It's Not All About The Training

I spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of time swimming, biking and running. While I know it's not as much as other people, I do my best with the time that I have. It allows me to still balance some of the things in my life I hold most dear, like Kyle, my family, time with my friends and every once in awhile.. a little me time. I've been saying since the middle of filming "made" last month that I was going to go get a mani-pedi if I made it through all that craziness. Well, this chick STILL hasn't done it. Somehow you just roll right back into trying to fit in this workout and that, have dinner with this or that person and / or actually work / sleep / eat! All very important things. Hopefully, sometime soon, I'll slow down and take a little me time! In the mean time, it was a nice little Friday night for the Ballou Skies Kona crew. We had a photo shoot for this portion of our team and we are sending six, that's right six, people to Hawaii for the World Championships this year. If you didn't think Pittsburgh was a tri mecca before, maybe you should meet my dear friends. They are some of the hardest working / talented people I know. They are physically strong, and mentally, even stronger. The best part is.. they have a real heart for this cause and realize that they money we are raising actually is helping.

If you have just 2 minutes, watch this video. It is amazing what the power of just having this money for research can do to help prolong the lives of children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Once we took our picture, it was time to investigate the newest that Duane, and the Engine House Winery, had to offer. I'm not sure if you knew this, but I love wine. I mean like I don't think I could live in a world where it didn't exsist. Or if I did, I would be sad, sad place!!!

Duane has his own urban winery. His grapes are flown in and if you're interested, it only costs about $10G's per barrel. You have have your own barrle, right there when you want it. When I'm with Duane, I'm in heaven.. there are malbecs and Pino's galore.. all for the tasting.

So even though it's all about the heart with Ballou Skies and DMD, wine is good for the heart too. Add in a little socialzing on a Friday evening and you have one happy Kim. Don't worry, I still got up at 6am on Saturday and rode my bike a long ways.

All training and no play just doesn't make me happy. Friday night was a nice reminder of how lucky we are to have a great group, raising money for something so very important that will definitely help the lives of others.

My pledge to myself is raise $200.00 between now and October 8th when I do the Ironman World Championships. If you would like to help, just to www.ballouskies.com and click on my name where it will take you to a page with my bio. You can use paypal right from there.

Does anyone else out there have trouble fitting in "me" time among all the things we have to do every day?? What do you do to just make it happen and finally allow yourself to shut off and do some things you enjoy??

A big thanks to Duane for taking our awesome shots for the magazine and for sharing some of your talent with us on a Friday evening! I was buzzed enough to buy a few expensive bottles!