I Feel Like I Am Doing Alot of Catching Up...

So, I originally started the blog as a way to keep a record, so that someday someone could look back on this and maybe think that I did some fun or cool things with my life. I think the only way that is actually going to happen is if I actually write on the blog.

The summer is almost 2/3 over and what have I done? A lot of nothing. Ha! Not really, but some days it feels like it.

I did turn 40. Yikes! Remember when your parents were 40? Well I remember thinking how OLD my parents were, and they were younger than me when I was 13. (In case you don't know, that's how old my girls are, at least for another three weeks or so.)

I am trying to embrace the fact that I have another decade under my belt. How about a look back at some of the highlights of my 30s?

• I became a vegetarian
• I participated in 3 3-Day Breast Cancer Walks
• I ran three marathons
• I ran ten half marathons
• I did four sprint triathlons
• I did one Olympic distance triathlon
• I had 2 knee surgeries
• I had Lasik eye surgery
• I had my appendix removed
• I fell two times while running
• I crashed my bike once, and fell over on my bike once
• I survived elementary and middle school with my girls
• I survived the loss of Lucy, our first four legged baby
• We gained two other four legged babies
• We bought a new house
• We tossed around the idea of having another baby (What were we thinking?)
• My girls decided they no longer wanted to share a bedroom
• We became debt free
• I discovered that indie rock is my music of choice and saw Wilco four times in concert
• I learned how to bake really good chocolate chip cookies
• I learned how to bake and decorate pretty fabulous sugar cookies
• I took a cake decorating class
• I discovered that I love Chicago
• We went on our first cruise
• I had my first, and only, tequila shot (30th birthday)
• Celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary

Well that I all I can think of right now. I don't think that is all I did in the last decade, I sure hope not. I do know that I am not the same person I was when I was 30 and I am proud of who I have become in the last ten years.

Here's to the new decade and all the adventures that are in store for it.

Adventures in Bicycling...

It's been a while. It's been a hard summer personally and I haven't felt like putting a lot done on the blog.

About a month ago I decided that instead of a fall marathon I was going to shoot for a fall triathlon.

You might remember last September Rochelle and I tackled our first Olympic distance tri at the Redman, I've been throwing around the idea of the half ironman since then. About a month ago I decided that it was scary as hell, but all that crosstraining would make my body very happy.

After my quad strain in May, running in June was horrible. Even with the heat it has gotten better and I finally saw double digits on my Garmin about three weeks ago. Focusing on crosstraining has taken the pressure off my running and the result is that my running has gotten more comfortable and normal.

It is time consuming training for a HIM. I am just shooting to finish, since it's my first race at this distance, so I am trying to fit in as much training as I can.

The bike is the most worrisome aspect of the race for me. 56 miles is far and prior to starting this training cycle I hadn't ridden farther than about 27 miles. A week ago I got up to 38, and riding that far by myself is pretty boring.

I was happy to have a plan to get in about half of yesterday's ride with some friends. We set out yesterday morning in the east side hills. The dogs that looked to chase us were pretty scary, but we got through the hills and at a little ober 20 miles and headed to the flats on the west side of town.

I really felt pretty good out there, and I was on track to get in 40+ miles. I was headed back on Tecumseh when my wheel caught a rut in the road. It was enough to throw me off and I tried to correct but just couldn't avoid the curb that I hit. I landed on a sidewalk right next to a light post.

Thankfully, some very nice women saw it all and stopped. They got my bike off of me, called Josh, called 911, and helped to calm me down. One of them even got a small blanket out of her car for me to rest my head on while we waited for the fire fighters to get there. I am very thankful for the kindness of strangers.

I'm not gonna lie. I was a little humiliated, something so silly as a little rut in the road and I caused such a fuss. The firefighters helped me sit up and checked me over. We decided we didn't need an ambulance, once Josh got there he took me straight to urgent care.

I basically landed on my chin.

And my right shoulder. They X-rayed my shoulder and said I have a grade I AC (acromioclavicular) joint separation.

Those bruises on my forehead are from my helmet, the scratch on my nose is sidewalk, and my left cheek is bruised.

I am very lucky. It could have been so much worse. That being said, my whole body hurts today. I am waiting on a call back from my orthopedic doctor to follow up on my shoulder. I am going to need to get my bike in to get my front tire replaced and check to make sure the wheel and frame are ok. Oh yeah, and I need a new helmet.

Not sure what this does to my Redman plans. The thought of getting back on my bike scares the hell out of me. I guess we will dee what the doctor says.

 

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Norman Conquest 2012...

