Churchill Downs

Chad's parents recently came to visit us in Kentucky. We had a blast with them during their stay - we went to a lot of neat places around Lexington and Louisville and thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.

We went to the Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington, which was fascinatingly creepy. Then we ventured west to Louisville to eat at Lynn's Paradise Cafe and visit the Kentucky Derby Museum. When we pulled up to Churchill Downs, we found out that they were running races that day. That was a bonus, because I figured they wouldn't be racing in June. So we were able to watch two races (I made $15 on my first ever horse-racing bet!) and visit the museum. The coolest part of the whole Churchill Downs experience was getting to watch "The Greatest Race" a 17 minute film on the Derby on a 360 degree screen. It chronicled Derby day, starting at 5:30am and going through to the finish of the race. I was in tears at the end (along with a lot of other people in the room!) watching Calvin Borel win on Mine That Bird and then point upwards, in honor of his late parents.

We also toured Old Friends, a horse farm in Georgetown, KY, a retirement and rescue farm for pensioned Thoroughbreds. We mainly went to see Popcorn Delight, the horse that played Seabiscuit in the movie Seabiscuit, but it was really neat to see all of the horses that they have there. I know nothing about horse racing, but I really appreciate the care and attention that owners and trainers give to their horses. There are 48 horses at Old Friends, and their collective earnings from their combined careers exceeds $500 million dollars - wow! The people at Old Friends want these thoroughbreds (most of which are very old at 23+) to live out their days with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

Here are some pictures from Churchill Downs, with pictures from Old Friends and a Skelter for the Shelter 5k race report to follow in the next two posts.

One of the horses getting ready to race at Churchill Downs

The starting gate

Trying my best on a jockey simulation game. (I didn't do too well, considering that I'm about two feet taller than most jockeys!)

Memorial for Barbaro - "The Horse that Captured the Nation"

Inscription on Barbaro's memorial:
"I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast.
And when I run, I feel His pleasure." - Eric Liddell

The famous Twin Spires
(with Mr. David and Chad's heads barely visible in the forefront)

Training Update

I apologize for the lack of training updates, but life and work has been crazy these past few weeks. We've been celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and graduations and wow have we been busy! But amongst it all, my training has held up pretty well.

My ideal week would include 3 swims, 4 runs and 3 bikes. For the past couple of weeks I've only been able to manage two workouts per sport per week, but I still feel like I am in a good place with my training. Here are some of my thoughts on each area.

Swimming:

• I've developed a love/hate relationship with swimming.
• I thought I was getting kind of ok at swimming, but no, I still pretty much suck!
  
• I was convinced the Lame Duck tri swim distance was 400 yards, but no, it is 1000 yards!
• The good news is that my swim workouts are no shorter than 1000 yards. They range from 1000-2000 yards.
  
• I think I will be able to do 1000 yards of the crawl comfortably by early August...just in time for Lame Duck!
  

Biking:

• I've developed a love/hate relationship with biking.
  
• But I love it more than I hate it.
  
• Chad got me some great cycling gear for our 4 year wedding anniversary - gloves, 2nd water bottle holder, and a Yakima trunk mounted bike rack.
• I went on my first 20+ ride last night - 25.25 miles in about 2 hours.
  
• This was my first ride in my new Pearl Izumi gloves, and I later realized I had them on backwards.
  
• Biking fatigues my legs unlike any thing else - I think it is the very hilly terrain of Jessamine County that gets me.
• The country roads, creeks and rivers of Jessamine County are absolutely beautiful.
  
• I've seen more of the county on my bike in the past 4 weeks than I have by car in the three years we have lived here.
• I still have not gotten a brick workout in yet, but I'm hoping this Sunday will be the day!
  

Running:

• Oh running, my original friend, you are not so easy to do after a week of biking and swimming.
• I think my body and legs are still trying to adapt to three different muscle groups being worked each week.
• I've realized that I need to put just as much effort into running as I do with biking and swimming.
  
