giver_goddess

grateful

2006-05-09T15:28:06Z

Thank you deankat and trichelle for pulling me thru the swim!! I forgot what it's like to start fast!

bike hill repeats

2006-05-08T17:45:55Z

Anyone interested in some hill repeats on Mesa wednesday night?

60% Sugar & Spice!

2006-03-16T22:30:25Z

You Are 40% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

I'm totally addicted..

2006-02-22T17:22:51Z

to F-3D classes at Pure Austin!! I had to go in late to work today because the earliest one they had was at 9am.

Wilke splits... pretty sad! 1st - 2:15.62
2nd - 2:14.01
3rd - 2:20.37
4th - 2:22.23
5th - 2:22.48
6th - 2:22.53
I felt like my lungs were about to explode every time I reached the top - talk about LOUD breathing...

Being a spectator..

2006-02-20T04:51:57Z

is exhausting but TOTALLY exhilarating!! What a day! I saw traininglog, cruisergirl, and carbon12, plus a whole bunch of other people. I got up at 4:30am with Mr.GG - bundle up in my Spectator outfit, which was my running gear with a few extra layers on top - we headed out at 5:45am - I was a little weirded out with driving because I'm a freak about ice on the road but we made it to Parmer without any problems AND then the fun began - I think we got to the Parmer exit before 6:30 and sat in a MAJOR traffic jam until about 7:15 - finally Mr.GG decided to just get out and use the mile we had left as his warm-up. I guess everyone must have had the same idea about not getting there toooo early and having to wait - I dont' think I'll try that again. I headed home, fed the Munchers and myself then drove to Steck & Shoal Creek - I was justing going to hang out until Mr.GG past and I gave him his fuel belt but I was having too much fun... by the time I left my throat was sore from screaming and my feet were solid blocks of ice.

I went back home, ate a little food, stripped off a few layers to my running clothes and then headed back out to MLK & San Jacinto - my best buddy from college was doing her first marathon and I wanted to run the last 6 miles with her - I almost missed her - I waited for about 20 minutes and then made a quick stop in the Porta Potty - when I got out she came running back from the opposite direction because she had seen someone go in there and when she didn't see me on the corner figured it was me! WHEW! I would have been so bummed if I missed her. We had a great time - well... I guess I was probably having a little better time than she was - there's nothing like running in the last few miles of a marathon feeling good - I'm usually totally in my own little world at that point if I've done the whole thing... oblivious to the cheering and spectators - it was nice to actually be able to appreciate it. Right before she headed down the shoot I gave her some finisher photo tips - I took her hat, we fluffed up her hair a bit and I told her about the straight-armed V she should be aiming for and off she went! It was so cool to see her finish - she wanted to do her first marathon before turning 50 next week and she did it!! Afterwards I met up with her husband and kids and we headed into the finishers area to find her - she still had so much energy - we walked around while she found the rest of her training buddies to compare stories.... I didn't get home till almost 3pm and then went right to bed a looong nap.

Mr.GG didn't have such a good day - when I met him at the 11 mile he was struggling a bit - his heart rate wouldn't come down and his stomach was feeling iffy - he said he struggled most of the run, never getting that "in the groove" feeling - the last 2 miles he gave it everything and missed qualifying for Boston by 19 seconds... :( Of course I think being ANYWHERE close to qualifying for Boston is incredible and something to be majorily proud of AND I know it's got to be tough to be soooooo close....

thoughts

2006-02-17T20:39:36Z

Maybe because I didn't grow up as an "athlete" and most of my adult life has been spent in more non-competitive athletic endevours (hiking, backpacking, jazzercize, jogging) I really struggle with competitiveness... I'm okay if we're the same speed or I'm faster/stronger but when I'm the slower/weaker one it bothers me.... I'm guessing it's supposed to make me want to try harder and become a better athlete but I'm not sure it always has that effect.. sometimes it just makes me want to quit trying. I wonder if other people struggle with this?

Feeling old...

2006-02-17T19:48:28Z

Monday I did a group personal training at Pure Austin (PA) - I had contacted this personal trainer there that I really like and asked her if she had any other people interested in doing a group training with her - I didn't want to do one-on-one for a couple reasons - the price and I think if this trainer was just focused on me she'd kill me. Anyway, it was AWESOME, the other 2 people in the group were probably around my age and the workout was VERY TOUGH but do-able. Sooo... I told her if she had anything on friday morning I would love to do it again. I showed up this morning and we had a group of 5 people - 4 in their early 30's and me... I guess she adjusted the workout to the age group because it was SO HARD I had to keep taking breaks because I just couldn't keep up.... it made me feel very old and out of shape. I think next time I'll find out who's in the group before I commit.

A first!

