Anticipation

Today Willa woke up and shouted from her room, "Is it Christmas Eve?" I think she thought something magical might happen this morning, so I went in and reminded her that Christmas Eve NIGHT is really when the magic occurs.

We've filled our day today shoveling (4 inches of so of snow that arrived overnight), delivering homemade vanilla and treats to the neighbors, baking gingerbread people for Santa (he will be the only one that will want to eat them after Willa dropped the whole dough-ball on the floor), and planning our evening. We're heading to 5:00PM church, then coming home to feast on super nachos, complete with red & green chips. We'll open the last of the count-down stockings, and then we've decided we can all pick on present to open before bed.

We're doing no traveling this Christmas. I'm so thankful my parents came here two weeks ago - we had a great Christmas together. They completely surprised Willa with their visit. I wish had I gotten it on tape. We do have many projects planned for this time at home, though: priority is to get Willa's 'new room' ready. We'll get that painted during the break, and then I can do some decorating. We've also got new kitchen tile on our to-do list. I'll be so glad when both of these tasks are done.

Anticipation grows for our own new baby, too. I had an ultrasound yesterday and we got a good look at baby's chubby little cheeks and little nose. He/She looks a lot like Willa from what we could see. We're on the countdown - baby will be born on January 28 and we can't wait. Dr. Hess says "it's going to be big!" I said "then can't we just get it out sooner?" No dice.

Thanksgiving in Vermont

We spent the Thanksgiving week this year in Vermont. While it would have been wonderful to be somewhere a bit further south, we had a great time. Jamey's cousin Donnie, his wife Naomi, and baby Thatcher are living in Barre temporarily. Willa was off school for the week, so we decided it would be a great time to hang with Donnie and Naomi, and get to know Thatcher, too.

We flew out of the Quad Cities Airport on Sunday morning and arrived in Burlington, VT mid-afternoon. We spent the first few days at the Anchorage Inn in Burlington. It was 'quaint' (in an 1960s-travel-lodge-ish sort of way) place. Willa enjoyed the pool though, and it make a good base for our explorations.

Donnie has become a great Vermont tour guide. The three of us, along with Donnie and Gaye explored a maple syrup farm, toured the state capitol building in Montpelier, and saw some incredible glass blowers. Jamey, Willa and I also got in a tour of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, complete with samples.

On Wednesday we headed out into the wilderness. We rented a two-bedroom cottage on Fletcher Lake. It was much more remote than I imagined based on Google Maps. Willa and Jamey thoroughly enjoyed the hot tub on the covered porch, despite temperatures in the mid-20s. Luckily the upstairs "tower bedroom" had exceptionally high ceilings. The other parts in the upper levels required Jamey to stoop over.

We prepared a big Thanksgiving feast, complete with burned pumpkin pie and tiny rock-like dinner rolls. Donnie, Naomi, Gaye and Thatcher drove out for the day to feast and play games. After they left, Jamey and Willa hit the hot tub again for some relaxation and we made a fire in the three-seasons porch.

After a nature walk in the snow on Friday morning, we headed back toward Burlington, taking a little side trip to explore some of the coast of Lake Champlain along the way. We spent some time in the downtown Burlington shopping district (a ped mall filled with great little eclectic shops) and then played at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center.

We spent our last night at a very comfy Marriot Courtyard, which Willa declared the nicest hotel she'd ever seen in her whole life. We had to get up at 4:30AM to catch our early morning flight back home. Despite almost an hour and a half wait for the security lines, we made the flight and all was well. It was weird to be home by 10:00AM after traveling half-way across the country.

Vermont 2008 Photo Album.

Ode to Izzy

On Saturday, we put our thirteen and a half year old cat down. It was a hard decision, but after a month of searching for a 'cure' we realized we were out of time. We all agreed that it would be selfish to keep Izzy around to suffer a long, drawn out, potentially painful death when there was really no hope for more of a good life.

This was a hard concept to explain to Willa. Normally a very concrete thinker, Willa wanted to know how the medicine the vet would give Izzy would stop his heart. She also wanted to know if we'd have her killed if she got too skinny. She wanted to know what would happen to his body after he was dead. Today she wanted to know why Izzy's dishes were still about, because, after all, he was dead and no longer needing them.

