St Louis here I come

I am running out of time to post, I'm heading to St Louis in 10 min and will be there until Friday night for work. I did however, get up and run 6 miles this morning with the kids at 5:30am, yikes! It was early for me. My neighbor is watching Nikki and I'm dropping off Levi at Meredith's. Hope they both behave. Forrest is finally tired, but I doubt he will take a day off. I will be working out in the hotel gym for the next 2 days, wish me luck. I may try to swim too, but their pool isn't huge, so we will see.
Take care all

Triathlete found and drowned...

http://www.1010wins.com/Body-of-Triathlete-Found-in-N-J--s-Lake-Mercer/2678854 So, apparently they did an autopsy and the man drowned. No head trauma or heart attack problems. Sorry to bear the bad news every day, but I really feel bad. This the first I've ever known it to happen in triathlons. Last week antoher man died in the Hudson river doign the NYC tri. It is believed he was stung by several jellyfish and that had something to do with his death. In the 3 years I've been doing triathlons, this is the first time I've ever heard of deaths in the swim. My thoughts are with these familes today.

Sad News

They found the racer this morning from my race according to the news:(
http://cbs3.com/local/john.hobgood.new.2.781534.html

They will probably never know what happened in the swim, apparently they never noticed someone struggling.

Race Info

Forrest wants race breakdown so he understands all the lingo; what Forrest wants, Forrest gets:) The results always gives you actual time, pace, and rank overall. Then, some overall stats. Here is how it breaks down (and I had a much slower race, but a healthy one nonetheless) . 2800 racers, quite a large race.

Swim: rank-457 actual time-34:24 pace-38:13

T1-4:01

Bike rank-697 actual time-1:26:59 pace-16.0

T2-2:56

Run: rank-556 actual time-1:04:22 pace-10:23

Overall time: 3:12:41 Division rank: 34 Division: F35-39 Gender rank: 200

The picture to my left is my very good friend Jen and I at the swim start. I spend lots of time with her. I feel great myself, only my forearms hurt, but that is because I trimmed my bushes for a few hours on Saturday and my hedge trimmer is heavy (gas powered). Funny, not sore at all from the race, just from yard work the day before:) I had a great time and enjoyed the day. I was very sorry to hear this morning that someone died in the swim and they still can't find him. That is the first race that has ever happened at that I did. It is usually very good fun. Walk on Forrest and I will see you at the next race.

Good day today

No pictures yet, but I finished the race today! didn't have a great 'times', but did okay. For getting back in shape, I won't complain. Pretty tired now and its thunderstorming, so I'm hanging out with the kids now. Resting and attending to them is good. I had a friend there that took picutres, so I will post one later. Fun ones of course though.
I'm not in tip top shape yet, but getting there (maybe just in time for summer to be over).
Hope all had a good weekend.

Pre-Race walkthrough

Boy, tomorrow is going to be a tough one. For starters, there are 2800 racers, which is huge for a triathlon. The transition area is a nightmare. 2800 bikes is a lot of bikes to rack together. I had to drive down there today to get my packet (they don't allow pick up day of). 1 hour drive down there, yikes. Because the traffic will be bad at the race, I'm getting there when transition opens. So, I have to leave my house at 4:30! I'm going to bed soon. I went and got ice cream with my neighbors and I didn't shut the house door well enough (dogs stay outside when I'm gone); anyway, I came home and Levi was in the house and had eaten the entire tub of granola. Like 2 quarts. I ban him to the breezeway because he's in trouble and he may get sick. I may leave him out there I'm still so mad at him. He's killing me slowly.
Anyway, off to bed so I can rest up for the race.
Forrest had a great week of mileage; fabulous.

Sun is shy, but coming

Boy did it rain today, woke up to pouring rain, but no thunder. That was good because the bed was not shaking:) It rained so hard, I drove around trying to get to work and the roads were flooded in that direction. I finally had enough and went back home, worked from there. Kids were happy to see me. The sun started to come out at lunch, so I thought I would run the dogs, bad idea. It was swealtering. they had to go back and stay home. I trotted for 4 miles and that was plenty because it was blistering humidity. Had a check up at the cardiologist in the afternoon. Told him I'm feeling much better, but he is ordering a CT angiogram test anyway. I'm too young and healthy to have my problems, so this will rule out any other heart problems. I feel better than ever though on Norvasc (strange though, I don't have high blood pressure). At this point, my diagnosis is 'arterial spasms', but the next test may tell more. I'm racing this weekend on Sunday, an olympic distance. I won't be fast, but I will have a good time. I'm feeling great, but a little out of shape. It's the same distance I'm doing in MI next month. http://www.cgievents.com/cgiracing/njst/index.html If you want to check my results. I'm in the next to last wave...wave 16:(...so I will be out on the course later than most; I hate that. Makes you seem slow, but it's just the wave I'm in.
I also checked and the swim start for the Sleepy Hollow race is 8am for Olympic distance, Sunday Aug 10th. early morning!
chao for now

