Half Iron, really?

Half Iron Update:

• I emailed the coach for Team Z asking to start with the new cohort in fall.
• I told my co-workers that I’m going to start training for a half iron in the fall.
• Eagleman has sold out. Florida 70.3 has not.  I don’t know Team Z’s schedule for next year.

 Improv Update:

• DMG has submitted a proposal for Improvapolooza (mark your calendars for August 30th at the Source Theater)!
• Rehearsals with my group are awesome!
• The Fall run starts September 9, 2008.  I hope that DMG gets a few slots. The competition is tough with all the other new student start ups.

Tri Update:

• I have not signed up for anymore races this season (yet).  I’m scared to sign up for one on my own.
• If I were to sign up I’d do Luray in August, Dewey in September, and Pensacola in October.
• I have not done any training since Smallwood which was one month ago today.  Wait, I did do the Davidsonville bike ride.

Life Update:

• I spent the weekend at Dewey Beach with a group of girls that I barely know.  It was fun to do something different, but visiting that town is not something that I much enjoyed.  I spent 4 hours in the Saturday sun with only one layer of SPF 50 applied that morning.  I’m still tender from the sunburn and it’s 3 full days later.
• I joined SparkPeople today.  If you join, my user name is mellowblonde.  Tell them I sent you and I get some points!
• I had one date that has led to something that has all the makings to be a really great friendship.  I’d like for it to be more, but there’s no denying that when you buy your own $2.36 beverage, the guy is just not that into you.  
• There’s an improv guy from the past that’s shown up real recently; he also has the marks to be a great friend. 
• I’m a little frustrated with making friends; I’ve got quite a few already.
• The Bartender has messaged me a few times lately.  He moves back in September.  It was one year ago this week that we got back together for the last time.  That seems like ancient history. 
• Sometimes his messages are quite sweet “You waive me off when you want, but I will àlways love you. Not crazy love you, just regular old need you into my life, love you. Like beetles love you ‘in my life’ style”.
• Other times they remind me why it’s over “you know I always did like you a little bit tipsy”.
• My church will more than likely close in two weeks.  That makes me profoundly sad and also quite relieved that it’s over.  Fighting that battle has really left a bitter taste in my mouth for organized religion.  Maybe it’s for the best that I’m planning to spend my Fall and Spring Sunday mornings doing long bike rides.
• My recent church search has been similar to how dating felt this time last year.  It was impossible for me to move on because I wasn’t over the Bartender.  I’m not ready to leave the people of my church.  I love that cast of characters so much.

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Davidsonville, MD bike ride

On Sunday morning, Casey and Jay worked it out for me the opportunity to do a bike ride with Team Z.   The day was gorgeous, with a slight touch of a chill for the first few miles.  We were in Davidsonville, MD which is real near a spot where I did a tortuous TNT training ride in March.  During that ride, my group got lost in the first few miles and were diverted for about 20 to 30 minutes.  Coach Jenni and Timra felt bad for pulling me and Susana off the course, but I didn’t care.  I was supposed to ride for 2 hours and we were at 2 hours and 25 minutes with about 3 more miles and a 15 minute run to go.  During this current ride, I found it weird to be going up a particularly grueling hill, and then pass the house where we got picked up.  It was reminder that even though I feel so blasted slow, I am making progress.

My favorite part of this ride was stopping to eat blackberries with Casey.  I have not had freshpicked blackberries in forever.  What an unexpected treat!  One of the super fast girls passed us, made a comment about wanting blackberries, but then continued on.  I reminded myself that I don’t ever want to be so focused on my training that I miss some of the random fun that comes from being on a rural roadside in MD on a Sunday morning.

I finished the 23 miles right at 2 hours and averaged 13 MPH.  All in all not to bad.

 Things I learned:

• Rides go better when I’m on time so that I can start with the pack.
• I ride better when I’m trying to keep up.  It’s just really frustrating when I can’t.  At one point, while going up one of those hills all by myself, I just really wanted to give up.  I took a gu and walked a bit to a level area.  Then I just got back on the bike.  I knew I would start feeling better once the gu kicked in, and I did.
• For the 2nd time ever I got off my bike to walk a hill (twice this ride)…nothing learned from this, but I thought I would note it.
• I’ve got to watch the messages I give myself while on the bike.  It’s so easy to tell myself I’m doing terrible.  It’s more beneficial to tell myself that I’m doing great.
• I need to learn how to ride hills with a pack.  I go downhill faster thanks to gravity and therefore I get to pass people.  But when it comes time to go back uphill, gravity makes it harder for me.  Then the people I just passed have to pass me.  The polite southern girl in me wants to brake on the downhill so these people don’t have to pass me.  But it’s frustrating braking on a downhill when I know how hard of a time I’m going to have going up hill.  Casey says to just pass them.
• Casey reminded me to tell my leg muscles to “pull” when going up a hill.  That was helpful.  I’ve been thinking “push” so that I would focus on pushing down.   Right now, it feels like less work to pull!
• My bento box is still my favorite bike purchase!

