negative on the sponsors...

But this is not about me! This blog entry is in honor of Kerrie and Eileen..did I miss anyone else??? (see my hat) on their wicked cool sponsorship with Power Bar! Also Mz. Mel Crandell for her most awesome design work in suit making. (purpose for showing my OCD suit problem) Melissa,if you need me to, I'll be happy to boycott my (will-remain-nameless) suit shopping if..ah hum... DAWN DOESN'T COME THROUGH! Ha!

All in good fun!
Tomorrow is Friday...yippee! I can't wait to ride outside on the sandy salty partially snow covered roads. It's gotta be better than riding that damn trainer another weekend and goin' nowhere with a dazed and confused look on my face from complete boredom,right???

Yes Kitty.. it's snowing AGAIN.

WILL SWAP A 170 YEAR OLD HISTORIC NEW ENGLAND HOME FULL OF CHARM FOR A BEACH SIDE COTTAGE. MUST BE SUNNY 86.7% OF THE YEAR, WARM TROPICAL OCEAN WATER A PLUS! NOT INTERESTED IN ONE HOUR TRAFFIC SNARLED COMMUTES TO WORK. WOULD PREFER A SHORT ZIP ON A VESPA SCOOTER PAINTED PINK WITH MATCHING HELMET TO A HAPPY FUN FILLED WORK SETTING.

FREE TOP OF THE LINE SNOW BLOWER, SNOWSHOES, XC SKIS,SNOWBOARDS,COMPUTRAINER BIKE TRAINER AND A TOASTY WARM GLASS FRONT WOOD STOVE IN YOUR MASTER BEDROOM! NOT ONLY THAT, BUT IF YOU CALL IN THE NEXT 30 MINUTES, WE WILL INCLUDE A 6 MONTH SUPPLY OF WINDSHIELD DE-ICER!!! THAT'S RIGHT!!! BUT WAIT!!! THAT'S NOT ALL!!!!!! THE NEXT 7 CALLERS TO INQUIRE WITH A FAIR TRADE WILL GET A YEARS SUPPLY OF WOOD, CUT SPLIT AND DELIVERED PLUS THE WINDSHIELD DE-ICER!!! ACT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


CAT NOT INCLUDED.

Bree Wee muffins and a bad hamstring

I decided to do Bree Muffins last night instead of bread. They came out really nice and cheered me up a bit after a trying weekend.

I did a 1/2 marathon yesterday. It was a wake up call for me in that I can't keep ignoring a persistent hamstring attachment problem. My husband had to deal with a crying bundle of emotion after I crossed the finish line yesterday. I just lost it. Basically my ass aches when I try and pick up the pace. I seem to be able to get through 4 runs a week without anything that nags at me enough to do something about it, but this is the second road race I've done in the past 2 months that It doesn't seem to matter how much I warm up or stretch, minutes into the race I'm feeling the damn thing every time I push off and plant my foot in front. For 13.1 miles it ached either in my ass or right in the belly of the muscle. It gets tighter and tighter and my stride gets shorter and shorter and I'm not thinking about the race and staying relaxed and running hard, and waiting to pummel my once-a-week-runner-husband, instead I'm thinking about my hamstring the entire time watching my cruddy pace and thinking how they hell am I gonna do a marathon....

I had this injury back in 2004 training for Lake Placid. Basically I trained through it and limped through the marathon. It was not a pleasant experience and now that I'm committed to CDA, here it is again. My big training hasn't even kicked in yet. I think I'm DOOMED.
Sorry for the downer post today. I'm trying to be proactive. I've decided to start getting some deep tissue work in there (probably filled with scar tissue) and also I'm going to visit Mike Doyle, a sports strength and conditioning trainer to help me get my back and glutes stronger which I'm told can be adding to the misery.

It's funny, now have another IM looming over me, here it is again. I had two solid seasons back to back and I was mentally prepared and confident that I could give it another shot and be competitive within my age group for another IM this year.

I'm on shaky ground today. I think I'll go have a muffin.

TGP's Swim Challenge Complete!

First off, thank you Danielle for organizing this and the other awesome chickas for helping me with a set (Jen) and the rest of you bad ass's for cheering me on!

Up at 4:50am and off to masters at MIT for a 6:30ish start.

