Spin Class

Wednesday and Saturday are the days on my schedule that I am supposed to be cycling.  I'm not going to lie to you, it is my least favorite training exercise.  I know I have to do it, though, because it is the one part of the triathlon that I could really shave my time down in substantially! 

Today I decided to go try a spin class at the gym.  I have avoided these classes for a while now, because the last time Bill took me to one was a disaster.  Of course, that was over 2 years ago and I am a different person now than I was then.

When I told Bill I was going to the cycle class, he got kind of excited.  He rummaged in his closet and pulled out the cycling shorts I had given him last Christmas and told me to try them on.  It seems they don't quite fit him right and he was hoping they would fit me.  They did!  The fit perfectly, in fact. 

The spin cycles are in a special room all of their own just off the weight room.  The door stays locked until a spin class is held, which means you can't just wander in there and use them on your own. They have toe clips, so it is a great opportunity to work on the pedaling techniques Bill taught me.

HOLY COW!  I LOVED IT!

Maybe it is because my cardio level is much better than it used to be.  Maybe it is what Bill taught me.  Maybe it is a little of both.  All I know it that with my feet attached to the pedals, I could focus on just creating a smooth circle with my legs and it was so much easier!  The class instructor had us doing sprints that would have killed me two years ago, but were just challenging enough to be fun today.

I will definitely make spin class my go to exercise every Wednesday evening!

Test Drive

Last Saturday, Bill and I headed out to do the grocery shopping.  It wasn't until we were both in the car that we realized that we were hungry.

It is a general rule that you shouldn't shop while hungry, or you'll buy all sorts of things that simply 'look yummy' to your hungry stomach.  So, we decided to stop for lunch first before hitting the store.  We were on our way to the store after lunch when it happened.  I noticed a car in a sales lot as we passed by.

A convertible Mustang.  For $11,900.

I started craning my neck to see it and made a comment to Bill that I sure would like to see that car up close and personal.  Before you know it, Bill has pulled a U-turn and is headed back to the dealership!

Oooh!  It was beautiful!  I have wanted a convertible for a long time and a Mustang would be perfect!  I am partial to Ford now in the aftermath of the auto industry bailouts.  Did you know that Ford never took a bailout?  I can really respect that, and I'd like to give Ford my business because of it.

When we got there we discovered that the dealership was closed for the day (it was a late lunch), but we did notice another convertible for sale...

A Honda S2000.  You can tell from the picture that it has been at the dealership longer.  This one was listed at $9,900.  It is a bitty roadster!  There are no back seats.

I was smitten!  I decided that I needed to test drive these two cars and maybe even take the plunge a year early and go ahead with my plans to get another car.  You see, we have known for a while that we will need another car next year.  Helena will be graduating and plans to move away for school.  We intend to send my Alero with her to college.  It is a good reliable car with decent gas mileage and will be paid off by then.  That would leave us with just the Expedition (which is acting up and will need significant work done on it soon) and three drivers in the house (Will is getting his permit sometime soon).  No good.

When I got home on Saturday, I started researching those two cars, make, model, year, and mileage.  I wanted to see if the prices on them were reasonable.  They weren't, but not in the way you might think.

The Mustang was listed at about $4,000 LESS than NADA recommends.  The Honda S2000?  The retail value for that car ought to be at about $21,000!  I KNOW!!! 

$21,000?!?  And they only want $9.900?

My initial thought was, 'what is wrong with this car?'  Still, I know the owner of that dealership and trust him.  I taught his children years ago and we bought the Expedition from him 10 years ago BELOW blue book and it has been a fantastic car for us.  It isn't often you hear someone say they trust a used car salesman, but there you go... I trust this guy.

So I went back to the dealership yesterday afternoon.  I took the kids with me because both of them thought the idea of test driving a convertible sounded cool.  As it happens, I wasn't able to test drive the Mustang after all, because the key to it got left at the other owner's house (someone he knows borrowed it Friday night and returned the key to his house).  So that left the S2000. 

As it happens, another interested party walked in just after I did, also wanting to test drive the S2000.  It was interesting that he tried to downplay that car to me, trying to convince me it wasn't the car for me, that the gas mileage on it was terrible, etc.  But, I was there first, so I had first chance at the car.  The other guy decided to go out to lunch and come back after I finished my test drive.

Here is where we find out about the secret of the deep discount on the cost of the car...

