I need a GPS, please.

First off, a few pics to illustrate life of late.  My running scheduled has been derailed by a few things.  One, Halloween.  I LOVE Halloween, folks.  It's a holiday without pretenses.  I don't have to make sure my kids get the "real reason" for the celebration. It's all about candy and fun.  I don't care if you dress like a slut on Halloween, it just gives Hubs and I something to laugh at.

My favorite costume of 2011 is sweet Alice in Wonderland.  We have worked our way through every Alice in Wonderland book that has ever been published, including the real one by Lewis Carroll.  That man was certainly tripping on something, there were some weird characters that I don't blame Disney for overlooking.  Thankfully, my imaginative little eccentric didn't seem to notice.

The three black ninjas.  Aren't they a hoot?  Mine is the shortest little ninja.  Trick or Treating was so much fun this year with school friends.  These two boys from Jackson's class also each have a little sister around Macy's age, so the group had crazy fun running door to door.  As far as I know, the three boys didn't know what the others were going to be until the week of Halloween.  I guess ninjas are just in.

And lastly, this chunky little monkey.  She was originally going to be a duck, her favorite animal, but the Alice in Wonderland costume took up my sewing time.  Then I got the bright idea to crochet a Cheshire Cat costume to match Alice.  I got through the body and wasn't really loving it, so I dug out the old standby.  The sock monkey has survived three little toddlers over the course of five years, I think I got some good out of it.  It really wouldn't be Halloween if SOMEONE wasn't a sock monkey, right? 

So Halloween preparations took up about half of my normal running time, and then something I've nicknamed "The Devil" took up the other half.  Pinterest.  If you haven't found it yet, stay far far away.  It's a time sucker like that of a million Facebooks.  Now that I've warned you, here is why I love it.

My Pinterest pages are made up of  a few different things.

Hippos:

God bless them, if I could have a hippo pet, I would.

Hedgehogs:

I will have a hedgehog pet one of these days.  Mark my words.

Recipes, and crafts, most of them so far fairly successful; and lastly, awesome funny stuff:

I feel you Debra.

You just laughed, didn't you?

So with all this time wasting, I skipped my long runs for a week and a half.  Not running really affected my mood, which I will delve into some other time.  Since the half marathon is in just over two weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to make up for lost time and run REALLY long yesterday. 

A long run is not a big deal to me.  Physically I felt fine, but mentally...I had some issues.  First off, I decided to try a new route.  Bad idea.  I am completely directionally challenged.  I do not know which way my house faces, I do not know which way I am facing at any given time, and I am not good at just "finding my way" somewhere.  Also, I have a very bad obsession with needing to know EXACTLY how far I have run.  If I'm going to wear myself out, I need to know that I went as far as I intended. 

So, to start out, my trainer husband and I worked up a plan for my run.  I wanted to go 12 miles.  So we figured four to the new trail, four on the trail, and four home.  The four to and back were no biggies.  I knew the route well and there was only one turn.  It was on the trail where it all went wrong.

First off, Hubs told me to run to where the trail passes under "College" street (a major street in our city) and then turn around.  Sounds simple, right? Well, after I had started, I realized I didn't know which way College was from the trailhead.  Hmmm.  It took me another mile to figure out that I didn't really need to go anywhere specific, I could just run until I hit a two mile marker and then turn around.  Problem solved, right? 

So I got to the trailhead, and God bless them, there was a map!  This was going to be great.  I may not be good at directions, but I am a hell of a map reader.  Hmm, funny thing, the map was not oriented to the trail...So at the star that said "you are here," the trail went north and south, but the trail that I was looking at in front of me went right and left.  See how I was confused?  Hell if I knew which way was north.  So I shrugged my shoulders and took the path to the right.  I still only needed to go two miles, turn around, and then head home.  How could this go wrong?

So I ran about half a mile (Still had mile markers at this point.  This is important.) and saw a cute little bridge that angled into the woods and had a "zero" mile marker for a different trail.  Awesome!  I'll just follow this trail a couple miles into the woods, and then turn around, and I'm done.  La la la, life is good, wait, a fork in the road?  Hmm, this shouldn't be a big deal, I'll just take the path on the...left!  So I'm running up a freaking mountain, looking frantically for a mile marker so I could turn around and run downhill.  And I'm looking, and looking, and then about 15 minutes later, I see a sign.  I get closer and it says "Thank you for using our trails, love, Olathe Parks and Rec."  Uh, what?  This trail is done?

