Time to Slow Down. Literally.

Today was one of those days where Sam was SO HOPING for no school - but alas only got a 2 hour delay, which is sort of funny since the roads were completely dry.  It is freezing, though (8 degrees, which for around here is COLD), so probably that alone was worth a 2 hour delay - otherwise there would have been kidcicles at the bus stops.

The 2 hour delay always gets my morning off to a wonky start - this morning I was going to swim Masters at the Y at 5:30, but I have a rule (learned the hard way), that I don't set my alarm for 5am if there's a chance of snow and ice in the forecast - because getting up at 5 to discover the roads are bad or the pool is closed is a quick recipe to bitterness and resentment.  Strong emotions, yes, but 5 is an early and cranky hour.

The timing was also good because I'm doing a bit of evaluating on the training front (exercise front?  I'm not sure what I've been doing lately could actually be called training.)  Last year, coming of a 2 year  (2 YEAR) foot injury, I eased myself back into it, and then started doing the FIRST training - and I will say it seemed to be working well for a while.  But I've had a few niggles here and there, and then in November I cramped up my calf in a track workout, and just haven't seemed able to get over it.  No doubt aided by the fact that when my leg didn't want to run I just rode my uni, and rode my uni and rode my uni - and when it got sort of boring I went to the woods with the uni, which for me means a lot of off and on, and I mount the uni off of my left leg (the one with the bum calf.)  The mount didn't seem to hurt the calf at all, so I didn't think much of it, but now the my whole lower left leg seems kind of tired and strained.  Bummer.  Which made me think, maybe what I really need to do is take a big step back and start at the beginning.  I like training hard, so that's what I gravitate towards - but I think I keep doing the stuff that should be the icing on the cake, when I have no cake.  I think the solution should probably be to take a big step back and build a base - which is something, in truth, I've probably *never* had.  Speed and strength have never been my limiter - I mean, I went to college running hurdles for heaven's sake, which is pretty much the most speed + strength event out there.  But I have no endurance base at all - which is evident in lots of ways, most particularly  my struggle with nutrition/reliance on a million gels in longer rides/runs, and my ability to hold a crazy high heart rate for a long time - which probably, if I was aerobically efficient, wouldn't really be so necessary.


Sooooo, I think I'm about to take a big step back and commit to MAF training for a block -MAF being a system in which you calculate your ideal aerobic heart rate and stay under it, no matter what.  According to the formula, and my recent injury status, my heart range will be 125-135.  I foresee a lot of walking on hills.  But what the hell, I've tried most everything else with frustrating results.  Of course, I finally found my heart rate monitor strap today and discovered that it's dead - not even a new battery revived it.  I'm trying not to take that as an omen.

Of Swimming Pools and Magazine Editors

There's nothing more flattering than a swim cap.

I did it. This morning I set my alarm for the ungodly hour of 5:05 am, and then woke up at 3:30, 4:15, 4:20 and 4:50 in anticipation of having to get up so freaking early.  And then I slunk out to my freezing cold car (10 degrees according to the thermometer those reliable Swedes put in my old Volvo), and drove to the Y and forced my somewhat sleepy/somewhat disbelieving body into the swimming pool.  And then, for the first time in a couple of years, I actually did a masters swim workout.  And it was good - I liked the coach, I made it through a couple thousand yards, I felt super accomplished for having finished some exercise by 6:30 in the morning.  Of course later in the morning I felt like a zombie, I kept desperately sucking down coffee, and at one point I was so out if I almost took a header down the stairs.  But still, I'm sure in the long run I'm going to be happy to be back in the pool, so I'm going to keep it up at least a couple times a week.

And when I got back and sat down at my computer, I found an exciting message in my Etsy convos.  A message from a magazine editor interested in one of my necklaces for a story on bridesmaid gifts.  Perfect! Except that he needed a hi-res copy of the picture.  Not perfect! Because the camera I take my product shots with is not hi-res.  In fact, to be honest, I'm not even exactly sure what hi-res means, even after spending some quality time on google.  But fortunately I have a neighbor (and friend of 23 years - seriously we met on the first day of college) that I thought might be able to help.

