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Saturday, March 31, 2007

I walked over from the hotel to the race site (about a half mile away) to check out the transition area and the swim-to-bike path. I wanted to see it with people using it so that I know what to expect tomorrow. Everything looks good! The swim-to-bike path isn't as long as I though (maybe a tenth of a mile) and the wetsuit strippers were cracking me up.

I walked back to the hotel with the race still going on, and ate some breakfast. I was sitting in my hotel room when the storm finally hit -- heavy rain and ferocious wind. I can see the bike course from my window, and I felt so, so bad for the people I could still see battling through the rain. It made me cringe to see their shadows through the sheets of water. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. That sucks so much. I hope they make it in. It's always the slower people (like me) that suffer the most. :(

Thankfully, the weather is looking great for tomorrow.

Friday, March 30, 2007

After qualifying in Houston in 2006, Sunni Williams is running the 2007 Boston Marathon on the space station treadmill! Very cool.

Jon quoted me in his Run Houston blog -- I was talking about my reasons for running the Half/Half at Seabrook a couple weeks ago. Thanks for asking, Jon. :)

I have been obsessed (and I mean OBSESSED) with the weather this week. Won't you join me? Currently looking pretty good for Sunday, and pretty bad for tomorrow. Glad I'm not racing the sprint.

You guys should really consider doing the Resurrection Run down here in Clear Lake next weekend (April 7). I'll be there, which is reason enough in itself. It's also a nice course and well-organized race. And -- if I'm feeling up to it, which is a big IF at this point -- I may try for a 5K PR. But there, I said it.

Well, I'm heading down to Galveston tonight; I decided to make a whole weekend of things. I'm going to get up early tomorrow to watch the sprint tri and cheer for two of my coworkers who are doing it, then I'll probably take a nice nap in the afternoon. I've never really spent a lot of time in Galveston, so here's a question: can anyone recommend a couple good restaurants down there? Something unique to Galveston, whether it's a good seafood place or Italian or Mexican -- just something down there that's good and not a chain.

T minus 2 days...

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Yesterday at the sim, during debrief for our last run, John knocked Nikki's water all over her keyboard and onto the console. We all pitched in to clean it up and remarked "well, thankfully it's only water, not coke."

I just spilled Coke Zero all over my keyboard.

Sigh.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Last night I did my first workout with Bay Area Fit Tri and had a great time -- they already seem like a really fun bunch of people. I did a short brick, my last before the race, that included 1.75 miles on the bike in 41 minutes followed by a 1-mile run in 10:05. No, I don't know where that came from.

Jose got to do short field and soft field takeoffs and landings last night at his flying lesson. I wish I'd gone to watch -- I think he may have actually been more excited after last night's lesson than he was after soloing! He really loves flying. It makes him happy, which makes me happy. Life is good.

And my officemates can't stop talking about golf.

I'm tired. I'm doing one more swim tonight, then it'll be time to shut down, do a lot of sleeping, a lot of water drinking, and a lot of taking it easy.

T minus 3 days...

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A Handy Dictionary For Bikers:

Wind: The air moving around you.
No Wind: Pretty darn nice.
Tailwind: Manna from heaven.
Headwind: Spawn of the devil himself.

I had a nice bike ride in the evening sun yesterday, during which I repeatedly chanted "the wind is my friend" in a last-ditch effort to make peace with any and all wind conditions that I might face on Sunday. Someone posted the forecast on the Bar Area Fit Tri forum, and now I can't stop checking when I should really be working on becoming one with the wind. I must be zen in my approach. The course is out-and-back, so if I am slowed in one direction by a headwind, I will be helped on the opposite leg by a tailwind. It is impossible for the wind to blow in two directions at once (though many times I have felt otherwise).

The wind is my friend.

My ride last night was good, actually. I did 22 miles in 1:22, comfortably above the 15 mph average I hope to beat or at least maintain on Sunday. (The "drop dead" speed I need to average to ensure that I won't miss the cut-off is about 12.5 mph.) My neck and back started hurting early, but I'm going to chalk that up to lack of any significant amount of food yesterday, since I was stuck in the control center.

One of the guys at work found out this morning during a crazy sim that I'm doing a Half Ironman this weekend. He just stared at me for a moment with bugged out eyes and a dropped jaw. Pretty funny.

T minus 4 days to the Half Ironman...

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I wish that today was still my birthday, because it would put me in a better mood.

Actually, I'm not in a bad mood. I'm just feeling lazy.

I went to the rendezvous sim today to observe, which was fun...but everything went smoothly with only minor issues, so the day sort of dragged along. If nothing goes wrong, spaceflight is really pretty boring -- at least for the flight controllers on the ground. I could have asked a lot more questions, but I was observing someone who is still new enough that he had to concentrate on making sure he doesn't miss anything himself. That doesn't leave him a lot of time to help me out. Next time I'll take another GPO along with me to answer questions. That worked well last time.

I'm alternating between being stressing and just not caring about the Yuri's Night 5K, which is coming up on April 21. I tried to bow out gracefully this year and give the reins to someone (anyone) else, but that didn't work. Now I'm facing a crazy April schedule that includes the race coming up, a grand total of 8 registrants thus far, and no help. I like the running community and for three years I liked planning this race. But with each year, I've had less and less support. I can't do it on my own, and I don't really want to. I haven't figured out how to handle this yet.

On the good side of all things running-related, Erin returned from the RRCA convention in Chicago with some awesome ideas on how to solve a lot of both our membership and website problems with one solution. I am super pumped about the possibilities -- it would make her life as membership chair and my life as webmaster easier all around, while also making our website far more useful and effective.

Now I'm dreading having to go to class in an hour, because last week's class was utterly useless. The professor showed up 15 minutes late, just like he always -- and I mean always -- does. Why do I even bother getting there by 4:00 when he never walks in until at least 4:10? Then he told us that he didn't really have a formal lecture prepared, but that he would talk off-the-cuff about a typographic artist. The artwork he showed was actually pretty cool, but he rambled on forever. Then he had nothing else to say, so class was over at 5:20. I felt like it was a waste of my time, and that I could learn more by doing some extra reading on my own.

So now I feel that way about going to class tonight. I'd rather just go home and read one of the typography books I bought for myself, outside of class requirements. Hmm.

-----

I did have a lovely end to my birthday. Jose bought me some beautiful flowers, and we went out to dinner before coming back to watch the new Planet Earth series on the Discovery channel (tivoed from Sunday night) and eat our leftover cheesecake. The documentary is really very cool, and the photography is awesome. It makes me want to run out and buy an HDTV immediately, just for the quality of the picture.

I ran after work yesterday as well, and was very much looking forward to a celebratory run. Unfortunately, it was a pretty crappy run. I'd planned to do 4-5 miles, but starting feeling slightly nauseous around 1.25 miles. It never really went away, so I cut the run to 3 miles and called it a day. I think I'm going to blame the humidity -- it was nasty damp outside, and that's the first time in months that I've been so drenched in sweat. I still managed to average something like 10:35, even feeling crappy, so it could've been worse.

T minus 5 days till the Half Ironman...

Monday, March 26, 2007

Ah, software. Software sucks. I started my day with a meeting about a piece of software that we use on console. A piece of software that makes our life easier and more efficient. A piece of software that has been acting up lately. Freezing, crashing, misplaced negative signs, and dividing by zero. The solution seems simple. There is a problem? Ok, so fix it. Ah, but that is not how our software process works.

On to happier subjects. Such as: today is my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!

