March 2008 Archives

Yesterday I completed the Lonestar Quarter Ironman down in Galveston, my first triathlon of the season. It went very well! I missed taking 3rd place in the Athena cateogy by -- get this -- 15 lousy seconds! And I didn't even finish 4th. I finish 5th, with my friend Cathy ahead of me by 15 seconds -- and the 3rd place finisher ahead of her by literally a step. I knew they were there, but I couldn't match their finish. I tried, but their kicks in the last tenth of a mile left me in the dust. But that was the only negative on an otherwise fantastic day, and I'm not upset about it, because I had a better race than I expected! I'm pumped! I beat my 3:20-3:30 predicated finish by almost 10 minutes!

Here's the breakdown:

0.6 mile swim - 22:19
T1 - 3:10
28 mile bike - 1:32:39
T2 - 1:14
6.5 mile run - 1:11:30

Total - 3:10:56

My swim time was a little slower than normal, but realistically I expected that. I haven't spent enough time in the pool lately and it showed. Also, I got really nervous before the race started -- which I didn't expect. Something about the first race of the year plus the general excitement surrounding an event as big as Lonestar gave me butterflies, and it was a good 5 minutes into the swim before I really calmed down and got my breathing under control. I had to do way too much breaststroke to get my breathing settled. With more pool time, that should've been more like 19:00, but that's ok. I just wasn't feeling the swim today.

I didn't wear a watch in the swim, so I had no idea how I'd done. I felt much stronger at the end than at the beginning though, so I left the water feeling good. Last year I really took my time in transition and spent something like 7:00 there. Not so this year! Last year I worked on improving my transitions and it showed today with my 3:10 T1 time. And that was with me doing brisk walking instead of running into the transition area from the swim exit (a distance of almost a tenth of a mile).

I had a few moments of trouble getting my shoes clipped into my bike pedals but soon I was off. It was windy, as it always is in Galveston, but the winds were not as strong as last year and they weren't aligned with the road. Instead, it was a direct crosswind -- so direct that I got no wind help in either direction and average the same speed the entire time. I covered the first 14 miles in 46:00 and the second 14 miles in 46:39. Without the wind to worry about, it turns out that I'm very consistent! And faster than I thought!

Before the race I'd told Jose to expect me to do the bike in about 1:45 -- a 16 mph average -- and 1:35 at best. Well, I came in under 1:33! That's an 18 mph average! I am soooooo excited. SO excited. Did I mention I'm EXCITED? That is the 2nd fastest average I've ever posted on the bike portion of a tri, and it was over the quarter iron distance, not just a short sprint! My biking has started to improve this spring, and I think it has something to do with the fact that I've been spinning consistently on my trainer once per week. While spinning, I often do intervals just to make things more interesting -- not really realizing that the intervals were probably great training. This week if things work out at Webster Bike (that is, if the 54 cm Felt S32 that they have fits me and feels good), I'll be upgrading to a tri bike. Yes, after 5 years in the sport, I've finally decided that I'm worthy of a tri bike. :) So that will only be even more awesome! I can't wait.

Fortunately Jose padded my times and was there to cheer for me despite me getting back early. (He was there at the swim start, swim exit, bike return, run start, run halfway point, and finish line. He is the best.)

I was so excited about my bike split that I zoomed through transition in 1:14. Jose had to run from the bike in point to the run out just to keep up with me himself! I was feeling so good I did a little jump in the air over a curb, right in front of some of my BAM friends cheering for me. I started racing down the sidewalk and once the excitement of transition passed, I realized I was gasping for air and running WAY too fast. I walked for a few seconds to calm myself down and put on my Garmin (which I'd been holding in my hand after grabbing it off my bike) and then started running again at a much more manageable pace. From the start, I'd planned on doing a 5/1 run/walk but that was difficult. I couldn't run for more than about 3 minutes without my calf muscles starting to burn like crazy -- as bad as I've ever felt them burn before. This continued for the first couple miles, so I amended my plans and just ran when I could, and walked when I needed to qwell the burning. At mile 2.5, I grabbed a Gu from the aid station and downed it with some water. That helped a lot -- I immediately felt more energetic, and my calf muscles finally stopped their screaming.

