November 2006: I won the Grand Masters category in the half-marathon during the Louisiana Trails races. Can I do a full marathon in 2010? Hmmmmmm.
Some end of the year numbers: I totaled up 5142.3 miles on the bike and 259.3 miles running for all of 2009. I would have liked to do some more but the weather the last 3-4 months has really curtailed my activities (I did run in the rain once last week and between storms last Wednesday). Tomorrow...New Year's Day...I'll put in a ride with the local bike club to Waskom, Texas and back, about 26 miles total and a nice run afterward (depending on the weather again) but nothing too hard since I'm participating in a duathlon on Saturday and I don't want to wear myself out. So I'm aiming for a nice start to the new year. I intend to run a marathon sometime in 2010, mainly because I've taken an interest in doing one while I can and before my legs eventually crater. I'd like to be able to say I've done one. I need to pick out a locale, something unique and not the usual fair that many of the runners here usually do. Like the marathons in New Orleans, Houston, Dallas White Rock, or Cowtown (Fort Worth). I'm looking at other possibilities...like the race in Missoula, Montana or the marathon that honors the bombing victims in Oklahoma City. A friend has been suggesting the Commanders Marathon in South Africa (probably not) and Big Sur in California (sounds too hot for me). We'll see where it goes.
I hope all who read this have a good New Year's celebration and that you've got plans or aspirations for 2010. Something to look forward to. I'm going to hang out with my wife and see what life brings and see what it is about life that I can affect. Just another adventure. Let's enjoy the ride.
Happy New Year to you all!
It's the evening of December 26th and I'm kinda worn out. We woke up early but not as early...Jonnene has to work this weekend and we had to walk the dogs so we had to get up early enough, but I was dragging. After she went on to make people healthy again I attached my new Look pedals to my TT bike and switched out the cleats on my shoes. I adjusted the tension but will need to ride it a few times to get the pedals just right. Then I went to the local building supply stores to get a few items for Mom's bathroom....still have some renovation to finish up, to install the medicine cabinet, some accessories, and the faucet. Then it's all detail work after that. At least it'll be a functional bathroom that she can use again. Jonnene spent the time after getting off work with house stuff. Tonight we went to Newk's for supper and went over to Kohl's to do some clothes shopping and get some comfortable pajamas for Jonnene to lounge around in while recovering from her upcoming shoulder surgery.
Christmas Eve was mostly composed of a few last minute errands. I took Mom around to check out bathroom items, including choosing the medicine cabinet. We got it to her house and found that two corners of the mirrored door had been chipped, so I would have to make an exchange after Christmas (see above). I cleaned up when I got home for our trip out to Dad's for Christmas Eve supper and opening some presents. Both of Gladys' daughters and their families came over and the supper was pretty good. I brought over my laptop and at around 7:30 that evening we were able to watch Jonnene's family in Perth, Western Australia open presents on their Christmas morning. We used Skype to make the audio/visual connection and it worked great. The picture below was taken by Jonnene's niece, Michelle, on her new camera where everyone posed, including ourselves on the big screen TV, for a family portrait (below).
Jonnene and I are on the screen in the back for this family picture!
Christmas Day saw Jonnene worked the morning at the hospital while I got in 4-mile run in below-freezing temperatures. Walking the dogs earlier that morning in the dark was way too much fun but there was no wind, so the run was easier to handle and halfway through I was nice and warmed up. When she came in around noon we packed the car to head to my brother's for a family get-together. Again, it was good food all around and I can tell you that I've gained a few pounds over the last 72 hours!
Finally trying to get back to being serious with my riding and I picked a heck of a day to start. This morning the temp was 38 degrees (wind chill of 31) with a nice 9 mph wind out of the northwest that we were going to be heading into. This ride was one that Mack put together for a distance of 100 miles and I was hoping I would be able to do it. My plan was to make a decision at the 30-mile mark as to whether I could do the whole ride or not...at that point I would end up with at least 60 miles anyway, a decent distance to cover at the beginning of my "serious" training. We had seven riders at the start and we were going to try to stay at a good 17-18 mph pace...after all, this is not a race and the main goal at this time is to get some saddle time and some miles in our legs. No need to rip them up when it doesn't matter. However, my legs were not in the mood and I knew that about 10 miles into the ride. Sometimes you have days like that. Even pushing a measly 18 mph seemed like the greatest effort and I was getting more flustered. The wind in our faces was not helping and its speed was increasing as the morning went on...at least we had some nice sunshine instead of the depressing clouds that seemed to stick around all last week.
