Terrific Tuesday!!

Beautiful sunshine today. And the forecast for the week just gets better and better as the week goes on. No preciptation expected for the next 7 days. This race director is one HAPPY camper!! The race entries keep coming in. The calls keep coming in. It's hoppin' around here. Matt, my youngest son who's a student at Winona State, will be home to help me. I'm thankful.

Vicki Martinson is going to sing the national anthem for the Fetzer 20K and 2-mile. She has a wonderful voice and such a nice gal. Wife of runner Jim Martinson (one of the "cookie monsters" who get cookies of the month at the Y). Sister of Pam Trebtosky in my book club.

Here's the Athlete of the Week story on Mary Chestolowski. Whoo hoo!! Yesterday's results in the paper have a photo of Mary.

I had a good swim this mornin. In one of the books I've been skimming, Triathlon for Dummies or The Idiot's Guide to Triathlon or something, one of the things they mention is to swim "long" and swim "on your side", i.e. stretch out your body and rotate your belly button to the side of the pool during the stroke instead of leaving it pointing at the bottom of the pool. So I worked on that today and I could tell a difference. I looked at my watch after 9 laps (1/4 mile) and it was 10:06. And I'd stopped to adjust my goggles once and once to untwist the strap on my suit. I was timed in 10:50 for the indoor tri several weeks ago, so I was pleased as I'd swam yesterday too. I'm still slow, but maybe, on a given day, not as slow as I once was. ;-) I really need to work on breathing on both sides. Breathing on the left is leaving me all discombobulated!! And looking like an idiot!!!

Here's a funny photo passed along by KC Reed. Beware INDEED!!

My Cooking Light group meets this coming Monday. I was assigned (or I guess I volunteered!) to make Monday Morning Potato Bread. I love to bake bread. It's therapeutic, the house smells wonderful, and it's a tasty treat. I decided to do a test run this afternoon. It's delish!! I just ate one of the heels of the loaf, while warm, with butter on it. Heavenly. I'll make another batch on Monday for the gals, and bring some jam. I've still got lots in my stash ... black raspberry jam, Concord grape jelly, plum jam, strawberry jam, ...

135 hits here yesterday. :-) Thanks for visiting my little corner of the universe.

Still looking for anyone interested in a viewing of Running the Sahara . Here's a trailer:

The viewing will take place at my house. With cookies, of course. And ... ice cold milk. 3 of us are interested so far.

Well, it's only 7:15. I think I'll make another batch of cookies. I'm hoping for LOTS of runners on Saturday!!

Cheers.

The Opener

Well, it's shaping up to be a busy week for me! I'm hosting a lunch at church tomorrow, and then all the preparations for the Fetzer, the "Opener" for the RTC race season. The weather sounds like it's going to be perfect for Saturday. No mention of rain until Monday, and the temps are going to slowly warm to almost 60. Doesn't get much better than that! Then I'm hosting Easter here on Sunday which means I'll probably go home after the race and bake bread and pies. I'm going to be soooo tired by the end of the weekend ...

The Rah!Rah!Rochester video has been posted on YouTube . The middle of the 3 segments is my little bit on the Fetzer 20K and 2-Mile. I am soooo unphotogenic. Here's the final artwork for the Fetzer shirts which are going to print now. The sleeves are 3/4 length.



I know who this week's Post-Bulletin athlete of the week is going to be. A lot of you know her too. She's an RTC member and is running v-e-r-y well. :-) Way to go, ... Mary Chestolowski!!

Here's a link to Tom Woo's Fool's Five photos: Webshots (email me if this doesn't work ... I don't know if the link is specific to me or not)

Here are my photos:

Well, I'm hoping to have enough homemade cookies for the runners on Saturday, so I made three batches this evening:

Peanut Sitting Pretties (so yummy and so pretty ... for any holiday)

Reese's Pieces

A different kind of Reese's

Oldest son Eric came home from Luther this evening to watch the Twins (who are currently behind Seattle 4-1 ... ouch). It's so nice to have him home. He graduates in May. (Looks like he dripped something on his inside-out Twins shirt. :-) He's wearing the hat I had autographed during Spring Training. They don't get the Twins' games in Decorah. White Sox, yes.

