Last 3 Days in Photos

Dave Friday morning. In just over a month, he's lost 17# and 6% body fat (per the Tanita Ironman scale we have) by eating cleaner.

Later on Friday, a new tri club blog I created went live. (Some of you may recognize the template from another blog I used to have but have decided not to pursue as I am just too busy!)

Saturday morning I helped out at a local race by doing some data entry. My fingers are actually my fastest body parts :-)

Afterwards, Dave and I went for a 2-hour ride. In 55-65 deg temps, he cruised along at 20-21 mph while I struggled to keep up. Grrr.

Sunday morning he set out to demolish me again, this time on a 30-mile ride. Lean MEANIE!

At least Sunday temps got up into the 70's.
(My apologies to all who are snowbound)

We saw some new bicycle-friendly signals on our route. YAY!

After the ride, a 7 mile brick run. Ended up with an 8:41 avg pace, not bad but a 168 AHR was higher than expected. Hmmm.

Then I went to a Total Immersion freestyle swim clinic for my tri club. Since I do a different style of freestyle, I volunteered to take photos/video and be there for support.

But some things are universal no matter what style of freestyle you do, like good head position and balance in the water. I must continue working on these things myself lest I be left in their wake.

And that pretty much wraps up my weekend. Hope you all had a good one too!

Family Reunion

Well, I'm not sure how much rest I actually got last week with 2 days spent traveling to attend a family reunion for 3 days but, technically/training-wise, it was a rest week:

Swim - 1 (3500 yds)
Bike - 2 (81.6 mi)
Run - 3 (27 mi)
Strength Training - 1
Total Hours: 11:43 - Yikes, still seems a lot.

But, I got to be with hubby Dave for 5 days in a row (which doesn't happen often unless we're on vacation) and escape the heat and humidity for a bit -- Woohoo!

The purpose of the reunion was to celebrate Dave's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. It'd been many years since all the kids and grandkids had been together and we all stayed at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA, which is ~40 mi east of Portland, OR, on the north side of the Columbia River. Dave and I got there Wednesday night and were departing Sunday morning while others were there for a whole week. LIFO (Last In First Out) is better than NDOS (No Dave Or Shirley). We crammed in a lot while we were there, though. See for yourself :-)

Thursday, our first full day there, Dave and I got up early to hit the gym for a quick workout and then went on an all day tour of Mt. St. Helens, WA, with everyone else. We donned blue hats (really visors but we kept calling them hats) that said "Pratt's 50th." Hey, at least we didn't have to all wear the same camp t-shirt.

As I shivered in the 60 deg temps looking at where Mt. St. Helens was supposed to be (see previous post below), Dave did his usual thing in a short sleeved polo shirt.

My step-daughter and son-in-law horsing around while two other Blue Hat Group members tested a park ranger's knowledge of the big boom that occured back in 1980.

Son-in-law killing time on the bus ride back.

Friday morning, Dave and I went for a chilly 30 mile bike ride (60 degs felt like 50 degs with 20-30+ mph winds - Oh my!) and then I ran laps around Stevenson for 8-miles to warm back up (it's a very small town). In the afternoon, the Blue Hat Group all went on a paddle boat tour of the Columbia River. Oh joy, more cold and wind.

Saw many of the usual sights you might expect along the river (bridges, fishing platforms, islands, etc.), but did not expect to see kayakers coming up behind the boat to surf in its wake. Is there anything people don't surf these days?

Got a closer view of one of the daredevils enjoying the winds along the Gorge that make it one of the top places in the world to windsurf and kiteboard (shown here). Cycling, perhaps not so much but what do dumb tourists like us know?

Friday evening, we attended a concert featuring Aaron Meyer, a rock violinist. Thank goodness, it had been moved indoors. Dave's parents seemed to have fun. (No, that's not me in the red)

Saturday morning, Dave and I set out for a 50 mile ride along the Gorge. This time I made sure to wear my windbreaker in addition to two layers while riding against the wind. Here I am climbing a 3-mile long hill generating enough heat to operate a small camera.

At the turnaround, I strip down to two layers. We climb back up the big hill and took a break near the top at Cape Horn (not Pe Ho). Dave's helmet has given him a Squiggy hairdo.

The kids enjoyed the break and view as well.

Dave in orange approaching Beacon Rock, a popular rock climbing spot. He was in heaven riding in the cool weather and hard to keep up with, especially on the downhills!

Me near Bonneville Dam about 5 miles from the hotel. Now with the wind behind us, temps near 70 and over 3000 feet of climbing done, my legs are finally feeling good. What is it with me and 50 mile warmups?

