fun fact friday

1. despite having woken up at 2am and 4am, duke let us sleep in til 7 this am. i thought he might be dead (hes usually an alarm clock at 5am). luckily he was just sleepy and not dead.

2. that pink girl wanted random facts on her blog today. she said she wished she knew how to play the piano... when we moved to maine, the first house we rented had a piano and i taught myself how to play songs by ear. when i finally took piano class in college i had a terrible time reading the sheet music and just memorized how to play the songs instead of reading.

3. i do, however, know how to read (and write) music (although i cheated off my friend jamie for most of our senior year music theory class). i played the euphonium for 8 years starting in 5th grade.

4. three of my very good friends are flying into maine 2 weeks from today! i.cant.wait!!

5. the next 3 weeks are going to be a whirlwind to say the least. lots going on, starting sunday. (youre welcome for the vagueness!)

6. i need to catch up on greys. like 3 seasons worth i think. i havent even opened season 7 from the packaging. i also dont know what season is currently on tv.

7. i know a lot of people running their first marathon this weekend. im so excited for them! i wish i could relive my first marathon again. nothing like that feeling.

8. its almost impossible to keep this house clean with the dog and cat. ive come to the conclusion that it will always be dirty. forever.

9. this whole no coffee/no alcohol thing is for the birds. but i think ive drank about a gallon of milk in the last few days, i think my body needed this break.

10. i have two nalgene bottles that i rotate. one is 3 years old. the other is 8 years old. its probably time to invest in a new one.

11. one of my brothers is going sky diving tomorrow. im physically sick thinking about it, but we might go watch.

12. i think i will make these. soon. (update: just sent ty a text with the ingredients to pick up on his way home tonight)

13. im happy its raining only because i needed to water the plants and our hose is busted and i am too lazy to go buy a new hose.

14. my calves and ankles will be so happy when this puppy biting stage is over.

happy friday!

life.

lobsterman tri- less is more ;)

a few weeks ago when my upcoming work schedule came out, i found out that i was free the weekend of sept 14-15th. i contemplated joining a reach the beach team but ultimately decided that i really didnt want to run far/not sleep much this close to marathon #7. also its about 30 degrees at night now so sleeping in my bed vs a sleeping bag on the sidewalk sounded much better. and then theres that whole "we got a puppy" thing. hes kinda a lot of work.

so instead, i convinced andy that the lobsterman triathlon would be a great idea, and he agreed! (side note: hes easily convinced) (side side note: i may or may not have told him i would do the bike and run and all he had to do was swim. he signed us up before our conversation was even done, and then i kindly reminded him i didnt have a bike. hehe. danielle- 1. andy- 0).

i havent raced a 10k in over a year so i was a little nervous but i played it cool. hey, at least i wasnt swimming and biking first! i met up with andy before the race to talk strategy and he was still half asleep and wearing what he slept in. while everyone was lining the beach in their wetsuits to take a quick dip, he was chatting it up with his fellow teammates and sipping tea. uh, time to get ready dont ya think? (of course i still had over an hour and a half to just chill, and chill i did... it was about 45 degrees and looked like it was about to rain!)

as we made our way into transition to get our timing chip and get body marked, we saw kellie and made sure she gave us legible numbers.

im still annoyed by these triathlon rules...

but i like my number a lot better than his ;)

i think we can see who knows more about transitions

what, this isnt what you do?

after some light reading and 18 trips back and forth from the car to transition for water bottles, we went and hung out with the sustainable athletes for awhile before we all had to meet for the pre race meeting. andy finally decided it would be a good idea to get his wetsuit on, they went through all the rules (that hopefully didnt apply to me since i wasnt really listening), and then the first wave got ready to get in the water. the waves were split up among sex/age groups and each wave had different colored swim caps. as a fun twist of fate, andy got pink, my favorite color! and lucky for me, that swim cap is now mine :)

(i guess i dont have a pic of the pink swim cap, but the shirts were pretty cool...)

and at least they remembered the "L" in triathlon...

oops. (polar bear tri shirt)

although it was a bit chilly, the atlantic ocean temp was said to be about 64 degrees and the sunrise looked beautiful at winslow park.

since we were in the relay, andy's wave didnt start until just after 9:30. i waited to see them off and then walked to the car to get my sweatpants. i was still freezing, and i knew it was going to rain.

i was able to see a bunch of people i knew coming out of the water as the rain poured down, and then quickly turned sunny and warm.

once andy got out of the water and out on his bike, i knew i had over an hour. i got my stuff together for the run, went to the bathroom, and did a warm up mile. then i took a nap stretched in transition.



what....?

this is what marathoners do at triathlon relays

when i saw andy coming into transition, i picked up my handheld, popped in a piece of gum, and grabbed the ankle timing chip as he mounted his bike. shortly after taking off i could already tell that the timing chip was going to drive me insane. not only was it annoying around my leg, it was wet. gross.

