Dandy Lions

I've always thought that dandelions were mistreated. For some reason they acquired the label weed and now everyone wants to get rid of them. People do not want them growing on their lawn ruining the pristine greeness of suburbia. If you are between the ages of 2-5 though. they are precious flowers that make the grass look so much prettier, and who can resist blowing the white puffs and making a wish. Really we should be killing the grass and letting the pretty yellow flowers make our lawns sunnier and brighter. Not to mention how much more useful a dandelion is than lawn grass. Who makes lawn tea? You don't eat grass, unless you are my dog, but you can use dandelions leaves in salads and smoothies. Instead of killing these beautiful flowers that grow without any tending, we should all be encouraging them to take over our lawns. We can then harvest them and sustain ourselves. Plus we get the chance to make lots and lots of wishes. Oh, and you don't have to mow dandelions.



Dandelion Sculpture in SF, finally giving the Dandelion some respect!



Break Interrupted

For the last few weeks I haven't been doing any 'workouts'. I have occasionally shown up at swimming, always late, and I always am leaving early. I also swam in a lane at a pace easier than usual, and I swam at the back of that lane. The week I spent in SF I did a couple of super short easy runs-20 minutes on a treadmill at the hotel gym. I only did those runs because of this view.....

and when I got tired of looking this way, I looked that way..

My weekly totals of physical activity were around 2.5 hours. Lots of days of zero. The last time I was doing this little I had cracked ribs and was forced into a layoff. It is so much easier to accept when I am in control and decide to do nothing. I also don't sound so lazy when I say 'I'm in my off season rest period'. Hey, I make my athletes do it, so I too have to follow that advice. Okay, it takes way more convincing to get my athletes to take a break, I jump right on that bandwagon. (if only I could learn to mount a cross bike that quickly and smoothly!). So the point I am making or rather trying to make is that if I were to put on lycra and head out the door, it would be to take it easy and enjoy the fall air. Seems that my training buddy is on a different schedule than I am and she is done with her break and ready to go hard.

Friday we set out for a nice easy short run. 20 minutes tops with breaks to admire the flowers and in her case pee on them. At least that is what my plan was. I guess it isn't always about me because she wanted to go and go hard. I thought about stopping her and slowing her down but then I realized that there have most likely been plenty of times that she planned a slow, short run and I dictated a much longer and faster one. Trying to be a good training partner, I decided to sacrifice myself for her. Okay, maybe she wasn't too interested in doing a hard tempo run, she was just chasing the horses that had passed us, and boy was she having fun. That's when it hit me, sometimes the best way to give the mind and body a break is to just go out and have fun. I'll chase the horses with her but I am drawing the line at enjoying her favorite delicacy that the horses often leave behind on the trail. I'm not that good of a training partner!



Petri Dish

I spent last week in San Fransisco with my mom.We took in concerts, museums, plays, musicals, art shows, dining, shopping and so much more.

Shotgun Wedding Quintet (minus one) outdoor lunchtime Jazz concert

Outdoor Noon Symphony

SF Symphony 100 Birthday celebration

Every kind of food you could want was available, this was just one of the choices at a street fair we attended.

Art Shows in parks around the city.

It was a fantastic week, we were surrounded by so much culture it was like we were inside a petri dish. 

Out of the Way

This week and big manly man driving a big manly truck decided to show me his machismo and how manly he really was. He yelled out the window of his big impressive mass of steel something to the effect of 'get off the f'ing road you bike riders'. He then proceeded to drive off yelling more obscenities the whole time. Was he trying to show me a weakly spandex clad woman how tough he was?  Was he in such a hurry because waiting behind me for that minute was causing his Bud Light to lose it's chill? Does it up his cool factor to yell at people who are getting exercise? Is it the anonymity of being behind the wheel or does he yell and threaten women all the time? Whatever the case may be I have an answer for him.......

http://www.worldsbestbikestickers.com/

Oh and another thing, no matter how big your truck is, it doesn't make your penis appear larger!

Cat in the Hat

I never did like the Cat in the Hat. Even before I could read for myself and the story was read to me, I found him extremely annoying. Just think of all the work that darn cat created! Maybe, that is why to this day I am a dog person? The more cats that came out of that hat, the more that pink stain spread. What started out as some white crisp clean snow to shovel became much more of a project. A huge industrial level cleanup project.  Every time I clean my bike I am reminded of how much I dislike that hat wearing Cat! You see, I start out with the intention to clean the grease off of my bike. I get my bike and chain all sparkling clean but now I have so many other things to clean. My hands have gotten filthy and in the process so has everything that I have touched. Now there is grease on my face from brushing my hair out of the way so that I could see. Which leads to, you guessed it, grease in my hair. My phone rang and now my phone case is covered with grime and grit so I wipe it on my pant legs. My phone is still dirty and now so are my jeans. When I have completed the task, the lock to the bike cupboard and my keys get some of the black stuff and then I close the garage door. Now there is grease on the garage keypad (wouldn't take a boy genius to figure out my code!). I had the dog out there with me and she walked past the bike after I re greased the chain so she now has some black smudges in her fur. We still aren't even to the house yet where I open the door and head straight to the kitchen to wash my hands. The orange degrease gunk is under the sink so now I have gotten the taps and the cupboard door. I thought I was just going to clean my bike, but now I have to take on a whole lot more cleaning. Where is little  Cat Z with the VOOM on his head???