I got dropped at one point about 22 miles in but caught back up, strangely enough feeling better by then and was able to climb a couple of hills with better effort, but then my legs started feeling bad again, working way too hard to keep up with the group for the effort they were putting out. When we got to the 30-mile point, Roland and I decided that it was better to head back home than try to be heros. So the two of us headed back to Shreveport from wherever we were in East Texas while the rest of the group went on (I heard later that they were plenty wiped out from their longer ride!). The nice part of our return was that the wind was now at our back and we would find ourselves cruising at 22-24 mph with little effort. I ended up with 63.1 miles and a tired pair of legs. I'll try again tomorrow but will only do about 40 miles with a mile run immediately after I finish. Hope the legs hold up!
Later in the day Jonnene and I took the dogs to the groomers' to give them a bath. Coober has probably never had a proper bath in his life so that was an experience for us all. He wasn't amused and would try to fight it but many times he'd just succumb and stand there dealing with it. When we used a blow dryer on him he's just scrunch up and bury his head into the crook of my arm and keep it there, probably going to his "happy place" in his head to get away from that loud thing constantly exhaling on him.
Sophie (at right) looks on as Jonnene washes Coober. He's not happy.
Last night Jonnene and I participated in the annual Downtown Christmas Run, which is running four laps of a four-corner course in downtown Shreveport so that it totals 3.4 miles. We got there around 6 pm when it was already dark and the temps were already down to the upper 40's...not bad but the wind was blowing and that could put a tingle in your running shorts. I had already decided to run with Jonnene the whole way or until her knee started giving her problems. It turned out to be just fine as we ran the entire route and she had no knee problems at all! We averaged 9:16 per mile, coming in 127th and 128th overall...there were 330 finishers with timing chips, about 300 more without them. On the slightly downhill finish, I had her go out ahead of me and encouraged her to pick up the pace the final 200 meters. She kicked it and cruised in like a champ! We did the run at her pace which was good enough to put her into 4th place in her age group! I got 10th in my age group but if I had run my regular race I might have gotten 3rd or 4th. It didn't matter, this was for fun and I got to spend some fast time with my wife and it was all good. Afterwards, we had dinner with our friends Elka and Daniel, both of whom won their age groups in the race.
The week has been kinda hectic with some last minute free-lance jobs to finish up, trying to get the permits submitted for a time trial the Centenary club is putting on this February, working with our new dog so he can understand ALL of our demanding demands, and just trying to keep up with Christmas! I'm hoping to get a ride in Thursday morning but it's going to be a cold one!
I set another new personal best during this morning's ride: most miles in a single calendar year on the bike...5,027 miles! That's with 17 days left in the year and more miles to be added. I hope I can do another 200 miles depending on the weather and I might hitch onto a 100-miler that Mack is planning for this weekend. This morning's ride was in a low overcast, sorta foggy, mild temperature sort of event. Mike, Roland, and Dick were the only other riders to show up although conditions demanded that a larger crowd should have been there. It's just going to get colder as the week goes on.
Our friend, Jamie, came by last night to take our Christmas card picture with all the animals...ALL meaning both dogs AND the cat! That was interesting in its own way. What was nice for me was Jamie, Jonnene, and I remembering stories about Farley, talking almost as if he was still here. His drinking habits getting the most laughs since he was famous for leaving half of the water he gulped up strung out across the floor. That was really nice. Jamie is officially the first person that Coober has met since we brought him home and he was a little anxious/nervous meeting another person. He barked and backed off but in about five minutes he was getting friendly with her. We need to have him meet more people so that he doesn't become afraid of people he doesn't know. We're taking him on walks twice a day and Jonnene got this harness/lead that wraps around Coober's nose and makes him behave a bit better on these walks. So far it's working pretty good but he is challenging it, which we expected. We have to remember that Coober has spent most of his life at a shelter so walking on a leash is not natural for him (but he's doing very well considering). But we've survived our first week with him and we really like him. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks and how he takes to training.
