My Weekend at the Races!

Me and Amy post Iron Girl!!


I feel like I've been absent from Blogger land forever!


I had one of the best weekends!


Friday night was enjoyed at home with Adam. I made an awesome recipe that I saw on another person's blog, Phaedra via Rachel Ross, and tried to get to bed early.


Saturday morning, I was up bright and early and off to Race #1!!


I pick up Amy and then head up towards Rome and meet up with Mike and Daniel. We probably stuck out a little as Amy and I were the only two girls there, and probably had triathlete written all over us! We got situated, warmed up, and practiced our plan a little. We were the third team to take off and we were definitely the under-dogs! Racing up against teams of all guys. One team had 7 guys, one team had six. All of them consisting of guys who spend A LOT of time in their saddles!


It ended up being a little shorter than we expected thank goodness. We were told 19 miles, it ended up being 14.7. It was 2 loops too, so after doing the first we knew what to expect. We made Mike lead us out since we knew he could hammer it out right from the start and get our pace up! That he did! Daniel held super strong too. Unfortunately, Amy and I lost Mike and Daniel not too far into the race and were left as the two lonely girls leading the PT Solutions team in! We were both working super hard! We finished our one loop and realized the distance and were both relieved! We communicated beautifully, and alternated with about 1 min pulls working our butts off! Oh... and did I mention that Amy has a stress fracture and is in a boot like I was back after Ironman! She is allowed to cycle, otherwise we wouldn't have let her, but still... the woman is amazing!


We knew we were up against some tough competition for us, but we didn't want to get passed. So after the first loop, these two guys in green come up and pass us! I am thinking they're on their second loop as well and as soon as they pass us... they slow up and I'm thinking crap... I don't think we can draft off of them, but here they are backing off. My pull is over and Amy is off to lead. She looks at me and says, "Should I try to pass them?" I was like, "HECK YEAH!!"


So off she goes and I'm hammering to stay with her. What do the guys do... pick it up!! HARD!! They wouldn't want us two girls passing them I'm sure! :) Amy starts to pull ahead, but then it's time to switch again and I just can't get in front of this guy. So we decide it's not going to happen and pull back a bit and just as we do... I hear the guy in the back tell the other green guy, "Dude... we are going WAY to fast!" I thought that was so freaking funny!!


Ultimately... Amy and I finished with a time of 35:45!! That's over 24 mph and we came in 5/6 in the teams we raced against, but all the other guys that beat us had times of like 34:33, 35:22, etc and so we were SUPER proud that us girls showed we could hang!! And it was seriously so much fun! I pushed so hard in that race simply because you had an obligation to others and it was AWESOME!!


So once we cool down, we go get some breakfast and head over to Race #2 for the weekend!
About an hour or so away we drive to Lake Lanier for Iron Girl Atlanta. Because there were around 800 girls registered... mostly beginners, they have bike check-in on Saturday. So we get there and get registered and such. Amy and I ride the run course just because I couldn't really remember from last year what it was like. I go to check my bike in and it starts screaming at everyone! Turns out my back wheel was shoved in there way too far and had been rubbing. Wouldn't have made for the smoothest ride. I didn't notice anything during the time trial, so it couldn't have been that bad during that race, but....??? Fortunately, Lee, Amy's husband is Mr. Bike Man! He had it fixed within minutes and we got all settled in. Amy couldn't race because of her stress fracture, but Lee is a coach for Team In Training, and so they were there for that as well. They were also so SUPER nice in offering to share their room with me for the night so I wouldn't have to double up on trips over to the race and so we were just all hanging out before we could check into the room at 3pm.

Amy with the #1 TNT coach!!

Amy and I went and got food for everyone, which for some reason ended up taking forever, and so we just HAD to have a Margarita to kill sometime and celebrate our Time Trial success! We spent the rest of the day getting organized and found ourselves beat at the end of the evening. I also got the wonderful opportunity to meet up with Kate Monster and Marni Rakes from blogger land! They were there racing and staying at the hotel, so they popped in and spent sometime chatting with me and Amy. They are both so cute and nice and everything I expected and more! How fun that they were here in Atlanta! And I knew I'd have some competition with them being here with these two speedy ladies! I also got to meet Kevin and his wife and Wes and his wife Dee Dee at check in, which is always so neat and fun!

Me, Kate Monster, and Marni!!

I didn't sleep well last night as I never do before races! I woke up not sore or anything, but definitely tired. The course is actually kind of challenging. So for all of the ladies out there today that completed that course as their first triathlon or one of their first, they should be SUPER proud! It's a sprint... but one heck of one!

The swim was a point-to-point 1/3 mile swim. Believe it or not... this is my first triathlon to REPEAT!! I thought that was fun, because it was my first tri for me to try to beat last years time! My swim last year was a little slow of course... 11:25, so this year I wanted to come in under 10min. Still not super speedy, but much better nonetheless. I ended up with a 9:51 and was PLEASED!


