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View albumSpeed Kills.
June 4
June 3
- 03m 40s
- 1284.18 yards
- 00m 17s /100 yards
- 4h 03m 06s
- 76.00 miles
- 18.81 Mi/hr
Udder Century -- 75 mile option
I drove my bike out to Union...on the way there I happened upon a turtle attempting to cross one of the country roads in the area.
I got out of my car. Walked over to the clueless reptile and again, as I have so many times before in the past, tried, yet failed to get him/her any closer to either side of the road. I know by now not to pick him up, at least not without gloves or a zookeeper near by. The best bet I thought was to take something like a broom or a stick and try to sweep or nudge him/her gently over to the side of the road and out of traffic.
As I was searching my trunk for my snowbrush (which I so conveniently removed from my car... since it's JUNE) another car pulled up in the opposite direction. A sort of strange gentleman got out and asked me what I was doing. I explained my shelled friend's plight, and asked him for ideas.
I could tell this guy had never had a wildlife encounter of the "turtilian" kind before because he approached the animal from the front, and quickly got snapped. I advised him to approach the turtle from behind, if he was going to attempt to pick him up, and he did. But then he did something I never thought of... he took off his sweatshirt, threw it over the turtle, and picked up the animal and moved it over to the grass on the other side of the road.
The turtle snapped, and peed (a whole lot) and was very disgruntled, but at least he lived. The guy was a little taken aback by all of the "fluid" that came out of the turtle... I told him it was probably just water from inside the shell... I didn't want him to know he'd just been urinated upon by the very animal to whom he'd just guaranteed a future. Or at least a longer future. It seemed a bit thankless.
Anyway, he seemed to buy it, (I hope he didn't smell it) and he got back into his car and drove off, after I congratulated him on his good deed for the day.
And that was all before I even got to the start of the ride or took my bike off the rack!
I did arrive, got my bike ready to roll and we took off...
As is always true of the Udder Century, it's a draft fest for the first half, until the crowds thin a bit and people get broken into smaller groups because of the rest stops.
Rode with Trudy, Sue, Katherine, Lisa, Craig, and Scotty. We hitched ourselves to the back of every fast paceline we could find. I truly love riding my bike fast in the draft. I work hard just to keep up and keep hitched.
Around mile 35 or so, Sue started to get tired, and Trudy was complaining of her quads burning, so they sort of dropped off, while I hung between Katie and Scotty and the rest of the group.
Toward the end, around mile 60 or so, I stopped at a stop sign and just waited for them to come up on me. I figured I could continue to putz along on my own out here or I could at least wait for the girls so we could chat whilst putzing.
Executed a wardrobe change at the first rest stop... I wore a short sleeved jersey, Trudy wore sleeveless over a tri top, and Lisa was wearing a long sleeved black jersey (!!!) Trudy said she was hot, so she took off her jersey, I was hot, so I took off mine, and put Trudy's sleeveless one one. In turn, I gave my short sleeved jersey to Lisa, who took off her long sleeved jersey and carried it in the back pocket.
Probably funny to watch, but it worked out well for all involved. :)
Garmin died around mile 65. I really thought it would make it all the way! Damn it. Should have charged it. I'll upload a partial map once it has a trickle of battery power.
Fun day.
Map
And that's where it croaked.
Also, I recorded the first .73 of this as an open water swim today. Clearly I was having technical difficulties.
June 2
8:06 PM: I did household chores all day today. I woke up, hung out, started cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, cleaned out the pantry, cleaned the countertops and the stove (stove took a long time! It's gotten dirty since Chris uses it so much!) and vacuumed the downstairs. Moved upstairs and folded the laundry. Had dinner. Watched Dateline while I was folding the laundry. Tomorrow I ride the Udder Century, at least in part. Probably about 75 miles, we'll see how I feel.
Chris is in lovely Hammond Indiana, awaiting Leon's Triathlon. After he performs like the stud he is (even with very little specific training this year) and he gets back, he's got some stuff to run over to the storage locker (the stuff I've culled from the kitchen and deemed "storage worthy"), then we can spend a nice relaxing night at home.
I can't believe I haven't changed out of my pajamas today. Not at all. I didn't even try.
*sigh*
- Health data: Hours slept: 10
June 1
- Trainer MVG
- 1h 00m
OK, well a lot of abs with MVG today. And burpees and mountain climbers and abs, and planks, and we worked on my breathing, which is sometimes absent. It's true, I'm able to hold a plank longer when I'm actually able to breathe.
What? Who me? Forget to breathe?
7:26 AM: My shoulders are sore from Wednesday's workout. Wow. Left knee not happy from all the squat type things we did yesterday. I'm falling apart. Will take some Advil and hope for the best. (Sounds like my mantra from Ironman 2009). Other than that, I've got work, MVG, and housecleaning on my schedule for today.
