I heart Aruba

The Water Taxi on the Island Side

I know, I know.. you all are sick of hearing about my trip. I'd like to say I am sick of it too, but the truth is - I'm not even close. I guess living through a very hard winter in PA and training in rain, sleet, snow, ice, and all other sorts of nastiness will do that to you. Bring on the sun- that's what I say about it. I hear nice weather is on the way, so don't give up hope fellow PA'ers.

A new friend, his name is Herman

Today wasn't too exciting. I got up early again (and when I say early, I mean not even close to normal early - I can't get to bed before 11:30 because of our marathon dinners that start at 7:30pm and end at 10:45pm, so early is realtive for sure!). The gym here is beautiful and has everything I need, now if I would just spend a little time there! I rode the bike for a bit (you know..those um..electronic kind..not spin bike or anything), and really tried to simulate my "speed bike" for the week.

I'm pretty sure the rest of the people at the gym thought I was nuts the way I was huffing and puffing and sweating everywhere. It was actually flying off me at one point and I thought about warning the guy who decided to jump on the recumbant bike next to me that he might want to give me some space, or put up some kind of towel gard against me or something. He braved it though so I guess he was ok with it!

The meeting went well and I only got yelled at once for checking my cell phone (whoops!). Six hours of sitting in the same room is ROUGH. We did it though and when we were let out at 1:30 I was running to get my suit on!

Lissa and I at dinner last night

Then it clouded over.

Boo hoo.. ohhh woo is me...ha.

Don't despair.. we went shopping. After getting a few surprises for family we headed back to the room and are getting ready for dinner again. I swear, all we do is eat around here. Normally, I would be thinking I would gain ten pounds on this dang trip but luckily I found out there are NO CALORIES on the island.. Not even one. So, that's a good thing. I said "whew, that was a close one!"

I leave you with some pics! I wish you were all here.. Jen, Beth, ADC, Marit, Maija, Heidi and everyone else who for some strange reason reads this blog.. next time I will pile you all in my suitcase and that will give me more motivation to train. Either that, or NONE of us will train and then I won't feel bad at all about it.

Have a great night everyone! I miss you family!

Free Drinks

The Free Drinks!


I brought a cowboy hat thinking that I might need it for something. I don't think I've worn it once but I just figured if there was somewhere to wear it, it might be here. So far, I'll we've done it play dress up!

I think I have entered a new era. Either that, or because we were wearing our bathing suits our bartendar was being "overly nice," but either way, we walked away with a few free drinks today at the bar. I really only wanted ONE drink, something fruity and girly, you know the yummy frothy ones. However, the bartendar had other ideas and passed the leftovers from some other snazzy drinks on to Lissa and I. I really don't drink that much and believe me, over here, you couldn't unless you were pretty rich at 8.00 a piece. I actually said to Lissa that I was planning to do a little open water swimming after this but I might have been too drunk at that point to:

A. feel safe

B. want to

C. not throw up in the water

I decided to nap instead for a bit and I did do about 30 minutes and that was fun and didn't involve seeing my drinks again so that was good.

Work was good today. I managed to get up and go to the gym to do a hard 45 min run on the treadmill before getting ready in 10 minutes and rushing to our meeting. We were all pretty focused because we wanted to get out by 1:30pm (started at 8am) so that was nice. The morning went fast and I was getting lunch and off to the private island by 2:00pm.

The water taxi!


The view from the boat of our hotel

We had a nice afternoon of playing with the flamingos, blabbing about who we took to every high school dance from 9th to 12th grade, and hopefully not getting burnt. Not getting burnt is a sport here in Aruba. You're so close to the equator! You have to put on sunscreen like it is your job!

Right after this he opened wide and I got scared and ran~


Dinner under the stars with the company

Dinner last night was so much fun. We ate at a place like george and the jungle. Ok...well, not exactly but it was outside..the whole restaurant was outside. Very cool. They had little areas built with wood or canopies but our table was completely under the stars. The floor was well, rocks and the trees were lite with christmas lights. Teki tourches were everywhere and lighted our path. The food was excellent which I think I finally got served around 9:30pm. I thought I might eat the table cloth, but they brought the bread just in time.

