Back at it...

Oh my gosh! I feel like somebody just kicked me in the stomach. Why? I just had my first workout with Dave after vacation. Not only am I nauseous but my chest hurts after doing some easy cardio. I wasn't able to pull off 140 calories in 10 minutes on the Elliptical....not good! Is that from the elevation changes I went through during the week? What's that about??? I'm almost certain the heat and humidity are a part of how I feel right now too. I've never been very tolerate of this Arizona heat...I'm not looking forward to exercising outdoors during the next couple of months.

Tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities for improvement. To Dave, I'm sorry that I was not on top of my game today....I relaxed too much this week :(

Vacations Over

Our vacation week is over and I'm a little glad, and a little sad. My car has over 4,000 new miles added to it and Rick is still going. He's driving back from Wisconsin, adding another 2,000...ugh.

Long story short our hiking plans were cut short by wind, snow and rain which all had us behind a day in our trip. We never made it to Chicago or a couple of places in Wisconsin like we had planned. We barely missed all of the floods, however, we did endure the flood traffic.

I miss my routine! I'm a routine kinda girl and look forward to seeing Dave tomorrow and getting back to my Thursday night swim. I'm tired and a little to relaxed I think. I had entirely too much sugar this week and I feel it in my rear!

Picture to come once Rick gets home....

Bryce Canyon National Park

Just a quick update. This was our second hike on our trip ....here I'm at Bryce Canyon National Park. Words cannot describe how beautiful this park is. We hiked from the rim, which starts at 8,000 feet and hiked down to the bottom. We were both a little worried about the trip back up because of the elevation gain and seeing people huff and puff be we did great with no rest breaks the entire way. Slow and steady we were done before we were really that tired. I didn't realize how hard my heart was pounding until I reached the top of the rim.

We arrived in Salt Lake really late last night but today we have a packed day of zip lines, alpine slides and more hiking. I just finished up doing a weight circuit at the hotel gym and look forward to getting back on the road toward Yellowstone.

Master Swim and HARD bike drills

Mount Rushmore
One of our stops during our vacation this coming week

Last night was fantastic! For the first time since I started swim lessons I actually swam freestyle!!! I know, pretty exciting stuff. I can't say enough about the Sun Devil Master Swim program. These guys are the real deal and I was finally able to make a break through. Of course racelab did all the coaching pre-work for Master Swim so I must give credit where it's due. They are both great programs!

Something just clicked last night and my strokes along with breathing made sense. I'm proud to say that I won the most improved in one session award, which was popcorn from the instructor.
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Let's chat a bit about today's bike drills (hooked to the computer) at Dave's house. It's official, I don't like bike drills. Long story short - I did a 5 min hard ride, 3 - 30 second hard rides and 3 - 1 min hard ride. I have never EVER sweat so much in a workout! NEVER. I wanted to cry, seriously. I got off the pedals during my "rest" and nearly had a melt down after one of the 30 sec sets. I think the only thing that keep me together was I didn't want Dave to feel uncomfortable watching me cry. My legs were shaking and man, I want to cry just writing about it now. Just my luck I get to do all this testing with him again in a month. ugh... I gave him everything I had today....
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I'm off on vacation this week. Rick and I are hiking and camping across America. Well, not literally but we are hiking in Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota and Minnesota. Sounds like fun huh...I'm looking forward to it myself. Watch for some fun details along with way.

My Security Blanket

The more I train the more I discover weird things about myself. One of which is my obsessive need for my sweat rag. You know, I don't think it's really for wiping the sweat off my face as it is just something for me to cling to. I need to have something in my hands and I'm not really sure why. I rest my head on it when I do my pull-ups. I rest my knees on it sometimes when I do my push-ups and yes, I do use it to wipe the sweat. I carry the darn thing with me everywhere.....I need my sweat rag....

So the past couple of days I haven't written but that doesn't mean I have not been training! Let's start with a bike workout at Dave's house the other day. He hooked up my bike to some rather fancy equipment, attached a gadget to my ear and told me to ride....for six miles non-stop. This crazy thing measured everything from my heart rate, average speed and which leg was working harder then the other! It was really cool. The screen also showed me riding on an animated course so being indoors was not so bad....I'm glad to say I maintained my average speed the entire time. Friday we are doing drills on the computer.

Today Rick and I went for an easy ride. Our intention was 8 miles but I got a flat on the way home. Although we tried to fix it, it didn't work so I walked my bike home about 3 miles....

Tonight I'm swimming with a new group. I hope that by adding a weekly swim with a coach I'll improve a little faster. With summer fast upon us, I want to spend most of my time in the water!

Let's be clear

Let's be clear about one important fact....my "debrief" with Rick is not mandatory...it's him being interested in me and my life outside of the two of us together. It's him wanting to support me and honor me by giving me the opportunity to talk about myself. Some of you need to calm down and read my statements again about how much I enjoy my debrief... When you get home I'm almost certain you talk about your day with your spouse. Well, Rick and I happen to sit down on the couch together and talk. Not just give a fast brief description while passing in the kitchen....we actually converse back and forth and we do it daily too - we have just named that time the "debrief"! Try it....it's addicting...

I'm still alive

My new bike and new wetsuit! And Beanie wondering what mom's doing...

Swimming was a nightmare and I'm seriously not kidding. The night before my swim I had the worst nightmare about it. Did you see Lord of the Rings where they were traveling through the swamp? You could see ghosts just under the water surface. Well, that's kinda what my dream was like. Whenever I put my head in the water those ghosts started to come towards me and I would panic. It was terrible!

I didn't see any ghosts at Bartlett, just nasty green particles floating around. I don't even want to know how many of those green nasties went up my nose or in my mouth. ugh-gross. Nevertheless, my swim was terrible. I just could not relax and catch my breath. From what I hear though that's pretty normal for a beginner like me.

This Thursday I start with Swim Masters so I hope to get my swim at a higher level soon. I'll be swimming twice a week with coaches so I'm sure to improve, right?

I've been thinking a lot about the fact that I'm doing an Ironman. It's pretty scary. What the heck am I doing? Can I really pull this off? I'm crazy!!! What if I can't get a spot in Tempe for 09. Will I go someplace else? I have to wait until Nov to find out and I'll tell you, waiting is really hard. I'm currently pulling my hair out.

Dave is back!!!!! YEAH!!!! He's really upped the weight at the gym and my upper body is feeling it, and looking it. I'm a completely different person when I leave the gym. I feel so much contentment, relaxed and an overall calmness that I can't otherwise explain. I'm addicted.

Tomorrow is bike testing!!! Stay tuned for that later....