T1 is a crazy long run up this seriously gigantic hill. My hr went up this morning just walking up that thing getting ready for the race, much less trying to run it. I came out of the water right behind Kate and hung with her all the way into T1. I wanted to say good job or something, but couldn't muster up any words on that up hill run! She came out of T1 super fast and I saw her hop on her bike just as I was getting on mine and take off! I also knew that my team mate and friend Jennifer Lesser who is an incredible swimmer would be up there in front of me, so I immediately started hammering out the bike trying to catch them!


The bike is long for a sprint, 18 miles, and hilly. Some pretty decent size hills even! This is the moment that my body reminded me of that crazy hammering time trial from yesterday. My legs were burning like crazy, but I was on a mission! I hammered that bike as hard as my exhausted legs would at this point! I even attacked just about all of the hills and wouldn't let my body let go on the downs trying to make up some time! But... Jennifer and Kate are some crazy ladies and hammered it too... and I never saw them on the bike! I ended up finishing 20 seconds faster than last year, which I guess isn't too bad considering my TT the day before. Overall I was pleased with it!


But it was so much fun! My whole ride I focused but spent the whole time congratulating all of those ladies out there working it out SO hard. Some even walking their bikes up some of those hills... but keeping it strong and finishing it!!


T2 was quicker thank goodness and I was off on the run. My legs at this point were asking me what the heck I was doing to them, but I was still feeling ok. I had a couple of goals for this run. 1...I knew my legs would not be feeling the best at this point and I knew I'd be close to dead!! But I wanted to push the whole thing and try to keep from getting taken on the run. I normally come out of the swim a little behind, make it up on the bike, and then turn around and give it right back on the run. So I wanted to stay strong and stick it out and try to hold my pace regardless of how I was feeling. 2... Just as I have a no one can pass me rule on the bike, I was going to try to do the very best I could to not get passed on the run and to just constantly pick people off. It was going really well. I wasn't super speedy, but doing better than I'd hoped for at this point. The course is mostly uphill on the way out and mostly downhill on the way back in, so I expected the way out to be slightly slower. I was picking off all kinds of girls, feeling pretty good and near the end of the last mile got passed by one girl! She was this tiny little 15 year old looking awesome!! Even then though I decided I wasn't going to let her go. So I kept on pushing and followed her in right into the finishing chute!


I saw Jennifer and Kate just a little bit ahead of me at the turn around and knew I was close, but figured that today probably wasn't going to be the day that I'd catch them! Overall... it was a great day for everyone!


Jennifer got technically 2nd in our age group, as Helen Libby came in 1st in our age-group but 2nd overall, so Jennifer came home with the 1st place age-group award and 8th overall. Kate was right behind her with the 2nd place age-group award and 9th overall. Marni took 1st place 25-29 and ended up with 10th overall, and I took 3rd place age-group and 11th overall, so we were all right there together!


I finished with a 1:33:00 last year and was hoping for a sub 1:30 this year and I was close! 1:30:37!! I beat all of my splits from last year, and after that Time Trial yesterday, I think that = success!!


It was a great weekend full of friends, friendly competition, and total FUN!! I loved every moment of it, and love this sport! I can't wait to go again soon!


And good luck to Kate this coming weekend. This super speedy woman is doing Lake Stevens this weekend!! GO KATE MONSTER!!


Nice to meet Kate, Marni, Wes, Kevin, Cathy, Dee Dee and everyone else!!
K :)

The Real Troupers!

I've made a special point to thank a lot of people who help support me in my triathlon endeavours! Or, as I like to call them... Team Kellye!!

There's Adam of course! He helps out with the kids. Supports me emotionally and financially. And is one of the loudest out there yelling for me at all times!!

My family. My mom always supporting me and helping out!

PT Solutions for being seriously one of the best sponsors ever!

My friends and team mates for training with me and keeping me motivated!

Blogger world... seriously...you guys are GREAT! It's like our own little personal cheering squad!

My coach... Jen is amazing in oh so many ways!! Love her!

And all kinds of others out there that I love dearly!

But two people that I'm not sure I've ever really formally thanked who deserve quite a bit... my kiddos!

I mean I went from being at home with them constantly to all of these long rides and such. They are the ones that stand out in the heat chasing to find me during races... something that they honestly don't understand or care about yet. They let me go for my long training sessions and stay behind with friends or family and relatively behave themselves! :)

Today, I took them to the track for the very first time, and I have to say they were amazing. I wasn't sure how it would go. I had two track options. One is at a local high school, but I thought that would not be the best place. Though they would have been entertained because there are kids to watch practicing football and more stuff there to look at. That's just stuff/people for them to get in the way with and break.

Option 2 is a local community track that there is certainly nothing there for them to break... but that's the problem... there's nothing there. I brought along their little scooters, some books and some video games. But of course none of that was appealing. There is a playground, but unfortunately its a little too far away for me to have felt comfortable with them playing there. So that just made them even that much MORE of great kids because they actually didn't sneak off over there to that very enticing place!

