A little horn tootin'

I tend to talk a lot about how great Team Trakkers is (because, well, we are...) but this post is going to toot someone else's horn.  Don't worry... it's deserved. 

First, as many of you know, my husband Tom is a Type 1 diabetic (I'm sorry... a person with diabetes).  Anyhoo... to spare you all the history which I'm sure I've posted a time or two, here's a brief recap:

• He was diagnosed at age 28 - no family history
• At the time he was training for his 8th or 9th marathon and just getting into tri's
• SOOOO many people were quick to tell him that he couldn't work out anymore because of his diagnosis (doctors included)
• He decided to do an Ironman
• And has since completed 4
• He learned quickly that Type 1 Diabetes isn't a death sentence at all!
• He is also a member of Team Type 1 - which consists of 100 athletes who live and race with diabetes... you know, because they can't do things. 
• The team consists of a pro team (you might have heard of them racing in races with the likes of ... oh ... all the big name teams (Lance included)), a development team, an elite team, a women's team, a triathlon team and just this year, a running team
• The elite team has won a little race called Race Across America 4 times and currently have the world record for fastest time (5 days, 9 hours and 5 minutes) and speed across the country for an eight man team (my hubby raced two of those years, including the record year - toot toot)
• Not only are they competitive in their chosen sport, they spent a combined 700 days last year speaking to diabetics, doctors and medical professionals on behalf of their diabetes related sponsors.
• These athletes are for real and all amazing people with amazing stories.

So that's the first horn toot.  Team Type 1 is amazing and if you get a chance to ever meet or race with any of them, they will knock your socks off!

Tom's the manager for the triathlon and run team.  The run team is new this year and made up of 15 amazing runners (their average marathon time is like a 3:06.  One of them came in 4th at the Atlanta marathon.  A few of them have won or placed at multiple ultras and when they talk about the races they usually skim over miles 20-60 which always amazes me).  Anyway since they have these great runners, Tom and the team founder decided, "why not challenge them a little and have them run across the country instead of sending the bikers out this year".  Who in their right mind would volunteer for this?

Well, starting in October, they have 10 Type 1 diabetic runners who will start a relay trek from Oceanside California and end approximately 3,000 miles later in NYC on World Diabetes Day.  They think it'll take around 15 days (people... that's averaging 8:15's or something crazy like that and averaging like 20 miles a day).  This isn't a formal race.  They are simply running to raise awareness for Type 1 diabetes and promote the thing that they all believe...

Diabetes doesn't have to be a limiter and that you can do anything you want with the disease.

So that's my second horn toot.

Since Tom's working on the logistics, we were beyond thrilled when Megan at BuildASign contacted us to see if we wanted to make something free of charge at their website.  We jumped at the opportunity and I have to thank Megan from the bottom of my heart.  She and the whole gang at BuildASign are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!  We decided to make 24x24 car magnets for Team Type 1 to use on their trek across the country.  Megan graciously threw in two 12x12 car magnets for them to use as well.  They arrived on Friday and turned out incredible. 

So thank you Megan and BuildASign!  And if any of you need any personalized products made, you can't go wrong with these guys!  Quality products and great people to work with! That's my third horn toot.

And don't worry Team Trakkers, Team Type 1 is great, but they ain't got nothing on us! :)  Oh... and they are racing the REV3 series so their might be a little show down between us.  They will bring their A game for sure, but we aren't a team to mess with. 

Nothing like husband and wife gunning for each other!

Running lows

*Heads up... I'm whiny in this post.  Consider yourself warned!*

I just pulled up my monthly training log and it made me sad to see my running number for the month. 32 miles.  7 miles being the longest. :( That little ankle pain really was a ... well... pain.  I mean I've only run 8 days this month and two of them were less than 2 mile runs.  I had a 15 miler that I skipped.  I didn't run a few 10's that I wanted.  Honestly, I haven't been doing many transition runs.  I know it's early in the season and that someday I'll be wishing that I was only running 40ish mile months, but I just feel so behind. Heck, I have a half marathon in 37 days.  I have a half Ironman (*gulp*) in 80 days. Luckily the ankle is fine now... just a stupid weird "my sheets were probably tucked too tight a few nights in a row" thing.  Not even a real injury!  (even more pathetic that I missed runs because of this, huh?)

