Day 76 & Day 77

Day 76: Today I spent 5 hours in the airport trying to get to FL for a friends wedding! Finally getting on a flight at 2pm where the plane was upgraded and there were no shows!!!!! I made it there but missed the Ceremony but was there for the Reception. I was hoping to get in early and go for a run, but as you can see that didn't happen. It was a very nice Reception and I was sad I missed the Ceremony. It looked like it was very pretty!!!

Day 77: Well just like Saturday I was hoping to get a bike ride in. After getting home and it being 9:30 am everyone was either out riding or leaving in an hour which was just not enough time to get all my biking stuff together and get to were I need to be for a ride going out at 10:30. So after going on 4 hours of sleep in 2 days I decided to lay day and take a nap. I guess I needed it because I woke up at 3:30 pm!!!! After I get back from St. Martin which I leave for on Saturday things are going to change. Time to get really serious! But for the rest of today I guess I'll enjoy the day and walk to dogs!!!!

Week 11, Days 71-75

Day 71: Today was a fun day! Since I don't go swimming till 7 pm a good friend of mine and I went to see two great movies. We really had a great time. When 7 pm came it was time to get back to work. =) Today was an easy day in the pool. We swam 2,600 yds, with 600 in drills and then 2,000 tempo swim.  I was feeling really good swimming today expect around the last 300. My shoulder has been causing some problems lately and today in the last 300 I was in a lot of pain. So I am going to see how I feel on Wednesday swimming and then make a decision Wednesday to see if I should get it looked at. Other then that I am feeling good with just a few aches and pains but nothing that is new, which is good! Tomorrow I am hoping to get on my bike, but I told myself that I really have to give my house so attention. =[ It really is tough to have time for everything when you are training for an Ironman, but I am loving it!!!!!

Day 72: Well the house won my attention today, but it needed it! I am glad to have a clean house for a few days till it gets dirty again. If I could only afford a cleaning person.  =) At least tomorrow is a trip up to Cartersville for hopefully a good training day!

Day 73: Today I had a really good training day. Even though I hate when my alarm clock goes off at 6 am, I always look forward to today's training day. I did a real easy 3 mile run and enjoyed every minute of it. =) Since I knew I was going to try to go out hard on the bike I wanted to take it easy. Like always we did a 27 mile ride and I think I avg. my best today out of all my Wednesday morning rides. I think I can thank Sheila for that. She is an amazing biker and I told her I was going to chase her the whole time. At mile 20 she dropped me completely where I couldn't even see her so next time I'll see if I can hold on a little longer. I really would think that all the hills I ride on, the hills would get easier but that doesn't seem to be the case. I guess it is time to start working in hill intervals, ugh. After a really good ride it was off to Lake Allatoona for our swim. The water was about 78 degrees so there were no wetsuits today! First swim without a wetsuit wet good, but boy do I love the wetsuit. Swimming is just so much easier with it =) I did about 2,000 yds and felt really good. My shoulder felt pretty good. I could feel a very faint pain, but nothing major so I was happy about that. Over all I am very please with my training today.

 Fox forgot his normal helmet so he was wearing the sperm helmet so he is pretending to look fast!!!

Sheila and I at one of the regrouping spots

First swim with no wetsuits!!!!

Day 74: Today was going to be a running and a weight training day, but when I got home from work and a  severe thunderstorms hit I canned the training for the night.

Day 75: Fridays are my off days and normally if since I didn't do anything on Thursday I would normally do something today. The is only one problem though... I need to go to bed so I can stay up all night for work. Before I got to bed though just a little preview of what is to come for the next two weeks. Tomorrow after work I leave for Daytona Beach for a friends wedding, so I am not sure that I will get a run in. We are leaving though at 6am Sunday morning so I can try to get back to get a bike ride in. Then on June 4th, Jordan and I leave for St. Martin for a week. When I get back though it is going to be balls to the wall and full speed ahead for training. So sorry friends and family if I seem to have disappear for the last 3 months of my training.

