Busy

This summer has been so crazy. We have been running the whole time.

1. Swimming lessons. Four kids have been taking swimming lessons. They are all doing great, probably because of #2.

2. Swimming. We got a family pass to the pool so we have been going swimming a lot. Family swim Monday and Friday, plus I usually take the older kids on Wednesday afternoon. Add in the 3 times a week I do lap swims and I think I am in the pool more than I am out. I fear for my hair.

3. Fair. Of course we did the 4H fair again this year. Besides the home ec type exhibits, we had 3 pigs, a rabbit, and 9? 10? 11? chickens this year. Two kids sold their market pigs, and one wasn't big enough to sell so we brought it home. Another kid sold her market chickens and, AND brought home an extremely large trophy for being the Intermediate Poultry Showmanship Champion. This means she got to participate in the Round Robin, a contest where all the showmanship champions get together and show ALL the different kinds of animals. She got to show a pig, beef cattle, sheep, horse, etc.






I know it seems weird, but it is a HUGE big deal to be able to participate in the Round Robin. Allison is headed to the state fair next month to try her hand at showmanship there.

4. Triathlon. I did another one over a month ago but haven't gotten around to reporting about it. I guess I have told a few people but I think participating in this sport is one of those things that you have to be there to even enjoy talking or hearing about it so I won't bore anyone with the gory details this time. I placed first in my age group, though, out of 5 or 6 people, and 5th overall woman. It was fun. The kids all (mostly) got to come and cheer me on and that warmed my heart.



5. Taking pictures. Not me, well, me, but I was actually talking about 2nd son. He took some trampoline pictures for the 4H fair. It is amazing how many trampoline pictures have to be taken before the champion action shot in the junior division comes along (last picture).







6. Driving. Home--gym--home--gym--home--pool--home--gym-- and on and on. At least 3 times a week Daren takes kid to gym in the morning so all I have to do is go pick her up.

7. Swim-Bike-Run. Enough said about that.

8. Feeding animals. Do not say "Oh, poor Cristy, look how busy she is, she needs a break." Yes, Mom, I heard you. Until now. Please feel sorry for me. It's hot. Do you know how much water 9 billion chickens (or 190)go through when it is hot? DO YOU? Cuz if you don't, ask me, I can tell you. And somehow, even though I am splitting the broiler chicken duty with oldest daughter, somehow they only need water when it is MY TURN TO FEED THEM!!! Does this seem suspicious to anyone else? Because I am on to that kid and she is not getting away with those kind of shenanigans any more, let me tell you.

Waterfalls and Hiking

This weekend we made two separate trips to Mapleton and while there we decided to take the kids hiking and visit a couple waterfalls.

Beaver Creek Falls:





This waterfall was only a short walk down a path, so that was nice.

Sweet Creek Falls:



A little longer walk, but not far at all. The kids loved climbing on the rocks.

On Sunday afternoon we went to Kentucky Falls. The trailhead is 16 miles off Hwy 126--mostly paved, but some gravel. Mostly one lane road, windy and steep. The last intersection is not marked so we had to take a guess. Once to the trailhead, it is a 3/4 mile hike to the upper falls, which includes some switchbacks to get down to the falls.

Upper Kentucky Falls:



Then to continue to the lower falls it is another 1.25 mile of downhill. Which turns into uphill on the way back. Second youngest son informed me that he doesn't like uphills. I said, "Yeah, well, try doing a triathlon and then hiking 4 miles, kid." Not really. I just patted him on the head and said "We're almost there."

Lower Kentucky Falls (there are 2 separate ones next to each other):




The walk was worth every step, even though I was tired. Littlest guy did not walk much since he just wanted to stand in the path poking things with sticks, but everyone else did very well. We lost Helen Mae for a while--Daren sat down to rest and she kept going. She was running on the path for maybe 20 minutes by herself, trying to catch up to the boys in front. There were no turnoffs, but it was very steep on one side of the path so I got nervous. We sent Robyn on up ahead and she came upon her in about 5 minutes or so.

There were many pretty wildflowers:






And cute kids:

Graduate

26 hours, 34 minutes of labor*

17 years, 287 days, 16 hours of caring, loving, shaping, molding.

Time to see what he does with it all...




*Ok, you KNOW I had to throw that in there even though it doesn't have anything to do with anything. It's just that it really hurt and no one around here seems to appreciate that. They all just roll their eyes at me. At least I didn't mention the 50+ stitches.

Lebanon Sprint Triathlon

I got up Saturday morning at 5:45am and drove up to Lebanon. I was by myself since my husband was out of town, and that was a little intimidating. I knew I wanted to do the race, but part of the fun is sharing it with someone else. Besides, who was going to take pictures?

