You mean *I* have patience?? Who knew?

Even before my husband and I were having a baby, we'd always talk about how we'd be with a baby. When we were at a restaurant and heard a baby screaming, we'd look at each other and I'd say, jokingly, "This is when I'd hand the baby to you and walk away." And he'd agree.

Flash forward to today, and my, have the tables turned. Everyone in my family knows I have little patience. And I'm sure many of those who know me would agree. I dislike surprises, I have bouts of road rage and if I have to wait on others I could possibly blow a gasket one day. But from the day I had my baby, it's as if I'm a totally different person with her. Could I possibly be a mother? Hmm.

Now, don't get me wrong, now that I've gotten out and about since the birth I've noticed I still don't have patience for strangers. And sometimes for my husband either. But for little Emmy, she could be wailing and I can hold her and try to make it go away. My husband, on the other hand, is now the complete opposite. And I am the one who is trying to teach him patience!

For instance, Emmy's crying and we do what we can to settle her down. Usually this is around (or to be more exact, past) bed time and we've calmed her down, she's sleep and we put her in her crib. Five minutes later she's crying again. One parent gets frustrated; the other tries to soothe her back asleep. Another scenario is she's crying and one parent wants to immediately give her a bottle or hand her to mom to feed so she'll stop. The other wants to make sure she doesn't have a wet diaper or just wants to be held. It's hard when both are tired and this is usually where nerves are shorter, but it's getting easier.

He may think I'm knocking on him, but I'm not - since the begining of our relationship, I've learned a lot from him. But it seems this is his chance to learn a little "motherly love." He's an awesome, wonderful dad and has been such great support; I couldn't imagine going through this - or want to, obviously :) - with anyone else.

But it takes patience, honey.

10.5 hours before starting the rest of my life

In 10.5 hours we will be checking in to Labor & Delivery. That's it - 10.5 hours. At times it can't come soon enough, and others - well, it's just me freaking out about so many different things.

The last few days have been more and more uncomfortable, and I thought for sure we'd have to go to L&D last night, but I decided to wait it out and see. No need to do a false labor check-in at this point. The contractions have become increasingly painful and more frequent, but still not in a timely, consistent fashion.

I think I have vacuumed all the rooms every day for the last 3 days, mopped all the wood floors, re-cleaned the bathrooms, dusted the entire house and checked and re-checked the hospital bag. I even made four bows for Baby R, one of which she'll wear home. Bryon's done a good job as well - the cars' registrations are up-to-date, inspections passed, new tires on my car, and his car cleaned and organized for bringing home baby.

I may have mentioned this before in the past, but as a Type A person who thrives on logistics and planning and coordinating, this has been quite exhausting. Add in the random nerve pain in my right rear cheek and contractions, and it's been quite an experience.

We keep hearing "oh, get ready to never do anything again" and "your life is changing forever" -as if we'll never do what we love to do before baby ever again after baby. But we're going in this as though this is the start of our new life together and can't wait for her to join our adventures. As we keep telling ourselves, she's joining our lives, and we can't wait to share them with her!

Where has summer gone?!

It's already August and I just noticed I didn't post once in July - it came and went too fast I feel like I didn't even have a chance!

Lots has happened since I last posted late June:

We're having a girl! We surprised my family with a cake. Bryon and I found out at a dinner by ourselves - we had the doctor circle whether it was a girl or boy, stick it and seal it in an envelope and we handed one to a baker that day and another to our waiter that night. The waiter was to bring ou t a cheesecake if a girl and tiramisu if a boy - I'm sure you get the idea of what transpired. :) It was a great way to find out together! Plus, I was always in the mood for cake, so didn't go wrong there!

I'm still getting out and about, though rather slowly, and my runs are now more majority walk, run pick-up here and there. This is taken at 21 weeks after a run/walk (around July 14th).

We're starting to make advances in the baby's room. We've got the crib, we've got our everyday stroller (we went with the UPPABaby - but still waiting on our BOB :)), and showers are being planned. We're also making some headway on our to-do list around the house to make sure everything's wrapped up before Baby R comes. Unfortunately, my time to comfortably help on those projects is quickly vanishing, so nothing like using that as ammo to get hubby to move a little quicker.

