Syracuse Race Weekend

Our cycling club organizes a stage race every year in May. It consists of a road race on Saturday morning, a time trial Saturday afternoon/evening, and a criterium all day Sunday. Usually, I participate in the fun of racing, but this year I decided to help the club by volunteering. I started Saturday morning at the registration desk. Thankfully, with the advent of online registration, this job has gotten much easier. Participants who choose to pre-register enter their appropriate category and payment online and then we just have to check that they are currently licensed by USA Cycling and hand them their bib number.

After registration closed, I rode (via car) with a friend to the northernmost part of the course which features a long climb. This is the established area for team support personnel to hand off extra water bottles and food to the riders. It's also a good spot for photo opportunities because the riders are going slower up the hill. After we saw most of the riders pass through the feed zone (some categories did two loops of the 33-mile course), we rode back to the starting area. There was about a two-hour delay before the first riders in the time trial were to go off, so we killed time mingling amongst the riders and chatting. Then the rain came. Thankfully, my parents had gotten us a 10'x10' pop-up canopy, which we set up directly behind our cars. It was great to be able to hang out comfortably out of the rain! I would have loved to get a photo of that, too, but it was raining too hard! Being that I had no official duties for the time trial, I was able to go to the start line and get some shots there. I watched a few of the riders in my boyfriend's category, then left the site and booked for home.

Do dogs get headaches?

I believe so, and here’s why. Ever since our dog was a puppy, one of us would take her for a walk nearly every night. Most days she is enthusiastic and seemingly very happy on our walk around the village. Occasionally however, she makes it clear via her body language that she doesn’t want to be out and about. Granted, she is a black, long-haired dog, so I can understand if it’s a hot day and she’s in the sun. But sometimes, it’s on a day which seems to be the perfect temperature for her. She’ll walk about a block at a really slow pace with a really depressed body position (tail down and not wagging, ears and head lowered). Sometimes she’ll actually turn around so she’s facing home and sit down as if to say she’s not going any further. I have thought that perhaps she gets sore muscles, like we would if we ran without conditioning ourselves first, but her activity levels are very consistent (long, slow walks – nothing very strenuous). I have to believe a headache would be the most likely explanation. Physiologically speaking, I can’t see why dogs wouldn’t get headaches. Sure wish they could talk sometimes!!

A journey of 1,000 miles begins with…

…one step. My first step is to admit that I have an unhealthy relationship with food. To those of you who know me, you will probably be very surprised about this. I’m not carrying a lot of extra weight. Sure, I’d like to lose a few nagging pounds, but I don’t think most people would view me as overweight. See, I’m a closet eater who then proceeds to exercise compulsively. I never perceived this as a particular problem until, while perusing the library shelves one afternoon recently, I stumbled upon a book about healthy eating habits (or rather, unhealthy eating habits). Entitled Runaway Eating: The 8-Point Plan to Conquer Adult Food and Weight Obsessions, by Cynthia Bulik and Nadine Taylor, it focused my awareness that I really did have a problem. Here's a review. I have found two tips to be particularly helpful for me. First, if I have a “craving”, I do something entirely different to get my mind off of eating that desired food item (lucky you, that’s when I usually do some writing). Second, you can’t eat what you don’t bring home from the store. Whatever your weakness is, if you can resist it in the store, you won’t have to resist it at home. Yes, I’m still working on that one, as there are occasional bags of M&M’s that end up making their way home with me (hey - I said I’m working on it). I highly recommend this book for helping to establish healthier eating patterns.

Derby Sadness

Words cannot begin to describe the grief I felt when I saw the filly, Eight Belles, lying on the track after having broken both front ankles during her run for second place at Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Somehow, seeing a Triple Crown winner no longer seems to have any importance for me. I’m not of the opinion that horse racing should be banned, but I’m not sure I have the stomach to watch it anymore. Oh sure, I know that one less person watching the sportscast will have no effect whatsoever on the big business of horse racing. But it might make me feel a bit better. After all, the horse racing business is just that, a business. Without racing, the horses would never be bred to the extent that they are. So I understand that. But maybe, just maybe, they’re being pushed too far, too fast, too early in their young lives.