No one. I didn't even bring my camera to take pictures afterward or anything. I totally forgot it.



Swim: Slowest swimmers started first, and we were even numbered according to our 500 yard swim times (slowest was #1, etc). I was #15. There it was, marked on my leg for the world to see that I was the 15th slowest swimmer entered. Oh well. I had entered a time of 14 minutes for 500y, not knowing what my time really was. It was just a guess (which turned out to be fairly accurate at my first race), and now I was thinking my time was really more like 12:30 or so. Then I went into the pool area and looked at the pool it looked shorter than usual. I guess I swim in a 25 meter pool, because this pool was definately smaller.

Out of 4 ladies in my lane I was 3rd to start and after we started it was apparent that I was quite a bit faster than they were. Once I got them all passed things went very well and I ended up being the third person out of the pool out of 24 people in my heat. So out of all the people that suck at swimming, I didn't suck quite as bad as the rest. Heh.

Time: 11:20 (2:16/100 yards)

T1: I ran out of the pool, took off cap and goggles, dried off a bit, found my glasses, put on my socks and bike shoes and took off for the bike start line. Zoom!

Time: 1:38

Bike: Friday night I went out in my driveway and practiced putting one foot on the pedal and swinging my leg over the bike to mount. Definate wreck potential there. But I did it. I clipped in and took off. The course was a very fast and slightly hilly out and back. I passed one person and another went by me going the other direction before I turned around. I wanted to push hard, but not too hard so my legs would be able to run.

Time: 41:37 (18.02mph average)

T2: Hopped off the bike (remembered to unclip, which is always a plus) and trotted to put my bike away. Someone's transition setup had exploded into my area so I had a little trouble getting around it to put my bike away and get the rest of my things. The polite person in me wouldn't let me just step all over it and throw it out of my way. Changed shoes, put on race belt, grabbed hat, took a swig of gatorade, and took off.

Time: 1:48 (which actually surprises me, it didn't seem that long)

Run: This is the hard part. Legs feel like jelly, and they don't want to move. I had been practicing going from bike to run though, and I didn't feel too bad. The course was flat, but sort of confusing. It was kind of out and back with a double loop in the middle. I passed one lady that had beaten me out of transition (part of a relay so no changing to do) and one other lady who was on her first loop when I was on the second. It was getting hot but I kept on pushing. The whole run felt good--like I was doing was I could but I wasn't going to die. Maybe I need to push to the I'm going to die stage if I want to get better times.

Time: 27:04 (8:44/mile pace)

Total time: 1:23:27

Here are the stats. Feel free to skip this part.

4th out of 5 in my age group. There was some tough competition in my age group. Given that, I am actually happy with 4th place. Really.

1st woman across the finish line (that's what the blue ribbon is for). So out of all the people that started in the first heat (24) I finished first. Yay! I have no idea why I got a ribbon for that, but oh well.

14th out of 39 women in the road bike division. Top 36%. (Compare this to Albany--29/42, 69%.) See why I don't feel bad about 4th in my AG?

51st out of 88 in the road bike division. This includes the men. Scums. They skew my results.

58th out of 103 total participants. Better than last time.

31st out of 45 total women swimming. Wow, 14 women slower than me this time instead of 8 (and some of those were men)! Moving up.

19th out of 45 total women biking.

13th out of 45 total women running.

My transition times seem slow to me so I need to work on that. It is hard to remember this is a RACE--not just the swim, bike, run part, but in between as well.

Next race: Siuslaw Sprint Triathlon, June 22,2008.

Race this weekend

So here are this week's workouts.

Monday: Nothing
Tuesday: 45 min. swim, 45/8 brick
Wednesday: 45 min run
Thursday: 70 min bike, 8 min run
Friday: 45 min swim
Saturday: Lebanon Sprint Triathlon
Sunday: Lay in bed and moan

I am not really cutting down much for this race--I don't have a very large volume so it doesn't matter much, I guess. I will not have many pictures because I will be going by myself...sniff, sniff...since my pit crew (a.k.a. Daren) will be out of town. So I could just not go and say I did and no one would be the wiser. Pre-race jitters rearing its ugly head, can you tell?

Flowers

Blue Flowers

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Chives

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Daisy

This Week

Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: Swim 40 min, Bike 30 min
Wednesday: Run 35 min
Thursday: Bike 1 hour
Friday: Swim 40 min, Run 30 min
Saturday: Run 30 min (strides)
Sunday: Bike 1 hour +

After my disasterous swim at the triathlon I decided it was time to get serious about swimming. I have the Total Immersion book but after doing some looking I found that it was somewhat out of date and the TI guy has changed a lot of the drills and techniques so I purchased a dvd--Freestyle Made Easy, and a book--Triathlon Swimming Made Easy.




