The Return to Triathlons and all that involves...

I don't make decisions lightly. In fact it usually takes me awhile to make them, but it is dang near impossible to deter me once I have made one. Kind of like moving the furniture around, it never happens in my house.

16 years ago I was sure I mean I was positive that I was done having kids. I had almost died during child birth and the doc said "don't try this again". O.k. I can take a hint, so we called it quits. Fast forward nine years and guess what? We weren't done after all. I was talking to a friend who had four kids and had adopted a little Korean girl. I said "anyone can do that?" For some reason I thought you had to not be able to have kids or something to adopt any. That was the first statement that got my wee brain going. Six years later, man am I glad we did not call it quits.

71/2 years ago I was sure I mean I was positive that I was done doing triathlons. I had just finished an ironman that ended up getting cut off. I was burnt out and mad as heck about all the time spent training with no result. Forward seven and a half years and guess what? I was not done after all. Actually I did say that when I got up there to the big 50 I would do another ironman. Since I turned 48 in Nov. I guess it is time to start training. The thing that got my wee brain working this time? We were at the beach chillin with our student and I saw some really sweet bikes on cars. Yup you guessed you can run but you can't hide. In the next town over was a triathlon on the next day. And the next day? Well of all things it was my birthday. That was a sign to me, it was meant to happen.

The really cool thing this time around is all the online tools available to triathletes these days. I mean you can get work outs and all kinds of great hints as well as shopping tips online. It is kind of funny because I am starting in the same place as I was last time. No bike. A minor detail that will work itself out, always does. In the meantime I will go to spin class a couple of times a week and keep swimming and running. Have Panama City marathon coming up in August so that will be some good training.

Do I have any expectations this time around? Heck no, just have fun!

Ironman Bug

It has taken me 8 years but I think I am ready to dive in again. When I was 40 I did an ironman, or tried. Some poor guy drowned on the swim, so we ended up doing about 80% of an ironman. At any rate after that I decided I was done. Now that I am looking real close to 50 I am ready for round two.

Today I actually found the perfect one. It is Cozumel Mexico. Close and a good time of the year. The only problem is it will be a few days before my 50 birthday so I will be in the younguns age group. Not that it makes any difference. I just want to finish a dang Ironman.

So next week it is off to the pool I go. I only have about one year and 10 months to get ready for this baby!

GOAL REACHED !!!!

Yahoo! Finally got into the 130's. When Rebekah and I started training for our marathon two months ago my goal was to get into the 130's by the time we did not marathon. I am so excited to finally get down there. I have not seen this weight since I did my iron man 7 years ago, and did not expect to get there again.

Now I know the key. Run 35 miles a week and don't eat junk food or sweets. The last part was forced not by choice by the way. We have been trying to tighten our belts and cut out the junk and "non-nutritive" foods. That seems to work, unfortunately.

The good news is I have been working on cookies all day. My son wants to introduce our cookies to the neighborhood, so we made some to sell over the weekend and see how they were received. The bad news is chocolate chips are now $4.00 a bag now, holy heck I guess I will keep losing weight. May be in the 120's by the time our race day gets here in four weeks.

NO RAIN

I absolutely love June in Costa Rica. It is just the perfect amount of hot sunshine and rain to keep everyone happy. We had a great long run on Sat. with a nice cloud cover and a few drizzles, perfect run for sure. We also discovered that if you run during a soccer game there is much less traffic on the roads, woo hoo.

I did go to the tamarindomarathon.com site and saw that we will not be the slowest ones in the race, according to the results from last year. I also will not be the oldest woman there, just the second to the oldest. Oh well makes for a good excuse.

The really good news is that I have already lost 5lbs and hopefully will be able to take off another 10 before the race. I just want to try my ideal weight for awhile and see if it is worth the trouble. Like if I really like it enough to maintain it or not. Just want to try it on for size and see how it feels. The last time I was there was when I did my ironman a few years ago. That surely was not worth it!