Running for Rescue

It’s that time of year again!

On May 3rd, I will be running the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio. I am raising money for Northcoast Doberman Rescue.

Due to harsh economic times, I know it is going to be hard to donate this year. However, this is the year the rescue needs you the MOST! Due to economic hardship throughout the country, more dogs have been turned into rescue. People simply cannot afford the added expense of an animal.

Every little dollar helps. Please donate just a few. All donations are tax deductible!

You can click here to donate directly via PayPal.

OR......

Checks can be made out to:
NCDR

And mailed to:
Judi Rothenberg
4034 Akochia ave
Cincinnati, Ohio 45205

Thanks for your consideration......

Judi

My swim video and other various news

I have gotten in some really good training this week!

Sat: 14 mile trail race
Sun: 1 hour swim (2000y, mostly drills and kick) + 1 hour weights
Mon: Hot Yoga 75 minutes, 1 hour rollers (20 miles), 30 minutes weights
Tues: 1 hour Spinerval (Hillacious), 5 mile run w/ dogs, 3000y masters swim
Wed: Track 7x800 plus mile warm up and cool down, and a 400 in between each 800 for a total of 7 something miles.
Thur: REST

The track yesterday kicked my fucking ass. I am holding 3:45 averages for my 800's, which is a 7:30 minute mile. I also had negative splits, the 1st lap was slower than the 2nd. My best one was the last one at 3:42. HOLLA! I felt sick afterwards and had to sip on sprite the rest of the day. I couldn't manage food until much later.

So today I slept in till 9am. I can't just go go go go go. I needed a rest day.

Tomorrow I am going to swim before work, and Saturday I'll either take another rest day, or run a few miles before work.

Here is my underwater stroke analysis. It's a long video, almost 15 minutes, FYI.


swim video from judi rothenbeg on Vimeo.

Masters was much better this week. Remember when I complained about that bitch in my lane? Well, she apologized to me. She said she knew she was being a bitch and felt bad. Her h/b had lost his job and her car had broke down. I accepted her apology but I still don't like her.

There were 4 of us in the lane. You can tell two of the girls in my lane had swam competitively when they were young, possibly 15-20 years ago. They aren't in any kind of shape now though. They might be better swimmers than me, but they don't have my legs. The 4th girl, well, she wears fins the whole time. She couldn't keep up otherwise. And she leaves early. But kudos to her, just for showing up!

Masters sets are a lot different than my own sets. More IM, and when they do butterfly, I do free or breast. My back stroke is getting much better though. This week we did a lot of kicking. The girls in my lane don't use a kickboard either! I did both. They also skip laps. I called them out on it twice. One set they skipped a full 100, and the 2nd time they almost skipped the last 50 of an 800. I am OCD about my counting when I swim, so I know when I have done 8x100 or 4x200. And I hate skipping any part of a swim workout. I will get that fucking set done, even if it means I stay late. Which is what I did.

Bruno is living with us full time now. It's an adjustment, taking care of 3 very powerful dogs. He's being switched over to a raw meat diet. He used to eat Science Diet, one of the crappier dog foods on the market. Sometimes when dogs are taken off kibble and given real food, they'll detox. Bruno has been a little on the tired side, but he's also been getting exercised a lot more. Dominic is worried so he's taking him in for bloodwork next week.

Yesterday Bruno went through the fence. To go after the neighbor's dogs. We are very careful to not let the dogs out at the same time as the neighbor's, and Sharon and Greg are really cool about this. They try to do the same, but we fuck up from time to time.

Yesterday I was out on the deck with all 3 dogs sitting with me, when their back door opened. Within about 2 seconds all the dogs were at the fence, and Bruno was going under it. He was going after their lab mix, Tyson. I knew Bruno would kill him with one bite and was screaming at the top of my lungs. Luckily, Bruno stopped when Greg screamed, and Greg got their dogs inside. I ran over with a leash and got Bruno back in our yard.

I called Dominic and he came right home and we cleaned Bruno off and apologized over and over to Greg. I am so lucky to have cool neighbors. Anyone else would call the SPCA and Bruno would be taken from us, and destroyed. Pit Bulls are illegal in Cincinnati.

