That was - dare I say it? - kinda fun!

Just back from the dress rehearsal for the Iron Girl, and what a difference from last year! Last year, if you remember, I sort of panicked in the water and kept veering off course and had to flip onto my back to calm down and breathe. It took me 40 minutes to get through the swim last year. Then I did the run and fell after about a quarter of a mile, a fall that I'm still feeling now.

This year--way more relaxed. I took it easy in the water and had no worries. It was a bit too easy, to be honest--negotiating around so many people means stopping and figuring out the best route through, so you don't get a regular rhythm going so you get lots of mini rests througout the swim. But I finished up in 27:31, which is a minute or so slower than I've been doing it in the pool, but a minute faster than my race time last year. So I'm pleased with that. Then the run just felt easy and comfortable. My HRM wasn't reading my heart rate correctly (I think too many HRMs in the area mess up your reading) so I don't know how hard I was really working, but I ran all but part of the worst hill, and I probably could have run that if I wanted to push it. They are still repaving parts of the path so it was a slightly shorter route than it should have been, but I finished up in 32:07, which would be a 9:20 pace if it was the full route, but is probably more like 9:30 or 9:35 with the back corner cut off. Again, I didn't really push myself--during the race last year I concentrated on catching people as I ran and sprinting the last half mile, so I think I can do better (or at least do as well when you throw a 17 mile bike ride in there; cycling this year is my worst event--I just haven't been out on my bike much at all this year).

It's funny how I loathe the training, but actual events are really fun. Maybe it's just the flags and the tents and the camaraderie, or maybe it's just seeing that I don't suck as badly as I think I do, but you do something like I did today and you start thinking "oh, that was fun, let's do it again!" And that's what leads you to signing up to do it again before you remember how much you hate the training. Someone might have to restrain me come November when registration for next year opens!

No pain no gain

I'd like to say life and work are busy but Sarah's daily life easily trumps my schedule.

But I have done some great workouts lately. Last weekend I headed up with friends to whitewater raft and bike the Greater Allegheny Passage.

We got up about 6 a.m. Sunday and rafted the Lower Yough river, which is hard but probably the easiest section of river I've done. That leads me to the funny story -- me stuck on a rock in the middle of the river surrounded by rapids. We were asked to get out of the raft after getting stuck on a rock.

My note to self -- make sure there's a contingency plan to get back on the raft once you set it free. Yeah.

Eventually I had to ride the rapid -- one other guy did too -- and boy was it cold. But it also smacked me around quite a bit. Still I was no worse for the wear and enjoyed the rest of the trip from inside the raft.

After getting some lunch our group was headed out on a 30-mile bike ride to the town of Rockwood. That was until a huge t-storm hit and delayed us. We finally managed to hit the trail by around 2 p.m. A friend and her kids ended their ride at the next town -- Confluence -- 11 miles up the trail and rode in the support vehicle. Yes, the trip was supported and I got to enjoy some of those perks.

After an ice cream stop another friend of mine and I hit the trail for the next 12 miles -- rain, great scenery, muddy bikes, aching butts and all we made it in just over an hour, even with stops.

From there we had 6 pretty painful miles -- mostly because our butts were killing us. But we made it and rejoiced in a shower to clean off the river water, sweat, and caked on grainy dirt.

Somehow I loved it although I can't remember being that tired. All I wanted was a beer and some food. Food was easy, beer not so much. My friends ended up buying beer from some folks hanging on their porch in the town of Rockwood, Pa. on a cool Sunday night. Oh joy. I don't think I've seen beer make grown people so happy -- even if it was half a bottle.

I hit the hay first and slept soundly. We had a fab breakfast the next morning with amazing eggs, local sausage and pancakes. Now all I needed with some convincing to go back 30 miles.

The rest of the group was headed to Cumberland but we left our cars in Ohiopyle. The weather for the return trip was gorgeous and the ride on a slight incline and we booked it back.

I'm thinking of a new extreme triathlon that includes whitewater rafting, 30 miles of biking and something else ... rock climbing, not sure what but I think it would be popular. But it was exhausting.

I have to say though I have the bug for the biking -- I'm going to get my bike outfitted for longer trips and continue my conditioning.

Yes, I was sore although it was odd areas like my right achilles has been cramping up and my shoulders were sore from leaning forward. But I'm so glad I did all 60 miles despite the pain. I do think some of the pain was exacerbated by the rafting because I sat in a raft for several hours and my legs came out stiff. That didn't help the ride for the long run.

I do highly recommend the GAP and would love to do it again. Now I'm trying to think about the next trip, even though I may be relegated to the WO&D for awhile.

On another note, I'm impressed with all the reports of hard work and battling through life's hurdles to continue onward. If you can do it now, just think about when kids are sleeping and work is easier.

Keep up the good work everyone!

A cure for self pity

Exhausted, stressed, worried, irritated, and sick of all of this. That's what I was feeling all this morning. I'm so tired all the time from being up with Connor pretty much every night, and worried about his itchiness and swollen lymph nodes (and no medical professional is worried about these at all), and I'm beyond stessed at work. Even though HCC is a great college to work for, there are times when the workload is overwhelming, like right now, with several major deadlines this week and a bunch of smaller things I have to get done before going on vacation. And speaking of vacation, except that I'm vacating my house it's not going to be much of a vacation and I'm going crazy getting ready for it (I was up until 1 a.m. trying to sew trim on Claire's sleeves; I gave up when my needle came unthreaded and I was too bleary-eyed to get it rethreaded) while also trying to throw together something to celebrate Brian's birthday.

And all of this while still trying to get in training for the triathlon. That seems to have been pushed to a back burner--I'm too tired to get out early in the day (and besides, normally I'm up taking care of Connor at 5:30 a.m.), and too busy to get my normal lunch breaks, and too busy to get out in the evenings, and it was too hot over the weekend to do anything. So I haven't been getting in the long training I should, and really, I don't WANT to do these workouts.

So I was thinking all of this this morning and dreading my workout for the day. I was supposed to swim but wasn't sure I'd make it to the pool in time because of a morning meeting, so I brought my running stuff as well in case that was all I could manage and I was kicking myself for not getting in a workout yesterday--my plan for the week was to run Monday, swim Tuesday, run or bike today, take Thursday off, and then do the dress rehearsal swim/run on Friday. By not getting in my workout yesterday I threw off the schedule for the week, and being so tired today meant that any workout I got would likely be slow and easy. I seriously considered bagging it all and just going for a relaxing walk to de-stress, but the thought of the race in three and a half weeks makes me banish thoughts like that quickly.