At first they were going to run with me. That lasted all of 1/4 of a loop. It was a little shaky at first when the first several loops Gracie kept having me stop to give her hugs and kisses, but we finally settled on high-fives as I went by and things were good. I did a total of almost 6 miles there while they played near a drain! They followed all of the rules. Behaved and got along with each other, and put up with me finishing my workout even though they were hot and ready to go home!

So this thank you goes out to my Coop and Grace!! They won the big award today, and I'm super proud of them for all of the love and support that they give me at all times, unconditionally!!

Glutton For Punishment!

What a weekend! Sooo much fun following along with the Ironman Races and watching so many friends from Blogger world have truly amazing races!! It really got me fired up to race and have fun with it!

Good thing since this coming weekend I'm racing on both Saturday and Sunday!

Saturday I'm doing something I've never done before... I'm competing in a Team Time Trial. I love cycling and said this year I wanted to play around with it more! Well my good friend and team mate Amy suggested we participate in this event awhile back and we've kind of sat on it awhile. But we both thought it would be fun and so despite the fact that we currently have only 3 members of our team.... despite the fact that we're both racing IronGirl on Sunday.... despite the fact that the Time Trial is actually 19 miles instead of the 9 we thought it was originally... we're on board and it should be fun!!

So then Iron Girl is on Sunday! Again, that should be a fun race. A lot of first timers, so it's always fun to watch them compete and get the thrill from the finish! A lot of local people there, and even some travelers as Kate Monster is even going to be there, so I'm going to try to hook up with her and say hello as well!

I will most likely need some help from you guys by reminding me that I choose to put my weekend together like this and so therefore when I don't do as well as I'd like at this Sprint... well that's ok! :) This weekend is all about fun, so that's what I'm looking forward to.

But I'm mixing it up this year... trying to race maybe a little more and test myself a little. I even managed to force myself out the door last night at 8:30 for a 45 min run after walking all over Six Flags with my kids yesterday! That little part of my mind was saying, "You got plenty of exercise today at Six Flags. You'll just over do it and injure yourself!" But the real me knew I needed to get my butt out there and do it! So in the interest of racing more...pushing harder.... having more fun.... and trying new things.... maybe all this "punishment" won't be so bad after all!!

Congratulations again to everyone who raced this weekend! Paul from PT great job at CDA. Kerrie Wlad... you did amazing! Bree #2 at Ironman Japan... all I have to say is WOW!! And anyone else, great job guys!!

On A Mission!!

A Trash Mission that is!

Occasionally I get the urge to start throwing things away! My children's toys have been on the agenda for quite sometime now!

Seriously have been driving me crazy!!

In part because despite my best efforts in trying to teach them to pick up after themselves.... truth be told, I do a lot of it myself. And I am so sick of picking up McDonald's junk, and the literal hundreds of small figurine dolls and dollhouse furniture that Gracie dumps numerous times a day. Yes... I do make her help me pick it up. But she is one of those that as soon as she sees something she's like, "Oh Yeah!! I forgot about you!" and then just wants to start playing with it again. So it's sit there with her for 45 min coaxing her to pick it all up 10 x a day or do it a couple of times and pick it up the rest!

Well, my plan was to go through their rooms and the playroom with a trash bag during Vacation Bible School last week, but I ended up spending most of my time training and it didn't happen.

The problem that that presents for this week is that I have to clean them out with them around. And in order to do that... it's turns into this secret mission!!

Literally for the past two days as soon as I break out the trash bags you can see them perk up and get panic struck faces! A few items were rescued from the trash bag, but for the most part I would very sneakily cram stuff in them while they weren't looking and make a mad dash downstairs to the big trash can in the garage.

Once it's gone it's gone!!

I have managed to get through Cooper's room yesterday with only 1 full trash bag. I did Gracie's room today and that was 2 1/2 trash bags!! Tomorrow... Play room!!

I'm seriously looking forward to it! It's refreshing!

So sorry Mr. Trash Man! My garbage will be extra heavy on Monday, but to some they may feel there's treasure in there so....

Have a good day everyone!
K :)

Back to the Track!

Coach Jen had me back at the track this morning for some super-duper repeats!

I of course, do the wise thing and enlist someone to come and suffer with me through it all!

7:45am and we're out there warming up. PERFECT time too as it was not scorching yet here in GA!

2 MILE warm-up followed by 600, 800, and 1200 repeats. The goal was to hit them in right around the same intervals I was doing the 800's on last week. There were 2 sets of each.

I do the first 600, and I'm already huffing it out majorly, and don't quite hit the goal time exactly. But it was in the goal range, so I figured I'd push a little harder next time. On the second one I did hit it, but right on the nose, and thought it was going to kill me!

After the 2 800's and I'm in my 3rd lap of the 1200 I get to thinking about why this is so freaking hard! I'm like this is supposed to be my 10k pace from February! How is it that I can run at this pace on that super hilly course for 6.2 miles yet to do it for a measly 800 or 1200, and I'm dying! My friend with me by the way seemed like he was working hard, but he wasn't by any means suffering. I spent the whole time trying not to get completely dropped by him and that only happened when he decided to stick with me! All this chasing people is HARD!! :) But oh so much needed!

