A Harsh Comparison

During our Sunday swim, Lindsy and I got the bright idea to video ourselves using the pull buoy and then video someone who knows what they are doing! Sometimes you just don't know what you are doing wrong until you see yourself. I felt like I maybe was doing it correctly, I mean I was getting from one end of the pool to the other with only drinking a little water! And, I felt relatively good even (even if it was hard). BUT, I now know how I really look and I cannot say I am pleased with it. So, I am offering up my vulnerability for everyone to see what I look like, to laugh at me if you need a good laugh, or to feel bad/embarressed for me if you need someone to feel this way for. Just know, I am persevering and I appreciate your support/laughter/concern! It is a learning moment. :) Enjoy!

(the first girl swimming knows what she's doing, I am the second girl in the purple cap and I obviously can't swim a straight line!)

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Lindsy- This blog's for you!

I have to start this out with the reminder that I absolutely hate HILLS. I love to run down them but hate to run up them. Despite this, I feel like I have become used to (maybe even am comfortable with) the hills at the arboretum where we have been running. I might even go as far to say that hills don't bother me or scare me as much as they used to. But, um, NO. The healthy fear of running up hills has been reinstated with this morning's run in Lindsy's neighborhood. (For those who don't know, I am living with my best friend until October since we've sold our home in Lexington--as her sister said, she now has a "built in running partner.") Now, Lindsy and her friend Courtney run the neighborhood nearly every morning so she is no stranger to the serious changes in elevation. Because I am a newbie to the hills that are her neighborhood, Wednesday morning she decided it best to do a different, less hilly (but still more than I am used to) route. The 4 mile run kicked my hind end. THEN, she suggested we do her normal route this morning!! HA. It was all going OK until she told me not to look up because we were getting ready to run the hill that tops ALL hills! After a few choice words and grunts I made it up The Hill, then insisted on walking so I could catch my breath. This is when Lindsy let me know that Courtney does all she can to not heave after running up that hill (thanks!). After it was all said and done, it was a wonderful workout...I didn't vomit, thank God, but I did almost pee on myself! (And note-to-self: even if it is cloudy it is still HOT at 11:00 in the morning at the end of July!)
So, Lindsy, thanks so much for pushing me! I am glad to know I have reached the 4 mile mark

Me at the BOTTOM PART of The Hill. This picture doesn't do it justice, really. The Hill continues to ascend beyond what you can see in this picture. Oh, it hurts me to think of it!

Two for the price of One

Blogs, that is!

1) Sunday: Training Triathlon.
Let me begin by saying, WOW, what a day Sunday was. Not only was I committed to the TNT training tri but my husband and I had to move out of our house in Lexington! Can we say CRAZY!?!! But, hey, I work well under pressure so why not? So while our husbands and my in-laws begin the feat of packing our house, Lindsy and I begin our training tri with the swim portion. The point of this day was to get a feel for the course and you could do however much you wanted. (see Lindsy's blog for more details...she's great at capturing the moment! http://lindsystnttri.blogspot.com/) The swim went okay, I definitely need to work on my endurance and keeping my goggles from fogging up. I couldn't freestyle the whole thing (I only did 600 of the 800 meters) and had to bring in other random swimming techniques to finish--it wasn't pretty, but I finished. And I realized I can do all 800 if I put my mind to it..I just need to learn a few breathing techniques to make this easier on myself. Next up: the 18 mile bike portion. It was AWESOME. I absolutely love to bike. Check out this site for the course we rode http://www.onemillionrevolutions.org/maps/map.php?ID=664. I felt great and loved every minute of it. It is times like this when I am so thankful for my health and the opportunity to do this with my best friend.

After the training tri, Lindsy and I high-tailed it back to my house to pack! There really isn't much to say about it, but that it was stressful and not so much fun. I have a mixture of emotions in moving out of our first house. We had a lot of good times there, and the four years passed so quickly. I cannot believe we are moving back to Western KY. So, we loaded up the ginormous truck and my in-laws drove it to our new house. Unfortunately they hit a minor snafoo in the process of parking the truck in the driveway of the new house. Long story short, the driveway is at a relatively steep angle and at 11:00 last night, they got the truck stuck in between the driveway and the road with the rear wheels not in contact with the ground!! Josh and I felt so bad that they had to deal with this through the middle of the night (we were still in Lexington) but thankfully they managed to get it fixed. Needless to say it was a stressful day/night.

2) Monday: Brick Training Session
What's a brick you say? No, it isn't an architectural piece, but rather a combo bike/run. And not an easy thing to do!! You kinda feel like you may have hit a BRICK wall afterwards!! Or your quads feel like bricks... Whatever, it is a great way to practice transitioning from the bike portion to the run portion of an event. Tonight, we biked about 3 miles and then ran 5 minutes. We did this combo 3 times. The mileage and minutes don't sound like much, but by the end I was spent!! It is a very weird feeling to run after just biking hard. Coach Susan mentioned it felt like you were marching (especially if you don't stretch well before the run..yes, while still on the bike), and she is very correct! It is difficult to make your legs change so abruptly from one activity to another! Tomorrow, working on the swim!

The hysteria that is Long Course

This morning was mine and Lindsy's first time swimming the long course at the pool. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have a difficult time doing the basic swim so I was pretty nervous about doubling the length and practice time and pretending to be a real swimmer. Luckily, Susan (our coach) let Lindsy, Jackie, and me stay in a lane next to the wall so that if we needed to, we could hold on and prevent drowning. We also shared a lane with a man who was a new swimmer (even newer than us!). Let the laughter begin!!

