Update!!

Well... I'm still alive! :)

One week of Disney with a Four and a Five year old is A LOT of work!! :)

However, it's been fun and I have a ton of pictures, but the internet at the house we're staying at is too slow for uploading the pictures, and honestly I'm so tired, I am going to have to write that long blog later this weekend!

Tomorrow we have that LONG drive home (thank goodness for portable car DVD players! :) , and then it's RIGHT back to work with a 5 hour brick on Sunday!

I haven't been totally off the radar. I've done some trainer rides and have seriously walked close to 10 miles a day at Disney! Adam's phone as that pedometer on it, and OMG we walked around so stinking much it's CRAZY!!

AND.... I have been sick! Can you believe it??? Adam's convinced I'm now allergic to vacation! :) On Tuesday I had a sinus attack, and so have been blowing my nose and hacking my lungs out like some sort of crazy woman! I feel better today though, so hopefully I'm on the upswing of that!

So... I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I'll post pictures as soon as the dust settles from all the travelling and training this weekend! Have a great one Everyone!!
K :)

St. Anthony's: Kicking off the Tri Season!

Well.... It has officially begun! Tri season is here, and I raced St. Anthony's yesterday to kick off my season.

It was a lot of fun! By far the biggest race I've ever done before! 4500 people... WOW!! That is a lot of people. 32 Swim waves, and I was in like 28 of the 32. So LOTS of waiting around! Honestly, not the biggest fan of the waiting... I get too nervous! I need to get in there and get it done. Sitting around for 2 hours before you start, those butterflies just build up!

Adam hung out with me a little bit in the beginning, so it went by pretty quickly, but still!

The weekend went by so quickly as well!

We arrived around 6:30pm in St. Petersburg at the house we rented. The house was AWESOME!! It was a young man's home that rented it out for vacation, and though it was an older home, he had completely restored it, and it was so nice!

The house was full of beautiful furniture and unique decorative items. It had a huge flat screen t.v. with all kinds of movies and games for the kids and a couch that you could seriously live in it was so comfortable!

The outside was the best! He had this little backyard pond on the side where our new friend Boris lived. He was the pet turtle who is very much like Rocky in that he loves to eat! We kept feeding him turkey and so everytime he saw us, he'd come up to us expecting food. Then there was a pool with 3 separate cabana areas... It was great!

So we got somewhat settled in, and then Saturday was so busy!

By the time you do your quick swim, bike, and run, get checked in, check out the expo, check your bike in, etc... It was like 2pm! I promised the kids we'd go to the beach, so we headed over to the public beach area at around 3pm. Ok... it was like Spring Break all over again! We went to this place called Crabby's for lunch and it was seriously a meat factory! Boy's and girls all over who thought they were WAY hotter than they actually were! It was funny!

And I have a declaration.... and if this offends you, I'm sorry... I'm just telling it like it is!

NO ONE... No matter how beautiful, fit, tan, in shape, toned, etc you are.... NO ONE.... should wear a thong! It's not attractive... PERIOD! I was eating for crying out loud... I do not want to see your rear!

Ok, so I've went off on a tanget... Sorry :)

So before I know it, it's Sunday morning!

I did my waiting as I mentioned earlier.... and then the swim...

The swim was kind of rough. I was hoping for it to be faster than I did, but you know... you live and learn. The water was rough and we were swimming against the current for the majority of it. Sighting has always been a problem for me, so I really focused on it this time. I think I did really well with it! But I couldn't navigate very well. Coming in on one of the last swim waves, by the time we got to the first turn, I was swimming amongst 2 other swim cap colors. I was trying to grab hold of someones feet that I thought I could hang with, but the only feet I kept finding were those of the slower ladies 2 groups ahead of me that were doing the breast stroke. So I kept having to swim around all of those people and couldn't really get into any sort of a groove. So when I came out of the water and looked at my watch, I was thinking... CRAP! But, I just chugged along and knew I'd catch up on the bike...

T1 Freaked me out a bit too because I knew I was feeling like it was taking forever... However, I looked at the other girls in my age-groups splits, and a lot of people were kind of slower too...Still something I feel I need to work on. So off to the bike!

I knew it was supposed to be a technical course with 40 turns. So I told Coach Jen I wanted a 1:07, and she said push for 1:10. Again, coming off the back, that's just that many more people to try to navigate around, so times get slower towards the end. So we decided a 1:10 would be good. Well, I felt GREAT on the bike! I was flying and things were going really well. I have this little thing I like to play while I'm on the bike racing and that's I don't want to get passed by any girl! And there was this one girl that kept trying to pass me. She passed me 2 times, and I kept just pushing for my opportunity to catch her. I felt like she'd lose some speed towards the end. Fortunately, I caught her in one of the last turns and came in without allowing anyone to pass! Some girl in my age group did beat my bike split by 13 sec. So I ended up with the 2nd fastest, but I held true to my no pass rule, and came in at 1:07 exactly! I was very happy with that!

The run was freaking HOT! Maybe it won't seem that hot in a couple of months. Living in Georgia, I get used to serious heat and humidity, but my body isn't acclimated to it now. So it seriously hurt! But I did push it to the best of my ability I think. I finished with nothing left to give, and that's all I can ask for. It wasn't as fast as I'd like... but I guess we can almost always say that. :)

But the good news is that this was my 3rd Olympic Distance triathlon. My previous times were a 2:48:59 at Tugaloo in 2006, a 2:50:49 at Chattanooga Waterfront in 2007 with a 2 min. penalty and yesterday I finished with a 2:29:35. Almost a 20 min drop in my times on that distance, so a new MUCH better PR, and I'm definitely happy about that! Plus, I ended up with 8th in my age-group, so that was great! And I walked away with a lot of stuff that I've learned so I can get ready for Hawaii 70.3 in less than 5 weeks!!