I figured I could just wallow in self pity or I could put on my big girl panties and get on with it. And self pity isn't going to help me through the race in August, so I went with the big girl panties (not literally--hard to wear them while swimming), went to the gym and did BOTH workouts--the swim I was supposed to do yesterday and the run I originally planned for today. I figured my deadlines weren't going anywhere in that extra half hour, and doing two workouts today means I have the option of taking tomorrow off, and nothing is better practice for a triathlon than starting tired and wearing yourself out some more. And it wasn't too bad at all--I did the race distance for the swim instead of the mile I usually do. I planned a shorter running route but instead did my normal distance (I was aiming to finish both the swim and run in about an hour; I finished - not including transition time - in 1:00:02). It felt good, and it's true that physical activity is one of the best de-stressors out there, and it had the added benefit of relieving any guilt I've been feeling about neglecting my training, plus it gave me confidence that I'll be able to add a 17 mile bike ride to that distance and be just fine.

146.8

I gained Emily's weight, clearly.

Actually not really. This is just where I've been for so long now that fluctuations between 145 and 146 mean next to nothing.

I had a good run yesterday afternoon. It was a beautifully cool 90 degrees (!), which even at the time I realized was just nuts--how could 90 degrees feel so refreshing? But I was able to run my route all the way through for the first time in weeks (my afternoon run, that is; when I drag myself out of bed and run in my neighborhood it's usually cool enough to run the whole way too) and had an average pace of 9:13 per mile.

Today if I manage anything it'll be a swim after work. I've got Claire with me this morning while Brian is down in Virginia on a job interview, and I have to leave in an hour to get Connor off the bus, so no lunchtime workout for me. But I have so much to do tonight that I'm not sure I should stay for that swim.

This Friday is the dress rehearsal for the Iron Girl, so I get to go swim in the lake. I'll be testing out my new triathlon top to see how it handles. I'm not worried about it technically--I'm just worried about how it might look after a dip in the lake. It's got a white base and may come out looking really disgusting and showing off every piece of duck weed I pick up in my boobs. This will also mark one year since I injured myself on the run after the dress rehearsal swim. Let's hope I don't repeat that this year! My back still gives me problems, although I now sometimes go a few days with no pain. This also means my shoes are a year old--I got them about a week before the dress rehearsal last year. They're still in good shape, though, since I didn't use them most of the winter and have only been putting 7 or 8 miles on them each week.

144.0

Yippee! I've been back to counting calories all week -- I didn't even give myself a break on the weekend, because we all know how that turns out. So now I'm at my low point for the year, and my low point since Norway. And I've tied my low point for last year as well, except for the weights I saw in the first month in Norway, which were on a different scale and showed a very abrupt drop compared to my scale at home, so I don't know if they can be trusted.

I haven't gone out to run since the bad run on Saturday. Yesterday I couldn't get a gym appointment and it was too hot and sunny during the day. Today seems so much more pleasant -- we've opened up our windows and turned off the A/C downstairs for the first time in a week (we've managed to keep it off upstairs -- it cools down enough with window fans by the time we get to bed). I won't be able to go to the gym (swim meet during my usual gym time) but I think I'll be able to run after swim practice, just around home. If the rain holds off, anyway!

I'm with Sarah -- enough of this heat!!

I had planned to go running early tomorrow morning so Daniel could be at home with the kiddos and I could go for a real run on the Huckleberry, but it's been two days since my last run, my weekend run was only supposed to be 5 miles (I had been thinking 6, but my calendar says it's 5 this week and 6 next), and I wanted to get it over with. At 10:30 the temperature was only (only!) 83 degrees, and it's supposed to be a hot night and a hot early morning tomorrow, so I decided just to do five loops close to home. Of course, by the time I was dressed and ready it was 11, and the sun was beating STRAIGHT down -- so even if the temperature had stayed at 83 degrees, 83 at 11 is hotter by far than 83 at 7 am. But the temperature didn't stay at 83, and by 11:30 it was closer to 90 and I was dying. I even had Alexander with me on his bike, which should have been enough to motivate me, but I just couldn't continue. I finished a full 5k, but not 5 miles. I was feeling sick to my stomach. And it was slow as molasses (and that's molasses in December, not in July). Xander and I both had sweat pouring down us, and he wasn't even working hard.

I'm still counting this as my run for the weekend -- I made a genuine effort and I think this is the first time I've wimped out on any run all year (not counting exercise I skipped entirely because of travel or injury) so I shouldn't feel too bad. Next weekend I'll make myself run all 6 miles, come hell or high water. Actually, high water sounds rather pleasant right now -- maybe I could swim the six miles?

'Splain to me

Why is it that the MORE sleep I get the more likely it is that I will struggle to get up in the morning. Actually I know why... sleep cycles and all.

I went to bed at 11pm - a full hour earlier than normal. All that does is make my waking up start earlier. My first wake up was at 2:25. Then again at 3:45. After 3:45 I pretty much ran laps the rest of the night - until 5:45 when I fell asleep - only to be RUDELY awakened by my alarm at 6:30. I should have gotten up at 5:45 and gone for a trudge.

Last night I had five squares of a giant Mr. Goodbar for dinner. I need to start eating real food again. I had hummus and a salad for lunch though. So that is good. Only my salad (a chop salad from CPK - half size) felt gritty, so I only ate about half of it. The hummus was good.

I have no............. idea what I was going to say. I got as far as I have no and got distracted. Oh well.

Dear God, make it stop!!

This heat is just too much. I don't mind an occasional heat wave, but all of these days at these high temperatures is just too miserable.

I went out for a mid-afternoon run again yesterday, and it was one of my worst ever. Bad diet + bad sleep + bad weather = bad run. From the get-go my legs felt like lead and I was having a hard time making them move. I did the run in reverse, with the flat bits at the start and the hills at the end. Normally I prefer it the other way around so that I'm doing the flat bits when I'm tired, but I figured these days I'm walking so much towards the end of the run that I may as well walk the hills. I broke the run into two halves, forcing myself to keep running the first half and alternating walking and jogging the second half. I averaged 9:11 per mile for the first half and 11:37 for the second!

