Shoe Jackpot

After one evening in Mobile, I decided that the best thing about that place was the Nine West outlet! I was in desperate need of a new pair of black shoes for work and was hoping to find a Nine West store. I headed for the mall and, on the way, spotted a sign for Nine West. Much to my surprise, it was an outlet and I bought three pairs of shoes for $68 (including tax).

I got home around 7pm Friday evening and watched the days Tour de France stage with Tim and swept and mopped my floors. Tim had to leave really late to go pick up his daughter Lauren at the airport.

On Saturday, I woke up with intentions of going for a run but felt really tired and had a little upset stomach. So, I stayed in and kept cleaning the house.

I met Tim, Lauren, and their friend Margaret for lunch at Moon Under Water for lunch.

After lunch, we did a little shopping, then headed to Ted's surprise birthday party at the Vinoy Club. It was an interesting mix of swimmers and CrossFitters - but we finally got them to "integrate"!

After the party, Tim, Lauren and I went back to my house to watch the Mont Vontoux stage of the Tour de France. I can't believe it will all be over tomorrow!!!

This morning, I got up with intentions of riding and running. But I realized that I really must be coming down with something. I have a sore throat, my glands are swollen, and my ears feel terrible. I can't tell if it's allergies or a cold but I really, really don't want to get sick. So, I popped a Zyrtec and decided to stay home and work on the house some more.

I'll be looking forward to getting back to CrossFit tomorrow - but this was really a waste of a weekend, as far as training goes. I'll have to take my jump rope with me to Philadelphia on Monday. I'll be there for training through Wednesday. Unlike customer visits, this is for training and should be less stress so I should be able to get in some runs and jumping.

Mobile in Mobile

Get it? I'm driving around in Mobile, Alabama!

The day after Filthy Fifty saw no mercy at the Dammit Gym yesterday morning.

We did "Nancy": 5 Rounds for Time of 400m Run and Overhead Squats (OHSs) x 15 reps

By the way... that's not ME.

When the timer started, I ran out the door for the 400m run and shook out the morning cobwebs. Re-entering the gym, I grabbed the 45# bar off of the rack for my 15 OHSs, then bolted out the door for the next 400m run - already feeling the fatigue in my legs.

What a surprise when I re-entered the gym to find that Marc added another 10# to my bar!!! I did 10 squats and dropped the bar. Marc put it back on the rack and I lifted it for the next 5 squats and headed back out the door. After that, for the remaining 3 rounds, I would not stop during the squats because it seemed harder than just getting the 15 squats over with, even though it really stressed my arms and hurt my hands.

But that was not a good move. Marc told me that the next time this comes up, he'll add another 10# just because I was able to do all 15 squats without any rest. Argh!! Damn the progress!!

This morning, I had to be up by 4am to catch my 6am flight to Atlanta and on to Mobile. But it doesn't really matter that I'm mobile in Mobile... there's just not that much to see or do around here... at least not for one evening.

Why I Can't Unpack

I've been home since Wednesday night and my suitcase has not yet been put away. But there's a good reason for that. It is being held down! I suspect that Wilma thinks that if she lays on it, then maybe I won't go on another trip. If only...

For my birthday, Tim booked us a room at the Vinoy Hotel! So, Friday after work, we walked from his condo to Paciugo for some gelato. We always cut through the Vinoy coming and going. As we cut through on the walk back, he just went straight to the elevator and we went to the 4th floor. He already had a bottle of wine in the room!

On Saturday morning, it was nice to make the quick drive home to get my bike for the morning bike ride. After the ride, I went home to shower and change and had lunch with Grandma. Then we went back to the Vinoy and hung out for a bit before w

alking into town for a movie and dinner. If you haven't seen Hangover - it's a must! Then we had a nice dinner at Red Mesa Cantina, and back to The Vinoy.

Sunday morning, we walked back to Tim's condo and went out for the morning bike ride. I went back to The Vinoy to shower and change and walk downstairs to meet my girlfriends for Sunday brunch!! It was so nice of Dee to arrange this breakfast and I was very happy to see Val, Heather, Joanie, Geri, Christine, and Sally! I was especially happy that I did my morning workout so I could really enjoy the brunch. In honor of John Cox, I had my desert first!!

Monday meant getting back to reality. CrossFit was fun as it was a strength day.

Thrusters: 55#, 65#, 70#, 65#, 71#, 66#, 75# - same PR as before.

This morning, CrossFit did a birthday workout for me... Filthy Fifty!!

