19 weeks

Ok. I suck at keeping up with this, but I'm determined to document at least SOME of my journey. Here's a quick snapshot of what's been going on the last 95 days:

- I started working with a coach. Holy. Snot. The improvements I've made are un-freaking-real. Coach John offered up three months of free off-season coaching about three months ago. Hubby sent him a quick email and told him he should pick me and he did. I've made gains in all three sports and lost almost 10 pounds since starting the tridot program. While my original goal was to finish Ironman in 16:59:59, RaceX shows me pulling off 14 hours or better. Race day will offer its own unique challenges, but that's my full "potential" given a great day with good conditions. Needless to say, I am really, really glad he took a chance on me and I am also kicking myself for not hiring a coach sooner. Whatever. Live and learn.

- My crew and I did Bike Around the Bay in October. It's a 170-mile 2-day ride around Galveston Bay. So I had my first 100-mile day and my first 17 mph ride in the same day. Boom, baby. I also flatted on the Kemah Bridge, which was scary as all get out. I was going almost 30 mph on a sweet downhill and POP! The SAG wagon was just ahead of me (about 30 yards) and they heard it. Good timing, if you ask me! That was my first SAG experience and boy was I thankful they were there!

- My training buddy had shoulder surgery and is out almost the entire duration of my training. This. Sucks. While dragging yourself out of bed at 4:50 to go hang out with your friends is hard, dragging yourself out of bed at 4:50 to go hang out with yourself is a whole lot harder. I'm sucking it up, though, and I'm gonna be fine. It just sucks.

- In the last month, I've had a double ear infection (what? am I 5?), sinusitis, gotten way off track with Thanksgiving, spent 3 days in Vegas, and came home to a horrendous stomach bug that had me down for 3 days. ENOUGH! I don't have time for this! So starting today, I'm really hoping that most of my obstacles are behind me and I can focus on the next 19 weeks.

By the numbers:
Week 1
Swimming - 2.4 miles
Biking - 34 miles (yuck...)
Running - 7 miles (yuck again...)

Here's to a better Week 2!

100-mile weekend

So I had my first 100-mile weekend over Labor Day. I've been doing this triathlon thing for about 2.4 years now and I've had a few goals that I've been silently working on. This was one of them and now I can cross it off my list!

We had a small group go out for 64 miles on Saturday. It was a fun ride, if a bit windy! Julie wasn't feeling well (at. all.) so we all took turns hanging back with her to make sure she made it home safely. This is at the Texas City Dike - right as we all ran out of fluids and just before Julie started to really feel awful.

What are we looking at...? No clue...

Julie had a miraculous recovery and we had a Labor Day party at her house on Sunday. I didn't really intend to ride Monday with the crew, but man alive. EVERYBODY was going! The Careys were some of the last to leave and family after family left and said, "See you tomorrow!" It occurred to me that I was really going to miss out on a fun ride if I sat in the kitchen on the trainer and missed my crew. 

So I started pleading my case to Doug. The kids asked if they could play Minecraft in the morning. I said something along the lines of, "IF Daddy can find the kindness in his heart to let me go play with my friends in the morning..." To which Doug responded, "LET you go? There's no LET. You're just going." That was about the extent of "permission" I was looking for, so I loaded up my bike and started prepping for Day 2 of cycling with my buds. 

Am I ever glad I went! We had SO much fun. We laughed (mostly about really inappropriate potty humor - see the photo of the portapotties and the dump truck!!), we caught a great tailwind, and we had a wonderful 40-mile ride. 

THE crew, minus a few.

Davin was in that portapotty. "You think we should run and shake it and make him think they're coming to dump him out...? HAHAAAAHAHAHAHA!" We're so bad...

After it was all said and done, I had 104 miles for the weekend. I've also been chasing a 17 mph average on a ride for a loooooong time. I almost had it Monday with a 16.9. Next time! When I got home, one of the crew sent me this text:

THIS. This totally made my weekend. This woman is one of the most incredible athletes I have EVER met in my entire life (having played THREE sports in college and slamming down a 12-hour Ironman between babies - she's that amazing). I feel myself getting stronger. I know I'm making better choices and pushing my body harder during my workouts. I think I can see a difference. But when you get unsolicited praise like this? It really makes your heart swell. Thanks, Mel. 

Speaking of hearts... I haven't shared this with anybody at all (and writing it here certainly does NOT count as I don't have any "readers"). You know that feeling you get when a cop pulls up behind you and you think maybe you were speeding and your heart lurches in your chest? Yeah. That's happened to me a handful of times lately for no good reason and it's weird. I have a physical scheduled in a few weeks and I think I'm going to bring it up to the doc then. I'm fairly certain it's nothing, except perhaps a twinge of anxiety over life in general, but I think it's worth mentioning before I ask my body to pull me through 140 miles.

