What a Difference a Week Makes

We've been ramping up our mileage in preparation for the fall marathon season. Last Saturday (22nd) and this Saturday (29th) were both scheduled to be 18 mile runs. The first was suppose to be at our long slow pace. The second was suppose to include some marathon goal pace in there. I just really wanted to get them both done at any pace, really!

All season long there have been two other women that I run the long runs with. There are times when I might be a tiny bit faster and times when I might be a tiny bit slower. I'm ok with that on both counts.

On the 22nd, we started our run. The route was more or less an out-and-back with a 2 mile loop at the end for those doing 18 miles. We started out and I could tell right off that the humidity was going to get me. Since we were using the local trail (which also happens to have water along it) we wouldn't have our first "manned" aid station until around mile 5. When we got there, I looked at my watch and knew we had taken off a little fast. Then we hit the hilly part. And were still a little fast. I knew it would be bad. By the time we got to mile 13 I knew it wasn't my day. My knee was starting to hurt (tight lateral quad) and I was just mentally done. But, I knew I had to finish and get the miles in. So off I went doing a run/walk combo that became mostly a walk. By the time I hit the final two mile loop I couldn't see anyone in front of or behind me and I was in a part of town I didn't like being in by myself. So, I cut over and headed back. I ended up at 17.68 miles in 3:13:10.

This Saturday, the 29th seemed much easier. For one thing, the weather was a TINY bit cooler and it was definitely less humid. This week's route was a 4 mile loop. We would run it 4 times and then do a 2 mile loop to get in 18. The first lap was to be a warm up lap done slow. The next 2.5 laps at marathon goal pace, and the last 1/2 lap plus 2 mile loop as a cool down. As we took off, I had to remind the ladies this was a "warm up". I tried to keep the pace between 10:15 and 10:30. Once we finished that first lap, we took off for the rest. We did pretty good at maintaining around 9:30 for the next couple of laps and decided to maintain it for all three of the final laps. We would cool down on the 2 mile loop. When all was said and done and I looked at my Garmin, it read 18.69 miles in 3:07:33! I'll take it!

First Day of School

I know I've been bad about updating my blog lately. I'll try to get better again. I've been busy with training. This month already I've run over 90 miles. It could be my highest mileage month ever.

The other thing that has kept me busy is that school started back today. I now have two kids in middle school. Dalton is in 6th grade and Madison is in 8th grade. Luckily, they both had a great first day and both really like their teachers. Let's hope it's a good year!

Where Has The Summer Gone?

I can't believe there are only two weeks of summer left before the kids go back to school. I know that in some parts of the country they've already started back. It seems like the summer has flown by.

In running news, we are into the longer runs for our training for the fall marathons. I ran 14 miles a week ago and ran 16 this past Saturday. I've felt really well during the runs and have been running faster than in the past, so that's a good thing. We're scheduled for 18 this coming weekend.

And while some of my teammates are complaining of aches and pains, I think the thing that helps me is that I never get to go home after a long run and take a nap. I'm always off to a soccer game or something that one of the kids has going on. The fact that I keep moving all day helps keep me loose and keeps me from feeling sore. Although I could really use that nap.

I do have to say, however, that I am very proud of Madison. She decided that she wanted to tryout for a club volleyball team this year. Tryouts were today and she earned a spot. Practices won't start until November and the tournaments will all be in the spring. Hopefully her volleyball and Dalton's soccer will be on different weekends, but we'll see. It should be crazy, but fun.

It never ends around here!

Junior High Mission Trip

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of being an adult sponsor on the junior high mission trip with our church. Four adult sponsors, 1 high school youth for music, and 12 junior high kids ready to work headed off to East Bernard, Texas, to help out folks in need. This was my first time on a mission trip and I had a great time.

We left on a Thursday afternoon. Since we would each have a work group once we got there, I ended up driving my own car. I got lucky, though, and got two girls to ride with me. They slept most of the way and we talked the rest of the way.

Our church was the first church to arrive, so we claimed a room and set out to arrange our air mattresses the best way we could so that we would still have a path to walk in. We thought we had done good and were totally full, but when the other churches arrived we had to squeeze two more people in with us. Yikes! It was packed.

