Ditching the Blogger Blog

I'm soon going to turn off the blogger blog, so make sure you bookmark my AWESOME wordpress blog here: www.glutenfreetri.wordpress.com - and while you're there make sure you sign up to subscribe to my blog - that way you will get great updates when I send my words of wisdom out into cyberspace!

Giving Stuff Away

Yes, I'm still sticking with wordpress - it's great - just a gentle reminder to come and see me on my new WORDPRESS BLOG - I'm giving away stuff!!

Making the leap

Well, here I go! I've gone and gotten all fancy and switched my blog over to a wordpress blog. I can create several pages, upload more pictures and other fancy stuff much easier than on blogger. Plus this way non-bloggers can leave comments too! Come and see me HERE or just click on the title of this post. Then make sure to bookmark the new site and come and visit often!

Balance . . .

Got back in from Costa Rica at 3:30 this morning. It was simply amazing! I will post many, many pictures and lots of details about the journey later. Now I am much too tired to remember everything. For now I will share my latest project. (yes, I am the QUEEN of the project - but this one is a great one and it is very important)

Years ago after our son was born Paul and I decided to take up the sport of triathlon as a way to have at least one non 'child-centered' thing that we could do together. It worked wonderfully for the first few years, but then we started racing longer and the demands of kids, work, and long training hours started to become more of a stressor than a bonding experience. Nothing too bad, just added stress to life which, with 2 kids, 2 jobs, a house etc. - who needs more stress!

Being away made us both realize how much we have been missing out on our time together. Paul gave me a very sweet list of things he would like us to 'resolve' to do together this year. Get your mind out of the gutter, not those kinds of things. More like doing our morning yoga twice a week, planning another trip together, and training to do well at Triple T.

So, this brings me to my project. Paul left about 5 hours after I got home for his 40th b'day ski trip with 2 of friends. While he is gone I am working on an "Intentions" board. I got the idea from one of my Trakkers teammates, Kelly. I am going to include our training goals, our travel plans and all the other great things we will do together and share in 2010. One of the 'things' is a the above picture of the sunset in Costa Rica. We won't get back there in 2010, but hopefully in the next year or two we will have a good excuse to go and share the experience, and maybe even leave kids at home!

Race Planning . . .

HURAY for new gadgets!!!

I love gadgets. I really, really love gadgets. My latest is both for the big trip (4 days away!) to Costa Rica and to use in my triathlon coaching. Paul got me a new compact digital camera for Christmas. O-k, I admit I might have told him to get it for me, then returned the one he got and ordered a different one online, but that's beside the point. I ended up with the Canon PowerShot SD1200IS. Just look at the pretty blue!

I won't go into a detailed review of the camera, I haven't really used it enough for that. What I will, instead tell you about is the nifty little side item I found for it: the DiCAPAC - an underwater case for the camera! Put that together with the video function on the camera and VOILA - underwater stroke video! Paul and I tried it out yesterday during our swim. As you will see from the video I am still getting the hang of handling and videoing, but that is something I can improve with a few more tried. I am sure I can find people that will be guinea pigs for my new project!


Here is the big thing I realized looking at my video. (I had to edit mine down because darn it my hips looked flabby when I swam by the camera. No, not in a 'my muscles are flapping in the water sort of way, in a "EWWWWWW!" sort of way. So I'm not putting it up for the world to see!) Right now I am fairly de-conditioned in the pool. I am swimming 5-7 sec. off my normal t-pace per 300. With that de-conditioning I am getting a lot of up and down movement with my stroke. So, now watch the video again (paying close attention to the bounce, not my hips) and see how my body moves up and down, which is completely counter productive. Now that I have seen it I know to work on it, and that my friends is the beauty of having your stroke video taped!

As for Paul's video at the end, I just thought it was a cool angle, it's hard to see much about his stroke from there, but I did get some other good footage of him.

It's gonna be a GREAT day!

To Frazz
Ten Reasons why TODAY is going to be a great day:
1. I feel MUCH better. My sinuses don't feel like they are going to explode any more - hurray!
2. I got up feeling ready for my am workout today!
3. I was able to meet all my wattage goals for my a.m. cycle. That's the hardest I've worked in a while on the bike and it felt great.
4. Day 2 of new haircut is always a dicey day. Yesterday my husband came home and said "Wow, so that's the new haircut huh?" (I thought about punching him, but used restraint), today he got home from his cycle study and said "Now today your hair looks great, I do like the new cut!" The stylist always straightens my hair, he hates my hair straightened. Anyway, regardless - I was actually able to style a new cut and that's a GOOD thing.
5. Lunch time swim scheduled. I love swimming.
6. Paul is off work all day - I love Paul. ; )
7. I leave for Costa Rica in 5 days - my bags are almost all the way packed and I am ready to go!!!!
8. I get to go for my yearly physical today. (yeah, that's not really a great hurray, but I'm trying to think positively so I included it.)
9. The kids got ready for school on time with no whining and no yelling. Miracles do happen.
10. Last night one of fabulous and wonderful JMU kids offered to hang out with the kids while Paul and I have a date night. WHAT - FREE childcare? How can you beat that!
Hope you all have a great day too!!!!