I'm now edging closer to the third trimester and it doesn't seem like it could be coming soon enough, now that everyone I know who was pregnant is starting to have their babies! However, I need to keep remembering to enjoy these remaining few months, make sure everything's in order and to RELAX! It's hard, but I'm trying.

Stares and laps, cribs and strollers

Now that I'm showing more, and look more like I'm pregnant and not just gained a few unnecessary pounds, I haven't minded wearing belly-hugging shirts instead of billowy tops. And for the last few weeks I've been going to the Y pool, in my two-piece Nike suit to swim laps and lay by the poolside (still gotta try to keep tan lines to a minimum!). Each weekend I've been getting about a mile swim in and about an hour to relax and read. Today was no different, but I felt that I was getting a lot of stares, more so than before.

What, had they never seen a pregnant lady in a two-piece swimming laps before?

Got 1700m in, nice and steady.

Whatever. I loved it!

Later on, Bryon and I stepped foot in a local baby store, shopping for our baby for the first time. Kinda makes the whole thing that much more real - and scary! I think Bryon was getting woozy with the "$200 here, $200 there" products. We had some great help looking at the cool strollers and car seats. We already registered for the Bob Revolution (duh - we told the saleslady we don't even need to sold on it - we're athletes, we need it. :) ) and got ourselves excited about the UPPAbaby Vista stroller (never considered before she showed it to us, I had looked at the Maclaren and Bugaboo). But while looking at Peg Perego carseats, I started looking at their strollers and for two hours online trying to figure out the difference of features between each. So, if anyone has any suggestions/thoughts between the UPPAbaby vs. Peg Pliko or Skate, let me know! :)

Tomorrow morning I plan to run/walk about 5-6 miles. I'm going to try to beat the heat and get up early for once. We'll see how that goes.

Surprise, surprise

I usually hate suprises. HATE THEM. I can't stand them. I was the kid who would go through mom and dad's closet before Christmas to find all the gifts before they were wrapped, or even worse, carefully peel back the wrapping if they were already under the tree. Even as an adult, I would find gifts hiding in closets or drawers. I considered myself a very good sleuth.


But my husband recently surprised me with a trip to an island - all I knew, for two weeks, was my Passport was required and I would need to pack my bikini. I had no input into where we were going, what we were doing, where we were staying, and I was actually kind of enjoying it! There were 20 different ways I could have found where we were going, but I didn't. I held my tongue, or rather my snoopy fingers, to not find out. My colleagues, however, were doing their own sleuthing and even got the exact location from my husband. (They were having a little too much fun taunting me!)


We ended up in Jamaica, and it was beautiful! (My guess were the Bahamas.) I hadn't been in more than 15 years. I'll post photos from the trip later on; they're on my other laptop.

Did we get any training in? Yes, many bicep curls and good calf work walking through the sand. We did get in some laps in the ocean; it was so clear and crystal blue and smooth, and the hotel had roped in their swimming area, so we bought junior-sized goggles from the beach gift shop. They were tight, but they did their job. I guess we swam about 20 minutes until we were ready to take our afternoon nap. :)


On the way back, in the Jamaica airport in Montego Bay, I went through the gift shop and bought Islands magazine to pick out our next spot. I'm thinking Kauai or Costa Rica!

Where did the time go?

In a little less than two weeks, it will be my 1 year wedding anniversary. I have no idea how it came so fast and where the time went, but here it is. And guess what? The first year was a piece of cake. Maybe it's because we lived together beforehand and were used to our silly ways, or maybe it's because we are a good fit - rather, a GREAT fit - and it was simple. But I did notice one thing for sure:

Our training gets a little hairy as time goes by. :)

I have noticed that I am more apt to waking early in the morning during the week and meeting up with the group when Bryon's out of town. When he's home, we both slam our alarm clocks off when they beep at us at 5:30 in the morning and fall back asleep, nice and warm in our bed. Which is probably the exact reason I don't get up early often when he's home.

Anyhoo, we've made it one year. And, for this first year celebration, he's surprising me - EEK - with a trip somewhere I don't know. All I know is my Passport is to be involved and I'm to pack a bikini. Training has been in FULL GEAR now for a few days since I've found out.

And if you don't know, I'm a very typical Type A personality - I'm a planner, an organizer and always have a hand in everything. So this is absolutely one of the most difficult things I've ever done, maybe not physically but definitely in terms of letting go of my control.