Yeah, I know, ha ha --"What ya gonna do, take a tv to the pool?" ha ha ha.
Ha.
No, I am going to watch the dvd at home and read the book at home, and then go to the pool and try to remember what to do. Then I am going to go home and rewatch and read to see if I did it and if not, fix it the next time. Wiseacre.

So anyway, I am doubling up on the swim days because the drills are very slow and easy and I would like a little more of a cardio workout--hence the extra bike or run.

Things went pretty well this morning. I was able to get balanced, which was the point of the first lesson. Hopefully, I will be swimming like a fish in no time at all.

Race Day

I woke up at 6:15 Sunday morning to this:



I went back to bed. The End.






Just kidding.

We got to Albany at about 7:30am. Still snowing pretty hard. Got my race bag (tshirt and a few fliers) and then went out and put up my bike. Because of the weather the transition area was inside so I set up my bag with all my bike clothes and shoes, etc.


My heat started at 9am so I had a little while to hang around. I was a little too nervous to do anything but stand and watch the other swimmers. A few minutes before 9 I got into the pool and met the other ladies in my lane. I learned that I would be starting first (they had 3-4 people per lane with each person starting about 5 seconds apart). The buzzer sounded and off I went.


I am a pretty slow swimmer, and I have never been so aware of that fact until faced with so many other faster swimmers. The lady behind me passed me right away, but the other lady in my lane was even slower than me so I ended up passing her a few times. Swim time for 750 meters: 19:38. Pathetically slow--out of 120 or so racers total it was the 8th slowest time.

At the end of the 30 lengths I heaved myself out of the pool (literally, since the middle bulkhead was higher than my head and it made a lovely scene, I am sure, when I tried to get out of the pool--my husband snapped a picture of me that will NEVER see the light of day) and trotted to my transition area to put on my bike clothes. Originally I had planned to slip on my bike shorts, light shirt, and socks and shoes, but even though the snow stopped, it was cold out! So I put on my long pants, shirt, jacket, gloves, hat, socks and shoes before I hurried out to my bike. I threw on my helmet and took off.



I was so excited at this point--I was having so much fun! I never thought it would be so fun. I thought I would be cursing the day I decided to do a triathlon.

The bike route was 12.5 miles of country roads. Only a few minor hills and lots of long, lonely flat roads. I was passed by 2 men and that is all. Bike time: 57:09 (this included transition from swim to bike); not bad, not good.

Once I made it back to the race area on my bike, all I had to do was ditch the bike and helmet and take off running. In theory, anyway. In reality, I couldn't feel my legs (numb from riding) or my feet (numb from cold). So I kind of shuffled/stumbled/trotted my way down the road.



I think I "ran" at pretty much the same pace the entire 3.1 miles. I tried SO HARD to go faster but my legs completely ignored me. I was passed by one man and passed a lady that was running even slower than me. Couldn't get much slower without walking, but she was doing it. The route went out through a residential area and back to finish with a half lap or so on the high school track. Final run time: 33:55 (this includes the transition from bike to run).

Total time: 1:50:42. Out of 6 ladies in the 35-39 age group this was good for 5th place--4th place was only 5 seconds away. Not a stellar performance but this was my first time and I finished the race still glad I had started! Lots of room for improvement in all areas but especially SWIMMING.

I have come to the conclusion that wanting to be a triathlete was not some crazy notion but something that I am really, really glad I chose to do. I can't wait to do it again...

Final Countdown

Well, not final, maybe, but the final countdown to this weekend anyway.
This week:
Monday: Ran
Tuesday: Biked
Wednesday: Ran
Thursday: Bike
Friday: Swim
Saturday: Rest? Short run?
Sunday: Race

I have been sick so, honestly, if I am still not feeling better by Saturday or so I may not go. It just isn't any fun at all getting out when my stomach is feeling so awful. No I am not pregnant. But it kind of feels like that--a constant queasiness and icky feeling. Constant. But 3 of my little boys are feeling the same way. So there.

As promised, here is my new toy:

I wasn't exactly planning on buying a road bike yet but I came across a deal that I could not pass up. So here it is. Now I get to learn how to use the clipless pedals without breaking every bone in my body. If I ride this bike in the race this weekend I will be using my regular shoes since I am so smart and purchased dual sided pedals--one side with the clips (cliplesses?) and the other side regular.

For those of you who missed it...

Here is my daughter's awesome beam routine that won her first place.




The lady in blue all the way to the right of the screen is her coach, Linda. Midway through the routine, she stood up...I assume because my daughter was getting to the part where she sometimes falls off and it was making Linda nervous. Heh heh.

