Back on a plan

I've decided that I really don't want to run outside in the dark and cold.  I've also decided that I have no interest in running on the treadmill.  This means, no running during the week. I may occasionally run on the weekends - but only if the weather is good and I'm not up skiing.  Skiing is my winter weekend focus this year.

My 1.5 month break has been amazing.  Luxuious. Restful.  However, not doing much of anything has lead to weight gain - probably 10 lbs.  Not cool.  Also not surprising. 

I've discovered this late summer and fall that if I do not have a plan, I simply won't follow through.  I'm generally self-motivated and accountable, but if I don't have a specific something planned on a daily basis, then its way too easy for me to sleep in or bum around on the couch.  As much as Will and the cats love me blowing off workouts, my waistline can't take it anymore.  So, I'm playing "coach" for myself.   Monday, I sat down with a calendar and created my own version of TrainingPeaks (in Word) which lays out a daily plan for the whole month.  With specific exercises.  A plan.

My focus for this off-season is to gain strength on the bike, so I'm better able to ride up hills, canyons, and maybe even a mountain.  I started (and then stopped - but I was sick) lifting weights, earlier in the month with an emphasis on leg strength.  Knowing that I needed some sort of cardio to build strength, I found a 16 week free cycling program - "Winter Cycling", which is designed to build critical power.  Cool.  Most of the workouts are short - usually 45 to 60 min long.  I can get by on 2 workouts a week, I could do the 3 short rides, or I could do 4 rides a week (3 short and 1 long).  I highly doubt I'll get in the long weekend ride (hello, skiing!) but 2-3 short rides on the trainer are achievable.

I've also joined a new swim team, my 3rd this year.  Hopefully this one will stick.  I know that the workouts won't completely meet my swim-snobbery standards, but for the time being, just getting in the pool and having friends there with me will be enough.  I can always show up early if I want to get more yards in (which I will probably do this spring).

Finally, I registered for the Chilly Cheeks Duathalon series.  I have no plans of really racing these.  Its more like an excuse to get out there, run at least once a month, and keep my skills sharp.  The first one is this Saturday.  And we're expected to get 5 inches of snow tonight, and the high temp for the day is 22 degrees. (!!) (the low is 10 degrees and the race is at 10 AM.).  My lovely husband, upon hearing that I signed up for the race AND upon hearing the weather report laughed out loud.  I told him, just for that reaction, I should make him go to the race and spectate.  So, yeah.  Snow and cold.  Looks like I will be racing with my ski gear.  All this so I could get a pair of sweat pants that say "Chilly Cheeks".....

So, my plan, is roughly like this:
Monday - weights at lunch, bike after work
Tuesday - swim team before work
Wednesday - bike after work (or before work if something fun is going on after)
Thursday - weights at lunch, bike after work (depending on how things feel)
Friday - swim team before work
Weekend - ski and maybe run.  Tri club has a Sunday run group, so I may join in.

This is my third day on the plan, and my legs are sore.  Not dying sore, but more like "hey, what is going on?!?!".  Was I sore like this every day during my IM training?  I don't remember being sore all the time.  Hopefully this is just an effect of being a couch potato.  Either way, it feels good to be back and doing something.

Post Thanksgiving Ramblings

Things are still kind of blah.  Here's a recap of the past week and other random thoughts...

I love to cook for Thanksgiving.  For the first time this year, I got to cook for my mom (pretty much all of my "family").  Normally we'd fly to Denver for Thanksgiving for the week, but now we live here.  Yay!  Also, last year was a bit depressing as we were selling our house and moving, and cooking a big meal would mean making a mess.  And we needed to keep our house clean.  So no turkey at our house last year.  So, this year, I went with tradition and made: apple cider brined turkey (really, the BEST turkey recipe ever), homemade rolls, traditional stuffing (which for the first time, turned out near perfect - I have a hard time seasoning it properly), roasted and mashed squash (I used the Chirimen squash I got from the farm... it was just ok), and homemade cherry pie, including the crust.  Mmmm

My mom came over (her second visit since we bought the house).  She arrived 15 min before food was served and stayed a whopping 1.5 hours.  And she asked for her pie to-go.  No idea.  And also, kind-of weird.

I love making Thanksgiving because that means I get all the leftovers!  Sadly, a 15 lb turkey didn't last very long.  We had leftovers for dinner on Friday and that was it.  I think that Will had a bit more than he should have for lunch, though.  I was really hoping on 3 meals total from the spread.  *sigh*

Friday I went skiing with my friend D.  My first day of the year.  My first ever trip on a season pass.  We went to Winter Park because the weather said we'd get 2-4 inches of snow during the day.  Copper had more runs open, but we wanted SNOW.  Sadly, the weather report lied.  It was a good test though - we had pretty much every kind of weather: sun, clouds, wind, snow, sideways snow.  It was a good test of my gear and helped me figure out what I was lacking.  I then bought a new ski bag (which holds my boots and gear), baclava (protects your face from the wind/cold), some light weight fleeces, and some before and after winter boots.  Wooo.  Skiing was fun but with the limited runs, it was fairly crowded.  I think we hit the slopes at 10, had a short lunch break at 2, took 2 more runs and was done by 3.

Sadly (or maybe this is a good thing?), my winter running gear = ski gear.  I used my heavy running tights (which are fleecy on the inside) as long undies.  And I used various run shirts as layering for my top.

And speaking of winter running, I ran for the first time since the Denver RnR Half Marathon (Oct 9th).  I was supposed to start back up 2 weeks earlier but I got this annoying cold that just wouldn't go away.  I did the local Turkey Trot 5k.  It cost $15 and I got a fleecy hat.  The race was at the local rec center (a whopping 4 miles from my house) and we ran on the hike and bike trail.  The race wasn't timed, so it truly was just a fun run.  Suprisingly, there were 750 people at the 5k.  That's a ton of people for a hike and bike trail.  I met up with some of my tri club buddies and fortunately, we all run at about the same pace.  We stuck together for the first 2 miles and then I just had to walk.  So did one other person, so I didn't feel so bad.  And we were both sick.  Still - I can't even make it 3 miles?  Full disclosure: I actually had to walk 3 times in that last mile.  At 2 miles, 2.5 miles, and somewhere way too close to the finish.  The last 0.2 miles is uphill (very mean) and I was trying to push, but that made me feel pukey to the point where my stomach was starting to roll.  And some chick right in front of me lost her breakfast (over a 5k - REALLY?) so I stopped to regain my composure.  My time wasn't awful - 33:03, a 10:36 pace.  Not bad considering I walked 3 times.  Ugh.

I have a lot of squash, spinach, and apples from my CSA.  Its crazy.  So yesterday was "processing day", where I basically get things prepped (or processed) to sleep in the freezer.  I roasted 3 different pumpkins - a pie pumpkin, a cinderella pumpkin, and a long island cheesecake pumpkin.  The pie one only yielded 2 cups.  The long island one yielded probably ~6-8 cups and then became pumpkin-lime-coconut soup (with turkey added in).  The cinderella pumpkin was so huge I had to cook it up in 2 batches.  It yielded 17 cups (!!!) of pureed pumpkin.  Crazy.  Four large bunches of spinach shrank down to fill a large bowl.  And I had 3 medium and 1 large bag of apples.  I bought one of those apple peeler-slicer-corer devices a month ago.  I always thought those were kind of a worthless kitchen item.  That is, until I had a mountain of apples to peel.  This device is the shizzle.  I went to work prepping apples, intending to just chuck them in the freezer.  But then I decided to make a batch of crockpot applesauce.  Holy crap, was it the best applesauce ever.  And it smelled amazing.  And really very heathy for you.  I just took apples (enough to fill the crockpot up 3/4 of the way), 1/2 cup of apple cider, 1/2 cup of agave nectar (although you could use sugar), and a few dashes of cinnamon.  Then put it on high for 8 hours.  Amazingness.

