For all of my Tri friends....

(click on the comic to view it larger...)

A note to Michelle Obama...

Dear First Lady,

While I fully support your right to wear shorts while hiking in the Grand Canyon in August (seriously...it's hot there!!), maybe you should try stepping out in one of these next time. The SkirtSports Happy Hour skirt. It's perfect for hiking, it will keep you nice and cool, and, maybe most importantly, it will keep you on the "Best Dressed List"!

So next time, pull on your Skirt...and keep kicking butt! And then maybe those pesky reporters while start drooling and forget all about that silly "controversy".

Skirt on!!

Leave it to me...

Only I could find a way to do these kinds of things to myself....I am pure awsomeness. This morning at CrossFit I managed to...

1. ...not get my front rack position right and let the barbell hit my chest on the way down from a push-press while loaded with 95 lbs. I have a spot in the middle of my chest that is turning a lovely shade of bruise.
2. ...let the jump rope hit me in the arm repeatedly while practicing my double unders. I thought nothing of it until I was done and realized my arm looks like I was whipped repeatedly.

One word for me today....HAWT! :)

On track and double unders!

Last week, I was out of the game. I thought I had a cold, but it may very well have been just miserable, terrible allergies. I'm taking some meds now and they seem to be a little better....a little. But once I got to the weekend I was tired of not doing anything. So on Saturday I got myself off the couch, barely able to breathe, and decided to run anyway. Pulled off a short one with Ginger (3.7 miles) since it was hot out! But on Sunday I knew I needed a long run if I was going to pull off this Walter Payton run. So I woke up early Sunday, expecting some nice cool morning weather, but no such luck. I opened the door and was greeted with a wall of humidity....uggg... Oh well, no wussing out. So I suited up and got ready to leave. I had planned on leaving Ginger at home since she wouldn't be able to make the whole thing and I planned on carrying water, but she get's so excited when it's time for a run, so I just couldn't leave her. I have to admit it was a little awkward with the water bottle in one hand and the leash in the other...but we made it work. Did 3 miles with Ginger, then dropped her off at home and headed out once more. I had a goal in mind....but wasn't sure I would make it....the humidity and the lack of running lately and the allergies....but...

I MADE IT!

I pulled off another 3 miles for a total of 6 miles in 58:36. Not too shabby! And my longest run yet!! It was definitely tough, and I had to push myself through every single step... but I know I can do it now. And if I can make some serious progress in these next few weeks, then the Walter Payton run may be a possibility.

Now I just need to get CrossFit and the weather to cooperate with this plan. So far this week, CrossFit is on board. Today's WOD involved sit-ups and double unders. My first attempt at those. According to Coach Jim I had a pretty respectable showing. They were kind of fun and frustrating all at once. Apparently the big challenge is to string them together, I'm still adding single hops in between but now I know what to work on! :)

Weather may not be as cooperative this week. Rain predicted every day. Boo.... I will either be running in the rain, or making use of that gym membership that I still have and never, ever use....

An intermediate goal

So lately I've been slacking on the running....I've had good reason for most of it, injury, travel, etc... But I'm tired of it. And I think it's partly due to the fact that my goal of doing my first half marathon still seems far away (it's in December). So I now have an intermediate goal!! And holy crap, I'm a little scared by it!! Yes, it may be a little loong for me to do in a month (it's about 9.5 miles) but even if I have to walk, then I can finish it. And since I can walk to the start line from my house, it just seemed to convenient to pass up! So here we go....Sept. 12....the Walter Payton 16,726 Yard run....my first official run event!

And for those that don't believe it until they see it. I made it official. No backing out.

Not exactly....

So I tried the whole "get a good night's sleep, drink plenty of fluids, rest, etc..." routine to get rid of this summer cold. (BTW - colds during the summer just seem wrong and so much worse than a cold when it's actually cold out) And that didn't seem to be working. I woke up each morning feeling worse than the day before. So today I decided to try a different approach:

Beat the stupid thing into submission!!

