Bri Gaal's Blog

An Update

2010-03-10T13:54:00.002-05:00

Well, lookie who it is! I’m blogging!

Since we last talked, or should I say I talked and you listened, I’ve flown to Florida and back. Again. I was on the same Southwest flight as the previous week, but this time it was full of spring breakers – YEAH!!! SHOW US YOUR BOOBS!!! (hmmm, I wonder if I’m going to get weird people on my website doing perverted searches). Boobs and perverted in one blog post. You don’t get that on your normal triathlon blog, do ya? Anyways, I did some people watching and listening and was pretty entertained by the conversations of these spring breakers, including two (young!) guys I caught saying, “You packed the beer in your suitcase, right?”

Oh, those kids!

Friday morning we rode with Anders sans Kathy before heading to Northshore for a swim. It was longcourse and the sun was out! I am now the proud owner of a speedo tan. It’s amazing how quick you get sun (and therefore sun-damage) swimming for an hour. I do miss swimming outdoors but maybe my skin will thank me after all those years under the sun?

Then I got a manicure (which I never get – color is Lincoln Park After Dark in case you are wondering), and then we had some Friday fun and I got to see my good friend from high school, Joy. Saturday I went for a long-ish run where halfway through I found my hip to be hurting. Dangit! Where did that come from? I thought I was all good on that front. Another swim in the sun before Marty and I found ourselves completely ravenous so we stuffed ourselves with greasy pizza and garlic knots. I promptly got a stomach ache. You’d think I’d be smart enough by now to know it’s not good to fill an empty belly with all that grease and cheese, but I seem to never learn. At least I didn’t get a gelato, too!

The wedding was fun and I got all dolled up and wore a cute dress and heels. I got to see lots of family and friends before getting a night cap with my favorite person (that would be Marty).

Pictures from the camp and the wedding are up on Facebook, so you’ll have to friend me if you want to see them! I’m far too lazy to upload them here, also. If you aren’t on Facebook yet, I have no words for you.

Sunday, Marty and I made the long drive back to Cary from St. Petersburg with Tassie in the backseat. She got covered in chain grease as she decided it would be a good idea to lay with her face and paw on the bike chain. I took a couple of days off of running (again! At this rate I will never get back into shape) and tested out the hip last night. It didn’t hurt so I did a bunch of drills and some strides. It was tight today but I had a massage and it was worked on very painfully. Basically, I think I have a weakness (like most) that was exasperated by the half marathon (not cut out for that long stuff) and although I gave it rest I wasn’t proactive enough to help strengthen it back up. You’d better believe I was in the gym yesterday doing all sorts of lateral exercises.

See what happens when I don’t blog regularly? I get longwinded.

Post Camp

2010-03-01T18:44:00.002-05:00

We had a great time in Florida for our annual camp. I always tell people it is so much fun and I'm not always sure they believe me, but seriously, it really is! So many laughs, great training, lots of sleep and eating in between - it's the perfect mini-vacation.

This year the temps were colder than normal, but we still had lots of sun and it didn't stop us from doing anything (except for me getting in the gulf, uh no thank you). Northshore pool is awesome and the water was super heated so it felt great. We got in a lot of riding and swimming - not as much running, but we all did one of the Gasparilla races on Saturday. Okay, everyone did the 15K but me, but I swear this year it was only because I had a comped entry into the 5K. Riding 50miles and swimming 1hr the day before could definitely be felt in the legs. I managed a 19:26 and thought, eh. Not bad for the lack of running that happened the past month. 2 minutes before the start it started raining, so I'm 2-for-2 for cold, rainy races in Florida this year.

I flew back last night, will work for 4 days and then I rejoin Marty in Florida on Thursday night because my dad is getting married this weekend in St. Pete. Back and forth and on the go and need to do laundry and repack augh!

On a side note, do you guys remember when everyone pronounced Chile, 'Chili' and now it's pronounced 'Chee-Lay' It's so refined.

And oh yeah, pics to come, but Marty has the camera and the cord.

Yay for Nice Weather!

2010-02-21T16:44:00.002-05:00

It seems from people's facebook status's that a lot of us enjoyed some really nice weather this weekend. It was sunny and in the mid 50's yesterday and up to 60 today! I can't believe how hot 60 felt. Unfortunately, we didn't get to really take advantage of the warmer weather yesterday because we were running a swim clinic at TAC, but we still got in a nice 2hr ride with Angela (we all just had to bundle up a bit). After the ride, Marty and I got ourselves ready for the clinic and that lasted until 6:30. Then we were off to Steffan's for a Master's swim get together. That was a long day.