Day 71

Day 71: Today was an amazing day for a ride. I did the West GA 100 ride today! It was an amazing ride that was very challenging. If you recall me saying that the Rev 3 70.3 bike course was tough, I think this may have been harder. lol I did the 66 mile ride and lets just say hills and I became best friends today. Just when you think you could recover on a down hill from a climb you would just got right into another hill. Not only did hills and I become best friends I think I also became good friends with my small gear. I am one that fears dropping my chain and I'm not sure why, but after this ride today and all the shifting I am starting to feel better about it all!!! I really think this may be one of my favorite rides because 1) the course was tough and 2) the volunteers were extremely nice and wanted to do anything to help! Because of all the hills I am really planning on going out there to do that course again. I really feel that it will really help me get ready for Ironman Wisconsin. The elevation gain for the 100 miler on this ride was 5,000! After an extremely hill 66 mile ride I put those running shoes back on and went for a short and very slow 2 mile run. One thing that made it really bad was the heat. I got into the 90's today and riding and then trying to run in it as well was a killer. After today I really will be looking forward to a day of rest. Friday will not come soon enough!

After a HOT and brutal Hilly ride!

If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, or just finish the race its up to you.
-Dave Scott, Triathlete

Day 70

Day 70: Once again after working all night I put on my running shoes and head out for a run. Today was a really slow 11 mile run and I really depleted my legs. Today I did a hilly run from my house with Sheila and besides becoming completely wiped it really was a good run. I really like this loop I do from my house, because every time it just kicks my butt. You would think it would get easier, but it never does. I was glad when the run was over. For the rest of the day I enjoyed a nice breakfast and then went to a friends pool and hung out. It was a prefect ending to a nice day after a tough run!.

Think big, believe big, act big, and the results will be big. -Anonymous

Week 10, Days 65-69

Days 65 & 66: I decided to take these two days as a recovery day. I am one that usually likes to take the whole week off after a race just to make sure I am fully recovered, but training for Ironman i decided to take two days off. I enjoyed these two days even though I was busy playing catch up with a lot of things I have been putting off. Tomorrow is a whole other story though, because it will be back to training!

Day 67: You guessed it I was up in Cartersville all day training! Today I went for a 4 mile run and I felt really good on the run which I was happy about. My legs and knees where feeling good and I averaged a little over 8 mins per mile. After the run we went on a 27 mile bike ride and it was amazing even though I took it easy on the bike, the hills didn't seem that bad after this weekend lol. I could have pushed myself a little harder on the bike but I decided to go easy to help recover a little more but still put in some miles. After biking over to Lake Allatoona I went to go for a short swim. Here is where I started to feel it. I really started to feel tired and fatigued and was ready for the swim to be over. I only swam about 1,200 - 1,600 yds, but I swear every direction I went I felt like I was fighting a current just because I was tired. I sure was happy to be done but I still had a long day ahead of me though, because then it was off to work. ugh Hopefully I will get some good rest after work and be ready to go again tomorrow.

Day 68 & 69: Lets just leave it as I did nothing =( Work and my husband had my attention!

I really am going to have to get my act in gear. If I can have an excuse for this week I would say I am recovering this week from Rev3.

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital. -Joe Paterno
      I really need to remember this.

