Achille's Heel

Everyone has one – one big food weakness. I have lots of them. There’s one food, though, that really gets to me. I’ll eat them till they make me sick, and then I’ll eat them some more. I can’t help myself.

I have given candy up for Lent every year since I can remember. It really is a sacrifice for me. The problem is that many Catholics have “The Sunday Rule” during Lent where on Sundays, you can get a short break from giving that thing up. So… I tend to more than make up for the candy I didn’t eat during the week, and come Easter, watch out… Well, this year I tried an experiment. I decided that for Lent, I am not giving anything up. Instead, I am going to pray more throughout the day. Since I didn’t give up candy, it is just a special reminder of all of the gifts God has given me.

For the first time in years, these are available for me to eat before Easter, and I am out of control.

Random Life Updates

First of all, I want to congratulate Mikie's team for getting THIRD PLACE in the state tournament. We got creamed on Friday night's match against Frazee. They just outwrestled us. There were a few questionable reffing calls, but mostly they were just a great team. So on Saturday morning, we were up against the #3 rated team for 3rd/4th place. It was back and forth the whole time. The crowd went really wild when Mike tied up the match as the second to last wrestler. As it has many times this year, it came down to our heavyweight. He was up against the guy who pinned him in round 1 of individuals. Our guy got the pin in the first period. The entire cheering section went nuts. My voice is finally back today, but boy was it gone! Over the weekend, my father-in-law suggested that I should be on the other end of a 1-900 number. Think Rachel Ray but deeper and without quite as much pep.

I decided that there will be no workout today. I have been trying to configure my training plan all week, and this afternoon, I realized that I could keep my Wednesday off. I can switch Saturday's long bike ride and Thursday's long run and still get them both in. By the time I'm done with work on the weekends, the Y is closed, and without access to a trainer, there's no access to a bike. It's supposed to warm up this weekend, so maybe some of the ice will melt and I'll be able to bike outside soon. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Meanwhile, our Y just got all new spinning bikes. I can't tell you how excited I am. The old ones were rusty, unpredictable, and offered very few adjustment options (they never quite fit me right because the handles could only adjust up and down, not forward and backward).

Only 4 more months of 12 days on, 2 off! Good thing, too, because I am feeling pretty burned out. My residency will officially be over at the end of June. Hopefully then I'll be able to move to every 3rd or every 4th weekend, and when I do work, I will get days off during the week. Yahoo! Speaking of work, I now officially have a job lined up for after residency. Now we can (maybe) afford our triathlon habit!

Proud Sister

I’d like to interrupt this regularly scheduled triathlon blog post to talk a bit about a completely different sport – wrestling. My “little” (he wrestles 215) brother’s team, the United South Central Rebels, is currently at the MN state meet, and I’ve caught wrestling fever!

Our Team

I’ve always thought that there’s something to be said about high school and D3 sports, where the tickets are cheap, you know most of the team, and the kids are there because they want to be; because they love the sport.

My high school alma mater beat their rivals by 1 point at the section meet, relying on a pin by our heavyweight. They’re now at the state meet as the little team that few people have ever heard of. Although they made it last year too, they were a very young team and got a little “deer in the headlights syndrome.” They got stomped.

Wednesday was our first meet. It didn’t’ start off on a good note. We were down 11-0 after our first 2 matches. Slowly but steadily, we caught up to them, and we ended up winning 39-20 thanks to 3 pins at the end. As a proud sister, I have to brag that Mike’s pin at 215 clinched the meet. Our heavyweight just got to go out there and have some fun. The fact that he pinned his guy too was just an added bonus. I cheered so loud that I gave myself a headache!

Mike with his winning pin

Yesterday our 5 individuals had their matches. Two of them got beat. Mike got beat, too, but since that guy went on to win his next match, Mike’s back in it today. The other two guys won two matches apiece and will be in the semifinals tonight. Woo Hoo!

Tonight we’ll have our work cut out for us. We’re up against #2 rated Frazee (#1 rated Canby actually got bumped out in the first round). We’re the definite underdogs, but since no one knows who we are, no one knows what we’re capable of!