Insert Fork Here.

Yeah, stick a fork in me.  I am done.

I made it to Masters this morning.  Kicked butt on the flip turn.  Yeeee-ah.

I had my nutrition appointment today and while I was at the gym, the instructor asked me if I was coming to bootcamp.

After swimming this morning, I had not planned on it but now I am feeling the pressure.

So...I went to bootcamp and we worked back and abs.

I am going to hurt the next 3 days.

Ran 4.4 miles at the track tonight afterward and grateful to beat the cold rain.  Good conversation always makes the miles fly by.

A good training day...but now I don't want to move.

So back to the nutritionist appointment.  I told him my dream goal was to lose 10 pounds by the Ironman.  He responds by telling me it can be done by the end of March.

Now for the hardest part...the eating discipline.

Game on.

Just Add Dancing...and Some Cabernet Please

-I rode my new Kurt Kinetic bike trainer tonight as I watched The Middle and Modern Family.  It is nice to have a night home, watch my shows and not suffer the guilt of skipping my workout.  I could get used to this trainer bit. And thank goodness, Charlie is okay with me turning the living room into my race world.  I have my own personal wind machine, a table for all my remotes (fan, audio, TV and cell phone) and my water.

-I went out last night and had 2 glasses of wine (or was it 3?).  I was going to try and go the entire Ironman training season without drinking alcohol but I caved under social pressure.  Sometimes social mingling is too much for me and I need my buddy Cabernet to help me over the hump.  Thank goodness I was not hungover this morning...just really, really tired.  I am sure it will really will its ugly head when I get up tomorrow at 4:15am for Masters class.

-Galveston Half marathon was this past Sunday.  My worst weather conditions ever but I am a survivor. Stay tuned to another race report coming soon.

-I meet with the nutritionist tomorrow night.  Time to get serious again about the diet.  Ugh.

-Superbowl party this year was awesome.  Caught up with old friends.  Giants won.  And playing with my little nephew just rocked.

-I forget how much I like dancing.  It is such an awesome way to sweat.  Note to self:  I must find a way to add more dancing in my life. 

Brush Yourself Off and Try Again

So...a little rocky start to my goals.  As you may have noticed, those weekly blog posts have not been happening as often as I promised.  And in turn, keeping my promises has been lacking in luster as well.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew.  And that is okay, I just need to scale it back a bit.

I am on week 6 of Ironman training.  January was not as productive as I anticipated.  I did not seem to take the training as serious as I should have for the month.  But not all was lost...I did have some high notes.

I ran my first Houston marathon (3rd overall marathon) and I made my goal of completing it in under 5 hours.  I will work on posting that race recap soon.

I have been attending a masters class twice a week and my swim technique has improved by leaps and bounds.  I am forcing myself to learn the flip turn. It took me nearly all month to finally get it but each session has a small victory. Sometimes, when I am swimming I have to pinch myself.  I am in shock on how good it feels to be a swimmer.  I always  dreamed of the day of swimming with proper form, but did not actually believe it would really come true.  It's real now. The day is finally here.

Getting up early has actually gotten easier in the past 2 weeks.  Well...maybe not easier but I have managed to take control of my inner child.  How?  By telling her to shut up and get over it.

There are 2 types of pains you have to choose from every morning (according to Jim Rohn)...the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.  If I choose the pain of discipline, in this case, it is getting up at the butt crack of dawn.  It hurts, but the end results make me happy.

If I choose to stay in bed, I am happy for the moment, but when I wake up, I suffer the pain of regret. And the end results of sleeping in almost always make me unhappy.  So I have to suck it up, cupcake, and take my lumps and get my butt up.  It is worth it every time in the long run.

So my running went well, the swimming is still going awesome... but the bike?  Not so much.  I need to get my ass in the saddle.  I bought a bike trainer.  The Kurt Kinetic Road machine.  It stayed in the box for almost 2 weeks.  I was intimidated on setting it up.   Now I need to get my bottom ready to stand 112 miles...and I am not taking it serious enough.  This is about 8 hours for me.  Well, no more excuses.  The bike trainer is up and running.  I tested it out earlier this week for 20 minutes.  I set up the DVD player for movies and training sessions.  February will focus on getting those miles in on the bike.  My Felt Z-100 and I parted ways at the Austin 70.3 race...so it is time to get reacquainted again. 

