Guilty on all 4 counts, finally.

Well, its been a long time since this event happened and I haven't been able to talk about it legally until the other day, I stewed for awhile about whether or not to write something about it but felt in the end it was important even if it just helped one person, so here it goes.

Last October we hired a babysitter to help me from 3-7p Mon-Thursday, mainly to help with driving the kids to and from activities and dinner if I'm unable to get home on time with the other kids. We have had a number of sitters over the years and they all have been very successful and wonderful and we have found them through various sources. This time I found her MS I'll call her on sittercity. I didn't have a lot of responses given that the job wasn't even considered part time and the others weren't the best even though for college students it should of been fine, but MS was good, she was energetic ( to a point) eager to work and had a good resume of working with children. Her background check with sitter city was good and her references checked out. My husband and I interviewed her for over 2hrs and the kids met her and liked her.  She was able to start fairly quickly after leaving another job but said the family was aware she was looking for more hours and was actively looking to leave. Needless to say ( I'll cut to the chase) for the 5 weeks MS worked for me she took a total of 8 days off for various reasons, she was incompetent from the day she started and I fired very quickly. I could list all the things she sucked at but it would take forever, she made my life harder and the kids and I didn't really like her. Enough said. 3 days after I fired her I noticed that all of my jewelry was stolen, except for a few things I wear on a daily basis everything was gone.

I filed a police report the next day and within a few days found out indeed it was her that had pawned all of my jewelry. It took several weeks of talking with her and the police and her working with them to have her finally admit her guilt and be arrested. She was arrested on 3 counts of felony larceny and 1 count of obstruction of justice.

After MS left my employment she actually found another job in Peabody with another family as a babysitter through sitter city and stole from that family as well, she was arrested within 2 weeks of employment with that family.

It took over 10 months but finally the court system prevailed and we went to court last Thursday and she pleaded guilty to all 4 counts and was given 3yrs of strict probation and multiple things she needed to abide by ( I won't get into it). We did find out that drugs were an issue and was probably the main reason for her stealing but in her very short time with me I wouldn't of thought that yet on hindsight her behavior was definitely conducive to a drug addict.

Anyhoo, I was a little bummed she didn't get jail time for her crimes given the amount of money she stole from us but because it was her first offense the judge was a bit lenient, however if she broke probation in anyway she would go to jail for a long time. That made me feel better but I still felt that she needed to know how she impacted all of our lives and that I didn't think that her behavior was going to change unless she went to jail. Oh well, that wasn't going to happen.

I left the courthouse last week feeling okay about the results but still pissed off that she didn't go to jail.

Well, only a little time passed when I got a phone call today from the assistant district attorney who said she was arrested today 9/11/12 for shop lifting in Peabody, for a measly pair of $40 earrings. She will be held in jail for 2 weeks until her hearing. Can you believe it, it didn't take her even a week before she committed another crime, if that doesn't scream out " help me" I don't know what does. I hope she goes away to jail for a long time.

What I learned:

1. I thought I did all the background necessary when hiring her. I should of asked for her most recent employer that she was leaving no matter what the circumstances.  Otherwise there was nothing else I could of done to prevent seeing this happen to me.

2. Thank goodness she didn't hurt my kids. If she indeed was doing drugs who knows what could of happened. I'm just grateful nothing happened.

3. I will never go through an online service again. I feel absolute guilt that I couldn't tell the other family what happened to me, I couldn't get her off sitter city in time to prevent something like this from happening. She wasn't convicted yet and if I went to sitter city I could of been slapped with a harassment suit or something worse. It wasn't until after the Peabody incident that we were able to get her off sitter city. She also went through craigslist to get jobs, it was crazy, who patrols these sites. If your a parent you need to do thorough background checks and have multiple references before hiring anyone. At least now she has a criminal record and she is in the system, she hopefully will never be hired again by a family.

Its over now and hopefully we can move on. I have felt completely betrayed and I've felt that I put my children at risk, never again. Momma bear is on the prowl and I will never have anyone watch my children that I don't know personally, if ever.