• I don't want to put off run workouts because I think to myself "oh, it's just 3 miles." I need to do the short runs, and I need to work on increasing my speed.
  
• I am going to do a 5k with my father-in-law this Saturday morning - the Jessamine County "Skelter for the New Shelter 5k." This is a great local race that benefits the Humane Society. Last year I took 1st place in my AG with a time of 25:49. I'm really hoping to go sub 25 this weekend, but I will be ok with anything in the 25-27 range.

Mutt Strutt 2009 Part 2

Moving right along!

This is my favorite picture from the day - getting some help from dad at the water station!

Moving at a pretty good clip! Emma looks so tiny here!

Walking with Dad, this was near the middle of the race.

Walking on the curb - Emma loves walking on ledges!

Still on the curb!

At the finish line. Emma felt like a sponge when I picked her up!

Now that's one tired doggy!

We stopped at Chick-fil-A on the way home for a post-race treat...Chicken Minis!

Mutt Strut 2009 Part 1

On Memorial Day morning, Chad and I took Emma out to Keeneland for the 2009 Mutt Strutt, a 2k walk to benefit the Lexington Humane Society. We arrived at 8:45am for the 9:00am start. As soon as we got out of the car, it began pouring. We armed ourselves with umbrellas and made our way to the starting area. There were tons of dogs, I'm guessing 75-100, and I don't think Emma really knew what to do. She sniffed the other dogs and made friends - she didn't get aggressive with anyone and no one got aggressive with her. I was a little worried that she would be aggressive, because she can be pretty dominant at times! Especially with small dogs...and small children. But luckily, every thing worked out ok!

After about 2 minutes in the rain, Emma's underbelly was completely soaked, but she didn't seem to mind. She waded through huge puddles and walked through grass and mud. We waited at the starting area for about 15 minutes, and then the walk began. Emma made the rookie mistake of going out too fast, but I think she was swept up in the adrenaline of the large crowd of people and dogs moving swiftly in one direction. She kept to the right, in the grass and mud, and really booked it. We were walking briskly, trying to get her to slow down because we knew she wouldn't make it the whole way at that pace! But she kept on charging through. It stopped raining right before the start so that was really nice - but the conditions were definitely muddy.
I only had to carry Emma for a short spell near the end - she was walking on a little ledge and started teeter-tottering, so we thought it best to carry her for a little bit. She proudly walked across the finish line in 27:45! Here are some pictures from the day - I will post the rest of the pictures in a "part 2" post tomorrow!

Eager with anticipation!

Hiding out from the rain in a horse barn

Taking the obligatory picture with Mama -
but Emma just wanted to check out the competition!

Sizing up the competition

A few of the participants, braving the rain

At the start, pulling hard and staying in the mud

Yep, still in the mud!

...stay tuned for part 2 with more pictures!

Gone to the Dogs

This past Saturday, we dog-sat for one of my co-workers. He has a 3-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Max. Max and Emma have met once before, and they seemed to get along well. Max is a very sweet, calm and gentle dog...sort of the antithesis of Emma!

Max came over about 7:30am on Saturday morning and stayed in his kennel until about 9:30am. We kept trying to get him to come out, but he seemed very content to sit in his little house. After a couple of hours, he ventured out.

About a month ago, Chad acquired an obscure red, square shaped chair with a right triangle type back. It's very strange, and we haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet. For now, it has been relegated to our extra bedroom next to our extra mattress (aka the guest bed), until we can get it moved upstairs.

Max checked the house out, but he settled in on the red chair for his favorite place to lounge. Emma had never shown any particular interest in the chair before...but that all changed when Max wanted to sit on it.

I now present to you a photographic time line of the Battle for the Red Chair.

Disclaimer: no Cavalier King Charles spaniels or miniature dachshunds were hurt in the making of this photographic journey.

While Max was getting used to his surroundings by resting in his kennel,
Emma took it upon herself to play with all of his toys.