Today was supposed to be a swim day, but I woke up to discover that my swim suit was still wrapped in a towel and wet from Tuesday's swim, so I decided to get in more miles on my bike instead. I need more time on my bike, believe it or not. It's the one thing I *haven't* been training on regularly or methodically. I have all these timed splits for swimming and running, and I regularly work on swimming and running longer than the distance of the race. I haven't once gone further than the distance of the race on my bike (except last week on the trail with flat terrain and multiple long stops, so it doesn't count!) and I've only done the race route once (would have been twice, but the road resurfacing kept me from the end of the route), and my average speed on my bike this year is slower than last year at this time. So instead of staying inside like a sane person, I'll be out on my bike this afternoon. I probably only have time for 10 or 12 miles, but at least it's something.

Since we're all posting, I'm going to join in

But I won't be as entertaining as Amy or Julie, because I don't remember my dreams from the last few nights, though I know I've had a very active dream life. The last dream I remember was from last week, and it wasn't funny. I was enjoying climbing out windows of places, and then I met a 12- or 13-year-old girl who was doing the same thing, only much more daringly. She climbed out of a window about 5 stories up, launched herself at a pole about 4 or 5 feet away from the building (I think it was a lightpost, but I'm not sure why it was so tall) and slid down. Then she came back up and did it again, and I was going to follow this time, only just as she got to the pole she failed to get a grip on it, and she fell the whole way and landed on her back, and I screamed at her not to move -- she wasn't dead. I just remember the awful look on her face when she realized she didn't have the pole and she was falling. Why do I remember a dream like that -- I very seldom have bad dreams -- when there is so much funny and crazy stuff in my dreams usually, and I can't remember those right now?

Anyway. TOTALLY off the subject. I had the long run on Saturday, then the 4-mile trail run on Tuesday, so to keep on schedule I went running today, just three loops close to home. I've started reading "Chi Running," which Sarah loaned to me, so I tried to set out like it was going to be fun, and I still felt rotten and was slow. I suspect all the people who say that running can be fun are people who liked it to begin with, then lost the fun because of the training, then re-discovered the fun. But I don't really love running, even over shorter distances like this, even when I'm in good condition and it feels good. I just don't hate it. And not-hating it is as warm as my feelings get, so I think it's unrealistic to expect that I'm suddenly going to discover the Joy of Running. I don't remember enjoying running even when I was little -- I hated gym class and anything physical, because it took me away from what I'd rather be doing. I don't recall doing the running around that kids do very much -- I just remember feeling kind of behind the crowd all the time (comes of being the fifth child!). The only sport I remember loving for its own sake was swimming -- I really LOVE the way I feel when I'm strong and butterfly is easy. I look forward to it and I enjoy it while I'm doing it (when I'm in reasonable shape) and feel good afterwards. That doesn't mean I want to do it EVERY day, but for regular exercise it wouldn't be so bad.

Oh, and tap dancing. I like tap dancing. I could do that every day. ;-)

Struggling

This week has been difficult; I did make it to the gym Monday after work but haven't been back since. Tuesday night I cooked all night for the next day (quiches for the Ronald McDonald House breakfast and cupcakes for a birthday at work) so no exercise; the last night I was so exhausted from being up late the night before and early that same morning that I could barely function. Then I slept a whopping 2 hours last night. So that means my drive for the gym is not looking good for tonight. I am holding steady to the weight from the week before San Diego which I consider pretty fantastic given the fact of eating out 3 meals a day and the ridiculous amount of alcohol that gets consumed out there.

I know I'm going to the gym tomorrow night; Peter has an appointment at 5 pm with a trainer. I am thinking of going home and doing chores tonight, and then they will be done for the weekend. I think what little energy I have will be better used that way than if I go to the gym; I think I might run out even before the halfway point of an easy workout.

And Amy's crazy dream inspired me to share two (of many) I had in San Diego.

Dream 1: I woke up the first morning with a terrible start; I heard a loud noise and I couldn't find Harry in bed. I had been dreaming that Oprah had sneaked into our bedroom (which is where we were in my head) and turned our alarm clock off so that we'd be late. And looking for Harry...yeah...he was back in MD. After I woke Peter up, he grumpily said "We're in San Diego in a hotel, go back to sleep!"

Dream 2: I had this long, involved dream that we were going away for a week and staying in a hotel, but that you had to ship yourself your bed to have somewhere to sleep at this hotel. Best part: I had written out the shipping label to 611 Forest St, Omaha, Nebraska. Peter googled the address and it is a chimney sweep.

Forgot to post on Tuesday!

My weight on Tuesday was 146.4 (which has now gone up to 147 after a day of eating too much and not exercising. They sell funnel cake fries with chocolate syrup at Hershey Park!). I'm beginning to think that this is just what my weight is going to be--I've been hovering around this weight for a while now, and this was the weight I was when I did the triathlon last year. 146 is just what I am, with muscles. When I was 130 - 135 I was in a lot worse shape physically (not bad shape, mind you, just not with the strength and endurance I have now) and while I liked how I looked then, and my skinny clothes fit me well, I'm not sure I want to go back there if it means that cycling to work is too much effort.

I'd be happy to give up the swimming, though. On Tuesday I went to the pool and practiced 1000 meters at race pace and finished with a time of 25:43, which is amazingly good for me--that's 45 seconds faster than I've done it any other time this year and nearly three minutes faster than I did the race last year (although a lot of people said the course was set too long last year, so my time for 1000 meters may have been a bit faster). Then I rested for a minute and finished up the last 500 meters of my swim. My final time for the whole workout was no faster than I've ever been, which means my last 500 meters was much slower than I've ever been (recently). And I didn't intend to go slowly--I thought I was keeping up my normal practice pace.

My Monday run - did I post this already? - was hot, hot, hot. I have to force myself out of bed in the early morning, or else this weather has to cool down. Running in heat really slows you down, and it's already miserably hot each day by 8 a.m. I'm supposed to run again today and I'm not looking forward to this.

Yesterday was a day off. I had hoped/planned to get up at 5:30 to run before going to Hershey, but of course I didn't. And then I ate crap all day--half a bagel with cream cheese in the car, hot dog and chips for lunch, the funnel cake fries I mentioned, a few bites of Claire's cotton candy, and the little chocolate bar you get at the end of the fake factory tour. By the time I got home I was both sick to my stomach and wanting to eat real food, which felt odd and isn't an experience I'd like to have again. Gross.

Last night I dreamed I was training for a marathon

in my Maidenform bra. OK - not the bra bit - but the training bit. In my dream I was really enjoying the run. And there was this little wizard (like a foot and a half tall) who did something to me that made me run faster and feel not pain. (He did this because I had rescued his dog - a miniature pug that look like him.) I woke up and thought YES! I want to go out for a run, but then I realized that my legs were REALLY hurting from Hershey Park yesterday.

