All I need is a track in the background

This photo...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikeportland/3682142657

reminded me of a discussion we had in class in Portland two weeks ago. Someone in our class did her homework to do some observing at a train station. I think it was my instructor who said that quite often people will hop off the train from Seattle with their bicycle and get around town on it for the duration of their visit. How cool.

I wonder if the family in this photo arrived by train!

(and I sure wish Portland was just a short train ride away!)

In other athletic news, Jay invited me to join him for Masters swim that starts around 5:30am or something. Ha! Another facebook friend invited anyone to come swim with him at Barton Springs at 6:30am. ha ha!

I'll swim in October. :P

1 in 5 Americans Admits Peeing in Pool

My apologies. I have not been keeping you up with my training thus far this year.



You've missed nothing



I am determined to start training for the Shiner ride... tomorrow.

Tomorrow started 3 hours ago.

If I started now, I could ride 60 miles and feel great. But putting off my ride for 3-4 hours, I'm not sure how far I could ride. Maybe enough to get to J & A's.

J & A can mean Jamie & Andrea's or Jack & Adam's. Either works.

One of my dreams is to help my 5 year old niece Hannah learn how to bike and swim so that she could do a triathlon. (She's got the running down!)

Today, I was hanging out with Jackson, who is a year younger than Hannah. I kept asking him if he wanted to go to a bike shop, so we could hang out at Jack & Adam's. He politely declined each time. After the last time I asked him and he declined, we had the following conversation:

Jackson: I'm learning how to ride my bike.
Julia: Oh yeah? That's great! I need to teach my niece how to ride her bike!
Jackson: Your niece?
Julia: Yeah, my niece. Hannah. You remember Hannah, right?
Jackson: Yes, I remember Hannah!
Julia: I need to help Hannah learn how to ride a bike.
Jackson: ...and your niece, apparently.
[At which point, I realized he was saying "knees" and started laughing.]
Jackson continues: My knees know how to ride a bike. It's the rest of my body that doesn't.

The Tough Guy Challenge photos are up:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/tough_guy_challenge_2009.html

Jay is in photo #14!!!!

I am so impressed!!

Livejournal sells permanent accounts once every year or so for a limited time. The price seems to go up by $25 or $50 each year. I think when they first came out they started at $100. This time they sold the accounts for $175. Considering I've had this account since 2001, I have definitely gotten my money's worth and wouldn't mind dishing out enough for a permanent account. So, I bought one.

Side Note: This is what my "I got a perm." post was about. I have gotten a few weird looks at holiday parties when people look at my hair funny and then explain how they thought I got a perm. ha ha ha :)

Livejournal said that $25 of the membership would go to one of a number of charities blah blah blah. Okay, that's nice. I kind of think that people should be donating money on their own without having a company make them do it. But! If someone's able to dish out $175 for a blog account, then I suppose that's a good time to have them be generous to others, too.

What I found surprising was that I got an email today explaining how I choose the charity that will get my money. I figured I'd have one of five choices or something. I went to this website called razoo. I was given the opportunity to search for a charity. So I picked one of the charities I donate to yearly, and it showed up! I created an account and entered a code that Livejournal gave me and all of the $25 will be going to that charity! How awesome is that?

I donated to Heart House Austin, an after school program for kids. That $25 will allow three kids to get care for one day. I first learned about Heart House through someone who posted to the austin community livejournal group!

Strobist photography and triathlon!

For those who are more in the know than me...

Did Adam open up a bike shop in Portland?

photo

That bike store is a half mile away from my favorite photography store!!

Yippee! I got a perm. :P

The Strollercoaster is now sporting two blindingly blinky lights. The next time we are riding around sunset, those babies will be flashing! If we get side-tracked from coming home and end up staying out after dark, we will still be quite visible. Thank you Jack & Adam's!

We also picked up the rain cover that's designed for the Strollercoaster. It is a pretty tough cover! It attaches in six places, and completely covers the front and the top. It's not very easy to see inside anymore. (Maybe that will stop the strange looks I get from people when the I'm walking around with no one inside.) I'm going to use it while it's cold out. The back is still quite open to cold air, though. Tomorrow I will try and use a blanket to cover up the back. It's supposed to be about 41 degrees at 7am. Brr!

Remember last Monday when Hannah warned her teacher with an ominous letter saying "TOMORROW TOOTH FALL"?

Hannah still has that tooth.

This morning was much much warmer than Tuesday morning which was 39 degrees. Brrr! I was awake and up in time to take Hannah, but it was really cold and I didn't want to let her suffer. Today was a nice walk to school. Hannah threw the blanket over her head and eventually fell asleep. I certainly don't blame her. More often than not on those 6am Monday morning flights, I get more sleep on my ride to work than I did in bed the night before.

