1 training session down, 429 to go (or something like that)

Day 1 is over! Wooooo! I'm one step closer to IM! Alright, maybe I shouldn't be that excited. Or maybe I should :)

It was a good workout day. Started the day out with Aunt Martha at the gym. 8am. That's the earliest I've woken up (7am) since I've been home. But it felt great. We did the eliptical for 30 minutes, and then lifted upper body. I also taught her my favorite thing ever: Swiss ball pikeups!! Like this, only more graceful :) And we were wearing shirts.

It's always fun to workout with someone! Wish I was here more to work out with her, but alas, I am not.

Then I had my run workout scheduled for today. Drill stuff. I thought "meh..piece of cake!" Well it was a little more difficult than I thought. I came home and took a nap and now I can feel some soreness in my legs from some of the drills. So I'm actually kind of excited that it was such a good workout even though it was only for 40 minutes. I know if I do all the things my coach tells me to do...I'm going to ROCK IM. And THAT is worth every drop of sweat, tears, and blood. Because there will be all three. It is an Ironman, after all. Until training session two..........................

P.S. Ironman training starts TOMORROW

!*$&*!%&*#!&$*&!%*&#*

Yeah...IM training starts TOMORROW. December 31st, 2007. Look at me, starting a year before the event! Kinda. Ok not really. Exactly 8 months until race day. I seriously feel like tomorrow is a whole new ERA for me. Training for an Ironman??? Yeah, done the marathon thing. It was hard, but I knew I'd be doing something harder so I took it kind of lightly. Done a century ride before, but that was a whole day event for the MS150 so it wasn't a race per se. I've swam a whole hell of a lot before so that doesn't bother me either. Let's put them all together, after 8 months of extra long main sets in the pool, numerous long rides that end just before the daylight does, and long runs thru muddy trails at 6am....then give me a 17 hour deadline and call it a day! Yeah...that sounds good.

But that's what we do. All these people are doing it for the same (and some additional) reasons. We want to prove to everyone we can do it, when they thought we couldn't. We want to show that its possible for an everyday normal person to hold a full time job and still train for this grueling race. But most importantly we are proving to OURSELVES that we can do this...even though two years ago, we didn't own a bike, never set foot in the pool unless it involved a beer and a bikini, and couldn't run a mile to save ourlives. And by "us".....I mean me. Unless that also includes anyone else...feel free to share your story :)

I will do it. Don't even bet against me. If you do, you can go ahead and mail your check to me because I could use the money to buy gels or accelerade or something useful to get me across the finish line. Thank you.

Raise your hand

Raise your hand if you ate too much: *raises hand*

Raise your hand if you didn't work out as much as you wanted during Christmas: *raises hand*

Raise your hand if you are going to work out for 8 hours tomorrow: *raises hand...slowly*

Actually...I am excited because I just got my first workouts for next week with my coach! Yay! It makes me really excited for next season. It's so much less stressful to have my workouts planned for me. I don't have to worry about what I'm going to do that day and if its going to properly train me to peak at the right times or even prepare me for the big race. So basically I have the easy job...just do the workout! Oh, wait......

See ya in the pool....and on the road.....

P.S. My sister got me this shirt for Christmas! Funny thing is, on Christmas eve I told her that it was my favorite shirt and I wanted to get it! Only thing is, I feel as though I cannot wear it until after IM. Any thoughts??

Dirrty water

I went down to the river today for lunch with my high school diving friends. It was so nice to see them! We had some good times reminiscing about high school days and what's currently going on...man am I out of the loop! Kinda glad though..it sounds like the same craziness is going on from when I was there. Anyway...on the way in to Don Pablo's, I took this picture:

Yeeeeahh...I have to swim in that!

Ok, I do admit, it is a little cleaner down the river a bit in Louisville, BUT STILL. I think I'd rather be swimming in the Gulf, or in the Ocean in Australia...anything but the Ohio River!!!

Oh well...I think as long as I take antibiotics for the week before the race, I should be good???

mwa ha ha

My family is so cute as elves (minus Ami, you can only do four elves...and since she's not in town yet...well she got booted)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1657900302