Roads I Have Traveled: Final Edition

Until next year, that is.




Last weekend we traveled to a town 3 hours south to the Oregon Gymnastics Optionals State Meet. My daughter had an ok season; it was hard to tell how she would stack up against other Oregon teams since so many of her meets were out of state this year, so we were just hoping for a good meet with no big mistakes.

Here she is:



That little smile isn't giving anything away, is it. What is that around her neck? Take a closer look:



Looks like a medal to me. Ahh, beam. She does pretty well on beam if she can stay on it.



First place. She is the Oregon State Level 7 Age 12b Beam Champion. Not only is she the beam CHAMPION (had to say it again) BEAM CHAMPION CHAMPION CHAMPION
ahem
Not only is she the age 12b CHAMPION(they divided the 12 year olds into 2 age groups) but since she scored a 9.725 she had the highest score in the entire session (50 some girls) and the entire previous session (another 50 some girls). There was only one other score higher (9.875 OMG) in the last session (50 some girls). There are no special awards for that, but there should be. Hmpf.

Her bars score was 8.95--tied her season best. Floor: 9.35 (5th place), Vault 9.05. All Around: 37.075, an all time personal best. It was good for 4th place out of about 18 girls in her age group. No place on bars or vault since they only went out to 6th place, but she got 7th or so on vault and maybe 8th on bars. All around a very good meet.

This Week

Monday: ran 30 min
Tuesday: swam 1400 yd; 40 or so minutes
Wednesday: Bike 1 hr
Thursday: Run 30 min
Friday: Swim however long it takes me to go 1400 yd
Saturday: Bike 1 hr
Sunday: Rest or run, I can't decide.

I signed up for the Albany Sprint Triathlon on April 20. So it really is going to happen. I am trying not to get nervous. What if I get a flat tire? What if somebody kicks me in the face in the pool? What if I look like a total dummy and make people mad at me because I don't know the unspoken rules? What if I knock over my bike in the transition line and it starts a domino effect? What if...I. Can't. Finish.

I got something new today and I can't wait to show it off...nope, not going to tell. Wait and see.

Week whatever, traveling roads, and other boring stuff

Gymnastics meets:

First of all, we did make it back from Idaho. Then we had another meet here, then we traveled to Sacramento, CA. I just felt stupid taking pictures of the road. I was riding with another mom from the gym and I just felt dumb. This weekend we have the state meet, and then possibly one more in Spokane at the end of the month. The last one is optional and more for fun than anything else. I am thinking of going just because it will give me an excuse to stop on the way and see a friend that I haven't seen in a long time.

Workouts:

Well. Here's the story. We had a huge meet here that is put on by our gym. It is a very long, exhausting weekend, especially for those of us that are in charge of one thing or another. So I didn't work out at all during the days of the meet, and then during the clean up I hurt my toe. I stubbed my poor toe very hard and it hurt so bad I cried. If it had been any toe but my big toe, I am sure it would have been broken. I am really not so sure something isn't injured in there as it is, because I keep re-hurting it.



Disregard the ugly polish and that unsightly bump on the side of my foot. The bump is something that I inherited from my mother, not from injuring my toe. Anyway, I can run, etc. but I keep hurting it again doing other things so working out has been pretty sporadic.

Which brings me to another thing. I am sorry, but 4:30 in the morning is just way too early in the morning to be getting up and going swimming, even for an early riser like me. So I am going to change my swimming time here soon. If I could get to bed at a decent hour it would be one thing, but that doesn't happen very often.

Triathlon:

I am signing up for my first triathlon today. It is 3 weeks or so away, so I am going to be working hard to get ready. I may be running a 5k at the beginning of May, and doing another triathlon at the end of May. Yay!

Week 15

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Swim 35 min
Wednesday: Bike 1 hr
Thursday: Run 30 min
Friday: Swim 40 min
Saturday and Sunday: Gone to Idaho for a gymnastics meet.

Doors

The last picture isn't really a door--it is more of a wall. But we intend to make it look like a door. The other doors actually have doorknobs with locks on them!

Week 14

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Swim 35 min
Wednesday: Bike 55 min
Thursday: Run 30 min
Friday: Swim 40 min
Saturday: Bike 55 min
Sunday: Run 35 min

Woe

What is it about this beautiful snow and ice that inspires woe in my children?

Not all of them, of course, as you can see here:



But just look at this face:




Woe is me....


Oh woe, WOE, WOE!!!


But my hands are cold. Sob...


What? Walter is bringing me some gloves?


Where IS he? What is taking so long? WOE!


But I can't smile. Can't you see I am trying?