Two Ears One Mouth

It's been busy busy around these parts lately so I apologize for being a bit sporadic. Of course there are tons of life happenings but none of those things matter right now because it's IRON WEEK in Louisville and this is the biggest week of my life. Seriously. For no real reason other than excessive fangirling. It's no surprise that I'm thoroughly obsessed with fit people and when Ironman Louisville comes to town my composure runeth over and I geek out to an extraordinary level. Last night began the festivities with a Night with the Pros event hosted at PCUSA  with Angels in Disguise and Sweaty Sheep Ministries (which also happens to be my church). 5 pro triathletes showed up to do a fun Q & A and tell us more about themselves and it was an absolute blast! My only negative from the night is that I wore a shirt that does NOT photograph well but I don't even care because I was in the presence of greatness! L to R: Mike Hermanson , Guy Crawford , Kate Bevi...

Remember that time I swam in the river and had a panic attack and had to sing It's a Small World over and over while a kayaker looked on and pitied me? No? Read about that here . Anyway, I tried it again yesterday and thankfully did much better! I don't panic in open water anymore (hallelujah!) so I already had a huge advantage over the last time. The swim wasn't until 9:15 so The Colonel and I just woke up like we normally do for work which was a nice change over the normal before dawn wake up calls. Unfortunately we woke up to rain which was going to continue throughout the morning. I've never swam or raced a tri in the rain so this was new territory but I just pretended it was a run and reminded myself that weather is always something we just have to put up with. We got to the site and saw a couple from church I'm trying to court into friendship with us so it was fun getting to chat with them. The husband will be an Ironman in a few weeks so definitely a little...

Let's Tarentino this report. I finished the swim! Our cyclist finished the ride! Our runner finished the run! We finished the race (and in less than 7 hours!) So how did it go? Let's go back...and I'll warn you, it's a long one. Much like every race report. I bought new goggles with better tint since everyone in the Muncie Facebook group who had raced before said if the sun was out it would be blinding after the second turn. I drove to the pool and did a quick 20 minutes to make sure they fit and shake out a little energy. Thursday night I got everything packed up since we were leaving Friday afternoon after my much needed massage. As usual I had a little help getting things together. But he's generally more into directing since he doesn't have thumbs.  Friday afternoon my sister and I hit the road for the 3 hour drive. We opted against using the highway the whole way since construction is crazy and unpredictable. The winding country roads kept things int...

Can somebody please explain to me how it's July 11th? If I feel this crazy before a half iron relay it's probably for the best that I wimped out of Raleigh! I've been cruising along all week feeling pretty ok, even this morning I was alright. And then I got on the internet. It's that typical pre-race panic that accompanies every race but this one is on roids. Probably because this is something I've never done before. So it's like the first time all over again, except I think I'd forgotten what it felt like. But then I find a calm when I think back to my very first open water swim. I can now look back on it with a smile and a sense of pride unique to that experience and swimming in general. I posted yesterday on my various social media accounts about how far I've come as a swimmer. I still have trouble typing that without quotes. When I first tried this swimming for fitness thing out I couldn't make it 25 meters. I couldn't tread water w...

Good Morning! I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July weekend! I'm not a huge fan of holidays in general, being a creature of habit and schedules and all but 4th of July is particularly troublesome for me because I also don't like staying up late or loud noises. I'm beyond old lady status. But on the bright side the incessant noise scored me some extra cuddles with my pup who after a full day of just being angry and barking at the noise gave in to her fear. I tried to carry on as normal as possible all weekend but I've got big things happening this July and it's making me totally CRAZY. Saturday is the Ironman Muncie relay and if you recall, I was dumb enough to claim the swimmer spot. I've raced a lot so it's not like I'm not used to training, tapering, carbing, butterflies and being generally insane but this is different. All of the races I've done have been on land or at least had a land component but this swim only thing is just co...

How many of you have had a training injury or a chronic injury that impedes your training? I'm sure there's some kind of statistic that says the likelihood of injury among those who participate in regular physical activity is relatively high and actually it's probably not too far off from the statistic of those who are injured performing everyday activities. Our bodies are not invincible despite their ability to endure repeated punishment in various forms. Perhaps the best part about our bodies is their adaptability followed closely by its ability to repair itself. Everyday, cells are dropping dead and even the healthiest of people are experiencing some kind of harm to their bodies whether it's just breathing in toxins or aging yet we still manage incredible feats every single day. There's no way to completely shield yourself from harm but what's more important is to not further the damage or let your ego be its cause. No athlete likes to rest. It's ...

Hello again! We all obviously know that I've been away for a while so let's just move on shall we? One of the things I've been doing in my absence has been swimming... a lot . Or at least a lot more than I ever have. I signed up with a relay team for Ironman 70.3 Muncie and I was dumb enough to be the swimmer so I spend about 4 days per week in the water in hopes to not be pulled from the race due to not making the time cutoff (which is a very real possibility). Since it's warm enough to be wetsuit free I'm trying to take advantage of as much open water time as possible and that included signing up for a 2k swim at Freeman Lake in Elizabethtown (just like the movie, except this was real life and we were all less attractive). source This wasn't a race, it was officially called an open water swimming clinic so very few of the people there had the normal intensity that can be seen in races. There were the serious athletes of course but I think we all k...

How was your weekend? It was a wet one here. Very, very wet. So wet in fact that we made The Weather Channel's Facebook page! Yes, I liked The Weather Channel on Facebook. Anyway, due to the weather both group workouts planned with a few of the lovely ladies from my tri club fell through so aside from a quick and hilly (oxymoron?) 3 miler early Saturday morning I didn't do much to get moving over the weekend. Since I'm in a full taper now for the marathon (did someone say 2 weeks from yesterday?) in addition to wrapping myself in bubble wrap and preventative ace bandages I've also been trying out KT Tape to see if it could do some work on my mysterious leg injury and nagging hip ailment. I think the only reason anyone knows what KT tape is is because of the lovely Kerri Walsh, I mean, she's even on the box! Anything I can do to A: replicate Kerri Walsh and B: cure myself before getting to the start I'm willing to do so I headed out to Fleet Feet ...