I've got only one more year to be a twenty-something, so I better make it good. I decided that one day is really just not enough to celebrate properly, so I did my best to stretch it out over the whole weekend. ;) Jose and I went to Cirque du Soleil on Saturday night, and that was great. Last night we had a group head up to the Cheesecake Factory, and that was great too. And today I get to be happy all day! Even the software meeting didn't dampen my mood because hey, it's my birthday. And birthdays are good days.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

The sky was gray this morning, and the ceiling low. Lower than 1000 feet. Lower than the landing pattern at Pearland Airport. But Jose headed out for his 9:00 lesson and I went with him. He dropped me off at a good spectator spot and drove away to Jeff's hangar where the little yellow plane waited. I sat down on the deck and waited. And waited.

No one was flying. No one was taking off. I heard nary an engine. I called the automated weather service repeatedly, as the cloud deck began to rise ever so slowly. An Aero Club plane took off to do some pattern work, and the little Piper Cub, but still no yellow plane. The Aero Club plane and Piper Cub both came back, but still no little yellow plane.

Finally, around 11:00, the little yellow plane appeared! Jose and Jeff did 6 landings and then -- and then! -- the little yellow plane pulled over to the fueling station and Jeff hopped out. As we walked over to the edge of the runway, Jose taxied away. He was alone in the little yellow plane for the first time ever.

And then Jose soloed!

The little yellow plane, piloted solely by the coolest boyfriend in the world, revved its engine and took off into the still gray (but with a higher cloud deck) sky.

He made a left turn, and another, and headed back parallel to the runway.

Then the little yellow plane, piloted solely by Jose, glided to a landing on the runway. He pulled off long enough for Jeff to shake his hand and congratulate him on his first solo flight, and then he was gone again for two more landings.

"Look Ma, no instructor!"

That, my friends, is one happy pilot. :)

Saturday, March 24, 2007

I headed down to Galveston this morning for an open water swim clinic put on by the Galveston Beach Patrol. They got permission from Moody Gardens to open the beach area where the triathlon swim will actually be, which was a great opportunity for me to both test out my wetsuit in some "real" water and see what the course will look like. It's always nice to know what to expect on race day.

Observation #1: Offats Bayou. As I suspected, it is not really a bayou. It's more like an inlet. And it's BIG. Not huge, but certainly bigger than most other bodies of water in this area that are labelled as bayous. From the beach at Moody Gardens straight across to the other side is about 3/4 of a mile. Quite a difference from the mental picture I had in my head, which was based on the fact that the 15 foot wide drainage ditch behind my apartment is also called a bayou.

(Approximate half iron swim course in red)

Observation #2: Marine Life. I hadn't thought about sharks, sting rays, or jellyfish at all...until the lifeguard giving the clinic starting talking about shark bites, shuffling your feet so as not to step directly onto a sting ray, and how cabbage head jellyfish are solid enough that if you bump into one it feels like a body. Yes, a body. Direct quote. Oh, and then he continued to say that cabbage head jellyfish and stinging nettles stings aren't too painful(like an ant bite or a bee sting), but that if you get stung by a man-o-war, well...he won't lie to you, it hurts a lot. Thank you, Mr. Lifeguard Dude, for making me think about something I was perfectly happy not thinking about.

Observation #3: Course Distance. They said the course they laid out today (supposedly close to what the 0.3-mile sprint tri course will be) was about 450 meters. I sincerely hope they underestimated, because I did two loops and it took me 27 minutes. (I wanted to do another loop, but the lifeguards were already pulling up the buoys; I guess they'd only intended people to do 1-2 loops.) Now, I was taking it easy, but not that easy. Sure, I was practicing my spotting (looking up every 10-15 strokes to make sure I'm not swimming off course), but that doesn't slow a person down that significantly. In a pool, 900 meters would take me about 18 minutes and the full 1.2 mile race swim takes 45 minutes, tops. Yet today was indicating that the 1.2 mile race swim would take me more than an hour??

Thankfully, Google Pedometer saved me: a quick check shows that the loop was in the neighborhood of 0.4 miles, so that makes my 2 loops total 0.8 miles, or equal to 2/3 of the Half Ironman swim. 27 minutes is much more reasonable in that case!

Observation #4: Chafing. I didn't have any in the pool, but today the back of my neck and inside of my arm are both rubbed a little raw from the wetsuit and salt water. Guess I'll follow that bodyglide recommendation now.

Observation #5: Fog. My goggles fogged like nobody's business. They've been getting worse in the pool as well. Time for either a good anti-fog treatment or a new pair!

Observation #6: Temperature. The water was 70 degrees, and with the wetsuit was really not cold at all. In fact, it was just about perfect once I got going.

Observation #7: Rocks. I've heard that the triathlon will have carpets and ramps in place to get swimmers into and out of the water to avoid rocks and oyster beds. I really hope this turns out to be the case. My right foot got sliced a couple times by some particularly nasty rocks; when I got out, I found that my toe was bleeding from one gash. This was the only real disappointment from this morning swim, since I need the cuts to heal by next weekend. A couple of them are right on the arch, so while they're not big, they're in a bad place.

Anyway, it was a good morning and a good practice swim, even if I didn’t get to go as long as I’d hoped.

Friday, March 23, 2007

In an effort to squeeze much-needed sims into an already-full schedule, the powers that be have decided to start scheduling Friday night sims again. Because ascent and entry sims are only 4 hours long, they tend to get the short stick. This is all a way of saying that I have to be at work until 9:00 tonight. On a Friday. Woe is me.

Actually it's not so bad. This is the last sim where I'll be backseating Bini for a while -- next week she starts simming solo, without her mentor (that would be me) to fall back on. And, since there was no need to get to work before 1:00 today, I stayed home this morning and slept in. It's always a bit of a strange feeling to be home in the middle of a workday. It's been more than a decade since I graduated from high school, and yet it still feels like I'm sneaking out... I guess old habits die hard. It probably won't surprise you to hear that I never once skipped school; in fact, I never once even considered it.

One more weekend before the half ironman, and I plan to spend it well. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Galveston for a practice swim session on the half ironman course. Bonus points all the way around for me -- an open water swim, a chance to use my wetsuit again, and a chance to swim the actual course.

Tomorrow night I'm going to Cirque du Soleil! Jose got tickets for my birthday, which is Monday. I only had to drop a dozen hints before he finally heard me. ;) He is the best.

On Sunday morning Jose will hopefully do his first solo flight, after being thwarted by winds all week. On Sunday afternoon I've got a long bike ride on the schedule, though I haven't figured out a route yet. And Sunday night is my annual birthday outing to the Cheesecake Factory.

Life is good...

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Time for a summary of recent workouts. On Monday I decided I deserved a day off after my two half marathon weekend, so I did nothing. On Tuesday, I got out of class an hour and half early and was thus consumed with indecision: should I run? bike? swim? In the end I went home and rode for an hour on the trainer. As I glanced out the window, I realized that I actually could have done the ride outside; it's staying light late enough now. It was dim at the end of my ride, but I could have done it.

(Mental note to get one of those flashing red lights for the back of my bike in case I do ever end up out on the roads at twilight.)

Last night, I had driven all the way home before I remembered that I was supposed to be going to the pool. No worries, as the pool is only a mile away. I stopped by the apartment complex office to pick up my $9-wait-I-mean-$49 scanner (more on that in a minute) and then headed over to the rec center where I did 1550 yards in 29:31. I also discovered that I cannot for the life of me use my Garmin correctly. Last night I was only using it as a watch sitting on the pool deck and even then, at the end of each set of 100, I started hitting the stop/start button instead of lap. Idiot.

