Tri-Dogmom

Now that I've completed my first Ironman, and the reason for starting this blog - I've decided a new look for the next year was needed. I'm going to play around and see what else I can come up with, but for now, here is my new bright and fresh look for my blog!

It has taken me a while to find the right words to describe the run part of IM . I'm not sure if it's because this was the final stage of the race, where months and months of hard work and training were about to come to an end. Or, if it were simply the fact that it was hard. It was the first marathon I'd done in nearly 4 years... But, here we go! T2 was pretty uneventful. I did forget to go potty once I got in the changing tent, so I had to backtrack a bit to hit the porta potties. I think they should put a couple outside of the tent too, for those of us who SOMEHOW miss the 20+ of them on our way in to change. Can't really blame us can you? We were out there on our bikes for a LONG time! I have to admit it was pretty odd just dropping my shorts an standing there half naked for a couple of mins while I put my running skirt on. I decided not to reapply bodyglide anywhere... I do have some modesty left you know... I couldn't make up my mind what all I wanted, so...

A couple of minutes after my near panic attack, the big cannon went off and the next thing I new I was in the middle of the craziest, wildest water experience of my life. No one seemed to be swimming. Everyone seemed to be flopping around like fish out of water. I was one of them. There was absolutely no rhythm to my stroke. No form. No technique or calm breathing. It was complete and utter chaos. At one point a kayak had gotten caught in the middle of my race pack. We were all kind of just stuck until it could move. Some people were yelling at the poor gal, but I just patiently waited. It’s not like I was having a super speedy swim anyway…… When I got to the first buoy, I looked at my watch. It was about 17 mins . The other day it was 21.5 mins , so at least I was moving faster. Still not as fast as I had hoped for. It didn ’t really matter at that point though, the water conditions were crazy. The wind, waves and the non-existent ability for anyway to site where they were going had a...

Something crazy must have come over me. Maybe it's peer pressure (sshhhh, I'm not saying a word), or maybe it's just all about the experience I had. Maybe it's the amazing community of Coeur d'Alene, or the best fans EVER that we had out there on race day. Whatever it is... I'm in, again.... 2008 Ford Ironman CDA.... Here's part 1 of 2 or 3 of my Ironman Race Report. Sit down... prepare yourself.... then go sign up to join "us" for next year... Ironman CDA… When I finally decided that I was ready to take the leap of faith and register for an Ironman, I though what better place to do it than somewhere I was familiar with. Ironman AZ never really intrigued me for some reason. Maybe it was the heat, or the winter training, or maybe it was Tempe Town Lake….. Ironman Coeur d’Alene seemed to be the perfect fit for me. It had the best of all worlds. I grew up in Spokane, Washington and spent just about every summer that I can remember at CDA Lake. First...

I have yet to put together any words that can describe Sunday's experience, so I'm going to save that post for a couple of days. Possibly when I have caught up on sleep, my stomach and muscles have returned to normal and the shock of this entire experience has subsided, I will be able to find the words..... For now, all I can say is a HUGE thank you to all of our supporters, starting with the loudest, brightest and most encouraging 2 out on the course Stacey & Carrie. Seeing those two as well as Dave, Big J, Little J, Frankie, Stronger , Erin, Bailey, all of the parents and grandparents and even some of my high school friends made getting through each loop on the course so much easier. We also met a couple of fellow bloggers here ( nytro and ironbenny ), and even got to spend some time out on the course with ironbenny . Our entire team is on the way to the airport right now, but S & I are here for one more night. It's so quiet in the house right now, I'm th...

I can't believe it's here. It's the day before the race. We arrived in Spokane on Tuesday evening. Unfortunately, our flight was a couple hours late (hence why we call it AMERICA WORST)..... but with that first little glitch in our trip, everything has since gone pretty well. I can't imagine how the people who don't arrive by Wed or even Thursday don't freak out. I feel like we have been running around NON STOP this whole time. Between practicing swimming, and eating, and driving the course, and eating, and shopping and eating, and getting everything ready and eating....... Well, you get the picture. We've been BUSY!!! Get the picture? Thursday night Shane & I had a nice dinner with my grandpa. He's about the only family I have left here in Spokane, and was so excited to come see us. He's getting up there, and as sad as it is to say... just doesn't have much left in him (will) - he wants to go be with Grandma. But, we had nice visit ...