It has a salvage title.

I didn't know much about what that means, but after some research, here is a nutshell.  When a car has been in an accident, the insurance adjuster will inspect to decide whether to have the car repaired, or 'junked' as a 'total loss'.  Usually, if the cost of repair reaches anywhere between 50% and 75% of resale, it will be classified a 'total loss' and the insured will be issued a check instead of getting their car repaired.  The 'totaled' car can be bought and rebuilt, but has to have a 'salvage' title to designate its history.

The dealership owner told me that when he bought the car, it looked like it had been 'pinballed'.  In other words, the person driving it had lost control and spun out, damaging panels on every side.  He had it rebuilt, but was disappointed in the level of finish work on it, hence the discounted price.

Most people will steer clear of a salvage title.  You just never know if the frame has been compromised with metal fatigue unless you pay for an in-depth inspection.  Banks and credit unions won't lend more than 50% retail value on a salvage title, and you will probably never be able to sell it yourself once you buy it.

Of course, the dealer only wants less than 50% retail on the car.  Which means I probably could get a loan on it, if I wanted to.

I will admit, it was fun to drive!  It is a manual transmission and my shifting skills are a bit rusty.  Helena went with me on the first drive.  Man!  The inside of that car was claustrophobic!  I mean REALLY tiny!  The windows are super small, too.  It took me a few minutes to finesse the clutch and find the 'sweet spot' where the gears connect.  I will admit there was a bit of jerky performance at first (total operator error) that had Helena saying 'oh!  I don't like this car at all!'  But once I had the measure of the shifter, she started enjoying the ride and changed her tune.  Not enough to actually want us to get the car, though.  When we got back to the dealership, I popped the 'boot'.  I know in America we call it the 'trunk', but this little car felt so much like a British roadster that I mentally thought of it as a 'boot'.  Weird.  Anyways.  A pair of boots would be practically the only thing you'd carry back there.  This thing had almost NO storage space at all.

When I took Will out in it, we took down the top.

OOOOH!!!  I liked that!  It opened up my sight line tremendously!  The sun and the breeze were intoxicating!  I would definitely need to keep sunscreen in the car.

So.  I probably have you worried about me.  You are probably screaming at your computer screen, "DON'T DO IT!  DON'T DO IT!  NOT A SALVAGE TITLE!"

Don't worry.  I won't.

This is going to be the first car I buy that is all for me and only for me.  I am going to do it right.  That means no salvage title, and definitely some storage for groceries, at least!

So, what about the Mustang that first drew my eye?

It's a salvage title, too.  And a v6 instead of a v8 (apparently we want more power).  Harumph!

It was obviously not meant to be....

...yet.

Amish Quilt Dreams

This post is about one of my day dreams.

I am always reconstructing and redecorating my house in my mind.  There are times when you could come across me standing perfectly still and doing absolutely nothing in the middle of a room or in the yard.  At least, it would look like I am doing nothing, when in fact, my mind is in overdrive... moving walls, installing additions, selecting finishes and colors, and furnishings.  You should really see my house inside my head; it would blow you away!!!  It would be the cover story for This Old House magazine.

One of my daydreams is the ability to deck out each and every bed in the house with an authentic Amish quilt.  These beauties cost around $1,000 each, with the more experienced quilters products going much higher.  For instance, the design of the image at the top of the page is a traditional stitch pattern that has been done by many Amish women.  However, the cost varies depending on the stitch count.  A stitch count of 6-7 per inch would cost less than a 9-10 per inch quality. 

I love the idea of hand built traditional quilts in this mechanized world!  I think they are worth every cent they cost... I just can't afford them.  Is it crazy of me to want one of these hand built bed spreads when I know the same pattern could be programed into a machine and sold for a mere fraction of the cost?

It is for this same reason that I love my old house... 84 years of solid, OLD construction.  I just can't value new construction the same.  Not when I see so many unforgettable, cheaply constructed houses. Did you know that my house was a kit house?!  The original owner ordered the plans AND all parts from either the Sears or  the Montgomery Ward catalog!  Every single piece was shipped out to him in a rail container, then he built the house by hand.  Every scrap of lumber and brick were placed by the owner himself!  I seriously doubt the houses of today will stand the test of time like this old house.  None of them will have the unique history.  At least, not the tract houses that are such a prevalent blight in the suburban sprawl surrounding the old communities.

