Another New Beginning!

We are about to enter one of my favorite times of the year! New Year's Day is certainly the beginning of another calendar year and is definitely a time I reevaluate, but the beginning of another school year has just as much if not more value in a new beginning for me as well.

I have always loved going back to school! It represents so many new changes and opportunities.

It's typically around the end of summer when at least where I live it's too hot to be outside anyways! My birthday has always fallen in sync with another school year so I'm one whole year further along in school as well as one year older.

It's the beginning of new classes, new teachers, new friends, back to sports, and routine. And even if you are returning to your sport or friends you've been with for quite sometime... you come back with that much more skill, knowledge and experience to bring into yet another season!

It's an opportunity to start over! To make better grades, set new goals, join a new club, attempt a goal yet in another way. It's like magic!

Fortunately, because I love it so much, I've had the opportunity to experience it quite a bit longer than just my grade school years. Even as a teacher I loved it! I couldn't help but get all caught up in the excitement each year. A new set of students who each brought special gifts, talents, and challenges for me. I never followed the same lesson plans year to year. I always wrote new ones because I wanted them to be geared toward my new students, and their needs and passions. So it was a time for more exploration as well!

Of course, right as you begin to get settled in... Fall comes along and the season changes as well. Fall in Georgia is truly one of the most perfect times here. It's cool in the mornings and warm during the day, but pleasantly so and then at night you can finally break out a sweater. Everything changes into beautiful colors and things begin to settle down just as you begin to settle in to your new beginning!

And of course this all means back to school clothes as well, which was by far my most favorite part of returning to school! In the 10th grade I vowed to never wear the same exact outfit twice throughout the entire school year. That took a lot of work!! :)

Now... as I experience the back to school year from the perspective of a mother instead of an actual student or teacher participant... I still find it none the less exciting. Although I don't get to go to the mall with my mother and spend the entire day purchasing new outfits and shoes and accessories to be sure everything comes together just right without the worry of money because... well that's what parents worry about! :), I still get excited for them as I watch them set out on a new journey, and it's fun for me as well!

Life moving from 2 babies... to 2 toddlers.... and now towards 2 kids... means a lot of changes for me! It's great from the fact that I have more time to myself, or I can sometimes sit in my room and be on the computer without having to physically watch them at all times. But it is sad in that they are growing up so quickly and as they do, they become more independent and less dependent on me.

So I still use this time as a moment for reflection. What were my goals and dreams in January and how close have I come to achieving those? What do I still need to do in the following 5 months to try to get closer to where I'd hoped to be? The timing really works out perfectly. It is like a mid-year review! And for me... I could almost use them weekly! :)

In Alb. we discussed the difference between Goals and Targets. Targets are specific and can be calculated, whereas goals are more intrinsic such as emotions and feelings. One goal I definitely need to continue to work towards is patience. I want to be fast, efficient, and perfect NOW! But I'm realizing that those things come through a series of work as I get older. And not just speaking triathlon, but in all terms of life!

So I'll continue to reevaluate and tweak my path as I move forward into yet another year! Wishing the best to each and everyone of you in the remaining part of your 2008!
K

The Last Week!!

A 10 week summer vacation is now coming to a close.... time goes by so quickly doesn't it?

This is our final week before heading back to school. Well... Cooper that is. He starts Kindergarten on Monday, August 4th and so that's big news in our household! Gracie will go back to her private preschool that her and Cooper have gone to since the beginning. The Atlanta area no longer offers public pre-k, so I'll be paying for one more year's worth of school!

We headed to Target today to pick up our list of school supplies. Holy Cow!! It's a lot of stuff!! But of course we had fun picking out our new book bags and lunch boxes for the year. Final decisions were made on Hello Kitty backpack with a princess lunch box and a Speed Racer book bag with a Sponge Bob Lunch box. Some of my favorite memories of school as a child revolves around those special lunch boxes and trapper-keepers (this shows how old I am!! Do they even make trapper-keepers any longer??)! So I didn't argue or butt in my judgement at all. I let them choose exactly what they saw to be perfect! :)

Of course for me as one chapter comes to an end and another is about to begin, I always reflect back to what my original plans for that time period were and whether or not I accomplished what I had set out to do or not. My original plan for this summer was to cut back on a lot of my duties and try to relax some. Well... it's a good thing I did, because I've been really busy this summer and can't imagine what it would have been like had I tried to include everything!! :)

There were projects that I had hoped to accomplish that didn't even get touched. There were many naps missed, and not near enough time spent at the pool just yet, but overall it's been a great summer! I've had the opportunity to go to some really cool places and spend time developing my new career as well as and most importantly hang out with the two coolest people on the planet!

