I’m leaving, in a minivan

Car has been replaced with a 2007 Nissan Sentra.

Trailer wiring has been fixed. Brake lights work.

Garage is a disaster. No bets on how long it will take for the guys to load the trailer or what time we’ll actually leave. Hub says 6. However: in my world the trains run on time, he prefers what we call “Native American time” (day time/night time). A departure time in Hub-land is more of a general guideline rather than a deadline… plus (never minus) 4 or so hours.

Never in the history of the world has a woman ever needed a vacation as badly as I do now!

Vacation when?

Hub totalled his car Tuesday night. He's fine (thank goodness) and no one was hurt. He had to run off the road to avoid a woman who randomly decided to turn left right in front of him.

But b/c the car was so old we don't have collision, so we have to get a new car. Can I please return the roof I just bought???

Calgon, take me away! (More like, Budweiser, take me away!)

Since I love to read fellow bloggers (and blog myself), I thought this pic was pretty funny.

On a more somber note: A friend of our passed away this morning - she had been fighting breast cancer for quite some time. So really going on about my workout at the gym or what the scale said just feels a bit pointless right this moment, if you know what I mean.

Have a good weekend.

See saw

The scale went down the 0.8 pounds, and then it was back up again this morning! Gah! This is what makes me so nuts.

I took yesterday off from the gym - my body was giving me the (I am getting run down and your immune system is getting compromised and you need to rest) signals. So I went home and chilled, called hub & asked him to pick up pizza, then went to bed at 8. Maybe that's the 0.8 pounds - my fingers were swollen when I put on my rings.

Anyway, kettlebells this morning and gym this afternoon. My chore list isn't too horrible this weekend, but I am going to have to stay very focused on the food cause it's time to get off the see saw!

Happy Bastille Day

Today should be a good Tour day – being Bastille Day and having no top sprinters, the French will most likely launch tons of attacks, hoping to get in a breakaway and grab a victory. The French don’t really have any top riders for that matter.

Here’s a good quote from Will Frischkorn – a rider for Garmin-Slipstream:

“There are plenty of one-day races where you toe the line with a specific job, and that role doesn’t even put you remotely near the finish line. But then there are all the rest: the races where either you hope to find a result for yourself, you’re there training, or a stage race where you’re there working for the team; one day fighting it out for the sprinters, another day to position a climber, others on the front, grinding out the kilometers with your leader on the wheel.

These are all roles of the domestique, the category that the vast majority of riders fit into. You’re at a race to do your job. You’re also at a race because it’s what you love to do. The satisfaction of teamwork, is something often misunderstood in our sport. The way that you’ll drive yourself into the ground, knowing that as soon as the throw-down comes, the race will leave you behind. “

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Friday I did go home and rest. I had a relaxing yet productive weekend, and enjoyed watching the mountain stages. Even though I really didn’t want to, I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and did a good workout. My bag is packed for today as well, and this morning I got in a good kettlebell workout.

After dropping 1.2 pounds, the scale popped back up 0.8 and has stuck again. Grrr. I told my husband I’ll feel sad, but I’m afraid I’m just gonna have to smash it if it doesn’t behave. Heh heh heh.

Have a good one!

Friday Morning Randomness

Do you ever have one of those mornings where you feel like is sitting around saying something like “Oh ho! Some people are just thick. I’ve been dropping subtle (and not so subtle) hints all week that she needed to slow down. I guess now it’s time for a smackdown.”

I should’ve seen it coming. I was tired at the gym yesterday afternoon. After we finished watching the Tour, getting up and loading the dishwasher while hub vacuumed was one thing. By why scrub out the inside of the fridge after 9 pm? I mean, really?

Payback came knocking this morning. First, I hit what felt like a wall of tired during my kettlebell workout. And getting tired & making a mistake while swinging a 26 pound kettlebell is not smart. So, I skipped the last set. I splashed green drink on my shirt. I nearly forgot my cold bag to take with me to Costco this afternoon. When I started yelling because I had splashed laundry detergent on the dog leashes, I realized it was time to give myself a mental timeout. Luckily, no one was home to hear me but the dogs.

After Costco, instead of trying to do all my other grocery shopping, I think I’ll go home and chill out. I’ve been needing a bag to take to the gym (my regular gym bag is too big to fit in the lockers and I don’t need to take boxing gloves, my own neck pad for the squat bar, and swim gear with me just to use the freaking elliptical.) I have some nice asian print quilt cotton that I’ve been hoarding – maybe I’ll use some and make a nice bag. Then I’ll sleep in tomorrow….