Ok... so in that 3rd lap of my 1200 it occurs to me that wait a min.... THIS wasn't my 10k pace! I did that 10k at a 7:50 pace and here I am pushing to try to hit a 6:40! No wonder this hurts a lot!

I was able to hold roughly a 7min/mile pace for the average of the intervals as a whole and though I realize that is in no way fast... it's a heck of a lot faster than 7:50 so I'll take it.

So I'm glad for the confusion! I pushed WAY harder than I would have had I been out there trying to hold the 7:50 pace, and I proved that I can go a lot faster when I try really stinking hard!! I mean it's my goal to be running 10k's at that 6:45 pace in the not too far off future, so I guess I better start trying to push it there now!!

So as it seems... I've got my swim, bike, and run bunny rabbits! Some fast as all get out people to pace me and I'm SUPER competitive, so just know... I'm out to pass ya!! Thanks guys! You are the best!
K :)

Daddy Day and The Best Ride!

Happy Father's Day to all the Daddy's out there!

I think my husband got a pretty decent Father's "Day." He kind of celebrated it starting on Friday. I brought him some of his favorite ice cream, a bottle of wine, and some new headphones on Friday night. Saturday and Sunday were a little fuzzy, so I didn't want him to wake up to nothing on either days.

Saturday for his "main" gift... I woke up with the kids when they got up, got all of our stuff together, and promptly left for the day! :) That's right... he got to spend all of Saturday sleeping late and hanging out at the house all by himself with no obligations! Now that is my kind of day!

Today I got the opportunity to get up early and meet up with some friends of mine that were putting on a Team In Training brick at a local place to practice some Open Water swimming. I've never done Open Water swim practice around here and Amy is a great swimmer, so I wanted a chance to even try to hold onto her!

We met at the lake and everyone got their stuff together. It was really cool being around these incredibly inspiring women all preparing for their first or second or so triathlon. Amy said some of them had come from not being able to swim 200 or so yards and everyone completed the swim today, which some said was only 400 yds but Amy and I were convinced it was more like 700! :)

We all practiced a true start and took off at the same time. Amy goes out in front of me and goes out hard! Immediately... I'm full-blown race pace trying to seriously just keep as close to her as possible! She stops at the first of 2 turns so we can just kind of be sure all the TNT people are doing ok and we cheer people on as they make the turn. Then go hard to turn #2. I can't hold onto her feet. She's definitely got me beat! But I love it!! This is what I want... to go out there and chase her down so I can push it super hard and just try to catch her!

We ended up doing 2 total laps and then got ready to ride. She lives in the area and has recently been creating her own route out there. I've gone on the same long ride I'm familiar with in the area countless number of times, so it was really refreshing to do something new and different!

***I'm sorry!!! We interrupt this blog to say that Tiger woods just pulled a great last putt to tie the U.S. Open and go for a second shot for the title tomorrow! Exciting moment at our house. Go TIGER!!*************

Ok... back to my great ride! It seriously was the best! Amy and I rode along and chatted the whole time! We have a lot in common, and she is so genuinely nice! The scenery was beautiful and we rode along for 2:45 together and it didn't even remotely feel like it! And although I have no idea what pace we were holding or how many miles we did because I hit stop on my watch at one point and then never turned it back on... it didn't matter! And aren't those rides where you just don't care because you're just hanging out with friends the best??!!

So thank you Amy, my team mate and friend for letting me be your tag-along today! You're an amazing athlete, and I can only hope that by chasing you as often as I can I can learn to keep up with you one day! :)

Cheers!
K :)

I Have a Confession... I have caught "the bug!"

Ok... this is something that's been eating in the back of my head for... oh... about as long as I can remember.

Two kids or Three???

I know... I know... I can barely wait to read the comments!

But it's been on my mind A LOT lately, so I thought I'd throw it out there to see just how horribly crazy I really am!

I come from a large family. I'm 4/5. All of my mother's family had a ton of kids. I grew up in this crazy, large group of people where Thanksgivings and Christmas and all holidays were chaotic, and I loved it! I knew I wouldn't have 5 kids, but I have always had this thing about the number 3. I know it's crazy, but it's my favorite number, and I have always operated under the assumption that I would have 3 kids.

Well... Cooper turned into more of a project than just having a baby. And then Gracie followed right afterwards... quite literally! I had my boy and girl and things were crazy and so I have been back and forth with it, but for awhile pretty much settled on the fact that I was done.

Adam on the other hand is the youngest of 2. His entire family is very small. Holidays at his house are peaceful and calm and quite honestly shocked me at first because I didn't know what to do with myself. I remember being with his family one Christmas and actually going to the movies. I had no idea they were even OPEN on Christmas day!!

So needless to say... he's always been pretty set on 2. Adam is as I call him a "square!" And I mean that as nicely as possible! :) It's the way he likes things. Organized, simple, classified. We're the perfect, little American family right now!

