4X4 Relay – It takes Two – Bay St. Louis - MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

Me & Devon (my Sister-in-Law)

Well another race. This one was a 4X4 relay for a 2 person team. Which meant each person would run 4 miles.  My original partner was my friend that broke her foot. So here I am without a partner. Everyone else that I know that is running already has a partner. So I decide to ask my sister in law. She is reluctant but finally agrees.  She's still steadily telling me how slow she will be. I keep telling her I'm not concerned with time. It's just for fun.  She doesn't believe me and continues on. She even gives us names. She's the turtle and I'm the cheetah. Have no idea where she gets this from because there are tons more people faster than me! 

We ride to the beach with Frank, Krista, and Daniel.  Daniel and Krista are married. They are going to run as a team and Frank is meeting Sonja his partner there.  Our ride is kind of quiet. Even for Devon who normally talks constantly. Since she's kind of quiet I'm concerned she's dreading the run.   A real heavy rain hits when we are like 40 minutes out from reaching the race destination.  The lightening is bad and I'm beginning to wonder if we will even run. 

The rain stops completely like 30 minutes before race start and it barely looked like it rained. I'm glad the rain did come because it cooled things down. I was worried about a 5:30 pm Race.  It's been hot and humid this week!! Here’s a picture of us together with our partners before the race.  

Daniel, Krista, Frank, Sonya, Devon & Me

When we put on our bibs I notice mine has 116-1 meaning I was to run the 1^st leg and Devon would run the 2^nd leg. I was excited about this because I knew I could run and then rest (relax) while Devon ran. :>) They called us up to the start line to give instructions on how the relay would take place and then we were off.  When running alone it can be daunting and difficult.  But when you’re in a group it can be fun especially when some faster “big guys/gals” are ahead of you.  They do the work and you’re the follower.  Well, at least for a while.  They can be warm, exciting, entertaining, and even seductive.  You want to try to stay up with them as much as possible.  

Picture of Devon's bib (Iron Willed was name of our team)

My right knee had been bothering me all week so my plan was to try to just run solid.  No pushing it.  I’m happy to say that’s what I did.  I ran an easy 9:20 pace with no heavy breathing and felt good.  A time or two I would try to speed up and I’d feel that tightness / twinge in my knee and back off.  I was soon back in and gave Devon a high 5 for her to start.  It felt great seeing her run.  I told her.. “your pace.. your race”.  You don’t have to compare yourself to anyone else.  It’s your journey as one of my good friends always says.

Devon coming in to the FINISH line.

LOOK AT THAT SMILE! GO DEVON!

So everyone finished and was happy with their times.  When they started calling out awards they first gave out awards to the top 3 teams.  The teams could be either all female, all male, or mixed.  Then he said they were going to give an award to the top 15 teams.  I could hardly believe it when they call out mine and Devon’s names!  She wasn’t even standing there and didn’t hear it.  When I found her and told her she started jumping up and down.  You could see joy all on her face. 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

 

Frank & Krista Finishing their leg of the relay. 

Krista and Devon being silly

Devon, Jennifer (one of the big gals I mentioned, and Me with our medals. BTW Jenn won 1st place in a TRI this same day! Two races in the same day! Yep..she's the BIG DOG :>) 

Our ride home was LOUD…. Yes LOUD.  Devon and Daniel both came out of their shells.  Come to find out BOTH of them love music so we had tons of loud music, singing and laughing on the way home.  It was a good day!  I think Devon needed a break from small kids and a chance to run again.  She even thanked me for making her go.  LOL  As for the rest of us, we enjoyed being off together and running as usual.  We missed our friend, Kathy very much and can’t wait until she’s able to run again! Me especially since this weekend I’m doing a TRI and she was supposed to be doing this one with me also.  Dang old broke foot!

“Your body is a reflection of your lifestyle”  from Gone For a Run 

  

Our RIDE - GREAT DAY

 I was going to finish this Monday on the holiday, but never got around to it so it's a day late for Medal Monday... but oh well.. ha ~Better late than never~

MEDAL MONDAY

My SERINA

Where do I even start?  What a great weekend!  Me and my good friend, Serina both won MASTERS in a 5k race!  She raced Friday night and I raced Saturday morning.  I asked her for a picture and she said.. “oh no, they were not good so I’m not sending them out..baahahahahah”.  She is cray cray!  She always makes the best pictures! She has a smile that is so contagious! I’m super proud of her! She’s working so very hard lately and she just keeps getting better.  Her husband fell Friday so she canceled on meeting me on Saturday morning.  