Dominic will be putting up new fencing ASAP.

HOLLA!!

I got Blogher POST OF THE WEEK for this post!

Thank you Blogher! This means so much!

xxoo-
Judi

Sore, tired, grouchy

I have PMS very bad. Just so ya know.

Since the race on Saturday, I've been really sore. This is a difficult trail race, according to Sandi. She said it's hillier than the Stone Steps 50k. A lot of the local trail runners really struggled. And considering the fact I came in 7 minutes after Heather, I am happy with my time. But damn, my ankles are and calves are SO sore. I have missed the trails though!

It's been suggested to me that I swim more often, but less yardage, and do more drills. Yesterday I did one arm drills, catch up drills, kick, pull, etc. I hate them. I am still trying to figure out how to save this stupid underwater DVD to my computer, and once I do, I'll post it. It was very cool, but Paul basically ripped my stoke apart. I still don't really know what's causing my back pain, and that's frustrating.

I did a Hot Yoga class today. It was a kick ass class. The teacher was also a runner, and a track coach, so she wasn't some lame ass hippy chick yoga freak. She kicked my ass. Three -legged vinyasa's and all.

After yoga I rode rollers for an hour. I am very comfortable now. I can ride about 20 miles in 60 minutes. It's cool. I love them. Nice sweat sessions, for sure.

After the rollers, I took a shower, just to go to another workout. We went to the Y and did back, and biceps. I did some dead lifts but not too heavy. I have to be careful with my lower back. Sorry Angry, no video.

I don't have any cool pix to post this week, so here are some old pix with my old tattoos.


2000 - pre laser treatments.

2001-2002 after just a couple laser treatments

2003?

2005 - finished with laser treatments

Frosty 14 Trail Race Report

1. Don't wear brand new trail shoes on the day of a race, especially a brand you have not tried before.

2. Don't assume that because you have done a triathlon in the same state park, that you take the same exit off the highway. Print directions!

3. Don't assume any of the people you knew running the race would be at the finish line for you. Shit, they have other things to do too.

4. On your way home, don't assume the locals know the right way to the highway. They might take you 10 or 15 miles out of your way.





I decided to do this race 3 days ago. I had 15-16 miles on the schedule anyways, and I had comp time at work, so I decided to get off the road this week and run the trail, even though I have only ran the trails once since my 50k in October.



All week they were predicting really crappy weather for this morning. By last night, the news guy said it would come later in the day. It was about 30 degrees, perfect trail running weather.



Sandi had sent me directions, but I didn't print them out since I thought I knew the way. Well I thought wrong. I must have called her 6x's after I found out I was going the wrong way. The last time I called, I could hear the irritation in her voice and she handed the phone to some lady signing them up.



So I got to the race site with 5 fucking minutes to spare. This put me in a foul mood. Cuz you know, running a race is stressful. Getting lost on the way to the race makes you feel like even more of a idiot. And then signing up with the woman you hung up while she was trying to give you directions makes you feel like a total l-o-s-e-r.



Waiting for the race to start I saw a couple of the Cincy Express guys, Brian and Barry, who I spoke to for a second. I saw Sandi and Heather but didn't say anything because I was irritated that Sandi was irritated with my numerous calls. In my sick head, it was HER fault I got lost. Even though I didn't print out the directions she sent me.



Once we started running, I was just dreading all 14 miles. People passed me, and then I settled into a good pace. By the time I was 20 minutes into the race I felt good. I forgot about being pissed.







It was an out and back course, out 7 miles and then turn around and run back. I was running behind a girl with a long braid, and a guy with a yellow jacket on. They were running slower than I should have been running but I stayed with them, because he had a Garmin on and I kept asking him what mile we were at. Plus we were all walking the uphills.



Right after mile 6, loads of people had already turned around and were running back. It was a single track trail and I didn't like the way they sped past me, and didn't even try to go around. Fuck, if any of those guys had made me fall, it would have been so on.



Then I saw Sandi and Heather but Sandi was looking down so I just kept going. Got to the turn around at 1:23.



