Tri-Dogmom

After a slightly less than perfect 2009, 2010 has been nothing short of incredible. While we've had our losses and sad times with the loss of our baby girl Abby, we've also ended the year rewarded with the beautiful red dog and Baxter partner in crime, Juliette. We're fortunate to spend our New Years in our favorite place, with one of our favorite persons, Amanda. While the weekend did take a strange change in events when we went from a full house of 8, somehow we're down to 3. From car problems and friends being stranded by on the side of the road and towed home - to work emergencies and only a 16hour stay in Mexico for another friend. Either way, we have our girl A with us, and Baxter is ecstatic for his midnight makeout session. My morning started out with a 9mile run to prime myself for the festivities. It was the perfect start to a day of celebration and to end a year of all things great. I added the miles to my log and made my year end tallies. I'm proud and h

It's been a beautiful few days here in Mexico. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Clear blue skies, temps around 70degrees and calm waters. The trip started out a little rough with Shane catching the stomach flu I had the week before Christmas. He did his best to rally and celebrate my birthday in traditional Mexico style, however his limits were reached when he left me with a fully raring fire on the deck at 7:45 pm on my birthday and went to bed. He knows I'm not going to let him live THAT one down. All joking aside, he's feeling much better and I actually got him out of the house last night for Margaritas at the Lighthouse restaurant overlooking the town and beaches, followed by dinner at our favorite place, Reginas. Today might be the last perfect weather day as we're expected to have some rain storms tomorrow and cooler temps for the weekend. However, the sun will be back out come Thursday and we have some great friends coming to celebrate and ri

I just found out last night that I was selected along with 24 other athletes to be part of the new 2011 e21 triathlon Team! I'm crazy excited for this opportunity and can't wait to meet the rest of my teammates. I first heart the 'buzz' around this company, Arcadian Nutraceuticals , specifically their first product marketed in the US e21 Recovery , on Facebook (of course). I was invited to "like" the product by a friend of a friend, and soon there after I was getting to read all the updates via the company, but most importantly, the product reviews posted by fellow athletes. Soon I was linked up with Michelle Simmons and started following her blog. I found out she is good friends with a local friend and triathlete here in AZ, AND we are all doing Ironman CDA this year! A month or so after all this happened I was reading THIS post by Michelle. I've always been intrigued by the idea of being part of a sponsored team. I mean what's not to like? Promote

The 12k's of Christmas run was probably the best possible way the LaPan clan could end the year. I've been searching for a dog friendly "race" to do for well, as long as I can remember. It was such an amazing day, and I couldn't have been any more proud. You see, Saturday was the day that my boy, Baxter, officially proved something we've all known for a while. My dog is faster than yours. My dog is a BAD ASS. The race morning (10am, actually) was kinda crazy! Over 1500 people showed up and they had to start the races a little late because people were still trying to get registered. The park was full of little santas, elves and santa paws. It was a crazy warm morning, absolutely gorgeous! The dogs were so good hanging out for about an hour before the race actually started! This is the first time we've had Juliette around so many people and dogs, but she did awesome! She definitely is a bit curious about other dogs, particularly little ones, but no

It's been 1 week since we got our new baby girl, Juliette. Things couldn't be going any more smoothly. Actually, I take that back. For an 8 year old dog, she sure doesn't like to sleep through the night. While I've never been a good sleeper anyway, she's still driving me nuts moving around the (our) bed all night long. It's MADDENING. But, other than that and the fact she has decided she's allowed on our bed any time her little heart desires, she's an exceptionally good dog. Which, is saying a LOT for a Vizsla. She's learning how to run, although if she had it her way she would absolutely do with OUT the gentle leader. We've built her up to about 2 miles, but she isn't much for pacing so it's gonna take a bit to get her past that. On Saturday we are all heading out to Gilbert for the 12k's of Christmas run. I have wanted to bring Baxter to a road race that allows "paws" for as long as I can remember, but either the ones I