Things have been crazy around here for awhile. I'm always busy doing a million different things and with Cooper and Gracie being like twins, they're definitely a handful.

But we've hit that point. Just this week... we're pretty much done with diapers!! They had been wearing them at nighttime, but I just stopped and low and behold it's working so far! I'm sure we'll have our nights, but I'm not going to putting them on them anymore!

After summer, they'll both be in school 5 days a week. I'm beginning my career as a coach. Life is great!

BUT... I can't help but feel that little missing link. :)

I've been told that it will be that way for awhile. That I'll get around those sweet little babies and think... ahhh... I want one, but then the moment will pass. But I can't help but to think it's a little more than that!

I know this sounds crazy too, but when I envision myself at Thanksgiving with my family when my kids are college or beyond, I just still imagine 3 kids. 2 just seems boring! I have no idea why, but it does.

But the thing is that it isn't like I want to give up the rest of my life. I like working part-time, and I am kind of serious about triathlon. I'd love to maybe get up to elite status one day, and am afraid that now that I'm already almost 30, if I took some time to have another baby, I may miss my opportunity.

But then the other side thinks I could do it. I could buy another baby jogger (Single this time instead of double) and just be one of "those" moms. But I really do like my new found freedom of the fact that I don't have to watch my kids at every given second. They can go up and down the stairs freely and play around the house or out in the backyard while I do my thing on the computer or ride the trainer or what not.

Of course I'm not thinking about this year... I've got my 70.3 Worlds coming up! But... I just don't know.

I'm even watching my nephew today and the "yes I do", "no I don't" moments are shifting every second it seems! :)

So I don't want to regret NOT having my third, but I know that's not reason enough to have another as well. And there's that part of me that doesn't want to NOT have another baby for triathlon just in case I could actually be good one day, when that may never happen either!

My question is... Am I just going through that stage of my babies aren't babies anymore???

HELP!!

K :)

P.S. Adam if you are reading this... your comments will all be marked as biased!! :)

My First Signs of Getting Old!!

My first KEY workout was today back at the track!

Luckily, we've still got the rest of the week at VBS, so I got to concentrate on my workout alone without worrying about what Cooper and Gracie could possibly destroy on a football field!

The workout was one of my favorites... Bike, Run, Bike, Run x 5!! Tough as NAILS!! At least for me, but it keeps things interesting and moves pretty quickly!

Now that it is summer break, I decided to visit one of the local high school tracks since it's kind of open during the day to whomever. It was my first time there, and I'm sure they were wondering, "Why in the world is this crazy girl bringing her BIKE to the track and then hooking it up to some crazy stand!??" I even had one kid ask me if I could "actually ride it like a bike if I took it off the back?"!! The rest of his friends made fun of him, so they're not all that naive! :)But I didn't care what they thought! I had a mission to complete and was focused on my goal!

Right as I'm getting started... the entire Varsity Football Team heads out to the field for a workout. I'm warming up on the bike, and I could feel the looks of wonder on these youngsters faces as to why I wasn't running at the track! :)

Well they start doing their workout, which made me even happier because it gave me something to watch while I was grooving along on the bike with no headphones to listen to (my ipod is dead and desperately needs to be charged and it's been like that for DAYS! Yet I can't remember to plug the dang thing in at night!!)

I must say... I was impressed! The usual... pushups, situps, etc. on the field for the warmup and then onto running drills. It was so cool to watch. Well by the time they got to this, I was ready for my first 800 set HARD!

And there I was... running like a crazy woman, breathing like I was about to die at a pace that some of those boys would have probably found laughable! The first set, I actually had to pass them as they were on the track finishing their drills, and the whole time I'm thinking... Relax, Relax... !

Then it's back to the bike for another set and back and forth. I pretty much hit my goal numbers, which I personally was stoked about! But then the JV Basketball team shows up to do some 1/4 mile sprints and the boys up front are coming in at 1:00!! I was like, well there's a reality check for ya Kellye!

Did I mention that these were basketball and football players?? I just kept thinking... thank god the track stars didn't show up or they'd confuse me for a Grandma!! :)

It seriously was though cool to see these kids 1/2 my age, uhh... out there working it out on their Summer break! Way to go for them! Definitely made me push a little harder so I didn't seem like such a wimp! :)
K

Crash or Walk???

Today I was back on the schedule with my training! I've been doing stuff since Hawaii 70.3, but you know taking it easy and it was nice, but I'm ready to get back in the game!!

Fortunately, my kids have been attending a local Vacation Bible School each day this week from 9-12 so it's given me a little extra time to squeeze some stuff in.

There aren't a lot of places to ride around here locally. And by locally I mean Canton, Georgia. There is one ride I used to do when I first started, but even that was kind of far away from the church my kids were at this morning and since my brick workout was almost 2 hours, I really didn't have any travel time to speak of, so I decided to just ride the roads around here!