This morning Anglea, Tim and Steffan all met us at one of the Tobacco Trail entrances to have some fun with a bike/run/bike/run combo. The trail was PACKED. It looked like a freakin' road race out there. The nice weather and the Tobacco Road 1/2 and full marathon in a few weeks were the main culprits I'm guessing. Anyways, we got the broken brick in and were all appropriately tired upon completion.

Then we gorged at Biscuitville. Now that is some good post hard workout food!

Marty just left with Princess Tassie and they're headed to Florida. Our annual camp starts and I'll be joining everyone Tuesday night (stupid full time job!) :) I can't wait to get down there and put in some much bigger miles - hoping for some warm weather but honestly, anything above 40 will feel great to us.

And oh yeah, Channing Tatum looked very good in the movie :) That's all I got.

Total Inane Celebrity Chatter

2010-02-19T10:58:00.002-05:00

This is not triathlon related and probably any guys out there (husband included) will want to stop reading.

When Marty dragged me to the Lord of the Rings several years ago, I immediately developed a crush on Orlando Bloom. My family got a kick out of this and got me this really cute t-shirt that says, “Orlando makes me sweat” which was a great play on words since we lived in Orlando and it’s stinkin’ hot down there. Marty has gotten used to the t-shirt after several years of frowning at me whenever I wore it and knows Legolas doesn’t stand a chance over him.

Then cue Twilight and you all probably already know my addiction to Edward the vampire. The Edward in my head is WAY hotter than the actor (Rob Pattinson) but he does look pretty good in the movies. When I see regular pictures of him I’m not always that enamored, but he’s still nice on the eyes when they do the celebrity-treatment on him.

After seeing Avatar I decided I like this guy Sam Worthington, too.

And tonight I’m going with some girlfriends to see Dear John and I have a feeling Channing Tatum just might move up on my list. Stay tuned.

Don't you all worry - I'm totally devoted to my Marty :)

That's Going to Leave a Mark

2010-02-17T11:33:00.002-05:00

We made it back to the track last night! There have been lots of reasons and excuses for us not being there since January 5th, some valid, and some not so valid. And here they are:

Took a bit of time to rest after the half marathon

Too long of a long run the week after, made my hip hurt and then needed more time off

Marty got lost driving to the track

I got sick

The weather was really crappy

Not only have I not run hard in over a month, I've also missed a ton of running during that time. I knew I would be pretty out of shape on the track, and the biggest way I could tell was the fact I had NO IDEA what type of pace I was running. I'm usually very good at determining a pace, running it, and then cutting down. Not last night, but the good news was I wasn't horribly slow. But I am horribly sore today (and I didn't run the whole workout; no way. baby steps when coming back to that stuff).

In other news, Marty has an obession with ferns. He's bought a few which sit out on our deck during most of the year, but he babies them when it gets cold and puts them all inside. Since it's been way colder than normal, they seem to have taken up permanent residence in our house. And our house is not that big.

This is what you see upon walking in our door - 2 ferns and 1 houseplant lining the front hallway.

And then since the 3rd won't fit there, it gets moved between on top of the trash can to on top of Tassie's food holder.

I'll be glad to get these things back outside if it ever decides to warm up!

Hey - That's My Dad!

2010-02-15T10:27:00.002-05:00

From the USAT website:

"...In addition to Ryun's appointment, USAT also elected a new executive committee: president Brian Harrington (St. Petersburg, Fla., Florida Region), vice president Eric Averill (East Bridgewater, Mass., Northeast Region), treasurer Bob Wendling (Springfield, Va., Mid-Atlantic Region) and secretary Candy Cheatham (Corpus Christi, Texas, South Midwest Region).

USAT's board is meeting at The Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs as a part of USAT's symposium and hall of fame weekend.

"I'm honored to be asked to take on the position," said Harrington, who has served as vice president of USAT. "I really want to make a push on the youth programs to tie in with the national recognition of childhood obesity and do what we can do to help that fight. Kids already run and bike, so we're almost there.