Thursday night we met our group, ate dinner and got to hear about what we would be doing the next two days. My group was assigned to the "big house" and we would be scraping paint off the house and then repainting it. After sending the kids to bed, the sponsors met briefly and then we were off to bed.

Friday morning we woke up at 7:00am, ate breakfast, did the chores assigned to our group, made our lunches, loaded our coolers and headed off to the house. Upon arrival at the house we looked for any dangers the kids should be aware of and then got to work. Scraping paint with small paint scrapers is not easy. Luckily we had some hard workers in the group and it went well. We broke for lunch and the safety people came by with misters and popsicles for us. Yum! Then it was back to work. We managed to get most of the house done before leaving for the day.

Since we were staying at the church and there were 80-90 of us total, we showered at the local gym. We gathered our clothes and headed off. I haven't showered in a gym locker room in a long time! Then it was back to the church for dinner and games. It rained Friday night, so our swimming activity was delayed, but we finally made it to the pool and the kids got to swim for at least a little while. Then it was back to the church for worship and bed.

Saturday morning was a repeat of Friday morning. Only this time we were joined by more of the groups at the house. After all, we had to finish scraping and get to painting. Each group took a portion of the house. It's amazing that so many kids could work so well together. They did get a little paint on each other, but what do you expect with a bunch of junior high kids? By the end of the day, the majority of the house was painted. There was still a small area on the back of the house that needed to get done, but one of the leaders offered to come back the next weekend and finish up. The kids should be proud of their work.

Saturday night brought rain again, but it didn't seem to phase the kids at all. They got along well and enjoyed playing games with each other in the fellowship hall until time for dinner and sharing. After that we had a surprise activity. We were told we were having a duct tape ball! Yep. You read that right. We (sponsors included) were each given a plastic table cloth and a roll of duct tape. We had about 20 minutes to create an outfit (worn over regular clothes) to wear to the ball. Some of the kids are pretty darn creative! The ball was a lot of fun.

Sunday morning we woke up, packed, loaded the cars, ate breakfast, and then went to services at the church where we were staying. Several of the kids made comments about how good the sermon was, so that was nice. After service we headed home.

It was a short mission trip but we got a lot accomplished and had a lot of fun. Plus, it was nice to be there with Madison.

A Lot of Catching Up To Do

Wow! It's been a while, hasn't it? So, what have I been up to since I got back from Tahoe? Let me tell you.

After I got home from Tahoe, I jumped right into my marathon training. I will be doing the Marine Corp Marathon in October and the San Antonio Marathon in November. I'm a captain for this season's Team in Training run team, so I'll be doing most of my running, including track practices, with them. The Saturday after Tahoe I ran 8 miles!

We also had a lot of volleyball going on with Madison. Games for a summer league on Tuesday nights; games for the church league on Thursday night; and clinics given by a club on Saturday nights. She also went to volleyball camp at the high school for a week.

The next big event was haircut time. Madison had asked to get her hair darkened some and she did, but the dye didn't really take on her hair and it didn't really look all that different. Dalton on

the other hand came out looking very different.

Then on June 21st, I participated in the Lake Pflugerville Triathlon for the third straight year in a row. I wasn't sure how I would do considering I had only swam twice all year. I knew my bike would be strong coming off of Tahoe and I knew the run would be ok. Turned out I beat my best time by 2 minutes, coming in at 1:27:19 and coming in 6th place in my age group. Maybe I should not swim more often? No, it makes me wonder what I might have done if my swim was better. I passed lots of people on the bike, but got passed by two people in my age group on the run. Oh well, there is always next year.

Then later that afternoon, we took Dalton to a residential soccer camp with the Austin Aztex. He was there through Thursday afternoon and had a lot of fun.

And finally, on July 1st, we drove to New Orleans. We went to eat dinner and took the kids for a culture shock walk down Bourbon street (although it was still relatively early so not too bad).

