JFC

This morning, I received an email letting me know that the pictures from the Danskin Triathlon are now available to view.

My first thought?  Dear God, do I really look like that in real life?

Seriously, Operation Loose Weight is going into high gear tomorrow.  WHAT?  I already spoiled today with the blueberry muffin, bacon and latte I had for breakfast.

How is it that when I look in the mirror, I see something completely different than what I see in these pictures? 

what looks like determination is really me focusing on not falling over from sheer exhaustion

WTF…stupid camera!  Why can’t you make it look like I’m 10 pounds LIGHTER and not 10 pounds heavier?

Sigh…at least I’m not as fat as I looked and was in the pictures 2 years ago.  That year I looked ridiculously stupid and fat. 

I guess, if nothing else, this is just sheer motivation for me and I intend to use these pictures as such.

Hopefully, when I do the Danskin next year WHAT?  I warned you that I probably would, even though I swore I wouldn’t I’ll look smokin’ hot and won’t have to worry about my flabby gut or feeling too self concious to wear just my bathing suit to swim.

So the next time I whine that I want something to eat that is incredibly fattening and bad for me?  Please refer me back to these pictures.  kthxbai.

Oops I did it again…

Oops I did it again
I played with your heart
Got lost in the game
Oh, baby baby
Oops you think I’m in love
That I’m sent from above…I’m not that innocent

Oh, sorry.  I’ll quit with the Britney.  It just seemed so fitting.

I think I committed to doing another sprint triathlon yesterday.

I was pretty excited until I started checking out the times of the people that did it last year and well, umm, I definitely wouldn’t be finishing in the top 50%.  I think I’ll be lucky to finish in the top 85%.  Sigh.

I probably need to get over this need to rank high among everyone I’m doing it with, right?

I’ll definitely know more tomorrow after spin class though since I’m doing it with a friend from my spin class and my spin instructor. 

Maybe they’ll forget that I said I was doing it with them?

Not that I’m braggin’

Well, okay, maybe I’m bragging…but whatever.  It’s my f’ing blog so I can brag if I want to.

This morning, I completed the Chicagoland Danksin Triathlon.  It sucked and was awesome, all rolled into one (try figuring that one out!).

I was a fucking basket case.  No joke.  It was awful.  I was even shaking, and not from the cold temperatures or the wind!

But then my extremely wonderful husband (Jay, save this for future reference for when I’m not so happy with you!) sought us out before we even started our swim and it was so cool to see him before heading into the water.  It brought tears to my eyes and meant that much to me.

Despite the fears and issues I vocalized in a previous entry, you definitely didn’t see me crying at the finish line!  I beat my overall time from my best year-to-date by 5 minutes and 7 seconds.  wOOt!

Unfortunately, none of that was due my awesome swimming or biking abilities.

My swim time was 18 seconds worse than my best time and that was due to the women who were not overly strong swimmers and kept moving in the same direction I was trying to move to in order to avoid their slow asses.  At one point, I was getting sandwiched between to women and I, obviously, was bumping into one of them.  Do you know what that fucking bitch did?  As soon as we were away from the sucky swimmer, she practically pounced on me and I went under the water.  WTF?  People drown that way bitch.  I only wish I had seen what number she was because I would have kicked the living shit out of her after it was all over.

My bike time was 12 seconds worse than my best time ever and I’m not that upset because it was windy out and it got SUPER windy when I had approximately 1/3 of the way to go.  Trying to go up 2 super steep hills with wind pushing you the opposite direction is NOT fun.  When you go down said hill, you should not have to pedal and should be able to coast.  Not the case today.

My first transition time was AWFUL this year though (going from swimming to biking).  It was up 57 seconds from my best time ever.  I don’t know what I did differently besides for take 2 puffs on my albuterol inhaler and take 4-ibuprofen’s 

 

The truly impressive part, IMO, is my run time.  My run time improved 6 minutes and 23 seconds from my best time ever!  Holy wow, that’s incredible, and I’m even giving myself a pat on the back for that one!

Overall, I finished in the top 41% of EVERYONE and my second best finish was 64%.  That’s a pretty good improvement if I might say so myself.  Either that or, we had a bunch of suck-ass people doing it this year.  But, I’m sticking with the improvement rationale, much more favorable.

And now, a few beers later (YES, I desperately craved a beer afterwards), I’m pretty buzzed and am off to take a nap.

Tootaloo for now.

“D”-Day

Sunday will be the 3rd time in 4 years that I will be doing the Danskin Triathlon.  I took last year off but did it in 2005, 2006 and now 2008.