Pre-swim modeling dorky pose!

We're having a great time and hopefully the blog is working to let everyone know we are not getting into trouble (not too much anyway), and phone service is still 1.99 per min. so don't expect any calls. We miss you all, and will talk to you soon.

Have a great week everyone! Happy swimming, biking and running..do some for me!!

Sun, Sand, Aloe and Pina Coladas!

My Giant Burger on the way here. It had pinapple and teriaki sauce on it and it was delicilous! I ate the whole thing!

Lissa and I at lunch today!

These are reasons why I love Aruba! Our flight yesterday was long, long, long. We left my house at 4:45am and arrived at our hotel in Aruba at 8:30pm! I can't complain, we arrived with suitcases in hand and without any delays or flight changes (which is unusal for me right!).

The hotel is wonderful and we slept until 10am today. I guess we resorted back to colleges days or something. Lis was sick as a dog yesterday but I told her that there was going to be three things we needed to cure this bad case of laringitis and mucus nastiness, they are (not in any order):

1. Sun

2. Sleep (10 hours will do!)

3. Booze

It's working. It's 6pm and she's almost there. We had plenty of sun today at the beach and two pina coladas a piece so I was a happy girl! Tonight, it's dinner with the work crew and tomorrow I'm afraid it down to business.

There's a little boat that will take us from our hotel to a private island though so I am pretty excited to check that out. So far today, no training..um...at all..so not sure what to say about that. I think every once in awhile we all need a break so this might be my week. Worrying about training will just stress me out and I am not about to do that in Aruba. Aruba is like the anthesis of stress so I'll just leave that off the table.


The sundresses are ironed, the forhead already is burned around my sunglass line and I'm very thankful to just lay around thinking about nothing for the first time in a long time.

you know they have chicken parts here?? Would you like me to throw some in a bag for you and bring them home? I wonder what they do with those..I'm sure it's interesting..

How about square money. Lissa and I were amazed with the novelty of this whole thing.. not sure why so much. We just liked it!

OK.. spell check isn't working so please..just excuse any fastly typed errors.. oh boy..my Mom is going to have a hay day with this one.

I can sweat more than you can sweat...

Kim / sweaty mess on the trainer on Wednesday

I'll take you on, any day of the week, any time of the day..indoors on the trainer, out in the sun. I can sweat with the best of them. I'm not sure what has given me this freakish ability to lose water and salt but during a race like Hawaii it resulted in me having to drink 24 oz of Mark Allen Fluid Energizer drink per hour and 10 oz of water (for a total of 34 oz of fluid per hour). I didn't feel dehydrated throughout the marathon, but I sure had some GI issues from all that fluid needing to be absorbed but my body not wanting to really go that route so instead I made friends with a bush and those port-a-pots along the way. I've got to get that one figured out if there is ever a next time!

I'm not proud of being a ridiculously sweaty girl. It makes for a bad time if I have to run back and get my cell phone once I realize at the airport check-in that I have left it in my car and only have 30 minutes to start boarding the plane. I was wearing cashmere no less as I dropped a 6:30 mile through the parking lot of the Pittsburgh airport. I had a small party for myself after I made it to the gate, sweat dripping down my face, stomach, and arms. I'm pretty sure people in security didn't feel like being nice letting me in front, they probably thought I had some sort of condition. Either way, it helped me make that flight, cell phone in hand. I guess being a runner does have some other side benefits.

As I said earlier in the week though, I'm ready to throw my trainer out the window. Tomorrow is supposed to be almost 70 degrees. Although at 8am I'm pretty sure it will be more like 40 degrees, I'm all in for bundling up and then stripping down as the 4 hour ride wears on into the morning. I'll be flying solo, I guess it's time to pick out a route and go for it!

