I feel like things are finally starting to get back to normal - whatever normal is. Crystal is finally married, Christmas is over, and at long last the presidential candidates have moved on from the feeding-frenzy that is Iowa in an election year.
Crystal's wedding went really well. It was a fun weekend of seeing friends and getting to know Dana's family. But I'm not going to lie, I was exhausted when it was all over. I think I literally fell asleep standing up after the brunch on Sunday. Weddings like that go by in such a blur; it's really a shame with all the build up and the expectations. I know Crystal and Dana were worn out, too, but at least they got to go sit on the beach in Aruba for 5 days to recover!
Part of the fun leading up to the wedding was being a "witness" at the courthouse when they filed for their marriage license. Dana couldn't get back to Iowa in order to file early enough to make the mandatory 3-day waiting period, so we had to visit a judge to get him to sign off on the license. As luck would have it, one of Team Vardo's finest members, who just happens to be a district court judge in Story County, was the only judge working that day. Bill is one of the first guys who joined my Dam to Dam training group six years ago, and he has become a good friend since then. I know that he has quite a weakness for chocolate, so on the way to the courthouse, we picked up a little bribe for the judge!
New Years came and went without much ado. I headed out to the Team Vardo party - it was doubling as a going-away-party for one of the founding members who is taking off (no pun intended) for commercial flight school in Virginia for 6 months. I was home and in bed by 11pm.
One of my favorite New Years traditions is to get up early on New Years Day and go shopping. It is the second big markdown on all the Christmas stuff (usually 75%) and I always have every store nearly to myself. This year is was just me and one Asian woman in Target all by ourselves! All you crazy crowd-happy people can have the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love having New Years all to myself!
The following day, I called Cam on my way home from work to see if he wanted to check out
Caucus! The Musical with me that night. It was written by Robert Ford, a friend of mine from the
ALC. I'd been reading about Robert's show in all the major news magazines and had been seeing him on the all the network TV's evening news programs. He was getting a lot of coverage, so I really wanted to check it out.
The show was a riot! It follows a typical Iowa farmer as he and his family try to make sense of the caucus circus that is Iowa. A news reporter finds this farmer eating in his local cafe and labels him an "Iowan's Iowan." The candidates soon see that if they can win him (and his family), they can win in Iowa. While we laughed at how ridiculous some of the storyline seemed, much of it was funny simply because of how true it is!
Training is really going well. I've been out on some cold runs and then some *really* cold runs this winter. However, much worse than the cold is all the ice and frozen crap on the sidewalks. We've had a lot of precipitation so far but it seems like every time it snows, we get a couple inches of rain and/or freezing rain first. This turns into near concrete on all the roads and sidewalks, but the sidewalks never get cleared. Mostly we've taken to running in the streets. Thanks to some very reflective clothing and a few other safety precautions, sharing the roadway with drivers has been okay for all.
I've been spending a lot of time on my trainer. It hasn't been as bad as I was expecting - in fact, I'll spend 6+ hours on it this week. I do have one thing (besides the obvious) that is keeping me motivated to ride for hours in my living room. We are in the midst of planning a girls' training trip to sunny Arizona in April. My coach is training a few other women for Ironman races later in the summer - and Jenny is doing Wisconsin this fall herself! So, we are planning on heading to Phoenix the day before Ironman Arizona and having 5 days of intensive training in some warm weather. Plus, it will be a lot of fun to see another Ironman race and just hang out with the girls for a while.
I've also started back with some swimming. I really enjoy swimming - it's just that I hate getting all cold and wet! I know I sound like a wimp... but it's a fact! I did a workout with Jenny a couple weeks ago so she could videotape me and give me some help with my form. I guess you could say that jump-started my swimming, but I've only been back at the pool a couple time since then, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration... My *favorite* early bird swims (5:30am) start in a couple weeks, so then I'll have no more excuses!
The same weekend I started back at the pool, Jenny had me down to DM for a VO2 test on the bike. I was really familiar with the program and equipment, but this was my first time as a subject! I was not too surprised with the results - especially the information from the HR (max, my training zones), but it always helps to know for sure what is going on. The biggest lesson I learned is that I have a long way to go on getting myself faster on the bike. I tend to train at too low of an intensity most of the time. That is not a problem I have on the run - in fact, I probably tend to train a little high for that! Either way, that test is not fun, but very helpful with training.
Besides a VERY cold forecast, there is nothing too earth-shattering on the horizon for the next couple of weeks. I would like to just be able to concentrate on work and training and not have the distractions that seemed to be very prevalent over the last few months.
