Tri-Dogmom

I've never been a "swimmer" per say. I've never even had an official swim instruction, or lesson, or anything like that. I grew up in Spokane, lakes with in 20mins of my house. Our family vacations were spent at Priest Lake in Northern Idaho camping. I also spent a lot of time at Lake Roosevelt in Washington. Actually, at Lake Roosevelt (Porcupine Bay) campground, is probably my first real memory of "swimming" for lack of a better term. My parents were fond of the "sink or swim" method. It's not an exaggeration. At the campground, there was a floating dock in the middle of the swimming area. I can picture it now. It seemed like miles from shore (in reality it was probably 50 yards) and had a green top. Well, my parents took me out there, took my life jacket and made me jump. Sink or swim. Sounds harsh, but honestly I think it made me the fairly decent swimmer I am today. I've never been afraid of water, lake water that is, an ocean is whole...

So.... this whole remodel thing we've got going on.... Yah, not so good for the old allergy-crazy asthma lungs. BUT, on a good note, everything with this project has gone WAY better than expected (minus the lung problems), and we are so excited about it all! Pictures soon, I promise... I'm waiting on Shane to load them! Last Thursday Shane tore out some old carpet from his office closet, as well as the spare room/workout room. The only two spaces in the house we had carpet left. WE WILL NEVER EVER have carpet again. After he finished the closet, he asked me to sweep it. I paused for a minute, and almost said - prolly not a good idea - but I sucked it up (the motto of 2008) and went in. I felt bad cause he was in tearing up the bedroom stuff, and well.. with this kinda stuff I'm kinda useless to him. I knew what he had in store for the next couple of days putting in the pergo, and again.. I wouldn't be much help. I KNEW it wasn't smart to go sweeping up that r...

I don't know if I ever wrote about my little dilemma with Toyota. Right Toyota of Scottsdale, specifically. Read. Don't EVER EVER purchase a car from Right Toyota. They are sleazy, lying, scumbags, if you will. Long story short, a year ago I traded in my 4-runner for a Sequoia. The finance manager "sold" me on purchasing an extended warranty because HE calculated I refund in the amount of $X from my previous Toyota warranty. After much convincing, they had me at "it's basically free $" Fast forward a few months and the refund I got was only HALF what he estimated. I made a phone call and was told "no problem" and given directions on where to send the money them. Case closed. Or so I thought. A few months later I received some no-letter head collections letter for the difference in what I gave them. I ignored it. It had no validation on the letter. A few months after that I received a small claims complaint. I SO responded. 2 months later I hea...

Finally. A protein powder that agrees with me. I've had some really bad issues digesting dairy in the past few years. I tried every.single recovery drink out there.. They made me sick and I would throw them up, as well as my throat feeling like it was closing in on me. I did figure out I can use soy protein, but we all know what happens with too much soy. Since I don't like meat, and struggle to get enough protein with peak training cycles, I'm really always looking for something new. Then momo had me be her Guinea pig for some new rice protein powder she found. Sure why not.. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll just throw it up like the rest of them, right? Jeez, not like I'm a sacrificing friend or anything. After all, I just COULD find a new supplement, right? So, sure enough I went home, put it with some frozen berries and OJ and blended in the Magic Bullet. (BTW - this product is freaking awesome. Quick, non-messy way to make endless mixtures, inclu...

After several disappointing bike splits in my past few races.... I've decided enough is enough. I looked up my 3 year old time from Soma, and went, huh? I avg'd 19mph easily on that course 3 years ago... and I am much more experienced and stronger on the bike now. So, what has changed? Comfort. I think I've gotten WAY too comfortable and well, lazy.... Pre-ironman and strict HR training, I used to just RIDE. I rode with people far better and more fit than me, and ever Tuesday morning, they would KICK MY ASS. Literally. I remember looking at my Polar HR monitor and after 1:20ride I would have burned ~900calories. WHOOT!.... To me that meant another free glass of wine, or piece of chocolate :-) Priorities people. Then, I struggled to loose some weight, and found out that my body burns a LOT more fat calories when I'm at a lower HR. I also learned that eventually I did get faster at a lower HR, with some patience of course. Unfortunately, I think I took that a little bit ...

I'm feeling all random... Lots of "stuff" happening, but no cool stories, so I'm deciding to just do some bullet points. Officially signed up and started 12 weeks of training for Soma half IM It's hot and nasty in AZ I hate IT bands - but am back on my stretching routine, so hopefully I can avoid damage I started riding mini-me again. Damn she is so much easier to lugg around than my road bike Aero position REALLY hurts my you know what. I forgot how you have to sort of get used to it or go numb I'm tweaking my saddle position a little. I think when it was in and out of bike shops the saddle position got moved. I can see it in my bike pictures. My arms look so stretched out. When I got my F.I.S.T fit they were like a right angle. Hmmm, something has happened. It was pointed out to me that my left leg does this shimmy thing at the bottom of my pedal. Now I'm OBSESSED with it. It TOTALLY does. I have realized that there is WAY too much play in my left clip. ...

I can't believe I actually just signed up for a race... I mean... My HR was 5beats higher and :15/mile slower today cause it was an f'ing sauna out there... So what do I do when I get home? THIS I've had friends left and right trying to get me to sign up for races.... I just haven't been able to "commit" to anything. The "iffy" IT band.... The horendous heat in AZ. The thought of having to stuff my face every 2 hours and still not feeling full again. Wait, has that actually even stopped? Hmmm But low and behold, leave it to an email stating "Hurry up! Prices increase Aug 3rd!" Sure enough I'm a sucker for a "deal" so to speak and hate paying full price or MORE for that matter so I went ahead and did it. It was my first half Ironman in 2005. It was my 2nd race post IT surgery. It was a big deal to me. I surprised myself by finishing about 25mins ahead of what I thought I could do. As much as I hate the course - I'm excited...

It's been over a week since my last post... For many reasons, I just haven't sat down at my computer all that much. Starting with a last minute decision to return to California for a fun filled weekend with our second family, the Angelones. And, much to our surprise 2 of our other favorite people, Jaynee (I'm FINALLY getting used to saying her real name, not Nytro) and Benny. And ending this week so tired and dumbfounded at how much energy it takes to be a surrogate mom for a couple of days watching my 5year old niece... First things first. I wish I would have written about the fun-filled weekend right away, but as many of my happenings go - too much time has gone by to really sit down and write out a recap. I swear, if I could just get out of my head my thoughts as I think about blogging, vs actually blogging I would have so much more to say... and I think it would be more entertaining to read. Momo & Johny invited us back for the weekend while we were still IN Corona...