chichitao's group - FULL! (Page 55)

I could never bake like you do Erica, I'd eat more than I gave away!  My mom and her boyfriend arrived last night with cookies and various other Christmas goodies and I'm trying hard to resist, but I will give into temptation eventually!.


Last night we went on a Christmas Light Run with a large group of people and one Dog.  Both Ray and Lauren came along and it was such a beautiful night, no rain, not too cold.  Lauren was a little concerned about the run because it was longer than she'd ever done before, but I assured her it would be an easy run with stops along the way and she did great and was feeling very pleased with herself about it during and after.

A lot of people went to great lengths to decorate their homes, we stopped and admired a few along the way and took pictures.  I posted a picture of Lauren and I in front of the house with the most lights.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/photos/show-album.asp?albumid=14285&photoid=130752

Tonight I do 6 hills and then I probably won't be doing anything until Sunday's long run.

I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and thank you for your support throughout this past year. 

T1 you are the best, and that Gold membership is well earned!!  I'm glad that the people of BT value their Mentor's!

Everyone has made huge progress in their training this year, I couldn't imagine ever doing everything I did this year without you all!!  Thanks!!

What a great series!  You should definately consider doing it!

A Christmas Light Run sounds SO COOL!!!!  Maybe I can convince Ryan to do one with me tomorrow night.  I love that idea!

Wow Erica, that is a lot of baking!!! 

I hope everyone has a great holiday season.  We are heading to Chicago tonight and staying until Tuesday.  I am hoping to get some runs in with my girlfriend and RELAX! 

My goal for the new year is to do a couple of 10k's, at least 1 tri and 1/2 mary in Oct.!!! 

I probably won't be on much in the next week so HAPPY HOLIDAYS.  And thanks to this group for all the encouragement and support!  You all are the best and I am so glad I found this site.  Thanks T1 for being a mentor and hopefully the next group i am in will be as good!  Talk to you all soon!!!

T1 - We could help each other out if you did the HIM!  I think we're on for sure for the one in July, so it's quite a bit before yours, but it would be fun.

 

Two things:
1) My friend the other day found out I was running the half marathon in May, and asked if I wanted to run a full marathon with her in October, since we're about the same speed.  I'm considering it, but not totally sure I'm ready to dedicate myself to that so soon.  The distance still intimidates me a lot.  Thoughts?

2) Are you guys joining new mentor groups?  I was looking at some of them, and I felt like I was betraying you all.  I mean, gosh, you guys started with me when I could barely run 1.5 miles without dying...  So I wanted to see what everybody was doing.

I have no plans to join another mentor group at this time, but that should not make you feel guilty about looking at other mentor groups.  You have a big year planned and expanding your circle of support will help. 

I know that I will continue to keep supporting you and everyone else in our group with their training this coming year and as long as you all keep posting in our thread, I'll continue responding:-)

I am doing what Sandra is doing.  Gonna take a break from a new group this year.  If I remember correctly this was my 4th group in 3 years.  I've made a lot of good friends and people I still stay in touch with.  If this was your 1st or 2nd group I would highly recommend joining another (they are just starting the winter group and there will be another group come late spring).  It is always beneficial to expand your circle of friends on here and just get different perspectives on training and motivation. 

That said, I will continue to check in on you all and continue to post and chat on here as long as anyone wants to.  If I do decide to do the HIM I might need to join a group next summer that could help me specifically for that.  We'll see.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

What a night!  I had big plans.  My parents kept my kids after work.  My mom watches the boys so I just went straight home.  It was a nice quiet ride home too.  They fed them and had some Christmas related plans.  I planned a 6 mile run, some cleaning, and going through the toys and putting some in storage.

I got my 6 mile run in and that was it!  My mom had a hip replacement 3 years ago.  She was putting something in the trunk of her van (yes this nana now drives a minivan thanks to watching my kids!) and when she closed the door, she twisted the wrong way.  Her hip popped and she fell immediately.  They called 911, ambulance took her to the hospital, my dad drove, and my sister kept the kids at my parents house.  Fortunately John was around the corner at the dentist so he just grabbed the kids. 

My mom dislocated her hip.  It has been popped back in and now they are waiting to do more xrays to make sure it is in right.  If not, they will take her to the OR, make a small incision, and pop it back in. 