So that's that. 225 days until IMTX. Training is going great. My family could be better (Daniel has strep and Doug still works like a million hours a day). Friends seem pretty amazing. And if I'm not mistaken, there is a hint of fall in the air (you know, if I stand directly in the shadiest spot under the tree, turn my head at just the right angle, and lean into the wind just so).

That is all. Carry on.

Triathlon of life

This morning was a doozy. Doozie? Doozey? Doooooozey? DuZ? I don't know. Spellcheck doesn't like any of them. It was a bear. A circus. A mess. Second Friday of school. Kids are exhausted. The first lock down drill of the year is today. Sleep is short. Anxiety is high. I was a basket case trying to get us out the door and on with our day. I somehow managed to miss brushing my own teeth in the flurry of lunches, snacks, homework folders, breakfast, kid teeth, kid hair (oh the kid hair....), kid shoes, reading logs... you get the point.

I flew through the car line, kissed them goodbye, and hustled to the gym for my morning swim. You want to talk about race day conditions? Try this out:

• Every lane is full, so I'm sharing a lane with my buddy Julie.
• The sun is just coming up over the building so I can only breathe on one side. 
• The landscaping dudes are there, so the air tastes and smells of gasoline. 
• The sprayers are on, so there's a constant stream of splashing water in my face and in my mouth. 
• I have exactly 40 minutes to finish my swim (you know, like a cutoff time).
• I have all of my stuff laid out in "transition" so that I can bounce from the pool to the conference call.

I finish up my swim and hop out of the pool (with 5 minutes to spare - beat that cutoff, baby!!). A guy waiting for a free lane asks if I'm finished. "Yup," I say. "I gotta get out of here and on to my conference call. I guess we can pretend this is transition!" We both laugh. I say, " I guess I have my own kind of triathlon today - kids, swim, work." He laughs again and says, "The triathlon of life." 

Boom. That was so spot on. Life is SO much like triathlon. You do your best to get through each discipline with a smooth transition from one task to another. If you're lucky, you cross the finish line standing on your own two feet and you manage to nail your nutrition for the day. Sometimes you DNF. Maybe you forget a meeting. You miss a practice. You somehow manage to miss getting to the grocery and you wind up packing your kid a hodgepodge of weirdness for lunch. Hell, Some days you DNS. You just can't seem to find your mojo and you spend the day in PJs in front of the TV, just trying to make it until bedtime so you can get up tomorrow and try again. And some days? Dang. You just crush it. Some days the to-do list seems too short and you PR your laundry and you kiss your kids goodnight with a smile on your face and you just LOVE the heck out of life. And days like today? Well. I guess that's yet to be seen. I had a rocky start with stinky teeth and a flustered T1, but I think I found my bearings on the swim and I'm starting to find my stride with the meetings.

Here's to the triathlon of life - here's to hoping for a smooth transition and a strong finish! Happy Friday, y'all. 

Swim Bike Fuel

So these photos were sort of taken by accident and I have REALLY struggled with what to say about them. My mom snapped a "burst" on my iPhone to get a good shot of me jumping in with the kids. After she took the second photo, somebody mentioned it looked like one we took on the first day of summer. After a little digging, I found them both and could not believe my eyes.

The first photo was taken one month after IM70.3 Galveston. I was "fit" and well trained. I had admitted to myself that I needed help with my race day nutrition and reached out to Meredith Atwood for coaching help and guidance. You see, Galveston made my third half iron where I had nailed my training and nailed nearly every workout and somehow managed to fall apart on the run. After another month of living life and struggling with this knowledge, I finally admitted to myself that I also needed help with my daily nutrition. If I thought for one minute that I could step up to the Big Dance, to IMTX, and follow my same nutrition "plan," I knew I'd be inviting disaster. I'd set myself up to fail and my entire year/race/recovery would be a struggle.

That's when Mere contacted me and suggested that I join the July SBF group (along with Meredith Vieceli and her incredible nutrition program). I'd been on the fence about signing up since the first group launched. I knew it was something I wanted and needed, but I just hadn't worked up the courage to try. With a little encouragement, I bit the bullet and registered. I was cautiously optimistic. I knew I could keep up with the lessons, but I was apprehensive about being able to "stick with it." 

