Day 37... the Countdown Continues

Today started in a bit of a rush.. Woke up a tad late, had to make breakfast and leave to take Cameron to school by 7:15.. Did it!! Rob is out of town so I am on my own, this isn't unusual. He does travel for work a lot. So I make it work.

Today I hit my swim, not feeling to great. All this racing is taking it's toll on my immune system. I start my swim with and easy 1000.. 40 laps straight:o).. then I swim about 2000 more in sets, of course. I felt fine to swim, but I think I am getting a cold. I am never sick so hopefully it won't last.

After my swim, I made a phone call to Team in Training, Leukemia Lymphoma Society. I am interviewing to be Head Coach for the Triathlon Team for Austin. I have coached with them in Los Angeles and had over 80 half and full marathon finishers that I coached, my completion rate was 100%, which means all the athletes I coached had a successful race and finish. This is such an amazing organization and a huge way to get and stay inspired. I look forward to hopefully working with them in the near future.

Now it was off to run a few errands, and get Cameron... YEAH!!! We get home and I start yard work. Gotta get the mulch done!! Finished my task and now it's time to get ready for our afternoon ride!! We had about 25-30 mph winds, so we knew coming back would be tough.

V shows up and off we go, my children are in the safe hands of the sitter, Gretchen. I am good to go. Ed meets us road side about 10 minutes north on Parmer and off we ride. We have the wind at our backs at this point so things were pretty awesome. We took a side road so we could ride east bound, then turned around for west bound. All courtesy of one of the songs I tend to sing when we are riding.. Smokey and the Bandit "east bound down loaded up and truckin,we gonna do what they say can't be done.. We got a long way to go and a short time to get there I'm east bound, watch ol' bandit RIDE" Anyhow, we hit that direction to avoid the wind a bit.

Back onto Parmer heading North again, I am determine to hit 40 miles in 2 hours, DRATS if the head wind is gonna kill that idea. So know I have to rearrange my 40 goal. I decide I'll just hit 40 mph with the wind at my back. So I hit it hard, we were on a gradual descent and I pedaled as hard and as fast as I could...40.2 to be exact!! WooHoo!! Then I decided Ihit it again on the next slight descent.. 40.3!! I had no more gears to push it faster or I could have. I was flyin'!!

Now for the turn around..UGH!! 8-10mph.. we hit 20-25mph a couple times but not many. Was just time to stay focused. I kept telling Ed and V this is what Kona(Ironman) is like. But, it's worse and lasts longer. Not a whole lot of conversation at this point. I was singing though. Alabama "Roll on Highway" I usually sing some kind of rolling song everytime I'm riding at some point. Journey "Wheels in the sky keep on turning" whatever comes to my mind. I sing the Muppets too "Moving right along in search of good times and good news with good friends you can't lose this could become a habit, opportunity knock once let's reach out and grab it together we'll nab it, we'll hitch hike, bus or yellow cab it...movin right along" Don't ask why I remember that song but, it's fitting at times. And it gives everyone a laugh especially when it hurts.

I am counting down the miles in 5 mile increments.. 10, 5 more.. we are almost done!!..It's not gonna be 40 but, it's 37 which is fitting for today, day 37 of the countdown. I get home start dinner in the oven and take off for laps aroung my block which take app 3 minutes each. I run 8 of them. DONE for the night. Dinner time, as I go in my neighbor is laughing at me, I am making him dizzy and myself as well. Loops.. good times:o).. My day is done, showers for all, my house is clean and I just want to go to bed. Oh, but first I gotta blog.. Then it's off to never land until tomorrow. I don't have a plan yet. Morgan has an Easter egg hunt as Mommy's Day out. Not sure how I'm gonna work my training in but, I usually figure it out, just gotta work in the 4 somewhere exciting. See you then!!

38 til 40 and the countdown continues

Today started our normal morning routine on Tuesdays. Cameron off to school at 7:15, then come back get Morgan ready and get her to Mommy's Day Out.. I get 4 hours to myself.. Actually 3:30 by the time I drop off and pick up, but whatever.. I make it count.

