Curious George Knits

Catching Up Some More

You all thought I'd gone and given up blogging, right? Ha. As if.

So, just to remind you, here is the beginning of the list I made when Ironman training was making me cranky and I just wanted to get to the event and then get some free time put back into my life. (Now, of course, I'm completely missing training for an Ironman, but I know I'll be doing one in 2011, so I just need to keep busy and get to some of these things on my list!

I've made a few additions to the list and have crossed off what I've completed, which might not look like much to all of you, but trust me...a 3-day weekend camping alone with my dogs and my books and my knitting and some of the most beautiful scenery on the entire planet? It was just what the doctor ordered.

Word.

Catching up

So much to catch up on here. Ironman went well! I will write a race report this week. I'm very tardy. I was first out of the water in my age group by over 2 1/2 minutes, and also was the first Ironhead out by a narrow margin, so that was neat. I had a PR on the swim (1:01) and a PR on the bike (7:01) and  near PR on the run 4:58. Great T1 (2:40) and so-so T2 (4+ -- had to visit the porta potty). 13:08 overall for a PR of 4 minutes! Much longer story to come.

I have been knitting a ton. Finished a bunch of stuff while in Canada. Had to do a lot of sitting around with my feet on an ottoman (oh, darn) to rest, so finished my Jaywalker socks, a winter tunic, my Laburnum socks, and worked on the autumn colors blanket, which is now finished.

Needless to say, I have not uploaded any photos since August. That's on my list for this week as well.

I went over to Twisted yesterday for their sale and their buttons. They have a great selection. The store, too, is awesome. It was packed, and the two owners were there, along with other employees, and every employee was busy. Two men were in there, one watching his little girls so their mother could shop in peace, and one guy was buying his own yarn! Cool! Huge variety of age groups, which was also cool. I got buttons for three finished products and some Louet that was 50% off for a felted bag that I'm about to make.

So...the weekend? Pretty perfect. Started off with a date with my hubby to Marakesh. Yum. Yum. Did I mention? It was delicious? Yum. Then Saturday morning rode with the Ironhead women. I am OUT OF CLIMBING SHAPE. I got dropped off the back immediately going uphill. Oh well...that group is mostly training for Austin 70.3, so whatever. I'll be back into it soon enough. Did just fine keeping up on the flats. We got 32 miles in before I had to head to S's soccer game. Then started home and went to a farm on the way and bought just-cut basil for pesto, got some pumpkins for the porch, a dozen organic eggs, and went home and worked in the yard.

Weeded the front bed (well, most of the way) and planted the mums I'd found for $3 each earlier in the week at Rite Aid of all places. Pulled all the dead crap off the plants, mowed, and then went in and did some much-needed de-cluttering. Laundry, etc. Just a great day for accomplishing lots of stuff that has not been top priority lately.

Sunday got up to run with a friend, but she ended up being sick so I went 8 on my own. It was my longest run since Ironman, and it wasn't pretty, but I did it and negative split it. The West Linn Wild 10 MIler is next Sunday. Sounds so daunting! Bought myself a breakfast of a Noah's Everything bagel with schmear and a venti (nonfat! no-whip! 3 pump!) mocha and went home to regroup.

Headed out to Twisted (see above) and did a couple more errands and came home to try to clean and get the house in better shape. I was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but have a great sense of accomplishment.

Here's to next weekend!

Ten Days to Go!

OHMYGODOHMYGOD, there are only 10 days left until Ironman Canada 2009. I will be #2616 this year! It is a very lucky number.

Work is quite busy and detail-oriented right now, and it's keeping me sane, to some extent. When I am fully engaged at work, I don't stress about splits, packing, nutrition, and flats.

Speaking of flats, I changed the rear tire last night. We're going to put the racing tire on that wheel so that it will be easier. For the record, I don't like it when I struggle and struggle and then I make Jay do it and he just pops the tire into place. Gah. More practice needed.

I've got my packing list from my coach and even though I've done the course twice, I keep reading the course description over and over. I am starting to pile stuff in readiness for the Big Packing Adventure on Saturday. Triathlon must be hands down the sport with the most gear.

And then there's the deciding about what knitting and reading to bring. I will be spending a good amount of time next week sitting around with my feet up, so will need my mobile entertainment. I've started a really cool blanket, but if it's hot, I don't want to be working on that and would prefer socks or other accessories. TBD.

The weather forecast for Penticton has it in the 80s for the days prior to the race, with 80F as the hight the day prior to the race. Last year, I was SO HAPPY that it rained during the marathon...I don't think I'll have that this year. Doesn't matter. Just sayin'.

Ten and counting...tick...tick...tick...

The Beginnings of The List

After Ironman, I'm going to start re-discovering where I live -- both city and country.

Here's the start of a list of things I'm going to do, and even though they are numbered (I'm Type A, after all), they are in no particular order.

1) Go to Hood River. Shop and eat.

2) Go camping by myself with the dogs.

3) Hike Angels' Rest.

4) Hike Dog Mountain.

5) Lost Lake weekend.

6) Finish baseboards in family room (fun!).

7) Hawthorne.

8) Go to the zoo and make the kids come with me.

9) Go to Seattle and catch up with some of my family. Make the kids come with me.

10) Picnic at Washington Park.

11) Check out the antiques in Aurora.

12) Flea markets.

13) Sellwood.

14) Saturday Market.

15) Diamond Lake.

16) First Thursday.

17) Finish tiles in kids' bathroom (super fun!)

18) Snowshoeing.

19) Cross country skiing.

It's Been Awhile!

I love summer. But, it is busy. I can't believe we're on the downside of July already!

