Hours

The theme in my life over the last few weeks months years has been there are not enough hours in the day. I know, we ALL feel this way, right? Well, I'm no exception and that's what I'm going to discuss today.

You all could gather from my first post that I have a family of two kids and a husband. Or, you already know that because the only people reading this blog know me in real life! So, yea, my kids are 8 and 5; I have a house; I work almost full time (32 hrs a week - close enough); and I try to do this thing called fitness and healthy eating. Oh yea....and then I went and started a blog because, you know, I needed something ELSE to do! Ugh. So, what gives when there aren't enough hours in a day?? You guessed it!! My eating and exercise. This is the problem.

Seriously....this is how I feel on the days when I feel like I can't handle one more thing. Like the thought of having to make something healthy is just too much work/time/annoyance. Why is this?? It's annoying and eating crappy does nothing to make me feel better or less stressed. Frankly, I feel more stressed because I just ate like shit simply because I was being lazy!

I actually think that when my eating is in control, I feel more in control. However, I would never DARE admit this! See, I'm a total control freak and there is this messed up part of my brain that believes the only way I'm in "control" of my eating is if I'm eating "what I want" (i.e. CRAP). But, that's really not true. I actually think that because I'm such a control freak in every other aspect of my life, I let my food take control over me! Wow! Mental breakthrough! This blog IS good for something! So, tomorrow is May 31st. I think that June 1st is IT. IT being the time that I finally get back on track. That I stop letting my food continue to control me and get things back under control. And I hope to be able to report good things to you all during this next month and beyond!

Ok. On a positive note. I have to say that I am very thankful for the type of job I have and especially the flexibility and freedom. I was able to spend my day today doing this:     

Chaperoning 23 2nd graders to an Indian's Game!



Because I work out of my home, I can put hours in at odd times in the day/night. Again, with those hours. So, today, my schedule went a little like this: wake up; shower; run (not literally, I actually drove) to Subway to get lunches for BOTH kids field trips today; come home; finish helping the kids get ready for school; get some work done; get kids on bus; eat breakfast; chaperone 2nd grade field trip to Indian's game (have a heart attack because trying to keep track of 23 kids at a ballpark is quite stressful); come home; go to an appointment for work; stop on the way home to get dinner (see - this is that food going by the wayside because there aren't enough hours); get home & eat dinner; continue working while hubby helps kids with baths and getting ready for bed; get yelled at by hubby to go ride Skinny B already; take Skinny B for a "quick" 9 mile ride; finish work; shower; watch TV while blogging.....phew!

So, I suppose my message is this...if I can find the time, many people can! Yes, I have tremendous support from my husband and I work in a position that allows me a little extra "freedom" in my work hours, but at the end of the day I figure it out and make it work for me. Do I sometimes fail? Absolutely. But, do I keep trying to fit everything in? Absolutely!

And with that, I'll leave you so I can go to bed! :)

Good night all....

Kim

Lessons, Lessons and more Lessons!

First things first...Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone had a great time today remembering the reason why we celebrate this wonderful day. Thank you to everyone who has served and will serve our wonderful Country!!

Ok...now back to our originally scheduled program!

So, the two main lessons I took from my first sprint tri was that I needed to upgrade my bike in some capacity and that I really would benefit from a Garmin. Check and check! I ever so convincingly talked my parents into buying me a Garmin for Christmas......


LOVE my Garmin...still haven't named her though.



Meet Skinny B (name compliments of my SIL)

............and started saving money every month from October to purchase a new bike. Come March, I was able to purchase Skinny B. The B being short for Bitch! I did not realize that I would learn yet another very important lesson after buying this bike. Apparently it is not uncommon to let a bike like this intimidate you! Or, perhaps it IS uncommon and people were just saying that to make me feel better! Either way, Skinny B and I have had a hard time getting to know eachother. I was having a hard time naming her and then I used the name "Killer" about her in a text to my sister in-law (need to think of a fancy nickname for her too, but for
now she'll just be SIL since she's the only one I have!). But, I decided in light of the fact that bikes CAN be dangerous, I didn't really want to jinx myself. My SIL came up with Skinny B, which I thought was rather appropriate...especially given the title of the blog! But I digress....

Bonding has been difficult with Skinny B. I bought her in March and I live in Ohio so it took a little bit of time to take her out. (of course, this year it was 80 degrees in March so I really had no excuse). After getting the courage up to take her out, our first ride abruptly ended when she dropped her chain within about .1 mile from my house. I walked the bike back home, feeling defeated and took it back to the bike shop. They fixed her right up and said that something was loose and it shouldn't happen (that easily) again.

