Let's Try This Again ...

I was SO frustrated with Blogger last night. I spent a while on the post only to have it disappear when I clicked on PUBLISH POST. Bah humbug ...

Cooking Light: It was a wonderful meal, though we missed Barbara (out of town) and Mary (knee replacement surgery). Everything was delicious and was something that I would make again. Our group is getting together at the home of some friends of mine (Jay Kurtz and Joan Rabe) on Sunday for pizza from their wood-fired backyard oven. We've done this for several years now and always have a lovely time ... great food, beautiful setting, good friends. And there was talk last night of visiting a winery near Plainview in late November. Stay tuned.

Mike Schmitt and I are biking Wednesday from the RAC at 1 PM. If you'd like to join us, please do. We're meeting in the parking lot. Mileage: TBD. Speed: My legs are tired after yesterday's and today's workout ... More on that in a bit.

Beetles gathering at 6 PM'ish this evening. No running required. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in the fun.

My "Melby surprise" arrived in today's mail. I'll have to catch him at some gathering sometime. Stay tuned. : )

I'm going on a road trip to the "bright lights, big city" sometime soon. Stay tuned. : )

Poor Trevor. He got a call from his wife a couple of weeks ago, when he was out of town on business, saying that there were 4 foot flames coming from the garage. Soon, the garage was reduced to this ...

And the cooler was reduced to this ...

And the garden tractor ....

Luckily there were no vehicles inside, and his dreamy QuintanaRoo tri bike was in the house.

My alma mater, Luther College, is celebrating its 150th anniversary by holding the "Transformed by the Journey" sesquicentennial relay race (running) June 4-5, 2011. The 150K relay starts at Luther's birthplace--Halfway Creek, WI--and concludes in Decorah; it includes an overnight stay in Rushford, MN. Teams should consist of 5-10 runners. More info at http://www.luther.edu/150/events/relayrace or contact Matt Hughes at (387) 387-1345 or hughesma@luther.edu Sounds like a lot of fun to me ...

Congrats to Dave Duncan and Angie Haugen on their BQs at TCM (Angie's first BQ, and she will be running Boston 2011). The list is growing. Yippee!!

Last week KC asked me if I was going to do "Cookies of the Month" for 2011. Hmmm ... I'm undecided on that. I have given up the Fetzer 20K and this was the fundraiser for the prize $. KC said I should do it for a "Renee fundraiser" or something to that effect. I'm still undecided. Stay tuned.

I've been invited to a karaoke Halloween party. I've never done karaoke and don't have much desire to participate, actually. But I still might attend. (October 30) Stay tuned.

There's been a little bit of Facebook chatter between Wanda, Rick and myself about Wanda and I dying our hair pink for Outer Banks (OBX). She said that she will if I will. I've never had pink hair, well almost never ...

OK. This is a really weird photo I know! But my skin looks terrible--really washed out--against this wig color! I couldn't get one decent photo. This is the wig we all wore for the Polar Plunge last year. Maybe this should be telling me something... Stay tuned. : )

Workouts: This morning, a 10.07 mile run. It was great to get up and head out the door on foot. Nice cool, crisp morning. However, my legs were fatigued because ... of yesterday's afternoon workout. I swam and lifted in the AM (including my hamstring curls). Weights and measures updates: 1) The Y finally has 20-lb. dumbells again after a 4-week hiatus (how can 20-lb. dumbells walk out of there?) I thought they felt a little heavy, but I thought maybe because I hadn't been able to use them for a month I was just out of practice. I mentioned to Kevin, the staff person in the early AM and he said he'd thought the same. So I decided to weigh a couple of them. One weighed 22 lbs and the other 23 lbs. Mystery solved. 2) Good news: I've upped the weight on my hamstring curls from 15 to 20 pounds on my left leg and can do 30 reps. Last time I tried 20 lbs, it hurt after just a couple of reps. 3) New PR: I can now squat 260 pounds, 10 reps. I guess the Stairmaster and bike miles haven't all been for naught, though I feel like I have tree trunk legs now ...

Back to yesterday's afternoon workout. I was kind of tied to the kitchen since I had to make bread for Cooking Light. I knew I couldn't get in any kind of long bike ride since I'd only have 40-45 minutes at a time to work out so I would make it an intense workout rather than an endurance workout. After the bread was set to rise the first time, I headed out to Salem Corners on the bike and decided to play my "20.0" game, which I hadn't done in a while. Rules of the game: I have to take all the uphills (except Fox Valley Drive) at 20.0 mph or faster. I did it, almost. The hill heading east out of S.C. was just too long to maintain 20.0. And it felt like there was a bit of an east wind. But it was a good 13.5 mile ride. After the bread was shaped and set to rise for a second time, I again headed out on the bike, but didn't feel like riding to S.C. again quite yet. So I decided to do hill repeats on Weatherhill Drive SW. If you haven't been up this hill, or down for that matter, it's really steep and the steepest part is at the top. I had time for 6 repeats before I had to head home. What a workout. (Next time I do this, I'm going to do 10 repeats!) Headed home (up Fox Valley Drive SW for a second time ... which felt like peanuts compared to Weatherhill). After baking the bread, I headed out a third time and went south out of S.C. 'til county 3 turns west and turned around and headed towards home. When I got to S.C. I could see another bike at the top of the hill to the east (it was about 5:10 PM--curious if it was a bleader : ). Well that got my adrenaline going and the chase was on. I gained ground, and caught two riders that turned onto Salem Road from County 15, but ran out of real estate to catch the single by the time I got back to Rochester. 40.17 miles for the day. That chase was enough to tire out my legs, hence my fatigue this morning. So, no afternoon workout today. Baked cookies instead.

Hamstring update: What doesn't hurt any more --- swinging my right leg over the bike, clipping out my left shoe on the bike --- these used to cause pain and don't any more. Yippee!!

As David Essex would sing, Rock On.