I'm not sure if you have seen these commercials yet, but they are hilarious. I think they are for weight watches and our little orange friend here is named HUNGRY. I have been looking for an icon of sorts to represent what gets me up in the middle of the night during IM training to eat a granola bar and drink a big glass of milk so I can go back to sleep. Well, here he is. Meet HUNGRY. He's cute, and scary and he won't let me go back to sleep if I wake up in the morning on the weekend unless I pile something in there. Not cool HUNGRY. Seriously HUNGRY can't you cut a girl some slack. People probably think it's so great being able to eat what you want or to be able to be hungry and then fulfill that need. Well, let me tell you, my metabolism sometimes is nothing but annoying. I know I need to keep it in check, but it is a never ending battle for me and HUNGRY and I have words sometimes.

Here is HUNGRY with his dump truck. At least he has a sense of humor I guess.

The last of the news is that I am off to Aruba for work. I know, start hating me now. Three days of meetings, and two days of play (and trying to train throughout all of it) should be fun and interesting. My bathing suit is tiny and packed. My sister-in-law will be going so I'm super excited to spend some time with her and she's the first one to ever come on one of my work trips so it will be nice to have a friend along. I'll post pictures and let you all know how it is! Happy Training Everyone! Have a great weekend!

Random Ravings

The Finish Line of Just a Short Run from two weeks ago, I guess rasing my arm is my signature thing now. There's a little more to it than that, but I'll keep that to myself or for another blog!

You've gotta love Easter, our Savior rising from the dead, family and great food to stuff your face with until you can't see, can't sleep and can't think of food for at least four hours. After a wonderful weekend in Pittsburgh going to the film festival (which was AMAZING by the way!), we went to church and then ate at my Mother's for lunch. On the menu was ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, strawberry salad, rolls and carrot cake. It was a a plethora of homemade delicacies and I was in heaven. It doesn't take much more than a plate full of Mom's cooking!

Weekend workouts went well although I am seriously pushing my trainer limits at this point in the year. I would rather throw it into the lake outside than even think about riding it again. At 22 degrees this morning, guess who will be on it again come 7am tomorrow. Is anyone with me on this trainer thing?? At the beginning of the training season I'm all, "oh, this isn't so bad, yeah, I get great work done on this thing, I can handle this." These days the conversation goes a bit more like this, "stupid trainer, I saw that look you just gave me and you are going to pay, pay, pay. You just wait until this summer when I walk right past you every day opting for the sun on my back and the wind in my hair, a distant memory trainer, a distant memory."

This morning I swam. I'm not usually a swim workout list-er, but this one deserves a mention. I'm pretty sure Coach is making sure we are mentally tough with stuff like this because it's a cross between that and becoming an endurance machine:

WU: 200 swim, 200 pull, 200 kick

8 x 50 (2 each stroke)

MS: 3 x 800 (1 min)

6 x 150 (20 sec)

CD: 200

4500 total

It was not fast, it was just long.. and then long again, oh..then you guessed it...freaking long. My arms felt like they were going to fall off..then.. I lifted.

On another random note, has anyone seen this show on the travel channel Anthony Bordain's No Reservations? I love it. I think it has to do with my fascination with food, travel, wine and his smug hilarious honest rhetoric. Cracks me up! Check out if you haven't seen it!

I'm A Little Slow...

Not mentally (although some may disagree with this statement at times, especially when I haven't eaten like I am supposed to), just at writing lately.

I had a busy weekend last weekend and a busier week this week. I traveled to the Steel City on Monday to attend a food show, Tuesday I flew out to Philly to an appointment with Philly School District, and flew back in the same day, and then Wednesday I worked in the office in Pittsburgh as well to meet with Mr. Harris. Finally, I am back in the office today and will be off tomorrow so am PSYCHED for a three day weekend.

