I am a Seattlite. Period.

I am a Seattlite.

I am an earth-respecting, outdoors-enjoying, exercise-loving, local sports-watching, dog-adoring, healthy food-eating Seattlite.

I do things like prepare non-meat substances for dinner and compost my vegetable scraps while listening to The Head and the Heart.

#proof.  Finally bought my composting bin today and was
super excited to make dinner so I could compost.

I carpool to work.  I complain about the weather.  I go running in the rain.  I shop at farmers' markets.  I would rather wear a pair of jeans and my Northface than dress up and put on a pair of heels.

I avoid drama, and sometimes I smile even when I'm not happy.  I like to read.  I don't own a TV.  I have more electronic devices than I can keep track of.

If I was any more of a stereotypical Seattlite, I'd probably need to move to Portland.  And I'm enough of a Seattlite to be able to make that joke.

I lived in NYC for 6 years, and during that whole time, I never really felt at home there.  New York will always occupy an important place in my heart, but the entire time I lived there I knew it wasn't for good.  I felt like a sore thumb.  I felt like I wasn't me.  I knew I didn't belong there.

I've lived in Seattle for a little over 4 years now, and I have become this city.  This city has become me.  And it was so easy.  From the minute I stepped foot into Seattle, I knew I belonged here.  And my "belongingness" has only been enhanced over time.  

Let's look at how I spent my weekend as an example.

Friday night, I came home from work and immediately set out for an 11 mile run.  After work.  On a Friday night.  I ran 11 miles.  And I was incredibly happy with how those 11 miles turned out.  I started with Lucy and we went for a loop around Green Lake.  Then I looped back home, dropped her off, and headed down to the Burke Gilman for an out and back to cover the rest of the mileage I needed.

Mile 9 (my fastest mile) was a mile+ long hill on the way back home.  I'm
quite proud.

I consider this run to be a successful negative split, even though I had a couple significant uphills in the second half (and downhills in the first).  I'm am really happy with my pace, averaging a 9:09 for the entire run, but with the second half of the run obviously averaging much faster than that.

All along I've been telling myself that Nike Women's wouldn't be a PR race for me (because it is ridiculously hilly), but I'm beginning to actually think maybe I could squeeze a PR out of the race.  I'm not going to get my hopes up though.

When I got home from my run, I foam rolled.  Bonus points for me.

Then I made a tofu-licous dinner, drank a glass of wine, and went to bed.  Exciting Friday night.

But I had to rest up, because the next morning I met up with my Team in Training team for a 60 minute run.  When I got there and realized it was going to be a double loop run, I thought about stopping after the first loop.  But my legs were feeling strong, and Erica and I were catching up after her being gone in Italy for 2 weeks, so I decided to stick out the full distance.

Mile 4 was a water stop.  We don't stop watches during timed practices.
Not for water stops, bathroom breaks, or stoplights.  That way everyone
finishes at the same time.

Again, I am really happy with this pace, especially after having done the 11 miler about 12 hours before this run.  We all chit-chatted for a bit after practice and took our first team group picture.

All the familiar faces are in there.  Erica, MacKenzie, Jason, Jamie, Dorothy,
and more.  Lovely Seattle weather in the background.  And beautiful skyline.

A few of us went out to brunch (another very Seattle thing to do), and spent most of our time talking about running and fundraising.  Cause that's what we do.

After brunch, I went home to take Lucy for a long walk and get cleaned up to head to the Sounders game with Sierra and Cristin.  We lost the game, but being from Seattle, we all know how to take a sports loss.  So we still had tons of fun at the game.

After the game, we went to an old haunt of a bar for me, Cristin, and Sierra to listen to a small local band play cover songs and make people laugh.  I also tried my first (and second) pudding shot.  Think jello shot, but frozen pudding instead, which winds up being the consistency of ice cream and needs to be eaten with a spoon.  Our flavor choices were pumpkin pie, cookies and cream, banana cream pie, and spicy chocolate.  We tried them all.  They were amazing.