I left directly from the church parking lot and headed out on a loop I had pre-determined. Traffic... yes... but I was hoping for the best! :)

Right as I am getting started, this 1970's van gets just a little too close, and it was funny though because as he passed me his side-view mirror on my side was hanging off broken. I thought... "Whoo... that was a close one, especially when apparently this guy has a habit of hitting things on that side of his car!" :)

So on I rode... Feeling good and was even a good girl and did NOT listen to my ipod as I was at least attempting to be as responsible as possible!

Well as I'm riding along... I notice that my watch keeps shifting. I don't have a bike computer per se... I have a clip on my aero bars where I can latch my Garmin 305 onto it. I use that for biking and running, and it works beautifully!! But I kept thinking that I must not have put it on tightly enough as it kept creeping a little further and further away from me.

After riding for about 30 min and reaching the furthest possible point from my car I realize it isn't the watch... it's my handlebars and they are slowly creeping downwards because THEY must not be screwed on tightly enough!!

Then the thought occurs to me that these things could let loose any minute now as I'm leaning on them and when they fall down... I WILL TOO!! I mean I can't ride my bike the entire time without holding onto the handlebars. Maybe for a min or 2, but certainly not for an hour! :)

I thought I could pull over and try fixing them, but I had nothing on me to tighten them up, and I figured it'd be my luck that in trying to fix them I'd do the job of completely breaking them myself and I'd have to walk 10 miles back to my car in bicycle shoes!!

So that was the question... Hop off and walk the dang thing back, or risk the possibility that at any given moment my handlebars would lose that last little grip they had going for them at the moment, and I'd be on my face in the road in the middle of traffic!

As scary as option 2 sounded... walking did NOT sound appealing either. So I took the chance trying very hard to put as little weight on them as possible. You know... the whole finger balance thing! :)

For the next 30 min I rode in fear of the cars and my handlebars! :)

Thank goodness God was on my side today, because I did make it to the local bike shop and ran in and borrowed an allen wrench to fix the darn things! The last 30 min or so of my ride were MUCH more peaceful than the first part!

I'm just really glad I managed to escape crashing or walking!! :)
Be careful out there everyone!
K

Back to Normal Life!

I got off the airplane on Wed. morning after flying through the night and hit the ground running!

Ever since I've been busy with triathlon clinics, subbing a spin class (yes, I know I said I was laying off for the summer, but I agreed to this one awhile back and don't mind subbing occasionally :), and spent Friday evening meeting my new niece Lilly as she arrived to America!

Isn't she beautiful!!

The weekend however has been REALLY nice! Not that Wed, Thur., and Friday weren't. But I've actually kind of chilled this weekend.

Saturday morning I was off for a physical therapy appointment, and then Adam and I took the kids to the pool for a few hours. Cooper and Gracie climbed 2 flights of stairs seriously about 20 times going up and down the slide. That must be exhausting!! I'm just glad that this year I got to watch from the sidelines. :)

Saturday night was a girls night out with my mom and niece. I've been DYING to see Sex and the City!! Lauren is a fan, and my mom could care less about what we saw but just wanted to come join the fun! So we met at Phipps Plaza in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. It's the swanky part of town and Phipps is the home of Saks, Neiman's, Jeffery's, etc. What better place to watch a movie all about fashion than in one of the fashion meccas of the city?? :) We had a lot of fun and the movie was great! It was funny and dramatic but everything worked out well, so it was a great.

And can you believe that I didn't even workout on Saturday?? I was supposed to ride my bike for just an easy hour and so even though I got a lot of good ride offers this weekend, I declined. I knew I needed the rest and should stick to the plan. AND I know what's coming! I figured I better take the opportunity to not have to go out on a big long journey before I'm once again doing it as my usual weekend routine! So I was going to ride my trainer for an hour before heading out to the movies, but by the time I put my bike back together, I had run out of time and just let it go. No worries!

Sunday began with a short 45 min easy run in the morning. I began at around 9:30am. I went just a few miles up the road to a little local park that has a flat, soft surface. When I went to get in the car I thought it seemed a little hot. On my way there, I drove past a bank that declared it was currently 91!! I was like... there's no way. But once I got going, it occurred to me that I think it really WAS that hot!! Good thing it was only 45 min. I just think it's funny that ever since it started warming up, I've been praying for hot weather to help prepare me for Honu and I get there and my body is in shock with the heat! Then I turn around and come home to highs of 97!! Don't get me wrong... I'm not complaining... at least not yet! :) I generally much prefer the heat to cold and should adjust soon. I just thought it was funny. :)

So then we went for a hearty lunch at McDonalds so we could get a new Kung Fu Panda toy before going to see the movie. I LOVED it! It was funny, and cute, and the story line was good. It was a definite see... maybe even without kiddos if yours aren't interested!

I did manage to squeeze in my bike ride this evening on the trainer. So all is well here!

Next week we have Vacation Bible School... Whoo Hoo!! A little Kellye Time each morning and something to keep Cooper and Gracie from being "borin" as Cooper would say. :) PLUS... I start a boot camp this week for my personal training position. I think that should be fun!