So, here's to a very happy, exciting one year anniversary and to many more my dear! Love ya!

The ho-ho-holidays and what it did to me

Well, it's back to the grove, now that the holidays are over, right? Well, not so fast for me unfortunately. Seems like I didn't quite survive the frequent run-ins with shoppers, extended family members and kids, along with the -4 degree weather in Chicago. Yep, I'm sick. And not just whimpy ol' sick, but bronchitis!

I never get sick.

But, apparently, somewhere along the way I did.

I will say I did complete a great 5.5 mile run on Christmas Day. It was sunny and WARM in TX and I was running in shorts and a tee! Go figure. (Gotta love TX weather.) Then the following Monday, before New Year's, I decided to pull myself out of the house and go for a run, and I had the worst run I've had in years.

I was so tired. I had to walk in the FIRST MILE! I knew something was wrong when that happened. I hadn't had to do that in a really, really long time. My chest was heavy and I was spitting out a lot of phlegm (not to get too into the nitty gritty details for ya). I stopped at the Y and considered calling my husband for a ride back, but I thought maybe - for some strange reason - I lost any amount of endurance since the Thursday before, which is completely doubtful. I decided to do some weights and run back instead. The run back was a bit easier (of course, this was all down hill, unlike the first 1.5 miles uphill), but still wasn't easy.

Tuesday I took another try at running to the gym before doing a swim. A little easier than Monday but still not good. My swim was as good as it could be for a workout on my own and a couple weeks out of the pool. And then I hitched a ride back with Bryon, who was doing weights (and drove my swim bag up to the gym - thank you! :)).

After Tuesday, I went completely downhill from there. My sinuses kicked in, which led me and our tri group to say it was the over-chlorinated indoor pool at the Y, but then by Friday I was exhausted. Saturday and Sunday were spent in PJs all day long and on the couch.

So much for my last week of vacation.

Fast forward to this week. Monday and Tuesday my chest wasn't feeling much better and now I was exasperated when walking down the hall in the office or talking. FINALLY went to the doctor Wednesday and did several tests and an X-ray to determine I have bronchitis. Gee. Good times. I asked when I can start training again and she laughed at me and said "Please, give me one more week!" Ugh, fine.

Well, I didn't quite listen to her - I did weights this morning while Bryon ran for the first time since the Turkey Trot and his back injections. Then one of our training buddies said I better be careful or I can enlarge my heart. What?!? Yikes! I slowed down after that.

Anyways, due to the unfortunate event of this illness, it looks like I have to bail out of my group's 100x100 swim on Sunday. Yes, that 100 100yds swim, which would equal out to 10,000 yards of swimming. Which equals 5.68 miles. Bryon and I were going to relay it, but we'll see how I feel...

Hope everyone else made it through the holidays healthy and moving!

80 degrees and sprinkling?

That was the weather this morning for our morning run. Totally not Texas' normal August weather, that's for sure! After having nearly 10 days in 100+ degree heat, this morning was about 77 or so and breezy and sprinkling - PERFECT weather for a run!

And what a good run I had, too.

Nearly 5 miles with some good people that I was able to keep up with. Even though I didn't know if I could make it through the first mile - I just kept thinking that the first mile is the hardest...the first mile is the hardest...

And it worked. :)

Yay for two days of workouts! Since Bryon just got in this afternoon from a whirlwind trip through Texas, he's not up for a bike ride tonight so no two-a-day for me. But I think we're going to see the new Rogen movie. Get ready to laugh! :)

Some like it hot

107 degrees today in Dallas! Luckily, I got my bike ride done early this morning and stayed inside througout the day by painting.

This weekend was Rivercities Tri in Shreveport. And this was the first time in four years I didn't race it. Bryon raced although he was coming down with a cold and said he got his butt whipped. It happens when you don't train! :) But this race is super hot - the swim is a warm, muddy bath, the bike is an undulating, great ride, and the run is super-duper steamy hot. It was a little much for me the last two years, so I took a year off...