We beat a slow moving barge going upriver.

A post-ride treat to get the legs ready for high heels in the evening. Eek!

Dave with his mom in the hotel corridor. We all had rooms nearby each other so no escaping seeing each other for long.

Me along with two of Dave's more colorful siblings.

At the formal dinner Saturday evening, a toast to 50 years of marriage.

On a 6am Sunday flight back to Orlando. How in the world did this week go by so fast?

Thanks to my brother-in-law Tim for providing several of the pictures above so I could have more to share from our trip.

15 Years of Smiles

May 1994, Monterey, CA.

This week Dave and I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We met and got married at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Back then, we were both workaholics who spent more time with computers than people. In fact, it was an SGI computer rep who introduced us. I needed a CDROM drive to install some software (many workstations did not have internal ones at the time) and she knew a guy down the hall who had one.

That same guy would later roll into my lab one day with his bicycle and ask me to dinner. Who the hell does he think he is riding his bike in my lab?!? I'm busy and don't have time to go out to eat. OTOH, he's pretty good looking and I may need to borrow his CDROM drive again ...

I forget if it was a weekday or weekend but remember us both going back to work after our first date. We'd then spend much more time on computers building our relationship using email and UNIX Talk, an early form of instant messaging, as Dave traveled often (and still does) and was much easier to stalk get a hold of that way.

Our wedding was, fittingly, atop the building where we worked. There were just four of us: Dave, me, the Justice of Peace and his daughter Katherine as our witness. I selected and recorded the music. Dave baked the cake. It was perfect. Simple, cheap, us.

Thanks, Dave, for 15 wonderful years. And thank goodness we now have Skype and spell-checkers.

Last month, Dave in VA, me in HI :-)

This week I'm tapering for the Rock 'n Roll Half Iron Tri in Macon, GA, on Saturday -- WEE!

Tan Lines & the Great Bikini Debate

I love cycling. But I have yet to find a way to keep my legs from looking like they're still wearing bike shorts after a long ride!

These tan lines are courtesy of Saturday's 78 miler which took me 4 hours and 43 minutes (avg 16.56 mph) thanks to some crazy Kona winds. For several miles I was struggling to go just 12-13 mph and this was not uphill - GAH!

Humbled again by the unseen enemy. I once read somewhere that cyclists prefer a steep hill to a strong headwind because the hill is something they can see. I'd agree if I didn't have to see any steep downhills :-)

But at least I had my secret weapons with me to keep me company and going strong: lemon-lime Gatorade mixed with an orangeade drink I like, Hooah bars and PowerGels. I never came close to wanting to lie down and take a little nap alongside the road (really bad idea when you're out there by yourself). In fact, I got done and felt like I could have gone for a little run if I had to! Uh-oh, now having said that, Coach Bill may have me do one next week ...

Workout summary for week 4 of Base Building:
6000 yds swimming (3-yippee!)
157.3 mi biking (3)
15.67 mi running (2)
2 strength workouts
18:22 hours


Now on bikinis, do you think old(er) women should or should not wear them if they want?

Even before Valerie Bertinelli donned one for People Magazine recently, I'd been thinking of getting a cute one as a reward for all this hard work I'm doing. I have a big family reunion on my husband's side coming up in August and the last time I wore one in public was the last time we'd all gotten together for my sister-in-law's first wedding over 10 yrs ago. (No, I didn't wear it to the wedding. I meant afterwards while just hanging out watching the kids play in the pool.)

This reunion will also have lots of time spent hanging around at the pool, no doubt, and since I'm now a swimmer too, the new suit will have to be functional. I know Lisa and Stef both have talked about wearing one, or rather two pieces, and from the sounds of it, they haven't done so in years either. I really think that no woman would wear a bikini if she thought she looked bad in it. Regardless of what any other people may say or think!

But there are those who say bikinis make men view women as objects, they promote unhealthy body images, they make some people feel uncomfortable, they're OK for young girls but not older ones, yadda yadda ...

Your thoughts?

PS - Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend. Look forward to reading those race reports!!

Friday Randomness

1. My son-in-law got a job! OK, so it's just a temporary job with the U.S. Census Bureau, not what a recent graduate with Masters Degree in Civil Engineering would normally want, but times are tough. We're proud of you, Kevin. You never know whose door you might knock on and where it may lead.

