Week 4 Day 6 - No Wonder I am Tired

I just logged my workout in my training log and looked back to see when my last rest day was. Aug 18th, almost 2 weeks ago!!! No wonder I was about to fall asleep at my desk today. Tomorrow I am resting and enjoying every lazy second.

Today was a recovery day. I met Amy and Mike at the Rec Center at 5:00 this morning. Lana sent me a text message that she was sick and not coming and Holly pulled a no show. We gave Holly 10 minutes then took off without her. Amy wanted to run the route for the race this weekend. She is concerned about the run being first and a mass start. She doesn’t want to be the last one into transition. She did great and has no reason to worry about the race. Mike and I went on to run another mile since my plan called for 4 miles and we all know how I am about The Plan.

After the run, we all went inside to swim. Saturdays swim in only 200 yards so I swam 2 x 200 to get a feel for my time. Slow!! After that I did 3 x 200 drills. Man, I can sure swim fast with fins!

Week 4 Day 5-Cross Training

So today was a rest/cross training day. I really wanted to rest but my eating habits are not allowing for non exercise days right now. So this morning I went to the Rec Center and rode the stationary bike for twenty minutes before the 5:30 toning class. As I walked into class the instructor asked what I wanted to work today. I said “Core or anything but legs”. We still did some legs and my dead tired legs felt every move I made. We did do a lot of core work. I should be sporting a 6 pack by now.

My bike rack came yesterday and my hitch came today. Ronnie put a hitch on his car a while back. He did it alone and said it was very easy. So I got out there tonight and put the bike rack together and then Ronnie came out to help me put the hitch on. It took forever. We had so many problems it isn’t even funny. My forearms are so sore from trying to hold up the hitch, pull it to match holes and tighten bolts all at the same time. I am thinking it would have been worth the extra 100 bucks to have had someone else do it for us. Tomorrow I will see if I can get the rack on my car.

The rest of this week we are doing some shuffling of the schedule. We have the STAR Tri on Saturday and the long run this week is 15 miles. We are moving the long run to Sunday evening and calling the race our Sunday LT run. That will make Friday a rest/cross train day. I think I will sleep all day!

Week 4 Day 4- Humidity Returns

We have had no rain this summer. All the corm around here is dead. We finally got some rain Friday night, then some more Saturday night. This morning my dog wanted out at 2:00. I knew as soon as I opened the door that this morning’s run was going to be tough. I don’t know what the humidity was (Lana hasn’t posted her BIM report) but it was high.
I met Lana at her house at 4:40am. The route from her house is 8+ miles and we needed 10. I made it clear I was NOT adding Cracker Barrel hill in this morning. It was only me and Lana so I didn’t get any argument. We headed out and felt the humidity right off. It felt like we were running faster but me ended up with just shy of a 10:00 pace.

Just wanted to answer some questions left in my comments:

I am doing the 18 week program. We are going for a sub 4 at Rocket City this December.

This is a fairly small town so we pretty much run anywhere. Lots of country roads. Yes, it is dark when we start. I have to run in the early morning. I have 2 kids and work part time.

Week 4 - Behind

Here it is day 3 of week four and I am way behind on my blog. So in the interest of time I am going to keep this to just the facts.

Day 1- Saturday
Met Lana, Holly, Marge, Don and Mike at 8:30am for a ride. We rode a 40 mile loop to Wartrace and back. It was beautiful. Just enough hills to make it challenging but not so many that it was punishing. Don got a flat tire at 5.5 miles and I got to see a CO2 in action for the first time. I having been carrying that stuff around with me since I got my bike and still hope I never have the need for it.

Day 2 - Sunday
Sunday evening Lana, Holly, and Kim met me at my house and we ran 8 miles. It was a great run. 1:18:17 for a 9:47 pace. My average heart rate was 153. After the run, it was just me and Lana for 10 x 100 strides. I don’t know why Kim and Holly didn’t want to join us??

Day 3 - Monday
This morning was a 5 mile recovery run. So I ran at 5:15 this morning. I ran it alone and ran it SLOW. My legs were tired and I had no mojo. I am embraced to report an average pace of 11:20. But my average heart rate was only 137. Not pushing too hard.

