The European Cup (Paul is obsessed), Olympic Trials (craziness in track and field), NBA draft (huge for Kentucky), the Tour de France (starting this weekend)…it’s an interesting phenomenon watching all these amazing athletic feats going on while your own body slowly turns into a pile of mush.
This past week from 8-9pm every night has been devoted to watching swimming. I really think I enjoy Trials more than the actual Olympics. They are so fricking exciting.
And while the whole Phelps/Lochte thing is so overdone, and Rowdy Gains and Dan Hicks feel the need to sit in each other’s laps while they announce (see above), there are moments like this:
breeja larson winning the 100 breast, first time an A&M swimmer has ever won at olympic trials
…and this…
matt grever’s family celebrating his olympic berth (picture taken by a friend who is attending the event…awesome)
…and this.
first olympic team for both of them
I pretty much tear up after every race.
So far I have been the only one home when they’re on, so I settle in with Spike and a box of popsicles (it’s been like 90* here at night, ridiculously hot) and yell and cheer and scare the dog while slowly making my way through the box. It takes a lot out of you. And kind of feels like exercise. I recommend it.
P.S. Germany just lost to Italy in the European Cup. It’ll be a sad night at the in-laws.
Tired of these titles yet? Never realized there was SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT when it comes to eggs, did you?
Maybe because I hadn’t seen a store-bought egg in a while, but I didn’t realize how much bigger ours were. When you put them next to each other (these are cage-free, vegetarian store bought eggs), R&Ms eggs look enormous. You can’t even get the carton closed.
Speaking of food and fatness, since Hawaii I haven’t really been working out. But now that I have more time in the mornings, I figured I would walk or ride my bike to work every day (haven’t driven once since I got back) and that would make up for it.
Turns out one hour of walking a day does not equal 3 hours of intense cardio in terms of calories burned. Weird.
my “cardio” the past 3 weeks
So anyway, because I wasn’t totally stoked on my performance in Hawaii, I had been seriously considering doing another 70.3 in September at Cedar Point. It’s a Rev3 event, and the race is supposed to be fun, the course is flat, and it’s not too far to travel. I gave myself a week off to think it over.
One week turned into three and a half weeks, and yesterday I finally admitted to myself that I a.) was officially out of shape, and b.) didn’t really want to put in the training for another long race. There’s something to be said for coming home after work and being like oh, guess what, I’m going to go for a short run, cook dinner, and watch 3 straight hours of Pretty Little Liars instead of a 2 hour ride on the trainer followed by TRX.
To counteract my feelings of extreme lardiness, I decided to sign up for something small, just to get me off my butt. Good thing the Bluegrass 10K is next week!
An even better thing is my friend J is running it and is looking to hold a pace that I should theoretically be able to hang with. So we’re going to “pace” each other. (ie, I’m going to try to keep up and try not to barf all over/embarrass myself.) I’m hoping my long taper and the superhuman eggs will give me some superhuman speed.
J has also issued a finish line photo contest, like the one we had at MiM. Lucky for her, this happens to be my specialty.
If we do manage to finish together, it could be epic.
Our first crop. I threw in a screw for size reference. These things are tiny. I don’t know if Paul is picking them too early of they are just dwarfed for some reason.
These were our tomatoes about a month ago:
They have since exploded.
And apparently they’re all roma (we forgot to put labels in the pots. Oops.)
Enough of that gripping topic. Today I jet off to Boston for my cousin Jess’s wedding. Family events with either side of my family always involve a million people and chaos. They’re my fav.
Oh, and speaking of family, yesterday my parents celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary. That…is a long time. In honor of them, and since I can’t find pictures from the olden days, here is a picture of the two of them overlooking the ocean in SF last year…with me interrupting in the middle. Just like real life.
…and to wrap up this pretty pointless post…enjoy your weekend.
I didn’t see this ASICS ad when it came out last fall to promote the NYC Marathon, but it’s awesome. A 60-foot interactive wall video in the Columbus Circle subway station that lets you race marathon Olympian Ryan Hall for 60 feet at his marathon pace. Not to ruin the surprise, but basically nobody can keep up. For 60 feet. But what an inventive way to engage people.
In honor of the new whale-shaped scar on my arm (stitches are out!), here are some pictures of a beluga blowing bubble rings and playing in the bubbles. Frickin. Awesome.
…speaking of sea life, my full, looong Hawaii race report (for those of you who are either masochistic or seriously bored) has finally been posted here.
Fortunately, we have this hand-crocheted egg warmer shaped like a chicken (a wedding gift from Paul’s German aunt, she made them), boiled egg holders, and special spoons to scoop the eggs out of the shell. So at least we were properly equipped when his craving kicked in.
Apparently the Germans take their soft boiled eggs seriously.
We also happen to be overflowing with eggs (anyone local interested in some fresh eggs, let me know.) Romy and Michelle are UNSTOPPABLE.
…and for your enjoyment, the best way to peel a hard boiled egg, courtesy of Tim Ferris.
I have been a lazy piece since I got back from Hawaii. Largely because I have been (self-)prescribed rest to recover from my injury, I’ve worked out exactly 0 times.