I don't think it helps that the hubser is running a marathon in 4 weeks.  I'm super proud of him for training through this crappy winter, I feel like he's leaps and bounds ahead of me in terms of running this year - endurance, speed, miles.  He should be - he's running 30+ mile weeks. But we always train together and now I feel like going to be holding him back if he wants to run with me and which makes me feel like I'm even further behind.

My pace hasn't gotten much below 8:55's this month - well it has on the short stuff, but anything over 6 miles, I'm coming in right under 9's.  Speedy to some, but last April I ran a half marathon at 8:22's comfortably.  I really wanted to PR in that half marathon... I just don't see it happening.

I don't know why I'm so hard on myself.  I literally got into an argument last night with the hubby when he asked me if I wanted to race the marathon relay that we are running on Sunday.  He wanted to do 1 mile intervals (since it's a 1 mile loop course, relay teams can run it however they want).  He thought it would be fun to each run a mile around 8:00/mile and see what kind of marathon time we could get.  I snapped, telling him that I'm in no shape to run fast and that I can't do it.  End of discussion. He told me I have a crappy attitude. He's usually right.

I guess I have some pretty lofty goals for myself this year and so far, January and February have been less than stellar in getting me to those goals.  I'm seeing improvement in some areas, but it's coming so slow.  Maybe March will be better...

Okay, off to sweat out my crappy attitude on the bike for an hour.

A Bike + Shoes = Happy Trakker

We got back yesterday from visiting the grandparents in Raleigh.  A few things about that trip:

1. My grandparents looked great.  Like I expected, my grandma didn't remember ever meeting Tom and even told him that it was so nice to meet him as we were leaving.  They did recognize my mom, dad and myself.
2. My grandpa, although lacking much short term memory, is freaking hysterical.  He has a smart remark for everything and had me giggling the entire visit.
3. I love Raleigh.  There are trees and parks and cute houses and it was 75 and sunny yesterday.  We are now working on getting our butts there.  Fast.

So we got home yesterday, albeit a tad later than expected to ice and snow.  I'm so over winter.  Like I've said before, I honestly think I pissed Mother Nature off at some point in my life.  I was over the top excited to have these waiting for me when I pulled up though:

They are the newest Avi Bolt III's from Avia.  At first the colors caught my attention because I love love love the pink and black, but the yellow wasn't doing it for me.  It's growing on me.  They are light as a feather (which I'm so not used to... should be interesting running in flats), but they look pretty badass.  I'm excited to try them out. I'll write a review as soon as I get some good miles in them. Again, this big girl isn't used to such minimal shoes - it'll be a good test!

 

Then to top off my excitement, this came today:

My new Kestrel 4000 Pro.  I'm so excited to get it put together (although, because we live in Ohio and not Raleigh, I won't be riding it until May I'm sure), but it's awesome looking.  As Tom and I were going through all of the bits and pieces, he kept saying "I don't think this will work for you so I might have to take it for you and put it on my bike".  Um... sorry sweetie... this bad boy is mine!  Of course, now I get to name it!  A few of my teammates have had contests which is a great idea so if you have any ideas, send them to me.  I was initially thinking Papa Smurf, but Tom and I couldn't get past the fact that I usually refer to my bike by name and it sounds really really wrong to say "I had a great ride on Papa Smurf today". Bad huh? :)

It's Wednesday already?

I swear I keep thinking it's Tuesday. I haven't blogged in over a week.  Definitely not for lack of things to write about - more like work is kicking my butt (yay!) and by the time my day is done, I don't have the energy to put a sentence or ten together for a blog.  So here I am, squeaking in a little time before my day gets away from me.  Probably best to update in randoms (but I have pictures so that makes up for it, right?)...

• Didn't do the 15 miler this past weekend.  I had all intentions of it, but my Achilles/ankle/foot has been bothering me and I was worried what kind of damage pounding on it for 15 miles would do.  I woke up Sunday morning, ran about 2 houses down from ours to "test" it, burst into tears and came home.  I really wanted to run with Tom.  I ended up hopping on the bike for 1:45 and then heading to the race to sherpa for him.  He ran 5 before the race and then rocked the 15 hilly windy miles by himself.  I couldn't have kept up anyway!