Tomorrow night we will be at the Downtown Christmas Run, a 3.4 mile 3-lap run in downtown Shreveport. Hope it won't be too cold! I'm going to run with Jonnene the entire way or until/if her knee starts to act up. If the latter happens I will go on and get a faster run over the remaining distance. Otherwise we'll run together and just enjoy the crowd and the evening. Maybe we'll wear Santa hats!?
We got our Christmas tree up last night! It's the best one we've done so far...of the two Jonnene and I have ever done together. Looks great! Man, it is cold out there! Jonnene's feeling under the weather and will be taking today off from work after leaving at noon yesterday. I've got some kind of crud in my eyes the last few days...thought it was pink-eye at one point but I don't think it is...so we're doing just fine right now! I had to take the dogs out for their morning walk, one at a time, and it's really cold outside. I think it was about 29 degrees but, fortunately, there was no wind. Still spent nearly an hour total walking around the neighborhood. We decided on a name for our new pet: Coober. As in Coober Pedy, a small town in South Australia. He gets his first vet visit this Saturday and we just received his previous vet records. Looks like he's closer to three years old since it says he was neutered in April, 2007 and he'd have to be a few months old for that to happen.
Coober, myself, and Sophie get together for a team meeting.
Jonnene sent me a photo of Farley that I had taken soon after we had moved into the new house...early 2008...that I had forgotten about. He's totally laid out on his side staring at the camera with those big old brown eyes. It's not a well taken photo, some slight movement with a slow shutter speed, but it didn't matter. I realized as I was looking at it on the computer screen that I had a big smile on my face.
Man, it is dreary outside. There's been so much rain this fall...usually I like rain but I want more sun now. The ground is saturated so we're getting more puddles in yards. The gray skies don't exactly enthuse me to go run or bike. I'm wanting to do both but I'm not that hard-core and the idea of constantly cleaning my bike after nearly every ride or watching my new Asics turn a dingy brown isn't appealing. But you know what will happen...eventually we'll start getting days and days of constant sun, and the rain will start looking good again.
The dog with no name....yet...running through the backyard of our house.
We got a new dog last Sunday! Still trying to come up with a name for him. He's about two years old and we rescued him at a local shelter called Pet Savers. Visit their website and think about making a donation for the good work they do. Anyway, our guy's a lean, energetic dog, however his maturity has made it easier to deal with him...so far. In a perfect world we'd all want our dogs to start out with us as puppies but there are so many older dogs that need homes. And many of them are already house-broken or just need some love. Sure, you might have them for a shorter time but, with patience, they'll show you how much they appreciate the gift you've given them of a home, food, and that needed attention!
We're hoping to come up with a name for the fella tonight. We pulled out a few maps of Australia to see if any towns or landmarks may be good candidates for a name. We've found several that are appealing.
Last Saturday I went riding with a couple of other guys to do my first 50+ mile ride in several weeks. It was special because the temperature at the start was 21 degrees! After three-and-a-half hours the temps had risen to a balmy 42 degrees. We were rugged up fine and actually enjoyed the ride although my legs definitely felt like they haven't done this in a while. Jonnene rode later in the morning but you still had to dress for it. It helped that the sun was out.
That night we went to the annual Christmas party that our triathlon club holds and I did a mighty fine job NOT stuffing myself with all the great food that was on hand. Oh, I ate alright but managed to hold off. The food was great! During the awards ceremony and speeches later on, I scored by winning three of the door prizes that were being given out (and there were a LOT of people there). Even Jonnene won something!
November 2006: I won the Grand Masters category in the half-marathon during the Louisiana Trails races. Can I do a full marathon in 2010? Hmmmmmm.