I am not sure how accurate my body media device is. I mean, I think it is as good a gauge as anything - however, for about two hours yesterday I had it off and in a locker while we played in the waterpark. Unfortunately, the device didn't realize it was off my body. It registered the whole time as me being asleep. My only guess is that it was pressed up against something and the ambient air temperature was about the same as a human body. When I took it off again later to get back in the water I left it with my shoes and NOT in a locker and that time it registered as off. Anyway - not even counting the time it was off my body I burned 3475 calories. It was off body for about three hours, so the average of that total over the 21 hours on body is 165 - so my guess is that my total burned was about 3700 or so (the time off body was spent floating on an innertube on a "lazy river" or bouncing in the wave pool which my knees REALLY didn't like!).

Normal run recovery

No weight today, because I'm at Mom and Dad's.

I went for a 17-mile run on Saturday, which I'm pretty sure you all already know. My feet complained a bit but not outrageously, and at 8.5 miles (the turn-around point) they were no worse than at 2 miles. I don't remember how they were doing after that, though, because I started hitting my wall at about 11 miles, when I still had an hour to go. Ugh. This is what comes of running (1) the day after travel, (2) the day after a dinner out, which involved both alcohol and dessert, and (3) after two weeks of very little exercise. It was terrible. The last 6 miles seemed like forever. Fortunately my brain was also pretty non-functional (you hear about people saying they have no memory of the last quarter of their marathon, and now I get that) so it could have seemed like much longer, I suppose. I think I must have looked a lot like Ken Clean-Air System when he's out running. Good thing there were no cars in my way.

Anyway. I did make it back, and my feet exploded the minute I sat down (so I was unlacing my shoes as I drove -- not good, especially considering that my brain wasn't fully engaged yet) but the blister on my left foot was only a little larger, and back to where it was as of today. My right foot was, surprisingly, improved when I took the bandage off. So the only significant pain I had to deal with after the run was the normal muscle soreness of running, and that was much better as of today as well. And I was dehydrated and under-nourished -- Sarah gave me exercise food to eat but I forgot to keep at it (only a small particle of brain remaining, remember) and I drank at my usual rate but I was apparently losing liquid at a greater rate. Amy fed me ice-pops later that day. They were amazing. They should have freezers-full of those at the end of races.

Today I went back out to the trail with Daniel (and Dad, who walked) and we ran 4 miles. I did not wear my arch supports, though I wore another pair of socks that have some arch reinforcement (like Sarah's Injinjis, which I borrowed Saturday, but without the toes). Afterwards my feet felt FINE. I'm down to no band-aids and I can walk like a normal human being, except for my achilles tendon, which is still unhappy and might remain so for the next three months. I have only the normal soreness of a medium-small run, and I should be able to stay on track for the next three weeks, before my 20-mile run on August 7.

I can't WAIT until this is done. Ugh.

Not so bad...

So my weight this morning was back down below 250. It was 249.2 to be exact. Earlier in the week I saw 247.8 - but that wasn't real. In fact, it wasn't even in the morning... so I have no idea how it compares to my weight normally.

Anyway, I didn't walk yesterday OR today. I woke up sick in the night last night (regular salads seem to make the middle of the night sick more common, that's for sure!) so by this morning I was pretty tired. In fact, I overslept! My alarm goes off at 6:30am, and this morning it didn't! I woke up at 6:41am!!

My doctor called today with the results of my pelvic ultrasound. She says I have a very thick endrometrial wall. Or something. It is 17mm. I don't know what is normal. However, she wants me to go see a gyno to have it biopsied. OK - I just looked up normal - 6.7mm. OK. Yeah. Mine is thick. But I don't know what they would do about it, and I don't know if that is at all connected to my swelling feet.

Back...

Last week was a doozy in San Diego. We had to eat out for every meal, but it was counterbalanced by the extreme walking. I googled our basic path each day and it was about 3 miles BEFORE anything inside the convention center, which if you have ever been to the San Diego Convention Center, it is the equivalent of several city blocks in length. Every year I mean to take a pedometer and every year I end up so scrambled with last minute stuff and I forget to pack one. Maybe next year...

I did get back to the gym last night after taking Sunday off; I was so tired from the traveling. I used a different elliptical and it was exhausting; I am not sure if I lost that much fitness in a week, if it was really more difficult, if I was just tired, or if it was some combination of things. My heart rate was higher longer using it and the resistance in the wheel was much greater. It was the kind with the huge front wheel instead of the smaller back wheel. There was a girl running on a treadmill behind me that was driving me nuts; the belt was loose on the treadmill and it was so NOISY. I don't know how she could stand it. I would have moved to a different one.

I think I am taking tonight off; I have to get stuff together for breakfast at the Ronald McDonald House tomorrow morning. I should be back at the gym tomorrow night.

I am dreading weigh-in

I didn't walk at all ALL weekend. In fact, I don't think I walked on Friday either. Then, on top of not moving much I ate like crap! Dinner out on Friday, meatballs and noodles for dinner on Saturday and Sunday. COLDSTONE! I did have one salad (on Saturday) - and I really wasn't eating other than the stuff I just mentioned, but that is just as bad as if I ate steadily all day every day!

I have a dinner meeting tonight. Well, it isn't exactly a meeting - but it is sort of networking. Dinner with Lynn Schwartz and Kristy. We are going to Bonefish. I was just reading up on how to eat healthy at Bonefish - and it is pretty much what I usually do - salad, grilled fish with mango salsa. I had leftover salad for lunch today. I have NOT been eating breakfast which is really bad. I need to get my act together.

Swimming, running, swimming, running

This gets very boring. Running around the lake at Centennial Park, I look longingly at the people out in kayaks. On our way to church we pass the starting point of some of the best mountain biking on the east coast and I wonder if that would be any fun.

Another month or so of this and then I can try something different.

This week so far I've had two runs, one swim. I may not get another swim in tomorrow, depending on if I have to head home at noon to get Connor off the bus while Brian goes off to GeekScape. I'm fine with that--I don't think my swimming is going to improve particularly from here, so it'll just be another year of surviving the swim so I can get on with the fun bits of the race.

My running, however, does seem to be improving! I don't know if you all saw my FB status this morning, but I went out for a run at the crack of dawn after my first full night of sleep in ages, and I ran 3.88 miles in 33:51, a pace of 8:40 per mile (well, according to mapmyride; using the Cool Running pace calculator, it's more like 8:43. I'm not going to quibble).

