Karl's Article

Has everyone seen this article from today's Frederick Post:
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display_Comments.htm?section=a1&storyID=75602#postComments

Isn't it great???

Working Out

This time around, my doctor gave me medicine to treat my "swimming in contaminated water" symptoms right away, instead of making me wait around to do further tests. I am now on my third and final day of taking the medicine. Taking the medicine might almost be as painful as some of the symptons. I have to take 4 giant horse pills. The old fashioned kind of pills, big, white, chalky, with that nasty lingering aftertaste. yuck.

This morning Sarah and I met up at the gym for a workout. My first attempt at working out in 4 days. Before she got there, I did 20 minutes of stretchcords. Then, we worked through my back exercises from Dr. Keith. I really needed to do them today after being doubled over the last few days. After that, we did 30 minutes of elliptical and 10 minutes of running around the track. I had to get water 4 times during the cardio. Guess I'm still dehydrated. I'm also still in need of calories but have NO appetite. This is so unusual since I'm usually a nonstop chowhound.

By the way, I'm so glad I didn't watch tv the first 2 days I was sick. Yesterday, as I was starting to feel better, I decided to tune in (for 3 law & orders). Anyway, the commercials were all for food. Ok, I could tolerate the Papa Johns commercial and for a few seconds I thought about dialing and ordering...but the McDonald's Chicken for Breakfast??? I had to take cover under the couch cushions before I started to hurl.

Coming Back

Things are looking better today. Not 100% but a huge improvement over yesterday. I found out today that lots of people get sick every year after swimming in the Lago in Madrid. Nice, right?

How do you explain this perfect timing...on the day when I have barely had a sip of water in 2 days guess who comes knocking? USADA. The drug testers. We are in the midst of waiting it out right now. I'm still in the sipping stage, so chugging bottles of water is not possible. I explained the situation to them and that I am most likely severely dehydrated. But, they have a job to do and must sit here and wait for me to pee.

Looks like I'll be taking my third day off in a row.

Poisoned...Again

It must have been the lake water during the race. Very similar sypmtoms as what happened to me about a year ago in Argentina. I got off the plane yesterday afternoon not feeling like myself and pressed on throughout most of the afternoon. Karl said i was probably just exhausted and jetlagged. True, but then something else took over. Ugh. 24 hours later and I can barely lift my head to type.

more later when I'm feeling better.

Madrid Airport

Now on the way home. so far just at the madrid airport. thanks to my vip teammate, julie, we are camped out at the bidness class lounge. my flight arrives back to newark on monday afternoon and then it is back to training tuesday morning.

i havent heard much from the states this weekend. did everyone have a good memorial day weekend??

the post race party last night was nice. it was an a restaurant with a nice view of the city, right at the base of the cable car attraction. they served us american style food...jalepeno poppers and mozzerela sticks, burritos. ive noticed a lot of fried food here. of course i kept seeing jamon everywhere i looked but was not at all tempted to start liking ham!!

it has been a fun trip and that is what it was supposed to be.

another iPhone post. The Internet at the hotel works about a quarter of the time. The race was just an average performance. 22nd place. Just outside of world cup points. I got the absolute last pick for a starting spot. This is because I chose one and then was told in wasn't a spot so I had to scamble around until I found an opening smack in the middle. I just knew it wasn't going to be pretty so I went hard and when we got to the buoy I stopped and searched for clear water. I just couldn't throw myself into that mess. I probably swan about 100m extra throughout the race which was reflected in my time. One minute back from the leaders. At that point I told myself. Ok. You are now in a chase pack. Next, I proceeded to have the races slowest transition getting my wetsuit off. This meant that my chase pack was already making the way onto the bike course. It took me three laps or more of riding alone to catch them. When I made it to them the pace was so slow that I tried to breakaway. They would catch me evwrytime I got to the wet scary downhill. I
Was hoping that others would be motivated to work to catch the next group. But either they weren't motivated or they werent able to go faster. Lots of huffing and puffing on the uphill. The run was a challenge because I didn't utilize the water stops. I battled it out with a Spanish girl who was getting lots of hometown cheers. Too bad the group in front of us was too far ahead to catch. Actually it wasn't impossible. I just had to run a 35---which is what I should be doing.