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box / 20 for women

50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood

Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows50 Push press, 45 pounds / 35 pounds for women
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball / 10 pound ball for women

50 Burpees

50 Double Unders

Talk about feeling old and slow!! I did box jumps on the 16" box. I should have done them on the 20" box so the workout would have been done as Rx'd, but I still struggle a bit even on the 16" box.

Marc even posted this picture on the website of me doing Knees to Elbows - although my knees are nowhere near my elbows!!

Happy Birthday to Fred

Fred was born 17 years ago!

I was on a mission, looking to adopt 2 kittens and no one had kittens... not even the Humane Society or the local pound. I called Friends of Strays and they had two kittens... but one was already spoken for. So, by default, I got Fred. It would be four years later that I would get Wilma... but today is Fred's day.

This is what Fred looked like when I brought him home.

He's a little older here, but not much.

Obviously he has not a care in the world.

He still does this today.

It's not unusual for my mailman to find Fred sleeping like this at the front door. Or, Fred will sleep like this in the garden, then get up with dirt all over his back and come in the house and leave a dirt trail wherever he goes.

Funeral for a Friend

I was back to CrossFit Thursday morning for a brutal awakening after my easy time in San Antonio. This was my first workout at our new place - which has no air conditioning. Just walking in was a workout - it was like a sauna in there!

To make matters worse, our workout was 4 rounds for time of 400m run and 50 squats. Dawn and I both rowed - Marc has us row instead of run because we both like to run. Dawn is a couple of inches taller than me so she had the advantage on the rowing and beat me out overall by 2 seconds - or 1 squat. I finished in 15:28 to her 15:26.

After work, Tim and I went to John Cox's funeral service, or rather, his celebration of life. The family was wonderful at exhibiting true joy about John's life and his philosophy of always having desert first! With that, they passed aroud spoons and containers of Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream!

John was a retired Brigadier General who had graduated from West Point. During the service, his fellow classmates from the Class of 1959 came to the front to present Kay (John's wife) with the flag. Then, they had an old (and I do mean old) Army guy come up to play a song on the bagpipes. This guy gave a little talk about the bagpipe and it's place in war history- psychological warefare :) - and said that he would play the requested song, "Flowers of the Forest", with a little change and that it would be good enough for government work. The many miliatary people in attendance chuckled with understanding.

What they didn't know is that he would play "Flowers of the Forest" but towards the end, he slipped into another tune. I recognized it immediately and you could tell that recognition set in with the military people almost at once as they all jumped from their seats and stood at attention - followed by the rest of the people at the service. The bagpipe player had started to play "The Ballad of the Green Beret". What a fitting final song for an old soldier!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH4-tOqLH94

I forgot to mention that on Monday afternoon, we went to Rudy's for some good Texas bar-b-que. This place advertises "The Worst Bar-B-Q in Texas". The place is like a convenience store where you can fill up with gas, and also buy Bar-B-Que by the pound.

They serve up the Bar-B-Que on sheets of butcher paper. Above, you can see that my plate is just about clean and Mom looks intent on finishing that last bite of sausage!

Tuesday morning, Mom and I did her first "interval" walk training. This was just a 25 minute workout, but it was a real effort. We started with a 5 minute walk warmup. Then, we power-walked for 1 minute followed by 3 minutes of easy walking. We did this five times (5 power-walks, 4 rest intervals). And we ended with a 5 minute cool-down walk for a total of 27 mintues. But boy did we work up a sweat!!

Then it was time to get to work and Tuesday was a pretty hectic day. I had a few conference calls in the morning before heading to the customer for my afternoon appointment. That went un

til about 4:30pm and I still had a little work to do after that.

Mom made dinner in tonight - some wonderful sauteed shrimp with the "compound butter" we bought at H.E.B - the lemon and herb butter. D-licious!

We made another run back to H.E.B. because I really did not like the pumpkin candy that I bought at Mi Tierra. Although they have great pralines, the pumpkin candy was really lacking... too fresh!!

Here's the pumpkin candy I bought at H.E.B. - nice and dark color, and really sweet!

Wednesday was a short day, mostly re-packing and getting ready to go. We went out for more Bar-B-Que at lunch - this time to Bill Miller's. They had the best cole slaw and I also had brisket, hash browns, and green beans.

Mom & Dad dropped me off at the airport around 12:20pm for a 1:45 flight. I got checked in and through security pretty quickly, only to find out that my flight would be delayed until 2:30pm. But you know me and my travel... that wouldn't be the end. The inbound plane had hit a bird and needed to be inspected and they also had to change a tire. That set us back until around 3:15 to board. Instead of arriving in Tampa at 5:15pm, we arrived at 7:15pm. Bummer.