Anyway, this is the first workout that I actually have splits from, so here you go:

500 yards - 5:40, which is actually more like 9:40, because I hit stop/start instead of lap

Then I started hitting the correct button and did 100 yard sets (no stopping between) in:
1:52 - 1:55 - 1:53 - 1:58 - 1:57 - 2:52 (ok that was 150 yards) - 1:54 - 1:52 - 1:56 - 1:54

I was consistent, so I was happy. From those times, I can confirm that the wetsuit takes 10 seconds off my 100 yard time, since I averaged 1:46/100 yards with the wetsuit. Pretty cool.

Onward...

I mentioned my $9-I-mean-$49 scanner that I bought off Amazon. It's the same one Laurie posted about; I went to look at what she'd gotten, the Epson V100, and Amazon listed it as $89 with an $80 rebate. I double-checked. $89, with an $80 rebate offer. Well I couldn't turn down a $9 scanner, especially since it can scan film and my current scanner cannot since it's ancient. (Really, I think I got it in 1998. Ancient in computer terms.)

So I bought it, and Amazon shipped it, and then I got an email saying that they'd made a mistake, and the rebate was only $40. So I'm trying to decide what to do with it, since it now cost me $49 in addition to the fact that I already have a scanner.

Oh who am I kidding. Of course I'm going to keep it. It's new, and I want the film-scanning capability. So, anybody want a 10-year-old HP scanner? Yes, it does work.

Onward...

Last night Jose and I had dinner at Thai Cottage. I love that place. Especially their soft springs rolls, which we order solely for the peanut sauce. Seriously, their peanut sauce is awesome. I got pad thai last night, a departure from my normal. It was ok, but next time I'll get curry again. Their curries are great, but their pad thai isn't as good as Pei Wei's.

Afterwards, we stopped by Lowe's because I needed to get a key made. Did you know that you can get fancy keys now? You can get a Texas A&M key, or a tye-dyed key, or an Astros key, or any number of other designs. I chose a brightly colored striped key. Designer keys. Crazy. I also impulse-bought a mini-greenhouse of flowers -- 6 tiny pots in a plastic container with seeds included. We'll see if they sprout.

They also had a mini-greenhouse of cactus, which I almost bought for old times sake and to amuse Becca. But I decided that killing not one but two cactii during the 2000-2001 academic year was enough for this decade.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Sigh. Sleepy. I'm so tired today and don't really know why. It didn't help that I had a training session this morning. They are interesting, and yet sometimes yawn-inducing. It's just the way it goes. Today's class was the first of a series of three about the DPS, which includes the GPCs, IDPs, MDMs, MMUs, and LRUs. I learned how to do an IPL, restrings, OPS transitions, freeze-dry a GPC, engage the BFS and all sorts of stuff.

See? I told you NASA-speak wasn't all acronyms...

Or maybe it is.

All signs are pointing to NET May 11 for the STS-117 launch. That's "No Earlier Than," which sucks. At this point, I think they should just switch the external tanks. Get one that's not pockmarked by hail. I know it sets back the launch schedule but we're getting close to that anyway.

My mission is cursed. :(

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Busy day so far. I had a database checkout this morning (always fun...or not) and then had to watch a software application run. Yes, just watch it run, to make sure it was automatically doing the calculations we need. So busy day, but fairly boring stuff. That's the way it goes sometimes.

I'm sleepy already and now have more sleep-inducing reading to do, so I don't have much else to say. At least you don't have to read about my running...

Monday, March 19, 2007

Official times for the Seabrook Half Marathons

Saturday:
Loop 1 - 1:10:04
Loop 2 - 1:10:55
Total - 2:20:59 (10:47/mile)

Sunday:
Loop 1 - 1:17:12
Loop 2 - 1:11:47
Total - 2:28:59 (11:25/mile)

I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive that both loops were the same length, despite loop 1 being a slightly different course at the start. Maybe Keith can confirm.

Very cool to see that I negative split Sunday's race by almost 6 minutes! And that my second loop on Sunday was within two minutes of both my loop times from Saturday.

Monday, March 19, 2007

This morning, I did not run a half marathon. To be honest, this is a good thing, as I was much more sore today than I was yesterday. Two half marathons in two days is enough.

The weekend was filled with far more activity than just the running. Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day outside (reminding me again that March is the best month ever around here) and I took full advantage by spending the afternoon at the airport watching Jose fly a plane. I had to wait a while for the little yellow plane to finally appear, so I passed the time by borrowing the Bay Area Aero Club's picnic tables. I had been waiting for more than half an hour, long enough that I'd convinced myself that for some reason Jose and Jeff were flying a different plane that day, when the little yellow plane finally taxied out. I watched and took pictures while Jose did 9 laps around the pattern and practiced all sort of landings. It was lots of fun. I don't know if I want to learn to fly myself, but I still like watching all the planes.

After that we headed to Rice Village for dinner with Liz and Christina, who came from Chicago for a visit and brought the flu with her. I'm just glad she was feeling well enough to meet for dinner! We all conveniently forgot that it was St. Patrick's Day, which turned Rice Village into a mass of people, cars, loud music, and a horrible lack of parking -- but dinner went on and it was good to see them. Christina amuses me greatly with the way she refers to her pregnancy, and how she talks about wanting the baby but not necessarily wanting to deal with being pregnant. I think I agree with her on that one.

It was also good to have another of my college friends meet "mystery man" Jose. See, Carter told me some months ago that Jose was a mystery boyfriend. I explained that after multiple months of dating, he wasn't really a mystery. To which Carter replied that Jose has no blog, thus he is a mystery. Hmm.

Yesterday was much more relaxed; after running, I didn't do much. I did take my bike to the bike store -- again -- because the tire they sold me a couple weeks ago was faulty. The bead had started to peel off after less than 100 miles, and resulted in a "lump" on one side of the tire. They replaced it without a question. I also talked to them about my aerobars, and the guy suggested that I buy a different kind of aerobars that have some flexibility in how far you place them apart. He said that all he needs to do is replace some caps on the brake cables to make the aerobars fit. But I am skeptical. The new bars are not that different, and I just don't think there's enough space without moving or removing the brake levers.

So what should I do? Take the bike to Bay Area Schwinn and have them install the bars as recommended by the guy there yesterday? Take the bike to Tri On The Run (a much longer drive) to have them do it, as they said they could when I asked last weekend? Or just forget about aerobars entirely, considering that the race is now only 2 weeks away?

Sunday, March 18, 2007

I finished Seabrook Half Marathon #2 this morning in a VERY unofficial 2:29. I say "very unofficial" because I suck at using my Garmin and at mile 1, I accidentally pressed stop instead of lap. I realized it before mile 2 and restarted things, but for the rest of the run I remembered to press the lap button, oh, maybe half the time. My splits are so funky that I won't even bother posting them, but until official results are available I can say that as far as I can tell from an reconstructed route/time in SportTracks, I finished just under 2:30. That's an average of just under 11:30/mile -- only 45 seconds per mile slower than yesterday despite more than twice as much walking.

I'm thrilled with that, and I finally feel like I can say: I'm ready. Yes, I'm ready for the Half Ironman!

I ran almost the entire first loop with Christy and some of her Houston Fit friends. We started out in a 5/1 run/walk pattern and stuck to it -- in fact, I stuck to it even after I decided to pick up the pace a bit. When I hit 6 miles and was still feeling surprisingly energetic, I started running a little faster. My last few miles were at sub-11:00 pace...the last miles. How awesome is that?!

No major problems. I slathered bodyglide all over my feet to prevent the slight blister I got yesterday from growing, and that worked well. My shins actually hurt more yesterday than today. And the lower back pain of yesterday didn't reappear. Overall, my body didn't feel any worse than yesterday -- I just didn't feel quite as energetic. I was just tired, not sore.