So, for now, the Amish quilt dream is only that... a dream.  Perhaps someday I'll be able to splurge and finally get one.  I'll have to put it on my bucket list!

Skin color

What a misnomer!  The color of one's skin.  It really should be 'skin colors' because there are just SO MANY colors found in flesh tone.  And I am not talking about colors from one person to another.  I am talking about the colors in ONE person's skin.  It is boggling and daunting to try to mix together the correct tints and hues of reds, yellows, and blues to come up with the right highlights and shadows to represent just one person's skin.  And do it without making the skin look muddy instead of luminous.

GAH!

I am not that happy with today's work on the painting.  I worked on Matt's arm and shirt today.  The preliminary work on the shirt is okay, but the arm.  Grrrr.  The arm is frustrating me.  I have gotten to an acceptable stopping place with it, but I am still not happy with the results.  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for art?

Weeds

Our yard is over run with them.  Gah!  I HATE weeds!  Unfortunately, ignoring them does NOT make them go away.  I know.  I tried.

So, yesterday I watered one section of weeds to make them easier to pull today.  That is my new strategy.  water... then pull.  But only the section that was watered the day before.  When I finish that section, I am free to abandon the rest of the yard until another day with a guiltless conscience.  I figure that by the time I make it around the entire yard, the first section will be in dire need of attention again.  Phooey.

Neglected Artwork

I have a confession.  I have had the same picture stuck on my easel now for over... um..... I think 3 years?!  It sat in the same unfinished state for so long because I was really not very happy with how meticulous I was being on the background and I just lost interest in it.  I have done a few other things off of my easel, but those were mainly example artworks for my students and I don't really count most of those as serious efforts.  But lately, I have had several painting ideas floating around in my head and I need my easel back.  So, it is time to revisit this artwork and finish it.

 I am going to rework the background into a more painterly, impressionistic looking style, and I think that will help it out.  It is a picture of my two boys one Sunday morning putting their ties on.  I thought it would make a good subject matter in a sort of Norman Rockwell sort of way.  This is being done in soft pastels, one of my favorites!  Technically, pastels are considered a drawing tool, but I can't help but think of it as a painting.

 Will

 Matt

The reference photo was taken years ago, when Matt was a teen and Will was still in Elementary school.  Now Matt is 23 and married, and Will is going into high school and will get his driver's permit next week!  Ahhhh!   Time goes so fast!

I'll post more updates as I continue to work on this one!

Summer Solstice

I always thought that the solstice would be in the middle of the summer.  Apparently I was wrong!  The solstice marks the beginning of summer and is the longest day of the year!  Of course, around here, summer begins June 1st and lasts through August (and often well into September temperature-wise).

Last night Bill went on a bike ride.  When he came home, he brought me a gift...

... He had picked a handful of wild flowers for me on his ride home!  The last time he did that for me was years and years ago when the kids were little and we lived in an apartment in Pleasant Grove!  I love the wild flower bouquets from my husband much more than some store bought hot house flowers because I know that he went out of his way to pick them for me himself.

 Today I swam laps for my training workout, then came home to pick weeds out of the yard.  That is an eternal job.  Phooey!  After working for about and hour and a half, I came in for lunch, then headed back to the pool with Helena.  She wanted me to spend the day with her, and I happily agreed.  After all, this might be my last summer with her, depending on what her life looks like after she graduates next spring.  We only spent an hour or so at the pool before heading back home because her sinuses are bothering her so badly.  The cotton wood is floating thickly in the air and it is wrecking havoc with her allergies.

I joined her in the back yard for a picnic lunch (for her, anyways, I already ate lunch) and decided to take some pictures because the sky was so VERY blue and it felt like such a perfect summery day!  So, here are some of the pictures I took!

Right now, Helena is off babysitting and Will is off hanging out with his friend, Dallan, so I am home by myself again in a nice, cool, peaceful house!  When Helena gets home again, she wants me to go back to the pool with her again. 

Triathlon Learning Curve

So.  I am signed up for a triathlon.  I thought I should probably learn some more about just exactly what I have gotten myself into.  Here is what I have learned so far...

I found lots of helpful resources on runnersworld.com.  For instance, I discovered a training calculator for runners.  You plug in your best time for one of the standard distances and it will calculate what your time would be for all the other standard distances.  By example, my best time for a half marathon is 2:33:13.  Based on that calculation, I would run a 5K in 00:33:20, and a full marathon in 5:19:27.  The calculator also posits the best speeds for various different training  runs to improve my time!

