Mistyfied

Summer Time

2011-06-13T09:22:00.002-05:00

Summer is in full force, I would love to say I already have a really dark tan but I don't. This morning as I got ready for work I turned on the news and learned that the forecast for Monday-Wednesday has a high of 100. Really it freaking June what is August going o be like? All I have to say is it is way to freaking hot to even try to work on my tan. Training is going good other than the heat i am dealing with. I have noticed some improvements in the past few weeks- since as Coach calls it I am working on speed. My swim seems to be improving lately, and I have had 2 bikes in consecutive weekends that avg'd 18 and 18.1 mph. My rides are a little shorter right now but the last time I rode 30 miles I only avg about 16.5. So I will take it. And my run, times are really improving at the track and I have set several records in 400, 800 and 1600. Saturday I did a 5k and finished in 28.55, not a PR but my previous PR was a race in January and it was 45 degrees, Saturday was very hot and humid. So welcome summer please enjoy your stay- but don't over stay your welcome!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Am I am athlete?

2011-04-25T14:43:00.002-05:00

Well I though so until I decided to take Athletic conditioning at my gym (Villa Sport). At the beginning of the class the instructor tells us if we are new to take breaks as we need them but that they do not take breaks in this class because most of the people in the class are die-hards. So immediately I think ok can I sneak out of here without anybody noticing. I realize hey your here you can do this, I am a triathlete right. For an hour me and "the die-hards" do push up after push up, jump rope, jumping lungs, star bursts over and over. I noticed the die-hards took as many breaks as I did so I thought this is not that bad I am sure my shoulders will be sore but I got this. I enjoyed the workout and arse kicking I got, I left Villa feeling great. Friday morning I woke up a little sore but nothing I could not handle. Friday night I went for a 7 mile run in the sauna with Gena, Greg and Micah which left me feeling a little sick to my stomach. When I got home I packed my bag and got all my fluids ready fro my bike ride on Saturday. 5:00am Saturday morning I rolled over, put my feet on the floor and hit the ground. My calf's were so tight I could hardly walk to the bathroom to get ready. That's when I decided there was no way I would be able to ride in the wind that was going to grace us. I crawled back in bed and slept in until 9. So I ask myself Am I an athlete? Hell Yeah Athletes need a break from a good arse kicking too!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

IMTX 70.3 Race Report and Experiance

2011-04-12T11:23:00.001-05:00

I signed up for this race just after completing Iron Star in November 2010 because I really longed for the MDot race and to feel comfortable wearing the MDot swag. In training for this race I told myself that I would do much better than I had done at Iron Star because I would know what to expect and several people told me this race was much easier. HELL to the NO. It was a whole different experience and the coarse was defiantly not easier, but I will get into this a little later.

I started my weekend on Friday when I did last minute shopping and packing and patiently awaited Logan’s arrival from the golf coarse. We headed out on the road about 1:00pm during the trip down I shared text’s with Lynn and Gena about meeting up for athlete check in and some shopping. We arrived at the hotel and were checked in around 3:00pm so I met Lynn, Leslie and Chris in the lobby and started towards the athlete tent. Just before leaving the parking lot we ran into Gena, Greg and Tammie which were all checking so we told them we would see them there. Athlete check in was very surreal for me signing the waivers and getting my IM wrist band sent chills down my back. We noticed a new wave had been added so my swim time had been moved back another 5 mins. Why they choose for the woman to go dead last is beyond me but my swim time would now be 8:35 which was 1:35 after the first men’s wave would be going off. We got to the Ironman store and I was in hog heaven I did not know which way to turn, I picked up shirt after shirt wondering which one I should get. So just to sum it up I purchased a new pair of shoes, 2 visors, a running tank, a sweatshirt, 4 t-shirts and a coffee mug. After a long day of being on our feet several of us met up for some carb loading at Mario’s.

Saturday morning I woke up and went down stairs to watch part of the sprint race. One of Vanessa’s friends was racing and she tore it up ended up on the podium with a 3rd place in AG. After the race was over Greg, Gena, Lynn Vanessa and I went over to the rv park Brandi and Philo were staying at for an OWS. We wanted to get a feel for the bay temperatures on my way in I slipped on some rocks and cut my feet and thumb on the oyster beds. Thank god for Brandi and Greg hooking me up with cleaning my wounds and helping me put on Band-Aids. After a quick shower we went back to the Ironman store for a few last looks and purchases yes I bought another shirt because I could not resist. After lunch we hit bike check in at 2:00pm and back to the room to put my feet up. Saturday ended with dinner at the hotel and getting in bed early, unfortunately it took me a while to fall asleep as nerves were kicking in keeping me awake.

Sunday morning wake up call 4:15am, I ate a banana and a piece of toast with peanut butter and had a cup of coffee. Dressed got the last bit of my stuff together and headed out to meet Lynn in the lobby, when I got to the elevator I realized I forgot my fluids for the bike so I went back to the room to get them. After getting my transition set up and checking 40 times I went back to the hotel to sit with Gena, Greg and Vanessa until time to get in my wet suit and head out to line up for wave starts. As we waited our turn to get on the deck we talked about the water looking fairly calm, I thought about my swim what I would do, where I would place myself. Before I knew it I was on deck waiting to jump in the water, I saw Mo and Jenny and wished them good luck. And then I was swimming after about 200 meters the currents picked up and I started to feel like I was in a washing machine, when I sighted I drank salt water. Several times I had gotten off coarse and had to swim back towards the buoys, I felt like puking but managed to let out burps instead. I stopped treaded water for about 30 seconds and had a talk with myself, I reminded myself I could do this swim and I would swim smart. Before I knew it could feel the carpet under my hands and knew it was time to stand up. Wetsuit stripper’s rock they had my suit off in seconds and I was running to transition. Swim 49:57

T1 4:29 I took the extra time to re-apply sun screen. I hit the bike on the way out I saw Logan and several teammates that all cheered when I went by. This was a very flat coarse but it was a windy ride out most of the time I felt as if I had a bungee cord strapped to me pulling me back. At about mile 6 I was drinking and hit a pocket of wind and lost my bike, I knew there were several ladies approaching so I shot up grabbed my bike and ran to the shoulder so I would be out of their way. I noticed a bit of blood and scraps on my elbow and knee and I could tell I had scrapped my hip and shoulder. I got back on the bike and started fighting the wind again I kept thinking I would see a medi tent so they could clean me up and send me on my way but that never happened. When I got to the turnaround I was so happy. The wind seemed to be more at my back and I was able to pedal harder and faster; my second bike split was 12:30 faster than the first one. When I made the final turn again my teammates were there cheering me on and my dad snapped a picture. Bike 3:36:52

T2 3:38 took me a minute to get my running legs back but once I left transition I was feeling better, so I thought. Before I hit mile 1 I could feel the pain coming from me knee where I had hit the pavement from my bike wreck, oh and the bottoms of my feet felt like they were on fire from the scraps and cuts I had from the oyster beds. On the first loop at each aid station I took water on the head, water and Gatorade to drink. On my second loop my stomach started feeling queasy and I realized I could not do any more Gatorade. I tried Pepsi but it was hot. I ran when I could and walked when I felt like I could not run and it seemed I walked a lot. I made deals with myself run for 5 mins or run for 2 mins. Minute after minute and mile after mile I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face and my fists in the air. Run 2:41:07

Total time 7:16:03 I hoped to better in this race than my previous 70.3 but it does not always happen that way.

Did I love it? Yes. But I am going to enjoy doing some shorter distances. I will never under estimate another coarse again because you never know what race day has in store for you.

IMTX 70.3

2011-04-07T10:58:00.002-05:00

It all starts for me today around 4:30 when I get home from work and start to pack and head out on my last short brick before racing Sunday. The pre race jitters have not hit me just but I know in due time they will. Last night I had a less than comfortable OWS, we arrived at the Lake and noticed several dead fish floating along the shore. We decided to get in any way and started swimming, everytime I took a breath and/or tried to sight I was slammed in the face with dirty arse lake water. After rounding the first bouy I was able to get in to a little bit of a rythem but still very uncomfortable. When I rounded the final bouy the swim got easier beacuse I was no longer fighting the lake waves but I made up my mind my OWS was over.

Tomorrow I will make my journey to Galveston and going shopping at the Ironman tent and also try to get in an OWS in the bay.

Good luck to all racing this weekend!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Let the taper begin

2011-04-04T13:06:00.002-05:00

At the end of the week I will another 70.3 behind me and yes this one will be an Mdot baby. This week calls for some very light workout which sounds great to me. Sunday was my last long brick with just under 47 miles on the bike and a 30 min run. This was not my best brick yet considering I have been having issues with my back and the head winds we rode back in. My run suffered but I got it done and now it is time to relax. Tonight I will get a massage and hope it helps the back issue. So this weeks workouts look like this. Monday- 2600 yds in the pool Tuesday- Pre race 400's (6) with an easy warm up and cool down Wednesday- 1600 yds in the pool Thursday- Brick 50mins on the bike and a 10 min run Friday- REST Saturday- pre race efforts swim 10 mins, bike 15 mins and run 5 mins Good luck to all racing. Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Lap swimming only

2011-03-24T09:36:00.006-05:00

Let me introduce you to a couple of my friends from last night. Last night was a long swim at the Nat, our tri specific swim coaches offered 3 long swims this season and last night was number two. I was unable to attend the first one so when I arrived I was quit nervous about what was going to take place. I took my wetsuit with me since I have not worn/swam in it since Ironstar in November. I jumped in the lane with Scott and started my warm up. After doing 300 yds Tom stopped us and gave us a pep talk about warming up before a swim. He told us that he will warm up with 1200 sometimes (uh no thank you), but that he will slowly build to his race pace and maintain that pace for the distance of his event. So we swam 5 x 50 with 15 secs rest. After completing the warm up intervals it was time to start our 1 hour straight swim. Prior to this I have done a couple of 1000 TT's but never have swam with out a break for more than about 22 mins. About half way through I got a horrible cramp and had to stop for about 30 secs to massage it out, I got it to where it was manageable and started swimming again, but it took about 200 yds before I could push off the wall. I finally got back in my groove and all of a sudden I could hear Tom yelling I stopped and looked up at him and he said GO GO GO and I realized we had 5 more mins. All in all I swam good and hard and the hour went by pretty quickly. When we finished he let Scott and I know we had swam 2850 in the hour. Not fast for most but supa fast for this chick. Total yards 3400 another milestone for me in the books. I finally left the pool feeling happy for a change!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A 60's weekend quick wrap up!

2011-03-08T15:35:00.004-06:00

Mom's Surprise 60th Birthday was a success; we were not only able to surprise her but made her smile. She was surrounded by friends and family both in person and in spirit for those that were unable to attend. She even had a few hunky band members serenade her!

67 miles on bike feels like 67 miles on a bike, but on the hills it feels like 100. I had a great ride with many teammates with a run and food to follow. I was wiped out when I got home and an still recovering from fatigue. Thank you to my teammates that always help get through my training.

I never thought the temperature was going to hit 60 on Sunday but with about an hour and a half left into the ride the arm warms came off and the sun came out to warm us up a bit.

A wonderful weekend for 60's!

I am thinking a 60's kind of weekend

2011-03-03T11:20:00.002-06:00

On Saturday my mom turns 60 and we have a surprise party planned for her, I am thinking she is going to be super thrilled. We have about 35 friends and family coming out to celebrate with her on her 60 years of excellence and sometime not so excellence. My step dad is surprising her with a plane ticket to California to see my brother.

On Sunday I am signed up to do the Continental ride with several teammates and I am signed up for the 67 miler. The furthest I have ridden so far was 62 prior to Iron Star back in November. Thankfully it is a supported ride and I can take lots of breaks. I was surprised that Coach G did not frown and say hell no you are not riding 67 miles. Well see what happens as I will have to be a good girl at my moms party if i am going to ride the hills for 67 miles.

Also on Sunday we will have a high of 68 degrees so we will have great weather for my 67 mile bike ride!

Hope to see you on the roads!

Count down to another 70.3

2011-03-02T14:05:00.002-06:00

In just over 5 weeks I will be participating in another 70.3 only this time it will be an Mdot race. Not to say anything bad about a 70.3 race that is not sponsored by Mdot it is still the same distance. The big difference is the support provided on and off the coarse and all the swag you get to buy. And yes I like to brag so I will be showing off all kinds of Mdot 70.3 stuff. this time around the training seems different, yes there is allot of of it but I seem to be less worried about getting it all in. A few weeks went by where I missed several long bike rides out on the roads and opted to do them on a spin bike. I am now back out on the road and getting in the much needed long rides again and I am loving it. Long runs are going great, but that is the easiest thing for me is the run part- not that it is fast or anything. And swims- I still hate to swim, I still suck at swimming. I just do not click when it comes for feel of the water, so I will just fake it on race day and get myself through the swim and enjoy the rest.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Chalked up another Half Marathon and a PR

2011-02-01T14:31:00.001-06:00

On Sunday I ran in my 7th half marathon, it was also the third time I have run a half marathon in Houston. As I watched in horror the week following up to the race with the predictions of rain and storms increasing with each day, all I could think to myself was thank god I am not doing the full. By Saturday night I had decided that it was defiantly all about fun and feel. I had talked to my coach about predicted times and paces but was reminded just go on how I felt. Sunday morning I woke up at 3:45am and was surprised that it was not raining yet, could it be would we stay dry? I met up with Russell, Kathleen and Robin for the ride into downtown, shortly after we got on the road the drizzle started. We pretty much decided we would probably get a bit wet, we parked and headed inside the GRB to do last minute potty breaks and check our baggage. About 6:40 we made our way to the start line and a few mins after 7 am we were crossing the start line. I was able to stay with Kathleen and Russell for about the first 5 miles when we got separated at an aid station, we had been keeping a nice steady pace and I was feeling great and had a great feeling about finishing at a nice pace. In the car earlier in that morning I had decided I would be happy with a 2:30 finish considering the weather, at mile six I realized I could do it faster. As the miles ticked away and rain came and went and came back again I concentrated on my breathing and my form, I thought about my coach kicking my ass for running harder than she probably really wanted me too. I asked myself, how long can you maintain this pace. When I arrived at the 10 mile mark I looked at my watch and it said 1:41:something... I thought what the hell I can keep up the pace for 10 more mins, and then 10 mins later I thought the same thing and as I got closer to the GRB I decided to turn it up. I crossed the finish line at 2:10:33 my previous PR was 2:12:16. Despite the weather conditions I was able to push through and set a new PR without having to work to hard for it. Yesterday I was a little tired and sore but nothing like normal. Today I am ready for a recovery run in the freezing cold.