When we got back to the hotel Madison went for a swim in the rooftop pool and then we went to bed. Thursday morning when we woke up we headed to the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast and then caught a taxi over to the port where we got on board the Carnival Fantasy for a 4 day cruise to Cozumel and back.

I did manage to get in a couple of runs on the sea days, but after that I enjoyed the day by lounging in a chair on the deck. The day we were in Cozumel was absolutely fantastic as I found a beach that only allows 100 people in and it's all inclusive. The day we were there, I bet there were no more than 25 people all day. And the guacamole and hot sauce are AWESOME! Not to mention the drinks. Madison probably had 7 virgin drinks that day! We did just a little bit of shopping before getting back on board.

And on our last sea day, I had to race Dalton down the slides. What fun!

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride 2009

Once again, the ride lived up to it's name, but barely (thanks to the weather).

Sorry it has taken me so long to get an update done, but I stayed an extra day in Tahoe, arriving back home Tuesday evening in time to go straight from the airport to Madison's volleyball game. Wednesday I spent unpacking and getting into bed early. And last night I was going to update, but a huge storm blew through our area with tons of lighting and a couple of tornadoes. There was no way I was getting on the computer during that. So here I am tonight.

Friday, June 5th, I woke up and instead of getting ready for work I got ready to head to the airport. My parents picked me up and drove me to the airport so I wouldn't have to pay for parking while I was gone. I got there early, but shortly after I arrived other teammates started arriving as well. There were about 35 of us on the flight out and once we were in the air, the flight attendant made an announcement about what we were heading out to Tahoe for. We got lots of applause on the plane. We flew from Austin to San Diego where we had a short (and I do mean short) layover. We got off the plane at one gate, walked to the next gate, and walked right back onto another plane. I'm just glad we made it.

Once we landed in Reno, we gathered our luggage and got on the shuttle bus that would take us to Tahoe. With the time difference, most of us were hungry and several HAD to stop at In-and-Out Burger. Since I'm a vegetarian, I had french fries. Some of my teammates more than made up for what I didn't eat. I guess they figured they were getting ready to burn a bunch of calories, so who cared.

Once we made it to the hotel I checked in and took my things to my room and then we all had to meet in the lobby to go get our bikes off the truck. I got my bike and when I got back to the room I unwrapped it, got the pedals on and aired up the tires so that it would be ready for Saturday morning's ride. Then it was off to the grocery store to stock up on things I would need for the weekend.

Friday night our whole crew went to eat at the Lake Tahoe Pizza Company. Last year when we ate there we had two tables full. This year, we had the whole room full of people. Lots of our teammates had brought family members with them this year. It was amazing to see the team go to work in helping the servers make sure everyone had what they needed.

After dinner it was back the room and to bed so that I could be rested for Saturday morning's ride which was scheduled for 7:00 am.

Saturday morning I woke up early so that I could eat my oatmeal and get ready to ride. When I looked out the window, the ground looked wet. This did not make me happy. Then a teammate came to my room and let me know that the ride had been postponed due to the wet streets. The coach wanted to see if the sun would come out and dry things up. I wanted to crawl back in bed for a little longer, but knew if I did I would never get back up. When it got close to 8:00, we headed downstairs and met our teammates. And boy was it cold. And it was still overcast.

We headed out for a 20 mile ride. The wet streets made me nervous, but I tried to stay with the front group for as long as I could for two reasons. 1) I didn't know where I was going and I knew they did; and 2) I was freezing and needed to warm up. I stayed with them for a good while, but then I dropped my chain and had to stop to fix it. Got it fixed and just took off trying to catch them. I never did, but I came close and I stayed warm. Toward the end of the ride the rain started coming. It wasn't real hard, but it was steady. At that point I didn't care if it rained all day Saturday as long as it didn't rain on Sunday during the ride. As soon as I was done I headed to the room for a hot shower.

The next stop was the packet pick-up. We got our ride numbers, sticker for the helmet and wristband that we needed to have on us during the ride. We also got shirts and water bottles and I have to say I like this year's shirt much better than last year. Some of our teammates were selling merchandise so we hung around for a little bit and then all went to eat at a place called Freshies. I really liked it because they served a lot of vegetarian food. I had a wonderful veggie burger and fries. Yummmm!

