On hiatus remainder of the week

Saw this and I laughed that I had to use it since I had the perfect little opportunity!!

One more day!

One day till surgery!! I'm am sooooo ready get on with it. As with jumping horses, you don't look at the fence as you approach, you look beyond (implying you will land where you look), so I'm looking beyond to healing, a gradual resumption of training, and eventual racing.

Fortunately I kept pretty focused all last week with work and life and a nice steady stream of interesting projects for the tremendous clients, coaches, and athletes of the fortyninegroup. I still sometimes can't believe this is really my job. I worked ahead because I don't plan to have access to my computer until I am home again. That will be weird! I'm trying to think what is the longest I have gone without my beloved laptop? Maybe a day or two. My iPhone will have to do.

Friday morning I did the pre-op phone call where they ask a million questions about whether you have had this or that. It pretty much went like this..."no, no, no, never (laugh), no, no, no, lord NO, no, no, oh no, no, yeah a glass of wine some nights, no, no, no...multivitamin, D3...no, no, no, nope."

Later that day I went to the gym to burn off the nerves and hit the treadmill for an appropriately dysfunctional final "run." Any time I find myself feeling nervous about what is ahead, I just think about how much MORE nervous I would be if I was trying to race like this. I'm grateful to have the chance to try to fix it, I really am.

Like most weekends, the kids had some friends (and their laptops, lol) over. As I looked around I seriously debated taking the bike off the trainer to eliminate that temptation over the next few weeks. I decided it was more important and reassuring to keep it in place. It's my indoor kinetic sculpture garden!

I had big plans to bike both days this weekend but the weather had other plans with rain/winds Saturday and snow/cold temps/wind Sunday. The gloom of Saturday pretty much took care of the last of my workout motivation and by the time the sun popped out Sunday I was too far gone. (of course this week while I'm stuck inside it's supposed to be sunny and in the 70s) My friend Bryan suggested I should be looking at it as a "taper" anyway. I substituted in a PJ-wearing movie-marathon on Saturday. I said I was in training for laying around. Very lazy.

Laziness fuels more laziness. This scares me. I know recovery is not laziness...but I think every addicted endurance athlete worries that their lazy self lurks just beneath the active one. OK, I am not THAT worried. Just a little.

Along with the threat of chronic laziness, lots of other what-if's have popped into my head. You can't really help it. So when they do, I just recognize the futility in that type of thinking and get busy doing something else. Like shave the ancient kitty's matted belly fur and give her a bath.

So yeah, I am ready. Work is in good order, the family is in good order, even the pets are in good order. I look forward to turning things over tomorrow to vascular surgeon (and cyclist) Dr. Davidson.

I leave you with this. I love this:

Veggie Roasting for Dummies

I LOVE roasted veggies. You can't deny the beauty of an oven stuffed with veggies! This was what I did last night (still raw in pic) - eggplant, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, plus tomatoes and chicken (not shown).

My favorite things to roast include: broccoli, kale, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, asparagus, eggplant, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, yellow squash, beets, peppers (sweet), onions (sweet or red), and others I am probably forgetting.

I also like chick peas, tomatoes, mushrooms, and pineapple.

Sometimes I will share on Facebook some yummy roasted whatever photo and I will be asked for the "recipe" when in fact what I love is there is no recipe. The recipe is heat x time. My basic process is this:

1. Preheat oven to 350 (carefully chosen because that is the default)
2. Wash and cut veggies. If it's some kind of squash I halve it and seed it. Put on baking sheet
3. Optional: apply salt, and/or drizzle or spray of olive oil, and/or Cajun seasoning (for kale and chickpeas), and/or Mrs Dash random composite of who-knows-what herbs and things (for eggplant, squash, etc)
4. Put in oven for 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on other multitasking needs, keeping in mind that time and temperature are inversely proportional, while the product of time and temperature should be directly proportional to the mass of the veggie chunks. (engineer, what can I say). Translation - turn the temp down if you need to leave it in longer, and bigger stuff takes longer.

It's a forgiving process, low maintenance, and hard to screw up. Yesterday I threw it all in the oven then hopped on the bike trainer for 70 minutes including 3 x 12 min @ tempo! I did have to stop briefly in a rest interval to turn the oven down. I could have sent a kid but it allowed me to return with a bit of sweet potato to enjoy! Bike trainers do offer certain advantages, like fine aerobar dining!

Then afterward I had a proper dinner that had been cooking up while I pedaled away! I don't do a lot of breads and pastas in general, but rather try to get carbs through fruits and vegetables. Veggies do the best job of filling me up!

If you are not a big fan of veggies, I would highly recommend you try roasting them. It produces a rich flavor and appealing texture. Yummmm.

Testing, testing....

What does a person do with one week to go? Check often for indicators of spontaneous and miraculous arterial healing, that's what!

So even though it was a day like this....

I was inside on the treadmill (blah) on a 0% incline just working up some happy low-key non-artery-spasm-inducing sweat. It was so low-key I was able to take this stunningly clear photo of the treadmill display.

I was cruising along feeling pretty OK for about 5 miles, so I initiated TEST MODE. I put it on a 4.0 incline at my same cruising pace (7.0) and timed how long it took for SYSTEM SHUTDOWN. The result was less than 4 minutes until the left leg was toast. At least it is consistent.

I unconsciously do this every time I walk up the steps too. Again, consistent.

This is what you get when you Google "Testing, testing..." Poor cats are always the subject of ridicule!

Anyway, it's just another week of swim, bike, run (sort of). As Coach Jim said, I do it because it's "who I am." That's true! I guess it makes me feel good to know I still want to do these things, even without knowing when my next race is and even knowing I have this interruption coming.

So thinking as I type...maybe there are two meanings to this "Testing, testing...." title. Maybe right now it's also a little test of my commitment. Do I really love to swim, bike, and run for their own sake, or do I require the motivation of a race to do and enjoy them? Looks like not.

Hmm. Good to know!

47 Gifts of Triathlon

This is my simple birthday post (a day early). [in new Roanoke Tri Club kit above.]

It was inspired by my daily humble appreciation for the sport and community of triathlon and what it has meant for my life and my spirit these past five years. Triathlon is 365 days of gifts in the year. Even if some of the experiences feel at the time like gifts I'd rather return, I know in hindsight I gained from them too.

I could write paragraphs about each, and in fact that's how this started. But it's sort of like inviting people to a wedding -- the choice is to keep it really small, or else it gets really BIG! There is no in-between. So I went small and quick...and inevitably incomplete...with my 47 Gifts of Triathlon:

1. Sunrises
2. Smiles
3. Friendship
4. Adventure
5. Victory
6. Surprise
7. Humility
8. Freedom
9. Discipline
10. Open water
11. Open road
12. Trails
13. Injury
14. Patience
15. Healing
16. Coach
17. Courage
18. Racing
19. Uncertainty
20. Excitement
21. Bikes
22. Running shoes
23. Cold weather
24. Warm weather
25. Rain
26. Wind
27. Accomplishment
28. Confidence
29. Toughness
30. Speed
31. Strength
32. Fatigue
33. Creativity
34. Quiet
35. Sweat
36. Pain
37. Joy
38. Second breakfast
39. Anatomy lessons
40. Writing
41. Travel
42. Love 
43. Laughter
44. Perspective
45. Focus
46. Grit
47. Gratitude

Triathlon reinforces that happiness results from experiences and relationships and not things or wealth. I look forward to discovering the new year's birthday gifts!