Always look on the Bright Side of life (de doo..)

Rather than dwelling on the unpleasant, let's focus on the good stuff, shall we?  Like my evening!!

Some things change.....

Euchre circa 1999....

12 years later...all growed up (yeah, I think they actually DID get taller)

 Some things don't.

Me and my bros :-)

Just a lil guy in the middle!!

The Euchre Deck.

Fabulous night with my BFAM's, James and Drew.....grillin', card playin' and catching up.  Not bad for a Wednesday. Wow, did I miss these guys in my life!!

"Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps between geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young." ~Mary Schmidt

So true. 

 

Thinking outside the box

What a crazy day.  Words can’t even go there.  Ever have one of those entire work days moments when you just can’t figure out the solution to a problem for the life of you?

Know what I do?

I think outside the box.

Box.

Ohhh, is that a hand?

You can say it.  I’m not right.  But I had to amuse myself somehow with the wrapping that the hubster’s new 55 inch TV came in.  He gets a TV, I get a box.  Nope, I don’t want to talk about it.  And no, once I got in, I couldn’t get out of the box without knocking it over and crawling out with the packing peanuts.  Sometimes, I’m not the brightest crayon in the box.  

But at least I’m easily amused.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to the box.  It’s a smaller,

friendlier world than the one I live in today.

It’s been one of those days….ya know…

the terrible horrible, no good very bad ones. Like Alexander.

I think I’ll move to Australia. 

Via TV box.

Maybe this guy will give me a home?

Yum.  Like I said, Alexander.

Just Desserts

As you saw yesterday, I currently have a plethora of veggies and fruits in my life!  What to do with all of this bounty?  Make scrumptious meals, of course!!  Today's agenda.....simple and flavorful.  On Monday's, I usually go play 'The Grocery Game' so I have a bit less time for meal prep.  That usually means one of two things in casa Glaser...either a Hugh Jass salad or a veggie omelet.  Since we had "hugh" yesterday for lunch, I went with the latter and created some brekkie lovin in the kitchen:

Sauteein' the goods....pepper, broc and onion

Addin' in the PROtein...eggies!!

Love swirled with crack ketchup

Served with some whole wheat toast....perfection.

Wait, what?  Did you say, what about dessert?  Well, I'm going to pretend glad you did!  Fear not, those with a sweet tooth as raging as mine, I also did a little dessert experiment with my fruit bounty....I give you the healthified peach cobbler!!

Yummy in my Tummy Cobbler for One

The goods:  one peach, diced (I like the skins on, but you can remove), sprinkle of cinnamon, sprinkle of brown sugar, sprinkle of salt, two tbsp. oats, one tsp. smart balance (or similar).

Chop yo' peach (or about a cup of any other fruit) and place in an oven safe bowl

Mix together cinnamon, salt, sugar and oats.  Melt butter slightly, and cut in with mix.

Sprinkle on top of fruit.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, broil 2 minutes to brown slightly.

Success.  Did I mention it serves one?  Yeah, that made my day.  The simple things, right?

In other news, rest week is OVA, and that means there are two weeks of training left till my two week taper...26 days until Ironman! the 140.6 iron distance race I can't call the "I" word because of WTC branding!!  Wowza!!  Speed set swim today (2650 yardage) and a cooper test to gauge run speed tonight (not so excited about that one).  Full steam ahead....Chesapeakeman here I come!!!

Roy G. Biv

Where to start?

Warm panetones....

Add the cool cousins.....

One colorful rainbow family

In my belly.  One mealful at a time :-)  Dialing in my nutrition never sounded so yummy.

Weekend fun!

Already finished one point 5 books (Yay Danielle Steel and James Patterson for writing new books!)

One pretty decent movie.

Easy 12 mile run (just too gorgeous not to) to Webster (2 towns over).

Grillin' Outdoors.

Hanging out with Family and Friends.

A little cursing....with some handiwork.

Fur children.

And there's still one more day in the weekend....rest weekend, I heart you!

Telephone*

Hello, my name is Rae and I like to pretend sometimes that I am a grown up.