She also wanted to know if we could get another cat. Perhaps harder than explaining the circle of life concept (pets, people, etc) was explaining that we can't replace Izzy. Izzy was the first "joint" possession for Jamey and me, although we didn't possess Izzy as much as he possessed us. For all the cats I've met, Izzy was the coolest, and I'm not just saying that because he was mine. He WAS a cool cat.

Izzy was not one of those aloof "I'll-rub-up-against-you-if-I-want-to-be-petted" sort of cats. He frequently came to the door when we walked in, actively sought our love and attention, and fetched WAY better then the dog. He liked to sit in the window and bark back at the squirrels. He loved yogurt, and would use his paws to steer your spoon away from your own mouth toward his own greedy tongue whenever he could manage it.

Izzy was the first thing I really had to take care of as an adult. After living alone for awhile, then living with Jamey for awhile, there was Izzy. Although he was quite self-sufficient, there was always the consideration for this 'other' every time we left, when we moved to Florida, when we moved to Iowa, when we decided to go for a dog, then a child. 'What about Izzy?' we'd ask ourselves, because he was, after all, our first.

It was weird this morning to not see him slide out of his peaceful slumbers and saunter to the kitchen for his morning attentions and breakfast. Odd to not hear him purring while I slept, pawing at me and seeking a warm space around my legs or head during the night. It will be a long time before I feel his true absence - before I forget to say 'What about Izzy?'

Preparing

Yesterday was one of the CR Downtown Farmer's Markets. CR does these on the first Saturday of the month, but of course we missed a few due to the floods.

With the weather starting to turn, I've been thinking about 'putting up' some vegetables. So at market, we bought extra sweet corn, green beans and peppers. This stash, along with a bag of tomatoes and peppers from Mike, seemed like a good start. I chopped green beans that we'll use for soups; I sliced up hot peppers for chili, I made a little tomato sauce from finely chopped green peppers, tomatoes and basil from my pot out back, and then cut corn from the cob and bagged it. If the weather holds, maybe I'll do some more of the tomato sauce.

I love the feeling of having these things stored away for the winter. I reminds me of Ma and Pa and the girls filling the attic in the Big Woods of Wisconsin full of onions, pumpkins, squash and potatoes. It also reminds me of summers on my grandparents farm. They would plant several acres of sweet corn; on the perfect weekend, aunts and uncles and cousins would join together to put up the corn. Your job depended upon your age and gender: usually the men and younger kids were in the fields picking corn and then sitting on the back of Grampa's old yellow pick up shucking corn. The women and older kids would be in the kitchen, blanching corn, cutting it from the cobs and filling bags. I enjoyed the outdoor work the best. By the end of the day, we'd leave with coolers full of bags of bright, beautiful corn for our freezer. I don't think I ate corn that came from anywhere other than my grandma and grandpa's fields until sometime in high school. 

Putting up my own corn, reminded me of the fun and family togetherness of those days doing corn on the farm.

Riding the Northwoods

As an alternative to RAGBRAI, Jamey and I decided to try TRAM - The Ride Across Minnesota. It was the same week as RAGBRAI, but only five days, and just under 300 miles. It was an awesome ride. It's a fundraiser for the MS Society, and it was one of the most organized, well-supported rides we've done.

We were originally planning the ride with a small group, but everyone else dropped out due to lost work time because of the floods. Jamey and I had planned on it, Willa was stoked about spending the week with Gramma and Grampa, so we decided to go anyway.

On Saturday, July 20, the three of us drove to Albert Lea, MN to meet my parents for the "exchange." Willa was stoked for the week and couldn't wait to be ride of us, so we were soon on our way to the Twin Cities. We got a hotel room in the suburb of Eagan, and met up with Jamey's godson, Justin and his new wife Megan for dinner. It was nice to hang out with them, and visit them one on one, away from all the other family obligations.

We got up Sunday morning and headed for Duluth. We realized that we had not prepared for how chilly Northern Minnesota would be at night, so made a side trip to a Target for some extra sweatshirts. We hit Duluth around noon and found UMD - the meeting point for the ride. We grabbed out bikes and headed back down to the lake toward a little deli we'd seen on the way into town. After fueling up, we got checked in, loaded out bikes on a semi, and got into a charter bus for the ride to Grand Rapids. It was about 2 hours through some beautiful scenery.

