Who knew?

Who knew you could surf behind a ski boat?




Yesterday a training friend of mine, Alan, had a ton of people over at his family's lake house north of Panama City. And oh how fun it was. I could not tell you when the last time I was in a large body of water that was not full of salt. But it's so fun to hang out with everyone when we are not in race mode or training mode!


And it's always a bunch of laughs when you almost sink a kayak!

In training news - I got my ass handed to me this weekend. We had a great open water swim on Saturday - around 2 miles. Easy as pie going out, but hard as hell coming back. And then Jeff had the excellent idea to run. It was around 10am. And very very hot. Ugh. Today Jeff and I got in a killer 60ish mile bike out to the new Panama City Beach airport (which everyone should fly into because it has Southwest! whoohoo!). I avg around 19mph and just about died of heat stroke at the end.

Jeff - saving the world one turtle at a time:


And let me mention that Jeff is doing IM France in a few weeks! How exciting would that be? I've been to the shores of Nice, France (where the swim is) and it is breath taking! I can't wait to hear all about it!

Our beaches are still perfect - but we are all getting somewhat stressed out. Why can't all of the brillant minds (and all of the money) in the world come up with a way to stop this mess? If...when...it hits here...I don't know how I am going to feel. To be honest, my heart will break.

Oil Spill on Florida Beaches?

So...we searched for oil and so far found this on our beaches....

Peer Pressure

Not only am I doing this race:

But I also got suckered into this bad boy:

Anyone else?!?!?

Also - who watched the biggest loser last night?? Holy weight loss!

And no oil - our beaches are still perfect and blue!

Who likes free things?

Me! Me! Specially when it comes to Iphone apps. I was forwarded some information on a free app called Strands - the Ultimate Digital Training Log for Active People. I am all over the place all the time for work - so something like this will work perfect for me. Just another gadget to add to my OCD :) But I'm excited to try it out and see how it works. I'm always game for a new Iphone app. I will keep you posted on how it works out!

Well, we went fishing yesterday. All day. That is what Big J and I call a date, which I love. Caught a few fish and saw 100's of rays along the beach. We also came across a few hammerheads as we where running the beach looking for tarpon. With warmer waters - the sharks come closer to the beach. No biggie. I figure if I leave them alone, they will do the same. Hopefully. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to my open water swim this weekend :)

Sports bra tan lines - be gone! *poof!* At least until next weekend.

I also came accross these stickers -

Get it? I kind of like it...it just might go on the back of the jetta.

Hope everyone is having great week!

What time is it?

Most people hate Mondays and love the weekends. Well, I am the opposite. Mondays I work from home and it's also my off day. So I can wake up at a 'normal' hour - not when the bars close, like on the weekends.

This morning Big J had fishing charters (yes, our beaches are still oil free and are crystal blue)and his wake up time is 4am. So, I'm up with him. My alarm is set for 5 - so why not wake up early, enjoy some coffee, and watch some Suze Orman? Sounds like a good morning to me!

Per the schedule I needed 50 'just get in the mileage' ride today. So I threw out a post on the face as well on yahoo groups to see who wanted to head out with me. Thankfully, we had an awesome group! 6 people showed up at 6:30 and we had a wonderful 55ish mile ride in the back roads of Walton County. We where chased by a few random country dogs and almost got hit by grandma - but other then that, it reminded me why I love this sport so much. Good company, good (well, HOT, but good) weather, great pace, and beautiful scenery. This was well worth the 4am wake up.



This is Scott and Norton - Norton is new to our group and we where so happy he showed up to ride. He's also doing IMFL...and might be coached by my coach! Which is kind of odd...because his name is Scott...Norton. Hmm.

After the ride - Burk and I decided to head to the pool and jump in. Literally. I finally broke down and purchased a year pool pass (I've been using an expired one for a long time..whoops) and have been going to the pool as much as possible. Ahh..the cold water felt awesome. Ok. We did a few laps. Maybe 500 yards. But it felt great to stretch out.

I'm finally back into the swing of things after taking my week off. I had a 10 mile run on Thursday - which I had to do AFTER work since I slept through my alarm. Which I will never do again. It's hot here - and when that sun is either directly at your back, or right in your face, it's about 100000 worse. I learned my lesson. But I've been swimming like crazy, running like a fool, and biking like I stole the princess. And love every minute of it. Life is good. :)

Random question -
Does anyone have a 'triathlon room'? We have a spare room which is full of bikes, fishing poles, and surf boards. Oh yeah. A bed as well. But I'm slowing morphing it into our 'sports' room. Any suggestions on organization? It's right by our front door which makes it perfect just to throw stuff. I might go and walk around home depot organization area to get some ideas - but anything will be helpful!

Random Picture:

Here are our flowers from the wedding last week. ALL of the flowers either came from the brides back yard or her mothers. And they where perfect. You will also see the best idea ever when it comes to adult beverages - Sophias. Little cans of champagne that have pink 'flex' straws. Ahhh..perfect.

Gatorade...have we seen this before?

Is it just me or is this new Gatorade 'G Series' something what we (as triathletes and long distance fools) have seen before? I have yet to try any of these products - but the 'prime' reminds me of Hammer Gel, GU, or any of the other yummy handy gels we all love so much. And the 'recover' kind of brings back the feelings of ONE or any other recovery drink.

Does anyone else feel this way? Has anyone tried this product? Thoughts? Feelings?

This has been bothering me since I saw the first commercial. Brings back the same feeling I had when Nike got involved with the sport of swimming.

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Ohhhh Kansas City

How I love my friends in Kansas City. I am so blessed to have such an amazing group of girls that no matter how long we go with out seeing each other - we still have an amazing time. And seem to drink enough wine to..well..ummm..to feel like we are the best dancers in the world. A huge congrats to Sarah and Adam - they are such an awesome couple:

And thanks mom for coming over to Kansas City for the wedding!