Running, running, running. The trails really were beautiful.


After the last water station, we had 3 miles to go, I started passing the same people who I'd been running with for the last 10 miles. I was singing along to Amy Winehouse and Ice Cube and just having a great run. I wanted a negative split.



And then I came out of the woods and headed to the finish line. I forgot to look at my watch and forgot to turn it off because I was looking for someone, anyone, I knew at the finish line. No one.



I think I finished in 2:47 or so. Not sure. I went to my car, stretched, and asked some girl to take my picture, like the dork that I am.



******UPDATE! I came in 2nd in my age group! WTF!




Judi Rothenberg
38
2 F 35-39
2:47:09

******UPDATE again! I came in 3rd, not 2nd. They missed Sandi's time of 2:24 so she got 2nd and I got 3rd. I am still happy with that!

Interview Madness

I am playing the game. Kim, who has the coolest IM finish photo I have ever seen (but I can't link to it since she doesn't have it up), has 5 questions for me.

Enjoy.

1.) We know you have a few tattoos. What are they, and what are their significances?

This question alone is enough for an entire post, but I'll keep it short. I had a total of 8 tattoos removed via laser. I still have 3 tattoos left.

The one on my left arm is a cover up, a total of 4 tattoos. The original was a snake wrapped around my arm, done by a junkie in Golden Gate park when I was 17. It was redone by some another junkie named Painless Paul about 3 years later. It still looked like shit, so I had it redone by Big Tom (Uptown Tattoo) in 2000. About a year later it was going to be removed via laser, and after two treatments, we decided it had too much color so we stopped the laser treatments. I had it redone again by Bee at Beelistic 3 years ago.

The tattoo on my right leg (calf) is also a cover up. Right now it's supposed to be a chinese dragon. It used to be a dagger with a snake wrapped around it. That tattoo was done by a tweaker-speed-freak bike messenger in San Francisco. It was awful. It wasn't even done with real ink. He burnt some wood and mixed it with water. I had Big Tom cover it up in 2000.

The last tattoo left is a tribal design that Black Anthony RIP did for me on my left shoulder. It was a design that this guy Mike had drawn on the back of an envelope. Mike had been in prison for 7 years and we wrote to each other. Anyways, this tattoo has had multiple laser treatments and is very light now. I will probably just leave it the way it is.

2.) What are some of your goals for this year (triathlon, personal, whatever!)

The only goal for 2009 is to complete IMKY.

3.) What are your guilty pleasures? (porn is NOT a guilty pleasure)

Well, I cannot stand porn.

I don't drink or smoke, and I abstain from all mind altering substances. So my only guilty pleasure is eating sweets. Which I do. A lot.

I love food. I think that's why I started endurance training. So I could eat.

4.) Have you ever thought of writing a book, or becoming a mentor? (I think your blunt style of writing is amazing, and your experiences are inspiring.)

Kim, that's sweet. Thanks.
If there are people out there that would actually buy the book, I'd tell my story. After I finish IMKY. And Claire's gonna be my editor.

I don't think I'd be a good mentor though. Maybe someday.

5.) What are your first thoughts when you wake up in the morning?

I usually think about the dogs because they require the first two hours of my day. First I let them out to potty. Then I get ready to exercise them. They either go to the woods, the golfcourse, or I take them running with me. Then we come home and I feed them, usually while Dominic cooks breakfast.

If you want to play along:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by giving you five questions. (I get to pick the questions.)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

With that, I leave you with a video of Dominic on his D Motion Rollers. We love them!



Have a good weekend, thanks for reading.

Fish Drama

We're still having issues with the fish.

We lost a Convict last night, Billy. Dominic had a total of 4 Convicts - 3 of them lived in this tank. Bobby attacked Billy and Billy ended up with Pop Eye disease and he died last night.

These two fish, Rocco who is an Oscar, (the big one on the right) and Johnny the Convict on the left, are in sick tanks. Rocco has Hole in the Head, a nasty fish disease that is actually parasites in the digestive tract. Johnny shared a 75 gallon tank with Rocco so he had to be doed with meds too. Johnny is fine now, and soon will be going back to the big tank.