Oh.... and my hip/butt/leg did pretty well! I loaded up on some advil right before the race to take the edge off and by the time I got to the run, I never really felt it! All that adrenaline had me going! :) So that was good, and it isn't really that bad today either, so hopefully with a week's worth of "recovery" here at Disney, I'll be ready to go full speed ahead next week!! :)

And of course the best part of the trip was getting to meet some of my favorite blogger friends! I met Jen of course in person and Bree. I hate that I never met up with Brooke or Beth. I honestly did look for you Brooke in a blue swim cap at the swim start!

Congratulations to everyone on a super race! Amy W... you did great! Bree, Jen, Beth all had amazing races! Let's go get 'em girls!!
K :)

My internet is slow... so I can't post pictures now, but I will add them this afternoon!

Leiphemer and Hincapie Up Close and Personal!!

(Rock and Republic Rocking it Out!)

Today was the BEST day!!

I had the amazing opportunity of getting to watch Stage 4 of the Tour de Georgia today! And not only that, I got the hook-up from the sister of a friend to get an All Access pass!!

It was soooo much fun!

VIP tent with lots of yummy free food and drink, then entrance into the area where the riders get ready to take off. We were literally close enough to rub elbows with them. :)

It was a really cool stage to watch! It was a Team Time Trial. Doesn't happen that often in cycling races, but it's a little bit of a different perspective on just an individual time trial. You've got your whole team pulling and driving for you!

The 15 teams rode a 2.5 mile loop inside of Road Atlanta. It's a road track used for motorcycle racing and some race car races. The had to make 4 trips around it for a total of 10 miles and it was NOT flat. It would have been CRAZY hard to do that today! It was HOT. It was HILLY!! 10 miles all out with very little recovery.

You're thinking... "Wow, how is Kellye so familiar with this course?" Because I got to do the coolest thing ever today!! One of the Marshall's let me ride on the back of his motorcyle behind the CSC team!! AHHH!! It was seriously so much fun! And that team was so stinking fast and we rode so fast and tight in the turns. It was amazing!!

And ladies... just for your viewing pleasure...

Hincapie cute as always!

And I have a little crush on Levi! I mean I just want to rub that little bald head!!

Off to Florida tomorrow!! St. Petersburg here I come! We're down to 0 days of waking up once we make it to tomorrow morning, so off we go! We're all very excited, even the pug who will have company while we're gone! :)

Speedy good vibes to everyone racing this weekend. Even my friends at home racing John Tanner!! GO GO GO!!

K :)

45 min!!

Well...today I was FINALLY able to run my entire scheduled run! 45 min... Whoo hoo!!

My instructions were to keep on running as long as pain was in areas A and B and not in areas C and D!!

Those instructions I can follow. And the good news was pain was only in the appropriate designated areas! :)

It also helped that I am STILL trying to figure out how to run with orthotics but without socks. It seems like everytime I forget at least one little spot to bodyglide and that undoubtedly turns into the unexpected shouldn't be there blister...

So I ended up with this ENORMOUS blister on my right big toe that seriously encompasses my entire toe! It hurt like crazy so it helped take away from all the other aches and pains... but in the meantime I was trying to continue to run without trying to run funny because of my blister...

So it was an interesting not very pretty run... but a RUN NONETHELESS!! :)

I guess this has been a new experience for me because I haven't been out of the game, but I'm not entirely in it either. I've either been healthy, doing my thing, or injured to the point that I had to sit out for 2 weeks or so and then ease back in. I've never really had to figure out how to keep playing but on a limited basis, so it's hard to fight those voices in your head telling you to get a grip and work through things that the rational voice says to take it easy on...

The whole push through the pain/no don't push through it stop battle has seriously wore me out these past few weeks! So today when I was given specific pain instructions, that helped! :)

But were getting there... it's getting better... and hopefully the GROOVE will be back by Sunday!

Thanks for reading! Good night!
K :)

Calling All St. Anthony's Triathletes!!

Hey Guys!!

I know there are a bunch of us racing this coming weekend at the St. Anthony's race, and I'd LOVE for all of us to get the opportunity to meet up!

I know it's going to be busy crazy, and I know that a bunch of us will be there with family. But I've already alerted mine that I really want to meet up with all my blogger friends down there!

So.... I'm headed down there on Friday. Plan on arriving Friday evening and doing the whole packet pick up probably on Saturday morning. I don't know if some of you might want to try to get together for lunch or dinner or even coffee/juice (for you Bree :), I'd really love it, so just let me know!!

Can't wait you guys!!

Oh... and BTW: Thanks so much to everyone for all the encouraging words on my hip/butt/back issues :) It really has meant a lot to me. I ran today for 30 minutes, and it went pretty well. Still not pain FREE, but it is definitely getting better, and I did an ice bath afterwards and more pt and more rest and massage, stretching, etc. etc.... You name it... I'LL TRY IT!! At this point, you tell me that if I rubbed mashed up bugs on it it would help... I'd do it!! :) So thanks for all your well wishes and good vibes!! I'll definitely be needing them through the weekend! Hope everyone else's training is going well!!

K :)

The Jitters!!

Oh.... My race jitters have ALREADY begun to set in!! :)

I think it's because rather than continuing to workout hard with my regular schedule.... I've had the added stress of can I run? Can I not run? Will this mess me up? Will this screw up my time goal? What if I can't do the race at all?

And the big Mama Jama... what is this going to do for Hawaii????

Ok... so I KNOW it will be fine! :) But you know how it goes....

The good news is that I am feeling better. You know how sometimes your body just feels like it's recovering!

I tried to run again on Friday after my 48 hours recovery and another PT session. The goal was 30 min easy with hopefully no pain.