Because there were 4 of us in the lane, we did a circle swim where you swim up one side of the lane and back down the other. Well, we were swimming swimming swimming and I am kinda fast (haven't figured out how to pace myself yet) and was swimming behind the man in our lane. I was doing a drill where one arm remains out in front the whole time and you essentially swim on your side, stroking with the other arm. I was going along, trying to keep in mind all the things I needed to work on, when my front hand ran into something soft. I jolted up because I was only 1/2 way down the pool and didn't see anything ahead of me, that's when I realized that my hand went right into this poor man's crotch!!!! Oh wow. He is probably scarred for life.

THEN, Susan asked us to put these floaty things between our ankles. We learned they are called Pull Buoys, and they force you to use only your upper body to pull yourself across the pool! I.e. no kicking. This has to be the most difficult thing I have done in the pool yet, not being able to kick makes you feel like you aren't going anywhere and you struggle to make your arms move. Then panic sets in. Your arms sting from doing all the work. Breathing becomes extremely difficult. You flounder in the water (right underneath the life-guard's nose--I am sure she was laughing her bum off) and pray no one is watching. Finally, you realize it's ok that you look ridiculous and you begin to get the giggles, underwater. This turns into full fledged laughter in the middle of the swim lane, and you cannot touch! Lindsy and I actually went to the side so we wouldn't drown! Oh, it was fun. Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. But I will say, after practicing with the pull buoys for 200 meters, I was able to swim much better and felt better about it too!

Pull Buoy

SO, all-in-all it was a wonderful swim. Yes, it was longer. But I know I can do it and that makes me feel much better about the actual race in October. The laughter and having my best friend there makes it so much more enjoyable, and I think the fact that the lane is longer makes me pace myself so I don't feel as out of breath towards the end...I don't know what it was but I liked this swim better than any other yet!

Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet

This week I received very little sleep, and went to bed really late last night since I was waiting for Josh to get home (yay!). Obviously, I knew I needed to get to bed early for my 7 am run this morning--it didn't happen--and when my alarm sounded I turned it off and decided I needed the rest. It wasn't too much longer before my partner in crime (Lindsy) called me and woke me up. She always feels bad when she wakes me up, but this morning I needed it. During my brief conversation with Lindsy (and despite my early morning confusion) I remembered why I am doing this. A child with leukemia must face their disease every day, all day. I only have to face the early morning run for a quick moment, once I am up and on my way it isn't that bad. It was a rough start, I really wasn't feeling it...but I guess sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. Despite the early morning toughness, I managed to get in a good 4 miles today!! It was so nice to be running with my friends (another friend, Billie, met us out there for the second half of the run). Tomorrow should be interesting, it will be my first time doing the "long swim" with actual swimmers. Stay tuned for that!

Another reason to Participate.

Today was my first bike ride with the team. After getting the logistics down so that I was on the same page with everyone, I got to ridin'! And it was a blast...why I hadn't tried activity before, I don't know. There really isn't much to say about the ride, it is inexplicable. You really have to try it to understand the feeling it brings. After our ride, we had a Mission Moment. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it is where we all gather and remind ourselves just why we are participating in the triathlon with Team In Training. Today we learned of the loss of Coach Cox's cousin's life. He was diagnosed with leukemia back in the fall of 2007 and lost his battle this past Saturday. Despite the sadness of her cousin's passing, Coach Cox was out on the ride tonight with helpful reminders on technique and form and one huge reminder of the mission that we have chosen to undertake. The saying of the evening: When you think you can't go on, remember that what you are going through is nothing compared to what people who have cancer are going through. Swim hard, Bike hard, Run hard...for a Cure.

Coach Susan B. Cox, rounding the curve!

Some of our TNT Team (L to R: Tracy, James, Lindsy, Me, Jennifer, Coach Cox)

Technologically Impaired...

Brief post on comments: several people have asked about how to comment on my posts and whether or not you have to be a member to do so. ANYONE can comment now! I have enabled this setting (it only took me forever to figure it out) so comment away! I am so glad so many of you are reading these, and love the support!

OH! What a week...

I know that I haven't posted in a week or so, but that doesn't mean that my training and fundraising efforts have taken a break. Trust me, they are still going strong! So why haven't I posted in so long, you ask? Wellllllll, as you know my life has been kinda crazy since April, with my husband living in one part of KY and me in Lexington for school. We've had our house up for sale since then also. On tuesday, we sold our Lexington house (YAY!) and then yesterday we bought our "dream" house in Benton, KY (YAY YAY YAY!!!). While I had a split-second thought that we would now be able to breathe easy since things are finally rolling, I realized that I have 20 (yes, 20) days to move everything out of my home in Lexington and into the house in Benton...not to mention school and finals. But despite the stress, I am so thankful to God for all that He has provided me. And thanks to Him, I have my health and sanity to continue with the wonderful triathlon journey despite all the craziness in my life...I just got back from a run and now have a more aligned perspective on life and the month to come.

Now a brief update on the training: swimming is really going much better than I thought, still stressful and panicky at times, but I can see myself making progress. Running is going great! I am seeing progress there as well, and am learning that I can conquer the mental game that I play during a run. Biking is all that I have left to get comfortable with (from a TNT standpoint) and I know I can do it!