2. After years of trying, our neighborhood finally has a Neighborhood Crime Watch program. Of course, I volunteered to be one of the Crime Watch Block Captains. Today I came home from a run around noon and saw a suspicious looking car idling in front of my neighbor's house. Late model sedan, dark blue, Buick Marquis, very dark tinted windows, can't see anyone inside. I decided to extend my cool-down so I could walk past it and note the license plate on the back. Then the driver's side car door opened. Crap! I reached for my pepper spray and prepared for the worst. Oh hi, Deputy P. It was our off-duty sheriff's deputy in an unmarked car.

3. Eeks, can I say I'm LOVING logging my food?! Yeah, I know I'm weird. But I've had some concerns the past couple weeks in training. Am I fueling myself enough for my workouts? Is hunger a good indicator of when I should eat? What the heck am I eating??? With Livestrong's Daily Plate (thanks Jeanne for mentioning it to me), I now know the answers: sometimes, not really, and mostly good but some bad stuff too. It's not rocket science but I think knowing more about my nutrition will help me go further and faster.

4. Cliff Bar rocks! Remember that peanut butter recall a few months back? Well, that caused us to have to throw away a couple boxes of bars we'd bought. But not before I filed for a refund on their website. In the mail recently we got coupons for new bars. But get this, each box contained 6 bars and they gave us 12 coupons per box claimed. Thank you, Cliff Bar. We will most certainly continue to buy your products.

5. Silly sign!! (clickable)


Have a great weekend, everyone, and good luck to all who are racing!!!

Photo of My Parents

My sister just sent me an old photo of my parents. I'm not positive but think it may be their wedding photo.

The reason I don't have any family photos is that I never asked for any. I really didn't like or want photos much until I started blogging. My sister, however, does a lot with photos for her business. She's got some old family photos but the majority of them are probably in storage at my brother's house where my mom lives now. Maybe someday I'll get some copies made.

Random Childhood Memories

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of me or my family as a child but there are some things from my childhood that have definitely shaped me. Thanks, Mom & Dad.

Do It Yourself (DIY) - When something needed to be done around the house, we kids helped my dad do them. I was the oldest, my sister was 14 months younger and a brother came several years later. We did yard work, cleaned out gutters, painted, replaced roof shingles, mixed cement and built retaining walls. I once thought it was really cool that a concrete block was like a sponge and watered one until it got so heavy that we couldn't pick it up. Oops! I take pride in being a mostly DIY person but now let Dave do all the heavy lifting (as well as the laundry :-). He does not like heights anyway.

Exercise - I remember seeing my dad do sit-ups in the morning and walking briskly to/from the bus stop or BART station (about a mile away) on weekdays. Being a former gymnast in high school, he could also do pull-ups and pull-overs on horizontal bars, handstands and flips that put us kids to shame. I've always wanted to be in good enough shape to do the things that he could do. Maybe some day ...

Independence - My mom didn't know how to drive, had no friends and her English skills were limited. When we got sick or injured at school, she'd walk over to pick us up and we had to walk home then take the bus or a taxi to go to see a doctor, if necessary. If something around the house was broken/new that required reading instructions to fix/use, she often had to wait for my dad or the kids to help her. She made me want to be very independent, and I still hate going to see doctors.

Money Matters - Despite her limitations, my mom was a good money manager. I remember her clipping coupons and using an abacus to balance the checkbook to the penny each month. We rarely went shopping except to buy groceries, other necessities and Xmas gifts. A couple times a year we went out to eat as a family to a shopping mall food court, which the kids loved because, one, we could ride the escalator and, two, get a variety of tasty dishes. I am also very careful about saving and spending. Even Taco Bell is a treat when you rarely eat out.

Making Cutbacks - My family of 5 lived in a modest house with one bathroom. Sometime during the late 60's or early 70's, California had a major water shortage. For many weeks (months?), we had a very restrictive bathing schedule, were saving bath and laundry water in order to flush the toilet and using water from washing fruits & veggies to water plants in our yard. I'm not sure if every family went to such extents to conserve water but I know cutbacks can be made, not only in water usage but in a number of things, when times get tough.

Outdoors - Fishing was the number one family recreation for us. It was simple: grab the poles and tackle box, get or bring some bait (digging for worms was a blast!), and head over to either Berkeley Pier or Lake Chabot. We rarely caught anything worth eating or taking a picture of but loved spending hours trying. I love the outdoors and really don't need much to enjoy myself.

Hard Work - My dad always used to always tell us how he washed dishes to get through college. He graduated with a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering and later attended Stanford to do some graduate work. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to tell him before he died how proud I was of his accomplishments but am grateful he taught me to work hard to achieve my goals and not expect help from others.