This is the week I will get on the ball and start working out.  I finally registered for the new swim team.  If I pay for it, I will actually show up.  The problem this past month is that I didn't pay for it... which meant I had no motivation to go.  Its going to hurt.  I haven't swam in 2.5 months.  I will also ride my bike on the trainer at least once this week.  And resume lifting weights.  Being sick really put a kink in my "back on the wagon" attempt from 2 weeks ago.

I'm doing a duathlon series - Chilly Cheeks.  First one is this Sunday and go figure, I haven't trained.  The first one is a 4 mile trail run and a 10 mile bike.  Hopefully I can fake my way through.  The second race (in January) consists of a 1.5 mile run,  3.6-mile bike, a 2.5 mile run, 7.2 mile run, and a 50 meter run to the finish line.  Mkay!  The final race (February) is a 10 mile bike and a 4 mile run.  The distances are so very random and conditions could be snowy (they don't cancel due to snow - you just ride your mountain bike) that I really can't justify taking this series very seriously.  So I'm doing it for fun and to ensure that I touch my bike once a month this winter.

I had a really bad dream experience on Sunday morning.  I dreamt that I was on the couch and Ernie was next to me, lounging, purring loudly, letting me love on him and rub his belly.  Then Swift popped up and was on my lap, loving on me.  I was so happy to have both of them - acting just as they used to.  (Ok, maybe Ernie wasn't quite so friendly - but he could be when he wanted to).  Then I rolled over and *poof* the dream was gone.  I was still half asleep and found myself sobbing - ragged painful sobbing.  It was awful.  They were so real and then they were gone.  It was like I lost them all over again. :(

New kitties are adjusting (although, awkward - they were snuggled next to me when I woke up sobbing over my other kitties).  Zipper has run off with Will's heart.  He liked Ernie and Swift, but they were always mine (I had them before we got married).  Zipper has claimed Will and they really love eachother.  She'll jump up on his lap while he works, just to say hi, stays out a few minutes and zooms off to do something else.  They'll play fetch in the mornings for 30 minutes.  She'll sit with him at night while we watch tv. She's very playful but in an innocent and nice sort of way.  She just likes to be where ever the humans are and wants to play all the time.  Gunny is doing better.  He's over his bladder issues that was making him want to pee on anything.  My hope is that the issue was stress related.  He's still really shy but will spend most of his time snoozing on the couch.  He will jump out of his hidey hole (under the coffee table) when I'm around and want me to pet him.  And he'll cuddle on my lap at night.  He's still a scaredy cat, though.  Any new visitors, no matter how friendly, and *poof* he's off hiding under the laundry rack in the laundry room.  Poor guy - hopefully in time he'll mellow out and let our visitors get to know him.

Scalloped potatoes with ham and leeks

I have an overabundance of winter veggies from the CSA.  In particular, squash, potatoes, onions, and leeks.  The squash and potatoes are happily sleeping in my basement until I feel like using them.  The leeks were massive and taking up space in my veggie drawer.  Seriously, these things were as big as my arm.


one of two ginormous leeks.  and to think, last month I got a
small leek and I was actually whining about how small it was.

 One of the cooking blogs I read is Three Many Cooks, and I found this recipe for Creamy Leek Gratin with Garlic Breadcrumbs and Bacon.  I had some ham steaks from the farm and decided that this would make a nice main course for the week.  However, upon slicing up the two massive leeks, I realized that while massive, they were only about half of what I needed for the recipe.  And then I went off-recipe and created something which I consider was WAY tastier.  This was done on the fly and measurements are approximate.  Really, I just used whatever I had lying around.

I'm guessing this makes 6 servings.

Ingredients:

• ~1 lb leeks, sliced
• ~1/2 cup onion, diced
• garlic
• spinach (I used one bunch - next time, I will use 2 bunches)
• 5 fist sized potatoes (they may have been smaller).  Maybe a pound?  Type doesn't matter - I used both russet and red.  Slice thin, no need to peel them.
• ~2 lbs ham, fat removed and cubed
• panko breadcrumbs

Bechamel Sauce
(I think this is a bechamel sauce.... its my version of it anyways)

• 2 T butter
• 2-3 T flour
• milk (really no idea.... 2 cups maybe?)
• half and half (same amount as milk, but really no idea on the quantity.  Also, you could probably just use milk here)
• 8 oz shredded smoked grueyre cheese
• pepper
• 6 oz plain greek yogurt

Steps:

1. Preheat over to 425.
2. Quarter and slice leeks and let soak in 2 water baths to remove dirt and grit.
3. Get a big mixing bowl.  You can layer everything in a casserole dish, but I just dumped everything in a huge bowl, added the sauce, mixed it up well, and dumped it in a pan.
4. Slice potatoes, dice ham and put in mixing bowl.
5. Sautee leeks, garlic, and onion until translucent, about 10 min on medium heat.
6. When done, transfer to bowl, keeping about 1 cup of leeks separate.
7. Sautee spinach.  Honestly, the spinach could be cooked with the leeks.... I just didn't think of adding them until the leeks were almost done.  Add to bowl.
8. Make sauce
• prepare a roux.  Add butter and melt it, then add flour.  Then slowly add the milk, stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps.  Really, you want to add the milk slow.  Once that's combined, add the half and half.
• Bring it up to a warm temperature - you don't want it to boil.  You just need it hot enough to melt the cheese.
• Add ground pepper to taste.
• Add cheesy goodness.  And stir a lot to melt.
• Once the cheese is melted, remove from the heat and add leeks and greek yogurt.  Whisk to incorporate/mix yogurt.  Then I blended it a bit with an immersion blender - although you could totally skip this step. (also, if you don't blend it, you can skip adding leeks to the sauce).  I thought the yogurt was a bit odd, but it added a nice creamy-ness to it and you couldn't tell it was in there.
9. Add sauce to bowl with the rest ingredients and mix to ensure everything is coated.  You want this pretty soupy.
10. Add to casserole dish (I used a 13 x 9 glass dish), coat generously with breadcrumbs
11. Bake in oven for ~45 - 60 min.  It was probably done at 45 minutes, I just wanted to make sure.  Also, after 30 min, check every 15 min or so to ensure your breadcrumbs don't burn.  I had to cover with foil after 45 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and let it sit for ~10 min. 
13. Try not to eat the whole pan.

Horticulture



Sad looking front yard. Ok, maybe it just looks sad to me.

I don't know why, but each time we buy a house (you know, all of two times) the yard sucks.  All the plants still have their nursery tags on them, the plants are mostly kinda junky, and we have tons of empty bedding space.  Also, these houses don't have any mature trees. 

Our current house had only 5 trees - 2 mystery trees that could possibly be cherry trees, one which I was hoping was an apple tree but sadly, its a crappy crab apple tree where the fruit is a good 2" in diameter and makes good throwing weapons for the neighborhood urchins, and 2 austrian pine trees. 

Really pretty crab apple blossoms in mid-May.  Not sure
2 weeks of pretty blossoms is worth 3 months of picking
mini-apples up from your lawn.

NOTHING that would considered be a shade tree. 

