Number Coma

It's been a numbers kinda day.  My program at work has a massive RFA (Request for Award (grant)) due next week, so this weekend is part work part play.  My job?  The budget.  Eek.  Sounds pretty simple, but when you're divvying up hundreds of thousands of dollars...you gotta have a a sharp mind, a calculator, and the propensity to stare at allllot of little lines.
2 outta 3 ain't bad.
As luck would have it, this is the last crunch week till Musselman (next weekend!) and....I haven't been feeling it.  Ugh.  Well, no whining in....triathlon...so....lemme pull on my big girl pants and get on with the day.
By the numbers.

Numbers, numbers

4 = cups of coffee consumed between 9am and 2pm
3 = yearly budgets written
1.5 = budget justifications written
6 = hours of work
55= number of miles biked during my 3 hour ride
4= water bottles consumed
6 = peanut butter crackers
1= granola bar
15 = minutes of 3-1 run/walk on my T-run
2 = pieces of gum chewed
10 = minutes of stretching i certainly INTEND to do once I've finished this post.
45 = more minutes until I'll pass out on the couch :-P
How was your day?

Baby Steps

Today can really be summed up with those two words.  Baby Steps.First...the baby.  I got to see the cutest baby ever today-my best friend from North Carolina was in for the weekend and my awesome boss let me shift my hours in order to meet her, her husband, our other bestie, and her brother (and my B Lo Running buddy!) out for lunch.  The guest of honor?  Little Ashley, her two month old daughter!
Wow, time flies.  I swear I was just in North Carolina for her shower.
No, scratch that.  I swear I was just in her wedding.
Whew.
Good thing that the world changes doesn't mean that I'm getting older...just that the baby is.  Yep.  I'm there now.
Check out the cutness!

Awww.  Nothin cuter than a lil baby to spice up lunch.
Off much less worthy note, I decided to go out on a limb and get a veggie burger at Bill Gray's (sacrilege, I know....wasn't feelin red meat).  Shockingly, not bad.

And freaking huge.  (TWSS?).  Lastly, I did something today I was pretty sure didn't exist anymore in 2012.  I flipped open a phone book.  Remember?  Those things where you used to look up numbers before cell phones, I phones, Droids and the Internets existed?  Yeah, those things.

Saved us 6 bucks on lunch.  Bam.  Thank you, yellow pages.
And now, for an encore....nowhere near as cute as bebe, but for the second part of today's post:

Steps.

As in, follow up appt with the podiatrist.

Guess who's clear to run?

THIS GIRL.

Yay!  The doc said to build it up a bit at a time,

and I got some orthotics to help keep the brunt of the burden on the forefoot and not the toes.

I know it's 95 out.  I don't care.

My running tights are neglected.

As are my shoes.

So off I go....for 5 minutes, anyways :-P

And then again tomorrow.

Ahh, red letter day.

How was yours?

The Real World

A whiny tangent....
It feels like Monday.  Like, a really bad, rdank too much last night, hungover, huge project Monday.  Ugh.  I know, I know.  It's Thursday.  Almost the weekend.  But did anyone else feel like the random day off just threw your schedule?
No?  Well, I'm not complaining....too much :-P  Give me a Wednesday holiday any week over a full 5 day work week.  End whining.
Ahh, it's a mad world.
Speaking of which....let's talk about this madness.  4th of July is over.  Nothing but a random Thursday today.  So let's fill it with some random innanness....sound good?
As you all know, I'm not really a TV watcher.  Wait, scratch that.  A sit on the couch TV watcher.  But load me up with garbage on the trainer, and I'm a captive audience.  Right now?
The Bachelorette.
And So You think You can Dance.
Neither of which I will watch unless I am a) riding, b) weight lifting, or c) running walking on the treadmill.
I figure....if my mind is gonna turn to mush, at least I'm working my body in the process, right?
Right.
So, I'm a little late to the party with the Bachelorette Debate.  Meh.  When has that stopped me?
Emily, our fearless bachelorette, is a single mom from Charlotte, NC (an awesome city, if I do say so myself).  She's looking for a father for her kid.  Oops, I mean a husband.  Nah...I was right the first time. 
Clearly, I'm not a huge fan of her, but I won't let that get in the way of 25 hot pieces of eye candy or the ability to snark on grown men crying and acting all dude bro.  My early favorite, Chris, was eliminated this week....no shocker.  He was a nice guy, but a bit too immature and full of himself...plus, he kinda looked like Gary Sinise, which, while we all know is a plus for me....probably doesn't get most women riled up.
We're down to 3.  Ari, Jef and Sean. 
Emily, pleas get rid of Ari.  He is a tool.
Winner prediction?
This guy.

