The Spirit of the Marathon

Let me see if I can post this..



Hopefully it will work. This is such a great movie that came out on DVD this week. Does not matter if you run or not, but it's totally inspirational. Plus I love a good documentry. Enjoy!

Since I figured out how to finally post videos - I'm going to put this one up to. It's just too funny.

Guests

My mother and Grandmother are heading down to Floida this weekend to spend some time with my sister and I. Originally, it was just going to be mom, but Grandmother wanted to come down as well. The more the merrier! But that means we'll have to seriously deep clean the condo before they get down here. Good times.

Training wise - a friend of mine lent me her sweet tri bike until I get my own. It's a Fuji and I love it. It has clips and thankfully I have yet to crash and burn with my feet still attached to the pedals! We've been having a group ride every Sunday morning which is usually around 45-50 miles and then jump off the bikes and run 5 miles or so. It sucked real bad at first - but not it's not nearly as bad. Gotta love training.

I have a sprint triathlon this weekend which my mom is going to go to with me. It's her first one - so I'm pretty pumped that she'll get to see it!

Oh yeah - now I'm 28. Ugh.

Recap of my 27th year:
Still living in Florida
Still working the same job
Jumped into Triathlons and love it - or addicted to it (and my abs look great!)
Got rid of the sports car and now have a 4 door Jetta
Some how made it into a huge fishing magazine with a sweet speckled trout I caught
SIGNED UP FOR 70.3 NEW ORLEANS!

Hmm...kind of a non-eventful year. Well, at least for me. But my best friend Gina got married and is now a Jolly! Kim and Joe are walking down the isle soon and so are so many other friends. Congrats to them!!

Beach Blast 2008

Today was race day for me - THANK GOODNESS racing season is starting back up after the summer heat stall. Anyway- let me start off my race report with last night. Thunder Beach is starting this weekend - which is when billions of bikers take over Panama City Beach. It's like spring break on crack. Instead of underage horney college students, we have to deal with of age old men that have $$ and are cruising around on expensive bikes. Ugh. Granted I do not live in PCB, but the boyfriend does. Last night I stayed at his place because it was cloaser to the race. Needless to say - neither of us got more then 2 hours sleep due to the constant sound of loud ass motorcycles. Ughghghgh. Why do people think that when they are on vacation they can irritate the people who live there?!?! Why!?!?

Ok - off of my rant.

Got up at about 4:15 (well - already up) and headed over to my friends Lisa's house - packed up the bikes and headed to Mexico Beach for the Beach Blast Triathlon. Got there - weather was a bit chilly. But once the sun came out it was awesome. After we got all makred up with our numbers and set up our transition area, we headed down to the beach. The swim was awesome, hopped out of the water and ran what felt like a mile (and probably was pretty close to it) to the transition area. Jumped on the bike and headed off. The bike course was amazing - back county roads with very little traffic. Probably felt stronger then any bike I've done before. The transition from the bike to the run was pretty quick. Needless to say, the race was overall pretty good. I PR'ed in my Tri Sprint time by 2 min and got 3rd in my age group and got a mug. Go me. Unofficial time 1:30:23

My friend Lisa who did the Olympic distance race cut off about 35 min from her last race. 35 MIN! AMAZING! She's been training for Ironman Florida - and it's paid off!! Go Lisa!

Workout Related

Yeah Fridays!

Monday: 4.5 mile run. Easy pace
Tuesday: Speed work / yoga*
Weds: 7.5 miles (8:30 pace) 3200 swim
Thursday: Woke up to swim at 5:30am - 56 outside. Went back to bed :) Off day
Friday: 4.5 mile run (8:15 pace)
Satuday: Beach Blast Tri!
Sunday: Group ride

Saturday is the beach blast tri in Mexico Beach. It should be a really fun race. There are a few people that I train with who are racing and Jason is coming as well. The weather should be perfect - so it will be a great day!

Yoga*: So, I started a new yoga group. Sharron the teacher is a true 'yogie' and I love it. Relaxing but brutal. I love the stretching - plus it helps me from getting injured!

It's been too long

Ok - I'm back in the swing of things again. Here is what's been going on in my life for the past few weeks:

#1 I've signed up for a few triathlons, one being HALF IRON MAN NEW ORLEANS! (go me!)
#2 I have learned how to surf - thanks to Hurricane Ike
#3 My camera broke :(
#4 My training is in full force now - pretty much swimming, biking, running or doing yoga about every day
#5 Officially I can't stay up later then 9:30pm
#6 I'm in the process of possibly purchasing a tri-bike (yesssss....!!!!!)

I'll try to keep on top of this blog thing!!

Workout Related

So - I'm going to start doing this every Friday. Kind of like a 'review' of my workouts of the week.
Saturday - 30 miles on the bike/3400yd swim
Sunday-Yard work (counts in my book!)
Monday-Off (weather)
Tuesday-4.5 mile run
Weds- Off (weather)
Thursday-Off (weather)
Friday- 8.5 mile run
Ok - this week was kind of off due to the awesome rain we've had down here. Plus I've been picking up a few babysitting jobs after work, so that has been taking up some time.

Not to mention how AWESOME the Olympics have been this year! I've been glued.

Ahh..St. Louis

The trip back to St. Louis was great. My family lives in St. Louis Hills - so they are pretty much in the middle of everything. We had such a great time going to all of the little bars and doing all of the 'tourists' things - such as touring the BUDWEISER plant for the 110th time. But it's always fun. My dad wanted to go because it might just shut down due to the buy out. Touring the plant always reminds me of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. People working, big machines, lots of 'do not enter' signs - but lots of goodness being produced every day :)

So - after the tour, we went to Cafe Venice which is right around the corner. The bar it's self is very small - but has amazing random pieces of 'art' all over the walls. Great food, great atmosphere, amazing bands, and a breathtaking court yard. If you are EVER in the St. Louis area CHECK IT OUT! Here is their site: http://www.thevenicecafe.com/ Since is was the middle of the day, the upstairs (aka Safari room) was closed, but since my dad's old frat brother owns the place the cook took us on a tour. Ahhh...what a great day with the family :)

Since the family is full of runners, we had our 'track team' pretty much out ever morning. My dad kept on thinking that my Garmin beeping at every mile was my cell phone - but now wants a Garmin himself :) We ran Forest Park a few times which was amazing and also a few other parks around the house. Love St. Louis. What a great trip home!