I hope to see you on the roads soon!

Time Flies

2011-01-26T14:05:00.002-06:00

Time is a funny thing, you wake up go to work, train, eat, sleep, wake up go to work, train. You get the idea. Yesterday as I was uploading a few workouts into traingpeaks I realized that I have a half Ironman in 10 weeks holy hell. Although I have been getting in most of my training I have lacked a few swims and long bike rides. In fact since Iron Star in November I think I have been on my tri bike 6 times. Once again I know I can do the distance but I would like to do the distance better than the last time.

Since Iron Star my grandmother passed away, my hubby and I went to Florida for our anniversary, then there was Christmas and New Years and all of these things have given me excuses to miss a workout. Oh and my best training partner is not doing Ironman Texas 70.3 so that has also thrown me a wrench. This weekend I will run in the Houston Aramco half marathon and then there will be no more excuses (yeah right) for missed workouts. This year for the half marathon I have no expectations, I simply signed up for this race just to see if they would pick me for the lottery. Well they did, so I will run for fun and see where it takes me.

Post Race Update

2010-12-01T13:33:00.002-06:00

Since my last blog I have not done a whole hell-ova-lot. Coach G gave me the rest of the month on November off and although I ran a hand full of times swam twice and took one spin class, i really enjoyed the time off. I planned to start training again over the weekend of Thanksgiving and it started with an easy bike ride that ended up in a crash-not my fault. One of a stupid lady driving while talking on her cell phone, who did not notice six of us riding in a straight line when she decided to turn in to us. I am ok other than a swollen and scarped up knee and nobody else was hurt thank god. I am sure after a friend and teammate told her off bad enough to bring her to tears she will learn to pay attention while driving. Last night I did a three mile run that was a hrt rate test, in the test I had to stay within 2 beats of 151. If I went over i had to walk and if I was under I had to speed up. Work out went well it was an easy run for me, but today my knee is throbbing and I am thinking more rest may be good for it. Tomorrow the hubs and I are celebrating our anniversary. Cant wait!
I am looking forward to getting back to the training, I have a half marathon coming up in January and a half IM in April.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Iron Star 70.3 Race Report

2010-11-09T15:41:00.003-06:00

All I can say is wow what an experience. I woke up Sunday morning and it was colder than a witches tit, when I headed out to transition. I found a few of my teammates and we discussed what we would do to stay warm on the bike. I decided to swim in my tri shorts and tri bra under the wetsuit and after I got out of the water I would add the tri top and long sleeve tech shirt. When transition closed several of us headed to swim start and waited for pre race instructions and the national anthem. Our swim was delayed by about 10 mins to allow the fog to lift off of the water. Finally at 7:18 I was on my way into the water, it was difficult to see since the fog was still low but I got in a good groove and started swimming, I bumped into a few girls a couple of times but it really did not bother me. Each time I sighted I looked for the colorful swim caps and stayed on coarse since we could not see a buoy until you were right on top of it. Before I knew I was at swim out and making my way to transition. 1.2 mile Swim 45:30.

I skipped the wetsuit strippers and took on that task myself. I dried off and put my warmer clothing strapped on the shoes and helmet and made my way out of T1 5:34.

I headed out of the bike with high hopes of no wind, but hope was not good enough because it was windy. I had ridden this coarse or part of this coarse more than once and I must say this time was the most difficult. It was nice to know where I was at all times, but I got to the point that I was wishing the miles away. At least I saw all of my teammates at some point on the coarse so a familiar voice from time to time was excellent. Around mile 29ish Jenny's family was on the side of the road and as I went by the cheered for me too. Thanks to Hanna and Keith and all the rest of Jenny's family for being out on the coarse. As I headed back through the resort to transition, I saw Scott, Tarrah and Logan. Logan followed me to transition and told me how great I was doing and that he was proud of me. Bike time 3:35:05 avg pace 15.6 mpg not what I wanted but I am not terribly disappointed.

I changed shoes and out of the long sleeve top because it was now a nice 70 degrees and I hit the pavement for my 13.1 mile run. The run was 3 loops part of each loop was on dirt trails and grass but most of it was through the resort neighborhood that lots of shade. I had so much support out there during the run that the miles just ticked away. I tried to run as much as possible but took a brief walk break at each mile and sometime at each half mile. 1/2 marathon 2:31:55.

Coming into the shoot and all I could do was smile, When I crossed the finish line my mom gave me a high five and then the tears came but I kept them brief and enjoyed the moment. I stayed at the finish line until all my friends were finished. The hugs and smiles will last forever. I am so blessed to have completed my first half IM distance with such a great group of friends.

A huge thank you to my friends Russell, Robin and Kathleen for coming out and supporting me it was great to hear your voice and your cheers. Also thanks to my teammates that made it out to volunteer and cheer us on. Thanks you to my teammates families that were there cheering for us and taking pictures. Thank you to all the volunteers. And to my family that came out to cheer me on. If I forgot somebody I am sorry but please know you are appreciated as well. I have the best husband in the world who has been so patient with me through all of my training. We have missed many dinners together and have not been on a lot of dates lately. Coach G your are the best thank you for believing in me and making me believe in myself. And to all my teammate, who have been there blood sweat and tears and many hours of training. I could not have done this without any of you.

Total half IM 7:01:59. Now to enjoy recovery!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

2 days

2010-11-05T09:50:00.002-05:00

In 2 days I will embark on my journey to 70.3. 1.2 mile swim, 56 miles on the bike and 13.1 on foot. 4 months ago if you had said to me "Misty you will be doing 70.3 by the end of the year" I would have laughed in your face. But here I am 2 days away from something I swore I would never do. NEVER say NEVER! Through the past few months of training I have had some highs and some lows, I have missed some training and I have trained hard. Sunday will be here soon and I am excited to finally be here. Tomorrow I am guessing the Oh shit will kick in, but I know I have trained for this and I know I am ready. On Sunday my expectations are to finish, no time, just to finish. I am sure there will be tears when I am finished, but I cannot wait to complete my first 70.3.

Good luck to Team sTRIve in IM Florida and in Conore this weekend.

Low

2010-10-27T08:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was feeling very low, about as low as I have felt in the last three years since I started training for half marathon, marathons and now triathlons. Yes I love training and yes I love the sport, there are just so many small scarifies. I have missed out on family dinners and outings, Logan's golf tournaments, various birthdays, going away parties only to name a few. I have not cleaned my own house in months, I have not been to the grocery store in at least a month. So by yesterday it all hit me, I was feeling like the worst wife, daughter, granddaughter and friend. Feeling this way I called up a friend because I know from conversations with her that she too has felt like this at times. She assured me that this was normal to feel like this and that this was only temporary. Thank you my friend for making me feel better.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A weekend of workouts amd a little bit of fun

2010-10-25T08:43:00.005-05:00

As the days tick by and Iron Star gets closer and closer I feel crazy about missing a workout. This weekend was a very productive weekend for me, after feeling ill last week coach decided to reduce my 14 mile run to 10 miles on Friday night, although a little warm and muggy I was able to finish with a 10:50 avg pace. After our group run we headed to Nit Noi for yummy Thai food and a cold beer. Saturday morning several of us headed out for an open water swim at Lake Windcrest, this was the first time I swam across the lake and back. Saturday the wind was blowing hard and made the swim over pretty rough, I started doubting myself and thinking I was stupid for thinking I could do the swim in my upcoming race. Once I got to the other side I took a few deep breaths and reminded myself I can do this and started swimming back, by the time I got back I had worked on the head case I created and now know I will make the Iron Star 1.2 mile swim. Sunday morning about 15 of us headed out to Montgomery to ride most of the Iron Star coarse the weather was warm and muggy and we had alot of wind but I felt good coming off the 50 mile bike ride and was able to maintain a 16.8 mph avg. This bike coarse is quit hilly for south Texas and I found myself fighting the wind and the hills. But again I feel confident going into my upcoming race.

As far as the fun Saturday night Big John had a hog roast to celebrate his accomplishments in Kona earlier this month and also to celebrate friends, family and teammates on all upcoming and past races. Thanks to Big John for a great time and fellowship. Sunday afternoon we watched the seniors golf tournament that was in our back yard, great time with friends and neighbors. Congrats to Fred Couples who ended up shooting 29 on the back 9 and coming away with a huge win.

Weight watchers update finally (last Friday) in week 20 I met my goal weight down a total of 18.2 pounds, now its time to maintain it.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Stomach bug not appreciated

2010-10-07T09:23:00.002-05:00

This week I was attacked by the stomach bug and it was very unappreciated. 2 days of well you know, along with major cramping and not being able to enjoy food majorly cramped my training. I missed my track workout on Tuesday plus a run and a swim on Wednesday.. Boo. Don't you know I have 70.3 in just over a month! I have high hopes of an hour on the bike tonight and hopefully a swim and a bike ride tomorrow.

Saturday will kick off a weekend of great races for myself and many of my friends and teammates. Saturday for myself and many others will be 10 for Texas, which is a great 10 mile run in The Woodlands, the weather is to die for right and I cannot wait to do this race again. Also on Saturday my friend and teammate will be doing Ironman Kona, Big John you will do great my thoughts will be with you all day long. On Sunday many of my friends from the Woodlands Running Club will be in Chicago running the marathon. Good luck to all racing in these races and any others where ever they may be!

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

5 week count down

2010-10-04T14:28:00.003-05:00

In five shorts weeks I will be participating in Ironstar 70.3, this will be my first half iron distance and as it gets closer the training becomes a little more intense. I started my triathlon journey one year ago, when "running" just wasn't enough. After completing several half marathon a few full marathons and 2 ultra marathons I wondered what next. I had been training at the track with Kim Hager and many triathletes (team sTRIve) and many times would hear, so when are you going to do a triathlon? My answer was NEVER, see I was completely terrified of getting in the water with a bunch of crazy women all trying to drown me, as so I thought. After many months of hearing stories of how these people traveled together and trained together constantly I thought I would give it a try. I signed up Try Andy's Tri and did my first Sprint triathlon on October 18, 2009. Since then I have done 3 sprints and 1 Oly, after doing my first Oly in Austin over Labor Day weekend I came home and after talking to my Coach (Gena) I signed up for Ironstar. Since Labor day my bike rides have increased from 25-30 miles for long rides to 50-60+ miles usually ridden on Sunday mornings with my awesome teammates. Some rides rock some rides suck, but I know in the end it will get me to the finish. If I didn't have training partners I would never get the finish on my own. Yesterday's ride was a tough one, it was windy, I felt lost for what seemed to be an eternity on a bumpy road, my ciatic (sp?) nerve hurt for about 30 miles and I really felt I would not be able to run off the bike. When I got in I told Gena what was going on so she pushed on the nerve and told me to run for 20 mins. When I started running the pain seemed to go away and I looked down to see I was running a sub 10 min pace. When we returned from the run we had run 2 miles at a 9.48 pace. And I felt like I could have run 2 more miles. Lesson learned, even the crappy rides aren't so bad. I also remember how much the words Team sTRIve mean to me. Thank you to my teammates that always seem to help me push through the good and the bad.

Friday 10 mile run
Saturday 5K breast cancer walk
Sunday 62 mile bike ride + 2.1 mile run.

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

Come back legs

2010-09-22T09:43:00.002-05:00

Coming off the Lions club supported ride Sunday my legs are still a little fatigued. I had a decent swim Monday night, a little slower than normal but although I was tired I was able to get in 2000yds without to much trouble. Last night at the track was when I really felt the fatigue in my legs. I still pounded out 6 x 800 after a mile w/u 4:30, 4:31, 4:27, 4:29, 4:29 and 4:27 followed my a walking .5 mile c/d. Needles to say my Zoot Compression sock and the stick have been my best friend this week.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A very HILLY/LONG ride

2010-09-20T13:27:00.003-05:00

Sunday was my longest ride ever. I chose to ride in the (62 mile) supported ride for the Lions club in Montgomery with several teammates some riding the 62 mile route and some the 100 in the beautiful hills through Dacus, Anderson, Richards and Montgomery. I decided to do this ride when Coach G sent us the link and suggested it would be part of the Iron Star 70.3 coarse I will be tackling on November 7th. I knew it would be a great idea to get a feel for the coarse and the hills since I normally ride on very flat terrain. Prior to this ride I had completed many rides ranging from 20-34 miles and one a week prior that was 42 miles. This being a big jump in mileage for me there was no time goal, just to enjoy the ride, study the hills and rest at the rest stops when needed. I stopped at 4 out of 6 rest stops topped off with water, got off the bike and sometimes ate an orange, the first 20 miles were a breeze as the mileage got higher so did the hills and the ride got harder. The first half of the ride I was able to maintain 17.3 mph but after about mile 30 the mph started to drop, the temp got warmer and hills got hillier. When I finished I finished I felt a little off but after a few minutes I felt like a human again. My Garmin and cateye were a little off from the others I rode with so we will go with the cateye results of 3hrs 41 min & 15.8mph avg speed. I realize that I need more hill training on the bike and that I probably need to try somethings out nutritionally before race day.

