Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 Goals

Yep - you read that right.  I found my '2013 Goals' post still in draft mode.  Oopsie.   Blogging & serious racing/training took a back seat this year.  I think I really just needed a year to not take things so seriously & truly enjoy the social side of training.

I saw a post on Facebook a couple days ago - 'If you don't write your goals down they are just dreams'.  I thought that was kinda funny because apparently I have a lot of dreams.  Guess I was just a dreamer in 2013 & if I don't get with it I will be a dreamer again in 2014.

Regardless, I thought it would be fun to see how I stacked up against my unofficial 2013 Goals, I mean 2013 Dreams.

My goals for 2013 are pretty simple.

Nutrition Improvements - Coming off the holidays this is an obvious one for me.  I plan to give Optimum Nutrition for Life & SwimBikeMom's 3 week metabolic boost a go.  My hope is that this will get me back on track to eating better.  Oh geez - Seriously, this could be a <insert the current year> goal as well.  I did do this in April & it was great but didn't last.  I do feel good when I cut my sweets & carbs down but I just love them so, especially in the colder months.  I just need to try for moderation.  That's the best I can ask of myself.  

Fitness Goals - This year I signed up for the 13 in 2013 challenge hosted in part by Jill.  This challenge is to complete 13 virtual or real races during 2013.  They can be of any distance 5K to a marathon.  Most likely I will keep it at 5Ks but hope I can get some longer races in too.   That will really depend on how my hip feels. Yeah I lost sight of this one too.  I competed in 2 triathlons, 4 - 5Ks & 2 virtual 5Ks.  

Speed Goals - I have 2 speed goals for the year.   A sub 20 minute swim at the Tri for Sight & a sub 30 minute 5K.   I will continue with Sunday masters swim.  I will also get back to swimming 3 times a week.  I have been consistently swimming 2 times but the 3rd day should help to make some speed improvements.  Regarding the sub 30 minute goal - this one should be easy to achieve provided I can stay healthy.  The 13 in 13 will definitely help too!  OK so this one I did pretty good with.  Although the sub 20 minute Tri for Sight swim technically did happen but was not how I intended it to go.  The Tri for Sight course was moved to Spindletop after several years at UK.   This meant that the swim went from 800m to 400m.  So yes, I swam a 10m02s T4S swim but it was half the distance as previous years. 

I did officially meet a sub 30 minute 5K though!!  It even motivated me to write a blog post

Health - I would really like to get my right hip back to normal.  I plan to go back to my ART guy in January to see if we can finally get to a pain free state.  I did go to my ART guy all year.  My hip isn't totally pain free but I can consistently run which is all I ask for.  I have purposely kept my runs in the 3-4 miles range - I would rather run short & be healthy than get injured training for a longer distance.  

All in all 2013 was a good fitness year even without any goals.

Here is the year in numbers:

Swim - 61 miles
Bike - 833 miles
Run - 449 miles
Walk/Hike/Paddle - 83 miles

2013 Total Miles - 1426 miles

I also completed, well I will complete tomorrow, the 2013 Runners World Run Streak.  I will have successfully run every day between Thanksgiving & New Years Day.  If I successfully complete tomorrow's New Years Resolution 5 miler I will have run 75 miles in the last 35 days.

My first goal for 2014 is to write down some goals.  No more dreams for me!  :-)

I wish you all a Happy, Healthy & Safe New Year!  Happy 2014!

December Fun Runs


West 6th Run Club
Becky's awesome depiction of the West 6th Run Club 
Wet & Cold Reindeer Ramble - Me & Shannon
Wet & Cold Reindeer Ramble - TNT crew
West 6th Run Club - Ugly Christmas Sweater
West 6th Run Club - Ugly Christmas Sweater
Ruth Chasing a 300 mile Goal for 2013
Ruth reaches her goal of 300 miles in 2013 - Audrey, Ruth & Me


Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

During a conversation with my Mom last night we were trying to figure out how many times we have been to Asheville for Thanksgiving.  I was convinced we didn't come in 2011 but she was sure we did.  Thanks to this handy blog post I was able to resolve the debate - 2011 was spent in Lexington.  That got me motivated to do a catch up post & hopefully get back on a somewhat regular cadence of blogging.

I will start with our most recent activities & work our way back.

November:  

Thanksgiving in Asheville with Steve & Mom.  Rented a cabin at Willow Winds - we love this place!  Cabins are great, close to everything but feels like it is in the woods plus backs up to the Mountains to the Sea trail.