The front yard is really horrible.  Ok, I'm exaggerating.  We have a very cute porch and in front of it are very ugly and mis-matched bushes.  There are some sort of juniper/evergreen shrubs combined with these weird pale green leafy bushes (which did turn a very pretty shade of red this fall).  This is completed by generic river rock underlain with weed fabric.  BLAH.  The back yard is slightly better.  We have 2 types of lilacs (I love lilacs), some really fugly ornamental plum bushes (they're very scraggly and we have a TON of them.  And we have some creeping blue juniper (which is ok) in the beds under the plums.  And a stand of aspen - which really are just big weeds.  The weird thing is that there were NO FLOWERS at all in our yard.  How sad is that?

veggie bed.  Strangely, this HUGE space was completely
devoid of plants.  Also see aspens behind it.



We bought the house in May but then had IMTX to contend with.  Which meant no time for the new house until June.  Which was too late to do anything substantial to the yard.  We did install a 5 x 8 ft raised vegetable bed.  Planted a ton of herbs (peppermint, 3 types of basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro), eggplant, zucchini, japanese cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, green peppers, butternut squash, mini-canteloupe, strawberries, and spaghetti squash.  I think it was just too late to plant anything, because for the most part, the garden was a collossal flop.  We managed to have nice herbs (although the cilantro died nearly right away - I never have luck with that stuff).  We got 3 lemon cucumbers, 2 japanese cucumbers, and a whoppiong 2 zucchini.  So weird.  I did get one decent sized spaghetti squash but when I picked it, it was fairly green and watery on the inside.  Ick.  And we did get a few tiny strawberries.  

Sad little cukes....

They were small, but actually SUPER tasty.  All I can say is THANK GOODNESS for my CSA and the weekly veggie deliveries.  Otherwise, it would have been a sad, veggie-free summer.

I also ordered a ton of plants from Spring Hill Nursery.  Huge disappointment.  They arrived as little plants, and I think by the time they got in the ground (mid-June) was was too hot and we were too far into the growing season for them to do anything.  Also: Will decided to "weed" some areas with a shovel and killed several of them.  Boo.

After about a month of being in the house, we knew that we needed some real trees.  Our living room / kitchen / bedroom face west with big windows.  Western sun + nothing to block the sun = HOT rooms.  Seriously, in the past 15 years, WHY did no one plant a real tree for shade?!?!?!?  Also, our house in situated on a corner and our back yard faces the front door and driveway of our perpendicular neighbor.  Fortunately, they don't have windows on that side of the house so its not like we're starring at each other.  Still, I really don't want to be aware of their house features.  So in late June, we ordered a HUGE (probably 20 ft tall) autumn blaze maple.  This thing will get

Maple tree. Small green shrubs were the existing lilacs.

to ~50 feet tall and should provide awesome summer shade.  We also got a baby blue eyes spruce and a vanderwolf pine.  Picking pine trees for this area was a bit tricky, because we didn't want the trees to be wide but we wanted them to be fairly tall.  Hopefully these trees will do what we need them to do.

Summer went by and we didn't really do anything with the yard.  In August, we came back from Idaho with some irises from grandma's yard. I also got some seeds from some ornamental poppies and hollyhocks that went to seed in the yard.  (I totally forgot about these until now... hmmmm).  Then my mom found some random guy who had "award winning" irises that he had split up and was giving away.  Apparently these things are expensive and lovely.  So we planted a TON of irises in the outskirts of the yard.

right to left - vanderwolf pine, baby blue eyes spruce,
austrian pine.  With icky scraggly plums in between.

  And hopefully in a few years, we'll have iris flowers.  Oh, and we got some hops from Will's grandparent's mountain cabin.  They were growing, but the bunnies ate the leaves off.  They now are surrounded by chicken wire.  Maybe next year we'll have hops for beer?

Its fall now and has snowed 3 times.  Fall is the time to plant bulbs, so you have a pretty spring. And once they're planted, you typically don't have to do anything with them for years to come.  They just do their own thing and come back every year.  When I lived in Houston, the first year we had a house I planted something like 150 bulbs. Most of them came up.  But over the following years, I'd say that maybe half came back, then half of that half, then soon, nothing.  Something to do with a lack of a hard freeze, bulbs rotting, crappy soil. Simply not worth the effort. But in Colorado, bulbs do great!  So I ordered some daffodills, tulips. hyacinths, grape hyacinths, and alliums.  And for the garden I got garlic.  We got some garlic in August from the CSA and it was some of the BEST garlic I'd ever had.  Small bulbs but they packed a punch.  A coworker told me about this garlic internet "farm" where you could order seed bulbs, so I got a small garden pack, containing 0.25 lb amounts of four different types of garlic.  I've never planted garlic before, so this whole thing will be an experience.  Apparently, you have to break up the garlic into individual cloves and plant each clove separately.  You want the big cloves, as they determine the size that your garlic will be at maturity.  So I got to work splitting up the cloves.  It was weird because it just looked like a bulb of garlic that you buy at the store.  Still not sure why these were special "seed" garlics, but whatever.  So after they were split up, I counted the cloves and we had over 60.  Which means I could have 60 heads of garlic next summer.  Good thing we're not vampires or we'd be in trouble.  Also: holy crap, that's a lot of garlic.  I didn't want to take up space in the raised garden bed, but the soil surrounding the bed is pretty good.  So I picked 4 distinct areas for each variety and planted those.  I probably should have planted them a month ago, but I didn't.  Hopefully they'll survive.  We shall see.

This spring, I would like to re-do the area in front of the front porch.  That means getting rid of those crappy ugly bushes that don't do anything and replacing them with other things.  I'm thinking miniature pines or spruces with maybe a flowering shrub.  This area faces to the north, so it could be tricky.  And I'd also like to get some potted flowers for the front porch - to make things cheery.  I also want to get into this area by our dining room.  Its a deep corner of the yard and it has 3 VERY scraggly plum bushes.  (can you tell I hate those things?)  We have at least 7 of those damn things and they really don't do anything at all.  Instead, I would love to do a cute xeriscaped area or maybe a rock garden.  Of course, this will depend on my training for the Boise HIM and how much time I feel like spending on a part of the yard that I don't see very often.  And we're going to start veggies inside and move them into the yard in ~April.  Two months earlier than this year.  Not certain what I want to plant, but I do know I want more basil, would like to try cukes and squash again, and I definitely want to grow romanesco squash (its like zucchini but so much tastier!).  We are thinking that we planted too late and our plants just couldn't get a good start in life, thus the very poor production.  I may also do some spring crops like lettuce and things. 

So that's the plan for next year.  We're still at least a good couple of summers away from things looking really nice, but its a good start.

Oh hai there

Wow, October kind of went and knocked me on my ass.  In the past month, all this happened:

Adjusting to life with two new cats, Zipper (~6 months) and Gunnison (Gunny, ~4 years).  Zipper is crazy, in a sweet kitten sort of way.  She rarely sits still.  She runs in all 3 dimensions, ala The Matrix, banking off of furniture and walls.  Gunny is really shy still and has a chronic bladder inflamation issue. Soooo, we've been working through that.  I think he's been feeling better, though, as he's been more social and cuddly.  Also: now that its cold, they both sleep with us at night.  Yay.


They were not cage-mates at the shelter.  Oddly enough, they really like each other.