On another note WW started agreeing with me last week, after 4 weeks of up and down I had a good weight loss for a total of 17 lbs in 15 weeks.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Avia Austin Triathlon- Oly

2010-09-08T14:08:00.004-05:00

I participated in my first Olympic distance triathlon on Monday in Austin and this was by far the most fun I have had in a race. It was challenging in many ways but I felt the best I have felt in a triathlon thus far. Logan and I got into Austin later Saturday afternoon and checked in to the hotel unpacked and headed out for a beer. We found a great Brewery called Uncle Billy's Brew and Cue http://www.unclebillysaustin.com/ great place to sit on a patio and enjoy a cold beer and the low humidity. My favorite beer was Agave Wit a Belgian style wheat beer with orange peel. Sunday morning I got up and started getting my transition bag packed and met up with Micah and Brandi to head over to bike check in and packet pick up. At the expo we picked up a few things t-shirt, cycling jersey, monkey grease wipes and out race stuff. I was given the bib number of 444 and a blue swim cap- finally something other than pink. After bike we were situated in transition we headed to Aussie's for a light lunch. Sunday night we ate at Taverna http://www.tavernabylombardi.com/ this place I highly recommend it was fabulous. I chose the Risotto all' Acento Balsamic con Pollo and for dessert Budino di Ciccolato. After dinner I tried to get to sleep but as usual I had the pre-race jitters and it seemed like I tossed and turned for hours. 5 am wake up call as soon as my feet hit the floor I felt ready for my race. After I got everything set up in transition I met up with Bill, Jon, John, Brandi and Greg and Gena. We chit chatted about the race and butterflies started to fill my stomach. It was not long before Gena helped me zip up my wetsuit and I was jumping off the dock. When I hit the water it was cold, it kind of surprised me how cold in actually was. The gun went off and I started swimming, I got in a bit of a rhythm with a few gals in my wave and it really seemed to click as I was swimming. Yes I stopped a couople times to clear my fogged goggels but I did not have to turtle head, flip over on my back, dog paddle it was all freestyle baby. After a while I was being pulled out of the water by a volunteer and they had my wetsuit at my waist and I was running to T1 40.29 swim. Wet suit off, glasses on, helmet on, wipe feet and bike shoes on and I was running. The run to bike mount was about 1/4 of a mile if not more making T1 a long transition just over 4 mins. Bike coarse did I mention while I was swimming there came a down pour, as I am taking Gena yells for me to take it easy on my turns that the roads are very wet. 3 loops up and down Congress out Cheaser Chaves, hills were challenging, by the 3rd loop the streets were near dry. 1:31:XX 16.3 avg mph. Again I had to run forever to rack my bike and head out for the run, 3:31 T2. run coarse was fun, loots of people on the coarse lots of team and friend support, it was a hot run but the first loop I felt wonderful did not stop for walk break at all, the second loop the heat was starting to get to me a bit I walked at the aid stations but still had a great run. race pace was 10:42. Total time 3:25:41.

Today I signed up for Ironstar 70.3 November 7th. I think I am a nut case.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Weather Report for Houston today.

2010-08-26T10:33:00.002-05:00

HOUSTON—Mother Nature is in a kind mood, because she is giving the gift of beautiful weather Thursday.
"It is a beautiful morning out there, it is just fabulous," 11 News Meteorologist David Paul said. "Although it is warm, it is much less humid."
Paul said highs should top out around 96 Thursday, but with the lower humidity, it won't feel nearly as hot as those heat advisory days we've been having.

Its pretty sad when we get excited about "cooler" temps and it is still supposed to be 96 today. Houston your weather sucks, can we please turn the ac back on.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Another loss

2010-08-18T13:46:00.002-05:00

So it is week 11 of weight watchers and I am down 1.6 for the week. So far my total loss is 13.2 (avg 1.2 loss per week). I originallty set a goal to be at 127 lbs and now that I am 4.4 lbs away I think I may try and go further. I am a shorty at 5'2 and I think I would be ok at a lower weight maybe closer to 123ish. We'll see what week 17 brings.

Hope to see you on the raods soon.

River Cities Race Report

2010-08-06T13:39:00.007-05:00

Saturday morning began at 5am for me, I threw last min items in my bag, got dressed, loaded the bike and headed to Starbuck's for 7am tires on the road. In the caravan we head Coach G (Gena) and Greg in car 1 Micha in car 2 and Lynn and myself in car 3. Lynn and I had a bit of an ordeal keeping up with this bunch as we cruised at a nice speed of 80. We did however make it to Shreveport in record time (a normal 4.5 hour trip), in less than four hours that included 2 pit stops and a traffic stop. And we had to drive across Shreveport to get to packet pick up. Following Greg and Gena can be quit interesting, from stalkers to cops and many laughs in between the weekend in Louisiana with Team sTRIve turned out to be fantabulous. So since I spilled the beans already yes we got pulled over for doing 75 in a 55 I guess we slowed down just enough to not be clocked at 80. I am sure that this cop in Nachadouches thought he had scored big that he was able to pull over three cars in one stop, when he got to the car we explained that we were headed to Shreveport and did not know how to get there so we were speeding so we did not loose the cars in front of us. So this story could take forever but thanks to having friends that work in law enforcement not one car received a ticket. Car one received a warning and we carried on our happy way. I mentioned a stalker- well we lost the stalker when we were pulled over, later to find he was not a stalker but an invited guest to our caravan in car we did not recognize and he happened to pull in to Starbuck's as we pulled out.

This is the truck that was stalking us.

Packet pick up was fun, we ran into several teammates and shopped a bit and headed to check in to the hotel. This was not so such fun, we got there early thinking we will be able to get into our rooms early as check in was at 3:00. We arrived at 1:30 to find our rooms were not available, finally at 4:45 we got into our rooms with enough time to relax for an hour and head out for pasta dinner. I normally do not try to carb load the night before a race simply because it is too late. So I ate pasta two nights in a row for shits and grins- no because it was a team effort (15) and I am a team player. After dinner headed back to the hotel for a good nights rest and to get our stuff ready for the morning.

Sunday morning up at 4am, breakfast, dressed car loaded and on the road at 5:30am. We arrived in transition at about 6:30 at this race the racks were set up by range of number and as long as you race number was on that rack you could put your bike anywhere. I set up on the end to make it easier to get in and out of transition. After we got set up a few of us went to get wet and do an easy practice swim. I was in wave 8 that went off at 8:30am, in my wave included 30-34 and Anthea, this wave had 110 ladies in it and all I wanted was not to be the last one out. This was to be my longest swim in a race yet and I was very nervous. I accepted the fact that this swim would be slow and I would get through it. When the gun went off it was like mad, I was getting pushed, pulled, hit and swam over no matter were I tried to position myself. After the first turn I took a break and tried to get away from the hustle and bustle. At the final turn and with 300 I was ready to be done. Swim 800 25:06 51/56 in age group (not the last out of the water). When I finished my swim I chose to walk out of the water and take a few deep breaths, once I got close to transition I started to run. Sunglasses, helmet and bike shoes on and I was running out of transition with my bike. T1 3:05 (thanks to my leisure walk) Bike coarse had some nice rollers, I found myself at 8mph a few times. I raced as hard as I could and everytime I had the chance to pass somebody- I did. 18.6 mile bike 1:01:50 (17.7 av pace) 29/56 age group. Running off the bike is usually not very easy thus why we should practice this as much as possible, my running legs took a while to run but I made it to transition rack bike, helmet off, visor on (oops to early) remove bike shoes put on socks for run, shoes for run, race belt- umm race belt wont go on- click finally) oops should have taken care of this out on the run with the visor. T2 2:46 I learned take care of everything you can while on the move not in T. The run coarse was shaded but it was still very hot, but lots of support and aid stations with ice cold water and cold towels about each 1/2 mile. Run was good I ran most of the coarse and felt good. Run 3.1 33:42 (10:52 pace) 42/56. All in all this was a great & fun race. After all of Team sTRIve finished racing we headed our separate ways to our hotels for our journeys back to Houston. My total time for this long sprint was 2:06:32 my goal was to finish healthy, I had a secret goal of 2:00 which I almost accomplished- but I know how to do it next time.

After race Refreshments..

Team sTRIve!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

The Goodie Bag

2010-08-03T14:18:00.003-05:00

River Cities Triathlon is said to have one of the greatest swag bags of all races. This year proved to be true, although a little disappointed in what came in the bag, the bag speaks for itself. It is the perfect triathlon travel bag unfortunately it is too big for a transition bag but if you need to travel this bag will hold everything. It had several compartments for gels, nutrition, race belt, 2 separate shoe compartments for running shoes and bike shoes, a place for your helmet and anything else you will need to pack for your next race no matter what the distance. With the bar we received a 30th anniversary participation tech shirt, a pair of socks, a hat and some funky ass sunglasses. All in all I was quit please with the bag. A little disappointed that there was not a medal this year.

I will try to have a race report by the end of the week. Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A few of my favorite things

2010-07-29T10:12:00.014-05:00

What are yours?

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Mexican food and margaritta's will be the death of me

2010-07-27T08:51:00.002-05:00

Mexican food and Margarita's will be the death of me in the battle of weight loss. In my last post I bragged that I was down 8.8, well after weighing in last week it the scale jumped up 1.2 lbs. Yes I am still excited that I am down 7.6 lbs but it is frustrating that I let food get the best of me. Logan and I took a long weekend and went to Galveston so we ate out ever meal for 3 days and then I kept doing it. I have a feeling that tomorrow's weigh in will be bad too, cause I have not stopped eating like crap. Time to jump back on this crazy roller coaster called weigh loss.

I will be traveling to Benton La on Saturday for a sprint triathlon with teammates. This race promises to have the best race packet with over $250 worth of merchandise. All that aside although it is a sprint race it will be my longest triathlon thus far. .5 mile swim 18 mile bike and 5k run. I am hoping to hit the 2 hr mark and feel great when I finish.

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

Weight Watchers and Training

2010-07-15T08:38:00.003-05:00

I am in week 6 of being on Weight Watchers and I am loving it. Yes I am retraining myself on what to eat and I often wonder what can I try new that will fit into the new eating habits. But day by day it is getting easier to find things to put in my body that are good for me. I weighed in yesterday and I am down 8.8 lbs. yeah for me. I am 10.2lbs from goal weight.

Monday night at the pool was not so good, 24 hr had the chemicals off in a bad way. So I swam 500 and quickly exited to go home take a shower and get the itch off of my body.

Tuesday night TT at the track. 1.75 warm up at 10:37 pace 2 mile TT at 8:56 pace. (96 degrees out side at 7:00pm) Training in Texas sux.

Wednesday pool work out 2050 meters.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Crazy week

2010-07-12T13:46:00.002-05:00

Last week was crazy week filled with a car that is parked in the driveway, a great track workout, a hard swim, lots of rain, a horrible run Friday day night and an eventful ride on Sunday.
The car is being worked on by our crazy neighbor and mechanical friend Scott. The transmission is in the drive way while he replaces the throw out bearings. Ok whatever that means. It means to me $500. My car has gotten me through alot, lots of road trips and many hours of getting me to and from training. She is getting old but I am not quite ready to let her go.
Monday swim was a 1000 TT. It was not pretty but I got it done 25:49.
Tuesday I had a great track workout 4 X 800 after 1.5 mile warm up. I held my intervals very steady 4:25 4:21 4:23 and 4:18. After track Team Strive headed up to Chipotle for dinner and great laughs.
Wednesday swim was a rough swim but swimming is always rough for me. Warm up 300 broken 1000 400 (40") 300 (30") 200 (20") 100 (10"). then 4 x50's 25 easy 25 fast, 25 fast 25 easy, 25 fast 25 fast and 25 easy 25 easy (x2). 1700 and cool down 100. I hope this gets better fast.
Thursday it was raining cats and dogs so for my training I turned to the gym 65 mins on a spin bike and 20 mins on the dreadmill.
Friday night some of my teammates meet up at a sports bar and headed out for our long run. I got it 11.76 hot and humid miles, in which I walked at least the whole last mile. Thank god for Nessa picking us up from the trails and getting us back to the sports bars for a cold arse beer and juicy hamburger.
Last but not least my 30 mile bike ride on Sunday. First of all this was my longest ride ever Whoot Whoot. It was fun, it was dirty and there will be bruises for a while. That is probably all I need to say about that.
Happy training with great teammate trumps it all.

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

Catch Up

2010-06-21T08:27:00.002-05:00

I find I hardly have time to sit and blog it seems life gets so busy between work, workouts, being a wife, a daughter and a friend. Sometimes I feel life gets past me and in no time a year has passed. I get caught up in the hussell and bussell, I try to make mental notes or leaves my self messages on the way home from work at work to remember to pay this bill or make this phone call when I get to work in the morning. I lye in bed at night and my mind races with what I left undone only to forget it it again in the morning. So I decided to take a breather this morning to write a few lines.

Yesterday I met up with Team Strive for a bike ride, most did 57 miles since they are all training for IM Florida. I did 23! It was a nice ride with a few hills, the weather was nice (if I can say that about Houston in June). Brandy and I avg'd 16.1 (which is good for me) Logan and I had a wonderful brunch together before we headed to my father in-laws for an afternoon of the US open and disgusta-burgers(burgers).

Friday night after work I met up with some running friends for what was supposed to be an 8 miler, until it was cut short since the sky opened up and it was just plain dumb to be out running. So I got in 5.25. The bad in this run is now my blackberry nor my Garmin made it out alive. So I will be calling Garmin this morning to see about getting a new watch asap.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Happy Father's Day to all dads.

Oh and I am down 2.2lbs.

A new journey that starts with the next 17 weeks

2010-06-09T15:54:00.003-05:00

Today I began my 17 week journey to weight loss. Yes I run, yes I swim and yes I bike and the pounds are slowly but surely creeping back. It is time I watch what I stuff in mouth. Today I joined Weight Watchers and have already consumed almost all of my points. Not the best start, but a start to my journey.

My Newest Purchase

2010-06-03T13:07:00.002-05:00

My most recent purchase was the speedfill hydration system and so far so good. It holds 40oz of fluids, which is more than I need for a 20 mile bike ride. Since I am training for sprint distances I have not used it for a ride longer than 20 miles but I had plenty of fluids left when I finished. I love not having to grab for a water bottle every time I need a drink, the drink tube runs up the frame of my bike and comes out between my areo bars. Right now it is a little manufactured since my bike is smaller than most (all) and it barely fits on my frame. A great purchase for $99.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Something Rather

2010-05-04T11:13:00.001-05:00

I took several days off after completing my first sprint tri of the season to recoup and relax. I had been training hard for months and enjoyed multiple days of Misty time without alot of training. Last Tuesday I took it to the track and for 30 mins recovery run (2.8 miles) and Wednesday at the pool I completed 1500.

Saturday morning was the CB&I triathlon in The Woodlands and I volunteered in transition mainly with body marking and then helping the athletes in and out of transition. Lots of Team Strive was there, some racing and the rest volunteering. Congrats to Kristen on her 1st place AG win and Lauren, Stu and Scott on 1st place mixed relay.

