My Triathlon Future...

During the race I kept telling myself there was no freaking way I was doing another one of these much less an IRONMAN! At mile 12 Alison was there to witness the meltdown and hear me say this again and say, "I will have to walk another 13 miles, are you kidding me?"

I crossed the line and said, "there is no f@#$ing way I'm doing IMCDA" and all the way home I said that.

Monday morning I got up and said there is no f@#$ing way I'm doing IMCDA. Then Collin said, "pain is only temporary." I told him I would slug him if I heard that again as he had no clue.

Tuesday my thoughts were, "I'm not doing it."

Wednesday my thoughts were, "Well maybe I would at least do another half and not let it beat me down as I know what to expect now, and hell, I'm signed up to go do IMCDA so I have to at least train for it and see what happens."

Thursday, I met with Coach Chrissie or as we know her, Coach Pain, and we talked about everything. She encouraged me and we talked about what went wrong and what was the worst part. So I left there with the thoughts of, "I'm doing Galveston half ironman in April, and I'm doing IMCDA."

Friday, I'm doing CDA!

From what I understand this is the normal thought process and I was told to give it at least a week.

Pics from my first half ironman

Oh the joys of being in blubber! Here I am exiting the swim course!













Here I am on the bike. I saw the camera person

and decided to wave and smile.

FINISHING THE RACE!

Conroe, Half-Ironman

Well here we are. Another one to mark down in the books of things I don't think I ever want to do again. Lets start with how I feel....10 days ago I came down with sinus problems and developed bronchitis, and Thursday night I had food poisoning. What the heck and why am I doing this?

Last night was good. We all had a good dinner and good conversation. Went back to the hotel and started getting all my stuff prepared. The whole time I wasn't one bit nervous about anything. After I was done, I took my Xanax and went to bed...love that pill.

Got up at about 4:45am and ate and rounded up the hubby and headed out. He dropped me off and went back to pick up my mother-in-law who came down for support. I aired the tires up at the car and headed to transition.

I get to transition and set everything up. I saw all the teammates and went on about my way as I needed to get everything all done. I started putting the wetsuit on and grabbed my sweatshirt(it was cold)and headed down to the water.

We get to the water and Alison proceeds to help me get the wet suit all pulled up and zipped. She is really good at that for me. She knows me to well. God bless her for being there for this.

The first wave of men starts. We are ten minutes behind them. We enter the water and burr. It was a little on the chilly side. Thank goodness they give us sometime in the water to get used to it. I see Dionn and Ivonne and say good luck and we are off. I've never swam 1.2 miles before except in a pool doing my routine swim practice so I had no clue what to expect. I get out going and I'm surprised at how comfortable I feel. I kept everything under control and just swam.

I'm nearing the end and I started to feel like I needed to cough...sinus problem from about 10 days ago. So I take a few strokes come up and site and cough and go back down. I'm just thankful that I'm only about 100 meters from the exit. I exit and get to the wetsuit strippers and get the blubber off and I head to transition.

Get in transition and sit down on my bucket and put some sock on and my cycling shoes and a jacket and my helmet and I'm off. I knew it was going to be cold riding through the forest so I decided on the jacket.

I get out of the resort area and not a mile into it, I get a freakin flat. I hit something, it went flying, I started cussing and I'm off the bike. I pull it off the road and proceed to get my stuff out and some nice guy in a BMW stops and asks me if I need help. I said no and then said wait, can you help me? He comes running and changes it for me. Poor guy is getting over a broke arm and trying to change my tire. I proceed to cuss more and then say "pardon my language." He said don't worry I'm an Atheist. I asked him if he was a cyclist and he races Crits and is a Cat 1.

So he sends me on my way. My aqua cell comes out of my bracket on my aero bars but since they are so close together it still won't budge. Good deal. I get going and on this hilly rolling course. Then the wind starts. My God, can it get any worse at this point. Yep...my back starts to hurt. And with the wind and race wheels it just doesn't work out to well.

I finally make it back into transition and sit down on my bucket and put dry socks on. Alison and Mike are both there watching and helping me calm down and wishing me well on my run. I head out on the run...well walk. My back is killing me at this point and I'm just frustrated. I see my hubby and he kisses me and sends me on my way. I try and keep a pace with some girl doing sometime and well I couldn't. The back hurt to bad. So at this point I just want to make it or take a DNF. I couldn't decide. Along the way I laid down in a few driveways and stretched and used a few mailboxes to prop my leg up on and stretch. I'm sure people are thinking I'm nuts at this point.

I get to mile 4 of the run and see Liz. I had a meltdown. I started crying because I was still hurting so badly. She sends me on with great words of wisdom and support. I get to mile 6 I think, and met Jerry. What a great guy. We were all about walking at this point. He has completed a handful of Ironman's and half's so at this point I'm in good hands as he is pushing me to finish and just do what we are doing.

