Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Promised myself yesterday that I’d allow myself to sleep in this morning so I’d be better rested for the meeting on the Hill, and I’d head home and do my long run after work. Did the sleeping in, did the meeting (which went fairly well, all things considered), got home and almost wussed out on the run. Quickly decided that I wasn’t feeling blah, I was just feeling lazy, and that wasn’t a good enough excuse not to run, so off I went. Shaved 4 minutes off the 6.6 mile loop I’m currently using for my long run, which felt pretty good.

After the meeting on the Hill and subsequent conversations with my various supervisors, I feel like I have a better grasp on what I’m doing to tighten up this memo. Tomorrow is all about editing and tightening, so it should be interesting. I think we’ve tracked it all down, we just have to do more than just describe the law now (synthesis!).

BC arrived safely in England and seems to be happy to being visiting his relatives there. That was happy news via SMS this morning.

Hopefully it’ll be warm enough in the morning to ride.

A tad too much beer at the club holiday happy hour, but hey, I can breathe, so I’m good.

Chatted with a bunch of folks, both club business and not, and it was a ton of fun. Tomorrow may hurt (as yet to be determined), but tonight was worth it. I’m psyched about next year’s race season, and next year’s new triathlete program. It’s going to be a good one, we’ve learned a lot these last 3 seasons, and number 4 is going to be great.

Tomorrow’s it until next Thursday, and next week and the week after are 2 day work weeks for me – the joys of having some leave built up and not being afraid to use it.

So, if all goes right in a year I’ll have finished an Ironman race. Let’s let that sink in. An Ironman. Wow. This is definitely a big deal.

A 2.4 mile swim to start, 112 miles on the bike in the middle, then 26.2 miles of running, a full marathon at the end. It’s easy to see why they allow racers 17 hours to finish the race (7 a.m. to midnight).

I’ve known for years that I eventually wanted to complete an IM race. It’s all RNJTM‘s fault – he generously took me up to see him race his 3rd 4th IM Canada in 1999 and ever since it’s been sitting in the back of my brain, waiting for the right time to happen. When IM Arizona announced a second race in 2008, with easy online registration, well, I jumped at it. After an hour or so of contemplation, that is.

This isn’t something one can enter into lightly – it’s going to involve a lot of time, and a lot of foregoing of other activities. Folks who’ve done marathons know what I’m talking about – early bed times, not going out drinking with friends, and lots of time on the road. Just add “in the pool and on the bike” to the “on the road” part.

I know where my first steps are, getting back to my regular exercise routine, reducing my caffeine and alcohol intake, and spending some quality time working on swimming technique. The swim is my big limiter (along with nutrition) – if I can keep my heart rate down during the swim, not have a panic attack, and stay on a good rhythm, then I can get through the rest of the race much more easily than I’ve done to date. I’m getting there, but it definitely needs polishing. Get to test that in May here locally, thankfully.

Did get in a swim this evening, mostly drill work to retrain me how I should be feeling in the water while I’m swimming. It did help – wasn’t terribly fast, but was more comfortable than it’s been in a while.

I’m still processing the magnitude of signing up for this race. I know I can do it. Might not be terribly fast, but I know I can finish it with the right training. Doesn’t mean it’s not intimidating, or freak-out worthy, but I know I can do it. The fun part is going to be the long runs and rides well into cooler weather here in DC (October and November), then adapting to the warmer temps in Tempe.

But before that, it’s getting the base built up, which is where I find myself now. Wow. This is going to be a lot of work.

Just out of a meeting with that worst kind of bureaucrat – the one who is constitutionally incapable of summarizing anything, even facts well known to all participants, and who must drone on at every chance he can, expounding at great lengths on the obvious.

Shoot
Me
Now

This is same guy who, when asked for a one-page summary, insists upon producing a 10 page treatise. Meetings with him are always painful, and always run over, unless you can somehow limit his ability to hijack the discussion. And he’s very good at insinuating himself into any conversational thread, no matter the topic.

Is it 6 pm yet? I’m done for today.

Lotsa cooking this evening. At least, a lot for me of late. Whipped up some sauteed spinach with toasted pine nuts and garlic as a side dish, and then made taters and tofu with a miso gravy for the main course. The main recipe came out of Vegan with a Vengeance, and it was pretty darned good. Had to make a couple of tweaks, of course – the grocery store only had 3 nasty shallots, so no shallots, and the miso was almost out so I estimate I used closer to 3.5-4 tablespoons instead of three (why leave 1/2 a tablespoon in the container?). All in all a good dinner, and I’ll have a great lunch tomorrow at work, too.

Work was catching up after the time off. Lots of email to catch up on Surprisingly, no voice mails, but that’s a good thing (I despise voice mail – especially since our phones don’t give you a visual clue that you have voice mail).