After four days of no workouts last week, I managed to pull together something:
Friday - 3 miles with Duke
Saturday - 1.5 hour run
Sunday - 2 hour ride

Yesterday and today also resulted in finishing my paint project that I started a month ago (I couldn't tell if I liked the color choices!!). Finally finished - minus a couple touch ups I need to do now - and next we're tearing out the carpet! So excited. It is hard to do this, however, when you need to make sure you're not too sore to do swim workouts (although I can hardly move my arms and back right now).

I'm getting really excited about the Olympics' opening ceremonies this Friday. Watching party! :) Nothing like getting excited for our country, but also nothing else makes me feel more unsuccessful or undertrained! But it's still all completely motivating - and it gives me goosebumps all the time.

70.3 training plan?

Anyone have any good half Ironman training plans out there? Bryon and I are totally slacking on the training right now - and we have plenty of excuses but you don't care to him them I'm sure - but we are people that need to follow a plan, a schedule. And we don't have that. And we need it.

Our race is in 2+ months! Agghh!!!

On another note, Bryon's back from his fishing trip in Canada - yipee! I missed him so much but it was nice to get some quiet time in the house although it would have been nice if the dogs would have a babysitter! :)

So I rode my Saturday ride by myself, getting in 40+miles and a nice 15 min. brick run afterward. And man, was it HOT! By the time I was able to do my run it was 95+ degrees and probably 90+% humidity!

Sunday I helped out our local Y with their kids triathlon. So cute! Made me want to have kids, without the crying and yelling. I even saw an 8yo girl with my old swim team's cap and suit - just like me at age 8! She was so tiny but totally reminds me of what I looked like. And she kicked butt in the pool, passing kids left and right! Anyway, it was a fun morning. I didn't get half the things I wanted to get done that day completed, but that's fine. It has thrown off my sleep schedule - I should have taken a nap!

3 months

90 days until Longhorn 70.3. Time to kick it in gear! And 8 months, 2 days til IM New Zealand...

I figured it out yesterday while talking to my parents about the fact Bryon and I haven't hit the 'send' button on our IM NZ registration yet. With any IM race in North America, you have 3 hours - if that! - to make your decision before the race sells out. And a year in advance, no less. So you have 3 hours to decide and one year to dwell about your choice.

With any other IM race outside of NA, you can wait up to two months to "sign your life away" and still get in. So it's especially hard for procrastinators or dwellers like me to sh*t and get off the pot. The whole IM training days are running through my head - do I really want to do it all again? Is it such a big deal to me to get one more in before trying for a family? Can my body handle the distance, as Bryon likes to ask me...I don't have the best body or genetics for sports, period. I get injured all the time and am always injured - something always hurts. But, yes, I want one more IM to my name before we invite kids to our triathlete household. And I want it to be a big one!

It'll be fun to go back Down Under. Living there two different times - in '88 and '96 - were some of the best times of my life, and even though I was only six years old the first time, I remember nearly everything! The sights, the sounds, the culture - it's amazing, and it would be really exciting to get another chance to go there (although my other goal was to go to Europe before having kids, but it's Australia!). Especially since Bryon's never been.

So, here's to procrastination, nerves, being scared - but we will sign up and take New Zealand/Australia by storm! :)

Swimming with kiddos - not a good idea

Didn't make it to tri swim this morning as I got a head-start on work at about 5:50 this morning, got 1.5 hours in, showered, quickly ate, and got to the office.

So I packed my swim bag to make sure I make it to the pool after my last meeting of the day, and got the workout from Coach Jason (thank you!). And Bryon actually met me up there! (He likes to swim with masters as he doesn't like swimming by himself.)

Swimming at the local Y is always an adventure, especially in the height of the day or after work - lots of kids swimming, splashing and running around, and lots of other 9-5ers trying to get laps in. I actually swimming at this time of day - I get to do a nice transition from work to home by numbing my mind with laps and get a little Vitamin D in at the same time.

What I don't enjoy about it is sitting at the end of my lap lane watching kids swim under the ropes, and today was no exception. Lap after lap, I kept eyeing kids peering under water, waiting for us to pass by and then make their escape from the shallow end of the pool to the deep end. I told one girl - passing under the ropes while on a NOODLE of all things - to not cross over, as she stops in front of Bryon coming in. I've yelled up to a lifeguard before about whether that's allowed or not (which it isn't), but he ignored me. Well this time, they couldn't ignore me.