Swim Bike Fuel is structured in such a way that you make small, manageable changes one day at a time. Taking a hard look at what you're doing and being challenged to change just one small thing a day, the Merediths walk you through every topic of nutrition that a woman needs to make well-informed choice about what goes in her body. One itty bitty step at a time, you get to unlock all of the things your body has been trying to tell you for years. One digestible lesson at a time, you get to understand the way our bodies are meant to process fuel and how to best fuel yourself, whether you're sitting at your desk or training for Ironman. 

Over the last 7 weeks, I've been able to focus on just a few of the lessons I gleaned from SBF. I haven't reached a place where I can implement them all, or even most of them, but there are several key lessons I've latched on to and focused on with every choice I make about how to treat my body - both nutritionally and mentally. In addition to physical changes (nearly 7 pounds now and over 15 inches), I've noticed that my head is clearer than it's been in years. And just this week, I stepped on the scale and saw some real success. You know what I didn't do? I didn't "celebrate" with a Sonic milkshake or a bottle of wine. I made myself a spinach salad loaded with veggies and proteins and I nailed my swim the following morning. 

The Merediths have changed my life. For those of you who wonder about this "magic bullet," there's no magic to it. It's common sense stuff that you probably already know and just need to be reminded about. I can't say enough positive things about the Merediths, their program, and the way I feel - not just the way I FEEL, but the way I feel about my body, my choices, and my potential. If you're still reading, check this out and let the results speak for themselves. I have a long way to go, but if I can achieve success like this in 7 weeks, I cannot WAIT to see what the future holds. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU Swim Bike Fuel!

*****EDIT*****

I meant to mention when I was spilling my guts the changes I have seen in my family over the last two months. My kids care about what goes in their mouths. Daniel has started experimenting with his own granola recipes and we have a really good one figured out that uses banana and dates as sweeteners. He chooses to forgo sweets knowing what it's doing to his body. They both ask to go for a walk/bike ride after dinner with the dogs because they know it's not good for your body to eat a hearty meal and then go to bed. My husband has stopped drinking sodas - even diet sodas - because he sees the benefits of being hydrated and not filling your body with stuff it doesn't want or need. The scale. Y'all. The scale. I didn't sign up for this to see changes on the scale, but GOOD LORD IN HEAVEN. I haven't seen a 14anything on the scale since my days as a junior high athlete who played 5 sports year round. I had NO idea what to expect from this program. All I really wanted was to fix my fueling for race day. I had no idea what changes I would see in my life. Again. To the Merediths - God bless you. You are incredible women who are so generous and kind to share your knowledge and experiences with those who are looking to turn the train around. I love you. The end.

Girls weekend

I sent Daniel and Doug to three days at Splash Camp, a water-focused overnight camp at Sea Base in Galveston for Cub Scouts. I asked Lia what she wanted to do while the boys were at camp. Her immediate, very decisive response? "Go camping!" So go camping we did.

Tuesday morning after breakfast, she and I dropped the dogs off with my folks and hit the road for Blanco State Park.

#gonecamping #dontcall #donttext #offthegrid

We spent the next 36ish hours doing what Lia wanted to do. Because Daniel has such a strong personality, she gets run over a lot. Letting her call the shots and guide the conversation was a real treat for both of us. We ate Alvin Ord's with cousins and aunts, which was so super nice. These beauties are off to college in the fall and it is such a joy to see the wonderful things they're doing with their lives.

Next up, we shopped for our groceries at HEB (where she was allowed to pick anything in the entire store she wanted for breakfast and she chose Chex cereal).  Another hour on the road and we arrived! The only memory I have of the Blanco River was when it didn't have any water in it and all I could see were the rocks and the trees, which were pretty enough. The water? Holy moley. It's green and clear and beautiful and I was SO grateful that we chose this park.  Lia helped me "pitch up our tent" for our home-away-from-home. She was actually a very big helper and we had the tent up in no time.

We spent the next couple of  hours in the river splashing, swimming, and letting fish nibble our fingers and our toes. Lia would hold her hands out oh-so still and wait oh-so patiently for them to nibble her and then she would throw her head and laugh and laugh and laugh. It was almost my favorite part of the whole trip.

Sadly, I bought charcoal that I thought was quick start (which obviously was not...) and we had cold hot dogs and cold s'mores for dinner. Whoops. Before we left, I bought a bottle of head-to-toe baby wash for showers. We headed to the shower and stood in the cold, cold water for as long as we could stand it (the heat index was 97 after the sun set - yikes). We came out smelling like clean babies and headed for bed.