I will keep everyone posted on the outcomes of her court date in 2 weeks, I'm hoping she gets the maximum from her case with me which is 12 years.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel

So its been awhile since I last blogged, sorry for that, but I've had a lot on my mind since I raced last on July 28th. I was ramping up for IMMT on Aug 19th and my last race before ironman was good, really good for me, I did an Olympic distance race in Lowell, it was a little shorter than a normal race but I did well placed second in my Age Group and my time of 2:12 wasn't shabby, and a PR. After that race it was 1 more week of build and then on to taperville.

Things were going well until about August 10th when I started to notice a small pain in the center of my left glute, I've had this discomfort before and it was related to my performis tightening up and pressing up against my sciatic nerve, it was uncomfortable but bearable, I knew all I had to do is go to my amazing massage person Darcy and get some deep tissue done to work it out. On Monday before ironman I had my appointment and was set to go. Come tuesday and wednesday things were going south, the pain in my performis was getting worse and my SI joint was killing me. I couldn't sit on my bike without getting some significant pain down my hamstring and trying to go aero hurt my left lower back ( i.e., SI joint). When I ran the same thing happened, not as bad as on the bike but enough for me to start panicking and worrying about how I was going to ride for 6hrs and then run a marathon.

Ok, so I've had a really good year and making some good progress in my 3 sports I was hoping to head into IMMT and PR my race. Whether or not that would be good enough for Kona probably not but all I really wanted to do is have a successful race from start to finish and to run the run. The past two iron mans I've done Ive done at IMLP, the first year I had a really bad bike crash at mile 60 and the road rash was so bad I felt my skin was burning the rest of the race, but I finished in 13:40 or something like that, I walked most of the marathon it was just awful. The following year I went back for some redemption and I think I overtrained a bit, I was mentally exhausted and I placed very high expectations of myself ( and very unrealistic expectations) that when I didn't meet them I was crushed when I crossed the finish line and I wasn't having any fun, it sucked, I felt I sucked it was just awful. I said goodbye to ironman for awhile and decided I needed to take a new direction in my training and find the love again.

The fun and love for my sport came back when I joined QT2 just before the fall of 2011. My coach Pat Wheeler put me in the right place, was tremendously supportive and having a team to be there and support you made a huge difference for me both physically and especially mentally. Every race I did starting in 2012 I began to see drastic changes in my times and success in my age group. I wasn't burnt out, I wasn't overtrained and most importantly I really started loving the sport again. Also, I wasn't injured.

So onto this year, life was good, training was going well and I knew if I could keep mentally strong, still enjoyed the process it was going to be a good race for me in Mont Tremblant. My swim is always consistent, my riding good and my running was coming along, my last few key workouts went exactly as planned so I was ready. Like I said, I don't think Kona qualification was going to happen I'm at least realistic but I'm working on the long haul, if not this year maybe next, its always a possibility but you have to get to the starting line for it to be at least in the cards.

So come Thursday I went to my primary care physician she took x-rays of my lumbar/sacral spine and SI joints, there was some inflammation and arthritis in my L4-L5, she gave me pain meds and muscle relaxants. She really didn't want me to race but said we crazy endurance athletes can endure more pain then most so she said she would leave the decision up to me. Well after discussing with Pat and sitting down with my husband we decided that I've trudged through two iron mans before and that certainly wasn't the goal this year. I can finish an ironman, i've done a few I wanted to really race an ironman this year and I was ready, unfortunately the body finally said you need a few weeks to heel. Well, the decision got made and we decided we wouldn't race.

I was sooooooo sad on Thursday when the decision was finally getting made but at the same time my life quickly got put into perspective when I found out my dear friend and my co-captain of our high school swim team Michael committed suicide that day. When my friend David told me the news I was devastated, crushed, confused, I didn't understand how he could do this. I was so sad for his 4 kids, so sad for his mom and dad and brothers and sisters, just so sad all around. We will never really know why Michael felt he needed to do this and why he would do it on his birthday but all in all it put my life quickly into perspective. I could always do another race, I was alive, my family was intact, I guess me missing this race really wasn't that bad after all.

