Hippies? In Omaha?

Here we are, smack dab in the center of the United States, in one of the most conservative cities ever, or so it seems. Most people here just haven't picked up on the need to be eco-friendly. It makes it somewhat more of an adventure for those of us who are making that effort. (I would be willing to guess this is the case in many places.)

For instance..

the number of bike commuters is minimal and so there are very few bike lanes and motor vehicle drivers are not on the look out for cyclists.

people drive their cars three blocks to a restaurant, convenience store, church, school, gym, whatever instead of walking.

in small town Nebraska, when out for a run, people will stop you to make sure everything is ok. Apparently you are only supposed to run if you are being chased or going for help.

People use their freaking leaf blowers for everything.

Here in the Midwest, lawns are watered obsessively, even during water shortages and driveways are washed off with water from garden hoses.


Nobody is perfect, Mr KT and I have our vices, but one of the little things Mr KT has recently done to minimize our carbon footprint is to buy a "hippie mower". No gas, no electricity, no noise, the thing is really cool. It works pretty well, not quite as meticulous as the one we were using, which gave up the ghost (as my grandma used to say) but the yard looks good.






Our next door neighbors were really impressed and asked all about it. It was cheaper than a powered mower and is so quiet! Pretty cool. I have to say that it didn't get great reviews online but we are going to give it a try and see what we think. So far, so good.

The Numbers

84 - the number of hours since I ate my last "real" meal

14 - the number of lbs I have lost since Tuesday night

1 - the number of days of work I missed

2 - the number of days of work I should have missed

2 - number of teammates I should be racing an adventure race with at the moment I type this

22 - the number of times someone has asked me if my current GI issues have anything to do with tomatoes (NO, THEY DON'T)

4 - the number of times I have decided not to go upstairs to get something because it was just too much work


Today was supposed to be my first adventure race. I was going to get up at 3:30, be picked up at 4:00, drive to Lincoln, pick up our other teammate and head to the race sight about an hour and 15 minutes from there. We were going to give it a shot, see how much fun it was and come back ready to do another one. Until I got sick Wednesday morning. At the time, I thought, "no big deal, we are far enough out. I will be fine". Except I'm not fine. I had a really hard time making that call late yesterday afternoon and I will admit that I am still kicking myself for it just a little. It would have been a very, very bad idea. That I am sure of. I am so dehydrated that racing for a minimum of 4 hours in the sun would not have gone well. I haven't eaten and have lost as many electrolytes as a person can lose and still stay vertical. I know it was a good decision. I know that it I were my patient I would have told me that there was absolutely no way I should be racing. That little voice inside my head just kept saying, "you can do it, it's only 4 hours. Don't let your team down. You talked them into this, follow through no matter what. Be hardcore. Anybody else would just suck it up and go race." Stupid voice. I told one of the guys on my team that I didn't want to wimp out and he told me that was the perfect opportunity to be smart then. Hmmmm. Point taken. He told me that he wouldn't race on no fuel and it was better to not waste the time and gas money and energy getting there and DNFing a half hour in than to try again for the next race. That there were always going to be more races and that he would do a different one. OK, fine. :)

Anywho, ended up being an excellent decision as I woke up this morning and am still having significant, ahem, "lower GI" issues. Big, huge, sad face. (Sorry if that was too much info.)

All I really want right now is a giant piece of pizza, or a handful of potato chips, or a nice juicy chicken breast with pasta and tomatoes and garlic, and a drizzle of olive oil but I think I would be willing to settle. How about a glass of flat 7up, a piece of toast with PB, and a banana that stays were it is supposed to. I don't feel like that is too much to ask.

An interesting development

This weekend is the big adventure race. I just hope I am eating again by then. All that throwing up took its toll. I am waiting to see if my dinner of one piece of toast with PB and honey and 2-3 oz of all natural cherry yogurt chased by 7up stays put for long enough that it actually does some good in there. That would be a fabulous thing as it would be my first substantial amount of food in 48 hours. So, 36 hours from now I will be toeing the line of a 4 hour adventure race and I was really hoping for some energy.

