Anniversary- 1 Year Out

Happy Birthday to me.

Just kidding- don't send birthday wishes.

It is, though, the 1 year anniversary of my right knee surgery!!!! It feels like my birthday- such a great day! I am able to run and grateful for everything that I am able to do physically.

This morning the girls ran for MC at the Race for the Cure 5k. We love you MC!!!!!

And thank you knee for holding up. I am finally starting to run again!

Another fun Saturday night at Miriam and Richard's wedding. Here is part of my co-ed soccer team.
And my soccer team chicas!!!!!! Thank you knees for letting me play another season and for holding up even when I can't control myself and slide tackle big guys.

Morning View

I woke up this morning to ride, and steady 25 mph winds this morning left me on the trainer. Well, the winds actually put me back in bed, and I had to force myself back up an hour later to get on the trainer. Dave was chanting "ha ha, ha ha! winter is coming. the trainer is out!"

Nothing like some Simply Stu to get the morning going. I better get used to this view- it will be pretty regular for the next few months.

And this view from my trainer. What good spectators I have! Ha! They are just tempting me to fall back asleep on the couch with them. I will have to keep my guard up for their sabotage of my training efforts via snuggles.

Another week come and gone...I just woke up from a nap and a romance novel. (It was called Slightly Scandalous, and I think I would prefer the Super Scandalous version... slightly is just not even worth it. Oh well, another 300 pages of trash in my brain. love it). Dave is watching LSU and the "Battle of the Unbeatens" at 17-17 right now. These games make him bipolar, so I can't watch the whole thing with him. I am sure everyone with an SEC team husband understands.

Joy was in town this week and that was wonderful. We have decided we should all move to Little Rock in 2-3 years (she has family there, I have family there, Jeremy can do a fellowship there, we can ride and do outdoorsy things all of the time, etc...). I told Dave our plan and he said he is not leaving me along with Joy to plan anymore. Alas Joy has returned to her "new home" in Los Gordos. Haven't heard of Los Gordos? Geography was never my strong point (nor is history) and I actually told someone that Joy lived in Los Gordos, so that is my new big joke on my dumb self. (She actually lives in Alamogordo and shops in Las Cruces...).
Saw Joy and Jeremy off last night with a few drinks and sushi. Bye bye! See you around Thanksgiving!

Today I rode Trinity and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. Before Nationals, I rode Trinity to get in a little suffering before the race and to work hard. I don't seem to have the same mentality out there now, and it is not easy to maintain big effort riding with no race on the horizon. But, I hate to not ride when we are blessed with the sun. I got gapped today on the big effort (thanks JT- that effort was sweet)- and ouch if a guy behind me wasn't pissed- and he made sure I knew it (although he and the other guys behind me offered no assistance in catching the group...and then they just totally dropped off the ride). So I got aero, caught a handful of guys ahead of me in the next few miles and we got a small group to the store to rejoin the big group. So, I am batting like 75% now as my keeping up rate, whereas I was at 90%, but I am still loving it.

Tomorrow is the RRS 10 miler. Two weeks ago I ran pretty quickly, but tomorrow I am just going to get in some miles. In the past two weeks I never made it over 4 miles in training, so no need to try to race or drop my time tomorrow. I did, however, take 30 seconds per mile off of my 3 x 1 mile repeats with Caroline and Rachel this week, so that was positive.

And that is it in my boring world of training. It seems as thought LSU is going to lose, so Dave is probably going to be all grumpy for the rest of the night. I could use another Saints win tomorrow to put the household energy in good order.

On Playing Like A Youngster and Disposable Income...?

I spent some great time with my family in Little Rock today. I got to watch Anna throw some pitches and then hang out with my family and her team in between games. (By the way, think you're tired? Sometimes they play tournaments till 2:00am...and they are 12- years old).

I LOVE hanging out with my Arkansas family. I would move to Arkansas if Dave would allow it- I love it there. It is my home away from home. Plus I want to be permanently adopted by my aunt and uncle.

So Anna's team happened to be 1W-1L when I left for the day, with at least one more game to play. I got to watch them roll their eyes on the field during a loss and get lectured by the coach. So funny- I remember doing that. They are learning how to lose and still keep a focused attitude (not easy to teach!). But, as we all have learned at one time or another, if you keep your head in the right place, you just may turn your game around. Lose your focus, and you have lost the battle.

Of course in between games they were searching for different shaped rocks. How easily they can let things go! We all need to train and play in the moment and then move on just like our younger counterparts.

I came home for "date night." It had an interesting start, as Dave had planned date night (a week ago when he was proving how romantic he can be) and then forgot we had it. I don't think you can teach an old dog new tricks, and I think I can count on my hands our "dates" in college. We ended up at Pete and Sams (always a good choice if you like to BYOW). So we end up talking about money- GREAT topic for date night as we are broke and mainly because I chose to go to college for 11 years with 3 degrees- 1 of which I use. And we will be in debt forever.

And I have this triathlon wish list- and it sounds reasonable to me. But again, I am the very educated debt creator and I don't have a leg to stand on. I want to race- go to the big races- get a coach- get race wheels- just the basic stuff, right? I promise to ride my bike forever! And Dave is just laughing in my face (but not a ha- ha laugh, but a dark, sinister, "no way in hell" laugh).

