Season's Greetings

Wow, I can hardly believe how December just flew by!!! What a fun month! Between training and the holidays, I haven't had a spare minute to update my blog. Ok, well maybe I did have a spare minute, but I probably used it up on a nap instead!

Well I won't bore you all with the details, instead I'll just provide the highlights...

Highlight 1...TNT camping weekend. We camped with the other TNT teams (Westside, Eastside and South Bay) up at Leo Carillo state beach in Malibu. Despite the torrential rains, I was definitely a happy camper! I love camping, so I'm just happy to be out there any chance I get. We arrived Saturday morning and took off for a long ride of 3 hours. Of course, I had a small incident (aka I fell over on my bike), which was amusing since I didn't sustain any serious injuries. Unfortunately, I put new clips on my shoes, and needless to say, they're a lot tougher to unclip from my pedals. This has resulted in a couple unfortunate "incidents." Gotta do something about those clips! The rest of the day was spent lounging, eating, and also included a quick trip to target to buy a gift for Toys for Tots.

Saturday night was punctuated with a serious storm. When I woke up Sunday morning, only about 1/3 of the original campers were still there. Looking around I noticed several tents sitting in pools of water... bummer! My tent kept me dry and thank goodness I was on "higher" ground so the rivers which ran around my tent didn't form an actual lake. We set off on a run for an hour and forty five minutes up PCH. It was beautiful and windy...just like Saturday. I was actually surprised how great the run felt. Then we all headed home. I was supposed to swim Sunday when I got home, but instead my 30 minute nap morphed into 2 1/2 hours...so I never made it to the pool.

Highlight 2...My ride today!!!! 3.5 hours! I am down at my parents house in Carlsbad, so I opted to bike on my own today, rather than drive the 2.5 hours back to Malibu to bike with the team. While I certainly missed seeing all my teammates, I did have a wonderful albeit chilly ride. I biked from Carlsbad to S. La Jolla and then back past Carlsbad to S. Oceanside and then back to S. Carlsbad. All in all, I was able to log 54.28 miles, just 1.75 miles shy of a 1/2 Ironman bike distance.

I really enjoy biking down here because so many of the roads are bike friendly. It's amazing the number of roads with bike lanes...I love it!!!

Oh, the other big difference...a new cassette on my bike. I had an 11-23 and last night I put on an12-27, which made a huge difference on the hills. Ok, I realize that probably doesn't mean a whole lot to you, but just know, it makes it easier for me to bike up hills without thrashing my legs. I was speaking w/ one of the coaches up at the TNT camping weekend and he made that recommendation...I'd give him a big shout out for revolutionizing my life, but I can't remember his name. (Boo on me!)

It's a really good thing my legs aren't thrashed, because tomorrow I've got a nice long run to look forward to. I will likely get up early and sneak it in. My lil' sis is here in town with my two nephews and I want to be able to spend as much time as possible with them. The great part is that whether I run North or South, it doesn't really matter, because it is so beautiful either way!

Highlight 3...Two weeks ago at our team practice, I swam 100 yds in 1:40 min...so I'm pretty stoked on that! While I love the water, I'm not the faster swimmer. In fact when my coach said I was to swim 10 100sX2mins, I was like "yeah right!!!" Of course, when I finished protesting, I swam like a fish and to my surprise actually pulled it off. Not sure if/when that will happen again, but I'm glad my coaches were there to vouch for me!

Ok, I'm off to bed now...truthfully, I'm just too tired to write any more.

Happy New Year!

My First Half...

I almost forgot...I registered for my first 1/2 Ironman. I'll be doing the "Ford Ironman 70.3 California Triathlon" on March 31, 2007. Oh my goodness, that's less than four months. My coaches promise I'll be ready so I'm trusting them! Wish me luck!

A Month In...

Wow, I can't hardly believe it has been nearly four weeks since my last post. Sincere apologies! Well, the past few weeks of training have been going really well. I think I've been able to fit in all my workouts except one or two. This is quite a feat, considering I have six to nine workouts a week and I still have to work full time, as well as travel occasionally. Speaking of travelling, I'm in Miami right now. It's really nice down here...very humid though! I tried to get in a spin workout today, but to no avail. I tried a couple different gyms near my hotel but one wouldn't let me spin without a spin instuctor (liability blah, blah, blah) and the other didn't have the right clips for my shoes. Boo! Oh well, I give myself an A for effort! Tomorrow I have a run and a swim on the schedule, which should be enjoyable.

My Ironteam...Oh my goodness, my Ironteammates are so great! I'm really loving all of our group workouts, especially our Saturday rides. Thus far, we've ridden up in Griffeth Park, Santa Monica/San Vicente (my backyard), and Westlake/Agoura Hills/Thousand Oaks area. Last week our ride was in Westlake etc... and I logged about 43 miles. We when started out it was very cold...I'm talkin' low 40's. However, by the end it was in the high 70's and nearly perfect weather, except for the wind. Yep, there was some crazy wind up there. At one point I was going downhill at 37.6 mph and the wind was blowing so hard, I was sure I was about to become roadkill. So scary, but oddly fun at the same time!

Good things...So I was out on a run a couple weeks ago and I ran past the Arrowhead Water Man making deliveries. I smiled and said "good morning" as I ran by. About 20 minutes later I passed him again on my way back home. Well, there he was holding out a bottle of water for me. My own personal support crew ;-) It was such a simple thing, but it was so thoughtful and kind. People like that definitely make this world a better place. I hope we can all be as thoughtful and kind.

Really good things...Well this week I got GREAT news!!!! I'm working hard on fundraising, but $10,000 is a lot of money. My dear friend Richard Magleby called me this week to let me know that the Savage Foundation (a family foundation) would be making a donation for $1000 to my cause. I couldn't hardly believe it! I was sooooooo ecstatic! Every contribution makes such a difference and I am so grateful for all the contributions I've received thus far regardless of size.

Upcoming excitement...This weekend is our TNT camping weekend. I'm really looking forward to training up in Malibu this weekend as well as camping. I LOVE camping! And I'm sure I'm going to love camping with my very cool teammates. I will definitely post an update with pictures.