You're Funny and Your Mama Dresses You Ugly

You can wear anything as long as you put a nice pair of shoes with it.  -- Taylor Momsen

It was a gorgeous day today and I went for a fantastic run.  I'm wearing in a new pair of shoes that I bought a long time ago -- I tend to buy my shoes on Shoe Carnival when they are going off market (previous year models) and keep them in my closet until it is time to retire a pair.  I tend to go around 400 miles on a pair of shoes...I wasn't paying that much attention to my current pair but when I went to "retire" them from the website where I keep track of my workouts (Beginner Triathlete), they were at 418 miles.  Spot on.

Anyway, when I bought these shoes, many months ago, I didn't know that I would have pink KT tape and neon yellow calf sleeves.  Low & behold...same colors as my shoes.

Pretty awesome, no?  Actually, I felt kind of like a circus clown...a fast circus clown.  But a circus clown. Ugly is the new fast.  That's what I'm telling myself.

To remove the horrible image from your mind, I'll leave you with a picture from the tri club's banquet/bash/prom that was held last night.  It was really cool to see people without spandex and swim caps and goggles.  But even though we were dressed pretty, we still talked about triathlons.  (And hubby and I won a cool swim package at the silent auction - paddles, pull buoy, snorkel, mesh bag, etc.)

Shooting for the Stars!

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. -- William Shakespeare

OK, so the stars may not hold my destiny, but I am going to be shooting for the stars.  This past weekend we ordered Chinese food and I got the following fortune...it must be a sign, right?

(In case you were wondering, the other side teaches me how to say "fish" in Chinese - very useful.)  The fortune may not have much to do with it, but I decided it was time to make it real.  'Cause you know, when you say something out loud, it becomes real - remember?  And when you pay the big-ass entry fee, it gets even MORE real.  As Captain Jean-Luc Picard says, it was time to make it so...

So...as of this morning, I am officially registered for IM Louisville 2014.

Bring it on, baby!  I'm heading for the stars and getting ready to rock my destiny.

Cramp-tastic

I have a hard time finding high boots that go up to your knee, because of the shape of my calves. -- Camila Alves

Today was supposed to be my long run - hoping to go 18-20 miles since I'm just shy of a month away from the marathon.  Unfortunately I was hobbled by a terrible calf cramp around mile 13.  And so, I give you...The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck:

The thing that totally cracks me up about this song is how fitting the title is for my run.  :)  I've finally gotten my food dialed in a little better for long runs (instead of getting starving part way through).  Today I had 2 packs of gu and one pack of fruit mush (or muck - take your pick).

Anyway, back to the cramps - not the punk band...the ones in my calves.  I'm starting to get a little stressed about these, since I want to do well during my marathon and obviously hobbling in is not how I want to perform.  I've been reading up - seems like maybe an electrolyte/dehydration issue.  I ate a banana for breakfast, had gatorade in my camelbak, and ate the two gus that have electrolytes...all I'm thinking is that maybe I need to drink more and/or take S-caps (salt tabs) even in the winter.  Unfortunately, the drinking more kind of limits my routes, since there aren't potty stops every two miles on my training runs.  Won't be a problem for the race, but makes training more challenging.  I should have time for one more long run to test out the salt theory...nothing new on race day (although the US Olympic speed skating team doesn't seem to get that rule).  I hope the salt helps.

New Swimming Win!

Being happy outside the pool means fast swimming in the pool. -- Eric Shanteau

Swimming has been going mostly pretty good recently - one bad morning when I felt like I hadn't learned anything at all when the coach was working on our form, but a few good night swims and then today was awesome.  On Monday night, I led my lane (the 2nd from slowest) the whole night, which was pretty cool - and I could have gone faster, but the lanes were a little messed up so we got to regroup a few extra times.

Today swimming got moved to lunchtime due to snow.  It wasn't as busy as it usually is, so I swam in a lane with one other woman who basically swims the same speed as me.  It was distance/aerobic day, so the whole main set was up for the taking as soon as we got started...and we just kept swimming.  Today was the first day I ever got over 3000m in during masters!  Yippee!  Rockstar me!  And only 200 was with fins.  The main set was long 300s at CSS pace and faster 100s in between.  When the coach told us how many meters the whole workout was, about halfway through, I didn't think we'd get it all in, but we just kept plugging away and got all the way through with about a minute to spare!  I'm so excited - definitely want to keep the positive swim groove going!