So after making this decision we headed up to Vermont for a little vacation and some mental and physical healing, I was able to swim and do some small exercises. I did run a little and since not riding my bike the pain was going away. When we returned to Manchester Pat suggested I see Mike Roberts at Central Mass PT in West Boylston Mass. When I visited Mike he was quite surprised that I hadn't fallen apart sooner. I wish I could completely articulate all the things Mike said but in quick summary I:
1. My left hip doesn't externally rotate very well
2. My pelvis I believe is anteverted
3. I have a very squishy Left SI joint
4. I don't fire my left glute much at all especially when I'm trying to engage it in both running and biking
5. I fire both my hamstring and my SI joint before my glute which has made both of them extremely made at me and thus the situation I'm in now.

What to do:
1. Trigger point exercises/self massage to work on hip external rotators
2. foam roller to work on groin and inner thigh
3. pelvic stability, setbacks with roller and setbacks with external rotation
4. pelvic stability and core exercises with both clam shell exercises and working on extensions with my pelvic bones on pillows .
5. A.R.T. twice a week for a few weeks.- have them work on hips/hip flexors, psoas release, hamstrings
6. f/u with Mike in 2 weeks for level 2 exercises

So our initial plan to maybe try to do Arizona or possibly Florida in November was kaboshed since Pat and I wanted to really make sure we heal up and get stronger in the areas that need to be stronger. So we decided our plan of attack will most likely be if everything works well and my healing and physical therapy go as planned:

Continue to swim, build up my run volume again, work on Mike's exercises and strengthen my core and left side and plan to run the Plymouth, Mass marathon on Novembre 18th, 2012. We will then recover and then plan for 2013 with most likely going to QT2 camp in Arizona in April and racing Ironman Texas in May. I don't know if I can squeeze in a 1/2 ironman ( for ex: texas 70.3) again given to the two travel times if I do both so we'll have to really tweak this when my annual plan is made. I'll probably front load my 2013 season and then do some olympics in the summer and then rebuild to do Pumpkinman half in September and who know's maybe Kona in October.

Thanks to all my friends who supported me and family over the last few weeks and thanks to my coach Pat Wheeler and QT2 for making me better and encouraging me every step of the way. I'm looking forward to a great race in november and hoping to continue my progress and dreams of one day making it to the big Island in 2013.

Its tough sometimes

So, its summer, kids are home, life is hectic but good, kids are doing a few camps but otherwise they are home. We are doing lots of swimming and playing outside and hanging with the dog. I'm trying to coordinate my remaining training for Mont Tremblant with the kids around and its getting tougher. Some days I have to ride my bike on a trainer while my kids are playing next to me or run on the treadmill late at night just to finish because we had 7hrs of swim meets to attend to and basketball games. I'm not really complaining, I have a great life, however I'm not quite sure scheduling an ironman in the summer is or was such a great idea, its so dam hard logistically trying to figure it all out, how I can get it all in. For example:

Two weeks ago I was starting my two week build and I had a 5hr bike f/b a 50 min T run scheduled, I got my cousin to come over early so I can leave on my bike ride so I could be home in time to pick up my kids from camp, which I scheduled for them to get out at 1:30p so we could hang for the rest of the day. Well, who knew that two flats later and no way of getting home because I ran out of tubes and C02 was going to happen. I called my awesome cousin who drove from Salem mass to retrieve me in Groveland, Mass, it took 1hr 15 min to get me and another 30+ minutes to get home, so only 2 1/2 hrs of biking got in because I had to go get my kids, I needed to fix my wheel and we had lots of basketball to do in the afternoon.  See, I have no flexibility in my schedule, if the ride didn't get in from x time in the morning that was it, I tried to think I could hop my trainer later and treadmill but I'm so tired by 8p with the kids I just want to go to bed.

Example #2: Swim meets, 7hrs a day of regional swim meets at MIT for my kids, how does one get in training when you need to be at an indoor pool all day, well, you get up at 4am, you run or do an early morning swim in the ocean crossing the heavenly gods that nothing happens to you in the ocean alone because its too dam early for the lifeguards to be out and its prime shark feeding time ( Well, thats a bit exaggerated, however early morning is known for fish feeding), anyhoo, its just not optimal anymore for me to get up that early, it takes forever for me to get my mojo on and by the time the workout is over I'm sure if I was able to perform it at a reasonable hour I might of actually hit my numbers. However, you do it because you love it, you do it because you have a goal in mind, you do it because, well, it makes you feel good, it makes me feel good.

