Bulls and Beach

We're never bored here at Gaal Central. Tonight we're headed to the Durham Bulls game with a bunch of friends. Yesterday was an interval run in the morning, followed by work, followed by the Inside Out Sports bike ride (hung onto the front group - go me!). Swimming this morning, back at work and straight to the game tonight.

Tomorrow evening we're driving down to Florida for our annual 'it's Marty's dad's birthday weekend so we're getting the whole family together.' Last year we went to Hollywood, FL, the year before we were in St. Pete. This year we're going to New Smyrna Beach (with a stop in Jacksonville Thursday night).

I told Marty the other week that there was no way I was swimming in the ocean there. New Smyrna (in Volusia county) is well known for it's many shark bites (I don't want to say 'attacks' because they aren't really). It also has a great surfing break. Nonetheless, this girl doesn't want to take that chance. Here's a little excerpt from wikipedia:

According to the International Shark Attack File maintained by the University of Florida, Volusia County Florida had more confirmed shark bites than any other region in the world in 2007. Experts from the University of Florida have referred to the county as having the "dubious distinction as the world’s shark bite capital". This trend has continued into 2008 with 19 confirmed shark attacks as of September. In early 2008, Forbes Magazine rated New Smyrna Beach North America's top shark attack beach over North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii. In 2008, it again broke its own record with 24 shark bites.

So yeah, if it were me and Marty in the water, guess who the weak link is? No thank you.

Now there are some hurricanes out in the Atlantic so it would be rough anyways. I think we'll just find a pool.

Nuclear Swim Recap

Our final open water swim in the Trysports Triangle Swim Series was held yesterday morning at Harris Lake. This 1 mile swim (named the Nuclear Swim since the Shearon Harris Nuclear power plant uses the lake to cool it's reactors) is a popular one and we usually get our biggest turnout.

Everything went very smoothly - we had enough t-shirts for any late signups, all food was there and delivered early, and the weeds were at a minimum this year. Because of the amount of swimmers we had, it was decided to once again split the men and women up. The men would go 10 min ahead of the women.

Some of you all may remember the Showdown I had with fellow master swim, Erik, at the Big Deuce. It was time for my rematch...bummer that we were in different waves! At the Jordan Lake swim, this is how we finished (different waves, here, too).

And at the Big Deuce (someone snuck in between us)

I coerced my friends Kari, Alysia and Karen to help me with packet pick-up and they were nice enough to fall for my manipulations and got to the race site early. We got in the water and sunk into whatever sludge is on the bottom of that lake with lots of squeals after the men had started. This is a nice wide start so there's not a whole lot of banging around and I situated myself right next to Alysia. After about 100 yards she was inching up so I decided to fall in behind her and let her sight and do all the work. It was perfect! I limited the amount of foot tapping I did and let her drag me around for 3/4 mile before I decided to kick it into high gear and sprint on home. Poor Alysia -- some friend I am! The entire time I was thinking, "MUST BEAT ERIK!!"

Getting out of the water was a bit slow with that sludge again, but I ran out and was extremely tired. Turns out it's pretty hard to sprint for a 1/4 mile.

The women's finish was a good one! With a $100 on the line it was a sprint to the end and only 1 second separated first and second. Marty got it on video and posted it to Facebook (check out the Triangle Open Water Swim Series page to view). I would post the video on here, but I have no idea how to get it off of facebook. I never claimed to be very smart.

Once out of the water, I apologized to Alysia for using her for most of the swim. She didn't care at all; love her :) Then I saw Wayne from Master's and asked him what his time was. He responded with, "I'm not telling YOU." Hmmm, my competive reputation has preceded me. He did tell me and I did a few fist pumps when I realized I had beaten him.

But the real question -- what was Erik's time?! I couldn't find him and when I finally did, he didn't know! They had the results up quick and we both rushed over to look. After a quick look, I yelled, "DANGIT ERIK!!!"

4 seconds! Again! And once again we weren't even in the same wave. So over the course of these 4 miles (and 2 miles not even swimming together) we were separated by 7 seconds. I'd say we're pretty evenly matched in the open water. Hopefully, he doesn't learn to sight (an issue for him right now, apparently).