Day 64, Rev 3 Knoxville 70.3

Day 64:  Race Day, I really never seem to sleep well before race day. I always have so much running through my mind. I am hoping the more I race and get into a groove I will be able to sleep better before the race. The good thing though I was in bed by 9:30 pm, so at least I was relaxing. Race morning I felt pretty relaxed and ready to go. I got to transition around 6 am to get everything all set and since the forecast was calling for rain I set everything up in bags so if it rained I had try shoes to put on. With everything set up I put on my wetsuit and away we went walking down to the swim start and watched the pros get start at 7 am. My wave was at 7:38. Finally it was time to jump in the freezing water. The water was in the lower 60's. I think it seemed even colder because it was overcast and windy. The hardest part I think is being in the water waiting for the horn to sound to start. Finally the horn sounded and off all the females for the half went and we are all on our way!!!! I really felt pretty good in the swim. The first part of the swim was up stream and then we made a 180 degree turn to go down stream to the finish. I thought the upstream would have been a little harder but it felt fine. I knew I wasn't going to have the fastest swim because I really wanted to keep focus on my stroke and being able to sight forward without stopping which I am not good at, but it was all a success I spot forward without stopping the whole time. Also the Olympic distant people started after us so by the time we made out turn we were join up with all the Olympic people as well so the swim started getting crowd and the next thing I knew I was all mixed in with the men's wave from the Olympic. At first I started to get a little anxiety, but I calmed down fast and just kept my rhythm going and it was fine. It was really good experience because I know for Ironman Wisconsin it will be a mass start and there is no womens wave. I also realized I have to me more aggressive in the swim but that I am sure that will come with practice and experience. My swim time was 46:58, I was hoping for a little better, but whole well. Off to transition I ran with my wetsuit on since they didn't have wetsuit strippers. I need to be a little faster in my transitions, but I always like that time to relax for a minute to regroup and refocus on the next event. I got the wetsuit off with no problems and get all my biking gear on and away I went. Knowing all the hills to come I was I kept looking at the huge rain cloud getting closer and closer which worried me because this was the most technical bike racing course I have ever been on. There was only one thing to do is pray the rain doesn't come and keep moving forward. I guess all the praying worked because the rain held off. The rain held off but there we some other things that happened that made the bike that much worse. To start the hills, I don't even know what to say about them but WOW!!! I had to get get out of my saddle a couple of times for the the hills and I am use to hills because of where I ride.  For all you GA people it was a mix of Cartersville, Silk Sheets and the Gaps all rolled into one. UGH, it was tough. I really liked the challenge of the course though and I kept telling myself this is good training for Wisconsin because I know there is now way the hills in Wisconsin are like this. So where did all the problems come in on the bike? Well the way I have my drink system set up I need to get water at every water stop for my mix that I have. So at mile 10 when I was focused on grabing water there were also signs for the Half people to turn and the Olympic people to go straight. Well guess who missed the signs and guess who went straight. ME! Who knows how long it would have taken me to notice that I missed the turn until someone yelled "I think you were suppose to turn back there." Someone was looking out for me so I turned around and headed back. Thank God I only ended up going about .5 miles out of my way. Come to find out though, I was not the only one who missed there turn. There were a lot of people that missed the turn so that made we feel a little better when I found that out. Then at the second water stop as I went to grab the bottle and I almost dropped it so as I was trying to hang on to the water bottle and not let it drop since I needed it, I started to lose control of my bike but lucky I regained control fast and continued on my way. For a second though I thought I was going down lol. Oh and that is not it. After climbing another hill and switching gears to get ready to go down the hill I dropped my chain! Just what I needed, so I hoped on my bike and pulled it of the side of the road. I am not sure why but I was struggling getting my chain on and I am not sure if I felt pressure because it was a race, but it finally got on and away I went. Finally it was smooth sailing to the end of the bike course besides all the big hills I had left to climb, including the hill at mile 47 that was a mile long with switch backs. All I could think was WHY? lol I powered through it though and finished strong. I averaged 16.5, I would have loved to averaged higher but with that being one of the toughest bike course and knowing I still have to run 13.1 miles I think it was smart of me for right now so I could have a strong run as well. I finish the bike in 3:23:35. I forgot to mention one other thing about the bike course. Not only was I battling the hills there was also a killer wind out there. Hills + Wind = not so much fun for 56 miles. =) Transition 2 went well. Once again not the fastest but I like to change my socks and get comfortable for the run. Starting the journey on the 13.1 mile run I was still really glad it was overcast because if the sun was out that would have been a hot run!.Going into the run I felt really good and the legs were on cruise control and life was good! Then I reached mile 4. Mile 4 was the enemy there was a hill that was the mother of all hills. I thought I would give it a try and run up it and then about 5 strides in I said crew this and decided walking up was the best bet. =) I really thing there was not one person that ran up this hill. Not only was it steep and was long and I think if you tried to run up it the grade was so steep that it would have forced you to walk. Finally making it up the hill I started running again and then I started feeling pain in my right knee and knew this couldn't be good. My knees have been so good lately I was mad that I was starting to feel pain again. I kept pushing through until I hit another hill! I was starting to feel like I was on the bike course again. From mile 4 through mile 10 it was nothing but hills! I ended up walking up and walking down some of the hills just because of my knee because I was in pain, so I started taking it one mile at a time and that really helped. Finally I was back running past transition and I knew where I was and I had about .6 left and I was ready to be done. And then before I knew it I saw the finish shoot and I was happy and I was done!!!!! My run time was 2:12:38. With a finally time of 6:30:28. I am not that excited about my time but I guess taking in the the hills, wind and the things that went wrong I guess I can't be to upset. Looking at everyone else in my age group as well the 2nd and 3rd place finish were in the 6 hours as well, which is very unusual for a 70.3 so I guess everyone else struggled as much as I did. Overall, it is another race in the bag, with things learned and a great experience. I really think I would do it again, because I loved the challenge.  And if I had to describe this course I would say " Hills, Hills, Hills and more Hills. Oh and did I say Hills?" =)

You've got to believe you can win.  But I believe respect for the fact that you can lose is what you always have to keep in your mind so that nothing surprises you.