Despite the fact that I was having to walk more than I'd hoped, I thought I was making ok time. I saw Jose just past the mile 3 marker and he told me something about 2 hours. I couldn't understand what he was saying, and thought he was saying that it had been 2 hours from the start of the bike to where I was then -- and I knew that couldn't be true. It turns out he was trying to tell me that it had been 2 hours from the start of the race to the start of the run.

My Garmin was in multisport mode and I couldn't figure out how to record mile splits, so I didn't have a very good idea of my pace, just my overall time from when I started the bike. So I just kept pushing. I could see my friend Cathy in front of me and tried to catch her, but she and I were maintaining the exact same pace. In the end, I made up a few hundred feet on her but couldn't overtake her. She came out of the water 5 minutes ahead of me and finished only 15 seconds ahead, so between the bike and the run, I almost did it. Next race! ;)

My goal was to average 11:00 miles, and 1:11:30 is exactly 11:00 pace! How's that for meeting my goal? I was really excited to discover that I'd done well on the run, especially since I felt so bad at the beginning. It'll be nice once my Wednesday night class is over at the end of April and I can join everyone for the Wednesday night brick workouts. I need them.

A bunch of my other BAM friends -- Sam, Jessica, and Heidi -- passed me on the run. They're all fairly new to triathlons but are very experienced and solid runners. As always, it's the run where I lose ground. I told Jose after the race that if I were a 9:00 miler, I would actually be a pretty decent triathlete! Oh well. Todd, our BAM president, passed me on the run as well -- and he was doing the half ironman! But to be fair, his race did start more than an hour before mine. And he's fast.

All in all, I had a great day. And I must've raced hard, because today I feel like I've been run over by a truck. My legs are sore, my butt is sore, my neck is sore, and my arms are bright pink with sunburn. I put sunscreen on before the race, but I borrowed it from another race since I'd forgotten my own in the car. Hers either wasn't strong enough or wasn't waterproof, because it looks like I was wearing NO sunscreen at all. My shoulders hurt. Ouch.

After doing a ton of sprint triathlons and one half ironman, this was the first time I've ever done a middle distance race, and it was really a lot of fun. The distances were just about perfect. The only thing I could have asked for is a slightly longer swim (at least once I get back into normal swim shape), but the true Olympic distance swim is another 400 yards beyond what I did yesterday. I am trying to decide whether to do the Battle of San Jacinto Olympic in three weeks. I want to, but I will be out of town over the next two weekends which will prevent any good bike rides. So we'll see.

After doing the half ironman last year and the quarter ironman this year, I can safely say that the Lonestar Tri, put together by Endorfun Sports, is a top-notch event. You will not find many triathlons that take care of you like this one. Between Endorfun and Tri On The Run, the Houston area is incredibly lucky to have some of the most awesome races around!

Here's Cathy, my tri buddy from Bay Area Multisport, demonstrating our job for 2.5 hours this morning.

"Speedbump!"
"Speedbump!"
"Speedbump!"
"Speedbump!"

We were positioned about a half mile into the bike course (and thus a half mile away from the end of the bike course as well) where there were two speedbumps that the cyclists needed to watch out for. After about 10 minutes, the word "speedbump" started to sound very, very strange.

Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and we got to see everyone on the race course not once, but twice! Cassie looked great both times as she undertook her first triathlon, so congratulations to her. BAM had a few racers today, but the bulk of us will be racing tomorrow in either the quarter or half ironman event.

My swim wave starts at 8:55 but transition closes at 7:15 (since the first wave of the half iron starts at 7:30), so I'll have a bit of time to kill tomorrow morning. The other downside of starting so late is that if it clears up and is sunny like it was today, the run is going to be pretty warm. But I'll manage.

I'm shooting for anything under 3:30 for the 0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, and 6.5 mile run. I think 3:20-3:30 is a very realistic goal, but anything can happen.

When Jose gets a girl flowers for her 30th birthday, he really gets a girl flowers. :)

Overall, I have to say that my birthday was pretty awesome. Yes, there was the downer of having to go to class, but at least it was the 3D modelling class that I enjoy (even if the program sometimes makes me want to tear my hair out), and we got out a half hour early. In addition to the flowers above, Jose gave me a beautiful orchid because he's noticed how I always stop and admire orchids and similar flowers -- even fake ones -- when we're out and about. I have never bought one because I'm scared I'll kill it, but I'm going to do my best to keep this one alive and well!