The rest of team us did ok. I think julie was 18th even though she has been sick and didn't even think she could finish the race.

About half of the guys race didn't finish because of a thundestorm mid race thAt flooded the place.

Spain

Hi from Madrid! I got in yesterday and am now using my iPhone to blog from the hotel room. So far I haven't done much other than sleep for twelve hours last night. It was 930 when I got up. Usually I've done three workouts by then. Plan for the rest of the day is to swim at the pool and then ride the course. The race is in case de campo. More later.

I'm off to the airport in a few minutes. This time the destination is Madrid. I'll be competing in the Madrid World Cup this weekend. Getting excited about going to Spain for the first time! I haven't done any re-zerch at all about the city itself or about the race course. That's why this race is considered a fun one!!

Race Photos

Thanks to Kelly & Brock from the Ulman Fund for providing these photos.

SPU? anyone?

Catching up on emails at the Bakery in Gardiner. I'm upstate for the day. Karl and I met for some early workouts at the gym this morning (treadmill run + swim) and then I got in the car and drove north. Not in a rush, I did some shopping on the way up and found a few "dills" at west elm. I think I may have bought them out of teak bathmats. Now that the bathtubs have been installed, I figured it was about time we get some bathmats!

The weather has been weird here today, it seems like every hour, on the hour, there has been a short downpour. Right before I went for my ride there was one lightning and one thunder. I rode back and forth on a 15 minute stretch of road so that I never had to be too far from the car in case a real rainstorm hit. Luckily, I got rained on for about 2 minutes but didn't get too wet.

Before the ride, I did a quick check of the bees and found both hives to be in working order (from the outside). Both entrances were jammed with bees trying to get in and out. The ones trying to go in were weighed down with bright yellow pollen. SJ claimed that he saw a dead queen outside the new hive last weekend. I was worried that I'd find the hive abandoned. Not the case! Because of the impending rain, I didn't look inside the hive. Bees tend to get mad (and sting) when you go in the hive in the rain.

I'm doing various things this afternoon before heading back down the road. Staying late so that on the way home I can pick up SJ from a work dinner in W'chester. He's dining on 10 courses at Blue Hill at Stone Barn. My deal was that he could get a ride home if I could have his 1oth course - dessert. I've already picked up what I'd order from the online menu, so he better hold up his end of the deal!

Yesterday I got to play with sam for a few hours. I've said this a million times before, but he is really cute. As soon as I walked in the door he got really excited and smiley. We played with the toys that are in his current rotation like the plastic piano, which he loves. After some playing, we decided it was naptime, so he got wrapped up, placed in the cradle and off he went to sleep for 1.5 hours. Just like that.

Check out Karl or Sarah's blogs for a photo from the Columbia Tri. I'll stop in B-more on my drive home to pick up some print copies for the files. Of course, the men's winner got the headline and the big photo. Oh well, at least I made it in the paper, which should make the sponsors happy! I'm not too thrilled about the article though. That's what you get when you do an interview 5 seconds after crossing the finish line.

As you can see, I debuted my way too small in the a-double-s bathing suit. I am well aware that a little too much is exposed, but it looks better from the front than any of my other suits. Since this race involved long solitary stretches, I figured the exposed backside could go unnoticed.