Things I want:

• To sign up for a half iron…that is all to be said on this for now! 
• To join Team Z.  It’s so nice to have people to ride with.  The parts with Casey were easily the easiest and the most fun.  There’s a part of me that is worried I’m not fast enough for the team.  I spent part of the ride wishing I was fast enough to keep up with the back of the pack.   
• A road bike.  The bike shop guy at Spokes tells me that my hybrid bike is just as good as a low end road bike and that it may not make a difference in my time on the short courses.  He said that if I’m going to do a half iron, then I’ll want a road bike so I can adjust my position on the bars for long distances so I don’t get sore.
• Another water bottle cage
• I need to give Maggie my hand pump for my bike.   I’ve been spoiled by CO2 cartridges and will never use a hand pump again!

Donna Martin Graduates! 2nd Performance

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Thoughts:

• I love the chess club!  I did a scene in a workshop today, where I ask someone to have the chess club do something.  That seems to be my go to high school club.  It’s probably because in my high school, that’s were all the smart guys were.  I specifically remember Amber and I joining the chess club so I could flirt with all the smarties that were members….come on…it’s was Zellner, Peter, and David…my top three smart boy crushes…all in one room!
• I’m glad I tried to step out of my comfort zone by playing a coach.  I would have liked to have been more masculine.  I need to practice being more manly.
• We haven’t practiced 3 person scenes in rehearsal…so that was something new we were trying on stage.  I felt awkward in my first scene.  I felt like Archie really helped keep that scene going.
• I broke character in the first group game at the end by laughing at everyone before I cut it.  I was thinking about how the last show also had a group game where Archie got high right before we cut it.
• Faster wipes and more scene painting
• Dear God I love me some John Lang.  Our scene became more fun when he gave me the “apple” to start eating, which reminds me that I still need to do more environment work.
• Sarah is awesome at call backs!  The “crack fundraiser” remark in the last scene was pure gold!
• Tara (as always) had fun characters with neat accents.  I should try that sometime.
• The last group game….WTF?  Nightmare.  There were like 14 games we were trying to play there!  I think it would have been more fun to just throw out ideas for ways we were preparing for the Areosmith Rockband release.  And for the love…I know more boybands….Backstreet, NKOTB, NSync, Jonas Brothers, etc.

If….

I first saw this kind of post here.  

If I had married Josh: Our first residence would have been your grandmother’s home in Robertsdale that is located near the ranch where my father now lives.  We would spend weekends with Greg and Missy, getting drunk and having stupid fights.  Your mom would love me.  You would always have a spot in your heart for your ex-girlfriend and my good friend, Megan.  I would quit being friends with Megan for that reason alone.  I would have finished college at USA.  I’d have started with a major in pre-med, but would eventually get a nursing degree.  I would always wonder how my life would have been different if I had gone to BSC and not stayed to be with you.  We would only have had kids if your friends were having kids. 

If I married you: I can’t imagine that we would still be together.

If I had married Jason: We would live in Mobile and spend every Sunday having lunch with your family after going to that Methodist church your mom liked.  Your mother would still hate me for taking her baby away from her.  I would accompany you on weekend hauling trips. I would have gone to USA for grad school and have a master in counseling.  You would have helped pay for that degree.  I would work for some kind of non-profit and my goal would be to eventually start my own. My biggest adventure in life would have been college. 

You would be a member of the same hunting club as my grandfather and an MOT with my cousin Carl.  You would always help my dad mow the grass at the ranch.  You would work for your parent’s business until it went bankrupt.  At that point in time I’d try to convince you to go back to school, even though I know you would fail miserably at it.  I would still have trouble accepting the fact that I was married to a truck driver so I would always be pushing you to be more, do more, want more, feel more, more more more.  I would not respect you and you would resent me for that. 

I would compare our relationship to MH and Phil and would always think that they were happier than we were.  I would love how much you loved me and I would get satisfaction knowing that you were always in awe of what I had accomplished.  Your mechanical smarts would remind me why I loved you, even if you were a terrible Trivial Pursuit partner.  We would have a 5 year old by now and probably twin three year olds since having twins runs on both sides of our families.  You would be an amazing father. 

If I married you: we would both be unhappy and yet we wouldn’t be able to put our finger on why that was so.