The Mountain Goat

I did it! After much hemming and hawing, I decided to go for the 10-mile race. I figured I could always walk if I needed to and still finish under the time limit. I’m very happy to say that I didn’t have to walk at all and I finished in about 1 hour and 44 minutes. I loved it! This particular event has been run in Syracuse for 30 years and the community really comes out to support the runners. There were spectators all throughout the course cheering on all competitors. There were musicians along the way, even a high school marching band playing as we went by. Even amongst the competitors, there was a spirit of camaraderie and support which was very inspirational. What a day! I’ll be back for next year’s event!

Derby Day!

When I was a kid, I was certifiably horse-crazy. I ate, drank and breathed horses, though I never had one of my own. I think I read nearly every story that was written about horses. I was nine years old when Affirmed won the Kentucky Derby in 1978, but that was before I was really into watching the race. The first Derby I can clearly remember was in 1980 which was won by a filly, Genuine Risk. Since I would dearly love to see a Triple Crown winner race, I continue to tune in to every running of the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont, even though I am no longer horse crazy.

I’m in love…

(with my parents’ Prius!) My Mom & Dad purchased a Prius a few weeks ago and used it when they came to visit us last week. I thought I was doing well by squeezing an average of 33 mpg out of my Honda Accord by driving conservatively. They’re getting about 52-53 mpg with their hybrid. They were gracious enough to let me drive the car while we went sightseeing for a couple of days and was I ever impressed! We fit three people (one of whom is over 6’ tall), two dogs (both over 50 lbs), and our gear into the car comfortably. It is fun to drive and handles very well. If anybody’s considering a hybrid vehicle I strongly recommend you take one for a test drive and seriously check them out. Hopefully I won’t be replacing my car very soon, but when that time rolls around, I will definitely think long and hard about a Prius.

Welcome, Mom!

Well, I mentioned that I wanted to put up some details about what we did while my Mom & Dad were in town. I don’t have anything ready yet, but I wrote to my Mom this morning and told her about my blog (I haven’t told too many people about this blog yet because I wanted to be certain it was something I was going to stick with). I explained that I wanted to write about our sightseeing and asked her to send a couple of photos as long as she wouldn’t mind if I posted them here. They’re terribly busy, though, so it may be several days before she checks in and then a few more before she gets the photos sent. That’s okay because I need time to write up the dialog!

Dreams vs. goals

Please forgive me for having piqued your curiosity yesterday and then leaving you hanging. I have been giving a lot of thought to the fact that I committed to the Mountain Goat and now I am backing out of it. I suppose most of my turmoil lies in the fact that I have been toying with the idea of doing a long-distance triathlon. I dabbled last season with “Sprint” distance triathlons, which were a ton of fun. However, I’m very inconsistent with training. I will go great guns for a few weeks, then slack off. That’s okay with the shorter distances but I will really need to step up the consistency if I want to do longer distances. So I really had to make up my mind that this is something I really want to focus on, before “going public”. For now, doing a longer distance is still a dream….I won’t consider it a goal until several things happen. But the dream is becoming more and more clear as every day goes by.

Changing Dreams

So my absence the past few days was because I was preparing for a visit from my Mom and Dad. They only live 90 miles away, but we only get together every couple of months or so. This particular visit was our first since February, so we were overdue! And this time, they came to visit us, which meant I had to do a little bit of cleaning, as I’m not the tidiest housekeeper in the world. (Mom assured me that she wouldn’t mind a little dust, but I *do* have my pride!!) I will post details of our adventures in the next few days.

As for the changing dreams….I decided today that trying to do the 10-mile Mountain Goat run was not a wise idea. I wrote to the race director and asked if I could switch my pre-registration to the 3k run instead and he cheerfully (and rather speedily) replied that yes, I could make the swap. As I was contemplating this change of plans, I realized that the first two lines of “The River” are quite pertinent here.

You know a dream is like a river
Ever changin' as it flows

And a dreamer's just a vessel
That must follow where it goes
Trying to learn from what's behind you
And never knowing what's in store
Makes each day a constant battle
Just to stay between the shores.. and

So for now, some dreams are changing, some are beginning to take shape and once I get a handle on what it will take to accomplish one of my biggest dreams, I will let you know!

