Pallas Athena

Shad Ireland has posted his upcoming tour across America and is looking for people to support and ride with him. His web site will be up and running December 11 th . The tour starts in May. Shad was the first dialysis patient to ever compete in and complete an Ironman . I heard him speak last year at our NKF conference. I was very inspired by him and his story. He has written books, and details his history of dysfunctional family dynamics and inability to accept his renal failure as a child. Twice he failed transplantation, mostly because his body will not tolerate the anti rejection regimen required to keep the transplanted organs. His story is powerful and really hits home to the renal failure population. The message is simple. Take charge of your own health to the best of your ability, and any activity that you can do is better than doing nothing. He wants people to feel the best they can, no matter what sort of health problems they have going on. After completing the ...

I don't do well with down time. Have been reading up on this whole recovery subject and seen a wide spectrum of recommendations. One sourse says 2-6 months of recovery (absurd, unless you broke your leg). One says 2-8 weeks. I'm thinking more along the lines of 4 weeks. Mike was talking about a reverse taper, and that sounds exactly like what would work out for me. I feel run down right now, can tell I need to build back up. Building up plan: make sure to take vitamins and make healthy food choices. I was ravaged by the Ironman. I will eat and nap when I can for the next week. My metabolism is cranked right at the moment, I'm a walking furnace. I cleaned in a sports bra and shorts and turned the furnace down to 60 yesterday. Proof that my body is not back to normal. By next week, I will have to cut back on total calories because exercise will still be reduced. Swimming will start back in on Friday. Easy, no records here. The point is to get my blood moving...

Yesterday was the Gatorade Practice Swim #1. The wind was pretty wild at Tempe Lake and lots of chop. Surprisingly, the wind managed to kick up some current as well. Water was chilly as well, but not a long-johns swim like the SORT this past summer. I was out there for about 20 minutes, freaking out as usual in those conditions. The water was rougher under the bridges, which was a surprise to me. Swimming back to the shore, the water was in your face or over your head. Pick which way to turn your head, it sucks either way. Wind-induced current pulls you back towards the start. Gatorade has bleacher style steps out of the water but you cannot see the first steps. It is a grab the rail and pull yourself out situation. Mike taped my swim-technique was poor; arm entry position looked a bit flat. Last night was the Banquet. Some guy who has had 2 heart attacks and is only 38 years old got an award for community challenge. Some guy lost 88 pounds training for Ironman. They gave...

We arrived without any real glitches at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport at 2:30 this afternoon. We shuttled in on the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel courtesy van. By 4:00, we were too late to pick up my ironman packet, but not to late to get my bike from tri-bike transport. It was pretty shook up. The sidewall of one of my tires was rubbed to the threads. It has acquired a new sqeak in the crank as well, that comes out only when you stand on it. The back tire was soft again. Ongoing problem of the stem of the tube tapping on the inside of the extender and letting the air out. It didn't want to hold air either, because the stem wasn't sealing it off quickley enough. I rode around on it until the brakes were fine, but the tire/intertube situation needed solving. Inside Out sports offers their usual supplies/support. The first mechanic I dealt with immediately blamed the brake and started turning here and there, completely loosening the adjustment on the brake, adjusting the cable. Nope...

Today Braden Isaac arrived via c-section. My niece Amber (the mom) was quite relieved, because her first baby was over 10 lbs and late. The OB Gyn was letting her get past her due date again, and all she could think of was the two weeks spent in the nicu last time. I am so greatful for them that this time all is well. My mom called to let us know. Braden's middle name (Isaac) was the name of our son, whom we lost at 10 months of age due to heart problems. I was 18 finishing my senior year of highschool; Mike was 21 dropping college and welding for a living. You can imagine when two kids who have the world ahead of them end up with a baby with serious health issues. There wasn't a lot of help from either of our parents. The irony in that was it drove us closer together and made us grow up fast. Isaac had an easy disposition and smiled easily when he felt up to it, and lit up the room. His eyes were blue like Mike's, but he had light yellow hair that stood up like su...