I’m scared, nervous, excited, anxious, apprehensive, worried and giddy.  All at the same time.  It’s slightly bizarre to have all those feelings rambling around.

In 2005, I was really nervous and couldn’t believe that I signed up to do it.  I was in great shape, working out all the time and doing a ton of weight training.  To my pleasant surprise, I did great!  I was extremely pleased with how I finished.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, of course I would have liked to do better, but I wasn’t unhappy with how I finished. 

In 2006, I was struggling with some lower back issues.  And that obviously affected my training which affected how well I did.  At one point, I couldn’t even run a 1/4 mile without my lower back knotting up causing me great discomfort.  I worked with a chiropractor which helped a bit but I wasn’t at 100% so my training suffered.  I was not ready or even somewhat prepared and it showed in how I finished.  I was not happy with my results.  The entire triathlon was an uphill struggle for me.  My back started aching with the swim, the 20+ mile an hour winds kicked my ass when I was biking which only made my back ache worse because I had to use more power with each pedal stroke and when running walking, running, whateverI narrowly avoided an asthma attack until I crossed the finish line and then I couldn’t get to my Albuterol Inhaler fast enough.  After that, I vowed that I was done and wouldn’t sign up for another one.

And yet here I am.  Nervous, excited, giddy, scared and anxious for Sunday to come and go.  ‘Cause I’m a dumbassdoing the Danksin once again.

I have been training.  But has it been enough? 

I’m concerned that I focused too much on cardio and not enough on strength.  In fact, I’ve hardly incorporated any strength training into my workouts with the exception of the Body Pump class I started 4 weeks ago and the 350-400 push ups I did over a period of 7 or 8 days, which was weeks ago.

Sigh.

I’m such an idiot. 

I knew that I needed to do more strength training but I HATE weight machines.  And I can’t afford to hire a personal trainer.  I suppose I could have done more Body Pump classes but I’m truly not impressed with the class so why spend the money, ’cause those classes aren’t cheap, YO. 

Hell, I could have, should have, climbed into the pool a bit more.  I think I’ve seen the chlorinated water 3 times in the last 3-4 weeks.  Definitely not enough.

So here I sit, freaking out about Sunday.  And it probably wouldn’t be so bad if my only goal were to finish.  But its not.  I will be HUGELY disappointed in myself if I can’t beat my time from 2005. 

I’m hoping that my adrenaline will kick in high speed and propel me through the water.  Which is the part that I’m most worried about and is really quite surprising considering that I’m pretty sure that I was a fish in a past life.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m concerned about the biking and running part, but I’ve been doing those spin classes and running pretty consistently since January.  So, I think hope that I’ll be okay with the biking and running but I can’t say for sure.  I did a run through of the bike course last Monday with a friend and it was a LOT more difficult than I remember.  Harder than my 45 minute spin class and I really push myself hard in that class.  But, it was extremely humid out and my asthma wasn’t “playing nice” so maybe that was a factor.  I dunno.

I’m just a mess. 

And I can’t even calm my nerves tomorrow night with a couple 10 beers because drinking before the triathlon is a big no-no.

I really want it to be Monday so I can say “Oh, the Danskin?  Yeah, I did that yesterday and I kicked ass!”

Big dreams?  Maybe.  But you have to dream big to acheive those dreams, right? 

Sigh.  Can you tell I’m trying to pump myself up?  I guess what I’m really hoping for is that at approximately 11:00am on Sunday, I can relish in the glory that I ROCKED the Danskin.

However, if you see a girl crying, all sweaty after crossing the finish line, in green shorts and a black tank, that will be me and you will know that it took me longer than 1 hour, 51 minutes and 17 seconds not that I’m obsessed or have a spreadsheet filled with the results from the previous 2 times I’ve done the Danskin or anything to finish.  After which, I’ll probably become extremely pouty and require excess beer and pizza to feel better about myself.  I might even vow to never do the Danskin again.  But, we all know how that story ends…

But, at the end of the day, even if I suck it BIG TIME, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is the official charity of the Danskin and I know that my $85 entry fee is helping to fund a cause that could benefit a lot of women.

Plus, I’ll get a new tank top and medal to add to my collection.

And now that I’m maybe done whining and rambling, I’d like to give a shout out to my fellow Danskin Triathletes – Jenica, Kori and Badgergirl.  Good Luck, Congratulations and I hope you do as well as you’d like to!  See you at the finish line.

It’s Official.

I did it.  I faxed in my registration for the Danskin Triathlon in July.