After lunch we went back to the room and really just hung out and relaxed for the rest of the day until it was time to get ready for the inspiration dinner. Our team had all tie-dyed t-shirts to wear to the dinner so I put that on and we headed to the party. At this point, it was still raining. It had been raining all day.

The dinner was the typical dinner, but the best part for our team is that one of our teammates gave the speech. Mike is a survivor of AML. He was diagnosed when he was young and ended up having two bone marrow transplants. The cool thing is that his bone marrow donor was with him and would be doing the ride with him Sunday. How cool is that? And who knew how funny Mike could be. He had us all laughing and crying. I think public speaking is what he should be doing! Overall this year, TNT raised $6.8 million for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Go Team!

After the dinner we all headed back to one of our teammate's room for the team meeting. Coach went over the course and where our very own Central Texas sag stops would be so we would know where to watch for them. We put our Texas flags on our helmets and then said good night. We had a long day ahead of us.

Sunday morning I woke up EARLY. Our ride out time was 6:05 am and the coach wanted us downstairs at 5:30. The question of the day was how to dress. It was cold and was still overcast early (but no rain at this point thank goodness). I finally figured out what I wanted to wear and headed downstairs to meet the rest of the team. We got in our riding groups and headed over to the start. And at 6:05, we were off.

I was riding in a group of about 7 riders at first, but we knew we would lose a couple. Patrick, Shelly, Mike, Steve (the bone marrow donor) and I were the group that we knew would stay together throughout the ride. We knew the switchbacks at mile 12 may break us up a bit due to the climbing, but we knew we would regroup after that. For me, the switchbacks didn't seem as hard as they did last year and when I got to the top, I got on the inside, looked right at the photographer and smiled. I wanted a good picture. Then we enjoyed the downhills a little bit. We also stopped for a group picture before continuing on to our first sag stop.

Once we were at the first stop we had to wait a bit. One of our riders was having some issues with his bike, so Patrick had stopped to help. We waited until Patrick got caught up to us and then took off again. By this point the sun was starting to come out and it was a welcome sight. I can't tell you how much I enjoy riding with the group of riders I have ridden with all season. It made the ride go by so much faster and easier than last year. The next thing I knew, it was time to get on the bike path out to Truckee. It wasn't crowded when we got on it, but it did get congested at times. Once we got off the bike path and back on the roads we took off. We had a bit of a tailwind and were doing 22-24 mph easily. We stopped at our second sag stop to refill drinks and grab some food and then headed back in. At this point we had lost Mike and Steve, but we knew they would catch up to us or we would wait for them at King's Beach when we stopped for lunch.

King's Beach was a welcome sight. I was ready for a short break by then and I was hungry for more than gummy bears and Lara Bars. I grabbed a veggie sandwich and some chips and sat down for a few minutes to eat. I also put rewetting drops in my eyes because at this point my contacts were so dried out from the wind I could barely see. The same thing happened last year so I was prepared this time. Mike and Steve did catch up to us at this point and after all had eaten, we headed out again for the last 30 miles and the long, tough climb up to Spooner Junction.

When we got to the bottom of the Spooner climb, I settled in to my nice, slow pace and just pedaled away. I knew there would be no fast speeds on the climb, but I did pass several people. At one point I told myself, "just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling". Toward the top of Spooner I got passed by some of our faster teammates who had stopped for another teammate to fix a flat. But every time one of them passed me, it gave me the inspiration to keep on going. I knew I would soon be at the top. And then next thing I knew, we WERE at the top and we were at the rest stop.

The special thing about our team is that we use the rest stop at the top of Spooner to stop and wait for all of our teammates to get there before we head to the finish line. And when I say all of our teammates, I mean ALL of out teammates, regardless of how long it takes. And this year it took a while. Several of my teammates had a beer (or two) and we all stretched and relaxed. At one point someone thought I was asleep on the ground.

