May? Seriously!

Well, needless to say our New Year's Resolution (mine, at least) is to update our blog at least once a month. When you leave it for so long, where do you begin? It is too hard, too long and probably too boring for those of you reading to go back over 6 plus months of 'stuff'. So I will pick a highlight from each month since we left off then go to Christmas 2009...

May - went to visit Nadene (my sister) in Rochester, MN - I ran the Med City Half marathon (pr ~1:38) and Norm ran the Med City Marathon - over Memorial weekend, had a great time at my sister's place!

June - our 1st Anniversary - Norm whisked me off to Napa for a fantastic weekend...riding, running (Hit the Road Jack 10k) and of course, wine!! I won my AG for Regionals Olympic distance PR 2:18!

July - I coached at the Jr. Elite camp at the OTC in Chula Vista - quiet month! At the end of the month we went to IL to visit my Dad and run the Chicago RNR 1/2 marathon which was actually on Aug 2nd.

August - We both spent some time in FL as Norm's mom had her second hip surgery! Did my first 5K SWIM open water! We rode our bikes to Long Beach and spent the night, I had my swim race the next day and Norm rode home! Jen R. drove me home!

September - USAT long course Nationals at Redman in Oklahoma City! We both qualified for World's in 2010!! We are unsure, but most likely not going to make the trip to Germany next July, too pricey and World's are here in the US in 2011, so hopefully we can re-qualify. I turned 40, boo!

October - I did my first Cyclocross race, what a blast! I am addicted, love it. I spent the end of the month in FL with my sister at Norm's parents house, just hanging out, now that was fun!!

November - A sad time as we had to say "Goodbye" to our best friend and loving dog, Joey.

Tour de Julian and Thanksgiving with the Kelley's, need I say more!

December -

It was a mellow Holiday, just the two of us. We did our traditional Christmas coast run (15 miles this year as we are both training for Carlsbad 1/2 Marathon on Jan 24) in our Santa hats and got the normal laughs and friendly gestures from those who shared the Season's spirit. It amazes me always the few who are not happy, even on Christmas, I find it sad mostly, maybe slightly disturbing. Anyway, Norm was in charge of Christmas dinner and fixed a lovely Filet Mignon with sweet potatoe fries!! Yum! We had some cupcakes leftover for dessert, see photo above, just perfect. The Holiday ran right into the weekend and Sunday we went to Borrego Springs for the Borrego Springs Century bike ride! Not sure why they boast it to be a Century as it is only 93 miles (92.7). Anyway, I cut out a 4 mile out/back section (8 miles total) and Norm caught up to me at ~ mile 64 and we rode the last ~30 miles together, that was nice! Also nice was the Dudley's bread (PB & Js) at each rest stop and the two (yes, 2) pieces of Julian Apple pie I ate when we finished! It was about a 2 hour drive home and we stopped at Island's for burgers & margaritas on the way, perfect finish to a great Holiday weekend!

Monday, Norm decided I should do an Iron Chef style cooking challenge and handed me an envelope with my secret ingredient. My challenge was to make at least 3 unique dishes incorporating the secret ingredient for dinner on Tuesday! I was being judged (by him) on the normal 3 standards (taste, originality and plating) plus his new category: Healthiness of the dish. My secret ingredient: Chick Peas aka Garbanzo beans. Here is what I made:

Chick Pea, Green Olive & Garlic dip (hummus minus tahini, not so original, I know!) topped with parsley, chives and diced pancetta, served with a chive & parsley Tortillita (made with chick pea flour).

Tomato, Cucumber, Chick Pea and red onion salad with Blood Orange Olive oil & lemon zest topped with Feta Cheese. West African Vegetable Soup (this is tasty, has cinnamon, red pepper flakes, raisins & sweet potatoes!! And of course, chick peas & mounds of other veges!)

Ginger toasted Chick Pea Crusted Halibut served with Mango Chick Pea chutney.

Chick Pea Dessert (sorry about the name!) - this is a Tortillita made with chick pea flour, cinnamon & nutmeg inside is a sauce made of marshmallow, peanut butter, mashed chick peas and topped with a slight drizzle of maple syrup and sliced almonds!

Overall, I scored a 20 out of a possible 25 points. Losing points to healthiness on the dessert and the pancetta! And also losing some points on plating here and there!

My hope is to keep our blog up to date in 2010 - our New Year's Day plan is our tradition ride up Palomar Mountain. The weather should be brisk but nonetheless I look forward to the ride up the Mountain it will be my 3rd ascent since Thanksgiving!