Today is the day. S & I are finally all packed..... Trust me, you have no idea what an accomplishment that is. I am the world's worst packer. Without a doubt, the worst. It literally took me all day to get my sh$! together yesterday and physically in the suitcase. I just kept running from room to room with different things in my hand... then I'd forget what I was doing, and end up not accomplishing a whole heck of a lot. The kids were so irritated with me. As if the stress of the suitcase in front of them wasn't enough, THEN they had to follow me around the house like a mad woman. Poor things. Not much has changed today either. My poor baby Baxter. He just keeps looking at me with the saddest, longing eyes. I hate when he does this to me. I hate to leave him. Trust me.... for those of you with 2-legged kids. I swear, I have the same attachment to my dog. Who, is really not a dog.... he's a red, 4-legged person. The bad part is he knows it. He knows...

I've been trying to come up with the right words for this post for a few days now. I just haven't really figured it out, so I'm just going to let it roll..... Momo has written a couple of posts about ironman lately; balancing family & training, what it means & does for her, and even some posts about the taper and how she's feeling. Ironshane has written almost every day for a week. First his 5 goals, now he's working on sport specific goals. He's VERY ambitious, or maybe it's just confidence. He has already finished Ironman . I've also read a few posts from ironbenny who will also be in CDA . S has been emailing with him so I think we will be meeting up with him and his wife Nytro . It will be nice to meet some new faces before the big day! I am a pretty calm and rational person. Maybe almost too calm a lot of the time. I haven't stressed out too much about this race. I expected to, but it just wasn't coming. Not that I...

Here you have it - the CDA race numbers are finally here. I had no idea the impact.. Ok , I still really don't, but ironshane & momo were OBSESSED with these things. I'm surprised that between the two of their visits to the website to check for them, the entire thing didn't crash ;-) So, as I'm still lying in bed I hear S coming down the hallway saying, "MY NEW FAVORITE NUMBER!!!!" So, I ask... "What's mine?" He replies, "I don't know..." But here you have it - the entire teams numbers, in order. Shane said it goes by Age Group, then Alphabetical, which makes sense . Look who has the smallest number in the group(girls), yup that's me. The baby of the team :-) Ok , well Shane doesn't count cause he's got the smallest cause he has a charity slot. http://www.allthingstriathlon.com/ Shane - 176 Ric - 930 Troy - 948 Krista - 2042 Sara - 2155 Heather - 2245 Momo - 2290 Something to be said for the lowest & the high...

Well, I think the title says it all..... You know what is cool about working from home? Ok , so besides the obvious (staying in your pajamas or running cloths, no makeup....no office drama, etc) Flexibility. You know what is cool about working for your friend, who also happens to be just as crazy as you, and obsessed about the perfect fit, and perfect outfit, and... ....... ....? You get to pick up on a Tuesday at 1 and drive down to Tucson to the big fancy Trisports shop to test out wetsuits in their new Endless Pool! Well, thank GOD for all of these things, because had yesterday not happened, I'd be well... uh.. SCREWED. So, I wrote about my wetsuit issues last post. I was freaking out Sunday night and again Monday am.... I tried Momo's Desoto First Wave suit at the pool Monday. It fit fine, but like her, the shoulders were not right. It was too restricting. So, now what? I was looking at S's new wetsuit - the 2 xu Elite, that he tried out on Sunday and LOVED. The arm...

Well, I bet you I'm not the only one with this post Title... TAPER, TAPER, TAPER... I can't get enough of that word! You hear a lot of people talke about going crazy during the taper. So antsy.... so all over the place on not wanting to rest. Well, while I have never trained for and Ironman, I have done 2 half ironman and gone thru the taper. And, I will be the first to tell you that I did NOT feel like doing anything other that what was required.... that is, if I could get thru even the scheduled workouts. This taper, which officially started today, seems NO different. After a weekend of bachelorette activities (weekend starting on WED), along with a couple of last long workouts - 2hour run and 5 hour bike ride, I was officially D.O.N.E. "put a fork in me" type done.... yesterday, which also carried over to today. So, we'll start with the Saturday. We started our ride at about 5:15am. I had slept like a log that night and was certainly not really "awake...