(Photo from Joe)

Oh! And I think the course may have indeed been long. Garmin measured 13.3 yesterday and my reconstruction today in SportTracks read 13.27. (Interestingly, Garmin appeared to do better yesterday in the cloudless sky; today there were a few more spots where the track erroneously branched out.) I talked to a couple other people with Garmins and everyone's consistently measured a similarly long distance. So -- I'm thinking the course may have been slightly long. But not too awful.

Overall I'm really happy that I decided to run both days. It was certainly an experience I won't forget -- even if I may not want to run on the Seabrook trails again for a while... ;)

Saturday, March 17, 2007

I did Seabrook Half Marathon #1 this morning in 2:20:52, for an average of 10:45 per mile. Garmin read 10:35 per mile for 13.3 miles, but it was a certified course, so I'm gonna trust that it was 13.1.

That time looks a little fast, and honestly it probably is. But I felt so good that I just couldn't slow down! I walked through each of the 9 water stations, and my average heart rate was 179 (just on the low side for me). The first 10 miles were a breeze, and the last 3 were tougher. I haven't run farther than 8 in a while, and my legs vaguely remembered that by tightening up. My lower back hurt just a bit -- something I've never experienced before -- but not too bad. But the aches and pains were pretty minor. Overall my biggest problem, really, was just that I got really hungry! My stomach started growling at the beginning of the second loop, and by mile 10 I was ready to be done just so I could eat something -- anything!

My splits were pretty uneven, reflecting the fact that I'd speed up, then force myself to slow down. They're based on the Garmin's 13.3 miles (tomorrow I'll turn off the auto-lap), so the last split represents 0.3 miles, at least according to GPS: 10:21, 11:02, 10:48, 10:22, 10:36, 10:52, 10:28, 10:36, 10:09 (!), 10:56, 10:48, 10:40, 10:19, and 3:02. Take 'em with a grain of salt, since the race was actually 13.1.

Despite all the rain we had this week, the trails were surprisingly dry! Just a few wet spots, but nothing anywhere close to the shoe-soaking run I did there a month ago, when my feet were starting to prune after 4 miles.

It was nice to finally meet Christy in person, meet her friend Karen (?), and see them, as well as JD and Jaclyn, on the course. The fact that you can greet your friends a few times makes up for the fact that the course is an out-and-back. I didn't stick around long enough to socialized after the race, but plan to stay a little longer tomorrow. I also saw Keith taking photos. And then at the beginning of the second loop, Joe was in fine form (along with the rest of the BARC bunch) in his neon green afro wig.

All in all a great race -- and great race weather!

The plan for tomorrow is simple: FINISH. I'm planning to run tomorrow's half in a 5/1 run/walk pattern. It'll be interesting to see how sore I am when I start out.

Friday, March 16, 2007

So, the space station is big. Really big. I realized this today as I stood in a mockup of the aft shuttle cockpit and watched the computer-generated image of the station get bigger and bigger in the dome. Pretty cool.

I filled out a March Madness bracket but I've already forgotten who I put down to win it all. I know that I did pick Duke to at least make it out of the first round. Oh well. We saw them lose while enjoying lots of crab legs and beverages at Boondoggle's last night. I'm with JD -- perhaps we could arrange for the Seabrook Half Marathon course to go past Boondoggle's this weekend? One can hope.

Yes, I'm running a marathon this weekend -- spread out over 2 days. Half on Saturday, half on Sunday. They tell me I get a third awesome medal at the end, which is really all the incentive I needed. Or I'm just crazy. I'm already tired from the week, so getting up early on both weekend days sounds pretty crappy at this point. Will definitely have to schedule naptime. I'll also be spending some time at the little airport, since Jose may solo this weekend! He's been taking flying lessons for some time now, and is ready to solo. Crossing my fingers for him...

I need to start planning my next vacation. Destination is still unknown, which is unheard of for me. Looking farther ahead, though, Jen and I have decided that the Annapurna circuit is calling...

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Four things:

1) Rascal Flatts was cancelled at the rodeo last night. When I first heard the news, I assumed it was because of the weather (heavy heavy rain laced with hail), and thought that was pretty silly. Turns out he had bronchitis. Random. After another round of hail, we decided to cut our losses, get our money refunded, and just go to dinner at BJ's instead.

2) After a pint at BJ's, I needed to use the restroom. As I walked across the restaurant, I passed some random guy and didn't give him any thought until I heard him say "are you Sarah?" I turned around and looked at him and said "yes...and you're JD! Whoa!" Yes, I had never met him in person and we ran into each other at BJ's and recognized each other from our blogs. Everyone at the table laughed at me when I came back from the bathroom and told them I'd just met one of my "internet friends." Oh well. I didn't meet his lovely wife Jaclyn (she was there, but after the brief interchange with JD, it was necessary for me to continue straight to the restroom)...but I will meet her this weekend at Seabrook.

3) I went to the rendezvous sim today, and one of my coworkers came along to sit with me and talk through everything that was happening. It felt very good to be watching a sim. Sims really feel like training, and make me feel like I'm making progress. All the reading I have to do, while necessary, just feels like school. I get easily disheartened. Sims make it better. Not to mention that the coworker who was sitting with me is one that I think is a really good flight controller. I don't have much hard evidence to go on, but the way he works gives me a good feeling.

4) Said coworker did depress me, however, when he pointed out that had the freak hailstorm in Florida not happened, STS-117 would have launched this morning. I would've launched a space shuttle today, and tomorrow he'd be coming in to prepare it for rendeavous. Sigh. Maybe we should have seen it coming when we planned the launch for the Ides of March...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Jen and Becca reminded me that I still owed everyone photos from skiing in Colorado. So there they are.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

This morning I had a dentist appointment scheduled for 7:30 a.m. As you all know, I'm not really a 7:30 a.m. kind of person, and I took the appointment only because I had to reschedule from last week and this was what they had available. So I showed up this morning, about 5 minutes late. And sat. And sat. This was a bit peculiar, since I had the first appointment of the morning. At 7:50, as I was just starting to read about how Britney Spears shaving her head is a cry for help (it was an old issue of People, what are you gonna do), the receptionist finally told me that my hygenist was running late. It was somehow related to the huge rainstorm we had last night...I dunno. Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to reschedule but I said I'd keep waiting. After all, I was already up. At 8:05, the hygenist still hadn't arrived and the receptionist told me that I'd have to reschedule.

So I got up early for nothing.

Grr!

I'm sure I would have been more annoyed if I hadn't worn myself out running last night. I only did 3 miles, but I just wasn't feeling it. My legs were stiff, and my right shin was hurting a bit. I ran my standard 3-mile Gilruth route (a 1.5-mile out and back), but the Garmin has measured it at 3.02-3.05 lately. Not a big difference, but it does affect my splits a bit. Last night Garmin said I ran 3.05 miles in 10:27, 10:29, 9:57, and 0:33. But it was really probably more like 3 miles in 10:27, 10:35, and 10:24. Or something. Point is: I ran.

Last night was impromptu fish night at Becca's, where I schooled everyone in Guitar Hero (and I was out of practice!) and gave more serious consideration to house-buying. Tonight I'm headed back to the rodeo tonight for Rascal Flatts and another fried Oreo. Ok, maybe I'll skip the Oreo for the sake of my arteries. But it was really good.

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Here's a fun game to let you know just how well you can locate the 65 colleges represented in the NCAA tournament this year. I got 52 of 65, and no, it's not good enough to just point to the correct state -- you have to get at least reasonably close to the town or city. (Thanks Brian for the link.)

I missed Creighton, Marquette, Belmont, Oral Roberts, Villanova (it's in PA?), Nevada (it's a big state), Old Dominion, Wright State, Holy Cross, Weber State, Xavier, Florida A&M (obviously just putting the dot on the state is not close enough), and North Texas (come on, there's a lot of area in north Texas).

