Did someone say Swim… shit they did!

The Triathlon Clinic was good.  There were only 6 of us, so it was very informal and not at all intimidating… until… THE POOL!  Sweet Jesus, I thought I could swim, but I was so wrong.  I mean, I'm not going to drown or anything, but I am REALLY, REALLY bad at swimming!  Even a little panicky in the water.  I  couldn't even swim one length of the pool with our getting water  up my nose, or in my mouth or having to stop.  It was humbling in many ways.  Now no one was really great at swimming except for the one lady who'd been on swim team all her life, and the other 2 that were taking swim lessons…  I don't know if I can do this swim thing… The ladies all ended up talking me into registering for a Mother's Day Mini Triathlon.  But even the mini you have to swim 400yards… doesn't sound like a lot until you realize it's SIXTEEN freaking lengths of the pool and I couldn't swim even ONE!

I'm not saying the Triathlon dream is dead, but it's going to take a hell of a lot more work than I thought.  I'm not giving up yet….

Tri It Now

Tomorrow I'm heading out to a Triathlon Clinic, to take the first step toward part of my 2014 Resolution.  It's an all day seminar, with a swimming portion, running portion and a little bit about bikes etc..  I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also EXTREMELY nervous.  I'm particularly nervous about the swim part.  I'm not sure I can even swim 6 strokes without stopping and resting or putting my feet down!  I actually bought a new bathing suit for it, because I didn't want to wear my grandma skirt bathing suit.  So, I bought one that looks like what I imagine a triathlete would wear.  Of course Virginia in Jan is not the best time to be looking for a bathing suit so I ended up buying separate pieces, I found the bottoms at Dicks which was a relief because I got to try those on before I bought them.  The tops ( I got 2) I had to order on line.  (Don't ask me why Dicks sells bottoms, but no tops???) Ordering on line, was a totally nightmare - I think I ended up returning 5-6 tops before I finally found 2 I could tolerate.  I just hope all the kids don't point and laugh!!!

We don't need no stinkin' Christmas letter, because any letter is better than no letter!

Among the other things I didn't get done on time for Christmas, like mailing out Christmas gifts, was also writing our annual Christmas letter.  When I first realized I wasn't going to get it done in time for Christmas, I just shifted gears and aimed for a New Year's letter - after all, it wouldn't be the first time I was a little late.  Well… that didn't come to pass, so I set my sights on a Martin Luther King Day letter, and then finally maybe a Chinese New Year letter… Finally it was the 2 snow days that spurred me on… So here it is… better late than never….

Welcome to the 1^st annual “write it whenever the hell I get to it” Hyzy family letter.  It seems like it gets harder and harder to write this letter each year, mainly because, and I hesitate to say this,  my children no longer irritate or bewilder me on a regular basis!  I fear my letter will turn into one of those nauseating missives of positiveness that I used to make fun of.   I’ve always preferred my news with a little sarcasm and a lot of humor!  So, let’s see what I can come up with…

Brenna is a junior at Radford University and doing amazing if we squint when we look at her Organic Chemistry grade.  She spent her Spring Break in the Galapagos Islands studying Evolution and the unique animals living there…and I don’t mean the boys!  She’s also been all over Virginia and Tennessee studying bats and researching the White Nose Syndrome that is affecting them in the U.S.  She’s become quite the bat expert and will be helping to present their findings at the Virginia State Wildlife Society meeting this year.  Our previously girlie girl now regularly camps, goes caving and can catch just about any critter she sees.  She’ll be heading back to the Virgin Islands this year as a TA (teaching assistant) and hoping to do some more research that will allow her to publish!  If she has one fault, it’s that she does things too fast… she drives too fast, spends her money too fast and dammit she’s growing up too fast!  When she’s home with us, she’s funny, pleasant and helpful and I think she’d be my friend even if she wasn’t my daughter!

Zack is a sophomore in high school, ¼ inch away from 6 feet tall and doing great!  At least we think he’s doing great, but since he only comes out of his room for bacon and Poptarts it’s hard to tell.  I get most of my news about him from Facebook and his friend’s mothers!  His grades are great, his attitude  It’s amazing to watch him row in those boats!  Aside from the fact that sometimes we forget what he looks like and I wish he’d stop growing – he’s practically perfect!

is so “non-teenage” that I sometimes worry we’re going to end up on Jerry Springer when we find out that he’s been running a meth lab or exotic animal smuggling ring from his room, and he’s kicking a** on the high school Crew team.