If I had married D:  We weren’t together very long at all, but you’re the one that “got away”.  I often wonder where we would be now, 3 years after meeting in the basement of Atomic Billiards.  If we stayed together, we would definitely be married.  We would certainly be trying for a baby.   I would have pushed for us to move back closer to home and our families, so we would be living in Georgia.  You would still be in international development and I would have finally applied for and received a passport.  (I still don’t have one.) We would have started our honeymoon in Africa and you would have showed me the village where you did your Peace Corp volunteering.  The second part of our honeymoon would have been at a beach resort to make me happy! 

My friends would love you. Your friends would sometimes wonder how you ended up with someone that wasn’t into international work.  Our life would still seem like an adventure.  We would spend the weekends with our friends, when you were in country.  I would sometimes be frustrated by your long trips away from home, but grateful for the opportunity to live like a single person while you were gone.   You would be supportive of my running, coming out to work the water stops most weekends.  Perhaps, I’d have convinced you to start running as well.  You would be supportive of pretty much anything I decided to do.

I would always know that you weren’t quite sure of me and our relationship.  I would be frustrated about things you couldn’t change and would have spent years teaching you how to please me.  You would still think of your ex every now and then and wonder if you made the right choice of picking me over her.  Sometimes, when you were drunk, you would text or email her, much like you did to me for 2.5 years after you ended things with us to go back to her.    

If I had married you: I wouldn’t be an improviser or a triathlete.

Donna Martin Graduates! debut performance

Part one:

Part two (updated with working link):

I have mixed feelings about this performance.  On one hand I think it’s a fabulous first performance.  The majority of the group members performed with various student groups during FIST but this was our first time performing as a “real” troupe.  On the other hand, I am not very happy with MY overall performance.  I think my cast mates did a rocking good job!

Things I want to keep in mind for my future performances:

• Pay more attention in the beginning to the duologues so that I can use that information later in the show.  (Archie named the kid that got in trouble.  I didn’t realize that until I watched the clip.)
• Give more information in my duologue and remember my duolouge character…that would have been fun to see what the principal and the Russian cafeteria lunch lady had in common.
• More environment work…give my character something to do…no walking into the scene and then assuming my firing position like a wild wild west cowboy in a street duel.
• I will do only one flirty/flighty/excited character per show.
• Create more characters that the audience wants to root for.  The best laughs in my performance were for mine and Archie’s “nerdy lovebirds”.  As Mark Chalfant (I think it was Mark) would say “People come to improv to see agreement, not another argument”.
• Blue humor is cheap.
• When I can’t talk about sloppy joes anymore, talk about my relationship with my scene partner.  I wanted to name Tara’s Russian lady, but the only names I could think of were Norwegian…Helga would not have worked in that scene, but that’s all I had in my head.

Race Reports from 2006

Credit Union Cherry Blossom
10 Mile Road Race
Washington, DC
April 2, 2006
Age: 26
Time: 2:21:31
Pace: about 14 minute miles
Place 10640 out of 10675 

• I did this race with Vanessa, Ayesha, Navita, and Debi. 
• There was a time limit and that’s why we were booking it for us.  I’ve yet to average 14 minute miles since this race.  
• We did 2:2 for the first 4 or so miles.  
• Rock Creek parkway is pretty but also kind of boring.

Marine Corp Marathon
26.2 miles
October 29, 2006

• This race report will need it’s own post!

SOME Turkey Trot
Thanksgiving Day 2006
Age 27
Results: About 55 minutes

• This takes place on Thanksgiving morning at Hain’s point.  What a boring running location!
• I ran/walked this race with Debi.  It was the first time I put on my running shoes after the Marine Corp Marathon.  I’m pretty sure we walked most of it.
• I can’t find my time on the website, but I’m sure it was not very fast!
• We had Annabelle with us and she wore her green cashmere sweater.  It rubbed a spot on her. 
• I remember that we talked about Debi’s new condo.
• I was planning to bring Chris to meet some of my family members for the first time and I was mildly worried that he might drink to much that afternoon at Aunt Kathy’s.  He did just fine up until the last 30 minutes when he and Baby Cousin Spaniel took shots of Jaeger.  

General Smallwood-Race Report

General Smallwood State Park

Indianhead, MD 6/29/2008

Age 29

Distance

750 Meter Swim
16 Mile Bike
5K Run

 

TIME 02:32:31

Place 115 out of 117 women

 

SWIM 00:21:57

T1 00:05:43

BIKE 01:14:14

T2 00:03:22

RUN 00:47:19

 

On Saturday I drove to the park with Casey and JR to check out the course, packet pick up, etc. I’m so glad we did.  The bike and run were hillier than we were expecting, so I was glad to know that up front.  In the future, I want to make a point to drive the whole bike course.

