Our big new adventure.

2 days until we are completely moved out of our home. The only home the kids remember. We are taking a huge leap of faith and moving from Washington State to Virginia. We are happy and comfortable and excited with our adventure. This has not been an easy choice, but it is the right choice for our family. Daily, we get asked the same questions: Why? Do you have a job? I will try to answer them here. Why? We love Virginia. The climate, the scenery, the warmth. The lifestyle and pace of things is a little slower. The cost of living is less, there is so much history there and so much to do and see. Do we have jobs? Yes and no. Yes we will be working.....if you want to call it work. We will be continuing our Advocare business in Virginia. We love helping people with their health and helping make their dreams come true. We will also. E substitute teaching and I am sure Jon will continue coaching as well. We are moving to be able to provide the quality of life for our children that we think they deserve. We only have them in our home for a set amount of years and we want to get as much joy out of their youth as possible. To make sweet memories as a family is priceless. I will be updating this as often as possible on the road, sharing our adventures with you. It will be an interesting trip to say the least. Blessings to you all.

We did it!!!!!!

We did it! We finished the sprint triathlon. Jon finished at 2 hr 13 min and I finished at 3 hrs. 1 min. I am so glad it is over. But I am more glad that Jon and I didn't give up and went through with it. The swim was hard due to the distance, but I did it in 16 min. I think I spent 5 min. in the transition to biking. My arms and legs were rubber. I was the last one our of the bike transition area. So I got my very own motorcycle escort........for the whole ride.

I started the bike ride and was into the first mile and a half of the 5 miles up hill. I stopped to get a drink of water and I forgot that my rt foot was in a toe cage.....can you see where I am going with this? Yup! I fell off my bike and I wasn't even moving. Needless to say I have some road rash on my shin and elbow. But I was laughing soooooo hard :-) and so were my motorcycle escort friends . The whole time I was training for this, I had it set in my mind that the bike ride went a certain way. Well I was wrong. It went backwards from what I thought. I had trained going up hill, the down hill part and visa versa. My way was much easier. Wow did my legs and tush burn! My shoulder started causing some issues too. But on I went.

When I finally finished my ride I went to the run part. Well for me the walk part. There was no way I was going to be able to think about running much less actually do it. I had a friend who came down and walked the first mile with me. She has no idea how much that helped. Alex walked with me the next mile and Jon and Meghan and Jordan joined us for the last part. It was great crossing the finish line surrounded by my family. Mom and dad were waiting at the finish line.

Jon did great with the swimming part. This is the part he feared the most. He went on to the bike ride and though he struggled with the up hill part he didn't stop once!! Me? Yeah I stopped about 8 times....

Anyway, Jon started the run part and his damn pants kept falling down. He rolled the waist down, he pulled the waist up, he held them, he kept pulling them up. It got too dangerous so he said "F--- it" and took em off. Luckily under his shorts he had some sliding shorts on. They are kind like bike shorts. You know tight spandexy type things. After he took off his shorts he ran much better.

I am so proud that we finished. We set a goal and didn't give up. Boy there were times I wanted to. But I prayed the whole time and had faith in myself. We both want to do it again next year. We have 365 days to shave off some of our time. :-)

Thank you for all of your words of encouragement and well wishes and prayers. We really couldn't have done it with out our friends and family.

Pride is forever, pain is temporary

For those who know me,.....I am not a quitter. I am a fighter. I still have an injured calf, but I am going to participate in the sprint triathlon on Saturday 8/8/09.

My injury was enabeling me to back out of the event. I have to admit that I was, am terrified of doing this. All of my fears are coming to a head. What if I am not the strong swimmer I think I am? What if I can't make it up the first 5 miles of the bike ride which is all up hill? What if I trip and fall or sprain my ankle during the run? This tape has played over and over in my mind for the last 5 months. My hurt calf was the crack to let all of these fears take over.