I've been very worried about the liability I would be under if I were to not notice a kid passing through and happen to push them under during my stroke (or kick them or whatever) - what if they drowned because I whacked them in the head? The parents would yell at me, no doubt (although they should yell at themselves). I should not have to worry about that nor worry about my legal issues while churning out laps.

Well, it happened.

I was coming in to the last quarter of the 400 I was in the middle of (at this point, we were at about 2700m, trying to go 10-15 seconds faster than the last 400 we timed), and next thing I know I run into something, but it wasn't the wall - I wake up from my counting of laps from a scratch across my cheek.

I just got injured from a kid while swimming??

And that was it. I stop my set, turn around to find the nearest lifeguard sitting in her guard chair across the shallow end of the pool and YELLED. I can't remember what I said, but I know I got the attention of at least some of the parents nearby. I'm SHOCKED that they didn't even bother walking up to my lane to shoo the boy out as I was obviously coming in fast and not looking. Amusingly, I think it sounded almost like a shrill because of me being shocked and being nasaly at the same time. She finally blew her whistle, very quietly, and the boy left the lane (but not without swimming through the lane next to mine). Horrible.

Well, if you know me, I wouldn't let something like this slide and I let several people know, including the Director of Membership and Marketing, that this needs to be handled better. I even mentioned I'd donate $500 to buy a net or two to separate the sections of the pool so they can't swim below. (Bryon thinks that would be fine until a kid gets tangled up in it. Ugh - Mr. Negative.)

This has got to stop, or I'll take it to the Dallas Y office and complain more. I am not about to be put in a position whenever I swim laps of the possibility that I can injure a child. Signs should be put up and parents should receive flyers. I'm in PR damnit - let me handle this!

And parents - get your head out of your rear and start discplining and giving your children rules. Grow up!

300 days

300 days. 42.5 weeks. 10 months.

However you want to look at it, this is how long I've done a bike ride over 40 or so miles. Yikes! I accomplished ~61 miles, in 3:40. I hadn't been on my bike longer than 3 hours in a very, very, very long time.

So how did it feel?

Exhausting.

My whole body was going through different stages of bonking during the last 5 miles. Which, by the way - if it's worth anything - is all uphill, in the wind. It didn't help that I went through what I like to call "triathlete amnesia" - the state of forgetting your nutrition, your lap count, your minutes ran, your miles needed, due to a mind-numbingly long workout. At 3:20, I couldn't remember if I had taken my last 3 salt pills at the 3 hour mark. I didn't care to look at my pill box to see how many I had left; I thought I would try to do the math and the count in my head, which is never a good idea during triathlete amnesia.

I could have used those darn things. I guess no matter how many miles I have left, be it I have a block to go or 10 miles to go, I'll take them if I have them.

Well, dear husband had to help me off the bike when we finally arrived home. I went straight to the chair in the picture above and hosed off as I couldn't do it standing. You would have thought I had just done a half IM or something.

But, it was a successful ride, and quite hilly - all in all a great workout and a good ride with my hubby.

Today was a horrible workout. It would have been a good walking workout if that was the original intent, but alas it wasn't. Bryon and I decided to sleep in as we had a restless night due to noisy dogs barking at the front door, while Bryon was out, so I was jumping at every noise made until he came home. We started for a 7 mile run through the neighborhood - but didn't take off until 10:30. UGH! It was already above 80, and climbing. Of course, Bryon didn't seem to mind, but my body was not enjoying it one bit. Poor guy walked more with me than I'm sure he ever has before.

We did stop and "recover" at a garage sale where I found awesome lounge chairs to sunbathe and read on, for only $75 for the pair - but unfortunately we don't carry that kind of a cash on us during a run (but maybe we should start when we do runs through the neighborhoods on the weekends!). What a deal we had to pass up - it is a big regret. I keep telling Bryon everything like that is at least $200+, so he says he's going to go back and knock on their door and see if they still have them. :) What a guy!

We got a total of 6.24 miles in and some good talking, which is always nice. Always nice to get a workout in and get to discuss things outside of the house!

It was a successful weekend - got re-acquainted with my bike, got lots of miles in, and know I need to work on my run, ONCE AGAIN! :( But, at least we have a little more than 3 months, as we signed up for IRONMAN AUSTIN 70.3!! Oct. 5.