Usually on Tuesday and Thursdays I have long runs, and that of course depends on where you're at in your training. For me Tuesday and Thursday usually consist of anywhere between 10-20 miles depending on my racing season but usually never less than that. Today I decided I'd run 14ish.. Just for the sake of the 4 thing of course, but I wanted to keep it a distance type run. I had some pretty crazy wind but, it was a beautiful day and I totally enjoyed every mile. I hit the Brushy Creek Lake Trail which is right down from my house so I just run down and I'm on a great trail. Gotta love it!

I got home and was in a bit of a rush so in and out of the shower and off to pick up Morgan. I decided we'd head to Costco.. I had a few things on the LIST... While we were there I saw they had some Palm trees.. My favorite.

I wondered..1. can I even pick that up
2. Will it fit in my car?
3. Will I need help?

Well.. whatever, I got it anyways. After I manage to pick up this huge tree and get it in my cart a nice lady saw me kinda struggling and offered a bit of assistance, this thing was HUGE. I wanted to get the heck out of there. After paying and of course swiping a few people in the face with the branches and a bunch of apologizes, and of course I said to one gentleman.. Feels like the tropics huh?? laughing. Out to the car.

I looked at the tree and my daughter and then realized..We still have to pick Cameron up and we are in a hurry. I get her and all the other stuff in the car, threw Cameron's seat in the front. dropped the car seat down and with brute force manage to get that monster in the car. WHEW.. Now where to put Cameron, n o time to go home first. I bungied the back because the trees was hanging out the back and got on the freeway... Back to Cedar Park. We parked and ran to get Cameron.. Just on time. whew!! I managed to squish him in the back and just told them to both hold on.. We'd be home in 5. We made it without incident.

Now was the tough part, digging up the dead tree that had daggers for branches. It was horrible, my legs, hands and arms were bleeding. Yes, I was wearing jeans and gloves. This palm was going down with a fight. I thought for a minute I was gonna lose but I got smart and started cutting the roots.. Finally.. Out. I planted my new Pinto Palm and it looks beautiful. My big challenge for today, and war wounds to prove it. The picture at the top is my neighbors son, Brandon, Morgan and me and my new tree in the back.

All in all a great 38 day.

39 days and counting.....

My 39th day is almost over. As I attempt to incorporate my family and friends into almost ever endeavor I am taking on or doing or... whatever I had a successful day.

My first schedule of event was my Swim... I headed to the pool and hit a few 100's, 250', for about 1500.. Then I finished off with a straight 1000 equaling 40 laps straight. I was kinda in a hurry because the kids center was closing at 1pm and because Morgan only goes to Mommy's Day Out twice a week I had to move it..Moveit.. or Swim it Swim it rather:O)

After that we headed to HOME DEPOT to pick up some lovely flowers to add some fresh color to our yard. After this super cold winter, we needed to spice things up a bit so, Morgan and I went flower shopping!! After that we went to pick Cameron up from school, came home and got busy in the yard. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!

After all that, now comes my next workout at 4:30. Our wonderful sitter, Gretchen comes over.. On time as usual so we can ride off into the sunset. Rob and I get ready to go, V is here to meet us and we meet Ed on the side of the rode. We are gonna try to hit 40 miles in 2 hours or less. we make great time on the outbound, only to turn around into major head wind. We may still have hit just over 2 hours but then Rob had a flat... He can change it pretty quick but usually it still takes about 10 minutes when it's all said and done. We aren't gonna make it. I had to cut it 2 miles short. I had to get back so Gretchen could go home and do her homework etc... She's such a great sitter and a huge help when I need to train.

I got home changed clothes and headed out for a 40 minute run. I would have been less apt to do this however... I challenged myself with the countdown.. Gave me extra motivation, which is good because triathlon season is coming up VERY quickly. So I did it... It felt great actually. I am still in a bit of recovery from the half amrathon on Saturday but, all is good. I came home and had 40 kisses to delivery before bedtime so everyone was smothered in sweaty mommy kisses... Sang a song.. said prayers off to never land they went.

