Are you enjoying the Olympics?

I thoroughly enjoy watching the swimming, triathlons, track and field, etc., but the gymnastics this year has been full of drama and surprise.  If you enjoy gymnastics, you may enjoy these:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBPjhB9d3jc]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu-YAMiS5wA]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO_BnsrWMnI]

As a postscript.  Thank you for your comments, and private emails, over my clothing dilemma.  I especially want to thank Glenna for your link to junonia.com.  I have looked at that site a hundred times, but they didn’t carry ‘true’ triathlon-wear.  It looks like they’ve changed some, which gives me more options.   One note about their triathlon shorts.  They are NOT padded, so they’re really just compression shorts.  I did receive some shorts from the site I posted about and they fit wonderfully.  I ordered 2 different sizes and am pleased to say that I have to return the larger of the two and am going to exchange them for a smaller size.  Still working on a top, but I think I have that figured out.    In any event, can you hear the sigh of relief?

I went out on a very short (1 mile) bike ride with Kahuna this evening.  He’s giving me pointers, which I really need.  The main one is that I need to start riding every single day between now and the race — which by the way is exactly 2 months from today!  Eek!  I’m still wobbly, and he’s worried I’m going to piss off the more experienced racers.  I don’t want to do that but a little part of me is thinking that this race *is* a beginner’s type race, so the more experienced racers should probably expect for we novice folks to inconvenience them somewhat…but again, I don’t want to do that.

The little things that have been bugging me

Warning – this blog is going to end in a rant 👿

I’m on my mini-vacation and right now I think I’m going to need a mini-vacation to recuperate. I had a ton of plans for the first 4 days and no plans at all for the last 2. The first 4 days (Thurs – Sun) included a Thursday night at Phantom of the Opera as a late birthday present from Kahuna, a Friday evening wedding/reception for a beautiful person, Kahuna’s Saturday sprint at Camp Pendleton (where he took 1st in his age group for the military division), tri-club network meeting that same evening, and movie and jazz concert Sunday afternoon/night. We had talked about going to the race track for Monday but the two of us are pooped from being gone every single evening and most all of the day Saturday and Sunday.

You notice there’s no mention of any training in there for me, right? All my plans went out the window. I thought I would be home more, but nope. However, today I took Silver out for a ride with the new-to-her fat-bottom girl seat and it was tons better. I’m definitely going to need some butter, but using the tri-shorts I was able to find in *Athena* size will be okay. I have been terribly worried that I was going to fail my first attempt at a triathlon because of that bike seat. I didn’t really admit how scared I was until I got on it this morning (and adjusted it about 3 times) and actually was able to take a quick ride around my neighborhood in less than 5 minutes.

The next thing I need to work on is what top to wear. I have found a sleeveless plus-size top, that zips up the front, but it has a collar so I’ve decided to order it and take it to a tailor to have the collar removed. I think doing that, plus wearing the tri-shorts I found at Aero Tech Designs, will allow me to not have to stress about what I’m wearing during the swim inside the wetsuit (which is another whole ball of worry).

I’d like to give a shout-out “thank you” to another triathlete for posting in her blog about a place to rent a wetsuit – but I can’t. (I’ll be calling them in a week or two to discuss what I’m looking for). So, why can’t I? Her blog was changed while I was on hiatus to ‘invite only’ and I could no longer read her posts. It seems some people just are so unkind to *fat* people and the comments she received caused her to make her blog by invite only and eventually completely delete it. It saddens me because she was an interesting read and I learned things from her even though she’s about 20 years younger than me.

Hello, just because we’re fat doesn’t mean we don’t want to have fun too. And that’s the whole reason I wanted to attempt a triathlon…being on the sidelines watching all shapes and sizes of men and women have fun…I wanted to have that fun too. I always had the impression that triathletes had to be super fit because of the *endurance* aspect behind the race, until I went to my first race with Kahuna. I was so in awe of the large people out there and every single person was having a blast! I have never seen so many supportive people either!

As an aside – because of Kahuna’s time, we hung out for the awards ceremony. We were diagonal from the finish line so I was watching the latecomers while we waited for the ceremony to begin and then waiting on Kahuna’s name to be called. Anyway those individuals who were finishing last, weren’t finishing alone. The volunteers were 90% Marines. Those Marines were practically surrounding those finishers and running in with them. It was so fun to watch. You could see the runners’ step it up a bit having that help and encouragement, but the one that brought pride to my heart, and tears to my eyes, was the very last runner to finish. A woman who was probably in the 39 and under group. Not only did she not have to finish alone but almost every one of the Marines who marked the path to the finish line fell in behind her, started running in formation, and started singing cadence all the way to the finish line. She had the biggest grin on her face, and I was jealous. She was DFL and I wanted to be her! So many people stopped what they were doing and turned toward that finish line and started cheering and clapping for her.

