At last

I have returned from Las Vegas with a win in the 5k that I did for the IAFE expo. I would have been really dissapointed if I didnt win. It was a sprint finish, but the guy gave up after 3 steps of sprinting. I ran one other day there for about 50 min and then drank the rest of the time because it was to cold. I got back to Iowa and found out I passed the NCIDQ (test I was studying for in October) so of course I had to celebrate that and then before you know it, it was Monday. I started working out again last night. I had a great 3000 yd swim and a 30 min lifting session. I had a sore throat yesterday and now it is has started to consume my body. I am running and biking tonight. I am planning on getting to the gym tomorrow at 5am to bike and swim before I leave for my family Christmas. I am exhausted already thinking of getting up to be at the gym at 5. No matter how many times I write that, I will not get use to the idea. A small sacrifice for greatness ;) My weekend training ride is climbing in time very fast. My First 2 hour+ ride of my training is this weekend. Not really looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to running outside on Sunday. It is going to be nice (well nicer).

Time where did you go?

Time is flying by. Before I know it, the 37 weeks left of training will be gone and I will be competing in Louisville. Training has been going really good for me. I have been mixing it up and taking some classes at the YMCA to give my body a more total workout. Some of those classes really let my body know what was up. I am going to start teaching a classes which I am really excited about. Kickboxing is my choice. This upcoming week I will be in Las Vegas for work so it will be a lighter week consisting of only running. So I will get 4 days of running in which will be good. I am having my RMR tested Friday so I will know exactly how much I need to be eating so I do not gain weight, but last year at this time I had already gained all the weight so I think I am doing good by not gaining any this year. Well I am on my way. Just hope I can keep this up and not become a super B*!(# this coming year when my training hours really start getting up there.

Time for Go

This week is officially the start to my training. Week #40. Just thinking that in 40 weeks I will begin the challenge of completing 140.3 miles. My heart is racing just thinking about it. This is something I have wanted to do since I was little when I saw it on tv, but back then, I didnt realize what it was. Within the hour on tv, they were done. What little did I know. I have never been this excited, nervous and anxious since my first triathlon last year. Wow, what a year of triathlon can do. I have just about dropped all the weight that I need to. Still have about 4 pounds to go. The holidays are not going to help at all and I am going to try to watch what I eat, but I am definatly not going to obsess about it. I just need to keep focused for the next 40 weeks and I know I can do it. Now if I can only convince someone to buy me a Zipp sub9 disc wheel for Christmas...

Going Strong with week #41

It has been awhile. I have been on track with my training. I have been doing a couple spin classes and abs which have been giving me a challage and mixing it up. I am training to be a fitness instructor now so I want to get in and try out other classes to see which one I want to teach. Plus that will give me a little more change in my routine. I have also been lifting 3 days a week and have really seen incredible results. I have always been naturally strong and never consistently lifted so I am really excited to see how my muscles look in another month. I know, I am weird. I also have been focusing mostly on my bike by doing the spin classes. My run times have hurt a little bit, but I was able to hold a 8:30/mile for 3.5 miles without going over my 75% heart rate. I am not to worried about my run times. They will come down. Even though my bike is my strongest, I feel that is going to help me improve my overall time the most. I have been working out indoors except on Sundays where I get out for my long run. I am having trouble being on the treadmill for 1:20. I am trying to reschedule a time to retest my RMR since last time I went in, it read I needed 0 calories. No wonder I can't lose anymore weight. I was eating. haha. I am hoping that the lifting will help me to lose that last 5-7 pounds.

Week #42 - counting backwards now

I love the warm weather! Not the 90 degree days, but the fall upper 60s lower 70 days. Makes you actually want to do something. This last week I got 3 swim workouts in and survived my first abs class and did the spin class wednesday night. I had a nice long run Thursday night which led to my well deserved day off on Friday. Saturday I did my Christmas shopping and bought stuff to finish up my house work. I spent the rest of the day working on the house and finished that up. House work complete! Only took me a month. Sunday, one of my friends and I rode down to Cumming. Riding outside is way different from the trainer. That ride sucked up all my energy or it was the constant working on my house for the last 2 days. I am sure it was the combination. The bike ride ended up taking us 3 hours. It was really nice out and it was a nice ride. I would love to go running outside tonight and tomorrow if it wasnt going to be dark before I even get off work. Why cant we just take out a couple hours mid-day so that it stays lighter longer at the end of the day. We really dont NEED to work 8 hours a day. I am going to sign up for the Living History Farms race. This year I am chaining all my friends to me so that they can't run up ahead of me and leave me by myself. I bought myself a pair of snow boots this weekend. Now I am kind of excited for it to snow so I can wear them :) I know, I am weird.