Wow, 17 days till we fly out to Tempe. The last several days have been about formulating a plan to complete the distance. Mentally, I have been b reaking it down into the details of the event. The overriding scare is that I could be left without that vital item that I just cannot do without. Yesterday, I watched IM Arizona a couple of times, trying to pick out all those things you need for the big show. The swim is a trip, jump in and tread water till the start. Don't look at me to jump in early. Really, I would rather swim from the outside to the buoys than be next to one treading water for 30 minutes. Just stay alive and kick back when kicked. Bike gear on under the wetsuit. Water temp around 70 degrees, avg. Bathwater compared to Racine!!! Pop some endurolytes and jump in. Get out in 2:20. Strip the suit and hit the tents. God, I hope the goggles don't leak. That is SO irritating. Go eazy, long day ahead and this is just the warm up. Transitions are outsi...

People have had lots of thoughts flying around as of late relating to the current downturn of the U.S. economy, and now the world economy as well. Although I keep hearing from folks that it is a good thing that I am in nursing, we know economic downturns as well as others. Harry Truman once said “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.” Some of us lose our jobs quickly, for some it happens gradually over time. We are all beginning to feel the pinch, and I am not convinced that nursing is a recession proof profession. This is a capitalist society (I'm not knocking it), so no career is recession proof! Nurses have been laid off in mass numbers in the past. I graduated in 1993, and had been promised a job at our local hospital a year before graduation. Six months before graduation, they cut forty registered nurse positions. The new proposal? I would work 40%, and be the first to accept low census days. For anyone unfamiliar wi...

Today was a train inside day. Overall, went great. I really felt strong on the run after biking. Did a lot of incline work, and there was a lot of pedal left. It was like I was Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer. Kicking ass. The incline on the treadmill was set in a range of 3.0-8.0 on the incline. And it felt like I was crawling. About time. I haven't been feeling strong for awhile now, and I know it is because of the time off from running to recuperate the foot. It still talks back, but it is crunch time. Tuning out, unless it gets louder. Kids did some of their boo bags tonight. It is so funny watching them drop the bags of candy, and run like hell. One of Chey's friends is the math teacher's daughter. He stood on the front steps and yelled to his daughter that someone left candy. Chey was hiding behind his tree out front, and he said someone must have ran pretty fast. Not really-she was standing there sweating bullets. Too crazy. Yeah, teaching my kids ...

I had a new swim suit. Like it is 3 weeks old. It was dark blue and had some ugly red flowers on it. It didn't matter, it was for swimming not fashion. Today, I went swimming at Princeton. Mike was on a mission to go shopping and I will not interfere with that! So he dropped me off and went about his business. The water seemed really "heavy" , like it was easy to catch or something. What little got in my mouth tasted terrible. Well, an hour and a half later I had my answer. I was sitting in the steam room when I noticed that the swimsuit had turned to a very faded light blue and the flowers are now pink. Apparently, Princeton has taken issue with all the nasty stank people who refuse to shower after a workout before they jump in the pool. "Hey, let's just bleach them dirty slimeballs!" Now, my suit looks like it has been used daily for months. I will look like a real swimmer in it now!

Awesome riding with Mike on Friday. We got 15 miles in; good power work but the scenery was even better. What a great break from the train drain. In the last 3 miles, I took a fall and bent the brake bar on the right. Guess you cannot replace the break lever without replacing the shifter. The shifter cannot be purchased without the left one as well. UGH! So, the set is $50.00 for the two. I checked several places in Madison. It was tough to decide to put that kind of money into my bike. It is a Trek 4100. One of the most poorly balanced mountain bikes on the market. The components suck on it too. But, it did only cost 350 new. Mike had the same bike as I, but his kept repeatedly busting. He had to have the bottom bracket changed out, bent a rim, deraliur gave out during the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic. Over the past year, I have been able to hear my bracket clicking as well. This is how his started. Now he has a Specialized Stump Jumper, and he loves it. Savannah h...