No problem, I'll turn around and take the other path.  If I ran an extra mile or whatever, all the more better for me.  I still needed to run a measured distance so I knew with certainty that I ran 12 miles.  So I took the path on the right, took a cleansing breath, and waited for my mile markers to start showing up.  And waited.  And waited.  And came to the end of the trail, again.  Now I was pissed.  I was pissed at Olathe Parks and Rec for posting a "zero" mile marker, and then forgetting the rest of the posts.  I was pissed at Patrick for thinking that sending me on a new trail was a good idea.  And I was pissed because in the back of my mind I was thinking that maybe I didn't even run a mile into the woods and that was why there was no mile markers!

I started my run back home, physically a little tired, but mentally spent.  I cannot deal with that much thinking when my body is working so hard.  So I spent an hour on MapMyRun this morning and figured out that I did make it to JUST 12 miles.  I kind of wish I ran like 15 or something, to make myself feel better, but at least I ran as much as I intended to. 

And the moral of this story is, I need a Garmin GPS.





It's been hectic around these parts. Most of my spare time is spent fitting in a run or working on Halloween costumes. I don't sew many articles of clothing for my kids, mostly because I don't have a good sewing space to lay out my stuff. This will change soon, however, as our basement is set to get finished within a month or so. The kids will be able play downstairs safely (no worries of dropping a 45 pound weight on their toe or anything...) and I will be able to lay out my sewing supplies without getting in the way of day to day life.

Anyway, I have always been dedicated to sewing at least one of my kids costumes. I even used to sew my stepdaughter's Halloween costumes back in the day. This year, Macy and Ellis are getting the homemade costumes. Hopefully I didn't bite off more than I could chew by committing to two costumes this year. Now that I think about it, I didn't make anyone's costume last year, so I guess I owe them.

Oh, and I got myself a pretty little iPad for our eighth anniversary. This beautiful piece of electronics seems to be eating up a teensy bit of my free time as well. I love this cute little thing. I'm going to think up the perfect name for her....

Patrick's gift from me has yet to arrive in the mail yet. It's coming all the way from Lithuania. It certainly doesn't compare to the iPad, but if it works, I think it will be worth it to him. I'll keep you updated on how that goes.

Good Bye, Sweet Lactose...

So, I'm trying a little experiment.  The idea came to me yesterday on my 9 mile run.  Yup, I ran nine miles yesterday.  It was freaking awesome, by the way.  I've committed myself to the Gobbler Grind half marathon, and I'm feeling a little full of myself. 

Anyway, back to my bright idea.  I've had issues for about the last six months or so with severe teenage acne.  I've googled until my eyes were blurry, like any good child of the internet, and devotedly tested each idea that I thought sounded plausible.  I've spent too much money on washes, astringents, creams, and zappers.  I've disinfected objects that come into frequent contact with my pores, including my phones, my towels, and my children.  To no avail.  I continue with large painful sores on my face. 

I used to roll my eyes at the poor people on the Proactiv commercials who's acne was the worse thing that ever happened to them.  Now I'm the self conscious one who is getting carded because I look like I'm struggling through a horrible puberty. I forgot how conspicuous you feel when your face is exploding. 

So as I was running down Santa Fe, I faintly remembered a girl at work telling me how giving up dairy cleared her adult acne up.  Hmmm, was this something I could do?  I had given up meat for a couple of years, I gave up carbs for almost nine months, could I refuse cheese for the sake of my vanity?  The idea behind this (yes, I googled it) is the extra hormones in milk add to the hormone levels in your body and in turn make hormonal acne worse.  Even "hormone-free" or organic milk has intrinsic levels of hormones in it, because milk comes from lactating cows, and you have to have higher levels of certain hormones to lactate!  It makes so much sense.  You can't have real dairy and have it be truly hormone free.

