Year of Sarah

So first off a very Happy Birthday to Debi!!!

In celebration of your birthday, Darren has finally finished constructing my bike. Still waiting to replace the crank with a compact crank (surely Ebay will have a deal soon), and apparently I cannot shift into the highest gear (to be fixed by Kinetic today), but other than that, my AWESOME husband (yes, awesome, as in my road ID says “my husband is Awesome”) has managed to reconstruct my bicycle so that all of the aerodynamics I paid for have been successfully removed. Better picture to be posted when I can figure out which of the 42 cords on the desk actually work with my camera.

A huge thank you to Phil for the suggestion of the book “The Zinn and Art of Maintenance on Triathlon Bikes”. Apparently it came in very handy, as the shift and brake levers instructions were minimal (i.e. Step 1 Install, Step 2 Use). And a second huge thank you to Cheryl, Debi, Kirsten and Linda for telling me my honorary lesbian card would be revoked if I did not watch “The L Word”. Seems construction time for a bike is equivalent to about 2/3 of Season 2.

Darren will be christening the bike on Friday (umm yeah, I’ve seen enough Law & Order to know it’s always the husband who kills the wife with the shoddy brake “repair”). Once I know the brakes will actually stop the bike, I’ll take it out for a ride on a trail that is not slick, well cushioned, not icy, no leaves, and no Indian food smells. If I’m really feeling motivated, I might race it on Saturday, IF I can convince myself that the TBF New Years duathalon is worth waking up early for, and more importantly IF I’m not too hungover.

Happy New Year to everyone, and for those of us moving into a new age group at midnight tonight, here’s hoping it’s a less competitive age group. Fat chance I know, I think I’m in Kirsten and Linda’s group now. On the plus side, at least now I’ll be able to draft off Linda!

As a fair weather runner, it really wasn’t that hard for the past 5 days to not go running, because if it isn’t raining, it’s been freezing cold. As hard core as I am (and I am hard core, just ask Wendy, since the two of us did go running last Wednesday in 43 degree weather). But on top of that, I did have a legitimate if somewhat sketchy excuse.  The inlaws were coming for a “not Darren birthday, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanza, celebrate Solstice, and Merry Christmas” party.  I’ll spare the details, but let’s just say the week leading up to it was somewhat stressful (Darren might call it something else, but well, he can put that on his own blog www.sarahdrivesmecrazyonaregularbasis.com).

At any rate, my goal was to recreate a traditional Cornish meal, which meant pasties (not nipple covers, but meat pies), mushy peas, braised cabbage, beet salad, sausage rolls, the works.  Thankfully Nugget was very well stocked (hot rosemary bread -thanks Cheryl!), and the internet had a plethora of recipes to choose from, so the meal was a success according to my mother in law.  I think I even managed to end the year as the favorite daughter in law – which is quite the accomplishment. I mean I can’t compete with a grandchild, and I have been informed a granddog does not count. Not even two granddogs, which I at least think is totally better than one two year old.

So while at IMAZ there was a screaming deal on Cervelos (test bikes from Kona), and even though it was still technically YOD, D made a special exception and let me borrow a couple minutes of his year to make my purchase.  So that was the good side.  The bad side since we didn’t have our bike box with us in Arizona, I had to wait for the bike to be shipped back from AZ to Charleston to have it then shipped back to CA, so it took about 3 weeks for it to arrive. And it did…in a box…in the hallway for 2 weeks. 

It's a nice bike, trust me...

But see there was a method to my madness – Darren’s birthday present was a bike work stand (ok, so maybe the bike stand was more for my bike, and not really for his bike, but he did request it, and I figured, maybe that would mean my bike could be constructed sooner).  So I had to wait for his birthday before he could open his box.

So what’s the point of all of this – just that last night, the bike stand was constructed:

The Stand The Stand!!!

AND…we don’t have anything planned for Sunday, AND my new shifters have arrived…So I’m thinking I might have a bike, and not a box with a bike by the end of this weekend!!! Woohooooo!!!!

So, other than my friend K is a psychatrist, kicks my butt routinely whenever we play Wii Smarty Pants, and is a fantastic Wii hula hooper, she also apparently is the only person ever to have figured out how to book a vacation at Disney World in less than 24 hours.  Therefore she gets the Smartest Person I Know Award, which is saying alot because I used to think Darren was the smartest person I know, and he’s pretty snappy. 

I have a degree (not bragging, just a statement of fact), I routinely manage a multidisciplinary team (yeah I totally just stole that from my resume) to produce a 2 volume application in 6 weeks (yeah, I’m also not really that popular with some of my project teams), and I once beat K in a game of Wii Smarty Pants (ok, so she had been drinking some wine that night, but I still WON). That said, I have now spent 2 weeks every evening researching hotels in the merriest place on earth, cheapest airfare to Orlando (out of SFO by the way), the best website to purchase tickets online – including if I want base passes, park hopper passes, park hopper with water park hopping, or no expiration passes. I even bought a 900 page book to make the process “easier”. (Interesting sidenote – there is a 4 page discussion in size 8 font about how to book breakfast with the Princesses – for the record I will not be eating there, but I’m fascinated that it takes 4 pages to tell you how to call a 1-800 number.  As a heads up if any of you ever decide you want to experience the merriest place on earth, and you have to eat with the princesses, the first step is to synchronize your clock with the Atomic time clock…No, I’m not kidding.)