I am over trained right now. Took 2 weeks to admit it to myself. Hill climbing SUCKS right now. In fact, anything that requires power sucks right now. The lactic burn will not quit. My averages are down, too. Mood is gone to crap. I don't really care if I eat or not either. Arizona is 7 weeks away. The way I see it, I need a week off, a sort of reset if you will. I think I need to do this, although I'm not really wanting to. Last year I ignored the signs, and it cost me the month of January in training time. Seems you just keep skimming down your reserves until there is nothing left. The crappy part is that I could so easily have competed in IM WI this year. I was ready. Now, it is like trying to maintain a peak for forever. Yesterday was the Tyranena Oktoberfest Ride. It was a really good time, and the weather was great for it. I rode with Jeff, Kerry and Dave. We stopped for a woman who fell and did a nasty dislocate of her left arm. As I'm whinning inter...

Today, got a quick 30 miler in. Damn windy, too. Managed to eek out a decent mph, due to the stiff push out of town and ducking out of it on the way back with some hills. Tomorrow will be another brick. I want to get going early to try to cut down on the wind. There are dictionaries sitting on the table that need names put in for the third graders. Procrastination is beginning to wear me down. Maybe I will get that done tomorrow.

Missed a swim last night, due to being on call. I will take call today also, as backup. Lately, the backup goes in about 90% of the time. We will see about a bike ride later today. On the bike, I have started to play with a few different "mixes" in my gatorade. There are more than a few good articles about BCAA's and maltodextrin. Have been using those with the gatorade, and it keeps me from running aground on long rides. This comes out to about 70 grams of carbs an hour. 70 g instead of 60? Easier to measure the maltodextrin. Now, there was an article in this month's running times about using fructose and glucose in a 1:2 ratio. Apparently, it boosts your uptake of carbs significantly over other combinations or glucose alone. Makes sense, when you think about all those metabolic pathways you learn in biochem. In the past, they were looking at glucose transporters, and 60 grams was all those pathways could handle per hour. Powerbar is the only one on boar...

Lately my attitude has been crap. Ornery about everything. Things that I have invested myself in, I am ready to throw the towel in on. I just haven't felt that what I was doing was appreciated. Case point, I requested addresses for our ANNA local chapter from nationals at the beginning of the summer, and twice more since. No response. The other day, I get this e-mail saying they have set up a "task force" to figure out a way they can assist chapters that are struggling. They would like me to take a survey to tell them what I think. ARGH! Are you kidding me? So I thought about how I would respond to this for awhile. Then I got mad and said some things in an e-mail that weren't very nice. I mean, it wasn't terrible or anything. It was professional. But it could have been said nicer. BAD KARMA! At work, we are striving to get Magnet Status. Some of the higher-ups have asked to interview me to discuss my involvement with professional nursing organizations and how it h...

Lately my attitude has been crap. Ornery about everything. Things that I have invested myself in, I am ready to throw the towel in on. I just haven't felt that what I was doing was appreciated. Case point, I requested addresses for our ANNA local chapter from nationals at the beginning of the summer, and twice more since. No response. The other day, I get this e-mail saying they have set up a "task force" to figure out a way they can assist chapters that are struggling. They would like me to take a survey to tell them what I think. ARGH! Are you kidding me? So I thought about how I would respond to this for awhile. Then I got mad and said some things in an e-mail that weren't very nice. I mean, it wasn't terrible or anything. It was professional. But it could have been said nicer. BAD KARMA! At work, we are striving to get Magnet Status. Some of the higher-ups have asked to interview me to discuss my involvement with professional nursing organizations and how it ...

Lately my attitude has been crap. Ornery about everything. Things that I have invested myself in, I am ready to throw the towel in on. I just haven't felt that what I was doing was appreciated. Case point, I requested addresses for our ANNA local chapter from nationals at the beginning of the summer, and twice more since. No response. The other day, I get this e-mail saying they have set up a "task force" to figure out a way they can assist chapters that are struggling. They would like me to take a survey to tell them what I think. ARGH! Are you kidding me? So I thought about how I would respond to this for awhile. Then I got mad and said some things in an e-mail that weren't very nice. I mean, it wasn't terrible or anything. It was professional. But it could have been said nicer. BAD KARMA! At work, we are striving to get Magnet Status. Some of the higher-ups have asked to interview me to discuss my involvement with professional nursing organizat...