Half marathon was fun.  Somehow, I was only 3 minutes slower than my PR, with about half as much training.  Goooo IM training base!  I ended up running with my tri-club friend Steph.  We were chatting and some girl behind us said she was listening in and figured we were tri-dorks (my words, not hers).  Turns out she's training for IMTX 2012, so we had many miles of conversation.  Sadly, though, at mile 10, my legs/body definitely felt the lack of training.  I ran 10 miles 6 weeks earlier, and that was my longest run since May.  Also: consuming less than 1 full gel (because of stomach issues) was probably a problem.  At mile 10 I tried to push and just couldn't.  The really sad part was that the last mile was all downhill.  Again, I tried to push and nope, there was nothing in the tank.  Afterwards, we (as a club) went to two bars.  Steph celebrated by doing a tequilla shot and push-up.  Some of our club people did the full marathon, and at mile 14, they did a keg stand.  Impressive.  And also a tiny bit scary.

So we saw the photographer and tried to run and take a group photo.  This is what that looked like.  Cracks me up everytime I look it.  Its like Steph is trying to kill me or something.

Our 12th wedding anniversary was on the 16th.  We went up to Steamboat for a long weekend. Did some hiking and some beer drinking.  Had a nice dinner out.  The fall colors were amazing.  The weekend was a bit low-key though, as Will's grandmother died on the 14th.

Fish Creek Falls.  Will is convinved that I try to kill him on our anniversaries, because we always go hiking.  Hiking = sweating a ton for Will.  Its kinda funny.

So yeah, Will's grandmother passed and we flew up on the 21st for her funeral.  Grandpa (her husband) passed in February and she was actually more worn down more than he was.  In July, she asked to be placed in assisted living.  In August, we spent a week in Idaho, mainly to say goodbye for her.  In the week leading up to her funeral, I barely even cried.  I think its because we already said our goodbye.  But then the day of the funeral, wow.  Major tears.  I was ok during the funeral (it was fairly heavy on religion* and I spent most of the time thinking just how very strange religion is.  One of the sermons likened a wife to a supply ship.  For reals.)  Then afterwards, I went to look at a quilt they had out on display - one of her best ones.  Then I lost it.  People kept trying to talk to me and I was trying (and failing) to not cry, so I just bolted out the church and down the street a few blocks.  If I had my running shoes, I honestly would have ran for a few miles just to clear my head.  UGH.

Grandparents on their wedding day - some 66 years ago.

After the funeral, the cousins went to a local (awful) winery for wine and shuffleboard.  Wine was bad but it was nice to have some fun.  After the winery, we gathered back at the ranch to scatter grandpa's ashes in the meadow across from him home.  So sad.  But really nice too.  We probably spent 2 hours in that meadow, drinking Squirt and Crown Royal (grandpa's drink of choice), sharing memories and stories of them.  After that, the Aunts had taken what remained in the grandparent's house and set it up, sort-of like a garage sale.  They invited us all over, asking us to take what we wanted, and said that anything that was left would go to Goodwill.  I was really weirded out by everyone looking over their trinkets and things.  That, and I'm generally not good with crowds.  So I went upstairs and found grandma's fabric room.  I started looking through her things and found what I consider the lottery.  Grandma was a master quilter.  I *covet* her quilts.  Will's mom pointed out a box, which contained the last quilt that grandma made.  Its not complete - but all it needs is the back sewn on and for it to be quilted.  Its cream and purple and beautiful.  I also found a hand-quilted unfinished one (needs a border, backing, and quilting) with grandma's notes on how to finish it, saying it was for charity.  Um no, this one will not be going to charity.  I also found a zip-lock bag full of random finished squares - without instructions.  My mom is an amazing sewer, and I figured if anyone could help me with this, its her.  Also, suprisingly, no one wanted grandma's sewing machine.  Its one of those old metal ones (electric) that folds down inside a wooden cabinet.  I think I'll have to learn how to sew....  Will got one of grandpa's tool boxes, since he spent quite a bit of his childhood and teen years working with grandpa on the ranch.  It was a really sad day, but also a really good day.


Grandpa's favorite tractor - June 2010

Also while up in Idaho, I got to ride a horse (yay!) and moved cattle around on 4-wheeler.  The terrain for the 4-wheeler was really hilly with dry streambeds (and steep drop-offs) and really thick sagebrush.  I was kicking ass dodging sagebrush and going up and down hills, until I got to a mini-ravine, and freaked out.  I couldn't figure a good way down, then the 4-wheeler started sliding sideways (breaks didn't really work).  It felt like it was going to roll sideways (on me), so I chucked myself off of it.  Somehow I landed flat on my back in the streambed, missing all rocks and bushes.  LUCKY.  I did get a minor case of whiplash (my neck HURT) and my back was sore.  And I freaked Will out - he was on the hill watching all of this.  And I freaked myself out.  Riding back on dirt rutted roads, I would spaz at the tiniest bump that sent the 4-wheeler off course.  *sigh*

We've also had 3 snowstorms. And I've lifted weights twice.  Still haven't been swimming, biking, or running.  hmmm.

* I am not religious in the slightest, so religion in general is really awkward and weird for me.

A bit lost but trying to find my way

I used to be so motivated.  Check out my workout stats in the right side of this blog - I've barely done  anything lately.  It took a while, but I think I've finally hit burnout.  Maybe crash and burn style burnout.  After ~15 months of always having something to train for, I really have nothing on my calendar.  Or rather, anything that I care enough about to take seriously.*

Seriously.... sad stuff here.  Especially the swimming.

I'm just tired.  I have really icky peely rough skin around my rib cage from who knows how many hours of wearing my heart rate monitor.  Seriously, its gross.  My feet still get achy easily from IMTX.  And my calves are fubared.  So messed up that, after running with what I'm going to call "shin splints"** since February, I finally went to get physical therapy a few weeks back.  That therapy involved very painful massage and even more fun - sticking acupuncture needles into my trigger points (muscles) and letting my muscles convulse around the needle.  Good times!

I want/need a break.  However, I'm also gaining weight.  Rather, I suspect I am because I feel blah and pudgy - getting my actual weight would require me to go to the gym.  This is bad.  I also don't want to lose the muscle that I worked sooo hard for this spring.  What to do.. what to do.

Moving forward, I think that once I get through the Denver RnR half marathon this weekend, I'm putting up my running shoes for at least a month.  Probably should have done that in June. 

I also think I'm going to lift weights at the gym at work 2x a week.  One of my "winter" activities was supposed to be weight lifting.  Something I totally forgot about until maybe February then ditched completely.  This winter I will lift weights so I can ride my bike up these Colorado hills more easily.

 I'm also going to enjoy winter*** and get myself a season pass to some ski areas.  I will then go skiing as often as I feel like it and not feel guilty.  (although, training for Boise 70.3 will get interesting.... I have to start riding in February or March). 

I will also join a new swim team and actually go to practice.  For the first time since 2007, I've been "swim-homeless".  The team I'm going to join is far from perfect, but I will have friends on the team, which says a lot in keeping me motivated in going.  There's a lot to be said for having people keep you accountable.  Which is a big part of why I'm so blah lately - no accountability. 

I'm also going to TRY and make myself get up early and hit spin class once a week at the rec center.  Also, for the past month, I have not woken up any earlier than 6:30 AM.  That's right - no morning runs or swims.  A few times I've set the alarm, but then realized the air temp was below 50 and decided it was too cold and I would be happier asleep in my bed.  Need to work on that, as it was 37 this morning (brrr!) and it will only be getting colder.

So that's the plan (sort-of).  We'll see if it sticks.