Then a few days ago I got a message from a friend, Ian, who told me that it was ok if I didn't finish the triathlon. But what wasn't ok was for me not to try. He told me to preservier and do it and take my time. He also said in not so many words that to not try is to fail. I didn't know Ian to be so prophetic. They were prophetic enough to change my mind and push my fears aside. I am now excited again to compete.

Jon and I got our bikes tuned up today and are hyper hydrating. We will be eating high protein and high carbs for the next 2 days. Too bad hu? Doncha feel bad for us? :-)

One odd thing is that I am having totally messed up triathlon dreams. Last night I was trying to ride in the triathlon on Meghan and Jordan's bikes. It wasn't going so well. Also, I had to pee every 2 minutes, which made it hard to ride. Also, all the peeing made me late and by the time I was done I had to use glow sticks from the Dollar Tree to find my way through the woods where the run will be. Like I said, messed up dreams.

Anyway thanks again to Ian for his pep talk. You should go into motivational speaking!!

OK so here is the deal. 3.5 weeks ago I hurt my left calf. Stepped on a steep incline and heard a big pop and almost fell. I assume I pulled a muscle in my leg. It took 1.5 weeks for me to be able to walk normal and swimming was painful and riding the bike hurt.

So I took some time off. The sprint triathlon is 8 days away. I have been icing and stretching and most of the time it doesn't bother me at all. Some times when I walk fast or stretch the wrong way the pain comes back. Until the morning of the 8th I will plan on doing the event. I am stretching and working on it. Standing on my toes still causes lots of pain. I am deflated and pissed that there is a chance I might not be able to do the event on the 8th. If for some strange fate I do not do the sprint triathlon on the 8th, I will do it with Jon when my leg gets better. So one way or another I will do the whole course in 1 day before the end of the summer.

But like I said. It ain't over until the fat lady sings, and I ain't singing yet! :-)

Well, I finally did it. Planned on doing it. Dreaded doing it. Put off doing it. But finally did it. I signed up and paid for the sprint triathlon. Actually, I signed up both Jon and I. He said he would do it as well. I so did not train as much as I had wanted, but I did more then I expected
:-) I am still a bit concerned about the ride. The swim and walk/run, not so much. I hope it is not a windy day on August 8th. It would seriously SUCK to have to ride a bike in the wind for 14 miles. Still haven't done all 3 events in the same day much less one after another.

We are heading to Jon's family farm in a few days and I don't know how much "training" I can do there. We will see. It gives me an excuse to leave and come every once in a while. hehehehe

I don't know how long the triathlon should take me to complete. Absolutely no clue what so ever. I am hoping to come in under 4 hrs. But what do I know. We shall see. We will see in 29 days!!!!

We went up to Lake Curlew for 5 days. It is about 30 miles south of the Canadian boarder. I spent quite a bit of time swimming in the lake. Great way to continue training. Want to continue with biking, but the wind is so horrible, anywhere from 20-35 mph, that biking is almost impossible for a newby like me. Sorry for the short post, but I am cleaning the garage. Soooo much fun!

So, I had physical therapy on my tennis elbow yesterday and I rode my bike in to town and part way back. Total trip was just a little over 12 miles. It was great!! I really have to up my training for this thing! I am going to start riding my bike up an down the long hill that leads to my house. It is a steady incline, but I soooooo need the training. I also have to start pairing up events such as swiming and biking, or biking and jogging. My body needs to get used to it.

My brain can't wrap around the fact that the sprint triathlon is only 50+ days away! I am excited to do this, but scared too. I swam this weekend. I was concerned my rt shoulder and or my left elbow would give me trouble. I am pleased to say that neither did. For me the swimming part is the part I didn't worry about much at all.

I am thinking this whole thing should take me about 2+ hrs. If it ends up at 3, I am ok with that. I am doing it to finish, not to beat the clock. I think tomorrow I will do the whole bike route for the triathlon. I will let you know how long it takes me.