Source

He's the sweetest, most down to earth, funny and unassuming guy.  Goofy as hell, but a real catch, in my book.  Go Jef!
But I have little faith in this woman to pick smartly.  Really, anyone that professes love for Riki (her child) will do.  Especially if you give her 10,000 more babies.  Wonder if she'll get them tested for super sperm next week?  Stay tuned!
Show #2...So you think you can Dance!  Clearly, this show appeals to me because I used to be a dancer.  I fell in love in season 7, when I rooted for Robert Roldan (and am still secretly in love with him).  Ahem.  Season 9 seems to be pretty promising so far...it's no season 7, but out of the top 20 (which they just revealed) I would say there are 9-10 really promising ones.  So, you probably can tune out for awhile till they get rid of the crap ones :-P
An interesting twist this year....there will be more than one winner!  One girl, one guy.  I'm guessing it's because in season 7, Lauren ended up with 5 dudes and no girls, but, hey, at least this way it'll be fair when they let go of one girl and one guy each week.  One of the girls I flagged in the auditions as a finalist made it to the top 20, as well as one of the guys.  I'm gonna trust my gut and predict them as the winners.

Source

For the girls...Eleana.  Yes, I am somewhat partial tbecause she is a ballet dancer.  But she pretty much rocks at every style I've seen.

For the boys?

Source

Daniel.  Again, a ballet dancer.  But with his leaps, extension and charisma, if homeboy can do hip hop, he'll have it sewn up.

Do you watch any of this madness?  Care to weigh in?

Hot Dawg!

Happy 4th of July!  Are you enjoying your day?  It's a great day up here in New York to celebrate America's birthday....sunny, 90, and perfectly summery :-)
In honor of the day, the hubster and I went all out.  Strawberry pancakes for breakfast (yum!), a long bike ride, hammock time, and some ice cream, and maybe a pool in our future :-P  Not bad for a Wednesday.
And, of course...aside from being America's birthday, as well as parade and fireworks day...let's not forget the New York Holiday.
Oh yeah. In Coney Island... It's Hot Dawg Day.

He looks worse than I did at mile 140... :-P

In case you're not from here (and live under a rock) the 4th of July is also Nathans Hot Dog eating contest.  It's tradition  How many hot dogs can they stuff down their gullet in 10 minutes?
Go Joey Chestnut.  He won for the 6th straight year (tying Japan's record streak holder Kobayashi), eating 68 hot dogs.
The "Black Widow" (Sonya) won for the ladies...40 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Wow.  Ridiculous.  And yet strangely, epicly American.  Here, let's see how much bad food you can shove down your gullet in 10 minutes...whoever eats the most, gets $10,000!
If our forefathers could see us.
Hey, they're probably laughing. 
What other country would celebrate their birthday by eating a bunch of fake meat sticks?
And what other country would call it entertainment to watch it?
Happy Birthday America.
In all your screwed up state, you're an awesome place to live :-)
Now, off for some hot dogs.
I mean, watermelon.  And Ice cream.  Hey, you have your traditional American food and I'll have mine.
Happy 4th of July!  Enjoy the fireworks tonight!

Two-fer

Yesterday was Monday, today is Friday.  Tomorrow is Saturday/Sunday, and then we get another two-fer "week".  Sweet, I can get used to this. 
Some people think that a mid week holiday is kinda weak.
I like it :-)
So what are your plans for the fourth?
The hubster and I headed out to Webster after work tonight for a little pre-celebration with my fam.  My Uncle works the baseball games, so tomorrow was out for a cookout...so we did it a lil early.

MMM....BQ.

And dessert (of course....fresh apple pie n water melon-yum!

And some family time....complete with firecrackers circa 1974 (no joke).

Sweet.