My swimming sucks. Plain and simple. I am beginning to think about what it is going to mean when I don't make the swim cut-off time. This isn't something that I'm just not being realistic about. IM WI was in 2:04. No, the waves didn't slow me down. Think barge. Last time I was pulling my daughter in the raft, with no change in speed. I seem to be missing a gear. Fitness is NOT a factor. Got the bike and run down pretty much without concerns. Can ride century rides without soreness, now doing bricks of 75/5. Those are going very well. I have doubled and tripled the bricks up also. No real issues there. This time around, I am just avoiding swimming. It doesn't go well, the water is cold. The excuse list could be miles long. The only legit reason I have is that it aggravates my back. Too much extension in a swim position. It needs to be practiced, it will get better. Swimming has not been made a habit. The biking and running gets done, because I love...

Brodhead beat East Troy last night by at least 40/7. Don't know the final because we left with 3 minutes on the clock and we saw Brodhead intercept one as we drove away. On the way home, we got on the topic of running things over with the car. We started to speculate about what hitting an armadillo would be like. Do they just crumple up and die, or is it like punting a football? We have been northerners all our lives, and this simply isn't an issue we encounter. They look kind of cute in an armored-car sort of way, and seem harmless enough at the zoo. This discussion lead in to what do they eat. I thought bugs, but wasn't sure. When we got home, we did a little search on the beast. What disgusting rats with shells they turned out to be! They are unbelievably diseased! 53% have leprosy. Hell, if you saw one without a leg you wouldn't be thinking that was the cause. Yuck! Salmonella, tape worms, rabies. The list goes on and on. Armadillos are a common wild...

National Kidney Foundation and American Nephrology Nurses had our annual symposium today. We had 145 people there, and about 75 were nurses and dialysis technicians. The whole thing was incredible but tiring. My favorite speaker was Bob Hanisch. He has a degree in exercise phys and is a certified diabetes educator. He has competed in Ironman triathlons also and runs Peak Performance out of Brookfield. I want his job. We talked about training plans and implementing them for patients, along with some specifics for renal and diabetes. Funny, last year we had Shad Ireland. He was the first dialysis patient to ever finish the Ironman. Great speaker, but I bought his book and that wasn't so much. Yes, I can make my job about the Ironman...We are already looking to next year to figure out what to have our talks on. On the lighter side of things, this weekend was my cousin's wedding and then off to my brother in law's for the annual Packer/Lions Party. It was an awful lot...

Busy weekend, but awfully fun too. Mike and I volunteered in registration on Friday. Only 800 registered of the 2200 on Thursday, so we were hopping! All volunteers get a tee-shirt. This year, they have a cow on the front that strangely looks more like a goat. It is original, for sure. Saturday, Angie, Chey and I went up to deliver our course signs. Angie hadn't been back since 06', but the IM village is still the IM village. Lots of ways to spend your pennies. Sunday morning, we made church. Then I got a run in. Then off to the IM! Kids were checking the IM splits as often as I was, and they did not want to go hang on the course. So, they stayed home monitoring the computer. I met Mike after his shift, and we took mountain bikes down on the run course by picnic point. There we saw mostly everyone, except CJ. Got some pics too. Supper was pizza and then back on the course. One of our friends who trains at Princeton came through there, along with CJ. Course wa...

Well, for those of you who just cannot get enough fun out of a brick workout...Today I did a triple brick workout that I had read about in one of our numerous tri books. One hour on the bike, 1/2 hr on the treadmill, and repeat that twice more. Mike was along for the first hour of biking and then he went home. It was windy and cold, so the second lap went to my house for a sweatshirt. The workout went quite well. Surprisingly enough, it was much simpler to do this workout as a brick than all of the distance on the bike and then all of the distance on the run. The recovery was good too. Got home and made sure the 100 grams of carbs with 25 grams protein was in within 20 minutes. Got a quick nap before Chey got home. Got up and ate like a pig. My appetite has been unreal. I had a great ride out to Lake Ripley on Sunday. It was beautiful out. The SWAT team hung out and we did some grilling. Some of us swam. Kitty kept us all up to date on the members doing IM Kentucky. I to...