So, now I know what speeds I should be doing in each of the three different types of training runs; speed forms, VO2 intervals, and tempo runs.

Speed forms:  These help increase speed.  Duh.  It is an interval workout involving one minute of high intensity speed running, followed by 3-4 minutes of recovery jogging... repeated about 6 times for a 30 minute workout.  I did one of these today and it felt great!

VO2:  These workouts are done to deliver the maximum amount of oxygen to your muscles possible.  They are 4-5 min. of moderately intense speed running (not has fast as the speed form), you have to be able to sustain the speed for the entire time, followed by 4-5 minutes of recovery jogging, repeated 3 times for a 30 minute workout.

Tempo:  These are workouts at your race tempo, or the speed you can maintain for at least 20 minutes non stop.

All of this will help my running and overall fitness.

I have also learned a thing or two about swimming in open water.  For instance, I need to work on my technique to get more rotation and better extension on my stroke in order to get good breaths in the waves.  Also, I need to practice lifting my head slightly to the front periodically as I swim so my goggles peek out of the water to see where I am going!  This is called sighting and is critical when swimming toward a destination in open water.  When sighting, it is better to first pick a tall object that aligns with the buoy, because when you are in the water, you might not be able to see the buoy you are aiming for because the water swells may obscure it from you.  So, if you know it lines up with something higher up that you can see from the water, you will know you are heading in the right direction!  Wow!  I am really glad I learned that trick!

I also learned that open water swims most often cause a momentary panic in many racers because of all the other bodies thrashing about in the water near you.  I don't know if that will happen to me, but it is good to know about it and be prepared, just in case!

I watched several YouTube videos about transitions.  They have been called the fourth event in a triathlon, because they can be stressful if not thought out and executed well.  Basically, a transition is the time it takes you to move from one event in the triathlon to the next event.  There are two transitions; swim/bike, and bike/run.  The swim/bike transition seems to be the one that is most technical.  Most of the videos I saw dealt with getting a wet suit off before getting into biking gear.  I won't have to worry about that, because I don't plan to race in a wet suit.  The lake's temperature in late August will be plenty warm!  However, there were lots of helpful tips about how to lay out your gear in the transition area to make the transition as smooth and speedy as possible.  I think I will need to practice a transition before the race.

Something Bill mentioned about biking struck me, as well.  He has shoes that clip into the pedals of his bike.  I don't.  I was just going to wear my running shoes on the bike, too.  However, he said that biking without clipping onto the pedals only uses 1/4 of the muscle power I could be using.  Without the clips, I can only exert downward force on the pedals as they complete the front of the rotation.  If I had my shoes clipped to the pedals, however, I could exert an UPWARD force on the back rotation as well!  In fact, I could be using my muscles all the way through the pedal's circular rotation.

So.  Do I go buy myself some biking shoes and the right kind of pedals?  The shoes cost about $100!  Ouch!  I would need to do it soon, if at all, because I would need to train in them.  I already intend to buy some tri shorts.  These are specially designed compression shorts that wick water away, dry quickly, and have a thin pad in the seat for the biking leg of the race.  They are worn in all three events.

Oh.  And the most disturbing thing I discovered is that mp3 players of any kind are strictly FORBIDDEN during any portion of a triathlon!  Of course, that is fine for the swim, and even the biking... but it will be sorely missed while I am running!

Bill's Ragnar

Bill left on Thursday afternoon to head off to Logan, UT with the rest of his team mates for the Wasatch Back Ragnar!  His team's name was 'Law and Disorderly Conduct', since about half the team was made up of the Lindon City Police force.  The officers ran in t-shirts that said 'Police', and the rest of the team mates ran in t-shirts that looked like old fashioned black and white striped prisoner attire.

Ragnar is a running phenomenon that has caught fire across the nation.  12 person teams (and some 6 person 'ultra' teams) run a relay race covering approximately 200 miles in two days, non stop.  Yes, TWO HUNDRED miles!  If you have ever seen one of these stickers on the back of a vehicle...

....that is a Ragnar sticker and it means that the owner of that vehicle is a crazy, but very cool person who has participated in a Ragnar!  Our Expedition now sports one of these 'badges of honor'.  I plan to run the Vegas Ragnar in October with team 'Law and Disorderly Conduct', so I will put my 'badge of honor' on the Alero once I earn it.

