Weekend Update - Our Coldest Yet!

Yesterday afternoon Marty and I took Tassie for a walk around our neighborhood lake. We were so surprised to see that part of it had frozen over! Of the 2 years we have lived in NC, I think this has been the coldest weekend. I don't know if Marty and I are ever going to get used to things like frozen lakes and the occasional snowfall - we have too much Florida in us. So we proceeded to take all sorts of pictures of the lake with various objects on the frozen ice (our feet, rocks and pine cones, a glass of beer - don't ask). This was after stopping earlier in the day mid-run to inspect the frozen mud...frozen mud!!

This morning we had about 1 minute of snowfall, so I ran and grabbed the camera to document it. The video also displays Tassie proving that just because she may be half retriever, does not necessarily mean she will give you the ball she just brought back. For your viewing enjoyment :)

I just got off the trainer because it's been a cold light drizzle all morning. I rented Baby Mama on the tv - funny movie and great one to pass the time (meaning not much thinking going on during this).

Cold Day

It is cold here in NC, much like the rest of the country. We're colder than some and not even close to as cold as others - and we would never willingly live in those colder places! I'm very glad our car doesn't tell us the temperature because I'm not sure I would have wanted to know this morning as we drove to Masters. We had a great group there and a lot of people joined us for breakfast afterwards.

I'm working from home today which is nice, and I can get a lot of things done without anyone bothering me. I'm huddled upstairs since our downstairs is quite chilly and probably won't warm up too much over the course of the day. Blame it on old doors and cheap windows - it is quite drafty down there. Doesn't seem to bother Tassie, who now has her full winter coat on. She's even sleeping downstairs now which tells me it's a tad bit too warm for her upstairs with us at night.

Training has been light this week, and thanks to Marit for the comment reassuring me that I wasn't being too wimpy after my spill on the bike, also known as "Jerry ran me off the road and no it had nothing to do with the fact I was talking too much and not paying attention" ;) I still can't sleep on my left side because of the hip, but I think I might get lucky tonight. I'm very much a side sleeper so this has been problematic for me getting good sleep (not to mention my predisposition for not being able to fall asleep very easily. Marty says I worry too much. I know!)

Tomorrow we'll probably get a run in at Umstead but I'm not committing to riding outdoors just yet this weekend. Beth runs when it's 2 degrees so I don't know what I'm complaining about.

Let Them Eat Cake!

My sister, Shana, is getting married in Chapel Hill in July. Her fiance lives in Virginia Beach and couldn't make it down this weekend for the cake deciding and tasting so guess who got to go with her?

ME!!!

She had gotten recommendations from several people to use Cinda and she was excellent. We sampled 4 different cakes and then got to take all the leftover's home which means I'll be eating cake for a few days. I should probably take it into work so people can help me (Marty is NOT a sweets eater). Anyways, we tried yellow cake with vanilla frosting, carrot cake, red velvet, and chocolate with peanut butter filling. They were all delicious and I really think cake tasting should be a yearly or monthly thing. It was neat to talk about the design, see pictures of elaborate cakes and then finish with the tastings.

Day 2 after bike crash hurts more than day 1 did. My knee is still swollen and oozy and I have a nice bruise developing on my hip (which definitely hurts the most). I also discovered another big bruise on my other leg that most have hit some part of my bike when I fell. I skipped swimming this morning because I was pretty stiff and sore and then just decided to take the entire day off. I hope I'm not being too wimpy about this. I plan on riding the trainer tomorrow and probably will lift at work.

The cross bike is a no-go. It turns out we don't get the discount we thought we could at IOS because Marty doesn't really work too many hours a week. For something like a bike there are stricter policies with discounts (understandable).

And later this week it is going to be FREEZING here! Right now on Friday the high is only supposed to be 32! Helloooo winter.

First Crash

I have finally joined the club? I had my first bike crash today!

2.5 hours easy was the plan. We started with a small group at IOS and people peeled away as necessary because of time commitments and wanting to do different routes. It ended up being me, Marty, Dan and Jerry and we were having a nice time on the bike. Marty started to bonk a bit and was lagging behind for awhile. I was riding on the inside of Jerry and wasn't paying attention (I was talking too much) and ran off the shoulder. If it hadn't been so rainy here recently I probably would've been fine, but the clay was mud and I slipped immediately when I tried to get back on the road. Hit Jerry's back wheel (and luckily didn't take him down with me) and then overcorrected again only to smack on the pavement. I scurried up quickly to get out of traffic and was very embarrassed! Jerry and Dan were very nice and made sure I was okay, which I was. Falling in the winter is much safer than the summer - I took the brunt of the fall on my left hip, which had 3 layers covering it so I didn't even brake the skin (might have a bruise later on), and skinned my knee. The unfortunate part of that was I now have a nice hole in my new leg warmers (2nd time wearing them). It's also a bit swollen and looks like a small egg on the side of my knee. My ego hurts the most for being such a fred on the bike!