Success or not

Last week was a huge success or a complete failure depending how you look at it. To me, very successful. I pretty much took the entire week off. Last weekend, Saturday, I went for a short run and then went to KC for a wedding. I got home on Sunday and did tons of work on my house. I was really surprised I just didn't come home and crash. This will come to bite me later. As Monday came, I had this pain through my shoulder into my head which resulted in a slight headache everytime my heartrate got up so I decided to work on more stuff at home. That is how Tuesday AND Wednesday went. I got tons of things done, but nothing to do with training. Thursday I got in a short run and lifted. Took Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, again to do more work on the house. I am almost complete with the house. Maybe by the end of this weekend I will be. I have worked out every night this week so I am starting to get back to training. Goal: finish house work by Sunday night (I will have an extra hour to do that) and then Monday start fresh with training and do it 100% I have decided that I am a wimp and am skipping out on the Dirty Duathlon. Just doesn't feel like my cup of tea right now. I am kind of disapointed about the course change. I have also decided that I want to give cross country skiing a go. I am super pumped about it. Once I can ski, I am going to pick up Skijoring with my dog. He will love it!

To race or Not to race

As winter draws near, I want to do another race, but I told myself that I am not going to. I want to do the Dirty Duathlon again this year because it seriously kicked my ass last year and I want revenge on it. I haven't been on the dirt trails with my mountain bike since May so I am definatly going to be a little rusty. I am kind of waiting to see if it is going to be nice or not before I sign up because I am a wimp and not going to ride in 40 degree weather with rain. Just not going to happen.
This fall has been so crazy. It takes me only a few minutes to make a list of things that need to be done before winter, but 3 weeks to do them all or maybe longer. I have forgone working out the past 2 weekends to get my house work done before winter and I am still not done. I got most of the stuff outside done, some will just have to wait until spring now, but I still have tons of cleaning to do before winter sets in. I could get more done during the week if I dont workout, but then I feel guilty about not working out and I dont want to get into that habbit of not going to the gym. So this week I am going to push myself to the limit and spend every waking moment working, working out or finishing my list. No tv, other than as backgroung noise. This should be interesting. TV is a waste of time anyway. I could use sometime too to try to figure out how to work around the gym's aerobic and swimming lesson schedule because I am not going to keep jumping around during my workout. Wastes to much time. This week I am also taking my car in to get the final bit of painting done that took a lot of *#&$)ing to the car dealership to get it done the way it should be. They are never going to sell me a car again :)

Week 1

Me not working out for 5 days = Sore when I start working out again. That has been the story all week. I didnt work out much of last week because I was in Omaha for my exam, which by the way I have no idea how I did. It is amazing how crappy your body feels when you eat fast food for a couple days when you are not use to it. I was so low on energy and felt really sluggish. My body did not like me very much. My offical Ironman training started this Monday and I think I pumped a little to much iron because I have been sore all week. Cut out the swimming last night and ran a little longer outdoors. It was really nice. I don't like that it gets dark at 6:50 now. This weekend I am going to do a little mountain biking, which should be fun since I havent been on the trails since May. Sunday will conclude with a long easy run to get me ready for next week.

