The last 24 hours have been very strange indeed. Last night, I had small group at my house as usual on Sunday nights. It was wonderful, as usual. Afterwards, I went to an Oscars party with some friends of mine and ate way too much junk. I've been eating pretty healthy lately, so I did not actually enjoy the junk because it made me feel greasy. Anyway, that's not the point. Apparently, when I left, I dropped my cell phone in my friend Mandy's car. This seems like no big deal. Unless you know me...I do NOT do things like drop my cell phone. Well, after reading the rest of this post, you will think that I DO do things like that, but I promise you that I DO NOT do things like that. I am borderline OCD and everything is always in its place and I don't lose things. If I do, I totally freak out. So, anyway, I left the phone in Mandy's car, which I couldn't confirm because I don't have a home phone and I don't know Mandy's phone number (it's in my phone), so the only way to see if she had my phone was to email her late last night and wait to hear back from her today. Which also would have been OK, except I wasn't going to work today. I was in a training class downtown, so I couldn't check work or home email.
So, I had to just hope for the best and try not to freak out all day today. Which, again, was OK because I always have my handy two-way pager for work to communicate in an emergency. So, I go on my merry way today. My training class is a full week and it's actually a really good class so far. A good friend of mine is in there and everyone in the class has a pretty good attitude. It really can bring a class down if some folks have bad attitudes about being there, but this one seems attitude-free, which is great since I am really interested in the material. Since I'm going to be downtown everyday this week, I have made various plans to do stuff or meet up with friends most nights of the week. Tonight, I had adventure racing practice on the agenda. Adventure racing starts at 6:30 and my class got out at 4:30. So, I headed on to Memorial Park (where we meet) and changed into running clothes. It was only 5:15, so I decided to take a walk around the Loop until time to meet up with the training group. So, I go on a nice walk. It was absolutely beautiful outside and I didn't have my iPod or anything, so I was just enjoying the scenery and thinking how great it is to live in Houston, where there is a place like Memorial Park to walk around and how it must be really great to live in places like Denver where there is lots of green space and how much cooler it is in Denver than Houston...this is how my thoughts go...tangent after tangent after tangent.
So anyway, since AR starts at 6:30, I didn't want to be too slow about my walking, so I took my pager with me so I could pay attention to what time it was. I even used it to email a few folks while I was walking. I checked all the news and sports and stock market quotes from today (they come across my pager all day long). I stopped at the restroom about halfway through my walk and dropped my pager in the toilet...it is now dead. So, here I am in Memorial Park (which I previously thought was beautiful, but now am thinking is ridiculously full of people and I am feeling very far from my car), not knowing what time it is, thinking about what a complete moron I am. I mean, in less than 24 hours, I lost my cell phone and broke my pager. What kind of idiot does that? Especially someone who DOES NOT do things like that? Apparently, I DO do things like that. I am absent-minded! I think I have to come to grips with that. Sigh...so it gets better.
I finally get back to my car and I have no clue what time it is. Recently a friend of mine told me that they have a good sense of what time it is (I don't remember who told me that...anyone want to claim it?), but I do not have that ability. I never know how long it's been since something else happened (10 minutes? 2 hours? I don't know?) and I never have a good sense of what time it is without a watch. This is why I always have a watch. OK, there I go on a tangent again. So, I get back to my car and there are clearly no AR people there. I'm thinking, surely I'm not that early? Or that late? Again, no clue what time it was. No, I was right on time. It was 6:28. AR starts at 6:30. NO ONE was there. I should point at now that I have not been to AR in over 2 weeks. The last time I went was the kayaking fiasco (see previous post) and since then, I've run lots of miles and traveled places and generally not felt like carrying lots of equipment downtown only to end up in mud! So, I haven't been in a while. AND I realized that I forgot to check our discussion forum to confirm that we were meeting there. So, no AR for me tonight. I just grabbed another water bottle and ran around the Memorial Loop this time. It took me 55 minutes to walk it and 32 minutes to run it...yay me! Don't worry, that's not the end of the saga.
I get home after a while and my roommate kindly lets me use her phone. I call my parents, who don't answer, then check my voice mail on my cell phone. There are two messages, both from my parents. My dad had to have emergency surgery today. Seriously, of all the days to lose my phone, the day my dad has to have emergency surgery! Are you kidding me? Is there some kind of conspiracy to drive me insane??? I finally got a hold of my mom. Everything is going to be fine. My dad didn't go into surgery until after 8:30 tonight, but the doctor said he really needed to have the surgery today, I guess? I don't really understand. My sister is about to be a nurse, and she was there. She said that I should be glad I wasn't because I would have freaked out. I don't like medical stuff...I get that from my dad! After I talked to my mom, I felt better and less like a slacker daughter who can't even call her dad before he goes into surgery. Because you never know what could happen in surgery...don't you watch Grey's Anatomy?
After that, I called my friend Mandy (fortunately her number is in my roommate's phone) and she had my phone, which she gave to my other roommate to bring back to me. I changed all my out of office messages at work to tell people to call me instead of page me. My dad came out of surgery just fine just a few minutes ago. So, back to normal. Now, if I could just stop being mad at myself for being so absent-minded, I might just be sane again (or sane for the first time...it's questionable!).
