Sorta...

Good grief I'm bad at keeping up with this sometimes. However, I have good reasons...sorta. Insufficient reason #1 I didn't have much to write about and insufficient reason #2 I am unemployed and have been busy looking for a job...sorta.

So in early June I got laid off from the worst job known to man kind. I liken it to a year and a half long hangover, yes that bad. But getting laid off has been the best thing for me, "a blessing in disguise" as my mom would say. I wouldn't have left the job due to the poor economy and would had been miserable for who knows how long, thus I'm happily taking this time off (sorta) and really focusing on things that I love, like training! 

Training has been fantastic! I'm really putting my all into it and finally seeing some results. The workouts are definitely not easy, but ironmans aren't easy. And they definitely take up a lot of time, however lucky for me, time is one thing I do have. 

Finally I am putting in those 20 hour workout weeks I should be. I think the biggest improvement has been the bike. Saturday I rode 86 miles at a very very good pace...sorta, well for me anyway, and I'm itching to get out there more and push it to see what I'm capable of. However, is this really a good idea, pushing the limits, when Ironman Wisconsin is only 6 weeks away??

I'm aching so badly to improve my pitiful IM time from the Great Floridian and know I can but I'm afraid of pushing too hard and "bonking" during the race. Thus when do you know when you are at your true limits before it's too late? 

I think I have just written the longest definition of a procrastinator. Too bad it took me getting laid off to really start getting into this training and unfortunately I'm paying the price of not knowing my strengths and weaknesses in time to really do great at IM WI. I know in the end I will do the best I can and that's all I can do for now, but damn, do I have to be such a procrastinator?

Well I will get my third chance at the IM distance next year at Lake Placid. I was in shock that I was actually able to get into the race and now I'm so excited...sorta. It's well known IM Lake Placid is one of the hardest courses and has a decent that will make me wet my pants, but I really am looking forward to the challenge of monster that is called "Papa Bear"...sorta.

Trainer, trails, trying

This weekend I finally got my butt out and did my long workouts.

My brake on my bike is funky right now and thus I was hesitant to ride outside therefore I rode the trainer. Although, I won’t lie, I prefer the trainer more often than not than going outside. I put in the movie Mama Mia (which I hadn’t seen and it’s great!) and pedaled away. For once I actually stuck to the exact workout listed and was definitely huffing and puffing at the end. A good 2.5 hours later I was done with the bike and happy that there wasn’t a run on Saturday’s workout. I finally pushed myself on a longer ride, imagine that! Good grief I can be lazy sometimes.

Saturday night we attended a “Polo Barn Party” for a children’s charity of some sort. The tickets were free thus the food was free and the beer was free…can’t beat that. So since I had worked so hard on the bike I decided I could afford to have a few drinks. As I enjoyed my numerous drinks, I made a fatal flaw of not thinking of the long run I had in the morning that would inevitably be done hung-over. Much to my amazement when I woke up in the morning I felt ok, a little dehydrated but not hung-over! Whoopee! Therefore, a bowl of cereal later and I was off on my 1.5 hour run.

Moving to a new area kinda sucks because you have to find new areas to bike and run, luckily we have moved to area that is much nicer for athletes than our previous place of residency. The run was all along the Bear Creek Trail which was actually a quite difficult run; I can’t recall a flat section on the whole 1.5hr loop that I ran, YAY for hills!! I was definitely feeling the hills, probably more due to the previous night’s boozefest, but doing mostly treadmill runs didn’t really prepare me for the natural terrain.

Side Note: No matter where I move to, I have found that I will always find a golf course to run on, whether I’m intentionally looking or not. I swear all tri- or running- geeks have a tendency to seek out golf courses! Well the trail I was on winded through the Bear Creek golf course and it was beautiful; of course very little shade, but really pretty.

In general I felt great on the run! My legs were feeling fantastic at the end, which rarely happens, and I was ecstatic. A long hard run complete and I wasn’t that tired afterward! Although to ensure my legs would remain feeling good for the rest of the day, I decided to “treat” my legs to an ice bath.