But, Light and Easy!! That's my summer motto!

I hope all is well with everyone else! Thanks for reading!

K :)

A Tour of the Big Island with the World's Best Tour Guide!!

I LOVE to travel, as most people do! But people definitely travel in different fashions…

You’ve got people like me that see pictures and hear stories of places and decide that I would love to go there some day. You have an opportunity arise that sets you that way and off you go!!

Then you have those who travel like Adam! He does not simply just travel… he experiences to the FULL capacity! And I love it!

I guess in a way you could say that I’m spoiled because I’m fortunate enough that he pretty much takes care of everything.

I made the decision to do Hawaii 70.3 and trained for the race…. Adam handled everything else!

He booked all of the flight arrangements, took care of shipping my bike (which has been a bit of a roller coaster J), reserved a great place for us to stay, etc. All pretty normal type stuff, but stuff I didn’t have to worry about which of course made it very nice!

BUT…. It goes even further than that because Adam doesn’t visit places, we explore them! And without his seriously studying everything about the Big Island from where to stay to their history and culture, I would have never had the trip that we had!

Here’s some stuff we learned/visited while we were on our “Power vacation!”

Through my walking Hawaiian encyclopedia, aka… Adam… I can now tell you where the shaka hand symbol legend proclaims it comes from.

I can tell you all about the type of warrior and King that Kamehameha's was and how the islands were united and in what time frame. About their laws and customs and that there is a place of refuge on the island that if you had committed a crime if you could get there before you were captured and perform certain rituals you were forgiven of your crime and free to reenter the city.

I can tell you all about why there is a stone wall surrounding some of the beach areas on the Kona shore.

I can tell you where the best places to snorkel in Kona are where you can swim side by side with sea turtles! And the fact that the Hawaiian state fish is the Humuhumunukunuku'apua'a and where to go see one!!

I can tell you that the fish ponds at the Mauna Lani resort where the 70.3 race takes place are actually King Kamaheamahea’s personal fish ponds that have been there since he had them created and have been preserved for that reason.

I can tell you what it is like to race on the Big Island on a day when conditions are that of Big Island classic harsh and testing. And how you cannot really be upset by it but grow to have more respect for the island, what it provides, and for the people who willingly test their strength and courage against it.

I can tell you where the most beautiful waterfall and tropical locations are on the Northern side of the island outside of the lava covered Kona areas.

I can tell you where the lava flow is currently coming into ocean, which is continuing to add size to the giant Big Island. I can tell you about previous lava flow which comes down the side of Kileuea , the worlds most active volcano which is erupting now and has been since1983!

The current lava flow is actually coming into the ocean outside of the caldera through what is called a Lava Tube. Something I had no idea would be near as big as it turned out to be as we walked through a lava tube that was no longer in use! AND that these tubes were created by the lava themselves as lava flowed and cooled continuously and formed these giant tubes!

I can tell you all about the Caldera and that is emitting toxic sulfur gas from the top and has doubled in its height since the lava flow was originally erupting from the top. Oh… and did I mention that I even knew to wipe my sunglasses and camera off after visiting the top of Mt. Kileuea as of course Adam had already read all about how the gases could erode the lenses if you did not!!

I can share with you my very favorite part of the trip about visiting the ancient petroglyphs down near the ocean level of Mt. Kileuea where ancient families and today’s ancestors visit the lava field to carve images of their families and culture and dig small holes to place their children’s umbilical cords in to honor them and pray to the Gods that they may have a prosperous and long life. This was by far one of the most special moments on our visit as we were standing in a field of complete devastation where lava covered the side of a giant erupting volcano while overlooking the ocean and no noise or movement besides that of the strong winds and the blowing of the trees that were popping up through the lava… a sign that life is once again beginning. It was a very spiritual place and a moment I couldn’t help but feel would stay with me forever.

I can tell you that there are actually two different types of lava and the rock graffiti that you see in the lava fields is a tradition of people to place the white coral rocks in to mark their coming to the island!

I could go on and on of the island stories that Adam shared with me as we toured this island. We spent our last full day literally driving along the entire island shoreline for 333 miles to capture every essence that we could of the Big Island in one day’s time.

Because of the fact that Adam is such a planner and researcher… we were able to fit it all in!

Of course there were a few things that I didn’t get to experience this time around… but that just leaves room for my next visit!

Until then….

Aloha and Mahalo!!

Ironman Hawaii 70.3

Well.... :)

I must say that today, for me, this race was brutal!

Everyone agreed, as Samantha McGlone put it, that Mt. Pele let us all know who was boss today on the Big Island.

The Swim was rough, and choppy.

The Bike was insanely windy! Seriously Crazy windy!

The Run was super hot!

So it came down to a battle of the elements, and it almost won against me today.

I knew it was going to be tough just based off of the conditions we've been experiencing over the past couple of days. Everytime I got in the water or on the bike it was truly rough conditions on both.