And though we've just about had it with each other... I'm ready for them to head back to school as I'm sure they're ready to not have to look at me all day long and get to see their friends more often... each summer really is kind of like one of life's little chapters, and I will definitely cherish this one!

I know that I'm probably the only person out there that will be dealing with school buses and packed lunches in less than a week, so to all of you people out there still enjoying your summer, I hope that you soak up every last bit of it!! I know we will be for the next 5 days!!

Surprise!

I've had a pretty good week. Things have been busy as usual and my mom has spent the past couple of days with us so that I could help her out by taking her to get her hair done. She can't drive for the next several weeks because of her surgery, and I agreed to drive her there. Of course she ended up watching the kids for me a couple of times, which I did not intend on. I told her I didn't bring her up here to help me... but she said it was no big deal to just sit with the kids while Adam and I went out for a date night last night, so it was really nice!

This morning Adam let me sleep late thank goodness! I got a big kick in the pants on Tuesday when I headed out to do a pace run at 3:30pm. Needless to say, it didn't go very well. I was supposed to do 6 miles with descending mile splits. I finished 4 with my mile splits getting slower, and stopped at 4 to either throw-up or pass out! Fortunately, I managed to stumble my way back to the car without enduring either. Apparently, 100 degrees is NOT a good time to try to do a pace run. :)

So ever since then I've had to get my rear in gear and get up early before the heat really sets in around here. Despite the fact that I've been going to bed in time to ensure at least 8 hours of sleep before my early rise... it still hurts to get up early. I'm completely out of practice and tired! So it was nice to sleep in a bit today. But I knew I had a 1:30 run looming, and knew I had to get going out there before too long.

I did the run in my neighborhood, and I live on a descent size hill so I most of the time finish at the bottom of the hill and walk it out on the way back up as a cool down. Well today as I was walking home all sweaty and disgusting (it must have been like 90% humidity today!) all of my neighbors start wishing me Happy Birthday! I was like, well thanks... but today isn't my birthday. In fact its almost 2 weeks away. They said according to my children, they were telling everyone that today was mommy's birthday.

As I get closer to the house, Cooper and Gracie run out to wish me a Happy Birthday! I kept saying... Thanks guys, but today isn't my birthday! Yeah... Well Daddy went to get the cake!

So as it turns out, Adam was giving me a surprise birthday party with all of my brother's and sister at the house today and did it 2 weeks early to throw me off! Fortunately, I got home around 11am and the party didn't start until 12pm, so I didn't walk into my party getting surprised covered in salt, sweat, and gross! I got to shower and actually plan to wear something decent!

Thanks guys for the surprise! It was lots of fun!!

Albuquerque!

I spent last weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico attending a USAT Level 1 coaching clinic. THANK YOU PT Solutions, for the opportunity to go out there to educate myself further in the realm of swim, bike, run, and triathlon and become certified in a sport I absolutely LOVE!!

I flew out Thursday afternoon from Atlanta of course. It was interesting travelling by myself because that has happened VERY few times in my lifetime. But I rather enjoyed it! I watched some Sex and the City on my laptop, read a lot, and worked on my neglected blog! I arrived in Alb. at around 7:30pm, which was 9:30pm home time, so of course I was already tired! Dale and Emily picked me up at the airport and we went straight back to the hotel.

We woke up early Friday morning to get a quick run in before heading to class. I didn't realize until someone had mentioned it to me when we got there, but Alb. is actually at altitude. Even slightly higher than that of Denver. Made sense when I saw the giant Mountain in the background, and when I saw my hr on my run! :) Wasn't crazy high, but noticeable. So after a short little run that felt good in the cool morning weather, it was a quick breakfast, and then off to class.