Well.... the no pain part didn't work out so well. I mean it wasn't EXCRUCIATING!! But it certainly wasn't faint either. Again, I pushed through it thinking maybe my muscles just needed to work some stuff out. And I did notice that on the few uphill's I did, it didn't hurt that much. Because of the nature of where I ran, I ended up doing 20 min. Probably should have cut it short sooner, but I just felt like it would be ok.

Fortunately, I was. I mean it hurt for the rest of the day but instead of getting worse like it's been doing after a run, it managed to continue to recover and feel better! I thought that that was a good sign! :)

I woke up this morning with just a little bit of sharpness in those areas and realized that these types of issues aren't quite as simple as one joint having mobility issues. It's really much more complicated in a recruitment of joints and muscles having imbalances and stability issues. Stuff that I've learned all about and studied but never really understood until now.

Still some pain, but MUCH better nonetheless. So, that helped the jitters a little! I'm now thinking, ok... give it until Monday (of course I was ready to run again tomorrow and my sensible Coach Jen thought better to wait until Monday! :) And by then, if things continue to progress as they are, I should be ready to run. Easily at first of course... and most likely easy for just about all of next week. But hopefully come Sunday, April 27th... I'LL BE READY TO GO!!

I'm thinking... Oh Crap!! This is my first triathlon since November 3rd!! I REALLY would have liked to have some sort of warm-up race or something! Not that St. Anthony's is my end-all to be-all... but I don't want to go down there and suck either!! You know what I mean! :)

The real jitters will sink in as the week progresses to next Sunday! I'll probably be too busy between now and we leave to stress TOO much about it.

Today I did one of the coolest things I've done in awhile... I took a class at my new work office, PT Solutions, on aquatic therapy. It was 4 hours of talking injury prevention, joint mobility and stability, neuromuscular control, cardiovascular performance and output, and how to use a small endless pool to work on all of these issues. LOVED IT!! I'm such a nerd!! I found myself being that person that had to stop asking questions because I thought everyone else was probably ready to go and I was prolonging things! :) I swear I could sit and talk that stuff all day!

It's the first inservice I've been too in as long as I could remember that I wasn't sitting there looking at my watch the entire time thinking, "Oh my god... when is this guy going to shut up! We get it, we get it... ENOUGH!!"

I was completely enthralled the entire time and learned so much! Not to mention that I got to be the guinea pig and get into that bad boy and go through the exercises and actually swim!! LOVED IT!! Can't wait to get in there next week for some swimming. It's a totally different experience than swimming in a regular lap pool and it provides turbulence simulating choppy conditions simulating more of that of an actual open water swim than just lap pool. AND you have no idea how fast you're going, which is sometimes a good thing.not to worry about... Right?? :)

And so tomorrow is another swim in my regular pool followed by a nice bike ride and I'm sorry people up north... I have no intention of offending you in any way, but it was like 80 here today and will be even nicer tomorrow and the only thing I could think of is, "It feels like HEAVEN!!"

We're on a countdown with our take-off to Florida! We've currently got to wake-up 6 more times before we get in the car and leave... That's how we keep up with day's around here. We can somewhat understand time based on how many times we have to go to sleep to get there! We leave Friday for St. Petersburg and then after the race we're off to Disney for a week!! We're all very excited. AND Tour de Georgia kicks off this week, and I'm headed out there Thursday with a friend for some VIP passes to the team time trials. Ahh... I'm so excited about it, that is going to be so much fun!!

So I'm in better spirits as Jen said today if you can tell! :) I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the weekend and happy, fast, fun, loving vibes to everyone everywhere!!

K :)

"Do The Right Thing!"

This is my new mantra!

At least it has been for the past week!

At the beginning of the year, I decided on the word BALANCE.

It seemed perfect at the time. I mean in all of our crazy lives it's what most of us seek. We try to balance our schedules, our time, our passions, our work, etc. And even as triathletes we must balance the training between 3 sports individually as well as working them together.

Well lately that word just hasn't been working for me. I guess because it leaves open too much room for ambiguity and wrong doing if you will! :)

We all have things that come easily to us and then we all have our issues we struggle with. Some of the issues I struggle with:

*Getting up early to go to Masters
*Eating healthfully
*Finding time to squeeze in work so that I'm not shoving it in on any given notice
*Pushing myself beyond my current limits
*Recovering properly
*Flossing every night and going to bed on time :) (I know this one sounds funny, but flossing is a BIG deal to me! And I know when things are off track when I skip it because I'm too tired to stand there for 2 min and get it done and chose to go CRASH into bed instead! :)

So I sat down the other day and was looking over a journal entry that I wrote at the beginning of the year about this whole balance concept. I was trying to figure out where it was going wrong. And then it occurred to me that it was because what I was doing was balancing meeting these goals and good habits with blowing it off.

See, for me it's like this vicious cycle!
1. I get totally FED UP with myself for slacking on these things and decide I MUST get back on track!
2. Things go well for awhile
3. Life happens, start juggling things to meet everyone's and everything's demands
4. Things get chaotic and crazy, and I get TIRED!
5. I start to let myself "slip" because.... Well we can't be perfect all of the time.
6. I continue to get off track as I excuse myself from hanging with my focused habits.
7. I enter into the well... it's too late now phase, I might as well have one more cookie! :)
8. Ultimately, I'm off the band wagon, I get fed up again, and the process repeats!

So see the problem in focusing on that word balance for me is that it's up for too much interpretation on my part! :)

Now, I'm not promoting a lifestyle of trying to be 100%... 100% of the time!

I'd like to think that there's no one out there like that! :)

But, I started listening to myself a little more lately... (read my last post!) and what I realized is I KNEW when I was bailing when I shouldn't be!

See, fortunately, most of us have been given that little voice inside our heads that tells us, "Ah, ah, ah... is this REALLY what would be best???"