So I called and woke her up, and then went over to her house where she is currently trying to integrate her new fiancé's house full of stuff into her house full of stuff, and we dug through boxes and bags and the hooks in her mudroom, and a few kitchen drawers, and finally found all of the components to her extremely fancy camera.  That's a good friend.  And at the last minute she also gave me her point and shoot that she thought might work.  And thank god for the last minute addition of the point and shoot, because it turns out I have No Idea how to operate the fancy camera, and I couldn't make myself go back over there and ask her for a lesson when she's trying to dig out from all of that stuff and hadn't  had any coffee yet.  But the point and shoot did much higher resolution pictures than my camera, so I just ran with it and hoped for the best.

Here's what I ended up with.  Hopefully it works?  I sent them off to the editor, and fingers are crossed I hear something back in the positive.  Or even the negative if it's just about the quality of the pictures, because I'm not above bothering Leslie on another day for a tutorial on the super fancy camera.

Soooo, let's hope for the best on the magazine.  Seriously, bridesmaids love ferns!

Food Misfire

So I've been trying to improve my diet a bit. Kind of less potato chips, more sweet potatoes, that kind of thing. This morning I was determined to tackle oatmeal, which as a general rule I loathe. Not my thing - wrong texture. But steel cut oats are supposed to be *Different*! *Better*! *Yummy*! And it turns out - they kind of are. But only if you don't commit a user error. I was thinking that when Clark eats oatmeal it's all about the sugar - so maybe I should add some of that. Except these oats are kind of nutty, like they're begging for nuts and maybe cranberries and if you're going to sprinkle anything, maybe salt - in keeping with the nuttiness? So the sugar was pretty much a fail. I got them down, but it wasn't all that pretty. And lunch was going to be a sweet potato - which I like - so I was thinking I'd put salt on it like a baked potato. Except there's a reason why every Thanksgiving casserole involves a sweet potato and some sugar. Because they go together. So basically my new healthy diet plan had all of the right components, but none of the right execution. Live and learn.

I had a milestone at the Y pool yesterday. Finally sucked it up and did a real live workout by myself. The reason I go to Masters (or at least one of them), is because I'm not much for slogging out yard after yard by myself. I need some lane mates, and preferably a coach, to keep me going. But yesterday I decided it was time to suck it up buttercup, and did 3600 pretty respectable yards. Yay!

Today the weather is BEAUTIFUL, in great contrast to last week when it didn't get above freezing. In celebration of the 57 degree temperature (yes, 57!), Pippi and I went out for a ride. She was kind of surprised to be off the trainer, but she got with the program and we went up Sunset Mountain and around Woodfin down to the river and back. Not too much of a ride - about an hour - but it was woooonderful to be outside. And my achilles only kind of hurt. In fact I'm not even really sure if it was the achilles - it might just be normal kind-of-soreness from acting like a maniac on the elliptical last night. Hard to say, but with all of the swim - bike - sort of run, it's almost like I'm an actual triathlete.

Swimming at the Y, and NEW WEBSITE!

Robin and I met up at the downtown Y this morning to get a swim in. Why am I not at Masters? Because Andrew took his Warren Wilson kids to Key West for 10 days. Key West!!!! Not that I'm bitter or anything, when it hasn't gotten above freezing in a week here. I'm sure they're having a lovely time, and I'm happy for them, but that doesn't make the thin layer of ice that covered my car when I finished swimming this morning any more appealing. Key West!! So anyway, Robin and I had a lovely time, and I got 3000 yards in, which is ok [and I'm loving it that I've now been swimming enough that 3000 yards seems fine but not like a particularly big deal.] But right beside us was a high school team practicing, and I find it's always useful to see someone who's actually good at swimming, so as to remind myself of what actual proficiency at this skill looks like. Hint: it doesn't look like my one-armed fly drill. Which is what I always do when fly is called for. Unless fins are allowed, in which case I do what I'm sure is a very amusing version of actual fly.

Other news: I totally redid my website! It's true - go take a look if you don't believe me: www.spotteddogfarm.net. Maybe this one looks better, cleaner, more elegant? Or maybe I was just tired of the old one. Either way, I'm happy with it, but if you have any suggestions - I'd love to hear them!

Random Musings

Sitting here waiting for wax to melt. Yep, my candle making moratorium is over. I had a good little break, what with the snow canceling our last holiday market and my manic candle making efforts at the beginning of the month. But people came by the house and bought several, and I've got to restock Woolworth tomorrow, so I'm back at the grindstone. And really, what a fun grindstone it is. I'm also working on a new hurricane lamp idea, so I'll report back once that one's complete.

