Hint: The game gets a lot easier once you know the companies that the firm behind the game works with.

Take the quiz here: http://thebrandquiz.com/ and let me know how you do.  I scored 19…would be interesting to see if we miss the same ones!

Lots of firsts out there yesterday: first day at the loop kinda hanging with the guys, first time losing my lunch, first time I saw my heartrate go to 197, and first spring-like day in the Front Range.  Great day.

Triathlon has turned me into Wendell.

No no, I’m not back to my anti-swimming ways already.  I did wake up Saturday morning with about my 15th cold of 2010.  And I’m blaming the pool.  Maybe not the pool, but the people who swim in the pool and think it’s ok to spit in the gutter around the edge of the pool.  Why is this accepted?  I’m not 100% sure of pool filtration theory or practice, but I’m pretty sure that the water that runs down into the gutter ends up back in the pool.  Maybe some of the big old nasty stuff gets filtered out, but I’m pretty sure the germs are in it for the long run.  How much does chlorine really kill off anyway?  Even if it doesn’t come back into the pool (yea right), everyone still has to touch the gutter at some point.  So gross.  Blech.  Anyway!

I’m a huge fan of R+R, but I decided to go wild and do something different this time around with the cold.  I trained through it!  …though very easily.  I did an easy 2k swim to spread my germs around, then went out for an easy hour spin up Lookout.  I took my camera and thought of it more as a scenic mosey than a training ride.  The goal was to get fresh air in the lungs.  It helped!  I felt super fresh for my intense lap counting and timing duties at the Senior State Swim Meet Sunday night.  That’s right: 14 and ups!  No no, don’t have a wee relative I was helping out, just my teammates.  Jordan busted out a PB: 19:06!  Nice to live vicariously through him

Here’s some pics from Lookout.  It was snowing up top, by the time I got up around the switchbacks it was snowing pretty good all over.  Descending back into town in the snow was pretty fun and surprisingly not all that cold despite my lack of layering.

Looking west from Lookout

Paragliders over Golden

Getting snowy near the upper switchbacks.

]]> http://amydannwolf.com/blog/2010/03/02/swimming-pool-cesspool/feed/ http://amydannwolf.com/blog/2010/02/27/working-for-the-weekend/ http://amydannwolf.com/blog/2010/02/27/working-for-the-weekend/#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:23:33 +0000 Amy http://amydannwolf.com/blog/?p=646 The past 7 days have comprised one of my biggest swim weeks ever.  All of the guys are tapering for their meet on Sunday, so that left me going about 20,000 of my 35,000 yards solo.  Swim training has its ups and downs, and I’m currently riding high on an upswing which feels exceptionally good after the big rut I was in for most of the winter.  It serves as proof that even when you think you are doing negative work (as in getting slower and slower) it all adds up in the end to make you faster.  About two weeks ago I was struggling through a set of 5 300s, doing the first 2 on the 4:00 before falling back to the 4:10 for the last 3.  I was more than frustrated, I really couldn’t go any faster.  Last night for the last set of my week I went 10×300 on the 4:00, getting about 15 seconds rest for each and feeling really smooth and relaxed.  Swimming that pace for almost double the distance of an ITU swim has me excited…I know I still need to take a lot more time off, but it’s a leap in the right direction and I know I can crank it up a few notches come race time.

This whole week was made easier by knowing that on Saturday I’d get an entire day off of training to rest up and get ready for another solid week before coasting into Mazatlan.  Thursday I hit my only tough patch, Jordan and I were up in the mountains spending the night and I had to get my second swim in at the rec center (the only day I broke it into two swims, which I was regretting!).  I was hungry and the night before I had cooked up some of Mollie’s Mac n’ Cheese and the leftovers were beaconing.  Luckily, Jordan was driving and pulled up to the rec center and booted me out of the car.  4,500 yards later I was devouring the best mac n’ cheese of my life.  Thanks Mollie!

[BTW: Mollie was another teammate of mine at BU and now has a great blog devoted to 3 wonderful things: eating, running, and reading.  Check it out at eatrunread.blogspot.com...but not before a workout.]