Here's the scoop

Elaine's set:

40 x 100s:
1st 10: 4@1:35, 3@1:30, 2@1:25, 1@1:20
2nd 10: 1@1:35, 4@1:30, 3@1:25, 2@1:20
3rd 10: 2@1:35, 1@1:30, 4@1:25, 3@1:20
4th 10: 3@1:35, 2@1:30, 1@1:25, 4@1:20 (OUCH)

4000 for a main set? Yikes, I was worried but you gals that completed this set were right. It went by pretty darn quick. I shot out an email to a lane mate yesterday that I'd be at Masters to swim but was planning on doing this set on my own. Bing!
Jason was on board within minutes! Yah! I don't have to swim this ALONE and someone else will be paying attention and keeping me honest!
When I got there this morning, I chatted a bit with Coach Bill about what I was to do and wanted to get some feedback on the send offs. " This is good, really good. We need to start doing longer stuff like this. Pay attention to those last 4 100's on 1:20. Don't blow up so you can't get these in on the right send off time." Oh geeze.. I was a bit worried.
Before jumping in for a warmup, I saw Rachel, another lane mate and showed her the set thinking she might want to do this. Rachel is fast! She's one of those swimmers who you can watch her free style technique for days.. it's very pretty and fluid. While I was doing an ez 200, I saw Rachel jump in our lane too! Ok.. that's 3! We had one more but they dropped out of the set by the 3rd one. ( the old leg cramp excuse);-)

Smoooooth like butta. We spaced our selves out and no one bailed, (of the three of us)went out too hard, or ended up on anyone's feet.

The last 4/100's were a bit tough but I got in around 1:18 so I could at least pop up for air, glance at the clock and take off again.

It was AWESOME to leave the pool today with a 4400 total under my belt and I wasn't even that tired from it!

Pix below.

MIT Master's coach, Bill Paine and Jason checking out the set.



Jason and I before the w/up. Jason is a hoot. Always in a good mood,never complains ( I make up for it) and can hold his own considering he's 50 and his wife just had twins. Egads!



The 40x100 Mod Squad:
Rachel,Jason and me! Does Jason look smug that he's sandwiched by 2 chicks or is it just me? Ha!




Bonus pic: My "Guess-what's-in-the-box" A hyper extention bench for your back!

"I have no idea."

I replied to my husband as he was glancing over my shoulder while I was making this Splish suit. "OH MY GOD! It's That Girl!" He was shaking his head wondering how I come up with these designs for suits. "I dunno. It just pops in my head."

BIG shout out to Mel for helping me with my Splishie Girl's hair. I knew you could help me figure out what to do! Yeah! So sweet of you and certainly unexpected of you to help me so quickly. Thanks so much. Melissa is THE BEST in creating suits at Splish. Her ideas are always creative and cute.When I see she has made something new, I have to try and get my creative juices flowing!
BTW: The box is opened and the THING is put together. Pictures coming of it later!
Oh.. and Bree..regarding the candy thing goin' on in my header picture; blame it on my mother for denying me candy as a child. My header picture changes often but the theme is always CANDY! :-)

Me and Mr. Brown, we got a thing going on.

Ahhhhhhhh,nothing better than driving up the driveway and a big o'l box is there to greet you. Don't you agree? Lucky for me, I arrive home first most of the time so I can coveniently dispose of the cardboard,bubble wrap, packing slips and the likes before my shopping extravaganza is exposed prematurely.
Wanna guess what's inside?
It's nothing super exciting like race wheels or a carbon fiber Guru. I haven't worn my husband down mentally enough to let me order yet. Heehee
It's somewhat practical and I know I'll use it.

I'll give some hints:
You usually see it at the gym.
It's used to help strengthen you back.


I decided to get this because I don't have time to run up to the gym after swimming and I miss using it in conjunction with ab work.

Bree Wee Bread

Doesn't it look yummy? It's a banana bread receipe I just tried that I got from Bree Wee. For those of you that don't know, she's a super talented speedy age group triathlete living on the big Island who can put it all together being a wife, mom and the top age grouper in the country after her very impressive results in Kona this past October.

No sugar, unbleached flour and coconut oil are part of this recipe.

Taste testing tomorrow!

Team Psycho Indoor Time Trial

A success! Phew! It was a great day. We had 3 Ironman Champions (2 being my very own hot shot team mates) Dede Griesbauer and Karen Smyers along with Tony Delogne and US olympic bound, Jarrod Shoemaker participating Saturday. Kudo's to Cort Gothboy Cramer for smokin' the entire field. So you can't swim for shit, but you are the WATTAGE KING!!!!!!
As for me, I faired pretty well. Yeepee for cyclocross! I have to say, my fitness from 11 races this fall along with a solid tri season certainly contributed to my fitness Saturday.

2007 results
28:14 ave watts: 193


2008 results (same course)
26:29 ave watts: 225

all results can be found here


Here's some Hottie Heat pix!


me with my twisted insane face removed on purpose



Dede



LtoR Catlin,Alica,Robin,me


Misha and Karen