I admit part of the reason I’ve been pushing so hard is that the scale has been stuck. Things are happening, but the scale doesn’t want to budge. Instead of wearing myself out overdoing it with the exercise, I need to just stay consistent. As long as I keep doing the right things, it’ll pay off.

I’d forgotten one drawback to having Lance in the Tour: all news outlets must be avoided if you want the end of the day’s stage to remain a surprise. I’d managed to forget that over the past 4 years, and an accidental glimpse at a headline on msn.com ruined the finish of yesterday’s stage for me. Gah.

Have a good weekend!

Divide and Conquer

I couldn’t decide whether to do food prep this weekend, or more sewing. I’ve decided to do both! That is, I am splitting my food prep tasks so I can do some of both on both weekends. I think it will make the cooking feel a bit less grueling. I love to cook, but hours non-stop in the kitchen gets a bit tiresome!

This weekend I’ll cook and freeze the spaghetti sauce, chili mac, beef stew, and zucchini bread. Next weekend I’ll make the meat pies. Since I make the filling and dough from scratch, that is an equal split of the work!

Tomorrow is the first mountain stage of the Tour. It’s really impossible to gauge who the most likely contenders for winning are until after a day or so in the mountains. The last time the Tour was in Arcalis (in 1997) Jan “Der Kaiser” Ullrich broke away solo on the final stretch to the summit (10.6km at 7.1 percent), decimating the field and laying the foundation for his Tour victory. He was supposed to be riding in support of his team captain (Bjarne Riis) – that didn’t work out so well, at least not for Riis.

The boy & my mom left for Florida today, so it’ll be pretty quiet around our place this weekend.

I have gone to the gym for the past 3 days after work, and the bag is in the car for today as well. This morning I was slated to do kettlebells, but I pushed those back a day so I could go for a walk in the neighborhood.

Going to the gym in the afternoons makes getting up at 5 a bit of a challenge. As a result, I hadn’t walked in the morning for the past 2 days. I don’t use my MP3 player much and I’m not burning up the roads or anything, I just enjoy being outside and listening to the birds and watching the sun come up. I’ve missed that.

But no worries – I can do kettlebells Tue, Fri, Sun this week.

Eating is going well – I’ve had a couple of evenings where I needed a snack around 8-ish because I was starving! I ate a bigger dinner last night and that did the trick. We had home made nachos – yum!

Good morning Sunshine!

I think that July is consistently the most enjoyable month of the year for me. Consider:

In July, I have no problem saying "no" to anyone - including myself. "I've got too much to do to get ready for vacation" is a universally accepted reason for not being able to do something - anything.

No homework to check/ help with. Minimal responsibilities at home. The boy is frequently away with one grandparent or another, and when he's home he's old enough to help out! Dinner? A Costco quiche and some steamed veggies are perfectly accepted. Or even better - marinate some meat & veggies & let hub cook them on the grill!

Routine. I enjoy going new places and trying new things. And sometimes my job feels like an exercise in change management. So it's nice to have such a well defined schedule as a refreshing change of pace. Go to work, go to gym, watch part of the Tour, fix supper, finish watching Tour with hub. Putz. Go to bed.

I'm doing stuff I love. I love sewing, I love cooking, and I'm a scheduling/organizing fool. And that's all I do for the entire month!

The Tour de France. Yeah, I know most people don't get this one. But I thoroughly enjoy watching the Tour. Yesterday was a perfect example: the team time trial. Although the course was so difficult this year, one team manager said it was "more like a team trial." By drafting you conserve 30% of your energy, so a team rides in an echelon, slightly angled based on the wind direction. They look like a flock of geese, with each rider taking a turn and then falling back to take a rest. It’s truly poetry in motion.

Stronger riders will pull longer, and since only 5 of the 9 have to finish together (the team gets the time of the 5th rider), one or more riders may have the job to blow himself up well before the finish line pulling the team for all he's worth.

There are time checks out on the road, so you know how you're doing compared with the others. Thanks to a truly epic final 9 km put in by Fabian "Fabu" Cancellara (dragging his team most of the way single handedly), he managed to hold on to the race lead over Lance Armstrong by a fraction of a second. Four days of riding hundreds of km and it took a long time to determine the lead because they had to go back and check the fractions of a second.

