TAG - I'm It! Pass it On!

I sort of cheated because I did read Bree's blog yesterday with this tag (and I wanted to write about my long day of training), and then I read Marit's today, so either way, I better just suck it up and do what a good blogger does - I'm it, so here goes!!


IF YOU READ THIS, YOU ARE NEXT!

10 Years ago I was… a freshman at Penn State University Main, trying to understand how there could possibly be 1000 people in my Bio class and how I was every going to make it at a school this large. Formerly a good high school student (and a graduate with only 75 other people in my class), I felt lost and un-sure of my ability to do well without even knowing my teacher. I remember telling myself to study hard, and just let the chips fall where they may. The lack of a team atmosphere was also killing me, as I spent most of my young life on cc & track teams. "How would I make it here without being a part of something larger than myself, working toward team goals" I wondered. That's when I decided to try out for the team the following year, and it forever changed the course of my life! Thank God for that!



5 Years ago I was…just starting my career with Super Bakery after passing my Registered Dietitian exam. Kyle and I were broken up and I was trying to piece my life back together without him. I was determined to start fresh with my new job and new life, and heck, even train for my first marathon. The training kept me occupied and that fall I competed in Columbus where I ran well and qualified for Boston. He showed up unexpectedly at the race, and I was hurt, but still happy to see him. He won me back after many nights of talking things through. I knew I didn't want to get back together unless this was it, forever, end of story. Luckily it was, and the rest is history!
Boston 2004
1 Year ago I had...just finished my first half-ironman, Eagleman 70.3, and it really hurt, but I loved every second of it. I was really starting to get the hang of this crazy training and Beth and I were diving head first into Triathlon so we could see just how good we could get. I don't think we've found the answer to that part yet... but I'm enjoying the process. I don't even know if I understood what the Ironman really was before Eagleman, but after that I did... and I knew someday I would do a full. Well, October 11th is that day!

Eagleman 70.3 2007
5 things on my to-do-list today... Do an hour of easying biking after work, eat chicken tetrazini (sooo not spelled right!) that I cooked yesterday, call my husband to see how his first day at his new job back in our home town went, watch our latest netflix - Into the Wild, and start back into my bible in one year book (sooo behind.. I think I'm in like February).

5 places I have lived..

Elmo, PA (so small you couldn't find it if you wanted on a map!)
Shippenville, PA (we moved when I was in 9th grade - 5 miles away)
State College, PA
Baden/Cranberry, PA (current)

6 people I want to have lunch with tomorrow… I'm with Bree on Jesus - wow, I don't think I would ever want that lunch to end, my grandfather (passed in March, missed greatly), my Mom (always need to catch up), my Dad (lives in CA so not nearly enough lunches these days but he IS COMING TO KONA - yippee!), a nameless person that I don't want to put in the blog (sorry!).


5 jobs I have had... Hostess (Foxburg Inn.. in like.. man.. 1999 or something!), Lifeguard (my whole high school summer career), Babysitter, Sports Dietitian (PSU) & my current position - Corporate Dietitian for Super Bakery!


Now, go write yours.. this is fun!!

Sweat, Dirt, Grease, Bugs, Salt, Gel and Sunburn

Ah... the joys of being a triathlete. This lovely list is the things that were present on my body after my 4.5 hour ride and 30 min t-run yesterday at Moraine State Park.

There were some really good things about the day, which started early (8:00am) for the 2 mile swim. For example, my wetsuit did get cleaned by my oh so wonderful husband (hopefully he reads this and see's his shout out!), and it DIDN'T SMELL (seriously, a miracle). I actually made it through the swim, which looked incredibly far from the shore (out, turn around last buoy, come back). The water was nice and calm on the way out, and I was to approach this as a smooth, semi-hard training day, not a race (which I actually did, amazingly enough). As soon as I turned that buoy corner, the water was very rough and seemed to hit me in the face on every breath. I had to stop & re-group a couple of times, I could not even remotely see the shore, or the line in which I was supposed to be swimming (people were dispersed in all directions!), but I just kept putting my head down and trying not to think of the little bacteria I kept swallowing. I had heard from numerous people that this was not some clean place, so I needed to swallow as little as possible. All I could think of at that point in the swim was FAT CHANCE!! The shoreline kept coming though and I just tried to be thankful for the chance to swim in rough water and persevere, which was a good feeling when it was over! I looked at my watch to see around 56 mins when I was done. Fine, good, got it done.