Ok... now is a good time to say that 8 hours of sitting in class is exhausting!! It's been 9 years since I was taking classes, and probably 11 or so since sitting in lectures like that. But the good news was that I was listening to stuff that I actually WANTED to learn a lot about! The day was broken into classes basically. 1:30 devoted to topics like physiology, periodization, psychology, and of course, swimming, biking, and running. I must say that some of the presentations were a little lacking in the information. It was definitely a beginner based class, but they also did a great job of bringing in some expert people to talk about these different topics and that was awesome.

One of my favorites was Bobby McGee. He's written a couple of books about running technique and even sports psychology. Both information I desperately needed! Nutrition was great! The cycling class given by John Crawley gave me all sorts of ideas, and it was so neat to listen to this information from the perspective of an athlete myself as well as how to work this into schedules for other athletes!

Another REALLY good thing that the instructor did... asking people to save their personal questions for after the lecture! THAT was a life-saver! I'm sorry, but a lecture is a lecture... You are supposed to listen. If you have a question about the explanation of the material, ask of course, but if it's personal... don't waste everyone elses' time with your long-drawn out question. This little pet peeve of mine mostly pertains to the people that talk because they like to hear themselves talk. They ask things in the form of a question, but really it's a "look how smart I am" statement or a demonstration of the differing of their opinion. Of course every group has one! There was this one girl there who obviously felt she was an expert on things, but then I disagreed with almost everything she said! Not saying she's wrong, but she certainly didn't think so! :) Emily and I just thought it was funny and laughed about it the whole time! :)

One guy even had the nerve to tell the gentleman they flew in from New Orleans to give the lecture on proper swimming instruction that his stroke wasn't right!! I was like, man... you disagree that's fine, but don't call the guy out like that... it's just rude!

Anyways... so the class was good. I have now 6 weeks to do my take home test/assignments to officially become certified. But I'm all pumped up about doing more coaching! I'm currently working with an athlete now, and plan on pursuing some different things to work with out of our club like group rides, swims, and runs! It's exciting!

The city of Albuquerque itself was neat as well! We went downtown on Friday night to check it out and eat dinner. It was so different than I expected. I was expecting a lot of bright colors and the city itself is kind of bland. Everything is brown it seems. But it has a lot of culture. I saw a ton of mud houses. How neat is that!

On Saturday morning I woke up early for my longer run and ran along a local trail that had been recommended. It was a dirt path that was basically a long circle. It went up into the Mountains for about 1 mile, around and then back down. I ended up doing about 2 loops and my hr was up there with the altitude and the hills! But I LOVED it! My favorite thing about Alb. was the weather! It was amazing! You wake up and it's low 70's. So you can run in the morning like that and it's perfect! It gets hot during the day, but not ridiculously hot. Then at night, it gets really cool. Like, you could use a sweater cool! It rains every afternoon this time of year, so it's not as dry as you would think, and winters there are mild. At least when you aren't too far up the mountain. So it would be an amazing place to live and train!

Unfortunately, I didn't really take any pictures. I was either in class or the few times that we went out, I wasn't really expecting it, and therefore didn't have my camera on me. We were pretty much going all weekend. We saw Batman on Saturday night, and I thought it was great! Swam Sunday morning, and wrapped it all up Sunday at lunch right before going back to the airport!

Short but Sweet and I am SOOOO glad to be home! I may be headed to Florida for a short weekend race in August and then up to South Carolina for the SC 1/2 at the end of September, but other than that... I am just waiting for my big last trip of the year to Clearwater in November!!

School is back in session August 4th!! So just a week and a half to go and our summer is over! I can't believe it. It's bitter sweet. Early mornings, homework, and routine, but in exchange for my mornings to myself to get my stuff done. Sounds pretty good. But my baby is off to kindergarten and I'm kind of sad. But... he's excited, so we're working our way back into the routine of things from this point forward.

Happy last days of summer to everyone else!

K

Texas!!

Ok... so I'm a little behind! I swear to get caught up on all of my blogging soon!

I'm sitting here in the airport about to leave Albuquerque, New Mexico and I'm posting about my last trip that happened over a week ago!!

Well here's the low-down on Texas, and I'll post about my Alb. trip and all the USAT coaching stuff within the next few days!!....

Texas really was a lot of fun! Especially since I ended up taking most of the time off!

It began after our long car journey there when we finally arrived at Adam’s sister Kellie’s house just in time for a cookout on July 4th! The kids pretty much got in their swim suits the moment we arrived, and we celebrated our country’s birthday with hamburgers, margaritas, and sparklers.