Example #3: Today, I had a 40min swim, 1hr 30 min bike, 45 min run and 15 min of TRX to do, I squeezed in my swim early this morning then ran off and did errands and cleaned the house came back and picked up two kids at noon. Fed them lunch, cleaned up and it was time to pick up child #3. Ok, trying to figure out how the rest was going to get done I waited for my awesome cousin to come over and she was going to watch the 4 while I went downstairs to my girlie cave to get some workouts in ( I don't usually leave anyone in charge of my 4 kids so working out in the house is the only option). So during said workouts you have kids screaming, coming down to yell and fight around the bike and treadmill, one needs to stop treadmill workout to make sure kid in time out is staying in timeout, etc... You get the picture, chaos ensues, oh, and dog pooping in front of said treadmill during session not so great. I guess the kids forgot to take him out and he ( the dog) was pissed at me too.

Well, ironman is almost here and I feel like I did the best I could with training, I think I was able to get in about 97% of all my training, however missing some of the workouts always freaks me out and I get real nervous about that, but I'm healthy, I feel good and getting to ironman healthy is half the battle. I will be traveling with my kids and husband to this ironman ( ought to be interesting), so we'll see how it goes. I have one more race this weekend to see how things are going and I will continue the taper until August 19th. From now on when I choose my " A" races they will be scheduled in October and November and March through the end of June, its just too hard.

Untitled by donnafurse at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by donnafurse at Garmin Connect - Details

HITs Hunter Mountain 1/2 ironman RR and other little things

So, I'm going to start my race report from wednesday on.  I brought my bike into Fitwerx to change over my cassette over to an 11x28 and to get it race ready, on Thursday Mike called and told me they found a hole in the rear fork of the frame. Marty didn't want to make the call he felt so bad considering what I went through 4 years ago with my GURU ( it flew off the back of my car and smashed into a million pieces right before Providence 70.3). I was almost in tears, I knew I had to race in 4 days, what was I going to do. Marty knew I was going to be upset, Fitwerx has always gone out of their way for their customers and Marty was desperately trying to figure out how we could get me a bike for my race, even if it was borrowing one from the floor of the store. I told them I would call my good friend Nan who was my coach 4 years ago when I had my first bike fiasco and I borrowed her Cervelo P1, aluminum bike, 9 speed. I had a great bike ride on that bike in providence 4 years ago, I only rode it that one time and I really liked the bike. Riding her bike made me change my bike choice when it came to buying a new one when my guru was destroyed. Nan has become a great friend and she didn't even hesitate to let me borrow her bike.
I called Marty on Friday morning and told them I would bring her bike by so that Dean could try to use my fitting numbers to her bike, they did the best they could, she has non-adjustable aero bars, she needed new cables and housings, her shifters were off but they didnt have any 9 speed shifters in the store so I just needed to finagle them on the course, and otherwise the bike was in fair condition. I was concerned that she didn't have a compact on her bike, given the elevation profile and difficulty of the course I knew my legs would be crying but it was what it was.  I picked up the bike friday night and I was good to go.

Saturday morning we went to 3 of my childrens piano recitals which were awesome and then I headed straight home with my mom and we packed up the car. Unfotunately, ( incident #2) I backed into my mother-in laws car and dented her right front fender, that sucked, what was next, I needed #3 to happen because things happen in 3's don't they?

Anyhoo, off we went to Hunter, NY, my mom and me. The drive was uneventful, it took about 4 hours in total to get there. We had to get to the campground to register by 4 and to be at the athlete information session. All I can say is that as we headed into the campground all I noticed was how drastically hilly the surrounding town was as well as the street we took to get into the park, I was starting to get a bit nervous.