And if you're me, you either A. Ignore it.... B. Tell it to shut up... or C. Explain to it WHY it should be ok!

Even though we all know deep down when we're just reasoning with ourselves in a dishonest way. Kind of goes along with Liz's post from yesterday about being honest with ourselves.

So ultimately I decided that I needed to REALLY start getting to know that little voice inside my head! And what does that little voice do for us? It helps us choose to "DO THE RIGHT THING!"

What's great is that right thing is different for us all, and different at different times.

For example: If you know me at all by now, you know my sweet tooth is OUT OF CONTROL!! :) And I would justify those extra treats because well, I had a super tough workout that day, or I was in a really bad mood and needed to make myself feel better, or well it was this special occasion or that special occasion. And I'm not just talking a special little treat, I'm talking all of the time!

And honestly, it's not like I eat it CRAZY often. It's really more about the fact that I eat stuff like that for the wrong reasons. You know... as a way to make me feel better or justify things or what not if that makes any sense.

So the other day I decided I wanted something sweet and asked that little voice in my head if that was the right thing to do, and it said YES! So, I decided to go through the drive-thru at Starbucks for a Grande Java Chip Light Frappacino!! Yummy!!

Well when I got there a piece of their cinnamon coffee cake sure sounded good too! And then came that little voice... "Ah... you don't really need that." And then I started to think, "Ah... it's only like 200 calories more and besides, I don't really worry about calories!" But the bottom line is I asked myself for this situation right now, what was the right thing to do? And it was to just stick with the frappacino. Because I didn't get it... I didn't really want it... And I didn't miss it after I made that decision!

So it worked... And it's not just food either. Last night... SUPER tired! Running 20 min late for bedtime and did NOT feel like flossing. But I knew that I'd be mad at myself in the morning for not doing it. And that little voice said, "Come on... it takes 2 min!"

So I made the decision, did it, and was glad for it!

This little trick of mine is working for helping me with the budget. Do I REALLY need to buy that?? And sometimes the answer is Yes... It's not about torturing myself!! :)

It's just really about digging down deep and really KNOWING what your inner self says you should do.

And for me.... For now... it's working!
K :)

Listening to Our Bodies!

Well, apparently my rear hurts more than originally thought and is DEMANDING that I take a rest!

Jen decided to move my hard run to the weekend and go for just an easy run yesterday. I went to Physical Therapy and was feeling ok. Went to the gym, hopped on the treadmill, and tried to run at a leisurely pace. It hurt of course, but sometimes things need just a few minutes to try to "work it out."

So I decided 10 min at the point that I'm at and if it doesn't ease up, I will quit. At 10 min, it was still sharp pain, so I backed off and tried to walk it out for a few thinking that would be better than nothing, but nope... I'd already re-irritated it and it said enough is enough!

And I LISTENED!

This whole situation is like some sort of calling to me or something because I swear to you that this past Saturday, on my way to do the run that ultimately did my hip in, I was catching up on blogs and had just finished reading Kerrie's blog about her deciding to take the day off. I wrote a comment about how I still was trying to figure out the difference between pain I should push through and pain that means I should stop.

Well, it's like my body interpreted the message as some sort of assignment, and it's now teaching me the difference! :)

At least for me, I have a hard time with it. As athletes, we know that there will be pain associated with the amount and type of training that we do. We use words like "Hurt Box" and "Suffer" as a part of our daily vocabulary!

So when is enough enough and when are we wussing out???

Well, I don't know if anyone else out there can really explain it, but I guess you just KNOW.

And yesterday I just knew. I knew when I hopped off that treadmill that I'd un-done all I'd tried to recover from physical therapy in just a short 10 min run. So yesterday, I spent the rest of the day limping around as my hip was "stuck." I made a decision then and there and emailed Jen that I needed some time to let that tissue heal!

She completely agreed and so today I went back to PT and then instead of trying to see if that "worked", I'm giving it 48 hours rest. At least from running.

I MAY hop on the trainer tonight and try to easily spin it out to keep some motion happening in that area. But then again, I may just let it completely relax for today and try that tomorrow.

Hopefully, after some rest and another PT appt. on Friday morning, I can ease back into some running this weekend and be all READY to go for St. Anthony's next weekend!!

I'm pretty sure that that's how this will go. The rational part of me isn't worried about it and knows that there's really nothing serious going on. The Crazy Kellye is of course stressing about not being able to do the final prep before the race. But, fortunately the rational Kellye is winning at the moment! :)

And it's funny how incompetent I feel as a Body listener as an athlete because when I went through infertility with Cooper, I felt like an EXPERT!

I learned to sense every single moment that my body was performing any sort of process. And it was because it was something that I wanted so badly and therefore REALLY listened closely. So, I've got to build some confidence in that area, and I definitely feel that this is a step towards that.

Because during races, training, recovery, life in general... we've got to be prepared to listen!

I know a lot of people in this area who did Ironman Arizona that didn't really have the race they were hoping for. It's so tough training all winter for something that you go out and the heat hits you literally for the very first time! I think a lot of them got a lesson in listening this weekend, and I think everyone did a pretty good job with it!

So, I'm going to be fine as is everyone else! Rest for me and thanks for all the well wishes for my Rear from all of you guys!!

K :)

A Butt Sprain!

Well, I want to say that I think Marit is an AMAZING person and athlete!!

I spent my weekend moaning and complaining about how much my hip/right glute hurt. Literally limping around the house some on Saturday and Sunday!

After a trip to my physical therapist this morning and then a quick stop to get cracked up by my chiropractor, I have what is the equivalent of a Butt Sprain!!

And when he told me that, all I could think about was Marit and her actual broken Butt and how much I thought my little ol' sprain hurt yet this chick went through SURGERY and is holding up so well!! My admiration for her just grows and grows!