Sunday morning I felt like I had been run over by a bus, I guess my legs are not used to doing squats, note to self something to add to my training plan.

Monday still felt sore and relaxed at home with a tube of Biofreeze. Also yesterday I signed up for Tejas sprint on June 6th. This will be my longest sprint race thus far.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Lone Star Sprint Race Report

2010-04-26T15:37:00.002-05:00

It feels strange to write a report on a short distance when I am known to Coach G as a endurance junkie, but triathlon is new to me so maybe one day I will look back on this post and see what I have learned. I arrived in Galveston around 1:30 on Friday afternoon, after checking into the hotel I headed to athlete check in. After I picked up my race packet I met up with Coach G and Greg and we walked over to transition to see where I would be set up on Saturday morning. After being in awh of how many bikes/people would be in there in 16 hrs and being relieved that the rows were lettered and numbered we headed to the swim start. The water was calm and I started to anticipate how long it would take me in this open water swim. I was nervous yet excited. Later in the evening I met up with several teammates for dinner and got to bed about 9pm.
Saturday morning wake up call came in at 4:15. I ate some oatmeal, got dressed, aired up the tires and headed to transition at 5:15. With in 15 mins I was set up and ready to go, I chatted with some of the ladies in my wave- lots of them new to triathlon as well and then made one last bathroom stop. As I headed to the swim start it started to drizzle, then the nerves started to sink in. Coach G and Greg came down to help me get in my wet suit and to calm my nerves, About 10 mins before the first wave was set to start, the skies got dark, the wind picked up and the water started to dance. Race officials delayed the race for 30 mins and then decided to call off the swim. I heard later that the buoys when not stay secure, but I know I was getting very scared of the waves I was about to have to swim in. Thank god I did not have to swim in that- I think I would have drown. We were told to go back to transition and wait for direction, but that we would have a duathlon.
They sent us out on the 12.5 bike ride one row at a time starting with row A… I was row G, once the row was out of transition they sent the next row out 3 secs later. The bike coarse was pretty congested not to mention the cross wind was a biatch; at times it was difficult to make a pass. I fought the wind and rode as hard as I could and made it back in in 44:20 and in 31st for my age group ( I am actually happy with this 31/89 cause I am not great on the bike). Transition was 2:02.
I headed out on my run feeling a little tight in the legs, the run was hot and I had to start walking more than I would like to admit, I had carried a water bottle with me so I had fluid for the run and I used the aid stations to pour the cold ice water on my head to keep my temp down. The ladies in my age group seem to be faster runners than I, I ended up with a 5k time of 31:36 with total finish time of 1:18:01 and 43/89 in my age group. So I finished in the top half, which I am happy with. I have lots of room for improvement, but most importantly I had fun and I did a great job.
I had lots of friends and family out to support me and to cheer me on! Thank god for them!
Sunday I returned the favor to my teammates for 70.3. Truly inspirational! Oh and I got to meet Chris Lieto!

Lonestar Sprint

2010-04-15T12:01:00.002-05:00

A week from Saturday I will be competing in my second sprint triathlon. I would like to think I have come a long way since October, but I am still scared shitless. I have a .33 mile swim which I have more than done in the pool and in one open water training swim, but for some reason as I blog about all the time swimming still scares me horribly. I have since bought a tri bike that I am still learning to ride but have managed to get to avg 16+ mph on each ride. My goal in this race is to have fun, be healthy and (tri) like hell to beat 1:30.

I learned on Monday night that I do have 3 speeds- in swimming sets of 200's 50/50/100 flip flopped easy/mod/fast. Swam 2 50's in under 1 min, which I have never done. Last Thursday I avg 17.3 mph on the bike. So I am improving, I am just worried about putting it all together.

Saturday I will have another open water swim, that I am already nervous about. But I keep hearing it all goes away with time.

Hope to see you on the roads and in the water soon!

Open Water

2010-04-12T08:55:00.002-05:00

Saturday was an eventful day for me that started out with a 4.2 mile run and coffee from Starbuck's. My coach was putting on a transition clinic for new triathletes and since I am new to the sport it was most helpful, even though my bike is in the shop I was able to see what to do and what not to do. After the transition clinic we headed out to Lake Windcrest for an open water swim. Putting on my wet suit I started to freak out as I knew I was about to get in cold brown water and was going to swim. I picked my spot (a buoy) to turn around and got in the water, off coarse I had to pee as soon as I got in. As I started to swim my breathing was way off and I started to panic half way to the buoy, I started to tred water and then started to side stroke when coach G said to stop swimming and calm down. After I calmed down Gena and I swam to the buoy and took a break before returning to shore. Once we got to shore I tried to exit the water but was informed I would be doing the swim again. This time I took a deep breath and started to swim, I was able to keep my face in the water without feeling completely causterphobic and made it to the buoy and back for total swim of .82 miles. I hope that the fear of open water goes away sooner than later.

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

A Good Deed

2010-04-07T09:24:00.002-05:00

On Monday I headed to the pool for 2100 I was swimming in the middle lane between an older gentleman and a guy about my age. About half way through my workout I over heard the older gentlemen say that his eyes were burning when I realized he was not wearing any goggles. The younger guy said that he was almost done with his set and he could use his. Knowing I always have about 3 or 4 pair of goggles in my bag I offered him a pair. He laughed and said "thank you I guess I will go to Walmart when I leave". As I swam back down the lane to my swim bag I thought to myself why make him go to Walmart. I handed him two pair and told him to try them both on and he could have the one that fit best. I think I have a new friend for life. I hope the goggles do him justice.

Tuesday- track w/o 6 x 400 and dinner with friends.

Today is registration for Marine Corp Marathon, will I sign up? I let you know later in the week.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Something to Pass on

2010-03-30T07:58:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I was reading my coach's blog and came across her talking about these products she received at Timex Camp. You all know if you swim you always have the lingering pool smell. I am not sure if anybody else could smell me but I know I did. I ordered this product on a Wednesday and on Saturday when I checked my mail it was there. So far I have used the body wash, shampoo and conditioner (3x) and the chlorine smell is gone. This is so affordable and to top it off my skin and hair are so soft. Check this out at http://www.tri-swim.com/

Can I be any less Motivated?

2010-03-26T07:47:00.002-05:00

This week it has been really hard for me to make it to my workouts. Work has been tiring and has left me wanting to go home and climb in the recliner with a cold beer. I managed to make it for a swim Monday which left me feeling like I took 12 steps backwards. I just don't understand what is so hard about swimming but it seems to be my down fall. Tuesday I had a track work out that was fantastic, it was a short workout a 1 mile warm up 11:00 avg pace and then 4 X 400 plus 1 x 800. Average pace for the workout was 7:53, I was dead ass tired but it felt great. After track several of us had dinner at Freebirds. Then it all got bad again on Wednesday I could not make myself go to coached swim, not sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me since Monday was sooooo bad. Was I tired from kicking my but at track the night before? Last night I had a TT on the bike did I get that done,? No. Got home from work finally and sat in the recliner again. Friday is normally my day off but I am hoping not to be in the same funk tonight that I have been in the past 2 nights. Yall wish me luck!

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

A little bit of Fun

2010-03-19T09:17:00.002-05:00

Earlier this month I ran TIR again with some great friends. It was a long sleepless weekend spent in a crowded van with many different personalities, but with endless memories. Starting with a tour at the Shiner brewery on Friday afternoon, drinks at Howard's (store/bar) and a pasta dinner and dancing with "The Mullets". We started our journey at 6:38 am on Saturday in Gonzales and finished Sunday evening at 4:30ish at the San Jacinto Monument. Thank you to my team for a fabulous weekend!

A Valentine Weekend

2010-02-15T09:54:00.003-06:00

We choose to beat the crowds and celebrate Valentines on Friday night. Dinner was at 7:00 at Taser's in the Woodlands. This restaurant has been open for about a year and Logan and I have stopped in for a drink and appetizer's before a movie a time or two. We have never had dinner there because it is one of those places that normal people only can afford to eat there on special occasions. As usual I had my special occasion only rack of lamb for dinner and a wedge salad as my appetizer. Logan started out with a dozen oyster's and for an entry he had the side by side sirloin which were 10 ozs a piece. The food was to die for, the rack of lamb melted in my mouth like sweet love. It beat (in my opinion) rack of lamb at Kirby's, Perry's and Vick and Anthony's (not that these places aren't great, but not as great as Taser's). Logan's steak was obviously very good because he ate all 20ozs and then some.

Saturday morning I had an 8 mile run on the schedule, so I headed out of the house and meet up with Team Striver's for a cold run. Lynn and I ran together and had great conversation. After the run we had a coffee and more conversation. Saturday afternoon was special time for me and the recliner in which I stayed in all day until I went to bed.

Sunday my honey got up early and was clanking around in the kitchen so I decided to see what all the commotion was, when I did I caught him making my breakfast. After breakfast I got dressed to meet up with Team Strive for a group bike ride. I had 1:15 and a 15 min run off the bike. The bike ride was great, weather was beautiful and I am getting used to the tri-bike more and more each time I ride it. Hopefully one day soon I will be able to ride in aero. When I got home from the ride Logan was MIA so I called him and he told me he was almost home. When he arrived this is what he brought in..

The picture is poor quality because my blackberry takes horrible photos, but it is my new couch I have been asking him to go buy for months. Yeah for my great Valentines weekend.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-12T11:47:00.002-06:00

Did You Know?

Looking for Love
188 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.)

Over 50 percent of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine's Day a procrastinator's delight. (Source: Hallmark research)
Research reveals that more than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine's Day by purchasing a greeting card.

There are 119 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages.

There are 34 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 or older for every 100 single women of the same ages.

904: The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.

Be Mine
2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to more than 6,000 a day.

The estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men are 25.3 and 27.1 respectively, in 2005. The age for women rose 4.2 years in the last three decades. The age for men at first marriage is up 3.6 years.

Candy is Dandy!
1,241: The number of locations producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2004. These establishments employed 43,322 people. California led the nation in the number of such establishments with 136, followed by Pennsylvania with 122.

515 locations produced nonchocolate confectionary products in 2004. These establishments employed 22,234 people.

3,467 Number of confectionery and nut stores in the United States in 2004. Often referred to as candy stores, they are among the best sources of sweets for Valentine's Day.
The per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2005 was 25.7 pounds. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled or savored more than 27 pounds of candy a year.

Flowers
The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2005 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $397 million. Among states, California was the leading producer, alone accounting for nearly three-quarters of this amount ($289 million).
The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2005 for all operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $39 million. Among all types of cut flowers, roses were third in receipts ($39 million)to lilies ($76.9 million) and tulips ($39.1 million).
There were 21,667 florists nationwide in 2004. These businesses employed 109,915 people.

Jewelry
There were 28,772 jewelry stores in the United States in 2004. Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February 2006, these stores sold $2.6 billion worth of merchandise. (This figure has not been adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading day differences or price changes). The merchandise at these locations could well have been produced at one of the nation's 1,864 jewelry manufacturing establishments. The manufacture of jewelry was an $9 billion industry .

Spinning at the gym

2010-02-05T12:34:00.002-06:00

Last night I took a spin class at the new gym and it left me feeling a bit cheated in a workout. Not that I did not get anything out of it but I have not been to a spin class in months so I should have had my ass handed to me. I did manage to break a sweat but my legs were not burning when I left. I do not feel the normal soreness today that I am used to felling after a class with Viv or Kelli. I am missing my Pure fitness girls that yell at you for not working hard. This instructor gave the class "a break" in the middle of the class, what the *@#!? So I figure that something maybe was off last night and I will try a class again sometime in the future but I hope that is not the best they can do.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A week in training

2010-02-02T10:03:00.002-06:00

My first week of tri-training ended and the second week started yesterday. It seems weird to me that I have only run about 10 miles since my marathon on the 17th of January. I know that sooner than later the mileage will pick back up and I will be having some 2-a day workouts.

Last Tuesday night I met up with some of my teammates for a 3.25 mile run at the waterway and then dinner at Barryhill. Wednesday 1 hour coached swim a 400 w/u, 3 broken 400's then a we were free to put on our fins and swim easy 25 hard 25. 50/50 and 75/75. After the 25/25 I had a horrible crap that forced me out of the water. So sadly I was only in the water for about 45 mins with an unfinished workout. Thursday night a 40 Min bike ride in doors on the trainer.
Friday a day off and loved it.

Saturday I ran Bill Crew Remission Run 5k where all proceeds are donated to MD Anderson Cancer Research. Placed 3rd in my age group(and there were 28 in that age group) a first for me. I ran this race in memory of my friend Pamela who lost her battle with cancer in August of this year. It was a very cold damp morning as I lined up with the almost 300 other runner and tried to stay warm. We were sent off by an 8 yr girl who is a lymphoma survivor, she said "GO". Most of the race was on pavement because we had a butt load of rain on Thursday and Friday but a short bit was on the grass in which I triped and fell down. I was hoping for a PR in this race and knew it could probably happen since I am a little bit faster than the last time I ran a 5k. I thought a lot of my friend during the race as she loved to run but could not from other conditions she had since childhood. After she got sick from cancer she loved to hear about my races, she thought it was amazing that I could run so far. I have been keeping her with me in all events since August 18th 2008. I know she was pushing me through the race, I finished with about a 5 min 5k PR of 27:35 so my hardware will go to her children.

Sunday was my first group training ride, it was still very cold. I rode for an hour, got in 15.9 miles.

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

Tri Season has began

2010-01-26T15:56:00.002-06:00

My first day of tri-season started yesterday with a swim. I met up with Jenny at the pool for a non-coached swim. We had for warm up 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 pool, 100 swim. W/o was 3 x 100 10" rest 1 min. 3 X 100 10" rest 1 min and 3 X 100 (we added one more by mistake) cool down was 300. 1600 done in about 40 mins which is really good for me. It was a good swim very relaxed and with a great swim partner. Tonight I have a 3 mile easy run then dinner at Barryhill with Team Strive.