Because of this, I now have an extra day off.  Even if they popped it back in the first time, no way will she be up for my kids tomorrow!

Meggan - Sorry to hear about your Mom.  That is terrible right before the Holidays.  Hopefully she will have a quick recovery.  I am sure that is pretty common with hip repalcements in the winter and all the ice.  My dad had one and he always has to be careful.

I have completed my "cook book marathon" last night.  Being my typical self and opening my mouth and biting off more than I can chew I told my Mom that I would take all my Grandma's old recipes and make them in to a Grandma Marge Cookbook.  I have put about 30-40 hours and over 50 pages into it scanning, editing recipe images, typing out all the recipes, etc...  It turned out really nice and I think my family will really enjoy it so it will be worth the time put in.  I basically scanned each original recipe and then typed it out so that you can see her handwriting on the recipe for that personal touch.  My Aunt is still having issues after 4 years since my grandma passed and she is going to flip out when she sees this.  Will probably be pretty emotional.

As far as another Mentor group - I really enjoyed this year with everyone and am sad that this group is somewhat "ending" but like T1 said it is good to expand your circle of friends and training experience via this site.  I have a busy year scheduled with a marthon and another 70.3 IM so I am going to continue with the mentor program.  I though about maybe mentoring but I am not sure if I can make the time committment right now.  Meggan, Erica, Debbie and Pete - If you guys are joining another group let me know and I will join also.

Hope everyone has a safe, great and "healthy" holiday - stay away from those cookies!!!!

Since the groups were filling up fast I joined a group that seemed to be a good fit for me. - RAZORXP

The mentor has a good amount of Ironman experience and is also a USAT certified coach. 

Sad to join another group  as I really have enjoyed this past year and made some great friends.  Sandra mentioned that this thread will still be up and you can post to it.  Does everyone still plan on posting here? 

I plan on posting here still!!!  I've grown quite attached to you guys.   

I joined swmbkrn's group.  There are quite a few experienced triathletes in there, including like 3 from Wisconsin, so it will be nice to have some friends close by to meet at races.  I need a lot of encouragement going into this next year because there will be a LOT going on, what with my first half marathon and possibly a full marathon.   

Does anybody here know what races they're doing next year?  I'd love to see if my possible races overlap with anybody's on here!

Please keep us posted on how she is doing!  I hope everything goes well.  I'm sending my prayers!

Illinois Marathon - April
Galena Triathlon - May
Racine 70.3 IM - July
Oshkosh Triathlon - August

My mom is sore but doing ok.  Apparently she twisted as she was shutting her trunk and her hip just popped right out of place and she went down.  The xrays showed it was just dislocated and thankully they were able to pop it back in without cutting at all.  I took her to the doctors this morning and he said it could take up to 6 weeks to heal completely.  She asked if this was normal and he said not three years post a replacement. 

We have Christmas dinner at our house with both of our families.  I was doing pretty good.  House is cleaned, desserts are made, dinner prep is done, ham and pineapple stuffing were cooked this morning.  I just transferred the ham to the cutting board to slice and put in a pan.  Yeah, spilled the entire sauce the ham was cooked in on John's freshly mopped kitchen floor, down my legs, and on my feet.  I probably ruined the Uggs I was wearing but that is ok.  I don't wear them much anymore anyway.  John tried to send me on my way for a run because I started to lose it!  Just thought I would share my preholiday mess!

It wouldn't be xmas (or thanksgiving) if we didn't have cooking war stories to talk about!    Sorry about your mom, but glad to hear she is doing ok. 

We are keeping xmas dinner here small with only 5 of us.  We got the groceries last night and will be prepping stuff today.  The cleaning will also be done today.

So what does xmas dinner look like for everyone and do you dinner or lunch?  We usually eat around 1-2pm.  I am always interested to hear the types of foods that become traditions.

We always have ham and the sides are green bean casserole, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, okra (southern thing), and croissants.  We'll also have a few dips for appetizers and just random things for dessert. 

I just got in an hour trainer ride, now time to get to work.

We go to Christmas Eve at one of my MIL's cousins.  They don't do the 7 fishes but it is pretty much all seafood.  They cook shrimp a million different ways and do crabs.  I am bringing nuggets from Chickfila because none of my three boys will eat the food there!  Logan is hit or miss with shrimp but that is it. 