* I have a half marathon on Sunday.  Normally that would motivate me to train for it.  This time though, I really don't care about my race time or splits or anything.  All I care about is drinking beer with my friends when the race is over.  I just hope my IM fitness will help me through it, because my running volume in the past month sure as hell won't.  Also: how jaded and sad am I when a half marathon isn't a big deal anymore?!?!

** "shin splints" is code for I may have a stress fracture but I don't actually want to think about it or find out for sure that I have a stress fracture.  Smart, huh!

*** Enjoyment of winter is skiing often with no Ironman in my way.  Also, enjoyment means no running in the snow (or when its below 20 degrees) and definitely NO BIKE RIDING IN THE SNOW AND COLD.  Really, I see snow reports coming in and I want to cry.  I am so scarred for life from training outside last winter.  I think I've got IM-training PTSD.  I used to love winter, now the thought of snow makes me cringe.  Hopefully skiing will fix this. If not, I'm in trouble.

Salsa Verde Chicken with Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings

I love the website The Pioneer Woman (and her associated site, Tasty Kitchen). One day, at the bottom of the Tasty Kitchen page, I noticed a link for a cookbook for Perfect One-Dish Dinners.  I clicked on the link, which took me to Amazon.  After reading a few of the sample recipes, I knew I wanted to give this book a try.

This recipe was one of the featured ones on Amazon.  It was crazy-easy to make.  Seriously.  Mostly chopping up some herbs, mixing things, and opening some cans.  It took about 30 minutes to cook.  Will said that this was easily one of the best things I've ever made.  As a bonus, the "dumplings" (which are more like drop biscuits that you put on top of the chicken/sauce mixture) would easily be very tasty bisciuts on their own, as a compliment to another dinner.

From the cookbook:

Courtesy of Amazon / Perfect One-Dish Dinners.  Mine did not look quite so pretty.

Serves 6
This stew can be made 2 days ahead up to the point of making the dumplings. Reheat it before topping and baking. If you want to double the recipe, use a large heavy roasting pan set over two burners.

Ingredients:

For the Chicken
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth
1 jar (16 ounces) salsa verde (2 cups)
1 can (5 ounces) evaporated milk
1 large rotisserie chicken, meat deboned and left in large chunks (about 6 cups)
Erin note: I also added some swiss chard (because I got tons from the farm share).  It was really good and added some veggies and color.  Spinach (or something similar) would also be good.

For the Dumplings
1 cup whole milk (I used 1%)
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion greens
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions:

For the Chicken
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees (for the dumplings).
2. Heat butter over medium-high heat in a large (11 to 12-inch), deep ovenproof sauté pan or 5-to 6-quart Dutch oven.
3. Whisk in flour to make a paste.
4. Mix broth, salsa verde, and evaporated milk and whisk in all at once. Whisk, vigorously at first, until mixture simmers and thickens to sauce consistency.
5. Stir in chicken, heat through and cover to keep warm.

For the Dumplings
1. Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan until steamy.
2. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, scallions, and cilantro in a medium bowl with a fork. Stir in milk mixture to form a smooth, firm dough.
3. Pinch off Ping-Pong-ball-size pieces of dough with your fingers and drop onto chicken mixture.
4. Return chicken to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cover and transfer pan to oven and bake until dumplings are cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve.

Erin Note - I don't have a dutch oven, so I used a regular skillet (which can go into the oven) but quickly realized that the poor little skillet was no match for how much food this was.  After preparing the chicken on the stove in the skillet, I poured it into an 11 x 9 glass baking pan, then added the dumplings.  Then it all went into the oven for 15 minutes.

Swift - 1995-2011

I really don't recommend losing both of your kitties within two weeks of each other. :(

Swift kitty was really about the sweetest and prettiest kitty around.  We got her at the Butte, MT pound for a whopping $10, where they thought she was a boy and 2-3 months old.  Hmmm.  Immediately, she was very loving and affectionate.  The roomates and I were kicking around the name Valentine - that's how affectionate she was.  She was also crazy.  I don't know if it was from her hard time on the heavy-metal laden streets of Butte or if she was happy to have room to run, but she spent most of her time zooming up and down the stairs of our duplex.  She zoomed around so much, we decided to name her Swift.  Swift was also a bit crazy.  She liked to run up and bite the ankles of random people, then run away.  Not cool.  She was so crazy that we actually debated her future as our collective kitty, but then one fall day, Ernie was left with us, and she became incredibly sweet.  I guess she just needed another cat to act all her agressions on, although usually, Ernie was the agressor and she was the victim.

Ernie claimed me and Swift had claimed my roommate.  So much so, that when Brandee would leave to go to class, Swift would sit in the window and cry as she walked down the street.  Swift really only liked Brandee - whenever I tried to pick her up, all I got was growling and hissing.  Ok!  Then, in May 1997, Brandee got married to someone who was not a cat-lover.  She offered to find Swift a new home, but I figured, two cats aren't much more work/money than one cat, and Swift and Ernie got along really well.  It was decided that Swift would stay with me.  And then Swift became my shadow.

Swift was affectionate to the point of being incredibly annoying.  When I came home from work, she would run up to the door to greet me and then follow me around the house.  As soon as I sat down, she was on my lap, sometimes without me even realizing it.  She looooved Will (much to his annoyance, although I think he secretly loved it).  Will could get her to do these drunken-love flops on the bed, on command.  He'd say "roll over" and point to the bed.  Swift would drunkenly flop sideways and roll over.  Very cute.

As much as Ernie didn't want to acknowledge humans, Swift was the opposite.  She was very social and friendly.  Occasionally talkative, mostly at food time.  She was actually very annoying at food time with her incessant meowing.  It was so annoying that we would lock her in the spare bathroom - aka "kitty jail" - so we wouldn't have to listen to her demands.

Swift was always my sleep buddy.  At night, she would curl up on my hip and spend the whole night there.  For naps, she was really weird and liked to sleep under the covers.  She would paw at the sheet near your head until she got her way, and then happily curl up under the covers somewhere near my feet.  A few times Ernie figured out her hiding spot and attacked her from the top of the covers.  Good times.

In June 2010, right after I signed up for IMTX, Swift was diagnosed with high blood pressure and probable pancreatits and/or lymphoma.  Her once beautiful fluffy fur was greasy and she wasn't eating and was down from 12 lbs to 8 lbs.  The prognosis was uncertain.  Some kitties lived a long time with this, others didn't.  Only time (and a lot of vitamin B-12 injections) would tell. 

Swift was my nap buddy.  I loved to come home after a long (early) run or a race, grab her, and take a nap for a few hours.  I knew that with my IMTX training that I would be taking a lot of naps and would NEED her.  There was just something about her being there, lying on me, that made me go to sleep.  It was our routine.  I needed that routine for my training.  I remember holding her up to eye-level, looking her in the eye, and telling her that she HAD to live through IMTX because I would be needing my nap buddy a lot.  She held me to my word.  The literal day I returned from IMTX, she started to decline even more.  Her digestive system wasn't working well and she wasn't absorbing nutrients - her weight was down to 5.75 lbs.  Even while she was getting sicker, she was still very cheerful and cuddly.  Finally, about 1.5 weeks after we lost Ernie, her breathing became labored and finally we knew that she would not be around anymore as the cancer had likely spread into her lungs.  She had a great life and my naps aren't the same without her.