Sierra and I had a sleepover with Lucy and Rex (mini Lucy) so that Sierra didn't have to drive all the way back to West Seattle.  Because West Seattle is SO FAR AWAY.

This is Rex.  He is smaller than his roommate Bob Cat.  He is a mini Lucy.

Then this morning, Sierra and I went out to brunch.  Then I went grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, which included buying 3 new pairs of shoes (for less than $100), a new compost bin, 3 different kinds of fake meat, and lots of vegetables.

Then I walked Lucy again, made dinner, and now I am blogging.

So in summary, my weekend included: 2 long runs (that included both Green Lake and the Burke), 2 brunches, 1 Sounders game, 1 local band performance, 1 shopping trip to Fred Meyer, many thoughts about how far away West Seattle is, 2 Lucy-dog walks, fake meat eating, composting, and lots of good friends.

I am a Seattlite.

And by default, so is this little snuggle muffin.

The longer I live here, the more I realize that Seattle is my home.  It is who I am and who I want to be.  And I can't imagine wanting to be anywhere else.

Life with Lucy: Dinner Help

Don't mind me, I'm just here to help clean up.

Oh what a weekend

I had a great weekend.

It was kicked off on Friday with our Family Night/Open House at school.  Over half of my students showed up with their families, which is a huge success in my school.  It was great to meet their parents and learn a little about their lives outside of school.  I even had a few parents and students from past years pop in to say hi.  Overall, a great night.

Saturday, we had our second TNT practice for Winter Season.  We listened to Coach Shelby at Run26 give advice on how to choose the best shoes and gear.

I've heard Shelby's spiel 3 times now, but still learn something new every
time.  He knows his stuff.

After practice, I rushed out to meet some friends and head south to the Puyallap Fair ("the largest single attraction held annually in Washington State").  I'd never been, and my students talk about it every year, so it was nice to finally be there to get a visual of all their excitement.  And the scones are DELICIOUS.  And so are the fried onion blossoms.  And the piroshkies are kind of OK.  And by the time we left, my belly felt like it was exploding with friedness and butter.

So it felt great to wake up Sunday morning and do this:

7.63 wonderful, hilly miles, with an average 9:09 pace.

I ran the first 3.5 miles with Lucy (who got left alone at home the day before while I ate my way through the fair).  Then I dropped her off and finished the rest on my own.  I aimed for hills, which aren't hard to find in Seattle, and I definitely didn't fail to find them.  I felt great at the end, came home and quickly got ready to go watch the Seahawks with some friends.

Love these ladies and don't see them often enough!  Disturbed-looking, hands
covering mouth man in the background is associated with us as well.

At the bar, I consumed a couple Bloody Marys and a few different kinds of beers, which spanned about 8 hours (we all decided to stay to pretend to watch the primetime game, but really just to hang out longer).  I ate a delicious garden burger slathered in cheese with jalapenos and pickles, and a large portion of tater tots for my post-run lunch.  On the way home around 8 pm, I stopped at my favorite Thai restaurant to get some Panang tofu curry with jasmine rice, then came home and ate the entirety of the large portion.

All in all, a great weekend full of horrible eating.  So today, when I headed to the grocery store after work (because I "watched football" instead of going yesterday), I fully intended to buy overly healthy foods.

The problem is, I absolutely hate grocery shopping.  I hate that I have to go once a week even though I don't want to.  I hate that it takes up so much time.  I hate that I can walk in knowing exactly what I need, but it still takes a half hour to get through all the aisles and gather it.  I hate waiting in line because the person in front of me doesn't believe the cash register when it names the price of an item.

I wish I could say "poof" and have all of my food necessities restock in my kitchen each week.  And yes, I know all about things like FreshDirect and Amazon Fresh, but from the experiences I had with FreshDirect in NYC, it really wasn't so fresh.  I'd also love to be able to join a CSA and have a box of yummy fruits and vegetables delivered every week, but I live by myself.  It would be impossible to eat all of the deliciousness before it started going bad.  A long time ago I had a hope that CSAs would catch on and start making boxes for us single-dwellers, but I've since given up that hope.