"Continuing to get our communications platform functioning on the highest level is also of importance, and I'd like to continue to find ways to remain relevant to our membership."

Way to go, Dad :)

Time for Some Bullets

2010-02-12T19:53:00.002-05:00

It's the cop out way to blog but I'm not caring

Marty flew down to Florida this afternoon to run a swim clinic in Fort Myers. It's just me and Tassie for the weekend
And I'm so lame that I don't have any plans besides sitting here in the house and eating a big bowl of ice cream in a bit
I had a Trader Joe's 'chinese' dinner tonight - called Trader Ming's. I love that store. The Fat Tire complimented the meal nicely.
It's supposed to snow 1 or 2 inches tonight. And I'd like to give Mother Nature a big one fingered salute. I'm not cut out for this cold weather. If I were I would've moved somewhere like Pittsburgh, or Boston, or Chicago.
I felt good on my run this afternoon for the first time in about 4 weeks. That was fantastic.
They were having the NC high school swimming state championships at the pool we swim at. I can't get over how young high school kids look! And I didn't overlook the stink eye I got from several of them while I was getting ready for work, no doubt with their internal dialogue somewhere along the lines of, "why is the old lady in our locker room?"
A few songs I realized I know every word to this week: Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-a-Lot), Ditty (Paperboy), I am the Walrus (The Beatles). Gotta love satellite radio.

Getting There

2010-02-08T10:42:00.001-05:00

3 different people suggested I take some Emergen-C for my lingering sickness. I don’t know if it was coincidence because it had basically run its course, or what, but after downing several packets on Friday and Saturday I was definitely feeling MUCH better. I still have a nice, phlegmy sounding cough (which means everyone gives me a wide berth at work) but I’m not having to lay down after I unload the dishwasher.

Saturday was pretty cold, but we bundled up and headed to Umstead for a run (jog). Marty did 10 miles and I just went out and back easy for a total of almost 50 min. It snowed on the way back in! Nothing stuck but it was pretty running through all the falling snowflakes. There weren’t a whole lot of people out there, but of the people I saw I knew about 75% of them (Paul, Barbara, Tom, Alicia, Katie) and it’s always nice seeing familiar faces. Tassie came with us and went with me when I turned around and Marty kept going. For the next 10 min or so, she was completely paranoid and kept turning around and wanting to go back to Marty and check on him. She’s so loyal :) But she almost made me fall on my face several times.

That night we met the IOS-Delta Triathlon club downtown at Rum Runners (loud dueling piano bar) and then to Tir Na Nog to give our ears a rest. I didn’t go to sleep until midnight which is way late for me now. It totally sucks that no matter what time I go to bed I can’t seem to sleep past 7:30. Is this because I’m getting old? I remember adults saying things like this when I was younger and I would think, “What the heck? I can sleep until late in the morning NO PROBLEM!!”

We actually saw the sun on Sunday! Still chilly, but nice and sunny for a mountain bike ride at Umstead. Then off to a superbowl party. It was a really great weekend.

Like Brian Wilson Did

2010-02-04T09:22:00.002-05:00

This is going to be a bunch of whining, so stop reading if you don’t want to hear it. I guess I’ve been sick – something has definitely been wrong. It started Saturday night. I could tell I wasn’t totally feeling myself and then Sunday I rode the trainer easy while watching Food, Inc (and now I have no idea what the heck I’m supposed to eat, but that’s a different topic). Afterwards I was SO TIRED. Like ridiculously tired for riding easy. I went to bed early that night and planned on swimming Monday morning.

The pool was closed that morning because they shut the whole state down when it snows. Instead I went for a very slow and painful 30min run. Then I laid on the floor for 15min immediately after.

Tuesday I ran on the treadmill after work and my mph was pitiful. I hopped on the trainer when I got home but only made it 30min before I thought I was going to die. Planned on swimming on Wednesday morning.

That didn’t happen so I decided when I got home from work I would run then swim with Master’s that night. On the drive home from work I was feeling AWFUL. Stomach cramping, dizzy, achy, the whole works (I didn’t say anything on the phone with you, mom, because it just kind of hit me right then). I came home and immediately got into bed, which is where I spent the rest of the evening.

I think I may have had a fever, although we don’t have a thermometer. But I had on sweats and a hoodie, was underneath two comforters and didn’t have the fan on and I was still freezing. I ended getting 9+ hours of sleep again last night, and when Marty asked me how I felt I said, “would you believe I’m still tired?”

