wish me luck! Tomorrow is a 4hr ride, assuming the weather cooperates.

Learning to ride again...

After this weeks race I decided I really needed to have Shamu checked out. I figured it was either me that has been so horrible or Shamu. Thank goodness, after a brief inspection we discovered it was him!

A few months ago I got a new seat on Shamu. Back then I decided that it wouldn't be too hard to fit the sit onto the bike and make some adjustments to make it a good fit. I thought, who needs to see a bike fitter for a seat change?? Well, apparently that was a mistake.

The seat ended up being a HUGE 4cm (which may not sound like a lot but it is a HUGE difference) way to far forward and 1cm to low. It never dawned on me when I changed the seat that I may need to adjust the tri bars, instead I just moved the seat forward. Brilliant!! This mess up has cost me a significant amount of power and speed.

I can't imagine what a difference it may have made in my florida 70.3 race, my training and even the last race. To give you an example, after my adjustment this week my average speed on the trainer went from 17mph to 19mph with less effort.

I am looking forward to learning to ride again and getting some of that strength and power back!

On a bad note, my it band is still not good. I did not have any soreness at all from the race this week, but have definitely had itb pain. I saw a pt that basically said there is no real reason for my pain because my itb is not really tight. I am assuming (which we know what they say about assuming) that the pain began because of the HUGE knot I had in my quad after my florida race. That caused my itb to be inflammed and it has yet to get rid of the inflammation. I was told I can bike, ellip and even stairs...so we will see if it get's better soon.

On Sept 12th Pedro and I are going to do a half ironman as a relay. I am going to do the swim and bike and he is going to do the 13.1 mile run. Since he hasn't run much it is, in my mind, pretty brave to think that the run will be fine. But he wanted to do it as a relay and I thought it would be fun. Our team name is the Speedy Gorilla's. I'll keep you updated on his progress...right now I am "speedy" and he is "gorilla!" Hopefully, by race time we will both be speedy! I told him we better do well!

Boulder Race Report.

Today I had the Boulder half iron race. I decided to use it more as a training day then as a full race, since I am not in top shape and because of my knee.

The day went like this..

The swim went ok. On the way out the sun that was hiding behind the clouds appeared as my wave started. I could not see any of the buoys on the way out, I just followed the people swimming. I got bumped and my goggles strap moved up on my cap(though I didn't know this) and so my left goggle kept filling with water, even after I would stop and let out the water and then push the goggle back on. Once I hit the turn I could easily spot the buoys but still had the goggle issue. I had to stop a few times (3 or 4) and fix my goggles, really quite annoying. On a good note it is my fastest (I think) time for a 1.2 mile swim at 36 min, which included running to transition.

The bike. Well, true to my training the bike did not go so well. I really think there is something wrong with my bike. Even when I down shift it still feels like I am having to work harder than I should be..it doesn't seem smooth. I am going to have this checked out. The course was not bad, it was a gradual hill for about the first 10 miles of each loop. This was followed by some good down hills. However, the flats with wind in my face seemed worse than the hills. Again, it was weird I just felt like I had to push/pull more than I should in certain gears. I had to stop to go to the bathroom on the bike. I had drank so much water I couldn't wait. Then I stopped in transition as well, I had a headache on the bike so I was trying to drink more, apparently I had too much!

The run. The run was probably the best part of the course. It was a nice run on all dirt. There were three big hills, but at least three down hills. There was a nice breeze on part of the run to help keep you cool. The first lap went well with some knee pain but nothing significant. So, I decided that I would run the second loop. Well, bad news, at about mile 9 my knee started hurting. Crap. Four miles to go...but it didn't seem like it was that long to go. I wasn't physically tired at all, which was quite shocking since I have had so little run time. However, I felt like I had to drag my leg behind me...ugh.

So, the bad news is that my knee hurts. I will probably go see a doctor if I can get into see one soon. My leg muscles and everything else seem pretty good right now. I didn't try and push myself and race too much, but I still ran about the same pace as Florida...where I was in much better shape. However, there was heat and humidity there and I wasn't prepared for that type of weather.

I finished in 5:42. Not horrible, but not great either. I was 24th in my age and the 110 female. I think once I figure out what is going on with my bike I will be on a better path. The knee, let's hope my itband problem can be fixed quickly...ugh.

Unhappy training...

I am only on week three of IM training (16 week program). I am not very happy with my current status. I don't know what is exactly wrong is the problem. Swimming has been going pretty well. If I did the math correctly I swam 3,800m the other day in 1hr 15min. Which would be an all time record for me, so I am thinking I must not have been correct. I did however swim normal one lap and fast the next lap on every set of my swim...so maybe??