Yesterday, layed the old bike down. Was raining, and Mike and I were rushing to make the ERC ride on time. Slipped on the paint and damn I knew better. So now I am minus a bunch of skin, pair of new bike shorts and now with a banged up knee just after the foot finally started feeling better. Jeff accused me of being sullen. Well, the impact is huge. I NEED to get running again, and knee swelling is not a great sign that the running program is getting back on track. If I were a recreational rider, I could set it aside as no big deal. Take a week off and get back out there. But there are about 55 training days left, then taper time. I really slept like crap. Look like I have a huge saddle bag on my thigh. So that has me not so happy. The shocker came via the mail today. I passed the Nephrology Nursing Certification. Phoey, never knew you could get so many wrong and pass. They explain after the fact that they design it to get more than half wrong and still pass. The median...

About a year ago, I was headed to work through Brooklyn. It was garbage day, so everything was out. Someone was tossing a 80's model Schwinn 10-speed. That, of course went on the bike rack. Plenty of rust and nothing left with shine. Nice bulge in the back tire. I thought it was great. I used it for a while to make the .75 mile hike from parking to work. For some reason, the tires still held air. It stayed parked outside the hospital and nobody thought about stealing it. If it rained, the seat stayed wet for a week, and it wasn't nearly as pretty as the other bikes there. For some reason, I thought it should come home. Mike declared it the "Retard Rocket", and placed two bottle rockets under the seat. He thought it was hilarious that I rode that to and from work. Bike snob. Shit, it was a nicer bike than I ever owned when I was a kid. I saved for my first bike, it was a Huffy 10-speed from Shopko that went everywhere. It was freedom before a driver'...

The past two weeks have been crazy. It started with the hosting of a Nephrology Nursing Exam Review. Then we had the Humane Society Bake Sale. Then I hosted the Nephrology Nursing Exam in Madison. This week, I filled 13 applications for CEU's for a fall symposium. It wasn't supposed to be solo, but my helper moved to Arizona 3 weeks ago. Tuesday I got sick, knocked me on my a** . Didn't really do anything for training. Attempted to run Tuesday, but after 2.5 miles ( and 2 stops in the woods) I thought better to give it up. The crappiest part was it was the last day for our SWAT workouts, and I have really enjoyed doing that this year. Today, 5.5 miles in 1 hr, with a easy bike ride of 8 miles. It was ok. But the pressure is on big time to get moving again. IM AZ is CLOSE. Out to MR again today. Picked up my ride, put the new QR seat on it. Bought a new seat for the new ride. I always HATED that old seat, but am finding I put up with a lot more than I ever s...

She pulled it off! Made 242.36....Sunday is a trip to Monroe to see Zoey Jane and Phoebe. She will give them the check then with her friends. Tomorrow is my Nephrology Nursing Exam. This comes at a time when I am seriously considering heading back to ICU. Mike has a good racket at the VA. The turnover is incredibly low. Looking at the Surgical ICU. He is in the Cardiac ICU. Every day I work, I am training someone. And I end up with a lot of call because of the turnover. Call is a serious issue, really. Some days you work your 12 hour shift and then you are out on call all night. Then scheduled to work the next day. Your choice-burn your personal time and lose your overtime OR stay the next day and work. I know I am not at my best then and it is so scary. It gives me lots of biking time, but it is eating my vacation seriously. Last time, I was out on call all night with someone's child. I would not have been my first choice if it was my kid whose life was on the line...

About a month ago; my daughter Cheyenne decided she wanted to help raise funds for the shelter. She has been supporting a dog and a cat for three months now. I should add that Chey is not even 10 yrs old yet. Cheyenne has always wanted to become a veterinarian. It is always all about her pets. When she is away from home, she calls me and wants to talk to her cat on the phone. In May, she was surfing the shelter's site and decided to sponsor a cat. When she got to the shelter, she took on a dog also. Her dog is Zoey Jane, a beautiful pit bull that I would love to take home. If you know the breed, they should not be left alone with other dogs. We have an adopted Whippet and a Doberman Pincher. But she is quite an amusing dog that goes out of her way to entertain. Once a month, we go to the shelter and walk her down to Culvers for a burger. Last time, she crawled on the ground like a lizard and rolled around in the grass. The more Cheyenne and her friends laughed, the mo...

