This morning, as I was feeding Pippin, I asked Jon what time it was. It was 2:30 AM. Pip was four weeks and thirty five minutes old. Every day brings a new baby. As of today she is technically no longer a newborn, she has graduated to infant status. Good job Pip!

(For those not connected by other means:
Penelope Peregrine Tait
May 14, 2012 1:55 AM
8 pounds 4 ounces, 20.5 inches long)

Other milestones in mothering, I pumped for the first time today. It was really weird but I felt accomplished and now we have a meal in the bank, which translates to being able to leave the house without worrying about her freaking out and Jon's nerves fraying because she's hungry and he can't help her.

Soon, date night! Prometheus, I'm looking at you!

Further proof that Pip is profoundly gifted: Babies tend to breastfeed for 30-45 minutes. Pip feeds for closer to five. It's really a team effort. She has a good latch and I have a very strong supply. The combination means that in the middle of the night, instead of being up for an hour we are up for twenty minutes. Pip also is so kind as to have at least one sleep period of 3-5 hours every night. She doesn't wake us every two hours. Most nights she sleeps from around 2:30 AM to 6 or 7 AM. I am extremely grateful. We are the best rested new parents ever.

Just in case anyone who follows me here doesn't know, I am am 25 weeks pregnant as of today! Jon and I are expecting our first child in early May.

I hope that takes the sting off any super annoying playoff losses from this weekend (49ers special teams, what are you doing to me?!?!?).

This morning I got a ride to the carpool with my roommate. As he was driving he was doing something with his smart phone. I asked him to stop and pay attention to his driving. He said he wanted to show me this cool app. I said show me when you aren't driving. The app is for when one is driving and uses the phone's camera to tell the driver when they are too close to another car in front of them. I told him that 1) every driver should be doing that anyway, using their experience and judgement to know if they are tailgating and 2) I wasn't going to look at it while he was driving.

He pulled up the app and tried to show me, I turned my face away and told him to pay attention to the road, which he then did. Gah!

So bad I have to laugh.

Last night I was up until 1 AM finishing a report for work that was due.
I went to bed but then woke up and couldn't get back to sleep because my arms were covered in mosquito bites.
I finally got back to sleep. I got up late and was almost ready to leave the house. I was making my coffee in the kitchen when I realized that my kitchen counter was covered in maggots. My expression of disgust woke Jon up. We removed the wriggly threat.
I got to work, tired, sore and squicked out.
Then I found a splinter in my right palm. Now I am just going to ride this day out.

It's going to take a year for my hip to recover, if I treat it right. It won't ever recover if I push too hard. So treating it right is the plan! Thus, no workouts this week.

I rode the bicycle leg of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon on Sunday, June 6. I am still rehabbing from my hip injury (2.5 months of absolutely nothing from February through May). I have focused on building enough endurance to finish this event. I knew that I would not be able to hammer this but I wanted to do well for my team mates

The Short Story:
My goals for this race were as follows in order of priority
1 - To not re-injure myself
2 - To finish
3 - To not stop

You know what's better than having an unexpectedly good result? Perfectly executing your race plan, knowing exactly where your body is and what you can do at any given time.

Goal time 1:45:00
Split: 1:44:51

How dope is that?!

The Long Story:

Saturday was packet pickup. I went out to San Francisco to soak up the atmosphere at Marina Green. It was still sprinkling on and off at 4 in the afternoon. I was nervous because while I ride well in the rain I can't control what other people do. 2000 squirrely cyclists do not a safe race make.

Sunday I rolled out of bed at 5, had my oatmeal loaded up my bike and drove out to the City. This is my second year at this event, so I knew exactly where to park. I had scouted my transition and proceeded to rack my bike and hang out with my fellow relayers. The cyclists and runners had to wait in transition the entire time but some thoughtful soul and made sure we had three porta-potties close to us in transition (don't worry, they were pristine!) It was already warm by 7 am. No rain, light wind. Ads we watched the swim start across the bay waters they were glassy and clam. Conditions that had promised to be terrible turned out to be perfect!

I waited with my bike. I planned on a swim leg of between 30 and 45 minutes. My swimmer was out of the water is 30 and then took about 5 minutes to make the half mile run to transition. For all that I was just starting the race day energy caught me up. I made my way to the mount line and was chanting to myself "ride your way." Instead of racing near people of my own ability level I was surrounded by the kind of athletes that can bust out a 30 minute Alcatraz crossing. I spent the whole 18 miles being passed! At first it was insane! People racing for age group podiums were slamming by me, passing me on every side, weaving through the crowds of cyclists on the hills. This was the most dangerous bike ride I have ever been on and I felt it. Descending was intense. I am not entirely confident of my handling skills and of the ability to brake sufficiently because I lack hand strength. I couldn't take turns as fast as I might have because at any given time someone with a time goal was going to try and cut inside of me.