Seems like there's been all sorts of stuff going on around here. I'm gearing up for the 2010 planting season, and also for more wedding and special event flowers that we're going to be doing next year. Fun. I know it probably seems early to be thinking about spring flowers, but in reality I've got to get my seed order in soon, and then I'll be starting seedlings before too long. And speaking of seedlings, I was really glad we're still using our ghetto greenhouse instead of a real one - a whole lot of farmers had them collapse during the snowstorm last week, which would be just awful.

In sports-ish type news, we've done our last market until mid-April, which means that now I can join the Masters group on Saturday mornings too - three swims a week! Real ones. Before I was doing Masters twice a week, and swimming once on my own, but on my own I tend to just do drills and float around, so adding an extra real swim ought to help. But of course I've been playing too much on the dip machine at the Y and my shoulder was a little sore yesterday, so I didn't do the timed 1650 everyone else was doing. Dammit. Ok, that's kind of a joke - I wasn't all that broken up to miss a timed 1650, but in reality I do want to do it - but I've got until February before the times are turned in, so I'm sure I'll find a time in the semi-near future.

Biking has kind of been on a back burner lately - I usually don't pay much attention to bad weather, so I figured I'd just pile on layers and keep riding through the winter. But now I'm wondering if we're going to have a bad snow winter - and I'm not ok with riding a bike on icy slush with cars on icy slush right beside me. So... (and this is a sign that I might be a terrible daughter) - but my mom bought me a bunch of beautiful clothes for Christmas, and I'm taking them back to pay for the bike trainer I found on sale. Yep, bad daughter. But better cyclist. Surely mom will understand, right???

Hope everyone's having a happy holiday and looking forward to the New Year!

And I Am Telling You. . .

So this is what was going through my mind all through swim practice this morning - for reasons unknown to me. And I love Glee (LOVE GLEE!), but this wasn't exactly the Chariots of Fire theme song. A little odd for the athletic motivation.

Failure to Launch

Yesterday was one of those days that never *quite* gets off the ground. Well, except for swim practice - that definitely got off the ground. I've gotten to the point where I just do what Andrew says without a lot of thought (because honestly, thinking about it doesn't make it any easier.) And then at the end of practice he says that was 3800 yards.

Me swimming 3800 yards is the equivalent of Michael Phelps swimming 3 times around the earth. Inconceivable. But still it totally rocked - and today my lats are sore, which I think is a good thing for swimming. And also, I had a total 1990 flashback.

In 1990 I was running hurdles on my high school track team, and I loved it. I was the kid that made it a point of pride to never, ever complain. If the coach told me to run 400s until I fell over, then that was exactly what I did. I subsequently lost my blind faith in coaches, but that's sort of another story. In 1990 I was still all about doing whatever I was supposed to do, and wasn't satisfied unless I felt like I had done it pretty much as well as I could.

So towards the end of swim practice yesterday we were swimming 100s with fins, and I had been swimming in the 1:05-1:06 range (which for me is jet propelled), and Andrew tells me to try to swim the last one under 1:05. And I suppose I didn't exactly kill myself, and also I was dying from the previous 11 100s we had just done, but when I came in at 1:08 I wasn't all that happy. So I kind of stewed over it while I listened to our cool down, and then I pulled my fins back on and said I'm going to do another 100 or that's going to bug me all day. My lane mate clearly thought I was insane and deserted the field. Andrew seemed kind of cracked up. But off I went, and did a 1:03, and it was the highlight of my day. It was like an old friend came back from 20 years ago. Ok yes, she's kind of a head case, but really, we don't hold that against people.

Why was that the highlight of my day? Because everything else pretty much went like that last slow 100. Kind of ok but not quite. I've had this master plan to approach a few stores about wholesaling candles, but yesterday I realized I've got to take a good hard look at how many pressed flowers I've got to get me through the winter. Not sure it's enough. It's possible I could supplement with purchased pressed flowers - but I've got to think on that one. And I meant to do yoga and never quite got it done. And Sam's swim practice that's supposed to be 45 minutes long ended up being an hour and half, making it a late night home for him, not to mention I thought the poor kid was going to drown during the doggy-paddle relay. (Although the swim coach gets major points for even conceiving a doggy-paddle relay - how fun is that - but unfortunately Sam started swimming in a swim class, and never learned to do the doggy paddle. Which was very apparent during the relay.)