Andre Agassi - Winner of all four tennis Grand Slams

Day 63, The day before Rev 3 Knoxville Half

Day 63: Tomorrow is the big day for the Rev 3 Knoxville half!!!! And the morning didn't start out good but the day did get better. We wanted to be out of the room by 8:30 am to head down to the river to get a short swim in but when my alarm on my  phone went off and then realized my phone for some reason switched to Central time when we are in Easter Time we were already behind schedule. Oh well sometimes I guess you just have to go with the flow. I am glad we did get a chance to get into the river for a swim. When I get in this morning I was having flashbacks of Beach to Battleship. The water was FREEZING!!!! Only thing I can hope for is that maybe it will make me swim fast just so I can get out of the water. After swimming and then getting ready for the day we headed over to the expo to get checked in and get everything we need for the race. The Expo was outside by the finish shoot and seeing that got me really pumped up and excited for the race. After listening to the athlete briefing and hearing about the bike course we thought we should head to the car and take a drive. So we drove some of the bike course and I am glad we did this. The bike course is a very technical bike course with a lot of hill climbing, descents, and turns. This is really going to challenge me tomorrow, but I am very excited and up for the challenge. I really think this is going to be a great training course for Ironman Wisconsin. After getting back from driving the course we got our bikes ready and walked them down to transition and got them all covered up since it is suppose to rain later on. We went to dinner right next to transition and of course on the walk back to the room it started raining! Lets just say there was no way to stay dry.

After getting back we got the rest of our stuff together and now it is time for bed and get rested up for tomorrow.

Good Night!!!!

Oh and I'll be looking forward to seeing this tomorrow!

Week 9, Days 58-62

Well I got a little behind in a few of the post so instead of playing catch up I am just going to start with the beginning of Week 9. To start though this weekend is my first triathlon of the season and I am going BIG!!!! My first 70.3 of the season is on Sunday. I am doing Knoxville Rev 3. It is suppose to be a tough course, but I am excited about that though because it will hopefully give me a taste of what Wisconsin will be like.

Day 58: I always look forward to swimming at the Concourse. I think it is the outside pool! Today was a good day at the pool and I think all the drills that Coach Larry has us doing are really helping me with my breathing. I am also starting to get a good idea I think on how long this 2.4 miles swim will take me. I did 3,400 yds with 1,200 being drills and 2,200 swimming. It really does make a huge difference when you are swimming with people and you are all in this together. Joining masters was one of the best decisions I think I have made so I am not bored by myself in the pool!!!

Day 59: I forgot to mention on Monday I found my self taking a nap and almost missing Master Class. I really think I am starting to feel the tiredness of training and I still have 4 months to go. Since I have a 70.3 race this weekend I decided to skip the bike drills today and take  a day of rest! I really enjoyed it a lot. I had some birthday money to spend so I took a trip to All 3 Sports and bought some new tri bike shoes and some new tri clothing!!!! I am so excited to wear something new for once! Tomorrow is a new day though and I will be heading up to Cartersville for swimming, biking and running!

Day 60: Today was an amazing day out at Cartersville. I was struggling this morning on the run so I only did two miles. Like always it was a 27 mile ride on the bike and I had a great ride! I tried out my new shoes and I think I like them. I am going to have to ride with them a few more times to really see. I hope I like them because I can't return them. =/ I also tried my new drink mix that is geared only for me, and I loved it. Overall I really had a great ride and since it is the last ride before my half I feel really good. The water was 70 degrees today at Lake Allatoona! I had a really good swim and even got hot in the water with my wetsuit. Today was a good today and I am feeling ready for my race this weekend.

