A Glimpse in Our Life...

Blogs are so voyeuristic, which I suppose is one of the reasons why they are popular. I do enjoy reading about what's going on in other people's lives, seeing what they're up to and all that. I feel like I have all these additional 'friends' even though I haven't met many of them, and sometimes have never even talked through the internet with them! But I still enjoy checking to see if they updated, and get annoyed when they don't :) I imagine there are many of you out there who have never met me but still read my blog. You can say hi sometime if you want :) Anyways, I took two quick videos before our run the other day with Tassie. So here's another glimpse into our lives...



She's pretty obedient, she always sits and is mostly patient when we put her leash on.

Sleep Deprivation Forever

During my very short swimming career as a child, I would see the adult Master’s swimmers and think to myself, “WHY in the world would they CHOOSE to come here and swim?! I’m NEVER going to do that!” It’s quite evident why it was so short, huh! After college I swore to myself that I would not get up before 6am for practice of any sort. I had had enough morning practices and promised I wouldn’t put myself through that on my own will.

Back several years ago, Marty and I were not even semi-regular, but would go to a local high school’s pool for 6am morning swim practice. So much for that promise to myself. The year before we left Florida, I started meeting a friend of mine for a once a week 6am spin class, and a once a week 6am swim together. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Now for almost a year I have been going to our local Master’s practice, headed by a really great guy, at 6am, 3 mornings a week! This means the alarm goes off at 5:25 – even earlier than it did in college for morning runs. But wait, NOW instead of having practice from 6-7am, we’re going 5:45-7:00am. So this morning the alarm went off at 5:10am. You have got to be freaking kidding me. To make matter’s worse, there was a swim meet this past weekend so the water was oh-so-chilly. Chillier than normal. My comment of ‘stupid kids!’ was quickly followed by, ‘sorry, I’m not at my best at 5:50…’

I didn’t get there in time, but was still swimming before 6am. Here’s the typical schedule:

-Alarm goes off. Moan and groan. Whine about not getting enough sleep. Push Marty to make sure he’s awake.
-Tassie runs over and kisses my face, all wiggly and EXCITED FOR MORNING!!! YAY!!!
-Get dressed, brush teeth, grab bags and stumble down stairs.
-Forget something and go back upstairs (this always seems to happen)
-Let Tassie out if Marty hasn’t. One of us gets the coffee pot going.
-Let Tassie back in and feed her
-Possible important bathroom break
-Give Tassie heart pill in liverwurst. Wash hands because liverwurst stinks
-Ask Marty to make me a PB&J for the afternoon
-Hug Tassie and wish I could stay home and play with her all day
-Pack up car, walk back into house because I forget something
-Drive to pool semi-awake
-See someone walking out of pool, already finished with their workout and realize I’m not SO crazy…
-Locker room
-Head to pool deck, get cap ready, chat with fellow swimmers
-Watch everyone dive or jump in
-Head to pools edge, make an ugly face to Marty
-Sit down at edge and dangle legs into water
-Announce to Marty that the water is cold (again)
-Make face when someone splashes me on their flipturn. Never you mind I’m about to get in the pool anyways.
-Deep breath and slide into pool, push off the wall, and curse up a blue streak in my head
-Workout gets underway and I’m happy I’m there :)

Run for Fun

The 5k today was really fun if you are into a painful, moderately hilly courses in 90% humidity. Alysia and I went 1-2, and yes, although Marty pointed out I set the course record, let ME point out that the previous course record was 22:30. My time of just under 20:00 really shouldn't be setting any records! Nice tempo run, though. And I got a gift certificate from a local running store so I can't complain too much! :)

We're watching Cider again - we have quite a nice rotation going with her owner Kristy. She'll be watching Tassie this coming weekend. Cider got groomed finally so now the two of them look very similar.

Cutie Pie Injury

That's my niece Ashleigh, with her 'Build-A-Bear' (or in this case, 'Build-An-Elephant') and her arm in a sling. Her and her sister were playing on the stairs and Haileigh accidentally dislocated Ashleigh's elbow! No worries, it's actually a common thing in kids. So the next morning when they realized it, she got it re-located (?) and had to wear a sling for a day. Yep, just one day. That's how injuries go when you're 3. You or I would've been out for a month!