As you can see, Dominic clearly loves his fish as much as he loves his other animals. He's so sensitive to them. He's trying like hell to make Rocco better. He changes his water everyday and is dosing him with meds. It sucks because Rocco really doesn't look well. I think Dominic will lose it when Rocco goes. Rocco's been with him 8 years!

This is Vito, he's a Green Terror and he is doing great. He's a tad psycho. He can't be with any other fish because he'll just kill them. He needs a bigger tank though.

Thanks for reading. I am glad you liked my last post. I am glad I inspire people, though I just can't understand why.

15 miles down memory lane

I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation
You're living in the past it's a new generation
A girl can do what she wants to do and that's
What I'm gonna do
An' I don't give a damn ' bout my bad reputation
Oh no not me

Last night I mapped out a 15 miler from my house. I didn't realize what I was doing at the time but I was going to be running though my old stomping grounds.

I started out down Glenway hill towards downtown through the mexican ghetto. I ran down Gest to Dalton and across west 8th to downtown. I ran to Vine and turned left towards Over the Rhine.

As I was running down Vine I started remembering.

I remember when me and Diane used to meet the dope boys at that Kroger on Vine. I remember riding my bike around down there looking for pills with Aaron (RIP). Signing for Terpin Hydrate at that old man pharmacy and then downing the whole bottle.

I ran up Vine street hill and ran past that men's halfway house and thought about starting a running club for homeless men, like the one in Philly (Back on your Feet). I really want to do that someday.

I kept going up Vine street hill, and at the top, I saw Shorty's old house, my old dope dealer. I spent who knows how many thousands of dollars there as well as an engagement ring (I tried to give it back to the guy who gave it to me, but he sent it back).

I kept going, past the Walgreens where I stole many bottles of Robitussin, and 40 oz'ers of beer. Once I was trippin' on mushrooms in that Walgreens, and me and Charlie were trying to buy beer and rubbers and I hated being on mushrooms, I never did them again.

Down Short Vine, past Bogarts where I saw so many bands play, met Green Day, Jane's Addiction and Lemmy from Motorhead. Across the street, Sudsy's was a bar/laundrymat where bands played. The last show I saw there was The Melvins. One time me and Opie and Benji were walking past Sudsy's and I had a grand mal seizure from eating 17 darvocets. I woke up in the hospital.

Now Sudsy's is gone.


Then down to MLK to Burnet and past the treatment center, Chaney Allen, where I was court ordered to stay for 4 months while I kicked methadone. To my left was the hospital I detoxed for two weeks, where Styx and Emily came to see me, and the doctors were convinced they were bringing me drugs, but it was all the drugs they had me on that kept me so fucked up.

Then I went in the UDF where me and Brendan bought bleach for the needle we had to share and I peed and bought a water and a Cliff bar.

Guzzled the water and then headed down to Oak street, past the AA clubhouse where I go to meetings now, and then down Highland.

I turned left on Auburn and across from Planned Parenthood was my old apartment where I slit my wrist after that assault downtown. And where I had two snakes that I fed little mice to. That apartment was where Amy and Aaron (RIP) came after they got back from copping bundles of dope in NYC, and we all did lots of it and I tried to steal a few bags while Amy nodded out but she busted me. And where I got my "fuck off" tattoo on my leg from Black Anthony (RIP), and many other tattoos.

And when I looked to my left I saw that street that led straight to Aaron's Mom's cool loft space in Walnut Hills and remembered when we rode double on a mountain bike from her house to my apartment.

Then I headed down Sycamore hill and past The School for Creative and Performing Arts, where I went from 1983-1988. And I fucking hated it.

Then past the jail, where they took my shoelaces cuz they thought I was going to try and kill myself, and where the cop had to help me walk in the courtroom the next morning cuz I was detoxing so bad I couldn't hold myself up, and they took me to the hospital.....

Then I turned right on 9th street and back towards west 8th. Up Glenway hill where I got a second wind and then Joan Jett's Bad Reputation came on and I pushed through the pain to get up the hill.

And home.