Oh, and in case you didn't notice, I didn't get up to swim. I wonder what the over/under was on that. Personally, I wouldn't have taken that bet, knowing we watched the final 2 episodes of DOWNTON ABBEY last night, and didn't get to bed until 10:30! We've only got the Christmas Special to go, and then we're caught up. I'm going to be sad, and I'm going to miss my favOUrite characters, Lady Mary, Matthew, Bates, Anna, and Mrs. Patmore. I'm going to specifically miss Lady Sybil, my most favorite of favorites and her forbidden love, Branson, the chauffeur. What a great show. 
Love it.
9:33 AM:Couple of things:
- I love that song "HOME" by Phillip Phillips, the new American Idol winner. (Although his parents could have chosen a much less awkward name for him, I bet...) I haven't watched AI since Kelly and Justin won back in 2002 or so... but I happened to catch Phillip Phillips performing his "special song" in the finals while I was getting my nails done. It almost brought me to tears. The whole performance, the song itself (reminds me of Mumford & Sons) and his charisma... it was no shock to me that he won. I felt like it was one of those TV entertainment moments that makes a performer. I'm happy I got to see it, even if it was just accidentally.
- One of my good friends is recently engaged and is looking at wedding dresses. I could peruse wedding dresses all day long online. It's detrimental to my work product. I wish I could wear a new wedding dress for every anniversary! So many fabulous styles! Such a romantic event! I love weddings.
- I got my first 100+ point word in WWF this morning. I played "JESS" on the TW tile, and the TL tile for the "J". The "S" was also attached to the word HUT(S). I don't know how it all added up, but it was good for 106 points. I've been playing WWF and Scrabble for a while and I've always just fallen short of the 100 point word. I'm quite proud of myself!
- Must kick ass and take names today at work. No wedding dress perusal! Crack that whip!
Hahaha. Neither do I. Not even the LITH triathlon. I'm working out so I don't look lumpy in my tri-suit. Heh. See? Superficial.
May 31
- Stretching
- 10m
Legs. I have glaring weaknesses and MVG seems to take delight in working them. I know it's the right thing to do... but it's demoralizing sometimes. :( I hate split lunges. Have a really hard time with them. Right leg is very weak.
Did a bunch of stuff leg stuff... some cardio type, and some notsomuch. Also did some hamstring corrective stuff. Blagh. Tomorrow will be an hour of corework. Not really looking forward to that.
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I did get a good stretch out of the whole thing though, and he rolled my IT bands.
- Trainer MVG
- 50m
Legs. I have glaring weaknesses and MVG seems to take delight in working them. I know it's the right thing to do... but it's demoralizing sometimes. :( I hate split lunges. Have a really hard time with them. Right leg is very weak.
Did a bunch of stuff leg stuff... some cardio type, and some notsomuch. Also did some hamstring corrective stuff. Blagh. Tomorrow will be an hour of corework. Not really looking forward to that.
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I did get a good stretch out of the whole thing though, and he rolled my IT bands.
9:50 AM: Workworkworkworkwork... then MVG at 6PM today instead of 5... then home, eat, maybe an episode of Downton Abbey if Chris is finished with his Freakbrick, and then sleep. What a fascinating life I lead. Possible swimming in the AM. Stay tuned for the resolution to that cliffhanger tomorrow morning. Heh.
The beer dinner last night was pretty ding dong good. We arrived late, so we ended up at the very last table... with the two guys that were there from the Brewery... one of them was a brewer and the other was in sales/marketing, so they both knew a lot about the beers and they were very personable guys. They had tips and tricks to pass along to Chris for his homebrewing endeavors. Worked out well, being late did.
I left that dinner last night stuffed to the gills, however, with food that didn't seem like it was ever going to digest, layered with different types and strengths of beer. My digestive tract was like a beer/food parfait. Still feeling quite stuffed this morning, and my pants feel tight. Am hoping at some point my body processes everything and I can return to a semi normal state before MVG gets a hold of me tonight. I can't imagine anything worse than throwing that VIPER around whilst being on the verge of an intestinal disaster.
Now if that's not a horrifying visual, I don't know what is.
12:01 PM: Oh wait... I know what just might be more horrifying than VIPER/KETTLEBELL work with diarrhea... perhaps the idea of me, actually DOING a triathlon this year! Indeed, I just pulled the trigger on the LITH triathlon, 6/10/2012. Bwaaahahahahaha. That's going to be funny. Actually, the main reason I decided to sign up was because Trudy is the race director, and she said that if I signed up and did her race, she'd finally register for Facebook. So, I'm hoping she's going through potential profile photos, because it's ON!
Have a splendid day.
The Morning Moment! Have you missed it? I've been rather sporadic with it because the cut and paste functionality in the blog is enough to drive me to drink. So I take screen prints, crop them, convert them to jpegs and then insert them in the blog. Sounds far too complicated, and it is, I guess. But I like things to look organized and easy to follow.