And, to explain my title, I may have quit Adventure Racing and not realized it! I finally checked the discussion forum and we met somewhere else tonight. I can't go back for another entire two weeks, so I may not be doing so good on the training. Oh well! Sorry, Jill, maybe no more funny adventures at AR. But, apparently I don't need adventure racing to have random ridiculous stories! Just my normal life will do fine for that!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
I love my niece!
My sister just sent me a text message that says:
"Mia just told me out of the blue: Aunt Jenny has a heart tattoo because she loves me!"
Mia is my precious niece and I love her very much! Is that not the sweetest, cutest thing you've ever heard?
"Mia just told me out of the blue: Aunt Jenny has a heart tattoo because she loves me!"
Mia is my precious niece and I love her very much! Is that not the sweetest, cutest thing you've ever heard?
Monday, February 19, 2007
2:25:16
I finished the Austin Half-Marathon! Yay for me! It was an absolutely gorgeous day. The temp was 37 at the starting line, which is really cold if you are like me and have to run in sleeveless shirts (for some reason, all the heat in my body seems to escape through my shoulders). But, we made it through the hour and a half of waiting for the start. The race started at 7:00 and sunrise was at 7:09, so we got to see the sunrise as we were running. The first 5 miles flew by. I was running with two friends and we ran together until a little after mile 6. Then we all ended up splitting up to go our own pace.
Really, the whole race flew by for me. I did my best time ever - 2:25:16. My previous PR was 2:26:55. AND I did that on terrible hills. The whole course was pretty hilly. I was running uphill or downhill for about 75% of the race...not a lot of flat surfaces. A lot of the hills were not worth mentioning, but there were 3 or 4 that were pretty tough. There were 2 close together around mile 11 and they were killer. But, once I got over those hills, I started running fast. I was going about an 8 minute pace for the last 1.25 miles. That's really fast for me...I average 10:30 minute pace. We finished by running around the state capitol building and then a straight shot into the finish line. It was perfect!
The rest of the trip was pretty perfect, too. We drove in Friday night, hung out, watched a movie (How I Marrieds an Axe Murderer, which I had never seen before and which was pretty funny), etc. I didn't sleep much at all Friday night, though. Saturday, we went to the race Expo to pick up packets and that was fun...I love race Expos! Of course, I bought a shirt and some socks that I probably don't need. I lost track of time and ended up being late for lunch with a friend...so rude of me!
After lunch, we went driving all around the west side of Austin...it is BEAUTIFUL there. There are so many hills (which are beautiful when you're driving and horrible when you're running) and nice houses. We drove around a couple of neighborhoods just looking at the houses and the views that they have. We stopped a dozen times to take pictures, including one time to get a free sample of beef jerky on the side of the road. This guy makes his own jerky at his house...I think it's at his house. Anyway, he was really nice and took a picture of us by his sign. Maradee bought some to send to her friend in Africa. I think she bought the Chipotle flavored jerky. He had like 8 different flavors! These houses we saw were amazing. They all had winding driveways and manicured lawns and beautiful doors and windows and detailing. One even had a putting green in the yard (we stopped for Matt to take a picture of this one!). We also stopped at the Marshall Ford Dam, which is overwhelmingly huge and cool. How does all of that work properly all the time? And how did they build it 80 years ago and it's still functioning? I am amazed by things such as this!
If I could ever figure out how to upload pictures to my blog, I would upload some from this trip to show how pretty Austin is. After the hours of sightseeing, we got lost looking for the restaurant we wanted to eat at. We finally found it and ate, thank goodness! It was this place called the Brick Oven and it was very packed full of people. We carbed up on pasta and had a wonderful dessert...chocolate with more choclate and chocolate mousse. I think there was some whipped cream on there, too. By this time, I was pretty delirious from lack of sleep and getting close to grumpy. Fortunately, we went home after that...I was close to falling down, I think!
So, I had to wake up at 3:45 on Sunday morning because we wanted to be downtown by 5:30 and I had to get ready, etc. So, I ran this race on about 4 hours of sleep. Considering that I got less than that on Friday, I'm pretty sure it's a miracle that I finished at all! We got ready, headed out around 5:00 and made it downtown pretty quickly. I was so happy because we found a place to park really easily and it was close to the race stuff. These are the things that stress me out the most about big races. Or maybe those are the things I dwell on so I don't stress about the actually running. Anyway, we dropped off our stuff too early at the clothing drop-off and then hung out in the Spectator's tent. Thank goodness for this tent! It was set up to serve free tea and coffee to runners and spectators, but the biggest benefit was protection from the weather. We were packed in there like sardines to attempt to stay warm! I actually ran into someone from work in there. Oh, there were about 12,000 runners in this race, so running into someone I know was a small feat!
