puparazzi

So I am just going to brag a little bit. Mother's Day is coming up afterall and since Belle is the closest thing I have to a child I would like to take this moment to brag about my pupparoni.
I don't know if something is wrong with me but at the beach a few weeks ago we were stopped and someone asked "is that a showdog?" I nearly cried I was so happy. Now I know how those show mothers must feel. I'm pretty sure Belle barked "world peace" at that point like a good contestant would do. At the beach last week a woman was walking around taking pictures for a website. I'm pretty sure she was the cutest most well behaved dog there. I'm just sayin

Ok off to get a hair cut since it is more like straw. There is something about the water here, it kills my hair, plus the chlorine, plus all the sun. Brutal.

Eventually today I will clean before the arrival of Lauren and Todd so that they don't have to sleep amongst all the crap that I have been piling up on the guest bed.

I have a 50 mile bike ride tomorrow followed by a 3-6 mile run. Should be a LOOOOOOOOOONG day!!

R A T T L E S N A K E spells rattlesnake!

I would like to share some things I saw at work yesterday.

- 2 goats- yes and the teacher who brought them in would carry one away so the other would flip out. I thought the "baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"s were a students new weird sound they were making.

- 1 boy drop his pants and about a pound of mulch fall out of his underwear. Apprently it happens every day. Ouch.

Don't you wish you worked with me?! I think so.

Moving on. I went to meet my group tonight for a beautiful run around Torrey Pines. We did about 4 loops in the trails along the ocean and I wanted to get another few loops in when the team was heading back. I made sure I would have enough light to make it back and turned around by my lonesome. BAD IDEA. As I made it to the end of the loop where I could pick the road up again I saw a couple and the woman was limping and looked rather freaked out. He nonchalantly says "oh there is a rattlesnake up there on the trail."

I'm sorry, come again????? Yeah so I asked him if he would poke it with a stick to get it out of the way. He declined and so then I asked if I could at least run with them so I wouldn't have to truck it alone. Let me tell you I have never run so fast in all of my life. I kept thinking I saw snakes and it was getting pretty dark so I hot footed my ass (which was covered in my new favorite running skort) back to my group where they were waiting for me.

Sometimes I forget that I am amongst the wilderness here. I did get to witness one of the most beautiful sunsets, with one of the most amazing views while I was running alone. It felt pretty good. We were supposed to run about 9 miles or 90 minutes, I made it about 7.5 but if you have ever ventured to Torrey Pines you would be shocked that I run up the entire hills there. Just a few months ago I was huffing and puffing just walking up these hills and through the trails.

Onwards and upwards! Oh and I guess you should find out if what you are supposed to do if you get stung by a rattlesnake. Do you pee on it? I think i'll try that just in case.

We are very excited to have some visitors coming this weekend! Yay to Lauren and Todd!

whip those legs

First things first, I have reached my minimum and am now soaring above the $5,500 minimum!!! I would like to thank everyone so much and especially my Aunt Elaine for getting my letter and story out there. Because of her, I received my largest donation to date. The bar has just been set a bit higher because I was just given a donation of $500 from my aun't sister in law. She has had quite a rough go at things, losing two sisters in the past five years. I am always honored when people share their story with me. It gives me even more of a kick to get going because I am not competing and fundraising for myself or my mother, but for all of you and your loved ones. I reflect on these people that I am told about often during my training. Especially when I feel weakness creeping up, that is when I channel all my angelic energies to get me going, and I do honestly feel it. I can't think of any other reason that I have been able to complete all of my races. So please continue to share your stories and names of loved ones and their stories with me.

Training this week so far:
Sunday: Was my first time running with my heart rate monitor and it was something else. I varies from a sub 9 minute mile to a frigin 13 minute mile. Strangely enough I go faster on uphills than I do on the downhills. That just does not make sense to me. My heart rate was pretty much through the roof and if I have to stay in my zone 1 I would basically have to walk. Gotta work that out a bit.

Tuesday:


I just got back from another beat down at Rehab United and it was a good one. It was my first time with the heart rate monitor so I was hoping that my heartrate was where I thought it was during the workouts. I got it up pretty good but not too super high. I definately need to start watching my heart rate because apparently the heart rate I had going my entire 50 mile ride on Saturday was way too high and I shouldn't be doing that to my body for long periods of time. Just means I have to get more efficient which is what I am focusing on.