Here's the Peanut Sitting Pretties recipe:

1 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Finely chopped walnuts
1 can vanilla frosting
Holiday peanut M & M candies

Blend butter and sugar in a bow; stir in egg yolk and vanilla. Sift in flour and salt. Mix well and chill for 1 hour. Roll into 1" balls. Dip into slightly beaten egg white; roll in nuts and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Press thumb gently in center and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Let cool. Fill thumb print with frosting and top with a peanut M & M.

Time to get back to the game(s) (NCAA final as well) and read the newspaper.

Thought for the day: "Life is like a game of tennis; the player who serves well seldom loses."

Ha det bra! (Norwegian...kind of like "see ya")

Fool's Five

Wow ... we dodged that winter weather bullet, didn't we? All the snow that was predicted just never materialized. And I'm sure one of the happiest people around was Fool's Five race director Diane Rislow. The conditions were much better than they were predicted to have been, though we had to deal with a really stiff wind, as was predicted.

So, the low down. A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Mary Chestolowski for winning the women's race! She ran so well. 31:15 She got a very nice trophy. (And Mary has volunteered to help me bake cookies for the 20K runners on Saturday. Thank you, Mary!)

Tom Woo also ran very well finishing 5th overall with a time of 30:47.

I guess I'm satisfied overall with my run, but I was hoping it would have been faster after my good run at the Human Race 8K. But it's not fair to compare the races I guess as this one is hillier and the weather wasn't nearly as nice. Also, this one measured 5.02 miles on my GPS and Tom's as well. Human Race was 4.98 on my GPS. At 7 minute pace, .04 miles is about 16 seconds. So anyway, today my right hamstring was really tight and sore and I was afraid if I really pushed it I would have pulled it so I tried to run strong but smart. And I ran 20 miles yesterday. :-) My splits were: 7:14, 7:20 (the "killer hill!" in this mile), 7:09, 7:10, 7:00. The wind was very strong from the NE. That last 1.5 miles back into town was rather on the brutal side. My time was 35:57 and 4th female.

Pictured are Gloria Jansen, guest speaker, Pat Brown and me. Here are the overall results: 8K results I'll post the whole slideshow tomorrow.

Fetzer 20K: I have 78 volunteers. This is super wonderful news! I am so thankful to each and every one of you. I will be able to have a volunteer at every intersection on the course, including the bike path. There should be no doubt about which way to run. This early in the week, the weather is sounding ... pretty great. All is in order. :-)

Foodie stuff: Being it was a cold, blustery day, soup sounded like a good idea for supper. So it was Baked Potato Soup from Cooking Light, a salad a a hunk of Panera whole grain baguette. Delish. Hit the spot.

Then it was time to bake yet more cookies ... for the Cookie of the Month crew. BTW: The money from auctioning off those cookies is the Fetzer 20K prize money for Saturday. $500. :-) Made with dark chocolate M&Ms, the absolute undoing of my will power.

Well, the bunnies are now complete. Two are on their way to their new homes, and one will hopefully be delivered tomorrow. They're so fun. :-)

The TriRochester get together was a lot of fun last night. Lots of triathletes were in attendance. And hopefully there was a new triathlete amongst them ... namely Melissa Gorvin. (Pictured below are Mike Ewen (TriRochester white shirt), Tom Williamson, Melissa, Judy Weller, Cathy Torgerson)

I talked to her for a bit and found out that she too is apprehensive about the swim. I then found out she reads my blog and knew that I was training for my first tri, but she still wasn't convinced she could do it. Well, low and behold, a short while later Andy Shulha and Mark Carey were drawing for prizes. And who should win a free entry to the Rochesterfest Tri but Melissa!

I think this was meant to be. I'm hoping she will be able to work with Shaun Palmer on the swim and be confident enough in the swim that she will do this! I told her I'd do it with her. You go, girl! You can do this!

I was standing next to someone who introduced himself to Andy Shulha. I heard the name and asked if he was a neurosurgeon. He said he was. I told him he'd done my back surgery in 2003. Small, small world. We talked for about 30 seconds about medicine (I think he appears briefly in the up-and-coming Medical Edge video I did) and then quite a while about triathlon. Also noteworthy, Erin Carey is doing Ironman Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) in June. Way cool! That's Erin on the left below along with Abigail (!) and Becky Tri.