  I pay my mortgage (in pennies sometimes, but they are still legal, even though they piss alot of people off), eat my veggies, go to bed before 10:00 midnight every night on school nights, and have a respectable well-paying job.  It's not as much fun as being a kid, but hey, we do what we gotta do. 

So, as I am playing out my little grown up fantasy duties, nothing gets me more annoyed than being booted right back to high school, without the benefit of the 'rents paying the bills and getting summer vacations!

By high school, in this sense,  I mean game playing, which sadly, is really rampant in my life right now.  The most popular game?  telephone.  Ever play it?  It goes something like this.

Start out with person A telling person B something completely legit, then person B tells person C something just a bit off....well, by the time you get to the tenth person, you've just turned your message from something like "Joan's got the job finished up" to "Don't stop the clock, it's all dumb luck" or insert whatever you want.

 Welcome to my world lately. Everywhere. Maybe it's something in the season....it's not a full moon, but since the kiddos are off, we grown-ups need to play "back to school" somehow? 

Thanks, but next time, I think I'll just grab a juice box and have my afternoon nap, thank you very much.  Wait, they don't do those in school anymore?  Then I want recess :-). Yeesh.

The best part of this game is trying to figure out how to react to this sort of nonsense.  Usually, I just stay the hell out.  Lately, in order to entertain myself and to annoy the hubster a bit less with my b*tching, I have decided to just jump right in and play. 

But rather than going further down the chain, I add in my own twists....like holding the two broken ends of the phone and telling both sides exactly what they want to hear-I call it the bobble head syndrome.   Maybe this isn't the smartest idea, but it is amusing :-D. 

I think I just need caller ID.  Just kidding, Drew, you know I love you to pieces. 

How do you deal with game playing in your life?  Do you just move along or jump right in and play the game?

* Note to my lovely readers....I'm not talking about any of you.  Trust me :-)

200!!

Source

As I was wracking my completely shot brain for some interesting post in order to entertain you for a few minutes not have you click away in disgust, I realized (with the help of my blog dashboard) that this is my 200th post!  Yup, 200.  That means that I have cracked at least that many stupid jokes, made at least a hundred sarcastic remarks, and posted at least that many retarded glamorous pictures of this triathlete.  (Cause, you know, we all look like a million dollars when we cross the finish line of a marathon, no?)

Ahem.  What I mean to say, really, is thank you for reading my somewhat crazy views of the world and visiting my little corner of the blog world.  And because I am a super nerd super fascinated by numbers, I do track TFB's stats and in the last 8 months and 200 posts, I am pretty impressed that....

*  In July 2011, I got over 1400 unique hits on my blog.  Supah!!

*  For all time (Since January 2011), I have had over 11,000 hits.  I didn't realize there were that many   people that cared about my ridiculousness :-)

*  The Four most popular posts (by a long shot!) are:

      - "Trump THAT" ( I miss playing Euchre....)

      - "Flower City Half Marathon Race Report" (YAY PR!!)

      - "Pretty Princesses" (Otherwise known as "How to party like it's Mardi Gras)

      - "Sh*t a Runner Says" (Wow am I a moron after 18 miles in sub zero weather)

* I have had people visit the blog from 10 countries outside of the US (and each has at least 20 page views, so I am assuming it's not spam)

* The three most popular search engine phrases that result in finding TFB are:

1.  ABC's and underwear (wow).

2.  Brazilian Bishops and ice cream (I have no words)

3.  CEP compression (Yeah, I'm in love-what can I say)

Not too bad for an 8 month old blog, I daresay!  And all because of YOU, my readers...THANK YOU for putting up with my shenanigans reading about my little musings on life!

Here's to at least 200 more :-)

Mish Mosh

TTttueesday!!  And another glorious day in Rochester.  Aside from the earthquake, of course :-P.  I've experienced shaking while biking (down the Keene descent) and running (over bridges) but never while swimming.  A first for everything :-)  I suppose it's as good for a highlight of the day as any, yes?

Aside from my swimmies, it is strictly a maxin' out relaxin' type of pot work afternoon.