Beth was already riding on another part of the lake so I just jumped right in my car in my suit to get to the next parking lot where I could change into my bike gear. I had twenty five mins to do this which I figured was PLENTY of time. Well, lets just say I am directionally challenged, I had a good run down from O before they left, but I still was second guessing every turn I made. I would go one way, think to myself, "was it this way, or when he said curve around did he mean this other way?" Needless to say, it took 25 mins and then some for me to even find the parking lot (which any normal person could have found in like ten). So, I rushed out of the car (after changing while I was driving (driving very slowly, & carefully - sorry Mom), and then got out my bike to get it ready. A minute later Beth pulled up right on time like she was supposed to. She didn't hurry me, but I didn't want to slow her down either since I was late so I rushed around to get my bike in order - nutrition - check, pump tires - check, helmet - check, shoes - check, bathroom break - check, I'm missing something.. hummm.. o well.. ready to go - check!!

Later on I realized I was missing a must have, sunscreen. I had it with me, but hadn't put any on and the cloudy morning we started off with was long gone. I just decided I was Italian, I'd be ok.

Two miles down the road I switch from my small gear to my big gear in the front and bam! throw my chain. I fix it with Beth holding the bike, grease ALL over my hands, no towel to wipe it on, and we ride on.. unphased. The next hills comes and goes and bam!! it does it again!! We both know there is a problem. I can either ride the whole thing in my small ring, or we can go back and try to fix it. The problem was we (well, I should have) didn't have the tool we needed to adjust my front derailleur. Beth thought she did, so she headed back with me (what a friend!). She never complained once!

When we reached the car, we found the tool, adjusted the derailleur slightly, and then ran through the gears, checking to see that it didn't drop...and it didn't!! Low and behold...hallelujah, we fixed my bike!!!!!!!

It was a small miracle in my mind, I am telling you, that bike worked all day after that.. perfectly. I was so thankful and it made the ride that much sweeter... so much that I let out a WHOO HOO after I switched gears the first time and it worked! We had a great ride and I barely noticed that I was getting cooked like a fresh meat on the grill.

I did put on sunscreen when we came back to the car to meet O and for Beth to start her t-run, but by that time it was waaaayyy to late! I headed back out for another hour & a half, and although my plan was to ride 75 miles, after 4.5 hours I called it a windy, hot, hilly day and said, "enough!" It was close to 4pm as I got off the bike to do my t-run and I thought of how I just wanted to be done and enjoy some other parts to my Saturday. Immediately after, I thought of Kona, and how I would definitely still be out here at this point so this was good practice for a long day and I should stop complaining and wishing I was showered and at home with a big plate of spaghetti (which I did about 6pm!). I also thought about the people who wished that they were training, and couldn't (for whatever reason, injury, children at home, other responsibilities) and I decided to stop thinking that way and be thankful. Good thought turnaround, and I had a great little run before heading home.

Lobster Back

By the time I jumped in the car, I was covered with sweat, dirt, grease, bugs, salt, gel and very sunburned, but I was happy with a great day of training with friends. When I was swimming, I didn't give up, when we were out in the middle of nowhere with a broken bike, we refused to give up on riding, when I felt like stopping to call it a day when I dropped Beth off, I didn't. Just as Elizabeth wrote about her Saturday craziness, you have to overcome obstacles in training so you can do the same on race day. Things rarely, if ever, go perfectly. So, you have to enjoy the days when you overcome. Thanks for the blogs out there that remind me to do that!


Today, I had a great two hour long run where I stayed completely in my heart rate zones for the entire run (which hasn't happened in awhile, don't tell Doc), so I was sooo happy about that. Tomorrow starts another week, but a short one! Almost HAPPY 4th everyone!

Wetsuit Aroma

Well, wake up and smell the wetsuit, it's open water swimming time.

I say this in gest because I have a very scary thing waiting for me at home, and I am NOT looking forward to it. It's worst than track repeats, it's worst than anaerobic threshold work, it's even worse than yoga (wait, I like yoga)... it's my wetsuit, which has been in a plastic bag, outside on my porch WET since Sunday.

I know, I know, I've like committed the cardinal sin or something. I'm usually really good about my gear so I guess you can now see from my love/hate relationship with the wetsuit how I really feel about it since I've treated it like an old shoe this week. I'm sure it bad for the suit, it's definitely going to be bad for me when I finally smell this thing, double bad when I put it on tomorrow (sorry other 2 mile masters swimmers - just pretend you don't know the smelly girl).