Snow for Thanksgiving
Turkey Trot 5K - 19 degrees at start 
Steve won 2nd in AG 
Ice Fountain 
Hiking the Mountains to Sea trail 
Gravy Fail
Kansas City to visit Natalie & Rian.  These guys are old friends from when I lived in Chicago.  Can't get much better than these folks!  It was so great catching up with these two - a weekend wasn't long enough.  We went to a Chiefs game and even tailgated in the freezing cold!

Natalie & Me 
Rian, Steve & Me trying to stay warm next to the grill 
Steve & Me
Hot Pot!

Southern Lights 5K with the TNT peeps


Susan's Birthday Hiking Trip at Cave Run - Love these ladies.



October:

Volunteered at a rainy Bourbon Chase in Midway



Iron Horse 1/2 Marathon in Midway - Steve ran, I volunteered.

Steve & a bunch of West 6th Runners
Tuesday's West 6th Run Club



Steve's Birthday Celebration - no pics - we had another fun night at West 6th though.

September:

Fall Bike Rides

Me, Ruth & Becky - Equus Run Ride
Ruth & Me at Evan's Orchard
Tri for Sight - The tri that started in all in 2009.  Love, love this group of people.

Me crossing finish - Coach Susan cheering 

Me, Ruth, Mary & Becky

TNT Tri Team
Shannon, Kelly, Ann-Marie, Audrey, Ruth & Me

New York State & Vermont Vacation - Visited family in New York & then Steve & I headed to Stowe, VT.  Vermont was awesome!  Stayed at the Stowe Motel & Snow Drift.

Grandma, Me & Mom - Glens Falls, NY 

Moss Glen Falls - Stowe, VT
At the top of Mt Mansfield - Stowe, VT 


 Sterling Pond - Stowe, VT 
At the top of Mt Mansfield - Stowe, VT 
Found in the creek along the Rec Trail in Stowe - VT
August:

Lots of training with the TNT tri team





Tim Fords Lake, Tennessee - visit with Kara & Larry - no pics :-(

And that about does it.  All caught up.

Hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Editors Note:  I started this post at the Halifax airport during our flight delay.  I got about 2/3 done before our flight took off.  I am now just getting around to finishing it.  Better late than never - good thing I took some notes about what we did & where we ate.  

It seems this blog has changed from race reports to vacation reports lately.   The main reason is that I wasn't training for anything in particular so there really wasn't much to write about.  A couple of weeks ago I did sign up for the Fall season with our local Team in Training group for Tri for Sight which I will write a specific post for that later.  (Editors note: Link is now up HERE)

In the meantime, this will be another vacation report.  Steve & I (well really, I) decided to meet my Mom in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the 4th of July long weekend.  Yes, I know, how American of us!

We flew into Halifax late Wednesday & arrived at the Clifty Cove Motel well after midnight.  The drive from the airport to the motel was about an hour in pitch black - fortunately no fog though.   We got a few hours of sleep & woke up to this view.


We needed some coffee so we headed back towards town to Tim Hortons - I have no idea how many of these are around but in the short time we were here we didn't have to go far before finding one.  After fueling up with some liquid gold we were ready to check out the area.  

Our first stop was Peggy's Cove - I am pretty sure this was our first stop - well, honestly, I can't remember the order of events so let's just say this was our first stop!  We actually stopped at Peggy's Cove several times over the 3 days were were in town.  The views were amazing & always different depending on the time of day.  The only time we didn't make it down there was for sunrise.  Just wasn't gonna happen.  

Early to Mid Afternoon Day 1
This is the only posed picture of Mom on this trip - she is hiding behind the camera  
Sunset Day 2 - This one is my favorite
Sunset Day 2
This is the closest we got to sunrise - 9AM Day 4
We lunched at Shaw's Landing - We all ordered Lobster Rolls.  They were prepared differently then the ones we had a few years ago in Maine.  I thought they were pretty good but Steve liked the Maine ones better - probably because the Maine Lobster rolls were slathered in mayo - these were not.  Just chunks of lobster with a little bit of mayo on the bun.  I ordered the Blueberry pie for dessert - I couldn't resist.  It was SOOOO good!  So good I had to go back on our last night & order it again!