Tis the season to be jolly (and fat), right? RIGHT. So, I think my body has gone into complete crappy sugar withdrawals. After training hard from Jan-August and shoving everything imaginable into my mouth to keep from bonking, especially on the bike I may have turned myself into a complete and utter SUGAR addict. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a chocolate girl. I blame my increase love for dessert on my bff from college Erin who would choose ice cream and cake over dinner if she had the choice. Taking that to a whole new level I also blame my husband. He claims he was ruined by a good friend he worked with years ago who insisted that some sort of dessert was NECESSARY after each meal. Lunch & dinner. Myself, I would never turn down an offer for a piece of gooey chocolate cake, but most of the other stuff I could walk away from. Until recently.... So here I am, the result of living with two complete sugar heads for the last 13 years. Top that off with a year o

Our home is no longer to quiet. Baxter no longer has an excuse to be naughty and/or counter surf. Our hearts are full and and I feel like giving this incredibly sweet girl a new and permanent home was the best Christmas gift I could possibly ask for. Do you ever just feel like some things are meant to be? As soon as we saw Juliette's picture on the web site, and read a little bit about her we just knew she needed to be here with us. It didn't take long to convince the rescue people that we were good and would be a great family for her. A few days, a lotta miles and a couple sleepovers later and we were meeting Juliette after her long journey from Boise, Id to bring her home. At first she was a little confused leaving the guys that drove her from Salt Lake City (they spent a LONG 14 hours in the car together through crazy road conditions and construction detours to get to Phoenix), but a 45min car ride sitting next to her new BIG brother seemed to help with her nerves. We

Since losing Abby, and just a year earlier than that our girl Sara, the LaPan house has been just a leetle bit TOO quiet. While Baxter might be high energy and completely neurotic at times, he's also EASY compared to what we were doing before. Between the medications, vet visits, puking episodes, finicky eating, etc... I really didn't realize how much time we put into caring for our little girl. Of course I would do it all over again to have her back, but unfortunately that is just not the case. It's been about 2 months now and while at first I think Baxter was in HEAVEN being the only dog, he changed. He became more playful and fun and LOUD. At first we thought he was maybe meant to be an only dog and that it brought him back to his youth. He's been running great, full of energy. But something in the past few weeks has really changed. He seems lonely. And BORED. Have you ever been around a bored Vizsla? Think of a 3yr old ADHD kid with out the meds. That

I've been logging my training into this website for a few years now. It was fun at first watching the totals grow as I trained for my first Ironman. Now, well... I'm just addicted to the data. Cause yes, I'm nerdy like that. I have to also admit that while I'm not one to need THAT much motivation to train as I love how I feel after working up a sweat, it sure does help get me out the door when I see blanks on the screen as I look at my weekly log. Anyhoo - I was looking at my YTD totals for 2010 wondering what I would end up come the end of the year. There are a couple of pretty cool numbers I might hit if I can reverse my new found motivation to sleep in until 7 and take my "off season" seriously. While I know it's important to have the rest time before we start back up in January, but I also know we have a 10day break planned to finish off the year in Mexico. So, the question is - can I manage to to find my big girl pants and get out there in the

Sometime over the summer a string of emails went around to a group of ladies I've known for almost 10 years. Someone was recruiting for a team to train together and run the Women's Half Marathon. I was already looking at doing the race, but the timing was a little tough being just 2 months after Ironman Canada. The responses came quickly and I couldn't believe how many people were "in." Almost all of the girls from my very first Marathon, 9 years ago, were giving it a go. Some have continued to run, some have been busy busy raising babies and such and haven't had the time to train. I figured if these girls were going to pick up and put it all out there, I most certainly could do a couple long runs post Ironman and do it along side of them. I even got my sister to sign up, just a couple months after she did her very first Half Marathon! The girls started training in August, meeting for weekly long runs organized by our fierce leader and Monaco Marathon alum, Am

Most of you know that Shane and I met training for our first marathon. We were part of the "Dream Team," raising money for UCP and running a marathon in Monaco, a first of many for me. My longest run before signing up for this was a 5k, and I had never been to Europe. We had the fabulous coaches from Racelab training us and met some of the most amazing people, most of which are still some of our closest friends. We ran the marathon in November of 2001, just a few months after 9/11. It was the experience of a lifetime. Shane & I started dating just a few days after we returned from the trip and well, here we are 9 years later. While on a bus ride to our "victory" party in Monaco, a few in the group may have taken advantage of our slightly intoxicated and post race highs because the next thing I knew I was back at home online registering for my second marathon, The San Diego RnR. The race was only 7 months after Monaco and I was pushing pretty hard to bui