So it certainly wasn't a terrible day - just one of those where everything is slightly off-kilter. And let's face it, I didn't sleep all that well the night before and then was up at 5:00 and swam my ass off for an hour and half to start the day. Which probably didn't leave me in the perkiest frame of mind anyway. Today, on the other hand is already starting out better - a short run in the rain is just enough to wake me up, not enough to leave me pooped. And I just downloaded another yoga class from yogadownloads and am off to the mat. Party on, Wednesday.

Pool Day and A Zillion Things to Do

Just finished Masters - and I think I set a new record today - 3300 yards. I know for a real swimmer that is nothing, but for a quasi-, pseudo - swimmer like myself, that's a long way. So I'm kind of happy about that. And it felt pretty good - the inclusion of more tri people at Masters has been a godsend. It's kind of demoralizing to always be the slowest person in the pool - and with the real swimmers that's what I am. But add a few more tri swimmers and things even out. So let's hear it for all of us slow tri swimmers. :)

Now that the swim is behind me I've got a whirlwind of stuff to get done - and among it, I'm headed over to Haw Creek Honey to pick up some beeswax. So Happy to find a really local beeswax supplier. Hopefully this is the start to a long and happy relationship!

Lazy Sunday

So Art in the Park was yesterday - and the weather gods were not so kind to us as they were they first time. It was cold. In fact, if you won't be offended, I'll confess that it was fu@k!ng freezing. We got there at 8:15 to set up, and left at 4:00, and in between was kind of a lot of time to stand around in the howling 40 degree wind. But we alternated taking fun field trips - down to City Market to visit our peeps, and otherwise around downtown, and so the time passed pretty quickly. And here's the shocking part of the whole thing - people still come to these things, even when rain looks imminent and the wind is howling and it's 40 degrees. Me? I'd be curled up at home (or maybe running, but you're moving and get warm), I probably wouldn't be out perusing art booths. But there are people in this world that actually do, and to them I say. . . THANK YOU! Because we actually had a pretty good day, and I find that miraculous. At one point I was actually half way hoping a customer wouldn't buy something, because I was too cold to take off my gloves and operate the credit card machine. But then sense reasserted itself.

To reward myself for my long day in the cold, I got up this morning and was in the Warren Wilson pool at 8am for a swim clinic. To each her own I suppose. It was actually fun - because I can tell that all of my attempts at learning to swim are paying off. (I mean learning to *really* swim - because I could always doggie paddle, but that was about it.) And to reward myself for being in the pool at 8 I slept away the afternoon. Ah, bliss. Ok, I did go run after I woke up, but only for 10 minutes because I'm on this super-slow return to running plan. And it does feel kind of silly to drag on all of my cold weather running gear for 10 minutes, but it's kind of fun too. Like a joke that only I'm in on. I guess you take what you get when it comes to entertaining yourself.

Water Sports

I hate to be so obvious and comment on the weather, but I just can't seem to help it. It's been raining for the better part of 5 days now. I woke up at 3am and heard it pouring down and thought, well, it usually doesn't pour down for several hours in a row, so maybe Robin and I can get our bike ride in in the morning. Proving yet again that you should never pay attention to me for weather predictions. It's now almost noon and it hasn't stopped raining at all. Not a teeny bit. So rather than riding to Marshall I'm instead getting all of the paperwork-type stuff done that tends to go by the wayside when it's good weather to ride a bike. Or run. Or do anything else. That pesky stuff that reminds me I'm actually running a business here. A small one, yes, but a business nonetheless.

The rain hasn't actually slowed me down too much so far this week. I got my bike commute in on Wednesday (although the ride home it was pouring down and Biltmore was very crowded, and even with the reflective vest and flashing lights I was feeling not so smart), and then I ran Thurs., and on Friday Robin and I met at Bent Creek and ran and rode the fire roads for a couple of hours since she (being smarter) doesn't love to ride on the roads in the rain. And since I'm now allegedly a full-fledged adult and am too responsible to ride the trails when it's been raining, the fire roads were about the only option left. We had a great ride, and got filthy like little kids. I had to spray my face off with the water bottle when we got back to remove enough of the grit to drive home. Sure sign of a fun time.