But really, the reason I absolutely despise grocery shopping is because I am tired of having to make the choice between healthy foods and inexpensive foods.  I want to buy Annie's Naturals and Amy's Organics, and all the other A-named healthy food products.  But when I look at my bank account, I just can't do it as often as I'd like.

I've made sacrifices to eat the way I do.  I switched from my steadfast and wonderful JIF peanut butter to Adam's All Natural (one A name that is actually reasonably priced).  I've basically quit eating any kind of meat at home.  I buy only fresh vegetables (nothing frozen or canned).  It's been years since I bought a box of pasta that wasn't 100% whole grain, or a box of rice that wasn't brown.

But what I really want to buy is organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables.  I want to buy the organic frozen lunches instead of my SmartOnes and Healthy Choices (sorry, I just don't have time to make lunch).  I want to get the organic milk and the cage-free eggs.  I want to buy the less processed oils, the Mirin that doesn't have high-fructose corn syrup in it.  I want to buy locally produced products, like Tilamook cheese.

I want to buy the wine that tastes good and the local micro-brews.  No wait, that still wouldn't be any healthier...but I still want it.

In general, I want the healthiest food to be the cheapest choice.  People wonder why our country is so obese, but all you have to do is walk in the grocery store to see.  The cheapest things on the shelf are the worst things for you.

But I'm not here to rant and rave about the condition of the food industry in our country.  I know things are getting better.  The price disparity between organic and non-organic produce is no where near as huge as it used to be.  But we still have a long way to go before the healthy food is affordable for everyone.  Including me.

So until then, I'll continue trying to eat healthy (aside from weekends that include fair food and Seahawks Sundays of course), knowing that I'm still putting chemicals in my body that I don't really want to be there.  I'm going to do the best I can, which in reality is all I can do.

But that doesn't mean I won't keep complaining about it (mainly to myself) until the ideal world finally exists.  I just might be silently complaining for a long time to come.

And then I'll come home, and see this and forget about it all anyways.

Curled up puppies make everything better.

How do you manage eating on a budget and keeping it healthy?  Where's the balance?

I won't ask you to give me money for healthy food, but I will ask you to donate to a really great cause: my TNT fundraising website.

Why I just can't stay away

I plugged in my Nike+ GPS watch to my computer today to update my run, and the Nike Running website popped up with this "achievement":

I feel so special.  What are my perks?

According to the running logs, I've run a total of 970 miles in the past year.  But I am going to fudge those results to account for the 2 weeks of unlogged runs at the beginning of this summer when my watch stopped being recognized by my computer and had to be replaced, and to account for all those random runs in the past year that I have forgotten my watch or it malfunctioned (i.e. I forgot to charge it).  With all that factored in, I am calling it 1000 miles.  And I am patting myself on the back.

Pat. Pat. Pat.

That is not the first time I have patted myself on the back today.  We do that a lot in first grade.  Today we made it through 5 minutes of silent independent reading after choosing where to sit around the room.  Then we patted ourselves on the back.  Twice.

But back to running.

After seeing that wonderful achievement today, I began to think about the last year of running.  I thought way back to where I was this time last year.  And then I mentally worked my way forward through the entire year.  And here is what the past year has mainly consisted of for me:  Team in Training.

I bought (actually, my parents bought for a 4 month early birthday present) my watch less than a month before my 2nd marathon.  I had been training with my 2nd season of TNT since April, and I was less than a month away from tackling the Victoria Marathon.

Beautiful course, beautiful day, and a 25 minute PR.
Canada can be cool

And once I completed that marathon, I took a couple months and then dove straight into another team, starting training for the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon at the beginning of February.  After several months of training with the team, I crossed that finish line too (read about it here and here):

Not so beautiful course, not so beautiful day, but still a
10 minute PR.  San Diego is cool, but not the RNR
marathon course.