It must have been the crazy week. It started off not a busy so I each day (Monday & Tuesday) I kept thinking, "yeah, I'll deal with that tomorrow." The usual process is to hose it out, getting all the little twigs, sand, dirt & gravel out of there, and then leave it to dry on our porch railing. However, by Wednesday my week nights started to pick up like I was on some kind of social calendar and the rain picked up like we must have needed a 100 year flood or something. It has been raining, and raining hard, every day here at LEAST once, usually more since Tuesday. Therefore, no setting the wetsuit out to dry.

So, this morning came, I gave it one last stare down, and then I called my husband (who was home from work today) and begged, and pleaded and promised food and other goodies, if he would just hose that thing out today and find a way to get it dry by tomorrow :)

I'm not sure what ended up happening with it...I'm too afraid to ask. I'm just going to go home and hope he worked a miracle. As I think we can all attest, putting the wetsuit on is not that fun any way you cut it, to put it on stinky, well, that's almost enough to make me think twice even going to the swim tomorrow!!

In other news, it's Friday, Yipppee, and tomorrow I will be racing with my friend Beth, who will be doing the 1 mile swim, and then going for a ride with her which we haven't done in forever!! I have four hours scheduled, so I highly doubt she will hang for the whole time, but I would certainly take a few.

Today was a day off for me from training. However, for the first time EVER, I did an active recovery day on my day off. There were other circumstances that brought me to the gym, so I figured once I was there, I might as well do something (something easy...really, I swear). First I did some easy spinning on the bikes (20 mins) and then I took a yoga/pilates class which was very cool and really seemed to loosen things up after my massage last night (which is less like a massage, more like my guy Keith trying to extract some information from a Tibetan prisoner of war). It's painful! It always helps though.

So, I guess I'll have to let you know about the wetsuit later... If you smell someone in the water tomorrow at Moraine State Park, it's definitely the other guy or gal next to me (I plan on pointing at other people behind their back & waving my hand by my nose...pee eww..don't these people wash their wetsuits!!)

Words of Wisdom

Paging Dr. Vargas, Dr. Vargas...please answer line one.

For some strange reason, I have started to refer to my coach from Mark Allen Online, Luis (which is pronounced like LUIS not LUISE), as Doc. I think it was because he had to keep trying to fix me since I seem to like collapsing and crawling my way through races. I'll have to do a recap on that from St. Croix, it's real crowd pleaser as my husband likes to say! I have officially told my mother, and she hasn't collapsed yet, so I guess it is ok to talk about it publicly now.

Anyway, Doc Vargas has been slowly trying to coach me through the nutrition/glucose issues I've been having since we started this MAO (Mark Allen Online) Journey in February. He's very knowledgeable, extremely forthright and candid, and most of all, he's been there, done that (Kona finisher many times over etc.). He's a good guy, and realizes it could be a wonderful race on October 11th, or a very scary race on October 11th, depending on how much I can nail down between now and then.

I just emailed him yesterday to ask a couple of questions and of course, at the end, I commented on how I wasn't that pleased with Philly but there were more important things to worry about. His words were epic.. profound.. well, you see for yourself...

You can do well everywhere but if you stink it up in Kona it will be a long winter. But if you do not do well everywhere and do well in Kona you will have a happy winter.

Now is that strait out of a fortune cookie or what! Seriously, a little long for one of those little white papers, but oh how true. I've been thinking a lot lately about this race and all of it's different aspects. I've been reading other blogs about Ironman training, that are funny, yet detail the incredibly difficult training that is Ironman. I've even been looking at pictures, watching my Ironman Race Video recorded from TV (that I watched ALL winter on the trainer), and thinking about what it will be like to be there. As my husband says, in a sense, I'm doing the Ironman right now, every day in training. Of course, on that day you do the entire race and you officially say, I am an Ironman, but you can do that because of all grueling days of training leading up to that day, all the time spent, and all the sacrifices made to get you there. You really can't have one without the other. Every time I get out there and train for 6-7 hours on a Saturday I want to remember that, I'm doing the Ironman now, right now, and that is something to keep me positive and motivated.

That being said, it is the most important race of the season now. I do want to do well in other races, but never at the expense of doing well in Kona. Heck - I'm even doing a my first open water swim race this weekend in an effort to better prepare myself to swim 2.4 miles. Who EVER thought I would be doing something like that!