We moved up to the start line, begrudgingly leaving the warmth of the tent, around 6:45. The start was just over this bridge, so we were standing on this bridge (i.e. over water) in 37 degree weather for a while. There were fireworks just before the start. It was pretty cool...at least a nice distration from the hypothermia! One thing that always makes me laugh in big races like this is that people put on so many layers and then have to shed them as soon as the race starts. It makes sense for the people that put on garbage bags and them throw them away, but there are some nice clothes on the ground! Like shirts and socks and LOTS of gloves! It just cracks me up how much there is just sitting on the side of the road. These guys were running behind us and stopped to pick up some gloves. Which sounds funny, but, if I hadn't had gloves on, I would have done the same! In Houston I know that the marathon volunteers come behind and pick up the clothes and take them to homeless shelters, so they don't go to waste.
After the race, we ate at this BBQ place, Rudy's. We had seen several of them around Austin and they came highly recommended : ). These people let you sample ANYTHING if it's your first time at Rudy's. I did not take advantage of this because I knew what I wanted and didn't care what anything else tasted like. The thing that makes me smile about Texas BBQ places is that you can always smell when someone has been to one...the smoke pervades into your clothes and hair and stays with you! Rudy's has a "Cutter Cam". "What is a Cutter Cam?" you might ask. This is a camera over the cutting board where your lunch is being cut. You can watch it while you're standing in line...classic BBQ place! Another classic aspect of Rudy's is that it is really a gas station. You can NOT pass up BBQ from a gas station in Texas...it has to be good. And Rudy's did not dissappoint me. Of course, I had just run 13.1 miles, so my judgement might have been impaired.
All in all, this was a fantastic road trip. We listened to great music the whole time and laughed a lot and saw beautiful scenery and I ran a 13.1 mile race and finished..the best part of all!
Really, the whole race flew by for me. I did my best time ever - 2:25:16. My previous PR was 2:26:55. AND I did that on terrible hills. The whole course was pretty hilly. I was running uphill or downhill for about 75% of the race...not a lot of flat surfaces. A lot of the hills were not worth mentioning, but there were 3 or 4 that were pretty tough. There were 2 close together around mile 11 and they were killer. But, once I got over those hills, I started running fast. I was going about an 8 minute pace for the last 1.25 miles. That's really fast for me...I average 10:30 minute pace. We finished by running around the state capitol building and then a straight shot into the finish line. It was perfect!
The rest of the trip was pretty perfect, too. We drove in Friday night, hung out, watched a movie (How I Marrieds an Axe Murderer, which I had never seen before and which was pretty funny), etc. I didn't sleep much at all Friday night, though. Saturday, we went to the race Expo to pick up packets and that was fun...I love race Expos! Of course, I bought a shirt and some socks that I probably don't need. I lost track of time and ended up being late for lunch with a friend...so rude of me!
After lunch, we went driving all around the west side of Austin...it is BEAUTIFUL there. There are so many hills (which are beautiful when you're driving and horrible when you're running) and nice houses. We drove around a couple of neighborhoods just looking at the houses and the views that they have. We stopped a dozen times to take pictures, including one time to get a free sample of beef jerky on the side of the road. This guy makes his own jerky at his house...I think it's at his house. Anyway, he was really nice and took a picture of us by his sign. Maradee bought some to send to her friend in Africa. I think she bought the Chipotle flavored jerky. He had like 8 different flavors! These houses we saw were amazing. They all had winding driveways and manicured lawns and beautiful doors and windows and detailing. One even had a putting green in the yard (we stopped for Matt to take a picture of this one!). We also stopped at the Marshall Ford Dam, which is overwhelmingly huge and cool. How does all of that work properly all the time? And how did they build it 80 years ago and it's still functioning? I am amazed by things such as this!
If I could ever figure out how to upload pictures to my blog, I would upload some from this trip to show how pretty Austin is. After the hours of sightseeing, we got lost looking for the restaurant we wanted to eat at. We finally found it and ate, thank goodness! It was this place called the Brick Oven and it was very packed full of people. We carbed up on pasta and had a wonderful dessert...chocolate with more choclate and chocolate mousse. I think there was some whipped cream on there, too. By this time, I was pretty delirious from lack of sleep and getting close to grumpy. Fortunately, we went home after that...I was close to falling down, I think!
So, I had to wake up at 3:45 on Sunday morning because we wanted to be downtown by 5:30 and I had to get ready, etc. So, I ran this race on about 4 hours of sleep. Considering that I got less than that on Friday, I'm pretty sure it's a miracle that I finished at all! We got ready, headed out around 5:00 and made it downtown pretty quickly. I was so happy because we found a place to park really easily and it was close to the race stuff. These are the things that stress me out the most about big races. Or maybe those are the things I dwell on so I don't stress about the actually running. Anyway, we dropped off our stuff too early at the clothing drop-off and then hung out in the Spectator's tent. Thank goodness for this tent! It was set up to serve free tea and coffee to runners and spectators, but the biggest benefit was protection from the weather. We were packed in there like sardines to attempt to stay warm! I actually ran into someone from work in there. Oh, there were about 12,000 runners in this race, so running into someone I know was a small feat!
