It seems to me that lately, every entry on my blog starts with "it's been a long time since i have written :)". It is true! It has been pretty busy around here with work, TRAINING, and friends recovering from surgery :). Training has seriously picked up and I do not think I've ever trained this hard or have been so diligent about it. I just do not want to suck @#$ in 5 weeks. My God, 5 weeks and I will complete my first half-ironman, and 6 months after, my first full. It's a huge year for me full of trial and error and I am a little freaked! I am blessed to have people around me that have wisdom and experience that I can go to and rely on. Thank you, my peeps!!!

I do have two sandbaggers in the family: my mom and Steven. My mom is totally ready to do her first triathlon, she has been training like forever, and Steven, who on account of me had to incoroprate a lot of half training, eventhough he is only doing a sprint! There is a group on facebook, dedicated just to him, it is called Spencer should do Gulfcoast!

A couple of weeks ago, my team Lunachix and I went to Cali and did some training and bonding. Let me just say, the training made the gaps look like rollers!

Random pics

Snow in Atl
Suck it up buttercup ride
Offender #1 BOO Offender #2 OSCAR

Snickers half marathon

What a trip! We arrived to Albany after 5pm due to moronic drivers and too many cops on the road. Picked up the race packets and of course a new t-shirt for me that says "toenails are for sissies" and headed to a on a dumpy side Holiday Inn. Ate dinner and hit the sack, since we had to get up at 4:45. My idea, of course.
4:45am and I am up with out an alarm clock. Super nervous. Why? It's just a running race. Well, I really wanted to PR and get as close to 1:40 as I could. I had 5 dookouts. What the hell is wrong with me? Does this mean before Ironman it will be 10?!!!
So, we are waiting at the start line, and I am into my music, when this blast goes off and I am ready for dookout number 6.....it was the cannon.
It was really foggy, so I could only see a couple of runners up. The weather was really good, not too hot and not too cold. No issues and no drama during the race. My goal was to hold a constant pace and I did it, give or take a few seconds. The course was a bit long, 13.3. The support was awesome, except for a chick smoking at a water stop. Of course, I gave her an evil look!
When I crossed the finish line, the clock read 1:42. Super excited!
So, Steven (2:05) and Bob (2:03) and I were having a few beers at the finish line, when we decided to look up the results, and OMG, there was a number 1 next to my name! I won my age group. That was cool!
I still think that all the fast peeps stayed home!
Props to Sue, who qualified for Boston once again! Which is my goal for next year.

Thrill in the hill

Seriously? What kind of a name is it?
So, it's 5 am and I start checking my cell for messages like the race is cancelled, it's raining, change of plans, Tat, stay in bed, this is a bad idea, etc. Nothing. I start to worry, like am I really going out there in this crappy weather to run a half marathon? What a stupid idea. None the less, an hour later I find myself sitting in a back seat of a Honda Element with Bob driving and Sue and Steven in the car. I think to my self, what a bunch of morons! I whine, bitch, moan and complain the whole way out there. Oh, did I mention it was cold and rainy?
We get to Ft Yargo, pick up our numbers, stay in line at the porter-pottie and go back to the car to warm up. Meanwhile, I am still crying for my momma! Around 8:15 we line up to start, on the bottom of this huge hill. Covered with finest Georgia clay and mud. Yeah, I wore my favorite pink shirt just for this!!!
I have to admit, I never had as much fun in a race as I did this one, I have I never ran a harder race that this one. It was hilly, muddy, full of deep puddles. No, deep ones! There was one, where the water went up to my waist! I hooked up with a guy who was running at a pretty good pace, and we took turns leading. Since a lot of the course was a single track, passing people was tricky. I never knew I could be so graceful! Did not fall one time! Hard to believe for those of you who know me, huh?
Well, my goal was first, to finish of course and to get a medal that was given out to the first 300 peeps. And I did both, yeah! 2:07/4Th AG. I strongly recommend this race to everyone, may be under different conditions. Even though, getting muddy was a lot of fun! If I knew how to ride a mountain bike? Hmmm. Exterra racing?

Suck it up, buttercup.

This weekend I decided to suck it up and ride. At 6:30am on Sunday, phone calls started pouring in and peeps asking me if I still was planning to ride. Yeah, I told 'em. We headed out to SCT and wheels were down at 11. For the most part, the ride was very pleasant, other than 25 mph windgusts. My 6 layers held up and I was not cold at all.
Props to Laurie, Phil and Bob- the rest of the gang who went out in the cold! 50 miles.

BLAH

Today I am feeling kind of tired. Don't feel like training. Woke up and saw how behind on housework I am. Not a good feeling. So, I will knock it out, and make up today's workout tomorrow.
If you don't got it, you just don't got it. :-)

You know that you are a triathlete, if you ask what a record on a treadmill is in a cardiac stress test lab is. And beat it!
(It's a true story and a person shall remain nameless). Yeah, you know who you are!!!!!