 Without pants.  I suspect Alexa would approve.  (Get a grip, folks, I just put my jammies on when I got home instead of workout wear....though I do wish I could have claimed a bathrobe day!! (somehow I suspect my boss would not have been amused.))

So, what to do tonight? 

 - I suspect some hammock reading might be in order (yup, the hubster put his anniversary present togather and I am putting it to good use.).....

- Possibly a bit of yardwork....(but ONLY if I get ambituos :-P)

- a bubble bath (cause it's been awhile since Dr. Teale and I hooked up)

-Maybe a pedicure (2 week old polish looks pretty crappy with sandals)

 

And, of course, a nice veggieful dinner!

Chicken, garlic, summer squash and tomatoes

 Up close Yum.....

Simply steamed colorful goodness

Now, who can argue with that kind of throw in a pot 4 ingredient meal?  Not me :-D 

 

Onto my next (non workout) adventure! Wishing you all a phenomenal evening-do something good for you :-)

Ahh, rest week

Ground Turkey wonton tacos and veggies

Rest week....usually the bane of my existence, is here.  Rather than shunning it (as my ridiculous type A athlete personality tends to do) I am embracing it.  Bring on the hour or less workouts, ONCE a days, core (wait, what's that again?) and fresh fruits and veggies.  Bring on the massages.  Bring on the family and friends if I have any left.

Snuggle Time with my fur kid

I think I know this guy from somewhere....not sure though....

Don't worry Ironman.....we have a date in 5 weeks, but this week, I am cheating on you with someone else.
Rest week, I love you,  Let's be friends.

It's all Mental

How does one approach a two hour run the day after a 7 hour bike/run?
Answer:  Very, very carefully!
This morning it looked pretty rough out, so I settled in for a wet run.  Of course, as soon as I set out, the rain cleared and it became pea soupy.  Yummy.  Thankfully, I had planned to take it easy and loaded up my MP3 player with some fun 80s music (Come on Eileen, Venus, Mickey, and of course Right Said Fred).  Damn straight I was too sexy for that run :-P  Moving along.
I set up a nice 4.2 mile loop, planning on hitting it 3 times.  The first loop started out slow, then about mile 4, it began to sprinkle.  Perfect.  But then the rain got harder and harder....but my pace picked up and I felt pretty good!!  About mile 9, it began to thunder, lightning and pour.  I passed a dude on one of my back country roads out doing the same thing I was and we exchanged a laugh at our crazy tom foolery.  Really, what else was there to do!?!  As the rain came down in buckets, I saw a friendly tiburon at mile 11....the hubsters was coming to do rescuez!!  He told me that the lightning made him nervous and he was going to follow me the rest of the way home.  Awww...so for the last 15 minutes I had my own rock star sag vehicle following me home, one sopping step at a time.  Puddles, flash flooding and not being able to see 2 feet in front of me...awesome.  I just laughed at the ridiculousness of it and shelved it into my "HTFU mental strategies" toolbox.

So what, might you ask, does a 12.5 mile run in this monsoon blogger look like on your doorstep?  Here ya go.

Looks like one wet chickie to me.  Pfft.

This weekend:  112 miles of biking, 21 miles of running, and 3 miles of swimming.  Boo.  Ya.

REST WEEK TIME!!

112

Miles, that is.  on the bike. (Well, 112.81 to be exact. but who’s counting?  (me)).  in 6:26 (with water stops and potty breaks).

Irongods, if you can deliver that on a race day and let me run a solid marathon after, I will kiss you.  Or hug you.  Or maybe just do some cuddling.

John Stamos taught me how, after all….

John Stamos Guide to Cuddles

You know that made your day.  You’re welcome (I'm sorry...were you expecting quality today? lol)

The Cave

It's time, friends.  Time to enter the pain cave.  If I make it through on the other end, I will look forward to chatting with all of you on Sunday night or Monday....

The Weekend Plans:   Swimming 2.4 miles, biking 120 miles and running 15-18 miles.

Gulp.  In 48 hours.  Insert food, sleep and maybe showers .  Good thing the hubster is a triathlete, too :-D

Ready....set....GO!