Last weekend we instead of going for a long run in the brutal heat we decided to get out our bikes and get in a ride. Rochelle and I took pictures while we waited for Patti to get to our meeting spot.

How cute is her Arizona top?

I, of course ride in a running shirt. I do have the shorts though. We rode about 28 miles, some of them pretty darn hilly to get ready for this weekend.

 

Saturday was the Norman Conquest bike ride. Kendra and I rode it last year, this year Rochelle and Patti and I signed up to do the 22 mile hilly route. {The longer the ride the more hilly it is, the 22 mile was hard bit not like we were gonna die.}

Of course there were pre-ride pictures.

And rest stop pictures.

I stole this picture from the OK Runner Facebook page, Patti took them. This was about five miles into the ride. Craig was seriously in the weeds when we got there.

The best part about bike events? They are so laid back, no timing chips, no timing period. Everyone stops at the rest stops, and they have fruit and cookies and even pickles.

Patti got some action shots when she was waiting for us to catch up to her. We weren't being slackers, we just weren't being speedy like Patti was.

Action shot number two. You can't tell, but we were kinda dying here. It was hilly out there.

The second best part of the bike event? After you finish and they don't give you your time they feed you. Burgers, {even veggie burgers}, hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans and even cookies.

Ross did the ten mile town ride with Austin, and he went and picked up Avery so they could eat with us.

Austin was a junior police officer that day.



Avery took this picture on my phone. She also took this one...

Such a funny girl. Later in the afternoon we all went swimming and Avery wanted to see behind my sunglasses, she said she knew it was me, she just wanted to make sure.

It was a fun day, and I am loving being on my bike. Can't wait for the next ride.

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OU Medicine Corporate Challenge 2012...

This was the third year the company I work for participated in the Corporate Challenge.  I love this event, it's pretty time consuming organizing everything, but it so worth it.

I was a little disappointed this year because I still had not been cleared to run, I had been looking forward to besting how I did last year.  I was set to go back to the doctor on June 5th and the Corporate Challenge was June 1-3.  So I got to do things other than run.  {I am not gonna lie, this completely sucked.  But, what can you do?}

My first event was Saturday morning.  It was the 50 yard women's freestyle sprint.  Two years ago I finished 3rd in our division, this year I finished 1st.  We didn't have a second girl willing to be a part of the co-ed relay, so I got to drive to Edmond, warm up and swim a 50 yard sprint and then head back to OKC.  It was pretty fun.  I didn't realize the locker room at the UCO field house would be severely lacking in adequate shower space.  Oh well, I was going to be hanging out at the track the rest of the day, so who needs a shower?

My second event Saturday night was the co-ed obstacle course.  Man was it hard.  You had to run through some tires, across a balance beam, jump a hurdle, kick a soccer ball around some cones, and then jump rope five times in a row without stopping.  I fell off the balance beam so I had to go back, I was painfully slow with the soccer ball, and then I could not jump rope five times in a row to save my life.  I have resolved that if I am going to be a part of the obstacle course next year that I need to practice.  It was fun though.

Sunday morning the girls and I did the one mile walkabout.  I was bummed to not be running the 10k again this year, but there is always next year.  I did sign up for the 5k bike sprint.  I have never done a bike sprint.  When Kendra and I did the Norman Conquest last year it was very laid back and just out for fun.  In the sprint triathlons and duathlons I have done the bike has already been fast {or me trying to be fast}, but not an all out sprint.  This 5k was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  It's a time trial start, which is nice, everyone starts 15 seconds apart and when you get up there they hold your bike so you can get clipped in and then they let you go.  It was a bit terrifying to have someone hold your bike and be clipped in and just thinking that when they let go you have to get moving before you fall over.

My goal was to finish under 12 minutes. I checked out the times from last year and I thought that might make me competitive.  I figured I can work as hard as I possibly can for 12 minutes, right?  That's half as long as running a 5k, so I just put it all out there.  I pedaled as hard and as fast as I could and I finished in 10:05.  Way better than I had hoped, and I was worn out afterwards.  I managed to finish first in my division too, so that was good.

My last event was the women's relay.  The legs are like this 100M, 100M, 200M and 400M.  I figured I could run a 400M, I know I had not yet been cleared by my doctor but it's just one lap around the track.  I hadn't been cleared yet just to give me more time to build up my quad muscle in my injured leg and I was two days away from going back to the doctor.  We were second in our heat when it was my turn.  I tried to chase down the girl that was ahead of us and for the first 200M I thought I might be able to.  After that my quads sort of freaked out.  It was like they were saying "What the hell are we doing here?  What is this strange exercise we are doing?"  After that I ran out of some steam and we ended up second in our heat.  My quads were sore for about 5 days after that.  It sure felt good to be running around that track though.  I'm not gonna lie to you.

