- Driving kids to summer day camp and back, which ended last Friday
- Following the Tour de France on my other blog and Twitter, which ended last Sunday
- Doing some training but (of course) never quite enough (as you can see in the sidebar)
- Breaking in my new Adamo saddle, which I like but which is taking a long time to get accustomed to
- NOT racing, haven't done any races since a slow half marathon in April (they tend to take too much time out of my training anyway)
- Trying to figure out how to get in my training at all now that the kids are not in camp until school starts August 25th
- Getting the new house ready to move into (STILL remodeling, will post some photos when there's something actually completed to show. Today's excitement was starting the new garbage pickup service over there)
- Getting the old house ready to move out of (YES, we have a great offer on the table, but have to finish up all the final details of fixing up the old house)
- Putting up random links and interesting things on Facebook lately instead of here on the blog like I used to
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Not much blogging going on here.
Sorry so quiet! I've been:
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Festivities
My husband took this cell phone photo late this afternoon of all the boats moored out in the nearby Miles River in anticipation of tonight's firework display.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Counters
Our new countertops were installed today - sand-colored laminate. We'll probably replace them with stone in five years or so but for right now it saved us several thousand dollars that we're spending on other things! I think it looks great, anyway. We're hoping the whole job will be finished within a couple more weeks. However, I just gave the contractor another job today - installing marble flooring in our half bath and a couple new toilets. It's always something!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Solo training camp
The girls are in day camp from 9-4 M-F this week, so I'm trying to get some increased training volume in a solo training camp by myself. (The slight glitch in this is that my new Adamo bike saddle arrived Monday, and it's going to take me a few more miles than I expected to get accustomed to totally new pressure points. I'll post a review soon).
Here are my completed workouts (I'll update this and add as I do them):
MONDAY
SWIM 0:44 0.99 mi 44:47 min/mile 396 cal
BIKE 1:02 17.29 mi 16.7 mph 691 cal
Painted 1 laundry room, grouted cracks in driveway, filled 1 rotten windowsill with wood putty.
TUESDAY
SWIM 0:49 1.10 mi 44:12 min/mile 440 cal
BIKE 2:36 40.80 mi 15.7 mph 1632 cal (slow and sluggish)
Also spent too much time adjusting the bike seat, putting on the behind-the-seat water bottle cages for summer long rides, etc.
WEDNESDAY
SWIM 0:42 0.96 mi 43:47 min/mile 384 cal
RUN 2:07 8.30 mi 15:18 min/mile 830 cal (call it heat acclimatization training - hot and slow)
THURSDAY
RUN 0:60 5.00 mi 11:54 min/mile 500 cal
BIKE 1:19 20.07 mi 15.2 mph 802.8 cal
FRIDAY
BIKE 2:13 35.20 mi 15.9 mph 1408 cal (cut it short, had intended 50-70 miles)
SATURDAY
RUN 0:49 4.24 mi 11:30 min/mi 424 cal
Plus some walking that I won't count! Whew!
Here are my completed workouts (I'll update this and add as I do them):
MONDAY
SWIM 0:44 0.99 mi 44:47 min/mile 396 cal
BIKE 1:02 17.29 mi 16.7 mph 691 cal
Painted 1 laundry room, grouted cracks in driveway, filled 1 rotten windowsill with wood putty.
TUESDAY
SWIM 0:49 1.10 mi 44:12 min/mile 440 cal
BIKE 2:36 40.80 mi 15.7 mph 1632 cal (slow and sluggish)
Also spent too much time adjusting the bike seat, putting on the behind-the-seat water bottle cages for summer long rides, etc.
WEDNESDAY
SWIM 0:42 0.96 mi 43:47 min/mile 384 cal
RUN 2:07 8.30 mi 15:18 min/mile 830 cal (call it heat acclimatization training - hot and slow)
THURSDAY
RUN 0:60 5.00 mi 11:54 min/mile 500 cal
BIKE 1:19 20.07 mi 15.2 mph 802.8 cal
FRIDAY
BIKE 2:13 35.20 mi 15.9 mph 1408 cal (cut it short, had intended 50-70 miles)
SATURDAY
RUN 0:49 4.24 mi 11:30 min/mi 424 cal
Plus some walking that I won't count! Whew!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Vacation
I didn't take many photos last week when we rented a house at the Outer Banks in North Carolina, but here are a couple that make me smile:
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
New cabinets
Still being installed, and no appliances nor countertops in place, but at least it's progress!
Here is the "before" photo of that stove area in the center. We are keeping the same stove, in the same location (only it will have a microwave above it instead of the vent hood), but that's all that remains of the original kitchen and layout: 
This is about the same view, before remodeling (nothing in this photo is still in place other than the doorway I'm shooting the photo through). The new dishwasher is going approximately in the same place as the old one that is barely visible on the right far side.