I also got to enjoy an awesome lunch at Tokyo Bowl with Jose, Becca, Debbie, Jason, Gavin and Jen that left me so happily full that I didn't even eat anything else until I got back from class and had a snack and some ice cream. I didn't eat too well yesterday but hello -- birthday. Birthday trumps all.

Today it's back to the same old, same old. I don't have a lot going on at work right now. My cert sim for my backroom rendezvous position is next Wednesday, so I have something big on the schedule, but it's not exactly something that I need days and days to prepare for. At this point, I either have the knowledge and skills to pass...or I don't. I know that I do. So while I'll do a little bit of reviewing past sim cases and the like before next Wednesday, it's not like I have hours of cramming to do. I'm not sure what the next six months will bring. We've done two shuttle flights in the past two months, but now the next one isn't until the end of May and the one after that probably won't launch until September.

Life has calmed down a little for me after the craziness of late February and early March, and ironically I now find myself feeling restless. There's been enough to keep me occupied though. The rodeo left town last weekend, but I did make it out to one show with Jose, Jason and Debbie. We saw Brad Paisley (who was ok; I'd heard of him but I don't really listen to country music) and hit up the carnival for some food and rides. We went the afternoon after Jason, Debbie and I had all run the Seabrook Half Marathon, so none of us felt up to any crazy jerky carnival rides. Instead, we rode the ferris wheel, the sky chair ride, the swings, and went through one of the funhouses. We also each got an airbrush tattoo, highlighted mainly by Jason's decision to get his done on the back of his freshly buzzed head.

Easter weekend was highlighted by a couple workouts in between lots of laziness. Well, actually, I spent a ton of time working on 3D modelling -- the tutorial he gave us took FOR. EVER. I find that my patience for modelling in Maya is limited. I am happy doing it if I feel like I am making progress, but once I start having issues like not quite knowing how to make the program do exactly what I want (because I'm so new to it, and it's so complicated), I lose patience very quickly.

The next three weekends will be filled with triathlons, Corpus Christi, and Karen's wedding, so I should have plenty to write about. That about wraps it up!

So Owl wrote... and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
Pooh looked on admiringly.
"I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday'," said Owl carelessly.
"It's a nice long one," said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
"Well, actually, of course, I'm saying 'A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.' Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that."
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.

Today is my 30th birthday and I am super excited!

My dad called last night to wish me a happy birthday (he said he was afraid he'd forget to call today, so he decided to jump the gun). I complained about how I have to spend my birthday evening in my 3D modeling class, and he commented that birthdays aren't a big deal as adults anyway. But I beg to differ. I know that 30 is supposed to be a sad and depressing birthday or whatever, but honesty I have been looking forward to this since Christmas. I mean, I'm 30!

Think about all the cool things that I've been able to do in three decades. I learned to walk, I learned to talk, I went to school, I made friends, I graduated from college, I helped launch some space shuttles, I saw the world... It's all pretty dang cool, and while the next three decades may not be as dynamic, I expect to do some pretty awesome things in my 30s, 40s, and 50s as well.

Here's my own retrospective of my first three decades. I don't have many photos of my elementary and middle school years (probably because I went through the standard hideous teenage girl phase and prefer to block that out of my mind), but I was able to dig up a few.

Here I am as a wee baby in 1978. This looks like it was taken at my house and not in the hospital, so I guess I'm a few days old here at least. But look at my hands! I'm still all wrinkley!

Here I am with my grandparents in their RV at Myrtle Beach. My grandfather died just before I turned 2, so sadly I don't have any memories of him -- just some photos. But my grandmother is still going strong at 93 years old, so it looks like I probably have many, many more years to go.

I'm 5 years old in this photo, and I know that with certainty because I'm pretty sure what I'm holding is either my little sister Katie or my little brother Brian, as an infant right after they came home from the hospital. (I'm probably holding Katie, since I think she came home first.) They were born in 1983.

I don't know for sure, but I'm probably about 5 years old in this photo as well. That's one of my childhood best friends, Thomas, in the background. Obviously I was easily amused. Sandbox + water hose = hours of fun.