My husband and I traveled to Hawaii two years ago in September for a show in Honolulu and then ventured to the big island for two days following once I was done working. We were lucky enough to stand right there at the pier, drive past the energy lab, and size up the finish line in Kona. As I stared at the miles of black lava rock with little white stones donning encouraging messages to competitors, I remember saying "I'm going to be here one day to compete," and I really believed it, in my heart. On that day, I think I might have had one sprint triathlon to my name. I never imagined it would be this soon. Thus, the story begins!

So, if you want to know what I'll be doing from now until October, I'll be channeling my Ironman Chi every day, praying about it, thinking about it, and preparing to the best of my ability for it. A wise triathlon guru once said... you do well at Ironman (which for me, means to cross that finish standing, hi-fiving & smiling) it makes for a happy winter :)

Accident Prone!

Everyone has "their thing" that becomes a challenge or obstacle to overcome during training and racing. Obviously, we all have many, but a few biggies always seem to come up over and over again. Do you want to know what my #1 is??

NUTRITION

That's right, nutrition - and I'M A DIETITIAN! I give plenty of talks on sports nutrition, and what you need to do to fuel yourself before, during and after a race. On paper, I understand it, it works, and it even works for the majority of people out there to get it remotely close and put together a pretty darn good race based on the by-the-book nutrition strategies. Don't look at me. I have read, and read, and studied, and asked for advice, and tried different strategies, different foods, different drinks. I've done it all, I have yet to figure out this crazy body of mine.

My mother calls me "bitchy," my husband calls it "Kim's World, Party Time, Excellent," my co-workers just say "eat something, you're acting crazy." The fact of the matter is, when I don't have enough carbohydrates available running the engine within my blood stream, I am a mess. I am mean, I am nasty, I am short tempered, I am accident prone, I am just plain not nice to deal with.

Believe me, I like to think of myself as a nice person, a decent person most of the time. I open doors for people, I try to help older people in the grocery store parking lot with their groceries, I've even stopped to give people a jump start with my cables in the parking lot a time or two when necessary, but when I don't eat, WATCH OUT!

I think you get my drift. It will always be the hardest area for me during racing, the fourth discipline as they say, that I have to master. Training for my first Ironman this fall is going to be a series of trial and error, careful documentation, and approached similarly to my 6th grade science project in terms of hypotheses and outcomes. I have to take this on like another sport!!

Judging from the huge gash on my leg, this morning was another low blood sugar morning. For some strange reason, I didn't think I needed that Nutrigrain bar on the way to the pool (mistake #1), then I had a great swim workout with my 24oz of Gatorade only to feel a bit whoosy at the end and try to jump out in my normal fashion (mistake #2). At some point while catapulting myself onto the deck (which I have done a hundred times) by using my arms and just getting at least one food firmly planted on the deck, I must have slipped, or miscalculated, or both, to end up hitting and then scraping my shin all the way down the wall very very hard. It hurt. It hurt bad. I managed to get my butt up on the deck long enough to hold my leg while rocking back & forth asking for my Mom. It was too bad she wasn't there, I could have used some sympathy (which I did not receive from the lifeguards who were probably thinking "idiot!") After some antibiotic anointment, two band aids and some ice, I was feeling better but man did that thing form a huge lump of black & blue at the speed of light! I limped to the showers where I convinced myself that it was no big deal and would certainly not affect my training :)

Just think - it will look even more colorful and pretty tomorrow!

As long as I can swim, bike and run for my big day tomorrow of workouts, I'm a happy girl. Talk about a silly thing to do.

I think next time I'll just use the ladder with the other aerobic swim class participants (I obviously can't be trusted) and not go this route. It does make me look a little tough though (if you could see what was under the band aids!). Ok toughie, just use the ladder.

What if...

What if you could get what you want without really working that hard for it?

• Would you be afraid to push yourself because you were unprepared?
• Would the race itself be less satisfying?
• Would victory be as sweet?

This question came up in my mind this morning as I was leaving my short recovery workout that was nice, but I part of me wanted to do more, and part of me was happy that I did my entire workout in 45 minutes.

One of the reasons I love triathlon is because it rewards those people like me, hard workers (not always the most talented, but hard workers none the less). Triathlons lend themselves to consistency, both in training and in life outside of training. They are great for those who like variety, but are prone to injury, because the three sports develop different muscles and allow for less pounding and overuse of the same systems over and over again. They require balance, balance in training, recovery and even balance on race day, not overdoing it on one sport to the point you can't function in the rest of the race. The people who can achieve in triathlon are the ones who are consistent, who find balance, who love to train but don't overdo it, who recover when required, and who day in and day out, never lose site of their goals.