I get to mile 9 and see Maggie and a few others. I told them of more pain and how I wanted to quit and they said "No way, you have to keep going!". So I did along side Jerry.

I get to mile 11 and stop at the bathroom. It hurt to pee! I now have a UTI problem. What else could go wrong, seriously. Jerry is still right there pushing me while I'm having another meltdown.

We get to mile 12 and there is Alison, God Bless her for being the best friend I have and coming out there to push me. I had another meltdown right when I saw her. She is trying to push me to run the last mile and my feet, legs, back and well other parts are just killing me and and I feel like I have to pee and I don't have too! Jerry is still right in front of us making sure I make it.

We round the finish line and I see everyone and I cross. A few fellow T3ers are there to greet me with the hubster, mother-in-law, and Mike. I was so happy to be done and I swear I don't want to do another. Jerry was also at the finish line with a hug for me. What a nice man.

I'm back at home and I'm still hungry. I don't want to be on a bike for at least a week, and I don't want to run for at least 2 weeks.

Week Before My First Half-Ironman!

So we are nearing the end of the training for the half-ironman I signed up for. I have to say I feel good about going into it. About a month ago, I didn't think I would make it off the bike to run. But I got those issues worked out and discovered more issues with the IT Band in the right leg. I'm seeing two drs for the problem that have put me through more pain than before. I have to remind myself that it is a good pain and it will help me get through the long run on this half-ironman.

After all the training I've done, I have to say that I'm not at all nervous or scared just yet. I don't know that I will be. I know that I only have one goal at this point and that is to finish and to finish with grace and comfort! That means, don't fall off the bike at the dismount line(did this at Galveston)and hopefully not have any pain in the lower back or in the leg.

Last Week of Hill Repeats with a fall off the bike to start it...

So last week, I went out to do hill repeats with a few peeps. We get down to the bottom of Lost Creek and get ready to turn around to do our first hill repeat. Well I turned but not all the way and hit the pavement. Man, did I fall. I get up and see that I'm not bleeding, THANK GOD, and then realize that my freaking elbow and arm are killing me. I start to cry and walk my bike to the stop sign. For me, I don't want anyone to see me cry. So I get on my bike and ride and cry some more. I didn't stop crying until about half way up Lost Creek. I tried to go down into areo's and it hurt to bad to do so.

We make it to the top and continue to do more hill repeats. We were scheduled to do 5 and well after 4 I let go of the handle bars and a cramp forms in my left hand from the fall. At that point, I'm done. I waited at the top for everyone to finish.

A few days passed and elbow as a little tender but my upper arm was killing me! I guess I hit harder than I thought. Finally a week later and the pain is gone.

Dang hill repeats are more painful in more ways than one.

Livestrong Challenge

So this weekend I participated in the Livestrong Challenge. I was asked to ride with another woman for her team here in Austin. I said what the heck, I've never done this before and I like what the Lance has done with and for this foundation, so I signed up and raised my money.

I show up that morning and get ready to ride my 10 miles...I only could do 10 miles since I had and Ironman meeting that morning at 10am. So I get to our marker and wait and wait. I finally see the team I'm riding with and take a few pictures before we start.

At this point I'm thinking well I will ride with the team and just enjoy this. But once we got to the start it was already 8:30am and I'm clear out in Dripping Springs. And to top it all off, there are a lot of inexperienced riders and kids on the 10 mile ride. All I can think about is getting it done and hope that a little kid doesn't jump in front of me while I'm cruising at 18 mph while trying to pass them.

So I dropped it in to some harder gears and took off. I just wanted to get done and get on with it. I passed I don't know how many people as they either stopped at the first rest stop or were just enjoying the ride. I make it to the finish line and I think I was the first one to cross as they were all standing around not expecting any one to cross in about 30-35 minutes.

I grabbed my towel and headed to the car. All in all I would totally do this again and do a longer ride. There were a ton of people out supporting the cause on Sunday.

TV Shows I watch...and why...

So the other night Discovery Channel came back with another great show we like to watch...Storm Chasers! We watched this last season for the first time and loved it. Pretty much they film tornadoes through the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Kinda cool to see our small towns own TV.

While watching this we came across an advertisement for a new series, The Iditarod! I don't know why this fascinates me but for some reason but it does. I think anything in Alaska and on TV I will watch...Deadliest Catch should say it all and Ice Road Truckers! Back to the Iditarod. At first I didn't think I could watch because of something happening to a dog, but man, these dogs love it. There is a woman on there who had breast cancer and has been doing this race for 26 years! She wears all pink and has all her dogs in pink harnesses also. Kinda cool to hear the stories.

So today I got online and researched this race and found out that it is $4000 to enter the toughest race in the world! I don't know that I would pay this to freeze for 1000 miles, risk breaking something, risk my dogs lives, risk my life, and did I mention it was freezing cold!

Anyway...just one more TV show I for see me being addicted to in the future. I have to find out who wins!