I am finishing up by writing one of my clients a training program... He is racing Xterra which is OFFROAD triathlon... So super cool and amazingly challenging. He is doing that with my husband Rob.. Should be a good time!! I'll me running the course the day before they race the triathlon. I am a good trail runner, not so great on the mountain bike. I am really good at crashing on a mountain bike though. I'll leave that racing to the boys... for now:o).

Til tomorrow... have an amazing evening!!

I love my iphone by the way... helps me add all this great video blogging.

Day 40...

Today was absolutely outstanding!! Started off with an amazing 40 mile ride at 7:30 with Rick. We took an alternate route and ended up crossing a couple rivers and having to take off our cycling shoes and cross, once it was deep enough for me to carry my bike across after I saw Rick bike start to drift.. I thought it would be in my best interest. We rode into Georgetown and around the San Gabriel River.

Once we got to the Georgetown Damn, we got to in incline so steep I actually had to get off my bike and walk, after yesterdays hilly 13.1 miler I couldn't hang:OP.. Next time. We crossed over the damn and I saw Lake Georgetown, it was beautiful. After a super strong headwind and and some more hills we headed back onto Parmer( a main riding street here in Austin) with the wind at our back we hammered out the last 7 miles averaging about 33-35mph.. Was Sweet!!! and I got some super cool video footage,

Headed home to hang out with my family!! Spent the next few hours just hanging out.

1:30 ... now it's time for the 40t040 kickoff party hosted by Ed and V. We collected a great amount of shoes for the Shoe Bank and some super great baby stuff, I know both charities with be so grateful!! This is just the beginning. A super big thank you for everyone who showed up!!!! You make events like this possible.

It was also super special to have my brother, his wife and my nephew here and in addition to that was seeing Liana and her daughter Lauren. For those of you who have known me for a long time and know Liana you know who I am talking about. For those who don't Liana, I have known her since I was 2.

We grew up together and were raised like sisters. I haven't seen her since my wedding app 9 years ago, she was a brides maid and has always held a super special place in my life. I love seeing her daughter who looks so much like her mommy and is just beautiful, just like her momma. It's amazing seeing her daughter 18 years old and my 4 and 5 yr old.. She got sad and said "my baby is all grown up" without a thought I laughed and offered her mine.. she laughed and said "well I guess I'm not that sad"!! HAAHAA Fun was had by all.

I hope you all enjoy some of the video footage.. As I get better at blogging etc... I will try editing..LOL..Jack of all trades Master of non..I wonder if I can figure it out??

and now..... The PARTY!!!

What a SURPRISE

Well this morning started super early.. 4am to be exact. Had to park at the airport for a bus ride over to Hyatt LostPines resort in Bastrop which is outside of Austin. That took about 40 minutes on the bus so I wanted to make sure I was there early, just in case there were any surprises at the parking or whatever.

Everything was super organized and easy.. Perfect for veterans and beginners alike!! This race was catered to women, the Zooma women's race series http://www.zooma.com/ to be exact. There were some guys but very few. Race start was great and the charity was Lifeworks which provides for families and children who come from abuse as well as foster children. Mind you, the gentleman who runs this particular non for profit organization has one set of amazing pipes!!! WOW!! HE could sing!! He sang the National Anthem and it was just beautiful.

The race started and I was in the front running back and forth with another girl, her name was Sheila, I met her after the race. We went back and forth and were pretty close until about mile 4-5 she sped up and I couldn't hold her pace, not today. This course was tougher then the last 2 Half Marathons I've run in the last 4 weeks and I have to say running 3 half marathons in 4 weeks only 3 weeks after a FULL MARATHON is tough. I felt everyone of those hills today.

Mile 9 hit me pretty hard and as much as I wanted to cheer for the other runners on the other side of the road I was in second place and holding and that hill for me was tough so I lowered my visor down and went deep inside my head. The wonderful runners were cheering for me, this was kind of an out and back section, so they knew I was the second female. I wanted to cheer for them as well, I usually do but I had to save my energy. I waved periodically and mustered a "great job" a few times, but I needed to stay focused at this point. The next runner was about half mile back. So to all those amazing runners...GREAT JOB!!!!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!!

