Tournaments, personalities, & NYC

Tournaments:
Monday night was our last night of volleyball, with tournaments, and we lost. But, I really liked our team and look forward to playing with them again. We might set up a team for the fall, if I can squeeze it into my schedule!

Last night, the 2nd volleyball team I am on began tournaments as well. We lost, and we play again next Tuesday, but I will be out of town. I am not too sad. This team wasn't well put together, and I felt that we didn't have enough fun.

On the flip side, we had played our softball tournament right after volleyball. Our first game we won 15 to 0 in 3 innings. The second game we played the team that we tied with during the regular season, but were ranked 1st since we had more runs. They beat us in the tournament last night and we ended up taking home 2nd place. Congrats team! We all got a really nice t-shirt for our regular season 1st place, and the captain took home the ugly trophy for 2nd place in the tourney.

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MEME: 7 Personality Traits
I was tagged by the wonderful Amanda over at Run to The Finish! I am supposed to list 7 personality traits of mine and I think I have done something similar before, so I am sure I might repeat some. Sorry!


1. Number Freak: I love numbers, cruching them, collecting data, etc. I mean, have you looked at my sidebars? LOL.

2. Mornings Rock: I would like to consider myself a morning person as well. I love the feeling of getting up and accomplishing so many things before the rest of the world is even awake! Morning workouts are my favorite! There's nothing like starting the day off with a good run, swim, or bike... then heading to work and being able to relax the rest of the evening!

3. Sleep required: I am one who likes to get a good 8 hours of sleep each and every night if at all possible. If this doesn't happen, number 2 above doesn't happen. The domino effect can be quite horrible. Can the amount of sleep you need be hereditary? In discussion a lot of my cousins and I (including my sisters) like to get a lot of sleep and are morning people. Something to ponder, I guess.

4. Busy-body: I haven't always enjoyed being physically active, but now that I have been for the past few years (consistently) it is definitely an addiction and part of who I am today. I have played sand volleyball for a number of summers in the past and was happy to get back into that this year, playing on two teams. Softball has become a regular part of my summers as well. I have gotten to the point where you can ask me to play it or try it, and I will. I just like getting out there and being busy, rather than sitting at home doing nuttin'.

5. Home-body: Especially during the school year, I love coming home after work and having no commitments. However, this hasn't helped much on the dating scence, but really, I do like coming home and just relaxing. I enjoy having a few friends over for dinner during the week, but if you are going to ask me to join you OUT for dinner or drinks, I am most likely going to say no... see numbers 2 and 3 for better understanding. This can conflict with number 4 at times... but I would much rather go DO something than meet up with friends for dinner or drinks.

6. Independent: I haven't always been little-miss-independent, but as I have gotten older in my 20's it has most definitely been the case. I think being thrown into the adult world after college has changed me a bit... that and the end of a long-term relationship a few years back. It's all good though.

7. Tell it how it is: I have to sometimes watch what I say, but I can be blunt at times. If you're a friend of mine and discussing an issue with me, don't expect me to be on your "side" 100% of the time. I have been referred to as the "voice of reason" by a couple close friends because I will try to help you see the other persons point of view, or let you know that you are over-reacting to a certain situation. Life's short, don't sweat the small stuff dude!

TAGGED .....
Ok folks consider yourself tagged to share your seven traits:
Jess @ Run Girl Run
Ashley @ Journey To A Better Me
Jess @ 21 Days
Kelly @ She Wears A Red Sox Cap
Carolina John @ Smoke Training
D10 @ Just Running For Fun

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New York City... here we come!
In less than 2 days I will be in NYC with the fam. I still haven't finished packing, but plan to do that tonight. I am getting so excited. With that note, don't be worried if you don't see any posts for a week, or don't have any comments from me. I will be back next week with a recap of our trip and hopefully some wonderful pictures!

Peace, my friends!

9 done, 2 to go!