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Wetsuits. Are. AWESOME.

I took my new Zoot Suit Riot (that's what I'm calling it since the manufacturer is a company called Zoot Sports; I know I'm a dork) to the pool last night. I was certain that I'd be given some strange looks and maybe even a giggle or two, but I got nothing. In fact, as I was laughing to Jen that the suit made me bob like a cork, the girl in the lane next to me looked over and said "first time in a wetsuit?" The conversation continued from there, and it was shortly revealed that not only is she doing the Aquabike that's part of the same triathlon festival as my Half Ironman (where you do the swim and bike but not the run), but she's also one month away from doing Ironman Arizona on April 15. It will be her second Ironman in a year.

THAT, my friends, is HARD CORE.

So, duly intimidated by the girl in the lane next to me, I began my swim. With me in my wetsuit and her without, I was much faster -- ha, ego restored. ;)

Anyway, back to the beginning. Wetsuits are awesome. After enjoying the sensation of floating without even trying as soon as I jumped in the pool, I took off for my first 100 yards. Time? 1:38. Yes, 1:38! That is crazy! That is a full 15-20 seconds faster than my usual average!

I swam the full Half Ironman distance last night...at least I think I did, since I completely lost count of my laps on more than one occasion, and it was difficult to back out the number of laps based on time since I was faster in the wetsuit. I stopped a couple times to do some suit adjustment -- the neck is still pretty tight, even though it doesn't affect my ability to breathe -- but mostly I just swam. I stopped my watch when I wasn't swimming. Total time for 2100 yards (or maybe 2200?) was 37:25, or an average of about 1:47/100 yards. Any way you slice it, I did the Half Ironman distance at least 5 minutes faster than I would have without the Zoot Suit Riot.

That is awesome. Or, as the Ironwoman in the lane next to me said, "wetsuits are God's gift to triathletes."

Monday, March 12, 2007

If you're looking for my recap of the practice 1/4 Ironman I did yesterday, read the entry below. It was the focus of my weekend. That said, I did a ton of other stuff this weekend as well and ended up spending $500. Sigh. It's a good thing that I'm unmarried and make too much money.

Man, what a crazy thunderstorm we had this morning down here in Clear Lake. One boom of thunder was so loud that it woke me up (and let me tell you, after yesterday's workouts I was one tired puppy). I laid in bed for another 20 minutes before falling back asleep, watching the lightning flash like some crazy disco strobe light. I closed my eyes, but the flashing was just as bright. Crazy thunderstorm. I'm glad it held off until today -- the weekend was absolutely gorgeous. This is the best time of year to live in Houston, that's for sure.

On Friday night after being lazy for a couple hours after work, Jose and I decided to keep things low key with dinner at Jason's Deli. As we walked up to the door, Jose noticed that he had a missed phone call. It was Melissa, who'd called an hour earlier to say that they were all going to BJ's for dinner. (BJ's, for those of you who don't live in Clear Lake, is right next door to Jason's Deli.) They were still there, and though they were finishing up, they were also still waiting for a couple other people. That's how we ended up having dinner with Melissa, Kelly, Nick, Heather, Laurie and Wendy. Because I'm sure JD is curious, I will say that I had the hefeweizen and it was good. It's my favorite of their beers.

Saturday was spent running errands all afternoon, starting with the first $240 that I spent on a new stereo for my Xterra. This was a planned purchase; the rest were not. I got the stereo at Best Buy, but they had a long wait for installation and didn't have the wire harness or dash kit that I needed. I took advantage of the long wait to go across the highway to Tweeter, where I bought the wire harness and dash kit for a total of $35 (about $15 less than it would've been at Best Buy). Went to the mall for a while, where Jose and I each got new watches (his was a planned purchase, mine was not), then back to Best Buy to give them the parts. Then off to dinner and killing some time at Borders (where I bought "Riding Rockets" in paperback; last night I read 9 chapters straight, it's that entertaining). Finally back to Best Buy again where my car was finished. I now have in-dash XM radio (they even wired the antenna around the windshield and onto the roof) and an audio-in jack for my iPod. It's very cool.

Yesterday after doing my 1/4 Ironman and sunburning the crap out of myself (side note: does anyone have a recommendation for a good waterproof and sweatproof sunscreen, SPF 30+, that won't make me sweat even more and make my eyes sting if I use it on my face?), I headed up to Tri On The Run to check out wetsuits. I exchanged emails back in January with one of the managers about renting one for the race, but apparently I wasn't clear enough about the "add me to the rental list" part. I wasn't on the list. And the list was already full, with another half dozen on the waiting list.

Sigh.

I knew that I might have to buy a wetsuit, so in the end I was less concerned with the money (after all, I can resell it for a good portion of the price if I don't think I'll ever use it again) and more concerned with simply finding one that fit me. In all the sizing charts I had looked at online, the largest women's size claimed to cover up to a weight of 170-175 pounds. Well, I'm 185 pounds. I didn't know if they'd fit; I thought I might have to buy a men's suit.

(Note the incredibly sexy sunburn.)

Thankfully, the guys at Tri On The Run were able to help. Johnny the store manager (who I met for the first time) was able to find a sleeveless Wetzoot suit, women's XL, that fit me fine despite the tag claiming it was good for 155-170 pounds. It fits fine -- tight enough that it made me start sweating immediately, but not uncomfortably tight -- except the neck is a bit snug. I think the neck will loosen up in the water. I'm going to try it out at the pool tonight, looking like a wacko (who wears a wetsuit in a pool?). Jen's coming too, so hopefully she can help me get the suit on properly! When I put it on yesterday, the woman at the store helped me get the last bit on by holding the shoulders and pulling up while I squatted down. Those things are hard to get on dry.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Last Saturday at the Gator Ride, I sunburned my face pretty good (sunglasses outline and all) but managed to avoid any other redness because it was chilly and I was covered from head to toe. Today during my practice Quarter Ironman, the weather was lovely and I wore shorts and a jersey. Apparently I decided that again, sunscreen was just too much of hassle, and now I've got a sunburned face, two sunburned arms, and two sunburned knees.

Did I mention that I'm a COMPLETE IDIOT?

So, yeah. That practice 1/4 Ironman I'd planned for today. It went....surprisingly well! Even the biking! I am feeling much better about the race in three weeks. I know I can do it.

I tried using the multisport setting on my Garmin, but I messed up and hit the stop button after swimming instead of the lap button. And then started it again when I realized, but by that time I was on the bike. So it's all messed up. Here's the summary as best as I can figure:

Swimming:
I swam in the lap pool here at my apartment complex since I wasn't sure if the rec center was open in the morning, and I figured I could use my apartment as my transition area. The pool here is heated, and the water was like bathwater. Seriously, it was so, so warm. Horrible to swim in. I was roasting after 5 minutes and looked forward to each stroke just so my arm could come out of the water, and thus be exposed to the cool air. I don't know if it was the water temperature or the pool itself (which may be slightly longer than the rec center pool), but I was extremely sluggish for my swim. I did 1050 yards, which is about 6 yards shy of 0.6 miles, in between 23-24 minutes. I'm not sure exactly what the time was with the watch snafu, but either way, it took longer than the 2:00/100 yard pace that I have been swimming at the rec center. C'est la vie. It was only a couple extra minutes.

Transition 1:
I took my time changing clothes, since Melissa and her fiancee had happened to come to the pool while I was finishing up. I chatted with them while I put on my socks and shoes and jersey and Matt said that the 1/2 Ironman sounded crazy. Well, yes. I rode my bike back to my apartment for just long enough to drop off my towel and goggles. Total transition time is a guess, since I hit the stop button instead of lap, but I think it was less than 10 minutes overall. Long, but I'm not worried -- I plan to take my time in transition during the race. I don't plan to dawdle, but I do plan to be deliberate in my actions.

