Running Down A Dream...

This is not the nightstand of someone who is feeling great.. Over the weekend I started to get a "tinge" of a sore throat and I ended up skipping a workout or so. I slept, started drinking so much water and really tried to ward it off. In the end, it got me just in time for me to leave on my flight tomorrow at the crack of dawn!!

My Mother (or Donna Wana as I call her) will be coming to my house tonight to accompany me on the trip to St. Croix! I'm thankful she will be there to provide moral support, sherpa and hang out.

The Splish Suit came today in all of it's glory! Ballou Skies is represented on the front and my other sponsors (Powerbar, Fuel Your Passion, Super Donut & Top Gear) on the back! I love it! Thanks to Dawn at Splish for making this a rush job and getting it all done! The bottoms are T-I-N-Y.. I thought I was a small, but I guess my hiney is medium. O well! Too late now! I'm sporting it on Sunday for all 70.3 miles!!

I just want to say thank you in advance for all the support I've received leading up to the race. I really appreciate it so much and I couldn't do half of what I do without my family, friends, co-workers, team and even people praying and helping me that I don't even know! If I get over this sickness, or not, either way, I'm going to put 100% into Sunday because I love to race and regardless, it's a privledge, and an honor to be able to represent a cause like Ballou Skies and race among some of the best athletes in the country. I couldn't be more excited to get another chance to be out there in the thick of it seeing how things unfold and testing myself!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this sport and more importantly, all the people in it.
This is how the season started. I only ask that you please say a quick prayer that maybe I can get healthy before Sunday, but even if I don't, that the other athletes and I have a safe and fun race where I get to CROSS A FINISH LINE!!! That would just be great. If that happens, it will be a step in the right direction.

Good Luck to all those racing at St. George (you know who you are) and my fellow St. Croixers! Stay posted!! Follow me on Sunday at www.ironman.com - use the athlete tracker to put in my name!!

Aruba... Pics, Pics, & more Pics

What can you say about Aruba. I guess I can only describe it in a series of thoughts:

Constant warm breeze blowing

Crystal clear teal water where fish appear beneath you in a matter of seconds like a living aquarium

Sun so hot your skin feels like it is slightly on fire

Slushy frozen drinks that end in oolata in the middle of the afternoon

All in all, it was amazing. In the end, I was glad they decided to charge me two dollars a minute for calls because it forced me to fall off the grid a little and back down from my usual blog/facebook/email obsession. I unplugged, and checked out for a few days, and it couldn’t have been nicer. Sometimes I think about how much time I spend looking at a computer screen these days, and I’ve determined that humans weren’t meant to do so.

We made it!

Janine (a wonderful women, fellow triathlete and good friend from the YMCA) and I left on Saturday at the crack of dawn and arrived promptly at the desk at 1:30pm. Our room wasn’t ready, but it was a quick change in the bathroom and right out to the pool to get our first sun of the trip.

I had two days before I had to start having meetings and I was taking advantage of every last bit of it! The next day it was time to take the water taxi over to the private island. You can find national geographic there within minutes.

Ahhh.. the swim up bar..

My favorite new suit because it + shadows somehow gave me the optical illusion of having breasts.. it's a keeper.

On Sunday I did my long run which started out as a heart rate below aerobic zone run, and ended as a survival in 90 degree heat at 11:00am run / St. Croix half Marathon practice. Janine and I hid water under a bush so we could come back every twenty minute loop and hydrate before heading back out. My head was pounding, my skin was on fire and I really felt like I might toss my cookies a couple of times during the hour plus run. However, Janine was the women of the hour, that was for sure. When she thought someone stole the water (aka, she was delirious too and looked under the wrong bush), a taxi came flying up beside me in a parking lot and out she jumped with a cold towel, ice, and a big bottle of cold aqua. Seriously J, that was amazing! Thank you!!! She said she didn't want to hear about it from everyone when she found me alongside the road passed out later. I think she had a great point! I was drinking the water, while she was throwing ice down my sports bra, it was hilarious! I'm sure that taxi driver thought we were absolutely crazy!!