More details to come, but here's how the night began...... And, here's how it ended - at least for the tired triathlete & her preggo friend Erin, the first to take advantage of the limo ride home... P.S. I made it until 1am, after being up at 4 - that's pretty darn good, I think!

Does my countdown ticker really say 15 days left? Holy COW! That is SO soon..... I keep saying 3 weeks for some reason. I'm stuck on that 3 week countdown. Guess I better change that up. I AM GOING TO BE AN IRONMAN IN LIKE 2 FREAKING WEEKS!!! That sounds cool, huh? Ok - so really I just got online to give a quick update. My ankle. It seems to be A-OK. I did not do anything on Tuesday. It was pretty swollen and sore and a little bruised. I decided to go ahead and do my long swim (5500yards), it went pretty well, I just had to use the pull buoy a lot. After the swim I went to my PT appt . Matt said I tore tore some of the ligaments on the outside, but it wasn't so bad. He did tissue work on it for about 30 or so minutes, then they hooked me up to the stem unit & iced it. He told me cycling and swimming were good, but I needed to be able to hop on the one foot before running. Matt knows better than to tell me NO. We have that kinda of relationship :-0 He treated me for...

Ok .... so, yesterday after the incident, I iced and iced and iced - then I went to the pool to try to swim. Cause, that's HOW I ROLL.... (my husband is shaking his head right now and rolling his eyes). The swimming was fine, I got really good at doing one legged flip turns and pushing off with one leg after my surgery. But, when I would push off the wall the movement of the water irritated it. So after about 1500/5500yards, I called it quits. My swim coach assured me it just needed a little bit of rest & it wouldn't affect my training at all.... See, it's not that I'm worried about losing any fitness. It's just that I like to do my workouts. I am ready to taper, but I'm ready to taper on MY OWN TERMS, not cause my stupid body is hurt. When you get hurt for 3+ years (yes, I am STILL dwelling on this....) it really messes with your head. It was probably the most frustrating time of my entire life. Everyone around me was doing what I wanted to be doing. It ju...

Before I get into the title of this blog, I am going to write about an absolutely FANTASTIC meal we had this weekend. A few weeks ago I got an email from our friend Lisa. She invited us to dinner at a local pizza place in downtown Phoenix. Now, this isn't just any old Pizza joint - this is THE Pizza place. I've heard about it.... I've even seen a clip from Oprah on it, but I've never been there. What I had heard is that it's about a 3 hour wait. They are open Tuesday-Saturday from 5-10pm. They take reservations, but they are 4 weeks out. Well, as luck would have it, Lisa got reservations for 8 of us on June 2 nd at Pizzeria Bianco . So, at 6:30pm on Saturday S & I showed up ready to check this place out. Walking up to the place you could just smell how good it was. My taste buds immediately started perking up! In a few mins we were taken to our table in the back of the very small little place. We started with drinks, and salads.. then on to the pizza. S &...

Today I did something rather unlike me. I took an unscheduled DAY off :-) Not because I felt like I needed it, or something was hurting, but I was looking at my schedule for the next few weeks and realized if I didn't rest today... I wouldn't have a DAY off for nearly 3 weeks.. Momo & I usually do our long runs on Friday, leaving us with Sundays as our day off. This week she was taking her family to the airport, so we would have had to work around that to get our run in. So, with that in mind, and at the beginning of the week when we planned this, I was also feeling pretty warn down, we decided to do our long run on Sunday this week. I initially still planned on swimming Friday, like usual... but then I looked into the next few weeks and things are a little crazy! Next week I have some girlfriends coming into town for a bachelorette party. 2 of my really good friends from college, Erin & Shelby will be in town for this (picture at our last reunion almost a year ago in...