A few of my friends from the team attended tonight as well so it was a rather good time with LG to my right and Marcus and Katie to my left. I actually got chastized for talking a few times. Brought me back to high school, oh and college, oh wait and grad school for talking when I shouldn't. Oh well some things never change.

Monday:
Bri has been joining me on my swims which has been quite fun, especially during the chasing drills. Kind of pisses me off that he is faster than me, but I also have to factor in the part of him being stronger. Whatev.

I am basically coming to grips with the fact that I am going to have to work real hard this summer to combat my ridiculous tan lines. Because I have been swimming during the day, I have some real messed up lines on my back, and I wont even get started on my arms and legs. Oye, not cute.





Not sure what my workouts are supposed to consist of this week but I may start to try to do a brick on Wednesdays and work in a long run with a swim. The crazy Scot is doing a spin/run workout by the bay on Thursdays and I think I may have to start giving that a whirl. Since Thursdays usually involve my long run, i'll have to fit it in another day during the week.



Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! We celebrated by cooking some lobsters that my dad sent for Bri's Bday from none other than Legal Sea Foods. Thanks Dad!! YUMMO!!

You want an ice pack for your WHAT?!

Today started out at about 5:30 am. I tried to get everything together last night as well and just had to make some sandwiches (which I would later forget) and get my food on. I rode up to the Solana beach train station, but had to make a quick pitstop at a gas station beforehand...if you know what I mean. I waited by the bathroom door for what seemed like forever. Finally a man comes out, looks at me and says "so sorry." Great. I get in and start to cover up the toilet and drop my beautiful dolce and gabana sunglasses into the same toilet that this man had just descecrated! Good start to the day I suppose. Anyways I shook it off, cleaned them off and headed to meet up with my team. We boarded the train and it was such a scenic and quick ride to San Juan Capistrano in Orange County. There were about 8 of us there today, and luckily my friend Lisa (LG) joined the group and I got to ride with her when she wasn't smoking my ass. I rode with my coach for a bit. She is a beacon of knowledge, but lets just say that she takes the rules of the road VERY seriously. We came to complete stops at places that I knew my buddies ahead were plowing through. I was psyched when I realized that LG stopped and waited for me. So we rode down the coast through San Juan, San Clamente, and a bunch of other places that I don't remember. All beautiful coastal communities. We then made it to Camp Pendleton. We had to show full id and all that to get onto the base and once there it was so worth it. We basically had the road all to ourselves. In fact almost the whole 50 mile ride was off of the main roads and on what looked like an old insterstate that went right along the coast. I was psyched when I started to recognize some familiar places because around mile 35 my lady parts started to feel like they were about to fall off. At one point I met up with our SAG vehicle. A wonderful man named Marty comes out every weekend with tons of nutrition, water, and help if anyhthing happens to our bike. I rode up to him and forgot to give him an "earmuffs" kind of warning and asked if he was providing new vajinas today. Lets just say that I think that comment probably made his day, and I was actually suprised that it came out of my mouth. My coach said that it is good to get your hoo ha used to it for the race, but I am not really into developing calluses down there. Bike shorts it is! We continued our ride through Oceanside, them Encinitas and finally back to the train station! Yay 50 miles done (really 48 but I am rounding up).
Here are some stats from my trusty Garmin 405 (I need to name this trusty friend)
48 miles in 3:53
calories burned 2097
12.3 mph average
159 bpm on average
sunburn: face and on my forearm (was supposed to rain today so I forgot sunscreen)

I am trying to download my garmin connect so that my watch synchs up with my computer and converts all the info onto my computer but I am half brain dead right now.
For now we will cheer on the Celtics, and head out later to meet up with some friends at our favorite local watering hole, True North.

Big Bri's bday is tomorrow so not sure what we will do for that but hopefully some nice weather is going to be with us again tomorrow!

such a Pain in the ....