The next day we took the private boat over to the Island.

I saw this boat and snapped a picture. Imagine going out on that every day.. the water is beautiful!

Our driver was, big. I wanted to ask if he was greek (his arm was the size of my whole thigh), but I held off!

We still got our picture taken with him!

Janine wasn't too sure how she felt about getting her shot with Fred here. Eventually they warmed up to one another and we got it done. We were able to swim three of the days in this little cove area of the beach and I got in some great open water practice! J was a swimmer so I was able to just latch on to her feet (since she swam slow enough to let me!), and swim away!

Finally, we both coerced each other into stopping long enough to take a picture. I'm not sure what we thought these things were going to do to us... but the beaks made me a bit nervous - that's all!

I thought this guy was pretty big...

Until I saw "The Godfather"

This will catch you off guard while you're laying around! Little hermit crabs!

We decided to see what he would do with the apple core. He liked it, so he took it home to the family.

There aren't too many places in the world where you can sit and eat dinner at sunset with your feet in the water. Pretty cool! If you're ever in Aruba, it's called "The Flying Fishbone"

We even stood in the water to take a quick pick! I was a bit sunburned that night.. ouch!

Lots of pics of J & I (and I'm pretty sure you could see your reflection in my forehead in this one!)

Then it was time for Franco's surprise 60th Birthday Party. He actually turned in March, but we had big plans to celebrate on Wednesday evening! I'm not sure if he really WAS surprised, or just acted surprised. Either way, it was a great night among friends.

Franco, Janine and I

The Band

I'm pretty sure she played every instrument in the house

Franco enjoyed his party and we all had a wonderful time celebrating his life. He is truly one of the nicest, most genuine, most caring people I have ever met. I couldn't be more thankful to work for such a wonderful guy. Plus, I heard he was pretty good at football at one time too :) He still wants to challenge me to a mile run.... I told him it's definitely on when he's ready to take me up on it!

Hope you enjoyed the pics!!

Local Family Using Peanut Butter Sales To Fight Muscular Dystrophy

Aruba was amazing.. I got way too much sun, had way too much fun and really got some great heat training in for my big dance this week.

I'd love to post all the pictures and goodies right now, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather and what I need is a good nights sleep and to hopefully get the bike packed.

In the mean time, please take one minute and check out this awesome video that we put together to tell a little more about Ballou Skies and Ryan's Story. It really came out well. Even though it's hard to hear yourself talk sometimes (aka you always feel a bit like a dork!), it was for a good cause and all in all, it came out with the right message.

Please click the link to WPXI's website for the video itself.

In the mean time, please please please become a member of our cause on Facebook. We are really trying to boost up this number and watch for a contest that I will be running to get more people involved when I return from St. Croix.

I leave bright and early on Thursday. I have SOO much to do before then.. I'm not sure how I will get it all done, but I'm just going to do one thing at a time.

Hope everyone is doing great!!

PITTSBURGH -- A Pittsburgh-area family is trying to spread the word about a devastating disease that affects one out of every 3,500 boys, including one very determined 22-year-old.

“At the age of 5, we took my son Ryan to Children’s Hospital because he had flat feet,” Ty Ballou told Channel 11. “After we met with the doctor, unfortunately we found out he had an incurable disease.”

Ryan Ballou was born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a degenerative muscle disorder that affects all muscles within thebody.

Since there is no cure, much of the effort has been on how to extend life.

“Living with muscular dystrophy is hard,” Ryan said. “It has its challenges. There’s a lot of work that goes into just doing your everyday normal tasks. From getting a drink, to getting something to eat, it just seems like it’s kind of overwhelming at times and I have my own struggles with that. But like I said, there’s really no other way around it. You just have to get through it and I’m just glad I have the support of my family.”

Even though he uses a wheelchair and has limited use of his arms, Ryan has been lucky. At age 22, he’s outlived most of the early estimates of life expectancy.

This is due to a combination of drugs that keeps his heart strong. But these are drugs whose benefits are not fully understood.