• I always have a hard time recovering and with another 140.6 on the schedule, I know how hard the long training days become.  You never quite feel recovered.  Team Trakkers recently found out we are sponsored by Recovery Pump.  When we received this news, I was super excited.  I had no clue what it was going to be like, but I received mine in the mail yesterday.  AWESOME!  I sat with these bad boys on for just a few minutes to see what they are all about and I can honestly say there might not be anything that I'm more excited about this year.  They may look silly, but my legs are sooooo happy.  And yes, I have freakishly long legs.  This picture exaggerated them a lot though. :)  Thanks Recovery Pump!!! 

• I'm over hearing my hubby say "you smell like the pool.  Did you shower?".  Um.. yes I showered, but our pool dumps gallons upon gallons of chlorine in it to ward off the nasty from it being a community pool and no matter how much I scrub, inevitably I smell like the pool.  I received this little gem of a package in the mail the other day from our sponsor SBR Sports, Inc.  My teammates swear by this stuff and I kept thinking "how good can it really be?".  I used it after my last swim and I'll just leave it with, I'm a fan.  If you swim in a pool, get some of this stuff.  For real.  I'm anxious to try the Foggle and the TriSlide too.

• My new favorite meal is a spinach salad with cottage cheese as the dressing.  If you know me, you know I love me some cheese.  This is a great way to top my salad... no guilt of dressing and some added protein!  YUMMO! (and yes, those are crouton... you take some and you leave some.  I know they are little squares of fat.  Baby steps people... baby steps)

• I'm hoping to get out on the bike tomorrow.  It's supposed to be near 60 here in Columbus.  The Kestrel comes any day and unfortunately it won't be ready for tomorrow, but I'm fine with riding Flica a time or two more in February... outside!  I'm so stinking excited.  With the Kestrel being shipped, that means I should have some bike porn in the next few days... I know you can't wait! :)
• My Buddy Boy is too sweet.  He's starting to get older and I think as he gets older, he gets cuter and cuter.  This is his place each and every night before dinner (right under foot at the counter by the stove).  Just waiting, hoping that mommy drops something.  Usually I accidently on purpose make sure he knows he's loved... that's why he's about 20 pounds overweight.  But he's happy.

• We're heading off to see my grandparents this weekend in North Carolina.  They are the ones with Alzheimer's.  God love them.  I know it's going to be a hard trip since I know they don't remember Tom and I'm not sure they know who I am, but I'm glad that I'm getting out there.  I'm bringing my chocoholic grandma some homemade chocolate dipped pretzels.  I'm bound to win her over with those if she doesn't recognize me, right? :)

Sorry for being MIA lately and I'm trying my best to get caught up with all of your lives. I'm working on it... I really am! Happy Wednesday everyone! 

Slugging through...

First, thank you all so much for the birthday wishes.  I had a fabulous weekend and it made me so happy to see you all writing such great things!!!

Workout wise, eh, I wasn't feeling it this past week.  I didn't get in the pool once.  BAD TRIATHLETE! I went to the pool with the intention of swimming, but once I got there, I just couldn't do it.  Weird for me.  I did an amazing speed workout with Tom on Tuesday (when I played soccer we used to bitch and moan at Indian runs - where the last person in the line has to sprint to the front while the line keeps running), but it was kind of like that.  We jogged the track and then one of us would take off and sprint the laps until we caught the jogger.  It took me more laps to catch Tom than it did for him to catch me.  And although I whined about it after the first interval because I hate feeling like I was chasing him, it ended up being great.  It's way harder than it seems and we ended up getting 7 miles in altogether.  Wednesday we did intervals on the bike.  And then it all caught up to me.  I literally had no legs for the next few days.  I couldn't get through my long run on Saturday (it was my b-day after all and I still managed a 1:45 run/elliptical workout) and shortened my long ride yesterday to an hour.  I'm taking today off.  I'm hoping that I feel better tomorrow.