Vegan diet is on hold.  I still want to do the challenge again for 30 days.  But the discipline of trying to add this with all the other changes I am trying to accomplish right now is too much.  I am going to go back to the staff nutritionist at the gym and take the guesswork out of what I need to eat during my training.  I need someone to hold me accountable right now.  I need to succeed.  

A new month.  A do over.  And I will strive to improve from the month before.  I can not focus on what went wrong, but look at on how I can do things better.  The plan is to brush myself  off and try again.

12 Goals for 2012

Happy new year!!  This is my year.  My 37th birthday will be on 12-12-12.  So it is time to go big.  2011 was so good to me but this year will be even better.  I have come up with 12 goals I plan to accomplish.  And boy, it is going to be a busy one!

1.       Complete a full Ironman. I am signed up for Ironman Texas in May. I start training today.  Oh Lordy!

2.       I will go 30 days of eating vegan.  I did this last year and felt so good.  I am also starting today using the Kickstart program.

3.       Simplify.  I want to get rid of excess stuff.  Purge, purge and purge.  Each month I will focus on a different room of my house.  I am fascinated with the minimalist lifestyle

4.       30 days of not eating out. Yup, started this month.  Charlie and I have a bet going on.  The money we save will go to repairing our finances. 

5.       Which leads to…cleaning up our finances.  This means tracking our spending, creating a budget and stop using credit cards.  The basics.  I have always been fascinated with investing.  Somehow I have lost my way. I will be following this post as my guide.

6.       I will get my Comptia A+ Certification. One of the big changes as the result of the airline merger was a change in departments with my company. I am now in technology.  Time to focus my attention on developing those skills.

7.       I would like to develop my blog. Write more…at least weekly.  Document my progress on these goals.

8.       I am going to keep my promises. If I say I will show up every day at 8 am, I will do so. Every day.

9.       I am going to organize our photos.  I need to pay more attention to our memories.  Create photo books, or print our photos to put on our walls.

10.   I will ensure I carve out time for my loved ones.  With all the training for Ironman in the next six month, I want to make sure I do not neglect my peeps.   

11.   I am going to seek out habits that help me overcome fear or inertia. Destroy those that do the opposite.  One of those habits will be to focus on becoming a morning person, another attempt at my goal from 2011.

12. My spiritual life has been seriously neglected.  I want to practice meditation again and focusing on the present. I am going to jump start this by participating in Winter Feast for the Soul

Okay, I am telling the world my goals to give me accountability and for the sheer possibility to have company if we share common goals. I know I am going to need the support. I am buckling up for a bumpy ride.

The destination will be well worth it.

Philadelphia Marathon Race Report

Philadelphia Marathon Race Report

Official Time: 5:05:50

Starting temperature: 53 degrees

Partly sunny, beautiful running weather

November 20, 2011

I have been planning to run this marathon since June.  I initially had planned to run the half but it sold out before I could sign up, so I signed up for the full.  Well, I spent the whole summer and the beginning of fall preparing for my first half Ironman race.  Full marathon training had taken a back burner.  I started having doubts about running it, and therefore did not want to advertise it to the world that I might drop out.

Since the 70.3 race, I have been L-A-Z-Y.  And when I say LAZY, that is going from 6 days of working out, some days double or triple workout sessions to barely working out 1-2 days a week.  I signed up to see a nutritionist at the Monster Gym, thinking this was the push I needed to get going again.  Only to fall flat.  My heart just was not in it anymore. I started sleeping in, every single day.  I skipped my long runs on Saturdays for 2 weeks in a row.  I ran an 11K with Charlie for our 11/11 wedding anniversary and although my legs went through the motions, I felt tired after 15 minutes. 

The Sunday before the Philly marathon, I ran a Metric Marathon (26.2K) formerly called the Houston Masters 25K.  I do this race because they give out the coolest long sleeve tech shirts.  It is 3 loops on Memorial Drive for a total of 16.5 miles.  I did not do terrible, but again, I dragged butt.  I was sore and I felt the effects of my recent lack of running. I always enjoy this well organized race and the shirt did not disappoint.  But again, I did not run the rest of the week.  And honestly, I was not motivated at all to run this Philadelphia marathon.