At any rate... the MM... drumroll please!
May 30
- Trainer MVG
- 1h 00m
Kettlebells. Everything with kettlebells today. It appears as though I'm doing remedial kettlebells, because I'm only using 12 lb (I think, for overhead work) and 25 lb for most other things. I should look more closely.
I'm able to keep it up (heh) and control it way better than I used to be able to. MVG thinks my scapular stabilizer muscles are developing. I'm hoping this is the case. Additionally, my shoulder felt a little wacky last week, but it feels pretty darn normal right now.
Also TRX work. Lots of TRX today. Kettlebells and TRX. Going to be sore, but probably not incapacitated. We shall see.
9:04 AM: Workworkworkworkwork, MVG, Duke's Alehouse for a Two Brothers Tasting dinner, then bed. That's the plan for today, folks.
Wedding Wednesday!!!
Yay!!!
Today, let's review a sampling of the fruits of the PhotoBooth, shall we? There are so many more. I just received the flash drive with all of the photos in the mail yesterday.
Here we have our very own Tony Goggs, notoriously half German and half Japanese, in the photobooth with my friend Kim, also half German and half Japanese. Together, they make one full Kraut or one full Jap, take your pick. 
Master's Swimming! Nanci, Steve, Jana, Chris, Katie, Paige and Sue.
And finally, we have:
Chris, me, my Mom (in a fancy sailor cap!) Kristin and Mark.
May 29
9:37 AM: Insects 3, Whizzzzzz 1. Again, as it seems to always go, I have been bitten and eaten and sucked dry by hungry flying insects. As we were finishing our ride on Sunday, just about to begin the last climb, I felt a sharp PINCH on my R hand and looked down at my glove to find a HORSEFLY biting me, through my riding glove. I shooed him off (Shooooo Fly! Shoooo!) and as he flew away, a red dot of blood started seeping into the fabric of my glove. That little bastard bit me hard enough to make me bleed!
Sure enough by Monday morning, my hand was sore and swollen and itchy. Little jerk. I'd really like to know what I've got in my body that makes me so damn irresistible to the Phylum Arthropoda. Insects love to bite me, crawl on my neck, lodge in my hair, and give me itchy swollen welts. Even after applying liberal amounts of "OFF!" My legs are scarred from our trip to St. John, where I was devoured (at least in part) by sand fleas.
As a result of this most recent "vacation" I have 3 rather itchy and painful and swollen bites, all from horseflies. If you notice the "score" above, I have awarded myself one point in the fight against insects because I managed to exact some revenge when I beat the hell out of a wasp in our cabin with a fly swatter. *sigh* Otherwise, it seems as though the Animal Kingdom is clearly winning.
PHOTO FLIPPER:
This is a recently uncovered gem which was posted to my FB wall by an old HS pal. These are my girlz, most of the same ones that went to Mexico to celebrate our 40th birthdays... In fact, all of these girls went to Mexico, along with 2 others:
Michelle, Rachael, Suzi and me.
Are you digging my FORENZA t-shirt? And there are the pookah beads again! Check it out... I've got a half eaten roll balancing in my book crack. Also, take a look at the milk. We are all drinking Oberweis LowFat milk. That milk is EXPENSIVE! I don't even drink Oberweis milk now, due to the fact that I can't afford it! I've gotta wonder how our tiny little second rate High School got ahold of an Oberweis contract!?!?!
- Health data: Hours slept: 9
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This was MVG lifting. Good God, I wonder if I'll be able to wash my hair tomorrow morning. This was back, triceps, and biceps.
- Lat pull downs
- Some sort of rowing thing with the lat pull down machine
- TRX in different combinations
- Bent over rows
- Band things
- Bicep curls
- Tricep extensions in an unusual configuration.
I purchased a giant tub of Whey Protein Isolate. I felt like a meathead. MVG says it's imperative that I have 2 scoops of protein in the AM and a scoop after every lifting workout.
9:35 AM: Well this is my second shot at this blog entry. I got the whole thing all loaded up and and then got an error. Oh, dear God that's enough to make a person like me cry out in pain.
I will save as I go. Good thing this wasn't yesterday's long and involved turtle post.
3:38 PM: I added this weekend's race to the calendar. That's thrilling news, no doubt.
Riding bikes while chat, chat, chatting:
Riding Lucy. She loves me.
Dave Clough in the foreground, tounge flapping, and me, behind him, waving hello!
And here we have the changing of the shirts. You can see KTpitbull on the left cheering us on... and me, wearing Trudy's blue Ironman jersey. You can also see Lisa, lifting up my pink short sleeved jersey. Hahahaha. I think I also see what appears to be the shadow of a bystander rooting us on. I suppose partial nudity is not something that the Udder Century usually sees at its rest stops. Sometimes it just takes a couple of 40 something chicks in sweaty sport bras to get a crowd going.