i headed out on the dirt park road at about a 7:15 pace. oops. i knew i probably wasnt going to PR this 10k since i havent done legit speedwork since i dunno, may? but i figured i was in good enough shape to do low 8s. and i knew i had a hill to come up at mile 4ish. what i had forgotten about was the hill at mile 1. mile 2. oh and mile 3. barf.

i had a mix of gatorade and water in my handheld, and had eaten half of my chocolate waffle before even beginning the run (i guess my 3/4ths of a bagel at 7am wasnt enough, who knew?!) since the sun had come out it was also hot. i took it easy on the first two uphills and powered down the other side. i felt bad passing all of the people who had just come off the bike, so as i passed i told them all good job and hoped they saw the big R on my leg before cursing me. (i know you all hate people like us, thanks michelle). i stopped at each mile marker to throw a cup of water down the back of my neck and took a few sips as well. the heat with the hills was just killer, but with a mile left (downhill) i gave it my all and cruised in at 7:30 pace to finish 51:53 (8:20 overall pace), passing a guy with "75" on his calf. sorry buddy, i know youre more hardcore than i am but im gonna beat you anyway.

overall it was a really fun race, very well organized and the volunteers were excellent. ive never had a bad experience at a triathlon, and i just love watching everyone compete! i still feel like i totally do not fit in with all the triathletes though and im scared as hell to do an ocean swim so im glad it was andy and not me. and although it kinda sucks to wait around, im thinking relay tris are the way to go :)

team "less is more ;)"

22 miles

22 mile runs havent generally been my favorite. 22 miles is far. i dont even like driving that far, let alone running. but, it has to be done (well i guess technically it really doesnt have to be done... but i figured that it would be more for my benefit with marathon #7 coming right up, that i should get in some more miles. these 20-30  mile weeks, although a great rest for my legs, have not done well for my mind. sure i have a fairly solid base built up from the past 4 months of omgrunningALLTHETIMEsomanymiles, but not so much lately.

so i needed a long run, and i needed it to go well.

(the last 22 miler before marathon #5 went peachy, incase you all forgot.)

dead.

last saturday morning, sarah and i took off early to get the miles done. were both really smart (hint: nope, not so smart) and neither of us planned out where we wanted to run. first mistake. about a half hour before running our plan was tentatively 88 laps around the local high school track. read: were stupid.

about a mile into the run (not on the track, were smart enough to decide that wasnt a good idea) we were both a hot sweaty mess in the 987% humidity. yay. isnt it supposed to be fall yet? mentally neither of us were prepared, physically our bodies were saying "what is wrong with you, turn around, this sucks, you should be sleeping, dont you have a puppy to tend to?"

7 miles done. and i did another 3 when i got home, which was another stupid idea since the humidity was still 4836%. barf. fail. so much for the long run.

fast forward to monday. well, actually backtrack to about 5 miles into the run on saturday when sarah texted her friend to see if she could babysit her son for a few hours on monday morning so we could try this again. of course neither of us knew what the weather was going to be like monday either, but i guess we would take that chance. so ok, back to monday morning. woke up to 50 degrees and 60% humidity (!!!!) it was COLD! my plan of a skirt and tshirt went out the door, compression capris and a long sleeve shirt were dragged out from the back of the closet. i had everything laid out and ready to go. i had gotten up early to have something to eat, drink some coffee, and stretch (in the form of chasing a 9 week old puppy around the back yard... so more of a warm up i suppose). i remembered all my necessities. everything seemed to be falling into place much better than saturday. sarah and i drove out to the maine marathon course so that our scenery was different than our normal westbrook routine. we've done a lot of running this year and the monotony was killing us both. at mile 6 i felt like we had only been running a mile. there was shade all along the course, and we took it easy on the hills. (side note: although ill tell everyone that will listen that i hate this marathon course, its only because its failed me time after time after time. i actually love this course, its truly beautiful.)

as is the norm between us, we talked and talked and talked. until both of us just stopped. and we ran in silence, just our feet hitting the pavement. this is one of the greatest things about our relationship... the ability to just run together, we dont need to keep each other company, we know we have each other right beside us. but it didnt stop my from trying to sing a few times, stopping here and there to stretch, and screaming at the blonde driving the saab who almost hit us as she swerved out of the break down lane while she was texting, seeing us at the very last moment.

im not sure when i noticed, but shortly after mile 13 i could tell something was not right with sarah. we were slowing down a little and her stride looked different. although i asked what was wrong, she wouldnt admit her leg pain. but i knew it was there. ive been where she is, and its not easy mentally or physically. at mile 14 we stopped at a convenient store to stretch and took this little gem for meg:

im at a paaaaaaaayphone

unfortunately at mile 15ish, sarahs leg had had enough. we were still a little over 4 miles from the car so i told her to give me her keys and i would get back to her as soon as i could (but give me at least 45 minutes, im not superwoman!) i told her no more running on it, walk if you can but sit and rest it and ill be back. i was running out of water and i knew there was a store i could stop at to refill but i didnt want to waste any time. at times i was doing 7:50s. i was crushing the back miles of this course like i never have before, just needing to get back to her car. when i got back to her car i was just over 19, so i finished the final 3 miles at home. i felt like my hydration (new 22oz handheld with 1/2 water, 1/2 gatorade) and fuel (peanut butter gu, sports jelly bean things, and honey stinger chocolate waffle) were right on. the espresso love gu that i have lived off of for the past year made me want to be sick so i only had a small amount of that before throwing it away. my plan is going to be to bring all of this for the race and take a cup of water at the aid stations. i may also try a salt pill or two, depending on how i feel.