This is one of the only photos I could find from my elementary and junior high years. It was taken at my family's dairy farm in Pennsylvania the summer when I was 11 years old. Also in the photo are my sister Katie, cousin Michael, cousin Pam, and brother Brian.

A few years later and here I am during my freshman year of high school. This was actually taken at Epcot Center on the trip that made me want to be an aerospace engineer. I won a trip to Kennedy Space Center after writing a paper about an experiment that could be done on Mars and entering it in a contest. The other two girls were from my high school as well.

Here I am as a high school senior in 1996. I'm sitting in the door of my first car -- a hand-me-down (from my mom) 1986 Pontiac station wagon. With wood grain trim and everything. Aw yeah.

Fast forward another 5 years and here I am right smack in the middle of graduating from Georgia Tech. My friend Daniel was taking photos for the college newspaper (for which I was a section editor) and he got this great photo of Becca and me with our diplomas.

And finally, here I am at 27 years old. This was taken on the shore of Lake Tahoe when we all went skiing there just over two years ago. I had been dating Jose for a grand total of 2 months, and I remember being slightly nervous about the prospect of having him along on a big group vacation when I was just really getting to know him.

Obviously things worked out just fine.

Happy 30th Birthday to me!

What's that saying? Something about how the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

I've been having the same conversation again and again. It is never resolved and so it just keeps coming back after a few days or a few weeks. The status quo is not working as well as it once was. What do I want to do with my life? The only answer I've been able to come up with is I don't know.

Earlier in the week, Jose had been planning to go to Corpus Christi for Easter and the one thing that made me hesitate in deciding to go with him was the Resurrection Run this morning in Nassau Bay. I've run it every year that I've lived in Houston (along with the Reindeer Run that shares half of the same course in December) and it's one of my favorite 5Ks around. I love the course, and running through the neighborhood. Nassau Bay is a lovely place and if I could buy a house anywhere in Clear Lake, I'd buy one in Nassau Bay. The streets remind me of my childhood neighborhood, and running them just makes me happy.

Turns out that Jose has been sick for a few days so we postponed the Corpus trip.
I set two alarm clocks, and it was a good thing too -- one of them didn't go off. I am jinxed when it comes to Clear Lake 5Ks. I actually left pretty early, at 7:30, and arrived at the race site a mere five minutes later. I told Jon that with a whole 25 minutes to go before the race started, I didn't quite know what to do with myself!

The weather was pretty nice and cool, though 10 degrees colder would have been just about perfect. I really had no idea how I would run today, and couldn't even decide whether I wanted to go hard or not. I did my first two legs of the Texas Independence Relay at about 10:25 pace, so I thought that would be a good number to aim for, but that was three weeks ago and my running since then has still been scarce. I've done some good biking and swimming though, and the crosstraining showed this morning.

I shot off the starting line and saw June a few strides in front of me. I knew she'd just set a PR a few weeks ago of sub-30 and I doubted that I'd be able to keep up with her today, but she looked like she was running easy so I decided to trail her for at least a while. Here I am about a tenth of a mile into the race -- Joe caught me with his camera in my awesome pink running skirt.

Turns out that looks can be deceiving! June only looked like she was running nice and easy -- proof that her training is really paying off. I never look at my watch in the first mile, and soon I started wondering why my breathing felt so labored, and why I felt like I couldn't get my breathing into a regular pattern. Finally the mile 1 marker passed, and I clicked the lap button on my watch.

9:20.

Holy crap! That is way too fast for my current fitness level, but at least it explains why I was breathing so awkwardly. It was right at the mile marker that Jon ran up beside me and muttered exactly what I'd been thinking: "Too fast..." "Me too," I spit out.

I stopped for a short 30 second walk break to catch my breath and let my heart rate come down just a bit. When I started running again, I held it back just a little because I didn't want to have to walk any more. No luck there -- I didn't hold back, and so I ended up taking a handful of additional 30 second walk breaks over the rest of the course. If I have to take more than a single walk break, it's a sign that I'm running at the absolute edge of my ability -- and I was. I was pushing hard. Even though I was looking at my watch now, I couldn't tell exactly what my pace was because I accidentally left it in bike mode. All it told me was miles per hour, and I definitely didn't have the mental capacity to do that conversion while running! All I know is that 6 mph is 10:00 miles.