Nicknames:

• Swifter
• Rooster
• Swifter-roo
• Princess (when we were feeling sarcastic)

Favorite things:

• She really didn't care much for toys, but she LOVED shoelaces.  She loved us to play "fish" with her, us holding one end and she'd grab the other.  She also just loved carrying the thing around.  Frequently, we'd go to sleep with the shoelace in one room and wake up to find it in another room.
• She LOVED catnip.  The first time we gave her catnip, she actually managed to cup it in her front paws and throw it up in the air like confetti.  She would act 10 times of crazy for about 5 minutes and then pass out in a catnip-induced haze.
• Laps.  She just loved to cuddle.

Randomness:

• She was pretty dingy.  I swear, there would be times where she would be in one part of the house, freak out thinking we weren't home and start wailing.  Also, whenever it was time to put her in kitty jail, sometimes she'd run, but 8 times out of 10, she'd hunker down in the center of the room, like she was hiding into the floor.  Yes, the brown floor will hide a white cat.  Sure.....
• We had issues of her peeing in her carrier on long road trips. The first time was in 1997, when I moved back to college from my internship.  I was in the middle of nowhere, MT when it happened.  I hauled her into a gas station restroom to wash her up, only there was no sink the bathroom - just a utility sink between the bathrooms.  I got a lot of weird looks as I bathed a yowling kitty.  Second time was on our way home after evacuating to Denver from Hurricane Rita.  One hour into our 17 hr drive back to Houston, just as we were about to get on I-70 at Limon, she got very meowy.  We pulled over to give her a tranquilizer, only to find out that she was really trying to tell us something important.  So, here we were with a cat with pee-soaked legs and tail on a dirt pull off, at sunrise, with wind and semi trucks BLOWING past us on the way to I-70.  All we had were Starbucks napkins and bottled water.  She freaked out and I was going to lose her, so I held her to the ground, which resulted in a cat with now MUDDY pee-coated paws.  We had to smell cat pee the 16 hrs home.  The final time was moving to Denver, just outside of Limon (what is it with Limon?!).  Only this time I knew the signs and pulled over to a rest stop.  Not in time to prevent the accident, but at least she didn't get covered in pee.  The air temperature was -15.  I was cleaning Swift up, Will was outside trying to clean up the carrier with paper towels (we learned) only the pee was freezing in the -15 air.  Fun times!
• The summer I had an internship in Wyoming, I had a 2nd story apartment with a patio.  I'd let the kitties roam on the patio.  One day, Swift twirled around the iron fencing on the corner, lost her footing, and fell to the grass below.  I tore downstairs to get her, and she was happily relaxing on the grass.
• She loved to roll on concrete, the hotter and dirtier the better.
• She really did love to go outside.  Most of the time she was supervised (except for when we sold our Houston house and the dumb selling agent let her escape outside....).  Occasionally she would try to run off.  One time, she and Ernie somehow coordinated things, so that Ernie misbehaved and distracted us as she bolted off.
  

  

  Taken on that same Feb 1996 day with Ernie's snow shots.  That's the duplex neighbor's dog in the window.



1996 - Will and Swift





laser eyes (and James)





So, Ernie was orange and was naturally ready for Halloween.  We thought Swift was missing out on the fun, so we dressed her in an orange t-shirt.  She really didn't like this very much.





Kitteh in a box!





roaming in the grass






Pretty typical view at night watching TV, with Swift lying on my chest.






Swift acting as Quality Control when Will works from home. 






More QC support for Will. She would often rest her paws/head on his mouse arm.






Ernie and Swift, 1995





Swift had BEAUTIFUL blue eyes but for some reason, they were really hard to capture in a photo.  This is one of the few which really show off how pretty she was.





more torture, in the name of Stuff on My Cat . com  she was unamused.

Ernie - 1995-2011

Its been 5 weeks since we lost Ernie.  I'm getting better (the first week was ROUGH) but I sure do miss him.

Ernie came to us very randomly.  I lived with 2 other girls in a 2 story duplex.  Swift was really insane and she needed a buddy.  A friend of my evil roommate had Ernie and "couldn't keep him because he wasn't supposed to have pets".  (isn't that something you should check on before you get a pet?).  The guy's roommates throught Ernie was too hyper, so they'd put him in a box and blow pot smoke in the box to chill him out.  Poor kitty sneezed for a year and had what I call the "perma-munchies".  The guy came by on a Friday, was supposed to check in on Monday to see how things were working, but he never came back.  I was fairly indifferent to cats.  My roommates wanted a cat, I had an iguana.  But Ernie had different plans - he chose me as my human and stole my heart.  (just typing this is making me cry again - UGH).  Ernie was tiny when we got him - maybe 6 weeks old and so small he'd stand in the palm of your hand.  He grew to be a big monster kitty - weighing 15 lbs at his heaviest.  He was obstinant, crabby, stand-off-ish, hungry, a pain in the ass, but he could also be sweet, and warm, and gave me kisses on demand.  He was very much an "on my own terms" type of cat - pretty much wanting to be left alone until he decided to grace the humans with his prescence.  That, or if you had food, he was your best friend.  At least until the food went away.  Even though he preferred to be left alone, he was very tolerant of my affections.  He'd let me flip him over to smother his belly in kisses, pet him on demand, hold him upside-down.  Once he started growling, I'd play kitty-bagpipes (growling edition) by squeezing him.  He would eventually have enough (and boy, you would KNOW it), but generally, he put up a front of a tough kitty but was really a big teddy bear of a cat.

Ernie didn't meow (unless he was in the car, and then it was the most pathetic, mournful meow).  He chirped and squeaked.  Especially around dinner time, where anytime we would stand up, he'd take off for the kitchen (where the food was locked up) and made sort of a peeling out (like a car) chirping noise. 

Most of the time he didn't acknowledge humans, unless I'd hurt myself.  I'm clumsy and it was not unusual for me to drop something on my foot or walk into a wall.  I'd invariably do something, drop to the floor yelling in pain.  Will would ignore me.  Ernie would come running, looking very concerned, to make sure I was ok.

He loved all things food and was such a pain in the ass that we couldn't leave food out in the open.  Even if it was in plastic or in tupperware.  He would actually try (and sometimes succeed) in eating through the tupperware to get to the food.  No food item was safe, even for a short amount of time.  I can't even begin to say how many times I was cooling muffins on the stove to find little Ernie-munch marks in the tops of them - while they were still hot.

Ernie hated little kids until a few years ago.  Hated them to the point where he'd just hide under the bed.  One night we were babysitting for a friend and were having dinner in the kitchen.  It was also kitty-dinner time.  Poor Ernie, as much as he loved food, he REALLY hated kids - and his dinner was in the kitchen with the kids.  He really couldn't decide between eating or running.  It was pretty funny.

Ok, enough stories, although there are 16 years of them.  Just a few more random things about him and some pictures.

Nicknames:

• Ernie-monster
• Ernesto (when we were feeling Latin)
• Bug (his first nickname)
• Bugger
• Rat
• Raccoon (he had a racoon tail and had very raccoon-like traits when it came to food)
• Boo

Favorite things:

• sunbeams - he LOVED to lie belly up in the sun
• blankets which were orange
• food, especially squash (seriously, he'd go crazy for squash).  But really, he just loved food.
• Body slamming Swift
• acting as a paper weight.  Really, any loose paper or bag around on the floor and he was ON IT, holding it down.