I was able to get on a overbooked plane with ease.  Hmm...so it looks like my fate is sealed.  As we landed in Philadelphia, I had flashbacks of my summer vacations visiting my grandparents and I started to feel excited.  As we drove downtown and I see all the historic buildings, my heart is starting to beat a little faster.  I feel my mojo slowly coming back.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza. There are 14 of us total from Kingwood, (most of the ladies are current or former members of Kingwood Fit).  I am sharing a room with 3 other ladies.  The next day, we hit the expo.  It is a crisp 44 degrees and that is enough to get a runner's blood going.  The expo is huge and the deals are plenty.  I have to admit, I had way too much fun looking (and buying) for running gear.  Next door, there is a giant fresh market. All of a sudden, I notice the time, and I have to haul butt back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  Not a good thing that I was on my feet so much.  My legs were already pooped before I even started the run.  Not a good sign.

Oddly for me, I am calm.  Completely. No nerves. I did not get my usual pre-race anxiety tummy.  Compared to Big Sur, where I tossed and turned all night with anticipation, this time, I acted like I did marathons in my sleep.  I had no funky emotions.  I prepared all my gear the night before, goofed around on the computer and then hit the hay.

The next morning, I got up at 5:30am, made a protein drink and headed out to the starting line.  We were supposed to meet my friend who runs at my pace at the Rocky Steps (or was it the Rocky Statue).  There were 3 freaking statues. Ugh. (And no, I did not run up the "Rocky" steps.  Looked like marathon leg suicide to me.)

We were late and Kavita was long gone.  Looks like I was running this marathon alone...sigh.  At least I remembered to charge my music player the night before.  The port-potty lines were sooo long, and as I wait for the gun to go off...I am aware I have to go.  At the first strip of port-o-potties I run to, I jump in line.  Since I was alone, I did not worry about ruining anyone's time.  I looked at my watch, and noted the time and estimated the stop took around 5 minutes.

At the 4.5 mile mark, I noticed it was the little eclectic street where we had dinner last night.  That little restaurant was the bomb.  It was called CoredeRoma on South Street.  A little family owned Italian dive on South Street.  I then spotted Suzanne, one of the ladies I met for the first time in our group.  There are about 25,000 people running and I find her.  I finally had a friend to run with.  The miles just seem to go by so much faster when you have a buddy by your side.  We walked the water stops and the steep hills.  I enjoyed her company until she started feeling a pain in her knee, she turned off at the half marathon point and I decided to keep going.

Mentally, I told myself I only had a half marathon left.  If I did this a month earlier after swimming an hour and riding 56 miles, then certainly I can do 13.1 miles back-to-back.  This last part of the course was an out and back along the Delaware river.  The trees were changing color and it was gorgeous.  Somehow, I had an extra pep in my step. I could also see the other runners as they were about to finish the full marathon.  All those athletes finishing 26.2 miles under 3 hours is so amazing to watch.  I mentally told my self it was 6.5 miles out, and then run it back.  So easy.  I distract myself by looking for runners in our group, ready to cheer them on.

It all went pretty smoothly even when I ran past mile 18-20 where supposedly some runners hit a wall.  Walking breaks were more difficult to do because it would be harder and harder to start up running again. I finally see Kavita (the one I was supposed to meet at the Rocky Steps) and she is about 7-8 minutes ahead of me.  I wanted to catch her.  I looked down at my Garmin and I am running a 9:40 pace at mile 23.  A 5K at this pace and I will finish under 5 hours. 

Yeah, until mile 24.  

Jenny, is introduced to the wall.  Ugh. My legs rebelled. They just did not want to go anymore.  The "wall" is this feeling of stopping dead in your tracks.  And it takes all of your mental energy not to let this happen.

Ever get those vivid flashbacks as clear as day?  Now when you have not seen someone in over 13 years, and you try to picture their face, are some of the details fuzzy?  I am running, and when I hit the "wall",  I can see my dad smiling at me, clear as day.

Now it could be, that Philly was close to his hometown in South New Jersey and I am surrounded by scents and sounds that remind me of him, and maybe that activated a certain spot in my brain; but nonetheless, at my weakest point of the run, I see him smiling.  As fresh as a memory as seeing someone smile that morning at the breakfast table.  I can see every detail of his face and the twinkle of his gorgeous green eyes.  I took that as a message that he is with me.  Even at my darkest mile.