A little Background Information

So I have finally started to develop the mentality needed to spend hours at the gym. I use to cringe everytime I had to be on the trainer for more than 10 min. I guess I just started to get anxious to get the next thing done and get to the race. Now I was able to keep my butt on the trainer for an hour with a 40 min. treadmill run after that. Very happy. Last week was a great training week. Didnt do my long bike on Sunday because I was studying and when I felt like studying I better do it. Got out saturday for a 6 mile run, would have went longer if it wasnt getting dark and my dog was thristy. So this week I will have 3 workouts because My exam is Friday and Saturday of this week and I am driving to Omaha on Thursday. Can't wait to go to the Zoo! I am actually really excited now to go workout at the Grubb YMCA. The people are great. Equipment still sucks, but the people there are now informed that I am doing an Ironman and they are more than willing to help me and out and give me encouragement to keep up the good work. They are working hard to keep the kids out of the swim lanes, moving spinner bikes all over and have towels ready when I walk in the door. It makes me feel like a I am a professional and a celebrity. Just waiting for the day when they want my autograph and for me to give a speech :) lol.
Since this weekend is my exam, I will not be working out and eating bad junk food. I am not thrilled about this since I have come so far in losing weight and eating good that I am scared that I will get that greasy food craving for the next month and wont be able to resist it.
Background Info: January of 2007, I weighed 175 pounds. I decided I needed to get my butt in gear. I recently got my dog and had started walking twice a day which wasnt enough for him so I started running. My friends are runners so they convinced me to do Dam to Dam. I thought ok. I finished the race, but was very sore. I think it was from the shoes I got when I was a sophomore in high school and the holes that were developing in the bottoms. Socks dont help. Little did I know, you were suppose to change your shoes 300-500 miles. I probably had 10,000 miles on them. My knowledge of shoes: they are good until a hole develops, then you get new ones, so I had about another 3 months left in them. Wrong. I bought new shoes and continued running. Then my friend told me he was training for a triathlon. How cool, I want to do that. What do I do? I had recently bought a mountain bike in April of 2007 and was doing that. I started biking to work and on the trails. Swimming...how do I do that? I took swim lessons, it cant be that hard to remember how to do it. Wrong! I thought the life guard was going to kick me out of the pool from flailling around so much and causing a distrubance. Never did make one length of the pool. I did the backstroke awhile and left while I was still alive. I left there thinking, I will never be able to do this. I need HELP. Luckily one of my friends is the aquatics director and was willing to teach me. I give her credit for my swimming. I am slow, but coming around. So now I can swim, bike, and run. So I signed up for the Walnut Creek Y tri team and the cyman triathlon. I was on my way. My boss also does triathlons and convinced me to get a tri bike. I went to rassys and bought one. One of the best purchases I have ever made. They say you should wait until you do your first tri before making any real purchases, but when you love training for it, I couldnt see any reason to wait. I think it helped to really get me loving it. The class was a great help and finished the race and loved it. I was hooked. So here I am now training for an Ironman. I am so excited. My race goals: 1st Finish, 2nd finsh under 15 hours, 3rd finish in 12 hours. I feel like I can finish in the 12 hours if I really work hard over the winter. I also really want to have a good finisher picture :) I really just want to make sure I finish and the time doesnt really matter. At the time it wont, but it will after. My half IM time this year at the Dutchman Half was 6:30. My swim was horribly slow (by 10 min), the bike was miserable (40 HUGE hills in 56 miles) and the run I felt great (should have run faster). Big problem was my nutrition, I double mixed powerade and thought I will drink half the bottle and then fill full with water. DO NOT DO THIS!!!! You will have GI problems. I think if I had not dont this I would have had a much better time. So now back to today, I weigh 130 pounds now. I still have about 5-10 more to go. Belly fat will not go away. I feel so much better about myself. On the downside, all this working out has not helped the sleeping problem, but that is what the pills are for :).
On a side note, hinking about what I am going to wear next year at the Ironman, I am trying to find a great pair of tri shorts. Anyone have suggestions? I want ones with no seams in the croch, not super sticky leg grippers and possibly a side pocket. Places around here just dont have much of a selection so I will have to order online.

What a workout

This weekend I completely pushed myself harder than I have in the season. I did not start out thinking that I would. I thought, I will just go on this 2.5 hour bike ride and not even think about pushing myself. All way good until I was about 40 min into the ride when I came to a "T" in the road. 2 tractors and a car passed and I pulled out behind them. There was 2 more tractors coming but I figured I would make it to the next turn before they caught me. We got to the next turn and of course they were going my way so I kept following them. The other tractors never caught me and I wanted to go faster than the tractors in front of me so I passed one. I was riding with the wind so it was easy to really fly until we turned again and it was into the wind. Oh my gosh my legs and lungs were burning to stay in front of this guy. After about 30 min of super hard riding they turned and I backed off and was barely moving. I made it to Big Creek and then turned back for home. I made it back to Ankeny and that is when it hit me. I did not want to peddle and I did not want to sit on my saddle. I was moving so slow that I think I had to speed up to stop. I finally made it home and I was completely wiped out. I have never had this feeling before. No energy to even want to breathe. So I veged out on the couch the rest of the night. Sunday I went on an hour run that seemed like it lasted forever. If my dog was not pulling me, half the time, I would not have made it home. By the end both he and I were looking at each other like it is your turn to pull, lol. We made it home and I went to the beach and skipped the short bike. Monday was an awesome day for me. I had a long swim workout that I nailed and felt great. I felt so fast and smooth in the water and was actually able to complete the whole workout in the time it said by 3 min! I then went to lift for 30 min. I am getting ripped from the 3 times I have lifted, lol. I did squats for the first time ever and I hurt today. I am going to bike indoors tonight because the chance of rain and it is suppose to be windy, and then a short 30 min run. Should be a nice night to take it easy...