I'm not really a milk drinker, and I don't even have cereal for breakfast.  There are a few things that will be hard for me to give up.  Number one: string cheese.  This is a go to snack for me, probably at least twice a day.  I'm pretty sure they make fake string cheese, but I'm wary of the texture.  Number two: cheesy Italian food.  Lasagna, pizza, pasta with mozzarella, etc.  Especially pizza.  Dang I love pizza.  Number three:  McDonald's snack size Rolo candy soft serve ice cream thingy.  I am not typically an ice cream eater, it tends to hurt my teeth, but mixing delicious caramel and chocolate in the ice cream? Freaking amazing.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the root of my face explosions, too.  I can vaguely connect the nights where Patrick has brought home a delicious Rolo treat for me and the following days where I have super serious break-outs.

So, maybe it's premature, but I went the whole day yesterday without dairy, and my zits are all in healing stages for the first time in months.  I have no new breakouts at this point in time.  I'm going to give it a month and see what happens.

Mama Orrick's Christmas Wish List

I know it's early, but I've been coveting a few things and I thought I should send those wishes out to the universe (aka Patrick) because the universe is always asking for a Christmas/anniversary/birthday/Columbus Day wish list.

1.  Swim Paddles.  The kind that help you with your hand water entry form.  A guy I work with who also swims at my pool let me try his one day, and they were super fun. 

2. This sweatshirt:

Or really, anything from Victoria's Secret PINK.  I know it's sororityish, but their sweats and t-shirts are so freaking comfortable!  I love to throw on my neon green PINK sweatpants to head to the pool.  Especially in the winter.   And I love that they have KU stuff.

3. Moccasins:

They don't necessarily have to be UGGs, but I'm looking for warm slip-on type shoes to wear to and from the pool in the winter.  And I'm partial to cute colors.

4.  Ipad.  He's heard enough about this.  That's all I'm going to say.

5. Clipless pedals.  I know nothing about these, but if they come in pink, that would be cool.

6.  These sunglasses:

I've been running and biking in some old sunglasses I got from Walmart AGES ago.  They work, but it's probably time to upgrade.  I've never before owned a pair of sunglasses that cost more than 15 bucks, but I think I'm now mature enough to handle a bigger investment. 

7.  A giant tube of this:

I'm not really sure how I survived normal life without this.  I don't care if it is infused with fetal pig stem cells, I would ingest it if I thought I needed to.  My number one use is for razor burn.  My go to tri girl, Hillary, brought this to my attention.  I dug through Patrick's old tri bag, looking  for a free sample of this stuff, and I have been hooked ever since.  I also smear it on my feet before a long run.  I like to run without socks, and this stuff really stays in place over the course of 8 miles.  No blisters for this girl.  I'm half convinced this stuff might cure stretchmarks, but I don't want to waste it trying. 

 

8. And to go ahead and put my weirdness out there completely, I really want to try this stuff:

I am constantly on the hunt for the perfect meal replacement.  Not as a diet aid, but as a "My wonderful husband had to go into work early this morning and I have to get three kids ready and out the door by 8:00am" aid.  I've tried Herbalife (good taste, but don't understand half the ingredients) and Orgain (weirdo taste, expensive, but recognizable ingredients).  I saw a write up about Supergreen in "LAVA", the magazine for Serious Triathletes (it really says that on the cover), and am curious.  It is supposedly a true meal replacement made of only vegetables, legumes, and grains.   

So there you go universe, that's my Christmas wishlist as of September 29th...

I. Love. Triathlons.

I am hooked, people.  Absolutely, positively, obsessive compulsively hooked.

I have never had so much fun in an exercise situation.  I never once thought, "Why am I doing this?" (Okay, I thought it ONCE when I was standing on the shore in the cold September fog, waiting for the starting gun to go off...)

The fog was incredible.  Almost calming.  They had to delay the start by 10 minutes because you couldn't see the buoys.  I stayed up all night stressing about how cold the swim was going to be.  In actuality, it was about five degrees warmer in the water than it was standing on the sand.

I think my only disappointment of the whole day was that I didn't push myself on the swim.  I was so cautious out there, mostly because I didn't want to panic. 

Look at me checking every step.  I was sure I was going to fall running up the beach. 

Man that's an attractive getup.