Today I actually feel a bit better (fingers crossed), but I did tell Marty that I wasn’t going to be able to do any triathlons this year because I’ve barely gotten any training in the past 3 weeks and I’m a bit prone to overreaction.

But yeah, I do feel like I’m starting off from square 1. Or more like square -10. I took some time after the Disney half, then screwed up my hip for a week and now this. Think they’ll let me race Novice? (see, overreacting, I know).

Marty put this picture up on his blog so I’ll end with this because I like it and it’s pretty. That’s me riding in Wyoming in the summer of 2006. On the same aluminum bike that I still ride. Figured I get in just a little bit more whining :)

Improvising

2010-01-30T11:10:00.002-05:00

Yeah, we totally went sledding on a pizza pan.

Become a Fan!

2010-01-29T11:09:00.002-05:00

This is a rather trivial thing to blog about, what with a lot more important things happening in the world, but the topic was sparked while I was working (read: perusing the internet). Haha! Just kidding! I would never peruse the internet at work - that's just a joke. A jokey joke. Funny Bri.

That card's little statement happens to me a lot. People send me suggestions to become a 'fan' of something, or send me a group invitation on Facebook. 75% of the time I don't even know what it is. I mean it's cool and all to suggest things, but if it's a bit obscure, could you activate my decoder ring? And if you want me to become a fan of something that sponsors you - yeah, send me some sort of freebie and THEN I'll become a fan.

Oooooh, cynical and jaded Bri has made an appearance.

And now back to your regular scheduled program...

Back to the Track - Oopsy

2010-01-27T13:25:00.000-05:00

We almost made it back to the track last night. We had good intentions and we were in the car heading to North Raleigh – I was on the phone with my sister so wasn’t really paying attention when Marty missed the exit. Yeah, we’ve been to this track before. Like a lot. But Marty happens to be the most directionally challenged person you will probably ever meet. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not exactly stellar either, but I’m a wee bit better than he is. Anyways, missing the exit wouldn’t be such a big problem except that the next chance we had to turn around would have put us in a snarl of rush hour traffic, which would’ve made our arrival to the track at least 30 min late. It was very quickly decided that it wasn’t worth it, and we headed to one of the entrances of Umstead for a short run in the semi-darkness. Marty ended up running home so he got a bit of a long run in, but mine was only worth about 30 min. I felt pretty good and didn’t have any hip pain, and possibly doing a track workout might not have been a good idea anyways (even though I wasn’t going to run hard).

Next week we’ll try again!

Past Weekend

2010-01-25T09:46:00.002-05:00

I didn't run at all this past week. I did a number on my hip/glute/IT band after that long run last Sunday (I'm not really sure what was inflamed but it was in that general area). I feel like I'm pretty good at knowing my body and I have no problem backing off if the need arises (and the need had arisen!). So no running, but lots of foam rolling and ibuprofen. I did swim 3 times and rode easy on the trainer without any pain, just a little tightness. I gave it a test run Friday after work and it seemed much better - but I still gave it a rest over the weekend.

Saturday was a gorgeous day even though it started off a bit chilly. By the time we got going on our ride it was in the mid-40's but with bright sunshine. We went a little over 2 hours and although I felt fine, I am still woefully out of shape on my bike. I need to get that back in gear pronto.

The rest of the day was spent tying up loose ends for the clinic we were running in Huntersville, NC on Sunday. It's about a 2.5hr drive away so we had to leave the house earlier than you want to on a non-race weekend, but the clinic was great. It sold out and everyone seemed to get a lot out of the information we provided. Well, honestly, it was mostly information provided by Marty and Kathy Goody. I had it easy this time and just demonstrated the swim drills and answered questions when they arose. The HFFA center is super nice.

In a Rut

2010-01-22T20:23:00.003-05:00

I don't know, I guess I have bloggers-block. Nothing seems very interesting for me to write about. So I figured posting pictures is an easy fix. From the Disney Half.

This is at Cinderella's castle - probably would've been a nice shot if it wasn't PITCH DARK! All of my pictures look like it's the middle of the night. I know we started early, but I think the later ones have more to do with the fact that it was so cloudy and rainy. I think it should've at least been dawn when I was towards the end. Anyways, the guy behind me was my wind blocker for a few miles. Obviously, this is before I ditched my last piece of clothing.