Training Plan

So this week of training went really good. I got a couple good swims, couple hard bikes and easy runs in. This weekend I am going to do a 2.5 hour bike ride as it will probably be the last time I will get to do it in nice weather and enjoy myself. Sunday I will finish up with an hour run and a half hour bike. This week I will have gotten in 8 hours of training, plus 2 hours and 20 min of walking, and 45 min of lifting, also I mowed my lawn last night...finally. So now this brings me to reading over my work out schedule for the next year. This thing is telling me to do this workout in the morning and do this workout in the afternoon. Now the first thing that comes in my head is: "does this morning workout have to be productive?" Last year I tried to do a run and a bike in the morning and it was not going to happen. I spent the time doing them, but I could not do anything more than go through the motions. I do walk in the mornings with my dog for 20-25 min but I dont have to try for that, he just pulls me along. I would have to get up 2 hours before I actually wanted to workout to get my body ready to workout, so now it is 4 am which means I would have to go to sleep the night before at 7pm. This is just not sounding any better. The problem is, is that I have a sleeping disorder called Idiopathic Hypersomnia where basically it is like narcalepsy but I dont have the sudden sleep attacks, but I am always tired and could sleep at anytime so I have to get 9 hours of sleep a night. Some of you probably are thinking, damn I am jealous that you get to sleep so much. Let me tell you, I am jealous of you not having to sleep as much as I have to. It is such a waste of time that I could be enjoying life, but instead I am sleeping. So back to the workout schedule. I decided that I am just going to put in the effort each night after work plus then I only have to convince myself once to go to the gym :) I am kind of looking forward to training this winter and being able to get everything done at one time instead of going to the gym to swim, then going home and changing, then getting the bike ready to go for a ride. It should be more efficient when it is all at the gym. I think running on the treadmill will be a huge relief for my legs from running on concrete all this summer and last winter. Next Monday will be 49 weeks out from Ironman Louisville. I thought about taking some time off, but feel that once I do that, I wont want to workout again, so now I am working out but not nearly as hard as I was. The "professional trainers" say to take this time to work on your weakest disipline, but I feel I did that last year and it made the other two take so much longer to come around and I feel like I have improved so much over this season that I will just keep working on all three and see where that leaves me next year. I really feel that my run has the most potential to get better, but right now my legs couldn't stand pounding out 4-5 runs a week so then that leaves me with a lot of time where I am spent recovering and not being productive. So week 49 will be easy training, week 48 will be my "recovery" week since that week will mostly be craming for my exam at the end of that week and then week 47-41 will be working on building my weekly hours easily so I am ready for week 40 when my training plan starts. I cant wait!! It is going to be hell!!!

D.O.athlon for Life - another victory

Sunday was the D.O.athlon for life race. 5k 20k 5k. The do is for the doctor of osteopathy or something or another. I really really did not want to do this race because the run is my worst event. Last year I did this event and got my butt kicked majorly. This year seemed to be better because there was more people at it. So I tried to get warmed up since that is the hardest thing for me to do it get ready to run right away. Gun went off, no wait, cannon. At that point I think the earth cracked in half it was so loud. We took off. I was behind a woman I knew was pretty quick so I thought I would see if I could keep up with her and of course I couldnt because I got stuck behind 2 women that were chatting it up and 2 guys that looked like they were going to pass out already. So I finally got around them. Running running running. Get to mile one 7:52, oh my gosh no way. I have never run under an 8 min mile ever. I was really excited, but then I thought, crap, I am going to crash. So finished the first run still feeling good. Get to my bike. What in the world! someone had moved my bike. I have to rack my bike by the handle bars because it is to short and flops around in the breeze if I dont, so someone racked it by the seat putting my helmet on the aero bars on the other side of the rack, so I dive over the rack to get it and get my bike. My helmet strap is twisted. That torked my noodle! I was ready to go. So I jump on the bike. I never understood why people dont jump on the hammer right away, instead they lolly gagged all the way through the park until they got to the road. We head out. I knew that there is a big hill and knowing that I am not very good at hills, it was going to hurt. I hit it and before I know it I am barely moving. Then which seemed like 10 min later I was to the top and rolling. Passed a bunch of people on the back stretch. Riding into the wind is my specialty. So made loop and again here comes that big hill. I knew I had nothing to gain by pushing myself on it so I switched into my granny gear and just tried to make it up without using any energy. Soon to the top and off I go again. Get to the run and I feel stiff. I think it was from the rain and cold wind that kind of made my body tighten up again. After a slow mile 1 (8:40) I was able to kick it in again. I finished in 1:29:20. I had to 5 ks of 23:50 which is super awesome for me, i was really happy except my bike time was horrible for me. I am not even going to put it down. If you want to know, look it up. So come to find out, I got first in my age group again. I love it when other people in my age group are super fast to get in the top 3. They are so fast. I want to be them. Just to train with them for a week would be an awesome experience just to know how they do it. Are they naturally kick *ss people or did they have to work the butts off to get that good. Either way I am jealous. Well this race wraps it up for my season for this year. Overall I thought it was a great season. Time to start my Ironman Training.

