Hi girls! Just wanted to log in my mileage- hope you are all having a FABULOUS day and enjoying the awesome weather! Today I: swam 1200 yards and ran/walked 2 miles (which got my run total up to 10 miles finally!). Tomorrow is a big bike ride day... wish me luck! Slowly but surely, I'm getting there! Love you guys! Shannon.

Hi Girls!

Christine, you totally rock. Here it is: 1400 yds. swimming, 25 miles biking (10 of them along the Salzack River in Salzburg Austria!), 21 miles "running" or upright cardio exercise. 10 of these miles were on the streets of Munich, Vienna, & Salzburg AND running through airports. On our way there, our flight to Philidelphia was late and we were going to miss our connecting flight to Munich. All five of us (Me, my 2 oldest boys, my husband, and my father-in-law) had to hoof it way way way across from one end of the airport to the other. We were all running and I started to slow to a walk. Then my boy Will started yelling "Come on 'triathlon Mama!'." Well, how else could I respond besides pick up the pace? Luckily a few minutes later an elderly woman headed for the same flight comandered one of those motorized carts. I jumped on behind her and thus narowly avoided wetting my pants.

Swimming

I tried to swim 14 laps (down and back, 50 yds.) today. I only made 8.
Reasons:
1. I ran out of time, Drew had a dentist appt. at 10:00. I didn't get in the pool until 9:00 or a little after.
2. I felt queasy. Sick. Yuck. I feel fine now. Who knows.

The funniest thing, I was running so short on time, I had to shower before the appt. So I get out of the shower and realize I have no brush. Some very nice lady said, use mine, it's new, I trust you. So I did. Then I spent 10 minutes getting all of my hair out of her new brush. Geez. I should have just used my fingers and stuck in in a hat. Oh well.

Everyone should check out
www.active.com

You can find out about every type of race or event going on in any city.  They have single events (just running, or biking), duathlons, triathlons, and everything else you can think up.  We could pick a few for the next year and set our goals.  I would love to do the Mach Tenn with all of y'all.  Everyone who I know who has run it LOVES it.  They have all told me it is an wonderful race. Check out all the other things going on, and lets plan a few for the next year. 

Yea rah for you!! I agree with the changing it up- it helps keep your mind distracted (or at least not focused on the pain you may be experiencing). I am so excited you started this blog. It really doesn't matter if we are training for a race, big or small, or nothing at all- I think it's awesome to share all the ups and downs of just 'trying' to be out there doing something! Thank you for doing this!!

(I just realize I did this wrong- I posted on the comments, which I know is a great way to 'comment'- but I wanted to 'post' so everyone could read my shout out to Ms. Christine for setting this up! So this is a duplicate comment - sorry. )

ps- I love the pictures on top! Love to all, Kim

Running

Today I did 5 miles. I discovered a few things. First of all, walking fast the first mile is essential for me to warm up. I think running after biking will be different because I'm already warm/heart rate up, etc. I always run better if I walk first. The 3rd and 4th mile were fabulous. I had that rare feeling of being able to go forever. It was obviously fleeting, the 5th mile was rough. Anyway, I ran more than I usually do, so I feel like I'm improving. That's all I really care about I guess. The other thing I figured out is that I need to shake things up and make them different every run. By this I mean, different part of the trail, different music. I put my ipod on shuffle all songs instead of my playlist and I ran part of the trail I don't usually do. It was a great distraction and I didn't fall into the rut of running to certain songs, walking to others, or go to this point and turn around. I kept going.

Thanks Christine for setting this up! Looking forward to hearing from everyone their exercise progress. Yesterday I ran (with a little walking) 4.5 miles. Do I get to count the miles at spin class? My instructor thought we do about 12 miles in 40 minutes. (I suppose she's assuming that I'm on a zippy road bike and not my heavy old fashioned mountain bike that it took 57 minutes to do 12.5 miles!) So if I get to count spin, I've run 8 miles, biked 32 so far towards my ironwoman goal. I really need to get back in the pool!