My rear however will be fine. It's the equivalent of a sprain because it's so swollen. However, the good news is that it is no longer stuck. It's moving and as long as we keep it moving, it'll be fine.

Both Dr.'s even cleared me for my tough run tomorrow! My physical therapist even said the harder the better to "Force" my Back muscles to take over a little bit from my glutes. I was like, uh.... let's not go crazy here or anything, and whatever you do, don't tell my coach the harder the better!! She'll think of that as some sort of Green light or something! :)

So just a swim for today, ice, ice, and more ice, and I'll be fine.

The lesson through all of this is the EXTREME importance of recovery!!

My physical therapy appointments were one of the first things to get scraped when time got tight. Well, my SI decided to show me... so I know now that just because things are going well doesn't mean you're done. Just makes me appreciate how much the process is actually working!!

Isn't it funny how little we think about the small little parts of our bodies until it actually hurts and then you never realized how bad some random place can feel?? :)

So hopefully tomorrow's suffer fest will be more about pushing my pace and less about whether or not I can pick up my right leg and move it! And no more skipping PT ever!

They're going to wish this hadn't happened to me as they'll be seeing me ALL of the time now! :)

I hope everyone is feeling good, and a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to everyone in Ironman Arizona yesterday!! Some really close and amazing performances out there yesterday!

I was watching some of the live video listening to "You are an IRONMAN!!" And I got all fired up again!! :) Just when the sport beats you down... one little thing puts you right back in the game!!

Have a great Monday everyone!!

K :)

One of Those Weekends...

Well... we've all shared our success stories of great races and workouts! And Liz has been kind enough to point out that not every workout can be a new record setting, PR kind of workout.

That was my kind of weekend... a not so good one.

Ever since my long brick last Sunday, my lower back/right hip has been bugging me. As well as my left shoulder. I knew what was wrong... my right SI Joint is and has been out of whack for awhile. It in itself has never caused me any pain, it just causes other issues that hurt. (shin splints, etc. :) And my shoulder doesn't like paddles very much. So it was a little ticked at me as well from some recent swims.

Well because of this reason and that reason, I haven't been to physical therapy but once in like 3-4 weeks. You know how it goes, something gets better and then you take your treatment for granted. So my SI Joint has basically gotten all locked up. And that dormant knot in my shoulder became not so dormant anymore. I went last Sunday and did that long ride where all of the muscles and tissues surrounding the SI joint got overworked, fatigued, inflammed, and finally started to actually hurt.

I nursed my body all week, but kept up with my schedule. It was just kind of nagging. And FINALLY made an appointment for physical therapy this past Friday, yesterday.

Thank goodness!!

My hip had gotten a lot better, but after a 3 hour ride on Friday, it had again gotten all jacked-up.

Needless to say, that workout sucked. I was ticked too because it was supposed to be all leisurely and such. Zone 1-2 stuff and the weather was beautiful, so my opportunity to go out and just kind of enjoy my ride was shadowed by the fact that my back REALLY hurt the whole time!

So from there to my MUCH needed appointment and thank goodness Laura made both feel a lot better!

Woke up today feeling pretty good! Went about my normal business. Finally got myself to the pool for my workout this afternoon and by this time when my left shoulder knots up and then finally gets better... the typical pattern is that the knot in the right shoulder shows up. Not sure if it's because my right shoulder compensates for the left when it's fatigued and so the irritation just goes from one to the other, but regardless, I spent my swim with my right shoulder bothering me. AND I found myself really tired. But I told myself to stick to my workout. Work through it and keep pushing to hit those numbers.

Well, didn't happen. I wasn't really bummed about it because I figured I did what I could do. Pushed like I was supposed to and checked it off of my list.

Ok... on to my Long Run, which honestly wasn't really all that long. 1:15 with only the last 20 min at Tempo pace.

Started out feeling ok. But didn't take long to realize that again, this wasn't going to be one of those feeling great, things going awesome kind of workouts.

My heart rate was too high from the get-go, while my pace was slower than usual. Didn't think too much about it because I was supposed to do a long warm-up, so I just kept it easy and kept chugging along. Before too long though.... you guessed it... that right hip had decided it'd had enough. But since Laura said it'd be ok to run and I knew what the issue was and didn't think I was really hurting myself, I stuck with it.

I told myself to think of it as training to push through pain. It wasn't anything unbearable, and by the time I got to my 20 min of tempo work it was just SAD....

I was pushing the zone 3, but at a pace that should have put me in zone 1. S...L...O....W, but yet felt like I should have been setting new records with the effort I was giving it.

FINALLY finished up, again feeling like I'd done all I could and couldn't feel bad about myself because well... You can't win them all.

Tried to stretch it out, but started really hurting at this point. By the time I got home...... I am hobbling. My right hip is KILLING me :(

Ice bath... advil....stretching in every which away that my body can contour to try to reach those places, heat, more ice, and now rest... I'm trying to recover.

At least tomorrow is my off day, so hopefully all that is FLAMING will settle! And I don't have to worry about either suffering through yet another losing workout OR skipping it, which is what I'd probably do if I had anything on the schedule for tomorrow.

It's not a TOTAL loss... I've learned to NEVER skip out on PT again at least not for that long when I'm training like I am! I'll be back first thing Monday morning! :)

I'm continuing to learn the push points of my body.... the I can work through this kind of pain vs. the I've had enough, let's re-group kind of pain!

And I'm continuing to learn how to deal with the it's just not going to happen, but don't give up and keep trying kind of workouts!