My diet has been horrible again and I am getting it back under control starting right now. It is very frustrating to be running this much and still have to watch everything that I put into my mouth.

Week 3- days 5, 6, and 7

Tuesday night I didn’t sleep well so I skipped class Wednesday morning. I started feeling better during the day so that evening I decided to take my bike out for a short spin. It was great to ride again.

Thursday Morning I met Lana and Mike at the Rec Center for a 4 mile recovery run and a 1000 yard swim. The run was uneventful and heart rate stayed right where it was suppose to. Lana and I had to share a lane at the pool and swam side by side the entire 1000 yards. I figure she was just staying with me so that she didn’t have to count laps.
Thursday evening Casey had cheerleading practice and I got a peek at the schedule. Her first game is at 8:00am the 8th, the same day as the HOW100. I don’t know what to do. Usually I would just skip the ride and forfeit the registration fee but for this ride I asked for sponsors. I have raised $415 for the Minnie Pearle Cancer foundation. The money still goes to the cause but I feel like I should ride since I told the people who sponsored me I would. I just hate to miss my daughters cheerleading. They are only young once.

Today was the long run, 14 miles. We met at Joe’s house at 4:30am again. I drake an Accelerade and ate a gu before we started. Joe had put out water and gu at mile 3. Lana and I were feeling fine so we skipped it and just kept on running. Joe caught right back up with us. We finished the first loop and grabbed gu and water at Joe’s mailbox. We knew we were going to be short so I was trying to come up with a plan so we didn’t have to run past Joe’s house for an out and back. I finally thought of Danbury. Lana and Joe were both ahead of me at this point so I yelled to Lana I had a plan and was going to catch up. I picked up the pace and told her the plan. Joe heard us discussing a change in route and came back to find out the new plan. I hung with them for a while and even got ahead when they stopped for water at mile 10. I enjoyed my short lived time in the lead. It was very short, within a half mile Lana was next to me and then Joe was there too. They both passed me again. I finished out the run almost catching up with Joe and Lana who were already walking the short distance to Joe’s. For some reason my Garmin’s miles are longer then Lana’s Garmin’s miles.
Splits look like this:
9:52, 9:33, 9:22, 9:20, 9:24, 9:01, 9:37 (water and gu), 9:13, 9:11, 9:13, 8:55, 9:22, 9:01, 8:41
14 miles in 2:09:46, 9:16 pace. 158 average heart rate

Week 3- Days 3 & 4-They can’t all be pretty

Monday was a 4 mile recovery run. I couldn’t do it early because Ronnie was still out of town. After work it was still too hot so I waited until 7:15pm. My legs were tired from Sunday’s LT run and I felt them screaming for the entire 4 miles. 41:39 with an average heart rate of 148.

So this morning I met Lana and Joe at 4:45 at the Rec Center for a 10 miler. I had stomach issues yesterday and wasn’t felling 100%. I tried to drink some accelerade but it just wasn’t going down this morning. We decided on a route and headed out. Now this route was my idea and it has some hills including the Cracker Barrel hill we are always talking about. We started slow then picked up the pace. Lana and Joe kept picking up the pace and I gave up and just fell back. Along the way, I fell into a ditch. There was a car coming in each direction so I stepped onto the “shoulder” and just stumbled into the roadside ditch. I jumped up and ran in the grass until I could jump back across the ditch. Neither car seemed concerned where I disappeared to.

I finally made it back to the rec center where I had to do another small loop to get in my last 0.8 miles. Final time 1:40:17 and 152 average heart rate.

I had planned to meet Tracy at 9:00 for a ride but my legs were toast and my stomach wasn’t doing so good so I just went home and got the kids to school. I miss my bike and need to get some saddle time in, those 100 miles in a few weeks are going to HURT!!!!

Week 3- Lactate Threshold Run

Today was the first lactate threshold run of this training program. 8 miles with 4 at 15k-half marathon pace.