I hit mile 2 in 10:21. Jon had pulled a bit ahead of me at this point (after I'd caught him around mile 1.5), but I still hoped to catch him again. I could also still see June, but she was widening the gap between us.

Mile 3 passed in much the same way. As I approached the hairpin turn right before the mile 3 marker, I could see June heading down the homestretch and looked at my watch. It read 29:00, so I knew she'd make it under 30 and probably set a new PR (and she did in 29:47). Jon was a few hundred feet ahead of me and stayed there, finishing in 30:36.

I hit mile 3 in 10:23 and tried to speed it up for the homestretch. The mile 3 marker is just when you turn the corner back into the parking lot of the church, and I always forget that I still have a full tenth of a mile -- it seems like I should have only 20 seconds or so to go, but it always takes me just a full minute. My watch showed 1:08 for that last tenth of a mile, which seems slow because I was pushing so hard I almost felt sick -- but Garmin also measured 0.12 miles for that last bit. (All in all, Garmin measured the course at 3.16 but I feel very confident that it was a true 5K.)

I was pushing hard in that last tenth to finish under 31:00, but I didn't quite make it. My final time was 31:08, which I'm pretty excited about. It's certainly my fastest 5K in a while. I know I wouldn't have run as fast without June and Jon out in front of me acting as unsuspecting rabbits -- though I'm pretty sure all three of us were keeping track of where the other two were. ;)

I hope to improve that time over the course of the BARC 5K Challenge this summer, but I'm not sure if that will be possible with the weather getting warmer. We'll see. I'll be out of town for the Yuri's Night 5K so my next 5K will probably be the Summer Kickoff Run in League City on May 10.

I should also mention that this was my last race ever in the 20-29 age group. I finished 4th in my age group -- so close to getting an award! But 3rd place was 29:00 flat, which I could not have managed, so c'est la vie. I'm sure that's the last time I'll be that close to taking any age group awards, since some of the 30+ women are scary fast.

I had the opportunity to fly on the Vomit Comet / Weightless Wonder for the third time last Thursday, and I'd been waiting to post until I had photos to show! Believe it or not, though my camera was floating in one of the pockets of my flight suit, I completely forgot to take it out until the last couple parabolas -- and by that time, I decided it was best to just go with whatever the onboard photographers captured of me. They take the best photos anyway since they've got the good equipment!

I've now flown 106 parabolas in my lifetime, which equates to about 45 total minutes of microgravity (compiled in 25 second spurts). I've spent 45 minutes of my life floating!

Of course I had a wonderful time flying, but I also had a great time working with my team of teachers -- four physics and science teachers from Timberlane High School in New Hampshire. The team leader, Steve, was in the top few hundred teachers that applied for NASA's Educator Astronaut program, which makes him a member of the Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers (NEAT). The members of that program were all invited to submit an experiment designed by their students to fly on the C9 and then use for extensive public outreach, which is how Steve, Lou, Ron, and Mark ended up in Houston.

Steve kept talking about how much he'd like to work for NASA, but here's the funny thing -- the more time I spent around the team, the more I felt like leaving my current job and becoming a science teacher! I'm completely serious. These teachers were amazing, and their enthusiasm for teaching was evident in everything they did during their 10 days in Houston. Everything came back to their classroom, and how they could use what they were doing and seeing and learning to help their students. It was inspiring. Their students don't know how lucky they really are.

Last year I did a lot of triathlons. While I love racing, this year I want to scale back a bit. I'm going to try my best to focus on quality, not quantity. To that end, I've decided to go ahead and pick my races for the year, with the goal of doing about one race per month. That won't always happen, because I also want to do the races that I really enjoy -- and some of those fall close together. We'll see. Here's my plan:

March 30 - Lonestar Quarter Ironman, Galveston
April 20 - Battle of San Jacinto Olympic Tri, Baytown
May 18 - Silverlake Sprint Tri, Pearland
May 24 - COMBAT Sprint Tri, Texas City
June 29 - Y Tri Freedom Sprint, Pearland
July 27 - Silverlake Aquathon, Pearland (run/swim/run)
August 17 - Ironbabe Sprint Tri, Houston
October 25 - Hi-Fi Olympic Tri, Galveston

Triathlon is such a growing sport that races around here sell out weeks or months in advance, so I plan to register for the first half of these races within the week.