Not sure when this one was, but I sure look happy.

I was trying to sprint to the line here. Note the wheelchair behind me - I totally don't remember him at all. I hope I didn't do anything rude and cut him off on those last screwy corners.

And the finish. Commence all muscle lockup and freezing limbs in T minus 8 seconds.

Of course, this was Disney so they did some ridiculous pre-race music and speech show with the characters dancing around and waving to all of us standing at the start freezing. Mickey's voice is really creepy in general, but right before a race in the early morning, it's even creepier. I put this up here because I had an excellent spot to watch all this nonsense (similar to this picture, actually). If only I could get a spot like this to watch the Foo Fighters instead.

Week in Review

2010-01-17T15:21:00.002-05:00

This week was pretty uneventful. I was sore, I got a massage, I was sore, etc. The weather has turned really nice so we got to ride outside yesterday. I think it was the first time on my tri bike outside in a couple of months. I've been on the mountain bike a couple of times, but nothing very long. But now it's time to get back on the bike.

We had a Master's swimming social on Friday and that was a lot of fun. You don't always get a whole lot of conversation at morning practice so it was nice to hang out with everyone. The one guy looked at me and another girl and exclaimed, "Wow, you guys have long hair!" Another guy joked that he almost showed up in his jammers but his wife stopped him.

Last night we went to Tassie's best friend's mom's wedding. Cider occasionally makes an appearance on our blog and she's here with us for the week while Kristy and her new husband honeymoon in Cancun. The wedding was nice and the reception was really nice (in the Pavilion at The Angus Barn).

And today I ran with Kari at Umstead. I was supposed to run around 1:20, and she was supposed to run like 1:30 or a bit longer. Well, one bad decision later and we ended up with 1:50. I'm sore all over again!

Too Quiet

2010-01-12T16:00:00.002-05:00

It's been awfully quiet here in the Gaal house since I've been back. I miss Marty's inane banter and Tassie's paws click-clacking on the wood floors. But no worries - they are on their way back home right now!

Disney Half Marathon Race Report

2010-01-11T12:50:00.004-05:00

If you don’t want to read the details, here’s the result.

Total time: 1:25:52
10th overall female
3rd in age group
1st 5K: 20:30 (6:36 pace)
2nd 5K: 20:25 (6:34 pace)
3rd 5K: 20:11 (6:30 pace)
Last 3.8 miles (6:31 pace)

I flew down to Orlando on Wednesday evening and Marty picked me up at the airport (he had driven down). We made our way over to Kissimmee which is where our condo was; we were staying with our Aussie friends, John and Bron – we hadn’t seen them in over 2 years! It was so great to spend several days with them. They were also doing the half marathon and were the reason why I decided to sign up (I got a lot of “why in the world are you doing DISNEY?!” from our friends in Orlando. Although it's a huge race, it’s not popular with the locals because of the logistics and expense).

As my last post stated, the weather forecast was absolute crap, and in fact it didn’t even get out of the 30’s over the weekend down there. To be completely honest, though, I wasn’t super worried about the weather during the race. It was the before and after that I knew would be brutal, but once you’re racing it’s not typically a big deal. And I’ve run in pretty crappy weather before and have had some good races in it. The only thing that was bumming me out a bit was that I really wanted to get a good time. Usually when the weather is bad you can say, ‘oh well, it’s bad for everyone’ but I could care less about everyone, I was concerned about the clock! And no matter what, rain/sleet and cold certainly don’t make you go any faster. But, whatever, right?

We had some fun prerace – watched the BCS Bowl Game at BW3’s with everyone, and had a pasta dinner at our condo on Friday night. The alarm went off at 2:55 am on Saturday morning. Yeah.

We all piled into John and Bron’s rented minivan and got an excellent parking spot. We hung out staying warm in there for awhile before I ventured out to drop off my bag and use the bathroom. It was cold, but what really got me was the wind. Back to the now fogged up van for some more warmth, another bathroom break in much longer lines with Bron before some more warmth in the van. While in the port-o-potty lines it started to SNOW. No lie. It apparently hadn’t snow flurried in Orlando since 1989.