Registration was easy, I found out only 140 people registered for the 1/2 ironman and 27 for the ironman. Wow, that was small. All 167 of us would start at the same time in the morning in one wave. The lake looked beautiful, the temp was perfect, 64 degrees and the air temperature was predicted to be low 60's in the morning building to 80 by the afternoon with good cloud cover, so not so bad.

I had a lousy meal at night ( awful lasagna) however I knew I had eaten very well over the last week and had a great breakfast that I wasn't too concerned about my carb intake. My overall hydration was good so all I needed was a good night sleep.  Well, my mother who snores terribly a/w the party upstairs kept me up for a bit during the night but otherwise I slept fine. My nerves were ok, I'm not nervous anymore about completing 1/2 ironmans or the amount of people in the race or whose in the race I was concerned about the course, it looked so hilly that I was just concerned about my performance. I spoke to Pat before heading to bed and he gave me a great pep talk, he knew I had trained well and gave me all my zones and watts and paces, I held my breath with some of them but knew I needed to believe in them. My concern again was the course and whether I could do these numbers with this course I wasn't so sure.

Swim: Ok, beautiful lake, very shallow, course was counter clockwise, water start, shallow with lots of big, sharp rocks, you really needed to be careful or you would cut yourself. I started on the front with all the guys and 1 women, I don't really care anymore who I start with I just don't want to be in the back. The swim to me seemed a bit long, not by much but maybe 200yds or so maybe a little more. There wasn't a ton of people to swim with, I was in the front group but there were a few who got away from me and then I was alone. I came out of the water in 31:09 on my watch and I crossed the timing mat at 32 ( long run up hill from beach to t1).

Swim: 31:09 my watch, 32:00 HITS, 2nd female, 12th swimmer overall

T1- quick, uneventful, 1:20 something

Bike: What to say about the bike, don't really know but it was probably the most challenging 1/2 ironman bike i've done. You had to bike immediately up hill 3-6% inclince for 1.5 miles then head into a downhill then immediately up a quick steep hill ( 9%) then down, etc.. the first half of the bike there were a lot of rollers, 1 really long climb that I think probably was the killer on the course, some fair descents with some flats that you could get into aero for awhile but not a ton. The course was 1 loop but the back half of the course was a ton of climbing, riding at 5mph in my lowest gear forever was just demoralizing, seeing people walking up the hills with their bikes was so hard to see, no woman passed me and only 4 men passed me and a lot commented on my climbing skills, I was just trying to survive. I was trying not to peak my watts out over 250 on the hills but it was really hard to do that and everytime I saw numbers higher than that I kept hearing Pat in my head saying, " that's just more time off your bike, keep the numbers, keep the watts", it was a mind game. My nutrition was good, I definitely burped quite a bit at the beginning, I probably took in some lake water and I needed to digest and get it situated. I drank all my 3 bottles and tried to get aid on the course but they didn't have heed when I needed it and I got a water bottle full of water. That was fine, so I took 2 sodium tablets just in case.

I did stop for about 3 minutes to help a poor guy with a flat, I didn't change it for him but I got my bag out and gave him my tube and an extra Co2 cartridge. I kept thinking of Karma and that this wasn't my job and I would hope someone would stop for me if I needed it. I think it was the right thing, in the end I never would of caught the lead women so it made no difference, I would do it all over again.

The bike ended and I was still 2nd women overall, I was so psyched but nervous because I had seen the run course and knew it was going to be super hard. It was time to dig deep.

Bike: 3:15, 17.1mph, I haven't adjusted my watts on my powertap yet, 3rd fastest female bike split

T2- 1:24

Run: The run, what can I say, well, immediately my legs felt good, my turnover, my HR, no issues, I still new we had tons of hills and lots of challenges but it was starting well. We immediately had a 1+ mile climb to start getting out of the park, then we had a great descent which I love ( 2 miles) I was clocking a 7:50 mile at this point, feeling good, men commenting on how strong I looked, it was very encouraging, I kept on running. Then we hit the next steep hill and then onto Rte 23A. It was 2 1/2 miles from there to the turn around and all rollers, up and down, up and down, all I knew was that when I hit the turnaround at 6.65 miles you looked back and saw all the hills you had to climb back and then you knew you had a 4+ mile climb of significant grades back into the campground left to go, it was so hard to imagine, you knew this was going to be no PR day, you just stopped looking at your watch, you kept your HR up, kept up with the hydration and nutrition, you kept your cadence up, you just kept running. As I was climbing back into the campground I never once said I wanted it to be over because I was dead, I just wanted it to be over because I was going so slow, it was so hard to see 10minute miles, 9 1/2 min miles, 11 min miles, etc... but the incline was just stupid, it was survival.