Of course I’m not much of a night-person, so the evening didn’t last too long beyond dark!

Saturday, I did do my 2:30 brick that I wrote about earlier. The roads were bumpy, but the scenery was gorgeous! Texas ranches are seriously beautiful. Long stretches of fields covered with wildflowers, livestock, and produce. It was nice!

Saturday night we went to the rodeo! I was so excited about it because when Adam and I had been before I would always think how fun it would be to bring our kids someday, and well… that someday is already here! Ellen had purchased some rubber boots for both Cooper and Gracie to wear at their cabin when we headed up there on Sunday to fish and such. However, they both LOVED their boots, especially Gracie and started wearing them immediately. They were both so cute in their boots and dresses and shorts!

They really enjoyed the rodeo. If I had known ahead of time, I would have gotten there in time to try to get them picked for the kids portion of the rodeo. They have a drawing each time to choose 10 kids to saddle up and see how long you can hold onto a sheep. You should have seen those little people riding those sheeps. Of course none of them made it very far, but they were all so tiny, and the last little boy to ride, when he fell off at the end, he raised his hands in victory! He truly felt like he had won, and it was awesome!

Cooper did go out and chase the cow. All the little kids line up and run after 2 cows that each have a ribbon on their tale. Gracie didn’t want to participate, but Cooper ran out there just as fast as he could and it was so cute!! They loaded up on popcorn (Gracie can put away a LOT of popcorn to be so little!), cotton candy, pop-guns and stuffed pink ponies, and we headed home after a late night!

Sunday was spent at Adam’s parents cabin. They built a small cabin about an hour north of Dallas several years ago. It’s a really neat place. They built it themselves and it’s right in front of this little pond and they have a ton of land, and it’s just neat.

We spent the day fishing with Spiderman and Princess fishing poles and Gracie discovered the advantage of having a grandmother that loves to sew! Everyone knows how much Gracie loves dresses. She wears a dress everyday. She had begun sewing her one and was almost finished with it, and was showing it to Gracie. Well Gracie discovered the picture of the little girl modeling the pattern who had on a yellow dress and decided she needed one like that. So Ellen agreed to make it for her, and that’s all she could talk about for the rest of the day! Gracie wasn’t much into the fishing, but Cooper caught 4 fish! We threw them all back of course, but it was so cool to watch him concentrate and be quiet and such!

My favorite part of the day was when we went over to their neighbor’s house who owns 6 horses. Neither of my kids had ever been up-close to a horse, so they got to meet them, and feed them and even ride them! I myself have never been much of a horse person, but it was such a great experience. I got up there and go to know “Chief” and then took both Cooper and Gracie for rides. It was an amazing experience!

Monday, while I headed to Kellie’s gym to the pool, Adam, his Dad, and Cooper went to play golf, and Ellen and Gracie went on a shopping spree to get Gracie her yellow fabric and ensemble she’d decided she needed. I tried explaining to Gracie before she left that they weren’t actually going to go and buy the dress. That they were going to go and buy the stuff to come home and make the dress. My example was how mommy goes to the grocery store and buys the stuff we need to come home and make a cake. That we don’t actually go and buy an already made cake. Well as soon as Ellen came to pick Gracie up, what she had taken away from that conversation was by telling Ellen that while they went shopping, mommy was going to make a cake! Needless to say, she didn’t quite get what I was trying to tell her. But they had a BIG time! She came home with sparkly, yellow-flowered fabric, yellow shoes to match. A new necklace and bracelet, and a new Barbie. Can anyone tell that Grandma Ellen was excited to have the opportunity to take them out and spoil them a little! Can you believe that she set down and had that dress made within like 2 hours! Gracie finally had the perfect outfit! Her new yellow sparkly dress, her stripped rain boots, her new jewelry, and her new cowboy hat that she’d gotten and had Grandma Ellen sew jeweled fringe onto!! THAT is one heck of a fashion statement!