Hmmmm is it an ice bath or is it 3 minutes of torture (before numbness sets in)? I had forgotten how badly ice baths hurt until your legs go numb. YIKES! After I got in, during the pain, I was thinking how nuts I am to be doing this, even my dog and cat thought I was nuts; they just stood there staring at me with their heads cocked to the side just looking befuddled. However, after a few minutes went by the bath was complete bliss and best of all, it worked! My legs felt great for the rest of the day, not even a hint of fatigue, and they don’t hurt today (Monday)! I must make a point not to be a wuss and do these more often, they’re like miracle recovery for your legs!

After this weekend of trying but successful long workouts, I definitely look forward to what next weekend has in store for me and my legs! Until then I’m focusing on this week’s workouts, which look hard. EEK!

Success…small but good.

So I finally got my butt out of bed, two days in a row, and went to the gym before work to run! Major success for this girl who likes her 9 hours of sleep each night.

So why do I go to the gym to run and not just go outside in my very safe (low crime) neighborhood? Coyotes! And not like the sweet, dumb Wiley Coyote type, mean ones that eat “purse dogs” and kitty cats. We have tons of them around us. I know the majority are scared of humans and will run away but I don’t really feel up to taking that risk…alone….in the dark. I would consider taking Ty (the dog) but he’d probably run away too, that or try to make friends with the darn thing, thus to the gym I go.

I have to admit, I do love running on the treadmill, and I never have an easy day on it. I love being able to keep track of my pace, time, distance, and heart rate throughout the whole run. Being able to see my pace just keeps making me push that speed up just a little bit more every few minutes. By the end of any treadmill workout I’m sweating like a piggy and seriously out of breath, I love it! I love running outside too, especially for the hills, but sometimes the weather just doesn’t cooperate and there’s my trusty friend…the gym!

Speaking of the gym and running on treadmills, I have a rant that is dying to be typed out… I HATE treadmill peepers, ya know those people who run next to you and are constantly looking over to see what speed you’re at and your time/distance, just so they can bump up their speed to make sure they are going faster than you. This guy next to me this morning kept looking over and he didn’t make any attempt to hide his nosiness. He would look over at my speed and then bump it up by one every time I bumped mine up… poor fool I was doing intervals and was only half way through my workout when he stopped, gasping for air, and left. UGH! I usually bring a towel to cover the machine so I can’t see the time but none of my towels can cover the digital speed reading, but why should I have to cover anything? ‘MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! I’m here for me, not to compete with you.’ How annoying. Oh well just gotta ignore them and continue doing my own thing I suppose.

At any rate, hopefully I can keep this routine of going to the gym every morning and of course, continue to get in my other workouts, swimming and biking, as well. I think this weekend will be a big run and bike weekend and surprisingly I’m looking forward to it!

See, he’s too sweet to fight off a big bad coyote, he gives Kona kisses!

Weekend whirlwind!

Last weekend we traveled back to da burgh to get some wedding details figured out and all that stuff out of the way. Well I am happy to report we were quite successful. We got to visit the church, meet with the priest, eat at the restaurant where the rehearsal dinner is, pick flowers, taste food for the reception, and most importantly I was able to find a dress! Whew! What a week/weekend!

As exciting as getting wedding stuff completed there was another much more exciting event that took place while I was at home; the birth of my first niece Meghan Elizabeth! Meghan was quite a surprise to my brother and his wife Erin (and the rest of the family) as they were full heartedly expecting a boy, but much to the dismay of all our predictions a beautiful baby girl was born. Meghan was a whopping 8lbs 3oz and 20.25 inches long. She was so healthy and big that she didn’t even look like a newborn, she looked like she was already 2 months old…she was perfect!

The minute I found out that it was a girl my mom and I ran out to Kohl’s to buy as much baby girl (aka pink) clothes we could find. It was so fun buying clothes for a baby and I can’t wait until I can buy her more and spoil her like good aunts should. My other brother, Shane and his wife, Nadine are expecting in September and considering I probably won’t be able to be there for the birth of my second niece or nephew, I was overjoyed to be there for Meghan’s entrance into the world. Come September I will have two babies to spoil and I couldn’t be happier!

The proud parents!

Meghan Elizabeth

Proud Grandparents

Meghan and me.