Time to start training, instead of doing workouts!

By the way, congratulations to all the Ironman finishers today - France, CdA and Japan! I'm jealous that you're done with your training and you can relax - for a couple of weeks at least!

My next Ironman will be...

...I have no idea. Bryon and I have been trying to figure that out for a while now. IM New Zealand in March '09 or IM Australia in April '09. So much to consider. Bryon's worried about the money, of course - I'm worried about trying to get one last IM in before we have little tots running around and have to train around them.

And when will we have another chance, if we did start trying to have kids next year, to take 2 weeks and go to the South Pacific? Having lived there, I LOVE it and have always wanted to go back, and Bryon's never been there - so perfect opportunity. Plus, it's an early season race and Bryon wants to start trying soon, so I don't really want to wait until next summer for a Europe race.

Ah, choices, choices.

On another note, happy father's day to my dad, grandad and grandpa! We had a great time with the cookout and watching 5 dogs run around!

MC200 photos

Photos from this past weekend's Madison to Chicago 203-mile, 12-man running relay.

Steamed Muscles Team 2 before the race start last Friday

Handing off to Bryon on our first legs - I PR'd my 5k time, and my next leg which was a 10k!

Our last legger running down the finish chute at Montrose Beach on day 2. We finished in 25 hours and 41 minutes.

Steamed Muscles Team 2 after the race on Saturday. Time for sleep!

Bryon, me and Kevin (Bryon's brother) - Team R at it again!

Happy 40th to my hubby!

My husband turned 40 yesterday...he got a new grill and new briefcase from his wonderful wife.

Love you babe! :)

CapTex Race Report - FINALLY!

A couple weeks late, but at least it's here...my CapTex Olympic tri race report.

The race was hard. Period. By the time I was on the run I decided I was going to try to survive the race as well as finish the race. It's always humid in Austin, but it had been especially hot and humid all week all over Texas - May 2008 was the 8th hottest May on record since 18-hundred-something. Last year this race was rained out (flooded out!) and the year before I was a spectator, and I've lived in Austin for four years attending UT, so I know the heat. But I never know what my body's going to do in hot races.

I wasn't absolutely worried about my swim or run, as I had been training the most in those events - but I had hardly done much with my bike except for 1 or 2 rides a week. However, my bike - as usual - was my strongest event. My swim time was shocking - I thought I could do better - and my run was just down right ugly, but during the run I started not caring...

My only stipulation was that I beat my one and only other Olympic time which was a 3:15. I was really aiming for a 2:50 and really thought I could do it, but my body was not into it.

The breakdown:

1500m swim: 32:42 (2:11/M) - 504/1442

T1: 4:09 (damn wetsuit stuck on my arms!)

40k bike: 1:12:49 (20.4MPH) - 449/1442

T2: 2:44 (thanks to my new Zoots I bought at the expo the previous day!)

10k run: 1:11:09 (11:27/M) - 971/1442

TOTAL: 3:03:36

Total rank: 680/1442

AG rank: 30/124

Female rank: 180/570

When you look at the rankings, it really does not look bad at all. I mean, I still ranked in the top half of the field overall, and the top quarter of my age group! I should feel really, really good about that, right? But how can you feel good about a 11:27 minute/mile pace? I do have a medical reason for this though - turns out I was on the verge of heatstroke. Had goosebumps since the bike and was starting to get disoriented on the run. But I did manage to power through it, although at a slow pace.

My ugly finish had me barely making it over the finish line and then being rescued by a med official before collapsing to my knees. I do want to say thank you to all the med volunteers in the med tent. They kept an eye on me and made me feel better even though I was wrapped up in cold towels and then shivering violently. About 45 minutes later, I was able to walk around and had an appetite for pizza and popsicles.

All in all, it was a fun race, but brutally hot and humid. My one complaint/suggestion is that they could by far use more Gatorade on the course. Having it at only one aid station for two loops doesn't cut it for that heat. At least one more chance to get something other than water would be awesome.

Oh, and Bryon got 2nd overall (or 3rd - he received 2nd at the awards ceremony and is 3rd online) in Clydesdale. What a stud. :)

My needs

In the last few weeks and during some of my 'tougher' workouts, I've finally decided on something: I need professional help. Yeah, yeah. Some of you would say "yep, you do because you're crazy," but not that professional help - the help of a triathlete coach/running coach/motivator/nutritionist. It's a bummer, though, that they cost so darn much.