Marty didn't see any of it and just thought we were waiting for him on the side of the road when he rode up. And of course, the most important -- bike seems fine!!

Another Clinic

We had another great clinic at TAC this morning - good group of participants, lots of questions and a fun time (at least I hope everyone had a fun time!) Base training is in full swing and I'm doing pretty good. Definitely sore right now but hopefully that will subside after another week or so of being 'back at it.' Now I need to get outside and do my long run, something I would've much rather have done this morning, but short of me getting up before 5am (which I'm NOT doing on a Saturday!) my only option is to do it now. Tonight we're meeting friends for dinner and I'm very excited because I haven't seen any of them for over a month and they are all fun people to be with.

So about the bike - I'm thinking I'm probably not going to get it even though the unanimous vote from you all was GET THE BIKE! I didn't realize that we would have to order it and then I have no idea how long it will take to get here...the point of me getting a cross bike was to ride more outside in the winter but if it doesn't get here until the spring, well then, there goes the point. :( :(

No Lifting for Me

Plans of lifting at work yesterday were spoiled when I realized, standing in the locker room half undressed, that I had forgotten shorts. ARGHH. This was made more painful by the fact that I had traipsed across campus in the cold rain. I briefly (very briefly I might add) thought about lifting in my work clothes. I was after all, wearing jeans and had a sports bra, t-shirt and sneakers, but did not want to be one of THOSE people. I see them occasionally – they are usually upper management and they waltz into the weight room and do some bench press and a few other machines before waltzing out. Seems odd to me. Even odder is the one guy I’ve seen hop on the stationary bike in work clothes (and these are not jeans). To each his own – hope they don’t have any meetings in close quarters after that.

Marty is tempting me with saying maybe we can buy me a cross bike. We can get a good deal at Inside Out, but I waffle between wanting it and wanting to save all the money we can. What to do, what to do.

Enough travel!

I'm sitting in the passenger seat of our car somewhere in the middle of Georgia while we make our way back to North Carolina. I don't have internet access but figured this would be a good time to type up a blog catch-up post from the past few days.

I left a very quiet work day on Wednesday just after lunch to head to the airport so I could fly down to Orlando. I had a layover in Charlotte - so the quick flight from Raleigh to Charlotte was on a small commuter jet. It was VERY windy that day, so we bumped our way up to cruising altitude, stayed there for like 1 minute, and then bumped our way down to Charlotte. Not fun. I know I have flown all over the world but I have never gotten used to turbulence. I got into Orlando a little late, but Marty hit horrible traffic on I-95 so our friend Dan ended up picking me up. He threw a fun party (of course). It was nice to see old friends, especially one of my very oldest friends Katy Rad. We had a lot of fun.

The next day we saw Marty's family, I took a much needed nap, we went for a short half-hearted run and then had a low-key dinner with Dan. We all needed to recharge from the night before!

Friday was busy - had breaky at our favorite greasy spoon near our old condo, then we drove to UCF to do a run. We hadn't been there since they built the new stadium and WOW it looks different! What a fun college to live on campus now! Luckily, they still left some of the trails we used to run on, something I was worried about would be all gone from all the new building that had gone on. These trails are the place where Marty and I had our first date, 8.5 years ago! In the rain no less. I figured if this guy liked me in running clothes soaking wet and disgusting we may have something here :) Next up we met one of my athletes for lunch, then off to Sanford so Marty could give a swim lesson, and then to Ormond Beach to stay with another friend for the next two days.

We had fun in Ormond - went for a gorgeous bike ride on Saturday morning through Tomoka State Park and down A1A - watching the beautiful calm Atlantic to our left. Then we went out on the boat and then to an Oyster Roast. It was a busy weekend filled with bad (good) food, beer and not great sleep.

So I'm pretty ready to just hunker down and get back on a normal schedule of training, working and eating better. December has been pretty much a prep phase training-wise and I'm definitely looking forward to building that base back up with more consistent training. Races loom in the distance!

And 2008? Eh, I'm glad it's gone. Not one of my favorite years for sure for many different reasons and although I know each day is really a new slate to work with, it's nice to have the number change and really wipe it clean. I'm looking forward to making this year MUCH better than the last and I have many ideas on how I'm going to do that.