I blame Julie, but I’ve been wanting to cook more of late, and to stretch myself on my cooking skills. I’m an okay cook, but I know there’s more I could be doing. To that end I’ve picked up the Veganomicon yesterday. It’s the same authors as Vegan with a Vengeance (well, one of the same authors), and I’ve tried other recipes of theirs with good results. the book’s a good entree to vegan cuisine and a variety of cooking techniques. I’m halfway tempted to do what Julie did, go through the entire cookbook and cook every single recipe. It would be good practice, and a good stretch. Not sure if I’m quite up to an undertaking like that yet. It would help if I had a working oven first.

And BC would have to spend much, much more time at the apartment. I can’t eat all this food by myself, even doing leftovers. That and I’d have to actually (*gasp*) have people over to eat.

It is awfully tempting, though.

Burnt out. I think that’s about the only way to describe this past month. After I did the half ironman last month I just quit. I haven’t exercised seriously in that time, running only a handful of times, and biking the same. I think I’ve gone swimming once. The half just sapped that much out of me.

And it’s my own fault, I wasn’t nearly as well trained as I should have been, and my nutrition was sorely lacking. All of this meant that the race took too much out of me. I probably should have bonked, looking back on it, but forced the finish by willpower. Not an experience I want to go through again, and I’ve gone over what I was and was not doing nutrition-wise (a workshop the club held last month was a help with that), so that shouldn’t be an issue again.

Anyway, the lack of exercise motivation has been one symptom, but there’s been a more general lack of focus and motivation as well. Which is not exactly the best thing for trying to do, say, work. Or anything else important.

I’ve managed to shift my schedule back to a night owl one, which was my default before I ever started exercising. When I am exercising regularly I’m a bit more of a morning person, at least I’m able to get up and run or bike regularly in the morning when I’m doing so normally. Haven’t felt like switching my schedule yet, so just been coasting along with things.

Went to a class on core training with the club this evening. It was good to get out and get some more instruction, and I’m feeling like it might be the right time to get back to doing more. Thought I was going to get back into stuff at the end of September, but I was still too wiped out. Hopefully I’ll get back into it – I know once I get started it’ll be easy to get back into the groove, but I need to get started.

Hadn’t seen BC all week. Our schedules hadn’t meshed at all, so we hadn’t gotten together until this afternoon. When he walked in I just held him for several minutes. Hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him (and vice versa).

After a short while we went to go see D-War: Dragon Wars.

Worst.
Movie.
Ever.

This is so getting added to the cannon of bad movies. Thank heavens the theater was in no way, shape or form crowded, because I kept leaning into BC’s ear to MST3K the thing (actress: “Don’t we have a plan?” me: “Honey, you don’t even have a plot, of course you don’t have a plan!”). Lawdy, what a mess. Sudden scene changes with no warning or transition, people suddenly knowing all about this obscure Korean fairy tale, the Tim Gunn lookalike bad guy, it was all just dreadful. It was very difficult not to dissolve into loud laughter, though we did giggle a lot over in our little section of the theater. A lot of so-so CGI was really wasted there.

Checked in on ‘s pussy, who thankfully was still alive and happy. Off to an amazing dinner at Vegetate after that, then home to get in some needed alone time. He had to zip home, but we have a date set for tomorrow. Which is good, since I just spotted his sunglasses on the dining room table.

Prior to his arrival I was feeling quite blah this morning, so I spent a good bit of time cleaning, my default reaction to feeling out of sorts. The bathroom looks much better for it, as do all the floors. BC and I are going to go on a charity run next weekend, so I’ll finally get rid of a bunch of stuff I need to donate, and make room for some folding chairs I have, and my two clothes drying racks when not in use. I’ve been feeling a bit out of sorts in general at home, and now that race season is almost over (with the big effort races out of the way), I can actually focus on home stuff. The whole “entertainment” portion of the main room is a bit of a mess, moreso since my PC is now on its last leg (the CPU fan is making a most disagreeable noise). The two pieces there, the large desk and the big shelving unit, were bought for my last, large bedroom, and not for this space. They sort-of-work, but not really. A more proper entertainment center with media storage and perhaps a small desk and book shelf would work much better.

Not that any of that is happening any time soon, mind you. Debt reduction first, more decorating later. Paying off that loan this week cut a good year off the total time it’ll take to kill off all remaining loans with that company (just two more there). That’s the company with the highest interest rate, so with the greatest chance for savings on interest by paying them off early. It’s definitely been nice to see the payoff date change from several years in the future to just a year and a half (well, less than that, but that’s date if I continue the current payments with no more early payoffs) with the two sub-loans paid off these past couple months.

Time enough, despite the fact that I feel like I would make a hummingbird look patient when it comes to these things.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is all perfectly normal.