I am so glad to be in the here and now.

Recap and V-day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I bought Dominic a ShamWow. He's been begging for one since he moved in.



He baked me a cake. It's a triple layer chocolate cake and we had vanilla ice cream with it.



The weekly recap:

Sunday - 100 minute trainer spin for charity. 20 minute brick run after.
Monday - AM fixed gear ride, around 20 miles with hill repeats. PM 1 hour weights, upper body.
Tuesday - 10 mile run (6 by myself, 4 with Nancy's dogs), 3000y swim
Wednesday - Speedwork 5x800's total for 6 miles. 2500y swim.
Thursday - 8.5 mile run
Friday - 2500y swim
Saturday 5.5 mile run



Update - the ShamWow works great!


shamwow from judi rothenbeg on Vimeo.

SwimSwimSwimSwim

A Peugeot Dominic repainted

That is a bike Dominic painted for one of his friends, a girl he used to work with. It was originally supposed to be mine, but it was too small for me. He's been working on it, off an on, since last fall. It's finally ready to be built. The frame is yellow and the lugs are green. They even bought Peugeot decals for it. I'll post pix of the entire bike once it's done.

it used to look like this

This morning I got up at 5:30am and went to the Y to swim before work. I haven't done the 6am lap thing since December. I have a couple excuses for that. One being that, since they deducted 4 hours a week from my schedule, I have time on Thursdays to get that swim in, without having to wake up super early. The second excuse is the weather, being winter and all, it was just too fucking cold to get out of bed that early.

I swam 2500y. It went like this:

500 free warm up

1x300 pull

1x200 kick

5x200 on the 3:45

1x100 breast

1x100 back

1x300 free cool down

I want to talk about my swimming a little. I am loving the pool these days. I have been thinking about doing some longer open water swims this summer too. I'd love to train up to a 10k swim.

My 500 time is down to 9 minutes (a minute faster than 7 months ago). I can even get it down to 8:30 if I push.

My 100's are at about 1:30-1:35.

Wednesday, Amanda's boyfriend Paul, did an underwater swim video analysis of my stroke (that's an example). She's been dating him for a few months and he coaches at Wright State and does all the swim clinics for the local triathlon group (that I am not a member of). He came down and video taped me underwater. He is going to send me a DVD that analyzes my stroke, what I am doing wrong, how I can correct it, etc.

I am having some serious lower back pain, especially when I swim long, or swim fast speed sets. When I met Paul on Wednesday, my lower back was still hurting from the masters class the night before. I really hope he can figure out what I am doing that is making my back hurt so bad. It's going to be a serious problem if I can't correct it.

After he was done taping, Paul worked with me for a good hour. He asked when I do my send off's on a 100y. I typically do them on the 2:00 (stop laughing). So he had me do 5x100's. The 1st one I finished in 1:30. He's like "now you have 30 seconds of rest". I was embarrassed! Usually I am around 1:42 - who the fuck knows where that 1:30 was coming from! I was right around 1:33 for the other 4 100's . So now I know I need to do my send off's on the 1:45.

We did 50's in masters on Tuesday and I did mine on the 55. The second set of 50's I did on the 50 and that was pushing it. I only had a few seconds before I had to go again. I am learning!

This morning I was frustrated. If I can swim a 100 in 1:33 why the hell is it taking me 3:36 to swim a 200?? The 1st 200 I saw my time and thought maybe I swam an extra 50 by mistake. But then I swam another 200 and saw the same fucking time. So I did my send off's on the 3:45.

Whatever. I know I am way better off than where I was this time last year, so that's all that counts.

I'll leave you with a picture of Ari's drool. He was walking around for about 5 minutes with this drool hanging off his mouth. He drools so much when we eat. There is always a puddle on the floor, that I have to wipe up, after a meal.

D Motion Rollers

My excuse for the hat is my hair was a mess from swimming. And me and Dominic really aren't this cheesey towards each other.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

First, I need to vent about this masters swim I did tonight. Why are these swimmers so fucking bitchy? This is the second masters swim I have been to this winter where all the women think they're hot fucking shit. I felt like saying Hey! I ran 10 fucking miles before I came here, what'd you do?