Chevron Houston Marathon 2010

2010-01-20T07:59:00.005-06:00

When I started my journey I began with training for the Chevron Houston Half Marathon 2008, it would be my first race in a very long time. I join Woodlands Fit in July of 2007 because I was a couch potato, out of shape, a smoker, no hobbies (other than drinking beer), married but alone on weekends because my husband had a life. I remember the first Saturday morning run, when I could not finish a mile without walking and being in pain. After meeting great coaches and friends that summer I accomplished 13.1 in January 2007. After my the first half marathon there was a little bit of harassment about when would I double that, of coarse my answer was NEVER. But I was hooked . Without boring you through two years of racing I will say, NEVER say NEVER.

Sunday I ran my 5th marathon, I won't say it was my favorite marathon I have run but it rates high with Sunmart. I meet up with my Kathleen to drive down to Houston at 5:15 we were parked and in the GRB by about 6am. Got our stuff together, used the bathroom, checked our drop bags, visited with teammates, then headed to the start line. I was in the slower wave (2) and it started at 7:10. Kathleen and I ran together until about mile six where we got separated, it was very crowded until we got to the turn around for the half marathon. At mile 7ish I saw some of my teammates that came out to support us. At this point I put on my pace band that I had picked up from the expo. I did not want anyone to know exactly what my expectations were for the race in case I did not accomplish it. I saw a few co-works out on the coarse ( mile 19 i think) that came out to support after completing the half marathon. Ron ran with me for a bit and gave me some encouragement. At this point some of the pain was setting in and I was tired. For about the 17 miles I was on pace for a 4:30 finish I was able to walk very minimally, but after mile 20 I found my self needing to walk about every 1/2 mile. So my pace started to fall. At mile 24 I saw coach Kim who ran by me and told me I could do this- I started to tear up and said ok. At mile 25 fighting back tears I can see a man running by me on the sidewalk I look over and it is my husband. I smile and he tells me how strong I look and to keep running. I run towards the finish but I hurt to much to sprint so I ran as hard as I could, I crossed the finish in 4:37:58. Knocked 31:18 off my previous PR. What a day. I picked the 4:30 pace band because I know if I could come close to this it would be a dream come true. I did it.

I am recovering well, I had a great post massage on Monday, each day my quads are getting loser. I have an easy swim scheduled for tonight. First run will be Saturday.

I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family that support me in my efforts. Thank you.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Marathon Count Down

2010-01-08T07:11:00.003-06:00

Chevron Houston Marathon is 9 sleeps away. I am hoping to finally break 5 hours. Something at about mile 20 always kills me, my mind starts to doubt, my legs start to cramp, and my feet start aching from blisters. I am hoping that January 17th is my day to finally preserver and jump this hurdle. Tomorrow is my last long run before the marathon and then it will be an easy week- Yeah! I don't think I have enough clothes to wear tomorrow morning being that it will be about 18 degrees when we head out, this is Houston people we don't get this kind of weather very often- I think it was 1996 the last time we had weather this cold.

Thanks Jason from DryMax for my package! These will be on my feet for the marathon.

Hope to see you on the roads! Good luck to everyone racing Disney and any other races this weekend!

Alll I Want For Chistmas Is............

2010-01-04T09:08:00.003-06:00

A really fast bike..... I have the greatest hubby ever, he bought me my beautiful red shiny bike. Much to my surprise, because 2 days before Christmas I was upset that I would have no surprises- he got me good.

My holidays were great, I was luckily off from 12/22/09- today (my first day back @ work and all kinds of issues) but hey that's what you get for a great vacation. I cannot possible remember all that happened these past two weeks but they were great.

My brother and sister in law were in town for a month so I spent lots of time with them. Christmas as you can see by my photos were great. New Years was spent with great friends. Yesterday I took my first bike ride on 2010 with clip less pedals(my first) it went ok once I got the take off under control. Although my right leg is very bruised and the knee is skinned from the 4 spills I took. Put my first scratch on the new shinny bike. Thanks to my girl Gena for taking me on my first bike ride and teaching how to ride a tri bike.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!!! happy New Year everybody!

DryMax Socks

2009-12-22T07:23:00.002-06:00

I love race expo's, I love to walk around and see all the vendors' and all the new stuff I have not seen. Several years ago it was Bondi Band- I bought several and I still use from time to time today. Then there was the wooden medal holder that I saw and purchased at Little Rock half marathon expo, that is completely full, leaving me to wonder what I will use for 2010 season. This year in Dallas the first booth that I passed that drew me back was the Drymax Socks booth. I see a guy with socks playing with them in a bowl of water, so I thought to myself this is something I have got to see. He rolled and dipped the socks in the water and then he told me that he was going to press then down on a dry paper towel and the towel would stay dry. Well as I am thinking that is the biggest piece of BS I have ever heard, he touched the sock to the paper towel and not even a drop of water was there. I let him go through his sales pitch about how these socks prevent blisters more than any sock out on the market, blah blah blah. He told me that they were normally $10 a pair but at the expo if you bought 3 pair it would be $20, So when he finally quit talking I said sold. Little did he know he had as soon as he put the socks in a bowl of water. You see I am the blister queen, I put Vaseline on my feet to run 3 miles, because if I don't I get a blister- I don't know why since I also use the proper anti-moister socks, some of my previous posts have described the ugly,awful blisters I have earned running over the past couple of years. So back to the Drymax, I have used these sock twice on my runs since Dallas h/m once for an easy 4 miles and last Sunday on my 20 miler and guess what no Vaseline (cause the directions say not to use it, and NO blisters. This is the first time ever that I have run over 10 miles without at least a hot spot or blister and my feet stayed dry. I will never buy another sock other than these. Thank you whoever you were for dipping those socks into the bowl of water as I strolled by your booth. Check them out at www.drymaxsocks.com

Merry Christmas All

I hope to see you on the roads soon!

Graduation

2009-12-21T10:05:00.003-06:00

It was a big weekend in the Baugh house. My hubby graduated with his master's on Friday night. I am so very proud of him as he has worked really hard the past few years trying to get back into school and get his degree. About one semester before graduation he deicided to get his teaching certificate and then his master's. So he has been a busy boy the past 6 years. After work Friday I went and got my hair trimmed and then rushed home to get dressed. Graduation was at 7 and we gathered in the pavillion and waited. It was me, mom, brother, sis-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law and a few close friends. After graduation we went to have dinner and drinks at The Grove, delicious food, BAD service, beautiful setting and great drinks.
Saturday I rested a bit, cleaned house and finished up some last minute Christamas shopping. Later in the evening we went to a Christmas party at The Grube's, great friend and great food.
Sunday was my 20-miler getting me ready for Houston full marathon. I met up with fast Russell and Kathleen at 6:15 and we headed out basically all the way to the back of The Woodlands, turned around and came back. 20.06 miles finished and now time to taper.

Work Monday and Tuesday and then done until January 4th.

Merry Christmas to All and I hope to see you on the roads soon.

Post race recovery and A little bit of bragging.

2009-12-16T09:44:00.002-06:00

I seem to be recovering well after my half marathon (PR) on Sunday. Monday was a nice rest day that included crawfish and beer with my family. Yesterday I was looking at some of my stats from the race and although I am no where near fast or was no where close to winning. I took pleasure in some of mt results. My splits were all negative, @ mile 6.214 my avg pace was 10:29 (gradually all up hill) @ mile 3.784 (still mainly up hill) and finally going down hill the last 3.109 miles were @ 9:08 avg pace. In the final 3 miles I passed 411 ppl and was only passed by 13. There were 3083 woman that finished behind me and 1717 a head of me. The last one I will brag about is that I beat 39% of men. So I did not win the race but I kick alot of azz. Last night I went to the track for 3.5 easy miles. I felt tired after my run but not sore. Tonight is Master's swim.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Dallas White Rock Half Marathon

2009-12-14T10:15:00.001-06:00

My goals for this race were to race healthy, have fun with friends, and high hopes of a PR. All of these goals were accomplished on Sunday. My friend Kathleen and I drove up to Dallas on Saturday morning. When we got to Dallas we went straight to the expo and meet up with Russell picked up our packets and started walking around looking at the different booths. Bill Rodgers was speaking so we listened to him for about 30 mins and then finished walking around. We were about to leave when he walked right up and started talking to 2 men standing behind me so when he was done I introduced myself and asked for a photo. Unfortunately the only camera I had was my blackberry so the picture is not that good but oh well. After the expo we headed to Hard Rock for lunch. After lunch we went to the hotel to relax and rest our legs. At dinner time we went to Chamberlin’s where my cousin Lance is the manager had some yummy seafood apps and a beer or two. I felt like a rock star at this restaurant, the chef came out to our table and introduced himself and thanked us for coming in and wished us well in our race on Sunday, the hostesses, waitresses and bartenders all came by to meet us and wish us well too. Not mention they took care of us 100%. If you are every in Dallas look up Chamberlin’s Seafood Market and go eat there, they are right off the Dallas Tollway. After diner we went back to the hotel and laid out our race clothes a pile for cold weather and a pile for warm weather & went to bed around 10pm. I slept normally like I do the night before a race- restless tossing and turning, dreaming about waking up to late etc. Wake up call came in at 6:15- bathroom, shower and got dressed, went down to the lobby for continental breakfast, which included a banana, one egg, half of a pancake and a small piece of sausage. This is not my normal pre race breakfast but it was good and I took a chance with trying something new. Sorry Coach Kim! We left out hotel for a short 10 min walk to the American Airlines Center, when we got there we saw Althea, dropped our bags and stood in line for one last bathroom break. This is where I saw my next celebrity, Crazy Tracy from the biggest loser- she looked fabulous and excited about her race. I noticed she was in the same wave as Kathleen and I but after leaving the bathroom line I never saw her again. The first wave started at 8:00am I was in wave C, but we were across the mat in about 10mins 30 sec s after the first wave. The course was decent; it was a slight elevation gain for the first nine miles, then a slight decent, in which about 3 miles were on a beautiful trail. Cons of this race were, aid stations were horrible, water and Gatorade were not ready for runners when we came through, each aid station I stopped at I had to wait for them to pour my Gatorade into a cup. Water stations were not well marked and volunteers were not yelling out. The course was way too congested, they need to reroute so accommodate the 22,000 runners. A lot of time was wasted on trying to get around other runners/walkers on small streets that were also congested with parked cars. Coming into the shoots were difficult to again they were very narrow and there were several runners who thought it was a good time to stop and high five family members or kiss their loved ones 20 yards from the finish line. The finish line was a fiasco as well, the stuffed the finisher shirts, medals and finish line photos in an area less than 20 yards long and when you got through there you had a football field length of nothing before you went to the finishers tent. The finisher’s food consisted on hard cold bagels, granola bars and fruit- But lots of beer and two great bands. So as a Beer lover they redeemed themselves with having plenty of beer. I ran a good race, I felt good for most of it, my calf hurt a bit between mile 11 and 13 but I was going for a PR and it was all downhill so I ran through it. When I crossed the finish line my Garmin said 2:11:20 but when I checked my chip time it was 2:12:16 a little disappointing- I guess my Garmin jacked up and I didn’t realize it, but I still got a PR and I had fun and I feel great today. Pros of the race, a great expo, great entertainment, scenic course, lots of beer, nice participation and finisher shirts, lots of crowd support. I would recommend this race and would probably do it again especially if they fixed the congestion issues.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

3 sleeps until 13.1

2009-12-10T15:39:00.002-06:00

3 more sleeps until Dallas White Rock half marathon. Am I nervous? not really. Is it driving me crazy with what I hope for and what will be? YES.. The most important thing I want is to be healthy and that's what I am sure of no matter what. What I hope as far as goals, 2:00-2:12. So I guess we will see on Sunday.

Last night was Master swim, it was better than last week and I think it will get better each week. Took it easy (slow, even slower than normal) since I am racing this weekend. Swam 1700.

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

Houston had a snow day

2009-12-08T08:25:00.002-06:00

Yes Houston Texas had a snow day. My company even let us leave early on Friday, some areas around town got several inches, The Woodlands which is where I live got screwed, we had an hour of big flurries but nothing stuck. I did however use this is a rest day and stayed indoors by the warm fire. Saturday morning some of our running group decided to sleep in and start our run a little later than normal, to let the ice on the roads get the opportunity to melt before we headed out. At 9 am we meet at Starbucks and set out for a 32 degree run. It was not a great day for me, I had 15-16 miles on the schedule and around mile 10 the pain started to settle in. Just before mile 14 I was in excruciating pain from my hips to my calves. As soon as I hit mile 15 I walked the .75 back to Starbuck's and drank a Grande Peppermint Mocha then headed home for a hot soak in the tub. After the long soak in the tub feeling a little better I decided to head to the mall and do some Christmas shopping for my man but I can't tell you what I bought him in case he decides to read my blog someday... Sunday was our running club holiday social, great food and good times, I took Sunday off as a rest day. Monday was my final furlough day thank god that I will be getting full pay checks again this will help out in the upcoming purchase of my new bike. Will post pictures as soon as I get it. I met up with my girl Robin for lunch and some shopping for me, then a 5:00 massage from Cruz, my calves will probably be a bit sore for a few days but they are much better than they were Saturday and Sunday. They were so bad she broke out a hot stone to workout the knots. My honey finally got home from Florida last night or early this morning is more like it, but I am glad he is home, I missed him like crazy. Tonight a track workout. 2-3 x 1 mile. Wednesday master swim- still makes me sick to my stomach.

Sunday is my half marathon in Dallas. #1 Goal is to PR anything under 2:13:00. #2 would be to get in under 2:10:00, Long term goal is sub 2:00.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Thanksgiving Day 5 miler and other updates

2009-12-02T08:01:00.005-06:00

On Thanksgiving morning I ran Run Through The Woods in The Woodlands. It is a great local 5 mile race that is about 1 mile from my house. It also includes a children's 1 mile race and a 3 mile family walk. It is a flat coarse other than 1 overpass that you go over twice. Every year this race seems to attract more and more ppl, this year there were about 5000 participants. It was a cool morning and the race went well, my coach and I had talked about what my goals were for the future that include a 1/2 mary on Dec 13 and a full on Jan 17. I had decided to have fun with this 5 miler and not really race it. With all that said it turned out to be a great morning, I felt good and I ended up with a PR- unintended but everything felt right and it just turned out that way. PR 50:11.