Frazzled

It's Thursday already?  No way!!  I'm pretty sure that somewhere in the midst of my crazy life this week, someone came in and stole some hours from me.  I can't prove it, but I'm onto you, psycho time stealer.  Just wait.

So, needless to say, my mega volume week has pretty much chewed me out and spit me up...and I haven't even hit the big days yet-YIKES!!  Of course, I blame life a little bit....between work and things other than training, it seems this has been with the week for crisis.  Such is life.  Will someone pay me please to just train and compete?  Oh, wait, I have to be super fast in order to do that?  Double darn.  Back to the drawing board :-)

Double workout on the books today-an early swim and then some speed work for the run.  2.4 mile swim-check.  Mile repeats on hilly terrain?  Double check. 

So, it's one day at a time.  Keeping myself in healthy eats, decent quality sleep, and trying to stretch.  (No, I did NOT eat all the food pictured and stayed away from the bagels :-P) One foot in front of the other.  I'm at that point in training where I still am very much into it, but very physically worn.  I was beating myself up about it a bit, then realized *hello* my last rest week was the week before 4th of July!  Hello crazy training!!  And that rest week involved two sleepless nights and 1700 miles on the road...and a wedding :-)  (totally worth it.  Just not so much a rest week).  So, Rae, final push.  4 more days, then it's time for some quality recovery, and Ironman is on the horizon!  I can feel it.  Taste it.  Just need to finish getting my ducks in a row.

(Clearly, my lack of humor is still in good form, no?)

Peanuts and Crackerjack

Or, in this case, cotton candy. :-)  Yup, last night the hubster and I partook in a wonderful summertime ritual of minor league baseball!  Since Monday is a recovery day (45 minute easy swim, no evening workout) we got the house stuff done on Sunday and headed out to the ball game after work.  Bonus-since my uncle works at the park,w e got in for free!  Double bonus-since we are cheap are frugal, I hid packed dinner in my purse and we only sprung for a snack at the park.  Triple bonus-the hubster is a master at finding free parking, and at only 3 blocks away, we didn't mind the walk.  The result?  3 hours of fun for only $7.50!!

Horse made out of baseball gloves...only in rachacha!

The perfect night (well, before it poured during the 7th inning stretch!)

YUM...I spy my baseball treat-haven't had this stuff in years!!

Yup...secretly, I am 6.  I got his stuff all over my face :-P

We dress alike cause we have no fashion sense are proud to be triathletes.

And the photo of the night:

Apparently, the blue goo on my face from the cotton candy scared Uncle Alan.  No worries-we treated him to some fried dough so he wasn't scurrred anymore.  That is, until the Red Wings lost.  Hey, we never asked for talent :-P  Good Times!!

What do you think-peanuts, cracker jack, cotton candy, or fried dough? :-D

Sodus Point 2011 Race Report

Happy Monday!!  It's time for another race report for your reading pleasure :-)  This would have gone up yesterday, but since I live in the boonies and with the crazy storm Saturday night, we were without cable and Internet for 75% of the weekend.  Boo.  Ok, enough of that.  Onto the race!

Weirdly enough, this RR starts with toenails.  Yep, you read that right.  See, I have a weird thing about painting my toes crazy colors before a race to make me laugh in T1 and T2.  Usually I go tri-colored (insert groan), sometimes I go fire engine red to get in the "go" mode.  So when I pulled out the red paint on Saturday night, my graphic design hubster decided he wanted to get creative.  I think he found himself a new job.  Too bad I only pay in hugs and kisses.  :-P

Ok, ok, onto the race.  The hubster and I hit the race site about 6:30 on Sunday morning.  We like to get there early and get a good spot in transition and take our time getting ready.  Well, we really did good this time.  Along with a random dude and Matthias (from Train This), we were the only ones there!  Sweet.  We joked around about the lack of people, and I got set to win overall female.  Sadly, 15 minutes later, everyone began to arrive. So I shelved that dream...for now.

The Swim

Aside from the sludge that collected for about 50 yards at the shore of the lake (free algae wrap, anyone?) The swim was pretty uneventful.  It seemed kinda long, but not too bad....then again it might be my terrible sighting skills that contributed to the long swim.  At least the dudes (that started 5 minutes after us)  didn't catch me until I was exiting, and only the first two guys.  Score.