Going Batty

Friday the 13th is supposed to be a bad luck day. But it's always a great day for me. Monday the 13th, on the otherhand, is double-jeopardy as far as I'm concerned and this one started out as a real bad luck day.

The short story is that I got scheduled for a conference call at the last minute, and other

conference calls got rescheduled, and rescheduled again and it was just a really hectic day.

But... Mom and I got in a nice walk this morning. We went for 45 minutes and

covered 2.75 miles. That's further at a faster pace than we did yesterday!

Then, after my hectic work stuff, we headed out to the River Walk.

First stop - The Alamo

Next stop, the tour on the River Boat

After dinner, it was off to see the bats again. We came so late the last time that we only saw a few. Being there for the start was amazing as so many bats came out. It was really amazing seeing the number of bats coming out from under the bridge!

This poor little guy came flying out from under the bridge and fell into the river. We thought he was done for. After flopping around in the water for a bit, he found the side and clung on for dear life. He started climbing to the top and we thought he might get to the top and rest a minute. But, about a foot from the top, I guess he decided he had dried off enough and flew off with the rest of the bat flock. We were really happy to see that he made it!!

Only in Texas

We has a wonderful breakfast this morning... my favorite, taquitos! I had potato and chorizo (save the eggs for another day).

After breakfast, we decided to go stock up on groceries and headed to H.E.B. H.E.B. is the "Publix" of Texas, but it's very much like being in a foreign country. About 99% of the people speak Spanish - only. Then, you know when you are out of place when you ask one of the employees if they carry "Hummus" and they ask "What's that... cheese"?

And this you would see only in Texas... next to the Bosc pears and the Bartlett pears were - what

else - the prickly pears!

We bought some prickly pears that were already peeled and ready to eat. But they are so full of little seeds that you don't really get anything good out of them. They say the seeds are edible, but they are so hard I'm afraid I'd break a tooth.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Acadiana. This restaurant is typical of the style of food in this part of Texas.

First, a Texas-sized iced tea

Next, one of the best fried catfish dinners with a side of fried okra, and crawfish etoufee!!

Good thing I worked out this morning... 3 mile run, then a 40 minute walk with Mom.

Su Casa Es Mi Casa

No... I don't have that backwards.

The sign outside of Mi Tierra Cafe says "Mi Casa Es Su Casa" - my house is your house. And you know... I just might take them up on it! I love this place! How can you not be happy when you go to Mi Tierra!

The mariachi's are really very good!

I think they need a few more Pinata's.

This is the best part... saving room for desert!

I bought a box of praline's and some pumpkin candy.

Here' my new boyfriend (sorry Tim)

Eagerly awaiting tamale's and taco's.

If you like the lights, you should see it at Christmas!

The back room has a beautiful mural that is textured.

A closeup of the mural.

Another section of the mural.

After dinner, we went to the Camden Street Bridge to see that bats leave their "cave" (the bridge).

A view of the river, with "lighted fish".

Individual Time Trial

Sometimes, CrossFit is like the Individual Time Trial (ITT) for the Tour de France (can you tell I'm watching the Tour every day?).

In the ITT, the first rider starts and after 2 minutes, the 2nd rider starts, and so on until all 180 riders have gone. The first one to cross the line is #1... at least until another rider beats his time.

And so it was with yesterdays Badger workout. I was #1 on the board... because I did the workout at 5:30am. So it would be interesting to see how many places I would fall by the time the Dammit gym closed at 7pm.

When I went in this morning, I was very, very surprised to see that I was still #2 on the big board. Until Marc explained that, due to the heavy rain, no one could go out and do the run. Since we've never had this workout before, I was able to keep the #2 spot only because they had to change the workout to something else later in the day. See what happens when you make the effort to get out of bed and get to the gym?

On the other hand, I happened to mention to everyone that my trip to San Antonio (I'm leaving in the AM) is my last schedule trip for the month of July. That lasted only until my first conference call today when I got scheduled for two more trips. So, next week I'm in San Antonio, the week after that, I'm in Mobile, AL, and the week after that, I'll be in Philadelphia.

I guess I'd rather be busy than unemployed - but I'm ready for a little lull in the action!!

Today's WOD was "Randy". 75# Power Snatch - 75 reps for time. (Rx for women was 50#). I started at 45# and after two reps, I just could not get the bar lifted. DL came over and unloaded some weight and got me to 35# and that was way too easy. He added back some weight and I finished the last 65 reps with 40#. I finished in 16:59. 40# was challenging enough to make me break a big sweat and even lose form on a few of the lifts, but 45# was way too heavy. I think 42# would have been perfect.... but don't tell that to Marc & DL!!