We moved up to the start line, begrudgingly leaving the warmth of the tent, around 6:45. The start was just over this bridge, so we were standing on this bridge (i.e. over water) in 37 degree weather for a while. There were fireworks just before the start. It was pretty cool...at least a nice distration from the hypothermia! One thing that always makes me laugh in big races like this is that people put on so many layers and then have to shed them as soon as the race starts. It makes sense for the people that put on garbage bags and them throw them away, but there are some nice clothes on the ground! Like shirts and socks and LOTS of gloves! It just cracks me up how much there is just sitting on the side of the road. These guys were running behind us and stopped to pick up some gloves. Which sounds funny, but, if I hadn't had gloves on, I would have done the same! In Houston I know that the marathon volunteers come behind and pick up the clothes and take them to homeless shelters, so they don't go to waste.
After the race, we ate at this BBQ place, Rudy's. We had seen several of them around Austin and they came highly recommended : ). These people let you sample ANYTHING if it's your first time at Rudy's. I did not take advantage of this because I knew what I wanted and didn't care what anything else tasted like. The thing that makes me smile about Texas BBQ places is that you can always smell when someone has been to one...the smoke pervades into your clothes and hair and stays with you! Rudy's has a "Cutter Cam". "What is a Cutter Cam?" you might ask. This is a camera over the cutting board where your lunch is being cut. You can watch it while you're standing in line...classic BBQ place! Another classic aspect of Rudy's is that it is really a gas station. You can NOT pass up BBQ from a gas station in Texas...it has to be good. And Rudy's did not dissappoint me. Of course, I had just run 13.1 miles, so my judgement might have been impaired.
All in all, this was a fantastic road trip. We listened to great music the whole time and laughed a lot and saw beautiful scenery and I ran a 13.1 mile race and finished..the best part of all!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Austin and Peanut Butter
So, my post today is about two unrelated topics. First of all, I haven't been to Adventure Racing since last Wednesday because it has been wet and I don't want to hurt myself the week before a race I have been training for for 6 months. See previous posts for my comments on the AR team's affinity for mud!
Here's the Austin part of the blog...I am going on a road trip to Austin! Yay. We're leaving at 4:30 this afternoon and heading up. I don't know why, but I am so excited about this trip. It's like when I was a little kid and we went on family vacations. I just can't wait to get going. I was supposed to have a meeting this afternoon until 3:30 that I knew would run over, meaning I was going to delay us getting going. But, thanks to my co-workers and boss, plus my clairvoyant insight (we were all going to be exhausted and not mentally ready to discuss the topic appropriately), we rescheduled it to next week. Which means that I get to leave when I want to. For some reason this makes me giddy. I think it's the sunshine, which we haven't had for weeks (I had to look for my sunglasses, always a challenge in my purse) coupled with the prospect of a road trip (I LOVE road trips!!!) AND a big race that I've never run before. I mean, I'm going to run 13.1 miles in beautiful Austin on Sunday and we're going to do great. The weather looks like it's going to be perfect and the sunrise is supposed to be 10 minutes after the start of the race. I hope that we are somewhere where we get a great view of the sunrise. When you run the Houston marathon (or half), you run over some overpass (I have no idea which one...I am always lost in downtown Houston) and get to see the sunrise during the first couple of miles. It is gorgeous! So, back to this race...last Saturday, I ran with a couple friends back and forth over the Kemah bridge for 8 miles and we all felt great. We are going to do great in this race, I just know it. And even if we don't have good race times, it's going to be fun, for sure.
So, on to my second topic...peanut butter. Like a month ago, I got sick on a Saturday night. Like really sick. Like I was considering going to the emergency room for an IV of fluids. I had been out with friends earlier in the evening and had some different things to eat. I wasn't sure what made me sick. I had narrowed it down to some ranch dressing I had with pizza, plus the fact that I had run 10 miles that morning, which I figured lowered my immune system (don't know if that is scientific, but that's what I decided). So, then they come out with this recall on peanut butter and I totally have that peanut butter with the 2111 number on the lid. I realize that that number only indicates the plant is was produced at, but still! I always eat a PB & J sandwich before a long run (good carbs and good protein and fills me up). The PB I use is Peter Pan Reduced Fat Crunchy and I had eaten one that morning. I seriously think that that's what made me sick! So, I have had salmonella poisoning and didn't even know it! Fortunately, I wasn't bad enough to require hospitalization and have since had no lingering issues.
Alright, I'll post again on Monday about the road trip and awesome race!