Anyways, the Wasatch Back is the most popular Ragnar of all, with about 1,000 teams entered!  That is over 10,000 people running across the back of the Wasatch mountain range (hence the name) from Logan to Park City!  Oi!

Here is a picture of Bill's calf, sporting a temporary marker tattoo and one of the medal and the 'badge of honor' before it was affixed to the Expedition.

I would have taken a picture of Bill's face, but when he got home, he was so exhausted and sore that he wasn't in the mood to pose (and I mean even less than his normal reluctance in the face of a camera), so I let it go and was happy to just get the photo of his leg.

He said that he ran his first leg of the race, 7 miles all up hill, at a fast pace.  He had to walk his other two legs, however, because his knees and ankle were giving him so much trouble.  He is not a runner.  He is a mountain biker, which uses a different muscle set.  He did not enjoy the Ragnar, and said he won't be running it again.  However, he said he'd enjoy joining us as support in Vegas, so I am excited to do this with him in four months!

An Inauspicious Start

Yesterday I went on my first training bike ride.  I planned to follow the local bike trail up to the mouth of the canyon and back home again.  Bill said that is about a 10 mile round trip.

The first sign that this ride wouldn't go well came when I turned off of 300 N onto the bike trail as it meanders along the side of the stream/river.  There were barricades across the trail, closing access.  The weather has been so unseasonably cool and wet that all the tributaries are all swollen and quite dangerous.  I would like to say that I went around and found a different route, but that would be a fib.  I rode through the barricade (there was room to go through without even getting off the bike, so I have to wonder just how insistent they really were about it) and continued on the path, expecting to possibly have to turn around if the trail was submerged at any point.

It wasn't.  I think they just didn't want the liability of people possibly falling into the river and drowning, because it was running quite high and fast.

Some sections of the trail were closed, some weren't.  I only went around on one segment where the barricade tape looked undisturbed and I knew the trail dipped down in that section.

I managed to get up the only steep hill on the trail without having to step off my bike.  The hill is just past Art Dye park and winds the trail up behind the Tri City golf course.  Up there the view is really beautiful, so I took a picture while I was catching by breath after the climb.

Not long after this, the trail degenerates into a rocky dirt path, which eventually reconnects to a road that leads to the northern section of the paved trail that leads to the canyon which is to the right in this photo.  During the rocky dirt section, I accidentally struck a piece of wood with my front tire.  That shot it up... straight into the heel of my left shoe as I pedaled a downward stroke with it!  The wood lanced right through the bottom of my shoe and struck my heel!  It was so sudden and surprising, the wood snapped off before I even reacted!  I could feel something poking my heel, and I had no idea if I was injured or not.  I decided to get past the rocky section, then stop to inspect the damage to my shoe and possibly my foot.

After working my way over a construction site (where the city had decided to pipe a major canal that the trail crosses), I took off my shoe to discover a piece of wood sticking up inside my shoe!  Fortunately, my foot was completely fine.  After trying various bits of random debris to help me shove the splinter out of my shoe (a sharp rock, a broken piece of fence pipe lying on the ground, etc.), the best I could manage was to just shove it far enough back into the shoe so that I wasn't being poked as I continued on my bike ride.

I hopped back on my bike and only did two strokes before the next bit of bad luck struck.  One of the laces on my right shoe got caught in the bike chain!  Grrr!  Now my nice new shoes had dirty black grease all over them.  Phooey.

By that time I was getting peeved.  I retied the shoe lace, making sure it was well clear of the chain, then continued on my way.  I decided that if just one more thing went wrong on this ride I was going to call it quits and head back home.  It felt like the fates were conspiring against me, you know?

I got past Lone Peak High School before that third and final frustration came.  There was construction that had torn up enough of the trail, that I was no longer sure of where it went.  That did it.  I decided it was time to head back home again.  Home was entirely downhill, however, so that was very pleasant!  I got a bit of a sun rash, and I decided that of the three disciplines in the triathlon, the biking part is by far the dirtiest, and quite possibly the most frustrating, for me!

Hmmm.  Grease on me.  That doesn't happen when I am swimming or running.  And, of course, when I got home, I had to perform surgery on my shoe to remove the shaft of wood from the heel, so I could run in the shoes without ramming a spear of wood into myself!  I seriously doubt I got all of it, since it came out in pieces, but hopefully I got enough that I won't injure myself when I go running tomorrow!

