Couch to ATHLETE!

My friend Laurie and I met up this morning to take a nice bike ride on the O Trail. We met in the parking lot  and headed out talking about the possibility of an hour bike ride together with a plan for me to continue on for another half an hour or so. We headed south on what seemed to be a very quiet trail. It was so nice to be on the trail with Laurie since we don't often get to work out together anymore.  Picture of me prior to my first Oly distance Tri! As we were riding and chatting about life I was feeling pretty good! We were 5 miles into the ride and then we rode over one of the wooden bridges on the trail. My bike started riding oddly and I looked down and was greeted with a flat front tire. This was not bad news at all because I am fairly efficient at changing my tire (typically only takes me a few minutes)  and between the two of us we had all the necessary equipment to make the quick change. I got the tire off, pulled out my tire lever and promptly ...

I woke up this morning with plans and lots of them. My intentions? Go to church, workout, meet a friend for lunch, get my clothes ready for the week, go grocery shopping, get my lunches ready for the week and write my blog post for the week. As I write this, I have accomplished nothing. I got sidelined by dropping my cell phone in a full sink of water. I have problems with water and cell phones. Here is the history of my cell phone destruction: Dropped my cell phone in a bucket of water while washing my floors. Cell phone never worked again.  Dropped my cell phone in a puddle of water while rushing to a triathlon start line. Cell phone busted. Dropped my cell phone down an elevator shaft. Cell phone made calls but the display was shattered. Sweat all over my cell phone because I needed to talk to my friend while running on the treadmill. Cell phone still worked but the key pad would not type properly.  Dropped my cell phone in a full sink of water (this morning)...

It has been a couple of weeks since I've blogged and what a couple of challenging weeks it has been. If you happen to follow my blog, you know that I have recently been sick. I have been trying to lay low so as to make sure I am healthy enough to resume training and stay healthy. With that said I ran two races over the last two weeks that have surprised the heck out of me. Running O' the Green This particular race was a 5 miler in my home town. I ran it because my sister and her husband were running and I happened to be in town for my brother's wedding shower. When I woke up that morning I really had no interest in going out to run the race. It was pouring and I wasn't registered yet so I figured I would stay in bed but the rain stopped. Well it stopped long enough for me to get dressed, drive to the race and register. And then came the rain again. The race started about 15 minutes late and I decided to try and keep up with the woman running with the stroller. I he...

About to enjoy my turkey birthday cake! *This post is less about my athleticism and more a rant. Read on if you wish to learn about my disdain for aspartame.  You may remember a few weeks ago I posted about giving up Diet Coke . I am officially aspartame free for over a month. If I am being totally honest with you, I quit drinking Diet Coke and eating products with aspartame because of an article I read about the impacts of aspartame that was, in part, refuted by snopes.com. The article talked about all of the negative impacts aspartame has on your body including twitching of muscles, symptoms similar to multiple sclerosis, ringing in the ears, weight gain, brain damage and my favorite, formaldehyde poisoning. I went to work the next day sans my Diet Coke and announced that I was giving up Diet Coke because I jokingly self diagnosed myself with formaldehyde poisoning. My colleagues and I got a good chuckle out of this and we started blaming all of my personal aff...

Every time I get sick I find myself whining to Dukie by saying I SICK in the voice of my little niece. I was visiting My sister's family in the UAE a few years ago and  I remember driving out to Oman for a cruise and little Rosie was not feeling well. I then spent the drive back to Sharjah, after the cruise, in the back seat with Rosie and a puke bag while Rosie said over and over again 'I SICK'. And sick she was. I was sharing her bedroom while visiting and she coughed all night long almost every night. I felt so badly for her. And now here I am, day number four of not feeling very well and day number two in bed. Yes I am blogging from bed. On top of it, I have been on the road for work and my workout options were not that great. I got in some of my workouts but certainly didn't get everything in. I also missed my long run yesterday and will miss my long ride today. After going to the doctor this morning, I stopped in the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions. I ha...