I guess there were a number of requests for the recipe for the banana bars. Here it is. Another winner from Land O'Lakes .

I have to give a plug to Lionel's blog. He does such a great job with photos and the written word.

Enough for today. It's nearly 10:00 and I've had no down time to speak of. It's off to the pool in the early AM to continue my triathlon training.

More tomorrow. Toodle-oo!

The Usual. And the Unusual.

The usual: Our Saturday morning long run at the Rochester Athletic Club. I so enjoy these runs, both for the run, and for the camaraderie of friends. So many super friendly people. For one, Jen Bradt is such a hoot. Her conversation makes the miles pass so quickly. And the things we talk about ... only on the run! Topics like blowing your nose ... sans kleenex. And with several triathletes in our pack, the conversation amongst the guys drifted to guys being able to pee, without getting it on themselves, while riding a bike. A talent, for sure. Seems like there are no taboos when it comes to conversation amongst runners on the run!

The unusual: Dan Strain has been solving the Rubik's cube once per mile on some of his runs this week. One run he did it 7 times in 6 miles or something like that. Now his goal (his dream??) is to solve it once per mile during the Med-City Marathon. Apparently something in a math-related conversation with me during last week's long run provoked this thought. Hmmmmm ... can't remember what that could have been! Anyway, he's looking for someone to mix up the cube for him each mile. Any takers out there??? This is tooooo funny. I so wish I was going to be at Med-City as several friends are running their first marathons there this year and I'd really like to see Dan at mile 26 with his Rubik's cube. :-) What if he gets to 26.2 and he hasn't solved it yet?? The suspense is mounting!

My morning run: It turned into 20.00 miles. 2 miles more than I wanted but there wasn't much I was going to do about it. I woke up late today and popped out of bed when I saw the time. Just about enough time to dress, cut the pan of bars ...

gather up my stuff, and head to the RAC. I grabbed a Hershey's kiss and tasted about a 1/2" piece of a bar to make sure they were OK. They were. :-) Another keeper recipe (link posted yesterday--all these Land O'Lakes recipes have been dy-no-mite!!). Well, I started fading fast at about 14 miles and decided to head to Great Harvest at 15.80 miles for a hunk of bread. My tank was totally on empty, and I knew it. So I got a (big) sample slice of Honey Whole Wheat bread and headed back toward the lake and the water stop. This added more than 1/2 mile to the route, which was more than a mile long. So by the time I got back to my car, I had 20.00 miles on. And I was beat. Totally spent. Next week will be a lot shorter, that's for darn tootin'!!

I had to laugh at all the comments I got this morning about my April Fool's post on Wednesday. Apparently, I had a lot of people oozing sympathy for me ... until they scrolled down past the picture. Ha! Gotcha!!

A couple of weeks ago, I got a really fun shot of our merry little band of runners heading down 18th Ave SW. I cruised on ahead so I could snap a photo. No problem when heading down hill! A very fun shot.


So I decided we needed a complimentary uphill shot. Well, that meant that I had to beat everyone else up this almost 1/2 mile hill and get my camera out, on and focused before they all got to the top. Argghh. But I was game, so I did it. I'm glad I did. It's another fun shot. By George, they're even smiling. But I think I left my legs on that hill!!


So ... on to tomorrow and the Fool's Five Road Race (5 miles, Lewiston, MN). The forecast is calling for snow, and lots of it (6-12 inches), and wind, and lots of it (20-30 mph sustained). K.C. and I are driving over to run it. He said he's actually looking forward to running a race in a blizzard. Me? Not so much! Especially the way my legs are feeling today. I think a slow jog might be in order. My Ice Bugs (shoes with carbide spikes) might also be in order. Also, my upper body is a bit sore today after raking yesterday. I don't ding around when I rake ... ;-)

Fetzer 20K: Everything is coming together very nicely. I feel like I should be stressing out about something at this point, but I'm not! Ron Giles and I picked up the race equipment from the shed this afternoon. Thank you for your help and the use of your pickup, Ron! This weekend, I will finalize all the volunteer assignments and send them out. Shirts will be printed early in the week. I'm anxious to see how they turn out. Entries are still being accepted!