With that said, I raced in Philly this past week, and yes, this blog is going somewhere. The other fact about triathlon that I am learning is that every race cannot be an "A" race and sometimes certain races, while always races, are looked at as stepping stones to a larger more grandiose picture. Triathlon requires perspective, if you don't have it, watch out, you're not going to be happy within this sport. Not every athlete is spot on for every race, any day of the week, at any time. There only are so many "A" races in one season for most of us. We have to come to terms with that. For some people that may be easy, for a certain former Big Ten Athlete who was expected to be "on" every meet, it may not be!

The Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon was one of those for me. I'm not going to sit here and write a million reasons, or even excuses, about why I didn't do as well as I wanted. I'm only going to state the facts, I came in underdone (i.e. under-trained), it was a "B" race, and I really don't think I pushed hard enough.

I spent the month of May (3 out of 4 weeks) sick, which does not lend itself to training (which I barely did). Two weeks before Philly was my first week on a regular schedule where I did all of my workouts, then, I tapered a bit the week prior (which felt weird considering I was not tired but I follow the system!). Not all races can be "A" races and Philly was not, so no training, little taper and certainly no speed work = no exceptional performance for a race. Lastly, I had a bit of trouble just staying focused during my two hours and twenty four minutes of racing! At times, I slipped into half ironman mode and just was running at a lower heart rate, pedaling along, enjoying the scenery - WHAT, this race is about to be over, and you're just hanging out!

I'm not disappointed with the outcome, I'm just not overly pleased.

After getting on a school bus to head to the race start, which was in fact my first school bus since being in high school (it was strange! I hated those seats - some things never change!), I got to do a little warming up and chatting with friends before the gun went off. Beth, her husband Oscar, a new friend, Maja (I know I am not spelling that right-sorry!) and Lindsay & her boyfriend and I all stood around and talked which was a nice way to take the pressure off and pass the time. Oscar even let me put my clothes, flip flops and other various items in his HUGE bag before the race so I didn't take a chance on loosing it forever on the infamous buses to nowhere (hopefully, everyone else got their stuff back!). Poor guy had to run all the way back to the swim finish with it! What a friend, cheers for Oscar!!

In the end, I had a decent swim with 141 other 25-29 year olds and at least another 90 or so 40-45 year olds. I got beat around in the start and learned that I had better just start in the front and hold on for dear life rather than start in mid-pack, not be able to swim what I could swim, and in the mean time almost loose my life to a person doing the windmill and trying to strip me of my goggles, cap and even my wetsuit if I stayed that close. I came out of the water after swimming mostly alone (except for the next set of age groupers I caught, always a crazy mess) 24 mins or so later (my time says 25:05 but we had a bit to go before the mat), a decent transition later (wetsuits are NOT fun to get off, I remember how much I hated that part in this race) I was off on the bike.

Dang Wetsuit!!



















Running out of T1









The bike was a blast, but with the two loop course, the second loop was insane!! Two-thousand or so competitors seemed like millions as I zig-zagged my way through the masses. I rode up the hills well, and probably could have pushed harder on the flats, but as I mentioned, I definitely did some zoning!


A 1:11 bike split isn't horrible, but certainly isn't what I am capable of on a different day with things in place.

It was cloudy which was nice!














Finally, it was on to the run where I probably felt the best I have ever felt running. Why I didn't run faster considering that fact??, not really sure. That is probably the question everyone asks themselves. It is possible that I had some anxiety left from a crawling finish at St. Croix, don't think so though. I was running at a heart rate of about 180 bpm so that wasn't too high but my average mile was about 7:02, which is not that impressive. Either way, I was happy to see the finish line come into sight with a final time of 2:23:57 and a 3rd place age-group finish.

Enough about my day, two of my MAO teammates were in full effect that day and had amazing races. It was VERY fun seeing them out there doing so well. Beth Shutt, Olympic Distance Extraordinaire, cleaned up on the competition and swim, biked and ran her way to a second overall amateur female podium finish - Way to go Beth!! Lindsay Zemba (also in my age group like Beth), had a really wonderful race considering she just got her Kona slot at Eagleman two weeks ago. I'm excited to get to see her in Kona.

All in all, it was a good day and nothing to complain about. I am always excited to race, healthy and regardless of how pre-pared. It was fun, and I loved the atmosphere. My husband was with me through the 5 hour trip there (and we are still married despite me driving in downtown Philly), the race prep, early morning (4:30am) and the insanely long drive home. He's a saint.

