A message to my gluteus maximus

Dear Gluts,

Yes, we had a hill workout last night. I thought it was going to be worse than it was, but I was surprised. It was not easy, but I definitely expected worse considering how terrible I am at hills, whether it be on a bike or on foot.

This morning, however, I did not appreciate waking up to the sound of "What were you THINKING?! Why don't you just continue to be bad at hills, so we only hurt like this a few times a year?" Well gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus...oh man especially medius...I am standing up and reminding you of all those races where people passed me as I was walking up a hill...and I say:

"NO! I will not stop trying to be better at hills. So deal with it! Suck it up! You are, after all, Mr. Gluteus Maximus, the biggest muscle in the body!! So gather your brothers (Mr. Medius and Mr. Minimus) and help get my ass up those hills!! LITERALLY!!!"

Sincerely,
Robyn

My Personal Top Ten

Robyn's Top Ten Reasons of How You Know You are a Triathlete:

10. 6:30am is sleeping in.
9. You can't remember the last time you went out, mostly because you have an early workout the next morning.
8. A Clif Bar is a perfectly acceptable supplement to Lunch.
7. You feel like you are constantly eating, yet always hungry.
6. You spend more money on a sports bra than a regular bra. Wait, regular bra?
5. You ride to work and knowing you have to ride home, you just wear your bike shorts around all day.
4. When asked what your favorite smell is, you respond "chlorine".
3. Dressing up for you is jeans and a shirt that you do not work out in.
2. You take your bike rack off the car for the winter and think your car now makes you look unathletic.
...and the number one reason:
1. You think about purchasing something (i.e. dress clothes, school supplies, new sheets after your dog chews up a pen and there is ink on them, etc) but you quickly realize what you could buy related to triathlon training, and buy that instead.

Not that I've EVER done ANY of these......

marathon...check!

Finally signed up for the St. Jude Marathon today. Thank goodness! I'm not as nervous anymore for it. It's like "26.2? Meh. I'm going to do a freakin' IRONMAN! That's nothing." Catch me at about mile 20 on Dec 1st though, and I may feel a little differently. Also, ordered new shoes, so now hopefully I won't hurt as much after runs.

Let's see...nothing really new this week. Probably hop on the trainer for about an hour tonight. Hill workout tomorrow...gooooo. Not looking forward to that, even though its really good for my training. Friday, swim. And Saturday, long run!!!! Weeeeee! Way too excited about that.

Well, here's a photo for you:

This is the girls who competed at Halfmax with Sister Madonna Buder. She's a 77 year old nun/triathlete. I just googled her, and found out she's done over 200 triathlons, including 13 IRONMANS!!!! Her most recent one, was at the 2006 Kona race (LAST YEAR) where she became the oldest woman (age 76) to complete the race, just one minute shy of the cutoff time.

WOW. If that's not motivation, I don't know what is.....

What is the world coming to??

Last night as I was going to bed, I had the news on. I hear coming in as breaking news that someone had been shot and killed on my campus, not too far from my building. Neat. Well, I tried to stay up to hear about it, but I failed.

This morning I woke up as normal, thinking its a usual Monday morning. I got all ready (even got dressed up cute!) and left. Just after I turned out of my complex, I hear on the radio that classes are cancelled at school today. I figured it was about the shooting, so I called my boss. Sure enough, they cancelled classes because it had been a football player and they were highly investigating the incident. Realizing my bulletproof vest was being drycleaned, I decided to head on back home for the day. Definitely took advantage of this day off and went back to sleep!

I have been receiving text messages all day asking if I'm alright, seeing as how shootings on university campuses have been happening more often. Everyone is saying "oh I'm so sorry". Well thank you. It's sad and my condolences go out to Taylor Bradford's family. But what REALLY worries me, is how unaffected I am by all this. I heard about it last night, and after the initial shock, it was like "ok, what next". It's so sad that I feel this way, and that's what upsets me the most. Recently, the city of Memphis won something. A number one ranking in the nation for most violent crimes. I guess the hoodlums in this town are trying to show the rest of the world how proud they are for this "achievement".

Meanwhile...back to training tonight. Shorter technical workout scheduled for this evening..then volleyball!