This happened not because I'm really fast, but because I filled out the map wrong on Monday, or rather, I took the wrong route on Monday and repeated my mistake today. I had mapped a 3.66 mile route around our neighborhood, but on Monday I hesitated at a turn, not sure if it was the right one, then went on to the next road and took the turn there, thinking that was the right route. I filled in all of my time information for the 3.66 mile run and saw my pace had been 9:52 per mile, which bugged me because I've been doing 9:20 to 9:40 pretty consistently recently. But I figured I was tired (didn't get a full night's sleep that night, and had done a brick the day before and was still recovering from that) so it was a fluke. Today, same route, I pushed my pace to make sure I got within my target time for the run. 3.66 miles in 33:51 is 9:20 per mile--much better. (I know you all really care about these stats, right? Be glad I'm not also giving you my average and maximum heart rate information!).

And then I looked at the map. My wrong turn added nearly a quarter mile to the route, so my Monday pace was more like 9:20 and today's was a blistering pace that I've never achieved before. I don't know if I can keep this up (and pretty sure I can't do that on the Columbia route after swimming and biking) but it's nice to know I can go that fast at all.

Oh! And I was down today

Not by a lot - and not below 150. I was 151 when I first got up, and then 150.2 after my walk. So - still down since the beginning of June by about four and a half pounds. Sigh.

I'm with Emily

All it takes is one day of bad eating and it is SO hard to get back on track!! I was doing GREAT up until July 3rd. After that it has been all down hill. What is really bad, I can't remember what I was doing RIGHT then. I finally concluded that the difference last week is that I wasn't recording any of my foods via TDP. I started back up again yesterday. My food choices weren't the greatest - however, I had a picture of what I was eating. This, I think, helps more than the number that I see at the end of the day. Or as much anyway. I can see when I did (or didn't!) eat. I can see that I had NO protein all day - or whatever the weakness du jour is. So I started tracking again yesterday...

Today I woke up at 6am (5:14 last night... Sarah, I can't IMAGINE what you are feeling if I am this tired!), got up and took a walk. I added on all of the extra courts and then........... I RAN! Only for about a block. But it was a little up-hill stretch. My feet felt weird... like I wasn't landing them quite right, or straight, or something. I don't know how to describe it. I thought about running again a little later on - but I was afraid someone would see me. But it felt good. I will have to make sure I add in a bit of a run in each of my walks. I also didn't feel quite as bad about the fact that I was huffing and puffing. Of course I was - I had been running. 8-) The best part is when I uploaded my Body Media, I had one minute of vigorous exercise. I usually only get moderate exercise on any given day. I think carrying the cooler at the beach gave me vigorous for a minute or two last week. I think I got vigorous when I first started walking too. Only for a few minutes - but I guess it was actually harder in the beginning...

The painters were working on the house again today. The roofer is supposed to come tomrorrow, and then the carpet cleaner is coming on Thursday. Then I THINK it will all be done. I sure hope so! I am sick of the project!

147.0

My weight got down as low as 145.5 this week, but then this weekend we had company so I let myself eat freely on Saturday. Unfortunately, as in the past, one day of intentional indulgence means I have completely FAILED to rein in my eating over the two days that followed. So far today I'm doing OK -- but it's only 9 am, so I haven't had time to get munchy after breakfast.

I went to the gym yesterday and ran a gentle mile on the treadmill. My foot did OK (not great), but I didn't want to push it, so I switched to the lovely no-impact elliptical and did 30 minutes on there, and that went really well. My achilles tendon got sore when I was running; I found that even when I made a conscious effort I had a hard time running squarely down the middle of my foot; I was running on the side of it, which was hard on my ankle. Today I have another gym appointment, so I'm going to go back to the elliptical and just bump the resistance up to make it a more solid workout (I took it easy yesterday), and with any luck I won't screw my ankle up any further, and my foot can go on healing.

That's better

145.8 today. Much better than last week's 148+ (which only lasted that day). Nothing else really to report. I'm not going to get to the pool today at lunch because of a meeting, so either I'll go right after work or I'll make today a rest day. Connor is still not sleeping and I'm not sure how much longer I can put up with this, but also pretty sure I don't have a choice. Last week he slept through the night three nights in a row, which was a first in a month or so. I was hoping it was the start of a trend, but apparently not. We seem to be in a pattern of two or three nights of not sleeping for every one night of sleeping. This is so much worse than having a newborn. At least with a newborn people expect you to be exhausted and incapable of rational thought, and at least with a newborn you can put the baby down and not worry about him escaping outside in the middle of the night or breaking a window with his head. I'm longing for the days of having access to Brian's prescription provigil on days like today when I can barely focus on the simplest things!

I don't know how you all do it

Seriously! I can't imagine the intensity of the exercise you all get it. I went walking each day Saturday and Sunday - and while I have been adding on courts and variations to my route to make it longer - it is STILL based on the basic mile walk I mapped out when I was first getting started again. BUT - I am still struggeling with that mile (plus). Yesterday Katie went with me, and about half way into the walk I felt like hot knives were stabbing in my calves. HOW!?! Do you all manage to run/bike/swim for MILES more than that????

This morning I uploaded my Body Media data from yesterday and my sleep was 5:23 - and my initial thought was "Oh! Good job! More than five hours!" That is NOT good. I need more sleep! My states from Friday and Saturday night weren't good either... Friday night I had 8.5 hours of "laying down" time - but only 6:29 of sleep. That is two hours of.... Well, who knows what... That isn't counting the 20 minutes I got because I went to bed at 10:30 - and woke up nicely refreshed 20 minutes later. Sigh. My sleep habits suck! Speaking of which... I think I need more air in my sleep machine. I have not only been as restless at night as I was before I got the C-PAP, but I have been as tired during the day too. I asked Barbara Ball about it and she said that she though the machine providers should be the ones to increase the amount of air flow. I told her that it was done on a prescription, and wouldn't that need to come from the doctor? I will call them tomorrow and ask. I feel like I am suffocating when I have the mask on.

I have not been tracking my calories - and I have been eating horribly! Not a lot - just badly. I HATE when Katie isn't around to cook for me. I really, truly, just don't eat. I get hungry - but when I go to the kitchen to get food, there is none, or it needs to be prepared. Sigh. I need to do something about that. I have started back with the salads. I had a Moroccan chicken salad on Friday - which wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Today I had a Cobb salad. Why do salads prepared by other people taste so much better than the ones I make? Katie made the Chard and Chicken dish she made a few weeks ago again on Saturday. It was good. However, between the salad on Friday (which I ate also for Saturday lunch) and the chard for Saturday dinner, my stomach was A MESS Saturday night.