And then 3 weeks later, I finished out the season with my teammates by running the Seattle Rock N Roll Half Marathon, during which I cared little about my time and more about cheering on my friends.

Me, Ironman MacKenzie, and Erica.  Before it started pouring ran for
several hours.

And now, I have jumped full force into another season to train for the Goofy Challenge in Disney World in January.

So the question that poses itself to me now is, what keeps pulling me back to Team?  How have I gotten so addicted to the Purple Kool-Aid?  And it's not quite a simple answer.

My first encounter with TNT was when I ran my first half marathon.  I had decided on my own to do the Inaugural Rock N Roll Seattle Marathon 4 years ago.  None of my friends were runners, so I looked up a training plan online, trained on my own, and ran the race by myself.  During the race, I saw lots of purple people.  And they looked so happy.  And they looked like they were all friends.  And suddenly, I wanted running friends.  It looked way more fun.

So the next year, I signed up to run my first marathon, the Seattle RNR Marathon, with Team.  And now, more than 2 years later, I have more running friends than I can count of my hands twice over.  If I'm having a sluggish day, or I just don't feel like I can tackle my long run, I get to Team practice and everything seems easier.  When I run with friends, my steps feel easier, my body feels lighter, and time moves faster.  Running friends can even make 3 hour, 19+ mile runs seem like a piece of cake.  

But that's not the only reason I keep coming back to team.  Running is great.  Friends are great.  But what's even better, is that Team makes me feel like everything I'm doing counts for something.  Every step I take, every mile I run, isn't just about me.  It's about finding a cure, support cancer patients, celebrating cancer survivors, and honoring those that we've lost to blood cancers.

These people ran in Victoria because they care.

And these people ran in San Diego because they care.

And there are so many more.  So many more people who run because they care.  Some may join because they want to run, some may join because they want to find a running community, and some may join because their lives have been touched by blood cancers.  But in the end we all stay, because we all have stories.  We have stories to tell, and we want to be able to do something.  We don't want to stand there and watch it all happen.  We want to know that somehow, we are helping.  Not only are we running and saving our own lives, but we are helping to save the lives of others.

And that's what makes TNT so special.  That's what makes it unlike any other running group.  We have something deeper, something stronger that ties us all together.  We are here to live our lives, and to make sure others can too.

But I'm going to be honest.  Just like anyone else who joins the team, I am nervous about my fundraising this time.  The first time I raised money, my friends, coworkers, and family said "Yay Tessa!  You're crazy but I will support your cause while you run your first marathon!...And by the way, what's a marathon?  How many miles is this one?  26, you say?  Oh sorry...26.2?  Here, take my money."

My second season, I donated my time and enthusiastic energy to the cause instead of money.  And I talked a lot about running.

By my third season, it had been 2 years since I'd fundraised, so my friends, coworkers, and family said "Yay Tessa, doing it again!  I know how long a marathon is...it's 26 point two miles!  I haven't donated in a long time, so I'll support you!"  

But now, having just finished a huge fundraising season in June, I'm back at it again.  And so now I imagine my friends, coworkers, and family thinking "Really?? Again?  How many times are we going to do this? Oh you're going to run 13 point one miles the day before you run 26 point two?  We already knew you were crazy.  Good luck."  

So I'm trying not to bug them too much, and that means I'm going to have to get creative this time around.  Fundraising events?  Crafting?  I'd bake, but I'm not too good at that...don't think you'd want to buy it.  Car wash?  I think as a rule you have to be 16 to legitimately hold a car wash.  I am no longer 16.  I know, alcohol!  There will be alcohol involved in any sort of fundraising.  Yay wine!!

No matter the method though, I think I'll still get there.  I'll try my best to get there.  Because I know that what I'm doing counts.  I know that every little bit I contribute makes a difference.  And for that, I pat myself on the back. 

Pat, pat, pat.

Have any good fundraising ideas for me?  Share!  Help!