It was a weekend full of cheering and supporting my co-workers in their events.  The weekend wound up with the dodgeball competition on Sunday afternoon.  Each of the four divisions played and the winners had a round robin at the end to crown an overall dodgeball champ.  It took FOUR HOURS!  We won or division, which made me happy but that meant I ended up being there two more hours waiting to cheer our team on in the overall competition.  We ended up third in the overall, but it really was fun watching our team compete.

It was a fun but tiring weekend.  I can't wait to do it all again next year.

Vacation Here I Come...

In 27 minutes I'll be off for the next ten days.  We are headed to Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina, where we will be staying here:

We are loading up our kids, both my sisters and their families, my in-laws and my sister's in-laws and traveling out I-40 and where ever we go after that.  We'll stay tomorrow night in Nashville and be on the beach on Saturday.

I only wish I could take my bike with me.  Rode almost 20 miles worth of hills last night and had a blast.  I still didn't manage to get up the Papa Bear hill without almost falling off the road and having to push my bike up.  It is very humbling.  I'll get it next time.

So no bike next week, but I'm taking my running shoes with me.  It's so nice to feel like I have my running legs back this week.  It had been a long few weeks since the marathon, and I didn't think I'd ever run and feel good about it again.

Vacation here I come!  21 minutes to go.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part...

I managed to survive the weekend.  The 2011 Corporate Challenge is done, all that there is left to do is to wait for the results.  Why do I have to participate in one of the three events that it seems to take days to get results for?  They have yet to post the 10k/5k/5k cycle results and I am dying to know how I did.

I ran the women's mile on Friday night, and did tons better than I ever expected.  I ran a 7:21 mile and finished 5th in my age group, first in my division, which is where the points are.  After we were delayed for about an hour for weather we finally got underway.  The weather was thunder and lightening that moved into north OKC, but it never actually rained.  After the first lap and a half my lungs were on fire.  I have never experience that on a run before.  I think if it had actually rained it would have gotten whatever was in the air out of the air, but since it didn't it all managed to end up in my lungs.  The rest of the night and part of Saturday I sounded like I had asthma and a dry hacking cough.  Not pretty.  But for first place, I'll take it.

Saturday was the 55 meter dash, what a joke.  I am not even going to post my time here.  I managed to squeak in third place because a girl in my heat fell right before the finish line and I managed to get across before she did.  I felt bad that she fell, but there were people falling all over in those heats.  Glad I just made it through without any more scrapes and bruises.

Sunday morning was the 10k, and I was determined to do better than I did last year's 1:05 time.  I was hoping for better weather, and I knew that there would for sure be water stops so I was ready to go.  I think I went out a little fast, I checked my Garmin at the one mile mark and it said 7:39, WAY too fast.  I backed off a little at that point.  In the next mile I saw my friend Patti pass me.  I aspire to be a runner like her, so I kept her in my sights the first lap.  I can say that I was so glad she wasn't running the 10k and that I could hang a little behind her for the first half of my race.  She told me after that she saw me and wanted to get in front of me.  Nothing like a little friendly competition.

The weather was much better than last year, but it was pretty windy on the very flat and very boring loop, that I had to run twice.  The water stops were much appreciated, although they were handing out bottles of water.  Not very convenient if you are just wanting a small drink.  I felt like handing mine back to the volunteers to have them put my name on it so I could get it the next time around.  I hate that I wasted three bottles of water in one 6 mile race, but I sure didn't want to carry it with me.

It was a good race.  I finished in 54 minutes, I haven't seen my official time since it's not posted yet, but I took about eleven minutes off my time from last year.  I guess better conditions, no knee brace and being in much better shape makes a big difference.

My last event was the 400 meter leg of the women's 800 meter relay.  It was not pretty.  We were in lane 4 for the men's and women's relays and we finished 4th in both.  Most of the weekend we were a fourth place team.  We did win volleyball, we beat the Thunder team twice which was nice.  The weekend wrapped up with exhibition dodgeball.  Very entertaining.  Who knew that there were so many rules for dodgeball!  Turns out we have a dodgeball star in our accounting department. 

No working out yesterday, a hi low cardio class this morning, piyo in the morning and out to Draper to get some miles on my bike tomorrow night.  Here's hoping I don't have a repeat of last week's fall.  Really, if you are turning to the left you probably shouldn't unclip your right foot.  On the plus side I have some pretty awesome bruises and the fall wasn't as far as I imagined it would be.