Dad

In memory of my dad, we planted a tree.  We planted a tree, by the lake he loved the best, Lake Calhoun.

When I was young we would walk the lake to together.  I have no idea how many times we walked that lake, but it was a lot. We called that Daddy-Daughter day.  We would include stops at books stores, eat some delicious treats (he always called eating treats when you were really not hungry recreational eating).  These days are days in which I had my first cup of coffee, my first Vietnamese food, my first scone, my first hit of Gay Pride, the Uptown Art Fair and so much more. But I digress.

So, selfishly, I really wanted this tree planted in a place where I remember the times we shared.  The times we spent together, in a place he loved.  A place that I run by, at least once a week.

Today, with the help of many friends, my dad’s tree was planted and we put the band around its tiny little limb.   The band simply says, “In memory of Tom Tremmel”.

The tree is an Autmn Blaze Maple, which will turn bright red in the fall.  It is planted right next to a bench and sits on the east side of Lake Calhoun between 36th street and 32nd, if you are traveling by car.

Come on by some time, take a seat, say hi or just sit and take in the beauty…

and remember.

Whatever you do…do not tell my coach

Do you see the sweat dripping off my chin?

Today is our HARD bike ride.  I was suppose to be out for a 40 mile bike ride with 10, 2 mile intervals as hard as I could.

I spent most of my time (that time without the kids so I can workout) putting the senors on my NEW BIKE!  Yes, I bought a new bike!

I got to the point where I had 1 hour and 15 minutes left before I had to pick the kids up.  Did you know I can’t ride 40 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes?  So, I asked my coach if we could retool the workout.  I ended up on my trainer, doing basically the same thing with less miles on the front and back end.

All I know is, if he knew I was taking pictures of myself sweating like a (insert whatever you like), he would tell me I wasn’t working hard enough.

By the way, trying to train for an ironman race with three kids home over summer break is a serious BITCH!

Just hang’n around

Who the hell is this?

I have never raced with a strangers number.  I’m a rule girl.  What if I get busted or disqualified or killed or something?

But, many people do.

And this past weekend, Speedy, gave Nate Vic the best race of his life.

Yeah, I have no idea who Special Agent Nate Vic is, but I do know that he is 32 and just won first place in his age group out at the Lake Minnetonka Tri.

Ohhh those 30-35 year olds are going to kill Jon when they find out he is 40!

Happy Father’s Day

The boys below, took off on their first annual Father’s Day golf outing this morning.  Three generations, enjoying the sun and each other.

Not sure you could ask for anything more.

Happy Father’s Day!

While they were away, KP, PJ, my mom and I had breakfast and took off to the cemetery.  Since we haven’t gotten a headstone yet, we decided to grab some rocks and some paint and do a little art therapy for the living.

Then we started walking around the cemetery and back behind the shed, were the caretakers keep stuff and throw other stuff away.

My mom found live plants in a pile of disregarded dead ones (Anne Marie, there were a few plant stands there too).  KP found an old rusted out dragon fly and PJ put together bouquets of weed-flowers.

When we put it all together my mom said, “Your dad would have loved doing this.”  I said, “Well, he wouldn’t have loved doing the art, he would have loved the fact that we were steeling this stuff from the back of the shed.”

I really miss you dad.

Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped away into the next room, I am I and you are you.

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still, call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way you always used.

Put no difference into your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow, laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we always enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me, let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effort, without the ghost of a shadow in it.

Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was, there is absolute unbroken continuity.

What is death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind, because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner, all is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost, one brief moment and all will be as it was before.

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral

Ironman update

So, you know how I said I was going to track a few things during this ironman training process like cost and time?

Well, here you go.

Oh sorry, those are my legs RELAXING.  I was hoping to show you my black toe nail that is ready to fall off and the enormous blister on my big toe that now has sand in it, but whatevs.

From 3/17-6/17/10 I have logged 119 hours of biking and running (I don’t wear my watch in the pool so I am not really tracking swimming) and have traveled, under my own power, 1320.5 miles.  I am guessing there is a way to find total calories..how fun would that be?

I have spent: $3223.47 on coaching, bike fixes, fittings, clothes, shoes, races, race/training nutrition and PT.  I am sure a few grand will be added for a psychologist later.

What this information does for me is solidify my goal…I WILL FINISH THIS RACE COME HELL OR HIGH WATER!