Tomorrow morning we go to breakfast at my parent's house.  My mom and I usually split the work but this year I am doing most of it.  I made two quiche and a hash brown casserole.  I will make up a batch of pancakes there in the morning.

Dinner is at our house.  We mix up the main course every year.  We always do some kind of beef and something else.  This year it is a beef tenderloin and ham.  Our sides will be pineapple stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, and roasted green beans.  I am skipping the big desserts and we are just doing finger food type desserts.  We have cookies, mint brownies, mini cherry cheesecakes, and my mom made fudge.

And I plan on consuming either large amounts of wine or coffee to get me through the day.

I'm doing a christmas dinner tonight with my Mom, her boyfriend and an orphan friend.  It was supposed to be just me and Ray and a quiet night alone, but Mom came for a surprise visit, I'm doing a Turkey, stuffing, ginger candied carrots, salad, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and gravy.  Lauren will be with her Mom tonight and we get her back on Christmas Day and then we head to my Dad's Girlfriends for Christmas Dinner.   The stress levels around here have been high for me, with too many things to do, but it will all come together later and I'll consume some wine to get through it all, like Meghan!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas Eve at Josi's family then off to my sisters tomorrow.  We are doing almost the same as T1 for X-mas eve with ham and such.  My wifes family is from Germany so we usually have Rolaten.

I got a nice run in and lifted today.  Squeezed it in somehow.

Hope everyone has a great x-mas

Before I forget, for those that are interested, USAT has their 2010 rankings up and available. 

John and I just finished Operation Santa 2010!  We got a little distracted part of the way through.  Not distracted the way you may think!  Distracted because we bought the boys plasma cars.

http://www.amazon.com/PlasmaCar-88040-Blue/dp/B000GUGY1S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1293251902&sr=8-2

Of course we had to test them out to make sure they worked for the boys.  Oh my gosh, we rode on those cars for 30 minutes around our living room and kitchen.  It was the funniest thing!

How does that work?  What is a good score?  I am 67.93266 not really sure what that means though?

It is some kind of complicated formula they developed.  Each race you get points based on how you finished compared to everyone else.  It is supposed to take into account course conditions (some courses are hilly and some are flat) and many other factors.  I think the purpose is to help you compare races that are completely different in length and difficulty.  You can compare individual races as well as your overall score.  I started with a 66, then a 67 last year, and then 70 this year. 

67 is very good considering you had the HIM in there. 

I love christmas and this time of year, but is it wrong that I am totally ready for January?  Wife and I don't do gifts but we still managed to spend too much on food, charity, birthdays, and just taking advantage of some great sales to get things we needed.  I am tired of crowded stores and roads.  I am tired of all the food and going to parties and being social. 

Not only did we have all the christmas food, yesterday was my nephew's 18th bday so we did a big meal, cake, etc.  I know I should not be eating like I am but I am struggling with my self control right now.  We've got so much left over ham I already made a casserole with some and I am going to make some soup with part of it as well.  I think we are just going to be using it to make chef salads for dinner all week (I am missing my veggies!)!  The cookies are all just about gone, finally. 

Fri is also my bday, and my family is treating me at a steakhouse.  So more being social and more food, but after that I am done.  I am ready to get back to healthy eating and a normal schedule.  I have the triathlon itch again and am ready to begin my training (even if the knee won't let me run right now).  Wife is buying me some swim lessons for my bday.  It is a 6 week (2 classes a week) stroke and efficiency clinic.  A buddy went through it and loved it and said it improved his time a lot.  They break your stroke down and build you back up again from scratch.  They video tape you above and below water and really work on refining your stroke.  I am a self taught swimmer, so I think this will be really good for me to get some professional expertise.

Wife and I decided on two new years resolutions (actually just January resolutions but figured it was better to start with that).  For the month of Jan we are cutting out all sweets and will only allow ourselves to eat out once a week while at work and once a week when not working.

Sorry for the little rant.  I am back at work today, but hard to get much done as people are still on vacation and in holiday mode.  Did I mention I am ready for January?!

Happy Monday!

Edited by chichitao 2010-12-27 7:35 AM