Here's the Austin part of the blog...I am going on a road trip to Austin! Yay. We're leaving at 4:30 this afternoon and heading up. I don't know why, but I am so excited about this trip. It's like when I was a little kid and we went on family vacations. I just can't wait to get going. I was supposed to have a meeting this afternoon until 3:30 that I knew would run over, meaning I was going to delay us getting going. But, thanks to my co-workers and boss, plus my clairvoyant insight (we were all going to be exhausted and not mentally ready to discuss the topic appropriately), we rescheduled it to next week. Which means that I get to leave when I want to. For some reason this makes me giddy. I think it's the sunshine, which we haven't had for weeks (I had to look for my sunglasses, always a challenge in my purse) coupled with the prospect of a road trip (I LOVE road trips!!!) AND a big race that I've never run before. I mean, I'm going to run 13.1 miles in beautiful Austin on Sunday and we're going to do great. The weather looks like it's going to be perfect and the sunrise is supposed to be 10 minutes after the start of the race. I hope that we are somewhere where we get a great view of the sunrise. When you run the Houston marathon (or half), you run over some overpass (I have no idea which one...I am always lost in downtown Houston) and get to see the sunrise during the first couple of miles. It is gorgeous! So, back to this race...last Saturday, I ran with a couple friends back and forth over the Kemah bridge for 8 miles and we all felt great. We are going to do great in this race, I just know it. And even if we don't have good race times, it's going to be fun, for sure.
So, on to my second topic...peanut butter. Like a month ago, I got sick on a Saturday night. Like really sick. Like I was considering going to the emergency room for an IV of fluids. I had been out with friends earlier in the evening and had some different things to eat. I wasn't sure what made me sick. I had narrowed it down to some ranch dressing I had with pizza, plus the fact that I had run 10 miles that morning, which I figured lowered my immune system (don't know if that is scientific, but that's what I decided). So, then they come out with this recall on peanut butter and I totally have that peanut butter with the 2111 number on the lid. I realize that that number only indicates the plant is was produced at, but still! I always eat a PB & J sandwich before a long run (good carbs and good protein and fills me up). The PB I use is Peter Pan Reduced Fat Crunchy and I had eaten one that morning. I seriously think that that's what made me sick! So, I have had salmonella poisoning and didn't even know it! Fortunately, I wasn't bad enough to require hospitalization and have since had no lingering issues.
Alright, I'll post again on Monday about the road trip and awesome race!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Biking is a Breeze...If You Can Dodge the Traffic!
I finally found something I really like about AR!! Last night we had our first bike practice and I really liked it. I'm so relieved. After the whole kayaking thing, I was considering giving up on all this nonsense. I mean, I already work out 4 days a week on my own and now I've added 2 additional days, so do I really need this? But I promised myself I would give it a try, so here I am stuck deciding what to do. Then, last night I really had fun!
I have this cheap bike from Target and I was really worried that the extreme adventure racers would make fun of it, but nobody even paid attention to what kind of bike I have, so I was worried for nothing. Getting the bike in my car really is the toughest part of this sport. For those of you that don't know, I bought a car last summer and I am in love with it still! I had had SUV's for like 8 years, so switching to a car was a big deal for me, but I haven't had any issues with it until I had to get my bike in the trunk. And, I know, I could totally get a bike rack on my car, but there are two issues with that: (1) I'm not putting a bike rack on my beloved car and potentially scratching the paint and (2) most bike racks require you to take off the front wheel and store it in the trunk. However, my bike is cheap and doesn't have the quick release on the front wheel, which means that I would be out there with a wrench and channel locks every time I needed to put my bike in the car. Not efficient or safe (I'm not very strong when it comes to tightening things). But, alas, the bike will fit in my trunk if I put the whole back seat down and maneuver it just the right way.
Back to practice...we started by talking about what we'd be doing this season and...yay for me...we will mostly be working on road biking and building strength...not too much trail work. That translates to one out of the four main events that does not include a lot of mud. I did get a little mud on my legs last night, but nothing like the last three practices.
So, we started out riding in the park area, did a time trial, then headed down Memorial Drive. If you do not live in Houston, Memorial Drive is a long stretch of road with a lot of traffic on it. We were on the sidewalk, but had to cross a lot of intersections. Have I ever mentioned that our practices take place in the dark??? Well, they do, so as we headed out, the car traffic was making me really nervous. However, by the time we made our first stop (at Memorial and Shepherd!), I had gotten used to looking and yelling back at the person behind me. I think that might be what really makes me the most nervous. We have to yell back at the people behind us what's going on in front. Like "Clear" if there's not a car in the intersection or "Slowing" or "Stopping" if we are doing that. What if I forget to yell (like I did a couple of times last night) and someone isn't paying enough attention and they get hurt? I would freak out! So, I'm getting a little used to being my brother's keeper on that. We'll see if I can keep that up.
We stopped and worked on going up and down a hill (seriously what is up with these people and hills?!?!?). We'd coast down the hill (I REALLY like that part), then get off our bikes and run up the hill pushing our bikes. Then we rode up some hills. I thought this would be relatively easy. Boy was I wrong! My bike is so cheap that when I change gears it makes this terrible noise and I'm always pretty sure that the chain is falling off. So, originally I was just going to suffer through on hills and not change gears. After the first attempt up a hill, I gave up on that plan and started shifting the gears on any little incline. Turns out the gears do work and the chain isn't falling off! The second lap up the hills was almost easy for me! After that, we headed further down Memorial and turned back around. On the way back, I didn't freak out about the traffic nearly as much...thank goodness because I can worry myself to death. We did our strength exercises, then headed home.
