Step Away From the Cake

I tend to be a very organized (some would say anal) person. Although my desk is a mess and I have magazines stacked up on the coffee table, I really am organized. For our upcoming vacation I researched all the airfare websites for weeks and did everything to make sure I got a decent fare. When it was time to find a rental car I did the same thing. Whenever I want to make a large (over $100) purchase for myself, I always do all the research, read reviews, check consumer reports, etc. To make sure I get the best product at the best price. I also have a habit of breaking parts of my life into "things." For the last few months it's been the marathon. Everything I've done has pretty much been focused on that. I tended to think in terms of, "After the marathon," and "When the marathon is over." Right now it's the vacation. I'm ready to get back into my program but I keep thinking, "Well, I'm leaving on vacation on Wednesday...." I h

In my comments, La said: "A Clydesdale friend of mine suggested that if you're an athlete and trying to lose weight that you treat weight-loss like a race. Meaning, everything you do has to be working towards that goal, not competing with any other goals (i.e., races)." This ties in perfectly with my FOCUS. I will treat weight loss as my sole occupation for the next few months. Training will be used as a tool to reach my goal of weight loss. Since none of my "big" races are in the first few months of the year this should work out well. If I could lose the weight before I have to start really "training" I could run faster, bike further, and swim, well maybe not swim any better. This really gives me something to think about though..... My journey to my weight goal begins tomorrow. I'm going to WW in the morning and starting exercising again. I've felt really good for the last few days just too lazy to get out of bed in the morning. I leave on

On the TRI-DRS list it was asked what one word would describe your 2006 training. Having thought about this for a couple of days, mine would be: FOCUS . I plan to focus this upcoming year on getting faster. I plan on doing mostly running, with a couple of century rides and some sprint tris. I did most of the races last year so I have a base to work from and I plan to PR everyone (trust me, that won't be that hard). I also plan to do 2 marathons and break 6 hours (in at least 1 but both would be nice). I also plan to lose the final 20lbs. So this year is: FOCUS

Any Monty Python fans out there???? I'm going to shift gears here for a couple of weeks. I need to lose some weight and since I apparently have the ability to only focus on one thing at a time, I'm going to focus on weight loss for the next few weeks or months. I'm a Weight Watcher but have been slacking on following the program during the marathon training. So it's time to get back too it. I will be training but the focus will be on weight loss not training. I'm almost completely recovered from the marathon. Monday wasn't too bad but yesterday I could hardly walk, my quads were screaming so bad, it was miserable. My eating has returned to normal also. After the marathon I could not eat. I felt hungry but everytime I took a bite of food I felt like I was going to throw up. That continued through yesterday, it was really weird. Last night when I got home from work I was hungry for the first time in 2 days and I took it as a good sign. So I plan on eating wit

Walking along around Mile 23-24......

Okay, where to begin. The day started at 2:00 a.m. when my husband woke me to ask when I was getting up (I could have killed him) I finally got out of bed at 2:15 since I was up. Since I was so very organized the night before I had everything laid out and ready to go. My coffee was ready, my breakfast was ready, my clothes were ready, I was all set. Out the door by 3:00 and off to meet my ride at 3:30. The ride over to Honolulu was uneventful though a little anxiety causing as some roads were closed and we didn't think we could get to where we needed to be but ultimately we made it. After stretching and a little cheerleading we were off to walk to the start line. The Race: We ended up very close to the front of the pack when the cannon boomed so we hung to the side and enjoyed the fireworks as the speedy people went by (we still weren't close enough to see the elites start - darn!!). Our chip time was only 2 minutes off the gun time so you can see how close we were to the front

OOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!!! My legs are sore!!!! It was a race for the books, I have learned so much during this whole training but really during yesterday's race. I promise to do a full race report (with photos) tonight. Thanks everyone for all your support!!! I was really great to know people all over were "cheering" me on!! Details tonight. Right now I have to hobble off to work.