Tuesday I had sometime to myself. I rode my trainer for almost 2 hours and then went and did a little shopping. Wednesday, the kids headed back up to the cabin for a spend-the-night campout party, and I had about 24 hours to myself! This is when workout Kellye shut down and went into complete vacation mode! I sunned in the pool with Kellie, napped, and then we went shopping at Steve and Barry’s in downtown Dallas. Got to love the cute and super cheap Sarah Jessica Parker clothes! Then onto dinner at the Melting Pot! One of my favorite places to eat. And though some adults bring their children there, I do not for fear of cooking one of their hands, so that’s always a special place to go for me!

Mine and Kellie’s “Big Night Out” had us home and in our PJs by 9pm watching “How Clean is Your House” on BBC! Ok… if you ever feel like you are not doing a good job keeping your house clean…. Tune in to this show, because OMG… these people are disgusting!!

Thursday and Friday were pretty lax just hanging out and taking it easy. Adam flew back into Dallas from working all week on Friday night.

We were going to head home on Sunday, but decided Saturday would be best so that we could recover at our own house on Sunday instead before heading into a busy week on Monday. And that was that!

Lots of fun, family, and good times! Thanks Ed, Ellen, and Kellie for being such great hostesses! Sorry to Kellie because my kids just about destroyed her house. She literally had to pull up the carpet in her guest bathroom as soon as we left!! Ooops!! But we had a great time, and can’t wait to come again!!

Learning to Walk Again!

Literally!!

I had one of those "AHHHH!!" moments at Physical therapy today. Let me explain...

Ok, so if you've been following my recent saga's, you know that I've been having pain in both of my heels and arches. Relatively new thing. Of course my first thought was Plantars. It's common... It kind of went a long with the description. But I was a little weary with the self-diagnosis because I knew I had calf muscle issues and where as plantars generally feels better once you start moving, my heels and arches ached all day mostly with walking and standing.

So Monday, after being gone from my physical therapy all last week, and with this new issue, I head to a PT appointment first thing. Anytime I have issues... whatever it may be, I want to fix it immediately! I go into this, ok... got to fix this NOW mode!

After talking with Tye, my pt about my symptoms/pain issues, we both agreed it doesn't sound very plantarsish. My calf muscles are just super "crunchy!" That's my word for the stuff that happens where when you rub the muscle it's all yucky feeling. :) Ok... so after some major tissue massage work and ultrasound on both of my calves and feet, I was feeling much better. Definitely could tell a difference since then. Not too much pain between now and then, but still could tell that it wasn't something that would heel overnight.

So I went back this evening before my boot camp class and he did more tissue work and ohhh that stuff is painful! But it's that, "I can get through this because I know I will eventually feel oh so much better" kind of pain! So afterwards he was telling me to stretch and he told me to do the classic runners calf stretch but with the bent knee to target the soleus muscle (the lower part of the calf) I was like, no problem... I've been doing those. So I proceed to position myself and he was like, ok... but you need to do it with your toes pointing forward!!!!

Ok... here is where some background info is needed. I started taking ballet at the age of 3. I took it until the age of 15. And at the time, I was really into it. My mom had private lessons for me and everything. I went to camps for it and such. If you've ever seen a dancer, you'll notice that you are trained to walk with your toes pointed out. HOURS of time is spent working on that perfect first and third positions. Because of that, I have ALWAYS walked with my feet turned out. For as long as I can remember. And I think it's somewhat significant as people will comment about it.

I've just always considered it a part of who I am. I never notice it. I even run that way. It's just how my body functions. Well... apparently that's a problem.

When I try to point my toes forward, my knees drop in. If I try to align my knees over my ankles, even for just standing, my hip gets all out of whack. When Tye physically aligned my ankles, knees and hips and told me to hold it... within 5 seconds I could feel the burn in my hips and gluteus medius!! Which just so happens to be where all of my mechanical functions stem from with my SI joint tendonitis. My knee was messed up today and my calves have it to. I have only 1/2 the flexion in my ankles... It just all suddenly made sense!

I guess everyone has their own gait. And despite what some running technique theories believe, I support that you don't mess with it unless it's a problem. Well tonight I realized for the first time, that apparently I don't walk or stand correctly and that is a problem.

So for two hours following, I really tried to focus on walking correctly. Straightening my toes in the forward position and trying to walk from the hip instead of my foot. Dancers initiate the walking motion from your feet. You literally sweep them off of the ground forward. Regular people walk from the hip. Well after only 2 hours my hips and butt were already sore!

