My daily debrief

I'm a pretty lucky girl...let me tell you why.

No matter what I'm up to, work, exercise or spending time with friends, Rick always wants a "debrief" when I get home. I love it! This is a guy who after 5 1/2 years together still finds me and my adventures interesting and fun to listen to. Perhaps it's because I'm animated when I tell my stories, it doesn't matter, it's pretty awesome. Let me tell you why I bring this up. Rick's going out of town for a couple of days and during the preparation he wanted to talk about how we can still debrief about my day....WHAT! Yep, seriously. He wants to talk about our upcoming talks..how can you not love this guy? I'll miss him while he's gone :(
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I went for my ride this morning and wow, that was exceptionally difficult. My butt hurt so bad when I plopped it on the seat, I almost didn't go. Seriously, I was talking myself out of the entire ride, the entire ride. I did 8 miles, not 10 and that's only because the trail was 8 solid miles without stopping for traffic. I was in no mood for traffic today...I was only in the mood to bitch and moan about my ass.

The first mile was the worst as I tried to pedal standing...anything to keep my butt off the seat. But that didn't last long. I finally decided that if I was intentionally going to put salt on this wound by getting back on my bike today, I better just do it 100% because anything less would probably hurt worse for longer. It worked, a little. After a while my butt just went numb and it was bearable. Not pain free, bearable. I have never wanted to be home so bad! Okay, how long before I build a tolerance for this????

Picture this people. I'm sitting on a donut because I still have issues with my tail bone, but now I can put ice in the hole to soothe the pain from my bike seat!!!!! Brilliant!

My first open water swim is tomorrow. If I don't post after today, I'm at the bottom of Bartlett Lake waiting for you to come get me.

My Inaugural Bike Ride

So my friend Butch took me for my inaugural bike ride today and I have to tell you, it felt really great. Maybe the anticipation leading up to actually getting my bike made it feel a little extra special and I'm totally okay with that.

I've know Butch for several years now and this is not the first time I've learned some great lessons from him. He's an elite athlete and racer himself. He's a professional boxer, volleyball coach AND he's played professional baseball before. There is a lot of brain pickin to be had there....

Side note here, I'm pretty fortunate. I have a really great set of friends who are supporting me. These folks are in my life to teach me some lessons and with each day they add to my life's book, I'm grateful. I can only hope that they get something as worthwhile from my friendship as I do theirs. At the end of the day, when I cross that Ironman finish I hope they are all their with me because really, I'm racing with a piece of each of them in me.

Okay, back on subject....Butch taught me a lot about road biking today. From the gears to the hand signals when riding in groups, I walked away really feeling more comfortable. We did a total of 20 miles!!! I know, pretty exciting for my first ride. I couldn't feel my butt, but somehow me and my backside pulled through.

I was pretty scared at first. I seemed to be okay behind him but when we would ride side by side I felt really nervous and a little fragile. I'm not confident enough yet to find my place on the road and stick to it.... HOWEVER!!! I walked away INJURY FREE TODAY! Yeah...no bees, bugs, scratches, pulled muscles, fractured bones or anything...I'm totally okay. Rick wanted me to pad-up before I went out...or at least put knee guards on :0. My scariest moment was when I forgot to pull my foot out of the pedal straps. When I tried to put my foot on the ground my bike and body tried to go too. Lucky for me, (and Butch who would have had to carry me) I got my foot out just in time to catch myself. My heart skipped a beat for that one.

Going out tomorrow for an easy 10 miles. According to Butch I need to get my rump use to the seat....Let see if I can stay vertical two days in a row...

My New Bike!!!

What a beauty!!! Can you believe that after a month of waiting I finally have my bike? Well, without to much detail, this is the new upgraded bike. The store I purchased my bike from did the right thing for making this process difficult and complicated. They gave me an upgrade with a HUGE discount. I'm really happy now. The mornings are still nice enough to ride so you can expect to see me on the road tomorrow! More pictures to come. I tend to be accident prone though so maybe you'll see me in full protective gear as well :)

So Dave has been gone since Tuesday and I'm going crazy!!!!!

The pain in my calf has become a pain in my butt

Maybe you are wondering how my calf is doing. Well, I opted not to see a Dr. and wonder now if that was a good decision. I guess I could still go, but I keep hoping it will get better.

Yesterday was manageable. I can't put tons of pressure on my leg without feeling like my knee will buckle on me. That left me concerned about what kind of workout I could get done while Dave is on vacation this week. I opted for swim drills today at the YMCA, which turned out to be really good. It's getting easier for me to breath and my form is getting much better. I'm almost ready for freestyle.

All was great until I tired to jump up out of the pool. OUCH! Now I'm having some pain just behind my knee - that can't be good. Nevertheless, I'm going to swim everyday in order to get my cardio work done and continue to baby this injury.

Bzzzzz

Well, I got stung by a bee today. I haven't been stung by a bee since I was a kid and yep, it still hurts. How? I was doing push ups in the grass at Tempe Town Lake with Dave and Windy.

The Ironman seems so far away and I don't have any real good races on my calendar until August. I'm really so upset about not having my bike yet. Though the price was great, I would have opted to pay more and have my bike now. It's been three weeks and from what they tell me, it could be another week. Do I ask for my money back or wait another week? I don't know....

Just finishing up my workout with Dave today and I gave myself a really good calf injury. I was just getting ready for my "bounding" exercise and with the first step came a pain like nothing I have felt before. The best description I can give is that it felt like my muscle was protruding out the back of my leg. The pain starts at the bottom of my foot and runs up the entire length of my leg only to end above my rear. I sat in my car for several minutes afterwards thinking about going straight to the ER...but decided to head home. Rick, as great as he is had two crutches sitting in the driveway waiting for me when I got home. He's been taking good care of me since....

Depending on how it feels tomorrow I may head to the Dr. I hope it's just a really bad strain and with a few days off I'll be okay....we'll see how it goes. I can't lift my toes without pain at this point...Nevertheless I'm meeting Dave at the gym tomorrow for some upper body exercise - my all time favorite!!!!

With me luck...

Meet My Friends

Checkout this really great website, www.bfcracing.com

This is a great picture of my friend Vicki.... If it's not here for long, she made me take it down ;0

Anyway...Big Fish Racing team (Butch, Vicki, Dave, Windy) are all friends of ours and we truly enjoy watching them compete.

Dave is my Ironman trainer so be sure to checkout his page under Team. This is the guy who kicks my butt 4 times a week! Also read their favorite quotes. They keep me inspired when I get tired.

More to come today as I'm off to meet Dave for some sand running at Tempe Town Lake. ugh..

The ARR 5k

Here is a picture of me just reaching the finish at this weekends Arizona Road Racers (ARR) first 5k series. My time, 32 minutes. I'm pretty proud of my time - I mean it was only 3 miles. I think that I could have done a little better had my legs not been so tired from a hard workout week. I'd like to take a couple minutes off my time for the next race in June. The terrain will be much different so we'll see.

Not very peppy today...maybe I'll post later :|