Anyway, I am off to track my calories for today. I need to get back to that habit.

Getting sick of this

I wish the race had been two weeks ago when I was feeling strong and ready. Now I'm just feeling tired and stressed.

I got in only four workouts last week (two swimming, two running) and both of the runs were slow jog/walks. I didn't get on the bike at all until this weekend when I did another brick on Sunday afternoon. It was no fun at all--both the ride and the run were cut short because of construction. About 5 or 6 miles of the road that the ride is on is being resurfaced so you really can't ride on it, so I just turned around and went back the way I came, which made the ride about 3/4 of a mile shorter than it normally is. Unfortunately I did this shorter ride in the same time I did the full ride two weeks ago, so that's not good. The back end of the run had the same problem--they are resurfacing the path so I had to cut across a field, which cut off part of the route and one of the hills, but my run time was roughly the same as it was two weeks ago. Then this morning I went out for another run and for the first time in two weeks actually RAN the whole way, but now my time is slower--I had been doing 9:20 to 9:40 miles the past few weeks, but this time I only managed a 9:52 pace. I knew that slacking off my training would affect my speed, but this time it wasn't my fault! It was the heat keeping me from running full tilt, and after just a week of that I'm already slower. Maybe I just had a bad morning.

I need to find time to put in more time on the bike. Last year I commuted more often, and went out in the evenings more often, but last year was one of the coolest summers we've had in a while. This year all I want to do when I get home is hide in the a/c and the thought of commuting by bike isn't at all appealing.

Work is stressful right now, which isn't helping. And Connor is still not sleeping. I'll probably have to wear my train pajamas tonight. I think I'll move to Australia.

I might not lose the foot after all

On Monday I tried to treat these foot blisters as minor but annoying injuries -- I went to the gym and used the recumbent bikes and everything. On Tuesday I cancelled my gym appointment but still tried to maintain other normal activity. On Wednesday I was in pretty severe pain but still hobbled around, ending up with over 5000 steps. I bought some of those blister gel skin-like band-aids and put those on both feet, but only the left one seemed happy with it (and it hasn't bothered me since -- I haven't even changed the bandage, since it's supposed to be left alone for 6 days); the right one kept coming off because the wound was so much worse underneath. So I gave up and started airing it out (which I was doing at night already). Finally on Thursday I woke up and realized I needed to act like an invalid. I spent as much of the day as possible sitting down, and anytime I was home I kept the ice pack close by and rested my right foot on it. By last night, the dang thing finally started to close up! Today I'm trying to remember to keep it iced and rest it as much as possible, while trying to prepare for seven weekend house guests. (Bit of a conflict, there.) But the improvement over 36 hours ago is extreme. I might even be able to wear shoes by Sunday or so.

I haven't been able to exercise since Monday (obviously), and even though I hate going to the gym I'm hating the inactivity more. I didn't have room for a gym appointment any day after Tuesday anyway, but if I did I'd at least go and do upper body weight training and VKRs and such just to get my heart rate up. I can't go for a walk or a run or a bike (I tried that on Wednesday, just a mile, and my foot hurt like hell, especially on the uphills) or even a swim (because bad things happen every time my foot gets wet) or anything else that doesn't require equipment. Meanwhile, I've been eating only 1200 calories a day (except for Sunday, of course) and seeing my weight go UP (which is annoying), so yesterday I got tired of being good and ate a whole bunch of chips (that's what we had on hand) without counting them or anything, and today my weight dropped 3 pounds to the lowest point I've seen since mid-April. ARGH! Why don't the results of dieting make more SENSE?

Yesterday's run

Running in humidity is way worse than running in just heat. I have no more patience for people from dry states whining about how hot it is and how they have to stay inside from May through October.

I went outside for my run again yesterday. Same route as Tuesday, but the air temperature was a lot lower--about 94 degrees instead of 105. The humidity, however, was much higher, and that led to a MUCH harder run than on Tuesday. Tuesday was just hot but I never felt like I really shouldn't be doing this. Yesterday I took it just as easy as I did before, and drank even more water along the route, but felt worse the whole way. I didn't have my HRM on the last run so it's hard to compare, but my heart rate on this run shot into the high 170's pretty quickly and would stay at 174-178 on the flat bits, only dropping down to the low 170's on the downhills. I walked up hills so that kept my heartrate within reason (I didn't let it get above 180 at any point on the route). There's one point on the route at about the halfway mark that's at a low point with a pond nearby; the air there was just awful--much hotter than the rest of the route, with no breeze and significantly higher humidity. It should be an easy part of the route since it's a flat bit after a long downhill, but I actually look forward to the next hill to get out of that pit. By the last mile I walked more than I ran and struggled to keep it below 180. I suppose some of my difficulty was that I went into this run after two days of exercise instead of two days of rest, but overall I think it was the ickier weather that made it so much harder.

But the worst part was at the very end--the locker room. They've been turning down the a/c on parts of campus in the afternoons to save energy, and it felt like they had it off entirely in the locker rooms. It was disgustingly hot and humid from the showers. There was no way at all to get dried off. You take a shower, dry off, and are immediately covered with a sheen of dampness again. After trying to dry off with a towel and wads of paper towels, I gave up and just put my clothes on while wet. As I was changing there was sweat dripping from my face all over the floor. Really nasty. And it wasn't because I had been running outside--another woman in there after an elliptical workout was having the same problem. Going outside was a relief--the hot air dried me off a bit.

Today is a swim day and this weekend I have to get in another long brick. Probably Sunday afternoon since it's supposed to be stormy tomorrow, so I'll get another opportunity to run in the heat. Fun!

Busy

This week has been nuts; we leave for San Diego for a week long conference this Saturday. And I somehow thought it was a brilliant plan to buy Dave Matthews tickets in Hershey for the night before our flight. And have the painters in to finish the first floor and the basement all this week. *sigh*

I have to do laundry, run errands, put the house back together and pack tonight since tomorrow night is a wash given the concert, so no gym, although I was contemplating how much it would screw up my other responsibilities. I think it would be pretty bad...

