Spin Class

27 Mar 12

I am starting to think Jose is looking forward to spring break being over.  Today is spin class day! We got to class a little early and Tony helped Jose set his bike up, I was a nice mom and let Jose use my squishy seat cover.  Before class even started Jose was already tired! He stuck around for the entire class, he kept having to take a break and rest. He even managed to pop an attitude with me during class.  Towards the end we were out of the saddle and Jose had not put enough resistance so one of the peddles got away and bit him in the ankle, he is ok.  Tony even did a shout out to him at the end of the class! 

Once we were done with spin class, I realized I forgot my shirt at home so I couldn’t take a shower.  All was good though, my mom had requested the boys come over and help my dad with some yard work and since Charlie had been “abused and neglected” he went over to visit his papa!  (trust me, the day either of my fur babies are abused or neglected is the same day hell freezes over).  Once I dropped the two legged boys off and Charlie had a nice long visit with papa, he and I came home and the kiddos stayed and helped lay mulch.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to some uninterrupted gym time.  (My mom wants kiddos again tomorrow!!!)

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Weight training 101

26 March 2012

I love spring break, I love spring break! For the next week I have buddies all day, every day! But that is fine! I have a gym membership and there is plenty of area for my kiddos to dispose of energy!  We had some appointments this morning so it was a little hectic (and didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast), after the appointments we headed off to the gym.  Cuervo is to young to come up into the cardio/weight area, so he hung out in the kiddo area (loved every minute of it).  Jose and I went upstairs and started off on the treadmill.  Then we did lower body weights, I have a lot of work to do with that kid! I kept having to tell him to stop staring at the TV.  I was doing my usual weight, for Jose I was only letting him work with 20(ish) pounds.  After lower body weights, we did some more cardio then some upper body weights.  After focusing more on Jose then my own workout (and the fact I didn’t have anything to eat yet) I figured it was time to get going.  I really wish they did not have TVs up in the weight area, but they do and Jose need to learn to pay attention to what he is doing instead of the TVs.  I think he and I are going to have a This is How You Use the Weight Machine lesson in the very near future (This weekend works for me!). 

It is kind of weird… I am signed up for the Colorado Marathon, obviously I will be not running the full marathon (thanks to my back), but I am not sure I am really in the mood to do any of it.  I am just really not feeling it right now.  I am not saying no, yet; I am keeping up with my training, but I am just not feeling it at this point.  Oh well, I still have over a month before I have to make any decision!

 

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Achoo!

25 March 2012

Finals week is finally over and now the stress is kicking my butt! My sweet little germ buckets came home from school with the germ of the week and of course it is beating me up!  I have had to take a few days off of training, but hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a buddy in tow!

Today Jose tested my mommy skills.  Mind you, this kid is 12 years old… We were out eating dinner and joking around he decided to swallow a grape whole!!!!!  Needless to say I as up next to him in nothing flat.  He kept coughing, I kept telling him to cough! The waiter came over and asked if we needed more help.  My sister told him no.  He stopped coughing and started to talk, but he was wheezing like mad.  I pulled him into the women’s room, knowing we were about to make a HUGE mess!  We got into the women’s room, I got the trashed pulled out and the poor kid started vomiting.  I did all I could stood there and rubbed his back.  I was ecstatic when I saw the grape on the floor!!!  After years of first aid training, working as a life guard, I wasn’t to worried about making sure this person was ok.  I was worried about my baby being ok (trust me, there is a huge difference between a person being ok and your own child being ok).  Jose is doing fine, the bathroom was cleaned up, and all is back to normal (except Jose has learned a VERY valuable lesson).

 