In my next race, the Madrid World Cup, I will go back to my full coverage suit...since the course involves multiple laps and live media coverage.

cake

It was a home field victory today. Ever since I didn't win state cross country, I've been trying to clean up in Maryland races. It is so great to be able to drive to a race and stay at home. Last night my mom put together an impromptu engagement party where we had a pre-race diet gingerale toast. No champagne until after the race! It was great to see Uncle Joe, Stell and Elana. Thanks to Uncle Joe for making the occasion festive and bringing a cake from the Amish Market. It was so good that we all gobbled it up, leaving a good portion as a possible treat post race. I casually glanced at the ingredients list while I was eating breakfast at 4:30 am this morning and was surprised to see Mayonaise included. Yep, mayonaise. Karl tells me that people use M in cakes sometimes to make them moist? Even though mayo tops my list of foods never to eat, I went back and polished off the last few pieces after the race!! I was sooo good.

Quick Race Recap

Just back from the Columbia Triathlon. Great race. I now know why this race has been run for 25 years.

I got the W and as a bonus broke the course record previously held by olympic medallist Susan Williams. My splits were nothing stellar taken on an individual basis, but they all added up to a solid performance.

Karl placed 6th and finished in the money again! Her run is really coming around, she ran a low 39 min. 10k on a very hilly course.

More details later, but first it is time to rest up. The 4 am wake up call is starting to sink in.

Race Weekend

We're about to load up the car for the drive down to MD for this weekend's Columbia Triathlon. The race is sunday morning, bright and early. I'm looking forward to the challenging course that I got to catch a glimpse of in last year's IronGirl Columbia race. This year, the competition is going to be tougher and the race is almost 2x as long. Karl and I are ready -especially after a pep talk from Brian Walton. He's very familiar with the MD roads (even though he's canadian) because his wife is from Carrol County. He's even familiar with Thurmont and offered to show us the maps he used when the Catoctin Mts. were his favorite training grounds. All this time, there was an olympian cyclist in our backyard and we never knew it!!

The other race this weekend to look out for is The Longest Day. This is an adventure race designed and organized by Amy & Rodney. The course still remains a secret, but it is sure to take adventurers through the woods of Newburgh, Gardiner and New Paltz, with some stints on the Wallkill river. This is a 12 hour race and there is rain in the forecast. Sounds like fun!!

By the way, my energy level has returned. I found myself running up the stairs in the apartment last night. Something I usually do, but not something I was ready to do yesterday morning.

Day Off

Today was a much deserved day off!! I can count the number of these since Jan. 1 on one hand. I must admit, this wasn't exactly a planned day off. My day off was supposed to be tomorrow, but since I woke up with a bit of a sinus thing, I took that as a sign. As we know, sniffles are a way of life for me, so no big deal!

The highlight of my day off was having lunch with Sam. Don't worry Leezie, I kept my distance! By the way, Sam is the kind of baby that lights up into a huge smile when he sees you. So cute.

Now I am going to look into wedding weekend housing situations in New Paltz. Does anyone like the idea of renting a house or 2 for the weekend?...there is a Super 8 in NP, but it is LB and not "new" like the one in Thurmy. To the best of my knowledge, there is not a Rambler equivalent. The house rental might also work out favorably "mon-e-terr-ily." There are also a lot of Bed & Breakfasts in the area, which is an option, but some people might not want to go down that road.

Wedding Date

We're looking at the weekend of October 11-13 for our wedding celebration. For the Amercians, this is the Columbus Day weekend. For the Canadians, this is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. For everyone, this should be a weekend at the height of the fall colors in New Paltz, where the wedding will be held.

NOTHING has been done yet, except for settling on the date. We picked this weekend by going through the calendar and finding the first weekend that both of us had free. We hope it fits into everyone else's schedule too.

I will be accepting all offers of help in putting together the event!

The only other thing that has been done is purchasing the dress.

More Big Workouts

After yesterday's easy day with just one 4k swim (and nearly 5 miles of walking, although SJ doesn't get why I count that as part of my training), today we were greeted by a monster run workout followed immediately by another 4k swim. Either the run was a really hard one or my legs are still tired from last week's big week. but, it was one of those digging deep days. We did 2 sets of 1600/1200/800/400 with only 1 minute rest between, starting at 10k pace and dropping to 3k pace. Ouch. Hard stuff. The hardest part was trying to swim fast after that. Thankfully, Rod had a client cancel and he was able to get in and swim with us. He also decided to change the intervals on the main part of the set, making us to 100's on the 1:10!