I have been exercising regularly...I can't recall my last real post but since last Thursday I have gone to a spinning class, a body pump class, a body flow class and then used the machines on 2 different occasions. I burned a zillion calories last night according to the machines; 350 on the elliptical in 30 minutes, 150 on the treadmill in 20 minutes and another 50 on the bike which I was using to entertain myself while I wanted for Peter to finish up. We ate at the Greene Turtle for dinner with some friends, and I chose the crab cake. That could have been a terrible choice, it could have been ok, I really have no clue. I just know when I eat that I am full but not stuffed.

Next week is going to be difficult with eating; we will eat out nearly every meal. Bleh. But at the same time, we walk a ridiculous amount so I am hopeful it just balances out and then I can refocus when we get home. I have no idea what my weight is, Tuesday was my Monday and then I forgot about it yesterday because it was Wednesday not Tuesday, etc, etc, etc.

Stalled out

So I haven't been doing much of anything exercisewise and wow, what a difference.

Congress went nuts before leaving for the July 4 recess, which is now, and I was just exhausted. Plus my parents were in town over the weekend and while we were active it wasn't the same. We did plenty of walking around but I didn't get in any workouts.

It's hard enough to battle the bulge while exercising, never mind while not doing much of anything. But boy, I definitely have noticed the difference. My waist is jabba-the-hutish.

So now that they are gone and I've got a couple of days left of recess left I'm going to get back on track.

My mom has lost weight working out and she feels and looks a lot better. My dad, on the other hand, doesn't really care and I see the effects. My mentality has always been to stay in shape and I'm sticking with that.

My eating isn't too bad. I'm getting a lot of my food from the farmers market so I'm eating zukes and tons of fruit. I recently bought a tabletop gas grill and did up some chicken and buffalo burgers over the weekend. I'm trying to stick with light fare with the really hot weather. Argh.

Overall, I can do better. Much better.

I will probably be doing a bike trip toward the end of the month -- the Great Allegheny -- so I'm going to prep on the trainer and hopefully get in some rides before then. We'll see.

Everyone keep up the good work through all this heat. Brutal.

Well that sucks!

My weight is back up. After forcing it to be below 250 last week it refused to do it again. Yesterday I was up to 253 point something - which I did NOT approve of, so I weighed myself again today. I was 252.2. So up two plus pounds.

I haven't been tracking my food - and I have been eating like crap! I think the biggest problem is restaurant food. We went out on Friday for lunch and Katie and I went to Red Robin on Monday (using her birthday coupon). Both of those events were not only calorie laden, but FAT laden. Then yesterday we went to the beach. That meant fast food for lunch/dinner. And snacks on the beach. Sigh. Regardless, I did burn over 3000 calories on two days last week (yesterday and July 4th - apparently being over heated and taking several short walks is the key...).

The other key may be the salad thing. I haven't had many salads in the past week. I need to start that up again today!

Maybe not my brightest moment.

My 1:00 meeting ran late, so I didn't get out to go to the gym until about 3:30. As much as I hate it, I planned to use the treadmill since it's a billion degrees in the shade. So I got over there, got changed, was getting ready to put my bag in my locker....and the power went out.

So no treadmill. They let the people stay in the pool, though--I should have planned a swimming day!

But I've had two days off in a row and was all dressed to exercise and prepared to be miserable, so I decided to just go walk around the track until I couldn't stand it anymore. Turns out I couldn't even stand it before I made it all the way to the track. 20 feet out the door I decided that walking around on a flat, baking, shade free surface was not something I wanted to do, so I switched plans and decided to just walk my normal running route. Two minutes into that I decided I didn't really need to walk the whole way (it was, after all, getting close to 4:00) so I decided to run the downhills and walk the uphills and run/walk the flats. So that's what I did for the next 40 minutes. Did I mention that I also forgot my chest strap for my heart rate monitor? I had no real way of knowing how I was doing, so I erred on the side of caution and never let my heart rate really get up. I figured I was fine--I had water with me, it was only a little over 3.5 miles, and the route passes a hospital at the end! And I was fine, although I can't stop sweating now. I just checked the NOAA website and found out that the last reading for Columbia, taken just before 4:00, had the temperature at 105 degrees. It's probably good I didn't know that before I went out.

Ate too much

WAY too much. On Thursday my weight was at a record (well, recent record) low of 143.8. Today, after spending all weekend eating non-stop, I was up to 148.8. Surely I couldn't really have gained that much weight in that much time? OTOH, I don't think I was really 143.8 on Thursday either--that was a sudden drop for no apparent reason. So it'll be interesting to see where my weight settles over the next few days.

I took Sunday and Monday off of exercising. Sunday was intentional--I had hit my weekly goal of 43+ miles on Saturday, so took Sunday off. I had wanted to get out for a run or ride on Monday, but after a rough night with Connor I didn't have the energy first thing in the morning and then it was way too hot the rest of the day to go out. Today I'm scheduled for a run, but it'll probably be on the treadmill to avoid the heat.

Only 12 (or 13) more swims until the race!

147

After last week's post I went and logged my calories. I've done pretty well this week at keeping them under control, except for Saturday, when I just didn't worry about it after the run. The funny thing that day was that even when I was hungry nothing tasted all that good to me, until dinner, when our friends brought a really amazing salad and we also had corn on the cob -- those both tasted great. Who knew I was capable of craving vegetables?

Anyway, my weight is back into descent mode. Let's hope I can keep it moving downward for a little while -- I'd love to carry a few fewer cans of Crisco each time I go running! (Not that I'm going to be running for a few days -- I can still barely walk. I used the bike at the gym yesterday so I wouldn't do anything weight-bearing, but even that much pressure on the balls of my feet made my arches hurt more. Sigh.)

World's largest blisters

OK, maybe not the WORLD's largest. But I've got what are certainly the largest blisters I've ever had. Ouch. My original shoes left me with black toes and a sore calf. And soreness all down my right leg. My new shoes corrected all three of those, but they left me with my arches falling. Last week I added my arch support insoles to the shoes on my short run and they were lovely, but about 4 miles into my run yesterday my right arch started hurting again, but it didn't feel like my arch was collapsing. My left arch joined it in complaining a couple of miles later. When I got home, I peeled off my socks and found HUGE blisters on the underside of my arch -- an inch and a half long and nearly an inch wide!! Today I have only mild soreness from the run, but I have to hobble to avoid hurting the blisters. Ugh.

One of the more remarkable things about yesterday's run is that I discovered it makes a MAJOR difference to run in 60s weather rather than 80s/90s weather. At 8 miles into the run, I had managed a 10-minute pace the whole way. It was less than 9 and a half over the first mile when I thought I'd been holding back, so that 10-minute pace was me holding WAY back. I finished the whole 14 miles in 2:26:43. The overall average pace was 10:22 (I'm sure you all are very excited by all these statistics); I lost a lot of momentum in the last four miles. The last mile in particular was awful -- it has a number of big uphills.