Ronnie is in Memphis playing golf so I hired a sitter and told everyone we were starting promptly at 7:00pm. Lana called this afternoon and said she wasn’t going to make it. Joe and Mike were both prompt and we took off right at 7. We ran the first two miles nice and easy, picked up the pace for 4, and then ran the last two really easy. It was lightening the whole run and we even got about 10 rain drops. Don’t think that will help much around here.

I am happy with the run. My best half marathon was the Tom King in ‘06 at an 8:29 pace. Today’s run looked like this:
first two miles- 10:02 and 9:35
4 LT miles- 8:38, 8:45, 8:31 and 8:34
last two miles-10:18 and 10:05

I was planning to do a nice easy ride tomorrow afternoon after Ronnie gets home from his trip, but when I looked at the schedule I discovered I have a 4 mile recovery run to do. Guess I will be running late tomorrow and then getting up early Tuesday for 10 miler.

Finishing Week 2

Yesterday was a 5 mile recovery run. I met Lana and Mike at the Rec Center and we ran interstate drive and through town. The loop was a little short so we had to do an out and back on the green way. 5 miles in 51:30, 10:19 pace. Average heart rate was 142. Nice recovery. We all then went inside to the pool. I did 2 x 500 very slow. I worked on form and felt pretty good.

This morning I met Joe and Lana at Joe’s house at 4:30 for our 13 miler. We had decided to do the Matt’s Hollow loop and Joe offered to put water and gels out at halfway. I hung pretty close to Joe and Lana for the first half but still behind. We stopped at 6.5 miles, drank a bottle of water and took a gel. I was feeling great. I picked up the pace for the second half and finished still feeling great. 13.25 miles in 2:05:55, 9:30 pace. Average heart rate 160.

Here are my splits.
9:47, 9:54, 9:43, 9:37, 9:40, 9:18, 11:02 (water and gel stop), 9:24, 9:09, 9:08, 9:13, 8:55, 8:59 and the extra 0.25 miles to get to the end of the road was done at 8:38 pace.

I am thrilled with the negative spilt and how I felt the whole run. I still can’t keep up with Joe and Lana but…

Small Steps

Today is a rest/cross training day. I didn't get up for class this morning. I needed the sleep. Then I cut the grass (the riding lawn mower part) and blew up a ton of dust since it is so dry. When I was done I grabbed a beer from the fridge and all chances of working out went out the window.

Despite the lack of workout today, I am closer to my goal.

Today we booked a room down in Panama City for the first weekend in November AND signed up as volunteers.

I got butterflies in my tummy just signing up as a volunteer, how am I going to feel when I sign up for the real deal? Ironman ’08 here we come!!!!

Week 2 Sunday, Monday, & Tuesday

Week two of the Pfitz plan kicked off with an 8 miler Sunday night. Mike and Lana came to my house again but we ran a different route. I felt ok despite the two hard training days on Friday and Saturday. We spent most of the run talking about what kind of bike Mike should get. It made the run go by fast. We finished the 8 miles in 1:18:05 and then did 10X 100 strides.

Monday was a much needed rest day.

Today I met Lana and Joe at Lana’s house at 4:50 for our scheduled 10 mile run.

The loop from Lana’s is only 8 miles so we knew we needed to add on 2 miles somehow. At 3 miles Joe comes up with the idea to run and out and back down and UP Cracker Barrel hill. I was against the idea stating my heart rate would get too high and then I wouldn’t be able to keep up. But I have never been one to back down from a challenge so over to the hill we went.

I was right my heart rate went to 172 going up that hill. I still was able to hang with Joe and Lana for a few more miles. Then Joe ran with Lana then back to where I was then back up to Lana. At about 8 miles Lana must have started to slow down a little because I was able to catch her again. Joe ran on ahead and stopped at Lana’s street. Lana and I ran on past him for a short out and back to finish out our 10 miles. 1:38:05, 9:48 pace with a 157 average heart rate.

I haven’t decided if I am going to make toning class in the morning. Tomorrow is a rest/cross training day and I could really use the sleep, but we will see.