Maybe this weather is a sign that I should be swimming more anyway?? I've actually been consistently making it to Masters two mornings a week for the last month or so, and picking up a third swim on my own, and I can totally tell. Last Thursday morning I was actually (for me) pretty fast - and I felt just like Ebby Calvin Nuke Laloosh (think "Bull Durham"), when he finally throws a good pitch and says "What happened?? How'd I do that??" I still have not much of an idea of what I've done differently when I'm swimming well. Which is really kind of funny. I feel just like little kids learning to ride a horse - when they finally put it all together and jump a good course, but you can tell they have no idea what just happened. Clearly I'm doing something right, but I don't have enough body awareness in swimming yet to really figure out what it is. So I'll just keep showing up at Masters and listening to Andrew and figuring that somehow it's grooving itself into my muscle memory. One hopes.

In the meantime, more paperwork, a quick wet run, an attempt to finish my prototype sock animal (more on that later) and then a swim. And the boys have gone off to retrieve a futon from the flower building so that Sam can complete his man-cave. Should be interesting.

Cramming Down the Food

yep, that's right, I'm spending this morning trying to cram down some food. A lot of food. Because it turns out that if you get up and go engage in masochistic torture [I mean swim with the Masters group] at ungodly hours of the morning, and then try to go work at the farm, and you don't consume a LOT of calories somewhere in the middle of there then you crash. Who ever thought you could bonk while using a hoe? Not me. But then I did, so it turns out I need more food in the morning. Here's the tricky part - not so much more food over all (there's still a suspicious looking blobby spot post ribs/pre hipbones that could remove itself, thankyouverymuch), just more food in the morning. So this morning's routine has been Gu blocks on the way to swim (because I just can't eat real food before swimming at 5:30 in the morning), a Luna bar as I drove home, an egg sandwich right after I got home, and a bowl of cereal as I'm typing. Seriously, and it'sonly 8:31 in the morning. Surely to god that will do the trick.

In other exercise related news, I can check Elk Mountain off the list! You know, that list of things you'd like to accomplish but that kind of scare you sh!tless. Well biking up Elk Mountain Scenic Highway to the Parkway was on that list for me. And then Robin asked if I wanted to go biking on Tuesday [yes! yes! am getting a little tired of entertaining myself while biking!], and then said "why don't we ride up Elk Mountain and then see where we want to go from there?" and since I'm desperate for someone to ride with, and also don't want to sound like a wimp (or actually be one for that matter), I say "sure, sounds great, see you at 5:00". And then I hang up the phone and say "Oh Clark, wait'll you hear what I've gotten myself into." But you know what - it was fine. Dare I say, actually fun. Turns out good company will distract you from a multitude of painful moments. And, my game is still intact - the game where I try to avoid shifting my bike into the smallest chainring. I'm not sure this is a smart game, but it's one that's still entertaining me.

Might I Sort of Be a ... Swimmer?

The answer is.. maybe. In slightly fledgling form. Because Monday I actually pulled my act together and was standing on the pool deck at the Asheville Country Club at 5:30 in the morning. It was 55 degrees and I was standing there in my bathing suit thinking "I have done some dumb things in my life, but this ranks right up there." It was, officially, my first practice with the Asheville Masters team. And... I survived! A couple of times I almost thrived, but then reality would set in and I'd have to take a small break for the pulse to return to non-stratospheric levels. But all in all was a very pleasant surprise - I wasn't the slowest person there, everyone was quite friendly, I did more breaststroke than I have ever strung together in my life (turns out real swimmers do more than just freestyle), and then I capped it of with... a speeding ticket on the way home. Yup. First one ever. I was totally zoning, concentrating on just getting home to some actual food and a shower, and I blew through the school zone outside Claxton. Yep, school zone. So if you're thinking "wow, she's screwed" - you're right.

The other reason I might sort of be turning into a swimmer - tonight the tri club had its first swim at Lake Logan for the season, complete with an open water swim clinic from Andrew Pulsifer, and it rocked. Got some good information from Andrew, had a fun swim with my neighbor Geoffrey, had a fun ride there and back with Geoffrey and his wife Dawn and their tiny new baby Gabby (whom I have still never seen awake.) Lake Logan is, however, a little bit chilly in June. In fact if you were in Haywood County tonight and heard someone yell "Holy Sh!T!!!", that was probably me upon jumping into the water. Fortunately it did, in fact, feel warmer once we got moving.