Day 61: I'm going to keep this one short. I planned on running but with everything that I had to get done after work the run never happened. I really don't know how people really get all this training in with a full time job. It is really starting to worry me, but all I can do is do what I can and keep pushing forward. Today after work I had to get all pack because I am leaving right after work tomorrow and for some reason I just could not get organized and took me forever. Jordan and I also took tonight to go out for a nice dinner before we heads to Cleveland for a half marathon and I head to Knoxville for my 70.3.

Day 62: Driving day!!!! Today Misty and I drove to Knoxville for the Rev 3 Knoxville Half. We really lucked out, because it was suppose to rain and it never did. We had a nice relaxing 4 hour drive  and made it without any problems!!!! Oh and I must say our hotel is clutch. The finish line is right out the back door of the hotel!!!! Looks like we don't have to walk far after we finish!  

Week 8, Days 51-53

Day 51: Today was kind of a weird day. I am normally off today but to save some leave at work I switched some days around. I was hoping to swim tonight but when Jordan surprised me with Brewers tickets for here in Atlanta for my birthday I couldn't so no! =)  We had a great time except the Brewers lost =( So since today was busy with work and the baseball game I wasn't able to get a swim in. Hopefully I will be able to make it up at some point.

Day 52: I think since I enjoyed having Monday off so much I just wanted to take another day off and I kind of did. Except I did hop on my trainer for about 30 mins to make myself feel a little better. I promise tomorrow will be a lot better of a day and a busy training day to kick it back into gear.

Day 53: Today was a good training day. I headed up to Cartersville for all 3!!!! It was actually a chilly day, but i was nice since I was training most the day. I had a nice 4 mile run that was flat and I really enjoyed it. You don't get a lot of flat runs here in GA. After I ran I joined Fox's group for a nice 27 mile bike ride. I really like riding up in Cartersville, because I think I can expect similar terrain in Wisconsin. After today's ride, it made me realize that I really need to work on climbing those hills. Hills and I really have a love/hate relationship, but who doesn't. Today's ride was also a like weird, because our route takes us through an area where they got hit really hard by all those Tornadoes that touched down. As we were riding through there it just felt weird and it just wasn't real. It real looked like a very bad scene in a movie, and knowing it was real made it hit really close to home. There was so much devastation there it was really sad and really mad you grateful.  After the ride we all went over to Red Top Mountain to swim in the lake. Today the lake water was 70 degrees and it was warmer then the air. I really enjoyed the 1.2 mile swim I did in the lake. Something about the open water makes swimming longer distances like that so much easier to do. 

Day 50

Day 50: After a nice night for my birthday hoping to sleep in a little I was still up by 8:30 am. Normally I would already be out on my bike but I decided to ride with Get Fit Atlanta (GFA) today since they were riding at 1 pm it let me try to sleep in. It was hot since we started at 1pm, but it was a nice 50 mile bike ride at silk sheets. I dropped my chain twice today, but still turned out to be a good ride at a good pace with rolling hills which is great training for Ironman Wisconsin. Later on tonight I also enjoyed a nice walk to the park with my dogs just to enjoy the evening which at times seems like I don't get to do a lot. With an awesome bike ride and an awesome walk with the dogs I could not have asked for a better day!

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.  ~Albert Einstein

Day 47: My 30th Birthday!!!!!

Day 47: Today I turned 30!!!! There is no other way to start off the day then with a 5k race!!!! As weird as it sounds I did my first 5k today and also moved into a new age group!!!! I had a good race, but I wish I had a better time. I guess I really can't complain though because I finished 7th out of 67 people in my age group! I was suppose to do a long run but with wanting to do a race on my birthday a 5k was all I could find so I decided to just race and then head to the gym for a good work out with Pamela. I tell you her workouts always kick my butt and I love it!!! Since I was up all night from working the midnight shift I was hoping to get a nap in after working out but that never happened. Oh well! After the gym Jordan took me out for a nice breakfast/lunch at one of my favorite places. After that Jordan was nice enough to go shopping with me and never complained once!!! We had fun shopping together and got a lot of great deals! To finish off the night we went over to a friends house to finish celebrating my birthday!!! It was a fun night grilling out and enjoying a bon fire!!!! Turning 30 wasn't bad at all and I am so excited to see what is to come!. Happy 30th Birthday to ME!!!!!

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”