A little setback

I haven’t been doing so well lately with the running for the Mountain Goat. I had hoped to be up to running 6-7 miles a couple of times per week, but that hasn’t happened. To top it off, I battled with a cold over this past weekend (the cold won). So, I have less than two weeks to get my legs acclimated to long runs. Now I know for sure I’ll be walking a big portion of the Goat. Oh well. It is better for me to walk some of the distance, than run the whole thing and risk injury.

My co-worker is back today for the first time since her surgery and so far so good. Her pain is diminished (though not gone), and it is so good to see her with a hint of a smile on her face again. Yea!

Well, it’s about time!

I’ve never been one to attend church. I’ve never considered myself to have a connection with God or Jesus. Frankly I was mystified when people would ask for prayers if they were having a hard time with life. I had certainly never prayed for myself because I didn’t think I mattered. But that’s changing. Through Michelle’s blog, I’ve had the pleasure of reading her Aunt Dee’s blog and Morning Dove’s blog. I’ve also had the influence of two very kind co-workers whose conviction in their faith is absolutely inspiring. So here’s a neat story…

A different co-worker is battling a very debilitating disease and went in Wednesday for experimental surgery. For several days prior, there had been many discussions of prayer and hope for a successful outcome and so forth. I had mentioned to Kathy (the co-worker undergoing surgery) that I would say a prayer, but I wasn’t sure how much good it would do. On Wednesday morning I was talking with one of my more reverent co-workers and mentioned that I had said a prayer for Kathy but that I wasn’t sure if God had heard me. She said of course He did and that He had been waiting to hear from me! Those words are still reverberating through my soul and to some degree I’m still trying to make sense out of it. Now, I don’t ever see myself as attending church regularly or even reading the bible (though maybe someday…), but I think this is a good first step.

My “Hare-Raising” Experience

Thursday’s commute had an interesting event. I leave before sunrise and ride about 30 minutes in complete darkness, with just a headlight and taillight on my bike. The first few times I rode, I was very careful to keep my speed in check, knowing that I wouldn’t have much time to react to anything. Yesterday, I had forgotten to be careful. As I was gathering speed at the top of a hill, a rabbit darted in front of me. I gave a little yelp and instinctively hopped the bike over an inch or so (thank goodness for some mountain bike experience!) and missed him by about half an inch. I’m not sure who was more surprised – the rabbit or me!

Bike Commuting

I love riding my bike to work and back. It gives me a purpose for exercising and appeals to my frugal nature by conserving gas, mileage on my vehicle, etc, etc. I started bike commuting with my very first full-time job out of college and have continued off and on ever since. That first commute was about two miles one-way and pancake-flat. My current commute is 19 miles one-way and fairly hilly. There are logistics which have to be given some thought. For instance, at this time of year, the morning ride requires far more layers of clothing than the afternoon ride (an average temperature difference of 30 degrees between the rides). I take lighter-weight clothes in the day before and leave them at work so that I have them for the ride home. I also take a couple of outfits to work at the beginning of the week so that I don’t have to carry a backpack. The drawback is that I can’t make bike commuting my only means of transportation. I have to rely on a car one or two days out of the week. Of course, if I was a true die-hard commuter, I would find a way to give up the car, but I’m too much of a wimp to voluntarily ride in the rain. Maybe with gas prices rising, more people will consider bike commuting. Sometimes riding two days a week doesn’t sound like it would make a difference, but now I fill up the car every other week instead of weekly. Very gratifying indeed!

I’ve gone and done it, part II

I mailed my pre-registration for the Mountain Goat Run (http://mountaingoatrun.com/) today. This will be the 30th running of the event in Syracuse. I have not participated before, but since it fit in with some long-term fitness goals, I decided this was the year to try. The distance is ten miles, longer than I’ve ever run before. I have been running fairly consistently lately and am gradually increasing my mileage so that I should be able to complete “the Goat”. I may have to do a little walking, but that’s okay by me as long as I finish.