Once I got on the bike, I threw caution to the wind.   I never once hit the brakes until I was turning the last steep hill into transition.  I picked off bikers left and right that had passed me on the swim, especially on the uphills.  I looked down at my bike computer at one point and saw 30mph!  30 miles per hour!  I had never before ALLOWED myself to travel that fast on a bike.  I remember thinking around mile five on the bike "Maybe I should pace myself a little, what if I don't have anything left for the run?"  I thought to myself, "What would Patrick do?"  The answer came easily: "Go. All. Out."  So I did, and I didn't regret it.

Pro:  I was smiling in just about every single picture taken of me.  It's obvious I'm having a blast.  Con:  I still look ridiculous in a bike helmet.

This is straight off the bike.  My legs are shaky, but I was super excited to be so close to the end.  I had just yelled at Patrick "Do I have everything?"  Transition (the time in between the swim, bike, and run) seemed too easy.  All the books that I had been reading really made a big deal out of people forgetting things in transition.  I was sure I had forgotten something as I was running out.

The only negative on the run?  My shoes made a squishy sound the WHOLE time.  I wasn't wearing socks, and I'm not sure if this was the reason why they squished so much.  I couldn't sneak up and pass people because they always knew I was coming, and usually sped up.  I listened closely to other people's shoes and never heard one other person squishing.  I was totally annoyed at my beautiful flower shoes.

This is the end.  It was a huge downhill finish, which was good for the ego.

The end.  I was so pumped.  I'm still on a high.

"The family that tris together, stays together!" -Kim Jenkins

The best part of the whole day was sharing it with my family.  My husband, kids, and dad were just around almost every corner.  They gave me an extra special lift.  Looking at this picture gives me a twinge of guilt because I have seen very few of Patrick's races due to my weekend schedule.  I wish I could give him the boost at his races that he gave me. 

It's also fun to race with friends. 

Navigating the whole triathlon world is a lot less scary when there's two of you.

Patrick is excited that I'm excited.  "I'm going to make you fast." 

He wants to get me one of those crazy helmets.  Maybe it will look cooler than the one I have now...

Just Keep Swimming

T-Minus Five Days and Counting....

It's almost time, folks.  Time for me to complete my 2011 New Year's Resolution.  I feel...okay about this.  I know I can finish the swim, bike, run, but I wish I could finish it faster.  This reasoning is ridiculous, I know, because the question becomes "faster than what?"  I've never completed a Sprint Triathlon before, therefore, whatever time I finish with will be my fastest time...ever.  Sigh.  I've just put a lot of time and effort into this and I want to compete (and look) like those freakishly fit triathlete women that I'm constantly surrounded by.

I AM excited to do this, though.  Training for this short little triathlon has brought my husband and I closer, I think, and increased my understanding of his passion.  While the kiddos were at my parents Sunday and Monday, Patrick took me to Kill Creek (where the race is) to do a practice bike and run together.  It was funny (I wasn't actually laughing at the time, too out of breath) to draft behind him on the bike because he was pedaling so leisurely, as if he was out for a casual neighborhood ride, while I was pedaling my ass off to keep up with his 20mph average. 

The bike route for the race was really pretty.  Lots of horses out doing their thing, big fields of stuff growing wild, cute farm houses, and a creek or two flowing past.  Only three big hills I have to worry about, but now I know when they're coming.  

There's just no chance of me looking cute in a bike helmet.

Next was the run.  The majority of the run is on a trail through Kill Creek Park and around the lake.  Very shady and green.  I was also holding my hubby back on the run, but I ran the three miles faster than I have in a long time (since half marathon training) so his pacing definitely helped me pick it up.  Too bad he can't be my pacer bunny on the day of the race.  

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am (married to) an Ironman."

I didn't feel terrible after this practice bike/run.  Also to take into consideration is the fact that Officer Orrick and I went out after work on Sunday night, ate a huge unhealthy creamy Olive Garden dinner and then played trivia until the wee hours of the morning at a local bar.  So I'm hoping I will perform even better next Saturday sans hangover.

And to top off the nice Labor Day morning spent with my husband, I ended the day with this:

Pink handlebar tape, people.  My bike is complete.  I had been coveting pink handlebars since I started training in January, but my husband pretended like it was a ridiculous idea.  He's good at tricking me like that.  At least if I can't be fast and skinny, I can be color coordinated.