Mountian Lakes Race Report

Lana, Amy, and I drove down to Guntersville, AL Friday evening. We picked up our race packets and checked into our hotel. We had a great room right on the lake, too bad we were just crashing for the night.

We decided to go to Cee Cee’s pizza. We had a hard time finding it but finally got there and loaded up on salad, pasta, and pizza. Yummy.

Race morning we loaded everything up and went to the race site. We did he usual set up and body marking. As we were standing around the lake before the race we hear “LANA”. Our photographer had made a surprise appearance. So now I have some great pictures for my race report. Thanks Flash.


The Swim-600 yards open water

Before the race they announced that they had mowed the lake. They had only cut a strip around the buoys so they warned us to stay as close to them as possible otherwise you would end up getting into the grass (she gave it some other fancy name that I can’t remember) and it would “tingle”. I didn’t know what that meant exactly but I was staying as close to the buoys as I could.
When the race started and the first swimmers went out we noticed some people walking as far as the first buoy then walking again after the last buoy. It was kind of funny to see some of them act like they were swimming when in fact they were really just running.
I have had a series of really bad swims this season so I put in 13 minutes as my estimated swim time. This and everyone wanting to stay in the mowed area made for some full contact swimming. When it was my turn to start, I ran to the end of the carpet and started swimming. I noticed the guy that started behind me running along side of me. He was running faster then I was swimming. When he finally started swimming, I passed him. I got kicked in the cheek and smacked in the head along the way. I had lake grass hanging on my arms. What a fun swim. Turns out it was one of my best swims this season. Go figure.
Swim time 11:55

T1
Before the race, I made sure I knew where my bike was racked. Someone had drawn a blue heart on the pavement on my row. I came in from the swim and the blue hart was washed away. I still made it right to my bike.
T1 time 2:05

the Bike- 16.2 miles
I started the race about 9 seconds before Lana. I saw her bike was still in transition so I knew she would be catching me soon. I was surprised it took her until 4 miles. I passed her back once and then she was gone. I kept her in sight for a LONG time and pushed hard but she finally got too far ahead to see anymore. Meanwhile, I was battling back and forth with red bikini girl, speedo man, and 42 year old Athena. In the end, I made it to T2 ahead of all 3 of them.
Bike time 49:08

T2
This time I went one row too far and had to run around the other end and back to my spot. I was slipping and sliding in my bike shoes.
T2 time 1:14

The Run - 3 miles
The run was on a flat running trail. There was lots of shade. Perfect. I saw Trisonq just as I was heading out. He was ALREADY finished. Then I saw Flash. I yelled “Hey Flash” He took off running to get ahead of me and got my picture. My legs starting getting tired right before the turn. I was thinking about my 12 mile run the day before, then I saw Lana. She was still going strong. If she can do this so can I!! I never thought about tired legs again. I saw Amy at the last water station (first for her) and cheered her on as I was trying to drink. As I was coming close to the finish chute, I saw a girl ahead of me and picked up the pace. I passed her and crossed the finish line strong.
Run time 26:06

Lana, me and Amy Pre-Race

and Post-Race

Total Race time 1:30:30
I finished 12th out of 40 in my age group, the largest female age group. Be sure to stop by and congratulate Lana on her outstanding performance. I would say the same for Amy but she has yet to start her blog.

We hung around for the awards and then made the long drive home. We discussed upcoming events. We still need to sign up for I Run for the Party, STAR, Music City, and Rocket City. $$$$$. We also talked about our trip to Panama City in November. Time to start looking for a room and volunteer. I also need to break it to my husband. I have been waiting to make sure Lana was really in and I think this is about as sure as I will ever be about her.