I did not have any of those fun intestinal problems I've encountered in the past. Mine have never been as bad as that LOVELY photo Sarah linked us to (gee, thanks) but I have had to make a pit stop on one of my at-home runs and I've had a few worrisome moments on others. I started counting (and cutting) calories this week, so my calorie intake the day before was under 1200. On the morning of the run I had a cereal bar before I went out, and at about mile 6 I switched from water to Powerade (which was gross, and in the end I'm not sure that the number of calories I succeeded in taking in was enough to make any difference -- it's only 50 calories per cup, and I had to follow each swig with a sip of water so my mouth wouldn't feel all syrupy, which meant I was getting more liquid than I wanted each time), so I wasn't running on an empty stomach, but I also wasn't running on a full system.

It's two weeks until my next long run. I thought I was going up by 2s now, but it turns out I only got that increment once -- now it's by 3s until I hit 26! So next time out I'm running 17 miles. In Maryland, too -- I'll have to figure out a route that won't kill me. I don't think Springdale even has 17 miles of road.

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone is having a good holiday. Way to go Emily with your big run!!!

One more day for the weekend. I hope it goes really s-l-o-w-l-y!!!

Hmm

So I started going through the cupboard last night looking for all the hiding places for high fructose corn syrup. I found it in: tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, Campbell's tomato soup, Frank's buffalo wing sauce, ketchup and 1000 island dressing. I have to go through the dry goods tonight. We decided that we are going to donate anything unopened to a food bank rather than try to eat it down. I usually don't declare war on a single food item like this, but it is an easy target AND there really is no reason for it to be in SO many things. I mean, kidney beans? Really? That means every time I made chili I would load it with HFCS unintentionally, between the beans and the tomatoes. I have yet to check the label on the seasoning mix we like.

Peter and I went to the gym again last night. He set up his appointment with a trainer so he can learn all the weight machines. The Reisterstown gym has so many more than the others I have been too. The elliptical bored me last night, and I need to be out of the house tonight for a decent spell so the painters can work in peace, so I am contemplating a biking class. I really feel like going to the scrapbook store, but the gym is probably a much better choice overall. :-)

Good Yoga Day

I also had a good day exercising yesterday. I started the day with a walk (about a mile and a half - so more than I have been doing... I could have, and should have, done more...). Then my yoga class was GREAT! It was the last class of the session and we always do a half handstand in the last class or two each session. All that is is you do a downward facing dog pose with your heels against a wall - then you pick your feet up and place them on the wall. I have NEVER been able to get both of my feet off of the ground. Last session (so the one that ended in March) I did manage to shift my weight in such a way that I felt like I was pretty darn close to succeeding - but that was still with one foot on the ground. However, YESTERDAY - I didn't get my second foot onto the wall but I DID get it off the ground. I sat (perched) there with one foot flat on the wall and the second one flapping about eight inches in the air. It was flapping because I couldn't place it on the wall because the first foot was slipping... But for a few seconds my body was suspended sort of upside down. ME! All 250 pounds of middle aged ME!!

All that said - plank is still harder IMO.

BUT in this very same session I managed to - and this is really stupid, but I can't do it - go from a squat position (normal frog squat - toes turned out, heels (mostly) down and elbows braced between your knees (nice groin stretch) to downward facing dog. It shouldn't be a hard move, but usually by the time we get to that point in the class, my joints are aching and I have muscle fatigue. My biggest problem I think is that I have little faith in the strength of my shoulders and arms. So anytime I have to put my weight on my arms, I don't do it with confidence - and so I fail. And I am not talking putting a LOT of weight there. I mean, all you are doing is stepping back with your legs and pushing back with your arms, but it is usually too much coordination for me.

We didn't do plank yesterday. I wonder if I would have been able to pull it off if we had...

I had my second pottery class yesterday. I like the teacher. This was the first class with the actual teacher. He has red curly hair that he wears in a pony tail - so off the bat he is the type of person I like. He seems to have a pretty laid back personality, and was verbally encouraging to all of us. No matter what kind of crap we were producing, he is VERY good at pointing out the good features of the pots. That, I think, is really important to for a beginning class of any type - focus on the good, not the bad. We all KNOW it is bad, we want to hear where we are doing it right. He told me that I had good trimming technique AND he asked whose pots were these (mine) and that they were really good. I have to say - I really think that the years spent making glass beads has helped with the pottery. I have no problem holding my arms and body very steady and still. Maybe photography has helped too - because I have no problem supporting one hand with the other braced somewhere else. Hee hee. Next week we are learning handles. We are also going to do a lidded pot and a pitcher. He said that way we could produce a tea set (in theory...).

God wants me to ride the Northern Tier

That's the cycling route across the US that goes through the northern states, starting in Anacortes, Washington and ending in Bar Harbor, Maine and going through notable sites like Glacier National Park, Ticonderoga, NY, and Muscatine, Iowa. The risk of getting eaten by bears is only marginally higher than that risk on the "traditional" trans-America route, but the risk of getting chased by dogs in Kentucky is decidedly lower. Oddly, I'd rather take my chances with the bears.

I've been reading Northern Tier stories on crazyguyonabike.com. This guy is a really good writer (worked for the BBC for many years and is a professional writer--he's a great story teller and most of his journal is about the people he meets and not about the riding or what they ate for dinner like so many other journals are). These girls make up for their so-so writing skills with their enthusiasm. They make me want to be young again.

Anyway, so I've been reading these stories and yesterday I got home from work (on my bike--first commute since May. I've been either too busy or it's been too hot to commute by bike recently) and found that the Adventure Cycling Association sent me, by mistake, a full set of the Northern Tier route maps. I had ordered a downloadable book from them last week, and I think what happened was their system automatically generated a shipping label for me, which got slapped on the next order. So I have the maps that Shari, from Juneau, Alaska ordered (why would someone from Alaska want to do the Northern Tier? You'd think she'd want to do the southern route!) and am just waiting for it to be business hours in Montana (where ACA is headquartered) so I can call them and let them know their mistake. I won't pretend that I'm not hoping that they say "oh, sorry, you just keep those and we'll send another set out to Shari." It probably won't happen, though--these are expensive maps (Shari was charged $102 for them) and ACA is a small business.