I got to talk to my baby sister on the way home (she's so sweet!) and then got home in time to watch the newest episode of Lost. What is up with that show? It is so confusing that half the time I want to turn it off (seriously, do I not have enough to think about in my own life without worrying about what's going on with these fictionaly characters?), but then I get sucked in and last night I caught myself standing about 18 inches from the TV because I was putting clothes away or something and couldn't tear myself away from the screen to turn around and finish what I was doing! Anyway, I think I'm sucked back in again...uggh!
I have this cheap bike from Target and I was really worried that the extreme adventure racers would make fun of it, but nobody even paid attention to what kind of bike I have, so I was worried for nothing. Getting the bike in my car really is the toughest part of this sport. For those of you that don't know, I bought a car last summer and I am in love with it still! I had had SUV's for like 8 years, so switching to a car was a big deal for me, but I haven't had any issues with it until I had to get my bike in the trunk. And, I know, I could totally get a bike rack on my car, but there are two issues with that: (1) I'm not putting a bike rack on my beloved car and potentially scratching the paint and (2) most bike racks require you to take off the front wheel and store it in the trunk. However, my bike is cheap and doesn't have the quick release on the front wheel, which means that I would be out there with a wrench and channel locks every time I needed to put my bike in the car. Not efficient or safe (I'm not very strong when it comes to tightening things). But, alas, the bike will fit in my trunk if I put the whole back seat down and maneuver it just the right way.
Back to practice...we started by talking about what we'd be doing this season and...yay for me...we will mostly be working on road biking and building strength...not too much trail work. That translates to one out of the four main events that does not include a lot of mud. I did get a little mud on my legs last night, but nothing like the last three practices.
So, we started out riding in the park area, did a time trial, then headed down Memorial Drive. If you do not live in Houston, Memorial Drive is a long stretch of road with a lot of traffic on it. We were on the sidewalk, but had to cross a lot of intersections. Have I ever mentioned that our practices take place in the dark??? Well, they do, so as we headed out, the car traffic was making me really nervous. However, by the time we made our first stop (at Memorial and Shepherd!), I had gotten used to looking and yelling back at the person behind me. I think that might be what really makes me the most nervous. We have to yell back at the people behind us what's going on in front. Like "Clear" if there's not a car in the intersection or "Slowing" or "Stopping" if we are doing that. What if I forget to yell (like I did a couple of times last night) and someone isn't paying enough attention and they get hurt? I would freak out! So, I'm getting a little used to being my brother's keeper on that. We'll see if I can keep that up.
We stopped and worked on going up and down a hill (seriously what is up with these people and hills?!?!?). We'd coast down the hill (I REALLY like that part), then get off our bikes and run up the hill pushing our bikes. Then we rode up some hills. I thought this would be relatively easy. Boy was I wrong! My bike is so cheap that when I change gears it makes this terrible noise and I'm always pretty sure that the chain is falling off. So, originally I was just going to suffer through on hills and not change gears. After the first attempt up a hill, I gave up on that plan and started shifting the gears on any little incline. Turns out the gears do work and the chain isn't falling off! The second lap up the hills was almost easy for me! After that, we headed further down Memorial and turned back around. On the way back, I didn't freak out about the traffic nearly as much...thank goodness because I can worry myself to death. We did our strength exercises, then headed home.
I got to talk to my baby sister on the way home (she's so sweet!) and then got home in time to watch the newest episode of Lost. What is up with that show? It is so confusing that half the time I want to turn it off (seriously, do I not have enough to think about in my own life without worrying about what's going on with these fictionaly characters?), but then I get sucked in and last night I caught myself standing about 18 inches from the TV because I was putting clothes away or something and couldn't tear myself away from the screen to turn around and finish what I was doing! Anyway, I think I'm sucked back in again...uggh!
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Let the Kayaking Begin!
Last night was our first night of kayaking practice. There was actually a practice on Saturday, but I couldn't make it because I was running 10 miles! So, last night was my first night. I drove over to Eleanor Tinsley Park (which I wasn't totally sure where it was, but I stumbled upon it when I saw other people with inflatable kayaks) and got there on time (always a challenge when you're driving in Houston at rush hour). I hauled out my equipment: an inflatable Sevylor (aka a Sevy) kayak, 2 inflatable seats, a paddle, a life jacket, and a head lamp. Fortunately, the coaches provided us with air pumps to inflate everything.
I got paired up with another novice, who had been at practice last Saturday, so he knew a little bit about what was going on. I got all of my stuff inflated and realized that one of the compartments on my kayak wasn't tight. So I inflated it again...same result. So, the kayak I just purchased has a hole in it...great! Turns out they're easy and cheap to patch, but I had to deflate that kayak and then inflate another kayak which the coaches had with them (they really are good coaches!). So, of course, I feel behind and like I don't know what's going on. By this time, it was dark (did I mention that all of these practices are in the dark?) and getting a little colder, although not as bad as last week.