For the past three years, Ryan has participated in research at Ohio State University that studies the success of these drugs through the use of MRIs. The research is costly and it is not covered by insurance.

BallouSkies, a charity created by Ty, was conceived to help raise money for those who can’t afford to participate in this research-- research that could help extend their lives.

“The goal of BallouSkies is to raise a lot of awareness for muscular dystrophy and raise money for research,” Ty said.

One of the ways they do this is through the BallouSkies Triathlon Team. It’s a group of dedicated athletes who compete in an intense schedule of swimming, biking and running to benefit the cause.

“I think about hard things I might have going on during the day, and then I go right to Ryan. He just continues to impress me with how positive he is and just inspiring people and being there for people and showing people they really can make a difference. He’s my hero,” said team member Kim Schwabenbauer.

“There comes a time in every race where I just think I cannot take one more step or I can not take one more stroke of the swim or one more pedal of the bike. You know I look down and I think of BallouSkies and I think of Ryan and the struggle he’s going through and anyone with muscular dystrophy and I just feel so blessed and so lucky to be able to take a step that I really dig deep and push myself to limits,” said team member Jocelyn Cornman.

“Ryan is by far the strongest person that I know,” said his sister, Merett Ballou. “He has the heart to get through anything. I don’t know any 22-year-old or anybody young or old who has the courage and the strength to get up every single day and get through the obstacles that he’s able to overcome.”

You can help by sponsoring a team member. Race schedules are posted on the BallouSkies Web site and you can follow their progress throughout the year.

You can also help when you purchase BallouSkies peanut butter. One hundred percent of the proceeds from this all-natural product will help support the research at Ohio State. It can be purchased online or at any Giant Eagle store.

“This is something that is much greater than just BallouSkies. It’s about helping boys all over the world to overcome this disease, to live longer. It’s about raising awareness, it’s about raising money. It’s about people getting involved and people getting excited about trying to help somebody less fortunate than them,” Merett said.

“I just hope that people will realize how important it is, how passionate I am about it, my family is, obviously with this charity and all of our good friends. I just want everyone to realize how important this research can be and how many people it can actually help. It could help MD, any other array of diseases and disorders. It can help a lot. So I feel like it’s very important and I just want everyone to realize that with this research, so many doors can be opened, not just for muscular dystrophy,” Ryan said.

A Tearful, but Happy Goodbye Among Other Things!

Some really good things have been happening lately and I'm completely stoked about it.

1. Training Update

Let's start with training, it didn't happen last weekend in its normal capacity (more on why in a minute), and I'm fine with that. I couldn't get my longish ride in like I wanted, but I didn't really stress. At this point, it's about getting most of the workouts in but nothing is going to make or break the upcoming race.

Other than that, training has been going well and I'm really excited to taper. Thank heavens it starts next week or I would be totally beside myself. My legs are ready for a bit of a break. Swimming is going REALLY well, and running is also coming along. I'm completely amazed at how much my aerobic heart rate is improving and from the beginning of January until now I've brought my mile time down by almost a full minute still staying under a heart rate of 160. So, that's really cool.

2. USAT Triathlon Clinic in Baltimore Maryland

Last weekend I attending the USAT Level One coaching certification down in Baltimore, Maryland and it was such an amazing experience. If you put 40 highly motivated individuals with type A personalities in a room I would expect nothing less. I learned some amazing things from some of the top coaches in the world. Some challenged me and my thought process, some inspired me, and mostly it just made me feel like I was exactly where I was supposed to be at that very minute. It was just plain awesome and I loved every second of it. Now, its time to take my test and become an official coach. I can't wait! I also stayed with two very fun ladies who were great roommates and wonderful people. We had a blast all weekend and of course did some training, eating and laughing. Hence, not getting my long bike in (only 2.5 hours) during a weekend that demanded 8-4pm on Friday, 8-4pm on Saturday and then 8-12:30 on Sunday. I was exhausted at the end, but really happy I did it. There are only 1700 certified coaches in the country. I plan on being the absolute best I can be at this new endeavor.

