Monday, June 29, 2009

My first Oly!

I signed up for my first Olympic length triathlon today! The Tri Indy race is being held August 16th in the beautiful downtown Indy canal. Yes - we are swimming in a canal. Actually, this is specifically why I chose to do the Oly instead of a sprint. You see, the canal is only 4 feet deep. According to USAT article 4.2, you may stand on the bottom and rest as long as you do not make forward progress. Sweet. Seriously, I have improved greatly at the swim and now it's time to stretch myself.

Shoes news - I went to Athletic Annex on Saturday and got a new pair of kicks. So far so good! I ran in them tonight without any blistering! They are Mizuno Wave Alchemy. After watching me run, Mike determined that the super high level of motion control my Brooks had were actually causing me more harm then good. The Alchemy are still motion control shoes but they have a little more cushion in the arch. They are different but not different in a bad way.

My biking continues to improve. Jarrett and I have been riding to the pool two or three days a week. He runs while I swim. Tonight we had a little incident and Jarrett fell off his bike :( He bruised his arm pretty bad but swears it isn't broken.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

What's up?

It's been a busy month! Jarrett and I spent 8 days in the sunny Southern Caribbean. We went on a Royal Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Sea. We enjoyed our time away from work and the islands were fascinating. The actual cruise was fun too, but we both agreed that it was about 2 days too long. We were pretty tired of the food and the boat by the time we got back to Puerto Rico.

The puppies spent two entire weeks with my parents. I was very proud of them! Maddie only had one incident of chewing on one of my mom's baskets and one small accident on the kitchen floor. Considering she has never been away from me, this is fantastic. She really loves my mom and I can tell she misses her. Amelia was good, as always. She basically grew up at my parents so it was like going to her second home. Chloe kitty had a house sitter. Cyndi and Brian stopped by to check on her a while we were gone. We really appreciate having friends who like our animals!

Cyndi and I ran the Sunburst Half Marathon in South Bend, IN last Saturday. It worked out that the race was the weekend after Jarrett and I got back from vacation so we made plans to run the race and pick-up the dogs since my parents conviently live in South Bend. Jarrett and I ran the 10-K Sunburst last year and enjoyed it so we thought...if 10K is good...13.1 miles MUST be better! This ended up being the WORST race of my short racing career. It started with Jarrett waking up at 4:30 am and announcing that he forgot his running shoes in Indianapolis...oops. So, needless to say, he didn't actually run the race. Cyndi and I, however, did remember our shoes and headed downtown. Prior to leaving for vacation, I got some new shoes. My feet have been an issue for the last year. I constantly get BAD blisters on my arches. Well, I went to a very well recommended shoe store in South Bend and they looked at my feet, my current shoes, and decided that they were "all wrong." They put me in a wide show a half size larger then my previous running shoes with a arch insert. At the time, they felt okay. I took them on vacation and then (SHAM ON ME) didn't run in them. In a move of complete stupidity, I decide to run the half in the new shoes. Well, it didn't go very well. These shoes for some reason rubbed my ankles completely raw. They were bruised and bleeding by mile 5. By mile 8, I wanted to cut my feet off. I trudged through and finished but it sucked. Needless to say, I returned the shoes. When I took them back, the lady who originally fitted me looked at my feet and asked "Who the heck put you in these shoes?" I just smiled and said, "You." She also happens to be the owner of the place. She did feel bad and then tried to replace them with a new pair of Mizuno's (I usually wear Brook's), but then they didn't have my size and they were on back order. So - I'm back in my old Brook's. I ran 4 miles on Monday with no blisters and 1.5 miles tonight with no blisters. I'm heading back to Athletic Annex to have them look at my feet and if they don't have any ideas, I'm going to a podiatrist.

I rode my bike 12 miles tonight, swam 1500 meters, and ran 1.5 miles. I may, in fact, get these 10 pounds back off and be ready for the Go Girl Tri in August.