Here is the "before" photo of that stove area in the center. We are keeping the same stove, in the same location (only it will have a microwave above it instead of the vent hood), but that's all that remains of the original kitchen and layout: 
Bad photo, but at least you can get the gist of the 2-sided glass cabinets between the sunroom and the kitchen:
This is about the same view, before remodeling (nothing in this photo is still in place other than the doorway I'm shooting the photo through). The new dishwasher is going approximately in the same place as the old one that is barely visible on the right far side.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Starting Over
Here we go again. I have 24 weeks in this year's log and 20 weeks to Ironman, more or less.
Averages per week this year:
Averages per week this year:
- Swim: 334 yards (zero for fully 20 of those weeks, since I never got meds to swim in the indoor pools, and I would get sick without them. Fortunately outdoor pools seem okay so far.)
- Bike: 29.8 miles (better than I had thought!)
- Run: 10.6 miles (fairly average for me).
Hmm. Compared to this time in 2006, when I was preparing for Ironman Florida (which I DNFd halfway through the run), that's about 2975 fewer yards swimming per week, 19.4 fewer bike miles per week, and 4.8 fewer run miles per week. That's not good! But my paces are faster now and my body weight lower, so that's in my favor. And while I'm 3 years older, I've also got 3 more years of base training and triathlon experience.
Now I need to gradually bring up the swim total within a week by about, oh, roughly 10X - 20X, the bike by about 4X-6X, and the run by about 2X. Not in every week, though, the overall weekly averages in the next 24 weeks will be somewhat less since I'll focus more heavily on single disciplines each week.
Bring it on.
Home again!
Home again from vacation! Yay! I'll post some photos when I find my camera (buried somewhere in unpacked luggage, I hope).
Major events of this week:
* My birthday! My math says it's my 52nd, but that can't possibly be right.
* Summer day camp starts! Hurrah!
* MORE work on both houses proceeds, slowly. Photos to come, also. Two sets of beautiful upper cabinets are now installed in my new kitchen and 3/4 of the beautiful floor. It's still going to be several weeks until moving day. The old house is listed for sale and we've had a few looky-loos so far.
* 20 weeks to Beach 2 Battleship iron-distance triathlon means that SERIOUS tri-training begins this week! I'm using a modified ontri.com free canned training program, which looks good, along with logging my workouts there. They have a "friends" function, though I'm not sure exactly what the friends thing does.
* I just ordered one of these funny-looking bike saddles. It's my only hope for riding long distances without being in serious, serious, SERIOUS discomfort after 2-3 hours. Nothing else has worked, and I've tried everything.
Everything. And yes, red is fast.
Major events of this week:
* My birthday! My math says it's my 52nd, but that can't possibly be right.
* Summer day camp starts! Hurrah!
* MORE work on both houses proceeds, slowly. Photos to come, also. Two sets of beautiful upper cabinets are now installed in my new kitchen and 3/4 of the beautiful floor. It's still going to be several weeks until moving day. The old house is listed for sale and we've had a few looky-loos so far.
* 20 weeks to Beach 2 Battleship iron-distance triathlon means that SERIOUS tri-training begins this week! I'm using a modified ontri.com free canned training program, which looks good, along with logging my workouts there. They have a "friends" function, though I'm not sure exactly what the friends thing does.
* I just ordered one of these funny-looking bike saddles. It's my only hope for riding long distances without being in serious, serious, SERIOUS discomfort after 2-3 hours. Nothing else has worked, and I've tried everything.
Everything. And yes, red is fast.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Hot tub
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
New carpet
In the middle of carpet installation today throughout the new house (everything outside of the remodeled area and bathrooms). This is in the girls' bedroom, but the color goes very well with the tan, yellow, and brown shades I've used for the walls throughout the rest of the house. Sure beats faded 80s dusty rose.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Swimming at Claiborne
My training partner Dave and I did another short open water swim this morning at Claiborne, Maryland. There's a sleepy village which many years ago used to host a bustling ferry terminus. These days there are more ospreys and crabs than people.
You might be able to see a flag in the middle ground which showed the wind to be 8 or 9 mph. The water had a bit more chop than I would like, but the temperatures were pleasant enough and there is no sign of the sea nettles yet. We did, however, pause to let a very large swimming snapping turtle go on his way. Since it's completely open to the west it can get a lot of wind coming off the bay and a lot of chop, making swimming there a bit of a challenge. Plus it's only deep enough to swim there when the tide is out - otherwise it's only hip height out to a half mile offshore. Today that allowed me to stand up and rest and take a breather whenever I felt like it!
You might be able to see a flag in the middle ground which showed the wind to be 8 or 9 mph. The water had a bit more chop than I would like, but the temperatures were pleasant enough and there is no sign of the sea nettles yet. We did, however, pause to let a very large swimming snapping turtle go on his way. Since it's completely open to the west it can get a lot of wind coming off the bay and a lot of chop, making swimming there a bit of a challenge. Plus it's only deep enough to swim there when the tide is out - otherwise it's only hip height out to a half mile offshore. Today that allowed me to stand up and rest and take a breather whenever I felt like it!
The crescent-shaped bay is just to the south of the "A" on the map below, on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)