I did not get very good sleep Saturday night.  I slept on Casey’s couch with Miss Annabelle Blanche.  She was up all night long.  She would jump off the couch to grab her tennis ball every time she heard the slightest sound!  However, I was not too worried about the sleep stuff.  I had a good nights sleep on Friday and it was worth the trade off of knowing I would not be late to the race.

Sunday morning I was up at 5:00 and we were out the door by 5:30.  We stopped at the Bucks, and I got my standard misto and bagel order.  I love coffee, so I was very motivated to leave right on time.  I have to remember how nice it is to not feel rushed.  It really makes a difference at the race site.

I ran into some of my TNT buddies while setting up transition.  I was sharing rack space with Teen and Sara G. was across from us.  It was great to see Jay and the Eastwicks as well.  While talking to Sara and Jay, an official pointed out I was missing one of my handle bar plugs.  He was ridiculously intense.  I was told to have the bike guys check it out immediately because if they couldn’t fix it I couldn’t race.  WTF?  Don’t plugs fall out all the time?  Apparently my plug would need to be smaller than road bike plugs, or something like that.  We had hung out with the Revolution Cycle guys the day before, so they recognized me immediately and solved the problem in less than a minute!  Thanks guys, that was really stressing my shiz out.

I was in the same wave with my TNT peeps, so we were able to just hang out together before the start of the race.  There was a slight delay of 8 minutes, but that didn’t bother me.  Finally, it was our time to walk out to the dock.  It was an in the water start. I’ve never done one of those, but I liked it.  I felt like I had a few minutes to get adjusted to the water and warm up a smidge by treading water. 

I felt great on the swim.  My current goal is just to stay with the pack and not be DFL (dead fucking (sorry mom!) last).  I was with the pack at the first buoy, but they got away from me after that.  No worries though.  I swam strong for me.  I didn’t have to use my backstroke once!  I just kept on plodding ahead with my even pace.   I had read race reports from last year about the seaweed on the course so I was prepared for that, although, it’s weird to be swimming along and then find yourself grabbing at the stuff. 

I wanted to do the swim in 23 minutes.  I actually did it in 22 minutes.  Yay me! 

The transition from the water is up a slight hill.  I ran some of it.  I really don’t like being on concrete barefoot.  So I kind of hobbled/skipped to my bike area when I hit the pavement.  Total transition for T1 was 5:43.  I was aiming for 5:00.  I’m pretty happy with this considering the long uphill run to T1.  It’s also better than my T1 at St. A’s by about 1 minute.   

The bike course was hilly, but I was expecting it by the time I was actually on the bike!  I bought a bento box on Friday, and that has been my favorite tri gear purchase so far.  It’s very helpful to have your food right there in front of you by your handlebars and not on my back!  Also, I didn’t get a flat tire, so that’s progress over the St. A’s race. 

I wanted to do the bike in 1:12 but it actually took 1:14. 

My T2 transition was 3:22, faster than the 5 minute mark I was trying to beat. However, I was 116 out of 117 in my transition time.  There must be a way to do this transition faster.   The number one person did it in 39 seconds, although she may have worn her running shoes on her bike.  Either way, I need to cut that time down!

 The run was pretty miserable.  I was planning to do a 4:1 pace.  I managed to do my first 4 minutes of running, but the mind won after that.  There was a big hill to “hike” up to get out of the park.  I started playing mind games with myself that I would walk the uphills but run the downhills.  I actually kept this promise for the first 1.5 miles!  By the time I was on my last mile, I was pretty spent.  I could feel a blister starting to form on my right heel.  I don’t like running so I didn’t run much the month before the race.  I think the race might be more fun if I work on my running so that I’m not dreading the run during the swim and bike.  I also think I should drop my run to a 2:1 or 3:1 on the race day but train at a 4:1.  Oh yeah, and figure out what the heck is going on with the blister.  Time for new socks, perhaps?

The finish was at the top of a hill, just like at Marine Corp…those crazy diabolical race directors.  What’s up with the finish line being there?  Miserable I tell you!  I wanted to do the 5k in 48 minutes and I actually did it in 47:19, so I can’t complain too much about the time.

I finished the total race in 2:32:31 which was about what I predicted (2:33:00).

Big congratulations to Casey and Jamie who got 2^nd and 3^rd in their division in the international distance! 

What’s next?  I think the Luray race, pending confirmation of Kat’s availability.  I’d like to do the sprint in 2:30.