So I meet Frank at 6am.  My goal was to do another brick workout like the previous Saturday.  Serina and I had rode 20.5 miles and ran 6 miles.  We had finished our bike ride around 7:20 am so I told Frank we should ride around 25 miles and then we would finish closer to time for the 5K race I wanted to run.  I haven’t ran a single 5K this whole year!  I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit and also the fact that I’m so busy doing long distance that I just don’t have the time for 5ks.  However, I wanted to do this one.  It was a benefit for a young kid in my hometown that lost most of his hand on New Year’s Eve due to fireworks. 

Connor Roney & some of his family

They are trying to raise enough money to help him get a prosthetic hand.  We rode in on our bikes into the parking lot at 7:51 am (we got in 27 miles)! The race was at 8 am!  I barely had time to go check in, get my race number, run to the bathroom, and get in the start line.  Talk about a true brick workout. :>) 

Me and Penny waiting to start.. Thanks Frank for picture!

The Start! Me and one of my daughters friends, Jessica...She's the blonde hottie beside me. 

When the race started I took off with Jennifer and Penny.  I felt really good which surprised me.  Mid way into the first mile I looked down at my watch and we were going 7:05 pace.  I freaked out.  I also said out loud to them… “Oh no, 7:05”.  Jennifer just smiled and kept on going.  She’s super-fast!  Immediately I started telling myself… slow down… you’ll never make 3 miles at this pace…. Get it together and SLOW down.  LOL  It’s amazing how we can mind screw ourselves.  Which let me say that I’m also known for going out way too fast and then not having anything left at the end so that was also playing around in my head.  But boy I wish I had said.. “yeah girl!...you are doing great!.. keep it up.”  See we need to feed our brains with positive info.  We have to believe in ourselves! I could feel the desire burning deep in my bones but my mind was playing with me.  

I’m happy to say that when mile one beeped on my watch it said 7:50 pace.  I had slowed down slightly and still felt really good.  I was however very HOT! It was so muggy. I could see Jennifer up ahead and Penny was slightly behind me now.  I kept telling myself to keep going and try to stay where I could see Jennifer up ahead.  Mile 2 beeped and it was 8:10 pace.  WOW.. I’d done 2 miles faster than I’ve done in a LONG time!  At this point I was thinking I might beat my 23 minute PR that I had set like 8 years ago at Day in the Park 5K.

 

However the course was not clearly marked and very confusing.  George, who is normally the winner of all 5ks actually went the wrong way.  I had to stop and ask the guys in the gator which way at one intersection.  They should have been standing out pointing or either telling you as you approached, but they didn’t say anything until I stopped and then at the next intersection I hollered and asked the girl standing there and she said she wasn’t really sure.  I wanted to scream.  She said everyone is going this way so I guess that’s the right way.  Really they should put people out on the course that are there to help and actually know the course! So I turned and went on.  At this point we were around buildings (JCJC campus) and it was hard to see people that were more than 1/10 ahead of you. Lots of weaving and making turns at this point. 

Soon I could see that we were headed back to the football field to finish.  I looked down and knew I had lost a little time by having to ask questions, but I was still so far ahead of where I thought I’d be at this point!  I finished in 24:40! Not a PR, but wow what a great time! I was super excited.  And yes, I don’t think it’s bragging when you are excited about doing something you didn’t think you could do anymore.  It’s ok to feel good inside.  And this is my journal/diary.. hee hee 

Jenn and Me waiting on awards..boy it was HOT

Awards were awful.  We had to wait 2 hours! They finally told us that our names were not in the computer under the same bib number we wore!  What a mess!  They started called out awards and didn’t even call me out and I was the 2^nd female in!  I knew I had masters and they had already given Jennifer overall female and were then calling her out again as 1^st place in her age group.  It was just a big MESS. I’ve never seen awards that were that messed up!  I don’t know what happen, but I felt sorry for the race director and the timing girl! They gave out trophies instead of medals so here’s my “trophy” for medal Monday.

Jenn's mom, Ashley, Joe, Jennifer, Me and Penny with our awards finally!

It was a good brick workout and a great 5K race pace.  I felt really pumped on Saturday.  I rarely have days where I feel super good during the whole race.  I even had no pain in my hip/leg.  However, Sunday I did an easy 7 miles and the pain was back.  Yep! Talk about a downer! But I won’t give up.  You got to take the good with the bad.  I had a good 1.2 mile swim this morning and tonight I will REST.

My running buddy - TROY on our 7 miles Sunday.

Hope you also had a great weekend.  It’s back to the grind come Monday.  However, this weekend will be a 3 day weekend for me and that makes me smile BIG. :>) Happy Training! MUAH, D

The distance between dreams & reality is action!

Last night I was beating myself up for going home after work and chilling.

