Good news!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

So a busy week in deed! Sorry, I have some pics but I'll have to post them another day :) so first the good news!

I WON!!!! Ok... It was only a steak from my friend Jim but none the less! We ran the Wounded Warrior 5k this morning with a steak on the line... I ran a 23:24 and had a blast... Oh AND beat Jim by a good twenty seconds... I'm sort of rubbing salt in the wound because I know he's going to read this later. Hahahaha! I did, however, miss CLOVER11's race this morning ;) I hope it went off without a hitch!

Second bit of good news... Our local Fleet Feet has committed to establishing a TRI racing team for 2012 and I was asked to be part of the inaugural team! How exciting is that! I'll have more details as time goes but I have to race or volunteer for the 6 TRIs they sponsor locally. The only issue is that I MOVE inthe middle of true season and it will be costly to make it back and forth for the last few races. I'll make it work if the contract goes through. Whoohoo! Gives me a reason to come back and visit my HSV friends a few times later this year ;)

Last bit of news and then I'll close...I got my echocardiogram back. No issues! I still haven't received my results for the holter monitor, the device I had to wear for 24 hours, but I hope all is well there too. I'm still having issues but maybe it is something I can deal with without much medical intervention. That would be awesome! Ok. I have loads to write but I'll save it for another day. Till then!

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flutter, flutter, what?! OH! My heart!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

OK- so, about 6 weeks ago I noticed a funny flutter in my chest and I finally went to the doc to be evaluated. My POOPY doctor didn't take me very seriously but set me up for an echocardiogram and set me up with a 24 hour holter monitor to see if they can see the palpitation. She told me many athletes experience "extra" heart beats and she doesn't think I have anything to worry about. she's crazy ;) ANYWHO. I get hooked up today... should be interesting if anything... I'm conflicted though... I want an accurate reading about what my heart is up to but I'm finding it hard to resist seeing what I can do to mess with my heart rate so I can freak out my not-so-simpathetic doc. hahahaha! I'll be good I promise :)

I'll also let you know what if any results come fromt he evaluation.

n


N

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swim, bike, run repeat...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

OK- this isn't ME all inked up but I can appreciate a colorful tat ;) I haven't blogged in a long while so I thought I would at least drop a very quick blog to update folks-

It has been a busy winter! My better half is still hanging out in Afghanistan, which limits some activities. My munchkins and I managed to take a few trips over the holidays and made it to Oregon/Washington State in late fall, up to my in-law's place in Northern IL for Thanksgiving and out to my mom's place in SC for Christmas. Both January and February up to this point have BLOWN by and it seems like I find one more thing/project/report that I have let slip through the cracks for a time and I need to action NOW. Crazy!

Fitness and racing. I managed to achieve a class 2 tear in my right calf in November and spent most of November and ALL of december recovering from that. I walked a 5k the first week in December and thought I was going to die but recovered enough to run well and place second in my age group in a 5k I ran later that month. I have been plugging away at my training too. I have too big races coming up soon. The Alabama Powerman duathlon 10k/60k/10k run bike run at the end of March and my first Olympic Distance Tri is schedule for 19 April 2012 in St Petersburg, FL. I'll detail both races more in a future blog but I just wanted to get that down so I would remember to mention them later. I'm also supporting a friend of mine who organizes and directs a benefit 5k here in town. I'm really excited because it is my first opportunity to help out with a race like this. I'm hoping I learn enough that I can organize and put on a race of my own in the future!

All else is going well. My organization will be moving us this summer. I will have to reach out to my HSV team members and my co-team leaders to ensure our little Sparkteam finds or re-energizes a super team leader :) I'm going to miss you guys!!!! I don't punch out till late summer though so you guys are stuck with me for a BIT longer ;)

ANYWHO! I promised this would be short... Happy Sparking!

Noel

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Post first TRI drive-by :) a quick recap with a couple pics!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

OK- I complain about my lack of blogging and then it only gets worse BUT I can say I've been a busy girl ;) Work, a bit of travel, kids, kid's school, soccer, karate... the list is never ending I tell ya.



So! This past weekend I completed my FIRST TRI!!! I ran the Huntsville Sprint TRI. It was a SHORT reverse tri RUN-BIKE-SWIM... 3mi/6mi/400m, but it was a lot of fun. The race is limited to 500 participants and it closed out more than a month before the race. The race is suuuuppppooooosed to be run in heats of 100 folks based on your run time which would have put me in either the tail end of the first heat or the front of the second heat. As it turns out the race organizers used a new registration process and it dropped everyone's entry times. They ended up starting the heats based on your race number... I was 402 and started with the fifth heat. Not too bad really. I started with all the munchkins and teams, which made some fun chats with the kids on the trail... I was sooo proud of one little boy who ran with me almost the whole way who asked me towards the end of the race, "ma'am, how much further do we have to go?" I told him only about 800 meters. With a huge smile and a burst of speed he said, "WOW!!! I can't believe I did this!" I told him he was suuuuper awesome and his family was going to be way proud when he crossed the finish line to tag his sister for the next leg... I thought he was just about to cry he was so happy about his achievement! I was glad he chose to run with me ;)

Backing up a bit... My mom came up for the weekend to help me with the kids because my hubs was in training in Maryland for his deployment coming up NEXT week and hubs actually managed to break away for the weekend to fly home and watch the race! Since I had TWO great helpers home for the weekend I snatched up my mom and took her to the race with me. After a TERRIBLE night's sleep 4:30 am came waaay too early for both my mom and me but we made it downtown in time for final race prep and to meet up with my training crew and ride over to the start line.