A Little Bit of France in Dallas

I didn't get to work out on Tuesday - bad sinus day.

Wednesday, I was up at 4am to catch a 6am flight to Dallas for one day of work. You gotta love American Airlines. I think they are the only airline that still provides blankets!

I was picked up by my Dallas-based co-worker, Douglas Lovelace. We made a quick stop by Starbucks to meet yet another guy and then we went on to the customer location.

While checking in at the lobby, I noticed a large LCD TV that was displaying company

information and across the bottom, it had a ticker of National New, World News and Sports News. Just at the time that I looked up at the screen, it displayed the winner of today's Tour de France stage... Thomas Voeckler. Argh!! I was going to watch it later tonight. Oh well. At least I really, really like Thomas Voeckler from his rookie year wearing the Yellow Jersey for 10 straight days and finishing the Tour as "the best young rider".

For lunch, I was in for a very pleasant surprise. Douglas took me to a place called Le Cordon Bleu. This is the Institute of Culinary Arts (http://www.chefs.edu/dallas/). As part of their cooking school, they have a small restaurant where you can eat what they cook. You can have a 1-course meal for $7, a 2-course meal for $10, or a 3-course meal for $13. They had some interesting items that were sold out... Bacon Ice Cream! Mmmmm.

I had a Roasted Beet Salad and an entree of Pan Seared Sole with Spaghetti Squash. The tea was Basil Raspberry.

Here is Douglas enjoying his Raspberry Sorbet.

This is a view towards the kitchen.

Apparently, they have many instructors - a front chef, a back chef, bar, & service. They also have an on-site shop where I bought a book on cooking brunches.

After finishing the day in Dallas, Douglas returned me to the airport for my departure back to Tampa, which was slightly delayed by rain. I made it home around 9:15pm - one very long day.

Today - Thursday, I made it to CrossFit for a hell-of-a-workout. Today was "Badger". I think they call it "Badger" because DL had to badger me on every Squat Clean (get lower, elbows out, chest up, weight on the heels, blah, blah, blah. Although, I did tell him that he was going to have to stick with me for every lift. I even told him that he'd have to come over and push me down if he wanted me to squat lower! But I would never had made it through this in one piece if it weren't for him!!

It was only 3 rounds - but that usually spells trouble. We had 30xSquat Cleans, 65# was rx'd, I did 55#. Then 30xpull-ups (I did jumping pull-ups), then 800m run. Marc had me do a 400m row instead (since I like to run, he always has me row instead, and only 400m to reduce the fatigue on the arms).

It still took me 49:41 to finish this one. The Squat Cleans are what took me forever!!

Now, it's just another rainy (stormy) day in paradise.

Gift to Myself

I just purchased a gift for myself... mainly to make it easier to take pictures for my blog. I got this cool little kit that includes a Kodak C913 camera, SD card, batteries, extra re-chargeable batteries and battery charger, cleaning kit, usb cable, camera bag and even a table-top tripod!

But on to my day...

This morning I got up and went to CrossFit for one of my favorite workouts... CrossFit Total. You take your 1 rep max weight for back squat, press, and deadlift and total it up for your score. The last time I did this (on 3/17) my weights were 117+60+165 for a CrossFit Total of 342. Maybe it was my 6 mile run in the heat yesterday, and certainly some of it was that upper back/neck pain that I was suffering in the last few days, but I had a miserable performance today!!

I managed only 115# for the back squat. I probably could have made the 117#, but definitely could not clear 120#. And I was horrible at the press. My left arm could press all the way up, but my right side couldn't even clear the top of my head. I lifted a measley 55#. And my deadlift was worst of all. My previous PR was 170#. My previous CrossFit Total deadlift was 155#. Today, I could only manage 135#. What is UP with that??!! Total score today, only 305. That's a drop of 38 pounds!!

But then I went to North Shore Pool to meet a girlfriend for a swim. It was day 1 of swimming (again) so I took it easy. Tim came over and gave us some tips - especially on how to dolphin kick - which I'm not too bad at.

Then I got to go home and watch stage 3 of the Tour de France! Cavendish wins again in another exciting finish. But tomorrow will be an awesome stage with my favorite... the Team Time Trial.

Mark Cavendish "call me"

Recovering from the Long Weekend

Why is that long weekends (and vacations) are so much more tiring than the normal work week?