 Okay, so now on top of fighting the urge to quit, now I want to start bawling hysterically as I am running.  Yeah, can you imagine you are running next to me as a complete stranger and she has a total meltdown?   

Yeah, I played that in my head on how I would explain that one.

So I am just not going there.  I fight back tears and I hear myself whimper as I focus on just taking one more step.  I secretly pray that no one hears the freakish sounds coming out of my body that sound like my dog begging for treats. Thank goodness I make it through that mile without stopping or behaving like a blubbering idiot.

Finally, I am down to my last mile and I am out of my trance.  I try to pick up my pace as hard as I can although my feet feel like lead bricks.  I see now that I am not going to make it under 5 hours anymore, but I would sure be close.  No matter what my time is, it has been a good run and huge time difference from the first one, so I am proud of my finish.  I cross the finish line in a sprint and I am so thrilled that I can even go that fast at the end.  

I pick up my medal and I look for Kavita.  I spot her getting her photo taken so I jump in and join her.  She made her time goal, and her hubby too.  We get our post-race grub and picnic within the finish chute and celebrated our PRs.  Leg cramps set in but thanks to the chicken broth the volunteers handed out, they did not last long.

Afterward, my awesome friend Christina, met me for delicious Crepes at a local French restaurant.  Best post race food ever, as the crepe tradition as a post race celebration meal continues.  As Christina and I are walking to the cafe, I spot a Starbucks and had to buy one to silently toast my friend Jessica who did my first marathon with me and could not make this trip to Philly.

Philly ended in smiles with more good times that dinner.  Although walking isn't a good feeling right now, I know the pain is temporary.  The afterglow is forever.  

Austin 70.3 Half Ironman Race Report

So this was THE race I had been planning for all year.  

The 70.3 Austin Half Marathon.

Starting Temp: 63 F/Finishing Temp 90 F 
Total Time: 8:13:21 

Pre Race
Alarm went off at 4am.  The LaQuinta Airport was gracious enough to put out food at 4am.  I had a banana, toast and egg white.  I had nervous stomach so it was a challenge to eat that.

We get to to the race site.  They gave us bags for all of our gear and we were required to keep it all inside these plastic draw string bags.  So there was no laying out the gear like I am used to.  I felt nervous because we had to check in the bike the night before and I was not able to pump my tires in the morning like usual.  That was probably more of a superstition than anything else.

We were shuttled to the swim start and had to wait 2 hours until our wave time.  We laid out our towels under a tree, and shockingly, I actually fell back asleep with the wet suit as my pillow.

Swim:  Wetsuit or no wetsuit?
1:01:53 (1.2 Miles)
I am not a fan of the wet suit.  It is hot and cumbersome.  But it does allow buoyancy...and being a slow swimmer, I need all the help I can get.  So it was a wetsuit swim. We had 2 waves starting behind us, both of them, men 30-34.  We start swimming and I am swimming quite well with the pack, that is until I notice ladies stopping all around me.  I am back to the anxiety hitting me again and this makes it hard to breathe with my swim stroke.  I stop and start several times.  I hear the countdown of the wave behind me and see the men coming towards me in a triangle formation (like birds flying together in the sky).  I swim towards the nearest kayak and hold on until the massive group flies by.  After that, I finally found a groove and just went buoy to buoy until I finally made it to the end.  The water was cool and calm and I found myself enjoying the swim in this lake. 

When I jumped out of the water, I had a surprise waiting for me.  My friend Juliana was waiting for me and cheering at the top of her lungs.  I did not know anyone was planning to be there.  My demon of the triathlon is the swim so to conquer and have this behind me was already an emotional moment, so when I saw her, it took all my strength to NOT bawl my eyes out.  It was a magical, powerful moment, so if I ever get the chance to pay it forward, I am not passing up on it.  If you are a spectator, dont ever underestimate what you do for your athlete and for all the people out there you dont know.  Your presence is so powerful. I am always so grateful for ANY words of encouragement.  Thank you so much for all the well wishes and everyone who was rooting for me in spirit.