Another week of training is in the books. Geez, I can't believe how fast time has gone by. Here's this past week's training, and then some...

Week 9 of Triathlon Training:

Monday:

Run - 4.75 miles, 58:00, 12:12/mi. avg.

Volleyball

Tuesday:

Adult Swim Team: 2400M Total

4x200M w/:10RI (1. Free, 2. Kick, 3. 50Drill/50swim, 4. Free)

4x400M w/:30RI (1. Breathing every 3 strokes, 2. Sprinting over lines, 3. 50's - alternating between breathing on every 3rd stroke and every 5th stroke, 4. Sprinting over lines)

Volleyball

Wednesday:

Bike 15.2 miles

Thursday:

Adult Swim Team: Total 2400M

1000M: Mix

12x50's: Choice (building)

4x200: odds - pull bouy and paddles, evens - freestyle

Volleyball

Friday:

REST

Saturday:

Run - 2.5 miles, 27:00, 10:48/mi. avg.

Soccer

Sunday:

Bike - 12.81 miles

Run - 1.72 mile

Looking back on all of my training, I am a bit disappointed that I haven't got in many brick workouts. I know that I will do fine in each discipline on it's own, it's just putting the three together that start to make me a wee bit anxious!

Other than training, I played sand volleyball three nights this past week. I am on two different teams, and subbed in on thursday night as well. All three nights the weather was great - sunny, super warm, and not really windy! No softball this past week, it was a bye week.

Yesterday I got talked into playing soccer. A friend of mine that I play volleyball with has been trying to get a group together to play some casual soccer. I have never played in my life and was a bit hesitant with my knee. There were about 12 of us, both men and women, and we just went out there and had some fun. Some players have been playing for a while, and there were a handful of us that had never played before. I had a lot of fun, and even scored 2 goals! I might have to play again sometime!

I will leave you with a few pictures from some of interesting weather yesterday. It would be sunny one minute, and the next it was down-pouring. Actually, when we were playing soccer some nastly clouds were rolling in. We left when the lightening started to appear and on the ride home we drove through torrential rain and hail. It was nasty. But it left behind a pretty nice full rainbow!

blogger shout out!

The first day of summer school followed by 2 hours of tutoring ... in the bag. Both went pretty smooth and the time went by fast. However, I didn't really prepare my nutrition properly, only eating breakfast and a CLIF Zbar between the hours of 6am and 4pm. Not a good plan. Lesson learned and my breakfast, snack, and lunch is already packed for tomorrow.

Today I had volleyball. I was anxious to see how well my knee felt during and afterwards. The concensious? No change really. I didn't expect it to be better, but I was at least hoping it wouldn't get worse. It's almost like a pain behind my knee, possibly at the ITband and I noticed that it kind of runs down my leg to my ankle. So, I got home popped a couple ibuprofens and iced the back and front of my knee. I still haven't decided if I am going to do volleyball AND softball tomorrow night. Part of me hopes the rain expected tomorrow night cancels both, so I don't have to throw in the towel.

I have swim practice tomorrow at 6am. I hope the weather cooperates. Now, tomorrow it's supposed to be 61* (compared to 44* last Thursday), but we have 50% chance of rain.... hopefully it won't get moved indoors. If so, they hold practice at one of the high schools that is too far out of the way and I wouldn't be able to get to work on time. If practice gets moved, I will just plan to do my own workout at the Y. Always gotta have a plan B!

On a completely different note.... if you haven't checked out Steve's blog yet, you must! He's geniune midwestern guy that is not only hilarious, but willing to post about almost anything and everything! If you don't believe, check it out for yourself! He's a rockstar!

I hope y'all had a wonderful Monday!

A little of this and a LOT of that

This past week has been a busy one. I have lots to catch up on!

Tour De Cure: This is my last week of fundraising for the Tour De Cure. Thanks to ALL OF YOU who have donated thus far! It TRULY means A LOT to me! If you are interested in donating, please check out my website here! This coming Saturday I will be riding 32 miles. I am hoping for some wonderful weather like today!