Frustrations with racing

Not the actual race itself...I love that part! It's the figuring it all out months before it will happen. Usually this isn't too big of a deal, but seeing as how I graduate in May, and must enter the real world (enter scary music)...I have no clue where I'll even be come June! Since I'm talking with my coach tomorrow, I'm pretty sure she's going to want to know my racing plans for next season. So I made a schedule (see new column to the right) based on the fact that I will be in Memphis at least all summer. This wouldn't be a bad thing considering I have an apartment until July 31. And I wouldn't even mind sticking around Memphis another year or two...I've kind of grown fond of one of the most dangerous cities in America. I think I did a pretty good job of picking races I don't have to travel far for. In fact, the only ones I'd have to spend the night for are the TN state sprint championships (in east TN, hopefully I could find someone that I know there so I could crash at their place) and Ironman. IM is already taken care of as far as booking a hotel room, so that's a plus. I just don't want to travel too much due to the fact I'm still poor. The half marathon is a maybe. I already ran a road race a few weeks ago, but I stuck it in there just in case I feel up to it. Ole Miss sprint will be so fun because supposedly a lot of my classmates want to "tri a tri" (little triathlon humor there...) and we all decided this would be fun! I'll do it even if they don't because it was a nice little break the ice for the season race. Memphis in May...obviously doing this one. Best race I've ever done. Plus, my coach will be here for that one! Yeah! I didn't think the Mighty Mite and Dragonfly were that big of races, but apparently they are! They are both about 45 min to an hour away, so I can drive that morning. Which saves a ton of money! So I'm excited to do those. They are both between sprint and oly distances. Should be good. Besides that....FORD IRONMAN LOUISVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Obviously, that one will happen :) And I will be an Ironman. Because I'm a rockstar. Or because I'm crazy. Or both...................

Tea Update

**First off I would like to let everyone know that the Spears' family has done it again...16 year old Jaime Lynn Spears is pregnant! Get those children a chastity belt!**

So I found a tea I like! YAY! I found that I like herbal tea. Black and green teas are just too strong (tea scent AND taste) for me yet. I have to build up to them. It's like beer...its an acquired taste. Start with the light beers and build up. So I'm starting with the light teas and building up. At least that's the way it works for me! Also, one splenda (thank you Laura!). Perfect. I'm so happy. Now I can get my over abundance of antioxidants...yes!

Also, I'm home in KY. It's nice but I'm kinda bored. The last 2 days I've slept until 10am...which never happens in Memphis! Went to the gym yesterday and lifted. I'm really sore today. Also saw some really ugly lifting. I wanted to go around the room and tell people how to improve their lifts, but I didn't want to get kicked out the first day of being home for 3 weeks. I need to go back!

Of course everyone is happy that Junior is home. I walked in the door and my mom said "oh come here puppy!!!" I said "nice to be home, thanks mom!" But its ok...Junior is far too cute :) See? Here is our holiday card picture I sent out.

Add it to the list

So you're always supposed to try new things, right? Well, this is what you need to know leading up to last night. When I moved in August, I had about 3 loads of dirty laundry that I just didn't get time to do at my old place. It took us about 3 weeks to get our washer and dryer here, so that 3 loads built up to probably 6-7. Every week I would do on average 3 loads of laundry, but run out of time during the week to catch up. So, by the end of the week I was right back where I started: 6-7 loads.

This brings me to last night. I was originally supposed to go home today, but decided to wait a day because of the weather...well that was my secondary reason...the primary reason being I wasn't packed! Surprise! I wanted to get all my laundry done before I left for home. I knew it would take me 3 days to get all those loads done, and my roommates were both trying to do laundry yesterday.

Here's the part of "adding it to the list" meaning the list of things I've never done before. I went to a laundromat. Shocking I know. How can I be almost 24 and never been to one? Well, obviously had one at home until age 18. Then I was a spoiled Kansas student who had a nice laundry facility in the basement of my dorm (I wouldn't technically consider it a laundromat, b/c there weren't creepy people and it was clean). Then I've always lived in houses/apartments with a washer and dryer in them. So here I am. I googled a laundromat in Bartlett because I was going to be up that way. I found what seemed like a decent one. Nice part of town, on a nice road. No problem!

Well, I drove past it 3 times because the place had a horrible sign advertising it. That should have been my first clue. I finally found it, and started taking my two overflowing laundry baskets AND a garbage bag full of clothes inside. People were staring at me. I was bring dirty laundry to a laundromat...there's not weird about that people! Well, it turns out, nearly half the machines were "out of order"...neat. Wouldn't it make sense to have twice as many machines working?? No? Ok. Then there were some interesting things on the floor. 37 used dryer sheets, several used cups...random puddles of water. COOL. I would have just left but I really didn't want to put all that laundry back in my car...unless it was clean. So I started.

Long story short.... TEN FREAKIN LOADS OF LAUNDRY. TEN?!?!?!?!? I didn't even realize I owned that many clothes! Ok to be fair, 2.5 loads were towels, and one full load was workout stuff. So that leaves 6.5 loads of clothes. WOW. I saw clothes I forgot I had because I hadn't worn them since August! That was a little exciting.

Anyway, I met a nice guy who's money wouldn't go into the change machine, so I switched change for a crumply $5. Then he tried to buy detergent, and after giving it 3 times the amount of quarters, I offered my detergent. He was nice...maybe just a little creepy. Creepy people all over.