Biking:
I headed out for a 28.8 mile grand tour of Clear Lake -- weave my way over to Bay Area, then down Port Rd to Todville, over the Kemah bridge and down to 96, then west on 96 all the way to Highway 3, then north to Medical Center and home. The wind wasn't awful, but the first 10 miles of my ride had an on-and-off headwind that was worst out on Port Rd. I managed to keep steady at 13-14 mph through that section, but when I got to Todville things got much better. It was still windy over the bridge -- I only got up to 26 mph going down -- but turning onto 96 and heading west was the most awesome thing in the world. I cruised through the last 10 miles of the ride averaging more like 18-19 mph without even trying hard. Love the wind at my back! Total time was under 2 hours, though I'm not sure exactly what. The bike says I averaged 16.1 mph for a time of something like 1:48, but the bike timer stopped whenever I was stopped at a traffic light. The Garmin, when I finagle the numbers, tells me something like 1:58 (under 15 mph average). And I'd say it was 1:55 based on the fact that I left the apartment at 11:05 and got back at 1:00 on the nose. Any way I slice it, I was happy; I won't be having to stop for lights at the race, I don't think.

Transition 2:
Not much to say here. I took my time and spent 8:30 changing shoes, shirt, guzzling some water, eating a granola bar, taking a bathroom break, and telling Jose (my support crew) about my bike ride.

Running:
I felt surprisingly good after the bike. I know, I know, it was only half the distance I'll be doing in three weeks, but feeling that good was encouraging. I set out on my run and stuck to a 5/1 run/walk schedule throughout. Splits were 10:50, 11:31, 11:38, 11:25, 11:25, 11:21, and 5:40 for a total time of 1:13:54 for 6.5 miles. That first split is a little misleading because it only includes 1 minute of walking; the others include two. I have to say -- my legs felt pretty good. And as I got farther into the run, I actually started to have more energy. Not in the sense that I felt like I could run faster, but everything started to feel more smooth.

So all in all, my practice 1/4 Ironman went very well. Total time including my leisurely transitions was somewhere around 3:50. While all the distances will double in three weeks, I don't believe my transition times will, so this makes me feel good, and confident that I can do a 7:30-8:30 Half Ironman.

The running especially makes me feel good. The time cutoff for getting in from the bike is 5:30 after race start, which leaves 3 hours for the half marathon run. Basically, this tells me that as long as I finish the bike leg in time (which I think I can), I will finish the Half Ironman. Because I can shuffle my way through a half marathon in 3 hours.

Yay!

Friday, March 09, 2007

My friend Jen, a fellow runner who enjoys much nicer running weather since she lives in Seattle, emailed me yesterday with the following:

I find the times you post for your running really interesting. I do most of my training at about 10 min / mile – no faster than 9 min / mile – and you do yours, even up to 10 mi or so – between 10 and 11 minutes / mile.

When I race a 5K, I typically run between 7 and 8 minutes / mile, yet I know your PRs are closer to 10 minutes per mile. Based on your training, I’d expect you to be able to run a 5K under 9 minutes per mile.

Basically, what I’m saying is I wouldn’t be surprised based on your training if you couldn’t knock a good chunk of time off your 5K PR, especially if you did a little speedwork (a couple fartlek runs or something).

I know that’s not your goal, but still. ;)

She's got a point. My 5K PR is 29:18, set in either December 2003 or 2004 (I honestly can't remember and don't have my log at the moment). I don't know why I haven't set a faster PR. First and foremost is probably that I just haven't tried. My goals have been getting ready for a half marathon, or having fun, or doing a Half Ironman -- not setting a new 5K PR. It's probably mental as well; I'm willing to push myself, but only to a point.

Still, all my recent training has put me in pretty good shape. A month ago, I ran 4 miles at under 10:00/mile average which is more miles at a faster pace that ever before. I've been wanting to try for a 5K PR, with help from a pacer (because I'm not very good at pacing myself), but I hesitated to try prior to the Half Ironman. And post-HI, the weather may start heating up enough that a PR will move just out of reach.

I was thinking about all of this last night when I left work to go running before softball. I obviously wasn't thinking straight when I thought that I'd have enough time between 8 and 9 to run 5 miles. By the time I left work, it was already 8:05. By the time I walked out to the parking lot and got to Gilruth, it was 8:20. And by the time I changed clothes and got the new gate code, it was 8:30. I may be getting faster, but I can't do 5 miles in 30 minutes.

So I thought maybe I'd do 2.5, and get to softball right on time. And then after the first mile, I thought I'd do 3. And then after 2 miles I thought I'd do a 5K and see if I couldn't just set my own unofficial PR right then.

So I did.

I ran 3.1 miles in 29:04, for an unofficial 5K PR by 14 seconds. Splits of 9:45, 9:19, 9:08, 0:53. Average heart rate of 183, max of 198.

And then I went right to the softball fields and was late to the game by half an inning. I played catcher and as soon as I walked out there, Russ (the umpire) was forced to ask why I was dripping in sweat on a relatively cool evening.

The weird thing is that I don't even feel that bad today. My legs are a little stiff, but not horrible.

Makes me wonder if I should try to make it official sometime soon.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

This week can't end soon enough. Not because it's been particularly difficult, but because it's been early. I don't know if I've ever been an early riser, but I do know that I haven't been an early riser in the past 2-3 years, at least. I'm sure all this will change at some point in the rather far future when I finally have kids or a pet, but in the here and now, this week is wearing me out!

Take yesterday: In at 8:00 for a comp run in which we were unable to reproduce the software error we had during a sim, despite using the tape of the sim run, so it was more or less useless. Home at 5:30, which allowed just enough time for dinner before heading downtown to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at the Toyota Center (the tickets were Jose's Valentine's Day gift from me). Because I bought the tickets rather late, we ended up in the upper deck directly to the side of the stage. It was a different perspective, that's for sure. I had a surprisingly good time (despite being only a casual fan) except for all my yawning. ;)

And take today: In at 7:45 for another comp run to do our database checks for tomorrow's ILC (which means I'll be in at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow). This afternoon I'm backseating Bini in a sim that doesn't end until 8:00. That leaves me one hour for my run, and then I play softball at 9:00. Then I get home and crash.

And tomorrow: In at 6:30 for the load checkout, which will hopefully be less frustrating than the last time we did one where the simulator was 13,000 pounds off. The bright side is that by lunchtime tomorrow I'll have enough hours for the week and can take the afternoon off!

Anyway, enough work talk. Too much work talk.

But there's not much else to talk about. I know that my blog entries have been pretty boring lately; heck, they've been boring me. I'm in the last gasp before the Half Ironman and it's reminiscent of the last month before my marathon two years ago -- nothing but eat, sleep, work, run/swim/bike.

Maybe I'll be more interesting when April rolls around...

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Last night I turned my handwriting into a font. It was really easy (provided you have the software) and really fun. I'm very excited. I want to turn everyone's handwriting into fonts now!

If you just adore my handwriting and want to use it yourself, you can! I made it available as a TrueType font that you can download.

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I did an hour on the bike trainer last night after class. I was supposed to swim, but didn't think ahead enough to realize that the pool would be closed after class, and I didn't want to swim at the apartment pool. So I biked. Bike bike bike. Spin spin spin.

On another note, I was thinking of heading to Twin Lakes this weekend for a big open water swim session. But the water is freezing right now (55 degrees) which means I'd need a good thick wetsuit and maybe even booties and gloves. And the Houston Racing Triathlon Club forums freaked me out by talking about how you pass the sunken school bus (the lake is also heavily used by scuba divers) and a big patch of vegetation and that it's freaky. I don't want it to be freaky!

