Step Away From the Cake

This morning was swimming and of course it wasn't raining!!! The gods are trying to piss me off I tell you. I got home from work last night (not as early as I'd hoped) and it started raining. So that blew off the evening bike ride. They are not going to get me down!!! I'm not going to let them!!! So, Friday morning is an optional long swim. I will probably do this most weeks as this is where I really need the work. So I headed off to the pool and decided to just to 1000m slow and easy. I did. It felt good. I did flip turns for about 250m but I was having trouble breathing during them so I stopped. Anyway, 1000m took me 27:18, and since my oly is an 850m swim, my time at 750m was 19:53. Not too shabby. I was pleased. Mostly I was pleased with my form. I was going slow and really working on reaching and pulling. I developed a little rhythm where I would kind of roll to the left, then roll to the right and breathe, then roll to the left, it was great. I felt like I was gliding...

I had every intention of getting up this morning and going for a bike ride. Weeelllll, I ended up staying up a little bit late last night. Then apparently, the alarm clock went off and I turned it off. I did, however, jump out of bed ready to go when I discovered it was pouring rain. Okay, that's it. I know when I'm defeated. So I sacked my bike ride and left for work early. I plan on leaving early and going for my bike ride this evening. So there fate!!! See how you like that!!!

Okay, well I was a little too enthusiastic with my training. I ran on Sunday, then swam and ran on Monday, then rode my bike on Tuesday. That proved to be just a touch too much. Yesterday my knee started acting up and I was having trouble walking. I have no cartilage in my right knee so I have to be careful with it. Turns out running 2 days in a row is a big no-no. the knee didn't really hurt it just felt weak and unstable. So I decided to take today off. I needed to revamp my training schedule anyway since I can not run 2 days in a row. Previous experience has shown if I leave a day in between my knee is much happier. I can bike on that day or swim of course, just not run. So that's what I did today. Tomorrow though it's right back to it. Another bike ride is on the schedule and I'm looking forward to it. I just hope it's a little warmer tomorrow :)

One of my absolute favorite things is to ride my bike early in the morning. The day is new, it's quiet, most people aren't up and about yet. The backroads where I ride in my new neighborhood are really quiet. The only living things out are me, chickens, cats, peacocks, and mongoose. It's great I love it. So this morning I get up and dressed and ready to head out. One small problem, it's freaking cold. At 6 this morning it was about 62 degrees. Okay, okay, I can hear it already, "that's not cold" Guess what, for Hawaii it's freaking freezing. We dropped into the high 50's last night. Hello, it's May in Hawaii, that is way freaking cold. Also, you have to understand, we are not set up for cold weather. My house is single wall construction, there is no insulation whatsoever. I only own 1 pair of jeans and I have no cold weather gear because once I get biking or running I usually get warm and am fine. This morning I started riding and was freezing....

half the battle. Once I did my post on being afraid and picking out a race to do things have been going well. Saturday I biked - god I love biking. Sunday I ran. Today was swimming and running. Wow, I feel great. So today's plan called for 30 minute swim and 35 minute run. All night last night I'm trying to figure out how to do this. Theoretically the pool doesn't open till 6:30a.m. I could run first then swim but I really wanted to swim first then run (don't ask me why, I don't know. That's what the schedule said!!). So I kept telling myself I could blow the run off, just do this swim. In my mental gymnastics I didn't get anything ready. The alarm goes off this morning and I decide I'm going to swim then run. I have nothing ready so had to race around the house like an idiot getting all my gear (which I haven't used in like 2 months) ready. I got to the pool at 6:10 and people were already swimming - sweet!!! By 6:15 I was in the pool. Out at 6:45 a...

My mom was a pretty special woman, at least in my opinion. She got married at 16 and never completed high school. She went on to have 7 kids and a couple of times had to take care of them by herself as my dad would go off and do something (long story). My mom always wanted to do things; travel, learn, experience things. She convinced me that I could do and be anything I wanted to as long as I worked hard. If she had been born in another time she would have been an adventurer or a trail blazer. But, she was born in 1925 and there were not a lot of paths open to women at that time. During WWII she worked in the shipyards and supported the family while my dad was in the service. When my dad died she got her high school diploma and went on to college at the age of 49. She got her nursing degree and set out to support my sister and myself. She was truly the example of doing what needed to be done when it needed to be done. I was a horrible child. My dad died when I was 13 and in many ways I...