A Milestone Day

I'm excited today. Dave's hard workouts have paid off ... we took 5 minutes off my run time at Reach 11. Five minutes is HUGE for me and that was after I hiked North Mtn. I wonder if my time would have decreased by 6 minutes if I had not hiked first.... YEAH A huge thanks to my awesome trainer and friend Dave for always believing in me!

Tomorrow will be equally challenging as I plan on doing the dreaded Dreamy Draw hill two times in a row. My plan, start from home...down Dreamy Draw to Glendale Ave and turn around right where the uphill begins then repeat. I rode DD the other day and kept my eye on my speedometer. My goal was to keep my speed in the 7mph range..high or low but not below and I did it. It was hard, especially after Dave's leg workout but I did it. Small goals, small successes. Tomorrow is 8mph for round one and 7mph for round two. Let's see how it goes...keep your fingers crossed.

I'm a little pissed off!

I recently read a story about a man who went from 320lbs to an Ironman. Click here to read about it. LOVE this story.

I found out about some folks who don't just doubt my ability to do an Ironman but don't think I'll finish. Thanks for that. Just because I have not been athletic my entire life certainly does not mean that I cannot become an Ironman. It's not an exclusive "elite athletes only" club. I ask all those doubters...are you signed up for Ironman? Yeah, I thought so..

I'm not stupid enough to think that this event won't test my physical and mental ability beyond anything I can imagine. Why do you think my training program started 1-1/2 years early? I'm a little devastated to think that anyone would actually tell me that I should mentally prepare for not finishing. Um..what? Did I hear that correctly? Prepare mentally to not finish. I absolutely will not prepare to fail. Why start if that's my attitude going in? Just like anyone who has worked hard to do an Ironman, I will be very upset and sad if in fact I don't cross that finish line but I will know this for sure....I did not prepare for it!

And one final note. If you doubt me, I don't need or want you around me. If you think I'll quit my training anytime soon, let's put some money on that because I'll gladly take it. Don't be a S.O.B. and send me your negative energy. NOBODY is more important to me right now then my training or my goal.

Today's Thoughts

Did my tri group swim last night and I was afraid to enter the locker room and with good reason! Seriously!!! If you are one of those women who don't mind walking around naked in front of strangers, well good for you but you know what, the rest of us don't want to see it!!! PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON ALREADY! And going through the locker rooms is the only way in or out...I'm trapped in the naked zone....

Pulled off a 28 mile bike ride today and I'm feeling pretty good. I never thought I'd see the day where a 28 mile bike ride was not a big deal but today, it's not. That only means one thing now...I'm not working hard enough...I need to go on longer rides.

Dave is killing me at the gym. Each workout seems to get harder and I just can't get enough. The transformation is amazing and I'm excited about posting a new photo soon.

Great News

I'm pretty freakin excited right now! My open water swim was better then expected. Myself and I had a chat on the way out to Bartlett Lake yesterday about how I was going to just relax in the water and rely on my training. I started to visualize myself doing a longer swim and guess what....I swam an estimated 750 meters nonstop and the really cool thing is, I could have done a little more. My shoulders were a little tired, but not much....pretty great! Rick's is ready to take me out for a long swim to see how far I can go before I get really tired. Hummmm....any bets on how far that will be??

Today I was up at 4:30 for a quick ride to Shaw Butte for a hike and then back home. No training with Dave today. I had to pick up Rick at the airport and get some other business taken care of. The quietness of the house is over, but I'm glad he's back.

Tri swim group tonight, gym tomorrow....

Swim Correction

My swim was 1500meters, not laps. Sorry for the confusion...

Naked Girl

I know that I've been behind on my posts. I need to stick with it! For those of you who read it regularly, you can now sign up for Google Blog Alerts and you'll get an email letting you know when I've blogged....that way you don't have to check all the time. Info is posted to the right of this blog.

My swim coach gave me a lot of praise on Wed. He added up my total laps and it was 1500m, which is pretty exciting considering that I didn't even know how to swim a couple months ago. Tomorrow I try another open water swim and I'm curious to see if I can pull off a 400 this time. I still have 3 months before my tri in Rocky Point but man, I'd love to be a little more confident right now!

So I get out of the pool and into the women's locker room to find miss naked girl! The gym locker room at ASU has a huge shower area that is anything but private. No walls, not curtain and in fact, there are 4 shower heads per area with 5 areas.... I'm sorry but I need some privacy. She's right in the middle, naked as a jaybird... eekkk!!! Then she walks over to the lockers to get dressed and starts talking to people - NAKED! NONONO...honey don't talk to me until you cover your boobs...please! Seriously, is that necessary? I'm traumatized by the ordeal.

I continue to ride Dreamy Draw almost everyday. I've had it with that damn climb but feel the need to ride it because it nearly defeats me every time. I know it's because I'm exhausted by the time I reach it and the heat is really starting to get to me. My goal is to ride it at 10mph before I feel I've done it. I'm currently at 5 - 6mph.

My girlfriend Sonja told me it's time to update my blog photo. She's the second person to say it and I promise I will. I know, the girl in that photo is a little chubby but I loved the background... I'm home alone this weekend - YEAH -but when Rick returns I'll get a new picture taken so you can see what Dave's done to me.

Off to do my 8-mile run today...whoohooo

I failed to mention....

I think of things to blog about all the time but of course it's never when I'm in front of the computer....or I forget them... However, I was telling Dave about this today and while I'm thinking about it decided just to write you..

So you read about yesterday, right? If not, go ahead and read it first, them come back up here and start again.

I have not reached the point yet where I just couldn't move anymore so I'm not sure of my physical breaking point. However, I did stop at the bottom of Dreamy Draw park yesterday and had just a small mental meltdown. My workout yesterday was so physically demanding and it lasted for hours that the last little uphill climb seemed as steep as Mt. Everest in my eyes. I stopped, asked myself what the hell I was doing and okay maybe a tear or two came out of my eyes (or was it sweat?) but it took me a good 3 or 4 minutes to get my head straight again. Walking was just not an option. I had not come that far to start walking so I'm really proud of myself for getting back in the saddle.

Something else I've been thinking about....pushing myself to the next level. I feel like I'm on a bubble and I'm struggling to find the next level. I want to find that physical breaking point...don't ask me why but I just do. How far can I push my body before it says no more!

Today, run drills at the park....tomorrow is biking and Butch's house for boxing. Oh, one more thing...here is a picture of my strawberry salad. YUMMMYYYY stuff and a diet regular. You can't really see how big this salad is but it's half a bag of spinach here!