Can I tell you just how magical that night was? Holding my little one in my arms, smelling those sweet, nostalgic baby smells, listening to nature's lullaby, and watching the fireflies through our tent window will go down in my memories as a top-five moment. I knew we needed a break. I knew we needed to slow down. I knew we needed to spend some time away. But not until this moment, when my heart was swollen to the brim with love and contentedness, did I realize just how much I ached to unplug and just be. It was so soothing to turn off the news and the chatter of the world and just listen to the river and the wind and to my baby.

I didn't sleep worth a flip, but I woke up with this little snuggle bug and all was right with the world. After her Chex breakfast and a quick cup of cold brew, we were off to "splore."

We hiked a little ways along the river and found seashells (seashells?!) and talked to lots of people out riding bikes and walking dogs.

We crossed under a bridge and tiptoed through the shallows to get to the "money shot." This was the photo of the park that sold me on Blanco and I was SO glad we made the effort to trudge down for this photo. It was so neat to see the water running over this dam and see the fish jumping under the bridge.

Shortly after this, Lia stepped in an algae-laden puddle and declared it was time to go home. After breaking camp, we visited with our neighbors for a bit and headed back east. It was such a good trip and it was so good for both of us to get away and just be together for a while. Daniel and Doug got home the next morning and we all resumed our normal activities. So thankful Lia asked to go camping and so grateful for the adventurous spirit that led me to brave a tent, the woods, and all that goes with it with just "us girls."

Progress

Two weeks ago, I made two tiny changes: I stopped putting sugar in my coffee and I started eating a savory breakfast (most days). That usually looks like an avocado and chicken sausage, but sometimes when my avocado is mushy, it looks like a spinach salad with roasted chicken. If I'm being 100% honest, it sometimes looks like oatmeal, a banana, and some almond butter. Whatevs. Nobody's perfect. In those two weeks, I've lost a little less than a pound with no further changes.

I keep hearing things about powdered greens and baby kale and coconut milk from Swim Bike Fuel friends, but I am patiently biding my time and waiting for July 1 to roll around. I am a little disappointed that we'll be out of town July 1-6, which will likely make all of this really hard to implement (especially while in a tent in a state park...). Again. Whatevs. I have the rest of my life to make these changes. If I have to eat hot dogs and powdered sugar donuts while I'm camping, my life will not come to an end.

I don't have any bathroom selfies to post this week, but I need to hurry up with that before the bathroom is finished. It looks like we'll be showering in our new amazing shower by next week!

Anywho, that's all. Just a little update to show that small changes add up to make a big difference. Carry on!

First steps, again

After my last post, I vented my frustrations to a group of women who are so very near and dear to my heart. One of those AMAZEBALLS women is none other than THE Swim Bike Mom, Meredith Atwood. She's been running Swim Bike Fuel with the lovely and talented Meredith Vieceli for awhile now. When the program first launched, I didn't have the funds to take part. Then round 2 dinged. And round 3. And round 4. And I still didn't have the funds. Well. Something clicked (or popped open on my shorts...) this past weekend and I decided that I am just done, done, done. After talking it over with Meredith, I decided NOW is the time to invest in myself. Not just by throwing money at races and training myself into exhaustion. Not just by buying fancy new tri gear. Not just by saying and not doing. I'm going to start with the most basic building blocks and fix my nutrition once and for all.

There's been a common denominator in all three of my 70.3 races - nutrition. It suffers on race day. That part is easy for me to admit. 99 calories on a 3.5-hour bike is absurd. It's taken a while for me to admit this, but it suffers before race day, too. I usually manage to eat pretty clean the week before a race, but in general, I eat entirely too much Blue Bell, entirely too much bread, entirely too much crap. I've had friends approach me about Beach Body, Plexus, p90x, and anything in between. I know in my heart that this does not require a magic bullet. It requires discipline and knowledge. The discipline I have. The knowledge I lack. I *think* I know, but all of the knowledge I've acquired contradicts itself and makes zero sense and I just wind up sabotaging myself on a daily basis.

Enter Swim Bike Fuel and, hopefully, the beginning of a whole slew of healthy changes for me AND for my family. The program doesn't start until July 1, but I'm trying to implement healthy changes right now. Less coffee. More water. I finally broke down and bought that blasted chicken sausage Meredith is always talking about. I nearly choked when I paid $6 for 4 sausages, but I'll be danged if it isn't delicious. I froze some Greek yogurt today to replace my beloved Blue Bell. It'll do.

I posted bathroom selfies earlier this week. Today I stepped on the scale. Again, I can't believe I'm putting this out there, but it said 156.8. I don't have a goal weight. I don't have a dress size I'm trying to fit into. I just want to give my body what it needs to do the things I'm asking it to do. As Mere said, I'm ready to "rawk the avocado."

322 days to IMTX17.