Competing - All throughout school, I was expected to bring home "A's" and to be one of the top students. I started taking lessons in keyboards (accordion then later piano) at age 7 and competed in a big Northern California Music Festival every year until I was about 16. The desire for perfection and to be one of the best is very ingrained in me but as I've gotten older, I've realized it's not good to always be like that. It's a work in progress.

What Super Bowl?

Usually the only way I know that the Super Bowl is on is that Dave is sitting in front of the TV playing on his laptop waiting for the commercials. I can talk to him and ask him to do something quick during the game BUT NOT DURING THE COMMERCIALS.

This year is different, however. Dave will be nowhere near a TV that will be airing it. Where is he now, you ask?

Actually, I can't say for sure but somewhere high in the sky living out one of his longtime dreams: A Trip Around the World!

This is something he's wanted to do since high school/college (25+ yrs) when his folks used to live in Saudi Arabia. He had always traveled there and back going over the Atlantic but never over the Pacific like he saw some people do.

Now you might wonder why did I not go too. For most people, it's a trip of a lifetime, something that couples usually want to do together, right?

TRUE. But let me clarify.

This trip around the world is pretty much just that. Dave has no interest in going outside of any airports to sightsee along the way except in Singapore, where he'll teach a one or two day class, the main purpose of this trip. All he really wants to do is sit on an airplane, encircle the earth and be able to say he went around the world. It'll take him 20+ hours flying time to get to Singapore (Orlando-DC-Frankfurt-Singapore) and another 20+ hours to come home (Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles-Orlando). He'll have 50 hours on the ground in Singapore. Total trip time including layovers: 5 days.

No thanks!

But I fully support him carrying out his dreams and better yet on someone else's dime :-) Below are a couple pictures of a happy husband on his dream trip so far. Perhaps by sharing his lunacy, I'll seem somewhat normal ...

Left: In my car headed to the airport, the first of many seats on his trip. Right: On the first leg to Washington DC. Looks to have an empty seat next to him in the exit row, which is pretty lucky!

Dulles airport as seen from the United Airlines Crown Room where he'll no doubt make good use of the free drinks and snacks.

Meanwhile, this week was pretty lax for me in terms of workouts. I wanted to make sure I began next week as mentally and physically fresh as possible. January's maintenance mode workout totals ended up being as follows:

8 runs - 74.2 mi
11 bike rides - 363.47 mi
10 swims - 24,200 yds
4 other workouts - 2:15 hrs

I'm not sure how much the training volume will change initially but looking forward to following an actual plan and having a coach. BTW, it now appears our new bikes won't be ready until end of February, later than we'd hoped but some things are better not rushed.

Hope everyone has a great Super Bowl Sunday!

Mele Kalikimaka!

This is probably what would happen if I ever asked dear Dave to hang up our Xmas lights. Assuming we have any Xmas lights.

So instead, we do ourselves (and others) a favor by going back to Kona for the holidays. And watching the NBC broadcast of the Ironman World Championship last Saturday was the perfect precursor. So fun to see some of the best triathletes in the world racing in my hood!

Hope all of you enjoy your holidays. I'll be back mid-January with a race report from the Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon in Minnesota to kick off the new year. Then iron training begins in February. Aloha!


PS - If you want to see Dave and I doing some holiday cross-training, click on the image above to visit my sister Jade Lady's blog.

A New PR!

No, not another race. 40 comments on my last post -- THANKXOXOX!!!

Seriously, two years ago when I started blogging, I had no idea what I was getting into. It's so unlike me to write about myself and I didn't really even like taking pictures much. I think the number of photos of me from high school until my mid-thirties is probably less than 10!

Too busy working and so self-critical all the time. It's a wonder I made it to my 40's ...

Here's a couple things from the life of an older, much wiser woman :-)

1. My photo tag (4th photo in my 4th folder). Sorry, it happens to be running related.


Explanation: Photo that appeared in the May 2005 issue of Runner's World in reference to my 21 Run Salute. It was taken in downtown Orlando near Lake Eola. The photo shoot took 2-3 hours and the photographer and his assistant had brought all sorts of lighting equipment and props, including crumbs to get birds to fly around me. Who knew getting one good photo could take so long!

2. My blog style (thanks to Spokane Al for pointing me to the Typealzer site):

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

I find this pretty funny because I once took a Myer-Briggs Type Indicator Test and got an INTJ result. So either I've really changed or am a schizo blogger.

Added: My other blog, EnduranceSportsBar.com, came up as "ISTP - The Mechanics" so maybe I do have split personalities.

3. More family time - After the Route 66 Marathon, I went to Austin for a couple days to meet up with Dave. He ended up arriving late and leaving early but I got to see Marathon Chris, who was attending the same conference as Dave, and visit my sis Jade Lady and her family, who live in the area.