 

I’ve almost created a spreadsheet to figure out the cost difference and the added bonuses depending if you book through Disney, United, or a “Disney Vacation Planner”, but having been mocked in the past for being that anal, I’m trying to be spontaneous yet figure out the best value for money (and yes I totally just stole that from D’s favorite quotes).  I finally emailed a vacation planner, I’m not sure it’s a good price, but I’m beginning to think Disney and the Borg have a lot in common.  I have finally been assimilated – maybe when I return from Florida I’ll be super hot like Seven of Nine.

So there it is, if you ever are in need of planning a vacation to DW (or a breakfast with princesses) because it seemed to be so symbolic for your year to do a race in the Magic Kingdom and at the same time force encourage Mr. Anti-Disney to come with you, call K, you might have a chance at actually making it to your race.

Official Vehicle of the Midlife Crisis

Darren:  so I have an appt with trevor tomorrow… did you say you could work from home in the morning?

me: what are you seeing trevor for?
Darren:  from my skateboarding fall
me: umm,  which fall
Darren: yesterday
me: the one i haven’t heard about? where did you land?
Darren: I told you yesterday when I got back from lunch
me: nope
Darren: you said “uh oh”
me: nope,  not in reference to that
Darren: well yes, I had a little fall yesterday
me: interesting
Darren: why do you think I was limping last night
me: can’t say i noticed
Darren: or why I groaned every time I got out of bed and why I kept popping pills
me: what did you injure?
Darren: dislocated my shoulder, but I think that will be ok… calf is probably sprained… and might have tweaked the other side of my knee. don’t think I broke anything, but want to get xrays
me: huh, well that does sound typical of a skateboard accident
me: can i say it?
Darren: sure
me: i told you so
Darren: well of course it was kind of inevitable

The Chinese have the Year of the Tiger, Year of the Boar, in the Tri world though, there is now the Year of Sarah.  So after a year of being the:

• Official sandwich maker
• Official washer woman (how much laundry can one IM generate?)
• Official nurse (IT band injury which turned into double hernia surgery, followed by a fall in the park)
• Official cleanup after dinner woman
• Official community emailer at all NA Sports events
• Official sympathizer (oh you fell – AND???? — well ok, maybe I wasn’t the best at that, but I really did want to care, that has to count for something)

So what does the YOS include…well I had really hoped I could sneak in things like “paint the walls of our white house” or  “hang up the pictures that Aaron Brothers charged an arm and a leg to frame” or basically “do whatever Sarah says because she put up with Darren for a year while training”, but I have been informed that YOS only counts for athletic events.  I think I might have ended up with the short end of the stick on that because there is no way Darren is ever going to do a load of laundry while I’m training (heck, he didn’t even do any laundry when I was laid up after breaking my pelvis, he invited my mom to stay instead).  So I guess instead, Darren will be my biggest supporter while I race, and will hopefully be more successful at the sympathizer/encourager, which is really his forte, and really what I need the most.

The current plan for the YOS:

1. March 8 – Disney World Princess 1/2 Marathon – really is anyone who knows me surprised by this choice – you get a TIARA for finishing, and a week in Disney World (home of the devil if you ask Darren, but then, this is a sporting event, so it totally counts for YOS).
2. May 6 – Wildflower Olympic – This should be a blast, camping (ok, I’m not a huge fan of camping, but I’m going with my very good friends Debi, Cheryl, Kirsten, Linda, Wendy, & Nate), drinking, one or two s’mores.
3. June 7 – America’s Most Beautiful Ride – Debi and Cheryl have really tried selling this ride for 2 years now, and I finally have the bike to do it (yeah, there was an early purchase to the YOS that might have conflicted with the YOD, but whatever, it was on sale)
4. August 16 – Lake Stevens 70.3 – Elevation wise, this will be a challenging race, but completely doable after AMBR.  Besides Wendy will be there, Kirsten & Linda too, and hopefully if we can convince her, Debi & Cheryl (and if it doesn’t conflict with Year of Cheryl)
5. October 4 – Portland Marathon – This will be on my list for the second year in a row.  We’ll see how inspired I will feel after Lake Stevens, I really love Portland, and I’m working on really loving running or just kind of liking it, but able to do it quickly

So that’s it, the YOS to be celebrated in conjunction with the Year of Cheryl and if Linda is really lucky, the Month of Linda…or maybe the Week of Linda.  And maybe just maybe Darren will figure out how the washer works.

The YoS officially began on 11/23/2008 at 8:29:46 Arizona time.