Swim Time: 15:52 (including a decent sand run to T1).  Not my best ever, but since I know I swam off course, it is what it is.

The Bike

This was the roughest of the three disciplines, only because of Wednesday's debacle.  Along with my multi-color scraped knees, I screwed up my hands pretty good (I probably should have gotten stitches, oops :-P) which made grabbing the bike handles and riding the hills difficult.  On the flip side, at least it took my mind off my legs, right?  That's what I am going with.  Nothing too crazy to report on the bike...some decent headwinds on the way out, and after about 20 minutes my hands got used to the bike.  Unfortunately, in a sprint, that's halfway through the race.  Fail :-P  Miles 7-13 were pretty decent with flat and downhill sections, so I let er rip there.  Only got passed by one woman, and passed quite a few speedier swimmers.  I felt pretty good about my bike until I got off and saw my time....43:13.(13.1 miles).  Three minutes slower than my best on this course.  Damn.  Dear Ironman, I love you to death, but I look forward to reclaiming my speed when we are done with our little tryst.  Thank you very much, Rae.

The Run 

Again, not too much to report here.  I felt comfortable on the run.  Too comfortable (yes, this was my motto for the race).  I trucked along at a steady pace for the 5k (8:15ish)...I need to learn to push the speed way more on these races!!  Got passed by one woman, passed 4 in return.  On my second loop I turned right to get to the finish and the volunteer at the turn tried to get me to do another loop...lol.  I don't think she believed me when I told her I did two (didn't realize at the time that I was so close to the top of the women).  I ran the last piece of the 5k steady (ugh) until I got to the turn and some woman yelled out "GO CATCH THAT GUY CHICKIE!" Thank you!!  I turned on speed I forgot I had, surged ahead, caught the guy, passed him, and finished strong. Run Time:  25:34.

Total Time:  1:26

2nd place AG winners :-)

Post Race:  I placed second in my AG (out of 12) and came in toward the top of the women.  The hubster and I settled in for awards, and hung out with some of our local friends-collected my plaque, posed with Matthias, who also placed 2nd in his AG (yay!), grabbed some watermelon and fruit, and took off for home.

Thoughts:  Ok, I realize I have no reason to crab.  It was a solid effort, I placed well, and 3 years ago I would have killed for a time like this (realize that since I do only one sprint a year, 3 years ago is not a long time, lol).  However, I missed my PR by over 4 minutes and felt just fine after the race (yup, coulda run 12 miles, no problem), so I need to figure out what I am doing wrong here...sprints should HURT because you are going so fast.  I have one speed, and I can go at that speed for ever and ever (thus the appeal of Ironman!) but I am slow as heck for sprints and Olympics.  Guess I need to make a decision as to whether I want to train for speed or distance, huh? :-P  Next year I guess!!

All in all though, another successful day in Sodus.  I love this race!!  Now, onto the next challenge....this week is my last week of build for my ironman...then it's rest week, 2 weeks of steady state, and taper time.  Wow, the time has gone fast!!  Stay tuned for some doozy workouts this week and some interesting posts (interesting as in I got 5 hours of sleep and am forgetting my name type of posts....you know you're coming back for those.)

 

Pack Mule

T minus 18 hours till my favorite race of the season!  (Yes, I love Ironman with a passion unknown.  But this race has emotional value, thus upping it’s quota).
Hill/Speed burst 90 minute ride-done.
Consultation with *nerd-alert* packing list-done.

(hey-it works).  Ever noticed how much crap gear you need to race even a sprint??  Sometimes I wish I was just a runner.  But that wouldn’t be any fun….how else would I stress myself out before a race with only shoes to pack? Anyways..Aside from my missing speedo vanquishers that have done a dissapearing act, I am set to go! (Maybe they read Boot’s comment on the chilly lake and don’t want to go in there.  I don’t blame them.  Wusses.)
Bags packed!

Now it’s time for some easy relaxing with my latest read-The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.  A definite must read  
Almost Sodus Time!

(Yeah I’d kill to have a finishing kick like that this year…here’s hoping )