Oh yeah, and if you want to contribute, you can do it on my fundraising website.  See how it feels to make a little bit of a difference.  I promise it's great :)

Escape From the Rock Triathlon: My First Tri!

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were a kid?  I remember very distinctly that I had two very clear dreams for myself: 1) Become an Olympic Swimmer (I recently admitted to myself that unfortunately, this dream will never come to fruition), and 2) Do a triathlon.  Apparently I thought I could make a living doing these things for ever and ever.

I'm not sure what it was that put the triathlon thought in my head.  My parents didn't do triathlons, I had no other family members that did, and I had no close friends that had either.  In fact, I had never met a single person (to my knowledge) that had completed a triathlon.  So where this elementary thought occurred from, who knows?  But as a 7 year old, I knew I loved to swim, and I liked to ride my bike, but I NEVER thought I could run.  Three marathons later, I think I've got that portion covered.

It may have taken a much longer time to accomplish this goal than it should have, and I may have come to accomplishing it in a roundabout way through years of sedentary life in NYC and then a few years of running, but here it is...a picture of childhood dreams come true:

Double thumbs up for childhood dreams.

I may not have been super prepared for this race, because I hadn't been on a bike or swam in weeks.  I also borrowed almost every item of clothing I wore in the race from Ironman MacKenzie (new winter goal: save up money for wetsuit, tri shorts, race bib belt, and bike jersey that fits my abnormally long torso).

Despite this, I finished.  And I'm pretty proud of how I did.  I finished 4th in my division (granted, there were only 19 people in my division, but I still think that's pretty good!).  

This was a small, local race with only about 300 participants total.  I loved the size for my first tri.  Nothing was too overwhelming, overdone, or intimidating.  And there were lots of other first timers, so I didn't feel as anxious as I could have.

Jamie also competed and finished her first tri in this race.  It was great having another friend there in the same boat as me.  Here were are, all bundled up pre-race.

As promised earlier, a picture of our awesome height differential.  Just under
a full foot between us.

We also had an amazing cheer squad there for us.  Ironman MacKenzie, Ironman Jason, and Half-Marathon Woman Dorothy all came out to cheer us on.  Unfortunately, we did not take a picture of the cheer squad, but they deserve as much credit as us for being out there on a gloomy September Sunday in Seattle just to cheer us on.  Thanks friends!

Now let's get down to the details.  I completed the Escape From the Rock Triathlon in Mercer Island, Seattle.  Somehow, this race is in fact linked to the Alcatraz Escape From the Rock race, but I'm not really sure how.  Escaping from Alcatraz sounds way cooler than escaping from Mercer Island, but I'll take what I can get.  The swim and the transition area is in Luther Burbank Park on the northern end of Mercer Island.  This is a beautiful little park, and if you've never been and live in the Seattle area, get out there and take a look.

The Swim

The swim started from the beach at the southern end of Luther Burbank.  It was one big loop in Lake Washington, and the water was about 72 degrees, which seemed perfect to me.  Before the race, we gathered by the beach to listen to the details of the race.

The man standing on the lifeguard chair made announcements and he was
AMAZING.  He seemed to love to hear himself talk and wasn't happy
until the entire crowd was laughing before the race start.

They started the swim in 4 waves of 75 people.  You could tell it was a low key race when they had to encourage the crowd to get in the water to fill the first wave.  I waited until the second and then hopped in the water.

The start of the swim is what I've been most nervous about leading up to my first tri.  I've heard Ironman MacKenzie recently tell of her swim experience in her Ironman, a race where there is a 2,000 person mass start.  That's right.  2,000 people--and they just say "Ready, Go!"  My 75 person wave was intimidating enough for me at this point.

After they started us, it took me a couple minutes to find a clear path to swim in.  I still am just not comfortable kicking and hitting people as I swim.  This is apparently something I will need to get over as I become a triathlete, but it's going to be hard for me.  I also inadvertently swallowed a lot water (eww, lake water) at the beginning, which made my tummy feel funny.