3. Goodbye Heidi

This week marked the beginning of the end of Heidi's time here in PA. She's finished up her doctorate in PT and ready to move to the next phase of her life with her hubby. I couldn't be more happy for her to continue in her journey and pursue her dreams. With that said, she's become a friend that is so close to me and I have really gotten to know her over these last three years. She's inspired me, challenged me, made me laugh, made me cry, made me laugh so hard I cried, shared my dreams, and just been there for me when I really needed someone. Heidi I will miss you soooo much and I know you're going to be the best PT ever down in New Orleans. I'm proud of you for finishing you degree and most of all for getting back into the sport after such a devastating accident last year. You make me want to be a better athlete and person and I promise we will keep in touch!! We had a little goodbye dinner for her at one of my favorite local restaurants complete with boxed wine and presents! So fun!

Jocelyn and I rode before. We had to laugh because our outfits just keep getting weirder and weirder. I end up throwing all this stuff in my bag and depending on the weather, just keep layering it on! Sometimes it comes out kind of funky and cool, sometimes not! This was Jos in a colorful array of pastels!

This is a scary face along with some classiness with the boxed wine! Hey, it's BYOB! This is what I buy for economic purposes!

I got Heidi some herbs to make her own little herb garden in NOLA! I hope her green thumb is better than mine!

Jocelyn provided some great training/laying socks!

There was a great thought by Jocelyn to get a "car clean up" kit with all the things we need as women to get ready in a hurry. There were wipes, and sprays and all kinds of goodies! I need one of those!

Then there were the panties. Due to both Jocelyn and I's affinity for Target, we ended up there at separate times with no discussion of what exactly we would buy. We just knew we would find it there. The end of dinner comes and after a few glasses Jos pulls out these! She just couldn't help herself because they were 75 cents! Just where can you find panties for 75 CENTS! Target I tell you!! So, she had to get them, but then she had second thoughts because isn't buying underwear for another girl weird.. we decided it was totally fine.

The panties gift to H.

We snapped a quick pic and that was it. I cried a little at our goodbye, but I know it's only the beginning of a new chapter!

4. New Orleans 70.3

I have THREE very close friends racing which include two of my teammates for Ballou Skies - Jeremy and Joceyln AND Heidi this upcoming weekend! I can't wait to see them race and I just know they are going to do so well! Thinking of you all as you prepare and praying for a safe and kick butt experience.

5. Aruba

Well, we've done it again. My company has been gracious enough to want to hold there meeting in Aruba in honor of my boss's Birthday (Franco's turning 60! - well, he did turn and now we're celebrating). I'm very lucky to get to work hard play hard and I can't think of any other way to do it than in Aruba. My very good friend Janine will be going with me and I love her to death. I'll be doing my heat acclimatization by running at noon-one when possible so I can get ready for St. Croix, as well as, an occasional lay out by the beach and training for the post race party with pina colatas etc. No one will ever accuse me of not being prepared for all aspects!

6. New Coaching

One of the presentations had me so excited this past weekend that I wanted to jump out of my chair. I met a man wearing cowboy boots, wrangler jeans and a cowboy hat during our second day. He didn't look much like a typical "coach" but he sure did have the qualifications to prove he had it down! His background is coaching the under 23 national team to become the ITU champions we know and love, but he also had a few great age groupers and pro's that he was working with and I just really loved his style.

I asked sheepishly if he was taking on new athletes at this time and he suggested dinner to mull it over and see if it was a good fit. After an hour of talking, a few beers and some really great ideas we decided it was on like donkey kong. We shook on it, and it's a done deal. The name of his company is Vanguard Triathlon and his name is Coach Justin Trolle! I couldn't be more excited to work with someone on the second half of this season. After I get back from St. Croix there will be video analysis and all other kinds of cool things. Plus I hvae to get my hands on that lactic acid threshold curve!

SO, that's the story morning glory!

I hope everyones' training is going well. I'm so thankful for my health, and friends and a little excitement in my life. I'm looking forward to sun, and sand and a few days to lay around before meetings start next week. Have a good-en!