2006-02-09T18:58:06Z

I ran from my house to town lake this morning - it took 35 minutes (one way) - I need to remember that when my runs start getting longer. Since I have some brain-abnormality when it comes to conceptualizing exactly where things are at (ie: directionally clueless) it never even dawned on me that Town Lake was straight down the road! No hip problem today but I have a massage scheduled for tommorrow to work on it.

swimming

2006-02-08T22:50:04Z

I finally signed up for UT Masters - I told my coach I was going to sign up about 3 weeks ago and it's been on my schedule ever since.... I've gone a couple times with the intention to sign up but no one was at the front desk so I just did a "try out". Yesterday I decided I needed to start being more consistent with my scheduled workouts SOOOO I got there early and signed up - the swim was great and the coach gave me some good feedback on my stroke - when I got back to my car I had a $25 ticket! :( This morning I rode my bike there - it was so much fun to be riding in the dark with my bike lights - I didn't realize until I got there that I forgot my helmet. Swimming with a master's group reminds me of bluebee and training for my first Danskin - that was a fun time!!

weird hip problem

2006-02-06T22:54:07Z

Every time I run for more than 45 minutes there's a spot on the top of my leg/hip that starts aching and the ache radiates down the front of my leg to a point right below the outside of my kneecap.... I think these are both insertion points for the IT band but it doesn't hurt anywhere along the side of my leg.... I'm getting really sick of it, I've layed off for awhile, not run hills, run slower - it stays the same....

slowly making it back...

2006-01-13T20:48:31Z

As of Jan. 1st I decided that I need to get a little more disiplined with my "training" (if you can call it that)... so I joined TI again and finally made it to my first workout last night - I almost talked myself out of it because I've been SOOO negative about running lately and it was a track workout. It wasn't tooooo bad, we did 4 x 400 at your 10k pace (and he clarified and said "the 10k pace you'd like to have) plus a 2k time trial... my hip felt fine all the way through and then started hurting on the cool down - I think it's getting better, I seem to be able to go a little longer each time before I notice it - I made sure to get myself on the roller & tennis ball last night before I went to bed.

400's: 1. 1.51
2. 1.52
3. 1.50
4. 1.49
(woohoooo negative splits except for that second one

2k - 10:30 exactly
1. 2.03
2. 2.03
3. 2.06
4. 2.13 (feeling like I want to stop IMMEDIATELY)
5. 2.05 (kept going!)

Poor ms_zin... I'm so glad she's doing okay.

Santa's Surprise!

2006-01-05T15:49:44Z

Last night I climbed my stairs and found a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift at the top! It had a little card that simply had my first name and last initial and then "Santa" printed on it. I opened it up and it was a gift set of the most beautiful perfume and body lotion! I immediately thought it must be from GGB since this past weekend we were in the mall and I said I wanted to be one of those people who had a distinctive fragrance about them... and sweat wasn't what I had in mind. You know - one of those people who when you enter the bathroom stall after them it smells like fresh flowers. (okay, so I have some low aspirations for myself...) I called GGB to thank him and he had no idea what I was talking about - after having him swear on his dogs life, nothing counts (ie: no crossed fingers or legs) I believed him. Now I'm TOTALLY stumped - what a wonderful surprise!! I think I may have overdone it this morning - I put the body lotion and the perfume on and that's all I can smell - not so sure my co-workers are loving it as much as I am! :-)

a little behind the times but..

2005-12-09T21:38:35Z

Which File Extension are You?

Silverman results!!!

2005-11-14T19:31:55Z

I found the Silverman results on www.tri-a-run.com. It looks like the bike course was as hard as everyone was saying! ms_zin was first in her age group with a marathon time that would qualify her for Boston! WHOA!

CONGRATULATIONS to all the Silverman racers - I'm anxious to hear your race reports AND after party reports!!

Happy Birthday to you...

2005-10-11T14:28:00Z

Happy birthday to you... happy birthday dear ms_zin, happy birthday to you... AND MANY MORE!!!

ummmmm

2005-09-12T20:08:57Z

I swear I wasn't making that up but I just got on the website again and the article about it being sold out had been removed... do do do do (twilight zone music)....

That was quick!

2005-09-12T19:20:51Z

2006 Ford Ironman Wisconsin sells out in less than five hours

The 2006 Ford Ironman Wisconsin is officially closed to general entry.

giver_goddess @ 2005-08-29T10:52:00

2005-08-29T15:53:27Z

I'm so unmotivated right now - I can't wait till Praireman is over and done with... why did I sign up for this race??

Small Budget Texan

2005-08-01T21:06:51Z

It's weird, I wasn't very nervous before IM CDA but before the Small Texan I was incredibly nervous?? It turned out to be alot of fun though - it was nice getting to the 20mile marker on the bike and knowing there were only 10miles to go! I had a great race, I averaged 17.1 on the bike and about a 9.25 pace on the run, which is good for me. Jim did the race too and it was his longest triathlon to date. trichellee was there as a sherpa for TBF - who was the only other Texas Iron jersey we saw out there.

