Had a good week this week and I am happy how training is going. Coach Paul has us swimming a lot, a weakness of mine so that is good. saveria and I are doing the Turkey Trot in Topanga state park on Thanksgiving, a 10k trail run, I am very excited for it(the report for that race will be next week). We start our bike rides next Saturday so that is exciting, just a lot of little exciting things coming up so that is well....exciting. Stay tuned and watch this space for our progress.
P.S.--on a sporting note the olympic commitee is planning on dropping the ind. pursuit, the madison, and the points race from the 2012 games, these are track events and it would be a real shame to loose them. If you haven't seen these events you can youtbe them and see what we would be missing!

A Whole New Year...

November 15th will always be a hard date to forget. Lasy year on this day I left the house for a bike ride, my first solo ride since being hit by a car earlier in the year, I was on my way home from a great ride to hang out with Todd & Carla my good friends from Hawaii. I mis-judged a corner on a descent...resulting in a 7 day stay in the hospital with a broken pelvis. When in the hospital I was making plans to get back on the bike. This proved harder than I hoped both physically and mentally. 2008 was a bad year on the bike, but the reality is I love riding my bike and sharing this passion with Paul, so 2009 became a journey of recovery and getting back on the bike.

Paul & I had talked about doing an Ironman in 2009...but 2008 kinda pushed those plans. Part of my getting back on the bike has been about setting goals. One of these goals was to do another Ironman so we signed up for Coeur d'Alene, June 2010. It may seem like kind of a leap, but I actually started small; running, excersice classes, a Sprint Tri and a most recently the Metric Century ride. As part of our Ironman Training we knew we needed to do a half-ironman and when the email came to join TNT for Wildflower it seemed like a perfect plan. It has been a couple of years since we raised money for the cause and the timing felt right. I can use all the good Karma out there, cancer has recently affected some family and close friends, and by doing this we can help make a difference.

So here we are...back with our TNT friends and family, back training for triathlons together, rasing money to help find a cure for cancer. I am still moving forward with my riding, swimming and running. Ironman will be in my sights for the next 7 months. I plan to help raise $10,000 for TNT, because this is a battle worth fighting! Life is back to normal. Mostly...

Because if life was back to normal then I would have done my bike workout with Paul yesterday at the Rose Bowl. But instead I opted for a quiet ride at home...indoors, on the trainer. On the year anniversary of my accident I decided to play it safe. And honestly I am ok with this decision.

November 15th a day that I wont forget.

This week began our first coached practices, it is very exciting to be working with our iron coach Paul R., he is a friend and inspiration. It began in the pool Thursday which went pretty well and was followed up by some chocalate malts at Mel's Diner. Saturday was the first practice we got to go to, last week we were at the prelude, it was a run practice and i was happy after that this season is long and I have time to get my run fitness. The team seems nice and I am looking forward to each week. Stay tuned.

The transition...fun to serious.

This week was our first week of our IronTEAM training. Long before we had signed up for this TNT season, we had signed up for the Solvang Prelude, Metric Century with some friends. The prelude turned out to be a very hilly 65 miles...which I was not prepared for. I had been training for a sprint tri that I completed in October. So I am not out of shape...just not in shape for the distance at hand and my a$$ let me know at about mile 45. That being said...the day was a perfect California fall day, I was riding with my husband and 4 great friends, 4 climbs of the day meant 4 decents down windy steep hills. One week shy of my crash last year... I very slowly and carefully made it down each hill. My "bombadeering" days are over, but it really was great to be back on the bike having a great time and enjoying myself...when not going downhill. Firestone Brewery being at the finish line wasn't all bad either. The weekend included great food, great fun hanging out and even smores around the fire.

With this ride behind me... I officially start back on the triathlon road. Little swimming, a little biking, and a little running in my future and then a whole lot more of the same. I am really excited about doing this with Paul, being a part of Team and Training and embarking on this adventure! Oh yeah and being very "serious" about having fun while training!

Saveria

Team Tilden did the solvang prelude saturday, a metric century (a bit more hilly than i hoped, thanks Ian). The weekend was great. The ride was tough, but plenty of protein at the bbq place after with blue moon. We now put our heads down and officially turn back into triathletes and are excited to work with coach paul, aka. friend paul. away we go --watch this space!

this starts it all folks big ride this weekend in solvang starts our season-watch this space