Okay so this week I have been having some "bowel issues". Monday morning I thought that I was having a slight alien attack in my lower abdomen, and was doubled over in pain. I thought it was a one time thing, but pretty much every day I keep getting these piercing pains. Now I am obviously being so mature about this and not using the gross terms that I plague my poor coworkers with. Anyways after being woken up around 2am last night with severe pains, I figured I should see a Dr. So I made my way today over to UCSD's medical center for my first ever visit. It was pretty awesome riding the ELEVATOR with some woman with a mask, who checked in before me with pretty much every flu symtom there was. Yes I should have taken the stairs. Anyways after my last awful experiences with my first Dr (i.e. taking 8 weeks to get proper treatment for a hurt wrist) I was so pleased with my experience today. They gave me a very thorough exam and did not miss any questions. Its difficult when you try to explain "ass pains" to two extremely intelligent women. I put it like this "well ya know when you really have to ......make a bowel movement?" "Well its like those severe ass pains like the poop is going to come out, but the pains weren't in my ass, they are in my abdomen." And that is when I got some shocked looks and fleeting eye contact. They handled it well, and I did my best to be as classy as I could. But lets face it, an ass pain is an ass pain. So they think that I have some cysts and that when I get "full intenstines" that it is adding pressure to them. So I am going for some ultrasounds that sound like a really good time next week.
So I am going to have to wake up super early tomorrow around 5am so that I can avoid any "ass pains" on the train ride we are taking up to San Juan Capistrano for our 50 mile bike ride. Who knows if the ride is bumpy enough I just may rupture these cysts and save myself some aggravation. Its always something!!!

Oh by the by, I am on the brink of reaching my minimum and would like to keep going and going. If you have not yet had the chance to donate please consider taking part in a great cause!!
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/VineHIrn09/jmerrill

Thanks!

There has to be a number I can call

I went on a buying spree this week. First it started with some online shopping. I bought a supercute running skort to avoid anymore camel toe pics of me crossing a finish line. Then I bought some clothes, then I bought a heart rate monitor. Then I realized the heart rate monitor I bought was bogus, so I cancelled that and headed to a local running store that offers 20% off for TNT participants.

Off I went to RoadRunner Sports, and ended up with their Garmin 405. This gem will not only tell me my heartrate, it does pace, distance, and automatically connects to the computer to tell me where I went, the elevation and all that good stuff. As I was checking out (of course I picked up some cute shirts, a box of Gu and a box of Clif Shots) they convinced me that I should get fitted for sneakers because the wait was short. Well the wait was not too short and an hour and a half later (bri was PSYCHED) I had my feet totally evaluated (aka more people telling me I have awful running form), shoes picked out and actual orthotics fitted and molded to my feet for my high arches. I am giving them a shot and will see how it goes.

I feel as though I should address my running form (feet out, knees in, messed up hips) because when I was a baby I had deformed hips. My parents had to put a metal rod between my legs (please dont be gross) and I had to keep them like that because doctors feared I would "not grow." Clearly the growth turned out to be a nonissue, but my form is no doubt affected by whatever ridiculous way that dr's thought they should treat hip problems back in the day. Anyways I power on, I dont really care how I look doing it, I just want to do it in a way that I don't injure myself everytime I do it.

SPEAKING OF INJURIES, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I got a work related injury. I had a student fall and I wanted to break his fall (mostly because he was so kind to punch me in the gut a few minutes prior to this) with my ankle. It is feeling rather bruised and tender. Mainly because it is the same ankle that I have broken or sprained about 7 times....no joke. I iced it right away in the hopes that I would not have any residual problems, but it is kind of tender right now. I am debating on what to do today. We have a group run tonight, so we'll see. I do want to try out my new gear!!!

I made it back down to the pool yesterday and am starting to feel some more strength in the pool. I guess I am feeling stronger overall. I am really looking forward to this weekends workout. We are taking the train to Orange County, and riding our bikes back. It is supposed to be a relatively flat ride so that will be nice and i'm sure riding along the ocean won't be too shabby either!

MV

Mouth Vomit

A new term that I coined after my workout at Rehab United tonight. I write this post from my couch, with a whey protein shake next to me and two bags of frozen peas on each knee. I legitimately threw up in my mouth TWICE during tonights workout. Our lovely Scot took over for the whole time. Normally we only have to endure her craziness for 40 minutes, tonight it was about 80. We did intervals on the bike and transitions into our "trainers" which is Scot for "sneakers" (I am learning so much) for crazy pliometrics. We were doing wind sprints, crazy jumps, and a bunch of other torturous acts, and I sucked wind the whole time. We went through this circuit from hell 3 times each. It was intense. I will leave it to my lovely friend Lisa to add great quotes from both me and the Scot on her blog. I kind of blacked out.

Monday Bri and I went down to the pool for a great swim. The water was so warm that it loosened my knotty back right up. I definately need to work on my "lungbusters" (breathe every 3, 5, 7, 9, then 11 strokes) I can only get up to 9 and I pretty much gasp for air at the end.