Max finally felt comfortable enough to leave his kennel.

About this time, Emma came into the room and realized that Max was on the chair.
Her chair, apparently!

Emma starts her attack by going for the tail.

The battle for the chair raged on as Emma went for the jugular
(...in a sweet, playful way).

Max finally gave up the good fight and conceded the chair to Emma.

Emma decided to flaunt her victory by laying on her side and howling.

The end!

It's Official...

...my husband is a hunk.

A friend just posted this picture on his Tumblr site, and I fell in love with Chad all over again.

Meredith takes to the Streets!

Week 1 of my 14-week triathlon training program is off to a good start.

Last night I did my first serious 12 mile training ride - out on real roads, with real cars and real hills. I have been "riding" my bike once a week for the past month or so, but I quickly realized on the ride last night that I know nothing about cycling. Lucky for me, one of our friends, Cody, is a very good cyclist and he has taken me under his wing. He's been cycling seriously for about 5 years, and he is a wealth of information. After a one hour ride last night, I am much more comfortable with my clipless pedals and I'm even starting to understand the why, what and when of gear changing.

Before the ride last night, I was terrified to change gears because I was convinced I would throw the chain. But Cody explained that not changing gears really isn't option - so I started changing gears, and then I kind of got the hang of it. We rode in a few trafficky areas, but Cody taught me the etiquettes of riding on the road and which hand signals to use. I had to leave the signaling up to him, as my hands were clutching the handlebars for dear life most of the time. But overall, my confidence was boosted. I feel like knowing what I am doing on the bike will make me a better rider, and more importantly, a safer rider!

This morning I swam 1000 yards. This is the furthest I have ever swam - on purpose at least. It took me 25 minutes and 13 seconds, but I have no idea if that is a decent time for swimming 1000 yards. I was worried about losing track of my laps, so I set 20 pennies on a kickboard at the end of my lane, next to my water bottle. After every down and back (50 yards) I moved one penny to the right. After going down and back 20 times, I was done! I alternated every 50 yards between the crawl and the breast stroke. As I get stronger in the crawl, I will try to alternate between 100 yards crawl, 50 yards breast stroke, 100 yards crawl, etc. Eventually, I will be able to do 1000 yards crawl.

My workouts so far this week:
Tuesday am: Run 2 miles (19:05 min)
Tuesday pm: Ride 12 miles (roughly 60 minutes...definitley want to get faster on the bike!)
Wednesday am: 1000 yard swim (25:13)

And my scheduled workouts for the rest of the week:
Thursday am: 3 mile run
Thursday pm: 12 mile ride
Saturday am: 5 mile run
Sunday pm: 15 mile ride, 2 mile run (brick workout)

Some miscellaneous pictures from the weekend:

Sunday was a cool, rainy day and Emma took the opportunity to snooze on the couch.

She was not happy when I woke her up with the flash from the camera!

Mother's Day (yes, Emma counts) came a week early when Chad surprised me by cutting off all of his hair! I have been pestering him to cut it for months, and he finally decided that it was time to get a cut. After going to my favorite place for lunch on Sunday (Chipotle), Chad took me to the mall for a "surprise" - I had a feeling we were headed to the salon, but I wasn't 100% sure. When we stopped right outside of "Max and Mia's" my heart jumped. He got probably 7-8 inches cut off - I was afraid the stylist would slip on all the hair! I took the picture above on the way home after the shearing...what a hunk!

I had some leftover pico de gallo from Chipotle, so on Monday evening I decided to make a black bean burrito for dinner. I only used 5 ingredients: tortilla, brown rice, black beans, reduced fat mozzarella cheese and pico de gallo. It was delicious, filling, and pretty healthy! I scooped up the burrito "droppings" with Lays Baked Scoops tortilla chips. I will probably start eating this quick and easy meal at least once a week. I just noticed that you can see Tiger Wood's eyes peering out at you in the top right hand corner of the photo...that is my Gatorade bottle!