The bike is the real issue. The bike is traditionally my strong suit. However, I am not feeling GREAT on the bike. Right now a 3hr40min ride seems really long. Which is not a long ride in the bigger picture of things. Yes, I will build up to my 7hr ride, which will be my long ride before my IM, but still feeling long at a ride of that length worries me. Could it be the ten days off in July without biking or running? Is it the impact of a slow build up to running that is impacting my biking fitness? Maybe it is that my longest ride since my last 7 hour ride (which was at about this time last year) has been only 4.5hrs. Which was back in April.

Whatever the issue, I am hoping it resolves itself, or my fitness level returns.

Running has been "going". Going is better than not going. I still feel my knee when I run, but it has yet to progress to full out pain, like it was before. However, I worry everytime a run that today will be the day the "whole" pain may come back, great mentality right? ugh! Right now my long run has been about 8.5 miles. Which is not good, but ok since I have only been running again for three weeks (and yes this has been a gradual build so not to injure my leg further).

This weekend I have a half ironman. If I had't already paid for it I am not sure I would be doing it...but it is probably a good thing to do. They say races push your fitness level up. I am not "sandbagging" it, but my expectations are not very high. I am not sure if I will run the whole run, but who knows...if my knee doesn't hurt I will do the whole run. I will use this day for a long training day, with hopes of pushing me up a bit more. Next week is a recovery week, so it is a good day, schedule wise for a race.

The only other funny thing is that in my first 27 years of life I was only stung by a bee twice. Once on my thumb in the front yard and once while I was in college out on a trail run. Last year I was stung, I believe 3 times while out biking, twice I believe on the butt. Sunday, I was out with Pedro biking and I got stung in the stomach! I was even riding aero! I can't imagine that the bees are attracted to my scent while biking, if you have ever been out riding in 90 degree weather in bike shorts and a tight top, you know how NOT good you are smelling! lol.

On a separate note, Pedro and I visited Linzy again today. She was much more lucid and was up walking around. Chyler was doing good, though I wanted to see her legs so I unwrapped her blankets and she screamed at me until I wrapped her legs back up!

Another new addition to the family...

Ok, not exactly to MY family, but Linzy is close enough!

Today Linzy gave birth (ok, not really gave birth, but had a c-section) to Chyler Shay. She weighed 7lbs and 10oz and was 19 and 3/4inches long.

I went to visit Linzy and Janice at the hospital and saw Chy's first bottle feeding and talked to a somewhat lucid Linzy.

Anyway, here is a pict of me with the new baby!



I will have more picts of Chyler when I go and visit her again at the hospital. Linzy will be there for 3 or 4 days.

New Addition to the Family...

We decided that we needed a new, more efficient family member. Pedro drives to work and with his truck he was needing to refuel about every work day. With the cash for clunkers going on, we figured we could get more for the truck than what we paid for it originally.

We looked at a few cars, even a few that were cheap but came with no radio, air conditioning, power anything, no little storage compartment in the car. Yes, car's without a/c or radio...I didn't know that was possible!

After researching and looking we decided on a new blue Nissan Sentra (much better than the one I had in high school)!

Here she is!



We have only had her for 1 day and Pedro has already washed her!

Week 1 recap.

This was officially my week 1 training toward IM Florida, in Nov. I forget how "easy" it is on week 1, but with my knee bothering me I decided it was best to start at the bottom.

The week started off with a trip to the lake with Kurt, Dena and kids. We spent most of the afternoon there tubing and knee boarding (no wakeboarding for us this time). I decided the tubing is the most fun! I was laughing so hard that my abs started to hurt! It was a lot of fun going off waves and flying in the air! I never let go of the tube, but Pedro flew off after hitting his face on the tube. You might be able to tell by the picture but I was bracing myself with my arm so that I wasn't "flat" on the tube.


Pedro and I about to tube (my new hair, much better in person!)


I also experienced knee boarding for the first time. I was a little worried with my knees, but it was way more fun then expected!


Pedro on the kneeboard..soon he will be trying tricks!


Week 1 of training has gone like this:
Monday 3hr bike ride.
Monday 1hr run with run club. This was my long run time for the week, so instead of doing my run the next day, as scheduled, I had to make this my long one..ooops!

Tuesday 25min easy run
Tuesday weights
Tuesday 45min easy bike
Tuesday 1200m tempo swim

Wednesday 2,200m swim (with swim club)
Wednesday 30min stairmaster (extra workout)
Wednesday 1hr10min tempo bike (with pedro)

Thursday 1hr35min mod bike
Thursday 35min tempo run (2min fast, 1min jog)x8

Tomorrow is "legs off day" so I have a 4,000m swim.
Saturday I have a moderate run with run club.

On Weds, Pedro and I met Linzy to have our usual mexican food. It is only the second time I have seen Linzy during her pregnancy. She is due very soon!



This weekend I have to coach in our last college coaches viewing period tournament. Pedro is back to working nights, which is a lot better for us!

