ONE MONTH

Holy Crap. It's getting close. But due to my lack of motivation (though it is getting better), I decided to post pictures of Junior instead.

He's been really enjoying his kennel lately, which is odd because I almost sold it. He never used it, up until the last few weeks. He's so dang cute!!

He makes me so happy :) So freakin cute!!!

Post bath time. Which Soccer ball do I play with???

Crash and BURN

This quite accurately reflects this week of training.

It was my biggest training week of the entire IM training (19.5 hours) and I....BLEW.....IT.

In the past few months, I have had so many ups and downs of job hunting, and I've traveled A LOT...well, a lot for me. I think it all finally caught up to me.

My motivation is MIA. Physically, my body is doing really well. My legs are recovering rather nicely after long workouts, and *knock on wood* no injuries. Not too many aches and pains.

I've always been very good at staying motivated. At KU, I was always the one my teammates turned to when they needed some motivation, or just a good uplift to get them through. Now, however, training solo for an Ironman is proving to be very difficult. This is a whole different area than I've ever experienced. And it's HARD. Physically...mentally....you name it.

I sent coach a long email yesterday when I got back from my 7.5 hour workout-turned 2.5 hour workout. That is, after I cried in the shower :) She wrote me back: You're training for an IM. It's not supposed to be easy. But know what - Ironman requires you to really DIG DEEP and be tougher. It will be a LONG day out there and you will need to fight your head for 140.6 miles. Your body will do it. But your head will say...maybe not. So, I want you to try chalk this past week up as a lesson learned and move on.

My coach is AWESOME. So very understanding, but also knows when I need a swift kick in the a$$. This will, I will rest hard. I'm very good at resting. Next week I will jump right back into being motivated and be ready for the final push to the race. 5 weeks from yesterday...it's coming up!

Also, after today, I will be able to share JOB NEWS. That's right...soon, I will no longer be a professional bum.

I frickin' LOVE my dog

When you hear a commotion from the other room...it is almost certainly something like this.

Monotony Takes Over

Well...I'm 5 weeks out. 5 weeks from now I'll probably be walking around the expo with my new friend Mira. By the way we're now going to be roomies for the weekend in Louisville! I can't wait.

Monotony has taken over my training life. I'm to the point of 2+ hour workouts per day. Its not necessarily the time involvement, but I have learned how lonely Ironman training can be. Last Saturday, the only people interaction I encountered was a passing of the roommate, and a few creepy dudes in the middle of nowhere Tennessee gas stations. It was the day I did my nearly 8 hour ride. When I finished, the last thing I wanted to do was go visit with people, let alone get out of my bed.

It's the summer, and that means people are out and about doing their own things. My friends from school are moving (or have moved already) so they're busy prepping for moving. Or they are finishing up their theses (meaning they're living in an office or library). Or they're working (wonder what that's like?) Basically what it boils down to is that I spend a lot of time alone. Even when my friends are doing something, I'm usually training. Take for example this Sunday. Apparently everyone is playing in a fun softball tournament. I was invited to play, but alas, I have a 7 hour workout. Don't get me wrong, I knew it would happen, but it just hasn't truly hit me until this week.

Enough "feel sorry for Robyn". OK, wait not quite yet. Last night I was doing a 90 minute recovery ride, when I hear "CLANG!" Dang, ran over something medal. DANG! Flat tire. I get off to change it, and I have a nice gash in my tire. COOL. I knew I could change the tire, but I wasn't sure how damaged the tire was. I didn't want to go a half mile down the road and have another flat. I was still about 6 miles from home, so I decided to call my roommate to come pick me up. Avoid the chance of another flat, and a wasted tube.

I just got back from the bike shop, and I'm the proud owner of 2 brand spanking new tires. He said I could get away without buying new ones, but he wouldn't take that chance in an Ironman. I didn't want to be on mile 84 of IM and have a busted tire and not be able to finish. I've invested far too much time on this race. So I bought the tires.

ANYWAY, now enough of feeling sorry for Robyn. I have a 3-ish hour ride and a run off the bike today. And....it's....................HOT. Go figure. Solid weekend of training ahead of me, too. HAPPY TRAINING!!

Agenda for the next two days

I will be traveling to Baltimore tomorrow. Not for pleasure, though I wish I could say it was. Job interview. PLEASE pray for me.

I get to see my sister! She lives there and will be picking me up from the airport, hemming my dress, and just overall taking care of me like a good big sister for the whole 2 days I'm there.

I come back Tuesday late, and unfortunately don't get to pick up my puppy til Wednesday morning.

Other than that, I survived my SOLO 7:40, 107 mile ride on Saturday. I actually didn't want to kill myself, though my body was definitely rejecting me by the end. I had a terrible stomach ache after I got home. Laid in bed for about two hours, and then went to Perkins for a solo much needed HUGE breakfast dinner.

This week is my longest training week of IM training: 19 hours. YIKES. I know I'll be fine. Just seems like a lot at this point.

Ok, finish packing then off to bed. I have an EARLY flight in the morning!

I really am alive, I swear

Just have not been in the blogging mood as of late. Way too much stress (un-tri related). Still no job..though I'm searching like crazy. I'm going to Baltimore on Monday and Tuesday for an interview at the VA hospital. I get to see my sister! We'll see how that goes.

Other than that, training has been AWESOME this week. I've hit all my time goals (besides swimming...I always get my workouts done before the scheduled time). AND everything has felt really good. I've accepted the fact that I'm not fast, but I can do the distances no problem. Ok, maybe ask me that when I am on my 8 hour ride on Saturday....I may tell you differently. I usually quit the sport a few times when I'm on a workout longer than 5 hours.