Randomness:

• He would never cuddle or sleep with us until wintertime.  I guess he was cold.  So at night, around 8:30 (or after dinner), he'd decide to cuddle on me for about an hour or so, until he got too warm.  I'd go to bed and wake up at some point in the night with a very large cat sprawled across my chest (back toes at my chin).  If you acknowlegded his presence by petting him, he would leave, only to come back when you were asleep again.  ("do not let the humans know I need them!"
• One time I had a dream that a snake was biting my toe.  Turned out it was Ernie.  I kicked the "snake" in my sleep and sent him flying.  Oops.
• During our last move (from Houston to Denver) he did NOT like our Oklahoma hotel.  AT ALL.  He was fine on the drive but when we got to the hotel - wow.  Unhappy cat.  He growled non-stop.  Walking around - growl.  Eating - growling WHILE eating.  Peeing in the litter box - growling while he did his thing.  He hopped up on the bed to be near us, but wouldn't let us touch him.  Poor guy.  Fortunately he was better when we got to Denver.  Maybe he just didn't like Oklahoma?
• Repeatedly, the vet lectured me about his weight.  Poor guy was on diet food.  What was I supposed to do next, put him on a treadmill?
• He loved catnip toys - so much that I had to put a playing time limit on him.  If he went longer than 5 minutes, his toy would be gutted, catnip extracted.
• He fetched, although not on command.  This started when he was a kitten, I tossed a milk ring and he fetched it.  At least once a week for most of his life, we'd play fetch.  Our Houston house had a long tile hallway, which was perfect for fetching.  Early morning was usually good for fetch, although he would also decide that my bedtime was good too.
• He had the BEST PURR EVER.  Very loud, easy to start.  And when he was very happy, he would get this high-pitched squeak to his purr.

I'm glad that he chose me as his human. :)

Feb 1996 - Ernie was maybe 6 months old.  We just had our typical week where it never got above zero degrees, and this day was sunny and in the 20's.  It was a wonderful day.  For some reason, we thought it would be amusing to take the kitties out in the snow.

wiggly kitties- Feb 1995

Feb 1995

Houston - June 1998.  Ernie and Sumo

My favorite photo of Ernie.  This captured how he would look at me

How can you resist a belly like this??

typical monorail cat pose

cat-skin rug

classic sunbeam pose

sprawl

more napping sprawl

Race Report - Fall Frenzy Sprint Triathlon

This was my first (and only) sprint of 2011 - weird!

I signed up for this one mainly because it was 4 miles from my house.  Meaning: there was no excuse not to do it, since I could ride my bike to and from the race.  When I signed up, some weird flags went off in my head about the race organization, but I signed up anyways.  The swim was a 500 yard pool swim, so they asked that you provide your estimated time.  I wasn't sure how this was going to go, so I was fairly honest (but agressive) and I put down 8:10.  Turns out, they group you in heats by your (self) seeded number and you swim together as a group.  Soooo, if people weren't honest, it would lead to a bunch of frustration (on my part).  Also, they (for whatever reason - I guess so everyone finishes together?) have the slow swimmers go first, which means that I started towards the end of the race.   They did have a fast lane option, which was dedicated for the whole event, but you had to be able to swim 7:30 or faster.  In all honesty, even when I'm on my swim game, I don't think I could swim a 7:30, so I was just hoping I'd get a decent group.

I went to the pre-race meeting (actually I accidentally timed my packet pick-up at the start of the meeting, and we parked poorly, as in we parked right in the middle of the meeting and felt bad leaving when the meeting was going).  Soo, the race details got even more icky.  Apparently they take ~25 people around your proposed swim time and put you into a wave.  And then it was up to YOU while you're standing around waiting for your wave to find 4 other like-minded swimmers to swim with.  The race started at 7 AM - my wave was at 9:25.  UGH.  Apparently there were a ton of people seeded to swim the 500 yards in 23-25 minutes.  I can't even imagine how you could take so long swimming that.  I mean, that's almost 1 minute PER 25.  I think you would water-walk it faster than that.

So, I guess in an effort to make things nice for the later racers, transition never closed.  Typically in a race, transition closes ~30 min before the race starts.  That way, you don't have people mulling around haphazardly while people are running to and from their bikes.  An open transition meant that people could come and go as they please.  So, as I am leisurely setting up my bike, racers are running to and fro.  This did NOT sounds like a good idea to me.  Honestly, if I hadn't paid money, I may have decided on Saturday not to race.  Instead, I decided to suck it up and to try and go FAST.  I was secretly hoping for a podium spot, since I knew a bunch of speedy people were racing long at other races that day.  Based on past recent races, I should have some speed and I should be able to post a pretty decent time.

Pre-Race
I set my alarm for 7 AM, woke up at 6:45.  I haven't slept in that late for a race since Boise 2010, which had a 2 PM start.  I leisurely dinked around the house for an hour then hopped on my bike and rode 4 miles to the race start.  I forgot my jacket in the garage and it was COLD.  That was the one good thing about starting later in the morning - riding my bike soaking wet out of the swim in 50 degree temperatures would be CHILLY.

I showed up to transition and it was really weird.  Most people had their areas set up and there were a few empty spots left.  You had to be very careful with where you racked you bike because in some cases, it was very hard to tell if the place was already taken.  A lot of the slower people were newbies and don't use cycling shoes.  Sometimes all you'd see in an "open" rack was a hat or maybe a bag - no running shoes, since they were using their running shoes on the bike.  Really weird.  I ended up finding a decent spot with a good amount of room and then marked my rack with hot pink duct tape, since I knew everything would look alike when I came into T2.

I then went and got my bike number (because they weren't in yet during packet pick-up!), got body marked (numbers were placed on my arms like normal, but also down the front of my shins :/ ), then I headed to the pool to see what the deal was.  It was around 8:30 and I had almost an hour to go.  I was very aware that things were going to get warmer the longer I waited so I scoped out the fast lane. 

Fast Lane: We will have a fast lane once again this year. In order to swim in this lane, you must have a swim time of 7:30 or faster AND be able to do flip turns. If you do not meet these qualifications and swim in the fast lane, you will be assessed a 5 minute penalty. Once we have moved through all the fast swimmers, we will open it up to the current heat the rest of the pool is on to speed things up. The fast lane will run from 8:00-9:30a.m.

People's race numbers were in reverse order of swim time (slower people had lower numbers).  I was watching the fast lane and there wasn't a line of swimmers waiting to swim, and they weren't getting 5 swimmers at once to swim.  Also, by around 8:45, the swimmers didn't appear to be all that fast.  It didn't seem to me that they weren't really enforcing the 7:30 pace rule, which meant I might be able to sneak into the fast lane. I began polling people with numbers similar to mine: "do you do flip turns?" EVERY single person said no.  So, my hope of finding a group of people around my pace to sneak into the fast lane was dashed.  No flip turns is a SURE sign that you don't belong.  (I still don't understand WHY you wouldn't do flip turns!?!?).  The current group of fast lane swimmers was nearing the end and I noticed that there were only 2 guys waiting around.  I went over there and talked to them.  Turns out they needed a 3rd swimmer so they could start the swim.  They were faster than I was (one guy was about 7:15, the other guy had no idea), so we arranged a swim order and I snuck in.  Success!