Erica, me (+ Marisa!) cheering on Jordan - Marathon Monday 2005. Yes, our shirts read "Jordan is my homeboy"

Erica and her boyfriend, Stephen, started Brooklyn Brew Shop last July and have had a lot of success in selling their compact brewing kits online and at markets in NYC.  They came out to Colorado on a business trip to tour around all of the state’s breweries. It was great to talk with them about the frustrations and triumphs of starting a new company and growing from the ground up.  Who would have thought selling skis and brewing kits could share so many similarities?  I had so much fun showing them our operation and swapping small business secrets and stories, it was sad to see them go and made me realize how much I miss running in an endless amount of 200m loops with her on BU’s indoor track.

It’s also looking like I’ll have a different former teammate from BU joining me in Colorado by mid-summer.  I won’t mention names until it’s official, but I will mention that she is one of the nastiest runners I know and though she doesn’t know it now, she’ll be joining me on Sunday long runs every week.  ;-)

The mystery runner logging some miles with me at Waterton Canyon last year.

After the 1/2 marathon in Austin last month I was ra’ring to go again…I feel like I finally have the run figured out and it’s really coming together this winter.  Right after Austin I was scouting out other running races because I knew I could go faster.  Good thing Jordan talked some sense into me and reminded me there’s two other sports to train for!  That being said, my excitement with my run in Austin was understandable since my swim has been atrocious.  Then I got a new suit a few days ago and realized I have effectively been swimming in a velor jumpsuit for the past 2 months (my old suit was huge and baggy…ugh still so much to learn with this sport.  I’ve learned that if I’m not struggling to get the strap over my shoulder the suit is too big).  No wonder I was working hard and going no where.  Hopefully all of that resistance training will pay off!  =)  The Colorado winter has been kind to us and we’ve been out time trialing it up in Bear Creek Lake Park religiously every Saturday.  I’ve hardly been on the trainer, which means I’m loving riding right now.  That had to change today as we got some snow that will keep me grinding away in the garage over the weekend.

As usual, the winter training has been hard for me to get the hang of.  The volume and consistency are both in uncharted territory, and it’s hard for me to get used to never having any sharpness in my legs (or my brain!).  Luckily I have a good bunch of guys around (Jordan, Sean, and my teammates) to remind me that this is totally normal and eventually I will grow to accept it!  It’s definitely becoming easier to accept it with March approaching fast.  The light at the end of the tunnel!

Obviously I am excited to RACE in Mazatlan (a little redemption is in order), but I am equally excited to chill out afterward…surfboard under my arm during the day, margarita in hand at night =)

[I might be through my anti-triathlon blog phase.  This has been prompted by none other than the Canadian triathlon contingent who have the best blogs going and do a great job keeping it all in perspective even though they are superstars.  Specifically: Kirsten Sweetland, Lauren Campbell, Simon Whitfield]

However, as I prepare for my first foray into race directing (Littlefoot Triathlon on May 17th), I did make my way over to Slowtwitch this afternoon.  My intention was to scan message boards for people’s favorite awards/race momentos, but then I was drawn to my all-time favorite recurring article on Slowtwitch, Jeff Henderson’s pieces on his experiences as race director.  This one is my favorite, as it spoke of triathlon as art and not in the cliche human performance sense, but in the art of putting on a great race.  Check it out, it’s a quick and worthwhile read.

http://www.slowtwitch.com/RD_Aids/Henderson_s_2010_RD_diary/On_Design_1153.html

…also feel free to share what your favorite race awards have been (aside from cold hard cash, obviously!).

*Except for random and sporadic entries on the Riptide blog.

Now that I’m older and have access to things like matches and coffee grinds, it’s easy to make stuff look old, and you can too!

Supplies:
- paper (preferably with something cool on it, find some good old-looking fonts at dafont.com and get to work!)
- coffee grinds
- matches
- water
- shallow baking sheet (but make sure it has at least a 1/2″ edge
- oven

How-to:

1. Take paper and crumple it up.  Tear it if you want to, but I prefer not to put any intentional tears into it.  If you are going to burn some of the edges, this is a good time to do it.  You can also do it at the very end.  If you do light the paper on fire it’s important that you barely let the flame catch the edge of the paper, and then blow it out right away.  This is best done over a metal sink, with a ready supply of water nearby.  If you’re well practiced, you can also hold the flame close enough to the paper so it darkens, but does not actually light (I like to think of this as a very authentic effect, since real-deal pirate maps were quite obviously read at night or in a cave, by candle- or torchlight.)

