Thanksgiving 2010

Hope everyone had a warm Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was one of my favorite Thanksgivings. I spent the morning having breakfast that was specially cooked.. then spent a few hours giving back before enjoying the rest of my day with special peoples! The home was warm.. the food was great... the company made me happy. I felt very thankful yesterday and I hope you guys did as well!

I spent some time thinking about my year and what I am most thankful for. My answer seems to be very similar every year yet very true.. I am thankful for life and all that it brings. Sometimes you go about your way the way you're used to or the way you think you're supposed to and something along the way changes your perspective and if you're lucky, for the better. I was lucky this year :-).

Congrats to my IM AZ friends!

I guess it can be cold & windy too at IM AZ!

It was rainy, cold and windy at IM AZ this year. The weather was so poor that you'd think I was racing since I am known to come with bad weather! Anyway, no in particular order, congrats to my friends that either toed and/or crossed the finish line (hope I didn't forget anyone):

Nicky Barber
Abbey Dykhouse
Bo Arlander
Erik Svans
Ritch Viola
Mimi Winsberg
John Dahlz
Helen Tsai
Sedonia Yoshida
Flick Joyce
and lastly
Mike Kyle

I am happy and proud of every one but I am most happy to see Mike Kyle, AG(50-54), cross the finish line as he had a helping hand in me crossing my first IM finish line at Louisville a couple of years ago. Bad hip and all.. blame it on training.. blame it on old age .. but he ran a good amount of miles with me doing whatever he could to help get me there that night. Seeing that he crossed the finish line after a DNS in 2008, a DNF in 2009, has brought back good memories of the Team and what the journey of IM was all about for me.

Over the years, the meaning of Ironman has evolved and changed (for me) and now has changed and revolved back again. At one point, my life revolved around Ironman. I guess now you can say as I've evolved, Ironman has to revolve around my life.

Gobble Gobble everyone!

to Northface or not to Northface

That is the question..

And I have a feeling that might be a question in my head for awhile.. maybe even until race day! Ha ha. And the North Face I am speaking of the is Northface Challenge 50K trail run. My coach says it will help keep me focused... except I am not sure that I am ready to get and be focused.. I know that when I am ready.. I will have to stay on the focus train until the end of June! My alpha female buddies are asking why I would want to do that as they don't see the benefit ... and I can see their point too. Mike seems to think that I can do it but he thinks I can do anything so kind of biased there. It's 7-8 weeks away.. I've ran an hour at the most.. my heart rate would make anyone's eyeballs go big...but I guess it comes down to what I want to do... which is sleep these days!

As of today.. I think I want to just be there and support Mike as he is going to do the event! If it changes tomorrow.. I will let you know!

Rest month...

Has come and gone..

I took the entire month of September off.. conversation with coach went something like this..

Coach, "You should take 2-3 weeks off post Canada."

Me, "I am taking the month of September off.. :-)!"

So September is over and here is October.. where did this year go? September has been difficult in many ways.. aches and pains lasted so much longer post IM. There would be times when my back would freeze up while sitting at work and oh.. major ouch! Last thing to go from Canada? My pinky toe nail.. good bye! I am once again reminded how much of a toll IM really takes on you.. mentally.. physically.. all of it! Maybe it's because I did two this year?

Which brings me to next year.. I have IM CdA on my schedule.. it will be a do- over from the year prior.. my reward for doing the goal time I have in mind?! If I achieve my goal time.. there will be a huge incentive (in my opinion) reward at the end. It's an idea I decided upon earlier this year.. I don't want to say what it is as I don't want to jinx it. I've jinxed too many things already this year so mum is the word. It's likely that CdA will probably be cold.. raining cats & dogs because that's what I seem to bring with me at races.. yes sometimes I believe my karma over powers the 2200 others that are out there ha ha! But maybe my luck will change next year.. doesn't hurt to hope! Some won't see my reward as an incentive but I do! I'll announce what it is on June 27th, 2011!

So.. I guess I better get my butt off the couch,,, dig up motivation from somewhere and start base training for 2011!