Roadies...

In the Panama City Beach area we have a yahoo group for bikers, so pretty much any day you can find someone to ride any distance with. Usually I stick to the normal 30A group that I've been riding with for the past year. But Sunday so many people where out of town for 6 gap, Augusta, the 'Intimidator'..etc..that I had to find another group to ride with. I was ITCHING to take the new sweet goodness out for a spin...and boy did I take her out.

Random comment - I'm SO FREAKING SICK of the free credit report.com guys.

Anyway - I rolled up to SamsClub to meet a couple of roadies for a quick 30 mile ride. They like to call it the 'be back in time for church' ride since most Sunday rides go on FOREVER. Please remember these few important points in regards to the ride:

1. I have never ridden with these guys
2. I have never ridden this route
3. LOTS of turns involved (example - going around dead ends and neighborhoods)
4. These guys are old school hard core roadies
So pretty much - if I continue to ride with these bad asses - I'll have fire coming off of the back of my back tire very soon! But I fell more in love with new bike. Thankfully they did not drop me like a stinky bag of garbage and I got in an awesome ride. And I was home in time for the Sunday Morning Show on CBS and a cup of coffee!

Kelly and I made the decision to start making our long runs on Monday morning. This works out perfectly because I work from home on Monday's and Kelly has the day off. She's training for a few ultras (and can I please note that she is a KICK ASS runner..hello..3:06 marathon?) and I'm rocking out the mileage for the ING Miami. So this works out perfect. We got an a GREAT 15 miles today at an easy 9+ min pace.

This brings me to a random thought...I feel so lucky to everyone that I am able to train with. My running/biking/swimming partners are amazing - and I don't think I would do any of these workouts with out them! Even when I've had to much wine - and could possibly still be a bit drunk - I will drag my ass out of bed because I know someone is waiting for me to hammer out a few miles. I consider every single one of them a great friend...even in 'non-workout' clothes :) Ok. Enough with that sentimental stuff!

Congrats to everyone who raced this past weekend - and Augusta? I might have to do that race next year just to do the swim!!

Hello Lover....

So. I finally did it. After months and months of searching - I found the one. Say hello to...well, give me some time on the name...



She will be taken out on her first spin tomorrow - so I'll keep you posted on how she works out!!

Lobster Fest 2009

Gotta love Panama City Beach. Talk about stellar people watching all day on Sunday! Hadley, her family and myself headed out to Skooners 'the last local beach club' to check out the crazies who crawled out of the woodwork as well as the LOBSTERS! For two days - teams would go out and scuba for these tasty creatures and catch them by HAND! Are you kidding me!?!

Umm...there is no way in hell is would stick my hand in a hole and pull out that guy. But oh man...they taste so good.

Our friend Tim's team ended up winning with a whopper that topped the scales at 10.3 lbs! Congrats Tim!


On the training front - Jason and I have been shopping around for a gym. I'm not a fan of dreamills (except for speed work - they can be helpful with controlled speed) but I do like to lift. I'm not going to lie - I can't stand the gyms where they try to sell you all kinds of crap and make you name your first child 'Golds Gym' if you sign a year contract. And if you try to break your contract - oh man. You don't even want to go there.

Anyway, Hadley came across the 'LORDS GYM' (no lie) close to our house. It's not huge - but they do have a few treadmills, basic machines, and free weights. Perfect. AND they don't charge. Yes. You read that correctly DON'T CHARGE. They just take donations. I would much rather donate money to a church then to pay for bottled water and the he-woman's salary at the front desk at other gyms. So - if you are shopping for a gym in your area - see if you can find the Lords Gym. You'll feel pretty darn good when you leave. :)

Happy monday everyone! Have a great week!!

XO

Love the heat

Who ever had the excellent idea to start the 10K race this morning at 8am was on crack. I have never been sooooo freaking hot racing. And can I throw in there was no shade? And that for a part of it - we where directed to the wrong way? So the lead runners had to turn around - after running about a 1/2 mile off course. After that, I knew it was just going to be a training run.