Thankfully, Bron had bought us all poncho’s from a tacky tourist shop the day before and I put my on as the flurries turned into a light rain. Marty and another friend Chris walked/jogged with the mass of humanity to the start line (about 20min away). Along the way, I did one final bathroom break in the woods with several other people (it was dark). I was thankful that I had on 2 pairs of WalMart gloves as only 1.5 pairs made it out the woods :) I made it to my corral and gave Marty a quick kiss goodbye. I was in the elite wave, but it was still quite crowded so I wasn’t right at the starting line or anything. Here’s a picture of the start – I circled and pointed out myself (kind of towards the right side).

So standing in the corral, I had on my eventual race outfit (shorty tights, under armor sleeveless top). I also had on a throw away cotton long sleeve shirt, and throw away sweatpants and sweatshirt. And the poncho. Plus a throw away hoodie and 1.5 pairs of gloves. The poncho and sweats were shed about 5 min before the start. The hoodie was thrown off at around mile 2, the one extra glove at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, and the final cotton long sleeve was left around the half way point. I wasn’t exactly hot but getting rid of it felt like, “Okay, the gloves are off! Let’s do this!” I wasn’t cold for the rest of the race, but about 1min after crossing the line I was freezing.

The one thing I was most worried about was starting off too fast. I knew I needed to hold 6:38’s to run a 1:27, but I ended up being a little too conservative the first mile and came through in 6:47. I know it’s not too much off, but you don’t want to start in the hole right off the bat! I really should’ve been clued in by the fact that there was someone dressed up as Snow White running right with me – she was even wearing a wig. Thankfully, I picked it up a bit, got back on pace, and dropped Snow White.

After 3 miles (I think, I can’t really remember all these details totally), we turned and headed straight for the Magic Kingdom. Nothing says the happiest place on earth like getting pelted in the face with sleet. I found a pretty big dude and tucked right in behind him – I mean RIGHT in behind him. I doubt he even knew I was there. He was slowing a bit but the wind was pretty strong at this point and I figured it would be better to run a little slower and not fight it. I would’ve thanked him afterwards but I got ahead of him in Tomorrowland. But I truly appreciate his wind-blocking body :) At one point we turned out of the wind, and I was running next to him, but then we turned back into the wind so I went to go run behind him again, only to find someone took my spot! I said this out loud and the guy dropped back and let me in! How nice was that?!

Running through the Magic Kingdom was pretty neat, but it was over very fast. Pretty much you ran 6.5 miles to the park, ran around it for a couple of minutes, and ran 6.5 miles back to Epcot. The volunteers were great, but I think we all thought we’d get a little more Disney at this race and not so much regular road.

Back to the race. I felt good, I was able to hold it together and stay strong and even negative split the thing. I knew I was back on goal pace by the second mile and then just started adding :38 to what I should be at, and I was under each time – and that was growing pretty much every mile to the point where I was like :45 under where I should’ve been at that point (this was probably around mile 8 or 9). But then I convinced myself that I was not in fact under pace, but just slightly over pace, because I was off at the beginning. I don’t know why your mind gets dumb in these longer races (or maybe it’s just me) but it wasn’t until mile 12 where the math is easy that I realized I was under pace! And wait a minute, maybe I can break 1:26?

The last little part through Epcot was annoying as hell – too turny too close to the finish. The last couple of miles I could definitely feel my hips and calves tightening up quite a bit, but nothing I couldn’t deal with right then. I hit the 13 mile mark and saw it was already well into 1:25…..and now we sprint. I know I looked really gross that last .1 but I really, really wanted to get under 1:26 now. The overall clock time was going to be close, but I knew I had some breathing room because of where I started. In the end it turned out to be a :10 difference so my real time was 1:25:52.

I finished and immediately could barely walk. How you can go from running 6:30 miles to immediately not being able to walk is beyond me. They wrapped me up in a mylar blanket and like I said earlier, I was freezing right away. Marty met me as I was walking out of the finish chute and he had a big smile on his face, “Bri! 1:25?!” My initial reactions upon finishing are not always the best. This was my response: “Yeah. I’m happy. Uh…that was long. And kind of hard. I don’t know about this Triple T thing.” He just laughed and said we hadn’t signed up yet.

I made my way (very slowly) to get my bag, take a really gross finish picture and then back to the warm van. No cooling down after this one.