From the Spring Classic folks: Tom O'Leary, Judy Weller and I (Jean Murray) are looking for volunteers (and runners!) to help with RTC's Spring Classic races and Kids Mile events, Please consider volunteering or referring this to your family & friends that might be interested!! It's a great way to put a little spring in your step! We have a variety of jobs starting with Packet Pick-up on Friday evening at Running Room, and many jobs before, during and after the races on Saturday morning, May 2nd. Give a shout if you can help us out! And thanks in advance for your consideration!!

I'm about ready to roll on the floor (again!) with hunger so will bring this post to a close now. In an hour, I'll be joining the TriRochester folks for the season kick-off pizza party at Rochester Cycling and Fitness and have to get the banana bars frosted yet. Should be fun!

Quote for the day: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." --Theodore Roosevelt

Toodles!!

Fabulous Friday!!

What a wonderful day it was today. Bright sunshine, less wind, reasonable temps. I took advantage of the weather and raked the lawn. There's always so much sand in the parkway and I like to get rid of it. And for the rest of the yard, it fluffs it up a bit. And it's good exercise. I sooooo don't look forward to 6-12 inches of snow. I really hope it goes south!!

I spent much of the day baking cookies. About 130 M&M cookies for Fetzer. For tomorrow, I think I'll make a pan of bars. Another new Land O'Lakes recipe. Chewy Chocolate Chunk Bars I'm about cookied out. There will be chocolate therein!! OK ... here's an example of me losing my memory in my advancing age. I made 2 double batches of cookies, and mixed up the dry ingredients for the second batch at the same time I made the first batch, which was this morning. Well, by this evening I couldn't remember if I'd put the salt, baking powder and baking soda in with the rest of the dry ingredients. ;-0 Big dilema. What to do? Risk double the leavening? Nope! I decided to bake one test cookie and see what happened. (I made a batch a few weeks ago and forgot the leavening and they baked up like shortbread. They were actually pretty good, though! Then after the first pan full, I mixed in the leavening.) Well, I'd added it. So in went the M&Ms and I was good to go.

Tomorrow evening is the season kickoff party for TriRochester at Rochester Cycling & Fitness. Pizza and beverages at 6 pm. And a one night discount at the store. Should be fun! Bloggable, for sure.

Tom O'Leary reports that there were 27 people at the R.E.D. (Run/Eat/Drink ... I thought it was Run Every Day, Tom!) kickoff last night at the Bears' Den in Byron. So now they are an official club with 37 members. Great job getting people out there and active! They will be running 3-6 miles or walking approximately half the distance on the first and third Thursday of each month from the Bears' Den. They are still accepting members! I just might have to check this out one of these times... Tom is such a fun guy!

I did an interview for Mayo Clinic's Medical Edge last September. I found out today that the video will be available on YouTube and http://www.mayoclinic.org/ on May 1. I'll keep you posted ... of course. It had to do with my back surgery in 2003. They had me running, chasing a car with a camera in the back. I got my speed work in that day!

RTC members celebrating birthdays in April include: James Andrews, Daniel Assad, Andrew Becker, Jeremy Berg, Tammy Beniak, Nina Bren, Richard Devine, Mike Franken, Pete Gilman, Joseph Grande, Roxanne Holst, Joy Larson, Kurt Lidke, Mark McClees, Ruben Mesa (milestone), Jennifer Meyer, John Modry, Julian Molina (milestone), Kerry Rosane, Dawn Schroeder, Terry Severson, David Sletten, Ken Syring, Roger Taylor, Peter Tebben, Jeff Verkerke. Big group this month. Happy Birthday y'all!!

Today at noon, K.C. Reed and I ran what the guys call the '8 Bridges' run. It starts at the Y and goes up through Pill Hill, across 6th St SW (bridge #1), south on the west frontage road and under 52 at highway 14, east through Kutzky Park and back to the Y near Lourdes H.S. Nice route with a few hills for good measure. A perfect day for a run. No hat, capris, no jacket. Love it!

Spotted at Running Room after the run ... Dave Morrill! Such a nice guy. In the background, Evan Spee, assistant manager. Running Room has been busy, and was today as well!!