This is my favorite photo! Starting the girl early, she will be a triathlete!

Weekend of Races…

Wow what a weekend in the running world! Tons of people that I know were racing in Pittsburgh, Lincoln, or NJ and whoa, everyone did so well, I am so impressed. Whether my friends were racing for the first time , doing it just to finish, doing it for a cause, or doing it to win, they all did so SO well. This is why I love the sport of running (or Tri for that matter) anyone can do any race if they push themselves just a little bit, and what’s even better, the support and encouragement all runners give to other runners it’s just amazing! Yea if you run, or do tris, you are in a fantastic community of people, a community of constant support, whether you know it or not. This great support in itself should be enough motivation to go out and run that extra mile.


I can honestly say at this point in my life I get as much satisfaction as watching a friend do a race as when I do one myself. Yea when I’m watching I want to be out there racing too but I love to see someone cross that finish line that would have never dreamed it possible until they tried. The long and short of it, I’m very proud of my friends and their accomplishments this weekend! You motivate me to go the extra mile! Thanks! : )

Shower, shower, shower...

Wake up, shower, work, train at lunch, shower, back to work, train, shower…see the pattern. That’s a lot of showers. I take, at absolute minimum, three showers a day! I don’t know if my hair or skin can take it anymore. My skin is always dry, but I have lotion so no big deal, but my poor hair; it’s starting to get all dry and brittle and fall out! YIKES! I’m going bald because of exercise…interesting. And the damage that chlorine does to hair alone is just cruel but add on three showers, yea I repeat, my poor hair. There must be a solution that will not compromise working out but doesn’t cause immeasurable harm to my hair. I know there are tons of you out there with the same problem, so what’s the solution? I was told that if I didn’t shampoo in all three showers that would improve the health of my hair, but is that true? Or will I just have to live with the fact that my hair will be crap for entire seasons’ worth of training? Ideas?

Swim! Run! Bike?

Good Lord I’m bad at writing on this thing. It’s funny because I always have tons of ideas what I want to write but just never get around to writing them. Ok I’m going to try SO hard to write more often on this thing, as it gives me inspiration to get farther and faster and better than I was from the previous entry.

So the training is coming along rather nicely but of course there are the ups and downs of training for any long race such as an IM. The ups are I’m starting to workout more often and more consistently, during the week, and the downs are I’m sucking at working out on the weekends and getting those long rides/runs in...a change that must be made ASAP!

Every week day at lunch I am going to the gym and getting in either a run or a swim. In the last 3 weeks alone I have swum more times than I did all last season, and keep in mind last season I did an IM! Yea, can you tell swimming is not my favorite of the three? My swimming is probably where I’m seeing the most improvement…going from doing a 2 min to 2:10min /100m at a comfortable pace to doing a 1:40/ 100m pace is a big deal in my book. I know the time still sucks but I never, nor will I ever, claim to be a great, or even good swimmer. However, now I’m more excited to get in the pool and see how much faster I can go! I love to push myself and when I can see improvement it gives me that much more of a reason to push harder and harder. Then there’s running…

This last year being out in CO, running has been my biggest heart break. In DC I was running, easily, a 7:30/mile pace and once I moved out here I could NOT get below a 9/mile pace, it was AWFUL!!! I started to absolutely hate running and definitely wanted to give up, but after my somewhat decent marathon at the IM, I figured I should push through, what everyone was telling me was a high altitude adjustment, and strive to be that 7/mile runner I once was. Well I’m back on the road and improving everyday! I can now do an easy 8:20/mile pace, still sucky but definitely improving, and that’s after only running for 2 weeks consistently. So it’s a small feat but an optimistic one for me.

And as for biking, I haven’t been doing much of that. I would like to blame my little time in the saddle on just buying and moving into a new house but really, that’s no excuse. I’ve been on the bike once this week and plan on riding tonight, tomorrow, and, hopefully, Saturday….we’ll see how it goes.

Thus, more biking and more weekend rides/runs is really what I’m striving for now. I figure if I suck it up and become a little more disciplined that as I put more time into everything, eventually the improvement in times will come naturally. Here’s hoping!