Two Ears One Mouth

Today was my sister's pinning ceremony as she just graduated from nursing school! for the first time but not the last because she's going to go to school forever just like I hope to... True to form we got in a morning workout and an afternoon/evening nap and most importantly, a meal. Here are some pictures. The Graduate Valedictorian and Leadership Awards! Both of us Now, at the risk of sounding like a bitch conceited person, I actually think I look pretty good! I've really been working hard over the past few months and I think it's really starting to pay off. I've not only changed my workout and food habits but I've also changed my thought habits. I'm making a real deliberate effort to think positively and honestly think that has made more of a difference in my life than any amount of weight loss or fitness status. Of course I still get negative and grumpy and all but those moments don't last nearly as long because I don't let them. So just for co...

Hooray!!!! I can swim again! These past 5 days have been brutal on me and especially on those around me. You know when you're around a smoker who really needs a cigarette and you both want to strangle each other? That was my life. Apparently I'm addicted to exercise and I was off of it cold turkey. Long story short, those bad days are behind us and today I was back in the pool! I swam a solid 300m and felt pretty good about it. I followed it with a 5 mile bike ride that was ridiculously difficult. Too much too fast? And without a proper breakfast or dinner the night before? Yeah, probably just an all around recipe for disaster. But I feel great that I'm back in the game. ONLY ONE MONTH UNTIL THE TRIATHLON!!!! AHHHHHHH!

So it's finally happened. My first actual triathlete training injury has occurred. About a week ago, the day I had a lightbulb aha! moment in the pool and felt like I was doing a real live beautiful perfect stroke, I hurt my shoulder. No big deal. As a wannabe triathlete you really can't pay attention to every single ouchie that comes into your path. At any given time over the past 2 months or so there is always something on me that hurts. That's normal right? Not like sobbing, can't make it through the day pain but something is always at least a little sore. The worst part about the shoulder is that I've never had a shoulder injury. As a former runner, when I pull a hamstring or have a tight calf, there's no worry. I've done it before, I'll do it again and it'll heal up. But this shoulder thing? What do I doooo?! Being a good little semi-athlete I decided to take the rest of the week off from swimming. Rest, ice, ibuprofen blah blah...to no avail. G...

I spent a large amount of time today on the Beginner Triathlete website and feel so much more informed, excited, and inspired! Coming off reading article after article about swimming technique, drills and horror stories I hopped in the pool and had the best swim yet! I was rotating and balancing and sighting and catch-up drilling my tail off! This is the halfway point in my training (6 weeks in training and 6 weeks from the race) and I was really starting to get worried and almost discouraged by the swimming. I learned to ride a bike in 3 weeks and am already up to a solid 10 miles (which is race distance). My running continues to increase and I'm right there with it and past 3 miles (which is race distance). But the swimming...dear God the swimming! So today I read the most influential words that could have ever been displayed across a computer screen, at least for me. "Just practice swimming slowly. Make each stroke deliberate and swim in a slow and controlled fashion."...

I'm so excited to announce that I logged 33 miles last week on dailymile ! I never thought it a million years I would be logging 10 miles let alone over 30! I ended up taking an extra rest day last week since I just felt tired and sluggish and had pulled my hamstring a little the week before and it really paid off! My run was borderline easy and really felt great. There are times when I think "Omg there's no way I can do a triathlon! What was I thinking?!" but then I have tools like dailymile where I can look and see that I've been making real progress and I just get so much more excited and motivated. Today starts week 5 of my training plan and it's making the big leap from 5 to 6 days of workouts. Eek! Wish me luck!