In Grand Rapids, we stayed at the fair grounds. We got our tent up, found our bikes and decided to tour the town to kill some time. By the time we got back to the fair grounds, the weather was looking a little ominous. We grabbed dinner at the grounds - a church group selling spaghetti, and found shelter in some type of quonset shed so we could eat out of the rain. After about an hour of rain, it cleared off enough for us to walk about the grounds, enjoy the entertainment of a Native American flute player, and then decide we'd seen enough.

MONDAY: Grand Rapids to Chisholm. 63 miles. Grabbed some breakfast at the fair grounds, and spent the first 35 or so miles on the bike trail. I was a little worried that the trail would be crowded with 1100 riders, but it wasn't bad. I was freezing though. They had stocked stops every 10-15 miles. At the first stop we had cereal and milk and breakfast bars. 

More to come...

Finished!!!

I knew it was going to be a great day when I heard the birds singing so sweetly out of my bedroom window at 5:00AM Sunday morning.

Yes, 5:00AM. Lauri and I wanted to get out to Pleasant Creek Park early enough to park in the main lot. With 800 participants, we knew the lot would fill quickly. We met at Starbucks at 5:30AM and followed a long stream of cars with bikes out toward Palo.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. The sun was shining, there was barely a breeze and it warmed up nicely.

The Pigman uses "waves" to start the race. The 'elite' group went first. These are the athletes that are in it to win it and it's impressive to watch them. The elite women were given a nine minute lead on the elite men, and they were all finished with the swim by the time the men started. I was in wave seven which included all women age 25-50. After the elites, waves started four minutes apart. The swim went well, I was pleasantly surprised that the water didn't seem so cold and I was excited when I passed several blue caps (from the women age 18-24 wave before me).

My goal for biking was to get it under one hour. Two years ago (the last time I did this tri) my bike time was 1:05. I'm a slow, casual biker, but I've been trying to speed up! I also tried to keep my transition time quick; get out of the wet suit, into shorts/shirt and bike sandals and helmet and go. I got out onto the road and felt like at least 100 bikes passed me in the first few miles. I don't spend a lot of energy tracking my splits, in fact, I didn't even wear a watch this time. But I did glance at my bike computer occasionally and tried to keep my speed over 16mph. I got up to 30mph going down the first big hill. That's flying for me.

I did meet my goal for biking; I ended up doing the route in 58 minutes. Then it was on to the run. I had never tried the "energy goo" prior to this event, but it's recommended, and we got a free package in our race pack, so I popped it open after the bike and sucked up about half of it while putting on my running shoes. I found it to be rather gross feeling in my mouth and I really don't know if it gave me any energy or not.

It takes awhile to get into a running rhythm after biking, but there's a nice downhill right after the first turn on the running route and that helps. The cool thing about the Pigman route is that the bikers and runners share the same route. So, while I was running, there were bikers still coming in, there were runners going out, and there were runners coming in for the finish. It's fun to see people you know and give a shout out as they go past. I caught a stitch in my side before I got to the turn around point, but it wasn't bad enough to stop me from running. For the most part I was able to ignore it and keep on going.

My run time was 30 minutes. That's a little longer that I'd hoped, but I'm happy with my overall time: 1:45:26. That's five+ minutes faster than I did this course in 2006. I also felt a lot better afterwards than I did two years ago. I spent Sunday afternoon at the pool with Willa and even feel up to a nice long run today.

Now...it's on to the Quad Cities Tri!

Lake vs Pool

There is almost no comparison between swimming in a lake and swimming in a pool. Unfortunately, because the Pigman is the first weekend in June, and it's in Iowa, it's almost impossible to train in a lake.

I've done most of my training in the Coe College Natatorium. Today I had intentions of heading out to the lake for one more good swim. However, it's cold, overcast and raining. So, I packed up my wetsuit and goggles and headed to the comfortable confines of the INSIDE pool.

I've only worn a wetsuit once prior to this season. I borrowed this wetsuit from someone in the Coe College Triathlon Club. Today I was pleasantly surprised at how much bouncy it added to my swim experience. At the lake earlier this week, I think I was so concentrated on overcoming the cold, I just didn't think much about what the wetsuit was doing for me. The wetsuit keeps me floating on top of the water, even when perfectly still.