Human Lab Rat

The last two weeks have been insanely busy. I'm grateful I have plenty going on, but I have to admit, sometimes it might be a tad bit much with working 40, training 20, and then working with the charity / trying to still eat, sleep and occasionally spend time with family and friends. However, some things have been just amazing, like Easter church with my Mom and Don, riding on Good Friday with Jocelyn, and getting some tests done that I have always wanted to do!

I was asked to be in a research study put on by the University of Pittsburgh Sports Performance Complex and the sports / physiology researchers. They are comparing "elite" women triathletes to the women at a specific base within the Military to help them learn to train them and prevent injury. It's a pretty amazing concept and I think it's wonderful any time you can be part of something that furthers science. I would have done it for free, but they even wanted to pay me.. yep, count me in!

I met some wonderful people that walked me through the whole process and the goal is to be mapped on a bell curve with these women while gathering data to assist them! It's really exciting and I couldn't wait to see what it was like!

After arriving in the very sterile environment where I was the only subject present with about 6 PhD students, I realized I was very loud, and dressed very differently. Let the fun begin! I did the flexibility test first (no pictures of that), where they measured all of my arm angles, hip angles etc. It was no work for me! Just lay down and they moved me and used some crazy angle device to call out the readings.

Then it was time to get strapped into the biodex. There are only five of these machines present in the entire world. UPMC has one of them! The goal was to do different exercises and the machine moves with you but resists against, measuring the work that you do on the computer. I had to do 5 reps at 50% and then 5 as hard and as fast as I could go. With 6 people standing there staring at me, I wanted to do a good job and attempt not to look like a weakling. I'm not sure I succeeded. We'll see!

Matt strapping me into the biodex. I felt a bit claustrophobic, but I got over it quickly.

During the reps I was NOT smiling like this, I promise!

The last test of that evening was maximum power on the bike for 30 seconds. I warmed up for about 10 minutes and then it was time to get the party started. I had 10 seconds to go as hard as I could and then the machine would start to "break" against me. For thirty seconds it was all out as hard as I could go, which I think most of us can attest at triathletes we NEVER do. Talk about a gut-busting workout.

If you can't tell, I'm pretty much maxed out here just praying that I make it the entire 30 seconds. My legs were screaming, but I just stuck with it! I don't know that I could have made it 10 more seconds if my life depended on it!

The second night it was VO2 max. Here I am showing off the stylish face max and pack. It was not a fun feeling having that thing on my face and breathing into it. My heart rate went up about 10 beats the second it went on. I did a lot of positive self talk with things like:

"you can breath just fine"

" it will be over soon (and hopefully will not end with you falling off the back of the treadmill"

"you can do this, even if you look like a goober"

etc. etc.

Here I am in the beginning. They didn't get any tests toward the end as they gradually increased the angle of the treadmill ever three minutes and took my blood lactate level! I can't WAIT to see the results!

The last type of test was to measure force and landing. I had these shiny balls attached which were lite up and captured my leg movement on a computer. I had to jump, fall, and land perfectly with each foot on each side of the box which measured my foot pressure/angle etc. It was pretty amazing.

Just to make it a little more difficult, they blindfolded me. Great! Oh.. and then you get to land on one foot also. Seriously people, I'm a triathlete, I don't HAVE coordination! You can see one of the cameras behind me. Rumor has it that each one costs about 60 grand. Wow, wouldn't want to break one of those.

The one foot landing!

Um.. doesn't look toooo far?!

Shine on you crazy diamond (in the words of pink floyd!)

I leave you with what must be remnants of my cheer leading days. Yes, I tend to throw up my arms at times. I'm not sure why I did, I was just trying to land, and then jump as high as I can. I heard triathletes can't jump... I guess no one told these people but they found out quickly it was in fact true.

All in all, it was really awesome to get this opportunity. I'll let you know how it turns out!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Pittsburgh Beginner Triathlon Program

Kim & Chad.11
Originally uploaded by kxd185

Check out the program Chad and I are putting together for Pittsburgh triathletes looking to achieve their goals for the Pittsburgh Spring Triathlon or the North Park Spring Triathlon!