Work related: Despite the fact that school has been out for the past 2 weeks, I spent a lot of time back at work this past week. Between a couple meetings Monday/Tuesday mornings, tutoring Monday and Tuesday (which will be Monday-Thursday usually), and prepping for the start of summer school Wednesday-Friday... I was BUSY! But, I am excited to start teaching summer school tomorrow! 2nd graders, here I come!

Triathlon Training: For the most part this week was pretty successful. However, Tuesday night at softball my right knee started acting up. Shooting pains were running down the front of my knee when I would stand in a locked knee position. I think I might have rotated it funny while running around in the outfield. Let me remind you, I was playing softball after 1.5 hours of sand-volleyball.

Thus, I have been babying my knee, and things are starting to look better. It doesn't bother me when walking or running, but I don't want to over-do it. Every once and a while it will just act up. Weird. Here's this past weeks training....

Week 7 of Sprint Tri Training:
Monday:
Run - 6x400M Sprints (3.2 miles overall)
Volleyball
Tuesday:
Swim - 1400M, 25:00, 2:05/100M
Volleyball
Softball
Wednesday:
REST -yoga
Thursday:
Adult Swim Team - 2000M total;
800M w/u
16x50M w/:15RI - 2 kick/2 freestyle
4x100M Sprints w/:30RI
Friday:
Bike - 24 miles (trainer ride)
Saturday:
Run - 2.3 miles
Sunday:
Bike - 10.7 miles
Run - 1.1 miles

I had my first outdoor Brick today. Oy. First of all, it was my first ride of 2009 outdoors and I have a lot of work to do. After 10 miles, only, I got home changed quickly and set out for my short run. oy oy. It was ugly, people. My legs felt like lead and I felt like I was going in slow motion. There is definitely room for a lot of improvment!

Operation Organize: I am in the process of trying to organize my house. It drives me crazy when things don't have a place and I am trying to fix that. Between my two trips to Target in 3 days, and spending tons of money, and I am on to a good start. Yesterday I spent a good hour putting together a couple of book shelves for the living room. Basement living room is super clean, and the spare bedroom for the renter is completely cleaned out. There are so many more things on the list, but I am tackling one at a time!

Sunday yard work: I had a long list of things to take care of with the yard that I have been putting off far too long. To make it more enjoyable, I had the radio cranked in the garage, listening to the Twins game. It definitely reminded me of the days we would help Dad outside with some chores. In a matter of an hour or so, I got two dead maple trees and two dead lilac bushes dug up. I hand pulled a lot of weeds and grass along the fence of my backyard. I think it's time to splurge and buy a weed-wacker. I struggled with digging up the dead rose bush, cussed at it a bit, and gave up. I will save it for another sunny day. I also got the lawn fertilized and watered. To top it off, I organized the garage a little bit, found a nice spot for my bike, and swept the garage floor! I was hoping to wash my car, but I was pooped out. I will try and tackle that some sunny afternoon this coming week.


I know that a lot of you were out racing this weekend, so I look forward to all of the wonderful race reports!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead of them!

Hello Summer Vacay!!

I am into day 3 of my summer vacation and lovin' every bit of it! The past couple days I have kept myself pretty busy with a couple volleyball teams, softball, regular triathlon training, and just overall enjoying the sun on my patio with a good book. Come on people, it's my summer and I am going to enjoy it before summer school starts up!



But, believe you me, I have plenty of things to do around the house. However, I have little motivation! Maybe if I post a handful of things that need to get done, I will be more likely to take care of them!