Time for a foodie foto! My lunch yesterday. Greens, 1/2 a pear, blackberries, pecans, croutons and the Pear Champagne Vinaigrette from Trader Joe's. Delish!!


Well, I've got Yack 'n Snack photos and photos of the new clothing at Running Room, but I'll save them for another day. I'm tired!

Ciao.

This, That and The Other Thing

Hi, all!

Well, from the sounds of it Fool's Five is going to be interesting. No April Fool's joke either. There's a winter storm warning beginning at 1 AM Sunday and it sounds like we could get six plus inches of snow. A race director's worst nightmare. I'll be tuned into the weather pretty closely as the week goes on as well.

I decided to get a bunch of those HERSHEY'S Speedy Bunnies as prizes for the age-group winners in the 2 miler at the Fetzer, being it's the day before Easter. I think that'll go over well. 20K age group winners get homemade M&M cookies. Easter colored M&Ms, of course. I'm still deciding what to make for the Saturday long run at the RAC. M&M cookies? Frosted cut-out cookies in Easter shapes? What a dilema. :-) Of the happy sort, though. You'll just have to show up at the RAC to find out ... BTW: Land O'Lakes butter is on sale at HyVee this week for $1.99/lb which is a great price. It's the butter I use when I'm making cookies. I always use unsalted for baking purposes.

Keeley Kenworthy interviewed me at Bamber Valley School this afternoon for the YouTube RahRahRochester! feature for next week. I'll post the link when the video gets posted. I'm sure I'm going to think I'm not photogenic. I always do. But we did it in one take.

Paul Christian is making a return mission trip to Tanzania in May and is looking for race shirts to bring along. From Paul: "We leave May 11 and return on May 28. One year I was there, a church choir used the long-sleeved t-shirts as choir robes. They had nothing else where everybody dresses the same, like a church choir." Below is a photo with some musicians wearing Fetzer 20K T-shirts. If you have some race shirts that you don't need, let me know and I'll get them to Paul. I'm sure lots of us have more race shirts than we'll ever wear. Thanks.


Trash pick-up next Wednesday at 5:30 PM. Meet at the small parking area across Broadway from Snappy Stop. Bring your own gloves. Bags will be furnished.

The plans for the (female) Self Defense class have been finalized. April 26 from 1-3 PM at the Congregational Church (west highway 52 frontage road about 1/4 mile south of 6th St SW ... I should be able to just roll down the hill!). Cost: $10. Instructor: female corrections officer for Olmsted County who's a black belt in 2 martial arts. Please RSVP if you'd like to attend.

From Mike Schmitt: National Running Day is June 3. But you don't have to wait until then to take the first step!!

I was thinking about my maple syrup project the other day. I wonder what made some person, way back when, decide to tap a maple tree and get the clear, virtually tasteless sap from it and boil the heck out of it (you have to reduce it about 10-fold) to make syrup. Just a little ol' random thought ...

My Yack 'n Snack craft group met last night at Mona's. I decided to make a few bunnies in addition to yacking and snacking. The raw materials (off-white felt and a tapestry fabric)...

Presto ...

Change-O ...

Cheer-io!!

Actually, they're not quite done. They need whiskers and little baskets of dried flowers. I'll post another photo when 100% complete. They're kind of fun, and quick and easy to put together.

Well, I think I'm going to wrap this up and save the rest for tomorrow. I'll go plunk down on the couch and put the engraving plates on the Fetzer medals while watching the finale of E.R. Haven't watched it in several years, but I hear that some of the original cast is going to be back.

Quote for the day: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." --Maya Angelou

Have a good one!

Why Me???

A year ago this day (first Wednesday in April), we were out running in the early AM and I hit a chunk of ice and took a big digger on the sidewalk. It wasn't pretty. It ruined my 2008 Boston Marathon. So today, I'm out running and ran right past that very spot in front of Brueggers. Shortly thereafter, I hit my toe on some uneven pavement and down I go. HARD. Took it on the very same knee. I have a feeling that my spring racing/marathon season is once again history. I can't believe it. I am SOOOOO bummed. Why did this have to happen???

APRIL FOOL'S!!!

(But the bit about lst year is true. And the photo is from last year.)

More tomorrow. Gotta yak and snack tonight. :-)