Inside-Out

When my body is strong, I feel stronger inside.  I feel more capable of handling emotional situations.  Usually I'm more of an inside-out person, but this was a great case of me from the outside in.  -- Mariska Hargitay

Law and Order SVU is one of my favorite shows.  Ever.  Except it has gone downhill since Eliot left...love Christopher Meloni.  Love.  And now that Captain Cragen has retired, I don't have high hopes for however much of the show is left...but I also really love Mariska.  And I love this quote.  When I am strong, I feel more capable of handling emotional situations.  Truth.

I'm also loving watching the Winter Olympics - some strong folks there.  I mentioned to my husband how awesome the winter games are because everyone has really strong legs.  I love this ad.  I may have posted it up before, but it should be repeatedly shown:

Skaters, skiers, jumpers - they all got legs.  Completely awesome and strong legs.  Makes me happy.  Almost as happy as the Norwegian curling team's pants.

OK.  So now to the big question of the day...inside or out.  I have a long run.  I have a cold.  It's cold.  Running inside is crazy talk.  Running outside is crazy cold.  Snot is likely to ensue, not to mention any worsening of said cold.  Inside, less snot and less worsening, but criminal insanity is potential.  What to do, what to do?  May go with eeny-meeny-miney-mo here.  I'll let you know what I did.

Good Morning, Beautiful

I don't ask for the meaning of the song of a bird or the rising of the sun on a misty morning.  There they are, and they are beautiful.  -- Pete Hamill

Traveling again - this morning I'm in Florida.  It was a beautiful misty sunrise and I had a great run.  Actually, the sun wasn't up yet when I ran - I took these pictures after I got back...coffee and water on my balcony...but the run was great (and misty and humid and a welcome change after running in winter or on the treadmill the last month).

I've talked before about how packing is a challenge for these business trips - how do you fit in all of your running gear (and I brought along some swim clothes too...just in case) and still have room for conference clothes?  I have found that many people nod their heads when I make this comment...but then half of them are like, "but I never use it anyway..."   This is so strange to me - one, because obviously I'm becoming a little compulsive about training (for good reason), but two, because I just love to run somewhere else.  I can run the routes by my house in my sleep.  On long runs, I don't really need my Garmin to tell me it's been 4 miles and it's time for a gel, because I know where 4 miles is going in at least 6 different directions.  It is such a joy to be somewhere where I don't know what's around the corner - and in fact this morning, it was a little dark and I had no idea what was around the corner, which was a little scary and a lot interesting.  Thankfully it was dark so I didn't see any snakes, except for the squished one I saw on the road by a trolley stop.  If I would have seen a live one, then maybe I wouldn't be waxing so poetic about running in soupy Florida weather.

Traveling is hard and it's hard on my training and it's hard on my body.  But it is so good for my mind when I get to stretch my legs somewhere new.

Baby Girl, I don't got a motor boat, but you float my boat...

All you need is love.  But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.  -- Charles M. Schulz

So husband and older daughter are going away over Valentine's Day for a sports tournament...so I was looking for something fun to do with younger daughter.  I think she's feeling a little left out and I told her I'd take her on a Valentine's date, but I wanted to do a little something more...so I found this great race, Run for the Chocolate, nearby.  It's a 5K and you get a t-shirt, medal, and chocolates at the finish.  (Oh, and wine, but that was for me, not her).  Wouldn't that be a great thing for us to do together?

Yeah - it would, but the race is $45 a person right now - seriously.  (It was cheaper...$35 when registration opened, but even that's pretty hefty for a 5K.)  Triathlons are expensive - I get it.  And even road races are expensive - OK.  But if we want to get our kids into these sports, we can't make them cost prohibitive.  I think race organizers are doing a real disservice to young people.  And probably not even young people, but other people who are just starting out and thinking "hey, I've never done a race before - that sounds cool."  Cool.  But not $45 cool.  They claim the race is going to sell out - but they have a couple hundred slots in both the 5K and the 10K.  Maybe they'll get the hint - or maybe not.  I have no skin in the game myself, I'm just ranting because I wanted to do something cool with my baby girl...but I'm not paying $90 for a half-hour of fun.

Super Bowl Shuffle

We are the Bears Shufflin' Crew; Shufflin' on down, doin' it for you.  We're so bad, we know we're good.  Blowin' your mind like we know we would.  You know we're just struttin' for fun, struttin' our stuff for everyone...We're not here to start no trouble.  We're just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle.  -- 1985 Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew

Super Bowl Sunday.  16 miles run.  It's all good.  Actually, other than serious calf cramps after I finished the run, it really was all good.  Now - back to the Super Bowl.  Or the commercials - at this point, they're definitely more interesting.