First Things First

I know i am overdue on posting and I am overdue on posting about the cruise to Alaska. As you know returning on a sunday night from a vacation is often a must-do, to maximize travel options and time away. It also makes for a hurried and some what frenzied next week, leading one to think they need another vacation.

So before I get to Alaska there is another post i want to make and it is for my Mom's 80th birthday. Our cruise was for my future mother in law's 80th ( just 3 days after my mom's!) so if we keep things chronologically in order my mom gets first blog dibs.

I know mom you are thrilled that i am using this picture. But it is too funny!

The Fam! Heide came home for the weekend from Houston!
Note our proper MN JULY outfits, mid july = 60 and cool, right? Guess so. Um my mom has a down vest on people.

Then it was time for a pic with the 3 grandson's and 1 grand daughter. That would be Ruby.
Mom you are incredible and we love you sooo much! I am so lucky to be not only your daughter but your friend and I wish you many many more years of birthdays and backyard photos with your family!!!

But..wouldnt you know that as we were partying it up on one side of the yard, little Will had another plan. Lets see what spycam has to show us:

Will, exiting the house, property desired is to his RIGHT. At this point he seems to just be "contemplating..."
Now he appears to be picking out the exact "fruits" he will be taking hold of.

And AH-HA, caught with his hand in the.........................................
RASPBERRY BUSH!!!!
How can you blame him:) It was just hilarious bc he had already been eating them all night and was told to take a break..enough. But when they are that good, hard to stop eh?

Bye Bye and GOOD LUCK!

Bye bye Minnesota. Off to Alaska where it is likely to be grey and wet as well. And if summer wants to come when i get home I would happily put my fleece and jeans and jackets ( not to mention arm warmers) back in their rightful spots for another 4 weeks. Till. Fall. Oh. My.
Have a good week everyone, and good luck to Kate O at IMLP. YOU CAN DO IT!!! YOU CAN DESCEND THOSE MOUNTAINS....TUCK IN AND FLY!

Ruby say's: It's time to get WET! ..and Bootleg recipe..a virtual smorgasbord post.

Ruby has declared it is indeed time for some fun in the water. She isnt a big swimmer yet; Since she is a rescue dog and is already 3 yo it is obvious she had never been in the water before. She LOVES the sprinkler and thinks the hose is the best thing since..her ball. Swimming is awkward for her. ( Ahem I mean I think i can relate) but she seems to be more interested in going in the lake than she was a month ago.

As for my water pursuits, I did my first OW swim this summer sans wetsuit = sans floaty that made me want to hurry it up at the buoys instead of bob up and down and chat.


Here are some smiley folks after the swim. The water was so warm, and the air, was so NOT warm. Steve and I then headed out for a long run after the swim. Square Lake has a great route around the lake and since we needed to do a 90 min run we just added on to the route used for the Square Lake Tri. Hills and wildlife were abundent. And we finally got our legs back and warmed up. Sadly my 1st non wet suit swim meant my tri suit cut into my tummy and my neck, so no wearing that again. ouch. Sunscreen felt oh so good before the run. not.

Life is clipping along. Jen has loaded me up last week since the race and thru sunday am before i board a plane to Vancouver for our Alaskan Cruise. I asked for it, but I am tired but know that the cruise awaits. Marit was nice enough to give me some good "must see's" and some hikes while in port to keep my legs active. Thanks Marit!

And on another fluid based tangent, here is the recipe for Bootlegs...
Ingredients:

Mint: 100 spearmint leaves

Limeade and Lemonade: 1 can each


Seltzer/Club Soda/Mineral water/ vodka or gin or bourbon or whatever you like..



Blender...
1) wash and chop up mint in blender till it is small-ish. Up to you how small, it sure doesnt have to be dust size, i kinda like a pesto type look, and if you have women that are squeemish about getting stuff in their teeth tell 'em to chill.

2) Add the lemon and lime ade to the above chopped mint.

3) Now take 2 parts Boot ade mix and add 1 part chosen liquid ( if you choose it) vodka goes nicely but i know people who have had these with rum or gin as well and serve in a tall-er glass with ice.


4) Top off with seltzer or mineral water.

Now know you can surely do these without any alcohol.
You can also store the leftover Boot ade mix in a gatorade container or something like that in the freezer and other than the mint getting less vibrant, they still taste fine. Basically it is sugar- ade and you are watering it down with seltzer and booze should you choose.