Imagine for a second... most of us have had to learn a new stroke technique. And we all know how hard and frustrating that is. What if you had to learn how to walk better??!! Ahh!!

Oddly though, I left excited! Again, because when I have an issue, to me, just knowing the problem is 75% of the battle! IF this is really the cause of all of this hip/knee/ankle issues, and IF I can work to correct it... that's good news!

So wish me luck! If you see some crazy lady walking around looking ridiculous... it's probably me! Just wave and tell me to point those toes forward!! :)

BTW: I leave tomorrow for Albuquerque, NM! My weekend of USAT Coaching training is here! I'm excited, and it should be so much fun! So I plan on using the flight over tomorrow to get that LONG Texas blog all ready! So stay tuned!!

K

I'm Back!!

Literally and Figuratively!!

After another LONG 13:30 trip home in the car yesterday... we arrived late last night around midnight to our home! We unloaded just what we needed, I got the kids situated and took a nice shower before heading to my beautiful, well-missed bed!

Trips are always so much fun, but the best part is the coming home! As soon as I crossed the Georgia State Line, I was like... Ahhhh!

After 4 days of no working out mixed in with eating absolutely everything I could possibly shove in my mouth, a long car ride home, a good night's sleep in my bed, and a rainy day here today... I can say that my spirit and mind have been rejuvenated! I would have actually probably have done something yesterday, but couldn't with the drive. So by the time today rolled around, I was ready to get moving! I made it over to my gym for a nice, easy 40 min treadmill run and now that I'm all fed and nourished from dinner... I'm off for a date with my trainer! Nothing crazy... just an easy 30-45 min ride to get my legs remembering what it is like to ride a bike!

I can say that if you are feeling kind of gloomy. A little strung-out... 4 days was just what the Dr. ordered! I have found that spark again not just for triathlon, but for my daily life as a whole. Sometimes the routine is what brings us down, but sometimes the routine is exactly what we need/want!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! I'll post some pictures from Texas as soon as I get them off of my camera onto my computer! :)
K

My Mental Holiday

What happens when a young, dedicated and focused mother of two, wannabe-triathlete goes on vacation with her family...starts dealing with a minor-injury....finds herself surrounded by opportunities to have time to herself......in unknown territory........

She falls off the band wagon!

With a full year of Ironman training last year, I took a total of 3 mental health days. Three days in which I wasn't injured, I wasn't sick, and I wasn't supposed to have the day off, and I said... Nope... I'm just not doing this today.

I take my training very seriously. Honestly, because I love it! I am excited on Sunday's to see my next week's schedule! I look at long rides and long runs as fun opportunities, never dreading them. I try to focus each day and each workout on meeting my goals.

So far this year I don't think I've missed one workout because I just didn't do it. I have moved the occasional swim to another day, and I've obviously missed workouts due to illness or injury. But despite my trips to Park City, Florida, Hawaii, etc... I have been sure to continue with my schedule unless I was sick. :)

Even after races when you have those "Do what you want weeks" my mind is always still so consumed with triathlon. I think so much about my race, what I should have done, what I want to do to improve, and what I hope to do next time. I take time to let my body heal, but the mind just keeps on with TRI, TRI, TRI!

I honestly don't get a whole lot of days off. Jen likes to give me easy days with just a swim and stuff, but probably because I'm so busy all of the time, I'll go weeks without one. Again... no big deal. I'm completely fine with that. I'm sure most of the pros and such don't take many days off. But as Jen has told me recently, I really need to work on my recovery. I know most of you mom's out there are the same way... "Off" days are days to catch-up on everything else. Then the rest of my life is crammed in around workouts. Summer time has been busy too trying to juggle the workouts around doing fun things with the kids. We've been gone a lot as well.

Basically... I got out here with my day-off spent riding in the car for 13+ hours. Did a brick on Saturday that was not the most pleasant. Tried to do a little something on Sunday because my foot was bothering me so, and I got really worried about it. Went to Kellie's gym and swam on Monday. Decided on Tuesday that I did not feel like tackling a 2 hour ride in the heat (you wake up to 90 around here) and either on horrible bumpy roads or in full-blown traffic in unfamiliar territory and spent the time on my trainer instead. I couldn't even hear my movie on my laptop either, so the entire time was spent with me on headphones attached to my computer... and me attached to my trainer. NOT the best of situations.