I'm glad I got my running to school streak in because this week Hannah only has two days of school and I can't take her this fine morning.

Yesterday morning was a joy. Hannah had a letter for her teacher.



tooth WiGGL! Then she asked how to spell TOMORROW, then TOOTH, then FALL. I didn't think she'd be able to write very well in the Strollercoaster, but she wrote just fine!

This is her first loose tooth. It look her mom noticing for her to realize it was wiggly! I realized this may be my last time to get a photo of her with all her baby teeth, so I ran back into my house and grabbed my big camera. My point and shoot is broken, and the Strollercoaster can carry anything!! Right before I let Hannah escape, I took some photos of her letter to her teacher and Hannah's beautiful face! (More tooth wiggl photos are on flickr if you click the image.)

This was the first week I took Hannah to school every single morinng! 17 miles of run/walking

Yesterday morning on the way to school, Hannah and I stopped for a bit while she had something to tell me. She asked/suggested to me that wouldn't it be fun to attach the bike to the strollercoaster? So I told her I was going to pick her up that evening, and maybe I could pick her up on my bike. Then she suggested that I bring grapes, so I said I would bring grapes. I haven't brought her a snack like grapes since the end of August, yet she still remembers!! It was so hot back then in the afternoons, she would have her own water bottle and I would try to give her a snack, especially something with a lot of water content to fight off dehydration.

It was SO hot back then. Now it's SO cold. I've had a throw blanket in the Strollercoaster for quite awhile, and in the mornings now it's a necessity. Even with long sleeves, pants, a jacket, and a blanket, she still gets a cold face. I even put the raincover down so the only air coming in is from the back. Yet inevitably, she will say her face is too cold and just throw the blanket over her head and stay like that until we get to school. She does get the benefit of warming up through walking and running like I do! I think maybe we'll have to try a scarf, because that's easy to put around your face and keep it warm. Do any of you have suggestions on what could be fun and easy to keep her warm? Her core seems to be staying warm enough as when I go to unbuckle her, she is really warm under the blanket. I know it's only going to get colder from here, and I can run far cooler temperatures. I want to make sure she can still come along in cooler temperatures and enjoy it without having her head under a blanket the whole way!

I did pick her up yesterday on the bike. The bike was still packed from a Vegas trip a week and a half ago, so I had to hurry to put it all together. And as soon as she was buckled and blanketed up and ready to go home, she told me, "Aunt Flash, you forgot the grapes!" I did. Oops. We stopped by one of her classmate's houses which was on the way home because her friend had left her jacket at school. By the time we left, it was really dark. It was just quick ride home on well-lit streets, and the Strollercoaster is very reflective. The reflective panels even GLOW IN THE DARK! How cool is that? Still, I really should get a set of rear lights for it and keep them handy at all times.

I had so much fun. Silverman is always an adventure... always an experience. I never know how the day is going to turn out or what to expect.

My only goals were to enjoy the day and have as much fun as possible. Make the time cut-offs and finish, but other than that, just have fun. I had no race plan. I had no nutrition plan. I didn't wear a watch or have any bike computer. I hadn't worn my wetsuit since... uh. You don't want to know. I didn't even look at a triathlon checklist before leaving town. I didn't start packing until about an hour and a half before heading to the airport, and a good portion of that was packing my bike. Oh yeah, and I didn't do a great job of training. However, I have to say the only reason I did train as much as I did was because of Silverman, so I am quite grateful that I had Silverman on my plate. Even if it ended up "only" being the half!

I learned today that I was the final half Silverman finisher. Win! Someone's gotta be last. May as well be me. That means I spent the most time out on the course (of the halfers). The finisher ahead of me had a mere 2 minutes fewer on the course. I had no athletic problems or mechanical issues really, so it was pretty much my choice to stay out on the course as long as I did. I was considering staying out longer, as I told many a participant "I have until midnight!", but Jay said he was getting cold. What did I do for 12 hours, 22 minutes and 32 seconds? ( Keep reading. )

Right now I have 38 images from Silverman posted on my Silverman 2008 flickr set. I will likely add a few more. A day or two before the race, I created a flickr Silverman group. Hopefully we'll see lots of photos in there from this year's race: http://www.flickr.com/groups/silverman

I am not cold.
I am peeing A LOT.
I am not dehydrated.
I am not going particularly fast.
I just got passed by a woman who didn't make the bike cut-off and yet is so determined to do the distance regardless.

Awesome.

In T2. This race is beyond words! I have warm stuff on so not to worry about me. Taking my time!!!

triple sisters, my ass!!

I can see the entire strip from here! And I have ALL the time in the world... So I am using it!

It's now thundering. Sprinkling off and on all day.

Epic ride!

Great swim, even though the swim start was delayed!

Jay and I are on the bus to Lake Mead.

I have two words for you:

Epic win(d)!!!!!