Jim and I stuck around for the awards ceremony because there were only 4 people in my age group so I thought I might get one of the "Texan" style awards that they were giving out. Before the awards ceremony they did a swag give-away, pulling race numbers from a hat - I won a $115 pair of Oakley Zeroes!!!!! When they finally got around to the awards ceremony they let us know that the timing machine had broken down about 2hr 55min into the race so if you finished past that time they didn't have your run split. We had looked at the swim & bike splits that they put out there and it looked like I might be in 2nd place... the two other woman who were still there from my age group didn't wear a watch during the race so they had no idea what their run times were. Sooo... no award for me - supposedly they are going to try to figure it out based on the manual timing that they were doing (uh-huh, sure...).

The COOL news is that as we were waiting around trying to see if I had placed, they were calling the men's divisions and JIM WON 1ST PLACE in his age group!!! He hadn't even considered that he may have placed! We both started screaming - it was kind of funny because most everyone else had an idea that they getting an award but he was taken totally by surprise! I was sooo excited for him - he's really worked hard at getting over that open-water fear!!! Soooo, his big "Texan" style award? it was a cardboard star ornament, direct from Michael's with the Small Texan logo pasted on it... woo hoo!

Jamie had mentioned that doing the Tall Texanmight not be such a good idea because in previous years the race wasn't very well organized.... I think I understand what he means now... there weren't any problems out on the course but I kind of got the impression that this isn't the first time the results were lost - the race director even said "it's my fault, I forgot that the timing machine needed to be shaded".... hmmmmm... I'm just glad the machine broke AFTER Jim finished!

Small Texan

2005-07-28T15:29:15Z

My first race "post" IM CDA is this weekend, Small Texan, and I'm feeling a little "under trained" since I've been blowing off quite a few of my workouts.... I'm looking forward to the bike though, it's supposed to be pretty hilly... plus it will be fun getting out of town!

odd duck

2005-07-26T18:04:59Z

I'm sooo not a "real" triathlete! While everyone else seems to be signing up for another Ironman and/or figuring out their race schedule I've been busy ordering books from Amazon.com so I can plant myself on the couch and catch up on all my reading!

Interesting...

2005-05-05T21:32:57Z

American Cities That Best Fit You:

65% Austin

60% Atlanta

60% Denver

60% Honolulu

50% Las Vegas

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

still ticking....

2005-05-03T03:12:21Z

Well, at 8:45pm ginsnap was still going strong! She seemed really lucid, which just shocks me - I think my mind would be long gone by now. They were about to start reading trivial pursuit cards again and I'm glad, I think she was starting to believe the young guy next to her who was saying he wasn't tired.... plus I think she's had enough of the dancing girl! I'll be sending positive, caffeinated energy vibes straight to ginsnap tonight.... I SOOOO want her to win that bike!!! Oh yeah, the goodies have increased - there's a $100 bill on the bike, plus an additional $500 in cash and Zipp wheels.... someone said that the total package is at $12,000 now! GO ginsnap GO!!!!!

To go or Not to go....

2005-04-19T18:10:01Z

A few months ago after complaining to my coach about feeling like I couldn't get enough air when I ran he suggested that maybe I should get checked for exercise-induced asthma. A couple times during the really hot days last summer I would be gasping so hard for air that I think ms_zin thought I was having a heart attack. Anyway... I finally got a referral to go see an asthma/allergy specialist and after asking me a bunch of questions he told me he didn't think that what I was describing was exercise-induced asthma but more likely vocal cord dysfunction. Hmmmm, I've got to say I was a little disappointed because I think I had envisioned getting an inhaler and then suddenly becoming traininglog... well, as fast as her anyway! :-) So, no inhaler for me - instead I'm supposed to go back to get tested and then if it is vocal cord dysfunction I would be referred again to a speech pathologist who would help me learn to relax my throat/vocal cords. However, in the course of all this I've done alot of research and now I'm thinking I probably don't have either - and that most of my complaints come from trying to go harder than I'm capable of.... so now I'm trying to decide if I should even keep my appointment. I HAVE discovered that when I try to run at a faster pace alot of times I'll tighten up my face in kind of a grimace (I think at times it looks like I'm smiling because people have told me how "happy" I look... ummmm... NOT!!!) - so for the last few runs I've really been focusing on relaxing my face and I'm not sure if it's psychosomatic but it DOES feel like I can breath better!! It's weird though, I have to be really vigilant or I'll catch myself in the grimace again... wonder what's up with that?

GOOD LUCK!!!!

2005-04-07T14:39:27Z

To all the LJ'ers going to Arizona!!! Good luck and have a wonderful time!