The short recap since my last post is: finished 2 sweaters I'd started last year with the exception of some button adjustments on one and some actual buttons on the other one. Photos are coming. Really. I started and finished some of Evelyn Skae's Creeping Vines Socks, but my feet are so damn long that once again I found myself making half of the last toe with some leftover KnitPicks Essentials. I'm nearly done with my second pair of Jaywalkers out of Shaeffer Anne. That yarn is damn skinny and on US 1s, it's a long haul, but I think they'll last a long time. Started another pair of socks out of Sensational Socks (Laburnum stitch pattern) with some stash Mountain Colors Bearfoot in "sapphire trail". Socks are easy to knit in the hot weather.

In the triathlon world, I'm training a TON. During our camping trip last week I got about 20 hours in and am still tired from that. Not looking forward much to this coming weekend's workouts. Sunday includes a 20.5 mile run. I've never run that far in training. That's after a 5 hour ride on Saturday. I hope my family remembers who I am after this weekend! :-) Only 5.5 weeks left till Ironman. Everyone thinks I will sign up again for next year but I am not going to. I am in the process of making a list of Things to Do Once I Have Time for when I don't have to spend every spare moment training. Don't get me wrong -- I love my training. I am just tired of the volume that an Ironman takes and I need a year to focus on speed and shorter distances and less time spent. I need to get to know my city again, go hiking, head to a lake on a hot day for relaxation, etc. You get the picture.

C is going to college orientation tomorrow (gulp) and I am still getting a handle on his new independence. I don't like it. I asked him to come home for a weekly dinner and got some non-committal answer...then I said threatened to come visit him once a week and THAT went over very well...NOT.

G is in eastern Oregon at cross country camp. I miss him, but this is a really high quality camp and I know he's wanted to go for over a year. I hope he's having a great time!

S is busy with friends. She's so social. It's very cute. She and a couple friends are going to camp the first week of August and it will be great for her to go away and do something different. There's rafting, hiking, wakeboarding, waterskiing...she will not want to come home!

Camping rocked, but you need to see the photos. I need to get on that :-)

Home again

My Pacific Crest half Ironman race report is over on the left, under Curious George triathlons. Great weekend! G had a great race in the Olympic triathlon and placed 2nd in his age group and J placed 8th overall and won his age group in the Olympic duathlon. I had a PR on the course and it was a hot, high altitude struggle. I don't understand why in every picture I'm smiling. That was one tough race!

Here's me, at mile 8 on the run.

Here's Jay running in for the age group win, 8th overall. 

...and here's Graham, enjoying a post-race meal.  

I finished my striped raglan, but need to move two of the buttons. Am almost finished with the Hexacomb Cardigan. I need to find some buttons.

I may be down to a single digit number of projects in the works pretty soon.

Only two more workdays this week, WOOT! 

Happy Canada Day.

Blue Lake Olympic Distance Triathlon 2009

Race report over to the left!

Accomplishment

Garden Update, Knitting Update, Training Update

I haven't done any garden updates for awhile, so here you go! The hot weather after weeks of rain really gave it a jump start.

 

Romaine over on the left, weeds where the carrots are supposed to be next, radishes at the back left. Variety of lettuces in the middle, kale in the back middle. Rosemary and sage being obscured by the leaves of the romaine and the cauliflower. Cauliflower there up front right and broccoli behind that. Walla Walla sweet onions on the right. Space being saved for tomatoes -- can't plant those for a week or two yet. I need to plant more radishes, kale and carrots.

Here, finally, is a picture of the Jaywalkers I was working on until I decided to finish up some larger projects. Since I hopefully won't be wearing socks for three more months, I'm in no rush to finish the second sock. Plus, they're being knitted on US 1s. Oy.

While I don't have a photo to accompany my training update, suffice it to say I've made it through some pretty tough workouts lately, and I feel like this is a good indicator of my fitness, both physically AND mentally. Two weekends ago, I did a half Ironman simulation workout and came home to an ice bath. Trained all week as normal and then last weekend after a normal long Saturday ride with a brick run afterwards, I woke up *very* early Sunday morning and ran 16.5 miles, then sped (literally) to the Hagg Lake Open Water Swim. G did the 2K race and I raced the 4K. Well, I didn't actually race it, but I swam strongly. Damn, that open water swimming is a *completely* different sport than swimming in the pool!  My upper back was pretty sore the next day and I am hardly ever sore after a pool workout. I placed fifth with a 1:03.57, so was pretty pleased with that time for an indicator three months out from Ironman. I did not expect to go as fast as that, but felt strong and was working solidly the entire time. A nice sign.

G also ran 16 that day, out at the lake, while I was swimming. We both walked around like zombies the next day!

On the bike, my climbing seems to be improving and on the run -- well, I'm a little faster this year -- let's just hope that translates into a faster marathon overall. I want to knock over 12 minutes off my time overall, so if I can be down any time on the bike from last year, and down a little on the run, I may just have that licked. There are so many variables, though. The weather for one. My nutrution and hydration have been pretty spot-on, so I'm not very worried about that. The weather and other uncontrollables? Ya, worried. But nothing I can do about those things, other than more tire-changing practice.

Finally, here is a photo of one of my coworkers. She's busy helping me and is ensuring that I'm a "green" worker, as she protests loudly when I print. It is so noisy wasteful, after all.

Paging Salvador Dali

Am I in the middle of a Salvador Dali painting? C graduates from high school on Friday. WTF? I've been in shock now for months, but it's only this week that it's really hitting home, and most strongly today. I went in to wake him up for school today because he didn't come out of his room at the regularly scheduled time. He wasn't there. Oh ya, he slept over at Jimmy's house on a Monday night BECAUSE HE DOESN'T HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL ANY MORE. Wild.