I have drive and stamina to finish nearly anything I put my mind to and decide to do. I just lack the willpower to continue on. I slack off during a workout or something difficult at work and try to talk myself out of it - and sometimes succeed. Let's say I've decided to do a 9 mile run on Sunday, and what usually happens is I get to the 3 mile point that is usually used for turning around or continuing on, and I'll turn around and get 6 in. Or I'll start walking because my mind says to not stress my body or my legs. But then I feel guilty that I didn't give myself the workout I need. My mind wins; my body loses.

I need someone (besides my dear hubby) to push me, to show me the way, to be my rabbit, to be my driving force other than my own body and mind. I need to be told I can do this, I am doing great things - I need to know I'm improving and am capable of reaching such and such goals. I just sometimes wish - ok, all the time wish - that I could just snap my fingers and my fitness is top-notch and my body is 15% fat instead of 20-something.

I have also pretty much figured that I do better with a schedule that's been worked out for me and outlined week by week. I did as well as I could for Ironman last year, when I had Coach Jason provide me with monthly workout schedules. I think I need that again, instead of showing up for masters and weekly runs. And don't get me wrong, I've done this for enough years I can do that on my own, but I want to know the details - tempo run here, speedwork here, hill work here, pick-ups here, etc. I'm very anal and detail-oriented and just going for the workouts that are available to me aren't really cutting it.

Maybe its because I don't have a huge race such as Ironman driving me, but I do have some coming up in the second half of the season that would be great if I can PR in.

I also - desperately - need a nutritionist. I am a horrible eater - and the most pickiest one you'll ever meet who isn't 6. I promise. I'm a meat-and-potatoes-and-desserts girl and I eat maybe 2-3 veggie types and 3-4 fruit types. And I am constantly hungry, but I think that's my fast metabolism. I love breakfast and eat breakfast every single day (eggs, english muffin, maybe a small piece of sausage), a yogurt smoothie for snack, lunch at work with whatever I have time for, another snack around 3 and then dinner. Sometimes in the afternoon I get what I call "work munchies" where I'm getting finicky and seem to need to constantly be eating. Other times I'll come home from work and have a bowl of Special K before dinner.

I would also like to improve my running - and tremendously so. I've never been a runner, have had the notion that I'm not a runner pushed into my head ever since first grade when I was the last one to finish a relay (and it's all on tape - thanks Mom & Dad). I've done pretty darn well the last couple of months, but I would love to see me hanging in the 7 min. pace. Shoot, I know one day I'll be faster than Bryon (he hangs in the 6 min. pace and has qualified for Boston twice now) - when he's 60 and I'm 47, but that's still not for a while!

I NEED MOTIVATION! I NEED AN EXPERIENCED, QUALIFIED COACH! I NEED TO GET OFF MY REAR AND SUCCEED!

One more reason

...to be safe on the rode while riding. This occured in Mexico during a road tour. One rider died and I believe 10 others were injured. And this is apparently a drunk driver in the car. Horrible.

This is not a scene one likes to see, especially someone who's been on the road with terrible drivers who pay no respect to the rider. This has happened too many times - even when the driver was sober - to be taken lightly. Take the accident that involved a highway patrol officer who fell asleep at the wheel and killed two riders and injured another. Just do a search online and tons of stories pop up about cyclists being killed.

Some drivers may argue that cyclists should pay attention, shouldn't be on the road, etc. Cyclists have the same right as a motor vehicle to the road as much as some who drive. This is tragic and frightens many, especially my mother for sure.

I have been a bike wreck which luckily did not involve a car, and I hate to imagine what would have happened if a car was involved. I, oddly enough, was hit from behind by another rider in our group while I was stopped at a light and the rest of them were flying through (which is NOT a good idea and IS the cyclists' faults). But how did he not see me? I had been stopped for well over 5 seconds - enough to unclip my right foot and set it on the ground and start turning back to yell "red light." But, he didn't see and instead slammed into me at about 18 mph which threw me over the handlebars, chin first into the pavement, into the middle of the intersection while the rest of the group was past the light. They only turned around because they heard my scream before I hit and blacked out. *Shudder* I do hate that day. January 29, 2007. Less than three months before my first Ironman. And the same day I was to meet my future father-in-law for the first time (I guess it helped that I was drugged up on Vicodine, huh??)!