In Which I Try to Grow a Pair

Yep, it's time for me to put on the big-girl pants and grow a pair (and only in Asheville would that sort of mixed metaphor actually kind of make sense.) Because my tri swim group ends at the end of this month (as in, tomorrow), and I need to find another group to swim with. This swim group has been kind of like preschool - nurturing, with good education and low expectations. In other words, perfect. But now I've kind of gotten a feel for the process, and I think I might need to head off to elementary school (especially since preschool is closing down and kicking me out). But I can't find elementary school - all I can find is college, in the form of the Asheville Masters Swimmers, and to tell the truth I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that.

Ok, really there are two issues. The first is just that I'm not sure I'm ready to swim with them, even in their slow lane. And the second (and honestly probably the bigger impediment to me going and finding out if I can keep up) is that they meet at freaking 5:45 in the morning. In. the. morning. And yes, I get up earlier than that for market, and once the flowers are in full swing I'll get up earlier than that to go harvest. But still, the idea of that being my normal schedule is a little daunting. But I still think I'm going to suck it up. Will report back.

So yesterday my internet seemed to be running really sloooooow. It has been for days, but yesterday it finally got to the point that it bugged me enough to call Charter. So we do a speedtest, and it's full-on running slower that dial-up. And I'm supposed to be on a 3 Mbps connection. And Charter can't even tell that I'm online at all. Problem. So they offer to send a tech out today, and of course I say great, because I'm addicted to the internet. Problem being that I haven't done a thing at the farm in two days, because Clark and I were celebrating the holiday weekend with a whole lot of hanging out and doing not much productive (unless you count running and biking, which apparently we do.)

So I had planned on today being insanely productive, to counteract the weeds that are threatening to take over the farm. Instead I realized I had a 10:00 dentist appointment and a visit from the cable guy between 1-3. So my day looked like: (1) drag self out of bed. consider doing something productive. instead just curse slow internet. (2) go run. achilles feels good - yay! (3) go to dreaded dentist. hate going to dentist. escape with decent report and a small flossing lecture. (4) zip over to farm, figure I'll get some good work in since Charter's supposed to call an hour before they come. (5) work for 20 minutes until Charter calls at 12:37 to say they'll be here between 12:30 and 1:00. Take 4 minutes exactly to change clothes, load up dogs and exit farm. am home by 12:52. (6) wait on Charter until they show up at 2:10. rat bastards. except it turned out to be a no-charge call because their modem was dying, and the guy that replaced it was super nice, so I retract the rat bastard comment. (7) take Sam to swim class at YWCA. they have the best swim classes, but it's about 105 degrees sitting beside the pool and 98% humidity. I have now finally drug myself home from my swim-class-induced coma, but you'll notice a distinct lack of daily work in that schedule. Figure I'll try again tomorrow.

The farm work is definitely taking on a distinctly different flavor from last year. Last year it was all about watering. How do we water, when do we water, where do we actually get the water (the answer to that turned out to be giant rain barrels under the barn downspouts, and an electric pump in the pond.) But this year, since the answer to "where do we get the water" is "the sky", it's all about weeding. And trying to get things dry enough to put out more plants. All in all I'll definitely take this year's issue, but those weeds are getting a bit daunting out there. That'll teach me to take two days off for Memorial Day.

Happy Market Day, and Trial Run of the Wetsuit

Was a happy market day today - happy as in, I'm happy so many people like to come shop at the City Market! It was a mob scene - all of my flowers (of which there are not yet as many as I would like) were gone by 10:00. And the market's open until 1:00, so you can see that there was quite a bit of lost sales opportunity there. But we sold about a zillion tomato plants, a bunch of other starts, some seeds and a bunch of crafts...

we sold vegetable baby rattles, and ...


and a few pairs of booties, among other things.

So a good day, and I left Clark alone for a couple of hours of it. Because for the first time this year I actually made it to a... Tee Ball Game! Cutest sporting event ever. I'm pretty sure the other parents were beginning to think Sam had divorced parents that split custody of him, because Clark and I never showed up at the games together, and I'm usually the one who takes him to practice. And I guess we still didn't show up at the game together, since this time Clark held down the fort at market, but since I was trying to finish up a knitted dog (like this one) while Sam was playing, it sparked some conversation and they at least figured why I'm not at all of the games.


