Still alive

and have not done very much of anything since the last post.


I had a nice hour long run with Stef over a week ago. It felt great and I am glad I met up with her. If left on my own I probably would have slowly walked and jogged through the hour. But she is on a plan, therefore I benefited from her plan!


Thanks Stef for an awesome run and pushing me to do sprint intervals. What came out of the whole thing is that I can still run for a whole hour without stopping and at a decent pace for me. (You know how you always have the doubts that you have lost all you fitness overnight). It set the tone for a very happy day!


That same weekend I also did an OWS clinic and had a blast! The last time I did this clinic was in the spring and I had a panic attack in 4 feet of water and quit the clinic, so any improvement is great! We did some drills for sighting and for getting touched in the water and practiced the start twice. This was the best for me because I realized that even with 30-50 people starting at once, there is a lot of chop and movement in the water. The first one stressed me out but it got better with the second one. There is nothing that prepares you for the start of a swim other than doing it with lots of people. I think this is where a lot of my anxiety comes in during the races. It never feels comfortable, now I realize how much is going on and how much the water is churned up, even in the back. No wonder I am never comfortable! But understanding this now and knowing that it will calm down really helps. We then did another start but continued to swim. We had the option to turn back at anytime but I pushed myself to go the whole way and back. I also refused to "rest" at the buoys and it felt great! I think it was 900-1000 yards and it took me 22-26 minutes. Not speed racer but for me it was fantastic!


Since that weekend, nada! Izaac got sick so I felt compelled to lay around with him. Now it's into another week and I am not feeling so well. Going to take it easy another few days and pray that I don't end up as sick as Izaac. It's only "allergies", right!?

It's got to be fun

Well, after a gave myself permission to be done training for tri's for the year...officially throwing out the training plan...forgetting about the irritating heart rate zones, I discovered (once again) that I really do like to exercise :-).

To be honest I have not done a whole lot of exercising but what I have done I have enjoyed more in the last two weeks than I have in a long time. What does this mean??

• I hate feeling like I have to do something. And unfortunately, following that blasted training plan felt like work. It became a chore instead of doing something because I want to. I realize that I am a long way from being able to train myself, but it was time for a break. Time to go by feel rather than what was scheduled. (On that note, I really need a new training plan to follow if anyone has one they love)
• I realized that it stresses me out and takes the fun away when I constantly have to watch my heart rate and stay in zones. I know there is a need for this and it really helps training long term but it pisses me off. Maybe it's because of the summer heat but it still makes me angry to have to slow down to get my HR down. I just want to GO! I also always have a higher HR than anyone else I know even when I'm walking ;-) so I really am only guesstimating what my zones are anyway.
• I need to come to terms with the fact I don't really want to do long distance tri's right now and maybe never. It gets a little hard sometimes when everyone around you is training for halfs or more, kind of like you're the looser that can only do a sprint. But guess what?! That's all I want to do and I like to do them. I have no desire to spend 5+ hours every weekend training at this point in my life. Now that I acknowledge that, I can forget about trying to keep up with the Joneses and just do my thing.

Many lessons learned over the last couple of weeks, the biggest one is to have fun!

Since my last post (sept 8th) I have managed to swim twice for 2419 yards, run twice for a whopping 4.3 miles and bike twice for 16.92 miles. Nothing to write down in the history books but my average paces are getting quicker and for the most part I enjoyed doing all of it. Izaac and I even tried to outride the sun one evening and get to Buffalo Wild Wings via our bike before the sunset. Sadly, we had to turn back and drive in the car but I haven't pedaled that hard in a long time!! I guess I just need to find the right motivation (beer and chiken wings ;-)

Congrats to all of you and your recent races. I love to read all about them and you give me inspiration daily.

And...Good luck to my honey on is upcoming race this weekend and next!!

Excuse me, has anyone seen my training??!!

Beacause it is M.I.A!!

I can't get back into training after my tri. And I really don't have an excuse, it was a sprint for pete's sake! It was a great race, I had fun and most people would be itching to get back in the saddle coming off a good race (for them). Not me. I don't know what the deal is, I just don't want to do anything. While my honey and all the rest of you are racking up the miles, I am sitting on my behind doing nothing.

Well not nothing, I have been spending a lot of time coming up with excuses :-). I had to go shopping Saturday instead of swimming and biking and then I had to watch the Ohio State Football Game with a few cold ones. Then it was Izaac's B-day and I had to clean instead of going on the Silverman ride with him and Stef. EXCUSE me?? Did I just say I'd rather clean than bike ride! What is my world coming too? Then I slaved away for hours coming up with the yummiest selection of mini burgers. Who has time to train.

Hmmm...

I think part of my problem is I don't have a tri I want to do. My training plan is set up to do Pumpkinman here in Vegas. But I don't want to do Pumpkinman!! I don't want to swim in Lake Mead and I really don't want to do the god awful climb out of the lake to T2. Just DONT WANT TO. So, I'm in limbo.

I've been thinking that my tri season might be over for 2007 even though Las Vegas has more to do. Maybe it's time to focus on the half marathon in December or getting my bike miles up to do a century or spend more time in the pool. Lift weights. Sit on my butt (oh, did I say that out loud?)

However, maybe I'm just making excuses because I'm a little bit scared to do Pumpkinman. And I'm tired of hills and heat. Maybe...

Last week out of 6 workouts planned, I got 2 done! But I did them well.
2100M in the pool! Logging my fastest 50M ever at 1.04 :-).
And I did a Superset run (200 L5, 400 L4, rest and repeat for a total of 3 times).
It kicked my behind and I really didn't like doing it. But I did!

Better luck to all of you that are out there training hard and keep a tight hold on your training because it likes to slip away.

Be Sun Smart

As I finish my yearly Dermatologist appointment to check for skin cancer, I am yet again filled with relief and nervousness. I am so relieved that I get a clean bill of health for one more year, no problems, no biopsies, nada!! However, underlying the relief is always a feeling of nervousness. What if the doctor made a mistake and overlooked something that could be cancer? I know that they are trained for this, but what if! I have yet to feel completely positive after a doctors appointment unless they cut or biopsy some part of my skin. I often wonder if I’m always going to feel this nagging uncertainty or if it goes away with time.

Now, you’re probably wondering why it the heck does she care so much! I care because I was diagnosed with melanoma 3 ½ years ago at the very young age of 31, and have personally known two other women with the same diagnosis and they were younger too.

Fortunately, all three of us caught the cancer in very early stages. For us, it was still just growing in the skin and had not spread to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body, but what if? Luckily we just had to have surgery to remove it but there are so many people out there not so lucky. Did you know that there are 8,420 deaths per year in the United States due to melanoma? And that UV radiation (aka sunlight and tanning beds) is the leading cause for developing skin cancer? Which means that it is in our control, for better or worse?

That brings me to one of my personal dilemmas, the desire to triathlons versus the time spent outdoors in order to train. This is a sport that puts us in the sun continuously. We all need to be aware of the potential dangers and take measure to protect against potentially life threatening damage. Please, wear your sunscreen, always. And reapply, often. Also, consider covering up more of your skin when training versus baring it all, especially if you’re in higher risk groups. Train early or late when the sun is not so strong. Don’t forget about your eyes and lips. Do regular self exams and it doesn't hurt to have a doctor look at your skin once in while. Be smart and safe out there so we can all continue to enjoy this sport :-). For more information, http://www.skincancer.org/

If that’s not enough of a reason, sunlight also makes us old looking! I leave you with this picture, enjoy!!!