I have, however, started walking everywhere I can…including the 2 miles to work and 2 miles home every day until I get back into some sort of schedule. Rain or shine. I figured that in addition to just moving, on the sunny days, if I wear shorts in the afternoon, it might help get rid of my attractive race tan lines that will. not. go. away.
Plus it’s a nice way to start and end the workday.
breaking free
Paul is 2 weeks out from Boards, so I’ve been seeing him just about never. The chickens are still kickin ass and taking names, though Michelle has started laying her eggs from one of the perches inside the coop. If the straw isn’t positioned correctly on the ground to catch the egg, it breaks. So we’re working on a better answer to that problem.
Paul also moved Spike’s old doghouse into their pen and filled it with straw, hoping they’d start laying inside. So far all they’ve done is go in every day and kick all the straw out. Every morning, Paul goes out there and puts the straw back inside. It’s a battle of wills.
Figuring out what’s up next this weekend. Getting back into the swing of things.
So, I didn’t say a lot about the actual race in my last post, but I was looking through some race day photos by sports photographer Liz Kreutz, and this one of Lance Armstrong does a pretty good job of capturing how strong the winds on the Queen K and the road up to Hawi were that day. I was essentially terrified for 3 hours. Those trade winds are no joke.
Back at work, in my cubicle, drinking the “coffee” from office kitchen, looking out the window at the rain, I think about where I was a week ago today:
Seriously.
So, just a little background, two weeks ago I traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii to do the Honu 70.3 with my friend Alix and her sister Catherine. It was my first time to Hawaii. On the plane, I pretty much ignored the rules to turn off electronic devices as we were landing.
reefs from the sky
Alix’s parents are pretty frickin amazing and let me crash with the family at the house they had rented. They also fed me delicious delicious food to prep us for the race. It was…ridiculously awesome.
We all arrived 2 days before the race. Our first day there we went to this beach near Puako for a 30 minute swim, as instructed by Coach Allison.
I miss swimming in the ocean. A lot. And swimming in this particular part of the ocean, I considered never getting out. We saw clownfish, parrotfish, pufferfish, butterflyfish, humuhumunukanuka’apua’as (yes for real, they’re everywhere), and (the best part) a SEA TURTLE…or honu, in Hawaiian, which I took as a sign of good luck for our race. I was in love.
But before we could have any real fun, there was bike maintenance, race registration, transition bag drop off, and, of course, the race. A short race summary with pretty much all you need to know:
Honu 70.3: A Haiku
Blow blow blow great wind
Make waves, knock me off my bike
I saw Lance Armstrong
I was a ways off my goal time, and Alix got 2 flats (and fixed both of them herself…way impressive), but it was a pretty awesome experience and we all survived.
After the race Alix rented a truck and we took a trip around the whole island. There were more beaches…
…some with black sand…
…and some paddleboarding at Kona where we ended up smack in the middle of a pod of dolphins for about 10 minutes. It was amazing, but nobody brought a camera.
There was some camping in the higher altitudes at Volcanoes National Park…
…where the ground smokes…
…and volcanoes live.
Some hiking through the jungle along the Kilauea Iki Trail…
…down to the hardened lava lake below that was created by an eruption in 1959.
can you find alix and shayna?
(steam still spills out of a lot of the fissures along the ground, it’s awesome)
We also walked through a lava tube.
From there we headed north towards Hilo, into the rain…
…then back around to Kawaihae, to our final camping spot at Spencer Beach Park (which, btw, closes it’s gates at 9pm…for future reference).
We found a little secret path and decided to follow it…
…that took us to a little, empty, white sand beach.
We got to spend our final evening with a family of sea turtles that were hanging out in the shallow water. After that we headed out to a dinner of unbelievable sushi. On the way out there were rainbows rainbows everywhere.
It was going to be the perfect ending to an amazing trip.
Then, while trying to get back into the campsite after dinner, I fell in a lava field and we spent the rest of the evening in the Kona ER.
20 stitches in this unassigned tourist’s right arm. We all flew out the next day.
I felt pretty bad about ruining the last night in Hawaii. At least someone was happy to see me when I got home.
But seriously, a major thanks goes out to Alix and her family for their generosity and all of their help with everything. The whole trip was a truly amazing experience and I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to do it (especially in such style) without them. Far above and beyond anything I expected.
I’ll leave you with a pic of my favorite sign in Kona.
…and back from Hawaii! I know I really fell off the boat (is that even a phrase?) in terms of keeping this thing updated, but things got a little insane right before I left and I didn’t use the computer once while hanging out on the Big Island.
So what was I doing all this time away from the computer?
Well, a little bit of this…
…a little bit of this…
…and a little bit of this.
Yes, I found the most flattering picture I could, taken by a friend who was thoughtful enough to pull out her camera while I was getting my wound numbed up before they put in stitches.
And if you’re wondering what kind of face that is, it’s a “oh no biggie I’m tough done this a million times this doesn’t hurt but really I feel like I’m going to barf or cry or both but I see someone has their camera out so I’m going to try to smile/give a thumbs up for the picture” face. Turns out that probably isn’t the look I should have gone for.
Rambulatory Ambulatory 