Miles 10-13 wound around the resort and golf course which I thought was pretty cool and fun!! I had a good lead to hold second, since I knew I was to far back to catch Sheila I just kind of fell into a good pace and finished feeling good and not too tired. Sheila was at the finish to greet me and we then waited for 3 and 4. They were really close together and had gone back and forth a few times which I saw on some turns. They were all from out of town so I was the first local finisher and that was cool:O)..

After we all talked race stuff, GREAT JOB LADIES, the difficulty of the course, yadda yadda we went on our ways, it was a tad chilly so I went to change clothes.. My lovely 2xU compression pants which I got at VO2 triathlon and cycles http://www.vo2tc.com/ and my lovely V5 shoes http://www.vibram.com/ the Vibram Five Fingers, I love these shoes!! Then I refueled with non other then POWERBAR!!! http://www.powerbar.com/ .. Shameless marketing I know but.. I use it so it works!!! Then I went to get my post race massage. Usually I skip this cause I forget but, I was at a SPA RESORT so I decided to take advantage of this. I am a huge advocate of massage.

After that I went in the race venue where they had all sorts of goodies to sale.. Perfect for a woman's race I'd say. I stopped to chat with the sales rep from a company called BornFit http://www.bornfit.com/ it's super cute clothes for athlete mom's :o) yes, another plug but these girls Jen Friedman and I am sorry I didn't get the other girls name were super cool!!

Now it's was time for the awards so... I will thrilled to place second overall!! I won a gift certificate for a new pair of running shoes and a cool book called Run Like a Mother... 'How to get moving and not lose your family, job, or sanity:O)' . Looking forward to reading it, but I think I have already lost my sanity...LOL ;O). After that I got my way yummy cupcake from http://www.hillcountrycupcake.com/ and WOW was that delish!!!

It was getting close for me to go but I had to make one last stop... The SPA.. they had the VIBRAM 5 Finger shoes on sale for race participants for a steal so, I got a cool new pair.. :o) and this whole group of women that worked there were sooo super cool!!! Thank you ladies!!

Now it was time for the bus ride back to the parking lot... ho hum.. really non event full.. I arrive home without incident.

NOW FOR THE SURPRISE... My brother and his wife Jen are here with my 9 month old nephew, Landric, who I haven't seen yet.. They live in Springdale, Arkansas. He and his wife own http://www.springdalecountrygardens.com/ it obviously runs in our family http://www.gunters.com/ is my parents shop. He's super busy so I never get to see them so I was soooooo super surprised. What a wonderful surprise to come home to. They will be at the 40to40 kick off tomorrow.

So, tonight we are cooking fajitas..Yummy, having a cold drink and celebrating day 41 until I turn forty and family..I love my family!!! Well y'all, have a great evening, see you tomorrow.

7:30 am ride to start my day!!! No plugs yet for that..

Oh and one more thing.. Race Director Sara and her crew for Zooma were absolutely FABULOUS!!!

Tomorrow is 41...

Tomorrow marks 41 days before I turn 40 and 1 day before the Kickoff!! I am getting up super early to race the Zooma Half Marathon. In the last 7 weeks I will have run a full marathon 26.2 miles and 3 half marathons13.1.. That's a lot of racing and it's just the beginning of my season.

I'm feeling good and will hopefully get some good sleep tonight. I have never done this race and I am so grateful, when I showed up they were setting up for packet pickup, they gave me my stuff. I felt terrible they had to stop and get me all my stuff, I live on the north side of Austin and with 2 children and traffic going back would have been just awful. So I wanna say thank you to the registration staff for doing that for me... I didn't get anyone's name I was just trying to not be a bother, since it was actually bad timing on my part.

I am racing to win tomorrow so I hope I make it worth it to you!!! Please again if any of you ever read this.... THANK YOU!!! I am looking forward to hopefully seeing you out there!!!