We carried our Sevy's down a hill, then got ready to do our warm-up. This is our warm-up: run up a steep hill about 300 feet, run back down, pick up the Sevy with all the gear, run up the same hill and back down, then repeat the whole thing. I was good until I had to carry the Sevy. Fortunately I had a great partner who was patient (I was running sooo slow!) and probably was carrying all the weight - I couldn't tell, I was just trying not to fall down. So, we finish that, then do some practice strokes with our paddles in the air. Then we head down to the water.
Did I mention it was dark? My head lamp is semi-helpful, but it's very disorienting to be carrying a boat and trying not to hit anyone with a paddle when all you can see is a direct beam of light that goes out about 10 feet out in front of you. So, we get in the kayak. Because of where we got in, we kind of had to fall into the boat. That was quite interesting! I am such a klutz and really was scared I was going to fall into the water. Then, we got going.
Immediately, I realize that it's impossible to overturn these Sevy's unless you're really trying, which makes me feel better. For the first 20 minutes, I was in the front of the kayak. The person in front is in charge of speed. The person in the back is in charge of steering. We did really good when I was in front, although it was tiring. We basically paddled back and forth about a quarter mile away from the place where we got in the water (isn't there a term for that? I forget) and never got out of our coach's sight. Then, we traded places. Now, to trade places, you have to paddle over to the shore and get out of the boat. My partner got out first, then pulled me out. He had to like grab mud to pull us to the shore because there wasn't anything to hold onto. Fortunately, he was successful and got out, then I got out and my foot sank into the mud. I was wearing some old shoes. If it had been any of my good running shoes, I would have been ticked off because my foot sank down to my ankle into the mud. I am totally not exaggerating! My foot was completely submersed in this mud.
So, we get back in the boat and now I'm in the back, which means I'm supposed to steer. I do not know what my problem is, but I CAN NOT steer this stupid boat. It didn't matter what I did, I could not control the direction of the kayak. We were just heading off wherever and I couldn't get it to turn back the way I thought it should. I was very frutstrated by the whole thing. The guy in my boat was very nice and encouraging, but I just couldn't do it. I was doing exactly what they were telling me to do, but it made no difference whatsoever in the direction of the boat. It didn't help that there were like 8 other kayaks of new people in the same area. It did kind of seem like we'd get going and someone would ram into us (it was like bumper boats at Celebration Station).
Finally, we were done and got to get out of the boat. I was so relieved to be done with trying to steer. Getting out was equally eventful to the trading places adventure. We hauled the boats back up to the top of the hill where we had started. Then the cold set in. See, when you're paddling, you're splashing water everywhere. Not big splashes, but the water drips all over you. And I was getting my hands into the water trying to steer the boat (unsuccessfully everytime...I should have saved my hands the trouble). I don't know why this was a surprise to me, but it was. I was soaked to the bone everywhere but my head...don't know how it escaped the water, but it did. And the temperature had dropped, as it tends to do when the sun goes down. So, I was freezing. Really, really freezing. I could barely move once we got the kayak deflated and I got all the stuff back in my car.
Our coach started us on some other workout that included running up and down a hill again. Since my shoes were soaked all the way through, I decided to bail on running. I got in my car and headed home...my teeth were chattering because I was so cold! Once I got home and out of my car, I took off my shoes and socks and left them in the garage. I forgot about them until this morning. I went to check on them and they are still soaking wet!
All in all, kayaking is my least favorite thing so far. Probably because I'm not good at it, but I think also because of how wet and cold you get. I am really a girly-girl. I do not like mud. But, it seems that I better get to liking it because I'm going to get to experience a lot more of it over the next 10 weeks!
I got paired up with another novice, who had been at practice last Saturday, so he knew a little bit about what was going on. I got all of my stuff inflated and realized that one of the compartments on my kayak wasn't tight. So I inflated it again...same result. So, the kayak I just purchased has a hole in it...great! Turns out they're easy and cheap to patch, but I had to deflate that kayak and then inflate another kayak which the coaches had with them (they really are good coaches!). So, of course, I feel behind and like I don't know what's going on. By this time, it was dark (did I mention that all of these practices are in the dark?) and getting a little colder, although not as bad as last week.
We carried our Sevy's down a hill, then got ready to do our warm-up. This is our warm-up: run up a steep hill about 300 feet, run back down, pick up the Sevy with all the gear, run up the same hill and back down, then repeat the whole thing. I was good until I had to carry the Sevy. Fortunately I had a great partner who was patient (I was running sooo slow!) and probably was carrying all the weight - I couldn't tell, I was just trying not to fall down. So, we finish that, then do some practice strokes with our paddles in the air. Then we head down to the water.
Did I mention it was dark? My head lamp is semi-helpful, but it's very disorienting to be carrying a boat and trying not to hit anyone with a paddle when all you can see is a direct beam of light that goes out about 10 feet out in front of you. So, we get in the kayak. Because of where we got in, we kind of had to fall into the boat. That was quite interesting! I am such a klutz and really was scared I was going to fall into the water. Then, we got going.