Yesterday was another awesome bike ride brought by my iron addiction. My obsession with biking is at an all time high. The new bike and great weather. I am so there. You scoff at the idea of addiction? You laugh at that? Look it up. I am sure it is in the DSM manual by now. All of the symptoms are there. Persisting despite guilt. Persisting by family suggesting you stop (my mother), telling you you’re obsessed. Coworkers telling you that you don’t work enough Eating in excess, even though you know you should stop. Skin changes to a very dark hue. Weight loss and especially fat wasting. Looking the best you have ever looked, yet unable to stay awake for sex. Going without sleep to obtain your next fix on the run. . I was reading IronPol today; and totally relating to the demands of Ironman training. After spending a day assisting with the end of VBS, he gets to go run 10 miles in the dark. Alone. The problem is the world doesn’t stop for the crazy people with iron obses...

What a long day! The conference we have been planning finally set up and done with. Yah! Then a drive (7hrs worth) to pick up my kids from relatives. Now finally home. Tomorrow is another century ride. Tues and Fri were both 107 miles, each included one loop of the IM WI course. Heading into another busy week. More running this week than anything else, due to time constraints. Nephrology Certification Exam on Saturday....ugh.

The plan was to take off from Chatham , MI and do a loop around Harvey, Marquette, Christmas, Autrain , Munising , Forest Lake and finally back to Chatham . The plan was to include the breathtaking scenery around Lake Superior, maybe stop for a snack in Christmas and stop in Munising to see my sister. Started out great. The weather was sunny, in the 80's. By the time I was 30 miles out, the rain started. A good soaking rain. The temp quickly dropped to the 60's and the wind off the lake was a chill. By the time I really cooled off, it was 40 miles out and the entire loop 86 miles. What do you do? Keep going! The rain eventually died off, but a rock sliced the New tire (I purchased for SORT) and gave me a flat. This was just west of Autrain . I pulled off to change the tire and had to pee so bad I was gonna DIE! One of those great places where if you do, you are totally busted. The tire had to be patched from the inside and then a new tube put in. I figure that was about a 10 m...

Tomorrow we leave for Michigan. A week of county fair showing and attempting to get my training done as well. Should be a challenge. The beauty of it is that there are many new places to explore on the bike. Roads there tend to have a shoulder. Mapmyride .com has some nice routes on roads I am familiar with. Presque Isle is a must just for the view. The family will take in some swimming at Deer Lake. No, not Superior...it is just to cold. Some of you can relate, having just been in Lake Michigan. For those in the know, Superior is a lot colder because of the depth. It doesn't give up her dead either, and one sure way to not be one of em' is to not go in in the first place. Maybe I will get some running in too. Will just have to see how the week works out. With any luck, we will be back in town for the Tri Out on Tuesday.

So, here is the problem. I eat anything and everything I want whenever it occurs to me to eat it. Bike progress is slow. Run progress tapering. Swim progress???? What is that? CJ said something yesterday that turned on that old bulb waaayyy back in the attic of my brain. Not so much what was said, but what is behind it. We all want to do our best. She simply said "The muscles don't fire right with the wrong kind of fuel." Yeah, and they fire much better when there is less to haul around, too. It isn't that I have a lot of weight to lose, but there are easily 5-8 lbs around the waist that should go. There are several very nice bike jerseys I do not wear because of the sausage effect. Someone at my health club asked me if I was going to lose all the weight I put on for Green Bay (MORTIFIED!). My diet is terrible. I pound the gatorade every workout. So each workout is easily 6-1200 calories of the stuff. Not good nutrition there. Most days I forget the vi...

Today was IM WI bike loop x 2. Did IM 06, and hadn't been back to bike it. I don't know why, I just haven't. I've been around it so many times, it was like visiting an old friend. Yesterday was a slam, with 2 hrs of intense hill work. That meant that I couldn't give the ride today the justice it deserved. But, other members from SWAT were out there too and still fighting the fatigue from Spirit of Racine. For three years, I have fought with a bike helmet that rubbed the crap out of my forhead. There were 2 big red marks always on my head. Last week was magic, the helmet did not make it through the HIM. Someone must have knocked it down, because the front piece is split!!! YAH! Could kiss whoever did that. After the ride today, I cruised into Erik's and ordered a Specialized 360. Seems to fit right, the one I tried. We shall see. For now I ride with a cracked shell. The best part was finding 2 new pairs of bike shorts on sale. Keep finding holes i...