Have a Happy New Year everyone!

Happy May!

Okay, once again, it has been a while. Busy times still. April was a blur of travel, racing, training and working!
We began the month participating in California 70.3. A 'B' race for us both, ended up being a tough day for me and a good training day for Norman. A few days after the race Norm took off to China for work and I made my way to AZ for Easter weekend. I had a ton of fun hanging out with my Dad and mountian biking with some friends!!! Once back from China, Norm and I were off to Mexico!! There we met a bunch of friends and did the Las Palomas Triathlon, that was a lot of fun!! They had a slip and slide at the finish line AND beer! A fun weekend with great friends! We made it back to CA late Sunday and by Thursday I was in Texas on business. Gail and I had 3 bike skills clinics to coach over the weekend and she loaned me her Felt TT bike to do a sprint Tri that Sunday. After that fun filled weekend I had no voice, full blown laryngitis! So, I returned from TX with no voice for 4 1/2 days, I think Norm actually enjoyed that!

While I was away working in TX Norm ran a marathon and a half marathon on back to back days!! I am not sure how he does that!

The next weekend brings us to May already!! Norm did the OC Marathon and I did the OC 1/2 Marathon on May 3rd. A great course! More work, more training, and on May 9th I got to race my mountain bike! Yay!!

Not much spare time, but we did manage a few date nights here and there and we did get to see "Monsters Vs. Aliens" finally!

Bailee is back on her exercise program and she is very, very happy. Joey, on the other hand, just cannot handle taking walks anymore, so one of us walks Bailee while the other stays home with Joey. We are all very sad about his aging, but he still has a very healthy appetite and loves to play with his blue squeaky ball, so that is his exercise for now.

While in TX, Kevin fixed me a marvelous homemade pizza on wheat flatbread. I have been trying to find a good flatbread and in the meantime have settled for some so-so wheat pitas. Anyway, I took some notes in TX and have begun "make your own pizza night". It is not a weekly event at this point, it still needs perfecting. I have Norm make the sauce and I chop up some fresh veggies, lean meat and grab the shredded mozzarella! Can you guess which pizza is mine and which is Norm's:
Here is the "make your own pizza night" spread:

Next, we are off to MN to see my sister and run in a local race there! So long for now.

Happy Third day of Spring!

And essentially our quarterly update. DeeAnn apologizes profusely for the lack of updated posts, but, well, that's the way it is.

It has been a busy couple of months with DeeAnn's company changing names from AZ Coaching to Gorilla Multisport Performance. In so doing, she has partnered with one of her friends (Gail L.) to create "Gorilla Multisport" which will be (and is) a sort of corporate center for a number of regional coaching businesses.

At the end of February, Gorilla Multisport hosted its annual camp in Tucson. A fun-filled week of riding, running, and a bit of swimming. Also a host of educational lectures on everything from nutrition to strength training to bike skills.

Over the last couple weeks, we did a couple races. Last week we went to see Snoopy at Knott's Berry Farm and ran a 10K. Both DeeAnn and Norm got second place in their respective age groups. Yay. DeeAnn got her picture taken with Snoopy. Norm ate boysenberry pie.

Yesterday, we went to Lake Havasu in Arizona to race an Olympic distance triathlon. Something neither one of us have done in years. It was fun. DeeAnn placed second in her age group (the OLD age group as she has now "aged up.") Norm didn't drown, flat, or trip (and beat DeeAnn's time .) All in all it was a good race.

More later as the busy busy busy month of April is about to begin. DeeAnn will surely post frequently and regularly.

Oh my, such a long time since our last post. . .

Okay, our official Blogger (that would be DeeAnn, for those keeping track) has been slacking a bit, so here's a recap of what's happened since the last post:



Thanksgiving came around, and DeeAnn made cupcakes (yes, shaped like Turkeys)














Christmas came around and DeeAnn made cupcakes again.
(yes, shaped like Santas, but check the little (3 tier!) snowman in the background.)

















And then DeeAnn made cookies:












and then she made cookies again:



















(at this point, Norm went on a diet - thankfully no pictures of that)




And then Bailee wore a necklace:














And Joey wore a shirt:
















And then it was 2009!
(Norm was still on a diet, had shoulder surgery, and then ran a half marathon:)

And then DeeAnn and Norm ran a marathon together (Rock and Roll Arizona):

















And DeeAnn qualified for Boston!



Those are the highlights, thanks to all for your patience, our best wishes for a Happy New Year to everyone, and stay tuned for a more detailed, informational, and perhaps entertaining update soon!!!