I Have Been Tagged

Lana and Lance tagged me so here it goes:

Jobs I've Held:
Hostess
Waitress
Department Store Clerk
CAD Tech
Civil Engineer

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
Anything that I really liked the first time

My Guilty Pleasures:
Chocolate
Beer

Places I Have Lived:
Frankfurt, Germany
St. Paul, MN
Palatine, IL
Cordova, TN
Manchester, TN

Shows I Enjoy:
Desperate Housewives
Survivor

Vacation Spots:Destin, FL
Gulf Shores, AL
Frisco, CO
New Orleans
Jamaica
Cancun
Cruise to-San Juan, St. Maarten, St. Thomas
Bahamas

Favorite Foods:
Mexican
Chocolate

Websites I Visit Daily:
email
Blogs


Body Parts I Have Injured
Knee-snow skiing crash

Awards I've Won:
Creative Writing- 7th grade (bet you would have never guessed that)
Divisional Award of excellence - FedEx
Quality Success Story - FedEx
STAR - FedEx
Engineers Council Achievement Award
Various Age Group Race Awards

Nicknames I've Been Called:
Spunky

Pick 5 Other Bloggers:
Jen
Laurie
MNFirefly
Joe
TJ

Last night I told Ronnie I was going to go ahead and meet Lana and Joe for the run, but I was sticking to my heart rate plan. I did the calculations in the book and determined my max. heart rate for the run should be 162.

So this morning I met Lana and Joe at 4:30 at Joe’s. I ran with them for the first 4 miles. My heart rate was near the max. and I was sticking to my plan. So I dropped back and let them go ahead. It was tough. They continued to get further and further ahead and soon were out of site. I was on my own. I continued to watch my heart rate and adjust my pace as required. I was approaching Joe’s mailbox where we had left water and I could see Joe and Lana. Lana was stretching and I knew it was driving her crazy to be taking a break. I yelled out “Don’t wait on me.” Off they ran. I stopped by the mailbox for a quick drink and was off for the last five and a half miles. Lana and Joe were heading back as I was getting close to the turn around point. Joe gave me a high five and Lana told me the light pole was the turn around. I made the turn and headed back. Lana drove by just as I was approaching the end and asked me how I felt. I told her great. I ended up having to run past Joe’s house before Garmin beeped 12 miles. Joe was still in his yard and said “You have no brain, how do you run past your car?”. I responded that I had to get 12 miles or I didn’t finish the workout.

I went home and got the kids breakfast and took an ice bath. 12 miles usually wouldn’t require an ice bath but since I am racing tomorrow I wanted to speed recovery of the legs as much as possible. I tried to take a nap but work called with some questions so I just gave up.

I also tried again to make fancy graphs using bimactive like Lana but I can’t get my Garmin to export my workout. I keep getting an error message that the export failed. So I give up and here are my plain boring Garmin graphs.



I feel great and consider the run a success. I will say that was the easiest 12 miles I have ever run. I hate that my pace wasn’t any faster and feel that I could have run faster but I am not the expert. Joe laughs at me and says “If the plan says to stumble at mile 6, you will stumble” and the sad part is, it is true.

Rest and Recovery

Yesterday was a rest day. So I just went to 5:30am toning class and skipped the usual pre class run.

Today was a 4 mile recovery run. I met Lana at the Rec Center at about 5:15. We ran the greenway loop twice. I was having trouble keeping my heart rate down and still keep up with Lana. We ended up with a 10:48 pace. My average heart rate was 148. After the run we went inside to swim. I did a 600 (since that is what the swim is at the race this weekend) and then 3 x 100 drills. Then I had to rush home to get ready for work and get the kids ready and to school.

Tomorrow is 12 miles. I am off work but am still going to get up met Joe and Lana to run at 4:30. We are having extremely hot weather right now and I think 12 miles will be taxing enough, no need to make it any tougher.

Nine Miles – Check

On tap for today, a 9 mile general aerobic run. I met Lana at the Rec center at 5:00am. We had no planned route so just headed out.
My heart rate got a little high fast due to a small hill right at the start. So we back off the pace a little. But when we got to mile 3 and were at 30:19, I could tell Lana couldn’t stand it. Nothing over 10:00/mile works for her. Sure enough she picked up the pace and I trudged along. We did a couple loops in neighborhoods in town then headed back to the Rec Center. We could NOT have planned it any better. We hit 9 miles just as we got back. It is small things like that that can really make my day. Final time 1:28:36, 9:51/mile. Average heart rate was 163 with a max of 180.