If you plan to be at any of these, definitely let me know!

I love that this area now has enough events that I can do races that I really like without having to drive an hour or more. The triathlons that they do over in Katy and up in The Woodlands are great, but a secondary goal in cutting back is reducing the crazy amounts of time I spend just driving to some races. Each of those in the list above are within a half hour's drive of my apartment (with the possible except of Ironbabe, but that was too good of a race to not do again).

In addition to those eight, there are a few other races on my list as "maybe" events:

June 8 - Danskin Sprint, Austin - I will do it if Leila wants to do it.
July 20 - Webster Duathlon, Texas City - I will do this if the Silverlake Aquathon is cancelled (like it was last year due to lack of participants).
November 9 - Ironstar Half Ironman, Conroe - This is a BIG maybe at this point.

So there it is! You can also expect to see me at a handful of local 5Ks over the summer, especially those in or near Clear Lake like the Resurrection Run, Summer Kickoff, and Lunar Rendezvous.

That doesn't really sound like cutting back, I know. But trust me. For me, it is.

When the alarm went off at 6:20, the first thing I heard was the low moan of the wind. For an instant, I thought about heading back to Seabrook after all for another half marathon -- or about just staying in bed entirely. But wind doesn't stop races, and the best thing I can do is be prepared for it.

I decided last night to join some of my BAM! buddies at the Great Escape Ride, one of the MS150 warm-up rides held only a short half hour drive away in Manvel. I was pretty certain that I was making a good decision to ride instead of run, and after we finished I know it was the right thing to do. Despite the wind, we had a good ride and it was just what I needed to make me feel like I'm getting back on track.

Riding time for what Garmin measured as 40.3 miles was just over 2.5 hours for an average pace of 15.8 mph. We killed another 15 minutes split between two rest stops. I wouldn't have stopped on my own, but the others wanted to and I must admit it was nice to get off the bike and stretch for a bit. I felt strong the whole ride, with only a little soreness from the half marathon yesterday. The last 5-10 miles were especially fun, since I was leading our group (which was only two others and me at that point) in picking off a few dozen riders ahead of us on the road. It always feels good to notch "roadkills."

I'm really pleased with the overall average pace, especially since the early congested miles were slower than usual, and especially with the wind. There were a few gusts that almost knocked me off my bike. At the first rest stop, we saw two bikes get blown over, and as we were standing at the second stop eating some cookies, an entire tent blew over. Crazy windy. CRAZY. WINDY.

Congrats to all that did complete Seabrook. Two of my coworkers did the half/full challenge. Hooray for them!

The only running I've done since February 22 are my three legs of the Texas Independence Relay. Those legs went well, because I'd only taken off one week at the time. I know, I know. I'm a broken record. I'm busy, I'm busy, blah blah blah. It's not an excuse, just an explanation.

I ran the Seabrook Half Marathon this morning. Well, "ran" is a subjective word for it. A smart person would not have chosen a half marathon as their "get back on track" race, but when have I ever been smart when it comes to this stuff?

The first lap went fine. Buzz ran with me and we chatted a bit. My stomach didn't feel so hot at the start, but it got a little better as we ran. I walked for a minute at each mile marker and finished the first half of the race in 1:15. I was pleased enough with that but I knew it wouldn't last. I walked a lot of the second half. I didn't really care how long it took, I just wanted to finish.

My final time was 2:40:27. Hey, at least it wasn't quite as bad as Surfside.

I'm not running the half tomorrow. I told the race director (who I know), and he encouraged me to come back and just walk the whole thing, since the course will be open for 8 hours for the full marathon. But I don't want to walk an entire race. And even though I hate not running something I signed up for (and not getting that huge medal for running both days), I know I'll be doing a better thing for me if I do a 40-mile bike ride. After all, I've got the half-turned-quarter ironman coming up in two weeks.

I'll finish that without a problem. Until 3 weeks ago, my training was solid, and my training was for a half ironman. Backing down to the quarter means I should be good to go.