Boys of summer

I couldn’t resist this shot…it’s really less about the boys and more about the wicked cool clouds overhead.

I’m stills stuck in Hipstamatic heaven, bear with me.

The hood

My neighborhood homies showed up last night with a Princess cake and Prosecco to help me celebrate the big rollover.

Thanks you guys…you make forty feel just fine!

Cake tally: 3

Hell yeah I’m 40

God I love my birthday!  Flag day.  June.  Warm weather, ok it’s raining today but whatever, I still love it.

Here is the second cake of my month long celebration, do you see the ant walking on the tipped over ice cream cone?   Hmmm, maybe I should start making a cake tally.

Did you know I love cake?  Oh and coffee and red wine.  Do you see where this day is headed?

40 is so going to ROCK!

And they wrote 40 on my calf

Yesterday was the Liberty Triathlon.  70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running.

My season has typically ended with a race of this distance.  I train all summer to be able to do this.  But this year, it’s just a training on the calendar.  A base line of how things are going.  We hardly even taper.  It’s odd to say the least.

So how did the race go you ask?  Well, I had some mighty high expectations of myself…which is almost always a bad way to start.

The 1.2 mile swim: I headed into the water when the gun went off and within about 1 minute my arms and legs felt like logs, I felt like I couldn’t breath and I was having a hard time sighting the buoys.  This always happens to me.  The big FREAK OUT in the water.  I eventually found a good rhythm just in time for the wind to kick up and start bashing waves in my face.  I came out of the water and my watch said 37 minutes…a whole 5-7 minutes slower than I was hoping.

Transition 1: I went into transition, ripped off my wet suit, slide my arm warmers on and hopped on my bike.  No problems with the exception of some disappointment with the swim.

The 56 mile bike: Well, with all the bike drama I have been having I was not really looking forward to this leg of the race but they were not going to cut it out just for little’ol me, so onward.  Biking is hard for me, biking hurts and the little voice in my head just kept saying, you better just man the f*&% up if want to do well on this race.

My body was wet as I was not so quickly speeding down the road.  My hands started to become so cold that I couldn’t shift at all with my left hand and ended up doing everything with my right. This causes a little bit of unbalence and almost took me down as my elbow came up and off the aero bars.  My legs were burning and it was getting dark in my head.

It continued to get darker as my average pace slowed and the miles clipped along.  Then my team mate passed me like I was standing still.  If I didn’t like her so much I would have spit at her.  It was around that point in time that my mind and I were discussing the possibilities…just stop and not care anymore or bearing down, sucking it up and focusing on the best last leg possible.  It was my race I was racing and I had to let go who was passing me and that I might not catch them today.

I could fold or I could fight.

Transition 2: I happily slapped my bike on the rack and decided to sit down to put my shoes on.  I could not find my Yankz last night (bungee cords for your shoes) so I had to tie my shoes instead of just slip them on.  This proved to be a serious problem, I couldn’t feel my fingers and they were not going to let me do something as nimble as tie my laces.  So my shoes were on, but not tight.  I couldn’t even unclasp my helmet because my fingers couldn’t pinch hard enough to get the clasp undone, so I wiggled it around my chin and slipped it off.  Minuets wasted!

The run 13.1 miles: I decided I would just let the laces go, even though my feet were slipping around in my shoes from not being tight enough.  A friend yelled out that my feet and hands would get their feeling back around mile four, so I was determined to run until then, and then I could fix the problem.

Back on the bike, I decided to fight.  I decided to pull myself out of the not so happy place I was in and decided to do whatever I could to make the run the best it could be.  I took it one mile at a time, watching my pace and working the down hills as much as possible.  I was feeling pretty good, which meant the nutrition plan on the bike was good.  The miles clipped by as the rain kept coming.  I never stopped to tie my shoes again, why waste more time?  I finished the run leg in 1:48:30, almost catching my own half marathon PR of 1:47:50.  Not bad.

My finishing time 5:26:34. 5th in my age group (yup, they bumped me up to 40 even though I am 39 for two more days) and 11th over all the ladies.

My lesson learned this race, I am tough enough to pull myself out of a mental tail spin.  I’m gonna call that a success.

And kudos to all my buddies, my coach and my team mates racing yesterday.  You can find Diane 5th over all, Courtney 7th and jMatt 9th on leader board.  AND huge props to Cousin Katherine who WON the Olympic Distance race.

It’s super cool to race with such a talented group of people.