I am not going to let this stop me, however!  I will be heading out on my next biking adventure on Wednesday!

Friends' Lunch

Last Sunday I decided to invite a couple of friends over for lunch sometime this week.  Shelly B.,  Celeste B. and I have known each other for 10 years now.  They both have boys the same age as Will.  The three boys have been the three amigos since before they created formative memories.  However, While Will is my youngest, Craig and Dallan are on the older end of the spectrum in their families, so I told Shelly and Celeste to bring the kids along.''

 Normally, we run the sprinklers in the back yard, but for this special occasion I flood irrigated to create the 'pond' for my friends' younger kids.  For years I enjoyed watching my own kids play in the 'pond', but now they are too old for it.  It was really fun to watch their kids enjoying the afternoon!

I set up for a taco salad lunch with a table in the partial shade of the pergola and camp chairs in the full shade under the cherry tree.  Shelly, Celeste, and I sat in the full shade.

Shelly and Celeste

They both have jr. high aged daughters very close in age, too.  This is Ashlyn and Clara.

I really think it was a great success and I had a great time!  I think we need to do this sort of thing more often!  All too often we just visit at church and figure somehow that that builds a friendship.  Most of the rest of the (non Mormon) world knows that a friendship is built on more than that.

So, our conversation ran the gamut from kids to vacations in Washington state.  We all have a connection in that we all lived there.  In fact, Celeste graduated from Juanita High... my high school's arch rival!  Shelly's husband worked for Boeing, so they lived in the area for several years, too.

I'll have to do this again.

New Goal!

Remember how I said that the next big thing for me wouldn't be until October?  Well, it was only two days after my half marathon, I was feeling all recovered and thinking that October was really far away!  I wanted something to motivate me to keep up my training.  That's when I noticed a posting on Facebook about the Saratoga Springs Triathlon.

I remembered Erik talking about doing it next year.  Then I noticed the date it is held....

AUGUST 20th!  That is two months away and I thought, 'Hey!  I could be ready in two months, right?'

So I registered!

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

I have planned out a workout schedule that gives me 2 workouts in each discipline each week.

Monday - Weights and Run
Tuesday - Swim
Wednesday - Bike
Thursday - Swim
Friday - Weights and Run
Saturday - Bike

That will take me through the end of July.  In August, I'll need to start putting them together in blocks of workouts (like Swim/Bike or Bike/Run) so that I am prepared for the transitions.

You can see from the race logo what the distances are for each segment of the race, but I'll list them here for you in case you don't feel like scrolling.

Swim (Open water in Utah Lake!!!) 600 m.  Right now I have a lot of work cut out for me to build up to that distance non stop.  I am doing 6X100m right now.  Next week I am moving to 4X150m and I'll keep going until I can finally do the entire 600m non stop by the end of July.  At least I have a background in swimming to build on (I was on my high school swim team), so form is not an issue, although open water swimming is bound to slow me down severely!

Bike 12 mi.  I don't have a street bike.  My bike is a mountain bike, which means the tires are FAT and grippy... not ideal for this kind of race.  I haven't decided if I'm going to just tough it out and race on the fat tires, or if I'll rent a bike for the race from a local bike shop (Bill is hooked up in the bike world and will help me take care of it, if I ask).

Run 3.1 mi.  Essentially a 5K.  This is the part that I am most confident about, since I have now finished two half marathons.  Still, I am going to focus on improving time and strength, so that means alternating speed workouts (5K distance, pushing the speeds) and medium workouts (10K at marathon pace).

It is official, by the way.  I am registered and paid.  So now I have lots of motivation to get my workouts in every day!  I AM VERY HAPPY!!!

People Watching at the Pool

Yesterday I swam laps for my exercise.  On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, there is a little window of opportunity when all the lap lanes are open for 30 minutes in between swim team practices.  That is the best time to do a swim workout, because chances are I won't even have to share a lane.  I'm going to dedicate my T-Th workouts to swimming and biking.  Probably biking first, since I won't want to get all sweaty and gross after the pool.  That means that I have to make sure I am done bicycling and ready to hop in the pool right at 8:30 am.

