Saturday, April 25, 2009

My Little Sunshines

Actually, they are tigers, and can they roar!

Today, I spent the morning and early afternoon with the Tigers at the TUSD All City Track Meet. Our team wasn't very big, but the fourth and fifth grade boys and girls who attended from all over Tucson ran, jumped and threw their hearts out.

The meet started a little after 8:00am (In the history of sporting events, has one ever started on time?) It was already hot out, and there were a few casualties and lost breakfasts on the 500m. It was a little challenging to watch. Overall, my tigers came in 7 and 8 in the A Girls 500m, 5th in the B Boys, and 3rd in the A Boys. They did well against some tough competition.

Oh, all the kids are grouped by height and weight, with A being the largest and D being the smallest.

Other notable finishes: 2nd in heat #2 of B Girls 100M, and 6th in the final. 5th in B Girls Long Jump, 2nd in A Girls Long Jump, and 2nd in B Boys Long Jump. We had one girl place 2nd in the B Girls Softball Throw (Elementary substitute for Discus). 2nd in heat #2 of A Girls 100M, and 4th in the final. 2nd in heat #2 of the A boys 100M, and 7th in the final. 3rd in the A Boys 500M Relay and 4th in the A Girls 500M Relay.

I was proud of all our kiddos.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

World Culture Club 5k

In February, Hubby and I signed up for a 5k training group with Fleet Feet Tucson. We met with them each Tuesday night for twelve weeks and had our graduation run on Saturday, April 18th.

Here is our crew. There are a few runners missing. They weren't able to make the race.
Left to right: Brent, Leslie, Jenny, Linda, Coach Jenn B., Meagan, Heidi, Karie (me), Ruth, Aaron (Hubby), Rhiannon, Coach Jeanne, and Coach Jenn S.


The race was at 49'ers Country Club in the Tanque Verde Valley. It was a beautiful day, with no wind that morning. We met our group and quickly began to laugh at the guys from Robeks trying to blow up one of those gigantic, inflatable smoothie cups. They had a tough time with it. We all watched as the 1/2 marathon took off and then went for a little warm-up.

At the start line, we found out the course that was printed on the web was actually backwards, so we ran the opposite of what he had driven the night before. No biggie. It was a pretty small race, about 300 people between the 1/2 and 5k. The course wound through the neighborhood, and we got to look at all the pretty houses, some even for sale. I looked them up later that night on-line, and only one was in our price range. It was one I liked though.

Back to the race. I was feeling pretty stiff for some reason and was having some lung difficulty. The lung stuff could quite possibly be contributed to the endless winds we have had lately. I did okay though. I stuck to my plan of running 3 minutes with a walk break of 1 and 1/2 minutes. I walked through two run intervals at around miles 1.5 and 2.5, but for the most part, stuck with the plan.

As I rounded the corner and headed in to finish, I saw my hubby and Coach Jenn S. waiting at the beginning of the finish chute. Jenn took this picture as I was coming down the street.


When I rounded the corner, I heard the race announcer call out that there was another Fleet Feet member coming in. Hey, that's me. At that time, I started on the grass and promptly tried tripping. The announcer also told me not to trip on the grass. Thanks, buddy. Just a little too late. Luckily, I didn't fall. I ran up the rest of the finish chute with a bit more speed than usual to the rest of my group waiting to cheer me in. Overall, a nice little race, tight legs and lungs and all. This is only my second stand alone 5k (third 5k counting the one at the end of the tri). My time was 57:02, about 4 minutes faster than the first one, and 1.5 or so faster than the Tucson Tri 5k. I'm getting just a little faster. I start building mileage this week, Woo Hoo!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Pool Problems

If I were feeling particularly alliterate-y today, I would add Pissed Off to the Pool Problems issue.

After returning from my weekend in Vegas, which included little to no debauchery (Sorry Cheryl). I decided to go for a swim. Actually, I needed to go for a swim. This was Wednesday, I think. On this particular day, the winds were 40 - 50 mph, and there was no way in hell I was getting on a bike. I really didn't want to go to the pool either, as the pool is outside and they don't clean it very often (they say once a week, HA). I've swam with the same leaves in there for weeks on end. Sometimes, I almost think it could qualify for a lake swim, ick!

Anyway, I had to talk myself into getting my suit on and gathering my towel and gear bag. Then, I had to talk myself into actually driving to the pool, since I tried to either turn around or go somewhere else at least three times. Once in the parking lot and out of the car, I tried, again, to turn around and go home more times than I can remember. I also noticed the ducks that reside in my pool that usually swim with me were in the front garden area of the gym and not in the back by the pool. I should've know then. I finally decided that I needed to go into the pool, or I would feel even more crappy with myself. And then this happened .......

While schlepping to the front door to the gym, I hear yelling. Not like people having fun yelling, but ridiculous, over-bearing screaming coming from the pool area. As I approaced the front desk and looked toward the pool, the water was amass with flailing adolescent arms. The yelling was coming from the swim coach girl walking up and down the side of the pool. Oh, F... it's swim team season.

I approach the front desk and grab the pool schedule, no swim team listed. I say to the front desk girl,
"There was no swim team last week."

"Oh, No! It started yesterday."

"It isn't listed on the schedule. What time does it run until?"

"8:15"

"8:15? When does it start?"

"4:30, Monday thru Thursday."

"4:30 until 8:15 Monday thru Thursday? That doesn't leave much time for anyone else to swim does it?"

"Oh, well the pool is open all day. Do you work or something?"

"Yes, or something!"

My or something consists of spending my day with 28 fifth graders. The last thing I want to do is show up to my gym and see even more of them spashing around in the pool.

So, Pissed off about Pool Problems and Picking a new Plan.....

Sunday, April 5, 2009

In the Swim of Things

I didn't intend on taking nearly a week off of training after the tri, but I did. I finally got back to it on Friday with a late night swim with Coach Geoff.

I started off with a 200 meter warm-up while he finished with his other client. Then we chatted for just a moment about my swim last Sunday. He decided that it was time to put some speed in the training routine.

We made some small adjustments to my stroke. Apparently, I have been entering the water and then scooping my fingers up. How one establishes this routine, I do not know. So, I worked on entering the water correctly, fingers down without scooping. We also made some adjustments to my catch. I have been swimming with a full catch in order to correct my stroke and breathing issues. Now, one arm gets to leave just a bit before the other gets there. After practicing this, Geoff decided to incorporate some anaerobic work into my training.

Oh yeah, I paid attention in middle-school gym class. I know anaerobic means "without oxygen", which means I have to move it. He wanted me to do 6 x 25 as fast as I could, which quickly turned into eight, which quickly turned into twelve. Geoff mentioned once that he wondered if I would be talking to him after this. I would have if I could have actually talked between my feeble attempts to gasp air.

After 12 x 25 sprints. I did a heart rate check. It was around 190. Hello, I think the last time my heart rate hit 190, I was having a panic attack. I like it better when I know why my heart is beating out of my chest.