Why do we do that? Are we crazy? Some may think so.  If you're not a runner, biker, etc., you may be thinking I really am crazy. Most of us do it.  We beat ourselves up when we rest. We feel we should be doing something 24/7 or we are lazy.

I had swam yesterday morning so it wasn't like I had a complete down day.  But here lately most days I do something in the morning before work and another activity after work. TRI training is so much more involved than marathon training.  It's hard to fit in 3 days running, 3 days swimming & 3 days biking because there aren't 9 days in a week, so you have to double up.  Yep, you non-runners reading this now really are thinking she really is cray cray. Hee Hee 

Swim Practice May, 2015

The truth is that most of us have dreams and you know what the distance between those dreams and reality is??? ACTION  You can sit and dream all you like, but those dreams will never become reality if you don't take action.  My timehop app on my phone was flashing that I had "new items" so I clicked on it to see what happened in the past. If you aren't familiar with the app it will show you pictures you've taken the same day / month from 1, 2, 3... years ago. It reminds you what you were doing back then. It was so what I needed to remind myself where I've been and where I'm at now.  The picture was a picture from the pool with a heading stating that I was getting ready for the Sunfish TRI in July last year.  Let me just say that my swimming has come a LONG way since then!  

I remember when I could barely swim down the lane, stop at the wall and breath for 30 seconds to 1 minute before swimming back down the lane.  Now I can swim 35-40 laps (down & back) without stopping.  Talk about improvement!  

"EGGS - ERCISE"... had to have since I work for a chicken company.. hee hee

This past week instead of swimming laps, I swam in a rectangle around the pool without stopping for several laps.  We don't really have a good place to practice open water swim in my home town.  I don't live at the beach and there just aren't that many lakes in Laurel, Ms.  So you do what you got to do to prepare yourself for open water.  It was a good workout.  I swam a 1/2 mile before I stopped and rested a few seconds and then continued on.  It was much different than swimming down the lane and pushing off to turn around to go back down the lane.  I have a TRI in 15 days that is longer than a sprint distance TRI and I need all the practice I can get in the pool.  I won't be racing it really.  I'm treating every small TRI leading up the HIM (half ironman) in September as a practice run to prepare me for the much longer distance.
Recently me and my cousin went to the pool and filmed each other.  I wanted to see what I looked like in the water.  You may think you can swim, but when you get a good look at yourself you see so many things that need to improve. :>) 

Here's the link to the video clip I made:

A little fun in the Pool

And the reason I can swim better now is because I put my dream into action.  Instead of stopping my swim practice after Sunfish last year, I continued on. I even increased my swim from 2 days to 3 days a week.  It's hard to get up every morning anywhere from 4:30 am - 5 am to go do a workout especially on the days when you know you'll be working out AGAIN at 5:30 pm.  


But HARD work pays off.  Oh and I still have a long ways to go to improve my swimming skills to be more efficient in the water.  

So did I need rest last night.  Yes'em, and that doesn't mean I won't beat myself up again in the future on a rest night.  I just have to remind myself of all the hours that I am putting in training and it's okay to rest.  

And for those that have dreams.... put them in ACTION.  

I have people all the time they tell me that they wish they could do this or that, but they can't find time.  You don't find time... you MAKE time. :>)

It takes a lot of determination and willpower to make something happen.  Maybe you have to give up that extra hour of sleep in the morning or give up that hour of TV watching to make that time to work on those dreams. Just remember dreams don't happen over night.  The people that truly succeed in running that marathon or completing that TRI really put hours upon hours of time into training.  There's a saying that when you finish a marathon you are now in the 1% because only 1% of the people will actually complete a marathon.  

It takes tons of guts, fortitude and determination to make those dreams a reality.  

So what ya waiting for?

Happy Training! D

  

Natchez Trace Century Ride 2016

With your choice of distances from 25, 50, 62, and 100 miles with mild to moderate elevation, it was a great ride to find your stride and other specialties along the route.  I chose the 100 miler to “Get My Ride On”.  The glimmering waters around the Ross Barnett Reservoir were just spectacular!  There were also countryside stretches in Madison County and Pelahatchie that made you forget you were doing 100 miles.  It was an absolute beautiful day.  I could not have asked for more perfect weather.  The humidity was low and at 7am when we started it was cool enough for a light jacket, but by mid morning you were tossing that jacket.  