A week from Sunday is the World Cup HyVee Duathlon. Yeah, you read that right, DUathlon. They are calling it a Dry-Tri but you can't fake me out. I can see right through your crazy terminology. It went from an olympic distance triathlon to a 10K run, 40K bike, 5K run. That, my friends, is officially a duathlon in my book. And you know what? That is just fine. I won't do great, I won't be fast, in fact, I am gonna get creamed. And you know why? Because I need the open water swim. I need everyone else to be freaked out by swimming "that far", in the middle of a lake with a gazillion other swimmers who are grabbing on to everything they can. I need to come out of the water just a little towards the front/middle so that when everyone passes me on the bike I am still ahead of just a few people. That is not going to happen next weekend and you know what? That is just fine. Safety first. If the bacteria count in the lakes is way too high, I don't want to swim in it. If there is so much debris that it is dangerous, I don't want to swim. I haven't done a duathlon in my life and would NEVER chose to on purpose but I paid (a stiff entry fee if you want the honest truth) and have my housing arrangments settled and so I will be there. Who knows, might not be all bad.

You want to know what is ironic?

Mr KT tried to enter a local duathlon today and was denied because it was full. Yeah, he actually wants to do one and can't. Sad faces all around. :(

That is just how it goes.

Weather Girl KT says...

... let's see some sun. The midwest has been under a torrential downpour for weeks. Everything is flooded, trails, streets, bridges, fields, basements, schools, lakes, you name it. Saturated. This week alone there have been fatalities in the area on two separate days due to two different storm systems complete with hail and tornadoes. Last night it was at a Boy Scout camp across the river in Iowa. Seems so extreme.

The up-side is that the sky has been really cool. These photos are from Sunday or Monday night.

Note: Mr KT hates it when people take pictures of the sky. Hopefully he doesn't come un-glued. :)






The first three are to the north and the last one is a few minutes later to the west. It was amazing and a little scary all at the same time.

Scary, scary, scary

I can't stop thinking about it.

Photos and article from The Daily Telegraph website.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23802024-5001021,00.html






This horrifying picture shows the moment a US man apparently drunk and asleep ploughed into cyclists on a bike race - killing one and injuring at least 10 others.

Driver Juan Campos, 28, was charged with killing Alejandro Alvarez, 37, along the highway near the US-Mexico border.

Authorities said the wreck happened 15 minutes into the 34km race yesterday between Playa Bagdad and Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Campos, who police claimed was drunk and asleep during the incident, said he was an American citizen living in Brownsville. The US Consulate could not immediately confirm that.

"We are looking into the incident in terms of whether American citizens were involved," consulate spokesman Todd Huizinga said.

Rumor is that the car on the right side of the photo was the lead car for the race (police car maybe) and that he/she should have taken the hit. Would it have saved lives? What would you have done as a cyclist or the driver? Wow.

Disclaimer: Do not read this while eating

Psst, what? What did you say? It's been a week since my last post? Whoa, oops, sorry, I will get right on that. Geez. Where did the days go?

It is Wednesday about 11:00 a.m. I am home from work today for reasons we will get to later. Last week and this week were to be part of a nice solid build phase. That is all coming along nicely.

Last weeks totals were...