So... if you've had a not so good day and the LAST thing you want to read is about everyone's GRAND workouts and breakthroughs... feel free to come here and read about the NOT so good ones!! :)

Tomorrow is my Cooper's 5th birthday! And of course, it's supposed to be unusually cold here tomorrow! I swear.... It NEVER fails! :)

But cold or not... we will have a great time at his and Gracie's Barbie Princess/Hot Wheels Party because well..... Cake + Ice Cream + presents = ALWAYS FUN!! No matter what!!

Good luck to everyone racing IM AZ tomorrow!! I hope that day for everyone there is the PERFECT race day!!

K :)

Summer in Bloom!

Spring Break makes the perfect prep for Summertime!

A week's worth of sleeping late, lazy mornings, afternoons at the pool, staying up late, and hanging out with friends!

This is the first year since before I had children that it's really felt like Spring Break. Beforehand, my babies were just babies and everyday was relatively the same. Yeah, we had 2 days a week last year of school, but it wasn't really enough to make Spring Break THAT much different.

And this year we've done Spring Break type things! Because my babies really aren't babies anymore. They're turning into little people who can handle going to the movies and even sleepovers!

Yesterday we met up with my friend in town from Pennsylvania again at a pool. It was perfect! It was a pool belonging to a gym that was in a covered Lanai. It was heated and very warm! I would have been able to do maybe 1000yds of laps in that pool before puking it was so warm, but it was perfect for lazing around in it and apparently perfect for repeatedly jumping in off of the side!

The kids had a blast! And it's been great to get back in the pool a couple of times this week to brush up on their swimming skills. My Coop-doop can swim!! I mean really swim. All over the pool, head under water, no floaties... it's amazing! I mean I realize that it isn't a big deal or anything, but its one of those things that being his mom I'm super proud of him. :) Gracie is more skeptical of the water. She will do her thing with a jacket on. She did try it without the jacket a couple of times yesterday, so she'll probably be swimming by the end of the year.

And you know what that means... I may actually get to lounge by the pool some this year too!! WHOO HOO!!

It's just really hit me that they're growing up this year!

Of course Cooper wanted Ben to come and spend the night with us and the kids figured the whole thing out! :)

Now Ben has never spent the night away from his mom before. So she was a little scared. :) Isn't it funny how the fears that we have for our children 9/10 they don't. I mean you never know. She was afraid he'd freak right at bedtime or in the middle of the night and she was well over an hour away from us at her mom's. But he seemed fine, so we gave it a shot and he had a blast. My kids are used to it from spending the night at just about everyone in my entire family's house as well as Adam's.

They woke up this morning and have been playing non-stop!

It also occurred to me yesterday how cool kids can be about other kids. I mean when you think about it, Cooper and Ben don't know each other. Sure they've played together on and off several times throughout their lives, but they most likely don't even remember it. It's Lisa and I that are friends. We put our kids together and it's as simple as this:

"You like Spiderman?.... Me too!! "

And that's it... they'll spend hours together as if they've known each other for years. Like they're BFF's! :)

And with little people they're so honest and literal. Ben spending the night with us last night was decided on a whim. So he borrowed some pj's and we skipped brushing his teeth. He came into my room last night after putting him to bed and told me that I'd forgotten to brush his teeth. I said that it was because we didn't have a tooth brush, but that it would be ok to skip it just for tonight.

Well his response was, "But... I'll get a scar in my mouth." I thought that was funny. That was his way of talking about cavities, and I assured him that as long as he brushed his teeth tomorrow night, he'd be fine! :)

And you know, sometimes for me... it helps to break things down back to those basic principles...

You don't want to get cavities.... you brush and floss your teeth.

You want to feel good and be healthy.... you eat your fruits and vegetables.

You want to get faster and stronger.... you focus during each workout to meet your goals!

We know as adults that it's not quite that black and white. It's ok if we skip a day here and there. But the basic principles we learn as a child still hold true.

So it's really enlightening at times to hang out with them... you know, REALLY hang out with them like for a whole week on Spring Break to get back to the basics...

We can all be friends, life truly IS all about having fun and being nice to others, and you just have to do what you have to do to meet your goals.... PLAIN AND SIMPLE! :)

Tomorrow is a long workout for me, physical therapy, early morning swim... you know, the usual. :)

But hopefully from this point forward, Summer will get closer and closer, and we can LET THE FUN BEGIN!!

K :)

Horton: The Review

I'm going to confess that despite the fact that I have read MANY Dr. Seuss books AND have an Elementary Education Degree and taught Elementary school for 4 years... I've never read "Horton Hears a Who."

Well... not that I can remember at least, and that's not saying much because I have THE WORST memory. Adam swears one day I'll wake up and have no clue of the last 10 years of our life because I can never remember movies we've seen, places we've eaten, etc.

But anyways... in my defense, I was a 4th and 5th grade teacher. So I've read "Bridge to Terabithia" (ok movie... the book... 10 TIMES better!! I STILL cry when I read it!), "Holes", and older kid books like that. And MANY younger kids books as well, but somehow missed the Horton one.

Well, the kids and I went to the movies today to see it, and OHHHH I loved it!!

The movie was super cute! It did have a few little strange moments in it where it'd turn into something weird... not entirely my style, but ok, whatever :)

But the whole meaning behind the story was what was so good!

I mean, what an amazing hero Horton was! He totally took responsibility for Whoville even when not only he didn't have to, but everyone thought he was crazy to boot!

When you think about it, Dr. Seuss was a VERY bright man! He wrote such wonderful stories in fun, extremely creative ways while at the same time those books are embedded with pre-reading skills! A truly talented writer!

Cooper and Gracie really enjoyed it... Especially Cooper! He laughed and got worried when he thought Horton was too late in saving the town! Gracie got a little fidgety.... That's Gracie! :) All and all she did well too though.

So, I give it two thumbs up! And not only for kids but for adults too who maybe need a little perspective in life! :)

Spring Break 08!!