Then, winter in Ohio came back and I took that opportunity to order the clip pedals and shoes (if I'm saying that wrong please don't be offended - I think I'm forever a newbie over here). This was a whole new reason to continue to be afraid of taking Skinny B out for a ride. Now, I had to worry about being clipped into the pedals and falling off the bike. Or worse yet, having an infamous "slow moving tip over"! The good news is that I was able to use the new shoes and clips pretty easily. I took her out for a couple of rides and didn't fall and her chain didn't drop or anything! I thought perhaps we were on better terms. Then, I had 14 miles on the training schedule last Wednesday. I didn't feel like going. I don't like to ride around my house because it's all 45 mph roads and it makes me nervous. But, I went to get on Skinny B and take her for a ride. Yea....right up until I experienced my first ever NO moving tip over!! I think this is even worse than a slow moving one! This was, I was getting on the bike and did something wrong and started tipping to the side where I was clipped in. It happened so quickly that I couldn't get unclipped and fell on my side....HARD! I decided this was my sign to NOT ride that day so I didn't. And guess what?? I have now not been on Skinny B since then. I had another 14 mile ride on the schedule for Saturday.....skipped it. I brought her to the trail today to ride after my 6 mile run....decided I was too hot and tired and didn't want to deal with parade traffic, etc.

So, apparently Skinny B and I are still struggling to connect. I'm sure it'll happen....eventually. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later because we have our first ever duathlon this Sunday! A good way to ease her into "racing"(I use that word lightly since it will never be a race with anyone but myself) with me. 2 mile run - 10 mile bike - 2 mile run. Wish me luck!

Portage Lakes Sprint Triathlon

As promised, here is the previous race report I had written after completing the Portage Lakes Sprint Triathlon on 9/18/2011.

Let’s start with Saturday afternoon. My husband, kids and sister in-law all went with me to pick up my race packet. I was surprised that we didn’t have number bibs at all – just the number that they would mark you with the next day and a bracelet to put on your wrist and your bike. Guess I didn’t need the race belt I just bought! We then traveled to stay with my parents that night since their house was half the distance to the Tri from my house. I should note – my sister in law was just “along for the ride” as a SUPER supporter/spectator! I have to put out major thanks to her for taking a night away from her family and half the next day just to cheer me on!

Ok, back to the topic at hand! After an AWESOME homemade Italian dinner of lasagna, meatballs and bread, it was getting close to bedtime. I set the alarm for 5AM and attempted to go to bed around 9:30. After getting up on the hour every hour starting at 1AM, I finally looked at the clock in disbelief when I saw 4:57! We arrived at Portage Lakes State Park a little after 6:30 as planned. It wasn’t too crowded yet, but it was COLD.  

This is me trying to stay warm before the race.

On the way there, the car kept reading a lower and lower temperature. I think it said 43 degrees when we arrived! I was able to get marked and set up my transition area quickly and then it was time to wait for the start….about an hour! Of course, other seasoned triathletes would probably use this time to warm up by either running, biking or swimming. Not me. I stood there, FREEZING, wondering if I would start to feel my toes again before I had to use them!

Eventually, I found myself on the beach feeling overly anxious about not being able to understand the announcer and start with the correct wave. Several people were wearing wetsuits, so looking for another “34” on someone’s leg was not an easy task. I finally found some 39 and 40 year olds and was told that the wave would be 39 and under so I would be good if I stayed with them. As the crowd cleared with each wave I could finally understand the announcer. And all of the sudden he said women 39 and under and elite women. To which I responded, “I don’t think I should be in the same wave as ELITE women!”

SWIM

I really feel like I ROCKED the swim. In retrospect I think I am most proud of the swim. No panic attacks, no having to stop to hang on to a board, no stopping, just swimming! Granted, there was a LOT of breast stroke, but I was always moving forward. I kept telling myself, just keep moving forward. I passed some women, got passed by many; but also passed MEN hanging on the boards to rest and I believe at this point NONE of the Olympic waves had started so I felt pretty good about that. I got out of the water and started the trek up the little hill to get to transition. Swim time = 19:57

T1

I ended up walking to transition because I figured I should catch my breath before getting on the bike.  All in all, I think I rocked T1 for a newbie. Total time= 3:58

Bike

In one word – SUCKED!!! Sucked the big one and I mean it! I feel like if I go into it, I’ll be typing forever. I swear it was uphill the entire 14 miles. I’m not the only one who felt that way. I passed people People passed me on the course and they said “I swear this entire course is uphill!” I agreed as I was WALKING my bike up a hill for the 3^rd time! I REALLY need a new bike or at least new tires! However, what I will say about the bike is that I was TOTALLY happy with my time….considering….. Bike time =1:10:31.