So I went to CrossFit, with the hope that I would have a WOD that would get me moving, and make the stupid, icky, cold go away. No such luck unfortunately. It was one of the stupid "minute" workouts. 1 pullup in the 1st minute, 2 in the 2nd, 3 in the 3rd, etc... So basically for the first few minutes I did a few pull-ups and then stood around. Plus, non 5:30am people showed up and took the 3 blue bands, so I was relegated back to the easier green band. So I put myself through 14 minutes of this and 105 pull-ups when I decided enough was enough. It never got hard, but there comes a point where you just don't want to do any more pull-ups. So I went out for an 800m run and called it a day.

Got home and realized my new approach may not have been the best. Felt very dizzy, couldn't bring myself to drink/eat anything and had to go lay down. So now that I'm at work I'm back to the old method....pumping myself full of Vitamin C by drinking Emergen-C all day.... fun fun!

Evil Airplane Germs....

Ok, so I now understand why Mary won't fly within 2 weeks of her A race (unless she has to in order to get to the race!). Airplanes have evil germs! I was fine all weekend, but apparently it was that last flight from Austin back to Chicago that did me in! Woke up yesterday feeling terrible with my throat on fire. So I still haven't been able to make it back to CrossFit. That's a whole week off now! I miss it!

I'm trying to get enough sleep and drinks lots of water with a Vitamin Water thrown in for good measure in hopes that I'll get better soon. I don't like being sick. And for some reason being sick in the summer seems so much worse!

Grr....stupid airplane germs....

I'm a bad blogger...

Yes, I'm bad at this lately. It's been a busy couple of days. Flew out to Dallas on Wednesday, lots of work mainly until yesterday when I arrived in Austin!! Hooray! It's been far too long. But it's also far too hot here! Seriously, they have had 47 days of triple digits this year, and that number is only continuing to grow. As much as I love it here, that's kind of ridiculous, and I don't do well with heat. Which is why today's schedule will probably include time in the pool along with time in the A/C! :)

The only sad part about being out here is that I'm missing CrossFit. Yes, my addiction is bad. I keep checking the WOD's and see all the fun I'm missing out on. Back at it as soon as I'm home though!!

Oh yeah, and last weekend I was at the Tour of Elk Grove all weekend. I promised to blog about it, but that hasn't happened yet. Here are the highlights.

• Saturday was cold and rainy!! Who would think you would need jeans and a hoodie on August 1st??
• Sunday was so much better! Sunny, 80 degrees, barely and humidity. Perfect!
• I had a great time "working" Sunday - who doesn't love getting paid to hang out, talk to people about bikes, watch some great racing, and have access to the VIP tent.
• Got so close to Floyd Landis and Chris Horner! I seriously could have reached out and pet Chris during the call-ups, but I was a good girl, and I didn't

That's about it! Happy weekend everyone! :)

The blue band!!

Oops, looks like I have forgotten to blog since last Tuesday. What can I say, I've been busy! had a fantastic weekend...but I'll save that for a different post, this one is all about CrossFit! Woo hoo!

Today's WOD:
21-15-9 of
Pull-ups
Sumo Dead Lift High Pull (SDLHP)
Back extensions
800m run

Time 15:something....I didn't listen closely to coach....I was too busy walking over to the mat to collapse - and of course start stretching! :)

The big accomplishment of today (drumroll please)...I graduated to the blue assist band instead of the green! Woo hoo!! That's the last step before I start doing pull-ups without the band. Yes! Still have some practice to do before I reach that goal, but I'm working on the kipping motion, so I hope to be able to do at least a few at some point in the future.

I can also tell that my "dead leg" issue from last week is starting to get better. Finally! It started on Thursday last week and basically my left leg goes all tingly and feels "dead" when I try to run. I think I have narrowed down the cause to something in my hip flexor. Lots of stretching is in order! But today it didn't start bothering me until about 500m into the run, which is definitely an improvement over Friday when it started almost immediately!

Making Progress!