The rest of the day was lots of fun – went to see the in-laws and their very cute daughter, met up at a bar with a bunch of former FSU swimmers on I-drive, then over to our friend Dan’s house for a little get together. We got to catch up with several of our friends that all used to be in the running group down there – dang those people can make me laugh. I have to say, I definitely felt validated with my race when Dan told me I did really good. Coming from him made it seem real.

Okay, tired of typing.

Worst Possible Running Weather

2010-01-08T10:31:00.002-05:00

Here's the forecast for race time tomorrow:

1/2 Marathon Coming Up

2010-01-04T14:29:00.002-05:00

This Saturday is the Disney 1/2 marathon. I've been training fairly well for it; it definitely could've gone better but it also could've gone a lot worse. I unfortunately missed some last key workouts last week due to being sick, but I felt like myself again for my last long run this past Saturday.

Goals for the race:

Under 1:30. I'll be really freaking upset if I don't hit this goal.
Realistic: 1:27. This is what I really want.
Over and above: sub 1:27. I'll be really freaking happy if I hit this goal.

I just don't have a lot to base my times off of, so really these goals are based off of what some of you girls have run - very scientific :) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get into an early wave. You had to put down an expected finish time and I put 1:27. Then you had to put a recent race result, and I don't have a recent 1/2 marathon time. So I ended up writing some little monologue about what my time was in my last 1/2 ironman and then a recent 5K time. I hope it worked. Based on last years times, if I can run a 1:27, I should be in the top 10 (or around there).

I was just reading the final race instructions and nothing gets you excited like these words: "If you are driving to the start line, please plan to arrive by 4:00 am!"

Yup, you read that correctly. First wave goes off at 5:40 am, and they want you there EARLY.

The American Triple T

2010-01-03T09:12:00.002-05:00

The American Triple T has been going on for several years in Ohio - basically it is an iron-distance race over the course of a weekend (Friday - Sunday). It starts with a ridiculously short sprint on Friday night, then you do an Olympic distance on Saturday morning, then another Olympic distance Saturday afternoon, and then you finish with a half iron distance on Sunday morning.

This year, in addition to the one that they have in Ohio, they are also putting one on here in North Carolina at White Lake. When Marty saw this a couple of months ago he decided he wanted to end the season with it. My first reaction was, yeah, that sounds crazy. And people would ask me, "Bri, are you going to do it, too?" and I would shout, "Are you kidding? I hate long stuff!"

But then Marty told me more about it - you can do it as a team. The first two races (sprint and olympic) are individual races and both team members times count towards the team time. For the second two races (olympic and half), team members must finish together - and drafting is allowed for the team.

Marty was telling me in the car that he had asked our friend Nicolai if he would be interested in doing a team with him, but Nicolai couldn't commit (he's getting his MBA at Duke right now). So I said, obviously not thinking it through too much, "can I be on the team?" Marty turned to me wide-eyed, "would you want to be on my team?" I responded, "I guess?"

And there it is. We haven't decided on a name - maybe Team One Step Beyond, or Gottalottagaal, we're not sure yet. Definitely the fact that I'll be able to draft off of Marty made my decision. He'll dial down his swim and I'll sit on his feet, then draft off of him on the bike, and then we'll run together. Sounds like fun actually. And who better to handle any potential meltdowns than my own husband who has seen every side of me over the past 10 years? Not to mention he's already done 5 full Ironman's.

The only caveat would be if I get injured, then I obviously wouldn't race. This will be uncharted territory since my longest bike ride is 75 miles and my longest is 14 to date. But I figure with the extra mileage I'll have to put in, it will hopefully help my race 3 weeks prior at Nationals.

Smoke Free in NC

2009-12-30T11:35:00.002-05:00

Come Saturday, all restaurants and bars will be smoke free in North Carolina. This is a huge deal since tobacco has always been such a big part of this state's economy - and I am SO happy that the no smoking law was passed! Florida passed it several years ago when we were living down there, and it was weird to move to a state where smoking was still allowed. We forgot that when you walked into a restaurant they still needed to ask, "Smoking or non?" Well, not anymore!

This guy isn't as happy as me. What an idjut.

"Starting Saturday, Albert Brown will be forced to alter a cigarette habit he picked up at 9 years old. No more Marlboros over breakfast at the Toot-N-Tell Family Restaurant.

The state's smoking ban doesn't sit well with Brown, now 67, who shows a chest scar to prove his loyalty to tobacco. After heart bypass surgery in 2000, Brown kept smoking.