Hard week...

After 10 straight days on the road (ugh!) I am happily back at home. On Weds (I arrived home late on Tues), I decided to start my working out slowly. I went for a 38mile bike ride, which was horrible. My heart rate was very high and I was feeling tired. I decided that I needed to get that out of my system and figured my evening run (with run club) would be much better. It wasn't. I ran 4.2 miles and was very tired. It felt like a LONG run. It didn't help that it was about 90 degrees and I haven't acclimated much to the heat.

The next day I went for another 4mile run. Again, figuring I had got all of my bad workouts in already. Wrong again. I wore my heart rate monitor this time and my hr was around 180 the whole run. It was hot, but I was struggling. Not good. My knee didn't hurt, so I will take whatever positive there was.

Friday I just swam. Swimming went well. I figure next week I will get back into full training mode. I also looked up my "altitude" and you can begin to lose red blood cells after 10 days, and I definitely feel like I have!

Saturday I ran with run club nearly 6 miles, in cooler early morning temps. I ran an 8:55 pace and didn't feel like I was going to die, though if I wore my hr monitor I'm sure it would say different. Then came WORK.

I had basketball practice right after run club. That wasn't work compared to the rest of the day.

Pedro and his stubborn ways decided he was going to pull our tree out front, that was dead. I tried to help, but was then informed I was no help. So, I sat and watched him try to pull the tree out for about 2hrs. He didn't want to ask anyone else for help either. Finally, my neighbor came out and got my other neighbor to come over and help. We ended up with four guys and one stump of a tree.

One of the neighbors had an electric saw and helped saw out the roots, so we could eventually get the stump out.

Four guys one stump of a tree:


Pedro trying to pull the stump out:


How many guys does it take to get out a stump?? Maybe if they ALL worked!



After all the work we had to get a new tree. We didn't want to spend a lot on a tree. We looked at a few places and finally decided the tree was going to cost at least $70. Until...Pedro found a tree on clearance!!! Yes, a tree on clearance...? It has a one year warranty so it couldn't be too bad?! We bought the tree, which is about 10 feet tall and a baby evergreen for the backyard.

Check out our new additions!





Besides that I got my haircut today...no pictures, you have to see it in person :)

On the road...

The worst part of my job is now. Ten straight days on the road. The annoying part for training is that I am not going to run until my leg is better. I am not sure any of the training I am doing is fine for my knee either. The days may not seem bad to some people. We have played three games a day since arriving in oregon. We spend time going to games, playing and eating.
I can't explain it but you are so tired. Not tired like after a five hour ride..but maybe worse. I guess it would be mentally exhausting. So I want to sleep a lot.
For working out I have done elliptical and stationary bike. But the most amazing thing is I have gone swimming twice already. The problem is that the first pool was just cleaned and was only about two feet at one end. It was also cold..a few others got in and out quickly. The next swim I went to a different gym. This one was disgusting! The water was so gross that I could barely see the lane line. When I got to the wall I had to guess it was approaching because I couldn't see the wall until I was right there. None the less, I swam about two miles in the gross water.
We have tomorrow off then leave for chicago on friday. The time change of two hours should be fun.
I'm hoping my leg is better I am missing running and training.

4th of July weekend!

Without being able to run and without Shamu I had a short week of workouts. Shamu is back and in a clean working condition...we had a nice ride today before I leave for ten days.

This week we went to the boat with Kurt and Dena (will post a picture later). Pedro and I wakeboarded. I got up on my 3rd try (not for long) and on my 4th try and Pedro got up on his 5th try...however, he stayed up for a lot longer than I could. He also kneeboarded, which he thought was great! We can't wait to go again!

Friday night (3rd) we went downtown to a nice steak dinner at Willie G's, it was a nice filet and Pedro, of course, got the porterhouse. After dinner we walked around for awhile and then grabbed a coffee and went down to watch the firework show at coor's field.

Here is Pedro enjoying the fireworks:


Pedro and I waiting for the fireworks to start:


I tried on this hat (looks pretty good!) Pedro thinks I look like I belong at a Polo match or in Cape Cod or something...



On Saturday, Pedro wasn't feeling great and I went out for a four hour ride. Later in the evening we went to Kurt and Dena's house to watch the kids light fireworks and have a bbq. It was Pedro and I, Kurt, Dena and their kids, my parents and Craig, Lisa and their kids. The kids had fun lighting all the fireworks and surprisingly no incidents (like lighting fireworks inside!). It was a cool evening for the fourth.

My dad in his "superman" blanket:


We looked like an old couple in the cold, watching the fireworks:


Pedro, Katie and I..


Pedro lighting a "roman candle"


Tomorrow I leave for nearly 10 days. The ten days a year that I have to "work". I'm sure the dogs will miss me (not sure about Pedro!).