After market we headed back to the farm, and I was dying to try out my new wetsuit (like this one, except larger and with less beefcake in it.)



So I squirmed myself into it (no easy feat) and launched into the lake. And it turns out everything I've heard is true: (a) wetsuits can mask a lot of swimming issues, since the bottom half of your body just floats along behind you - major thumbs up, and (b) practicing swimming in open water is a good thing (less freaky this time - last time I got in, took a few strokes in the mucky water, and yelled back to shore "If anything shows up through these goggles I'm going to lose my sh!t!!!!!" This time didn't feel quite as much like a snapping turtle, a snake, or the loch ness monster was about to pop up in my field of vision.)

So I did a little swimming, we rounded up Sam, who was about knee deep in mud at the edge of the lake, and we headed home with lofty ideas putting in a bunch of plants in our yard (plants that have been living on the bench on our patio for way too long.) In fact I smugly marveled to Clark that market days just don't seem as tiring this year as they did last year. And then it hit me and I drug myself into the house and have barely managed to stay upright while typing this. Clark (the show off) is out planting flowers.

One last funny note about market mornings - we had to drag Sam along with us at 5:30 this morning because my mom wasn't feeling like hosting a sleepover last night, and as Clark carried him downstairs Sam yells "I don't know how you guys live like this!" Drama king.

Once Again Trying to Work Up Some Nerve

But this time it's the nerve to get over to the farm and see what sort of frost damage I've got. Just talked to my dad and he said there was frost on the house, frost in patches on the grass, but he thought the plants in the ground looked ok. He wasn't sure, but that's what he thought. And now he's off to play golf and I get to go stare at them myself and see what they look like as the day progresses. He did say some of the big sunflowers are looking wet and droopy, though, and that doesn't sound too promising to me. Eek. Will report back.

In totally unrelated (and therefore distracting from my frost issues) news, I ordered a wetsuit yesterday. I'm hoping it makes me look like catwoman. I'm thinking reality may be a big disappointment. Why am I ordering a wetsuit? Because apparently otherwise I'm going to freeze my ass off when it's time to start the tri club swims at Lake Logan in June. And also they are quite helpful to the not-so-brilliant-swimmers such as myself. Bouyancy and all that. Looking forward to getting it. Seems like a rather unlikely thing for me to own, and therefore most intriguing.

Holiday Weekend Recap

Have made it through the holiday weekend. Have had 5 separate major family holiday meals in the last 5 days - not kidding. That's what happens when you and your spouse have a lot of family in the area, and siblings coming in and out on different days. So despite the sodium coma I thought I was going to lapse into after my mom's super-processed-casserole extravaganza, I actually managed to still work out. Here's the recap:

Friday - 30 minutes on the stationary bike, 30 minutes veeeery slowly running on the flat treadmill to try out the achilles, and then 30 minutes swimming. All in all a big success! Achilles felt great and I got one of those "The Stick" massager things to try to keep the calves slightly less knotted up. That ought to help the achilles some. It's a cranky s.o.b. Total mileage, using my totally non-scientific way of figuring this out, would be 7.5 for the 90 minutes of exercise.

Saturday - was a beautiful day, so scrapped the plan to head back to the Y and instead Clark and I went to Carrier Park (the only flat place I know to run in Asheville) and ran 3 rather easy miles - again achilles felt fine. Also officially signed us up for our races - We're going to run the Potomac River Run in DC on May 4 - Clark's doing the half and I'm doing the full.Woohoo!

Sunday - back to the Y, since I didn't want to push my luck, and did 30 minutes on elliptical and 30 minutes swimming. Was rather fun - Clark went with me and confirmed that at least I do actually have something resembling a real freestyle stroke. This isn't all that impressive to him since he was on the swim team from ages 6 through 18, but he does agree it's progress. I also lost my mind and bought a road bike sight-unseen from Craig's List. It's basically the exact same bike the local shop was trying to convince me to buy, except this one is a last year's model that a guy bought his girlfriend hoping she'd decide to ride - she didn't, so after one ride and then sitting in his hall for a year, he's selling it for $450 off current retail. You know I'm a bargain shopper - couldn't pass it up.