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Canyonlands 5-miler

Canyonlands is a little more than a normal race weekend.   We hit the road on Thursday morning; surprisingly we actually made it out the door right about the time I wanted! The drive out there was pretty uneventfully.  We decided to take a slightly different route into town, we went down the Colorado River instead of going I-70 to US-191.  It took a little bit longer but not enough to make any difference.  We got to our hotel and there was one person working the desk and three people wanting to check in, so it took a little while, but she was very friendly and very helpful.  Since it was about dinner time, we took a peek into our room and then went and got dinner at Zax. I was excited when I found out they have veggie burgers! Food was good.  We then hit “the town”!  After a little wondering we called it a night.  WAIT! We hit the pool and then called it a night!!! Friday morning We had breakfast at Pancake Haus. Again, there was only one person working the floor so service was slow.  We could tell the poor guy was moving as fast as he could.  He was very apologetic about everything, but the food was good (they had egg whites!!!!).  Again, we slowly hit the town.  I decided to check my bank account and noticed I was a lot lower than I should have been!!! EXCUSE ME???? We had two reservations, one at Best Western Plus Greenwell Inn and Best Western Plus Canyonlands Inn. I had cancelled my reservations at the Canyonlands Inn, but I still got charged!!!! I called Best Western, and they told me I would get my money back but it wouldn’t be until the beginning the week, at the earliest.  That was NOT going to work (that was my food money)! So I called my bank.  I love them, I love them, I love them!  I explained the situation and the nice lady said she could release the funds back to my account if blah, blah, blah. So we walked over to the Canyonlands Inn (the nice bank lady was on the phone with me while I walked the whole block to get to the hotel).  I went into the front desk and I am SO glad I cancelled that reservation, talk about RUDE!  I need to contact Best Western and let them know about how bad the service was.  Anyway, long story short (after about a half hour of dealing with these people) the nice bank lady was able to release the funds back to my account and all was good again. We did some more wondering and it was lunch time.   We went to Pasta Jay’s for lunch.  Luckily we avoided the rush, that place can get PACKED! We enjoyed a nice lunch outside, then it was time for packet pick-up.  It is a quaint little set-up, works great!  Because of my knee and back I had to down grade from the half marathon to the 5-miler.  Once I got my bib and goodie bag I checked out the comings and goings. After a little while it was back to the hotel and more pool time. We had an awesome parking spot at the hotel so I wasn’t really fond of the idea of moving the truck to drive around such a small town.  We called Moab Brewery and placed an order for dinner.  It was about a mile away so we walked to pick it up (we knew everywhere would be a zoo so we weren’t going to dine in).  We get there, pick up the food, pay the standard 18% gratuity on pick-up orders (I say that is a bunch of bull), and head back to the hotel.  We get back and my dinner is not there!  I call them up and let them know we have food missing.  So we get in the truck and drive back there to pick it up.  Back at the hotel the chili we had ordered was burned, my food was greasy and on the gross side.  We had eaten there the first time we went to Moab, but I don’t remember it being that bad.  Not a place we will be returning.    Waiting for the start Saturday morning was race morning! I got up nice and early, busses started at 7:30 so I was up at around 6:30.  I wore my White Paisley Capri Skirt from Running Skirts, a nice emerald green long sleeve shirt (that came off by Mile 1) and a black shirt over the top. I had plenty of green on!  Left the hotel at around 7:00 and slowly walked to the bus.  I realized about half way there I forgot my gum, but I did have my inhaler.  Oh and for breakfast I had a Luna Bar.  Got to the busses and I was on the first one up the canyon.  It was a little chilly up in the canyon, but then again I had plenty of layers on so I really had nothing to worry about.  At about 9:00/9:15 we started heading to the start line.  The gun went off a little early, but we began down the road with no issues.  I ended up walking most of it because I could not get my breathing under control (I need to talk to my doctor about that).  It was still a nice outing.   View from the start line The views are amazing! I still wish I could have done the half, but my back and knee were very grateful I did the 5-miler.  Crossed the finish line, checked out the finish area activities.  We headed back to the hotel so I could wash off and get cleaned up.  I took a while getting organized before we headed out by the time we were out we were hungry! We figured we would stop by Slick Rock Café, we were seated quickly, yea, after being ignored for a while, we finally got water.  A while longer we had our order taken 20 minutes after that we still had not received our drinks let alone our food.  There was a table next to us who were in the same boat so we upped and left! We wondered a little bit more and returned to Zax for lunch.  Service was amazing! Food was great, they were insanely busy, but you couldn’t tell that by the time it took to get stuff. We did some more wondering and then back to the hotel for more pool time. Sunday morning was entertaining.  I woke up before everyone else.  I tried turning the light on next to me, but it wouldn’t go on.  Ok, maybe I was just being stupid.  Tried turning the TV on, that wasn’t working.  We had a few lights on, so I figured I was just being slow.  I realized that most of the issues were on the same wall, so I went down to the office (in my jammies) to ask about the possibility of blowing a fuse.  Turned out the power was low all over town.  I went back to our room and everyone started showering.  Yea, power went completely out! Luckily I was not the one in the shower at the time!!!!! The power finally came back on, we finished getting everything out of the room and into the truck.  Across the street to Zax for breakfast, made a few last purchases, checked out of the hotel and hit the road.  The weather back was not as pleasant.  Actually we really didn’t want to stop because nasty weather was right on our heels and I did not want to be driving through the mountains in crappy weather.  We made it home picked up the babies and called it a weekend!

Oh the joys of finals week!

22 March 2012

I have been working on my degree for longer than I have been racing! A four year degree has almost taken me six years already!!!! But that is ok, I am almost done!  My degree track is a very subjective one, there really is no black and white.