Swim
They had the 3 of us get in the water together, and they started us ~10 seconds apart.  For whatever reason, we decided I should go second in our group of 3.  This was my first non-tech-assisted swim of the year (meaning no wetsuit or speedsuit).  It was also my first time swimming in my Team SONY kit.  I did my first flip turn and *poof*. It turns out, my SONY tri shorts turn into a parachute during flip turns.  Lovely....   My swimming hasn't been great lately - my current team doesn't believe in swimming longer than 125 meters.  The longest I've swam since May is 200 meters, which is my cool down.  I haven't swam 500 yards straight since May and it showed!  The guy behind me passed me maybe halfway through.  He tapped my foot and I paused on the wall to let him by.  Then at maybe 350 yards, the first guy lapped me, but again, he was nice about it, tapped me, and I paused at the wall to let him by.  All this pausing killed my swim time though.  Blech.  Still, it was better than me trying to pass people, knowing that most male triathlete guys have huge egos and don't let people pass easily.  Normally, I like to descend my swim races, but I could tell I was fading.  I tried to keep my kick strong, but my arms and my breathing were no where near as strong as I like them to be.  Still, I finished ok and the guy who started behind me (who passed me) was still in the water when I touched the wall, so I couldn't have been too far behind.

The other lame thing about this swim is that they have you start at the far end of the pool, so once you're done, you hop out and run all the way around the pool (no running on the pool deck!) to get to the swim exit.  And THEN you hit the mat.  So who really knows what my swim time was.

"Swim" time : 8:55 (seeded for 8:10)

Age Group: 4/38
Overall: 54/333


T1
They had you exit the indoor pool, run across a lawn to a parking lot, then you ran down the road adjacent to the parking lot and THEN you got up to transition.  It was maybe 200 meters or so of jogging?  Watching people (newbies mostly) made for some good entertainment.  Many people stashed clothes at the pool exit on the lawn and they were putting on shoes and clothes there instead of actually in transition.

I hit the door and kept my pace a nice fast jog.  As I was on the grass I heard a "Go Erin!" but I have no idea who was yelling it.  Still, it was nice to hear my name :) 

The rest of transition wasn't too exciting, just lots of quick jogging and grabbing my stuff.  Transition was in a soccer field which is always interesting.  Grass on your feet and in your socks.  And grass/mud in your cycling shoe cleats. 

T1: 2:40.4
Age Group 7/38

Bike
When clipping in, I start with my right, pedal some, then clip in my left.  Right foot was no problem, as I was smart and arranged the pedal properly for a quick clip-in.  I somehow missed my left pedal twice.  Each time, my foot slipped and the pedal smacked against my ankle and shin, making some pretty sweet bruises!  No idea if I had mud/grass in my cleat, if I was just rushing too much, or if I was just being a dumbass.  Finally, third time was a charm and I got into left pedal.

The start of the bike was a bit strange.  Instead of being on roads, we were on the paved hike/bike trail, which had lots of sharp corners and turns.  Its also quite bumpy (due to concrete seams every 5 feet) so its hard to get into a rhythm.  Finally after maybe a mile (?) we were able to ride on open road.  For some dumb reason, I thought the course was flat.  DUMB DUMB DUMB.  It wasn't ridiculously hilly, but there were some good hills.  My mission was to GO FAST on the bike, but the hills made it interesting.  And hard.

The RDs made a comment in the pre-race meeting that we should know the course, specifically where to turn.  Apparently intersections which required a police officer did not allow volunteers to be present for safety reasons.  Police officers are not always the best at telling you where the course goes (say, if you need to turn) and you could miss your turn.  I was very pleased to see that the RDs marked the bike course with spray paint arrows, so there was never any question of where you should go.  VERY nice.

One cop pulled a near-IMTX, letting traffic through, which made me slow down on a downhill leading into an uphill.  I had to hit my brakes but I didn't stop, and he felt bad and apologized.  Several other cops were "directing" traffic from inside their cars.  I'd approach and they'd decide to get out of their car and see if traffic needed to be stopped for me to proceed.  Fortunately, Sunday morning isn't high traffic and I never had a near collision.  Still, you're getting paid to do an EASY job.  Get out of your car and keep us safe, mkay?

Bike course wasn't too exciting.  There was one nasty downhill into a u-turn, which meant you got to climb back up that hill from a near full stop.  That wasn't very nice.  The course going out was mostly uphills and you circled back and had 1 nasty uphill and one medium hill that just went on a bit too long.  I could tell I'm not used to going hard on the bike and I think I started to fade a bit.  Or maybe the wind was working against me.  All I know is I saw 20+ mph going out and was working to keep it at 18 mph going back.  Still, for 12 miles, I pushed.  Since I started the swim early, it was impossible to see where I was in relation to my competition.  I as passing a ton of people, including some dude on a mountain bike with a kid-carrier, which had a stuffed animal (dog?) belted inside the carrier.  (I wish I had my camera, it was amusing).  Only one person passed me, and she was in my age group.  I passed her on the flad and downhill, only to have her destroy me on the next hill. Must work on hills this winter. 

A quick 12 miles later I was done with the bike.  Always trying to work on my T2 time, I undid my Garmin while I was still riding (I'm sure I looked cute, riding and holding my Garmin in my teeth) so I wouldn't have to mess with it later on.

Bike:
00:41:13 17.47 mile/hr
Age Group: 10/38
Overall: 108/333

Ok, maybe I'm being hard on myself with the bike split... my fastest bike split was 18.7 mph and I've got a bunch of 17.6-17.9 mph splits on FLAT courses.  Given the hills (and my lack of bike training lately), maybe that's not too bad?  Plus, I my pace was right in the middle of the top 10 finishers in the AG.  Still, hill strength will be a good off-season goal.

T2
Nothing remarkable here - just tried to keep it fast.  Swapped out my shoes and grabbed the rest of my junk to put on while I ran.

1:02.6 (my fastest T2 except for the questionable 20 second T2 at Rattlesnake).

Run
Since I had crushed the 10 miler on Monday, I had HIGH expectations for my run.  It was only 3 miles and I wanted to run FAST. My calves, however, had different ideas.  As did a wicked side stitch.  I was trying to push the pace and the best my legs would allow was somewhere around a 10:00-10:30.  The side stitch was irritating but not awful.  But my calves were so tight they just couldn't move any faster.  I walked the first aid station, which eliminated the side stitch.  Leg were still tight until the turn-around.  I knew there was a big hill at the finish, but most everything from 1.5 miles to the finish was downhill, so I tried to push it.  I did a decent job pushing (but walked the aid station, probably only 10 seconds though).  My legs loosened up a bit at the turnaround but I didn't ever get my awesome flying while running feeling.  I tried to do some speed pick-ups as an attempt to trick my legs, only my legs didn't fall for it.  Ugh.  Not a bad running performance (my 3rd fastest 3 mile pace for a sprint) but it wasn't what I knew I was capable of.  My energy and spirit were willing - this time my legs were just not wanting to play along.  Probably because I crushed the 10 mile race 6 days before.  *sigh*

Run time: 30:29.9. 10m 10s min/mile
Age Group: 19/38
Overall: 185/333

Overall time: 1:24:21 (right at my predicted time)
Overall Rank = 111/333
Age Group Rank = 13/38
Post Race
I got my feet rubbed by a reflexologist (felt nice but wasn't long enough), had good italian grub from a local restaurant (spaghetti and meatballs!), then I stuck around for the raffle/award ceremony.  They posted overall race results, not AG results.  I was in the top 1/3 overall that there was a slight chance I'd podium.  I would have podiumed if I was 1 year younger.  Sadly, I was 5 min away from 3rd place and over 1 minute away from 10th place.  5 minutes for me, right now, is just too fast to overcome for me.  Maybe in a few years.  I did win a free massage, though.  Post-race stuff went on WAY TOO LONG, and it was 12:45 before I hopped on the bike to hit the trails home.