This weekend we're finally staying in town, after being gone for the past 3 weekends in a row. Now I can finally catch up on all the things that pile up when you're gone. Like the laundry. It's all clean, but it doesn't like to fold itself. And Husband doesn't seem to like to fold, so I'll be plopped on the couch folding mucho loads hoping there's something good on tv for a good chunk of the day.

Tomorrow I'll be doing a 5K in RTP (Research Triangle Park - where most of us drones work every week). There's also a 10 miler that Marty will be doing. I'm not expecting much for this race, but figured it would be a great opportunity to go out and get a good solid tempo run in.

In other news, we've decided not to put our house on the market. Not that I ever talked about putting it on the market, but we've been looking at some houses in Cary and we were planning on putting ours up for sale. We want to get into a slightly bigger one with a garage, and prices are great. But, we finally decided that trying to sell our house now - with a much lower buyer pool right before the holidays kick up might not be the best time. We're not in any hurry, either. So we're going to hold off until the spring. Luckily, we don't need to sell our house for much more than we bought it to move into something bigger. That's because Marty analyzes everything and is a cheapskate (see previous post).

Expensive Entry Fees

I got around to checking out the Philly Half Marathon registration -- $100!! My mouth dropped open and I immediately texted (is that a word?) Marty. It's unbelievable how much race entries are these days. I've gotten kind of used to the amount for triathlons, but for a run?! They'd better have a great goodie bag. I can't even blame myself for being too lazy to sign up because the fee was raised in early September, and I really didn't commit to running it until very recently (Bri + long stuff = yucky). But I figured it would be nice to try and better my pr and since Marty was running the marathon, I might as well do something. I didn't for once think about not running it because of the entry fee. But that's exactly what Marty said when he saw me this afternoon.

Oh no he di'in't.

Have I ever mentioned Marty is a teensy-weensy bit cheap?

"What?!!!" I said, looking at him like he had two heads. "Well, then I'm not going up there with you!"

I think he relented because he knew I wasn't budging, but I can't say he was happy about it. Nor was he mad. He just didn't say anything. I think he knew my mind was made up.

Now let's recap my 1/2 marathon experiences:

1. Duke Liver Center Half Iron 2004: horrible horrible, lots of walking and an unusable quad afterwards that ended the triathlon season. 1:51:41

2. Duke Liver Center Half Iron 2005: thought I would come back and show this course what I was made of! Ended up even worse. This is starting to be the definition of insanity...1:54:28

3. Sydney Half Marathon 2006: Just for fun since we were living in Australia at the time. Beautiful but hilly course, didn't train specifically for it and was just there for a good time. Splits were confusing since they, like the rest of the world, use the metric system. "Hmmm, so 13K would be like...ah forget it." 1:33:high? Can't find the results.

4. White Lake Half Iron: Flat course, in great shape (yay to only working part time for the early part of that year!) but don't let me fool you, this one was still painful and yucky. 1:31:47

So my goal will be to break that time. I ran 10 miles after work with Marty today and I don't think we were moving all that fast. But, there's still several more weeks to get in shape.

The Bri Loop

The Bri Loop is one of our typical running routes from our house. It's half on hilly roads and half on trails at Bond Park. The name came very simply after I ran the loop when we first moved up here. Marty coined it. Incidentally, we also have 'the Tassie Loop' and the 'extended Tassie Loop.' No 'Marty Loop' to date.

The Bri Loop typically takes about 40 min for an easy run, but yesterday I ran it in 37 min. This afternoon I had a message from Marty saying that he AND Tassie had done it in 38 min "so we're just 1 min behind you!" Tassie loves this change in weather, and is able to run so much further when it gets a little cooler.

