Amy's Journal

Subject:	April training totals.
Time:	7:39 am.

April totals:

Bike: 18h 15m 17s - 144.16 Mi
Run: 13h 28m 30s - 81.76 M
Swim: 11h 15m 21s - 32899 Yd

(Bike distance not accurate, since bike time includes trainer work, but distance doesn't.)

Total: ~42 hours

Much less biking than March, much more swimming, slightly less running in time, but even slightlier less running in distance, which means faster running this month. That includes a new fastest mile ever (7:48), which inspired me to dig back through my training log for marathon season to find this post, and realize that I was now there, where I didn't know if I'd ever be. (Not jaded, just faster.)

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Subject:	Wacky students.
Time:	9:42 am.

Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:22:48 -0500
To: Our Help Alias
From: One Of Our Undergrads
Subject: *** SECURITY information for spot.cs.utexas.edu ***

spot.cs.utexas.edu : Apr 24 19:22:48 : STUDENTNAME : user NOT in sudoers ; TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/path/to/students/homedir/CS372H/lab5 ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/make me a sandwich

(If you don't get it.. don't worry about it. You're not really missing anything.)

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Subject:	Weekend roundup.
Time:	8:20 pm.

Wow. That was the busiest weekend I've had in a long time.

Saturday:
- Up at 5am to do a 30 minute swim, 5 hour ride, 30 minute run workout.
- Finished up there around 1:30pm and got "breakfast" to go from TacoDeli.
- Went by Hill Country Running Company's grand opening party to briefly chat and so Matt could try a Nuun-tini. Not good, he said.
- Realized we were running low on time, so rushed back home. I ate my breakfast while Matt drove.
- I jumped in the shower while Matt ate his breakfast. Then he showered, and we got dressed.
- My parents picked us up at 4:30, and we headed over to Matt's brother's house for a smelt-fry. 3 hours and 67 children later, we managed to sneak out after consuming way too much fried food and cheese.
- Got home, read for about 2 seconds, and fell asleep.

Sunday:
- Up at 6am to do a 2.75 hour run.
- Home, recovery drink, ice bath, shower while waiting for Matt to finish his run.
- Breakfast at Waterloo with Matt.
- Weekly grocery shopping at HEB.
- Put away groceries, change into bathing suit.
- 45 minute recovery swim at Body Business. 3 minutes in the hot tub.
- Showered again.
- Home to get Matt to go get a burrito bowl from Chipotle.
- Home to eat said bowl.
- Relaxation finally commenced.. around 5pm.

Not the healthiest of food choices for this weekend, but I think I might break even, weight-wise, regardless.

I think bedtime might be 8:30pm tonight.

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Subject:	Spenco sprint triathlon 2008 race report.
Time:	7:48 am.

Normally I do the Rookie as my first tri of the reason.. a short tri where I can just go out and have fun and try to remember how this triathlon thing works. Unfortunately, this year it falls on the same day as another event I wanted to do, the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. So I decided, instead, to try out the Spenco sprint triathlon. Longer swim and run than the Rookie, same bike, same venue (Texas Ski Ranch). Also one month earlier.

( Race report.. )

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Subject:	March 2008 training totals.
Time:	8:20 am.

March's totals:

Bike: 21h 14m 43s - 251.52 Mi
Run: 14h 20m 52s - 84.29 Mi
Swim: 7h 25m 51s - 20716 Yd

(Bike distance not accurate, since bike time includes trainer work, but distance doesn't.)

Total: ~43 hours

Run time/distance is definitely way down from marathon season (not a surprise), but total training time is way up. I'm starting to slowly fall back into the habit of living triathlon.

Tuesdays are especially complicated. When I get outta bed around 5am, I have to pack up my stuff for swimming (wetsuit, towel, clothes to wear to work after swimming, etc), make something to eat after my swim, make something to eat for lunch, and pack a bag full of running clothes for after work. Swim at 6, shower at Barton Springs and change, Matt drops me off on campus, work all day, Matt picks me up from campus, back to Barton Springs and change into running clothes, run workout, home, shower again, cook dinner, eat, bed.

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Subject:	Christmas in March!
Time:	6:46 pm.

I finally got around to spending one of my Christmas gift cards. Yes, one of. People know what I love, and enable my addiction.

Thanks, as always, to

entropyman for his recommdations. He's never failed me. (And to

meilaan, as well, since the Robin Hobb thing is originally her fault.) (Ohyeah! And thanks to Ali, as well, for a recommendation in that pile..)

And happy birthday to

sweetmonster! Try as you might, you're STILL my older sister.

(Oh, and that picture up there also features the ducky material, though you can't really see it. For those who asked last time, I sew (sort of), so I have tons of material. That duck material was the first thing I came across when looking for a backdrop for the hand picture, and I figured it'd do. It's material I used to make

meilaan's son a pillowcase. Another thing that's in that picture that you can't really see is the John Deere material that serves as a curtain in that room. I have no excuse for that.)

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Subject:	Rosedale 2008 ride report.
Time:	8:44 pm.