Lesson learned: Keep up on my laundry!!!!!!!

pics from the Marathon

Here's the only other one I look athletic in (the rest I'm walking haha). Yeah I kinda look like crap...but I just finished a marathon...who wouldn't!?!?

What I woke up to this morning...

Apparently, last night, Junior did not sleep as well as I did. He was much too busy performing open stuffing surgery on the poor bear. He must have been a surgeon in a previous life...look at that fine line directly down the middle...And that was with teeth! Imagine with a scalpel!

I woke up to a floor covered in snow (stuffing). And of course...Junior was finished and on my bed at this point...he just stared at me and gave me those big puppy dogs eyes that said "I SWEAR it wasn't me..." or maybe they said "haha! I DID THAT!!!"

Then I came across this ---->

I thought to myself...what is this?? Oh...right...its the SQUEAKER. But to Junior, it was the prize. You see, like many dogs, Junior LOVES to chew the squeakiness right out of the toy. But this time...he knew what he must do. Get the squeaker. Well, he won first place...and mangled the squeaker beyond recognition. I guess I can't be mad at the little guy. He takes after his mama. Set a goal...and will do ANYTHING it takes to reach that goal. Even if it means staying up all night....

Things

I hate resting! Well, not really, but I feel like such a slug. I actually felt guilty about riding for more than an hour yesterday (shh! Don't tell the coach). But it felt so great! I took it slow, but it was amazing to be outside again riding in warm weather!

I'm just getting ready for the trip home for Christmas. I still have Christmas presents to work on, much cleaning to do, and much sleeping to do (still). And what am I doing? Reading blogs. Yeeeah.

I am excited, however, because a bunch of us from the Ironman Louisville Blog are getting together over break to ride the Louisville course! So excited! I'm excited to meet people that are doing the race. I am so jealous that Court and Julie got to do the race together, so now I get to find people to do it with! And Mary Sunshine lives in the 'nati so I think we're getting together other times, too. Overall, I'm just ready to get home and work my a$$ off, literally!!!

Squeaky Clean CAR!

Finally cleaned out my car! Only because I have to drive Corey to his surgery in the morning so I guess he should have a place to set his bum leg. Anyway...I decided if someone were to ever steal my car (God forbid) 1. They wouldn't want it because its so dirty and 2. They would quickly get caught because they would not be able to explain all of the triathlon related things. For example:

• No less than 12 open (and eaten) gel packets
• 3 moldy water bottles
• 2 pairs of running shoes
• 3 clif bar wrappers
• 4.5 pairs of socks (not one matching pair, mind you)
• 5 sets of mapquest directions, to various locations...all of them races.
• and a partridge in a pair tree

Basically...a triathlon exploded in my car.

Sleeping Disease

I'm pretty sure I have one. In the last 24 hours (from right now), I've slept for 16 of them....NOT COOL. Well, it is cool, except I'm not getting anything done! grrrrrr........................

I feel like I'm in a fish tank

Last night, I went and swam. Yeah! It was nice to be active again after a 2 day hiatus. So I'm just chugging along, doing a long, continous set when I notice a guy had jumped into the lane next to me. He was a decent swimmer, but nothing spectacular.

After a few laps, I noticed he was just sitting at the wall. Ok, he's probably just taking a break. I swim down to where he's sitting on the wall, do a flip turn, and as I turn to push off the wall....there he is. Under water, holding his nose, just staring at me! To say the least...it was a tad bit creepy. This continued for about 3-4 laps. I figured out he was trying to watch my flip turns because then he just stayed at the wall flipping over and over again trying to mimic what I was doing. I guess I should be flattered? Ok, I have to admit, I put my best flip turns on for him from that point on....but was still a little creeped out.

In other news.........

I'm a failure at tea. Bill, if you're reading this, our discussion from last week did nothing for me. Sorry :( I've tried 3 different kinds and I just don't like it. The thing is....I WANT TO LIKE IT. I know it has great nutritional benefits (i.e. antioxidants, which I'm obssessed with trying to take in as much as possible) and I need something besides another cup of coffee during the day (so I don't become too dehydrated). But I just can't take it! The smell of it just doesn't seem appealing to me. It's kind of like eating fish. When something has a really fishy smell, it turns people off of it. And, knowing that fish can be mild in flavor (not very fishy taste)...is tea the same way? Am I wrong??? So if anyone has any tea suggestions, let me know!

It's going to be a long 9 months

Today....post marathon training begins. I will swim for 30 minutes...yeah! That's like the shortest workout EVER. The next month or so will be mostly base training, getting back on the bike and swimming more, and losing some pounds (I say this as I eat my cinnamon scone from Starbucks...shhh!) I actually haven't been too terribly bad in my post marathon eating. But I suppose I should get back on the wagon because the Holidays are coming very quickly!

So anyway, pretty easy stuff planned the next two weeks. No more than an hour a day either swimming or biking. I cannot wait to start lifting again, and just be a triathlete! The season is just around the corner, right???