Tom's running a trail marathon in 5 weeks and his long run is 20 miles this weekend.  I've tried to be a trooper and do some of the long runs with him (because after all, I am not the one that signed up for a spring marathon - been there, done that and NEVER doing that again... winter in Ohio is too unpredictable!).  In any event, I haven't run over 10 miles at a time this year.  Tom decided he wanted to try to find an organized race/run that he could use for training this weekend so that he didn't have to go out alone.  Just so happens that there's a 15 mile race about 40 minutes from us. Perfect for him, but what would I do?  They had a 3 mile option (too short) and a 7.5 mile option (again, too short), so I did what any supportive wife would do.  I'm looking to just finish the 15 miles - maybe at around a 9 minute mile. Eh, maybe slower. Whatever. Nothing like jumping in with both feet.  My friend Meredith is racing the 15 and I'm so excited for her.  I know she's going to rock it! Her marathon training has been spot on for at least another BQ, if not a PR! And hopefully she won't be in a huge rush on Sunday and can stay warm in the middle school until my slow butt finishes (Tom will probably have to run 5 more when I'm done and I'm a good wife, but I'm not that good!)

Two favors...I need oatmeal ideas.  I just can't eat the stuff, unless it's in this form:

What can I add to it to make it not taste like paste? I've tried sugar free syrup, splenda, walnuts, but it's just not cutting it.  Can I cook it with milk? Should I add fruit? I really know that I'd benefit from eating it in the morning (I'm so not a breakfast person... I ALWAYS eat something for breakfast, but it's generally not enough to fuel me for the day).

Second favor - can you vote (HERE) for Bailey (Mandy's adorable little guy).  He's in a contest to be the face of Barkwheat dog treats.  He's a doll and totally deserves to win.  I mean, look at his face...

The anniversary of my 29th birthday...

I have a way of spoiling gifts from my husband.  When I know he's bought me something (for my b-day, anniversary, holiday, just the heck of it) and he's making me wait to get it, I'm horrible.  I will whine, beg, plead and annoy him until he can't take it anymore and gives me the gift early. Case in point...

Don't mind my cold chicken looking fingers...

That's my birthday present.  My birthday is tomorrow.  I got the ring last night! :)  My husband is the best.  I mean, I thought my new bike, our casino trip, and anything that I'll buy this weekend when I use the excuse "but it's my birthday" to go shopping was my gift (that's totally a valid excuse, right?).  Never did I think he'd get me an amethyst ring that I've been drooling over!  It's perfect... what girl can't use some bling?

And it totally makes me feel better about turning 31.  Yeah, I'm young, I know, but for some reason, this year feel like the first birthday where I sound old.  I got the best b-day card from a family friend that had a teacher on the front doing math at a chalk board.  It said "29 + some more years = 29" and then the inside said "Happy Birthday to an expert in girl math".  So here's to the second anniversary of my 29th birthday! (Thanks Barb and Chuck for the card... totally made me laugh!)

A few other randoms:
* I'm way behind in blog reading.  I think my google reader was at 108 this morning.  I'm scared to look where it's at now.  I'm hoping to have some couch/laptop time this weekend and will get caught up, I promise.  I miss you guys...
* We got hit with the craptastic ice storm on Tuesday night.  Our power went out around 4am on Wednesday and didn't come back on until 7pm that night.  We saw 47 degrees on our inside thermometer. Fun times in Ohio!
* I'm still loving the people watching at the gym.  I think I'm going to start a blog installment about what I see each week.  I even have guest people watchers who are keeping me updated on what they see.  If you see anything crazy, funny or just not right, let me know and I'll include it.  This week, my friend Lori texted me the following "Today's people watching highlight... the teenage girl who felt the need to obviously roll her mesh shorts up to juuust below her butt cheeks, but didn't feel the need to get her super long super sweaty hair off her neck and pull it up.  Because she MUST have been warm... I mean, why else would she make her shorts that short? ;p"  Classic high school gym goer! Thanks Lori for the laugh!
* Trakkers news - I've updated my side panel with more sponsors (they keep rolling in... pinch me anytime to wake me up people!).  I've included two discounts that YOU can take advantage of.  The first is for $10 off any REV3 race and the second is for 15% off at All3Sports.  Great deals and you benefit from me being loved! :)  It's a win-win for everyone!  Take advantage people... these are awesome deals!

Alright, I'm off to stare at my finger with my ring on it.  Honesty is the best policy!