(I can't even imagine having a Spring Break like this anymore! I can't make it much past 10pm!! :)

I can't believe it, but Spring Break is already here!!

I was thinking yesterday that it is crazy how fast time flies these days!!

School is almost over! Summer is almost here! Less than 3 weeks until St. Anthony's and our trip to Disney!

Less than 8 weeks until Hawaii!!

And the rest of the year will fly by as well I'm sure....

I'm looking forward to this week though!

Today, I'm trying to recoup a little from my big Brick yesterday. Whoo... it's been awhile since I've put in over 75 miles in on the bike at once. My back is reminding me of that quite a bit today! :) Plus, believe it or not, I got very LITTLE accomplished in my house and just that usual STUFF this weekend. I was seriously hardly at home, so today is kind of a catch up day as far as all of that stuff is concerned.

I did have a nice weekend though. A super long swim on Saturday which felt great, followed by a ton of social activity! I actually blew my hair dry, got dressed up in decent regular, human clothing and Spent my afternoon and evening at one of my oldest friends baby shower, the surprise party for my Sponsor, and then Adam and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Atlanta that was sooooo good, Haven!

Then my long workout on Sunday, and I went straight to pick up the kiddos! I really did miss them, and we got home late, so today isn't going to be too much of go, go, go...

I have a swim workout planned today, so I figured I'd go in the afternoon and when I finished up, I'd take them into the pool for some Family Swim time! They haven't been in the pool since last Summer, so it'll be good for them to get in and get out some of those first part of the season jitters and get used to it before the REAL swim season hits. Plus, they'll have a blast!

I also thought about that Horton movie. If anyones been to see it, let me know if a 4 and a 5 year old would be interested. Seems like they would. :)

Otherwise, just some good ol' quality mommy, kiddo time!

I hope everyone has a great day!!

K :)

Missing My Babies!! :)

Today was another good day!!

Woke up a little tired from a late night Rock Climbing!

Attention all swimmers: Looking for a good upper body strength workout.... ROCK CLIMBING!! Whoo... Sooo much fun, but definitely hard work! And it isn't super complicated, so it was cool and fun, and I'm really glad that Lauren and I got a chance to do something fun together with some bonding time! :)

(Looky there... Kellye looking like a bum!! That's it!! My next picture of me on this page WILL be decent! :)

She spent the night, and hung out with Baby Klay while I took the kids to school and then went to RPM practice. Then we went to the mall, and I got in touch with my girly side a little bit and actually bought some cute clothes! :)

I may even actually get to use them this weekend because I'm being somewhat SOCIAL for a change! After a long swim tomorrow, I have a baby shower for one of my college roommates and then a surprise party for my Sponsor's birthday. (Don't think he reads my blog... Let's hope not :)

And then....... (Drum roll please....) I'm having a date night tomorrow night!!

It's funny because it's kind of bitter-sweet. I explained to Lauren about how crazy this weekend was going to be. She offered to take the kids to her place for the weekend so they'd have fun and I wouldn't be juggling things so much. I honestly didn't want them to go... I MISS THEM!! But, I was going to be in and out all weekend, so I figured they'd have more fun over there.

So it's REALLY nice that I get to actually sleep late tomorrow, run my errands, have fun without the kids, and then head out on my LONG brick this weekend without worries... It will kind of be like a chance to somewhat enjoy a bit of the vacation that never was!

And I swear home is the BEST place to vacation! Next week is Spring Break for us, and I guarantee you I'll have to answer this question from Cooper constantly. It'll go something like this:

Cooper: "Mom, when are we going to school?"

Kellye: " We're not this week buddy... it's school vacation!"

Cooper: "Buhcation!! Where are we going?"

Kellye: "No where. We just don't have to go to school this week. We can just do fun things at home!"

.............

2 hours later..............

Cooper: "Mom... When are we leaving for buhcation?"

Kellye: "We're NOT going anywhere Cooper. We're just not going to school!"

Repeat this conversation approximately 100x over the course of the week! :)

It will be fun though! I'm thinking the Horton movie, MAYBE Chuck E. Cheese if I'm feeling brave, and a trip to the pool for fun!

See.... I told you I miss them already! Being a Mom is hard isn't it!! ??? :)

Have a great weekend everyone! Train HARD, Recover, relax, and ENJOY!! And stay safe tomorrow if you're in our neck of the woods and stuck in some nasty weather. Just know it's going to be 78 and Sunny on Sunday!! PERFECT biking weather!!

Until then...

K :)

Finding the right Fit!

I'm the type of person that functions well off of routine. Not to say that I am a daily grind kind of person. I definitely like to mix it up and kind of move from one fun moment in life to another. However, even the changing up of things becomes somewhat a routine for me in and of itself.

I remember when I was in college, it was a big thing for me.every quarter when classes changed. I always looked forward to readjusting my schedule each quarter working around when my classes were, where they were located, what my schedule would be like, study time, play time, etc.

And in 1999 when I first started working out and losing weight that was my goal. Because we all know how easy it is when things get changed around in our daily lives to let exercise be one of the first things that slip off of the radar into the "I don't have time for it" section. So every quarter I would look forward to reconfiguring all of my priorities to make everything fit!

That process for me continues to this day. When I was a teacher... I had a routine. Then I had Cooper and we had our routine.

Then.... Gracie came a short 11 months later. THAT required a serious routine. The 3 of us were on this tight-knit schedule to keep everyone functioning, clean, and happy! :)

As they've gotten older... I've slowly been putting more of my stuff back into my schedule. You know first they went to preschool 1 day a week, so I had my stuff I'd like to do on that one special day. Before you know it, I'm up to 4!