So when I woke up on Wednesday, took my kids to a movie, and then sent them off to grandmas for the night... I just couldn't bring myself to go workout.

I was done... My brain said... nope.... your foot feels better, you're not sick, but you're sick of Go, Go, Go...

The next 30 hours were all mine. To lounge by the pool, shop, go eat at a nice restaurant, go to bed early, sleep late, and do whatever I felt like doing. Without rushing home and constantly recalculating what I owed the babysitter because time kept creeping away from me.

I guess I really needed a vacation. A real one. A little mini-vacation away from triathlon. I finally gathered the courage to email Jen last night about it. Tell her I hadn't done my workouts and not only that, but I didn't want to do my long ride today either. I wasn't afraid of her being mad at me, I just didn't want her to be disappointed or think of me as weak and not being able to handle the load she'd been giving me. I love her plan for me! It's challenging and I want to keep it that way!

Of course she emailed me right back being as nice as ever and letting me know everything was fine. She really is wonderful! She deals with the athlete in me as well as the mom, wife, and the neurotic side of me as well!

So I will not be riding my bike for a long time today in the heat, lost, bumpy roads. Instead... I'll be going for coffee and a bagel here in a second and then lounging by the pool and reading until my kiddos get back from the cabin. The amount of fitness I'll lose from my several days off will hopefully be replaced by some mental strength instead. For me... my head needs as much work as my body! :)

Thanks for reading!
K

"Stupid is as Stupid Does!"

That would be me!!

Issue #4562... I think I may be developing Plantars... :(

After many illnesses this year, all my SI issues, shin splints, stress fractures, you name it... now my freaking heels hurt!

My feet started bothering me a couple of weeks back at Six Flags of all places! Whose feet don't hurt after a long day at Six Flags?

I just figured I'd been on them too much, and left it at that.

Well they've kind of slowly started to bother me a little here and a little there. I'm not sure if it was the long car ride over here or what, but now they're suddenly achy and sore. My long run yesterday... didn't happen. I even tried to do an elliptical machine last night instead, but it made my back hurt!!

What's the first thing you think about when your feet are hurting?...Your shoes! I got to thinking about my very favorite shoes I wear all of the time... my zoot recovery slippers. They have always been SOOO comfortable, and I wear them everywhere. However, it suddenly occurred to me that these things probably have a shelf life like that of running shoes. So I've been wearing these shoes seriously non-stop almost for 4 months. I've walked all over Disney, Hawaii, etc. in these suckers. Didn't even occur to me that I may need to replace those things until it's almost too late! :) Then my running shoes... yeah... it's been awhile for those too!

So after just swimming today, advil, ice, ice, and more ice, and this amazing foot massager thing that Kellie has... I'm trying to stay off of it as much as possible today and let it heal! I went and got a new pair of Nike Flip-flops to wear around the house for some extra support. Am going to get a new pair of running shoes tonight. And ordered a new pair of zoot slippers that I won't wear for near as long this time around! :)

If you have any secrets... please share! Thanks everyone!!

Hotter Than Hell Texas!!

We made it!

13:20 and we made it!

It occurred to me that I finished my Ironman in considerable less time than it took me to ride in the car to get here! I think I'd rather do an Ironman! :)

It honestly wasn't that bad. My kiddos were big troopers! That is a long enough ride to make any decent adult get delirious, and they hung in there quite well! The best rider award goes to Rocky!! He kept in a small space on the floor board of the front seat the entire time, except for a few walks on our stops.

If you've ever been around a pug... they do this breathing thing that is REALLY loud. Adam and I have gotten to were we really don't notice it that much. He doesn't do it all the time, just when he gets hot or excited. Well he did it for the first several hours of the trip until he finally threw up a little in the car and fell asleep!

We did make it in just enough time to BBQ and enjoy some margaritas and sparklers!

Today I woke up tired. I could feel the car trip in my body as I was kind of sore and achey. I didn't worry about getting started too much... I was just kind of going with the flow.