John is still the Program Director for Ft. Belvoir’s two satellite health clinics.  He splits his time   He’s also spent time on Capital Hill hobnobbing with Senators, Representatives and other big muckety-mucks talking about the future of military medicine.  When he’s not working, he’s still playing hockey every week and is one of his team’s leading scorers, while at the same time trying to dominate both his fantasy football league and the local wildlife.  2 – deer, 2 – turkeys this year… Wildlife 0 Hyzy 4!

between both clinics and with over 47,000 patients he stays plenty busy.

This has been an eventful year for me.  Last December I completed a Couch to 5K program and so I spent most of 2013 running!  I did twelve 5K races (one a month) for my 2013 resolution.  I began a love affair with running shoes (some may say obsession) – I now own three pairs that I actually run in… the others don’t count. J  For the girl who never ran – not even to the bathroom – it’s been quite a transformation.  And I like it!  I have my eye on a Half-marathon and Sprint Triathlon for 2014.    I also got a job…for money!  I am now officially Woodbridge High School’s “copy girl.”  I work Mon-Fri from 7-12pm making copies for the whole school…for money!  SWEET GIG!  Let me tell you, we aren’t saving any trees in Woodbridge, I make and average of 25-30,000 copies A DAY!  Don’t let anyone tell you the Principal runs the school… the power is in the copy room!

Here’s hoping your 2014 is fun, fabulous and full of wonderful surprises!

John, Julie, Brenna, Zack                              

Snow Day, Snow Run!

We've had 2 snow days this week.  We've only actually had about 4 inches of snow, but the temperatures have been way, way low!  Our high today was 14 degrees!  I think they are worried about all our preshus babies walking to school and that's why they cancel it.  I do sort of agree, since most of Zack's friends are still wearing shorts to school and on the really cold days they might agree to putting on a hoodie.   Zack's almost as bad, but at least he wears pants!  Anyway, yesterday before the "Storm of the Century" hit (the one that dropped FOUR INCHES on us) John and I decided to head out for a run together!
It hadn't started snowing too hard and we were only going 3 miles… so even though I wanted nothing more than to sit in front of the fire in my jammies with my book… John convinced me to head out.

It didn't turn out to be the quiet, beautiful peaceful run that I had been imagining.  I didn't even take my music as I planned to enjoy the scenery and become "one with nature."  :o)  It really turned out to be a cold, wet slog with ice crystals crashing into my eyes and making me squint and wonder what the hell I was doing!  I got a cramp about 1/2 mile in and really was just happy to finish!

Finally made it… in my jammies, in front of the fire with my boy Cooper.

Working out pretty hard for an old lady

Brenna went back to school yesterday. :o(  It really seems unfair that when you are stuck with them living at home as teenagers, all you want to do is get rid of them or sell them to the gypsies or something.  Then they turn into fun, smart, great adults and only come back and stay periodically.  I like having her home cause she's a great running partner.  We run about the same pace and she's good motivation cause she rarely stops and walks and she's much better on hills than I am.  It pushes me.  It's must easier to stop and walk when it's only you running, but much harder when I'm either trying to catch her, or she's breathing down my neck.  So back to running on my own.  Although I have been working out with the Crew team since the beginning of winter conditioning.  I'm so lucky that Coach Cox and Coach Meehan are willing to let me hang out, help out and work out.  It really helps keep me motivated.  They usually run for the 1st hour.  Mike takes the faster kids on a long, neighborhood run and the slower kids stay and run around the school.  I usually stay and run with them and it's been great.  I really love running with them and helping motivate them.  Sometimes I go on the long runs, and run sweeper for Mike to make sure that no one gets left behind.  There aren't any other coaches that will run, so I'm usually it.  It's been fun, because Brenna has been coming along as well.