What do I do?

I shouldn't have delved into the HRTC forums at all, really, because they have seriously started to scare me about water temperatures, wetsuit issues, wind, and other assorted issues. Oh, and everyone there sounds like they're really fast and intimidating.

Sarah = not fast and easily intimidated by fast people.

So I have 3 weekends left before the race. That's 6 days of "big" training in addition to the weekly stuff. Current schedule looks like this:

March 10 - 2500 yard swim...in open water?? with a wetsuit??
March 11 - 0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, 6.5 mile run (practice Quarter Iron)

March 17 - Seabrook Half Marathon #1
March 18 - Seabrook Half Marathon #2

March 24 - 60 mile bike ride somewhere, thinking about heading to the race course in Galveston
March 25 - open water swim with HRTC & Galveston Beach Patrol (?)

APRIL 1 - LONE STAR HALF IRONMAN

All sorts of questions bounce around my head. Is that schedule good enough? Do I need to skip one of the half marathons in favor of another long bike ride? Will another long bike ride even do me any good at this point, or will it just depress me?

And no, I'm not really tapering and I don't plan to. My "taper" will be the week before the race. My goal is just to finish.

It's official -- I'm freaking out about an event. I didn't even do this before the marathon. Geez.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I was so tired when I left work yesterday. So tired. Thinking about the rest of this week just made my shoulders slump even more, and yet I was scheduled to run. Only 3 miles, but still. Sigh. When I leave work feeling wiped out, the only thing I ever really want to do is go straight home and flop onto the couch.

BUT...I didn't. Hooray for little victories. I dragged myself to Gilruth and did my scheduled 3 miles. I wore my watch, but didn't look at it until the end -- I just needed a run to just run and not worry about the other stuff. By the end of the three miles, I was feeling much happier and more energetic. After I finished, I glanced at the watch to see 32:25. Not bad at all for an easy run.

I have been staring longingly at blog entries that mention this weekend's Bayou City Classic, but I am resisting. Sunday is my practice Quarter Ironman, and while I could run a 10K on Saturday, I'll probably be better off doing a long swim. Hopefully in open water. And hopefully in a wetsuit.

Class tonight, and I've completed a complete set of capital letters and punctuation for my font. I decided to go with the not-at-all-useful mosaic theme, a la Noah's Bagels. I'll post it later. The caps were fairly easy; I think lowercase will be more of a challenge. Today we'll start working on turning our handwriting into a font, which I'm actually looking forward to because I like my handwriting. It's pretty and legible. That's one of the benefits of having a kindergarden teacher for a mother -- neat handwriting.

I have a bunch of design ideas for websites. Just don't have the time to work on them. They'll be added to the list of things I'll have time to work on once I don't have to train 6 days a week... ;)

Monday, March 05, 2007

It's going to be a long week. I made the mistake of looking at my calendar, only to find that my "must be at work by" times for the rest of the week are 7:30, 7:30, 7:30 and 6:30.

Monday, March 05, 2007

It was a banner weekend for working out, and I am exhausted because of it.

On Friday night I was treated to home-cooked lasagna (not cooked by Jose; if he could cook like that, our eating out problems would be over), which was a good carbo-loading technique for Saturday morning's 63.25 mile Gator Ride that took Joe, me, and a thousand other riders all over the countryside just east of Houston.

I got up bright and early to drive over to Baytown, and after parking, I got all my gear together. Biking requires a ton of gear; I'm always terrified that I'll forget something. I took my bike off the rack, checked the tires, put the water bottles in their cages, put my cell phone in the bike bag. Put on my arm warmers and jacket to ward of the chill, put on my bandanna, put on my helmet, put on two pairs of gloves because my cycling gloves are fingerless. Turn on the Garmin, wait for it to acquire satellites, and then the final step -- separate apartment keys from car keys, because there's only enough room in the bike bag for one set. Leave apartment keys in car, and take car keys with me.

We started in Baytown and went up and over the Hartman Bridge within the first five miles. I'm just glad the bridge was at the beginning of the ride. From there we rode right past the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship Texas, neither of which I have ever visited. I've been meaning to for years, but haven't. At least I've seen them now. The first rest stop was at the Lynchburg Ferry, which was pretty cool since I'd never ridden it before. I was picturing something like the Bolivar Ferry down in Galveston, but Lynchburg was much smaller. And filled with bikers.

The rest of the ride carried us through the countryside, which is actually very pretty in a Texas sort of way. I saw some kind of llama, and some South African goats. Texans are strange. As Joe said, everything seems a little more MORE on a bike. Roads are smoother or bumpier. Traffic is more of an issue. And the wind, well, the wind is so much windier.

Saturday morning was breezy, we'll put it that way. The worst parts were miles 20-35 and 60-62, when we faced near headwinds, and in some cases, dead-on headwind. It's never fun to see your speedometer reading 10 mph when it feels like you're working harder than ever. But when the wind was at our backs, things were glorious. I am never quite as manic depressive as I am on the bike -- I'm either happy or miserable. There is rarely an in-between feeling. When I'm heading into the wind, I want to be anywhere but on the bike.

We finished the ride in just over 4 hours, for an average of either 15.2 or 15.3 mph depending on whether you trust my speedometer or my Garmin. That time doesn't include the couple minutes we spent at each rest stop; I didn't have any goos to bring along, so I needed to stop for a bite of food each time. Nutrition is one thing I still need to figure out for the race in three weeks. After finishing, I ate lunch, said goodbye to Joe, and cruised back to my car. Remember earlier how I said that I separated my apartment keys from my car keys and put the car keys in my bike bag and the apartment keys in the car?

Reverse that.

I opened my bike bag and pulled out...my apartment keys. Yes, for the first time ever, I locked my keys in the car.

Crashing on railroad tracks? Flat tires? Locking the keys in the car? I think the gods are trying to tell me that biking is not my thing.

As I sat in the sun waiting for Jose to rescue me with a spare key, I started having some second thoughts about the Half Ironman. I know that I have the potential to do it, and I know that I can do it, but the bike worries me greatly. The bike has the largest potential to royally suck. The bike has the potential to take a lot out of me. If I have a bad day, it will be because of the bike. The bike has the potential to slow me down enough that I don't finish within the time limit.

I was having enough second thoughts that I looked online to see if they allow transfers from the Half Ironman down to the Quarter Ironman (which I know I can do). They don't. No exchanges, no transfers, no refunds, no exceptions.

Jose asked if not finishing in time would ruin the entire experience. It wouldn't in the long run, but it would on that day. I am very hard (too hard) on myself; if I don't finish, I'll be pretty upset. I'll get over it with time, and realize that no matter what happens in the race, I am better off for doing the training. Jose recommended that I stop thinking about it for another week, at least until I've done the practice Quarter Ironman I have scheduled for next weekend (0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, 6.5 mile run).

Jose is pretty smart.

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After Saturday's activities, I didn't feel like running yesterday. But I did: 8 miles on the Seabrook trails in the sun and wind in 1:27:46. Splits were 10:11, 10:49, 11:18, 10:54, 10:54, 11:17, 11:06, 11:17. As you can see, I started off way too fast and things went downhill from there. After 6 miles, I felt like the walking dead. My legs had no energy, but I pushed through to the end with the thought that it'd be good to know that I could run even when I felt like falling over. That might come in useful on April 1.

I wiped my face when I finished and the sleeve came back with a dusting of salt. I was obviously still dehydrated from the biking the day before. Ugh. But I did it.

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The rest of the weekend was a blur. On Saturday night I saw The Astronaut Farmer. It was cheesy and formulaic, yet it did have some quirks and was entertaining enough.