Now I am logging some feet up time. Time to catch up on Grey's from last week.

Taking the Plunge

Yesterday I mentioned that I swam in the chilly waters of the Rose Lane pond over the weekend. Here's proof, thanks to this awesome photo by Karl. Here I am jumping off the "screened in" porch. The dam in the background gives the effect of an infinity edged pool. After a short lived ice cream headache, the water felt good. Even if you aren't preparing for Alcatraz, I'd highly recommend a dip in the pond...with a wetsuit on, of course!!

4 days Upstate

It was a treat to spend the last 4 days upstate. It was nonstop activity with little time to put the feet up.

Saturday morning we did a 3 hour group ride with the New Paltz crew. It was 6 guys + me. We did a new route called Villa Maria. This is a climb that starts with the ellenville hill (our old standby) and then takes a right turn up a very, very steep hill. This is one of the steepest, hardest hills i've done. The kind of hill that requires you to keep telling yourself to stay on the bike. For a good 10 minutes or more, it was the constant feeling that this might be my last pedal stroke before I tip over. To make it even more challenging, once we to the "top" we carried on up a rutted bumpy road to the entrance to Sam's Point Park, just so that the guys could check out the cliffs. Sam's Point is home to the Ice Caves and the world's highest Pine Barrens. Going to do some research to figure out exactly what that means.

The climb was not the end of the hard part of the ride. I flew down the Ellenville decent (even passing SJ at one point) and then proceeded to light the fire in the rolling hills section back to New Paltz.

After the ride, we hit up the local organic, vegan bakery for some snacks. Yes, KALE was a theme ingredient. Karl got KALE, spinach, cucumber and celery juice. Sounds ick, but it really wasn't that bad. I got quinoa pizza. That would be a crust made of quinoa and brown rict, topped with tomato, kale and soy cheese. Ok, so after a 3 hour bike ride, you'll pretty much eat anything!!

The next big activity for the day was to pick up our second package of bees. This package came in the form of a NUC. this is an established colony of bees in a box, with a queen. Our job was to transfer them from this small box to their new home in a normal sized hive, right next to our hive # 1. This involved lots of swarming bees. Luckily, the bee suits work. By the way, our first hive seems to be thriving! Lots of pollen was going into the hive and lots of comb has been built and filled with honey.

After the bees, I switched suits and put on my wetsuit for a dip in the chilly 52 degree pond. It actually wasn't that bad! Seriously. The pond is just about big enough to do a proper swim workout. The water is crystal clear. Karl documented this and will be posting photos.

Check out her blog for some other photos of the weekend.

Happy Mother's Day!

Last night we had the best mother's day gathering in Hoboken. Thanks to Mom-to-Be Sarah for preparing a delicious fajita dinner. We actually pulled off a sit down dinner. This time next year that might be impossible -- with 2 grandchildren running around!!

We continued the celebration this morning/afternoon with a lunch at chelsea market. We braved the ~1 mile walk in the freezing cold & rain & wind (yep, hats, gloves, coats). All of us, except Sam who was perfectly content behind his plastic in the stroller, questioned what the hell would possess us to go out in weather like that. But, we all agreed, a lunch of "piping hot" matzoh ball soup was well worth the walk. We ate at the new kosher deli in chelsea market. We were lured in by the samples of potato latkes. Yum. We had all our favorites - kasha varnishkas, pickles, cucumber salad.

Maybe we'll go back for Father's Day!!