When our last teammate arrived it was time to head out again and enjoy the next few miles of downhill! We had made a plan to meet up one last time a couple of miles from the finish line so we could all ride in together. At this point we put all the survivors and Steve up front and then all of our "triple crowners" next. A person who gets their "triple crown" is someone who has fundraised for and completed a marathon, triathlon and century ride with TNT. We had five teammates who achieved this status after completing this ride.

I can't explain to you the feeling of riding in across the finish line with a team of 35 people who have become close friends throughout the season. And to see our survivors leading us in - wow!!!

Once we were done, we checked in at the TNT tent, bought our pictures and then noticed the black cloud in the sky. Time to head back to the room and get ready for the victory party.

The victory party was fun. Although there is no "formal" speaker, Mike got up on stage again and gave a recap of the ride before "getting the party started". And once he got the party started, the dance floor was packed. He even requested the cotton-eyed-joe for us Texans. I stayed for a little while and helped my birthday buddy Jenny celebrate her birthday and then headed back to the room. We had gotten lucky with the weather and had a great ride on a great day.

Monday morning came earlier than I wanted, but the good news for me is that all I needed to take care of was getting my bike back on the truck. I had wrapped it up Sunday night after getting back from the victory party so it was ready to go. We took it down to the truck and saw our teammates off. Then those of us who were staying extra days headed to a local restaurant for breakfast. After that it was time to try to take a nap. I say try, because in the time I was trying to nap my phone rang three times. There goes that idea. Then I was going to go do some shopping when I got the call that it was time to go swimming - in Lake Tahoe.

There are several of us on the team who have done triathlons and have wetsuits. Since Patrick had driven to Tahoe, we had all sent our wetsuits with him so that we could swim. And that's just what we did. There were four of us with wetsuits and one who braved the cold water without. I didn't think I would make it because I HATE cold water, even with a wetsuit. After I did the Nike Women's Marathon I had put my feet in the ocean and they went numb, so I thought I'd have a problem here. But, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I actually stayed in the water for 15-20 minutes. I can definitely tell that I need to get back to swimming, though. Yikes! My swim fitness is not where it needs to be considering I have a triathlon coming up soon.

After swimming, I finally got in a little shopping so I would have something to bring home for the kids. Then while I was packing, it started raining and hailing. I told you, we got lucky with the weather. And then one of my awesome teammates fixed dinner for those of us who were still there and wanted to come have fun together. We ate, drank, and enjoyed each other's company until late, late, late! Then it was time for bed and my time in Tahoe was almost up.

I got up early Tuesday morning and headed back to the airport for my flight home. Once I was home, my parents picked me up again and took me to Madison's volleyball game. I was exhausted from another great trip and another wonderful America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride!

Getting Ready for Tahoe!!!

One year ago today I was riding my bike around Lake Tahoe for the first time. Now, I'm getting ready to do it again.

This past weekend we had our last group ride here before shipping our bikes to Tahoe. We met at a teammate's house and did the ride from there, getting in just under 30 miles. After the ride we had lunch together, tie-dyed shirts for the pasta party, and then got our last minute instructions for event weekend. We had a really good turnout and a really good time.

Sunday was a busy day for us, but Sunday evening was spent getting the bike ready for shipping because this morning, the bikes went on the truck. It's kind of exciting to see the bikes go. It really hits home that the event is almost here. Some of our first timers had that look in their eyes like "I can't believe it's here". Well, it is.

I will work through Wednesday. I took Thursday off as it's the last day of school for the kids and Dalton will have 5th grade graduation Thursday morning. There's no way I can miss that. Thursday afternoon he will be "kidnapped" by our youth sponsor and some youth from the church and will be officially welcomed into youth group.

Friday morning it's off to the airport to catch my plane to Tahoe. I'm on the same flight as most of the team so it should be a fun flight. I just need to figure out what to pack between now and then. The forecasted temps are about where I thought they would be (lows in the 40s, highs in the 60s), but there is also a chance of rain on ride day. I'm not looking forward to that possibility, so I'm praying for the best.

A couple of my teammates will have laptops in Tahoe, so if I can I'll get on a do a quick update to let you know what's going on. Otherwise, you can expect a long report when I get home.

GO TEAM!!!!