Once I found an opening, I settled into a steady pace, looking up every now and then to make sure I was headed towards the buoys where I was supposed to be.  The water was really wavy (much wavier than calm Green Lake), which took some getting used to.  My arms weren't as tired as I thought they'd be, and I felt like I was just getting warmed up as I rounded the last turn to head into shore (this will be a recurring theme).

Running in a wetsuit on jello legs to the transition.  Not the most comfortable
feeling I've ever had.

Swim Finish: .5 miles in 13:06

Swim to Bike Transition

After the swim start, the biggest thing I was worried about was the transitions.  I had no mental picture or physical practice with transitions, so I felt like I was entering completely unknown territory here.  Luckily, the race volunteers had let friends and family into the transition area until the race start, so Ironman Jason helped me to set up my transition area.

Some key pieces of advice from Ironman Jason:

1)  Bike necessities laid out first, followed by run gear.

2)  Sun glasses in helmet so you won't forget them.

3)  Roll your socks up like a ________ (you fill in the blank here) so you can put them on when your feet are wet, then stick them in your bike shoes.

4)  I'm sure there were some other pointers, but I don't remember them anymore.  Oops.

I probably took way too long in this transition, but I wanted to give myself time to wrap my brain around what I was doing and make sure I didn't forget anything.  Also, it was a really long run from the water to the transition area.  And at some parts we had to pick our way over a gravel path that wasn't quite covered enough.  In transition, I stripped off my wetsuit as quick as I could (how do you get those legs over your heels quickly??), threw on my bike jersey, unrolled my socks onto my feet, buckled up my bike shoes, and downed a GU, some Nuun, and a little water.  After strapping on my helmet, I was off.

Caught with my pants down.  Don't let my white tummy
blind you.

Swim to Bike Transition: 5:03

The Bike

The bike course of this race had you start in the north parking lot of Luther Burbank, climb up the hill to I90, and then ride the I90 express lanes across the 90 floating bridge.  The view from the bridge is gorgeous, but it was incredibly windy.  A couple times, I could feel my whole body tip as I was blown sideways.  This made it hard to gain much speed.

And I'm off!

As I started out the bike, my legs felt like absolute jello.  I felt like I couldn't push them hard enough to get any real speed up the hills, so on the downhills I shifted into my highest gears and pushed as hard as I could.  As flat as 90 may seem as you are driving across it, there are actually a lot of ups and downs between those tunnels and the bridge.  

There were 2 turnarounds on the bike--one at the end of the 90 tunnel on the Seattle side, and one at the end of the tunnel on the Bellevue side.  The Bellevue side is the last turn around, and this is right where my legs finally felt like they could do some work.  This allowed me to push up the steep off ramp back on Mercer Island.  But again, it felt like I was just getting warmed up as soon as it was time to stop.

Overall, I'm actually quite happy with how the bike turned out.  I was able to pass a number of people and only got passed by two or three others.  And I was pushing it as hard as my jello legs would let me.

Coming up the final hill into the finish.  I kinda almost look like a triathlete
or something.

Bike Finish: 12 miles in 40:31 (avg. pace 17.8 mph)

Bike to Run Transition

This transition was much easier.  A quick shoe change, down another GU, some more Nuun, and some water.  Threw on my Nike+ GPS watch, which luckily caught it's signal very quickly, and I was off.  I still feel like I could have done this much faster though.  But I'm keeping in mind that this was my first tri.  Slow transitions are allowed.

Bike to Run Transition: 2:26

The Run

As much as I love swimming and biking, running is still my strong point.  But although this was a short run, it still wasn't easy.  By the time I started out, my legs felt like jello again, except this time jello made of lead.  If that's possible.  It must be, because that's what they felt like.

It didn't help that the first half of the run went straight uphill.  From the transition area, up the trail to the I90 overpass until the halfway point, and then we turned around and came back.  My legs felt like they just did not want to go up this hill.  At some point towards the top, I even stopped and walked for about 10 seconds to give my legs just a little bit of a break.  Despite the jello lead feeling, I was quite surprised with my pace as I climbed the hill.  I knew if I pushed it hard down the hill on the way back, I could clock a pretty quick pace for the entire run.