The family headed to John Muir for the day. It was a great time. We started out with a picnic lunch and then headed out on the trails. Chey was leading the group which quickly turned out to be a mistake. It could take that kid a week to realize her breaks do not work, because she never uses them. She went flying down a stretch of tree roots and did a bounce off her seat onto her crossbar and slammed her crotch good. She at least was laughing as Nubs asked if she needed the seat pulled out of her rear. From here on in, it was decided that Nubs would lead because she is a bit more cautious. That lasted for two miles and then she wanted to take off. Mike and her left Chey and I half way through our loop. Wasn't far down the line and Chey started to crap out on me. Luckily I didn't have to nag. The mosquito's were quite persuasive . When we turned back, Chey took off down a stretch of tree roots again and hit a corner kind of fast. She slipped off the edge an...

I'm a shit. Totally not sore from the HIM on Sunday. The best time previous was a 7:10; I cut that time to 5:52......Thought no way to the Pigman, would be to sore. Now, I think it wouldn't be a problem. That is ok, I prefer to continue the IM AZ training and not have recovery from misc. events to deal with. I need a week of lay off. Tomorrow, we will do some mountain biking with the kids out at John Muir. Nothing too strenuous. Sunday, we will kick it back up. My heart rate was very low throughtout Spirit of Racine. Hypothermia was a factor, but it didn't pick up a whole bunch. My rims are fine, although they took a hell of a hit. Kyserium rims are the way to go. Besides, figure anyone who can't at least go 20mi./hr looks pretty crazy with $3,000 zip rims. Really, won't improve your time more than my losing 20 lbs would help mine.

This weekend was awesome. No other word for it. We triathletes are an interesting group in any setting. I was worried about joining a tri club for fear that it would somehow interfere with training, and failed to see what an asset they can be. For the most part, everyone is warm and welcoming. Saturday night, the SWAT met at Infusino's for some good food and camaraderie. Service was slow, because of the overwhelming influx of the SORT groups. That was actually not bad because there was plenty of time to get to know some people better. Our hotel reservation fell through, but a call to Expedia moved us to Brookfield for the night. It was an hour away, but worth the drive. Never book a hotel you don't know if it isn't a chain. Lesson one for this tri . We were up at 4:30 in the morning and headed to Racine. Mike stopped at McDonald's and I ate a very nutritious breakfast, as I'm sure you can imagine. Fried taters are magic...those fats act like carbohy...

Yikes, the lake has really been cold lately. I am beginning to freak out about the temp. I do not own a neoprene cap, but own booties. Calling all over Madison, I was unable to locate anyone with any left. Middleton Cycle says they got about 15 calls today requesting just that sort of cap. Currently, there is a silicone cap that I can put under the latex cap required for participants. Lame, I know. There is a brand new Grand Prix 4000 waiting for the front rim of the "precious". For those of you who have ridden slicks before, you know they are not a good idea for wet roads. Cheap side says they are fine, the rest of me says "not after a swim behind an ice-breaker!" So, a quick trip to Budget Cycle, and I will change it out in the morning. My husband, Mike says not to worry about the temp. He reminded me of April 2005, wandering around Lake Decatur with no booties or hat. We were navigating around, him in the canoe. The water was about 40 degrees Fahre...

Wow, July 20th creeping up fast...I've been freaking out about all of it. Usually when stress increases, I start dreaming. This time I was at the swim at Lake Michigan. It started out as incredibly difficult just walking into the water, as it kept pulling me down and I couldn't stay upright. When the water was deep enough to begin swimming, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to pull the top half of my suit up. Somehow, I ended up on my bike but off course and nobody seemed to know how to get back to town. Fortunately the alarm went off, so I don't know how the run went. I can only say that I know I didn't finish because the dream went on all 8 hrs of my night and I hadn't begun running yet! The only cure for this is a real plan. Start packing the car today and take the bike for a short spin to be sure EVERYTHING is in working order. Get the food and drinks set, lay out the outfits, etc. Marathoning is so much simpler! All these transitions to think...