Good ride. It was cold to start, and windy, but I got to wear my arm warmers and eventually it warmed up. Uh.. around mile 30. The sun never really did come out, though. Which was fine. Some of the parts that should have been fairly scenic were mostly hazy, though.

I rode the metric with Laura, Pam and Jeff (started with blondePam and Shayla, as well, but they did different distances), and we had a lovely time. Lots of cows and donkeys and horses and one episode of a donkey chasing a cow. Not too much roadkill. Lots of roads repaved out there, but still plenty of crappy roads. The rest stop in Norman's Crossing had friendly horses and donut holes and pound cake.

This was the best I've ever felt for Rosedale. Normally I die somewhere near the end, and have to death march in, but I still felt strong at the end this year.

Hopped off the bike when I got back and ran for 20-30 minutes (26, to be exact) (well, 0:26:42 to be as exact as my watch gets). Felt okay at first, but by the end I was most certainly ready to be done. It was overcast and cooler than I figured it would be, but it was also disgustingly humid.

I'm sure Matt will write up his own somethingorother about this, but he was the proud recipient of some fantastic road rash. Poor Matt.

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Subject:	Living in sin.
Time:	5:31 pm.

In the car after Matt picked me up from the bus stop, I noticed I wasn't wearing my wedding ring. I'd taken it off to swim earlier, and forgotten to put it back on. Then I noticed Matt wasn't wearing his either.

He's had a problem for a long time where his ring is loose and he's afraid of losing it in the water. I suspected that he was really just out trying to pick up chicks when I wasn't around, but recently I've lost some weight and now my ring is loose enough that swimming in it makes me nervous, so I swim without it. I still say he's out picking up chicks, though. I know I'M out picking up chicks (after my swim) when I have mine off.

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Subject:	Hurray for me!
Time:	8:41 pm.

I'm officially one of those people who can mount/dismount their bike with their shoes in the pedals! If that makes no sense to you.. uh.. you can just rest assured that you should be proud of me. Those of you who can already do it know it's not such a big deal physically, but I had completely built it up in my head and was irrationally afraid to even try it. I learned the concept last year and tried bits of it, but was too terrified to do the mount to try putting any of it together. So tonight instead of chickening out and just doing the workout, I stayed back with the new folks and tried again to learn. And after repeatedly freaking out and giving up on the mount, I finally realized that I was afraid of falling. But if I just told myself that.. the worst that can happen is you fall, it hurts, and then you never have to do it again.. and just took a leap of faith.. maybe it'd work. And it did. And then I got in and out and put the shoes on and took 'em off and did it out on the open road and YAY.

Not a major physical victory. But a very major victory in the realm of self-confidence and believing in myself. I'm obnoxiously proud. :)

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Subject:	Hello, Monday!
Time:	8:27 am.

As I walked out the door this morning, I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if it didn't start raining until after I got on the bus?" Tempt fate much?

2 minutes later the rain started. When I got to the bus stop and found it mysteriously unpeopled (not unheard of, but rare), it occurred to me that.. maybe the campus bus didn't so much run during Spring Break. Ohyeah. So I walked to the city bus stop and checked the schedule posted there, to find that I'd missed the bus by less than 2 minutes. And that the next one wasn't scheduled to come for another 35 minutes, which just happened to be 15 minutes after I was actually supposed to be AT work. And then my umbrella turned inside out, and the thunder started.

Happy Spring Break, everybody!
:)

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Subject:	Wake me when it's over.
Time:	3:52 pm.

First week of training for Lake Placid is done. It's haaard to get through the first few weeks, before your body remembers how to cope with it, or possibly until your body just goes numb. I'm ramping up slowly, but my first week in tri training was still longer than any week marathon training.

Bike: 4:26:26
Run: 3:14:05
Swim: 2:02:57

Total: ~9.75 hours

I'm tired. Thankfully tomorrow's an Off day.

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Subject:	February training totals.
Time:	1:36 pm.

February totals:

Bike: 1h 23m 12s - 19.75 Mi
Run: 12h 43m 28s - 77.11 Mi
Swim: 53m 23s - 2500 Yd

Total: ~15 hours

I forgot about posting this. I guess when I'm not really training at the end of a month, it doesn't stick in my mind. With 2 weeks off and a short month, the totals are low.

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Subject:	Can't sit still. Clown'll eat me.
Time:	6:29 pm.

I did actually sleep in today (9am!), but then I got up and got all antsy about not doing anything. Stuck to my guns.. no running, but I took the dog out for a walk. Poor Suva gets the short end of the stick, 'cause when we're training for something, we greatly reduce the opportunities for exciting dogventures. So today Suva and I went out to Turkey Creek. It took us about 45 minutes to walk to the 1/2 mile mark and back to the car, but I think she enjoyed it. Although it involved an awful lot of.. dirt and yucky water and other stuff princessDogs normally shun.

In other news,

sbear discovered that there's an After Hours bbs myspace group. She said she knew I didn't have a myspace account, but that this group had a picture gallery that had pictures of me, and that I really needed to check out the pictures. I did, and I was terrified. I barely remember some of the people who were IN the pictures with me. And boy.. did I have hair back then. Check it out (pictures are all circa.. uh.. 1992? 1993? I honestly don't remember).

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