"The first thing I did when I got in my car was light a cigarette and puff away. Is that stupidity? Of course it is. But I love my cigarettes."

Christmas Catchup

2009-12-28T10:42:00.002-05:00

I had to work Monday through Wednesday of last week, and it was surprisingly busy, even with a lot of people taking PTO. It went fast at least. Marty and I saw Avatar in 3-D and you can ready Mr. Cynical's review on his website. Thursday we drove to Virginia where we would be spending the holiday at my sister's house.

Christmas Eve we had our now traditional dinner at Outback.

I'm on the nice list and Shana's on the naughty list:

Christmas morning was filled with lots and lots of presents.

Nice jersey! Tassie somehow managed to get in most of our pictures, too.

Tassie also made time to get her hair did.

And in keeping with the theme, Shana and I wore matching shirts for Christmas dinner.

Christmas dinner is always lasagna. Don't get me started on you people who eat Thanksgiving again on Christmas.

The day after Christmas Marty and I found a park where there was a 1.5 mile trail around a lake. Neither of us wanted to run at the Dismal Swamp again (BORING), but we didn't factor in all the rain, so the trail we found was beyond muddy. And yeah, we did have to do a bunch of loops, but at least it was interesting. Tassie ran about 6.5 miles with us. The first lap was spent trying to get her to not run through all the mud puddles, but we quickly realized this was futile. She got a bath when we got back to my sister's house.

When we got home yesterday, Marty and I went out for a short mountain bike ride. It was sunny and 50-something degrees and there were families and puppies and babies all running around the local park. If it were any cuter we would both have been puking rainbows.

And it wouldn't be Christmas without catching some sort of cold, so now I'm all hopped up on some over the counter medicine and have a big box of Puffs Plus to help minimize the red nose from blowing too much.

Longest Run Ever?

2009-12-20T14:47:00.002-05:00

I think I may have just set a new pr for myself in running for my longest run. I realize most of you readers out there are triathletes and runners so this is not going to be too impressive to you all, but for me it's pretty big. 14.1 miles in 1:46 - it had some warmup, some tempo, and some cooldown. We ran on the American Tobacco Trail which is about as flat as you can get around here and still run on a soft surface. It does have some net downhill/uphill but the uphill is only noticable when you're nearing the end of the run and you're tired, then it's like "where the f did this hill come from?!" My tempo portion is nowhere near where I want my race pace to be so I really have no clue how that small miracle is going to pan out. Ah well.

My sister and her yellow lab drove up and will be staying with us for the next week and a half or so. Now Tassie not only has another human to shower her with attention but also a dog to keep her company and play with. As you might remember, Shana also doubles as my personal shopper so she came bearing some new shirts for me which I promptly paid her for. I'm telling you, you guys need to get one of these - I don't have to worry about spending time at the mall which I don't really like doing, but I end up with good clothes that always fit. Yay for sisters who like to shop!

We Just Can't Help Ourselves

2009-12-18T13:12:00.002-05:00

They were calling for a wintry mix here today, and we're getting it! So of course we had to video and document the snow - I know, I know, we can't ever get over the novelty of it. We are such Floridiots.

Tassie & Running

2009-12-16T18:56:00.003-05:00

Tassie has been putting in some good miles so far this winter. Yesterday she did a double! Sometimes in the morning I'll do a short little wake-up jog (like 15min) and Tassie loves coming along. It's good because Marty likes to roll over and go back to sleep. Although I can't complain too much because I've been very guilty of this same act with morning swims the past couple of months.

Anyways, Tassie also ran with us last night which consisted of some 1min pickups. We didn't end up doing them all because she got a little too tired. I tried to do an extra but she was having none of that and pulled so hard she was practically frothing at the mouth trying to catch me.

I always get worried when she starts falling behind and trotting more than running. I'm paranoid since she has a heart problem (even though the vet has assured us that running is GOOD for her heart). 10 times out of 10, it's because she has to poop. And me being the apparently rude dog owner can never remember baggies. And seriously, Tassie, kicking up grass and dirt afterwards in an area that is not even remotely close to where you just laid a grumpy* is not helping.

Yup, maturity is through the roof tonight...

*Term Marty likes to use because, duh, you look kind of grumpy when you're pushing it out!