I would never want to do well, if it meant I didn't have to work for it. This race proved that to me because I wasn't spot on my game. I didn't need to be on Sunday. I will need to be on October 11th. So, until then, I'm not going to get worked up. It's about perspective, training, consistency, recovery and then letting it all come together. Hopefully that day, victory will be that much sweeter because of it!

It's That Time Again!!

Two days to race day. Two days until I get the butterflies in my stomach and the nervous feeling that says "Let's DO this thing!" I can't believe it is that time again, but I'm excited. Racing used to make me extremely nervous. Most likely, it was due to lack of experience and not knowing how to really swim! When I think back to my first triathlon where I breast stroked the entire 800 meters, I feel like I have come a long way. Don't get me wrong, I still have a VERY long way to go in terms of swimming. At least I am not worried about drowning, or getting lapped nearly as much as I did before.

So, on Saturday it is off to Philly. I am very excited that Kyle will be coming to the race with me as his help is always wonderful. He's been around this long enough that he knows my habits, nuances, crazy routines and even how to keep me fairly calm by making sure everything goes as smoothly as it can leading up to the race. You can only control the factors you can control (or you think you can control), after that, it's all in someone else's hands and what matters is your attitude on dealing with change or challenges. I don't think I have ever done a race where everything goes perfectly. It's actually one of the things I like about the sport.

Running was fairly simple, get your clothes on, your shoes on, start your watch, and you are racing! Triathlon is such a different story. All of this gear, your pedal falls off your bike right before you are racing, you derailleur decides to just magically "quit working" correctly, or even something as simple as things just not being where you put them when you come flying into transition. It is all part of the game in triathlon and that is something that everyone deals with, not just me. This sport forces me to get out of my "everything has to be just as I imagined it" mindset. I need it for that. I love it for that. I wouldn't be the same person without it if I had decided not really being able to swim was a good enough excuse to not race my first triathlon three years ago.

In the world of sports, I'm young at this. You know what, I do know more than when I started, but I certainly am still a newbie. Reading the blogs of the pros and even other age groupers who have been at this awhile is really fun and intriguing. We are all fans of this tri-fecta of fun they call triathlon.

I don't feel overly ready for Sunday, but I didn't for my first race either and I won. It's not aways about how ready you feel or how much you've trained (don't get me wrong, I certainly believe in preparation to be the best you can be). However, sometimes you just have to get out there and race regardless, just to see what you're made of, just to gain some fitness and remember that feeling of "I'm going to fall down once I cross that finish line!!" It's a good feeling, to be out among other athletes with the same love, the same feeling toward sport, the same goals and dreams as you have. I love the post race bagels and apples, among talk of how the race went for you, or how you felt on that last stretch. It's refreshing, and it makes it all worth it just to be around our compadres. I certainly won't be doing this forever, so if you want to know what I am going to be doing on Sunday - Look for me in the Philly Olympic Distance Triathlon. Regardless of the results, I will be giving it my all, hanging with my people and soaking up every last feeling and emotion of race day. See you at the finish!!

Joining the crowd!

I finally succumbed. I shouldn't say it that way because it is probably a good thing! All of the blogs I end up reading are on this blogspot site and it just doesn't make sense to be posting on another site.

So here I am, on blogspot. Will anyone actually read this? Only time will tell. I took some time to try and make my page interesting so that when you come by, you know a little bit about me already!

For those of you who do not, I'm 28, a dietitian working for a healthy bakery company (that's right, healthy donuts - who knew!), and I love the sport of triathlon. I'm married to a wonderful man named Kyle, who supports me in many ways, including my insane addition to swimming, biking and running. I do enjoy other things as well. For example, I love eating, and sleeping (what I can I say, I'm interesting) and I do like spending time with my family and friends (some triathletes, some not) who make my life complete. I'm a big believer in faith, and I regardless of the circumstance, I try to find the good in everything and everyone (cheesy I know, but true). Life is hard, but if you view it negatively, it is even harder. I'm incredibly blessed and sometimes wonder what I ever did to have it this good. Good job, good husband (who puts up with a lot of crap), great friends and not much money in the bank, but I don't particularly care about that part.

If you want to know more, I guess you'll just have to show up for the next installment. I plan on writing every day, but with a full time job and training I'm not sure how I will do at this! Hopefully, other blogs will inspire me to do better about writing on my own. In some ways, I think blogging caught on as a diary of some sorts. It probably gets your feelings out there and I love the idea of connecting with people everywhere. What a concept.

See you on the flip (wow, what a throw back)...