I swam for a good thirty minutes. I'm not a strong swimmer, so I alternate between a crawl and a breast stroke. The breast stroke is much harder with the wet suit, so perhaps I'll try the crawl a bit more on Sunday.

Tomorrow I plan to ride bike and on Saturday I'll eat lots of pasta.

What it's about

Last week at the dinner table, while conversing about my triathlon training, my five-year-old, Willa, asked "Are you going to win the race, Momma?" It's flattering that she said this fully convinced that I could actually win the race. I said, "No, it's not about winning for me. It's about finishing and being strong and working toward a goal."  This seemed to satisfy her for the moment.

A few nights later, on the same conversation topic, I mentioned a kids triathlon that Willa might be interested when she's six or seven. She is interested in anything Jamey or I am interested in, so of course she enthusiastically said "yes, yes, I want to do a triathlon, too!" Then she thought about it for awhile, and asked "is that kid's one about winning?" Jamey and I assured her that everyone that gives their best efforts is a winner. I'm sure there will be many things in her future that will 'be about winning' but I hope always at the heart best effort trumps winning.

Memorial Day Swim

After my dismal performance in the lake yesterday, I felt the need to go back to Pleasant Creek and actually TRY to swim. Memorial Day was sunny and hot, perhaps at least mentally I'd find the courage to dive into the water.

I went out around 1:30PM and ran a few miles. I worked up a good sweat, and was actually hot in the wet suit. There were about 30-40 people in and around the beach area; playing sand volleyball, sunbathing, and a few kids were in the water playing. I thought to myself "if these kids can play in here without complaint, I can certainly swim for a few minutes." I ran in and swam for about ten minutes. It was cold, but bearable.

Three SCUBA divers were just rinsing out their gear at the outdoor shower area as I walked up to rinse my wet suit. They said the surface temp on the lake was 63 degrees. Hopefully we'll have a some sunny days between now and Sunday to warm up the water a bit more.

At the least, I have a bit of confidence built up after this swim. I know I can get in and flail about for 600 meters.

One Week & Counting

Officially, five days left until the "Pig" (Pigman Sprint Triathlon).

My friend Lauri (and her very speedy bike-racer friend Eric) and I ventured to Pleasant Creek State Park on Sunday to do some training. At 6:30AM Sunday morning it was thundering and lightening, but the storm passed and I was anxious to ride and run the route with a partner.

We met at 8:00AM, and it was still overcast and very damp, but at least the rain had subsided. We decided to bike, then run, and if time permitted, get into the water. Eric is actually a bike racer, so after about 200 meters, he was gone. Lauri and I rode out into a very strong headwind going into Palo, and enjoyed the tailwind coming back. The hill into the park was killer, but I felt strong when I finished biking. Lauri and Eric calculated out bike route to be just over 18 miles. I hope someone removes the roadkill prior to the race next weekend. I counted numerous squirrels and small rodents, two skunks, one deer and several snakes.

We locked the bikes into the back of my truck, and then headed out for the run. The Pigman route is 3.2 miles through the park. It's along the main road into and out of the park, with very little shoulder. On race day it will be crowded with runners and bikers and the occasional vehicle that either didn't know about the event, or was foolish enough to attempt to get into the park after 800 athletes started the race. Sunday it was relatively quiet. The run went well. Eric was, of course, waiting patiently, and when I came through the ending area he yelled out "This is supposed to be the part you sprint!" to which I replied "I am sprinting!"

Eric decided against the swim and left. Lauri had forgotten her wetsuit, but was still considering getting into the water. I suited up, and we walked down to the beach. The cool breeze was giving us a chill, and Lauri decided against the swim. I felt the need to at least try it, since I haven't been in the lake yet this season. I've had plenty of pool laps, but it's hard to compare to lake swimming.

I psyched myself up, and dashed in. The cold water was a slap in the face. I dived in, probably got about ten strokes in, stood up and dashed back to shore. Lauri was laughing. I decided to give it one more try and dashed back in. This time, I didn't even get to a diving point. I sprinted in to about my knees, then sprinted right back out and told Lauri we'd call it day. I shivered up to the truck and stripped out of the wetsuit, and we were on our way back to Cedar Rapids.