Sunday, April 3, 2011

Notes From The Weekend

I'm too tired to think straight enough to compose anything too meaningful tonight. Bear with me. In no particular order...

~I bought into a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture). Basically, this family owns a farm out in Waianae and they grow all sorts of stuff and then sell it to people like me who want to buy it. Each Sunday we go pick up a couple bags of super fresh greens and herbs and fruits and vegetables... basically whatever is in season and they harvest. It feels really good to me to eat locally grown produce. If you're local, check out Ailani Gardens. There's a pick up at Maunawili Elementary school. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all that bok choy.

~Due to some scheduling conflicts (read: scheduling around Scott's Saturday soccer game) I switched things up this weekend and did my long run on Saturday and long brick today. That is WAY harder for me than to do the long brick first. Interestingly, my long run was not any better than last week even though my legs were fresher to start, but my bike today was quite a bit more challenging than normal today b/c that run yesterday pretty much trashed my legs. Interesting. I don't want to do that again though. I would prefer to have my legs show up for my bike rides.

~It's getting warmer here. Finally. I like it when it is warm, or rather, I despise being cold so much that I'll take the heat... but you know what it not cool? Tan lines from your compression sleeves. Not.Cool. Now that the sun is actually out I'm going to need to start applying more sunscreen to my quads/knees to avoid that in the future.

~I am getting good at changing flat tires. I had my 4th one of the year today. I run Continental Gator Hardshells on my training wheels so my tires are supposed to be rather flat resistant, and they do pretty well riding through the broken glass beer bottles that drunk idiots feel the need to throw on the sides of our roads every weekend. But the last few flats I've had have been due to staples piercing the tires. How do so many staples end up on the sides of the roads? I got the flat as I was flying down a long hill so that wasn't so cool, but I managed to get it changed and back on the road in short order. I'm going to need to go to ITB though to get more tubes and CO2 before I go riding again b/c at this point I'll all out.

~Speaking of that descent, according to my Garmin I hit 42.1 mph today. I was feeling more confident than normal while flying down that hill but then I had a thought that went something like, "If I go down right now it would really hurt. Oh who am I kidding? That would be the end..." Must.Avoid.Thoughts.Like.That.

~In good news, it was sunny today and I was able to ride on dry roads for a change. That was a serious necessity toward the end as I was riding (yet again) into a wickedly stiff and relentless headwind for like 30 miles... Had it been raining again I might have thrown my bike right into the ocean.

~I think I might have been the only triathlete on the planet who did not race this weekend (ok I know that's not true but I swear it just felt like EVERYONE was racing except me). It was good motivation seeing the results from Oceanside though and seeing that the hard work people have put into training is indeed paying off with successful racing. That thought was in my head at the end of my ride today when I had one more hard interval to do and I was sure I wasn't going to be able to do it and I was composing my post-workout notes to Tim in my head and trying to figure out how I was going to explain to him that I just was not physically capable of doing that last one and then I just thought, buck up Michelle and I grit my teeth and got it done.

~Yesterday afternoon Moana decided she wanted to hold a baby chick. There are all sorts of chickens outside our house and several of them recently had chicks so there are lots of little babies peeping around outside. Anyway, Moana was adamant that I had to catch one for her. So we went out in search of finding one to catch. As you can imagine, the mama hens were not so happy with us when we got near the chicks... we tried like 3 times with different mama hens and Moana clearly understood that the mama was trying to scare us away. She kept saying, "Mama is VERY upset." Indeed. Eventually though I managed to separate a less aggressive mama hen from one of her little chicks and I caught it for Moana to pet and hold. The screeching and squealing that came out of Moana's mouth when I caught that chick was piercing. Don't worry, we gave the chick back to it's mama.

~I just sent Scott to the store for ice cream. Ben & Jerry's. Yep.

8 comments:

Teresa said...

42!! Its time to install air bags into your bike. I hope you don't get any more flats, but at least it is warm out to change them :)

tn

mmmonyka said...

CSA thing sounds magical, I should save some $$$ and do that for summer (if I am still around). I did not eat many grocery store bought veggies and fruits until I came to the US. My gradparents grow everything. They also have hens and I also was obssed with baby chickens when I was little. I used to smuggle them into my bed under my shirt:) Now the only place I would smuggle a chicken is my freezer.

Angela and David said...

I loved our CSA. Hopefully I can sign up for another one in Minneapolis but you have to worry about the seasons here because otherwise you don't get much more than radishes and beets.

Geez, 4 flats is crazy. Probably because I do 90% of my riding on my trainer but I've only ever had 1 flat in a race and one flat while training. I think it's good the plan is for me to be a pure runner for a while because I think I'd be due for a lot of flats.

Molly said...

Ha! And I felt like *I* was the only one not racing :-)

I had to do the same thing - switch my long run and long ride this weekend. Not fun for me either - I run better AFTER.

elizabeth said...

Let's see where to begin...
I didn't race, you weren't the only one! And I switched my wko's too and my bike on Sunday was HARD but the run after felt okay - weird. I have the same thoughts when descending fast. I've had three flats from different things in the past 6 weeks. And I bet Moana was super cute with the baby chick! Hope all is well Michelle, can't wait to watch you crush it this year. :)

Kiet said...

Right on for CSA, I wish mine gave me too much bok choy, love that stuff, I get way too many squashes!

Too funny, I rarely buy ice cream but I sat down and ate an entire pint of cream in one sitting two days ago.

Billie said...

I wish we could join a CSA. The damn produce here in France is killing me (price wise).

And kudos for you on going so fast on the downhill. Going fast on a downhill freaks me out too much, and probably always will.

Rebecca DeWire said...

You must have impressive skills with all the flats you have been changing lately. It will be your turn to race soon and we will all be cheering you on from the computer. Can't wait to see how your season unfolds.