When I got home, I noticed my rear tire was flat AGAIN. I decided it was time to have the professionals have a look at it. I headed up to M’boro. The duct tape hadn’t held. They replaced the rim tape but they were all out of 650 tubes. Lucky for me I still had one left at home. I did really good this time putting the tire back on. I think I am getting the hang of it. I still don’t want to have to try it during a race. I am holding off on any happy dances until I see that I still have air in my tire tomorrow.

Road to Rocket City-Week 1, Day 1

Saturday, while at the race, I noticed how dirty my chain was. So yesterday I got my bike out to clean the chain and discovered I had a flat rear tire. I changed it, fairly quickly. Then while inflating it, it popped. I checked both tubes and discovered that they both had a little round hole in the same spot. So then I checked my rim. Sure enough there was a hole in the rim tape. A little duct tape and I put in my second tube, inflated, and was back in business. I noticed during this whole process that my tire had a little dry rot. So I got on line and ordered rim tape, tires and tubes. Last night I noticed my tire was flat again. So today I went through the whole process again and found another hole in the rim tape. I covered it with electrical tape and seem to be back in business again. I hope my supplies get here before Friday. I am doing Mountain Lakes Triathlon on Saturday and do NOT want to have to attempt to fix a flat during the race.

Speaking of Mountain Lakes, I FINALLY got Lana to sign up. So who is going to be there? Anyone up for a Friday night dinner?

Training wise...yesterday kicked off Rocket City Marathon training. Lana, Lisa, Joe and Mike met me at my house for a 7 mile run with 10 x 100 strides at the end. It was hot even at 7:00pm. We did my same old loop, which you can check out on Lana’s blog. Joe and Lisa quickly took the lead and Lana stayed right behind them while Mike and I pulled up the rear. Joe dropped out after 4.5 miles and Lana and Lisa missed a turn and had to run extra. My numbers look like this:
8:58, 9:26, 9:41, 9:48, 9:53, 9:41, 10:09
Total 7 miles in 1:07:34, 9:39 pace. My heart rate was 169 average and 183 max.
After the 7 miles Lana and I got a drink said good bye to everyone else and then did our 10 x 100’s. I was surprised how good I felt doing them. I messed up my Garmin program so don’t have my pace for them but best I can tell we did them all in between 6:30 and 6:45 pace.
Lana and I jumped in the pool to cool off after the strides. Perfect ending to a good run.

Today was a rest day and since it is the only one I am taking I enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is 9 miles bright and early. I gotta go read up on general aerobic paces/heart rates so that I can convince Lana to slow down some before she kills me!!

Staggerwing Race Report

First, I want to say thank you to Flash and Mrs. Flash for cheering for me and all the pictures.

I got to Tullahoma about 6:30 and got my packet, body marked, and a spot in transition.

After Lana and Holly got there and set up, we all headed up the hill to the race start. We made use of the port-a-potties and listened to the pre race instructions.

They sent us out in waves of 25 three minutes apart. Holly was in the second group. This was her first ever multi-sport event. We cheered her on when they yelled go.
Lana, Kim, Mike, and I were in the 4th wave. I knew that there was no way I was keeping up with Lana, so I didn’t even try. The first run started by running over to the runway, an out and back on the runway, down a little gravel hill over to an asphalt trail where we did another out and back before going to transition. It was hot!!! I ran the 4K in 21:00 for an 8:28 pace.

I was in and out of transition in 0:54.