I bargain. I will start working extra shifts and take on a second job. I will use all of my fun money and will not ever stop at Chik-fil-A again. This is where Dave really chimed in. "If you spend any money on this stuff and I see junk food in the pantry I am throwing it out and you are in big trouble. You can't tell me you want all of this triathlon stuff and then eat crap." I agree, as I bring my glass of wine to my mouth- just a few more empty calories, please.

I do play powerball every week, so maybe my "disposable income" is right around the corner. I will pay off all of the student loans, buy Dave a new soccer bag and let him order as many satellite channels as he wants, and then sink the rest into all of my triathlon crap.

Date night ended with full tummies but nothing fulfilled on my wish list. So, the plotting continues....

Addicted-

So I have this opportunity to do something really cool- go with my gut kind of thing. Something that makes me feel really excited and happy and yes!!!

And then the proposed day was Saturday.

And my first thoughts.... "but I have a run planned with Gina!" "but I can't miss the Trinity ride!"

I can't miss all of the things that are so fun! And it has really all been fun lately. The more fun it is, the more I do. It reminds me of when I was a little kid and used to show horses. If it would rain on a Saturday and I had to miss riding/showing time, it was the end of the world to me. I was so unhappy and sad. I would cry. I was truly, profoundly sad. How could I miss a single day of something so great?

Because it was more fun than anything else in the whole world. And right now training with my friends is more fun than anything else in the whole world! :))))))

Speaking of training friends- Joy is coming in town to see me this Friday! (okay, to see her family, but I am totally going to monopolize her time while she is here!!!!!!). And, don't forget if you didn't already know- Girls' Ride 9:00 Sun from Miss Cordelias. (No Jarred, you cannot come).

It is Sunday afternoon- complete nap time. Even my coffee is not convincing me to stay awake right now. The weekend has been full and wonderful. If I could just find a way to make my week as fun as my weekend...

A few glimpses-

Friday night girls night: make-up and Merlot

Rebekah, my sister as well as our Mary-Kay make-up fabulous consultant. She made our night fun with some make-up and skin-care lessons. She has always been great with make-up and is enjoying her new work with Mary Kay. I am proud of her. (and of course we are like alter-egos as I hardly ever wear make-up.)

Lavonne and Marissa

Jeanie and Laura

Kathy and me

Okay- so once make-up lessons were over, Dave and Justin came over and crashed the party. It was fun :)

So once again I got maybe 5 hours of sleep on Friday night and then turned around to ride my bike early on Saturday. Following the ride, I planted myself in my bed with IM Hawaii and did not move except to eat dinner. Laura joined in on the lazy day fun.

One computer for tracking, one computer to watch the race, mimosas, jelly beans, one good friend, and a cheetah blanket are all you need to have a fabulous day watching IM. I enjoyed cheering all of my friends, especially Maggi Finley, Mark Newman, Kerrie, and Angela. I am so proud of you guys!!!! The ironman is never easy- you guys are awesome.

Again- just about 6 hours of sleep and then the 10-miler this morning at Shelby Forest. Well, 10.19 miles for me...or an extra 1:15 of running since I cannot run tangents, apparently. I even had a guy come up to me at mile 7 and explain to me that he had been watching me take the long way around the course and he started to point out the tangents to me. Ha! I think I was in la-la land. All I know is I ran 10.19 miles at an even pace- started around 7:45 and avg was 7:40 so some things are going right for me with pacing. I continue to remind myself that I am looking for strength and good form, not speed when I run right now. It is good as I could care less what pace others are running and maybe the speed will come around next year or so. Or maybe not, but let's hope it does! It is really refreshing to not "know my competition" out there. I can't even point out may of the girls in my age group now, so I get to continue to run with the clock and just do my thing. It has taken me almost exactly one year to run 10 miles- I am really excited to be in the double digits (barely!) again.

But now my body is telling me to take a nap- so off of the computer I go. Again, congrats to all the IM racers this weekend- as well as the Chicago marathon runners. :)

Does anyone else have trouble writing a post when too many days have passed? I can never figure out what to say...too many thoughts, events, etc.

I am kind of in no-man's land right now. I don't have any races left for the year- and heck, I am not even doing a marathon or half marathon so I REALLY don't have anything on the calendar. It is hard to plan the week when you don't have a goal in hand.

Last week I still felt great and fired up. I gave myself permission to sleep in or do whatever I wanted. I kept choosing the hard effort workouts. ? By Saturday I was toast, and I was treated to my first introduction into true suffering at Trinity. And I mean true suffering. My legs have never felt that sort of pain on the bike. It was not my intention to suffer the week after racing, but it was fun and well worth it.

The true treat of the week was running for the first time ever on the Yellow Trail with Rooney. Five months ago I could not run on the trail because it hurt my knee too much. I couldn't even make it 1 mile. Now I am able to trail run- and with my favorite buddy. I felt like crying tear of joy while we were running....it was just amazing to be running with my dog through the woods. It was a moment where everything in my life was the way it was supposed to be. I didn't have to prove to anyone that I was running well- no facebook status update, no Garmin link to show my pace- just me and Rooney, having the best day ever...running with big ol' grins on our faces.

So anyways, back to this week. I am starting to chill a little bit. I know that I want to spend the fall on my bike while the weather is still welcoming. I want to spend the winter months focusing on my swim and trying to continue to build my run. I also want to work on strength, motor coordination with my right leg, and flexibility. So, I have some general things going on inside of my head....just putting them together and in a sensible order is the tough part.

Tonight- soccer game. Not sensible, but a whole lot of fun (if you like that feeling of having your body crushed, which I do).
:)