Geek to Prune in Only Three Days!

Oh my oh my.  I must learn to be careful what I say on Facebook.  I teased Mother Nature and once again she spat upon me.

No really.  She did.  All I did was notice the lack of wet cats and dogs pouring out of the sky with a relatively humorous post on Facebook:

"I want to know if you've ever seen the rain, I want to know if you've ever seen the rain, coming down on a sunny day." Hum.....how about "I want to know if you can send me some rain, I want to know if you can send me some rain, let it rain for awhile today." Please?

This post yielded the following comment and video link:

"LOL. I just viewed this video clip yesterday and sent it to some friends....check it out...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHIop4mhRro

I know that ALL of you looked at the video, right?

Then, the following day, Mother Nature opens a cloud and lets me have it.  She kept this up all weekend.  Rain, rain, freakin' rain.  That WITCH!

Actually, I was glad to see it.....for awhile.

The folks out at the Texas Motor Speedway weren't too happy, though.  The big race, scheduled for Sunday, was postponed due to the uncalled for emptying of Mother Nature's stomach contents.  The event is re-scheduled for this afternoon.

Later this afternoon, I will step outside and listen for the horses circling the track.

Sorry.  I mean race cars.  That's horse power, right?

Lucky me.  I'm only a few miles, as the crow flies, from the racetrack. 

I was at a swim clinic this weekend. I spent four hours shivering in the pool Saturday and another three with chattering teeth on Sunday.  I feel like a dried plum, a perfect prune marinated with chlorine, served with an essence of oak pollen. 

My instructor was a fun guy and I laughed at a few of the phrases he used often during our workshop:

Arm next to your ear hole!

   Excuso?  The WHAT hole?

(Oh.  I get it. Arm next to your ear. Hee hee.)

Looking at bandaids and hairballs!

Ew.

(In other words,  head should be down, in line with the spine, looking at the bottom of the pool, or even towards your belly, instead of up or at an angle.)

I want to see butt cheek and upper thigh.

Sheesh. What a pervert.  

(No.  Not really. He was looking for balance and proper rotation during a skating drill.)

It was a great workshop. There were only five of us so we got plenty of attention.  The instructor filmed multiple videos of us swimming both days so you really got to see what you were doing/not doing.  I made some progress and I have things to focus on at the pool. 

Earlier in the week, I went out in the yard to take a few more photos.

My columbine is already blooming! 

If you click to enlarge, you may see the second columbine trying to push its way through.

I'm proud of these white irises for brightening up the yard once the oak trees came out and hogged the sunshine:

Enjoy!

It's Bullocks and Discombobulation!

It was just another week in paradise or maybe it was in Geekville.  I can't remember.  I do know that it is Friday, the weather is gorgeous, and a busy weekend awaits!

The rude and obnoxious alarm goes off this morning making its usual repetitive chirping noise.  Hubby stirs and then lets out a big bear groan.  Unfortunately, I don't think he was awakening from a dream involving the potentially available Sandra Bullock.   I reminded Hubby that it was Friday and the bear calmed and started to purr. 

Yes, I know that bears don't purr but maybe they vibrate when they sigh.  Hubby did get up leaving me for another hour of precious snore time.

Then, Ms. Spring redeemed herself.  I woke up feeling all out of sorts.  I didn't sleep well.  Hum....maybe I was wrestling Sandra Bullock for my husband's attentions.

Anywhatsit, I felt discombobulated, my head no longer attached to my body but floating around like a gaseous ghost high on paint fumes.

Driving to work, I was greeted with this, which only intensified my out of body experience:

Yeah, I WISH!  Those are from Yellowstone, courtesy of rickz on flickr.com but our local ponds were steamy and with pink and orange from the morning sun, I now know what SERENITY looks like!

And me without me camera.

For shame.

I'm better now.  My class is done.  Nobody died and my CPR skills were not needed.  PHEW!    My swim is over.  I'm glad I did it even though I felt every inch of the pool and was struggling with my breathing.  I took a few shots of chlorinated water when the guy in the next lane started his butterfly stroke.   