After two days of completely stuffing myself full of food with Thanksgiving turkey, potato's, greenbean casserole and stuffing I ran long on Saturday. I ran my first 20 miles since completing Oklahoma marathon back in April. It was a challenging run for me, I started out with a couple friends who are a little set back with injury but after about 7 miles I was on my own. I tried to stay focused and when the Garmin beeped at each mile I drank fluids and depending on mile I was at ate a Gu or took endurolites. When I arrived back at Starbucks Team Strive all cheered me back in and congratulated me on completing 20 miles- the longest run of the group that day.

Monday night I headed to the track for 5.25 easy miles.

Tuesday TRACK w/o was canceled boo

Tonight is the first night of swim clinic with Woodlands Master swim- I am swimming with the big boys tonight- I am kind of nervous..

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband Logan (who does not even read my blog).

Holidays

2009-11-20T08:42:00.002-06:00

The holidays are finaly approching, the weather seems to be wanting to cool off a bit and after today I be on a weeks vacation. What more could a girl ask for? My brother and sister in law are going to be in town for a month after a 6 month journey to Central America and then they will head back to sunny California. I have lots to look forward to and to be Thankful for over the next month and a half. To start Thanksgiving day a 5 miler that I will get to enjoy and will not be racing this this year and then Thanksgiving dinner for with family. My anniversary on Dec 2nd that I will be unfortunatly spending alone this year because my hubby will be out of town- he will be making up for I AM QUITE CERTAIN OF THIS!!! On Dec 13 I will be running a half marathon in Dallas (WR) with some friends and hope to be bring home another PR. More family time through out the month and Christmas which I will have another week and a half of vacation. And finally into the New Year I will run Houston full marathon on January 17th.

My new job is going well I am learning new things. I am running 18 miles in the morning. My hubby and I are going to The Texas Reinacance festival on Sunday. Who knows what all I will get into next week- exciting for sure. Oh and from my last post I tried out the new wetsuit the other day and it fits great, easy to swim in and I love the fact that I float on top of the water- no more sinking when I get tired. Thank god for that!

Hope to see you on the roads soon and Happy holidays to all!

New Purchases

2009-11-16T10:09:00.003-06:00

This is my newest run-purchase. I decided to try these puppies out to help with recovery after long runs. It took me several months of going back and forward to decide if these would really help me and if it was worth spending the money. After watching the New York marathon a few weeks ago I decided to take the plunge. So far I have run 3.5 miles, an 8 miler, and on Saturday I used them in my 16.67 mile run. On Saturday afternoon I noticed a big difference in the fatigue in my legs, yes they were still tired but they were not sore nor did they feel the beating they took in that run. So I am very happy with my purchase. They are very tight to put on, but I felt like my calves held in place and were not bouncing around. And then even tell you which foot they go on. Great purchase. I also recently purchased an Xterra wetsuit during a promotion for $99. Tonight in South Texas it is possible that it will be about 55 degrees when I hit the outdoor slightly heated pool, so I will taking along the wetsuit to see how it swims.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

New boss, no tme to blog

2009-11-13T15:33:00.002-06:00

Everytime I think about blogging I am handed something else to do at work. Yes I blog at work because I am never home to blog from home. Work is going great it is nice to be busy and to have a job. Since my 25k I have gotten in some good workouts, Monday was a night off of coarse, Tuesday 4.15 miles at the track, Wednesday spin class (all pyramids) great workout. Yesterday I met up with Kathleen after almost 6 miles it was dark but we ran up the water way in the light and completed 8 miles. I am hating this warm weather we are going to have for the weekend. On Monday we are finally supposed to get a cold front. Let's hope so.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A 25k

2009-11-10T08:14:00.002-06:00

Sunday I ran my first 25K, not the furthest distance I have raced, but the first race that was 25k distance. It was 3 loops of 5.5 miles each. Thank god for my running partner Gena that carried me through the final loop. The weather was muggy/humid even warm at times, plus anytime I have to see the finish line more than once and pass it just plain sucks. Gena and I had a plan to run the first loop as warm up the second loop a little faster and to hang on to that pace through the 3 loop. First loop was great we stopped and drank water at each mile and held a good pace. 2nd loop we picked up the pace a bit and ran strong. By the third loop my IT band was bothering me so bad that I wanted to cry. Gena could feel huge blisters on the bottom of her foot. So we struggled bad, both of us took turns encouraging each other and reminding ourselves that it was the last loop and we had it in the bag. Unfortunately with our pain this was by far our slowest loop, but we finished in under 3 hours.. 2:48:33 chip time which we both had 2:47:40ish on our Garmin. We hung with other Team Strive members Mike Flake, Scott Meyer, Scott Farrand, Melissa Hammond, Donna Ryals and Blake Henning. When I got home I grab a bit to eat took a shower, got in my recliner and iced my knees and hips. Yesterday I was still in pain will walking but today I feel better. The race was fun but defiantly the worst race I have had yet (based on how I felt during/after the race).

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Why give up?

2009-10-30T09:23:00.003-05:00

After completing my very first tri a couple of weeks ago it reminds me how fortunate I am to be healthy and active. Last night I had the opportunity to attend a seminar at Luke's Locker with Team Strive. Chris and Denise Arthey spoke to us and told us their story from last year when they were hit by a drunk driver while on their motorcycles on their way to Corpus Christi Texas. Both very active and athletic, Chris a sub 3-3:15 marathoner both now have prosthetic left legs. It was very touching to hear how they first of all survived this horrific crash (a head on collision with a combined speed of 135 miles an hour)and how they deal with everyday life. It has been a year of pain and multiple surgeries for the both of them, but they live each day in the moment. It made me realize that some days all I want to do is sit on the couch.. and that's ok, but why give up? Training is not always easy, there are aches and pains, there will be cold, rain and heat, you will get sick and run down. There are days that you will have to rest and you need to listen to your body. So I will ask myself is it really painful, am I sick or do I want to just skip my workout? Listen to your body, but don't ever give up. Chris will be receiving his running leg in a few weeks. We see Chris and Denise at Starbucks every few weeks on our Saturday morning runs, I hope one day he will be running with us.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

I am Recovering

2009-10-22T09:10:00.002-05:00

Since last Sunday I have not done a whole in my training, but taking some time to recover. Monday after I got home from work I stayed in my recliner until I went to bed. Tuesday I felt great so I laced up and went to the track for an easy 3 miles. Wednesday was a different story, I felt tired again and a little under the weather so after conversing with the girls I decided to get in my recliner again and rest. I am thinking that was a great idea, because today I feel much better. I am hoping the rain clears so I can get in an easy bike ride this afternoon- after I change the flat on my bike.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Try Andy's Tri

2009-10-19T08:00:00.005-05:00

So first off I will say I suck at writing race reports, but here it goes. Up at 3:45am Sunday morning nervously get dressed, bathroom x 2, load bike and transition bag. I am pretty much quiet the whole way down other than the 5000 questions I have to answer that mom shoots out. I think she finally got the hint that I could not answer anymore questions when I finally blurted out I JUST DON'T KNOW. We arrived with plenty of time for me to get my bike and transition area set up. I took my time and visited with other athletes that were racked next to me. Then it was just wait and think about getting into the water and having to swim. I met up with Gena, so she talked me through what was going to happen and what to do, I was cold oh yeah did I mention it was 50 degrees and the water was 72, they actually made the race wet suit legal the day before the race. Only a few ppl were a wet suit, like me most were beginners and did not have a wet suit. About 7:15 we walked over to the swim start and off they went wave by wave. I ran into Jenny Miller, Viv and Andrew, we all talked and I tried to take my mind off of my swim coming up very quickly. When I got in the water I could not touch so I tread water (not expecting that). I tried to get away from the other ladies so I would have my own swim space. Then the gun went off, bodies were flapping in the water, I stuck my face in and took a few storkes and nope, was not happening. So I swam most of the 300 with my head out of water, I got grabbed and swam on a couple of times causing a little bit of panic so I flipped on my back twice for comfort. Finally before i knew it I am being helped out of the water. (Swim 8:34.2) I run by and hear Gena's voice "ok now have fun". I am running to transition thinking OMG I am so tired, when I got to transition I ran down the wrong rack and here Jenny yell at me to come over there. (Thanks Jenny for steering me in the right direction). Grab my bike, helmet put on shoes and I a out of there, oops I jumped on my bike before the line (2:42.3 T1). Bike went well I passed 7-8 ppl, that was a cool feeling. The bike had a few over passes and some light head wind but I felt like I was riding good considering I was on my HEAVY mountain bike (38:35.4). When I came in I jumped off my bike early than I thought I needed to so I did not get yelled at again, ran into transition took off helmet, grab visor and race belt and off again (1:04 T2). By the time I get out of transition I feel like I have my legs back (for the most part)before I know it I am at mile 1 grab some water. I thought to myself don't stop running, just stay focused this is the easy part, this is what you know. I felt great a Little soreness in my legs but I know it is just a little fatigue and then I hear bagpipes so I know I am less that 1/2 a mile from the finish. I ran steady and then I can see is 100 yards away, I can here ppl cheering. I cross the finish line and get my medal. I did it. (30:32 run) Total time was 1:21:29. Time for a new bike. Will I do this again? HELL YEAH!!

3 sleeps until Try-Andys-Tri

2009-10-15T07:32:00.002-05:00

Well there are three more sleeps until my triathlon debut. Last night I had a great swim (what I call great). Started out with a warm up and some drills and then finished off with intervals. I have not mastered mt form and body position but my endurance gets better each time I get in the pool. Last night I was actually excited when I got out of the pool. Tonight I have a brick w/o.. 30 min bike ride and 10 min run and will run through transition. Friday I will make the hour drive to pick up my packet in Sugarland, run a few errands and then rest my legs. My race report will be here next week.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A washout at track

2009-10-14T08:37:00.002-05:00

I am so tired of the rain, heat and humidity and I am so done with bitching about it. Last night as I left for a track workout the sun was bright in the sky, I then drove about 5 miles to the track where it was gray and gloomy. As soon as I got out of the car to start my warm up it started to rain heavily, I decided (more like hoped) it would quickly pass (and I do like running in the rain)so I began my warm up, it was raining so hard that the drops pierced my skin. I finished my warm up and began a light w/o 4 X 400. After 2 x 400 my track work out was called off because major thunder and lightening. Big bummer. Today there is only 30% chance of rain but it has been raining off and on since at least 6:15 am when I left my house for the drive to work. Rain is good but when it makes me miss swims and runs it starts to piss me off. Hello rain I have a few more important workouts to complete before Sunday (at least it will make me feel better to get them in).

Running in the rain

2009-10-13T08:49:00.002-05:00

Once again the weather was crappy here and it rained all day long, I had a 4 mile run or a cross training day to choose from. Normally on Mondays I swim but with the weather and the fact that I swim in an outdoor pool, I opted to run. The weather had lightened to a sprinkle so I decided I would head out before more thunderstorms came in. I did not make it 1/2 a mile and the heavens opened up again, very quickly I thought to myself head home or keep running. Then I remembered how much fun it was to play in the rain as a child so I ran. We have great paths around my house to run on they are mostly black topped and easy on the knees, but not until today did I notice elevation changes. At times I waded through puddles that catfish would have a party in. Thank god I thought to bring a chamois to wipe out my eyes, because it was quit difficult to see. I cut the run a little bit short and made it 3.5 miles because me shoes were squishy squashy and my clothes were stuck to me. All in all it was a great run the rain was cool and it was fun to act like a kid again. Two lessons learned were to wear old shoes and to wear my visor the next time I plan an adventure in the rain.

5 More sleeps until Tri-Andy's-Tri.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Ten For Texas

2009-10-12T10:13:00.006-05:00

Saturday morning I got up at 5am to get ready for my "training run" at Ten for Texas. It thankfully was a nice and cool morning about 57 degrees. I pulled into the parking garage at Market Street (about 6:15) at the same time as Coach Kim, Greg and Gena, Molly and Kim. It was great to see my coach and fellow Team Strivers so early. As we walked up to the movie theater where we decided to hook up everyone started coming from everywhere. At about 7:10 we went on our warm up for about 10-15 mins and then headed to the start line. The gun went off at 7:30 and approximately 1900 runners were off. I used this event for as a training run instead of as a race. I ran with Lynn and Vickie which was fun I pretty much listen as they chatted answering when questioned (I am not a big big talked when I run). My main focus was to keep the heart rate low and enjoy the nice cool weather. I was able to maintain a high 2 to low 3 hrt thought the entire race. Another goal I had was to run in less that 2 hours, which is a big improvement compared to 1-1/2 yrs ago. My time was 1:56:32 so both goals were reach. Here is a photo of me having fun at the Mile 9 water station.

And a finishing photo. I should remember to wait until after I finish crossing the finish line to hit the Garmin. Most race photos I am looking down:(!

Afterward they had a great post party with food from Taco Cabana, Panera Bread and Chick-fila. The best part was the FREE ICE COLD BEER.

So now the focus is Tri-Andys-Tri coming up in 6 more sleeps. This week I will begin to tapper and prep for my first tri. I am trying not think about it to much cause it makes me feel like I need to poop. Seriously, this used to happen to me the week before a run only race, I finally got over that after a few half/marathons. You would think I would be over it, I mean its just a race right. I have so many emotions right now scared but excited for my new adventure seem to stand out the most.

The weather has been sucking these last 2 weeks so it has hampered swims and bike rides. But this week I will have to fight the weather and get a few miles on the bike and a few yards in the pool despite the weather.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A tapered track workout

2009-10-07T08:51:00.002-05:00

This week is a taper week before Ten for Texas on Saturday. And though I am tapering I am pushing a little harder because I am not "racing Ten for Texas". At the advice of Coach K I am taking it easy and will enjoy the nice weather and (my advice) the cold beer after the race. As most of you know from previous posts my first tri is on October 18th and Coach wants me to be well rested since I have never raced the three in one. Swimming is getting better, defiantly not great but much better (everyone keeps telling me it takes time). Monday night I noticed I am gaining endurance in the pool and feeling more relaxed in my breathing. Last night the track workout was 1 mile at goal race pace, since I am not racing I pushed harder and ran 1 mile at 8:39. Then we had 4 X 400 at race pace. I ran 1:59, 1:55, 2:02 and 1:45.

I broke down and signed up for another tri this morning. April 24th Lonestar Sprint.

4 days until 10 for Texas
12 days until Try Andy's Tri
13 days+ until I decide if I will do another tri. (Since I am already signed up for Lonestar Sprint, I am guessing what the decision will be). After this decision is made I will decide on a new bike.