Then I was out on my bike. I felt good; it was much cooler riding then running. It didn’t take long and my right calf started to cramp. I thought if I just ignored it, it would go away. No such luck. It just kept getting worse and worse. I tried drinking knowing that it was probably dehydration causing the cramp. Then it moved up into my quad. I just pushed on. A girl passed me and said “You are one hard woman to catch” I noticed the 106 on her arm and the 35 on her leg. I commented that I had a 3 minute head start on her and it gave me a push. The course is basically downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back. I knew since I was heavier then this girl that I stood a better chance of beating her on the downhill. I tried to ignore the leg cramps that had moved to both calves now, and pushed hard. I made it to the turn around and saw that I didn’t have that big of a lead on her. We ended up passing back and forth for a while until I had to slow down to rub my legs. I was wondering if I was going to be able to run again. Finally I got back to the final flat and made my last push. 40K bike 58:51, 19 mph average.
I ran into T2 and the guy working there was talking to me, Flash was asking me if I saw someone on the course, and I was wondering if I could even run. I changed shoes and ran out of T2 WEARING MY BIKE HELMET!!! I realized just as I crossed the mat. I stopped, took it off, CROSSED THE MAT AGAIN, and then just threw my helmet in. Both women working the mat, yelled “she crossed twice” but I just kept going. T2 time 0:55.
The second run is just the first run backwards. I was amazed to find that my legs cramps were gone, but my heart rate was soaring. I saw Holly after the first turn around and then saw Lana not far behind. I told Lana she could catch Holly. At the second turn around when I saw Holly, I saw Lana wasn’t far behind and warned Holly that Lana was going to catch her. I made the turn and headed in to the finish line. Again I found myself all alone. The person ahead of me was way to far ahead to even try to catch and there was no one coming up from behind that I had to prevent from passing me. So my finish was not as strong as I would have liked. 4k run 22:28, 9:12 pace. Mach Tenn knows how to put on a post race party. I drank some water then headed for the beer truck.

Preliminary results were posted. Lana was 4th overall, Holly beat me by 24 seconds, and I was first in my age group. Then penalties were posted. The first overall female was hit with 6 minutes of penalties. The awards started and Lana got 3rd overall female. Holly got 3rd place in her age group (pretty impressive for her first multi sport event). I got second place AG. The girl with the penalties was in my age group and knocked me down to second!!!!!

We stayed until the party ended then walked back to our cars. Lana’s, Mike’s, and mine were the last 3 cars in the parking area.

The party continued at my pool.

Today kicks off marathon training. We are planning to do our first run tonight at 7:00 hoping that gives us time to rest today.

Back to School and Big News

Yesterday, I didn’t workout. It was the last day of summer vacation so I spent it with my kids. I took them down to Lake Winnie in Chattanooga and we had a blast. My son has never been big on rides but he rode all the ones that Casey was tall enough for, which included one that even made my heart drop.

On the way home from Chattanooga, I got a crazy text message from Lana.
She wants us to do Ironman Florida ’08.
Now this is the race I wanted to do but was planning on ’09 or ’10 because I figured it would take me that long to convince her. I was excited and the wheels started to turn.

Then last night I couldn’t sleep. I kept worrying about getting the kids off to school. You would have thought I was going back to school.

I got up at 5:30 and went to the pool to get a short easy swim in. I did 2 x 600, and am still as slow as ever. I didn’t want to push too hard, the Staggerwing duathlon is tomorrow. I am not really ready. Too late now, I am just going to give it my best shot.

After the swim, I rushed home and got my kids off to school. I am not ready for this. I hate to see the end of summer vacation. I have heard horror stories about 3rd grade and the amount of homework. I know what to expect from 2nd grade and it is no picnic either.

When I got to work, I saw Lana’s post. I was shocked, she is really serious. I am not make travel plans yet but…

OUCH!!!

I was suppose to meet Lana at 4:45 this morning but she sent me a text message at 4:50 that she had overslept and to go on without her.

I ran the greenway twice, nice and slow. I wanted to run faster but my legs felt like lead and it took everything I had to just get one foot in front of the other. 4 miles in 41:25, 10:22 pace. OUCH!

After the run I went inside for toning class. Someone had told her they wanted the whole class to be abs and legs. She had us using the big balls for most of the class. OUCH!

Last night I finally made the decision to do Mountain Lakes Triathlon on August 11th. Amy has wanted to do it all along but didn’t want to go alone. I have changed my mind at least a dozen times. But last night I booked the room and let Amy know I am in. I am going to sign us up today. And since I have waited so long, now I have to pay the extra high price. OUCH!!!

This morning was registration for school. Both kids got the teachers that I wanted them to have so I am looking forward to another good year. But I can’t believe it is the end of summer vacation already. First day back at school if Friday. OUCH!