L to R: Dave, Me, my niece and brother-in-law. Sis, who took this photo and the one below, was added to the top left.

And I got to swim in beautiful Barton Springs.

Four birds with one stone!

Now, time to catch up on what you all have been up to. My Google Reader says 30 new and exciting posts to read.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Dr. Humble Triathlete

Many of you know me as a crazy woman who travels about the country training and racing incessantly. Even on my lazy days I can make the Energizer Bunny look like a sloth.

Who in their right mind would put up with me and why?

Well, here's a bit about my better half, or rather better two-thirds. I was nearly flabbergasted when Dave asked to write a post on my blog. He keeps saying he doesn't want to blog! It didn't have a title so I gave it one (he has a PhD in Computer Science) and I added a little of my own too. After all, it is still MY blog. But you'll see that he is at least partially to blame for my madness.

Hi, this is Dave (Shirley’s husband) with a guest post.

As some of you know, I’m very supportive of Shirley and her pursuit of running all of these races all over the country. It’s not because I’m such a nice guy, it’s because I have a vested interest in having her travel around the country with a goal that is gonna take a couple of years.

For those of you who don’t know, I travel a lot for work. Like nearly every week except on weekends, usually. So much so that more than half of Shirley’s trips are at least partially covered by hotel, car, or airline points. Having her travel solves two problems: 1. it helps to use up the points so people don’t ask me for them and 2. it exposes her to some of the “fun” I have when I travel. So, her flying around the country sets up a common bond between us. She can curse TSA rules too, collect her own little shampoo bottles and laugh at my travel jokes. I grew up in the military, so I’ve been all over the country and no real desire to visit most of it again anyway. My idea of a vacation is staying home for a change.

On the triathlon front, in the mid 1980’s I ran quite a few of what are now called the Olympic distances races. I've also done the Wildflower Triathlon long course and still have one of the original Scott aerobars used in the sport, which Shirley once thought was a lawn mower part in the garage. During that time, I got hooked on road bike riding. So, a couple of years ago when I was fitted with some knee braces by the VA, I decided to try riding again. This coincided with Shirley’s desire to try triathlons. So, now road biking is a shared hobby we can do together. As an aside, I also managed to lose 40 lbs.

Ok, there is one restriction I did put on her. I told her that we would not move to Hawaii until she has finished the 50 states quest. Her desire to complete the quest by the time she is 50 (November 2011) coincides with my desire to keep working in my present capability until May 2011. Not sure what I’m going to do after that, but it’s going to involve less travel and allow me to follow a training plan. So, supporting her goal is also supporting mine of continued working or at least postponing me having to come up with “what's next”. The other thing is I’m too cheap to want her flying back and forth from Hawaii to run races all the country. Shirley has made it clear, though, that she's willing and able to knock out the remaining 11 marathons to finish her 50 States quest in a year if I figure out what to do next sooner.

Finally, I’m supportive of her because I love her with all my heart, she means the world to me and I would do anything I could to help make her happy. Well, almost anything.

Thanks for reading …

Now please give him some nice comment love so he might do this again in the future :-)

More Montana Trip Photos

Yes, the camera was busy this trip! I actually flew into Salt Lake City, UT, and drove 7.5 hours up to Missoula, MT. Why? Because I enjoy driving and haven't seen northern Utah, much of Idaho or Montana before. Plus, my (step) daughter and her husband live in the SLC area. So it was a chance to see them and more of that part of the country, all while escaping FL heat and humidity for a little longer :-)

Unfortunately, husband Dave couldn't come along, though he wanted to, because he already had business trips to San Diego, Washington DC and Seattle (in that order) during the same time I'd be gone. Here's what he missed:

Hello Montana!



Pretty Clark Reservoir. Where's my wetsuit?



Bison?  Bull ... It was in the same spot on the return trip too.



Rolling pastures.



Clark Fork showing me the way to Missoula.



A famous festival held July 30-August 3 this year. Darn, I would miss it ...



In Missoula, Clark Fork gets pretty big and goes right through town.



A closer look at the river after picking up my race packet at the expo nearby.



Guys trying to paddle UP rapids in short stubby kayaks. Man vs. Nature and Nature was usually winning.



The fish I caught on this trip. Really big ones, too.



Me and the kids who both tower over me so best to be sitting down. Last time I saw them was last Thanksgiving. Great to see them again!

Official Missoula Marathon race photos are now available and can be found here, if anyone is interested. Sorry, looks as if I took a Happy Pill that morning.