Thanks, Dude.  That's not the drink I really wanted.   Could you have gotten me a coffee or at least a green tea?

This swimmer attended my class prior to his swim so we know each other.  I think he may have been picking on me or paying me back for that last set of push-ups.

Sigh.

In other goofiness,

One of the swimmers in the recent triathlon mentioned she was going to wear a swim cap to keep her hair dry.

Um, no Sweetie. It doesn't work that way.  I certainly wish it did.

A friend of mine was almost stopped in the middle of a half marathon BY A TRAIN CROSSING!

What idiot designed THAT route?

A woman leaves her baby in her SUV to avoid it being repossessed.

Words cannot describe....

People make such great blog fodder.

Have a great weekend!

Big Fish, Little Fish, and Bottom Feeders

You probably noticed that someone stole an hour from most of us over the weekend.  Yes, you lucky folks in Arizona and Hawaii still have your hour.  Wait.  Maybe you've been stealing them all along. 

THIEVES!

Off to the races...

After losing that hour and not being able to sleep all that well anyway, I somehow got out of bed Sunday morning for the St. Patrick's Day Triathlon.

The weather was nice.  There was no wind in the chilly transition area at 6:30 am when I arrived and arranged my stuff but I was glad when they let us inside the natatorium to hang around for the start of the race. 

Swimmers hit the water by 7:40 am and I listened to a dude playing bagpipes for over an hour before it was my turn to swim.  Can I have his lung capacity?

In the pool, I felt pretty good until the next to last leg.  That's when I encountered octopi.  No, these weren't critters recently escaped from the ocean, but they were men flailing about doing every stroke imaginable to stay afloat and to get ahead of the other guys (of course!).  There were hands and legs and bodies everywhere going nowhere. They completely blocked the swim lane so I had to invent a slither stroke to get around them.  SHEESH!

The exit ladder was a welcome sight.

  

After dripping my way through the transition area to my stuff and attempting to towel off,  I hopped on my bike for the next part of the race.

While on my ride, I saw a local elite runner out for her morning practice.  This woman chases cars for practice.  No, not really, but she does sprint half marathons. She reminds me of the Energizer Bunny and the vortex of energy around her is surely very powerful.  Her name is Fiona (what a pretty name) which I've conveniently changed to "Speedy Fi (fee)".  Maybe it's good her parents did not name her Phoebe.  "Speedy Phoebe" is just too hard to say.

I must learn to siphon her energy.  Too bad she was going the opposite direction or I might have asked her to carry me and my bike up the hill.

Finally, I finished the ride, found my stuff, racked my bike, took off my bike helmet (very important) and started the run.

But wait. What's this?  My feet were numb.  What the frozen tundra was that about?  Yes, it was chilly on the bike after being in the water but I didn't think I was that cold.  Apparently, I was.  That, and the fact that my brain said "send blood to quads, glutes, and hamstrings" over and over again for almost an hour.

The finish line was beautiful.  Hubby arrived just as the announcer called my name as I was crossing the line.  Hubby couldn't have planned that if he'd tried.   

I got me some pancakes, and no, they weren't green.

The lady with the green hair...

I wore my costume.  I had the shirt and skirt on for the bike ride and added the green hair and a hat for the run.  I received many comments, mostly from guys on bikes passing me saying "nice skirt".......

I certainly didn't mind.  A few of the ladies indicated that they liked my hair.    There weren't too many costumes so it must have been up to me to entertain folks!

The results are in....

Surprisingly, on the running part, I did quite well, coming in second in my age group.  For swimming, I need to advance from bottom feeder to at least little fishie drafting off big fishies in order to improve my swim time.  I improved my biking time by over 10 minutes.  I noticed something else, though.  My quads are about 1/3 the size of some of these ladies' quads.  That can be said for my butt, too, and that's a good thing!