When they split up to erg, if there are enough ergs, then I workout with the girls.  It's crazy hard, but I love it.  Coach Meehan will even stop and give me pointers so that I can erg better.  He calls me a "Little Hammer."  Don't know why I like that so much, but I do. Coach Cox and Meehan have been doing a Sat morning erg class for parents and it is really cool.  The first day we had 9 parents, and last Sat we had 16.  They give the newbies some Erg 101, technique etc and the rest of us get a workout similar to what the kids do each day. For instance, the other day we did a 6min piece and then 4 minutes off where we did pushups, squats, lunges, jacks and then ran a lap and we did that 3-4 times.  It was hard and awesome and  I was pumped when I left.  I guess I haven't been erging enough to hate it yet, right now I like erging and getting better at it.  John came last weekend and I think I may have made him and Erg convert!

At practice, the kids are so nice about tolerating me and even encouraging me.  I just love being there and working out with them and helping where I can.  It's nice that Mike will ask me to help when he needs it and I love being able to help out.  I wish there was some way I could be a legitimate coach of some kind.  I'm working on an idea about that….Hmmm… we'll see….

What's my Resolution???

I've been mulling and debating and trying to decide what I'm going to do for my 2014 Resolution.  I'm really proud of myself for completing 12 5K's and finishing my resolution.  I never would have run that many 5K's if I hadn't made the resolution…so now how will I challenge myself?  I've been thinking of a couple of things… Zack suggested I do a 10K every month, but that's just running and I'm not sure I can actually find a 10K every month.  David Tatum wants me to run the Marine Corp Marathon, but I already told him I wasn't ready for that - at least not yet.

Here's what I'm contemplating right now…
#1 - I will continue to run a race every month, I mean why stop since it's been working.  I will just make an attempt to switch it up.  Maybe I'll run a 5K, maybe I'll run a 10K, maybe just a 2 miler, but something every month!

#2 - One of those races will be a half marathon, Zack said he'd run it with me! I have run 10 miles before.  It wasn't easy, fast or fun, but I did do it.  I probably could do 13.1 if I put my mind to it and tried training for it.  Although,  I might save this for next year, especially if I decide to focus on #3.

#3 - The thing I think I really want to do is run a Sprint Triathalon.  Not a full fledged one, but they have smaller ones where you swim about a mile, bike about 20-25 miles and run a 5K.  I think that would be the most challenging thing for me.  I have the run down, I'm sure I could learn to bike, of course I'd have to buy a bike first, but the swim is where it would be the most challenging.  I know how to swim, but I don't know HOW to SWIM… but I think I can figure it out.

What's my resolution…

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year 2014

We celebrated in the typical Mt. Burnside Tradition.  We all got together and ate too much, played games, laughed, drank and ate some more! Seriously, I was incubating a 13lb New Years food baby all night long!  I always start off the night with the best of intentions, but the dip just calls my name and then there were ribs, and cheesecake and the list of yummies goes on and on!  We played a rousing game of Scattagories in which even the teenage boys joined and, oh my goodness, they answers those boys came up with.   I think Zack was just trying to come up with the most outrageous answers he possibly could.  Oh how he made us laugh.  I'm not sure we could have laughed any more or been any louder, but it was great fun. 

The party ended about 1030pm, which is pretty darn late for the cul-de-sac, so as usual I got to actually watch the ball drop in bed in my jammies.  That's really the best way! 

 Brenna decided to drive down to Richmond to spent New Year's with a new "sorta, maybe, potential" boyfriend and some other neighbors from Radford. John and I were a little hesitant/nervous about letting her drive down there by herself, but she came home safe and sound.   It's one of those situations where we really want to keep her home with us, but realize that we have to let her make her own decisions and use her own judgement.  I am relieved to say, she did great.  

Today - I decided to start the New Year off on the right foot… a Running foot! 

I ran my first 5K of the year today.  I was a little worried that my residual food baby would drag me down, but it turned out that maybe I should take a food baby with me more often!  I actually PR'ed my first 5K of the year!! 29.12 - I was pretty pumped about it.  I did run a 28.59 at the Robinson 5K in Nov, but according to my GPS watch that race was really only 3.05.  Today's race was 3.17.  My next best time was 29.32.  So, Hip, Hip Hooray for me!  It was a decent race, with tons of people, so it was hard in the beginning to get going - it was a narrow course so we were really packed in at the start, but I found my way and ended up doing just fine.

One race down…