T1:
6:57
Well,considering you have to finagle out of a wetsuit, and shove it into a tiny little plastic bag, this was not gonna be a quickie for me.  In the meantime, I am still trying not to bawl like a baby after completing the swim so I am intently trying to focus on each item. 

Bike:
 3:45:21 (56 miles)
So, I loved, loved, loved the bike.  I enjoyed every moment of it and it flies by for me. There are hills but there are not any I wasn't prepared to handle.  I am holding back on my speed to keep my legs fresh for the run. I have my nutrition timed out, my electrolytes paced out.  I went through 3 full tanks in my Camelbak of sports drink and ate a Hammer Gel every hour like clockwork.  I think all is well, or so I thought.

T2: 
8:49
As I dismounted the bike, a volunteer asked me if I was okay.  I told him I was doing well as I hopped off the bike.  I sat down to change my socks (blister prevention).  Downed another pair of Endourolyte pills and chased it down with some more sports drink.  And off I go on the run.

Run:
3:10:21 (13.1 miles)
I am surprised how easily I am able to run....until I hit the half mile mark. 

My quads begin to lock up. 

Now, I have had charley horses in my calves before...but not like this in my quads in the beginning of a run.  I am not sure what to do.  I try walking, high knees, kick butts and stretches.  Nothing seems to help. It is now 90 degrees and it is hot.  When I try to compensate for the quad cramps, my feet cramp up or my calves.  This was so not cool.

At every rest stop I am double fisting with water and Gatorade.  I am craving salt, but all they have is sugar, cookies, coca cola and gels and all I want is pickles...or potato chips...or even chicken broth.  I am in the worst pain.  I take more Endourolyte pills which give me temporary relief and this enables me to run in short spurts but it does not last long.  I am walking most of the distance.

A man is laid out on his back on the road with the same problem.  An EMT dude is helping him stretch.  I see a lady in tears, and another EMT kinda tells her, "it sucks to be you but you can do it!" (in so many words).

I can see now I have limited options here.  Quit, or keep going.

I joked on Facebook about having to crawl, but now I am willing to do anything but quit.  I did not come this far to finish at 66 miles.  I start to hear the music of the finish line and I am determined to run it in.  My legs cramp again so I shoot my legs the finger because there is no way am I walking across the finish line.

I am not sure how I pulled it off, but I finally finish and unfortunately, it is in tears. 

Although it wasn't pretty,  at least I completed every tiny inch of it. Thank goodness I did not quit.

At least I can finally say, I completed a half IRONMAN. 

Post Analysis
Wow, did I learn alot from this 70.3 race.  Next time, I will bring a salt back-up.  After talking to my coach and reading some articles, I learned my cramping was due to sodium loss also know as Hyponatremia.  And here I thought I was doing everything correctly, even with  my Endouralytes pills. 

When you read the label of the bottle...each pill has 40mg.

A heavy sweater (that is me) can lose up to 1-2 grams of sodium per hour which is equivalent to 1000-2000 milligrams.  You will notice that most of the labels are in milligrams.

So if I was taking 2 Endouralyte pills an hour, plus the Gatorade which has 140mg a serving....that STILL does not even come close to recovering the sodium I was losing, and I do not even need to be a math major to figure that one out.  

Interesting lesson learned here.  My sweating was accelerated when I jumped off the bike with the heat.  I also refilled my Camelbak with water at the last stop, assuming that the sports drink that was left at the bottom would be enough electrolytes to carry me through.  That only diluted the sodium levels I had left in my body.

Oh well, next time, I will know how to beat those stinkin cramps.  Oh yes, there will be a next time...Galveston 70.3, do I hear you calling my name?

Sooo....here are my top 10 favorite moments of my Austin 70.3 Half Ironman experience.

10.  The training.  Yes, I actually enjoyed the training and I am not ready to give it up yet.

9.  My body.  The changes to the body are amazing.  Especially since I have never been a swimmer.  Swimming really has really reshaped my upper torso. It is an added bonus that my clothes fit differently now.

8. Wearing the cool visor, tshirt and staring at the medal. They all remind me that I did it!!!  Even if it was painful, I still did it!

7. The sunrise over the lake.  The swim was really beautiful once I started to relax.  Bright blue skies and the Austin shoreline was so breathtaking.