Again, my legs just started to get warmed up to running as I re-entered the park for the finish.  I powered through the end, and crossed the finish line feeling pretty great.

Look at that speed.  Why aren't my feet blurry like the guy in front of me?  It's
OK, I passed him in the end cause the nice lady volunteer I saw before this
turn yelled at me and told me to.

Run Finish: 2.5 miles in 19:07 (avg pace 8:15 min/mile)

Total Finish Time: 1:20:12 and proud of it.

Finishers!!! (Yes, I'm squatting in this picture)

Overall, I felt like this was a great starter race for me.  Yes, there are places where I could have done better.  Yes, I can definitely smooth out my transitions.  I also think that a little bit of a longer distance tri (maybe Olympic) would be better for me, because then I could actually get some miles in with warmed up arms and legs instead of trying to function with jello.  But I did the best that I could for my first tri, and I couldn't be happier with how things turned out.  After all, racing (of any kind) is about an addiction.  An addiction to knowing you can always do better, be better, and try harder.  It only gets better from here.

Now I just have to wait out the winter and see what next year's tri season will bring!  Can't wait.

(photo credits to Jason, Dorothy, and MacKenzie, an awesome and dedicated picture-taking cheer squad!)

Have you done tri's before?  Any advice for a newbie triathlete?  Or an easier question: did you do anything this weekend you're super proud of?  Tell me!

Life with Lucy: Destruction

Squeaker Kill Count: Seven.
I am a GREAT house guest.

On fending off crazy thoughts

Every year when people ask me "What are you doing for Labor Day Weekend?," I get really confused. It's a funny weekend for a teacher.  While everyone else is looking forward to a relaxing 3 day weekend, a last hoorah before autumn sets in, teachers are slowly beginning to panic (at least those who haven't started school yet).

Labor Day Weekend is a dividing line for me.  Summer is over.  Done.  Kaput.  No haziness involved.  Real life starts again after Labor Day.  Labor Day is when I start thinking about all those awesome plans I had for getting prepared for this school year back in June.  It's when I remember all those awesome plans and then think about how I didn't accomplish them.  It's when I remember just how little those first graders are on Day 1.  When I remember just how much work we have ahead of us.  And then the slight panic sets in.  Even going into year 7 of teaching first graders, I still get nervous before the first day of school.  I see that as a good sign, but it doesn't make it any easier.

So when people ask me, "What are you doing for Labor Day Weekend?,"  I usually say "Nothing.  Absolutely Nothing."  Except last year when I flew back to New York for a wedding.  And this happened:

Wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world.
Side note: Happy Anniversary Galina!

But usually, Labor Day Weekend is my weekend to be alone with my panic and mentally prep for the upcoming week.  This weekend though, things have been a little different.  Yes, the first-day-of-school nerves are setting in (especially now as I write about it...that may not have been a smart choice), but my thoughts have also been wandering to another, slightly more disturbing place.

Something scary is happening inside my brain.  This isn't unusual, and is how I ended up becoming a runner, then a half-marathoner, then a marathoner.  It's also how I started thinking about triathlons.  So in general, scary brain thoughts are not entirely bad things, they're just scary when they first start appearing.  However, what's really scary about these particular creeping and slowly strengthening thoughts is that the word "Ironman" is involved in them.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term "Ironman," let me educate you.  An Ironman is a triathlon, but it's not just any old triathlon.  It is the ultimate endurance triathlon.  2.4 mile swim.  112 mile bike.  26.2 mile run.    Let me repeat that with some clearer, slightly rounded terms.  Two and a half mile swim, more than a century bike ride, and then a marathon.  All at once.  All on the same day.  No resting in between.  My friends who recently competed in one of these events had times that varied between 13.5 and 15 hours to complete the race.  So let's say they started racing around 7 am, that means they didn't finish until roughly around 9 pm.  People who finish these things get the Ironman logo tattooed on their bodies.  No big deal.

