Eco Sport Bottles

I got a great email from Eco Sports Bottles that they want to sponsor me at their "Gold Level." This company makes environmental (and health friendly) sport bottles! I can't wait to get some to try them out! I will let you know what I think! Thanks! (That's not me below, but it does show the cool new bottles I get to try out!)

Kids at sprint triathlon

Oh man, my triathlon team was AMAZING this weekend at the Douglasville last chance triathlon. Not only did they all finish an adult triathlon, but we took home TONS of trophies!

Update with Josh

On Monday, I saw Josh, my sports Chiropractor. He had hear through the grapevine (thanks sara ;-) ) that I had applied to Ultraman. He was pretty hesitant about the whole endeavor. Then, he worked on me, and said that I felt "bulletproof," and that he is ready to support me in the crazy race!!! Now, I just have to keep waiting....

Ride + Run +Swim

47 mile ride with George up in Dalton on Saturday, followed by an awesome 12 mile trail run at Kennesaw Mountain, and a nice 3000yd workout in the pool. All in all it was a great weekend of training!

Goofy Mind and Body

So, I guess I will start with the bad and go to the good.

My mind was spinning yesterday as I really started to think about these commitments I am making for myself and my body. My coach told me to register for the goofy (more later on that), and to start looking for a 50K. I got scared for the first time. What have I gotten myself into? Who exactly do I think I am. I am just a regular girl, seriously!

So then I went for my easiest workout of the week-- a nice 6 miler run around the neighborhood. My mind was running WAY faster than me! I was thinking hard about injury and injury prevention and


I hit the ground. Nice, slow embarassing fall, but still a fall. I banged myself up enough that I was drippy with blood for the rest of my run, and I am a little bruised up.

Not to get too deep, but I do believe in the body/mind connection. My mind was getting WAY ahead of myself, and I was inventing injuries that have not even happened yet! I was worrying about things that I have no real right to worry about, and then I trip over nothing and knock myself on the ground. If that is not a clear body getting mind back to the present, I don't know what is! I spend the rest of my run trying to step on the crunchiest leaves I could find!



Certainly made for a better easy run!

It also got me thinking about the importance of recovery and a positive attitude. It is SO easy to let your mind slip into a negative place, and I have to do everything I can to resist that!

That being said, I officially changed my registration from the Disney Marathon to the Goofy Challenge and a Half! I am really excited about this! It is in January, and it is a half marathon on Saturday in Disney and a full on Sunday! Not going to lie, I am excited about the medals!


That is this year's marathon medal! There is also a Donald for the half, and a Goofy medal when you finish both!

Not only that, but I have SO many friends who are going down for the weekend! I am really thrilled about it! I finished in 2009, and had a blast, but everything is more fun with other people!

Ok, here's what all three medals looked like last year:



Those will be fun to hang up with the medal collection!!


AND yesterday, I saw my incredible massage terrorist, Sara. She is seriously an important part of my training. I told her about my Ultraman, and her words were, "I"M GOING TO CANADA!" I was about to invite her! She figures these things out first. It is seriously incredible how much better I feel after seeing her! Here we were (sara's on the left and sparkles, who is running her first marathon at disney is on the right) at a race this May:

Sponsorships

So, after thinking about exactly how much next year's racing season is going to cost, I started sending in applications for sponsorships.

I don't know if any of them are going work out, but in my quest for IM St. George and Ultraman, anything can help!

My eyes do feel a little cross-eyed after spending so much time asking for help! I will be sure to update if anything works out!

Ultraman Application Complete--take 2

So, as a part of my Ultraman Application, I have to include a picture. No hats, visors, helmets, sunglasses, other people, or pets. Man, I don't have any of those! So after a while of cropping, I came up with this:

Apparently, that was some weird shape that would have cut off my head if they used it! Yikes!

So, after school today, I had a "photo shoot" to come up with a basic picture. Felt pretty funny to do that, but I came up with this one:

Seems ok considering we just ran outside to take pictures!

So NOW I think my application is complete! Just have to wait until February now!

My pool is trying to kill me--and utopia

Pools should look like this:

It seems that whoever has been in control of my pool lately likes to dump in chemicals, so that it looks more like this:

On the downside, it means my eyes are watering before I swim, and I am coughing pretty hard by the last 500 of my 3000 yd swim.

On the upside, it helps me practice sighting in the pool! That's always good for an open water swimmer!

For another class, my students have to design a utopia. One student's idea of utopia was a place where there were no cars, and everyone would swim, bike or run everywhere. And there are snack shops with only "healthy snacks and water." Sounds like my kind of place!

My Ultraman Update--my application is complete! I was told that they would keep me updated about the number of people and the lottery. My fingers are crossed!

Ups and Downs this weekend

I went for a ride on Saturday morning and came back to a busted open windshield. The idiots left my wallet behind, but took my bike bag. I hope they enjoy my Ironman Louisville Sweatshirt and visor. They will also find use of:

I am sure they will feel stylish in this:

And what smash and grab thief doesn't want one of these:

Big jerks, that's what they are. And to top it off, after a nice and hilly 43 mile ride, I wanted to at least have my post ride nutrition, but NO, they also took:

and

Is being a thief such hard work that you need to steal people's protein shakes?

I also hope that they enjoy some nice heartrate zone training, because they have:

Not the monitor, just the strap. I mean, REALLY???

Oh well....no window, and out a bunch of gear.

Good ride though.

In better news.....

Sunday, I cheered on my friend Mia's husband in his first half marathon!

It seemed like a fun race! Plenty of people and entertainment! Incredible running weather.

So, after breakfast, I went out for 10.5 miles, and I am finally starting to feel human running again! That was nice.

Finished up a big running day with a ride/run with my triathlon team. That was great too! They are participating in a sprint tri next weekend, and they are going to be great!!!

Off to get ready for the week now!

And it's faxed!!!

I faxed my application to Ultraman Canada 2011. Yikes! I will not find out until February if I am even accepted, but I applied.....

I am really excited about the idea, but there is no doubt that I might have lost my mind just a little bit. Here are the details:

I had a nice conversation with my coach, and he is on board for it. I emailed the two people I know who have done, or are going to do the race, and I already got some great ideas and advice.

I am just going to keep on training for St. George, but training harder. If, in February, I find out that I do not get in, I will be better prepared for St. George. If I do get in, then I will begin preparations. And oh, man, there are a lot of things to prepare. This is a three day adventure more than it is a race. I will just keep my fingers crossed and train hard.

Today, I am going to ride for a while. Though it is so much easier to just go to the silver comet trail, I need to start forcing some hills onto my legs. I am going to go down to South Fulton to ride and hopefully get some good work in this morning!