6. The music as you are waiting for the gun to go off.  It is an AWESOME feeling!

5.  The music as you get closer to the finish line.  Need I say more?

4.  Crossing the finish line and hugging Charlie and Jessica. 

3.  Getting your photo taken in front of the 70.3 backdrop.  (Especially when you get to pose like the Hulk)

2.  Seeing all the amazing support from all my coach Pam, friends and family back home on my Facebook page and seeing and hearing Juliana cheer for me as I exited the swim.  Those thoughts, words and moments were just priceless.

1.  Completing the race with two of my wonderful friends, Jessica and Valerie.  To have them to confide in and share tips in all through the training and on race day was invaluable.  I am so grateful for my two rabbits.  There will never be another first with the 70.3 event and I was able to share it with them.

Growing Up

When I was in college, a typical weekend of fun was staying up into the wee hours of the morning and tearing the body down by getting "wasted".  I would not remember half the stupid idiotic things I said or did and I almost always felt like crap the next day.  I spent money on clothes and make-up and tried to impress people who most likely did not remember anything as much as I did.  I ate whatever I wanted and my workouts consisted of occasionally going to the gym and doing the stair master for 20 minutes.

I pretended that partying was my idea of fun.  But if I could really be me and have fun, I would be content reading at home with a good book and favorite music.  Or I would just paint. Or play outdoors.  Hang out at coffee shops and have one of those conversations that you would actually remember afterward and made you feel as if time was suspended.  Or listen to live music while I sketched the surrounding crowd. 

But that was not cool.  Or if it was, I was too intimidated to speak up and tell my friends otherwise.

So I carried on, living this double life, pretending to like what everyone else liked.

Party on, Garth.

But deep down, I was bored with that lifestyle.

Until one day, I looked at a photograph of myself and I did not recognize myself anymore. I had gained weight.  My skin was a mess and I was having all kinds of digestion issues...like heartburn every time I ate something.  I spent all this money on make up and clothes to somehow transform myself to someone I did not even know.

So you start to explore different ideas, but it is not easy to get started.

Breaking a paradigm that has been your life for the past 30 years is not easy to do.

At the time, I was flying and was eating out quite a bit.

My veggies consisted of the tomato and lettuce on my Wendy's quarter pounder.

Switching to a desk job was one of the smartest moves I ever made because it got me off the road and not eating out as much.  It put me on a regular schedule.  It enabled me to join Kingwood Fit and make a new circle of friends.

Slowly, one step at a time, and before you know it...you wake up and you are finally on the path you want to be.  Man, I wish I knew all this earlier in life. But if you told me back then, I probably wouldn't have believed it anyway.

It all has to happen in due time.

So to look back on the past 5 years, I have come a long way.

My Friday evening now consists of a happy hour swimming at a lake with friends at sunset.

Instead of going to bed after a wild night out, I am getting up at 5am on a Saturday to run 11 miles with my running buddies.  And having a coffee shop conversation afterward with my good friend that suspends time.

Getting dressed up for a "Girls Night Out" means getting dolled up to sit around a table at a comfy restaurant, for ONE (or maybe 2) glass(es) of wine, or water with dinner to discuss training plans, race details and funny stories.  (You don't want to get wasted because you still have to train the next day and since everyone understands this there is not a single word of pressure otherwise.)

Sundays are now set aside for bike rides through the country roads.  I am outdoors and I have never been happier.  I am where I am supposed to be.

Money is spent on road trips, race fees or workout clothing.

T-shirts (bonus if they are cute race shirts) and running shorts now make up my favorite wardrobe. 

My skin is back to normal.  My body is in better shape than it was 10 years ago. 

So does this mean I am finally content and have reached ultimate perfection?

Bwah hah ha ha ha ha!!  Never.

We are always evolving growing beings.  It will never end.

There are still so many things I have to learn and goals I want to reach. Still working on my diet, financial goals and I am curious about the minimalist lifestyle.  And I am sure once I figure out those, new goals will take their place.

There is something said about growing older...you definitely grow wiser.  And you start to learn where you REALLY want to spend your time.

How you want to build your body up and not down and surround yourself with people who are on that same page as you.

It can truly make all the difference on the quality of your life.

Bottom line...I just don't want this amazing ride to end and I am looking forward to where I get to go next.   Does it really get better than this?!?