I made myself small, stayed to the right and stuck to the plan. I would not push at all. In order to not hurt myself and make the entire ride I needed to go out very conservatively. On the hills I stuck to my granny gear. I waved to lots of little kids, volunteers and police officers on the course. I looked at the jaw-droppingly beautiful views the course afforded. Going down the hill from the VA to Golden Gate Park was very scary. It is a very steep block (like, I didn't know if I could stop the bike steep) followed by a ninety degree left, a ninety degree right and a twisting downhill with only one lane. I told myself that I would ride my way, my speed, my comfort level. And I did. My reward as I was finally comfortable enough to stop braking and let my speed build was making my first pass of the day. I don't climb quickly, but my bike descends like a fiend!

In Golden Gate Park I took in a gel and used my first bike aid station. The volunteers were actually holding out bottles for us so you didn't have to stop. You grabbed the bottle, took a swig and if wanted just threw it to the ground where a volunteer picked it up for recycling/reuse. As they did last year, the support on this course was phenomenal. Only bad spot, no bathrooms on the bike course. Local bonus: knowing where the fluch toilets are in Golden Gate Park. I did make a short bathroom stop at mile 10. I knew that the hard part was coming. I had to climb back up past the Cliff House to the VA. There was one steep block. So steep I felt the front tire start to lose traction. I cried this out and by now I was with riders of a similar ability to myself. Instead of rude, aggro dudes I was in the bosom of friendly people who do triathlon because they love it. Five or six of us started encouraging each other up the hell block. It was surprisingly easy. After that I was home free. I knew nothing left on the course could stop me.

I climbed back up Lincoln and then made our way back to Marina Green. Becuase I didn't have to run after the race, when we hit the flat right by Sports Basement I got into the drops and started to put on as much speed as I could. I really started to feel how under-trained I was. I could climb but I couldn't maintain a high heart rate for very long. Still, I pushed to the transition and then jog/walked to my runner. As I checked my cycle computer I saw that I had perfectly hit my target time. I felt fantastic. A little tired and definitely ready for the beer and Mexican food that was waiting in the corporate tent. I walked over and hung out with my swimmer and the rest of my team-mates (my company sent 12 relay teams to the Escape this year!). As I ate and rested I felt better and better. I waited and cheered for the slower finishers. If I was doing the whole race, I would be a 5 hour finisher, so I was cheering for my people!

After a long day at the races I sauntered home. I vegged out for the rest of the day and was quite tired all day on Monday. In retrospect, this is going to be a peak race memory for me. I made a plan (including cleaning and lubing my chain the day before) I stuck to it in the face of tons of adrenaline and race day craziness and I achieved the result I knew my body had to give me.

They should all be this good!

My hip is recovering. I realized that the walk to the carpool and from the carpool to the office no longer hurt. This is a definite improvement over 6 weeks ago. Also, when I stretch my hip flexor there is no longer an impressive amount of shifting in the joint (think cracking your knuckles, now imagine it's your hip).

There is still stiffness and discomfort and yesterday after being on my feet all day my hip was truly aching.

Slowly, slowly. I will exercise patience even if I don't feel it. I hope to be on the bike by the start of May. The best way to get there is to stick with my PT and not run or ride.

So it's the Lenten season. While I'm not a religious person, I can see the benefit of a period of extended contemplation and mindfulness. Last year I gave up soda for Lent and it stuck. I rarely drink soda and if I do I opt for one without high fructose corn syrup. It was a very positive change.

This year I am giving up candy. There are bowls of candy in my office and I am going to abstain from them.

My positive Lent goal is to abide by my physical therapy schedule. Luckily I had my first PT appointment on Ash Wednesday so it was an easy choice. I have been assigned thrice daily stretches and twice daily exercises to rehab my hip. I will strive to complete all my "homework" for PT. I will be mindful of my physical state and recovery and contemplate why I want to exercise again.

Have an enlightening season!

Initial diagnosis - bursitis of the hip and tendinitis of the hip flexor. No breaks or drastic hurts, just overuse injuries. Basically, my hip is just really tired and if forcing me to take some time off. Physical Therapy to start ASAP and back for a check up in 2-3 weeks.

I will rest my leg. I will not run, I will not bike. I may go swimming. I can do strength for the upper body and core.

I made an effort and this weekend I used the time I would have been working out to do other productive things instead of sitting on my butt wasting time on the internet.

I cleared out more of the back yard and transplanted most of the remaining raspberry canes from dad's house to my yard. There are a few left up there in case Rob and Liz can have them at their new place. If not, I will rescue them in a month or so. I planted about 15 canes in my little patch of earth. Crossing fingers that they come through, at least one of them!

These canes started life at the house on Lakeshore in Oakland. When my parents moved they moved the raspberries with them. They haven't been getting a lot of attention since mom died so they have come to me. This is the third move for them and if they live and give fruit I will be well chuffed.

I ran 2.25 miles last night with Dynamic Warm-ups.I think that my hip is just unbelievably tight. Once it warmed up there was no pain. There was a bit of pain when I ran up the fairly steep hill at Nicol and Champion. So I need to take it very easy and not push at all this weekend and I should be fine.