2:04 run time: 9:23 pace

2nd overall Female.

AFter the race I talked with a lot of the athletes there that had lots of experience at other races, ( i.e., St. Croix, Lake Placid, Rev Quassy, Mooseman, Timberman, St. George, Zufingen, Triple T), some said it was the hardest half they ever did and some ranked it as the hardest run they have ever done after a tough bike. Another QT2 athlete that was there said it was probably a 20-30 minute difference with this course over average difficulty courses, that was comforting seeing as he placed second overall and was significantly talented.

I've had some difficulty after this race because I'm so concerned about the IMMT course, I no more wanted to or would of wanted to do 2 loops of the HITS course, i would of cried, I'm hoping that IMMT course is easier both for me physically and mentally, I had to go to places in my mind that I never did before and I still struggled.  I believe I performed to the best of my ability on this day and could of gone no faster, I just hope I can go faster on the day that matters in August.

I would recommend HITS Hunter, Mountain half if you want a significant challenge, it you want to get an amazing workout regarding strength and power before heading up to lake placid or any other hilly course. I can't imagine what that course would be like if it was extremely hot, I just can't imagine. But the staff and volunteers were great, the scenery of the Catskills is amazing with the waterfalls and greenery, so I guess I would consider doing it again if I had friends with me.

Endless Poop in "Cavalcade of Laffs 2" - The Meth Minute 39

Racing, kids and dog poop

So this weekend I am racing the HITS Hunter Mountain 1/2 ironman on Sunday. HITs is a new series brought to the triathlon world by Dave Scott. HITS is trying to attract the whole family and the whole tri community by doing a spring, olympic, half and a full ironman all on the same weekend. Seeing as I needed to find a 1/2 ironman on the 10th of June, this was the only one that was reasonable. I am excited about racing, I feel that I've done the work ( didn't lose enough weight though), and just feel like getting into the mix with the other people. The only thing that sort of distracts me for the weekend is that 3 of my kids made it to the Super Bowl for flag football and my 6yr old is playing in the semi-finals with the possibility of making it to the Super Bowl on sunday and I am missing it. I see about 99.9% of my kids practices and games and I just hate to miss any of them, but unfortunately I will be away for them this sunday and I'm a bit sad about that. Here's hoping that they have great success without me there and that my husband doesn't pull his hair out before I get home.

On another note my poor 6 month old berner is having severe diarrhea, not only is he sitting in pools of crap in his crate he shit in my car with a bunch of kids in it the other day. UGGGGGGG.  I was so desperate to get it cleaned that I dropped all the kids off at the birthday party and drove directly to a car wash and used the vacuum cleaner to suck it up. I used one of my kids t-shirts initially to scoop up the liquid that was starting to settle in the carpet but needed to suck the rest out of my kids shoes and whatever else was on the floor, back of the seats, etc..... You get my drift, it was bad.  Anyhoo, nobody saw me use the vacuum, hopefully I want get in trouble and Karma won't come after me, I've had enough of driving with my head out the window and smelling my new car smelling tree deodorizer, they are so gross.  Anyway, its getting detailed tomorrow and hopefully they can get the smell out.

Well as you can see my life as you know it continues to be a Seinfeld episode, 1 story after another, what will it be tomorrow?

A. Leopard Gecko found in toilet
B. Guinea pig hung by the wiring that keeps her water bottle hung in the cage
C. Crickets roaming free in the house because 6yr old felt they needed to be set free from the lizard cage
D. More diarrhea in crate
E. falling in the toilet because kids/husband didn't put seat down
F. Cat found in refrigerator ( don't ask)

I could go on but I may need to start writing some screenplays and sending them to Jerry Seinfeld.

Have a good one.