Rainy days again

Boy have I been off line! I went to Lake Placid for a long weekend returning late Monday. I would like to say it was a great weekend, but it poured all day Sunday, only Sunday. That just happened to be race day for the Lake Placid Ironman competition. I stood in the pouring rain all day cheering for my friend, Frank Pantuso. He had a gerat race and did better than expected which is amazing considering the conditions. The bike was hard in the pouring rain. IM is 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. 140.6 miles, so if you ever see a bumper sticker with 140.6 (or 70.3 which means half Iron), you know now what it means. That is a true athlete, deserving the description of Iron. While I was there, Saturday, I swam the IM course and it was great. I felt really good and that was my only workout all weekend. Got back and ran 6 miles yesterday, just need to get on my bike. Well, it rained all morning yesterday, so no bike to work. Today? Again, only it thunderstormed all morning. Started around 4am and that is when I woke up with Nikki sleeping on my pillow and trying to sit on my head. She is even more scared of storms than Levi....didn't think that was possible. I moved her so she was laying next to me, but she panted so hard, it made my bed shake; yeah... for 3 hours. My parents would understand that because their old dog Jenny did the same. You couldn't sleep and neither could I this morning. If it wasn't raining so hard, I would have just gotten up and walked.
Well, I'm back in the saddle and have a race this weekend on Sunday. Will be my first race since all the chest pain issues. I have no concerns and am feeling good. I will have a good time.
Catch you tomorrow.

Glad it is Saturday

Got up and was out running before 6:30 am today, but only ran a few miles. I fell on my bike yesterday with my clips and cut up my heel, oops! (love the new bike sandals though) So the run was a little painful on my heel. Then, went to pilates class at 9am, big breakfast at 10, nothing better. Good morning (dogs ran the 3.5 miles with me too). I have lots on my plate of things to do today, laundry, cleaning, and yardwork. Tomorrow morning early I'm going to a triathlon to cheer on a friend of mine. He is doing his first triathlon every, so it will be fun. I have several friends racing, just one newbie.
Have a good weekend everyone!

Slackin'

Boy have I been slacking on posting! I feel so good finally with my workouts, I'm staying busy and not posting. Sorry! I have even been eating well too, less calories. I always eat pretty healthy, but lots of it. I'm cutting down a bit on helping size. Also, biking, running, and swimming regularly, I feel great. Must be the meds:)
It is finally warm and dry here today, sunny, not humid, can't wait to get out on my bike. Half day fridays are the best thing invented (besides ice cream and wine). I have a dentist appointment (cleaning), then I'm going biking for sure. One more thing that makes me happy is I got a note from my good friend Tony, and he is thinking of running a Marathon, the big M. I can't wait to give him advice, he will probably be annoyed at all my crazy ideas, but hopefully he enjoys it. It's a great experience and accomplishment. I will be singing his praises very soon.
Okay, good luck all, keep exercises and eating healthy!

Hiatis

Boy, I've been off my blog for an entire week! I had a long, busy weekend, but have no other excuses. I am back in the saddle of workouts though. I'm working my running mileage back up and am only at 6, but ran a 10K on the 4th of July for fun. I worked out every day last week and am back to doing sprints in the pool. That is a huge change because with this condition, I was not running maybe 2 miles and absolutely no sprints in any sport. Was very difficult. I'm a little tired, but it keeps my very 'bubbly' personality at bay for now:) I had a good, slow, but fun bike ride on Sunday, 35 miles baby. That is the most I've done since late April. I biked to work today and home and also ran at lunch, so I'm good and tired tonight. I'm talking my neighbor into going for icecream to reward myself (she has no excuse though). Since my hiatis, I don't think Forrest (or his flyin' g'mas) got too far ahead of me....I'm back and feeling better than ever!