Tri-Dogmom

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...

This post is going to be very different from my normal ramblings of training, traveling and playing. I just can't help myself though. WTC's Ironman Access program. I love how fired up people get - I'm not one to always put what I think out there, but why not; In my opinion, I think there is a little bit of over-reaction to the WTC announcement. It is a business afterall right? While I'm sure that we would all love to believe that the entire corporation that build the Ironman empire and Brand are out there just to support our athletic endeavors, that just isn't reality. We all have jobs, we all have dreams and most of us build a career to well, make money. I"m not saying that's the only reason people do their jobs, but in the end how many of us work without the idea of a paycheck? Just sayin. Ironman has build such an amazing Brand that as much as we all bitch and complain about the overpriced races and products, have you yet to see a race NOT sell out, or n...

This past Saturday Shane & I joined some people from our tri club to meet up with other cyclists for a charity ride, The Stenholm 100 Ride. The plan was to meet at the gym and ride up to the start, about 7 miles. The loop was described as a 100k/62mile RIDE, not race. While we all know that people get in groups and ride quickly turns into race, I knew at least Shane & I could just take it easy if people decided to take off. We met at the group ride start and I was shocked at how many people were there - maybe a few hundred or so. The police went through some rules, but notably the one we all caught on to was the "it's not a race and we will be pacing the group no faster than 20-21mph." Ugh oh, this was gonna be a LONG day. If you've ever done a big group bike race you know that lead packs push in the upper 20's for an average, faster on the downs, but not much slower on the descents. The good thing with this logic is the group splits up and you are...