Community 5k Run

One of the motivating factor of coming upstate on Thursday (other than the fish tank delivery), was to defend my title in the local New Paltz 5k and more importantly to collect the 1st place prize of a pair of running shoes from the local running store. Karl and I arrived at the race after a FULL day of training. 7am swim (4k w/ no warm up), hard pilates class, mile walk to parking lot, a few hours of driving, an hour bike ride. So, we weren't exactly fresh. Also, EVERYTHING is blooming up here. The apple blossoms are out of control. And, I forgot my inhaler. We ignored all of these factors and went about the warm up process. I admitted that I wasn't exactly feeling great and that since I bee flew into my eye on the bike ride (also forgot sunglasses), my eyes were puffy and itchy. But in the spirit of racing and the desire for a pair of shoes, I took off when the gun went off and ran as hard as i could. I actually felt really good and cruised to a 5:16 mile and a 10:50 2 mile. Things started slowing down after that because the 3rd mile was uphill and seemed like it took forever. I ended up crossing the finish line in 17:08, good for 3rd Overall (1st girl), and a 32 second improvement over last year!!

This is my 3rd consecutive 5k race where I have come dangerously close to breaking 17. If I went to my local high school track and paced my way around 12.5 laps, I think seeing a 16 is very possible. Just like how a few weeks ago I paced SJ to a mile PR and ended up running a 5:00. But, as I told a guy last night who said, you should run track and forget about biking and swimming, Triathlon is my sport. And, in triathlon, you have to run fast on tired legs. So, for the time being, I will continue to run 5k's as workouts and one of these workouts I'll see a 16 on the finishing clock.

By the way, this is Karls 3rd consecutive race where she's finished in the 18's. Last year she was happy to finish in the 20's. Isn't that great!!??!!

Mini Training Camp/Fish Tank

This week has been a mini training camp, except for that I haven't gone "on location" and am doing the training camp from New York. This means a heavy training load + all of the normal responsibilities of living at home. One of these responsibilities was to drive to Long Branch, NJ to pick up an aquarium for the house. This is a custom made job that will be built into a wall. It was my responsibility to pick up the tank because it was my idea to have it built into the wall in the first place. The guys at the fish tank place were super nice...almost nice to the point that maybe they were "taking" something before I arrived. Either that or it was the glue fumes. Anyway, they made the chore of driving down the shore to the Jersey shore a little more enjoyable!

Thanks to Amy & Rodney (for letting me borrow their Pathfinder) the aquarium is now in the hands of the contractor. Bob is currently cutting the drywall down to size and figuring out how to make it sit flush against the wall. This seems to be posing a bit of a challenge, but I'm sure they can get it done.

Speaking of getting things done, when we arrived at the house yesterday it was like walking into a funhouse. There were people everywhere, doing all sorts of things. There were at least 2 people on stilts spackling the dry wall, one guy operating a saw, a few guys trying to make sense of the Nanowall folding glass doors. We tried to talk with one guy on stilts but he spoke absolutely no english. Don't worry, one of the "hot guys" speaks spanish and serves as the translator.

Still no sense of when the project will be completed, but at least work is being done!!

Walls

The house now has walls!! A crew of sheetrockers has been working 'round the clock to drywall every last inch of the house. It looks sooooo good.

Podium

Congrats to SJ for taking 3rd place in the Cat. 5 men's division of the Jiminy Peak bike race. He braved the cold, wet, blustery day (and 2 hour drive) to western Mass. and got out there and dusted his competition. The best part of the day?? He won prize money!! $30. Nice!

I entered the race but decided not to start. Since I've raced the last 2 weekends, it wasn't really necessary to put myself in a risky situation. Plus, it was freezing cold. Instead, I went for a run and got almost to the top of the ski hill before turning around once I hit piles of snow.

The rest of the weekend turned around weather-wise. Today was beautiful. The rosendale group ride consisted of the 2 of us plus one other guy. We did a 2 hour ride up the the ashokan reservoir. We did a new route that crisscrossed some of the roads we took last year during our 8 hour epic ride in attempts to find the reservoir. There were a few hills that SJ and I raced up, but no major climbs. I can't wait to do that ride again!