THIS is why I yell at horrible drivers while riding. THIS is why I get angry when other riders in my group want to roll through a red light or stop sign. THIS is why I still get stressed when I have to ride with more than just me and my husband. THIS, dear hubby, is why I get angry on rides...

MC200 in less than two days!

Driving down the 101

My sister and me at her graudation

Whew. What a weekend. I actually left this town and left my laptop and work behind! (Although I will admit I did - briefly! - check my email on Saturday.) Hence my lack of posting, as well. So I'll try to catch you up...

Thursday afternoon I left for LA and actually ended up flying with my parents (we didn't book them together), which was nice. Bryon met us at the airport and we drove off into the sunset of Santa Monica...or at least into all the smog.

I love SoCal! Of course it had to be the hottest weekend of the year, so far, for them (temps were beating records set back in 1880-something!), but it was fun nonetheless. Saw William Shatner at LAX picking up luggage next to us, and my parents were antique shopping in Santa Monica next to Marcia Cross. Bryon got to see the Hollywood sign up close for the first time and down Sunset Blvd and Rodeo Drive. Ugh - I do hate the LA traffic though. (Where do all these people come from? And how are you able to go to the beach on an early Friday afternoon??)

The R's take Hollywood!

Friday morning, bright and early, we went to the USC campus to see my sister graduate. I was happy to say I got her her first piece of alumni gear! It was very exciting but extremely hot and stuffy, especially in the tent we were stuck in for 2+ hours! We saw her walk, helped her move out of her "apartment" (it was an attic added on to an o-l-d house that looked like it could be blown over with one puff of air), and made it to the beach for a couple of hours before we met up again for dinner.

My workout for that day: 5+ miles of walking in 93+ heat, all before noon!

Saturday was busy busy too - Bryon and I woke up and ran 6.5 miles down the Santa Monica/Venice Beach boardwalk. It didn't seem like 6.5 miles but it was - we were so distracted by the variety of people that show up! Plus, it was the first visit for Bryon so he was quite amused. And bewildered. He didn't realize that area was so dirty... After the run we rushed to get ready and went to the 3rd Street Promenade to meet the family for breakfast and shopping, took off for the Hollywood Hills and then came back for dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Promenade that Bryon and I ate at Thursday night (but it was really, really good - but the service SUCKED!).

Sunday, we raced. Of course! Can't take us R's anywhere without wanting to race. We did the Playa del Run Santa Monica aquathlon - 1000m ocean swim and 5k run. It was small and Bryon and I could actually place our transition spots next to each other, as well as start at the same time! And dang the water was cold! 63 degrees. And then we had to trek what seemed FOREVER up the beach through soft sand to get to our shoes. My legs were shot from the days of walking the whole weekend and I definitely wasn't fresh, but it was good to do a race and get an ocean/wetsuit swim in, and before CapTex this weekend! I did do what I estimated I would although I know my run could be faster. The ocean current was strong, and there were 3-4 swells that you were paddling through and all of a sudden you were stroking through air and not water 4 feet high - what a rollercoaster ride that was, so my swim time was fine with me. Plus, I finished right before Bryon! I finally got to a point in the swim at the end where I could stand up and start running out and for some reason I look behind me and there's Bryon popping up from a wave! We were at our transition spots at the same time and Bryon offered to help me out of my wetsuit, but I said no - I didn't want to keep him behind! The run was tough - I think I swallowed too much salt water and the heat was pounding down. But I kicked it in gear after getting over a stomach cramp and finished in 50 minutes.

What you don't see in the below photo is our two plates of Krispy Kreme donuts and croissant rolls! Yum. :)

The R's after the race. We tried to show those LA Tri people what's up. But uh, they were pretty fast...

After the race we cleaned up, packed, laid by the pool, said bye to my family and left for the airport. Again - whew!

Now it's Tuesday, and I haven't done anything remotely active... eek!

Oh, and can't forget - it's supposed to rain all weekend not only in Dallas, but Austin as well!! This better not be a repeat from last year when it was rained out!