The inaugural SunRun (I should have taken a cure from the name!) was this morning. A few of us got together to help support Gulf Coast Community College and brave the heat - and enjoy the post party. They had the awesome $25 a day beach rental chairs(the cushioned ones!) for us loung on along with a ton of food and a photographer that would take you photo - print it out (with the SunRun logo) and give it to you. YES. You read right - GAVE IT TO YOU. Take that ASI photography! Karen won the 10K overall, I was 6th (third in age group) and Jeff pulled the over all masters in the 10K. It was a fun morning - and even Jason came out to cheer us on :)





But other then that - nothing too exciting going on on the training front. Just running with some swimming and biking thrown in. I'm really getting excited about the ING marathon in Miami (or possibly another one closer in Jan)and just trying to get on a training schedule with the new job ...which is going awesome :)

For IMFL Jason and I are going to have a homestay - which we area very excited about. I ran into a friend of mine today who helps bring the athletes and homes together - and mentioned that we might be having a swiss pro. I CAN NOT WAIT!

Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!!!

Babies, Hurricane's, and TrueBlood

Another perfect baby has entered the world. On 9/10/09 at 6:03pm - the combo of Jake and Jennifer was brought into this world. Little Jacob is going to be nothing but trouble - but he is so freaking cute that he is going to get away murder! So congrats to the proud parents - and I can't wait to hang out with this little guy!




Ok - enough of the baby stuff. I was going to do a triathlon this morning - Beach Blast II in Mexico Beach. But when the alarm went off at 4:30am, well, it was a mini hurricane outside. So I turned on the weather channel - and guess what? Rain all along the panhandle all day. You have to love it when they say 'chance of rain, 100%' So I opted out - I didn't want to make the 1.5 hour drive to turn around and come home. Back to bed I went, and slept in until 7am!

But the down side of not racing (there is only one) is that now I have to do a speed workout today. I really hate the treadmill - but they are pretty helpful when it comes to speed work. So I'm on a mission to find a free treadmill to hop on today.

Good luck to everyone who is racing this weekend!

TRUE BLOOD!! Anyone watch it? Since we now have on-demand, I've been hooked on the 2nd season. Season one on DVD got me through my trainer workouts this winter - but season two is crazy as ever. PLEASE TELL ME SOMEONE ELSE IS AS HOOKED AS I AM! Freaking Club LaVela is having a 'True Blood' party tonight - I'm trying to talk big J into going, but he's not all about it. But talk about awesome people watching - my stealthy photographer skills will no doubt be put to the test. But LaVela is going all out - check out their ads:


There is no doubt in my mind that there are going to be some interesting people there tonight....

Running with someone new...

Kelly and I after a hot run

I'm a huge fan of training with people. And to be honest, I can not even tell you the last time I ran or biked alone (swimming does not count - you can't chat while you are underwater!) So when a new runner moved into town (not far from the new condo) and expressed the idea of wanting to join our group - we where excited. We like to call new people that train with us - or the ones who show up randomly - as guest stars and it's always exciting to have someone new in the mix.

Anyway, she lives in my new stomping grounds in Panama City Beach, and we decided to run this morning. Seven easy miles. And I was kind of nervous. Hadley is aiming to run a 3:10 marathon in Chicago. Wow. So we met at my place around 6:30 this morning. It was a great route that was pretty much the IMFL running course right along the beach. We just ran along and chatted. Stopped to check out the gulf and decided to run around a mile right long the waterline. The water was so beautiful - bright blue and flat with thunderheads in the back ground. Then we made our way back to North Lagoon and before we knew it - back at my place. It was a great run. According to good old red Garmin - at a 9min average pace.

Tied with the amazing 12 mile run I ran on Saturday with Kelly and Lisa - my running is feeling awesome. I think I've made it over the mental hump of holding back on my long runs. Thinking that I'll fizzle out if I go too fast. Leading me to believe that I might actually have a shot of qualifying for Boston in January. And it's all because of the people I train with. They know what I can do - and are willing to push me to reach my goals. Awesome. I feel so fortunate to having such great friends!


'Recovery' after the 12 miler on Saturday


IN OTHER NEWS:
New job is awesome. Love it. And I've been working on mastering the craft of using my Iphone. Feel free to forward any helpful apps that you might have!! And once I figure out how to move pictures from the phone to my computer - be preparied for random photos!

And now - I'm going to gripe a moment about football season. More specifically - Southern Football. I know nothing about it. I did not go to school at UGA or Florida State. So PLEASE DON'T PULL ME INTO THESE HARD CORE CONVERSATIONS and make take sides for something I could care less about. So, people at the bar, at work, at grocerie store, let me be....as I'm watching the FSU/Miami game right now. Ugh. Tis the season. :)