Marty and I had originally planned on meeting at Umstead when I got off work. I went in before 8am with the hopes of getting out around 4, but I found out late in the day I had to go to a 4 o'clock meeting. Argh. Marty couldn't meet me much later so I was on my own. But what a nice day and run it turned out to be! I soon forgot work and was lost in my own thoughts on the beautiful trails in 70 degree weather. It doesn't get much better than that.

Weekend Recap

We came home to one very excited dog - she was a wiggling maniac. You definitely feel loved when your pet is so extrememly happy to see you.

We had another fun weekend, this time down in Wrightsville Beach. Marty and I were lucky enough to stay at the in-laws beautiful beach house that is right on the beach, and a very short distance from the swim start of the Wilmington YMCA triathlon. Our friends Alysia and Jimmy stayed there with us and we all felt very lucky to be staying in such a great place. Alysia and I rode our bikes over to the transition area early Saturday morning, in the cold and wind. Cold being relative, but cold for just leaving summertime.

This race was night and day compared to the Virginia Beach race, since I knew SO many people. It's so fun to laugh and catch up with people at the races. The logistical issues at this race went smooth for what I saw and we were all soon in the water shivering before the horn sounded (no wetsuit). My swim felt great. I have definitely improved this year and have improved significantly from a few years ago when I was racing in Florida. Back then I was typically the last elite out by several minutes and raced alone until the run. But now I'm actually able to stay with packs and the main pack of girls was not too far in front of me. The swim times were a lot slower this year than last - I guess the current was not as strong. I hit the ladders and sprinted out to the transition area. This is a long run and quite painful on the feet. Along the way I passed Nas and Laurie but once in transition I somehow managed to get my sunglasses tangled in my helmet straps and had to take the entire helmet off to fix it after unsuccessfully trying to fix it while on my head. They both left transition ahead of me. If it's not one thing it's another in transition with me it seems! Practice practice practice.

I could see Nas ahead of me for quite awhile on this bumpy, potholed bike course. She slowly got away and Laurie and Alysia were also not too far ahead of me. They stayed that way for what seemed like forever, I just couldn't get going on the bike! Finally, I passed them towards the end before almost getting hit by a car and having a head-on collision with a few age groupers. My time was 1 min slower from last year. It was a bit windy on one stretch, but my bike is a direct product of time and mileage. Both have been very low this year, so for what it was, I was happy with my bike today. This time I transitioned smoothly and was out on the run.

I felt good on the run. I pushed it hard and passed a couple of people. I could see some people futher ahead but just couldn't get there. Again, I was almost 1 min slower from last year. My top end speed just isn't there right now. I still managed a 19:08 split which is pretty good for a 5k off the bike, and I really can't complain. I know if I hadn't missed all that time because of the injury and had been able to run and continue my workouts through that time I could've been much faster.

I finished as the 4th female and absolutely did the best I could on the day. That is something my parents instilled in me at a young age ("Do the best you can and be happy with it"), and they both even reiterated it yesterday when I spoke with them after the race. I am very happy that I was able to comeback from not running for almost 8 weeks and manage to compete so well with the other elites.

But I have to admit that there is that little voice in the back of my head that I've been trying to squash all weekend. The voice that says, "but you're capable of going so much faster!" Sure, aren't we all? If only I had this, or that, or had this much time, or was prettier, stronger, richer, whatever! Of course I can go faster and have gone faster, but I have to be happy with the present. With the now. And I did the best I could yesterday. So I will continue to squash that little voice and be content with how it all went.

So what's next? Well, I'm not ready for a break. I guess because I already had that long impromptu one. Marty is going to run the Philadelphia Marathon so I think I will run the 1/2 marathon and try to get a better p.r. (mine is from my split at the White Lake Half). I think it will be fun to concentrate on running for a bit. I'll continue going to Master's practice because it's a lot of fun, and will still ride my bike as long as the light holds out.

Oh yeah, the rest of the weekend was SO FUN!! Some more friends came over to the beach house after the race and we hung out and ate pizza and downed a bunch of beer. Then later on the 4 of us met some girls from Master's out in downtown Wilmington for a nice dinner and then off to a bar and later into a dance club! We were all booty shaking with the best of them - OH MY! )