22 miles: 3:24:27 (average pace: 9:17)

final miles:

16- 8:31

17- 8:30

18- 8:24

19- 8:13

20- 8:30

21- 8:26

22- 8:37

as all hope had been lost leading up to this run (me? dramatic? who would have thought...), i think i might survive marathon #7 after all. but as i have found out the hard way, no matter how your training goes, anything can happen on race day.

august review & a new family member

august recap:
there was not so much going on in august other than eating a lot of ice cream and not really wanting to run (but i did run since i wanted to eat all the ice cream). i volunteered at the finish line of the Rev 3 Maine half ironman which was SO cool (what a great company, anyone wanna get me a job there?) and reached the 1,000 mile/year milestone, which was also pretty cool.

run: 128 miles
bike: 68 miles
races: zero
bowls of ice cream: at least 50. win.

quote of the month: "we were here first."
current song obsession: tied between "it's time" by imagine dragons and "we are never getting back together" by taylor swift (i know, i know... but the beat allows me to run a half mile at 7:45 pace on long runs, so ill take it)

favorite pin of the month: http://pinterest.com/pin/261068109619989675/ seriously, i couldnt stop laughing. and then i started doing it to ironman andy. clearly he loved it (and thinks im slightly crazy).

(which we all know is absolutely true)

september is already off to a fun start... we had a yard sale this past weekend and made a few bucks. i could write a novel about the kinds of people that came and the ridiculousness of it all, and needless to say it was great people watching. (while i was hanging up the signs on nearby telephone poles a man stopped me to ask if we had any firearms to sell. seriously?) by 2 o'clock on saturday i was giving everything away to the little girls that lived up the street (i bet their parents were so excited for them to come home with all our stuff!) we ended up getting rained out on sunday.... we set everything up just before the rain started, covered it all with tarps and went inside to drink coffee. no one even drove by so a little before noon we loaded everything up and took it all to goodwill. goodbye ALL THE JUNK. it feels SO GOOD to get all of those boxes of stuff we never use out of the basement!

lets see, what else happened this weekend...

oh yeah. this:

our family of 3 became a family of 4

 

yes, after 6+ years, we FINALLY got a puppy! and we are fully in love, seriously.

 

the in-laws came down for the weekend to help with the yard sale and MIL mentioned that she had seen a facebook friend of hers post pics of new golden retriever puppies that are ready to find a home. apparently she had told ty about them last week but he didnt tell me (not surprising). so we looked at her page and saw these little guys that were left:

 

can we just have them both?

 

we looked at the pics of the parents (both darker red goldens), and emailed to inquire about age, price, immunizations, etc. weve been doing this process over the past few years and not finding exactly what we would like... but things just seemed to be working out right this time. we received an email back within an hour and the (my) excitement began. we knew it was going to be a lot of work and before bed we discussed many things that we were going to have to take into consideration. we ultimately decided that no time was really going to be perfect but that now was better than never. on saturday we emailed her back saying we would like to come and see the puppies on sunday and made plans to drive up. there were still a few things that we needed to ask about when we got there which would make for a long drive home without a puppy had the information not been in our interest, but when we got there and met the puppy and the mom, everything was just fine. (a couple had come and bought the blonde puppy on saturday, so all that was left was the red).

 

and he came home with us.

 

 

ever since we had wanted to get goldens (yes, we eventually want to have 2...) we thought we were going to name them stella (girl) and diesel (boy). but we thought of a few other names for this one just incase diesel didnt fit him. while we were talking to the owner before we took him home, she told us she had become facebook friends with tys mom because she and her husband had known aaron. her husband had cystic fibrosis and had passed away the year before aaron. she also told us that the puppies were born on july 6th.

 

aarons birthday.

 

not only did we know that this puppy was meant to be for us, we also knew immediately that one of the names we had thought of fit perfectly:

 

DUKE.

 

(and no his middle name is not "krzyzewski" or "battier", although i did try for the latter)

 

despite the first two nights full of crying and whining and a lot of barking, not quite knowing how to contain the puppy very well (we got some baby gates yesterday), and a very upset cat, we have welcomed duke into our home and our hearts. he is very playful and loving, survived his first trip to the vet, inhaled the cat food this am and promptly threw it all back up, and gets the hiccups at least 4 times a day. he sure is a lot of work but he is awesome.

 



being a puppy is tough work

puppy parents of the year

(he learned real quick that those boxes fall down really easily)

im gonna need a few of these to get through the next few weeks i think

um... is this furry thing staying with us for good?

the confrontation

 

 our sleepy little family