Booked

I booked my room today at the Seelbach Hilton Hotel today in Louisville. I was debating whether or not to stay a little further away to save some money, but through some connections I was able to get a great rate that would save me the hassel of driving and finding a parking place for each day I would have to be at the race headquarters and race day. Well worth it. I am super excited and I wish it was August already and I was done training and was ready to race. As it is starting to get colder here, I have been searching for some options for me this winter to keep my butt on the trainer. I think if I can do that, I will be in good shape. There is a spin class at my YMCA, but every night I have looked at it, it has been full, so I know that I will have to get there early to get a spot. My only other dillema is that I cannot workout in the morning which I am fine with spending a couple hours in the evening workingout since I have no life outside of triathlon. :) Also, my pool doesn't have morning hours. One of my 3 nights at the pool will be spent in water aerobics just because it is right in the middle of the swim time unless for some reason the 300 kids that normally show up for the open swim, don't. That would be a dream come true to swim laps and not have to yell at kids to stay on the other side of the ropes, but that is what you get for swimming at the most financially deprived YMCA in town. I could go and force myself to swim at the downtown Y, and pay for parking and hope that I can get in the water right away and only have to share a lane with 3 other people. To busy for me. Lifting weights went good this week. My gym has like 5 machines to use, GREAT! NOT! I am going to have to get creative with the free weights. I did a nice long run on Tuesday. I ended up running a mile longer than I had planned because I completely spaced out and ran passed where I wanted to turn around. This is a good problem. I run with my dog on the cooler days which I think helps make the time go faster. I got 2 good pool workouts in and a short bike ride. I was suppose to go running last night, but only ran 2 miles and walked 2. I was feeling a little sore which I dont want to be for Sunday's Duathlon. So tonight is a day off, actually I have to mow my yard, which I am hoping it quits raining out. Saturday is a hour bike and 30 min run to get me loosened up for Sunday. Plus tomorrow is the big Iowa vs Iowa State game. Go State!!!!