By the time I did get started it was after 11am. In Texas that = HOT! I really didn't mind too much because I could use/ am getting used to the heat. I had a 2 hour ride, so decided to just do an out an back. Things were going Great! I was thoroughly enjoying my ride. The new scenery and my new Cold Play c.d.! The roads out here are paved, but not well. It gets so stinking hot out here it's hard to keep the pavement "smooth." It wasn't bothering me too badly on the way out, but by the time that I turned around the heat was getting to me a bit. I realized that I must have had a tailwind happening on the way out because now I was heading STRAIGHT into a strong headwind! The road at this point and on this side of the road was atrocious!! My butt was killing me! But it wasn't THAT long of a ride, so I decided not to worry about and just get it together.

I came back home with a 30 min run looming. Though it was hotter than an oven outside, I felt good and things were well.

So this is great training if you need some heat and wind training. All Kona bound people... schedule your trips to Dallas!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I'll post pictures tomorrow from our "cowdeo" tonight!!

Happy 4th!!

Yes... I do realize that it is only July 3rd! Jen hasn't made my workouts THAT crazy just yet! :)

But I'll be spending my 4th of July in the car for the most part, so I decided to take care of all of my Happy July 4th wishes in advance!

I am pretty much all packed except for the few things I'm currently washing to take with us. I'm leaving here in a couple of hours to head to PT Solutions for some much needed physical therapy and my last Boot Camp for the week!

The ladies there will complete week 4/6 tonight, and I'm so proud of them! They've all given it 110% each time they're there and they should be really happy with the progress they've made thus far!

From there, I'm home to as early of a bedtime as possible to prepare my body for the 4am wake-up call to get in the car and ride with my not-so-fond of travelling husband, my 5 and 4 year old children, and my pug for 14 or so hours to Dallas, TX. Ugghh... is right!!

BUT.... I really am looking forward to this trip a lot! I'm generally always in need of some R and R, which I hope to get lots of by Adam's sisters pool and with the help of two on-call babysitters! And... we're planning on keeping things pretty low-key while we're out there, so I'll train and visit and spend family time! Sounds perfect to me!

Cooper is looking forward to fishing, going to a "cowdeo" aka... rodeo! It's one of my favorite things to do out there. It's the classic Mesquite rodeo you see on t.v. and it's fun! He also thinks we're having a disco party... where that came from... I have NO idea!

I guess his expectations are better than Gracie's. The last time we saw Aunt Kellie (yes.... adam's sister's name is Kellie. So there is KellYE Mills and KellIE mills. Can get confusing sometimes!) we were in Disney together. Gracie has decided that the house we stayed at in Disney with the princess room is where Aunt Kellie lives and we are headed back there. I think she'll like Texas, but if she's expecting Disney... she's in for a big surprise!!

So I hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th! We hope to arrive in time to have a BBQ and some Margaritas! Be safe and have fun!!

K :)

Tag... I'm it!!

This is going around right now... So consider yourself Tagged if you read this!!

10 Years ago I was...

About to turn 20. I was a junior at Auburn University. I had been smoke-free for about 2 months, which was good, but was close to my peak weight of 160lbs!!

5 Years ago I was...

A brand new mother of Cooper! He was 3 months old and I had JUST found out I was also pregnant with Gracie!

1 Year ago I was...

Training for my first Ironman! In the middle of my first full year of triathlon and real-deal type training!

5 Things on my To Do List Today...

Swim and Bike
Take Cooper and Gracie to the pool
Laundry
Fill out an expense report
Start getting ready to leave for TX

5 Snacks I enjoy...

Clif Z Bars
Kashi Granola bars
Chocolate Soy Milk
Fresh Fruit Juice
Carrots

If I were a Billionaire I would...

Help as many people with money as possible! I'd get my family and friends all comfortable for the rest of their lives. I'd donate money to babies in need and help families with terminally ill children. Buy a house with a beautiful yard and pool and buy a Chanel purse because it's the one super expensive luxury I've always wanted!! :)

6 People I want to Have Lunch with Tomorrow...

I don't think I can pick just 6 people!! I can think of so many!!

5 Places I have Lived...

Lawrenceville, Georgia
Franklin, Georgia
Auburn, AL
Atlanta, Georgia
Canton, Georgia
(Not all that interesting!! Although I've lived around the Atlanta Perimeter!)

5 Jobs I have Had...

Daycare Worker in Highschool
Elementary School Teacher
Coffee Barista
Special Events Coordinator
Personal Trainer/Coach