Today, however, I didn't get around to exercising until late afternoon.  By then, the pool is PACKED with people!  I went in to the cardio room and used one of the arc trainers for an hour workout.  It is a low impact machine, so it is a good post-marathon workout.  When I was done, I decided to shower and go float in the pool for a bit and people watch.

For those of you who may not know, we live exactly half a block from the rec center/pool.  That was one of the many factors that helped us decide on this house when we were looking to buy 11 years ago.  I fell in love with the idea of just walking over to the pool with the kids whenever I felt like it.  And, boy, did we!  The kids have spent a large chunk of every summer over there swimming, playing, lounging, and eating the treats sold at the snack bar.  I have so many great memories of time spent with the kids there!

Now that the kids are older, we don't go as often.  At least, not together.  I miss that.

So, anyways, I was there by myself and thought I would just people watch.

It is really fascinating, actually.  You see such a range of individuals!  Everyone from the kid in the way to big for her so that it is sagging to her knees hand me down suit, to the overweight grandma who really shouldn't be wearing that bikini!


Side note... did you know that the bikini was named after the Bikini Islands because that is where the atom bomb testing was done and the swimsuit's inventor felt that this new revealing swimwear would cause an atomic bomb-like explosive reaction when it hit the market?  Which it did.

There were swim lessons happening to my right and mommies with their babies to my left.  The kids in the swim lessons were a wide range of daredevils and shrinking violets.  Some kids never even got their heads wet, while others barely came up for air.  Back in the day, my kids were in the latter category.  They were natural-born fish.  They couldn't help it with me for a mom.  That wasn't always a good thing, though.  There were several times that my kids failed their level and had to retake it because they simply wouldn't stick with their teacher or follow directions.

There was the line up of moms and dads sitting in chairs along the side of the pool waiting for lessons to be over.  Some reading, some visiting, and some just napping in the gentle summer air.  Then there were the moms scurrying around with the cameras, trying to document the moment for each of their four kids in varying different lesson levels.  I have some of those pictures in the scrapbooks, but others are probably still in a box, somewhere.

There were the self conscious teenagers, traveling in groups where ever they went.  Most of the girls wearing tankinis, because we live in Utah County, after all, and wearing a bikini is a SIN.  The teens fall into two distinct categories...  the 'I am here to play' group, and the 'I am here to be seen' group.  You can probably picture both groups.  The 'play' group are running off the diving board and doing their level best to do some kind of trick without belly flopping or losing a part of their swim wear.  Their hair is plastered off to one side, but their smiles are genuine and fun to see.  The 'here to be seen' group just wander from lounge chair to hot tub and back again in packs, constantly adjusting their suit to best advantage, 'fixing' their hair, and checking to see if anyone is looking at them.  They make me chuckle.  I like the first group better.

It wasn't long before afternoon thunderclouds began building in the sky above us.  You know the 'silver lining' saying?  These were rainbow lined.  I kid not.  It was super cool!  But also it started to cool off, so I dried off and headed home to get ready for an early date night.  Bill is leaving tomorrow to participate in the Wasatch Back Ragnar, so we had our Friday date on Wednesday instead.

Just so this won't be too boring (all words, no pictures), here are some photos from the internet of our rec center/pool.

 The lazy river

The 'leisure' pool

The bottom of the water slide and splash pool.

The competition pool.

The competition pool with the bubble over it.  It is a year round pool.  The leisure pool is not, so it gets drained when summer is over.

The indoor track.  When the machines are all in use, I run on the track.

Back Yard Post Race Bonfire Party!

Kirsten:  "Sit still, Tori."

Tori:  "I can't sit still!"

"Look cute, girls!"

Saturday evening Kirsten and her family, and Erik and his family, and Helena's friend, Megan, gathered at our house to celebrate the completion of the half marathon with a hot dog/marshmallow roast!  Everybody had a great time!  I LOVE SUMMER!!!!!

No stress.  No worries about kids' grades and attendance.  Kids can disappear for hours at a time with their friends looking for adventure and fun, or just crash in the basement and play video games all day long!  (Note, Will has a friend who just underwent a brain surgery a few weeks ago.  This friend has to remain inactive for 3 months.  No heavy lifting, no sports.... no swimming!  Nothing that would hinder the healing of his skull or possibly even kill him by dislodging the loose bone fragment!  But, playing video games with his friends is OK, so that's what the boys did today)  Late nights are common, and even the occasional sleep over.  Bonfires are frequent and time slows down...

I LOVE IT!