When things were feeling slow

I have to say... I am a little overwhelmed with the goals I have set for my 40 to 40. I never do anything half way, but for this adventure I truly need outside support. I gotten lots of great job!! This is so cool!! etc.. But that's not what I need to raise awareness and items and funds for these charities. Don't get me wrong I love it but I am not doing this for me, I am doing this for others.. And for all I accomplish the glory goes to my heavenly Father. But, I set my sight to the sky. Gosh, today I was feeling a bit crushed for some reason..

THEN..... My Mom calls, she has almost 150 pairs of shoes in the car that my sister collected in Tyler from the Junior High School. I really wanted to cry. It's a start, hopefully the start of something big. Even if it's just one life that I have an opportunity to help change, that person could make a difference in the world. We never know the differences we make, and it really does change lives. It's my turn to PAY it FORWARD will you step up and help me make a difference..

Please spread the word...

The real BIG DAY

To explain... March 28 is the start of the count down of 40 days until I turn 40 on May 06.. On that VERY SPECIAL DAY, and the reason it will be super special for the rest of my life, is that it is also Cameron, my first born, his birthday as well. This year he will be turning 6 years old.

So we have extra reason to celebrate!! Let's make every day count!!! Starting MArch 28... Follow our journey for the last 40 days of my 39th year and the the beginning of something amazing!!

The Charities

For those of you who will be following, helping, or chosing to donate... For my 40 to 40 countdown. The websites for the charities are www.abcaus.org and www.shoebank.org I will be collecting baby items for Any Baby Can (diapers, all baby items, cleaning supplies and donations) and for the Shoe Bank www.shoebank.org I will be taking all athletic shoes, childrens included, no ladies dress shoes please.

Throughout the 40 days I will be raising awareness as to how we can help others, not just financially but with our time. Please take time to follow me on my journey and follow what I hope will be a start of things to come. I can not make this happen with out you and your support and encouragement. I will be challenging myself physically, mentally and emotionally throughtout this journey and hope to be an open book as to what is going on in my heart and my head and the impact just one person can make... ONE STEP at a time!!!

Some of my challenges will be big, some not so big but, it's the journey and the awareness that I am hoping will make a change. God has blessed me with a gift of athleticism and determination and I can only hope to show my gratitude and give back at this point in my life.... Please join me on this journey... Lives will change...

So Far

Well... Planning is well under way. I will be running a half marathon on March 27 and the 40to40 kick off party is March 28. I have coordinated with the Dallas Shoe Bank to collect shoes as well as donations and Any Baby Can in Austin for baby items and donations. Please consider donating for these causes. I am trying to add a link to my website as well.

If you are in Dallas the drop off is at Gunter's Greenhouse in Richardson off of Campbell Road. PLEASE come by if your in Dallas the shop looks absolutely gorgeous right now with all the orchids in bloom. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to help in any way. I will also be donating time to the Austin Zoo and the local soup kitchen during my 40 days. AND PLEASE PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD... MIRACLES CAN HAPPEN!!!!!

Get Ready.... the BEST is YET to COME!!!

Welcome to my journey... Starting March 28 is the countdown to the day I actually turn 40.. "40 to 40"... 40 days until I turn 40. Everyday will be something NEW and EXCITING.. I will be doing the obvious in the physical challenges of swimming, biking and running but more extreme in the distances or terrain or the actual act of what I am doing. I have a few races in there to keep it REAL. I have a 100 mile ride on May 1st already scheduled. I am also planning on running 40 miles on my actual birthday, I will be training for these, of course.

I will be blogging daily and also adding video.

I will also be including charity work. I will be collecting running shoes to donate, working in soup kitchens, and more fun and creative ways to raise awareness for the needs of others.

I thought of leaving town and celebrating, or having a party, some of the things we all do but, I wanted to do something really different. So here it is. Please send any ideas my way I have less than 4 weeks to come up with ideas. Remember I am still training for races as well as the fact that I have 2 small children, so please take this into comsideration.

I am looking for some sponsors. I have contacted 2 of my favorite beverage companies and hope to get some sponsorship from them. I am looking at different charities to be involved. A big one is ANY BABY CAN here in Austin. Please spread the word.