Junior got groomed today...he looks STUPID. I hate it. Can't wait for it to grow out. They cut his tail, and I don't know why they did that. I love his fluffy long tail. Oh well, it'll grow back. And I'm sure he feels much better with nearly a pound less hair in the Memphis heat.

Here's a picture of him:

Also I was in Vegas last weekend for a conference. Good times with all my people from school. Here's some pics:

Brian showing me how he can successfully make it through a conference without rupturing a tendon in his thumb. And that creepy guy in the background is one of his best friends. :)

My love Andy who is now at Ball State...and why do I STILL have man arms???I also met a professor from Edith Cowan University (Perth, Australia) who had told me I can come study under him. He does triathlon and endurance (cycling) research. His latest studies have to do with the benefits of cold water immersion (i.e. ice bath post long workout)...he didn't need to spend money on that...I could have told them how much ice baths ROCK.

Anyway, he told me that I'd be very competitive in getting the international scholarship for the 2009 school year. So I'm actively pursuing beefing up my vita and applying. It's all in God's hands...wherever He wants me, I will go.

That is all for now.

I'm alive

Bear with me....LOTS going on...well actually no, that's the problem. There isn't a lot going on....

What am I supposed to do with THIS?

I got my mail today and had a package containing this:

Um..... ????????????????

For those of you who live under a rock and do not know what happened, I (among numerous other athletes) did not get to finish this race. Had I truly finished, I would have had a ridiculous run time of 5.5 min miles, or something ridiculous like that.

Any other time in my whole triathlon life, I would be walking around with this thing taped to my forehead. But I didn't actually get 4th place. I was the 4th female 20-24 to run through the chute, but there were a few girls who came in after me that actually did the whole run. So you can see the issue.

Now I'm taking suggestions as to what to do with this. Doorstop? Paperweight? Wallpaper smoother? Let me hear it people.

Swim Test Today!!

My last swim test before IM. 10 x 100 all out with 10 sec rest in between. I feel a bit of puking coming on....

If at mile 10 you want to stop....keep going

So Saturday was a 7 hour ride. Let me preface this story with my mom randomly came to town on Wed night.

She's been retired for 2 weeks...she's already visiting. HELP.

Kidding...LOVE YOU MOMMY. She helped me get organized, do a billion loads of laundry, and we went to Target...twice. :)

So she was going to leave Sat morning once I got out on the road. I originally planned a 104 mile ride (see post below), but found out about a charity ride up near Bartlett. After hearing about a cyclist getting hit by a car the day before, my mother insisted I ride with the group. FINE.

I set out on my 20 min drive to Canada Rd. and was there standing in line to pay the charity at 7am. Finally, after getting out my 18 bottles of fluids and stuffing my back pockets full of gels, bars, Sharky's, and fig newtons minis.

I had to chuckle to myself when people were like "oh man I'm not looking forward to 62 miles, today". You see, there were 3 loops you could do: 20 miles, 40 miles, or 62 miles. Obviously I was doing 62. And then some.

We started off a few minutes late, about 7:45am. I had people whizzing by me, but I was able to hold myself back. I had 100 miles to do, I wasn't going to blow up in the first 10. Well, after those first 10 miles...I really really wanted to pull over and just sit on the side of the road. Maybe someone would come pick me up? There was NO way I was going to make the full 100 today. I pushed on, and soon I realized I was riding alone. What the heck?! I paid money (to a charity, of course) to ride with PEOPLE. Where are they all? I know the ride started out with 300+ riders!

Every so often, a rider would pass me. Again, I couldn't push it (though I was holding a decent pace, for a hilly course). I knew I couldn't go crazy. I've made that mistake before. Even though I told coach my nutrition wasn't great, thinking back on it, it wasn't terrible just not as good as it could have been. So, coach, please don't be that mad at me :)

After about 20 miles or so, I had been following this guy for a few miles. Well, that was a mistake. Apparently, he missed the turn. I take 25% of the blame for this, since I should have been paying attention too, but I blame him for 75% of it. The group of 3 behind me had been following me, apparently, because they missed it, too. We all ended up at a fork in the road and were all scratching our heads. We decided to go straight, maybe they just didn't put a marker here? Bad idea. Note to self: don't listen to others on a long ride.

After a few miles in the wrong direction, we decided to turn around. We back tracked and figured out where we went wrong. After a few more miles, we found a SAG and soon the split off for the 40 or 62 mile rides. Of course, the people I was with were doing 40. Once again...on my own.

I slowly but surely finished the ride, as the sun came out to fry me up. When I left it was overcast and didn't look like it would break at all. And unfortunately I forgot to apply the sunscreen. OOPS. I now have my amazing farmers tan, again.

Back to the ride. Once I made it back to my car, I realized my 62 mile ride turned into 71 miles, thanks to my directionally challenged friends. It's ok, though, because I still had 30 miles to go.

I decided since I didn't know my way around up north, and because I needed 30 miles (not 20 or 40), I would head home to my normal 28 mile route.

Well, sitting in the car was a mistake. But I didn't even go up to my apartment because I knew I wouldn't finish the ride. I hopped on my bike right away and peddled the most miserable 2 hours of my life. I did not want to be on that bike anymore.

After 98 miles, and 6:56...I...was....DONE. I was supposed to run for 15 min off the bike, but I couldn't even move. I know, I know. But you say "Robyn, you have to run a marathon after that in a few weeks". Yes...I realize this. Give me a freaking break!

All in all, it was successful, but not at the same time. I definitely know what to do differently for my next super-ridiculous-extremely long ride...coming up in two weeks! 8 hour ride scheduled, probably about 115 miles. Who's in???

Saturday Ride

Ok people....who would like to join me for this ride on Saturday? Either the whole thing, or just an hour here or there? I already have one friend meeting me around Arlington for an hour, but any other times would be great! Let me know :)