Back to some of the little things that are upsetting me lately:

In addition to the slow training I have to do in order to not hurt myself (more than I already have), I have a harder time of it because of the clothing situation. I know it’s mostly my own fault I’m the size I am but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to participate because of a clothing issue. In fact, one of my largest aggravations in the clothing area are the organizations, such as Danskin, that have their own triathlons, but don’t carry plus size triathlon gear, even though they carry plus sizes in their other active wear. Grrrrr.

And to cap it off:

Saturday, someone told me it wouldn’t count if I had to walk the run portion of the triathlon I’m signed up for. A woman who was in that conversation said it did, but it still hurt to hear those words come from someone I thought would support me 100% in my efforts. And no, I’m not planning on walking it, but that part of the conversation came after I discussed my fears about the bike portion because of the pain the old seat was causing. I said something like, I know I can swim the swim, and I know if I have to I can walk the run portion, but the bike scares me…then the comment about it not counting. Definitely put a damper on my enthusiasm for the event and try as I can here it is 2 days later and I still can’t get it out of my head. It also makes me wonder that even if I do complete that triathlon will I feel like I belong because of my size…never mind that I should belong because of my accomplishment.

Head demons suck.

Oops, it's been another one of those weeks

I managed to find 3 dresses last week on my shopping trip (in addition to some other clothing). I thrilled to death with 2 of them and so-so about the 3rd one. Other than the shopping trip the only other blog worthy thing I did last week was to see Mama Mia! It was very fun and we found ourselves singing throughout the movie.

Today I’m been cooking our ‘meals’ for next week. Tomorrow starts my ‘drop dead don’t let anything get in my’ training, plus I have an opera, wedding, race, and concert to attend on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Whew! I’m planning on my Thurs and Friday swim to happen mid-day since I’m talking the latter part of those days off. I’m determined to get in 4 swims this week, and every week hereafter until the race.

I’ve also deleted several things off my ‘record’ list for the DVR. I figure I’ll miss them, but if they’re not on the DVR I won’t be tempted to sit and watch them instead of doing whatever training I need to do.

I’m still trying to keep Wednesday night as ‘date night’ so we’ll see how that works out.

At work this week I have a bunch of hurry up and do it stuff that needs to get out, and that’s causing me a bit of personal stress. I’m fighting eating it away.

Decorating dreams

I love reading decorating magazines.  I have such varying tastes and find myself falling in love with an elegant dining room on one page, and a country eat-in kitchen on the next.  I have a stack of magazines that I need to go through to tear out the inspiration pages for a folder I have. 

Recently I’ve found myself reading more and more decorating blogs and saving certain pictures from them.  That’s so much easier and takes up less space than the magazines and saves the trees 🙂  The last few pictures I saved were from desire to inspire.  The entries on this blog are usually very long so I only look at them when I have time to sit a spell, like on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

I absolutely l.o.v.e. this kitchen.

And would have no problems whatsoever eating off this table.

And could easily entertain people in this dining area.

And imagine the sweet dreams sleeping under this chandelier!

But enough of that.

I stitched on French Alphabet Sampler last night while watching some of my DVR’s stuff. I’ve got my stitching groove back!!!

Kahuna didn’t get into today’s race. Long story….the Marine Corps dropped the ball, yadda, yadda, yadda. I think I’m more disappointed than he is 😆

I’m headed out dress shopping with a friend today. I haven’t worn a dress in almost 10 years and I have an opera and wedding coming up. I’m also looking for some work clothes (denim trousers, etc.). She has a great eye for design and has been ‘shopping’ for me all week. I can’t wait to see what she picked out…and I’m going shoe shopping too! Woohoo! If it works out I may just ‘hire’ her to shop for me for the rest of my life! 😆

Today I became a tree hugger…

…of sorts.  I bought a Kindle.  It took a lot of thinking to part with the money, but as I was wandering around the bookstore, pulling out books I wanted to read, and then returning them to the shelves because I knew I didn’t have the space for them, and felt guilty about the ones I’ve been trying to get rid of, I decided enough was enough and I did it.  I’ve spent the better part of the last couple of hours looking up books on Amazon to see if they’re offered for Kindle and so far every single one of the books I’ve been wanting to buy is available!  I am already fantasizing about what to do with all the time I’ll have left over now that I won’t have to spend it dusting books 😉