Last night, Tim and I went to the home of some friends for a little July 4th celebration. They live in a home on the intercoastal waterway in Indian Rocks Beach. It was a nice little gathering, mostly hanging out outside at their pool and having a few drinks. I stuck to just Powerade since I was already so hot. I just can't imagine having a beer in the heat of the day!

We took a six-pack of beer to the party and I made a huge batch of my guacamole sauce. I can't believe it got cleaned out!!

The plans were to party at the house for a while, then go out on a boat to watch the fireworks. But Tim and I were so tired that we left a little after 8pm. We both wanted to be in early so we could get out to train early tomorrow before the real heat set in. We didn't even watch any fireworks!

I wanted to get out a little earlier, but enjoyed sleeping in a little later than usual, and I was out the door a little after 7am. I got in a 5.75 mile run. Although I felt surprisingly good during the run, I was sweatier than I can remember. It was hot and humid out there!! My run ended out taking 1 hour... because I kept stopping to talk to friends. Oh well... it was still a good training day.

Then, Tim came over and we watched Stage 2 of the Tour de France. We love this time of year! The finish was really, really exciting! Later, we watched the Hy Vee Triathlon that also had a spectacular finish, with one of the triathletes literally diving for the finish line. It was sooooo close.

We topped off the evening with a nice dinner and some HBO (What Happens in Vegas). Dinner was grilled T-bone steaks (Mmmmm Mmmmm GOOD), mangos with soy sauce, grilled pineapple, and a salad.

Now I'm fat, dumb, and happy!

Derailed by a Derailleur

When I left Wisconsin, I was able to get an ealier flight home. Instead of arriving at 1am Thursday morning, I landed at 6:15pm Wednesday evening... just in time to order #31 from Pho 97 and have a relaxing dinner in.

Thursday morning, I got up when the alarm went off and felt really groggy but made it to CrossFit. The workout was:

95lb Three-Way

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

95 pound Thruster, 5 reps

95 pound Hang Powercleans, 7 reps

95 pound Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps

I was thinking that, realistically, I could do this at 45#. But Marc, the torture monger, set me up at 55#. It was so hard, but I got through 5 rounds, plus 7 HPC's, plus one SDHP.

When I got hom, I realized that I was in a lot of pain - and it had nothing to do with CrossFit. I had such pain in my upper back and neck that I could hardly turn my head. I alternated working and laying on the couch. I took 600mg of ibuprofren, but nothing seemed to help. When Tim came over after work, he offered to take me out to dinner and I actually declined... that never happens! We had soup and I went to bed.

On Friday morning, I got up with plans to go to CrossFit but I hurt so bad that I just couldn't go in. I did my backbends over the fitness ball and that really helped. So I wasted an entire day off not being able to work out. Instead, I spent 5 to 10 minutes on the fitness ball almost every hour just to get a good stretch and it really, really helped.

Today, I wanted to head out for a nice long bike ride followed by a run. I met Tim at North Shore Pool and we started just a couple of minutes in front of the 7am group. About 2 miles out, as we were nearing Thrill Hill, the pack caught up with us. As I merged into the pack and started gearing up, all of the sudden my bike made a horrible racket and pedaling my bike felt like something was grinding. I stopped pedaling and slowly breaked as all of the cyclists went around me. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my chain when I looked around and saw my derailleur laying on the road - broken into pieces. The cable had sheared, my rear cassett was loose.

Looking at this mess, I realized that it's amazing that I didn't crash and take out of few other cyclists with me. This definitely could have been much worse!

In the meantime, Little John rode to the front of the pack to let Tim know that I had a problem. "Flat tire", Tim asked. "No, her derailleur came off". Tim pulled out and came back to where I was. Two guys walking by attempted to help, but it was obvious that I just had to walk my bike back. I sent Tim on to ride since there was nothing he could do.

When I got back to North Shore Pool, another cyclist looked at my bike and also noticed that my rear seat stay had cracked, meaning that my bike was no longer rideable... completely ruined. On top of that, one of the spokes on my rear tire was bent. He suggested that I take my bike back where I bought it and check into Treks "crash replacement program" - where you get a huge discount off of a new frame. Yikes!

Tim and I went to Chain Wheel Drive. They will take a picture of my frame and send it to Trek and let them determine whether it is repairable or if I have to get a new frame. Just in case, I've already picked out my new frame. The Trek Madone WSD 4.5 as pictured below only mine would be blue and black instead of blue and white.

Whatever the cost, it will be money better spent on the bike than on doctor bills, or broken bones.