Running Summary
Runs: 6
Avg. Time: 00:52:50
Total Time: 05:17:01
Avg. Mi Pace: 9:42
Avg. Dist.: 5.4 Mi
Total Dist.: 32.6 Mi


Biking Summary
Bikes: 3
Avg. Time: 01:23:20
Total Time: 04:10:00
Avg. Speed: 15.6 MPH
Avg. Dist.: 21.7 Mi
Total Dist.: 65.2 Mi


Swimming Summary
Swims: 2
Avg. Time: 01:12:30
Total Time: 02:25:00
Avg. Dist.: 2460.5 Yd
Total Dist.: 4921.0 Yd


Total Summary
Workouts: 11
Total Time: 11:52:02
Total Dist.: 100.6 Mi

I didn't get as much time in on the bike as I would have liked due to the fact that it has been raining here every day for the last bazillion days. And not just rain but sweet thunderstorms and some not-so-sweet tornadoes. (They call it tornadic activity.) Can't really get out in that weather. I have done a little on the trainer but mainly have just been sneaking out in between and trying to keep the bikes out of the mud as best I can.

Last night was another track workout here at the university track. This time there were a few more guys (it was a tiny bit cooler, maybe mid-80s) and there were 3 girls! We did a version of the guys workout but did it without the active recovery. The workout was 1-2 mile warm up, drills on the football field, 6x800s with a 400 active recovery between each, 1-2 mile warm down. I ended up doing 4x800 and 1x400 with a more complete recovery. For some reason though, I kept falling off the back of the girls. I felt like I was constantly behind.

I couldn't figure it out. I was kicking myself because I kept thinking, "I should be able to hang at least for the first couple of 800s, or at least for a 400 of each or something!" Nope, after each one, I was doubled over trying not to puke, trying to catch my breath and slow my heart rate enough to start again. I decided it was most likely due to the big training weekend I had just completed and the 25 mile ride I had done that morning. That or I was just a lot slower than I thought.

Well, about 9 hours later I had my answer. Mr KT woke me up when he came to bed which is unusual as I can sleep through anything. I woke up several times after that feeling pretty crappy and then the storm blew in about 3:15. We got up to shut the windows (Mr KT mostly shut them and I stood there assessing how bad I actually felt). Funny, I was then up for the next hour and a half as sick as I could be. I honestly can't remember being this sick in my whole life. Why does that stuff always happen at night? I finally fell back into bed at about 5 a.m. and slept for an hour. I was then back up at 6:00 getting sick and trying to tell myself that I would be fine for work in 2 hours. Not even close. I went back to sleep for a bit, called the hospital and told them they really didn't want me there and am currently posting from a supine position in my bed. I have gotten up to get the cable to plug in my laptop and I have gotten up to run down the hall (a million times) and I may have to get up to bring the dogs in from the backyard because they are calling for more serious weather, like thunder, lightening, hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. Somehow I will have to figure out how to get down two flights of stairs to the basement where I plan on laying on the couch very, very, very still.

I guess the upside is that I probably could have kept up with those girls a little better on a different day.

Ever had your ass kicked...

... 12 times?

Tuesday night, Mr KT and I attended a local track workout led by a an outstanding (read: fast) area runner. They run every Tuesday at 5:45 pm at the university track. I had been trying to convince Mr KT to try it. I knew he would be able to keep up and I knew that I would not. And that is pretty much the way it worked out.

It was hot and freaking humid. There were maybe 8 or 9 guys and an unbelievably ripped, track-star chick. They started out with a two mile warm up at a faster pace than I would have gone so I slowed down and did my own. I ended up with a mile and a half warm up. Then he led drills so we did a bunch of those on the football field. The main set was 12x400 trying to hold less than 80 sec/400. NOT A PRAYER for me. I just did them as fast as I could. I seriously fell off the back every single time. Between each 400 was a 200 easy "jog". This was actually slow enough that I could have done it if I had finished with them. Problem was I had to run a bit faster to catch back up and so my recovery was considerably limited. I ended up sitting out 2 of them. So I ended up with 10x400. After the 6th 400 they did a full lap of easy and I sat that out too. Whew, good workout. Extremely frustrating, tiring, hot, and did I mention frustrating?

They warmed down and Mr KT and I went to meet up with any high school kids of his that decided to come run with us for our cool down. Nobody showed for that workout and so we stretched and went home. Ugh.