Still 'gutting' it out

Kahuna has a plane load of Marines coming back from Iraq tonight (Woohoo!!)  so we decided to switch our movie night to last night (we saw Wall-e).  Because it wasn’t planned, we headed out for something ‘light’ for supper.  I ended up getting a chicken burrito, and even tho I asked for no beans, they substituted pintos for black beans.  There weren’t very many on there because I wasn’t really sure I was tasting them, but this morning, I knew for a fact that they were.  Beans K.I.L.L. me and my stomach was cramping so bad this morning that it woke me up.  I’m so sensitive to them  that I’m surprised I wasn’t hurting about a half hour after I ate them.  It’s now 3 hours after my shuffle around the neighborhood and I’m still in pain.  It made me so much slower because all I could focus on was my stomach and not my stride.  I am seriously praying that it goes away before swimming tonight. 

Kahuna lowered the nose of my seat last night so we’ll see how that works out tomorrow.  I know just a smidge can help considerably.  Of course I’ll try out the other bajillion saddles we have in the garage before spending the money on a new one, but I’m looking at the Koobi tri saddle if what we have doesn’t work.

Even though I haven’t raced my first triathlon, I’m already planning next year’s races.  I want to do the super sprint in May that I originally was supposed to do this year, but didn’t get to because of my PF (which is doing 90% better thankyouverymuch!). 

I also want to do a sprint early in the season before it gets too warm here (I was amazed at how hot it was at 8 a.m. a couple of weeks ago at Kahuna’s race, and could not imagine running on that concrete in that type of heat for an hour). 

Lastly, I am planning on doing the Subaru super sprint again next October, just so I can see how much I’ve improved my time. 

However, Darla’s comment below has made me go ‘hmmmmm’ and now I’m thinking about a relay before a full race by myself.  It would give me a chance to do a full open ocean swim without having to worry about the biking and running portion before attempting to do it all on my own.

Gutting it out

Isn’t that a lovely subject line!  😆

I did better in the pool last night that I ever had.  I borrowed Kahuna’s ‘finger’ lap counter and tried to go 25 yards further than I have in the past.  I figured I’d have to get back to the other end anyway, so I forced myself to finish and I managed to go 50 yards further and swam it in a shorter amount of time.  I’m still slow by pro standards, but my swimming is strictly arms only, except the breathing stroke and I’m doing better without the pull buoy than with.  Major accomplishment, for me.  I was starving and worn out when I got home.

The time in the saddle (T.I.T.S.) is getting better too.  My sitbones (butt) have accepted the saddle.  The lady parts have not.  I am going to tilt my seat for the next ride to see if that helps.  If it doesn’t I’ll be on the hunt for a split horn saddle.  I gutted it out for about a minute and a half more than last time and my goal is to just always go longer than the time before.  I know that minute and a half doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the mileage that I’m most concerned with.

I need to be able to swim .375 kilometers, bike 6.2 miles, and run 1.58 miles.  So far the only thing I ‘can’t’ do yet is the 6.2 miles on the bike, but I’m working up to it, a mile at a time.  Babysteps, right?

Oh my, I neglected my blog again

I don’t know how this has happened, and I’m sad about it.  I love blogging but for some reason I’ve stopped.  I need blogging more than it needs me because this is my diary.  I love going back and reading old posts and seeing where I was a month, a year, 2 years ago.  Of course if I were to see where I was a month ago, I’d find myself missing.  Before I try to catch up I’ll respond a bit to the comments on my last post:

Gas is still high here, like everywhere else.  I did see it get to $4.80 but fortunately I never had to pay that price.  By the time I had to fill again it had dropped back to $4.70 something.  Right now it’s hovering around $4.60.  I could say I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one suffering with the gas prices, but I love my stitching blogging friends too much to wish that on them.  Gas prices suck the big one for everyone right now.  Kahuna is talking quite a bit about trading in his BMW M3 on a car that gets better gas mileage.  He loves that car, so I know it’s something he’s given a lot of thought to if he’s really serious.  He hasn’t gotten to the test-drive stage yet and I keep reminding him that the next new car is mine.  I’m thinking me and my purse would look good driving around with a car that bears this emblem.

 

I’m still not convinced it’s time for me to return to school.  The Marine Corps has just about approved for members to transfer their education benefits to family members if they’re not going to use them.  I’m sort of holding out to see if that’s going to happen.  Of course, now that they’re throwing actual dollar amounts around Kahuna is thinking of retiring and going back to school to get the monthly allowance being offered to students.  I could smack him since for him it’s about having more money to live off of while he surfs.  For me, it’s about furthering my education (okay, being able to make more money to buy purses and shoes) but honestly I don’t want to quit my job right now to go to school full time, which is probably what I would have to do.  The curriculum is 3 years of full-time study or 4 years of evening study and I just don’t have the mental energy to put myself through full time school and full time work again. 