Afterwards, we discovered a cute little cafe on the outskirts of Rosendale. Reminded me of place you'd find in colorado or portland. Menu written on chalkboards. All local, organic, etc. We got toast with goat cheese and beets and a turkey blt. Both were doused in some kind of butter. I don't mind a little butter, but this was greaseball special. We might not go back or if we do I'll try the homemade granola and yogurt.

Despite the greaZe, we had a great run in Mohonk...for the first 60 minutes...until I remembered why I don't eat greaZe before running hard. Anyway, we did over 10 miles and most of it was hard. I made SJ WORK. He did really well to keep up.

Back home now and preparing to do the Sunday Times Crossword - in pen.

The Weekend!

It's the weekend! This is the first weekend I've had for awhile since the last 2 weekends I was travelling for races. We'll be heading "up the road" in a few minutes, once SJ comes home from work. Unfortunately, the weather looks ominous. The forecast is for rain both days.

I've signed up for a 60k bike race tomorrow. Just for fun and for a workout. SJ's doing it, so I figured instead of just tagging along and watching, I might as well do it too. The race is 2 hours away from NP, in Mass. We'll be driving out that way tomorrow morning. Anything for a hard workout, I guess.

Rumor has it that the drywall has been completed in the house. This is a big milestone. We'll be stopping by there first thing tomorrow morning.

Workouts this week were VERY easy. Almost like tapering again. This is a much needed break before ramping it back up next week. Actually, today's swim was the first hard one in a few weeks. We meet Rod bright and early at 645 for a wetsuit swim at CP. To simulate a race situation where you aren't allowed to warm up in the water, we decided to put our wetsuits on, jump right in and do 6x200 on 2:15. This was quite a challenge, but I did it. The wetsuit does very little for me. When other people, like Rod, put the wetsuit on, they get much, much faster. When I put the wetsuit on I get slightly faster, if at all. We kept the suits on for the second set, an 800 at pace, and then tore them off for the final 3x400 at pace. After a little experiment, I'm pretty sure that the speed suit I wore over the weekend at the race may have been a drag suit. A smaller one is already on its way.

My second workout was a moderate bike ride which I did inside at Cadence because of the weather. It also gave me a chance to ready the NYTimes cover to cover.

Water Lily

Yesterday on my way to the park for a run I stopped to get inspired by some prints about to go on auction at sotheby's. There were lots of big, amazing prints by all the famous artists. This one really stuck out in my mind throughout my spring run through the park.

I'm so lucky to have sponsors that are helping me get outfitted for upcoming races. One of my sponsors through the Cadence Pro Tri Team is Zoot Sports. They're outfitting me from head to toe, from wetsuit hoodie (for the cold waters of Alcatraz) to racing flats. The best thing is - the clothes actually fit me!! And, they are really cute!!

Last night SJ & I celebrated my not having to pay for my bike on either flight over the weekend (and also for my 2nd place finish!). We braved the meatpacking district for a really good dinner at Spice Market. We went early enough that we were able to stroll right in without a reservation. That wouldn't have been the case if we came later as the place filled up and the bar turned lively by the time we left.

We couldn't decide what to order so we settled on the chef's tasting menu. We got a little bit of everything which turned out to be A LOT of food. We plowed through the appetizers and were bogged down by the time the mains came. Of course, I rallied for the dessert course which was really, really good. I don't even know if I can remember everything that was served. My favorite was the first thing we got which was a (raw) tuna, pear, tapioca, lemongrass cerviche type dish. We also got things we'd never order, like samosas and a salad that featured tempura onions (i.e., onion rings...really good onion rings even for a person who doesn't even like onion rings). Everything had perfect flavor and nothing was overly spicy. I'd go there again, but my favorite J-G V neigborhood restaurant is still Perry St.