Enjoy and tho they are sorta like a mojito(I dont really like mojitos, so go figure) it is more like lemon lime margarita without that tequila taste. ( or the after effects, IMO)

PS: how do you spell smorgasboard anyways?? :)

Mid Summer Feelings...

WARNING.Any post that includes feelings, race reports, pictures and me sitting in front of 5 sets of taped Wimbledon finals is going to be long..

I wanted the title of the post to be this:

Roger, Minneman, Alaska, Wedding, Cabin, Physical Therapy ( job not for me, luckily), ....Ok you get the point. I am not feeling totally organized in my life and this translates to the posts that are a bit like word association games. Meaning "You say a word and I will talk for about 20 seconds until i take off on another tangent." Rich finds this quite challenging, my dad just doesnt try, and my mom and I are the WINNERS at this type of communication!

So I guess I am having mid-summer feelings of...excitement...love....fun....but angst and sadness...that it goes so fast. I mean really. I sure know that I have to keep smelling the roses and not worry about what is to come ( cold, dark, inside, windows closed..dark. did i say I like the sunlight? Even if i am not tanning. I like it) and as July 4th hits it is like a bookmark saying "you are half way done with the best book ever..when you reach labor day, you are really on the last chapter." Then all the weeknight TT's/BBQ's and full weekends and long rides and OW swims are done. Chlorine here i come. It just seems we have barely had 2 weeks of really nice/warm weather. So i really hope July and August and September, for that matter are nice!!

Race Report:

Yup, bag lady at 5:40 am heading to the T zone.
I usually am at the cabin but for a lot of reasons we stayed home. I posted some FB pics but here are some good ones..Minneman Race. Short. Sprint.

Pre-race: I get set up.. Rich says "ok it is 6am, now what do we do..go back to sleep?" thanks honey:) for putting up with my shenanigans. ( ie racing...:)!!) For the record i think it is harder watching than racing ! I also met a nice gal in T named Leah. She asked me what IM I HAD DONE. I was like "huh, why does she think i did an IM?" Oh bc I am a poser and have a neat green visor with that has the M dot thing on it. Nope. I am a poser. Sorry. She was thinking about doing IMoo in 2010 so we had a nice chat about that.

Swim: Short. Fun. Oh is it over so soon? shoot. Long run up and I was pooped bc it was SO Shallow that we had to run or hop out of the water for a good 100 yards. 1st out in my wave. I wish it were a longer swim, but I am really pleased that in the first 100 yards ( the swim was only 600) I was able to sight and get free. I got behind someone but eventually just pulled beside and past her bc I kept grabbing her legs. So it was time to pass. Teammate paula was right behind me I think.

this was funny bc it was soooo shallow that i dolphined and swam until i hit the bottom with my hands. Then when i stood up i kinda fell to the right into.. my new pink ( 3 min ahead of our orange cap wave) capped friend. I said "man this running stuff hurts!" she laughed...and then we both made it out.


T1: Other than the wetsuit dance it was fine. I was nervous about leaving my shoes in the pedals but JHull gave me courage to give it a try. I fumbled just a tiny bit but got em in and off I went!

Bike: I passed a ton of people ( I started in the 4th wave? 30-45yo females) and so it was a good focus builder to just pick off people. I was really going for the REDLINE from the gun and i think i did that in the bike as well. It was not very windy and it was pretty flat and i took the corners as hot as i could without endangering anyone. It was fun!

Heading OUT...
Heading IN...
Look coach, no shoes! Heading into T2. yup I was speeding.

T2: Boom I am in, did the cross dismount ( thanks to two guys in front of me. I just watched them and when they took their feet out. I did too. Copy cat. Yup.) but my running shoe insert got a bit bunched up so i had to dilly dally with that and then i was off to run.

Run: It was kinda raining but sunny so it seemed pretty humid. Goal was to run "harder than i thought i could.." and for the 1st mile i felt ok, like I was still passing people and when we hit mile 1 I sure thought it felt like a long mile. I kept passing people and when KY said "Julia, good pace...." It made me feel a bit better bc I really dont ever know how fast I am running. This isnt a bad thing but sometimes it is good to just settle in and relax and this helped me do this. But then I remembered that this was a 3 mile run. You dont SETTLE IN, do you?