Do you believe in magic by the way? What about the power of dreams? Well, I certainly do and some happened last week at Oceanside. What a great race! I enjoyed watching my fellow triathlon bloggers have amazing races and achieve greatness. Of course, the highlight for me was watching Marit have the most wonderful comeback race I think she could hope to ever have and then out of the blue coming away with a Kona Slot. Ok, so it wasn't out of the blue, she trained her butt off and put all the pieces together with a great attitude to make it happen.

It made me remember this little box I have sitting on my desk. The dream box. At the top of Mt. Palomar there is a little store with gift items and other trinkets. Marit was so adamant when we got up there that I pick out a stone or something of significance to remember my trip and our epic ride. I settled on a green smooth stone that was so beautiful and one of the other days I caught her trying to buy a little something without me looking too closely while we were in the store. Little did I know I was about to get a creative amazing gift called The Dream Box with my green stone inside. I can't swear by the legend, but I do know how powerful dreams can be. How they change us, how they move us. Focusing in on a dream and thinking about why we are out there each day braving the winds on the bike, or running through the sleet and slush of winter snow as much as 6 months before our actual race requires us having a dream, something to work towards, something to motivate us to stay with it.

I was lucky enough to see a great friend achieve a dream this past weekend and this year will be a year of first for her that I am so excited about. First Ironman and first Kona. Way to dream Marit. I'm so happy to have been part of your journey!

Training this week has been tough, but I am desperately trying to get it all in! Today I biked my 1:45 min trainer ride and then tonight it's swimming (3000) and running (50 min tempo) on the docket.

This weekend we will be going to the Banff Mountain Film Festival and I am SOOOO excited about that as well. On Friday and Saturday nights they show independent films from all over the world that won a competition in order to be included in the event. The films are everything from adventure to wildlife to just plain crazy! They travel the country so be sure to find out if they are coming to your town and check it out.

Here is a link to the trailer on youtube. It will surprise and amaze you and you'll wonder where the last two hours have gone when you leave the theater! That is for sure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAMbREbCz5E&feature=PlayList&p=714B22106C742CE0&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=13

Have a great weekend of training and R & R everyone! Happy Easter!

New Diggs

It's been an eventful week for the postman here at the apartment. I feel like every other day he's bringing goodies for me and it's been such a nice treat.

Don't get me wrong, some of them I've been waiting and watching in order to purchase, like my new watch from Athleta that I am just wild about! I've wanted a watch like this forever, I just never found one that suited me. This one I found online about three months ago but had to wait for it to go on sale before I could justify it (plus I had a gift certificate -thanks Deb!).

So, the watch and the new backpack (which I plan on hiking with or just running around town - I'm a backpack kind of girl!) are from there. The Newtons are from the Mark Allen Team Sponsorship and I am loving them. I wanted to let everyone know I had not worn them, even once, prior to my race and sore calf. I have NO idea what that was about that day, but it has subsided so I am happy, happy, joy, joy! Either way, I've been wearing them this week and they are fantastical (and yes, I know it is not a word, it is my own word..so there - it's magical / fantastic)! I really do feel good in them and I am trying to break them in slowly and not wear them for every run.

The New Backpack & Newtons

The New Watch! I love it! So excited!

My hairy arm. It looks really dark here.. humm..








I'm thinking of all you Oceansiders and praying for a safe and great race for you. I have to give some shout outs so you know who to cheer for on Saturday (which I am sure most of you already do) so here goes - Rachel Ross (or RR as we know here here in Blogland), Beth S - you can do it! I can't wait to see you swim, bike and outrun the competition!, Marit - you are my hero. I am so excited to see you back racing again and cheer you on, Chad - My Mark Allen Teammate, First race of the season, go get em, Jen - Chad's Wife and awesome triathlete - I'll be cheering, Charisa - The training has been going great, have a wonderful race, Jen Harrison - You Go! This is going to be great - I can feel it!
Ok.. I think I missed people, and if I did, I am thinking of you too! Have a great Friday and watch the stats on Saturday.