Well hello there dusty old blog

Has it been this long since I've written here, or even visited my site.  Well I guess it has.  Wow!  Here I am now and let's get this thing going.

2013 has been a good year for me racing.  I got back into pretty okay triathlon shape and did 8 triathlons.  I did a few running races too.  I did a handful of sprints and 3 olympic distance triathlons.  At the beginning of the season I was quite nervous and anxious about the oly distance.  Now after completing a few oly's I can say I really enjoy it.  I like that the swim is longer, the bike too.  And, the run is not too bad.  Before 2013 I had just done 2 olympic distance events, one in 2003 (my first year in triathlon!!) and one in 2009.  I ended the season with 2 olympics and had fun and did well.

October was almost a full month off of training.  November has been pretty good, a few hit or miss training sessions and kids were sick and I wasn't feeling well.  So, December turns a new page and we're back in the game.

I did a turkey trot much like I have for the better part of the last 23 years.  My first turkey trot was with my brother in 1990!  With that brought a love of running and doing races.

So this Thanksgiving I did my town's local 5k.  For many years I would go to Dallas for the big turkey trot, and I will go back again someday.  Just the last couple of years I haven't made it down there and opted to stay close to home.  It's awfully convenient.  It's a lot fun to be around neighbors and the community here.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect going in to this race.  As I mentioned earlier, my kids hadn't been feeling especially well and I had some odd symptoms and general not feeling myself going in too.  There were several zeroes on my training log before the race, so I just didn't quite know where I would stand.  The night before the race though I had a 27:50 pop in my head and I sat at the computer to check out the pace calculator and see where the mile splits (8:57) needed to be.  Hmmm… I thought.  And, with that I went to bed.

The next morning we got up and as I opened the back door to feed the dogs a whoosh of freezing cold air hit me.  Oh lordy.  It was much colder than I thought it was going to be.  Okay.  Onwards and off I went to the race site to get my race # and all the pre-race stuff.  Brrrrr…. my car thermometer read 29*. For Texas that is just downright cold.  I had on shorts and some fleece pants over and a thermal running top.  And hat and gloves.  I was feeling quite chilly.  I went and got my number and went back to the car.  I sat there for a while and about 20 minutes before the start I decided I needed to do a warm up.  It was much too cold out to just get at the line and go when the horn sounded.  Sure way to pull a muscle or something.  I ran for a little while and did some strides, butt kicks, high knees.  Ran the finish hill a few times just up and back easily.  Nothing major.  I guess with the pre-race nerves/jitters or whatever, I just don't ever feel great in my warm ups.  My legs feel heavy, breathing doesn't seem totally normal, I just feel off.  I went back to the car, again, and took off the pants and ran in my shorts.  I really thought about this, but am I so glad I wore shorts.  It was great to run in the shorts.  I definitely would have overheated had I had any more clothes on than I did.

The horn sounded and we were off!  The start is a slight downhill until you make a left hand turn about 1/4 mile in.  I had to dodge a few people in front of me, but after the left hand turn I seemed to find a little bit of space.  Then a slight uphill and another left hand turn.  At that point I looked down at my garmin and it said current pace was 9:15.  Hmmm… okay.  It felt a little harder than that, but I think it was the turn that was slowing me and a little traffic jam.  No worries.  Upcoming was a nice long downhill.  I tried to just let my legs go and lean down in to the hill.  At the bottom of the hill there was a right hand turn and then it was a good 150 yards uphill.  At the top of the hill was the 1 mile marker.  I actually have run this hill a few times in training, so I knew I could get up it well.  It seemed over very quickly.  I looked at my watch at the mile 1 marker and my garmin said 8:30, but only .96 miles in.  A few moments later my watch beeped for 1 mile and it said 8:55.  Okay.  We can do this!!  My goal then became to keep the mile splits under 9 minutes and go after that 27:50 I envisioned the night before.  I knew then at that mile 1 marker that I was going to do well this day.

The second mile felt good.  I was pushing, but under control.  I would actually say this was my favorite mile.  I was passing some people and just moving well.  The mile was somewhat flat, a little false flat for a short section, and the mile 2 marker was again in the middle of hill this time.  I got to the marker and my watch beeped 8:57.  Yes!!  Good!!  I really maintained a good, controlled effort up the gradual incline.  Then, there was another moderate downhill.  I needed that for a short breather for a second. :)  A little bit later I looked at my watch and recall it saying that I was at 2.4 miles in.  Not much further to go.  I was feeling glad there that the race was nearing over.  A minute later I saw that I was at 2.6 miles and just a half mile to go.  A short, but rather steep hill appeared and this was my weakest moment of the race.  I took small steps going up, but just didn't have a lot of umph to those steps.  I was very slow in going up, hardly faster than a walk.  Luckily that part was over quickly and then we had a nice, gradual downhill for a ways.  Lastly a right turn and you could see the finish line!  It was on that same hill that we started on, but we had to go up this time!  Darn!  Mile 3 was right there and I went through 3 miles in 9:01.  Almost at my goal to keep the mile splits under 9.  Like I said, my weak point in the race was that hill and had I gone just a little faster I would have been under 9.  The last tenth was at 7:58 pace!  Go me!! :)   As the finish line approached I saw a girl starting to sprint up on my right side.  I stepped up my pace as best I could and I held her off!  yes!  That was fun!!!  I came across the mat and immediately put my hands on my knees.  I felt that one big time.  My max HR was 187 during the race!  That was the highest I've ever seen my run HR.

Per the race results, I was 7th out of 42 in my age group (30-39) and my chip time was 27:23.  I ran this same race last Thanksgiving and my time was 33:27.  So I ran 6 minutes faster in just one year's time!  Wow!!  What a great improvement!!  I'm proud of this run for so many reasons.  And, best of all, I had fun!!

Happy 2013!!!

Well hello there!  Long time, no see.

As with the turn of a new year, it's easy to start afresh and so I'm hopeful to try and do that here and keep my blog more up to date.  I read so many other's blogs, it's only right for me to share my own path here.

Since I last wrote, things have been moving along quite busily.  Life is hectic, just as it probably is for everyone else out there.  Things get done, and some not done too, and next thing you know it's the end of a week, end of a month or now the end of a year, and obviously now the beginning of a new year!
Our family had a wonderful time celebrating the Christmas holiday as it was Mason's very first Christmas and Audrey is full on in to Santa and all of the wonders of this great holiday season. 

Mason will celebrate his first birthday the day after tomorrow!!  Amazing that a year has gone by already!  Yet, it feels like he's been with us for so much longer than one year.  Funny how time is like that.

I'm back in to a training program and reunited with my coach Jennifer Harrison! yay!!!!  I started back with her as of October 1 and things are coming along.  I've had a few minor setbacks, but generally all things are moving forward and that's great.  I've really enjoyed having structure and a schedule to look on and hold me accountable and keep me on a forward path.

In really fun and exciting news, I'm going to go off to my first triathlon camp in April.  Coach Jen puts on a camp for her athletes in Tuscon, Arizona for a long weekend and I'm signed up!

So, best get in good shape to get ready for the camp!  It's only 3 months away!  Off for a run now... late night, but kids are in bed and headlamp is ready to go.