The defeated look after a LONG bike ride

T2

I have NEVER been so eager to run in my life! I just wanted to run because I knew that meant I was done being on that darn bike! Switched my helmet to my hat, grabbed a gulp of water, and grabbed a GU to have on the run. T2 = 1:16

Run

I realized at this point how much of triathlon is mental. The bike took so much out of me mentally that I didn’t have much fight left in me for the run. It was “only” a 5k. I do 5k’s at least 2x a week and longer runs on the weekends. I can do a 5k. But yet, I couldn’t seem to keep going. It was really frustrating because my legs felt awesome. I felt like I could run forever, but I couldn’t catch my breath. I would try to keep with my interval schedule (run 4 minutes, walk 1), but those 4 minutes felt like forever. It also didn’t help that I had new shoes on that I was only able to wear 2 times prior to this race. They are going back to the store because they were making my toes go numb on my left foot. It was quite painful when I was running so that didn’t help either.  I walked a lot more than planned, but the run still seemed to fly by. I was close to the end and couldn’t believe I was within sight of finishing my first sprint triathlon. Run time = 39:27

I crossed the finish line to see my family standing there cheering me on. Total time: 2:15:10.

Things I learned:

There are SO many things that I learned with this first experience. I’m not sure that I could even begin to discuss all the things that were racing through my head after crossing that finish line.

1)      I need a different bike. Or I need to make changes to my current bike. These hills were absolutely killer. I can’t help but think that if I had thinner tires and/or a lighter bike I might have been able to go a little faster. Or at least stay on the bike the entire time!

2)      I want a Garmin! And in a BAD way! I’m thinking Christmas present this year! I have no computer on my bike and there were no mile markers. Since I had NO idea how fast I was going, I was certain that I couldn’t estimate my mileage on how long I’d been on my bike. I think towards the end, it would have helped me mentally to know that I had already conquered so many miles rather than feeling like this would never end!

3)      I want a Garmin! I’ve been increasing my run speed a lot lately. I feel like I shouldn’t use the word “speed” since you can’t really define what I do as “speedy” by any means, but I have been getting much faster by my standards. The intervals actually help me go significantly faster than if I ran without stopping. However, since I have no Garmin or anything, I have no idea what my pace is when I’m running. Considering my end pace for the run was about a 12:43 minute/mile, I must have been moving pretty nicely when I was running (since I walked a LOT and my best 5k time in training was a 10:33 minute/mile). I think if I could have looked down at my wrist and saw a 10 (or dare I say a 9) something, it might have been the push I needed to keep running for the entire run interval.

All in all, it was an EXPERIENCE. I did not feel as I thought I might when I crossed that finish line. I think I was overwhelmed with all the emotions I had just experienced over that 2 hours and 15 minutes (and 10 seconds). It is safe to say that this will not be my last sprint triathlon. Like I told my sister in-law, what would be the point of doing this if I couldn’t do another one to put in place all the things I learned?! And besides, I’m only halfway to my weight loss goal; so imagine what I might be able to accomplish after another 40lbs are gone!

And we're LIVE!!!

Welcome! I am quite excited to have finally taken the plunge to start this blog. I started reading blogs a few months ago and fell in love with the concept of having a place to share my struggles, accomplishments, training, life, etc! I tend to get long winded, so you can bet that there will be plenty of blog posts that are more like novels than posts! I'm new at all this so bear with me!

What I have learned is that blogs with pictures are simply more fun. So, I'm going to start with a picture of my beautiful family. This picture was taken during our absolutely awesome Disney vacation in September 2011.

This vacation happened just 4 days after I completed my first sprint triathlon. Stay tuned for the race report from that event. I had written a guest post over at Swim Bike Mom after the event so I'll re-post it here as my first official race report! And, you should all check things out over at SBM, it's definitely a fun blog and one that helped to get me hooked!

I'll keep this first post short and sweet! I have so much to say I just don't know where to start. But, I have officially started a blog and there will certainly be more posts to come!!