After the first stage, the rider who is touted as the world's best sprinter was ranked 4th-to-last overall. I am reminded to make the point that the position in the General Classification says nothing about the inherent athletic ability of the cyclist, and everything about the important job they each play on their own team.

I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and did the shortest of the 4 interval workouts on my MP3 - 35 minutes. Halfway through, a guy comes and gets on the elliptical right next to me. Why? I mean, there are only 2 with the moving pole/hand bar thingies, so I can understand if I were on one and he wanted the other. (I prefer that kind myself because I get a better workout moving both arms and legs). But the one next to me was one of the other kind with the stationary handlbars - and there are at least 12 of those. Grrr. Oh well, I still had a good workout!

I went Monday as well and my bag is in my car for this afternoon! My goal is 3-4 times per week. It's so nice & quiet at the gym when I arrive around 4 - it's the ideal time to go as far as I'm concerned!

Well, have a good one!

Thanks Jack!

Just a shout out to my internet friend Jack for taking time to comment last night!

After I posted I put on "Shrek 3" - I was too restless to simply sit and watch, but a little light comedy helped. I stayed up until 10. It's funny - I don't know whether it's the new Amazing Meal (from amazinggrass.com) or just the combo of healthier eating and more exercise, but I seem to be needing a bit less sleep!

This morning I got up at 5, did my kettlebell workout, and made time for a short walk in the neighborhood. It was nice and cool (58) and just felt fantastic! After that I got home and made hub a green drink before getting myself ready for work. He's been enjoying his AM green drink too, and it gets more veggies in him. Fruit is easy, but veggies can be a challenge!

I weighed myself this morning - down to a new low! Woot! I'm feeling accomplished. The good/bad thing is that at my current weight, I don't feel limited by my weight. I can do pretty much anything I want. I am very grateful for that. I admit I have a bit of fear that feeling that good will lead to complacency. I hope not!

I have added another work set to my kettlebell workout. My plan is to add one more. When that starts to feel "comfortable", it's time to buy a new kettlebell! And I have 5 more cardio coach CDs I haven't opened - my plan is to add one at a time. The later disks are more challenging and will give me something new to listen to.

I do understand why some folks need/want a race or triathlon or specific event to focus on to help them get to a goal. I want to try my hand at yoga again, and I'd really like to sign up and train with one of the trainers at the gym - he's a power lifter. That sounds right up my alley! So we'll see. I definitely have things I'm looking toward, but trying to appreciate how much better I'm feeling right now also.

Have a great weekend and 4th (if you celebrate it)!

Must let off steam

I had a craptacular day at work. I could write all about it, but there's no point. Some days you have crappy days - such is life when you work with humans.

I have tried to be positive about it - it happens, move on, blah blah. After work I headed to the gym and got in a great workout even though I didn't feel like going. I came home and made a healthy supper even though I didn't feel like cooking.

Then the boy came home from the beach in this huge whirlwind b/c hub had promised to take him to a movie. So he rushes in, dumps a bunch of stuff, and they rush out. Never mind hub and I were supposed to have a conversation about the budget b/c he is talking about buying a tool bench from a guy at work - tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm tired, I had a shitty day, and I'm home alone feeling like nothing I have to say is important. Maybe that's not fair, but that's how I feel. What I want is to each some nachos and have a couple of beers (we don't have any in the house). Instead I am posting here hoping to diffuse my frustration.

I feel so frustrated that I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes and a huge lump in my throat. I just want to stop feeling what I'm feeling. I'm tired & times like these I just wish I had an "off switch" when life seems to be invading my personal space. My off switch is spelled C-H-E-E-S-E.

Ugh. I know exactly why people use food to insulate themselves from their emotions. Something doesn't have to be tragic - or even bad - too feel like just too much.

What I’m up to

I’ve started going to the gym in the afternoons. I know, who knew I’d ever go back there again?? Ha ha ha. I loaded a couple more of my “Cardio Coach” (LOVE!) CDs onto my MP3 player – I now have 4 workouts to choose from. They make the time fly by.

Weight is dropping again. I’m walking in the AM, swinging my kettlebells, hitting the gym in the afternoons, and walking at lunch with my lunch buddy. The cool thing is that it really helps relieve stress, making it easier to not snack in the evenings.

Stuff is coming together for vacation – I’m in decent shape. Which is nice – some years I get all panicky!

The weather has been nice in the mornings. Hot by noon of course, but mornings have been in the early 60s.

I wish my husband would help out around the house on a more consistent basis. Just saying.