After that, it's time for me to throttle back. I've been going too hard in life lately, and also going too hard with my workouts. I'm certainly not doing myself any favors running half marathons without training properly for them.

Throttle back.

So it turns out that 2.5 weeks of constant activity is my breaking point. I'm not sure that I can handle much more. I'm sitting here doing my 3D modelling homework and hating it. This is the class I like, but I'm hating it because all I want to do, with every fiber of my being, is lie on the couch and read my book. The book that I have not picked up since, oh, about mid-February.

This morning my throat was a little sore. A sore throat is a tell-tale sign that I'm about to get sick. I really, really do not want to get sick right now, a mere 36 hours before my Vomit Comet flight.

So.

I have had sims.
I have had software testing.
I have had load checkouts.
I have had homework, and a test that I didn't do very well on.

I completed an 80-page program for the upcoming Miss Houston and Miss Houston Teen pageants and sent it off to the printer. That was really exciting. It was my first paid graphic design job. It was also a lot of work.

I have had no time for stress relief, which means I have had no time for working out, since working out is my stress relief. It sounds funny to say that I haven't been exercising, since I did a 200+ mile relay with 13 of my friends. But that's the only running I've done in 2+ weeks. Last night I got on the bike trainer for an hour, which was the only time I've cycled in 2+ weeks. I can only hope that I haven't lost too much fitness.

I switched from the Half Ironman to the Quarter Ironman. I didn't want the distance hanging over my head after this period of zero training. I know I can get back on track to do a Quarter Iron, so I'm excited. It was the right decision.

I'm signed up for the Pelican Challenge at Seabrook this weekend, but it's going to be ugly. I'm considering backing out of the Sunday race, but I think it's far too late to transfer the entry, and that makes me not want to waste it. Last year I ran 2:21 on Saturday and 2:29 on Sunday. This year I don't expect to do that well. Maybe 2:25 on Saturday and 2:35 on Sunday. I'd be happy with that.

Life continues at its incredibly hectic pace. I was at work for the launch last night, but I was quite bored. It was my trainee's first flight as ARD Support, and "the way things have always been done" dictates that an experienced ARD Support be there for a new person's first flight. The main reason for this is that a lot of our work is done off-console and there aren't many chances to practice it if we're not actually launching a real space shuttle. It's the kind of stuff that's hard to sim. So I was there to answer any questions and help with any major issues. Of course there were none, and thus I was bored. My trainee handled everything beautifully, as I expected, and she can now say she is an experienced ARD Support! Hooray!

It was a beautiful launch. Night launches are awesome. I really need to go see another launch in person before the shuttle program ends.

The rest of my time over the past few workdays has been occupied by a team of high school physics teachers from New Hampshire. They are here to fly an experiment that they helped their students design on the Vomit Comet, and I'm acting as their "technical mentor." This means that I have to help make sure their experiment is fit and safe to fly, and I had to help them write the technical document that covers every aspect of their experiment, its procedures and construction. But the reward is worth it -- I get to fly on the Vomit Comet with them! I fly with the team leader, Steve, on Thursday. The whole team stems from Steve, who was one of the few hundred finalists for the most recent educator astronaut selection process. The teachers who weren't selected to become astronauts still became part of the Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers (NEAT) program, and they maintain a close relationship with the space agency. I think it's a great move on NASA's part to keep in touch with them and give them opportunities like this.

They are a great team and I am really enjoying working with them now that they're finally in Houston. On Friday afternoon I took them through the control center for a grand tour and I think they really enjoyed it. That's the main reason I look forward to doing outreach and tours -- I love telling people about NASA and seeing them get excited about the space program.

Their team was featured in an article in the Boston Globe over the weekend. If you're interested, here's the link.

Yesterday Jose and I flew to Brenham, a small town about 80 miles away as the crow flies, to have lunch at the Southern Flyer Diner that's located right at the airport. It was so cool -- they had a little "airplane parking lot" and we stepped out of the plane and into the restaurant. We arrived around 2:00, and as we waited for our food, we got to see plane after plane after plane take off as the lunch crowd headed out in various directions.