Waiting to Start

 

Girls took pic with my phone when I was gone to bathroom... found it today.. ha

I was a tad nervous about this ride.  The longest I had ridden was 65 miles and that was several months ago.  I had planned on a 75 miler before Saturday’s ride which didn’t happen because my training buddy fell and broke her foot that very weekend.  She was not going to be able to ride the 100 with me which put me alone (I thought).  I knew they’d be other bikers, but the rest of my friends riding were either doing the 25 or 62 mile loop.  So I was a tad nervous.  I really didn’t know what to expect.  I’m a runner not a biker so I’ve only done 1 bike ride in my life.  I knew I needed some good bike training miles for ironman, but didn’t know if this ride would give me that or not.  I had tried to talk Frank into moving from the 62 miles to the 100 with me and he kept asking me if I had looked at the elevation chart for the route.  I laughed each time and told him no.  I did however look at the chart the week of the ride and told him that I didn’t think it would be that bad and I was still going for the 100 miles.  I wanted a century ride under my belt and I was determined to get it. 

 I thought I heard one lady say they had like 600 registered.  However many it was… it looked like a ton that morning and we had to literally walk our bikes for probably ½ mile just to get started.  It was so crowded which made me nervous so I tried to hang back and not get in the wad.  Soon it started thinning out as the faster bikers went on ahead.  I could go on and on talking about how pretty the route was in which we traveled.  Yes, there were a few places that had uneven pavement that made you bounce a lot.  I even worried about getting a flat time a couple times but overall it was just perfect.  I was amazed that not one single dog came out and barked or chased us!  We past so many houses and each time I was steady looking for dogs.  In my neighborhood you have to be so careful.  We have dogs that love to chase and nip at your tires.  So I was beyond thrilled that NO dogs came out! :>) 

I will say there were some hills.  There was one really big one and I didn’t realize how steep it was until I was on it and then when I tried to find my little ring, my bike wouldn’t gear.  I was barely moving and all I could think about was that I was about to fall over so I un-clipped and got off the bike about ¾ the way up the hill and walked the rest of the way up.. along with a few other people.. hee hee    We had made friends with a guy that passed us and laughed and said that was him last year so he was prepared for it this year and got his gears ready.  From then on I think I rode the rest of the route on my little ring.  It was rolling hills and I got tired of going back and forth from big to little ring (I’m sure there is a more proper term…but hey.. I’m not a biker.. ha).  So YES I got some good training for ironman.  I was very happy that it did!   

Bike Route - 100 miles

       

The elevation and speeds

Me and Mel -- around half way

Around mile 50 Mel said she felt pretty good and she was going to attempt to go on the 100 miles with me.  She said it had always been on her bucket list to do 100.  I gladly told her to come on and we’d finish together.  She also said… “I want to be in the blog”.  :>)  So guess what, Mel? You made the BLOG.  She probably won’t mind me saying that the last 20-25 miles were tough for her.  At the next to the last stop (oh there were rest stops like every 15-16 miles), she told me that I couldn’t leave her because she didn’t feel very well.  I told her I would not leave her.  We finished together! I’m very proud of her.  She screams at us in spin all the time that we need to “suck it up”… well she had to listen to her own words on Saturday. :>)  I think I really liked that.. hee hee   Nay, all kidding aside, I was very happy to finish with her.  We DID it! 100 miles!  We crossed that finish line under time and we were not sagged! It was so nice having Frank and Sonya there waiting to make sure we got in ok! Thanks for the pictures you two!  

Coming in at the FINISH Line!

FINISH LINE!

 After grabbing some food, we headed back home.  It was a long day but so worth it! I’d love to do this ride again next year! 

My total "Bike" time and speeds. Oh and I burned like 4,000 calories!

We didn’t know it until after the race but one biker was hit by a car.  They were not hurt badly.  Another biker also wrecked and had to be taken to get stitches.  So I guess you can say we had a really good ride.  God was watching over us! No injuries for us! I will say that around lunch time on the traffic was HORRIBLE.  People flew by us going so fast!  That was the only part of the ride that I was really uncomfortable and nervous about (the roads not being shut down completely). 

I felt so good on Saturday.  If it had not been for my neck and shoulders hurting, I could have rode another 50 miles.  My legs were not even sore the next day.  Just my dang neck and shoulders.  I don’t know if that is normal after a long bike ride or if it has something to do with my neck issue.  Whatever it is… it hurts! But I got my 100 miles! YIPPIE.  Another bucket item marked off my list for 2016 the year I turn 50. :>) 

LOVE the bike JERSEY.. too bad my # was 100!

Our awesome MEDALS

I made a video of the ride.  It’s like 6 minutes long… but hey.. it was 100 miler! :>)  Here’s the YouTube link:  (don't judge the video.. I should have taken my head strap for my GoPro! Cause my chest strap made videos looking down especially if I leaned on my arm rest.. so ignore them flopping black ears also in the video..ha) click below:

Century Ride Video by D

I hope you are enjoying this nice spring weather! If not, get outside! Well, until next time..that’s a wrap!  D