My goal for the swim today was to push myself a little harder than I normally do. Being that the swim isn't my "thing", I think I tend to get caught up in all of the fury of it all and lose focus sometimes. So today I was going to swim a little more aggressively, stay focused, and push a little harder....

And I did. The water was really very rough. To the point that I only twice sighted buoys. Every other time that I looked up in an effort to sight, all I could see was the giant wave that was about to come down on me. It was a wading start and everyone took off at the same time. I tried to position myself around some that I thought I might could draft off of. I know I swam a little on the outside based on where I kept seeing the pack of people and when I once passed a buoy. But everytime I would find myself worrying too much about positioning and what not, I'd push it really hard to get right back in there and find some feet. I wanted to come in under 37 min. Which I KNOW isn't fast at all. But it would have been a decent time for me, and I ended up coming in at 35:45 so I was feeling ok with that.

Transition was LONG... Up hill run of course, but still focused and running and just thinking I'll get situated on the bike....

The bike was ridiculously hard. I have never experienced wind before like that in my life. The course was from the South Kohala area up into Hawi. Basically the second half of the bike course for the Kona race. The windy half. Into Hawi you ride rolling hills but basically climb up mostly and the entire way there there was either an ongoing headwind or a serious crosswind. So I was pushing the biggest gear I could hanging on without destroying my legs for the run. On the way back the crosswinds were so bad there were times my bike and I and everyone else I could see around me were seriously tilted. I was afraid that as soon as the wind stopped, we'd all topple over! So I fought HARD! My hr was probably way up there, so my nutrition wasn't great. I was VERY thirsty before even starting the race despite my trying to stay hydrated as much as possible, so I kept drinking as much as I could. But if you let go of your bike with one hand for even one second you better be prepared, so getting nutrition in was tricky. And when my hr gets really high, I just can't take it in. So I backed off a bit.

My bike split ended up being 2:54. And this is my strong point. I ended up coming in 9th in my age-group on the bike and nobody's split was super fast. But I don't think I've ever had to work that hard on the bike before. My back and apparently a lot of others around me by the looks of it, was killing me for trying to hold our balance!

So basically I knew I wouldn't have a super fast time, but I was still feeling ok with my splits as I came into T2. This was a little weird in and of the fact that T2 was in a completely different location than T1, so I had no idea where my spot was. But the volunteers were really good about helping you get to where you needed to be. I got my stuff together and headed out and knew immediately that I was in for a long run.

I was completely dead.... right from the start.

My legs felt like I couldn't move them... and I felt like I had nothing left in the tank whatsoever.

My thoughts were to try to pull it together. Work on nutrition, and let my legs settle in. I tried to pace myself in the first 4 miles, hoping things would work themselves out by then, but it just didn't happen. The run felt worse and worse and the heat was HOT! I ultimately ended up feeling like I'd bonked. The best way I can describe it is I felt like I had the flu. My entire body ached, I was nauseous, and felt like I couldn't move. I was hot and cold all at the same time, which is weird I know, but true. I resorted to walking and resorted to the idea that at this point all I wanted to do was finish... even if that meant walking the rest of the race. Fortunately I willed/forced myself to run from one point to another and would walk a little when I could go no further all the way to the end. Ultimately I came in with a 2:13 run, which of course I'm not thrilled about, but I promised myself out there that I wouldn't let myself be disappointed in myself when I finished, because I KNOW that I gave it everything that I had. I never gave up, and pushed as hard and as much as possible.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't disappointed in the situation. However, there was no training, no more fitness, nothing that could have been done that would have better prepared me for this race. I honestly feel that I came in today lacking 2 important keys:

Experience, and the ability to combine suffering with speed.

Oh don't get me wrong.... I suffered! Tremendously! :) I just have to figure out a way to keep moving at that goal pace while doing it!

So it was an emotional day to say the least. I ended up with a 5:50 race time and 12th in my age group. I'm burned to a crisp, despite my wearing sunscreen. My body is sore and exhausted and my mind is a little too.

BUT... The wonderful news is that by the grace of God... I QUALIFIED FOR 70.3 Worlds!!

I couldn't believe it happened. They gave away 2 slots in my age-group and since it was a double qualifier where you could get slots to Kona, several of the top girls didn't stick around for the Clearwater spots. But they called up the 25-29 girls who wanted Clearwater spots and we were fighting over them. It was a close call, but I got one, and I'm SOOOO excited!!

As I told Adam, it's an opportunity for me to redeem myself! :) I know that when looking at that race time, it doesn't demonstrate where I am at right now. I finished Florida 70.3 last year in a 5:26, and I KNOW that I'm much fitter and experienced now than I was then. So hopefully with some continued fine tuning and work, I can go down to Clearwater on November 8 and ROCK that course!!

So despite my slight disappointment in my time, I'm proud of the fact that I seriously completed today what was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. This race today was harder for me than even my Ironman event that I ran over 13 miles with a broken foot on!! And that means a lot to me.

Thanks so much to all of you for your support and cheers. It honestly did help me out there today make it to that finish line!!

Aloha~ K