Yesterday after my run I did a bunch of errands that culminated in buying a breadmaker. Yummy. I made my first loaf last night, an Express Bake recipe for Oatmeal-Date bread. Only I left out the dates, so it was really just oatmeal bread. The Express Bake setting meant that it only took an hour, instead of three. The bread looked a little strange when I took it out, but it tastes good! I even made a sandwich with it today for lunch. Mmm.

There are a bunch of other settings and recipes that I now want to try. Normal white bread. Wheat bread. Banana bread. Pumpkin bread. French bread. It even has a setting to make jam! Carbs, here I come.

Friday, March 02, 2007

I picked up my packet this afternoon for tomorrow's Gator Ride, a 62 mile bike ride through and around Baytown. Pickup was at Bay Area Schwinn -- a nearby bike store that I had never visited. See, I've always just headed to the Bike Barn. No particular reason other than that's the bike store I bought my road bike from four years ago.

Bike Barn makes me uncomfortable. They seem like nice guys, and have always been helpful -- and yet they have an air of condescension about them. They don't do it blatantly, but I've always left the store with a vague, uneasy feeling, like I've just been talked down to and silently ridiculed.

So when I wanted someone to give my bike a once-over (after experiencing knee pain during and after last week's ride), I decided to just try Bay Area Schwinn, since I had to go there anyway.

Bay Area Schwinn was great. Their store is smaller, and more cramped, and they don't have the selection of Bike Barn, but the service was outstanding. The mechanic didn't make me feel silly for asking him to look at my bike and see if it needed adjusting. He didn't make me feel inept when he found the flat tire-causing culprit (a tiny sliver of wire stuck in the tire). He didn't make me feel stupid as he recommended that I replace the back tire, which was worn and cracked, with a new, sturdier tire.

I was there for an hour; they gave me personal attention for an hour. He replaced the tube, since I hadn't had any at home to do it myself. He replaced the tire. He gave everything a once-over. Then he checked my shoes to make sure the cleats were adjusted right, and put me on the bike on the trainer. He adjusted my seat to a better height, and when that didn't help, he adjusted the elastomer (the what??) that's inside the seat tube to make it tighter and less springy.

It cost me $38. $38 for an hour of attention, three new tubes, and one new tire. As I walked out the door, he told me to have a great evening, and that he'd be at the 4th rest stop tomorrow morning, and to stop by and tell him how the adjustments were feeling.

That is so worth it.

As I was revelling in Bay Area Schwinn's attention and service, I came home tonight and tried to install the clip-on aerobars that I bought at Bike Barn three weeks ago. Now, my bike is a little unusual in that it has two sets of brake levers -- the normal ones on the front of the curved bars, and a second set on top of the handlebars. When I bought them, I had my bike with me, and I asked the mechanic selling me the aerobars if he was sure they'd fit on my bike, seeing as how it has the unusual brake levers on top.

"Oh yeah," he said with a cursory glance. "They'll be fine, really easy to install." He practically rolled his eyes, then sold me $120 worth of equipment and hustled me out the door as quickly as he could.

You can tell what's coming next, right?

The aerobars don't fit. Well, technically they fit -- if I slant them down at about 30 degrees below horizontal. Which is pointless and useless. But to install them correctly is impossible, because guess what: the inside top set of brake levers are in the way, and are pretty inflexible. They either need to be removed or moved farther out on the handlebars -- two things that I'm not willing to do the night before a 62-mile ride.

Screw Bike Barn. Hello Bay Area Schwinn.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Yesterday I had Part 2 of my yearly physical, the part where you sit down with the real doctor and they go over the results from all the tests you took in Part 1 and then try to scare you into being healthier. Their scare tactics totally worked this year.

I've gained 12 pounds since last year, and am currently at my heaviest since before I started running (five years ago). I knew that I had gained weight, so this wasn't a surprise, and it's something I've already been trying to work on because at this point last year I looked better, ran better, felt better, my clothes fit better -- on and on. So losing weight was already a goal.

The shocker was that my total cholesterol has gone up 37 points. 37!! It's still just under 200 total, so I'm still in the normal range, but whoa -- 37 points! The really bad thing is that my bad cholesterol jumped up by 51 points. 51!! That was enough to push it into the range that might be ok if I didn't have a family history of heart disease; however, both my grandfathers died from heart attacks.

Those jumps are so large that I don't really even know what to make of them. I've been exercising regularly over the past year, so the increase has to be due to a change in diet. I'll just say it now: it's diet. When you've gained 12 pounds in a year -- and your boyfriend has gained 15 -- it's not hard to figure out. Ah, Jose and me, we're just sitting around getting fat together.

So this calls for less eating out, more packing lunches, and continuing to exercise. My biggest problem is lack of willpower. And my love of french fries and Starbucks.

To get a better idea of the trends, I had them print out my bloodwork for every year they had on file -- 2002, and 2004-2007. Interestingly, though 2007 has by far the worst cholesterol, 2006 had by far the best numbers. That made the increase look even worse. So whatever I did from March 2005 - March 2006 was really, really good because it lowered my numbers so much from previous years. And whatever I did from March 2006 - now was really, really bad.

To celebrate the start of a new leaf in eating habits, I went to the rodeo and ate a deep-fried Oreo.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Two questions for the masses:

First, I need an effective and simple and easy piece of software that will automate the process of backing up my hard drive onto an external drive. I've been doing it manually for more than a year, and I'm tired of it. I know there are a zillion different backup software packages, so I'm hoping someone can recommend a good, basic one.

Second, the pair of earrings that Jose gave me for Christmas broke. As in, the wire (10k white gold) that formed half of the clasp broke in half. I can't wear the earrings anymore, which sucks. Now, they weren't super expensive, but I also know that he spent enough money that they shouldn't break within two months. What do I do?

Thursday, March 01, 2007

I really should have done some kind of workout last night. I needed it and I never got it.

I've been very lucky to never have any major problems in my life. The side effect of that is that I get easily overwhelmed when too many small things start stacking up. Last night I felt like the whole world was spinning frantically around me and I couldn't catch up. In no particular order:

1) I have a couple design projects that need to be done -- Yuri's Night mainly, as well as typography class assignments.

2) Some jerk emailed me anonymously about the parts of the HARRA website that are out of date (subject line: "get with it"). I think it's the same address that I previously thought was just spam. Why do people complain anonymously? Last time I checked, I was the only one that volunteered for the job, and last time I checked I'm not getting paid for it, so excuse me if it's not always my top priority. I'm well aware that parts are out of date, but I'm doing what I can.

3) My apartment is a wreck. Last night in my fit of freaking-out-ness, I decided that the best thing to do was clean the stovetop. The stovetop! While doing it, Jose was trying to explain Lambert targeting. ARGH, I am so crazy. My apartment is suddenly feeling so cramped. So should I buy a house this summer? Do I really want a house?

4) I have Half Ironman training, with only four weeks to go before the big day and many miles still to swim, bike, and run. Last night's missed workout felt like a huge weight on my shoulders, even though I know that a single workout is not going to make or break me, and that I've been training very well for the past couple months.

5) The delay in the shuttle launch means that I have time to really start training for my new position, but there's so much to do that I suffer my standard problem of anxiety over where to start.

6) The past few days have brought a lot of talk about weddings and babies, which sends me into insecure girl mode about my own life and where it's going, despite the fact that I am in a really good place with a really good person who deals extremely well with my freak-out moments and actually helps get me past it much more quickly that I ever would on my own.

See? Small stuff. Details.

Jose and I have been making our way through the first few seasons of Scrubs on DVD, and I can't help but notice how Eliot is always trying to "hide the crazy" from various people. Sometimes I feel that way too.

I guess everyone has their crazy moments.