Tomorrow?  It's sleeping in, a long bike ride, maybe an OWS in Canandaigua, and then...fireworks!  I don't know where (as many places did their celebrations over the weekend), but I am bound and determined to find some :-)) Anyone know where there are some good ones on the East side?  If not, we may brave downtown...but hey, to us country folk, that's a long way :-P
In other news....guess what I did tonight?

Yup.  You got it.

For four minutes.

And one second.

Hey, potty mouth.  Not THAT.

Yup.  I ran.

Just a half mile loop.  And probably a really dumb thing to do.  But the weather was gorgeous...the sun shining, the humidity high....(oh wait....nope, still gorgeous to me). And my shoes itching to go.

I played it smart.  One mini loop around our cul de sac.

But four minutes more than I have run in 6 weeks :-)

Okay.  I promis I'll be good till Friday now.

Pinky swear.

Enjoy your holiday!!

AquaBike Week 3: Time for some focus on me.....

Wow.  Where has June gone?  As I was sorting out grocery coupons last night and purging all the exp. 6.30 deals (thats what the cool kids do while they watch trash TV, right?) and a few things occurred to me:
1.  I need to weed out coupons before they expire so I don't miss good deals (whatever will we do without 12 more body washes at 75 cents each??)
2.  My USAT is expiring and the damn thing has gone up.  Again.
3.  Musselman is THIS MONTH.
4.  I didn't run for the entire month of June.

Clearly, we see where I lingered on that train of thought.  The last one got me especially....has it really been an entire month without a run?  Wow.  Last time I went run free in June....was before I became a triathlete.  Wowzers.  Not sorry, but just a bit mind boggling for me.  Hopefully the doc has some good news for my Friday (fingers double crossed).
An, of course, Mussel.  Ahh, Mussel.  Things are happening down in Geneva....they posted race numbers (#959 sounds good, right?  A lucky number?)  And the new Mussel poster is out (check it out-what an awesome image).
With the race....13 days away....it would normally be crunch time for training.  My plan called for heavy biking last week (week 3/16) and even heavier biking this week coming up (week 4/17).  How did it go last week?  Let's take a look....

Week 3 (AquaBike) Stats
Swim (yards): 9400 (woah!)
Bike (miles):  135
Water Running:  90 minutes
Elliptical:  30 minutes
Strength:  2 abs, 1 full body (woah, slacker alert!)
Week High:  As odd all as it sounds, either the elliptical or the pool running (shallow water session).  Neither one was taxing cardio wise, but I am finally able to put a bit of pressure/stress on that foot.  Hey, the doc said I could.  Now, lets see if we can't ratchet that up so I can do Sodus next month :-P
Week Low:  Any bike, pick a bike.  I seriously struggled this week with my bike work.  Sore legs?  Too tired?  Work stress?  Life stress?  Not sure.  Pick one, pick em all.  I suspect it was a combo of not enough sleep and life stress.  Eh, it happens.  I'm not proud, but it happens.

This, however, is the week.  Time to fine tune, get those last quality workouts in.  Work can't change.  Life can't change.  But...I will be changin the way I look at it.  Being okay with taking some time for me (the hubster completely supports this).  Drinking enough water.  Trying to get those 8 hours in.  Easy days easy.  hard days hard.  And not letting energy vampires suck the wind outta my sails.  I have to remember...even if this isn't an "A" race...or a B...or C race...that I really want to do the best I can do with what I've go right now.  And I can...if I take care of myself.  Selfish?  mmmm...I dunno.  But really, if you don't look out for you, who will?

Forward, march. (or pedal).

How was your weekend?  Any breakthroughs?  Or are you trying to psych yourself up like I am? :-P

Summer is....

Hanging out with the ones you love. (even if we all have a screw loose).

 Spending time in State Parks...(New York has a gorgeous park system!)....especially when you can coast through them on a bike!

 Enjoying the water.  (Some of us, of course, got a wetsuit OWS in, but hey, you can take the girl outta the training sesh, but not the training sesh outta the girl:-P)

 Eating copious amounts of watermelon.

 And marshmallows, of course!

 Bonus points for roasting perfection.

 Smooching along the beach.

 Enjoying the sunset.

 ....next to one of your best friends :-)

 The perfect day.

Awesome weekend at Fair Haven with the hubster's fam...can't wait to do it again next year!!