I left my mom at the finish line and told her to look out for Dave and the kids. She got roped in to helping set up and into writing numbers on the swimmers for the relay team. She REALLY had a good time ;)

ANYWHO- back to the race! mmm.. oh yeah! the run! The first leg of this tri is a 3mi training run.... the trail is technical enough that I run it approximately 2-3 minutes slower than any 5k time I've put down in over a year.... so it's a bit tough. I've managed to avoiding KILLING myself on the trail for the last 16 weeks but wouldn't you know it, I wrenched my ankle on a root just over a mile in. I kept going hoping I could run it off and it worked for the most part... I didn't really feel any pain until Saturday night when it woke me out of a dead sleep in the middle of the night :( My ankle is about the size of a baseball and super sore still. The rest of the run went well and I had fun chatting at the kids on the trail.

First transition went well and I got off to a great start on the bike. the whole bike course consisted of little rolling hills, the kind that you barely notice till you look down and you're going 5 mph slower than you thought you were. UGG. The good news is I averaged right around 19 mph and made up a lot of ground. I passed loads of folks in the third and fourth heats.

Second transition was quick and I hopped in the knowing I was going to FINISH the race, which was an AWESOME feeling but did I mention I am NOT a swimmer?! ok ok ok.. we all have something we need to work at... I need to spend WAY more time in the water in order to get better but I was nearly wiped out by the time I got to the pool. I truly took my time in the water just to make sure I didn't sink to the bottom of the pool... it was rough though and my time is evidence of that. I swam the 400m 2 full minutes slower than I had EVER done before but in the end I was just happy to get out of the pool! HA!



the REALLY good news is that I did well in the overall race and i managed to PLACE in my age group... ok, I TOOK my age group! WHOOHOO!! I also place 7th overall... that was the bigger surprise actually.. I had been telling everyone I finished 12th with a goal to be in the top 10 NEXT year! I'll have to figure out a new goal I guess ;) So here are my splits for the race.

Div Sex Name Age Run pace Tran1 Bike pace Tran2 Swim Finish
Fin Plc time Time Time Time
===== === =================== === ==== ======= ===== ===== ==== =======
1 7 Noel 34 1 25:15 8:25 1:28 1 18:56 19.0 0:46 8 10:38 57:02

I had a BLAST!!! Frantic Frog, HERE I COME!


my coach/the race sponsor James and my daughter

(next stop is actually the Rocket Man Olympic distance tri. I volunteered and I get to work the race this weekend!)

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128 is my new 133

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

SO much to blog about! I am TERRIBLE with keeping p with my blogs... bleh... So first, my training schedule

wk 13 of TRI 101 training-

Monday- Swim sched 300m actual (1500m)
Tuesday Grp Training (Brick, 3 mile run/9mile bike)
Weds Swim- sched 300m will swim (1100m)
Thursday- 3 mi
Friday- OFF (I will likely bike)

My running mileage has taken a DIVE with this training. I don't think I've run more than 4 miles at a pop since early May. I didn't actually realize how little I've been running until I had my re-eval with my Physical Therapist last week. I had to tell him I dropped from about 30miles a week to less than 15 (more like 10) a week... no wonder my knee feels better! hahaha!

Races: I've done two races since I last blogged about them. The first was the Fire Cracker 5k on the 4th (23:34) and the Paint the Streets 5k (23:34) on the 23rd. Both races were OK. The Fire Cracker started at 8 am and was SUPER HOT... making it a bit tough. I took it easy and kept a conversational pace for the whole race. one of the guys I frequently see at these local races caught up with me at the 2.5 mile marker and asked if I was going to kick it up for the end of the race... I told him I was taking it easy for this one ;) he finished about 30 seconds ahead of me so I didn't let him get toooo far out ahead of me!

Big events!

My hubs and I hosted his family for a family reunion a week ago... it went off without a hitch! We all had a GREAT time and it was awesome to get to spend some time with his extended family. Reminded me of why I keep him around ;) I'll have to post pics as soon as I get them off of my camera.

PLATEAU:


The Grand Mesa, Grand Junction, CO

Ah yes... we all hit plateaus. I picked a picture of the Grand Mesa because it is the LARGEST mesa on the planet and it often seems we hit these insurmountable plateaus with our fitness goals... that and I grew up at the base of this awesome mesa and I think it is cool enough to share ;)

Well, I'm there.. at a plateau... like the title of this blog... 128 is my new 133. I spent nearly 5 years sitting right at 133 more or less. I've spent the last several months at 128... Not a big complaint but it seems I can never quite reach my fitness goals. Bleh... My fitness level has sort of stagnated as well. I'm no stronger or faster or more fit in general than I was 8 months ago. I would change things up but I'm in the middle of a training plan with a group that I PAID for... I'll see what I can change after my Tri on 20 August.

So there it is :) my last couple weeks in a nutshell! I need to get better about blogging!!!

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