Immediately, I realize that it's impossible to overturn these Sevy's unless you're really trying, which makes me feel better. For the first 20 minutes, I was in the front of the kayak. The person in front is in charge of speed. The person in the back is in charge of steering. We did really good when I was in front, although it was tiring. We basically paddled back and forth about a quarter mile away from the place where we got in the water (isn't there a term for that? I forget) and never got out of our coach's sight. Then, we traded places. Now, to trade places, you have to paddle over to the shore and get out of the boat. My partner got out first, then pulled me out. He had to like grab mud to pull us to the shore because there wasn't anything to hold onto. Fortunately, he was successful and got out, then I got out and my foot sank into the mud. I was wearing some old shoes. If it had been any of my good running shoes, I would have been ticked off because my foot sank down to my ankle into the mud. I am totally not exaggerating! My foot was completely submersed in this mud.
So, we get back in the boat and now I'm in the back, which means I'm supposed to steer. I do not know what my problem is, but I CAN NOT steer this stupid boat. It didn't matter what I did, I could not control the direction of the kayak. We were just heading off wherever and I couldn't get it to turn back the way I thought it should. I was very frutstrated by the whole thing. The guy in my boat was very nice and encouraging, but I just couldn't do it. I was doing exactly what they were telling me to do, but it made no difference whatsoever in the direction of the boat. It didn't help that there were like 8 other kayaks of new people in the same area. It did kind of seem like we'd get going and someone would ram into us (it was like bumper boats at Celebration Station).
Finally, we were done and got to get out of the boat. I was so relieved to be done with trying to steer. Getting out was equally eventful to the trading places adventure. We hauled the boats back up to the top of the hill where we had started. Then the cold set in. See, when you're paddling, you're splashing water everywhere. Not big splashes, but the water drips all over you. And I was getting my hands into the water trying to steer the boat (unsuccessfully everytime...I should have saved my hands the trouble). I don't know why this was a surprise to me, but it was. I was soaked to the bone everywhere but my head...don't know how it escaped the water, but it did. And the temperature had dropped, as it tends to do when the sun goes down. So, I was freezing. Really, really freezing. I could barely move once we got the kayak deflated and I got all the stuff back in my car.
Our coach started us on some other workout that included running up and down a hill again. Since my shoes were soaked all the way through, I decided to bail on running. I got in my car and headed home...my teeth were chattering because I was so cold! Once I got home and out of my car, I took off my shoes and socks and left them in the garage. I forgot about them until this morning. I went to check on them and they are still soaking wet!
All in all, kayaking is my least favorite thing so far. Probably because I'm not good at it, but I think also because of how wet and cold you get. I am really a girly-girl. I do not like mud. But, it seems that I better get to liking it because I'm going to get to experience a lot more of it over the next 10 weeks!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Adventure Racing Day Two
So, I have decided that I am insane. Not as insane as my coaches in my Adventure Racing (AR) training program, but I am still insane. I decided this last night as I was wandering around Memorial Park in 40 degree weather in a slight mist. Last night was the first night of our Navigation (or Orienteering) practice. We get a grid map and a UTM ruler, along with coordinates of points that have been set up along the course. We have to find the points and write down the letter that is on a baton that is tied to a tree at those points. At one of the points last night, there were prizes and I got a compass! It took my partner and I an hour and fifteen minutes to find all of these points. And I'm pretty sure last night was an easy night. The navigation was in Memorial Park, along the running loop. Only they are all about 50 to 100 meters off the trail. I really was pushing tree limbs out of my face to walk to the points. We ran in between them (thank goodness because it only got colder!). There were 5 points we had to find and none of them were easy. Fortunately, my partner had done one AR before, so he had some tips on what to do. I actually do like the concept of having to find stuff using a map and coordinates, but it is just way too muddy in all these places for a sane person to be at night. Oh, did I mention that it was dark the whole time?
All in all, I am enjoying my AR training. It's just funny how I ended up getting into it and all the stuff I need to get to support it. I am now the proud owner of a Sevylor (inflatable) kayak, 2 inflatable seats, a life jacket, and a kayak paddle. Actually got a good deal on them from a former AR trainee that won't be using them again.
So, nothing else exciting going on. I'm running my last long run to prepare for the Austin Half-Marathon, which is on February 18th, this weekend. I think we're going to run 12 miles, plus the Kemah bridge. Once we get through all of that, we'll have run more than the actual half. That's fine, though, because the race will have more hills, so longer distance will help us. I can't wait!
All in all, I am enjoying my AR training. It's just funny how I ended up getting into it and all the stuff I need to get to support it. I am now the proud owner of a Sevylor (inflatable) kayak, 2 inflatable seats, a life jacket, and a kayak paddle. Actually got a good deal on them from a former AR trainee that won't be using them again.
So, nothing else exciting going on. I'm running my last long run to prepare for the Austin Half-Marathon, which is on February 18th, this weekend. I think we're going to run 12 miles, plus the Kemah bridge. Once we get through all of that, we'll have run more than the actual half. That's fine, though, because the race will have more hills, so longer distance will help us. I can't wait!
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