I’m in the period commonly known as the “taper” for my race on Sunday (as well as “recovery” from the 1/2 marathon, but that’s another insanity). It’s when athletes ramp down their training time and intensity in order to give the body time to recover and be prepped for the effort of the race. And it’s perfectly normal during such a time period to experience feelings of depression, and let down, and anxiety, and just generally “blah.”

But knowing that it’s normal doesn’t make it any less annoying. Or make me any less grumpy.

But anyway.

So, I ran this little race last Sunday. The weather was near-perfect, with the start in the high 60s and slightly overcast. The boardwalk portion (a.k.a. the last two miles) was quite sunny and warm, however. Thankfully they had misting stations set up all down the thing, so one could run through the water for a quick cool-off. I tried to follow my heart rate for the run, knowing where my limits are for taking in nutrition, and trying to keep it lower for the first half. Mostly did okay with that, but definitely was slowing down by the end. Not nearly as much walking as the last time, though. Pretty much only walked twice (on the boardwalk) aside from the aid stations.

Oh, and lesson learned – carry water with me (like I did back in April). I can sip slowly when I want to, and not when they decide to put up a station, and I don’t have to gulp water down periodically, which was not pleasant. The water bottle stays with me for the upcoming race.

The bands were good this year, as they were the last time I ran this course in 2003. I finished faster (2:32:11) than the last time I ran it here (2:49:12), though slower than my overall best 1/2 (2:15:07). I wasn’t trying to kill myself, since I have another race (with another 1/2 marathon) a week after this one, though, so it was all good. I do recommend this race. It’s gotten bigger in terms of number of participants, but it’s still a fun course to run, relatively flat, and having a band every mile or so is definitely the way to run 13.1 miles.

BC and his sister also ran it and did well, with him at 2:20 and her at 2:12.

We had a perfect hotel for it, right at the end of the strip, and right where you got out of all the madness of the finish chute. Ocean views, and close enough to hear the stage but not so close that it was obnoxious when we closed the door to the balcony.

It was good to get a vacation weekend away with BC and friends. We did end up missing the concert Sunday night because dinner took for-e-ver, but that’s not unusual with holiday weekends in tourist spots. Not a bid deal to me, I’m not much of a fan of live music anyway, but you could tell there was some disappointment at the table when we realized how long it was taking to get food.

Since I’m originally from that area, BC got to meet my family as well, and they were out to cheer. Fun moment was BC’s sister running up to my Dad around mile 1 and asking him if he was my Dad (they hadn’t met), then BC running up behind, recognition, and her handing off a long-sleeve T for him to hold for her (she’d worn it to the start line). Dad’s version was more fun (“Suddenly this attractive young woman ran up to me off the course and asked if I was your father…”), but I can’t tell it as well as he could.

I do have to say, I’m glad the race season is almost over for me. One more month, four more races (1/2 iron, 5k, 5 miler, sprint tri), and that’s it. I need some down time after this year’s frenetic pace. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed all the racing, but I’m ready for a break.

I just spent a good chunk of time deleting profiles on various sites like Pl*xo, T*gged, MySp*ce, L*nked*n, etc. I don’t use those to keep up with people, I haven’t kept them updated and frankly I found them annoying (especially MySp*ce). And I was growing uncomfortable with having addresses and phone numbers scattered around so many different sites. It’s not hard to find me, with a little digging, so why put all that out if it’s just sitting there?

So don’t freak out that I’ve suddenly disappeared from one or more of those sites; I just decided that opting out of them was easier than dealing with them. if you need/want contact information, drop me a line, I’m almost always happy to share it.

Hadn’t slept well, was awake from 1 to 2 or so, so when I woke up (the second time) this morning to the clock telling me it was five after 6, I was starting the day off with a bit of a mood. I was supposed to be at Hains Point for a ride in 25 minutes, and it takes me not quite ten to get there. Yikes!

I threw on bike clothes, sucked down as much water as I could, checked the temperature (52F), threw on arm warmers, and was still not out the door until almost 6:30.

Rode over to the Point, regretting that I’d not thrown on a light jacket or vest as well (legs and arms were fine, torso a bit chilly). 6:36, they were well gone, so started to go around the opposite direction to find ’em.

Found the fast people, saw no slow folks (I’m not able to keep up with the faster riders. Yet.), but turned around and started going in the correct direction. Turned the corner to do a small loop, but as I got back toward the turn off I was going against the wind finally and it was just too much. I turned the corner and headed back home. Total time out, about 21 minutes, far short of the usual hour and a quarter.

Got in, stripped off the bike clothes, threw myself in the shower and hopped out into a chilly apartment. Threw on a robe, checked the clock, saw that I had time, and made a pot of coffee to sip there at home before work. Checked up on some club business, got that done, enjoyed the coffee thoroughly and eventually got ready to get to work.

Some days exercise just doesn’t work, and that’s perfectly fine. The coffee was good, and I’ll get in a better ride when more prepared and rested on Sunday.