With full bellies we headed to Terrance Bay - I wanted to hit a beach to see how cold the water was.   On our way we passed Heritage Park & stopped to take a look around.  One thing I learned about Halifax this trip - it is no stranger to utter disasters.   Really horrible disasters.    At Heritage Park we learned about the luxury liner SS Atlantic disaster in 1873.  Over 500 lives were lost.  With the exception of 1 boy, all women & children perished in this ship wreck.   The only ship wreck more deadly was the Titanic - both operated by the White Star Line.  

SS Atlantic Memorial
SS Atlantic Memorial
SS Atlantic Memorial 
SS Atlantic Memorial
We then left & found the little beach - nothing spectacular but I did get to put my feet in.  The water was freezing.  There was no way I was doing any swimming in that water.  After my quick footsie dip we headed back to the motel where I proceeded to take a nice nap to the sound of waves crashing on the rocks outside.  

Later in the day Mom & I walked to the Swiss Air Flight 111 memorial - remember what I said about tragedy here?  Our motel was about 1/2 mile to the memorial.   Along the way we found Steve walking along the road looking for geo caches.   We all headed in to view the memorial.  





Friday morning found us back in Peggy's Cove at the Sou'Wester for breakfast.   Afterwards Steve & I headed to Tantallon for a 4 hour Sea Kayak trip.  Due to high winds the guide had to bail on the usual tour of islands, beaches, sea life etc & took us on a tour in protected bays where we saw endless multi-million homes including Tommy Lasorda's brothers property.  

We were in a double yak & Steve was in charge of the rudder control.  After about an hour his back was toast & the poor guy was pretty much miserable the entire trip.  So much for an enjoyable afternoon on the sea.   I only took a few pictures.   It was so much paddling my shoulders were actually sore - I think that was first.  Even on our longest Laurel Lake paddles I haven't had sore shoulders.  This was a solid 4 hours of paddling with one short 10 minute break.  

I think Steve had some foreboding here about his future



Steve couldn't have been any happier to be out of that yak.   Now all we wanted was a shower & some chow.  Of course.    We tried Rhubarb for dinner.   Mom & Steve had the Fish & Chips & I had the Crispy Haddock over a chick pea salad.  It was amazing - for me the best dinner of the trip.  After dinner we headed back to Peggy's Cove to watch the sunset & an hour of bouldering.  

After getting a run in with Steve on Saturday morning the three of us has breakfast at the Finer Diner.  Mom told me they had blueberry pancakes so of course that is what I ordered.  After breakfast we headed to Halifax to check out the city.  We spent the afternoon walking the boardwalk.  We walked through their farmers market, checked out a few stores & stopped at the supposedly world famous Cow's for some ice cream.  The best part of Cow's was reading the T-shirts - they are Cow spins of famous TV shows, books, etc.  Instead of Google - it is Moogle, or instead of 50 Shades of Grey - it is 50 Shades of Hay, get it?  

After ice cream we decided to take the Harbor Hopper - one of those land & sea tour boats.  I am not normally a fan of super touristy things like this but since we only had a few hours in Halifax it was a great way to learn a lot about the city in an hour.  It was on the tour that we learned about the horrific Halifax explosion in 1917.  Two ships, one loaded with explosives, crashed into one another in the harbor.  They said only one explosion has been bigger - the atomic bomb.   Remember what I said about tragedy here?  

Halifax Boardwalk
Halifax Boardwalk

Halifax Team in Training Chapter
On the Hopper
Harbor Hopper
After the tour we headed to Salty's for dinner.  More fish & chips from Mom & Steve & I had the crab cakes.  Again another really good meal.  On our way back to the motel we stopped at Shaws for another round of Blueberry pie.  We successfully ate our way through the southern bit of Novia Scotia.  

Sunday we had breakfast at the Sou'Wester before saying goodbye to Mom & heading to the airport.  We had a long day of sitting in airports since our flight out of Halifax was delayed & then we missed our flight to Lexington by about 20 minutes.  So we had a 5 hour layover in O'Hare.  Fortunately all the delays were on the way home & not the way there.  

We needed a full week here at least - two would be better.  I really wish we had time to go to Bay of Fundy to see the worlds largest tides.   Another town that I wanted to check out is Lunenburg.  I also wish we spent some more time in Halifax.   And yet another super duper cool thing I want to do is go on one of the Freewheeling multisport tours.  A full week of cycling, hiking & paddling - all inclusive.  Aahhh, so many things to see & do, so little time & money to do them!








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