Still here

2009-10-05T16:02:00.002-05:00

I am still here just been busy and have not had the time to blog. Nothing to major or exciting to blog about, just training and anticipating the up coming tri. I have been swimming twice a week and have improved my 300 by 30 secs in the past week. Last week I went to a friends house and practiced transition, now if I could only get in a brick workout. Saturday I am running 10 for Texas, not racing just running for fun. It is a great local race in The Woodlands that I have managed to miss the past two years due to travel and other races.

I will send in a race report of 10 For Texas on Monday.

Hope to see you on the roads!

2009-09-23T07:32:00.004-05:00

I bough some new shoes (Mizuno's) last week and so far they are feeling great. I have been very faithful to Asics since I started running but I felt it was time for change. So far they have made feet feel loved through 2 track workouts, a few shorts runs and an 11 miler. I think they are here to stay, so thank you Asics I will always love you but you have been replaced at least for now!

Track work out was awesome. Temps were cooler and a light rain kept me cool. 1.8 w/u. 6 X 800 w/2.00 rest. 1 (800) 4.33, 2 (800) 4.33, 3 (800) 4.24, 4 (800) 4.25, 5 (800) 4.25 and 6 (800) 4.19 and finally a walking .5 c/d.

Hope to see you on the roads.

1250??

2009-09-22T07:37:00.003-05:00

Last night I tried to get in a quick run before the rain, as soon as I turned out of my street it started to rain. About 1.4ish into the run it started to thunder so I turned around and went back home. 2.75 miles not bad. I started to wonder if I would miss my coached swim, but the sun came out and to the pool I went. Coach Laura had me start with 200 to warm up, I did. 8 X 50 drills with 25 flutter kick with board and 25 catch up i did. After that she had me do 50 in 1:20 X 3 (20 rest), 50 in 1:15 X 3 (30 rest) and 50 in 1:20 X 3 (20 rest). Finally after 1250 I was done. This was a nice accomplishment for me, this is the furthest I have ever swam- to be honest a few times I felt like I was going to drown but I know I will get better. Yeah for me!

Hope to see you on the roads!

Trying to remember

2009-09-21T08:26:00.002-05:00

I am trying to remember what the hell I did this week in my training. I forget to blog and thus I forget what all I do. So it goes something like this. Give or take. This blog is really boring because I don't have anything to exciting to say.

Tuesday track w/o. 1.25 w/u, 3.5 continuous miles at zone 4-5a avg 9:42; .5 c/d

Wednesday legs were on fire so I took a rest day.

Thursday 6 miles on the tread mill yuck and boring I HATE running on the treadmill but i got the work out down.. 11 avg pace.

Friday swim lesson with Coach Laura 1/2 hour working on stroke and left breathing (which I suck at, I am a right side breather) I really like Laura she is nice and helpful. Friday night spent time with friends for a birthday, drank alittle more than I like to admit. I am a beer drinker and I drank fruity girl drinks. Needless to say on Saturday morning I did not feel so hot.

Saturday 10 mile bike ride. Like I said I felt like poo in the morning so the bike ride was late in the day but I got it in and felt great after the ride.

Sunday 11 mile run. Rested in the recliner and watched football all afternoon. I love Sunday's. On Sunday my husband showed me how to change a flat tire. My fingers are feeling that this morning.

That's all the boring stuff I know for now. Hope to see you on the roads.

What's It All For?

2009-09-15T07:51:00.002-05:00

Everyday we wake up in the morning weather it be to get up and go to work, school, run, get on our bikes, take the dog for a walk, get the kids ready for school, etc. Some mornings we spring out of bed others we drag ass, some mornings we crawl back in bed and put the covers over our heads and hug our pillows. So I ask you what's it all for? This morning I woke up and thought about my friend Pam, today has been 4 weeks that she passed. I thought how lucky I am to have one more day with my friends and family. I am so blessed to have completed a 10 mile run on Saturday, a 10 mile mile bike ride with my hubby on Sunday. To me getting up in the morning may not always be easy but it is one more day. One more day that I am lucky to live.

Training has been going well, I am about 4 weeks from 10 for Texas, 5 weeks from my first tri, 13 weeks from Dallas White Rock half and about 18 weeks from Houston Marathon. What a great few months I have a head of me.

Hope to see you on the roads!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T08:24:00.002-05:00

Well I can honestly say I had way too much fun over Labor Day weekend in other words partied like a rock star come to mind. Friday morning I got up and headed out for a short run 4.2 mile loop close to my house. We headed to Austin a little after noon. So we had 3 straight days of lots of beer and food, in fact I think I could have put on a few more lbs. Saturday night we ended up at the UT ULN football game, being that I am an Aggie fan the fact that UT won I was not to excited but I never for once believed that ULM would win this game. More importantly the guys enjoyed the game so I enjoyed watching them have fun. Sunday we headed to Krause Springs in Spicewood, cool water beautiful scenery great fun. Yesterday the drive back was a little rough considering how tired we all were, when I got home I called Russ and asked if he wanted to go on a bike ride. The bike ride was rough but we did 16.8 miles, not sure if all the alcohol made the ride rough or if it was the first time I had ridden that far. Russ took it easy on me, thank god for friends. All I want to do id finish in October, other goals will come at a later date. I know I can get through the run and bike... now all I need is the swim to come together.

Ready for Labor Day

2009-09-03T07:59:00.002-05:00

I am so ready for labor day week end it can not get here fast enough. This week I have jumped back in to training with both feet and I have been so tired when I get home all I want is to shower and sleep. Monday it was a legs night I did a half hour of strength training then 1 hour of spin class. Tuesday a track workout w/u 1.08 miles 4 X 800w(40 sec rec) then 400 w(about 3.00 min rec). I was something like 4:26 1:59, 4:19 1:56, 4:19 1:58 and 4:15 2:01 walking cool down 400. Give or take a few secs since I do not have my Garmin in front of me. Wednesday morning I took a few extra secs to get out of bed and into the shower. last night was my first swim w/Team Strive and Coach Tommy and Coach Steve, it was an experience I spent about 50 mins in the pool trying to work on head and body position, learning to swim correctly at 33 SUX. But I have signed up for this mission and I will learn to swim no matter what it takes.

I am headed to Austin tomorrow for a long weekend. I hope to stop at the Austin tri on Monday morning and catch up with some friends racing. Good Luck Team Strive.

Hope to see you on the roads!

Coming Back

2009-08-31T08:28:00.002-05:00

We all have experienced coming back after periods of not working out. Weather it be a few days, weeks or longer we all at some point in our training go through this transition. I only had 3 weeks of this but still found it a little difficult this past week. After 2 great workouts on Monday and Tuesday I found myself either sore/tired or just plain lazy. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all a no go. Saturday morning I woke up at 5am still not wanting to get out of bed- finally I drug myself out and ran around the house frantically trying to get my shitz together and meet Team Strive at 6 for a run. I had 12 on the schedule but after talking to Coach K it was reduced to 8. I was pleased when I arrive at Starbucks to see several teammates including Coach, I have known my coach for a couple of years and this was this first time to run with her. Ok so I didn't run with her, we took off at the same time and we crossed paths near the turn around and I saw her after I finished and we had coffee. I ran with Gena, which was awesome we ran a nice pace, the weather was cooler than it has been in a looooonnnngggggg time. 8 miles in about 1:30.

Sunday I went up to the gym and swam for about 15 mins. Swimming is really not fun for me yet. I hope this starts to come easy sometime soon. My stroke is brutal, my breathing well we won't go into that. My gym is not really set up to swim laps so I had a girl in the pool with me doing aerobics, I guess the waves she was making helps with choppy lake water training. Also sharing the pool with me were two ladies floating on noodles. A few times I quit swimming and then moved around them. After my not so pleasant swim I went out for a short bike ride (8.25 miles). My first ride in a very long time. I figured since I have my first tri coming up on October 18th I should ride outside for a change. I am a bit nervous about this coming up so quickly- my only hopes for this race are too finish and to learn.

Hope to see you on the roads.

Pure Craziness

2009-08-27T09:11:00.002-05:00

These last few weeks have been crazy. After having moles removed and the passing of my friend little training was done for about three weeks. I jumped back in on Monday like a kangaroo, I went back to the gym for Krazy Kellie's spin class and beat a spin bike to bloody hell. That bike just may never be the same but it felt great to unload some sorrow and frustration. Tuesday I rejoined team Strive for a 20min TT. Not bad for returning after 3 weeks w/o training 9.19 avg pace. Last night I was a little sore and tired so I took the night off.

Hope to see you on the roads.

Passing of my friend

2009-08-19T15:00:00.003-05:00

Yesterday early in the morning my very dear friend Pamela went to be with her maker. She is no longer in pain or in fear, but looking down on her children, her family and her friends with a huge smile. Though her life on earth was short lived her spirit in our hearts will last forever. I have so many memories to look back on and to share with her kids. I look forward to the day when they are big enough to tell them about their mom. Loving, full of life, free spirited and how she cared for all people. She was a wonderful mother, daughter, sister, aunt, wife and friend. I have lost a great friend and will be able to see her everyday or hear her laughter but I know that each day I have anew guardian angel with me. Rest in Peace my butterfly girl!

Getting out of town

2009-08-13T07:30:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is Furlough Friday so the hubby and I are headed to Corpus for a weekend of the beach, drinking and just taking our minds off of things going on in Houston. Logan has been going to summer school and running his business this summer so he has decided that these last 2 weeks of August is his vaca time. We have rented a condo at the beach for our get away. I am looking forward to catching up on sleep and hanging out with family and friends.

I spent a few hours last night with Pam, she is still hanging in there strong.

Tonight I am getring the "roots" touched up and a trim then I will finish packing.

Hope to see you on the roads.

"Active Rest"

2009-08-12T09:08:00.005-05:00

Since I have been stopped by the moles and on "active rest" as Richard puts it, I have been trying to keep from going in sane. Actually this could not have happened at a better time in life. Normally I spend at least 5 out of 7 days in my training, I am either at the the gym, at my swim class or getting in my mileage. Since I have been out on rest I have been spending my training time with my very dear Pam. She is in her final days of her battle with colan cancer. I met Pam about 13 years ago at work and we have been like sisters every since, we have lived some fabulous days together. I will miss her dearly, but I know I will see her again some day soon. So I may have complained about not being able to train but this time off has been truly precious. The pool will always be there to swim, the gym will always be there to lift and the roads will always be there to pound on. But it will be a while before I will see Pam after she's with her keeper.

Live each day like there is no tomorrow!

Stopped by Moles

2009-08-07T11:18:00.002-05:00

Who would have ever thought that having moles removed would interupt my training? Definatly not me! Yesterday I went in to have 2 moles cut out that came back as abnormal cells from a biopsy a few weeks ago, when the surgeon says ok Misty no strenous activities for 10-14 days. Ok Doc so you dont know that I am in marathon and tri training, so can I swim? bike? run? Not for 10-14 days he says at least until the stiches come out. I am going to go crazy. Hopefully in a few days my cuts will be closed and I can do some kind of activity.

Garmin take me away

2009-08-05T11:13:00.002-05:00

It seems the Garmin 305 is pissed at me. Last night at a very brutal track workout she decided to go psycho on me. I have been having some concerns of an elevated heart rate lately, I say lately because until about 10 weeks ago I never paid attention to heart rate. Heck most of the time I would not wear my strap for the simple inconvenience of chaff on the boobies. I know body glide is my friend but I just did not see the point of applying it there or wearing a heart rate monitor. All this until I started training with my wonderful Coach who always trains by a heart rate monitor and stress it's importance. So once I programmed the Garmin and started to pay attention I found during all runs the Garmin states that I pretty much stay in zone 4-5. Not good! So when I finally mustered up enough nerve to talk to Coach K about it, she agreed this is not a good thing. So now the mission is to find what the issue is, is the Garmin/heart rate monitor reading correctly? Or WHAT? I am hoping it lies in the Garmin. After talking to coach Sunday afternoon we decided to run my track workout as normal and to try not get over 159 on my run Thursday night and then to report back. Well last night the Garmin "effen" went spastic, it started clicking and the screens were flashing, it would not stop and it took 20 mins for me to get it turned off. I was able to complete most of my workout before this crash 1 mile w/u 400/800/1200 CRASH 1600/1200. So here is what I am trying to get the Garmin up and running again changing the battery in the strap, re-uploading the new Garmin software and then resetting the device, if these do not work I will be sending it back for repair or replacement.

And for the heart rate problem, we are watching it closely and I will be borrowing a polar for this Thursday's workout from my surf sista Viv.

Hope to see you on the roads!

Free Offer from Aveda

2009-08-05T07:05:00.002-05:00

Free give away from Aveda
Join Aveda's Birthday Program

3 day weekend

2009-08-03T08:27:00.002-05:00

My three day weekend has left my very tired. Friday I got up bright and early and headed to the gym for a spin class. Kelli as always kicked my booty. When I got home from spin class I was delighted that it was finally raining, it had not rained at my house since May. Thank you God for the rain. It rained all day. I ran a few errands and cleaned house the rest of the day. Saturday morning I was up at 5:00 for a long run. 11.32 miles at 11:15 pace, unfortunately the humidity was horrible after all the rain we got. I hate summer running, my short were soaking wet when we finished and when I got home and in the shower I was surprised with the pain of water hitting chaffed skin, in places I have never chaffed before. Now I have more places to apply Body Glide before runs. After the long run my hubby and I went to Grapeland for a family reunion. We got home at 1am. Yesterday we spent the day at my father in laws for a BBQ and a few adult beverages. This morning I am dead tired and wishing I had the day to rest.

Hope to see you on the roads.

An End to the work week

2009-07-30T11:36:00.002-05:00

Today is my Friday this week, thanks to furlough- or not. I would much rather still be on a 9/80 schedule, these days I get to work 72 hrs of an 80 hr bi-week. Yes I get every other Friday off, and yes it is great that I am still employed. My only bitch is that my running funds are getting very low. Lets all hope for more reasons than this the economy will pick up sooner than later. So tomorrow I will hit the gym in the am for a spin class and then make my way to MD Anderson to visit a friend. Tonight's workout includes a 5 mile run on the treadmill (cause who really wants to run in 98 degree weather) and a make up swim class from when I went to Costa. I am thinking about drinking a few beers after this workout.