This quarter was one of my harder ones.  I usually only take one or two classes per quarter (hence the six years) so this quarter was no different. The only thing is usually I take one hard class and one not so hard.  Since I am getting close to the end the class I need are far and few between, so I take what I can get! This quarter was Desktop Publishing II and Corporate ID. Desktop II our main project was selecting a Condé Nast Magazine and duplicating their layout exactly! It is a larder harder than it sounds, we had to get the spacing right, the font type and size, all the little details… I was pretty proud of my final product, next quarter we will be working even more on that project!  Corp ID was a lot more “fun”.  We were “redesigning” a local coffee shop.  We had to take it step by step.  First it was deciding which direction we were going to take the redesign, then coming up with a new name, the a new logo, redesign of the packaging, the signage and finally a branding book (the do’s and don’ts of using the logo). 

This past week has been non-stop!  I was ecstatic when I got to finally turn in everything yesterday.  The past three days I was in my jammies just about all day working non-stop on the computer or running to the printer, the craft shop for mounting supplies. I finished the quarter last night at 10:20!!!!  Today is a recovery day & parent/teacher conferences, and it is back to the gym.  Now I get two weeks off and then it is back for more!  

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Sixth year

19 March 2012
I realized over the weekend that I was entering into my sixth year of racing!!! Which of course got me thinking about the past hand full of years. 
Ten years ago I was in a bad situation but I was fighting like hell to get out of it.  I had met people who were an inspiration to me in a verity of ways.  I met a gentlemen who was an Ironman champion, I met a pompous professional triathlete (who after a while became someone who gave me pointers that I still use to this day!) I met a stay at home mom who was a triathlete (sprint distances), I met an 80+ year old man retired general who swam every day no matter what, and my kids had an honorary grandfather who fought in WWII, couldn’t remember most of it but still had a heart of gold.  Anyway, I had decided I would give the whole triathlon thing a shot.  Well, life happened and next thing I knew I was I was injured and out of the military.  After of few years of ‘woe is me’ing I decided it was time to pull my head out of my @$$ and get on with my life.
I signed up for my first 5K in March 2007. When I signed up for my first triathlon I was in tears because I was finally accomplishing my goals.  Even though I have more hurdles I still refuse to give up.  I might have to make a few adjustments here and there, but I am going to keep going until I have to stop!
This weekend I was supposed to run the Canyonlands half marathon, but I had a mini flare up and I had to downgrade to the 5-miler.  No matter the distance, we had an enjoyable weekend.  The weather was amazing (except for the trip back), I have to say, that is one of my favorite races. 
I was a happy tortoise, took my time and enjoyed the day!



~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Gym Etiquette

12 March 2012

I realize I am frequently ranting and raving about the going ons in the gym.  Today I am back on my soap box and I am truly not happy! I understand the gym is a great place to meet up with friends and enjoy a workout, I get it. But there are a few things I really wish people would keep in mind.  #1 the locker room does not need to smell like a French whore house, please do not bathe in your perfume until AFTER you leave the closed in area. #2 those benches are supposed to serve more than one person at a time.  There is no excuse for one person to have their stuff laid out across the entire damn thing!!! #3 the entrance way into the latrines is NOT a gossip area! I will just hit three today!

1.       French whore house – the locker rooms are closed in and probably about half the people are finishing up their workout and we don’t’ need to be choking on the smell of your perfume. 

2.       Benches – we all learned when we were little how to share.  I have not seen a single bench in the locker room that is intended for a single person.  Because some people find it necessary to hog the entire thing other people are trying to juggle their property and dropping and breaking their stuff! (yes, I dropped stuff today which is my main reason for this soap box visit.  Not only did my iPod hit the ground my phone did too, I did get lucky and only my ear bud broke, but that is money I didn’t want to have to spend!)

3.       I have never been in a men’s locker room so this is really single sided, but I have never seen women gossip more than they do in the gym.  The thing is there are places in the gym that are fine if you want to blab but there are a ton of places that you just need to stay away from… the entrance area to the latrines – when I have to pee, I can only be polite for so long.  Weight machines – if you are going to use it now… MOVE!

Ok, I’ll shut about that now!  (I didn’t even touch on the definition of Same sex locker rooms and that I don’t care how old a boy is a boy is a boy and they do not belong in the women’s locker room!)

Yesterday was rest day and it wasn’t easy.  I just wanted to go get some swimming in or a nice yoga class, something! But I survived! Today was back to business.  I am trying to get four or five yoga classes in a week because I want to see how my body reacts.  On the training front it was a nice easy 2.5 miles, which I made sure I stayed in Zone 3.  The odd thing was I kept getting dizzy while on the treadmill, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to yoga.  By the time I got off the treadmill I was feeling ok so I figured I would give yoga a chance.  I am glad did!  Different instructor than last time, but we did a lot of lower body focused moves and it felt good.  We did Happy Baby twice and I have to say, my back LOVES happy baby!!!!! Now it is time to focus homework, finals week is next week. L

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~