Friends, Fun, Fueling Up and Getting Out (on the bike!)

Heidi and I at my Top Gear "FUEL UP FOR PERFORMANCE" talk! She's leaving in three weeks and I am beside myself about it!!

Last week was busy as usual, but it was a very good week! It started out with a breakthrough swim on Monday during masters which had me smiling from ear to ear! I was forced to swim in the second "A" lane because my lane had eight other swimmers and by the time I got there, I realized it was just plain chaos! It was either fight that madness, or move up. I check the workout briefly, got in, and warmed up!

I probably should have looked a little closer, but I might have changed my mind. It was something like:

Warm up and then:

200 kick (3:00)

200, first 150 easy, last 50 hard (on 3:00)

200 first 100 easy, last 100 hard (on 3:00)

200 first 50 easy, last 150 hard (on 3:00)

TIMES FOUR.

Meanwhile, I had yet to swim ONE 200 on 3 minutes. Let alone repeat it all. Needless to say, I came in each time last, drafting off the guy in front of me, huffing and puffing, but I MADE IT! I swam close to 4500 that day in just over 1.5 hours. I was really stoked! Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and hold on for dear life. So, that's what I did! Thanks to the other swimmers for their encouragement! They did stop to check if I was still breathing a couple of times during the set.

A four day week and it was time to do a talk at one of my favorite bike shops - Top Gear!

Thursday night I headed out of work and right to the bike shop where there were about ten triathletes interested in improving their nutrition! It was a fun night and Powerbar got a lot of props so that was good! Being a Team Elite member allows you to get some product, and gear, if you apply on one of their two year cycles. I just got renewed for another two years, so that was great. Thanks Powerbar!!

Powerbar samples right next to the cookies/pretzels and hummus. Oh, there was a veggie tray too (which is at home in my fridge right now!).

Here I am showing the benefits of proper fueling!! Fuel Your Passion was in full effect!

I did a quick pose by the banner to get my picture snapped! Hopefully they like it!

At some point last week I noticed that they were doing a prom dress collection at my local YMCA for girls in the area that need a dress. I remembered that my Mom was moving and has wanted these dressed OUT of her closet for as long as I can remember. So, I got to work this past weekend when I was home for the Easter Holiday and sorted through them. Talk about a walk down memory lane!

This was my senior dress. I feel in love with it the instant I saw it and talked my Mother into it over the course of two months! She really loved it too, so it was a win win. I hope some girl appreciates it as much as I did at the time! So pretty!!

This black number was my junior year when I went with some random boy from another school. He was just a friend and asked me to go so I said yes without thinking about the dress! We found something pretty quickly and it was actually quite pretty on! I wonder if I could still fit in it... should I try??! Nahhh.. who has time!

This was actually a bridesmaid dress that was very pretty, but that I will probably not be able to wear again. I thought it would work for a girl to wear to prom!

Last one, the purple long dress! I liked this dress too, but not as much as the others. I think their might be a few more hiding in the back of the closet!!

On Friday, since I was off, Jocelyn and I headed out for one of my last epic rides until St. Croix. I had at least four hours on the schedule, but she was doing five and a half.

When we left it was 54 degrees and I could NOT have been more excited to get out and see the countryside from my bike!! It was a gorgeous day and I loved every single second of it. Jocelyn and I ran into Janine in the parking lot right before we left so we snapped a quick pic! It was her first ride out of the season. We were dressed pretty warm, but quickly shed these layers.

Somehow, we were having such an amazing ride, that I decided I would stay out for at least 4:45! I shut off the polar at around 80 miles! What a day!!

The quintessential mark of a triathlete / biker. You would not believe how hard this was to get off in the shower!

All in all, it was a great week and I look forward to things to come. My life is busy, but full!!

Tonight, I'm going for my second evening of testing with the UPMC (University of Pitt) Medical Center / Sports Performance study center. They are comparing high level women triathletes to women in the Military to check their strength, flexibility, endurance, VO2 Max etc. It's been really fun. I can't wait to see the numbers!