As to me making an excellent attorney, that’s a frightening thing (oh, and yes, J.D. is the degree of juris doctor).  I still don’t know if I have the self-confidence to stand before 13 people and convince them not to throw a client into jail for the rest of his/her life for whatever they’ve been accused of doing.  I do know there are areas where that would not be an issue, but remember….I like the criminals.  Of course, I also like personal injury and if I were to go that route, it would probably be products liability, instead of slip and fall/auto accident injuries.

I do want to do something though, so I’m thinking of taking spanish lessons.  Far cry from what’s discussed above, but it is learning.

So to the present. 

I’m in full-on training mode for October’s super-sprint.  Last week Kahuna and I started our ‘every day swimming’ schedule, knowing that we actually wouldn’t get to swim every day.  It’s a mindset for me though and as far as I know there’s no reason to miss a night this week.  I’m trying for 5 days a week in the water.  Every morning finds me dragging my pooped out behind out of bed to either run or ride before work.  I’m trying to decrease my run time each effort, and increase the amount of time I’m on the bike.  My butt still doesn’t like that seat; however, I’ve learned that if I just stay on it long enough the blood circulation will finally be cut off and I’ll go numb.  😆   I’m back religiously on my WW plan and that and the training is paying off.  I lost another 1.6 pounds this week.   I bought Oahu Revisited for my upcoming trip to Hawaii (the afternoon after the tri 🙂 ) and have been fantasizing about laying on the beach reading romance novels, while drinking something with an umbrella in it!

I stopped eating beef and drinking alcohol on my birthday (June 30).  So far I’ve had beef once and no alcohol.  I’m tempted quite frequently by both, but I’d like to see if I can just do without either as much as possible until the end of the year…or at least the triathlon considering that comment about about the umbrella drinks! 😆

We finished one of our trials and are waiting on the sentencing portion – another trial was continued until next month – and we took on the sentencing portion for a new client, which happens tomorrow.  I’ve been on-call every night for Federal jury duty, which lasts a month.  It’s rather aggravating since I can’t make any plans.  I have some routine medical stuff I need to get done and I’m having to put it off since I can’t make an appointment I don’t know I’ll get to keep.

Last week Kahuna competed in another triathlon and I volunteered to work body marking and transition.  It was a fun race, but man was it hot!  This weekend has us at an outdoor jazz concert down on the beach and the weather is dreary right now and I’m hoping it’ll stay overcast so we don’t have to deal with the sun.  Next week Kahuna is competing in another triathlon, but I’m just going to watch.  This is the same triathlon I went to last year (my first) that got my interest peaked.  Kahuna was suffering from a leg injury and didn’t do all that great, but this year he’s in excellent shape and I cannot wait to see how much time he shaves off of last year’s results.

Wednesday night is movie night for us (the only day of the week for no swimming) and we’re catching up on new releases.  We normally see a movie about 2 weeks after it’s released so we don’t have to deal with the crowds.  That last few movies we’ve seen are Love Guru, Wanted, and Get Smart and I think this week will have us seeing either Wall-e or Journey to the Center of the Earth.  I’m looking forward to Dark Knight, The Mummy, Hancock and X-Files.

And you notice there’s no mention of stitching?  I’m hoping to remedy that today.  Maybe.  If the groceries get bought and the laundry gets started…which means I need to get off this computer.

I can’t promise to blog more frequently, but I hope it’s not 6 weeks until my next post.

Timing is, sometimes, everything!

A little bit ago I was complaining about spending $4.15 for gas. Today, I paid $4.51. I can’t help but think how fortunate I am to have found a job so close to home. I was filling my car every 4 days, but now I can go almost 2 weeks. The downside to that, I guess, is that right now gas prices are jumping between fills for me, instead of seeming to creep up like they felt they were doing when I was filling more often.

We’re in trial mode right now.  I spend most of my day tweaking over and over briefs and talking to witnesses.  I’m crazy busy and am having a blast.  I keep catching myself thinking how I can’t believe I’m finally back to doing this again, and finally getting my money’s worth from all the headaches of college homework.  I love trial work and always wanted to be more involved and now I’m finally doing it.  And there’s that tiny voice in the back of my head asking me if I’m ready to go further in the education and get a J.D.  I tamp it down, but it’s always there waiting on me to be tired enough to escape the barrier.

Have you helped a neighbor lately?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvTs2scSgLE&hl=en]

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