Update: Although I'm happy with my run results, I placed very low in the swim and bike events so my overall result makes me somewhere between a bottom feeder and a little fish.  LOL.

I hope to have some photos soon.

Tri Baby, Tri!

My very first triathlon is complete. Status: PASS

I'm already planning improvements for next year. Grab some caffeine and let me tell you all about it:

We gathered in the transition area at O'Dark-Thirty before Dawn had even thought about showing her butt crack. This is where were marked for target practice......er....I mean labeled with permanent markers. Yes. I still have the remnants of my race number on both arms and my age on my leg. No, I didn't get any pictures of my arms and legs.

That's my blue bike and the pirate wig is
at the bottom of the pile.

After setting up my bike and organizing my stuff for the race, standing in line to get my timing chip, and a quick pit stop, it was time to start the race.

The first event was swimming which is by far my weakest event. We had to swim 300 meters in an indoor pool. The lanes were 50 meters long and the course was like a snake. That is, you swim down the lane, cross under the rope and swim up the next lane, etc., until you either drown or finish the course.

OK. OK. There were some cutie lifeguards that looked about 10. They probably wouldn't have let me drown.

The "snake" course allows all swimmers to be going the same direction. The announcer said that if you encounter someone going the wrong way, you were welcome to "de-pants" them. Hum.....I'm not sure I would have had the energy to do that.

Because I estimated my swim time to be "forever and a year", I got a high race number. This meant that I was towards the end of the line to start the swim. It was almost an hour before I was in the pool. I was very happy that the water had warmed up because this pool is usually incredibly cold but I did get tired of waiting.

The most challenging part of the swim besides huffing and puffing and not being able to blow anything down, was all the other swimmers in the pool. It seemed likes someone was always trying to pass or I was needing to pass someone. I was doing all I could to make it from one end to the other. The shallowest water was 6'2" so it's not like I could stop and walk. I'll admit I took breaks at the end of the lanes.

Finally, it was done.

Biking: I jogged to the transition area, barefooted and wet, patted my hair a few times and sucked up some extra water from my swim wear. I put on my biking shirt, socks and shoes, sunglasses, helmet, grabbed my bike, and started the cycling segment. I was still dripping!
The bike route was up and down some long hills but I swear there was more up than down. Going up the last hill, I saw a poodle walking a lady and I really wanted to draft off that poodle.

As I was finishing the bike course, I saw several runners at the turnaround point. They were moving incredibly slow and some were walking. I'm thinking to myself, "Hum....why are they moving so slow? I won't have that problem...". Then I finished the biking event.

BAWAHAHAHAHAHA! I had to eat humble pie! By the time I got off my bike, my legs were barely moving and it was surprisingly hard to breathe! I have actually practiced this transition and noticed the noodle legs but my practice ride was not as long or hilly. I was very happy to get off that bike!

Back in the transition area, I took off my helmet and put on my pirate costume, including the wig, and started running. I had already pinned my racing number to my costume. The run: I provided entertainment for the other runners and volunteers. They seem to enjoy the red-headed pirate that looked like she was running through cheesecake. The run was uneventful otherwise.

I finished and really, really wanted to puke. No really. But I didn't. Then I realized that somehow I had missed the pancakes. Holy Pathetic Pancake for a Pirate! What's up with that?

Yea! My medal:

Mr. Pumpkin wears my medal.
It says Monster Triathlon Finisher. No really.

Ms. Pumpkin has been pumping some iron.
Look at those shoulders!

When I returned home, I found that our house had been given a "Halloween Chain Letter". The instructions indicate to post the sign that indicates that you have been given the treats and to secretly provide treats for two other neighbors. Hum.....I think I will accidentally forget to post my sign and hope that other neighbors give me more treats.

Um...ReformingGeek?

Yes?

That sounds like something I would do. Good for you. You're learning.

Photos: Race photos NOT taken by still sleeping ReformingGeek Hubby. Medal photos staged and photographed by ReformingGeek pretending to be a fashion designer.