Sep

29

What are YOU doing this Winter?

Category: Austin Endurance Ranch, Cycling Camp, Triathlon Camp, Winter Training | 2 Comments

Here is what I will be doing. And you are all invited. The Austin Endurance Ranch promises to be great training and a great time. Obviously, since I will be there. This will be my first winter where I am not snowed in and/or slaving away on the trainer and treadmill for endless hours! So, if you too are looking for a winter training camp, even if it's just for one week, check out the website and read up on all the awesome options in Austin.

Sep

26

I Adore You with Decreasing Infrequency

Category: Gaslight Anthem, North Seattle Community College, Showbox at the Market, trials and tribulations | 2 Comments

I know I'm a little late in reporting, but The Gaslight Anthem show (on Wednesday night at Showbox at the Market) was completely awesome. Here is their list of tour dates. Honestly it was the best show I have seen in years, I know I was raving about Franz Ferdinand a few weeks ago (also FYI the more I think about it, the more I liked Modest Mouse's set) but this was even better, if that's possible. I loved the music of course but what really made it extra awesome was that these guys obviously love what they do. They were having as much of a blast ...
(more...)

Sep

22

Magic Eye says Yes

Category: Gaslight Anthem, Showbox at the Market, quotables, trials and tribs | 2 Comments

So my 5.5 year old laptop made a solid bid for its retirement a couple of days ago, in the form of a failing video card. I'm actually typing on it right now, since it's not completely dead (yet), but if I am lacking in my usual verbal clarity and awesomeness it's because I'm typing through flashing blue and yellow rows of miniature vertical houndstooth patterns that look like those Magic Eye pictures where you had to cross your eyes to see the dancing purple lion. Ugh. On the positive front, I got a sweet deal on a refurbished MacBook Pro!! I've been obsessively checking my order status all ...
(more...)

Sep

19

Yea yea. I’m smart.

Category: GRE Prep, North Seattle Community College | 5 Comments

I took the GRE yesterday morning. Yay! Since the test is now all new-fangled and computerized, I got my verbal and quantitative scores right after I finished the last question. The essay questions get graded by actual people though, so I have to wait a few weeks for those. It was one of those better-than-I-expected, worse-than-I-hoped things. I know I could have done better had I practiced the computerized format, I got questions wrong because I ran out of time (I never do that!) not because I didn't understand the questions. For those of you who are planning on taking the GRE sometime in the future, it's definitely worth it to do all your practice tests on the computer program ...
(more...)

Sep

15

Still Training Hard!

Category: GRE Prep | 1 Comment

I am taking the GRE on Friday morning and right now I am in full-on taper week mode. Short math intervals at test-day pace. Lots of essay transition set up, complete with outlines and examples. Reading comprehension mimicking test-day conditions... test-day water bottle, no music, and iPhone set to airplane mode. I'm lacking on the sleep front, but the most important night is 2 nights before the event and that's tomorrow night. Oh, and I'm doing at ton of vocabulary spin-ups. Craven. Diffident. Sophistry. Aver. Prevaricate. Chary. Malingerer. Wag. I am sedulous in my verbal efforts, sanguine in my preparedness, and in no way desultory. Use it in a sentence and you officially know it, right? Oh and the other reason I'ma do awesome is ...
(more...)

Sep

12

A little more Wallowing

Category: GRE Prep, achilles tendinitis, trials and tribs | 3 Comments

I still can't get over my piggy photo from last week. Ben says I'm the only person he knows who, once they find something that's funny, can go back and look at that funny thing and laugh hysterically, ad infinitum... But piggy is so CUTE! He's SWIMMING! LOOK at him! Swimming! I also can't get over my achilles nonsense, which I also posted about last week. I've been getting my injury treated twice a week for three weeks now. I just learned that this should have healed it, but it hasn't, thanks to my stupid-in-hindsight insistence on doing lots of hard cycling workouts. So, the tendon is still aggravated, I'm still injured (although my cycling is feeling good), and ...
(more...)

Sep

9

My 31st Birthday Happened!

Category: Bumbershoot, enjoy the blog, quotables | 8 Comments

This big party? For ME?!?! On Monday I turned 31! Yay. Here's all the awesomeness that happened. -I got a book about Genghis Khan from my mom. She says "it's the BEST book I've EVER read, oh it's just FASCINATING" so here's hoping my achilles heals in time for Longhorn 70.3 so that I can read it on the plane. -I also got a phone call from my mom. She sang me Happy Birthday! -Phil Spencer hand-delivered a giant smorgasbord of awesome presents "from him and Ben" which means Ben was on the phone offering occasional advice while Phil did ...
(more...)

Sep

3

Excuses are for Bad Swimmers

Category: training | 4 Comments

I stole that from Mindi, and then personalized it a bit. About a month ago she wrote a blog that mentioned a bracelet she wore, it said "Excuses are for Fat Kids." It leapt out at me because I realized that I make excuses about swimming alllll the time. I'm too tired to have a pointful swim workout so I should just rest... Just showing up to practice counts as a workout... There are too many people in my lane, I can't swim... My shoulder feels funny so I shouldn't swim... Swimming off the clock is too hard, going by rest intervals is good enough... I didn't swim as a kid so there is no way I'll ever ...
(more...)

Sep

1

For a Smart Girl I sure do some Dumb Things

Category: training, trials and tribs | 5 Comments

That's what my mom tells me sometimes. And she's often right! One thing about triathlon training and racing is you definitely have to be flexible. Cause stuff happens. My latest reminder of this, and estimated 12th such reminder of this season, ugh, is a very annoying and painful micro-tear in my Achilles that I anticipated in early August, sustained on August 9, and then, until today anyway, pretended to ignore whilst limping all around everywhere. ARGH. Obviously in hindsight I should have done things differently, not stuck to my exact run plan when my leg started hurting, not assumed that it would be OK, and I dunno, not raced two consecutive weekends when it hurt... But you know what, it is all ...
(more...)