So I really took advantage of my 'rest' week. Love it.

Oh yeah - no spray tan. Did not make it into KC on time. But Sarah was ok with my sweet tan lines. But the mani and pedi people did some magic on my toes - so now my feet look somewhat normal!

Now I'm itching to get back into the game - and coach knows it. I have some ass kicking few weeks ahead of me. Bring it on. I'm ready!

So I'm watching the biggest loser (eating captain crunch - yummo) and they make those guys finish the marathon on the freaking SAND!?!? WTF? I would be pissed if I had to run the last 1/2 mile on the beach. To be honest - I would not even do a marathon if it finished on the beach. But congats to the orange team - he rocked it out in like 4:02!!

Oil Watch - thankfully our beaches in PCB are still perfect.

Wedding Time...!!!

Bridesmaid Dress - Check
Glass of wine - Check
Pink Compression Socks - Check


It's time for a wedding. One of my best friends up in Kansas City is having her big day on Saturday and I would not be more excited. Except I am going to be venturing into an unknown area - the spray tan. I have some pretty killer tan lines right now, and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have an orange glow to my skin!

Oil Report: We're still in the clear for the next few days.

Cheribundi

Do you like cherries? I LOVE them. I'm a seasonal fruit kind of girl - and when cherry season comes around, I'm on cloud nine. Well, the other day I got this in the mail:

Heaven. In. A. Bottle. This stuff is amazing. Personally, I'm a fan of the Whey Cherry. This is a great tasting post workout recovery drink.

Now, I'm not a dietitian and I'm not trying to tell you that Cheriboundi is going to help you lose weight or cut an hour off of your half ironman. I am all about how something tastes and how it makes me feel. And this bottle full of cherry goodness tastes great and puts a smile on my face. Check out their site Cheriboundi when you get the chance.

Oil Report...none here...yet. Our beaches are still full of sugar white sands and lovely blue waters. BUT I did go to a BP meeting last night where they are trying to recruit captains and their boats to help out with the 'booms' and other oil removing items. Not sure about the contract they passed out. And I'm just going to leave it at that. So folks, please do not purchase BP gas if you can. We are all waiting for the hurricane to hit, but we are not sure when, where, or how hard it is going to hit.

Oil Free Gulf Coast Triathlon

Gulf Coast...well, I'm not sure how to put the distance since I got RAILED on slowtwitch.com for calling it a 70.3. SO I guess I will say it is a 1.2 mile swim, 56mile bike, and a 13.1 mile bike. :) I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet.

Swim:
The swim was rough. Really rough. It was hard to keep an eye on the buoys and stay on course. Thankfully I have been spending some quality time in the gulf, so I felt pretty strong. But it was still challenging. The two waves before my wave where HUGE - so I got beat up pretty bad half way through. I love getting kicked in the eye, specially while wearing Swedish goggles. I finally hit the beach, and fell. I literally fell on my knees. I'm not sure who has done a rough open water swim, but at least when I get out I feel like I have a pretty good martini buzz going on. No biggie, just hoped up and kept on going. Swim time: 37ish. Not my best, but I'll take it.




Bike:
The bike is pretty close to the IMFL bike course. You go out on Front Beach, up 79 highway, out on 388 and back. The wind was pretty random and blew me around Front Beach going out pretty bad. But once I made the turn north I was feeling good. I was by myself for most of the bike (which I guess is a good thing). But these roads are what I train on - so mentally I just thought of the race as another training ride. And we totally lucked out with the weather. For most of the race it was overcast...love it. Back onto Front Beach I had a shit eating grin on my face because my legs felt so good. Time 2:50ish, ave 19mph-ish (sorry I don't have the actual break downs yet of the times)





Run:
Hopped off of the bike feeling awesome. Grabbed my hammer gels and took off. Nothing too exciting going on in the run. Actually, nothing really exciting happened the whole race which is a good thing! Just one foot in front of the other. By the time I hit the dreaded state park loop (for those of you who have done this race or IMFL you know what I'm talking about) I started wearing down. I wanted to keep under a 9min pace, but my body just laughed at me. But guess who came out of no where right when I got out of the park? MY COACH! It was so awesome to see him out there!! So the last five miles he would randomly ride by me to keep me going. Total run time: 2:09ish.



Finishing the race was great. I LOVE LOVE LOVE local races. Just knowing people when you cross the finish line is so awesome. I've done so many races where you cross the line, hand over your chip, get your medal and just walk along. But this race I knew everyone working the finish line. I just get chill bumps thinking about the smiles and hugs from everyone when I crossed that line.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I cut 30 minutes from my last PR! 5:42! 9th in the 30-34 age group! (Ok, I still can't stand to write 30 on my leg. I have until October!)


Congrats to everyone who raced and a huge shout out to the amazing volunteers we had out there.

Also, happy mother's day to all of the mom's out there! I love you mom!

What a week!

I was in Orlando all week for work...besides work, I'll explain the last 5 days in photos:

So, when did a treadmill turn so high tech? I'm not going to lie, it took me about 5 minutes to figure this bad boy out:



And the best breakfast in Orlando:

And I think the cleaning ladies where a bit thrown off by my foam roller:

Pretty exciting :)

But guess what tomorrow is? Gulf Coast Triathlon! Whoohoo! 70.3 miles of pure bliss. And, with everyones sigh of relief, we are having the swim. The oil spill has not made it into our area....yet. But there was something kind of odd at check in....can you pick it out?



The princess is racked up and ready to have an outside sleep over:


I would also like to throw out a huge shout out to the 'shake-n-bake' boys from St. Anthonys:



Hope everyone has a great weekend and good luck to everyone else who is racing!