First Place in Age Group

This last weekend, yesterday to be exact, I raced in the Cyman triathlon and I had a great race. I finished 1st in my age group!!!! I was 9th overall women out of 99. I was very happy with my day. It was a little chilly in the morning, but was lucky the race didnt start until 9am. It was a sunny day with very little wind. The water was disgusting. Green algae everywhere. I was in the 3rd wave. Athena/clysdale in the first, 24 and under male and female 2nd. The swim was only 500 yds so I just went out as fast as I could. I was able to keep up with the front group until about at 300 yds when my goggles filled with water. I decided at this time the goggles were going in the garbage. I have had problems with them all year. Well when i was leaning to one side to dumb the water out, I came across a person with a snorkel. Yes, that is correct, a snorkel. Now to me this seems pointless, because the point of a snorkel is to look at things underwater and not have to pick your head up to breathe, am I correct? So what can you see in this dingy water and why would you not want to look up and SEE where you are going? well that gave me a good laugh to start out the day. Into transition, I felt slow but was no different from my other times. Out on the bike. Flat course so I blew by everyone. This course was basically a big loop so you never got to see people behind you. So I had no idea how close anyone was to me or who was in front of me. I got off the bike and out on the run. There were a few people around me that I was really surprised to see around me, but I never looked at their age so I just assumed they were in the under 24 group. I took off running my usual pace, which is slow about a 9 min mile. But some how, I felt like I could run faster so I did. I never got tired on the run like I usually do. One woman was behind me I could see but she was moving way to fast for me to even think about keeping up with her. She wasnt in my age group so I really didnt care either way. We can to the turnaround and I looked back and saw another woman coming up behind me. She looked like she was in my age group. she came up to me with about a half mile to go. I just wanted her to pass me because today I was really not in the mood to sprint out the finish. She passed me and also a bonus was she wasnt in my age group. I just tried to keep up with her to the end, but she was moving right along. I gave a little hard finish to the end so I could look good finishing, lol. Crossed the finish line at 1:19:46. Awesome time for me. Improvement of 5 min from 2 weeks ago. I contribute that to the flat bike course. It feels so great to have done that well especially that being the last triathlon of the season. I secretly really wanted to finish first in my age group this year, but realistically didnt think I could for atleast another year. I was over 11 min faster than 2nd place in my group. I got a medal and it is cool :) Well as that soaks in, I came home and cleaned up my stuff and began to plan my training for this week. Last race of the year is this sunday. it is a duathlon. It is going to be hard for me since I am not a strong runner, but I am just doing it to see how fast I can do it. Today I am going to swim and lift for the first time in about 3 years. Mostly arms since I wont really be needing them on sunday. After sunday, I am bascially taking 3 weeks off to study for my licensing exam I have in October and preparing my training schedule. I am kind of getting sad now that I have worked so hard this year to improve and now I have to go through 8 months of snow and cold weather before I can get out there and race again, so it will definatly be a mental thing for me to hold on to my endurance I have built this year and apply that to my Ironman training which will start in October after my exam. I need someone keep myself motivated through these upcoming winter months. 3 hours on the trainer is going to be hard for me. But until then, I am going to wear my first place finish medal around for atleast a week!

Officially registered

I have been waiting for about 9 months now to register for Ironman Louisville and on Monday I did it. I am now officially registered and I can not wait for August 30, 2009 to come. 2009 will be my 2nd full season of doing triathlons. I started late last season completing the Cyman (at Hickory Grove) for my first one and then did a small sprint tri in Rudd, Iowa. That was actually my favorite course. Flat and fast. This year I competed in way to many races, but it was a blast. In march, I did the friendly sons of st patrick 10k which was a nice for race. Next was the Dam to Dam the last weekend in May. June 8th was suppose to be the inagural Copper Creek Tri, but it got rained out and to tell you the truth I was kind of happy it did because I did not feel like I was ready to compete. 2 weeks after that was the Hyvee triathlon. I felt really good until the run in that where my legs were on the verge of cramping the entire time. I could tell my fitness was not where I wanted it to be. July 13th was the Iowa games triathlon. This was such a fun race. I felt really good and had a great day. Finished 3rd in my age group after a sprint to the finish from a fellow age grouper Kristina in which she beat me by 4 seconds. I will see her again. The 27th was the Big Creek Tri which I felt really good again and had another great race. This time I was able to beat Kristina without a sprint to the finish. It is so great when you meet someone at a tri and get to see them at the races and have great competition. August 9th brought my Season Goal race. The Dutchman Half Ironman Triathlon. Finished in 6:30. It was such a good race, I felt relaxed the whole time. Only draw back was my nutrition which affected me at mile 30 of the bike and last until about mile 2 of the run. I was really impressed with my run time. 2:22. Last year my half marathon time was 2:10. only 12 min slower and that was after swimming and biking for 4 hours. :) That really helped build my confidence for the Ironman next year. I completed the Hickory Grove triathlon (former cyman) a week and a half ago. It was nice to do the exact same race I did when i first started to see how I improved. I improved my time by 11 min!!! 1:21. Last year that would have won my age group, but this year, once again my unability to out sprint people at the end cost me 2 positions so I finished 4th in my age group. That is one thing i need to work on is my sprint finish among other things. This weekend I will be competing in the Cyman at Big Creek. Last triathlon of this year. It is so sad. I have one more race after that is the D.O.athlon at walnut woods since the Iowa games mountain bike race was canceled. Next year I will be competing in 3 races. Dam to Dam, Kansas 70.3 and Ironman Louisville. I can't wait. In the mean time, I will be blogging about my training. I really enjoyed reading of other peoples blogs throughout the year and hopfully people will enjoy this one.