St. Jude Marathon Race Recap

So, maybe I am a runner? Or, should I say, I could be a runner. Yes I finished the marathon on Saturday. 5:49:26. I’m soooooo glad it’s over!

Race morning: 5am wakeup call. Saw my downstairs neighbors coming HOME from the bars as I was taking Junior out. Long story short…one of them is a former student of mine. He was wasted and wanted to study…? He even left a sign on the stairs for me saying “GO ROBYN!!!” That was nice.

I dropped Junior off at the house he was staying at. I could have been optimistic thinking I would finish in time to get back and let him out at a reasonable hour…but I didn’t want to take the chance. I headed downtown and found the parking garage, which I was nervous about. I hate driving downtown! I headed to the Peabody where MIM was meeting up. We were ready!

Finally, we headed down to the start. It was a bit chilly but I had my throw away gloves and paper DFT jacket. I ended up getting rid of them shortly after mile 1! We started in corral #9 and finally, we were off! I’m glad I remembered to start my watch! I was running with Bill, Brian, Lori, Kelly and many others. The guys started to take off faster than Lori, Kelly, and I wanted to go, so we let them go ahead. I saw Dee with an MIM sign about mile 1..that was so great!

The first 10 miles FLEW by. I didn’t even expect a mile marker and there it was! That was a great feeling because I felt so good. After mile 2, we settled into 3/1’s. Nothing too exciting happened until mile 15. I started to hit a wall. For some reason, I just could not stomach gels on Saturday! That’s never happened to me before. After taking 2 or 3, I just did not want to eat another one. I needed something solid, so I ate a few pretzel peanut butter sandwiches. That helped, but I needed instant energy. I forced another gel down and that helped.
At mile 18 I thought we were getting shot at, but it turns out it was someone working on their deck with a nail gun…hey its Memphis, you can’t be too sure! At mile 19, Kelly’s family was there with some food and a nice COCA COLA!!! I drank a half of one and that really settled my stomach. I’m going to have to remember that for Ironman next year…. Definitely helped the stomach. The girls and I had made a pact, that once we go to mile 20 we could b*tch all we wanted. As soon as mile 20 hit…we let it all out!!! That was kind of fun…not to mention the songs Lori kept singing…..

Meanwhile, Rose and Ruth had caught up with us, and we sort of ran together, they’d pass us, then we’d pass them, etc. At mile 22, all the sudden I got a burst of energy! I told Lori and Kelly I had to go and they understood. I took off! I felt phenomenal compared to just 7 miles earlier. I probably only walked 2 or 3 times in the next 2 miles and I was holding a much faster pace. Mark caught up with me on his bike and said “I knew you’d get a 2nd wind! Take it in girl!” Well, that was great advice, except mile 24 came. Mile 24-25 was FOR SURE the worst of them all. I knew once I got to mile 25 I was home free. But getting there? That was a different story. I think it took me 45 minutes to get thru that mile. Finally, I saw Bill up ahead. I decided to run until I got to him. I caught him just before mile 25 and he was struggling. I tried to put on a good face for him and tell him to keep going. I knew he’d be fine so I said “See ya at the finish line!” and I took off. That last mile was long, too, but I kept thinking “Anyone could run a mile if they had to. I can do this.” I thought even my sister could run a mile with her jacked up ankle…so I just had to keep moving. I only walked once during the last mile, just to get my HR under control so I could coast into the finish. Everything hurt so badly. My hamstrings and back especially were killing me….so tight! I thought about the girls and hoped they were doing ok.

Finally, I came up on the Redbirds stadium. Mark rode with me for a bit, and tried to embarrass me by saying “Marathoner coming thru! Watch out! This is my marathoner!” I had to break the news to him that it would take a LOT more than that to embarrass me. I finally turned right into the stadium, and I saw the balloons! I was there! The finish! I ran thru the finish and Lucia and Natalie were there with my medal and cut off my chip. It was so nice to see people I knew at the finish! Brian was there waiting for Lori and Bill came thru shortly after me. It was so nice to be DONE. I wasn’t as excited as I thought I’d be…mostly because I know it’s just a step closer to Ironman next year. I was happy I had done a marathon, but just anticipating next year!

I have to thank Memphis in Motion, and Mark, for training me for this race. Couldn’t have done it without them! I met some awesome people and Mark really prepared me well for this race. I’m not sure I would have ran a marathon if it had not been for Ironman next year, so I’m glad I have another accomplishment to my résumé of races. Also, the best part….another sticker to my car!!!!!!

Here’s a picture from the finish: Only in Memphis will you have not one, but TWO Elvii (haha as Debbie so nicely put it) at the finish! Congrats to my fellow MIMers!!!! And now…on to tri training and IRONMAN!!!! (Other race pictures to follow)