EEEEKKKKS.  I think I want to throw up.

Come July 13th, I will be killing myself swimming .75 k, biking 20 k and running 5 k.

Dear God please don’t let it be as hot as it was in 2005 or as windy as it was in 2006.  If I had to pick though, I’d rather have hot than windy.  But neither is better.  A perfect temperature day would be great.  kthxbai.

My goal for this year is to beat my best time which was from 2005.  My final time was 1 hour 51 minutes and 17 seconds which broke down to 16 minutes and 54 seconds for the swim, 47 minutes and 52 seconds for the biking and 39 minutes and 6 seconds for running.

My time from 2006 was awful in comparison but I was battling some serious back problems.  My final time was 1 hour 58 minutes and 40 seconds.

Can you sense the enthusiasm dripping from my words? 

In all reality though, this event is just a phenomenal experience after all the pain.  Maybe one year I’ll get it right and just go watch instead of participate 

The official charity of the Danskin Triathlon is the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Cancer research, of any kind, is near and dear to my heart — my mother in law is a two time breast cancer survivor (she is a FIGHTER!) and my grandfather died of cancer.

After the elite athletes kickoff the triathlon these are the people that will crossing the finish line before I even start to swim,  the next group of women to go are the cancer survivors.  And that, is truly amazing to watch.  These women have struggled through some of the toughest moments of their lives and here they are, doing the same triathlon that I’m kicking myself about signing up for! 

The first year I did it, there was a team named Team Kathleen and it was so emotional to watch this group of women.  One of the woman was using arm crutches and she was surrounded by women that were doing the 5k run (well walk for them) portion with her, as a team.  It brought tears to my eyes.  It was so emotional. 

Watching all these Survivors really puts things into perspective.  It gives you courage and motivation when you most need it — before the start of your heat.  And it gets you through it.  If they can survive cancer, you can surely get through 2 hours of pure hell swimming, biking and running, right?

And this year, I’ll need all the help I can get so I’ll be feeding off the energy of the morning once again and hopefully won’t go into an asthma attack after it’s over, like I did 2 years ago.  Ummm, yeah.  True story. 

 

 

Some Recent Milestones

I’ve recently had some noteworthy milestones come my way…

Probably the most important one? I’ve grown in height.  No lie.  Friday I went to the doctor for a general checkup and they measured me.  I am now 5′3″.  I know that this is not right and quite unexplainable however the numbers do not lie.  I was not 5′3″ the last time I was measured.  In fact, this also happened the last time I went to the doctor for a general checkup.  I thought I was 5′1-1/4″ and when I was measured, I was somewhere around 5′2″.  The only explanation I can come up with is that I’ve been doing a lot more stretching lately and maybe that is helping me stand up taller?

According to my mom, this is as obnoxious as her boyfriend telling her that when he gets a cold, he eats a really “hot” burrito and it knocks the cold out.  But, whatever.  I’m taller than I used to be so all is right with the world.

The next is equally huge.  I hit a weight that I haven’t been at since before my wedding in November 2006.  Slowly but surely, it’s coming off.  It’s not a fast process, but I’ll take it.  I’m sure this is in part due to the sadistic spin teacher.  And even though I’ve struggled with my weight all my life, I’m also horizontally challenged and growing trumps weight loss hence this being #2 in the milestone list. 

However, does it matter that I threw away that weight loss with my binge of polish sausage, ham and party potatoes one of the best foods ever! on Easter and am still struggling to get back to it?

The next does not even come close to #1 and #2 but it’s still equally great.  I ran 3 miles, straight.  This is a first in a very long time.  I’m not going to say that my legs didn’t feel like mush afterwards BUT…I can say that I did it.  Yeah me.  Bring on the 5k I’m doing in May and the Danskin Triathlon in July.

This last one isn’t so much a milestone but more of an abnormality, well for me at least.  Lately, I’ve found that I enjoy baking.  Not pretty things that require patience because anyone that *really* knows me knows that this is something I seriouly lack but bread – banana bread, zucchini bread.  And well, that’s about it for the varieties of bread I’ve been making but…those two breads are damn good and I’m able to make them low-fat.  

 So, ummm, yeah.  That’s about it.  Well, for now.

Drunk Talk

Drunk talk about how fat and out of shape one is, is not necessarily the best thing to do.  One might commit to near impossible things such as agreeing to a 6:15am spin class and doing the Danskin Triathlon (again).  Thursday should be interesting.  Anyone want to take bets on whether I will or will not make it to the class on time?