So the idea that this phrase, this term, this Ironman thought is making appearances in my brain is just a bit scary.  Right now, it only pops up when I'm not paying attention (or when I find myself surrounded by Ironman finishers, which happens more often in my life than one would think).  It has not come to fruition and I don't expect it to for at least a couple more years (half-Iron, on the other hand, is a different story).  There's still a gigantic part of my brain that doesn't want it to happen.  But there's a small part of my brain that all of a sudden does.  And there's the rub.  Because the seed is planted.  And usually when seeds of this sort are planted, all they do is grow.  And grow.  From starting running to running a half marathon to running a marathon and then running 2 more and then to tackling the Goofy Challenge.  The growth can't be stopped.

So for now, I'm going to attempt to curb the growth for as long as I can.  I won't water the roots of these thoughts or shine light on the small sprout.  Instead I'll distract myself with other things, like:

Training for the Nike Women's Half Marathon.  This Saturday I got a long hilly run in a Lake Youngs--which isn't in fact a lake, just a reservoir, and as you run the 9 mile loop around it you only catch one fleeting glimpse of the water.  Nonetheless, it's beautiful and extremely challenging run.

Wish I could make this clearer and brighter, but I'm simply not that smart.

Notice that there are no flat parts on the elevation chart.  Lots of ups and downs.  Lots of elevation.  I started off this run with my new reliable Saturday running partner Jamie.  Jamie is a teacher like me so we have lots to talk about, especially considering the main 3 things I ever talk about are running and teaching and Lucy.  She participates in 2 of those conversations and bears with me through the 3rd.  She is also 4'11" and I am 5'10", which I think must be quite a sight running down the trails.  I'll have to get it photographed sometime soon.

Jamie wasn't feeling so hot on Saturday though, so she stuck it out with me for the first 3 miles before turning around so she could keep close to the cars.  I saw her again at the end, still toughing it out like a little ball of energy.  Here's how I did:

I started slow with Jamie because she was feeling sick (and I'm totally impressed she made it out, let alone ran 8+ miles on those hills).  After we split up, I picked things up a bit.  I guess I didn't realize just how much I picked them up because when I looked at my final average pace after finishing, I was quite surprised.  I think I went slow on the uphills and then made up speed on the downhills.  That's my only seemingly reasonable explanation for maintaining a comfortable close-to-9 min pace in those last few miles.  That said, I felt great after this run.  I give myself a pat on the back.  Yay me.

Getting ready for my first triathlon next weekend.  I had originally intended to do the Black Diamond Olympic Triathlon in 2 weeks, but having not been on a bike or in a lake in several weeks, I decided to cut back and do the Escape from the Rock sprint tri next weekend instead.  I feel good about this decision.  And since it's my first tri, I think that it's good for me to start small.

Starting training for the Goofy Challenge.  I am super excited about this.  We have our Kick Off practice with Team in Training next Saturday, and I'm anxious to get things started.  I'm one of the captains for this season (along with 2-time Ironman MacKenzie), which means I have lots of responsibilities to look forward to keeping me busy in addition to my fundraising (donate to my fundraising efforts, pretty pretty please!!. Then you'll get to pat yourself on the back too).  

Starting the school year.  Duh.

Maintaining my new early morning riser goal.  Let's see if I make it through this week. I feel the real test is going to be waking up super early after a day with the kiddos.  But Lucy is loving all the extra exercise she's getting.  Short walks in the morning and then another short walk or run at night.

Exhausted.  Yes, her tongue is sticking out.

See?  See how easy it was to get distracted from all that thinking about Ironman?  I just have to keep doing that for another couple years and life will remain sane.  Because doing a sprint tri while training for a half marathon while starting to train for a race that involves running a half marathon one day and a marathon the next day is TOTALLY SANE.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

What crazy thoughts have been haunting you lately?  How do you fend them off?