2. Lay it on the baking sheet.

3.  Dump a serious amount of coffee grinds on top.  Put them all over the place.  Huge clumps add more color later.  Today I got lucky and had fresh coffee grinds, which worked especially well.  I just dumped them on and added enough water to cover the paper.  In the past, I’ve just made a really strong cup of coffee (so strong you wouldn’t even think to drink it).  Pour that on top and then you can also add the grinds too.

Today I was making a gift certificate for an event Powder7.com is sponsoring for a ski area in Vermont.

4.  Let it soak.  Go do something for a few hours.  The longer you can leave it, the better.  Today I let mine sit for about 5 hours.

You can see all of the grinds and just enough water to cover the paper. The more water you use, the more diluted the grinds will get, so you want to use the minimum.

5.  Carefully lift paper off of baking sheet and drain water.  Wipe baking sheet clean and dry, and place paper back on it.  It’ll have some stubborn grinds sitting on it, and that’s perfect.

6.  Heat oven to 200 degrees.  Once heated, slide baking sheet into oven.

7.  ”Bake” for 8-15 minutes.  Check frequently, I can’t stress that enough.

8.  It’ll start to curl up around the corners, which means it’s drying out.  It should feel pretty dry when it comes out.

Fresh out of the oven!

To top-off the presentation, I’ll either tri-fold it or roll it up, seal it with wax, and secure with a knot of twine.

I added a few more burnt edges, and called it a day.

- training is not going well
- work has been busy so there’s no time for side projects to write about
- instead of writing, I contemplate quitting blogging

This month, it was a combination of all three!  Things are on the up and up now: I’m almost fully recovered from a whopper of a cold that’s left my training diary in shambles, Cyber Monday is behind us, and I’ve convinced myself to keep blogging.  All is well.

In a little more depth…

Training isn’t really going horribly.  I’m really enjoying running again, and look forward to staying with the guys for as long as possible on Sunday mornings.  Some times this is 9 miles, other times it’s 40 minutes.  Swimming is so-so.  I’ve made some improvements to my stroke, but haven’t spent too much time in the pool the past couple of weeks because of being sick.  I’m not dealing with the bike right now.  Some rides here and there.  Nothing significant.

Hands down this is the best time of year at work.  Obviously because ski season has begun, and sales are up because Christmas is a comin’, but it adds an element of fun to the whole thing knowing that what we’re selling is going to make a lot of people really happy on Christmas morning.  It’s super corny, but totally true.  A couple of weeks ago Jordan and I went on a little reconnaissance mission to Lake Tahoe, and after we were done with the work aspect, we were able to run on the flume trail near Incline Village and collect giant pine cones, among other things!  (See all the photos from our trip on my Flickr, here)

That’s it for now.  The first post is always the hardest.  But I’m back on the wagon, and I promise not to fall off until next November.

View from the trail leading up to the flume trail.

After 70 minutes of climbing, on the flume trail at last! Um yea, the run was an hour fifty...

Sunset on Lake Tahoe.

Proof that we did some work too -- a shop dog that is almost as big as ours.

Very simple cover with a little gloss.

Last year was the first time I took on a print project like this and learned a lot as I went along. I was very careful not to repeat those same mistakes this year. Though we print out copies of the guide, it also has to  be easy to view online.  Last year’s guide was so heavy that the file took forever to load on our website.  So this year, I opted for the super clean and simple look.

I scrounged the internet for famous quotes that went along with each section of the book.

After last year’s printing debacle (I waited until after I had designed it to figure out where to print it), I knew I wanted to use Blurb.com and plan for that from the get-go. I got caught up playing with their book-making software, BookSmart, and laid out the entire book in that, using Fireworks to create the graphical text.

Each returning athlete from 2009 has a photo with his/her background information.

All was well until I went to print it as a PDF so I could upload it to the Riptide website. Blurb doesn’t let you know that when you do that they watermark it to death, rendering it useless for use in public. I went back and made each page into a PDF using Illustrator (I still don’t have InDesign…definitely my next big purchase…that or a Powertap…) and then compiled them. BookSmart is definitely a great little piece of software, but next time I’ll do it all with Illustrator, or hopefully InDesign.

The photos really make the book, and I can't take credit for a single one. A huge thank you to David Liu and Beth Mackenzie.The details.

Despite the BookSmart incident, Blurb really impressed me. It’s so nice when you send something off to print and it comes back exactly how you imagined it would look.  Highly recommend!

The details.