So now that I'm working not only from home with the restaurant, but I've added another piece of a puzzle in working outside of my home as well... I've got to situate again to make everything fit! And it sounds crazy, but it's kind of fun! I think I look at my TDL as some sort of a challenge sometimes! And the challenging part is learning which things to just scratch off completely because there just aren't enough hours in a day.

So it got me to thinking about how it's times like these in our lives that are really kind of cool because without us even necessarily trying, we're FORCED to do some prioritizing, and I think that's really important for all of us to do often. If your TDL has enough stuff to cover a 30 hour day, well common sense tells us that at least 6 of those hours are gonna get cut. Maybe they'll get moved to another day, but it just isn't happening today!

For some workaholics out there, you lose a lot of sleep and end up getting overworked, over-stressed and lose control of taking care of yourself to try to fit as many working hours into the day as possible. But as an athlete, we know we can't do that! You still have to work it out where you can go to bed early enough to get plenty of rest. Stress needs to stay down, so you need to still find ways to eat well and relax.

I'm a professed clean freak... but when things get tight, the dishes will sit in the sink for an extra day if need be! :) Or I'll do the thing that I normally HATE to do and I know a lot of you reading this blog are the same way and do the forbidden actually ASK someone else for help! :)

And that's a really good thing for me to do because it helps me keep up with myself and NOT be such a crazy lady!

So this week has been hectic, but I've really enjoyed it! And I've managed to stay pretty stress-free because I'm taking my TDL as a progressive process and not letting it hang over my head! For those of you who've known me a long time... this is a COMPLETELY different Kellye than I used to be!

I'm telling you... my 30's are going to be soooo much better than my 20's... I can FEEL it!! :)

So what made me think of all of this was yesterday I went to Nike to purchase some clothing for my new training position. I was told to go and get some Nike collared shirts and some Nike "nice" pants to bring in and wear and get embroidered with my training company's logo on it. So while the kids were in school, I headed down to the Nike store at Lenox Mall. Excited because it's not everyday that someone says go buy yourself some nice Nike stuff and I'll pay for it!

I got there and headed to the women's section and started looking for collared shirts.... that would be a no! Then I started looking for nice pants. You know, not sweatpants or bummy workout type stuff (the stuff I usually wear :) but some that look more professional. That wasn't really happening either. I tried on one pair, but they were more like hip type pants and were way big, so I was like, you know what I need.... GOLF!

Nike Golf!!

That apparently is only at places like the PGA store. Now, I've NEVER played golf. Always wanted to basically just to try it. And have especially never done the Golf type clothing! I haven't really been into the preppy look since early 90's! :)

So I headed over there and tried on some stuff and actually walked out with 3 collared shirts that go with the color scheme of PT Solutions and a Nike Skirt! That's right.... one of those little workout skirts with the built-in shorts! NEVER would have guessed owning one of those. When they first came out, I thought... ah... not my thing. But it ends up being perfect! Professional AND functional! Can't beat it!

So it just goes to show you that sometimes when you're looking for the right "fit" in something... it helps to look outside of your usual parameters whether you're talking about clothing, schedules, or whatever.

The moral of the story is you just may never know what you'll like until you try it!

So in the spirit of this, my niece and I are finally going to take that rock climbing class tonight! Adam is convinced that everytime I get together with my niece or sister I come home with some sort of body morphing tattoo or piercing, so I'm going to try to come home exactly as I left!

However... you NEVER know what will "fit" until you try it! :).... right??? :)

Have a great day everybody!

K :)

Busy Day!!

It's getting late. It's about 20 min past when I should have gone to bed! :)

But I wanted to give a quick update because I had a really great day! Long, Busy, but GREAT nonetheless!!

Today was my first day as a Trainer!! That's right!!... I'm already putting my new certification to good use!

I have to admit, there was a part of me, and if you've been reading my blog for awhile, you probably caught onto this notion, that was a little not so sure about this whole trainer thing. I got really skeptical about the whole thing after my gym experience that made me question the ethics and reasoning behind the whole ordeal.

However, I'm really glad that I decided to push forward, because I've realized that in the opportunity that I've been given, I'm really able to design the programs in the way that I see fit and for me that means being more of a coach than the person that tells them which weights to lift for 30 min. I seriously take training/fitness very personally and want to make sure that I'm capable of providing these people the opportunities to meet their goals. There was a time that I questioned that capability. But after MUCH thought and working through the kinks... I think it just may work!!

I met with my first client today over at the brand new PT Solutions training facility. It is GORGEOUS!! Has one of those endless pools that I can't WAIT to get in. Full underwater video capabilities. Oh, I am SOOOO going to tape my stroke and break it apart with that bad boy!! :) And the lady was the PERFECT client! Realistic goals, wanting to feel better and healthier!! EXACTLY where she needs to be. I was VERY excited about working with her and really being apart of changing her life for the positive!

AND... After talking with the owner some more, looks like I'm going to be doing some aqua therapy, swim instruction, AND... He even said he'd take me to Albuquerque, NM to do the USAT Level 1 certification this July!! I signed up for it today!! So I am SUPER pumped about that. So I'm going to be doing some entry-level tri coaching coming up as well!!

You might be able to tell that I'm a little excited and the first day went well! :)

So I have another session with my lady #1 on Thursday. Gotta admit, it's going to take a little getting used to juggling all my hats... Between this, the restaurant, my spin classes, my kids, my house, and my training... I'm having to write everything down to keep up! :) But no worries, I'll get it!

And as if my day hadn't been great enough, I got the WONDERFUL opportunity to hang out with one of my best friends Lisa. She's in town from Pennsylvania, and I love to get to see her. She has a boy and a girl very similar in age to mine, and today she actually had the time to come to my house and hang out and the kids played and her and I actually got to talk. Oh... It was so nice!!

A trainer ride during American Idol, some more work this evening, and now I'm off to bed!

I hope everyone had a great day as well!! Night!!
K :)