Since I handed out the awards I gave him a massive eye roll when he got his. Nothing but love for my fellow OSB Master's swimmers ;)

Tips from Tassie

I wrote this for our latest OSB Multisport newsletter. If you'd like to subscribe to it (it's sent out monthly), click this link.

There are so many traits that my dog has that I wish I could instill into my life. For example, she is ALWAYS happy in the morning, no matter what the time. It’s as if she’s thinking, “A brand new day! Yay!” She gets incredibly excited when we take her for a run, and is very sad when we don’t. I don’t necessarily want to be spinning in circles (ala Tassie) at the beginning of every run, but I do wish I could be that eager for most of them – I am doing something I love, after all.

Another trait Tassie has is she absolutely won’t quit. She has been trying to catch a squirrel ever since we brought her home almost 4 years ago, and has continually failed, but that doesn’t stop her. If she spies one in the backyard she lets you know that she has to get outside RIGHT NOW. Unfortunately, although she is very fast, she makes way too much noise and then doesn’t always actually run to the squirrel's location. In other words, her chances of catching a squirrel are about as good as Marty being able to donate his hair to charity.

But she doesn’t care; every failure is immediately erased from her mind and the next opportunity is always just around the corner. This is really a remarkable lesson that we can use in so many different aspects of our life, but since this is a triathlon newletter I figured I’d relate it to the sport. How many times do we dwell on a bad workout or race? You can always learn from everything, but beating yourself up over it is not productive. You had a bad run? Well, guess what – there’s another run on your schedule two days from now! Make that one count and forget about this one. Or how about in a race? Perhaps you had a crummy swim – don’t think about your crummy swim the entire bike ride – it’s over. It’s done. Get on the bike and only think about the bike.

Maybe you haven’t had the season you’ve been hoping for? It’s not over yet. You still probably have a few races left –these are your opportunities to get after it. Don’t give up on the squirrel. You may just catch it someday.

Trying to Be Good

I have two triathlons left on the calendar - the Patriots Sprint in Williamsburg, VA on September 12th (Marty is doing the half the day before), and USAT Nationals in Tuscaloosa on September 25th. The sprint will be kind of a last tune-up before Nationals, which is definitely the 'A' race of the season.

In an effort to set myself up well for that race, I'm trying to be good. As in, I'm not sleeping in and missing Master's practice, being more consistent with my runs so I can get above 20 mpw and biking more.

I've actually biked 3 times already this week! That's amazing seeing as it's only Friday. So what if one was on the trainer watching the latest True Blood episode...I did get out on the rode twice (one of those was cut short because of a horrible thunderstorm. nothing like a quick bargaining conversation with the higher power as lightening is popping all around you). And I did wake up for all 3 Master's practices this week (internal high five).

I've also been going to bed very early - which is why I was able to get up at 5:15 4 mornings this week. Marty loves it when at 8:30pm I say, "Ok, I'm going to go get ready for bed." and then I'm out by 9pm. Party central.

This has been a pretty typical day - 5:15am: wake up - workout - work - workout - home - dinner - unpack - pack for next day - bed. I've just started reading The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo so I get a couple of pages in before I shut the light out...um I know everyone says it's really good but I'm honestly having trouble getting into it. I'm going to stick it out and hope it gets better.

I'm hoping to 'be good' until Nationals. We'll see if I can make it. Okay, enough training talk.

Murder was the case that they gave me

Victim was found in hallway of house gutted. All appendages broken.



Heart (aka 'squeaker') torn out.



Suspect was still at the scene of the crime. Refused to look at investigators.



Claims 'accident.' Explains, 'always carries friends in mouth.' Friends named as 'bunny,' 'turkey,' and 'hedgehog.' None were available for comment.

Big Sad Face

This is what I felt like yesterday when I realized I had left my prescription sunglasses on top of my car the day before.

I drove back to Umstead (where it happened) thinking that in some alternate universe I would find them intact and lying on the curb somewhere. That alternate universe was not my reality and I saw no trace of them. I imagine they're somewhere squashed along Harrison Avenue.

This post deserves another picture.

I am totally watching Survivor this season

I'm not a big reality tv fan - I did watch The Real World in college and the first season of Survivor (10 years ago?), but other than that I could care less.

Except we know someone on the new season of Survivor! Kelly Bruno is a local triathlete/amputee/med student and all-around nice girl. Maybe too nice for this show, but I guess we'll see.

Go Kelly :)