At the turn around I decided to start to suck it up and dig in. I knew when I hit mile 2 it would be decision point. "Less than 8 min left ( ok less than 7 min) you CAN suffer that long." And so i did. I had something on my mind about then tho, so i had to block that out..another post later...

Finish: No it wasnt a RTYP, but really I dont usually do that. In hindsight I do think i could have run faster, but i dont know if i could have biked faster. 1st AG and 5th OA.


Verve had a great turnout. Paula, Sarah, Me and Angie. We had the best looking colors out there, for sure. And seriously for a bunch of bike racers to run HARD off the bike..( and um, we like to draft you know) is huge! We often find it silly to get on and off your bike at all while riding, really, unless you are doing a cross race. And certainly not to run anywhere other than to the nearest coffee shop. Good job ladies!

Fun fans, great volunteers, food for everyone including family and spectators, bad gnats, fun teammates, a great race that even has a novice division for newbies. I will do this one again!
Even tho i look like there is a crazy person next to me taking my picture...oh there is. I am holding up my new plastic jug thing that Jerry Mcneil told us "Wont kill us, like other plastics."
I then took a slug out of my "killer plastic water bottle" and felt ill.



Oh yea and there were alot of drawings. So funny story is that they drew numbers. I was 242. They drew 243, and nobody stepped up, so they went to "next closest number." ME! Yea I won 6 Total Immersion lessons at a $250 value...but no. Here is someone ( lady) with 244. Darn.

What to do?? Jerry Mcneil says "lets flip a coin.." Sure. I was looking at this gal and thinking to myself ...Just give it to her. You just won your swim wave, give it up, but...Rich wants to learn to swim better so i kinda did the selfish thing and didnt also want to piss her off with the "hey lady, I swam fast, you didnt, you need to work on it. take it." So we did Rock Paper Scissors.
NOW...If i didnt have nephews I would have no idea how to do this. I panicked. "what??"
And 1-2-3... Scissors...She did a rock. I lost.

Rich was funny "didnt i ALWAYS tell you to throw PAPER? ?" HA. no.

They also gave a TI package to..the slowest swimmer, that finished the race. not the slowest that is still out in the lake. Ok kidding. Nobody had to get help and the EMT/Medical teams were quite pleased.

Good way to start the day..then we had some teammates over to the pool to hang out, and since it rained we watched the prologue and snacked on bootlegs and some nice fruit and homemade smoked peanuts that Paula's hubby made. Then off to dinner and fireworks with Rich and his mom..late night...too late. I was super tired by 8pm. Fireworks were at 10. Ugh. But i made it:)

Long ride today with Rich's TT peeps. Good ride and I felt good. I missed going to the cabin and seeing a few relatives but today and yesterday, hanging out and having a nice weather day today. We are traveling to AK soon for a cruise. It will be incredible to see AK and to be right up there next to a glacier! I am super excited but also a bit sad to leave MN in the summer. I HATE leaving MN in the summer. I know it is weird but as you can tell from the first paragraph we have such little nice temps that why would i leave here mid-july? Oh bc my future mother in law is taking us on a cruise for her 80th bday? Ok, guess that is ok:) I am lucky that Rich's family is so fun and so supportive of me and Rich. ( other than his younger brother asking if i was trying to kill rich bc we biked so much..ha he was kidding) I am not sure how i will get in some training, but if I have to run around the ship deck 500x I guess i will. I have hopes that when we are docked I can actually run on terra firma, bc we obviously wont be on a bike.

The good thing is that Rich ALSO will be trying to maintain form:)

We come back on a sunday and then the next thursday we leave for the FIREHOUSE 50 TT in Cable, Wi. He has 2 x 4 person TT teams and I am doing it solo. Then there is a 15k run the next day. If i can keep my head in place and use it as a training weekend and not an A race ( which it was for me LAST year) then I will be much more relaxed on the cruise. But hard to let that go and just ride it without wanting to improve my time from 2008. Then mid-August is another half IM!

And planning some showers...wedding...selling my place....wedding...work as a PT...lots to distract me. Hyvee is on...TDF is on...Roger just won...all is good. Now I have to watch some taped tennis, congrats to FED for surpassing Petey Sampras grand slam record...( tangent here ) To see Laver, Borg, Sampras and Roger and have Johhny Mac in the booth. I think John felt a bit left out...

Oh and i do have the bootleg post in the works...promise.