This girl I shared a lane with - who was late - was such a bitch. And she wasn't even in good shape. If you see a new girl, be nice, show her the ropes. Don't be a fucking bitch. Luckily I did know one girl named Staci, who is doing IMWI, and she was cool to me.

This is why I don't like group fucking exercise.

The motion rollers are finally finished. I am uploading video as I type.

Here are a few pictures from Sunday and Monday.

100 minute charity spin for Girls on the Run
Sandi in yellow and Amanda down in aero

me and Tom and Sandi

Fixed gear ride outside - Dominic got red shoe covers

new gear 42x15 kicks ass on hills

fixed gear love

Warm weather = melting snow = mud

E motion rollers project

You Tube makes my videos look like shit, or maybe it's our camera. Who knows. I tried to upload the video through Blogger but it took way too long (over an hour!). So this is all I got.



I have been riding the rollers. My hands always turn numb from holding on so hard. I am sure it will get easier. Especially with Dominic turning them into e-motion rollers, like this. He's been totally obsessed with this project for the last week.

He's totally tweaked out on this project

This week's recap:

Sunday - 14 mile run - Faster pace than I am used to. Cussed Sandi and Heather out for making me go fast.

Monday - 70 minutes rollers (AM) Weights - legs (PM)

Tuesday - 4.5 miles run with Nancy's dogs and 3000y swim

Wednesday - 1 hour weights (upper body, high reps) and speedwork on treadmill 3x1600 (mile warm up, half mile recovery in between each 1600 total 5.5 miles (fastest mile 7:41)

Thursday - 1 hour rollers and 2000y swim

Friday - 2 hours on the trainer

Sat - planning to run with the dogs before work. Probably 4 miles.

Shop Twin Six 2/6/09!

Tomorrow, Friday February 6th, Twin Six is donating half of their sales (not net), to their Team Fatty's Livestrong Challenge.

Help fight cancer. Spend some money, and get cool cycling stuff.

What's going on??

Right now it's snowing again. I am chilling out waiting for Dominic to come home from work and roasting a chicken. It seems about done.

The stupid fucking forecasters said "1-3 inches of snow". We are almost at 9 inches now. Stupid mother fuckers.

I got caught in it. I had this great plan to run Nancy's dogs, which I did and it sucked. Then I had to pick my nephew up from school and drop him off at his house. I was only 2 exits from a masters swim at the Y which I planned on going to.

It took me an hour to drive like 10 miles. And it was snowing so hard, I couldn't see 20 feet in front of me.

I got all the way the Y and they tell me the masters swim is canceled. I was so pissed. So I swam the 3000y on my own. I wasn't going to NOT work out after all that driving. I knew I'd be sitting in traffic either way, so I got my swim in. On my way out, I had to apologize to the girl at the desk for being such a psycho bitch when I got there.

In other training news.....

I have the rollers down! I still have that death grip going on, but yesterday I managed 25 miles in 70 minutes and felt like a million bucks. I am going to incorporate them into my Ironman training this spring. It takes a lot of concentration and it's an awesome feeling to be able to do it.

I did 4 sets of squats last night and the last set I managed 110lbs for 6 reps. I am not too sore today so that tells me I can go for more reps and more weight.

Random news.....

I got an invite to be on the Twin Six team this year! See the new side logo to your right. I am stoked about this. Twin Six is the only cycling apparel company I will wear jerseys from. They are comfy and stylish and the guys that run the company are very cool. Be sure to stop by their site the next time you want new cycling stuff.

And.....

We got all of Dominic's fish moved back in yesterday. Rocco and Johnny are sick with a disease called "Hole in the Head". It's a parasite actually, in the digestive tract, and both fish are in "sick" tanks. They are being dosed with meds. Vito is doing fine as well as well as the other Convicts. I hope we can move Rocco and Johnny back in their big 75 gallon tank soon.

One more thing....

Thank you to all of the commenter's on my post about why you read my blog. Some of the comments moved me to tears (Claire). If you haven't read the comments, you should. Pretty fucking rad.