Wednesday night w/o 30 mins upper body strength training and 30 mins swim.

KILLER Track Workout

2009-07-29T07:26:00.004-05:00

Track work out was a killer but I made it through.

Lactate reps, 10x400
Lactate repeats. Warm up 1.5. Then 10 x 400m fast (recover 30-45 seconds). Now I am just guessing when I say this but I am am about 100% sure of this. It was 94 degrees at 6:45 when my warm up started. And about 93 at 7:45 when the work out was finished. Warm up was about 10:15 pace. 2:06 2:05 2:01 1:56 1:58 1:57 1:58 2:08 1:58and finally 1:58. Finished at 9:01 overall pace including w/u. Not bad for me in this heat. 1 x 400 WALKING c/d. I guess I was somewhat consistent except for 8 but either I slowed down or I was going to puke and with feeling kind of shitty anyway I did not want to puke my guts too. By the time I walked my 400 I was feeling much better. I am still waiting for October to get get here where some of our track workouts will be 75. Living in Texas is great but it so "effen" HOT and HUMID here.

Apologies to Coach Bill and Coach K, I will defiantly be more careful what I post on my blog. In my defence the work I was talking about making up Friday is a strength and cross training w/o not a RUN workout.

Also on this day I broke the news to my runner partner that I will be adjusting my "long" run schedule. Starting real soon I will be running long on Saturday's. Also with this change I hope to be adding bike rides on Sunday so that I can A.) Learn to ride my bike and B.)Get ready for my FIRST sprint Tri in October. I am only testing the waters but everyone tells me that I will fall in love. Oh and I have finally come to terms with this race will be in Sugarland and not in Clear Lake. Thanks to Shellie and Gena who did not want me to show up in the wrong city on race day.

Earlier in the day my boss informed me he was leaving the company, which makes me nervous. The oilfield as every other industry is hurting in the times, but my boss has done a wonderful job of holding our group together. He will be hard to replace and will be missed dearly by all of us. Good Luck LU. Hopefully our VP will bring us somebody as great as him.

Well that was my Tuesday, it was great, crazy and hard all in one.

Hope to see you on the roads!

1st day of training crash and burn

2009-07-28T08:12:00.002-05:00

I woke up yesterday feeling a bit under the weather, hoping that by the end of the day I would get in my workout. NOPE did not happen, after work I still felt like dog poo so I opted to take some meds and the night off. This morning I feeling better so I am hoping this lasts through the day and I can get through my LT repeats track workout tonight. Since I took the day off yesterday I plan to get in my Monday workout on the regular scheduled day off which will be Friday.

Scheduled w/o today: Planned distance: 4.0 miles
Lactate repeats. Warm up 1.5 = 2 miles + 2-3 strides. Then 10 x 400m fast (recover 30-45 seconds). With c/d.

Hope to see you on the roads!

Here we go....

2009-07-27T11:03:00.003-05:00

So today is my first official day of marathon training. The cross training days will be fewer and the run days will multiply. Just so happens that Monday is a cross training day and strength day. The workout plan is 30 mins of strength training and 60 min cycle class. I am ready for my mojo to kick in, I was hoping for it this Sunday on my long run and everything about that run was CRAP. But today is a new day and what happened yesterday is gone. Did not count anyway right!

Hope to see you on the roads!

My swim

2009-07-16T08:13:00.002-05:00

For some reason the first 10 mins I get in the water, I freak out or something. I end up fighting the water, forgetting to breath and end up with a very elevated heart rate. As soon as I calm down I am fine. Any words of advice as to how to get over this?

Swim 30 mins drills, freestyle and back stroke. Also tried a few flips (now that was really funny).

Marathon Training Begins

2009-07-15T09:20:00.002-05:00

This week we are wrapping up a session of Strive, it has been a great 12 weeks. The new session begins on July 27th and I am really looking forward to getting started on my marathon training. The last 12 weeks I have been spending my Tuesday nights at the track with the "tri" group. This is an amazing group of men and women that have amazing abilities in multi-sport. They range in all ages and have helped me realize that no matter age/gender or athletic ability that I can do anything I put my mind to. On Sundays I usually spend my mornings on long runs with old and new friends from WF and TWRC. These individuals like Team Strive all have so many accomplishments and have all inspired me to be the best that I can be. So thank you to all the new/old friends I have met in the running community over the past 2-1/2 yrs, you all have helped me become the "athlete" I am today.

So starting this weekend the mileage on Sundays will go up & I will be adding more days of running. So bring on the marathon training season.

Monday- spin class 60 mins
Tuesday- 1 mile warm up; 6 x 100's (hard effort) with 300 moderate recovery

Hope to see you on the roads

Photos from Costa

2009-07-13T12:09:00.012-05:00

I did not run during my vacation, but I tried to remain active between eating and alcohol consumption.

Hiking at Rincon de la Vieja. We hiked on a beautiful trail, very much like "Sunmart trails". This was very much an up/down hike that includes waterfalls, boiling mud pits and hot springs.

Me and Logan getting geard up for the Jungle canopy tour, we propelled 11 zip lines, the longest zipline was 400m. I don't even want to know how high we were off the ground. We even saw some white faced monkeys in tress.

Yummy food and drinks in Costa Rica.

Paddle boats are not "that" fun in the ocean when the tide is going out. My legs were killing me after 25 mins.

Fun with family and beautiful coast line. One of the best vacations I have ever been!

Back from Vaca!

2009-07-10T08:33:00.003-05:00

I am back from vacation but defiantly not back in the swing of things. As you all know it is difficult getting back to everyday normal life after a vacation. I am happy with the fact that I only had a 2 day work week to come back to, making things much easier. My training of coarse suffered a bit while in Costa but some fun exercising did exist. Now that I am back stateside I will ease back into the norm. We arrived late on Tuesday due to storms in Houston causing me to miss my track workout. Wednesday I managed to peel myself out of bed for a cycling class at the gym, in the evening I went to swim class and got in about 300 yds.

I will try to get photos of my Costa trip uploaded to share with you. This photo was taken outside the airport in Liberia. My brother, mom, ME, sis-in law and her little sister. More about the Costa Adventures to come this weekend.

Costa Rica baby

2009-06-29T07:10:00.002-05:00

In 25 hrs I will be boarding a plane to go to Costa Rica for a family vacation. Along in our travels will be mom, step daddy, my sis-in laws family (mom, dad, sister). I usually do not enjoy a "family" vacation but this time it is ok because we are all going to see my brother and sister in-law. We saw them for a few days at Christmas before they moved over there, but this time I get to spend a solid week hanging out with them. Yippy!

Last week was a very long week. My girl Pamela is not doing well, her cancer has become so aggressive and doctors can not do anything for her. She is at MD Anderson now and will probably not get to come home. We were hoping that she would qualify for a clinical trial, but infection has set in so at this time she is not a candidate. Doctors are treating her for pain and trying to keep her comfortable. I saw her and visited over the weekend and she was in pain but she was in good spirits- even a little bit bossy. I am praying she is still here when I come back from my vacation, so I can see her at least once again. I will miss her very much and will always cherish the 12yrs of friendship and memories. God bless the Amador and Clayton family.

Workout Update
Wed.- ran for 30 mins, core 30 min, swam 30 mins
Thur.- ran 40 mins on treadmill
Fri.- Day off
Sat.- 1 hour spin class
Sun.- 7.62 miles in heat/humidity

Texas Heat Sux

2009-06-24T10:50:00.002-05:00

It is crazy how in the "cooler" months I so easily forget how hot it gets in the summer. We are dealing with 95+ degree weather and humidity on top of that. I went out to the mail box yesterday when I got home from work (the box is in my yard) and was drenched in sweat by the time I got back into the house. This morning at 6:15 it was already 80 degrees with a high of 101 predicted for today. I truly enjoy my cross-training days because they are done in-doors.

Since last Thursday I have been working out very consistently, I am trying to get used to it since I will be in Costa Rica next Tuesday with no gym. I do however have the beautiful sand and the ocean to use for my workouts, I just have to do it. For some reason it is difficult for me to workout while on vacation, not sure why.

I opted to take the day off on Thursday because I had worked out 6 days in a row.

Friday- spin + 20 mins on treadmill
Saturday- spin
Sunday- 6 miles
Monday- spin
Tuesday-track workout 8 x 400's w/2 min recovery. 2:12, 2:07, 2:09, 2:07, 2:09, 2:10, 2:04 and 1:44.

Tonight I have 30 min run+ core+ 30 min swim.

Nothing.. Boring

2009-06-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

I have absolutly nothing exciting to blog about except that I have been working out like crazy.

Monday- 30 mins of upper body work out, 1hr spin
Tuesday- Track work out 400/800/1200/1200/800/400 at 9:15 avg pace (hot & humid)
Wednesday- 1 hr Cardio Strength class, 30 min swim class

Hope to see you on the roads

Tire Drama

2009-06-15T12:09:00.002-05:00

Thursday I left work for my dentist appt and did not get far. I had a tire that separated at the tread. It was the weirdest thing, the tire was still round and still had air in it but no tread. I was very luck y that a nice man gave me a toe to Discount Tire for very cheap. After more drama with crossed lung nuts, I had not one but two shiny new tires on the Xterra. But that's not all, the car is still in the shop because the tread separation decided to take out some wire along with some of the plastic on my car. So I am having some electrical difficulties. Hopefully Ms Reliable will be back on the road asap. With all of this drama I ended up missing my Thursday night waterway 5 miler.

Friday night I had a vino/pedi night with Viv and a couple girls from the gym. After our pedi's we went and ate dinner and had a couple margarita's.

Saturday spin class and then to Logan's golf tournament. I love to watch my hubby play golf, he is my Tiger Woods and then some. He played great had lots of great drives, his short game was a little off, but he shot an 81. Saturday evening I spent the night with my best gal Pamela at the hospital,

Sunday I just barely made it from the hospital to see Logan finish the back nine of the final day of his golf tourny, better puts and he finished with at 75. After a long hot shower I was in bed and asleep in no time. So we will just say I gave myself a little bit of off time for the weekend.

A Pool Workout

2009-06-11T08:05:00.002-05:00

Last night was my first swim class with Jordan. Jordan is a young 16 yr old that has been swimming "for 10yrs". I really did not think about the fact that a kid would be teaching me form technique in the pool, I am not sure why I didn't think of this but I did not. We started out with a floating device and our heads in the water and kicking. I was thinking to myself I did not sign up for the novice class why are we spending time on this? I am guessing it was a good thing because the guy in the class with me in a VERY novice swimmer. After we did a few drills so she could see where we were in our swimming we swam laps showing her our back stoke and freestyle. After swimming about 200 yards I realized that swimming is a lot of work, something I forgotten since I was a child. At the end of class Jordan informed us that she was going to be out for two weeks and her friend "Katie" would be our swim teacher, but it would be ok because Katie is really good with adults. I nearly pee'd the pool, are you kidding me?

30 mins in the pool- drills & 200yrds out of breath. But I hear this gets better.

Track

2009-06-10T07:55:00.003-05:00

Last night I had my track workout. 3 X 1 mile 200-300 recovery. 1.25 mile warm up and .5 walking cool down. The heat and humidity were a "B" the workout was great. I ran with Dee because the last few weeks I have found she and I are really close in pace. 1st mile we went out to fast 9:17, 2nd lap was perfect 9:30 third lap was a little more difficult and hrt was high I am guessing because of the heat so we slowed down to 9:47. I am happy with it.

I have been on the look out for a good used road bike to start playing around on, I have been watching craigslist and I tell you it is hard to find a small bike at a good price. Yesterday I found 2 so I am trying to negotiate something, so we will see how it goes.

Tonight I am starting a swim class.

Just wanted to Share

2009-06-09T07:01:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated with Pamela a very special birthday for Ciara and Catia. These precious babies turned 1 on May 22nd. Caleb is 3 years old. My beautiful friend is battling cancer and has been since just after hers girls were born. Things are not going as well as we would like in her treatment. God Bless this family.

Monday night workout- Bicepts, tricepts,shoulders and chest. 1 hour spin class.

Zapps Voodoo Gumbo Chips

2009-06-08T11:13:00.002-05:00

If you have not tried these DO IT!! I finally found these in HEB. I have been hearing Viv talk about these for several weeks and now I know why. I nearly ate the whole bag in one sitting. I will defiantly finish this bag with my sandwich for lunch today.

Long Weekend

2009-06-08T08:31:00.002-05:00

Wednesday I decided that I needed a rest day, so Logan and I went to eat dinner. On Thursday I meet Russell at the waterway and we ran our 5.1 mile loop of East Shores and the waterway. Since Friday was my furlough day I had a 3 day weekend. Friday morning I got up and headed to the gym for a cycling class I met Viv up there for 30 mins of core before the spin class. After my class I met with Robin and Kathleen for lunch. After lunch I ran errands for instance we had no groceries in the house so I stopped at the store. Then I went to Bike Lane and got me some shoes. When I was done with errands I went home and started laundry. Saturday back to the gym in the morning for another spin class. After lunch mom, Logan and I went to see my grandmother. We went to pick her up and drove around downtown for a few hours and then took her to Double Dave's for pizza. Sunday morning 9.25 miles.

Saturday I received a call that Pamela had been admitted to the hospital for with sever abdominal pain. After speaking to her I learned that the new chemo they were trying is not working, she has developed a new tumor on her colan that is 15cm. Her doctor is consulting with other doctors to see if they have a new avenue to approach. As of now they are stopping chemo and hoping that maybe they can do surgery. Of coarse surgery is a scary option because it could be much worse. Her length of stay in the hospital is unknown at this time. They are using morphine to treat her for pain at this time. Her blood pressure has been very low and the doctors say the cancer is causing her body to start shutting down. Not to mention they also have found a blood clot they are treating with medication. She is trying to stay optimistic but is very sad for her family and what they are going through. I spent some time with her yesterday and she is trying to remain in good spirits. She has had lots of family/friends that came into town or that have stopped in at the hospital to see her. Please keep my friend and her family in your prayers- they need a miracle.

Work outs:
Thursday- 5.1 mile run
Friday- core and spin
Saturday- spin
Sunday- 9.25 mile run