• purchase a couple book shelves,
• hang more photos,
• organize closet - switching out winter clothes for summer clothes,
• clean out 2nd spare bedroom so a roommate can move in
• clean kitchen and reorganize some cupboards
• kill the weeds in the yard (damn dandilions),
• mow the lawn (again?!),
• take grass clippings to the dump
• dig up two trees and two lilac bushes (thanks to the old owners who planted them too late in the fall)

On the training front.... things are going well. After the past couple of days however, I realized I will need to shuffle some workouts around so I have easy one's on Monday-Wednesday, maybe even a rest day in there. This is because I have volleyball both Monday and Tuesday night, as well as Softball after volleyball on Tuesday nights. Next week I will begin working with the adult swim team at the butt crack of dawn, making Tuesday's exceptionally long, especially when 3 hours of teaching summer school and 2 hours of tutoring is thrown in the mix!

Speaking of volleyball and softball..... my Monday night co-ed VB team played really well. I only knew one of my team members previously, so I am looking forward to getting to know the rest a bit better. Last night we were short a player for VB, but played better than last week. From there we had a bit of time to grab a couple drinks and apps before softball. I didn't play much last night because we have a butt-load of girls (fine by me, I was wiped), but we did have a couple injuries in the second game. Our catcher got hit in the inside of her ankle with a SB at full speed - totally not worth the injury. And our shortstop got nailed just below the inside of his knee in the same inning. He had a huge bump, possibly full of fluid, and left early for the ER. Dangerous sport. :)

Did you all get out and run today? It's Nationall Running Day! I know I did. I took full advantage of the 68 degrees and hit the roads for a few miles! What a way to celebrate!

What's going on?

Teacher Appreciation Week...
The week started off with $60 in cold hard cash from our PTA as a thanks for all we do. Seriously, we are so lucky to have such a wonderful PTA, and it's not just about the money! They have been very involved and supportive in our school and district. On top of the money from the PTA, our district administrators, support staff, and district educator's association, have been providing treats in the lounge each day... meat and cheese tray, root beer floats, muffins and rolls, pies, etc.


Triathlon to Come...
Less than two weeks ago, I came across a triathlon I wanted to do. It's part of the Prairie Rose State Games that takes place here in ND every year, rotating between four locations. This year it takes place in Grand Forks, only an hour drive from here and the cost is only $15!! For my first outdoor triathlon, I just couldn't pass it up. The knee is feeling stronger than ever, I have started an 11 week training plan, implementing Tri Power, and I am super pumped!


Fargo Marathon...
This weekend marks the 5th annual Fargo Marathon. As much as I was looking forward to doing the Half Marathon again, I am okay with down-sizing to the 5K run. This race is going to be for fun! I plan to take my camera with me, taking pictures along the way, and finishing with extra time to watch the rest of my family finish. My sister Susan will be walking across the finish line with other friends, my sister Steph will be finishing her very first Half Marathon, and my parents will be completing their umpteenth Half Marathon. It's a family affair. If anyone is looking for a flat course with a great crowd to work towards their BQ, this would be the one!


Co-ed softball just around the corner...
I had originally planned to can co-ed softball this summer but I just couldn't. I told our "manager" that I would be willing to be a sub, and he asked that I play the first couple weeks to get me on the roster. Then, a shirt was ordered for me, and I really wanted to play. We have more girls this year, so I opted to rotate in, playing maybe one game each week rather than both games and I am completely fine with this! We start next Tuesday, playing at 9 and 10 pm! This will be late nights for the last few weeks of school, but I can't handle it!


Sand Volleyball ?!?...
When I was living in GF, a handful of us played co-ed sand volleyball at a local bar for years. It was sad to see that come to an end and I really missed not playing last summer. So, a friend of mine set up a Co-ed team for this summer and I am going to be playin' baby! This will start in a couple weeks, the same night as softball but just a few hours earlier. Hopefully there will be just enough time for a cold beer or two between the two sports! Just another reason to look forward to summer!



Monday's Workout:
Bike 12.5 miles, 38:00, 19.73mph

Tuesday's Workout:
Run 2. 75 miles, 31:06, 11:18/mi avg.