It was a fun trip for the most part, but on the way up, I started feeling sick after about 10 minutes, despite having taken my generic Dramamine an hour earlier. It stayed at a low level for a bit, until Jose asked me to look at the map. That was not a good idea. From then on, I stared straight ahead out the front window until we landed, internally reminding myself "do not throw up in Jeff's nice, clean plane...do NOT throw up in Jeff's nice, clean plane!" Poor Jose. He had to fly the plane and worry about me getting sick.

I felt much better once we got on the ground and I got some food in my stomach. Since we were in Brenham, home of the Bluebell Ice Cream company, I splurged on a chocolate milkshake that was absolutely delicious.

The flight back to Pearland was much more fun, as my motion sickness did not return. Most of these photos are therefore from the return leg. Jeff (Jose's flight instructor) was at the hangar when we got back, and he recommended something other than Dramamine, so I'll have to try that since the Dramamine didn't even work this time. Not to mention that it leaves me pretty loopy for the rest of the day, and causes me to crash -- hard -- as soon as it gets dark. Even though it claims to be the non-drowsy kind, I went to bed earlier last night than I have in months.

Karen Thibodeaux got a couple great photos of our team as we approached the finish line on Sunday. Hey team -- we should go ahead and order 14 of them at once and take advantage of Karen's deal -- $20 for the first 8x12, but $5 for each one after that! That's only $6 a print. Very reasonable. This one or this one looks good.

I'm busy busy busy busy. I'm writing my final TIR recap in my head, but haven't had time to type it out yet. I also haven't had time to do anything with my photos, however, my photos are pretty much crap compared to what I've seen (and stolen) from everyone else.

I have probably spent $50 at Starbucks in the last 3 days.

BUSY.

I've got to write up a better report of the Texas Independence Relay, but I just don't have time at the moment. I finished the literal running, but I am still figuratively running. I have SO much to do between now and Friday. To start the week, I had a crazy, crazy sim all day today. The action doesn't stop until the weekend.

Here we are waiting for Holden to arrive at the monument so we could finish as a team. He had the fortune -- or misfortune -- of running the last leg! (Photo by Joe.)

And here were are running the last few tenths of a mile as a team! We got Jose and Manny to run this last bit with us as well. We wouldn't have made it without them. (Photo by Joe.)

I downloaded my Garmin data this evening, and here's the damage:

Leg 6 - 4.15 miles - 43:24 - 10:27 pace
I felt pretty good during this leg, though the rolling hills were tougher than they appeared. The sun had also just come out and it was starting to get really hot. It stayed hot all afternoon. We weren't acclimated. It was rough.

Leg 19 - 5.44 miles - 56:51 - 10:27 pace
I felt awesome during this whole leg. It was dark, it was cool, I was covered in reflective gear. My headlamp was enough to light the road and prevent me from stepping in any holes, but it was dim enough that it did little to drown out the AMAZING sky full of stars. I saw a shooting star.

Leg 30 - 5.49 miles - 1:02:22 - 11:22 pace
This leg was rough. I was fine cardio-wise, but my legs felt like bricks. I took a lot of little walk breaks. The sky started to lighten towards the end of my leg, letting me see the silhouettes of the trees along the trail in George Bush Park. The scenery was great.

All in all, I think I finished right around the average pace that Jon predicted for me, so I'm satisfied. I banked 4-5 minutes on the first two legs, and used it on the last leg!

Happy Texas Independence Day!

The Texas revolution began in October 1835 in the town of Gonzales. On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico while the Alamo was under seige. Not even two months later, the Texan army under the leadership of General Sam Houston defeated General Santa Anna and his army at the Battle of San Jacinto, establishing the Republic of Texas.

I learned all of this over the past 36 hours as 13 teammates and I took on the first annual Texas Independence Relay. We were the Battling Bloggers of the Texas Republic. We had 12 runners plus Jose and Manny, aka the freaking awesome rock star van drivers. I think Jose and Manny worked even harder than the runners!

We started in Gonzales just before 7:30 yesterday morning, and we arrived at the San Jacinto monument on the southeast side of Houston just after 3:00 this afternoon. Each of us ran three or four legs for a total of between 15 and 20 miles. Team total: 203 miles. On foot. Every inch of it.

(Photo from Joe)

I will write more later, but at the moment I am exhausted.